Algeria

a country of Northern Africa, which forms now (since 1830) a French possession. Its area is about 150,000 square miles; population, in 1889, 3,960,000, most of whom are Mohammedans. The European population. in 1832, was only 5919 souls; in 1856, 155,607, among whom were 86,969 French, and 42,569 Spaniards; in 1881, it was 401,550 souls. Among the Europeans were, in 1857, about 10,000 Protestants, with eleven clergymen. The rest are mostly Roman Catholics, who have one bishopric at Algiers. There are several convents, among which a large agricultural and educational institution of the Trappists is celebrated. There were, in 1885, 178 boys' and 119 girls' schools, with 10,672 boys and 8986 girls. Four towns had Arabic-French schools, with 400 scholars. An Association of St. Louis was formed in 1859 for the civilization of the Mohammedans, and had commenced the publication of an Arabic paper, Birgys Barys (the Eagle of Paris). — Schem's Ecclesiastical Year-book; Behaghel, L'Algerie (Par. 1865). SEE AFRICA.