tion, the question being raised on a case which properly invokes the judicial function. The terms used in ¶ 62 of the Discipline are such as to admit of serious doubt, and raise questions on which the committee could not agree. They recommend that no formal decision of the question be made at this time; but as the challenge had not been judicially passed upon, those occupying the seats in question do so under a title in dispute, yet without - prejudice to the rights of either challengers or challenged, and without establishing a precedent. The committee further proposed an amendment to the Second Restrictive Rule, so that it should read as follows:

"§ 2. The General Conference shall not allow of more than one ministerial representative for every fourteen members of an annual conference, nor of a less number than one for every forty-five, nor of more than two lay delegates for any annual conference; provided, that no person shall be chosen a delegate to the General Conference or to an electoral conference who shall be under twenty-five years of age, or who shall not have been a member of the Church in full connection for the five consecutive years preceding the election; and provided, also, that no conference shall be denied the privilege of one ministerial and one lay delegate; provided, nevertheless, that where there shall be in any conference a fraction of two-thirds the number which shall be fixed for the ratio of representation, such conference shall be entitled to an additional delegate for such fraction."

The bishops were instructed to submit this alteration to the annual conferences at their first sessions following the adjournIment of the General Conference.

Word was received and reported to the Conference of the serious illness, and later of the death of John M. Reid, honorary secretary of the Missionary Society. An appropriate minute was adopted for entry upon the Journal, and the secretaries of the Missionary Society were requested to prepare a memoir, to be published with the Journal. The memoir was not printed in the Journal; but the official journals of the Church gave full accounts of the life, services, and death of this honored man of God.

Fraternal delegates were received and introduced from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (J. C. Morris and E. B. Perkins); from the British Wesleyan Conference (W. L. Wat

kinson); from the Irish Conference (R. C. Johnson); from the Canada Methodist Church (J. J. Lathern); from the African Methodist Episcopal Church (J. A. Johnson); from the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (C. H. Phillips); from the Reformed Episcopal Church (B. T. Noakes); from the Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand (John J. Lewis); and from the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (J. T. Gaskill). All of these representatives made appropriate addresses before the Conference. Fraternal greetings were sent to and received from the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., and the Methodist Protestant General Conference, at Kansas City, Kan. Greetings were also sent to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in session at Mobile, Ala. The general officers of the Woman's Foreign and Woman's Home Missionary Societies, in attendance as visitors, were presented to the Conference, and invited to seats on the platform.

Reports were presented by the fraternal delegates sent from this General Conference to other religious bodies, as follows: By James H. Potts, sent to the Methodist Church of Canada; John F. Goucher and Henry Wade Rogers, sent to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; and by J. W. E. Bowen, sent to the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The question of equal representation of the ministers and laymen in the General Conference was ordered to be submitted to a vote in the annual conferences. If the conferences shall determine that an equal number of lay representatives may be elected with the clerical, then the electoral conferences may elect in 1899 and 1900 representatives equal in number with the clerical, and the General Conference of 1900 may by a twothirds vote provide for their admission.

The organic union of other religious bodies with the Methodist Episcopal Church was sanctioned, under certain specified conditions, so that both ministers and members should be received and recognized as such in full communion. The insurance plan of the West Wisconsin Conference was approved, and the organization of a Mutual Church Insurance Company was provided for by the General Conference, on the principles and method laid down in the Appendix to the Discipline of 1896.

Bishops Bowman and Foster were retired from the effective list of bishops, and relieved of all episcopal functions, and Missionary Bishop Taylor was also retired as non-effective. The Conference determined that the episcopacy should be strengthened by the election of two bishops, and that a missionary bishop should be elected for Africa. The election was held, beginning May 15th, and resulted as follows, two-thirds of all the votes cast being necessary to elect: On the fifteenth ballot, Charles Cardwell McCabe received 344 ballots, and was elected, and on the sixteenth ballot Earl Cranston had 366 votes, and was elected. Joseph Crane Hartzell was elected Missionary Bishop for Africa. He had already been elected secretary of the Freedmen's Aid Society; but when elected to the missionary episcopate, he resigned that office. The consecration ceremonies took place on Tuesday, May 26th.

Memorial services were held on May 15th and 16th, in honor of the General Conference officers who had died during the quadrennium-James W. Mendenhall, June 18, 1892; Jonas 0. Peck, May 17, 1894; Sandford Hunt, February 10, 1896; Henry Liebhart, January 26, 1895; Benjamin F. Crary, March 16, 1895. The memoir of J. W. Mendenhall was read by William F. Whitlock; of J. O. Peck by George E. Reed; of S. Hunt by Homer Eaton; of H. Liebhart by Albert J. Nast; and of B. F. Crary by John Coyle.

