MISSIONS. 



843 



in Pekin, except the mathematicians, physicians, and 

 artists in the service of the court. Besides the seven 

 provinces which belong to these three bishoprics, 

 there are other provinces of the Chinese empire 

 belonging to the mission of the eveques vicaires apos- 

 toliques. Of the state of the Catholic mission in the 

 East Indies, the abbe Dubois, a French missionary, 

 in his Letters on the State of Christianity in India, 

 &c., gives a not very encouraging account. Chris- 

 tianity appears to have made more progress in East 

 Tonquin, where there are 780 churches and eighty- 

 seven monasteries. China and Tonquin together 

 contain 380,000 Christians. According to the 

 missionary reports up to Sept. 24, 1824, there were 

 in China alone 46,287 Christians, twenty-six Chinese 

 and three European priests, and twenty-nine schools 

 for boys, and forty-five for girls. In 1824, a semin- 

 ary was also instituted, in which twelve scholars are 

 taught Latin. The Russian ecclesiastical mission, 

 established in China in 1727, is not intended for the 

 conversion of the Chinese, but for the instruction of 

 young Russian clergymen in the Chinese language. 

 In 1822, a new Catholic mission was instituted in 

 Thibet. A princess, whom an Italian had converted 

 to Christianity, appointed him her first minister, and 

 requested of the Propaganda eighty missionaries for 

 the conversion of her subjects. Five Capuchins 

 were accordingly sent. The splendour of the Ca- 

 tholic worship attracted and won over the gentle 

 and ignorant children of nature in Brazil, Mexico, 

 the countries lying on the Andes, and Paraguay, 

 and several missions have, therefore, been introduced 

 there. The new republics propose to restore them 

 as schools. The Catholic church has also shown 

 great zeal in endeavours to win back the favour of 

 the people, and to restore the lost influence of the 

 church in revolutionized France and Italy. The 

 theocratic faction, as it was called, which included 

 state and church in its plans of reform, co-operated 

 in these attempts. Preparatory to the jubilee year 

 (1825), there were missions in Rome, which were 

 devoted to religious exercises, and which proclaimed 

 absolution. According to the Almanac du Clergt 

 de France pour VAn 1 824, a congregation of mis- 

 sions was established in France as early as 1816, 

 which, unlike the old French seminary for foreign 

 missions (in China, Cochin-China, Tonquin, Siam, 

 and Pondicherry), was destined solely to restore the 

 Roman Catholic religion in France to its former 

 importance, Besides this, there was a congregation 

 du St Esprit, destined for the service of the hospitals 

 and missions. For this domestic mission in France, 

 a maison principale, with a seminary for novices, was 

 instituted, which, in some dioceses, furnished priests 

 to the destitute parishes. To accomplish, at the 

 same time, a political and religious restoration, a 

 crowd of Jesuits had entered France with the Bour- 

 bons; they were called peres de la foi; they educat- 

 ed a great number of pupils, not only in theology, 

 but in other branches 01 knowledge, and, by this 

 means, kindled a religious enthusiasm, which, in some 

 instances, amounted to fanaticism. In the seminary 

 of St Sulpice, at Issy, near Paris, such enthusiasts 

 were educated as missionaries. They lived by the 

 most rigid rules, and studied with great fervour. As 

 the fathers of the faith could procure little aid from 

 the bishops in general, they formed a sort of separate 

 church, and depended upon the aumonerie, which 

 was restored much upon the same footing' on which 

 it existed under Louis XVI. The friends of this 

 religious connexion took advantage of that tendency 

 to mysticism which prevailed in Europe, and which 

 was principally observed among the women a con- 

 sequence of the revolution, which shook many weak 

 minds. The missionaries sent by the congregation 



were often merely fanatical preachers of repentance, 

 and made the greatest impression on the female sex. 

 Their religious exercises, in the churches at Paris 

 and other places, repeatedly produced great disturb- 

 ance of the public peace. In 1824, the number of 

 missionaries in their 372 chapels amounted to 379. 

 These peres de la foi were enemies of the charter 

 (because it established religious toleration), of a 

 representative government, and even of the Gallican 

 church. The provincial of the Jesuits, at Paris, who 

 had a college in the village of Mont Rouge, near 

 Paris, exercised a sort of secret spiritual government, 

 which extended over several provinces of the king- 

 dom, principally the southern and western, and was 

 connected with the Spanish apostolical junta. Upon 

 the state of the Catholic missions, see the Choix des 

 Lettres edifiantes ecrites des Missions etrangeres (2d. 

 edit, of the above-cited Lettres edif., &c., Paris, 

 1824). They consist chiefly of geographical, histor- 

 ical, political, and literary information, relative to 

 the missionary countries, China, India, the Levant, 

 and America. 



Among the Protestants who have distinguished 

 themselves in the work of missions, are the British, 

 the Danes, and the Germans. In 1699, the Society 

 for promoting Christian Knowledge was founded in 

 England ; and, in 1701, the Society for the Propaga- 

 tion of Christianity in Foreign Parts. In 1704, the 

 richly endowed Royal Danish Missionary Society was 

 founded by Frederic IV., which still continues its 

 exertions at Tranquebar, on the Coromandel coast, 

 and in whose service Knapp, Ziegenbalg, Franke, 

 and others, distinguished themselves. Franke, in 

 Halle, took the first steps towards the education of 

 missionaries ; Ziegenbalg established the first society 

 in 1707; and the first report appeared at Halle, in 

 1718. In 1794, the Society for the Conversion of 

 Negro Slaves in the West Indies was established, 

 among whose undertakings the sending of Christian 

 preachers to Southern Africa and Australia is par- 

 ticularly worthy of note. The United Brethren 

 began their missions in 1732, and soon sent mission- 

 aries into all parts of the world. Missionaries have 

 not only been sent to the heathen, but also to ignor- 

 ant and mistaken Christians ; and the whole system 

 has, undoubtedly, contributed much to the diffusion 

 of the gospel, though it cannot be denied that, in the 

 choice of persons and means of instruction, and in 

 the objects proposed and the institutions founded, 

 many mistakes have been committed, through partial 

 views or misdirected zeal. As the British find 

 Christianity the most effectual means of civilization, 

 particularly in their colonies, the government has 

 aided the missionary societies in their objects. 

 Among the religious associations in Great Britain, 

 which collect yearly about 400,000 by voluntary 

 contributions, are the following: 1. The London 

 Missionary Society, founded 1795, which has 253 

 branches in all parts of the world. 2. The Church 

 Missionary Society, for Africa and the East, which 

 supports eighty missionaries in forty-five places. 3. 

 The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 

 Foreign Parts, which has confined itself principally 

 to North America, and employed, in 1823, above 

 eighty missionaries. 4. The London Auxiliary 

 Society in Aid of the Baptist Highland Mission. 5. 

 The Home Missionary Society, founded in 1819, has 

 twenty-five missionaries preaching in 206 villages ; 

 fifty Sunday schools, containing 2868 children ; and 

 labours to form village libraries. This society was 

 very necessary, ns there were found to be 314 vil- 

 lages with 110,344 souls, in England, destitute of 

 religious instruction. 6. The London Association 

 in aid of the Moravian Missions, which employs 161 

 missionaries. 7. The Wesleyan Methodist Mission- 



