"Since cordial manner by all his old acquaintances. Wherever he went with his Irish Bible, both he and it were heartily welcomed and listened to with marked attention and interest. He went into a farmer's house and sat down by invitation, opened his Bible and read Rom. viii., accompanying the reading of the chapter with an occasional remark. He was listened to throughout by the entire family. it was God that sent you back to us," exclaimed the master of the house, "such fine blessed words would indeed open one's heart and cause him to remember the Saviour of the world. What a fine thing it is for you Protestants to be in possession of, and to be able to read, such a fine blessed book." In another house he met an aged woman, to whom he read for a considerable time various passages of the Irish Scriptures, declaring the ability and willingness of Christ to receive and serve all that come unto God by Him. When he rose to depart she asked for the book, pressed it fervently to her lips, exclaiming in her native tongue with great emphasis, "My love, my Saviour of the world, is it not a strange thing that the priest would not tell us a story like that on some Sunday, and not leave the poor people as blind as he does? May God forgive him his sins; are we not to be pitied with him leaving us so blind about our poor souls ?" And very much more to the same effect. The same Agent next visited a blacksmith's forge. The smith welcomed him in the most friendly manner, brought a chair from his dwelling house into the forge for his visitor's accommodation, and desired his men to stop their work "until they should hear a chapter read to them from the Scriptures in their own old Irish tongue." All present were most attentive and all took bills. Having heard that the aged woman just before referred to was unwell, he went again to visit her. He found her not only ill in body, but much distressed in mind. "Oh !" said she, as soon as she saw the Agent, "I was longing to see you, that you might tell me what I shall do with my poor soul." The Agent said to her, "If a person were drowning down in the tide, and if he saw a plank of timber near him and could lay hold on it, what do you think he " 66 would do ?" Why," said she," he would cling to it and hold it in spite of the world." "Well then," said he, 'just in the same way you will catch a drowning man's grip of Christ," and he quoted several passages both from the Old and New Testament appropriate to her case. She seemed to swallow every word, saying, "Is not such a blessed word a great comfort to a poor sinner like me?" etc. The conversation continued for about two hours, and he left her full of hope. Surely the message of life received and drunk in with such eagerness will gladden the brief remainder of this aged pilgrim's course (for she numbers eighty-eight years), and be the means of conveying to her the comforting and assuring hope of the pardon of her sins through faith in the Redeemer. On Wednesday, July 17, he came amongst a number of workmen engaged in building a coast-guard station, and got into conversation with them on the subject of keeping holy the Sabbath-day. Some of them remarked that if a crop of corn were in danger of being lost, and if a priest gave leave to save it, there would then be no sin in working on the Sabbath-day. The reply of some of the fellow-labourers of these men shows how strongly reverence for the Word of God is beginning to take possession of their minds; they remarked, "God has said, Remember to keep holy the Sabbath-day, and no man upon earth has power to change what God has said, or to do away with a commandment that He has given." Language such as this strikes at once at the root of priestly power, and the diffusion of Scriptural knowledge must lead to the rapid increase in the number of those who prefer the authority of the revealed Word of God to the dictum of the priest. On more than one occasion the Agent received an invitation from Roman Catholics to come to their houses for the purpose of reading the Scriptures to them, and frequently, when taking his leave, he was asked to call soon again. Truly the minds of the people in various parts of the country seem to be opening to a sense of the value of the Word of God; the harvest appears to be becoming more plenteous, presenting many additional openings for labourers to enter and minister of the word of life to many who are thirsting for it? The late Census. THE general results of the Irish Census have been published, but not the details of the different parishes. As soon as the latter appear, we shall be the better able to judge of the bearing of the Census on the work of the Irish Church Missions. Some important points, however, are already apparent, and these have been noticed by the Missionary Secretary, in the following letter, addressed to several Dublin newspapers : : "SIR,-There appears to have been some needless disappointment amongst Protestants, and much uncalled-for exultation amongst the Roman Catholics, at the result of the last census. Many have been surprised that after all the Missionary efforts made in Ireland during late years, the number of Protestants should not have appeared larger in the recent returns. "Without entering on the question as to whether or not the census was accurately taken as to religion, there are one or two important considerations which ought not to be lost sight of at this time. "First.