of the same year. Finding that all communication with the interior was interrupted; and that reports of a very bloody persecution were circulated, I requested, of the first Christians I met, aid until the time it might please God to permit me to enter to the mission to which I had been sent; but the faithful, under the influence of fear, almost all refused me. I knocked at many doors and only obtained for answer, to continue my journey. The greater part of all these neophytes continue disobedient to the authority of the bishop. May the Father of mercies deign to enlighten their blind eyes, and to touch their obdurate hearts! This is all the evil I wish to them in return for their ill will. At this time bishop Verroles had not yet reached his vicariate.

Repulsed from every part of Liáutung, I sought refuge in Mongolia, ninety leagues north of Moukden, the capital of the ancient states of the Man-chu Tartar family, now upon the imperial throne of China. Here the faithful being less fearful have given me the hospitality that I requested. In the midst of these have for two years waited for letters from our dear associates in Corea, when lately the afflictive intellignce has arrived which confirms our worst fears. The head of our venerable brothers in the faith having fallen under the sword of persecution-the butcherers ceased to immolate the Christians. These began to recover little by little; and after some time, having laid aside their panic, they despatched a messenger to the frontier who died on the journey. The next year they despatched a second, who had not the fortune to meet the Chinese messenger. At length, in December 1842, by the leave of Providence, one of our two Corean disciples sent to Pieu-men recognised his countrymen, the bearer of the disastrous intelligence from the mission. This explained, Messiers and dear Brethren, the cause of the uninterrupted silence, during three years, from Corea If the triumph of the pastor is good, the state of the flock is truly sad and deplorable. What rubbish! What ruins! How many families reduced to the last misery! How many orphans have not where to repose their head! Alas! why is it necessary that in this evil country the combats and triumphs of so many champions should always be accompanied with the shameful defection of so many apostates!

This, then, is the news from the poor and desolate church of Corea, deprived of her pastor, turning her eyes bathed in tears towards Europe, whence ought to come salvation, stretching her arms out to obatin new guides who might guide their feet in traversing this valley

of darkness and misery. A consideration of the dealings of God, who habitually tries this church with the pressure of affliction, will afford ground to adore his impenetrable judgments, and his paternal providence, which presided over its establishment and watched over its preservation, in the midst of obstacles which threatened to destroy it, and furnish reasons to bless his mercy.

About half a century since, Corea did not contain a single Christian, in the whole extent of its eight provinces. Whether or not the gospel penetrated to the peninsula in the train of the Christian armies of the proud and cruel Tai-ko-same there does not remain

a single vestage prior to 1790. It is related that at that time a man of an upright spirit and simple heart, who guided by the light of reason unclouded by passion, conceived that there must be a doctrine superior to any offered by any of the sects of his country. It happened that this man followed the legation sent by the king of Corea twice a year to the emperor of China. At Peking, it happened that one of the Christians in conversion explained to him the doctrines of our holy religion. The uprightness of his heart and especially divine grace determined him without difficulty to embrace a doctrine so conformed to the light of reasen: he took with him some religious books and returned to his own country.

At this time my lord de Gouvea, of illustrious memory, occupied the see of the capital. The Corean neophyte, all joyous at the blessing he had received from heaven, hastened to make it known to his fellowcitizens, he began to preach and soon he formed around himself a little knot of disciples of the gospel, and in two or three years he numbered some from all classes.

Francis Li, for this was the name of the neophyte, returned to Peking to give to the bishop, an account of the success of his mission. Bishop Gouvea sent to the succor of this new church a Chinese priest, M. Chau with his fellow-disciple M. No, almost an octo, genarian who had lived hitherto in Liautung. This was in 1794 ; for four years they were employed in the study of the language and three years instructing the old Christians and in making new ones. The Corean government have always had a hatred to foreigners, and take the greatest care to keep them from their inhospitable shores. The mortal enemy of all good, who saw with rage his empire falling into decay, wished to smother this new-born church in its cradle. He sought to improve a political event suitable to second his fatal designs. In 1801, he possessed some Judas to inform the govern

ment that a Chinese had clandestinely entered Corea and that here he propagated a sect proscribed in his own country. The officers were immediately sent in pursuit of him. In vain two zealous Christians shaved their heads a la façon Chinoise and personated them, the one acting the stranger and the other as his domestic; the veritable stranger M. Chau was taken. They pierced both his ears with two arrows by which they suspended him; afterwards, when they had despoiled him of his garments, the soldiers who surrounded him each being armed with a knife-cut him to pieces. After this martyr had expired, it was about thirty years before the Corean church received any other succor.

There then arose a violent persecution. Francis Lí had the inappreciable happiness to cement with his blood the Christian edifice of which he had laid the first stone. All the faithful who commanded any distinction in the state were either martyred or driven into exile; those of the lower classes were scattered. They supposed that sect, which they called the accursed, was annihilated; but the precious germ of the gospel seed always remained; it arose fructified by the blood of the martyrs and began to bear fruit. Notwithstanding the local persecutions, the faithful were preserved, and enlarged their numbers in secret and silence each returning year.

