pastor at their head. From the beginning, their avowed aim has been to found an autonomous church in Haiti, to be carried on by a native ministry; and, indeed, that church was recognized to be of that character by the house of bishops of the United States in 1874, when the Rev. James Theodore Holly, an American by birth, but a Haitian citizen by adoption, was consecrated as bishop for Haiti. In 1878, the conference of Anglican bishops at Lambeth Palace, at which Dr. Holly was present as a member, formally extended to his church the full recognition of the whole Anglican communion. While having four principal stations in the cities of the Republic, Dr. Holly's most extensive work has been in the rural districts. There are eight organized congregations in these districts of the west. There are twelve ordained clergymen, five deacons, twelve lay readers, all citizens of the country, and seventeen stations of this church in Haiti. It received $3,000 from the Government in 1891-'92.

Let it be noticed that these several Christian denominations work in the same field without clashing and without friction with one another, and that the continual call of the Government is for more of them all. It is only fair that the impartial reader should ask himself how much opportunity there ought to be now in Haiti, in the face of all of these active religious influences, for the practice and propagation of the alleged Voudoux and cannibalistic worship to which so much space has been given in recent works and publications on that country.

From the beginning, the Government of Haiti has manifested a commendable concern for the education of the youth of the country, and to that end, it has never ceased to encourage the establishment of primary schools and institutions of higher grade throughout the Republic. Although, under Boyer and Soulouque, that concern seemed to lapse somewhat, yet there has been a steady tendency toward increased educational facilities at the public expense. To-day, any intelligent foreigner passing through the cities

and the rural districts could hardly fail to be impressed by the number of schools of every grade and description and for both sexes that he would meet with on every hand, though of course he would find only primary and secondary schools in the country places away from the cities. The Government gives encouragement to all of them and aid to nearly all.

The appropriation for public instruction for the fiscal year 1891-'92 was $981,816, which can be only a little less than $1 per capita for the entire population. This is not very greatly less than the appropriations for the purpose in some other states and countries which lay claim to higher advancement than Haiti.

In 1881-82, the appropriation under this head was $575,187 as against $981,816 ten years later.

In 1860, there were 136 public schools containing 10,000 pupils. In 1865, the schools had increased to 228 and the pupils to 15,697. Ten years later (1875) there were 368 schools and 19,250 pupils. In 1877 the figures were:

In 1891, there were 750 schools and 33,391 pupils of both sexes, which gives considerably more than eight schools for every commune in the Republic. These figures do not include a number of purely private schools, especially in the cities, and it should be remembered too that every one of the religious denominations in Haiti has its school or schools, from the African Methodists, who have one, to the Roman Catholics, who count theirs by the dozens.

These figures indicate the steady tendency of the popular demand in Haiti for increasing facilities for public instruction in every direction; still, it must be observed that the percentage of the population attending school is as yet quite below that which is desirable. Both the growing interest in education and the law for compulsory attendance at school advocated by President Hyppolite's Government must soon result in an increase of this percentage.

A noticeable feature in the work is the careful provision made for the education of girls. There are supposed to be now more than a hundred "Sisters" and "Filles de la Sagesse" of the Roman Catholic Church, all French women, who are wisely and most devotedly laboring for the careful education of the young daughters of Haiti. It is believed that they have now under their care and instruction not less than 5,000 Haitian girls, from all sections of the country. This number does not, of course, include the girls in the purely public or common schools.

Some of the educational institutions under the care of the Roman Catholic frères in the cities are models of architectural adaptation approaching beauty and grandeur. The Petit Séminaire Collège St. Martial, commonly designated as the “Petit Séminaire," standing on neat and ample grounds at the head of the Rue des Miracles, Port au Prince, and having a corps of twenty instructors, and the Séminaire Collège de St. Louis de Gonzague, in the Rue du Centre of the same city, would do credit to any city. There are at the capital quite a number of other schools which are quietly doing an important educational work. The medical college, the law school, the Lycée, or National College, the schools of the Sisters of Cluny, and many others, come under this head. And it is a fact, too, worthy of note that in all the higher institutions, the great majority of instructors are foreigners, chosen for their approved character and competency, and brought to the country especially for that purpose.

What is true of the capital in these respects, is also, to a greater or less extent, true of the other cities in the Republic, and indeed, it may be stated that the proper education of their children and youth seems now to occupy the controlling place in the minds of a decided majority of the Haitian people, and that no other subject, if the maintenance of the public order alone be excepted, receives greater care and solicitude from the Government itself. Hundreds of Haitian youth of both sexes are abroad every year to complete their general education or to pursue special studies. In many instances, the Government comes to the rescue of the parents whose means are not adequate to bear the expense of sending their children abroad.

Chapter V.

GOVERNMENT AND LAWS.

The Government of Haiti is that of a Republic. Its powers are, and from the beginning, have been defined and limited by a written Constitution. This fundamental instrument has several times been changed, but in some essential features, it has always remained the same.

Reference has already been made to the one promulgated by Toussaint L'Ouverture in 1801, but that was before the independence, and mention is made of it here because it was, as far as is known, the first in which the negro outlined his idea of free gov

ernment.

The first Constitution after independence was framed by Dessalines in June, 1805, but the year before that he had, following the example set by Napoleon, caused himself to be proclaimed Emperor, so that the Constitution was drawn up in view of that state of things.

The removal of Dessalines by assassination in October, 1806, necessitated a new fundamental pact, which is known as that of 1806, and which was, as noted in a preceding chapter, so liberal in character that Christophe repudiated it and set up a Government of his own in the north. The instrument of 1806 was somewhat modified ten years later, and then endured till after the overthrow of Boyer in 1843. In 1846, President Riché promulgated a revised Constitution, which was again changed when Soulouque became Emperor. These "imperial" changes were not, however, radical, for even Soulouque's republican successor Geffrard carried

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