Force, and Marine. The Governor General at Boma is Théodore Wahis.

Area and Population.-The area of the territories of the Congo State is estimated from 870,000 to 900,000 square miles, and the population from 14,000,000 to 30,000,000. The number of whites at the end of 1895 was 1,325, of whom 839 were Belgians, 88 English, 79 Swedes and Norwegians, 42 French, 49 Italians, 45 Americans, 39 Dutch, 21 Germans, 12 Danes, and 7 Swiss, Austrians, and Spaniards.

Finances.-The revenue for 1896 was estimated at 7,002,735 francs, of which 2,000,000 francs were advanced from the Belgian treasury, 1,000,000 francs contributed by the sovereign. 1,720,200 francs collected from customs, 40,800 francs obtained from sales and leases of land, 1,200,000 produced from domains and tribute and imposts paid in kind, and 1,041,735 francs received from various sources. The expenditures were estimated at 8,236,300 francs, of which 231,000 francs were for the central administration in Europe, 1,047,120 francs for administration in Africa, 4,820,793 francs for the public force, 526,758 francs for the marine, 614,437 francs for public works, 339,040 francs for agriculture, and 657,152 francs for various expenses. The revenue and expenditure for 1897 was estimated at 10,500,000 francs. The King gives the same contribution each year from his private purse, and the Belgian Government has been authorized to advance the sum of 2,000,000 francs annually till 1900.

The revenue for 1897 was 9,369,000 francs, of which 3,500,000 francs came from ivory and rubber, 2,000,000 francs from customs duties, 2,000,000 franes were advanced by the Belgian Government, 1,000,000 francs were contributed by the King, and 869,000 francs were miscellaneous receipts. The expenditures amounted to 10,141,800 francs, of which war and police absorbed nearly half, administration 1,538,000 francs, marine 941,000 francs, end public works 684,000 francs.

Public Force and Marine.-The armed force of the Free State is composed of native soldiers commanded by 172 European offiers and 172 sergeants. The effective force for 1896 was fixed at 6,120 men, of whom 4,000 were recruited within the State.

The Government has 6 steamers plying on the lower Congo from the mouth to Matadi, and 14 on the upper Congo.

Commerce and Production.-The chief exportable products are palm oil, palm nuts, caoutchouc, ivory, orchilla weed, gum copal, ground nuts, and camwood. The imports are cotton goods, firearms, gunpowder, tobacco, and, within a limited territory, spirits. The general imports for 1895 were valued at 11,836,033 francs, against 11,854,021 franes in 1894, and the general exports at 12,135,656 franes, against 11,031,704 francs. The export of ivory in 1895 was 5,844,640 francs in value; caoutchouc, 2,882,585 francs; palm oil, 1,037,000 francs; palm nuts, 1,331,000 francs; coffee, 159,000 franes. Tobacco is grown by the natives in their villages, and plantations have been established by the Government. The cultivation of coffee has been introduced on the upper Congo. The trade is chiefly with Belgium, Great Britain, and Holland. Belgian imports in 1895 were valued at 6,099.958 francs, and exports to Belgium at 8,999,660 franes; imports from the Netherlands at 1,548,000 francs, and exports to the Netherlands at 885,000 franes; imports from Great Britain at 2.312.000 francs, and exports to Great Britain at 593,000 franes; imports from Germany at 920,000 francs, and exports to Germany at 218,000 francs; imports from the French Congo at 2,000 francs, and exports to the French Congo at 251,000 francs; imports

from the Portuguese possessions at 252,000 francs, and exports to Portuguese possessions at 1,189,000 francs; imports from other countries at 702,000 francs. In 1895 the number of vessels that visited Banana and Boma was 571, of 253,011 tons. The imports in 1896 amounted to 16,000,000 francs, and the exports to 15,000,000 francs. Cotton stuffs and other manufactures come almost entirely from Belgium. Only 5,000,000 francs of the import and an equal amount of the export trade was with foreign countries. The spirit trade has decreased, and in 1896 formed only 1:37 per cent. of the entire value of the commerce. The sale of alcohol is forbidden throughout the State except on the lower Congo, and there it is subjected to the maximum tariff authorized by the act of Brussels. The laborious caravan route from Matadi to Stanley Pool is shortened one half by the railroad, and in 1899 the line will be completed. There were 7,000 men employed on the works in 1897, natives of Sierra Leone and other British West African colonies and of Senegal. In 1897 a decrease was noticed in the export trade, but there was a considerable increase in imports, representing chiefly expenditure by the Government, the religious missions, and the railroad company.

