DEVENS, CHARLES. 



DISRAELI, BENJAMIN. 



251 



Montenegro with decidedly poor luck. After 

 having been replaced by Mehemed Ali, he re- 

 mained for a time out of favor, and was then 

 appointed Governor of Salinica, after the mas- 

 sacre in that city. There he remained until 

 June, 1877, when he was appointed command- 

 er of Baturn. 



DEVENS, CHARLES, Attorney-General of the 

 United States, was born at Charlestown, Mass., 

 in 1820. He graduated at Harvard College in 

 1838, and, after a course in the law school of 

 that institution, began practice in Franklin 

 County in 1841. He was elected to the State 

 Senate in 1846, and was United States Marshal 

 from 1849 to 1853, during which time it be- 

 came his duty to act officially in the rendition 

 of the fugitive slave, Thomas Sims, whose case 

 attracted wide attention. Afterward, when 

 Mrs. Lydia Maria Child was making efforts to 

 raise money by subscription to redeem Sims 

 from slavery, Mr. Devens wrote to her, saying: 

 " If you have received any contributions, please 

 return them to the donors, as I wish to con- 

 tribute the entire sum myself." In the spring 

 of 1861 Mr. Devens entered the army as major, 

 and in August became major of the 15th Massa- 

 chusetts regiment, which took part in the Pen- 

 insular campaign. He was appointed brigadier- 

 general in April, 1862, took an active part in 

 many of the battles fought in Virginia, and, 

 after the fall of Richmond, was made brevet 

 maj.or-general of volunteers. He acted as mil- 

 itary governor for a year (1865-'66) in South 

 Carolina ; was a judge of the Superior Court 

 of Massachusetts from 1867 to 1873, and was 

 a justice of the Supreme Court of that State 

 from 1873 till March, 1877, when he was ap- 

 pointed by President Hayes Attorney-General 

 of the United States. During the war, General 

 Devens distinguished himself as a brave soldier, 

 and during his judicial career became known as 

 a sound jurist. 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE AND 

 FOREIGN RELATIONS. The relations of the 

 United States with other nations were very 

 friendly during 1877 ; and the correspondence, 

 which is quite limited, contains nothing of spe- 

 cial importance. 



DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. The General 

 Christian Missionary Convention of the Dis- 

 ciples of Christ met at St. Louis, Mo., October 

 25th. Elder W. K. Pendleton presided. Be- 

 sides the United States, delegates were present 

 from Canada, and one delegate from Australia. 

 The report of the Board of Home Missions 

 showed that the amount of $45,410.90 had been 

 received during the year for the purposes of 

 its work, besides which $51,500 had been re- 

 ceived in the form of bequests, for missionary 

 work, and $11,000 had been subscribed, in 

 stock, for the Southern Christian Institute, for 

 the education, chiefly, of colored teachers and 

 preachers of the Gospel. The total amount of 

 money expended for all missionary purposes 

 since 1869, when the organization took its 

 present name, had been $471,789.73. The to- 



tal amount of bequests during the same period 

 had been $85,744. The total amount received 

 from the proceeds of the Hymn-Book fund, 

 from collections by the secretary, and contri- 

 butions for weak churches, and the Mississippi 

 Mission, was $5,532.91. The total number of 

 additions to the churches under the care of the 

 Board, during the year, had been 3,786 ; and 

 the total number of additions since 1869 was 

 43,123. These numbers represent only the 

 amounts raised, and the members received into 

 the church under the immediate care of the 

 Board. It was estimated that the funds raised 

 and the additions received in the State Con- 

 ventions, apart from the operations of the 

 Board, would show nearly equal results. The 

 Board of Foreign Missions reported that satis- 

 factory progress had been made in all its fields 

 of work, particularly in the English and Dan- 

 ish missions. A French mission had been con- 

 templated for some time, but the financial con- 

 dition of the Board had not been such as to 

 justify an appropriation for the establishment 

 of it. Two missionaries were ready to go, and 

 the enterprise was commended to the interest 

 of the churches represented in the Conven- 

 tion. The report of the Committee on Weak 

 Churches gave a discouraging view of the situa- 

 tion of many churches, and the proposition 

 to institute measures for providing for their 

 necessities awakened considerable opposition. 



The Christian Woman's Board of Missions 

 met in connection with the meeting of the 

 Convention. The secretary reported that 18 

 State organizations had been formed, with a 

 total of 382 members. The total receipts of 

 the Board during the three years in which it had 

 been in existence had been $4,936.69. An ac- 

 count was given of the work of the Board in 

 Jamaica. 



A National Sunday-School Convention was 

 also held, in connection with the General Con- 

 vention. It recommended to the General Con- 

 vention the creation of a Sunday-school board 

 of 5 members, whose duty it should be to su- 

 perintend and promote the organization of 

 Sunday-school work and the publication of 

 Sunday-school literature, and the appointment 

 of a corresponding secretary, to labor in the 

 interest of Sunday-schools among the churches, 

 and to promote unity and efficiency of method 

 and means in the work. 



DISRAELI, BENJAMIN, Earl of Beaconsfield, 

 an English author and statesman, Prime Min- 

 ister of England. The career of Mr. Disraeli 

 is one of the most extraordinary in English 

 history. By genius and energy, unaided by 

 wealth or family connections, he has made him- 

 self leader of the House of Commons, minis- 

 ter of finance in the most commercial of coun 

 tries, and twice prime minister of one of the 

 mightiest of modern empires. He was born 

 in London, December 21, 1805, and is the eld- 

 est son of Isaac Disraeli, the author of " Curi' 

 osities of Literature," and other works. His 

 mother's maiden name was Baseri. He re- 



