494 



METHODISTS. 



u Kestriction of Penal Actions and Kemission 

 of Penalties Bill, 1875," and against the re- 

 moval of the legal obstacles to the opening of 

 the Brighton Aquarium on Sundays, which 

 would be effected by its passage. A plan was 

 adopted for the establishment throughout the 

 Connection of schools for the education of 

 children of the middle classes. 



The anniversary of the Wesley an Missionary 

 Society was held in London, May 3d. The 

 Eight Hon. James Falshaw, Lord Provost of 

 Edinburgh, presided. The annual report, pre- 

 sented on this occasion, showed the receipts 

 for the year to have been : from home contri- 

 butions and resources, 136,409 2s. 3d. ; from 

 the affiliated conferences and mission districts, 

 47,630 6s. U.: total, 184.039, 8s. 8d. The to- 

 tal expenditures had been 179, 946 4s. 4d. The 

 Ladies' General Committee for Female Edu- 

 cation in Foreign Countries and other benev- 

 olent purposes had also expended 1,850 15s. 

 8d, besides furnishing school materials, cloth- 

 ing, and other gifts, to many parts of the mis- 

 sionary field. 



The fact was mentioned that there had been 

 a steady addition to the receipts of the society 

 from the various districts of the United King- 

 dom, averaging for the past few years 3,000 

 annually. The report classified the mission- 

 fields, for the purpose of presenting a survey 

 of them, into five groups, and gave the follow- 

 ing facts respecting their condition : 



1. MISSIONS TO NOMINALLY CHRISTIAN COUN- 

 TRIES. Ireland. Thirty-five missionaries were 

 employed in connection with the Irish Con- 

 ference, who had under their charge twenty- 

 four day-schools, with 1,770 scholars. France 

 and Switzerland. Thirty ministers under the 

 French Conference reported 1,857 members, 

 and fifty-nine Sunday and day schools, with 

 2,872 scholars. Three ministers were employed 

 in behalf of the English, in Paris, Boulogne, 

 and Eheims. The society had accepted an in- 

 vitation to occupy a chapel at Brussels, in 

 Belgium. Germany. Nineteen ministers em- 

 ployed reported 2,103 members, 2,028 schol- 

 ars. The Institution for the Training of Min- 

 isters had been enlarged. Two stations had 

 been occupied in Bavaria, and one in Austria. 

 Italy and Sicily. Two districts had been 

 formed, with centres at Rome and Naples. 

 Twenty missionaries, of whom eighteen were 

 Italians, were employed, who occupied twenty- 

 four stations, and reported 1,016 members, 

 and ^twenty day and Sunday school scholars. 

 Spain and Portugal. Three ministers and one 

 lay agent were employed at Gibraltar, Barce- 

 lona, Port Mahon, and Oporto ; they reported 

 209 members, seventeen day and Sunday 

 schools, and 1,071 scholars. In all the Conti- 

 nental missions, seventy-five ministers .were 

 employed, the church-members numbered 

 5,269, and the schools contained 6,926 pupils. 

 2. MISSIONS TO THE EUROPEAN NATIONS BE- 

 YOND THE BOUNDS OF EUROPE. A large part of 

 the missions had been organized into the Ca- 



nadian and Australasian Conferences. It was 

 difficult to separate the mission-work of these 

 conferences from the ordinary home-work of 

 their churches. They reported, in 1874, 881 

 ministers, 99,851 members, and 193,762 schol- 

 ars. In South Africa the colonial and mission 

 districts returned ninety - three missionaries, 

 14,638 members, and 16,603 scholars. 



3. MISSIONS TO THE AFRICAN RACES IN THE 

 WEST INDIES AND WEST AFRICA. There were 

 returned 113 ministers, 53,139 members, and 

 35,700 scholars. 



4. MISSIONS IN HEATHEN COUNTRIES. In 

 India and Ceylon the society had eighty mis- 

 sionaries, 3,641 church-members, and 17,095 

 children in the schools. In China it had 

 twelve missionaries, 254 members, and 478 

 scholars. A medical mission was connected 

 with the mission at Woochang. 



6. THE POLYNESIAN MISSIONS. These were 

 under the care of the Australasian Conference. 

 The Friendly Islands were already Christian in 

 profession, and the distinction was made be- 

 tween the regular pastorate and the mission- 

 ary staff. The Feejee Islands had become a 

 British possession. The Australian Commit- 

 tee contemplated establishing a mission on 

 either New Britain, New Ireland, or some 

 other island on the east coast of Guinea, to be 

 carried on mainly by native agents. On these 

 missions there were, in 1874, eighty-eight mis- 

 sionaries, of whom sixty-five were natives, 

 34,169 members, and 55,721 scholars. 



Schools adapted to the condition of the 

 population form part of the society's system 

 of operation in all the mission circuits. High- 

 schools, and training-schools for teachers and 

 for students preparing for the ministry, have 

 been established in Germany and Italy. One 

 at Padua, in the latter country, was particu- 

 larly spoken of. A school was maintained in 

 efficiency at Nimes, in France, and the Lau- 

 sanne College was about to be revived. The 

 society had a high-school in Sierra Leone, and 

 a better-class school at Cape Coast, and was 

 about to establish a high-school at Lagos. It 

 had a school of the higher class in the Baha- 

 mas, and was preparing to form another in 

 Jamaica. Several schools of a higher charac- 

 ter in Ceylon and India were under the man- 

 agement of natives. In South Africa, the school 

 at Heald Town had been enlarged, and attempts 

 were being made to establish preparatory train- 

 ing-schools, under ministers set apart for that 

 work, in all the South African districts. 



X. PRIMITIVE METHODIST CONNECTION. 

 The following is a summary of the statistics 

 of the Primitive Methodist Connection, as 

 they were reported to the Conference at its 

 meeting in June : Number of members, 169,- 

 716; of ministers, 1,045; of local preachers, 

 14,890; of class-leaders, 10,112; of connec- 

 tional chapels, 3,913 ; of other chapels, 3,536; 

 of Sunday-schools, 3,647 ; of teachers in the 

 same, 50,932; of scholars, 316,859; of day- 

 schools, 32 ; of teachers in the same, 64 ; of 



