is interesting to us Tientsinners. We are at a complete loss to account for a wish to wind up society which has a membership of 180 and a credit balance of more than Tls. $50. To us Arcadians these figures imply "going strong," The discussion as to whether amusement or improvement should have priority in the doings of the Society is as old as the hills, and is a constant bone of contention in every such association; we have it here. Practical men will always compromise it, and go in for both. With no knowledge whatever of the special circumstances of
our Tientsin experience is that the life-Shanghai, Tan make no pertinent remarks; history of the L. and D. &. illustrates ebb and flow: some years it waxes and in others it wanes, and this under practically the same management. A nucleus of good speakers who keep themselves disengaged for L, and D. S, meetings and maintain a steady interest in them, is the chief cause of a boom in our institution, though of course management and the nature of the "fare" count for something. Our L. and D. has ever tried "smokers," though it gives a first-class concert once, and sometimes twice, a session. A very popular programme here on several occasions has been made by a combination of literature and music ¢.y. papers on Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, with musical illustrations Tennyson, Burns with songs, etc. Our Society is greatly valued as being the any one in which the lay and missionary populations meet to interchange views, and I think we may say this is to the advantage of each.
'24th February.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.