should never speak to each again. this matter was of less moment to If so, we must live apart." "How can that be? We cannot rid ourselves of each other.' "I will go anywhere,-into service, away from Nuremberg,-where you will. But I will not be told that I am a liar." And And yet Madame Staubach was sure that Linda had lied. She thought that she was sure. if so, if it were the case that this young woman had planned an infamous scheme for receiving her lover on a Sunday morning;-the fact that it was on a Sunday morning, and that the hour of the Church service had been used, greatly enhanced the atrocity of the sin in the estimation of Madame Staubach ;-if the young woman had intrigued in order that her lover might come to her, of course she would intrigue again. In spite of Linda's solemn protestation as to her self-esteem, the thing would be going on. This infamous young man, who, in Madame Staubach's eyes, was beginning to take the proportions of the Evil One himself, would be coming there beneath her very nose. It seemed to her that life would be impossible to her, unless Linda would consent to be married to the respectable suitor who was still willing to receive her; and that the only way in which to exact that consent would be to insist on the degradation to which Linda had subjected herself. Linda had talked of going into service. Let her go into that service which was now offered to her by those whom she was bound to obey. "Of course Herr Steinmarc knows it all," said Madame Staubach. "I do not regard in the least what Herr Steinmarc knows," replied Linda. "But he is still willing to overlook the impropriety of your conduct, upon condition "He overlook it! Let him dare to say such a word to me, and I would tell him that his opinion in me than that of any other creature in all Nuremberg. What is it to him who comes to me? Were it but for him, I would bid the young man come every day." "Linda!" "Do not talk to me about Peter Steinmarc, aunt Charlotte, or I shall go mad." "I must talk about him, and you must hear about him. It is now more than ever necessary that you should be his wife. All Nuremberg will hear of this." "Of course it will,Steinmare knows it." “And how will you cover yourself from your shame?" as Peter "I will not cover myself at all. If you are ashamed of me, I will go away. If you will not say that you are not ashamed of me, I will go away. I have done nothing to disgrace me, and I will hear nothing about shame." Having made this brave assertion, she burst into tears, and then escaped to her own bed. When Madame Staubach was left alone, she sat down, closed her eyes, clasped her hands, and began to pray. As to what she should do in these terrible circumstances she had no light, unless such light might be given to her from above. A certain trust she had in Peter Steinmarc, because Peter was a man, and not a young man ; but it was not a trust which made her confident. She thought that Peter was very good in being willing to take Linda at all after all that had happened, but she had begun to be aware that he himself was not able to make his own goodness apparent to Linda. She did not in her heart blame Peter for his want of eloquence, but rather imputed an increased degree of culpability to Linda, in that any eloquence was necessary for her conviction on such a matter. Eloquence in an affair of marriage, in reference to any preparation for marriage arrange ments, was one of those devil's baits of which Madame Staubach was especially afraid. Ludovic Valcarm no doubt could be eloquent, could talk of love, and throw glances from his eyes, and sigh, and do worse things, perhaps, even than those. All tricks of Satan, these, to ensnare the souls of young women! Peter could perform no such tricks, and therefore it was that his task was so difficult to him. She could not regard it as a deficiency that he was unable to do those very things which, when done in her presence, were abominable to her sight, and when spoken of were abominable to her ears, and when thought of were abominable to her imagination. But yet how was she to arrange this marriage, if Peter were able to say nothing for himself? So she sat herself down and clasped her hands and prayed earnestly that assistance might be given to her. If you pray that a mountain shall be moved, and will have faith, the mountain shall certainly be stirred. So she told herself; but she told herself this in an agony of spirit, because she still doubted,-she feared that she doubted,—that this thing would not be done for her by heaven's aid. Oh, if she could only make herself certain that heaven would aid her, then the thing would be done for her. She could not be certain, and therefore she felt herself to be a wretched sinner. In the mean time, Linda was in bed up-stairs, thinking over her position, and making up her mind as to what should be her future conduct. As far as it might be possible, she would enter no room in which Peter Steinmarc was present. She would not go into the parlour when he was there, even though her aunt should call her. Should he follow her into the kitchen, she would instantly leave it. On no pretence would she speak to him. She had always the refuge of her own bedroom, and should he venture to follow her there, she thought that she would know how to defend herself. As to the rest, she must bear her aunt's thoughts, and if necessary her aunt's hard words also. It was very well to talk of going into service, but where was the house that would receive her? And then, as to Ludovic Valcarm! In regard to him, it was not easy for her to come to any resolution; but she still thought that she would be willing to make that compact, if her aunt, on the other side, would be willing to make it also. THE CHURCH-HER STATE AND PROSPECTS. and grew into a popular aphorism. This at least is our opinion. But be the opinion sound or unsound, there can be no doubt whatever as to the fact that Lord Grey's utterance is now very generally received as prophetic, and that thoughtful men, whether they look to it as involving a desirable issue or the reverse, are beginning to receive the impression that they themselves may possibly live to witness its accomplishment. It may not be either uninteresting or without profit if we devote, under such circumstances, a few pages to the inquiry, How far are they who thus deal with this near future justified in so doing?