Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/498

 478 SUNDAY SCHOOLS SUNDERLAND lished in tho principal towns of England. Scotland had similar schools as early as 1782, and they wore established in Ireland in 1785. The London Sunday school society was organ- ized in 1785, and in 16 years it spent 4,000. In 1786 it was thought that there were 250,- 000 children in Sunday schools in Great Brit- ain. Bishop Asbury established one in Han- over co., Va., in 1786, and Bishop White one in Philadelphia in 1791. In 1790 the Metho- dist Episcopal conference at Charleston, S. C., resolved to establish schools for whites and blacks. Katy Ferguson, a poor negro woman, is said to have established one in New York in 1793. Samuel Slater opened a Sunday school for his operatives in Pawtucket, R. I., in 1797 ; and Mrs. Isabella Graham and her daughter, Mrs. Divie Bethune, who had seen the English schools, opened one in a private house in New York in 1801. The important change from paid to volunteer teachers is said to have been adopted by the Methodists at Bolton, England, about 1786. The " Gratis Sunday School So- ciety" was established in Scotland in 1797, and voluntary teaching was general in England in 1800. In 1803 the London Sunday school union was formed, to foster voluntary teaching. Soon the churches began to assume charge of Sunday schools, in the United States about 1809 ; and the instruction then became more exclusively religious. Schools were opened in the Protestant churches of all denominations in Great Britain and the United States, later among the Roman Catholics, and more recently among the Quakers. Since 1848 special atten- tion has been given to mission schools for the vagrant children of large cities. In 1875 there were 140 Protestant mission schools in New York. As now organized, a Sunday school has a superintendent with various assistants and a number of teachers, each of whom has a class of scholars. The classes are of different grades, but generally study the same Scripture lesson, their study being separate, but all the classes uniting in worship. The session gen- erally continues an hour or an hour and a half. Schools upon this plan have been introduced by English and American missionaries in all lands ; but the system has been adopted in the national churches of continental Europe only within the last 20 years. The following table gives the fullest statistics accessible for 1874 : Among the most important societies formed for the promotion of Sunday schools are the following : SOCIETIES. Begun In Expended for missionary work in 1874. London Sunday school union 1808 1824 1827 4,059 $90,079 $15,781 American Sunday school union Methodist Episcopal Sunday school union COUNTRIES. Begun In Schools. Teachers. Scholars. 1854 900 1856 84 95 Norway and Sweden. . . 1859 Germany 1868 1 218 4648 81 7 fi 5 Netherlands. . . 1868 520 2 111 6^ '000 Italy 1868 68 110 Cisletthan Austria Hungary 1872 1872 6 6 80 80 800' 850 Switzerland 600 2096 46 Q 70 Spain 20 95 Gn-oco. g 18 889 Great Britain and Ire- land (estimated) 810 000 3 050 000 Canada... 4401 85 74 'i 271 SRI United States 69 871 758060 5 790 6S3 These societies also publish hymn books, books and papers explaining the Bible lessons, and books for the lending libraries, with which most schools are furnished. Sunday school publications are now issued by regular business houses, as well as by church boards and tract societies. (See TKACT AND PUBLICATION SOCI- ETIES.) Conventions of Sunday school teach- ers have been held in the United States since 1832. A world's convention met in London in 1862. A German national convention was held in Hamburg in 1874. In 1875 there were in the United States 21 state conventions, and a national and international convention. Since 1866 a uniform series of Bible lessons has been widely used in the United States, and since 1872 has been adopted in Europe and in the missionary schools of Asia and Africa. Com- ments on these uniform lessons have been pre- pared by distinguished clergymen, translated into many languages, and issued in pamphlets and papers for teachers, and in " lesson leaves " for scholars, in many millions of copies. Sl'DKRBrXDS, a marshy tract of British In- dia, in Bengal, stretching across the lower part of the delta of the Ganges, between the bay of Bengal and the inhabited parts of the delta, from the river Hoogly to the island of Rabna- bad, 158 m., with a breadth of about 75 m. ; area, over 7,000 sq. m. ; pop. very small. The soil is alluvial, and the whole district is cut up into innumerable wooded islands by rivers and creeks, many of them navigable for vessels of considerable size. The woods swarm with tigers, the waters with crocodiles, and other tropical animals abound. Salt is manufactured from the sea water to a sufficient extent to supply the demand of tho lower provinces of Bengal. The Sunderbunds are included within the district of the 24 Pergunnahs. SUNDERLAM), a town and parliamentary bor- ough of Durham, England, at the mouth of the river Wear in the North sea, 12 m. N. E. of the city of Durham and 240 m. N. by W. of London ; pop. of the town in 1871, 98,335. The Wear passes through the borough, and is crossed by an iron bridge, high enough for large sailing vessels to pass, which connects Monk Wearmouth with the S. side of the river. The harbor is formed by the mouth of the river, and is protected by piers. The docks on tho S. side of the river have an independent entrance to the sea. Ship building amounts in seasons of ordinary prosperity to more than