692 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



Navy and Colonies, Ribeiro da Fonseca ; For- 

 eign Affairs, J. d'Andrade Oorvo ; Public Works, 

 Commerce, and Industry, L. A. de Carvalho. 

 On February 25th the Chambers adopted a 

 bill authorizing the Government to construct 

 the Beira Alta Railroad, if the proposals^of 

 private companies were not suitable. The line 

 is to unite Coimbra with Salamanca, and is 

 to afford direct communication between Lisbon 

 and Central Europe. Other important bills of 

 the session were those providing for the increase 

 of salaries of teachers in the public schools, 

 the reorganization of the Supreme Court, 

 the reform of postal affairs, and the introduc- 

 tion of compulsory elementary education. The 

 session of the Chambers was closed on May 4th. 



Elections for municipal and general coun- 

 cilors were held throughout the kingdom in 

 the early part of August, and resulted favor- 

 ably for the Government. Elections for mem- 

 bers of the Chamber of Deputies were held 

 on October 13th, and also resulted favorably 

 for the Government. Another change took 

 place in the Cabinet in the first week of De- 

 cember, when Senhor Monteiro was appointed 

 Minister of Justice. He is a member of the 

 Chamber of Peers, and belongs to the Govern- 

 ment party. 



PRESBYTERIANS. I. PEESBTTEEIAN 

 CHURCH ix THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

 The following is a summary of the statistics 

 of this Church as they were reported to the 

 General Assembly which met in May, 1878. 

 The table is arranged so as to exhibit the 

 growth of the Church during the last year, 

 and since 1872: 



The numbers of ministers, churches, mem- 

 bers of the Church, and members of Sunday 

 schools are shown by synods as follows: 



The Board of Education reported to the 

 General Assembly that 436 candidates had 

 been accepted during the year, of whom 32 

 were fitting to labor in the German language, 

 7 in the French, Portuguese, Welsh, and other 

 languages, and 59 for service among the f reed- 

 men. 



The Committee on Freedmen reported to the 

 General Assembly that their total receipts for 

 the year had been $51,255, and their total 

 expenditures $50,833. They had under their 

 care 129 missionaries of all kinds, 139 church- 

 es with 10,257 communicants, 120 Sunday 

 schools with 7,456 scholars, and 37 parochial 

 schools with 3,989 scholars. 



The Library of the Presbyterian Historical 

 Society contained on the 18th of May, 1878, 

 11,000 volumes. 



The Board of Foreign Missions reported to 

 the General Assembly that their receipts for 

 the year had been $463,351.66, and their ex- 

 penditures $511,180.92. The operations of the 

 year, although they had been conducted with 

 care to avoid debt, had resulted in another de- 

 ficiency of $47,329. There was an increase of 

 four ordained missionaries, seven female mis- 

 sionaries, three native ministers, and eight li- 

 centiates. An increase of 20 per cent, in re- 

 ceipts, in addition to special contributions and 

 to the amount needed to remove the existing 

 debt, would be required to carry on the work 



