long sown, on hearts prepared of God, and we hear of "after-meetings" here and there, and simple testimonies given by persons lately in the depths of vice or unbelief to the almighty power of God which shook them to the very core and then revealed a Saviour to them. Radiant faces, and loving hands grasping brothers' hands there are like sunbeams in what were formerly fields of ice.

THE FRENCH CLERGY.

pay from the State. More than half of the 31,347 village incumbents do not, however, receive more than £36 per annum; the maximum being £52 for those who are 75 years of age. The Archbishop of Paris receives £2,500.

LORD'S DAY OBSERVANCE.

The International Conference of the Lord's Day Observance Federation was held recently in Paris. Its importance consisted in the countries represented, the questions debated, and the results obtained. The assembly took up the ground of "rest and sanctification in opposition to labour and dissipation." In Switzerland, for example, the post-office servants are to have one Sabbath out of three, and the hours for telegraphing on Sundays have been restricted so as to let the clerks have two hours' rest in the forenoon and two in the evening. The case of printers, etc., on daily papers was considered. The one country that makes no difference in this respect between Sunday and the other days of the week was found to be France. Nevertheless, the President, M. Alexandre Lombard, was in a situation to state that by the heads of four French journals (the Debats, Constitutionnel, Temps, and Union) he had been well received, save on the part of Senator E. Scherer, one of the chief editors of the Temps. On the motion of M. Deluz, the Conference agreed to protest against "travail et dissi

In connection with the bill which M. Jules Roche and 85 other deputies have introduced into the French Chamber for "the secularisation of the property of religious congregations, and the separation of Church and State," it is stated that of the amount (£2,134,634) paid by the State for purposes of religious worship, the whole, with the exception of about £80,000, is received by the Roman Catholics. There are only 61 Jewish officiating ministers paid by the State, and the highest salary is that of the Grand Rabbi in Paris, who receives £600 a-year, and the lowest, £24. Altogether, the Jewish religion receives only £8,880; while the Protestant Church, which has 722 State-salaried clergy, receiving from £160 to £64 a-year, gets £27,164. The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church comprises 87 archbishops and bishops, 11 canons of the Chapter of St. Denis, 192 vicars-general, 722 cathedral canons, 68 arch-priests, 595 first-class incumbents (curés), 2,791 second-class incum-pations," and to express its sympathy with the bents, 31,347 village incumbents, 9,462 curates (vicaires), 10 cemetery chaplains, 3 bishops' chaplains in Algeria; making a total of 45,098 members of the clergy receiving | years hence.

CANONISATION AT ROME.

English and American Committees in the struggle which they have to sustain. The next Conference is to be held in Brussels two

ITALY.

The long-prepared-for canonisations took place at the Vatican on the 8th ult. "The devout, says one account, some two thousand in number, all of the upper classes, were chiefly Italians and French, with a scanty intersprinkling of English. The hall, which is situated just over the portico of St. Peter's, had been transformed for the occasion into a chapel. In the centre rose the altar, surmounted by a gilded baldacchino resting on rods held by four angels. At the extreme end on a daïs stood the Pontifical throne, above which on the mural cornice ran the inscription, 'Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia. The five windows down either side of the hall, looking respectively into the square and the

interior of St. Peter's, were fitted up with three tiers of boxes for the Roman aristocracy and distinguished foreign guests. These, together with a profusion of artificial flowers in the shape of festoons and girandoles supporting candles, gave a stage aspect to the scene."

About ten o'clock, when the Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Ambassadors, the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, and others who were to share in or witness the ceremony had taken their places, the Pope, who had to celebrate, and was therefore fasting, entered, and proceeded to his throne through a double line of Palatine and Swiss Guards. According to the correspondent of a daily paper, "As he was borne along in

(January 2, 1882. his chair of state his wan expressionless face | When the post-mortem examination was made, and shrunken frame impressed all with a sense of awe and commiseration. Il parait un cadavre' ('He looks like a corpse') was the whisper that rang among a group of French pilgrims. The service, which lasted till nearly three o'clock, must have taxed his strength severely. After he had proclaimed the four new saints, and pronounced a Latin homily upon them, a characteristic ceremony took place the presentation to his Holiness by the Cardinals who had applied for the canonisation of four sets of gilded and silverplated loaves, miniature barrels of wine and water, and cages containing doves, pigeons, and divers kinds of small birds."

The homily read by the Pope was purely religious in its character. He, however, lamented the unhappiness of the times, which prevented the ceremony taking place in St. Peter's. The beatified persons are Giovanni Battista de Rossi, Lorenzo di Brindisi, Giuseppe Labre, and Clara di Montefalco. It is stated that the authorities at the Vatican took infinite pains to exclude the profane, and the Italian Government took every precaution to ensure tranquillity. According to the correspondent of the Times, the scene in the hall was brilliant in the extreme: "It was illuminated by thousands of wax candles. The Sistine choir well sustained its reputation. The Te Deum was most impressive, taken up as it was by all present, and for the first time since 1870 the silver trumpets, which used to sound from the dome of St. Peter's as the Pope elevated the Host, were heard again from somewhere above the cornice in all their clear, sweet solemnity. Every breath was hushed, and the effect was magical."

