letter but the mamma has not time to translate. last and best request: Pray for me."

In forwarding this letter Mrs. Ingolls tells of a week's work in which Thah Doung Myo had been engaged, with one of the American missionaries from Rangoon, who wrote to thank her for lending this valuable Native preacher, and spoke of him in the highest terms as such; indeed, so much did he prove his superior gifts for this sort of apostolic work, that the missionary put him forward everywhere, and kept himself in the secondary place. The Master has used this dear servant for very honourable work because he is so humble, or, as Moody says, "he has come down low enough for the Lord to use him."

This is my

ENGLAND AND THE ISLAND OF CYPRUS. WHAT? AND WHO DOES IT?

"Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"-Esther iv. 14.

So said Mordecai of old to his niece, Queen Esther, and so are many saying in their minds to the Conservative Prime Minister of Great Britain, Lord Beaconsfield, Israelitish by birth, and whose extraordinary and daring political moves concerning the ISTHMUS OF SUEZ and the ISLAND OF CYPRUS have successively so taken the world by surprise; the result of the latter acquisition being perceived on all hands to be very important in its bearing upon our Indian Empire.

The passing information contained in Newspapers is soon forgotten, therefore it seems worth while to select and arrange the information at present pouring in, which illuminates important sites of Biblical times, and to record what is described in the Times newspaper of July 8th, as one of the most important measures of our Foreign policy ever resolved upon.

The British Government, it appears, a month ago, privately signed a Defensive Alliance with Turkey, that in the event of Batoum, a port on the Black Sea, and the

neighbouring fortresses, Ardahan or Kars, being retained by Russia, the Sultan's territories in Asia should be secured against any further encroachment by the Czar. In return for this guarantee, the Sultan entered into two agreements. In the first place he promised to introduce necessary reforms, to be agreed upon later between the two Powers, for the government of the Christian and other subjects of the territories thus secured to him. In the second place, in order to enable England to make necessary provision for executing her agreement, the Sultan consented to assign the island of Cyprus to be occupied and administered by England.

All this having occurred as foreseen, and Russia having finally declared her intention to retain the Armenian fortresses, a firman has been issued by the Porte authorizing the occupation of CYPRUS by England, "and possession of the island has at once been taken and the government administered on behalf of Her Majesty." Sir Garnet Wolseley, who has justly won confidence by his discharge of several very responsible duties, has been appointed Governor, and British troops, with those lately drafted from India, are already landed, to establish our authority in the island; all which seems to have been accomplished though suddenly, yet with due respect to the feelings of the inhabitants themselves.

The Daily Telegraph reports that the Mussulman and Christian notables of the place were summoned to meet the representatives of the Queen and the Sultan, and to be apprised of the fact that henceforth they would be-until the day that Russia shall give up possession of Batoum, Kars, and Ardahan -subjects of the British Crown. Later in the day they duly assembled two officers of the fleet joining the Christian notables-and the Firman for cession of the island was read and accepted by those present on behalf of the population.

Arrangements were forthwith made for the actual transfer, and the fact was announced to the whole Island without more delay by hoisting the British Standard.

There does not seem any doubt that the population will show a cheerful preference for English rule. It has the enormous advantage of being regarded by both Christian and

Mussulman alike as friendly, tolerant, and just. Like all Eastern peoples, those of Cyprus are not demonstrative; but an Englishman could no help feeling a patriotic pride in the expressions of confidence and good will towards England with which they have welcomed our supremacy.

"And now with regard to this new possession. Lord Salisbury has clearly explained in a despatch to Sir Austin Layard, at the Porte, that, "So long as the questions raised by the late war concerned simply the re-organization of certain EUROPEAN possessions of the Porte and the improvement of the condition of the Christian populations, the sympathy of the country was in favour of the general object in view. But the moment it became evident that RUSSIA was disposed to use her successes in the war for the purpose of acquiring a preponderant influence at Constantinople and in ASIA, the country cordially supported the resolution of its Ministry to avert such a result. An instinct dictated to the English people a prompt resolution to resist any real danger of the acquisition by the Czar of a position which would menace the ASIATIC dominions of the Porte AND THE ROAD TO INDIA." The Times again remarks:

"No reasonable hope can now be entertained that the Porte will by virtue of its own authority and energy introduce satisfactory administration into its provinces. If some of the finest regions of the earth's surface, including many promising Christian populations, are to be rescued from slow decay, some stronger and more healthy influence must be infused into the Turkish Government. If that influence be not supplied by one Christian Power, it will be supplied by another. If it be not afforded by England, it will be obtruded by Russia; and the question has, in fact, been definitely raised by the results of the late war, which of these two Powers shall exert this influence.

