of Leeds, England, had a year before offered the Association £3,000 for the establishment of a mission in Eastern Africa, and the officers of the Freedmen's Missions Aid Society of Great Britain had offered to collect other funds for the same object. The Association voted that on receiving the sum offered by Mr. Arthington and a similar sum from the British public, it would appropriate $20,000 to the foundation of the proposed mission, and would undertake to sustain it permanently.

The seventieth annual meeting of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was held at Syracuse, New York, October 7th. The Rev. Mark Hopkins, D. D., presided. The Treasurer reported that his receipts for the year had been $518,386, and his expenditures $513,817. The year had been marked by retrenchment of all expenses, yet the number of additions on profession of faith in all the fields, given at more than two thousand souls, was larger than in any previous year since the time when an extraordinary number of accessions had taken place in the Sandwich Islands, more than thirty years before. The Turkish missions were recovering from the injurious effects of the late war. The additions to the churches in India-nearly seven hundredwere greater than in any former year. In Austria, the missionaries had been embarrassed by official restrictions concerning which representations were to be made to the Government. Nearly fifty additions had been made to the churches in Spain, and the opening of a school for girls was reported. The mission in Mexico had lost ground for the want of men to carry it on. In the Dakota mission, the Indian converts had organized a home missionary society, which had raised more than $800 during the past three years to meet the expenses of native teachers and preachers among the wild tribes. Special reports were also made from the missions in Zoolooland, China, and Japan.

A paper was read on "The Proposed Mission in Central Africa," which, after discussing the various features of the condition of the African Continent, and the missions already established or contemplated in it, recommended the region of Bihé and the Coanza River, in about 12° south latitude and two hundred and fifty miles from the Atlantic Ocean, as the most suitable district in which to found the mission. The paper was approved, and the Prudential Committee was advised to continue the inquiries already set on foot, with the understanding that it was purposed to establish the mission proposed at the earliest practicable day.

CONGREGATIONALISTS IN GREAT BRITAIN. The following is a summary of the statistics of the Congregational churches in Great Britain and the colonies, as given in the "Congregational Year-Book" for 1879:

England-Churches, 2,071; branch churches, 810; preaching stations, 831; evangelistic stations, 172. Wales Welsh churches, 546; Branch churches, 282;

preaching stations, 83; English churches, 69; preaching stations, 4. Scotland-Churches, 110. Ireland17. Canada and Newfoundland-Churches, 120. AusChurches, 38. Islands of the British seas-Churches tralia-Churches, 116; preaching stations, 112. New Zealand-Churches, 20. Natal Churches, 2; preaching stations, 10. Cape Colony-Churches independent of the London Missionary Society, 21. Jamaica -Churches independent of the London Missionary Society, 14. British Guiana-Churches independent of the London Missionary Society, 12. IndiaChurches independent of the London Missionary Society, 6. China-Churches independent of the LonNew chapels opened, 51; new schools opened, 18. don Missionary Society, 2. Chapels and schools

The annual meeting of the Congregational Union of England and Wales was held in London May 12th. The Rev. Professor Newth of New College was elected Chairman of the Union for 1880. The report of the Secretary gave a statement of the recommendations of the committee which had been appointed to inquire into the working of Congregational colleges. It was recommended that the theological course should be separated from that of arts, and that whenever it was practicable advantage should be taken of the teaching afforded by such institutions as Owens College, the Yorkshire College, and the universities of England and Scotland. The committee proposed also a celebration of the jubilee of the Union, to be held in 1880, and to consist in part in the delivery of lectures in London and elsewhere by Congregational clergymen upon certain periods and aspects of church history. The Rev. J. Guinness Rogers had been appointed to deliver the Congregational lecture for the year; his subject would be "Church Systems in England in the Nineteenth Century." The Church-Aid and Home Mission Society, recently organized, reported that £30,000 had been secured for its work during its first year. A resolution was unanimously adopted condemning the foreign policy of the Ĝovernment, censuring especially the Afghan and Zooloo wars.

