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stantially the same principle. It gives a direct encouragement to labour; and those who work most and best are best remunerated. Everything, but the coarsest necessaries of life, it is contended, should be specifically worked for' at a given scale of wages. By this means, industrious habits are formed, the value of labour is perceived, discipline is more easily maintained, even the whole expense of the criminal establishment may be defrayed, and the criminal sent back to society in every way improved and elevated. This is done in Spain, Can it not be done in England? We beg to call attention to Captain Maconochie's pamphlet, that the reader may answer this question for himself.

Voices of the Dead. By the Rev. John Cumming, D.D. Third Thousand. London: J. F. Shaw. Pp. 496.

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ABOUT a twelvemonth since, we reviewed the Voices of the Day,' by Dr. Cumming. The present work is constructed on the same plan, and may be taken as a part of the same series. It consists of some seventeen chapters, originally, we presume, sermons, on the lessons to be learnt, and the strength and consolation to be derived, from a review of the lives of 'faithful men' of old. The texts are taken in succession, from the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the sermons are appropriate elaborations of their leading sentiments. The work is more chaste and aphoristical in style than others from the same pen, and abounding in passages of striking truth and beauty, will be generally read with much profit and pleasure.

Religious Progress, and Lectures on the Lord's Prayer. By the Rev. W. R. Williams, D.D. London: W. Collins. Pp. 328.

DR. WILLIAMS, though little known in this country, is rightly esteemed in the United States as one of the ablest ministers of the Baptist denomination. His Essay on the Conservative Influence of American Literature,' has already placed him in high rank among her literary men; and though, owing to an unfortunate weakness of voice, his ministerial sphere is comparatively limited, his influence is extensive and great. Thus much we say to direct attention to the work before us. Amongst the legion of religious books, it is one which should occupy a foremost place. Earnest and thoughtful in spirit, healthy and vigorous in tone, and written in a manly, yet cultivated style, we heartily commend it to our readers. It is a real book, and our readers know how scarce are such in these days.

An Idea of a Christian. By S. W. Partridge. London: Partridge and Oakey. Pp. 30.

A BOOK full of gems of thought and expression. Mr. Partridge has caught the true idea of a Christian, and very beautifully has he wrought it out. The style is after Mr. Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy.' Here is a specimen, which will well bear out our few favourable words of recommendation :

As the green light lingereth in the west, though the sun hath declined;

As the vase retaineth the scent of the perfume long removed;

So his example doth not quickly perish, nor is he soon forgotten;

Long is his name remembered, as a synonyme of goodness;

The world's creditor, who laboured for its welfare, rather than his own;

If his presence was gladdening as sunlight, his memory remaineth fragrant as the rose;

He liveth still in the affections of the good: yea, in the consciences of the bad; The poor and the oppressed forget not his resting place;

And if distinguished by no tomb, he needeth no epitaph.'

The Elements of Astronomy; comprised in a Series of Questions and Answers. By Mrs. Johnson. London Partridge and Oakey.

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THIS is one of the last books on Astronomy we should think of placing in the hands of children. What do they know of 'diversified phenomena,' 'oblate spheroids,' &c., &c.?

Passages in the Life of Gilbert Arnold; or, The Tale of the Four Sermons. By Sullivan Earle. London: R. Bentley. Pp. 144.

A POWERFULLY painted picture of a 'Rake's progress' and reformation. Mr. Earle wields an attractive pen, as well as a charming pencil, and his strong and faithful delineations of character, and happy sketches from life and nature, render this a tale that will be welcome to the old as well as to the young. We are glad to add, that its influence on all who may read it, cannot but be of a thoroughly moral and healthy tendency.

Dr. Kitto's Journal of Sacred Literature, (New Series,) No. II., CONTAINS, among other articles, three of considerable value, on the 'Relative Authority of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures of the Old Testament;' on the 'Song of Solomon;' and on the Characteristics of Miracles.' In the first, an able and successful attempt is made to redeem the character of the Septuagint version, and establish the truth of the narrative of Aristeas. The second is from the pen of Dr. Stowe, of the United States. The third, founded on Dr. Newman's and Dr. Cumming's Lectures on Miracles, points out the characteristics of a scriptural miracle, in opposition to modern Romish impositions. We are glad to notice, among other things, that the writer maintains the reality of the Satanic miracles of the Old Testament,-but on this subject we shall have something to say in our next number.-We are pleased to be informed by the publisher, that the late effort to extend the circulation of 'Kitto's Journal' has met with a very satisfactory success. The circulation of the Journal would, in our opinion, be much greater, if the editor would give it a more distinctive character, and abolish from its pages such dry and profitless dissertations on nothing as the articles on the 'Rephaim,' &c.

Alouthly Retrospect.

