774 



PRUSSIA. 



The receipts of the Committee for Domestic 

 Missions for the year, as reported at the meet- 

 ing of the board in October, had been $220,- 

 593, or, excluding legacies and special contribu- 

 tions, $143,160. Its work had been conducted 

 at an expense of four and a little more than one 

 tenth per cent of the receipts. The commit- 

 tee had employed as agents in thirteen mission- 

 ary jurisdictions and thirty dioceses among 

 white people, 12 missionary bishops and 288 

 clergymen; among colored people, 13 white 

 clergymen, 11 colored clergymen, 3 lay read- 

 ers, and 14 teachers; among the Chinese, 1 

 Chinese clergyman ; among Indians, 1 mis- 

 sionary bishop, 12 white clergymen, 13 native 

 clergymen, 1 white catechist, 9 native cate- 

 chists, 3 teachers, and 13 women helpers ; in 

 all, 394 agents. 



The receipts of the Committee for Foreign 

 Missions had been $185,758. The cost of ad- 

 ministration and collection had been six and 

 three tenths per cent of the amount realized. 

 The condition of the missions was represented 

 in the report as follows: Greece. 1 school at 

 Athens with 1 American, 4 Greek assistants, 

 and 4 pupil teachers ; Africa, 1 bishop, 8 pres- 

 byters, 33 other agents, 357 communicants ; 

 China, 1 bishop, 6 presbyters, 66 other agents, 

 408 communicants; Japan, 1 bishop, 6 pres- 

 byters, 23 other agents, 101 communicants; 

 Hayti, 1 bishop, 10 presbyters, 67 other agents, 

 364 communicants ; Mexico, 1 bishop, 1 bishop- 

 elect, 12 presbyters, 74 other agents, 3,301 at- 

 tendants on public worship. Pupils in Day 

 and Boarding Schools : In Greece, number 

 not returned ; in Africa, 488 ; in China, 726 ; 

 in Japan, 74 ; in Hayti, 247 ; in Mexico, 468. 



The Woman's Auxiliary to the Board of 

 Missions received during the financial year 

 of 1881 $49,462 in money, and the value 

 of $94,233 in boxes, or contributions in 

 kind, making a total of $143,695. Its to- 

 tal receipts for the ten years of its existence 

 amounted to $789,195. The Society had dur- 

 ing its past year maintained 150 scholarships 

 and paid the salaries of 20 women mission- 

 aries, and now proposed the establishment 

 of two salary funds domestic and foreign 

 for the payment of all salaries of mission- 

 ary women. 



The annual meeting of the Mexican League, 

 a society having for its object the education of 

 a native ministry in Mexico, was held in the 

 city of New York April 19th. The Bishop of 

 Delaware presided at this meeting of the 

 League. The receipts of the society for the 

 year had been $20,257, and it had a balance 

 on hand of $828. The receipts for the past 

 five years had exceeded $75,400. 



PRUSSIA,* a kingdom of Europe, forming 

 part of the German Empire. King, William I, 

 German Emperor and King of Prussia. The 

 Prussian Ministry at the close of 1881 was com- 

 posed as follows : President of the Ministry, 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Commerce, 

 Prince Bismarck ; War, General Kameke ; Pub- 

 lic Works, Maybach ; Finances, Bitter ; Interior, 

 Puttkammer ; Agriculture, Dr. Lucius; Jus- 

 tice, Dr. Friedberg ; Worship and Education, 

 Von Gossler. 



The population, according to the new census 

 of 1880, amounted to 27,278.911, divided as 

 follows among the different provinces and re- 

 ligious denominations : 



The budget estimates of both revenue and 

 expenditures during each of the four years from 

 1879 to 1882 (the financial year ending March 

 31st ; in marks, one mark being equal to $.238) : 



YEAR. Revenue and expenditure each. 



1879 718,857,764 



1880 711,500,758 



1881 799,200,581 



1882 ; 913,070,416 



Direct taxes form the chief source of reve- 

 nue, and, next to them, the receipts from state 

 railways. In recent years the income from 

 railways and other state undertakings, such as 

 mines, has been largely increasing, showing a 

 tendency to become a far more fruitful source 



of revenue than all taxation, direct or indirect. 

 The public debt of the kingdom, according 

 to the budget of 1881-'82, was 1,995,312,989 

 marks, of which 86,470,666 marks were debts 

 of the new provinces. 



The Diet assembled after the holidays on 

 January 8th, and adjourned on February 23d. 

 Three questions particularly claimed the atten- 

 tion of the House during this session the re- 

 mission of three months' class taxes and the 

 lower grades of the income-tax to the aggre- 

 gate amount of 14,000,000 marks, the disposal 



* For additional statistics and information, see article GER- 

 MANY. 



