144 CONCHA, DON MANUEL DE LA. 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



with the Spanish troops designed to aid the 

 Pope, and on coming back was reinvested with 

 the captain-generalcy he had formerly held. 

 General Concha next took a leading part in the 

 insurrection of 1854. He signed the address, 

 which was the signal for that outbreak, and 

 was ordered into exile in the Canary Isles. 

 The wily soldier, however, preferred going to 

 France, whence he was soon enabled to return 

 by the progress of the popular uprising. Ar- 

 riving at Saragossa he was placed by the Junta 

 in command of the insurrection, which speedily 

 resulted in the exile of Queen Maria Christina, 

 the downfall of Narvaez, and the triumph of 

 Espartero. His friends being now in power, 

 General Concha was restored to all his former 

 honors, made Director-General of the Artillery, 

 and finally marshal. He continued in the en- 

 joyment of his titles after O'Donnell overthrew 

 Espartero in 1856, but he was deprived of them 

 by Narvaez, who forced him to live aloof from 

 politics. The veteran was living in retirement- 

 when, during the troubles of 1868, Queen Isa- 

 bella II. called him to form a ministry. The 

 revolution was meanwhile making progress, but 

 he believed that it might be suppressed if the 

 Queen would return to Madrid and send away 

 her friend Marfori. This she refused to do; and 

 Marshal Concha handed her his resignation at 

 the frontier, after instructing the officers of the 

 Madrid garrison to oppose no longer the popu- 

 lar movement. After the revolution of 1868, 

 Marshal Concha, already in his seventy-fifth 

 year, had remained in retirement until the 

 spring of 1874, when the successes attained by 

 the Carlists had alarmed Serrano so greatly 

 that he summoned the veteran soldier, though 

 in his eightieth year, to take command of. the 

 army and lead them to battle against his old 

 foes. Bilbao, which had been for some time 

 invested by Don Carlos, was first to be relieved, 

 as its garrison was reduced to the greatest 

 straits. Taking command as promptly as of 

 old, Marshal Concha left Madrid April llth, 

 and, arriving at the seat of war, advanced with 

 20,000 men against the enemy. Acting with 

 masterly skill, he assailed the enemy in the rear . 

 while Serrano attacked him in front, and at 

 the same time succeeded in joining his forces 

 with those of that commander. The Carlists 

 fought bravely, but were overmatched by this 

 strategy and hastily abandoned their positions. 

 Marshal Concha entered the beleaguered city, 

 as he had promised to do, on the national festi- 

 val of the 2d of May, amid the acclamations of 

 the people. Being placed in supreme command 

 of the Northern Army, Concha now determined 

 to follow up his successes, and by driving the 

 Oarlists to a small district destitute of resources 

 place them entirely in his power. Leaving Bil- 

 bao, May llth, he reached Portugalete the same 

 day and stopped there for the night. On the 

 12th he entered Somorrostro, then infested by 

 Carlist bands which collected customs duties 

 and levied contributions in rations and money. 

 On the 13th he marched to Sopuerta, which is 



situated on the Valmaseda road, at the foot of 

 the Galdames Heights, and on the 17th he was 

 at Orduna. On arriving at the latter place he 

 had a slight skirmish with the Carlists, who it 

 seems were taken by surprise. On the 18th 

 the marshal arrived at the little town of Espe- 

 jo, and informed the inhabitants that if a shot 

 was fired he would not leave one stone stand- 

 ing in the place, which threat, together with 

 the presence of the army, proved effectual. On 

 the 19th he reached Vittoria, the scene of 

 Wellington's victory, and on the 6th of June 

 gained Logrono. Marshal Concha continued 

 marching into Navarre with the view of estab- 

 lishing a fortified line which would prevent the 

 Carlists advancing beyond that province, while 

 he protected the roads to the capital. His 

 strategy had so far forced the Carlists to aban- 

 don Durango and to retire to Estella, where 

 they established three intrenched lines. The 

 roads being impracticable for heavy artillery, 

 Marshal Concha was obliged to suspend opera- 

 tions for a time against Estella, which he con- 

 stantly menaced. His force numbered 38,000 

 men, with eighty-seven pieces of artillery, while 

 that of the enemy was estimated at 24,000, 

 commanded by Don Carlos in person. On the 

 25th of June he began the attack on Estella, 

 and on the 28th, while encouraging his troops 

 to resist the bold defense of the Carlists, lie was 

 shot just as he was mounting his horse, and was 

 borne by a gallant lieutenant of hussars to an 

 inn at Abarzuza, where he died in a few min- 

 utes. A brave soldier, and humane as brave, 

 his errors of former years were covered by the 

 halo of glory which surrounded him in his last 

 hours. 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. At the meet- 

 ing of the National Council of the Congrega- 

 tional Churches in the United States, held in 

 October, 1874, the Secretary presented a com- 

 parative summary of the statistics of the 

 churches for that year, and of those of 1871, 

 when the last National Council was held. It 

 showed a net increase, in three years, of 204 

 churches. The number of churches organized 

 during the period was 413, but 209 churches 

 once on the list had been dropped. Nearly all 

 of the churches dropped were in the recently- 

 settled but not in the most recently-settled 

 States, and the loss was occasioned by changes 

 in population. The existing churches might be 

 grouped by locality thus : In the New England 

 States, 1,451 ; in New York, New Jersey, and 

 Pennsylvania, 340 ; from the eastern boundary 

 of Ohio to the Mississippi River, 853 ; west of 

 the Mississippi (excluding the Pacific States), 

 552 ; in the Pacific States and Territories, 75 ; 

 in the Southern States (exclusive of Missouri), 

 54. More than one-half the increase of churches 

 (124 churches) had been gained in the four 

 States of Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wiscon- 

 sin. The gain in the Southern States (not in- 

 cluding Missouri) had been twelve churches. 

 The net gain in church-members had been 

 17,161, an annual average of 5,720. The an- 



