connected with the churches, 187,617; number of persons connected with Sunday-schools, 444,628. Total amount of benevolent contributions from 2,896 churches reporting them, $1,032,272; amount of contributions for home expenditure from 2,613 churches reporting, $3,446,489.

The seven theological seminaries (Andover, Andover, Massachusetts; Bangor, Bangor, Maine; Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut; Oberlin, Oberlin, Ohio; Pacific, Oakland, California; and Yale, New Haven, Connecticut) returned altogether, 36 professors, 19 lecturers, and 279 students.

According to the tables given in their "Year Book" for 1881-'82, the Congregationalists of the Dominion of Canada have 91 churches with 51 pastors, 28 assemblies not churches, 84 preaching-stations, an average attendance on worship of 13,210 persons, with a total of 17,627 persons under pastoral care, 5,653 churchmembers, and 6,753 Sunday-school scholars. The "

Year-Book" of the Congregational Churches of England and Wales for 1881 gives lists of 4,188 churches and 2,723 pastors, lay pastors, and evangelists. Seventy-five ministers had been ordained during the year. Eighteen ministers left the denomination, and as many had been received from other churches. I. CONGREGATIONALISTS IN THE UNITED STATES. The working capital of the American Congregational Union for the year ending May 1, 1881, was $55,359. The society had made grants and loans (mostly grants) to 71 churches. During the twenty-eight years of its existence, the Union had aided in the erection of 1,120 houses of worship, and it was now pledged to sixty additional ones.

The fifty-fifth annual meeting of the American Home Missionary Society was held in the city of New York, May 8th. The receipts of the society for the year had been $290,953, and its expenditures $284,414. It sustained missions in thirty-four States and Territories, employing 1,032 missionaries, who served 2,653 preaching places. Five of the missionaries were commissioned to congregations composed of colored people, and twenty-six to congregations of foreign nationalities, chiefly of Welsh. The number of pupils in Sunday-schools was 99,898. Seventeen more missionaries were enployed than during the previous year, and 131 churches had been founded.

A committee appointed to consider the subject of amending the constitution of the society has made a report proposing certain provisions for securing its constant control by influences favorable to the "evangelical" side of religious belief. The society was founded as an undenominational agency to assist congregations unable to support a minister, and to send the gospel to destitute places, and was supported for many years jointly by Congregationalists and Presbyterians. The Presbyterians having formed their own societies, it was left in the hands of the Congregationalists, who, however,

exercised no direct control over it as such. The committee recommended that the articles defining the object of the society be amended by the insertion of the words "but no minister or teacher shall be employed by this society who is not in regular standing in some Protestant evangelical church," and that the several State Congregational bodies be given the right to nominate, according to their membership, one or more directors, to be chosen by the society at its annual meeting. The committee also proposed that the Board of Directors thus chosen, besides selecting the Executive Committee of fourteen, as now, be also given authority to name the secretary and treasurer of the society.

The thirty-fifth annual meeting of the American Missionary Association was held at Worcester, Massachusetts, November 1st, 2d, and 3d. The total ordinary receipts of the association for the year had been $243,795, or $56,315 more than the receipts of the previous year. Besides this amount, the following sums had been received by institutions in which the association has an interest: Berea College, $60,106; Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, $102,579; Atlanta University (appropriation from the State of Georgia), $8,000—making, with $114,563 received for endowment and special funds, the total receipts for the work in which the association is engaged, $529,046.

The association conducts missions and schools among the freedmen in the Southern States; at the Mendi mission on the west coast of Africa; among the Indians at the Skokomish agency; and among the Chinese on the Pacific coast of the United States. Its work among the freedmen included, according to the report for the past year, eight chartered institutions, and forty-six normal and common schools, with 230 teachers and 9,108 students, and 78 churches, with 5,472 church-members and 8,130 persons in Sunday-schools. The pupils in the schools were classified as follows: theological, 104; law, 20; collegiate, 91; collegiate preparatory, 131; normal, 2,342; grammar, 473; intermediate, 2,722; primary, 3,361; studying in two grades, 136. Seven State Conferences, holding annual conventions, had been organized among the freedmen's churches. Eleven missionaries had been commissioned to labor in the homes of the poor and destitute colored people. The Mendi mission, in West Africa, comprised a church and school, which had been well kept up, a coffee-farm that promised to make a good return, and a profitable saw-mill. Three lads from the Mendi country were at school in the United States. Commissioners had been dispatched to arrange for the establishment of a mission on the Upper Nile, near the mouth of the Sobat, in aid of which $30,000 were expected from English friends of the work, conditioned upon the association providing $20,000 more. The two churches among the Indians enjoyed an average attend

ance of about one hundred and twenty persons in the congregations, and had contributed $614 to benevolent objects. Indian youth under the tutelage of the society were attending school at the Hampton Institute, Virginia, and at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and the Executive Committee was contemplating the provision of accommodations for Indian youth in connection with other institutions. Sixteen hundred and thirty-two pupils were enrolled in the schools for the Chinese on the Pacific coast of the United States.

