appearance. The atmosphere of love in which their early years are past, lead to wonderful records of raised and developed lives. The registers exhibited the progressive history of children, rising step by step, till they occupied places of honourable station as clerks, schoolmasters, school-teachers, lawyers, and even ministers; whilst the girls, some in good service, others married to prosperous husbands, had become useful members of the country which had adopted them. Visiting many of these children in various parts of the country, all the statements I had heard about good and affectionate treatment were confirmed. At London, Ontario, I found a little girl from the Guildford Workhouse adopted into the family of a thriving tradesman. getting her religious instruction in Sunday School side by side with the Bishop of Huron's little daughter. "She will share and share along with our own children," said the motherly woman, who caressed her with a loving hand. "We will be mothers to the little ones, if you will only send them out, for our own children marry early, and leave home, and we like little, bright creatures about the house," was repeatedly urged upon me. One child sent out from this country is saving up money to bring out her sister from a workhouse to live in the family with her, as her "new mother would like Lilly to come out too." Whilst a business man writes back to ask for the date of "Bessie's birthday," because he likes all his children "to keep their birthdays alike." It is an important fact that the failures amongst these children are variously computed at three and five per cent. The lady manager of a Reformatory school in Toronto volunteered the statement at a public meeting, that out of four hundred juvenile offenders in her charge, only four or five English children had passed through her hands.

English Church people have lately taken a substantive position amongst other Christian bodies, by establishing a Home at Sherbrooke, in the Province of Quebec, where they have provided, at a cost of £1,000, a Sheltering and Distributing Home for Children of between 6 and 12 years of age. The Canadian Government meet the requirements of the Local Government Board, under which Poor Law Guardians can pay for child emigration, by undertaking that a yearly inspection of children whose addresses are given them shall take place, and a yearly report shall be sent to Guardians until the children have reached the age of sixteen years.

On the general subject of the care of emigrants, our Church has done many things already. Archbishop Tait's scheme, which is so extensively carried out by the S.P.C.K., purposes to secure by the employment of emigrants' chaplains, spiritual ministrations at the ports of embarkation, followed by actual introductions, through Colonial chaplains, to the clergy of the district to which emigrants are going. All emigrants leaving Liverpool are visited on board ships, through the unwearying efforts of the Rev. J. Bridger and his co-adjutors. These chaplains take personal charge of five or six annual parties across the Atlantic to Canada, holding short services for them every evening. It is in co-operation with this system that the emigration of members of the Girls' Friendly Society and other respectable women to Canada has been arranged. Young women who desire to join these parties have to fill up the application form of the United Englishwoman's Emigration Society, in order that certificates of good character and capability, may

prove them worthy of introductions to the receiving Homes in Canada. Copies of these certificates and service characters are sent out, a fortnight before sailing, to the various Committees and Homes in Canada, who prepare for the reception, distribution, and shelter of servants. The importance of young girls being consigned to suitable persons, who accept the responsibility of supervising them, cannot be over estimated. No single woman should emigrate without this precaution being taken.

Young women who join Mr. Bridger's parties are met at Liverpool and taken to lodgings selected for them; they are there placed under the charge of a matron, who is employed solely for the protection of these parties on the voyage. On arriving at Quebec they are met by Miss Richardson, the lady appointed by the Dominion Government to receive female emigrants. In cases where no definite engagements have been made beforehand by any of the societies interested in the work, Miss Richardson herself places the girls; she had on her Registry List, in 1884, over 1,100 applications for servants from all parts of the Dominion.

At Montreal and Toronto, Immigrant Servants' Homes exist, with Committees who, by their Registry work, provide suitable situations, keep accurate lists of the addresses of the persons they place out, and of the wages they are engaged for. These particulars they send back to their correspondents in England.

But covering all, by whatever society they are sent out, is the work of the emigrants' chaplains; at Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, or Winnipeg, the travellers are carefully looked to, and Mr. Fyles at one end, and Mr. Leslie at the other, commend them to the clergy of the district in which they are to settle.

