years previous to 1880, in the counties of Mobile and Baldwin, and more recently on the lands of the pine belt contiguous to the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. An equal area will be subjected to the same devastation within the next five or six years.

The belt of long-leaf pine traversing the center of Alabama from its eastern limits to near its western borders, extends over 550 or 600 square miles. By numerous measurements it was ascertained to average fully 5,000 feet to the acre. The amount of timber standing has been estimated at 1,750,000,000 feet, board

measure.

The lumber business is most actively carried on along the North and South division of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in Chilton

and Autauga counties. Eighteen million feet, board measure, were shipped in 1880 from the mills of one company to Northern markets; and 50,000,000 feet can be taken as the annual average product of the mills along the

above-named railroad line. To these must be

added the 24,000,000 feet produced by the mills along the Selma, Rome, and Dalton Railroad, bringing the annual products of this interior timber belt to 92,000,000 feet. In view of these facts, and the estimated amount of timber standing, its timber supplies will be exhausted in less than a quarter of a century from 1880. The less extensive pine-forests in the interior of Alabama, fronting Coosa river, and the detached patch in Walker county, bear a timber growth equal to any in the State, which has been estimated to add another 1,080,000,000 feet to its timber wealth.

Cotton-Factories.-On June 1, 1880, Alabama had 55,072 spindles and 1,060 looms in operation; on Jan. 1, 1884, 82,057 spindles and 1,614 looms.

Education.-The latest report of the Superintendent of Education covers the year ending Sept. 30, 1883. The amount of the public school fund for the year was $418,006.22, of which $136,733.12 consisted of the poll-tax collected and retained in the counties, $130,000 was the annual legislative appropriation, and the balance consisted of the income of investments and unexpended balances. Of the total, $263,652.47 was apportioned to cities and counties. The expenditures during the year were

as follow:

ham, Eufaula, Huntsville, Montgomery, and The public schools of the cities of BirmingSelma are mainly supported by local appropriations. The normal schools are at Florence, lature at its late session established two addiMarion, Huntsville, and Tuskegee. The Legistional ones for the education of white teachers, One of these is to be at Jacksonville, the other with an annual appropriation to each of $2,500. at Livingston. The Legislature, at its late session, having increased the annual appropriation the total fund for the year 1888-'84 is estimated for the support of the public schools $100,000, at $510,000.

Political. The Democratic State Convention met in Montgomery on the 4th of June, and nominated the following ticket:

For Governor, Edward A. O'Neal; for Secretary of State, Ellis Phelan; State Treasurer, Fred H. Smith; N. McClellan; Superintendent of Education, SoloAuditor, M. C. Burke; Attorney-General, Thomas

mon Palmer.

The platform adopted contained the following:

produced only about $800,000 of revenue, and the exTen years ago, with a tax rate of 7 mills, there was penses of government were about $1,500,000; while now, with a rate of 6 mills, we have raised and expended for the past year about $1,100,000, and the result is that notwithstanding the large amount in the Treasury a larger amount, over and above lialost by the late State Treasurer's default, there is now bilities, than at any previous time in the State's his

tory.

The management of the State convicts, a most troucally, though new and imperfect in some respects, is blesome and difficult matter theoretically and practiapproaching a solution in a manner consonant with the humane ideas of the age; at the same time that justice is done to the guilty, the State's financial interest guarded, and the health and comfort of convicts being now carefully protected.

The Republican State Convention was held in Montgomery on the 15th of April. Delegates to the Republican National Convention to be held in Chicago were chosen, and presidential electors were nominated. The platform contained the following:

We demand in the interest of home labor and the development of the vast wealth of Alabama in ironore, coal, and other minerals, as well as for the encouragement of all our now growing and progressive industries, and to afford the farmer a market at his

door for all his products, that customs duties, laid for the proper expenses of the national Government, shall be distributed with a view to the protection of and fostering of all these great interests, and to the end that we may continue to pay our labor, as now, more than double the prices paid in England and other foreign countries.

We denounce the present convict system of Alabama, inaugurated by a Democratic administration, as an outrage on humanity, a disgrace to any civilized State, as degrading to honest labor, as tending to reduce the laboring-classes to a competition with penitentiary convicts, and as tending to impede immigration to our great State.

The election on the 4th of August resulted in the choice of Democratic State officers and a Democratic Legislature, substantially without opposition. On the 4th of November Democratic Congressmen and presidential electors were chosen by large majorities.

