MORAVIANS. 



enrollment in them from 9,715 to 11,229. Growth 

 was also recorded in young people's societies of va- 

 rious names and representing different phases of 

 Christian activity. Total contributions were re- 

 turned for the five years covering the intersynodal 

 period of $534,784 for church support, $130.946 for 

 church enterprises, and $6,866 for general Christian 

 objects. A new English and German catdfiism, a 

 Scandinavian hymn book, and a German hymn 

 book for Sunday schools had been prepared. An 

 important improvement in the financial conditions 

 of the province was mentioned. The Permanent 

 Church Extension fund had increased from $31,315 

 at the time of the last synod to $41,694. The con- 

 dition of the several churches receiving aid was de- 

 scribed in the report, including the Alberta, Canada, 

 mission, which was established in 1894 to meet the 

 spiritual needs of a colony of immigrants from Vol- 

 hynia, and a mission in the Cherokee nation, which 

 was begun as a foreign mission in 1735. The Mo- 

 ravian College and Theological Seminary had an 

 endowment fund of $115,634, and returned an 

 average annual income during the past five years of 

 9,427. Reports were likewise made of the'Bethle- 

 lu'in Female Seminary and of Nazareth Hail. More 

 than $11,000 had been contributed during the past 

 five years by the churches represented in the synod 

 in aid of the Bohemian-Moravian churches. The 

 present meeting of the synod being preparatory to 

 the meeting of the General Synod, to be held in 

 Germany in 1899, resolutions were adopted for pres- 

 entation to that body recommending that the 

 Unity's Elders' Conference, the Unity department, 

 and the Mission Department as at present consti- 

 tuted be abolished ; that an executive board of the 

 Unity be elected to hold office in the interval be- 

 tween the sittings of the General Synod and to he 

 called the Unity's Elders' Conference ; that this 

 body consist of five members one to be chosen 

 from the German Province, one from the Brit- 

 ish province, one from the American Province, 



i and two from the missionary provinces ; this 

 body to be intrusted with the foreign-mis- 

 sion work in general, the Bohemian mission, 

 the Leper Hospital, the administration of the funds 



I of the Unity, the representation of the Unity in all 

 negotiations with foreign governments and in pub- 

 lic and legal functions, the oversight of the Unity, 

 the convening of the General Synod and the car- 

 rying out of its enactments, the appointment of 

 bishops during the intersynodal period, and the 

 duties of the highest board of appeal for all prov- 

 inces. Besides other suggestions respecting more 

 particular details of the organization, the paper in- 

 vited the General Synod to consider whether its 

 next succeeding meeting could not more advanta- . 

 geously be held in London or in Bethlehem, Pa, 

 The Rev. C. L. Moench and the Rev. E. A. Oester 

 were elected and consecrated bishops, making the 

 oresent number five, two of whom are, however, 

 aged. Defining its position on the subject of mar- 

 iage and divorce as that recorded in the Gospels as 

 laving been declared by Christ, the synod enjoined 

 ninisters under its control against officiating at the 

 emarriageof divorced persons, knowing them to be 



I -uch, unless they are assured that such persons, as 



: he innocent parties, have secured divorce on 

 grounds corresponding with the declarations re- 



' | 'erred to ; and a request was made to the General 

 \vnod to embody in its results the position of the 

 Jhurch on the subject. The clause in the synod's 

 nterpretation of the rule on baptism making the 

 cfusal of members to have their children baptized 

 ' a virtual withdrawal from the Church " was 

 tricken out. All the congregations throughout 

 he province were advised to use unfermcnted wine 

 the celebration of the holy communion. In 



MOTOR CARRIAGES. 



467 





view of the drift of population to the cities, the 

 Board of Church Extension was advised to make 

 populous centers prominent objects of its work. 

 It was further advised to make efforts to in- 

 crease the provincial Church Extension fund to 

 $50.000. The General Synod was petitioned to re- 

 quire the authorities of all educational institu- 

 tions of the Unity to make an open acknowledg- 

 ment of the fundamental doctrines of the Brethren's 

 Church, as is already done in America. The dele- 

 gates of the synod to the General Synod were in- 

 structed to recommend to that body certain meas- 

 ures concerning pensions to missionaries. A 

 beginning of the collection of an Archive-Building 

 fund having been made, the committee on the en- 

 terprise was continued, with directions to further 

 the scheme. 



The synod of the British Province adopted a 

 proposition for the reorganization of the Unity 

 which includes among its principal features the 

 severance of the Mission Board from any and all 

 organic connection with any provincial Elders' 

 Conference, the abolition of the Unity's Elders' 

 Conference as such, the abolition of the Depart- 

 ment of the Unity, and the assignment of the con- 

 vening of the General Synod to the Mission Board. 



MOTOR CARRIAGES. Motor carriages are not 

 a new creation. The first work of this kind of which 

 we have any well-authenticated record was by a 

 Frenchman, Cugnot, in 1770. He constructed an 

 operative though crude steam carriage for heavy- 

 draught service, and this identical machine is still 

 preserved in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, 

 at Paris. These experiments, which were carried 

 on under the auspices of the Government, do not 

 appear to have been prosecuted with much energy, 

 and a few years later the French Reyolution effec- 

 tually checked all progress in this new art. In 

 England the subject was attacked with great in- 

 genuity, skill, and energy, and for a long time the 

 steam road carriage was regarded as offering a 

 better solution of the question of rapid transit 

 than the steam railway. An operative steam car- 

 riage was constructed" in Halifax, England, by 

 Robert Fourness in 1788, and Nathan Reed, o'f 

 Massachusetts, constructed and operated a steam 

 carriage in the same year. In 1803 Jean Richard 

 Trevithick built and ran a steam carriage upon the 

 highway in and about London. 



From 1820 to 1840 was a very busy period with 

 motor-carriage inventors. The most successful of 

 these were Walter Hancock and Goldsworth Gur- 

 ney. Hancock constructed 10 steam carriages dur- 

 ing this period. They were mostly of the double- 

 body coach type, and were the most efficient and 

 practical of self-propelled vehicles of his time. Sev- 

 eral of these were run regularly from London over 

 certain routes, and remained in service some time. 



Gurney built a series of carriages propelled by 

 steam, and operated them regularly, carrying pas- 

 sengers between Gloucester and Cheltenham for 

 four months. In 1834 the Steam Carriage Com- 

 pany of Scotland was formed, and it operated a 

 line of steam coaches for the conveyance of pas- 

 sengers between Glasgow and Paisley, which plied 

 hourly for several months with regularity. The 

 distance is 7 miles, and the trip was made in thirty- 

 four minutes, a speed of 17 miles an hour being ob- 

 tained in the open country. 



About 1834 a very strong prejudice was aroused 

 in England against this new form of road locomo- 

 tion. This was largely instigated by the railroad 

 companies, rapidly growing in power, who foresaw 

 in the steam carriage serious competition, and it 

 found a ready welcome with the ignorant rustic 

 class, always opposed to new inventions, and with 

 the general public, which had been recently alarmed 



