Church. Next in importance come the bills dealing with matters concerning the Church, which likewise had given rise to much and protracted discussion, both in and out of the House. Here, too, there are three Bills: 1. About congregational councils. 2. About elective congregations. 1. This Law provides for the establishment of a council for each congregation or parish with a church in the country. In the country the congregational council consists of the pastor and not less than four persons belonging to the parish and to the State Church. The pastor is chairman of the council. Every person above twenty-five years and who has resided a year in the parish has a vote, and is eligible, unless disqualified by sentence, dishonourable living, etc. 2. The Act about elective or electoral congregations takes the place of and supersedes previous Laws on this matter. Its most material point is its doing away, under certain conditions, with the regulation imposing upon electoral congregations the building of their own church. An electoral congregation can be formed by twenty fathers of a family or owners of a separate household belonging to the State Church leaving their parish or parishes and joining together in supporting a clergyman of the State Church. 3. The most important clause in this Act is the right it gives to one or more of the parishioners to have another clergyman of the State Church than their own officiate in the parish church, if they so desire, at divine services, baptisms, etc., provided the pastor of the parish gives his permission. Should the pastor refuse to give his permission, the matter can be brought before the Bishop or the Church Minister. Education. Another important Act deals with Higher National Schools, a reform much criticised by some, as it is lauded by others. It provides further education for children in continuation of the national schools— (1) in intermediate schools, with four classes, closing with an "Intermediate School Examination"; and (2) in the Gymnasium, with three classes, ending with the "Students' Examination." The instruction here can follow one of three lines: (i.) classic linguistic; (ii.) modern linguistic; (iii.) mathematics and natural science. Literary and Art Copyright.-Of importance is also the Act about protection of literary and artistic rights, enabling Denmark to join the Berne Convention of 1886. Miscellaneous Bills.-Bills were also passed about the erection of a large national hospital outside Copenhagen, about the rates and the Board arrangements of the State Railways, etc. Judicature.—The reform in the administration of justice is still before the House (which after a General Election assembled early in October for the ordinary Session) and has been discussed at great length. Another bill yet undecided, and which has caused much stir, is the proposal to introduce corporal punishment for ruffians. Still more dissent has been caused by the Extension of Municipal Suffrage Bill, which in its present radical shape has apparently little chance of passing the Upper House. Democracy and Socialism.-A feature of mark in the proceedings within the Legislature during the last year is the increased divergence between the democratic Government (Reform Left) and the Social Democrats. 2. EGYPT. [Contributed by W. E. BRUNYATE, ESQ., Khedivial Counsellor.] Criminal Law.-A Decree of June 5th extends the protection accorded to animals by the criminal law. Closely following the Penal Code of New York, it is made an offence to leave an animal in confinement without necessary food, water, air, or shelter; ram-fighting and contests between other domestic animals were specifically forbidden. The not uncommon pastime of drenching rats in petroleum and setting them on fire is struck at by the prohibition of the torture of animals, other than domestic animals, which have first been deprived of their liberty, the employment of purposeless cruelty in killing such animals being also prohibited. The existing provisions for the protection of domestic animals are re-enacted. The Mixed Court of Appeal having approved the Decree, it is applicable to Europeans; to render such approval legal, the maximum penalty is restricted to a fine of LE.1, or a week's imprisonment. Criminal Procedure (4).-Two of these Decrees (January 17th and June 16th) confer on certain railway officials and on the Alexandria Municipal Engineer the powers of officers of judicial police for offences connected with the services to which they are attached. A Decree of April 10th empowers criminal tribunals to order payment by solvent prisoners of the fees of advocates appointed by the tribunal to defend them. A second Decree of the same date revises the scale of payments to medical experts. Finance (7).-A Decree of March 1st extends the house tax to the town of Helwan. A Decree of March 17th provides for the imposition of additional taxation (in no case exceeding £T.50 per feddan) on lands benefiting by perennial irrigation as the result of the Aswan dam and the works subsidiary thereto. By Decree of May 21st (approved by the Powers) the Ministry of Finance is empowered, with the consent of the Caisse de la Dette, to increase up to 55 per cent. the proportion of railway receipts (45 per cent.) which the settlement of 1885 allows to be devoted to working expenses. By Decree of June 16th the import of tobacco is permitted from countries other than those which have concluded commercial treaties with Egypt, subject to slightly increased customs dues. The abolition of octroi dues in Cairo and Alexandria by Decree of November 29th renders obsolete a large mass of legislation. As the Cairo octroi dues were contingently charged in favour of the bond-holders, and as the same Decree assigns to the municipality of Alexandria sundry additional sources of revenue to make good the loss of their octroi receipts, the consent of the Powers was required to the Decree. The annual Budget and annual Corvée Budget complete the list of Finance Decrees. Irrigation (2). Following the precedent of former years, power was given to the Minister of Public Works, by Decree of April 4th, to prohibit the sowing of maize, etc., during the period of low Nile. A month later the Decree was amended and replaced by that of May 8th. Legislation. The constitution of the Consultative Committee of Legislation was amended by Decree of May 17th, and the earlier Decrees on the subject repealed. Local Government.-Local government is seriously hampered in Egypt by the fact that, owing to the immunities of Europeans, local taxation is in general impossible. In the town of Mansura this difficulty has for a number of years past been met by the principal inhabitants voluntarily agreeing to assessment by the Local Commission. A similar Local Commission has now, by Decree of May 22nd, been established for the town of Medinetel-Fayoum. The Commission consists of four native members elected by the native taxpayers, four European members (not more than two being of the same nationality) elected by the European taxpayers, and three exofficio members (including the Mudir as president). Taxes are raised from persons who have undertaken, in writing, to pay them. The powers of the Commission extend to lighting, water supplying, paving, sanitation, and similar matters of public interest. Any single undertaking the cost of which exceeds £E.200 requires the consent of the Ministry of Public Works. With the like consent, loans not exceeding in the aggregate £E. 10,000 may be raised. Salaried public servants, consuls, and persons in consular employ are disqualified from election, and members of the Commission are forbidden to enter into contracts with it. Military Conscription.