The Carnival in Rome.

THE Carnival in Rome has been and gone. It has been earlier this year than it has been since 1749. But this year's carnival has not only been early, it has been shorn of one of its principal and most objectionable features: Formerly each day's saturnalia finished, as far as the Corso was concerned, with a horse race. Half-a-dozen miserable looking hacks, without riders, were started from Piazza del Popolo, whence they ran the length of the Corso to Piazza Venezia, frightened by the crowds and urged by the goads which, suspended from their backs, flew up with every leap to descend before the next on to the flanks of the poor animals. Crowds of foreigners, especially English, came to see and to bet on this miserable race. Very often, as was natural in such a narrow street, there were serious accidents, and last year one or two persons were killed, and quite a number wounded, right under the eyes of the Queen. Out of evil good has come. The City Council, which is dominated by the Clericals, decided to put the horse races again on the programme of the Carnival, but the Prefect, who represents the Government, vetoed that part of the programme. The Popolo Romano," pandering to the lowest tastes, seemed day by day to scream out its protests against the action of the Prefect, predicting all kinds of woes as the result of it. The sum of its reasoning seemed to be this: The Carnival depends on the horse-races, and Rome largely depends upon the Carnival, therefore prohibiting the horse-races the carnival is destroyed, and with the Carnival, Rome. With a little exaggeration its wail might have been represented by Byron's lines on the Coliseum, substituting Carnivele, or Horse Races, for Coliseum.

"While stands the Coliseum Rome shall stand;
When falls the Coliseum Rome shall fall;
And when Rome falls, the world."

But the Prefect stood firm, and Rome still stands; and even the Carnivale, after the first few days, which are generally needed to get up the necessary excitement, was what is called a success. Never before were there so many people in the Corso. There was the usual senseless throwing of so-called "coafetti" (lime) with shovels for three days, then the battle of flowers (the greater part of the flowers having no beauty, and being useless except to cause a smarting, and perhaps an injury, to the face against which they are hurled,) and on the last evening the moccoletti, the only part of the Carnival which is really pretty. The Carnival was, as usual, burnt in effigy at the close. The poor old fellow was brought on a high car in a grand procession to the place of cremation in the Piazzo del Popolo, and the funeral pier was lit amid a tremendous cannonade, and a pyrotechnic display. "Nothing in life became him like the leaving of it." Henceforth, there were a few more hours of dancing and yelling at the theatres, and all was over. No, not all. The stabbing cases were not all over and forgotten. Neither was the business at the pawn shop-nor the misery in the family, nor the disorder in the state of health, nor a multitude of other evils. I wonder whether English people, who would be ashamed of acting at home as they do at Rome, will cease to be the chief upholders of this Carnival, which is denounced by most of the respectable Romans I have conversed with about it.

Now we are in Lent, and I am glad. After the orgies of the Carnival, the "faithful" go and confess, put ashes on their heads, and then commences a season of church going and sermon hearing, which may be turned to good account often by us who seek the spiritual well-being of the people.

N. H. SHAW.

HINDU IDOLATRY is the one chief cause of all the demoralization and degradation of India. It has consecrated and encouraged every conceivable form of licentiousness, falsehood, injustice, cruelty, robbery, and murder. It has taught the millions every possible iniquity by the example of their gods, but has not even given them a name for the sense of moral obligation in their speech.-Hastie. The first Karen convert baptized by Dr. Judson led Quala to Christ, and Quala baptized more than 2,000 converts in less than three years.

Notes and Gleanings.

THE NEW CHAPEL AT KHOORDA.-We are glad to inform our friends that after many delays the new chapel at Khoorda was opened for the worship of God and the preaching of His Gospel on Monday, February 19th. The first service was a prayer-meeting, and was held at noon. At four p.m. J. Buckley preached from Zech. viii. 21, "Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord," etc. The attendance was pleasing. The opening services were continued on the following Sabbath, when Babu Duli Patra preached from Haggai ii. 9, “The glory of this latter house," etc., and Babu Shem Sahu from Rev. v. 12, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain," etc. It is our prayer that it may be the spiritual birthplace of many; and that the promise to ancient Israel, referred to by one of the preachers, may be fulfilled in the experience of the church, " From this day will I bless you." J. B..