The Congo post office in 1895 forwarded 54,382 internal and 173,564 international letters.

Treatment of the Natives.-From the statements of missionary accusers of the Congo administration it appears that about the middle of 1893 forced labor was imposed on the natives, and this was attended with most inhuman practices. Soldiers are accustomed to shoot or mutilate any native who refuses to gather rubber. The State is said to still be engaged itself in the slave trade and to receive war indemnities in slaves. Prisoners captured in war are carried off to be trained as soldiers and to cultivate the property round the stations. Native armed sentinels, chosen from the wildest tribes, are placed in the towns to force the people to bring in rubber. In one district on the upper Congo, near Equatorville, 45 villages were burned by the black soldiery. Missionaries saw soldiers going to attack the village of Bompanga near Bolengi, their station, and heard the shots by which more than 20 people were killed, three quarters of their number women and children, and they saw the right hands of the killed taken back in a basket, for it is the practice to preserve the hands of such victims with smoke and return these trophies to the authorities to prove that the soldiers have not wasted their cartridges. When missionaries complained to the authorities of the dreadful carnage and devastation perpetrated by the troops in enforcing the collection of rubber, they were put off in most cases with evasions and no investigation was made, the matter being dragged along until the officials could say that it was an old story incapable of being sifted at such a late date. Sometimes, when they were insistent, the missionaries were themselves threatened with trial and penal servitude on the charge of inciting the natives to refuse to pay their tribute of rubber. After Col. Wahis had made a tour of the stations in July, 1896, and had, on asking the missionaries if they had any complaints to make, been informed of the Bompanga affair, which had already been the subject of a slighted investigation by Judge de Lanker, another village of the district, Mandaka Vajiko, was similarly attacked and about 50 were killed, not because the natives refused to pay the tax, but because they were accused of bringing bad rubber, the supply of good rubber not being equal to the demand. It was a common thing to see sentinels carrying baskets of right hands of men, women, and children to the commissary.

Although the charges of the missionaries were passed over and discredited, their publication in Europe spurred the Governor General to more energetic action for the correction of abuses. Some soldiers and traders were punished for cruelty, and some of the worst officials were got rid of. The Congo State encourages the development of missions, both Catholic and Protestant, and the number of missionaries has increased sevenfold since the State was founded, being 223 in 1897, including 108 Protestants. Something has been done to put a stop to connibalism and human sacrifice, which are constituted crimes by one of the decrees of the State. On the Ubangi the traffic in human victims has almost ceased; but on the upper Congo even Baron Dhanis is said to have given out rations of human flesh to his troops, and cannibalism has, according to some observers, been on the increase since Europeans appeared in the Congo basin. Some of the decrees of the State are in direct conflict with the Brussels act, such as the decree announcing the confiscation of all lands in which private property has not been recognized, and the one declaring that all products of domain lands belong to the State. There are, however, regulations leaving the natives in possession of all the land that they can cultivate, and allowing them to settle on vacant lands.

The freedom of navigation and commerce on the Congo has become a fiction since the State established a practical monopoly of rubber and ivory. The Government boasts, in spite of the severe criticism to which it has been subjected, that it has accomplished much for the civilization of Africa, summing up its work in the report for 1897 as follows: "The peril of the slave trade averted, a vast territory entirely opened to progress, centers of civilization springing up everywhere, roads being built, communications rendered cosy and speedy, a railroad in course of completion, a flotilla sailing over all the course of the river and its tributaries, trade developing, missions flourishing, schools being opened, the population protected by justice and getting initiated to cultivation and handicrafts, their material and moral situation improving, Christian villages forming themselves, barbarous practices disappearing-such is the work of ten years." In September, 1896, six missionaries were constituted a commission that was charged with the protection of natives throughout the territory of the State, and authorized to notify to the judicial authorities such acts of violence of which the natives may be the victims as come within their cognizance. The president of the Court of Appeal has since been charged with the duty of making tours of inspection for the special purpose of enforcing the regulations for the proper treatment of the natives.

Military Operations.-The military forces of the Droo State were operating in the early part of the year on the upper Congo and in the le territory leased from Egypt by arrangement with Great Britain. In January the guard stationed at Banzyville, on the Ubangi, fired upon the French administrator from Mobaye, who crossed the river to secure the return of women captured by natives of the Free State. The French returned the fire, and several were wounded on both sides. The administration of the Congo State apologized to the French authorities and promised to punish the offenders.

