Iceland has an area of 39,756 square miles, and contained 72,445 inhabitants in 1880. The population was once 100,000. Subsequently it fell away to 40,000, but it has risen to nearly 75,000. The area of cultivable land is yearly growing less, owing to the spread of volcanic matter over the valleys and plains. There has been some emigration to the northern parts of the United States, and recently the attention of the Icelanders has been directed to the fertile lands in Alaska, on the banks of the Yukon, where wood is abundant and the growing season is longer than in Iceland.

The Danish colonies in Greenland have an area of 46,740 square miles. The population of Northern Greenland on Dec. 31, 1885, was 4,414, comprising 2,119 males, and 2,295 females; Southern Greenland contained 5,500 inhabitants,

of whom 2,557 were males and 2,943 females.

The Danish West Indian islands of St. Croix,

St. Thomas, and St. John, have a combined area of 118 square miles, and 33,763 inhabitants, mostly free negroes, who are engaged in the cultivation of sugar.

DISASTERS IN 1889. The frequency of disasters caused by floods, winds, and the like, is one of the notable features of the list for the year. Not only is this true of America, where the storms have been of exceptional violence, but of Europe and Asia as well, while the ocean has repeatedly been strewed with wrecks, and the list of vessels not heard from is distress

ingly large. The following list is necessarily incomplete. In the case of railroad accidents, for instance, only those are reported where two or three lives have been lost, or where some peculiar circumstance renders the instance noteworthy. By far the greater number of casualties result from mishaps that cause the death or injury of only one or two persons. The disaster at Johnstown, Pa., was so remarkable in its magnitude and attendant circumstances that it is treated in a separate article. (See JOHNSTOWN.)

January 1. Fire in St. Louis, Mo., buildings of the Richardson Drug Company, estimated loss $900,000. Steamboat Natchez sunk in Lake Providence,

La.

2. Shipwreck: American brig Annie Hale founders off Cape San Antonio, Fire: British ship S. B. Horton burned at sea, 2 lives lost.

3. Railway: train derailed near Overbrook, Indian Territory, 100 cattle killed. Earthquake in Nicaragua, 8 lives lost.

4. Explosion: fire-damp in a colliery at Oviedo, Spain, 27 killed. Railway: collision near Medecine Bow, Wyoming, 1 killed, 2 injured, train and bridge burned.

5. Railway: collision near Carbon, Pa., 1 killed, 3 injured.

6. Heavy rains destroy much property in New England and New Jersey.

8. Railway: collision near Streator, Ill., 1 killed, 5 injured.

9. Tornado in Reading and Pittsburg, Pa., 33 lives lost. Old suspension bridge at Niagara Falls blown down. Train derailed near Brookhaven, Miss., 1 killed, 2 injured. Misplaced switch.

10. Destructive fire in Paris, France. 14. Railway collision near Tallmadge, Ohio, 8 killed, 6 injured. Wreck took fire.

15. Shipwreck in the Indian Ocean. British steamer Phyapcket sunk in collision, 42 lives lost. Train wrecked by a land-slide near Ozark, Ark., 1 killed,

several injured. Three girls suffocated in a cigar-box factory in New York.

18. Explosion: fire-damp in Hyde colliery, near Manchester, England, 39 killed. Railway: collision near Kent, Ohio, 1 killed, several injured. 19. Train derailed near Elmwood, Mich., 3 killed, 4 injured. Broken rail.

21. Gale on north Atlantic coast, 7 sailors drowned near Boston.

24. Explosion in colliery at Nanticoke, Pa., 2 killed, 4 injured.

27. Explosion: steam-pipe on ocean steamship Republic, 10 seamen badly scalded.

February 1. Skating accident, three boys drowned near Paterson, N. J.

2. Fire in Buffalo, N. Y., 1 fireman killed, 19 injured, estimated loss, $3,000,000.

3. Railway bridge breaks near Groenendael, Belgium, 14 killed.

the Philippine Islands, all hands lost. Collision off 4. Shipwreck: Spanish steamer Remus founders off Beachy Head, British bark Largo Bay sinks British steamer Glencoe, 54 lives lost. Collision off Dunge ness, England, British steamer Nereid and British ship Killochan, 24 lives lost.

