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tries of Europe; the wars in South America, Afghanistan, the Transvaal, and Turkistan; the revolutionary upheaval in Russia and the terrible murder of the Czar; the persecutions of the Jews in Germany and Russia; the developments of the still unsolved Eastern question; the social reforms in Germany; the rapid political changes in republican France; the liberal movements in Italy and Spain-are a few of the subjects of which an account is given, together with all the latest statistical information, under the names of the different countries, or dealt with in special articles, such as "Jews, Persecutions of "; "Islam, the Future of"; "Brahmo Somaj"; "Land Tenure in Europe"; "Opium-Trade of India and China"; "Russian Government, its Features."

Religious and denominational information is given under the names of the denominations, and a special article on the "New Testament Revision.”

There are biographical articles on numerous distinguished persons who have died during the year.

The progress of science, particularly of its useful applications, and the achievements of inventive genius, are described with comprehensive completeness. Of the long list of special articles and new subjects may be mentioned as examples, the progress of "Medical Science and Practice," the article on "Eye-sight Deterioration," the one on the progress of "Mechanical Engineering," the recent developments in "Physiology"; the account of the "Exhibition of Electrical Inventions" at Paris, the article discussing "Technical Education," the account of the improvement in "Photography," the articles on "Glucose"; "Germs, Vaccination with Disease"; "Fertilizers" by Professor W. O. Atwater; "Chlorophyl"; "Oysters, Deterioration of"; "Nutritive Elements of Food"; and the merits and demerits of "Silo, or Ensilage," by L. B. Arnold.

The subject of the United States census is treated in the volume with great fullness in its various departments, and the population is given of every county in each State, and also of all the principal cities, and compared with the statistics of the former census of 1870. The returns of the recent census in Great Britain, in France, in Italy, Switzerland, and other European countries, are presented to the latest dates practicable. Large and very finely colored maps accompany the United States census, and illustrate the comparative density of the population in 1830 and 1880; the center of population at the end of each decade since 1800; and also the comparative density and the location of the foreign and the colored population.

Fine steel portraits of President Arthur, ex-Secretary Blaine, the lately deceased poet Longfellow, and the distinguished French citizen Gambetta, embellish the volume, together with maps and cuts in various articles.

THE

ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA.

ADVENTISTS. The several denominations of Adventists in the United States trace their origin to the preaching of William Miller, who predicted about 1840, as the result of his studies of the prophecies of Scripture and the calculations deduced therefrom, that the second coming of Christ should be looked for in 1843 or 1844. They agree in the expression of the belief that the visible personal second coming of Christ is near at hand, but are divided, on other points of doctrine, into four branches, the most numerous of which are the Second Advent Christians, numbering about fifty thousand members. The distinctive features of their belief are "the doctrine of the immediate personal coming and reign of Christ on the earth; holiness of heart; the unconscious state of the dead; their literal resurrection; and the final destruction of the wicked." The Evangelical Adventists, numbering about nine thousand members, differ from these, in holding to the conscious state of the dead, and the eternal conscious suffering of the wicked. The Seventh-Day Adventists, who have about fifteen thousand five hundred members, hold that the sanctuary to be cleansed is not the earth, but the heavenly sanctuary; that Christ will come as soon as he completes his "investigative judgment" to ascertain who of the dead are worthy of the first resurrection, and who of the living of translation. Satan is then to reign in the earth a thousand years, after which the earth will be redeemed and fitted to be the dwelling-place of the saints. The Life and Advent Union holds to the life in Christ only, and the non-resurrection of the wicked dead.

