Bishop Ninde, who visited Bulgaria last year, thinks the question of discontinuing that mission ought not to be mooted. Though our progress is slow, the future is hopeful. Open opposition has ceased, young men and officials often attend the services, and the missionaries are treated with respect and kindness. He speaks of a gain of members and adherents. The table of statistics shows a gain of 10 members, but a loss of 17 probationers. The gain of adherents is 70.

The mission in Italy reports a gain in communicants of only 12; but (so says the Report) it begins another year more hopefully.

Japan is one of the richest of mission fields. Insulated peoples seem to be more accessible to the missionary than continental nations. Witness the South Sea Islands, Madagascar, and New Zealand. Much less Christian work has been done in Japan than in China, but the response has been swift and generous. The garments of heathenism are falling away from it, and it is ready to be clothed with Christ. The only question is, Are the Churches ready? Our mission in Japan is only fifteen years old, and yet we have 2,204 members and probationers; a gain for the year of 556, or more than thirty-three per cent. And much greater results could be obtained with a larger force. The secretaries say a hundred men, if they could be sent, would not supply all the openings. "For want of means and men much has been lost, never to be regained;" for while Christians are sleeping the enemy is sowing the tares of Free Thought and Atheism. Of the EastTokio District Dr. Maclay writes: "The people are alert, progressive, and seem disposed to welcome the Gospel. The imperative demand is for more preachers." For the West-Tokio District a similar report is made: "Our work is seriously hindered, because we do not have evangelists to meet the demand for Christian instruction." In the Yokohama District there are "glorious opportunities" presented every-where "for enlarging the work and planting the Church of Christ." "A rich harvest for the Church is before us," is the report from the Nagasaki District; and from the Hokaido and North Hondo District notice is given of the necessity of preparing to reach multitudes. The contributions toward self-support in Japan were $4,118, an increase of over $1,000.

The reports from Mexico, which is now divided into three districts, contain encouraging features; but the statistics show a small decrease in the total of members and probationers. It is a hard field; but we will not be discouraged with a membership of 1,354, and 4,745 adherents. The Presbyterians lost enormously last year, according to their statistical report, the explanation being that former reports had been too inclusive.

Korea, our newest foreign field, is given thirteen pages in the report, and they are very interesting. The present is a period of preparation. No open evangelistic work is attempted, but much is done in the medical and educational departments. The attention of the government, we learn from a recent letter, has been attracted to this work, and the king has given favorable recognition of it. The mission reports one probationer nad 100 adherents.

This completes the list of our foreign missions, in connection with which there are 118 missionaries and 76 assistant missionaries, and 57 missionaries of the W. F. M. S. The number of ordained native preachers is 328, a gain of 19; and of unordained native preachers, 413, a gain of 13. There are 40,213 members, a gain of 3,263; and 14,266 probationers, a gain of 3,194. In the eight theological schools there are 167 students, in the 17 high schools 1,639 pupils, and in the 598 dayschools 18,683 scholars. There are 396 churches and chapels, worth $1,320,536, and other property worth $750,000. The collections for selfsupport aggregate $92,490, against $74,347 in the previous year.

THE TONGAN MASSACRE.-We have noticed several times in these pages, particularly in the numbers for May, 1886, and May, 1887, the secession from the Wesleyan Church in Tonga, and the course of the leading seceders in persecuting the remnant refusing to join their so-called Free and Independent Church. In the last number of the Review we showed how cruel these persecutions were, and what trivial pretexts were seized upon to condemn faithful Christian natives to long terms of imprisonment, and to pay fines which they could not possibly raise. The case of Joel Nau, a faithful old native preacher who had done excellent missionary service in other islands, was given, and so insignificant were the acts upon which the charges were based, and so severe was the penalty pronounced, that it seemed incredible that such a case could occur outside of a barbarous country like Uganda. But later revelations put this illustration of the kind of justice an English missionary may administer quite into the shade. Shirley Baker, who, until he was removed in 1881, was superintendent for the Australasian Wesleyan Missionary Society of the Friendly Islands District, including Tonga, has caused fifty or more natives to be put to death under circumstances which make it not a judicial execution, but a massacre. The story is almost too horrible for belief; but unfortunately it is only too true. We give the story as we gather it from several different sources, Wesleyan, Roman Catholic, and otherwise.

