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sinia. In 1898 Great Britain conceded to Menelek a tract of 8,000 square miles formerly attached to British Somaliland.

The area of the empire is estimated at 150,000 square miles and the population at 3,500,000. The Negus has an army of about 150,000 men, composed of contingents drawn from the several provinces, besides which he has irregular forces and a territorial army at his command.

The Abyssinians are Christians, belonging to the Alexandrian Church. Their abuna, as the ecclesiastical chief is called, is always a Copt selected for the office by the Alexandrian patriarch. The echegheh, presiding over the monastic establishments, exercises more real authority. Jewish ceremonies are mingled with Christian rites, survivals of an earlier conversion to Judaism. The ruling caste shows evidence of the intermixture of Hebrew and Arab blood.

The people raise large herds of cattle, but till little land, although cotton and sugar cane thrive, as well as the vine and the date palm, and the coffee plant is a native of the country. Coffee, civet, wax, hides, gold, and ivory are exported. The chief imports are cotton goods of English, American, and Indian manufacture, woolen goods and raw wool, and cutlery. A railroad is planned by the French to be built from Jibutil to Harrar, 186 miles. Adis Abeba, Menelek's capital, is connected with Harrar by a telegraph. The Negus has an army of about 50,000 men, besides 15,000 between Harrar and the capital, 20,000 under Ras Makonen, and garrisons scattered over the country under other generals, all armed with modern rifles and possessing numerous Maxims and mitrailleuses. The King's chief adviser is a Swiss engineer named Ilg. His State Council is composed of the principal generals.

During the Anglo-Egyptian campaign against the Khalifa an Abyssinian force occupied the country south of Nasser, but did not attempt to co-operate with the dervishes. At the beginning of 1899 the Italians of Erythrea, fearing an attack from the Abyssinians, provisioned the fortresses of Adi Ugri, Saganeiti, Asmara, and Keren to stand a siege, and made ready an expedition for the re-enforcement, if necessary, of the local garrisons, consisting of 3,600 native regulars under Italian officers, 500 Italian regulars, 300 native artillery with 24 guns, and a native reserve militia over 3,000 strong. Mangascia, the Governor of Tigre, rebelled against the Negus in 1898, and Makonen, who was appointed Governor in his stead and was supported by the troops of Menelek, conducted a campaign against him in January, 1899, but was unable for lack of supplies to reduce him to submission. He offered to recognize the MarebBelesa-Muna frontier desired by the Italians, asking in return permission to buy food in their country. On Jan. 11 his forces attacked Mangascia's position, but were repelled with considerable loss. A second assault was not more successful. He then tried to turn Mangascia's flank and penetrate Agameh province, close to the Italian frontier. The Italians, however, were not alarmed, as the permission that they gave to both sides to purchase supplies and the shelter that they afforded to fugitives of the King's party, as well as to his opponents, had convinced Menelek of their neutrality. Peace was concluded between Mangascia and Makonen without a decisive engagement, the former agreeing to pay homage to Menelek and give hostages to insure his fealty, to contribute to the royal treasury, and to receive back the banished

Tigrin chieftains. Ras Mangascia and his ally, Ras Sebat, made formal submission to the Negus on Feb. 18 at Burumeida. The minor chiefs and the people of Tigre, who up to the time of the Negus Johannes were the dominant race in Ethiopia, were still unwilling to accept the rule of Menelek and the ascendency of the Shoans, and armed bands remained in the mountains, ready to assemble once more and battle for the restoration of Mangascia. In March Menelek agreed to the Mareb-Belesa-Muna line as the permanent Italian frontier.

The advance of the British into the Soudan and their military explorations in the region of Lake Rudolf made Menelek anxious about his western frontiers. Ras Margosh, commanding one of his four principal armies, accordingly descended from the table-land of Amhara and occupied a position in Galabat. Menelek was disposed to maintain his sovereignty over this province, and also to contest the English claim to Gedaref. The French, as well as the English, have a permanent representative at the court of King Menelek, and they are building a railroad from Jibutil to Harrar and Adis Abeba, the total distance being 470 miles. Capt. Harrington, the English representative, arranged with King Menelek for a delimitation of the Egyptian frontier along the Nile valley.

