of Scutari, Janina, Kossovo, and Monastir. An organic statute was deemed by them to be the only means of preventing the periodical occurrence of bloodshed due to the intrigues of Greece, Servia, and Montenegro. A feud between the Mohammedans and Christians of northern Albania gave occasion for diplomatic representations on the part of Montenegro. It began with the murder of a Christian notable in Berane. The Christians avenged his death by killing a number of Moslems suspected of being concerned in the crime. The Mussulmans, calling friends from other districts to their aid, attacked the Christian villages and after much fighting robbed and burned them, the inhabitants fleeing over the Montenegrin border with what cattle they could save. The Montenegrins had supplied both parties with rifles. The Sultan sent troops into the disturbed district to restore order and ordered Saadeddin Pasha, who had recently finished his Macedonian investigation, to find out the cause of the troubles, which were renewed in June with greater violence and ferocity. Many Christians were killed and hundreds of houses were destroyed. The Montenegrin Government complained that Mohammedans pursued Christian fugitives beyond the frontier, and made a demand for the restitution of the latter to their lands and for the rebuilding of their burned houses at the cost of the Turkish Government. The Porte dispatched troops once more to the scene and ordered that the villages should be rebuilt, charging the Montenegrins, however, with having instigated the murders and pillage that drew forth the vengeance of the Mussulmans. In September Saadeddin Pasha returned to pacify the Berane district once more. Mohammedan mountaineers were again ravaging the plains and plundering the unarmed rayahs, causing excitement among their warlike Montenegrin neighbors.

Armenian Grievances.-The Huntchak committee in London endeavored at the beginning of 1898 to raise anew the Armenian question by peti

tioning the powers to insist on the execution of the promised reforms. The Turkish authorities in Asia were accused of persecuting Armenians. The Russian Government requested the Porte to keep the Hamidieh cavalry under better control and to withdraw the unruly forces from the frontier. There were 56 of these Kurdish regiments formed under the command of the tribal chiefs. In Van, where a revolutionist from the Caucasus named Deroyan was secretly active, the police searched every house and expelled several thousand Armenian refugees whom they found. A military tribunal tried 33 Armenians and sentenced several to death. There was an Armenian Kaimakan at Van, and when in February the Porte removed the Governor of Zeitun the British ambassador pressed for the appointment of a Christian in his place. The Sultan promised the Armenian patriarch to comply with many of the national demands. In the beginning of June the Russian ambassador urged the Porte to restore to their homes 40,000 destitute Armenians who were living on charity in the Caucasus. The Grand Vizier raised difficulties, stating especially that the property that was abandoned by these fugitives had been divided among the Turks. The Russian Government repeated the demand until the Porte finally gave way months later and provided for their repatriation. In the beginning of August the Kurds were reported to be pillaging Armenian villages in the district of Ahlat, in the vilayet of Bitlis, where the Vali had been guilty of torturing Armenians in searching for revolutionists and hidden arms.

Revolt in Yemen.-The chronically discontented Arabs of Yemen, suffering in the spring of 1898 from a partial famine, rose in rebellion against their Turkish masters, whom they accused of injustice and extortion. The Sheikh Hamideddin headed the rising, which was quelled finally by the conciliatory policy of the new Vali, Hussein Hilmi Effendi, rather than by the 16,000 troops that were dispatched to the disturbed region.

UNITARIANS. The Unitarian churches in the United States returned for 1898 551 ministers, 454 churches, and 75,000 members. The numbers show an increase during the year of 16 ministers and 5,000 members, and a decrease of 1 church.

