subscribed. The application for twice or thrice as many shares as there were, when the books were opened, shows a remarkable confidence throughout Europe in the judgment and ability of De Lesseps, its promoter.

The year has been marked by events of the highest importance for some of the SpanishAmerican states. If peaceful elections and the fact of a change of administration having been effected in the midst of unexampled serenity; the resumption of friendly relations with foreign powers after a protracted period of estrangement; the construction (no longer projected, but actual) of railways; the extension of inland telegraph lines, and the laying of a submarine cable-if all these bespeak the inauguration of an era of prosperity, such an era has assuredly begun for Mexico within the past twelve months.

In the Central American republics a season of international quiet, if not of absolute international harmony, has been enjoyed, and much has been accomplished in the direction of facilitating foreign_commerce.

In Colombia the reverse has, for the most part, been the order of things; and General Nuñez's Government, inaugurated in April, has chiefly attracted attention at home and abroad by a marked increase of imposts on foreign products entering the republic: printed books, including even text-books for the use of schools, having been subjected to an onerous rate of duty. A bill for an international copyright treaty with the principal European and American nations was laid before the Colombian Legislature, and the new administration has manifested a desire to encourage the development of the mining industry of the country.

Little has been accomplished in the way of real progress in either Venezuela or Ecuador; Peru has continued to resist, but has been powerless to repel, the Chilian invaders, and her very capital has been menaced with destruction; while Bolivia, partly from inability and partly from apathy, has tendered little aid to her ally, but rather sullenly submits to the prospective forfeiture of an important portion of her territory, which must inevitably follow the ultimate success of the Chilian arms in the present strife.

In Chili, commerce, agriculture, and mining have of necessity suffered from the long drain of forces to maintain the strength of the army; but the moral energy of the Government and people has been sustained by uniform success; the interest on the foreign and home debts has been regularly paid, nor has the Executive required to be invested with any extraordinary powers to raise funds and organize elements with which to carry on the war.

the country, have given place in some quarters to the assumption that belligerent designs were entertained toward Chili, with which republic the Patagonian boundary question is still pending; while the more plausible explanation of the armament is by many regarded as simply a prudent desire on the part of the Argentine Government to be prepared in case Chili, when finally at peace with Peru, should be tempted to make a demonstration of her liberated forces in support of her claim to sovereign jurisdiction over the disputed territory. The material prosperity of the Argentine Republic has, in the mean time, suffered no check.

Political affairs in Uruguay have been in a very unsettled condition, and the national revenue in the second half of the year proved inadequate to meet the Government require

ments.

In Brazil the discussion of the electoral bill was continued with but little interruption; but no event has occurred throughout the year to retard commercial or industrial progress; trade with foreign nations, on the contrary, would seem to be rapidly increasing, a by no means unimportant proof of which is the fact of arrangements having been made for the establishment of a regular line of steamers between the ports of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Rio Janeiro in October, 1881.

ANGLICAN CHURCH. The population connected with the Anglican Church in the British Isles, in British North America, and in Australia, is estimated as follows: *

The following new sees of the Church of England were established in 1879 and 1880: In England, Liverpool, 1880 (forming part of the province of York); in India, Travancore and Cochin, 1879; in China, Mid-China, 1880; in America, New Westminster, 1879, and Caledonia, 1879.

The Convocation of Canterbury met June 1st. Petitions were presented and considered in favor of the act for closing the publichouses on Sunday, against any alteration in the Book of Common Prayer, and in favor of the more complete representation of the clergy. In the Lower House, a resolution respecting the "Burials Bill" supported by the Government before Parliament was adopted, as follows: "That the Lower House of the Convocation of Canterbury are bound by their duty to the Church humbly to record the expression of their deep regret that it should be judged necessary on the part of her Majesty's advisers to propose to Parliament a measure which, if it shall become law, will, for the first time in the history of the country, save and except only the time of the Commonwealth, take away from the

*For a more detailed statistical account, and for a comAnnual Cyclopædia " for 1879, p. 80.

Church of England the exclusive control, according to her own doctrines and discipline, of the use of her own churchyards; and that this House desires, by this solemn protest, to deliver itself of all responsibility as to any dishonor which may be done to Almighty God by the character of the worship which, in the event of the passage of this bill, may hereafter be offered in her churchyards." A committee was appointed to consider the best method of providing for Episcopal supervision over Anglican congregations in the North of Europe. The Archbishop was deputed to confer with the Government respecting an increase in the number of elected proctors, and a change in the mode of elections and the qualifications of electors. The bishops agreed that they would use all their influence in Parliament to secure the incorporation in the bill for taking the census in 1881 of a provision for taking a religious census in England.

