twenty-four inches of rain fell here during the last two years!) and the famine prices which now prevail all over the Presidency, I could not but thank God, and take courage at the realization of so handsome a sum.

The Madras Diocesan Committee has promised the new society an annual grant in aid, so that, with what it raises on the spot and what it will receive from Madras, it will have the means of vigorously commencing work at once.

I cannot but regard it as a circumstance well worthy of remark, and as a striking illustration of the benefits accruing to ourselves from the efforts we make for the good of others, that whilst the eastern congregations were getting up a society and making a collection for the spread of the gospel in the west, an unexpected movement towards Christianity commenced amongst the heathens around their own doors. In almost every village where there is a congregation there is also a considerable proportion of heathens, and, in most instances, those who remain in heathenism are more wealthy, as well as more numerous, than the Christians.

"In eight of such villages, during the past three weeks, we have had the pleasure of receiving accessions from heathenism, and the movement appears to be extending.

Monthly Retrospect.

THE first effect of Mr. Bright's speeches having passed away, we can now examine them, and weigh their influence with a cool and dispassionate judgment. On the majority of reformers, and we dare say on the majority of the readers of this journal, their immediate effect, apart from an exciting sense of the nerve and strength of the speaker's eloquence, was to add intense feeling to already active thought. We had, most of us, long ago, arrived at the conviction to which Mr. Bright gave so forcible an expression; our judgments had concurred, with those of the most sincere reformers, as to the point at which it was desirable to stop, in our present demands upon the Legislature; there was an understanding that the judiciously drawn, and admirably expressed programme adopted at the Guildhall conference, was to be taken by Mr. Bright as the measure of the reform which he would propose, but none, or very few of us, had got further than this intellectual conviction. We had thought, and thought the matter over, had passed through all the processes of argument on either side that was necessary to strengthen our conclusions, but here we feel that we must stop. We had a country to re-conquer, we had made up our minds as to the limits of the territory which we should obtain, but we had neither the martial spirit to fight, nor a commander to lead. The effect of Mr. Bright's speeches at

Birmingham has been to rouse the dormant spirit of reform. We have now got past the first stage of agitation. We are not only convinced that it is desirable there should be some change in the legislative power of this country, but we have been wrought to the determination to have the change. We are thoroughly, openly, and earnestly committed to an agitation, which we know must a successful one, because we do not intend to relinquish it until our end is gained. We owe this to Mr. Bright, and owing it we say, he has done such service to the cause of good government, as all statesmen and patriots should be eager to recognise.

For, we do not hesitate ourselves to confess that we have a sense of great, although not immediate or early danger to the Government, and ultimately to the liberty of this country, from the low opinion that has long been entertained of the morality, honesty, and capabilty of those who have for the last hundred and fifty years wielded the executive power. The extravagance, waste, and recklessness; the shifting of duty and responsi bility; the off-hand official contempt with which inquiries have umiformly been met; the obstinate resistance to every improvement; the accumulating revelations of official delinquencies; have induced a deep, although it may be an exaggerated feeling, that the country would be the better without the influence of the upper classes. It does not matter, any more than it mattered before the French Revolution broke out, whether the general conclusion to which this feeling would point be false or true; the feeling is there. And so well did Mr. Bright know of its existence, and so admirably did he express it, that the phrase by which he characterised one of its aspects-' a gigantic system of out-door relief for the aristocracy' -was ringing through all Englahd for days after it was uttered, and will ring for months, both within and without Parliament, before it is dropped. Unhappily it has been accepted as by no means an exaggerated description —unhappily, because we think the opinion is now, on the whole, strong enough; and that, without a much more decided expression of it, we may hope to see a giving way of the late exclusive system of government. It happens, however, that the prejudices of a people commonly last beyond the time which gave occasion to them, and long after a reform we shall doubtless see a degree of class prejudice exhibited which will prevent any harmonious feelings. But should there be a blind opposition to necessary and judicious changes the country will have to thank Mr. Bright for the strength of sentiment and feeling which may enable the people immediately to overcome it. Unless they can do this, and if the feeling be allowed to fester, a wound will probably be given to the country such as,

if it do not endanger its robust health, will be felt as a grave calamity. If Mr. Bright, by an early warning, can prevent this he will deserve well of all the people, but most of those who are now so unscrupulously abusing him.

