Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/371

 KELIGION 31 London) was estimated in 1890 at 25,700, of those in London in 1891 at 67,500. II. Scotland. The Church of Scotland (established in 1560 and confirmed in 1688) is organised on the presbyterian system of government, in which the clergy are all equal, none of them having pre-eminence of any kind over another. There is in each parish a parochial tribunal, called a kirk session, consisting of the minister or clergy- man, who acts as president or moderator, and of a number of laymen called ruling elders. There are in all 84 presbyteries, meeting frequently throughout the year, and these again are grouped in 1 6 synods, which meet half-yearly and can be appealed to against the decisions of the presbyteries. The supreme court of the Scottish Church is the General Assembly, which consists of over 700 members, partly clerical and partly lay, chosen by the different presbyteries, boroughs, and universities. It meets annually in May (under the presidency of a moderator appointed by the Assembly, the Sovereign being represented by a nobleman known as Lord High Commissioner), sitting for ten days, the matters not decided during this period being left to a Commission. The number of parishes, old and new (1898), is 1,371, and the number of churches, chapels, and stations 1,767. The parishioners are allowed, under certain regulations enacted by the General Assembly, to choose their own ministers. The entire endowments of the Church from all sources, including the annual value of the manses and glebes, amount to probably not more than 350,000Z, per annum. Since 1845 members of the Church have erected and endowed churches for 397 new parishes, the value, with endowments, being considerably over 2,500,000^. In 1897 voluntary gifts (independently of over 200,000Z. derived from the interest of invested contributions, grants from two trusts, and pew rents levied in about 450 churches) amounted to 417,151/. Exclusive of 'adherents,' the Established Church in 1878 had 515,786 members or communicants, according to a Eeturn made to Parliament in 1879. In 1897 the number was 641,803. The Presbyterians not members of the Established Church of Scotland have the same ecclesiastical organisation as that Church. Of these, the largest body is the Free Church of Scotland, formed from the ' Disruption ' in 1843, with 1,280 ministers and mission- aries, 1,060 churches, 290,789 members, and 111,346 adherents, and claiming as population connected with the Free Church, 1,430,000 in 1898. Its income in 1897-98 from all sources at home was 666,400/. The aggregate funds raised for all purposes during the fifty-five years from the Disruption amount to 25,325,094/.