Revs. J. L. Procter, H. G. Scudamore, and H. De Wint Burrup), the Rev. H. Rowley, a Deacon, a tanner, a carpenter, an agricultural labourer, a printer, a lay superintendent (Mr. H. Walker) and a medical officer (Mr. Dickinson), have been now some months, it is supposed, engaged in the work of the Mission at or near the proposed highlands in the neighbourhood of the River Shire. The very meagrest accounts of their safety and proceedings have at present reached this country. The latest news, a letter of Mr. Burrup, dated September 20th last (published in the Colonial Church Chronicle of February), reports that he had not yet reached the head quarters of the Mission, but that he had received favourable accounts of the Bishop and party, and that "Dr. Livingstone, who was with him, had purchased some land for the Mission from an independent chief at a place by the Mayambala mountains, called Chibisi, below the cataracts." But this latter report needed confirmation.

We must conclude our summary with a few remarks on the home machinery of the Mission. It is sufficiently complicated, and of such bulky dimensions as to be in some danger of becoming unwieldy and falling out of working gear. There are at least five local committees of management, which do or may consist of not less than sixty members each, and a central Committee consisting of these three hundred managers, together with such English and Irish Bishops, ex officio, as are willing to co-operate. Such an organization cannot but be in danger of being cumbersome. Widely distributed responsibilities are apt to be disregarded; what is every body's work is nobody's, and is commonly neglected. The result in most such cases is, that the real business of the association devolves on two or three active members, who acquire an unchecked influence in the management, and often become dictatorial and autocratic. We are far from imagining such to be the case with the present members of this mission. We only hint at contingent tendencies, which our experience of similar institutions renders probable. During the last twelve months the peculiar claims and needs of the Mission have been much less prominently brought before the public, the managers, we presume, for a time quietly resting on their oars after the first year's spirt, and awaiting fresh information from the Mission field of an interesting and attractive character. Much however remains still to be done for extending the resources of the Association, by an organization of permanent local subscription lists, and an enlistment in every diocese of influential and zealous supporters, of whom many within our own knowledge in various quarters would be willing to serve, if only invited to do so, and furnished with the necessary information. There is little danger of a body of managers selected from the highly educated and refined classes, such as the universities, condescending to the platform claptrap of "interesting anecdotes" of converted heathen and sensation missionary meetings. But there is some danger of overfastidiousness,

and a laisser faire spirit, as if an income of £2000 dependent on voluntary contributions would as a matter of course fructify by some natural vis inertia. Sermons and lectures are among the most legitimate means of spreading information and exciting popular interest in the Mission. We would recommend also the compilation of some comprehensive manual of information, gathered into a small and cheap volume from every available source, and entering into detail upon the several parts of the subject which we have barely touched upon in this article. The republication of Dr. Livingstone's work in its present improved form1 and with its greatly reduced price, will no doubt largely multiply its readers (though the first edition is said to have numbered thirty thousand copies in circulation), and may renew some of the first feeling of intense interest in his descriptions of Central Africa. But some less discursive account of the past history and present condition and habits of the people, and of the character of the country they inhabit, and of the plan and prospects of the Mission, would we think most of all help to fix its position in the public mind as a permanent institution. The information really needed is, not so much the adventures and successes and failures of the Bishop and his Missionaries, which a delicate mind would rather hold in reserve as bordering on the egotistical and boastful, or often as of a private and confidential nature, but the existing actual condition of the unconverted people, and their urgent demands on our Christian sympathy and charity.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

Hymns for Little Children. With illustrations by W. Chappell, engraved by Dalziel Brothers. Masters.

