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BALANCE OF POWER. In the modern European acceptation of the term, the balance of power is a mutual understanding among sovereign states that no one state may interfere with the independence of any other state. In this may perhaps be found the germ of that congress of nations to which many thoughtful minds look forward as the ultimate arbiter that shall render possible the disarmament of Europe. Neither the phrase itself nor the idea from which it springs, is of recent origin. The small states of ancient Greece combined first against the threatening domination of Athens and afterward against that of Sparta. More recently Europe, with show of systematic organization, combined to resist the aggressions of Spain, then against France, and still more recently against Russia. Most of the wars resulting from these combinations have probably tended to the establishment of international law and to the advancement of human liberty. Upon the whole, while the balance of power has perpetuated in Europe some of the relics of medieval barbarism, it has tended to preserve a certain international equilibrium, which has probably prevented many wars, and has certainly preserved the autonomy of many of the lesser powers.

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Conspicuous among the advocates of the balance of power is the Chevalier Friedrich Von Gentz (1764–1832). As head secretary at the Congress of Vienna and at the Conference of Ministers at Paris in 1815, he had abundant opportunities to study the opinions of leading European diplomatists. In 1806, while Europe was well-nigh subjugated by Napoleon, he published Fragments upon the Balance of Power in Europe." He defines the term as "a constitution subsisting between neighboring states more or less connected with one another, by virtue of which no one among them can injure the independence or essential rights of another, without meeting with effectual resistance on some side, and consequently exposing itself to danger." His fundainental propositions are: 1. No state must ever become so powerful as to coerce all the rest; 2. Every state that infringes the conditions is liable to to be coerced by the others; 3. The fear of coercion should keep all within the bounds of moderation; 4. A state that attains a degree of power adequate to defy the union should be treated as a common enemy.

Ferdinand III, Emperor of Germany is believed to have conceived the idea of a European Congress in 1640, with a view to terminating the Thirty Years' War and reconciling the hostile interests of church and state. After protracted negotiations the Congress of Münster or Westphalia assembled (July, 1643), the Catholics and Protestants being represented by

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their respective delegates, while France, Sweden, Venice, and the Pope were represented as mediators by embassadors. The negotiations extended over a period of five years, for it was not until October, 1648, that the treaty was signed. It is remarkable that such apparently hopeless differences could be reconciled at all, but the Treaty of Westphalia proved to be for Europe almost what Magna Charta was to England. It was in effect the first official recognition of interdependent rights among rival European interests. In other words, it inaugurated a balance of power. France and Sweden were appointed mediators, with the right of intervention in case of need to uphold the provisions of the treaty, and the hostile religious sects within the borders of Germany were guaranteed independence, while they were bound over to keep the peace. To Cardinal Mazarin was due the main feature of this compact, and although the unity and autonomy of Germany were injuriously curtailed, and French aggression was proportionately encouraged, the treaty was substantially recognized and enforced down to the time of the French Revolution.

Nevertheless, peace was not secured to Europe by the treaty. The ambitions of Louis XIV led to minor wars of conquest, and finally to a disastrous attempt at the forcible annexation of Spain, with a view to uniting the two kingdoms under Bourbon rule. The crisis had been foreseen, and an attempt was made to preserve the balance of power by an equable partition of the Spanish dominions. Such an arrangement was not at all to the taste of the aggressive Louis XIV, who, as has indeed been the case with almost all monarchs in all.time, did not hesitate to break through such a flimsy barrier as a mere parchment treaty. His attempt to place his grandson upon the Spanish throne revived the question of the balance of power. It was evident that the union of France and Spain would be fatal to the existing schemes of dependence and independence. Among the disastrous consequences anticipated was the restoration of the Stuarts in England and the inevitable ascendency of the Catholics all over Europe. England, Austria, and Holland, therefore, the three great Protestant powers of the period, with others of the lesser states, formed a coalition against Louis, and the war continued until 1715, when under the Treaty of Utrecht the relations of all the European states were carefully readjusted, Philip V retaining the Spanish crown, and every precaution being taken to prevent a possible union of France and Spain under one sovereign, since such a union would at once destroy the equilibrium. Although these elaborate provisions failed effectually to dis

sociate the two branches of the house of Bourbon, and although the Treaty of Utrecht was obnoxious to England, the peace of Europe was secured for thirty years.

