"Did, in fact, become a principal motive for its increase, and even in later years appear to have assumed a remarkable pre-eminence among the sources of disgust." (P. 17.)

But on this particular subject we would refer our readers to the Introduction to Dr. Madden's "United Irishmen." They will there learn that the policy of the Marian reign was as confiscating as that of the Elizabethan, toward the native Irish.

The remarks of Dr. Mason on the State of Religion in Ireland should be read by all who have hitherto considered it as originally Romish.

Concerning the use of the native tongue, it appears that as early as the reign of Edward VI. the Church service was intended to have been translated into Irish; an order to that effect was issued by Elizabeth, and a fount of Irish types sent over. (P. 105-8). Dr. Mason has carefully traced the pursuit (we wish we could say the accomplishment) of this design, till the last century.

The following passage, in a letter of Bedell's to Laud, written in 1630, does not materially differ from what might be said at the present time.

"His Majesty is now, with the greatest part of this country, as to their hearts and consciences, King—but at the Pope's discretion." (P. 172.)

At p. 201 we learn that

"The Irish Romanist priests who were brought before him on complaints of incontinency, were treated with such mildness and just reasonings respecting that law of their Church which denied them the privilege of marrying, that good effects were produced upon the minds of several among them; in fact some of them became converts and married."

The good bishop's opinion as to what constitutes nonconformity is important at the present time: the words are those of Burnet.

adhering to the rubric; and that the "He thought conformity was an exact adding any new rite or ceremony was as much nonconformity as the passing over those that were prescribed; so that he would not use bowings or gesticulations, that grew so much in fashion that men's affections were measured by them." (P. 87.)

There are other particulars which will probably furnish references and examples with respect to our present controversies. In Bedell's letter to Dean Bernard (who, from being his opponent, became his eulogist,) he uses the terms the Lord's Table, and the Lord's Board, (p. 180,) whence we may infer that he was not favourable to the use of the word altar, which, indeed, does not occur in our formu. laries in connection with that subject. In a letter to primate Usher (p. 198) he complains of a report, "that I bow at the name of Jesus, pray to the east, or would pull down the seat of my predecessor to set up an altar." The bowing, is, indeed, directed by the eighteenth of the English Canons, but that passage is omitted in the corresponding Irish Canon, (the 7th,) a point discussed at page 244. With regard to the last particular, Mr. Clogy informs us that "the Communion-table was placed by him, not at the east, but within the body of the chancel, without any steps of gradual ascension or circumvallation by rails, though the custom had prevailed otherwise in most churches." (P. 243.) It is added, that there were no basins or candles on the Communion-table.

The last of Bedell's writings was his letter to Mrs. Dillon, in which he warns her against

"Certain opinions which have been brought into common belief, without warrant of Scripture or pure antiquity, as namely..... That we ought to pray to the dead and for the dead." (P. 360.)

There are few English over whose graves the words requiescat in pace have been uttered by Irishmen, since national animosities have hindered its being paid. That such words were uttered over the grave of an English

bishop of an Irish diocese, in the very midst of revolution and bloodshed, shews what may be done with a naturally warmhearted people by kindness and wisdom.

Here, however, we must close our remarks, which we do with thanks to Dr. Mason for having recalled the public attention to the example of this apostolical prelate, whose life, in the liturgical words of Izaak Walton, brought forth the fruits of the Spirit. A few lapses of the pen or of the press have attracted our notice, in addition to the list of errata; but a careful supervision on the part of the author will easily rectify them.

Theopneustia. The plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. From the French of L. Gaussen. 8vo. pp. 444. THE publication of this volume has been delayed, as a second French edition was announced about the time when the translation was finished. It was therefore deferred, in order to obtain the author's corrections, which are thus introduced into it. The author is well-known, and highly esteemed on the Continent; nor is he unknown in our own country, for the Selection from Modern Divines of Geneva, published by Mr. J. S. Pons in 1825, contains two sermons by M. Gaussen, who is there mentioned as having succeeded M. Cellerier in a country parish, probably Satigny, where he has long officiated. The elder M. Cellerier (father of the pastor just mentioned) introduced a panegyric of M. Gaussen into an address to the inhabitants: he says, "To you he makes an offering of the first-fruits of those eminent talents which are treasured up in his mind; he places wholly at your disposal a rich deposit of high and unadulterated feelings, fed and supported by faith." This eulogy is confirmed by the sermons which M. Gaussen has since published at different times, among which we may specify those on David and Hanun (2 Sam. x.); The Christian Easter; the Brazen Serpent; and Gideon. His later discourses

produced a demand for copies of the earlier ones, a circumstance sufficiently indicative of their excellence.

