members; New Charters for our Benevolent Institutions or Religious Associations, five members; Expenses of Judicial Conference, one member from each General Conference district; Memorial Services, five members; and on Correspondence, five members.

Bishop Janes read the Quadrennial Address of the Bishops; and the several committees were instructed to consider and report upon such portions of the Address as relate to the interests which they have in charge.

William B. Pope and James H. Rigg were introduced to the Conference as the fraternal representatives of the British Wesleyan Conference, on Saturday morning, May 6th; and they presented their credentials and the Address of their conference. These were then read, after which, according to the arrangements made by the Committee of Reception, they both addressed the Conference.

John Lanahan presented a memorial from C. H. Richardson and others, containing certain adverse statements concerning the solvency of the Western Methodist Book Concern. The substance of this memorial had been given to the public through the reports of the Associated Press; and on motion of John M. Walden, it was

"Resolved, That the Committee on the Book Concern is hereby instructed to consider the subject of said memorial, and report at the earliest moment practicable upon the financial condition of the Western Methodist Book Concern."

The committee diligently examined into the statements made by the memorialists, and reported that the property owned by the Book Concern in Cincinnati and elsewhere amounted to $789,749.16, and its liabilities were $486,463.48. The charge made was that there was only $446,526.15 of actual property, and these figures were made up by throwing out $543,526.16 worth of property, the value of which able business men in Cincinnati reckoned at par. The report closed with the following resolution, which was adopted by an overwhelming majority:

"Resolved, That the assertion of the memorialists that the Western Book Concern is 'practically insolvent' and is 'in an unsound, dangerous, and bankrupt condition,' is both unjust and untrue, and

entitled to no consideration by the public, and that any member of the Methodist Episcopal Church who was instrumental in its clandestine publication in the newspapers deserves the censure of this General Conference and the condemnation of every true friend of the Church."

Fraternal delegates were received from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, viz., James A. Duncan and Landon C. Garland. The venerable Lovick Pierce, the senior member of the delegation, sent a warm and cordial address to the Conference, not being able to be present in person. They presented their credentials on Friday, May 12th, and both addressed the Conference. Delegates were also received from the Methodist Church (Alexander Clark), the Methodist Protestant Church (Silas B. Luther and Charles W. Button), National Council of Congregational Churches (J. E. Rankin), the African Methodist Episcopal Church (James H. A. Johnston, B. F. Tanner, and William F. Dickinson), the Presbyterian Church (Francis L. Patton), the Reformed Episcopal Church (Bishop George D. Cummins), the Canada Methodist Church (John A. Williams), the Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada (Bishop Albert Carman and E. Lounsbury).

Reports were made to the Conference by the delegates appointed by authority of the General Conference of 1872 to visit the conferences and assemblies of the various Christian denominations named-the African African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Baptist Church, Wesleyan Conference of Eastern British America, British Wesleyan Conference, Evangelical Association, the Methodist Church, Methodist Protestant Church, Presbyterian Church, and the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion (United States).

A complaint was made by John Lanahan that the Journal of the General Conference of 1872 was incomplete, by the omission of an important part of a report (that on the Methodist Book Concern); and Bishop Harris and George W. Woodruff, who were co-editors of the Journal, asked for a committee to inquire into the alleged omission. The committee was ordered, and William Rice, Henry B. Ridgaway, C. Aultman, J. Leaton, and J. B. Weaver were appointed.

The committee, after investigating the matter, reported that the report of John A. Gunn, expert accountant, who was employed to examine the books and accounts of the Book Concern, was laid before the Conference of 1872 during the call of May 20th, and that under the rule it went to the appropriate committee, and from that moment it ceased to be under the control of the secretaries, nor was there any rule of the Conference by which the secretaries could reclaim it. The document was published in the Daily Advocate, May 23d, but with the exhibits and appendix omitted. The secretaries, in compiling matter for the appendix to the Journal, not having the original in their possession, inserted the report of Mr. Gunn as it appeared in the Advocate, under the belief that it was complete. Accordingly the committee expressed their opinion that the secretaries were wholly without blame in the matter. The report was adopted, and the secretaries exonerated. The Committee on Ecclesiastical Jurisprudence appointed by the General Conference of 1872 brought in two reports, a majority and a minority report, both of which were referred to a special committee of nine, composed of Wm. H. Hunter, Morris D'C. Crawford, Geo. L. Clark, Luke Hitchcock, Jacob Rothweiler, Stephen B. Ransom, Daniel P. Mitchell, Wm. S. Prentice, and John W. Ray. The report of this committee was made on May 27th, but was not taken up for discussion until the last day of the session, May 31st. After some time was spent in the consideration of its several items, the whole subject was indefinitely postponed; and, on motion of R. M. Hatfield, the bishops were requested to appoint a new committee of five, to whom the report which had been submitted and the whole subject of an ecclesiastical code might be referred, to report at the General Conference of 1880.

