municants 915: in 1838, the amount was 3038 and 839, showing an increase in the congregations during the four years of 884, and in the communicants of 76, and raising the proportion, if children be deducted, to about one-third; which, however much below what we should ardently desire and labour for, is yet a cause of thankfulness to Almighty God.

PLACES WHERE CHURCH SERVICE IS PERFORMED.

The stations and places where the services of our church are celebrated, are 54, to which, if we subjoin those occasionally visited, the number amount to about 80. The sacred edifices erected, or under erection, are 70, which, with 5 new churches in advanced preparation, and many native chapels in the various missions, amount to nearly 100.

ORDINATIONS.

The ordinations which I have had occasion to hold since 1838, have been five; one at Meerut, one at Allahabad, and three at Calcutta. Thirty-one priests and twenty-eight deacons have been admitted to holy orders in these, and the eighteen preceding ordinations celebrated since I arrived in the Diocese in 1832.

CONVERTS AND INQUIRERS.

* During the last four years there has, I rejoice to say, been a rapid augmentation in the number of converts and inquirers after the Gospel, both in the missions of the venerable Propagation Society at Barrypore and Janjera, and of the Church Missionary at and about Krishnaghur. In the other stations there has been a steady increase of good, but chiefly amongst schools, and in the way of preparation; but "showers of blessing," to use the language of the prophet, have descended on those which I have named.

* *** In the villages of the Propagation Society about Janjera and Barrypore, 1200 have been admitted to holy baptism, who, with 1300 catechumens, constitute a body of 2500 under Christian instruction. Of these, 370 were candidates for confirmation when I visited the station last February.

DIOCESE OF MADRAS.

CEYLON.

THE following is an extract from a Letter recently received from the Bishop of Madras, dated April 18, 1843:

"Our Society is fully aware of my deep anxiety to establish one of its missions at Kandy; but perhaps it is not fully aware of the urgent necessity which now exists for its establishment. If this ground, a most promising field of missionary labour, be not occupied immediately, it will be lost to the Church of England for ever. Kandy is the capital and centre of the coffee plantations of Ceylon; numerous Europeans and East Indians must, ere long, be employed as superintendents of those estates, and many are so employed already; and at the least

there are thirty thousand natives of India imported as labourers from the continent. To be efficient, however, or indeed to secure any reasonable chance of success, I must candidly own to our Society that a mission at Kandy must be taken up in strength, otherwise it will only end in vexation of spirit to take it up at all. We must have there, at the least, two European missionaries; men not only of unquestionable piety and sound in the faith, but of great moral courage, for they will have peculiar difficulties to contend with. Very much will depend upon their personal character: I mean that they must not be ordinary clergymen or ordinary missionaries, but men who would take the lead and keep it under any circumstances; men of a dauntless spirit, who would throw themselves into the work and never shrink from it. The Church of England has such men; I know that she has many such; but alas! I can scarcely hope that our Society will be able now to send them out; and I make, therefore, the appeal for Kandy with but little hope of success. Still it may stir up friends to help us in this time of need; sound, sober, faithful, consistent members of our Church, prepared to make a sacrifice to enable her to put her hand to the plough in such a field. I could say much more than I can write on this subject, but I must content myself with entreating our Society to believe that I have never known a case more urgently needing its help, and that, if not taken up speedily, the Church of England at that station, so far as its numerous out-stations are concerned, will soon be like Rachel weeping for her children because they are not. ***

"I will now bring this letter to an end, with a few observations on the general character of the Society's missionaries, and which are to the full equally applicable to those of the Church Missionary Society in the diocese. I am satisfied that all are most anxious to show themselves faithful servants of Christ within the Church of England. I am not aware of the existence among them of any extravagant opinions, and I am quite sure that none indulge in any extravagant practices contrary to the sobriety and simplicity of the Church of which they are ministers. Shades of opinion, on fairly debateable questions, will always be found in a body of Clergy; but all seem to me desirous that upon these their moderation should be known unto all men; and their great object, I am persuaded, is to set forth Christ crucified, and to set forward the salvation of those duly committed to their charge. After visiting Tinnevelly and Travancore, my revered friend, the Bishop of Calcutta, remarked to me, I never saw a finer Church spirit than that which pervades both districts; and this is my own deliberate conviction also; as it is my fervent prayer, that God will bless their labours and mine, in so far only as they are in accordance with the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.'

