with the Pope, and paid the Clergy from the national exchequer. This arrangement was maintained from 1814 to 1848, by the two dynasties of Bourbons and Orleans. Thus France has possessed, in this short space of time, free churches and communions allied to the State.

The discussion will be a long and complicated one. A certain number of decided republicans will consent to give a salary to the Priests, but it will be upon this condition, that the Priests shall be regarded as public functionaries. "We will pay you," say they, "because you can render good service to society; but remember that, in receiving public money, you must consider yourselves as the servants of the State, and accept the high direction of Government." To this, the organs of the Clergy reply with indignation: "No, we never have been, we never will be, public functionaries. We do not derive our mission from the State. The spiritual power must not be subordinated to temporal authority. Our only Master in heaven is God; our only head upon earth is the Pope. Give us, then, a pecuniary endowment, but leave us completely free to do as we please in matters ecclesiastical."

You may easily suppose that our democrats are little disposed to assent to any such arrangement. "What!" they exclaim, "you wish to take our money, and refuse to recognise the supremacy of the State! Every advantage would be reaped by you, and every expense would be paid by us. Truly, that were a fool's bargain. No, no; one of two things: either you shall not receive a single centime from the national treasury, or you must submit to the legitimate control of the powers that be."

Pius IX. has interposed in this quarrel by a special brief. He has written to his Nuncio, residing at Paris, a long letter, in which he urges the two following arguments:-1. The salary granted to the Ministers of the Church is but a poor recompence for the large amount of property of which the Clergy were deprived in 1789: it is a debt which the State must discharge towards the Priests. 2. Should the Clergy cease to be paid, religion would greatly suffer by it; for an immense number of Catholics are poor, and have not the means of defraying from their own purse the expenses of public worship.

This reasoning of Pius IX. will assuredly have some weight with the National Assembly; but the partisans of the voluntary principle will also throw

into the balance some serious arguments. Among others, M. de Lamartine, who has become the most influential personage in our country, is favourable to a complete separation of Church and State. He wrote, some years back, these eloquent lines: "Neither believers nor sceptics, Catholics nor Dissenters, Christians nor Rationalists, Church nor State, neither one nor other of us, possess real liberty. We are fettered, we are mutually oppressed; and in oppressing ourselves, we oppress something more holy than ourselves, the truth! ay, the divine truth, which we oppress in our false embrace, and of which each of us sacrifices a part in our apparent concord. Either she must be wholly sacrificed, or we must separate. There is no medium: God suffers in us."

M. de Lamennais has proposed the draft of a constitution, in which he has inserted an article as follows:-"Every one professes his religion with equal freedom. All religious denominations are independent of the State. None are paid by the State, but all are protected." Having been attacked upon this point by journalists of an opposite opinion, M. de Lamennais has replied, "We wish the complete enfranchisement of the spiritual man. This is the most elevated character of the new era inaugurated by our Revolution. But the reason and the conscience cannot be fully free, if they reenter, in any manner whatever, into the domain of the State; and yet such is the result of public payments for the support of religion. For the State cannot pay a Minister of religion, except in the quality of a public functionary. The functions of the Priest, therefore, must be functions dependent upon the public authorities! ......... Besides, they who grant a salary may withdraw it; and it may be forcibly cut off by the State, in certain foreseen or unforeseen circumstances, by way of penalty. Another fetter upon the liberty of the Priest, placed at once as a Priest under the authority of his spiritual superiors, and as a functionary under those of the State. These

are briefly the reasons why we require that the State should not salary the Ministers of any religion."

A number of Protestants, very distinguished for their intelligence and piety, maintain the same position as M. de Lamennais. You know with what ardour and constancy M. Vinet pleaded for the separation of the Church from the State. His disciples faithfully follow in his steps. Our best religious journal, the

Semeur, is a very decided partisan of the voluntary principle; each of its Numbers is filled with this question. I have already spoken of the society formed at Paris for the "Application of Christianity to Social Questions." The members of the Committee have published several pamphlets in favour of separation. They are now obtaining signatures to a petition to the National Assembly for the same object. Here are a few lines from this document: "Is it for the sake of religion that churches are to be paid by the State? But the need of religion being universal and imperishable, the religious sentiment, abandoned to itself by the State, will be well able to find the form and the resources which are necessary to it. The churches which deserve to live will live; those which cannot support themselves prove by that very fact that they do not respond to the moral wants of the population. Is it from a motive of justice that churches are to be paid by the State? But it is unjust to compel a citizen to contribute to the expenses of a religion which he does not practise, and which he perhaps rejects. Finally, are churches to be paid by the State for its own interest? But an established Clergy have proved dangerous allies to every Government which has committed the mistake of supporting itself by their aid. How perilous for the Republic, should it be possible for the Government of its choice, in consequence of the maintenance of establishments, to be led in its turn to commit the same faults!"

