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this region was left to the last. If the Afghans had remained quiet the Ameer and the Indian Government might have been willing to postpone it indefinitely, contenting themselves with the indeterminate joint control that they had exercised for forty years, each granting allowances and punishing or rewarding tribesmen as occasion demanded. The Khan of Lalpura, who is the hereditary chief of the Mohmands, has hitherto considered himself a vassal of Cabul, though he and the tribes under his control have often transferred their allegiance from the reigning Ameer to various pretenders in times of civil war. The eastern Mohmand clans, inhabiting the country between Lalpura and the Peshawur border, have had more intimate relations with the British authorities, some of their headmen holding land within the Indian border. The Durand convention draws a line right through the tribe, dividing it in halves, one of which falls to the Ameer and one to the Indian Government. It cuts off the residence of the hereditary chief from clans directly subject to him that live within the sphere assigned to British control. In the early part of 1896 a clan of Mohmands living in a range of hills south of the Kunar river, near Asmar, fell to quarreling among themselves. The local Afghan officials could not resist the temptation to interfere, and Gen. Gholam Haider, commanding the Ameer's troops in eastern Afghanistan, placed a strong outpost in the Mittai valley, which was on the British side of the Durand line, for the convention provided that the watershed east of the Kunar and north of the Cabul river, from Jellalabad to Kam Dakka, was to be the boundary between Indian and Afghan authority. This forward movement of the Afghan troops caused a stir in Bajaur and imperiled British influence along the new route through Swat and Dir to Chitral, where subsidized chiefs began to look with alarm for a further advance of Cabul troops, while the Mohmands and other semi-independent tribes showed signs of restlessness. The Afghans, by pushing forward their outposts, threatened, intentionally or not, to outflank the road from Malakand to Chitral. Hence the British Government was compelled to take measures of self-protection and to press for a delimitation of the frontier, which otherwise it would have preferred to leave in abeyance. All the clans on the Indian side of the Durand line were informed that they are under the sole control of the British Government. A durbar was brought about by Mr. Merk, the commissioner at Peshawur, at which a large number of Mohmand headmen acknowledged allegiance to the British notwithstanding the pressure exerted from the Afghan side to induce them to hold aloof from the assembly. Meanwhile the Afghan outpost still remained in Mittai at the beginning of 1897. No answer from the Ameer having been received in January to the invitation to appoint a new frontier commission, the commissioner of Peshawur issued a proclamation declaring that all Mohmand country and its border is now within the limits of the British Government and will have no connection whatever with the Ameer of Cabul. The British claimed as theirs under the Durand agreement not only the Mittai valley, but the whole of Bajaur, of which that valley forms a part. When the Afghan troops first occupied Mattai the British authorities sent a protest to Gholam Haider at Asmar that the valley was indisputably British under the Durand treaty. The Afghan general replied that the step had been taken by the Ameer's orders, and that the only way in which he could withdraw from the valley was on the instructions of his sovereign. The new British agent at Cabul, Ghafar Khan, when he went to his post in October, 1896, was the bearer of a strong letter from the Government of India on this sub

ject, and in the course of November the Ameer replied that he was fully prepared to abide by the Durand treaty and that he recognized the watershed as the boundary, which excluded Bajaur from his dominions. For an account of the military operations on the frontier, see INDIA.

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, Montg tgomery.

