annual conferences in the United States and the domestic and foreign-mission conferences and missions, of which 124 organizations are classed as conferences, 11 as mission conferences, and 13 as missions. The aggregates are made up from the enumerations officially reported to the conferences in their annual sessions of 1899, except a small number of conferences the statistics of which, their meetings having been held late in the fall, had not become available at the time the yearbook went to press. In these cases estimates based upon the official statistics of the previous year are used: Number of ministers on trial and in full connection, including supernumeraries and superannuates, 17,583; of local preachers, 14,289; of lay members (including full members and probationers), 2,871,949, showing a decrease of 21,034; of Sunday schools, 31,836, with 346,063 officers and teachers and 2,660,339 pupils; number of churches, 26,986, having a probable value of $116,275,007; number of parsonages, 10,931; probable value of the same, $18,341,811.

Church Extension Society.-The General Committee of Church Extension met in Baltimore, Md., Nov. 9. The report of the treasurer of the board represented that the increase of the Conference collections over those of the preceding year had been $1,814, and that the increase on all items of the general fund amounted to $37,592. All the items of the Loan fund were likewise larger than in the preceding year. The total receipts for the general fund, all available for donations, had been $214,549, and those for the Loan fund, to be used for loans only, $246,610, making a total amount available for use under the two headings of $461,160. Outside of a few exceptional years, the interest paid by the board had heretofore considerably exceeded the interest received. This year, however, a surplus of about $15,000 remained after paying all annuities. Four hundred and thirteen churches had been aided during the year, making 11,301 from the beginning. Three additions had been made to the list of special Mountain fund churches and 27 to the number of special frontier churches, giving a total of 650 churches of these classes, at an average cost when dedicated exceeding $2,000. In nearly 100 cases the board had given $100 each on Mountain fund conditions out of the general fund, of which no accounting is made in the Mountain fund list. The entire capital of the Loan fund, including amounts received subject to life annuity, was on Nov. 1, 1899, $1,086,856. Borrowing churches had to that date returned $1,270,367, making an aggregate for use by loans of $2,357,224. In this way nearly 3,450 different churches had been aided, furnishing sittings for about 1,000,000 hearers, and worth in the aggregate nearly $12,250,000. The committee decided to ask the sum of $308,600 from the annual conferences in aid of the church-extension work during the ensuing year.

Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Society. The annual meeting of the General Committee of the Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Society was held in Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 13. The receipts of the society for the year from all sources had been $355,827 and the expenditures $329,663, of which $207,365 had been applied to the schools ($169,404 to schools among colored people and $37,871 to schools among whites). An indebtedness of $178,074 was returned. The society maintained 1 theological, 12 collegiate, and 10 academic schools among the colored people and 3 collegiate and 23 academic schools among white people in the South.

The

Special notice was taken in the report of the development of manual training in the schools, for which enlarged facilities were greatly demanded. In view of the certainty that the great majority of the students would engage in operations for which skill in working with their hands would be required, encouragement was given them to maintain themselves by labor while in the schools. In some cases most of the work about the buildings was done by the students. buildings themselves had in certain instances been erected by them, and even finished by them. The whole number of students in all the industrial schools was 2,640, an increase of 834 over the previous year. Of these, 677 young colored men were learning various trades, and 1,755 colored and 142 white young women were learning branches of domestic economy, sewing, and other women's trades.

Missionary Society. The General Missionary Committee met in Washington, D. C., Nov. 15. The committee consists of the Board of Bishops, the officers of the Missionary Society, 14 representatives of General Conference districts, and the 7 ministerial and 7 lay members of the Board of Managers of the Missionary Society. Its business is to hear the financial and missionary reports for the year, make the necessary appropriations for carrying on the missionary work in the several fields during the ensuing year, and distribute the assessment of the amounts expected to be contributed during the coming year among the annual conferences. The treasurer reported that the receipts for the year (Nov. 1, 1898, to Oct. 31, 1899) had been $1,236,544 and the expenditures $1,232,566. The total indebtedness of the treasury at the beginning of the year was $177,417; at the close $99,450, showing a reduction of $77,967.

