PRUSSIA. 



In the consideration of the missionary inter- 

 ests of the Church, the Convention ordered 

 that the present system of collecting moneys 

 for missions be superseded by a plan for sub- 

 scriptions, under which members should pledge 

 themselves to pay certain sums each year, in 

 quarterly installments. The Board of Managers 

 of the Missionary Society was advised to con- 

 sider whether more liberal provision ought not 

 to be made for preaching to the colored people 

 of the South. A committee was appointed to 

 consider the question of establishing a colored 

 church in the South. A proposal was approved 

 to organize a church-building commission and 

 raise a fund of $100,000, the interest of which 

 is to be applied to the building of one hundred 

 churches yearly. The appointment of a mis- 

 sionary bishop for every territory was decided 

 upon, and a joint commission of twenty-one 

 bishops, presbyters, and laymen was appointed 

 to make provision for the new bishops. The 

 Committee on the State of the Church, in its 

 report, called attention to the neglected condi- 

 tion of the Southern and Western dioceses, and 

 referred to a disposition discovered in some of 

 the clergy to conform to various sentiments 

 and opinions which once were neither consid- 

 ered consistent with ministerial fidelity nor ap- 

 proved by the worldly-minded, and to indulge 

 in practices which were considered destructive 

 of respect for teachers of religion. 



PRUSSIA,* a kingdom of Europe, forming 

 part of the German Empire. King, William I, 

 German Emperor and King of Prussia. The 

 composition of the Prussian Ministry remained 

 in 1880 unchanged. 



The population of Prussia, according to the 

 new census of 1880, amounted to 27,260,331, 

 an increase of 1,517,927, or 5'89 per cent., over 

 the census of 1875. The following table gives 

 the population of the provinces with the in- 

 crease since 1875 : 



1,930,498 

 1,402,498 

 3,383,550 

 1,538,454 

 1,700,943 

 4,003,223 

 2,311,061 

 1,124,862 

 2,115,745 

 2,040,672 

 1,558,344 

 4,087,886 

 67,579 



Total 27,260,331 



Eastern Prussia. . . : 



Western Prussia 



Brandenburg 



Pomerania 



Posen 



Silesia 



Saxony 



Schleswig Holstein 



Hanover 



Westphalia 



Hesse-Nassau 



.Rhenish Provinces 



Hohenzollern ... 



Population in Increase since 

 1830. 18T5. 



74,077 

 59,441 

 257,183 

 76,471 

 94,859 

 159,524 

 142,040 



98,352 

 134,975 



85,446 



283,505 



1,113 



1,517,927 



The budget estimates of both revenue and 

 expenditures were as follows during each of 

 the four years from 1878 to 1881 (the financial 

 year ending March 31st) : 



YEAR. Revenue and Expenditure, each. 



1878 657,320,344 



1879'" 713,857,764 



1880"'.' 711,500,753 



1881 . 799,200.581 



* For additional statistics and information, see Article 

 GHKMANY. 



Direct taxes form the chief source of reve- 

 nue, and, next to them, the receipts from State 

 railways. In recent years the income from 

 railways and other State undertakings, such as 

 mines, has been largely increasing, showing a 

 tendency to become a far more fruitful source 

 of revenue than all taxation, direct or indirect. 



The public debt of the kingdom, according 

 to the budget of 1880 to 1881, was 1,395,389,- 

 183 marks, of which 88,746,086 were debts of 

 the new provinces. 



The Diet resumed its session, which had been 

 interrupted by the Christmas vacation, on Jan- 

 uary 8, 1880, and continued it until February 

 12th, when it was prorogued to make room for 

 the German Reichstag. It met again on May 

 20th, and was closed on July 3d. The debates 

 on the conflict between the State Government 

 of Prussia and the Catholic Church were this 

 year influenced by the fact that Prince Bis- 

 marck was in negotiation with the Papal Nun- 

 cio of Vienna about putting an end to the con- 

 flict. The Pope on February 24th addressed a 

 letter to the deposed Archbishop of Cologne, 

 which was officially communicated to Prince 

 Bismarck, in which he made the concession 

 that the Bishops should have the duty of noti- 

 fying to the Government the names of the 

 priests who were to be appointed prior to their 

 canonical installation. In a dispatch from the 

 Papal Secretary of State, dated March 17th, 

 this concession was somewhat limited, and 

 later it was taken back altogether. On April 

 20th Prince Bismarck declared that Prussia 

 would not assent to a revision or a repeal of 

 the May laws on the basis of the clerical 

 claims, but reiterated his readiness to coope- 

 rate for a compromise based on mutual con- 

 cessions. In the mean while (March 28th) the 

 Prussian Government had introduced in the 

 Diet a bill by which some of the provisions of 

 the original May laws which were most of- 

 fensive to the Catholic party were repealed, 

 while, on the other hand, it was made obligatory 

 for the bishops to notify the Government of 

 the ecclesiastical appointments. The Catholic 

 party, though it welcomed some of the conces- 

 sions made by the Government, declared itself 

 opposed to the bill as a whole. A special com- 

 mittee appointed in the Lower House advised 

 the rejection of the bill by 13 against 8 votes; 

 the House itself, however, in June, after re- 

 jecting a few of the clauses, adopted the re- 

 mainder of the bill by 206 against 202 votes, 

 the Conservative and Free Conservative parties 

 and a part of the National Liberals voting for 

 it. The bill in this shape was also adopted by 

 the House of Lords, and went into effect on 

 July 14th. It is to last only until January, 

 1882. The law afforded some relief in the ad- 

 ministration of the dioceses which were with- 

 out bishops, facilitating the appointment of 

 priests as in vacant parishing, and providing 

 that in future the courts shall not have the 

 right of deposing priests from their office, but 

 only that of declaring their incompetency, i. e., 



