CONGO FREE STATE. An independent State under the sovereignty of King Leopold II. of Belgium, situated approximately between longitudes 12° and 30° E. and between latitudes 14 S. and 6° N. (Map: Africa, G 5). It is bounded on the north by French Congo and the Egyptian Sudan, on the east by British East Africa, German East Africa, and Northern Rhodesia, on the south by Northern Rhodesia and Portuguese West Africa, and on the west by Portuguese West Africa, the Atlantic, and French Congo. The boundaries of the State, with the Congo and Ubangi rivers on the west, and Lakes Tanganyika, Moero, Albert Edward Nyanza, and Albert Nyanza on the east, are all well defined, and the area is estimated at about 920,000 square miles.

The surface of Congo is a depressed plateaubasin, tilted westward, which was seemingly occupied at a recent date by the sea. It is unbroken by mountains except in the western part near the Atlantic, but rises on its borders to elevations of 6000 feet and more. Less than half of the area is covered with forests, while the remainder is composed of savannas and arable land. The chief river is the Congo (q.v.), which, together with its tributaries, drains nearly the entire territory. The climate is hot and moist, but the annual white death rate has been reduced to about 6 per cent. The normal temperature ranges from 60° to 90°, and not infrequently an exceedingly hot day is followed by a chilly night. The climate in the interior is not so injurious to Europeans as that of the coast region.

The flora of Congo is very rich and varied, the forests being full of rubber-vines (one tree), and others yielding gums and resins. Among the cultivated plants are the coffee, cotton, yam, papaw, pine-apple, cassava, corn, rice, peanut, sweet potato, banana, bean, tobacco, sorghum, and Kafir corn. The fauna includes the elephant, hippopotamus, buffalo, antelope, chimpanzee, and crocodile. Elephants are numerous but their slaughter is now prohibited and ivory exports are chiefly from earlier accumulations by the native population. Iron occurs in many localities, while copper is confined to a smaller area, but is found in very rich deposits, especially in the southeast (Katanga) where it is believed that some of the richest deposits in the world exist. Gold is also found there. Katanga is the richest mineral region in the State. Much of the surface is composed of a loose, porous, weathered rock, known as "laterite," derived from gneisses

and sandstones.

The natural agricultural possibilities of the State are very great, but the unhealthful climate, which practically forbids white immigration, largely retards systematic agricultural development. The agricultural land occupied by the natives is reserved for them. Vacant lands belong to the State and some of them are now rented by traders, sold to private persons or companies, or worked by the State's agents. The chief products are rubber and palm-oil, but coffee, cacao, tobacco, corn, bananas, and beans are also grown, and some European grains and vegetables can be raised successfully. European cattle are raised in the interior. Coffee and tobacco grow wild.

The transportation facilities of the State are mainly provided by the Congo and its several navigable tributaries. The Congo is interrupted

in its lower part, from Matadi to Leopoldville, a distance of about 200 miles, by a series of rapids -a great obstacle to direct communication between the interior of the country and the Atlantic. To obviate this difficulty, a railway line about 246 miles in length was constructed between Matadi and Ndolo (Stanley Pool), and opened for traffic in 1898. Above the rapids the river is navigable for 1000 miles to Stanleyville. A railroad, 75 miles long, was completed (1906) around Stanley Falls to Ponthierville so that there is now steam communication from the mouth of the Congo, over 1600 miles up the river. Another railroad connects Boma with the French Congo frontier (50 miles). The Government and private enterprises run 85 steamers on the Upper Congo. The total number of miles of waterway by river and lake in the Free State is estimated at 9500. There is a steam communication regularly each fortnight with Antwerp, and also frequent communication with other European ports. The length of telegraph lines in 1906 was about 900 miles.

There are practically no European manufacturing plants in the Free State. In some districts the natives work in wood, ivory, and metals with no small skill.