The following appropriations were made for carrying on the missionary work in 1900:

Class I. Foreign Missions. Europe, South America, Mexico, and Africa.-Germany, $36,918; Switzerland, $7,390; Norway, $12,487; Sweden, $16,436; Denmark, $7,490; Finland and St. Petersburg, $5,200; Bulgaria, $8,868; Italy, $41.122; South America east of the Andes, $46,384; Western South American Mission Conference, $29,953; Mexico, $49,742; Africa, $24,868.

Asia.-China, $119,376; Japan, $49,739; Korea, $16,911; India, $144,241; Malaysia, $12,500. Total for foreign missions, $629,625.

Class II. Missions in the United States.-Conference missions north of the Potomac and Ohio and east of the Mississippi river, $24,761; conferences in Iowa and Kansas and States north of them, including Black Hills and Oklahoma Conferences, $81,697; work in the mountain region (Rocky mountains, etc.), $58,110; Pacific coast, $33,376; white work in the South, Maryland, and Delaware, $48,376; colored work, mostly in the South, $46,061; new English-speaking missions (Welsh, Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Bohemian and Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, and Finnish) in the United States, $161,530; American Indians, $7,686; special appropriations for cities, $11,176; total for domestic missions, $471,773; miscellaneous appropriations, $122,000; total appropriations, $1,223,398. A number of contingent appropriations were made, amounting in all to $78,000.

The reports from the mission fields summarized at the close of 1898 give as the figures for the missions in heathen and Roman Catholic countries (deducting the congregations in Protestant countries, such as Germany, Switzerland, Sweden,

Finland, Norway, and Denmark) 234 ordained missionaries, 210 wives of missionaries, 220 other women, 187 of whom are employed by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society; 786 native women employed by the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, 436 native ordained preachers, 961 unordained preachers, 1,006 teachers, and 1,215 local preachers and other helpers; 56,884 members and 67,967 probationers in the mission churches; 12,445 conversions during the year; 11 theological schools, with 154 students; 58 high schools, with 4,622 students; 1,139 day schools, with 31,382 pupils; and 676 churches and chapels, valued at more than $860,000. The society further owns property in orphanages, schoolrooms, hospitals, book rooms, and other institutions appertaining to its mission work, having a total estimated valuation of $1,320,000.

Women's Societies.-The annual meeting of the Woman's Home Missionary Society was held in Pittsburg, Pa., in October. The society had 2,600 auxiliaries, with 70,000 annual and 8,000 life members in 52 conferences. Its total income for the year, including the regular contributions, contributions of money and clothing passing through the bureau of supplies, tuition fees, etc., had been $278,548. Appropriations were made for the ensuing year of $192,223, of which $87,508 were unconditional and $104,715 conditional. The work of the deaconesses is in the charge of the Deaconess Bureau, under whose supervision 230 trained deaconesses are employed and $306,725 are invested in deaconesses' homes. Three rest houses for deaconesses and missionaries have been established at Ocean Grove, N. J., Mountain Lake Park, Md., and Round Lake, N. Y. Three deaconesses' assemblies were held during the year at San Francisco, Cal., for the Pacific coast; the anniversary at Ocean Grove, N. J.; and the Summer School of Methods, at Chautauqua, N. Y.

The thirtieth annual meeting of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society was held in Cleveland, Ohio, Oct. 20. The statistics of the organization accounted for 5,002 auxiliary societies, .with 127,139 members, showing an increase for the year of 77 societies and 5,325 members. More than 30,000 young people were members of the society and contributing to it. The German churches, in 9 conferences in the United States and in Germany and Switzerland, returned 270 auxiliary societies and 5,817 members. The receipts of the society for the year ending Oct. 1 had been $360,338, or $31,000 more than those of the previous year. During the thirty years of the existence of the society the sum of $5,028,000 had been raised and disbursed. One hundred and ninety-five missionaries, 24 of whom were medical, had been in service during the year in India and Burmah, China, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Italy, Bulgaria, South America, and Mexico. Eleven candidates for service had been accepted. The four periodicals published by the society had an aggregate circulation of 75,400 copies. Appropriations of $347,000 were made for the year 1900. An effort is making in the society to raise a twentieth century thank-offering fund of $200,000 in the ensuing two years.

