1. Wesleyan Methodist John Wesley dominated in absolute fashion the or ganization he had created, until the success of the American Revolution compelled recognition of the independence of the societies in the United States and in England, as long as he lived. He held both property and patrortage; but in anticipation of his death (1791), he pre pared a "Deed of which consti tuted 100 preachers, selected by himself, a Legal Conference to hold the Church property and provide for the annual appointment of the preachers. Thus was distributed the large powers which he had held in his own hands and which he was apparently unwilling to trust to to any individual as his successor.
The first Wesleyan Methodist Conferne was held in 1744, when Wesley counseled we his preachers and a few clergymen who faire'. his work, and rules were adopted for the fit of of the societies and the preachers. Later.c separate conferences were held in Irebad which Wesley had first visited in 1747, and America, in 1773, whither two preachers b' been sent in 1769. In 1770 there were were: of 29,000 members and probationers in the En ish societies, and at the time of Wesley's dui_ 71,568. This success had not been atm: without a great deal of hard labor, in whn Wesley himself was the chief, continually car ding, preaching at all hours of the day ani night, and enduring besides the natural r1.- comforts of his journeys and exposures. obi qny, abuse and even mob and individual re lence.
After his death the Conference was at &1,1 on the question of the administration of the or laments. At its session in 1792, it proifilet: them, removing the prohibition in 1793 and se sequently providing for them, and later still the ordination of ministers. In the 19th n tury, Home and Foreign Missionary were formed and other denominational com prises instituted. There are two colleges, We ley, at Sheffield, and Queen's, at Taunton, a theological college in four places. Lay rem- hers were admitted to the Conference in lhr Beside the annual Conference in England thr are conferences in Ireland, France and Ser-..! Africa. The Church has in Great Britv (1917) nearly 492,000 members and prehm.;33 ers, and in other conferences and its forei.7 missions, 361,398; in all, 853,398. Methoch= intensely missionary in its spirit, by whit has been carried to the ends of the earth. ley's first missionaries were sent to the kr,r ican colonies and next to the West Missians in Africa and Ceylon were be-m 1811 and 1813, respectively. Now the mist ' of the Methodist bodies of Great Britain.17
land and Australasia are in all the confine-, some of the earlier and most notable suceet being in Fiji and other South Sea islands, fir which savagery was banished long ago. various Methodist bodies reported to the F.: menical Methodist Conference in 1911 an 1r gregate of $2,540,000 in income for forces missions which are in the countries of Erare. Asia, Africa, South America and the IV: Indies.
2. Primitive Methodist of this body in 1810 was due to the tion by the Wesleyan Conference of meetings which Lorenzo Dow, an Amer.J preacher, had introduced in England, and • exclusion of Hugh Bourne and other for promoting them. The Primitive Church the largest of the branches which have rated from the original body, having 205,217 members. It gives a large place to men hi its government. Hartley College. Ni.;: chester, belongs to it.
3. United Methodist The ro of a union of the Methodist New C,oarmee formed in 17% by Alexander Kilham, who excluded from the Conference for detenare opposition to what he called the despotism the Conference; the Bible Christians, formed in 1810 by William O'Bryan (who had been ex cluded as a layman) to give more power and opportunity to laymen; and the United Method ist Free Churches, which was itself an organ ization into which had been merged (1857) sev eral bodies known as •Protestant Methodists,' 'Wesleyan Methodist Association,* °Wesleyan Reformers' and others, all arising out of dis ciplinary processes by the original body. The Church resulting from the union of 1907 num bered, in 1917, 182,624 members.
4. Wesleyan Reform Union.—A small body of 8,770 members, continuing the organ ization which refused to enter the union of 1857.
5. Independent Methodist Churches.— There are 146 of these churches, which are con gregational, or independent, with 391 ministers and 9,298 members.
These four bodies have in all 405,949 mem bers. Adding the 853,398 Wesleyan Methodists gives a grand total of 1,259,307 members for the British group, with 6,263 ministers and 16,955 churches. The British group, together with the Australasian, constitutes the Eastern Section of the Ecumenical Methodist Conference, the Western Section consisting of the American churches and the Methodist Church of Japan, which was organized of mission churches of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Church of Canada and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Conference meets decen nially and is represented in the intervals by an Ecumenical Commission.