year. The sum of $33,160 had been added to the trust and endowment funds, and $12,245 to funds on which annuities were paid. The operations of the society had been enlarged, particularly in the West, and 392 missionaries had been sustained, being 111 more than were employed in the previous year. Of these missionaries, 209 had labored among Americans, 40 among Germans, 30 among Scandinavians, 6 among French, 11 among Indians, 21 among freedmen, and 3 among Chinese. Eleven schools had been sustained, which employed 63 teachers and were attended by 1,649 scholars. Twelve hundred and two churches and outstations, having 16,279 members, had been supplied, 61 churches organized, and 554 Sunday-schools, with an attendance of 29,090, cared for by the missionaries. The number of schools among the freedmen had been increased, by the addition of the schools at Selma, Alabama, and Live Oak, Florida, to ten. Among their students, 367 had the ministry in view. The students had paid a larger sum for tuition than ever before; and the freed people had contributed for the purposes of the schools $2,000 in Alabama, nearly $1,000 in South Carolina, $400 in Florida, and $2,000 in Texas and the Southwest; and they were raising funds in Georgia for the erection of a building at Atlanta for the education of young women. An institution was to be established at Marshall, Texas, to be known as "Bishop College." The "Indian University" at Tahlequah, Indian Territory, which had been opened about a year before, had been attended by fifty-seven students, five of whom were studying for the ministry. The establishment of a school at Ogden, Utah, as a means for acquiring influence among the Mormons, was recommended. Preparations had been made to resume the work of the society in Mexico, which, first begun in 1869, had been suspended in 1876.

The anniversary of the American Baptist Missionary Union was held May 21st, the Rev. George D. Boardman, D. D., presiding. The total receipts of the society for the year had been $313,774, of which $24,971 were for invested funds, leaving $288,803 applicable to its general purposes. The appropriations had amounted to $300,653, so that the accounts showed a deficit of $11,850. The condition of the several missions is exhibited in the following table:

Total number of persons baptized during the year, 9,143. Reports were made concerning editions of the Bible and the New Testament in Burman, Karen, Shan, Telinga, the Garos language, Japanese, and the colloquial dialect of Swatow, China.

Recommendations were adopted that it should be made an object to place the Bible in the hands of every Christian family in the missions any of whose members can read or can be easily taught to read, and the New Testament in the hands of children in the Sunday and day schools; to encourage the circulation of the Bible among nominal Christians who can read, with special efforts to induce them to read it, while taking care at the same time not to place the book in the hands of those who will wantonly destroy it.

The Southern Baptist Convention met at Columbus, Mississippi, May 5th. The Rev. P. H. Mell, D. D., was chosen president. The Foreign Mission Board reported that its receipts had been $46,820, and that the debt of the previous year had been paid. An application had been made for the appointment of missionaries to Cuba, and the Secretary of State of the United States had been asked whether such missionaries would be protected and tolerated. The Secretary had replied that they would be protected as citizens, but that no assurance could be given in advance as to the action of foreign authorities toward the missionaries themselves or in respect to their work. The reports of the condition of the several missions may be summarized as follows: Mexico: Thirteen churches had been organized, of which five had been afterward disbanded, leaving eight churches, with 200 members. The missionary, Rev. J. O. Westrup, had been murdered in December, 1880, and a successor to him was to be appointed. Brazil: Three missionaries, two churches, 44 members. Africa (Lagos, Abbeokuta, and Ogbomosho): five missionaries, 92 members. China (Tung Chow, Shanghai, and Canton): 12 missionaries, 18 native assistants, 543 members, 190 pupils. Italy: Four foreign missionaries, 10 native evangelists, 11 stations, 175 members. Efforts had been made to secure the co-operation of the colored Baptists of all the States in prosecuting African missions, but with only partial success. The Home Mission Board had received and expended $27,869. A church with ten members had been organized in San Francisco, California, in connection with the Chinese mission at that place. Buildings had been erected for the Levering Indian Institute in the Creek nation, and the school would be opened in the fall. The missionaries of the board had labored in eight States, where their work was supplemented by that of the missionaries of the State Conventions. They had themselves supplied 59 churches and 48 other stations. Three hundred and fifty women's societies had collected $6,000 for the purposes of the convention.

