768 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



The Jewish mission maintained two agents 

 among the Jews in the east of London. 



The Synod of the Presbyterian Church in 

 England met at Newcastle-upon-Tyne April 

 25th. The Rev. Dr. Callingwood Bruce was 

 chosen Moderator. Resolutions opposing the 

 connection of church and state, and favoring 

 disestablishment, were introduced, and gave 

 rise to a vigorous debate, but the Synod de- 

 clared it inexpedient to make a definite recom- 

 mendation on the subject. A committee was 

 appointed to consider the subject of psalmody 

 in the Church, and report to the next meeting 

 of the Synod. The establishment of a loan 

 fund for the extinction of debts on church 

 property, and of a fund for the insurance of 

 denominational property, were recommended. 



X. ESTABLISHED CHUKOH OF SCOTLAND. 

 The total amount of contributions (exclusive 

 of seat-rents) to the funds and schemes of this 

 Church for 1880 was 319,829. 



The Colonial Committee reported that its re- 

 ceipts for 1880 had been 3,880, against 3,384 

 received in 1879, and its expenditures 5,900, 

 against 7,347 in 1879. It had further received 

 a legacy just at the close of the year of 7,142, 

 by means of which it had freed itself from debt, 

 and had come into the enjoyment of a surplus 

 of 1,500. The report reviewed the operations 

 of the committee in supporting chaplains at va- 

 rious points in India, Ceylon, Cyprus. South Af- 

 rica, British Columbia, the West Indies, British 

 Guiana, Australia, New Zealand, the European 

 Continent, and the military and naval stations. 

 It was gradually closing up its work in Canada, 

 in accordance with the terms of the Union of 

 the Presbyterian Churches of the Dominion. 

 The report of the Committee on Correspond- 

 ence with Foreign Churches touched upon the 

 condition of the Reformed Churches in France, 

 Italy (Waldensians), Holland, Moravia, and Bo- 

 hemia. 



The Jewish Committee reported that its in- 

 come had been 5,024, and its expenditures 

 5,354, both showing a considerable falling 

 off from the two previous years. It had had 

 2,109 pupils during the year at its nine schools 

 in Egypt, Asiatic and European Turkey, 1,038 

 of whom were Jews. These numbers were 

 larger than had been returned in any previous 

 year. The number of baptisms, 10, was like- 

 wise larger than in any year before. 



The Committee on Education reported that 

 the whole Training College system, involving 

 an outlay of nearly 24,000 a year, had been 

 maintained without making any appeal to the 

 Church for aid. 



The Committee on Sunday -schools presented 

 reports of 1,952 schools, with 17,436 teachers, 

 187,418 children, and 44,885 persons in adult 

 classes. 



The Committee on Patronage Compensation 

 had received 1,381, or only enough to pay to 

 the presentees one half the sums deducted by 

 patrons, besides leaving untouched the arrears 

 of previous years. The committee called special 



attention to the systematic disregard shown by 

 many ministers to the injunctions of the Assem-: 

 bly. Collections had been made for its scheme, 

 as ordered by the Assembly, in only 562 out 

 of 1,263 parishes where they might have been 

 made. 



The Home Mission Committee had received 

 15,983, a larger revenue than it had ever en- 

 joyed in any year except 1878. Nearly half of 

 this amount, 7,142, had come in the form 

 of a legacy from the late James Buist, and 

 7,000 of it would be erected into the u Buist 

 Fund." 



The Foreign Mission Committee reported that 

 its receipts had been 7,697 in collections, and 

 8,551 in legacies, and that its expenditures had 

 amounted to 18,350. It regarded the state of 

 the funds as of " the gravest importance." The 

 additions to the mission churches had been " nu- 

 merous and encouraging." 



The General Assembly of the Church of Scot- 

 land met at Edinburgh May 19th. The Rev. 

 Dr. Smith, of Cathcart, was chosen Moderator. 

 Two important subjects were considered. One 

 related to the conduct of the missionaries of the 

 mission at Blantyre, on the Shire River, Central 

 Africa, who had been charged with assuming 

 the exercise of a civil jurisdiction to which they 

 were not entitled, and with committing, under 

 color of it, cruelties upon natives. A commit- 

 tee sent out to investigate the case had found 

 that the charges were substantially true, and 

 the missions had thereupon been suspended 

 and recalled. The report of the committee on 

 the subject covered the question of the proper 

 civil and commercial relations to be maintained 

 between missionaries and the people among 

 whom they are settled, and included the results 

 of inquiries made among other societies on the 

 subject. No other society except that of the 

 Free Church at Livingstonia seemed ever to 

 have had any settlement similar to that at 

 Blantyre; but all their missions were in coun- 

 tries where a paramount power existed. The 

 missionaries were instructed to conform as far 

 as might be to local laws, and were forbidden 

 to exercise jurisdiction. In the case of slav- 

 ery, while they were to give every assistance, 

 and afford every mitigation in their power to 

 the enslaved, they were not to set themselves 

 up against the laws of the country. The use 

 of fire-arms, except for shooting game, was 

 discouraged. Cases of robbery should be left 

 to be dealt with by the proper authority, or, 

 if its mode of punishment was repugnant to 

 Christian feeling, should rather be endured. 

 The societies seemed quite aware that, in order 

 to carry out their policy of non-interference, 

 they should have no industrial settlement, and, 

 accordingly, confined themselves to raising what 

 was necessary for their own support. In ac- 

 cordance with these principles, the committee 

 recommended that, while the mission be con- 

 tinued, the industrial department, and all at- 

 tempt to raise produce for barter or sale, be 

 abandoned, and civil and criminal jurisdiction 



