crations held in India. The Rev. R. Caldwell, D. D., LL. D., and the Rev. E. Sargent, D. D., both South Indian missionaries of more than thirty-five years' standing, were named as the coadjutor bishops designate. The names of their respective sees have not yet been finally determined. The stipends of the new bishops were to be cared for by the Church Missionary Society and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the Christian Knowledge Society had expressed a willingness to help support them.

The Public Worship Regulation Act of 1874 began to take effect as a law on the 1st of July, 1875, agreeably to its own terms. The new orders for carrying out the act were signed by the Queen on the 28th of June, and were laid before Parliament for its approval.

The Church Congress.-The fifteenth annual Church Congress met at Stoke-upon-Trent October 5th. The Bishop of Lichfield presided. The opening sermon was preached by the Bishop of Rochester, on the "Manifestation of the Spirit." The Bishop of Lichfield, presiding, made the opening address. He read a letter of sympathy and fellowship from the President of the House of Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. He stated that there were present at the Congress the Bishop of Tennessee, Dr. Potter, Secretary of the American House of Bishops, and several other clergy of the American Protestant Episcopal Church; the Archbishop of Armagh, representing the Irish Church; the Bishops of Edinburgh and Argyle, representing the Scotch Church; the Bishops of Ontario, Melbourne, and Nassau, representing the Colonial Church; so that he might say that all the branches of the Anglican Church were represented. He then proceeded to the consideration of the subject, "The Church of England and the Churches in Communion with her-how they may be drawn more closely together." He claimed for the preceding Church Congress a considerable agency in promoting intercourse between the English, American, and Colonial Churches, and reviewed the results of the Conferences held at Cologne in 1872, and at Bonn in 1874 and 1875, as tending to bring the Old Catholic and Eastern Churches into a nearer fellowship with each other and with the Anglican Churches. The discussion of this subject was followed up by the Bishop of Edinburgh, the Bishop of Melbourne, the Rev. Lord Plunkett, the Bishop of Tennessee, and the Rev. Dr. Potter, of Grace Church, New York. Other subjects discussed were: "Missions and Missionary Bishoprics; " "The Counteraction of Drunkenness; ""Woman's Work in the Church; ""The Popular Arguments for Unbelief, and how to meet them; "Lay Agency; "Personal Holiness as influencing Conduct in the Family, Society, and Trade; "The Church and Elementary Education; "Free Churches;" "Funeral Reform;" "Discoveries in Bible Lands; ""Pastoral Work."

The Irish Church.-The second session of the second synod of the Irish Church met in Dublin, April 6th. The occasion was signalized by the presentation to the Church, by Mr. Henry Roe, of a new hall, which he had built for the use of the synod. The report of the representative body was presented. It showed that the Church had now invested in securities sums amounting to £5,835,920, and yielding a yearly income of £257,462. The voluntary contributions almost equaled this income, having, during the preceding year, amounted to £257,021. The legal costs of the representative body during the four years since the act disestablishing this Church came into operation had been £1,496. They had paid to compounders a total amount of £1,169,650, and had thereby extinguished annuities to the amount of £172,764. The balances left in the hands of the Church by compounders amounted to £1,108,955. The total assets of the Irish Church from every source, on December 31, 1874, amounted to £7,062,693 198 4d.

The synod was occupied during most of the session in the consideration of the bills for the revision of the Prayer-Book, which had been prepared by the committee appointed at the last session, and were intended to embody the substance of the resolutions recommending modifications, which were passed at that session. A new preface was adopted. It contains a disclaimer of any intention to change the tenor or structure of the book, but states that it was sought only to make its meaning more clear, and to remove expressions liable to mistake or perversion. In making the changes, no censure was implied upon the former book. It explains that the adoration of the elements is guarded against in the communion service by a rubric, asserting that the kneeling is designed merely to be significant of a humble and grateful acknowledgment of the benefits. Touching the baptismal service, it says: "It is not known to all that, of a long time past, controversies have prevailed in the Church concerning the precise nature and extent of baptismal grace, and the time and manner of its operation; and these services have been diversely expounded by different parties in the Church, who, nevertheless, have never on either side been censured by public authority as unfaithful members of it. And we now hereby declare that though, on a review of the Prayer-Book, this Church has not deemed it expedient to change these services in respect of expressions which some have desired to alter, but which have been used in connection with this sacrament by the universal Church, from the earliest times, yet it is not our meaning, in thus retaining those expressions, to limit or abridge, on the one side or the other, that liberty of expounding them which has been hitherto allowed by the general practice of this Church, and, upon occasion, by solemn decision of the Court of Final Appeal in Ecclesiastical Causes in England;

