Churches consecrated, 4; Churches reopened, 3. The Addresses gave evidence of a very prosperous condition of affairs in the Diocese.

DELEGATES TO THE GENERAL CONVENTION.-Rev. Dr Croswell, Rev. Dr. Mead, Rev. Dr. Hallam, and Rev. Mr. Littlejohn; and Messrs. William T. Lee, Willian W. Boardman, Charles A. Lewis and E. Ferris Bishop, of the Laity.

PENNSYLVANIA.

The Bishop, in his Address to the Convention, gave the following summary of Episcopal acts during the year: Confirmations, 980; Deacons ordained, 7; Priests, 9; Churches consecrated, 2; Corner-stones laid, 2. Bishop Potter had preached 148 times, and administered confirmation to 524.

DELEGATES TO THE GENERAL CONVENTION.-The Rev. Drs. Howe, Stevens, Newton, Bowman; and Messrs. Conyngham, Stroud, Cope, and R. H. Lee.

GEORGIA.

At the late meeting of the Convention of this Diocese, the Committee on the State of the Church stated: That an examination of the parochial reports, in those particulars which best indicate spiritual prosperity, exhibits a decided increase during the past year, and presents a picture of vitality and growth, calling for devout gratitude to the Great Head of the Church, and presenting strong ground of encouragement to continued activity and faithfulness in His service. The evidence of such increase of the Church in this Diocese, appears from the following comparative exhibit, appended to the Report of the Committee:

DEPUTIES TO THE GENERAL CONVENTION.-Of the Clergy-Rev. E. E. Ford, D. D.; Rev. S. G. Bragg; Rev. R. Johnson; Rev. W. C. Williams. Of the Laity -Messrs. James Potter; Daniel Griffin; R. H. Gardiner, Jr., P. M. Nightingale.

MASSACHUSETTS.

The following statistics appear in the Bishop's Address: Confirmations, 501; Consecration, 1; Ordinations, Deacons, 4; Priest, 1; and 4 new parishes have been organized.

DELEGATES TO THE GENERAL CONVENTION.-The Rev. Alexander H. Vinton, D. D., Rev. George M. Randall, Rev. John Wayland, D. D., Rev. William Horton; Messrs. William Appleton, Samuel L. Crocker, Edward A. Newton, Robert M. Mason.

OHIO.

The Address of the Bishop to his Convention, lately assembled at Gambia, gives the following statistics: The Confirmations, in 44 parishes, were 372. Four dea

cons and six presbyters had been ordained. Four new parishes had been formed, and one church had been consecrated. Ten clergymen had been received into this Diocese, and three had taken letters dimissory. A writer in one of the Church papers gives the following interesting account of the Confirmation which took place at Gambia, during the session of the Convention: "Seldom has there been seen in this Diocese a sight of more affecting and delightful interest than that witnessed in Rosse Chapel on Wednesday evening last. A large class for Confirmation is always looked upon, by the true Churchman, with a full heart; and most of all, where that class has been gathered and prepared under a faithful, discriminating ministry. A class in which a large proportion of the recipients consists of the young, may be rejoiced over with peculiar joy; for as to such we may hope that they will, by God's grace, escape the vain regrets that follow, even where repentance is at last vouchsafed, a misspent life. A class in which the greater number is of males, gives reason for gratulation; since throughout our Churches there is such a prevalent complaint of the negligence of the means of grace-if not of pos itive unbelief on the part of men. But in Rosse Chapel, there were gathered around the commodious chancel no less than fifty-eight precious souls, for whom the Rector of the Parish could vouch that after faithful instruction and due personal examination, he believed them to be truly 'born again,' not only of water, but also of the Holy Ghost. Thirteen of this number were females: little children, maidens and matrons, happy thus to renew the vows of their Baptism, and to consecrate themselves afresh to Christ. Forty-five were of the other sex; lads, young men, men of riper years; ready, whether in the fullness of manhood's strength or in the freshness of boyhood's zeal and purpose, to avouch the Lord to be their God, and to enlist themselves anew as good soldiers, to fight manfully under Christ's banner, against the world, the flesh and the devil. Of these thirty-six were Students in the Institution. The whole number added to the Communion was sixty-three."

DELEGATES TO GENERAL CONVENTION.-Clergy-Rev. E. Burr, D. D., Rev. C. M. Butler, D. D., Rev. R. B. Claxton, D. D., Rev. Wm. R. Nicholson. Laity -Messrs. John W. Andrews, Kent Jarvis, M. G. Mitchell, E. E. Fillmore.

MARYLAND.

From the Episcopal Address it appears: That the Bishop had visited 70 parishes in 85 different places, situated in 17 counties of the State; administered the Holy Communion 69 times, attended 81 public confirmations, and confirmed 964 persons. He had preached 73 sermons, and delivered 200 addresses.

