METHODISTS. 



507 



for building one hundred such chapels. A 

 motion was made looking to the giving the 

 laity the same share in the management of 

 temporal affairs at the conference that they 

 already have in the district meetings, but it 

 was withdrawn. It is noteworthy as the first 

 formal proposition to admit the laity to the 

 conference. 



The annual meeting of the Wesleyan Meth- 

 odist Missionary Society was held on the 1st of 

 May. The total receipts of the society for the 

 year were 149,767 5s. lid. ; the expenditures 

 were 147,351 12*. Id. Twenty-five mission- 

 aries have been sent out by the society since 

 the last anniversary. Four missionaries have 

 died. The report gives the following summary 

 of the missions : Principal stations, 779 ; min- 

 isters and assistant-missionaries, 1,029 ; other 

 paid agents, 4.435; unpaid agents (Sunday- 

 school teachers, etc.), 22,410; church-mem- 

 bers, 166,392; on trial, 17,360; scholars in 

 day and Sunday schools (none counted but 

 once), 204,060; printing establishments, 7. 



Among the most noteworthy facts mentioned 

 in the report of the society werethe steps 

 taken to carry on the work in Paris during 

 the siege ; the publication of a hymn-book in 

 the Italian language; the submission to the 

 committee, for approval, of a grammar of the 

 Fantee language; the occupation of Rome 

 by an Italian minister; the purchase of a 

 church at Padua; the reception of donations 

 for building churches at Koine and Naples; 

 movements for the advancement of education 

 at the Cape Coast ; the sending out of a lady 

 to act as governess in the family of the Rajah 

 of Mysore ; the completion of a Kaffre diction- 

 ary, which is to be published ; and a continued 

 increase in the number of missionaries who 

 are natives of the countries in which they 

 labor. 



VII. PKIMITIVE METHODIST CHURCH. The 

 following are the statistics of this body in 

 Great Britain and the colonies for 1S70-'71 : 

 Number of members, 161,343 ; travelling 

 preachers, 973 ; local preachers, 4,406 ; class- 

 leaders, 9,833; connectional chapels, 3,585; 

 rented and othor places, 2,813 ; Sabbath- 

 schools, 3,389 ; Sunday-schoolteachers, 47,941 ; 

 Sunday-school scholars, 281,085 ; day-schools, 

 47; day-scholars, 3,142; day-school teachers, 

 64; members deceased, 2,474. In this com- 

 putation, the Canadian statistics for 1870 are 

 included, instead of those for 1871, which did 

 not arrive in time for the making up of the of- 

 ficial reports from 1865 to 1870. 



From 1870 to 1871 there appears an increase 

 in all particulars except in the number of mem- 

 bers, which has decreased 814. 



The operations of the Missionary Society 

 were attended with undiminished success in 

 every department. The home and colonial 

 works show an increase of fields of labor. In 

 the foreign work, besides the mission recently 

 started in South Africa, and the flourishing 

 African Mission, a new work has been started 



among the aborigines of Queensland. The 

 year's contributions to the society reported at 

 the anniversary, May 2d, were 23,117 11s. Id. 

 (exclusive of quarterage and ordinary collec- 

 tions on missionary stations), being an in- 

 crease of 2,719 Os. *Id. Nevertheless the ex- 

 penditure was in excess of the revenue, and 

 the society came out in debt 1,529 Is. 4d. 



VIII. UNITED METHODIST FJKEE CHURCHES. 

 The United Methodist Free Churches have 

 missions in East and West Africa, China, New 

 Zealand, etc., on which, with home missions, 

 they expend about $40,000 a year, that amount 

 being about equally divided between the home 

 and foreign departments. 



IX. METHODIST NEW CONNECTION. The fol- 

 lowing are the statistics of this body in Eng- 

 land: Chapels, 417; societies, 411; circuit 

 preachers, 148; local preachers, 1,117; mem- 

 bers, 22,870; probationers, 1,537; Sunday- 

 schools, 407; teachers, 10,146; scholars, 69,- 

 713. Increase of Sunday-school scholars, 1,763 ; 

 decrease of members, 649. 



The connection has in England 410 chapels, 

 and 146 schools separate from chapels. Thir- 

 teen new chapels and schools were opened 

 during the year, and two were in course of 

 erection. The total year's expenditure for 

 new chapels and schools, payment of debts, 

 etc., was 15,325. 



X. WESLEYAN REFORM UNION. The thirty- 

 third delegate meeting of the Wesleyan Re- 

 form Union of England was held at Wibsey, 

 August 13th. The statistical reports showed 

 that the number of chapels and preaching- 

 places was 255; preachers, 578; on trial, 82; 

 ministers, 14; leaders, 513; members, 7,633; 

 on probation, 344 ; Sunday-schools, 174; teach 

 ers, 3,230, of whom 1,404 were members of 

 the church; scholars, 18,082, of whom 150 

 had joined the church during the year. It 

 appeared there was a decrease of 11 chapels, 

 25 preachers, 16 on trial, 1 minister, 31 leaders, 

 588 members, 1 Sabbath-school, 46 teachers, 

 and 128 scholars ; and an increase of 50 mem- 

 bers on probation. 



The decrease was ascribed to a growing 

 anxiety about appearances on the part of the 

 people, and to the literary and scientific, rather 

 than Scriptural, character of the intelligence 

 of the preachers. 



XI. BIBLE CHRISTIANS. The following are 

 the statistics of the Bible Christians in Cana- 

 da : Itinerant preachers, 62 ; local preachers, 

 217; chapels, 151; members, 5,043; on trial, 

 390; total members, 5,383; teachers in Sun- 

 day-schools, 1,103; children, 7,229. The re- 

 turns show a small decrease, which is ac- 

 counted for by the abandonment of two sta- 

 tions on Lake Superior, and by the application 

 of stricter tests of membership. 



XII. METHODIST UNION IN CANADA. A 

 meeting of committees, previously appointed 

 by the conferences of the Methodist churches 

 of Canada to confer upon the subject of unit- 

 ing them into one body, met, for the first time, 



