The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-04 00:00:00

BELGIUM.

The Belgium Moniteur publishes the following :
The disturbances which have taken place in different
parts of the country imposed upon the Government the
duty of calling out on the 29th of May two classes of the
militia. _ _ _

--------
They Will be disembodiod as soon as order is perfectly
re-established. _ _ _

The Government intend sending bock at once to their
respective garrisons the troops which had been momentarily
summond to the capital.
The Communal Council of Brussels met on
Saturday, and voted the following address to the
King:—
SIRE,—Your Majesty is aware of the deplorable events
which have just taken place, and of their origin. A bill
which the government considered popular at the time of its
presentation, has excited great distrust and manifestations
throughout the country, and it has been necessary to repress
by force the excesses which have arisen. The first attention
of the Communal authorities has been to re-establish order,
and the great prudence of your Majesty, in adjourning the
Chambers, has powerfully consolidated the tranquillity
which has been restored. To-day the entire city regrets
the explosion of a discontent which could not be kept
under, and it comprehends that it is to the wisdom of the
King, to his love for the nation, and to his solicitude for
the interests of the country, that it must respectfully
appeal for the satisfaction of the public wishes. The
Communal Council of Brussels has considered, Sire, that it
was opportune and useful for it to constitute itself the
organ of these sentiments ; and it supplicates your Majesty,
with the most entire devotedness, to exercise, in the
present circumstance, the power conferred on you by the
Constitution, in order to put an end to the agitation of the
public mind. Belguim will thus be indebted to your
Majesty for an additional benefit.
This address was simply despatched to the King,
without being presented by a deputation.
A letter from Brussels says :
The great excitement which lately prevailed in Brussels,
and other parts of Belgium is gradually subsiding. On
Sunday, being an idle day, several hundred young men—
students, clerks, workmen, &c,—poured into Brussels
from Liege. Ghent, Antwerp, Mons, Charleroy, &3.
Several fresh arrests have been made, among others, two
musicians of the Grenadier band, a man named d'Haels,
and a jeweller, who, with the latter, had disguised himself
as a Capncine monk, and had collected money in beer-
shops. Several students of the universities of Ghent and
Louvain were also arrested. Out of seventy persons made
prisoners only thirty-two were retained in custody.

AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, MAY 31

The only news to be communicated is that their
Majesties arrived here yesterday afternoon. As
the little Archduchess Gisella, who is well, was
fatigued by the journey, the Emperor and Empress
resolved to pass the night in Vienna, and not to
leave for the castle at Laxemburg until this morn-
ing. The greatest sympathy is felt by all classes
of society for their Majesties, and more particularly
for the deeply-affiieted mother, who is not yet
19 years of age. The Emperor and Empress
reached Buda at half-past 8 in the evening of the
29th instant, so that they passed the last hour of
its life with their child.

PRUSSIA.

BERLIN, JUNE 1

This summer and autumn promise to be
unusually prolific in religious meetings and church
assemblies throughout Protestant Germany, afford-
ing very satisfactory evidence to the very numerous
champions of our faith at home., that the example
which England has for so long been setting in the
field of religious activity has by no means lost.
In addition to the numerous provincial synods and
pastoral cenferences which are always held at this
time of the year; there will this summer be. a Ger-

man Evangelical conference held at Eisenach
a synod of Dresden, an assembly of the Mora.

vian brothers and sisters from all parts of
the world at Herrenhut (the seat and foun.
tain-head of this denomination, in Saxony)

the Evangelical Ecclesiastical Diet (Kirehentag) a,
Stuttgard t • a Conference of Baptists in Hamburg ;
and last, but far from least, the Assembly of the
Evangelical Alliance, to be held here, in Berlin in
the month .of September. In addition to .these
meetings in the north of Germany, may be men-
tioned' also an assembly about to be held in
Copenhagen of Evangelical Christians in Denmark,
Sweden, and Norway, with a view to consolidate the
union of Scandinavian Protestants irrespeci.
tively of the differences which exist in doc-
trine and discipline between the churches
of the three Scandinavian kingdoms. It is
the approaching. meeting of ..the Evangelical
Alliance in Berlin which will chiefly interest
your readers, inasmuch as, apart from its
general attraction, as a means of uniting the
Protestants, of England, Germany, and the rest
of the world in the common bond of brotherhood,
the meeting itself is being brought about mainly
through the co-operation •of the British branch of
the Alliance with•the Berlin Association, Which
was originally called", inio life by the example set
in England twelve: years back. The promise of
co-operation on the part
,of the British branch of
the Alliance, induced the prominent traders of the
German Association, at the end of last year to
issue a general invitation to Evangelical Christians
Co meet at Berlin this autumn : the extent
to which that invitation has b'etn.• res-
ponded to in Great Britain and Ireland -cOnea-
tutes that response a national one ; and the extent
to which that British address ' has already been
joined in by the various Protestant churches and
denominations of Europe fairly entitles that acces-
sion to be styled European.. The British address
in reply to the German invitation had, up. td; the
end of March last, received 2,422 signatures, inclu-
ding a large number of Members of Parliament,"
men of the military and learned professions, bank-
ers and merchants; churchmen . and dissenters,
'bishops,' deans, rectors, curates, and minis-
ters of all denominations, - are • there
in ample proportions ; ' and before- the
end of the, following month twelve bishops,
headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, had-
expressed in a separate letter theii., warm sympathy
and" hearty prayer that GO may, bless the Berlin
Assembly, as the means of drawing more closely
together the: faithful Christians of England and
the' Continent." - The • British . address,- calling
attention to and backing the German invitation,
has been 'responded to by assurances of sym-
pathy and promises of co-operation from the
various branches of the Evangelical Alliande.
hi France, Belgium, Swhzerland, Baden,
Denmark, Sweden,' Holland, and Bavaria.
From Russia and- ' Turkey, the confines of
Europe on the East,aind frova
the United_ States of
America, far beyond.the confines of Europe on the
West, co-operation ,and assistance are confidently
expected. Such being the extensive scope, of this..
'coming assembly of the Evangelical Alliance in
Berlin, and such being the extensive interest taken.
in it by the religious' world in England, I believe I
shall only be doing my, duty if I draw attention to
some dircumsAmicos connected with th 44 moyemput