THE EUROPEAN PROTESTANT SCHOOL.-The second anniversary of the European Protestant School at Cuttack was held in the new school-room on Friday, March the 2nd. A. Smith, Esq., Commissioner of Orissa, presided, and after the distribution of the prizes delivered an appropriate address. An excellent report was read by the Secretary, Dr. Stewart, from which it appeared that forty boys and eighteen girls were now on the roll. Considering the limited number of the population from which the pupils are drawn, it was felt that this was a gratifying number, and it is pleasing to state that several additions have been made since the meeting. This was the first time the parents of the children and friends of the school had publicly met Mr. Young and Miss Bundy, and it was felt by all to be a cause for sincere congratulation that two such able and efficient teachers had been secured for the work of this important institution. The opening prayer was offered by the senior missionary, who also briefly addressed the children, and vindicated the undenominational character of the school. Several pieces were sung and played, and at the close all heartily united in "God save the Queen." It is our prayer that the school may prosper more and more. J. B.

THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.-During the past ten years the number of church members, or communicants, in India, has more than doubled. According to the Baptist Handbook the membership in Baptist Churches in the United Kingdom was, in 1872, 241,764; in 1882, 290,918. This is only one-fifth of the percentage of increase in India. At the Metropolitan Tabernacle the increase of membership was from 4,084 in 1871, to 5,621, but even this is far below the rate of progress in India during the same period.

THE POWER OF THE PRESS.-We have lost the gift of tongues that was possessed in Apostolic days, but we have what is more than its equivalent, a power to them unknown, of multiplying copies of the Scriptures; we have the Bible in more tongues than ever they spoke. It was 500 years from the Septuagint to the Vulgate version, and even at the beginning of this century there were in existence only fifty translations of the Scriptures. Now there are 250, and the possibilities of multiplication of this wonder-working volume are unlimited. The Hoe printing-press can throw off 30,000 copies of the psalms in an hour, and in the same time it can print 2500 copies of the entire Bible. A single press can give the world four millions of Bibles in the same time that it would have taken the swiftest writer of the early church to make one. In Wicklyffe's time it would have taken five years' labour to earn a Bible; to-day three hours wages of the humblest working man will buy one. Never was the Gospel so diffused before; we live in the days long predicted,-when the angel flies in mid heaven "having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people."

THE WOMEN OF INDIA.-One of the signs of the breaking-up of old prejudices in India is the fact that a Mahratti lady of good position, not a Christian, is about to arrive in America, with the full approval of her husband, to pursue a thorough medical course with the intention of returning to practice medicine among her countrywomen.

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MISSIONARY OBSERVER.

CHILD MARRIAGES.-There are 21,000,000 widows in India, most of them the victims of child-marriage. These startling figures demonstrate the need of a reform in the marriage laws of our Indian Empire.

ACCORDING to the late census, no fewer than one hundred and thirty-two separate and distinct languages are spoken within the limits of the great British Empire of India.

DURING the current year Mission Services have been held as follows:

In several other places services have been held where the churches have made their own arrangements. We are thankful to state that, in many instances, there appears quite a revival of the foreign missionary spirit, and that the congregations and contributions have been in excess of previous years. Especially is this the case where the ministers take a lively interest in the sacred cause. It is also noteworthy how home work and foreign work run hand in hand. There are apparent exceptions, of course; but, as a rule, it may be set down that a lack or decline of interest in foreign missions indicates a feeble or declining church, and vice versa.

Contributions

Received on account of the General Baptist Missionary Society from March 16th

Subscriptions and Donations in aid of the General Baptist Missionary Society will be thankfully received by W. B. BEMBRIDGE, Esq., Ripley, Derby, Treasurer; and by the Rev. W. HILL, Secretary, Mission House, 60, Wilson Street, Derby, from whom also Missionary Boxes, Collecting Books and Cards, may be obtained.

Bradford.

BY REV. B. WOOD.

AMONG many other peculiarities of Nonconformist church-life, one of the most prominent in the present day is the solution it presents of the problem how to combine and preserve the individual activity and responsibility of its multitudinous separate churches with that united action which gives strength and secures great success. At all events that is the problem which Independents and Baptists have grappled with; and the practical outcome of their efforts is beheld in the Annual Meetings of their ministers and delegates, such as, for ourselves, we are about to hold in the "leafy month of June" in the good old Yorkshire town of Bradford. And although the meetings will be presided over neither by Bishop nor Archbishop, though no representative of the State will, as such, have a place in the midst of them, and though no such high sounding names as Convocation, Synod, or General Assembly, will or can be applied to the assembled ministers and delegates of the General Baptist Association, yet they will not any the less, on those grounds, meet with a warm and hospitable and characteristically Yorkshire welcome when they pay their first visit to Bradford.

