BAPTISTS. 



Wlassics; Minister of Justice, Dr. A. Plosz; Min- 

 ister of Commerce, Dr. von Hegedus; Minister of 

 Agriculture, Dr. Ignatius de Daranyi; Minister 

 for Croatia and Slavonia, Emerich de Josipovich. 

 The Liberal party was strengthened by the ac- 

 cession of a part of the Nationalists, a section 

 of the Opposition, which, without aiming at com- 

 plete severance from Austria, as do the Kos- 

 suthites, would have the bond little more than a 

 personal union. Their adhesion was the sign of 

 a recession from the rigid secularist principles of 

 the Tisza group, almost the last of whose repre- 

 sentatives the Clericals, with whom the Nation- 

 alists had voted on the civil-marriage question, 

 had now succeeded in driving out of the Cabinet. 

 However, in a bill for the more effectual repres- 

 sion of electoral corruption a paragraph was 

 inserted for the purpose of preventing the clergy 

 from exercising illegitimate influence upon voters. 

 Against this clause, in accordance with which the 

 delivery of electoral addresses from the pulpit 

 or the exhibition of the cross or other religious 

 emblems at electoral meetings or polling places 

 is sufficient to render an election invalid, the 

 Ultramontane Clericals, under the lead of the 

 Abbot Molnar, made a vigorous fight. 



The Navigation of the Danube. The Hun- 

 garian Government decided to impose a toll on 

 the tonnage passing through the Iron Gates of 

 the Danube. The Austrian and German mer- 

 chants objected to the levying of such a toll, 

 predicting that it would compel the grain trade 

 to take the sea route. The Austrian Government 



and the other riparian states of foreign govern- 

 ments raised a protest, in consequence of which 

 the collection of the toll, which was to begin on 

 May 1, was postponed, and a further investiga- 

 tion was promised before a final decision should 

 be taken. The decision to confirm the tariff was 

 announced in July, and it went into force on Sept. 

 1, together with regulations for the passage of 

 vessels through the Iron Gates. The tariff is 

 10 kreutzers per registered ton, in addition to 9 

 kreutzers for every 100 kilogrammes of cargo. 



Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under a clause 

 of the Treaty of Berlin, signed July 13, 1878, 

 the Austro-Hungarian Government occupied the 

 Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina and 

 the sanjak of Novi-Bazar, and took over the civil 

 administration of the two provinces, which is 

 conducted in the name of the Emperor-King by 

 the provincial government, divided into the de- 

 partments of finance, internal affairs, and justice, 

 under the direction of the Bosnian bureau of the 

 imperial Minister of Finance. The population of 

 the provinces was 1,508,092 in 1895, comprising 

 828,190 males and 739,902 females. In religion 

 673,246 are Orthodox Oriental, 548,632 Moham- 

 medan, 334,142 Roman Catholic, 8,213 Jewish, 

 3,596 Evangelical, and 263 of various faiths. 

 Except the Arnauts of the south and gypsies 

 scattered through the country, the people are 

 of the Servian race. The chief crop is tobacco, 

 of which the Government has the monopoly. 

 Dried prunes, beet sugar, and cattle are also 

 exported. There are 431 miles of railroad. 



B 



BAPTISTS. The statistical tables of the Bap- 

 tist churches in the United States, published in 

 the American Baptist Yearbook for 1899, give the 

 following numbers: Of associations, 1,633; of 

 churches, 42,893; of ordained ministers, 28,409; 

 of church members, 4,141,995; of Sunday schools, 

 24,619, with 183,338 officers and teachers and 

 1,726,693 pupils; of meeting houses, 18,802, with 

 seating capacity for 2,640,066 persons; of parson- 

 ages, 1,571; increase by baptism during the year, 

 203,296; increase by experience and restoration, 

 46,941. Amount of contributions (so far as re- 

 ported) : For church expenses, $9,160,319; for Sun- 

 day-school expenses, $524,830; for State missions, 

 $299,536 ; for home missions, $325,295 ; for foreign 

 missions, $446,614; for Bible and publication 

 work, $48,308; for education, $109,027; miscel- 

 laneous contributions, $1,021,508; total amount 

 of contributions, $11,927,851. Value of church 

 property, $83,942,243. 



The 7 theological institutions returned 71- in- 

 structors and 1,100 students: 92 universities and 

 colleges, 1,565 instructors and 23,601 students; 80 

 academies, seminaries, and institutes, 604 in- 

 structors and 10,433 students. In all these insti- 

 tutions 2,453 persons were studying for the min- 

 istry. Incomplete reports and estimates gave the 

 theological seminaries $2,022,662 of property, 

 $2,300,257 of endowment funds, and 135,883 vol- 

 umes in their libraries; the universities and col- 

 leges $22,728,760 of property, $14,271,818 of en- 

 dowments, and 873,436 volumes in libraries; and 

 the academies, seminaries, and institutes, $3,664,- 

 972 of property, $1,265,158 of endowments, and 

 85,110 volumes in libraries. 



The Yearbook gives lists of 34 Baptist chari- 

 table institutions having $1,625,121 of property, 

 and 127 weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, and 



special periodicals, including some in the German 

 and Scandinavian languages. 



The table of Baptists in the World gives for 

 North America (including the United States, Can- 

 ada, Mexico, Central America, and the West 

 Indies) 44,148 churches, 29,180 ordained minis- 

 ters, 4,285,093 members, and 208.976 baptisms dur- 

 ing the year; for Europe (including Great Britain, 

 Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, 

 France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Norway, Rou- 

 mania and Bulgaria, Russia and Poland, Spain, 

 Sweden, and Switzerland), 4,020 churches, 3,209 

 ordained ministers, 478,268 members, and 23,141 

 baptisms; for Asia (including Ceylon, China, In- 

 dia, Assam and Burmah, Japan, and Palestine), 

 1,602 churches, 852 ordained ministers, 119.745 

 members, and 8,178 baptisms; for Africa (includ- 

 ing Central Africa and the Congo, South Africa, 

 West Africa, and St. Helena and Cape Verde), 

 111 churches, 129 ordained ministers, 6,700 mem- 

 bers, and 810 baptisms; and for Australasia, 236 

 churches, 169 ordained ministers, 19,261 members, 

 and 1,252 baptisms; total for the world, 50,143 

 churches, 33,553 ordained ministers, 4,910,456 

 members, and 242,646 baptisms during the year, 

 showing an increase over 1898 of 921 churches, 

 1,501 ministers, 111,332 members, and 6,312 bap- 

 tisms. 



Publication Society. The seventy-fifth an 

 nual meeting of the American Baptist Publication 

 Society was held at San Francisco, Cal., May 25 

 and 26. The annual report showed that the ag- 

 gregate of sales for the year had been $643,466, 

 being a decrease of $26,682 from the previous 

 year. In the missionary department the receipts 

 from invested funds and contributions by churches 

 and individuals had been $121,443. A deficit of 

 $8,464 existing at the beginning of the year had 