On the evening of January 13, Premier Baker, while riding in his buggy, with his son and daughter, was fired upon from behind a hedge. Several men were in the party, and seeing them, Mr. Baker called to his son, who jumped down from the carriage, and approaching one of them ordered him to give up his gun. Instigated by his comrades the man fired, wounding the son in the arm. No shot was fired at Mr. Baker, for the reason, it is thought, that the men could not get him in range without imperiling his daughter. When the shot was fired at the son the men all fled. The horse sprang forward at the discharge of the gun and threw Miss Baker out, whereupon Mr. Baker, who had seen his son's arm shattered, drove away furiously, leaving both son and daughter to care for themselves. In a few minutes natives arrived and carried the son to a house near by. The premier, on entering his own house, fell in a faint, showing that he had been badly frightened. Fearing further attacks he asked the protection of the

British flag. As he boasted of being a citizen of Tonga, his action in putting himself under British protection was denounced as cowardly by the natives. Not daring to trust the Tonga soldiers, he sent for the Haabai and Vavau warriors, who came in great numbers by vessels, and began immediately to persecute and pillage. The Wesleyan College was visited, divinity students taken out and beaten, and property appropriated. Towns and villages were looted for miles around, and many Wesleyans lost every thing. In many cases Wesleyans were compelled to join the Free Church at the muzzle of a musket.

The men who attacked the premier were believed to be outlaws, men who had been imprisoned and broken loose, and over whose heads a reward was set. They gave themselves up, however. They were treated with great cruelty. The trials were conducted with closed doors. No Wesleyans or Catholics or Europeans were admitted, save the German proconsul and the British vice-consul. The latter did not understand the language, and was not allowed to have an interpreter. The jury was "packed." Mr. Baker himself presided, assisted by the Rev. J. B. Watkin, both ex-Wesleyan missionaries. Baker addressed the jury, reminded them that one of the prisoners had confessed, which is denied, and went out with them. Of course, a verdict of guilty was rendered, and the prisoners were condemned to be shot. While being removed for execution two of the men confessed to Baker that they alone were guilty, that the plot was political, involving a number of chiefs who had become restive under the tyranny of the premier, and that the Wesleyans were in no way concerned in it. The execution was conducted in a barbarous manner. A petition to the king, asking him to reprieve the unfortunate men, signed by all the Europeans, and by Roman Catholic priests and Wesleyan ministers, was prepared, but Baker, on learning that the name of Mr. Moulton, superintendent of the Wesleyan mission, was on it, refused to allow it to go to the king. On the 3d of February six more natives were condemned to be shot, after a trial conducted by Baker, and subsequently thirty more were similarly condemned. The Wesleyans were practically outlawed, at last accounts, and all sorts of indignities were being visited upon them. They were hoping that a French man-of-war would arrive and put a stop to the atrocities of Baker, even if annexation to France were the penalty.

King George is too old to take an active part in the affairs of government, having passed his eighty-sixth year, and Baker is virtually king, and is restrained, it would seem, by nothing in carrying out his purposes. What particular set of influences has operated upon him to make a monster out of a once reputable Wesleyan missionary we do not know.

In 1884 the Wesleyan Church in Tonga had 18,500 adherents. At the beginning of the present year there were only 2,100. This number must have been greatly reduced by the recent persecutions.

THE MAGAZINES AND REVIEWS.

