AMERICA. 



ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



21 



No change in the territorial divisions of 

 AiiK'ricu took place during the year 1870. 

 The proposed purchase of two Danish islands 

 in the West Indies by the United States has 

 lor the present been abandoned. The annex- 

 ation of the Republic of San Domingo to 

 tli-.; United States, having received the full 

 approval of President Baez, was warmly ad- 

 vocated by President Grant, but failed to re- 

 ceive the sanction of the United States Senate. 

 In his message of December 6, 1870, President 

 Cr.mi again recommended the measure as ono 

 of vast commercial importance for the United 

 States. The war of the Cubans for their inde- 

 pendence continued throughout the year, al- 

 though they were unable to hold control of any 

 place of importance. In British America, a 

 rebellion in the Red River settlements, against 

 the incorporation of the Hudson's Bay Terri- 

 tory with the Dominion of Canada, maintained 

 itself for several months, but was finally quelled. 



The long-continued war between Paraguay 

 on the one hand, and Brazil, the Argentine Re- 

 public, and Uruguay, on the other, was closed 

 by the death of President Lopez of Paraguay. 



Civil wars again raged in the Argentine Re- 

 public, Uruguay, and Venezuela, and insurrec- 

 tionary outbreaks, though of short duration, 

 occurred in a number of other states ; but, on 

 the whole, the reign of order in Spanish and 

 Portuguese America is becoming more and 

 more established. Many of the governments of 

 these states are making earnest and successful 

 efforts to promote education, encourage foreign 

 immigration, develop the internal resources and 

 facilitate the intercourse with foreign countries. 



No progress was made during the year toward 

 the adjustment of the claims of the United 

 States against Great Britain growing out of 

 the course adopted by that Government during 

 the civil war. In his message of December 5, 

 1870, President Grant also complained that the 

 policy of the Mexican Government, in exempting 

 from import duties a large tract of territory on 

 the borders of the United States (the " sona 

 Z/ire") had an injurious effect upon the com- 

 merce of the United States. The President 

 also complained of the course pursued by the 

 Canadian authorities toward the fishermen of 

 the United States. 



The long-deferred peace conference between 

 Spain and the allied South- American republics, 

 under the auspices of the United States, was 

 opened in Washington, on the 29th of October, 

 1870, but had to be adjourned in consequence 

 of the absence of a representative from Bolivia. 

 In referring to this conference, President Grant, 

 in his message of December 5, 1870, signifi- 

 cantly expressed the expectation that the time 

 when the connection of the European govern- 

 ments with American territory will cease is 

 not far distant, that the commercial interests 

 of the Spanish- American states will be more 

 closely allied to those of the United States, 

 and that thus the United States will receive 

 all the preeminence and all the advantages 



which Mr. Monroe, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Clay, 

 contemplated when they proposed to join in 

 the Congress of Panama. 



ANDERSON, Dr. ALEXANDER, the father of 

 wood-engraving in this country, born in New- 

 York City, in 1774; died in Jersey City, N. J., 

 January 18, 1870. His early advantages of 

 education were good for the time and the con- 

 dition of the country. He was from boyhood 

 desirous of becoming an artist, but his father 

 was determined that he should be a phy- 

 sician, and accordingly placed him, at the ago 

 of fifteen, in the office of Dr. Young, an emi- 

 nent physician of New York, with whom he 

 remained five years, and acquired a fair knowl- 

 edge of the profession and of the art of dispens- 

 ing prescriptions. But his heart was not in 

 his profession, and, as soon as possible after the 

 expiration of his apprenticeship to Dr. Young, 

 he commenced engraving on wood, having 

 read in an old paper a description of the art as 

 then practised in Europe. His first engravings 

 were executed in part on type-metal, and he 

 was obliged to invent nearly all his tools, and 

 to manufacture them himself. His first con- 

 siderable performance was the copying of 

 some of Bewick's cuts, in a volume called the 

 " Looking-Glass." He could not have had a 

 better master, and he acquired in a large de- 

 gree Bewick's delicacy and truthfulness of 

 expression in his engravings. To describe in 

 detail the works which he illustrated would 

 occupy too much space. Suffice it to say that, 

 among the best known of his productions, 

 are his forty illustrations of Shakespeare's 

 plays, the illustrations in Webster's Elementary 

 Spelling-book (of which over 40,000,000 copies 

 have been sold), and Bewick's birds. He illus- 

 trated also the celebrated book on anatomy by 

 Sir Charles Bell, and also engraved plates for 

 paper currency, by order of the Government. 

 He was, for about fifteen years, the only en- 

 graver on wood of note in New York ; and, 

 from 1812 to 1862, was a leader in his art, ever 

 zealous for improvement, quick to perceive and 

 ready to adopt any advance in the art from 

 whatever quarter it might come. In his eighty- 

 fourth year he prepared a new business card, 

 on which was in Latin the motto "Bent but not 

 broken." The last piece of his handiwork was 

 the engraving of a large picture, done in the 

 style of the old Belgian and French schools. 

 He was a great proficient in instrumental mu- 

 sic, and was especially skilful as a violinist. 

 He was also a pleasant and graceful writer, 

 with a keen sense of the humorous, and occa- 

 sionally dabbled in poetry. In his habits, at 

 a time when almost every one drank freely of 

 intoxicating liquors, he was strictly temperate 

 and exemplary. Mr. B. J. Lossing, himself 

 eminent alike as an engraver, designer, and 

 author, prepared a memorial lecture of this 

 pioneer among American engravers. 



ANGLICAN CHURCHES. The Church 

 Almanac for 1871 gives the following statis- 

 tical summary of the Protestant Episcopal 