I have placed faithfully under the eyes of your readers the different documents upon a disputed subject: they will judge for themselves upon which side is right, justice, and truth. I shall refrain from expressing, in this place, any opinion upon so difficult a question.

Amidst these general topics, the particular facts which relate to Romanism and Protestantism have lost much of their interest. Nevertheless, a trial, commenced against the "Brethren of the Christian Doctrine at Toulouse," has caused considerable excitement in the public mind. These Brethren are a species of Monks, who, like Priests, make a vow of perpetual celibacy, and are devoted to the instruction of youth. Their own education is very imperfect: they teach the children to sing litanies in honour of the Virgin, and blindly to practise the forms of Popery, rather than to fulfil the duties which become the man, the citizen, and the Christian.

A very scandalous affair has lately brought some of these Brethren before the judicial tribunals. One of them was accused of the double crime of rape and murder. A young woman, fifteen years of age, was last year found dead at the gate of the monastery; and it was proved, by numerous witnesses, that this horrible offence had been committed within the walls of the establishment. I should not narrate this fact had it not been followed by certain incidents which have revealed once more the immorality of monastic and Romish institutions.

During the trial several Brethren appeared before the Judges, and-shameful spectacle !-after having solemnly sworn to tell the truth, they uttered the most odious lies! Evident contradictions, palpable falsehoods, abominable perjuries, seemed to cost their consciences not the slightest uneasiness! They came, one after another, these Brethren, who pretended to be more perfect, more holy than the rest of mankind, and who set themselves up as a model to laymenthey came forward to affirm that which was false, and to deny that which was true; and why ?-to screen a wretch from the punishment he deserved! For this man, convicted of the atrocities which I have mentioned,-this murderer of a young female,-was a Monk! He belonged to their community! He had received clerical consecration! He was the Lord's anointed! Therefore, according to the logic of the sacerdotal caste, he should not be condemned by the civil authorities. His monastic character rendered him inviolable: the Priest alone has a right of jurisdiction over the Priest! And thence it has resulted that the Brethren did not shrink at the most enormous immoralities to secure his acquittal.

The Magistrates severely censured this detestable conduct. They reproached the Monks of Toulouse with sacrificing truth and duty to the interests of a caste. The prisoner was condemned to hard labour for life, and the sentence was approved by the whole of France. The Brethren of the Christian Doctrine are ruined in the opinion of the public, and by their own fault. When will they learn to respect the eternal laws of conscience and the Gospel?

Nothing of any importance has taken place since last month in our Reformed churches. An "Assembly of Protestant Delegates" is now sitting at Paris. Their design is to take measures for promoting harmony and re-organization in our communion; but will they be

able to attain their end? Will they have sufficient authority to secure the general adhesion of the flocks, supposing they succeed in preparing an ecclesiastical law? This is a matter of doubt.

The delegates have not all been chosen in the same manner. Some owe their election to the consistories; others have been chosen by universal suffrage; others, again, have received no official mission. Certain churches have sent a great number of delegates in proportion to their population; others have not sent any. There is, therefore, nothing regular, nothing normal, in this Protestant Assembly, either as to the mode of election, or the proportionate number of members. It is an immense pêle-mêle, a complete mass of confusion. What can come out of this chaos?

And yet it is very desirable, it is even necessary, in existing circumstances, that we should attain greater harmony. If each flock remain in its isolation, if the Pastors and Elders persist in pursuing opposite paths, we run the risk of falling to the dust. Religious liberty has its advantages, but it has also its perils. The greater our freedom in relation to the law of the land, the deeper will be our experience of the need of mutual support by a strong ecclesiastical constitution. May the Lord, in his infinite mercy, deign to overrule the deliberations of our delegates, and inspire them with a spirit of wisdom, prudence, and firmness, which can alone restore to our Reformed churches their ancient prosperity!