The prevalence of deteriorated doctrines in the Consistory of Geneva

obliged M. Gaussen to separate himself from that body in 1831.⠀ The details may be found in the Archives du Christianisme for that year, and in M. Gaussen's own Lettres à la vénérable Compagnie des Pasteurs. He is now one of the professors in the Theological Institution of the Evangelical Society at Geneva.

The volume now lying before us is such as we should expect from M. Gaussen's pen. He writes with the solidity of one who has studied long and deeply, and with the earnestness of one who has suffered for conscience' sake. We feel, indeed, as we read, the difference between the French and English didactic styles; in other ferent writers, and neither would be words, M. Gaussen and Paley are difquite a substitute for the other.

In treating the subject of Theopneustia, or Divine Inspiration of the Scriptures, M. Gaussen not only combats objections, but also follows up evasions, and that with great ability; and the impression which he leaves on the reader's mind will be very powerful, unless anticipated by invincible prejudices.

He does not disdain on occasions to

employ irony, and perhaps some of the objectors whom he has in view are best met by that mode of reasoning. We quote an instance from page

49.

"When it is said, respecting any passage, that being in the style of Moses, Luke, Ezekiel, or John, it cannot, therefore, be in that of God, you would thereby seem to indicate the accent of the Holy Ghost, and teach us to recognise him by the casts of his sentences, and tone of voice you would tell us whether his supreme individuality is to be found in the Hebrew or the Greek language. Since you know this, acquaint us also with it."

On the subject of various readings he says

"The Decalogue was entirely written by the finger of Jehovah on two tables of stone; but supposing the manuscripts variations, this latter fact would not prewhich have transmitted it do exhibit some judice the former. The sentences, words,

and letters of the Ten Commandments would not the less have been written by God. The inspiration of the first text, and the integrity of the subsequent copies, are two orders of facts absolutely different,

and separated widely the one from the other. Be careful not to confound what logic, time, and place, require us to keep distinct." (p. 84.)

Chapter iv. on the use of sacred criticism, opens with an eloquent passage, from which we can only quote a part.

"May God preserve us from ever opposing faith to science; faith, which lives by truth, to the science which studies it all that is true in one place is in pre-established harmony with what is true in another still more elevated." (p. 269).

He justly observes, in the same page, that Sacred criticism occupies the place of an inquirer, not of a judge;" and, at p. 285, that "Sacred criticism is the doorway of the temple, not its deity."

The fifth chapter contains a valuable didactic summary of the principal points in a catechetical form. Whether in the sixth, "On Scriptural Proof," the author has rightly translated ȧvwev from on high (Luke i. 3, at p. 407), we are not sure, as the same evangelist uses that word to express from the beginning, at Acts xxvi. 5, though the rendering we demur to has certainly great names in its favour.

From p. 415, in the same chapter (the sixth), we would quote a very fine passage.

"We do not hesitate to say that, when we hear the Son of God quoting the Scriptures, the question of their Theopneustia is, in our judgment, settled. We want no further evidence. All the declarations of the Bible unquestionably are divine; but this example of the Saviour of the World at once tells us all. This proof does not require either long or learned researches; the hand of a child can grasp it as powerfully as that of a theologian. If any doubt assail your soul, turn to the Lord of lords, and behold him kneeling before the Scriptures."

We could have wished the last ex. pression altered, for it is more than florid.

last.

The next citation must be our

"The unclean spirit ventures to approach, and seeks to overthrow him ; but how does the Son of God, he who was come to destroy the works of the devil, resist him? With the Bible only. The sole weapon in his divine hands during

this threefold assault was the sword of the

Spirit, the Bible. Three times succes

sively he quotes the book of Deuteronomy; at each new temptation, He, the Word made flesh, defends himself by a sentence from the oracles of God." (p. 419).

We must here close our notice of this eloquent work; but we cannot do so without particularly comdemning to the student's perusal the Examination of Objections in the second chapter. A table of errata is wanting, but they are such as an attentive reader will perceive; one, however, we must specify, namely, the Dupins, in the list of sceptics at p. 126, which we have no doubt should be the Dupuis, alluding to a late French infidel savant. The same person is called Claude at p. 284, and Claudius at p. 336: it is the late Matthias Claudius of Wandsbeck, whose works were published at Hamburgh, that is meant in both those places.

