DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 



DISEAELI, BENJAMIN. 213 



ported that its total receipts for the year had 

 been $29,899, of which $17,258 had been given 

 in cash, the rest in pledges. The additional 

 sum of $52,342 had been obtained by eight 

 State and missionary agencies, making a total 

 amount for the co-operative work of the Gen- 

 eral and State Conventions of $82,241. The 

 whole number of additions reported by the 

 State organizations and the General Convention 

 was 2,884. More than $30,000 had been con- 

 tributed for the church to be built in "Washing- 

 ton, D. C., the total cost of which is to be 

 $35,000. Special report was made of mission- 

 ary work in Dakota, Oregon, Alabama, Col- 

 orado, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, 

 North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, 

 Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. A 

 considerable extension of the mission-fields, 

 and the establishment of a mission among the 

 German population of the country, were rec- 

 ommended. An amended constitution was 

 adopted, containing provisions by which per- 

 sons contributing to the funds of the society 

 might obtain, through representation in the 

 convention, a voice in its management. The 

 General Christian Missionary Convention was 

 organized in 1849 under the name of the Amer- 

 ican Christian Missionary Society, and received 

 its present name in 1869. The total amount 

 of moneys contributed in 1881 was $187,454, 

 giving an annual average of receipts for thirty- 

 two years of $5,857. In addition to this 

 amount, the State societies had contributed for 

 their co-operative work, since 1870, the sum 

 of $623,077, making an average for each year 

 of $51,923. Since 1858, 16,669 persons, or an 

 average of 694 for each year, had been added 

 to the church through the General Convention ; 

 and, since 1870, 52,428 persons, or an average 

 of 4,369 for each year, have been added through 

 the State societies. 



The sixth annual convention of the Foreign 

 Christian Missionary Society met at Indianap- 

 olis, Indiana, October 19th. The available re- 

 sources of the society for the year had been 

 $13,822, and its expenditures $13,313. The 

 missions were at Southampton, Chester, and 

 Liverpool, England ; Copenhagen, Denmark ; 

 Frederikshald, Norway ; Paris, France ; and 

 Constantinople, Turkey; and returned 648 

 members, 159 additions during the year, 2,600 

 persons in the congregations, and 665 in Sun- 

 day-schools. The society decided to co-operate 

 with the Christian Woman's Board of Missions 

 in establishing a mission in Japan as soon as 

 that should be judged practicable by the board 

 of managers. The committee on " Present Mis- 

 sions " presented a report in favor of maintain- 

 ing all the existing missions in foreign coun- 

 tries, making especial reference to those in 

 Great Britain, which was adopted. The com- 

 mittee on the extension of foreign missions 

 made a report deprecating the idea that the 

 duty of the society was fulfilled by establishing 

 and maintaining missions in Protestant Chris- 

 tian countries, indicating Japan and Africa as 



suitable fields for further efforts, and recom- 

 mending the appointment of traveling finan- 

 cial agents to procure subscriptions for the 

 maintenance of the work of the society. This 

 report was adopted. 



The Christian Woman's Board of Mi&siom 

 has a mission in Jamaica, with 700 members, 

 a school at Kingston, and day-schools, supports 

 a teacher in France, and employs a missionary 

 to the freedmen at Jackson, Mississippi. 



The churches of the English missions, em- 

 bracing congregations at Chester, Liverpool, 

 and Southport, held a meeting at Helsby, Au- 

 gust 1st, and took steps for the organization of 

 a conference, "not for the exercise of legisla- 

 tive or ecclesiastical functions, but for the cul- 

 tivation of personal religion, and the extension 

 of the Redeemer's cause," to be held annually. 



DISRAELI, BENJAMIN, Earl of Beaconsfield, 

 twice Prime Minister of Great Britain, died in 

 London, April 19th, at the age of seventy-six. 

 The deceased statesman had suffered for sev- 

 eral years from attacks of gout complicated 

 with bronchitis, which at times reduced him to 

 a condition of extreme weakness. The fatal 

 attack seized him, while suffering from general 

 ill health and in a season of exceedingly unfa- 

 vorable weather, just a month before his death. 

 In the medical treatment of his case, the ques- 

 tion of the professional propriety of allopathic 

 physicians consulting with Lord Beaconsfield's 

 attendant, Dr. Kidd, who belonged to the ho- 

 moeopathic or the eclectic school, arose in the 

 regular organization of medical practitioners. 

 Dr. Quain, a physician of reputation, waived the 

 rule of etiquette, and assumed the case jointly 

 with Dr. Kidd, with the general approval of 

 the profession. 



Disraeli occupied a position so anomalous 

 that even after the triumphs of his last pre- 

 miership the sources of his influence and the 

 secrets of the great power he wielded are 

 scarcely understood even by the party which, 

 under his leadership, controlled a vast majority 

 of the suffrages of Great Britain. His char- 

 acter was mistrusted by the Tories themselves 

 when they submissively followed his guidance 

 in courses of which they had no foreknowl- 

 edge, and which antagonized their own convic- 

 tions. He brought others to forget their pro- 

 fessions and abandon their principles ; but in 

 the extremest concessions which he made to the 

 democracy he maintained with justice that he 

 did not depart from the fundamental principles 

 of politics which he had always avowed. Dis- 

 raeli belonged to a school of political thinkers 

 whose deeper perceptions have not been appre- 

 hended by a world dazzled by the philosophy 

 of the French Revolution and of the industrial 

 school of political economy. The older roman- 

 tic statesmen belied their better inspiration in 

 becoming mere reactionists, the sentimental or 

 the interested champions of existing powers 

 and menaced privileges. Disraeli was a Conserv- 

 ative by nature, but one who possessed the gift 

 of looking before as well as after. He pro- 



