fostering of secondary schools and a laying of foundations for theological training. Fourth, the time is ripe for the Union to take decisive steps for the introduction of industrial pursuits among native Christians. A resolution was passed by the meeting affirming that the settled aim and purpose of the Missionary Union "are nothing less and nothing else than the planting of Christianity as an abiding possession of the land in which its work is done, and that it regards as necessary to this end the forming of a strong and self-supporting Christian people, trained in all that pertains to intelligent thought and worthy living." A comparison was given in the report of the Executive Committee of the condition of the Union and its work in 1869 and 1898, summarized as follows:

The twenty-seventh annual meeting of the Baptist Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the West was held at Waterloo, Iowa, April 20 and 21. The treasurer's report showed that the receipts for the year had been $58,607, and the expenditure $57,299, leaving a balance in the treasury, including designated funds, of $1,308.

The European missions (in Sweden, Germany, Russia, Finland, Denmark, Norway, France, and Spain) returned 1,518 preachers, 950 churches, 102,963 church members, 6,668 baptisms during the year, 79,321 pupils in Sunday schools, and contributions amounting to $118,900: the missions to heathen (in Burmah, Assam, Teluguland, China, Japan, and Africa), 93 stations, 463 missionaries, 3,484 native helpers, 870 churches, 98,904 church members, 6,529 baptisms, 34,041 pupils in Sunday schools, $71,849 of contributions; and a total of 31,226 pupils in theological, boarding, and other schools.

Home Mission Society. The sixty-sixth annual meeting of the American Baptist Home Mission Society was held May 19 and 20. The receipts for the year had been $458,470, of which $335,222 had come from the contributions of churches, schools, etc. The expenditure had been $402,315, exceeding the income available for current work by about $14.000. The permanent trust funds had been increased by about $17,000, and $60,000 had been added to the annuity funds, which now amounted to $400,000. The growth of the work of the society had been rapid and substantial, especially in the far West. Missionary work among foreign populations was most prosperous and encouraging, especially among Italians, and there had been progress in spite of difficulties in Mexico and among the negroes. One thousand and thirty missionaries had been employed, of whom 113 had labored in the Central and New England States, 197 in the South, 688 in the West, 14 in Canada, and 18 in Mexico. Sixty-three of these had labored among the foreign populations. The missionaries had baptized 5,022 persons and received 3,938 others, and returned a total membership of 40,593, 150 churches organized, 985 Sunday schools under the care of missionaries, and benevolent contributions amounting to $85,738. Important movements during the year had been the withdrawal of co-operation from Iowa, Wisconsin. and Minnesota, the extension of co-operation with the colored people of the South, and the beginning of larger participation in

city mission work. Ninety-five churches had been aided from the Church Edifice fund. From the educational department the total enrollment of pupils in all the schools was reported as being 5,396. More than $259,000 had been spent during the year 1896-'97 on the colored schools.

Thirteen high schools and 13 secondary schools for colored people returned a total enrollment of 5.036 pupils (2.210 young men and 2,826 young women), with averages of 1,414 boarders and 1,685 day pupils, or a general average of 3,099. Of these numbers, 373 were studying for the ministry, 1,724 were preparing to teach, 29 were in the teachers' professional course, 25 in the missionary training course, 39 in the nurse's training course, and 1,787 had received systematic training in some line of industrial work. Three hundred and sixty pupils were enrolled in the schools for Indians, 2 of whom were studying for the ministry and 25 were preparing to teach. Two hundred and forty-seven teachers-120 white and 127 colored, 103 men and 144 womenwere employed in the colored schools receiving help from the society; in the 10 schools wholly or partially managed by the society 112 white and 42 colored, and in those under the entire control and management of colored trustees 85 colored and 8 white teachers. The society had received in the shape of tuition fees, in payment for board, etc., $118,032 from the colored people, and had contributed to the support of their schools, for buildings, etc., $84,767, and the total amount of $255,452 had been expended on them during the school year. The 16 schools under the entire control and management of negro boards of trustees included 3 holding college charters and 13 secondary or academic schools. The aggregate salaries of all the teachers in these schools were $44,827, of which the society paid $9,700, and the expenditure for board, school supplies, and all other current expenses was $39,570, making a total expenditure for 1896-'97 of $84,397. Chinese mission schools were sustained at various points in the Pacific States and Montana, and in New York city; and other schools in Utah, Mexico, and New Mexico.