-in other words, Whether there be anything in the social atmosphere indicative of a change so momentous as that with which these interpreters of the signs of the times tell us that we are threatened. FIVE-AND-THIRTY years ago the prelates of the United Church of England and Ireland were warned, in the presence of the most august assembly in the world, to "set their house in order." The warning sounded the more ominous, coming as it did, during a season of great political excitement, from the First Minister of the Crown. That it was intended to convey the meaning which was, not unnaturally, put upon it at the moment, few who have outlived the prejudices of earlier life now pretend to believe. The late Earl Grey, though a rash politician, had little of the leveller about him. He certainly never intended, by his great Reform measure, to disturb the order of society, and made no secret of his belief that he would be accused in after times of infusing too much of the aristocratic element into the Constitution. In threatening the We must begin by reminding our bishops, therefore, and through readers that the destruction of a them the Church, he probably had Church as a Church is one thing, no more in view than to withdraw and the overthrow of a Church as them if possible from offering fur- a great national institution is quite ther resistance to his Reform Bill, another thing. Any Government lest, amid the confusion to which which is either strong enough the battle then raging might lead, to despise, or too weak to resist, the Church should lose her hold up- the popular will, however little it on the reverence of the people, and may approve that will, can achieve be violently overthrown. Such, at the latter object, or be forced to least, was the explanation which he achieve it. Not all the power of and his friends gave to a not very the most despotic Government that wise or dignified utterance; and the world has ever seen, nor the with the evidence before us which will of a people as mad as were the his published correspondence sup- mobs which paraded the streets of plies, we can hardly refuse to ac- Paris in 1792, can effect the former, cept it as a just one. Yet the at least in perpetuity. The Church threat was never forgotten. It as a Church is sure, though suprankled in the minds both of those pressed for a time, to rise again who were friendly and of those sooner or later. The Church, as a who were hostile to the Church; great national institution, once overand mainly, as we said at the time, thrown, will never hereafter recovand as we still believe, through the er her lost status, whether she fall misdirected zeal of the former, and amid the crash of a political revoluthe steps which they took to avert tion, or be set aside by due course an evil which seemed to them close of law. Of both of these facts the at hand, it changed its character, state of the Continent affords, or is in progress of affording, ample proof. In France, the Church went down at the Revolution both as a Church and as a great national institution. As a Church it revived under the Consulate and the Empire. But not even the Restoration put it back again, as a national institution, into the condition from which it had been removed a quarter of a century before. It exists, therefore, as a Church, but not as a national institution. In like manner, the Church in Italy, in Austria, and in the other Roman Catholic countries of Europe, is gradually ceasing to be a national institution. It exists as a Church, and will continue to exist, though deprived of its property, and, with its property, of the social independence of the clergy. But its position in regard to the State is changed, and is changing, and in most respects not for the better. What the final issues will be in Italy and Austria remains to be seen. There, as yet, all things are in a state of transition. But in France the Church, which was once the most independent of all Churches in connection with the Papal See, is now the most Ultramontane in the world. The French priests, having no status, no ties to link them with the very soil of their native country, are far more Italians in all their views than they are Frenchmen. The allegiance of the heart and of the mind they give exclusively to the Court of Rome, and to the utmost of their ability they teach their people to do so likewise. The allegiance which they render to the Government of France is that of outward action only, and that they will cease to give as soon as they are persuaded that by preaching and acting rebellion they are likely to promote the interests and extend the influence of their spiritual sovereign. So to a great extent it is in Italy already, though there the Romish clergy are still tolerably independent; and so it will be in Austria as soon as the Reichs rath shall