The commerce has grown with remarkable rapidity. The general export trade, which amounted to only $3,000,000 in 1896, rose to nearly $13,229,000 in 1905, while the imports increased during the same period from about $3,100,000 to nearly $4,996,000. Of these exports for 1905, about 77 per cent. were special, as were also 78 per cent. of the imports for the same year. Of the total special commerce, about 70 per cent. is with Belgium; the remainder is with Great Britain, Germany, Holland, and Angola. Nearly 90 per cent. of the special exports consist of rubber, the remainder being made up of ivory, palm-nuts, palm-oil, timber, coffee, and tobacco. The chief special imports are tissues and clothing, food substances, beverages, machinery, and other metal manufactures. There is an import duty of 10 per cent. ad valorem on arms, ammunition, and salt, and of 6 per cent. on all other articles, with the exception of machinery and agricultural implements which were admitted duty free from 1892 to 1896, and since then have been liable to a duty of 3 per cent. There is an export duty on rubber and several other articles. The trade is chiefly with Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, and Holland. The principal ports are Boma (the seat since 1906 of the American consul-general) and Banana, which have an annual shipping of over 900,000 tons, over one-half being Belgian. The coasting trade is small.

The central Government of the State is located at Brussels, and is constituted by the King of Belgium and a Secretary of State, the latter being at the head of the departments of Foreign Affairs, Finance, and the Interior. The King's power is not limited by a constitution, but is somewhat circumscribed by the General Act of Berlin of 1885 relative to the organization of the Congo Free State. The direct administration is in the hands of a Governor-General at Boma, assisted by a Vice-Governor-General. According to the agreement of 1890, between Belgium and the Congo Free State, the former obtained the right of annexing the latter after a period of ten years. In 1901 the question of annexation

came up before Parliament, and it was decided to continue the present form of government, reserving the right of annexation to the King alone. The departments of the local government are: Justice, defense, public force, finance, agriculture and industry, transport, marine, and public works, and superintendence of State lands. For administrative purposes, the State is divided into fourteen districts, administered by commissaries. Civil law is in force wherever the State's authority reaches. Courts of First Instance have been established, and there is a Court of Appeal at Boma, with a right of further appeal in more important cases to a superior council at Brussels. There is also a commission to protect the natives from ill treatment. The army, consisting of natives under European officers and sergeants, numbers over 13,000 men. The chief sources of revenue are import and export duties, State domains, Government transportation lines and portfolio taxes. The budget for 1906 estimated the revenue at $5,684,000, and the expenditure at $6,610,000, the State not yet being self-supporting. The principal expenditures are for administration, the public domains, and the marine and transport service. The legal money is the same as that of Belgium. The total indebtedness of the State amounts to over $32,000,000, including the 25,000,000 francs advanced by Belgium in 1890, and the loan of 50,000,000 francs, at 4 per cent., issued in 1901 for the construction of railways and other public works. The Belgian act of 1901 relinquished the repayment by the Free State of Belgium's advances and the interest thereon, and these obligations are to revive only in case Belgium decides not to annex the country.

The population has been variously estimated but is believed to be about 19,000,000. The inhabitants are mostly of the Bantu race. The Azandés, a superior native people, are found in the northeast, and there are many pygmies along Upper Congo affluents. In 1903 the European population was 2365, over half of whom were Belgians. Among the numerous "stations" in the Free State are: Boma, the capital, situated on the Congo, about 50 miles from its mouth, and the centre of a large trade; the port of Banana, with an excellent harbor; Matadi, terminus of the railway at the foot of the Congo Rapids; Ndolo, up river terminus of the railroad; Leopoldville, apparently destined to become the capital of the State; Stanley Pool, Coquilhatville, Basoko, and Stanleyville. Missionary work, though without financial support from the State, is being actively and successfully carried on at 76 missions. The instruction is educational as well as religious. The State has provided three agricultural and technical colonies capable of receiving 1500 boys.