SECOND ADVENT CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. The Second Advent Christians have, until the last year, been represented by two distinct organizations, one for the East and one for the West. Representatives of both branches of the denomination were invited by the Eastern Association to meet at Worcester, Massachusetts, in a National Convention, "for the purpose of considering a proper system of organiz

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ing churches and a declaration of principles." The convention met April 6th, and was attended by ninety-three delegates from the New England States, New York, Pennsylvania, and Canada. A declaration of principles respecting creed and church organization and a form of "advisory covenant' were adopted. The first four articles of the declaration state the commonly received "orthodox" doctrine of the Scriptures and the Trinity. The fifth article declares that Christ died to save men from eternal death, the penalty of violated law; that the redemption he provided is twofold "redemption of all men from the penalty of Adam's sin, by the resurrection of the dead; second, the redemption of believers from personal sin and its consequences." The sixth, seventh, and eighth articles treat of repentance, of baptism (concerning which it is said that pardoned believers should be "buried with Christ in baptism," to show their belief in the resurrection of Christ and the dead), of the Lord's Supper, and the personal return of Christ. The tenth article expresses belief in the everlasting destruction of the finally impenitent, and the final extinction of all evil. The eleventh article declares that the coming of Christ is near at hand. The twelfth and thirteenth articles express the belief that the earth will be made over to be the future abode of the saints, and that all church action should point to the personal coming of Christ. In the "advisory covenant" the Bible is accepted as the only rule of faith, and liberty of thought is permitted, with a reservation, for the protection of the privilege of a refusal of sanction to the "persistent urging of doctrinal themes" not "essential to salvation." The articles on the subject of church organization approve the congregational system.

A conference of Second Advent Christians representing six States, met at Foreston, Illinois, in June, and adopted resolutions on church organization; a declaration of principles in harmony with that set forth at Wor

cester; and a basis of union between Eastern and Western Adventists.

The twenty-second annual meeting of the Second Advent Christian Association-the first regular meeting of the united organization— was held at Chelsea, Massachusetts, August 16th. The following conferences were represented: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Hoosick Valley, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Philadelphia, Illinois, Wisconsin, Northern Central Missouri and Southern Central Iowa, Southwestern Missouri and Northwestern Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, California, Alabama, and South Carolina. E. A. Stockman presided. The most important business transacted was the adoption of the constitution for the united organization. This statute declares that the society shall be known as the

"Second Advent Christian Association of America," and that its object shall be "the promulgation of Bible truth, especially the fulfillment of prophecy relative to the immediate second personal advent of our Lord, and a preparation for the event, through the Advent Christian Publication Society and all other laudable means."

The association was divided into two districts, the Eastern and the Western districts, having the western boundary of the State of New York and Pennsylvania as the line of division between them; the annual meetings to be held alternately in either section. Each conference in the United States and Canada is entitled to one delegate as a member of the association, with one additional delegate for every three hundred members of churches; and single churches, where there are no conferences, may send delegates. Provision is made for the representation of distant conferences by proxy; and a committee of six delegates was constituted in either section to represent all such part of that section as may not be otherwise represented, when the annual meeting is held in the other section.

The Advent Christian Publication Society returned a capital of $14,438, and reported that its receipts for the year had been $20,480. It had handled during the year $4,339 worth of books and tracts, and had published 4,333,072 pages. The sales amounted to $4,803, and gifts had been made through the tract fund to the amount of $1,820.

AFGHANISTAN. A British garrison occupied Candahar at the beginning of the year. In the Queen's speech at the opening of Parliament in January, the incoming British Cabinet announced its intention of withdrawing the troops from the country. Lord Beacons field, in criticising the sudden reversal of his policy, protested against the impairment of the imperial prestige and renown in the Orient by the course of the Government in "doing everything they could to inform every being in Central Asia, and in every other part of Asia, that they meant to cut and run from the scene of a splendid conquest," and declared that the

abandonment of the military domination of the country had produced a state of anarchy, and that the final retirement from Candahar would give full license to military adventurers ambitious of empire.

