ters, 1,270 local preachers, 30,378 members, with 5,096 persons on trial for membership, and 475 Sunday-schools, with 11,321 teachers and 85,872 pupils.

The income of the Mission fund was £5,873, or £225 less than the income of the previous year, while the expenditure had been £6,405. The receipts of the Paternal fund had been £3,189. The capital of the Trustees Mutual Insurance fund stood at £3,138; that of the Chapel and Loan fund, at £6,855. The receipts for the Beneficent fund had been £2,478; for the College, £778; for the Contingent fund, £665; and the total net amount raised for Connectional funds was £13,383.

The ninety-second Methodist New Connection Conference, met in Hanley, June 11. The Rev. T. T. Rushworth was chosen president. A scheme was approved for establishing a General Committee of Privileges, representing all the Methodist bodies in the country, for the purpose of watching over the interests of Methodism as they are affected by social and political influences and events; of taking common counsel; and of acting, when desirable, with combined authority with reference to such matters. Provision was made for having the Connection represented in such a committee, should it be formed. In reply to a communication from the United Methodist Free Churches, the Conference expressed its desire to co-operate in every possible form of recognition and action that can strengthen the bonds of brotherhood, and recommended joint celebration of ordinances, interchange of pulpits, and the improvement of other opportunities of intercourse and fraternal greeting. A proposition submitted by the previous conference for setting apart a minister as an evangelist had been approved by a majority of the circuits, and was carried into effect. The approval of the Conference was given to the Non-Conformist Marriage Bill; and its objections were expressed against any recommendations of the Royal Commission on Education that would strengthen the denominational use of public moneys, or weaken the "Conscience Clause" in public elementary schools. A resolution was passed remonstrating against the publication of sporting reports and demoralizing serial stories by the newspapers. The committee of the Connectional Temperance Union reported that it included 268 bands, with nearly 40,000 members.

XII. Bible Christian Connection.-The statistics of this denomination, as presented to the Conference in July, showed that there were on the home stations, 145 itinerant preachers, 1,471 local preachers, 583 chapels, 41 preaching-places, 24,574 full members, 574 members on trial, 248 juvenile members, 7,191 Sundayschool teachers and 38,525 pupils in Sundayschools, and that 3,496 members had been added during the year. The receipts of the chapel fund had been £24,695. The receipts for missions had been £7,012, and the expen

ditures £7,539. A favorable report was received from the missions in Australia, where the first conference in Victoria had been held in February. The missions in China were prosecuted vigorously.

The seventy-ninth Conference met in London, July 31. The Rev. J. O. Keen, D. D., was chosen president. A motion relaxing certain limitations by which the power of the Conference to appoint a minister for more than four years to the same circuit was now restricted, was defeated, and the Conference decided that it would be unwise to interfere with the existing rule in view of the recent decision of the whole denomination against the "extension of the time limit."

XIII. Wesleyan Reform Union.-This body has 18 itinerant ministers and 8,574 members. The Conference met at Bakewell, July 21. A net increase of 237 members and 714 pupils in Sunday-schools was reported.

XIV. Australasian Methodist General Conference. This body, which is composed of the New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, and New Zealand Conferences, returned for 1888, a total of 580 ministers and 79,477 lay members, of whom 7,692 were "on trial." The General Conference met in Melbourne, May 9. The Rev. J. C. Symons was chosen president. The most urgent question to be considered was that of the difficulties in Tonga. In consequence of certain personal and political difficulties, the Church in Tonga had been divided about three years before, and an independent church had been formed, still Methodist in doctrine and policy, but rejecting the control of the Australian (New South Wales) Conference, carrying with it about 16,000 members of the original body, and having the royal influence on its side. The separation had been accompanied by a serious persecution of the adherents of the original organization. In all attempts to negotiate for a settlement of the difficulty, the Government had insisted upon the removal of the official representative of the Conference, the Rev. J. A. Moulton. Compliance with this condition had been refused. The debate in the General Conference showed that a considerable difference concerning the proper course to be adopted existed within that body. A decision was reached to send the Rev. George Brown as a commissioner to Tonga, with instructions to inquire and report upon the best means of securing honorable and lasting reunion with the "Free Church," and generally to draw up a scheme for the permanent settlement of affairs there; the result of his efforts to be submitted to a committee on Tongan affairs, and through it, "and with such modifications as it may deem necessary," to the annual conferences next ensuing, and, if approved by a majority of them, to be accepted by the General Conference. Application by the New Zealand Conference for an independent organization was refused. The law with reference to attending class - meetings