This is also the period for holding the meetings of our religious societies. Their position is full of difficulty. The financial crisis from which France has been suffering during the last two months, has operated in a most deplorable manner upon our Christian efforts.

The subscribers are not so numerous, and the subscriptions are less considerable. Look where we will, there is a deficit. The Missionary Society, seeing that its receipts were so much below its expenditure, has been compelled to close the house in which its future Missionaries were being educated. This determination has grieved all the friends of the Gospel; but it was impossible, in such critical circumstances, to act otherwise.

Let us hope that this measure may be temporary only. The Evangelical Society, devoted to Home Missions, has equally suffered a great deficiency. It has been compelled to diminish the number of its agents, and to abandon some of its stations. The supreme law of necessity has here again dictated the decisions of the Committee.

I relate these things with sorrow, it is true, but without discouragement. The sacred cause of Christianity cannot perish: it will not succumb. Though we are now passing through troublous times, we have confidence that even this trial will turn to our good. It is impossible, when all classes of the French are suffering in their business and property, for these misfortunes not to re-act upon our religious societies. But we shall learn hence to trust less in ourselves and in our own strength, since we are so soon brought low, and to seek with greater humility the protection of the Lord.

Our prospects for the future are cheering. All things prove, as I said at the commencement of this letter, that Romanism is mortally wounded. It has an appearance of life, but in its fundamental principles it is dead. Its traditions are rejected by the humbler classes; its false dogmas are abandoned; its clerical hierarchy can no longer sustain itself; its ceremonies are turned into ridicule. The entire Papal edifice is like an old tower, which threatens to fall at the first gust of the storm. There will thus be a wide field opened for us. Already some symptoms of adhesion to the principles of the Reformed church are manifest. You have read, in my former letter, an account of the success obtained in the village of Gommecourt. Our religious journals now state, that in the little town of Mansle, where Pastor Roussel preached the good tidings of salvation two or three years since, the Romish Cure has been compelled to take to flight, with the Nuns who superintended a female school. Other parts of France are animated with the same spirit. Rome, I repeat, has run out her course, and the reign of the Gospel will spread throughout the earth. Let us labour in a spirit of faith, and we shall see great things! X. X. X.

: France, May, 1848.

EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION-LETTER FROM AN ENGLISH CLERGYMAN-BANISHMENT OF REV. C. BAUP-ARREST OF REV. M. MONNERAT-FUTILITY OF THE ALLEGED GROUNDS OF THE PERSECUTION INFIDELITY AND PROFANITY OF THE PERSECUTORS.

ANOTHER month, and we have no mitigation to report of the bitter and intolerant spirit which is displayed by the authorities against the objects of their hatred. They appear determined, while their power lasts, to use it with odious and cruel rigour. The persecuting decree of the Council of State is no idle threat, no inoperative instrument of imbecile malice. The letters we have now to lay before the public, detail fresh instances of Pastors torn from their flocks and their families, and banished to remote parts of the country; and of others mulcted in pecuniary fines. Among the latter will be found the name of the widow of the late Professor Vinet; and among the former, that of our own friend and correspondent the Rev. C. Baup.

Nothing can be more unfounded than the pretence upon which this wicked effort is made to suppress the worship of the obnoxious congregations. It has been the common plea of persecuting Governments in all ages, and is nothing else but the practical exemplification of the fable of the wolf and the lamb. The true ground of hostility is, not political misconduct on the part of the persecuted, but implacable enmity 66 against the Lord, and against his Christ,' ," on the part of the persecutors. It is a consolation to perceive that the steadfastness of the Pastors remains unshaken, and that we hear of no defection from their flocks. Faith and patience I will outlive the storm, and flourish the more for the severity of the discipline to which, in the mean time, they are subjected. If it were not superfluous, we would again express our sympathy with our afflicted fellow-Christians; and to our dear brother, Mr. Baup, in particular, as personally known to us, and as having by his interesting letters kept us constantly informed of the progress of

events, we would offer, not our condolence, but our congratulations, in the language of the Apostle, that unto him "it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but to suffer for His sake." They may all assure them. selves that they have a constant place in the prayers of all the devout readers of this journal; and that special supplica. tions will be offered for them, and for the people of God in every part of Christendom, that in these eventful times they may be "kept from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth."

FROM AN ENGLISH CLERGYMAN TO THE REV. E. BICKERSTETH.

