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their stay. But there are also many quiet, decent people, to whom the change is in every way a boon. In the sheds in which they lodge these gather together in the evening, when the early dusk has fallen, and spend an hour or two in reading; some of them bringing their own books with them, others welcoming the literature (not always the most suitable or interesting, it must be confessed) with which kindly visitors supply them. On entering a shed one evening, our friend was agreeably surprised to find a poor woman with a candle in one hand and a copy of GOOD WORDS in the other, reading aloud to an attentive audience of her companions. She said that she had bought the magazine at a railway bookstall on her journey down, and that, when better off, she had taken it in. It is noticed that where personal interest is shown in the hop-pickers by those to whom the hopgardens belong, the moral effect is always greater than where such manifestations of kindly feeling are left to mere outsiders. Religious services of various kinds are held in many of the hop-gardens on Sundays, and in some cases with very happy results. Perhaps one of the most useful ways of giving help to these people would be for persons of influence in the districts in which they are temporarily employed to provide temporary savings banks into which the wages earned might be placed and transferred to their homes in London; for the poor as well as the rich find that money is very apt, according to the old proverb, to burn a hole in the pocket; and many people who go astray do so through sheer weakness of will, and might be "kept straight " by the kindly sympathy and help of one a little stronger or less tempted in some directions than themselves.

OUR CHILDREN AND THEIR EDUCATION.

On the re-assembly of the London School Board, after the recent summer holidays, Sir Charles Reed, the chairman, according to his annual custom, reviewed the work of the Board during the preceding year. The progress that has been made within the last seven years in the provision of schools and educational machinery and agencies for elementary instruction is remarkable. The school provision of the metropolitan district is now 505,323 as against 262,259 in 1870. The most casual observer passing from one district of this vast city to another cannot help observing the rapid multiplication of the spacious and well-arranged school buildings, which have sprung up under the auspices of the School Board, and which, with their bright, substantial aspect, often pleasantly relieve their very dingy surroundings. Sir Charles showed by illustrative facts and figures that the general progress of the children is very gratifying, and full of promise for the future; also that very considerable reductions have been effected through the agency of the Board in the cost of juvenile crime and pauperism. The following extract will be read with especial interest: "The magistrates of London and the Commissioners of Police for the city and metropolis have all borne cordial testimony to the fact that there has of late years been a

great diminution under the former head [that of crime], and that through our instrumentality every known gang of young thieves has been broken up. A report from the Governor of Holloway Prison states that the juvenile criminal population has yearly decreased, so that instead of 136 males and 26 females received in 1869, the number of the present year have been only 28 males and no females." The report attributes the decrease to the School Board. All who are concerned for the elevation and progress of our country in what is good and true and right must rejoice in such facts as these; and although the expense of this great movement has added considerably to the already heavy burdens of many ratepayers, such expenditure, if wisely controlled, is of the kind which gives satisfaction. The School Board, we may remind our readers, is but part of a larger movement. It is one of the forms in which a quickened interest in the young lives about us, a deepening appreciation of our responsibility to children, and a more intelligent apprehension of the best conditions of true and wholesome training, are manifesting themselves. It is for Christian parents and for the Christian Church to bear in mind that with the brightening of these young intelligences the need of a corresponding care over their moral and religious training becomes increasingly urgent and important. We may add too the hope that this attention to the elementary education of children of the artisan class will become, as the years go on, less and less an interest in a particular class, and that, in some suitable way, it will be extended to the children of all classes. We should like to see the profession of teaching — so transcendent in its importance and influence-fenced round, as the professions of law and medicine are, in such a way that no one should be permitted to enter upon its responsible duties without having given to some properly constituted public body evidences of fitness for the task..

II.-GLANCES ABROAD.

THE FAMINE IN INDIA.

