LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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APPEAL TO THE PUBLIC. 283 she is bound to adopt the form of European civiliz~,­tion, and will never cease until she be crowned with success in accomplishing her national aim. In order to bring about the recent change and pro­gress she has painfully sacrificed her precious blood as well as her vast treasure. Indeed, her victory has been dearly pw·chased. It was a quick work, and was well done. It was a sudden movement, but to our great wonder, very few mistakes have been made in her past course. She has tried her best as far as her capacity would allow. The most serious period of our political revolution is nearly passed, and soci­ety as well as the government will soon precipitate into some new shape. But what shape? To the writer of this article our immediate future seems a more serious problem than the past. The question is necessarily rising among us, what will be our future? True, she is destined to have a free constitutional government; she is bound to have her people thor­oughly educated. It will be a grand achievement if a free coustitution and higher education be secured to her people. But these two factors may be proved to be the very elements apt to bring out freedom of opin­ions, and hence the terrible battles of free opinions. A fearful national chaos might be her fate if nothing intervene to prevent it. If the nation be allowed to take her own course as she does now, hope for her re­generation might forever be gone. But in the time of need, Providence, which rules the nations with infinite wisdom, has stepped in to save us from this national calamity and despair. It was neither too soon nor too late when the missionaries of the cross from Amer­ica landed on Qur shore to proclaim the soul-saving gospel to the people. Through their earnest labor and

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