5. Drowned a logging party on Pine Lake, N. Y., breaks through the ice, 7 men and 24 teams lost. Train derailed near Quincy, Ind., 2 killed, 1 injured. 8. Fire theatre burned at Aldershot, England, many persons injured.

10. Fire in Philadelphia, buildings of John Wyeth, chemist, burned, loss about $1,000,000.

11. Explosion: nitro-glycerin, near Williams Bridge, N. Y., windows of a passing train shattered, several passengers injured.

14. Shipwreck: hurricane at Samoa, men-of-war (German) lost in the harbor at Apia, also several Trenton and Vandalia (American), Adler and Eber merchant vessels, 147 lives lost.

15. Railway collision near Livingston, Ala., killed.

2

18. Explosion: cause unknown, in Park Central Hotel, Hartford, Conn., building destroyed, about 40 lives lost.

19. Railway: collision near Chicago, Ill., 2 killed, 4 injured.

A

22. Explosion of dynamite by students of Wesleyan University celebrating Washington's Birthday. student badly hurt and two buildings damaged.

23. Shipwreck: bark Josie Troop, on North Carolina coast, 11 lives lost. Train derailed near Ralston, Pa., 1 dangerously injured, 15 slightly injured. Railway: collision near Boyds Siding, Me., 3 killed, 2 injured. Misplaced switch.

Fires

25-27. Gale in the North Sea, 70 lives lost. in four different places in the United States; 8 lives lost. Explosion in mining-squib factory, Plymouth Pa., 11 girls and man killed.

27. Train derailed near St. George, Ontario, 10 killed, 30 injured. Shipwrecks: two vessels on English coast, 17 lives lost.

March 6. Railway: collision near Putnamville, Ind., conductor killed.

9. Railway collision near Benfer, Pa., 1 killed, 2 injured. 10. Train derailed near St. Nicholas, Pa., 2 killed, 2 injured.

11. Boiler explosion in Cincinnati, 2 killed, 11 injured.

13. Colliery explosion near Wrexham, England, 20 killed.

14. Boiler explosion in Pittsburg, Pa., 5 killed, 11 injured.

15. Explosion of fire-damp in a mine at Nismes, France, 15 killed, 6 injured.

16. Shipwreck: American bark Pettengill on the Virginia capes, 14 lives lost. Railway: collision near Clifton, S. C., 2 killed, 3 hurt. Train derailed near Chico, Cal., 6 severely, and others slightly injured. 23. Train derailed-probably by malicious persons -near Nebula, Ga., 1 killed, i injured.

26. Railway: collision near Stockbridge, Ga., 1 killed, 9 injured.

28. Shipwreck: schooner Ruth Darling sunk by steamer Wyanoke off the Delaware capes, 2 lives lost. Train derailed near Queen City, Mo., 2 killed, 1 injured.

April 2. Railway: collision near Prickly Pear Junction, Montana, 3 killed. Collision near Centerville, Ind., 3 killed, 3 injured. Collision in St. Paul, Minn., 4 killed, 4 injured. Train derailed near Bellton, W. Va., 2 killed, 3 injured.

3-4. Prairie fires in Southern Dakota, many small towns and detached farm - houses destroyed, estimated loss, $2,000,000.

4. Railway collision near Brown's Cross Roads, Tenn., 3 killed.

5. Train derailed near Savannah, Ga., 2 killed. 6. Fire in Savannah, Ga., estimated loss, $1,250,000. 8. Train derailed in Chicago, Ill., 1 killed, 9 injured. Fire in Soochow, China, many thousand lives lost. Storm in the Southern United States, much damage in Virginia, United States steamer Pensacola sunk at Norfolk Navy Yard, 50 vessels and more than 20 lives lost in Chesapeake Bay.