The autumnal meeting of the Congregational Union was held at Cardiff, beginning October 14th. The Rev. W. Cuthbertson presided, and delivered an inaugural address on "Independency as a Witness-Bearer," in which, referring to the want of cooperation between the State Church and Nonconformists, he said that no step could much conduce to the social meeting which was desirable until disestablishment came. A paper was read on the position and prospects of Congregationalism in Wales, in which it was stated that there were now in the principality 1,022 chapels, 908 organized churches, 546 ordained ministers, 318 lay preachers, 108,000 communicants, and 108,000 other adherents excluding children under ten years of age, so that in round numbers the Congregationalists included a quarter of a million of people. The assembly resolved to recommend to the county associations to consider the propriety of appointing a confidential committee with which vacant churches and

unsettled ministers might confer. The question of special missions was commended to the careful consideration of these associations, with a view of determining whether they should take steps, within their several limits, for the conducting of such missions by competent and certified persons. A long resolution was adopted, condemning the Afghan war, expressing the belief that the policy of which it formed a part ought to be reversed, and urging the members of the churches to employ their votes and influence at the next general election to secure the authoritative condemnation of this policy by the various constituencies. "The Assembly," the resolution continued, "does not in view of the election counsel silence on the part of the Nonconformists in relation to questions touching upon religious equality; but in the presence of the great political difficulties of the time it feels that this is a crisis in which even these ought not to be allowed to prevent the union of the Liberal party for the purpose of putting an end to the costly and mischievous régime which has proved to be so full of menace to our constitutional liberty at home, and to derogate from our good name and our legitimate influence among other nations." Subjects were discussed in papers and addresses relating to collegiate education, business methods and church administration, spiritual life and the consecration of money, and Congregationalism and free thought.

The anniversary of the London Missionary Society was held May 16th. Sir William Muir presided. The financial report showed that the total annual receipts of the Society for general and special purposes had been £101,100, which the balance left from the last year increased to £117,813. The expenditures had been £123,058. There were 153 missionaries employed, of whom 11 were women, with 300 native pastors, evangelists, and assistants, besides 83 native pastors, 500 assistant pastors and evangelists, and 3,400 volunteer preachers in Madagascar. The missions in Madagascar have been enlarged and strengthened by the addition since 1870 of nine country stations, "each provided with its mission-house, its model church, and school." The Central Girls' School, the Normal School, and the Theological College have been erected at Antananarivo, and a normal school at Fianarantsoa; and the system of primary education has been revised and extended. The churches had been declared to be at liberty to manage their own affairs without any interference from secular or outside authority. A new station had been opened in China, and a new mission in the province of Sze-chuen partly provided for. In South Africa, the beginning of a mission at Lake Ngami and the opening of the Moffat Institution were mentioned. The mission to New Guinea had at the time of making up the report four or dained English missionaries with forty Polynesian missionaries, and had extended its usefulness along the southern coast of eastern

New Guinea and to the islands in the neighborhood. The mission to Central Africa had been commenced near Lake Tanganyika, but had met with vicissitudes, and Dr. Mullens, the Secretary of the Society, was to be sent to look after its interests. A woman's mission had been established four years before, which now numbered eleven missionaries. Dr. Mullens was afterward sent to this mission, but he died on the way.

The Irish Congregational Union met in Dublin, September 30th. The occasion was marked by the celebration of the jubilee of the Union, it having been founded in 1829, and, though the smallest in numbers, being the second oldest Union in the United Kingdom. The principal business of the session related to efforts to raise the Provident Fund to £5,000.

The Congregational Union of Scotland met at Dundee, April 22d. The reports showed that a decrease had taken place in the general contributions. The widows' and ministers' provident funds were in good condition, but the income of the Chapel-Building Society had been only £41 for the year. A chapel-building fund of £10,000 was asked for, toward which £3,000 had been subscribed, and propositions were made for obtaining the rest of the sum by means of subscriptions of £100 each. Thirteen students had attended the Theological Hall.

Congregationalism is represented in France by the Union of Free Evangelical Churches, whose basis of union is established on the principle of the freedom of the churches from the support and control of the state, their independence of each other in their own action, and the individual profession of faith. The sixteenth biennial meeting of the Synod was held at Nîmes, beginning October 16th. The opening sermon, by Pastor Hallard of Paris, was devoted to a vindication of the principle of independency, and to showing that freedom from the patronage and interference of the state was essential to the promotion of a real accord of spirit between the churches, as well as to their own internal unity. Pastor George Fisch was chosen President of the Synod. One new church was admitted to the Union; the application of another was postponed on account of insecurity in its financial condition. The question of giving up certain mission stations in the department of Saône-et-Loire, in which success had not been encouraging, was considered, and was finally referred to the Commission of Evangelization for decision. A proposition to form a common fund for all the churches of the Union, similar to the sustentation funds of the Presbyterian churches excited much discussion. The Synod declined to express any opinion as to whether the institution of such a fund would be agreeable to the principles of the Union, but appointed a committee to examine into the subject and collect facts for the guidance of the next Synod.