National City Evangelization Union. The ninth annual convention of the National City Evangelization Union was held in Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 23 and 24. Reports of interest and progress in efforts for evangelization were received from 38 cities. A committee appointed in the previous convention to wait upon the General Missionary Committee of the Church reported upon the results of their interview with that

body that a new class of appropriations had been entered upon the schedule and named "for work in cities.' A considerable number of addresses were made upon the different aspects of religious work in cities.

Methodist Episcopal Church Congress.— The second Methodist Episcopal Church Congress -the first having been held in Pittsburg, Pa., in 1897-was held in St. Louis, Mo., Nov. 26 to Dec. 1. The object of the congress, which is voluntary and informal, is represented as being "to secure from the younger men, and especially from the younger scholars, a full expression of their thought upon the relation of the Church to modern social and intellectual conditions." Topics are selected for discussion on which differences of opinion are known to exist, and the speakers are selected with reference to their ability to present the subjects fairly. The present congress gave special attention to the problem of religious life in the cities, to the harmony of religion and science, and to the effect upon religious faith of modern biblical criticism. The meeting was opened with a sermon upon Christ the Power of God, by Bishop H. W. Warren. The subject of the Twentieth Century Fund was considered by the Hon. W. M. Day and by Dr. E. R. Mills, its secretary; The Message of the Church to Men of Culture, by Prof. M. D. Learned, of the University of Pennsylvania; The Ordering of Worship, by Dr. W. A. Shanklin and the Rev. H. G. Leonard; The Religion of Childhood, by Prof. Street, of Springfield, Mass., and the Rev. J. A. Story; The Working of the Forward Movement by English Methodists, by Prof. A. H. Briggs; The Problem of Religious Life in the City, by Dr. P. H. Swift and the Rev. Harry F. Ward; The Problem of Religious Life in the Town, by the Rev. G. A. Miller; that of Religious Life in the Rural Districts, by the Rev. Emory J. Haynes; Men in the Church, by the Rev. J. E. C. Sawyer; A Methodist Brotherhood, by the Rev. Dr. T. B. Neely; The Higher Education of the Negro, by Prof. Thirkeld, of Atlanta, Ga.; Temperance Instruction: Its Need and Method, by Mr. David D. Thompson; The Findings of Modern Science and Christian Faith, by Prof. William North Rice and the Rev. M. W. Gifford; Christian Science, by Dr. C. D. Lockwood and the Rev. M. S. Hughes; The Spiritual Element in Modern Literature, by Prof. F. C. Lockwood; Religion and Righteousness, by Dr. George Elliott; The Relation of the Church and the Municipality, by the Hon. R. F. Raymond and Dr. W. W. King; The Church and the Higher Criticism, by the Rev. W. F. Andersen and Prof. Sheldon, of Boston; Denominationalism and Catholicity, by Dr. J. A. Duncan, the Rev. Ira C. Cartwright, and Prof. Borden P. Bowne; The Ethics of Church Membership, by the Rev. T. H. Armstrong and Mr. Hanford Crawford.

Methodist Episcopal Church, South.-The estimate of the numbers of this Church at the close of the year 1899 gave it, for the United States only, 5,950 ministers, 14,190 churches, and 1,460,272 members, showing a gain during the year of 27 ministers, 30 churches, and 4,000 members.

At the annual meeting of the Book Committee, May 3, the book agents returned the total value of the business from all the departments as $350,416, from which a gain of $40,144 in assets had been realized. The total capital of the concern, including real estate, plant, merchandise, notes, accounts, etc., was $902,488, against which stood an indebtedness of $9,197.

At the annual meeting of the Sunday-school

Board, May 3, the aggregate circulation of the 6 periodicals was returned as being 1,098,700, an increase for the year of 22,200. Grants amounting in all to $2,450 were made in sums of from $100 to $1,000 each to the several foreign missions of the Church. The board resolved to cooperate with the Board of Education in the twentieth century thank-offering movement provided no collections for that object were taken within the Sunday schools themselves.

