it were the case of a claim to a franchise, and a copy of an ancient deed or charter were produced in support of the title, under parallel circumstances on which to presume its genuineness, no lawyer, it is believed, would venture to deny either its admissability in evidence, or the satisfactory character of the proof. In a recent case in the House of Lords, precisely such a document being an old manuscript copy, purporting to have been extracted from ancient Journals of the House, which were lost, and to have been made by an officer whose duty it was to prepare lists of the Peers, was held admissible in a claim of peerage."*" (Examination, pp. 7-10.)

The genuineness of the sacred books of our religion being thus established upon legal evidence, the author proceeds to examine and compare the testimony of the four evangelists, as witnesses to the life and doctrines of Jesus Christ; in order to determine the degree of credit, to which, by the rules of evidence applied to human tribunals, they are justly entitled. This enquiry is conducted with singular clearness and precision, demonstrating the integrity and entire credibility of the evangelists. In treating on the conformity of their testimony with experience he has briefly but conclusively vindicated the credibility of miracles; and his disquisition concludes with some admirable remarks on the naturalness of the characters exhibited by the sacred historians, which is rarely, if ever, found in works of fiction, and which probably is no where else to be collected in a similar manner from fragmentary and incidental allusions and expressions, in the writings of different persons.

2. The narratives of the evangelists, in the form of a Har. mony of the Four Gospels, are next submitted to the reader's perusal and examination, upon the principles and by the rules of evidence which have been stated and illustrated in the preceding disquisition: and for the sake of more ready and close comparison the evangelical narratives are arranged in juxta position, in the words of our authorised version, after the general order of the Greek Harmony, published by the Rev. Dr. and Professor Robinson in 1845. As that Harmony

authority are referred to by Mr. Horne, in his "Introduction to the Study of the Holy Scriptures," vol. i., passim. The same subject is discussed in a more popular manner in the Lectures of Bishop Wilson, and of Bishop Sumner of Chester, on the "Evidences of Christianity ;" and, in America, the same question, as it relates to the Gospels, has been argued by Bishop M'Ilvaine, in his Lectures.

* See the case of the Slane Peerage, 5 Clark and Finelly's Rep., p. 24. See also the case of the Fitzwalter Peerage, 10 Clark and Finelly's Rep., p. 948. † A Harmony of the Four Gospels in Greek, according to the text of Hahn: newly arranged, with explanatory notes, By EDWARD ROBINSON, DD, LLD..

is but little known in England, we think the following brief particulars respecting it will be acceptable to our readers.

Acceding to the judgment established by Archbishop Newcome, with regard to the duration of our Lord's ministry, Professor Robinson considers it to have included four passovers, or about three years and six months. But the arrangement of his Harmony differs in several important particulars from any Harmony previously extant, especially in the portions relating to the interval of time between the last arrival of Jesus Christ at Jerusalem and the preceding feast of tabernacles. The reasons for his arrangement of the several events, which took place during that interval, are stated by Professor Robinson in the notes at the end of his Harmony. Although he has not neglected the chronological order of events, he has chiefly aimed to place side by side the different narratives of the same events in an order which may at least be regarded as a probable one. In doing this, Dr. Robinson has exhibited the true and proper use of a Harmony, and has further accomplished three important objects-viz., first, to make the evangelists their own interpreters; secondly, to show how wonderfully supplemental they are to each other, in minute as well as in important particulars; and thus, thirdly, to bring out fully and clearly the fundamental characteristics of their testimony-unity in diversity.

The preceding is a brief outline of the arrangement followed in the Greek Harmony of Dr. Robinson; which, our readers will perceive, is eminently adapted to the mode of examination of the evangelical testimony pursued by Professor Greenleaf, who has added numerous valuable notes to his English Harmony, designed more particularly for the use of theological students.

By way of appendix the London publishers have appropriately annexed an accurate and elegant translation of the late learned French advocate, A. M. J. J. Dupin's Refutation of the Jewish writer Joseph Salvador's "Trial and Condemna. tion of Jesus," executed by the late distinguished American lawyer and statesman, John Pickering, LL.D., some time secretary to the American embassy to this country; who, in the preface to his translation (published at Boston in 1839), has truly characterised M. Dupin's Refutation of Salvador, as being "conducted with an ability, learning, animation, and interest, that leave nothing to be desired."

Professor of Biblical Literature in the Union Theological Seminary, New York. Boston [Massachussets] and London. 1845. 8vo.

Church Melodies. By VISCOUNT MASSEREENE and FERRARD. London: Aylott and Jones. 1847.

IF we were to judge by the quality, poetically considered, of the religious lyricsi n our language, we should be driven to the reluctant conclusion that piety and poetry seldom walked hand in hand. It has long been to us a subject of much wonder that the Psalms of David have never, as a whole, been presented to us in a more poetical form than the version appended to our modern Prayer Books, inferior as it is, in many points, to the old version of Sternhold and Hopkins, some of which-take for instance that so worthily assumed by Bishop Heber into his collection-exhihit a power and pathos for which we look in vain in the paraphrases of Brady and Tate. James Montgomery has given us some beautiful versions of the Psalms as with other pious poems; but the only original collection of sacred lyrics of any magnitude, in modern times, which can lay claim to the character of poetry, is Keble's "Christian Year."

