poor corners. His view is confirmed in the report of Mr. Nicholson, who shows that in Shansi and Shensi, where the famine has been most intense, the poppy can be cultivated with success only on the irrigable lands, all of which T would have been available for the raising of wheat and vegetables, except for the profit derived from the opium-culture. The Governor of Shansi, with the approval of the throne, has resolved to issue a proclamation laying on the ancestral clans and village clubs the responsibility of preventing the growth of the poppy in their neighborhoods. A vigorous voluntary organization for checking the spread of opiumsmoking has been formed in Canton, which publishes and circulates tracts, and has given prizes for essays discussing the evils of the trade and of the use of the drug. Several of the essays have been published. They are very plain-spoken against those who have introduced opium into the country. The religion of the West, says the essay that won the first prize, teaches that we must love our neighbors as ourselves, practice kindness toward all, and not benefit ourselves at others' expense; yet what one thing in the world can be compared with opium for the injury it inflicts on mankind, and the mischief it causes men to bring on their neighbors for the sake of their own gain? "No wonder that mobs have burned some of the Christian churches and put to death Western men and women." The essayist also shows how the importation of Western manufactures into the country would be benefited by the suppression of the trade. Missionaries from China reported at the anniversary of the Wesleyan Missionary Society in May, 1878, that the prejudice caused by British support of the opium trade was the most formidable obstacle they had to encounter. An opium refuge has been opened by missionaries in Peking, which during the first six months of its existence received fifty-three in-patients, and was attended by nearly three hundred out-patients.

The Rev. Mr. Mackay, a Canadian Presbyterian missionary, was attacked at the beginning of the year by a crowd of Formosans at Tamusi, and was threatened with death unless he left the island; but he remained in spite of the threat. Violent attacks were made during the summer upon the Protestant missions at Kien-ning-fu and Yeng-ping-fu. At the former place, a chapel belonging to the Church Missionary Society was completely destroyed by a mob headed by the literati and gentry. At first the rioters threatened to kill the catechist in charge of the chapel, but subsequently they ordered him to leave the city, and not to return under penalty of instant death should he be again discovered. Some time ago Monseigneur Ridel, a French missionary bishop, was captured with other missionaries by the inhabitants of Corea, and condemned to torture and death. The Chinese ministers intervened in his favor, and he was set at liberty during the summer. He was escorted from a prison in

the center of Corea to the Chinese town of Moakden, amid insults and threats of murder all along the line of the route, and was saved only by the declarations of his escort that he was under the protection of the Emperor. For several months his daily fare in prison was a handful of rice and a bowl of cold water, and he had to sleep on the ground and associate with criminals of the worst stamp. This was the third time Monseigneur Ridel had been sentenced to death in Corea; on the two previous occasions he owed his escape to his own energy.

An insurrection broke out in the province of Kwangsi in the latter part of the year, and immediately assumed such formidable proportions as to cause considerable anxiety to the imperial authorities. The leader of the insurgents was a general named Li-Yung-Choi, who was also notorious in the great Taiping rebellion, but had prudently deserted to the imperial side when he saw that the collapse of the rebellion was imminent. Since then he had gained great distinction in the service of the Emperor, and had been honored with the yellow tunic. It seemed that he was disappointed at not receiving some coveted preferment, and put himself at the head of a revolutionary movement. His army was reported to number fifty thousand men.

The preliminary examination of the country at Kaeping, where mining operations are contemplated, has proved very satisfactory. A flat piece of country about twenty miles long was found to be covered with coal and iron. stone. The coal is bituminous, with 70 to 75 per cent. of gas, and 73 to 15 per cent. of ash, having every appearance of being excellent coal. The ironstone, which runs in a parallel line with the coal, is hematite. Boring operations have been begun close to the river. The coal fields of Kilung are worked by machinery and foremen from England, and now produce about fifty thousand tons daily of coals which are said to be equal to the best English coals.