The town has always borne a good character for enterprise, heartiness, and hospitality; and, indeed, any one viewing it from either of the lines of railway by which it is approached will be quite ready to admit that it cannot be lacking in the material means of providing for and entertaining its visitors, however numerous and distinguished. It is, in fact, one of the great towns of the country; and, in proportion to its population, one of the very foremost in wealth.

The visitor should endeavour to get upon one of the hills by which it is indeed almost completely environed. One could suggest no more suitable point of view than the eminence on which old Airedale College still stands, from whence so many men of God have gone forth to do battle for the King of kings, and from thence to view the dense prospect which in every direction would meet his gaze. The town stretches from Undercliffe, the spot on which the spectator stands, down the hill side into the central valley, the site of Old Bradford, where the crowding hills had left but too narrow a space for the needs of population and industry; and whence, in consequence, the town has, during the last fifty years, spread in every direction up slopes, extending in one direction to Bowling, Wibsey, and Low Moor, with their extensive iron works and foundries; in another to Allerton, with its factories and tall chimneys; and in a third has spread itself out in the direction of Manningham into a fair and sumptuous suburb of villa residences and gardens. The prospect is attractive in many respects; while the thick mass of suspended smoke which overhangs the "hole" in which Old Bradford lies adds mystery as well as picturesque effectiveness to the scene. Manningham, and the Town Park in that quarter, looking bright and new and thriving, whereas the grimy masses of buildings, GENERAL BAPTIST MAGAZINE, JUNE, 1883.-Vol. LXXXV.-N. S., No. 162.

close and crowded, in the centre of the town, with innumerable tall chimneys as dingy as the smoke they emit, suggest the other side of Bradford life, and hint at the fact, which its townsmen never forget, that "they all hang by the smoke of Bradford." A nearer view of the town will not greatly, if at all, disappoint expectations. It has several fine and handsome streets, built of that warm-coloured sandstone found in the neighbourhood, and which is infinitely superior in durability and appearance to anything that can be made out of brick. The Town Hall, St. George's Hall, the Exchange, containing a marble statue of Mr. Cobden, the Technical School, several churches and chapels, and many of the warehouses, are as fair specimens of modern architecture. and have been quite as costly, as any provincial town in the country can exhibit.

In the immediate neighbourhood are many places eminently deserving of a visit. Of course the four parks, Horton, Bowling, Lister, and Peel, will be visited, and then Saltaire, mill and town, the creation of the late Sir Titus Salt; Bingley, Keighley, picturesquely situated manufacturing places. From thence Haworth, the home of the Brontês, may be conveniently reached. Then there is Ilkley, now famous as a watering-place, and for the extreme beauty of its situation and healthiness of locality; and, to mention only one more, but the most charming of all, there are Bolton Abbey, woods and river. Among these the visitor will find himself far enough away from thoughts of this busy manufacturing and fast travelling age. Surely here all concern about woollens and worsteds, alpacas and mohairs, tops and noils, shorts and longs, and the subjects of perpetual interest in this centre of the woollen and worsted trade, will give place to romantic and poetic fancies touching the origin and history of the half ruinous Abbey, the wild and varied scenery of the upper parts of the Aire Valley, and the touching legends of the "Strid" and the "White Doe" of Rylstone, which Wordsworth has translated into immortal verse. A rapid inspection of even two or three of these interesting places, at this glorious season of the year, will attune the minds of ministers for the special duties of the meetings, and, perhaps, send rays of sunshine and glimmerings of golden fancies through their minds that will re-appear not many days hence in their sermons when they shall have returned home.

The history of Bradford, in the olden times, does not, to the general reader, contain anything of very special interest. The name means broad-ford; for once upon a time three streams from the hills around met in a broad deep river-ford in the centre of the town, near to what is now the Midland Railway Station, and close to the bank or eminence upon which the Parish Church stands. The town stood two irregular sieges in the civil wars. The old square tower of the Parish Church, now grim and repulsive looking, was then protected by sheets of wool, suspended by cords, against the shot of the Royalists; and in the struggle once the Yorkshire Roundheads were successful, and once had to yield to their assailants. The real history of the town is concerned with struggles of a much more peaceful kind, and of a much later date. One hundred years ago the population was not above 4,000; in 1879 it amounted to 190,000. Its rapid growth in wealth and population is entirely due to its progress in worsted manufacturing, aided as this was