ETHNOLOGY. The natives of the Congo Free State are Negroid in race, largely mixed with Hamites of Caucasic blood. The Negroid element, far from homogeneous in physical characteristics, presents a great variety of types, due to intermixture with the true negroes as well as the pygmies north of them. The natives are handsomer than the negro, shorter in stature, less dolichocephalic and prognathic, the nose is more prominent and narrower, and the forehead less convex. Steel-gray eyes prevail in some tribes. With the exception of the northern bor

The

der, where true negro dialects have intruded, the languages all belong to the Bantuan family (from aba, or ba, plurality, and ntu, person, comes bantu, men, people. They are agglutinative, and use the prefix almost exclusively for modifying the meaning of the fundamental term. Congolese, both men and women, are clever in handicraft. Evidences of a Stone Age among them are meagre. Nature having furnished iron ore easily worked in open fires, the Iron Age has had a long history among them. The women are excellent weavers; the men are excessively fond of ornament. Their art sense is most primitive.

In social organization and customs the tribes of the Congo present the greatest varieties. In some of them the tribal bond seems loose, and cannibalism prevails. On the larger rivers and under more favorable skies, where there is an infusion of Hamitic blood and the benefit of Hamitic tuition, large empires have arisen, the form of whose government is purely despotic. Polyg amy and slavery prevail. In faith the Congolese negro is an animist of the lowest type-i.e., a hecastotheist; everything is vital, a vague somebody. Moreover, there are more spirits than bodies, and they wander about night and day, benevolent and malevolent. There is no definite organization for worship, except where the Caucasian race has taught it. Religion is personal, its minister is the sorcerer or wizard, who knows how to call forth the spirits, to appease the powers that do harm even with human sacrifices, and to compel the services of the benevolent ones. See Colored Plate of AFRICAN RACES.

After 1879 the work

HISTORY. The Congo Free State was established as a neutral independent sovereignty in 1884. In 1876 King Leopold II. of Belgium had organized, with the coöperation of the leading African explorers and the support of several European governments, the International African Association (q.v.), for the promotion of African In the following exploration and colonization. year Henry M. Stanley called attention to the Congo country, and was sent there by the Association, the expense being defrayed by Leopold. By treaties with native chiefs, rights were acquired to a great area along the Congo, and posts were established. was under the auspices of the Comité d'Etudes du Haut Congo, which developed into the International Association of the Congo. This organization sought to combine the numerous small territories acquired into one sovereign State, and asked for recognition from the civilized governments. On April 22, 1884, the United States Government, having decided that the cessions by the native chiefs were lawful, recognized the International Association of the Congo as a sovereign independent State, under the title of the Congo Free State, and this example was followed by Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, England, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, and Sweden. The international conference on African affairs which met at Berlin, 1884-85, determined the status of the Congo Free State. By the act of the Conference, signed February 26, 1885, the Congo Free State was declared neutral and open to the trade of all nations, the Powers reserving for twenty years the right to decide as to the taxation of imports; the navigation of the Congo and its affluents was to be free, under the supervision of an international

a particular group of churches in Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia, which are 'Congregational' in their government and 'Evangelical' in their type of Protestant doctrine, and stand in recognized relations of denominational fellowship one with another within the bounds of the respective countries of their location, and to some extent in international fraternal union. In this sense it is proper to speak of the Congregational denomination of the United States, or of England and Wales.

The Congregational polity, in its modern history, had its origin in the Reformation age, and was due to the belief that the Bible contains an authoritative revelation of the will of God concerning church organization, no less than a Godgiven revelation of religious truth. In working out the details of the Congregational system, its early expounders conceived that they were simply reproducing the divinely appointed model of the Apostolic churches. Few modern Congregationalists hold, however, that the minutiae of church government are matters of revelation, or that any one form of church organization was divinely appointed for all times, countries, and stages of civilization; though Congregationalists generally believe that their polity embodies the broad scriptural principles of fraternal equality, individual responsibility, and full-rounded independent Christian manhood. They deem it, also, peculiarly consonant with the democratic tendencies and high individual intelligence of modern civil society. As indicated in the name, Congregationalism believes the basic element in the visible organized Church to be the local congregation of Christian disciples. It holds that congregation competent to designate its own officers, admit members to communion, discipline the erring, state its faith in language of its own choosing, and order its worship as seems best suited to its needs. Each local congregation, modern Congregationalism regards as a democracy, where affairs of concern are decided by the votes of the membership, normally under the moderatorship of the pastor-if there be a pastor in office. Like all democratic bodies, however, a Congregational church makes large use of committees, which report results rather than processes for the consideration of the body as a whole, and act as the executive arms of the congregation.

