GREAT BRITAIN.

Protestantism.—THE CONFLICT OF PARTIES IN THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH during the last three months has been uncommonly violent. In England it has been principally the Confessional question, in Scotland that of the Real Presence, which have agitated the minds. Another clergyman of the Establishment, Rev. Mr. West, has been accused of forcing the use of private confession, in a highly indelicate manner, upon a sick woman; but a committee appointed by Bishop Wilberforce, of Oxford, to investigate the charge, has acquitted him. The Bishop of Rochester regrets not to be able to interfere with the practice of private confession and other HighChurch practices at Harlow, on account of legal difficulties. The Bishop of Winchester has refused to institute the Rev. Mr. Southey to a rectorship in his diocese for having preached the High-Church doctrine on the Eucharist, and has strictly forbidden the exhibition of any floral decoration in the churches during divine service. Several other bishops have made strong declarations against the introduction of the confessional. But the Bishop of Exeter offers an asylum to those who have to suffer for their High - Church opinions elsewhere, and refuses, also, on doctrinal grounds, the institution of members of the evangelical party to benefices in his diocese. The Bishop of Aberdeen, in Scotland, has suspended Rev. Mr. Cheyne for extreme views on the Real Presence, and the Episcopal Synod, appealed to by the defendant, has affirmed this sentence. The evangelical portion of the Scottish clergy wishes the abrogation of the Scottish service, as "leading to Romish views of the Lord's Supper," and the adoption of the English instead of it, but has, in this point, not been supported by the bishops. THE MISSIONARY ZEAL has received a new impulse by the new openings for the propagation of Christianity in Asia. The Established Church has erected new bishoprics at Nelson and Wellington, in New Zealand, and in British Columbia, and several other bishoprics are to be formed without delay. After the completion of these arrangements, the Church will have connected with her forty-four colonial bishoprics. The Jondon Missionary So

ciety has collected £13,000 as a special fund for sending twenty more missionaries to India. . The Wesleyans have sent three missionaries to British Columbia, and several more to India, in which latter country their schools have largely increased the number of pupils. The members and friends of THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE held a well-attended meeting on October 26th and the following days, in Liverpool, in which city it was commenced thirteen years ago. The catalogue of topics and the names of the promoters, among whom are several bishops of the Established Church, assign to this conference an importance not enjoyed by any previous purely British assembly convened by the Evangelical Alliance. THE WESLEYAN CONFERENCE, which met in Hull, had a long discussion on the practice of reading sermons. Rev. W. Arthur expressed himself strongly against it, and the Conference, though not passing any resolution on the subject, seemed generally to share the opinion, that the practice of reading must never become the practice of Methodism. The increase of Church members during the year in Great Britain was announced as 6,996, and 22,611 on trial; and it was resolved to address memorials to the government against the desecration of the Lord's day by measures of the government, and against the policy of the government with regard to India. The autumnal session of THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION OF ENGLAND AND WALES was held toward the close of October, at Halifax, Yorkshire, and was characterized by an entire absence of controversy. The revivals in the United States furnished the chief topic, and gave a tone to the meeting.

The Roman Catholic Church.THE JOURNEY OF CARDINAL WISEMAN IN IRELAND has blessed that country, for the first time for three centuries, with the presence of a prince of the Church; and all Ireland, to use O'Connell's expression, "from Connemara to the Hill of Howth," has welcomed his presence by those demonstrations of enthusiasm which only Celts and Yankees can display. The allegiance of the people to him, and to the cause of which he stood forth the living embodiment, was indeed roused to an unwonted pitch. In the matter of the

IRISH COLLEGE IN PARIS, the Roman Propaganda has come to the conclusion that the rectorship shall be given to one of the Irish Vincentians, who, though living in community, are secular priests. The archbishops are to draw up a new body of rules for the government of the college, and one of the Irish bishops will in future visit it as delegate from the whole of the prelates.

GERMANY.

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Protestantism. The sixteenth GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS SOCIETY, at Leipsic, was a proof that this society is still rapidly progressing. In several parts of Germany, as in the kingdom of Saxony and the Hungarian states, there is hardly a single congregation which does not contribute to it. A new source of income has been opened to the society by a decree of the Prussian government, which orders the taking up of a collection for the benefit of the society in all the churches of the Evangelical State Church. In quence of this, and the growing participation of the people generally, the income has risen to more than 107,000 thalers, by which three hundred and eighty poor congregations, of which two hundred and twenty-five are in Germany, have been assisted in building church or school. THE CHURCH DIET, which met this year in Hamburg, in order to be present at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Rugged House of Dr. Wichern, was largely attended from all parts of Germany. Among the topics which were discussed in the usual thorough manner of the German Church Diets, we mention The Union of Civil and Ecclesiastical Offices, The Duties of Larger Cities with regard to the Poor, The Rests of Paganism in the Life and Views of the German People, and the Duty of the Church with regard to them. For the first time in its history, the Church Diet met, on the part of the city where it assembled, with a very unfriendly reception, and only two of the city churches were obtained from their trustees, with difficulty, for the holding of evening services. An ASSEMBLY OF PROMINENT LUTHERANS was held on August 18th and 19th, at Rothenmoor, in Mecklenburg, under the presidency of Professor Huschke. The party finds itself in a very unfavorable position, since it has not only to contend against all the other religious denominations of Germany, for bounding off its territory and

