is to fall has the lower cut. When the time
comes there is a crack, then a quivering of the
mighty thing to the topmost twig, which is up
in the clouds almost, then slowly and reluctantly
it moves over—crack, crack—on, on—and
down terribly on the earth; and again, in settling,
it strikes and beds itself, and the branches
stand up like arms, and shake convulsively, as in
the agonies of death: and then the giant is still,
and the vacant sky is seen through where for
ages he has proudly stopped the light and
warmth of heaven's orb from the earth beneath."

Besides the felling of trees, the bishop has
had to cut down a few prejudices, and those
gigantic weeds of life, misrepresentations, which
need keener axes than your pines and oaks.
The idea of a bishop engendered the not illogical
idea of a state Church and its corresponding
taxes, and when Dr. Hills arrived, he found
the papers full of warfare about the " attempt"
to have a " state Church." It took a good deal
to calm this agitation and satisfy the non-episcopalian
citizens that they had not stepped into
taxes, tithes, church-rates, pew-rates, and Easter
offerings, as necessary adjuncts of their existence.
In other things, too, the bishop has come
out in a large, generous, free-handed way. There
are many negroes in the island, and the Americans
of course are unanimous in demanding
that they shall be put to worship God in
a separate place. The same roof must not
echo to negro prayers and American supplications;
and God must not be insulted by the
mingling together of His white children and His
black. Of course, too, the American ministers
have given in to this demand; so have some
others— Romanists, Congregationalists, and Methodists
— who ought to have known better. One
independent minister, however, upheld the
English and Christian sentiment of union and
brotherhood; but he was thrown over by his
masters, the British Colonial Missionary Society,
and the bishop, who stands no nonsense, recorded
the fact scathingly. This led to a disturbance
amongst the denominations at home, and has
recently drawn out severe resolutions from the
worthy society, denouncing the very Mr. M'Fye
whom they had previously upheld.

One very instructive lesson is taught by these
mixed mission-places— the greater liberality of
what it pleases people to call " the heathen,"
than of the different sects of the Christian
Church itself. Here, in Victoria, a Chinese
merchant, a Mr. Quong-Hing, gave ten pounds,
and then five pounds, towards the erection of
two Christian and episcopal churches. The
Roman Catholics were forward in the mission.
The Sisters of Mercy being the only educators
of girls, and their bishop, Demas, having the only
well organised schools. Most of the better class
youth of the town attended, Protestant as well as
Catholic. The Americans greatly value education,
and above all English education, which is
more substantial and less superficial than their
own, and our English bishop desired to see the
education of the youth taken out of these dangerous
hands, and put under the care of English
Protestantism. In this he has greatly prospered,
having founded two colleges, with such
a combination of learning that even Jews are
delighted in having their boys taught Hebrew
by the Christian professor.

The Chinese are fiowing into Vancouver's Island
and the mines by thousands. They are peaceably
conducted, as a rule; funny, rather immoral, full
of good humour, and very friendly. They respect
the English much, and are the universal clothes-
washers everywhere. " At one place I came to a
pretty bridge over a river," writes the bishop. "It
had been built by a Chinaman named Ah Soo.
He takes the tolls. On our approach he ran forward
with cool waters to drink, and told us we
were free of the bridge: ' No Englishee pay over
de bridgee and no poor Chinaman. Me makee no
chargee to de English; me chargee Boston man'
(American). 'Boston man chargee Chinaman
very high in Californy— Chinaman now chargee
Boston man— ha! ha!' " But indeed strangely
mixed are the populations of these new towns.
In Douglas, a "rising town on the route to the upper
mines," there were eight coloured men, twenty-
nine Mexicans and Spaniards, thirty-seven Chinese,
sixteen Erench and Italians, four men from
Central, and four from Northern Europe, seventy-
three citizens of the United States, and
thirty-five British subjects: two hundred and
six souls in all. Of these, two hundred and
four were males, and two females; and one of
those females was a child. The miners are in a
sadly destitute state so far as opportunities for
spiritual culture are concerned. They have no
churches, no clergy— or at least had not, till the
bishop sent them two Church of England clergymen,
— and some of them have not heard a
prayer, or attended public service, for ten or
fourteen years. They have no sinecure of it,
these hard-worked Columbia miners. The want
of all roads makes their labour doubly severe,
and their gains have never been so exorbitant as
to compensate them for what they must have
undergone. The average earnings have not exceeded
one hundred a year since 1858, when
mining first began in Columbia, and the average
cost of living has been sixty pounds for each.
Forty pounds, then, do not quite reward a man
for the immense risk, toil, hardship, and suffering
of such a career as the Columbia miner;
and many have made even less. They are a
fine hardy race of men, of all nations, but with
a terrible lack of women, and other softening
influences, among them. At the mines, the
average is one woman to every two hundred
men. It is not to be wondered at, then, if
property is somewhat insecure, if morals are
of the lowest, or if life is more rough than
polished in such a society. How any way
can be made is wonderful, considering the
want of a central bond among such incongruous
shifting materials. But the bishop
seems to be setting his mark, and doing a
notable work. The iron church and mission-
house were taken out all safe, and it was a
pretty sight to see the captain and crew,