10. Railway: collision at Lorenzo, Ill., 5 killed, 3 injured.

19. Railway: collision near Glencoe, Ky., 6 injured. 24. Railway: collision, near Glen Mary, Tenn., 3 killed, 2 injured.

28. Train derailed near Hamilton, Ontario, 19 killed.

May 2. Railway: collision near Hancock, N. Y., 10 injured.

5. Railway: collision near Crystal Springs, Dakota, 2 killed, 2 injured.

8. Train derailed at Cleveland, Ohio, 1 killed, 7 injured. Railway: collision near Glen Mary, Tenn., 1 killed, 3 injured.

9. Colliery accident near Middleport, Pa., 10 killed. 16. Train derailed near Hank's Tank, New Mexico, 2 killed, 4 injured.

17. Shipwreck: American steamer Alaska founders off the coast of Oregon, about 30 lives lost.

18. Bridge partly burned near Nashville, Tenn., breaks under a train, 5 killed, 5 injured.

22. Floods in Bohemia, about 45 lives lost. Shipwreck: French fishing vessels lost at sea, 175 lives lost.

23. Train derailed-probably with malicious intent-near Sullivan, Mo., 36 injured.

28. Fire in Podhajee, Galicia, many lives lost. Railway collision near Trumbull, Conn., 2 killed, 2 injured.

31. Flood: South Fork dam in Conemaugh valley, Pa., gives way, about 3,000 lives lost. (See under JOHNSTOWN, Pa.) Railway: train overtaken by flood at Conemaugh, Pa., about 26 drowned. Collision near Coalton, Ohio, 3 killed, 7 injured.

June 2. Floods in China, 6,000 lives lost. Fire in Seattle, Washington Territory, loss, $5,000,000,

10. Engine derailed in St. Louis, Mo., 2 killed. Train derailed near Sugar Notch, Pa., 9 injured. 12. Railway: excursion train wrecked near Armagh, Ireland, 76 killed.

16. Train derailed near Batavia, Ohio, 15 injured. 19. Train derailed near New Cumberland Junction, W. Va., 2 killed, 8 injured.

26. Train derailed near Bledsoe, Teun., 8 injured. Railway collision near Latrobe, Pa., wreck took fire, 12 killed, 6 injured.

29. Train derailed near New Haven, Conn., 3 killed, 5 injured.

July 2. Train derailed by a washout near Thaxton's, Va., 10 killed, 21 injured.

3. Explosion: fire-damp in a colliery near St. Etienne, France, 185 lives lost. Storm of great violence in the neighborhood of Titusville, Pa.

4. Railway collision near Dubuque, Iowa, 1 killed, 5 injured. Train derailed near Ona, W. Va., 2 killed. 6. Railway collision near Kennedy, N. Y., 2 killed, 3 injured.

Rail

8. Railway collision in Germany, 8 killed. 9. Flood in the Indus, India, 40 lives lost. way: collision near Ciulnita, Bulgaria, 15 killed. 10. Train derailed near Brandon, Vt., 8 injured. Railway collision near Pittsburg, Pa., 2 killed, 6 injured. Severe storm: dams burst near Johnstown, N. Y., 8 lives lost.

14. Dam breaks at Pittsburg, Pa., 2 men injured. Storm in Maryland, 5 lives reported lost.

17. Railway: collision runaway coal-cars near Shamokin, Pa., 2 killed, several injured. Destructive flood in Texas, several lives lost. Fire in Lowell, Mass., 120 horses burned.

18. Fire in Constantinople, 200 houses burned. 19. Lightning: at Standing Rock Agency, 2 Indians killed.

19-20. Storms of destructive force all over the United States.

21. Train derailed near Brunswick, Ga., 2 killed, 3 injured. Fire in a livery stable in New York city,

122 horses killed.

24. Explosion in a coal mine near Scranton, Pa., 2 killed, 6 injured.

26. Severe storms in the Northwest, destruction of crops by wind and rain.

27. Train derailed near Brighton, Tenn., 1 killed, 3 injured.

28. Floods in southern Hungary, Transylvania, and Bukovina, several hundred lives lost.

30. Violent storm on the North Atlantic, much damage on sea and shore. Dams break near Plainfield, N. J., many houses ruined, 6 lives lost.

