642 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



these colonies, the Portuguese legation at Kio 

 Janeiro, and all the Portuguese consulates in 

 Asia, Africa, and America, might be called upon 

 to give evidence in this inquiry. The expedi- 

 tion left Lisbon on July 7th. 



A royal proclamation was issued on June 

 16th, declaring the neutrality of Portugal in 

 the Russo-Turkish war. 



PRESBYTERIANS. I. PRESBYTERIAN 

 CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

 The following is a summary of the statistics 

 of this Church by synods, as they are pub- 

 lished in connection with the Minutes of the 

 General Assembly for 1877 : 



Number of candidates for the ministry, 672 ; 

 of licentiates, 321 ; of licensures, 152 ; of or- 

 dinations, 133 ; of installations, 240 ; of pas- 

 toral dissolutions, 224; of ministers received, 

 59 ; of ministers dismissed, 32. 



The General Assembly of the Presbyterian 

 Church in the United States of America met 

 at Chicago, 111., May 17th, The Rev. James 

 Eels, D. D., of California, was chosen modera- 

 tor. The committee who had been appointed for 

 that purpose by the preceding General Assem- 

 bly reported a list of the delegates and corre- 

 sponding members whom they had nominated 

 to attend the General Presbyterian Council 

 which was to meet at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 

 July, which was accepted by the Assembly. 

 A committee had been appointed by the previ- 

 ous General Assembly to continue the consider- 

 ation of the subject of devising means to re- 

 duce the size of the Assembly by a change in 

 the basis of representation, which had been 



before the Assembly, in some shape, for five 

 years. This committee presented a report re- 

 viewing the whole question, but which made 

 no definite recommendation of a plan for re- 

 ducing the Assembly. They suggested, how- 

 ever, some propositions for meeting the diffi- 

 culties by an increase of the number necessary 

 to constitute a presbytery, and by the provision 

 of arrangements for paying the expense of 

 entertaining the members of the Assembly, and 

 expressed the opinion that a wise decision on 

 the subject could not be reached until the pres- 

 byteries should have carefully considered the 

 principles and the facts involved in the pro- 

 posed change. 



A report was adopted by the Assembly, pro- 

 posing two plans to be submitted to the pres- 

 byteries, which were styled the synodical plan 

 and the presbyterial plan. The synodical plan 

 is as follows : 



The General Assembly shall consist of an equal 

 delegation of bishops and elders from each synod in 

 the following proportions viz., each synod consist- 

 ing of not more than fifty ministers shall send one 

 minister and one elder, and each synod consisting of 

 more than fifty ministers shall send two ministers 

 and two elders, and in the like proportion for every 

 fifty ministers in any synod ; and these delegates so 

 appointed shall be styled Commissioners of the 

 General Assembly, the commissioners shall be 

 chosen by the synod, with due regard to the rights 

 of the presbyteries. If the synod send three or 

 more ministers and three or more elders to the 

 General Assembly, not more than one-third of its 

 commissioners, and if it send two or more ministers 

 and two or more elders, not more than one-half of 

 its commissioners in any year shall <be taken from 

 the same presbytery; and in a series of years equal 

 to the number of presbyteries in any synod every 

 presbytery shall be represented by at least one min- 

 ister and one elder. 



The following is the presbyterial plan : 

 The General Assembly shall consist of an equal 

 djle^ation of bishops and elders from each presby- 

 tery in the following proportion viz., each presby- 

 tery consisting of not more than forty ministers ac- 

 tually engaged in ministerial work as pastors, co- 

 pastors, pastors-elect, stated supplies, evangelists, 

 missionaries, professors in the theological semina- 

 ries, or those assigned to the work of the Church by 

 the General Assembly, shall send one minister and 

 one elder; each presbytery consisting of more than 

 forty and less than eighty ministers, employed as 

 above specified, shall send two ministers and two 

 elders; each presbytery consisting of more than 

 eighty and less than one hundred and twenty min- 

 isters, employed as above specified, shall send three 

 ministers and three elders ; in like proportion for 

 each additional forty ministers actually engaged in 

 ministerial work ; and these delegates'so appointed 

 shall be styled Commissioners to the General As- 

 sembly. 



The Committee on Fraternal Relations made 

 a report reciting the action of the Southern 

 General Assembly of 1876 on the resumption 

 of correspondence with the Northern Church 

 (see ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA for 1876), recom- 

 mending that the Assembly make a new dec- 

 laration "that the language specially com- 

 plained of by the Southern Assembly is a part 

 of that sorrowful past which we in the day of 

 pea.ce and fraternity would wish to forget ; and 



