of the ten who were sent out as the result of the appeal of our honoured friend W. H. Pearce, but three remain. This fact speaks decisively in favour of an indigenous ministry; nor less decisively of the importance of having in the field a larger number of European missionaries than may be absolutely required to occupy the posts that are left vacant by the older brethren. Not a few who are now connected with the Society in India, indeed (it may be said) most have been engaged in the work for twenty years and upwards; and they are still bringing forth fruit in their old age. A few years more, and all will have left their toil, and have entered upon their reward, without, probably, any long interval between them, and yet we are not preparing to supply their place. Mr. Fink has been compelled by age to leave Chittagong, and Mr. Robinson, Dacca. At Delhi, Mr. Thompson has been labouring for upwards of thirty years, and is the only missionary at the station; while every where our brethren are calling loudly for help, not so much to extend as to maintain their posts.

To India, one missionary (with his wife) has been sent during the year, Mr. and Mrs. Sale. A passage was given to them by the owner of the "William Carey," who complained, however, that the Society could do no more towards exhausting his generous offer of a free passage for as many as they could send. He has again and again expressed the hope that his vessel will never leave the shores of England for the east without carrying, on the same terms, at least one messenger of the cross. Fifty years ago no English vessel could be found to take out the despised yet dreaded missionary; now, the acceptance of a free passage is regarded by an intelligent ship-owner as an honour and reward.

It ought to be recorded with no less grateful feeling, that a mercantile house in Bristol, to whom the Society is indebted for previous acts of kindness, have returned the passage-money of Dr. and Mrs. Prince, and have added other substantial proofs of their interest in the Society's success. The Committee have also reason to know that a more just appreciation of the tendency of the labours of their brethren has become general, and that many who once questioned whereunto this mission would grow, are prepared to aid it, convinced that legitimate commerce and fair dealing have nothing to fear, but every thing to gain, from the diffusion of religious truth.

Changes have also taken place, from various causes, at other stations. In Canada, the aid of the Society has been extended to eight brethren, instead of ten, as in previous years. In Ceylon and in the Bahamas, the necessary diminution of the Society's grant has compelled our brethren to close several schools, and to dismiss the teachers. So that, during the year, there have been altogether the following changes :-instead of sixty-eight missionaries reported last year, there are but sixty-seven, and instead of 163 native preachers and teachers, there are now only 145.

These numbers, it will be remembered, are but a faint representation of what is done by the Society abroad. They contain no element to represent the Sunday schools, the tract distributers, the holy and efficient preachers who are to be found in many of the mission churches. The Committee carefully exclude from this list all but such as are, more or less, dependent on the Society for their support.

IL-LABOURS.

The labours of these two hundred and eleven agents are of course very diversified. Of the 145 native preachers and teachers, about 100 are engaged during the day in teaching. In all the schools the sacred scriptures are read and expounded, and the missionary visits them, often every day. At the close of the day's teaching, and on the Lord's day, the teacher is the assistant of the missionary in the important work of bible and tract dist ribution. At certain seasons, too, his time is entirely devoted to this work, and the daily labour of the school is relinquished. Of the native preachers, most are engaged as evangelists and assistants; but several in India, in Ceylon, and in the Bahamas, are pastors of churches; an arrangement that would be extended but for the fact that it is found more satisfactory to employ the native brethren as evangelists rather than as pastors. So far, of course, as they act in the capacity of pastors, their salaries are generally raised by the churches under their care. The evangelists are engaged daily in reading to the people, and in expounding the scriptures; in accompanying the missionary in his tours through the country, and in his services in the streets. In all capacities they are found invaluable helps to our brethren.

