been placed there, as a speaking symbol of the Church of Geneva. At that moment the most inexpressible emotion manifested itself in the whole assembly of the faithful, and Monseigneur himself, after kneeling down, shed abundant tears; tears which are precious to all the true children of Geneva, tears of a kind father, tears of joy and of love, which will not be shed in vain."

The authorities of the town, who had so unceremoniously disposed of his person, paid their respects and received his visits, by way of first instalment of that "justice from Rome" for which M. Marilley's predecessor in the episcopate had appealed to the Pope. The fruit of the tears of Mgr. Marilley, so confidently predicted in the foregoing paragraph, has not failed to make its appearance; for the Ami de la Religion gives in a subsequent number the following statement on the authority of the Romish journals of Switzerland: "The affair of the nomination of a curé of Geneva does not seem to have advanced a single step. It is true the government had proposed to the bishop three priests, one of whom in particular seemed highly deserving, but in the course of the negotiations the pretensions of the Council of State seem to have increased. They meant, by way of preliminary, to extort from the episcopal authority a concordate analogous to that which expired at the death of Mgr. Yenni. Mgr. Marilley had had too much experience of the extravagant pretensions which the Genevese authorities found on concessions of this kind, to go into the trap. In consequence the negotiation is broken off, and probably a higher power will have to interpose between the contending parties." In other words, Mgr. Marilley having been a party to the violation of the rights expressly reserved to the temporal authorities of Geneva, on the re-admission of the Romish communion into the republic, now refuses in his episcopal capacity to recognize the very existence of the laws, which in a lower station he had already helped to outrage.

THE

ENGLISH REVIEW.

DECEMBER, 1846.

ART. I.-1. Procès de Condamnation et de Réhabilitation de Jeanne D'Arc, dite la Pucelle, publiés pour la première fois d'après les Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Royale, suivis de tous les documents historiques qu'on a pu réunir, et accompagnés de notes et d'éclaircissements. Par JULES QUICHERAT. Tom. i.-iii. Paris, 1841-5.

2. Jeanne D'Arc, Trilogie Nationale. Par ALEXANDRE SOUMET, de l'Académie Française. Paris, 1846.

3. The Maid of Orleans. A romantic tragedy, translated from the German of Friedrich von Schiller. Burns' Fire-side Library. London, no date.

4. Selections from the Dramas of Goethe and Schiller. Translated, with Introductory Remarks, by ANNA SWANWICK. London, 1846.

HERSELF more like an apparition than like a reality, a creature of romance rather than a historical character, the heroine of Dom Remi has yet left on the face of her own age so deep a mark of her fleet and passing footstep, that in spite of the difficulty of reducing her tale to the sober proportions of historic truth, and separating matter of fact from matter altogether visionary, the historian cannot avoid dealing with this most perplexing episode in the annals of modern times. And while the historian is thus compelled to insert among the records of well-authenticated transactions a story scarcely less fabulous than that of the Trojan war, philosophers exhaust their ingenuity to fathom the depth, and poets weary the wing of their fancy to rise to the height, of that most enigmatic and most poetic of subjects-Joan of Arc.

Setting aside all the curious details with which her story is rife, and all the embellishments which it has at different times received, taking merely the broad outline of the facts, as they stand forth undeniably in the general history of the times, the tale is marvellous enough. A simple country lass, obscure and unlettered, not out of her teens, suddenly appears on the stage of the world; by appearance she changes the whole tide of events; victorious armies are put to the rout, the fallen fortunes of a fugitive king

her

VOL. VI. NO. XII.-DEC. 1846.

Ꭱ

From a Correspondent in Switzerland.

Yverdun, Canton de Vaud, August 20, 1846.