The delegates to the General Convention are the Rev. Drs. Wyatt, Mason, and Pinkney, and Rev. R. L. Goldsborough, of the clergy; and the Hon. E. F. Chambers, Hugh Davey Evans, LL.D., J. Mason Campbell, Esq., and J. H. Alexander, LL.D, of the Laity.

MISSISSIPPI.

The following elections were made in the Convention:

DEPUTIES TO THE GENERAL CONVENTION.-Rev. Messrs. W. W. Lord, James A. Fox, Thomas S. Savage, and Benjamin Halsted; Messrs. George S. Yerger, W. C. Smedes, James S. Johnson, and Martin W. Ewing.

History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain. By WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co. 1856.

Ar three o'clock, on the afternoon of February 3d, 1557, a singular and interesting ceremony was going on in one of the fertile valleys of Estremadura. A cavalcade, under the direction of the Conde de Oropesa, was in waiting at the door of the best house in Xarandilla, provisionally an imperial residence, while within, the old retainers who had accompanied their master from Flanders across the bay, from Laredo to Valladolid, and thence to Xarandilla, were taking a final leave of him and receiving his recommendations to those now in power. Loaded with gratuities and mementos, they were to go back to the great and stirring world of the sixteenth century, and he, so he vainly hoped, was to retire from its VOL. III.-37

cares and pomps, its glories and its turmoil, and to rehearse on earth that oblivion which death promises but can not give.

The retainers and followers who journeyed back to the world, were swallowed in "its yeast of waves," and are almost forgotten even in the chronicle of his abdication, while he who was twice buried at Yuste, has been a marvel to the world, and a rare theme for poet, historian, and novelist-as much from the quiet of his latter days as for the splendor of his former empire. An emperor in a cloister is rarer than an emperor on the throne.

The cavalcade moves across the leafless forest which separates Xarandilla and Yuste, and in two hours has arrived at the monastery.

The prior and brotherhood, in grand procession, and with appropriate ceremonies, welcome the imperial stranger who has honored the order of St. Jerome and their convent of Yuste. The Te Deum, that noblest of anthems, daily perverted by a sentimental Romanism from its holy uses, is chanted at his coming, as if at some great manifestation of the power and glory of God. Altar and aisles filled with tapers and decked with frontals, the holy table crowned with the richest plate, blaze upon the emperor as he walks to the steps of the high altar, and joining in the vesper service of the feast of San Blas, which fell upon the day he arrived, returns thanks to God for the termination of all his journeys and, for what he designed to be, the close of his political and historic life. But he was mistaken.

There are several ways of accounting for the abdication of Charles V., and although it does not enter into the immediate subject of this review, it is not without an indirect connection with the events of the history. It is, indeed, the true startingpoint in the history of the reign of Philip II.

The cloister life, which, for lack of materials, had been misrepresented by Robertson, and misconceived by the world, has now been fully opened and described by Sterling, an English writer, from materials collected on the spot, as well as in the Spanish archives at the old and new capitals. We may be permitted, en passant, to express our opinion of the great value and interest of Mr. Sterling's work, to the just apprehension of the history.

Perhaps if we undertake to classify the causes for the abdication of Charles, we shall place first among them, the hereditary taint of madness which, so decidedly displayed in Joanna his mother, reäppeared in his grandson, the unfortunate Don Carlos. There is indeed in many points of character and action a similitude between Charles and his mother.

She kept in her own apartment the dead body of a husband who had treated her with great neglect and unkindness, and who had died of a debauch, in the hope that, according to the legendary tale of some monk, it would revive after fourteen years; and, being far gone in her pregnancy, she would not allow other women than her own family servants, to enter the room, such was her jealousy of the man who had deserted her while living, to revel in the licentious pleasures of Flanders and Germany.

Not unlike this was the spirit which prompted Charles to take part in the ceremony of his own burial at Yuste, and to perform other gloomy rites, in which indeed he seemed to take delight and find cheerfulness.

But to this slight madness, must be added the fact, that it was a custom of the day, sanctioned, if not in many instances directed by the Church, that after a life of war, and glory, and sin, men should retire at its close to some peaceful cloister and atone for their sins; giving up to God the fag-end of a worn-out existence.

Charles was a bigot too, and was therefore more ready to follow any such custom of the Church, and the slightest promptings of his hereditary insanity. In 1519, he had received Luther at the Diet of Worms, having granted him a safe conduct, both to and from that meeting. When Luther had boldly avowed his heresies, many of the counsellors had urged Charles to break his faith and seize the heretic, but the freshness of youthful honor repelled the treachery. In 1556, at Yuste, he expressed his great regret that he had not violated the safe conduct; such strides had bigotry made in his heart; so completely had the Church seared his conscience.

The miserable health of Charles, adding to and strengthening the other reasons, was doubtless a strong inducement to retire from the world which constantly harassed and debilitated both mind and body.