Dr. Clarke, Foreign Secretary of the Board, writing in the same year (1871), after his visit to the East, mentions the following indications of progress: "Hundreds of miles of railway, begun and under contract; telegraphic communication between the principal towns; postal arrangements for the conveyance of money, as well as letters, established within a few years between many places; police regulations, securing protection to life and property as never before; the suppression of robber-hordes, which had infested different sections; and the beginning of a newspaper press. The public mind in the great centres is waking up to what is going on in the outside world. The war in our own country, by its derangement of commerce, led to much inquiry; and the later conflicts in Europe have excited a lively interest in many minds. And not the least significant matter is the change of sentiment in reference to France and French influence. Already is it said by native merchants, that their children must learn English, or German, instead of French; and the power of Romanism, upheld so long by French consuls, is sensibly weakened. And Protestantism is quietly doing its work of enlightenment,--directly, in thousands of minds, and indirectly, in thousands more." Mr. Adams, of Adana, writing a year earlier, affirms that the Christian populations are far more ready to hear and read the Gospel than is commonly supposed, and that the Protestant faith has found its way into the remotest corners of the land. He says, we should not measure the success of missions by "tabular views" alone, for it often happens that a missionary's strongest grounds of hope are quite outside of the largest array of figures. "As I write this," he adds, "a statement of Hagop Effendi occurs to me. He said: "I have travelled a great deal among the Protestants of Syria and Turkey, and the strongest impression I have does not arise from the schools, books, or churches, as pledges that Protestantism is to be a success in Turkey, but from the prodigious extent to which the country at large is leavened by Protestant truth. The grandest results of your labors are not apparent." Another testimony is by Mr. Leonard, of Marsovan, under date of January, 1871. "Evidence," he says, "of a gradual reform in the Oriental churches, especially the Armenian Church, chiefly as the result of evangelical labors, crops out in almost every city. Consecrated pictures leave church walls for the garret; silver crosses go into the refining pot; auricular confession is neglected; many superstitious ceremonies and foolish restrictions, imposed by the priesthood, are regarded only as a curious relic of the past. We note, also, a growing friendliness towards Protestants, and occasionally very sensible efforts, in emulation of them, to educate the people."