The annual meeting of the American Unitarian Association was held in Boston, Mass., in May. The Hon. Carroll D. Wright presided. The treasurer reported that his total receipts had been nearly $73,000, and that a balance remained of $11,000. The secretary represented that the necessity resting upon the association not to spend more money than the churches contributed had required the temporary abandonment of a business organization with a system of local superintendents for aggressive work which had been carefully planned by the National Conference and had achieved good results. The year had been signalized by the application for the first time of the budget system in making appropriations, under which the expenditures of the association were divided among the four departments of maintenance, publication, foreign missions, and home missions. The plan had worked well and had produced the most satisfactory financial record the association had been able to make for many years. The bequests received during the year, amounting to $7.297, had been used to increase the general fund, which now amounted to $58,067. A resolution had been passed by the board ordering that

the general and special funds of the association, with certain defined exceptions, be collectively invested, and that at the close of the financial year the income from the securities thus held shall be credited to the various funds according to the amount of their capital. In connection with the Japanese mission a union had been brought about between the Unitarian magazine "Shukyo" and the chief organ of liberal orthodoxy in Japan,

Rikugo Zasshi." The new magazine was to be called by the latter name and to be published by the Japan Unitarian Association. The educational institution in Japan, the Senshiu Gakuin, would cease to be a normal school and become more a center for university extension work, and the activity of the mission would be more concentrated on church extension, the new magazine, the post-office mission, and publication work. The beginning of this mission was spoken of as "a frank departure from the customary aim and method of foreign missionary work. It was commissioned not to convert, but to confer."" had proclaimed a new missionary motive, seeking to discover the good in all existing forms of faith, and had "recognized the underlying sympathy in all religions, and emphasized unities rather than diversities." The cost of conducting the experiment that had been made in this direction had diminished more rapidly than was usually the case with the home-mission work,

and would be defrayed in the ensuing year by the income of the Hayward fund. The association was enjoying close co-operation with other missionary bodies of the Unitarian fellowship, including the Western Missionary Council, the Women's National Alliance, the Young People's Religious Union, the Sunday-School Society, the Ladies' Commission, the trustees of the Church Building Loan fund, the Ministerial Union, and the Ministers' League, through the last two of which churches and ministers desiring settlement were brought into communication. In New England, the association had contributed $11,627 to the support of 41 churches or missionary enterprises, of which 12 were "historic" churches in towns of stationary or declining population, kept alive for the sake of their associations and because they are needed by populations unable to support them; and 29 were new or revived churches which had not yet attained self-support. Eleven churches were aided in the Middle States at a cost of $7.650. Most of these churches were growing steadily toward self-support. In the Southern States $2,912 were expended in aid of 5 churches. The church at Charleston, S. C., was the only self-supporting church in this depart ment. In the Western States 11 churches, 4 of which were in college towns, were aided, 3 missionaries were supported among the Scandinavians, and 2 special enterprises, 1 in Illinois and 1 in Wisconsin, were aided; all at a cost of $11,943. Twelve churches on the Pacific coast, one in a college town, and all planted within recent years, were maintained with an expenditure of $4,500. In all, 85 churches and 78 ministers were wholly or partly supported by the association, 22 of the churches holding loans from the Church Building Loan fund.

Unitarians in Great Britain.—A special meeting of the Unitarian (English) National Conference was held in London, May 31, to consider propositions for conferring certain new powers on the body which had been postponed from the regular meet ing of the previous year at Sheffield. After consultation and the consideration of proposed amendments, a resolution was adopted instructing the committee of the triennial Conference to hold regular meetings to consult and, when considered advisable, to take action in matters affecting the well-being and interests of the congregations which form the Conference, as by directing attention, suggesting plans, organizing expressions of opinion, raising funds to carry out the foregoing objects, or summoning, if it deem it needful, a special meeting of the Conference. Further, that the committee shall present to each Conference a full report of its proceedings and the action it has taken for the approval or otherwise of the Conference."

The annual meeting of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association was held in London, beginning June 1. Mr. T. Grosvenor Lee presided. The general report included reports of the Book and Tract Committee of grants during the year of 1,637 books and 113,286 tracts; of the Scottish Committee concerning efforts to develop the churches especially at Paisley, Kirkcaldy, and Aberdeen; of the Indian Committee, describing the rise and present condition of Unitarian work in India, which was still on a modest scale. The annual subscriptions had fallen off, but the chapel collections were the largest recorded. Legacies amounting to £6,000 had been left to the association. In an address defining the term "freedom" as used by Unitarians, the president maintained that while they were free it was not the freedom that united them, but the truths to which it led them. Prof. J. Estlin Carpenter maintained that the liberty held by Manchester College, which he represented, was within limits that presupposed the reality of theology. A paper

by the Rev. Alexander Webster on "Our Church Work in Spreading Religious Truth" was read in the absence of its author. The report of the Temperance Association showed a slight increase in the number of local societies. The report of the Postal Mission and Workers' Union was illustrated by the citation of inquiries sent in for religious literature. and insisted upon the efficiency of the work done by the mission. The Sunday-School Association reported that its receipts had amounted to £1,354.

