Missions and Commerce.

BY THE REV. J. SPENCER HILL.

It will be universally admitted that the natural resources of Africa are great, and that, if fully developed, they would be of immense advantage to mankind generally. In many parts of that wonderful continent the soil is so productive that the people can subsist on what grows spontaneously, or is raised by most superficial cultivation. We give a few sentences rom a much-valued book on 66 African Travels and Researches." "The country adjacent to its banks (the Leeba) is extremely fine and fertile, with, here and there, patches of forest or clumps of magnificent trees. The villagers, through whose gardens we passed, continue to sow and reap all the year round. . . . My companions, who have a good idea of the different qualities of soils, expressed the greatest admiration of the agricultural capabilities of the whole of Londa, and here they were loud in their praises of the pasturage. They have an accurate idea of the variety of grasses best adapted for different kinds of stock, and lament because here there are no cows to feed off the rich green crop, which at this time imparts special beauty to the landscape. . . . The cultivated land is as nothing compared with what might be brought under the plough. There are flowing streams in abundance which, were it necessary, could be turned to the purpose of irrigation with but little labour. Miles of fruitful country are now lying absolutely waste, for there is not even game to eat off the fine pasturage, and to recline under the evergreen shady groves which we are ever passing in our progress."

Dr. Livingstone, whose words we have just quoted, tells us that such commodities as oil and cotton are not produced in greater quantity because the people have no market for those which now spring up almost spontaneously around them; that it is common for Africans to cut down cotton-trees as a nuisance, in order to cultivate such things as beans and potatoes for their sustenance; and that it is his impression that in Africa cotton is perennial, having seen some plants of it alive in winter, though in America it is deciduous.

In addition to what might be made of the soil in Africa by husbandry, we may mention its mineral wealth. In Western Africa there are copper mines which would remunerate any enterprising company disposed to embark in that trade; while in Eastern Africa coal has been discovered, the proprietorship of which might be obtained on cheap terms, and the working of it effected by native industry for almost nothing, the wages of free labourers for such kind of employment being two yards of unbleached

calico per day. We leave African gold and diamonds to readers of ancient books and modern newspapers, to speak of that which is of more utility than either-viz., iron-an abundance of which may be found in Africa, and of such quality that an Enfield rifle has been manufactured at Birmingham of a sample brought to this country. But there is another side of this question which strengthens our case. The African peopleone hundred millions in number-are most destitute with respect to the conveniences, and even necessaries, of civilized life. Hence an extensive market might be opened for commodities which civilized nations could supply. It is true that in their present semi-barbarous state Africans can subsist on the plainest food, and seem content with the scantiest clothing and rudest domestic utensils and furniture; but if commercial arrangements with them could be opened the work of improvement in the meantime being pushed forward-the demand for our manufactures and merchandise would become large indeed.

The great thing, then, is to open up the interior of this immense continent to trade, which, thanks to Divine Providence and to humane Christian enterprise, is being done. The following extract, not altogether unfamiliar to some of our readers, yet so good as to justify repetition, is from a letter by Sir A. E. Kennedy, Governor of our West African possessions. It refers to Mr. Winwood Reade's journey to the interior of Africa in order to open a road from Sierra Leone to the Niger. "It is a matter of great commercial importance to this settlement," says he, "to have a road open to the Niger, in the Sangara country; and Mr. Reade has nearly accomplished this, having reached as far as Falaba; and, if he gets no further, I have made arrangements this very day with the son of a chief, who will guarantee the safety of any one I may send next dry season." Sir A. E. Kennedy, after stating that he himself came to the coast in the first commercial mail—a steamer called the Forerunner-and that now four first-class steamers are running out and home every month laden with cargo, adds: "I see no limit to the development of trade on this coast, if we can extend our influence and maintain peace in the interior." Hence the need of Christian Missions; for, if our influence is to be extended in Africa, it must be, not merely by sensible and hardy explorers, by active and honourable merchants, by considerate and humane Government officials, but chiefly by men who fear God and who love the souls of their black fellow-creatures; and if peace is to be maintained in the interior of a country where Paganism is wide-spread and Mohammedanism is imperious, where barbarism prevails and even cannibalism exists, it must be, not by any mere secular influences, however good or great, but primarily by the all-conquering Gospel of Christ. The weapons of our warfare must be, not carnal, but mighty through God, if we are ever effectually to storm the strongholds of African sin and misery.

Are we, then, to discourage commercial enterprise in Africa? By no

means. The most enlightened Christian missionaries have understood their work too well to do anything of the kind. "The promotion of commerce," says Dr. Livingstone, "ought to be specially attended to, as this, more speedily than anything else, demolishes that sense of isolation which heathenism engenders, and makes the tribes feel mutually dependent on, and mutually beneficial to, each other." He informs us that the missionaries at Kuruman obtained permission from the Government for a trader to reside at the station, that considerable business resulted from this arrangement, and that the trader himself at length retired with a competency. He also expresses extreme desire to promote the preparation of the raw materials of European manufactures in Africa, as a means, not only of putting down the Slave-trade, but of introducing the negro family into the body corporate of nations, no one member of which can suffer without others suffering with it. What is the practical lesson to be derived from this paper? That African Missions are deserving of the thoughtful interest and liberal support of men of commerce, since Missions and Commerce are, in an important sense, so closely allied to each other. May God dispose the hearts of trading people generally, and of merchant princes, to replenish with special donations the treasury of our African Missions !

