One of the many busy seasons of the Chinese year is now at its height, and the whole population is absorbed in the task of getting in the crops, and in that of preparing the ground for autumn wheat sowing. Two timely falls of rain just before and just after the festival at the middle of the eighth moon, have done much to prepare the und for planting, but the farmer knows long experience that the variety of slips which may occur between sowing and reaping wheat, is a factor of the most depressing character. Owing to the fact that the visitation of worms was so unequally distributed, the harvest will probably turn any local deficiencies being easly replaced out somewhat better than was apprehended,
by abundance in neighbouring regions, Attention was called some time since to the fact that orders were known to have been issued by the Tsungli Yamen to all district magistrates to report in regard to the number of missionaries working in each district, and giving other particulars, such as names of places where chapels' were located, etc. those counties where foreigners are resident, inquiries appear to have' been made in,'duo' form, ut the officials of other districts where chapels are situated, but where no foreigners live, paid attention to the matter, The magistrate of the P'ingyuan district, who recently distinguished himself by capturing several barrow-loads of school-girls on their way to Peking, soon afterwards woke up to a sense of the further responsibilities of his position, and ordered all his constables to report the names of all Christian converts, Protestant and Catholic, within his jurisdic: tion. The orders given from Poking were undoubtedly designed for ie prevention of trouble, and to promote the security of both missions and converts, but as carried out by local officials, and especially by the subordinates in each yamen, experience shows that this order is a most convenient thumb-screw with which to terrify ignorant, peasants, who have a wholesome dread of yamens in all their aspects. It is almost ible to make the people at large apprehend the difference between the proclamation of the Governor embodying the decree of the Emperor warning against the molestation of chapels, &c., and the antecedent proclamation ordering the indiscriminate seizure of members of the Kolao Hui. So far as regards foreigners, the larger part of the Chinese population appears to be permanently characterised by an ignorance that is invincible.
'The ignorance of the people is. matched by the hostility or the armed neutrality' of most: of the official classes, From their Jered at that the perpetual incursions point of view, it is not indeed to be won-
foreigners with no visible motives, should excite alarm. It ix much less than' twenty years since foreigners began to live in the interior of this province, where their invasion was resisted at_the' capital with great determination. Yet despite the most heroic efforts on the part of the gentry both at Chinan Fu and elsewhere, nothing whatever has been accomplished towards repelling the barbarian, and in the capital itself, instead of a single unmarried man as at first, there are now representatives of three societies, including a great number of families. In some prefectural cities the resistance was continued for a lon, time, bat the foreigners always succeeded in getting themselves firmly planted despite all opposition. At the present time there are seven different societies actually represented in Shantung, and an eighth which will soon appear to conduct a flourishing work of long standing. There is an unbroken line of mission stations entirely across the province, from Chefoo and Téngchou Fu on the east, through Huanghsien, Weihsien, Ch'ingchou Fu, Choup'ing, Chi: nan Fu, Taian Fu, and Linch'ingchou on the western border, besides other stations out of the line in the city of Ichou Fu, and in the districts of Lading, and Enhsien. In addition to these, P'ing-tu hsien is occupied a part of the time, an attempt has been made at Chiningchou, and scores of other districts in almost every prefecture are visited by foreigners more or less regularly. The same observations, mutatis mutandis, might be made of the province of Shansi, in which thirteen years ago there was not a Protestant missionary of any kind. At present, the line of occtipied stations extends from Kueihuach'éng in the north, to P'ingyang Fu in the south, and the number of these stations is even greater than in Shantung, many of them
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.