Until about the beginning of the nineteenth century, Russia was substantially ignored by the European family of states. France, Spain, Sweden, Austria, and Holland, with occasional intervention on the part of Great Britain, had preserved such an equilibrium as seemed good to them, and none of the smaller states had been arbitrarily absorbed by their more powerful neighbors. During these years, Peter and Catherine of Russia had developed the resources of their empire, and Frederick II had raised Prussia from a subordinate to an independent place. Conquests of the great maritime powers had extended colonization to Asia and India. The United States of America had secured independence, and Poland had been forcibly partitioned by Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The partition of Poland (1772) was but the first of a series of events that culminated in the French Revolution. It was the first deliberate and gross violation of the system of treaties based upon that of Westphalia, and with the French Revolution all pretense of preserving the balance of power on its old lines was abandoned. Small states were overpowered and annexed, and Europe saw her ancient boundaries shifted to meet the new conditions.

To thoughtful observers, like the Chevalier Gentz, and to the leading statesmen of the period, including those of Great Britain, the temporary nature of then existing conditions seemed evident. The meteoric career of Napoleon, even when he might almost have written himself the ruler of Europe, did not mislead these master-minds. They steadily held that lasting peace could be regained only through the restoration of national rights, and that this could only be effected by combining against the common enemy. After many discouraging failures, a coalition was at last formed, resulting in the overthrow of Napoleon.

The Congress of Vienna met in November, 1814, and remained in session until June, 1815. Here, for the first time, the most powerful and distinguished of living sovereigns and statesmen met, prepared to make mutual concessions, with a view to a lasting peace. Even France, whose ambition had plunged Europe into prolonged war, was admitted an equal to the council, M. Talleyrand representing her interests. In the then existing condition of European affairs, certain relics of medievalism survived, and certain provisions that afterward proved insupportable were embodied in the treaty.

The fact that all the contracting parties were more or less dissatisfied with the results of its deliberations, goes far to show that selfish interests were in general overruled. In point of fact, the treaties then signed were ob

served in the main for the better part of half a century. They survived the revolution of 1848, and though modified in some quarters, and even abrogated in others, they may be said to have survived in many of their main features until the great German wars of 1866 and 1870.

At Vienna, in 1815, the first international constitution was framed, defining the boundaries of European states, all the contracting parties agreeing thereto, guaranteeing the independence of the small principalities and free cities, as well as incorporating in its provisions the Constitution of the German Confederation. Every state in Europe had the right to appeal to the rest in case of infringement, and it seemed, for a time, as though the foundations had been laid for permanent peace. In the course of time several appeals were made to the high contracting parties, and many international disagreements were averted by the wise measures adopted in conferences convened under the provisions of the treaty. Thus was inaugurated the nearest approach to an actual balance of power, and during the long period of general peace that followed, the European world certainly made rapid progress in the direction of universal amity.

But with advancing years, complications were developed; there were wheels within wheels. Such compacts can only be maintained while all parties are measurably satisfied with the working of the system, and the northern powers formed what was known as a Holy Alliance among themselves, otherwise an alliance offensive and defensive, unifying their interests and binding themselves to act together in all emergencies. It was held, and not without reason, that under the Treaty of Vienna, the allied powers could interfere arbitrarily in the internal affairs of states, on the ground that the peace of Europe was endangered thereby. Conferences were held at Aixla-Chapelle (1818), Carlsbad (1819), and Troppeau (1820), and restrictive measures were adopted, which were obnoxious to some of the treaty powers. At Verona, in 1822, the Duke of Wellington, as the representative of Great Britain, declared that his Government could no longer countenance the actions of an alliance that interfered so intimately with the internal affairs of individual states. England preferred isolation to any such tyrannical combination. Thus was inaugurated the principle of non-intervention, on the strength of which England, in 1852, declined to act with Prussia in preventing the Napoleonic restoration in France. On the same ground, England joined France in protesting against the invasion of Schleswig, and opposed alone the annexation to France of Savoy and Nice. The traditions of Vienna were thus gradually ignored, and had become practically a dead letter when, in 1863, Napoleon III proposed a new congress for the readjustment of the balance of power. The proposition was rejected,

largely through the refusal of England to participate.

In spite of the still subsisting guarantees of the powers, Denmark was compelled to surrender her choicest provinces in the SchleswigHolstein campaign-a federal execution, as it was called, by the German powers, and in 1866 Austria was driven from the confederation in a startlingly energetic incursion by the Prussians. This was the first war of any magnitude undertaken in defiance of possible interference under the compact of Vienna, and the humiliation of France followed as a natural consequence four years later. Taking advantage of the crisis in Western Europe, Russia abrogated the pledges made at the end of the Crimean war, and thus passed away almost the last vestige of the Treaty of Vienna.