WE left the Maynooth debate hors de combat by the Derby-day. That was the 26th of May. On Friday, the 28th, on the Chancellor of the Exchequer's moving the adjournment of the House over Whitsuntide, Mr. Labouchere remarked-(it had repeatedly been said before him by nearly every organ of public opinion)-that the proceedings of the House with regard to this (Maynooth) question did not tend to raise its character. At the reassembling of the House, Sir James Graham opened a heavy battery upon the accumulation of motions that threatened indefinitely to retard the dissolution; and Mr. Spooner-whose position throughout has been that of ludicrous helplessness-was adjured to take his out of the way. At noon of Tuesday, the 8th of June, it was agreed that the final discussion should commence. The Speaker is authorized to vacate the chair at four o'clock till six on these days. An Irish county member, mindful of this rule, occupied the floor from one o'clock till the stroke of four, and claimed the right to resume the debate when next it came on. That was at three o'clock on the morning of Tuesday, the 15th! No wonder that the Chancellor of the Exchequer though insensible to fatigue as one of his own heroes of the Desert-relapsing into non-official tartness, politely informed the hon. member that the moment he began, he (Mr. Disraeli) should go home.

The adjournment of the House was moved, and rejected by 103 votes to 29. The adjournment of the debate to the evening of that day was then quietly assented to. But when evening came, Mr. Spooner found himself sated with success. He did not intend, he informed the captain of the Irish brigade, to renew the debate; he was content with the division of that morning. A great show of indignation was made, though nothing but a contemptuous feeling of relief could really be entertained. The House was at last rid of a bore--and a bore without sincerity to give it respectableness.

The discussions on the institution of Mr. Bennett to the Vicarage of Frome, have been scarcely less obstructive than those thus ignominiously terminated, and not less futile in direct result. Intermittent debates, extending over the whole session, have terminated in a resolution for the appointment of a select committee to which there was nothing to be referred, and on which no one could be got to serve. The resolution was carried on the 8th, by 156 against 111.

It is to be regretted that the Anti-state-church members of the House did not take a prominent part in these discussions; but they are entitled to much praise for their pertinacious resistance to the ecclesiastical items of the miscellaneous estimates. To Mr. Anstey, the leader of this opposition, the greater credit is due, because his comprehensively impartial conduct in this particular must tend to aggravate the disfavour in which he is held by his fellow religionists. Divisions were taken against every one of the following votes-3,2731. for the expenses of the Ecclesiastical Commission; 2,006/. for the salaries of Professors at Oxford and Cambridge; 7,5607. for the Scotch Universities; 2,3001. for the theological professors of Belfast College; 7,747%. for religious establishments in the North American colonies; 400/. for ditto in West Africa; 3007. for ditto in Western Australia; 44,1097. for pensions to refugee French clergy, Lampeter College, &c.; 36,5801. for Nonconforming clergy (the Irish Regium Donum); 3007. for the expenses of colonial bishops, &c. Six of these divisions were taken by Mr. Anstey and Mr. George Thompson at one sitting. In all of these cases they were unsuccessful, only eight or ten voting with, and sixty or eighty against them. In one other instance, however, they were rewarded with victory. A vote of 4,3001. for the addition of a private chapel to the palace of the ambassador at Constantinople looked so flagrant in the light of the successive sums of twenty, twelve, and fourteen thousand pounds already voted for the architectural delectation of the embassy, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer withdrew it. Let every member for a Liberal constituency be asked whether he voted in these minorities; and, if not, why not? In the case of one of the members for the Tower Hamlets, we believe such an inquiry would elicit the fact, that on several of the divisions being called, he walked out of the House!

Probably the last great speech of the session-for the House has not risen at the moment of our writing, and will perhaps, by adjournment, sit for another week-was made on Monday, the 21st, by Lord John Russell, on a new educational minute issued by the Privy Council. The new minute modifies the 'management clauses,' to the extent of placing, at the option of the founders of Church of England schools, the moral character of the

schoolmaster, as well as his religious qualifications, under the judgment of the clergyman. Hitherto, the clergyman has had the power of dismissing a teacher if his theology be obnoxious; now, his morality—a larger and more delicate subject-may be impeached; and, except that he has the worthless right of appeal to the bishop of the diocese, nothing stands between the will of the clergyman and the dismissal of the teacher. That this is a further, and a very considerable, subjection of the lay element in the Church to the sacerdotal, was strongly urged by Lord John, and feebly denied by Mr. Walpole; but sufficiently confirmed by the High Church party, by whom it is hailed with exultation. It will, probably, do but little actual harm, and that little but slowly. For the present, it serves the useful purpose of marking the disposition of the Ministry, and the growth of priestly influence within the Establishment. It was a great point with Lord John, that the laity was as much a part of the English Church as the clergy. If the people have neither the appointment of their pastors, the option of supporting them, nor the government of their schools, in what differ they from the compassionated crowd who kneel in the confessional, and are content with a wafer in lieu of the symbolic body and blood of their Elder Brother?