Government.-The following were the State officers during the year: Governor, Joseph F. Johnston; Secretary of State, James K. Jackson; Treasurer, George W. Ellis; Auditor and Comptroller, Walter S. White; Attorney-General, William C. Fitts; Commissioner of Agriculture, J. F. Culver; Superintendent of Education, John O. Turner; Adjutant General, H. E. Jones; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Robert C. Brickell; Associate Justices, Thomas N. McClellan, Thomas W. Coleman, James B. Head, and Jonathan Haralson; Clerk, Sterling A. Wood-all Democrats. Finances. The report of the Treasurer for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1896, showed a balance in treasury at close of Sept. 30, 1895, of $18,366.67; receipts from Oct. 1, 1895, to Sept. 30. 1896, $1,999,930.13; total, $2,018.296.80. By disbursements from Oct. 1, 1895, to Sept. 30, 1896, $1,959,977.40. Balance in treasury Sept. 30, 1896, $58,319.40. Some of the principal items of receipts were: From State taxes of 1895, $1,245,096; special State taxes of 1895, $115,566: poll taxes of 1895, $145,894; licenses, $124,821; solicitors' fees, $22,602; sales and redemption of lands, $22,582; express, telegraph, and sleeping-car companies, $10,261; insurance companies' license, $10,600; insurance companies for taxes on premiums, $23,926; railroad licenses, $12,500; Agricultural Department, $45,614; Penitentiary fund, $148.043; colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts, $22,000. Some of the chief items of disbursement were: Salary of circuitcourt judges, $32.499; of solicitors, $29,600; of chancellors, $12,176; expense of geological survey, $6,900; expense of Agricultural Department, $47,009; interest on Agricultural and Mechanical College fund, $20,280; interest on University fund, $24,000; Alabama Insane Hospital, $119,366; interest on the public debt, $380,000; temporary loans, $100,000; feeding State prisoners, $80,648; military encampment, $15,000; educational purposes, $574,434; normal schools, $32,000; salaries of convict officers and employees. $27,610; expenses of convict department, $91,299; pensions to Confederate soldiers and widows, $115,686.

From Oct. 1, 1896, to Jan. 22, 1897, the receipts in the treasury were $7,775 in excess of what they were during the corresponding period of the preceding year, and on Feb. 15 the State had all old obligations wiped out and a balance in the treasury of $101,231. On June 4, 1897, the Auditor reported cash in the treasury, $288,194.99. Liabilities: Confederate soldiers and widows, $104,073.81; twoand three-per-cent. fund, $189; school indemnity lands, $4,250; convict fund, $8,872.06; agricultural fund, $39,540.23; colleges, agricultural and mechanic arts, $3,003; outstanding warrants, $15,840.81; due several counties as surplus solicitors' fees, etc., $6,632.41; general fund balance, $105,793.67; total, $288,194.99. Treasury receipts from January, 1897, to date, $1,332,221.21; disbursements (warrants), $974,150.82; excess of receipts, $358,070.39.

The report of the internal-revenue collector for the State for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1897,

showed a large gain over the collections made for the year previous, the total collections for the year ended amounting to $22,000 more than the foregoing year. The following figures were given as the collections: Miscellaneous, $5,617.05; beer, $33,638.14; spirit tax, $68,718.55; cigars, manufactured tobacco, and snuff, $21,301.89; special privilege tax, $29,721.62; total collections, $159,001.23. The total gain was larger than ever before. Commerce. The annual review of the trade of the port of Mobile, published by the "Register," showed that the exports for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1897, were $10,131,189, against $6,995,127 for the previous year-an increase of 45 per cent. The greatest increases were in the timber and lumber trade, and in the exports of cotton (foreign), the exports in cotton being 306,639 bales, against 209,944 the previous year. The statement was made that but for the lack of room in steamers the exports of cotton would have been very much larger. Cotton equal in amount to the above increase had to be refused by the steamship lines; but arrangements were being made for additional steamers. The total foreign exports of lumber amounted to 68,000,000 superficial feet, an increase of 10,000,000 feet, which increase was about the same as was noted the previous year. There were exported 1,066,528 cubic feet of hewed and 7.070,215 cubic feet of sawed timber, of the latter about 6,500,000 feet going to the United Kingdom. The total lumber exports, foreign and coastwise, was 71,228,574 feet; the total of lumber and timber in superficial feet was 209,738,490 against 162,403,106. In shingles and hard wood there was considerable increase. The receipts of grain at the port were 4,220,955 bushels, against 2,331,871 the previous year, and there were exported 2,807,225 ‍bushels, showing that the exports of grain for the year were greater than the receipts of the year previous. The exports of flour were 20,451 barrels, and of cotton-seed meal 36,780 sacks. For the first time in her history Mobile exported pig iron from the Birmingham furnaces, the exports amounting to 52,000 tons. The Central American business of the port showed considerable increase, the Plant line handling 56,394 tons against 37,600 tons the previous year. There was a falling off in vegetable shipments from truck gardens of about $9,000 in value. The wool business reached 225,000 pounds, an increase of 50,000 over the previous year, and an increase in value of $15,000. There were imported 2,067,755 bunches of bananas, against 1,887,059 bunches the previous year, and the imports of cocoanuts were 3,405,425 against 3,398,714 the year before. Many improvements were made in wharf facilities during the year, representing about $150,000 in value. These improvements, made by the Mobile and Ohio and the Mobile and Birmingham Railroads, will, when fully completed, double the capacity for loading steamships. The financial condition of the city was reported better than it had been for twenty years. The amount of cash on hand to the credit of the city Aug. 1 was $55,453, an increase of $24,779 over the previous year.