31. Railway: collision near Ogleton, Ohio, 1 killed, 5 injured. Earthquake in Japan, 30 killed, 80 injured. August 1. Railway: collision near Lorton, Va., 1 killed, 3 injured. Destructive floods in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.

2. Railway: collision near Kenwood Junction, N.Y., 1 killed, 14 injured. Destructive gale in Virginia. 4. Railway collision at Burnleys, Va., 2 killed, 4 injured.

5. Fire: town of Spokane Falls, Washington Territory, burned.

6. Train derailed near Weston, Neb., 2 killed, 3 injured.

7. Shipwreck, steamship Montreal. Total loss on Belle Isle.

10. Railway: collision near Forest Lawn, N. Y., 3 killed, 6 injured.

15. Destructive storm on North Atlantic coast and in the West.

16. Excursion train derailed by defective track near Sarver, Pa., 3 killed, 25 injured. Train derailed near Mt. Vernon, Ind., 13 injured. Fire in a Mexican mine, 2 unknown Americans perish in trying to save miners.

17. Train derailed near Lincoln, Neb., 18 injured.

19. Floods in Japan, estimated loss, 10,000 to 15,000 lives. Explosion: boiler of a steamboat near Shanghai, China, 30 killed. Fire in a tenement-house, New York city, 9 lives lost.

22. Train derailed near Moberly, Mo., 2 killed. Railway collision near Meacham, Öregon, 1 killed, 4 injured.

23. Train derailed 22 miles south of Knoxville, Tenn., 5 killed, 26 injured (first passenger train over a new road). Railway: collision near Petroleum, West Va., 4 killed, 5 injured.

24. Train derailed near Pine Ridge Tunnel, Neb., 11 injured.

25. Dam bursts in Rhode Island, 3 drowned. 27. Earthquake at Kenzorik, Russia. 129 lives lost. Fire in Hopkinton, Mass., many buildings burned. Explosion: steam-boiler at Towanda, N. Y., 5 killed, several injured.

28. Earthquake in Russia, more than 100 persons killed and injured.

30. Railway: collision near Middleburg, Vt., 2 killed. Collision near Brooksville, Vt., 3 killed, 5 injured. Elevator falls in Philadelphia Hospital, 6 injured.

September 2. Forest fires in Montana, several villages burned.

5. Explosion in a colliery, near Penicuick, Scotland, 50 lives lost. Explosion: dynamite on a Government lighter on St. John's river, Florida, 1 killed, 2 injured.

6. Explosion: cartridges in Antwerp, Belgium, 200 killed, 500 injured, 20 missing, loss about $7,000,000. 10-12. Storm on the north Atlantic, many shipwrecks and much coastwise damage, 40 lives lost at Delaware Breakwater alone.

13. Railway: collision near Washington, D. C., 1 killed, 5 injured.

1

15. Fire in Louisville, Ky., 6 firemen killed. 16. Railway collision near Tioga Junction, Pa., 2 killed, 13 injured.

17. Train derailed near Atlanta, Ga., 3 killed (probably the result of malice). Disastrous storms in Delaware and eastern Pennsylvania.

18. Train derailed near Leo, Kansas, 3 killed, 3 injured.

19. Train derailed by fallen rock, near Clarksville, Tenn., 2 killed, several injured. Land-slide at Quebec, Canada, about 50 killed.

20. Electric car at Mission Ridge, Tenn., current fails and car descends slope, 1 killed by leaping, several injured. Shipwrecks: British cruiser Lily on the coast of Labrador, 6 lives lost; British steamship Florence founders in a gale in the Irish Sea, 9 lives lost.