Missionary Societies. The detailed report of the foreign missions presented at the annual meeting of the Board of Missions, May 2, gives as the totals: Number of missionaries, 128; of native preachers, 87; of local helpers, 147; of members, 9,503, showing an increase of 462; of Sunday schools, 230, with 689 officers and teachers and 8,375 pupils; of Epworth Leagues, 48, with 1,660 members; of organized churches, 275, of which 10 are self-supporting; of church buildings, 102, valued at $164,995. The schools included 8 boarding schools, with 34 teachers and 1,000 pupils, and 17 day schools, with 11 teachers and 483 pupils. The 9 school buildings were valued at $50,853, and the 5 hospitals at $14,440. At these hospitals 15,688 patients had been treated during the year. The total value of the mission property was $388,639; amount of collections, $13,404. The board made appropriations to the several missions and mission conferences as follow: To Brazil Mission Conference, $30,400; to China Mission Conference, $27,162; to Korea mission, $7,650; to Japan Mission Conference, $31,714; to Central Mexico Mission Conference, $21,127; to the Mexican Border Mission Conference, $13,850; to Northwest Mexican Mission Conference, $12,650; to the Cuba mission, $5,000; to the Indian Mission Conference, $2,636; to the German Mission Conference, $2,268; and to other conferences within the United States, $25,781. The whole amount appropriated, including the sum allowed for expenses, was $205,150.

The Woman's Home Missionary Society has undertaken a celebration of the " twentieth century movement" by raising a special fund to help its schools-viz., the Sue Bennett Memorial School, London, Ky.; the Industrial Home and School, Greenville, Tenn., for the mountain people; the Cuban schools in Florida; the Chinese and Japanese schools in California; Friendsbury Home, Baltimore, Md.; and Ann Browder Cunmingham Home, Dallas, Texas, for the training of city missionaries and rescue workers. The Friendsbury estate, Baltimore, Md., has been bequeathed to the society by Miss Melissa Rankin, the founder of Protestant missions in Mexico, on condition of its raising $10,000 for the endowment of city mission work.

The twenty-first annual report of the Woman's Board of Foreign Missions gives as the amount of the collections for the year ending March, 1899, $83,552, showing a loss of $3,000 from the previous year. The following statistics of missionary work in foreign lands were given: In China, 20 missionaries, 59 assistant teachers, 43 boarding and day schools, 2,500 pupils, 31 Bible women, 2 Bible schools, 2 hospitals, 86 scholarships. In Korea, 2 missionaries, 5 assistant teachers, 32 pupils. In Mexico, 17 missionaries, 57 assistants, 25 schools, 2,687 pupils, 14 scholarships, 19 Bible women. In Brazil, 11 missionaries, 28 teachers, 8 schools, 277 pupils. In the Indian mission, 10 teachers, helpers, and missionaries, more than 100 pupils, 2 schools, 1 hospital, and 1 Bible woman. In Cuba, 1 missionary and 1 helper had been sent, and 1 school, with 32 pupils, had been established.

At its annual meeting in 1899 this board made appropriations of $99,000 for the year's work, the amount exceeding any previously voted for one

year.

Epworth League.-An enumeration of the Epworth Leagues of this Church made by its secretary gives them for May 30, 1899, 5,031 chapters (4,536 senior and 495 junior), with a total of 221,445 members (204,120 senior and 17,325 junior), against 195,840 members in 1898. During the year that had passed 478 senior and 117 junior leagues had been added.

African Methodist Episcopal Church.-The statistics of this Church, published by Bishop Arnet, the Church historian, at the beginning of 1898, account for 62 annual conferences, of which 52 were in the United States, 4 in Africa, 3 in the West Indies, and 3 in British America. These returns include 9 bishops, 9 general officers, 4,825 ministers on the rolls of the annual conferences, 242 presiding elders, 8,409 local preachers, 5,250 exhorters, 556,289 members, and 57,836 probationers; 5,172 churches, valued at $6,150,176; 1,750 parsonages, valued at $624,423, with $752,964 of indebtedness against church property; 11 schools, with 160 teachers, 5,257 students, 660 graduates, property valued at $756,475, and an aggregate annual income of $115,560; and 3,447 Sunday schools, with 21,514 officers, 37,916 teachers, and 362,421 pupils. The benevolent contributions for the year were $29,938 for missions, $16,745 for publication, $17,252 for church extension, $115,560 for education, $753,404 for ministerial support, $141,876 for presiding elders, and $20,740 for the Sunday-school department. The whole amount of money raised in the Church was $1,570,329. The total value of its property is $8,104,886.

