The times., 1899-10-04

honor, the Pam presbyterian Council held
sessions yesterday afternoon and evening.
The sessions were lively and full o, in
terest. and especially in the afternoon,
when quite a breezy parliamentary sk.r-
mish took place with reference to resolu-
tions touching the Transvaal difficu ty, and
proposing that the council use its infiu-
ence to have England submit the subject
to arbitration. new president for the
Alliance was chosen at this meeting, the
honor falling on the Rev. William Caven,
D. D., Ii. D.. Principal of Knox Co-ege,
Toronto, Canada. There was 70 opposi-
tion to his election, as no other candidate
came before the council Governor Tyler, OF
Virginia, being present at the afternoon
meeting, was asked to take seat of honor
on the platform, and in response 10 re-
quest, made a brief address to the dele
gates.
The evening session win be held a half
hour earlier tonight to permit the dele
gates TO attend reception to be given in
their honor by the Rev. DR.. Talmage, at
$50 this evening The report of the busi-
ness committee was the first order when
the council came together at O'Clock
yesterday, and the various matters thus
brought 10 the attention Of the meeting
consumed great part of the afternoon
session When the name of DR.. Cayen
was announced as the choice of this COM
mittee for president of the alliance for
| the next term, by Chairman Kerr, was
seconded both by the Rev. DR.. Lang, the
present president. and by the American
secretary Rev DR.. Roberts, in brief
speeches full Of praise for the Canadian
divine.
Disturbing Resolution offered. (
At this juncture the sensation of the
! day was sprung unexpectedly by the Rev.
c. cort, of Maryland, who broke into the
proceedings, and asked permission to have
resolution referred to the business COM
mittee. He did not wait for permission,
but mounted the platform and read the
resolution. It was prefaced by the state
ment that at the meeting of the council
three years ago in Glasgow, a resolution
declaring that war was 10 be deplored and
that the alliance was heartily in favor
OF settling difficulties between nations by
arbitration had been adopted by the coun-
Gil The present resolution then referred
to the trouble between Great Britain and
the Transvaal Republic, and resolved that
the alliance use ali its influence to have
the difficulty settled by international ar
bitration The resolution was received by
cries OF NO, MOI" from all parts of the
house. At the same time cries of approval
were also heard, and it was at once evil
dent that a division had been reached
President Lang took the floor at once
and deprecated the introduction of the
resolution in its present form. He was
willing TO accept resolution express
ing the general sentiment of the
council in favor of arbitration, but in
sisted that specific mention of the Trans
vaal should not be made. His sentiments
were greeted with distinctively English
form of approval by cries Of Hear! Hear"
with heartiness that showed there was
gcodly number present who We're in ac-
cord with his ideas.
Rev. DR.. Stewart tried to get rid of the
resolution on the ground of parliamentary
prestige. He said that in the first place il
had received no second and that if it had
it was clearly out OF order, as Ii savored Of
politics. and it was distinctively not the
province of the council TO consider such
topics. DR.. Stewart said further that the
general topic OF arbitration Was TO be the
order of the day for Thursday morning.
and that the resolution might properly be
laid aside without reference to the busi-
ness committee until that time
Supported by Canadian.
AS soon as the floor was yielded by DR..
Stewart il was taken by the Rev. DR.. john
son. of Canada, who stated at the outset
that he rose to second the resolution, that
it might go to the business committee. He
saw nothing invidious in the fact that the
two nations now in difficulty were men
toned by name. and he thought it was
highly proper to call the attention of both
to the growing spirit in favor of arbitra-
ton. The resolution was not to be taken,
he said. as being particularly addressed to
England; il was equally applicable 10 the
Transvaal Government. He concluded by
saying he took pleasure in seconding the
resolution.
Dr. Kerr, OF Richmond, Va, moved to
| strike out the latter part OF the resolution.
Dr. Mathews explained that if the resp
| luton went 10 the business comm lttee ii
could there be changed, but DR.. Kerr in
sisted that the alliance should not give the
resolution even the endorsement of send
! ing it to the committee in its present form
| BY this time half OF the council was on its
| feet trying to get recognized by the chair,
/ and il was evident that the more the mat
ter was discussed the further away would
be the solution. Some one suggested that
/ The whole proceedings were out of order;
/ that il Was the proper thing to refer the
resolution 10 the business committee with
cut its being read, and that the council
should treat il as if its contents were not
known. The British delegates would not
| consent to this. and made that fact known
| by vigorous cries of protest. At this june
| turc the mover OF the resolution added fuel
! TO the flame by insisting that the reso-
lution should be read again. This WAS not
TO be thought of. DR.. Cort was quickly
silenced and sent 10 his seat.
| The chair then summed up the situation
! He had three motions before him. First
] TO send the resolution to the business
committee; second, to strike out the last
paragraph. and third that the subject be
rot considered at all until the matter of
arbitration was before the council on
| Thursday morning. The mover of the see
ond motion then withdrew in favor o. the
third. and vote was demanded on the
first and last propositions.
Decided by the Chairman9s Vote.
The parliamentary procedure which fol-
lowed was very amusing to the American
delegates Those who favored the first
motion were asked to say AYE" and the
response was hearty enough to show that
there were many in the room who were
in favoring OF having the resolution go to
the committee Without asking for the
negative vote on this motion. the chair
man asked for the affirmative vote on the
proposition TO drop the resolution BY the
response. which seemed about equal in
volume TO the first, the chairman was un-
able TO decide, and SO stated. This re-
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