UNITED EVANGELICAL CHURCH. The second General Conference of the United Evangelical Church met at Johnstown, Pa., Oct. 10. The statistical reports showed that the number of members was 59,190, and indicated a net gain of 8,950 in three years, or since 1895 when the previous General Conference met; with 426 itinerant and 214 local preachers; 5,234 adults and 8,165 infants baptized during the three years; 784 Sunday schools, with 10,602 officers and teachers and 74,651 pupils; and 24,507 members of the Keystone League of Christian Endeavor. The missionary treasurer reported that there had been an annual increase of contributions to the general treasury, and that the receipts for the past year had been more than $11,000. The entire amount of missionary money raised and expended in the conference societies and the general society during the past year had been: Received, $87,347; expended, $76,493. The Foreign fund accumulated by the Woman's Missionary Society was about $10,000. The amounts of collections for Church objects had been: For Conference treasury, $9,516; for the Sunday-School and Tract Union, $1,291; for educational purposes, $18.223; for Church extension, $5,491; for missions, $106,267; for building and repairing churches and parsonages, $355,975; for the Charitable Society, $1,094. The Rev. Dr. I. L. Klephart attended the Conference as a fraternal delegate from the United Brethren Church, and spoke in his address of the unity in doctrine and spirit of the two Churches. The Board of Missions was instructed by the Conference to begin the necessary preliminary arrangements for establishing a mission in some foreign field, with recognition of the principle of the comity of missions; the location of the mission and the time for opening the same being left to its judgment. It was also directed to send out no more missionaries than the income would assure support for; and to assign the support of a definite part of the work to the Woman's Missionary Society. The Rev. T. W. Woodside, a minister of the United Evangelical Church, but a missionary in Africa in the service of the American Board, made a proposition to open a new station in West Central Africa, to be supplied and supported by this Church, but to be conducted under the supervision and control of the American Board. The Conference, while it expressed itself as preferring to direct and manage its own missions, not being yet ready for that, authorized the Board of Missions to make an ar rangement with the American Board. A "twentieth-century celebration" was determined upon, to be held in the year 1900, under a programme to be prepared by the Board of Missions. Resolutions were passed discountenancing the "unevangelical practice" of not kneeling in public worship; emphasizing the duty of Conference trustees to report their transactions to the Annual Conference; urg ing the importance of the quarterly conference and the duty of official members to support and attend it; commending the itinerancy as the best safeguard to the original genius, life, and distinctive features of the Church, and pledging fidelity to it; condemning the license system for the sale of intoxicating liquors; commending the National AntiSaloon League, to whose convention delegates were

