Peter and the vicegerents of God, to dissolve the bonds of civil government whenever and wherever government clashes with the plans or doctrines of the Church; the date of the temporal sovereignty of the Bishop of Rome, and hence a new era both in the form and genius of the great apostasy; the date when Antichrist became not only a "harlot," a "Babylon," but the "little horn" and the "beast." Not that Antichrist had even now attained its largest growth of iniquity, or in its secular aspirations its greatest insolence of power; but that here and at this date it fairly puts on that historic outgrowth and form which answer to the descriptions of prophecy and the intimations given of the date of the 1260 years. From this period the rivalry between the miter and the crown openly raged, wherein the former, firmly seated in the superstitions of the masses, became thenceforward ascendant. Two hundred years afterward Gregory VIII. completed the structure which was laid in Gregory II. and in Stephen III.

We have not space for other branches of the argument leading to the same result, and must submit it upon the grounds herein already set forth. What, then, may be claimed as proven? 1. The Antichrist which struck the eye and engrossed the symbolism of prophecy was an arrogant, corrupt, persecuting, spiritual autocracy, the arch enemy and grand terror of the true saints, the leading obstacle to the advance and triumphs of the Gospel. 2. This Antichrist is clearly set forth as combining the distinct and heterogeneous characteristics of spiritual and political sovereignty. By the one it assumed to sway and decide the spiritual, and by the other the temporal and civil destinies of mankind. It is an apostate Church, organized into a spiritual theocracy, and a political usurpation corrupting the kings of the earth. 3. This mammoth power, the terror of the saints and the scourge of the earth, is to continue 1260 natural or solar years. It is then to fall to rise no more. But as, from the nature of the subject, as above shown, the event of its falling, as that of its rising, involves the revolutions of opinion and great moral changes of society, and must therefore be more or less gradual, it is not to be supposed that the power of Antichrist will continue in full force till the end of this period and then fall in one solar day or year, but that it shall wane, and the triumphant

cause of truth advance, till at the end of the 1260 years it will become an observable, recognizable fact of history-perhaps marked by positive dates in the constitutions and laws of nations, and in the extension, acts, and attitude of the visible Church-that "Babylon is fallen," for "strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." "Rejoice over her thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her.” 4. That the date of this period of 1260 years can be determined in no other way than by comparing the descriptions of prophecy as to the character and form of Antichrist, and the intimations of the time of its appearance, with the established facts of history; and just where, in the progress of history, the Church is clearly seen to take on this predicted form and character, just there we are to fix the date of the period in question. 5. As the date of the prevalence and reign of Antichrist must, according to the principles here laid down, be fixed at A. D. 756, therefore the end of the predicted period of his reign must be 756+1260-2016-the year of the Christian era set by Infinite Wisdom for this long-prayed-for event. Amen, and amen.

The events which are to follow the downfall of Antichrist, or the period of the 1260 years, are topics to be separately considered, not belonging to the plan of this article.

ART. VI.-LIBERALISM IN EUROPE.

The difficulties in writing contemporary history are as great to-day as they ever have been. Nor have the improvements in communication, and in the diffusion of information by railroads, the telegraph, and the press, made it easier to judge accurately of particular events, and of leading public characters, or of the single elements of current history, than it was in the times of our revolutionary forefathers, or in the age of Columbus or Pericles. Opinions are now formed more rapidly, but probably not more correctly. True as this is of the great mass even of critical thinkers, it is to a greater degree so of the general public. The diversity of opinions about the characters of measures and of men in their own land is greatly

increased when we pass within the confines of another nation, with another tongue, and with prejudices based upon ancient antipathies of race and radically different social order.

That honest journalists, looking necessarily from their peculiar standpoints, should give a certain coloring to their writings and see significance in events not admitted by their opponents, is but what may be justly expected. But, as a rule, the journalism of the day is corrupted to a fearful degree by personal passion, party spirit, national prejudices, or pecuniary interest. And, again, no class of writers have done more to spread and confirm party divisions and the prevailing misapprehensions of each other by neighboring lands, than those travelers who pass rapidly through them, whose observations thus must be of the most hasty and superficial kind, but whose correspondence is written in a graceful or brilliant popular style, and is all the more valued because it claims to be impartial. Most readers have neither the capacity, time, nor inclination to examine these conflicting statements and sift out from them the truth concerning the events transpiring in other lands.

