nished by the station, and therefore varies much even where the roads are similar. It may happen, therefore, that if horses have been previously ordered, the traveler may find himself so delayed by a couple of stages unexpectedly slow driving as to lose his chance for the ordered horses, as they are not required to be kept for him over two and a half hours; and their detention is also to be paid for. The horses are merely large. sized ponies. It is not uncommon that the station-master or driver extorts illegal fees; or that the traveler is kept waiting an unreasonably long time for horses, with a view to the extortion of some additional sum or compel the procurement of lodgings or refreshments. With the best management one can seldom make over fifty English miles in a day, starting at six in the morning. Travelers complain that on alighting at a station they find half a dozen or more people standing about with an air of indifference, and that no authorized person comes forward to inquire their wants and assist them in getting a fresh start.

There are European cities whose rich collections of art are a constant attraction to tourists, causing a flow of money that would not otherwise come So the mountain scenery of Norway is a mine of wealth to that country, and, with some improvements in the system of travel, probably a thousand tourists might each summer be attracted where now are but a few hundred. If it were my province I would suggest that the law as to fees, and the rights and obligations both of travelers and stationmasters, be printed in the English, German, and French languages, as well as the Norwegian, and a copy in each language be kept at each station; that the time required to travel each way between stations be prescribed, and printed in schedule form, and that through inspectors or otherwise the laws in respect to travel and stationsbe more rigidly enforced. At the present time the station-masters have everything too much in their own way, and are too much tempted to practice imposition on foreigners unacquainted with their language, greatly to the injury of the honest Norwegian character.

For a general notice of Norway it may be said that its climate, owing to the Gulf stream, is mild. The mean temperature at Christiania is 420 Fahr.; at Bergen, where there is much rain, 46° 7'; at Trondhjem 40°. The harbors of the two last-mentioned cities, as well as of Molde, do not freeze in the winter. At the latter place, which is in latitude of about 630, and where there are some beautiful villas of Christiansund merchants, I noticed some larch-trees that were two feet in diameter; also an European oak of large size. English cherries were ripening there in the latter part of July, and numerous thrifty apples-trees were loaded with fruit the size of English walnuts. The crops of rye, barley, oats, potatoes, and hay were in good condition.

The population of Norway is almost a million and a half. It is the healthiest country in Europe, its rate of mortality being only 18 per year per thousand inhabitants. In 1865 there was one-third of an acre of cultivated land in proportion to each inhabitant; but there remain great tracts which by drainage and clearing can be reclaimed to agriculture, and the dairy industry especially is capable of extensive development as savings and capital shall increase. There are 131,780 farms cultivated by their owners, and over 15,000 farms cultivated by tenants. The annual value of field-crops, exclusive of the hay-crop, which is the largest. is 16,000,000 specie dollars-a specie dollar being equal to $1.06 United States gold. The value of the fisheries is 14,000,000 of specie a year. The value of imports into Norway is 26,000,000 of specie annually, and of exports 20,000,000 of specie. Considerable American pork, cotton, tobacco, and mineral-oil are imported in Norway, though the trade for the most part is indirect. I would remark here that as apples are worth $7 a barrel at

Bergen, it would seem that the experiment should be tried of importing apples from the United States by means of the new line of steamers between New York and Bergen. The commercial marine of Norway is over 1,000,000 tons, consisting of 7,000 vessels and 50,000 seamen, giving her rank in this industry as the third state in Europe and next after France. She has 5,000 miles of telegraph-lines, and upward of 400 (English) miles of railway. Additional railways are in progress, and will be completed in course of three or four years, viz, the road between Trondhjem and the Swedish boundary, to connect with Sundsvall; between Christiania and Trondhjem; and between Christiania and Frederickshold. A German company has lately failed in obtaining conces sions and guarantees from the government for a railway over the mountains connecting Bergen with Christiania.

The number of horses in Norway in 1865 was 144,900; of horned cattle, 945,600; of sheep and goats, 1,992,400; of swine, 91,900; of reindeers, 101,800.

The public revenue for the last fiscal year, 1872, was 7,325,000 specie dollars. The expenses were 5,520,000 specie dollars. The receipts exceeded the estimates by 480,000 specie dollars.

The public debt, principally contracted for railways which the state owns, is eight and a half million specie dollars, interest for a part at 4 and for the balance 4 per cent. The bonds were originally disposed of at 97 per cent., and are now worth 99 per cent.

The amount annually paid for public schools, derived principally from local taxation, is about 1,000,000 specie dollars. Something over that sum is annually spent for the army. The amount appropriated for the royal family is 130,000 specie dollars a year.

Christiania, the capital, is a pretty and rapidly growing city of seventy thousand inhabitants.

