that the impression of the writer is, that upon that fundamental doctrine the Church of Rome is either in no error at all, or at least none that is clear and important. And on the whole I think, that any plain member of our Church, who takes up the Tract without any suspicion that the author was not a safe guide in such matters, must lay it down with uneasy apprehension that the reasons why we remain separate from Rome, are much fewer and weaker than he had before believed. And as to those whom the Tracts had already given a strong impulse towards Rome, how much more such dissuasives were calculated to aid than to counteract the impulse, it is unnecessary to say."

The Bishop proceeds to expose the trickery and slipperiness of the Oxford Tract conspirators. The following statement asserts summarily what we have expressed in detail many times under the head of "stealthiness "Mr. Knox's own word-and we are glad to avail ourselves of his Lordship's important testimony.

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Comparing what the authors of the Tracts wrote with what had appeared for some time upon the same side, it was not unnatural that it should be regarded as very bold; but, looking back at it now with the knowledge which we possess of the principles of the writers, one is certainly more struck with their caution. And though from time to time what seemed to be strong and distinct declarations of their principles appeared, yet upon examination they were often found less unequivocally expressed, than at first sight they were thought to be; or accompanied by some unnoticed qualifications; or when they were most tangible, there was something tangible which might be set upon the opposite side. So that when the writers were put upon their defence, either by some ambiguity in what gave occasion to the charge; or by being able to produce something like it, more or less, in some one of good reputation in the Church, or with a large party in it; or by referring to something very different in another of the Tracts, or in some other of their writings; or by retorting the charge upon those who made it,-showing that if they had exceeded in one direction, their accusers, or some with whom they were understood to agree, had committed some excess in a direction less likely to be in favour with those for

whom chiefly such defences were intended,--in some of these ways, or in some such way, they were always able to say so much, as to allow those who valued them as maintainers of Church authority and order, and who wished to believe them sound in doctrine, to retain their favourable opinion of them. Whatever could be defended, such persons strenuously defended; what admitted of no defence, they were content to excuse, or at most to blame gently as occasional blemishes, not affecting the general character of the series; being introduced probably into it by the imprudence of some such imprudent members as every party contains, and must at times suffer from.

"All this while however the party were gaining strength and courage; and the Tracts, and still more other publications, many of them anonymous, evinced a very decided advance towards Rome."

The Bishop of Ossory expresses his astonishment that acute divines, and also the conductors of religious periodical publications, were slow in observing the tendencies of the Tractarian writings; and were too ready to apologize for them, even sometimes indiscreetly expressed. when admitting that they were The warning afforded by such writings as Froude's Remains was well-nigh lost; nor was it till the outburst of No. 90 that the matter began to be generally taken up in high places with anything approaching to due vigour. Those who were early in the field; those who exposed the true character and tendencies of Tractarianism eight or nine years ago; gained little but obloquy for their premature honesty. They were false accusers; they were slanderously crying wolf," and were for fortifying the stable-door before the steed was stolen. There were, however, some on the other side who boldly stated what they hoped would be the issue.

sounded paradoxical and over bold when he first uttered them, may be ventured on with hope of a reasonable degree of acceptance.' His slower, or more prudent brethren, were certainly taking full advantage of this change, which, though they make no boast of it, they had done so much to bring about."

"It was impossible for any thinking person to see, without much alarm, the advance in their progress towards Rome, which the party had made in a comparatively short period. How far this was to be set down to a rapid development of their principles, and how far to a more open disclosure of them, it was not easy to determine. For, besides other evidences of a politic concealment of their opinions and feelings, we find the writer of Tract 90 complaining of having been forced to a premature disclosure of them on one point by circumstances in his position in Oxford, which were often, he intimates, interfering with the reserve concerning them which it might be prudent to adopt. But whichever it were, development or disclosure, the visible advance which the movement had made towards Rome in a very short period, was enough to amaze and terrify those who saw no cause of alarm in the first steps in the same path. One example of this, which is so important a fact with reference to the movement, I shall give, as it may be given in a very few words. Mr. Froude's Remains, as I have before mentioned, offended all who were outside the party, and many who, up to the publication of them, had been regarded as belonging to it; and in nothing more than by the undisguised admiration with which he regarded much in the Romish system which Protestants in general had been taught to view in a very different light. He seems very earnestly to have desired a reunion with Rome, but to have felt that in the Council of Trent there was an insurmountable obstacle to the accomplishment of his wishes...... Upon one saying that the Romanists were schismatics in England, but Catholics abroad, he replied, No, they are wretched Tridentines everywhere. And yet in the few years which had elapsed, what had appeared to his sanguine and not overscrupulous mind an insurmountable obstacle, seemed to have been almost, if not altogether, cleared away. The detestation with which the Council was regarded had disappeared, and the impediments to reunion with Rome no longer lay (according to Tract 90) in its immutable canons and decrees, but in the popular belief and in the teaching of the schools; which so many of these

