repealed. Together with this desire for a greater independence of the state, many wishes are heard for a closer union of the various Church governments. To this end a General Conference has been proposed by Zurich. Among the subjects of deliberation selected for the first conference, we find the appointment of chaplains for the army, a uniform celebration of Good Friday, and others. The Church government of Berne has invited the other cantons, though without the hoped-for result, to address a joint memorial to the Federal Council against the marching of federal troops on Sundays. The religous press seems to prosper. Although already very numerous, it has received a new re-enforcement at the beginning of the present year. The most important among the new papers seems to be a bi-monthly, published at Lausanne, which promises to advocate the principles of a free evangelical Church.

The Roman Catholic Church.At the late election of a new National Council, the ultramontane party has not been so successful as, after a few partial victories during the last years, it anticipated.

It has elected all its candidates in five cantons (Ure, Zug, Schwytz, Fribourg, and Valais) and two half cantons, (Unterwalden ob. dem Wald, and Appenzell inner Rhoden,) and some of them in the cantons of Lucerne and St. Gall, but counts no more than about twenty representatives among the one hundred and twenty members of the National Council. No ultramontane member has been elected to the executive of Switzerland, the Federal Council, which consists of seven members, and is elected for three years. Three entirely Catholic cantons, Lucerne, Soleure, and Tessin, which are in the hands of the Liberals and Radicals, continue to suppress the last convents still existing within their territories. Argovie and Grisons are quarreling with their bishops on account of the mixed marriages. stances have again occurred where agreements, concluded to the satisfaction of both parties between Swiss bishops and the cantonal governments of the respective dioceses, have been rejected by the pope. Ultramontanism is growing very strong and bold in Fribourg and Valais; but it has been unexpectedly defeated in one of three old Swiss cantons, (Unterwalden nid. dem Wald,) which were considered as the firmest strongholds of ultramontanism in all Europe.

In

SCANDINAVIA,

The Lutheran Church.-The defeat of the noble proposition of the Swedish king for establishing greater religious liberty in the Swedish Diet, is a sad proof how far even Protestant nations may go on the way of fanaticism and intolerance. The sentiments expressed by the opponents of the bill, especially by the leading speakers of the clergy, find a parallel only among the most violent ultramontanes of Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Even the punishment of exile for secession from the State Church, has not been repealed. Though it has been generally admitted that the execution of such a penalty has become inexpedient on account of the international law, the leading speakers of the clergy have declared their belief that, considered in itself, it is a good and recommendable measure. No member of the House of Priests has spoken in favor of the royal proposition, and in one province two hundred and eighty out of four hundred and fifty-seven clergymen have petitioned the Diet for maintaing the penalty of exile, some of them even wishing to render it more severe. More creditable to Sweden is a proposition, made by the Law Committee of the Diet, for a reorganization of the Swedish Church, which hitherto has been without a constitutional organ. It authorizes the king, as often as it pleases him, to convoke a "General Church Assembly," consisting of all the bishops, the pastor primarius of Stockholm, four professors of the theological faculties, thirteen representatives chosen by the clergy, and thirty representatives of the laity, all with equal rights. This assembly, however, is not to have any legislative power, but only to express to the king the wishes of the Church.

Roman Catholic Church.-A Danish correspondence of a Belgian paper, republished in the Univers, says that several members of the Danish aristocracy have recently joined the Church of Rome. It mentions the chief of one of the first families of the nobility of Holstein, Count Hahn, a brother of the authoress Countess Ida Hahn Hahn, who took the same step some years ago, and a son of Count Blome, of Salzau.

BELGIUM.

The Roman Church.-Never since the independence of Belgium has the ultramontane party suffered so signal s

defeat as at the two elections toward the close of last year: At the former, in October, when one half of the Belgian towns had to renew their councils, hardly one case was heard of in which the Catholic party elected its candidates; at the second, on December 10, when a new Chamber of Representatives was elected, sixtyeight Liberals were chosen to forty members of the Catholic party. The attendance at the polls was uncommonly large, partly owing to the urgent exhortations of the bishops, who recommended the Catholic candidates in pastoral letters. Of 89,631 voters which Belgium has at present, 76,141 took part in the election. Nearly 34,000 votes were cast for the Catholic candidates, leaving about 42,000, almost all nominal Catholics, who disregarded the commands of the bishops. The new ministers are tried friends of the principle of religious freedom, and will preserve it unimpaired in concert with the new Chamber of Representatives.

The Protestant Church.-The Belgian Evangelical Society has published another very favorable annual report on the state of its Churches and missions. It counts at present seventeen churches or stations, and twenty-three schools. It supports five colporteurs, and a Christian book concern. The expenses, amounting to 60,000 francs, have been surpassed by the receipts. Several new stations have been established during the last year. As the Bishop of Bruges has publicly repeated the foul slander that the Protestant missionaries pay a prize for their converts, the General Assembly of the Evangelical Society took measures to enlighten the public on the subject.

