The parent society was known for some time as the Sacramentarians, because the preachers had voted them-
WESLEYAN CONF., IRISH 927 WESLEYAN CONF., IRISH
selves to the prLvilege of administering the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper — a privilege they ought to have had from the lirst. Tiie vote carried with it an immense amount of pecuniary loss and hard- ship. During the four years of tlie struggle (181-1-18), an annual decrease of members was reported, and in 1817 no less than 7500 retired ; but in 1819 they had an increase of over 3500, and the Separatists had an in- crease of over -4000, so that neither party could com- plain of apparent want of success. The greatest hinder- ance to prosperity was the continued emigration from Ireland to America, by which for many years the so- ciety lost not less than a thousand members annually. The yearly visits as presidents of their Conference of such preachers as Dr. Adam Clarke, Richard Keece, Richard Watson, Dr. Bunting, Robert Newton, and oth- er leading ministers from England, greatly encouraged the patient toilers. Their financial privations were very great; but they labored most energetically, though it was up-hill work all the way; yet in 1839, the centena- ry year, they numbered over 150 preachers and more than 26.000 members. During the same year they con- tributed £1-1,500 to the Centenary Fund. That liberal- it}' in their poverty was marvellous, and shows the spir- it of self-denial which animated them all. In addition to all this effort, they established schools in Dublin, Cork, and Belfast, and, aided by the muniticent contri- butions of American Methodists, they built and estab- lished a Methodist College at Belfast. The AVesleyan Connectional School in Dublin, opened in 1845, was to secure to Methodists in the South a high-class educa- tion. The college in Belfast, opened in August, 1868, combines both a public-school and college. In the for- mer, boys are prepared for a collegiate course of train- ing; and in the college two classes of students are re- ceived— one consisting of candidates for the ministry, the other those intended for commercial pursuits. Un- dergraduates of the Queen's University also attend its classes of instruction.
There have been heroic men in their ranks, who have fought and labored with marvellous zeal and energy, Charles (iraham was a gray-headed veteran of seventy- four years, who died in triumph in April, 1824. Will- iam Hamilton broke down in 1816, but he ceased not to labor until October, 1843, when he closed a ministerial career of lifty-six years, aged eighty -two. Gideon Ouseley was abroad preaching out-of-doors at seventy- four, active as ever, and delivering twenty sermons in the week. He died a victor's death, in Dublin, May 14, 1839, aged seventy-eight. To these may be added Richard Boardman, James Morgan, Andrew Blair, James M'MuUen, John M'Adara, Thomas Barber (who sent Adam Clarke into the ministry), Lanktree, Tobias, Stewart, Waugh, and others. Besides these, how many Methodists from Ireland have entered the ministry both in England and America — such men as Henry Moore, Adam Clarke, William Thompson, Walter GrilHth, and William Arthur, all of whom were presidents of both the English and the Irish Conference, and the transplant- ing of whom impoverished the Church which reared them ! Think also of the ministers from Ireland now ia America! But these we have not si^ace to name. Irish Methodists have helped to found their denomina- tion in America, Canada, Australia, Africa, and India; and while thus helping others everywhere with their best men, they were left to struggle on, in their own land, with but little help from any but themselves. Irish Methodists have a roll of honor which will never 1)0 surpassed in the Church militant; and in the Church triumphant none will receive greater commendation than those whose names have just been given, and hundreds of others who were their colaborers and joint sufferers. Rev. William Crook, D.D., has a copious history of Irish Methodism nearly ready for publication.
In 1877, as a preparation for the union with the Irish Primitive Wesleyans, the Irish Methodist Conference first admitted laymen to participate with the ministers
in the Annual Conference. This act of grace was done in Ireland one year before it was adopted by the Eng- lish Conference. In 1878 the Primitive Wesleyan Con- ference came in a body to the Conference of the parent society, and both united to form one community, after having had a separate existence for just sixty years. The highest number of members the Irish Conference ever had at one time was in the year 1814, when the agitation commenced for the sacraments. That year the membership was 29,388. The year 1818, when the separation took place, they were reduced to 19,052. The society never fidly rallied from the shock that di- vision caused. In 1844, when in their divided state, the parent society numbered 28,409 ; but having to struggle against the continued drain arising from emigration, when the two societies were united in 1878, they only reached a total of 25,487 members, and at the present time they are below that number. A careful examina- tion of the statistics of the body will enable the reader to understand the difficulty of the preachers in laboring against such varied discouraging forces. The disrup- tion which took place in England in 1849 reached Ire- land in its paralyzing influence, and the Irish Confer- ence, which in 1849 had«a membership of 22,000, in 1855 had been reduced to a little over 18,000. The highest number of members reported by the Irish Conference during the thirty years following 1849 was only 23,500 in the year 1861. 11. /Stallstics. —