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other neighbouring ministers, assisted. The Rev. T. Morgan, of Birmingham, preached in the evening. Deep were the impressions made on all present. The young missionary went forth, as a strong athlete, to struggle with the powers of darkness, upheld by the prayers of the church of God.

Mr. and Mrs. Leslie embarked on the 30th October. The voyage was a long and dangerous one. A tempest drove the ship into Falmouth; and when again at sea, there was a moment when a fire threatened to plunge all on board into eternity. The seven weary months, the weariness of which was relieved by classical and Oriental studies, were at length over, and the glad missionaries found themselves, on the 12th of May, 1824, the guests of the great men of Serampore. Space fails us to give the impressions of Mr. Leslie as to what he heard and saw at this fountain-head of missionary toil. Only one brief glimpse of Dr. Carey must not be omitted. "We had the pleasure of hearing him preach," says Mr. Leslie, "when he gave us an excellent sermon. In manner he is very animated, and in style very methodical. Indeed, he carries method into everything he does; classification is his grand hobby, and wherever anything can be classified, there you find Dr. Carey. Every step he takes, and every sentence he utters, denote such vigour and activity as are truly surprising in a man who has been so many years in India."

Those pleasant days were soon exchanged for the hard work of the station of Monghyr, where Mr. and Mrs. Leslie arrived on the 17th of July. The few native converts gave them a hearty welcome; "they sat down before us," he says, "and sang a hymn, and afterwards joined in prayer." Nearly seventeen years passed away fully occupied with the work of the Lord, and bringing many trials to the devoted missionary. It was at Monghyr that Mr. Leslie induced the late Sir Henry Havelock, then a lieutenant, to care for the spiritual welfare of English soldiers. In April, 1826, his beloved partner was almost suddenly torn from his side; but grief did not stay his hand. He sowed the good seed by all waters. Bazaars were constantly visited; the jungles were traversed; the village markets heard the preacher's voice. Hindoos, Mohammedans, Santhals, all were invited

to drink of living streams. Now, numerous baptisms cheer the labourer; at other times a tide of discouragement sets in. But amid all he is supported by glorious hopes. "Now, do you know that nothing so much affects and purifies my mind as the love of God in Christ Jesus. I have learned lately, and but lately, to confine myself more than I ever did to the love of our divine Master, and to dwell more on His glorious gift, the blessed Spirit. For this, I trust, we in Monghyr have now begun to pray in right earnest, particularly the poorer part of our pious people."

The jungle-fever, caught in his visits to the aborigines of the Rajmahal Hills, at length brought these happy and congenial labours to an end; and he was compelled in 1841, with his wife-the daughter of his eminent predecessor, John Chamberlain-and his children, to voyage to England. Here he took part in the Jubilee services of the Mission; and after revisiting the scenes of his early days, he again sailed for Calcutta, where he arrived on the 27th December, 1842.

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The church meeting in Circular Road, Calcutta, being without a pastor, urgently pressed upon Mr. Leslie the acceptance of that office. It was also the wish of his missionary brethren. He yielded to the evident necessity, the energies of his remaining days were given to this service. For several years he preached almost daily, in Urdu or Hindi, to congregations gathered at the roadside, and in the streets of Calcutta. He also gave much attention to the revision of the Hindi translation of the New Testament. But his chief strength was devoted to the English church of which he had taken the oversight, and in the pastoral charge of it he remained until June, 1865. "For nearly half a century," says the Friend of India, "Mr. Leslie was known as the ablest preacher among the Baptists in India, and as one of their most zealous missionaries. To the fervid spirit of his country he added the grace of a masterly English style, and the ability of an elegant scholarship." His few last years were shadowed with the gloom of declining powers of both body and mind; but they were watched with unwearied patience, and with unfailing love and tenderness, by his excellent wife and daughter. On the 24th of July last he

passed into the region of eternal light and joy. His remains were buried in the dissenting burial ground, amid a crowd of affectionate friends, both European and native, in whom his noble life had produced feelings of admiration and esteem. His character cannot be better summed up than in the language of his missionary brethren, who knew him well:

"Mr. Leslie was a man of great ability, and he will not soon be forgotten by those who knew him. His intellect had been carefully cultivated, his judgment was clear and sound, and his knowledge was extensive. As a preacher he was remarkable for the originality and vigour of his discourses. Although somewhat austere in manner, and accustomed to the most fearless avowal of his thoughts, he was full of tender sensibilities, and any reference to the friendships and separations of his youth affected him with keenest emotion whilst memory endured.