FRANCE.

The Roman Church. - The Emperor, since the last attempt on his life, regards more than ever the army and the Roman clergy as the two safest pillars of his dynasty. The Church has received several great tokens of his confidence. The name of his eminence, the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, appears first among the members of new-established Privy Councils. The bishops of the various ecclesiastical provinces hold again, in violation of the existing law, their provincial councils without previous authorization; and the government not only grants to them this liberty, but the emperor refers to them, on the opening of the Legislature, as to a proof that FOURTH SERIES, VOL. X.-20

"the bishops enjoy the full plenitude of their sacred office." A bloody persecution of the Roman Church in Cochin China, where she counts about half a million of members, has occasioned an alliance between the governments of France and Spain, for the sake of making a common descent on Cochin China, and of arresting the persecution. Also a new law on the suppression of religious controversies in the press, though it may be used against the Roman Church, as well as in her favor, is welcomed by the Ultramontane party, which believes that it will at present be used to stifle the opposition of the Protestant, and, in general, the antiRoman press. Nevertheless, the emperor has declared again, on opening the Legislature, that it is the wish of his government that the principle of freedom of worship shall be sincerely admitted; and a pamphlet, setting forth the views of the Ultramontane party on religious toleration, has been judicially condemned. The split between the "Univers," on the one hand, and Count Montalembert and his friends, on the other, is still carried on with the utmost bitterness, to the great amusement of all unconcerned. But the "Univers" is every year more backed by the large army of monks, which increases with great rapidity. In order that none of the many religious orders of the Roman Church may be unrepresented in France, the Barnabites, who until now had only Italian and Russian members, are now establishing a convent and a novitiate.

Protestantism.-The proceedings of the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance at Berlin, which are published in a French, as well as German and English edition, are exciting in France an uncommonly great interest. France has hardly any High Church men, and therefore the sympathy with the objects of the Alliance is universal. The vexatious interpretations which so many magistrates of the provinces put on the liberty of worship, as established by French law, has called forth an eloquent defense of the good right of Protestantism, by the Journal des Debats, which has been re-echoed by the liberal press of all Europe, and will not remain effectless, though the military despotism which at present reigns in France may prevent, for some time, further discussions of this kind in the French press.

ITALY.

The Roman Church.-On November 15, Sardinia had to choose a new Chamber of Representatives. It was an important day for all Italy, for the issue of the election was to decide whether Protestantism and religious liberty would continue to find protection in the only asylum they have throughout the whole land. The ultramontane party declared the Church to be greatly endangered by the liberal policy of the government. Pastoral letters of the bishops, which were read on the Sunday preceding the election from every pulpit of the kingdom, urged the faithful to cast their votes only for candidates sincerely attached to the Church. The Catholic press, very few in number, but unsurpassed in violence of language, denounced beforehand every priest as recreant to his duty, who should fail to use to the same end all means within his reach; for, as the Armonia, of Turin, the leading Catholic organ of Sardinia, remarked, "if of two candidates the one is a Catholic and the other proposes to combat Catholicism, it becomes a duty for the priest to use all means within his reach to secure the election of the Catholic candidate." Notwithstanding such exertions the cause of religious freedom has been victorious, the election resulting as follows: Ministerial Deputies, eighty; Left, thirty; Extreme Left, eight; Center of the Right, thirty-seven; Extreme Right, forty-eight; total, two hundred and three. The first three of these factions, which combined form the majority of the Chamber, are divided and united in their opposition to any encroachment of the priesthood. The Church can rely only on the Extreme Right, as the Center of the Right, though not opposed to some concessions to "the religion of their fathers," is very far from identifying itself with the tendencies of ultramontanism. In one of its first sessions the new Chamber resolved, with eighty-eight votes against thirty-five, to institute an investigation on the influence of the clergy in the election. Eight priests who had been elected, have been excluded, and the ministry, in concert with the Radicals, seems to be inclined to confiscate the whole property of the Church, and to have the salaries of the priests paid by the State. In Rome, Prince Lucien Bonaparte, a cousin of the French emperor, after having received, some years

ago, the minor orders, has now been ordained a priest. The ultramontane party is probably right in cherishing the hope that this event will strengthen the influence of the Roman Church in European politics. The extraordinary favors conferred by the king of Naples on the clergy and religious corporations of his kingdom, have not yet satisfied the pope,

who insists on the conclusion of a concordat. The negotiations with the other Italian courts, for the same purpose, have as yet had no effect; only Modena appears to be willing to make the demanded concessions.

