faith, for the satisfaction of other denominations, and also for the sake of promoting confidence among churches of the Congregational order. It was argued at length that the Congregational churches would not subscribe to a general fund for the support of the ministry which has lately been established, unless they had some such guarantee of ministerial orthodoxy, and it was announced during the debate that one wealthy and liberal layman had declared that unless the resolution were passed he would withhold his subscription to that fund. What, means will be taken to enforce acceptance of the resolution adopted, or whether it will be left to operate in the way of moral suasion only, we have not heard. It appears to us that the Congregational ministers of this country are doing so great and important an Evangelical work, and are represented by so many men of distinguished ability and of undoubted soundness in the Christian faith, that the general feeling outside is that of fraternal Christian confidence. It has never been understood that the Congregational Union was accountable for the doctrinal aberrations of individual ministers of the body, and this fact has made ministers and members of other communions refrain from re

garding exceptional instances of heresy among Congregationalists precisely as they would regard them if they had occurred in a community which placed in the forefront a general standard of doctrinal orthodoxy, and had acknowledged means of enforcing it. Now that the Union as a body has undertaken to speak on behalf of all its members, affirming their acceptance of the Evangelical articles of faith, it is to be supposed that they will devise some means to secure conformity. Of late, there has been a wide and steady tendency in the Congregational Union towards a moderate kind of Presbyterianism, which has no doubt much reason in its support. We trust that this agitation, whatever may be the effect on the future constitution of the Congregational body, will promote the life of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ amongst its ministers and members.

PRESBYTERIANISM IN ENGLAND.

The meetings of the third annual synod of the Presbyterian Church of England, held at Manchester during the past month, under the moderatorship of the Rev. Dr. Chalmers, were very successful. About five hundred ministers and delegates were present. The report presented by Professor Leone Levi gives some interesting statistics, from which we may here cull a few:

siderable difficulty. The income for the year had been £26,047, showing an increase of £3,468, when had been received from 239 out of the 268 charges on compared with the previous year's total. Returns the roll of synod. The amount of Church property insured is 610,797. The debts on churches reached a total of 102,272, and on manses £6,939. At the moderate rate of 4 per cent. the annual interest on The number this sum may be estimated at £4,300. of available sittings in the Church are set down at 117,814, and the number let 55,820, being rather less than one-half. The proportion let is 35 per cent. in the presbytery of Birmingham, 45 in that of Bristol, 53 in that of Manchester, 54 in that of Northumberland, 57 in that of London, 58 in that of Liverpool, 63 in the presbyteries of Newcastle and Berwick, 84 in that of Carlisle, and 90 per cent, in the presbytery of Darlington. The number of communicants on the last revised communion-roll was 50,587, against 47,284 recorded in the previous year. This increase is partly due to the larger number of returns received this year; the real increase is at about the rate of 3 per cent. The number of "lapses" registered during the year was 1,960. On an average the congregations have 208 communicants each. In the pres bytery of Birmingham the average was 105; Carlisle, 136; Darlington, 151; Northumberland, 174; Manchester, 179; Bristol, 186; London, 218; Newcastle, 245; Berwick, 264; and Liverpool, 308. In all England and Wales, 23 per 1,000 inhabitants are communicants of the Presbyterian Church of England. There are, however, no Presbyterian churches in 13 counties, viz., Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Dorset, Hertfordshire, Somersetshire, Westmoreland, and Wiltshire. There Huntingdon, Northampton, Oxfordshire, Rutland, are within the Church 1,413 elders, 267 ministers, 573 deacons, and 1,761 managers. The Sabbathschools number 372, with 53,003 scholars and 5,589 teachers. There are 3,230 members of young men's societies, and 6,021 members of Bible classes. Each of these figures show an increase. The total income of the Church for all purposes, including donations, receipts from the Free Church, legacies, and interests for the year, amounted to £229,414, against £165,297 in the previous year."

We may add to these encouraging facts and figures the expression of our belief that, corresponding with this material progress, there has lately been a marked advance in the feeling of cordial and fraternal sympathy and respect towards the Presbyterian Church of England on the part of the Churches of other evangelical denominations, and an increasing disposition to wish these efforts "God speed.”