The second meeting of the Convocation was held July 13th. A committee of both Houses was appointed to consider how best to provide for Episcopal supervision over Anglican congregations in the North of Europe. The committee to whom the subject of the Burials Bill had been referred, made a report suggesting that, if the bill should not be passed, both the Church and dissenters should give up the funeral services at the grave, and hold them only at their houses of worship. This clause was struck out by vote of the Convocation, and the report was referred back to the committee. The Convocation of York met at the same time, and took action in favor of securing provision for a religious census of England in the bill for a general census which was about to be presented to Parliament.

The eighty-first annual meeting of the Church Missionary Society was held in London, May 4th. The Earl of Chichester presided. The total amount of contributions given to the Society during the year had been £221,723, and the expenditures had been £200,307. The capital fund had been restored to its original figure of £68,281. The committee had resolved to set apart £60,000 as the permanent working capital of the Society, and to place the remainder of the fund to a separate account, to be called the contingency fund. Four hundred and eighty clergymen, of whom 218 were European, were engaged in the work of the Society, with 2,686 native and country-born Christian catechists. The number of communicants in the mission churches was 28,510.

The twelfth annual Conference of the Society for the Liberation of Religion from State Patronage and Control, was held in London, June 10th. Mr. H. Lee, M. P., presided. The report stated that the receipts of the Society for the year had been £11,398, and the expenditures £10,848. Seven million copies of publications had been issued, and nearly two thousand meetings had been held. Resolutions were adopted declaring that the Conference viewed with satisfaction the results of the recent elections in Scotland, and the indications that the question of disestablishment was not to remain in abeyance till another election; that it approved of Mr. Roundell's motion affirming the inexpediency of retaining clerical restrictions in connection with any headship or fellowship in any college of Oxford or Cambridge, and also of Mr. Bryce's proposal for the abolition of such restrictions in connection with professorships of Hebrew and ecclesiastical history; that the Public Worship Regulation Act had failed to accomplish its professed object; expressing the belief that a remedy for the evils which afflict the Church would be found, not in fresh legislation, but in employing the spiritual forces of a free church; and expressing gratification at the early introduction of the Burials Bill, and a hope that it might be satisfactorily amended.

The receipts of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for 1879 were: from collections and subscriptions to the general fund, £71,099; from legacies, £10,934; from dividends, £4,753; total in the general fund, £86,787. Other funds had been appropriated to the amount of £9,943, and special funds amounted to £34,943, making the entire income of all classes, £131,674. The Society had employed 593 missionaries.

VOL. XX.-2 A

"The

"The

The twentieth annual Church Congress was held in Leicester, beginning September 27th. The opening sermons were preached by the Archbishop of York and the Dean of Llandaff. The Bishop of Peterborough presided at the Congress. Papers were read and discussed on subjects relating to the foreign missions of the Church, "The Church and the Poor "; Religious Condition of the Nation ";" Church in relation to the Organization of Labor"; "Upper and Middle Class Education; its Present Condition, and how to maintain and promote its Religious Character"; "SundayClosing and Local Option"; "The Internal Unity of the Church, and the Influence of the Three Great Schools of Thought in the Church of England upon each other, and upon the Church"; "The Existing Forms of Unbelief; their Social and Moral Tendencies"; Cathedral System; how to reform it so as to strengthen the Relations of the Cathedral to the Diocese, and to make each Cathedral a more Efficient Center of Religious Equality"; "The Duty of the Church as regards Civil Laws relating to Marriage and Divorce"; "The Communion of Saints; how may it be strengthened and manifested"; "Popular Recreations; how to improve them; Light Literature and the Stage." The Congress was visited by a deputation representing the nonconformist ministers of Leicester, bidding it welcome to the town. The Bishop of Peterborough responded in a courteous address.

