The Wesleyan and Church Missionary Societies question the accuracy of
the figures we quoted last week from the Edinburgh Daily Review, but the gentlemen who write on their behalf appear to miss our point. Dr. Boyce writes that the Wesleyans had in- deed 31 Missionaries in India and Ceylon in 1861, but had 30 in 1871 instead of 22, the number we quoted ; but he omits to say whether they were all Europeans. We purposely excluded both Americans and Natives—including Eurasians—as beside our point, which was to discuss the main thesis of the Intercession Day, the supply of more men from this country- The Rev. T. D. Harford Battersby, again, affirms that the Euro- pean Missionaries connected with the Church Missionary Society in British India increased from 116 in 1861 to 126 in 1871,—a statement to which, we doubt not, the paper we gave as ourauthority will reply, as if correct it entirely vitiates the figures. We suspect the corrected figures include men absent on leave or for health_ Mr. Battersby's statistics of native missionaries, however, have nothing to do with the question, which is not the energy or success of the Societies, but the number of competent Englishmen who now volunteer for mission-work. The dispute as to the comparative capacity of the elder and younger Missionaries, which Dr. Boyce also raises, is one of opinion chiefly, though we admit that his- torians are apt to remember only the captains and forget the rank and file, while observers of to-day see chiefly the latter.
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