GREAT BRITAIN.

THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES. -The agitation which has sprung up in the Church of England in consequence of the publication of the Rationalistic Essays and Reviews, is still on the increase. The work itself was issued in Febuary, 1861, by the greatest publishing house of England, in a fifth edition, and one of the seven authors (the "Septem contra Christum ") has since been elected to the influential position of rector of one of the Oxford colleges. This seems to indicate that the party has gained some strength among the clergy and literary classes; but already the evangelical element in the Church has become aroused. Petitions are numerously signed, praying the bishops to arrest the spreading of the heretical movement; even the powerless Convocation is appealed to for effective measures. In some places the Evangelical party and the High Churchmen have united to combat the intrusion of Rationalism the more successfully, and some of the bishops, at least, have declared their intention not to ordain any candidate who is infected with the neological views. This rise of Rationalism may have contributed somewhat to an abatement of the controversy between the Evangelical party and the High Churchmen. In the diocese of London, it is true, the irritation of the Tractarian clergy and their friends against the bishop for his vigorous opposition to their Romanizing innovations has not abated, and the bishop has even been threatened with legal proceedings. But in other places a reconciliation seems to be aimed at, and the High Church party have had

the satisfaction to see two of their friends, (Revs. Messrs. Cheyne and Neal,) who by their advanced Tractarian principles had drawn upon themselves the disfavor and the censure of their diocesans, restored to their ecclesiastical functions. The ranks of the High Churchmen themselves, however, are divided by a split which is daily widening. The organ of the extreme Romanizing portion, the Union, has become so openly and defiantly Popish, that the better elements recoil from what it advocates as the ultimate end of High Churchism.

While the Church of England is rent within by this Rationalistic controversy, a struggle no less fierce awaits her on the political arena. The Dissenters are not discouraged by the defeats which the motions for an abolition of the Church rate has hitherto met with in one or both houses of the English Parliament, but have been making more energetical efforts than ever before for obtaining from Parliament at least a first installment of their abolition. Many liberal Churchmen are fighting in this question by the side of the Dissenters against the great prerogative of the state Church; although, to the great regret and astonishment of the friends of ecclesiastical independence, the Record, the leading organ of the Evangelical party in the Established Church, uses its great influence for the preservation of the rate. The support

of Mr. Disraeli, who has tacked the unconditional advocacy of the existing Church rates to the platform of the Tory party, promises to be of less, if of any, service to the cause, as it will tend to enlist the sympathies of the Liberal party, to an even larger extent than before, in favor of abolition. It is even believed

that Mr. Disraeli's plan will give a new impetus to the endeavors of those who demand the abolition not only of Church rates, but of all official connection between the established Church and the State. Thus, for example, the Spectator remarks: "Let Mr. Disraeli induce the clergy to back his scheme, and he and they will probably see a liberal reaction, which will not stop short at Church rates if once aroused by the spectacle of a body of ministers of Christ working day and night to secure the continued existence of a compulsory Church rate." | The sympathy of public opinion with the abolitionists has even induced a zealous High Churchman, Mr. Hubbard, to prepare for the session of Parliament, which commenced on February 4, a compromise measure. He warns the clergy not to believe that which they are now so forward to declare, that there is any such change of public feeling as will enable the Church to resist all attacks upon these rates. And the Guardian, a High Church organ, thinks that if no such compromise is now adopted, the opportunity of saving part of the rate for the Church may pass away forever.

Scotland is kept in a lively agitation by the progress of the Cardross case, the nature and history of which have been fully recorded in former numbers of our Review. The dissenting denominations of Scotland support, as it appears, with entire unanimity, the right of the Free Church of Scotland to execute against its ministers the ecclesiastical decrees of the General Assembly. The course of the government, on the other hand, has the approval of the Congregationalists of England, and as the London Patriot says, of quite a number of the provincial press of Scotland.

