sian Monarch wished to consolidate his power by alienating from the body politic, that fruitful source of discord and disunion-difference in religion.With the aid of the aforesaid Bunsen, he, accordingly, concocted a liturgy, called the Agenda, and ordered it to be used in the Protestant churches of the kingdom. For the success of this last effort at royal creed-making, we must refer to Mr. Laing's remarks on the subject below, from which the reader will learn, that the only unity this system of the Prussian Monarch is destined to produce, is that of irreligion. He was not, however, so completely stultified as to imagine that his Catholic subjects could be immediately affected by the same process, which had fused the various Protestant sects of Prussia into a heterogeneous and ill-assorted mass; but what he despaired of accomplishing by the application of any direct means, he hoped to bring about by measures no less effectual, and less likely to excite open opposition. For this purpose he resolved to profit by the intermarriages, between Protestants and Catholics, which were so frequent among his subjects; and he accordingly made several regulations regarding the education of the children of such marriages, the whole of which were intended to subserve his grand idea of realizing religious unity, by the eventual extinction of the Catholic religion within his dominions. Many circumstances seemed to promise him success; among which may be mentioned a considerable degree of coldness and apathy for the interests of Catholicism, not to mention other and more prominent, although scarcely more noxious evils, among a large number of his Catholic subjects.In an unlucky moment for the success of Frederick William's craftily-designed plan, but most fortunately for the interests of religion, the present Archbishop of Cologne entered on the duties of his high office. He resolved to act on the principles which Rome had laid down, as the rule by which the Catholic clergy were to be directed in the delicate adjustment of religious principle and royal intermeddling in the affair of mixed marriages. We need not say what were the results of this resolution. The world knows that the Archbishop was dragged from his archi-episcopal palace and city, and kept a prisoner for more than two years in the Castle of Minden, without his royal

times.

"The forced amalgamation of the Lutheran and Calvinistic churches into this third thing, neither Lutheran nor Calvinistic, and the abolition of the very name of the Protestant Church in Prussia, is undoubtedly the most gratuitous, unhappy, and senseless act of irresponsible despotism ever exercised over and submitted to by a Christian people in civilized There is much in a name. With the abolition of the name of the Protestant religion, this government has effected what emperors and popes could not do-has nearly destroyed the Protestant religion itself in Germany, and with it almost all religion. The ancient liturgy of the Lutheran, the freely out-poured prayer of the Calvinist, being both silenced in the land, the mind of the great mass of the people had nothing Christian to hold by, nothing in religion venerated as doctrines or practices of worship from former times, from respected associations with the sufferings or deeds of their forefathers. Infidelity, Deism, Straussism, and all the other forms and shapes which unbelief in Christianity can assume in the speculative, dreaming, German mind, have had free play. Protestantisin as a church, and even as a name, being abolished in Prussia, Christianity was left for its defences to the antiquated bulwark of the Roman Catholic faith. The middle ground between gross superstition and gross infidelity, on which the two Protestant Churches were planted, was seized for state purposes to build this new Protestant Church upon. The spread, in the same age, of Catholicism on one hand, and of infidelity on the other-the Catholic priest making converts on one side of the street, and Dr. Strauss on the other-shows a religious condition of the German people, which the traveller finds as unaccountable as it is undeniable, until he traces it as a natural consequence of this act of his late Prussian majesty, which cast loose at once all the ties which had held rhe public mind fast for three centuries to one or other of the two Protestant Churches."-[Laing's Notes of a Traveller.