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From India the news could scarcely be better. The rainfall has been general and prolonged in the districts which have been suffering so terribly from famine, and the prospects are altogether hopeful. By February next this dark and melancholy experience will probably be over, and the rulers and people of India will be able to gather up the lessons taught by the fearful drought from which millions have been suffering. It is necessary to reiterate the warning that this prospect, while affording great cause for thankfulness and hope, only very partially relieves the present distress. People cannot live on expectations, and the anticipation of a plentiful harvest in a few months time will not satisfy the hunger of to-day. The energy of the Indian administration and the liberality of voluntary helpers at home must still be severely taxed. Meantime, we rejoice to hear that the import of rice into the Presidency of Madras is abundant. A newspaper correspon

of despotic government have found ardent supporters in the ranks of the priesthood. The French Conservatives seem resolved that there shall be no doubt about their unwillingness to trust the people. They are possessed with the idea that in political affairs the population must be treated like children, must be drilled into submission to whatever their rulers may think good for them, and must learn not to meddle with the true weapons of political life-free discussion and inquiry and action under a sense of deep personal responsibility. The question still upon every lip is, What course will the defeated Marshal and his Ministers now take? In the face of the majority against them, they will be able to pass no important measure, and there is every prospect of a complete block for a time in the political business of the country. Meantime the attitude of the French people generally has been such as to excite admiration, and to give the best ground for hope with regard to the finally successful issue of the struggle. As Mr. Gladstone observed lately, France is clearly making wonderful progress in her political education. The country is showing an increasing apprehension of the true nature of constitutional principles, and an increasing preparedness to embody them in becoming action. In these pages our chief concern is to note the bearing of these political movements and changes on the re

dent has described the shore near the town of Madras as being covered with stacks of bags, filled with this staple food of the people, fifteen feet high, along a distance of two miles. The price has fallen rapidly, and we find it impossible to feel any regret when we hear that many 'speculators' have become serious losers in consequence of the fall. The chief difficulty still is in the distribution of the food, and it becomes more clearly certain that in order to provide against such calamities in future, one great necessity is for the improvement of the means of transport. Cheap railways would seem to be more urgently needed even than irrigation works; although both will be needed in order to develop the resources of the country and to guard it from calamities such as those from which it is now suffering. How desirable, on mere financial grounds-to say nothing of higher considerations—it | is that the Government should earnestly devote its attention to these requirements is clear from the fact that the cost of the present famine is already estimated at fifteen millions sterling, besides losses of revenue in a more or less direct manner, and that within the last hundred years sixteen famines on a large scale have occurred, twelve of them in the present century. It is gratifying to learn that the administration of the Mansion House Relief Fund is proceeding in a manner which gives great satisfaction to observers, and is of immense service to the popula-ligious life and progress of the French people. It tion on whose behalf it is given. As we write, this fund is rapidly mounting up to £400,000, and the average daily amount sent in has only slightly diminished. This is a noble evidence of sympathy and generosity on the part of the British people, and has produced a deep impression throughout India. This Christian kindness will, we cannot doubt, have a gracious influence upon the hearts of multitudes of our Hindoo fellow-subjects. It may, perhaps, contribute in some small measure to teach the lesson, which the world is so slowly learning, that the mightiest power in the universe is the power of love, and that it is love, not force, which shall everywhere win the final victory.

THE COURSE OF EVENTS IN FRANCE.

The affairs of France have been so deeply interesting for some weeks past, and especially as the critical day of the General Election, October 16th, drew near, that to some extent attention has even been diverted from the course of the great struggle in Eastern Europe, and the political and national possibilities associated with it. Now that the elections are over, it is found that the result is very much like what was anticipated by all thoughtful observers. A larger number of the French people have voted than ever before, and a decisive majority of the new Chamber of Deputies is composed of Republican politicians, while it is probable that that majority will be yet considerably increased when an inquiry is made, in the ordinary course of things, into the validity of the election of various members. The utmost efforts have been put forth by the Marshal and his friends in order to bring about a different result; and the Conservative friends