A third series of commemoration services in honor of the Scotch Reformation took place on December 20, the three hundredth anniversary of the meeting of the first General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. This meeting may be said to have completed the "First Reformation" of Scotland, and it was natural that the three hundreth anniversary of the day should be selected as the most fitting occasion for a grand, united demonstration. Throughout the length and breadth of the land the day was observed as a half holiday. The magistrates of Edinburgh, Ayr, Greenock, Perth, and other considerable towns, recommended the citizens to close their places of busi

ness, so as to enable themselves and their employes to attend divine service in their respective places of worship during the day, and to join in the union meetings in the evening. In Glasgow, and some other towns, where the magistrates declined to make a similar recommendation, the chief object of the holiday was secured by agreement of the leading citizens to close their places of business at an early hour. In the union meetings in the evening, representatives of the following denominations took part: Established Church, Free Church, United Presbyterian Church, English Episcopal Church, Congregationalists, Wesleyans, Baptists, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Original Secession Church, and the Evangelical Union.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.-The statistics of the Roman Church in England and Scotland, published in the Almanac for 1861, show an extraordinary increase in the number of priests, churches, and convents. A comparison, however, with other statistical documents, such as the official registers of marriages, leaves no doubt that the membership has failed to keep pace with this increase, if it has not actually decreased. In Ireland the number of Roman Catholics is believed by the best authorities to be steadily on the decrease, and amounts at present, according to a calculation of the Irish Times, to 3,450,000 souls in a total population of 5,950,000. On the other hand, it is believed that Dr. Cullen, the ultramontane Archbishop of Dublin, has succeeded in bringing the priesthood of Ireland generally into a subserviency to the Pope and the hierarchy, such as would have been ridiculed as impossible in the early part of this century. The success of the Papal tribute, and the thousands who were secretly drafted off for service in the Papal brigade, are regarded as significant signs of a revived vitality in Irish Romanism, and so are the vast numbers of chapels, convents, nunneries, orders of lay brethren, and the remarkable and universal hostility to missions.

GERMANY.

THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES.-The new year has opened in Germany with a considerable increase in the influence of Rationalism on the government of several state Churches. In Baden, where, for several years, the learned

Dr. Ullmann, so well known throughout, the theological world as the able editor of the Studien und Kritiken, the best theological quarterly of Germany, has been at the head of the Supreme Ecclesiastical Council, the reins of Church government have been taken out the hands of the Evangelical party and placed in those of Rationalists. In the adjoining Palatinate, a province of Bavaria, the Rationalists are likewise looking up, as the government has granted several of their petitions, and even encouraged them to put themselves in open opposition to the clergy, the great majority of whom are firmly attached to evangelical principles. These two successes of the Rationalistic party have greatly strengthened their hopes in the other German states. They regard their prospects as the more bright, since it is a well-known fact that most of the leaders of the liberal political parties throughout Germany sympathize with, and favor and promote the movement.

It is, however, highly probable that the temporary victory of the Rationalists will eventually lead to many good consequences. It cannot be denied that in Germany the Rationalists have, on the whole, been more favorable to the cause of religious liberty than the Lutheran and the Evangelical parties. In fact, they have been looked upon by the people at large as the only defenders of the principle, although they are by far less liberal than the evangelical free Churches, (Methodists and Baptists,) which, during the last years, have sprung up under the influence of English and American views. The struggle in Baden was even nominally more fought on the ground of reforms in the Church constitution than on doctrinal ground, and had therefore the sympathy of many divines, as, for example, Dr. Schenkel, who are not supposed to sympathize with the doctrines of the party. The same decree, which inaugurates the new regime in Baden, gives to the Church a greater independence of the State, and limits within the Church the hitherto prevailing hierarchical and absolutistic principle of administration by important democratic innovations.

But although the Rationalists are generally believed to have taken the lead in this movement for the reconstruction of the Protestant State Church, the other parties are at least making some advances in the same direction. In Prus

sia, the Minister of Worship, notwithstanding the opposition of the retrograde party, continues to establish parochial councils, which will give to the laity an active participation in the affairs of the Church. The organization and convocation of a General Synod of the Prussian Church is expected soon to take place. Even in the kingdom of Saxony a new Church constitution has been proposed by the government and discussed by the legislature, which, while re-enforcing again the belief in all the standards of old Lutheranism, yet provides for the regular meeting of a General Synod, with enlarged powers. Nearly all the important German states will now soon be in possession of a representative constitution, a change which greatly strengthens the hope for a brilliant future of the German Evangelical Churches.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.The attachment of the Roman Catholics of Germany to their Church shows itself in some districts stronger and more general than in most other countries. The regular collection of the Peter's throughout the land, and several inpence (one penny a week) is organized stances are recorded of congregations where every adult member is enrolled as a member of the association. No

where does the society make a greater show than in the archdiocese of Cologne, where the Mayors of Cologne, Bonn, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Dusseldorf, have accepted a place in the Provincial Committee of the Association.