The Conference considered the subject of changing the character and scope of the Ladies' Repository, with a view to making it a magazine of a wider range and adapting it to the Church at large, and not confining it to the women particularly. The Committee on the Book Concern offered the following resolution, which was adopted:

"Resolved, That the Agents of the Western Book Concern, the editor of the Ladies' Repository, and the Western Section of the

General Book Committee be authorized to change the name or modify the scope and style of the Ladies' Repository and the Golden Hours, published at Cincinnati, as they may deem best."

The bishops were requested to select and appoint in addition five men of thorough literary culture and intimate acquaintance with the intellectual and religious wants of the Church and country, to co-operate with the Book Agents in - New York and the committee appointed by the foregoing resolution, in effecting these changes.

After the representatives of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, had addressed the Conference, and the letter of Lovick Pierce had been read, a motion was made and carried that a committee of seven be appointed, to whom shall be referred the matters presented by the said representatives relating to the appointment of a commission of five to consider and adjust the points of difference between the two great branches of Methodism. The committee appointed was as follows: Clinton B. Fisk, Augustus C. George, Oliver Hoyt, Fernando C. Holliday, J. D. Blake, W. R. Clark, and J. W. W. Bolton. On May 19th they reported, recommending that the bishops be directed to appoint a commission, consisting of three ministers and two laymen, to meet with a similar commission authorized by the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to adjust all existing difficulties. The report was adopted; and the bishops appointed Morris D'C. Crawford, Enoch L. Fancher, Erasmus Q. Fuller, Clinton B. Fisk, and John P. Newman members of this commission on behalf of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

During the preceding quadrennium Bishop Morris and Missionary Bishop Roberts had both died-the former at his home in Springfield, O., September 2, 1874, and the latter in Liberia, January 30, 1875. Besides these, Thomas M. Eddy, one of the secretaries of the Missionary Society; Dallas D. Lore, editor of the Northern Christian Advocate, and Nelson E. Cobleigh, editor of the Atlanta Methodist Advocate, died in office. Special memorial services were held in commemoration of their work and character on May 16th. Bishop Janes pronounced a eulogy on Bishop Morris and Missionary Bishop Roberts; R. L. Dashiell reverted to the life and character of

T. M. Eddy; E. O. Haven paid a tribute to the memory of D. D. Lore, and Joseph Cummings spoke concerning N. E. Cobleigh.

It was resolved to hold special centennial services in the Academy of Music on May 21st, at three o'clock P. M., in commemoration of the session of a Methodist Conference in Baltimore, May 21, 1776, and arrangements for the same were accordingly made. On that occasion Bishop Ames presided, and after the opening exercises John Lanahan read some extracts from the early Minutes, showing the state of the Church one hundred years ago. J. H. Brown, of the Baltimore Conference; Bishop Simpson, and R. S. Matthews made addresses appropriate to the occasion.

The Committee on the Book Concern reported favorably on a petition from the Louisiana Conference, asking that the Southwestern Christian Advocate, now published in New Orleans as a private enterprise, be adopted as an official weekly paper under the control of the General Book Committee, beginning June 1st, proximo. They recommended also that if the expense of publishing the paper exceed two thousand dollars a year, and such excess shall not be provided for and paid by the patronizing conferences, the paper shall be discontinued. The report was adopted.

The following General Conference officials were elected, to serve for four years: Book Agents, New York, Reuben Nelson, John M. Phillips; Cincinnati, Luke Hitchcock, John M. Walden. Secretaries, Missionary Society, R. L. Dashiell, John M. Reid; Church Extension Society, Alpha J. Kynett; Freedmen's Aid Society, Richard S. Rust. Editors, Methodist Quarterly Review, Daniel D. Whedon; Christian Advocate (New York), Charles H. Fowler; Ladies' Repository and Golden Hours, Daniel Curry; Western Christian Advocate, Francis S. Hoyt; Northern, O. H. Warren; Pittsburgh, Alfred Wheeler; Northwestern, Arthur Edwards; Central, Benjamin St. James Fry; California, Henry C. Benson; Pacific, John H. Acton; Southwestern, H. R. Revels; Methodist Advocate, Erasmus Q. Fuller; Sunday-school Papers, Books, and Tracts, John H. Vincent; Christliche Apologete, William Nast; Haus und Herd and German Books, Henry Liebhart.