AFGHANISTAN, a monarchy in central Asia, lying between Russian Turkestan and British India. The ruler is the Ameer Abdurrahman Khan, placed on the throne in July, 1880, by the British, who then occupied Cabul, the capital, having expelled Yakub Khan, son of the preceding Ameer, Shere Ali. The Indian Government has since paid an annual subsidy, at first 1,200,000 rupees, and since 1893 1,800,000 rupees, to enable Abdurrahman to consolidate his power and preserve a strong, united, and independent Afghanistan as a buffer state between the Russian dominions and India. The military forces of the Ameer consist of the feudal militia and a regular army, said to number 20,000. The artillery has 76 modern guns, and in the arsenal at Cabul are manufactured gunpowder, cartridges, rifles, and cannon by means of machinery under the superintendence of an Englishman. There are breech-loading rifles enough to arm the entire army of about 50,000 men. The Ameer's revenue is levied on the crops, his share varying from a tenth to a third, according to the amount of irrigation employed. Two crops are grown in most places, one of wheat, barley, or pulse, sown in the autumn and reaped in the spring, and one of rice, millet, or maize, sown in the spring and reaped in the autumn. Asafoetida, castor oil, and madder are common products. Afghanistan is famous for its fruits, including apples, pears, almonds, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, pomegranates, grapes, and figs, some of which are preserved and exported to India. Other exports are horses and spices. Cotton goods from India and Europe constitute 60 per cent. of the imports. Tea is imported from China. The manufactures of the country are silks, felts, carpets, sheepskin garments, and rosaries.

ALABAMA, a Southern State, admitted to the Union Dec. 14, 1819; area, 52,250 square miles. The population, according to each decennial census since admission, was 127,901 in 1820; 309,527 in 1830; 590,756 in 1840; 771,623 in 1850; 964,201 in 1860: 996.992 in 1870: 1.262,505 in 1880; and 1,513,017 in 1890. Capital. Montgomery.

Government.-The following were the State officers during the year: Governor, Joseph F.

Johnston; Secretary of State, R. P. McDavid; Treasurer, George W. Ellis; Auditor and Comptroller, Walter S. White; Attorney-General, C. G. Brown; Superintendent of Education, J. W. Abercrombie; Commissioner of Agriculture, Isaac F. Culver; Adjutant General, W. W. Brandon; Railroad Commissioners, Ross Smith, Harvey E. Jones, succeeded March 1 by.A. E. Caffee and O. Kyle; State Geologist, Eugene A. Smith; Pension Examiners, Joseph N. Thompson, E. J. Oden, Joseph R. Horn; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Thomas N. McClellan; Associate Justices, Jonathan Haralson, John K. Tyson, Henry A. Sharpe, and James K. Dowdell; Clerk, Robert F. Ligon, Jr. All the State officers and judges are Democrats.

Finances.-The State Treasurer's report, covering transactions from Oct. 1, 1898, to Oct. 1, 1899, shows that there was at the former date $75,243.25 in the treasury; the receipts during the year were $2,172,755.98. The disbursements on warrants for the current year were $2,069,603.99, and on warrants of previous years $7,365.17, leaving a balance of $171,030.07. Against this balance are chargeable warrants and other elaims amounting to $425,730.03, making a net deficiency of $254,699.96. The balance in the convict fund, deducting the amount of warrants issued and not yet paid, was $42,580.18. The principal sources of income were: State taxes of 1898, $1,580,759.76; licenses, $182,045.06; insurance department, $46,514.54; on account of convict department, $144,855.55; United States Treasury for College of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts, $25,000; agricultural department, $49,341.68; solicitors' fees, $18,625.58; school indemnity lands, $18,055.75; railroad licenses, $12,379.06; corporations, $11,114.18; express, telegraph, and sleeping-car companies, $10,784.82.

The cost of the regular and special sessions of the Legislature was $67,404.05; State salaries amounted to $143,975.35; the railroad commission cost $12,539.66; the agricultural department, $39,695.66; the convict department, $120,059.42; pensions, $120,961.24; the interest on the bonded debt amounted to $448,680.