At the present time no open alliances can be said to exist among any of the European nations. The balance of power, as it was understood in 1815 and the following years, has disappeared, though its influence is no doubt still indirectly felt. The autonomy of Switzerland and Belgium would probably be defended by a general alliance, should it be seriously threatened, but the main idea of all the great powers at present is to make an efficient soldier of every able-bodied man. To all appearance, the military power of the German Empire far exceeds that of any other single state, a condition of affairs wholly at variance with the principles laid down at Vienna, but against which no power on earth is at present entitled to remonstrate.

That a third step toward permanent peace and possible disarmament will ere long be taken, may probably be counted upon with some degree of confidence, and if the lessons taught by Westphalia and Vienna are permitted to have their due effect, the third general congress may effect still more lasting and beneficial results.

BAPTISTS. The "American Baptist YearBook" for 1888 gives statistics of the Baptist churches in the United States, of which the following is a summary: Number of associations, 1,281; of ordained ministers, 20,477; of churches, 31,891; of members, 2,917,315; of Sunday-schools, 15,447, with 116,453 officers and teachers, and 1,126,405 pupils; number of additions by baptism during the year, 158,373. Amount of contributions: for salaries and expenses, $5,849,756; for missions, $905,673; for miscellaneous purposes, $1,961,332. Value of church property, $48,568,686. In all North America, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, the West Indies, etc., are returned 1,305 associations, 32,861 churches, 21.071 ministers, 3,031,845 members, and 165,835 baptisms; in South America (Brazil), 6 churches, 14 ministers, 175 members, and 30 baptisms; in Europe, 80 associations, 3,506 churches, 2,592 ministers, 387,645 members, and 6,013 baptisms; in Asia, 8 associations, 718 churches, 558 ministers, 68,618 members, and 3,287 bap

tisms; in Africa, 3 associations, 88 churches, 85 ministers, 3,247 members, and 142 baptisms; in Australia, 6 associations, 175 churches, 131 ministers, and 15,189 members; total for the world, 1,402 associations, 37,354 churches, 24,451 ministers, 3,506,719 members, and 175,307 baptisms.

Of the Baptist educational institutions in the United States, seven theological institutions return 48 instructors and 579 pupils; 30 universities and colleges, 255 instructors and 4,012 pupils, of whom 687 were preparing for the ministry; 30 seminaries for the education of young women exclusively, 276 instructors and 3,597 pupils; 42 seminaries and academies for young men and for pupils of both sexes, 232 instructors and 4,125 pupils, of whom 237 were preparing for the ministry; and 19 institutions for the colored race and Indians, 157 instructors and 5,408 pupils, 342 of whom were preparing for the ministry. The total value of the grounds and buildings of these 128 institutions was $9.118,096; and the amount of their endowments, so far as was reported, was $8,763,385. Twelve Baptist homes, ministers' homes, and orphanages, with a total valuation of $553,000 of property, had the care of 626 inmates. Four of them possessed endowments to the amount of $92,792.

I. American Baptist Societies.-The statistics of the women's Baptist societies for 1887 were as follow: Woman's Baptist Foreign Mission Society (Boston); receipts, $64,668. The society sustained 29 missionaries and 102 schools, in which 3,428 pupils were enrolled; Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society of the West (Chicago); receipts, $32,114; missionaries supported, 24; Women's Baptist Home Mission Society (Chicago); receipts $35,691; missionaries (in the United States and Mexico), including Bible women and helpers, 71. society sustains a training-school at Chicago, from which 11 pupils had been graduated; Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society (Boston); receipts, $23,573. It supports teachers at schools in the United States, Indian Territory, Mexico, and Alaska.

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The tenth annual meeting of the Woman's American Baptist Home Missionary Society, the object of which is the education of women and children among the freed people, Indians, and immigrants, was held in Worcester, Mass., in May. The receipts had been $30,805, and the expenditures $26,935.

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Publication Society. The sixty-fourth annual meeting of the American Baptist Publication Society was held in Washington, D. C., May 18. The Hon. Samuel Crozer presided. The total receipts of the society for the year in all of its departments had been $582,491. served fund for the purchase of machinery and enlargement of business had been set aside from the profits of the book department during previous years, which now amounted to $87,463. The cash receipts in the book department had been $449,882, and the entire

business done by it, including sales on credit, amounted to $502.702. One hundred and twelve new publications had been added to the list, and 29,307,797 copies of all publicationsbooks, pamphlets, tracts, and periodicals, new and old-had been printed; of these, 28,115,225 were "graded helps" and papers for Sundayschools. The receipts in the missionary department, including the balance on hand at the beginning of the year, had been $105,190. Eighty-seven missionaries had been employed in the United States, two in Germany and Sweden, and five special missionaries-native Armenians in the Turkish empire. These returned 42 churches constituted, 299 Sundayschools organized, and 934 persons baptized. The receipts for Bible work had been $29,439, while $21,482 had been expended for the purchase of Scriptures and for appropriations of Scriptures for the Missionary Union and the Southern Baptist Convention.