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cannot but be that this new order of things, which seems to be coming on steadily and rapidly, will greatly affect the action of the country with regard to the religious institutions existing there. It would be too much to say that there can be discerned any very definite tokens of the growth of a deeper religious earnestness in France. For the moment it seems, indeed, as if Liberal ideas in politics in that country were chiefly associated with a sceptical spirit, which not only doubts and questions, but does so with mockery and scorn of all that constitutes the Christian faith. This is the recoil from the superstitions fostered under priestly teaching and influence. But we cannot doubt that the eternal verities of religion, although they now seem to be obscured in France, will shine out at length all the more clearly when the free air of constitutional liberties shall have yet more fully penetrated French life and thought, and diffused its invigorating energies more perfectly.

THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

Already the keen northern blasts, the sharp frosts, the cold rains, and the occasional falls of snow, which herald the approach of winter, have come upon the armies in Bulgaria, and have given warning of the severity of the hardships through which the hostile camps will have to pass during the next few months. The Turks have manifested an unlooked-for capacity on the field of battle, and the Russians have betrayed an unexpected weakness of organization and lack of generalship. The result has been that thousands of lives have not only been forfeited, but, judging from the observations and conclusions of military critics, have been actually thrown away. The Russian army

affecting sketch of the life and work of the late Rev. Dr. Carstairs Douglas, who after more than twenty years of missionary labour in China was suddenly cut down, at Amoy, by cholera in June last. Dr. Douglas was only in his forty-seventh year, but he has long been regarded, by those best able to judge of him and his work, as belonging to the very front rank of those distinguished men who have laboured with signal success in a field in which such success can be secured only by the combination of the highest mental endowments with rare devotedness of spirit. Dr. Douglas presented this combination, and his unlooked-for removal is not only felt as a severe blow to the mission at Amoy, of which he was the senior member, but as a great loss to that comparatively small band of European and American Christian teachers who are seeking to spread the Gospel among the millions of China. He was the youngest son of a learned and excellent Presbyterian minister, and in that quiet Scotch manse he and his brothers received the first impressions and instructions which helped to prepare them for the honourable positions which, as we believe, they have all attained. As a student in the Glasgow University, Carstairs Douglas was much under the influence of his pastor and friend, the late vigorous and holy William Arnot. From the time of his arrival in China to the last days of his life he gave himself with sustained and indomitable ardour

has experienced very serious checks and disasters, the brief limits of some fifteen pages, a singularly although there still seems to be a decided preponderance of strength on the Russian side. Although Russia's resources are by no means ample so far as money and materials are concerned, there cannot be a doubt that they are still far superior to those of Turkey, and if the war be persisted in, as appears sadly probable, through another summer, there can be little doubt that Turkey must yield. But who can reckon up the cost of blood and treasure at which such a triumph must be gained? As this goes to press, we read of a “great victory" won by the Russian army in Asia, after a prolonged series of abortive efforts; but the conviction seems to be settling down upon the minds of observers that no decisive issue is to be expected from the present campaign. The prospect is a dark one, and the reflections which it suggests are bitter. The tidings which reach us of the state of the armies are most melancholy. Tens of thousands of men are encamped on ground which the autumn rains have transformed into a vast bed of mud; fever, dysentery, and other sicknesses are cutting off hundreds upon hundreds by death. The imagination is baffled by the sufferings which are being endured, not only by soldiers in the camp and on the battle-field, but also by the unnumbered thousands of women and children amongst whom, directly and indirectly, the war is making havoc. So far as the soldiers are concerned, it is some comfort to hear that the Russian Government seems to be really into his work, and thus, it is to be feared, prepared earnest in the endeavour to make provision for the alleviation to some extent of the rigours of the winter. Stores of blankets, clothing, and necessaries for the sick and wounded, are being pushed forward in vast quantities to supply the pressing need. Among the benevolent efforts being made by neutrals on behalf of sufferers from the war, we note those of Dr. Ziemann, well known to many benevolent persons in the country, who has been long labouring with immense energy, skill, and zeal on behalf of the poor refugees of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro. Dr. Ziemann has been trying to arrange with the Turkish Government for the safe return of these poor creatures to their homes, but his efforts have been unsuccessful. He feels that any attempt to send them back would expose them to disaster and death, and with the cold, hungry, wet, and almost hopeless multitudes around him, he is alarmed at the prospects of the coming winter. Dr. Ziemann is backed by the Manchester Evangelization Committee, the secretary of which (Mr. Sinclair) writes begging that the benevolent would replenish the now exhausted exchequer.

