Progress in Uganda.

BISHOP TUCKER has written home some wonderful letters from Mengo in Uganda. The party of ladies have reached the capital all in good health, and are now settled at work. The new church built on the hill of Numirembe seats 4000 worshippers; and in the districts around some fourand-twenty churches bear witness to the spread of the Gospel. These churches are all regularly served from the capital. Since the proclamation of the Protectorate things have altered. Every chief of consequence has now a double-storeyed house, and the roads are macadamized. The swamps have been drained and bridged. The Bishop has already several native ministers, and he is aided by a church council. His most pressing problem is the pastoral oversight of the congregations and the native pastors. Already it is clear that Uganda will be evangelized by natives, and young men are coming forward as teachers in large numbers. M'wanga has built a new church for the people in his enclosure. The king's environment is all against him. The ladies are permitted to visit the king's chief wife and his other women once or twice a week, and their influence, or rather the influence of the gospel message they carry with them, must tell. At Guyazur there are 10,000 people. The queen-mother, who lived there, gave orders less than five years ago that all who claimed relationship to the royal family were to be isolated on a piece of land. Houses were built for them, in cruel mockery, for no food was given to them. There they were starved to death, several hundred of them. "Such were the doings of those in authority in Mtesa's time, not so very long ago, and there was I," says the Bishop, "a Christian minister on my way to hold a confirmation, permitted to gaze on a huge trench, the visible sign of this massacre. How changed the times. Thank God that day is over." Speaking of the singing, the Bishop says: "There is, of course, a great volume of sound whenever the congregation attempts to sing a hymn, and one rejoices in the fact that every one does his best. They make a 'joyful noise,' but time and tune are alike conspicuous by their absence."

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MALAGASY politicians have not as yet "Local Veto" split into parties over the knotty question Madagascar. of a Local Veto Bill. But that the Malagasy people, or at least some of them, have already formed definite opinions on the subject will be seen from the following incident. About halfway between Antananarivo and Ambositra, to the south, lies a town called Loharano, "The Well," where there is a resident missionary. The people of Loharano some while since made an agreement among themselves that no rum or strong drink should be introduced into their market, and for some time none was introduced. At length, however, some rum-sellers, taking counsel together, re

solved to force an opening for their trade. Accordingly, they combined to the number of seventy, concealed the short native knives under their lamba, and one day took up a position on the market-place with their rum before them. Their idea was that the people would make an attempt to drive them out, and then tant pis pour le peuple! But their expectations were not realized. Somehow or other the folk of Loharano got wind of the hidden weapons. They went to the missionary for advice, and then put their heads together and concocted a plan. All that day the purveyors of the forbidden liquor stood in the glare of the sun in the market-place, waiting for thirsty customers to come and buy. But all day long the Loharano men left them severely alone, and passed and repassed before the eyes of the rum-sellers with aggravating stolidity. Not a weapon was raised against them, not a word was spoken to them. When the evening came on, the disgusted merchants loaded their donkeys again and went off to encamp for the night. But they were not to be daunted by mere lack of encouragement, and the next morning found them again, all seventy, duly posted on the market-place. Presently the townsfolk began to appear, and their numbers increased till the whole male population was crowded around the rum-sellers, who beheld with trepidation the gleam of the sunshine on naked knives and gun-barrels. Then a man stepped out from the crowd and made emphatic "representations," advising the intruders to be off. The average Hova, as has been shown by recent events, is at no time possessed of too great courage, and the merchants, seeing themselves outnumbered, had no alternative but to take up their demi-johns and "make tracks" without more ado. Nor did they ever attempt to return, and the town of Loharano remains a stronghold of Local Veto.

Pundita Ramabai.

OUR readers long since made acquaintance with Pundita Ramabai, the Brahmanee lady, now an Evangelical Christian, founder and principal of the first Home for the Widows of India. The Rev. T. Small, of the Free Church of Scotland, writing from Poona, states that twelve of the widows have confessed Christ, and have been baptized. The rule of the Institution allows freedom but not interference with the pupils in their ancestral religions. As a c. nsequence, “native society turned very fiercely upon her, and very severely has she been handled as 'a wolf in sheep's clothing' by the native papers. It was a bold thing, therefore, for her to go to speak to the students in the heart of the city, and amid the heat of all this opposition. The street in front of the hall was crowded with excited youths, with angry, scoffing looks, and the atmosphere both within the hall and without was so electrically charged that an explosion, with any kind of results, would not have surprised us. With a fearlessness

and faithfulness, the secret of which she by-and-by communicated to her audience, the pundita appeared and delivered her address. It goes without saying that, in respect of form and language (her own Marathi), the address was admirable; but the telling feature was her fearless assertion of the moral and spiritual slavery of the Hindu, and of her hearers as Hindus; their utter inability to help themselves, while yet they were crying out for political privileges, the misery of their domestic system, and especially of the way in which it crushes their women, their weakness in yielding to orthodox clamour when manifest right and justice demanded firmness. Then the pundita, holding up her Marathi Bible, claimed to read from its pages the real cause of all this moral degradation and helplessness, even their departing from the living God and His service. It was a striking interlude, amid the tension of feeling, when she requested one of themselves to bring down the lamp so that she might see to read, and one quickly obeyed. Thus our brave Indian lady faced the audience. Then she wound up by telling them that their opinion of her action, or their threats of doing her physical injury, were alike unheeded by her. They might be slaves, but she was free; and how? Because the truth had made her So. Her audience, with excitement hardly suppressed, heard her quietly to the end, and suffered her to go unmolested."