A Missionary Convention of Colored Baptists of the South was held at Montgomery, Alabama, in the last days of 1880, and organized the Baptist Foreign Missionary Convention of the United States, the object of which was declared to be to give the Gospel to the people of Africa and elsewhere through missionary and educational work. A scheme for home missionary work was also devised. The convention was attended by delegates from Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

II. SEVENTH-DAY BAPTISTS.-The sixty-seventh annual meeting of the Seventh-Day Baptist General Conference was held at Farina, Illinois, beginning September 21st. Joshua Clarke presided. Two new churches were admitted to membership in the conference, and a third church had been partly organized. A small increase was reported in the number of members of the church. The number added by baptism had been greater than in any previous year for a long time past, and the additions by letter had exceeded the dismissions, but the number of exclusions had been unusually large. The number of Sabbath-schools was 94, with 6,913 persons attending them as officers, teachers, and scholars. A committee which had been appointed to co-operate with the friends of civil liberty in Pennsylvania for the exemption of Sabbath-keepers from the penalties of the Sunday laws of that State, made a report of its work. It had solicited essays in support of its efforts from men of several denominations and from professional men, and had secured many expressions of sympathy, but had not succeeded in getting any formal papers prepared on the subject; and it had obtained a large number of signatures to petitions. A few persons declined to give their support to the movement because it did not go as far as they would have it, in that it did not seek the unconditional repeal of the Sunday law. A bill to protect "religious liberty was introduced in the Legislature of Pennsylvania by Mr. H. Gates Jones, and was supported by public meetings and addresses prompted by the committee, but was opposed by persons who were unwilling to tolerate any relaxation of the Sunday laws of the State; and it failed to pass in the Senate by lacking one vote of receiving a constitutional majority, although twenty-five votes were cast in its favor to fifteen against it. The Committee on Denominational History reported that a complete history was in course of preparation.

The Seventh-Day Baptist Missionary Society, whose anniversary was held in connection with the General Conference, had sustained home and foreign missions. The home missions returned 20 missionaries and missionary pastors laboring in 11 States, with 29 churches and 43 other preaching stations supplied, 26 Bibleschools, and 212 "Sabbath -keeping" families. The foreign mission is at Shanghai, Chi

na, and returned one missionary and his wife and one missionary teacher, two native preachers, one Bible woman, one Sabbath-school and two day-schools, a church of about twenty members, and missionary buildings valued at $7,400. The subject of extending missionary work in Holland beyond the bounds of the church at Haarlem was under consideration. III. OLD OR GENERAL BAPTISTS OF RHODE ISLAND.-The two hundred and eleventh anniversary of the Old or General Baptists of Rhode Island was held in Coventry, September 7th, 8th, and 9th. The Rev. J. Porter was moderator. The body consists of twelve churches, containing in all about 1,200 members. The churches reported no special revivals, "but fair interest and general 'steadfastness.""

IV. THE BRETHREN, OR TUNKERS. — The Brethren are represented in twenty States. Their churches return 1,578 ministers, 306 of whom are in Pennsylvania, 248 in Indiana, 227 in Ohio, 142 in Illinois, and 133 in Iowa.