Industries. The output of coal in 1896 was 5,743,697 tons; in 1897, about 6,000,000 tons. The total amount of coal dug every day in Jefferson County alone amounted to about 19,000 tons.

The most important discovery made in the Birmingham district since it was ascertained some years ago that Alabama coal could be coked, came to light at Leeds, where a rich vein of high-grade brown iron ore was found, 10 to 40 feet below the surface and about 10 feet thick. Forty openings were made, and in all but 3 apparently continuous leads of brown ore were exposed. It had been thought that this quality of ore existed only in

pockets and small deposits in the State. This ore analyzed from 49 to 52 per cent. of pure iron and is especially easy to flux, thus rendering it equivalent to 60-per-cent. ores.

The first run of steel by the open-hearth basic process was made July 23 at the new 60-ton steel mill of the Birmingham Rolling Mill Company. The process was the same by which low silicon pig iron, made in that district, of Alabama red ore, by the Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company, was converted into steel at Pittsburg and Chicago. By the middle of August the Birmingham mill began regularly to use this new steel in all its departments. Theretofore steel billets had been brought from Pittsburg to be rolled in the plate and rod mills of that company. The company found a ready sale for all its product. In August 14 furnaces were in blast in the Birmingham district, making 2,700 tons of iron daily.

In March a rich bed of lead ore was discovered in the vicinity of New Market, analysis of which showed enough silver to pay for the working, aside from the large percentage of pure lead. On another tract in the same section was found a four-foot seam of coal. A company was organized to develop these fields.

Education.-The State has established 23 institutions of learning, putting at least one in each congressional district. There appears to be evidence of a general educational revival in the State, and schools, from the lowest to the highest, are reported as having been uncommonly prosperous. The State Normal College, at Troy, reports 761 students, State appropriation $5,000, total income $11,479, value of property $22,500; the State normal school at Florence, 310 students, State appropriation $7,500, total income $14,116, value of property $55,000; the State normal school at Jacksonville, 230 students, State appropriation $2,500, total income $4,906, value of property $10,250; the Normal College for Girls, at Livingston, 138 students, State appropriation $2,500, value of property $15,000; the Girls' Industrial School, at Montevallo, 350 pupils, State appropriation $15,000, value of property $35,000. Following is a report of colored schools: Tuskegee Normal and Industrial School, 1,072 pupils; total income, $124,723; of which amount $77,114 was used for current expenses, and the remainder went into new buildings; value of property, $30,000. Normal school at Montgomery, 930 students; total income, $13,000; value of property, $30,000. Agricultural and Mechanical College at Normal, 400 students; total income, $30.896.

Railroads.-Associate Railroad Commissioner Ross C. Smith reported the mileage of railroads in active operation in the State at 3,625 miles, representing a taxable valuation of $45,496,602, and furnishing employment to 14,000 men. Less than 170 miles were in the hands of receivers, while four years prior more than half of the mileage was forced into bankruptcy. The Commissioner says that "the disappearance of receiverships, and as a result the reorganization of these once insolvent roads, establishes the confidence of capitalists in the ultimate success of our railroad property and in the further development of our State resources." The gross tonnage of railroads in the State for the year reviewed was given at 11,453,443 tons, and the sum of $2,274,215 was spent in improving the physical condition of the railroads.

Legislative Session.-One of the few important laws passed by the Legislature was that establishing a tax commission. Concerning this law, to which there was considerable opposition, the Governor is quoted as saying: "The question that confronted the General Assembly was, how to meet a

deficit, admitted by all and variously estimated at from $225,000 to over $500,000. There were but two ways to meet this deficit and secure a larger revenue to the State that would enable us to improve our public schools. One was by increasing the rate of taxation and compelling those who are now bearing the burdens of government to contribute more largely, and the other was to require those who have been evading just and fair taxation to contribute their share. The Legislature chose the latter plan, and I think chose wisely. To say that this act reflects upon the assessors is absurd, for it is well known that the census of 1890 shows that the taxable property of the State amounted to more than $623,000,000, whereas the assessments for taxation amount to only $260,000,000." Other laws passed were: Prohibiting combinations in rates. Abolishing slot machines.

