374 



GEEAT BRITAIN. 



The Independents or Congregationalists have 

 in England, Wales, and Scotland, 2,912 church- 

 es, besides 527 churches abroad, connected with 

 their missions, and a little more than 300,000 

 members. Their ministers are about 3,000, and 

 the adherent population about 1,100,000. The 

 Baptists had, in 1874, 3,172 chapels, 1,856 pas- 

 tors, 244,416 communicants, 337,327 Sunday- 

 school scholars, and an adherent population of 

 nearly 1,000",000. Their contributions for mis- 

 sionary and benevolent purposes were $700, 000. 



The Calvinistic Methodists are the largest 

 religious denomination in Wales, though but 

 few in numbers elsewhere. They date from 

 1735, though not fully organized till 1810. 

 They had, in 1874, 1,177 chapels, 798 ministers ; 

 deacons and lay-preachers, 3,610 ; communi- 

 cants, 97,147; Sunday-school teachers and 

 scholars, 192,253 ; number belonging to the 

 congregations, 254,059 ; contributions to be- 

 nevolent objects, $705,875. The principal of 

 the minor denominations were the Unitarians, 

 who had 352 chapels, and 355 ministers ; the 

 Jews, who had about 80 synagogues, 100 min- 

 isters, and numbered about 50,000 ; the Society 

 of Friends, with 665 preachers, 327 meeting- 

 houses, and 17,000 members; the Moravians, 

 with 83 churches, 5,550 members, and 6,200 

 scholars; the New -Jerusalem Church (Sweden- 

 borgians), with 4,207 registered members, and 

 58 societies; the Christadelphians, with a little 

 more than 5,000 members, Mormons, Irving- 

 ites, Plymouth Brethren, etc., etc. 



In Ireland the distribution of religious de- 

 nominations was very different from that of 

 Great Britain. Until January, 1871, there was 

 an Established Church (Protestant Episcopal), 

 with its hierarchy and state institutions, but 

 it was greatly in the minority, and allowances 

 were made to the Roman Catholics, who were 

 about six times as numerous as the adherents 

 to the State Church, and also to some of the 

 other denominations, this allowance being 

 called regium donum, or "royal gift." At 

 the time specified the Irish Church was dises- 

 tablished, and these gifts and allowances both 

 to it and the other denominations were com- 

 pounded for, so as to do no wrong to the 

 actual incumbents of parishes or the ministers 

 of chapels. In 1871 the number returning 

 themselves as adherents to the " Church of 

 Ireland," or as "Protestant Episcopalians," 

 was 683,295; at the same time 4,141,933 per- 

 sons declared themselves Roman Catholics, 

 558,238 Presbyterians, 41,815 Methodists, 4,- 

 485 Independents, 4,063 Baptists, 3,834 mem- 

 bers of the Society of Friends, 258 Jews, and 

 19,035 as belonging to other religious persua- 

 sions. As the population of Ireland has slight- 

 ly decreased since 1871, and there have been 

 no causes to produce any very marked change 

 in their religious beliefs, it is probable that 

 these figures represent pretty accurately the 

 present religious status of that island. 



FINANCIAL STATISTICS OF THK UNITED KING- 

 DOM : 1 . Revenue and Expenditure. The gross 



public revenue of the United Kingdom for the 

 financial year ending March 31, 1874, was 

 77,335,656 17s. ld.=$386,678,284.25. Of this 

 revenue 20,339,000=$101,695,000 was from 

 customs; 27,172,000=$135,860,000 from ex- 

 cise; 10,550,000=$52,750,000 from stamps; 

 2,324,000=$11,620,000 from land-tax and 

 house duty; 5,691, 000=$28, 455,000 from in- 

 come-tax; 5,792,000=$28,960,000 from the 

 post-office; 1,210,000=$6,050,000 from the 

 telegraph service; 375,000=$1,875,000 from 

 the crown-lands net; and 3,882,656 17s. ld.= 

 $19,413,284.25 from miscellaneous sources. 



The total expenditure of the Government for 

 the same year was 76,966,510 2s. 4d.=$384,- 

 832,550.58, leaving a surplus on the revenue 

 of the year of $1,845,733.67, and, with the pre- 

 vious balance from 1873, a balance in the Ex- 

 chequer of $37,214,270.68. Of this expendi- 

 ture, 26,706,725 10s. lid. =$133,533,627. 62 

 was for the interest and management of the 

 national debt; 1,603,084 18s. =$8,015,424.32 

 was for charges on the consolidated fund, in- 

 cluding the civil list, annuities and pensions, 

 salaries and allowances, courts of justice, and 

 miscellaneous charges; 48,156,699,13*. 5d.= 

 $240,783,498.22 for supply services, which in- 

 cluded the army, the army purchase-commis- 

 sion, navy, miscellaneous civil, Ashantee ex- 

 pedition, customs, and inland revenue, postal, 

 telegraphic, packet services, and in this year 

 the payment of the Alabama claims to our 

 Government. There was also a charge of 

 500,000 =$2,500,000 for army expenses pro- 

 vided for by annuities. 



The estimated expenditure for the year end- 

 ing March 31, 1875, or what is called the 

 "expenditure side of the budget," was 72,- 

 503,000=$362,515,000; and the estimated rev- 

 enue was 77,995,000=$389,975,000. The 

 House of Commons resolved that the estimated 

 surplus of revenue, 5,492,000=$27,460,000 

 should be devoted to the following objects: 

 Imperial contribution in aid of local taxation 

 (poor-rates, etc.), 1,050,000=$5,250,000; re- 

 duction of income-tax from threepence to two- 

 pence in the pound, 1,500,000=$7,500,000; 

 abolition of sugar duties, 2,000,000=$10,000,- 

 000 ; abolition of duties upon horses, 480,000 

 =$2,400,000; leaving a balance for contingen- 

 cies of 460,000=$2,300,000. 



The income tax^ which was established in 

 its present form in 1842, has in the thirty- 

 two years which had since elapsed undergone 

 eighteen distinct changes. Beginning with 7< 

 in the pound, it had been raised in 1854 to 

 14<Z., and in 1855, during the war with Russia, 

 to 16<2., dropped to Td. in 1857, and to 5d. in 

 1858 ; in 1859 it was raised to 9d., and in 1860 

 to 10^. In 1861 it was reduced to 9<Z., and 

 since that time had fluctuated, with almost 

 yearly changes, between 9d. and 2<2., the rate 

 .established in 1874, and which is the lowest 

 yet fixed for the income tax. In round num- 

 bers, every penny in the pound added to this 

 tax produces $7,500,000 to the revenue. 