nor do we require thereby the ministers of our Church to hold or teach any other doctrine concerning this sacrament than that which is set forth in the articles of religion. And it should be plain to all men from the express declarations of the offices themselves that no language therein used is meant to exclude the necessity of repentance toward God and renewal of the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost on the part of all who shall live to be capable of the same."

The preface says on another subject: "The special absolution in the office for visitation of the sick has been the cause of offense to many, and as it is a form unknown to the Church in ancient times, and as we saw no adequate reason for its retention, and no ground for asserting that its removal would make any change in the doctrine of the Church, we have deemed it fitting that in the special cases contemplated in this office, and in that for the visitation of prisoners, absolution should be pronounced to penitents in the form appointed in the office for the Holy Communion. No change has been made in the formula of ordination of priests, though desired by some; for upon a full review of our formularies, we deem it plain, and here declare, that no power or authority, saving such as may belong to him in the remission of ecclesiastical censures, is ascribed to the priest in respect of absolution of sins after baptism other than the ministerial one of declaring and pronouncing, on God's part, remission of sins to all that are truly penitent, to the quieting of their conscience, and the removal of all doubt and scruple; nor is it anywhere in our formularies taught or implied that private confession to, and absolution by, a priest, are any conditions of God's pardon, or needful or availing for any other purpose than that we have before set down; but, on the contrary, it is fully taught that all Christians who sincerely repent, and unfeignedly believe the Gospel, may draw nigh, as worthy communicants, to the Lord's Table, without any such confession or absolution; which comfortable doctrine of God's free forgiveness of sins is also more largely set forth in the Homily of Repentance, and in that of the salvation of mankind."

The preface also says: "With respect to the Athanasian Creed, commonly so called, we have retained it unaltered among our formularies; but we have directed that only that part of it which is strictly speaking a confession of faith shall be recited on certain days, instead of the Apostles' Creed, declaring, nevertheless, that in this order it is not our meaning to withdraw the witness which the Church is ever bound to bear (and which we here solemnly bear) to the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the obligation which lies on every man, as he regards his everlasting salvation, to acquaint himself according to his ability with all that God has revealed, and to accept with faith and humility whatever shall

be sufficiently proposed to him out of the Word of God and proved by clear and certain warrant of Scripture."

The principal changes made in the PrayerBook were as follows: The sentences after the preface" concerning the service of the Church," beginning "Though it be appointed," and ending "pray with him," were omitted; also, in the title, "the order for morning and evening prayer daily to be read and used throughout the year.'

The saints whose names are printed in blackletter, and all the lessons from the Apocryphal books, were excluded from the Lectionary and Calendar.

The rubric called "the Ornaments Rubric" was omitted.

The so-called "Damnatory Clauses" were omitted from the Athanasian Creed. The creed was made to begin with the words "We worship one God in Trinity," and to omit the warning clauses in the necessity of belief in the Trinity and the Incarnation. The amended creed was appointed for recitation on three feast-days only of the year. To the rubric before the prayer for the Church Militant, "The priest shall then place upon the table so much bread and wine," were added the words "if he have not already done so," thus avoiding the idea of an oblation.

In the rubric before the Prayer of Consecration were added the words "standing at the north side of the table," making this position compulsory.

It was ordered that the communion office may begin with the collect, epistle, and gospel.

Instead of the words "Every parishioner shall communicate three times a year, of which Easter to be one," were inserted, "All ministers to exhort their people to communicate often."

In regard to the number of persons to whom the administration of the communion may be made, it was enacted that "the words may be used once to as many as shall together kneel." Evening communions were distinctly recognized.