THERE is a certain truculent vein in the mental make-up of the Duke of Argyle which gives spiciness to whatever he writes. Like Prof. Whewell, his foible is omniscience. It is nevertheless to be admitted that very few public men, and still fewer titled men, have any thing like the range of ininformation and the solid ability of the Scotch peer. In the March number of the Nineteenth Century he criticises the article by Prof. Huxley in a previous number of the Review, in which the Professor attempts a reply to a part of a sermon by Canon Liddon. Canon Liddon had alluded to the credibility of miracles, re-stating the argument that miracles do not necessarily pre-suppose any violation of the laws of nature. He also used the familiar phrase, "the suspension of a lower law by the intervention of a higher," as when a man lifts his arm against the law of gravitation. This led Professor Huxley to write on Scientific and Pseudo-scientific Realism. It is very interesting to observe that in this paper the Professor repudiates altogether the argument which the preacher ascribes to physicists, and he denies that they withhold belief in miracles because they are in violation of natural law. He disclaims the assumption that we know the whole region of natural law, so as to be able to say that any given wonder cannot possibly be wrought by means of some law unknown to us. He withholds or suspends belief in miracles on deficiency of evidence, and even goes out of his way to show that science has now before it some hints, guesses, and surmises of the ultimate constitution of matter which bring some miracles which are difficult of acceptation within the limits of conceivability and physical causation. The Duke takes up the cudgels with great vigor in defense of the preacher, who is charged by the Professor with being a realist as much as Scotus Erigena, because he talks about the laws of nature as if they were things, or beings, or entities. The Professor claims that a law is not a thing. From this the Duke concludes that nothing is real which is not also a thing. When it is ascertained what the Professor means by a thing, we are forced to conclude that he means some bit, or, as it may be, some lump of matter. There is some excellent wit in this paper, called in to aid the Duke's logic in showing that there are abstract conceptions which are realities. Thus, the word "vegetable" represents an abstract idea, and according to Huxley has no reality. But a potato is a reality-an individual potato; not the idea of potato as a species, but only the individual potato-or an onion, which we can handle, boil, or eat. On the same principle there is no such thing as a professor or a preacher. There is only the man Professor Huxley, and the man Canon Liddon. If Canon Liddon is to be committed on this ground he may well feel sure that the Professor will be found standing in the dock beside him. Professor Huxley is reminded by the Duke that when he speaks on any question of biology he may speak authoritatively, but when he speaks of metaphysics or philosophy he speaks only with the authority which belongs to acute and powerful

minds when dealing with subjects on which other minds, equally powerful and acute, have differed and do differ widely. The reply to the Professor is also singularly acute on this point that, taking the scholastic as well as scientific idea that the universe is the manifestation of rational order, we must understand an order which is perceivable and intelligible to all faculties which make up the rational nature of men. The final conclusion of the Duke with regard to Professor Huxley's attack on the preacher is that he has been amusing himself with a metaphysical exercitation or logomachy. For once the pulpit has been far more philosophical than the chair. The Philosophy of Nescience has nothing to offer to mankind unless it be some results of caution.

The article in this number by the Rev. Dr. Jessup on the "Trials of a Country Parson," though referring to English life, shows that the country parson has every-where, in all countries, to endure about the same trials. It is evident that the English country parson suffers from the idea in the mind of his city brother that his money will go much farther than in the city. There are demands made upon his purse that approximate in intensity those made upon the city preacher. We commend this paper strongly to the attention of country ministers, for it has most intelligent sketches of character, and it has great wit. A sure sign that Mr. Gladstone is out of office is the appearance of articles by him in the Reviews. Thus we have the beginning of a series of articles in this number on the "Greater Gods of Olympus," this one being especially devoted to a Homeric study of Poseidon.

There are two articles only in the March Contemporary Review which are likely to attract the American reader. The first, by Captain Condor, on the "Old Testament Ancient Monuments and Modern Critics," compares the researches of Wellhausen with the facts of Oriental antiquity. To begin with, as to a very important question, namely, the origin of the sacred name of Jehovah and the diffusion of his worship, our critic informs us that Jehovah is to be regarded as the tribal or family God of the tribe of Moses, or of the tribe of Joseph; and in another passage we gather that his name was confined to Palestine alone. The Bible says otherwise, for Balaam, from Pethor on the Euphrates, adored Jehovah; Uriah the Hittite bears a name which suggests his worship of the same God. But for those who follow Wellhausen slavishly, not being able to quote the Bible against Wellhausen, the author calls attention to the recent discovery by Mr. Pinches, that the holy name appears on the cuneiform inscriptions as early as nine hundred years before Christ. It forms part of the royal names of the kings of Hamath before the captivity of Israel. It appears on Phenician inscriptions, not only in Assyria, but even in Malta and other Mediterranean islands. The testimony of the monuments accords with the words of Malachi, and shows us that almost as early as the days of Solomon the name Jehovah was adored by the Semitic peoples from Nineveh to Sidon and from Pethor to Jerusalem. The critical school of Gaf do not believe that any tabernacle (ohel) existed