MISSION IN WEST AFRICA. MISSION TO THE BASSAS. BEXLEY.-Rev. I. CLARKE, Mrs. CLARKE; Jacob Vonbrunn, native assistant. Zuzo.-Rev. J. H. CHEESEMAN, teacher. In this country, Mrs. M. B. CROCKER. 1 station and 2 out-stations; 2 preachers; 2 female assistants; 2 native assistants. Mrs. Crocker returned to this country in July, in consequence of repeated and severe sickness. Though detained from missionary labor, and with little prospect of resuming it in Africa, her interest in the mission is unabated, and she continues to plead for its more vigorous prosecution and enlargement. The operations of the mission have been very materially reduced the past year, on account of the necessary absence, most of the period, of Mr. and Mrs. Clarke. The health of these faithful missionaries, and especially of Mrs. Clarke, having become greatly impaired, it was indispensable to take measures for its restoration, either by their returning to the United States or making a protracted voyage along the coast. They preferred the latter, and in February took passage for British Akrah, on board the Hollander, Capt. Lovett, who very kindly gave them free accommodations. They returned to Bexley via Monrovia about the middle of November. The affairs of Bexley station appeared to have been well conducted during the absence of the missionaries. Three of the natives had been hopefully converted and added to the church, two of them members of the mission school. Others of the native population were inquiring after the truth, and the native assistant, Mr. Vonbrunn, was greatly encouraged. He has spent most of his time as a travelling preacher in the native villages, when not otherwise occupied in the mission school, which contained forty pupils. At Little Bassa about forty individuals have been gathered by Lewis Kong Crocker, who are accustomed to keep the Sabbath and attend on the means of grace afforded them. At the out-station Zuzo, a school of ten pupils has been taught; Mr. Cheeseman was expecting to leave Edina, to occupy the station, near the close of January last. MISSIONS IN EUROPE. MISSION TO FRANCE. DOUAY.-Rev. E. WILLARD, Mrs. WILLARD. LANNOY and BAISIEUX.-Orchies, Rume and Hélesme, out-stations. J. THIEFFRY, native preacher. BERTRY. (Five out-stations.)-J. B. PRUVOTS, native preacher. ATHIES, Chery, &c. (Five out-stations.)-F. DUJARDIN, native preacher; N. Froment, L. Lefevre, colporteurs. MEUX. (La Croix St. Ouen, and six other out-stations.)-J. B. CRETIN, native preacher; J. P. Lacquemont, colporteur. CHAUNY. (Thirteen out-stations.)—V. LEPOIX, I. FOULON, native preachers; Stanislas Besin, colporteur. 7 stations and 33 out-stations; 1 preacher and 1 female assistant; 10 native preachers and assistants. Mr. Willard and family arrived at Douay June 2, making the distance short of seventeen days from Boston. He found the native laborers anxiously awaiting his return. The mission was in good condition, so far as fidelity on the part of the native brethren could effect; yet there were embarrassments at various points which needed remedy. The fields occupied by Messrs. Thieffry and Dujardin were unproductive and unpromising. The laxity of discipline common among the National churches, and the too often little regard paid by them to Christian principle while endeavoring to retain their own members or draw away members of other communions, had combined with other causes to produce this result. On the contrary the brethren stationed in Picardie had had some fruit of their labors, giving additional proof that "the Catholics of France are far more promising subjects for evangelical efforts than the Protestant population." The changes made in the distribution of laborers have corresponded with these indications. Mr. Thieffry has added to his former charge the stations of Prûme, Orchies and Hélesme, and Mr. Dujardin has removed to Athies, to supply the vacancy made by the removal of Mr. Crétin to Meux. He also expected to aid Mr. Lepoix, who in the adjoining region is overborne with toil, and wholly unable to fulfil the demands upon him. The transfer of Mr. Crétin to the important post of Meux and vicinity is in consequence of the lamented death of Mr. Foulboeuf. The other preachers remain as before stationed. The colporteur Mr. Lefevre has been authorized to repair to Mortefontaine, about seven leagues from Paris, where several converts are waiting for baptism; and Mr. Froment to Athies, &c. One colporteur has been dismissed, and Mr. Besin appointed in his stead. The laborers have prosecuted their work with steadfast intrepidity in the midst of opposition and persecution. "The papal priests excite the authorities against the brethren, and cause them to be brought before the magistrates and tribunals, where they are strictly forbidden to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ." There are also continual annoyances and vexations from the intermeddlings of National Protestants. At the last advices from the mission, several of the native brethren were under sentence of fines and imprisonment. Messrs. Lepoix, Foulon and Besin were tried at Laon Jan. 22, and condemned to pay a fine of 300 francs each, and conjointly with five others the costs of suit. These five were also fined from twenty-five to sixty francs each for alleged disrespect to the authorities. An appeal has been taken, with the advice of distinguished civilians, to the Royal Court at Amiens, and counsel of the highest respectability and legal ability in the kingdom, have come forward in their defence.* The following is a summary of the results of the year:Baptized by Mr. Thieffry at Hélesme three, by Mr. Pruvots four, by Mr. Crétin three, by Mr. Lepoix eight, including four at Chauny, and by Mr. Dujardin three;-total twenty-one. There are also about twenty candidates for baptism. Some of the churches have been diminished by death. Present number in thirteen churches, about 230. The native laborers have organized themselves into an Association or Conference. Its first annual meeting was in September. They have also formed a society for the publication of Baptist books and tracts. "The brethren," says Mr. Willard, "have the right spirit. According to the account given by each one of them at the annual meeting, the prospect is more and more encouraging; not the prospect of liberty indeed, but the prospect of an abundant blessing from on high." And again, "We have, all things considered, a hard warfare here; but the brethren are courageous. I doubt not that any and all of them would stand firm in the day of persecution. Let