The Sunday School Union received for the last year for which the report is made up (ending March 31, 1898) $21,084, and expended $19,240. It aided 368 needy Sunday schools with literature to the value of $852. At the annual meeting of the Board of Managers, held in Nashville, Tenn., April 6, 1899, a committee was appointed to report upon the condition of the negro in the United States. It is represented that this society was the first Sunday-school union in America established among negroes. Property was purchased for it in Nashville in 1885, on which a publication house has been built.

The publication department of the Church published in 1898 The Bright Side of Life in Africa, by Dr. W. H. Beard; The Descent of the Negro, by Bishop Tanner; The True Christian Sabbath, by the Rev. D. A. Graham; How to Educate Yourself, by Dr. W. D. Johnson; The Negro and his Trials, by Dr. H. T. Johnson; several booklets, two impressions of the Hymn and Tune Book, and a number of periodicals. It had a balance of $267 in its treasury on March 30, 1899. The Board of Bishops on June 16 approved a plan for collecting a twentieth century thankoffering" of $600,000, to be obtained by Jan. 1, 1901, and appointed the Rev. L. J. Coppin, D. D., commissioner to make all the necessary arrangements for carrying it out. The amount of $600,000 is to be distributed as follows: To the Mission Board, Home and African, $100,000; to the Church Extension fund, $200,000; to the colleges and universities, half on the old debt, half for endowment, $100,000; to theological seminaries, $200,000. The commissioner, who is to be assisted by annual conference commissioners, is instructed to report to a board of directors constituted of the bishops and one person from each episcopal district. Á board of five directors was

also constituted for each annual conference, and is invested with the appointment of the conference commissioner.

Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.-This Church had at the end of the year 1899 2,039 ministers, 1,427 churches, and 204,317 members, showing an increase during the year of 54 ministers, 50 churches, and 5,689 members. The bishops, after advising with leading ministers and members of the administrative boards, issued a call upon the membership of the Church for a twentieth century offering of $25,000. The call contemplated an equal division of the money be tween the educational and the missionary work of the Church, all the schools to share alike in the half of the fund appropriated to educational purposes.

American Wesleyan Church.-The annual meeting of the Board of Managers of the publishing and benevolent interests of the connection was held in Syracuse, N. Y., in June. The secretary of the Missionary Society reported the receipt and expenditure during the year of $2,238. The report referred to work in Canada, where difficulty was met in consequence of the Church not having yet secured the official recognition required to qualify its ministers to perform the services of marriage, baptism, and burial in a legal manner; mentioned an opportunity for extension which appeared to be opening in East Tennessee; and described the trouble which the mission in Africa had had to suffer in consequence of the prevalence of wars. The board adopted a code of regulations for its missionary work in Africa, the aim of which was defined to be "not to evangelize great areas of people by the main tenance of a large force of foreign workers, but rather to create and prepare through and by a lesser number of workers a regenerated and intelligent native instrumentality in the redemption of their own land from the thraldom of sin and death, and in planting the Gospel in its uttermost regions"; and the scope of the work was described as being threefold" preaching, teaching, and commercial and business." The agent of the corporate societies of the connection reported the receipts and expenditures of the Publishing Association as having been $21,254, and its gain in assets $1,446, making the present total amount $67,213; the amount of the H. T. Besse fund as $2,385, showing a gain of $1,551 in two years; the amounts of the Jackson and the Gracia Elmer funds as, respectively, $3,000 and $2,200. The receipts and expenditures of the Missionary Society had been $2,658 for home missions and $3,701 for foreign missions, while it had realties, notes, and cash representing $7,338 on account of home missions and $8,814 on that of foreign missions. The Wesleyan Education Society had received and expended $4.222 and possessed assets valued at $23,177, while its liabilities were $980. The Superannuated fund received $980. American Methodist Church.-Articles of incorporation have been filed in North Carolina of the American Methodist Church. Instead of a formal creed this Church accepts as the basis of its doctrines the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the Apostles' Creed, and the Holy Scriptures. No distinctions of sex are recognized in the powers and privileges of members. Infant baptism is retained, but is left optional with parents, who may also choose the mode of administration; and adults are likewise permitted to choose the mode in which they shall be baptized.

