was held on Friday evening at the residence of the Rev. Mr, Stevens and the lection of officers for the ensuing year resulted og follows:—President, the Rev.
Meigs; Vice-President, Miss Stanley Seorvtary, the Rev. M. Houston; Treasurer, Miss Mitchell, Historian, Dv, R, 0. Beebe. A committee, appointed some time ago to consider the' feasibility of constructing a road from the Drum Tower to the West Gute settlement, reported in favour of the project. The road will be built as soon as possible.
THE TAICHOW COUNTRY, Your correspondent has just returned from a trip through the north-eastern. part of this province. On coming through Tai chow, some Bifty miles north-east of Chinkiang, we found the people greatly stirred up against foreigners, A deputation from the yanén aroused us about. half-past one o'clock in the morning and requested us to move on" ut our earliest. convenience. We were informed that some three weeks ago two Roman Catholic missionnness had been beaten and driven out of the place. On further enguiry we learned that the missionary had bought a piece of land in the city which gave great offence to a namber of military students assembled there and led them to stir up trouble.
great part of the country through which we travelled has been but seldom visited by foreigners, yet it is one of the most fertile and populous districts in China. The people tov, for the most part, are well disposed. The water-ways which extend in every direction afford easy communivation between the cities of the district and these canals have been much improved within the past two years, In some places the channel has been deepened and a good current has been created by a new connection with the Yangtse (through the Grand Canal) "just completed last We were astonished to find the farmers i such prosperous condition, Some of them have as much as two hundred English acres each under cultivation, Their houses, too, are well built, the walls of brick and solid, the roofs of tile or neatly trimmed: thatch. The country is well-wooded, here were many beautiful stretches of water in the canals bordered by green banks and shaded by overhanging trees, Honorary portals tu the memory of departed friends were seen iv great numbers, some of them beauti fully carved. The temples were picturesquely located and seem to have escaped the ravages of the rebellion. One in particular with its little village gathered around it seemed like bit of old Japan transferred China, As we sailed nlong at an easy rate from village to village and town to town we startled the turquoise kingfisher and the graceful white heron from their haunts. The hedges, too, were noisy with the twittering of swallows and the chatter of the sparrows, Ocensionally we livord the call of the cuckoo and now and them the beautiful oriole was seen flitting from tree to tree. The canals abound in fish, which are caught by trained corm ruts, single fisherman sometimes having ad-zen or more of these clever birds under his supervision, It is altogether a country richly blessed of heaven, a granary capable of feeding an empire. The wheat and barley are in splendid condition and just ready for the sickle. There is need vf rain for the rice which is about being svt out, but this lack is supplied in " measure by pumping water from the canals, the long wooden chain pump being turned by the ugly good-natured buftdlo. The wore it in "any places wear a broad-brinaued, steeple-crowned hat that reminds one of Wales or the witches pictured in the nursery rhymes of childhood, In other places their hair was dressed in long lobes behind the ears, reaching to the shoulders and looking like butterflies' wings. A trip anywhere into the interior of Chine shows how little after all, the people are changed. There is much t) admire too in the strong character which they exhibit—much to respect—in their old-time civilisation and in the contentment which they show.
Yot the first glimpse of the telegraph wires as we drew near to Yangchow thrilled na like the unexpected sight of wu old friend, and we felt that we were stepping back from the prst into the present, coming once more into touch with another form of civilisation, younger by far than that of China, wanting somewhat its repose, but all the nobler because of its discontent with past and present, and its earnest, hopeful outluk into the future,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.