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doctrine from those of other Churches by a broad boundary line, but also against various dissensions in its own midst. The Reformed Church is more successful than the Lutheran in its effort to bring about a confederacy of the several Reformed State Churches, and the last annual REFORMED CONFERENCE, held at Elberfeld on June 3 and 4, witnessed a real progress in the consolidation of the Church, which now only begins to awake to a consciousness how large a portion of her territory, from want of organization, has been occupied since the beginning of this century by Lutheranism. SOCIETY FOR COLLECTING THE PEOPLE OF GOD IN PALESTINE, a mystic sect, which has some offshoots also in this country, had a gathering at Cranstadt, in Wirtemberg, and heard a report of the three deputies who had been sent on a tour of exploration to the Promised Land, whose condition they had found, however, as unsatisfactory for their purpose as state of the finances of the society is. Many of the leaders of the Free Congrega tions and German Catholics, as Uhlich, Rupp, Wislicenus, Czersky, and Baltzer, met at Gotha, on September 8 and 9, in a FREE CONGREGATIONAL COUNCIL. in nearly every German state these congregations are struggling for a mere toleration, it is impossible to ascertain their present strength. They have no established creed, but are floating between Deism, Atheism, and Pantheism.

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The Roman Catholic Church.. THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATIONS held, this year, their General Assembly at Cologne, on September 6th and the following day In many respects this may be regarded as the most important General Assembly which the Catholic Associations have held as yet. The attendance, both of deputies from abroad and of the people of Cologne and the neighboring country, was unusually large. It was presided over by August Reichensperger, a distinguished orator of the Second Prussian Chamber, and for some time its vice-president. Among the speeches those of Peter Reichensperger, who is, like his brother, a prominent member of the Prussian Parliament, and has been recently promoted to a seat in the highest judicial court of Prussia, and of Professor Walter, of Bonn, are mentioned by the German press as being the most remarkable. The members of the General Assembly participated, as a body, in the festivities accompanying the consecration of a statue in honor of the

immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. The procession held on this occasion, and in which also the mayor of the city, the city councils, the trades, and an immense crowd of people took part, is said to have been the greatest that Cologne, the German Rome, has seen for many years. The next General Assembly will be held either at Freiburg, in Baden, or at Prague, in Austria. Several Bavarian cities desired to invite the General Assembly, but the design was abandoned, because it was considered as certain that the king, who is not a friend of the Catholic associations, would refuse the permission. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF AUSTRIA has declared her intention to revive the regular celebration of the Provincial Synods, which, though ordered by the General Council of Trent, had fallen into disuse in Austria for nearly two hundred years. There is no doubt that the observance of this law will tie the connection of Austria with Rome closer. THE JESUITS have again attracted the attention of Germany to a high degree. While there is a want of priests in most Austrian dioceses, and also in many of the religious orders, they have a large overplus of novices. Their colleges are thronged with the children of the nobility of Austria, Bavaria, and other parts of Germany. They have also continued to hold missions in the larger Protestant cities, and in many a place have had a hard struggle against the Rationalistic views which st prevail in the population of most German towns.

SWITZERLAND.

Protestantism. - THE NINETEENTH ASSEMBLY OF THE HELVETIC PREACHERS' ASSOCIATION, which was held at Aarau, on August 17 and 18, occupied itself principally with the question, How far a greater union between the various State Churches is desirable, and by what means it can be brought about? It was generally conceded that "the advancement of infidelity, the extension of the sects, and the encroachments of Rome," made a greater union than exists at present desirable. Regular conferences of the State Churches, as they were held for the first time in Zurich on April 27 and 28 of the present year, were unanimously recommended as the best means for arriving at the union. But various opinions existed as to the question how far it would be desirable, for the present, to carry the idea of centralization. Some