-It is clear that taking the numbers as they stand, and comparing the present result with that of the year 1834, the last year in which a religious estimate of the population was made, the number of Roman Catholics in Ireland has diminished by about two millions, while the Protestant decrease has been only about two hundred thousand; hence it follows, that in 1834, while the Protestants of Ireland were to the Roman Catholics as one to four, now the Protestants are to the Roman Catholics as one to three and a-half. Under all the circumstances of the case, this is a result anything but discouraging. "Secondly. With regard to the effect of Missionary operations, it must not be forgotten that a very large number of converts have left this country, and emigrated to distant lands, during the past ten or twelve years. I can speak with confidence of many Mission districts with which I am acquainted, and in most of them at least twice as many converts have gone away as those already remaining. And those who have thus emigrated, continue, it must be remembered, stedfast to the truth, and swell the ranks of Protestants in the countries of their adoption. Whether it be from persecution on the part of the Roman Catholics, or want of encouragement on the part 66 of the Protestants, it is a painful but an undoubted fact, to which every Missionary in Ireland would be ready to testify, that large numbers of converts have annually left this country. Thirdly. It would be an interesting inquiry if it could be ascertained how many of the two millions of Roman Catholics who have emigrated during the last five-and twenty years are Roman Catholics now. 66 Many instances have come under my own knowledge, of inquiring Roman Catholics leaving the country, in order to obtain liberty of conscience in another land; and we all remember the remarkable admission made by Priest Mullen, now nearly ten years ago, when he said that, in the United States alone, two millions of Roman Catholics had been lost. to the Church. If this fact be borne in mind, it will appear plainly that had these emigrants remained in Ireland and followed the dictates of their conscience, many of them would have been returned in the Census as Protestants. "Fourthly.-It is a most encouraging fact, that wherever in Ireland Missionary work has been vigorously carried on, the actual number of converts returned as Protestants at the late Census was, in spite of emigration and persecution, very considerable indeed. In the western part of Galway, for instance, in the district of Connemara, where there were scarcely any Protestants to be found at the last religious. Census, more than 2000 persons registered themselves as members of the Established Church on the 8th of April. In Dublin also, and its vicinity, we can testify to many hundreds who came immediately under our notice, who, having been formerly Roman Catholics, voluntarily returned themselves as Protestants on the late occasion. The same also we know to have been the case in other districts. 66 Seeing, therefore, that the actual proportion of Protestants to the Roman Catholics is so much greater than it was, in spite of a continued emigration of both, and seeing that conversion and inquiry are now rapidly advancing amongst the Roman Catholics in this country, let the Irish Church take courage and go forward; let her rise to her true position as a Missionary Church, and if we are spared until the period of another Census, we shall see a result still more favourable to the Protestant cause. "Faithfully yours, "HENRY CORY EADE, Reports from the Missions, AUGHRIM. (From the Missionary.) A REMARKABLE proof has been afforded this month that controversial placards, handbills, readers, lectures, and schools do not, in the long run, separate Romanists from Protestants. Both parties combined to draw home the Missionaries' turf, giving their horses and their time voluntarily, free of hire, some for even more than one day, which to many was equivalent to a day's income at least. Great was the indignation of the priest at this display of good feeling. On the following Sunday he read out the names from his altar, but he only excited the displeasure of the parties so earnestly abused, several of whom said openly that they had done nothing wrong, and that they would do it again and again. This is remarkable in many points of view. Proselytism no longer entails unpopularity, for it is not customary for the people to draw home the turf of any of the clergymen, even though they are not proselytizers; and, further, it showed a growing feeling of good-will on the part of the Romanists for their Protestant neighbours, and of independence and even contempt for priestly domination. All the violence excited in former times here, and exhibited at present elsewhere, against placards, handbills, and missionary work, is manifestly not the spontaneous feeling of the people; but is the work of the Romish priesthood, who, seeing their craft in danger, resort to the old expedient of stirring up certain lewd fellows of the baser sort to commit assaults, and then charge the blame on the persons assaulted. The following incident shows the effects of good controversial teaching on the converts : A young woman, a convert and a dressmaker, was returning to Aughrim, when she was overtaken by a Roman Catholic lady, who kindly took her up in her car. were on it, besides, the driver and another man. following dialogue took place: Roman Catholic.-Are you a Protestant? There |