no share in it. But documentary evidence of these accusations has not been yet laid before me. The first legislative body in a country dare not, without such proof, pronounce judgment upon a set of men, whose permitted exertions are secured by all the vested rights of Bavarian citizenship. I feel therefore bound, so long to oppose the proposition of Prince von Wrede, until, either in the course of the discussion, or by behoof of regular parliamentary inquiry, proofs can be produced which shall enable us to form a clear opinion, and deliver a collective decision."

This speech of the Roman Catholic defender, not of the Redemptorists, but merely of their right to be heard, was met by the Prince von Wrede, by an expression of his full conviction,-a conviction in which he said " many zealous Catholics shared-that the Redemptorist order was wholly unsuited for the present day, but, least of all, for Bavaria, in the present day." He appealed to the circular of the Rev. Ordinary, München-Freysing, in proof that the common opinion of the public was against them; that hypochondriacal persons had been driven by their fanatical mission sermons to excesses dangerous even to life; and that large sums of money were gathered by the order, and sent in aid of Redemptorists in other countries. "When, therefore," concluded the bold and energetic speaker, "when it is remembered that our Protestant fellow-subjects are not only not permitted to make collections within their native land, in aid of poor congregations, whether for the purpose of building new, or repairing old places of worship, but that they are even prohibited from accepting aid from foreign well-wishers, for these purposes; when we even know a case, in which a Protestant district president was forced to relinquish his post, solely because he had received such a collection, then I ask, are there not just and powerful reasons for the estates of the kingdom weighing and examining into what has been alleged? The Redemptorists are permitted unmeasured freedom of operation by the government. For them, collects are freely and openly

made; and that not for their own support within this realm, but for all those kindred institutions by which they seek to propagate their doctrine in other lands; but, to the Protestants, even the means necessary to their existence is denied. Where, I ask, where is the justice of this distinction?"

Another and very important question laid before the senate by the indefatigable Prince von Wrede, is the legacy-hunting, at present so successfully practised throughout Bavaria, by various religious orders, but, most of all, by the Redemptorists; and it is hoped that his efforts will be so far crowned with success, as to make the civil power alive to, and watchful against, the machinations of those spiritual marauders who steal into houses, and carry captive, not silly women merely, but very much spoil, robbing the fatherless and widows of their earthly inheritance, and too generally the dying of their souls, by sending them down to the grave with a lie in their right hand. The attempted reform of Prince von Wrede has been, for the moment, frustrated; but those who know Prince Louis von Oettingen-Wallerstein are persuaded, that the seeming repulse was but given for the purpose of ensuring the question a much fuller investigation in the second chamber than it would have met in the first; and that, sincere Catholic as he is, no Protestant can more truly desire full equality of civil rights and religious privileges than he does; and none more conscientiously abhor all priestcraft and Jesuitry. In such hands, not merely Protestantism but truth is safe; and we may hope that the battle, though checked for the moment, will again be renewed; and error, delusion, oppression, and persecution, finally quit the field in Bavaria, and throughout the world. Thus circumstanced, it is only natural that the ultramontane party should use the most strenuous efforts to exclude the German Catholic doctrine from the Bavarian dominions, and the rigid censorship is much in favour of the fulfilment of their wishes; yet we do hear of some symptoms of the Rongé publications, as they are generally called, having found their way, like other smuggled goods, even across the Bava

rian frontier. Would that we could indulge the hope, that the true light will soon pierce the thick darkness of that region, and the day-spring of genuine gospel truth establish the reign of the Redeemer, in the room of the Redemptorists.

Even now a report is very prevalent (to which collateral circumstances impart a considerable share of probability), that the Crown Prince of Bavaria, the future sovereign of that realm, is completely convinced of the injustice and impolicy of the system of Roman Catholic favouritism, which the present prime minister, M. Von Abel, so sedulously fosters. The prince, it is said, having made himself fully master of the bearings of the different questions recently brought before the chambers, had conveyed his pointed disapprobation to the minister; and that his disappointment at failing to effect any alteration in the ministeral line of policy, is the true motive for his leaving the country, with his Protestant consort, for the purpose of making a long tour through Europe, to which no definite termination is announced. Before departing from Munich, the prince is asserted to have written a letter to Prince von Wrede, in which he wished him cordial success in all his plans for the benefit of his country. It were, indeed, more than extraordinary, could a young and talented prince see, without disgust and displeasure, his mother's memory, his wife's fame, made the butt of arrogant priests, and held up to the commiseration or abhorrence of his future subjects, with barefaced effrontery, by barefooted monks; or if he could view, without displeasure, those professing a faith which cannot but be at least respectable in his eyes, subjected to such illegal oppression and carking annoyance as are calculated to alienate their affections from his government, and disturb those social relations of peace and amity which can alone establish national prosperity on a firm basis.

Should this report, then, of the crown prince's feelings be founded in truth, a day of long unknown happiness may yet dawn on the Bavarian Protestants at no very distant date; for the reigning monarch is fast descending into the vale of years,

and he may thank his ghostly friends and his ultramontane minister, if the prospect of his demise be one of not unmingled sorrow to a considerable portion of his subjects. But again, if the report be true, the prince has acted most wisely in removing from Bavaria, and likewise in relinquishing his previously-announced plan of wintering in Italy. If he wish to enjoy "long life, and see many days," he will do well` to avoid all intimate contact with persons and places under Jesuit influence, lest the prospective danger to the church should suggest the advisableness of procuring for him such an apoplexy as conveyed Popes Clement XIII. and XIV. so rapidly from this nether sphere.

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CHAPTER XVIII.

THE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS ASSOCIATION.

Its Origin-Erection of a Monument to Gustavus Adolphus-The Fund formed by Overplus Contributions-Formation of Branch Societies-Definite Constitution of the Society-Roman Catholic Opposition - Its Success in Austria and Bavaria - Protestant Objections, and their Ground-Proposed Formation of a Similar Society by the German Catholics.

THIS now widely spread society shares the fate of many other human institutions, in being lauded to the skies by some, while by others (though highly approving its object) the constitution of the society is so much disapproved, as to prevent their joining its ranks. It may, therefore, be desirable to say a few words explanatory of this diversity of views. The origin of the society, wholly different in aim to what it has since become, is thus described in a pamphlet, written by Pastor Hessenmüller, of St. Ulrici, in Brunswick:

On

"A simple stone marked the memorable spot in the plain of Lützen, where, on November 6, 1632, Sweden's mighty and high-souled monarch, Gustavus Adolphus, paid with life the forfeit of his devotion to the Protestant cause. the 6th of November, 1832, being the bi-centenary anniversary of the hero's death, a number of Protestants resolved on erecting a memorial more worthy of his deeds in their