Prohibiting pools and gambling devices of all kinds.

Exempting capital not exceeding $50,000 invested in the future in cotton manufacture in the State. Among the more important general bills that failed were: The calling of a constitutional convention, the giving arbitrary powers to the Railroad Commission, and to abolish the convict lease system. Condition of Convicts.-In March the city council of Birmingham decided to lease the city convicts to the Sloss Iron and Steel Company, who have convict stockades at Coalburg. Only those of the prisoners who had been fined $30 or sentenced to sixty days' service, and were unable to pay their fines, were to go to the stockades. The Sloss Company offered to pay $5 a month and board the conviets, which offer the city accepted, the aldermen saying that they were forced to take this course because of the overcrowded condition of the city prison.

Decision. In the general revenue law passed at the late session of the Assembly there is a section levying a license tax on the capital stock of all incorporations except banks. The Phoenix Carpet Company, of Birmingham, refused to pay the tax, on the ground that the law is unconstitutional. They were arrested and convicted. An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court, which held that the law is constitutional.

Stills destroyed. The following is a list, by counties, of the illegal distillery outfits destroyed during the year ending June 30: Randolph, 64; Cleburne, 36; Limestone, 24; Coosa, 21; Marion, 17; Lauderdale, 16; Chilton, 14; Madison, 12; Chambers, 11: Jackson, 8; Franklin, 8; Shelby, 7; Marshall, 5; Lawrence, 5; Clay, 5; Lamar, Tallapoosa, Fayette, and Calhoun, each 4; Morgan and Winston, each 3; Dale, Cullman, Blount, Walker, and Pickens, each 2: Autauga, Perry, Macon, De Kalb, Colbert, and Lee, each 1. Total, 291. During the previous fiscal year 276 outfits were destroyed, or 15 fewer than in this year.

Lynching. In June a committee of citizens of Decatur, bearing a petition signed by over 2,000 citizens of Morgan County, waited on Judge Speake, at Huntsville, and requested him to call a special term of court to try negroes accused of rape. The committee stated that nothing short of their request would appease the enraged populace, and that if a special term were not called the citizens of Morgan and adjoining counties would defy resistance and hang the prisoners. Without hesitation Judge Speake ordered a special term as requested, and a number of executions resulted.

In his message to the General Assembly, touching the question of lynching, Gov. Johnston said:

"I especially invite your attention to the consideration of the violation of our laws by mobs.

Where the administration of the law is wholly within the grasp of the best citizens of the State, where the sympathies of the judge and jury are entirely on the side of victims of brutal lust, no excuse justifies the spirit that would override the orderly administration of justice. All of us understand how difficult it is to restrain the passion and indignation that arouses the hot blood of relatives and friends to visit summary punishment upon those who commit the most heinous and unforgivable crime against society; but our people must be made to understand that the proper way to punish these and all other crimes is by the law of the land. The danger of inflicting punishment upon the innocent when passion and not reason holds the scales is so great that all good citizens should repress their just indignation and aid in preserving peace and enforcing the laws of the land, which are surely of sufficient severity, and I earnestly appeal to all the good people of the State to unite with us in the resolve that during this administration not a single lynching shall occur. I suggest that authority be given the Governor to call a special term of the court and have speedy investigation and trial on information whenever any crime has been committed calculated to arouse great public indignation."

Political. At a meeting of the Democratic State Executive Committee in Montgomery in January, the following resolutions were adopted as a substitute for one providing that only those who voted the State and national tickets of the party should participate in primaries, to wit:

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Resolved, That we cordially invite all conservative voters, irrespective of past political association or differences, who can unite with us in the effort for pure and economical and constitutional government, and who will support the nominees and principles of the Democratic party, to participate in the primaries of the party throughout the State.

"Resolved, further, That all persons so participating in the primaries, or mass meetings of the party hereafter to be held, thereby pledge themselves to support the nominees of such primaries, conventions, or mass meetings, whether municipal, county, State, or Federal.

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Resolved, further, That it shall be competent for the local executive committee of each county to determine whether any other than white voters shall be allowed to participate in said primaries."

