that is calculated to meet the longings of a soul that is praying and thirsting after righteousness. We once fell in with one of the great leaders of the party; and in a journey of 60 miles in a stage-coach, amidst constant conversation on religious topics, not one sentiment escaped from him in which we did not fully accord, or which was calculated to expose the Shiboleth of the party: and yet on discovering who the gentleman was, and hearing more about him, it was lamentable to learn that the mischief he has done on the Continent, where he chiefly resides, is incredible: unsettling and subverting the good work of grace in Switzerland, France, &c., and sowing the tares of discord in all directions. One really is at a loss to conceive how such a character can turn with indifference from those who are sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, and devote his energies to a hurtful meddling with the companies of faithful Christians who are rising up around him. Yet we cannot forget that there were those in the apostles' days, who, instead of having their eyes fixed on the glorious and blessed object of winning souls to Christ, disturbed the Church by giving out that unless they were circumcised, Christ would profit them nothing. The selfishness of human nature unhappily manifests itself too often in religious zeal. The Plymouth Brethren are not singular in resolving the essence and vitality of religion into an assimilation with their own symmetry and rule. The spirit of exclusiveness may be seen elsewhere. Nor is there anything new in the restless dissatisfaction with existing Churches. We often think of the case of an elderly gentleman we met with some years ago, who had gone from town to town in search of a pure and unexceptionable Church to which he might attach himself with spiritual benefit. But all to no purpose. At length he was ready to proclaim his EvрηKa-the faithful Church was discovered. He ventured to settle himself for life; to build his house; and to hope for a quiet resting-place for the remainder of his pilgrimage. Sometime after, he was met in his

daily walk looking very disconsolate and pensive; and in getting into conversation, he confessed his disappointment. "That rascal of a fellow who seemed to be a pillar in our Church, and is one of our elders, he has cheated me at every point in the building of my house, and I am selling all up, and leaving the place in disgust.'

How men forget, in an over-anxious study to weed and separate, that the tares must grow together with the wheat until the harvest! There will be symptoms of fallibility and imperfection in the best constituted churches. Our wisdom is to be thankful for what is good in that to which we belong, and to be willing to wait till we get to heaven for the Church which is without spot or blemish. The very spirituality which seems to prompt the movements of the brethren and others, we think should only lead to a directly contrary course; leading men to think less of external considerations, less of ecclesiastical imperfections and defects, and more of that divine and heavenly influence without which the most select church communion will be profitless, and with which a very imperfect and apparently inadequate channel will not fail to transfer the desired blessing. There is a grand defect in the apparent spirituality of those who are so ready to quarrel with ecclesiastical establishments. Real spirituality, they may depend upon it, would lead them to soar above the machinery. Real spirituality has its conversation, its business, its traffic, in heaven. It cannot waste its time in adjusting the channel-the water is what it longs for. Real spirituality looks chiefly to the ladder of faith, up which to send its aspirations, and down which to receive its needed succours; and every convenience and advantage beneath, which presents itself, is thankfully accepted and not hastily rejected, because it fails to prove perfect and infallible. It is essential to Protestantism to repudiate the boast of infallibility. Faults and imperfections there may be and must be in the Church of England, as well as in every human constitution; but before

it can be safe to wish for her destruction, we must bury in oblivion all recollection of our martyred reformers, and every trace of her faithful testimony to the truth in her standing articles for centuries; and every thought of the thousands and millions who, through her instrumentality, have been upheld and succoured amid the storms of life, and landed on the peaceful shore of heaven.

The Church of England may have her defects, and she may often have suffered from the unworthy and treacherous administration of her members; but with all their declensions, and with all the dark clouds of error which have often overspread her body, the head has ever remained clear and scriptural; her articles, embodying (their worst enemies being judges) the purest evangelical truth, have never changed; and her formularies of worship have never failed to guide effectually the devotions of the truly spiritual worshipper.

With these convictions, we cannot but wish to resist every effort to undermine the Church of England. We do not fear any very extensive mischief from the Plymouth Brethren; for without articles or creeds to form a standard of appeal, they have not the necessary material for duration: and

moreover their leading principles, such as having all things in common, and the levelling of all ranks and grades in society; the servant and her mistress being put upon a par, dressing alike, and eating at the same table; all this, however fine in theory, is found very awkward in practice; and like Irvingism and other similar religious eccentricities, we doubt not but that Plymouthism will speedily come to nought.

Still, in the meanwhile, it is our duty to check its progress, by detecting its fallacy and unscriptural character. And we know of no better guide and help in this work, than the little pamphlet now before us. Its appeal to Scripture is abundant and unanswerable; its spirit loving and affectionate; its statements one would imagine irresistible. We strongly recommend the adoption of this pamphlet wherever these mischievous intruders are at work.

It is admirably calculated to reclaim the wanderer. It presents a precious balm, not to break the head but to heal and soothe. May the great Head of the Church abundantly bless it to the diminishing of one, at least, of the many hindrances to the peace and well doing of our Zion!

