exorbitant, and one which, paid as it often is to a friend, it is difficult for the candidate to contest or cut down. He can hardly haggle over the bill, or ask what is the smallest amount he can pay without appearing mean. The fee, too, when divided among several candidates, does not appear so large as it really is.

Besides all this, the candidate would undoubtedly feel more independent and less of a delegate if he were indebted to the State and not to his constituents for the expenses of his election.

The question of the reform we have been discussing can hardly be regarded as a party one. Liberals ought to be in favour of it on the general principles, of granting to every man a fair field and no favour; that property qualifications and undue restrictions should be abolished; that opinions, and all opinions, ought to be allowed a proper opportunity of representation, &c. Conservatives might very well support it from the knowledge that if any suffer from the change it will undoubtedly be the Liberals. The Liberal party always contains within its ranks a large number of free-lances and soldiers but slightly amenable to control. They often require therefore an offensively evident caucus to keep them together, while the Conservatives possess a universal, moral, and well-understood power of pressure-caucus under the name of party discipline. It is therefore almost absolutely certain that, in some constituencies, we shall find a Liberal of one shade running against a Liberal of another, and letting in a Conservative. This catastrophe has, however, already taken place over and over again in quiet times; more especially when sections of the party, considering themselves injured or neglected, are openly active in opposition, or sulk in their tents. Such was the case in 1874. On the other hand, as in 1880, when the questions uppermost are exciting, and when there is something worth fighting for (or against) the Liberals again close up their ranks, and stragglers and deserters are not allowed to impede the forward march.

A few ardent crotcheteers will doubtless always be found to fight for their own hand, and, by standing, will show the strength or weakness of their following.

There is one other matter in connection with the duties of the returning officer which calls for notice. The power of deciding the day on which the poll is to be taken should no longer be left in his hands. The day of polling ought to be the same all over the country, for counties as well as boroughs, and-Sunday being out of the questionthe right day would be a Saturday, as giving the best opportunity to the working classes to vote. In any case, if a maximum scale of expenditure is to be adopted-I am one of those who believe a scale to be practically unworkable, and therefore worse than useless-it will be absolutely necessary, in order to introduce some measure of fairness, to fix a definite uniform period over which election contests are to extend

and during which election expenses may be incurred, and not leave the length of the contest to be decided according to the caprice or the favouritism of the returning officer.

In addition, it ought certainly to be the duty of the returning officer at an election, after revision of the register, to send to each voter a card informing him of the date of the poll, his number on the register, and his place of polling; the candidates being meanwhile forbidden to issue their own begging polling cards.

If these reforms be adopted, and the extravagance of elections discouraged by the State; if expense be further diminished by the Corrupt Practices Bill; and economy encouraged by such successes as those of the late elections in Hackney, South Northumberland, Herefordshire, and Bedfordshire, the turn of the tide may be near at hand, and it may become the fashion to fight a contest cheaply, and consequently purely, instead of its being, as now, almost a necessity to fight expensively. SYDNEY C. BUXTON.

July.

CHURCH AND DEMOCRACY AT GENEVA.

T

HOSE who are impressed with the democratic movement of our time, and look forward to its extension, cannot but ask anxiously at times what is likely to be its bearing and action toward religious faith and Church institutions. Any experiment made in this field ought to be carefully observed and stored up by us. And such an experiment took place two years ago in Switzerland, long prepared, thoroughly worked out, and culminating in the popular vote of July 4, 1880, at which the question was distinctly submitted to the arbitration of universal suffrage, whether the support of the Canton, the Sovereign State, should or should not be any longer continued to the organization for public worship. The result was a majority more than two to one9,306 to 4,044-in favour of the continuance of this support.

In order that we may appreciate the significance of this vote, it is necessary to point out the social and ecclesiastical circumstances under which it was taken. The reader will readily distinguish between those circumstances which are peculiar to Geneva, and those which render it generally illustrative of the relations of the Church with the State, or of Christian institutions with the Democracy.

The Swiss communities have at many periods in the Middle Ages, at the Reformation, and to some extent also in the eighteenth century, been the pioneers of progress. And in our own day they are again in many respects acting as pioneers. The progress of education is probably greater than in any other country, both in a popular sense and in the higher and later stages. It is said by M. Rey, in his work on the "Shores of the Lake Leman," that every one in Geneva is bound to give a course of lectures before he dies. They are absolutely democratic, so that not only every citizen takes part in parochial and municipal government, but every law is liable to be

submitted to the public vote. And in Church matters they have boldly accepted the democratic principle. At Neuchatel, as well as at Geneva and in the other Protestant Cantons, the whole Church system is subject in the fullest manner to the popular control.