ENGLAND AND PEACE.

and to be reminded that the appeal to the arbitrament of the battle-field is only to be justified in the very last extremity. The "honour" which cannot be satisfied without fighting, when other methods are still open for the settlement of a dispute, is a feeling which ought to be described by quite another name; and we trust that the better spirit of true Christian sobriety and courage is beginning to prevail. As we write, the hope of the preservation of peace seems to rest upon a firmer foundation than it has had for some time past; but the most earnest and steadfast adherence to the Christian temper and to Christian principles is still eminently needed among those who bear the Christian name. Their quiet, thoughtful influence cannot but make itself felt, and God's benediction cannot fail to rest upon the effort to preserve "peace on earth," and at the same time to uphold "righteousness."

AN INTERESTING JUBILEE.

It was on the 9th of May, 1828, that the Acts known as the Test and Corporation Acts were blotted out of the statute-book of England, in which they had stood for more than one hundred and sixty years. Into the nature of those Acts, and the circumstances under which they were orginally passed, it is not needful to enter here, for we have all read the story in our histories. Most of us especially recall the brilliant passages in which Lord Macaulay refers to the subject. The practical effect of those Acts was to deprive a large number of the people of this country of equal civil rights with their fellow-citizens, by excluding them from public offices of trust and honour, on the simple ground of conscientious differences in religious opinion. The venerable statesman, Earl Russell, to whose enlightened and unflagging efforts it was principally owing that these invidious restrictions were taken away, has been spared to see the fiftieth anniversary of that important achievement in his distinguished political career; and upon the day of that fiftieth anniversary, a deputation of eminent Nonconformist ministers and laymen waited upon Earl Russell, at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond, in order to present a congratulatory address. Lord Russell was unable to receive his visitors, but Lady Russell and several members of the family did so in his name. The occasion was deeply interesting and affecting, and afforded an opportunity for allusions to the changes which have been witnessed during this half century of a most significant kind. It is especially instructive and suggestive to turn back to the debates which took place in the Legislature with regard to the abolition of these Acts, and to notice the dark prophecies of evil with which the proposals for that abolition were met. All sorts of dreadful things were to happen both to the interests of religion and of constitutional monarchy if the yoke was to be taken from the necks of Dissenters, and if they were to be admitted to civil offices without becoming professed members of "the Church." On such an occasion as this fiftieth anniversary, it was natural to point with satisfaction to the

fact that all these doleful and distrustful prophecies had signally failed, that the bonds of social relationship and order were far more firmly established, and that the condition of the whole people was in every way more satisfactory now than it was in the days when those prophecies were uttered. The great and obvious lesson, and one of which we all need to be frequently reminded, is that a nation, like an individual, should ever cherish the courage to do what is just and right. It has been the blessing of England that from time to time in her history, when emergencies have arisen, noble leaders of political action have been raised up, who have seen their way through conflicting counsels to what was right, and have gone on, simply saying, "Be just, be true, and fear not!"

THE TROUBLES IN LANCASHIRE.

The strike among the operatives employed in the cotton trade in parts of Lancashire, which has now been going on for some weeks, affords evidence of the strained relations between what we call, in significant terms, which put the thought of our human brotherhood very much into the background, “ Capital and Labour." For some three or four years the cotton trade has been in a very bad state. Our trade with China seems to have been largely taken away by American manufacturers, it is said because our Manchester merchants would persist in sending out materials of wretched quality. In India the sale of cotton goods has decreased in consequence of the prevalence of repeated famines; elsewhere the markets are glutted with cotton material; and manufacturers complain that they have been in many cases accumulating enormous stocks, which represent so much money lying idle, or else selling at a positive loss. An attempt, in consequence of this state of things, to reduce the rate of wages, has led to extensive strikes; the strikes again have led to lock-outs on the part of the masters, and the usual complications have arisen. Such a deadlock in this great department of industry is nothing less than a serious national calamity. It is said that at least two hundred thousand are for the time being deprived of their ordinary means of livelihood, and a very considerable number of these are people who have been living from hand to mouth. A friend who lives in Lancashire was telling us the other day that there had not been such suffering there since the memorable "cotton famine" occasioned by the American Civil War. The questions at issue between the manufacturers and their workpeople are far too complicated for us to enter upon here, even if we possessed qualifications for the task. We cannot pretend to apportion praise or blame in this matter; we can only express sadness and regret with regard to it. We have heard, however, with sympathy of the earnest and noble efforts which are being made by ministers and other Christian people in the strike districts to bring Christian principles and influences to bear upon the population generally in this trying time. This is a task of peculiar delicacy, as it is of peculiar importance. When we read of rioting, complaint, and recrimina

tion, giving evidence of a painfully embittered state of feeling between masters and men, it seems as if selfishness still held sway, and as if an appeal to Christ for principles of guidance were almost a mockery. But the secret of the solution of our social difficulties is, after all, only to be found in Him, and every struggle of this kind only shows that, for social as well as personal life, "no other foundation can any man lay than that is laid."