MEMOIRS OF PRINCE CHARLES By CHARLES LOUIS KLOSE, Esq. IN great chemical operations, such as extensive crystallizations, the smallest changes are watched with much interest, as indicative of approaching results to take place throughout the whole mass. The same vigilance is necessary now in the religious and political world. Little matters have at times a momentous connexion with consequences of the first importance. This book of memoirs, upon a subject once intensely interesting, but now apparently forgotten, is probably one of those minor indications. It seems, nay, it is, a trifle-a book of very slight research and pleasingly written. It contains little, if any, actually new information on the subject of the

STUART, COUNT OF ALBANY: 2 vols. Colburn. 1845. Young Pretender's history, and it borrows openly, and very freely, from Chambers's" Jacobite Memoirs," but it has thrown the narrative together in a readable and attractive form, and many will renew their interest in its romance-stir up the embers of expiring feelings-look up their dusty relics, and look again with inexplicable flutter upon a 66 white cockade."

But the book appears to have two objects. The first is to deprecate any harsh historical judgments of Charles's principles and characterto exhibit him to the world as a more able and more moral man than he really was, and to induce men even yet to regret the disastrous retreat

from Derby, and to wish themselves again under the mild, unpretending, equitable, and constitutional government of the Stuart dynasty-in fact, to see all that any branch of this family could do, as being entirely "couleur de rose;" and to think that any convulsionary change which might throw them again on the eddying surface of things, would be a national advantage. We are not now going to take up the question. We are content to look back with much thankfulness on that period of our national history, in which wise and salutary legislative restraint has kept us free from that arbitrary use of power, which the Stuarts always exercised whenever they had any.

But the book appears to have a second and less palpably avowed object —to take very cautiously the first step towards a glance at the possibility that the Pretender's family is not without legitimate living issue. Of course, with the utterly slender thread that there is to work upon, the first advances towards such a conclusion must be light and unobtrusive; but they may not be the less intentional, and intentionally guarded; and we shall be considerably surprised if this is not found to be the real object of the book-the postscript to the letter, the sting in the tail.

It is well known that before Prince Charles's marriage with a German `princess, he lived in intimate domestic relation with a Miss Walkenshaw, by whom he is said to have had two children. None of the contemporay notices of this fact approach, even in the remotest degree, the notion of a legitimate marriage. It never was so declared. And it appears, on the face of this very memoir, that when the friends of Charles, fearing the compromise of their own safety, as well as that of their Samson, by the faithlessness of this Delilah, required that she should be put away; he met it only with the assertion that he would not be interfered with by any one as to any step of his private life.

The Postscript of these two vols. is a very clumsy attempt to give consequence to Miss Walkenshaw; to establish the fact of a legitimate and recognized marriage between her and NOVEMBER-1845.

the prince, and to leave it doubtful whether the fruits of that marriage are not now living,

In the year 1818 or 1819, two lengthy young men made their appearance in Edinburgh, taking up prominent theatrical positions and attitudes in the Episcopal places of worship, and calling themselves by some name, not now exactly remembered. They gradually obtained access to a certain measure of society; changed their name to Sobieski Stuart, or something of that sort; assumed the Highland garb, and the manners of royalty; and asserted, at length, their descent from the Pretender's family. Those who know their whole history, are fully alive to the absurdity of the claim; but it is not the less likely that by and by it may be the subject of a longer Appendix to a third edition of these Memoirs. "The Tablet," a Roman Catholic periodical of some note, has endeavoured to call the public attention to their claim.

It would seem almost idle to waste a sentence on such pretensions; but it is impossible to say what the Romanists may not think it desirable, in these changing times, to attempt. There never has been a pretence set up to the crown of this Protestant nation, but the Pope and the Roman Catholic states of Europe, and the Romish Clergy of Britain and Ireland, have supported it vi et armis. And the day may come again, when claims as absurd as those of Peter Simnel may be again maintained by them, and, as then, the usurping impostor welcomed by this hierarchy with all the solemnities of a coronation. It may be that, as this liberal age repudiates to its last shred the principles of the Protestant conservative system, it may suit the Jesuit system to push up a pawn into the vacant square, and make some long-legged Charles, or James, or Sobieski the point of a new game. It may suit them to say, that restrictions annihilated destroy some individual rights, and give a renewed life to others; and if they have not power to sap the foundations of our throne as at present occupied, at least to raise confusion round it.

It is well then to be on our guard;

3 т

to watch the incipient ripple of the moving mass; to bare the whole tissue of the scheme from its outset, before the mystery of some 40 or 50 years has wrapped its bald and beggarly origin in cloud. This work may be altogether innocent of such a purpose; but it looks very like a preliminary step; like a lady's letter, which says the most momentous thing just at the last. It says, Miss Walkenshaw was the wife of Charles Edward-she had children. Look out. It may be easy to say by and by, “Apropos des bottes -Here is the very man.'