Mr. G. J. Morrison, the late engineer of the Shanghai-Woosung railway line, early in the year made an examination of the country between Hangkow and Canton with a view of ascertaining its nature with reference to the construction of railways. The distance between the two points by a straight line is five hundred miles, but by the route he took it was eight hundred miles. He passed through the cities of Wuchang, Yo-chow, Siang-yin. Chang-sha, Siang-tan, over the Chihling Pass, and thence by I-chang, Ping-shih, Lo-chang, and Shao-chow, to Canton. He was interested in the examination of the coal fields of Hunan and Kwang-tung, and in some places found that the coal trade had largely increased since the visit of the Baron F. von Richthofen.

CHRISTIAN CONNECTION.* The quadrennial American Christian General Convention was held at Franklin, Warren County,

CONNECTION, for a full account of statistics.
See "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1874, article CHRISTIAN

Ohio, beginning October 2d. About one hundred ministers and fifty lay members were in attendance. Elder J. H. Coe presided. The principal business transacted consisted in the adoption of amendments to the constitution of the body, by which it was given a certain legislative power, and was placed in control of the enterprises of the Church, particularly of the missionary and publishing interests. Hitherto the Convention has had only an advisory power. Under these provisions, the National or Extension Society, previously a voluntary organization formed in 1872, was merged in the missionary department of the General Convention; its constitution was modified so that its workings might become denominationally effective; its name was changed to that of "The Missionary Society of the Christian Church in America"; and its corresponding secretary was elected secretary of the missionary department of the General Convention, with an Executive Board associated with him. Provision was made for the organization of auxiliary societies in conferences, churches, and Sunday schools. Arrangements are also to be made for assuming and carrying on the publishing enterprises of the Church, which have heretofore been conducted by a private association at Dayton, Ohio, and for placing the Sunday schools under the general control of the Convention. A collection was ordered to be taken in all the churches in December for the Biblical School, and another in January, 1879, for the Publishing House.

CHRISTIAN UNION. The fourth General Council of the Christian Union met at Wesley, Ind., May 15th. The Rev. J. V. B. Flack, of Missouri, was chosen Moderator. A paper which had been adopted at the previous session of the Council, defining the position of the Union as an undenominational organization, endeavoring to offer a common platform of principles on which all Christians can unite, was readopted. It pronounces sectarianism an evil, and declares that "all religious associations, built upon a narrower basis than that which teaches and treats all the Christians of the locality as equal brethren of the one church of the place, and presents creeds, tests, and usages which exclude a part of the Christians of the place, are not built after the New Testament model, and have no claim to be regarded as churches of Christ, simply because they have Christians among them"; and "that the church is a divine institution, is God-made, not mechanical, not human, not man-made, and God alone can place members in his Church; and, as every one who truly loves is born of God, and therefore a member of his Church, therefore it does not depend on our doctrinal views, baptism, votes, or enrollment, but on a loving and obedient heart." A resolution, which substantially defined the doctrinal position of the church, declared that we believe the Bible to be a revelation of God, and that it is, therefore, a sufficient rule

for religion, faith, and practice; that it contains truth for its matter, without mixture of error; and contains the true sentiment of Christian oneness. We therefore recommend the study of it to all of our people, that we may know of its cardinal principles." The Council expressed its appreciation of the importance of the Sunday school, but deprecated the employment of ungodly teachers in the same. The report on education urged the importance of establishing a college in a central location, free from all denominational restraint, for the education of the children of the Church; and advised the ministers to study the sciences, and thereby qualify themselves for greater usefulness before the world. It was ordered that the General Council meet hereafter every four years, instead of, as heretofore, every two years. Elder Flack, the Moderator of the year, estimates that the Union includes one hundred thousand members.