writers held to be a bad reason for separating from her at the first, and which they were so little likely long to regard (if they still regarded it) as a sufficient ground for keeping up the separation. But be that as it might, so far as the Tridentine Decrees and the Thirty-nine Articles were concerned, there was no impediment (they said) to reconciliation-it was only to master thoroughly, and employ boldly, the scheme of interpretation provided in the Tract, and the supposed opposition between them would disappear.

"Such an advance as this, made any further advance credible; and the process by which it was justified, made any further advance easy. And both not unnaturally excited very general alarm and indignation. But with whatever measure of such feelings the publication was received, while it was regarded as a defence of the author, and those who felt with him, for continuing ministers of the Church of England, they fell far short of those which it raised, when it was known what its true object was. It was distinctly stated by the author of the Tract himself, in an apologetic letter which he was led to publish, in the beginning of the pamphlet war to which it gave rise, that it was written at the earnest instance of some whom he revered, who urged him to do all that he could to keep members of our Church from straggling in the direction of Rome. He does not expressly say who they were who were in danger of thus falling away, but little doubt could be entertained that they were principally the younger members of the University, and those who had lately left its walls; whose attachment to their own Church had been shaken by the unwearied labours of the writer and his colleagues. That such views were entertained by those who possessed such means of extending them, and who used them all so actively and perseveringly, was indeed alarming. And no honest mind could learn without surprise and indignation that these men were not merely professed members, but ministers of our own Church. But their actual success in propagating their principles in such a quarter, was still more startling tidings to the many who heard them for the first time. It could not but fill every sound mind with still livelier indignation, and still more anxious apprehensions, to learn, that young men confided to the University to be trained in the principles of the Church, had been taught so different a lesson; that their warm and susceptible minds had been so acted upon, that instead of being confirmed in the feelings of reverence and attachment to their own

down the momentous points at issue into a dispute about ceremonials and ritualism; fast-days gowns and and feast-days; white black gowns; but goes at once to the spiritual essentials of the question. "Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment ?” We are glad to see that his Lordship's volume (for such it is) has already advanced to a second edition; and we earnestly pray that the Divine blessing may accompany it.

Church with which they had begun their course, they now needed the sophistry of this Tract to keep them within its pale. But it was still worse to know that they were capable of making use of it. I repeat deliberately, that distressing and alarming as it was to find, that a portion of the flower and hope of the country had had their Protestant principles so shaken by those who should have established them, that they stood in actual need themselves of this singular Preservative from Popery; it was still more distressing and alarming to learn, that their honesty had been so tainted in the process, that they were capable of employing it, that one who must have been supposed to have known intimately the minds on which he had exercised so baleful an influence, should have been able to calculate on their readiness to

avail themselves of such a mode of escape from the fair force of the most solemn and sacred obligations, by such sophistry and evasion, such shifts and contrivances as a man could not apply

to the very lightest of the engagements of common life, without forfeiting all reputation for integrity and good faith."

The reader may judge by these remarks upon what his Lordship calls "the shifting, evasive, and disingenuous sophistry" of Tract 90, of the masterly and striking manner in which he touches upon the various points of his argument. But we must again recommend the perusal of the whole Charge, as the topics are too numerous for us to do justice to them without reprinting a large portion of the Bishop's remarks. We stated at the outset, that the Bishop does not melt

upon

Another able publication from his Lordship's pen has just reached us; entitled "Remarks the Appendix to the late Charge of his Grace the Archbishop of Dublin ;" respecting "the expediency of restoring, at this time, to the Church her synodical powers." We alluded to the Archbishop's remarks in our last Number (page 623), expressing our opinion that a Convocation at the present moment would engender mischievous strifes, and unsettle much without settling anything; and that it is not required in point of principle, as we have already in our Articles, Homilies, and Liturgy, the well-ordered authoritative results of former church assemblies, which new ones at this time might mar rather than mend. For a powerful course of reasoning to this effect, we refer with much satisfaction to Bishop O'Brien's pamphlet.

