6 



ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



" 1. It provides a homestead exemption to shel- 

 ter every family in Alabama. 



" 2. It prohibits the State and counties and 

 municipalities from indorsing bonds of railroads 

 or lending their aid or credit to any corporation. 



" 3. It secures to the people the right to elect 

 their own judges and other officials. 



" 4. It prohibits imprisonment for debt. 



" 5. It secures the right of trial by jury. 



" No pledge is given that a single one of these 

 provisions shall be preserved inviolate." 



The State committee of the Republican party 

 met early in April, and declared the holding of 

 a constitutional convention to be " unwise and 

 unnecessary, and that its declared purpose of dis- 

 franchising any of the present voters of the State 

 is unjust and in violation of the spirit of the Fed- 

 eral Constitution." 



The Democratic State Committee held a meet- 

 ing, April 21, and made strong protest against 

 the repeal of the convention act. 



In his message at the opening of the special 

 session, which lasted from May 2 to May 17, the 

 Governor said: "It is claimed by the advocates 

 of the convention that the main question to be 

 considered is an amendment that will secure 

 white supremacy, that no time should be lost, 

 but the greatest haste be taken to accomplish 

 this. I suppose there are few thoughtful citizens, 

 white or black, who do not believe that some 

 change should be made in this direction. The 

 necessity for hot haste haste that will not per- 

 mit any reflection is not apparent. White su- 

 premacy is as complete and all-pervading to-day 

 throughout the jurisdiction and domain of our 

 State as it is possible to be. There is not a negro 

 in all the Commonwealth holding an office under 

 the present Constitution, not a justice of the 

 peace, not a constable nor a single member of the 

 General Assembly, nor has there been one for 

 nearly a generation. It seems to me that the 

 franchise can be settled with less friction and 

 more certainty and security by a plain amend- 

 ment that the people can understand and vote 

 upon intelligently than by the framing of a new 

 constitution. If any material changes be made 

 in the Constitution in any other respect (and im- 

 material ones should not be considered), then 

 every elector opposed to any one of the changes 

 made would vote against the whole instrument; 

 whereas a simple and plain suffrage amendment 

 would command not only the intelligent and unr 

 coerced vote of every Democrat, but of practically 

 all the white and many intelligent colored voters 

 in the State." 



The only bills passed were two one repealing 

 the act of the regular session providing for a 

 constitutional convention, and one appropriating 

 money to pay the expenses of the special session. 

 No primary election law was passed, and no con- 

 stitutional amendments were submitted. 



ANGLICAN CHURCHES. Among the items 

 of Church growth and activity brought to notice 

 in the Official Yearbook of the Church of Eng- 

 land for 1899 is the increase in the number of 

 confirmations. While in single years this varies 

 considerably, the tables for a period of ten years 

 show a noticeable advance in the actual num- 

 ber of confirmations and in the centers. The 

 Sunday-school work appears to be growing not 

 very rapidly, the attendance, including only chil- 

 dren under fourteen years of age, being 2,410,201 

 in 1898 against 2,393,372 in 1897. The number 

 of appropriated sittings in churches increased 

 from 1,421,906 in 1896 to 1,878,386 in 1898, while 

 the free sittings advanced from 4,660,206 to 

 4,793,008. Forty-three hundred and twenty-nine 



churches were open for daily prayer in 1898 

 against 4,117 in 1897. A decided increase in vol- 

 untary offerings is shown, from 7,051,778 in 

 1897 to 7,506,354 in 1898. The figures, how- 

 ever, include legacies of exceptionally large 

 amounts and specific gifts for church building, 

 an instance being mentioned of a new church 

 costing 100,000 which was built by the munifi- 

 cence of a single donor. The number of deacons 

 ordained in 1898 (638) was smaller than at any 

 previous period during the past twenty years. 



Church Missionary Society. The one hun- 

 dredth annual meeting of the Church Missionary 

 Society was held in London, May 2. Sir John 

 Kennaway, M. P., presided. The expenditure 

 during the year had been 325,223, and the re- 

 ceipts, apart from those for the Centenary fund, 

 315,126, leaving a deficiency of a little more 

 than 10,000, which, when added to the adverse 

 balance brought forward from the previous year, 

 made a total deficiency of 30,110. The addi- 

 tion of the year's receipts for the Centenary fund 

 (53,260) \vould, however, more than cover this. 

 Including special funds, the total amount to be 

 acknowledged for the year was 379,827. The 

 two thousand and third missionary of the soci- 

 ety, not counting wives of missionaries, had been 

 sent out in March. The committee were prepar- 

 ing to send missionaries to the Soudan as soon 

 as the restrictions should be removed. The adult 

 converts from paganism and Mohammedanism 

 admitted to the Church by baptism during the 

 year numbered 6,829. The numerical statistics 

 represented 496 stations, with 403 ordained and 

 128 lay European missionaries, 314 wives of mis- 

 sionaries and 273 other women, making a total 

 of 1,118 European workers; 303 native clergy, 

 5,708 native lay teachers, 245,769 native Chris- 

 tian adherents (including catechumens), 65,387 

 native communicants, 86,798 pupils, and 16,047 

 baptisms during the year. At the time of the 

 meeting 70,000 had been paid and promised to 

 the Centenary fund. The society celebrated its 

 centenary in London during the w r eek beginning 

 April 9. A brief historical statement prepared 

 by the officers with reference to the celebration 

 showed that the society was founded at a meet- 

 ing held in the Castle and Falcon Hotel, Alders- 

 gate Street, London, April 12, 1799, when 25 

 persons were present. It had " always held to 

 evangelical church principles, though it had uni- 

 formly declined to enter into home controver- 

 sies." In early days it was looked upon coldly 

 by the bishops, and it was not till 1841 that they 

 joined it in any numbers. The first candidate 

 to offer his services was the famous Henry Mar- 

 tyn, senior wrangler in 1801, and he eventually 

 went to India as a chaplain. In all, 2,003 mis- 

 sionaries had labored in connection with the so- 

 ciety. Work was now carried on in West and 

 East Africa, Uganda, Egypt, Palestine, Persia, 

 India, Mauritius, Ceylon, China, Japan, North- 

 west Canada, British Columbia, and New Zea- 

 land, and more than 60 languages were used. 

 Native churches, self-supporting and almost in- 

 dependent, had been formed in Sierra Leone, 

 Lagos, and on the Niger. The society's list of 

 living converts numbered 240,000. The service 

 of the society comprised 1,096 European mis- 

 sionaries, including wives, and 55 medical mis- 

 sionaries. It had at home about 3,700 local 

 missionary associations, and received contribu- 

 tions from about 5,000 parishes. Its magazines 

 had an aggregate circulation of about 198.000 

 copies a month. A series of inscriptions hung 

 upon the hall in which one of the meetings was 

 held gave the dates in which the several mis- 



