tant. A royal decree was issued in January, 1898, sanctioning a line of railway from a point to be determined on the Itimbiri through the Welle valley to another point on the Nile near Redjaf, and money was assigned for the necessary preliminary

surveys.

Scarcely less important than the railway question is that of improving the means of communication by water, and in June, 1898, the sum of 6,000,000 francs was assigned for the purchase of steamers, tugs, etc., the improvement of the port of Ndolo, and other similar works. Among the new river boats are stern-wheelers of 150 to 250 tons, and light fast-steaming packet boats capable of carrying 12 passengers. One large steamer of 500 tons is specially designed for the conveyance of railway material. All these boats are sent in sections over the railway and put together on Stanley Pool.

Telegraphs have not been neglected, and during 1900 great progress was made with them. The line from Boma to Tanganyika, with branches to Redjaf on one side and Katanga on the other, has been built at a total cost of 3,000,000 francs.

Recent Events.-The Germans established in 1899 military stations on the river Rusisi and on Lake Kivu, to guard against an invasion of their territory in East Africa by the mutinous Batatela troops of the Congo State. The Belgian garrisons on Lake Kivu, which had previously been withdrawn, were thereupon reinstated, and a formal protest was made against the occupation by Germany of Congolese territory. The German Government asserted in reply that the map which illustrated the treaty of 1884 makes the Rusisi the frontier, and places Lake Kivu on the German side of the line. M. Beernaert went to Berlin as special envoy of the Independent State in January, 1900, to show that it was another map on which neither river nor lake appears, and that in subsequent documents Germany recognized a more easterly boundary. He arranged with the German Government to have the boundary surveyed by a mixed commission. Pending the demarcation both governments kept military forces of equal strength in the disputed district.

In the early part of 1900 a fresh outbreak of the Budjas occurred in the Mongalla district of the Congo. On March 4 they killed Lieut. Weylants and another European near Jambeta, having two months before attacked the military station. The new revolt was attributed by some to cruelties practiced on the natives to compel them to collect caoutchouc for the trading companies. In the Belgian Chamber an investigation was demanded, to show how far the officers and public force of the Congo State were implicated in barbarous methods of collecting rubber whereby the population was practically condemned to hard labor under the pretext of civilizing the natives. The Belgian ministers having rejected the proposal on the ground that the conditions of the loan of the Belgian Government to the Congo State gave only the right to obtain financial and commercial information, not to intervene in the affairs of the Congo State, which was a foreign country, the Chamber refused to entertain the interpellation. During the debate stories were brought out of Belgian officers having ordered hands to be cut off and sanctioned other atrocities, and charges were made that the agents of trading companies were ferocious. In suppressing the revolt in the Mongalla district, wholesale massacres of natives were alleged to have taken place. The Congo Government submitted these reports to the judicial authorities, to be investigated. In order to prevent any complicity on the part of its own officers, it

forbids all its agents to engage in trade. It also prohibits them from having recourse to arms except for legitimate defense. The state did not intervene in any way in the nomination of agents of private companies or in the direction of the latter, but had decided to repress all excesses in its territory. The Mongalla revolt was not terminated by the first re-enforcements sent into the Budja country, and in July an additional force of 500 soldiers was sent up. On April 17 the black garrison of the Chinkakassa fort below Boma mutinied. It was composed mainly of about 100 Batatelas, who had been sent to the Lower Congo when the expeditionary force of Baron Dhanis revolted. The black soldiers killed a white officer, attacked the rest in the house of the commandant, where they had taken refuge, and began to bombard Boma with the guns of the forts. Volunteers from Boma relieved the beleaguered whites, and began an assault on the fort, upon which most of the mutineers fled and the rest surrendered. CONGREGATIONALISTS. The Congrega

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tional Yearbook for 1900 gives in its summary of the statistics of the Congregational churches in the United States the following numbers: Of churches, 5,604; of ministers, 5,614; of members, 629,874; of families, 400,249; of additions by confession during the year, 24,514; of baptisms during the year, 10,390 of adults and 11,824 of infants; of members of Sunday schools, 682,907, with an average attendance of 408,506; of societies of Christian Endeavor, 3,696, with 191,753 members. Of the churches, 4,228 are recorded as supplied and 1,376 as "vacant"; of the ministers, 3,655 were "in pastoral work" and 1,919 "without charge." Amounts of contributions (4,883 churches reporting): For foreign missions, $445,508; for education, $193,376; for church building, $88,388; for home missions, $477,852; for the American Missionary Association, $141,022; for Sunday schools, $61,938; for ministerial aid, $24,107; for other purposes, $678,227; making a total, as footed up in the tables, of $2,110,413. Amount of contributions for home expenditures reported by 4,854 churches, $7,023,124; amount of legacies, $438,738.