The following new question and answer were inserted in the Catechism:

"After what manner are the body and blood of Christ taken and received in the Lord's Supper?

"Only after a heavenly and spiritual manner, and the means whereby they are received is faith."

Instead of the rubric in the Confirmation office, "And there shall none be admitted to the Holy Communion until such time as he be confirmed," etc., was inserted, "Every one ought to present himself for confirmation before he partakes of the Lord's Supper."

For "It is expedient that the new married shall receive the Holy Communion," etc., was inserted, "If there be no Communion, the minister shall say," etc.

A burial service was provided for unbaptized

infants or persons certified to have been desirous of and prepared for baptism.

The words "We give Thee hearty thanks" were omitted from the burial service.

In the service for the sick, the form of absolution in the communion service (the necessary change from plural to singular being made) was substituted for the form of absolution beginning "Our Lord Jesus Christ," etc., which it was directed should be omitted.

The alterations made in the Prayer-Book by the synod, particularly the emendation of the Athanasian Creed, excited opposition from a part of the Church. Shortly after the synod adjourned, Archdeacon Lee, of Dublin, made public the correspondence he had had with Dr. Pusey and Canon Liddon, of the English Church, in which he had proposed to establish a party who would hold to the Prayer-Book without revision, and would build churches in which it would be used in its old form. This movement does not seem to have secured any considerable following.

Synod of Rupert's Land.-The Provincial Synod of the new ecclesiastical province of Rupert's Land held its first meeting in St. John's Cathedral, Winnipeg, beginning August 3d. The diocese of Rupert's Land, Moosonee, and Saskatchewan, was represented by their bishops, the dioceses of Rupert's Land and Athabasca by lay delegates. It was resolved to address a communication through the metropolitan (the Bishop of Rupert's Land) to the Bishop of British Columbia, inviting his diocese to take such action as may lead to its union with the ecclesiastical province of Rupert's Land. The constitution of the new province was adopted. The three prayers for the Governor-General, for Parliament, and for the synod, already in use, were recommended for future use in the province.

ARGELANDER, FRIEDRICH WILHELM AUGUST, a celebrated German astronomer, was born March 22, 1799; died at Bonn, February 19, 1875. He studied in the University of Königsberg under Bessel, was successively instructor in the same university, director of the observatory at Abo and afterward at Helsingfors, and finally settled down as professor in Bonn in 1837. His principal works are: "Observationes astronomica Aboæ facta" (three vols., Helsingfors, 1830-'32); "Ueber die eigene Bewegung des Sonnensystems (St. Petersburg, 1837); "Neue Uranographie" (Berlin, 1843); and "Atlas des nördlichen gestirnten Himmels" (Bonn, 1857). The accuracy and trustworthiness of his figures in his first work, "Untersuchungen über die Bahn des grassen Kameten von 1811” (Königsberg, 1822), excited general attention at the time in astronomical circles, as it has been without parallel. In Argelander the astronomers lose one of their most prominent representatives. ARGENTINE REPUBLIC (REPÚBLICA ARGENTINA), an independent state of South America, extending from the 22d to the 41st parallel

of south latitude, and from 53° to 71° 17' west longitude. Its boundaries are: on the north, Bolivia; on the east, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, and the Atlantic; on the south, Patagonia, from which it is separated by the Rio Negro; and on the west, Chili, the dividing line with which is formed by a portion of the great Andine chain.

The boundary questions with Chili and Paraguay are still pending, nor does any advancement toward an amicable settlement seem to have been effected.

The efforts of a special envoy to the court of Rio de Janeiro, in the first half of 1875, to bring about a solution of the Paraguayan difficulty, proved unsuccessful; and the interchange of diplomatic correspondence between the Argentines and Chilians has been no less unremitting than in 1874, and the two years immediately preceding it, without any symptom of change in the determination of either Government to maintain its claim to Patagonia.

For territorial division, statistics concerning area, population, etc., reference may be made to the ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA for 1872.

