commence, then, under the happiest auspices; for there you have a goodly constituency of local preachers, classleaders, and Sunday-school teachers, whom we have trained at the Cape. And the fulcrum has been moved nearly a thousand miles inland, from which a Christian leverage may be brought to bear upon the heathendom beyond. The Church of Christ is called to "stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord," whilst the mighty curtain rolls aside, and unthought of millions are disclosed to our view. Our Master is in the midst of us; and, as He points to the teeming masses in the interior of Africa, He asks, "What are you ready to do?"...... Mr. W. W. Pocock, Dr. Rigg, Dr. Jobson, the Rev. Samuel Coley, and the Rev. William Arthur, M.A., also took part in the proceedings of the Meeting; which was closed by the President of the Conference, who pronounced the Benediction. OUR ARMY AND NAVY WORK. 1. THE CAMP, ALDERSHOT.-During the past few months we have been cheered by many signs of healthy progress. In making up our returns for March we find an increase on the quarter of twenty-five members, and nineteen on the year, with nine on trial; whilst the income is considerably higher than any previous one. Nor are these the only indications of the good effect of our labours; for the character of the Wesleyan soldier bears evidence to much of the restraining power of the grace of God. This will be seen from the following facts: our average in hospital from all causes, and including women and children, is not more than one and six-tenths per cent., whereas the general average is about four per cent. Our average in the divisional prison for military offences is not more than fifteen-hundreths per cent., which is also much below the general average: during the past month only one man has been committed. Our men furnish large proportion of non-commissioned officers, and our Sunday evening voluntary services are largely attended, though our distance from the camp is so great, and there is the attraction in the camp of ornate and florid services. The temperance-movement also makes progress. Our Sabbath-school numbers nearly two hundred children, with twenty-five teachers, many of whom are soldiers. a what is the great drawback to our work, the perpetual shifting of the regiments quartered in this camp of exercise. We are never at one stay; what we have to do must be done quickly, for the time is short. But for all that, our labour is not in vain; and in the changes that have just taken place we have happy illustrations of the value of our work. Some batteries of artillery, which on their arrival here were without any members of our Society in them, are now gone from us to a station where there is a feeble Church, and will bring a valuable reinforcement of zealous and stable Christians to the struggling cause; whilst a regiment having in it a considerable number of Wesleyans, all of whom have been gathered in during its stay here, will go to another station where a chaplain is appointed by our Conference, and where the good work begun will be carried forward and matured. There is no greater auxiliary to the direct agency of the Church than what may be developed by a careful and thorough carrying on of our work in the army and navy. The great but necessary enterprise to which we are now committed, that of building a new chapel and soldiers' Home, is advancing with a fair measure of success. Our subscription list amounts to £1,522, no less than the sum of £595 being raised or promised We are now beginning to experience on the spot; which compares well with £37, raised towards the building of 2. SIMON'S TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA.The value of our work in the royal navy is seen in the following communication from Simon's Town. The good effected at our home ports bears fruit in distant naval stations and elsewhere: Simon's Town is a compact little place, about twenty-two miles from Cape Town, situated on an extensive bay, with good anchorage for shipping. It derives much of its importance from the frequent presence of ships of war, and from the circumstance that H.M. dockyard is there, which employs many workmen of various kinds. Concerning this station the Rev. P. Batchelor, the resident missionary, says: 64 The attendance at the chapel has been encouraging. About twenty men from her Majesty's ships in the bay are in the habit of attending the Sunday-morning service. On the occassion of the visit of the Flying Squadron to Simon's Bay, upwards of a hundred men belonging to the ships availed themselves, as enrolled Wesleyans, of attending our services." HOME-MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE. 1. GUILDFORD. From the Journal of tht Rev. S. Fogg.-March, 1873.—We have suffered here from the removal of several leaders and local preachers, so that it requires great effort to maintain our position in the town. Our day-school is doing well, though the Episcopalians have built a new school within one minute's walk of it, where they offer a "middle-class" education for an 66 elementary school" fee. Hitherto only one scholar has gone to them from us. We have in the neighbourhood to contend with flagrant Predestinarianism, and also with 'Plymouthism." At Godalming the whole debt on the chapel has been paid, and we have a large, well-warmed, well-ventilated, and comfortable place of worship, surrounded by a dense population. Our congregations here are good and improving. Could a minister devote all his labour to this town, our cause would abundantly flourish. At Knap Hill, we are much encouraged. Our people are working well. The congregation is chiefly composed of officials connected with the two large prisons here. It is determined to free the chapel from debt, and the purpose, by a spirited effort, is nearly accomplished. About sixty of the destitute boys, from the Bisley Refuge are marched to our chapel every Sunday morning, and a good work is apparent among them. At Woking Station, our chapel, recently opened, has had to be enlarged by onethird of its original size, and it is still filled. Great spiritual results are appearing, and will be more fully realized here. At Clandon, our work is of a primitive kind. We preach in a cottage, kindly lent us by a gentleman who has informed us that if a site could be procured he would build us a chapel in the village. Our great want is local helpers. 