was amended by substituting the words "are strongly advised" for "are required" in the direction of the discipline upon the subject.

XV. West Indian (Wesleyan) General Conference. -This body is composed of the Eastern and Western Annual Conferences. The reports presented to the General Conference showed that it included 52,593 members, of whom 6,005 are junior members, and 2,087 are "on trial," the rest being "full members." The triennial session of the General Conference was held beginning March 20.

XVI. South African Conference (Wesleyan).—This Conference met at King William's Town, in April. The Rev. William Tyndall presided. The statistics for the year showed the number of itinerant preachers to be 89; of local preachers, 560; and of members, 45,124.

MEXICO, a confederated republic of North America; area, 761,640 square miles. It is divided into twenty-seven States, one Federal District, and one Territory (Lower California). The population is about 11,000,000, 19 per cent. being whites, 38 pure Indians, and 43 per cent. of mixed races. The cities of over 20,000 inhabitants were in 1888: Mexico, 350,000; Puebla, 112,000; Guadalajara, 95,000; Leon, 60,000; Guanajuato, 52,000; Mérida, 40,000; San Luis Potosí, 35,000; Zacatecas, 30,000; Querétaro, 30,000; Oajaca, 28,000; Colima, 26,251; Saltillo, 26,000; Morelia, 25,000; Aguas Calientes, 22,000; Vera Cruz, 21,000; Orizaba, 20,500; Pachuca, 20,200; and Durango, 20,100.

Government. The President is Don Porfirio Diaz, whose term of office will expire on Dec. 1, 1892. His Cabinet is composed of the following ministers: Foreign Relations, Señor Ignacio Mariscal; War, Gen. Pedro Hinojosa; Public Works, Gen. Pacheco; Justice, Señor Joaquin Baranda; Finance, Señor Manuel Dublan; Interior, Señor Manuel Romero Rubio. Congress will be called upon at its next session to establish a new Cabinet office, that of Minister of Posts and Telegraphs. The Minister to the United States is Señor Matias Romero; the United States Minister at Mexico is Edward S. Bragg; the Consul-General at Mexico Elawson C. More; at Matamoras, Warner P. Sutton; the Mexican Vice-Consul at New York is Don Antonio Laviada y Peon; the Consul at Brownsville, Don Manuel Treviño; the Consul-General at San Francisco, Don Alejandro K. Coney; at New Orleans, Don Manuel G. Zamora.

Proposed American Acquisition of Lower California.—Mr. Vanderveer, of California, introduced, on Jan. 21, 1889, a joint resolution in the House of Representatives at Washington, requesting the President to open negotiations with Mexico for the cession of Lower California to the United States. When asked about the chances of consummating such cession, Mr. Romero, the Mexican minister, replied that his Government had no disposition or inclination to sell any portion of Mexican territory, and

that, even if it should be inclined to do so, the transaction could not be carried out, because there is no power under the Constitution authorizing the transfer of national property.