was

CHRISTINA, MARIA, Dowager Queen of Spain, born April 27, 1806, died August 21, 1878. She was the second of the eleven children of Francis I. of Naples, and had in her earliest youth acquired great independence of character. When Ferdinand VII. of Spain, in 1829, had become a widower for the third time, he was induced by the representations of Louise Charlotte, the older sister of Christina, to ask for the hand of the latter in marriage, in opposition to the wishes of all his relatives. She accepted the offer, and on December 11th was married to Ferdinand. The King soon completely influenced by his beautiful and intriguing wife, and only three months after the wedding, on March 29, 1830, restored the Siete Partidas, which admitted female descendants of the King to the throne. This measure called forth a shower of protests. Charles X. of France, Francis of Naples, the Queen's own brother, and Don Carlos and Don Francisco, the younger brothers of the King, all saw their claims endangered by this law, and urged the King to retract his order. But Ferdinand remained firm, and when, on October 10th, Maria Christina was delivered of a daughter, Spain had again a Princess of Asturias, a Crown Princess, who received the name of Isabella. The second child of Christina was also a daughter, Marie Louise, who afterward became the wife of the Duke de Montpensier, and the mother of Queen Mercedes, the wife of King Alfonso XII. Ferdinand VII. died on September 29, 1833, and Queen Christina assumed the regency according to his last will, in the name of her daughter, who was proclaimed Queen as Isabella II. A civil war followed this step, in which Don Carlos sought to gain the throne. duration of seven years it was finally subdued by Espartero, who promised to the Basque Provinces, the principal supporters of Don Carlos, the restoration of their fueros. When Queen Christina hesitated to execute this promise, Espartero placed himself at the head

After a

or a new revolution, and on October 12, 1840, she_formally resigned the regency and fled to Rome, and afterward to France. She returned in triumph in 1843, and remained in Spain until 1854, when she again fled to France. After that time she only occasionally visited Spain. She was secretly married in December, 1833, to Fernando Muñoz, one of her guards, who was made Duke of Rianzares, and the marriage was acknowledged by a decree dated October 13, 1844.

COLOMBIA (ESTADOS UNIDOS DE COLOMBIA), an independent state, occupying the northwestern portion of South America and the southeastern portion of Central America, and extending from latitude 12° 21' north to 1° 20' south, and from longitude 68° 52 to 83° 5′ west. Its boundaries are: on the north, the Caribbean Sea; on the northeast and east, Venezuela; on the southeast, Brazil; on the south, Ecuador; and on the west, the Pacific Ocean and Costa Rica. The area of the territory of Colombia has been estimated at rather more than 500,000 square miles, 400,000 of which lie to the north of the equator. The republic is divided into nine Federal States and six Territories, and its population is about 3,000,000, including uncivilized Indians to the number of some 50,000.*

The principal centers of population are the valleys of the Magdalena, Čauca, and Atrato Rivers, the first of which flows through seven States comprising the vast central region of the country, 500 miles in length, and varying from 70 to 100 in width. It is the great highway of commerce to the Atlantic, and is navigated from Barranquilla to Honda, a distance of 500 miles, by steamers of from 50 to 200 tons, the property of private companies. The mouth of the Magdalena is obstructed by bars, and a railroad fifteen miles in length, constructed by a German company at a cost of $600,000, connects the bay of Sabanilla with the town of Barranquilla, the lower limit of river navigation. The Cauca Valley is an elevated plain rising to a height of 5,000 feet above the sealevel. The Atrato Valley is generally similar to that of the Magdalena in its topography.

The staple productions of the country are coffee, cacao, sugar, rice, tobacco, cotton, indigo, maize, mandioca, and cattle. The climate varies with the altitude of the land; the lowlands yield all the tropical products; and the plateaus and slopes of the Colombian Andes, those of sub-tropical and cold climates.

The President of the Republic is General Julian Trujillo, inaugurated April 1, 1878, and the Cabinet is composed of the following ministers or secretaries; of the Interior and Foreign Affairs, Dr. F. Zaldua; of Finance and Public Works, Dr. R. Nuñez; of the Treasury and Credit, Señor Camacho Roldan; of War and Marine, Señor M. Hurtado. The chief

For detailed statistics concerning the territorial division, population, etc., see the volumes of the "Annual Cyclopadia" for 1874 and 1877.

magistrates of the nine States are: Antioquia, General T. Rinjifo; Bolívar, Señor B. Noguera; Boyacá, Señor J. E. Otalora; Cauca, Señor M. Garces; Cundinamarca, Señor D. Delgado; Magdalena, Señor Luis A. Robles; Panamá, Señor B. Correoso; Santander, Señor M. A. Estrada; Tolima, Señor Dr. J. Manique. The Colombian Consul-General in New York is Señor Miguel Salgar. The American Minister Resident at Bogotá is the Hon. E. Deich

inan.

