772 



EHODE ISLAND. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



tendance being 1,796; the schools were 33 in 

 number, employing 154 teachers. The public 

 schools received an appropriation of $92,923 

 from the State and $340,237 from the towns, 

 as well as $83,034 for land and buildings, $31,- 

 785 from district taxation, and $52,227 from 

 registry taxes and other sources; making a 

 total revenue of $600,208. The cost of in- 

 struction per capita of the pupils enrolled in 

 the day-schools was $11.02; of the average 

 number of pupils attending, $17.11. The num- 

 ber of schoolhouses was 446, and the esti- 

 mated value of school property was $2,654,148. 



The appropriation of 1878 for the support 

 of the State Farm, at Cranston, was $28,814; 

 for the State Prison, $16,821. The appropria- 

 tion made for the support of the State institu- 

 tions in 1879 was $71,350 ; the total payments 

 from the Treasury for this purpose and for new 

 works, $91,988. Daring the year $40,515 was 

 collected for labor, sales of produce, etc., mak- 

 ing the net cost of the institutions for the year 

 $51,463, of which $43,000 represented the net 

 cost of maintenance, which would give, as- 

 suming the average number of inmates to have 

 been 800, a net cost to the State for each in- 

 mate per week of $1.04. In the Asylum for 

 the Insane the number of inmates had increased 

 from 218 in 1878, and from 148 in 1873, to 

 283. 



The new State Prison lately finished and oc- 

 cupied, upon the State Farm, is well built of 

 stone quarried on the spot. The building is 

 453 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 45 feet high, 

 with a dome over the chapel in the center 

 whosa top is 110 feet above the ground. The 

 prison contains 252 cells of three sizes, the 

 smallest of which are 5 feet by 8, and the 

 largest 8 feet square. 



For the year 1877 the number of births was 

 6,235, of marriages 2,282, of deaths 4,450 ; the 

 first showing a slight decrease, the second an 

 insignificant decrease, and the last a somewhat 

 larger decrease. For the period of twenty- 

 four years the total number of children born 

 was 115,131, of which 4,429 were still-born; 

 the total number of marriages recorded was 

 47,344, and of deaths 75,492. The proportion 

 of children born of American parentage is 

 slightly less than those of foreign parentage. 

 The divorces granted during the year were 534, 

 of which number 157 were for neglect, 155 for 

 desertion, 68 for cruelty, 61 for drunkenness, 

 and 52 for adultery. The deaths from con- 

 sumption were 661, from diphtheria 492, the 

 latter being an increase from 159 in 1876. 



The Narragansett Indians held a meeting in 

 Charlestown on July 30th to discuss the ques- 

 tion of giving up their tribal constitution and 

 acquiring the rights of citizenship. Little in- 

 terest was shown by the Indians in the pro- 

 posed change, and the decision was postponed. 

 The question of abolishing the tribal authority 

 of the Narragansett Indians was brought up in 

 the Legislature, and is still pending. 



In a suit for an injunction brought by cer- 



tain tax-payers of the city of Newport to re- 

 strain the City Treasurer from paying the ex- 

 penses of a banquet given by the City Council 

 to officers from British naval ships, Chief Jus- 

 tice Durfee of the Supreme Court decided that 

 the expenditure was unauthorized, and granted 

 the injunction, refusing to -entertain the plea 

 that the suitors were estopped from applying 

 for an injunction because their application was 

 not made in advance. 



ROEBUCK, JOHN ARTHUR, an English poli- 

 tician, was born December 29, 1802, and died 

 November 30, 1879. He studied law in Lon- 

 don, was called to the bar in 1831, and in the 

 following year was elected to Parliament from 

 Bath. He was soon known in the House as 

 the " Objector-General," and, in the words of 

 one of his biographers, "he faced every sort of 

 fact in politics, analyzed all kinds of men, op- 

 posed and lectured Whigs and Tories, headed 

 the rest of the Radicals in plain speaking ; and, 

 being still a young man, of no definite position 

 and with no obvious aims, he created, inside 

 and outside Parliament, a mingled feeling of 

 detestation, wonder, admiration, and amuse- 

 ment." He was defeated in 1837 by Lord 

 Powerscourt, but was reflected in 1841. It 

 was during this Parliament 1841-'47 that 

 Mr. Roebuck exhibited the most feverish ac- 

 tivity of his life. In 1849 he was returned for 

 Sheffield, and he sat for that constituency until 

 1868, when he was defeated, and was again re- 

 turned in 1874. His most memorable appear- 

 ance in public life was in January, 1855, when 

 he brought forward in the House of Commons 

 a motion for inquiry into the conduct of the 

 Crimean war, which was resisted by the Gov- 

 ernment of Earl Aberdeen, but carried by a 

 majority of 157, when that Government was 

 forced to resign. In 1857 he made himself 

 conspicuous by his opposition to a projected 

 war with China, and his attitude upon this sub- 

 ject was influential in effecting a dissolution of 

 that Parliament. His course on some impor- 

 tant questions, notably his advocacy of the 

 cause of the Confederate States, and his de- 

 nunciations of trades-unions, led to his defeat 

 in 1868. In 1877-'78 he vigorously supported 

 the policy of the Earl of Beaconsfield, and he 

 was sworn a Privy Councilor in 1878. Early 

 in life he spent some years in Canada, and he 

 was ever afterward one of the stanchest sup- 

 porters of the rights of that colony against im- 

 perial pretensions. Besides numerous articles 

 in the "Westminster" and the "Edinburgh 

 Review," he wrote "Plan for Government of 

 our English Colonies" (1849), and " History of 

 the Whig Ministry of 1830 " (1852). 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. The af- 

 fairs of the Roman Catholic Church attracted 

 less general interest in 1879 than has been usual 

 in late years. On February 1st Pope Leo XIIL 

 issued Letters Apostolic announcing a general 

 jubilee. He also issued an Encyclical against 

 the doctrines aimed by the Socialists, Commu- 

 nists, and Nihilists at all human authority and 