PROPOSED CONFERENCE ON HOSPITALS.

It is somewhat singular, as has been remarked, that at a time when conferences form a very popular means for the discussion of all sorts of questions, nothing of the kind has been held on a subject of such practical importance as the administration, medical and surgical, of our great hospitals, especially those in London. Mr. Holmes, surgeon of St. George's Hospital, one of the largest in the metropolis, has drawn attention to the desirability of some such mode of inquiring into prevailing usages, and considering whether any improvements can be adopted. Mr. Holmes mentions several facts which obviously deserve attention, and some of which certainly seem at first glance to point to the existence of abuses for which a remedy might be found. He calls attention especially to the case of "outpatients," and says that the number of those who in London receive gratuitous advice and assistance in this way exceeds a million, and is constantly increasing. "No adequate inquiry is made into the social needs of these persons, and no inquiry whatever is made into their medical necessities before they come to the hospital." Mr. Holmes and many other members of the medical profession are of opinion that if inquiries were made, a very large proportion of those whose cases are treated would prove to be unsuitable candidates for relief of this sort, either because they are able to pay for the assistance they need, or because they are suffering from some very trivial disorder, or from disease arising from vicious habits, poverty, bad food, bad air, and so on, and thus are not capable of being effectually dealt with in the hasty interviews afforded to out-patients. Mr. Holmes believes that this last-mentioned ground of objection to the present system applies, "not to a few persons, but to hundreds of thousands, and very probably exercises a serious influence for evil upon the public health." All of us who have had at all an extensive experience in the visitation of the poor can confirm the fact of the existence of these cases. We have often felt, as we have climbed the dark and rickety stair of a poor abode in some narrow London street, and have noted the close and vitiated atmosphere, the many signs of insufficiency of food, clothing, and accommodation, and the want of any capability of making the best even of such poor surroundings, that we could not wonder at the pale faces and feeble forms which arrested our attention. Alas! what can the brief weekly visit to "the doctor" do to actually and directly remedy these conditions? Under such circumstances, however, it is at once

curious and pathetic to notice how the visit to the hospital, and the consumption of the medicines, which are often very simple and very hastily prescribed, become a sort of stay and comfort, to poor women especially who are weighed down by depressing circumstances. The late Mr. Hinton, as we read in the charming memoir of that rarely gifted man recently published, seems to have held the opinion that many of the remarkable cures attributed to homoeopathic treatment were due to the imagination acting in some way upon the nervous system. The operation of this principle is by no means limited to homeopathic patients. Hope, however inspired, has a tendency to health, as we have often seen in the case of many poor women, who in the midst of manifold pains and weaknesses are buoyed up from week to week by the thought of help from the use of means possessed of little intrinsic efficacy. The poor creatures feel that "something" is being done for them; and that "something" forms a kind of definite point towards which they struggle, from stage to stage, in their weary pilgrimage across a path which affords them no firm foothold. Still, this kind of treatment is mere empiricism. No medical prescription, even the most skilful and careful, can compensate for the lack of wholesome habits and conditions of living, and the truest charity is that which does not rest satisfied with a superficial alleviation while more radical methods are left unused. In our hospital administration there should unquestionably be the exercise of a large and liberal compassion; a system of checking and inquiry, and suspicious caution is quite conceivable, which would spoil all the grace of what is meant to be a work of compassionate help. But the operation of hospital charity ought to be so conducted as to avoid as far as possible the encouragement of careless and improvident habits, and also so as not to divert public attention from the imperative need in many directions of a kind of help which no hospital can supply. From a medical as well as a social point of view, we have no doubt that periodical conferences on the subject referred to might have very considerable value. And we venture to predict that if these conferences should be taken up in large towns generally, they will cast some much-needed light on the many and lamentable evils of our present system of poor-law relief. We should be exceedingly glad to hear that the suggestion which has been thus put forward has been carried out.

II.-GLANCES ABROAD.

BEGINNING WORK AT THE PARIS EXHIBITION.