these brethren be remembered before God. There are Baptists in your land who pray for missions and for persecuted converts. Let such lift up their prayer in behalf of their persecuted brethren in France;-in behalf also of a great nation, whose small Protestant population is mostly a dead letter, whose millions of Papists are passing in ignorance to the world of despair, and whose millions of infidels are rendered such, to a great extent, by the indifference and misconduct of the two former." *The appeal was in part sustained, as we learn from a later communication, and the fine of 300 francs was reduced to fifty francs. A final appeal has now been taken to the Court of Cassation. Efficient aid has been rendered in this affair by Mr. Lutteroth, editor of the Semeur, and Messrs. Jule de Laborde, and de Brouard. MISSION TO GERMANY, &c. HAMBURG. Rev. J. G. ONCKEN and others, including Rev. C. SCHAUFFLER, Other principal stations are Stettin, Elbing, and Memel, along the shores of the Baltic; and toward the south and southwest from Hamburg, Bremen, Oldenburg, Marburg, Baden, &c.; beside Copenhagen and others in Denmark on the north; making in all, fourteen stations with many out-stations, occupied by some eighteen or twenty preachers exclusive of tract and bible colporteurs. We are again permitted to report abundant manifestations of divine favor to this rapidly growing mission. The stations of Hamburg and Berlin with their numerous out-stations have had large experience of the grace of God the past year, and the hearts and hands of our bretheren have been greatly encouraged and strengthened. At Hamburg the additions to the church in 1846, by baptism, were seventy-three, making their whole number, deducting losses by deaths and exclusions, 286. New converts have also been added to the little bands gathered at Elmshorn, Pinneberg, Wilhelmsburg and other out-stations. A like delightful progress has been made at Berlin and its associate stations. Seventy-three were baptized in the course of 1846, making their present number 233; of these, 165 are resident in Berlin, and the remaining sixty-eight in ten out-stations. The reports from other portions of this widely extended field are of the same cheering character, so far as received. Ten have been baptized at Memel, the eastern extremity of the Baltic, making their number of church members twenty-five; and six at Breslau. At Marburg twelve were added to the church on one occasion; and at various places in the duchy of Nassau, in Baden-Baden and Baden see, &c. Twenty-three others were baptized during the same missionary excursion. Nineteen in various parts of Hessia were baptized on a previous tour. Additional members have been received at Stettin, Allenstein, &c.; and in various places, Breslau, Stettin, and in Eastfriesland, Westphalia, Elsass, &c., new churches have been or are soon to be constituted. In Denmark the church at Aalborg has had accessions, and its state is prosperous. Difficulties have occurred at Copenhagen, and the missionary connexion with Mr. Monster has been closed. Some progress has been made in Hamburg and Berlin towards providing suitable accommodations for public religious worship. At the former place, where the worship-hall has become too strait for their crowded assemblies, a lot of ground has been purchased with a warehouse standing on it, capable of holding, with slight improvements, 600 hearers. At Berlin, also, a very favorable location has been secured, where it is hoped the church will be able to build a temporary house before the close of the current year. The funds required for these objects, in addition to contributions made by our German breth ren, "whose poverty abounded to the riches of their liberality," were generously supplied by British churches and individuals; Mr. Oncken having collected £450, and Mr. Lehmann nearly £1,200, in their visits to England the last year. Bible and tract operations have been carried forward with their wonted energy; 387,405 tracts have been issued, in German, Danish, Dutch and Polish; and 5,649 copies of Scriptures. Also about 5,000 copies of other works, such as Memoir of Mrs. Judson, Haldane on Romans, Haldane's Evidences, Pengilly, &c. We regret to add to this cheerful outline of spiritual progress a darker shade. The principles of religious liberty, so clearly understood and widely enjoyed in this country, are but in the infancy of their development even in Protestant Germany. Our brethren are still subjected, at various points, to restrictions enforced by fines and imprisonment. Messrs. Lehmann and Hinrichs at Berlin, Mr. Sander at Oberlingen, Mr. Steinhoff at Marburg and elsewhere, and Mr. Oncken at Koenigsberg and Elbing, not to mention other and severer cases, have been made to feel, by deprivation, the value of the rights of conscience and of "freedom to worship God." "It seems," says one, "that the famous liberal principles of our State (Prussia) are making rather retrograde steps at present. But God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Since the above outline was written, the conclusion of Mr. Oncken's report has been received, from which we make the following summary. The Gratifying intelligence has been received from many of the laborers in different parts of Germany, and applications for baptism have come from Elberfeldt, Sochst in Westphalia, and Mülhausen in Elsass. Mr. Lange has made several prosperous tours into Hanover and Waldeck, and baptized eight or ten believers. The Bremen church has greatly prospered; eight were added to it in 1846, and others the present year. church at Ihren in E. Friesland is doing well. A church is ready to be formed at Emden. A faithful laborer is called for from Wener. About ninety have been baptized by Messrs. Sander and Steinhoff in Hanover, Brunswick, Hessia, &c. Converts have greatly multiplied in Hesse, Baden, &c. At Marburg, Hersfeldt, &c. the churches are subject to persecution. On the Weser some of the brethren have been seduced from the simplicity of the gospel; from Holland, too, accounts are discouraging, in consequence chiefly of emigration. But the church has had some accessions. The prospects of the Memel church are increasingly favorable; at Stettin also, where seven or eight have been recently received to baptism. Scriptures and tracts are extensively circulated in Prussian Poland by Mr. Ehlert. The church at Elbing, formerly in his charge, has been much blessed with new accessions. In Pomerania the churches are steadfast, and though some of the laborers at dis |