In church matters Bloemfontein has a footing which is peculiarly its own. The Dutch Reformed Church is the Church of the people. There are 18,--only 18,--congregations in the State, of which 16 receive Government support. The worshippers of the Free State must, it is feared, be called upon to travel long distances to their churches. As a rule those living in remote places, have themselves taken by their ox-wagons into the nearest town once in three months for the Nichtmaal,--that is for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper; and on these occasions the journey there and back, together with a little holyday-making in the town, takes a week or ten days. In this there is nothing singular, as it is the custom of the Dutch in South Africa,--but the Anglican Church in Bloemfontein is peculiar. There is a Bishop of Bloemfontein, an English Bishop, consecrated I think with the assistance of an English Archbishop, appointed at any rate with the general sanction and approval of the English Church. The arrangement has no doubt been beneficial and is regarded without disfavour by the ruling powers of the State in which it has been made;--but there is something singular in the position which we as a people have assumed. We first repudiate the country and then we take upon ourselves to appoint a high church dignitary whom we send out from England with a large accompaniment of minor ecclesiastics. In the United States they have bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church as well as of the Roman Catholic. But they are not Bishops of the Church of England. Here, in Bloemfontein, the Church is English, and prays for the Queen before the President,--for which latter it sometimes does pray and sometimes does not. I attended the Cathedral service twice and such was my experience. This is strange to an Englishman who visits the Republic prepared to find it a nationality of itself,--what in common language we may call a foreign country. There are English bishops also among savage nations,--a bishop for instance of Central Africa who lives at present at Zanzibar. But in the Free State we are among a civilized people who are able to manage their own affairs. I am very far from finding fault. The Church in Bloemfontein has worked very well and done much good. But in acknowledging this I think we ought to acknowledge also that very much is due to the forbearance of the Boers.