stamps, 9,427,320 guldens; legal dues, 14,350,000 guldens; the salt monopoly, 14,276,308 guldens; lottery, 3,472,468 guldens; net railroad receipts, 8,653,510 guldens; mines and mint, 6,765,145 guldens; domains, 4,100,000 guldens; forests, 6,027,381 guldens; posts, 7,554,000 guldens; telegraphs, 1,752,600 guldens. The principal branches of expenditure are as follow: Hungarian debt, 58,941,489 guldens; share in the Austrian public debt, 30,316,700 guldens; matricular quota in the common expenses, 28,629,410 guldens; commutation of rents, 16,981,174 guldens; commutation of vineyard tithes, 2,372,370 guldens; interest guaranteed to railroads, 10,770,463 guldens; pensions, 4,415,367 guldens; imperial household, 4,650,000 guldens; Ministry of Finance, 54,229,279 guldens; Ministry of Ways and Communications, 29,552,484 guldens; Ministry of Justice, 10,438,431 guldens; Ministry of the Interior, 8,909,687 guldens; Ministry of War, 6,951,200 guldens; Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, 8,981,486 guldens; Ministry of Worship and Instruction, exclusive of receipts from funds, 4,982,589 guldens; administration of Croatia and Slavonia, 5,842,346 guldens; Diet and Delegations, 1,229,683 guldens.

Of the total product of direct and indirect taxes of the united kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia 55 per cent. are turned into the Hungarian treasury, and 45 per cent. retained for the autonomous administration of the country. The expenditures on the latter account in 1881 amounted to 3,603,464 guldens, of which 1,871,300 were for internal administration, 498,907 for worship and instruction, 1,167,257 for the administration of justice, and the rest for the expenses of the Ban and the Diet.

The public debt, not including the Hungarian portion of the common debt of the empire, amounted in 1882 to 1,118,148,045 guldens. Inclusive of treasury notes and arrears of interest, the amount was 1,225,410,183 guldens. The debt has been contracted since 1868, partly to aid the construction of railroads and to purchase railroads, and partly to cover deficits, except 219,887,232 guldens of bonds issued in aid of the conversion of feudal rents. The assets of the state, consisting of domains, forests, mines, railroads, buildings, bridges, movables, credits, and cash, were reckoned on the same date at 1,259,700,000 guldens.

The conversion of the 6 per cent. loan into 4-per-cents was successfully terminated in 1884. This gigantic operation, conducted by a syndicate with the Rothschilds at the head, was begun in Paris before the Bontoux crash, and after the crisis transferred to other centers. It involved the issue of about 550,000,000 guldens of 4 per cent. bonds. They were taken mainly by German capitalists. The amount of 6 per cents redeemed was 400,000,000 guldens. The claim of Hungary for a better rating of her credit is borne out by the success of the Government in re-establishing a

balance between the ordinary revenue and expenditure in 1884.

Legislation. The session that opened September 28, 1881, came to an end May 20th. Among the principal acts of the session are the incorporation of the Military Frontier with Croatia-Slavonia, the conversion of the 6-percent. rente, the introduction of a system of gendarmerie, the embankment of the Theiss, and the rebuilding of Szegedin, the act for the regulation and state control of intermediate schools, the extensions of the railroad network and the convention with the Austro-Hungarian State Railway, and the authorization of new Parliament buildings. The Government, upon the reassembling of the Diet in January, sustained a blow from an unexpected quarter. When the subject of obligatory civil marriage was brought up in 1883, the Government did not venture to proceed beyond a resolution, which was passed November 24th. In January the ministry proposed a law legalizing marriages between Christians and Jews. Such a law has long existed in Austria. The Premier specially identified himself with the project, which was promptly passed by more than the normal majority. An agitation was then set on foot by the Clerical Conservatives and the Anti-Semites. Magnates who never entered the legislative hall were summoned in sufficient number to throw out the bill in the Upper Chamber. It was the first time that the House of Magnates had ventured to assert their legislative powers in opposition to the Government. The bill was sent up a second time, and again voted down by a bare majority, which included Austrian noblemen who possessed no interest in Hungary, except the hereditary right to sit in the House of Magnates, who came in sufficient numbers to turn the scale. The members who appeared for the purpose of defeating the measure were mostly frivolous young nobles, with no serious motives.

