A PLEASANT SIGN OF THE TIMES IN CHINA.
[TO THE norroa or THE .81.1tOrATOE:.] SIE,-It may interest your readers to see the subjoined extinct from a newspaper circulating among Europeans in and near Shanghai. I received it the other day from my brother, Bishop G. E. Monte, of Mid-China, who this December, if he lives the year out, will complete fifty years of missionary service in China, forty years of the fifty in Hangehow, the great city which Marco Polo knew as Quinsay, and where he was a Mandarin. The words quoted are part of a letter written to the editor by my brother describing a concert, vocal and instrumental, held last January in a C.M.S. mission-hall at Hangehow in aid of the Famine Relief Fund. The concert was got up by Mr. Chou, a native Presbyterian, and actively supported by missionaries of more than one Christian Church, by the officers of a native regiment, by Japanese residents, and by members of the leading Chinese families of the great city. Every ticket was "eagerly bought." The audience numbered quite a thousand, and pet-feet order and keen interest were maintained.—I am, Sir, &c., HANDLEY DUNELM. Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland.
" Hangchow, January Itth.
At the end of the performance the chairman, Mr. Chou, invited contributions to the Famine Fund. $200 was promptly handed up in silver, with more than as much in chitt-Chinera ladies from their gallery sending down their chits, With something very much like enthusiasm. I have lived to see many unhooked- for changes in unchanging China, but none more surprising or more hopeful for the future than this first public concert, which united in friendly co-operation, with a charitable object, four nationalities, three or four Christian denominations, and non- Christians both Chinese and Japanese.—G. E. Mt:rural."
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