peace of our republican form of government, and we therefore favor the most liberal system of public free schools that is consistent with the financial condition of the State.

The Republican State Convention met at Selma, May 20th. George Turner, ex-United States Marshal, was appointed President. A large majority of the delegates appointed to the Chicago Convention favored General Grant. A stormy debate on the report of the committee on credentials disturbed the meeting.

The State election took place on the first Monday in August, 1880. Governor Cobb was elected by a majority of 92,545 over Mr. Pickens, the Greenback candidate. All the candidates on the State ticket received about the same vote. At the election the Democrats had no regular Republican ticket to oppose. The Executive Committee of that party advised the support of the Greenback ticket, but in several counties, where there were many negroes, not a Greenback State ticket was seen. A Democratic ticket alone was voted. The only real contest made for the Greenback ticket was in the counties of the First District, where about one third of the vote for Mr. Pickens was cast. Even there the Democrats had a handsome majority. At this election the Democratic vote was the largest ever cast, which was attributed to the intense interest attaching to contests for local offices, as many as ten Democrats in some counties running for the same office. Each of these men was supporting the Democratic State ticket, and the colored voters obtained by them voted, in nine out of ten cases, the whole ticket from Governor down. This accounted largely for the increased vote for the Democratic State ticket over previous elections; and even should the vote of those counties where it is urged that fraud was perpetrated be thrown out, there would still be a majority for the Democratic State ticket of over 60,000. Hancock electors received more than 80,000 majority over the Republican candidate for Governor.

The vacancy in the Supreme Court, caused by the death of Judge Manning, was supplied by the appointment of Henderson Michael Somerville—a selection highly approved by the State at large.

At the session of the Legislature which commenced in November, James L. Pugh was elected to the United States Senate during the unexpired term of the late Senator Houston. Mr. Pugh was born in Georgia, on December 12, 1819. He was a candidate for Presidential Elector on the Taylor and Fillmore ticket in 1848, and on the Buchanan ticket in 1856, and was chosen. In 1859 he was a member of Congress. During the war he was in the Confederate army and Congress.

No acts of general importance were passed by the State Legislature previous to its recess in December.

The returns of the census show the population of the State to be 1,253,069, with four

counties incomplete, and estimated on the basis of 1870, with the percentage of gain in the district added. The population in 1870 was 984,

215.

AMERICA. A new difficulty between the United States and British Governments respecting the interpretation of the fishery clauses of the Washington Treaty arose from an act of violence committed by some Newfoundland fishermen upon a party of Americans who were seining for herring in Fortune Bay in January, 1878. A demand for indemnification of the American fishermen for the loss sustained was presented to the late British Government, but was curtly dismissed by Lord Salisbury. Measures were initiated in Congress with reference to the possible failure to come to a common understanding of the meaning of the treaty, and a strong disposition was manifested in Congress and among the public to renounce altogether the privileges and obligations flowing from the treaty with respect to the fisheries, on account of the frequently recurring misunderstandings and disputes regarding the fishery rights. The dilatory answer of the British Foreign Office protracted the controversy until it devolved upon the present British Government. Mr. Evarts repeated his demands and the reasons on which they are based to the new Government, and found Lord Granville disposed to view the question as a debatable issue, admitting of discussion and perhaps of arbitration. (See CANADA and UNITED STATES.)

In the Canadian Dominion the construction of the Pacific Railroad has for a second time been intrusted to the hands of a syndicate. A contract has been concluded, on the basis of extensive land grants and money subsidies, which is strenuously opposed by the party out of power. The question of the ratification of the bargain is the first business to be considered by the Dominion Parliament in its winter session of 1880-'81. The contract is of a similar nature to those under which the United States transcontinental roads were built.

The quadrennial election in the United States, resulting in the election of James A. Garfield for President over Major-General Winfield S. Hancock, was characterized by an unusual degree of partisan fervor; yet so vigorous has been the commercial revival, so strong the consumptive demand and the productive impulse, that the usual disturbance and interruption of mercantile affairs attending a Presidential contest were scarcely felt in any part of the Union.

The harassing, irregular wars which have been carried on against the United States Government by Sitting Bull and his Sioux, and Victoria with his murderous band of Apaches, have ceased; and no organized force of turbulent Indians now menaces the settlements of the far West.