The political incident of primary importance is, the publication of an address by Mr. Disraeli to his constituents, in which that candid and versatile gentleman recognises a tendency in the 'spirit of the age' to free intercourse avows that 'no statesman can disregard with impunity, the genius of the epoch in which he lives-and holds out none other promise of agricultural relief, than from the operation of new phenomena ' in finance, and the indication of a 'possibility' that seems to loom in the future.' However deserving of reprobation may be this mystic ambiguity of expression, Mr. Disraeli may justly claim credit for the administrative ability displayed by the ministry of which he is the intellect and hand. The Militia Bill-such a measure of Chancery Reform as Brougham could not accomplish, and as generations of sufferers have sighed for an act that will rid London of the pestilent nuisance of intramural graveyards, without lavishing undeserved compensation, and without setting up a government funeral establishment-another, that will ensure a better, though not the best, supply of the metropolis with water-the bestowment of a constitution, only too elaborate, on New Zealand--is a catalogue of achievements not much dimmed or depreciated by the fact, that they were, with one bad exception, anticipated by public opinion, and retarded by no serious resistance; for with the same advantages, the late Government did nothing comparable. For the first time for many a session, there is this year, no massacre of innocents;' and the Queen's July speech need not be an apology for the non-fulfilment of the promises of February.

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The Earl of Derby has contrived to do one piece of mischief, and Lord John Russell has presented to his admirers, once more, the alternative of believing him either insincere or excessively feeble. The noble lord's Corrupt Practices at Elections Bill, Mr. Duncombe obtained the extension of to counties and the universities. This important addition, Earl Derby struck out in the Lords, and proceeded to mutilate the original features of the bill. When it returned to the Commons, they found themselves precluded from addressing the Crown for a commission of inquiry into alleged

corruption without the concurrence of the Lords, and the retrospective power of such commissions considerably restricted. Lord John lamented the alterations, and feared they would seriously impair the working of his bill; but moved that they be agreed to. The Radicals grumbled loudly, but did not divide. It was folly and injustice,' said Mr. Brotherton, 'to be throwing stones from that (the opposition) side of the House at Lord John Russell.' It would be both wisdom and justice to stone him out of the camp.

Our warnings as to the course that would be taken by the Whigs at the forthcoming elections are being amply justified. At Leicester, the nephew of Lord Truro, and another of those hybrid politicians known as Conservative Reformers, are put up by a recreant cabal against the popular candidates, Walmsley and Gardner. At York, Mr. Milner, the present Liberal member, who had resigned, is brought back in order to defeat Vincent. At Edinburgh, Mr. Macaulay is reproduced, that the prestige of his name, and his associations with the literary metropolis of Britain, may overpower the high claims of Mr. Duncan McLaren. At Sheffield, Mr. Hadfield enjoys, with Mr. Roebuck, the pledged support of a majority of the electors. Of Messrs. Bright and Gibson's triumphant return there can be doubt. Mr. E. Miall continues unopposed at Rochdale. The retirement of Mr. Wakley opens a better prospect for Mr. Alderman Challis than he would otherwise possess or deserve. In Southwark, Mr. Alderman Humphrey, resigned, will almost certainly be replaced by Mr Apsley Pellatt. The list of Nonconformist candidates does not lengthen, but their chances continue good. We will not repeat our exhortations to Nonconformist electors, but we beg to inform them that the Anti-statechurch Association has put forth, just at the right moment, an admirably appropriate set of placards, handbills, and tracts-a sort of ammunition the cost of which is nearly in an inverse proportion to its power of execution.

Westminster Hall has been the scene of two events during the past month demanding notice here. In the Court of Exchequer, the judgment against Mr. Salomons for voting in the House of Commons has been virtually reversed, by the refusal of the jury to convict him in a second action, brought by an informer for the recovery of the penalties thereby incurred.-—In the Court of Queen's Bench the action brought, by criminal information, against Dr. Newman, for slanders on Dr. Achilli, has come off under circumstances never, we had hoped, to be repeated in our history. The formal result was adverse to the former, but can scarcely be considered a complete vindication of the latter. We are quite unable to hail the event, with some of our contemporaries, as a triumph for Protestantism. For the sake of public morals, of English justice, of our common Christianity, of human nature, we deplore the scene that was enacted from Monday morning till Thursday night of last week. The most influential organs of public opinion openly arraign judge and jury; the scandalous details are being reproduced and discussed in nearly every home and haunt of men; and nothing but depravation and bitterness can come of it. In this, as in other cases, however, the Church of Rome has proved, in the person either of the witnesses it produced or the man it assailed, that priestly celibacy and the confessional are well adapted to the creation of monsters of perjury and lust.

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