The Book of Common Prayer,

REVISED ACCORDING TO THE USE OF THE FREE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

WE were not a little gratified to read in the Cheltenham Express of May 13, the following testimony, from General Johnson, to our revised Book of Common Prayer :

"I had the good fortune to meet with and examine the Book of Common Prayer of the Free Church of England. It is, to my mind, a model of Liturgical Church Service, conservative of the beauties and excellences of the Church Service, and destructive, I hope, of the priestism which not only disfigures it, but which renders it a reproach to Evangelical religion, and an offence to the people. In saying a model, I mean merely in reference to those people and churches professing Episcopacy and holding to fixed forms of prayer. For myself, I would choose liberty of prayer, or, if a form, I would have less repetition of the same prayer, less ejaculation of the self-same words. But as the forms of the English Church Service are familiar to the English mind from earliest childhood, and are associated with much that is pious and beautiful in the domestic home, I would not presume to suppose that my sense of the appropriate or my predilections should in any way influence others. Far otherwise; so far otherwise, I

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will venture to predict that this Liturgy will be adopted as a model; that it will, at all events, be proposed by holy men as a model in every one of the disestablished Churches of our colonies, as well as in the Free Church of our sister island, and, indeed, in the great State Church now on her way to the enjoyment of a similar freedom."

Tale for

for the Young Folks:

FOUNDED ON FACTS.

BY THE REV. PHILIP NORTON.

66

EARLSTON

TOWER:-CHAPTER IV.

At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue ;
To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new.

-MILTON.

EVANS MORRIS, who now stands at the cottage-door, listening to the approaching thump, thump, of Beccy's footsteps, is a strong-built man of forty. His round face is very red, his embroidered smock very white, and his gaitered stockings very blue. He looks good-tempered, his dark eyes have a merry twinkle, and a grin is generally flickering over his broad features. Of course he is, as his name implies, a Welshman. He came to the village as a drover, with some cattle, twenty years ago. He was fascinated by the bright eyes and rosy cheeks of a servant-maid at the "Magpie." He wooed and won her, and so settled down at Earlston. He is a very decent sort of man, and as he is not only the postman, but the milkman of the village, is a person of some importance. But being a furriner," as the country folks say, he has always been considered a fair mark for the village wit; and, unfortunately, some years ago, he raised a laugh against himself which will follow him to the grave. One summer day, there was a cattle fair at Earlston. Morris brought down a cow, which he wanted to sell. The animal was rather wild; so, to prevent all danger, he put a rope about her head, and, thinking to make matters doubly sure, tied the other end round his waist; forgetting that, while this fastened the cow to him, it also fastened him to the cow. The creature went quietly enough till she came to the fair, but then, startled by the noise of a drum, she set off at full speed through the crowd, dragging after her poor Morris, who, amid roars of laughter from the men, and screams of laughter from the women, kept calling out, "Tut de rope, tut de rope." From that unhappy day Evans Morris was popularly known as "Tut-de-rope;" and it was a favourite joke of the rude "poys," as the Welshman called them, to watch until he was at a safe distance, and then shout "Tut-de-rope" at the top of their voices.

Beccy, who, as we have said, had an eye for the comical, used to glory over this adventure, although she had been scolded for so doing by Mrs. Burton. This was not the only grievance that Morris had against Beccy. At one time the milk was very poor. Beccy slyly inquired of an old man who lived next door to Morris, if he ever saw him watering the milk. "No," said he, "I never seed him, but," he added, with a knowing wink of his eye, as I lie in bed in the mornin', I hears the pump a-goin'." Thus strengthened in her suspicion, next day, when Morris came, Beccy appeared with a basin in each hand. "What!" said

he, "double quantity to-day?" "No," said Beccy, "but I have brought one basin for the milk, and the other for the water, and we will mix them ourselves." And so it happened that Morris and Beccy seldom met without having a skirmish, in which, it must be confessed, Irish wit was generally more than a match for Welsh. Morris often ended, as he did to-day, by telling Beccy not to take her fiery head too near the strawyard, and then, laughing at his own joke, hurried off.

But we must now step inside the cottage. The letters are both read. One is from Mrs. Burton's father, Thomas Brown—a hale, hearty old man of seventy-five-who has a small farm at the Peak, Derbyshire. He is more used to holding the plough than the pen; so the writing is shaky, and the spelling queer. It begins, "My Deer Dawter, i hope this finds yew well as it leeves me at preasent." Some of my young readers laugh at the old man's ignorance. Not so fast, my friends. Remember that in Mr. Brown's young days the only school boards known were those on which the boys sat or wrote; and the schoolmaster trusted more to the birch-rod than to his own brains. And after all, my enlightened young friend, ignorance and learning are very relative terms. Tom, who can read, laughs at the "hignorance" of Bill, who can't; the village schoolmaster laughs in turn at the ignorance of conceited Tom; the Government inspector laughs at the dull ignorance of the schoolmaster; the Oxford Don laughs at the smart ignorance of the Government inspector; and some gray-bearded old German, who has done nothing all his life but read, smoke, and think, quietly laughs at the learned ignorance of the Oxford Don. But the truth is, we are all so ignorant, that we can ill afford to laugh at one another.

But to return to Mr. Brown's letter. It was sensible, kind, and fatherly. It did not remind Mrs. Burton, as some better-spelt letters would have done, that she had brought all this trouble on herself, by marrying contrary to the wishes of her friends, and the better judgment of her elders. Mr. Brown just alluded to the funeral, and said that, thinking his daughter might be short of money, he had enclosed a fivepound note. He had heard that Frank was a fine scholar, and so invited him to come up to the Peak fór a holiday, and hoped to get him a situation in a bank in London.