Ready compassion towards the distressed and needy, and kindly interest in the young, were equally conspicuous features in his character. Simple and inexpensive in his tastes, he was ever distinguished by his frugality in the use of all missionary funds. Whilst at Monghyr, he relinquished, in favour of other missionary objects, considerable sums which he was entitled to receive, but found himself able to dispense with. His visit to England imposed no burdens upon the Society, and throughout his residence in Calcutta the same principles of generous economy governed his manner of life.

"We thank God for the blameless consistency of our honoured brother's career, for his faithful labours, for his unimpeachable integrity, for his fidelity to the ministry which he had received, and for the usefulness which attended it. May that usefulness be long perpetuated by the holy lives and influence of those who were either led by him to the Saviour, or were established in their faith by his instructions!"

A NOBLE EXAMPLE FOR
YOUNG MEN.

In the month of April last Henry Hopkins, Esq., of Hobart Town, sent a donation of £500 to the London Missionary Society. A letter written a few

months later mentioned that the writer was then eighty-four years of age, and having occasion to alter his will, as he had purposed leaving the society a legacy, he resolved to be his own executor, and so forwarded the sum of £3,000 at once as a donation to the society. Mr. Hopkins added, by way of explanation, the following memorable words, worthy to be printed in letters of gold, and commended to the prayerful consideration of all young men.

"If our rich men were to think what their riches were given for, they would feel it a pleasure to assist you, till in course of time you would have more than was needed. About sixty years ago I wrote in my cash-book that I would devote one-tenth of my income to the spread of the gospel, and the welfare of the poor. I had not much then, but since then I have been able to give away large sums every year for many years; therefore, God has prospered me, and I write thus that some young men may be led to do the same." Since the arrival of the above letter, intelligence has been received of the death of this venerable and devoted servant of Christ.

PROSPECTS AND DANGER OF ORISSA.

From" the Friend of India," Nov. 16, 1870. We hope we are in error in supposing that the Government of India by the order published in the Gazette of 22nd October is virtually stopping a part of the irrigation and water carriage works in Orissa. We feel that there is some cause for anxiety on the subject, especially since Sir William Grey is so strongly on the other side, and is so well backed up in his view by the concurrent testimony of the experienced officers whose opinions have been taken in the matter. If the works were of a merely financial nature nothing could be more reasonable than the wish of the Government to defer one part of the scheme till the success of the other was proved; but they are more than that; are, in fact, as viewed by the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, a matter of life or death to part of the people of Orissa; not this year, one is glad to say, for everything so far seems prosperous, but any year to come may bring back the awful position of 1866. A month or two ago there were dark fore

bodings as to the harvest prospects of Orissa. The want of rain had alarmed all who had really entered into the subject, though the general public, busied with the European war, were ignorant of the fact that another tragedy was threatening to take shape at their very door. The official papers show that but for the heavy rain at the close of last month, the crops over a part of Orissa must have been nearly if not altogether lost. The revelation of this fact is a grimly ironical comment on the way in which the taxpayers have been congratulated upon the postponement of these irrigation projects. We are now told, or seem to be told, that till it can be shown that such works are financially successful; till it is clear that the cultivators are ready to take and pay for the water at remunerative rates, and that a profitable traffic is certain to spring up along the new water routes, we are not justified in pushing on the undertaking. Theoretically this position cannot be disputed, but if a famine came, as it came in 1866, the argument would not have much weight. People would not then look at matters in this light; the public voice would be loud in demanding :Why were these works stopped? Let us look at the subject by the light of a few historical facts.