Finances. During the past two years unusual efforts have been made toward the collection of the various items of revenue. Of taxes due on former years, there was collected in the year ending Sept. 30, 1883, $33,180.77, and in the year ending Sept. 30, 1884, $28,390.84, while the aggregate of balances against taxcollectors at the latter date was only $25,039.33, nearly all of which is in suit. In the two years, the total receipts at the treasury, from the owners of the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad lands, from the sureties and the estate of the late treasurer, and from back taxes, were $114,910.59. The balance in the treasury to the credit of the general fund on Sept. 30, 1884, was $134,518.38. The receipts from all sources during the first quarter of the present fiscal year (to Dec. 31, 1884) may reach $150,000. The current expenses of the government for this period, including the cost of the current legislative session, are not over-estimated at $120,000; and the January (1885) interest on the bonded debt, to be provided and set apart by December 31st, is $160,200. The act of Feb. 23, 1883, "to levy and collect taxes for the use of this State and the counties thereof," which reduced the rate of taxation from sixtyfive cents on the hundred dollars to fifty-five cents, was declared void by the Supreme Court, because of an error in its enrollment. Last year, when the act would have been in force, the total receipts at the treasury from taxes on property (including payments made by collectors on school warrants) were $925,385.42. At fifty-five cents on the hundred dollars, the receipts, on the same assessments, would have been $783,018.11. The difference, $142,367.31, is greater than the treasury balance at the close of the year by $7,948.93. Every effort to find the defaulting and fugitive State Treasurer, Isaac H. Vincent, has failed. The State will realize from his property and sureties but a small percentage of its loss.

The Penitentiary.-Says the Governor: "The penitentiary was intended for a penal and reformatory prison. The welfare of the convict was considered in connection with the protection of society by his punishment. It took the

place of the gallows and whipping-post for many offenses. But its humane purpose was soon neglected. Convicts, left to the unrestrained control of lessees and contractors, were overworked, insufficiently fed, badly clothed, and beaten with stripes. They sickened and died in great numbers. In one year the deathrate was two hundred and fifty in the thousand. The prison was maintained from the first at heavy cost. Until 1878 it was an expense to the State every year. Since 1878 it has yielded a net profit, increasing from year to year. In 1883 it paid into the treasury a net sum of $19,198.80, and in 1884 of $17,197.-. 78; exclusive, in both years, of payments to officers and inspectors from the treasury. Since Sept. 30, 1884, an additional payment into the treasury has been made of $15,890.01. Until within a few years, little effort appears to have been made to secure to convicts the humane treatment prescribed by law, and until 1882 no report of any officer of the penitentiary told of the constant and utter disregard of all legal regulations for their benefit and protection. The reports of the warden and the inspectors two years ago disclosed a condition of affairs so deplorable that the Legislature at once undertook to correct and mitigate it by the act of Feb. 22, 1883, the result of which has been an improvement in the treatment and condition of the convicts, while the profits from their labor have increased. There were in the penitentiary, Sept. 30, 1884, 527 convicts, of whom 349 were at Pratt Mines, 63 at the quarries at Blount Springs, and 86 on Williams's plantations."

Education. In the fifty-one counties from which reports have been made, a greater number of schools have been taught for longer time and by better teachers than heretofore. The superintendent makes a number of recommendations, the more important of which are: 1. That counties, cities, townships, and separate school districts be authorized, by a vote of the qualified electors, to levy and collect a schooltax; 2. That the salaries of county superintendents be increased; 3. That all money for the schools, except the poll-tax, be paid from the State treasury, and none by collectors upon the Auditor's warrants; 4. That section 983 of the code be so amended as to authorize the sale of sixteenth-section lands for cash; and, 5. That appropriations for certain normal schools be increased.

Agriculture. The Agricultural Department went into operation on Sept. 1, 1883, under the direction of E. C. Betts, of Madison County, who had been appointed commissioner.

Hospital for the Insane. The enlargement of the Hospital for the Insane, for which $100,000 was appropriated Feb. 26, 1881, has been completed in the addition of two wings, each three stories high. The entire building is of brick, and as nearly fire-proof as possible. It is lighted by gas made on the premises and is heated by steam. It is abundantly supplied

with hot and cold water, and is fitted with baths and closets of the most improved kind. The steam-pressed brick of the new wing were made in the yards of the hospital; and the bedsteads, tables, seats, and other furniture needed, were manufactured in its own shops. The hospital now has accommodation for 750 patients. Since Sept. 30, 1882, 455 patients have been admitted and 242 have been discharged. On Sept. 30, 1884, the number of patients was 630, of whom 539 were white and 91 were colored. Of the aggregate, 589 were indigent, and 41 were paying patients. In the year ending Sept. 30, 1883, the hospital received from the State $71,344, and in the year ending September 30th last, $78,789.75.