22. Fire, business part of Kensington, Prince Edward Island, burned.

23. Railway: collision near Flagg, Ill., 1 killed, 6 injured.

24. Railway: collision near Auburn Park, Ill., 6 killed, 10 injured (engineer drunk).

26. Blast-furnace gives way in Pittsburg, Pa., several men badly burned by molten metal.

27. Railway: collision near Palatine Bridge, N. Y., 4 killed, 13 or more injured.

30. Railway accident in Italy, 50 persons killed and injured.

October 1. Shipwreck: unknown schooner on Lake Ontario, 8 lives lost.

2. Train derailed near Stuttgart, Germany, 10 killed, 50 injured. Destructive cyclone on the coast of Campeche, 34 vessels wrecked.

3. Explosion: steamboat Corona, on Mississippi river, 38 lives lost.

4. Train derailed near Shoals, Ind., 1 killed, 23 injured.

6. Hurricane in Sardinia, many persons killed and injured.

7. Destructive gale in the Irish Channel. 8-10. Floods in the Department of the Jura, France, much destruction of property.

11. Electric shock: lineman killed in New York city. Railway derrick breaks at Lansing, Mich., while clearing a wrecked train, 3 killed.

12. Shipwreck collision at sea, British steamers State of Nebraska and Norwegian. Railway: train derailed near Wilmington, Del., 15 injured. Train derailed near North East, Md., 15 injured.

13. Fire: town of Serpent River nearly destroyed, 200 people houseless. Dr. Talmadge's Tabernacle burned in Brooklyn, N. Y. Train overturned by high wind near Farmington, Col., 7 injured.

14. Storm off the coast of New England, much damage to shipping.

15. Tramway accident in Cincinnati, Ohio, 6 killed, 2 injured. Railway: collision at Gibson, Neb., 1 killed, 15 injured.

16. Shipwreck: British steamer Malta stranded near Land's End. Explosion in an English colliery, 59 lives lost.

17. Scaffold falls at Easton, Pa., 3 killed, 5 injured. Railway: 3 men run over and killed on the Hudson River Railroad.

19. Train derailed near Confluence, Pa., 3 killed, 2 injured.

22. Explosion: locomotive boiler at Wellsbor

ough, Ind., 2 killed. 1 killed, 22 injured. 24. Gale on the stranded.

Railway collision at Nolin, Ky.,

Atlantic coast, many vessels

26. Railway: three men run over and killed while playing cards on track at Irwin, Pa. Railway: collision in Pennsylvania, 7 killed. Explosion: natural gas near Dayton, Ohio, 1 killed, 8 injured.

27. Storm on the Atlantic sea-coast, many vessels wrecked and several lives lost.

28. Explosion: boiler on board French steamer Ville de Brest, 5 killed. Shipwreck British ship Bolan sinks at sea, 33 lives lost. Railway: collision near Greendale, Iowa, 2 killed, 3 injured. Explosion in a coal mine in Germany, 14 killed. Train of oil cars derailed at Kokomo, Ind., probably the result of malice. Oil caught fire, 3 killed.

29. Railway collision near Otisville, N. Y., 2 killed, 2 injured. Storm: travel impeded in the West. Many vessels wrecked on the lakes and sea-coast.

29-30. Floods near Shanghai, China, hundreds of lives lost and thousands of people homeless.

30. Shipwreck steamer Cleopatra and Crystal Wave sunk in collision off the Delaware capes. Railway collision near Thaxton's, Va., 3 killed, 2 injured.

November 1. A building falls in Glasgow, Scotland, about 30 lives lost, many injured.

7. Shipwreck: American ship Cheesborough, on the coast of Japan, 19 lives lost. Explosion of dynamite in Spain, 4 killed, many injured. Fire in Petersburg, Va., estimated loss $500,000.

8. Railway: collision near Altoona, Pa., 1 killed, about 40 slightly injured. Snow-storm in New Mexico, 5 lives lost, several hundred cattle killed.

11. Explosion of powder in Philadelphia, Pa., 3 killed. Floods in the Yang-tse-Kiang river, China, several thousand lives probably lost. Shipwreck: steamer Queensmore lost on Irish coast.