The reader will have perceived from some of Mr. Laing's expressions that he is a very impartial witness, when he gives evidence in favor of Catholicism. Now, in p. 212 of the same work, he says: "Catholicism is, in fact, the only barrier at present in Prussia against a general and debasing despotism of the state over mind and action."

persecutor ever daring to bring him to trial for any breach of the laws of his country. A more outrageous violation of right and justice, a more bare-faced and inexcusable act of religious persecution, can scarcely be imagined; and yet, such is the force of religious and irreligious prejudice, that not only did the conductors of the press, in those countries where liberality and toleration are household words, abstain from any expression of indignation against the crowned despot, who could thus treat a venerable prelate, for acting according to his conscientious convictions; but, almost with one accord, they gave the homage of their worthless praise to the persecutor, and calumniated the defenceless victim of his intolerance. We are not, however, writing a history of the Cologne affair, which forms an epoch in the history of German Catholicism; but we have referred to it, as the cause of the favorable change which we are about to notice. Ten years ago, no one, without the aid of second sight, could have anticipated the present state of religion in that country; and this result is not limited to the dominions of the King of Prussia, but is visible throughout all Germany. Apathy has given place to zeal, irregularity to piety; systems affecting faith and discipline, which were rapidly striking root in the rich soil of German Catholicism, and which filled every true German Catholic with the liveliest apprehensions for the religious destinies of his country, have either entirely disappeared, or are withering away-unheeded and unfeared; and the attempts at royal interference, between the Vicar of Jesus Christ and the pastors of the Prussian dioceses, have had no other effect than to knit more closely the bonds whereby they are united. The late King's effort to extirpate Catholicity from the soil of Prussia has been so singularly unsuccessful, that his son and successor, the actual Monarch, was not only obliged to turn aside from the line of policy pursued by his father, but has acted on some occasions, in a manner, to cause him to be suspected of a design, to attempt the realization of the same object,-that of making unity of belief the principle of his throne's stability,-not, however, by making Prussia protestant, in the widest sense of that very elastic appellation, but by favoring among his subjects the development of Catholic principles.

The Cathedral of Cologne, one of the most stupendous Gothic edifices of the middle ages, had remained for several centuries incomplete. During the past year, the work so long interrupted was renewed, under the auspices of the Prussian Monarch, who assisted with great solemnity on the occasion.Subscriptions towards this great work have been collected throughout all Germany. Catholics and Protestants contribute with equal enthusiasm their share towards completing what they regard as a type of German nationality. While building up the walls of the material temple, may we not hope that they will see the necessity of unionizing Germany by something more than a mere type; and that they will seek a principle of union in that church of which it is the characteristic, and out of which three centuries' experience must convince them, it cannot be hoped for?

Bavaria is, and for many years has been, that portion of Germany where Catholicism finds its most congenial soil. The king of Bavaria is distinguished among his brother-monarchs of Europe, no less for the perseverance and success with which he has promoted the fine arts, than for his laudable efforts to repair the evil consequences of the misguided politicians of the last century, by encouraging religion and its institutions, which those, unhappily, labored too effectually to injure and subvert. His capital, Munich, may be called the Athens of Germany, on account of the taste and genius with which almost its very atmosphere appears impregnated; while, in a religious point of view, it yields to no other German capital, in the learning of its theological professors,

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the zeal and piety of its clergy, and the nature and number of its religious institutions. Goerres, the greatest name which German Catholicism can boast of, is a resident of Munich. There are 3,000,000 of Catholics in Bavaria. The Austrian empire contains 25,000,000 Catholics. The reigning family is distinguished by its attachment to religion, and the practice of its positive duties; and we have reason to believe that such is the general character of the Catholic population of the empire. That zeal for the propagation of religion is alive in Austria, may be gathered from the fact, that for many years an association, called after St. Leopold of Austria, has existed in Vienna, for the purpose of aiding the destitute missions of the United States; and there are very few, if any, of our dioceses, the ecclesiastical superiors of which have not, from time to time, received from it very effectual aid in enabling them to facilitate the progress of religion amongst us, by building churches, founding seminaries. and other religious institutions. In Austria itself, however, notwithstanding the favorable disposition of the Emperor and the religious character of the people, Catholicism has many difficulties to contend with. These are, principally, to be traced to the unfortunate reign of Joseph II. at the end of the last century, a monarch who, with good intentions, and not without religious convictions, suffered himself to be made the instrument of more mischief to religion, by injudicious and anti-Catholic reforms-for, in modern style, every change is a reform-than any of his predecessors, not even excepting the wars of the bad emperors of the middle ages. The principles which were then introduced into the department of ecclesiastical affairs in Austria, are, in many respects, yet acted on; and the consequence is, that Catholicism is occasionally embarrassed in its action. The good understanding which at present prevails between the Court of Vienna and the See of Rome, is thus always exposed to suffer at least a temporary interruption, which in itself, and in its immediate consequences, would be much more to be regretted than that which has terminated so gloriously for religion in Prussia. We say, in its immediate consequences, for we are perfectly satisfied that such misunderstanding, if it did occur, could never be of any long duration; and as to its remote consequences, these would be unquestionably more favorable to religion than the actual system ever can be. Indeed, so convinced are we of this, that we would not be very unwilling to see them brought about, even at the risk of disturbing, for a while, the present unsatisfactory calm; but we are encouraged to hope that this desirable end may be otherwise attained; and from the many indications of a willingness, on the part of the members of the present government, to remove the causes of complaint which their predecessors so unwisely originated, we anticipate most favorably for the Church throughout the Austrian empire.

