THE FOLLOWING ARE THE NAMES OF CONTRIBUTORS

TO THIS VOLUME OF THE BAPTIST MAGAZINE:

The Reviews have been supplied by Ten different Writers.

THE

BAPTIST MAGAZINE.

JANUARY, 1862.

THE DEATH OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE CONSORT.

THE year eighteen hundred and sixty-two opens with gloom and apprehension. Public events have cast a deep shadow over every English home. There is mourning, heavy mourning, in the Royal House; it is the mourning of the widow and the fatherless. Such sorrow is, everywhere the same in its intensity, whether in a palace, or in a cottage. Neither the splendours of wealth, nor the majesty of empire, nor extent of dominion, nor the admiration of a whole people, have any charm to assuage the pangs of bereaved affection, or to redeem a family that has lost its head from a sense of terrible desolation. This affliction, therefore, of our beloved Queen calls as loudly for our sympathy as though neither rank nor grandeur were concerned; and, at the same time, asserts a claim to it above all the griefs of private individuals. Sons and daughters, whose moral and religious training and the formation of whose characters are matters of national interest, deprived of paternal influence and authority, may well awaken the solicitude of all who know what lives have been led by English princes within the memory of man. Yet we trust in God, that even the gentler influence of a mother, supported as it will be by the dignity of the Crown, will save us from the renewed exhibition of vice and frivolity which, with but trivial exception, renders the memory of the Georges contemptible and almost odious. These, it is true, are anxieties for the future; but still they mingle themselves with and aggravate a loss that cannot be regarded as anything short of a national calamity.

How truly is it written that "in the midst of life we are in death." In this case the sun has gone down while it was yet noon. One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet; and another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure. They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them. After a youth unstained by any vices, and a manhood adorned with many various

VOL. VI.-NEW SERIES.

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accomplishments, devoted to useful, honourable, and truly Royal pursuits, happy in one of the best of wives, and surrounded by a circle of lovely children, and with every prospect of continued happiness, Prince Albert of Saxe-Gotha is dead, in the 43rd year of his age, while yet the "dew of his youth" was upon him, and the maturity of human life not attained. He might fairly have reckoned (if any man could do so) upon long years to come of honour and usefulness. But no confident anticipations of the future are allowed in this life, even to the brightest characters and noblest names. As Christians, we have long ago learned to live in a state of habitual preparation for a dying hour; but the lesson, still so much needed by the majority of mankind, will perhaps be more deeply impressed by an example like this, which is given upon the very pinnacle of earthly glory, and in the face of the whole civilised world. A thousand deaths of ordinary persons, even in the flower of their age, produce but a very faint sensation compared with that which is awakened by the death of one whom a Queen of England has espoused, and whom the nation reveres for his personal virtues as well as because he is the father of her future sovereigns.

It is no exaggeration to say that he upon whose manly arm our Queen relied, and by whose wise counsels her conduct was swayed, was in a true sense the father of her people, and a main pillar of the State. In everything but the name he was king, and certainly occupied a position that might have been justly coveted by most of the actual kings of the earth. Though a foreigner by birth and lineage, yet he had profoundly acquainted himself with the genius of the British Constitution, and had thoroughly imbibed its spirit. This has displayed itself in such a conformity to our manners and institutions, that we have scarcely ever thought of him as any other than an Englishman. To this also we owe it, that the Prince Consort has not aroused our jealousy or suspicion by any ostensible interference with our political affairs. But, above all, we are perhaps indebted to it, in part at least, for the fact that under the present reign our constitutional liberty has reached its highest degree of perfection; and the Crown, abstaining from the assertion of powers obnoxious to the other estates of the realm, has settled down majestically, satisfied with the vast weight and splendour of its own proper dignities and functions. There can be little doubt that the counsels of his late Royal Highness the Prince Consort largely contributed to this result; and still less that from this cause the reign of Queen Victoria will be regarded in all time to come as one of the brightest passages in English history.

Although the late Prince was necessarily excluded from taking any part in legislation or government, it will not be imagined by any enlightened person that therefore he had no duties to perform, and that his was a life of dignified ease and recreation. The Sovereign of this country holds a high, arduous, and, on many occasions, laborious office. Strictly limited in power, she is yet the supreme executive. It was impossible that in the cares and duties of such an office the Prince Consort should not participate. But if it were otherwise, his memory should be cherished