46 



BACK, GEORGE. 



BAPTISTS. 



B 



BACK, Sir GEORGE, Admiral, 

 fftiished Arctic navigator, died on Sunday, June 

 23d at the age of 81. Born in 1796 he entered 

 the royal navy in 1808, and the following year 

 was taken prisoner by the French and kept m 

 captivity for five years. In 1819 he accom- 

 panied Franklin on his hazardous expedition 

 from Hudson's Bay to the mouth of the Cop- 

 permine, and thence eastward along the north- 

 ern coast of America. During this journey of 

 over 1,000 miles, on foot and in canoes, with 

 the mercury often 57 below zero, Back dis- 

 played consummate fortitude and the highest 

 degree of sagacity ; indeed, Franklin attributed 

 to the personal exertions of Back the ultimate 

 safety of the expedition. He was promoted 

 to a lieutenancy in 1821. In 1825 he was again 

 with Franklin in the Arctic regions, seeking 

 to make the northwest passage. Again, the 

 safe return of the expedition was mainly at- 

 tributable to Back's fertility of resource and 

 indomitable force of will. He was promoted 

 to the rank of commander in 1825. In 1833 

 he commanded an expedition to search for Sir 

 John Ross, then in the north-polar regions. 

 He was again in the Arctic seas in the year 

 1836-'37. On his return to England he retired 

 from active service. He was knighted in 1839 ; 

 attained flag rank in 1857, and the rank of 

 admiral in 1867. 



BAPTISTS. I. REGULAR BAPTISTS IN THE 

 UNITED STATES. The whole number of asso- 

 ciations in 1878 was 1,048; number of ad- 

 ditions to the churches by baptism, 102,292 ; 

 total increase of members during the year, 

 91,839; number of Sunday schools, 10,422; 

 of officers and teachers in the same, 96,- 

 850 ; of Sunday-school scholars, 806,317 ; total 

 amount of benevolent contributions, $4,318,- 

 888.77. The ten theological institutions re- 

 turned 40 instructors, with 459 students, all 

 preparing for the ministry ; property valued at 

 $1,845,547, and endowment funds of $1,360,- 

 545, from which $57,127 of income were real- 

 ized. Thirty-one colleges and universities re- 

 turned 264 instructors, of whom 42 were wo- 

 men, and 4,793 students, of whom- 850 were 

 women, and 573 were studying for the minis- 

 try. The property of these institutions was 

 valued at $7,465,691, and their aggregate en- 

 dowment funds were $3,307,770, yielding an- 

 nual incomes amounting to $175,628. The 

 number of academies, seminaries, institutes, and 

 female colleges returned in the "Year Book" 

 is 46, with 285 instructors, of whom 172 were 

 women, and 4,286 students, of whom 2,556 

 were women, and 362 were preparing for the 

 ministry. These schools returned a total prop- 

 erty valuation of $2,392,585, and ten of them 

 -had endowment funds amounting to $352,000, 

 and yielding a total income of $10,450. 



a distin- The following is a summary of the statistics 

 of the Regular Baptist churches in the United 

 States, as they are given in the " Ann^i-inon 

 Baptist Year Book " for 1878 : 



American 



The anniversaries of the Northern Baptist 

 societies of the United States were held at Cleve- 

 land, Ohio, beginning with that of the Ameri- 

 can Baptist Publication Society, which held its 

 fifty-fourth meeting May 28th. The receipts 

 of this Society for the year have been $2(54,059 

 in the business department, and $40,551 in 

 the missionary department; in all, $304,610*. 

 Twenty -two new publications had been issued, 

 making the whole number of works on the 

 catalogues of the Society's publications 1,151. 

 The total issues of the year were equal to 305,- 

 727,245 pages 18mo, and since its organiza- 

 tion in 1824 the Society had published 86,664,- 

 123 copies of books, tracts, and periodicals. 



The forty-sixth annual meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Baptist Home Mission Society was held 

 May 29th. The receipts of the Society for the 

 year had been $175,209, showing a falling off 