MATURA (CEYLON.)

THE Rev. E. Mooyaart was appointed as the Society's Missionary at this town about the end of the year 1841.

An application for help from this Missionary, in order to enable him. to carry on the operations of his Mission in this place, has recently been

forwarded to the Society through the Bishop of Madras. From this statement it appears that the population of the town of Matura is 11,809, comprising 3 Europeans, and 184 European descendants or Burghers. The population of the district is 98,082, in the following proportions:

Of the Christians, the far greater number, it is to be feared, has, from long neglect, sunk into a state of religious indifference. For these Mr. M. has opened an English service twice every Sunday in a Dutch church. The usual congregation numbers about 50.

Mr. M. gives the following account of his visit to two out-stations in his Mission, where he found an utter destitution of the Bread of Life prevailing. They are Tangalle and Hambantolle, distant 22 and 47 miles respectively from Matura :-" Each place contains a small Christian population of Burghers. I have as yet been able to pay them only one visit, which was in February last year, when I was informed that twelve years had elapsed since any clergyman had been among them; during which time they had been left entirely destitute of all christian ordinances. It was, however, truly gratifying to witness the pleasure and thankfulness with which they seemed to welcome the presence of a christian missionary among them after so long an interval. I spent a Sunday, and preached at each place, when I also had the happiness of administering the sacrament of baptism to fifteen children, some of whom had arrived at the ages of ten and twelve years. I had the satisfaction, likewise, of leaving behind me a number of excellent books and tracts, published by the Christian Knowledge Society, which the people were very glad to obtain."

There is a similar out-station at Belligam, about 11 miles from Matura. In order to enable him to keep up a more regular pastoral intercourse with these distant members of his flock, Mr. Mooyaart is very anxious to be assisted by some Catechists, whose knowledge of the native languages would also materially aid the spread of the Gospel among the surrounding heathen.

He has also taken steps toward the establishment of Christian schools in connexion with the Society's Mission, for which he describes the population, both native and Burgher, to be most anxious.

The prevailing superstition in this Mission is, it will be seen, that of Buddhism. This awful system holds out, as its highest happiness, the absorption of the soul-not into the Deity, but into nothingness! And yet to its wide-spread influence over the native population of Matura, Mr. M.'s statement bears melancholy witness.

"These remarks," he says, "might easily be extended further, to show the awful moral degradation of the entire native population. The system of Buddhism at present bears an almost undisputed sway over the native mind. It is indeed sufficiently appalling in itself, and perhaps somewhat disheartening to the christian missionary, to con

sider the number of temples, amounting to at least an hundred, dedicated to the worship of Boodhoo, within a small circuit, and to recount the number of his priests, of whom, in this district alone, there are 437. Such a statement almost involuntarily calls to mind, in humbling contrast, the small band of the Christian priesthood who are scattered here and there over this vast moral wilderness; and the few Christian temples, alas! which appear on any side to greet the eye of the true servant of God."

MISSION OF TANJORE.

From the Report of the Rev. F. W. A. Schmitz.

