1812. The following sentence added to paragraph 6, of 1808 :-"Each annual conference is authorized to raise a fund, if they judge it proper, and under such regulations as their wisdom may direct, for the relief of the distressed travelling, superannuated, and supernumerary preachers, their wives, widows, and children, as also for missionary purposes."

1816. At the end of paragraph 8, (5,) of 1800, for "to the next conference that shall meet" read "to that conference they judge to be the most necessitous." In paragraph 6, (1812,) after the words "judge it proper," was inserted, "subject to its own control."

1824. The following new paragraph was added :— "8. To defray the expenses of the delegates composing the General Conference, a collection shall be taken up in each circuit and station some time previously to the sitting of the conference, and the sums so collected shall be brought up to the General Conference, and applied to the object herein contemplated in proportion to the expenses of the several delegates."

1832. The following new paragraph inserted :"7. It shall be the duty of each annual conference to take measur1s, from year to year, to raise moneys in every circuit and station within its bounds, for the relief of its necessitous superannuated and supernumerary ministers, widows, and orphans.-And the conference shall annually appoint a committee to estimate the several sums necessary to be allowed for the extra expenses of such necessitous claimants, who shall be paid in proportion to the estimates made and the moneys in hand."

Quest. What advice or direction shall be given concerning the building or renting of dwelling houses for the use of the married travelling preachers?

1800. "Ans. 1. It is recommended by the General Conference to the travelling preachers, to advise our friends in general to purchase a lot of ground in each circuit, and to build a preacher's house thereon, and to furnish it with, at least, heavy furniture, and to settle

the same on trustees appointed by the official members of the quarter meeting, according to the deed of settlement published in our Form of Discipline.

"2. The General Conference recommend to the country circuits, in cases where they are not able to comply with the above request, to rent a house for the married preacher and his family, (when such are stationed upon their circuits respectively,) and that the annual conferences do assist to make up the rents of such houses as far as they can, when the circuit cannot do it."

1816. The following new paragraphs were added, namely:

"3. It shall be the duty of the presiding elders and preachers to use their influence to carry the above rules respecting building and renting houses for the accommodation of preachers and their families into effect. In order to this, each quarterly meeting conference shall appoint a committee, (unless other measures have been adopted,) who, with the advice and aid of the preachers and presiding elders, shall devise such means as may seem fit to raise moneys for that purpose. And it is recommended to the annual conferences to make special inquiry of their members respecting this part of their duty.

"4. Those preachers who refuse to occupy the houses which may be provided for them on the stations and circuits where they are from time to time appointed, shall be allowed nothing for house rent, nor receive any thing more than quarterage for themselves, their wives, and children, and their travelling expenses. Nevertheless, this rule shall not apply to those preachers whose families are either established within the bounds of their circuits, or are so situated that in the judgment of the stewards, or the above-mentioned committee, it is not necessary, for the benefit of the circuit, to remove them.

"5. It shall be the duty of the said committee, or one appointed for that purpose, who shall be members

of our church, to make an estimate of the amount necessary to furnish fuel and table expenses for the family or families of preachers stationed with them, and the stewards shall provide, by such means as they may devise, to meet such expenses, in money or otherwise: provided the stewards shall not appropriate the moneys collected for the regular quarterly allowance of the preachers to the payment of family expenses.

"6. There shall be a meeting in every district, of one steward from each station and circuit, to be selected from among the stewards by the quarterly meeting conference, whose duty it shall be, by and with the advice of the presiding elder, (who shall preside in such meeting,) to take into consideration the general state of the district in regard to temporalities, and to furnish a house, fuel, and table expenses for the presiding elder."

1824. The following new paragraphs were added:

"7. The book agents and the book committee in New-York shall be a committee to estimate the amount necessary to meet the family expenses of the bishops, which shall be annually paid by the book agents out of the funds of the Book Concern.

"8." [A paragraph relating to the appointment of a committee on missions, at each conference, for which, with the subsequent changes in it, see Section 6, On Missions.]

1828. The following added to paragraph 2, (1800):

"The stewards of each circuit and station shall be a standing committee, (where no trustees are constituted for that purpose,) to provide houses for the families of our married preachers, or to assist the preachers to obtain houses for themselves when they are appointed to labour among them."

1832. Paragraph 7, of 1824, struck out, and the part about missions made a separate section. (See Section 6.)

1836. The following clause added to paragraph 6" and to apportion his entire claim among the different circuits and stations in the district according to their several ability."

The following provision made for estimating the allowance of a bishop, in lieu of the one struck out in 832

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"7. Each annual conference, in which a bishop or bishops may reside, shall annually appoint a committee of three or more, whose duty it shall be to estimate the amount necessary to furnish a house, fuel, and table expenses for said bishop or bishops, and that they be authorized to draw on the funds of the Book Concern for said amount."

SECTION VI.

Support of Missions.

This first appears as a separate section in 1832, but provisions on the subject existed before.

1824. The following paragraph was appended to the section on "Raising annual Supplies, &c."

"8. (1.) It shall be the duty of each annual conference, where missionaries are to be employed, to appoint a committee, whose duty it shall be, in conjunction with the president of the conference, to determine on the amount which may be necessary for the support of each missionary, (agreeably to the regulations of the Discipline,) from year to year, for which amount the president of the conference for the time shall have authority to draw on the treasurer of the society in quarterly instalments in behalf of the missions."

:

1828. The following paragraphs added: "(3.) It is recommended that within the bounds of each annual conference there be established a conference missionary society, auxiliary to the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with branches, under such regulations as the conferences respectively shall prescribe. Each conference mis

sionary society shall annually transmit to the corres ponding secretary of the parent society a copy of its annual report, embracing the operations of its branches, and shall also notify the treasurer of the amount col lected in aid of the missionary cause, which amount shall be subject to the order of the treasurer of the parent society.

shall give managers,

"(4.) The treasurer of the parent society, under the direction of the board of information to the bishops annually, or oftener, if the board judge it expedient, of the state of the funds and the sums which may be drawn by them for the missionary purposes contemplated by the constitution. Agreeably to which information the bishops shall have authority to draw upon the treasurer for any sum within the amount designated, which the missionary committee of the annual conferences respectively shall judge necessary for the support of the missionaries and of the mission schools under their care. Provided always, that the sums so allowed for the support of a missionary shall not exceed the usual allowance of other itinerant preachers. The bishops shall always promptly notify the treasurer of all drafts made by them, and shall require regular quarterly communications to be made by each of the missionaries to the corresponding secretary of the parent society, giving information of the state and prospects of the several missions in which they are employed. No one shall be acknowledged a missionary, or receive support out of the funds of the society, who has not some definite field assigned to him, or who could not be an effective labourer on a circuit.

"(5.) In all cases of the appointment of a missionary, the name of such missionary and the district in which he is to labour, together with the probable expenses of the mission, shall be communicated by the bishop or the mission committee of each annual conference to the treasurer of the parent society, that a proper record of the same may be preserved.