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of the broken Church. What then we have to seek for in the ancient Canons is whether any principle is contained in them which might meet the present state of things were it known, or could it have been known, to antiquity. The letter of antiquity does not help us. The royalty of Judah was simply forbidden in the old law, yet it was divinely recognised. Theocratic regulations then became, from the necessity of the case, suspended; they were of force as principles, not in details. They were modified by facts, though those facts were exceptional and anomalous, and had been proscribed. Here then is a state of things not provided for, which required an adaptation of the old letter. It would have been sin in a pious Israelite to have refused obedience to David, because theocracy was the unabrogated divine institution. Here is an actual case in Sacred History, which may lead us to understand how a broken and divided Church, though never contemplated, may, in the counsels of God, legitimately suspend certain canonical rules, which were not essentially normal, but only by accident imperative before the division, and which cannot therefore be binding in particulars under a new but false, yet permitted, state of things. Mr. Bennett is most happy and ingenious in his use of the attendance on foreign services by Dr. Townsend, Mr. Stowell, and their friends. We could have helped him to a more decisive instance: we once saw a prominent Protestant and English dignitary not only present at a Roman Catholic baptism, but hold a taper during the service. But Mr. Bennett does not get over the theoretical inconsistency: he, while abroad, regularly ministered in prayers and sacraments to himself and his own domestic party and personal friends, apart from the Roman Communion and Church. Any nomadic Chaplain may take the hint that his flock are for the time to him what Mr. Bennett's friends and companions were to him. We do not say that there is no distinction, but it is not one of canonical order. And this we say, even while admitting that English chapels on the continent are most objectionable-much in theory, but more in fact—and yet more, assuming that it is not a matter of clerical obligation to attend them.

Mr. Chancellor Harington's able argument against the Nag's Head Fable, 'The Succession of Bishops unbroken,' (Rivingtons,) has reached a second edition.

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We are not exactly aware what unoccupied ground Mr. Whitaker's new Monthly Magazine, The Christian Student,' proposes to cover. If, however, it has a distinct aim and fulfils it, and it certainly desires to do so loyally, we shall sympathise with its success.

We select from single sermons two of especial merit; 'Christian Unity a Practical Christian Duty,' by Mr. Harness, of Knightsbridge, and 'Cost an Element of Sacrifice,' by Mr. Philip Hale, preached at Camberwell. (Whitaker.) Mr. Harness' sermons are an admirable specimen of style as well as substance, and why they are not published' we cannot conceive. Mr. Hale is known as an active and very diligent worker; he has done much, and attempted more, for Tenison's (mismanaged) Library, which is under his care. We are glad to welcome him as a parochial teacher.

The great dispute which is raging in the daily papers on the stability and solvency of Life Assurance Institutions, would seem to be one little

calculated for discussion in these pages. But, from experience, we know how sedulously the secretaries and touters for new policies set upon the clergy. There are, perhaps, more insurances effected on clerical lives than on those of any other class of British subjects: and, for various reasons, the clergy are more likely to be imposed upon. They know little of business, and from their small means are disposed to close with the offer of small premiums. We do not go to the extent of saying that no new offices are safe: but we say this distinctly,-that offices with the very largest business, and of the most confirmed security, are enabled to do little more than justice to the assured. But the expenses necessary for a small office, though they do not equal, yet approximate to, those of the largest. It follows, then, that if two offices could do all the business which it is now proposed to spread over twenty, eighteen twentieths of the business expenses are in fact contributed at the risk of the assured. In other words, offices which are unnecessary, are dangerous. That many of the existing concerns are insolvent there can be no question: if our advice, therefore, on such a subject is of any weight, we recommend the older Institutions. At any rate, before a young clergyman insures his life, let him read Mr. Christie's 'Letter to Mr. Henley,' (Edinburgh: Constable.)

Messrs. Longman have published a collection of Rounds and Catches,' which we welcome heartily. Everybody knows, and when they try to sing them everybody finds that everybody does not know, the traditional 'Three Blind Mice,' and 'White sand and grey sand,' &c. This cheap and unpretending publication supplies these and the like famous melodies within reach and within voice of all. Surely Harington's famous 'Twas you, Sir, 'twas you, Sir,' wears a new, and, we do not mind owning, uncalled-for adaptation in this collection. As a whole it bears evidence of unpretending research: at any rate, it brings together what was needed-the scattered tunes which no other publication, to our knowledge, has done, at least in this cheap form.

