difficulties in which success was impossible,-with the irresistible progress of civilization, to which he and his master were resolved to offer the most determined resistance. The change of circumstances between the two periods is, indeed, most extraordinary. At the beginning of his career, the foremost power in Europe was Roman Catholic; at his decease, the supreme power and influence on the continent had been transferred to a Protestant potentate, and was wielded by a statesman of the first ability, whose unceasing aim has been for the last six years to curtail the influence and to reduce the power of the Roman see, and in this object he has been completely successful. At the period of Antonelli's entry upon office, with the exception of Piedmont, the whole of Italy was either under the Pope's own dominion, or under princes who were entirely subservient to him and to the policy of the Vatican. Before Antonelli's death, all those princes had lost their thrones, the whole country became a new and constitutional kingdom, in which the Church was separated from the State, and the ancient influence of the Roman see was extinct. The Pope himself had lost his temporalities, and even his capital, and was confined to the Vatican and a garden. Beyond the confines of Italy, the influence of the Holy Father on the public administration in Roman Catholic countries, which was recently preponderant, is now withering; and even in the most bigoted of them-in Spain itself-he has found it impossible to resist the introduction of the principle of religious toleration into the constitution.

The Cardinal was fully aware of this decay of Catholic influence among those who control the management of affairs in Catholic countries, and he turned his attention assiduously to the promotion of the spiritual influence of Rome in general society among the masses through the matchless organization of the Vatican-and with no little success. Indeed, it may, we believe, be affirmed with confidence that the spiritual power of Rome has been augmented since its temporal power has been annihilated. In Catholic countries devotion to the Holy See has become more of a passion than at any time in the present century, and pilgrimages have been multiplied under the impulse given from Rome. The idea that the Pope is the victim of persecution and a prisoner, however it may be ridiculed by Protestants, appears to be regarded as an incontrovertible truth among Roman Catholics, and it has attracted towards him those feelings of affectionate sympathy which are felt for the injured. The offerings which are laid at the feet of His Holiness have been multiplied to such an extent as to provide for the vast expenditure of the Vatican establishment, and to enable him to reject with scorn the liberal amount, exceeding £300,000, which the Italian Parliament has voted for the support of the Pope and his court, secular and ecclesiastic.

CARDINAL ANTONELLI'S TESTAMENT is a singular production. Like a true Catholic, "Before everything else he recommends his poor

soul to the infinite mercy of God, trusting that through the intercession of the most holy, immaculate Mary, and his patron saints, St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. James, and St. Louis, He may grant the remission of his sins and make him worthy of the eternal glory of paradise;" and he ordains that during the eight days following his decease a hundred masses a day shall be celebrated, with the alms of three sous for every mass. Here it cannot fail to be noticed that there is no mention of our blessed Redeemer throughout the will; but the Cardinal's hopes of heaven rest on the intercession of the Virgin and of Louis XI., King of France, together with two of the apostles and the apostle of the Gentiles. He was reputed to be enormously rich. The position he held for thirty years as Secretary to the Court of Rome, the centre of devotion to two hundred millions of ardent subjects, and enjoying the highest confidence of the Pope, afforded him extraordinary means of amassing wealth; but he has taken especial care to affirm in his will that he owed none of his property to this position, and that it was the result of the careful improvement of the patrimony he derived from his father. The fact is that, being practically a layman, he turned this money to account, and, in the course of trade and speculation, to very good account, and died worth many millions of francs. It was expected that he would have bequeathed a considerable portion of it to his master, dependent as he is on the eleemosynary assistance of his spiritual subjects; but the Cardinal has incurred a heavy censure from some of the Ultramontane organs of the see for having left him nothing but the crucifix which stood on his writing-table: "I humbly beg the Holy Father to accept the respectful offering of the crucifix standing on my writing-table, having the cross inlaid with lapis. lazuli, and at the base the kneeling Magdalene; within the centre of the said base a bas-relief representing the Adolorata and other ornainents in silver. I pray him to accept with paternal goodness this object from the most devoted and faithful of his subjects, who dies tranquil, in the consciousness of never having failed in duty towards his sacred person, and the conviction of having, with all earnestness and honesty, served him in the true interests of the Church and the State." His large property he has divided among his numerous kindred, and those in the most distant degree of relationship do not appear to have been forgotten. The passion of his life was the collection of precious stones and marbles. was no marble of antiquity, however rare or costly, of which a specimen was not to be found in his magnificent museum, which was also enriched with marble and precious stones from every country. Those who visited the Vatican for devotional purposes from all quarters of the globe well knew that nothing afforded him greater gratification than the offer of an addition to his collection; and it received constant accessions, till it became the richest mineralogical treasury in the possession of any private individual of whatever rank or country. It was expected that it would have been added to the

There

Vatican museum, as, indeed, it ought to have been; but he has left it to some member of his family, with whom it will be lost to the interests of science; and for this act of nepotism he has exposed himself to the just censure of the world.