An expedition under Capt. Chaltin, consisting of 700 soldiers, supplemented by 50 fusileers and 500 lancers under native chiefs, leaving Dungu on Dec. 14, 1896, reached the site of Bedden, on the Nile, two months later, after engaging in some skirmishes with native tribes, and on Feb. 17 attacked 2,000 Mahdists who occupied a strong position. While

the enemy attempted to inclose the Congo State troops with the two flanks, these charged the center and carried a defile and the neighboring heights at the point of the bayonet, whereupon the Mahdists fled in the direction of Rejaf, abandoning their arms, ammunition, and baggage. The Congo troops marched 18 miles the same day, arriving in front of Rejaf, which was held by 4,000 Mahdists, half of whom were Mohammedans from the north armed with breech-loading rifles. After a severe engagement the dervishes were driven from their position and fled northward. They lost several hundred men. The Congo State troops captured 3 guns, 700 breech-loading rifles, an enormous quantity of ammunition, banners, sabers, the town archives, and many herds of domestic animals. Rejaf was found to be the only fortified place in the Equatorial Province, with spacious, well-built houses. Lado had ceased to exist seven years before, and its site was overgrown with vegetation. Vatako, Longomerri, and other stations had also disappeared. The defeated Mahdists made no attempt to recover the country, and were not seen or heard of more. The people were glad to be delivered from their yoke, and made their submission to the Congo State.

Supporting this expedition was a force of 200 Haussas and a small army of Congo natives, stationed at different points on the northeastern frontier to guard against incursions of the Mahdists. Baron Dhanis had brought up this force while Capt. Michaux with 500 picked troops was engaged in stamping out the rebellion of the Batatelas in the south. Mutinous Batatela troops, after organizing their first revolt at Luluaburg in 1895 and suffering defeat at the hands of Major Gillain and Capt. Lothaire in November of that year, succeeded in making their escape toward the south across impenetrable forests. Baron Dhanis organized a column at Kassongo, which was sent in pursuit under Capt. Michaux. This force proceeded southward to Munza, between the Lualaba and the Lomami, and there encountered the rebels on Nov. 11, 1896. After a preliminary skirmish a battle was fought in complete darkness, which ended in the flight and dispersion of the rebels. Capt. Michaux continued the campaign, coming up with the rebels again in January, 1897, when he gave them another severe defeat.

The bulk of the force taken to the north by Baron Dhanis consisted of Batatelas and Bakussus, impressed troops who were subjected to severe discipline by the trained soldiers from Sierra Leone and the middle Congo in order to keep them in order. The Batatelas were especially restive and morose on account of being taken so far from their homes to fight for the State in a strange country. They expected to be led next against the dervishes, and were afraid that they would never see their native land again. On the same day that Capt. Chaltin attacked Rejaf a battalion of 1,500 Batatelas and Bakussus, under a brother of Baron Dhanis, mutinied and killed their commander. Another column, led by Major Leroi, revolted near Ndursi, and after killing their chiefs the rebels marched off in the direction of the upper Ituri, where they were joined in March by the mutineers of Baron Dhanis's expedition. The rebels carried off 3,000 rifles and all the stores and ammunition of the expedition. They made their way to the south, toward their own country beyond the Arab zone, by way of the valley of the Semliki, occasionally crossing the border into the British sphere. During one of these incursions one of their detachments attacked the English fort of Katwe, which had been strengthened by 40 Congo State soldiers, who aided the small English garrison to repel the assault. The soldiers who remained faithful to Baron Dhanis