Publication Society.-The seventy-fourth annual meeting of the American Baptist Publication Society was held May 21 and 23. The report mentioned as the great event in the year's history of the society the completion of its new building in Philadelphia, costing $530,000, without cost to the missionary department of its work except that money had been borrowed from it. In the business department the aggregate of sales had been $670,093, an increase of $48,806 over the previous year. In the missionary department the receipts from invested funds, contributions, Children's Day, etc., had been $115,433. The deficit in this department, $11,374 at the beginning of the year, had been reduced to $8,464. In addition to the ordinary missionary contributions $41,850 had been received from bequests in the form of conditional gifts. The receipts in the Bible department had been $12,419; and the entire amount, including Bible funds, coming into the missionary treasury through ordinary channels had been $127,852. Very great enlargements had been made in the Bible work during the year. The society was no longer dependent upon any other society for Scriptures in the ordinary version, but had a list of its own, comprising text editions, teachers', family, pulpit, illustrated, and other Bibles. On the general list, 72 new publications had been issued. Ninety-four missionaries and workers had been employed during the year, who had baptized 533 persons and constituted 51 churches.

A ladies' chapel car," built at a cost of $8,000 entirely by contributions from women, was dedi

Certain expressions and acts of the Rev. Dr. W. H. Whitsitt, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky., has afforded matter of controversy among some of the members of the churches connected with the convention for several years. In historical articles written for "Johnson's Cyclopædia" and for the "Independent newspaper, Dr. Whitsitt had affirmed as a fact that immersion was not practiced by the earlier English Baptists, nor down to a comparatively late date in their history. A demand was set up that he be disciplined and removed from his presidency on account of these publications and because of a discourtesy he was alleged to have shown toward one of the trustees in refusing to allow him informally to inspect his official books. The Board of Trustees had declined to entertain the complaint and the convention had refused to call their conduct into question. The trustees reported to the present meeting of the convention that they had received several communications respecting the management of the seminary, which they referred for consideration; "but, inasmuch as the communications refer only to issues which were settled by the trustees at their last meeting, it is proper to say that after twelve months of mature and prayerful reflection we can find no reason for modifying in any degree our statement made at that meeting; but, on the contrary, we feel constrained by our own convictions of duty to reaffirm our adherence to the action then taken." A motion to refer the matter to the several State organizations was lost by "an overwhelming majority"; and the motion to adopt the report of the Board of Trustees was carried by a vote of about 4 to 1. A motion asking for the Kentucky delegaion to the convention the right hereafter to make nominations to fill Kentucky vacancies on the Board of Trustees; and a notice of a resolution to be made at the next meeting of the convention that "without expressing any opinion whatever concerning the seminary matters,' but in the interest of harmony it divests itself of responsibility in the management of the seminary by declining to nominate trustees for it, or to entertain motions or receive reports relating to it, were referred to a special committee to consider and report at the next session of the convention concerning the advisability of any change in the relations of that body to the seminary.

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Subsequent to the meeting of the convention, Dr. Whitsitt resigned the presidency of the Theological Seminary.

