and 40,000 persons have voluntarily submitted themselves to Christian teaching, and Bishop Caldwell asserts of them that so far the new converts are, spiritually and intellectually, 'superior to the old.' A similar movement, but on a smaller scale, has taken place in Ahmednuggur, in the diocese of Bombay.

In Madagascar we have observed with much interest a great step that has been made by the Rev. F. A. Gregory, son of the Rev. R. Gregory, Canon of S. Paul's. At a place called Ambatoharanana, a day's journey from the capital, Mr. Gregory has established a theological college, to which he has admitted by competitive examination seven out of fifteen Malagasy candidates for theological training. Their curriculum embraces Pearson On the Creed (which Mr. Gregory has translated), practical and dogmatic theology, Church history, and other subjects, secular and sacred. A quantity of subjects, which. has proved a snare to the youth of Madagascar in previous efforts made for their instruction and advancement, has wisely been avoided..

The real progress of the Church's work abroad is often hindered by the complacent optimism of its friends; we desire to avoid this pitfall, and to record our conviction that the cause of the Church is suffering both from the lack and from the abundance of the men whom England sends out to the very hardest work which man can be called upon to do. Work abroad demands the very best men that our highest culture at home can produce; and of this sort, missionary work has very few labourers. The Cambridge Mission to Delhi, in. connexion with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, is a capital specimen of what the personnel of a Mission should be; but well-meaning people, who see in every lad who sings in choir or teaches in the Sunday School an embryo missionary, and who never rest until he has been trained and sent abroad at a cost of some 400l. or 500l. of charitable monies, have a good deal to answer for in respect of our failures. A few very good men will do more than a host of indifferent and half-educated persons; the latter are doomed to mediocrity if not to absolute failure; the former will disregard present small results in comparison with larger results of the future, and in preparing an indigenous ministry, they are securing the ultimate independence of the Church. Thus it is that the work of Bishop Selwyn is still bearing fruit in New Zealand, five Maoris having been ordained within the past year. So it will be, we hope, that from Mr. Gregory's College in Madagascar, those parts of the Island will be evangelised which have invited the Church to come to them, but which there is not yet strength to occupy.

The acquisition of Cyprus, to which island the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel has within the last few days sent a clergy-man, may perhaps afford a base of operations for work among the Moslem population in the East, and may also be a link with the efforts being made for the benefit of the so-called Nestorians of Armenia. From the Cape we get news of Dr. J. M. Arnold's work among the Moslems, which is as encouraging as it is unusual, for Mohammedanism does not at present pose itself in an attitude of humble inquiry and docility.

V.

The extent to which the subject of clergy supply has occupied the attention of Churchmen of late years appears to make it desirable that we should henceforward give, year by year, the accurate numbers of the newly-ordained. A year ago, the following calculation appeared in the Guardian newspaper respecting the number of new clergy annually required to maintain the staff of clergy at its proper strength :

Number required to supply death vacancies
new posts

Total annually required

460

200

660

As matter of fact, the number of deacons ordained during 1878 was 661, the numbers at the several periods of Ordination being as 'under :

It may also be worth while to give the numbers for a few preceding years. They are as follows :

But, inasmuch as it may be said that what is really wanted is to know the number, not merely of deacons, but of those who in each year go forward to the priesthood, we will add the corresponding numbers of those ordained priests in the several years :—

From which it appears that we have more than recovered from the striking diminution in the numbers of candidates for Orders which followed the passing of the Public Worship Regulation Act, and that the number is now fully equal to the calculated number required to fili, not merely the death vacancies, but also the new posts. We are indebted for these figures to the Rev. H. T. Armfield, of Salisbury.

THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND AND THE

ARTICLE ON IRVINGISM.

WE have received the following letter from the Duke of Northumberland in reference to the article in our last number, entitled 'The History and Doctrines of Irvingism.'

We print it as we have received it, but in so doing we feel bound to make our strongest protest against such expressions as 'lie,' ' fabrications,' 'gross and malignant falsehood,' and 'hypocritical affectation,' of which the three first quoted are employed in a context which leads to the inference that the writer of the letter assumes the contributor to have been himself the fabricator, and of which the fourth can only be applied to him.