While there I visited, in company with the United States consul, Mr. Gode, one of the common public schools. The building was new, finely situated, spacious, and well furnished, and the children, belonging to the industrial classes, were without exception tidily dressed and exceedingly well appearing. I also visited the cell-prison, which, in size and appearance, much resembles the new jail in Boston.

Bergen is a city of forty thousand inhabitants, and constantly increasing in commercial importance. As I hope soon to be able to furnish the Department with further facts in regard to Norway, in a report which I expect to prepare on the condition of the industrial classes, I will merely remark in concluding that the country appears to be fully awake to modern ideas of culture and progress.

I have, &c.,

C. C. ANDREWS.

No. 111.]

XXXI.-SWITZERLAND.

No. 437.

Mr. Rublee to Mr. Fish.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Berne, November 30, 1872. (Received Dec. 30.) SIR: The Catholic question continues largely to occupy public attention in Switzerland.

In my No. 107, of October 5, I gave some account of the conflict which had arisen between the government of the canton of Geneva and the

hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Since that time the situation has remained substantially unchanged. The government adheres to its refusal to recognize M. Mermillod either as bishop or curé of Geneva. M. Mermillod continues, in fact, to exercise the functions of bishop, and is recog nized as such by the Church. The moderate salary which he formerly received from the public treasury as curé is withheld, but generous contributions and offers of aid from devoted admirers in France relieve him from all solicitude in regard to financial support. Some 20,000 franes were promptly collected at the bureau of the principal Catholic journal in Paris, and forwarded to him with the assurance that further sums would be forthcoming when required.

One of the first results of the conflict was the introduction in the grand council of the canton of a bill providing for the complete separation of church and state. This, however, after a protracted discussion, was rejected by a decided majority. The conseil d'état thereupon announced that it would shortly propose a measure providing for the election of curés by the congregations of the several parishes, to hold their offices for a specific term. Such laws have already existed for many years in a number of the cantons, including some of the Catholic cantons.

On the 10th instant elections were held for members of the grand council of Geneva. This body appoints the members of the conseil d'état and upon the result of these elections depended the character of the cantonal government for the ensuing three years. The struggle turned altogether upon the question of sustaining the government in the attitude it had taken in the Mermillod affair. The party favorable to the govern ment achieved a signal triumph. Its candidates received nearly fourfifths of the votes cast. It may be fairly presumed, however, that many of the opposite party, seeing no prospect of success, abstained from voting. The vote, however, was one of the largest ever cast in the canton; nevertheless, the number of votes polled was only about two-thirds of the number of voters inscribed on the registry list.

A controversy of greater significance, in some respects, has since occurred between the government of the canton of Soleure and the functionaries of the Church. It is not, as in Geneva, a controversy between the civil authorities of a Protestant canton and the Catholic Church. In Soleure a difference has arisen between the functionaries of the Church themselves, and the government of a distinctively Catholic canton gives an energetic support to the opponents of the dogma of infal libility with the apparent approval of a large majority of the people. The canton of Soleure is comprised within the bishopric of Basle, the residence of the bishop being in the city of Soleure. Toward the close of the month of October last the bishop, Monseigneur Lachat, suspended one M. Geschwind, the curé of the commune of Starrkirch, from the exercise of ecclesiastical functions, upon the ground that the said curé had refused to accept the dogma of infallibility, and in the press as well as from the pulpit had taught doctrines inconsistent with those of the Church; at the same time the bishop proclaimed the excommunica tion pronounced by the council of the Vatican against those who deny the infallibility of the Pope in force against M. Geschwind in foro er terno ecclesiastico, as it had been long since in foro conscientia. The congregation of Starrkirch at once indicated the purpose of sustaining their pastor against the bishop. The conseil d'état of the canton, apprised of the action of the bishop, addressed him a note on the 1st instant, informing him that his attempt to remove the curé without consulting and without the concurrence of the civil authorities was regarded as illegal and an abuse, and that they should sustain the cure under

the circumstances by all the means at their command. They reminded the bishop that if there was good ground for proceeding against M. Geschwind his proper course was to present specific charges against him. At the same time the conseil d'état notified the commune of Starrkirch that it was expected that the curé would remain at his post and perform his duties. A Capuchin monk, who had been sent by the bishop to officiate in the church of Starrkirch on Sunday, the 3d instant, was dismissed by the president of the commune, and M. Geschwind continued to act as curé. On the same day the people manifested their satisfaction with the course of events by erecting a tree of liberty before the church, while the parochial council held a meeting, and, by an unanimous vote, adopted resolutions approving of the manner in which the curé had discharged his duties both within and without the church, declaring that they absolutely declined to receive another curé, and that if he were in any manner disquieted in the exercise of his office they would invoke the protection of the government.