In the case of the volume before us, we have to lament that the poetry falls short of its piety, the latter being of the purest and most exalted order: still there is much in it of grace and harmony of versification, while there are occasional touches of pathos which finds its way at once to the heart; and if the noble author has not, as we conceive, attained the high standard of poetry he has the consolation of knowing that he has failed. where few have succeeded; and that his efforts will be appreciated by those who hold the brightest gems of the imagination as dust in the balance when weighed against the Christian teaching and pious aspirations with which these pages abound. We can only deal with the works which come before us on their merits, or it would have gratified us to speak in less qualified terms of a volume, the profits of which the noble author has benevolently devoted to the relief of the distressed Irish.

The Geography of Palestine or the Holy Land, including Phenicia and Philistia; with a Description of the Towns and Places in Asia Minor, visited by the Apostles. By W. M'LEOD, Head Master of the Model School, Royal Military Asylum, Chelsea. London: Longman and Co. 1847. 12mo.

THIS is a valuable compendium of sacred geography, compiled by an experienced teacher, and exhibiting the results of the learned researches of recent travellers in a very pleasing form. The questions for examination at the end of each section greatly enhance the utility of this work, and render it specially adapted for the purposes of tuition,

The Life and Adventures of Zamba, an African Negro King; and his Experience of Slavery in South Carolina. Written by Himself. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. 1847.

THIS is a most interesting book, bearing the stamp of truth on every page. All that we have heard of slavery in the "free and independent States of America" (save the mark!) bears out the author's statements; and the personal history of the hero and writer of the narrative is such as to rivet the attention "from title-page to colophon." There is, moreover, a gentle and pious spirit pervading the whole, and enlisting our sympathies to a marvellous degree. There is a candour, too, in the book which gives us both sides of the question-the lights and the shadows; and though he appears to have been most treacherously kidnapped into slavery, he does full justice to the humanity and benevolence of the master to whom it was his good fortune to be assigned. We have not read any thing, since our introduction to Robinson Crusoe, that at all approaches the volume before us in point of interest; while it has the advantage over De Foe's work of being a genuine narrative. Of course this autobiography, for such it is, has passed through the hands of an editor (Mr. Peter Neilson) who has acquitted himself of his task with admirable judgment,

The Christian Pilgrimage from the Cradle to the Grave. By the Rev. GEORGE FYLER TOWNSEND, Vicar of Brantingham. London: Rivingtons. 1847.

THE author of the work before us-an explanation of the services of the Church of England-had previously established a claim to our gratitude by the publication of "The Churchman's Year," to which valuable contribution to our ecclesiastical literature the "Christian Pilgrimage" is an appropriate and most welcome sequent. The subjects embraced in this little volume are "baptism, catechism, confirmation, the morning service, the litany, communion, marriage, churching, visitation of the sick." The author has entered upon his task "fully satisfied in his inmost conscience that the services provided in the Prayer Book are calculated more than any other services of any kind whatever now existing to influence the heart, to govern the conduct, to controul and to sanctify every varied state, condition, and relationship of life." Nothing can be more simple, clear, and scriptural, than the manner in which Mr. Townsend has acquitted himself in explaining the nature and enforcing the value of the various services of our Church: in fact, it is a book that should be in the hands of every member of the Establishment.

Encyclical Letter of our Most Holy Lord Pius the Ninth, by Divine Providence, Pope, to all Patriarchs, Primates, and Bishops. [In Latin and English]. London: Dolman. 1846. 8vo.

IN the debate in the House of Commons on the so-called "Catholic Relief Bill," the Earl of Arundel and Surrey is reported to have said that "the Church of Rome was antagonistic to Protestantism :.........and so it would be as long as the world should last, or TILL PROTESTANTISM ITSELF WAS EXTINGUISHED." "The wish," doubtless, "was father to the thought:" and in common with every Protestant, we feel much indebted to this young nobleman for so explicitly avowing his own sentiments, as well as his secret wishes, which in fact are the sentiments and wishes of all the adherents of popery. By this declaration he has dissipated the illusion, with which some well meaning persons have imposed on themselves, and which certain pseudo-liberals would impose upon others, when they give-or affect to give-popery credit for moderation and liberality, which the Romish Church most explicitly disclaims. "In their zeal to extend perfect religious equality to their Romish fellow subjects," (it has been truly remarked,) "Protestants are apt to forget that the fundamental principles of Rome are utterly at variance with their attempt. The doctrines of the supremacy of the Pope, and the infallibility and exclusiveness of the Church, render it impossible that any conscientious Romanist should ever rest satisfied with religious equality. The Pope's claim to absolute sovereignty over the bodies and souls of men, and over all governments, civil as well as ecclesiastical, has never been, nor can be, for one moment abandoned; though happily kept in abeyance by mere inability to enforce it. The peculiar boast of Rome is, that she is the only true Church; and, as such, that she can neither change nor err. Hence she can never recede from any pretension, however extravagant, which she may once have put forth and therefore, if true to her principles, she must continue, as she has been, always intolerant, and must always grasp at universal dominion."*

In illustration of the truth of these remarks we have only to refer to the "encyclical" (or circular) "letter" of the present Pope, calling himself Pius IX., which we wish to place upon record before our readers. We have, indeed, heard him lauded as a liberal pontiff,' for the judicious administration, which he has commenced, of those dominions, commonly

* Eleventh Report of the Committee of the Loughborough and Ashby Pro testant Tract Society. p. 14.