RESIDENCE OF THE BRITISH EMBASSY, YEDDO, JAPAN.

in missionary work. The missionaries are, in fact, only now beginning to be able to furnish books in the Japanese language. There are as yet only five missionaries in the field, belonging to the American Presbyterian Church (old school) and the American Reformed Church, recently Reformed Dutch Church. The American Episcopal Church had also a mission, but have at present no missionaries in the field. The accounts of the preparatory work of these few labourers are generally favourable. Dr. Hepburn writes recently to the Secretary of the Presbyterian Board: -"I wish I could impress you with the strong convictions I feel that the time has come for working, and that the men for this should be speedily upon the ground. I have been in Japan since it was opened, and have watched, with deep interest, the astonishingly rapid changes that have been going on. I feel that we are now on the eve of changes that will throw open the country to Christian effort, and if our Church wishes to hold her place in this work, she must increase her force. There is enough now to be done for as many as will engage in it." The Secretary of the other Board, that of the Reformed Church, says: -"Our last intelligence is decidedly encouraging. What we are doing is experiencing no molestation whatsoever. Mr. Ballagh is preaching in his own house, and all our missionaries-Ballagh, Brown, and Verbeck—have interesting scholars who make no concealment of their desire to understand the Word of God."

Dr. Hepburn has been in Shanghai since last October, bringing out a dictionary in Japanese, which will open up that language for the easy study of missionaries and foreigners generally. The task has been no easy one. He began this dictionary when he first went to Japan, not at the time with a view of publication, but because he felt its preparation to be the best means for

himself to learn the language. It grew, however, till his friends persuaded him to give it to the public. It has been a most laborious work. Each word is first spelled out in Roman characters according to the Japanese sound, then follows its equivalent in Japanese characters, and, lastly, the meaning and synonym. It is a work of seven or eight hundred pages, being in Japanese and English, and English and Japanese. A bookseller in Yeddo has engaged a thousand copies. Another missionary in Yokohama publishes a Japanese newspaper, which is an admirable channel for influencing the people favourably towards Christianity. One of the Reformed Church missionaries had just finished a version of the Bible which had cost him four years of hard labour, when it was unfortunately destroyed by fire, his house having been burned. This is a heavy loss, which we trust he and his fellowlabourers will soon be able to repair. Thus all preparations are being made. The weapons of warfare are being furbished, and, besides, there has been much direct mission work among the people, and some fruit has been already gathered!! in.

Meanwhile the Church of Rome is again actively in the field. Dr. Hepburn writes in January last :-"The Romanists are making great preparations for carrying on a vigorous work in Japan. Two mails ago, fifteen priests left Shanghai for Yokohama." It is to be hoped that our evangelical churches will not be behind. There is room for the efforts of many different societies. The field is a most important one. The Japanese are a people of high cultivation and intelligence, and their conversion to Christianity in large numbers would be felt in the whole South-Eastern Archipelago. May the work, begun among them, prosper more and more abundantly.

instances the houses are so ricketty, the cellarage beneath them so suggestive of rats and other vermin, and the general appearance of the lodgings so uninviting, that pedestrians, after a hasty look at the wretched tenements, will hurry away, preferring the cold blast of night to the questionable accommodation to be obtained within. Others, not so particular, will knock at the door; and as it opens, an odour of tobacco, onions, and of all kinds of cookery, will come steaming forth, and the ear will catch the din of laughter, loud talking, and perhaps singing, combined. If we follow the traveller who has just entered and paid toll on the threshold, we should find that he has passed through a dingy passage out into a courtyard on his way to the common kitchen of the establishment, whence came the smell of the onions and cookery and the noise of many voices. The kitchen is a room which will perhaps hold twenty or thirty people comfortably, and it is more than half filled. A good fire is blazing in the grate, and half-a-dozen people are cooking their supper by it. One is toasting a sausage, another a piece of bacon; another has a bit of steak, the gravy of which, as it drops in the process of cooking, he does not begrudge to a neighbour's heap of thick dry toast. If it were not that the smell arising from the bad tobacco which two unwashed Germans are smoking is well nigh suffocating, and that, notwithstanding laughter and singing, every one seems half-suspicious of his fellow, there might be many worse places in London on a cheerless night than this common kitchen. Supper over, the lodgers linger over the fire, or go to one of twenty beds in an adjoining room, and there repose until the inexorable dawn proclaims that they have had as much sleep as any landlord can reasonably allow for twopence.

Many strange stories might be written about those who from time to time seek the shelter of these lodging-houses. Here has been found "the university man," telling in half-sober mood anecdotes of his college days to costermongers and street beggars, and boasting of the position he might even now take if he were not too proud to accept the patronage of the wealthy! Here, too, has been that prodigal son for whom rewards have been offered in vain, and who, having spent all in riotous living, has had no other means of obtain ing a lodging than by selling his attire bit by bit. Occasionally, the criminal has tried to be lost in such places from the eye of the police, and has been awakened in the dead of night by the glare of the officer's lantern flashing in his eyes.

While the poor of the district in which lodginghouses are situate use them to a large extent, they are also places of shelter for hosts of casuals who have seen better days, and who, while they can scrape a few pence together, will pay for the poor accommodation afforded rather than go into the "House."

