In Chamber's Journal for last December is a short note regarding the Temple of Heaven, which is full of errors. The building, it is stated, was held so sacred by the Chinese that no European however influential was ever known to have obtained permission to enter its precincts, But in spite of all restrictions an adventurous Englishman, Mr, George Forbes, in company with a Danish gentleman, succeeded sheer insistance not only in entering the building but actually in photographing
risky procedure has been recently publish-thy interior The account of this suppose ed. The above journal we take to be usually well-informed, but how in. this instance could it have been so far led wstray Miss Gordon Cumming has been writing and sending illustrations of the Temple to sume of the illustrated papers. She visited it on the same day as the late General Grant. Your correspondent years previously after great trouble succeeded in getting Mr. Saunders of Shanghai admitted, and the photographs which we have hitherto possessed have been produced from his negatives. The dry plate process moreover was not known in those days, and the introduction of a huge dark tent was suppose to secrete sume uncanriy itp. These plates I fear were destroyed in the fire in the study in the Nanking Road some little while ago.
The March meeting of the Missionary Association was held at the U.S. Legation, read by the learned President of the when a Daper on Ancestral Worship was College. It was a lucid and able paper and caught to present the subject of Ancestral Worship in such a modified aspect as to lead to its being considered compatible with a profession of Christianity, and as not inconsistent with its tenets. The paper is to be read at the Shanghai Missionary Conference and the novel view presented will assuredly call forth most animated discussion and dissent. To the statement of the question and the historical grounds of the subject no objection will be taken, but the attempt to take the idolatry and superstition out of the rites connected with the worship will it is feared prove a failure. Such an emasculated worship would not commend itself to the heathen Chinese, The powering the aystem lies in its idolatry. Dr. Martin treated his subject under the threefold aspect of the Petition, the invocations and the offerings connected with the cult. He certainly proved his first position, that the mere prostrations and forms adopted by the worshippers were not nec: ly idolatrous but imply Oriental, and were practised by the subject towards the sovereign, the child towards the parents, inferiors towards superiers, and beggars soliciting alms everywhere. The specimens of invocations given were in some cases mere apostrophes and free from any idolatrous meaning. And the presentation of food, fruits, wine, ete, was on a par with the, decoration of graves in the West, the presentation of wreaths of inmortelles and flowers, etc. The sweeping of the tombs! was on level with the yearly or more frequent visits to the tombs of dear departed ones to plant trees, or beautify with flowers, Ancestral worship thus amended was offered to the missionary body for their reconsider. ation. If the Popes had not decided against it last century China might today have been a Christian country. The nuisionary opposition to the cult had been almost a fatal blow to the spread of Christi-unity.
Several were called upon to speak, and with the large body of missionaries present and the interest of the subject, a long and interesting discussion would have been the result, The subject is likely to excite a warm discussion at Shanghai, the writer of the paper, we hear, having stiffened his paper rather than modified his views, thus exciting still more discussion.
On Thursday morning, March 13th, Bishop Tagliabue died of typhoid fever at the Peit'ung, aged 68 years. The funeral ceremonies took place un Saturday morning the 15th, when almost the entire foreign community was present. The members of the diplomatic body were in uniform. The: streets along which the procession moved were densely crowded by Chinese. The catafalque was preceded by the Fathers of the mission avd these again by the brass band. The Bishop's mitre surmounted the coffin. It yave us all another opportunity of admiring the exquisite beauty of the design and workmanship of the new eathedral. The deceased Father was buried at the French cemetery. Pere Xaviei peared in his Chinese robes wearing hi transparent Line button. Two of the secretaries of the Tsung-li Yamen were present representing that body. This was the precedent followed on the occasion of the death of the last Bishop.
On the same day as the funeral, the two lady guests of the British Legation left fur home vid Canada. Their presence here added much to the enjoyment of the winter. The Charyé d'Afuires for Spain, Mr. Uri-barri, has arrived. He returns to Peking after an absence of some five years. Preparations are being made in our streets for the visit of the Ewperor to the Temple of the Sun on the 20th, and also for the visit to the Eastern Tombs on the 4th April.
"The Viceroy Li left Tientsin on the 15th escorted part of the way by the Taotais and Sheng Taotai of Chefoo. He arrived at Tungchow where he spent yesterday and will spend to-day. He is expected to enter Peking to-morrow and will take up his residence at the usual temple, Hsien ling sz, immediately opposite the Shen chi ying or military camp and the Admiralty Board.
The weather with the exception of one or two days, has been very cold. Our thermometer fell a week ago to 13 or 14 degrees of frost at night, and the ponds were covered with ice. The 17th was our first really warm day. This has been however followed by cloudy cold weather.
19th March.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.