egarded as a kind of sacred
caste; he flourished about 550 B.C.

CONGE D'ELIRE, a warrant granted by the Crown to the dean and
chapter of a cathedral to elect a particular bishop to a vacant see.

CONGO, the second in length and largest in volume of the African
rivers, rises NE. of the Muchinga Mountains in Rhodesia, flows SW.
through Lake Bangueola, then N. to the equator; curving in a great
semicircle it continues SW., passes in a series of rapids through the
coast range, and enters the S. Atlantic by an estuary 6 m. broad. It
brings down more water than the other African rivers put together. The
largest affluents are the Kassai on the left, and the Mobangi on the
right bank; 110 m. are navigable to ocean steamers, then the cataracts
intervene, and 250 m. of railway promote transit; the upper river is 2 to
4 m. broad, and navigable for small craft up to Stanley Falls, 1068 m.
The name most associated with its exploration is H. M. Stanley; during
its course of 3000 m. it bears several names.

CONGO, FRENCH (5,000), a continuous and connected territory
extending westward along the right bank of the Congo from Brazzaville to
the mouth of the Mobangi, and as far as 4 deg. N. run N. behind the
Cameroons, and along the E. of Shari to Lake Tchad.

CONGO FREE STATE embraces most of the basin of the Congo, touching
British territory in Uganda and Rhodesia, with a very narrow outlet to
the Atlantic at the river mouth. It is under the sovereignty of Leopold
II. of Belgium, who, in 1890, made over his rights to Belgium with power
to annex the State in 1900. It is nine times the size of Great Britain,
and continual native unrest gives great trouble to its administrators.
Its waters are open to all nations, and traders exchange manufactured
goods for ivory, palm-oil, coffee and caoutchouc, bees-wax and fruits.
The climate is tropical, on the lower levels malarial. The population is
from 20 to 40 millions. The centre of administration is Boma, 80 m. from
the sea.

CONGREGATIONALISM, the ecclesiastical system which regards each
congregation of believers in Christ a church complete in itself, and free
from the control of the other Christian communities, and which extends to
each member equal privileges as a member of Christ's body. It took its
rise in England about 1571, and the most prominent name connected with
its establishment is that of ROBERT BROWN (q. v.), who seceded
from the Church of England and formed a churc