568 



MOHL, JULIUS VON. 



MORAVIANS. 



brought to resist the collection of taxes as- 

 sessed in 1873. The assessment, as made by the 

 county authorities, had been largely increased 

 by the State Board of Equalization. It was 

 claimed that this board had no legal authority 

 to make original assessment or to increase the 

 aggregate of that made by the proper authori- 

 ties. Its action was alleged to be illegal and 

 fraudulent, and hence the collection of the 

 taxes was resisted. The court held that the 

 action of the Board of Equalization was illegal 

 but not fraudulent, and that the companies 

 must pay the taxes on the basis of the assess- 

 ment made by the county courts. 



A decision rendered by Judge Bradley, of 

 the United States Supreme Court, in May, de- 

 clared $90,000 of bonds issued by Mount 

 Pleasant Township, in Bates County, in pay- 

 ment of subscription to the stock of the Lex- 

 ington, Lake & Gulf Railroad Company, to be 

 null and void, on the ground that their issuance 

 was not authorized by a vote of two-thirds of 

 the qualified voters, as required by the con- 

 stitution. By the holders of the bonds it was 

 set up that Mount Pleasant Township, not be- 

 ing a "county, city, or town," was not subject 

 to the restrictions laid down by the constitu- 

 tion for such organized communities, and fur- 

 thermore that two-thirds of the qualified voters 

 actually voting on the question did sanction 

 the issue of bonds and the subscription to the 

 stock of the railroad. The language of the con- 

 stitution is, " The General Assembly shall not 

 authorize any county, city, or town, to become 

 a stockholder in, or' to loan its credit to, any 

 company, association, or corporation, unless 

 two-thirds of the qualified voters of such 

 county, city, or town, at a regular or special 

 election to be held therein shall assent thereto." 

 Judge Bradley held that this provision ap- 

 plied to townships, as mere subdivisions of 

 counties, and that a vote of two-thirds of all 

 the qualified voters, and not merely of those 

 voting on the question, was necessary to legalize 

 the issue of bonds. 



MOHL, JOLIUS VON, a celebrated German 

 Orientalist, born at Stuttgart, October 28, 

 1800; died in Paris, January 4, 1876. His 

 father furnished him and his brother, Robert 

 von Mohl, the celebrated jurist, who died in 

 1875, with an excellent education. His first 

 academic instruction he received in the uni- 

 versity and the theological seminary at Tu- 

 bingen. In 1823 he went to Paris, where he 

 made extensive Orientalistic studies, and be- 

 came a pupil of Silvestre de Sacy and Remu- 

 sat. In 1826 he received a call to Tubingen as 

 Extraordinary Professor of Oriental Literature, 

 and, being granted a furlough immediately 

 after his appointment for the purpose of con- 

 tinuing his studies, he spent the years 1826-'27 

 in London, and 1830-'31 in Oxford, making 

 extensive scientific researches. His specialty 

 was the Persian language. The first results of 

 his Persian studies was " I ragments relatif s a 

 la Religion de Zoroaster" (1829), which he 



published anonymously, together with Olshau- 

 sen. This was followed by " Confucii Chi- 

 king sive liber Carminum, ex Latina P. 

 Lacharme interpretatione " (1830), and "Y- 

 king, antiquissirnus Sinarum liber, ex inter- 

 pretatione P. Regis" (2 vols., 1834-'39). In 

 1832 the French Government engaged him to 

 edit the " Shah Nameh " of Firdusi for the Col- 

 lection Orientate, after he had previously re- 

 signed his position in Tubingen. From this 

 time on he took up his permanent abode in 

 Paris, where he became an active member of 

 the Asiatic Society, furnishing numerous valu- 

 able articles to its journals. In 1844 he was 

 elected a member of the Academy of Inscrip- 

 tions, in the following year was appointed 

 Professor of the Persian Language in the Col- 

 lege de France, and in 1852 inspector of Orien- 

 tal printing in the Imperial Printing-Office. In 

 the latter year he was also elected Secretary of 

 the Asiatic Society, which office he filled with 

 great ability. The celebrated excavations of 

 Botta, at Nineveh, were due mainly to his exer- 

 tions. He published the letters of M. Botta 

 under the title of "Lettres de M. Botta sur 

 les Decouvertes a Khorsabad " (1845). 



MORAVIANS. The following is a sum- 

 mary of the statistics of the American Prov- 

 ince of the Moravian Church, December 31, 

 1875: 



Northern District: number of churches, 

 62 ; of communicants, 7,765 ; of non-commu- 

 nicants over thirteen years of age, 1,340; of 

 children, 4,648; total number of persons con- 

 nected with the churches, 13,753 ; number of 

 Sunday-school scholars, 6,194; of officers and 

 teachers in Sunday-schools, 773. 



Southern District: number of churches, 13; 

 of communicants, 1,165; of non-communi- 

 cants over thirteen years of age, 238; of chil- 

 dren, 538 ; total number of persons connected 

 with the churches, 1,939 ; number of Sunday- 

 school scholars 611 ; of officers and teachers 

 in Sunday-schools, 81. 



Total for the Province: number of churches, 

 75; of communicants, 8,930; of non-commu- 

 nicants over thirteen years of age, 1,576 ; of 

 children, 5,186; total number of persons con- 

 nected with the churches, 15,692 ; number of 

 Sunday-school scholars, 6,805 ; of officers and 

 teachers in Sunday-schools, 854. 



The Provincial Synod of the Moravian Church 

 met at Nazareth, Pa., May 17th. Bishop Ed- 

 mund de Schweinitz was chosen president. A 

 letter was presented from the Unity's Elders' 

 Conference (Berthelsdorf), signed by Bishop 

 Gustavus T. Tietzen. It stated that the con- 

 ference had intended to send a fraternal dele- 

 gation ; the brethren whom they had expect- 

 ed to depute had, however, felt constrained to 

 ask special guidance of the Lord. The lot was 

 cast, and resulted in the negative. For this 

 reason no delegation was sent. The report of 

 the Provincial Elders' Conference gave infor- 

 mation on the condition of the Church since 

 the last previous meeting of the synod. Three 



