374 



METHODISTS. 



MEXICO. 



message of fraternal greeting was sent to the 

 Wesleyan Conference with the expression of the 

 hope that ere long, by the exercise of brotherly 

 love, a federation of Methodist churches might be 

 brought about. 



XIII. The Bible Christian Church. The 

 eighty-second Bible Christian Conference met at 

 Penzance, Aug. 1. The Rev. John Luke was chosen 

 moderator. The Chapel report showed that 13,- 

 485 had been raised toward renovations and the 

 erection of new chapels. The total income, includ- 

 ing 8,825 of borrowed money and a balance of 

 4.935, had been 42,402, and the expenditure 

 36,957. The Christian Endeavor report adduced 

 facts tending to show that the societies of that 

 name were a source of increasing strength to the 

 churches. The treasurer of the New Century fund 

 reported that nearly two thirds of the sum of 

 25,000 aimed at had been promised, and one half 

 of the amount promised, or 8,000, had been paid. 

 Provisions were adopted relative to the placing 

 of additional married preachers upon circuits of 

 designated strength and to giving Conference as- 

 sistance in their support. In view of a reported 

 decrease of 53 members, a resolution was adopted 

 embodying the question whether present-day 

 Christfanity is as deep and aggressive as it should 

 be. Regret was expressed by resolution at the 

 complete failure of the negotiations for union with 

 the Primitive Methodist Church, and a committee 

 was appointed to act with the similar committee 

 appointed by the Conference of that Church in 

 maintaining the most friendly relations between 

 the two denominations. The responses of the 

 quarterly and district meetings to the resolution 

 sent down by the previous Conference for exclud- 

 ing holders of licenses for the sale of intoxicating 

 liquors from office in the churches expressed a 

 variety of opinions and embodied diverse recom- 

 mendations. The Conference reaffirmed its opinion 

 that the Church should be free from complicity 

 with the liquor traffic, and expressed the hope that 

 sellers of intoxicants would not be elected to office 

 or admitted to membership in any of the societies. 



XIV. Independent Methodist Churches 

 (British). At the ninety-fifth annual Conference 

 of Independent Methodist Churches, held at Stret- 

 ford, June 18, reports were made of 148 churches, 

 397 ministers, 8,303 members, 26,295 children, and 

 2,841 teachers and officers in Sunday schools, and 

 78 Christian Endeavor Societies. The churches 

 were 2 and the Christian Endeavor Societies 20 

 more in number than in 1899, and the members 

 241 less. The Book Room Committee reported a 

 slight falling off in sales. The publication of a 

 hymn book and a tune book was decided upon. 

 Eight mission halls were maintained by the 

 churches. 



XV. South African Conference. The reports 

 made to the South African Conference showed 

 that notwithstanding the war there had been an 

 increase of 193 English and 2,244 native members. 

 The native services had been kept up at Kimberley 

 through all the hardships of the siege and under 

 the restrictions of martial law. Out of 91,000 

 native members reported, 80,000 were pure abo- 

 rigines. 



XVI. Australasian Methodist Church. This 

 Church returns for 1900 775 ministers, 8,783 lay 

 preachers, 118,984 members and probationers, 

 3,973 Sunday schools with 21,618 officers and 

 teachers and 214,734 pupils, and 3,438 churches. 

 The question of union with other Methodist borlies 

 into a single Methodist church for the colony 

 having been submitted, in accordance with the 

 terms of the projected plan of union, to the mem- 

 bers of the Primitive Methodist Church in New 



South Wales, a very large majority (3,474 to 385) 

 voted in favor of the measure. The Wesleyan 

 Conference had already agreed to union if the 

 voting in the Primitive Methodist Church should 

 be decisively in favor of it. The Federal Council 

 of the Methodist Churches in the colony, acting 

 upon this result, has directed a basis of union to 

 be prepared, including the details necessary to give 

 effect to the measure in accordance with the action 

 of the General Conference. The accounts of the 

 Australasian Methodist Board of Missions show 

 an excess in the receipts for 1899 of $7,693 over 

 the expenditures, while for a few years past the 

 society has had to face a deficiency averaging 

 $5,500 a year. A sum of $17,500 still standing 

 to the credit of the society has been placed in a 

 " legacies capital investment account." By the 

 consummation of Methodist union in South Aus- 

 tralia the mission maintained for many years at 

 Yunnan-Fu, China, passed under the control of 

 the General Board. A deputation appointed by 

 order of the General Conference is corresponding 

 with the churches in Fiji respecting propositions 

 for giving fuller powers of self-government to the 

 mission district of that country, and is commis- 

 sioned to consider other matters which have arisen 

 during the state of transition through which the 

 colony is passing. Fiji is the largest contributor 

 of men and money to the Australasian Wesleyan 

 mission work. 



MEXICO, a federal republic in North America. 

 The legislative power is vested in the Congress, 

 consisting of a Senate of 56 members, 2 from each 

 state and the federal district, and a House of 

 Representatives containing 227 members, 1 to 40,- 

 000 of population. Representatives are elected for 

 two years by the votes of all respectable adult 

 male citizens, and Senators by the same electorate 

 for four years, the same term as the presidency. 

 Porfirio Diaz was first elected President in 1876, 

 and again after an intermission, and since 1887. 

 when the Constitution was so altered as to per- 

 mit a President to succeed himself, he has been 

 elected consecutively. The Cabinet in the begin- 

 ning of 1900 was composed as follows: Secretary 

 of Foreign Affairs, I. Mariscal; Secretary of the 

 Interior, Gen. Gonzalez Cosio; Secretary of Jus- 

 tice and Public Instruction, J. Baranda; Secre- 

 tary of Fomento, Fernandez Leal; Secretary of 

 Finance and Commerce, J. I. Limantour; Secre- 

 tary of Communications and Public Works, F. 

 Z. Mena; Secretary of War and Marine, Gen. F. 

 B. Berriozabal, Secretary of the Treasury, F. Es- 

 pinosa. Porfirio Diaz was re-elected President of 

 the republic in the beginning of October, 1900, 

 and was inaugurated on Dec. 1 to serve his sixth 

 consecutive term, his seventh term in the office. 



Each of the states has its constitution am 

 autonomous government, with an elective gov- 

 ernor and legislature. No state may levy duties 

 on products of other states. All of them hayo 

 adopted the federal civil and criminal codes with 

 the exception of Vera Cruz and Mexico. 



Area and Population. The area of Mexico H 

 767,005 square miles. The population in 1895 was 

 12,630,863, being 16.4 to the square mile, about 

 19 per cent, being of pure white, 38 per cent, of 

 pure Indian, and the rest of mixed white ami 

 Indian blood. All have had the same civil status 

 since 1824, but the Indians and half-breeds are 

 generally of a much lower order of intelligence 

 than the whites. The people are Roman Catholic*, 

 except a few converts to Protestantism. Churc i 

 and state have been separated. Education in 

 nearly all the states is gj?atuitous and compu'- 

 sory, and is aided by grants from the fedeml 

 treasury. There were 6,141 schools of various 