The interoceanic canal at Panama has not yet been begun, but the capital has all been

subscribed. The application for twice or thrice as many shares as there were, when the books were opened, shows a remarkable confidence throughout Europe in the judgment and ability of De Lesseps, its promoter.

The year has been marked by events of the highest importance for some of the SpanishAmerican states. If peaceful elections and the fact of a change of administration having been effected in the midst of unexampled serenity; the resumption of friendly relations with foreign powers after a protracted period of estrangement; the construction (no longer projected, but actual) of railways; the extension of inland telegraph lines, and the laying of a submarine cable-if all these bespeak the inauguration of an era of prosperity, such an era has assuredly begun for Mexico within the past twelve months.

In the Central American republics a season of international quiet, if not of absolute international harmony, has been enjoyed, and much has been accomplished in the direction of facilitating foreign_commerce.

In Colombia the reverse has, for the most part, been the order of things; and General Nuñez's Government, inaugurated in April, has chiefly attracted attention at home and abroad by a marked increase of imposts on foreign products entering the republic: printed books, including even text-books for the use of schools, having been subjected to an onerous rate of duty. A bill for an international copyright treaty with the principal European and American nations was laid before the Colombian Legislature, and the new administration has manifested a desire to encourage the development of the mining industry of the country.

Little has been accomplished in the way of real progress in either Venezuela or Ecuador; Peru has continued to resist, but has been powerless to repel, the Chilian invaders, and her very capital has been menaced with destruction; while Bolivia, partly from inability and partly from apathy, has tendered little aid to her ally, but rather sullenly submits to the prospective forfeiture of an important portion of her territory, which must inevitably follow the ultimate success of the Chilian arms in the present strife.

In Chili, commerce, agriculture, and mining have of necessity suffered from the long drain of forces to maintain the strength of the army; but the moral energy of the Government and people has been sustained by uniform success; the interest on the foreign and home debts has been regularly paid, nor has the Executive required to be invested with any extraordinary powers to raise funds and organize elements with which to carry on the war.

the country, have given place in some quarters to the assumption that belligerent designs were entertained toward Chili, with which republic the Patagonian boundary question is still pending; while the more plausible explanation of the armament is by many regarded as simply a prudent desire on the part of the Argentine Government to be prepared in case Chili, when finally at peace with Peru, should be tempted to make a demonstration of her liberated forces in support of her claim to sovereign jurisdiction over the disputed territory. The material prosperity of the Argentine Republic has, in the mean time, suffered no check.

Political affairs in Uruguay have been in a very unsettled condition, and the national revenue in the second half of the year proved inadequate to meet the Government require

ments.

In Brazil the discussion of the electoral bill was continued with but little interruption; but no event has occurred throughout the year to retard commercial or industrial progress; trade with foreign nations, on the contrary, would seem to be rapidly increasing, a by no means unimportant proof of which is the fact of arrangements having been made for the establishment of a regular line of steamers between the ports of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Rio Janeiro in October, 1881.

ANGLICAN CHURCH. The population connected with the Anglican Church in the British Isles, in British North America, and in Australia, is estimated as follows: *

The following new sees of the Church of England were established in 1879 and 1880: In England, Liverpool, 1880 (forming part of the province of York); in India, Travancore and Cochin, 1879; in China, Mid-China, 1880; in America, New Westminster, 1879, and Caledonia, 1879.

The Convocation of Canterbury met June 1st. Petitions were presented and considered in favor of the act for closing the publichouses on Sunday, against any alteration in the Book of Common Prayer, and in favor of the more complete representation of the clergy. In the Lower House, a resolution respecting the “Burials Bill" supported by the Government before Parliament was adopted, as follows: "That the Lower House of the Convocation of Canterbury are bound by their duty to the Church humbly to record the expression of their deep regret that it should be judged necessary on the part of her Majesty's advisers to propose to Parliament a measure which, if it shall become law, will, for the first time in the history of the country, save and except only the time of the Commonwealth, take away from the

*For a more detailed statistical account, and for a comAnnual Cyclopædia " for 1879, p. 30.

Church of England the exclusive control, according to her own doctrines and discipline, of the use of her own churchyards; and that this House desires, by this solemn protest, to deliver itself of all responsibility as to any dishonor which may be done to Almighty God by the character of the worship which, in the event of the passage of this bill, may hereafter be offered in her churchyards." A committee was appointed to consider the best method of providing for Episcopal supervision over Anglican congregations in the North of Europe. The Archbishop was deputed to confer with the Government respecting an increase in the number of elected proctors, and a change in the mode of elections and the qualifications of electors. The bishops agreed that they would use all their influence in Parliament to secure the incorporation in the bill for taking the census in 1881 of a provision for taking a religious census in England.

The second meeting of the Convocation was held July 13th. A committee of both Houses was appointed to consider how best to provide for Episcopal supervision over Anglican congregations in the North of Europe. The committee to whom the subject of the Burials Bill had been referred, made a report suggesting that, if the bill should not be passed, both the Church and dissenters should give up the funeral services at the grave, and hold them only at their houses of worship. This clause was struck out by vote of the Convocation, and the report was referred back to the committee. The Convocation of York met at the same time, and took action in favor of securing provision for a religious census of England in the bill for a general census which was about to be presented to Parliament.

The eighty-first annual meeting of the Church Missionary Society was held in London, May 4th. The Earl of Chichester presided. The total amount of contributions given to the Society during the year had been £221,723, and the expenditures had been £200,307. The capital fund had been restored to its original figure of £68,281. The committee had resolved to set apart £60,000 as the permanent working capital of the Society, and to place the remainder of the fund to a separate account, to be called the contingency fund. Four hundred and eighty clergymen, of whom 218 were European, were engaged in the work of the Society, with 2,686 native and country-born Christian catechists. The number of communicants in the mission churches was 28,510.

The receipts of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for 1879 were: from collections and subscriptions to the general fund, £71,099; from legacies, £10,934; from dividends, £4,753; total in the general fund, £86,787. Other funds had been appropriated to the amount of £9,943, and special funds amounted to £34,943, making the entire income of all classes, £131,674. The Society had employed 593 missionaries.

VOL. XX.-2 A

The twelfth annual Conference of the Society for the Liberation of Religion from State Patronage and Control, was held in London, June 10th. Mr. H. Lee, M. P., presided. The report stated that the receipts of the Society for the year had been £11,398, and the expenditures £10,848. Seven million copies of publications had been issued, and nearly two thousand meetings had been held. Resolutions were adopted declaring that the Conference viewed with satisfaction the results of the recent elections in Scotland, and the indications that the question of disestablishment was not to remain in abeyance till another election; that it approved of Mr. Roundell's motion affirming the inexpediency of retaining clerical restrictions in connection with any headship or fellowship in any college of Oxford or Cambridge, and also of Mr. Bryce's proposal for the abolition of such restrictions in connection with professorships of Hebrew and ecclesiastical history; that the Public Worship Regulation Act had failed to accomplish its professed object; expressing the belief that a remedy for the evils which afflict the Church would be found, not in fresh legislation, but in employing the spiritual forces of a free church; and expressing gratification at the early introduction of the Burials Bill, and a hope that it might be satisfactorily amended.

66

The twentieth annual Church Congress was held in Leicester, beginning September 27th. The opening sermons were preached by the Archbishop of York and the Dean of Llandaff. The Bishop of Peterborough presided at the Congress. Papers were read and discussed on subjects relating to the foreign missions of the Church, "The Church and the Poor"; "The Religious Condition of the Nation": "The Church in relation to the Organization of Labor"; Upper and Middle Class Education; its Present Condition, and how to maintain and promote its Religious Character"; "SundayClosing and Local Option"; "The Internal Unity of the Church, and the Influence of the Three Great Schools of Thought in the Church of England upon each other, and upon the Church"; "The Existing Forms of Unbelief; their Social and Moral Tendencies"; "The Cathedral System; how to reform it so as to strengthen the Relations of the Cathedral to the Diocese, and to make each Cathedral a more Efficient Center of Religious Equality"; "The Duty of the Church as regards Civil Laws relating to Marriage and Divorce"; "The Communion of Saints; how may it be strengthened and manifested"; "Popular Recreations; how to improve them; Light Literature and the Stage." The Congress was visited by a deputation representing the nonconformist ministers of Leicester, bidding it welcome to the town. The Bishop of Peterborough responded in a courteous address.

The Synod of the Episcopal Church in Ireland met in Dublin, April 20th, and was opened with an address from the Lord Primate. The