The regular Annual Meeting of the Brethren, or Tunkers, was held at Ashland, Ohio, in June. As in former years, much of the time of the meeting was spent in answering queries from district meetings in regard to the mode of dress. It was decided that a church letter ought not to be given to a member who does not dress in the uniform of the church; that only those who conform to the order of dress be appointed on committees to settle difficulties arising on this subject; that those only who dress themselves and wear their hair according to the regulations should be appointed delegates to the annual meeting, in which such only are permitted to speak; that sisters may wear coats of a certain pattern (formerly prohibited), and that they ought not to wear hats. One of the journals of the denomination noticed as signs of the advances which the Brethren were gradually making toward conformity with modern ideas, that the meeting was held in the "Campus" and "under the very shadow of a Brethren's College," and that the standing committee held its sessions in one of the recitation-rooms of the college, "in which there stood at the self-same time a musical instrument-even a forte-piano"; also that a collection was taken for the building of a meeting-house and parsonage in Denmark, a thing that would not have been tolerated on the grounds of the annual meeting sixteen years before. These movements toward conformity with the world have resulted in the formation of three parties among the Brethren: the "Progressives"; those who contend for the old order; and those who occupy a middle position, and deprecate, on the one hand, departures from the established order of the Brethren, and, on the other hand, intolerance of differences and too rigid adherence to unessential matters.

A convention of Old-Order Brethren held in Maryland adopted a protest against the course

of the annual meeting in tolerating "grave departures from ancient principles," and a platform of principles, among which were declarations in favor of baptism by trine immersion, "both administrator and candidate going into the stream, accompanied by the laying on of hands and prayer in the water, there being no gospel for baptizing either sick or well persons in a mechanical vessel, in a house or outside"; feet-washing by the double mode; the Lord's Supper a full meal; sisters to have their heads covered with the plain white cap, brethren to have their heads uncovered in time of praying or prophesying; "plainness in all things by all, and uniformity in non-conformity to the world; ... colleges and high-schools, being of the world, belong not to the church, nor to the humble followers of Christ "; Sundayschools not of Gospel authority; "taxation for missionary purposes unscriptural; salaried or paid ministry unscriptural, as understood by our ancient brethren; special educational preparation for the ministry not according to the Gospel, as understood by our ancient brethren"; no life insurance; no oath-bound or secret orders; non-resistance; non-swearing; brethren not to be permitted to engage in political affairs by voting and holding oathbound offices under the civil laws. The several churches and meetings have been considerably agitated in consequence of these differ

ences.

V. BAPTISTS OF THE MARITIME PROVINCES.The thirty-sixth annual convention of the Baptistsof the Maritime Provinces met at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, August 20th, and was attended by an unusual number of delegates. F. H. Rand, LL. D., was chosen president. The statistical reports showed that 1,260 persons had been baptized during the year. The convention sustained three foreign mission stations in the Teloogoo country of India, at which eight converts had been baptized since the previous year's report. The income of the Board of Missions had been $5,400, and its expenditures $6,150. The Board of Home Missions had employed 48 missionaries, who supplied 86 churches and 206 out-stations at an outlay of $5,204. The "convention scheme" of finance, which contemplates the raising for benevolent purposes of a sum equivalent to a dollar a person for the entire membership of the churches, had been nearly successful.

VI. PARTICULAR BAPTISTS IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.-The annual meetings in connection with the Baptist Union of England and Ireland were held in London in April, beginning on the 26th. The Rev. Henry Dowson was chosen president of the Union for the year. The financial reports showed that the number of churches and of single members contributing to the funds of the Union had considerably increased. A resolution on public affairs was adopted expressing satisfaction with the domestic and foreign policy of the Government, the belief that it would persevere in its determina

tion to do what is just and right, and the assurance that if it pursued that course it would have the support of the masses of the people. A petition to Parliament was adopted in favor of the suppression of the opium-trade. A petition coming from members of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge asking that the Baptist Union, in connection with the Congregational Union, would arrange for the delivery of lectures or sermons in the university towns on the principles of non-conformity, was referred to a committee.

The managers of the Baptist Building Fund had granted thirty-five loans, amounting to £8,032, and reported twenty-two new chapels opened and six chapels enlarged and improved. The receipts of the Bible Translation Society had been £2,392. The invested capital of the Baptist Annuity Fund had been increased to £78,000.