We have referred lately to the opportunities which would be afforded by the opening of the Paris Exhibition for the activity of Christian evangelistic enterprise, and to the different proposals which were on foot in order that those opportunities might be met. We are glad to notice now that a good and promising beginning has been made. On the opening day,

May 1st, the kiosk for Bible distribution became the centre of a considerable degree of excitement. As the news spread that portions of Scripture were there being given away in many languages, a great crowd gathered round the spot, apparently eager to avail themselves of the gifts thus offered. Thousands of persons, "of all ranks and from all countries," struggled to the front, and stretched out their hands for the coveted books, bearing them away at length with many expressions of gratitude. Fifteen thousand Scripture portions were thus disposed of in the course of that one day. On the 8th of May the Salle Evangelique, | erected by the Evangelical Alliance, was opened by holding a devotional service and public meeting. There was a large attendance, the hall, which holds six hundred persons, being crowded to the fullest extent. Many well-known ministers and friends of evangelical truth were there, and the occasion was marked by much earnest religious feeling, as well as by the utterance of many words of international kindness and good-will. Arrangements have been made for a daily English prayer-meeting at ten o'clock A.M., and for the use of the hall for French services from three to five o'clock P.M., under the direction of the Rev. W. M'Call, whose self-sacrificing and successful labours among the workpeople of Paris deserve to be widely known. These important and various efforts have thus all been commenced with a bright prospect of usefulness and success. The numerous readers of these pages who will probably visit Paris this summer will not forget them; nor will many more, who will only be able to watch them from a far distance, fail to regard them with Christian sympathy and attention.

THE PURPOSES OF THE NEW POPE.

The first Encyclical Letter published by a new Pope is always regarded as indicating the policy which he intends to pursue as the head of the Papacy. The document recently issued by Leo XIII. has therefore been scanned with more than usual interest. But what can be expected from the principal bishop of a Church whose motto is Semper eadem—what but a reiteration of principles and counsels which have become familiar to the world? Making allowance for personal differences, and for changed circumstances, this is precisely what we have in the latest Encyclical. The present Pope is a man of greater acquirements and intellectual capacity than his predecessor; he also comes to a throne which no longer represents the possession of temporal power, as it did when its last occupant took his seat. Leo XIII. accordingly writes with somewhat less of the tone of fretfulness and irritation, which was so characteristic of the deliverances of Pius IX., and with somewhat more of the reticence which becomes the representative of an ancient order. Such a position as that of a Pope, however, or of any high dignitary of a conservative organization, has a tendency to repress to some extent that which is merely individual, and to conform the official to a certain stereotyped form of thought and expression, and probably also of feeling.

The present Pope gives signs of the effect of influences of this kind; he sinks the man in the Pope, so far as any strikingly distinctive peculiarities are concerned. He endorses the policy and acts of his predecessor. He laments the loss of the temporal power, and insists upon the necessity of its restoration, and he attributes all the troubles of the modern world to its revolt from the Church, which, according to him, has been the great pioneer of civilisation, and the supreme friend of art, science, charity, and progress generally. Those who think themselves able to read between the lines, and to reckon up the significance of what the Encyclical does not, as well as of what it does, say, tell us that the absence of any direct reference to the House of Savoy, the reigning house of Italy, is to be regarded as a favourable omen, indicating a readiness to look upon amicable relations as at least a possibility. But we see no ground for any supposition that the Pope intends to strike out any new path, or to attempt to alter the unalterable. Popery, as such, has been, is, and ever must be, the bane of man's intellectual, social, and religious life. A new Pope may adopt new modes of procedure, but they are all means to the old baneful ends.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN THE UNITED STATES. It is with much concern that we notice rumours of serious apprehensions in America of further outbreaks and disturbances among some portion of the popula tion. But a few months ago the strikes on certain railways in the United States were attended with alarming and mischievous disturbances. Now, there

seems to be a fear that communistic movements are in course of preparation, especially in California. There has been great depression of trade in the United States, as in this country, for some time past; and it is stated that the position of the working classes was never so trying there as it is now. Wages have gone down to an extent which makes the lives of many a severe struggle, and in all the great cities bands of unemployed men, beggars, and “roughs" are becoming numerous. This is a comparatively new experience for the United States; and it is not surprising if in that vast and miscellaneous population, living often, especially in the wide districts of the West, in a state of rough freedom, which in our quiet state of society we scarcely realise, some dangerous social elements should make their presence manifest. Adventurous leaders and bold talkers are not wanting who are prepared with schemes for redressing differences between rich and poor by main force, and for using violence against every obstacle which seems to interpose between them and their object. From such restless spirits society in the United States seems just now to be apprehensive of mischievous activity. Especially is alarm felt with respect to the Chinese quarter in San Francisco. The citizens of the lower orders in the United States, whatever their own nationality, if of European origin, are generally agreed in dislike for the Chinaman, because he works so diligently, and in many of the lighter manual occupations so skilfully, and for such