of the City Mission, are all moving round the wards-we do not question, we well know, that ardent zeal and piety are in presence-but we do not conceive it uncharitable to say that there is too much talk, too much noise, too much confusion of tongues, to help forward, or to deepen, in the way which these worthy men themselves would aim at, the great inward work of a selfcondemned spirit. Nor do we think that we touch the edge of uncharitableness in supposing that a certain proselytising spirit will be found to tinge the instruction of these motley religionists. The Wesleyan will be tempted to give a Wesleyan hue to his admonitions; the Independent to turn the head of the penitent towards Independent principles; the Baptist to act as a fingerpost to the Baptist Chapel should she leave the penitentiary in an altered mind. Without blaming such natural ebullitions of party zeal, yet this under-current of a proselytising spirit is perhaps the last which should be suffered to mix itself with the stern simple doctrine of Gospel repentance. But though we object to such a variety of teachers and such a variety of views, we are not sure whether the point on which all dissenting or semi-dissenting minds seem to agree is not more perilous still; we allude to the doctrine of instantaneous conversion'-a doctrine at all times dangerous, but peculiarly so when put before the minds of these poor women. In the female mind it is at all times more likely to find favour. Where the nervous system is more tender, a doctrine that has so much to do with animal as well as mental feeling can more easily be brought to bear. If it be pressed upon young frail creatures, when they are just waking up to a fearful consciousness of their sins, its application may work the greatest mischief-with some by leading them to presume on their safety because of certain questionable sensations-with others by driving to absolute despair, because, perhaps from the possession of less excitable nerves, they cannot lash themselves into that convulsed and agitated state, those spiritual hysterics, which they are taught to look upon as the crisis and the proof of conversion. One shall shudder at herself as a castaway— another as rashly fancy herself a saint. We want the sober view of repentance which the Church has the grace to hold, to prevent false assurance on the one hand, or unwarrantable despair on the other. In short, we want the Church to take bolder part in the cause of those whom, from her more sober view of piety, she would more wisely train. We bestow no stinted measure of admiration on those well-meaning bodies who shame the Church by their greater zeal; but our admiration of their zeal must not blind us to the defects of their principles; and if these defects could be removed by the establishment of Church Penitentiaries, we we think that present results, encouraging as they are, would fall far short of future fruit. To descend to lesser, but not unimportant, defects that mar success, we cannot but notice the want of anything approaching 'the separate system.' We are not dreaming of such a development of that system as has been exemplified at Pentonville; for in the first place, in Penitentiaries we have to deal with what may be called voluntary prisoners; we could scarcely expect such a degree of voluntary isolation, and it would be difficult to enforce it in the next place, it might be questioned whether the female mind would be able to bear so much of solitude after so restless a course of life spent in crowds and revels. But still we conceive a certain share of solitude is requisite for the furtherance of the great work. Some portion of the day should be spent alone; the hours might be so divided as to afford enough of society and fellowship to sustain the spirits, and also a sufficient amount of solitude to induce habits of reflection, self-examination, and prayer. Commune with your own heart, and in your chamber, and be still,' seems an exhortation peculiarly addressed to those who have been living in a constant whirl-hurrying from any intercourse either with God or with themselves. We cannot discover that any Penitentiary yields suitable opportunities of privacy. The women have no cells or chambers of their own; seven or eight occupy one sleeping-room, and there appear to be no places of retirement into which they might withdraw for a portion of the day. This cannot be the way to encourage the habit of devotion in those who have left off praying. We know and deplore the difficulty that attacks boyish minds in having to pray before other boys-the evil that has ensued from depriving lads at school of privacy-from making them sleep in herds. The worse elements are apt to keep down the better; those who wish to pray often quail before the ridicule which has such power over weak, unstable minds. If this is the case where habit is on the boy's side, how much greater the difficulty where devotion has to be re-learnt, to be begun afresh! An efficient system of classification is not less essential for female penitents. They should not work together in great numbers, and both original rank in life as well as present moral condition should be considered. The truth is, that 'work' has been so necessary to the very existence of these asylums, that they have partaken too much of the character of industrial institutions. We would not underrate the value of restoring industrial habits; the spirit of indolence is, we are aware, strongly fixed, and cannot easily be driven forth; but in a Penitentiary Hospital everything should give way to religious advancement. Even although although they can do more work in numbers, if the result be that they are to make less growth in godliness, count the cost on either side, and make up your mind whether it will not be the true wisdom to let them be split into lesser companies, and trust to more of external support for recompensing some loss of pounds, shillings, and pence. As regards the improvement of the provincial Penitentiaries, we think the first step should be to lessen their number. If, instead of an ill-supported, half-starved, stunted Magdalen in every town, in which there can be no chapel, nor resident chaplain, nor due classification, nor opportunities of privacy, one large, well-arranged, vigorous penitentiary were placed in the centre of a given district, ten times the amount of good would be effected. There is a great waste of funds in supporting_half a dozen separate institutions, each with its separate staff. Each penitentiary, though it holds only thirty inmates, requires its chaplain and its matron; if six of them were absorbed in one, holding 180, one matron, one chaplain, would be as efficient as the six. With what comparative ease, too, might such an institution be made to yield its separate cells or chambers! If