authority, the infidelity of those cities in abhorrence, and it is not, as Mr. Stearns testifies, to be taxed with that proclivity to divorce which has eaten into the purity and security of domestic life in those cities. Its system, no doubt, is very faulty, but the faults are on the surface.
If, as a recent writer, who uses five years' residence in New York as the foundation of an appeal to High Churchmen to side with the North, alleges, there are only 400 Episcopal clergymen in the South to 1,600 in the North, with only twice as large a population, then all we can say is, that the Southern clergy seem to have been beyond proportion successful in the way in which they have leavened their population. Of course it must not be forgotten that in Louisiana and elsewhere in the South, our Church has had to contend with the antecedent establishment of the Roman communion. But we are not pushed to inferential and secondary evidences as to the upward tendency of Churchmanship in the Confederate States.
The New York Church Journal, a paper honourably conspicuous for the silence on politics which it has, under the grievous difficulties of the last few months, continued with few exceptions to maintain, has lately furnished some valuable particulars of the action of the Church in the Confederacy, since it has been left to its own counsels, from which we venture to augur that any changes which may take place in its condition are likely to be in an upward direction. The Church in the Southern States, following the action of the Commonwealth, has naturally detached itself from the union of the Northern dioceses, and has, during the latter part of October, been holding a convention at Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, to settle a future constitution, at which, besides clerical and lay delegates, nine bishops attended; Bishop (and General) Polk, of Louisiana, not being among the number. The convention seems to have debated together while voting by orders. Among the subjects under debate was the future style of the Church. Bishop Elliott, of Georgia, advocated the retention of the original appellation—Protestant Episcopal; founding his arguments on the inexpediency of making changes unless absolutely required, and fearing lest the identity of the Church might be called into question. Judge Phelan, of Alabama, contended that if the corporation remained the same, so would its rights and liabilities; and Mr. Trapier, a clergyman, took the same view. Bishop Green, of Mississippi, considered the name Protestant, unmeaning from its generality; and that it involved the Church in the odium of the follies and heresies of the various sects. He preferred 'The American Catholic Church.' Mr.