The formal acceptance of the leadership of the liberal party, offered to the member for Birmingham, on behalf of the Parliamentary Reform Committee, at the second Guildhall conference, held in the early part of November, was only what could have been expected after the Birmingham addresses. Perhaps no man ever' took office' with such unreserved power, or with such an unreserved expeerssion of confidence. Yet, we dare say, there were few there and few represented there, who did not feel that, while they could rest, as against a rock, upon Mr. Bright's unswerving purpose of mind, they would be glad of some secret explanation of the honourable member's strange and futuitous hallucinations regarding the working of the liberal, or rather democratic, principles in the United States. What books can Mr. Bright have read, who can he have seen, to get such an impression as he communicated to his Birmingham audiences? It is almost as wide of the mark of what a correct impression should be as if Mr. Bright had taken the case of Russia and described her mild despotism, as we should describe that of France or Naples. His strange want of correct information on the character of the political contests in the United States is perfectly extraordinary for a man of his large acquaintance with politics. Mr. Bright has committed the grave error of taking theory for fact. There is nndoubtedly a very perfect political constitution in the United States, but its working is anything but perfect. With all the protection to the citizen which the laws afford, there is a vast amount of democratic despotism. With all the liberty of voting there is an immense deal of tyrannical pressure. With all the exclusion of an aristocratic class, there is the most odious aristocracy of money-a MANCHESTER ARISTOCRACY, whose influence, bacause it has been self-acquired, may be perfectly legitimate, while it is often exercised in the most illegitimate fashion. Mr. Bright should visit America, and take part, as we ourselves have done, in a presidential contest; we are afraid that he would break his idol on his return.

Another exaggeration in Mr. Bright's speeches had reference to class legislation. It is unquestionably the case, we think, that the legislation of the last ten or twelve years has been in favour of the interest of the working classes. The taxes that have been remitted have been those which bore with greatest pressure on the poor, while the tendency of every

discussion in the House of Commons in which the interest of the class has been referred to, has been to recognise and establish their social claims. The reluctance to admit their claim to political power is easily understood, but thanks to Mr. Bright, and those who are working with him, there is now a prospect of this reluctance being overcome. This desirable consummation, however, will not be hastened by coloured or unjust assertions Of intentional misrepresentation Mr. Bright is utterly incapable; but his strong passions, and impatient endurance of injustice, may bend even his great judgment.

What a characteristic reception has been given to the new Reform programme by the press! The Times engaged a "special engine" to bring Mr. Bright's speech, and then pooh-poohed it! Most of the London daily papers, and not a few of the weeklies, set themselves in opposition to it, but the country journals at once and unreservedly committed themselves in its favour. This, to the best of our recollection, has always been the case. The London dailies are, with one or two well-known exceptions, always ultra-conservative in their tone, their constituents are conservative, and they are less likely to offend by uniformly opposing every new reform movement while it is new, than by too quickly giving in their adherence. The Times, however, has been rapidly coming round to the right quarter. Early in November it asked the impudent question, Who wants a Reform?' and on the 26th of the same month it gives insertion to an impressive article, demanding a real reform-the very point on which Mr. Bright most insisted! Punch' and the Saturday Review' will, of course, soon follow, and so far as the press is concerned, Mr. Bright will then have it nearly all his own way.

Side by side with the Reform agitation will come the Church-rate struggle, and the new and admirably conceived measure to be introduced by Mr. Duncombe, for taking the freehold of parish churches out of the hands of the parson and transferring it to the parish, a measure, the discussion of which will open up the whole question of Church Establishments, and, for the first time, bring the two parties to an issue in the House of Commons. We are greatly mistaken, if this bill do not at once command the eager attention of statesmen of all parties. Looked at from a strictly Dissenting point of view, it seems, at first sight, to involve an inconsistency, and a formal inconsistency it does involve, but no more. It is a bill for practical statesmen, the majority of them there can be no doubt will at once see that it is exceedingly 'inconsistent' with a Church Establishment.

Bishop Tait has delivered a model address from a Christian' overseer' to

Christian ministers. Very earnest, very faithful, and very true to himself, it is one which will add greatly to his moral influence. As the bishop is still a young man, we may also hope that he will be able to walk manfully free of the meshes of that dangerous net which is always cast around liberally-disposed bishops. Of the utterance of the new Metropolitan on Church-rates and the Church's mission, we certainly cannot complain. It is of no use to argue with such a man, he must occupy a different 'standpoint' before he will be able to look at these questions as we look at them. Left to his own Christian faith, he is far more likely to find his way to what we consider to be the truth, than he is to be argued into it. If he should not arrive at our conclusions at last, we have no doubt that his practical Christianity will be as entirely and as freely voluntary, as if there were no law-supported sect.

We connect together the only two continental subjects requiring notice -the proposed withdrawal of the French troops from Rome, and the trial and condemnation of Montalembert. Although apparently not noticed by the press, we have little doubt but the Montalembert trial is the fourth act of a single drama; the first having been the refusal of the Pope to crown the Emperor; the second his refusal to listen to the emperor's representative on the Mortara case; and in these two acts the leading parts are played by the Pontiff; the second two, then, are being played by the emperor. For the first he strikes Rome by the withdrawal of his protection; for the second he revenges himself by committing to prison, for a fictitious offence, the leader of the great Catholic party of France. That is to say, if the late prosecution has had the Emperor's personal sanction, which we are half inclined to doubt, it seems to us that so astute a monarch could scarcely commit himself to so grave a blunder, with the approbation of his judgment. The real truth probably is, that, as in the case of the French colonels,' the Emperor is made to play into the hands of those on whom he is dependent for his authority; and he has not the courage, like Cromwell, to rid himself of his ill-advisers, and take the consequences. We can all see the final result, and fear for the peace of Europe, that it is not far distant. Will it come in time for Kossuth's Ten Years?' Then hope for Hungary and Italy!