missionary diminishes the risk of social war; and the liberality of the churches still abounds.  Savage island, becoming more closely allied to the civilised world, through the influence of its beautiful cotton, begins to encounter the greater temptations to which a community of simple manners is by that contact exposed; and the first drunkard has been seen upon her shores.  As truly as a pious lad on entering London life needs the daily support of a mother’s counsel and a mother’s prayers; so do these young communities, exposed to the vices and temptations of stronger nations, demand the help, the sympathy, and the prayers of the English churches from which their piety springs.  In the Lagoon islands and in the loyalty group the Word of Christ is winning many dark hearts; but in the latter the fanatic hatred of Romish priests continues to the stricken Christians of UEA that system of oppressive persecution against which they appealed long ago.

Of the Samoan mission a most pleasing account has recently been given by a writer in Blackwood’s Magazine, which fully sustains the reports of its prosperity given by the missionaries:—­

“We have said that the London Missionary Society has the spiritual care of the Samoan Islands.  The first missionaries were established there about thirty years ago, but the group had been frequently visited by them previously to that date.  With what zeal and devotedness these excellent men have laboured needs not here to be enlarged upon; and with respect to the success that has attended their labours, it is sufficient to say that all heathen and barbarous practices have been abolished, Christianity is firmly established, life and property are as secure as in England—­nay, more so, as theft is almost unknown—­the morals of the people have been greatly improved, a general system of education prevails, and the Bible is admirably translated and in the hands of every member of the community.  The difficulties which the missionaries in Samoa had to contend with were certainly far less than in many other islands in these seas.  Here were no bloodthirsty, ferocious cannibals, but a mild and gentle race, well disposed towards strangers, with no elaborate system of idolatry to overthrow; so that the Mission was established without difficulty, and the progress was rapid and continued.  So apt and intelligent are this people, that Samoa very soon became a centre of missionary enterprise, sending forth trained Native Teachers to other islands, of whom we shall presently have occasion to speak.

“A short account of the mode in which the Mission work in Polynesia is carried on will be interesting, not only by reason of the success that has almost invariably attended it in the islands in which missionaries are located, but also on account of the widely-spread influence exercised throughout the South Seas by the agency of the Native Teachers.”