The statistical secretary reported, of 687 associations whose minutes had been examined, while 27 had given no information, that there were associated with the convention 18,922 churches, with 1,568,906 members and 9,770 Sunday schools; that 98,984 baptisms had been reported for the past year; that the value of church property was $18,681,227; and that the amount of contributions for all purposes was $2,895,697. A resolution was adopted to petition the Government at Washington to use every effort toward securing religious liberty for every inhabitant of Cuba. The Home Mission Board was authorized to expend $5,000 in the "mountain region" in aid of Baptist schools and in holding institutes for the ministers and laymen for biblical and theological instruction and qualification for religious work. Mormon missionaries were represented to be making formidable proselytizing efforts among these people. It was reported of the Cuban mission that while men missionaries had left the island, women had remained and worked in Sunday schools and day schools, while laymen carried on the Sunday meetings and prayer meetings. As a result, several converts were awaiting baptism. The Baptist Young People's Union of America

is represented within the bounds of the Southern Baptist Convention by an aggregate membership approximating 60,000. It is represented to be difficult to obtain accurate statistics.

National Baptist Convention (Colored).—The National Baptist Convention (Colored) maintains a home-misssion board, with a corresponding secretary having his office at Nashville, Tenn., and which publishes Sunday-school periodicals; a foreign-mission board, the receipts of which for 1896-'97 were $4,337, and which sustains missions at Brewerville and Monrovia, Liberia; Cape Town, Queenstown, Ouanda, and four places in East Griqualand, South Africa; and an educational board, which reported an increase of interest in its work and improvement in the character and extent of the instruction given in denominational schools.

Reports of the statistician of the National Baptist Convention, the items of which are included in the tables of the "American Baptist Yearbook" and in the summaries at the beginning of this article, give the colored Baptist organizations in the Southern States 12,923 churches, 8,338 ministers, 1,470,876 members, and 285,806 pupils in Sunday schools. The members are distributed in the several States included in the showing as follow: In Alabama, 139,638; in Arkansas, 54,673; in Florida, 25,196; in Georgia, 211,660; in Kentucky, 71,328; in Louisiana, 71,845; in Mississippi, 198,654 in Missouri, 30,765; in North Carolina, 129,265; in South Carolina, 132,900; in Tennessee, 47,872; in Texas, 129,373; in Virginia, 223,778; in West Virginia, 3,929; total amount of contributions for all purposes, including benevolent objects and church expenses, $677,662. The reports from which these data are derived are, many of them, very incomplete. The colored Baptists have regularly organized conventions in all the States named, with affiliated Sunday-school, educational, and missionary societies and women's organizations in several of them. The Colored Baptist University, at Selma, Ala., had at the end of 1897 been nearly freed from a large debt of fifteen years' standing, only $500 remaining unprovided for. The State convention (white) of Arkansas employs a suitably qualified white minister to deliver weekly lectures to the ministerial students of Arkansas Baptist College for the education of colored people.

The Baptist Congress.-The sixteenth annual meeting of the Baptist Congress was held in Buffalo, N. Y., beginning Nov. 15. The congress is a voluntary meeting for discussion only, having no power to take definite action, and not even passing resolutions. The meeting was attended by about 50 brethren from the United States and Canada. The subjects were discussed of "Man's Fall and Redemption in the Light of Evolution," by President A. H. Strong, D. D., George Dana Boardman, D. D., H. Peabody, D. D., and L. C. Barnes, D. D.; "The Opportunity for Baptists in Present Religious Progress," by W. C. Bitting, D. D., Prof. A. H. Newman, D. D., the Rev. Everett D. Burr and George E. Horr, D. D.; "On what Grounds shall we accept the Biblical Books as our Bible?' by George E. Merrill, D. D., Prof. B. O. True, D. D., and the Rev. George H. Ferris; "State Help vs. Self-Help, or Paternalism in Government," by Prof. W. Rauschenbush, Prof. Shailer Matthews, and George William Douglas; "How far can the Truths of Christianity be stated in Terms of Naturalism ?" by Prof. George B. Foster, D. D., Prof. W. N. Clarke, D. D., Albert Foster, D. D., and Prof. D. B. Purinton, LL. D.; and The Union of the Believer with Christ," by the Rev. Clarence A. Barbour.

