obedient to the command of our Superior, the Lord Jesus, and neglect His behest, "Go ye, into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature?" To our shame we must acknowledge that such has been the case hitherto. Let us confess our sin, and earnestly seek grace to wipe away the blot from the honour of our Master's cause.
The statistics of Romish missions in China are difficult to procure. We were able to refer in our first edition, to the fact that in 1848 they counted 34 European missionaries, 135 native priests, 14 seminaries and colleges, 326 churches and chapels, and 315,000 Chinese converts; but that since the political concessions of 1858–60, they were reported to have added to their staff about 200 European priests and sisters of charity.
In our third edition we were able to give a comparative table of Statistics of Romish and Protestant missions for 1866, which shewed the great advances they were making. They then had 33 bishops, 263 European priests, 243 native priests, 15 colleges, and 383,580 Chinese converts.
Nor have they been less active since. The Manual of the Methodist Episcopal Church of America for April, 1882, quotes from "The Roman Catholic Register" of Hongkong, the following statistics of Roman Catholic missions in the Chinese empire:—Bishops 41, European priests 664, native priests 559, colleges 34, convents 34, native converts 1,092,818.
PROTESTANT MISSIONS.
We are now prepared to take a survey of Protestant missions in China.
On the 7th of March, 1798, a most interesting circular, pleading for the translation and circulation of the Scriptures in the Chinese language, was sent forth, dated from 'Near Daventry, Northamptonshire,' by the Rev. William Moseley, who also issued a powerful appeal on behalf of China. There seems much reason to believe that the efforts of this earnest servant of Christ had a direct connection with the formation of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and with the sending forth of Dr. Morrison to China in 1807, by the London Missionary Society, which had thus the honour of sending the first Protestant missionary to China. Owing to the jealousy felt by the East India Company, Dr. Morrison had to go by way of America, and arrived in Canton in 1808. In the year 18 14, he published the New Testament in Chinese, about half of it being his own translation, and the remainder a revision of a manuscript found in the British Museum; and in the same year the first convert, Tsai Ako,