Education. The school population is given as 634,061, of whom 351,328 are white and 282,733 colored. The apportionment of State money gives $1.05 per capita. A new law requiring teachers to take examinations from a State board of examiners is bearing rather hard upon many of the present teaching force. At an examination in September, 67 out of 100 failed to pass at the required standing.

The Alabama Polytechnic School, at Auburn, had in October 344 students. The fund belonging to the institute is made up of the interest on the bonds received from the sale of lands given by the United States Government, which is $20,200 per annum. It also receives a sixth of the net proceeds of the funds arising from the sale of fertilizer tags, which is between $6,500 and $8,000 per annum. The Morrill fund is divided between the colored industrial school at Huntsville and the institute at Auburn, according to the ratio of school population. This amounts to about $13,000 for Auburn.

Charities. The State paid the following amounts during the year ending Sept. 30 for its charitable institutions: Bryce Insane Hospital, $136,318; Institute for the Deaf, $29,416.86; Academy for the Blind, $19,320: School for Negro Deaf Mute and Blind, $11,270.

Railroads and Telegraphs.-The total assessed value of railroad property in the State is $47,109,052, an increase, caused by building of

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new roads, of $1,487,105 within a year. gross earnings for the year ending June 30, 1898, were $15,441,484.57. The operating expenses, which do not include taxes, interest on bonded indebtedness, and current liabilities, accrued and not otherwise provided for, amounted to $11,108,000.61, being an increase of $1,341,220.08 over the preceding year, which is 71 per cent. of gross earnings, and shows an increase of eight tenths of 1 per cent. in the proportion of operating expenses to gross earnings over the previous year. The assessed value of telegraph property in 1899 was $376,771, divided among seven companies.

National Banks.-The report of the Comptroller of the Currency, published in July, shows that the national banks of the State had in loans and discounts $6,619,477.11; United States bonds to secure circulation, $1,221,000; due from national banks, $1,552,434.95; due from State banks and bankers, $369,721.10; due from reserve agents, $1,400,767.73; lawful money reserved in bank gold coin, $385,991.50; gold certificates, $40,960. Under liabilities capital stock paid in, $3,105,000; due to other national banks, $323,011.70; due to State bankers, $192,861.74; individual deposits, $9,255,253.60; average reserve held, 28.47 per cent.

Industries and Products.-The mineral production in 1898, in short tons, is given approximately as follows by the State Geologist: Coal, 6,509,223; coke, 1,390,254; iron ore, 2,202,158; pig iron, 1,026,459; stone for flux, 499,859; bauxite, 13,848; barrels of lime, 127,588.

The corn crop was 39,681,000 bushels, a gain of more than 9,000,000 over that of the preceding year.

The internal-revenue receipts for 1898 amounted to more than $1,000,000.

Many new coal mines were opened in 1899, giving a prospect of an output far exceeding that of any previous year.

Huntsville is to have a new cotton mill of 200,000 spindles, built by a Massachusetts company.

Birmingham enjoyed increased prosperity in 1898. The Avondale Cotton Mills were completed at a cost of $600,000. The street railway companies expended $324,000 in improvements in the way of new tracks and equipments. The Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company put in a new telephone exchange with underground wires at a cost of $100.000. The bank clearings of Birmingham were $23,777,899, an increase of $2,870,302 over the preceding year.

Improvements. A convention to promote the improvement of Coosa river was held at Gadsden, Sept. 26-27. It is desired to obtain an appropriation sufficient to open the river from Gadsden to Mobile. Committees were appointed on mines, forestry, agriculture, and manufactures to tabulate statistics of the products of Coosa valley and present them to the congressional Committee on Rivers and Harbors.

It is announced that the power of Tallapoosa river is to be used to furnish an electric current to Montgomery, which will light the city and supply power for all the mills and factories within its limits.

Surveys have been made for a canal from Birmingham district to Warrior river. It is proposed to use the Valley river as part of the canal, about 40 miles; about 34 locks would be required. The project includes the opening of Warrior river for navigation.

Public Lands.-The sale of certain lands given to an educational institution caused great

agitation this year in the State. Congress granted 25,000 acres of unoccupied Government lands to be sold or leased for the benefit of the Industrial School for Girls, at Montevallo; the proceeds of sale were to remain forever as a fund for the use of the school. A like amount of land was granted to the Normal Institute for Colored Youths, at Tuskegee. The Montevallo lands, according to the reports, were located, or were intended to be located, in the coal districts near Warrior river, and were summarily bargained away, or an option was given, to a syndicate already holding lands in the region, at $5 an acre, a price alleged to be much below their value, and, as it appears, no opportunity was given for other bids, but the sale as alleged was a private transaction between the representative of the syndicate and the Governor, to whom the board of managers of the school had given authority to dispose of the lands. The lands given to the Tuskegee school have not been sold.

About 3,400 acres of lands belonging to the State University were sold in the autumn at $12.50 an acre. They are coal lands in Walker County, and are alleged to be worth much more. Lawlessness.-An attempt to capture a negro alleged to be guilty of assault in Jefferson County resulted in a riot between white and black miners on June 27, in which two negroes were killed and two others mortally wounded. The blacks were said to belong to a secret organization known as the " Knights of Africa," or the "Mysterious Ten." Several cases of lynching occurred during the year: a negro suspected of burning a barn was hanged by lynchers at Josie Beat in January; another, identified as the accomplice of a murderer, was shot by a mob near Eoline in June; near Forrest, in August, a mob hanged a negro who had attempted an assault upon a young white girl; two negroes who with others attacked a white man with whom they had quarreled about a debt they owed him were killed by a mob of masked men, Aug. 19, near Eclectic; and a negro was hanged for attempted assault on a white woman, in November, near Moulton, after being taken from jail by a mob of about 100 men.

Legislative Session. The General Assembly convened Nov. 15, 1898, and adjourned Feb. 23, 1899. R. M. Cunningham was President of the Senate and C. E. Waller Speaker of the House. A bill calling for an election on the question of a constitutional convention was the occasion of hot debate. The new Constitution desired by those in favor of the bill is like those recently adopted by other Southern States, designed to establish white supremacy," as appears from the debate, from which the following passage is taken: "I believe," said Mr. Waller, Speaker of the House, that this day is destined to be the most glorious in the history of Alabama. It means salvation and rescue from a system that has undermined and corrupted the integrity and honesty of the State. I would rather that my little prattling boys lay in their graves than that I should hand down to them the taint of the Constitution under which we are living. Let these gentlemen who oppose this bill come to me and measure in dollars the cost of purity. I disagree with these gentlemen as to their estimates of the cost of a convention. I feel that it would not cost more that $25.000 or $30,000. But if it were to cost five times the amount they estimate the necessary money could be raised from voluntary subscriptions. The taxes I pay now are a burden to me, but cheerfully would I

increase them tenfold if by doing so I could materially aid in getting for our State a new and honest Constitution. I defy any of these gentlemen to come to me and measure in dollars the purity of their sons. It has been intimated that а new constitution would jeopardize the suffrages of white men. I say this: If any crowd of men engage in a conspiracy to disfranchise a single poor white man I stand ready to join a body of men to lynch the culprits. It has never been purposed by the friends of a constitutional convention in Alabama to disfranchise a solitary white man."

"How will you keep from doing it?" Mr. Spears asked, interrupting.

"We will put it on the broad ground of patriotism," Mr. Waller answered. "I am sorry that such a question should be asked at this time. I am sorry that faithful Democrats should so embarrass our plans at this juncture as to make and evoke speeches that may be used against us by our enemies. But we will provide for the suffrage of those who have fought for their country or their relatives within the fifth degree of kin."

Mr. Arrington followed. He favored white supremacy. In Mississippi less than one fifteenth of the illiterate white men were disfranchised by the new Constitution. "There is no telling what future awaits us if we continue in the present manner," he said. "The throes from which North Carolina has just subsided should teach us a lesson. I say to you that we may expect as bad or worse if we do not act without delay. Why, just before I left home to come here a negro named Armstrong came to me and said he had been offered the postmastership at his town. He asked for advice. I told him that as surely as the sun shone he would be shot to death within twenty-four hours after he made his bond as postmaster. He took my advice and decided not to get the postmastership."

The bill was passed by 52 to 41 in the House and 17 to 12 in the Senate. It fixed the time for the election the first Monday in July, 1899, and delegates were to be chosen at the same time. The bill was signed by the Governor.

An act abolishing the Court of County Commissioners of Jefferson County and creating a revenue board to take its place, was brought before the Supreme Court for a test as to its constitutionality. It was passed through the Senate when a bare quorum was present; and, as one of the Senators voting was lieutenant colonel of the Fifth Regiment of immunes, it was claimed that he could not legally hold a seat in the Legislature.

A new revenue law imposes taxes on many kinds of business not heretofore taxed, and amends the provisions in regard to others. Among the new subjects coming under the law are billposters, brokers, bicycles, book agents, cigar stands, cold storage, dog or pony shows, cotton buyers, coal and coke, feather renovators, dealers in securities, ferries and toll bridges, fruit stands, horse dealers, ice factories, laundries, slot machines, news companies, sellers of patent rights, photographers, plumbers, dealers in stocks and bonds, telephone companies, and warehouse and elevator companies.

The House passed a bill increasing the appropriation for public schools from $350,000 to $600,000; but the State Auditor published figures to show that this would involve the State in a debt of about $150,000, and the amount was reduced to $450,000. Other increases in appropriations were: For salary of a supernumerary judge,

$2,500; for tax cominissioners, $2,400; the Auditor's salary was raised from $1,800 to $2,400; the Adjutant General's was fixed at $1,500.

An important act was one exempting from taxation cotton in the hands of the producer or purchased for shipment and pig iron for one year; after that the rate will be $2 for 100 tons. Another act authorized the examination of the titles by which sixteenth-section lands are held, and the bringing of suits to recover in certain cases where they have not been properly paid for. These are the lands that were sold for the benefit of the school fund, having been given to the State upon its admission by Congress for that purpose. Authority to sell the land was granted to the State in 1827, and the greater part was sold within a few years from that date.

The special tax for relief of disabled Confederate soldiers and the widows of deceased soldiers was raised from half a mill to one mill.

The law on the consolidation and adjustment of the bonded debt was amended by changes in important particulars. The Governor has power to refund the debt in long-term gold bonds, the principal condition being that he shall secure a lower rate of interest.

A bill in the interest of temperance provided for dispensaries in about 17 counties, to be under the control of local authorities.

Other bills were:

To authorize courts of equity jurisdiction to direct the sale of property and franchises of quasi-public corporations.

To punish the making or certifying false and fraudulent abstracts of title.

To provide for regulation of corporations transacting life insurance business.

To appropriate $7,500 to the Alabama Industrial School for Girls, at Montevallo, and to provide for additional buildings there.

To establish a charter for Birmingham. Providing that the convict fund shall be transferred by the Treasurer into the general fund. For the preservation of game in Montgomery County.

A. H. Alston was elected supernumerary judge by the Legislature in joint session.

A bill requiring persons convicted of larceny and some other like offenses to work out the value of the property taken was vetoed as being opposed to the spirit of the constitutional provision forbidding imprisonment for debt.

Conventions were held for the nomination of delegates to the Constitutional Convention, but in April the Governor issued a circular letter to members of the Legislature asking their advice as to the advisability of calling an extra session of the Legislature to repeal the act. The State Convention of the Democratic party had given its approval to the measure, and recommended the party to support it at the polls. The reasons for the special session were given in the circular letter as follow:

"A number of Democrats have urged me to call a special session of the General Assembly for the sole purpose of considering whether the act authorizing a vote on the question of calling a constitutional convention should be repealed, and whether any amendments to the Constitution should be submitted for ratification. The argument used in this appeal to me is, that there is serious division in our party on this question; that many loyal Democrats are opposed to a convention; that the Democrats in the Legislature and the late State convention were almost evenly divided; that many Democrats will not vote for the convention; that if it should fail it would

seriously damage our party and tend to build up a formidable opposition."

It also urged that since the declaration that the Constitution framed must be submitted back for ratification a plain amendment framed by the General Assembly would accomplish the same result and avoid the cost of a convention.

The answers to the letter were summarized as follow: In the Senate, 16 in favor of repeal, 5 opposed, 5 doubtful, and 15 not heard from; in the House, 51 in favor, 26 opposed, 10 in doubt, and 9 not heard from. The Governor therefore issued a proclamation convening the General Assembly in extra session May 2, naming the following subjects for consideration: 1. The repeal of the law submitting the question of calling a constitutional convention to the people. 2. An amendment regulating the suffrage in the State to be submitted to the people. 3. A primary-election law.

The proclamation was accompanied by a statement given to the press by the Governor, offering among others the following explanations of his reasons for asking the repeal of the act after having signed it:

"The General Assembly, by narrow majorities 5 in the Senate and 10 in the House decided to submit to the electors the question as to whether or not they desired a constitutional convention. While this was not in accord with my views, I did not feel at liberty to withhold my assent from a measure that permitted every voter in the State to decide for himself whether he desired a convention to be held or not. Since then a Democratic State convention has been held, and, without the question ever having been submitted to the Democratic voters or having been considered by them, an attempt was made to take away from them the right given by the Legislature to decide for themselves whether they desired a convention or not, and to bind them to vote for a convention, whether approved by their judgment and conscience or not. This has been followed up by the threat that nominees of county conventions shall disobey the wishes of the conventions which nominated them and declare for the Constitutional Convention or be driven to resign. Instead of the nonpartisan convention designed by the General Assembly, the plan now seems to be to give us a constitution framed by partisans seeking only political advantage for those engineering and directing the cause. Some of the friends of the convention claim that the pledges given in the platform practically confine the convention to a consideration of the suffrage amendment. If this be true, and the pledges are faithfully observed, I am sure that the 133 members of the General Assembly are quite as competent to frame amendments and are quite as patriotic and representative of the people of Alabama as the delegates elected to the Constitutional Convention, and can do the work at one tenth the cost of a constitutional convention.

"The pledge to submit the proposed Constitution to the ratification of the people is ominously silent as to who shall be qualified electors to vote on it. The convention seems to have the power to deny to those disfranchised by it the right to vote on ratification. Even if we can trust every member of the convention to keep in good faith every pledge made, and the previous record of some of them does not inspire confidence, then the pledges did not go far enough.

"Our present Constitution guards with jealous care many rights dear to the people. Among others:

"1. It provides a homestead exemption to shelter every family in Alabama.

"2. It prohibits the State and counties and municipalities from indorsing bonds of railroads or lending their aid or credit to any corporation. "3. It secures to the people the right to elect their own judges and other officials.

"4. It prohibits imprisonment for debt. "5. It secures the right of trial by jury. 'No pledge is given that a single one of these provisions shall be preserved inviolate."

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The State committee of the Republican party met early in April, and declared the holding of a constitutional convention to be "unwise and unnecessary, and that its declared purpose of disfranchising any of the present voters of the State is unjust and in violation of the spirit of the Federal Constitution."

The Democratic State Committee held a meeting, April 21, and made strong protest against the repeal of the convention act.

In his message at the opening of the special session, which lasted from May 2 to May 17, the Governor said: "It is claimed by the advocates of the convention that the main question to be considered is an amendment that will secure white supremacy, that no time should be lost, but the greatest haste be taken to accomplish this. I suppose there are few thoughtful citizens, white or black, who do not believe that some change should be made in this direction. The necessity for hot haste-haste that will not permit any reflection-is not apparent. White supremacy is as complete and all-pervading to-day throughout the jurisdiction and domain of our State as it is possible to be. There is not a negro in all the Commonwealth holding an office under the present Constitution, not a justice of the peace, not a constable nor a single member of the General Assembly, nor has there been one for nearly a generation. It seems to me that the franchise can be settled with less friction and more certainty and security by a plain amendment that the people can understand and vote upon intelligently than by the framing of a new constitution. If any material changes be made in the Constitution in any other respect (and immaterial ones should not be considered), then every elector opposed to any one of the changes made would vote against the whole instrument; whereas a simple and plain suffrage amendment would command not only the intelligent and uncoerced vote of every Democrat, but of practically all the white and many intelligent colored voters in the State."