succeed in reducing the priests to the condition of pensioners. As to the Protestant Churches of the Continent, the less that we say about them the better. Their clergy have no status nor independence anywhere. They contribute nothing to the formation of national character. Like the priests and other ministers in France, they receive salaries from the Government, greater or smaller in proportion to the extent of their charges; but, unlike the French priests, they are without a common head, without a common principle, and therefore without any means of exercising influence over their people which is not exercised more extensively by laymen. Many of the Lutheran clergy are able and learned and good men, but they are not to the people what our own clergy are, nor ever can be. Up to times comparatively recent these matters were well understood, and their proper value was put upon them by the leading statesmen of this country. Looking at the subject through a purely secular medium, they greatly preferred the state of things as it exists both in Great Britain and Ireland, to what they saw and rightly appreciated on the Continent. In England and in Ireland, too, the constitution of the Church by law established chimes in and harmonises admirably with the social condition and political institutions which exist within these realms. It accepts the supremacy of the Crown in things ecclesiastical, just as the State acknowledges the Crown's supremacy in things secular. Neither the one nor the other concedes to the Crown the right of making laws, but both admit that without the Crown's sanction no laws can be made; and both are agreed that with the Crown, and the Crown only, rests the power of enforcing obedience to the laws when made. The clergy of a Church so constituted recognise no divided allegiance. They are the Crown's subjects in all matters, and the subjects of no other power. But the clergy of the United Church of England and Ireland are so distributed among themselves as to fall into the utmost nicety with the arrangements of secular life. The Bishops-peers of Parliament attain their high station, or are supposed to attain it, exclusively because they surpass their contemporaries in learning, piety, and wisdom. As peers of Parliament they mix on terms of perfect equality with the highest in the land; as ministers of religion they are accessible on like terms to the lowest. In the country, their houses-palaces, as they are called, which word means nothing more than places-are the seats of a generous but unostentatious hospitality. In London they make their presence felt for good as well in the Legislature as elsewhere. There are no more munificent supporters than they, up to and beyond their means, of all works of charity. They move among us, living examples of meekness, gentleness, and dignity. Their influence for good upon society is, besides, the more marked, that, equally with rectors and curates, they may be and generally are family men. Educated at the same schools and colleges with the laity, they are in all their after-life linked to the laity by the bond of common tastes, common feelings, common interests, and common associations. You do not see anything like this in any other country of the world. It cannot coexist with the social degradation or the caste-ordering of a priesthood. Observe that what we are now discussing is what ought to be, what might be, what would be were the great national institution, the Established Church of England and Ireland, dealt with fairly. In point of fact, the Church, as a great national institution, is not always dealt with fairly, and the blame which attaches of right to individuals who abuse their influence VOL. CII.-NO. DCXXVI. falls unjustly on the institution itself. If the Prime Minister, for example, dispense his patronage, no matter by what influence swayed, unwisely, we get bad bishops, bad deans, bad rectors not morally bad, perhaps, but bad, because ill qualified to make use of the opportunities brought within their reach. But this proves nothing against the fitness of the institution to subserve the best interests of the State per se. A watch well put together will always tell the time correctly. A watch in which cogs and wheels are misplaced misleads. But nobody, because of the blunders committed by individual watchmakers, ever thinks of pronouncing watches to be useless. So in appointing particular men to the highest stations in the Church mistakes may often be committed. But surely these mistakes furnish no argument against the value, to society at large, of high places in a National Church, to which men of the humblest origin may aspire-to which the sons of tradesmen not only aspire, but often attain. If the Crown were always well advised how to nominate to bishoprics, bishops, as the law and constitution of the United Church of England and Ireland constrains them to be, would soon become, in their own communion at least, as universally and deservedly popular as, we cannot deny, they are here and there at this moment the reverse. Again, the cathedral establishments, with their estates and patronage, offer admirable places of retreat to men eminent among the clergy for their learning and piety, but who, from some idiosyncrasy of constitution, are not, perhaps, qualified to exercise authority over their fellows. That the places in these establishments are not always filled by occupants of this description, may or may not be the fact. If it be the fact, the fact is a melancholy one; yet let us not make too much of it. Dignified retirements such as these-not absolutely sinecure, yet 2 Y |