2 JANUARY 1875, Page 3

Chili shares in the ecclesiastical disturbances now so marked all

over the world. The Catholic Church has hitherto been the only one tolerated in Chili, but opinion has become hostile to the priests, and the party in power have proposed to the people to separate Church and State, to compel civil marriage—allowing, of -course, any subsequent religious ceremony—to enforce civil regis- tration of births and deaths, and to place all cemeteries under civil officers. At the recent elections, these proposals have been carried by a large majority, and the next Congress will legislate in this sense. Mexico is also about to adopt the Disestablishment solution of the question, which will probably be accepted every- where in Spanish America except in Ecuador, where the Repub- lican Government is as Ultramontane as Mgr. Cape].