Deaf and Dumb and Blind Asylum.-In the Institution for the Deaf and Dunib and the Blind at Talladega, 106 pupils have been enrolled, and the average attendance has been 83. of the whole number enrolled, 72 are deaf-mutes, and 34 are blind. The cost of maintenance, for the year ending Sept. 30, 1884, was $16,269.54; or, $203.36 for each pupil.

Supreme Court.-On October 25th, Chief-Justice Brickell resigned, and the Governor appointed Associate Justice Stone in his place. David Clopton was appointed Associate Justice.

November Election. The result of the November election, as officially declared, was as follows: for Cleveland electors, 92,973; Blaine, 59,444; Butler, 762; St. John, 610. Eight Democratic Congressmen were declared elected. Legislative Session.-The Legislature met on November 11th, and was in session at the close of the year. On the 25th, James L. Pugh, Democrat, was re-elected United States Senator by a nearly unanimons vote.

ALASKA. An act of Congress passed May 17, 1884, provides that the territory that was ceded to the United States by Russia, by the treaty of March 30, 1867, now known as Alaska, shall constitute a civil and judicial district, of which the temporary seat of government shall be Sitka. A Governor, District Judge, Clerk of the District Court, District Attorney, and Marshal, are provided for. There are to be at least two terms of the District Court each year, one at Sitka and the other at Wrangel. The clerk is ex-officio secretary and treasurer of the district, recorder of deeds, mortgages, etc., and register of wills. He is required to establish record offices in Sitka and Wrangel, and the District Court may also establish such offices at Oonalashka and Juneau City, if it shall deem it expedient. Four commissioners are appointed, residing, one at Sitka, one at Wrangel, one at Oonalashka, and one at Juneau City, who, besides the powers and jurisdiction of Commissioners of the United States Circuit Courts, exercise the duties and powers, civil and criminal, now conferred on justices of the peace under the general laws of the State of Oregon, so far as applicable. They also have testamentary and probate jurisdiction,

subject to the supervision of the district judge, and the powers of notaries public. The marshal appoints four deputies for the abovenamed localities respectively, who are ex-officio constables. The general laws of Oregon in force at the passage of the act are declared to be the law of the district, so far as the same may be applicable and not in conflict with this act or the laws of the United States. Alaska is created a land district, Sitka being the land-office, and the commissioner resident there ex-officio register thereof. The abovementioned officers, except deputy - marshals, are appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, for four years. The Governor and judge receive an annual salary each of $3,000; the attorney, marshal, and clerk, of $2,500. J. H. Kinkead has been appointed Governor.

The Secretary of the Interior is required to make needful and proper provision for the education of the children of school age in Alaska, without reference to race, until permanent provision shall be made therefor, and $25,000 is appropriated by the act for that purpose. Other acts of 1884 appropriated the following sums: For the support and education of Indian children at industrial schools, $15,000; for expenses of government, $24,000; for compiling laws for the guidance of officials, $500; and for supervision of the seal-fisheries, $28,350.

ANGLICAN CHURCHES. The Church of England has enjoyed a year of relative quiet. The exciting controversies that disturbed its life during many previous years appear to have subsided for a time. The most notable event in the ritualistic controversy, and almost the only one that attracted general attention, was the decision of the High Court of Justice sustaining the Bishop of Manchester in refusing to appoint the candidate named by the patron to the incumbency of Miles Platting, except upon a pledge that he would not repeat the ritual offenses for which his predecessor was subjected to discipline. Attention has been given to the report of the Ecclesiastical Courts Commission, proposing a reform in the organization of the Ecclesiastical Courts, particularly to the clauses constituting a Court of Appeal composed partly of laymen; and the questions relating to this subject have been themes of discussion in the meetings of representative bodies, and in the published expressions of men whose opinions are supposed to be influential.

The Church Missionary Society.-The annual meeting of the Church Missionary Society was held in London, May 6th. The Earl of Chichester presided. The total income of the society for the year had been £232,448.

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.The one hundred and eighty-third anniversary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was held June 17th, under the presidency of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The report stated that the gross

income of the society for the year had been £109,572, the largest sum it had ever raised in the same time. The remittances for foreign parts had been increased by nearly 20 per cent. An examination of the society's records lately made showed that it had expended on the foundation and development of the church in Australia, £225,850; in Africa, £512,704; in British North America, £1,627,601; in the West Indies, £571,726; in New Zealand and the Pacific, £97,301; in Asia, £1,582,486; and in Europe, £82,505. The number of ordained missionaries on the society's lists was now 520.

