criticisms, doubts, scepticism, and atheism, wherewith to fill up the void in men's souls; its utmost flight of religious faith has not risen higher than the invention of a constitutional, juste-milieu, eclectic God, who is neither spirit nor flesh, neither good nor evil; who is inviolable but irresponsible, who reigns and does not govern, who swears allegiance to the constitution of mathematical laws voted by the agents of nature, but who has no immediate, living, and sympathetic connexion or contact with the things, the beings, and ideas of this world.

"No; this is not the God of the new democracy. The regenerated man of the people will desire to feel God on earth as in heaven, and to bless him in himself as well as in his neighbours. He will be himself a priest and prophet by the same right by which he is a sovereign, proprietor, scholar, or artist. To him God will be the universal life, the association and harmony of all beings. The positive religion of the people will have for its doctrine the combination of sciences; for its worship, attractive industry; for its temple, the universe; for its altar, the earth; for priests and ministers, all mankind, according to their degree of intelligence and of love."

Extravagant as all this sounds, it is yet tame in comparison with the programme of certain works which are to be executed under the direction of M. Chenavard, a French artist, and under the auspices of M. Ledru Rollin, at the Pantheon, which will thus at last be appropriated to the purpose which its name indicates. The programme is contained in a succession of articles in La Presse, from the pen of M. Théophile Gauthier; the general nature and character of which may be gathered from the following samples :

"The Pantheon will be the temple of reason; not, however, in the sense of the revolutionists of the Voltaire school, that is, not the temple of negative and barren reason, but the temple of affirmative and fruitful

reason.

"The philosophic artist has not declared himself for any religious system; he has admitted all systems, as expressive of the same want, assigning to each a larger or smaller space, according as they have, in a greater or less degree, contributed to the welfare and the progress of humanity. Like the Pantheon of Rome, the Pantheon of Chenavard receives all the gods; there they are, each with his attributes, guiding the people and the civilization which worshipped them, all reproduced with pious fidelity, and invested with their beautiful forms by the scrupulous pencil of the artist.

"Men of all nations and of all ages may enter into this temple, and find there the objects of their veneration. The Chaldean will find there his stars; the Egyptian his Osiris, his Isis, and his Typhon; the Indian, Brahma and all his Avatars; the Hebrew, Jehovah; the Persian, Ormuzd and Ahriman; the Greek and Roman their Olympus in full force; the Christian his Christ eighteen times glorified; the northern barbarian his gods shivering under polar snow; the Mussulman, who hates images, his prophet, with his face veiled by a flame; the Druse his Chaliff Hakem, with his azure eyes and lion mask. All will be able

to say their prayers in this universal, truly metropolitical, church of the entire race of man.

"In the middle, under a triple colonnade, there rises an idol of strange and mysterious aspect, and of hybrid composition, which calls to mind the Indian deities. Yet neither the pyramidal pagoda of Juggernaut, nor the cryptic temple of Elephanta, have seen upon their altars this strange and new creation.

"In the centre, the Brahmin cow, with her face turned full towards you, and her knees drawn in beneath her dewlap, is seen ruminating some thought of cosmogony. On the right, the Persian griffin, with elongated claw and shaking wing, seems to guard a treasure; while on the left the Chaldean sphinx makes a mock of eternity in her granite dreams.

"On the back of these three beasts soldered together, rests the Egyptian skiff, the mystic Bari, which ferries the souls; the skiff bears the ark of the covenant, itself surmounted by the ciborium with the host encircled by glittering rays.

"This symbol, executed in red granite, will be repeated at the further end of the temple, and stand in the place of the altar, under a dome supported on twelve columns, which will be surmounted by a frieze with twelve compartments, with the Olympian gods sculptured in bas-relief.

'By this monument, composed of the symbols of all kinds of worship confounded together, Chenavard wished to denote that all religions are but different forms of one and the same idea, and that, viewed from a certain elevation, these forms must become indifferent: it is the Word, the great Pan, whom humanity adores under a multiplicity of pseudonymous appellations; all the names of deities are the epithets of the litany of that one universal and eternal God; the Word floating in its light, that is, the supreme and ruling intelligence, of which every animate being contains a particle, and which man alone bears consciously within his head and heart.