Treaty. The Japanese minister, Mr. Mutsu, and the Mexican minister, Señor Romero, signed, at Washington, early in December, 1888, a treaty of amity and commerce between their respective countries, subject to ratification by their governments. Heretofore there have been no diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Finance. The proceeds of the £10,500,000 6-per-cent. loan, negotiated at Berlin, have been applied in part to buying up, at 40 per cent., the bonds issued under the English conversion debt arrangement, the remainder, over $16,000,000 in gold, being applied to canceling the debt the Government owed the National Bank. The American debt has mean while been canceled, so as to leave only $300,000 unpaid. The consolidated internal debt, on June 30, 1888, amounted to $16,052,000. The floating debt was of equal amount, bearing no interest. The budget for 1888-'89 estimated the income at $37,900,000, and the outlay at $38,537,239.

The report of the Minister of Finance for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1887, was published on Feb. 18, 1888, and reads as follows:

The Federal revenues were $32,126,509.

Deduct

ing $958,156 of the part collected in credits of the public debt through the purchase of waste lands and nationalized properties, there results as the net amount received $81,168,352, or $3,357,443 more than the collection of the previous year, when the net income only reached $27,810,909; and, even comparing this product with the most favorable one of the last quinquennium, which was the fiscal year 1882-'83, it still exceeds that by $332,873. The principal causes of collection of import duties, which in this fiscal year this increase of receipts may be found (1) in the rose to $17,268,650, while in the previous year they did not exceed $14,852,980; (2) in the receipts from stamps, which reached $7,538,150, when in the previous year they only produced $5,877,458; (3) in the new tax on salaries, which yielded $885,560.

The official Government organ, in its issue of Dec. 5, 1888, contained a decree of November 30, through the provisions of which the import duties were to be raised 2 per cent., the proceeds to be set aside toward defraying the cost of harbor improvements.

A 7-per-cent. £400,000 loan was floated in London for account of the city of Mexico, to provide means for the finishing of the Tesquisquiac tunnel for draining the valley of Mexico. The net profits realized by the National Bank in 1887 were $1,238,364, against $1,123,758 netted in 1886, the dividends declared being $880,000, against $800,000.

Army and Navy.-The army of the republic consisted, on June 30, 1888, of 19,466 infantry, with 1,110 officers; 6,095 cavalry, with 465 officers; 1,688 artillery, with 128 officers; and 2,768 gendarmes, with 247 officers-together, 31,967. The navy consisted of five gun-boats.

Postal Service. The number of post-offices of the first class in 1877 was 300; minor ones,

724. In the interior 22,885,092 letters and postal-cards were handled in that year, while the number of international letters forwarded was 1,345,720. The service employed during the year 1,528 persons, the receipts amounting to $749,967, and the expenses $857,424. Arrangements were nearly completed in January, 1889, for a packet-post between France and Mexico.

About the success of the foreign parcel-post between the United States, Mexico, and other American countries, Mr. Bell, the Superintendent of Foreign Mails in the United States, reports as follows: "The effect of these conventions has been to remove the restrictions which previously existed; and there can be no doubt that it will continue to augment largely the trade relations with those countries without imposing additional burdens on the postal revenue of the United States. The conclusion of the parcel-post convention with Mexico is of special importance, as that country, with its large population and with rapidly developing industries, naturally looks to the United States for every possible aid in strengthening the bonds of commercial relations between the two great sister republics whose interests are the same; and it will be found that new and hitherto almost inaccessible markets have been opened to American merchants."

Commerce. During the fiscal year 1886-'87 exportation was distributed as follows, reduced to thousands of dollars:

Mexican spinners imported, in 1888, 33,203 bales of cotton from the United States against 40,774 in 1887.

Vanilla.-Mexican vanilla chiefly grows in the vicinity of Misantia and Papantia, in the State of Vera Cruz. Papantia has a population of 10,000, and is in the Indian District of Toconaso. The vanilla is a creeping plant, grow. ing on trees and shrubs in the forests. The pods mature in November and December, and are gathered by women and children, who carry them to market, where American and Mexican dealers buy them, paying from $10 to $12 a pound for them. About 1,000 green pods weigh 60 pounds, reduced to 10 pounds by drying. In 1887 the price for select pods was $15, but an abundant crop brought the price down to $10 and $12 in 1888. Papantia exports on an average 60,000,000 pods annually.

Competition in Mexican Trade.-German houses, which nearly control the wholesale trade of Mexico, owe their supremacy to the system of long credits given to customers in the interior of the country, and to economical management. They have driven out the English houses, with only two or three exceptions. Failures are very rare, although large amounts are constantly due. The French have monopolized the dry-goods trade in the larger cities. Both the German and the French houses, in their operations in Mexico, have their rights clearly and particularly defined in commercial treaties. The English are endeavoring to bring about negotiations for a comprehensive commercial treaty, and hope to gain a foothold. American interests, although now amounting to $200,000,000, are without treaty protection, as the treaty defining the status of Americans in business in Mexico has lapsed.

VESSELS ENTERED IN 1886-'87.

Coastwise

CLASS.

cent.

The American trade (merchandise) with Mexico exhibits these figures:

Total in 1885-'86.... Increase....

2,683 1,558,282 5,484 319.043 1,904 1,548,557 4,975 277.847 429 14,675 509 41,696 The maritime movement increased during the fiscal year 1886-'87. The Mexican merchant marine was composed, in 1888, of 421 sea-going vessels and 847 coasting-craft.

Railroads.-The Mexican Central Railroad threw open to traffic, on May 21, the line from length. On the line from Tampico to San Luis Irapuato to Guadalajara, 259 kilometres in Potosí, 188 kilometres were put in running order, up to the banks of the Gallinas river, where a bridge is being built, and beyond which the embankments have been finished a distance of 232 kilometres. On the Aguas Calientes, San Luis Potosí line, the locomotive reached Salinas del Peñon on September 9, 110 kilometres distant from Aguas Calientes, being half the distance intervening between the two

cities. The National Mexican Company was actively at work in 1888 to finish the section of the line that separates Saltillo from San Miguel Allende, a distance of 565 kilometres, and on August 31 the portion of the track coming from the north reached San Luis Potosí; the junction of the two portions of the track took place at the Boquillas Viaduct, thus linking together two important cities, and opening a third line of railway from the capital to the American frontier. The Hidalgo Railroad Company finished five kilometres on the Tepa-Tulancingo line, and the thirty kilometres, which complete the line from San Augustin to Teoloyucan; these works constitute a new track connecting Pachusa with the capital on the one hand, while joining the Central and National Railroads on the other Of the Interoceanic Railroad, twenty kilometres were finished of the Yantepec and Amacusac section, and twenty kilometres of the one between Mazapa and San Martin Texmelucan. The Yucatan lines have not been behind hand in completing their system. Between Mérida and Calkini, six kilometres have gone into operation, and between Mérida and Valladolid seven. The aggregate length of lines of railway in running order in Mexico was 7,500 kilometres on Sept. 16, 1888.

Tehuantepec Ship - Railway.—A meeting was held on June 7, 1888, at Jersey City, of those interested in the project to build a ship-railway across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The Eads Concession Company is the organization that secured possession of all rights in the concessions made to Capt. Eads by the Mexican Government in 1881. About six months prior to the date of this meeting a construction company was organized in New York, under the title of "Atlantic and Pacific Ship-Railway Company." The English civil engineer Benjamin Blake, is to superintend the construction, and it is believed it will not be difficult to procure the $50,000,000 of capital that will be necessary. The contract stipulates that the work shall begin within a year, dating from June, and be completed in five years. The scheme is to carry loaded ships across the isthmus in cradles. The distance is about one hundred and fifty miles.

Telegraphs. During 1888 there were in operation 21,453 kilometres of Government lines, 6,887 kilometres of lines belonging to individ. ual States of the confederation, 6,143 the property of railroad companies, 4,098 of private lines, and 2,926 of Mexican cable; a grand total of 41,507 kilometres. The Federal Government had 339 offices in operation. In December, 1888, the Mexican Telegraph Company declared a quarterly dividend of 23 per cent. The Government has declared free of duty everything entering into the construction of telegraph and telephone lines.

