"It was not till I got impressed by the utter alienation of the heart in all its desires and affections from God; it was

not till reconciliation to Him became the distinct and the prominent object of my ministerial exertions; it was not till I took the Scriptural way of laying the method of reconciliation before them; it was not till the free offer of forgiveness through the blood of Christ was urged upon their acceptance, and the Holy Spirit, given through the channel of Christ's Mediatorship to all who ask it, was set before them as the unceasing object of their dependance and their prayers; it was not, in one word, till the contemplations of my people were turned to those great and essential elements in the business of a soul providing for its interest with God, and the concerns of its eternity, that I ever heard of any of those subordinate reformations which I aforetime made the earnest and the zealous, but I am afraid at the same

geese is quite another matter; for even so "serious" a prelate as Bishop Horne, has, in his "Essays and Thoughts,' a head devoted to "asses." He says, "There are wild asses in South America; and they have three properties which bear a moral application." The third of these qualities which the Bishop affirms suggest a moral, is, that "they are troublesome neighbours, and make a most horrid noise." He then proceeds to say, that a gentleman kept an ass, which was so troublesome with his noise, that his master caused him to be beaten when he vociferated, in consequence of which the animal was fain to pine away and die, "for

'ministrations.

"You have at least taught me, that to preach Christ is the only effective way of preaching morality in all its branches; and out of your humble cottages have I gathered a lesson, which I pray God I may be enabled to carry, with all its simplicity, into a wider theatre, and to bring, with all the power of its subduing efficacy, upon the vices of a more crowded population."

a

But as Mr. Paget, we suppose, will not condescend to listen to Dr. Chalmers, any more than to heathen man and a publican," we exhort him to read the Fathers passim. Or if he prefer Papal authorities, there is a good monition in the Constitutions of Otho, respecting Bishops' chaplains, which, though referring to vestments, will apply equally to other things, such as writing books: "Ut possint episcopi alios melius ad honestatem vestium, &c. provideant ut à suis Clericis commensalibus hoc prius faciant observari." It might, however, break Mr. Paget's heart for the Bishop to silence his Pickwickian tales, as he did the Tracts; but books which make men say, "My eyes, wo'nt they stare to see a Bishop's chaplain write thus, ought not to have been writ'ten.

The proposed treatise on

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liberty of making his own frightful noise." The good Bishop has also a chapter upon "books," the perusal of which may be useful to Mr. Paget, who advertises that he has lately published "—that is, within a short space of time-the following volumes, of the same character with that in our hands: "St. Antholin's, a Tale for the Times ;" "Tales of the Village, first series;" Ditto, second series; Ditto, third series; "Milford Malvoisin ;" and now "the Warden of Berkingholt," and another is promised. Bishop Horne's first remark is, "It is with books as with animals; those live longest, with which their parents go longest before they produce them." He has also another remark under this head of "books," which we might have done well to have looked at before we wrote our review; for Mr. Paget has seduced us into a lighter style than we ordinarily employ. "Sir Peter Lely," says the Bishop, "made it a rule never to look at a bad picture, having found by experience that his pencil took a tint from it." But in all gravity, we deeply lament that any clergyman should think he does God and his Church service by such publications as that in our

hands. If our ample extracts do not justify our severity of remark, we entreat pardon of the author, of our readers, and of One whose judgment is of infinitely greater moment. We might have argued more disquisitionally, but we have at least argued honestly. If Mr. Paget does not really know what he satyrizes under the name of "Evangelicalism," he ought not to have written his book; if he does know, still more ought he not to have written it. If he wished to raise a laugh, he should have chosen a less serious subject; if he wrote with a serious purpose, he should have written very differently. Our conviction is, that the book is levelled against much that is Scriptural in doctrine and holy in practice; and so believing, we dared not use flattering words; amusing ourselves with the tale while we deprecated the moral.