The Congregational Education Society in 1899 aided 162 students preparing for the ministry, 8 colleges, and 17 academies. In the New West department for the aid of mission schools in Utah and New Mexico, Salt Lake College with Gordon Academy, Proctor Academy in Utah, and 10 mission schools were assisted. The receipts for the year were $147,372.

The Congregational Church Building Society in 1899 received $247,307 and expended $197,560.

The Ministerial Aid fund of the National Congregational Council, which in 1899 amounted to $118,000, furnished an income of about $5,000, which was distributed in pensions of from $25 to $200 a year to aged or disabled Congregational ministers and missionaries and their families. Fifty-nine persons or families were thus aided in 1899.

The 7 theological seminaries-Andover, Bangor, Chicago, Hartford, Oberlin, Pacific, and Yale-return 22 resident licentiates and fellows, 17 members of advanced and graduate classes, and had, in 1898-'99, 64 professors and 23 instructors and lecturers.

The receipts of the Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society for 1899 were $62,990, a gain of about $5,000 over those of the preceding year. Of this amount $23,554 were Children's Day receipts. The sum of $7,500 was appropriated for missionary work. The superintendents and missionaries of the society had organized 325 Sunday schools directly and 150 through

others, and had reorganized 191 schools. Three thousand and forty-six grants of lesson helps, periodicals, and other literature had been made to 1,278 schools.

Congregational Home Missionary Society. -The seventy-fourth annual meeting of the Congregational Home Missionary Society was held in Detroit, Mich., June 5 to 7. Gen. Oliver O. Howard presided. The report showed that the receipts of the society for the year had been $346,597, showing an increase of nearly $40,000 over those of the previous year, and the expenditure $321,672. The debt of $133,469 standing at the beginning of the year had been reduced to $108,544. The Auxiliary Societies had raised and expended, on their own fields, in addition, $199,163. Seventeen hundred and sixty-two missionaries and superintendents had been employed, preaching to 2,594 congregations, with which 2,005 Sunday schools were connected, having 142,812 members. Seventy-four churches had been organized during the year, 36 had assumed self-support; 62 houses of worship had been completed, 69 parsonages provided, and 7,400 persons added to church membership.

The eighteenth annual meeting of the Woman's Department was held in connection with the meeting of this society.

American Board.-The ninety-first annual meeting of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was held in St. Louis, Mo., beginning Oct. 10. Mr. Samuel Capen presided. Recognition was made in the report of the Home Department of the death of the Rev. R. S. Storrs, D. D., ex-president, and of the value of the services he had rendered as a corporate member and as president of the board. Forty new missionaries had been sent out during the year; 39 had returned on furlough, besides those who had been driven out of north China by the Boxer disturbances, and 13 had been killed in those disturbances. The year had been prosperous financially, and had it not been for the extra expenses arising from the famine in India and the disturbed condition of China, the debt of the board might have been met. The plan for raising a "Twentieth Century fund "of $250,000 was being pushed. The receipts of the year from all sources, including $1,273 for the debt, had been $737,957-an increase of $93,756 from the previous year. Of these receipts, $516,536—or $26,128 more than in the previous year-came in the form of gifts from individuals, churches, and various societies, of which sum $214,774 were contributions of the several woman's boards. The income from legacies showed an increase over the previous year of $52,663, and the income from the permanent funds an increase of $7,125. The increase in special donations amounted to $19.568. The "Annual Survey" of the missions represented 20 mission fields, in which were included 102 stations, 1,268 out stations, and 1,641 places for stated preaching, which were served by 166 ordained missionaries, 239 native pastors, 1,872 native school teachers, and 518 other native laborers, making a total of 4,011 agents. The churches, numbering 495, returned 51,699 members, 4,523 of whom had been added during the year; while the whole number of members from the first, as nearly as could be learned, had been 153,107. The educational work of the various missions comprised 14 theological seminaries, with 196 students for the ministry, 11 boarding and high schools, and 1,153 common schools, with a total of 59,671 pupils under instruction. The native contributions amounted to $156,642. In the several mission fields it was represented that the persecution