speakers advocated the organization of a Helvetic Synod as the Supreme Legisla tive Board for the Reformed Churches, but this seemed to the majority, at least, premature, and it was thought best to aim for the present only at obtaining for the State Church, of every canton, a Presbyterial constitution. The entire separation of Church and State had few, if any, friends among the clergy; but, on the other hand, no one contested the opinion of Professor Hagenbach, that every Protestant Church ought to have a constitution of her own, and not be entirely governed by the State, as is, for example, still the case in the canton of Basel. A proposition to change, by invit ing the laity generally, the Preachers' Association into a Church Diet, after the model of that of Germany, was rejected as too radical. THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS of the whole world, held General Assembly at Geneva, where important questions, with regard to the condition of the youth, and the means of bringing the rising generation more effectually under the influence of Christianity, were discussed. The great relig ious ANNIVERSARIES AT BASEL had the same grand and impressive character as in former years, and the missionary society of that city has recently received a rich legacy of four hundred thousand francs. The question of an entire SEP ARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE has been recently agitated in the cantons of Vaud and Neufchatel, and in both cases two parties, very much opposed to each other in other points, the conservative friends of the free Evangelical Churches, and the ultra radical patrons of Atheism, have united in demanding it. In neither case have they been successful, but in both they have succeeded in wrenching some concessions from the friends of a rigid State Churchism. The attitude of the cantonal governments with regard to the INDEPENDENT RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS is still wavering between toleration and intolerance, but the old laws of Switzerland are generally maintained in their full rigor against he Mormons, who have succeeded in everal places, as Berne and Zurich, tollect congregations.

reported as amounting to fifty-four. The Catholic associations declared as their primary objects for the present, to raise funds for establishing Catholic Churches in Protestant countries, and for providing poor candidates of the priesthood with the means to secure a theological education, to assist the bishops in establishing seminaria puerorum, which are still wanting in almost all the Swiss dioceses, to circulate Catholic books, and to establish in every parish a parochial library. The number of CATHOLIC COLLEGES will soon be increased, as the institutions at Freiburg and Brieg, which, before 1817, were under the charge of the Jesuits, will soon be reopened. The Catholic college at Schwytz, which was founded a few years ago by Father Theodosius, an enterprising Capuchin monk, and the most active priest of Catholic Switzerland, counts at present seventeen professors and two hundred pupils. THE CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE POPE AND SEVERAL CANTONS continue. The Grand Council of Tessin has refused to acknowledge the spiritual authority of the new Bishop of Como, and the Federal government to sustain the appeal of the bishop. The canton of Aargan has wrenched from the Bishop of Solothurn and the Pope a concession in the question of mixed marriages, (between Catholics and Protestants,) the priests being now directed to publish the bans of all such marriages, even if the education of the children in the Catholic Church has not

been promised. The government of Berne has resolved not to permit the Bishop of Freiburg to exercise episcopal jurisdiction in the city of Berne, but to demand from the Pope the reception of the Catholic congregation of the capital into the diocese of Basel, to which the greater part of the canton of Berne belongs.

SCANDINAVIA.

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Protestantism. The Protestant press has a right to point with pride to the almost unanimous condemnation of the INTOLERANT ECCLESIASTICAL LEGISLA TION OF SWEDEN by the other Protestant Churches. After the example of France, energetic declarations have been made by Belgium, England, and America. Belgium the synod of the Evangelical Church has expressed, without a dissenting voice, its concurrence with the protests of the French Protestant Churches, and in England au address to the same effect has been numerously signed by the FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XI —9

bishops of the Established Church, by peers, members of Parliament, and other distinguished persons. The efforts of the friends of religious liberty, and in particular of the Protestant press, have not been fruitless; but there are hopeful signs that even the government of Sweden itself begins to be ashamed of the exceptional position which, among Protestant nations, it sustains to the question of religious liberty.

FRANCE.

The Roman Catholic Church. THE JOURNEY OF THE EMPEROR through a part of France, and in particular through the Bretagne, the most Catholic of all French provinces, has given to the clergy an opportunity to rally round him in extraordinary numbers, and to overwhelm him with their ovations. However objectionable some features in the policy of Louis Napoleon may appear to them, they cannot but recognize with gratitude that the greater influence which they now exercise on large classes of the people, and especially on the schools, is mostly owing to the patronage of the government. The emperor has raised their hopes still higher by making, in a public address, the emphatic remark that France must always preserve its Catholic character. That is a more serious admission on the part of the State than the government of Louis Philippe ever made. THE LAWSUIT AGAINST COUNT MONTALEMBERT, which the government has instituted on account of a sharp criticism of the count on the Napoleonic regime, will not jeopardize the good harmony between the emperor and the majority of the French clergy; for Montalembert has long ceased to be looked upon as the eloquent champion of the Church, and is himself so disgusted with the political subserviency of the clergy and the present leaders of the Catholic party, that he severs every day more the ties which formerly connected him with that party. THE INTEREST IN FOREIGN MISSIONS, which characterizes the French Catholics, is continually increasing. Of the strength of this interest some idea may be formed from the fact that, during July and August, four corporations, the Seminaire des Missions Etrangères, the Congregation of Piepus, the Society of Marists, and the Order of Notre Dame de Zion, sent about seventy of their members as missionaries into foreign countries.

Protestantism. - THE SECRET SPREADING OF BAPTIST PRINCIPLES among