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arch-way, and which was called "the great Good-God." Plenary indulgences were accustomed to be granted to the votaries who crowded thither; and thus at Schaffhausen, previous to the period of 1529, were

"The temple and its holy rites profan'd

66 By mumm'ries He that dwelt in it disdain'd:

and thus too a religious worship is still paid to "useless wood or senseless stone," in those countries where the Pope retains his interest and bestows his infallible benefits. Looking at the naked walls of the Münster, and those of the parochial church of St. John (which is nearly the same size) I could not help reverting, with superior satisfaction of mind, to that discriminative system of discipline, which, in the Ecclesiastical Establishment of England, has equally abolished and excluded every practice tending to idolatry, superstition, or corruption of faith; which has effected this without compromising a single principle of scriptural truth, without losing any thing needful to the support of real piety, and without neglecting any rational means of aiding a pure and well directed devotion. It would not, however, be doing justice to those excellent men, the Reformers of Switzerland, were we to withhold from their memories the respect due to them for that very act of their policy, by which in the complete removal of every appearance of assimilation with Romanism, they kept their people from relapsing into the seductive errors of a religion, still professed and cherished in so many of the circumjacent States.

The principal articles of the Reformed Creed, here and throughout Protestant Switzerland, are the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, and the Incarnation. It appears

that the Clergy uniformly preach the Divinity whilst they inculcate the precepts and hold up the great example of Jesus Christ; they proclaim the doctrine of our Blessed Saviour's Atonement, by his death on the cross, for the sins of the world; they declare "the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for salvation;" they administer the two sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper: in short their tenets seem to correspond as closely as possible, in every point of essential importance, with those of the Church of England.- When the young people receive their religious instruction, they are made acquainted by their Ministers with the wide difference that subsists between the Creed of the Roman Church and the Religion of the Gospel. If, on the recommendation of the civil authorities, the Pastors abstain in their sermons from touching upon points of controversy between the two persuasions, it is for the sake of peace.-Socinianism, or Unitarianism, has no public organ or authorised means of administration in any part of Switzerland.

Geneva and Lausanne* are the two principal towns in

* A young Piedmontese named Alpinosa, having abjured Popery, has lately come to reside at Lausanne. Monsieur Mollard Le Fèvre has published a letter written by this new convert to the Reformation. It is dated Lyon, the 25th of June, 1825, and addressed to one of his friends, to whom he has rendered a detailed account of the motives which prevailed with him to change his religion. He therein states that he has embraced the faith of the Protestant Church because every thing essential is comprised in its public service; that he had never been able to conceive it to be the will of God that the Ministers of the Gospel should read it pub licly in a language not understood by the people; and adds that the praise of God ought to be sung in the vernacular tongue of a country. In speaking of the Eucharist, he says that he never could make up his mind to believe with the Roman Catholics, that God who is a Spirit, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, with whose infinity Nature itself is not commensurate,

which societies have been established for the distribution of the Bible and the promotion of Christian Knowledge among the poor.-In the Pays-de-Vaud, where the Catholics are numerous, the tolerant principle of its Protestant Government is carried so far, that, in many of the rural districts, the same church serves, at different hours, for both forms of worship.-The Romish Dioceses of Switzerland have lost a vast number of parishes by the Reformation; but the Abbeys and Benefices sub

was to be swallowed like a pill-he holds that in this ceremony the bread and wine are used solely to represent the body and blood of our Saviour, which are taken spiritually by the devout communicant, and in remembrance of the benefits of Christ's precious death. With reference to the Romish prohibition to eat meat on the two last days of the week, as well as during Lent, he observes, that a man is no better for eating fish than for eating beef; that God, who has created wholesome food, does not forbid us the use of it. He quotes the 11th verse of the 15th chapter of St. Matthew-" Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; bat that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”—And also the Apostle Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians-"Whatsoever is sold in the shambles that eat, asking no questions for conscience sake. For the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof." (Ch. x. ver. 25 and 26.)--" Finally (says he) I have embraced the Reformed Religion because it does not place the scaffolds of the Inquisition by the side of HIS Cross, who came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them." He proves from Holy Scripture that the marriage of priests is permitted; he reprobates the doctrine that children who die without being baptized are excluded from paradise; and demon. strates the absurdity of the Romish veneration of images, and invocation of Saints. This letter, according to my informant, is written with great controversial acumen and energy of stile; and has caused a sensation not only in all the Swiss cantons, but also among the intelligent inhabitants of the adjacent countries. It has indeed been pronounced equal to the best polemic works, in the perspicuity and force with which it shows, on scriptural grounds, the superiority of the Protestant Religion, and the corrupt and fallacious character of most of the Roman Catholic Dogmas, particularly those monstrous contrivances for enslaving the conscience, the doctrines of Transubstantiation and Purgatory.-Abjurations of this kind are now very frequently occurring in the vallies of Piedmont.

ject to their episcopal jurisdiction are still very considerable, and much more richly endowed than those of "the Evangelical Cantons." The living or rectory of Rousweil in the canton of Lucerne, for instance, is valued at ten thousand francs (Swiss money) per annum; whilst the oldest of the Protestant Clergy do not receive annually more than two thousand francs.-The Roman Catholics are permitted to enjoy the free exercise of their religion in all the Reformed Districts; but are not allowed to hold civil offices. On the other hand the Protestants meet with no more than an individual toleration, wherever the Catholics have the ascendancy in church and state: nor are the former admitted to any acknowledged equality with the latter as a body, except at the Union of Deputies in the Diet. Protestants have neither churches nor chapels in any capital of the Popish Cantons.-In the Reformed Cantons, the people are much better instructed; the arts and sciences are more successfully cultivated, and industry itself is more active than in the Catholic countries, where education is neglected, where superstition is the basis of almost all that is taught, and where the interest of the Priesthood dooms the Laity to ignorance and delusion. Indeed "it cannot (as Madame de Staël says) be denied that the opinions of the Protestants, being founded on inquiry, are more favourable to knowledge and to the spirit of liberty than the Catholic religion, which decides every thing by authority, and considers Kings equally infallible with Popes, unless Popes happen to be at war with Kings."

Agriculture, it appears, has made rapid progress of late years in Switzerland. As connected with this interesting subject, I regret not having, when at Berne,

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TRAVELLING IN SWITZERLAND.

been aware of my proximity to the estate of Hofwyl, belonging to M. Fellenberg. It has since been described to me as well worthy of a visit, being not only a superb property, but also the great theoretical and practical school of Swiss farming. Every branch of rural economy is there carried to a high degree of perfection; and mechanical means are applied to the improvement of cultivation, with a degree of success, which has spread the influence of its example more or less into all the other cantons. M. Fellenberg's plans are on a very extensive scale; and have moreover the character of being founded on the most liberal views; namely those of developing the moral energies of the people, and of contributing to the public prosperity. By following the counsels of this celebrated agriculturist, the farmers of this country are said to be growing wealthy. Every month a sheet is published in Berne and the Pays de Vaud, containing information and instruction relative to the best mode of culture, especially on the subject of manuring, draining, and irrigating the land. Inspectors regularly visit the different farms to judge of the state of their husbandry work. Government annually awards premiums, in medals or in money, to the most meritorious. And the vine-dresser, who makes any discovery calculated to be of general utility, is recompensed in proportion to the value of his services.

Every body complains and justly too of the expense of travelling in Switzerland. Whilst the French occupied the country, they obliged all the different States to adopt the establishment of Posts. But as soon as the cantonal governments regained their independent sovereignty, these respectively (with the sole exception of the Vaudois) put by the system of posting, and with it the most eligible mode

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