The New Parliament.-The elections for the next triennial session took place in July. The Liberal or Government party maintained its preponderance, electing 230 members. The Moderate Opposition returned 60. The party of Independence, otherwise called the party of '48, elected 75. The Anti-Semitic party obtained 21 seats and took their place for the first time as an organized party. The unattached members, or "Savages," who usually vote together and with the Government in most questions, hold ten seats. The groups representing the non-Magyar nationalities are the Transylvanian Saxons, whose 14 members act in concert with the Moderate Opposition; the 40 Croatians, who are usually found in alliance with the Government; and 6 Roumanians and Serbs. The Government commands a majority of more than 50 over all the opposition parties and groups, not counting the 50 Croatian and Savage" votes.

The ministry set before the new Parliament, besides important tasks, an extensive pro

gramme of parliamentary reform. The action of the Magnates on the bill to permit mixed marriages between Hebrews and Christians precipitated the question of reforming the obsolete constitution of the Upper House. The House of Magnates is the largest Upper Chamber in the world, containing from 700 to 800 members. For many years past seldom more than 50 or 60 have taken part in the deliberations. The House has attempted neither to initiate, amend, nor reject legislation, but has contented itself with allowing the regular attendants formally to approve the enactments of the Chamber of Deputies. The list of Magnates comprises the princes of the blood royal, who own lands in Hungary, 2 in number; 50 or 60 dignitaries of the Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, and Oriental Greek Churches; 10 Barons of the Empire and the Count of Presburg; the 68 Counts Palatine, who are simply Government officers; 18 princes; 386 counts; 288 barons; 2 Deputies of the Croatian Diet; and 5 regalists of Transylvania. Tisza's scheme of reform cuts down the representation from the hereditary nobility, all of whose male members have held a seat by right of birth. The Esterházy, Zichy, Szapáry, Bathyany, and other great houses, furnished twenty or thirty peers each. In the reformed House of Magnates only those noblemen have a seat who pay 3,000 guldens of land-taxes. Magnates naturalized in Hungary are not to lose their seats if they sit in the Austrian Upper House. To the spiritual peers are added representatives of the Evangelical, Calvinist, Unitarian, and Jewish bodies. Another feature of the scheme is the creation of life-peers, not to exceed one third of the total number, from the ranks of citizens who have distinguished themselves in any sphere of public life.

The plan by which Koloman Tisza proposes to reform the Lower House is by changing the duration of the Legislature from three years to five. The motives for this seemingly reactionary step are to prevent the petty gentry, who constitute the bulk of the representatives from ruining themselves in election expenses, and to minimize the excitement, the abuses, and the scandals of the periodical elections.

A third measure is the enlargement of the disciplinary powers of the parliamentary presiding officers, which have been limited to the right to call to order, and, if the member prove refractory, to administer a rebuke.

The Croatian Question. The episode of the escutcheons has united the Croatians in as strong a determination for independence from Hungary as that which fired the Hungarians in their struggle with Austria. After the revolution of 1848, the Slav provinces of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia were severed from Hungary. A year after the establishment of the dual monarchy, Croatia, Slavonia, and a part of Dalmatia, merged into a single state, were reunited with the Magyar Kingdom. The compact of union was carried

through under pressure by a Magyarophile Ban, and was so unpopular that in 1871, three years later, the National party, which represented the Croatian sentiment of national independence, gained a majority in the Diet. The Hungarian Government dissolved the Assembly, and when a still larger Opposition majority was returned, would have proceeded to more arbitrary measures if the Nationalists had not offered to come to terms. They agreed to uphold the compact on the promise of concessions and benefits, but soon sank into the position of a Government party, neglecting to demand the fulfillment of these pledges, practicing the same official and military pressure at elections, and perpetuating the administrative abuses that they had denounced when in opposition. Those of the party who were dissatisfied with the treatment of Croatia by the Hungarian Government, and with the practices of the party in power, seceded and constituted a Moderate Opposition, under the name of the Independent National party. A Radical Opposition, which aimed at complete independence, grew up under the lead of Antun Starchevich, who was at first almost the solitary_representative of the Great Croatian idea. They took the name of the Legality party, in reference to their assumption that the compact of 1868 was not concluded in a regular and constitutional manner. The status of Croatia under the compact is variously interpreted in the various parties, and by the Hungarian Government, which has treated it as a province or land of the crown, with certain guaranteed autonomous rights, while certain Croatian jurists insist that the union is personal, with a common Legislature for common purposes, of the same nature as that which subsists between Hungary and Austria. The Croatians consider that they are exploited by the Magyars. Of the taxes collected in the land, 55 per cent. go into the royal treasury, only a small portion of which is returned in public improvements or any other useful form. They are cut off from the port of Fiume by differential railroad tariffs, which favor their Hungarian competitors. The popular support of the secessionist and Great Croatian movements is derived partly from the notion that the growing agrarian distress, which is chiefly due to backward agricultural methods and the too sudden breaking-up of feudal and communistic institutions, is caused by the stepmotherly treatment of Croatian economic interests by the Hungarian Government. To this conviction is joined the fear that Hungary intends to destroy the autonomous institutions of Croatia, reduce it to a Hungarian province, and eventually crush out the Croatian nationality and language. Hence the outbreak which Minister Szápary occasioned by replacing the Croatian with the Hungarian arms on a public building. The national aspirations are of various degrees. The movement has grown strong in sympathy with the success of the Slav peo

