these remarks by expressing the hope that the hundreds of thousands of the sightless inhabitants of Hindostan, may soon feel the force of English Christian philanthropy, and also by observing that the Hindoos themselves seem to be very liberal towards persons without sight, as they allow them to enjoy all the privileges of caste, and that with them a Brahmin though blind, is a Brahmin still.

THE DUTCH EAST INDIES.

The governmental returns give the population of this division of Asia as 16,354,000, and as the countries included in the estimate are generally of an equatorial character, the proportion which the number of the blind bears to the general population is probably 1 in 300, according to which estimate the subjects of Holland in Asia without sight cannot be fewer than 55,000.

Unfortunately we are obliged to add that the Dutch, like the English, have hitherto done nothing for the blind of their East Indian dependencies, but it is to be hoped that ere long the thrifty inhabitants of the Netherlands will rid themselves of this reproach.

SIAM AND COCHIN CHINA..

These two countries although entirely independent of each other, are yet so much alike as regards the estimate of population and the probable number of the blind, that we have placed them together in the above heading.

In each kingdom, including dependencies, the population is 6,000,000, and the probable ratio of the blind 1 in 400, which gives the total number of persons without sight in Siam and its tributaries of Cambodia and Lahos as 15,000, and also a like number for the kingdom of Cochin China.

THE PHILIPPINE ISLES.

These Spanish colonies contain a population of about 5,000,000, and as their geographical position warrants us in considering the ratio of the blind as 1 in 400, the number of persons without sight in the archipelago cannot be fewer than 12,500.

The Spaniards have not yet made any effort for the welfare of their sightless Asiatic subjects, but this can hardly be wondered at when the English and Dutch have set them such a bad example.

CHINA.

The population of this vast empire is variously estimated from 300,000,000 to 500,000,000 of souls; accepting it, however, as 410,000,000, which is the computation of the best authorities, and taking the ratio of the blind as 1 in 400, (which is fully justified by the geographical position of the most populous parts of the country,) it is evident that there cannot be fewer than one million and twenty-five thousand persons without sight in the Celestial Empire.

Although institutions for the relief of suffering and the suppression of vice are very numerous in China, so much so, indeed, that that empire is superior in this respect to many European countries,-yet, as far as we know, there is not a single native establishment specially devoted to the alleviation of the sufferings of the blind. Societies for the benefit of widows and orphans there are in abundance, as also medical dispensaries and hospitals; but the blind are classed indiscriminately with common vagrants, and the only privilege accorded to them is the permission to subsist by alms. The vagrant classes in the flowery land are very numerous, but the blind excel them all in numerical strength. In the various towns and provinces of the Chinese empire, mendicants are supplied with certain

daily rations at the public charge, but these allowances being insufficient for their maintenance, they are permitted to solicit charity from house to house; and such is the spirit of organization which prevails, that they form themselves into regular associations with recognized leaders and accumulated funds. The leaders conduct commercial transactions on behalf of their societies, among which undertakings, the discounting of bills is a favourite speculation, and in connection with this subject, it may be mentioned, that whenever the payment of a bill is not duly met, the residence of the delinquent is attacked by a whole army of beggars, who destroy his goods, and threaten to pull his house down on his head unless he makes immediate payment; and as the beggars are seldom interfered with by the authorities, they generally succeed in attaining their object. Some of those without sight play on a kind of violin, and sing for a subsistence; and it is a remarkable circumstance to find that many of the blind procure a livelihood by telling fortunes; indeed such celebrity have they acquired in this way, that it is said they have a monopoly of the business; all they require to know is the age and the day and hour of birth of any one inquiring, and they will pretend to give his future history.

There is a remarkable episode in Chinese history which speaks very highly for the powers of memory possessed by some persons without sight, and at the same time offers a strong reason why the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire should hold the blind in lasting respect.

About the year 220 B.C. the Emperor Ching, the most famous ruler China ever had, and the builder of the great wall, made an attempt to destroy all the then existing literature and records, and put many learned men to death, fearing that they might excite the people to rebellion. This revolutionary monarch seems to have nearly succeeded in accomplishing his destructive pur

pose, but on the revival of literature under the dynasty that succeeded him, the text of the most historical work which Confucius included in his collection, was partly recovered from a blind old man, who was able to repeat it from memory, and a copy of the original being afterwards found in the ruins of the house of Confucius, the correctness of the extraordinary memory of the sightless patriot was fully established.

It is much to the credit of the Christian missionaries of China that they have paid considerable attention to, and have done what they could to mitigate the sufferings of the blind; and some idea of the number of such persons with whom they have come in contact, may be gathered from the circumstance that out of a total number of seven or eight hundred poor who shared in the rice distributions at the Canton Mission House some ten years ago, there were no fewer than five hundred and ninety-nine persons without sight. About thirty years since, the humane Prussian missionary Dr. Gutzlaff succeeded in rescuing six blind Chinese girls, two of whom were sent to America and placed at the Philadelphia Institution, and four became inmates at different times of the schools of the London Society for Teaching the Blind to Read, St. John's Wood. The greater number of these poor children died in their adopted countries, but about thirteen years ago one of the number-named Agnes Gutzlaff, after the name of her benefactor-returned to her native land, and became the principal teacher at a school for the blind, opened by Miss Aldersey, one of the missionaries at Ningpo. For the use of this school a portion of the Gospel of St. John was printed in Chinese in Lucas's characters, under the direction of Professor Summers, of King's College, London, and books in relief print were subsequently issued in the same language in Moon's characters.

When a few years since, Ningpo was taken by the rebels, this first school for the blind in China was

broken up, but it is satisfactory to find that although one door was thus closed, another has been opened, for by persevering Christian effort, an institution has been founded at Shanghai, an account of which we now subjoin, as given in a letter from the Rev. E. W. Syle to James Hogg, Esq. Writing of this matter, the good missionary says,—

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'My dear Sir,-Your observations concerning the Chinese blind poor have thrown my thoughts back twenty years, and recalled to my mind some of the incidents connected with those efforts for their good which resulted in the establishment of that institution in which you have taken so friendly an interest. I do not know in what way I can better make you acquainted with the things you wish to know than by telling the little history just as it occurred. In doing this, I find myself carried back to the early days of 1845-48, when most of us lived in the south-eastern suburb of the Chinese city, near the Tung-ka-Doo ; when the British Consulate was within the city walls, and the present 'settlement' and 'concessions' were not known as such. These were the days when it was possible to visit the whole foreign community in a couple of hours on New Year's morning; when every resident knew every other resident, and merchants, missionaries, consular officers, and seamen were drawn together as one neighbourly little community. A good instance of this harmonious condition of things was our all assembling together on Sunday mornings, for divine service, at the British Consulate. Captain (now General) Balfour, the Consul; English, Scotch, and American; Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Congregational; we all attended this service for a considerable time and found it a great rallying point of interest and good neighbourship. Our communion services, however, were always held at Bishop Boone's house; and it was the offerings made on these occasions which formed the little fund out of which relief for the poor