The days upon which the several standing committees should meet were determined; and it was ordered that on the day following the election of delegates from an annual conference, the chairman of the delegation (the member receiving the highest number of votes on the first ballot that elects) shall furnish the secretary of the last General Conference the names of the several standing committees, as chosen by the members of his delegation. From these returns the secretary shall construct, so far as possible, the rolls of the standing committees in advance of the session of the ensuing General Conference. This order is printed in the Appendix to the Discipline.

A plan for seating the next General Conference was adopted, and ordered to be printed in the Appendix to the Discipline. This plan is intended to facilitate the seating of the delegates, and save time in the selection of places for the several delegations.

The elections in the Conference resulted as follows: Publishing Agents, New York, Homer Eaton, George P. Mains; Cincinnati, Lewis Curts, Henry C. Jennings; Editors, Methodist Review, William V. Kelley; Christian Advocate, J. M. Buckley; Sunday-school Publications, Jesse L. Hurlbut; Northern Christian Advocate, James E. C. Sawyer; Pittsburgh, Charles W. Smith; Western, D. H. Moore; Northwestern, Arthur Edwards; Central, Jesse B. Young; California, Winfield S. Matthew; Southwestern, Isaiah B. Scott; Epworth Herald, Joseph F. Berry; Christliche Apologete, A. J. Nast; Haus und Herd, Franz L. Nagler. Corresponding Secretaries, Missionary Society, Adna B. Leonard, Abraham J. Palmer, William T. Smith; Church Extension, Alpha J. Kynett, William A. Spencer; Freedmen's Aid, John W. Hamilton, Madison C. B. Mason (in place of J. C. Hartzell, resigned); Education, Charles H. Payne.

The Committee of Arrangements for the General Conference of 1900 was instructed to appoint three of its number as a subcommittee on fraternal delegates, to correspond with them and arrange for their entertainment. A communication on the subject of Methodist Confederation was received from the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and referred to the Board of Bishops. The secretary of the Conference was made the custodian of all the papers and the Journal belonging to it, to deliver the same to his successor, and to make a roll of the ensuing General Conference-this duty, in the case of his death, to be performed by the assistant secretaries, in the order of their appointment. The Conference passed resolutions favoring the bill pending in Congress, prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors in the Capitol buildings, and asking for the passage of a law prohibiting the issuing of permits by the Government for the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage in those States where such sale is prohibited by law. The Conference recommended the giving of instruction relating to the physiological effects of alcohol and other narcotics, in all the literary institutions, Sunday-schools, and mission schools of the Church, and approved of the object of the American Anti-saloon League.

The Book Committee was instructed to take under advisement the diminution in number of the official papers of the

Church, and report to the General Conference of 1900. The committee was authorized to elect a general book editor, upon the recommendation of the Publishing Agents, and to discontinue any depository or periodical when the interests of the Church or the Book Concern demand it. A book depository was authorized to be established in Detroit, Mich., and the committee was directed to make careful investigation of all the facts in connection with each place asking for the General Conference of 1900, and to determine which place shall be selected, with power to make all the arrangements connected therewith, as to entertainment, expenses of delegates, etc.

To official boards was given all the duties heretofore belonging exclusively to the leaders and stewards' meeting. The chapters relating to deaconesses and conference claimants were changed, and the bishops were requested to prepare a form for the consecration of deaconesses. The Conference allowed this form to be inserted in the Appendix to the Discipline, as it was not ready in time for their approval by vote. Resolutions of sympathy for the insurgents in Cuba, struggling for freedom, and for the Armenian Christians, suffering from religious persecution by the Turks, were passed, and asking the General Government to discontinue appropriating funds for sectarian schools. A new order for public worship was arranged, to be printed with the Church hymnal, and also in such form that it may be obtained separately by Churches already supplied with hymnals and pasted in every copy. The action of the state of Florida, forbidding white persons and Negroes to be taught in the same schools, was deprecated, and any efforts to test the constitutionality of the law in the civil courts or secure its repeal were approved.

Pastors of charges were forbidden to engage an evangelist other than those appointed by the bishops of their conference, without first obtaining the consent of their presiding elders. Against this action a strong protest was presented, to be entered on the Journal of the Conference, signed by forty-seven members, on the ground that it involves an unjustifiable restriction of pastoral prerogative. The General Committee of the Missionary Society was forbidden to appropriate more for a given year than the total income of the society for the year