had several encounters with the mutineers, in one of which Lieut. Julien was killed. Baron Dhanis first led the loyal remnant of his force, consisting mainly of the 200 Haussas, back to the fort of Avakubis, where Lieut. Henri had a small garrison. Then the commander-in-chief returned by way of Stanley Falls to Nyangwe to organize a fresh force for the repression of the rebellion. Meanwhile the troops left in the north under Lieut. Henri, 600 in number, started in pursuit of the rebels. They were rejoined on June 12 at Mekupi by a force under Lieut. Sannaes, who had followed the traces of the rebels from Kilongalonga, on the Ituri. The Arabs recently disarmed at Stanley Falls were quiet, and the troops of Baron Dhanis held the routes to Nyangwe and to Kassongo in order to cut off the retreat of the Batatela mutineers. CONGREGATIONALISTS. The following is a summary of the statistics of the Congregational churches in the United States as they are given in the "Congregational Yearbook" for 1897: Number of churches, 5,546, of which 4,250 are registered as "supplied" and 1,296 as "vacant"; number of ministers, 5,405, of whom 3,690 are returned as "in pastoral work" and 1,715 as "without charge"; number of members, 615,195; of members of Sunday schools, 687,575, and the average attendance at Sunday schools, 423,070; number of families, 417,485; of Young People's Societies of Christian Endeavor, 3,892, with 242,546 members; number of additions during the year on confession, 32,147; of baptisms, 14,881 of adults and 11,655 of children. Amount of contributions (4,837 churches reporting): For foreign missions, $469,731; for education, $179,238; for church building, $98,062; for home missions, $545,977; for the American Missionary Association, $159,469; for Sunday schools, $57,852; for ministerial aid, $23,126; other contributions, $596,001; total benevolent contributions, $2,129,450; received from legacies, $323,081. Contributions for home expenditures (1,758 churches reporting), $6,871,128. These figures show increase over the previous year of 64 churches, 12,638 members, 4,995 members of Sunday schools, and $463,575 in contributions for home expenditures, and a decrease of $57,594 in benevolent contributions. The 7 theological seminaries return 64 professors, 25 instructors or lecturers, 24 resident licentiates or fellows, 22 advanced or graduate students, and 486 undergraduate students. The receipts of the Congregational Church Building Society for 1896, as reported at its forty-fourth annual meeting in January, were $132,968, and its available resources for the year were $221,644. Its total disbursements were $135,751. Aid had been voted on 140 houses of worship and 45 parsonages. Payments amounting to $71,867 had been voted direct from the treasury toward the completion of 114 houses of worship, securing church property valued at $235,975; and payments in the form of loans had been made toward the completion of 45 parsonages, securing $42,486 of parsonage property. This brought the number of houses of worship aided by the society up to 2,775, and the number of parsonages to 569. Between May, 1892, and the end of December, 1896, the treasurer of the society had received $97,933 in the form of contributions to the Parsonage Loan fund and $132,522 in the form of parsonage loans refunded. The purpose of the board was to keep this fund constantly invested in parsonages. On Dec. 31. 1896, the Church Building Loan fund was $319,759, and 110 churches had received aid from it. Of this fund, $129.854 had been paid back, and $189,905 were outstanding.

Education Society.-The annual report of the Congregational Education Society shows that during the year 321 students were assisted-106 in the colleges and 215 in the seminaries-a falling off

of 26, the decrease being mainly in the colleges. The society also gives assistance to a number of Western colleges, including Pacific University and Pomona, Salt Lake, Fargo, Lake Charles, Ridgeville, Rollins, and Fairmount Colleges. Some of the high schools had been discontinued in the West, on account of the growth of the public schools. The receipts of the society for the year had been $137,413, and the expenditure somewhat less, leaving a balance of about $1,000.

Home Mission Society.-The seventy-first annual meeting of the Congregational Home Missionary Society was held in Saratoga Springs, N. Y., June 1. Gen. O. O. Howard presided. The receipts of the society for the year had been $358,103, while the auxiliaries had raised and expended on their own fields $230,215. The expenditures of the national society had been $421,275, and of the auxiliaries $230,215. The debt of the society had been increased from $51,700, to $127,505. The Woman's Unions had contributed $45,550 to the treasury of the society. Two thousand and twenty-six missionaries had been employed in 44 States and Territories, supplying in whole or by preaching at stated intervals 3,091 congregations; of these, 214 had preached in foreign tongues, viz., 47 to German, 107 to Scandinavian, 22 to Bohemian, 4 to Polish, 13 to French, 1 to Mexican, 4 to Italian, 2 to Spanish, 4 to Finnish, 1 to Danish, 4 to Armenian, 1 to Greek, and 4 to Welsh congregations. The number of pupils in Sunday schools and Bible classes was not far from 172,784. Two hundred and thirty-eight new schools had been organized, and 2,638 schools were under the special care of the missionaries. The additions on confession of faith, so far as could be ascertained, numbered 7,942. One hundred and seven new churches had been organized, 38 had assumed entire self-support, 88 houses of worship had been completed, 182 materially repaired or improved, 4 chapels built, 62 parsonages provided, and 115 men in connection with the missionary churches were preparing for the ministry.