The steamer "Faraday" arrived at Coatzacoalcos on Jan. 18, 1889, having on board over 900 miles of the most improved heavy cable,

which was to be laid immediately between that port and Galveston, Tex., for the Mexican and Central and South American Telegraph Companies. This will duplicate the Gulf systems of these two companies, providing increased facilities, and insuring rapid communication by the American route via Galveston, with Valparaiso, Buenos Ayres, and other places in South America.

American Steamship-Line.-The sale of the entire plant of the Alexandre line to the New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Company, in the spring, increased the number of steamers running between New York and Mexico via Havana to five, so that since then a steamer has left New York every Wednesday.

Land Purchases.-In January, 1888, Señor M. Gonzalez, agent for several residents of Coahuila, closed the sale of 500,000 acres in the State of Coahuila to the representatives of an English syndicate, which already owns 2,000,000 acres in that State. The consideration was $125,000, or twenty-five cents an acre. The purchase comprises much mountain land. English capitalists now own one quarter of the State of Coahuila. A large tract in northern Chihuahua, known as "Las Palomas," owned by George H. Sisson, of New York, and Louis Huller, of Mexico, was sold in January, 1889, to a syndicate of Chicago and Nebraska capitalists. The consideration was $1,000,000. These lands are to be colonized with Germans, under the Huller colonization concession from the Mexican Government. George Hearst, a California capitalist, while in the city of Mexico in May, bought over 2,000,000 acres in the State of Vera Cruz, all lying in the "Tierra Caliente," and adapted to the raising of coffee, sugar, and tobacco.

In July it transpired that a French company had purchased the San Lorenzo estate, one of the best known in northern Mexico. The business will be managed in Paris and by two directors in the city of Mexico.

The Mormons have for some years past been quietly buying large tracts of agricultural lands in northern Chihuahua, principally in the valley of the Casas Grandes river, and in 1888 they were negotiating for more. There are several flourishing villages in that neighborhood, the principal one being called Porfirio Diaz; the colonists (who are probably precursors of much greater bodies in the future) are very quiet and unobtrusive.

American Enterprise. Before the Mexican Congress adjourned, on Dec. 15, 1888, the Union Light, Fuel, and Gas Company, of America, organized under the laws of Illinois, in which St. Louis, Chicago, New York, and Detroit capitalists are largely interested, obtained a concession from the Mexican Government for the introduction of water, fuel, and gas into the cities and Government buildings throughout the republic. Among the items mentioned in the concession is the free importation for fifteen years of all materials necessary for the plant.

Mining. There were being worked in Mexico, at the close of 1888, 324 silver-mines, employing over 100,000 miners. Eleven of the mines produced in 1888 $25,000,000 of pure silver. Mexico produced, between 1821 and 1880, $900,000,000 in silver, and only $4,800,000 in gold. A rich pocket of silver was discovered in August, in the Concepcion, one of the Matchuala mines. Reports were received on July 24 at Mexico from Las Cruces, Lower California, that gold was being found in excellent ore-bodies. Fourteen ounces of amalgam gold were taken from a ton and a half of rock at the Santa Clara mine, in Las Cruces Cañon. The vein at this mine is reported to be four feet in width, and a true fissure vein. There were, at last accounts, thirty tons of ore on the dump. This mine is owned at Ensenada. The vein at the Bonanza mine, in the Valladores district, has widened from eight inches to two feet six inches. Expensive machinery had been erected at the Fronteriza, whence they were to begin shipping the metal in pigs about January 1. The nearest shippingpoint to the mines is Baratorano station, on the Mexican International Railroad. An influx of miners in great numbers and prospectors had begun. Many of these mines were originally worked by the Spaniards, and were destroyed and filled up by them when they were driven off by the native Mexicans during the revolution of 1810. News was received on September 20 from the Santa Rosa mining region in Mexico to the effect that a great mining excitement had set in. Persons who own the larger mines, like the Cedral, the Fronteriza, and the San Juan, were said to be trying to keep the richness of the ore from the knowledge of the public; but it transpired that these and others were taking ore that yields $105 of silver to the ton, besides a large percentage of lead. The rapid rise of quicksilver in London has given an impetus to the working of quicksilver mines in Mexico, and efforts have been made to work several newly discovered deposits in the northern States. The Government is about to assume the control of all its mints, which are now under lease.

