638 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



PRUSSIA. 



BEITAIN. This body met in Edinburgh on the 

 llth of May. The question of union received 

 favorable consideration. Resolutions indors- 

 ing the proposal for disendowing the Irish 

 Church establishment, denouncing the plans 

 for an Irish Roman Catholic university, and 

 for endowing denominational schools, were 

 adopted. The following statistics were re- 

 ported : Communicants, 176,391 ; increase from 

 1866, 1,961; attendants at church, 205,462; 

 baptisms, 11,608; Sunday-schoolteachers, 9,- 

 536; do. scholars, 75,062; Bible classes, 717; 

 attendance, 19,606. Home missions and aug- 

 mentation: total income, 13,302; increase 

 7,443; congregational incomes, 265,561; sti- 

 pends paid, 103,495. 



XL SCOTTISH REFOEMED PBESBYTEEIANS. 

 The Synod met on the 8th of May. The re- 

 port of the joint committee on reunion, being 

 in substance identical with that submitted to 

 the Free Assembly and the United Presbyterian 

 Synod, was unanimously approved, and the 

 committee continued. The report relates 

 mainly to financial matters, states the different 

 methods of the several churches, and agrees to 

 a central ministerial sustentation fund in the 

 United Church, to secure a minimum of 150 

 a year to every pastor. It also agrees that 

 there shall be in the United Church two su- 

 preme judicatories, one for England and one for 

 Scotland ; but that these cooperate in work, 

 recognize the validity of each other's acts, and 

 shall at stated intervals, or as occasion requires, 

 hold a common council. The statistics of this 

 Church were as follows : members, 6,516 ; con- 

 tributions for ministerial support, 4,991 ; do. 

 for other purposes, 4,342. 



XII. ENGLISH PEESBYTEEIAN CHTTECH. The 

 statistics of this Church were reported, in 

 1868, as follows: congregations, 119; com- 

 municants, 20,732 ; contributions, 59,551. 

 The number of congregations in 1845 was 

 62. 



XIII. IEISH PEESBYTEEIAN CHTJECH. The 

 General Assembly of this Church was held at 

 Belfast on the 18th of June. The Assembly, 

 by a vote of 210 to 180, passed a resolution de- 

 claring its adherence to the establishment 

 principle, protesting against the threatened 

 withdrawal of the JZegium donum, and appoint- 

 ing a committee to take steps so as to secure 

 that "justice should be done to the Irish Pres- 

 byterian Church in the matter of endowment." 

 A protest, signed by 175 members, was present- 

 ed against this decision. On the question of 

 instrumental music, it was voted " that the 

 common law of the Church excludes instru- 

 mental music in the worship of God, and that 

 congregations be required to conform to that 

 law." There appears a decrease of 11,632 in 

 the number of communicants. The total 

 amount raised by the Church was for church 

 erection, 27,424; for foreign missions, etc., 

 5,859; from pew rent, 34,724; from Sun- 

 day collections, 12,177 ; from Sunday-school 

 collections, 741 ; total, 94,218, being 10,- 



448 more than during the preceding year. 

 There are 81,303 families connected with the 

 Church,' and between 70,000 and 80,000 Sun- 

 day-school scholars ; sittings in the churches, 

 223,869. The Indian Mission reports a native 

 church at Surat, with a membership of 75 

 baptized persons. A mission to China has 

 been established, to consist of a clerical and a 

 medical missionary. The church, manse, school, 

 and debt fund, now 23,000, is to be raised to 

 a minimum of 30,000. 



PRUSSIA, a kingdom in Europe. King, 

 Wilhelm I., born March 22, 1797 ; succeeded 

 his brother Friedrich Wilhelm III. on Febru- 

 ary [2, 1861. Heir-apparent, Friedrich Wil- 

 helm, born October 18, 1831. The ministry, 

 in 1868, consisted of the following members : 

 Count Otto von Bismarck-Schonhausen, Presi- 

 dency and Foreign Affairs (appointed in 1862) ; 

 Baron von der Heydt, Finance (1866) ; Gen- 

 eral Dr. von Roon, War, (1859) and Navy 

 (1861); H. Count von Itzenplitz, Commerce 

 and Public Works (1862) ; Dr. von Muhler, 

 Worship, Instruction, and Medical Affairs 

 (1862); Leonhard, Justice (December, 1867); 

 Von Selchow, Agriculture (1862) ; F. A. Count 

 zu Eulenburg, Interior (1862). Ambassador 

 of the United States at Berlin, George Ban- 

 croft (1867) ; Prussian ambassador in Washing- 

 ton, Baron von Gerolt. 



The area of Prussia, inclusive of the new 

 territory acquired in 1866, and of the duchy 

 of Lauenburg, is 135,806 square miles. The 

 population, according to the census of De- 

 cember 3, 1867, was 24,043,296. This includes 

 18,228 soldiers, who at that time were located 

 in the other states of the North-German Con- 

 federation. The population of each of the old 

 provinces and of new acquisitions, in 1867, 

 was, according to the official census, as fol- 

 lows : 



OLD PROVINCES. 



Prussia 3,090,960 



Posen 1,537,338 



Brandenburg 2,719,775 



Pomerania 1,445,635 



Silesia 3,585,752 



Saxony 2,067,066 



Westphalia 1,707,726 



Ehine Provinces 3,455,358 



Hohenztllern 64,632 



Jade 1,748 



NEW TERRITORY. 



Hanover 1,937,637 



Schleswig-Holstein 981,718 



Cassel and Wiesbaden 1,379,745 



Lauenburg 49,978 



Garrisons outside of the kingdom. . . 18,228 



24,043,296 



Among the old provinces, Rhenish Prussia 

 has the densest population, and Pomerania the 

 thinnest. In the newly-acquired territory, the 

 District of Wiesbaden has the greatest number 

 of souls to the square mile, and the province of 

 Hanover the least. These figures are exclusive 

 of the duchy of Lauenburg, which has 50,002 in- 

 habitants, and, if we add its population to that 