The number of immigrants in 1874 fell very far short of the glowing estimates formed for that year, and based upon a steadily-increasing current which reached its maximum strength in 1873. Nor is the result confined to the Argentine Republic, a proportional decline having been reported in several countries in the same year 1874, and notably in the United States. An explanation of this decrease may perhaps be found in the extensive recruiting of some of the European armies, and the improved condition of the people in a few countries of Central and Western Europe.

Immigration to the Argentine Republic has, besides, been very irregular, as is shown by the annexed table, embracing the seven years 1868-'74:

Examine the years 1870 and 1871, and there is a decrease in the second of nearly one-half as compared with the first; and then 1873 and 1874, and the decline is 11,435. "It is impossible," observes Dr. Avellaneda, "to prevent the effects of war or crises. When poverty prevails, people will run away, as they are now doing in New York as well as in Buenos Ayres. But we can distribute immigrants better through the country; we can offer landgrants to industrious settlers and open up a fresh stream of hardy North Europeans by providing them with passages to Buenos Ayres at the same rate as they can procure them to the United States. Public opinion urgently calls upon Congress to adopt these measures. Meantime, I have done all that was in my power, forwarding immigrants to the upper provinces, organizing provincial committees, inciting the

several governors to cooperation, sending agents in all directions, and locating 4,400 people in the first quarter of 1875. In this number are included 25 sent to the Rio Bermejo, now open to steam navigation, and who will shortly be followed by thousands of others. During my tour through Entre-Rios I visited the rising blony of Villa Colon, where the custom-house yielded in the first quarter of 1874 and 1875 $3,000 and $16,000 respectively. In proof of the success of our agricultural colonies, I may add that the value of the grain-crop alone of those of Santa Fé amounted to $2,000,000 in 1874. To the Concordia colonists, on the western frontier of Buenos Ayres, who had suffered greatly by war and the failure of the crops, I had assistance promptly sent."

Indeed, in the early months of the year, the Government and the public press were very much concerned at the large numbers of foreigners who daily left the republic, mostly for Chili or Brazil, owing to the difficulty or rather impossibility of obtaining work in the city in consequence of the general stagnation in every branch of commerce and industry. A circular was addressed by the President to the governors of provinces, urging them to set apart lands for suitable families to settle upon, and an appeal made to Congress for the necessary funds for the successful establishment of colonies. Notwithstanding the vast and hitherto unreclaimed territories possessed by the several provinces, these have so far shown little disposition to make free land-grants to colonists individually, except in comparatively dangerous and exposed regions. A much-desired reform in this respect is, however, looked forward to at no far-distant day. The very existence of the republic depends upon its labor, and the distribution of that labor over its immense agricultural surface, where the most encouraging results are undoubtedly to be obtained. But existing circumstances are of a nature to turn any foreigners from venturing into the interior.

Official statistics showed the aggregate value of the property held by the settlers of the six flourishing colonies in Santa Fé to amount, in 1875, to rather more than $10,000,000, or an average of about $4,000 per family, against $3,000 in 1872. The farming stock was set down at 11,160 draught-oxen; 42,747 cows; 14,173 horses; 6,833 sheep; and 6,988 swine.

A project of a new homestead law was laid before Congress by the Government, and a large majority was in favor of its passage.

The President of the Republic is Dr. Don Nicolás Avellaneda (succeeded Señor Sarmiento in 1874); the Vice-President, Dr. Don Mariano Acosta (elected in the same year); Minister of the Interior, Dr. Don Simon de Iriondo; of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Don Bernardo de Irigóyen; of Finance, Señor Don Lúcas L. Gonzalez; of Justice, Public Worship, and Public Instruction, Señor Don O. Leguizamon; of War and Marine, Señor Don Adolfo Alsina. Argentine

On comparing the totals of these tables, a deficit of $9,838,582.30 will be observed; but it is here necessary to consider the unusually large outlay in the Ministry of War and Marine, no less than $3,076,156.33 having been incurred by the rebellion in Entre-Rios and that in Buenos Ayres, the first headed by Jordan, and the other by Mitre; and also the marked decrease in the revenue in 1874 as compared with that of 1873, notwithstanding the addition of a new source of national income, under the title " Lighthouses (which stands for nearly $4,000,000), as will be seen by the subjoined comparative table of the revenue for the two years mentioned:

In spite, however, of the decline in the revenue, all war expenses, as well as the ordinary expenditure of the budget, have been met; $4,500,000 of arrears have been paid to the War Department between January, 1874, and May, 1875; arms and ships, for which no special appropriation had been made, have likewise been paid for, and all without the slightest injury to the national credit, and even without the necessity of negotiating the balance of the loan in London. "The Minister of Finance," observes the President, "even in the darkest hour, paid no more than the national bank-rate for money."