The Union met in its autumnal session at Portsmouth, October 26th, and was opened by President Dowson with an address on "Spiritual Life in Connection with the Assemblies and Operations of the Union."

The eighty-ninth annual meeting of the Baptist Missionary Society was held in London, April 26th. The receipts of the society had been £51,459, the largest amount of income reported in its history. Of this amount £11,915 had been contributed for special purposes, including £4,000 given by Mr. Arthington, of Leeds, for the Congo mission, and £3,421 which had been given by the churches for the benefit of sufferers by a cyclone in Jamaica. The missions of the society are in India, Ceylon, China, Japan, Africa, the West Indies, and Jamaica, and parts of Europe, and returned 95 missionaries and assistants wholly, and 18 partly, supported by the society, 61 pastors of self-supporting churches, 258 evangelists, 536 stations and sub-stations, 3,373 persons baptized during the year, 38,397 members, 172 teachers, 5,815 day-scholars, and 5,828 Sunday-scholars.

In India, two editions of the New Testament in Bengali (one with references), and one edition in Hindi, had been completed, and a large number of Scriptures and tracts in the Kaithi language had been printed. The revision of the Singhalese New Testament, begun in 1876, had been completed. The thirty-two native churches in Shansi and Shantung were all selfsupporting and ministered to by Chinese pastors, and had received a large number of converts. In Western Africa a branch station from Bukundu had been established, nearly a hundred miles in the interior. The missionaries to Central Africa had not yet reached their destination at Stanley Pool, on the Congo, but had labored with effect in San Salvador and the neighboring towns.

VII. GENERAL BAPTISTS IN GREAT BRITAIN. -The one hundred and twelfth annual meeting of the General Baptist Association was held at Norwich, June 21st. The Rev. Dawson Burns presided. Reports were received from 154

churches of 1,368 additions by baptism, of a clear increase of 441, and a total of about 26,000 members. The receipts for foreign missions had been £7,766, and the expenditures £8,518.

A "Local Preachers' Conference was held during the meeting of the association, at which a paper was read on the need of increased and better organized local preachers' work in the churches. The establishment of home-mission centers, to be under the direction of the conference to which they belong, was recommended. In a Sunday-school conference, the establishment of weekly services for children, a union for young converts, and special evangelistic services, were recommended. Numerous services for children of the kind suggested were already held weekly in London, Liverpool, and Paris. The "association letter" on the adaptation of the church to the wants of the times, suggested that such modifications in creed and practice as were made necessary in the light of modern discoveries should be accepted, that a wider policy should be allowed in baptism, and that open fellowship should be permitted. Another "association letter" was read upon the subject of "open fellowship.' BEACONSFIELD, EARL OF. (See DisRAELI, BENJAMIN.)

BELGIUM, a kingdom of Europe. Leopold II, King of the Belgians, born April 9, 1835, is the son of King Leopold I, former Duke of Saxe-Cobourg, and ascended the throne at his death, December 10, 1865. He was married August 22, 1853, to Marie Henriette, daughter of the late Archduke Joseph of Austria (born August 23, 1836), who has borne him three daughters. The heir-apparent to the throne is the brother of the King, Philip, Count of

YEAR.

Births,

Flanders, born March 24, 1837, lieutenantgeneral in the service of Belgium, who was married, April 26, 1867, to Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (born November 17, 1845), and has two sons, Baldwin, born July 3, 1869, and Albert, born April 8, 1875. The oldest daughter, Princess Louisa, born February 18, 1858, was married on February 4, 1875, to Prince Philipp, Duke of Saxe-Cobourg and Gotha.

The area of this kingdom is 29,455 16 square kilometres (1 square kilometre = 0·386 square mile) or 11,373 square miles. The population, according to the census of December 31, 1876, was 5,336,189, and in December, 1879, according to a calculation based upon the movement of population, 5,536,654. The following table exhibits the population of each province at the close of 1878:

1873.