In the other portions of Germany, not included in the two last named kingdoms, and Austrian empire, Catholicism has numerous adherents. In Hanover the members of our faith number about 260,000, or about one-fifth of the entire population. In the Great Dutchy of Oldenburg, they are 68,000, or about one-third of the population. There are 3,000 Catholics in the free city of Hamburg; 2,000 in the Dutchy of Brunswick; 120,000 in the Electorate of Hessen, and 170,000 in the Grand Dutchy of the same name. One-half of the population of the Dutchy of Nassau is Catholic; the royal family of Saxony is Catholic, although the great body of the nation is protestant; and two-thirds, or about 750,000, of the population of the Dutchy of Baden profess the ancient faith. In Wirtemburg the Catholics are numerous, although we are not able to state their exact number, or the proportion they bear to the entire population; but in the principalities of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, which are comprehended within its limits, the number of Catholics is 66,000.

Let us pass over from the European continent to the British islands, and see what is the actual condition and what the prospects of Catholicism in those countries, which respectively received from ancient ecclesiastical writers the highest encomiums for the orthodoxy and piety of their inhabitants. Compared with the entire population of Great Britain, the actual number of Catholics in that island is small; certainly not more, if so much, as one-eighth of the number of the inhabitants. That this, however, is an increase on their former numerical strength, we may learn, if from no better authority, at least from the public apprehension caused by what is called "the alarming progress of Popery." For the last twenty years, conversions to Catholicism have been of frequent occurrence in England; but during the year last past, they are said to have equalled those of the ten preceding years. Nor is this a mere increase in numbers.The greater part of these converts are men of fortune,-some of them of princely incomes,-or men belonging to some one or other of the learned professions; and not a few of them have been beneficed clergymen of the Established Church. It is a very remarkable fact, that among the numerous and powerful advocates which Catholicity at present has in England, the most prominent, probably the most numerous, are converts. If the actual state of Catholicism be so encouraging, its prospects are of the brightest that can gladden the eye of faith. We will of course be understood to allude to the spread of what are called "Puseyite doctrines" among the English clergy; with the nature of which we must suppose our readers already acquainted, and of which, therefore, we shall merely say that, on almost all points in which we and Protestants differ, they are only to be distinguished from the tenets of the Catholic Church by the aid of a theological microscope, of exceedingly magnifying powers.

We are not able to state, with any thing like certainty, the extent to which these doctrines have pervaded the ranks of the English clergy; but certain it is, that they are widely spread, and if they have not been adopted by one-half, or, as we have very lately seen in one of the public prints, two-thirds of the members of that body, it is beyond doubt that the most learned and respectable of the clergy, and not a few among the laity, have identified themselves with these principles. What the result will be, no one, of course, can say; but when we consider that thousands of fervent souls, throughout Europe and in this country, daily approach the Throne of Grace to ask the Father of Mercies to regard with an eye of pity that once hallowed isle; when we compare the gradual but very marked advances to Catholic truth which Puseyism, as it is called, has made, in its successive developments; when we hear the desire for re-union with the great body of Catholic Christendom openly expressed, in language that comes from the deepest well of human sentiment and conviction; we cannot persuade ourselves that this extraordinary sect is to have no other result than, like the curve of mathematics, continually to approach the line it is never destined to reach.