However much the Duke of Northumberland may have regretted the publication of the statements in question, and disbelieved their accuracy, he was bound to have given credit to the author of the article and to the Review which published it for a bonâ fide conviction of their truth. It is, we trust. totally needless to add our sincere regret that the statements should have given pain to any one living, especially to the relatives of a lady who was spoken of exclusively as an historical character.

'To the Editor of the " Church Quarterly Review."

'Alnwick Castle, Nov. 1st, 1878. 'SIR, Certain falsehoods affecting the memory of the late Lady Harriet Drummond having appeared in an article in the last number of the Church Quarterly Review, headed "History and Doctrines of Irvingism" (pages 50 and 51), I trust that you will see the propriety of giving publicity in your next number to my peremptory and emphatic denial of the truth of these fabrications.

The first of them has, indeed, this minimum of fact for its foundation, that Lady Harriet did suffer, on the occasion alluded to, from a malady, the nature of which was mistaken by her physician; but the whole account of the "expectation of the birth of Elias," "the lying in state," &c. &c., is a gross and malignant falsehood, not improved, in my opinion, by the hypocritical affectation of reluctance on the part of the narrator to "violate the sanctities of private life."

'Of the other story given in the footnote, I will only observe that, though it cannot be more untrue than the first, it is absolutely baseless, with the additional merit of having been fastened successively on two other victims by persons assuming authority equally unimpeachable for the lie.

'The utter disregard shown for the feelings of the children by whom Lady Harriet's memory is loved and hallowed, is the more cruel and offensive, that these inventions can have no bearing on the truth or falsehood of the tenets which the author of the article desires

to refute in his review of the work misnamed the History and Doctrines of Irvingism.”—I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 'NORTHUMBERLAND.'

(Signed)

Immediately on the receipt of the foregoing, we communicated it to the writer of the article, from whose rejoinder we print the following:

'My information comes from one who was resident at Albury at the time, and who, for some years before and after, was a member of a leading Irvingite family, living on the most intimate terms with Mr. Drummond and the other members of the community.

'I have never known a shrewder or more sensible person, or one on the accuracy of whose deliberate statements of what she herself had seen and heard I could more implicitly rely. Since writing the article I have seen another lady who was present on the same occasion, which I will not call a "lying in state," if that is objected to, but a reception, and who has a most vivid recollection of all the circumstances.

'She fully corroborates all that I have written, and could supply many additional particulars.

"The "expectation of Elias" was, I have been informed, perfectly notorious among the whole Irvingite community at Albury. They had been for some months previously in a state of excitement on the subject, which rose to fever heat when the arrival of the doctor's carriage was made known, and the subsequent collapse was in proportion. The doctor is now dead.

'I cannot at all agree with his Grace that these inventions, as he terms then, have no bearing on the truth or falsehood of the tenets of the Irvingites. It seems to me, on the contrary, that they are very important as showing the real character of their pretensions to prophetical and miraculous gifts, and it is only on that ground that I have been induced to record them.'

Our contributor says the same in regard to the story contained in the foot-note.

It appears to us that additional comment on our part is needless, unless indeed it be to repeat that we should not have published the impugned statements had we not been convinced of their very real and definite bearing on the argument of the article.

P.S. Having obtained the further information which is contained in the above paragraphs, we submitted them in proof to the Duke of Northumberland, in the hope that he, of whose perfect sincerity of conviction we have no doubt, would on his side have withdrawn the imputations on our bona fides, which is as precious to us as the reputation for sober sense of his relatives is to him, and would have assisted us in investigating statements in which we are as much interested as the Duke in probing to the uttermost. We have, in reply, only received another letter from the Duke, reiterating in the same terms the charge contained in his first communication; so that here we leave the subject.

The allegations refer to matters of fact on which either side considers that it possesses evidence proving the other to be under a mistake, and upon which we are chiefly concerned in maintaining our own bona fides. Upon the subject-matter of the allegations, we have been able, by the assistance of our contributor, to furnish evidence, which, until it is rebutted, must be admitted in justification of their accuracy. We offered to the other side the opportunity of rebutting these definite statements, but it has preferred merely to meet them by strong language.

Erratum.

On page 285, in line 11, an Act of Queen Elizabeth is named as of the year 1570. It should have been 1571.