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'De Zangschool: Keus van Gezangen voor de School en het Leven : door H. B. Waterkleyn, Professor te Leuven. Thienen by P. J. Merckx. (The Song School: Songs for School and Life: by H. B. Waterkleyn, Professor at Louvain. Tirlemont: P. J. Merckx.) This is a rather curious example of the vernacular efforts which Rome is making in every part of Europe. It was not to be expected that Mechlin, one of her best regulated dioceses, should be behind-hand in the work; and it is highly creditable to the zeal of the Professors of Louvain that one of them should have become the 'Watts' of the movement. Here, for two-pence, we have thirty songs, with their music; the latter partly consisting of national melodies, partly of German airs. Here is a specimen of the words-the striking analogy between Flemish and English may interest such of our readers as have never seen the former language :'Ik geloof in God den Vader

Die door t' Woord geschapen heeft
Aerde en Hemel, en te gader

Al wat is, en al wat leeft:
En in Zynen een'gen Zone,
Jesus-Christus, onzen Heer;
Die uit's Hemels hoogen troone
Is gedaeld ter aerde neêr.'

'I believe in God the Father

Who, through the Word, shaped has
Earth and Heaven, and together

All that is, and all that lives:
And in His only Son,

Jesus Christ, our Lord,
Who, from Heaven's high throne
Is come down to earth.'

The thoroughly Wesleyan cadence of another hymn is really remarkable :

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'U minnen, Maria, gedenk ik altyd.

Myn heet zy, Maria, op nieuw U gewyd !
Wees myne bescheomster, Maria zoo rein!
O! wees myne moeder, uw kind wil ik zyn.'

Having mentioned the Diocese of Mechlin (and that of Liége, under its late excellent Bishop, was at least on a par with it), we cannot but express our admiration of the indefatigable energy which the Cardinal Primate Sterckx throws into the affairs of his Church. One day we find his imprimatur to the noble Gregorian music which Hanicq is so incessantly pouring forth; next day, to one of the Little Catechisms of Malines,' which are beginning to be regarded as catechetical models in north-western Europe; directly afterwards, to a new volume of the Theologia ad usum Seminarii Mechliniensis: then, again, to such a most needful little book as Instructions sur la manière de Baptiser les Enfants Nouveau-nés à l'usage des Accoucheurs et des Sages-Femmes, approved also by the medical faculty of Louvain; and presently afterwards to its Flemish counterpart. Such energy contrasts strangely enough with the majority of Episcopal operations in England.

'Strife for the Mastery,' (Murray,) is the title of two Allegories. They are sumptuously printed, and excellently illustrated by some wood-cuts exhibiting rare artistic powers in an amateur. The tales themselves-but we have said our say about allegories, and if ladies will write them we are only glad that they embody principles as good as those in the volume before us.

'Sunlight in the Clouds,' (Mozley.) Much of what we have just said applies to this volume. It is a collection of religious tales written with considerable pathos and entire good taste. The successive appearance of such volumes, and so good, answers the difficulty that the market may be overstocked. If it were, they would not appear; and that they are in demand is in itself a good sign.

Bishop Forbes'' Explanation of the Nicene Creed,' (Masters,) aims high, and secures its aim. Into a small and unassuming compass much of pure dogmatic theology is compressed, and we know no English work which fulfils the same object. We should have preferred a somewhat more technical form. The work is for students, and students ought always to be reminded that they are not perusing an essay or a disquisition, but mastering settled points. Systematic theology should not be presented in the essay form. If a stiff arrangement cannot escape the look of formality it is a step towards accuracy. We thank the writer for his acceptable publication.

Mr. William Jackson has brought together, into a single volume, his 'Stories and Catechising Illustrative of the Collects,' (Mozley.) The notion was ingenious, and we have spoken favourably of the series as it has progressed to use an Americanism, which it seems impossible to eradicate from popular use. We are really quite surprised at the skilful variety which the illustrator has thown on a subject apparently unpromising.

There is much that is calm and pleasing about Mr. Isaac Williams'

• Biography of Mr. R. A. Suckling, of Bussage,' (Masters.) The interest derived from the treatment of the subject, perhaps exceeds that of the subject itself. Still, Mr. Suckling's was the type of a life which ought to be known-with nothing great or striking about it, incapable of exercising a large influence on society, yet doing a great work, and the greater because the less prominent. Still quiet landscapes have a very important share in the great economy of things. The world is made up of unromantic home scenes. Mr. Suckling moved and worked among such. His power was over individuals, and by example; and his character was one of remarkable personal influence. It is well that the Church and the world should, by occasional pictures of such a life, be reminded of its secret but more efficient strength. Where it must be the exception to rival the saint or the hero of the Gospel, the life of the soldier trains while it teaches.