The things continued thus in Corea till 1834, when a second Chinese priest entered the country, followed two years afterwards by our dear associates. Thanks to the divine mercy, that a little respite was granted to this church rendered so interesting by misfor tunes, in which to respire and to gather new forces; but the furious winds have arisen anew to assail this frail boat in the midst of the Mary! the star of the sea guide it! Preserve it from shipwreck! Iter para tutum!

waves.

Thus, Messieurs, there is character wanting to the Corean mission which in this lower world markes the happy family of a persecuted, despised and crucified God! the Lord appearing to meet the hope expressed by my lord de Capse when dying, viz: to see his people soon range themselves under the law of the gospel. The blood of so many martyrs will not flow in vain; it will be from this new earth as it has been from our old Europe, the seed of new believers. Is it not of the divine goodness of our heavenly Father, touched by the cry of orphans, by the prayers of our venerable martyrs bowing before the throne of his glory, by the wishes of the fervent associates for the propagation of the Faith who were not satisfied with assisting them

from distant places, is it not this which has availed to send forth amidst dangers of all kinds two missionaries to their aid? Scon disguised as poor wood-cutters, we will pass over the ridge covered with trees, this so notable a barrier of the first Corean custom-heu e ! We go to console this desolated people, to dry up their tears, to dress their yet bleeding wounds, and to repair, as far as possible, the innerable evils of the persecution. We will follow hem into the thickest of the forest upon the tops of the mountains. We will penetrate into the burying to be present with the dying, we will share of his bread of affliction. We will be fathers to the orphans, we will pour into the hands of the indigent the charitable offerings of our brethren in Europe, together with the spiritual blessings of which the divine love has made us the repositories; and if the shedding of our blood is necessary for their salvation, God grant us courage to bow our heads under the axe of the executioner.

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I do not think that the world, with all its riches and pleasures, can offer to s partisans a situation so herming as that to which we aspire. Here are two poor missionaries, seperated by four or five thousand leagues from their country, their parents, their friends, without human aid, without protectors, almost without a resting-place in the midst of a people of strange language and customs, proscribed by the laws, hunted down as wild beasts, nothing spread around us but penalties, and nothing before us but the prospect of a cruel death, it would appear that there was not in the world a more forlorn condition. But no! The Son of God, who became the Son of man, is the companion of our exile; we are full of joy in the midst of our tribulations, and we receive a hundred fold for those consolations of which we are deprived in quitting, for the love of God and of our persecuted brethren, the bosom of our families and the circle of our friends: although our days pass away with fatigue, as those of the mercenary do, yet the reward which attends their close makes them days of gladness. Oh! how foolish are the men of this world in that they will not seek wisdom in the foolishness of the cross.

Being a novice in the missions, it would have been a great happiness to me to have beer the pupil of my lord de Capse, to have profited by the knowledge and the talents of this ancient apostle; but the Lord has deprived me of it: his holy will be done! Messieurs and dear associates, pray the Lord to aid my weakness, and to grant me the grace and courage necessary to bear the heavy load he has placed upon me.

1 have the confidence to hope to see, before the end of this year, the gate, at which I knocked three years ago, open to me. The Christians have asked for new missionaries; they expressed this desire upon a strip of paper of which they had made the cord which bound the loins of the Corean courier. The strictness of the guard made these precautions necessary. M. Maistre has opportunely arrived upon the coast of Liáutung. Probably this dear associate will be forced, as I myself have been, to make a long quarantine before being permitted to enter. We have our two Corean pupils with us; they are pursuing their course of theological study; may God make them the first fruits of a ministry for their nation.

Separated from my lord Verrolles by ten days journey, I have not as yet received episcopal ordination; but hope to receive it in the course of the coming spring. The life of the apostles is very precarious in this country; it is necessary for us to thrust our heads into the midst of dangers without any other shield than our confidence in God. Have a special care then, dear associates, that after us this mission does not fall again into a state of widowhood. Of the two bishops first sent to Corea, one died on the frontier, without ever being able to enter the country, the other's life was not continued longer than twenty months. What will be the fate of the third! Hereafter it may be said, that this is a country which devours the evangelical laborers. Here is to me the great advantage in the heritage of the cross. My position is not one that may be envied.

Remember me and the flock which is committed to me in the holy sacrifice. Jean Joseph Ferreol, bishop elect of Belline, and apostolic vicar of Corea.

ART. V. Local Correspondence, between H. B. M. consul Mr. Macgregor and British residents in Canton, regarding public Nuisances, etc. From the local papers.

No. 1..

Canton, 30th June, 1846.

To F. C. MACGREGOR, Esq, H. M. Consul, Canton.

SIR,-We beg to address you on the subject of a grievance which many of us have individually brought to your notice on many occasions, but which continues unredressed: We mean the disgusting state of the gardens in front of the Foreign Factories and the thoroughfare between them; the only