The "Hard-Shell" Baptists.-Three kinds or branches of "Hard-Shell" Baptists are described

by the Rev. J. B. Cranfill, editor of the "Texas Baptist Herald," who was reared among members of this sect and believes himself familiar with their doctrines, polity, and modes of thought. One branch is represented as thoroughly antinomian in practice, with its theology as running into fatalism; another branch as having articles of faith in all respects like those of the regular Baptists, its declarations and practice differing from those of the latter chiefly in the matters of feet washing and missionary operations. A third branch is called United Baptists, and is made up of Missionary Baptists and Hard-Shell churches that have come together. It is not distinctly a missionary body, but holds the form of the orthodox teaching concerning the doctrines of grace which have been advocated by Baptists from the beginning. HardShell Baptists of the second of the divisions mentioned hold the orthodox views concerning the plan of salvation, the atonement, regeneration, repentance, faith, human instrumentality, sinners' praying, and all the other doctrines that are commonly believed among Baptists. The division among Southern Baptists on the question of missions began less than three quarters of a century ago. The Georgia Baptist Convention was organized while the disintegration was going on, and when that body came into existence there was not a Missionary Baptist Church in the State. There were Missionary Baptists in many churches, but there was no church that could have unanimously passed a resolution approving the convention and its work. The original constitution of the convention therefore provided that the body should be made up not of messengers from churches, but of individuals who would each contribute a certain amount annually to the support of missionary enterprises. Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec. -The Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec met at Hamilton, Ontario, May 16. The HomeMission Board reported that its income had been $22,299 and its expenditures $23,822. Twelve chapels had been built during the year, 8 churches organized, and 708 persons baptized under the direction of the missionaries. The women in Eastern Ontario were supporting missionaries in 7 fields and those of Western Ontario in 11 fields, besides contributing $1,000 to the Grande Ligne Mission. Much evangelistic work was done by the co-operation of pastors and deacons. The receipts for church-edifice work had been $1,851, and the disbursements $1,346. The loans made during the year amounted to $1,300. Several churches had paid off and others had reduced their indebtedness. The Grande Ligne (French Canadian) mission had an income of about $18,000 a year, without counting the receipts from the pupils in the schools. The Feller Institute had 135 pupils, and had been obliged to refuse 50 for want of room. The school at Coaticook, with 63 pupils, had been closed a part of the year on account of illness. Two pastors were preparing to go among the French people, using both the French and English languages. McMaster University returned 173 students, 51 of them in theology; Woodstock Boys' College, 122, the manual training course, 51; and Moulton Ladies' College, 152 pupils. The Sunday schools returned 37,002 pupils, an average attendance of 25,390, and contributions of $18,776, of which $4,000 were for benevolences. The income of the Board of Foreign Missions had been $32,537, exceeding that of the previous year by $1,271, and the expenditure $35,079. The missions, chiefly in India, returned 3.600 members, and 400 baptisms during the year, with village schools, boarding schools, etc., in excellent condition. A mission had been established in Bolivia, for which a second missionary had been ordained.

Baptists in the Maritime Provinces.-The fifty-third convention of the Baptists of the Maritime Provinces was held at Amherst, Nova Scotia, beginning Aug. 18. The Rev. J. C. Spurr was chosen president. Among the delegates were several women. An increase of about 800 members by baptism was reported. Efforts had been made to secure a subscription of $60,000 for the endowment of Acadia College, upon the raising of which a further amount of $15,000 was expected from Mr. J. D. Rockefeller. Toward this sum $48,000 had been obtained. The convention, besides its own local work in home missions, aids the mission of Grande Ligne, Quebec, and in the Northwest and British Columbia. The reports from these fields indicated prosperity.

