GREAT BRITAIN.

THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES. The British Branch of the Evangelical Alliance held its fourteenth annual con

ference at Nottingham toward the close of October, and was warmly wel comed by evangelical Christians of all denominations. The report which the president, Sir Eardley Culling, gave of the operations of the past year, clearly showed that the Alliance in Great Britain does not fail to fulfill its great mission. It increases in large classes of the population the interest in the progress of religion in all parts of the world, it strengthens the bonds of union between evangelical Christians of all denominations and persuasions, and it is specially useful in enlisting the attention and the co-operation of the British Christians in behalf of those countries and Churches which stand in need of aid from abroad. It was the general impression that this year's meeting was on the whole one of the most interesting that the British branch has yet held. Another meeting to which the evangelical Churches had looked forward with a great deal of interest, was the Tercentenary of the Scottish Reformation, which took place at Edinburgh from the 14th to the 17th of August. A number of interesting papers were read, but on the whole the festivity did not come up to the general expectation. The presence of Mr. Chiniquy, who has since been making the tour of the principal towns in Scotland, soliciting subscriptions for the establishment of a library and theological seminary, was the event of deep interest, and the establishment of a Protestant institute for more effectually carrying on the missions among Roman Catholics, will prove one of its most important resolutions. The Revival of Religion continues to be very marked, especially in Scotland and in some parts of Ireland. Deeply interesting papers on the history and present aspects of the revival movements in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales were read at the late meeting of the Evangelical Alliance at Nottingham. A considerable degree of interest among large numbers of the working class population was excited by the preaching

of a Staffordshire miner, Richard Weaver. The gentlemen who associated themselves with Mr. Weaver in his labors were so thoroughly satisfied that spiritual good is being done by his means, that they have prevailed upon him to promise to devote himself to similar endeavors for several months to come, if his health and strength do not fail him.

The establishment of a closer Union between the Church of England and other Episcopalian Denominations, which hold the doctrine of apostolical succession, in particular the Eastern Churches, has always been a favorite scheme of the English High Churchmen. It seems that, of late, a greater advance than ever before has been made toward reaching this end. The Rev. G. Williams, Senior Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, has proceeded to Armenia for the purpose of assisting the Oriental Churches in establishing hostels at Cambridge, for the education of youths from the East, the Patriarch of Armenia having expressed a great desire for a nearer communion with the English Church. The Russian government has determined upon laying the foundation of a Russian hostel in Cambridge, and a hope is expressed that the Catholics of Etchmiazin will follow the example by sending a bishop of the Armenian Church, with a number of the Armenian youth, to England, to be educated in the University. Dr. Wolff, the eccentric High-Church clergyman who some years ago attracted great attention by his journey to Bokhara, has presented the nucleus of a library for the use of the students in the Russian hostel, and, to promote this plan of union still more effectually, will undertake a mission of an entirely novel character. I shall," he says, assume the garment of a monk of the Eastern Church, with a Bible in my hand, and the cross figured on my gown, which gown shall consist of black cloth. Wherever I find a bishop of the Christian Church, (let him be either of the Russian, or Greek, or Syrian Church,) I shall act under his advice and direction." Singular enough, the promoters of this scheme meet, even in the Roman Catholic Church, with more sympathy and co-operation than they probably expected. The Union Chréti

enne, a French religious paper, edited by Abbé Guettée, a distinguished scholar, who has been suspended by the Archbishop of Paris for his advanced Gallican opinions, takes openly the same ground. It regards the English High Churchmen as the true representatives of the Church of England, acknowledges the English Church, together with those of the East, as branches of the Catholic Church, and endeavors to call forth in the Church of Rome an anti-papal, episcopalian movement. In connection with this scheme of a great union between the Episcopalian Churches, the efforts of the Church of England to build up a strong hierarchy in all British colonies, and even to extend it beyond the dominions of Great Britain, have a particular significance. Arrangements have been recently made for the erection of a new bishopric in Australia, the seat of which will be in all probability at Goulburn, and a missionary bishop has been appointed for the islands of the Pacific, who will exercise episcopal supervision over seventy or eighty islands of the Pacific not under the British crown.

