—The census reports show that in three States, South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana, the colored people exceed the whites in number. In the first named there are 154,458 blacks to every 100,000 whites; in Mississippi 135,664 blacks to 100,000 whites; and in Louisiana the proportion is 106,372 to 100,000. In Alabama the blacks are 91 per cent. of the whites; in Georgia 89 per cent.; in Florida, 88 per cent.; in Virginia, 72 per cent.; in North Carolina, 61 per cent.; in the District of Columbia, 50 per cent. The colored element in the Northern States is the largest in Kansas, where it is 4½ per cent. The colored population has increased in twenty-seven States and Territories in the last decade. In the United States as a whole there has been an increase of 625 to the 100,000. This state of things means work for all who have the interest of the country at heart, that the increased suffrage shall be intelligent and the new lives a help rather than a burden to the land.—_Congregationalist._ * * * * * Africa. —The French Government is placing a second telegraphic line between Algeria and Tunis. It was to have been finished by the last of March. —Work on the railroad from Sétif to Algeria has been commenced. The greatest activity prevails, and the whole line may be finished in 14 months. —The Belgian Society has charged Mr. Stanley with engaging anew at Zanzibar, for several years, native workmen, who will be employed upon the Congo. —The sultan of Zanzibar has offered to the celebrated traveler Thomson the mission of exploring the basin of the Rovuma from a geological point of view. —Mgr. Taurin Cahagua, apostolic vicar of the Gallas, has gone to Berber to install there three missionaries. From thence he will go with the others to Havar. —M. Irgens Bergh, a Danish archæologist, has arrived at Cairo to devote himself to his favorite studies. M. Insenger, a Hollander, also an archæologist, accompanies him. The field of his scientific exploration will be essentially Nubia and Upper Egypt. —After a journey in Europe M. de Hesse Wartegg, who has already turned his studies in Fayoum and in Nubia to the Coptic race, has returned to Alexandria to continue them. He is accompanied by Dr. Hociner, a noted botanist. These gentlemen are awaiting the arrival of two other students attached to the expedition, after which they will set out in a caravan for Upper Egypt. —A French expedition composed of mining engineers and chemists, has started from Marseilles, on the side of the Oxus, to explore the region north of the Zambeze. —The missionary Hore, of Ujiji, traveled in 62 days the distance from Tanganyika to Zanzibar. He is reported to have observed earthquakes in the months of September and October, 1879 and 1880. The last made various crevasses a metre long.