556 



MORAVIANS. 



than the rate which had prevailed for several 

 years previous, the average rate of increase for 

 six years having been six per cent. 



The following are the statistics of the Mo- 

 ravian missions as reported December, 1872 : 



The number of out- stations is ten. The 

 number of baptized adults is 14,439 ; of can- 

 didates, " new people, etc.," 9,644 ; of baptized 

 children, 23,986 ; total number of persons con- 

 nected with the missions, 69,365. The entire 

 receipts for missions for the year were 15,- 

 478 3*. lid.; the expenditures were 18,- 

 786 9*. lid. 



A monument in memory of the massacre of 

 Moravian Indians at Gnadenhtitten, Ohio, in 

 1782, was unveiled at that place on the 5th of 

 June. It bears the inscription : " Here triumph- 

 ed in death ninety Christian Indians, March 8, 

 1782." The act of withdrawing the veil was 

 performed by four Christian Delaware Indians 

 of Canada, one of whom was a lineal descend- 

 ant of one of the victims of the massacre. 

 A tablet has been placed at the spring in Tus- 

 carawas County, Ohio, where Zeisberger and 

 five families of Christian Indians encamped, on 

 the 3d of May, 1772, and erected the mission- 

 station at Schonbrunn, the first house of a 

 Christian town in the State. Several other 

 memorials of early Moravian missionaries, and 

 of events in the history of the Church in 

 America, have been erected. 



The mission in Bohemia has been prosecuted 

 with a persevering spirit against many ob- 

 stacles arising from the hostility of local offi- 

 cers. Although it is under the more imme- 

 diate care of the German Province, its affairs 

 have been regarded with interest by the 

 churches in the American Province. In the 

 month of August, the judge of the circuit in 

 which the church at Pottenstein is situated, 

 issued an order forbidding all further Moravian 

 services at that station. A protest against 

 this order was immediately sent by the Unity's 

 Elders' Conference to the provincial govern- 

 ment at Prague. At the same time a memorial, 

 praying for religious liberty, was drawn up to 

 be presented to the Imperial Government at 



MORSE, SAMUEL F. B. 



Vienna, and two deputies were selected to 

 take it to the capital and give it personal at- 

 tention. The deputies reached Vienna on the 

 24th of September. Their cause was espoused 

 by General de Schweinitz, the Prussian ambas- 

 sador, and by Herr. de Bose, the Saxon ambas- 

 sador. M. de Bose conferred with the Imperial 

 Minister of Public Worship on the subject of 

 the memorial. The minister replied that a 

 favorable time had not yet arrived for present- 

 ing such a memorial; that there existed, as 

 yet, no law in Austria defining the conditions 

 on which religious liberty may be granted to 

 a church ; that such a law was then being pre- 

 pared and would be laid before the next Diet ; 

 that he could not, therefore, consider any me- 

 morial on this subject until that law had been 

 adopted; that, however, in so far as the pro- 

 hibition of the public services at Pottenstein 

 was concerned, if the provincial government 

 at Prague should decline to uphold the protest 

 of the Unity's Elders' Conference, and should 

 sustain the judge, the Conference should re- 

 port to him, and he would order the circuit 

 judges not to interfere with the religious ser- 

 vices of the Moravian Church. 



In consequence of this response of the Min- 

 ister of Public Worship, and by the advice of the 

 two friendly ambassadors, the deputies did not 

 send in the memorial, but withheld it, waiting 

 for the passage of the law spoken of by the 

 imperial minister. When they reached Prague 

 on their return, the deputies found that the 

 provincial government was about to decide 

 against the protest of the Elders' Conference ; 

 they therefore informed the authorities of the 

 favorable character of the response which the 

 Minister of Public Worship had given on the 

 subject of their petition, and succeeded in fore- 

 stalling the anticipated adverse decision. 



MORSE, SAMUEL FINLEY BKEESE, LL. D., 

 the inventor of the Electric Telegraph, a 

 painter of acknowledged merit, and an author, 

 born in Charlestown, Mass., April 27, 1791 ; 

 died in New York City, April 2, 1872. He 

 was the eldest son of Rev. Jedediah Morse, 

 D. D., a Congregationalist clergyman, famous 

 in his day for his geographical text-books and 

 his historical works. Samuel received his 

 early education in Charlestown, under his fa- 

 ther's direction, graduated from Yale College 

 in 1810, selected painting as his profession, 

 and in 1811 sailed for England, in company 

 with Washington Allston, to study art under 

 his tuition and that of Sir Benjamin West. 

 He made rapid progress in his profession, and 

 in 1813 exhibited at the Royal Academy his 

 picture of "The Dying Hercules," of colossal 

 size, and the plaster model which he made of 

 the same subject to assist him in his picture 

 received the prize in sculpture the same year, 

 from the Adelphi Society of Arts. On his re- 

 turn to the United States, in 1814, he settled 

 in Boston, but met with so little encourage- 

 ment that he removed to New Hampshire, 

 where he found employment in painting por- 