The Baptists report that their membership throughout Great Britain has considerably increased during the past year. They suffer, however, from internal dissensions. Mr. Spurgeon represents the leading Baptist paper of England, "The Freeman," as recreant to Calvinistic orthodoxy, and he himself is charged by many of his co-religionists with transgressing in many points the denominational landmarks. A revival preacher of some celebrity, Mr. Guinness, has joined the Plymouth Brethren, or, as they call themselves, the Christian brethren, a small denomination, hitherto but little known, but who are reported to have received of late large accessions, and to have widely extended their influence.

sembly at Ulm, in Wurtemberg, on August 28 and the two following days, reported again, as it has been able to do for several years, a considerable increase in its receipts, which amounted this year to one hundred and sixty-one thousand thalers. Since its origin the society has now expended more than one million two hundred and fifty thousand thalers for the support of about one thousand poor Protestant congregations in Roman Catholic countries. Besides the regular contributions of its members, the society begins to receive many liberal donations; thus the proceedings of this year's meetings were opened with the announcement that an inhabitant of Saxony had made to the society a donation of ten thousand thalers. As the fame of the extensive operations of the society becomes better known from year to year, the number of applications steadily increases. From all parts of Europe, from Asia, from Algeria, from North and South America, feeble Protestant congregations address the society for aid. A pleasing incident in the history of the society, during the past year, was the reception of larger contributions from Austria, as the Protestant Churches of that country had received for the first time from their government the permission to take up collections for the purposes of the association. The Evangelical Church Diet, which met at Barmen, a flourishing commercial city in the charming Wupperthal, a region of Germany celebrated for the piety of its inhabitants, entered this year upon a new era in its history; as the HighChurch party, which hitherto had sustained the Diets in union with the Evangelical party for a common combat against Rationalism and unbelief, had this year declared, through their leaders, Dr. Stahl and Dr. Hengstenberg, their withdrawal. Dr. Stahl, as vicepresident of the Diet, had insisted on bringing up for discussion the question of civil marriage and of the political rights of Dissenters, and when the central committee opposed this as productive of disagreement, he, and with him his party, declined taking further part for the present. Nevertheless the attendance was large, and the meeting, which as usual discussed profound questions on scientific theology, and schemes for practical usefulness, was characterized, in consequence of the absence of

the High-Church element, by a pure spirit of brotherly love.

The two Protestant Churches of Hungary, after having forced the government to forego its pretensions, are rejoicing at the recovery of their constitutional rights. In the Reformed Church all the congregations are again governed by the former Church constitution; in the Lutheran Church only sixteen Sciavonian congregations adhere to the new constitution proclaimed by the Imperial Patent of September 1, 1859, and have constituted themselves an independent superintendentship, with which the rest of the Church refuses to hold ecclesiastical communion. Both Churches held in September and October General Assemblies, which occupied themselves with securing the newly recovered rights of the Churches, with obtaining from the government an unequivocal acknowledgment of the fundamental law of Hungarian Protestantism of 1791, with extending the control of the Church over the Protestant schools, with carrying through a presbyterian constitution where it does not yet exist, and with preparations for the convocation of the General Synods of the Churches. In no Austrian province is the PROGRESS OF PROTESTANTISM at present more marked than in Bohemia. Numerous conversions of Roman Catholics are reported from a number of places. One Protestant pastor writes to the Protestant Church Gazette of Pesth, that in the village of Spalow sixty adult persons have legally declared their intention to join the Evangelical Church, and that all the adult inhabitants over eighteen years of age will soon follow this example. The Baptist Churches of Germany, Switzerland, and Denmark held their triennial convention at Hamburg on October 4. Their cause is highly prosperous and steadily progressing. Their membership, during the past three years, has increased from five thousand nine hundred and one to seven thousand nine hundred and eight, and the number of preaching stations from five hundred and seventy-four to seven hundred and fifty-six.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. It is generally believed that the Austrian Concordat may now be regarded as virtually abolished. Some of the grievances of the Protestant and Greek Churches were set forth in the meetings

of the Reichsrath with such force, that that body almost unanimously passed a resolution that the rights of the dissenting denominations had in some cases been violated, and that the ecclesiastical legislation of Austria ought to be regu lated in accordance with the principles of right and justice. The Protestants of Austria felt never more confident than at present, that the day when full equality of rights with their Roman Catholic fellow-citizens will be granted to them, cannot be much longer postponed. In other German States the influence of Rome has met with even greater reverses. The government of Baden has officially declared the late concordat as abandoned, and the Legislature of the Grand Duchy of Darmstadt has resolved, with all votes against two, to call on the government to break off its negotiations with the bishop of the country, to whom a great many concessions had been made, and to regulate the legal relations of the Catholic Church to the State by a special law.

ITALY.

THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES.-The intelligence on the Progress of Prot estantism in Italy has never been more cheering and more full of promise for the future than during the past three months. The successes of Garibaldi and Victor Emanuel have, for the first time since the suppression of the Reformation in the sixteenth century, thrown open the whole peninsula to the free and open proclamation of the doctrines of evangelical Christianity. In the kingdom of Sardinia the work consolidates and extends itself. In Val d'Aosta there seems to be a great spirit of inquiry awakened. The Waldensian minister at Courmayeur and Aosta, Rev. Mr. Curie, has issued a work entitled, "The Minister and the Priests; or, an Answer to the Attacks of the Clerical Party in Sardinia against Protestantism," (Le Ministre et les Prêtres, etc.,) which has produced quite a ferment among the priests of that valley, who call it "Le comble du poison." A number of them publicly tore a copy of the book in pieces in the marketplace of Aosta, but, much against their expectation, greatly contributed thereby to an increase of the sale of the book. Mr. Curie has since made inquiries to ascertain whether an edition of his book might not be brought out in Italian, and

whether any society would take it up. Mr. Curie's place of meeting in Aosta is always crowded to the door, and a larger place is much required. He has been invited to visit numerous villages around and to hold meetings. Mr. Jay, a Waldensian minister, who studied for a year in Edinburgh, has gone to aid him by occupying Courmayeur, and is now supplied with an active, pious colporteur. In the former Papal States the city of Bologna will be the prominent center of the work of evangelization. A Vaudois evangelist has settled there, and what is still more important, the most zealous and learned among the Italian converts from the Roman Catholic Church, Mr. Mazarella, hitherto leader of the Evangelical Protestant congregation of Genoa, has been appointed by the government to the chair of Moral Philosophy in the University of Bologna, and has accepted the appointment on the express condition that his exertions for spreading the principles of evangelical Christianity would be in no way interfered with. The Edinburgh Bible Society has dispatched a colporteur to Umbria and the Marches, to take advantage of the openings there. In Tuscany, the Waldensian Theological Hall at Florence has been opened with nine students; and a letter has been received from a priest at Brescia, announcing his resolution to go to Florence during the winter to attend the lectures. An additional female school for the children of the upper classes has just been opened in Florence, under the auspices of two deaconesses from the establishment of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserswerth in Germany. The colporteurs throughout Tuscany, notwithstanding their number, find a good sale both for Bibles and tracts. One of them attended a fair at the small town of Pontedera, and sold in a short time fifty copies of the Bible. The progress in the flourishing city of Leghorn, where for a few weeks after the reopening of the place of meeting many former attendants absented themselves through fear of annoyances, is now again highly satisfactory. The hall, which holds about two hundred persons, is always crowded to the door, and many cluster around who cannot find admission. The Waldensian minister at Leghorn, Rev. Mr. Ribetti, has had an invitation from a number of people in the village of Calvi, near Pisa, and from another place about forty miles distant, to open meetings

there also; but the charge of the congregations at Leghorn and Pisa affords him ample work, and beyond an occasional visit to the new localities mentioned he cannot go. In Naples and Sicily active operations have likewise been commenced. A late agent for the British and Foreign Bible Society, has been for some time at Palermo, and has written to some of his friends that his success in selling Bibles has been very great, there being a great demand for them. Father Gavazzi and a popular Sicilian preacher, Frate Pantaleone, Gavazzi's chaplain, have been very active in haranguing large crowds on the errors of the papacy. Toward the close of October Gavazzi commenced in the former church of the Jesuits at Naples lectures on the New Testament. Efforts were made to prohibit his preaching, but Garibaldi protected him. The English residents of Naples, who applied to Garibaldi for the permission of building a church, received not only this permission, but also the donation of a suitable piece of land. The British and Foreign Bible Society and the Edinburgh Bible Society have both dispatched their agents to the city of Naples with a large supply of Bibles, and a large number of copies has been, unimpeded, sold in the streets. Rev. Mr. Cresi, who for some months has been stationed as a missionary at Bologna, has expressed his desire to return to Naples, his native country, in order to preach the Gospel there, and from thence to do what he can for Sicily until some minister be provided. An English gentleman of well-known liberality, Mr. Henderson, of Park, has taken the support of this young minister upon himself. The Waldenses, according to the last accounts, were sending two colporteurs into Sicily, whose headquarters for the present will be Palermo, and other colporteurs will be sent by other parties to Messina, and along the eastern coast of the island. Thus a number of Protestant agencies are at work throughout Italy. The British and Foreign Bible Society has twenty-four colporteurs employed, the Edinburgh Bible Society eight, the Italian Society at Geneva twelve, and a considerable number are employed by the Vaudois Bible and Tract Society. Still many regret that the unprecedented opportunities for the evangelization of Italy which exist at present do not induce more of the religious societies of Prot