On Saturday, the German the N.-D.L.S' Konig Albert, Shanghai with a large complement of passengers, including an almonnally lange contingent of European mission: Itis obvious, judging from their numbers and the carnestiess displayed by the missionaries, that both they and the societies at hon under whose auspices they have come out, regard the condition of attains in Chin more particularly in the niddle snd souther provinces, as peaceful and ficiently so at any rte to allow of ther sumption of the work amongst the Chi The return of so many agents and the fresh arrivals may therefore be taken as a sign of the renewed contitence of Europ in the atlairs of China.
They accepted ppy augury nds to produce youl harmonious business and ether relations between Chinese and we inay sincerely hope tat this fresh i patus ty the missionary propaganda will he fraught with the happiest results, Almost every European nation represented
on gent which for Central China, twelve fi and seven for East. Chin:
of these are teer digression may he pei ted to re-ion and import of this Its total income ast ye amounted to ov £400,000. has over 400 clergymen in its ranks, 146 laymen, including doctor ete. 249 wives (ie., wives who Dands engaged in active missi and 331 female agents. In China alone it has forty-two clergymen, thirty laymen, forty-six wives, and seventy-eight female agents. Its missionaries are also to be found in every non-Christian country in the world. The Friends' Missionary Society, whose headquarters are in London, had three missionaries aboard allotted to West China. Its total strength in China is about sixteen. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, which has a nun of agents out here, was also represented. This Society is the oldest of English missionary" organisations. In add tion to the foregoing from England, there are eight agents described as undenuxinational. Other European countries ssud their quota, There were four representatives of the Swedish Missionary Society, which organisation is represented already by upwards of twenty in Central China; the German Alliance Mission sends tro to strengthen its ranks numbering over twenty in South China. This Society is allied with the China Inland Mission, which has its agents in all parts of the country. From the Rhenish Missionary there was a small number; and the German Blind Mission had its agents for the German Foundling Ho pital. "The Rowan Catholic Charob wea stea numer ously represented.
Tt will thus be een that the European Missionary Societies are displaying great concern about the religions welfare of the Chinese. This re-awakening to the great possibilities of China as a Christian recruiting ground has attracted much attention in' Europe, with the result that many well-known and pronounced opponents of missionary work have not hesitated to. try to cause mischief, by stirring up old feuds and political anjmosi ty. The outcome of this has been merely to emphasise upon all missionaries—perhaps unnecessarily so—the absolute necessity of terference in the domestic or political affairs of the country. The instructions of the Church Missionary Society are very emphatic. Its agents know that they are fully protected, like other foreigners, by treaties. Their mission is for spiritual work solely, and from personal contact with many of them we incline to the opinion that they fully realise this essential feature of their work. Lord Salisbury's references to mission y work seem to have had a leavening upon ts agents.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.