III.-MISSION JOTTINGS.

THE HARVEST FIELD IN CHINA.

We should like, with very special emphasis, to call attention to the September number of the little quarterly publication issued by the Foreign Missions Committee of the Presbyterian Church of England, the title of which, The Gospel in China, is no doubt familiar to many of our readers. It contains, within

himself to become the victim of the terrible disease to which he succumbed. His knowledge of the Chinese language and literature was remarkably accurate and extensive, and was obtained by the most laborious and conscientious toil. He published in 1873 a dictionary of the colloquial language of Amoy, which gave evidence of his rare scholarship, and is greatly valued for its practical usefulness. He was an enthusiastic and indefatigable missionary, with an unquenchable eagerness for evangelistic work, with a broad and liberal intelligence in his methods, and with a gentleness and humility of spirit which secured him the devoted affection of his brother missionaries. He died after a few hours' illness, calmly trustful, but leaving to his friends that which is more precious than deathbed sayings—the remembrance of a consecrated life.

Dr. Douglas had just returned from the missionary conference at Shanghai, and one of his last acts was to send to the treasurer of the English Presbyterian Mission a number of copies of an appeal addressed by the hundred and twenty missionaries who composed the Shanghai conference "to the various mission boards, colleges, and churches of the world, for more men and women for China." He was very anxious that this appeal should be widely published in Great Britain and Ireland; and important and impressive as the appeal is in itself, it will probably be read with deeper emotion by not a few from the fact that it comes, in this case, fresh from the hand of one who has just fallen in the field on which he had toiled and fought so well. The address speaks

for itself, and we cannot but lay before our readers | in China, at the present day, to almost every form of its principal passages :—

"I. China is by far the largest heathen country in the world. Including its dependencies, it embraces a territory larger than the whole continent of Europe; or, excluding the Mohammedan kingdoms, it is about equal to all the rest of the heathen nations combined.

“II. It is also beyond all question the most important. The discoveries of Livingstone revealed a grand future for Africa; the wealth of India is well known; but no heathen country in the world can for one moment be compared to China. Its mineral resources alone rival those of the Western States of America, and indicate that China will be one of the great nations of the future.

"III. The Chinese, though the oldest nation in the world, are as full of vigour and promise as ever. Intellectually they are fit for anything. In diplomacy and mercantile enterprise they have proved themselves a match for the ablest and most far-reaching minds among ourselves. There are those among them who have mastered every new art and science we have set before them. Their enterprise and perseverance are proverbial.

"IV. At the present moment one feature of the Chinese character deserves special notice. They are the great colonisers of the East. The natives of Cambodia, Sumatra, Java, the Philippine Islands, Timor, Borneo, the Sandwich Islands, &c., fall before civilisation. Europeans cannot cope with the insalubrity of these climates. The Chinese alone have proved themselves able to maintain vigorous physical life in these regions. They are entering them by thousands, and in some cases tens of thousands, every year, and that in an ever-increasing ratio. They are also rapidly colonising Manturia, Mongolia, and Thibet. It is clear, therefore, that the Chinese will ultimately become the dominant race in all these vast countries.