The Protestant Churches.-According to a report published by the Table (highest ecclesiastical board) of the Waldenses, their congregation in Turin numbers at present two hundred and sixty-five members, all converts from the Roman Church, and sustains three schools, with one hundred and eight children. The congregation of Genoa has one hundred and eighty members, and a school frequented by thirty children. A newly-established mission at Favale already counts thirty-five members. The congregations at Asti, Alexandria, Voghera, Sampier d'Arena, Nice, Piquerol, and Courmayeur, are all hopefully progressing.

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.

The Roman Church.-The Ministry appointed last October has already given way to another, which, like its two predecessors, courts the friendship of the Church, though it does not satisfy the ultramontane party, which considers the solution of the ecclesiastical question (that is, the restoration of the medieval power of the Church) as being again postponed. Father Morgaez, a Dominican friar, who has been long imprisoned for his opposition to the new dogma of the immaculate conception, has been released, and strenuously perseveres in his defense of ancient Catholicism against modern Popish innovations. In Portugal, where Rome has found its advocates hitherto almost only among the Legitimists, (party of Don Miguel,) a new central organ of the Catholic party has been founded, which, like the Univers of Paris, will work for the sovereignty of the pope alone.

Protestantism.-According to the Spanish Evangelical Record, a paper of Scotland, which is exclusively devoted to the evangelization of Spain, the progress of Protestantism is greater than, amid the present persecutions, would seem to be possible. The rigorous measures for the suppression of Protestantism, employed in many places at the suggestion of the Roman clergy, seem to be fruitless. In many places regular religious meetings of the converts to Protestantism have been organized. One agent reports to have made, during the first six months of 1857, for religious purposes, two hundred and sixty-one visits, and to have received, to the same end, three hundred and seventy-five. Two hundred and thirteen persons declared to him their readiness to join the Protestant Church. An officer of the army, who asked the agent for religious books, informed him that he knew more than six thousand persons who were willing to follow the Gospel as the only rule of their faith.

RUSSIA.

The Greek Church.-Russian papers report that the Greek Church, hitherto but little successful in the conversion of the pagans and Mohammedans living in Russia, is now rapidly gaining ground among the tribes in Northern Asia. A greater energy than ever before is displayed in supporting the Greek Christians in Turkey, and no means are left untried to gain their sympathies and to attach them more closely to Russia.

The Roman Church. - A correspondence of the Breslauer Zeitung has made the round of the European press, according to which the Roman Church is on the point of losing nearly one million of souls, as the whole diocese of Chelm, of the Greek united rite, intends to renounce obedience to the pope, and to join the Russian State Church. The administrator of the diocese, and the higher clergy, are said to have been wholly gained over, the lower clergy to raise no serious objections, and the people to take no interest at all in the .matter. The Univers contradicts, however, the whole report, whose inaccuracy, at all events, is established by the fact, that the whole kingdom of Poland contains no more than two hundred and seventeen thousand members of the Greek United Church.

The Oriental Churches.-The Patriarch of Constantinople and his Council have at length been compelled to give up their opposition to that part of the Hati-Sherif which aims at a reorganization of the Greek Church, and a protection of the people from arbitrary money extortions. In compliance with a demand of the Turkish government, the Patriarch and the chiefs of the nation have proposed (on January 1st) twenty names to the government, which will select among them ten, to constitute the National Council of the Greeks. At the same time it is believed that it will prove impossible to withstand much longer the demand of the Bulgarians and other Slavonian nations, to have only natives appointed as bishops, instead of Greeks sent to them from Constantinople. The Armenians have been aroused by the progress of the American missions in their midst, to a more energetic resistance; and an Armenian newspaper, published at Constantinople, takes great pains to excite prejudice against the Protestant name. The Jacobite and Nestorian Churches seem no longer to have sufficient vitality for such a resistance, and the mass of the clergy and the people seem only to hesitate whether they will prefer the evangelical or the Roman Catholic Church.

The Roman Church.-Another of the Greek bishops has submitted to the

pope, and a defeated candidate for a Nestorian bishopric has taken the same step in order to secure, with the aid of the Chaldean (Papal Nestorian) Patriarch and the Pasha of Mosul, at least one part of the Churches and property of the diocese. The number of Roman missionary priests and monks exceeds that of the Protestant missionaries; the consuls of France and Austria do more for the Roman Church than England and Prussia do for Protestantism, and by large presents many of the Turkish governors have been disposed in favor of the Roman missions. The mountain Nestorians are rapidly falling a prey to the aggressive Papists.

Protestantism.-The missionary field

continues to be cultivated with the most encouraging success, and in every branch of the work, and in nearly every part of the field, there has been progress. But some anxiety was occasioned by the intention of Sdepan Agha, the civil head of the Turkish Protestants, to resign his place from want of support, and the powerful exertions of Rome urgently demand an increase of laborers. The appearance of the first two missionaries of the Methodist Episcopal Church of America in Bulgaria, was, therefore, hailed with great joy by all the representatives of American and European Protestantism, and the hope expressed that the Methodist Church would folnew mis

low up with vigor this

sion.