American Missionary Association.—The fiftyfifth annual meeting of the American Missionary Association was held in Minneapolis, Minn.. Oct. 19, 20, and 21. President Merrill E. Gates, LL. D., of Amherst College, presided. The treasurer reported that the total receipts for the year ending Sept. 30 had been $320,440, and the payments $317,812. The debt had been reduced from $66,572 to $54,945. The year's receipts from the Women's missionary societies had been $28,753. Fortyone schools had been aided wholly or in part from the income of the Daniel Hand fund ($75,858), the accounts of which are kept separate from the general accounts of the association.

The Southern educational work of the association included 6 chartered institutions, 44 normal and graded schools, and 27 common schools-in all 77 schools-with 413 instructors and 12,348 pupils. Of the pupils, 69 were classified as theological, 70 as collegiate, 330 as collegiate preparatory, and 1,439 as normal. The condition of the colored people was represented as being one of steady advancement. Four of the graded and normal schools wholly under the care of colored teachers were mentioned in the report as presenting special features worthy of notice. The higher schools-Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn.; Talladega College, Alabama; Tougaloo University, Mississippi; Straight University, New Orleans, La.; and Tillotson College, Austin, Texas-each reported a year of exceptional progress. The industrial education given at these schools was constantly growing more important, and every year young men were being turned out of negro schools in the South who had been taught carpentry, shoemaking, printing, the gener

al use of tools, and scientific farming in addition to the usual academic courses, and young women who had been taught cooking, washing, sewing, dressmaking, nursing, and housekeeping. Eighteen mountain schools (included in the total of 77 schools) returned an enrollment of 2,195 pupils. These schools, besides their direct results, were exercising a healthy influence in creating a desire for a better education and larger intellectual growth, and in promoting a higher standard of instruction. The Orange Park School, Florida, was now free from the troubles from which it was suffering in the previous year (see "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1896, article CONGREGATIONALISTS). The church work in the South included 133 ministers and missionaries and 224 churches with 11,317 members. One thousand and sixteen members had been added by profession of faith, and 16,955 pupils were returned in church, mission, and Sunday schools. In all, 18 new churches had been organized, of which 12 were colored churches, 4 in the Southern mountains, and 2 in the Indian field. During the past five years 121 new churches had been added, of which 81 were colored churches, 35 were churches in the mountains, and 5 in the Indian fields. These churches had come into being independent of any direction or suggestion from the association. The 55 mountain churches had 1,619 members. Two local Congregational associations organized within the past few years among the mountain churchesthe Cumberland Plateau Association, in Tennessee, and the Cumberland Valley Association, in Kentucky-were maintaining a vigorous existence. Seventeen churches were sustained among the Indians, and returned 971 members, 1,145 pupils in Sunday schools, and $2,427 of benevolent collections. There were also connected with the Indian missions 26 missionary out stations, 86 missionaries and teachers, 37 of whom were Indians, and 23 schools with 592 pupils. The Indian missions were divided among the departments of Nebraska and the Dakotas-in which the 3 central training schools were situated-Montana (Fort Custer), Washington (Skokomish), and Alaska (Cape Prince of Wales). The churches, of which 2 had been added during the year, were mostly served by native pastors who went out from the Christian schools, while 4 white general missionaries superintended the work of the native pastors in the out stations. The Chinese missions comprised 20 schools, with 32 teachers, 7 of whom were Chinese, and 1,084 pupils, while 60 persons had made profession of faith during the year. The Chinese brethren, since the organization of their Chinese Missionary Society, in 1866, had contributed more than $15,000 to missions in China. They were carrying on missionary work at Canton, with a property worth $4,000, at Hong-Kong, where they had property valued at nearly $10,000, and had organized an aggressive work from their chapel at Ci-Nung. Besides sustaining their three missions they had helped the American Board in China to start a number of chapels and free schools, and had contributed largely to the support of them. Their Christian Endeavor Society in San Francisco ranked as the third in the United States in contributions to foreign missions.

The American Board.-The eighty-eighth annual meeting of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was held at New Haven, Conn., in October.

The treasurer's report showed that the total expenditure for the year had been $688,414, of which $636,299 represented the cost of missions, and that the board had been left $45,150 in debt. The permanent fund amounted to $240,734.

The general survey gives the following numbers of missions, 20; of stations, 101; of out sta

tions, 1,126; of places for stated preaching, 1,501; average congregations, 63.264.