Congregationalism holds to the autonomy of the local church. It rejects the judicial system of Presbyterianism, or the supervision of any form of episcopacy, as an undue interference with the rights of the local body. But Congregationalism in America, and increasingly in Great Britain, rejects pure independency. Though one church or body of Christians has no judicial authority over another, each owes fraternal counsel to its neighbors, and no act of large importance in any single congregation should be done without seeking the advice of the representatives of sister churches. Illustrated in various ways in different countries, mutual responsibility and helpfulness are distinguishing features of the Congregational polity.

The Local Church. The local church is held by Congregationalists to be a company of professed disciples of Christ, who have some intelligent acquaintance with Christian truth, and personal experience of the saving work of Christ. Hence admission to church-membership is based

on evidence of intelligent determination to lead a Christian life. Such a company of Christians is knit together into a church by the covenant which they make with God and one with another, to live as those who have God for their Father and Christ for their Saviour, and to join in the worship, seek the welfare, and submit to the discipline of the particular local body of believers of which they are members. In early Congregationalism, and in American practice to the present day, this covenant, which each local congregation may express in whatever way seems best to it, was written; in Great Britain written covenants are now rare. In addition to a written covenant, it is usual for American Congregational churches of the present day to have a brief confession of faith, assent to which is required of would-be members. Such local confessions, though not unknown, are unusual in Great Britain. Examination of candidates for membership as to their knowledge of Christian truth has prevailed since the beginnings of Congregationalism; but the local confession of faith, though occasionally exemplified in New England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, attained general use in America during the doc trinal discussions of the opening years of the nineteenth century. Each local church is free to express its faith in its own language, and such confessions, like the examination of candidates for church-membership, have steadily tended toward greater catholicity and simplicity. While Congregationalism recognizes no creedstatement as binding on a local church save that which the church may itself adopt, Congregationalists have never hesitated, in their representative gatherings, to adopt confessions of faith. These have the value of a testimony to the common faith of the churches, and have never been regarded as creed-tests. Thus, the exiled London Congregationalists put forth a confession in 1596; the Cambridge Synod, representing the churches of New England, approved the doctrinal parts of the Westminster Confession in 1648. Ten years later, a meeting representative of the Congregational churches of England put forth a modified form of the Westminster Confession, known, from the place of their assembly, in the Savoy, in London, as the 'Savoy Declaration'; and meetings of the delegates of the Massachusetts churches in 1680, and of those of Connecticut in 1708, set their approval, save for slight changes, on this work of the Savoy Synod. The 'Congregational Union of England and Wales' put forth a statement of 'Principles of Religion' in 1833; the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States' adopted the 'Burial Hill [Plymouth, Mass.] Declaration' in 1865; and in 1883 a commission appointed by the National Council' three years before reported a creed that has had wide acceptance among American Congregationalists, and has been adopted as their statement of faith by many local churches.

Doctrinal Position.-The doctrinal position of early Congregationalism was that of general Puritan or Presbyterian Calvinism. It was not on doctrinal grounds that the founders of New England left their homes. They were wholly one theologically with the Puritan Party of the English Civil War, with which they and the English Congregationalists were alike associated.

His

torically considered, American and English Congregational theological development has been along Calvinistic lines; but, as in other Protestant bodies, the peculiar problems of seventeenthcentury debate have ceased to arouse interest. Calvinistic and Arminian interpretations of the way of salvation, as far as there is present significance in either interpretation, are regarded as alike acceptable. The doctrinal position of modern Congregationalism is that common Protestantism which is known as 'Evangelical.' Its ministry and churches, as a whole, however, while holding broadly to the system of Christian doctrine characteristic of historic Protestantism, have been more disposed in recent years than many Protestant bodies to welcome the new interpretations of Christian truth, and of its sources, which current theological discussions in Europe and America have presented.