of the Armenians in Turkey had opened their minds as never before to the reception of missionary instruction. The workers in China had increased tenfold. Though missionary work had been brought to an enforced halt in north China, it would not retreat. In south China there had not been much active disturbance. In Madura, India, the work in the hospital had appealed so powerfully to the hearts and minds of native Hindus that men of wealth contributed to the extent of $14,000 for the erection of the building, and gave liberally toward its support. The increase in missionary converts during the year had been more than 10 per cent. The meeting following up suggestions offered in the president's address, approved of a yearly canvass in October of every church for the six benevolent societies; commended the forward movement for a "Twentieth Century fund"; and, recognizing the paramount importance of educating the rising generation in responsibility for the redemption of the world through Jesus Christ, advised the provision in the Sunday schools of a permanent place for this education. A letter of greeting was received from the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, Sandwich Islands, with a contribution of $9,000 toward the Twentieth Century fund.

The Doshisha, or College of the American Board, at Kioto, Japan, which had been for a few years under the control of trustees not in sympathy with the doctrines of the orthodox churches, having been reorganized, has begun its work again as a publicly declared Christian school, and the fact is explicitly set down in its constitution.

American Missionary Association. — The fifty-fourth annual meeting of the American Missionary Association was held in Springfield, Mass., October 23, 24, and 25, the Rev. Dr. F. A. Noble presiding. The treasurer reported that the receipts for the year had been $336,651, of which $168,096 consisted of gifts from institutions and individuals, $104,641 were from legacies, and a large part of the rest from tuition fees. The expenditures had amounted to $345,049. The receipts were $38,802 larger than in the previous year, and for the third consecutive year it was possible to report no debt and a small balance on hand. The Executive Committee reported in the Southern educational work 29 common schools closely related to the churches, in places where there was no worthy provision in public schools, and taught chiefly by the graduates of the normal and graded schools; 43 normal and graded schools, 12 of which were under the care of negro graduates of the association's own higher educational institutions; and 5 chartered institutions; making 77 schools in all, 10 of which are otherwise classified as mountain schools, with 432 instructors and 13,203 pupils. Of the students 95 were taking theological, 85 collegiate, and 1,523 normal courses. The committee remarked that in these schools, in a large measure, pupils were completing their studies at an average age in which twenty years ago they began their education. The normal and graded schools were represented as enjoying, as a rule, the good will of the educated people of the localities in which they are situated; and the good character and correct behavior as citizens of their students were commended. The demand upon them for service as teachers and skilled workers was in excess of the supply, and no dependent graduates of the schools were heard of. In the Southern church work, 222 churches, with 147 ministers and missionaries, 11.602 members, 1,023 additions on profession of faith during the year, and 15,293 children in Sunday schools, were returned. Six

teen new churches had been organized and 5 dropped. In the development of the Church work during the past ten years, 122 churches had been established, only 8 of which were connected with pre-existing schools. The 54 mountain churches (included in the 222) had 1,613 members. The ministrations of their pastors usually covered from 2 to 5 different church organizations, sometimes many miles apart. The Indian missions in cluded 21 churches with 34 out stations, 1,303 members, 2,803 Sunday-school scholars, and 211 pupils in the 5 ordinary schools, and were served by 49 white and 42 Indian missionaries and teachers. The churches had contributed $2,419 for benevolence and self-support. A decrease in the number of schools during the past ten years was accounted for as the result of changed conditions of education among the Indians. In future attention would be predominantly given to direct evangelizing and mission work among these people, rather than to increase of educational work, or even to the permanent maintenance of the present schools. From the work among the Chinese were returned 21 missions, 43 workers, 15 of whom were Chinese, and 1,446 pupils in schools, 183 of whom had given evidence of conversion. A work in Porto Rico, now in its second year, comprised 2 schools with 8 instructors, 292 pupils, and 1 evangelist. The committee of nine appointed by the six national Congregational societies to consider plans for the readjustment of their work so as to secure greater unity of action and economy of administration, brought in a report embodying recommendations that all the six societies hold a joint annual meeting in the month of October, while provision shall be made for a united missionary conference also each year in a part of the country where the annual meeting is not held; that the six societies adopt a common basis of representation by delegates to the annual meeting, the delegates to be selected each year either by the churches directly or by the local conferences acting for the churches; that each society have its separate executive board and committees, and its separate budget of receipts and expenses; that each society have its own secretary, to be appointed by its executive board; that the treasuries of the societies be combined in two offices with two treasurers, one to be located in Boston and the other in New York city, and that these treasurers, respectively, be chosen by the local executive boards acting together; that the solicitation and collection of funds for all the societies be under the care of a special subcommittee of 9 members, to be composed of representatives of all the societies, which shall be given the powers and facilities (specified in the report) to reach the Church in an effective manner; and that there be such an adjustment of the work or territory as will secure greater economy, and prevent two societies from doing similar work upon the same field; if two or more societies fail to agree upon the adjustment of work or territory, the committee of nine provided for above to be a committee of arbitration on the matter, the vote of 7 of them to be decisive. This report is to be submitted to the six missionary societies for discussion and future action. The committee of five appointed in 1899 to consider the relations of this association with other benevolent societies of the denomination and such administrative adjustments as might help toward their federation and toward the efficiency of the work of the association, presented a report, of which three resolutions were adopted, while three others were laid on the table to be taken up when the movement toward unity on the part of the other missionary

