belonging to our fellowship whose name is not recorded on the list of some quarterly or annual conference, to which he is amenable, or who does not hold a valid certificate, or legal transfer.

5. No conference shall have power to withhold a testimonial, if the minister or preacher requiring it shall have complied with his engagements, and his moral character stands fair; but neither the conference into which the minister or preacher desires to be received, nor its president, shali be obliged to employ him as an itinerant or missionary, except his labours can be profitably directed.

6. Every minister or preacher received by the president, during the interval of confer ence, shall be subjected to a vote of the conference before his name can be printed in the minutes as a stationed minister or preacher, except in cases of transfer.

7. Itinerant ministers and preachers may be transferred from one district to another, by negotiation between the presidents of said districts; provided the minister or preacher consent to the transfer; and provided the instrument have the signature of both the negotiating presidents; and provided also that it be presented to the annual conference to which the minister or preacher is to be transferred, before it shall have closed its session, next following the date of the transfer; otherwise it shall not be valid. All acts of transfer, thus

made, shall be valid, and above the control of the annual conferences.

8. Ministers and preachers coming from other denominations may be received by the conference, without their having the recom mendation required in other cases. Any itinerant minister may retire from the service of the conference, and be received back again without a recommendation from the quarterly conference, if he make the application within three years.

9. No minister or preacher, who shall have been rejected by an annual conference, shall be employed by its president, unless the conference grant him permission under specified conditions.

10. Every preacher shall be eligible to deacon's orders, after he shall have preached two years under a license, and shall have arrived at the age of twenty-one years.

11. Every deacon shall be eligible to elder's orders, when he shall have exercised the office of deacon acceptably two years.

12. In cases of missions and similar necessities, preachers may be elected to deacon's orders, and deacons to elder's orders, without regard to time, provided they possess the requisite qualifications.

13. No person shall be elected to orders, except he be a man of unexceptionable moral character, genuine piety, respectable attainments, and sound in the belief of the funda

mental doctrines of christianity, and faithful in the discharge of gospel duties.

14. The deacons shall have authority to preach the gospel of Christ, to baptize, and celebrate matrimony, and to assist the elder in administering the Lord's supper.

15. The elders shall have authority to administer the Lord's supper, baptize, celebrate matrimony, and perform all parts of divine worship.

16. Ordination shall be performed by the president, assisted by two or more other elders.

17. Every person who appeals to the annual conference, from the decision of a committee of trial, shall be permitted to appear before the conference; and after all the documents, belonging to the trial had before the committee, shall have been read, shall state the reasons of his appeal. His accuser shall then be permitted to support his charges in the presence of the appellant. The appellant may in turn. make his reply, which shall close the proceedings on both sides, except the conference grant the accuser permission to speak a second time. The appellant and accuse shall then retire, and the conference shall decide, and furnish the appellant with a copy of their decision. Provided, that in all cases of appeal, the tribu nal to which the appeal is made, shall not enter into the merits of the cause, (except at the request of the appellant) but only to decide on the legality of the proceedings of the committee of trial, and either confirm or reverse the same; if reversed, the cause shall be remanded for

trial. In any case, however, where the appellant can show sufficient cause why he should have a new trial before a committee, the conference shall grant it, with the privilege of an appeal.

18. No station or circuit shall be divided, unless each part have ability to support one or more preachers, and the delegate or delegates from the circuit or station request the division.

19. In stationing the ministers and preachers, the annual conference shall not be obliged to give an appointment to any man, who in the opinion of a majority of the members, is incompetent to the duties thereof, or who, they may believe, will neglect the appointment.

20. No minister or preacher, appointed to a circuit or station, shall cease from the labour assigned him by the stationing authority, until his term of service shall have expired, except by consent of the president, for reasons by him deemed sufficient.

21. The annual conferences, respectively, shall elect annually, a standing district committee of three elders, one of whom shall be an unstationed minister, and three laymen, whose duty it shall be, in the event of the death, resignation, or suspension of the presi dent, to appoint a president pro tem. to serve until the sitting of the next annual conference.

Should charges be preferred against the president of an annual conference, the committee shall call upon one of the superintendents of the district to perform the official notifications, and to act as executive officer in the

trial, in accordance with the rule provided for the trial of ministers.

22. It shall be the duty of each itinerant minister and preacher, to furnish annually to the steward of the conference of which he is a member, a certificate from the station or circuit steward, showing the amount of money or other articles he has received, as compensation, the preceding year.

23. Each annual conference shall publish its minutes, containing, 1. A list of all the appointments for the ensuing year. 2. A complete list of all the stationed and unstationed ministers and preachers within the district, and those who are superannuated. 3. The names of those ministers and preachers who have deceased, withdrawn, or been expelled. 4. The general exhibit of the conference steward. 5. The number of members, including ministers and preachers. 6. The time and place of holding the next annual conference; and such other information as may be deemed acceptable and serviceable to the community.

24. It shall be the duty of the respective annual conferences, to forward to the editor of the Methodist Protestant, post paid, such extracts from their minutes, annually, as they may deem proper for publication.

25. A public collection shall be made on the first Sabbath of the conference, in all the houses of worship belonging to the station where the conference is held, for the purpose of defraying the incidental expenses of the conference.¡