NEW BISHOPRIC IN ENGLAND.-This is pre-eminently the age of English episcopacy. At one time it was a current opinion that the revolt of America was owing, in a great measure, to the neglect of introducing an Established Church on that continent, and stocking it with a staff of bishops who would have served to keep up a strong feeling of sympathy with the mother country. This idea may have had some share in creating the modern policy of leaving no colony of any importance without its bishop. They have been established in the most out-of-the-way places-among the savages of Borneo, with only two or three clergymen and a few score of laymen to superintend, and in the wild regions of the Hudson's Bay Company, near the Polar regions-till it has been facetiously observed that, wherever there was room for a seagull to perch, there it was deemed advisable to plant a bishopric. It is only in India that the cry for more bishops, which has been continuously sounded for the last thirty years or more, has been steadily resisted--not only by the Court of Directors, but also, since their extinction, by the successive Secretaries of State, without distinction of party. The rulers of India have persisted in considering that three bishops, with the aid of the rail and three archdeacons, are quite enough for the duties of the three presidencies; and there can be no doubt of the soundness of their judgment. Travelling as they do at the public expense, with all the dignity of the high officials of the State, ranking with the Commander-in-Chief, their periodical visitations can be scarcely less agreeable to themselves or more laborious than his Excellency's tours of duty.

These allusions may serve to introduce the remark that the desire for new bishoprics in our native land appears to be spreading in the circle of Episcopalianism. We have now to notice among the events of the past month the rare fact of the creation of a new see. During the last session, Parliament passed an Act authorizing the Queen, under certain circumstances, to establish a new bishopric in Cornwall under the designation of the see of Truro. On the 9th of December last, the following simple notification appeared in the Gazette:

At the Court at Windsor, on the 9th day of December, 1876. Present--The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty.

Whereas, in pursuance of the Bishopric of Truro Act, 1876, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of England, on the 23rd day of November, 1876, certified to Her Majesty under their common seal that the net income of the Truro Bishopric Endowment Fund was not less than £2,500 a year, and that contributions to that fund sufficient to raise the net income, within five years from the date of the same certificate,

up to £3,000 a year, had been guaranteed to the satisfaction of the Commissioners.

"Now, therefore, in pursuance of the above-mentioned Act, Her Majesty is pleased by and with the advice of her Most Honourable Privy Council to order and declare as follows:

"1. The Bishopric of Truro is hereby founded.

"2. The diocese of the said bishopric shall consist of the Archdeaconry of Cornwall.

"3. The parish church of St. Mary, in Truro, is assigned as a cathedral church of the said bishopric."

Of this endowment no inconsiderable portion has been contributed by the liberal and exemplary Bishop of Exeter, Bishop Temple, who has stripped his own diocese of some of its resources. With the see of St. Albans, this forms the second diocese erected within the last three years, and it seems to establish the precedent that in future £3,000 a year will be considered sufficient for the allowance of a bishop, and that whenever this sum can be provided as a permanent endowment, the promoters of the design may expect success in their endeavours to obtain the erection of a new bishopric. We perceive that a plan has been already set on foot, and funds raised, to erect Nottingham into a see; and that £10,000 have been already subscribed for that purpose; and that it is proposed that a sum of £100,000 should be raised for endowing Liverpool with a separate bishop, of which sum the promoters announce that they have already collected £15,000; and, considering that the Church of England is, by far, the most wealthy establishment in the world, and that its members are exceptionally liberal where the interests of the Church are concerned, we may expect that such efforts will be repeated from time to time. But it may be a question whether this multiplication of mitres in England may not make the title too common, and diminish the weight and influence of the office, as it has done in the case of the colonial bishops, who are seldom alluded to without something of a sneer, except where they have claims to personal respect.

CYCLONE IN BENGAL.-One of the greatest calamities on record has recently been reported from Bengal. At midnight on the 31st of October last more than 200,000 men, women, and children were swept out of existence in so brief a space of time that it might be counted by minutes. At eleven o'clock on that fatal night there was not the slightest indication of any approaching disturbance in the atmosphere, when suddenly three storm waves arose in rapid succession and swept over 3,000 square miles, in many cases to the height of twenty feet. The wretched inhabitants awoke only to perish; none escaped destruction but those who were able to climb the trees, which happily were numerous throughout the district. The cattle universally perished. The scene of this awful calamity was

the low-lying district of Backergunge, at the mouth of the Ganges, and the three populous islands at the estuary of the Megna, the junction of the Ganges and the Berhampooter. It was the richest and the most fertile district of Bengal, and the peasantry were the most prosperous. It was the chief seat of the cultivation of rice which was raised in such abundance as to enrich the people by the export of it to the neighbouring districts.

The whole of the east coast of India is liable to be visited with cyclone storms, especially at the end of the spring and in autumn; and low coasts lying in a corner or deep bight, such as that at Backergunge, are especially exposed to these calamities. Madras and the Coromandel coast have been over and over again the scene of these devastating storms, and they have proved exceedingly disastrous at the mouth of the Hooghly, and even in Calcutta itself. The loss of life on the numerous occasions on record has ranged from ten to 50,000, but in no case has the cyclone been so destructive as at Backergunge on the 30th of October last, when the population was taken unawares while locked in sleep. The Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, Sir Richard Temple, repaired immediately to the spot, and afforded all the relief to the suffering country which the energy and authority of Government could supply. The fertile fields will, however, soon be the scene of active cultivation; the country will be rapidly re-peopled, and in a short time there will be little trace of this awful calamity.

Faith's Review of the Past.

"The children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness till all the people, which were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed."-JOSHUA v. 6.

"Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord Thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and prove thee, and to know what is in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments or no."-DEUT. viii. 2.

SH

HOULD one who has lived forty years in the world be disposed to take account of his fellow-travellers who have disappeared from the stage during that time, supposing that from his position and observation he were qualified to sum up their history, what would he find? First of all, he would be struck with the solemn fact, that at different stages of the journey they had almost all passed away into the unseen world. How varied their characters; how diversified their pursuits; how opposite their tastes; how strange their likings and