MY DEAR I HAVE been for some days past endeavouring to bring myself to write to you in answer to your note of the 14th July; but I find it no easy matter to put upon paper my impressions on the state of matters in this country. Knowing that you wish rather to know actual facts than to hear of my mere personal judgment of them, I have been very desirous of gathering from persons of contrary parties all I could on the subject. Here, as in most places, it is most difficult to get information simple and unvarnished. Party feeling has broken society into pieces, and houses are divided in themselves and against houses, and every thing seems to be out of joint. My remarks must, however, be considered as relating particularly to this canton; for although I fear, from all I hear, that the other Protestant cantons are much in the same case, yet as I have not had any opportunity of conversing with persons from Bern, Geneva, &c., I can say nothing positive. The strife is here, as in England, the same, au fond, and proceeds, no doubt, from the same cause; but here we have it in miniature and more within compass. The dismission of the clergy was on the point of bringing on a crisis, but the decision and firmness of the government on the occasion appears to have arrested it for a time: a considerable number returned to their parishes, which gave a death-blow to the liberty and, perhaps, even the existence of their national Church. After considerable difficulty I obtained the loan of an old Prayer-book, which contains the Helvetic confession, the Church liturgy, and the Psalms. You will be surprised, no doubt, that I should have found difficulty in borrowing such a book! The fact is, the Prayer-book is never used by the congregation in church, except for singing, when the people sit: the minister reads the prayers, the people standing; but no one reads the prayers with him or after him, nor says "Amen" aloud. All but the singing is done from the pulpit by the minister or deacon alone, so that there seems to be no use for Prayer-books; indeed, modern Prayer-books only contain the Psalms set to music, and the office for the Lord's Supper.

But I must go further back. Previous to 1830 a part of the people were dissatisfied with the way in which the religious services of the Church were performed, and (as in our own country) they commenced forming themselves into what we call sects, or parties, who desired more spirituality than they fancied the Church possessed the means of affording them, -became an evangelical body, or section,-till at length the purity and sufficiency of their national confession of faith were called into question. Both ministers and people were divided on this point. The old school or national party attributed this schism to the "English Methodists" (as they call some of our good people who have of late years taken the world in hand), and they especially name a "Miss G," who came to reside for some time at Lausanne, as the prime cause of the movement. this, however, as it may, most distressing have been the results. The

Be

Canton de Vaud cannot now be said to have an established Church at all; for such were the lengths to which parties went, that the civil authorities at length interfered; and it has ended in a total suspension of the Helvetic Confession, and nobody seems to know where they are, or what they are about; for some cry one thing and some another. In the midst of this lamentable state of things in ecclesiastical matters, the Conservatives, who seem to have favoured, on the whole, the Evangelical party, were suddenly and most unexpectedly driven from office by an almost infidel party. Matters then became still worse; for, finding the Church stripped of its privileges as a Church, they treated her and her ministry as the mere servants of a political party, and so have made use of them. This brought on the dismission of the ministers, who refused to read—as they were ordered by the government to do from the pulpit on a Sunday—a brief of the "New Constitution," introduced by the present party. The Evangelical party they, as far as they can do, seem to persecute, and accuse of insubordination. In the midst of all this, the condition of both ministers and people is most deplorable, they are languishing in bondage. A blind zeal has so entangled them in the enemy's net, that they see no way of escape from it but by endeavouring to proclaim the necessity of a total disunion of Church and State-which I believe they will not readily succeed in bringing about. They take the Free Church of Scotland as their model; but at present the divisions among them are too numerous to admit of uniformity. Numerous churches are without pastors. The “démissionaires" are without churches; and although a considerable portion of their flocks are sympathising with them, and have followed them to hear their preaching in private rooms, yet they are counted by the government as mere laymen and private individuals; and many of them have been fined and even condemned to imprisonment, for not attending to the militia rules. Sunday is as much as possible by the government dedicated to public amusement; of which we, last Sunday week, had an example here; and it was the case throughout the canton, by order of the civil authorities. The day was set apart by authority for public rejoicing; when a considerable sum of money was given by them for the purpose. There was firing, feasting, and dancing, with illumination in the evening. This is the most melancholy issue of dissension on religious matters I have yet seen; but it is only what thousands in our own country would blindly and ignorantly lead the multitude to, thinking all the time they are doing God service. The more I reflect on our state at home, the more I think we ought to pray that we may desire the good old paths of fixed principles, instead of that love of change, which destroys merely for the sake of having something new, on the experimental chance of its being better. If we are contented with our foundations, why lay them afresh? If the superstructure be fallen into decay, let us repair it, before the enemy fall upon it with impious hand, or the friend in mistaken zeal destroy it. For where shall we find the spirit of unity and love at present strong enough to rear a national temple to God afresh on holier ground than our forefathers have chosen? The Church at Geneva is also in a most deplorable state as to its VOL. VI.—NO. XI.-Sept. 1846.

Q