No account of the present condition of Siam can be at all complete which does not notice the history of missionary enterprise in that country. Allusion has already been made to the efforts of Roman Catholic missionaries, Portuguese and French, to introduce Christianity and to achieve for the Church a great success by the conversion of the king and his people. The scheme failed, and the political intrigue which was involved in it came also to an ignominious conclusion; and the first era of Roman Catholic missions in Siam closed in 1780, when a royal decree banished the missionaries from the kingdom. They did not return in any considerable numbers, or to make any permanent residence until 1830. In that year the late Bishop Pallegoix, to whom we owe much of our knowledge of the country and the people (and who died respected and beloved by Buddhists as well as Christians), was appointed to resume the interrupted labors of the Roman Catholic Church. Under his zealous and skilful management, much of a certain kind of success has been achieved, but very few of the converts are to be found among the native Siamese. There is at present on the ground a force of about twenty missionaries, including a vicar apostolic and a bishop, with churches at ten or a dozen places in the kingdom. Their converts and adherents are chiefly from the Chinese, Portuguese half-castes, and others who value the political protection conferred by the priests. The religious success of the Protestant missionaries, which has not been over-encouraging, has also been in the first place, and largely, among the Chinese residents. A few Siamese converts are reported within the past few years, and their number is steadily increasing. The first Protestant mission was that of the American Baptist Board, which was on the ground within three years after the arrival of Bishop Pallegoix, though several American missionaries of other denominations had been in the country and translated religious books before this. The Baptists were followed within a few years by Congregationalists and Presbyterians from the United States. But "as time passed on one agency after another left the field, until to-day the entire work of Christianizing the Siamese is left to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States," which began work in Bangkok of 1840. At first sight their efforts, if measured by a count of converts, might seem to have resulted in failure. The statistics show but little accomplished; the roll of communicants seems insignificant. And of the sincerity and intelligence even of this small handful there are occasional misgivings. On the whole, those who are quick to criticise and to oppose foreign missions might seem to have a good argument and to find a case in point in the history of missions in Siam.