societies shall have reached a stage more appropriate to their consideration. The resolutions that were adopted approve the steps already taken toward a closer alliance of the societies, and promise co-operation with the efforts of the committee of nine toward that end; recommend the holding of one general conference of the benevolent societies each year, where the work of all the societies shall be presented, to constitute their annual meeting; and advise the publication of a single monthly magazine for the representation of the interests of all the societies.

The seventeenth annual meeting of the Women's Home Missionary Association was held in Springfield, Mass., October 18. The Bureau of Woman's Work reported that the contributions in the past twelve months from women's missionary societies had been $24,673. Forty-four missionaries had been assigned as special representatives of the State organizations to whose support in the mission fields of the association those organizations were pledged. The literature of the association had been circulated freely.

The thirty-second annual meeting of the Woman's Board of Missions of the Interior was held in Chicago, October 23. The total receipts of the society had been $77,632, being $2,770 less than those of the preceding year. The gifts of the Young People's Christian Endeavor Societies and of the Young Women's Societies had amounted to $9,347, or $1,769 less than in the previous year. Seven missionaries had returned during the year to their fields after furlough; 13 were at home on furlough, 4 of them from China; 4 had resigned; and 4 new missionaries had been adopted. Nearly $4,800 had been raised on a "Century Call" for $20,000.

Congregationalists in Canada.-A statistical report presented at the annual meeting of the Congregational Union of Ontario and Quebec included returns from 64 out of 81 churches. In the province of Quebec 17 churches had 1867 members, with 1,572 members in 15 Sunday schools. In Ontario 47 churches had 4,322 members and 49 Sunday schools 4,507 members. The annual meeting of the union was held at Montreal in June. The Rev. Dr. George, principal of the Congregational College, was elected chairman for 1901. The work of the churches in the home field and the "Forward Movement" in the Northwest were reviewed. Concerning foreign missions a report was made of the Chisamba Mission in Africa. An invitation which had been offered by the Canadian delegates to the International Congregational Council to hold its next meeting in Montreal was approved. A number of religious, social, and practical questions were the subjects of addresses. A committee was appointed to consider the practicability of a Congregational Union for Canada.

Congregationalists in Jamaica.-The Congregational Union Assembly in Jamaica adopted a Twentieth Century scheme, the principal features of which are the holding of special meetings in all the churches with the view of raising the standard of spiritual life and service; a revision of the lists of church members; the printing in 1901 of a memorial volume giving the history of each church with its roll of members; and a fund, to be composed of gifts of 5 shillings and upward, for local purposes, home mission work, and other objects of the union.

Congregationalists in England and Wales. The statistics of the British Congregational churches for the year ending December 1, 1899, show that on that date there were in England and Wales (including the Channel Islands) 4,592

churches and mission stations, an increase of 23, in which were provided 1,636,269 sittings. In these churches, so far as the returns show (417 churches or mission stations having failed to send information as compared with 516 in 1898), there were 388,009 members, and in their Sunday schools 614,742 scholars, an increase of 10,670; and 54,135 teachers, an increase of 7,389. Adding to these the churches and mission stations in other parts of the kingdom (those of the missions in Scotland and Ireland being, however, incomplete) the whole number of places of worship was 4,851, with a total membership of 415,664, showing an increase of 37,900. The total sitting accommodation provided in these churches was 1,733,065. The clerical force comprised 3,132 ordained ministers in the British Isles, 221 recognized evangelists and lay pastors, and 5,484 local preachers. Two hundred and ninety churches were without pastoral oversight, and 289 ministers were described as “without pastoral charge." The 781 churches and mission stations in the British colonies comprised 121 in Canada, 257 in Australasia, and 288 in South Africa; and 155 churches and preaching stations were maintained on the Continent of Europe. Four hundred and fifty-nine missionaries were resident in the colonies, 383 of whom were in active service. The theological colleges and institutes returned 407 students for the Congregational ministry; in addition to which 10 institutions in heathen lands belonging to the London Missionary Society had about 300 students in training. Sixteen new churches had been formed during the year, 41 chapels erected, of which 12 were in the colonies; 37 foundation stones of new buildings had been laid, and 24 additional sites secured.

