and, in certain aspects, perhaps not the chief part, of what has been. done for the Teloogoos. A knowledge of the leading truths, a perception of the claims of Christianity, has been gained by large numbers of the people. Prejudice has been mitigated. Confidence in idolatry and veneration for the brahmins have yielded to the force of intelligent conviction. The evidence of this is too striking to be overlooked; and it is a fact which at once encourages and warns. It gives strength to the faint, and should summon helpers to quicken and mature the process that has been so successfully begun.

The mission has access to a people better prepared for evangelical labor than almost any other in India,-to a region of country where, until within ten or twelve years, idolatry had been long discouraged by Mohammedan rulers. Within these few years it has come under the rule of the East India Company, which naturally abandoned the intolerant policy of the Mussulmans. But the long enfeebled power of caste and of the priesthood has not fully recovered its ancient sway over the people. More could be now accomplished, so far as human agency is concerned, than may long be possible if the effort is delayed. The native mind is in a transitional state, revolting from the absurdities and abominations of the current superstition, but imperfectly apprehending those spiritual truths which should supplant them. If they have not the gospel, they may be expected to become the prey of a more refined superstition or a mocking scepticism. At such a time too much cannot be done to bring them into the unclouded and unrefracted light of the gospel.

AFRICAN MISSION.

MISSION TO THE BASSAS.

BEXLEY.-J. Vonbrunn, native preacher. Two other native assistants.
LITTLE BASSA.-L. Kong Crocker, native assistant.

In this country, Mrs. M. B. CROCKER and Mrs. L. G. CLARKE.
Two stations; two female assistants; four native assistants.

Under the care of the native assistants this mission holds on its way, and though feeble is carrying forward the work entrusted to it. The native brethren are believed to be faithfully and judiciously laboring, according to the measure of their ability, for the salvation of their countrymen. The schools are still maintained; the pupils-number not reported-making good progress in the ordinary branches of education. The church has received one member by baptism, and lost one by death.

The Committee are happy to state that one of the missionaries under appointment is designated to Africa, and will go out as soon as a colleague shall be secured. It is hoped, therefore, that before the close of the year this long neglected, but not forsaken, mission will be reinforced.

EUROPEAN MISSIONS.

The review of the European missions for the past year will embody to some extent results of the late visit of the Foreign Secretary to France and Germany, as communicated on his return. By direction of the Committee he left this country in July, returning in November after an absence of about four months. "A large portion of this period was necessarily consumed in passages by sea and in journeying from station to station separate one from another some hundreds of miles. Sufficient time, however, remained for protracted consultations with brethren occupying those stations, and for obtaining some insight into their position and manner of working, as also the results of their labors, and their plans and hopes for the future. Every possible facility was cordially given by our missionary brethren, and their hospitality and kindness knew no bounds."

MISSION TO FRANCE.

Northern Department.

DOUAI (Nord).-Rev. E. WILLARD, Mrs. WILLARD. R. Flamant, assistant.
DENAIN (Nord).-Rev. J. Thieffry; A. Faulin, assistant.

CHERY, ATHIES, CRECY, &c.-L. Lefèvre, assistant.

LAFERE, SERVAIS, ROUY, MAYOT, &c.-Rev. I. Foulon; P. Ledouble, assistant.

CHAUNY, GENLIS, BETHANCOURT, SINCENY, &c.-Rev. V. Lepoids; E. Doumin, C. J. Louvet, assistants.

VERBERIE, MEAUX, &c. (Oise).-Rev. J. B. Cretin; S. Besin, assistant.

PARIS.

Connected with the above are more than fifty places for stated preaching.
South Eastern Department.

LYONS.-Rev. T. T. DEVAN, Mrs. DEVAN. Rev. L. Martin; C. Lefevre, P. Milliet,
Boyer, assistants.

ST. ETIENNE.-Rev. C. Gayer;

ants.

FEURS.

Bertrand,

Boyer, S. Millaud, assist

ANSE. Rev. A. Berthond.

Eleven stations; eight or more outstations; two missionaries and two female assistants; seven ordained preachers and thirteen other native assistants.

