674 



BEAD, JOHN M. 



REFORMED CHURCHES. 



READ, JOHN MEEEDITH, LL. D., an eminent 

 jurist of Pennsylvania, born in Philadelphia, 

 July 21, 1797; died in that city, November 

 29, 1874. He was a grandson of George Read, 

 one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- 

 pendence. He graduated from the University 

 of Pennsylvania in 1812, and was called to the 

 bar in 1818. He was elected to the State Leg- 

 islature from Philadelphia in 1823, and reelect- 

 ed in 1824. He subsequently became City 

 Solicitor, Attorney-General of the State, and 

 United States District Attorney. In 1845 he 

 was nominated for Judge of the Supreme Court 

 of the United States by President Tyler, but 

 was not confirmed, because of his unsoundness 

 on the slavery question. In 1860 he was elected 

 on the Republican ticket one of the Judges of 

 the Supreme Court, and subsequently became 

 chief j ustice. Mr. Read resigned the latter posi- 

 tion in December, 1873, and since that time has 

 lived in retirement in Philadelphia. In politics 

 he was a Democrat; but, being in sympathy 

 with the Free-Soilers, he gradually became 

 separated from the main body of the party. In 

 1856 he joined the Republicans, and acted 

 henceforth with them. He was engaged in 

 many important cases, and was author of nu- 

 merous essays and addresses on public affairs 

 from 1833 to 1867. He had an extensive 

 knowledge of law, and was undeniably a great 

 jurist. 



READE, WILLIAM WINWOOD, a British ex- 

 plorer and author, born in 1838; died April 2, 

 1875. He first turned his attention to romance, 

 but with little success. A result of his archso- 

 ological studies was " The Veil of Iris." But 

 his reputation as an author was principally 

 gained by his works on Africa. The theories 

 of Du Chaillu on the strength and the aggres- 

 sive character of the gorilla aroused his spirit 

 of adventure, and, mortgaging a prospective 

 legacy in order to obtain means, he went to 

 Africa, to hunt gorillas. A result of this ex- 

 pedition was " Savage Africa " (1863), a book 

 alike peculiar by its style and its contents. 

 Notwithstanding his failing health, he under- 

 took a second expedition a few years later, 

 and upon his return published two works, 

 "The Martyrdom of Man" and "African 

 Sketch-book " (2 vols., 1873), which were very 

 warmly received by Darwin and others. In 

 November, 1873, he went to Africa for a third 

 time, this time as special correspondent of the 

 London Times in the Ashantee War. He re- 

 turned from this expedition completely broken 

 down in health, and never recovered. 



REFORMED CHURCHES. I. REFORMED 

 CHTJEOH IN AMEEIOA. The Reformed Church 

 in America, formerly called the Reformed 

 Dutch Church, had, in 1875, 34 classes, 490 

 churches, 523 ministers, and 70,628 members. 

 One of the classes, Arcot, contains the mission- 

 ary churches in India ; all the others are in the 

 United States. The following is a summary of 

 the statistics of the several classes, as they were 

 reported to the General Synod in May, 1875 : 



The total number of candidates for the min- 

 istry reported was 11 ; number of families con- 

 nected with the Church, 42,277; number of 

 baptisms (of infants, 4,290; of adults, 924), 

 5,214; number of catechumens, 22,176; num- 

 ber of Sunday-schools, 594, with 68,041 schol- 

 ars. Total amount of contributions: For re- 

 ligious and benevolent purposes, $282,505 ; for 

 congregational purposes, $944,116. 



The Board of Directors reported that they 

 had received $7,500 toward the endowment of 

 the permanent seminary fund, and $5,715 tow- 

 ard the endowment of the Thomas DeWitt 

 professorship ; $10,000, the legacy of the late 

 Jacob H. Ten Eyck, for the Theological Semi- 

 nary, had been appropriated for the use of the 

 Hertzog Hall Committee. Mr. Gardner A. 

 Sage had given $20,000, in addition to the 

 $50,000 given by him the previous year, toward 

 the erection of a fire-proof building at New 

 Brunswick, N. J., to be known as " The Gard- 

 ner A. Sage Library." This building, having 

 been completed, was dedicated during the meet- 

 ing of the General Synod. The Board reported 

 that the widows' and orphans' fund amounted 

 to $38,631, and that annuities had been paid 

 fromit, during the year, amounting to $2, 325. 77. 

 The fund for the endowment of Hope College 

 now amounted to $19,319.83. The aggregate 

 value of all the funds in charge of the board 

 was $431,857.05. The receipts of the Treasurer 

 had been, including the balance from the pre- 

 vious year, $120,287.22. 



The Board of Domestic Missions reported 

 their receipts for the year to have been $23,- 

 732.90 from contributions, and $22,400.83 from 

 legacies, and their expenditures $35,133. 