which constitute difficulties to be overcome or
dangers to be avoided in carrying out of the great
design.
The King has seconded the general invitation to
Evangelical Christendom to meet in Berlin by the
expression of his entire sanction and approval of
the plan, and by assigning to the use of the assem-
bly the Garrisson Church, the largest and most
appropriate building for the purpose, in which the
Kirchentag, or Ecclesiastical Diet, was held four
years back. He will also, as I lately had occasion
to state in one of my letters, doubtless take care
that no hostile official interference shall take place
with the meeting to mar the development of the
movement, and, so far as in him lies, will
give it the benefit of his countenance. But it
must be borne in mind that the King is as
yet the only influential ally the Evangelical
Alliance can number in Prussia ; and he is, from
his very position, prevented from taking active and
open part in furthering their views ; beyond the
simply permissive and approving steps he has
already taken he cannot go. The list of the Prus-
sians who have signed the German invitation in-
cludes, it is true, the names of many enlightened,
liberal, and energetic men in all professions :
their overt act in signing this document and in
taking part in the subsequent transactions of the
Assembly will also be accompanied by the sym-
pathies of very many secret well-wishers to the cause;
but their whole force altogether is but a puny David
compared to the brawny Goliath of bureaucracy
the cause will have to contend with. How it
comes to pass that this lay element in the State
is likely to offer so much opposition, whether
active or inert, to the expansion of the Evangeli-
cal Alliance in Prussia, and generally in Germany,
I must reserve to another letter to explain, as it
would lead me too far for the limits of the present

one.
The part which the Ki has already taken,
and the degree of sympathy he has already shown,
towards the Evangelical Alliance (in which he
recognises the future of the Church involved), give
him a claim to expect that nothing will be intro-
duced by the Assembly into its programme or
its transactions that shall compromise him
with the neighbouring monarchs or with the
members of his own administration. Not
only must the Assembly refrain from all
aggressive attacks on the Roman Catholics in
Prussia—of whom the King has 6,500,000 subjects,
and whose churches and schools are equally under
his Minister for Public Worship as regards exter-
nals—but also from all attacks upon that church
at all, inasmuch as it would form just cause of corn.
plaint to the Governments of Austria, France, and
Belgium. For the same reason it must abstain
from instituting any species of propaganda among
the Protestants of the neighbouring countries, for
the Governments of both Russia and Austria look
already with a very jealous eye upon the amount of
sympathy felt by their Protestant subjects for the
chief Protestant Power of Germany ; the Protes-
tants of Hungary and Bohemia would become a
source of increased solicitude to Austria if Prussia
were in any way to favour their separatism in re-
ligion, which is coincident with their separate na-
tionality—tho very distinction the Austrian Govern-
ment 18 striving to extinguish; the Protestants of
the Russian Baltic provinces and Finland would
rouss the jealousy and suspicion of the Greek
Church in Russia if they in any wav responded to
any exhibition of Protestant brotherhood made
in Prussia. Among the Protestant population
of the Russian Baltic provinces the King of
Prussia does already enjoy a considerable amount
of influence, owing to his readiness to assist all
Protestant communities there in the erection of
churches and schools, in presenting them with com-
munion plate and altar pictures, &I. ; but as long
as these sympathies take no overt or pop ular
form, the Greek Church feels itself safe. backed
as it is by so many and severe laws for repress-
ing Protestantism and furthering its own Ctesaro-
Papacy. Any additional attraction offered to these
ProtPstant spirits by Prussia would, however, give
the church authority--which in Russia is identical
with the civil power—just cause of offence ; and
the agitat'on of the national mind in Russia is,
moreover, just now one, that no neighbouring
Monarch can wish to see further excited.

SPAIN;

MADRID, MAY 29

The hopes of an amicable and speedy adjust-
ment of the quarrel between Spain and Mexico,
which were founded on the arrival at Madrid of
Senor Lafragua, the authorised negotiator on
behalf of the country last named, have not as yet
advanced much towards realisation, and, upon the
whole, I fear the state of the affair cannot be
considered satisfactory. Little or nothing of
what has passed between Senor Lafragua and.
Senor Pidal has come to the knowledge of the
Madrid public ; but a portion of the press, and
notably the Espana newspaper, has made itself
remarkable by its unfriendly inuendos and
exaggerated pretensions, calculated to envenom
the question and increase its difficulty of settle
ment. The motives of these journals for adopting
this unusual, uncalled for, and unpatriotic course
—unpatriotic because it tends to and provokes a
war with Mexico, from which Spain could derive
no pos ale benefit worth the naming, while such
a conflict would assuredly expose her to great risk
and loss—may easily be conjectured ; but it is
more interesting and important to remark that the
Ministerial papers have taken exceedingly little
trouble to counteract the effects of perfidious in-
sinuations and of exaggerated estimates of the
satisfaction due from Mexico to Spain.