We said, that having to do with a "nibbler," we would fish with a light fly on the shallows of Elford; -but we now bethink ourselves that Elford is on the banks of the Tame, (a river not much noticed, whereas its namesake has risen to renown from its junction with the Isis at Oxford-just as we might have overlooked Mr. Paget's not very "tame" book had he not been the Bishop of Oxford's chaplain) and that it (Elford) derives its name, as antiquaries say, from its being "a ford abounding in eels;" so that we might perhaps with advantage have penetrated beneath the superficial froth, to "sniggle" in the mud; for Mr. Paget's book, theologically considered, is as "muddy' as it is frothy. But it only reached us, and that by the gift of a friend who thought it deserved attention, as we were considering of a subject for our second review; so that we took it up at random, and fished extempore, allowing the line to run off the reel wherever the "antics" (Mr. Paget's word) of the fish

happened to carry it. But the next time Mr. Paget "rides abroad,” we trust he will let us know, that we "may be there to see.' We hope also that he will send us his treatise on "geese;" for we should not be surprised if he really adopted our suggestion. He will of course have a tempting subject for his dissertation in the dull, "tiresome," "prosy" "Evangelicals," who have not even the poor wit to say "Bo to a goose;" and he will also have a more vulgar inducement in his publisher's list of new editions, which shews that some men's geese, though they are not swans, yet lay "golden eggs." Should any person surmise that we have written ironically, and that after all we think Mr. Paget's novels very silly, and should not therefore have taken the trouble of noticing them, we will reply in the words of an old proverb preserved by the venerable Camden ("Remains," 1614, p. 303), "As deep drinketh the goose as the gander;" one of the meanings of which may be-not to quote a more trite proverb respecting these birds and the garnishing for them-that we are not always to say, "Oh it is only a goose ;' as if that were no great matter; for we remember the witty Chamberlain of London's retort, "You say the sense of the City is against me; I am glad of it: for if you poll the sense and I the nonsense, I shall beat you ten to one." Thus, very absurd books may produce powerful effects upon weak minds; (for "quidquidˇrecipitur, ad modum recipientis recipitur;") and may therefore require exposure. But if Mr. Paget should write more largely upon geese, we will give him as a motto for his treatise, the objurgation of Sir Thomas More's wife to her husband when she wished to stir him up to undertake great enterprises: "Will you sit still by the fire, and make goslings in the ashes with a stick, as children

do? Would I were a man; and I should shew you what I would do." So, shall Mr. Paget sit "tamely" at Elford, and bury himself in pastoral duties among rustics? No, he will fly throughout the land, from Elford to "Clackington,' upon the paper wings of a covey of novels, to the music of " tympans" and " friskets,"—if steam printing has left any-upon a crusade to exterminate "Puritanism, Methodism, Evangelicalism, Socialism, and Mormonism." Perhaps he will adopt, in defence of the style of writing which he has assumed, the reply of Sir T. More's facetious friend Heywood, the farce-writer, who, when it was told him that one Pace, a Master of Arts, we are not sure that he was a Bishop's chaplain,-had demeaned himself by wearing a fool's coat ("My eyes, won't they stare?") answered, "It is less hurtful to the common weal for wise men to go in fools' coats, than for fools to go in wise men's gowns." But then Heywood was a farce-writer by profession, not a Bishop's chaplain; and our rejoinder is, that even if the one vagary be less injurious than the other to the public, it does not follow that it is more creditable to the individual. And, by the way, another association occurs to us respecting this Heywood; for Holinshed the chronicler says of him, "He made a book Of the Spider and the Fly,'"-a black-letter quarto, in verse,

"wherein he dealeth so profoundly, that neither he himself that made it, neither any that readeth it, can reach unto the meaning thereof;" which is precisely what men say of Mr. Paget's volume; for, whether it is "Tractarian," anti-Tractarian, "Orthodox," "Catholic," or what, no person knows; all that is certain being the negative that it is not "Evangelical." He may add a note on "the fly and the spider" to his treatise on geese and men.

We have run into a vein of anecdotal incidents; and must therefore check ourselves at once, or we shall not know where to stop. We will add only one more. Mickle, in his translation of the Luciad, wrote a severe note upon Garrick; but being taken to see him perform King Lear, during the first three acts he uttered not a word, but at a fine passage in the fourth, he fetched a deep sigh, and said, "I wish the note was out of my book." Let Mr. Paget take this best revenge upon us. Let him eschew that unworthy style of writing which it has been our painful duty to expose; and, far more, let him cease from "persecuting" what he too lightly calls

Evangelicalism," and begin to "preach the faith which once he destroyed;" and then we shall say, not with a sigh, but with much rejoicing, "We wish that review were out of our book,-or better, that there had been no occasion for it ever to be in."