The nature of the negotiations between Shere Ali and the Russian authorities were revealed in a secret correspondence which was captured at Cabool. The menacing preparations of Lord Lytton for the invasion of Afghanistan had led Shere Ali to appeal to Russia for aid, and an offensive and defensive alliance was in negotiation while hostilities between England and Russia were imminent; but after the signature of the Treaty of Berlin, the Russian envoy at Cabool, Colonel Stoletoff, only sought by equivocations, and by counseling the Ameer to remain at peace, to extricate his government from the position to which it was committed. The history of the Afghan war shows the impossibility of either power occupying the Afghan country as a military base. The indomitable mountain tribes are only bound together by a loose feudal league. The Ameer is little more than a titular sovereign, and there is no habitual and disciplined submission to a central organized government. Their fierce spirit of independence will not brook the thought of foreign ascendency. An ameer would lose the allegiance of his subjects who should succumb to any European influence. The threatened advance of the English was all that made dealings with Russia possible. The adherence given to Ayoob Khan by wide sections of the country was mainly owing to the fact that Abdurrahman had been the choice of the British conquerors.

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The Liberal party in England, adhering to the conviction that a strong, friendly, and independent Afghanistan" is the best bulwark against the Russian advance toward India, recorded a solid vote in the House of Commons against a motion to retain Candahar, prompted by the intelligence of the capture of Geok Tepe by the Russians. The evacuation of Candahar and Southern Afghanistan was still delayed, in the hope that the Ameer would gather the political strength to occupy the country and cope with his adversary and England's foe, Ayoob Khan. The son of Shere Ali had seemingly better chances of uniting Afghanistan under his rule than Abdurrahman. He was the candidate of the numerous Duranis, with a considerable following among the Ghilzais, and with partisans in all the valleys of Afghanistan. lis rule was established in Herat, and his pretensions acknowledged throughout Western and Southern Afghanistan. He was raising treasure and recruiting his army from the bravest elements of all parts of Afghanistan, in strenuous preparation for a struggle with Abdurrahman. The feudatory sirdars who embraced his cause with their bold and turbulent followers, however, possessed their share of the proverbial jealous, rebellious, and faithless spirit of the Af

ghans. His yoke was hard on the country around Herat. Treasure could only be raised by harsh exactions, and Ayoob's own imperious, jealous, and vindictive character was calculated to raise up many enemies. In March, an insurrection of the neighboring tribes, joined by mutineers from the army, Candahari and Herati soldiery, nearly put an end to his ambitious plans. His position in the country at large seemed, nevertheless, to be growing stronger. The prolonged occupation of Candahar by the British visibly injured the prospects of Abdurrahman by ranging the patriotic and religious sentiment of the country on Ayoob's side. The Ameer's rule extended only over Caboolistan, Balkh, and Badakshan, and was not exercised farther west than Gbazni.

After waiting until April for Abdurrahman to become strong enough to hold Candahar, the British authorities sent word to him to bring a force to succeed them. A deputation from Ayoob Khan asking that the city be resigned to him and his pretensions recognized, on the ground that the people were attached to his cause, was dismissed with a refusal. The Ameer dispatched a body of troops, who slowly made their way from Cabool through the unfriendly Durani country. On the 21st, after furnishing the Afghan troops with some artillery and small-arms, the last detachment of British soldiers marched out of Candahar, leaving the deputed governor of Abdurrahman in command.

The British did not, however, withdraw to their former boundary, but only to the valley of Pishin, where they remained, guarding the Khojak pass and garrisoning the city of Quetta, quietly looking on during the ensuing struggle between the two claimants for the Afghan throne. The Indian official world insisted upon holding on to this last, poor trophy of the conquest; and the army clique and Russophobists never ceased to cry for a return to the "forward" policy, for interference between the combatants, and the establishment of a British protectorate in Afghanistan.