Methodist Church in Canada.-The statistical reports of the Methodist Church in Canada VOL. XXXIX.-32 A

give the following numbers of members by conferences: Toronto Conference, 44,258; London, 48,289; Hamilton, 46,307; Bay of Quinte, 40,369; Montreal, 35,838; Nova Scotia, 16,079; New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, 13,668; Newfoundland, 11,279; Manitoba and Northwest Territory, 18,741; British Columbia, 5,060; Japan, 2,339; China mission (1898), 31; total, 282,259; net increase for the year, 1,722; number of members received on trial during the year, 18,802; number of baptisms, 17,286.

The total missionary income for the year is given in the Christian Guardian for Sept. 27 as $266,075; net increase, $23,023.

The invested capital of the Superannuation fund was reported at the close of the fiscal year, Aug. 28, as $233,698. The year's income and expenditures were balanced at $113,537.

Epworth League International Convention. -The fourth biennial international convention of the Epworth League was held in Indianapolis, Ind., July 20 to 23. The use of the Capitol building had been granted by the State Legislature for the general purposes of the occasion, and the special meetings were held in the two principal halls of the city and a large tent. The societies of the United States and Canada were represented in the convention, and the delegates appeared in behalf of three Church organizations-those of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the Methodist Church of Canada. Among the subjects discussed at the meetings of the three sections, each by many speakers, were The Intellectual Life, The Spiritual Life, Revivals, the special work of the league, Methodism and its Life, Social Righteousness, Good Citizenship, Temperance, and Missions. Besides the special meetings, public lectures were delivered. Resolutions were adopted favoring a continuance of the "joint prayer-meeting topics and a federation with other young people's societies, "both locally and nationally, through suitable executive committees, for the promotion of Christian citizenship."

Wesleyan Methodist Church.-The following is a summary of the official returns of the members, probationers, and supernumerary ministers of the British and affiliated conferences of this Church as they are published in connection with the minutes of the conference of 1899: In Great Britain, 447,276 members, 1,663 ministers, 316 supernumeraries; in Ireland, 27,461 members, 172 ministers, 40 supernumeraries; in foreign missions, 46,262 members, 269 ministers, 14 supernumeraries; French Conference, 1,757 members, 27 ministers, 8 supernumeraries; South African Conference, 55,769 members, 164 ministers, 18 supernumeraries; West Indian conferences, 43,287 members, 79 ministers, 3 supernumeraries. The totals are: 621,812 members (74,305 on trial), 2,374 ministers, 372 probationers, 401 supernumeraries. The 77,780 young people meeting in junior classes are not included in the home or foreign returns. The accredited local preachers

at home number 18,017.

The income of the home missions, as given in the annual report of the committee for 1899, had been £35,977 and the expenditure £36,296, showing a deficiency of about £320. The debt on the annual account of the fund now stood at £6,740. A scheme has been proposed by the Conference, to be submitted to the district synods, for the creation of a separate fund, to be called the Connectional fund, from which connectional expenses not chargeable to circuits are to be paid.

The London Wesleyan Mission consists, according to its latest report, of 7 branches, with

36 buildings. Eighteen ministers are engaged in the work, and are assisted by 25 lay agents and 70 "sisters of the people." More than 6,000 members have joined. A home of rest at Balham for the deserving poor has proved a valuable auxiliary. An extension of premises has been made in central London at a cost of £10,000. The Leysian Mission, which is connected with the Leys School, Cambridge, also reports progress. Education. At the meeting of the Education Committee held in February the income was reported to have been £5,877, an increase for the year. The new budget involved an estimated expenditure of £6,056. Of the £35,000 aid grant received by the newly formed school association from the Government, three fourths had gone to the teaching staff. This, however, would not be the case in the future.

Chapel Building. The report of the Metropolitan Chapel-building fund shows that 6 new chapels had been opened during the year, and 1 chapel had been enlarged. Six new schemes had been sanctioned. Three new buildings were in progress. Temporary iron chapels or school chapels had been erected on a number of sites in and around London. The claims of 27 other localities had been submitted to the committee. The total expenditure contemplated was £140,000. The total receipts for the year had been £10,442. The grants paid amounted to £10,484. Sunday Schools. The report to the Conference on Sunday schools showed that there were 7,255 schools, with 972,426 pupils. While the number of registered pupils was greater by 2,942 than in the previous year, a gradual decline in the schools of catechetical instruction was remarked upon as an unhealthy sign. The adult Bible classes not connected with Sunday schools returned 48,821 members, and the "pleasant Sunday afternoon" classes 9,177 members.