The bishop replied to the note of the conseil d'état, denying the right of the government to interfere in his relations with the clergy of his diocese. The following day the conseil d'état adopted, with unanimity, a resolution that the revocation of M. Geschwind was illegal and based solely upon the circumstance that he held and had taught the Catholic faith as it was recognized and professed up to the year 1870; that it was the duty of the state to protect its citizens against injustice; and that the commune and the curé of Starrkirch should be notified that the said curé was recognized by the government as the only legitimate cure of the parish, and would continue to be so recognized as long as neither the parish nor the collator presented any formal complaint against him, and until he had been removed with the participation of the government itself. Subsequently this action of the conseil d'état was approved by the grand council of the canton, after a full discussion, by a vote of 79 to 21.

In the mean time public sentiment found expression through various municipal and other meetings. The communal council of the city of Soleure on the 16th of November, after three and a half hours of discussion, adopted by a vote of 18 to 4 resolutions affirming that the doctrine of papal infallibility is in contravention to the authority of the democratic state; that it jeopardizes religious peace, which is a social necessity for Switzerland; that it is without binding force upon the members of the church, and that it shall not be permitted to be taught either in the schools or churches of the city of Soleure. Copies of these resolutions were directed to be forwarded to the cantonal government, to each of the communes of the canton, and to the bishop; and an official meeting of the electors of the school district comprising the city of Soleure was called for the 24th instant to pass upon the resolutions thus adopted. At the latter meeting a large majority of the voters approved the resolutions, the minority abstaining from participating in the proceedings.

On the 17th instant a meeting of the commune of the city of Olten was held, Olten being the second town of the canton in importance, and resolutions submitted to the voters by the communal council of the city were unanimously adopted to the following effect:

1. Public and solemn protest against the dogma of papal infalli bility.

2. Communication of this protest to the bishop of Basle and to the government, with an earnest request to the latter for the adoption of

energetic measures to prevent the teaching of said dogma in the churches and the schools.

3. Declaration of earnest sympathy with the commune of Starrkirch in its firm attitude respecting the conflict between the bishop and its pastor.

On the 19th instant the diocesan conference of the bishopric was held at Soleure. Of the seven cantons composing the diocese, Soleure, Berne, Basle, Argovie, and Thurgovie were represented. Lucerne and Zug withheld from the meeting. The conference adopted an elaborate preamble and resolutions in condemnation of the course pursued by the bishop. It declared that in promulgating the dogma of infallibility contrary to the decision of the diocesan conference of August 18, 1870, and in illegally attempting to remove the curé of Starrkirch, the bishop had placed himself in flagrant contradiction with the oath he had taken when he swore obedience and fidelity to the governments composing the diocese of Basle, and to conclude no arrangements and to take no part either within or without Switzerland in any affair of a nature to menace the public tranquillity. The conference further pronounced that the dogma of infallibility is not recognized and has no legal force; that the bishop is prohibited from inflicting censures upon priests whose only of fense is in opposition to that dogma; that the bishop can only remove curés with the participation of the cantonal authorities, and finally that the bishop is summoned to withdraw unconditionally, within fourteen days after his reception of the proceedings of the diocesan conference, the excommunication promulgated by him against the Curés Egli and Geschwind. The Curé Egli is a curé of the canton of Lucerne, who was excommunicated a year or more since for refusing to accept the dogma of infallibility.

The conference adjourned to meet at the expiration of the period given the bishop for withdrawing the excommunications launched against the curés, in order to take further action at that time if it should be deemed necessary. In the mean time all the states of the diocese will be urged to participate in the adjourned meeting.

The action of the conference has been approved by the governments of the five cantons that were represented in it. During the past week the nuncio of the Pope accredited to the Swiss Confederation has had an interview with the President, and is reported to have entered an earnest protest against the position taken by the government of Soleure and the action of the diocesan conference.

One of the immediate results of the agitation is the enactment of a law by the canton of Soleure providing that the office of cure shall henceforth be elective for a fixed term, and that the cures shall be chosen by a vote of the electors of their respective parishes.

On to-morrow a meeting of delegates representing the several old Catholic societies of Switzerland will be held at Olten to form a more effective organization. At the same time a popular meeting is called. in which all sympathizing with the movement are invited to participate, and addresses are to be given by prominent old Catholies, both from Germany and Switzerland.

At a time when the Catholic question holds so prominent a place in European polities, I have thought this brief narration of the recent occurrences in the canton of Soleure might not be without interest. In general, where dissent has been manifested in the Church with the new dogma, that sentiment has hardly assumed the dimension of a popular movement. It has been confined to the few, to persons of a certain degree of intellectual culture and training, or to those who, if nominally classed as