and educational establishments of every kind, exclusive of the universities; and of these 153 were colleges or gymnasia, about 1000 classical private schools, 58 nor- mal, about 700 art, trade, and industrial schools, and about 25,000 public elementary schools, with 35,000 teachers, and about 3,000,000 scholars. (See below.) The management of the elementary national schools is in the hands of the local communities; but the State appoints the teachers, and in part pays their salaries, the remainder being supplied by the public. In addi- tion to the libraries of the several universities, there is the Royal Library of Berlin, with 500,000 volumes and about 10,000 MSS. Among the numerous scientitic, ar- tistic, and literary schools and societies of Prussia, the following are some of the more distinguished : the Academy of Arts, founded in 1699; the Loyal Museum of Arts; the Academy of Sciences; the Natural History, Geographical, and Polytechnic societies of Berlin; the Antiquarian Society of Stettin; the Breslau Natural History and Historical societies, etc.
3. Charities. — Prussia has a large number of benevo- lent institutions, towards the maintenance of which the State gives annually about £16,000 sterling. In 1861 there were about 1000 public civil and military inlirma- ries, in which upwards of 170,000 patients were under treatment, and between 7000 and 8000 poor- and alms- houses; while 800,000 poor received support through these institutions or by extraneous relief. Prussia is supplied with asylums "for the deaf and dumb, the blind and the maimed, and has good schools for training mid- wives, nurses, etc.
4. Churches. — We append a sketch of the principal German churches, because it will in some manner enrich the article, and will, besides, greatly add to what has been said in the article Germany. The sketch and the statistics are taken from the report of the Pan-Presby- terian Council in Edinburgh in 1877.
"I. Constitution.— Each German state and each free city has a Church of its own, in which the princes or the magistrates, by whose co- operation the churches were reformed, have to some extent, siuce the Diet of Spe.ver in 1526, enjoyed the supreme administrative power. This power they generally exercise by proxy, i. e. through the minister of worship (Prussia, Baden, Saxe - Altenburg, grand-duchy of Hesse, Mecklenburg, Wi'irtemberg); in other cases through the Supreme ( lunch Council, or ober- kirchenrath (Prussia, 1S49, 1*51 1 ; Meekleubnrg-Schwerin, 18-19; Baden); or through the general superintendents, the consistories, and superintendents. To some extent, likewise, for the last twenty-five or thirty years, the gov- ernments have shared the administration of the Church with the district, provincial, and general svn.uls (Prussia, Wiirtemberg, Baden, Bavaria, Oldenburg)." This form of Church government is called the consistorial (Konsisto- rialverfdxxti nil's.
"The German churches have derived much benefit from the hands of the princes ; but. the fact that, these ex- ercise the right of control has often hindered the devel- opment of the energies, the liberality, and the practical sense of the lay element and the members of the congre- gations at large, as well as prevented the co-operation of the ministers and the people in Church work. Like the noble king Frederick William IV of Prussia, who longed to resign his episcopal functions into the proper bands, some of the best princes have felt the necessity of giving more self-government and liberty to the churches, and the presbyterial and synodal constitution in the newly devel- oped form in which it has been given in Prussia is an en- deavor in this direction.
"In some of the Reformed churches, as in the Palati- nate, the mode of government is similar to that of the Lu- theran churches; but in others the presbyterial and syn- odal constitution was developed.
"The presbyterial and synodal constitution was trans- planted by fugitives, members of the French and Walloon congregations in London (which John a Lasco had organ- ized according to the form he had set up in East Fries- land), to the lower part of the Rhine, to the duchies of Julieh, Cleves, Berg, and Mark, which form now the north- ern half of Rhenish Prussia, and a part of Prussian West- phalia ; it was recognised and developed bv the Congress of Wesel (15GS) and the Synod of Emden (1571), was in- troduced into the duchy of Nassau (Synod of Herborn, 15S6), and with some modifications, at the end of the 17th century, adopted even by the Lutherans in the territories of Cleves and Mark.
'•This form of Church government was in 1S35 con- firmed by the Kirchcnordnumj for the churches iu Rheu-
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ish Prussia and Westphalia. These churches, the Luther- an as well a- the Reformed, arc essentially Presbyterian, i.e.. besides the ministers, each congregation has a body of elders and also I he duty of the elders is,
b the miuistei -. to take tin- oversight of the con- gregations, and farther their well-being in all respects, i.v Christian discipline. The deacons serve the Church by works of love for the poor and afflicted. The ministers, elders, and deacons form the presbytery of the congregation (the Scottish Kirk session), the duty of
to advance the edification of the Church, to pro- mote whatever is good, and to discourage all that is evil. The members of this presbytery a lected for four years.
the presbytery there is, in larger congregations,
a more numerous representative body (<//,■ /,'. j.n-s,-,,!, ifi^n . the number of which varies according to the size of the congregation, and may amount to sixty, seventy, or more members. This body has to consult and decide in mat- ters of greater importance, and especially when ministers or elders are to be elected. In the Reformed Calviuistic Lippc-Detmold, in 1861, such a representative body was iiisiimted besides the presbytery.