ples of Austria in asserting their nationalities, and has received encouragement both from Prague and from Vienna. The more moderate look forward to the revision of the compact securing parity with Hungary and to the restoration of the rest of Dalmatia, with the port of Fiume, so as to complete the "triune kingdom" of Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia. The more ambitious patriots fix their hopes on a triune empire, in which Great Croatia, embracing the whole Serbic and Croatian population in Croatia, Dalmatia, Slavonia, Carniola, Carinthia, southern Styria, Istria, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, shall take a coördinate position with Austria and Hungary.

The Serb Party. The incorporation of the Military Frontier in 1883 imported a new element into Croatian politics. This district, containing nearly as large an area, and more than half as many inhabitants, as Croatia, was organized in military fashion to prevent raids from the neighboring Turkish provinces. Since Servia has been erected into an independent kingdom, and Bosnia and Herzegovina have been occupied by Austria-Hungary, the reason for military administration is removed. The bulk of the population is of Servian nationality. The incorporated district sends 35 of the 158 members of the Croatian Diet. The Serbic deputies, uniting with the Serbs already in the Chamber, formed a group apart, which played the same role in the Croatian Assembly as the Croatian delegation in the Hungarian Parliament, demanding in return for their votes concessions in favor of their nationality and religion. Their reward was the recognition of the autonomous rights of the Greek-Oriental Church. The Croatians have always shown intolerance toward the religion and national customs of their Serbic brothers. The intervention of the Emperor formerly shielded the latter from persecution. The Croatian Diet refused to adopt the Hungarian statute of 1868, granting religious and educational autonomy to the Greek-Oriental Church, and passed a school law intended for the suppression of the Serbic schools. Since the incorporation of the Military Frontier, the Serbs constitute 26 per cent. of the Croatian population. Before the passage of the act of 1884, all their religious and civil rights were based upon ancient imperial privileges. The act recognizes the GreekOriental Church, and legalizes the Serbic national schools under the supervision of the clergy, with instruction in the Greek Orthodox creed and the use of the Cyrillic alphabet.

The Session of the Diet.-The Hungarian Government suspended the Constitution, and appointed Gen. Ramberg Royal Commissioner, with extraordinary powers, to restore order after the outbreak of the insurrection that followed the substitution of Hungarian for Croatian inscriptions on the Government buildings in Agram. After the suppression of the disturbances, Count Khuen-Hédervary, a Hungarian of German descent, was appointed Ban; Pejache

vich, who had refused to restore the Hungarian escutcheons, having resigned. When the National Assembly came together in December, 1883, there was no Government party left. Many went over to the Opposition, and those who remained were too timid to defend the course of the Hungarian Government. Members who spoke in justification of the authorities were hissed from the galleries and mobbed in the street. The Starchevich party uttered the most incendiary language, and allowed no other sentiments to be heard. Soldiers and gendarmes were posted in the chamber to prevent violence, and the leaders of the Opposition were forcibly removed. After a month of violent scenes, the Government obtained a vote of indemnity for exceptional measures taken during the insurrection, and a provisional budget allowing them to collect taxes and pay necessary expenses for six months, and then dismissed the Assembly. After confiscating the chief organ of the Legalists and repressing popular agitation, the Hungarian Government adopted conciliatory measures, such as the employment of the people on public works to relieve distress, and the authorization of railroads in Croatia and the Military Frontier. Before reassembling the Diet in May, the Ban assured himself of a working majority by a bargain with the Serbs. The inevitable arraignment of the Hungarian ministry for a breach of the Constitution in appointing a dictator was framed in moderate terms. The vote of censure pointed out that the Constitution could only be suspended by the crown, on the recommendation of the Ban, and demanded, as a guarantee against one-sided action in the future, the appointment of deputations to consider and declare the principles of the bilateral compact between Hungary and the united kingdoms of Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia. The budget was voted and the arm of the executive strengthened by the suspension of the law making judges irremovable. The debates grew more and more violent. The Speaker again used arbitrary means to silence the patriotic fury of the Radicals. Students of the university encouraged the defenders of national rights, and, when the Government proceeded to investigate these demonstrations, the professors resigned. Magistrates and corporation officials in various towns were dismissed on account of anti-Magyar demonstrations. In July the session was again summarily closed. The adjourned House came together in August to complete the business of the session, which was the last one of the triennial period. After another week of conflict between unbridled license and gag-rule, the Legislature was dissolved. The elections for the new Diet took place in September. The result proved the thorough disaffection of the Croatian people. The National party, by putting forth all the means of pressure at the disposal of the Government, obtained enough seats to make, with the Serbs, a majority. They showed an actual