But to be serious. How precious ought our Protestant rights and immunities to be esteemed. It is the style of modern liberalism to disregard them. All the testimony of centuries is now accounted but an old almanac, and all its warnings, the prophesying of a Cassandra; but the day may come, and come speedily, when we shall measure the value of our national blessings by their irretrievable loss, and the value of simple, unadulterated truth by the weight of the rushing host, and the bloody spur of dominant error..

THE whole subject of popular literature requires the deepest consideration. The press is pouring out every day a tide of books, which distract the attention, weaken the judgment, corrupt the taste, and defy the criticism of the public, by their very multitude. Every one, young or old, man or woman, fool or wise, thinks himself able to say something which may catch the people's eye, to raise himself either money or notoriety. The whole world has become a great school, where all the public have turned themselves into teachers; and the ravenous appetite of an idle people, always craving for some new excitement or amusement, and ready to swallow the most unwholesome food,

"LITTLE

WE can do little more in a world like ours, (says the Rev. Mr. Todd, in his volume of excellent " Hints to Young Men,") than to kindle little fires here and there, which will continue to burn, and which will light other fires, after we have passed away and are forgotten. You may give bias to the character now forming, you may make an impression on the mind of some companion, perhaps unknown to him and to yourself, which will influence thousands yet unborn, for their good. I believe it is Lockhart, the accomplished writer of Sir Walter Scott's Memoirs, who mentions that in those days of mirth and revelry which came near being his ruin, the room in which

is daily stimulating the market. What should we say, if a man had the power of so volatilizing a grain of arsenic, that its effluvium should spread over a whole country, entering into every house and penetrating to the most vital part of the body? And yet, until it is shown that the human mind is good itself, and the source of good -that is not what we know it to be, save only when purified by religion, corrupt itself, and a corrupter of others-this power, which every man possesses, and which so many exercise, of diffusing their thoughts over the world, and insinuating them into the heart of a nation, is, in reality, the power of spreading a pestilential miasma. Edinburgh Rev.

FIRES."

he and his associates met was opposite that in which Scott was writing. While thus assembled he used to watch that unknown hand turning off sheet after sheet-untiring, unceasing. In the midst of mirth and folly, he would turn his eyes and feel a pang of severe reproof by that silent, unknown everlasting hand! How little did Scott know that his diligence was rebuking and forming the character of a young man who would one day even honour him by writing his life! The hand that dropped the pebble into the smooth waters has passed away, and is forgotten, but the wake is widening and spreading till it has been felt in every part of the lake.

Liverpool, Oct. 7th, 1845.

MY DEAR FRIEND,-I am now about to proceed, in the fulfilment of my promise, to give you some particulars of the three glorious days we have lately enjoyed here in the truly "holy convocation" which was held in this town, for the purpose of promoting Christian union, on the first three days of this month:-which will be days greatly to be remembered by the Church of Christ, as a season when the Holy Ghost seems to have been as manifestly in the midst of us, (although not in visible tongues of fire) as He was in the midst of the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, guiding us at every step amidst the most conflicting opinions and statements, to come to an unanimous adoption of the simple truth of God's word, as the basis of union, and wonderfully making us all (although there were 17 different denominations of Christians present) of one heart and one mind, without a compromise of principle by any! So that it may be truly said, "What hath God wrought!" The name of the proposed Christian Association is to be "THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE," (the term "Protestant" being advisedly excluded, as involving too much of worldly politics in its

general acceptation ;) and its object will be to accomplish all that the Plymouth Brethren have vainly attempted to do; namely, to gather all the people of God into one-but without their unscriptural rejection of the Sabbath, the sanctuary, or an ordained ministry; and also without requiring of any individual to leave that section of the Church of Christ to which he belongs! Do you ask, my dear friend, How can these things be?

Our answer is, Come and see. The basis of union, which may be called the creed, or test of discipleship, will be shortly published, and extensively circulated throughout the United Kingdom, the Continent of Europe, and America; and I will not fail, if spared, to send you a copy. It is so simple, that no one who holds sound evangelical doctrines can possibly object to it; and its extreme simplicity, especially considering the heterogeneous mass of opposite opinions and sentiments from which it has been extracted, was the astonishment of every one present; and thankfully acknowledged by all to be the entire work of the Spirit of Truth "guiding us into all truth," and abundantly poured out upon the meeting in answer to prayer.

There were about 250 persons present-ministers and laymen-of Churchmen the smallest number: but amongst them, dear Mr. E. Bickersteth, and Mr. Baptist Noel, who, I doubt not, were mainly instrumental in promoting the harmony which so happily prevailed. None of our influential local clergy attended, as you would conclude from Mr. Baillee's letter in the Liverpool Standard which I sent you; but there were several from Ireland, and other parts of the United Kingdom. Prayer was offered up by five successive ministers of different denominations, previous to proceeding in the object of the conference; and such an uniform