wealth and never such deep poverty as during this
period, never also were there so many religious and charitable
organisations at work for the relief of poverty and the uplifting of
the fallen; while not a few of the wealthy, and even one or two
millionaires, have shown by generous giving their painful sense of
the contrast between their own wealth and the destitution of others.

It has been a period of sharp religious disputes, and every religious
and benevolent institution is keenly criticised; but great good is
being done notwithstanding by devoted men and women. The centenary of
the Baptist Missionary Society, observed in 1892, recalled to mind
the vast work accomplished by missions since that pioneer society
sent out the apostolic "shoemaker" Carey, to labour in India, and
reminds us of the great change wrought in public opinion since he and
his enterprise were so bitterly attacked. The heroic missionary
spirit is still alive, as is proved by the readiness of new
evangelists to step into the place of the missionaries to China,
cruelly murdered at Ku-Cheng in 1895 by heathen fanatics.

The immense development of our colonies during the reign has already
been noticed; some of them have made surprising advances during the
last ten years. In southern and eastern Africa British enterprise has
done much to develop the great natural wealth of the land; but the
frequent troubles in Matabeleland and the complications with the
Transvaal since the discovery of gold there may be regarded as
counterbalancing the material advantages secured. Ceylon has a
happier record, having more than regained her imperilled prosperity
through the successful enterprise of her settlers in cultivating the
fine tea which has almost displaced China tea in the British market,
Ceylon exporting 100,000,000 lbs. in 1895 as against 2,000,000 lbs.
ten years previously. Canada also now takes rank as a great maritime
state, and the fortunes of Australia, though much shaken a few years
ago by a great financial crisis, are again brilliant; in the world of
social progress and democracy it is still the colonial marvel of our
times.

[Illustration: H. M. Stanley.]

The last census, taken in 1891, in Great Britain and Ireland showed a
vast increase of population, sixty-two towns in England and Wales
returning more than 50,000 inhabitants, and the total population of
the United Kingdom being 38,104,975. Alarmists warned us that, with
the ratio of increase