1874.

1875.

1876..

1877.

1878.

1879.

Marriages.

Still-born children.

Surplus of births.

Francs.

The

219,959,632

883,707,100

672,741,882

184,719,000

1,409,635

7,611,960

2,539,680

318,511,878

1,741,200,267

Of the total births in 1879, 168,724 were legitimate, and 14,059 were illegitimate. number of divorces amounted to 151.

The number of representatives in the Lower House of the Chambers is 132, the number of senators is 66. In order to be eligible for election to the Chamber of Representatives, it is necessary to be twenty-five years of age, and a citizen of Belgium. On the other hand, no one is eligible to the Senate who does not pay direct taxes to the amount of 1,000 florins (2,116 francs). Under this law there are at present but 507 Belgians eligible to the Senate. The number of persons entitled to vote at general elections was, in 1881, 116,090.

The public debt on August 1, 1880, was as follows:

Two and a half per cent debt...
Three per cent loans from 1878 to 1878.
Four per cent debt (1871 to 1879).
Four per cent loan of 1850..
Rentes funded at 3 per cent..
Rentes funded at 5 per cent..
Five per cent annuities to the Netherlands.
Annuities for repurchasing railroads at 4 per
cent......

Total...

The immigration into Belgium has since 1871 always exceeded the emigration from the country. In 1879, there were 14,234 immigrants and 12,474 emigrants.

The budget for the years 1879 and 1880 estimated receipts and expenditures as follows (in francs):

The Chamber of Deputies, which adjourned December 24, 1880, resumed its sittings on the 25th of January. The conflict between the Church and the Liberals, on the educational question, continued in and out of Parliament. By the gain of a seat by the Clericals, the Liberal majority in the Senate was reduced to four. A parliamentary investigation into the condition of schools and the character of the instruction imparted excited the indignation of the Clericals, who appealed to the article of the Constitution which leaves it free to any one to open a school and receive pupils. The purpose of the investigation was to show by the testimony of experienced pedagogues and schoolinspectors, whose judgment would have weight in the country, that the schools which had been hastily established everywhere by the clergy to compete with the state schools, were taught by incompetent and ignorant persons. The majority in Parliament were moved, by the obstructions cast by the Church party in the way of the new system of education, to take reprisals in the form of a reduction of the budget of Public Worship.

The Minister of Justice, by request, laid before the Chamber of Deputies a statement of the amount of the stipends paid to the clergy as compared with 1832. There are 4,997 of the lower clergy, whose salaries amount to 4,384,937 francs, against 2,335,795 for 3,870 stipendiaries fifty years ago. The lower clergy consists of 91 parish priests of the first and 140 of the second class, 2,804 curates, 179 chaplains, 1,667 vicars, and seven coadjutors, with ten chaplaincies and ninety-nine vicarships unfilled. The higher clergy and seminaries draw from the state 321,000 francs against 235,232 in 1832.

In the discussion upon the proposed revision of the annual fund for ecclesiastical maintenance, Minister Bara laid down the principle that the granting of the budget for Public Worship was purely a state act, to be determined from motives of public policy, and that it was based upon no convention between the Church and the state. Jacobs, the Clerical champion, argued on the contrary that the budget was a poor and inadequate indemnity repaid to the Church for the property of which it was robbed in the Revolution. The Government refrained from retaliating the hostilities of the clergy by cutting down the salaries of the bishops and the parochial clergy. A motion of the Radicals to do this was voted down by 95 to 26 majority. In the budget, which was voted in March, a large aggregate reduction was effected by abolishing chaplaincies, suppressing the pay of supernumerary assistant clergy, and withholding the annual grants to the ecclesiastical seminaries. The last retrenchment was justified on the ground that these institutions have abundant revenues of their own. Bara announced that the care of souls in the army would devolve upon the parochial clergy. The army he declared to be no more in need of re