ANGLICAN CHURCHES. The forty-ninth annual report of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners represents that the income, on the whole, has been fairly maintained, a diminution in the receipts from agricultural lands, tithe rent charges, and minerals having been met by increased receipts from property in London, and by a temporary reduction in certain items of expenditure attached to the estates. For the current year a sum of £150,000 would be appropriated for the augmentation and endowment of benefices. During a period of fifty-six years, extending from 1840 to Oct. 31, 1896, the commissioners had augmented and endowed upward of 5,700 benefices by annual payments charged on the fund; by capital sums expended on the provision of parsonage houses, etc.; and by the annexation of lands, tithe rent charges, etc. The value of these grants exceeded £808,835 per annum in perpetuity, and was equivalent to a capital sum of, say, £24,320,909. The value of benefactions, consisting of land, tithe, and other rent charges, stock, cash, etc., secured to benefices, and met for the most part by grants from the commissioners, exceeded £181,940 per annum in perpetuity, and was equivalent to a permanent increase of endowment of, say, £5,458,200. A sum exceeding £26,000 per annum was also contributed by benefactors to meet the commissioners' grants for curates

in mining districts. The total increase in the incomes of benefices thus resulting from the operations of the commissioners exceeded £1,016,775 per annum, and might be taken to represent a capital sum of £30,559,100.

The number of Episcopal churches in Scotland has increased from 75 to 321 in the past sixty years. A gain of nearly 1,000 communicants was recorded in 1896.

Church Missionary Society.-The receipts of the Church Missionary Society from all sources, excluding special funds, as reported at the annual meeting in May, amounted to £297.626, exceeding those of any other former year by £25,000, and also exceeding the aggregate of general and special funds together in any former year. The excess in general contributions was £13,668, just balancing a diminution in legacies of £13,366. The associations had sent up £5,000 more than ever before. Adding special funds of £43,769 (including £7,900 for the Famine fund) the total amount contributed for all purposes was brought up to £341,400. The expenditure had risen to £297,260. A deficit was still left of £9,000. Eighty-five missionaries had been accepted for service. Seventy-seven hundred adult baptisms, the largest number recorded in any one year, were returned from the mission fields. The history of the society during the sixty years of the reign of Queen Victoria was referred to as calling for great thankfulness, while progress was especially conspicuous during the past ten years. A liberal response had been made to the appeal on behalf of the "Three Years' Enterprise.'

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handed labors of Marsden had led to a succession of bishops, of whom Selwyn was the chief, and there were now 6 dioceses. Å like record could be made of the efforts of the Church in every part of the empire, and the society now ministered through the agency of 766 missionaries in 55 dioceses, where 54 languages were spoken. Many colonial and missionary bishops were present and took part in the proceedings by the reading of papers and reports relative to the condition of religion and the Episcopal Church in the countries of their residence. The Bishop of Calcutta spoke of "The Extension of the Episcopate and Church Organization in India"; the Bishop of Chota Nagpur, on "Missions to the Aborigines in India"; the Bishop of South Tokyo, on "The Church in Japan"; the Bishop of Korea, on missions to that country; the Bishop of Cape Town, on "The Province of South Africa"; the Bishop of St. John's, Kaffraria, on "The Church's Work among the Native Tribes of South Africa"; the Bishop of Bloemfontein on the work of the physician in the mission field; the Bishop of Grahamstown on the ministries of women in the mission field; the Archbishop of Rupertsland, on "The Ecclesiastical Province of Canada"; the Bishop of Perth, on the work of the Church in Australia; the Bishop of Jamaica, on the West India province; Bishop Blyth, on "The Relations of the Anglican Church to the Churches of the East"; the Bishop of Gibraltar, on English Congregations on the Continent"; the Bishop of Missouri, on the domestic missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States; and the Bishop of Kentucky, on the foreign missions of that Church.

Other Missionary and Benevolent Societies.