gain of three, or 69 members, about one half of them Serbs, out of the 110 elected. But the Moderate Opposition and the club of "Savages," or independent members, dwindled to almost nothing, while Dr. Starchevich's following increased to 25. The agitation in the country grew more intense. Local officials were removed and replaced by Government commissioners in many places. In Agram the petty state of siege was proclaimed. The new Diet was opened September 30. The transaction of business was a greater impossibility than be

fore. On the 24th of October all the members of the Radical Opposition were removed and excluded from the House by gendarmes. The introduction of Hungarian laws into Fiume furnishes an additional cause of irritation in Croatia. Joint deputations were recently appointed to adjust the matter; but, as the Croatians demanded that Fiume be restored to Croatia, the deputations separated without accomplishing anything. Another grievance is the alleged injustice to Croatia in the adjustment of the financial accounts of the monarchy.

BALLOONS, NAVIGABLE. Experiments in aerostatic navigation, made by Capt. Renard, the director of the French military ballooning establishment at Meudon, and Capt. Krebs, his assistant, were more successful than any previous attempt. The first to apply his ingenuity to the problem was Henri Giffard, who experimented with steam in 1855. In 1872 Dupuy de Lôme attempted balloon-steering by handpower. In 1883 Frederick A. Gower, an American, in France, succeeded in guiding a fish-shaped balloon, of 2,500 cubic metres capacity, with a bronze steam-engine of five-horse power, consuming petroleum gas. The same year Tissandier experimented in a distaff

of the water. In the Meudon experiments the balloon had a length of 50-42 metres, a diameter of 8.40 metres, and a cubic capacity of 1,864 metres. It was filled with hydrogen gas, and sustained a weight of 2,000 kilogrammes. The motors were Faure accumulators of ten-horse power, capable of working at such a rate for four hours. In the first ascension the propulsive power was sufficient to drive the aerostat forward against a light breeze, which blew at a speed of about 18 feet a second. The trial took place Aug. 9, 1884. The balloon rose to the height of about 180 feet, took a straight course to the appointed goal, over four miles distant, described a curve of 300 metres radius,

shaped balloon with a Siemens motor, actuated by a bichromate battery. The brothers Tissandier have worked as assiduously at the solution of the problem as the officers in the Government works. The constructive features and mechanical principle are very nearly the same in both balloons. That of Messrs. Renard and Krebs is elliptical, with conical ends, but with the forward end larger and blunter than the other; while the Tissandier balloon has symmetrical ends. In the latter the propelling screw is behind the car. The Renard-Krebs balloon has a propeller in front and a rudder behind. The steering is accomplished chiefly with the screw, which has a lateral play like a ship's rudder. The same principle has been tried in steamships to increase their steering capacity, but is impracticable, because no metal is strong enough to withstand the resistance

and sailed back to the starting-point, descending in a slanting direction to within a few feet of the earth, where the machine was reversed and stopped, and the balloon pulled down by a rope. A second trial was a failure, because a stronger wind was blowing, and one of the storage batteries refused to work; but a third ascent, made in November, was entirely successful. The balloon went through evolutions in the air and descended at the point of departure, as in the first voyage.

BAPTISTS. I. Regular Baptists in the United States.-The "American Baptist Year-Book for 1884 gives statistics of the regular Baptist churches in the United States, of which the following is a summary: Number of associations, 1,196; of churches, 27,913; of ordained ministers, 17,327; of members, 2,474,771; of Sunday-schools, 15,939, with 184,395 officers

and teachers, and 1,118,129 pupils; number of additions by baptism during the year, 111,932; benevolent contributions, $6,996,105.

Of literary institutions, 6 theological institutions return 47 instructors and 496 students; 33 colleges and universities, 303 instructors and 4,867 students; and 60 academies, institutions, seminaries, and female colleges, 417 instructors and 7,551 students.

Including the West Indies, the churches in North America return 1,220 associations, 28,833 churches, 17,928 ministers, 2,574,084 members; baptisms during the year, 113,667.

The Baptists are represented in South America by 8 churches, 4 ministers, 228 members, and 5 baptisms, in Brazil.

