of Christian unity. Everywhere the
missionaries are received with kindness by princes and people, and favored
with a respectful hearing.

So great is the reverence of the nations of the Turkish Empire for the
character of the Pope, that one would say that he had a Concordat with
those nations and their chiefs. The legate of the Holy See, Archbishop
Auvergne, of Iconium, was received with the greatest honor by the
Sovereign of AEgypt, on occasion of his legation to that country and Syria.
A Catholic bishop was established at Alexandria, a city so intimately
associated with the memory of Saint Athanasius. His jurisdiction extends
over the AEthiopian countries, and this circumstance, considering their
relations in bygone ages with the Patriarchs of Alexandria, facilitates
their communion with the centre of unity. The Catholic bishop of Cairo,
assisted by thirty priests, so long ago as 1840, governed a flock of
nearly twenty thousand Copts of the ancient race of AEgypt. This body of
faithful Christians is daily increasing, by the adherence of other Copts
who had fallen into the Eutichyan heresy, more from want of instruction
than obstinacy. Nothing could surpass the generosity of the Khedive
towards the church. He presented to the Pope several marble columns, for
the restoration of the Basilica of St. Paul at Rome, and built for the
missionaries and sisters of St. Vincent de Paul a college, schools, and an
hospital in the city of Alexandria. At Tunis and Tripoli there are 7,000
Catholics, who are ministered to by nine priests of the order of St.
Francis. So early as 1840, Sisters of Charity went from France in order to
establish a community at Tunis, with the full concurrence of the Mussulman
government.

It is well known that as soon as a French colony was founded at Algiers, a
bishop was appointed. That African Christendom, so happily commenced,
still prospers, and extends its labors under the auspices of the august
Head of the church. It is consoling to observe that there are so many
nascent and even flourishing churches around the vast continent of Africa,
from Senegambia and Sierra Leone, by the Cape of Good Hope, the islands on
the south-east coast, AEthiopia and AEgypt, to the gates of Hercules. They
stand there as sentinels, ready to intimate the moment when the army of
the Cross may penetrate to the central continent, and conquer new kingdoms
to the cause of Christ. This is surely not too much to hope for in an age