"The

The Synod of the Episcopal Church in Ireland met in Dublin, April 20th, and was opened with an address from the Lord Primate. The

financial reports showed that a steady decrease in the receipts from various sources had been going on for several years past, the amount received under the head of assessment having fallen from £124,424 in 1876 to £108,272 in 1879, and the receipts from all sources from £212,095 to £165,007. The attention of the Synod was given to the discussion of the relations of the Divinity School in Trinity College with the Synod, of the status of proprietary churches, the formation of a General Church Committee, the claims of the minor incumbents and curates, the increasing expenditure of the representative body, the consecration of church-building, and primary education. The Provincial Synod of the Episcopal Church in Canada was held in Montreal in September. The Synod decided that the name of the Church should hereafter be "The Church of England in Canada "; that a Board of Foreign Missions should be formed for the collection of money for missions to the heathen abroad, and a Board of Domestic Missions for work in British America, particularly in the diocese of Algoma; and that persons might be admitted to the diaconate, but not to the priesthood, without surrendering their worldly callings.

The fifth Synod of the Diocese of Sydney met in Sydney, New South Wales, June 22d. Bishop Barker, in his opening address, mentioned as important topics affecting the interests of the Church, the Public Instruction Act of 1880, and the Church and school land revenues, an act concerning which was pending before the Colonial Parliament. He urged the clergy to avail themselves of the opportunities for imparting religious instruction in the public schools. A resolution was proposed reciting that the Church had not the influence in the colony to which it should, by its numbers and position, be entitled, and advising the members to take a more active interest in politics. After considerable debate, it received the vote of a large majority of the clergy, but was defeated by the negative vote of the laity. The income of the Church Society for the year had been £14,000. The Society granted stipends to thirty-eight clergymen and eight catechists. The triennial meeting of the General Synod of New Zealand, was held at Christchurch in April, and was attended by seven bishops, twenty clergy, and twenty-three lay representatives. The Primate suggested that a revision of the wording of the constitution of the Synod was needed to adapt the instrument to the changes which had taken place in the circumstances of the colonies since it was framed, and a motion providing for a revision was made, but not acted upon. The principal subjects considered by the Synod were the consolidation of the parochial system, and clerical education. The Board of Theological Studies provided a uniform standard of education for all the dioceses. It was resolved not to attempt to establish a central theological college, but to

found exhibitions which might be held in New Zealand or elsewhere. The arrangements for the selection of hymns and the musical parts of the service were declared to be under the control of the clergymen, not of the vestry. Favorable accounts were given of religious work among the Maories, and in the islands.

ANTIMONY-MINES IN MEXICO. The antimony of commerce has hitherto been derived almost exclusively from the sulphide-ore called stibnite, or gray antimony. In this state the metal is distributed very widely over the globe, though it is found nowhere in large deposits. It is mined in Hungary and different parts of Europe, and is found in California and Nevada; but the principal source of the supply is Borneo, whence it is shipped in ballast to the English smelters. The cost of the purified metal is quite high, being as great as that of tin and copper, and about four times that of lead. Its high price is owing not only to the comparative infrequency of the ores, but to the difficulty of reducing the sulphide, in which the antimony is usually associated with various troublesome mineral impurities, which impede and complicate the process of extraction. The reduction of the sulphide is a long process. The sulphide is first separated from the gangue by fusion, and then reduced to an oxide by roasting in a reverberatory furnace; and from the oxide thé metallic antimony is obtained by fusion with charcoal saturated with a solution of carbonate of sodium.

Be

Extensive mines of the oxide of antimony have recently been discovered in Sonora, Mexico, in the district of Altar. The attention of metallurgists was called to these deposits in 1879 by the discoverer, E. T. Cox, of Arizona. A company of capitalists from Boston was soon formed who secured nine claims of the dimensions allowed in Mexico, 2,624 by 656 feet, including all the outcropping lodes. The geological character of the country where this valuable discovery was made is identical with that of southern Arizona. The mountains are in short, narrow ranges, running mostly in a north-andsouth direction. Some of the summits are irregular and rugged, and some are smooth, round cones, owing to the different degrees of erosion in the different materials of their masses. tween the parallel ranges is table-land or mesa, formed of the eroded material. The peaks are porphyry, quartzites, basalt, diorites, and trachytes, the principal mass of the mountainchains granite, the sedimentary rock on their flanks a sub-carboniferous limestone, in which the fossil remains have been effaced by igneous action. The débris which forms the mesa is so loose that the rain sinks through it, leaving the surface always dry and arid. In the immediate neighborhood of the mines only the limestone and quartzite are found. The lodes are from four to twenty feet thick. The ore has been removed to the depth of thirty feet, and the fissures are found to be filled from one wall to the It is oxide of antiother with the solid ore.