15. Shipwreck Swedish bark Hilna, near Rio Grande, several lives lost.

19. Shipwreck: steam tug Fearless in Umpqua river, Oregon, 15 lives lost. Floods in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, much property destroyed.

20. Shipwreck: collision, American steamer Manhattan sunk by schooner Agnes Manning off coast of Delaware, 10 lives lost. Fire at sea: British steamship Santiago, all hands saved.

26. Shipwreck: Bremen bark Germania at Long Branch, N. J., 11 lives lost. Fire at Lynn, Mass., 296 buildings burned, 8,000 workmen idle, 126 families houseless, estimated loss, $5,000,000. Explosion of natural gas in a private house in Dayton, Ohio, 1 killed, 8 badly injured.

28. Fire in Boston, Mass., estimated loss $6,000,000.

30. Fire: Tribune building, Minneapolis, Minn., 7 lives lost, many injured.

December 2. Fire in Philadelphia, 7 lives lost. 8. Fire: pier of the National Steamship Line burned in New York, 4 killed, many injured.

9. Electric shock: a lineman killed in New York city.

10. Panic: cause, a false alarm of fire in a theatre in Johnstown, Pa., 12 killed, about 75 injured.

11. Cloud-burst in Santa Cruz County, Cal., several houses swept away, 1 man drowned. Gale at Jeanette, Pa., several houses blown down. Flood in Sacramento valley, California, much property destroyed, 2 lives lost.

city.

14. Electric shock: a lineman killed in New York 17. Shipwreck: British bark Tenby Castle off Holyhead, 11 lives lost.

18. Shipwreck, collision: steamers Leerdam and Gawquansier sunk in North Sea, all hands saved.

19. Fire in Presbyterian Hospital, New York city, 4 nremen injured, 80 patients safely removed. Explosion on board tank steamer Ferguson at Rouen, 1 killed, several injured, $150,000 damages.

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. The Missionary Convention of the Disciples of Christ comprises the meetings of the General Christian Missionary Society, the Foreign Christian Missionary Society, and the Christian Woman's Board of Missions. These are all voluntary organizations, formed for the prosecution of domestic and foreign missionary work. The meetings for 1889 were held in Louisville, Ky., Oct. 21 to 26. The General Christian Missionary Convention carries on the work of domestic missions in the States and Territories of the United States, where it co-operates with the State associations working under their own organizations. Hence the accounts of this work are double. The present meeting of the Convention was its fortieth. It had received during the year, including the balance at the beginning, $50,692; had expended $42,261; and had employed for whole or part time 50 agents, under whom 195 churches had been visited and assisted, 50 unorganized places visited, 24 new churches organized, and 703 persons baptized. Of the receipts, $22,510 had been collected for the missionary fund, $12,305 for church extension, $1,767 for ministerial relief, and $111 for the education of colored ministers. Reports from eight of the State organizations exhibited an average increase over the work of the previous year. The complete report of their work was for 1888. In that year the collections were $97,417 by State boards and $34,788 by district boards; number of men employed, for whole or part time, 223; number of churches visited and assisted, 2,005; number of new and unorganized places visited, 290; number of new churches organized, 147; number of churches assisted in building, 68. Adding the collections of the General Convention, the total collections for home missions in 1888 were $159,315. A general evangelist had been employed who had visited Washington, Oregon, Utah, and Idaho, superintending the planting of missions in those Territories. Nothing had been done in the way of supporting colored missions, further than applying money contributed for the education of colored men for the ministry according to the wishes of the donors. The expediency of employing a general superintendent of missions and schools among these people was presented in the report of the board.