The Church Pastoral Aid Society.-The fortyeighth meeting of the Church Pastoral Aid Society was held May 8th. The Earl of Shaftesbury presided. The ordinary income of the society for the year had been £54,688. During the past ten years it had contributed £84,000 toward ministerial work in the poorer parishes of the metropolis, employing on an average seventy curates and thirty-six lay agents yearly. The Church Army.-The "Church Army" is an institution that has been organized to operate, on the plan of the Salvation Ariny, among the great masses of the people "who are outside of all religion." Its first great meeting was held May 28th, under the presidency of the Bishop of Oxford. A report was read by the Rev. W. Carlisle, giving a sketch of the rise of the organization. It had started about two years before, almost simultaneously at Richmond, Oxford, Bristol, Tunbridge, and Kensington. It had now a general organization, but worked in districts under the guidance of the local clergy. It was now the largest part of the lay department of the Church Parochial Mission Society, and had the patronage of many of the bishops. It had fifty-nine stations, fifty of which were in active operation, in addition to which Church Army missions had been conducted, and more than three thousand adult converts had been confirmed. A training-house had been established at Oxford in October, 1883, at which thirty-nine officers were under instruction. The work of the Church Army had been carried on with small expenditure, and the poor themselves had subscribed to keep the stations open. The chairman, the Bishop of Oxford, made an address, commending the enterprise.

The Liberation Society. The annual meeting of the Society for the Liberation of Religion from the Patronage and Control of the State, was held in London, May 7th. The report of the Council stated that the income of the society for the year had been £8,898, and its expenditures £8,541. The report also reviewed the progress that had been made during the year toward the accomplishment of the object that the society is trying to promote. It set forth that, as the Government had prepared, and would, if practicable, introduce a bill still further to amend the burial laws, it was hoped that it would be unnecessary to proceed with

Mr. Richard's Cemeteries Bill. The Government had acceded to the request of the Executive Committee of the society in appointing a Nonconformist as one of the Charity Commissioners; and a Select Committee on the operation of the Charitable Trusts Acts had been appointed, whose inquiry the society's friends were urged to assist in making complete and effective. The report of the Royal Cominission on Ecclesiastical Courts was criticised as showing that the members of the Establishment were indulging in dreams of obtaining spiritual independence without relinquishing the favors of the state; whereas, it was declared, freedom could only be obtained by the abandonment of privilege. Resolutions were adopted condemning the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Courts; concurring in the motions of which notice had been given by Mr. Richard, Mr. Dillwyn, and Mr. Peddie, for the disestablishment of the Church in England, Wales, and Scotland, respectively; expressing satisfaction at the result of Mr. Willis's motion for the removal of the bishops from the House of Lords; and urging the extension of the efforts of the society among the rural population, in view of the enfranchisement of the agricultural laborers.

The Ritualistic Controversy.-Baron Pollock delivered judgment, January 22d, in the Queen's Bench division of the High Court of Justice in the action of quare impedit, brought by Sir Percival Heywood against the Bishop of Manchester, for refusing to institute Mr. Cowgill to the living of Miles Platting. The justice recited the facts of the case, which were not disputed, stating that the bishop had assigned as his reason for not instituting Mr. Cowgill, that that clergyman had, as curate of Miles Platting, committed various breaches of law, for which he might have been subjected to ecclesiastical censure; that he did not think it right to run the risk of Mr. Cowgill's repeating those offenses as incumbent, and had therefore sought an interview with him, and asked a series of written questions, the intention of which was to ascertain whether Mr. Cowgill would desist from those breaches of the law if instituted to the living; and that the result of the interview was to assure the bishop that it was exceedingly unlikely that he would so desist. This, Baron Pollock regarded as a legitimate exercise of the discretion confided to the bishop to refuse to institute an incumbent whom he could reasonably and lawfully regard as unfit for the office. Baron Pollock did not hold that the bishop was in any way obliged to refuse institution to Mr. Cowgill. He intimated that if the bishop had chosen to regard the ritual offenses committed under another incumbent as insufficient grounds for assuming that they would be repeated by Mr. Cowgill as incumbent, he might in his discretion have done so; but that he had a discretion in the matter, and that he had exercised that discretion on grounds that the law would hold to be suffi