640 



PORTUGAL. 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



The commercial navy of Portugal consisted, 

 in 1874, of 552 vessels. The total length of 

 railways in operation was, at the close of 1875, 

 1,033 kilometres. The aggregate length of 

 telegraph-lines was 3,786 ; and of telegraph- 

 wires, 4,312 kilometres. 



The military system is based on the law of 

 June 23, 1864, which has been modified by 

 several decrees of the year 1868, as well as by 

 a decree of October 4, 1869. The strength of 

 the army on August 31, 1875, on the peace- 

 footing, was 1,642 officers and 37,316 men; 

 on the war-footing, 2,418 officers and 70,687 

 men. 



The Portuguese Cortes were opened by the 

 the King on January 3d. The speech from the 

 throne announced bills relative to the public 

 schools, the introduction of new codes and the 

 progress of public works. The session was 

 closed on April 6th. The most important act 

 of the session relates to the emancipation of 

 the people known as freedmen, and was passed 

 in March, but not promulgated until the llth 

 of May. The act provides that one year after 

 the publication of the law in the ultramarine 

 provinces the condition of servitude established 

 by decree of February 25, 1869, will be con- 

 sidered extinct, and all those persons to whom 

 it refers will be declared free. Persons who 

 thus obtain their liberty remain subject to 

 public tutelage. Excepted from this tutelage 

 are all persons employed in public or private 

 schools, or who profess or arft actually em- 

 ployed in any aft, skilled'labor, or public office, 

 and who can read and write. The public tu- 

 telage ceases by law on April 29, 1878. In 

 each of the provinces of Angola, Mozambique, 

 and St. Thomas and Principe, there shall be ap- 

 pointed by the Government a magistrate (cu- 

 rator-general) whose duty it shall be to per- 

 form in the said provinces the duties in regard 

 to public tutelage. The persons who remain 

 subject to public tutelage must contract for 

 two years' service, and the former masters 

 shall have the preference in these contracts if 

 they desire it. Provision is made for indemni- 

 fying all persons who were entitled to the la- 

 bor of the freedmen. All persons or freedmen 

 who shall be brought into any of the ultra-ma- 

 rine provinces from and after the date of the 

 publication of this law, shall be considered 

 free. The minister resident of the United 

 States in Lisbon, Benjamin Moran, reported in 

 July that the Portuguese Government was in 

 earnest in its endeavors to put down the Afri- 

 can slave-trade, and that the governors of its 

 colonies on both the east and west coasts of 

 Africa had been directed to use their best ef- 

 forts to tli at end. A request from the Gov- 

 ernor of Mozambique for naval aid to enable 

 him to assist in suppressing the traffic, there 

 being surreptitiously carried on by Arabs 

 along that coast, was not only granted to the 

 fullest extent of the naval power of the Portu- 

 guese Government, but, in one important in- 

 stance, where he had spontaneously permitted 



British vessels-of-war to follow slavers into the 

 creeks and bays of the colony, his action was 

 cordially approved. 



POTGIETER, EVEEHAED JOHANA, a Dutch 

 poet, born at Zwolle, in 1808 ; died March 3, 

 1875. Barely twenty years old, he entered a 

 business house in Antwerp, but returned to 

 his native country when Belgium obtained her 

 independence. His first poetical attempts 

 were made in 1827. In 1834 he assumed the 

 editorship of the Muzen, and four years later 

 that of the annual publication, "Tessels- 

 chade." In 1836 he published his " Omtrek- 

 ken en tafereelen," and in 1843 was appointed 

 editor-in-chief of De Gids, at that time one 

 of the most influential and best edited journals 

 of Holland. This position he retained until 

 1866. In 1865 he visited Florence on the oc- 

 casion of the sixth centennial anniversary of 

 Dante's birth. The impressions he received 

 there he expressed in "Florence," a poem of 

 over 3,000 verses written in terzine. The un- 

 usual metre attracted general attention to this 

 work, and, as it was well executed, it gained 

 for him a considerable reputation. In 1864 he 

 published his collected prose writings, and 

 from 1868-'74 his poems. 



PRESBYTERIANS. I. PEESBTTERIAN 

 CHTJECH IN THE UNITED STATES or AMERICA. 

 The following is a summary of the statis- 

 tics of this Church by synods, as they were 

 reported to the General Assembly in May, 

 1875: 