The occasion described above was the first on which Leo XIII. has exercised his Papal authority at a high altar as his predecessors in St. Peter's have done, and he observed the ritual in its fullest extent. The pomp with which the ambassadors and Ministers accredited to the Holy See, and especially those of Spain and Austria, went to the Vatican, was very noticeable. During the ceremony Cardinal Mertel, who had been indisposed, had to be led from the hall.

THE NEW SAINTS.

On the following Sunday the Pope blessed a chapel in honour of the newly canonised saints. A daily paper prints, as from "A Roman padre," the following account of the newly beatified "The blessed Clara di Montefalco was a very pious nun, who, like St. Theresa, was subject to visions and particularly devoted to the Holy Trinity. She died in the odour of sanctity.

the operators, to their great wonder, found near the heart three small fleshy balls, which altogether weighed as much as one of them, and each single one as much as all the three together (!), a symbol of the one and indivisible Trinity. This is certainly a miracle. The blessed Labre and De Rossi, the one a Frenchman, the other a Roman, were really virtuous and charitable men, who lived in Rome at the end of the last century. They were remembered in popular tradition for their many good works and for a disinterestedness which, in De Rossi, was noble. The blessed Labre never washed, never changed his linen, generally slept under the arches of the Colosseum, and prayed for hours together in the Church of the Orphanage, where there is a tablet to his memory. The fourth and last new saint, the blessed Lorenzo di Brindisi, was a Capuchin monk, worthy of his times. It is calculated that the postulates—that is, the representatives of the faithful—who are interested in the canonisation of these four persons, have spent no less than four million scudi since it was first proposed. This is no exaggeration, for they pay all the expenses, which are infinite. Among these expenses are the rich dress which the Pope wears at the solemn function, taxes, dues, and presentswithout number. Every saint makes the fortune of the person who proposes him, for everything that person spends is doubly repaid by the postulates."

KING OR POPE: WHICH ?

A strange project has lately engaged attention in certain circles in Italy and elsewhere. This is nothing less than to restore the city of Rome to the Pope, while it remains a royal or rather national possession. If the statement thus made should appear contradictory, the fault is that of the plan itself, which we find explained as follows, by the Paris correspondent of the Times: You published on the 10th of October a letter giving a conversation in which an Italian patriot advocated the departure from Rome, not of the Pope, but of the King, who would fix on some other city as the capital of unified Italy. This idea of a sincere and enlightened patriotism, embodying a really practical and Italian solution, made no little impression. It has called forth speeches, articles, and pamphlets, and though it has excited certain objections it has not provoked the anger which might have been expected. It has even been the subject of repeated conversations in circles where repeated conversations on such a subject indi

cate early, if not imme liate, practicability. to be the sole sovereign there and have Nor is this surprising. Precisely because in a police under his sole control. But one of the leading countries of the Continent I want neither a Rome with laws differthe signal of an anti-religious campaign has ent from those of all Italy, nor a Rome. been given by a Republican Government, whence full freedom of conscience would be Monarchical Europe feels the common interest excluded, nor a Rone under the laws of which at stake in the couflict between two principles an Italian law-breaker might take refuge. I of government and the necessity of safeguard- want no Pope coining his own money, ading one of the greatest auxiliaries of moral ministering criminal justice, possessing any authority. In this common anxiety differ- armed force other than is needful for the proences of creed disappear, for it is felt that tection of the inhabitants, however small. I the assault threatens all creeds alike. At the want a perfectly free Pope, in a Rome freely advance of materialism every religion feels administered by him, and, I repeat, subject that its turn is approaching, and that war to the general laws of united Italy. I want has been declared against all. In this junc- a free Pope, extending his hand to the free ture it is not a question of Catholicism or of King of free Italy; a Pope who will give Italy any other creed, but of all. This is what now new strength, adding to the strength of the alarms all the regular Powers, and this is the common country its spiritual strength, laying reason of the effect produced throughout aside the blunted weapons of excommunicaEurope by M. Paul Bert's appointment as tion, and in no case using them except against Minister of Worship. The news was re- the enemies of Italy. What I look forward ceived with stupefaction, and everybody to is that the honest King who governs us expected that this time the Vatican would should deliver us from the perpetual nightraise an outcry, and that the Nuncio would in mare of a Papacy ever ready to make a truce some way or other protest. Curiously enough, with any Power except Italy, and you may however, Leo XIII. has not said a word. be sure that all Europe-I do not speak of It is curious to see on one side the unmitigated revolutionary Europe, but of our Europe, defiance, the noisily triumphant revolution, liberal and monarchical Europe-will rejoice scorning any beating round the bush and when the struggle between the Quirinal and striking blow after blow at everything con- the Vatican comes to an end. For we are all nected with religion, and on the other this of one mind; we do not wish to let loose the apparent weakliness watching all the formid- mob which deal us a mortal blow--mortal able preparations, and not betraying the for itself as well as for us." slightest symptom of fear. This independent scorning of the gravity of the struggle gives the spectacle a fascination for those behind The Civiltà Evangelica contains the followthe scenes. Meanwhile Christian Govern- ing, under the signature of Signor Sciarelli : ments are consulting on eventualities. An Last Monday evening a genial gathering took intimate solidarity has of late existed between place at the house of Dr. Leroy Vernon, when them. They feel that the hour is at hand all the Protestant pastors of the city, as well when the intolerance advocated by the autho- as many other gentlemen, Italian and foreign, rities of a great nation will become aggressive, were present. The ex-Canon of the Vatican that a general assault threatens all the moral Basilica, Count Enrico Campello, was the forces on which nearly all Europe still rests. central attraction of the company. There The fate of the Papacy interests them because was also present the ex-Monsignore Count it is attacked as the personification of one of de la Ville, to whom the following testimony those moral principles. They feel that every was rendered in my presence and that of blow at the Vatican will be followed by blows other friends by Campello, and that with at ramparts thenceforth easily shaken. Hence much feeling: "It is to him I owe it that I the impression made by the conversation in have joined the Evangelical Church. It was question, and the exchange of views, public he who persuaded me to forsake Popery and and private, which has followed. The same who introduced me to Dr. Vernon." It was informant, kept, of course, well posted up in through the reading of the "Life of Wesley" the general feelings and as to the preliminary and of his sermons translated into Italian, negotiations he has instigated, writes me to- that the heart of Count de la Ville was day (Dec. 6): "I am for an independent opened to the gentle influence of the faith. Pope in a Rome merged in Italian unity. I He had for some time from political motives want the ancient city, with its environs, renounced all relations with the Court of to belong to the Pope alone. I want him Rome.