In the northern department various untoward influences have befallen the work the past year, such as the pastoral destitution of the church at Paris, the continued illness of Mr. Crétin now happily convalescent, embarrassments in the Chauny church connected with the sanctification of the Sabbath, and the absence of Mr. Thieffry from his appointed field. "Pesecution, oppression, official interference, have been familiar as household terms." "Yet the Lord has not forsaken us," adds the missionary, our hearts are yet whole. Let not your hearts faint, then, on our account, but for pray us, and do what you can. The time will come when others will gather in with rejoicing the fruits of what we are now sowing in many tears and in much tribulation."

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The Foreign Secretary visited this portion of the field near the close of July. "By the judicious arrangements of Mr. Willard, he was enabled to make the personal acquaintance of all the native assistants under his

superintendence, and to visit many of them at their homes or posts of labor. The greater part are stationed in the valley of the Oise and Aisne. The pastors in this section, Messrs. Crétin, Lepoids, and Foulon, reside respectively at Verberie, Chauny, and Lafère, where also they bestow no inconsiderable part of their ministry. A fourth district is occupied by the evangelist Lefevre, embracing Chéry, Athies, Crècy, &c. These districts are of various extent. That of Mr. Lefevre, which lies northeasterly of the rest, includes, besides the three villages already named, five others which are statedly visited. The Lafère district, including Servais from which the church derives its name, has, in all, thirteen posts at which the gospel is preached with more or less frequency, distant from Lafère one to six or eight miles. To the south-west, on the river Oise and extending southerly to the Aisne, is Chauny district, numbering about twenty places of stated visitation. The area is cor respondently large, extending nearly twenty miles north and south and half as many in width. The southernmost district, that of Verberie, extends to Villers and Mortefontaine on the south, and at one time numbered, besides Verberie, twelve outstations.

"With regard to the character of this field, and its promise to reward faithful culture;—the population is dense and readily accessible, the more than fifty preaching places are at short removes from each other, of from one to three or four miles, and as many more villages and hamlets might as easily be occupied ;-the people, as compared with other portions of France, are moral and intelligent, and being chiefly agricultural, are mostly separate from extraneous influences; their interest is already awakened in regard to evangelical preaching; it is not difficult to gather large assemblies, some parts of the valley having been occupied by evangelists these ten or fifteen years; above all, during the last five years the Spirit of God has been manifestly present, and still continues to bless His word to the conviction and conversion of some of the hearers; churches have been established and houses of worship erected, now frequented by regular congregations; the number of converts, to which yearly accessions are made, already exceeds 150. The hindrances to evangelization from papal or state opposition are not more serious in this valley than elsewhere, nor more difficult to overcome.

"The same remarks are in a measure applicable to the more northern section of France, where Denain church is situated; and preeminently to Paris. No where in France are the people more intelligent or more easy of access than at its capital, or more free from the domination of the priesthood and from civil annoyance in spiritual affairs; and no where is there a more general, not to say utter, destitution of the power and even the form of the Christian religion. On the other hand, the appliances for reform are exceedingly few and impotent. Combined, they are almost lost in the overshadowing influences for evil."

Of the efficiency of the native laborers and their claims to the confidence and support of the Missionary Union, abundant testimony has been given in past communications of Mr. Willard. The report of the Foreign Secretary is concurrent, and expresses "the deep gratification derived from being several days in their company, conversing with them, uniting in their devotions social and public, listening to their dispensations of divine truth, and witnessing their modest yet resolute and whole

hearted devotedness to the ministry to which they had been called.” "Crétin, Lepoids, Foulon, Besin, Ledouble, Louvet, Doumin, Lefevre, -nor must Thieffry be omitted, one of the earliest employed, nor Faulin the last introduced to the service,-are evidently men who understand their work and are intent to do it.

"Four are pastors, set apart by the imposition of hands, the rest are evangelists, but not empowered to administer the ordinances. No one was found to be at the moment exclusively devoted to bible and tract distribution. The existing laws not only require the procuring of an ' authorization' involving expense, but put into the hands of local magistrates the power to revoke such authorization at pleasure, a power very liable to be exercised capriciously or from priestly instigation, and from which there is no appeal."