Home Mission Society. The fifty-sixth annual meeting of the American Baptist Home Mission Society was held in Washington, D. C., May 16. The Hon. C. W. Kingsley presided. The total receipts during the year had been $351,596. Among the matters of special note which had marked the year's history of the society were mentioned in the report, the completion and occupancy of the mission head-, quarters in the city of Mexico and the enlargement of the work in that republic; the completion of a subscription of $15,000 for Chinese mission headquarters in San Francisco, and the purchase of a site on which a building is being erected; the securing of a larger amount than usual for church-edifice work; the appointment of an additional superintendent of missions for a new Western district, and of a district secretary for the Southern States; the beginning of mission work among the Poles and Bohemians in the United States; and the adoption of a new school for Indians in the Indian Territory. Missionary operations had been conducted in 45 States and Territories, and in Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia, Alaska, and three Mexican states. The whole number of laborers employed had been 743. French missionaries had labored in 6 States; Scandinavian in 16 States and Territories; and German in 18 States and Territories, Ontario, and Manitoba; 161 persons had labored among the foreign population, and 217 missionaries and teachers among the colored people, Indians, and Mexicans; 1,594 churches and out-stations, returning 30,974 members, had been supplied; 2,886 members had been received by baptism; 137 churches had been organized; and 734 Sunday-schools, returning 47,410 attendants, had been under care. In the church- edifice department, 88 churches had been aided by gifts or loans, or both; the aggregate amount of gifts being $32,737, and of loans, $20,510. With the aid of these sums, property valued at about $200,000,000 had been secured to the denomination. Thirty

three churches had paid off their loans; 232 loans were outstanding; and the whole number of churches aided by gifts and loans had been 931. The amount of the loan fund was $120,555; and the receipts for the Benevolent Fund had been $45,305. The schools included 12 incorporated and 6 unincorporated institutions, in which 137 teachers had been engaged and 3,741 pupils enrolled; 17 colored schools returned 115 teachers, 14 of whom were colored, with 2,995 pupils, 318 of whom were studying for the ministry, 980 preparing for teachers, and 36 medical students. Industrial education had been systematically imparted at 8 institutions, and more or less attention given to it at the others. The three schools for the Indians in the Indian Territory returned 232 pupils. The Indian University, near Muscogee, had 86 students enrolled. The third school, a new one for the society, was at Sa-sak-wa, in the Seminole nation. Six schools, with an aggregate enrollment of 250 pupils, were conducted in Mexico.

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Missionary Union. The seventy-fourth annual meeting of the American Baptist Missionary Union was held in Washington, D. C., beginning May 21. The Hon. George A. Pillsbury, of Minnesota, presided. The receipts of the year, from all sources and for all purposes, had been $411,385; the appropriations for current expenses had been $390,586; and $20,550 had been added to annuity funds and permanent accounts. A committee which had been appointed at the previous annual meeting to consider and report upon the advisability of accepting from the Publication Society the Baptist missionary work which had been begun in Turkey reported a unanimous agreement of its members that it could not recommend accept"The claims of other fields, in still more pressing need, and brighter still in promise," it represented, "are more, far more, than enough to employ the utmost resources at the command of the Missionary Union." A communication was ordered made to the officers of the Congo Free State expressing the conviction of the members of the Union that the welfare and spiritual prospects, and even the continued existence, of the native population of that state require immediate suppression of the traffic in intoxicating liquors within its borders; and a request to be addressed to the Government of the United States to use its influence to secure the same result in the Congo Free State, other parts of Africa, and the West Pacific islands. A recommendation was made that a fund of $100,000, to be called the "Judson Centenary Fund," be raised by individual subscriptions of not less than $1,000 each, to be expended in sustaining the foreign missions. From the missions to the heathen-the Burmese, Karen, Shan, Kachin, Chin, Assamese, Garo, Naga, Telugu, Chinese, Japan, and Congo missions were returned 67 stations, 831 out-stations, 262 missionaries, 826 native preachers, 98 Bible-women, and 257 other native helpers