The public works of the 1871 loan progressed uninterruptedly, and the expenses thereof were defrayed out of that loan.

In the estimated budget for 1874, the ordinary expenditure had been set down at $23,383,000; but, at the end of the year, there remained a surplus of $3,702,000. By virtue of special laws, an extraordinary expenditure of $25,000,000 had been authorized; but of that sum $8,929,000 only were used.

Concerning the foreign debt, amounting to about $50,000,000, some interesting details will be found in the ANNUAL CYCLOPEDIA for 1874 (page 32).

The following particulars relative to the home debts of the republic were published on April 12, 1875, by the national accountant, Sefor P. Agote: "The sum total of the home debt is somewhat over $21,000,000, being much under that of Uruguay. With us it amounts to about $10, while in the other republic it is between $50 and $60, for each inhabitant." Here follow the different branches of the debt:

average cost of $42,461 each; 2 brigs, $14,000 and $500; 1 pontoon, $12,000; 4 faluas, $1,000 each; and 1 gig, $160; total cost $1,842,660.

On the subject of public instruction, so peculiarly favored in the Argentine Republic, and especially so by the present zealous and indefatigable minister, Señor Leguizamon, the following remarks are quoted from the President's message to Congress in May last:

The census of schools has been retarded by war; but we have to report renewed activity in Mendoza, Santa Fé, Entre-Rios, and Buenos Ayres. In Mendoza City we find one-fifth of the inhabitants attending school, including night schools for adults. A normal school is about to be opened in Tucuman; that of Paraná has doubled the number of its pupils. The government of Buenos Ayres has approved the plan for the normal school for females, for which the national Treasury holds $40,000, appropriated by act of Congress. The National College of Rosario was opened on March 1st. There are in the other fourteen national colleges 4,000 pupils, and since January, we have appointed sixty professors for new courses of study. Apparatus for the natural sciences, books, etc., have been ordered from Europe, and the number of the latter, as also that of free libraries, will greatly increase in the current year. The Córdoba Academy of Sciences has been reopened, and the new building is rapidly pushed forward toward completion. The Faculty of Science in Buenos Ayres has been remodeled; institutions of this kind raise our intellectual level, and bestow lasting glory on the country. Dr. Gould (an American, director of the National Observatory of Córdoba) has presented two luminous reports on the Astronomical and Meteorological Departments. "We shall," he says, " shortly require funds for the publication of the Uranometria Argentina, and climatic observations, which will form a voluminous work."

Several scientific associations in the United States

have sent us donations of valuable works as an encouragement to our efforts. Such friends deserve our public thanks.*

Thanks to the unremitting efforts of Señor Leguizamon, the normal school bill, of which a translation is here annexed, became a law during the second session of Congress:

BUENOS AYRES, October 13, 1875. Whereas, the Senate and Chamber of Deputies of the Argentiue nation, assembled in Congress, have decreed:

ARTICLE I. That the Executive be empowered to establish a normal school, for the preparation of schoolmistresses for the elementary branches of edu̟cation, in the capital of each province that demands one, and that offers as basis a suitable location belonging either to the province or to the municipality, or that may procure such location out of the national resources, in accordance with the general law of sub ventions.

The first course of instruction being terminated, the Executive will hand over the normal schools to such provinces as will bind themselves to defray the expenses required for their support, either wholly, or in accordance with the law of September 25, 1871. ART. II. Annexed to every normal school will be established a graduate school, which will serve as a scale for normal studies, and at the same time a practical course for the female teachers to be prepared therein.

of three years, and the graduate school two years,

ART. III. The normal course will embrace a term

* Minute educational statistics will be found in the ANNUAI CYCLOPEDIA for 1874.