196 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



to impose certain import duties for a limited 

 term of years. Under the terms of the act 

 the sale of spirits was forbidden where their use 

 has not yet been introduced that is, beyond the 

 Inkissi river and in the whole of the upper 

 Congo district. The Congo State desired also 

 to place heavy restrictions on the importation 

 of fire-arms and ammunition, and to discourage 

 the sale of spirits in the zone where the Brussels 

 conference had placed no interdiction. To this 

 end high license duties were imposed in 1890, 

 which were repealed, however, the abolition of li- 

 censes to take effect on Jan. 1, 1892, because Port- 

 ugal had not supported this action with a similar 

 measure. Personal effects and agricultural and 

 industrial implements were still to be admitted 

 free, and theduties on other articles were not high, 

 but they would be sufficient to allow the more 

 burdensome of the existing taxes to be lightened 

 and would relieve King Leopold of a part of his 

 contributions, although he expected still to have 

 from one third to one half of the cost of adminis- 

 tration to pay. The ratifications of the Brussels 

 act were to be exchanged on July 2. After a lull 

 discussion of the import and export duties in 

 the French Chamber, the proposed scheme failed 

 to receive the assent of that body, and the 

 French Govern ment obtained an extension of 

 the term allowed for ratification, which most of 

 the powers had given in due time. The United 

 States Government, being unable to act before 

 the meeting of the Senate, likewise obtained an 

 extension. The French Chamber finally ratified 

 the convention on obtaining a modification of the 

 ivory duty. From Feb. 9, 1891, the duty on 

 ivory was fixed at the rates established that is, 

 10 and 25 per cent, ad valorem, and that on rub- 

 ber at 10 per cent. and the direct and personal 

 taxation was lowered to one third of the former 

 rates. This was in pursuance of a protocol 

 signed by France, Portugal, and the Congo 

 State, by which they arranged between them- 

 selves to impose a duty of 10 per cent, on salt, 

 fire-arms, and ammunition imported on the west 

 coast of Africa, and of 6 per cent, on other mer- 

 chandise. The United States also signed a sep- 

 arate agreement admitting the establishment of 

 import duties. As soon as ratifications were ex- 

 changed between the other signatories of the 

 antislavery declaration and act of the Brussels 

 conference, the Congo Government fixed a tariff 

 to go into force on Sept. 1. French merchants 

 resisted the imposition of different duties on ivory 

 so effectually that the King's representatives 

 agreed to abolish the separate tariff zones and 

 levy a uniform 10-per-cent. duty. The other 

 tariffs were the same that had been agreed upon 

 between the three powers having possessions on 

 the west coast in the Congo region. 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. I. Con^re^a- 

 tionalists in the United States. The follow- 

 ing is a summary of the statistics of the Congre- 

 gational churches in the United States as they 

 are given in the ' Congregational Year- Book " 

 for 1891 : Number of churches, 4,817; of minis- 

 ters, 4,619; of members, 506.832; of families, 

 341,043 : of additions during the year by confes- 

 sion of faith, 27,592: of baptisms, 1,255 of 

 adults and 9,892 of infants : of members of 

 Sunday schools, 645,976 ; of Young People's Soci- 

 eties of Christian Endeavor, 2,540, with 122,204 



members. Amount of benevolent contributions, 

 so far as reported from 4,042 churches : for for- 

 eign missions, $349,733; for education, $233,- 

 412; for church building, $169,513; for home 

 missions, $468,042 ; for the American Missionary 

 Association, $163,795 ; for Sunday schools. $50,- 

 733; for the New West Education Society, 

 $43,814; for minister's aid, $19,173; other con- 

 tributions, $772,446 ; for home expenditures 

 (4,094 churches), $6,091,221. Of the churches, 

 3,468 are recorded as "supplied" and 1,349 as 

 vacant or supplied by licentiates. Of the min- 

 isters, 3,062 are in pastoral work and 1,537 are 

 without charge. 



The seven theological seminaries return 46 

 professors, 35 instructors or lecturers, 9 resident 

 licentiates or fellows, 33 members of advanced 

 or graduate classes, and 549 undergraduate stu- 

 dents. 



The Congregational Sunday-school and Pub- 

 lishing Society, Chicago, received, during 1890, 

 $57,748, and expended $57,841. 



The New West Education Commission reported 

 in 1890, 32 schools in Utah and New Mexico, 

 with 75 teachers, 3,284 pupils, of whom 967 

 were Mormons and 212 were Mexicans, and 1,900 

 pupils in Sunday schools. Its income for the 

 year had been $75,301 and its expenditures 

 $79,629, and it was indebted, on account of build- 

 ings, $9,328. 



The library of the American Congregational 

 Association, Boston, contains 29,403 volumes, 

 55,960 pamphlets, and 34,086 unbound numbers 

 of periodicals. 



American Congregational Union. The thirty- 

 eighth annual meeting of the American Congre- 

 gational Union was held in New York city, Jan. 

 8. The Rev. William M. Taylor, D. D., LL. D, 

 presided. The receipts of the society during the 

 year had been $155,530, $18,724 having been re- 

 ceived for parsonages. One hundred and twenty- 

 eight churches had been aided with $117,54(5, 

 whereby $465,663 worth of property was brought 

 into service; while the payment of $16,470 to 

 bnild 47 parsonages had brought property to the 

 value of $51,769 into use. The total amount of 

 receipts since the first institution of the Albany 

 fund in 1852 and of the Forefathers' fund in 

 1856, and including those funds, had been $2,- 

 041,623, of which $109,527 had been received for 

 the building of parsonages since 1882. The 

 Union had since 1864 loaned $194,284 to 212 

 churches, of which $65,840 had been refunded, 

 while some had made contributions more than 

 equivalent to the grants they had received. The 

 loan accounts of 53 of these churches had been 

 closed. In the department of parsonage loans, 

 $90,938 in all had been loaned to 270 churches, 

 51 of which had paid up. 



American Home Missionary Society. The 

 sixty-ninth annual meeting of the American 

 Home Missionary Society was held in Saratoga 

 Springs, N. Y., June 2. The executive commit lee 

 reported that $460,999 had been received during 

 the year from legacies and contributions, and 

 $174,181 had been reported by the auxiliaries as 

 received and expended in their respective fields; 

 the expenditures had been $802,566, and had boon 

 met by the current receipts, balances, and loan 

 from bank. Nineteen hundred and twelve mis- 

 sionaries had been employed in 45 States and 



