interference with the right of church nomination that has recently been evinced in the legislature of these kingdoms, we must still reckon ourselves at a fearful distance from a right adjustment between patronage on the one hand, and popularity on the other. This distance, however, we conceive to be lessening. A more just estimation of popular Christianity is now making ground in the walks of property and political influence; and a more respectful deference to the popular voice will be sure to follow in its train. It ought now to be well understood among them, that

the moral reprobacy of the lower orders, as well as their political restlessness and discontent, emanate from popular infidelity, and not from that which has been ignorantly and injuriously aspersed as popular fanaticism. When the whole truth becomes evident to them, it will then be perceived, that by the latter

of these two elements alone will the former ever be neutralised. It is not by a haughty defiance to the taste or the tendencies of the multitude; or by declamatory charges against sectarianism; or by a remote and lofty attitude of withdrawment, on the part of her superior ecclesiastics, from all those Christian institutions which are at once the ornament and the blessing of our country; or by the strict and jealous guardianship of bishops, in alarm for the importation of an enthusiastic spirit into their dioceses: it is not thus that the Church of England ever will acquire a religious and rightful ascendency over its population. Under such a process her arm will wither into powerlessness; and an instrument-else of greater might and efficacy than Dissenterism, with the putting forth of all her energies, can ever hope to attain towill lose its whole force of moral and salutary controul over the character of the uation. The alienation of the people will widen every year from the bosom of the Establishment-and the Establishment, reft of all spiritual vir tue, will at length be reduced to a splendid impotency of noble edifices, and high gifted endowments, and stately imposing ceremonial. We plead not for the overthrow of this magnificent framework; for, if animated with the

breath of another spirit, as it stands,

we conceive it fitted to wield a far more

commanding influence on the side of Christianity than were likely to come from the ashes of its conflagration. But

never will it recover this influence, till the spirit of the olden time be recalled

never, till what is now dreaded by the majority of that church as fanati. cism come again to be recognised and cherished as the sound faith of the Gospel-never, till what they now nauseate as Methodism be felt as the alone instrument that can either moralise the people in time, or make them meet for eternity." pp. 216-219.

add

To this we shall not venture to

any thing by way of establishing the necessity of a more careful distribution of the patronage of the Establishment. May the blessing of God carry the arguments of the author to the bosoms of those for whom they are intended! It is our firm persuasion, that the present system of bestowing church patronage is hastening the decay of morals, the progress of insub ordination, and the downfall of the Establishment itself. If we do not concur with those who contemplate the last of these events as near at hand, it is not because we coincide in the means now called into action for the defence of the Establishment by those who preside over it; but, on the contrary, because we believe that all these means will be gradually countervailed by the increasing number of her laborious and devoted ministers. The nation will not concur in excluding from regard those who appear to them best to deserve it, by their piety and their conscienoffice. The taste for a devout and tious assiduity in the duties of their zealous

ministry is also rapidly growing. Private patronage already begins more decidedly to select for preferment individuals of this class. They have already found their way to many of the pulpits in our great cities; and they are gradually nursing up around them large numbers of devout auditors, who form the best

hope, not only of the Church of England, but of the country at large. May it please God to multiply their number until we become

a people indeed fearing God and working righteousness.

Though trembling for our prolixity on these topics, there is one more position on which we must venture to touch. Some of our readers may be tempted to conclude, from the manner in which in this paper we have asserted the claims of the "Evangelical" body, so called, to general regard and confidence, that we mean to engage in the indiscriminate defence of all the professed members of that body, and to assail, without pity or consideration, all their opposers. But in this supposition they would be grievously mistaken.

In asserting, for example, the claims of the body of men to whom we have so often referred, we have no intention to advocate the cause of any individuals, commonly associated with that class, who either push their doctrines to an unscriptural excess, or who dishonour their profession by the irregularity of their lives or the violence of their temper. To us there is no spectacle more revolting than that of an individual combining holy doctrines with an unholy practice, and degrading the elevation or staining the purity of a Christian profession by a conduct indicative of sensuality, worldli ness, pride, bigotry, and intolerance. We deem it incumbent on all who have at heart the interests of religion not to be too ready, as some perhaps may at times have been, to accredit men as real Christians, merely on the score of an ac; curate creed and a religious phraseo. logy, without sufficiently attending to the evidence borne to the soundness of their profession by their temper and conduct in the daily and hourly intercourse of life. Still more ought they to be on their guard against the pretensions of the mere noisy declaimer on the hustings of a public meeting, or of the fiery controversialist who seeks to serve the cause of a party at the expense of Christian peace CHRIST. OBSERV, No. 239.