Laborers employed.-Number of ordained missionaries (15 being physicians), 174; of physicians not ordained (besides 10 women), 14; of other male assistants, 4; of women, 10 of them physicians (wives 176, unmarried 175), 351; whole number of laborers sent from the United States, 543; number of native pastors, 234; of native preachers and catechists, 546; of native school-teachers, 1,651; of other native laborers, 525; total of native laborers, 2,056; total of American and native laborers, 3,499.

The Churches.-Number of churches, 470; of church members, 44,606; added during the year, 3,919; whole number from the first, as nearly as can be learned, 138,790.

Educational Department.-Number of theological seminaries and station classes, 17, with 179 pupils; of colleges and high schools for young men, 57, with 3,388 pupils; of boarding schools for girls, 61, with 3,603 pupils; of common schools, 1,049, with 43,221 pupils; whole number under instruction, 54,615. Amount of native contributions so far as reported, $113,039.

Owing to incomplete returns from Western and Eastern Turkey, the items from those missions in reference to churches and native agencies were taken from previous reports. In European Turkey, notwithstanding the war and the disturbances at Salonica and Monastir, and much hindrance to general travel, the mission work had held its own. In Eastern Turkey it had been more interrupted, and the care of orphans, 2,000 of whom had received protection, had laid heavy burdens on the missionaries. Yet the schools and churches had been thronged, and many places hitherto closed had been seeking spiritual help. The western and central missions in Turkey had held meetings for the first time in three years. The colleges at Constantinople, Marsovan, and Aintab and the high schools reported a successful year. In Bulgaria the work had considerably broadened; it had been very successful in Austria, Spain, and Mexico, and the growth of the Christian Endeavor societies in Spain and Mexico had been very noticeable. In India the doors were open on every hand. Great changes were shown in Japan, which was open everywhere. The East Central African Mission, now in its fourth year, had founded its first church, with 17 members. A revival of great power and extent had marked the progress of the Zulu mission. In Micronesia the situation was much improved, the missionaries had visited Ponape by special invitation of the Spanish governor, and visits had been paid to the Mortlock and Marshall islands. A rapidly and widely extending interest in Christianity was manifest in China; and in the Foochow mission, which had celebrated its jubilee, there had been more than 2,000 inquirers, while the 548 additions to the churches were almost 50 per cent. of the number reported in the previous year, and more than the total number in the mission five years preceding.

The Rev. R. S. Storrs, D. D., president of the board, having expressed a desire to retire from that office on account of his age, a committee was appointed to nominate a candidate to be his successor. The committee unanimously agreed to suggest the name of the Rev. C. D. Lamson, D. D., of Hartford, Conn., and he was unanimously elected president of the board. A special paper was presented by the Prudential Committee calling attention to the stringency in the financial affairs of the missions and the failure of the churches to contribute adequately to the needs of the work, and asking advice as to how the emergency should be met. Should the missions to papal lands be given up? Should some of the older missions be left to take care of

themselves? or should the educational work be reduced? The resolution passed in answer to these questions deprecated the adoption of any policy that should pay less attention to education, and recommended that the questions of contracting the missions to Roman Catholic countries be referred to a large committee which should confer with the missionaries in the field and dispatch deputations to India and China. The meeting was addressed by the Rev. Dr. F. E. Clark, President of the United Societies of Christian Endeavor, John R. Mott, President of the Student Volunteer Movement, and the Rev. Dr. J. H. Barrows, of Chicago, all of whom had lately visited Protestant missions abroad, and gave accounts of what they had observed among them. A committee appointed to inquire concerning the election of women as corporate members of the board and as members of the Prudential Committee reported that no legal or constitutional impediment stood in the way of such election, and the subject was referred for further consideration to a committee which was instructed to report at the next meeting of the board. A subscription taken during the meeting toward paying the debt of $45,000, resulted in securing pledges for $31,000. British Congregationalists. The annual meeting of the Congregational Union of England and Wales was held in London, beginning May 10. The Rev. Dr. Charles A. Berry presided, and the Rev. Alfred Rowland was chosen chairman for the next year. The report of the committee referred to the improved financial resources of the Church Aid Society, and mentioned the sending out by the Colonial Missionary Society of English ministers to Newfoundland and the native churches of Jamaica. A handbook of the Church history of the early Christian churches had been prepared by Prof. Adeney, and was on sale, and was to be followed by a summary of the story of the English Free Churches, by Mr. Johnson Evans. The Congregational Union lecture, by Dr. John Brown, on apostolic succession, was to be published in the fall. A new constitution for the Young People's Union, which had been approved by the General Committee, was intended greatly to widen the area of operations. It provides for the establishment of a central council and district branches, with the purpose of promoting the formation of such societies and their federation for increased efficiency and co-operation. All Congregational young people's societies formed on a religious basis are included in the scheme. The report of the Church Extension Committee gave a list of new churches begun and arranged for by the county associations. They involved a local expenditure of about £40,000. The Central fund was making less progress than the local funds had done. The income of the Church Aid Society had risen to £1,100 more than in the previous year, and the stipends of the village pastors had been raised in some cases to £100 and in others to £90, while the minimum had not been suffered to fall below £80. The opening address of the chairman, the Rev. Dr. Berry, was on "Congregational Churchmanship." Resolutions were passed concerning the education question and international arbitration, and expressing sympathy with those who were suffering from the burning of the Charity Bazaar in Paris.