it were fixed at some central point of the district, offices might at no great cost be opened in the several towns for a couple of hours in the evening for the admission of penitents; railroads would lessen the expense of conveyance. Thus, for Bristol, Exeter, Taunton, Gloucester, and Bath, we might have one central penitentiary; another would suffice for Leeds, York, Ripon, Huddersfield, Bradford, Hull, &c. In no other way can we see the prospect of obtaining efficient institutions. Duchâtelet strongly recommends the establishment of penitentiaries in the country, and not in towns. Health and the means of relaxation are much to be considered in the case of those who have been ruining their health and have been little used to confinement. Good large grounds, where healthful exercise might be taken with some pleasure, to say nothing of opportunities of gardening, might often help to keep some restless spirit within the bounds who would ill brook the questionable recreation afforded within the dingy, cheerless walls of a town enclosure. In thus venturing to suggest measures of improvement, we must not omit to say that we object in toto to Ladies' Committees. We cannot think a board of ladies well suited to deal with this class of objects. Often the very tenderness of their natures would stand in the way of the proper treatment; for true pity often requires a mixture of severity. Since, moreover, we are standing forth as the practical opponents of false modesty and false shame, by giving prominence to such a subject as this, we may express a doubt whether it is advisable for pure-minded women women to put themselves in the way of such a knowledge of evil as must be learnt in dealing with the fallen members of their sex. Not that we would deter women of the higher orders from interesting themselves in such a cause. The very sameness of sex should lead them above all others to pity the fallen and the frail. But there might be other and better modes of showing practical compassion and practical mercy; above all, they may give bountifully of their worldly means to penitential hospitals; in this way the pure, without being soiled by any contact with impurity, may help to rescue the unhappy; those who are placed above the temptations which beat to the ground so many of a lower rank, may thus help to lift up those that are fallen and to replace them upon virtue's path. It is in their power, too, not only to befriend the houses of refuge where the penitent has to go through her work of repentance, but show pity towards her, when she has left a good trustworthy Asylum, with good testimonials, by taking her into service. Here, of course, especial watchfulness would be required; but though there may be some awkwardness in the way of the reception of such persons, and even some risk, yet true charity is a marvellous conqueror of difficulties. While we speak of alms, we need not hesitate to suggest the duty of continual almsgiving in this cause to those of our own sex who in their earlier days, for ever so short a season, gave way to youthful sins. Many such have lived deeply to regret the stains which discoloured their opening years, are now among the best and foremost in all works of good, and are living as altered men with their wives and children happy about them. Not so those with whom they sinned. Some have perished in their sins:* others, with almost broken hearts, are forced to continue their pilgrimage of guilt and woe; for these we claim, not words alone nor thoughts, but deeds of pity. Restitution is a part of penitence it is at least possible to give year by year penitential contributions to those asylums which are devoted to the reformation of fallen women. Every reader of the newspapers knows well what a multitude of suicides thin every year the ranks of these unhappiest of all human creatures. Month after month, and week after week, the terrible truth of Hood's verse (and we may now add, of George Cruikshank's tragic pencil) is realized :— 'The bleak wind of March Made her tremble and shiver; Or the black flowing river: In she plunged boldly: Hood's Poems, vol. i. p. 68. ART. IV. ART. IV.-1. The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, with Notes and a Biographical Memoir, by the Rev. Alexander Dyce. 11 vols. 8vo. London, 1848. 2. The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, with an Introduction by George Darley. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1840. Μι R. DYCE'S long-promised edition of Beaumont and Fletcher is elaborate without being over-loaded. It has done for the text of the united dramatists, perhaps nearly all which at this time it was possible to do. Yet now that these twin stars, the Dioscuri of our zodiac,' are shining forth more free from cloud than ever since their first rising, how few seem to regard their radiance! The star of Shakspeare draws all eyes; but why do not more gazers care to see how much of Shakspeare shines in the great men his contemporaries'? Before Mr. Dyce undertook the work, only three critical editions had been attempted: one in 1750, begun by Theobald and continued by Seward and Sympson, who committed the worst fault editors can fall into, that of utterly unwarranted alteration; a second in 1778, which rejected the greater part of those arbitrary substitutions, but deserved little other praise; the third in 1812, by Weber, who had the help of Monk Mason's notes, and, what was still more important, a copy interleaved and annotated by Sir Walter Scott. Poor Henry Weber's career in this country forms an episode, and a very illustrative one, in the history of our own great man of letters just mentioned, who patronized the unfortunate German scholar in his more ambitious undertakings, and for ten years employed him as his amanuensis, when he was not engaged in literary works of his own, till he became a hopeless lunaticafter which time he was supported to the end of his days, at his protector's expense, in the York Asylum. Many of our readers will remember the scene in Scott's library, when he, then employed on his Life of Swift, saw madness in his assistant's eyes as he sat opposite to him, and displayed such presence of mind in postponing the unhappy maniac's challenge instead of declining it. The narrator observes that Scott had formed an exaggerated notion of Weber's capacity. The habit of magnifying the abilities of those in whom, from promptings of the heart, they take an interest, is a common characteristic of men of genius, and is often paid for expensively enough. This German also edited Massinger and Ford. That editions of such writers by a foreigner exhibit many deficiencies is a matter of course: but his have been harshly dealt with. The work of 1812 certainly was very superior to that of 1778. It is true, however, that we have to |