"V. A stream of immigration has of late set in towards Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific States of America, which is widening every year. It will prove a blessing or a curse, just in proportion as the fountain is cared for.

"We will not pursue this line of thought further; the dark features of Chinese life and character oppress us. Chinese civilisation has been set against Christian civilisation. Those who draw this comparison cannot have mingled with the Chinese people. Underneath their showy exterior the most pitiful, debasing, and cruel customs prevail. The highest authority in the land testifies to this. The Peeking Gazette day by day demonstrates the prevalence of the grossest superstitions among all classes, from the Emperor downwards.

"We will not seek to harrow your feelings by entering into details. Of old it was said that men 'changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.' The Chinese go farther than this. They not only worship the dead, and idols of wood and stone, but also, in many districts, the most loathsome creatures. Mere civilisation is no criterion of the moral condition of the people. We have all read of the debasing worship of the ancient Egyptians, the horrid rites of the cultivated Phoenicians, and have stood aghast at the immorality of Greece and Rome during the most glorious epochs of their history. We do not say that the Chinese have reached the same depths of iniquity, but we do affirm that, with the exception of immoral rites in religious services, parallels can be pointed out

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degradation, cruelty, and vice which prevailed in those ancient kingdoms. And what aggravates the case is that the literati and rulers of all grades-notwithstanding occasional proclamations to the contrary make use of the prevailing superstitions to influence and govern the people. Thus the educated, instead of seeking to enlighten and elevate the masses, only bind the fetters of ignorance more effectually upon them. There is, therefore, no hope for China in itself. Under these circumstances millions pass into eternity every year!

"There are, however, many indications of promise. (1) Thirty-seven years ago, there were only three native Christians in all China in connection with the Protestant missions. Now there are at least twelve or thirteen thousand. (2) A much larger proportion have applied for baptism during the past year than in any previous year, and the candidates have been generally of a higher type of character. (3) The empire is more open than ever for the preaching of the Word, and the Chefoo Convention of last year, together with the proclamations agreed upon, is proving a mighty instrument towards the more effectual opening up of the vast interior. (4) Not only is the country open to our efforts, but the minds of many in different quarters have been more or less aroused from their lethargy. (5) Multitudes are reading our books; and not a few are eagerly investigating the nature and bearing of Western innova

tions.

"We earnestly appeal to the whole Christian world for help. There are still eight provinces in which there is not one resident missionary. In others there are only two or three; and, taking China as a whole, we stand as one missionary for Massachusetts, or two for Scotland. . . . We are in dead earnest. We do not know what to do for lack of men. The country opens, the work grows. Think of stations with only one man to hold his own against the surging tide of heathenism! We are ready to be overwhelmed by the vastness of the work. Many among us are tempted to undertake too many duties. Hence the broken health and early death of not a few of our

best men. . . .

"We want China emancipated from the thraldom of sin in this generation. It is possible. Our Lord has said, 'According to your faith be it unto you.' The Church of God can do it, if she be only faithful to her great commission. When will young men press into the mission field as they struggle for positions of worldly honour and affluence? When will parents consecrate their sons and daughters to missionary work as they search for rare openings of worldly influence and honour? When will Christians give for missions as they give for luxuries and amusements? When will they learn to deny themselves for the work of God as they deny themselves for such earthly objects as are dear to their hearts? Or, rather, when will they count it no self-denial, but the highest joy and privilege, to give with the utmost liberality for the spread of the gospel among the heathen?"