The Colonial Missionary Society returned an income of £6,108 for work in 11 colonies. The report presented to the annual meeting, May 10, gave a survey of work in Canada, Newfoundland, Jamaica, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The war in South Africa had naturally increased the difficulties there, both of churches and of ministers, and added to their claims on the society, but it would be difficult to tell till the war was over how much would be needed from the Emergency fund. Schemes were being considered by which the scope of the Twentieth Century fund might be so enlarged as to include all the Colonial Congregational Unions, when the effort would be made to raise 1,000,000 guineas.

The annual meeting of the London Missionary Society was held in London, April 30. The total ordinary income for the year had been, including legacies, £148,930; while, adding what had been received for the India Famine fund and certain sums received from other sources, an aggregate income was made up of £157,910. The expenditures had been £184,815. The whole amount so far obtained from the Centenary fund was £105,958.

The annual meeting of the Congregational Union of England and Wales was held in London, beginning May 7, with Mr. Canvell Williams as chairman for the year. The report of the Executive Committee represented that the total amount of the year's receipts and stock was £16,248, and that there remained a balance of receipts over expenditure of £180. The Publication Department reported a falling off in the year's business, which was attributed to the inauguration of the Twentieth Century fund and the appeals for the various war funds. The effect of the canvassing for the Twentieth Century fund was spoken of as "in the widest and best sense of a propagandist character." It had afforded opportunities

for the inculcation of Congregational principles and for instruction in Congregational church history which had been diligently used and greatly enjoyed by the churches that had profited by them. The council of the Young People's Union was organizing its work in London, a part of it being a bureau through which young people coming up to the metropolis might be introduced to Congregational churches. A number of active district branches had been formed. Several manuscripts of historical value, among them some unpublished works of ejected ministers, had been added to the collections in Memorial Hall. A resolution was adopted commending the Simultaneous Mission of the Free Church Federation. A declaration relative to the recent educational proposals of the Government reaffirmed the profound conviction of the assembly that the children of the people should receive the best possible education in public schools, free from retrograde limitations and sectarian tests, and under popular and representative-not private and clerical-control. Papers were read upon The Place of the Church Meeting in the Life and Work of the Churches, The Present Position of the Temperance Question, Doctrine and Ethics in Modern Preaching, The Present Position of the Sacerdotal Movement in the Established Church; and a Young People's meeting was addressed on The Joyousness of Christian Life, The Attractions of Nonconformity, and Sex. The Rev. Joseph Parker, D. D., was elected chairman for 1901.

The autumnal session of the union was held at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, beginning October 16. The address of the chairman, Mr. Carvell Williams, was on the subject of Present-day Evils and Duties, and related to denominational questions awaiting solution, the war in South Africa, the trouble in China, disestablishment, the conflict against ritualism, the educational question, intemperance, Sunday-school reform, general missions, and the Simultaneous Mission contemplated for 1901. The annual report contained remarks on the striking change which the denomination had experienced during the closing century; the despised sect of 1800 having in 1900 won an acknowledged place among the religious forces at work in the nation. The recent Church Congress had given evidence that some of the ablest men in the Anglican Church had come to recognize the necessity of adopting toward Nonconformists a tone more in harmony with religious sentiment, and more consonant with the facts of the case. Regarding the sacerdotal controversy within the Church of England, it was observed that Congregationalists would have had no right to interfere with the internal arrangements of a Church from which they had seceded if that Church did not still claim to include the whole nation within its fold. Two appeals from South Africa-one from the Natal Congregational Union and one from 414 Dutch ministers-taking opposite ground respecting questions of the warhad been referred to the Special Purpose Com mittee for acknowledgment. The treasurer of the Publication Department reported the receipt of £10,377 from sales. A special committee was appointed to investigate the subject of ministerial removals and settlements. A report made on behalf of the Twentieth Century fund showed that while the amount contemplated at first had been more than promised, it had been so allotted by the donors that there was danger lest some of the objects on which the hearts of its projectors were most set would not be realized." A very large proportion of the money had been set apart by the givers exercising the privilege allowed them