The Foreign Christian Missionary Society, now in the fifteenth year since its organization, had received from all sources, $61,866; of which sum $57,286 were contributed directly by the churches. It had expended $60,409. It sustained missions in England (at London Liverpool, Birkenhead, and Cheltenham), Denmark, Norway, Turkey, Japan India, and China, and returned as approximate results of the work of its missionaries 30 stations, 42 missionaries (27 men, 15 women), 27 helpers, 617 conversions during the year, with a net gain of 453 members, 2,990 persons under the care of the society, and 2,861 persons in Sunday-schools. Seven new missionaries had been employed. The Christian Woman's

Board of Missions has an endowment fund of $15,000, the interest of which is used to support its work in foreign fields. It had received during the year from contributions, $36,279, or $8,314 more than the receipts of the previous year. It supported, in whole or in part, nineteen missionaries, in India, Jamaica, and the western part of the United States. The report of children's work showed that the sum of $5,000 contributed by the children had been expended upon a mission house at Bilaspur, India. An attempt is next to be made to build in the same city a hospital for free medical treatment.

DIVORCE. The involved and, in many instances, conflicting laws governing marriage and divorce in the United States, together with the evils resulting therefrom, have of late years been discussed with increasing seriousness. Wherein the remedy shall consist is doubtful. Whether it shall indeed lie in an amendment of the Constitution, as proposed in the Senate by Mr. Dolph, of Oregon, Dec. 12, 1887, by which "Congress shall have power to legislate upon the subjects of marriage and divorce by general laws applicable alike to all the States and Territories," or, as more succinctly stated in the House of Representatives by Mr. Springer, of Illinois, Jan. 5, 1889, "shall have power to make a uniform law of marriage and divorce,” or whether, as suggested by Gov. Hill of New York at the opening of the legislative session of 1889, "some motion should be made toward a conference of representatives of all the States, or of such as may choose to be represented, to consider the question of uniform marriage and divorce laws," it is at least certain that the subject of divorce reform has assumed proportions that tend toward ultimate development.

The New England Divorce Reform League was partially organized at Boston, in January, 1881, and became the National Divorce Reform League, incorporated under the laws of Connecticut, in January, 1885. The question has also received attention from the National Bar and the several State Bar Associations, and has been freely canvassed in newspapers and periodicals. But the first and most important step in the interest of this reform was taken on March 2, 1887, when Congress empowered the Commissioner of Labor to collect the statistics of marriage and divorce throughout the country, a work completed and given to the public in 1889. Petitions for the collection of these statistics had been forwarded in 1884, bearing the names of representative men in different parts of the United States, and fortified by memorials from ecclesiastical bodies. The uniform language of the petitions set forth

That the wide differences between the laws of the several States as to the causes of divorce and the jurisagainst non-residents, constitute an acknowledged elediction of their courts over suits for divorce by or ment of confusion and uncertainty in American jurisprudence;

That these differences have led to many and distressing conflicts of judicial decisions, in cases turning upon the degree of faith and credit to be given to decrees of divorce under the Constitution and laws of marriage is often treated at the same time in one State the United States, or the comity of nations, so that a as dissolved and in another State or country as subsisting, and a man may be convicted of bigamy or

adultery in one jurisdiction upon what would be a lawful second marriage in another;

That the ever-growing number of foreign immigrants who become American citizens, and thus subject marriages contracted abroad to the jurisdiction of our courts of divorce, or by a temporary return to their original domicile may submit American divorces to the test of examination by foreign tribunals, make these matters a not infrequent cause of collision in the administration of private international law;

That the magnitude of these evils, their bearing upon our general social conditions, and the best methods of guarding against their increase, can be fully apprehended only by a careful collection and comparison of the facts and statistics of divorce;

And that no attempt to obtain such statistics can hope for any considerable success unless it is made by the authority of the United States.