After the evacuation of Candahar the Ameer increased his fighting strength, and posted troops on the Helmand to defend his acquisition. Three of Ayoob's cousins and generals advanced with a small force, hoping to incite the Durani chiefs to rise, but with little success. A skirmish near Girishk opened hostilities on the 30th of June. On the 11th another engagement took place, resulting in the dispersion of Ayoob's force. In July Ayoob advanced from Herat to the Helmand River with all his forces. Several days were gained by him in pretended negotiations for peace. Gholam Hyder, the commander of the Ameer's force on the Helmand, finally crossed the river to attack Ayoob Khan, but only to find that the wily prince had himself forded the Helmand and slipped in between him and Candahar. Gholam Hyder recrossed the river at Girishk, and caught up with Ayoob at Karez-i-Atta, six

miles nearer Candahar, encamped in a strong position on ascending ground. Gholam Hyder attacked him vigorously, and gained some advantage at first; but the desertion of a regiment of Ghilzais and his own bad generalship lost him the day. The Cabooli troops took to flight, and many of them came in and surrendered to Ayoob. The battle, which was fought July 27th, lasted only an hour; eighteen guns and a considerable treasure fell into the hands of Ayoob's general. The Ameer's Governor of Candahar and his staff fled, and Ayoob's forces quietly took possession of the city on the 30th. Gholam Hyder Khan retreated with the remnant of his army to Kelat-i-Ghilzai. Here, finding re-enforcements from Cabool, he made a stand. The Ameer's position improved from week to week. Dissensions broke out in Ayoob Khan's army, and many of the Cabooli soldiers who had joined him after the battle at Karez-iAtta redeserted to Gholam Hyder. The Ameer issued a proclamation to the people of Northern Afghanistan, announcing that he would take the field in person. Mahomed Jan, his former general-in-chief, whom he had long feared and mistrusted, he cast into prison with other suspected individuals. Both he and Ayoob Khan had been hampered in their movements by signs of treachery and disaffection in their capitals and among their troops.

The Duranis did not flock to Ayoob Khan's standard, as he had hoped, upon his appearance in Southern Afghanistan. Before the capture of Candahar had made him master of the country, but few partisans joined his ranks. Here, as at Herat, his rule was felt to be oppressive. His financial straits and military necessities compelled him to make requisitions for arms and supplies and to exact transport service, and his extortions of treasure acted like a blight on commercial traffic. The murder of a popular chief, and other events which excited tribal hatred and revenge, had estranged the Herati more than all his exactions, and were among the main causes of his future disasters. Race feeling, which is one of the deepest passions of the Afghan breast, was aroused in his favor among the Southern Afghans by the appeals made by Abdurrahman to the race pride of the Ghilzai nation in his energetic preparations for a final struggle with the Ghilzai leader of a Durani horde who disputed his throne. The Duranis of the south, who had held back apathetically at Ayoob Khan's first coming, passionately filled with the traditional jealousy of the Ghilzai race, now rallied vigorously around the banner of their national chief. Abdurrahman during his struggle with Ayoob Khan was freely provided with British silver. The liberal use of his abundant cash gave him a great advantage over Ayoob. Instead of drying up the fountains of commerce, and spreading distress and poverty in his path, his approach brought unexampled prosperity and comfort to every community which he visited.

Abdurrahman reached Kelat-i-Ghilzai on the

1st of August. Definite proposals for peace from Ayoob Khan were rejected, and the Ameer advanced to join battle with his rival on the road to Candahar. For many days the armies lay encamped opposite each other; and Abdurrahman offered battle daily, but could not draw out the enemy. The Ameer was then obliged to change his camp to a position nine miles to the west, in order to be near flour-mills. Ayoob took a position opposite in the village of Chilzina. Here the decisive battle was finally fought on the 22d of September, and was lost through the treachery and desertion of the Caboolis, who had gone over to Ayoob after the defeat of Gholam Hyder, and of the disaffected Herati soldiery. The encounter with Abdurrahman, for which Ayoob Khan had been so long preparing, would probably have resulted otherwise in the overthrow of the Ameer. In the battle of Chilzina Ayoob Khan occupied a position of superior strength, behind the ramparts, ditch, and buildings of the old city of Candahar, protected on the right by a rocky ridge. Ayoob's army was also more numerous. After three hours or so of fighting, the Cabooli and Herati regiments, which Ayoob Khan probably mistrusted and therefore kept in the rear, commenced to fire upon the Ghazi and Candahari men who formed the pretender's battle-front. This treacherous act broke the line, and soon the army was in full rout. Ayoob Khan and his confederate chiefs escaped to Herat, leaving his artillery, consisting of twenty-two guns, in the hands of the enemy.

After several severe repulses of the British, public opinion in England became outspoken against the further continuance of the war, and negotiations were entered into by the Liberal Government with the Boers, which resulted in the restoration of virtual independence. (See CAPE COLONY.)

At the biennial election held in Liberia on May 3d, Anthony W. Gardner was elected President, and Rev. A. F. Russell, Vice-President of the republic, the successful candidates receiving a majority in every county. This will be Mr. Gardner's third term. The contest is described as independent of party lines. The successful candidates have pledged themselves to the education of the masses, the incorporation of the native tribes into the body-politic, in favor of temperance, the honest settlement of foreign indebtedness, and the frugal administration of the Government.

A small native war arose for the British on the West Coast of Africa. A native, who styled himself King of the Denkera tribe, had taken refuge within the limits of the British protectorate of the Fantee and other tribes; but King Koffee, of Ashantee, claimed that the Denkeras were subjects of the Ashantees, and demanded that he be given up. As the British refused to comply with this request, King Koffee declared war in February. The affair was settled in May, after a short and decisive campaign, by the payment of a penalty of 2,000 ounces of gold, and an apology from King Koffee to Queen Victoria. At the final interview of the Ashantee embassadors with Sir Samuel Rowe, the Governor, the latter instructed them to inform the King that the British would not consent to the conclusion of any treaty with him so long as he permitted the practice of human sacrifice to continue.

The German traveler, Nachtigal, has made a computation of the surface and population of the countries and districts of the Continent of Africa, as follows in kilometres (23 kilometres = 1 square mile):

Abdurrahman did not follow up his victory, but returned to Cabool after sacking Candahar, which opened its gates to him without resistance, and pillaging the surrounding country, in revenge for their adherence to Ayoob's cause. Abdurrahman leisurely made his preparations to advance on Herat. Meanwhile Abdul Kudus Khan had set out with a small force from Cabool and was making his way toward Herat through Northern Afghanistan and Turkestan. He was joined by a large force of auxiliary volunteers from the local tribesmen, who were hostile to Ayoob. This formidable force menaced Herat from behind at the same time that Ayoob Morocco.. was obliged to draw his forces from the city to meet the army of Abdurrahman. After three engagements, the last one fought at Shaflan, thirty miles east of Herat, October 2, in all of which Abdul Kudus and his local allies were successful, Herat surrendered without further resistance on the 4th. Ayoob Khan, after the capture of his stronghold and capital, and his sole military base, prudently made his escape to Persia.

AFRICA. An important change in the map of Africa occurred during 1881. The Transvaal Republic, which had been annexed by the British in 1877, regained its independence and assumed the name of the South African Republic. A strong agitation against British rule was kept up in the annexed district, which finally resulted in a declaration of war by the Boers.

COUNTRY.

Algeria.
Tunis
Tripoli..
Desert of Sahara..
Egypt..
Soodan, Central.

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Soodan, Western, and Upper Guinea. 1,993,046 43,600.000

Harar,

Central Africa north of the equator...
Central Africa south of the equator..
Portuguese possessions, eastern..
Portuguese possessions, western.
Orange Free State..
British South Africa..
Islands...

Total..

1,597,038

15,500,000

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AKKAS, a dwarf race dwelling in the valley of the White Nile, in about the third degree of north latitude. Reports of dwarf peoples in equatorial Africa have been made by travelers in all ages. The pyginies of the an

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