ganized, 1,100 persons had been baptized, 17 missionaries were employed, 9 native preachers had been engaged, 6 churches and 19 stations had been supplied, Sunday- and day-schools had been established, and $4,640 had been contributed by the people in one year. The Foreign Mission Board had been incorporated. It returned an income of $86,385, and had expended $82,775. Its missions were in Mexico, Brazil, Italy, West Africa, and northern, central, and southern China. The women's missionary societies had contributed $18,000 in aid of the work. The various committee reports on missionary work urged enlargement of foreign mission enterprises, enforced the imof the South, and commended the work among the Germans, Chinese, and other foreigners in the United States, and especially that in Cuba. A collection of $3,600 was taken for sending additional missionaries to Mexico. The two boards were instructed to appoint a committee to confer with a committee representing the Northern Baptist societies, "not with a view to organic union," but to consider what can be done to adjust their several fields and agencies, so as not to have conflict of agencies. The invested funds of the Theological Seminary were shown to amount to $315,000, and the real estate to $200,000. The classes included 157 students.

-in all 1,443 missionary laborers, 642 churches with 61,062 members, 252 Sunday-schools with 7,311 pupils, 754 schools with 702 native teachers and 17,504 pupils, and 562 churches and chapels. The total of contributions for churches, schools, and general purposes, was $44,588; value of missionary property, $19,852. From the European missions-in Sweden, Germany, Russia, Denmark, France, and Spainwere returned 161 ordained and 307 unordained preachers, 654 churches, and 66,146 members. The whole number of baptisms during the year was 10,602-5.532 in the European, and 5,070 in the heathen missions. In the special work of translation, revision, and printing of Scriptures, the revision of the Shan New Tes-portance of labors among the colored people tament had been completed, and a new edition partly stereotyped, while the Old Testament was ready for printing. The Sgau Karen Old Testament was under final revision and preparation. A new and revised edition of the Burman Bible was going through the press. The translation of the Old Testament into Assamese was nearly done, and the New Testament was under revision. Translations of the New Testament into the Lhota Naga and Angami Naga dialects had been begun. Several missionaries were engaged in translating the New Testament into different languages of the Congo. The Rev. R. H. Ferguson had been commissioned to reduce the Kachin language to writing, with a view to the translation of the Bible into it. The missions in Russia are among nominally Lutheran populations of Germanic origin-as the Letts and Esthonians the churches among whom were gathered mostly by agents of the German Committee of the Union. Southern Baptist Convention.-The Southern Baptist Convention met at Richmond, Va., May 11, 745 delegates being present. The convention is composed of delegates-laymen and ministers-from each Southern State. is purely a missionary body, having no ecclesiastical jurisdiction or control of the churches, and does its work through the Foreign Mission Board, which has its office at Richmond, and the Home Mission Board, having offices at Atlanta, Ga. The former president of the convention, the Rev. P. H. Mell, D. D., Chancellor of the University of Georgia, who had presided over the meetings for fifteen years in succession, had died during the year. The Rev. James P. Boyce, D. D., President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was chosen president. The Home Mission Board had received during the year $48,023, while $41,154 had been raised for the same purposes by co-operative bodies (State and local boards). It had employed 287 missionaries, occupied 1,114 churches and stations, and returned 4,857 persons baptized, 431 Sunday-schools organized, with 17,240 teachers and pupils, 306 churches constituted, and 64 houses of worship built at a cost of $54,068. The board had sustained a mission in Cuba, in which, in a little more than two years since the first church was or

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German Baptists.-The German Baptists of the United States are organized into five conferthe Eastern, Central, Northwestern, These Southwestern, and Texas Conferences. conferences returned in 1887, 13, 187 members, 930 baptisms, and $127,742 of contributions for missionary and other purposes.

Colored Baptists.-The Colored Baptists of the United States are organized in three societies. The Baptist African Missionary Convention of the Western States and Territories (formerly the Baptist General Association of the Western States and Territories), formed in 1873, is interested in mission work in Africa, where it has a mission at Mukimvika, on the Congo. The fourteenth annual meeting, held in 1887, was attended by representatives of churches and associations from Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Indiana. The society co-operates with the American Baptist Missionary Union.

The Baptist Foreign Missionary Convention of the United States, organized in 1880, at its meeting in 1887 returned its receipts at $4,069, and its expenditures at $4,018. Ten States were represented in the roll of its members. It has a mission among the Vey tribe on the borders of Liberia.

The American National Baptist Convention was formed in 1886. The corresponding secretary, Rev. Richard de Baptiste, who had spent two years in gathering the general statistics of the colored Baptists, reported in 1887 that 26 institutions of learning were provided for them, with which were connected

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