RELIGIOUS NEWS AND NOTES.
—The American Missionary Association convened at Syracuse, New York, October 23. —Six hundred missionaries sent by Christian churches, it is said, have died in India, and the present number is exactly 600. —The property of the Methodist church in New Jersey is estimated to be worth $5,000,000. There are 500 churches and 200 parsonages. —The Philadelphia Chronicle says: We have been sending missionaries to the Indians for years, and yet late evidence goes to prove that the post-traders and Indian Agents are the ones who need the missionaries the most. —The Hermannsburg Mission, of Germany, is doing very effective work in Africa. It was begun in 1853, and has now fifty stations and sixty missionaries, and 3,000 communicants in Africa. It has also eight stations in India, and two in the interior of Australia. —An exchange says: “The native Christians of South Africa are learning the lesson of self-support. At Healdtown they raise $1,000 a year toward the support of their ministers, $500 for missions, and $250 for church purposes. They have erected a memorial chapel to the chief, Kama, for the building of which they raised $10,000.” —An exchange says: “The Roman Catholics of Scotland are less than one-twelfth of the population. Yet this one-twelfth furnishes one-third of the criminals. In England and Wales the Roman Catholics are one-twentieth of the population; but the Roman Catholic prisoners are one-fourth of the prisoners. In Ireland the Roman Catholics are three and a half to one of the population, but six to one of the criminals. Authority, official reports, quoted by the “Monthly Letter of the Protestant Alliance.” A general summary of the missions of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, for 1877, makes the following showing: Number of missions, 17; number of stations, 81; number of out-stations, 531. Ordained missionaries, 151; female assistants, 227; native pastors, 125; native preachers and catechists, 255; native school-teachers, 522; other native helpers, 270. Total connected with the missions, 1,563. Number of churches, 256; church members, 13,435; added during the year, 1,882. Whole number of pupils in schools, 26,962. —English papers have the following: “Private information has reached London from a person of the highest rank in Rome that a new Pope has definitely been elected. The new Pope is to be Cardinal Panebianco, and he was elected in pectore at a secret conclave of Cardinals, summoned in consequence of the dangerous condition of the Pontiff’s health. According to precedent the Pontiff has informed him of his appointment, and officially requested him to resign the office of Grand Penitentiary before his accession to the chair of St. Peter, as he relinquished the office under similar circumstances. Cardinal Panebianco is a very old man, being within a year or two of 70, but he is described as being likely to continue the policy of Pope Pius.”—Daily Alta California.