586 



METHODISTS. 



1881 to 1885 has been 130,000. The increase 

 for 1885 is estimated at 50,000. 



The receipts of the Board of Missions for 

 the year ending March 31, 1885, were $191,- 

 600 ; the addition to this of the sum of $83,063 

 paid in the several conferences for domestic 

 missions gives the total mission income of the 

 Church as $274,663. The board conducts for- 

 eign missions, or missions among foreign pop- 

 ulations in China, among the Indians, among 

 German settlers in the United States on the 

 Mexican border, in central Mexico, and in 

 Brazil ; and domestic missions in Florida, the 

 Kocky mountain region, Montana, northwest 

 Texas, Oregon, and California. The missions 

 of the former class return 48 missionaries, 17 

 missionaries of the Woman's Board of Mis- 

 sions, 79 native preachers, 185 other native help- 

 ers, and 11,748 members; the domestic mis- 

 sions return 124 missionaries, 95 local preach- 

 ers, and 52,593 members. In all the missions 

 are returned 231 Sunday schools, with 10,386 

 pupils; 126 churches, valued at $199,223; 16 

 boys' schools, with 1,373 pupils ; 16 girls' 

 schools, with 869 pupils; a total of mission 

 property valued at $457,965 ; 23 self-support- 

 ing churches ; and collections of $18,946. The 

 Board of Missions, at its annual meeting, fol- 

 lowing the action of the General Conference, 

 recommended the erection of the Central Mexi- 

 can Mission and the Mexican Border Mission 

 into annual conferences. 



Methodists in Great Britain. The following ta- 

 ble exhibits the number of members in the 

 several Methodist churches of Great Britain as 

 returned in the statistical reports for 1885 : 



Wesleyans 



Primitive Methodists 192,889 



United Methodist Free Churches 76,886 



Methodist New Connection 29,827 



Bible Christians 26,859 



Wesleyans of Ireland 24,971 



Total 762,594 



The aggregate increase for the year was 5,041. 

 Wesleyan Methodist Connection (in Great 

 Britain). The following is the "General 

 View " of the statistics of the British and 

 affiliated conferences, as published with the 

 " minutes " of the Conference of 1885. 



* The French ministers who are employed in the Channel 

 Islands district are not included in these returns. 



The annual meeting of the Wesleyan Mis- 

 sionary Society was held in London, in May. 

 Mr. H. H. Fowler,-M. P., presided. The total 

 income of the society for the year had been 

 146,308, and the expenditures 146,289. The 



summary of the condition of the missions as 

 presented in the report of the committee in 

 Europe, India, China, West Africa, the Trans- 

 vaal, British Honduras, and the Bahamas, is as 

 follows : Number of central or principal sta- 

 tions, 285; of chapels and other preaching- 

 places, 1,210 ; of missionaries and assistant mis- 

 sionaries, 287 ; of other paid agents (catechists, 

 interpreters, day-school teachers, etc.), 1,543; 

 of unpaid agents (local preachers and Sunday- 

 school teachers), 3,279 ; of church - members, 

 29,091 ; of persons on trial for church-mem- 

 bership, 4,203 ; of pupils, 54,678. 



The Wesleyan Conference met in its one 

 hundred and forty-second session at Newcas- 

 tle, July 21. The Kev. Richard Eoberts was 

 chosen president. Among the topics of con- 

 nectional polity that were considered was a 

 scheme for the establishment of a mission, to 

 be called "the London Wesleyan Methodist 

 Mission," for the purpose of carrying the gos- 

 pel " to such regions of London, and especially 

 of central London, as are most spiritually des- 

 titute and degraded," toward which it was de- 

 cided to institute a fund of 50,000. The sev- 

 eral district committees were advised to ar- 

 range for the promotion of evangelization in 

 other parts of the kingdom, for the collection 

 of information as to the present condition of 

 Wesleyan Methodism in the villages, and sug- 

 gestions as to the means to be employed for 

 improving it, and to inquire what provision 

 was being made by other Methodist bodies. A 

 proposition for a modification of the manner 

 of appointing chairmen of districts, in which 

 was included the feature of designating in cer- 

 tain cases as chairmen, for a term of years, 

 special ministers, who shall be separated from 

 circuit work, was continued in the hands of a 

 committee for another year's consideration. 

 The case was presented of a woman whose 

 name had been for several years enrolled in the 

 list of local preachers in one of the districts; 

 the Conference declined to make inquiry into 

 it ; but afterward explained its action in a reso- 

 lution affirming that its course in the particu- 

 lar case was due to special circumstances, and 

 did not imply any departure from existing rules 

 and usages. A petition was adopted for pres- 

 entation to the House of Commons, deploring 

 the existing law for the protection of young 

 girls, " which now practically ceases at the age 

 of thirteen years," and asking that the age of 

 consent be fixed at eighteen years; that tbe 

 right to enter suspected places, provided for in 

 the bill then before the House, be enacted, and 

 that the clauses relating to procuration shall 

 not contain any provisions exempting any per- 

 sons from their operation. Sanction was giv< 

 to a proposition for distributing, through tl 

 Sunday schools, cards warning parents anc 

 young girls against the wiles of evil and design- 

 ing persons. A petition was adopted inviting 

 the attention of the Parliament to the bill 1 

 before it, to promote the better housing of I 

 working-classes in England, as a measure con- 