"He has, therefore, made an idol, that is, a plastic image which every body may worship, for it contains the worship of each with its genealogy such must, of necessity, be the high altar of a pantheistic temple; for it is the mission of pantheism to absorb in its vast bosom every idea and every form; it excludes no religion, but assimilates them all.”

GERMANY.-Religious State of the Country.-As far as religious questions can make themselves heard, in the din of political convulsions, it is evident from the tone adopted by the different parties, that a general dissolution of all the existing religious establishments is at hand in Germany. The only party that exhibits any thing like a compact appearance is the Romish Church; but even that is miserably divided. The hierarchy is every where exerting itself to stem the tide of innovation, and taking advantage of the liberalism of the day to call aloud for the removal of the various restraints under which the Romish Church has hitherto been kept by the different governments, both Roman Catholic and Protestant.

A "Catholic Union" has been established, with the Archbishop of Freiburg (Breisgau) at its head, whose object is to uphold the ultramontane principles of Romanism with the utmost rigour, and in total separation from the civil power. But while the hierarchy is thus engaged, the population manifests not unfrequently the most decided tendency to infidelity. At Vienna itself the Romish priests have been publicly hooted, and subjected to every description of indignity and ill-treatment, and similar scenes have been enacted elsewhere. The Neo-Catholicism of Ronge, which has since openly merged into Communism, has come to honour, and been admitted in regular places of worship from the total inability of the public authorities to prevent their forcible occupation. Another internal opposition against which the Romish hierarchy has to contend, is that of a vast body of clergy, especially in Baden, who have long been seeking to obtain a moderate reform, and who are also raising their heads again. As regards the Protestant communions, all is confusion. In Prussia the reins of the Cæsaro-Episcopate exercised by the king have completely dropped from his hands. The Rationalistic preachers, who had been recently deposed from their offices, have been re-instated by authority; some refused to accept the boon; others had already retaken possession of their churches under favour of the popular will. The most notorious of the seceders, Uhlich, has dissolved the separatist body which he had formed, and procured his election to the National Assembly at Berlin. Meanwhile the Royal Ordinance for the convocation of a Constituent Assembly of the Prussian Church, mentioned in our last, has provoked numberless protests from synods and clerical conferences; the principle of universal suffrage, without religious qualification, which it adopts, having a manifest tendency to swamp the Church altogether in the worst form of popular rationalism. The ill-compacted elements of Lutheranism and Calvinism which the union of 1817 combined together, but which never amalgamated, are showing signs of separating again. These conflicting movements in the Protestant communion of Germany are not confined to Prussia; they have appeared elsewhere, though, on the whole, Prussia is undoubtedly the chief theatre of religious agitation. Meanwhile the Central Assembly at Frankfort has taken up the question of Church and State, in its declaration of "fundamental rights" in a manner, which, if acquiesced in by the different governments and legislatures of the federative empire, will produce the most sweeping changes in the ecclesiastical affairs of Germany. The Articles in question are as follows:

Art. 14.-Every religious community regulates and administers its own affairs, but it is, like every other society within the State, subject to the laws of the State.

3 For an account of this party, and of the objects aimed at by them, we refer our readers to former numbers of our Intelligence," vol. iv. p. 251, and vol. v. pp. 260-263, where their petition for reform, addressed to the Archbishop, will be found at full length.

New religious communities may be formed without requiring the recognition of the State.

No religious community is to be favoured by the State, to the exclusion of others. There is to be henceforward no State Church.

Art. 15. No one can be compelled to take part in the religious ceremonies and acts of any mode of worship. The form of oath is to be the same for all, and to be unconnected with any definite religious belief.

Art. 16. The validity of marriage depends solely upon the execution of the civil act. The religious ceremony of marriage can be performed only after the civil act. Difference of religion is no obstacle to civil marriage. The registers of the civil status are to be kept by the civil authority.