To criticise a book which everybody has read and formed a judgment upon seems quite superfluous; and to give an opinion on 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' may be thought an unnecessary intrusion. No reviewer can superciliously set aside the public verdict, and a book which sells by its hundred thousands must have some value, and some influence for good or for evil. As a work of art we cannot give a high estimate of Mrs. Stowe's production. With the single exception of St. Clair, which stands out with remarkable prominence as something like a definite moral conception, there is not a character which is not common-place and second-hand to a degree. There is a coldness and rigidity in the execution which betrays the copyist. The pathos of the tale is of a low order, because founded chiefly on the physical emotions. Uncle Tom is simply tedious; Legree unnatural; and St. Clair's wife only the typical fine lady of the circulating library. In depicting scenery the authoress fails; in drawing character, she makes the dramatic error of representing a class by its extreme cases. The Creole who reaches Canada is not above the melodramatic hero of a very minor theatre. And perhaps the most original sketch—that of Topsie-not uninfluenced by the exquisite creation of Fenella, and unpleasantly recalling a trace even of Undine, is entirely marred by her dismal and impossible mission as a Sunday-school teacher in Liberia. Of course, as answering a purpose which has a political as well as a humane end, the coarse brush and unscrupulous induction of Mrs. Stowe have told wonderfully; and there is quite enough of powerful writing, and a dangerous facility in agglomerating horrors, to account for much of its unquestionable, and, with serious deductions, its deserved success. A system which, even in a single case, can, without a violation of the statute law, produce these results, is of course simply accursed; but, even on Mrs. Stowe's statement, most of the cruelty depicted was, even in the Southern States, illegal. As a picture of the Slave-State life, it is exactly as true as a Borgia is a fair specimen of Christianity. This we hold to be a moral fault in a writer: and, to go further and to extend, as this book seems to do, the fact of American depravity in the treatment of slaves, as a proof of the absolute and entire unlawfulness of slavery-say in its Oriental form-is to betray a bad logic of the heart rather than the head. The curiosity of the book to ourselves is the strange picture it gives of Negro religion; but, from Mrs. Stowe's untrustworthiness in class painting, we know not how far she has drawn a

species from a variety, or even, to speak botanically, from a monster. As to the religious profession of the authoress, we fancy that we detect a serious error-it is that of making every charitable person a redeemer of others, by vicarious suffering; this is of course a subtle form of developed Socinianism. This is called the Christ-like character,' and is the repetition by man of, or rather his substitute for, the work of redemption. Our readers will not have missed this as the leading idea of Longfellow's 'Golden Legend.'

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'Walks after Wild Flowers, or the Botany of the Bohereens,' (Van Voorst,) is by Mr. Richard Dowden (Richard).' This reduplication puzzles us. A more delightful monograph of the Botany of a single locality (Cork) it would be impossible to conceive: the writer's profuseness of quotation and illustration, chiefly poetical, is embarrassing, from its richness. Mr. Dowden is equally generous in his general anecdotes. Kindliness of character, a healthy and genial estimate of the moral value of a naturalist's studies, and a glowing, reverential feeling towards Him who has so clothed the flowers of the field,' belong to all the writers whom Mr. Van Voorst so pleasantly introduces to us. His publications are among the most delightful of the day, even to unscientific readers; and our Irish botanist takes a good rank in his publisher's corps. Some, indeed several, inaccuracies in the Latin and Greek, as we are disposed to be uncritical, we shall attribute to the press.

Mr. Evans' Sermons, preached at S. Andrew's, Wells Street, are styled Christianity in its homely Aspects,' (Masters.) Passing over the exact propriety of the phrase 'homely' as equivalent, which it is not, to domestic or personal, Mr. Evans' written sermons scarcely convey the familiar aspect which belongs to them in delivery. This volume is anything but a plain one; it is original and interesting-highly so-but not homely, in any sense. Mr. Evans' mind is rich in illustration; and he is pointed in expression, with a considerable range of thought; and the collection is far above the average. But his cast of character leads to occasional exaggeration ex. grat. after p. 168, pointing out clearly and well the peculiar force of the remarkable expression, a weaned child,' he goes on with this language, and we question whether it can be reconciled with physiological, or rather physical, facts: 'So soon as the child is weaned, the idea of separate existence is conveyed to his tender mind; the child feels that himself is not his mother . . . . he begins to infer,' &c. We doubt the fact: infant consciousness is a mysterious subject; but the use of techn`cal words, such as ideas, comparison, and inference, suggests that we have mastered the difficulty. If Mr. Evans has done so, he is in advance of masters in mental philosophy.

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We have received from Mr. Darling, so well known for his Theological Reading Library, the first number of a work of considerable promise and immense research, Cyclopædia Bibliographica.' It is a catalogue of theological writers, with a brief account of their works. A Cave,' modern as well as ancient, a Watt,' English and foreign. It seems to be most rich and explicit in recent literature, and is conducted with an especial regard to sermon-making, as in the case of a volume of sermons the text of each is given. All the pamphlets of living writers are faithfully chro

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