522 



METHODISTS. 



tained by frauds and irregularities are not of such 

 magnitude as to endanger the financial strength of 

 the Book Concern, nor to materially impair its capital. 



4. That there are no reasonable grounds or proofs 

 to justify an assumption that any agent or assistant 

 agent is or has been implicated or interested in any 

 frauds which have been practised on the Book Con- 

 cern. 



5. That the present methods of accounts and modes 

 of conducting the business are such as to insure rea- 

 sonable and ordinary protection against frauds and 

 irregularities, yet they are not altogether perfect. 



6. In reference to the purchasing of paper through 



r, we concur with Mr. 



Mr. James F. Porter, 



Kilbreth, 



thatj under all the circumstances of the case, we 

 unhesitatingly regard it as a decided business im- 

 propriety." 



The report of the committee was adopted 

 by the General Conference May 31st, without 

 debate, and almost unanimously. The modi- 

 fications made in the government of the Book 

 Committee aim essentially to secure a more 

 strict accountability on the part of the agents, 

 and to promote better systems of manage- 

 ment and of book-keeping. Both the old 

 agents at New York retired. New men were 

 elected in their place, and an entirely new 

 Book Committee was appointed. Provision 

 was made for the establishment of judicial 

 conferences for the trial of appeals. Provi- 

 sions was also made for the trial of a bishop 

 on impeachment by a presiding elder and four 

 travelling elders, before a Judicial Conference 

 constituted of the triers of appeals of five An- 

 nual Conferences. The Judicial Conference 

 may for cause suspend the bishop from his 

 functions, or expel him from the Church. He 

 has a right of peremptory challenge within 

 limits, and may appeal to the ensuing General 

 Conference. 



Rules were made for the organization of 

 district conferences whenever it may be de- 

 sired by the majority of the Annual Confer- 

 ences in any presiding elder's district. They 

 are to take general oversight of the spiritual 

 and temporal affairs of the district ; to take 

 cognizance of local preachers and exhorters, 

 and arrange appointments ; to hear complaints 

 against, and try local preachers, to issue li- 

 censes, and recommend candidates to the An- 

 nual Conferences ; to promote the success of 

 the financial interests of the Church and of the 

 Sunday-schools ; and to look up and provide 

 for opportunities for missionary and Church 

 extension enterprises. 



The subject of the election of colored bish- 

 ops was brought up several times, and was 

 disposed of by the adoption of resolutions 

 that there is nothing in race, color, or condi- 

 tion, to bar election or ordination to the epis- 

 copacy of colored persons, but that such elec- 

 tions must depend upon considerations of 

 qualities personal to each candidate, and that 

 colored men presented as candidates should 

 receive consideration equally with others, ac- 

 cording to their qualifications. 



The commissioners of the African Meth- 

 odist Episcopal Zion Church reported that the 

 opposition in that Church to union with the 



Church had assumed such strength that it 

 would be of no use to prosecute the movement 

 further. A commission was appointed to con- 

 fer with commissions from any Methodist bod- 

 ies in America, in respect to union with the 

 Methodist Episcopal Church. 



A report,, fraternal in its spirit, was adopted 

 with reference to the work of the Church in 

 the South, and its relations with the Meth- 

 odist Episcopal Church, South. A delegation 

 was appointed to visit the next General Con- 

 ference of that Church. Fraternal delegates 

 were received and heard from the British Wes- 

 leyan Conference, the Wesleyan Conference 

 of Canada, the "VVesleyan Conference of East- 

 ern British America, the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church of Canada, the Methodist Church, the 

 Methodist Protestant Church, the Evangelical 

 Association, the Presbyterian General Assem- 

 bly, the National Congregational Council, the 

 Free Church of Italy, and the American Bap- 

 tist Home Mission Society. Fraternal greet- 

 ings were received from the General Confer- 

 ence of the African Methodist Episcopal 

 Church, in session at Nashville, Tenn. 



The ratio of representation was changed, so 

 that hereafter one clerical delegate shall be 

 elected for every forty-five members of each 

 Annual Conference, instead of one delegate for 

 every thirty members, as heretofore. 



II. METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH. 

 The following are the statistics of this Church 

 as published officially in June, 1872 : 