The "Year-Book" gives for Europe, 67 as sociations, 3,191 churches, 2,290 ministers, and 346,918 members, with 7,541 baptisms; for Asia (Assam, Burmah, Ceylon, China, India, Japan, and Palestine), 5 associations, 754 churches, 279 ministers, and 61,493 members, with 4,100 baptisms; for Africa, 3 associations, 85 churches, 31 ministers, and 6,627 members, with 5 baptisms; for Australasia, 6 associations, 136 churches, 88 ministers, and 11,039 members; total for the world, 1,299 associations, 33,007 churches, 20,620 ministers, and 3,000,389 members, with 125,688 baptisms.

The sixtieth anniversary of the American Baptist Publication Society was held in Detroit, Mich., May 21, 22, and 25. The receipts of the society for the year had been: In the business department, $428,295; in the missionary department, $131,881; and in the Bible department, $22,780; making a total of $582,957. Thirty-four new publications had been issued and three new periodicals printed during the year. In the missionary department $13,379 worth of literature had been given away, and was represented in 813 libraries, which had been granted. One hundred and seventy-eight missionaries had been in service, thirty-one of whom were colored, 1,220 persons had been baptized, 46 churches constituted, and 597 Sunday-schools organized. The society was represented by agencies in Germany and Sweden, and had begun a mission in Constantinople. Grants of Bibles and Testaments, in the authorized version, the American Bible Union version, and the Anglo-American revised version, and in several foreign languages, had been made to the value of $15,526.

The fifty-second annual meeting of the American Baptist Home Mission Society was held in Detroit, Mich., May 26. The treasurer reported that his total receipts for the year had been $401,692, or $117,748 more than those of the previous year, and $42,385 more than those of the jubilee year. The indebtedness of the society was $54,330. Six hundred and fortyfour missionaries and teachers had been employed, of whom 117 had been engaged in labors among the foreign populations of the country, 170 among the colored people, Indians, and Mexicans, and 357 among Americans.

The missionaries had supplied 1,599 churches and out-stations, connected with which were 26,962 members, and 46,129 persons in Sundayschools, and reported the organization of 145 churches and 2,849 baptisms. The work of the society among foreign populations had been carried on chiefly among the Germans, the Scandinavians, the French (in New England and at St. Anne, Ill.), and the Chinese in San Francisco. The condition of all the German and Scandinavian Baptist churches in the United States, the greater portion of which are self-supporting, is presented as follows in the report of the society:

German: 138 churches, with 150 mission stations supplied by them, 130 pastors, 11,000 members, and 196 Sunday-schools, with 1,655 teachers and 12,262 pupils, 41 students for the ministry. The German Baptists of Canada, 12 churches and 837 communicants, co-operate with the society, and receive aid from it.

Scandinavian: Swedish, 108 churches, 48 pastors entirely devoted to the work of the ministry, 5,705 church-members, 57 houses of worship, and 72 Sunday - schools, with 382 teachers and 2,786 pupils. Norwegian and Danish: 29 churches, 35 ministers, and 1,500 members. Nine missionaries were employed among the French, and reported more than 60 baptisms in New England. A Scandinavian department is established in the Theological Seminary at Chicago, and a French department in the seminary at Newton, Mass. Nineteen missionaries were employed among the Indians, including four teachers in the Indian University. This institution returned 126 students. The missions in Mexico were conducted in the State of Nuevo Leon, in the city of Mexico, and on the border, at El Paso, Texas, and returned about 300 members. The school at Monterey was attended by 127 pupils. The schools among the freedmen now number 15. Two schools for girls had been added during the year, viz., Hartshorn Memorial College, at Richmond, Va., and Spelman Seminary, at Atlanta, Ga. The seminary at Natchez, Miss., had been removed to Jackson. The whole number of pupils in the 15 schools was 2,828.

The seventieth annual meeting of the American Baptist Missionary Union was held in Detroit, May 23d. The Executive Committee reported that the receipts for the year had been $342,443, and the expenditures $350,896. The reports from the mission-fields showed that there were in the Asiatic missions (Burmah, Assam, the Telugus in India, China, Bangkok, Siam, the Bassas in Africa, and Japan) 182 ordained and 630 unordained preachers, 586 churches, and 33,649 members; and in the European missions (Sweden, Germany, France, Spain, and Greece), 870 preachers, 541 churches, and 58,473 members; in all, 1,682 missionaries, 1,127 churches, and 112.122 members. Baptisms during the year, 4,679 in the Asiatic and 7,037 in the European missions.

Southern Baptist Convention.-The Southern