appointed; advising the total refraining from such amusements as can not be taken in the name of the Lord Jesus, and condemnation of them; and disapproving of questionable methods (by fairs, raffles, etc.) of raising money for the Church. Reports were received from Albright College, Pennsylvania, Central Pennsylvania College, and Lafayette College, Oregon. The establishment of theological departments was recommended to all the higher institutions of learning. An invitation to take part in the Ecumenical Conference of Methodism to be held in 1899 was accepted, and provision was made for the representation of the United Evangelical Church on the Committee of Arrangements for the same and in the Conference.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, a federal republic in North America. The legislative power is vested in the Congress, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are 90 Senators, 2 from each State, elected by the State Legislatures for six years, one third being renewed every two years. The House of Representatives has 357 members, elected by the ballots of all the qualified voters of the several States, which are divided into congressional districts, containing each approximately 173,900 inhabitants at the census of 1890. The executive power is vested in the President, who is commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces, and has a power of veto over acts of Congress which can be overcome by a two-thirds vote of both houses. The Vice-President is president of the Senate, and in case of the death, removal, or resignation of the President he succeeds the latter for the remainder of the term. In case of the death or disability of both President and Vice-President, the Secretary of State becomes acting President, and after him the other members of the Cabinet in their order. The Senate can remove the President after a trial on articles of impeachment presented by the House of Representatives, and other executive officers can be removed for unconstitutional actions by the same procedure. The President nominates the officers of the Cabinet, who are the heads of the eight administrative departments, and all other superior officials, but his appointments must be confirmed by the Senate. The President and Vice-President are elected by a college of electors chosen in each State in the manner that the Legislature prescribes, which is in almost every State by popular suffrage, their number being equal to the sum of the Senators and Representatives of the State. It is the custom of political parties to nominate in national convention their candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency and for the electors, who are chosen by each State on a collective ticket, to vote solidly for the candidates designated by their party beforehand. Thus the election of the President and Vice-President has come to be in fact, though not in form, by the direct vote of the nation. The term of the presidency is four years, and elections are held on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November. The President-elect is sworn on March 4. The President for the term ending March 4, 1901, is William McKinley, of Ohio, and the Vice-President is Garret A. Hobart, of New Jersey. The Cabinet at the beginning of 1898 was composed as follows: Secretary of State, John Sherman, of Ohio; Secretary of the Treasury, Lyman J. Gage, of Illinois; Secretary of War, Russell A. Alger, of Michigan; Attorney-General, Joseph McKenna, of California; Postmaster-General, James A. Gary, of Maryland; Secretary of the Navy, John D. Long, of Massachusetts; Secretary of the Interior, Cornelius N. Bliss, of New York; Secretary of Agriculture, James Wilson, of Iowa.

Upon the resignation of John Sherman, the

President, on April 26, nominated William R. Day, of Ohio, to be Secretary of State.

William Rufus Day was born in Ravenna, Ohio, April 17. 1849. He was the son of a lawyer of note, a judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio. After completing his collegiate course in the University of Michigan in 1870 he studied in the law school at Ann Harbor, and in 1872 began practice at Canton. His firm, which he usually represented in the courts, became known in a short time through the length and breadth of Ohio. He was a zealous Republican politician, but neither sought nor accepted office for himself until he was nominated by both Republicans and Democrats to a judgeship in the Court of Common Pleas in 1886. After a brief while he resigned from the bench to return to general practice. In 1889 he declined, on account of failing health, the appointment of judge of the United States district court. When President McKinley made up his Cabinet he appointed Judge Day Assistant Secretary of State.

John Hay was born in Indiana in 1838. He was graduated at Brown University, and studied law in Springfield, Ill. He was assistant secretary to President Lincoln through his term of office, and served for a time as assistant adjutant general with Gens. Hunter and Gillmore. He was secretary of legation at Paris in 1865-'67, and chargé

JOHN HAY, SECRETARY OF STATE,

d'affaires at Vienna in 1867-68. Afterward he was secretary of legation at Madrid a year, and then for five years was an editorial writer on the "New York Tribune." In the administration of President Hayes he was First Assistant Secretary of State, and in 1881 he was president of the International Sanitary Congress in Washington. When President McKinley assumed office, Col. Hay was appointed ambassador to the Court of St. James, from which post he was called to succeed Judge Day as Secretary of State. He has published "Castilian Days," a biography of Abraham Lincoln (with John G. Nicolay), and a volume of poems.

James Albert Gary retired from the postmastergeneralship in April, and Charles Emory Smith, of Pennsylvania, was immediately appointed his successor.

Charles Emory Smith conducted the Philadelphia "Press" from 1880 till 1890, when he was appointed United States minister to Russia. After his return from St. Petersburg in 1892 he resumed his editorship.

Cornelius Newton Bliss retired from the Cabinet, and Ethan Allen Hitchcock, of Missouri, was appointed to succeed him as Secretary of the Interior on Dec. 21, 1898.

CHARLES EMORY SMITH, POSTMASTER-GENERAL.