The Federal army comprises in time of peace 3,000 men; and in time of war each State is held to furnish a contingent of one per cent. of its population.

Educational interests have suffered little from internecine strife, as attested by the steady increase in the number of schools: 1,625 primary schools were officially reported for 1877, against 1,159 for 1875; though the State school fund for the latter year amounted to $508,779, while that of the former did not exceed $380,017.

The following tables exhibit the amounts and several branches of the national revenue and expenditure for the year ending August 31, 1878:

residing at Bogotá. In spite of the political disturbances of 1876-77, the interruption of navigation on the Magdalena for the past year, owing to an unprecedented drought, and the consequent lull in the export trade, the monthly payments have been punctually made to the agent; but, as they did not reach London in time for the payment of the coupons, the British Minister to Colombia, Robert Bunch, Esq., who was then in London, wrote the following letter to the Right Honorable E. P. Bouverie, chairman of the Council of Foreign Bondholders, which commends the fidelity of Colombia's representatives and the sacrifices they have made to preserve the credit and honor of the country:

LONDON, June 8, 1878.

The Right Honorable E. P. BOUVERIE:

MY DEAR SIR: I regret to find that some misapprehension exists, even among persons who are interested in the United States of Colombia, as to the action of the Government of that republic with reference to that portion of its external debt which is commonly known as the 4 per cent. loan of 1873. Founding themselves on the undoubted fact that the remittances from Bogotá have been for some months past smaller in amount than the convention of 1873 gives the bondholders a right to demand, many persons think that this decrease is owing to the failure of the Colombian Treasury to meet its engagements; in other words, that the bondholders' agent, Mr. O'Leary, does not send larger sums because he does not himself receive them. As this belief is altogether unfounded, and as much injustice is thereby done to the credit of Colombia, I think it may be satisfactory to you to learn the real state of the case. By the last mail Mr. O'Leary

writes to me as follows:

of

"To the bondholders I only send £3,000, and remain with a balance of £22,000, which is more likely to increase than to diminish, as the supply of bills decreases. It is a thing which preys on my mind the rate of exchange is 6 per cent. premium, and bids fair to reach 20 before long. The detention of this money will delay the payment of the and the delay will affect prejudicially the creupons, this country at the very moment when it ought to be the highest, considering the sacrifices it has made and is making to comply with its engagements. If you are in London, and can spare the time, you will do Colombia a service by impressing on the Council the necessity of explaining matters to the public, and so preventing a cause entirely beyond human control from damaging the credit of the country."

As I entirely agree with Mr. O'Leary in his appreciation of the honorable behavior of Colombia in the matter of its foreign debt, it has appeared to me that the simplest manner of meeting his wishes is to trouble you with this letter. I have been a witness myself of the determination of the various Governments of Colombia to satisfy the claims of the bondholders. I have even seen their money put away in the chest to wait for the next pay-day, when the Treasury was almost empty, and everybody, from the President down, was on reduced allowances, and salaries were discounted at a loss of 25 per cent. The supply of bills has given out, chiefly because the drought from which the whole world has suffered of late has visited Colombia with especial severity. No doubt the political disturbances of the last half of 1876 and beginning of 1877 are partly to blame for the decrouse of the exports, but this cause is as nothing when compared with the physical one of a want of water in the river.

Perhaps I am going out of your and my way to

The value of the imports for the same year was $6,709,109. It should be observed that the foregoing table contains an item of $116,234, which, as it stands for commodities sent from other parts of the republic to the free Colombian ports of Panamá and Colon (Aspinwall), would properly belong to the coasting trade, although in the ministerial report it figures as here given.