The work of the missionary is necessarily yet more extensive than that of the native ministry. Some (as Messrs. Wenger and Lewis) give most of their time to the translation of the scriptures. Mr. Leslie at Calcutta, and Mr. Williams at Agra, act as pastors of self-supporting churches. Mr. Leslie has also given much time during the year to the revision of the New Testament in Hindee, and Mr. Williams to the superintending of a considerable body of native preachers. Mr. Pearce and several others devote much of their time to the Bengalis; C. C. Aratoon, Shujat Ali, and the brethren generally in Northern India, to the Mohammedans. Each missionary has his school or schools; and in several of those schools, as at Patna, Calcutta, Serampore, Birbhum, Colombo, and Port of Spain, some of the children are orphans, and are supported by funds for which the missionary is responsible. Each has also a church or churches under his superintendence. Some spend several months in visiting the religious festivals of the people, and preach during the year to many thousands of perOthers are engaged in preparing tracts and elementary books for the use of the converts. Some, like Mr. Denham and Mr. Pearce, add to their labours the training of young men for the work of the ministry. Others give their time entirely to this work, as Mr. Tinson at Calabar, and Dr. Cramp at Montreal. Some are engaged principally in translating and printing the scriptures, as Mr. Thomas at Calcutta, and Mr. Merrick at Bimbia: all in India are busily engaged in distributing them, the copies being supplied to the extent of 50,000 volumes a year by the liberality of the Bible Translation Society and the American and Foreign Bible Society; while in Africa, America, Haiti, and France, the Bible, in English, French, and Spanish, has been supplied by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

sons.

Some confine themselves entirely to their work as missionaries, others find it necessary and advantageous incidentally to promote the temporal comforts of the people. In Bengal, our brethren protect the poor convert against the cruelty and injustice of his heathen relatives. In Africa, they aid the cause of

civilization by introducing the fruits of the more favoured regions of the tropics and the arts of Europe. In Trinidad and Tuscarora, they lay the grievances of the people before the government, and obtain relief.

While some of our brethren are thus occupied in diffusing the blessings of the gospel among nations sunk in heathen darkness, others labour among our own countrymen in Canada, or among our neighbours in France. In Canada, the grants of the Society are devoted to the partial support of eight or ten brethren, who are engaged as pastors of small churches in important towns and districts of that vast country, and where, but for the Society's help, it would be impossible to maintain the cause. Several of these brethren travel over extensive regions to tell our countrymen, in the midst of their solitudes, of that God whose worship is associated with all their recollections of kindred and home. In the interior of that colony again, and in central America, our missionary labours among Indian tribes.

This vast diversity of labour is rather apparent, however, than real. Our brethren every where preach one gospel, and have one aim. Whether among the Roman catholics of France and Trinidad, or the Indians of Canada and Bacalar, the Hindoos, or the descendants of Ishmael and worshippers of the false prophet in India, whether among the barbarous tribes of Africa, or their warm-hearted brethren in the West Indies, they tell to all the same story of peace, and exhibit the same glorious Redeemer. Their agency has every where the same tendency. The school is maintained because there the children are qualified to read of the Saviour of children for themselves; the tract is distributed, because it is Christ's messenger; and the bible is translated, because it is itself the message. The temporal interests of the people are watched over on the same ground. By seeking to increase their temporal comforts, the missionaries exemplify in a faint degree the precepts of Christ, and recommend more forcibly the truths which his death embodied. Every where, and by every means, they preach Christ Jesus the Lord.

The amount of labour performed by our brethren in these engagements it is impossible to state; but some idea of it may be gathered from the fact that in Ceylon there are fifty services held every week, and thirty-two schools under daily instruction; and that, while eighteen stations and sub-stations are regularly supplied, 128 villages receive periodical visits. This is the work done in an island where we have but three missionaries and fourteen assistants, exclusive of teachers.

The brethren who have been thus engaged during the year require, under any circumstances, the cordial sympathy of our friends. They have foregone the blessings of Christian fellowship; they have a thousand disappointments from which in more favoured lands they might be free; and when it is remembered that many of them are alone, sometimes among a million of people, that they have been waiting for years for help, that others of them have had to struggle with severe personal or domestic affliction, as Webley and other friends in Haiti, Page at Barisal, Lewis at Calcutta, Davies in Ceylon, and our brethren generally in Africa, nothing more need be added to secure our remembrance of them at the throne of grace. The Committee but repeat the request of nearly every letter they receive, when they implore the friends of the mission not to cease offering up on their behalf "prayer and supplications with strong crying

and tears unto Him that is able to save;" not so much that the afflictions of our brethren may be removed, as that the sufferers may be found faithful, and that Christ may be "magnified, whether it be by life or by death."

III.-RESULTS.

TRANSLATIONS.