FRANCE.

THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES.-The great contest in the Reformed State Church, between the Orthodox and the Rationalistic parties, has been carried on during the past three months with more than usual vigor. The lines of distinction become more marked, and the opinion is gaining ground that there will not much longer be room in the same Church for parties so divergent in their tendencies. A warm discussion has, in particular, been called forth by the publication of two letters of Mr. Poulain, formerly a "Liberal," and pastor at Havre, now pastor at Lausanne, Switzerland, who protests against the stay in the Church of men "who yield no more authority to the Bible than to

the writings of Plato and Aristotle." Other impressive declarations on the Orthodox side have been made by the newly appointed Professor Bois, at the Theological School of Montauban, who undertook the defense of miracles against the neologists, and the editor of the Espérance, the chief organ of the Evangelical party, who demands the re-establishment of the presbyterian system, with its local Synods and its General Assembly, in order to watch over the enforcement of Church discipline, and the purity of doctrine. The Rationalists, on the other hand, are even widening the breach, as some of the most talented among their writers, especially among the younger clergy, are abandoning the standard of old-fashioned Rationalism for openly avowed Pantheism. This portion of the party has found powerful allies in some of the leading periodicals of France, which openly reject the papal system, proclaim the superiority of the Protestant form of Christianity, and acknowledge the great influence of the Bible on the progress of civilization, while they, on the other hand, view the modern German systems of speculative philosophy as the truest and highest exposition of the essence of Christianity. Even that most important of all French periodicals, the Revue des deux Mondes, has opened its columns to Mr. Ernest Renan, the distinguished French orientalist, for the advocacy of these doctrines. It is worthy of note, however, that not only the Rationalistic literature, but also the chief works of orthodox French Protestantism, are favorably reviewed by not a few of the best literary papers, an indisputable sign that the literary classes of France intend to remain emancipated from the rule of Rome.

tendencies, there was found one conferring on him the Patriarchate of Franco in case of a separation with Rome. The Diocesan Chapter of Troyes, however, declared this rumor to be a vile calumny, and the Moniteur emphatically denied any sympathy on the part of the emperor with the schemes of the abovenamed pamphlet. Nevertheless, the hostility of the clergy and the "Church" party in France against the emperor seems not to have abated, and even the extraordinary service recently rendered by French diplomacy to the Roman Catholic Church in China and in Turkey, have not been able to produce a better feeling.

ITALY.

In

THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES.-The progress of Protestantism in all parts of Italy continues to be satisfactory. The former kingdom of Naples, in particular, distinguishes itself before other provinces by the willingness with which it receives the Bible. While in Tuscany and Piedmont the demand for Bibles, on the part of the native booksellers, has been very small, those of the city of Naples have bought up whole cases at a time, and they employ agents with barrows to hawk them through the streets. the villages round the city the colporteurs have also met with great success. In Umbria, formerly a part of the papal territory, the sale of Bibles has been tolerably good, though the colporteurs did not escape abuse, and were interrupted in some places by the police. Besides the Bible, a number of able Protestant works have had a good sale. The pamphlets of Dr. De Sanctis, in particular, are eagerly read, and so are the works of several other Italian converts, and it is greatly regretted that the native Protestant literature is not yet more copious. Among the translations from the English and other languages, M'Crie's History of the Reformation in Italy has, in particular, awakened a great interest, and found a large circulation. The number of missionaries and colporteurs, natives and foreigners, is steadily increasing. Among other associations, the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews will take an active part in the work of evangelization, and arrangements for immediate missionary work have been made in Leghorn, Ancona, Bologna, and other places. Thus the prospects of Protestantism may be said