Work in

SUNDAY-SCHOOL work in Sweden has lately Sunday-school made good progress; 200,000 children Sweden. now attend Sunday-school, and are taught Prince Oscar's by a staff of 15,000 teachers. Prince Testimony. Oscar Bernadotte, the second son of the present King of Sweden and Norway, has himself a Sunday-school for the children of the higher classes. "It is a pleasant sight," writes one, "to see this Royal Prince standing at his desk in the school-room, and touching to hear him, in his own earnest, unaffected manner, explain the Word of God for his boys His words are so full of deep feeling, of heartfelt confidence, that they must surely be the means of sowing many a fruitful seed in those young hearts. The Prince's earnest, faithful talks leave a deep impression also upon occasional grown-up visitors; indeed, his whole life is a bright testimony to the reality of his religion." At a Bible-class in Karlstad lately, Prince Oscar closed his address as follow:-" For my own part, I must confess that the highest honour I can desire is to be a witness for Jesus. One is apt to fancy that a man in my position would be always happy; but it is not the case. Even though a man be in possession of the best of everything this world can give, he is not satisfied. The heart longs for something better. Since the Lord Jesus took possession of my heart, I have felt no more unsatisfied longings. To show forth His love in my words, and in my life, is my one aim and desire, and I will say to all who will listen to me-it is a joy to serve Jesus, a great joy."

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more beyond. From nearly all these ten," writes Mr. Brown, "we have people attending our services. Fordsburg, like Johannesburg and all its suburbs, is splendidly laid out, the streets and roads running at right angles to each other, with squares left here and there. And not in the town only, but also on all the gold mines, are 'young men's quarters' filled with young men, from twenty years and upwards, who have come from all corners of the home country, from all the colonies of Britain, from America-from everywhere. Every week brings large numbers more, and Fordsburg gets a big proportion, this suburb being mostly composed of the working-class. . . . There is an appalling sacrifice of life going on among the young men through bad sanitation; bad water, and, I fear, insufficient attention to the kind of food used. . . . Young men, brought up in godly homes and in the habit of attending on the means of grace, make a new and worse beginning when they arrive here. There are splendid exceptions, but many will tell you with very good nature that they have not been in a church for so many years, and will promise to give you occasional patronage. Changing from house to house and from mine to mine goes on continually, but, fortunately, when some go others come. And Sunday labour, mostly, it is said, for repairs, prevails to such an extent that the distinction between Sunday and Saturday is in danger of being rubbed out of even Scottish manhood." Mr. Brown pleads for a "wide, liberal, earnest, resolute, and persistent effort" of many churches combined to follow the sons and daughters of Great Britain abroad with an efficient ministry. How shall material forces best be held in check? Strong men will be wanted for years to come as leaders on the side of Christianity.

Anglican Orders.

THREE learned members of the Roman Catholic clergy, says the Rome correspondent of the Standard, have come to Rome at Cardinal Vaughan's request, to lay before the Pope the result of their studies and researches regarding the validity of the ordination of Anglican Bishops. These researches were undertaken at the desire of Leo XI., probably with reference to his favourite scheme of reunion of the Churches. The work is voluminous, and by Churchmen is considered of great importance; but it is stated that its tendency is entirely against admitting the validity of Anglican orders. The Pope has placed the question with all the evidence before the Congregation of the Holy Office for judgment.

Sir Charles Aitchison.

By the death of Sir Charles Aitchison, K.C.S.I., the President of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Societysociety loses a distinguished public servant, and the Church an estimable Christian man. Born in 1832, Sir Charles entered the Indian Civil Service in 1856, and for thirty-three years made that country his home. In 1882 he assumed the reins of Government in the Punjaub, and showed that he knew well how to rule with "firmness yet kindness." He was the friend of missions, and sought to win the people by all lawful means. When he came home in 1889, he was much in request for missionary meetings, and his platform speeches were always impressive.

CHAPTER I.

HERE is a street in South London which is

THE

familiarly known among its frequenters as "the Walk." It is a long narrow street, and follows an indefinite, undecided line of its own, with a sharp twist round at one end and a vague slant during the rest of its course, very unlike the mathematical straightness of more modern streets. The houses which line it on either side are mostly low, dingy edifices of the least possible remarkableness, but here and there a new one towers up high above the rest, very red and showy, and hideously out of keeping with its neighbours.

The time at which the Walk is at its liveliest is

between eight and ten o'clock of an evening; then all the shops are blazing with gas, and the stalls and barrows with which the edge of the roadway is lined, throughout the greater part of its length, are flaring with naphtha torches. These cast a weird yellow light over the barrows and their wares, and an intense black shadow round about them. On windy nights they flicker and smoke, and send strange gusts of light and darkness sweeping like waves up the fronts of the houses. During the daytime the Walk is generally quiet and dull, and in parts almost empty; but in the evening it rings with noise, and is crowded with life and movement.

The noises are various indeed. There are the