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METHODISM 453 tinue in one circuit not more than three con- secutive years. A body composed of one rep- resentative from each district meeting consti- tutes a stationing committee, which prepares a draft of the stations of all the ministers for the ensuing year, and submits this to the conference, where appeals are made and the scheme of appointments perfected in accord- ance with the demands of the work. Impor- tant improvements have been made in this pol- ity from time to time, by which the seemingly oligarchical character of the "Legal Confer- ence " has been modified, and the methods have been made consonant with the voice of the large body of the conference. Yet the essen- tial principles of the original "Deed " are still retained. In the progress of its history, Wes- leyan Methodism has developed various " con- nectional " enterprises, as its needs have sug- gested. Among these are the contingent fund, established in 1756, for the support of home missionaries, for deficits of preachers on poor circuits, &c., which is sustained by an annual collection in all the societies, by donations and bequests, and by appropriations from the book room ; the children's fund, founded in 1819, for equalization of the support of the children of preachers, according to the numbers and abil- ity of the societies ; the general chapel fund, founded in 1818, to relieve embarrassed chap- els and stimulate the liberality of the people in repairing and building chapels and preachers' houses, by affording them help according to their own exertions ; and the preachers' auxiliary fund, for the relief of superannuated preachers, their widows and orphans. This denomination had early been very zealous in the planting and support of missions both domestic and foreign. These local and unmethodical efforts were suc- ceeded in 1818 by the " General Wesleyan Mis- sionary Society," by which its entire mission- ary operations were consolidated under a regu- lar board of managers. The amount disbursed in 1873 was about 175,000. It supports mis- sions in every quarter of the globe. The dis- tribution of books and tracts by the preachers in their circuits was early insisted on by Wesley. In 1782 he and Coke instituted the "Society for the Distribution of Eeligious Tracts among the Poor." To supply the needs of the people "Wesley early had a book store and printing house of his own, which has developed into the Wesleyan book concern, one of the largest publishing houses in England, whose interests are supervised by a book steward and two edi- tors. These have also the general oversight of the official periodicals of the denomination. The originators of Methodism early gave at- tention to education. In 1739 Whitefield laid the corner stone of a charity school at Kings- wood for the neglected miners, which was afterward completed by Wesley. It also be- came the anxious inquiry at the conferences, Can we have a seminary for laborers? Its school fund was designed for the education of preachers' children at Kingswood, and after- ward at Wood House Grove and New Kings- wood. In 1837 the Wesley ans formed the "Wesleyan Education Committee," and they have since manifested great interest in educa- tional matters. They have under their control a "Proprietary College" at. Sheffield, and a collegiate institution at Taunton, both standing in collegiate relations to London university ; a college at Belfast, Ireland; and two theological schools situated respectively at Didsbury and Kichmond. They also support an extensive sys- tem of day schools, amounting in 1871 to 889 schools and 150,765 scholars, for which teach- ers are trained at the Wesleyan normal school in Westminster. The statistics for 1873-'4 of the British Wesleyan church, including Great Britain, the Irish, French, and Australasian conferences, and the foreign missions, are : members, 507,107; on trial, 32,361 ; travelling preachers, 1,917; Sunday schools, 7,032; schol- ars, 261,740. 2. Calmnistic Methodists. This branch of the original revival movement arose from a diversity of view between Wesley and Whitefield on doctrinal points, the former ad- vocating the Arminian theology and the lat- ter the Calvinistic. Aided by his patron, the countess of Huntingdon, Whitefield first erect- ed the celebrated "Tabernacle" near the site of Wesley's "Foundery" in London, and was instrumental in building churches in various parts of the United Kingdom. This branch of Methodism divided into three sects, the "Lady Huntingdon Connection," the " Whitefield Methodists," and the " Welsh Calvinistic Meth- odists." The first of these branches adhered to the liturgy of the established church, and adopted a settled pastorate. Their numbers are limited, yet they still maintain the Ches- hunt college, which was founded by Lady Huntingdon. The Whitefield Methodists have been almost entirely absorbed into the Inde- pendent church. The third branch has been successful in labors especially in Wales and among the Welsh population in America. It numbers about 60,000 communicants in Wales, and 4,000 in America, the latter divided into four annual conferences. 3. The Methodist New Connection originated in 1797. The Wes- leyan body had been agitated by various ques- tions of doctrine and polity. Great uneasiness was felt by numbers of preachers and lay- men because by the "Deed of Declaration" the supreme government had been vested in the clergy. This dissatisfaction manifested it- self in various serious charges made against the ministry by Alexander Kilham, an or- dained travelling preacher. These charges were judged by the conference of 1796 to be slanderous, and after trial Kilham was expelled. He drew after him about 5,000 members. The outlines of a constitution were published by a conference convened in 1798, and these laws and rules have been revised from time to time. The conference is composed of equal numbers of clergy and lay members. It has power to make laws and rules every seven years, but