"It is for the English people to decide whether, with the great inheritance of responsibility they have already accepted in the East, they can honourably or safely shrink from the task to which the course of events has thus invited them. The gravity of the guarantee involved in this Convention is undoubtedly very great. It is not probable that Russia will

venture to contest, by force, a decision which we have thus solemnly announced. The most anxious part of the responsibility we shall incur will be that of assisting the Porte to introduce real reforms into its Government. But we surely could not allow the task to fall into other hands; and if we are to accept it, the acquisition of some such station as CYPRUS is indispensable."

So far the Times newspaper.

It was said in St. Petersburg that Lord Beaconsfield simply acquired Cyprus by way of not returning empty-handed from the Congress. At Vienna the transaction was not disapproved, but viewed as a fresh step in the far-reaching policy of Great Britain. A French paper remarked that in Paris England's secret Treaty with Turkey was viewed with mixed astonishment, regret, admiration, jealousy, and semi-merriment. The writer believed the three Emperors were in the secret, and only France and Italy kept in the dark. In fact, the Ottoman Empire disappears under the powerful Protectorate of England. But it is added (in banter) "that Lord Beaconsfield is so far above vulgar statesmen that no sudden judgment can be passed upon his acts. Meanwhile, he is realizing the youthful dream of his own novel-hero-Tancred."

And now, the possession of Cyprus having become a fact, and our nation realizing, as if by instinct, that there is something very satisfactory in the acquisition of that island in the Syrian Sea, the welcome back to the statesmen who had gone forth to the Berlin Congress has been an unexpectedly warm one, and seems, according to report, to have transfixed themselves with astonishment. Their personal friends greeted them, the public greeted them en masse. They were welcomed by the members of both Houses of Parliament, and the crowd shouted forth, "Cyprus for Ever," and "Rule Britannia," "Britannia Rules the Waves ;" and yet among that crowd were doubtless many who would, at the outgoing of their Plenipotentiaries to the Congress of Nations, have most emphatically declared themselves opposed to the last degree to any defensive alliance of England with Turkey-and who are of the same opinion still, with regard to Turkey IN EUROPE.

TURKEY IN ASIA, however, is, in England's estimation, a

different affair, from its neighbourhood to India, and the change in the mind of our Nation is somewhat akin to that which took place in a day in the feeling of England for the Southern States of America. As soon as we heard of the assassination of President Lincoln our sympathy with the South died out; so now the subject of Turkey in Europe can be left in abeyance, if our attention is diverted to Turkey in Asia.

Cyprus, though but a speck of territory in Asia, only 140 miles long and 60 miles-wide, offers a foothold for beginning to reform the fruit of three centuries of Turkish misrule, not only within its Islet bounds, but on a far wider scale. As says the Daily News:

"The whole of ASIATIC TURKEY is flooded with historic memories. The names of DAMASCUS, JERUSALEM, ANTIOCH, SMYRNA, BAGDAD, RHODES, TARSUS, BEYROUT, call up associations sacred, classical, and mythical, with the lands and heroes of the Bible, with the "Arabian Nights," and with the Crusades, and over all now reigns the desolation of Turkish. tyranny. Whether England will be able to perpetuate that existence, and meanwhile modify or change its influence, is a serious question. We have accepted a tremendous responsi bility. Turkey in Asia contains sixteen millions of people within a territory larger than France and Spain put together, and there is room for ten times as many more in the lands which touch six seas, and are penetrated by two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates-the Seas being the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmora, the Egean, the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea."

There were, of course, opposing opinions to the late Eastern policy of the Government, and much discontent has been expressed that this important Convention was entered into, and this heavy responsibility incurred, without the previous knowledge of Parliament, who must vote the supplies for it. Nevertheless, after the fullest discussion in both Houses, of all the attendant circumstances which could not have suffered the projected relations with Turkey concerning Cyprus to be earlier made known-the Debate issued in a majority for ministers of 143 votes, and consequently of continued confidence in their policy.

So far the Daily Press.