quantities and value of those shipped from the The principal articles of export, with the republic in the year 1875-'76, are shown in the annexed table:

chaser of that article, took 5,046,000 kiloOf tobacco, Bremen, by far the largest purgrammes, and Hamburg and London each about 270,000; while to New York but 52,000 kilogrammes were shipped. New York took of cinchona some 2,320,000 kilogrammes, and London about 1,160,000. Of coffee, 928,000 kilogrammes were sent to Hamburg, 624,000 to Bremen, 242,000 to Havre, 464,000 to London, and 943,000 to New York. The more important shipments of cotton were to the following ports: Liverpool, 320,000 kilogrammes; Havre, 201,000; Bremen, 221,000; Hamburg

The most recent official returns relating to railways, telegraph lines, etc., are those recorded in the "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1876. Among the latest official acts of ex-President Parra, immediately before transferring the reins of government to his successor, General Trujillo, was the approval of a contract drawn up between Señor Eustorgio Salgar, Secretary of the Interior and of Foreign Relations of the United States of Colombia, duly authorized party of the first part, and, as party of the other part, Lucien N. B. Wyse, chief of the scientific exploring expedition of the Isthmus in 1876, 1877, and 1878, Member and Delegate of the Committee of Direction of the Civil International Interoceanic Canal Society, presided over by General Etienne Türr. The more important clauses of this contract are as follows:

ART. I. The Government of the United States of Colombia concedes to Mr. Lucien N. B. Wyse, who accepts, in the name of the Civil International Interoceanic Canal Society, represented by their Com mittee of Direction, the exclusive privilege for the execution across its territory, and for the excavating

of a canal between the two oceans, the Atlantic and Pacific. Said canal may be constructed without restrictive stipulations of any character.

This concession is made under the following conditions:

1. The duration of the privilege shall be for ninetynine years, to be reckoned from the day in which the canal shall be opened wholly or partially to public service, or when the grantees begin to realize the tolls upon commerce and navigation.

2. From the date of approbation by the Colombian Congress of the present contract for the opening of the Interoceanic Canal, the Government of the Republic can not construct by itself, or concede to any company or individual, under what title soever, the right to construct another canal across Colombian territory, which shall put in communication the two oceans. If the grantees wish to construct a railway as an auxiliary of the canal, the Government (saving existing rights) can not concede to any other company or individual the right to establish another interoceanic railroad, nor do so itself, during the time conceded for the construction and use of the canal.

3. The necessary studies of the ground and route for the line of the canal shall be made at the cost of the grantees, by an International Commission of individuals and competent engineers, in which two Colombian engineers shall take part. The Commission shall determine the general route of the canal, and inform the Colombian Government directly, or their diplomatic agents in the United States or Europe, at latest, in 1881, unless extreme necessity, clearly proved, should prevent. The report shall include, in duplicate, the scientific labors executed, and an estimate of the projected work.

4. The grantees will have then a period of two years to form a universal stock company which shall take charge of the enterprise, and undertake the work of the construction of the canal. This term will be counted from the date mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

5. The canal shall be finished and placed at the service of the public within the twelve years immediately following the time of the organization of the company to undertake its construction; but the executive power is authorized to grant a further maximum terin of six years, if, in an extreme case, beyond the control of the company, and after one third part of the canal is built, they should recognize the impossibility of finishing the work in the said twelve years.

6. The canal shall have the length, depth, and all other conditions necessary in order that sailing vessels and steamers of 140 metres long, a maximum beam of 16 metres, and drawing 8 metres of water, shall, with lowered topmasts, be able to pass the

canal.

ART. II. Within the term of twelve months reckoned from the time at which the International Commission shall have presented the result of its definite studies, the grantees will deposit in the bank or banks of London which the national executive power may designate the sum of 750,000 francs as security for the execution of the work. The deposit shall be made in certificates of the foreign debt of Colombia at the current price in the market on the day of delivery. On the conclusion of the canal the amount deposited as security will remain to the credit of the Treasury to indemnify the National Government for the expenses incurred in the erection of edifices for the use of public offices.

ART. III. Should the route for the construction of the canal from one ocean to the other pass to the west or north of the imaginary straight line which joins Cape Tiburon with Garachiné Point, the grantees must arrange amicably with the Panamá Railroad Company, or pay an indemnity which shall be established by the terms of the law 46 of August 16, 1867, "which approves the contract celebrated July 5, 1867, reformatory of that of the 15th of April, 1850,