It was expressly understood that no constitutional amendment was intended to be asked, empowering Congress to legislate upon the subjects, but that a concerted action of the States, through their legislatures, was proposed. The Protestant Episcopal Church, in convention in Chicago, in October, 1886, also appointed a committee to call the attention of Congress to the importance and necessity of this step. Congress appropriated $17,500 for the purpose of the collection, and no further expenses were incurred. By the report of the Commissioner of Labor, covering a period of twenty years, it is shown that the total number of divorces in the United States from 1867 to 1886, inclusive, was 328,716. This estimate covers 96 per cent. of the 2,700 counties of the United States and 98 per cent. of the population. The counties from which no returns were received were the most distant, inaccessible, and sparsely settled. Records of 6 per cent. of the Counties (160) were within the period of time destroyed by fire-notably those of Cook County, Ill., in which Chicago is situated, Oct. 9, 1871, and Hamilton County, Ohio, containing the city of Cincinnati, March 29, 1884. A table exhibits the number of divorces from 1867 to 1886 by States and Territories. It should be understood that in South Carolina divorces are not allowed for any cause and in New York for the cause of adultery only. The increase from 9,937 divorces in 1867 to 25,535 in 1886 equals nearly 157 per cent. The estimated increase of population in the same period was 60 per cent. The States showing the greatest number of divorces in the twenty years are: Illinois, 36,072; Ohio, 26,367; Indiana, 25,193; Michigan, 18,433; Iowa, 16,564; Pennsylvania, 16,020; New York, 15,355; Missouri, 15,278; California, 12,118; Texas, 11,472 ; Kentucky, 10,248. The States and Territories showing the smallest totals are: South Carolina, 163; Arizona, 237; New Mexico, 255; Delaware, 289; Idaho, 368; Wyoming, 401; Montana, 822; Washington, 996.

Of the six New England States, Massachusetts had the greatest number of divorces, 9,853. That divorce is not in direct proportion to population is shown by the fact that Illinois, having a population in 1880 of 3,077,871, exceeds in divorces the State of New York, which had a population at the same period of 5,082,871. Missouri, differing by but 77 divorces from the total of New York, had, in 1880, a population of 2,168,380.

A table is also given, for the purpose of comparison, showing divorces granted in Europe for the same period of twenty years (1867-1886).

The total, as nearly as it can be reached, is 214,841. The country showing the largest number is France, with 57,115 for the twenty years. Great Britain in substantially the same period had 6,587. In six years Prussia had 19,778 divorces, and among the Greek Catholics of Russia for nineteen years there were 17,601. The little country of Switzerland makes the startling exhibit of 10,501 divorces in eleven years, while Norway for fifteen years had 546 only. Austria gary, from 1876, 10,991. The total of the Gerin the last five years recorded 3,671; and Hunman Empire during six years was 34,082. Canada in eighteen years had 116. Denmark from 1871 to 1881, inclusive, had 6,202.

While the statistics of divorce for the United States collected by the Department of Labor are practically and exceptionally complete, those of marriages, also undertaken, are extremely deficient. Registration of marriages is enforced in but twenty-one States, and in many of these the returns are made incorrectly. It is therefore impossible, except in limited scope, to determine the number of marriages to one divorce. Of the six States (including the District of Columbia as a State) in which marriages were fully reported for the whole period of twenty years, the ratio is, Rhode Island, 11.11 marriages to each divorce; Connecticut, 11:32; Vermont, 16-96; Ohio, 20-65; District of Columbia, 30-83; Massachusetts, 31-28. But the variations of these ratios at different periods were considerable.

For the census years, 1870 and 1880, by a mathematical process resulting always, where test is practicable, correctly within one half of one per cent., the number of married couples is placed at 7,281,310 for 1870, and 9,464,908 in 1880. The divorces for the same years were 10,962 and 19,663, giving 664 married couples to 1 divorce in 1870, and 481 married couples to 1 divorce in 1880. Wyoming contained the smallest number of married couples to 1 divorce (123 in 1870, and 173 in 1880), and Delaware the largest (23,628 in 1870, and 5,542 in 1880). New Mexico, with 16,078 married couples to 1 divorce in 1870, also fell to 2,616 in 1880. Of the respective populations of the United States-38,558,371 in 1870, and 50,155,783 in 1880-there were 3,517 people to each divorce in 1870, and 2,551 in 1880. The increase of population in the decade was thus 30.1 per cent., and the increase of divorce 794 per cent., but three States and two Territories showing increase of population over increase of divorce-Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Utah, and Wyoming. The per cent. of increase from 1870 to 1880 in population and divorces is shown in the following table: