French missionaries under appointment spoke English readily, and did a large part of their work through the medium of the English tongue. The new plan of co-operation with the white and colored Baptists of the South, which went into effect in 1895-96 in North Carolina and Alabama, had been extended to South Carolina and Virginia. The Southern brethren were desirous of having the plan put into operation in other States. The work of the schools for negro education in the South had been successful, and was continuing to exercise a wide influence in lifting the people up. Ninety-one churches in 26 States and Territories had been aided from the Church Edifice fund. A joint effort had been made by the committees of this society and of the American Baptist Missionary Union to extinguish the debts of the two societies, amounting, together, to $486,000. Mr. John D. Rockefeller had offered to give $250,000 to this purpose on condition that the societies should raise $236,000. It was announced during the meetings of the societies that $204,000 of the required amount had been subscribed. In view of this promise of success, a resolution was adopted: "That the happy and successful co-operation of the Missionary Union and this society in securing pledges of money for the liquidation of their debt and ours warrants the appointment of a committee of conference from the two societies, to report next year whether it is not possible to arrange a system of permanent co-operation in all the raising of funds for these societies." Publication Society. The seventy-third annual meeting of the American Baptist Publication Society was held in Pittsburg, Pa., May 20 and 21. The Hon. Samuel A. Crozer presided. The society had had to bear during the year the disadvantages arising from the entire destruction of its publication house and its accumulated stock by fire in February, 1896; yet the result of the year's operations had been more than satisfactory." The sales of the year had amounted to a total sum of $607,397, while the other receipts of the publishing department had been $11,595; receipts in the Bible department, $12,799; in the missionary department, $113,617. The deficit in the last department had been diminished from $14,317 to $11,374. On account of the much greater indebtedness of the Missionary Union and the Home Mission Society, and in order not to embarrass their efforts, no special attempt had been made to reduce this debt. The entire amount coming into the benevolent treasury of the society through the customary channels had been $117,561; besides which $8,855 had been received from bequests in the form of conditional gifts. One hundred and twenty-two new publications had been issued. It had been necessary further to reprint the entire list of the society's publications in order to replace the stock destroyed by the fire. Ninetyeight missionaries and workers had been employed in the missionary department, who had visited 38,771 families, and sold and given away 28.923 books, besides thousands of tracts, and who returned 387 persons baptized, 18 churches constituted, 258 Sunday schools organized, 997 institutes held and addressed, 113 Sunday schools aided by gifts of literature and Bibles, and 248 pastors and ministerial students aided with grants for their libraries. The interest in the chapel cars was represented to be increasing, and their usefulness constantly demonstrated. Six were now in operation. The society had raised in thirteen years $246,455, or nearly $19,000 a year for Bible work, and the whole sum had been expended on home and foreign fields. The work of revision of the Bible to which the society is pledged as the successor of the American Bible Union and of the American and Foreign Bible Society, was progressing.

Missionary Union.-The eighty-third annual meeting of the American Baptist Missionary Union was held in Pittsburg, Pa., May 24 and 25. Dr. Henry F. Colby presided. The treasurer reported that he had received during the year from all sources $467,102. The expenditures had been $580,955, leaving a deficit of $113,854, which, added to that already in existence April 1, 1896, $163,827, made a total debt of $277,681. The Executive Committee insisted in their report that the annual receipts were inadequate efficiently to maintain the work of the society in its present dimensions and methods. The situation anticipated in the previous year's report had been reached, viz.: "In case the debt shall be increased during the coming year, your committee see no alternative but that suggested by the secretaries of the board, of closing some of our missions or in some way curtailing the work." The subject had been one of frequent and earnest consideration by the committee, and they had deliberately concluded that the appropriations for the coming year should be made upon a scale about $60,000 below those of the past year, and that in the years to come the average receipts from all sources for the five preceding years should be adopted as the basis of missionary appropriations for any single year. "To effect this will in heathen lands compel the actual abandonment of stations upon some of your mission fields with the recall of missionary families; a serious reduction in the force of native workers upon others, besides such other curtailments in the furnishing of missionary equipment as can not fail to prove a serious embarrassment to the workers in the field, and, for a time at least, curtail progress. From several of our European missions it will involve the withholding of nearly one half the present appropriations and a considerable reduction of the work in France, with the possible withdrawal altogether from Spain. When the extent to which retrenchment has already been carried, and how disproportionate to the growth and prosperity of the work have been the offerings of the past five years, is taken into account, it must readily be seen that any line of action less drastic will fail to secure the relief demanded." The report of the Committee on Finance recommended to the Executive Committee such rearrangement and readjustment as might be consistent with the least injury to the missionary work, saying that "in the light of the experience of recent years we should deem it exceedingly unfortunate if the plans of the coming year should make it necessary to incur a new debt." The Executive Committee were advised to exercise the utmost economy, and the church members were exhorted to a more conscientious and considerate stewardship. A committee was appointed to confer with a like committee of the Home Mission Society with regard to further co-operation.

Progress in missionary work was noted in the Telugu mission, progress in self-support in that mission and in Burmah, and increased general spread of evangelical religion in France and Germany. The whole number of missionaries of the union was 452; of native preachers, 1,105; of churches, 853, with 99,564 members; of baptisms in 1896, 5,174.

Commission on Systematic Benevolence.The first annual public meeting of the Commission on Systematic Benevolence was held in Pittsburg, Pa., May 22. The Rev. T. S. Barbour presided. The report of the secretary recited that in order to render effective the undertakings of the commission (which was formed at the anniversary meeting of 1896 for the purpose of promoting unity in the benevolent work of the Baptist churches) it had been deemed essential to summon to co-operate with it three representative organizations now in

66

operation throughout the country, namely, the State conventions, the associations, and the local churches. The recommendations that had been made to these bodies were detailed. Bulletins concerning Plans of Giving" had been issued, and documents containing various papers in regard to phases of the work. The one distinctive work of the year, as described in the address of the president, had been the initiatory steps in opening up channels of communication between the central commission and the great body of the churches. State boards had been formed. The immediate work now was that of extending the organization to each association; in every State a commission in touch with every church; in every church the adoption of some thoughtful plan of giving, the holding of a monthly service in recognition of the great joint enterprises represented in the denominational life, and the appointment of a church commission, which by the use of literature and personal effort shall seek to secure in every member conscientious, habitual fidelity in the discharge of the obligations of Christian stewardship; the use of a simple form of annual report by church, association, and State-thus to unify and promote intelligent development of the work. Report was made of the effort, in co-operation with the offer made by Mr. John D. Rockefeller, to secure payment of the debts of the Missionary Union and the Home Missionary Society, that the whole amount so far obtained was $199,889.

Woman's Home Mission Society.-The twentieth annual meeting of the Woman's Baptist Home Mission Society was held in Pittsburg, Pa., May 17. Mrs. J. N. Crouse presided. The total amount of money in the treasury during the year had been $66,156. The disbursements, including $5,000 paid on the deficit and reinvested, had been $69,478, and $378 were on hand at the close of the year. The deficit thus appeared to be about $3,700, but as $2,000 of this sum was an emergency fund, the real deficit was $1,700. The training school had graduated 21 students, of whom 15 were Americans, 3 Swedes, 1 Dane, and 2 Germans. The number of missionaries employed during the year had been the same as during the previous year, 130. The work was carried on among 11 classes of people in the United States, in 39 States and Territories, and at 85 stations. Free conferences were held during the meeting on the literature of the society, methods and services for collecting money, the training of girls to take interest in foreign and home missions, and the same among children.

Woman's Foreign Missionary Societies.-The twenty-sixth annual meeting of the Baptist Woman's Foreign Missionary Society was held in Washington, D. C., April 20 to 22. The general receipts for the year had been $86,438, and the expenditures $96,452. The receipts for the Home for Children of Missionaries and of Hasseltine House had in both cases been in excess of the expenditures. One hundred and twenty missionaries had shared the gifts of the society, 63 of whom were entirely supported by it, 11,126 pupils were enrolled in its schools, 167 Bible women had been engaged in their special work, and 713 baptisms were reported. More detailed reports were given of the school and other work in Burmah, among Eurasians, the Karens, Garos, Tamils, Telugus, in Pegu, and in India. The deficit in the general current accounts of the society having been reduced to $8,500, a plan was prepared and adopted for extinguishing or further reducing it. without changing the schedule for the coming year.

The twenty-sixth annual meeting of the Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society of the West was held in Cincinnati, Ohio, April 21 and 22. The en

tire general receipts for the year had been $56,810, and the receipts for the Home for Missionaries Children $1,806. The invested funds amounted to $11,256. The work of the society in the foreign mission field-Burmah, Assam, Teluguland, China, and Japan-was represented by 40 missionaries, 1 assistant, 3 under appointment, 44 schools, 2,419 pupils, 115 teachers, 47 baptisms during the year, 68 Bible women, 4 Bible schools; and, in the medical department, 6 hospitals, 3 dispensaries, 5 helpers. 1,306 in patients, and 26.036 out patients. The whole amount appropriated for the missionaries was $37,263. The appropriations to the foreign_field and the home expenditures had all been cut down, and the States had been asked to fix their apportionments at such figures as could be reached. Four candidates for appointment as missionaries had been accepted, three of whom were already in the field. A correspondence school for candidates for mission fields, opened in 1883, had 85 students enrolled-6 during the past year-36 of whom had been graduated from one or more of its courses; and of these 24 had gone to the foreign field and 1 as a missionary among the Chinese in California. The Home for Missionaries' Children at Morgan Park, Ill., was full, and in need of a building. Historical Society.-The American Baptist Historical Society having lost all its collections in the burning of the American Baptist Publication House in February, 1896, the annual meeting, May 20, was devoted most largely to expressions of sympathy and the presentation of its aims and needs. The president, the Rev. Dr. Lemuel Moss, defined the object of the society as being to collect and preserve all books, manuscripts, and documents relating to Baptist history, everything written by Baptists or in favor of Baptists, or in opposition to Baptists, and pictures, portraits, and mementoes. It was to have rooms in the new fireproof building of the Publication Society in Philadelphia, and needed $25,000. Addresses were made by representatives of the several Baptist societies holding their anniversary meetings at Pittsburg expressive of the interest which their respective bodies had in the work of this society. A committee appointed in the previous year to encourage the study of Baptist history reported that it had secured the promise of historical papers to be published during the ensuing year, to be written by Dr. H. S. Burrage, Dr. Norman Fox, Dr. E. B. Hulbert, and Dr. A. H. Newman. The publication would be continued quarterly. Partial promises had been received from other Baptist scholars. Subscribers were invited to support the enterprise by the contribution of $1 a year, in return for which they would receive the publications of the society.

Southern Baptist Convention.-The Southern Baptist Convention met in its fifty-second session at Wilmington, N. C., May 7. Mr. Jonathan Haralson was unanimously elected president. The Home Mission Board reported that the year had been one of the severest financial stress it had ever passed through. It had begun with an indebtedness of $8,000 and an obligation to pay $5,700 toward the purchase of a House of Worship in New Orleans, making a total indebtedness of $13,700. The total amount of $180,596 had been raised. All indebtedness had been discharged except $4,500 due on the New Orleans House of Worship, and the year had closed with a balance of $220 in the treasury. Three hundred and seventy-two missionaries had been employed, serving 1,963 churches and stations, who returned 4.709 baptisms during the year, 139 churches constituted, 57 houses of worship built and 129 improved, with an expenditure of $52,040, and 313 Sunday schools organized, connected with which were 10,725 teachers and pupils. Nineteen

State and Territorial boards had co-operated with the General Board in part or the whole of their work. The Woman's Missionary Union co-operating with the board reported concerning the distribution of literature and supplies. Work among the negroes under the plan of co-operation of this board with the State boards and the American Baptist Home Mission Society was in operation in Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, with 14 missionaries employed. Forty young colored men were studying for the ministry. A course of lectures had been delivered in connection with the work at the Atlanta Baptist Seminary. The report expressed gratification at the progress made by the colored race, and especially at their enterprise in connection with Sunday schools. Work among the foreign population needed to be greatly extended. The enforced removal of all the pastors of the board from Cuba had left the missions there in the hands of the body of the membership, who had to maintain it against adverse conditions; yet the schools had been continued, religious services kept up, and new members added. Churches had been aided in 90 per cent. of the most important centers of population in the Southern States.

The Foreign Mission Board had received during the year $125,682, and had expended $107,314. It had been able to pay $18,368 on its indebtedness, leaving the present debt $13,533, against $13,900 at the close of the previous year. Of the funds received at the office in Richmond, about 92 cents on the dollar went to the missionaries. Of the 8 per cent. thus chargeable to office expenses, 1.7 per cent. was for interest. Besides this, however, the State expenses in collecting funds amounted to about 5 per cent. before the money was sent to the central office, so that the total expense of collecting and administering the missionary money was 13 per cent. The Woman's Missionary Union had co-operated with the board by distributing literature and supplies. Four of the missionaries in China had drawn no salary during the year. Others of the missionaries did not accept full salaries. Report was made from the mission in Italy of work at a considerable number of stations. Five missionaries and their wives were engaged in Brazil, where 251 persons had been baptized, and the 18 churches returned 1,022 members; the churches in south Brazil had formed an association, and the Rev. C. Z. Taylor, during a two months' trip up the San Francisco river, had been well received every where by the better class of people. The South Brazil Baptist Association had engaged a home missionary, and had resolved to send a missionary to Africa. The mission in Mexico returned 6 missionaries and their wives, 3 single ladies from the United States, besides the native preachers, 29 churches with 1,116 members, and 112 baptisms during the year. A notable decrease of hostility was mentioned. Fifteen missionaries from this country with their wives and 10 single ladies, besides native pastors, were laboring in China, where were 20 churches with 1,364 members, 167 of whom had been baptized during the year, and 29 day schools. A strong and increasing religious interest was developing in this country. The mission in Japan included 3 missionaries and their wives, 1 church of 48 members, 8 of whom had been baptized during the year, and 10 Christians, including a native preacher and his wife at Fukuoka. Four missionaries and their wives were laboring in Africa, where 54 baptisms were reported, 25 of which were at the Ebenezer Church in Lagos, which had become self-supporting. Not all the schools mentioned in the reports receive help from the board. Only a small proportion of the funds of the board goes to the schools, and a part of

what is appropriated is specially sent for that purpose.

The Sunday-school Board during the six years of its existence had afforded help to the departments under its care in the distribution of Bibles, tracts, etc., to mission schools, payments to the Home and Foreign Boards and to Sunday-school missions in different States, purchase and equipment of a publishing house, etc., $64,703. The board had been having its printing done by the establishment of another denomination, but, having determined to take immediate charge of it, had purchased a suitable building at a cost of $11,000. It publishes a full list of Sunday-school periodicals, called the “Cou vention Series." The Colored Baptist National Convention had been using the plates of the expositions of the Sunday-school lessons published by this board, free of charge, for the publication of its Sunday-school literature, but had now established its own publication house at Nashville, Tenn. The Young People's Union Auxiliary to the Convention met May 6, and adopted a plan of cooperation with the Young People's Baptist Union of America. The union is organized and active in all the States represented in the convention except Louisiana.

Considerable discussion had been going on during the past year in the churches represented in the convention concerning certain matters which had been published by Prof. W. H. Whitsitt, of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In a historical article in "Johnson's Cyclopædia" concerning the Baptists he had affirmed as the result of his investigations that "immersion was not practiced in England before as late a period as 1641." Exception was taken to this declaration by many Baptists, who held to the importance of an unbroken succession of immersions. A similar statement had been published in an article in the "Inpendent" newspaper, and in another article in that journal Dr. Whitsitt, it was alleged, had expressed approval of a Baptist woman who had married a man not a Baptist, going, under certain conditions, to her husband's church. The historical question raised by Dr. Whitsitt had been discussed in the convention of 1896, without reaching a conclusion. The trustees of the seminary afterward voted. unanimously that Dr. Whitsitt had done and said nothing demanding notice at their hand. Again, May 6, 1897, the Board of Trustees adopted a declaration, after averring their loyalty to Baptist principles, "that we can not undertake to sit in judgment on questions of Baptist history which do not imperil any of those principles on which all Baptists are agreed, but concerning which serious, conscientious students are not agreed. We can, however, confidently leave to continued research and discussion the satisfactory solution of these questions. Believing the seminary to hold an important relation to the prosperity and usefulness of Southern Baptists, we consider it our duty, while demanding of those in charge of its departments of instruction the utmost patience in research and the greatest discretion in utterance, to foster rather than repress the spirit of earnest and reverent investigation." The resolution further invited reciprocal confidence between the Baptists of the South and the management of the institution. These resolutions were communicated to the convention, and with them a letter from Dr. Whitsitt explaining and modifying his articles in the "Independent," regretting any utterances objectionable to his brethren, but reaffirming his expressed historical opinions as unchanged. His explanations were accepted by the convention with enthusiasm, and the action in the matter of the trustees of the seminary was sustained.

National (Colored) Baptist Convention.-The National (Colored) Baptist Convention met in Boston, Mass.. in September. The Board of Foreign Missions (in Africa) reported that more than $5,000 had been raised for the work, and about $1,500 had been appropriated directly to it. These figures do not include the work of the Virginia churches, which is carried on independently. It was shown that during the past seventeen years the negro Baptists of America have raised $36,546 for African missions. The report of the Home Mission Board concerned chiefly schools and publications, while little had been done in the way of church extension. The convention further considered the subjects of systematic beneficence, the Young People's movement, and a magazine.

Young People's Union.-The seventh international convention of the Baptist Young People's Union of America (United States and Canada) was held at Chattanooga, Tenn., July 15 to 18. Mr. J. H. Chapman presided. The annual report of the secretary showed that the union was organized in all of the States except Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho, Mississippi, and the Territory of New Mexico. The treasurer's reports showed an improved financial condition. The receipts for the year had been $69,824, and the deficit had been reduced from $4,820 to $1,738. The number of examinations in the Christian culture courses, 13,407, showed an increase of 1,962 over the previous year. An arrangement for union with the Baptist Young People's Union Auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention made through committees in March, 1897, had been formally ratified, and was in effect during the present meeting. In place of the division of the Young People's Baptist Union of America into four departments, known respectively as the Departments of the Red, Gold, Blue, and Green, it was determined that the aggregation of societies within the Dominion of Canada should be designated the Baptist Young People's Union of Canada; that within the territory tributary to the Southern Baptist Convention as the Union South; that within the remaining States east of the Mississippi river as the Union North; and that within the remaining territory west of the Mississippi river as the Union West. The principal features of the convention consisted of the addresses which were delivered, among the subjects of which were: "The Christ Conception-Person, not Proxy," by the Rev. Dr. Carter Helm Jones; "Divine Ownership Human Stewardship," by the Rev. Dr. D. D. MacLaurin; "Education the Structural Idea," by the Rev. W. P. McKee; "Denomination our Conservative Idea," by the Rev. Dr. J. W. A. Stewart; "The Ideal Home and its Permanent Influence," by the Rev. W. W. Weeks; "The Stewardship of Service," by the Rev. Dr. B. A. Greene; "The Stewardship of Culture," by the Rev. Dr. C. S. Gardner; and "The Power of the Keys," the annual address of the president. Conferences of workers, department rallies, and other special meetings were held. The convention was attended by 3,200 delegates.

The Baptist Congress.-The fifteenth session of the Baptist Congress was held in Chicago, Ill., Nov. 16 to 18. The Rev. A. A. Kendrick, D. D., of St. Louis, Mo., presided. The congress is a voluntary meeting of Baptist ministers and laymen, without authority or formal representative character, the purpose of which is defined to be "to promote a healthful sentiment among Baptists through free and courteous discussion of current questions by suitable persons." The programmes of the meetings are prepared beforehand, and include a list of subjects on which papers are read by persons assigned to that function, which are in each case followed by remarks from appointed speakers,

after which opportunity is given for voluntary addresses. The subjects discussed at the present meeting were: "Are the Teachings of the Apostles of Equal Authority with those of Christ" "Is Baptism a Prerequisite to the Lord's Supper?" "Should Denominational Beliefs impose Limitations upon Religious Teachers?" "Our Government and the Oppressed of Other Nations"; "The Psychology of Conversion"; and "The Power of the Cross in the Life of the Believer."

Baptists in Great Britain and Ireland.—The Baptist Yearbook for 1897 gives as the numbers of the Baptist churches in Great Britain and Ireland (including about 300 churches not reporting, for which estimates are made from previous years' returns) 2,924 churches, 360,112 members, 1,955 pastors, 4,838 local preachers, 3,822 chapels with 1,286,514 sittings, 50,721 teachers and 519,226 pupils in Sunday schools, and 16,113 baptisms during the year. Of these, 1,700 churches and 221,778 members were in England, 783 churches with 101,791 members in Wales, 108 churches with 15,698 members in Scotland, 28 churches with 2,487 members in Ireland, 4 churches with 337 members in the Channel Islands, and 1 church with 21 members in the Isle of Man. The figures in each department are in advance of those of the preceding year, the most prominent increase being that of membership6,145. The amount expended during the year upon new buildings was £76,807, or £17,293 more than during the previous year; while £27,315 were upon chapel improvements, and £63,340 for the removal of debt on chapel property. A considerable increase is shown in the last item. The large number of local preachers is mentioned as an interesting feature in the statistics. With the exception of a few who are fully engaged as missionaries or evangelists, these local preachers are men who support themselves and their families by secular occupations and aid their pastors by preaching on Sundays and at other times at out stations, receiving no pay for these services. While many of the churches have no local preachers, a large number of them have from 1 to 20 each. Two report 22; one, 23; three, 25; one, 30; one, 44; and the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London returns 130. A paper on Baptist authors and history from 1527 to 1800, by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Angus, is published in the Yearbook. It gives the names of between 400 and 500 English Baptist authors, with some particulars about many of them, and the number of books published by each, with dates of publication. Abraham Booth and Andrew Fuller are credited in it with 40 works each; John Gill, D. D., with 45; and John Brine, J. Ryland, D. D., Dan Taylor, and W. Whiston with 50 each.

The Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland met in its annual meeting April 26. The address of the President, the Rev. E. G. Gange, bore special reference to the centenary of Baptist home missions, which was celebrated in connection with the present meeting. The report of the council showed an increase of 7 Baptist churches connected with the union, 6,145 members, 242 teachers, and 5,585 pupils in Sunday schools, and £18,960 in expenditure on new buildings and improvements, while building debts had been reduced or removed to the extent of £63,340 as against £57,392 in the previous year. The Board of Introduction had made 70 recommendations of ministers to churches without pastors. A Ministerial Recognition Committee had been formed, in accordance with proposals adopted at the previous annual meeting, The receipts of the General Expense fund had been £1.978; of the Church Extension fund, which now amounted to £9,491, £2,600. An increased activity in church extension was remarked in some

of the larger centers. The receipts of the Annuity fund had been £9,409. The fund had 650 beneficiary members, and 401 wives were subscribed for, while £6,673 had been paid in annuities during the year. The seventh triennial valuation of the investments belonging to the fund gave the purchase value as £174,527, showing an increase of £37,830.

About 20 English associations were co-operating with the council of the Home Mission Society in the home-mission work. Eighty-eight mission churches were on the list of the council, 50 of which were formed into 23 groups of two or three churches each. There were besides 25 mission stations, with 113 preaching places and 58 mission pastors. The number of communicants was 4,306, and of baptisms during the year 173. An historical sketch of the home missions, published in connection with the centenary celebration, showed that they were begun in July, 1796, when two ministers started from Plymouth on an evangelistic tour through Cornwall, under the direction of the Baptist Missionary Society. An "Address to the Friends of Evangelical Truth in General and to the Calvinistic Baptist Churches in Particular," by the Rev. Abraham Booth, issued in 1797, announced the formation of the Baptist Society in London for the Encouragement and Support of Itinerant and Village Preaching. This society did good work in many counties. It held its first public meeting in 1814. The name of the society was changed in 1817 to the Baptist Itinerant and Home Missionary Society. The income of the society in 1835 was £2,000; in 1841 it had risen to more than £5,000; but, except in 1845, when it rose to £5,901, had never since reached £5,000.

The capital of the Baptist Building fund stood at £51,578. Thirty-nine churches had been aided by loans of from £40 to £1,000 each, and for different terms of years to the total amount of £12,010. The Bible Translation Society had received £1,300 during the year, all of which had been expended, except a balance of £57. The Legacy fund amounted to £1,600.

The year's sales of the Tract and Book Society had amounted to £1,622, £427 more than the sales of the previous year, which had been much larger than those of previous years; the subscriptions amounted to about £800. A balance of £120 was due the treasurer.

The income of the Baptist Missionary Society for 1896 was £75,978, the largest ever received by the society in any one year of its history except the centenary year. Of this amount, £11,186 had been contributed in response to an appeal for relief of the districts in India that were suffering from famine. The contributions to the general fund showed an advance of £2,083 over those of the previous year, with an additional £1,571 for the Thanksgiving fund, while the special gifts were £1,341 more than those of the year before. There had, however, been a falling off of £9,789 in the amount received from legacies. The expenditures had increased £3,947. The year's receipts of the Baptist Zenana Mission had been £7.635. The association had 56 missionaries and 205 native Bible women and school teachers in India visiting regularly about 1,220 zenanas and several hundred houses in which the Bible is used.

The autumnal session of the union was held at Plymonth, beginning Oct. 6, the Rev. E. G. Gange presiding. Resolutions were adopted reiterating the protests of the union against state aid to denominational schools, and insisting on the extension of the school-board system to the whole country, the absence of denominational formularies from religious instruction in public elementary schools,

VOL. XXXVII.-6 A

and the establishment of training colleges which shall impose no religious tests; favoring peaceful arbitration as a means of settling national disputes; condemning state regulation of vice in India and the toleration of slavery in countries under British protection; advising a movement for the extension of the Sunday closing of liquor shops over the whole of England; and regretting the spread of priestly pretensions and sacramentarian superstitions, and calling on all Christians to uphold the sole mediatorship of Jesus Christ. The consideration of a temperance resolution, embodying clauses advising the election of abstainers as deacons and other church officers, and declaring it inconsistent to solicit or receive financial aid from persons engaged in the manufacture or sale of intoxicants, was objected to as bearing against persons who were not present to defend themselves, and the subject was referred to the council with a view to its being brought forward again at the spring meeting of the union, 1898. The subjects were considered in papers and general discussions of the attitude of the churches toward Roman Catholicism, the Chautauqua movement, Christian Endeavor societies, and Free Church principles. Conferences were held of lay preachers and on Sunday schools, and meetings in behalf of the Baptist missionary and benevolent enterprises.

BELGIUM, a constitutional monarchy in Western Europe, founded in 1830, when it seceded from the United Netherlands. Its territory was declared neutral and inviolable by the Treaty of London, made on Nov. 15, 1831, by Austria, England, Prussia, and Russia. The constitutional amendment of Sept. 7, 1893, changed the manner of electing Senators, who were formerly elected directly. Now part are elected directly, and part by the provincial councils. There are half as many Senators as there are members of the House of Representatives. Senators elected directly are required to have an income of 12,000 francs from real estate, or pay 1,200 francs of direct taxes a year. The provincial councils in provinces having less than 500,000 inhabitants elect 2 Senators; if above that population, up to 1,000,000 they elect 3; and provinces of more than 1,000,000 inhabitants elect 4 Senators. The term of a Senator is eight years, one half retiring every four years. The House of Representatives are elected in districts having not fewer than 40,000 inhabitants for four years by the direct vote of the qualified voters. Every two years one half of the chamber is renewed. Every citizen over twenty-five years of age, resident in the commune for a year, and not disqualified by crime or pauperism, has one vote; owners of real estate worth 2,000 francs or having Belgian funds or savings-bank deposits yielding 100 francs a year, also married men or widowers with children, who are thirty-five years of age and pay at least 5 francs of house tax, are entitled to an additional vote; and one or two supplementary votes can be cast by university graduates, professional men, and officials or ex-officials, no citizen being entitled to more than three votes at any election.

The Cabinet, first constituted on Oct. 26, 1884, was composed at the beginning of 1897 as follows: President of the Council and Minister of Finance, P. de Smet de Naeyer, appointed Feb. 25, 1896; Minister of Foreign Affairs, P. de Favereau, appointed Feb, 25, 1896; Minister of Justice, V. Begerem; Minister of Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs and Minister of War ad interim, J. H. P. van den Peereboom; Minister of the Interior and Minister of Public Instruction, M. Schollaert, appointed May 25, 1895; Minister of Agriculture and Public Works, L. de Bruyn; Minister of Industry and Labor, M. Nyssens, appointed May 25, 1895.