to display pageants, it must do so within the four walls of the sacred edifice which remains its sole property.
To add to the distress caused by the restrictive, if not inimical, attitude of the Government, internecine misunderstandings have done much to hamper the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico. The clergy are turbulent, and even the appointment of an apostolic delegate to dwell in their midst for purposes of discipline and correction, has not so far contributed towards that degree of harmony which the Papal Authorities deem desirable, and even necessary, if the decencies of ecclesiastical government are to be observed. But let it be noted that no gross or flagrant case of ecclesiastical insurgence has taken place in Mexico, no such shameful outbreak of religious animosity as disgraced the religious life of Scotland from 1904 to 1907, when the great "Church Case" agitated that country as nothing else has done since the days of the Reformation. The brutalities of sectarianism are unknown in Mexico. The Church is still possessed of considerable virility and great wealth. Under the enlightened sway of Monsignor Alarcon, Archbishop of Mexico, a cleric of sound common sense, very considerable and very essential improvements have taken place in ritual practice, the insensate displays once occurring at seasonal festivals and celebrations having been greatly altered, and many objectionable and almost pagan features dispensed with. But the difficulties placed by the ecclesiastical authorities in the way of legal marriage has much to do with the high percentage of illegitimacy. To get married is an expensive business in Mexico, and the poor must, therefore, dispense with the ceremony.
In the year 1871 the Protestant Episcopal Church sent one of its representatives to Mexico in the person of H. C. Riley, by whom the work of Protestant missions was initiated. Soon afterward came Baptist, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, and Methodist missionaries, of whom the last have probably been the most successful; for to this sect, a few
