ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



RUSSIA. 



707 



otlior motive than our desire for tho welfare and 

 progress and perpetuity of our country, uc i as the 

 fathers of '76 in. uli- it, and intended that it should 

 remain. 



Your sincere friend, and lover of the American 

 Republic, 



+ JOHN B. PURCELL, 



Archbishop of Cincinnati. 



In Iowa, an attempt to amend the constitution 

 BO as to establish the Protestant religion virtu- 

 ally in all the educational and eleemosynary 

 institutions excited agitation and remonstrance 

 from Catholics. In Arizona, Chief-Justice 

 Dunne, who had delivered a lecture bearing 

 on the school-question, was removed from office 

 by President Grant. The attempt to add an 

 amendment to the Constitution of the United 

 States failed from a want of concurrence be- 

 tween the two Houses of Congress, the diffi- 

 culty being to use words that would enable the 

 Protestant Bible, general doctrines, and hymns, 

 to be maintained in the schools, without at the 

 same time making the amendment an instru- 

 ment by which public schools might them- 

 selves be suppressed; and to authorize grants 

 to educational and eleemosynary institutions 

 where the general principles of the Protestant 

 religion might be taught, while grants were 

 forbidden to those where the Catholic religion 

 was inculcated. 



In Mexico, Bishop Moreno, of Lower Cali- 

 fornia, was imprisoned in October, and subse- 

 quently exiled. 



The new President of Ecuador, Borrero, at- 

 tempted to pursue the policy of Moreno in en- 

 couraging religious influences, but his admin- 

 istration was soon brought to a close. 



The Catholic Church in Venezuela under- 

 went a series of attacks. Under the govern- 

 ment of Guzman Blanco the archbishop was 

 driven into exile, monasteries and convents 

 were suppressed, celibacy was abolished by law, 

 civil marriage established, and, finally, Presi- 

 dent Blanco issued a mandate to Congress in 

 these terms: "I have taken upon myself to 

 pass a law which shall declare the Church of 

 Venezuela independent of the Roman episco- 

 pate, and ask that you further order that parish 

 prints shall be elected by the faithful, the 

 bishops by the rectors of parishes, the arch- 

 bishops by Congress." 



The difficult position of affairs in Brazil was 

 brought to an unsatisfactory conclusion for the 

 time. On the 29th of April Pius IX. addressed 

 a letter of instructions to the bishops. 



The press teemed with attacks on the bishops 

 and Catholic party, and the stage used its in- 

 fluence to render the Catholic Church con- 

 temptible as compared with Masonry. This 

 excited a warm protest from the bishops, which 

 was, however, disregarded (May 6th). The fall 

 of the ministry, however, the release of the 

 bishops, and the raising of the interdict, quieted 

 matters for a time, but left the original point 

 undecided. This called forth a second brief 

 (August 28th) from the Pope, insisting on the 

 reorganization of the Sodalities in conformity 



to the rules of the Church. The feeling of hos- 

 tility was seen in the case of the Bishop of Rio 

 Janeiro, who was driven from his pulpit (Octo- 

 ber 22d). 



The missions of the Catholic Church in hea- 

 then countries showed generous devoted new. 

 In January, 1876, the Rev. Messrs. Bouchard, 

 Paulmier, and Menoret, were put to death by 

 the Tuariks, while on their way to Timbuctoo. 

 On February 22d the mission at Ning-kooe-foo, 

 China, was destroyed ; and on the 8th of April 

 a massacre of Christians took place at Kiang- 

 peetin; this was followed, July 18th, by the 

 execution of Wang, a native Catholic priest, at 

 Ning-kooe-foo. Among the losses sustained by 

 death, the Catholic Church had to deplore the 

 decease of Dr. Orestes A. Brownson, and his 

 daughter, Sarah M. Brownson Tenney, in 

 America; the eminent theologian Perrone; 

 Cardinals Antonelli, Barrios, and Patrisi, in 

 Italy. 



RUSSIA (Empire of all the Russias), an em- 

 pire in Europe and Asia. Emperor, Alexan- 

 der II., born April 17 (April 29, new style), 

 1818 ; succeeded his father, February 18 

 (March 2), 1855 ; crowned at Moscow, August 

 26 (September 7), 1850. Heir-apparent, Grand- 

 duke Alexander, born February 26 (March 10), 

 1845 ; married November 4, 1866, to Maria 

 Dagmar (born November 26, 1847), daughter 

 of King Christian IX. of Denmark. Offspring 

 of the union are two sons and one daughter : 

 Nicholas, born May 6, 1868; George, born 

 April 28, 1871 ; and Xenia, born March 25, 

 1875. 



By the cession of the Kuriles to Japan, in 

 1875, the area of Siberia was reduced about 

 1,922 square miles; while, on the other hand, 

 the annexation of Khokan, which by a ukase 

 of March 2, 1 876, was organized as a Russian 

 province under tho name of Ferghana, added 

 to the empire a territory of 28,270 square 

 miles, with a population of 960,000. The area 

 and population of the great divisions of the 

 Russian Empire were, in 1876, reported as fol- 

 lows : 



DIVISIONS. 



1. European Russia. Inclusive of Po- 



land and of the Sea of Azov 



2. Grand-duchy of Finland 



:>. ( 'aiivasla 



4. Siberia 



5. Central Asia... 



Total Russian Empire . 



1,944.677 

 144.22s 



ymjam 



Populatta. 



4,898tt 

 M38.8CI 



-.,..w,.u4 



If the Caspian Sea, which embraces 169,666 

 square miles, and is now almost wholly encir- 

 cled by Russian territory, be included in the 

 area of the empire, the total area would 

 amount to 8,561,498 square miles. 



The religious statistics of the empire, exclu- 

 sive of Finland, but embracing European Rus- 

 sia, Poland, Caucasia, Siberia, and Central Asia, 

 and including Christians, Jews, Mohammedans 

 and pagans, were, according to the Peter* 

 burger Kalender of 1876, as follows : 