strengthens loyalty; excites reciprocal interest; and qualifies Her Majesty to govern, not as an automaton, but with large intelligence of the wishes, habits, capabilities, and necessities of the people committed, in the providenee of God, to her regal charge. The personal conduct also of Queen Victoria, and that of her royal consort; their kindness, diligence, habits of business, and freedom from self-indulgence, endear them to the people, and convert conventional respect into hearty loyalty and personal esteem. We may add, that Her Majesty's do

mestic charge as a mother is another link of union with her people. Loyalty and patriotism are not, as some assert, unenlightened prejudice, but sound philosophy; and He who made man, and knew what is in man, has in his holy word exhibited a nation as a family, all the members of which ought to be united for mutual aid and the common weal. Would that it were more so in this our much-favoured but ungrateful land.

Her Majesty's Government has at length entered upon a decisive course of policy in opposing the Irish Repeal conspiracy. Whether its cautious tolerance hitherto was well-judged can be decided only by the issue. The reasons urged in the proclamation for forbidding the Clontarf gathering, applied in substance to all the former "monster meetings ;" and had they been prevented, the country would have been spared much alarm; nor would the Repeal conspirators have been able to boast of millions of banded confederates; triumphantly organising their ranks in order to over-awe the legislature and cabinet; till, having warily bided their time, they should be strong enough, by force or terror, either to secure the accomplishment of their objects, or, in pursuing them, to involve the country in the horrors of a protracted civil war. Thus at least the matter presented itself to most persons, considering the principles which bind together social bodies; one of which is, that sedition should, if possible, be nipped in the bud, and not allowed to become rampant by indiscreet or cowardly toleration. But Her Majesty's advisers, who must be far more conversant with the facts of the case than bystanders, and who, with the Duke of Wellington and Sir R. Peel (not to mention other names) among them, are not likely to lack either prudence or decision, considered it best to allow the seditious Repealers to proceed till affairs had arrived at a crisis which all reasonable men, all friends of the British constitution, were convinced demanded peremptory interference. Had they prevented the earlier "monster meetings," it would have been urged that they had invaded the right of the people to meet peaceably to procure the repeal of an Act of Parliament, for this was the avowed object. Faction would thus have had a grievance to make the most of; exasperation would have ensued; some of their political friends might have doubted whether they had acted discreetly; and they would have had nothing to have urged in self-defence but their anticipations of evil; and had the Repealers risen with phy

sical violence, there was no due preparation for coercing them, and preventing the fearful atrocities of former rebellions. As matters now stand, everything is morally and constitutionally in their favour. They have acted with such forbearance that their enemies taunted, and many of their friends mistrusted, them. The leaders of the movement have involved themselves in a net, and are amenable to prosecution for a seditious conspiracy. The array of force at the monster meetings; the assumption of magisterial functions by the establishment of self-constituted courts of arbitration; their declarations against the rights of property; and the organization of a conventional parliament to overrule the lawful legislature; have proved in bright day-light, that either the conspirators must be arrested in their course, or the national constitution, and the dearest rights and privileges of the people, be trampled under their feet. Added to all this, Ireland has been garrisoned, and preparation made for promptly crushing rebellion should it break out, and for protecting the lives and property of peaceable subjects from lawless incursion. To have issued proclamations before this was done, would have been worse than folly.

Such are the facts of the case; and the results are apparently favourable. The conspirators are intimidated; the decision of a jury hangs over their leaders; and in place of the Repeal of the Union they begin to hold out the lure of a "federal parliament;" the three hundred legislators who were to assemble some fine morning in the Conciliation Hall have postponed their session; and even the atrocious Saxons are no longer to be so denominated, but all are to be loving brothers. This is as hypocritical as it is abject; for Mr. O'Connell means not so; but he finds it politic to pretend to conciliate when rough words are prejudicial to his cause; hoping thereby to obtain an instalment, or to gain a vantage-ground whence he may renew his attacks with better success.

We cannot, however, indulge in the sanguine anticipations of some who regard the crisis as past. We fear it is yet to come. The conspirators, though stunned for the moment, are not subdued; legal convictions are not certain, for much depends upon the temper of juries, the veracity and nerve of witnesses, and manifold uncertainties of law; the masses which have been inflamed into madness only await a pretext for a widely-spread outbreak ; and though the civil and military power may quell tumults, at great sacrifice perhaps of life and property, the seeds of disor