It need scarcely be said that such persons are seldom to be found attending any place of worship, and that, unless the Gospel is taken to them, they will be out of its reach while they continue inmates of the cheap lodging-house. We are glad to know, however, that they are not forgotten, and that well-sustained efforts are put forth week by week to interest them in the truths which make for their everlasting peace. By the consent of the landlords of many of the lodging-houses, both in the Mint and in Spitalfields, services are held in the common kitchens of the houses every Sunday evening by devoted Christian labourers, who have every reason to be encouraged by the attention paid to their addresses and to the several parts of the service.

In company with one who knew every hole and corner of the Mint, we not long ago took a survey of the work done in the lodging-houses in the course of one Sabbath evening. "The Mint," as the reader may be aware, is a narrow lane leading out of the Borough, about 300 yards in length. It is frequented both night and day by tribes of the dirtiest men and women imaginable; and at almost every step the passer-by may see upon the window-blinds the announcement "Lodgings for single men, 3d. a night." In this Mint Street and the courts belonging to it hundreds of the poor congregate as naturally as the surgeons do in Finsbury Square, or as lawyers in the Temple and Lincoln's Inn. The houses are of all kinds, and lodgings are let to those who can only afford a cellar, or a part of one, as well as to those who can take a bed on the first floor. In the kitchens of several of these houses religious services are conducted every Sabbath evening by the Christian Instruction Society of Surrey Chapel, under the active superintendence of the Rev. Newman Hall. This society has gained access to no less than twelve houses in Kent Street and the Mint, and in some cases they are even warmly welcomed by the lodging-house keeper. In the first kitchen we entered, when we made our survey, we saw a strange scene indeed. It was a low-roofed room, with a good fire blazing in the grate, and receiving additional light from two flaring gas-burners. There were two or three rows of tables in the

place, around which about forty men were seated; they were of all ages, and in every kind of working dress-Sunday dress there was none. Some were smoking, some were eating or cooking their supper, some were reading Lloyd's newspaper; a few here and there had the New Testament before them, which the Surrey Chapel Christian Instruction Society supplies to all the lodging-houses under their visitation. A few stragglers lounged about the door, and would neither come in nor go out. This was the kind of audience to whom the Christian visitor had that evening to declare the Word of Life. Nothing daunted by the scene before him, he gave out a simple hymn of praise, and commenced a well-known tune. He had the singing nearly all to himself; but as he proceeded to read the Scriptures, it was good to see that the newspaper in one instance was furtively laid aside, and that although smoking was still continued, talking ceased. He had no reason to complain of the attention paid to the fervent exhortation he delivered, and at the close of his address the tracts which he distributed were respectfully received. A similar audience, though perhaps not so numerous, assembled that evening in each of the houses in the Mint district. One of the kitchens we found to be underground, and there was a very treacherous look about the place; but the voice of sacred song ascending from the depths gave one courage to venture down, and there we saw about a dozen of the most woe-begone looking persons we ever saw taking part in an evening service. It is encouraging to know that these religious services have not been without good result. Even in such abodes of poverty, and perhaps of crime, some souls have been born again, and have blessed God that the Gospel was ever taken to them. In one year, by means of this Christian Instruction Society, upwards of 23,000 religious publications have been distributed among the lodgers; and it has been computed that every Sunday evening there is an aggregate attendance of about 300 persons in the kitchens of the Mint lodging-houses listening to the preaching of the Gospel.

The lodging-houses of Spitalfields are regularly visited by members of the Christian Community. This Society has had this district under its charge for upwards of fifteen years, and twenty members are at work every Sabbath evening. In a very small area in this vicinity may be found forty-five lodging-houses, accommodating more than 2000 lodgers of every grade. The description given of some of them is most saddening. One who has

had this field of work under his care for years, says that it is next to impossible to give a correct moral picture of the district; vice in every conceivable form is prevalent, and poverty in every degree goes hand in hand with it. As handmaid to vice and poverty, there is ignorance of everything good, noble, and true; but a full acquaintance with crime and profligacy, excess and selfishness, idleness and lust, hatred, revenge, murder, blasphemy, and sins too foul to name. It is encouraging to know, however, after this fearful picture, that a great change for the better has taken place in this district, into the lodginghouses of which Evangelists go Sunday after Sunday and dispense the Word of Truth, very often with as much attention as could be secured in the ward of a workhouse.

The following is the testimony of the Secretary in regard to the reception of the brethren:— "The evidence of several of our brethren is that a great improvement has been manifest of late. As a rule, we are respected, and our visits readily permitted, and now and then earnestly solicited in some of the houses. On entering a house our brethren, who invariably go two and two together, kindly salute them 'Good evening,' and intimate their intention to speak for a short time. The salutation is returned, and a general hush goes round for silence, coupled with 'We are glad to see you; go on, go on!' The service then proceeds with reading the Scriptures, praying, and often singing, which many heartily join in; an address follows-for sermons are not of much use amongst such people-then a closing prayer. Afterwards the visitor goes round with tracts, and speaks kindly to each as he hands him one; and now he is besieged with a host who begin to tell their troubles and misfortunes, and, finally, beg for the price of a night's lodging, or something more urgent still. After a kindly 'Good night,' the visitors proceed to the next house, as they generally take two, sometimes three, in the course of the evening."

Several cases of conversion, and other good results, are among the fruits of these simple ministrations. During the past year, through the kindness of several well-known friends of the poor, a number of free tea meetings have been organized specially for the inmates of the lodginghouses in Spitalfields. These meetings have been greatly prized by the poor people; and it has been a most affecting sight to witness the mass of poverty and wretchedness thus brought together. The number of fallen women who have attended