PRESTON, JOHN S. 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 771 



leges, empowering them to confer degrees in 

 theology. 



The Committee of Arrangements for the 

 Third General Council of the Alliance of the 

 Reformed Churches holding the Presbyterian 

 System met at Belfast, Ireland, August 16th, 

 and appointed Tuesday, June 26, 1884, as the 

 time for the meeting of the Council, the ses- 

 sions to continue till July 4th. 



XV. WALDENSIAN CHURCH. The Walden- 

 sian Church of Italy included, according to the 

 reports made to the Synod of 1881, 41 settled 

 congregations, 34 stations, 150 places visited 

 by evangelists, 46 teachers, 7 colporteurs, 3,225 

 communicants, and 437 catechumens. The re- 

 ceipts of the year for schools and missions had 

 been $10,500, and $18,000 had been raised in 

 the Church for the augmentation of the sti- 

 pends of ministers. 



The Annual Synod of the Waldensian Church 

 was held at Florence in September. The Rev. 

 Professor Geymonat, of the Waldensian Col- 

 lege at Florence, presided. The most impor- 

 tant discussion was upon a report of a commis- 

 sion which had been intrusted with the revision 

 of the Liturgy. The revision was opposed by 

 a number of members, who favored the reten- 

 tion of the old Liturgy ; but the Commission 

 of Revision was reappointed, and authorized 

 to continue its work for another year. A dele- 

 gate, representing the Presbyterian churches 

 of Scotland, announced that a gift of 12,000, 

 which had been promised by the members of 

 those churches as an endowment for increas- 

 ing the stipends of the pastors, had been com- 

 pleted. A similar endowment, in the promo- 

 tion of which the Archbishop of Canterbury 

 has interested himself, is to be provided by the 

 friends of this Church in England. 



XVI. PRESBYTERIAN' ALLIANCE OF INDIA. 

 The Presbyterian Alliance of India, formed of 

 the various Presbyterian churches represented 

 in India, held its second session in June, in Alla- 

 habad. Nearly all of the twelve churches, ex- 

 cept the most distant ones, were represented. 

 Dr. Morrison, of the United States, was chosen 

 Moderator. The chief subjects discussed con- 

 cerned the union of the native communities of 

 the various Presbyterian churches in India into 

 one organization. A scheme for the establish- 

 ment of a college at Allahabad was also con- 

 sidered. 



PRESTON, Jonx S., born at Abingdon, Vir- 

 ginia, April 13, 1809 ; died in Columbia, South 

 Carolina, in 1881. When very young he en- 

 tered the University of Virginia, and soon at- 

 tracted the attention of the professors by his 

 ripe scholarship. He pursued with great indus- 

 try a full course of studies, and graduated with 

 distinction, bearing off the highest honors of 

 his class. After finishing his university course, 

 he made an extended tour through Europe, 

 spending several years in Paris and Rome. In 

 1840 he located in Columbia, South Carolina, 

 having, a short time before, married a daughter 

 of Wade Hampton, of Revolutionary fame. 



Upon the return of the Palmetto Regiment from 

 Mexico, in 1848, General Preston was selected 

 to deliver an address of welcome. His oration 

 on this occasion was so finished and eloquent 

 that it stamped him as the foremost orator of 

 the South. At this time he eschewed politics, 

 although persistently urged by his friends to 

 accept public position. A few years later, 

 however, he overcame his scruples, and be- 

 came a candidate for State Senator against the 

 celebrated James W. Adams. The canvass 

 was one of the most stubborn and acrimonious 

 known in the State. Preston was elected by 

 a small majority. He served for several terms 

 with marked ability. A series of able liter- 

 ary papers, contributed by him to periodicals 

 of the day, incontinently marked him as possi- 

 bly the first litterateur in the South. General 

 Preston's esthetic tastes, so highly cultivated, 

 rendered him a connoisseur of the fine arts, 

 of which he was a liberal patron. He it was 

 who first perceived in Hiram Powers that 

 genius which, through his munificent inter- 

 position, developed into the master sculptor. 

 Through gratitude, Powers made General Pres- 

 ton the recipient of the first replica of his fa- 

 mous "Greek Slave." General Preston was 

 an ardent secessionist. He went to Richmond 

 to advocate disunion and war. When hostilities 

 began, he assumed command of a regiment in 

 Virginia, and was in the first battle of Manas- 

 sas. He was subsequently made general. After 

 the war he went immediately to England, 

 where he remained for some time. A few 

 years ago he delivered an oration before the 

 Virginia University, in which he opposed rec- 

 onciliation. This drew upon him the vehe- 

 ment condemnation of the Northern and South- 

 ern press. To the day of his death he enter- 

 tained the most radical views concerning the 

 wrongs of the South, and her right to secede 

 from the Union. He had been an honest and 

 consistent but bitter adversary of fraternal 

 reconciliation between the North and South. 

 His last public effort was his address delivered 

 at the unveiling of the Confederate monument 

 in Columbia two years ago. General Preston 

 was a remarkable specimen of physical man- 

 hood, over six feet tall, possessing a powerful 

 and symmetrical frame, his head large and 

 well shaped and his forehead massive. 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

 The following is a summary of the statistics of 

 the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 

 States as they are given in " The Church Al- 

 manac " .for 1882 : Number of dioceses, 48, 

 with 15 missionary districts (including Africa, 

 China, and Japan) additional ; whole number 

 of clergy, 3,496; number of communicants, 

 342,500 ; number of Sunday-school teachers so 

 far as reported, 29,568 ; number of Sunday- 

 school scholars, 283,536. Amount of contribu- 

 tions, $6,749,043. Number of baptisms, 42,519 ; 

 number of confirmations, 23,967. Whittaker's 

 "Protestant Episcopal Almanac and Church 

 List " gives the following statistics by dioceses : 