You will, I have no doubt, be grieved to hear that our friend Mr. Baup has been selected as another victim of persecution, and has just been banished to a distant part of the canton. Whilst engaged last Sunday morning in administering the Lord's supper to a portion of his flock at his own house, the Préfet and a Commissioner of Police entered to dissolve the meeting. Happily they did not arrive until the service was over, and he was in the act of pronouncing the blessing. In reply to the summons of the Préfet, he protested against the act, representing that they were peaceably met to serve God, and that they had caused disquietude to no one, but said, he must bow to the power of the Magistrate, and the meeting separated. The Préfet was civil and courteous; for, although sympathizing with the principles of the Government, he is entirely opposed to religious persecutions, and in favour of liberty his companion, however, was more violent, but did nothing more than take the names of all who were present. About the middle of the week Mr. Baup received the decision of the Council of State, which was, banishment into Echallens, a town near the northern extremity of the canton, about forty miles distant from this. As Vevey was his Commune, it was necessary for them to resort to this extreme measure, in order that the punishment might be sufficiently severe.

We visited him yesterday, and found him full of meekness under his sufferings. The choice was given him, either to go into voluntary banishment, or be conveyed by the military; and he chose, I think rightly, the former alternative. There was the appearance of leniency in his case; for they gave him a few days to prepare, which he employed in comforting the sorrowing church, of which he had been the much-attached Pastor for some years. He is greatly beloved by his people, and his gentleness and courtesy gained him the esteem of persons of all parties. This step has caused lively sensation in the town; but the Swiss character is very apathetic, and consequently I do not apprehend that any public remonstrance will be made against the arbitrary conduct of the Executive Government.

On the previous week, M. Monnerat met with no such leniency; for while he was going to visit a sick relation, at the early hour of six in the morning, he was met by two soldiers, gendarmes, who arrested him, refusing him permission to go home to see his wife and children, and procure clothes. This may serve as an instance of the hostility to the truth. These are only isolated cases.

You are acquainted with the reason alleged in justification of the conduct of the Government, that the meetings out of the pale of the Established Church are an occasion of disturbance to the public peace. In the first place, the assertion that they are an occasion of disturbance is entirely gratuitous, and without a shadow of foundation. In the second place, it is an encouragement to persons of bad character, and who hate the truth, to make such a disturbance

under the shield of protection: and in this manner the saying of the Apostle is reversed; for the Magistrate in the Canton de Vaud holds the sword for the punishment of well-doers, and to reward those who do ill.

It is

The characters of the men correspond to their actions. One of the members of the Council of State died the other day, suddenly, who was a notorious disciple of Voltaire. He made a violent speech in the Grand Council during the discussion on religious liberty, in January, against the Bible and its distributors; and the Bible Society of England came in for a share of his enmity. reported that he, with some companions, whilst at a café, parodied the Lord's supper, and gave the bread and wine to their dogs! I believe that most of the other members are either avowed infidels, or secret ones. What can be expected when such men are the Government of a country? But the Lord is evidently turning the counsel of these Ahithophels into folly; for all acknowledge that the truth is gaining ground, and sympathy increasing for the truth, and for those who suffer for it. How distressing to see a country long supposed to stand alone in the midst of Europe for its love for liberty and for the cause of God, at this moment exhibiting the sad pre-eminence of being foremost in the list of persecutors! News arrives daily to gladden the Lord's people. Even at Constantinople and in Sardinia, civil and religious liberty and rights have been granted to the long-oppressed Christians; but in free Switzerland the chain is tightened.

April 29th, 1848.

THE RUINED CITIES OF YUCATAN. The following are the general characteristics of all these ruins :-They are situated upon a plain of many miles in circumference, nearly in the centre of the province, upwards of one hundred miles from the sea, and away from all water communication. They have no apparent order, or laying out of streets, as the plan shows; but that they bear evidences of a people highly skilled in the mechanical arts, as also in a portion of the sciences, must be conclusive to my

readers. The buildings which are now in the most perfect state of preservation are the temple, castle, pyramid, and other erections, upon a succession of terraces composed of rubble, imbedded in mortar, held together by finished walls of fine concrete limestone, the sides of which are invariably located with reference to the four cardinal points, and the principal fronts facing the east. The walls of the buildings rise perpendicularly, generally, to one half the height, where there are entablatures; above