--The Chinese government is removing the old restrictions which withheld Chinese merchants from trading with other nations, and is adopting a policy of encouragement to a wide-spread foreign commerce. The Chinese Ambassador at Washington stated that a steamer, commanded and manned by Chinese wholly, would soon appear in San Francisco laden with the products of Chinese industry. --The Chinamen, who walk over bridges built two thousand years ago, who cultivated the cotton-plant centuries before this country was heard of, and who fed silk-worms before King Solomon built his throne, have fifty thousand square miles around Shanghai which they call the Garden of China, and which has been tilled for countless generations. It is all meadow land, and is raised but a few feet above the rivers, lakes, and canals, and is a complete network of water-communication. The land is under the highest cultivation, and three crops a year are gathered from it. The population is so dense that wherever you look you see men and women in blue clothing in such numbers that you fancy some muster or fair is coming off, and that the people are out for a holiday. Missionaries of several societies are at work in this locality. --A Christian Chinaman at Sacramento, in California, was present at the annual festival of the Chinese school on June 4th. When asked whether Christian influence really made the Chinaman better, he replied:-- “Oh! yes, all much better men. Do not steal. Do not gamble. Do not do any bad.” “How about smoking?” “Oh! no opium! Some not even smoke cigars. We can tell. All other Chinamen watch Christian Chinamen. If they see him go wrong, tell us. Then we tell him. Then he stop. If he did not stop, then he must leave here.” “But, suppose you don’t watch him. Will he be good without it?” “Oh! yes, most times. When he is converted and believes truth, it makes him good inside, he don’t want to go wrong any more.” “How do you like it as far as you have gone?” “Oh! me like very well. If all Chinamen be Christians, then no more trouble about ‘must go’! All more happy and good to each other.” * * * * * THE CENTRAL SOUTH CONGREGATIONAL CONFERENCE. This religious body held its autumn meeting with the Second Congregational Church, Memphis, Tenn. Delegates representing the Churches in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee, were present. The following programme illustrates the orderly way and the practical character of the brethren engaged in our church work South:--“Annual Sermon,” Rev. Wm. H. Ash, Florence, Ala.; “Church Extension,” Rev. Jos. E. Smith, Chattanooga; “Education,” Rev. G. W. Moore, Nashville; “Missions,” Professor H. S. Bennett, Fisk University; “How to Develop the Benevolence of the Churches,” Professor A. K. Spence, Fisk University; “Absolute Necessity of Education for the Colored People,” President Magoun, of Iowa College.