AFTER the "Christian Year" itself, we suppose that there is no book which has attained a greater popularity than Mrs. Alexander's "Hymns for Little Children." The present illustrated edition is the twenty-fifth. The publishers seem therefore to have considered that so great a success deserves to be marked by some worthy tribute of the designer's art; and in order to effect this purpose they have spared no expense. We have here a beautifully got up small quarto, printed on tinted paper, with an engraving to every hymn. Among so many plates, there will, of course, be considerable variety of merit. The drawing is not in all what it should be, and some of the faces are imperfectly finished. The chef d'œuvre is undoubtedly the "One Mediator." It comprises an admirable figure of our LORD, crowned, and bearing the Urim and Thummim on His breast. He is seated in front of a Cross, and behind Him a multitude of saints, bearing harps, &c. Altogether it is just the book for gifts and prizes.

1 Improved by both omission and addition, and especially the addition of an Index.

S. Mark's School at the Seaside in the Summer of 1861. To which is prefixed a Suggestion. By the Rev. STEPHEN HAWTREY, M.A. Hamilton and Adams.

"

It is impossible not to admire the energy and skill of Mr. Hawtrey and his masters in catering for the amusement of their boys; nor can any one but rejoice to learn, that a cheap and health-giving excursion can be devised for one of our large parish schools. But at the present moment we must be allowed to use this pamphlet as an illustration of the working of the present Educational Code. Out of these schools more than fifty boys were found last summer, whose parents could afford to pay in hard cash nearly £1 for this trip, in addition to the many incidental expenses of new clothes required, as well as the ordinary school subscriptions for "Uniform," 'Band," &c. One youth, who happened to be late, and who had lost his ticket, is forwarded by his father by the express train. Again we say, we rejoice to hear of recreations of this kind being found for any lads; but we must express our opinion, that it is not fair to tax the Clergy, who keep up their own schools without aid, for maintaining schools elsewhere that can afford this kind of expensive amusement. We believe it will be found almost universally, that the schools which receive the largest amount of help from the State are precisely those that least need it -schools that are in the hands of great squires and mill-owners, or of rich people who make education their hobby. It may be that this school after all is not in union with the Government; but it is undoubtedly a type of the class of schools that are most largely helped.

We most heartily commend both the Manual of an Association of Prayer on behalf of the Unconverted (Bell and Daldy) and the Association itself to the attention of all. The manual is admirable, especially the preface, which is itself a treatise on prayer, and we feel convinced that any person becoming an associate of this society, would not only reap the vast benefits of united intercession, but gain largely in personal holiness.

Short Prayers for the Hard Working, (Mozleys,) by the author of "Ploughing and Sowing," are thoroughly suited to the comprehension and to the wants of the lower classes. They would be found very useful for distribution in night schools.

An Address to Farm Servants who had been Confirmed, many of whom had soon after joined the Primitive Methodists or Ranters, (Mozleys,) though less generally useful, is well adapted to the special purpose for which it is intended, and is full of plain good sense.

There is a simplicity of language and an earnestness of purpose in Dr. VAUGHAN'S Sermons, Lessons on Life and Godliness, (Macmillan and Co.,) which we can quite understand must make them very winning in delivery. There is also, we gladly recognise, a feeling after deeper doctrine, which can scarcely fail to carry the author onward in the study of theology.

We gladly place The Historical Finger-Post, (Lockwood and Co.,) on our shelves as a useful book of reference on all kinds of terms and

facts. We should have done so more gladly if there had been a better ecclesiastical tone preserved in it by Mr. SHELTON. It is not worse, however, in this respect than Haydn's "Dictionary of Dates," from which it differs chiefly in dividing its matter under a dozen different heads, as Politics, Theology, &c.

We are glad to see that Mr. DERWENT COLERIDGE, in his second Tract, The Teachers of the People, (Rivingtons,) while maintaining the great success of the educational movement of the last twenty years, addresses himself to the consideration of the question, how it may be still further improved, and at the same time made less burthensome to the tax-payer. This is the true way in which to meet Mr. Lowe's new Minute.