The full report of the missions gives the following statistics, most of the numbers being much in excess of those of the previous year: Number of sta--At the meeting of the United Boards of Missions tions, 483; of European clergy, 372; of European laymen, 110; of European wives, 293; of European woman missionaries, 238; of Eurasian clergy, 20; of native clergy, 341; of native lay agents, 4,108; of native women laborers, 1,211; of baptized native Christian adherents, 203,701; of native catechumens, 29,409; of native communicants, 62,785; of baptisms during the year, 8,020 of adults and 8,399 of children; of schools and seminaries, 2,171, with 92,804 scholars and seminarists. In the medical work, 7,749 in patients and 500.674 out patients were treated. The number of missionaries sent out by the society between 1837 and 1887, the first fifty years of Queen Victoria's reign, was 900, a yearly average of 18, the average of the last ten of those years being 23. The number sent out between 1887 and 1897, between her Majesty's jubilee and her diamond jubilee, was 666, a yearly average of 66. On June 1, 1887, there were connected with the society 247 missionaries, 40 laymen, and 22 women (not including wives); on June 1, 1897, there were 376 ordained missionaries, 110 laymen, and 244 women. The advance in the aggregate number during the ten years exceeded by 114 that of the first eightyeight years of the society's history.

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.The one hundredth and ninety-sixth anniversary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was celebrated in London June 25, the Archbishops of York and Canterbury severally presiding at the different sessions. The secretary, reading an address of welcome, spoke of the progress of the Anglican Church since the Queen's accession as having been marvelous. In 1837 there were only 7 bishoprics owning allegiance to Canterbury, and in the United States there were only 16 sees; now the 7 had grown to 92 and the 16 to 78. In India in 1837 there were only 2, where now there were 10 sees, and the 4 natives ministering in the Church sixty years ago had increased to 300. In Australia there were now 14 sees, and in New Zealand the single

of Canterbury and York held in May, a resolution was adopted inviting the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Church Missionary Society, and other missionary associations in the Church of England to conference in order to consider what steps might be taken to mitigate the evils arising from the division of missionary interests and organizations. The Committee on Legal Disabilities of native Christians in India reported that after receiving evidence from the majority of the Indian bishops and from several missionaries they had found no serious disabilities for which a remedy must be sought by legislation except, perhaps, in regard to marriage; and the committee had recommended "that when both the parties in a heathen marriage subsequently profess the Christian faith they should be encouraged to make a solemn and public profession of their desire to maintain their union on the basis of Christian marriage, that a spe-. cial form of service to be used in churches on such occasions should be prepared and promulgated by the synod of the Church in India, and that application should be made to the legislature to permit the registration of such public acknowledgments of the parties to the continuance of their marriage contract on the conditions which attach to marriages recognized by the Church.

The annual meeting of the Colonial Missionary Society, now sixty-one years old, was held in London May 13. Sir William Dunn, Bart., M. P., presided. The society had spent more than £4.000 during the year in colonial missionary work, but for the first time had incurred a small debt.

The income of the Colonial and Continental Society for 1896-£18,022-was £1,000 in excess of that of the previous year. An old debt of £2,000 still remained, and an additional £10,000 was needed for all purposes. Including the sums raised and spent in the colonies, the year's income rose to £39,285. An addition of £1,700 had been made to the Endowment fund, which now amounted to £6,

834. A younger clergy and laity association had been formed, and a ladies' association was at work auxiliary to the society. Assistance was rendered by the society to churches in eastern and western Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, Madras, and British Honduras; and many outlying places depended on it for spiritual care.

The Student Volunteer Missionary Union of Great Britain since 1892 has banded together 1,300 men and women purposing to be missionaries, 300 of whom have gone into the service. It is not a society for sending out missionaries, but seeks to influence young men to devote themselves to the service of Christ in heathen and foreign lands. It besides encourages Christian students to support the work abroad "by real sacrifice, systematic missionary study, and definite prevailing prayer." An international conference held at Liverpool early in 1896 was attended by 715 students from 23 different nations.

The year's income of the Additional Curates Society was returned at £63,119, and its expenditure at £63,296. The sum of £8,000 and upward had been received for the Quinquennial fund, and this had enabled the committee to vote grants to the extent of £1,600 a year, to the great benefit of 36 parishes. The Archbishop of Canterbury said in his anniversary address that the society was at the center of a number of local societies which were independent of it, and their work must be regarded as an addition to the work that it was doing. There was, however, a great advantage in such a society, because the local societies could not undertake the work in all its fullness.

The report of the Incorporated Church Building Society, May 26, showed that 22 grants of land had been made for new churches, amounting to £2,730, 17 for mission buildings, amounting to £500, and 33 for enlarging and rebuilding churches, amounting to £1,140. The year's revenue had been £5,014, including £465 from legacies, as against £9,760 in the previous year, when the legacies amounted to £5,886.