The history of our late rebellion furnished a most striking example of the difficulties a public in a foreign land labors under, in forming a correct opinion of great movements in other nations. Young countries always know more of the old lands, from which they have been colonized, than the old countries do of the new. But yet an extraordinary ignorance has been displayed by the writings and conversation of even the most learned men of the most learned nations of Europe concerning the antecedent American history, the merits of questions at issue in the contest, or the relative strength of the parties engaged. To this ignorance was added the confusion introduced by an active body of Southerners, who made gigantic efforts to mould European public opinion by their private intercourse in society and the publication of books and pamphlets. Disloyal Northerners wrote for the European press.* Correspondents were sent from Europe to America, to write down the

* During the last Presidential election we met, in London, a Mr. N—, of New York, who was employed by the Standard and Herald to write editorials upon American affairs, and also the "Letters from Richmond" and other parts of the South that graced the pages of those journals.

North and write up the South.* To give their correspondence a more insinuating character, it often contained "pictures of American social life." These were, at times, published in religious and family papers, and made Americans abroad burn with indignation, even more than the perverted presentations of our political life. The result was that the most cultivated classes of the most cultivated lands of Europe had very confused and erroneous views of American politics or society.

On the other hand, many of the most entertaining letters and books of European travel published in America excite the greatest indignation when reread or republished in Europe. And the letters of the "Paris Correspondents" upon the state of Europe often excite surprise and laughter, and would excite indignation had they any bearing on critical diplomatic relations.

It is thus, with a full knowledge of the difficulties of the task, that we attempt to present in our short article a view of the principles, divisions, present condition, and apparent tendencies of the liberal party in Europe. We expect in some, perhaps in many parts, to fall short of a true picture. But we shall, in all modesty, attempt to present the parties so true to the life, from their own statements and those of their enemies, that all honest-minded and well-informed partisans will recognize the portraits. Without adhering rigidly to any system, we will first approach the subject geographically, and then treat of some of the most marked characteristics of the general party divisions.

We will go first to the land where an Asiatic civilization has crowded upon European soil, and whose social and political institutions were crystalized during the latter parts of the middle ages, and have remained fixed during the changes that have swept over Western Europe. The Sultan of Turkey, his cabinet and foreign ministers, and a few other persons of rank, earnestly desire to see the modern sciences and arts introduced throughout the Ottoman empire. They are making especial efforts in Constantinople to establish popular scientific and artistic journals, and to introduce into the schools modern textbooks. They believe modern science and culture as compati

*The "New York Correspondent" of one of the leading conservative papers in Berlin was a retired major who lived in Potsdam, sixteen miles from Berlin.

ble with the Mohammedan religion, as was the brilliant Arabic culture from the seventh to the seventeenth centuries. The great mass of the Mohammedan priests and people as yet resist this movement, as an insidious but effectual undermining of the religion of the Prophet.

The other nationalities in the Ottoman empire-which, by the way, are treated by the government with a liberality not found in any non-Mohammedan country-are in a condition. with reference to progress very similar to that of the Turks. A few leading spirits are endeavoring to introduce reforms and new life. But the masses are wedded to the traditions and the ways of their fathers. The spirit of enterprise that pervades the faculty of the Armenian College at Smyrna is worthy of imitation in any land. Among the Greeks of Asiatic and European Turkey, a few merchants support by their money and influence the institutions of the nucleus of their future political hopes at Athens. But the great mass of Armenians, Greeks, Bulgarians, and Albanians are as stationary as they were four hundred years ago. In Asia Minor the true party of progress is the Catholic Church-this enemy of progress, in Western Europe.

In Wallachia, which the believers in the near approach of the reign of Antichrist think will form the fifth toe of the right foot of the great image to be formed from the restored Roman empire, there is at present a most active political life. Prince Couza, by a coup d'etât á la Napoleon, has broken the power of the Wallachian feudal aristocracy, but apparently only to increase his own, and to establish a dynasty on the throne. He is trying to lead a national movement, and to persuade the eleven millions of Wallachians who inhabit Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, Bessarabia, and a few adjoining lands, that he is to be their Victor Emmanuel, and Wallachia is to be their Piedmont. A similar position exists in Servia, except that the prince there has no constitutional assembly to oppose him.

In that other and vaster empire to the north, that unites Europe and Asia, covering nearly half of both, and whose government is also more Asiatic than European, political life can hardly be said to exist. The ancient and powerful aristocracy have for a long time brought pressure upon the emperor for a constitution similar to the "Magna Charta " that king John granted