The English Constitution; a popular Commentary on the Constitutional Law of England. By George Bowyer, M.A. Barrister-at-Law. 8vo. pp. 712.

WE dislike nothing about this book save its title. Upon former occasions those " we have expressed our opinion against popular" law books which, under pretence of teaching men the law upon a particular subject, instruct them in little paltry quirks and quibbles. Such "popular" books are full of harm to the minds and morals of the community, but to such books the one before us is neither kith nor kin, except in title-page. Leaving the deep mysteries of general law on the one hand, and the still deeper mysteries of those branches of law which affect men as members of families and holders of property on the other, the author has detached from the corpus of our civil and criminal jurisprudence those portions which concern the inhabitants of Great Britain as citizens, and has made them the subject of a very skilful and, we will add, a very in-. teresting work. His object is to explain to her Majesty's lieges the nature of their public rights and duties, and of the complex machinery by which those rights and duties are protected and enforced; to unfold the functions and offices of those legislative, executive, and judicial powers in

church and state, the harmonious working-together of which, under the blesing of Providence, has secured to these islands all the advantages which result from the combination of wealth, order, and liberty. Such a subject cannot be made too familiar. This is, indeed, just that description of learning in which the people of a country like this cannot be over-instructed. In the matters of law which relate to private life, every man seeks professional assistance, and consequently it is not necessary that he should know much about them; but in those which pertain to public duties men are accustomed to rely upon their own judgments, and, if those judgments are uninstructed, woe be to the community at large. A people self-governing and yet without knowledge, are ripe for the demagogue and the socialist. If a manly, religious, and well-regulated liberty is to be preserved, those upon whom rests the duty of maintaining it should be well taught in the principles by and through which it has been secured. To communicate this instruction is Mr. Bowyer's object, and he has effected it in a way which is altogether distinct from the ordinary

popular,' "every man his own lawyer"-like treatises, full of insufferable blunders, and written in a pert strain of self-conceit and unconscious ignorance. Mr. Bowyer is an author whom, except for his own title-page, we should never have thought of mentioning in connexion with such paltry, worthless compilers. He has wisely taken the corresponding portions of Blackstone, "the illustrious commen

Louisa; or, the Bride. By the author of the Fairy Bower.-A very agreeable, clever little work, true to nature, and giving faithful and not exaggerated pictures of social life, and the peculiarities of private character. The story is well told, and the peculiarities of the persons ingeniously developed. We should like to see the other works of the same author, and beg leave to recommend the present. We feel sure that the author may take with safety a higher and bolder flight.

The History of the Christian Religion and Church during the three first centuries. By Dr. A. Neander. Translated from the German by H. J. Rose, B.D, Vol. ii. 8vo. pp. xxxi. 416.-This se

tator," as he most justly terms him, for his substratum; he has added "the new law under each head," and has introduced a variety of illustrations, derived evidently from a very extensive reading amongst schoolmen, divines, canonists, civilians, and writers upon constitutional law and history in all ages. Regarded merely as a law-book, the portions which relate to ecclesiastical matters are, perhaps, the most decidedly novel. They contain a great deal of sound, useful matter, especially applicable to many pending questions in church and state; and throughout them, as, indeed, throughout every part of the book, the authorities are fairly given and referred to, in an open scholar-like way, and the reflections are those of a calm, candid, and rightly-principled mind. After a careful perusal, an examination of several chapters, and a comparison of them with their authorities, we heartily recommend the book as the best educational treatise upon the subject with which we are acquainted. Inquirers of all ages and professions may refer to it with advantage, and those upon whom the constitution has imposed duties, or whom it has pleased Heaven to visit with the cacoethes reformandi, would do well to make themselves intimately acquainted with every page

of it.