Wesleyan Missionary Society.-The annual meeting of the Wesleyan Missionary Society was held in London, April 28. The regular income of the society, amounting from all sources to £130,533, showed an increase over the previous year of about £1.100, and of £4,807 as compared with that of 1896. The society was thus free from debt and paying its way. The total number of members in the foreign stations under the direction of the committee was 46,262, with 11,619 on trial. Taking the mission field as a whole, an increase was reported under almost every head, the Transvaal and Swaziland district taking the lead with an increase of 849, besides 3,500 on trial, the Canton (China) district coming next, with the largest increase (359) yet reported there. Emphasis was given in the report to the fact that increased church membership and other signs of progress were manifest throughout the entire Asiatic field, where the most ancient and highly organized forms of heathenism were encountered. Attention was invited to places where specially favorable openings were presenting themselves, as in the province of Hunan, China; Hyderabad, India; Cairo, Egypt; the region north of the Zambesi; and Lisbon, Portugal.

Conference.-The Wesleyan Methodist Conference of Great Britain and Ireland met in City Road Chapel-John Wesley's Chapel-London, July 17. The Rev. Frederick W. MacDonald was chosen president. A committee appointed by the previous Conference to revise the order of sessions presented a report suggesting changes in the method of filling up the legal conference and of electing the president and secretary of the Conference, which was adopted. (The legal con

ference, or legal hundred, consists of 100 ministers, appointed, partly by seniority and partly by the Conference, in accordance with the statute law, to constitute the body possessing the legal functions of the Conference.) The plan provides that vacancies in the legal conference caused by death or lapse shall be declared at the first meeting of the representative session, and filled up by the legal conference by election on the ground of seniority, while the declaration of vacancies on the ground of superannuation shall be deferred until the meeting of Conference in pastoral session, when they shall be filled by election by the legal conference on the ground of nomination; that the nomination of the president and of the secretary of the Conference shall be made by ballot vote at the pastoral session of the preceding Conference; the election to be made by the legal conference, which is requested to elect the persons who were nominated. In case of the death of the person nominated to be president or secretary before the meeting of the Conference at which the election is to take place, a new nomination shall be made by the ministers in representative session, which the legal conference is requested to ratify. Other recommendations of the committee approved by the Conference provided that all ministers in full connection permitted to attend the Conference in its pastoral session shall have the right to vote in the nomination of president and secretary of the ensuing Conference, and suggest for the consideration of the representative session an increase of the number of its members so that it may consist of 300 ministers and 300 laymen, with a corresponding increase in the number of members of the representative session elected by the Conference from 18 to 48. A report concerning the Twentieth Century fund represented that the whole amount subscribed to date was 669,214 guineas, or £702,674, and the amount paid in £86,572. All the arrangements for the fund and its allocation had been well received by the Methodist people, and the principle 1 person, 1 guinea had been cordially accepted. A resolution being offered expressing the opinion of the Conference that no Christian man should manufacture or sell intoxicating liquors, an amendment was proposed declaring that the Conference rejoices in the rapid spread of temperance convictions and practices in the Methodist Church, and urges our people everywhere to consider all well-promoted temperance reforms, and confidently hopes for their success, but it declines to pronounce an abstract and indiscriminate opinion upon the action of individual Christians." The Conference further reaffirmed its resolutions of the previous year on this subject, rejoicing in the progress of temperance sentiment and practice in the Wesleyan Church, but declining to interfere with the constitutional method of appointing its of ficers; advising the people to keep themselves free from complicity with the liquor traffic; declaring its reliance upon the growth of moral conviction in the community for its removal; expressing itself unable to impose disabilities upon those who sell drink which would not apply to those who buy and use it; and recording its belief that the great ends of the temperance movement can be secured without resort to methods of coercion. A protest was voted against the opening of the Crystal Palace on Sundays for concerts and public dinners. A resolution was adopted with reference to the enforcement of the "conscience clause" in the elementary schools.

Primitive Methodist Church (British).-The Primitive Methodist Yearbook in August, 1899,