Quelpart, a few months ago, are due to the jealousy with which the heathen mass of the population regard the protection from official rapacity, enjoyed by those who accept The Light.
In the case of Quelpart, this feeling of animosity, and the immunity from taxation which the French priests gave to their following, created an intolerable position. Anarchy swept over the island, and some six hundred believers were put summarily to death. Whatever may be the compensating advantages of this martyrdom, the reckless and profligate sacrifice of life, which missionary indiscretion in the Far East has promoted, is an outrage upon modern civilisation. We have passed through one terrible anti-Christian upheaval in China, and, if we wish to avoid another such manifestation, it is necessary to superintend all forms of missionary enterprise more closely. This, however, can be done only by legislative supervision, imposing restraint in the direction which recent events have indicated. It is imperative that certain measures should be adopted in missionary work which will ensure the safety of the individual zealot, and be agreeable to the general comfort of the community. It is unfortunate, but inevitable, that such reforms must be radical. The violence of missionary enterprise during recent years has been altogether unbridled. The great activity of the different societies, resulting from their unrestricted liberty, has recoiled most fatally upon the more indefatigable, as well as upon the heads of many wholly innocent of any unwarrantable religious persecution. The time has come, therefore, when vigorous restrictions should chasten this vigorous, polemical proselytism. The practice of scattering missionaries broadcast over the interior of these Far Eastern countries should not continue; the assent