Pastoral care for emigrants to Canada has thus been well provided. Those leaving for New South Wales assemble at Plymouth; they are for some days in the depot, and number sometimes 500 or 600 souls. They are visited, services are held, and large numbers of Bibles, and Prayer Books, and leaflets are distributed by the S.P.C.K.'s chaplains. The part of the work at present untouched is the provision of chaplains for the great emigrant vessels to Australia, which have on board for a six or seven weeks' voyage, a population equal to many of our country parishes. Many a curate breaking down from heavy work in our crowded cities, would be saved to vigorous life for the Church if he could have a sea voyage before his health utterly gave way. While, on the other hand, there is probably no time in a working man's life when he is more open to religious influence than when softened by the breaking of home ties; the prospect of a fresh start is moving him to resolve to lead a better life in the new world.

A form of introduction to the Colonial clergy is provided by the S.P.C.K., and it requires but the personal action of the parish priest to make this form a link between the spiritual condition of the emigrant in the old country, and his religious status in the new land. It would be a great help towards obtaining information on all matters referring to emigration, if, following the action of the Church Synod at Salisbury, a secretary were appointed in each diocese to collect and give information to clergy applying for it. It would also minimise clerical work in the matter.

The position of the English Church in its national character, giving its clergy the care of all souls within their parochial districts, places in their hands the most enormous power of influencing the future religious aspect of our colonies. I do not mean to advance this in any sectarian spirit, but rather as exhibiting the grand position and responsi bility which rests upon our clergy, and which they possess, as possessed by no other Christian ministers, who can act only on their congregations. The men, women, and children who leave our shores will be, in the new world, just exactly what their clergy have led them to be here. They require to have their attachment to the Church of England intensified, and the duty of adhesion to a corporate religious body pointed out to them. On one account especially churchmen need this point to be pressed upon them closely; they have accepted rather than adopted and appreciated their churchmanship; and a more substantive and intelligent position is necessary for a man who is to represent the Church in a new country. A churchman, unless specially instructed by his clergyman before his emigration, is hardly on equal terms with a nonconformist who has had to keep up his chapel, and who is used to decisive acts of congregationalism. If the parochial clergyman is known to have the best and most reliable information about our Colonies; if in the teaching of growing youths in night schools the openings in various parts of the empire have been already practically discussed, then the intending emigrant goes to him as his best counsellor; he refers to him for a good character to obtain the Government assistance, and in the many interviews that take place in carrying out arrangements, opportunities occur both for instruction in Church principles, and for deepening personal religion, which a less important epoch in a man's life does not present. Men under these circumstances have joined the Church of England Temperance Society, and an appeal to their chivalry has made them in will, if not in name, disciples of the White Cross Army. "You might say that I would join the choir out there; I've been at it, man and boy, more than twelve years," volunteered one fine young fellow who was waiting for his introduction to a clergyman in Sydney. "And I," said his companion, "would help at Sunday School; it's one of the things I should miss most."

Emigrant men of middle age have undertaken, if out in the bush far away from a church, to call together their neighbours and read the Church service, thus keeping up the observance of Sunday amongst themselves, promising, too, when at the nearest station, to go to the clergyman and tell him a congregation is waiting for him. Men who thus keep up acts of worship, would preserve alive a desire for spiritual instruction, and feeling the need of sacramental ministration, would be prepared to contribute to the support of their clergy, and thus the echoes of our English Liturgy would be carried into the wilds of that greater Britain into which we are expanding.

Out of the evils, then, of over population, out of the miseries of overcrowding, out of the ashes of many sorrows, rises, Phoenix-like, a brighter life, out of present evil a far-spreading good. Expediency allies itself with enterprise and adventure; the vigour of our Anglo-Saxon race asserts itself; creations, not conquests, are the characteristics of our British life; out of the tangled wilderness of the bush and out of the loneliness of the prairie, English pioneers make waving corn-fields, and

log-huts are succeeded by prosperous homesteads, and, subsequently, stately buildings and busy factories reward hardy and patient industry. But another aspect of the deepest interest connected with this subject, an aspect which, whatever may be our action or inaction as regards emigration itself, must be dear to every faithful heart, is the evangelising power of our out-spreading nationality. In every portion of that colossal empire which owns allegiance to our Queen, amongst the 47,000,000 of English-speaking people, spreads out the knowledge of the great Christian truths of the Fatherhood of God, and of the Divine Humanity of the Incarnate Son. In the remotest parts of the inhabited globe, English people are carrying an open Bible, and however feebly followed, a pure faith.

