promoting reforms bearing on their moral and social condition." The chairman is elected annually by the vote of the delegates from the churches present at the annual meeting. Unions of a similar character exist in Scotland, Ireland, and the colonies. In 1876 it was computed[1] that the total of Congregational churches and branch churches ir Great Britain and the colonies was 3895, with other preaching places, supplied mainly by lay agency, to the number of 1248. The ordained ministers, including the missionaries of the London Missionary Society, were 3205 ; there were 17 colleges, employing 52 professors and educating 430 students. The expenditure for missions at home and abroad, not calculating the amounts expended by individual churches throughout the world for special local missions, was 147,270. In 1875 the Congregationalists opened their Memorial Hall and Library, which is erected in London on the site of the old Fleet Prison, in commemoration of the heroism and spiritual fidelity of the two thousand clergymen who were ejected "from their homes and livings as ministers of Christ in the Church of England, under the stringent, inhuman, and unjust provisions of the Act of Uniformity," In that building the various societies of the
Congregationalists now hold their meetings.Congregationalism in the United States has, from the earliest period of its existence, recognized the principle that each Christian society, though complete in itself, is nevertheless related to all other churches of the same faith and order. The weakness and scattered condition of those little communities which followed the settlement of the Pilgrim Fathers threw them into close association, they assisted each other by friendly advice, and from that sprang the system of councils. These have now become important institutions exercising considerable influence. It is claimed that, though every church is " independent of all outward control," " a fraternal fellowship is yet to be maintained among thesa independent churches ; and when insoluble difficulties arise, or specially important matters claim decision as where a pastor is to be settled or dismissed, or a church itself is to adopt its creed and commence its organic life it is proper that the advice of other churches should be sought and given in council ; such action, how ever, in no case being anything more than a labour of fraternal suasion or self-justification."[2] Increase Mather says, " It has ever been their declared judgment that, where there is want either of light or peace in a particular church, it is their duty to ask for counsel, with which neighbour churches ought to assist by sending their elders and other messengers to advise and help them in their difficulties ; and that in momentous matters of common concernment particular churches should proceed with the concurrence of neighbour churches ; so in the ordination of a pastor, much more in the deposing of one. Thus it has ever been in the churches of New England." Some writers contend that " Congregationalism differs from Independency by its recognition of this practical fellowship between the churches." The councils thus summoned are dissolved as soon as the business is settled, and should the church to which advice is offered be unwilling to accept and act upon it the other churches may consider the desirability of withdrawing from any further association with it. There are permanent councils in Connecticut, called " consociations," but they are not general in the States. In some of the county unions of England a com mittee is appointed annually, to which churches may appeal in any difficulty which they are unable to remove of them selves, an approach towards the American system. According to a religious census taken by the Government there were in the United States in 1850, 1725 Congrega tional churches with 807,335 sittings ; these had increased in 1870 to 2887 churches and 1,117,212 sittings. For the education of the ministry there are seven theological institutions.
(w. b.)
CONGRESS, in diplomacy, a term applied to an assemblage of sovereigns or ambassadors of the highest rank, convoked for the purpose of concluding a general peace, or of treating the general political interests of Europe. In this latter sense a modern congress may be regarded as a representative council of states or nations, by which differences may be adjusted, and the rules of international law determined and enforced. The greatest progress yet made in the relations of sovereign states is, that disputes, which in former times would have led to immediate war, may now be resolved, in many instances, by the common deliberations of the European powers. The term Congress, however, is only strictly applicable to meetings of this nature on the most important occasions, and when all the powers are represented. The term Conference is used to describe diplomatic meetings of ministers of the first or second rank, called together for a special purpose, either to modify existing treaties by consent, or to suggest means of dealing with a critical state of affairs. Meetings of this kind have become in modern times very frequent, and are the recognized mode of dealing with the questions arising between sovereign states, and sometimes even between states and their subjects. The proceedings of these conferences are recorded in protocols, agreed to and signed by the plenipotentiaries. These documents have not always the form of treaties or conventions, but they establish the principles on which the powers agree to act, and the rules by which they are bound in honour and good faith. The number of Con gresses which have been held in the last two centuries is not very large, and we shall proceed briefly to pass them in review. Conferences have occurred so frequently that it would be impossible to describe them in detail. The most important examples are, perhaps, the Conference of Petersburg in 1825, which led to the independence of Greece; the Conference of London in 1831, which separated the kingdom of Belgium from Holland; the Conference of Paris on the affairs of Crete ; the Conference of 1871 for the modification of the Treaty of Paris of 1856 ; and the abortive Conference of Constantinople in 1877, when the six powers vainly endeavoured to obtain from the Porte guarantees for the better government of its Christian subjects. These two forms of diplomatic council differ more, however, in form ani degree than in kind. Their object is the same, namely, to determine and enforce the mutual obligations of states ; and they may therefore be treated under one head.
term Congress in its modern sense, is in 1636, when the Pope attempted to open negotiations for peace at Cologne, under his own mediation ; but the attempt failed, and the Thirty Years War continued for twelve years more to devastate the world. At length, however, it was agreed by the preliminaries of Hamburg, signed on the 25th December 1641, that a Congress should be held at Munster and at Osnaburgh, in Westphalia, meeting simultaneously in both those towns ; the French mediating minister, representing the Catholic party, being at Munster, and the Swedish minister, representing the Protestants, at Osnaburgh. The opening of the Congress was fixed for the 11th July 1643 ; but the proceedings were delayed by numerous formalities, by questions of rank and precedence, by questions of neu trality and safe-conduct, and by the death of Ptichelieu and Louis XIII. The negotiations began in earnest in June 1645. Never before had so august an assembly met in
Europe for the termination of a sanguinary war, for the