The autumnal meeting of the union was held at Birmingham beginning Oct. 12, the Rev. Dr. C. A. Berry presiding. A resolution was adopted affirm ing that the assembly, pained by many indications of the development of sacerdotal claims and sacramental superstitions in the country, recognized an imperative obligation to reaffirm the judgment respecting those matters which was universal in the Congregational churches. It did not apprehend that the Roman Catholic communion was becom

ing more formidable; but it observed, with profound sorrow, that within the pale of the Church of England, which was constitutionally a Protestant body, and was once regarded as a bulwark of Protestantism, there had grown up a considerable party which did not inculcate, but sought to subvert, the scriptural doctrines of the Reformation, claimed for their ministry sacerdotal and sacrificial functions belonging of right to the Lord Jesus Christ, and had introduced into the public services of the Church of England a mass of ritualistic observances such as were associated with the services of the Church of Rome. Even the two archbishops, in their reply to the letter of Pope Leo XIII, while rejecting his claims, acknowledged the Tridentine Council, and argued that the ministers of the Church of England were also a sacrificing priesthood. The assembly, while desiring to cultivate unity and co-operation with Christians in every place, regarded these sacerdotal claims and ritualistic practices with stern disapprobation. The assembly earnestly declared its unshaken loyalty to the Protestant faith, which it regarded as being the embodiment of the revelation of God and the palladium of their civil and religious liberties, and called on all Christians to combat and repudiate sacerdotalism. A resolution bearing reference to the dispute which was going on at the time among the engineering trades of the country deprecated the resort to strikes and lockouts, and expressed the conviction of the assembly that the gravest responsibility rests upon the leaders of all trade federations, whether of employers or employed, to seek to submit their differences to arbitration before the dispute has become such as can be settled only by the humiliation of one of the parties. It further expressed gratitude at the growth of public sentiment which had led to an act of Parliament authorizing the Board of Trade to intervene in trade differences. Another resolution emphatically condemned the educational policy of the Government during the previous session as "encouraging the endeavor to put the education of the country into the hands of the Established Church; and repeating the opinion that there could be no settlement of the educational difficulty until all schools supported out of public funds were placed under the control of local boards elected by popular suffrage." A letter conveying brotherly greeting and the wish that the deliberations of the assembly might be guided by the Holy Spirit was received from the Bishop of Worcester, to which a suitable reply was

returned.

The John Robinson Memorial Church, so called in memory of the pastor of the Pilgrims of the Mayflower, in the erection of which the Congregational Union had co-operated, was dedicated at Gainsborough, June 9.

London Missionary Society. - The annual meeting of the London Missionary Society was held in London May 10. Mr. Stephen Massey presided. The treasurer's report represented that the society had received a smaller income than in the previous year and yet had had to incur a larger expenditure. The entire receipts for the year had been £146,232, of which £10,039 had been for the Centenary fund and £21,008 had been raised and appropriated at mission stations, thus reducing the free contributions to £115,184. Distinct from these figures were two special funds-the Indian Famine fund, from which £5,606 had been received, and the Bechuanaland Relief fund, which had brought in £603. The missions included 191 men and 70 single women, European missionaries, 34,473 members (omitting the churches in Madagascar), 133,352 adherents, 37,178 children in Sunday schools, and 15 hospitals and dispensaries, treating 117,352 patients.