by every member of the Greek Church-whether in the Turkish, the Austrian, or the Russian empires— as the laws of God, and to its heaven-derived power everything temporal must submit.

The master-mind of Peter the Great, who was well acquainted with the religious tendencies of his people, controlled the influence of the patriarchs of the Greek Church, and, like our eighth Henry, invested himself with supreme ecclesiastical authority. What he so boldly commenced, his successors have perfected, and we now see a sovereign, who, in intellect and energy, has few equals not only the ruler over a mighty people, but regarded as political pontiff by every man who professes the Greek ritual. It is needless to expatiate on the supineness evinced by the Princes of the house of Othman, with regard to the Greek Church; instead of resisting the various encroachments on the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople, they have yielded to every demand of Russia, till at the present day we see but the shadow of a pontiff at Stamboul, while the substance exists at St. Petersburgh; this being the last suicidal act of an administration without tact or wisdom in all that relates to the civil and religious rights of its Christian subjects, and which, to a certain extent, they enjoy under the rule of the present Sultan.

It is to this union of the Church with the State, to this investing the sovereign, not only with the temporal, but the spiritual crown, with a power which, according to the tenets of this Church, cannot err, since it is divine in its origin, that we must attribute the absolute

dominion exercised by the Emperor of Russia over his subjects, and the implicit obedience they render him, who they recognize as combining in his own person the office of monarch and pontiff.

To this cause, again we must ascribe the immense accession of political and temporal influence acquired by Russia within the last century, exercised as it has been by consummate wisdom, and more than ordinary tact. An influence all-pervading, and which is felt not only within the limits of that empire, but in every country in which the Greek ritual prevails. Enter any temple dedicated to this form of worship, whether in European Turkey, or in the Austrian Empire, and you are nearly certain to find that some of the sacred ornaments, used in decorating the church, were donations from St. Petersburgh, and that the prayerbooks, used in celebrating divine worship, were also sent from the Synod, on the banks of the Neva.

When we remember the severe persecution endured by the Greek Church during the all-powerful rule of the Latin Church, both in the early ages and a later date; when we remember the entire subjugation of every land professing the Greek ritual to the rule of the fanatic followers of Mahomet, Mongul Tatars, Nogay Tatars, and Turks, our admiration must be won for the constancy with which they clung to the religion of their fathers. Although assailed by persecution and death on one side, and on the other tempted by the allurements of riches and power, and a faith pre-eminently adapted to minister to the selfish desires of man, they now form not only the most numerous Christian Church in the

world, but from its exclusive character, the least exposed to the insidious seductions of our western philosophers, which character it acquired at an early epoch of its separation from the Latin. It was expressly forbidden by the Greek clergy, and indeed punished as heresy, for its members to read any religious work not written in the Cyrillic character, with the view to prevent them. from being contaminated by the writings of their opponents. This irreconcilable schism, which divided Christendom into two hostile religious camps, has been the principal cause of the ruin of Papal Poland, by alienating from her rule her finest provinces, professing the Greek form of worship. History records many a dismal tale of the manner in which these unfortunate Poles of the Greek Church were persecuted by the dominant Latin Church, with fire and sword, till, driven to desperation, they annexed their country to the Russian empire.

Hungary also, in the days of its dominion and might, when its territories comprehended not only Hungary of the present day, but the fine provinces of Bosnia, Croatia, Servia and Bulgaria, extending from the Adriatic to the Black Sea; like Poland, armed with the authority of the dominant Church, sought to win over its erring subjects excommunicated by the Pope, to the fold of the true shepherd, by all those excesses and tyrannies considered justifiable in a dark, fanatic age; and how severe must have been the persecution, when an entire people in their agony were compelled to fly to arms, and call in the aid of the infidel Turk to assist them in expelling their Latin tyrants.

History records in many a bloody page, the horrible wars this event gave rise to, in bringing the fanatic followers of the Crescent into immediate contact with a more dauntless soldiery of the Cross than the degenerate Christians of the Byzantine empire.

If we trace the history of the Slavonian race conforming to the Greek Church, their wars, and the religious persecutions they endured, whether in Russia, Turkey, Hungary or Austria, we shall find there is a tenacity of purpose, an indomitable perseverance in their character, which approaches to that of the Anglo-Saxon. Both are pre-eminently religious, and if the forms of worship of the one are more simple, and consequently more enlightened, the piety of the other may be termed the very poetry of religion, since it mingles with every action of life, however trifling.

This resemblance is strikingly displayed in the history of the English and Russian empires, and both people may date their greatest prosperity from the time when they invested their sovereign with spiritual as well as temporal power, when they united the Church and the State, that each might add to the strength and stability of the other. Hence, independent of all foreign ascendancy and priestly intrigue, they possessed the mighty lever-religion undivided--in their own hands, and at the same time extended their influence over their respective sectarians in every part of the globe; and while the other states of Europe, still clinging to the old system of dividing Church and State, subject to the domineering religious influences of a foreign priest, have remained stationary, they continue to make rapid

strides in political power, and it may be said of both, that they never undertook an enterprise which they did not carry out successfully. We have seen them both victorious over all their enemies, and by a succession of events become the two most powerful empires in the world; and they may be regarded at the present day as personifying the antagonistic principles-liberty and despotism, which has necessarily made them rivals, and may lead to important results in the crisis to which Europe is now approaching.

England, confessedly at the head of all constitutional freedom and enlightened civilization, confident in the excellence of her institutions, fearlessly receives the disaffected of every nation, the propagandists of every political opinion, relying for her safety from insurrection on the good sense of her people, and their experience, matured by centuries, of the value of rational liberty. Yet she cannot remain an indifferent spectator of what is passing in Europe, and to preserve her influence, she is obliged to support those Governments that have modelled their constitution on hers.

On the other hand, Russia, although formidable through the strength and ignorance of her people, professing for the most part the same creed, united by the same ties of kindred and language, and attached to a Prince, the Czar and Pontiff of their race, has yet to pass through the ordeal of constitutional change, necessarily entailed upon a people as they advance in civilization

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