Moreover, political experiments can be made with great facility in communities so small as that of Geneva. The whole Canton of Geneva hardly contains more than 100,000 persons, notwithstanding the enlargements made in 1815, when Geneva, previously a separate Republic, entered the Swiss Confederation. But, notwithstanding the facility for change which a small State presents, the connective power of historical association is considerable, and the Genevese are not disposed, without full conviction, to give up the institutions with which their ancient glory is intertwined. They have also a hereditary and active dread of the aggressions of the Papal power.

I have observed that the Church system has been thoroughly democratized. From the time of Calvin till 1842, the pastors were elected, subject only to a veto of the Government, by the Vénérable Compagnie des Pasteurs, a body of from thirty to forty members, consisting of the ministers of the city and the fifteen outlying parishes, the Emeriti, and the professors of theology. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, owing in part, it is said, to the advice previously given by Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, subscription to the Confession of Faith was abolished, and a general declaration of acceptance of the Scriptures as the standard of doctrine was substituted. In 1842, in consequence of a political revolution, the Consistory, in which laymen sat, was joined to the Venerable Company for the election of pastors, and in 1847 it was enacted that both pastors and the Consistory should be elected by universal suffrage of the Protestant population. In 1849 the lay power was farther extended and regulated by a Reglement Organique. "Wewere," says Professor Diodati, the Reporter of the Commission by which this was done, "a clerical Church; now we are a Church of the people" ("Nous étions une Eglise Clergé, nous sommes une Eglise Peuple"). The obligation to choose Genevese pastors, or even men educated in the University of Geneva, was at that time removed. In 1874 the obligatory use of the official catechism and liturgy was withdrawn; and lastly, in 1875, all ceremony of ordination was dispensed with.

Further, the power of the Corporation or Venerable Company of Pastors has steadily diminished, so that, instead of being the representative and governing body of the Church, it has passed into a secondary position, and the entire government of the Church is vested in the Consistory, which consists of twenty-five lay and six clerical members, all of them elected by universal suffrage. The decline of the clerical body is very instructive. It is described with the utmost frankness in a remarkable pamphlet by M. Auguste Bouvier, Professor of Theology in the University of Geneva, who describes the functions of the Company in its palmy days as dealing with almost the whole circle of the public

life of the community. "All this," he says, "is gone to-day, we must confess. The Company is no longer more than a consultative body, which is not consulted because its present state of division renders it little suited to give any counsel. It is a ruin, a shadow-Magni nominis umbra.”

The mention of the divisions among the pastors leads us to touch upon the state of opinion in the Genevese Church. In the last century it partook to some extent of the coldness and the Rationalism which passed over all the European Churches. In the first half of this century, partly through the preaching of the Haldanes and other Scotch Christians, Thomas Erskine of Linlathen amongst them, a revival of Evangelical piety took place, and the leaders of this movement, finding themselves fettered in the proclamation of the doctrines of grace (M. Gaussen was actually expelled), formed themselves into a separate Society, and founded a separate system of clerical education. The names of Malan, Merle d'Aubigné, Gaussen, Pilet, are honoured everywhere; and their work continues. The pastors educated in their seminary find ministerial positions in the Free Churches of France or Switzerland. They are credited with admitting men to the ministry on easier terms than the National Faculty, and they have at present a larger number of students. Indeed, the theological faculty in the National University, though it has among its professors the eminent names of Bouvier and Cougnard, of Chastel the historian, and Oltramare and Segond, the translators of the Bible, would be but ill-off for students were it not for the endowed bursaries, which induce students from France to come to Geneva for their training. Meanwhile, many of the Genevese pastors profess distinctly Evangelical views. Men like Coulin, Tournier, and Choisy, are distinguished Evangelical preachers. But, on the other hand, Liberalism has become more accentuated and more bitter. In 1869 a kind of invasion of Rationalism was experienced; and men like Cougnard have not only made themselves its patrons, but have allowed themselves to deal in a contemptuous spirit with the Evangelicals. Thus has arisen that division. of opinion and consequent incapacity in the Company of Pastors of which Professor Bouvier speaks, and which he himself, as a healing and mediating spirit, is so anxious to charm away.

It will be readily supposed that this complete democracy in the Church has alienated many good men. There are those who declare that it is no Church at all, and, even where the pastor is a man whom they can respect, will have nothing to do with it. Further, it frequently occurs that on a given Sunday none but Liberal or Rationalistic preachers are officiating, and those who wish for Evangelical preaching have no church to which to turn. An attempt has been made to obviate this by holding Evangelical services at exceptional hours, or in the great Hall of the Reformation, which was built as a centre for Evangelical life in the year 1867. But this bears hard on the pastors who have to conduct these services, and maintains a kind of chronic schism.

To this may be added the inadequate salary given to the pastors,