In the work of TRANSLATION, the chief part of the Report of the Committee refers of course to the department of BIBLICAL translation. In Africa, the Gospels of Matthew and John in Isubu have been completed, and the books of Genesis and Exodus. Other portions of scripture are also ready, and wait only for printing. For the use of schools a volume of scripture extracts has been published. The grammar and the Gospel of Matthew in Fernandian, prepared by Mr. Clarke, have also been printed during the year. In central America Mr. Kingdon has been engaged in improving his version of the Gospels in Maya; and Mr. Jenkins, at Morlaix, has completed the New Testament in Breton, and has circulated throughout that country nearly the whole of the edition. He speaks of the openings there as cheering in a very high degree. The liberality of the Religious Tract Society has recently placed at the disposal of himself and his brethren the sum of £100 to be employed in translating and printing Barth's Bible Stories, and other books, suitable especially for the young. Many thousand tracts have been printed by him during the year, at the expense of the Paris and London Religious Tract Societies. Tracts on the doctrines of the gospel, as opposed to the errors of the Romish church, have also been printed by Mr. Law of Trinidad, who has been supplied by the Religious Tract Society with paper for that purpose. At Delhi, our aged brother Mr. Thompson has printed several thousands of tracts, and has a promise from the same Society of whatever paper may be needed for future publications. His knowledge of the people, their language, and modes of thought, renders his labours in this department peculiarly acceptable.

The BIBLICAL labours of our brethren in Calcutta have been confined during the year chiefly to the three vernacular languages of India-the Bengali, the Sanscrit, and the Hindi.

In HINDI Mr. Leslie has completed his new version of the New Testament, and there have been printed

And of single Gospels

Mr. Thompson has translated Daniel into the same language, and there have been printed

2,500 copies. 9,000

1,000

In SANSCRIT the first volume of the Old Testament has been printed to the extent of

2,500

Or since 1838, of 639,057 volumes; or, in all, from the first, of 887,122.

The number of the scriptures circulated during the year amounts to 48,157 volumes.

The printing of the remainder of the Old Testament in Sanscrit, and the revision of the New, are advancing steadily; and reprints of the New Testament in Bengali, Hindi, and Hindustani, are in preparation for the ensuing year.

INSTITUTIONS FOR NATIVE AGENCY.

In the important work of training young men for the ministry, the Committee are thankful in being able to report on the whole favourably. At Montreal, though some adverse influences have been at work, twelve students have continued to enjoy the benefits of the Institution, four of whom are now settled and labouring with assiduity and success. Since this Institution was formed, twenty-six brethren have been trained in it, and are now stated or occasional preachers of the gospel. At Calabar, Jamaica, eight young men of good promise have been during the year in the Institution; and the Report, which has recently been received, speaks very highly of their character and piety. They seem also likely to prove acceptable to the churches in Jamaica. At Serampore, Mr. Denham has reported that eight young men of good promise are under tuition. More than one of them are sons of missionaries, and the Committee look with hope to this Institution for future labourers for the Indian field. With individual missionaries there are several others becoming similarly qualified, it is hoped, for the work of God among the heathen. So that it may be affirmed, that in this department, not less certainly than thirty young men are engaged in studying the scriptures, and are undergoing a course of elementary instruction likely, under God, to make them able ministers of the New Testament.

ADDITIONS TO THE CHURCHES.

A survey of the statistics generally connected with the Society exhibits rather a larger number of baptisms than in the previous years; though, from various causes, there is not a correspondent increase in the churches.

Beginning with Calcutta, it seems that, in ten churches in that city and its neighbourhood, there are now in communion 532 members, of whom sixty-five were baptized during the year. The other churches in Bengal Proper are nine. They contain in all 571 members, of whom fifty-eight were baptized last year. In other parts of India, insular and continental, there are 796 members, of whom eighty-two have been baptized during the year, making 205 in all. The total number of members in thirty-four churches being 1899, who, it is said, represent a community of nearly as many families.

In the Bahamas, the number of members under the care of our brethren is 2612, of whom 150 were added to the churches last year. In Trinidad, twenty-two have been baptized; the total number of members being 117. In Haiti, seven have been baptized, a number that would have been much larger but for the disturbances in that island. In Africa, the additions have amounted to ten, and the total number of members is about one hundred and ten.

While our brethren have been encouraged by these results, the actual number of members in connexion with their churches has suffered diminution from various causes. In Barisal, a considerable number of the members have con