Evangelisation, happier, better, nobler than civilisation alone, should be the out-come of this exodus of our people; the quality of its missionary character depends upon the action of our clergy. If the extension of Christianity goes hand-in-hand with the expansion of our empire, and our churchmen perpetuate the Mission character of our Church, then indeed we shall be hastening the time when "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the

sea.

The Rev. JOHN F. KITTO, Rector of Stepney.

[Read by CANON DURST.]

In our discussion to-day it is assumed that the Church has a duty to discharge towards Emigration. It is admitted that she has an interest and a duty not only in work which is purely spiritual, but also in all those questions and movements of the day, which, whether they be moral or social, or intellectual or political, exercise an important influence upon the welfare of the people, whom it is the privilege of the Church to serve. The importance of the emigration movement lies in the fact, that the population of this country is increasing with marvellous rapidity, and that this increase arises almost entirely in the town populations. Agricultural districts do not absorb even the natural increase of their own population, which helps to swell the already growing numbers in the towns; and it seems impossible to hope that, whatever may be the changes made in the methods of holding or of cultivating the land, the country districts will ever be able to absorb a larger working population than that for which they now provide. The question then arises whether the great cities can fairly be expected to meet the want. Experience shows that they can only partially do so; for the bulk of the trade of this country does not increase at all in proportion to the increase of the population.

It would seem, therefore, that sooner or later, this small island, in area so insignificant a portion of the British Empire, and incapable of being enlarged, must become too small for its teeming population, and that statesmen and philanthropists will be compelled to consider, how the wealth of population here and the wealth of land in our Colonies can be brought together to advance the interests of the Empire and to enrich the world? In such circumstances then, what is the duty of the Church? Is she to add her influence to swell the idle cry of those who

complain that emigration is robbing the country of men whom we can ill afford to spare; when her children are passed to distant portions of this great Empire, is she wholly to ignore their existence, and do nothing either to encourage their removal or to shelter them after they have gone with the fostering tenderness of a mother's love.

Speaking here to-day, not so much to the Church in her corporate capacity as to my brethren of the clergy individually, I venture to point out how much it lies within the power of the country clergy to aid in the cause of emigration. Let me ask what becomes of the natural increase of the population in the rural districts ? Is not a very considerable portion of the time and thought of a clergyman and his family taken up in providing suitable situations for the younger members of his flock? It is perhaps the most natural, as it is certainly the most easy course, to try to find for such persons a situation in the nearest town or on the nearest railway. But would it not be possible, and if possible, would it not be wise in the truest interests of the people, if the clergy would make themselves familiar with the boundless opportunities which the Colonies afford, and endeavour to stimulate the ambition and direct the energies of their surplus population towards a sphere in which every working man may easily become his own landlord, working for himself upon his own land? If such persons are sent into the towns, they have to enter into the fierce competition for work which every town seems now to offer; they will most probably have to pass a considerable portion of their time and energies in that dreariest of all work, the hunting for something to do; they will be all this time subject to the debasing and demoralizing influences which seem to be inseparable from town life, and their spiritual pastor is too often saddened and disheartened by hearing of the utter ruin of those whose early youth had given great hope and promise. Send these same persons to the Colonies, and they become, if wisely directed, the builders of their own fortunes; boundless prospects lie around them, and thrown upon their own resources, with hope to spur them on, they are not only in a fair way of securing their own happiness, but are doing something to build up the prosperity of the Empire.

It is true enough, no doubt, that even in our largest cities, the young and the healthy, and the energetic of our rural population, can generally find employment. But it must be remembered that too often they do this at the expense of older men, who find it increasingly difficult to procure work; and these young people themselves, as years pass on, will in their turn be elbowed out by the fierce and vigorous competition of another generation. Remember too that if in the Colonies there is no room for idlers, and every man must be prepared to throw his whole energies into his work; at least there lies before him the certainty of a manly independence. "In England," as it was said to me the other day in Canada, "a working man must be a working man all his life, but here he can become independent."

And while I write these words, passing through the boundless territories of the Great North West, waiting to repay with liberal hand the willing labour of the settler, my mind begins to open to the grand possibilities which lie before those who have the enterprise and energy to turn these plains into fields white unto harvest.

For the clergy who will address themselves to this work, there are