The seventy-second annual meeting of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was held at St. Louis, Missouri, October 18th. The ordinary receipts of the board for the year had been $451,214, and the appropriations, including provision to meet the deficit of the previous year, had been $453,273; and the Prudential Committee was able to report, for the first time for several years, that the current annual expenses had been met by the current annual receipts; it also reported that the deficit at the beginning of the year, of more than $14,000, had been reduced to $2,059. Nine missionaries and thirty-one assistant missionaries had been added to the roll of the laborers of the board. The reports from the mission-fields included accounts of the progress of the work of evangelization in Africa (Zooloos), the Turkish Empire (European Turkey, Asia Minor, and Armenia), India, Ceylon, China, Japan, Micronesia, among the North American Indians, in Mexico, Spain, and the Austrian Empire. The report named, as events worthy of especial mention, the establishment of a new mission in Bihé, Central Africa; the advance in the higher Christian education in the Turkish Empire and in India; the success which had attended the work of the women "in nearly every mission-field"; and the illustration of the value of the boarding-schools in the development of Christian character.

Missions.-Number of missions, 17; number of stations, 81; number of out-stations, 733.

Laborers employed.-Number of ordained missionaries (5 being physicians), 159; number of physicians not ordained, men and women, 11; number of other male assistants, 10; number of female assistants, 253; whole number of laborers sent from the United States, 433. Number of native pastors, 141; number of native preachers and catechists, 365; number of native school-teachers, 1,005; number of other native helpers, 206. Whole number of laborers connected with the missions, 2,131.

The Press-Pages printed, as far as reported (Turkish, Japan, North China, Zooloo, and India missions), 25,000,000.

The Churches.-Number of churches, 272; number of church-members, as nearly as can be learned, 18,446; added during the year, as nearly as can be learned, with additions not previously reported, 2,161.

Educational Department.-Number of training, theological schools, and station-classes, 51; number of pupils in the above, 1,468; number of boarding-schools for girls, 36; number of pupils in boarding-schools for girls, 1,420; number of common schools, 791; number of pupils in common schools, 30,472; whole number of pupils, 33,360.

The National Congregational Council of 1880 appointed a committee to which it intrusted the duty of selecting a commission of twentyfive persons to consider the matter of preparing a new Creed and Catechism for the Congregational churches. This committee, in June, 1881, announced the appointment of the following persons as members of the commission: Rev. Julius H. Seelye, D. D., Amherst, Mass. Rev. Charles M. Mead, D. D., Andover, Mass. Rev. Henry M. Dexter, D. D., Boston, Mass. Rev. Edmund K. Alden, D. D., Boston, Mass. Rev. Alexander McKenzie, D. D., Cambridge, Mass. Rev. Samuel Harris, D. D., New Haven, Conn. Rev. George P. Fisher, D. D., New Haven, Conn. Rev. George L. Walker, D. D., Hartford, Conn. Rev. William S. Karr, D. D., Hartford, Conn. Prof. George T. Ladd, Brunswick, Me. Rev. Samuel P. Leeds, D. D., Hanover, N. H. Rev. David B. Coe, D. D., New York, N. Y. Rev. William M. Taylor, D. D., New York, N. Y. Rev. Lyman Abbott, D. D., Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, N. Y.

Rev. Augustus F. Beard, D. D., Syracuse, N. Y. Rev. William W. Patton, D. D., Washington,

D. C.

Rev. James H. Fairchild, D. D., Oberlin, O.
Rev. Israel W. Andrews, D. D., Marietta, O.
Rev. Zachary Eddy, D. D., Detroit, Mich.
Rev. James T. Hyde, D. D., Chicago, Ill.
Rev. Edward P. Goodwin, D. D., Chicago, Ill.
Rev. Alden B. Robbins, D. D., Muscatine, Ia.
Rev. Constans L. Goodell, D. D., St. Louis, Mo.
Rev. Richard Cordley, D. D., Emporia, Kan.
Rev. George Mooar, D. D., Oakland, Cal.

In announcing the appointments, the committee stated that, in making the selection, different sections of the country had been drawn upon somewhat in proportion to the membership in the Congregational churches in each. The list embraced men who were understood to represent different shades of opinion, while holding fast to the essential doctrines of the gospel. With a large proportion of pastors were joined representatives of theological seminaries and colleges, of the religious press, and of the missionary work of the churches.

The commission met at Syracuse, New York, September 28th; Professor Julius H. Seelye, of Amherst College, presided. The work assigned to the body was considered, and a plan of operations was adopted. The commission was divided into three committees, namely: a committee on the larger confession of faith, President James H. Fairchild, of Oberlin College, chairman; a committee on the smaller statement of belief, Rev. Dr. E. P. Goodwin, of Chicago, chairman; and a committee on the catechism, Rev. Dr. Alexander McKenzie, of Cambridge, chairman. The reports of the committees are to be made to the full commission, to be called together before July 15, 1882.

II. CONGREGATIONALISTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES. The forty-ninth annual meeting of the Congregational Union of England and Wales was held in London, May 9th. The Rev. Dr. Allon presided, and delivered an inaugural address on the subject of "Congregationalism," treating the subject with especial reference to the approaching jubilee of the Union. He showed that of the eighty-two million persons constituting the religious denominations of the English-speaking world, twenty-five millions, including the Baptist churches, held to the Congregational, thirtytwo million Anglicans and Roman Catholics to the Episcopal, and twenty-five million Presbyterians and Methodists to the Presbyterian form of government. He believed that the New Testament laid down no principle, injunction, or precedent concerning church government, but that the validity of the congregational church life could be justified by an appeal to the congregationalism of the earliest Christian communities. Referring to the history of the Union, the speaker remarked that it had given birth to evangelizing agencies of various kinds which had nearly doubled the forces of English congregationalism during the last fifty years. Since 1838, the number of chapels had increased from 1,879 to 3,102, with 1,081 preaching-stations; of hearers, from 563,200 to 962,100; and of communicants from 169,110 to 313,807. The committee on the special jubilee fund reported that it had decided to recommend two objects, viz., the Church Aid Society, and the project for liquidating church debts, which were stated to amount, in the aggregate, to half a million pounds sterling. These propositions were unanimously approved. A resolution was passed recommending a godly, scriptural discipline, both in the admission of members and in the rebuke or exclusion of the unworthy." The Rev. J. A. Macfadyen, of Manchester, was elected president of the Union for the next year. The fiftieth anniversary of the organization of the Union was celebrated at the autumnal meeting, which was held in Manchester, beginning October 4th. A large deputation was in attendance from the United States, and delegates were also present from Canada, Ireland, Scotland, Africa, and Australia. The opening address of the president, Dr. Allon, was on "The Church of the Future," and embodied an argument to show that the "future will be with the church that has in it the greatest moral forces," those being declared the greatest moral forces which most powerfully affect the "conscience and the religious heart of man." The Rev. Dr. Stoughton read a paper also at the opening meeting on "Reminiscences of Congregationalism Fifty Years ago." A committee which had been appointed to raise a jubilee fund reported that it had obtained subscriptions to the amount of £50,179. Lectures on the history and condition of Congregationalism were contemplated in aid of the

enterprise. The fund was intended to remove the load of debt under which many of the churches were suffering, and to supplement the pay of ministers, but the institution of a system of permanent endowment was not contemplated. The subscriptions would be spread over three or five years, at the end of which time it was expected that the income of the churches would be permanently and voluntarily increased.

The eighty-seventh annual meeting of the London Missionary Society was held in London, May 12th. The Earl of Aberdeen presided. The receipts of the society during the year from all sources had amounted to £108,247, and the expenditures to £111,659. The report of the foreign secretary contained a general comparative review of the operations of the society during the last ten years. The number of European missionaries had been reduced from 175 in 1867 and 160 in 1871 to 139, but the reduction had not been attended with a corresponding contraction in the sphere of labor of the society, for the principle of selfsupport had been extended. Ten churches in South Africa and eleven churches in the West Indies had become independent during the last ten years. The number of native laborers had also largely increased to a degree represented by the return of 371 native ordained pastors in 1880 to 106 in 1870, of 4,529 native preachers in 1880 to 1,644 in 1870, besides a considerable increase among the independent churches of the West Indies and the Cape Colony. New missions had been begun in Central Africa and New Guinea, which employed twelve missionaries. Training institutes were in successful operation in the South-Sea Islands, Madagascar (Antananarivo College), and in South Africa (Moffat Institute). Fourteen women missionaries additional to wives of missionaries had been sent out since 1876, of whom eleven were still engaged in work. The most successful work had been accomplished in Madagascar and the South-Sea Islands, and substantial progress had been made in India and China. The Rev. Ralph Wardlaw Thompson entered upon the office of foreign secretary of the society in January, 1881, in place of the Rev. Dr. Mullens, deceased.

III. FREE CHURCHES OF FRANCE.-The Synod of the Union of Free Evangelical Churches of France met in Paris, November 10th. Dr. E. de Pressénsé was chosen president. The Synodal Commission reported the present number of members to be 3,139, or 88 less than were returned at the previous synod. Three pastors had left the synod for the Reformed Church, while the synod had received three pastors from abroad and had ordained six new ones. total contributions of the churches had been 55,389 francs, besides which the synod had received 30,180 francs from abroad. The Commission for Evangelization had received 96,606 francs, and maintained thirteen stations, which were supplied by fourteen agents.

The

North

York.

Carolina.

In the Senate, on January 12th, Senator Logan, of Illinois, introduced the following joint resolution:

Resolved, etc., That the franking privilege is hereby extended to all official business sent through the mails by Senators, Representatives, and Delegates in Congress in all other respects to be under the restrictions and limitations of existing law.

Mr. Davis, of West Virginia: "I have no objection to the joint resolution being taken up, but it occurs to me the Senator had better let it go to the Committee on Post-Offices and PostRoads. There may be further privileges which ought to be given. I do not know whether the joint resolution embraces all the privileges that ought to be granted or not. I am with the Senator in what he now asks, but it is highly probable that the joint resolution ought