The Church Army.-The report of the Church Army presented at the annual meeting, May 5, represented that the year had been one of great prosperity. The number of evangelists, nurses, and colporteurs had increased from 418 to 504; the number of vans had doubled; and the evangelists in charge had held nearly 1,000 seven-day parochial missions, and sold £2,248 worth of Bibles, prayer books, etc. The social department in the 47 institutions had dealt with nearly 9,000 people suffering under adverse conditions, paying them £11,000, and more than 50 per cent. of them had thus obtained a fresh start in life. The labor home work was approved by the Prison Commissioners, and the Charity Organization Society and many boards of guardians supported it with money grants. The year's income had been £77,257, in cluding £6.171 from the sale of property and stocks; and the expenditure £70,659, including £5,000 for the purchase of consols; and instead of a deficit of £1.867 the society had a surplus of £4,749. The balance sheet showed assets amounting to £26.592, with liabilities of £719. Two diamond jubilee funds were proposed: one of £10,000 for new headquarters, and one of £5,000 for the Workers' Benevolent fund. For the current expenses of the ensuing year £85,000 were wanted, and for extension of homes, etc., £15,700. Resolutions were passed declaring that the mission work deserved greater support from the Church, and that the social and rescue work claimed the fullest co-operation of the prison and poor-law authorities.

The Church Union. The thirty-eighth anniversary meeting of the English Church Union was

held in the Church House, Westminster, Lord Halifax presiding, June 1. The report showed that 2.277 members and associates had been added during the year, and the union now had 34,000 names on its roll, with 409 branches and 71 district unions, in addition to the Scottish Union. The expenditure for the year had been £7,614, and the treasury returned a balance of £418. A falling off was shown in the annual subscriptions. In reference to the objection lodged against the confirmation of Bishop Temple as Archbishop of Canterbury (see “Annual Cyclopædia" for 1896. article TEMPLE, p. 725. No hearing was given to the protests, because no legal provision for such hearing existed), the report said that the president and council of the union had no sympathy with the objection taken, but they felt that it was a grave scandal that objections should be invited when there was no intention of hearing and adjudicating on them, even if of substantial importance and made in proper form. They believed it was an entire misapprehension of the facts to say that the Queens bench had ruled that objections could not be heard. In the Hampden case the judges were equally divided, and therefore no mandamus could issue to the archbishop to hear the objections. The report further affirmed that nothing was more remarkable than the steady advance of sound Church principles on the subject of the indissolubility of the marriage bond. There were now 17 dioceses in which the bishops had been able to take effective steps to restrain their officials from issuing licenses for marriage in the case of divorced persons. It was represented during the meeting that the daily eucharist was now celebrated in 500 churches, incense was used in 337, and proper vestments in 1.032. The prejudice against confession was rapidly dying out. On the other hand, the dead were still largely forgotten in prayers, and the right to reserve the consecrated elements for the sick was not fully recognized. There was almost too much elaborate music, and visiting was greatly neglected, even in many “advanced" parishes.

At a meeting of the Church Union, April 29, a resolution was unanimously passed to the effect that the confirmation of an election to a vacant bishopric and of the person elected should be solemnly made by the archbishop in person, accompanied by such other bishops of the province as may be, and that it should no longer have the appearance of a merely formal legal ceremony; also that opportunity should be freely given for objectors to appear with their advocates with written objections in formal legal and canonical shape.

The Liberation Society.-The annual meeting of the council of the Society for the Liberation of Religion from the patronage and control of the state was held in London, May 5. Mr. F. A. Channing, M. P., presided. The report mentioned that the Evangelical Free Church Council, lately formed, had been found useful in furnishing opportunities for the advocacy, by representatives of the society, of its fundamental principles in new places or circles. The multiplication of these societies was likely greatly to strengthen the political as well as the religious influence of the free churches. As among the events of the year bearing on the work of the society were mentioned the defeat of the burials bill by a majority of only 44, Mr. Smith's motion for disestablishment, the question of mixed marriages in Malta, and the defeat of the "sectarian" education bill of 1896 and the carrying of the bill of 1897. The formation of the schemes, the proceedings of the educational associations, and the course pursued by the department would need immediate and vigilant watching. The increasing demand among Churchmen for Church reform and the increasing

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