We trust that our recommendation will very soon give Mr. Bowyer an opportunity of amending his title-page. Popular we would have his book, but we would not have him take a station amongst the writers of "popular" law books.

cond volume of a work already well-known by the first, contains the history of Christian sects and doctrines, and an account of the chief Fathers of the Church. The following opinion of an eminent ecclesiastical historian, M. Merle d'Aubigné, comes so opportunely for our purpose, that we gladly transcribe it, from his "Discours sur l'Etude de l'Histoire du Christianisme," delivered at Geneva, January 2, 1832, as the opening of a course of lectures on German Reformation. Alluding to the third jubilee of that event, in 1817, he says," Je retrouvai la Réformation à Berlin dans d'illustres docteurs,-je ne nommerai que Neander, le père de la nouvelle histoire du Christianisme, Neander, dont la douce affection est si chère à mon

coeur, et qui a relevé en Allemagne cet enseignement chrétien, que d'autres amis plus jeunes, les Tholuck et les Hengstenberg, vivifient maintenant de toute la puissance de leur foi." (p. 41) The lecture is appropriately dedicated to Dr. Neander himself.

The Voice of the Anglican Church, being the declared opinions of her Bishops on the doctrines of the Oxford Tract Writers. Collected, with an Introductory Essay, by the Rev. H. Hughes, M.A. of Trinity College, Oxford. fcp. 8vo. pp. 264. This little volume contains matter for our future ecclesiastical historians, and if it does not supply the text of our Mosheims, it certainly will the notes of our Maclaines. Such a compendium was much wanted, and as a contemporary record of Episcopal opinions it will serve as a guide to the present generation, and as an informant to the next. No opinions have been quoted except those of the bishops, and those only when officially delivered. The introductory essay is meant to exhibit coincidences between Romish and Tractarian writers. An appendix is added of passages from Episcopal charges, which give the writers credit for good intentions, and praise them on ecclesiastical grounds.

The Life of William Wilberforce, by his Sons. New edition, abridged. fcp. 8vo. pp. xii. 563.-This single volume, as the title states, is abridged from the larger work, and in its present shape will probably obtain a still wider circulation than its predecessor. It forms the 39th Number of "The Christian's Family Library," edited by the Rev. E. Bickersteth, but may be purchased separately. The original work is too well known to make this epitome a subject for criticism. If it helps, in its condensed shape, to make the venerated subject better known, the labour of abbreviating will have been well undertaken. The Life of Hannah More has also been abridged on the same plan, for the same series of publications.

Judah's Lion. By Charlotte Elizabeth. fcp. 8vo. pp. 433.-An interesting tale of a Jewish convert, written by a lady who has always taken the greatest interest in the cause of Israel. Jerusalem is one of the principal localities in the story. Whether it has any foundation in fact we are not informed, but that it has a generic resemblance to truth will be testified by all who have any knowledge of the sufferings to which Jewish converts are exposed in the East. The title, it is scarcely necessary to mention, is founded on the

words of Revelation, chapter v., fifth

verse.

Songs from the Parsonage; or, Lyrical Teaching. By a Clergyman. 18mó. pp. xi. 309.-A pleasing little volume of poetry on the Wordsworthian model, as we should imagine. The following lines are a specimen of its character and style (p. 141).

"We do not soar enough-we creep below,

As if the soul were wingless as the frame; And hence we see not-nay, we do not know

What heaven holds out above for mortal aim."

The Book of British Ballads. Edited by S. C. Hall, Esq. Parts I.-VI. 4to.-This is a very elegant and interesting work, to which both the editor and the artists have done justice; the former by a very judicious selection from the general mass of ballad poetry, and by useful and learned illustrations, and the latter by their spirited and picturesque designs. The editor has made some valuable collations of old ballads hitherto overlooked, as for instance in that of Chevy Chase, which he compared with an old copy in the Pepysian collection at Cambridge, and from which he extracted some readings unnoticed by Dr. Percy. We trust that this work will receive such encouragement as will induce the editor to extend it, so as to place in it all the most beautiful gems from the different collections which have been made from Percy to Buchan and Motherwell. Our ballad poetry, both English and Scotch, is exquisitely beautiful; not a fragment of it should be lost, and every means should be taken to preserve it in the literature of the people. If we ever forget or forsake our poetical legends and tales, fancy and taste and genius will forsake us.

The Prophet of the Nineteenth Century; or, the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Mormons, or Latter Day Saints, &c. By H. Caswall, M.A.—Ã singularly afflicting picture of the effects of imposture and villany acting on ignorance and credulity, and producing the worst forms of fanatical error and wicked

ness.

The multitudes that have poured into the vast and remote wildernesses of America, have been left without authorized teachers, or an established church. This vacancy has been, at different times, filled by impostors, acting on different motives, and producing a more or less quantity of delusion and mischief. history of the sect called Mormons, as described in the present volume, is, perhaps, the most extraordinary, as it is the most intensely evil, of any we have hitherto

The