Douai School for Assistants." The object of chief interest at Douai was the school for native preachers. The pupils, now numbering four, one of them an assistant in the literary department, are young men of good native endowments, eager for knowledge, and of apparently sincere and ardent piety. They have been connected with the school for different periods with occasional interruptions, and have each his own cast of character, but all bear in common the marks of assiduous culture. In devotional exercises they were fluent and fervent, and their whole deportment was such as becomes candidates for the ministerial office.

The duties connected with this institution have engrossed necessarily a large share of Mr. Willard's time and attention. The studies have been various in kind, having regard both to literary and theological training, and have demanded on the part of the teacher thorough and exact preparation. This preparation appears to have been uniformly and as a matter of inviolable obligation, made. More especially in the critical interpretation of the Scriptures, and not excepting the duties belonging to the pastoral office and the constituting and upbuilding of Christian churches, the teacher, it is believed, has bestowed the most praiseworthy diligence and with no ordinary tact and skill. Mr. Willard is a thorough scholar, well versed in the science of biblical interpretation, sound in the great doctrines of the gospel and in his views of church order as held by American Baptists, apt to teach, a rigid disciplinarian, and intimately familiar, from long experience and careful observation, with the peculiarities of the French character."

The Committee had taken measures, prior to the above-mentioned visit, to provide Mr. Willard, agreeably to his request, with an associate teacher. Nothing that came under observation at Douai, tended to disparage the importance of such a movement, provided the school for assistants be continued. "Although the present force might suffice to keep the mission as it is, a few years longer, it is not adequate to bear it onward with that measure of prosperity which seems to be proffered to it; and at the end, by withholding the required aid, we should incur serious hazard of losing what we had gained. The strength of Mr. Willard has been overtasked. The labors imposed by his office as teacher might alone furnish abundant employment. The laboriousness of that office is not materially affected by the comparative number or fewness of the pupils. In addition to these labors, he has had charge of the Douai church and the general superintendence of the pastors and churches of the

Northern French Mission. As a necessary consequence, he has been compelled to balance their claims, and as the least evil, has accomplished less in the way of direct preaching than he would have judged it indispensable to undertake in other circumstances and less burdened by other labors. An associate missionary might not only assist in teaching, but still more advantageously supply this lack of out-door labor among the people. By such associated efforts, together with the reflex influence of fraternal coöperation and sympathy, the usefulness of the position might be more than doubled, while provision would also be made against the liability of its being vacated by sickness or death. It is ever to be borne in mind that years are required to fit a new missionary for his highest usefulness; and to defer sending him forth till his services are most needed, if not compelled by necessity, is supreme folly."

The expediency of removing the school from Douai to some location nearer to the principal field of our operations, has been a subject of consultation with the Committee, and the arrangement will take effect, Providence permitting, in the course of the present year. "Douai is at an inconvenient distance, which tends to restrict intercourse between the missionary and the assistants and churches, and subjects what there is to an undue expenditure of time and money. There is nothing of moment adverse to such a removal, the mission family cordially concurring. The place can be retained as an outstation, if judged advisable, and in any event the sacrifice will be more than counterbalanced by the gain.'

The subjoined table shows the changes that have occurred in the churches during the past year (ending Dec. 31,) and the present number of members.

CHURCHES, BAPTISMS, &c., IN NORTHERN DEPARTMENT, 1851.

In the southeastern department, the church at Lyons has been greatly blessed, commencing the year with but seven members, and receiving during its later months an accession of forty-five, of whom forty-one were added by baptism. Ten have been dismissed to other churches, and one

*Two or three locations have been suggested, St. Quentin and Verberie or Compiègne, one in the northern and the two latter in the southern part of the valley of the Oise. The latter have the advantage of nearer proximity to the greater number of the churches and especially to that in Paris. This section of the field needs also additional laborers, some of the outstations, though of inviting promise, being inadequately sus

tained.