British Baptists.-The tables of the "American Baptist Year Book" give the Baptists in the United Kingdom, 3,037 churches, 2,006 ministers, 364,729 members, and 15,950 baptisms during the year. The annual meeting of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland was held in London, beginning April 25. The Rev. Samuel Vincent, of Plymouth, presided. The report of the council showed increase in the number of churches, chapels, members, Sunday. school teachers and scholars, pastors in charge (2,606 against 1,955 the previous year), and local preachers (5,021 against 4,838), but the number of baptisins had fallen from 16,113 to 15,950. The total receipts including contributions to the several funds and special contributions, had been £21,078. The association of Huntingdonshire, Cardiff College. 38 churches, and 28 persons had been received into membership during the year. The Board of Introduction had recommended ministers to pastorless churches in upward of sixty cases. The council had appointed a special committee charged with the duty of ascertaining whether candidates should be recognized by the Union as members of the Baptist denomination. A scheme for providing a course of biblical and theological reading for candidates for the pastorate was in course of preparation. A resolution was passed by the meeting declaring that "alike in the case of public elementary schools and of the proposed Roman Catholic university in Ireland there should be strenuous protest against the devotion of public funds to the support of denominational institutions. Baptists are therefore urged to use their utmost influence to prevent the creation and maintenance by Parliament of an Irish Roman Catholic university, and to secure the substitution of unsectarian primary schools controlled by representatives of householders, for denominational schools under clerical control in the villages and towns of England and Wales." Another resolution called on Baptists to give more earnest attention to the necessity for immediate, more general, and more energetic temperance work, and especially commended the discouragement of the traffic in strong drinks and the promotion of temperance principles and practice to the churches and Sunday schools.

The autumnal meetings of the Union, held at Nottingham in the latter days of September, were chiefly devoted to addresses and discussions. A resolution was adopted protesting against the necessity alleged to exist" in thousands of parishes" of nonconformist parents sending their children to day schools where the principles of the Church of England are taught, and demanding that Parlia ment cease to subsidize schools "in which clerical managers are free to teach, or to employ others to teach, salvation by sacraments, auricular confession to priests, and the sinfulness of attending nonconformist places of worship," aud that, pending the establishment of a really national system of education, it take some action with a view to place an

unsectarian school within the reach of every family in the United Kingdom, and to abolish all theological and kindred tests in every elementary school and training college into which state grants of money are paid.

The annual report of the Baptist Missionary Society furnishes the following approximate statisties: "There are 148 missionaries and assistant missionaries wholly supported by the society, 9 superannuated missionaries and 80 pastors of selfsupporting churches, of whom 11 are in India and Ceylon and 69 in Jamaica, 843 evangelists and 13 evangelist pensioners. The number of stations is 1,035, and the number of members 53,365. The day schools include 726 teachers and 37,026 pupils. and the Sunday schools 3,428 teachers and 38,483 pupils. The total receipts of the society during the year were £137,709, including £46,932 in hand on account of the Centenary and other special funds, and £8,232 raised for missionary purposes at various stations.

The Zenana Mission had received £9,890 and expended £10,055. It had stations in India, in Bengal, the Northwestern Provinces, Orissa, and the city of Madras, and had maintained famine-relief work in Benares and Agra, and supported missionaries in China, where the mission house at Chouping and the boarding house and premises at Taing-ChuFiu had been completed. Its present staff consisted of 62 missionaries in India and 7 in China, with more than 200 native Bible women and teachers.

The receipts for Baptist home missions had been £3,240 and the expenditure £3,699. The churches helped returned 4,413 communicants, with 159 baptized in 1897, an average attendance in congregations of from 5,719 at morning services to 9,728 in the evening, 7,581 young people in Sunday schools and 914 in Bible classes, sitting accommodation for 26,503 persons, and £7,550 raised by the mission churches for various purposes.

The income of the Tract and Book Society had been £1,499 and the expenditure about £160 less. An effort is to be made to obtain £2,000 as a capital fund.

The report of the Baptist Building fund showed that 41 churches had been assisted with loans amounting in the aggregate to £13,052, an increase of £1,042 of the previous year. The Capital fund amounted to £51,692. Applications for assistance amounting to £15,000 were waiting to be considered. Nineteen churches had this year been placed on the fund's "roll of honor," in which are entered the names of those churches which repay the sums granted them before the expiration of the time for which the loans are allowed.

