ner.

The rajah is far superior to the generality of Oriya rajahs. His palace is a lofty two-storied building, and is furnished in a superb manIn building and decoration he has imitated the elite of Europeans. Within the fort are a police and ordinary court, prison, guard, &c. In many cases the rajah sits as judge, and decides causes himself. He is very learned, especially in Sanskrit lore, and is on the whole an unassuming and affable man.

Such is the brief account these dear brethren furnished me, of their visit to a festival not frequently visited. It will serve to show with what fearlessness they make known the truth, even before the kings of the earth. I might just say the rajah invited them to another interview, on condition that they would only speak of God, and not of Christ. They refused the interview on these terms, by saying they would not go where they might not speak about the Lord. The rajah, however, was very hospitable to them, and perhaps some of their simple truths may find a lodgment in his heart. He is a deist, and to such men the Essays and Reviews and now Bishop Colenso are as the water of life. I. STUBBINS.

A QUIET change is always going on amongst the staff of missionaries labouring in India: sometimes the removal or departure of labourers challenges public attention, and marks a special era in our course. At the beginning of the present year several missionaries who had been absent in England for the restoration of health returned to their labours: we thus welcomed Mr. Wenger, of the Baptist Mission in Calcutta, the able translator and editor of the Bengali and the Sanskrit Bibles; and Messrs. Stubbins and Brooks, of the Orissa Mission, the former one of its able preachers,

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the latter its experienced printer. Mr. Anderson, also of the Jessore Mission, returned to his old sphere. Ten or twelve new missionaries entered the country for the first time. Nearly all proceeded to the North-West Provinces, to the Baptist and American Missions: but two joined the Free Church Mission in Calcutta, which had long been greatly weakened, but now again enjoys the service of a strong and able staff of labourers. A small number left the country, nearly (all alas!)young men who had utterly broken down in health. One missionary will speedily leave us, whose departure will be regarded with special regret. Mr. Puxley a few years ago was a cavalry officer in the English army, and served in the Crimea. Entering the ministry of the Church of England, he came out here to teach the Sontals in the the new mission founded by the Church Missionary Society. A brief career, however, among the swampy bottoms of the Bhagulpore district has given him that jungle fever which yields to nothing but a sea voyage and one's native air; and most reluctantly for a time at least he quits that interesting sphere of toil.

Our greatest losses lie nearer home. It is hard for the Calcutta missions to lose in a single year both Mr. Wylie and Dr. Duff. Twenty years ago Mr. Wylie landed in Calcutta a young barrister, to find an honourable position in the world through God's blessing on his own exertions. He at once attached himself openly to the religious residents of the city, and was a close, personal friend of the late John Macdonald. His piety made him a marked man among the barristers of the day, and the annoyance to which he was frequently subjected on account of it well illustrates the character of the men by whom he was surrounded. Escaping from this trouble, he became one of the city magistrates, and then first judge of the Court of Small Causes. The constitution and rules of this

court were of his devising; for many years he presided most ably over its decisions, and contributed in an eminent degree to secure for it public confidence. For the last three years he has been clerk and secretary of the successive Legislative Councils. While diligent in the public business of his life, he has ever been one of the most active supporters of churches and religious societies amongst us. An elder of the Free Church, secretary and then president of the Bible and Tract Societies, and secretary of the City Mission, a most energetic and practical member of the Calcutta Missionary Conference, he has long occupied a front place in our schemes of Christian agency, and by example, counsel, zeal, and liberality, has devotedly advanced their interests. All missionaries found in him a personal friend; and in times of difficulty the missionaries among the Coles and the American brethren in Burmah were sustained and animated not more by the pecuniary help he procured for them, than by his hearty words of sympathy.

He is known well in England as well as here, and during his brief visit in 1855 the few words he spoke at various meetings fell with weight and power. We shall miss him long. Who will supply his place, now painfully empty? But you will gain at home, when his health is once restored; and long may he live "to serve his generation according to the will of God." He is at present on sick leave, and may perhaps return again for a brief while to Calcutta; but we scarcely look for him as a settled resident in this city again. The Missionary Conference took a sad farewell of him the last time he met them; and all the Christian societies of the city have given him the expression of their affection and regret on his departure.

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Since Mr. Wylie went to England, Dr. Duff has also been compelled by a severe attack of illness to relinquish in Calcutta the work he has so long loved, and carried out with

energy and ability so great. He was doubting when the year began whether he would be able to bear the rainy season once more after his long service: the season came, and with it very speedily the doubt was decided. He has gone down to Singapore and Java, hoping to return for a few weeks at the close of the year. He will then visit by slow stages the Free Church Missions in India and South Africa, and so quietly return to Scotland.

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So ends in India the distinguished career of this honoured servant of Christ. It has extended over period of thirty-four years, of which twenty-three have been spent in India itself, and eleven years in his two visits to Europe and America. Dr. Duff came to India rather older than most new missionaries, and with a larger and riper mind. From the first he showed himself a broad thinker, a fluent writer, an eloquent speaker. He arrived at the right moment in the history of education, -a turning point in the course which the native mind was following; and his example, his writings, his pleadings with the government and with individuals, gave a prodigious impulse to the desire then awakening on every hand for the acquisition of the English language. The Oriental period of education, with its Sanskrit and Arabic professors, and its Persian in the courts, passed away for ever, leaving but a shadow and a name behind. The English language and literature from that time took a firm hold on the young minds of India.

On every hand the feeling of regret at Dr. Duff's departure is profound; and all the respect and regard felt for him by all classes of religious society have been called forth in increased degree. The work to which Dr. Duff was called was one of immense importance: it was one calculated to confer a long line of benefits upon the people of India, which should endure for ages. He has done it well, and we glorify God in him. May peace and rest crown his remaining days.