494 



LUTHERANS. 



methods, having the authority of law, and they can 

 be legally enforced in no other way. The high be- 

 hests of the organic law are not always self-enforcing ; 

 the manner in which its commands are to be obeyed 

 is often left to be provided by the legislative branch 

 of the Government. To this branch of the State 

 government the organic law delegates the power to 

 prescribe rules and principles by which its pro- 

 visions are to be made practically useful, and espe- 

 cially so when the organic law is silent on the sub- 

 ject. 



Judges Wyly and Morgan dissented, the for- 

 mer submitting au opinion, in which he de- 

 clared : 



The doctrine that the Board of State Canvassers, or 

 the Returning Board, is vested with the power con- 

 tended for by defendant, and that its action cannot 

 be revised by the courts, however arbitrary and 

 fraudulent it may be, is a doctrine that is not sup- 

 ported by act 98, of the acts of 1872, the law organ- 

 izing said Eeturning Board ; nor is it authorized by 

 any law of this State. On the contrary, the law cre- 

 ating the Eeturning Board, and providing for the 

 canvass of the vote after an election, declares that 

 the returns of elections thus made and promulgated 

 shall be prima-faeie evidence in all courts of justice 

 and before all civil officers, until set aside after a 

 contest according to law, of the right of any person 

 named therein to hold and exercise the office to 

 which he shall by such a return be declared elected. 



In my opinion the petition declares a cause of ac- 

 tion, and the canvass of the Returning Board is not 

 beyond the reach of judicial inquiry. It is the elec- 

 tion by the people and not the certificate of the Re- 

 turning Board that gives a right to an office. 1 think 

 the case should be remanded, to be tried on the 

 merits. 



A successful exhibition of the products and 

 industries of the State was held under the 

 auspices of the Louisiana Mechanics' and Agri- 

 cultural Fair Association, at New Orleans, be- 

 ginning on the 26th of February. The open- 

 ing address was delivered by the Hon. Thomas 

 A. Hendricks, of Indiana. 



An Immigration Convention, composed of 

 delegates from several Southern and Western 

 States, was held in the Chamber of Commerce, 

 New Orleans, on the 1st and 2d of March. A 

 standing committee was appointed to devise 

 the best means to facilitate immigration, and 

 to establish a Bureau of Immigration in New 

 Orleans. 



LUTHERANS. In the table on next page 

 are given the statistics of the several bodies 

 constituting the Evangelical Lutheran Church 

 in North America, as they appear in the Church 

 Almanac (General Council, published at the 

 Lutheran Book-store, Philadelphia) for 1877: 



Kurtz's Lutheran Almanac (General Synod, 

 Baltimore) classes the German Synod of Iowa 

 and the Norwegian -Danish Augustan Synod 

 among the independent synods, and gives the 

 following footings and totals : General Council, 

 10 synods, 548 ministers, 1,093 churches, 156,- 

 896 communicants; Synodical Conference, 7 

 synods, 1,002 ministers, 1,596 churches, 25 1,3 77 

 communicants; General Synod, South, 5 syn- 

 ods, 92 ministers, 160 churches, 12.764 com- 

 municants ; General Synod, North, 24 synods, 

 790 ministers, 1,226 churches, 113,571 com- 

 municants; Independent Synods, 12, with 25 



unattached churches, 17 unattached ministers, 

 and 1,600 unattached members in all, 363 

 ministers, 747 churches, 65,795 communicants: 

 total, 58 synods, 2,795 ministers, 4, 822 churches, 

 and 600,353 communicants. 



Brobst's Lutherische Kalender (General 

 Council, Allentown, Pa.), gives: General Coun- 

 cil, 689 ministers, 1,338 congregations, 194,151 

 communicants; Synodical Conference, 1,034 

 ministers, 1,751 congregations, 264,935 com- 

 municants; General Synod, South, 92 minis- 

 ters, 167 congregations, 12,750 communicants; 

 General Synod, North, 741 ministers, 1,214 

 congregations, 110,866 communicants; ten In- 

 dependent Synods (including the Iowa Synod) 

 with 348 ministers, 694 congregations, 59,102 

 communicants; pastors not attached to any 

 synod, 37: total, 2,782 ministers, 4,974 con- 

 gregations, 629,204 communicants. 



The discrepancies in the different tables 

 arise chiefly from the lack of uniformity in 

 keeping the records of the churches and syn- 

 ods, which, in respect to the numbers of com- 

 municants, is a very serious evil. In several 

 synods, and in many churches in other synods, 

 the custom is to enumerate, as the number of 

 persons who have communicated, the whole 

 number of instances in which the communion 

 has been administered to individuals, without 

 taking into account the number of times the 

 same person may have taken the communion 

 within the year. The actual number of com- 

 municants can only be estimated, never ascer- 

 tained, from such a report. The number of 

 ministers is taken from official records, or from 

 other lists of ministers. Synods which are in 

 process of attaching themselves to some general 

 body, but have not yet consummated the union, 

 may be counted as belonging to that body, or 

 as independent, as is the case with two synods 

 claimed by the General Council. 



The Church Almanac gives the following list 

 of theological seminaries: Of the General 

 Council: Theological Seminary at Philadel- 

 phia, founded 1864, five instructors, 60 stu- 

 dents; Theological Department of Augustana 

 College, Paxtou, 111., founded 1863, three in- 

 structors, 17 students; Wartburg Seminary, 

 Mendota, 111., two instructors, 31 students; 

 Practical Theological Seminary, Marshall, 

 "Wis., founded 1876, one instructor, 7 stu- 

 dents. Of the General Synod, North : Theo- 

 logical Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa., founded 

 in 1825, three instructors, 32 students; Hart- 

 wick Seminary, Hartwick, N. Y., founded 

 1816, one instructor, 5 students; Theological 

 Department of Wittenberg College, Spring- 

 field, Ohio, founded 1845, two instructors, 22 

 students; Missionary Institute, Selinsgrove, 

 Pa., founded 1859, one instructor, 10 stu- 

 dents. Of the Synodical Conference: Theologi- 

 cal Department of Concordia Seminary, St. 

 Louis, Mo., founded 1840, four instructors, 

 85 students; Practical Department, Spring- 

 field, 111., founded 1846, three instructors, 

 23 students; Norwegian Lutheran Seminary, 