To

and charity, to be regarded as a genuine follower of Christ. entitle any one to be so considered, he ought to have the impress of the Cross on his heart as well as the language of religion on his lips; and he should manifestly be labouring to walk worthy of the name he bears, and to adorn the doctrine of God his Saviour by a conversation becoming the Gospel. For our own parts, it is not men but principles that we are anxious to defend. We seek the promotion, of no system but that of genuine Christianity as it is taught in the Bible, and in the formularies of the Church of England; nor the exaltation of any individuals, by whatever name they may be known, but those who faithfully promulgate the doctrines, and vigorously enforce the sanctions, and faithfully exemplify the practice by which that system is characterized.

And as we shrink from becoming the unqualified advocates of all who are supposed to be included under the title of Evangelical, so we are ready to admit a part of the apology urged for themselves by those who are their opposers. Some indeed of those opposers would find plea enough for their hostility in the very piety of the men thus designated by such persons serious religion is derided as fanaticism, and fanaticism repre. sented as the epidemic of the day, and the mortal enemy of humán improvement and happiness. Others cannot bring themselves for a moment even to tolerate principles, the professors and zealous propagators of which are sometimes disfigured by certain revolting peculiarities of language, or appearance-" pallore potius et veste, quam fide, hæreticos dijudicare solebat." At the same time it is not to be denied that just cause may occasionally have been given for serious censure, even to the wise and good and discriminating, by some who have borne this obnoxious name. Their contempt of discipline in the

5 C

ture to hope that, under the blessing of God, the church will daily regain more and more its proper character-that of a great, united, and dutiful family, of which God is the wise and tender Father, and of which we all are brethren. One grand error of some of the aspiring theologians of the day is, that conceiving themselves able to decide points which are left undecided, both in the canon of Scripture, and the formularies of the church, they think to render an important service to the interests of that church by excluding from her altar all those who chance to differ from their infallible selves in opinion. When, when will these autocrats in theology recognize the wisdom and truth of the celebrated maxim, "Concordia quæ est charitatis effectus est unitas voluntatum non opinionum." It is impossible, either in or out of the Establishment, to "reconcile all opinions ;" bnt it is not impossible so far to "unite all hearts," as that the bonds of charity and peace shall not be broken. The accomplishment of the first object has been the fruitless and knight-errant enterprize of many centuries, and has wasted an amount of ink, and faggots, and blood, beyond the power of our arithmetic to calculate. The

latter enterprize is unfortunately as yet new to a large body of theologi aus. We earnestly invite them to engage in it; and we venture to predict, that in labouring to promote unity of heart, they will discover the shortest road to unity of opinion. A kind and conciliating spirit will prove far more influential than the denunciations of an episcopal charge, or the inflictions of a visitation sermon. Let controversialists be once brought to wish for peace and unity and concord, and then we shall not despair of their agreement. The traveller did but draw around him more closely his garment amidst the pelting of the storm, whereas he threw it wholly aside when the beams of the sun descended upon him. Thus the disputant will only hug his prejudices the more firmly amidst the storms of controversy:

But when the milder beams of mercy play,

He melts and throws his cumbrous cloak away!

May we grow wise by experience, and follow the admirable counsel of Bishop Jeremy Taylor-" not to break a commandment in order to preserve a doctrine; and, out of zeal pretending to Christian religion, lose the glories and rewards of ingenuousness and Christian simplicity."

GREAT BRITAIN. PREPARING for publication:-Lectures on the Acts of the Apostles; by Dr. Dick;-Typographia, or the Origin and Progress of Printing; by T. C. Hansard;-The Practice of Elocution; by G. R. Clarke;--British Mollusca; by Dr. Leach;-A Treatise on Vision; by Dr. Reade.

