7. The Primitivi. Mi i srs of Irelaxd. This
body of Primitive 31ei hodi-is is cif later origin than that of England, and is eniin ly imU pendent of the other or- ganization of like name. The Primitiue Methodists of Ireland date from 1810. The English Conference in 1 795 granted to the members the privilege of receiving from their own ministers, under certain guards and restric- tions, the sacraments. The Irish Conference thereupon, in the following j'ear, came to the conclusion that among them "it was not expedient;" but in 1810, after the subject had been freely discussed by the people, and numerous petitions asking that it might be adminis- tered were brought before the Conference, the request was granted by a majority of sixty-two against twenty- six. The minority, with the Ifev. Adam Averell, one of their most influential ministers, at their head, sepa- rated, and took with them about ten thousand members, fidl one third of the whole. (It is worthy of remark that the .secession in 1797 [see 3] Avas the result of the «o«-com|diance of the English Conference with the wishes of the people to have the sacrament from their own ministers.) The oidy ditTerence between the Irish Primitive IMethodists and the Wesleyans remains to this day the liberty of members in the former body to partake of the sacraments in the churches. The preach- ers are regarded simply as laymen, because of the failure of this secession among them. The leal lay members, however, have also a voice in the government of the societies.' In 18G1 the Irish Primitive Methodists num- bered 14,247 members. See Primitive Methodists.
8. The United Methodist Free Chirch is a union, recently formed, of three different divisions of seceders from Wesleyan Methodism.
(«) The PiJorESTANT Methodists, who organized into a distinct body in 1828, then coiniting 28 local preachers, .50 leaders, and ujiwards of 1000 members, se- ceders from the Leeds societies, because of the opposi- tion to the introduction of an organ.
{b) The Wesi.evan JIethodist Association, which was organized in 1835, under the leadership of Samuel Warren, one of the opponents (in 1834) to the i)rop<)sed establishment of a theological institution, to be presided over by Dr. Jabez Punting. The Leeds seceders joined the Associationists in 1828; both amalgamated with the Free Methodists in 1857. See United Methodist Free Chukcii.
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METHODISM
(c) The Rkformers, who were organized into a body in 1849. At the Manchester Conference held in that vear, six members, suspected of private intrigue with members of the Wesleyan IMethodist Association (see h), were placed at the bar, without having received any regular notice of the charges to be preferred against them, as required by the standing laws and usages of the connection, and without a trial, without any evi- dence that they had violated any law, human or divine, three of them were reprimanded and three were ex- pelled. The act excited the astonishment of the na- tion, convulsed the connection, and led to the loss of one hundred thousand members. Many of them, after a while, for want of ministers and suitable places of wor- ship, returned to the old body, but others formed them- selves into a distinctive body styled the Reformed Methodists. These amalgamated bodies differ from the " parent" body only in Church government and usages. One of their professed objects is the reformation of the body from which they are separated. Their annual as- sembly admits lay representatives, circuits with less than 500 n^embers sending one; less than 1000, two; and more than 1000, three delegates. Each circuit governs itself by its local courts, without any interference as to the management of its internal affairs. At their Annual Assembly, held at Bristol, England, in August, 1872, they reported 66,907 members.
9. The Wesleyan Kefokm Union is a body com- posed of those of the seceders of 1849 (see 7 [c]) who refused to amalgamate with the United Methodist Free Church. In 1868 it mtmbered nearly a thousand Church members.
The above comprise all the Methodist branches now existing in Great Britain and Ireland. Some others have occasionally sprung up, such as the Tent Method- ists, the Independent Methodists, etc., but they are now either extinct or incorporated with other churches.
10. In the United States, the main IkkIv dl' Wesley's followers are incorporated in theMETiiooisr IIi'iscoi'Al Chukch, which was formally organiztnl in 17iS4. Pre- vious to that time local preachers from England, prom- inent among whom were Philip Embury and an officer in the British army by the name of Webb, had preach- ed in New York and other places, and organized so- cieties on the English model. In 17G9 the first regular itinerant Methodist preachers, Boardman and Pilmoor, were sent over by Mr. Wesley. The former took his station in New York, the latter in Philadelphia — occa- sionally changing with each other, and often making short excursions into the country. They were verj' suc- cessful in their labors ; and, by their instrumentality, not only were multitudes converted, but quite a number of lay preachers were received and employed. At the English Wesleyan Conference of 1771, Francis Asbury antl Richard Wright volunteered to come to America as missionaries. They landed in Philadelphia in the month of October of that year, and were received by the societies with great cordiality. In the year 1773 two additional missionaries, Raidiin and Shadford, were sent over, and the first American " Conference" was held at Philadelphia in July of that year. The number of members in the society was stated to be IIGO; and res- olutions were adopted recommending continued conform- ity to the discipline and doctrines of the English Meth- odists. From that time, all through the stormy sea- son of the Revolutionary War, success seems to have attended their efforts, so that, at the Conference of 1784, there were reported to be about 15,000 members in the connection. In this year Wesley, for the first time, per- formed the solemn rite of ordination by setting apart two men as elders for the Hock in America, and by consecrating to the episcopal office Dr. Thomas Coke, at that time a presbyter in the Church of England. The doctor and liis two associates immediately thereafter saileil for America, and were present at the Conference in Baltimore, at which the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized. The first act of that Conference was