The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-06-28
MISCELLANEOUS.
METHODIST CHURCH SOUTH

METHODIST CHURCH SOUTH
The Methodist Church South has lust pub
lished the tenth annual report of its Missionary
Society, from which we learn that the Society
has under care 36S missions, 3ll missionaries,
l28 churches, 79,050 church members, 1856
Sunday schools ,034 children under religious
instruction, 9 manual labor schools, and 4S5
Indian pupils. These are distributed thus In
the destitute portions of the regular work, l57
missions, l42 missionaries, 26,337 white mem
bers, and 1885 colored, 81 churches, 1877 Sab
bath schools, and 1926 scholars among the
people of color 10 missions, l24 missionaries.
46,577 colored members, 43 churches, and
1883 children under religious instruction |;
among the Germans II missions, ii mission
aries, 483 members, churches, 10 Sunday
schools, and 244 scholars among the Indian
tribes 30 MISSIONS % missionaries 1864 mem
bers, Is churches, SO Sabbath schools, 1881
scholars, Q manual labor schools, and 4S5
pupils. The contributions for the year 1854
amounted to Sl64, 366-of which S22,772, the
largest amount, was received from the South
Carolina Conference S20,97 the next in size,
from the Alabama Conference and SIS, 083.47
from the United States Government When or
how this last sum was contributed, we do not
find stated, but unexplained, it is somewhat of
an anomaly.
SLAVE BORN OF A WHITE WOMAN FREED
BY VIRGINIA COURT.
The Richmond Enquirer of the 18th instant
gives the following account of a very interest
ing case, which has been decided in the Bote
tourt Circuit Court
ELIZA Crawford and five children, colored,
suing for their freedom. The case was decided
in favor of the plaintiffs the evidence being
full and complete, that the chief plaintiff Eliza,
hor Of ofG
is now about thirty FIVE years of age, and has
been in slavery between fifteen and twenty
years. Her appearance indicates that her ia
Their was a mixture of African and Indian She
is now the mother of six children, all of whom
were plaintiffs, except the eldest, who never
belonged to defendant, and who, it is said, will
now be set at liberty without resistance. There
was no evidence, however, to show that the de-
fendant was in any way privy to, or accounta-
bic, for the injustice done the plaintiffs"
A CENTENNARLAN TRAVELLING FOUR HUN
DRIED MILES
From the Hartford Courant June Is
Father iSdWyer at the Home of his Child
hood.-This reverend gentleman is in his hun
dredth year, having been born on the 9th Oct
1855. At the solicitation of friends, he was in,
vited by Ex-Governor Peters, who is now eighty
two years old himself, to visit his native town
of Hebron, Conn. On Friday of last week, he
arrived at Hebron. On the evening of his ar
rival, being asked if he was fatigued, after a
journey of some four hundred miles from
Maine, he said, GAS for being fatigued, if &C.
casion required it, l feel that could stand up
and talk to the people for three-quarters of an
hour"
He left Hebron when twelve years of age,
and only two persons remain of those who in
habited the town when he left it, Last Sun
day, before going into the pulpit in the morn
ing, he baptized four children. He preached
all day, and preached well. His text was, " Is
it well with thee?" Said he, 1t is now nine
ty-nine years since my good father and mother
brought me to the Westinghouse upon this
green, to give me up to God in the ordinance
Of baptism.
81 have come back, after almost a hundred
years, to administer the same ordinance to some
of the children Of the same church, and to in
quire, is it well with your" Father Saw
yers extreme age has put nothing out of joint.
He feels and acts in perfect harmony with the
present generation. A holy influence surrounds
him, and goes with him wherever he goes.
COMMON SCHOOL EDUCATION IN CONNECTICUT.
The Superintendent of Common Schools, has
Just issued his annual report of the progress of
education in Connecticut. The number of
school societies in the State is 22l Of school
districts l,644; number of children between
and 6 years of age l00,294; increase of chill
dren between those ages during the year, ,314.
The capital of the school fund is 81, 049, 95305;
dividend per scholar, for the year ending March
3lst, SIPS. In Collinsville, during the year,
a school-house had been erected, which the
Superintendent calls model school-house, at a
cost of $1,000 He would have every school
keep at least six months in the year.
The revenue of the school fund, for the year
ending March Dist, was Sl44,l37.73, and Of
this, Sl29,036.75 were distributed to the chill
dren.
The Superintendent is grati6ed that public
sentiment is rapidly growing in favor Of taxing
property without limitation for the support of
schools. During the time from the opening of
the State normal school, May 5th, 1850, to the
9th of March last, s67 pupils have been con-
nected with it. More than 200 school societies
have been represented in the school; 294 pupils
have attended during the past year.
A MAMMOTH OCEAN STEAMER
The new steamer Leviathan, which is now
being constructed in London, promises, when
finished, to be the wonder of the age. To grasp
the idea of a vessel measuring more than an
eighth of mile in length, with a capacity of
twenty thousand tons, and room enough besides
for four thousand passengers with all their lug
gage, certainly requires some mental effort;
but to conceive of such monster graphing
with wind and tide, and triumphantly forcing its
way through the mighty pillows of the Atlantic,
becomes task quite sufficient to stagger any
ordinary intellect, and more than sufficient to
exhaust the faith of the most credulous. If the
Leviathan shall be able to show full list of
,aaaau0ers for her first visit To our shores II
will certainly appear that the people of this day