In the press-The Life of William Hey, Esq., of Leeds; by John Pearson, Esq., of Golden Square, London ;-The Confidential Correspondence of the Duke of Shrewsbury,principal Minister

to King William ; edited by Archdeacon Coxe;-The May-day of the Muses; by Robert Bloomfield ;-Travels in the interior of Africa; by William Burchell;

Memoirs of the Court of James I.; by Lucy Aikin-Elements of Political Economy; by J. Mills;-Travels in Georgia, Persia, &c., Vol. II.; by Sir R. K. Porter;-Classical Illustrations of the Works of Eminent Composers; by J. Relfe;-Irad and Adah; by the Author of the Widow of Nain.

The Congreve rocket has lately been

introduced in place of the hand harpoon in the whale fishery. The Fame lately brought home nine fish, in 'the capture of the whole of which the rockets were successfully employed. In one case, instant death was produced by a single rocket; and in all, the speed of the fish was much diminished, and its power of sinking limited to three or four fathoms. One of the largest finners, of a hundred feet in length, a species of fish seldom attacked by the ordinary means, and of the capture of which there is scarcely an instance on record in the Northern Seas, was immediately paralyzed by a discharge of rockets, so that the boats overtook and surrounded it with ease. Six out of the nine fish died in less than fifteen minutes; and five out of the number took out no line at all. One only survived nearly two hours, and one only took out more than a single line.

Some of the smallest rockets used in these experiments penetrated complete ly through the body of the fish; and in all cases the fierce fire of the rocket fixed in the animal, and usually exploding within it, rapidly destroyed life, and in some instances caused instantaneous death. The rocket is stated therefore to be a far more humane, because more speedy and effectual, weapon than the harpoon. It also prevents the risk of approaching too near the fish by which so many boat-crews have perished.

Ireland. By an Act recently passed, a Committee of three Grand Jurymen is empowered to visit county prisons, and to examine how far the regulations under 50 Geo. III. c. 103, &c., are com plied with, and to report to the Lordlieutenant or the Grand Jury at the assizes, &c. Poor prisoners are to be supplied with food and necessaries at the public expense. The Lord-lieutenant is to appoint two Inspectors general of prisons; and counties are to be apportioned into two circuits, the prisons of which are to be visited yearly by an Inspector-general, and reports laid before the Grand Juries, of which returns are to be made at the office of the chief secretary, and presented to Parliament. A book is to be kept in each prison, in which members of the Grand Jury and Inspectors, &c., may enter their observations. Poor prisoners are to be kept to work, and to receive onethird of their earnings; the other twothirds are to be applied to their maintenance. Notice is to be put up in every prison, that fees are abolished.

Some of these provisions would be highly beneficial in Great Britain.

FRANCE.

The last supplemental Report of the African Institution, which contains the substance of the voluminous and interesting documents recently laid before the British Parliament on the subject of the Slave Trade, has been translated into French, with a spirited preface from the pen of the translator, containing a brief outline of the progress of British legislation relative to its abolition, and ear. nestly calling upon France to wipe out the foul stain on her character, and even on her good faith, which arises from the impunity of the miscreants who con. tinue to carry on this trade under her flag. The work is entitled "De l'Etat actuel de la Traite des Noirs." A second pamphlet has been published at the same time in French, which is stated to come from the pen of Mr. Clarkson, entitled, "Le Cri des Africains contre les Europeans leurs Oppresseurs, on Coup-d'œil sur laTraite des Noirs," which contains a succinct but striking view of the nature and effects of the African Slave Trade. These publications are eminently seasonable; and we would urge benevolent persons travelling in France to distribute copies where they conceive it may be done with good effect. They may be had at Paris of Treut. tel and Wurtz, booksellers, Rue de Bourbon, No. 17. These pamphlets, if extensively circulated, cannot fail to prove serviceable in dispelling the lamentable ignorance which exists in France on the subject of its own illicit Slave-Trade; an ignorance which, while the censorship of the periodical press in that country continues in its present state, can only be dispelled by publications like the present. We could earnestly wish that the funds of the African Institution were more adequate to the expense of diffusing information on the continent; and zealous and bene volent individuals could not easily per form a greater service to the cause of humanity than by assisting to promote this object. We translate the following as a specimen of the editor's preface.

"From the coast of Guinea to that of Zanguebar, French Slave-traders cover the seas, besiege the shores of Africa, and environ on every side this unhappy continent. The world resounds with complaints against these infamous bri gands, these pirates of the ocean; yet what are the French cruizers doing,those very cruizers which were appoint