The only bills passed were two-one repealing the act of the regular session providing for a constitutional convention, and one appropriating money to pay the expenses of the special session. No primary election law was passed, and no constitutional amendments were submitted.

ANGLICAN CHURCHES. Among the items of Church growth and activity brought to notice in the Official Yearbook of the Church of England for 1899 is the increase in the number of confirmations. While in single years this varies considerably, the tables for a period of ten years show a noticeable advance in the actual number of confirmations and in the centers. The Sunday-school work appears to be growing not very rapidly, the attendance, including only children under fourteen years of age, being 2,410,201 in 1898 against 2,393,372 in 1897. The number of appropriated sittings in churches increased from 1,421,906 in 1896 to 1,878.386 in 1898, while the free sittings advanced from 4,660,206 to 4,793,008. Forty-three hundred and twenty-nine

churches were open for daily prayer in 1898 against 4,117 in 1897. A decided increase in voluntary offerings is shown, from £7,051,778 in 1897 to £7,506,354 in 1898. The figures, however, include legacies of exceptionally large amounts and specific gifts for church building, an instance being mentioned of a new church costing £100,000 which was built by the munificence of a single donor. The number of deacons ordained in 1898 (638) was smaller than at any previous period during the past twenty years.

Church Missionary Society. The one hundredth annual meeting of the Church Missionary Society was held in London, May 2. Sir John Kennaway, M. P., presided. The expenditure during the year had been £325,223, and the receipts, apart from those for the Centenary fund, £315,126, leaving a deficiency of a little more than £10,000, which, when added to the adverse balance brought forward from the previous year, made a total deficiency of £30,110. The addition of the year's receipts for the Centenary fund (£53,260) would, however, more than cover this. Including special funds, the total amount to be acknowledged for the year was £379,827. The two thousand and third missionary of the soci ety, not counting wives of missionaries, had been sent out in March. The committee were preparing to send missionaries to the Soudan as soon as the restrictions should be removed. The adult converts from paganism and Mohammedanism admitted to the Church by baptism during the year numbered 6,829. The numerical statistics represented 496 stations, with 403 ordained and 128 lay European missionaries, 314 wives of missionaries and 273 other women, making a total of 1,118 European workers; 303 native clergy, 5,708 native lay teachers, 245,769 native Christian adherents (including catechumens), 65,387 native communicants, 86,798 pupils, and 16,047 baptisms during the year. At the time of the meeting £70,000 had been paid and promised to the Centenary fund. The society celebrated its centenary in London during the week beginning April 9. A brief historical statement prepared by the officers with reference to the celebration showed that the society was founded at a meeting held in the Castle and Falcon Hotel, Aldersgate Street, London, April 12, 1799, when 25 persons were present. It had always held to evangelical church principles, though it had uniformly declined to enter into home controversies." In early days it was looked upon coldly by the bishops, and it was not till 1841 that they joined it in any numbers. The first candidate to offer his services was the famous Henry Martyn, senior wrangler in 1801, and he eventually went to India as a chaplain. In all, 2,003 missionaries had labored in connection with the society. Work was now carried on in West and East Africa, Uganda, Egypt, Palestine, Persia, India, Mauritius, Ceylon, China, Japan, Northwest Canada, British Columbia, and New Zealand, and more than 60 languages were used. Native churches, self-supporting and almost independent, had been formed in Sierra Leone, Lagos, and on the Niger. The society's list of living converts numbered 240,000. The service of the society comprised 1,096 European missionaries, including wives, and 55 medical missionaries. It had at home about 3,700 local missionary associations, and received contributions from about 5,000 parishes. Its magazines had an aggregate circulation of about 198,000 copies a month. A series of inscriptions hung upon the hall in which one of the meetings was held gave the dates in which the several mis

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