THIS Mission was established in the year 1773,* by the Rev. Christian Frederick Schwartz, exactly seventy years ago. From that time up to about twenty years ago, the missions at Combaconum, Negapatam, Ramnad, Madura, and Dindigul, as also Tinnevelly, and, periodically, Trichinopoly likewise, were all the outposts belonging to the mother mission at Tanjore, not to mention all the villages. From time to time these missions were formed into separate missions, and on this account the Tanjore mother mission has become comparatively small, viz. Tanjore itself, with 1077 Christians; a seminary for the training of native catechists and schoolmasters; an orphan school for native Christian children, 120 in number; three schools in the Fort for Heathen children, and various other schools in the suburbs of Tanjore. Amongst these schools is also a Mahratta school and two English schools. To Tanjore itself, which has two large substantial churches, viz. the Fort church, built by Mr. Schwartz, and the New Mission church, there are also belonging six country village circles, viz. the Caunengoody circle, with ten villages; the Aneycadoo circle, with four villages; the Boodaloor circle, with twelve villages; the Coleroon circle, with eight villages; the Rasagherry circle, with eight villages; the Terupantrully circle, with three villages. In some of these villages there are Catechists in charge of the village congregation, varying from twenty to about one hundred and fifty souls; in others, there are schoolmasters in charge of a school, with a view of teaching the people the principles of the Christian religion, and of improving the rising generation. The total of souls belonging to the Tanjore mission, who are baptized, amounts in all to 3261. Our increase during the last six months has been rather considerable, viz. 166, including five adult Heathen converts. The number of communicants amounted on Christmas day to about 400 in Tanjore itself. The decrease was 59 funerals, and 9 apostatized, in a village named Caumendagoody.

This brief sketch shows, that, notwithstanding all the obstacles against the propagation of the gospel, the kingdom of Christ is extending in this country. The stations of the Tanjore mission, small as it is now in

This is the year Mr. Schwartz baptized the first native converts, as entered by him in the register kept at Tanjore in the mission library.

comparison to former days, extend themselves from the banks of the Coleroon, on the north, to Ramnad, on the south, to within a few miles of Trichinopoly, on the west, and the sea, on the east. The venerable Mr. Kohlhoff being in the eighty-first year of his age, the charge of the mission belongs principally to me, assisted by Mr. Catechist Bower, and a native deacon. Mr. Kohlhoff preaches occasionally still in Tamil, and visits the Christians in the mornings in Tanjore.

I have represented to our reverend Diocesan the necessity of locating missionaries in our village circles; should the plan (the same as in Tinnevelly) be adopted, the day is not far distant when we shall have whole Christian villages.

DIOCESE OF MONTREAL,

THE following extracts from the Journal of a recent visitation through parts of his Diocese, by the Bishop of Montreal will show in a striking light the difficulties with which that infant Church has to struggle:

"On the 7th, I re-crossed the St. Lawrence, and West of the Rivière du Loup Mission, still in the Roman Catholic tracts of country. On Sunday the 8th, I confirmed six persons in the diminutive stone Church. On the 10th, Mr. Guérout, whose guest I was, drove me to Lake Maskinongé, twenty-four miles, chiefly through the woods, by a road barely admitting the passage of the vehicle. The next day, I confirmed eight persons here in a farm house: fifty or upwards were present, about the same number as that which had assembled at the Rivière du Loup Church on Sunday. They are a plain, simple people, who appreciate the care of their pastor; but they are much connected with the Romanists, by intermarriage and familiar intercourse in life."

DIFFICULTY OF TRAVELLING IN CANADA.

"Mr. GUEROUT took me on, on the 11th, to proceed by St. Elizabeth, where we slept, and Kildare, to Rawdon, which, with its dependencies, is the Mission of Mr. Bourne. A thaw had now continued for some days, accompanied by occasional heavy rain, and very extraordinary at this season of the year, so that the roads were most intolerably bad, and we were repeatedly upset. In the tract of country in which we were now travelling, which is more or less rude and unfrequented, and in which the winter track, as is often the case in Canada East, was in many places carried through the fields, away from the summer road, we encountered brooks and ditches, which had broken their confinement, and were so swollen with continual augmentations from the melting snow, as to offer some obstruction to our passage across them. The driver of the sleigh which followed us would here go forward with a pole, to sound the depth, but when it was ascertained that we could pass, which we did in every instance but one, when a circuit of some