reported at the annual meeting that j-ear in support of the foreign missions being i!105,498, while the expen- diture of ilic year was £190,080.
A Committee of Privileges was appointed by the Conference of 1803, which then consisted of ten of the principal preachers and laymen in Methodism. Its ori- gin dates from the threatened invasion of England by Bonaparte in 1802, when an act was passed in Parlia- ment to raise a regular corps of militia. This iiichuled some Methodists; and a clause was introduced to ex- empt the Methodists from drill on the Sabbath. Tlie Committee of Privileges was at first intended to act in defence of those rights. Its scope and numbers were enlarged in 1811, when the committee was appointed to have the direction of any lawsuit which in anv way re- lated to the Methodist Connection. Circuit collections were ordered to be made to meet the outlay which might occur in consequence of such legal proceedings. In 1853 the committee was established on a broader and more permanent basis, so as to include any legal contingency which might arise. It is now divided into two parts, one for guarding our privileges, the other for cases of exigency.
The Conference of 1804 resolved that any itinerant preacher who carried on any trade should, on proof thereof, be excluded from the " Itinerant Plan," and for- feit his connection with the ministry. This regulation excluded from the ministry the Eev. Thomas Kankin, one of the most respected and most prominent of Mr. Wesley's preachers, who, seeing that the allowance made to supernumerary preachers was wholly inadequate to their support, preferred to enter into business and be- come a coal-merchant rather than impoverish a fund already overtaxed. That act excluded him from the ministry, and at his death he had no record in the Min- vtcs of Conference. An interesting memoir of him was printed in the Methodist Magazine.
A series of nine new minutes were agreed to by the Conference of 1807, the fifth of which was to the effect that camp-meetings may be allowable in America, but they are highly improper in England; and the Con- ference disclaimed all connection with them. Some of the earnest Methodists in Staffordshire were of opinion that if camp -meetings were good for America, they were equally good for England; accordingly, at Mow Coss, in that county, camp-meetings were held ; and for taking part in them William Clowes, Hugh Bourne, and other JMethodists were deemed unworthy of mem- bersliip; and on being excluded, several of them united in forming the Primitive jNIethodist Connection in 1810, which has since become the most prosperous and most numerous offshoot from the parent society. Its mem- bers in 1880 numbered 190,800.
The first INIethodist missionary was sent to Africa in the year 1811. Some JMethodists had settled in the colony of Sierra Leone about the j-ear 1792. Early in this century a colored man, named Mingo Jorilan, preached to the people, gathered a society, and wrote to Dr. Coke and Dr. Adam Clarke, asking for help. The Conference of 1811 sent out George Warren as the first missionary to that colony.
Some Methodists, having made their way to the col- ony of Australia, formed a class, and found in one of the penal convicts who had become converted the first Methodist preacher in that vast country. The Con- ference of 1812 sent out Samuel Leigh, who laid in Aus- tralia, broad and deep, the foundations of a great ]\Ieth- odist Church, which numbered in 1880 fully 09.000 members.
In 1813 Dr. Coke started with a small band of mis- sionaries to found the Methodist Church in India; and although it has been of slow growth, its branches are rapidly stretching over the continent of India. The work assumed wider proportions, and found many new fields after the Missionary Society was fully organized in 1813-14; since which time the agents of the society have found their wa\' to nearly every country under
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heaven ; and, aided by the American Episcopal Church and the Church South, Methodism is establishing itself in every land.
In October, 1815, what is now Unown as the Cible Christian Society was founded at Lake, near Shebbear, Devonshire, by William O'Bryan. He liad been a very zealous Methodist local preach-er; had visited many places in that country where the Gospel was not preach- ed, and gathered the people together for religious wor- ship. For doing just what !Mr. AVesley had done sev- enty years before, an injudicious Methodist preacher expelled Mr. O'Bryan from their community; and he, not feeling at liberty to discontinue his evangelistic work, gatliered some of his converts into a small society in Devonshire; and in one year their members num- bered more than 500. In the year 1880 their member- ship in England was 21,292; in addition to those in Canada, 7254 ; and Australia, 3G05. Mr. O'Bryan died in America a few years ago at an advanced age. Their membership is largely confined to the west of England, where the society originated.
In 1818, what is known as the Children's Fund was instituted. Previously to that date, each preacher hav- ing a family was allowed £G per annum for each child, which sum was found to be inadetpiate. New arrange- ments were made in 1818 for raising more money, and for the better management of the fund. The al- lowance has been £7 for each child for half a century; but some circuits, by a special effort, make up the sum to £10.