Ascent of the Iztaccihuatl Volcano.—In April two German travelers, Lenk and Topf, undertook the ascent of the volcano Iztaccihuatl, the neighbor of Popocatepetl, whose summit has an elevation of about 17,000 feet. They failed to reach the very top, but the expedition fully rewarded their efforts, as they report the existence of a glacier. It has not been supposed hitherto that there were any glaciers in this part of the American continent.

Earthquakes. On Jan. 2, 1888, a sharp shock of earthquake was felt in the city of Mexico, at 7.30 A. M. During the last quarter of 1887 there had been seismic disturbances throughout the country. A slight shock was felt there on July 18, about midnight, and a high wind sprang up simultaneously. Another slight earthquake visited the capital at 16 minutes to

9 P. M., on September 6. The oscillations were from the northeast to southwest, and lasted 24 seconds; at Orizaba 9 seconds; and in the State of Guerrero 15 seconds, the oscillations being from west to east.

Education. A bill was introduced in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies to make gratui tous elementary school instruction compulsory throughout the republic. For every 20,000 inhabitants, two schools are to be founded, one for boys and one for girls, and parents that do not send their children to school are to be punished with fine or imprisonment. Higher education is to be at the expense of the Federal Government.

MICHIGAN. State Government.-The following were the State officers during the year, all being Republican: Governor, Cyrus G. Luce; Lieutenant-Governor, James H. Macdonald; Secretary of State, Gilbert R. Osmun; AuditorGeneral, Henry H. Aplin; State Treasurer, George L. Maltz; Attorney-General, Moses Taggert; Superintendent of Public Instruction, Joseph Estabrook; Member State Board of Education, Bela W. Jenks; Commissioner of State Land-Office, Roscoe D. Dix; Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court, Thomas R. Sherwood; Associate Justices James V. Campbell, John W. Champlin, Allen B. Morse, and Charles D. Long. The principal appointees of the Governor were: Private Secretary, Milo D. Campbell; Commissioner of Railroads, John T. Rich; Commissioner of Insurance, Henry S. Raymond; Labor Commissioner, Alfred H. Heath; Commissioner of Mineral Statistics, Charles D. Lawton; State Librarian, Harriet A. Tenney; Oil Inspector, H. D. Platt; Salt Inspector, George W. Hill; Game Warden, William Alden Smith; Adjutant-General, D. B. Ainger; Quartermaster-General, S. B. Daboll; Inspector-General, F. D. Newberry.

Political. The State officers were chosen at the general election in November for the two years beginning Jan. 1, 1889. There were four parties in the field: Republican, DemocraticGreenback (Fusion), Prohibition, and Labor. For Governor the Republicans renominated Cyrus G. Luce; the Democratic-Greenback party, Wellington R. Burt: Prohibition, Amherst B. Cheney; Labor, Wildman Mills. The officers above named were re-elected, except in two instances where the incumbents had served two terms. The new officers elected were: Stephen V. R. Trowbridge, AttorneyGeneral, and Perry F. Powers, member State Board of Education (Republicans). The votes cast for the respective candidates for Governor were as follow: Cyrus G. Luce, Republican, 233,595; Wellington R. Burt, Fusion, 216.450; Amherst B. Cheney, Prohibition, 20,342; Wildman Mills, Labor, 4,388.

The principal State issues in the campaign were upon questions of temperance and increasing taxation. The last Legislature passed a local-option law permitting the several counties, by a vote of their electors, to prohibit the