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The Society's mission in Constantinople was established in 1819, in the development of a scheme of missionary enterprise started on behalf of the countries of the Mediterranean a few years previously. Its history has been chequered and interrupted and upon the whole unsatisfactory. The great hindrance has been the intolerance of Mohammedanism, admin

istered by the cruel and relentless government of

Turkey. It was in 1843 that Lord Stratford Canning (then Sir S. Canning) obtained from the Porte, after tedious diplomatic proceedings, arising from the execution by order of the Turkish Government of some Mohammedans who had become Christians, a pledge to the following effect: The Sublime Porte engages to take effectual measures to prevent henceforward the execution and putting to death of a Christian who is a renegade." These words, however, were afterwards held to apply only

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to the case of converts from Mohammedanism who had been born Christians, not to Mohammedans who had been such from their birth. It was in the course of the Crimean war that the British Government urged upon the Porte, and indeed demanded, that liberty of conscience should be granted, so that Mohammedan subjects of Turkey who became Christians should not be liable to punishment

In 1858 the Church Missionary Society, taking courage from the proclamation made by the Porte, in compliance with this demand, recommenced their

mission, which had then for some time been suspended, for the direct purpose of evangelizing the Turks. During the succeeding six years some success seemed to attend these labours, and several converts were baptised. But in 1864, for some cause not assigned, "the Turkish police suddenly attacked the premises of the Church Missionary Society, of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and of the Bible Society, and forcibly closed them, seized the Christian books, and threw the converts and inquirers into prison. Through the intervention of the British Ambassador the converts were afterwards released, and partial redress was obtained; but the books were not restored, and a course of systematized obstruction and espionage was entered upon, and "men suspected of Christian tendencies were sent off by scores into exile, and condemned to work in the galleys." From that time Christian evangelistic effort has been hampered and restricted in every way. During thirteen years only two baptisms have been reported by the society's missionary, and in both cases temporary arrests followed. Having regard to the entire circumstances of

the case, and also to the open doors presented for missionary labour in Africa, India, and China, the society have, as we have mentioned, withdrawn their agent and brought their effort in Constantinople to a close.

THE LIVINGSTONIA MISSION.

Africa has been called the "Missionaries' Grave," and it seems as if, as the great field of African labour

is opened up, the phrase were to be perpetuated,

proving itself only too truly descriptive of the fact. The efforts being made to carry the Gospel into Central Africa can, it is clear, only be carried to a successful issue at the cost of valuable lives as well as

of severe labour.

It is little more than a year since Dr. John Smith went out as the medical head of the Church

Missionary Society's Mission to Lake Victoria Nyanza. A few weeks ago the Society received a telegraphic announcement of his sudden death. the Free Church of Scotland Livingstonia Mission, It is just twelve months since Dr. Black, of arrived, with others, at the scene of labour in which it was expected and hoped that he would render valuable service for many years to come. But he, too, has passed away, having fallen a victim to malarious fever at the early age of thirty-one. Dr. fession of an architect, and had studied accordingly, Black, who had originally been destined for the proturned to medicine, with the special purpose of fitting himself for missionary labour. He showed great distinction as a medical student at the Glasgow aptitude for his new calling, and won considerable University. He was eminently unselfish and devoted, engaging heartily in Christian service, especially amongst the young, at the Barony Church, with which fired with true missionary ardour, and he resolved to he was for some time connected. His spirit was give himself to Africa, impelled in the choice of this sphere of labour by the desire "to do something

foundation." It was within six months of his arrival original," and "not to build on another man's at Lake Nyassa that his summons came, and his work was abruptly closed. As can well be understood, this loss has cast a gloom upon the little Christian behalf of himself and his fellow-labourers, says— colony of Livingstonia. Dr. Stewart, writing on

"We are puzzled and perplexed when such an event as this occurs. Here was a man in every way admirably qualified, by his varied previous training, habits, and inclinations, for the field of his choiceand, indeed, for any mission-field. He has hardly commenced to work when he is called on to cease. It is the old and oft-recurring perplexity, due entirely to our limited views both of God's providence, and our ignorance of the ends which are served by each man's life on earth. Hence, though perplexed and and love, as knowing best and doing best." saddened, we continue to believe in God's wisdom

These losses make a strong demand upon the Church's faith, and form a new challenge to the devotion of its young men, who are summoned forward to the vacant places in the ranks.

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