-A Decree of October 4th consolidating the law as to military conscription and repealing twenty-one earlier Decrees is of interest as being the first Decree to be promulgated in English and Arabic instead of in Arabic and French (English and Arabic being the only languages in connection with the administration of the recruiting law). The term of military service is fixed at five years, followed by a further period of five years either in the police or coastguard or in the reserve. Subject to the exemptions recognised by the Decree (the principal exemptions being those for family reasons, on educational or religious grounds, and by reason of Government employment and that of Bedouins), every Egyptian youth takes part in the ballot in the year in which he attains the age of nineteen years. Prior to ballot, but not afterwards, he may purchase exemption by the payment of £E.20. Recruits are then called up as needed, ordinarily some three years later. The balloting lists are drawn up by the village authorities and the balloting operations conducted by Commissions composed of three military officers, a civil official, and two omdehs (village headmen). The principal changes of substance introduced by the Decree are the exemption of all Government cadre employees, the transfer of jurisdiction with reference to offences against the law by civilians from court-martial to the ordinary Courts, a provision that offences by persons liable to service may be punished by immediate enlistment for an extended period instead of by imprisonment, the abolition of the responsibility of the head of a family for the desertion of a member of the family (except in case of complicity), the regularisation of selection for the police, the determination of the circumstances under which the reserve may be called out, provision for the enlistment of volunteers and of boys, and the appointment of inspecting officers. Personal Law: Native Protestants.-The various indigenous Christian communities in Egypt are in most matters of personal law entitled to the enjoyment of their own customary law administered by their own religious authorities. With the spread of missionary effort there has arisen exactly the difficulty (that of Churches with no settled personal law) which in India has given rise to legislation as to native Christians. Of these Churches. the United Presbyterian Church of Egypt (consisting of the converts of the American Presbyterian Mission) is alone numerically important. A distinct community of native Protestants was, on the demand of the American Mission, recognised by the Sublime Porte in 1850, and in Egypt in 1878, but the limits of its membership had never been defined. Advantage has now been taken (by Decree of March 1st) of a request from the United Presbyterian Church for legislative recognition of its own internal organisation to reorganise the native Protestant community in such a manner as to meet the needs of all Protestant Churches. Every organised body of Christians in Egypt not forming a distinct community and not being part of a larger organisation in Egypt is regarded as a Protestant Church. A recognised Protestant Church is a Protestant Church recognised in manner prescribed by the Decree. A native Protestant is then defined as an Ottoman subject domiciled or ordinarily resident in Egypt who is (1) a member or adherent of a recognised Protestant Church; or (2) has been individually recognised in the prescribed manner; or (3) being Protestant by descent, has not lost that quality. The community is governed by a General Council composed of delegates elected or appointed by recognised Protestant Churches, with a president and deputy. The General Council accords recognition to Protestant Churches and to individual Protestants, elects the president of the community and his deputy, is the competent authority in matters of personal law and of charitable trusts where Protestants alone are concerned, accords licences to celebrate marriages to the chiefs of Christian Churches not having an ordained clergy, keeps marriage registers, and regulates its own procedure. The code of personal law for the community is that approved by the two Protestant Churches recognised as such by the Decree, but as such code recognises divorce, there is an express saving of the right of any individual Church not to recognise the remarriage of divorced persons for purely spiritual purposes. Substantial administrative control is reserved to the Ministry of the Interior. The Decree is a purely facultative one, but it would appear that the only tribunal open to native Protestants not taking advantage of it will be that of the cadi. Public Servants.-A Decree of December 22nd provides (by way of amendment to an earlier Decree as to discipline) that every person who enlists in the police or in the service of the Slavery Department for a fixed term of years shall, for disciplinary purposes, be placed upon the same footing as a conscript. It further saves the right of the Ministry to dismiss any such person at pleasure. In the absence of further statutory provision, it is perhaps not perfectly clear what are the rights of the Government against a voluntary recruit who declines to carry out his contract. Sponge Fisheries.-Sponge-fishing in territorial waters, except by virtue of a special authorisation, having been forbidden by a Decree of 1886, a Decree of April 24th purports to regulate the granting of authorisations. Licences are to be granted from year to year by the Ministry of Finance, which fixes the conditions of the licence. The agents of the coastguard and of the Customs Department are empowered to seize unlicensed boats, to confiscate all sponges found therein, and to levy a fine of £E.10, realising such fine, if necessary, by the sale of the boat. The employment of diving dresses is prohibited, under penalty of forfeiture. The somewhat patriarchal terms of the Decree are explicable by the primitive character of the fishing population, and the remoteness of the scene of operations. Sudan Refugees.-After the abandonment of the Sudan, a series of decrees enacted that all claims against the Government in respect of the Sudan, including claims for pensions by employees, not presented by a fixed date should be barred. The Decrees in question operated to bar the claims -real or fictitious-of numerous persons then in captivity who, after the reconquest of Sudan, returned to Egypt. To meet their case a special grant was made in 1900, as a matter of grace, and divided amongst them. The Government was then sued by a military officer who claimed that, according to the regulations, he ought, while in captivity, to have been considered as on active service and that his right to pension, not having accrued until his release, was not barred by the Decrees above mentioned. The Courts having adopted this contention, a Decree of March 1st enacted that the earlier Decrees should be regarded as having barred all other similar claims, |