WS.

Letters recently received from Bangkok, Siam, bearing date July 25,
1872, give the following interesting items.

His Majesty has just appointed an English tutor to his royal brothers,
associating with them some of the sons of the higher nobles to the
number of twenty. This certainly indicates progress in liberal and
enlarged views in a land where hitherto no noble, however exalted his
rank or worthy his character, was considered a fit associate for the
princes of the royal family, who have always been trained to hold
themselves entirely aloof from those about them. The young king now on
the throne has changed all this, and says he wishes not only that his
brothers shall have the advantage of studying with others of their own
age, but that they should thus learn to know their people better, and
by mingling with them freely in their studies and sports acquire more
liberal views of men and things than their ancestors had. He insists
that his young brothers and their classmates shall stand on precisely
the same footing, and each be treated by the teacher according to his
merits. The king intends to appoint yet other teachers in his family
for both boys and girls; and though perhaps the time may not yet have
come, it is certainly not far distant, when Siam will sustain high
schools and colleges, both literary and scientific.

The religious aspect of the nation is somewhat less promising. Though
the royal edict gives protection to all religions, and permits every
man to choose for himself in matters of conscience, it can scarcely be
said that the two kings take any real interest in Christianity. They
think less of Booddhism, its mystic creed and imposing ceremonies, and
have made very many changes in the form of worship; but, apparently,
they are no more Christians than were their respective fathers, the
late first and second kings. They treat Christianity with outward
respect, because they esteem it decorous to do so; and the same is
true of the regent and prime minister; but none of them even profess
any real regard for the worship of the true God. The concessions made
thus far indicate progress in civilization, not in piety; and while
the kings and their subjects are assuredly loosing their grasp on
Booddhism, they are not reaching out to lay hold on Christianity. It
seems rather as if the whole nation were swaying off into the frigid
regions of skepticism, and, influenced by the example of many unworthy
represen