A SOCIAL EVENING IN ROME.

GERMANY.

Ultramontane party spoke against the new measure, which was also discussed and made the subject of resolutions in the

PROVINCIAL SYNODS.

are

I may

May all these protests be accompanied by
practical results! I will not enter, as I in-
tended in my last letter, into the details
of the debates of the Provincial Synod,
as many of the matters discussed
not of sufficient general interest.
mention, however, one incident. In the
province of East Prussia, there was formed,
a few years ago, an auxiliary society to the
Berlin City Mission. This society supports
three city missionaries, of whom two work in
Berlin, and one, according to a condition
made when the society was formed, at
Königsberg. The Synod of the provinces
of East and West Prussia is the one which
has the strongest "Liberal" contingent. The
abovementioned auxiliary gave the Liberal
deputies a welcome opportunity to attack the
City Mission. The latter was characterized
as an undue interference from Berlin, and it
was even proposed that the collections for the
work should be stopped in the province. But
this proposition was fortunately rejected after
a very animated discussion with sixty-eight,
against thirty-nine votes.

THE CHURCH

which is to be built here as a memorial of the Emperor's preservation from two attempts on his life, will be erected on the Wedding Platz, in the north of Berlin, among the poor

of

MR. REGINALD RADCLIFFE,

The

Liverpool, has been here a few weeks, holdBadeker and Pastor Stockmeyer, from Switing evangelistic meetings, jointly with Dr. zerland. Though the attendance was not so great as at Dr. Somerville's meetings, the benefit will be felt, we trust, in a deepening gentlemen met with encouragement. of religious life among Christians. The object specially in view was the less attained as only a few people out of the irreligious masses were reached by their preaching. The clergy of Berlin rather kept aloof from the movement. This was partly due to the fear of that the evangelists worked by themselves sectarian tendencies; partly, also, to the fact without seeking the assistance of the local

pastors.

MR. HENRY THOMPSON,

of London, stayed here a few days on his journey to Italy. He succeeded in forming a German Committee to aid in the securing the abolition of the gambling-houses at Monte Carlo. Among the members I mention the President of the German Branch of the Evangelical Alliance, Count Bismarck-Bohlen.

SPAIN.

THE CORTES AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

THE ULTRAMONTANE POLICY REJECTED.

The Rev. Dr. Rule writes to the Watchman, describing as follows the earlier stages in the proceedings of the Spanish Cortes:

"It will be remembered that the answer of the Senate to the King's Speech passed by a very great majority of votes, and this answer was a declaration of the mind of the Senators in exact agreement with the expressed intentions of the Ministry. A similar course of political debates followed in the Congress, continued through two months at length, and the answer of the Deputies, also in full accordance with the policy of the Cabinet, was passed on November 15 by a majority of 280, the minority of 33 showing the comparative weakness of the so-called Liberal-Conservative section of the Chamber. This vote was come to amidst great excitement, amidst which Cánovas del Castillo strove in vain to get a

hearing for a last speech in opposition. Cánovas had been President of Council of Ministers after the restoration' of the Prince of the Asturias, now Alfonso XII,, whom he was the chief agent in bringing back under the pretence of being a Liberal; but Cánovas was known to be an Ultramontane in politics, was a declared patron of another project for the re-establishment of the old Inquisition, and was for six years the indefatigable manager of a gradual change of laws and administration.

"The speeches, tedious for multitude and length, well represented the various shades of politics, as maintained earnestly by several political bodies, each organised under its respective leader, and for the accomplishment of its own object, but it is gratifying to observe that those who support the Government, as do nearly all, appear agreed to put the wel