THE great council of the nation is about to assemble; "and proud, glorious, and triumphant," as a man of the world would say, but eminently favourable, cheering, satisfactory, and in many respects glowing, as the most guarded Christian lip may express it, will be the statement which Sir R. Peel will be able to embody in the Royal Speech. And yet who shall say, in this

uncertain world, what even the morrow may bring forth? for who can tell at the brightest moment what clouds may suddenly burst upon an individual or a nation? There was one who, perhaps, was confidentially acquainted with the intended topics of that statement, and was rejoicing, both as a Briton and a public servant, that his friends had so many auspicious facts to present to their

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tinguish two very different faculties in those who are at the helm of States. Some, though but very few, being raised to the council-board, the senate, or chief public office, can enlarge a small State, yet have but little skill in music; but many more, who have good hand upon the harp, or the lute, that is, at the trifles of a court, are so far from enlarging a State, that they rather seem designed to overthrow and ruin it; though ever so happy and flourishing. And indeed those arts and tricks by which many councillors and men of great place procure the favour of their sovereign, and a popular character, deserve no other name than a certain knack of fiddling." Did the Duke of Wellington, or whoever fathered the speech upon him, mean something of this kind when he said playfully (as the tale runs), "What shall we do, Sir Robert, at court? for I have no small talk, and you have no manners. But the topics before alluded to will make a better figure in a Queen's Speech than the most courtly "smalltalk," the most exquisite "knack of fiddling" and we cannot doubt that Sir Robert Peel will be able, at the opening of Parliament, to exhibit the nation in profound peace abroad, and, upon the whole, in quiet at home; so that we may trust, by God's blessing, a breathing time will be afforded to consider the real welfare of the country, and especially the suffering condition of large classes of the community, with a view to devise suitable remedies.

Among these remedies, the abolition of all impost upon the importation of corn will be strenuously urged. Abstractedly, we do not doubt that the free admission of food, at a moderate, fixed duty, for revenue, and not for restriction, is the sound principle; but when we consider the complicated state of our internal relations; the immense interests involved in British agriculture; and the probability that a vast influx of foreign corn, though it would give a temporary stimulus to manufactures and commerce, would leave us, in the end, where we are, only with a more dense suffering population; we incline to think that the present law is, upon the whole, a fair practical mean between extremes.

The perplexing relations of the Church of Scotland will also be brought before Parliament. The chief difficulty in these

questions appears to us to be this, that the Church of. Scotland connects two things which ought to be separated, Patronage and Ordination. The Church makes a call from the people the "title for Orders;" so that the patron loses his civil right if the Church will not give the call; and the Church is coerced in spirituals if it may not ordain on such conditions as it judges right; one of which is, that the call shall be from the people, and not from the patron. All that is required to preserve intact both spiritual and civil rights, is that the people should be entitled to state their objections, if they have any; and that the Presbytery shall consider them; and ordain or not, as it thinks right upon the merit of the case. the Church demands that the people's refusal to give the call, without any reason assigned, shall be an absolute bar to ordination; and hence it is clashing with the civil power and the law of the land; and, as such a principle cannot reasonably, or scripturally, be maintained, we see no alternative, if the spiritual power continues obstinate, but the breaking up, or newly-modifying, of the Church as a national establishment.

But

The Affghanistan war will afford another important question of discussion. Our disasters were caused, in part at least, by mismanagement, to use no heavier word, and justice to all parties requires that the affair should be seriously inquired into; as also whether in the hour of success there was not mixed with our triumph a spirit of "revenge which has disgraced our arms and country. One eye-witness, speaking of the capture of Istalif, says: "Not a man was spared, whether with or without arms; they were hunted down like vermin ; mercy was never dreamt of." The worse than absurd conduct of the Governer General, in restoring the sandal gates of Ghuznee to a heathen temple, must not be passed over; for he has thereby officially identified England with the patronage of Pagan idolatry.

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The Church Extension question will be urged upon Parliament; but lament to say that it has been greatly damaged by Tractarian follies; for there is no class of statesmen who will stand up to defend them, or to ward off the ridicule under which the Church is labouring on account of them.

ANSWERS

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