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The Orissa Irrigation project originated in a report upon the condition of that province made by Sir A. Cotton in 1858. Struck by the similarity between Orissa and the districts bordering on the Godavery where irrigation was even then working wonders, he recommended to Government to undertake the Orissa works. The East India Irrigation Company offered on certain conditions to carry out the scheme. Their proposals were accepted, and Col. Rundall was placed at their disposal to act as their Chief Engineer. Periodically recurring droughts and floods, and permanent isolation, where the evils which Cotton's Scheme of Canals was designed to remove. It was not, however, till the year 1863-64 that the Company began operations. In 1865 a small portion of one canal was opened in Cuttack, and about one thousand acres irrigated thereby. In 1866 the famine showed grimly enough the necessity for these works. The Government then became anxious about the rate of progress, and in 1867 Sir John Lawrence pressed upon the Secre

tary of State the advisability of purchasing the Company's rights, and carrying out the scheme as a state enterprise. The grounds for this were distinctly specified to be that the means of the company were "not equal to the demands which the present necessities of the country so urgently required to be met;" and that the unwillingness of the people to take water at first would entail losses which a Company could not afford, while Government could "afford to wait till the people learnt to use and value the water," in the certainty that a scheme must eventually prove financially advantageous. Accordingly, in January, 1869, the canals became the property of Government, which had voluntarily pledged itself to do what the Company could not, that the work might be successfully carried through. Till the last few weeks there was no reason to doubt that the undertaking was satisfactorily progressing. In Cuttack itself three canalsthe Kendrapara, the High Level, and the Taldunda are more or less in operation. Taken together they are capable of irrigating 150,000 acres, and when the minor distributaries are completed they will supply a further area of 120,000 acres. The Revenue Superintendent reports that this year 120,000 acres, of the 150,000 above spoken of, have actually been irrigated; a fact which proves that the cultivators will in a very short time gladly take all the water the canals can give them; and which means that the crops have this year been saved by the canals over four-fifths of the area in which those canals exist. The irrigated crops, too, were splendid; while elsewhere the fields were parched with drought. The rain which saved the province from a famine came too late to secure more than a scanty outturn on ordinary lands. The canals had saved 120,000 acres before the rain came, and crops to the value of a third of a million sterling were thus preserved.

Nor are the results already achieved as regards navigation less promising. The Kendrapara canal connects Cuttack with the sea. It is the first through line of navigation completed in the province. It was opened only in June, 1869, and already False Point has become a great emporium of trade. Five years ago the only mercantile firm which had ever tried it as a place of export abandoned it in despair. Last year it was visited

by thirty-four steamers, one European vessel, and thirty-six native ones. The trade leaped in one year from nothing to eight lacs of rupees. Already four or five European or native agencies have been established in Cuttack, for the purchase of country produce for shipment. the district is waking into new and vigorous life. Let us not forget that what in the main justifies Government in carrying on irrigation, even at a loss, in Orissa is the fatal isolation of the place. One ought to remember 1866, when Bengal sought in vain to feed the perishing thousands in Cuttack, Pooree, and Balasore. The monsoon had burst and Orissa was cut off from all outside help. Hence the vast importance of the canals as lines of communication. This is the chief value of the high level canal to connect Cuttack with the Hooghly and Calcutta. Only isolated sections of the work have been completed; one at the Cuttack end as far as the Brahmini River, some twenty-six miles in all; the other from the Hooghly to Midnapore is open for traffic to within twenty-six miles of Midnapore, and will soon be finished throughout. But till these two portions are joined, it is useless to expect that traffic can develop on this line, and in the event of a famine-a thing of yearly possibility-Orissa, would, in its northern parts, be nearly as badly off as in 1866. The bit of canal finished in Midnapore has saved this year by irrigation the crops of 40,000 acres. It is not difficult to see, therefore, on what good grounds the local officers urge that as a matter of imperial policy the Orissa projects should be pressed on to completion. Even at a present loss Government seems to us bound to carry on the works; but we believe the experience of the past year fully justifies Colonel Rundall's anticipation that the scheme will be as profitable to the State as it will be beneficial to the conntry. The Budget allotments for 1871-72 show a liberal assignment to Bengal for agricul. tural works, and we hope that the Viceroy has been made aware of the real condition of Orissa. We think that these works should take precedence of every other thing of the kind in Bengal. Till the high level canal is completed we shall yearly run the risk of having to spend a million in famine relief without being able to make that relief effectual. When all the canals are made, we shall

be rid of this anxiety. The very need of relief will have passed away. We sincerely trust, then, that the works are not included in those that are to wait for the financial success of those already completed. They were undertaken with the clear understanding that that success would not be speedy, but that they nevertheless were of the first importance, and would indirectly save money as well as directly save human lives.

