or to the General Conference who shall be under twenty-five years of age, or who shall not have been a member of the Church in full connection for the five consecutive years preceding the elections.*

T67. The General Conference shall meet on the first day of May, in the year of our Lord 1812, in the City of New York, and thenceforward on the first day of May once in four years perpetually, in such place or places as shall be fixed on by the General Conference from time to time; but the General Superintendents, or a majority of them, by or with the advice of two thirds of all the Annual Conferences, or, if there be no General Superintendent, two thirds of all the Annual Conferences, shall have power to call an extra session of the General Conference at any time, to be constituted in the usual way.

*The Secretaries of the 'several Annual and Electoral Conferences shall send to the Secretary of the last General Conference a certified copy of the election of Delegates and Reserves to the next General Conference, in the order of their election, as soon after the election as practicable, so that a roll of Members and Reserves may be prepared for the opening of the next General Conference.

¶ 68. At all times when the General Conference is met it shall take two thirds of the whole number of Ministerial and Lay Delegates to form a quorum for transacting business.

169. The Ministerial and Lay Delegates shall sit and deliberate together as one body, but they shall vote separately whenever such separate vote shall be demanded by one third of either order; and in such cases the concurrent vote of both orders shall be necessary to complete an action.

¶ 70. One of the General Superintendents shall preside in the General Conference; but in case no General Superintendent be present, the General Conference shall choose a president pro tem.

171. The General Conference shall have full powers to make rules and regulations for our Church, under the following limitations and restrictions, namely:

§ 1. The General Conference shall not revoke, alter, or change our Articles of Religion, nor establish any new standards or rules of doctrine contrary to our present existing and established standards of doctrine.

§ 2. They shall not allow of more than

one Ministerial Representative for every fourteen members of the Annual Conference, nor allow of a less number than one for every forty-five, nor more than two Lay Delegates for any Annual Conference; provided, nevertheless, that when there shall be in any Annual Conference a fraction of two thirds the number which shall be fixed for the ratio of representation, such Annual Conference shall be entitled to an additional Delegate for such fraction; and provided, also, that no Conference shall be denied the privilege of one Delegate.

§ 3. They shall not change or alter any part or rule of our government, so as to do away Episcopacy, or destroy the plan of our itinerant General Superintendency; but may appoint a Missionary Bishop or Superintendent for any of our foreign missions, limiting his jurisdiction to the same respectively.

§ 4. They shall not revoke or change the General Rules of the United Societies.

§ 5. They shall not do away the privi leges of our ministers or preachers, of trial by a Committee, and of an appeal; neither shall they do away the privi leges of our members, of trial before the

Society, or by a Committee, and of an appeal.

§ 6. They shall not appropriate the produce of the Book Concern, nor of the Charter Fund, to any purpose other than for the benefit of the traveling, supernumerary, superannuated, and wornout preachers, their wives, widows, and children.

T72. Provided, nevertheless, that upon the concurrent recommendation of three fourths of all the members of the several Annual Conferences who shall be present and vote on such recommendation, then a majority of two thirds of the General Conference succeeding shall suffice to alter any of the above restrictions, excepting the First Article; and also, whenever such alteration or alterations shall have been first recommended by two thirds of the General Conference, so soon as three fourths of the members of all the Annual Conferences shall have concurred as aforesaid, such alteration or alterations shall take effect.

The Annual Conferences.

¶ 73. There are now ninety-four Ananal Conferences in the year, and these shall severally become bodies corporate, wherever practicable, under the authority of the laws of the States and Territories within whose bounds they are located.

¶ 74. All the Traveling Preachers, both those who are in full connection and those who are on trial, shall attend the Annual Conferences.

¶ 75. The Bishops shall appoint the times of holding the Annual Conferences; but they shall allow each Annual Conference to sit a week at least.

T76. Each Annual Conference shall appoint the place of its own sitting; but should it become necessary, from any unforeseen cause, to change the place of its sitting after it has been fixed by the Conference, the Preacher or Preachers in Charge in the place where the Conference was to have been held, and the Presiding Elder of the District, shall have power to make such change. But this authority shall not be exercised without first consulting the other Presiding Elders of the Conference so far as practicable.