BAPTISTS. 



BELGIUM. 



67 



tnent of the completion of the Twentieth Century 

 fund of 250,000, the final subscriptions having 

 come in since the opening of the assembly. 



The annual meetings of the Baptist Missionary 

 Society were held in London, April 29 and May 1. 

 The report represented that the purpose deter- 

 mined upon at the centenary meeting of the so- 

 ciety several years before, to raise the annual in- 

 come to 100,000, had never been carried out, 

 but they had been forced to face each year a 

 deficit of 10,000, which had to be met by special 

 subscriptions. The deficit this year was 9,909, 

 toward the removal of which subscriptions were 

 taken during the meeting, whereby it was re- 

 duced to 3,700. 



The general receipts of the Zenana Mission had 

 amounted to 11,035, and the expenditures to 

 10,705. The mission staff numbered 63 mission- 

 aries in India and 5 in China. In India, visits 

 were paid regularly to about 3,000 zenanas, 1,500 

 zenana pupils were under instruction, and 97 

 schools were taught, with nearly 4,000 pupils. 

 The missionaries returning to China had been 

 warmly welcomed back by the Chinese Christian 

 women. 



The Bible Translation Society returned a total 

 income of 1,554, and a balance in hand of 101 

 after meeting all expenses. Progress was re- 

 ported in the preparation and revision of ver- 

 sions of the Scriptures in Bengali, Oriya, Cinga- 

 lese, and Dualla and other languages of the 

 Congo. 



The autumnal assembly of the union was held 

 in Birmingham, Oct. 6-9, Tuesday, Oct. 7, being 

 given to the meeting of the Baptist Missionary 

 Society. At this meeting a farewell was given 

 to 10 missionaries returning to their fields and 

 4 new missionaries going out; and a resolution 

 was adopted pledging cooperation with the visi- 

 tation of the churches which had been instituted 

 for the purpose of securing sufficient funds to 

 maintain an equilibrium between income and ex- 

 penditure, and of obtaining further support to 

 meet the new and promising openings that were 

 presenting themselves and the increasing demands 

 for reenforcements from fields already occupied. 

 The address of the President of the Union, the 

 Rev. J. R. Wood, was on The Church and the 

 Nation. The treasurer of the Twentieth Cen- 

 tury fund of 250,000 (which had all been sub- 

 scribed) reported that the amount of 204,000 

 in cash had been received for it 173,000 of the 

 sum from England. A considerable additional 

 amount was expected from Wales, and some 

 from England. The education bill was the sub- 

 ject of an active discussion, and resolutions were 

 unanimously adopted declaring that the members 

 of the assembly maintained the objections 

 against the bill offered in the spring meeting of 

 the union for the following reasons : 



" 1. That the bill seeks to confirm and to per- 

 petuate clerical control of elementary schools. 



" 2. That it provides no effective remedy for 

 the grievous wrong which is done to non-con- 

 formists and other parents in 7,470 parishes 

 where the only public elementary schools are 

 those whose avowed object is the training of 

 the scholars in the principles of the Established 

 Church. 



"3. That in the case of 11.777 Church of Eng- 

 land and 1,045 Roman Catholic schools, while the 

 entire cost of teaching staff and furniture and 

 apparatus would be defrayed from the public 

 purse, denominational managers would appoint 

 and dismiss teachers and prescribe any form of 

 religious instruction which they pleased; and 



" 4. That the bill violates the fundamental 



principle of the Constitution that taxation shall 

 be accompanied by popular control. They regard 

 the bill as the product of an alliance between the 

 Government and the High Anglican party and 

 the Roman Catholic hierarchy, having for its 

 main purpose the clericalizing of education at 

 the cost of the just rights of all Free Church 

 citizens and to the injury of Protestantism and 

 non-conformity; and since this attempt occurs at 

 the end of a series of sectarian aggressions in 

 our national educational legislation, and as a 

 fresh and unprovoked disturbance of the present 

 arrangement, they are resolved to use their po- 

 litical influence to secure a system of national 

 education in harmony with the principles of jus- 

 tice and efficiency, and in which every public 

 elementary school shall be unsectarian and 

 placed under the management of a board of 

 which women may be members, and no citizen, 

 teacher, or scholar be placed at any legal disad- 

 vantage on account of religious opinion. 



" They now declare their solemn determination 

 not to submit to this measure if it becomes law 

 and to render it unworkable by every lawful 

 means in their power. They are not surprised 

 that very many of the opponents of the bill have 

 resolved to suffer distraint of goods as a protest 

 against this obnoxious measure, rather than pay 

 the school rate, and they are for their own part 

 resolved to adopt this course." A committee was 

 appointed to consider the question of a sustenta- 

 tion fund. Addresses were delivered and papers 

 read during the meetings on the problem of The 

 Mid-Town Church and the growing alienation of 

 the working classes from places of worship, 

 The Problem of Suburban Work, The Missionary 

 Dispensary, The Rural Baptist Church, Lay 

 Preaching Power; and a: public evening meeting 

 was devoted to the Exposition of Free Church 

 Principles. 



Baptist Jubilee in New Zealand. Jubilee 

 celebrations of the foundings of the first Baptist 

 churches in the colony were held in New Zealand 

 early in the year. The Baptist Union was not 

 formed till 1882. The returns from the asso- 

 ciated churches showed that there were 34 

 churches in the union, with 3,679 members, and 

 sitting accommodations for 9,790 persons. 



BELGIUM, a constitutional, representative, 

 hereditary monarchy in western Europe. The 

 legislative power is vested in the Senate and the 

 Chamber of Representatives. Senators are elect- 

 ed for eight years, one-third by provincial coun- 

 cils and two-thirds by the direct vote of the 

 people. Half the Senators retire every four 

 years. The Chamber contains 152 members, one to 

 40,000 inhabitants, elected for four years. Every 

 male citizen twenty-five years of age possessing 

 full civil rights and domiciled for one year in his 

 commune has a vote. If he is thirty-five years 

 of age, married or a widower with children, and 

 pays 5 francs in direct taxes, he is entitled to 

 2 votes. If he possesses real property of the 

 value of 2,000 francs or investments in the public 

 funds yielding 100 francs a year, he may cast 2 

 votes. If he is a graduate of an institution of 

 higher education or holds or has held public 

 office or practises a profession implying the pos- 

 session of higher education he has 2 votes; and 

 if, in addition, he is the head of a household or 

 an owner of property or public stocks, he has 3 

 votes. There were 1,452.232 individual electors 

 in 1900 who cast 2,239,621 votes for Representa- 

 tives and 1,227,720 who cast 1,994,153 for Sena- 

 tors. The number of Representatives is deter- 

 mined after each census, and the Senate consists 

 of half their number. 





