27 JANUARY 1900, Page 13

In Western India. By the Rev. T. Murray Mitchell, LL.D.

M.A. (D. Douglas. 5s.)—Mr. Mitchell went out to Bombay in 1838. His story refers to the missionary experiences of the next quarter of a century. In 1862 he returned to Scotland, where he held a pastoral charge for four years. He then went back to missionary work. His book is full of interest, and we commend it to our readers, not the less heartily because it is impossible for us to discuss the subjects with which it deals. Mr. Mitchell has a grave indictment to lay against the Hindoo reformers, nothing less than that they do not reform. The Congress is supposed to be representative of this party, but the majority in it—the " vastly greater number," Bays our author—do not contemplate, or even desire, social reform. This is, at least, Mr. Mitchell's view, and it is only right to give it publicity.—Another volume, describing missionary effort in a different region, is Journals and Papers of Chauncey Maples, Bishop of Likoma, Lake Nyasa, edited by Ellen Mapleie (Longman and Co., 6s. 6d.) Bishop Maples's work was as different as possible from that which the missionary among the civilised races of India has to undertake. In one point of view it is easier, in another more difficult, so hard is it for the missionary to realise the mental and moral condition of the savage. This volume, which may be considered as a supplement to the Bishop's Life, gives some views, which are in every way entitled to consideration, of various problems with which the missionary in Central Africa has to deal.