ynod in
August, though I am inclined to think that there has been an increase in
the number since then. There are thirty-eight Sabbath schools, at which
there has been an attendance of 1,086 scholars, the greater number of whom
are children of parents still professing Catholicism. The congregations
begin to recognise the obligation of doing something to support divine
ordinances among themselves, and this year they have contributed to the
funds of the Evangelization Commission the sum of 21,217,84 lires, about
L848 sterling, being upwards of L400 sterling more than last year. The
number of communicants up to the middle of August was 1,952, and that of
catechumens 214, while the number of hearers was then stated at Sabbath
worship at a maximum of 3,220. This is a brief account of the mission-work
of the Waldensian Church in Italy, apart altogether from the pastoral and
educational work carried on in the fifteen parishes of the valleys, and in
the college of La Tour, which I have not time to enlarge on at present.

But whilst I desire to evoke the sympathy of English-speaking Christians
everywhere on behalf of the Italian mission-work of the Waldensian Church,
my chief object in sending out this little volume has been to call
attention to some wants of the Vaudois in their own home-field. It is
delightful to an English visitor to those valleys to recount the long lines
of deserved connection between his own country and this Goshen of the
Alps--a line reaching from the days of our first Charles, strengthening
visibly during the time of Cromwell, revived under William and Mary, and
Ann, continuing still through the time of the Georges; though suspended for
awhile by the interference of European warfare, yet again rekindled by the
energy and eloquence of Gilly, expanded and deepened by the devotedness of
Beckwith, and other benefactors following in his train too numerous for us
to register, but not one of them ignored or forgotten by the grateful
valley-men benefitted by their Christian kindness. Apart from the
institutions to which I have already adverted, there is another which meets
the eye of the visitor at La Torre, as he turns up the Val Angrogna. This
is the Vaudois Orphan Asylum and Industrial School, established by the
British Ladies' Association, the secretary of which is Miss Hathaway,
Cheltenham. As the title indicates, the orphans are taught useful
industries, such as straw-hat plaiting, lace and needle-work. Arti