We feel it very difficult to estimate rightly the value of "Notes" on different parts of Holy Scripture. They all, however, seem liable to the charge of encouraging mere verbal criticism, at the expense of doctrinal exposition. In noticing Mr. Dowding's "Notes on S. John," we desiderated any general putting forth of the scope of that Apostle's Gospel. The same defect pervades the Rev. E. H. KNOWLES' Notes on the Epistle to the Hebrews. (Rivingtons.) We do not see that the book possesses any advantage over Alford or Wordsworth, in loco, and it is utterly devoid of those moral and devotional uses which are found in "Cornelius a Lapide."

Snowbound in Cleeberrie Grange, (Masters,) is the work of an artistic mind, which we have already encountered with pleasure and profit in the fields of science; but we doubt if it be his forte to write for children. The sketches contained in this little volume are too fragmentary and devoid of incident to please young minds, although they show much pure and gentle feeling. The first tale is decidedly the best. The poems written by the author's brother are also quite unadapted to children, though pleasing and graceful.

The Church seems to be gaining a fair share in the benefits resulting from the repeal of the Paper Duty. 1. The Church Review has become a weekly publication, and attacks the weak points in our religious and social systems in the way that was common twenty-five years ago, and which, if it can only penetrate into new classes of hearers, cannot fail to do good. At present the Review gives no news. 2. The Clerical Journal is also now published weekly, and is assuming more the form of a religious newspaper. Many of the articles evince learning, and it strikes us that there is a general upward tendency as regards doctrinal views. 3. The Church Institution has also started a Penny Circular, for the circulation of intelligence respecting the Church. 4. From the other side of the Channel we have also the Irish Churchman's Magazine, which, if not quite up to our standard, is orthodox enough to be abused in Ireland.

Mr. SHIPLEY has commenced a series of Tracts, which promise to convey much useful information on the doctrines of the Church, and the duties of Churchmen. The first is on the Christian Year, and is open to the objection, perhaps, of attempting too much in a limited space. The Tracts are very cheap.

Again we are indebted to Mr. NEALE for a most valuable addition to our Hymnology. This time he borrows from the Eastern Church (Hayes); and our readers will recognize several as having appeared in our pages several years since. The gem of the volume is a "Hymn for the second Week of the Great Fast," by S. Andrew of Crete, which will probably become as generally adopted as the Author's Translation of S. Bernard. Another excellent Hymn is entitled "Idiometer for All Saints," by S. John Damascene. There is also a beautiful hymn for the Transfiguration, by S. Cosmas.

Mr. Parker is beginning to collect his excellent Tales of Church History into volumes. The first takes in the early period of English Church History. In this form we doubt not that these Tales will find a new and not inconsiderable circulation.

The article from our January number, entitled, "The Church and Public Opinion," has been published in a separate pamphlet.

We recommend Mr. FLOWER's Letter on The Church of England on the Continent (Masters.) It is addressed to the Bishop of Exeter, and calls attention to one of the most humiliating phases of our ecclesiastical system. We believe that the Foreign and Colonial Society are gradually getting most of the English Chapels into their hands, and thus are conveying the worst possible notion of our communion to the Continental Church. All this will of course be confirmed by the Bishop of London's unhappy scheme for patronising Foreign Protestant Ministers during the Great Exhibition.

We think that Churchmen will do well to circulate as widely as possible the Report of the Church Congress, held at Cambridge last November, and which is now published by Deighton and Bell. The absence of interest in Church matters, which prevails so generally, is undoubtedly to be attributed to the want of information more than to any other cause. We are very glad to hear that there is to be a similar gathering this year at Oxford.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

A SUBSCRIBER has written a defence of Dean Ellicot from certain strictures which we made on him in our February number. In reply, we beg to assure our correspondent, that we have the great possible respect for Dean Ellicot, and that we doubt not he has done great good among the youth at Cambridge. At the same time, we can but regret that so many of our publications understate truth. We are quite aware that this is necessary for a certain class of minds; but surely our correspondent must be aware that multitudes of persons who read books so accommodated, accept them as absolute truth, which they are not.