Officers and Support.-Early Congregationalism, following what was believed to be the Scripture model, held that a completely organized

local church should have five classes of officers

a 'pastor' and a 'teacher,' both of whom should preach and administer the sacraments; a 'ruling elder,' who should aid in church discipline; 'deacons,' to care for the poor and assist at the Lord's Table; and 'widows,' to aid in nursing among the sick. But little of this elaborateness of organization survived the end of the seventeenth century, and by that time the officers of a Congregational church had become reduced almost universally to a pastor and several deacons. The development of the nineteenth century added to these officers in practically every church a clerk, a treasurer, and a Sunday-school superintendent; and, in churches of size, a 'prudential committee,' to serve with the other officers as advisory to the pastor. Recently the order of deaconess was adopted. Assistant pastors are becoming efficient aids to the pastoral service. Since the cessation of teachers and ruling elders, the pastors have been the only paid officers of Congregational churches. In the earliest Congregationalism everywhere, and in English Congregational practice always, the expenses of the church were met by some form of voluntary payment, or by the rental of sittings in the place of worship. Modern American Congregationalism employs these voluntary methods exclusively. But during most of the Colonial history of New England the intimacy of relationship between Church and State was such that Church expenses were assessed upon the taxable property of all inhabitants not specially exempt, and such assessments were collectible like any other taxes. This continued the practice in Connecticut till 1818, and in Massachusetts till 1834. When there was but one church in a township, its pecuniary affairs were settled in the meeting of the legal voters of that township. Where two or more churches existed in the township, it was subdivided territorially into districts for voting and tax-raising, known as 'societies,' 'parishes,' or 'precincts.' The New England feeling that there should be no taxation without the consent of those taxed led, during the last third of the seventeenth century, to the assumption by the legal voters, by whom the minister's salary was assessed and paid, of a right to concur in or reject the choice of a minister by the membership of the church, and established a dual system of

entrance to the local pastorate, the election of the church requiring the confirmation of the 'society.' In the general usage of New England, and to some extent in other parts of the United States, this system has survived the loss of the right of public taxation for ecclesiastical purposes, and prevails at the present time. The ownership of the buildings used by the church and the determination and payment of the salary to its minister, remain under the control of a voluntary local legal business corporation, admission to which is secured by election, by renting sittings in the church edifice, or in a variety of ways; and this corporation, still known as the 'society' or 'parish,' has a concurrent authority in the choice of a minister. English practice has known nothing of this institution; and outside of New England the temporalities of the church have been largely placed in the hands of trustees chosen by the membership of the church, or the church itself has held title to its property and administered its pecuniary affairs. Even in New England the 'society' is falling into disuse in many places, the church itself securing the incorporation permitted by statute and assuming all the rights previously shared with the 'society.'

Worship.-Early Congregationalism, in its sharp reaction from the imposition of a written liturgy, characteristic of the days of Elizabeth and the Stuarts, went to the extreme of rejecting all written liturgy as unscriptural. Modern Congregationalism entertains no such hostility, and a considerable degree of modification of the public services of Congregationalism, by responsive reading, united repetition of the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed, and development of the musical aids to worship, has taken place in recent years. In accordance with its fundamental principle of local autonomy, Congregationalism recognizes the full right of each local church to order its worship as it sees best. But, whatever minor modifications have taken place, Congregational worship remains essentially non-liturgical. It makes the sermon central, and includes, as it has always done, the elements of preaching, free prayer, the reading of the Word of God, and singing. Till about the middle of the eighteenth century in America, and in the early Congregational practice of Great Britain, only metrical translation of portions of Scripture were deemed appropriate to be sung in public worship, and the aid of musical instruments was rejected till about the same period; but since then full freedom in the use of hymns and musical aids has prevailed.

Fellowship Between the Churches.-While each congregation is autonomous, Congregationalism believes that it is the duty of each local church to consult neighboring churches in matters of importance. This feature of Congregational practice has attained a larger development in America than in England, and is chiefly manifested by the advisory councils,' which American Congregationalism as employed since the time of the first settlers on New England soil. Though given a place in the theoretic exposition of early English Congregationalism, the 'advisory council' of America has no exact counterpart in modern British usage. Such ecclesiastical acts as the formation of a church, the settlement or dismissal of a pastor, and the consideration of cases of discipline from which quarrel and divi