Ethan Allen Hitchcock was the founder of a large glass-manufacturing company in Crystal City, Mo., and has taken an active part in building up the commerce of St. Louis. President McKinley appointed him minister to Russia on Aug. 6, 1897, and on Feb. 11, 1898, his rank was raised to that of ambassador.

treaty with Spain a territory of 3,670 square miles, with a population of 798,566 by the census of 1887; and by the accession of the Philippine Islands, ceded in the final treaty of peace, a territory of 52,650 square miles, with about 7,670,000 inhabitants. The Ladrones or Mariana Islands add 420 square miles, with 10,172 inhabitants.

Immigration.-The number of immigrants that arrived in the United States during the year ending June 30, 1898, was 229,299, a decrease of 1,533 as compared with 1897. Of the whole number, 135,775 were males and 93,524 females. The number entering the United States through Canada was 10,737. During the year 3,050 were debarred, 2,261 of these being paupers or persons likely to become a public charge, 417 contract laborers, 258 diseased, 79 assisted emigrants, 13 mentally defective, and 2 convicts. There were 199 more returned within a year after landing. Of the total number of immigrants over fourteen years of age, 43,057 could neither read nor write; of those over twenty years of age, 27,608 had $30 or more, and 96,203 had less. Of the total number arriving, 52,531 were laborers, 23,656 servants, 16,243 farmers, 4,492 merchants, 3,826 tailors, and 3,229 shoemakers.

The Army.-By the act of Congress approved on March 8, 1898, the artillery force of the regular army was increased by two regiments, and by the act of April 26 the whole line was raised to the war strength of 200 men for each battery of heavy artillery, 176 for the light batteries, 100 for a troop of cavalry, and 106 for an infantry company, with an additional major to each regiment of infantry, and an addititional second lieutenant to each battery. The total authorized strength on the war footing was 62,597 officers and men. The effectives on Sept. 1, 1898, were as follow:

ETHAN ALLEN HITCHCOCK, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

Area and Population. The total area of the United States, including 3 Territories represented by Delegates in Congress and the Indian Territory, is 3,025,600 square miles, of which 55,600 square miles are covered by water. Alaska has an estimated area of 531,400 square miles. At the census of 1890 the population of the United States was 62,831,900, including 179,321 in the Indian Territory and 30,329 in Alaska. The estimated population of all the States and Territories, including Alaska, on Dec. 31, 1898, was 77,803,000.

By the annexation of Hawaii territory of 6,640 square miles, with 109.020 inhabitants in 1896, was added to the dominions of the United States; by the cession of Puerto Rico in the preliminary

The President on April 23 issued a call for 125,000 volunteers, and on May 25 for 75,000 more.

The Navy. The United States navy at the beginning of 1898 contained the battle ship "Iowa," of 11,410 tons displacement, 11,000 horse power, 16 knots speed, carrying 4 12-inch, 8 8-inch, and 6 quick-firing 4-inch guns; the battle ships "Indiana," "Massachusetts," and " Oregon," of 10,288 tons displacement, engines of 9,738 horse power for the first, giving a speed of 15.5 knots, 10,403 horse power for the second, making 16.2 knots, and 11,111 horse power for the third, making 16.7 knots, each having an armament of 4 13-inch, 8 8-inch, and 4 quick-firing 4-inch guns; the armored cruiser "Brooklyn," of 9,250 tons displacement, 18,769 horse power, a speed of 21.9 knots, and an armament of 8 8-inch guns and 12 5-inch quick firers; the armored cruiser "New York," of 8,200 tons displacement, 17,401 horse power, giving a speed of 21 knots, and an armament of 6 8-inch guns and 12 4-inch quick firers; the armored cruiser "Texas," of 6,315 tons displacement, 8,000 horse power, giving 21 knots speed, and an armament of 2 12-inch guns and 8 6-inch quick firers; the cruiser "Columbia," of 7,375 tons displacement. engines of 18,509 horse power, making a speed of 22.8 knots, armed with 1 8-inch, 2 6-inch, and 8 quick-firing 4-inch guns; the "Minneapolis," of the same size as the foregoing and carrying the