2. CHERTSEY, ETC.-From the Jour nal of the Rev. A. Llewellyn.-April 25th, 1873.-We have had financisi success during the quarter, having extin guished a debt of £63 on the Chertsey chapel. At Staines a new school-room has been erected, and it will be free of 3. JERSEY (French).—From the Rev. James L. Ozanne.-May 6th, 1873.The foundation-stone of our new chapel was laid on the 1st of May, 1872, and we hope to open it in the course of next month. We have held a bazaar, which has produced upwards of £230; so that, including the amount previously collected in various ways, we have now in hand £1,085. 178. 4d. Still we want £350 more, and are confident that the friends of our work at George-Town will furnish us with the required amount. The spiritual part of our work is in such a state as to give us some encouragement. The congregations, which fill to overflowing our preaching-room, are very attentive; some have been converted to God, and many more are seriously impressed. We feel assured that when the chapel is opened for public worship, the number of our hearers will be doubled almost immediately. The missionary has preached in the open-air every Sunday afternoon during the summer season, sometimes at the Grande Charrière and sometimes in George Town. Many persons who never previously attended any place of worship have come to these meetings, and have listened attentively to the preaching of the Word. We have also held cottage-meetings at the Grande Charrière all through the winter season: where we have been rejoiced to see a mother of a family give her heart to God, and join our Church; and about twenty children attend our Sunday-school as the result. Our Sunday-school is in a flourishing state, the number of children who regularly attend being considerably above that of last year; and the teachers are zealous and faithful in the discharge of their duties. We are thankful to be able to report an increase of Church-members, the number being now forty-seven. The work of the missionary is more and more appreciated in the neighbour. hood: he is constantly sent for to visit the sick and those who are seeking the comforts of religion in their affliction. We are persuaded that we are about to gather the fruits of our labours during past years, and that God will give us an abundant harvest in the new chapel. 4. CREWE. From the Rev. J. H. Hopkins.-April, 1873.-Our congregations at Hightown continue to increase; and our classes are better attended than at any former period. I am favoured with the earnest cooperation of two zealous leaders, whose visiting and other labours have been successful. We have had "continuous services," which have been greatly blessed. Almost every Sunday this year we have had several persons penitently seeking God's favour. A new class which I have formed, and which I meet, now contains forty-nine Church-members, and all our classes are prospering. At our recent chapel anniversary the collections amounted to £37. Our chapel, with its galleries and new organ, is much improved in appearance. 5. PRESTON. (Lune Street.)-From the Rev. H. F. Kelvey.-May, 1873.The history of our mission here is very encouraging. For in this district, where thirteen years ago Methodism was not represented, and six attempts to establish a cause had failed, we have now, by God's blessing on houseto-house visitation, open-air preaching, cottage-services, etc, two hundred Church-members, a Sabbath-school, numbering six hundred scholars, two flourishing day-schools, (the premises, costing £2,800, entirely free from debt,) and congregations so large that we are unable to meet the demand for seats. A few details may be interesting. The mission was commenced in the house of a godly man, who, feeling concerned for the souls of his neighbours, commenced a prayermeeting. The first time he was alone: opening his door, and throwing open his window, he sung, prayed, and concluded by himself. He then invited the crowd that watched and jeered to join him the following week. Numbers came his house was filled. He next obtained an old shuttle-shop, capable of holding about two hundred pcople. This soon became too small, and a large room in a mill, vacant through the cotton-famine, and capable of holding six hundred, was then taken. Under the care of the late Rev. Joseph Edge-the home-missionary appointed to Preston in 1861, whose name is yet gratefully remembered-the cause grew rapidly. A scheme for building more suitable premises was started, and the present commodious homemission chapel in St. Mary's Street was erected. Here the work has continued to flourish. A branch formed at Walton numbers thirty-two Church. members; so that we have a total in this once hopeless district of two hundred and forty, with thirty-eight on trial. Besides contributing about £100 yearly to the Circuit funds, these Societies and congregations have sent last year upwards of £37 to the Foreign Missionary Society, while other Connexional funds have been liberally supported. At the Sabbath-school anniversary in April, the collections realized £66, chiefly contributed by the scholars themselves. We have also spiritual results of a gratifying character to report. The visits and services of the homemissionaries have resulted in the salvation of many souls, and in the discovery and restoration of many who were once scholars in our schools and members of our Church. We also have reason to know that many, driven by the cotton-famine to America, Australia, and New Zealand, are there labouring as "unpaid agents" of our Foreign Missionary Society. One man, who went to New Zealand, writes to say, that in that far country he has, by his own unaided efforts, gathered together a class of thirty members. As an illustration of the service home-missions render in finding out former members and scholars, two facts may be interesting. I called at a house, and found a child dying on its mother's knee. The father, a drunkard, who had his head bandaged, had been turned out of a good situation, and with poverty and death in the house, was realizing the penalty of his sin. I pointed to his neglected Bible, and appealed from the dying child to the hearts of the parents. We then knelt in prayer. I found he was a backslider; and that single visit was blest to his conversion and recovery: he is now an earnest member of our Society. A gracious work is now going on, and forty have recently been added to the Lord. The mission is now being taken into the Circuit proper, with every prospect of being a substantial and helpful addition. 6. AMBLESIDE.-From the Journal of the Rev. T. J. Macartney to March 1st, 1873.-Very active clerical opposition here seeks to injure our Sundayschools, and to hinder and destroy our work. We are not damaged by this impotent exhibition of bigotry. The work of God is deepening in our Church-members, whose lives justify their profession. We are about to spend £50 in the repair of our chapel. At Windermere the chapel is too small for the congregation. At Grasmere we are preparing for the erection of a new chapel. I am encouraged in my work. The Lord is blessing us, and many lost ones have been brought to God. GENERAL RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE, [The extracts which appear in our pages under the head of "General Religious Intelligence," are carefully taken from the most trustworthy sources at our command. We cannot undertake, however, to answer for the propriety, in all cases, of their literary style; to guarantee, in every instance, the accuracy of dates, or of the names of persons and places; or to endorse all the views which, on particular subjects connected with evangelical enterprise, agents of the various Religious Societies and Committees may advance.] AND THE JESUITS.-To understand the warmth and passion, and almost frenzy, displayed by the Deputies in the late debate on the definitive exclusion of the Jesuits from the State, it is necessary to bear in mind the traditional feelings of the whole of the Italian people towards that Order which one Pope did not originally admit without reluctance and misgiving, and which another Pope deemed it necessary to repress. At the Restoration of 1814 the Jesuits were re-established, and placed at the head of public instruction in every State of Italy, excepting only Lombardy, Parma, and Tuscany; for these provinces were under the im. mediate influence of Austria, which at that time did not favour the Order. Subsequently, however, the obnoxious Company regained its ascendancy at Vienna, and thereby at Milan, Parma, and Florence. The Milan Deputies are men between thirty and sixty years of age, and many of them received their education in Jesuit schools and colleges. Indeed, it is proverbial in this country that the pupils of the Jesuits, unless they enter the Order, almost invariably leave their establishments as their implacable enemies. The detestation of these youths for their masters finds a responsive chord in the heart of every Italian of the lowest classes, among whom the name of "Jesuit" is used as the most intolerable word of insult when the common vocabulary of abuse is exhausted, and conveys the i'ea of consummate hypocrisy. The broad brimmed hat of Don Basilio at the Opera, and of Don Pirlone in comedy, is always the butt of the bitter sarcasm and savage invective of an Italian populace. On the first outbreak, or, indeed, on the eve, of any popular tumult at Naples, at Turin, at Milan, and all other places, in 1831, 1848, 1860, and at all epochs, the Jesuit College has been invariably the first object against which the mob's fury sought a vent; and that fury was almost as invariably baffled by the crafty Loyola brethren, who, aware of the brewing storm, knew how to bow before it and withdraw in good time. In 1848, Piedmont, then crushed by a disastrous war, found itself, between Custozza and Novara, compelled to give in to the popular animosity, and excluded the Jesuits, who had already been summarily ejected by an Act of the Sardinian Parliament which was never repealed, and which is now law as well for Piedmont as for all the provinces of the Italian kingdom, Rome and her territory alone excepted. By the Bill placed before the Chamber, Rome and her territory were brought under the common conditions of the rest of Italy, with the single exception of the right of the present heads of Orders to reside in their houses, an exception made only in their favour, and not of their successors, and lasting merely during their tenure of office, that is, not beyond four years. From the benefit of this exception the General of the Jesuits is by the result of the debate on the Bill again excluded; and he will have to leave his old home at once, though he may take up his quarters at the Vatican, -where he has long had a pied à |