WEST INDIES-DEMERARA. THE Rev. C. Rattray, of the London Mission in Demerara, in the following extract from his report, supplies a very striking and suggestive illustration of the varied working of christianity,—in developing and strengthening natural affection in guiding and stimulating to industry and self-culture-in sustaining right principle-and, through all this, extending influence and elevating in social position, besides leading on to a life eternal. Mr. Rattray writes thus:

"Of the number who have finished their earthly course, and gone, we hope, to their heavenly home, nine were very old people, who had witnessed the evils and experienced the sufferings of the system of slavery now long passed away. They could well remember their former state of ignorance, and the cruelties to which the people of this land were subjected under that vile system; and they would often speak, with deep feelings of gratitude to God, of the vast difference between the condition and circumstances of the people in the present day, and those of themselves and others in their early years.

One of these old people was the last survivor of the few (eight) who, with the missionary and his wife, formed the infant church at this station not long after the commencement of the mission here. He was a superior and, in some respects, a remarkable man; and he was one of my first acquaintances among the people whom I could know by sight and remember by name-not a very easy acquirement to a stranger from England when first placed among black people. Soon after my arrival in the district, his manager called to pay his respects to me, as was the custom to do to new-comers, and I mentioned, by name or description, some of the people who came to my

evening class for instruction. On my referring to this man, and his apparent desire to learn, he said: "That is one of my people-Jacob-an arrant scamp. Why, sir, I have had to take the whip four times from that man!' I did not then know what the awful degradation and punishment of taking the whip' from him consisted in, till the gentleman informed me that Jacob' had been four times 'broken' from being driver. But he did not tell me, what I afterwards learned, that one of these socalled degradations was inflicted because, when his own mother was stretched on the ground, to receive the punishment of the whip, Jacob, though a slave, would not obey the order to flog his mother. He said, 'No, sir, I cannot do that-I never will do that. I know you can have me punished; but you never can make me lay the whip upon my own mother.' Of course he was severely punished, and had the whip taken from him.' On another occasion he was 'broken from being driver,' and otherwise punished, because he would not flog his wife, who, though not then married to him, was the mother of his children, and is now his widow. He was over forty years of age when I first knew him, and he did not then know a letter of the alphabet. But he learned to read well, and also to write, so that he became capable of taking the oversight of properties, and keeping accounts of work done, and of money received and expended. And the same person who once spoke of him as an arrant scamp,' under the system of slavery, came to have a very different opinion of him, and to place the utmost confidence in him as a free man. Years passed on, and Jacob became manager of the plantation on which he had been a slave, and he had the happiness-I know it was a happiness, both to his wife and himself

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to supply the wants of their former manager, who was then in very reduced circumstances, and who has now long since gone the way of all the earth.

He was long a deacon of the church, and was a great help and comfort to myself, and a most liberal contributor of his means to the cause of God. But, alas! he fell into sin, and was for some years out of the fellowship of the church. He was readmitted about six years ago. He soon became as active and useful in the church as he was wont to be, appearing truly humbled on account of his great fall. In 1866 he was chosen to be one of the deacons of the church again. On the 4th of June last, as he was about to conduct morning worship with his family, he was seized with an apoplectic fit, and on the evening of the same day he died.'

GIVING.-A Woman who was known to be very poor came to a missionary meeting in Wakefield, and offered to subscribe a penny a-week to the mission fund. "Surely," said one, "you are too poor to afford this ?" She replied, "I spin so many banks of yarn a-week for my living, and I'll spin one hank more, and that will be a penny a-week for the Society."

SACRAMENTAL COLLECTIONS.-A circular on the above subject has been forwarded to the churches. Will they kindly give it their prompt and generous attention ?

REV. W. MILLER'S ADDRESS.-Letters for our esteemed brother should be addressed, 17, Stoughton Street, Leicester. We regret to learn that Mr. Miller is not yet sufficiently recovered in health to be able to undertake regular deputation work.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Received on account of the General Baptist Missionary Society, from
November 18 to December 18, 1870.

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Subscriptions and Donations in aid of the General Baptist Missionary Society will be thankfully received by T. HILL, Esq., Baker Street, Nottingham, Treasurer; and by the Rev. J. C. PIKE and the Rev. H. WILKINSON, Secretaries, Leicester, from whom also Missionary Boxes, Collecting Books, and Cards may be obtained.

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