Not only is Ireland Catholic, with the exception of about one-ninth of its entire population, but it appears as if Providence permitted that afflicted country to be so long tried by sufferings for the purpose of aiding the triumphant march of Catholicity throughout the world." Of those countries at all visited by Europeans, it would certainly be much easier to say where Irishmen are not to be found than where they are; and the exceptions to the general rule, that wherever the Irishman is, there is also that religion which would seem a portion of his nature, are, thank God, few indeed. It is not much more than half a century since Irish Catholics were allowed a slight relaxation of the infamous penal code, which for nearly two centuries disgraced the statute book of Eng

land, and not entirely fifteen, since the last link of persecution was broken off; and yet such is the advance of Catholicism in Ireland, that within the last thirty years, it is calculated, no less than nine hundred churches have been either erected or re-built there. Our augmentation in point of numbers, has no parallel in history but one-the increase of the Israelites during their Egyptian bondage. At a somewhat later period than the middle of the last century, Mr. Burke stated the number of Catholics in Ireland at 1,700,000; and there is no reason to believe that he underrated them; and yet, notwithstanding the influence of so many causes, calculated to check population, distress, pestilence, civil and foreign wars, and an emigration on a vast scale to all parts of the habitable globe the number of Catholics in that country, at the present day, is supposed to be not less than 8,000,000. Poor as Ireland proverbially is, her name holds a very prominent place among the nations that contribute towards the French Society for propagating the faith, her mite being only surpassed in amount by the sums collected in France and Belgium for that excellent association.

Besides the above enumerated kingdoms of Europe, the Catholic Religion is found in the Ionian Islands, in the newly erected kingdom of Greece, of which the reigning monarch is a Catholic; in Moldavia, Wallachia, Servia, and that portion of the Turkish empire comprehended within the geographical limits of Europe. We need not say that in these countries the Catholics are in a minority of numbers, there not being more in them all than 400,000. The prospects of Catholicism are, however, more cheering than its actual condition in those several countries. To speak now only of European Turkey. More than one traveller has predicted the speedy and wide diffusion of our religion in this once eminently Christian portion of Europe. Among these, we may mention, Rev. M. Etienne, a very distinguished member of the congregation of St. Vincent of Paul, who wrote a letter, a few years since, in support of this assertion; and the accomplished and entertaining author of "A Steam Voyage Down the Danube."

In terminating this portion of our hurried sketch, we cannot but remark that the prediction of Count de Maistre, published in 1809, seems much more probable now than when first uttered by its eloquent and philosophic author :"France will be Christian; England Catholic, and Europe will yet sing High Mass at Constantinople!"

Our observations on the state of Catholicism in the different countries of Europe have occupied so much space, that we are obliged, in mercy to the reader, to abridge those we otherwise would have to make on the same subject in the other great divisions of the globe. We do this the less reluctantly as we propose to give a series of papers on the history and actual condition of the Catholic missions in those countries; so that a rapid glance at our numerical strength there, is all that we can at present permit ourselves to take. We hope, however, that brief as this enumeration must necessarily be, it will enable us to complete our view-at least in the outline-which we have attempted to sketch of the extent of Catholicity.

In Asiatic Turkey, including the isle of Cyprus, the number of Catholics is 800,000. Russia in Asia has a Catholic population of 500,000; Persia and its provinces, 350,000; Turkistan, 100,000; Affghanistan, or Cabul,-so lately the seat of British aggression, massacre, and barbarous revenge,-50,000. In Southern India, on this side of the Ganges, there are also large bodies of Catholics. Pondicherry and the Coromandel Coast has about 60,000. The Apostolic Vicariates lately established in Southern India, comprehend the districts formerly under the care of the Archbishop of Goa and his suffragans, and contain about 800,000, including many native converts, the descendants of Por