548 



METHODISTS. 



An address was also adopted to Lord Duf- 

 ferin, Governor-General of Canada. 



X. METHODIST EPISCOPAL OHUECH IN OAST- 

 ADA. The reports of the three Conferences of 

 this Church show a total of 438 churches, 236 

 traveling preachers, and 22,641 members. The 

 number of parsonages is given at 134. The 

 total value of churches and parsonages is esti- 

 mated to be $800,550. The entire receipts for 

 missions in 1874 were $13,304.15, or $913.33 

 more than the receipts for the previous year. 



The General Conference of the Methodist 

 Episcopal Church in Canada met at Napance, 

 Ontario, August 26th. Bishop Eichardson pre- 

 sided. It was decided that the first business 

 in order should be the election of an additional 

 bishop. The Rev. John Morrison Reid, D. D., 

 one of the missionary secretaries of the Meth- 

 odist Episcopal Church in the United States, 

 was chosen to that office. He declined to ac- 

 cept, and a second election was held. The 

 Rev. A. Carman, D. D., President of Albert 

 College, was chosen, and, accepting, was or- 

 dained bishop. 



Provision was made for the admission of lay 

 delegates to the Conference. 



The following new rule was adopted to gov- 

 ern the appointment of presiding elders : " That 

 each Annual Conference shall elect two mem- 

 bers from each district, by and with whose 

 consent the bishop shall appoint the presiding 

 elders." 



Provision was made respecting the appoint- 

 ment of a layinan to the office of book-agent, 

 in case the Conference or the Book Committee 

 should be disposed to make it. The committee 

 who had been appointed by the previous Gen- 

 eral Conference, four years before, on the sub- 

 ject of Methodist union, made a report relating 

 the steps which they had taken in negotiating 

 with the other Methodist bodies of the Domin- 

 ion, and announcing their failure up to the 

 present sime to accomplish the object sought. 

 They spoke of the union which had been effect- 

 ed between the Wesleyan and the New Con- 

 nection Methodists, and recommended the ap- 

 pointment of a committee to confer with other 

 Methodist bodies on the subject. A committee 

 was accordingly appointed, to consider and 

 formulate a basis of union " with the Method- 

 ists of the Dominion, or of the Continent, or 

 any branch or section thereof." The commit- 

 tee consists of the bishop, the secretary of the 

 Conference (Rev. Michael Benson), Thomas 

 Webster, J. Gardiner, T. B. Brown, S. Morri- 

 son, W. Pirritte, S. M. Thomas, D. Wilson, 

 J. H. Andrews, and J. C. Huffman. 



A deputation was appointed to convey the 

 greeting of the Conference to the first General 

 Conference of the United Wesleyan Methodist 

 Church of Canada, which was to meet in To- 

 ronto on the 16th of September. A constitu- 

 tion was adopted for the Missionary Society 

 of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada, 

 and trustees were appointed to secure the in- 

 corporation of such a society. 



XI. PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHURCH IN CAN- 

 ADA. This Church had, in 1874, 89 ministers, 

 5,618 members, and 1,163 probationers. 



The Conference of the Primitive Methodist 

 Connection in Canada met at Toronto, June 

 5th. The Rev. S. Antliff presided. A mes- 

 sage was received from the English Confer- 

 ence, announcing that that body had made a 

 grant of five thousand dollars to the Canadian 

 work. The Conference decided to undertake 

 to establish a special fund for the purpose of 

 opening a mission at once in Manitoba, and to 

 instruct the Missionary Committee to open 

 such a mission as soon as a guarantee fund of 

 five hundred dollars for each of the next five 

 years should have been secured. A meeting 

 was immediately held in the interest of the 

 proposed mission, at which the whole sum re- 

 quired as a condition for its establishment was 

 secured. 



XII. BIBLE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN CANADA. 

 This Church was estimated to have in Cana- 

 da, in 1874, 72 ministers and 5,700 members. 



The Twentieth Conference of the Bible Chris- 

 tian Church in Canada met in London, June 

 4th. The Rev. William Hooper was elected 

 President. The following items relating to 

 the state of the connection were reported : 

 Increase itinerant preachers, 5 ; churches, 3 ; 

 other places of worship, 4; admitted during 

 the year, 530 ; deaths, 8 ; on trial, 433 ; ap- 

 proved members, 137; in church-fellowship, 

 570. Decrease local preachers, 21 ; remov- 

 als, 128. The entire value of the church prop- 

 erty was reported to be $306,379, against 

 which were debts to the amount of $61,272, 

 leaving a value over incuinbrances of $245,106. 

 Of this amount, at least $175,000 was said to 

 have been accumulated within the preceding 

 ten years. The churches provided accommo- 

 dation for 28,542 persons. The attendance up- 

 on worship was good. The report on Sunday- 

 schools showed the number of scholars to be 

 8,542, and of teachers 1,126. 



Other Methodist churches in Canada are : 

 The British Methodist Ep-iscopal Church (Af- 

 rican), 47 ministers, 2,800 members; and The 

 Independent Methodist Church, 7 ministers, 

 500 members. 



. XIII. WESLEYAN METHODIST CONNECTION. 

 The chief ecclesiastical court of this Church 

 is, by the Rev. John Wesley's Deed of Decla- 

 ration, enrolled in Chancery and dated Feb- 

 ruary 28, 1784, defined to be "The Yearly 

 Conference of the' People called Methodists," 

 and to consist of "Preachers and Expounders 

 of God's Holy Word, commonly called Metho- 

 dist Preachers." The number of members 

 forming this Conference is one hundred, but, 

 besides these, there are present at its meetings 

 other ministers, authorized by their district 

 meetings to attend. 



The Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist 

 Connection met at Camborne, Cornwall, July 

 29th. The preliminary meetings of the Com- 

 mittee of Review began Friday, July 24th. 