Account was given at the meeting of the Bible Translation Society of a large amount of biblical revision which had been undertaken. It included the completion of the Bengali Bible by Dr. Rouse after four years' labor; progress with the Uriya version of the Old Testament; revision of the Cingalese New Testament; and the printing of a new edition of the Dwalla New Testament.

Reports were made to the meeting of the Baptist Total Abstinence Association that 1,627 Baptist ministers were pledged abstainers, an increase of 128 for the year; that 47 of the foreign missionaries had enrolled themselves; that 209 of the 211 students in the denominational colleges were abstainers; that 207 Bands of Hope had been formed, making the whole number of such bands in connection with the Baptist churches 1,556, and that the income had increased.

Baptists in Germany.-A yearbook called "Statistics" is published in Germany by the Baptist publishing house there. The volume for 1898

represents that the number of baptisms had been larger than during any previous year within the last decade, except one, being 2.121. The actual total increase was, however, relatively larger, and the Baptists in Germany now numbered 27,991, showing an increase of 8,982 in ten years. The work among the young was carried on by societies for young men and young women and in 397 Sunday schools. The Young Men's and Young Women's societies had each a monthly paper published in their interest. The contributions had greatly increased, amounting in 1897 to 18.55 marks, or $4.50 per capita, against 16.29 marks, or $4 per capita in 1892.

BELGIUM, a constitutional monarchy in western Europe. The legislative power is vested in a Senate of half the number of members in the other Chamber elected for eight years, partly by direct vote and partly by provincial councils, one half being renewed every four years, and a House of Deputies the members of which are elected for four years, one half being renewed every two years, by all citizens over twenty-five years of age, under a plural system of voting. An elector can cast a supplementary vote if he possesses freehold property, or if he is thirty-five years old, married, and a taxpayer, and if he has the diploma of an institution of the higher education, or has filled a public office requiring superior intelligence, he is entitled to two supplementary votes, but none may cast more than three votes in all. Failure to vote is a penal offense.

The reigning King is Leopold II, born April 9, 1835, who succeeded his father, Leopold I, the first King of the Belgians, on Dec. 10, 1865. The heir presumptive is his nephew, Prince Albert, born April 8, 1875, son of Philippe, Count of Flanders.

The Cabinet, reconstituted on Feb. 25, 1896, was composed in the beginning of 1898 of the following members: President of the Council and Minister of Finance, P. de Smet de Naeyer; Minister of Foreign Affairs, P. de Favereau; 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 of Public Instruction, M. Schollaert; Minister of Agriculture and of Public Works, L. de Bruyn; Minister of Industry and Labor, M. Nyssens.

Area and Population.-The area of the kingdom is 11,373 square miles, on which there was a population on Dec. 31, 1896, of 6,495,886, averaging 571 persons to the square mile. There were 3,241,423 males and 3,254,463 females. This population, almost the densest in Europe, is still increasing at the rate of about 1 per cent. per annum. The number of marriages in 1896 was 52,585; of births, 188,533; of deaths, 113,748; excess of births, 74,785. There is of late years a steady excess of immigration over emigration. In 1896 the net immigration was 4,739. The population of Brussels, the political capital, on Jan. 1, 1896, was 531,011, including suburbs; of Antwerp, 267,902; of Liége, 165,404; of Ghent, 159,218.

Finances. The budget for 1898 makes the total ordinary revenue 388,298,598 francs, of which 25,456,000 francs are derived from property taxes, 20,085,000 francs from personal taxes, 7,400,000 francs from trade licenses, 600,000 francs from mines, 36,246,632 franes from customs, 52,420,297 francs from excise, 19,940,000 francs from succession duties, 19,900 francs from registration fees, 6,500,000 francs from stamps, 5,771,000 francs from various other indirect taxes, 154,000,000 francs from railroads, 6,880,000 francs from telegraphs, 1,590,000 francs from canal and river tolls, 13,160,020 francs from the post office, 1,430,000 francs from navigation dues,2,718,000 francs from domains and forests, 10,051,900 francs from funds and securities, and 4,149,749 francs from repay