GUIANA. Distressing position of the Clergy.-The Lord Bishop of Guiana writes, under date of January 17th, 1848, to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, as follows:

"I regret to inform the Society, that the very deplorable state into which the colony has been thrown by the financial changes which have lately taken place, has so completely alarmed the community, as to have drawn from the Legislature the expression of a determination to reduce all salaries at least 25 per cent., and to abolish a great many offices altogether. It is needless for me to say, that the clergy will feel this drawback to their necessary comforts very much; and although I feel assured that they will not complain, should the present necessity be found to exist two or three months hence, yet it is impossible to conceal from myself the very great distress which will arise to those who are not in circumstances to meet so sudden a check."

INDIA. DIOCESE OF CALCUTTA.-Consecration of the Cathedral.-The Annual Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel con ́tains several communications from the Lord Bishop of Calcutta, in reference to the cathedral, which was consecrated on the 8th of October, 1847, being the anniversary of the day on which the first stone was laid in 1839. The following are extracts :-" The cathedral has been adapted for the three fold purpose of-1, a parish church for the numerous Christian inhabitants of the district, who for the last twenty-five years have felt the want of a church; 2, a mission church for service in the vernacular languages; 3, the cathedral of the metropolitan diocese of Calcutta. The three fold objects speak for themselves to every pious and considerate Christian. In the present state of the public mind, and amidst the different efforts in education which have been making for the last thirty years, it is a great step in advance to have founded a cathedral with its own endowments, and not dependent on the contributions of societies at home for its missionary proceedings. It gives a front and face to Christianity-it claims India as the Lord's. When the chapter is formed, it will give a status to the Gospel in the heart of our magnificent heathen and Mahommedan empire. It will naturalize

the Christian religion. A small body of cathedral clergy will surround the bishop; will aid him in the diffusion of the blessings of salvation, assist him in his jurisdiction, help him in drawing up confutations of Hindoo and Mahommedan systems of idolatry and error, labour with him in the translation of the Bible and Prayer Book into the vernacular languages, hold up his hand in conferences with learned natives, deliver Lectures, under his direction, on the Evidences of the Christian Religion, and compose theological works adapted to the Oriental inquirer after truth."

Bishop's College.-A document transmitted to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel contains a list of the students which have passed through the college and their subsequent destinations; from which it appears, that out of forty-five students, admitted into the college since the year 1824, twenty-five have been admitted into holy orders, and appointed to missionary and other ecclesiastical stations; sixteen have received missionary appointments as catechists, three have been put in charge of schools, and one remains as Natt Syndic Fellow at the college. Of the catechists several have subsequently returned to secular employments. This account does not include some lay students, i.e. non-foundationers, and several others, who after a longer or shorter period of study were compelled by circumstances, or otherwise induced, to renounce the calling with a view to which they had entered the college. There are now twenty-three students in residence.

The List of Books published at Bishop's College Press, under the direction of the Syndicate, contains among others: The Liturgy of the Church of England; the Psalter; the New Testament and the Pentateuch, in Arabic; the History of Joseph, in Persian; the History of our Blessed Saviour and our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, in Sanscrit verse. And in Bengali characters the following:-History of Joseph; Discourses of our Saviour; the Parables of our Saviour; the Church Catechism; the Book of Common Prayer; a Version of the Exposition of the Church Catechism; a Version of the Bishop of Calcutta's Tract on the Lord's Supper; a Version of the Bishop of Calcutta's Tract on Confirmation; a Scripture Catechism, introductory to the Church Catechism; an Original Catechism for Catechumens; the Sacra Privata of Bishop Wilson; Select Sermons of Bishop Wilson; and Sermons addressed to Native Christians and Inquirers, by the Rev. K. M. Banerjea, who is the translator of the different publications before mentioned, except those which consist of portions of Scripture and the Liturgy.

Necessity of subdividing the Diocese.-On this important subject the Bishop says: "As to the Agra bishopric, now a part of this unwieldy diocese, and stretching over the conquered Punjaub, the necessity of a see being erected is as clear as the sun at noon-day. It is a question of pure geography. Tinnevelly will also want a bishop."

INDIA. DIOCESE OF MADRAS.-Establishment of Church Societies. -Two Church Societies have been established in this diocese, one for