The Conservatives advocate forced labour' and the maintenance of the rights of the native princes to claim certain services for their own advantage from the peasant. They insist, too, on upholding the old system of Government cultures,' the yearly cultivation of certain products of the soil, in certain quantities, at such places as the Government shall please to determine.

The Liberals demand free labour,' a fixed rate of taxation, the undisputed possession of the soil for the free native, who is to be exempted from the personal services claimed by his prince, and grants of the large tracts of land still lying uncultivated to private individuals, with a guarantee that no Government interference shall impede the settlers' efforts for the encouragement of free labour. This was the system favoured so many years ago by Sir Stamford Raffles, and imperfectly understood and partially followed by some of the more liberally inclined Dutch Ministers in later times. The property of the soil was granted to the Dessas, or townships, as they may be termed, instead of being given to the individual, and the consequence was that the peasant remained as dependent as ever on the great man of the place, instead of being raised to the dignity of a freeholder, as had been intended.

On the other hand, the system of Government cultures, as we have said, is still in vigour, so that, in point of fact, two theories, entirely adverse in their tendencies, have for a long course of years been militating against each other in Java, till a state of affairs has been brought about for which it will not be easy to find a remedy. Other difficulties, too, of a more serious character, occur in the government of the Dutch colonies. Not more than, in round numbers, 25,000 Europeans, a great many of whom are not Dutch subjects, reside on the island of Java, and have, with perhaps scarcely 20,000 troops, to overawe or coerce a native population of more than thirteen millions of souls. This comparative scarcity of European settlers is attributable to several reasons. Formerly, the Dutch Government was excessively and unreasonably jealous and suspicious even of its own subjects,-perhaps more so than of foreigners,-and great difficulties were laid in the way of those who wished to estab lish themselves at Java. The most arbitrary powers were granted to the Residents, and very few capitalists ventured to settle in a district whence they themselves might be banished, or their business completely ruined, by even any inferior Government official who chose to take offence at anything said or done against his pleasure. In those days the island was considered a real gold mine for the friends of the Government. Needy adventurers blessed with 'good connexions,' officials fit for little or nothing at home, but men of good birth, the prodigal son, the widow's offspring, were all sent out to India by their kind

friends, who provided them with well-salaried situations, and ample opportunities of making a fortune, and at that time, the lapse of a few years sufficed for that purpose, and the wealthy man came home, and saw his place in India refilled by one as needy as he himself had been, and equally desirous of filling his purse and getting back to Europe as soon as possible. But little encouragement was thus given to commercial or other undertakings, only in the hands of the Government. The favoured few got the good things to be had, and kept them very carefully in their own hands; and though this evil policy has been entirely given up, its results are still felt in the present generation. Mayhap the reader will say: Tout comme chez nous.'

Now-a-days, any Dutchman (or, in fact, any European) who goes out to Java with a good constitution, clear brain, and due amount of energy, is sure to prosper in course of time. He is not likely to make a fortune in two, but pretty safe to secure a competency in ten, years; and to grow a millionnaire if he will only remain where he is, and take what is offered him. But, somehow or other, few people remain in Java longer than they absolutely must, in order to secure the means of living at home in comfort. The climate is in most parts of the country enervating; there is a dearth of intellectual food, and an excess of dainty dishes; children must be sent to Europe for education; liver-complaints and longing for home increase day by day; and thus, though every facility be now granted to the Dutch emigrant, the number of residents on the island is but increasing at a slow ratio. Latterly, measures have been framed to improve the schools, to offer many inducements, formerly wanting, to every one who will remain a resident, but with little result, as was to be expected from half-measures in which the settler finds but few guarantees for his permanent advantage and security.

The Indian army, which has nothing at all in common with the home service, is composed of elements but little adapted to promote the moral supremacy of the European, though its ranks contain a brave and hardy set of soldiers, who rendered invaluable services to the Government. The officers may be divided into two distinct classes: those brought up with the cadets for the home service at the military college of Breda, entirely at the Government expense, in every respect well-educated young men; and those promoted from the ranks, selected from among the men who are sent out to India as privates, or exchange, as commissioned, or even noncommissioned officers, from the home into the colonial army. The greater part of the rank and file of the European soldiers who enlist in Holland for India belong to the very worst set

imaginable of the natives, to whom are added in great numbers the outcasts of all nations, who can find no other means of escaping disgrace or starvation. The Dutch student, ruined by profligacy, the German fraudulent bankrupt, the French gambler, the discharged soldiers of the foreign legions of other nations, who fought in the Crimea, who were Zouaves in Africa, in Italy, or in Mexico, stand beside each other in the ranks, and share together the hardships of the campaign. Most of these men are of a dare-devil character, excellently adapted for the field, but entirely unfit for a peaceful home, or for exercising any wholesome influence on the native Indian population. The Liberals desire a union of the home and colonial branches of the service, in order to improve both armies. At the same time, they demand that greater care shall be taken than hitherto of the northern coast defences, and that some safe ports be armed for the protection of the Dutch merchant vessels in case of war. The southern coasts offer but few convenient spots for a hostile landing. Another reform, of entirely different description, loudly cried for, not only by the Liberals, but even by the more moderate Conservatives themselves, regards the criminal laws. Whilst the mother country adopted, many years ago, the French code, the ancient criminal code, a compilation of all that is practically deficient and theoretically false in our days, is still in vigour in the colonies, and though a new one was promised long ago, so little progress has been made, that people are growing impatient on that score.

We have now terminated our sketch of the state of Colonial affairs in the Netherlands at the present date. It will be seen they centre in the policy to be followed with regard to Java; and as to the lengthy debates which must ensue ere the question is finally decided,-ending as we began with a quotation from the work that gave us occasion to write this paper, we venture to predict that matters are now so far advanced, that his assertion will no longer hold ground, that, 'generally, an important question is tested not so much by its own intrinsic merits, as by the importance attached to the opinion of the member speaking on the subjects; and as this person mostly passes for a "spécialité,"-" a man who has held a high position in the colonies," the result of a division in the Chamber is usually influenced by the errors seemingly inherent to the "high position" of the orator.'

The systems and partisans of both the adverse parties are too clearly defined, too widely separated, for such a result; and at the present moment it seems probable that a decisive struggle for the mastery will take place within a comparatively very short period.

ART. III.-1. The Nature of the Atonement, and its Relation to Remission of Sins and Eternal Life. By JOHN M'LEOD CAMPBELL. Macmillan, 1856.

2. The Vicarious Sacrifice grounded on Principles of Universal Obligation. By HORACE BUSHNELL, D.D. A. Strahan, 1866.

3. The Life and Light of Men: An Essay. By JOHN YOUNG, LL.D. A. Strahan, 1866.

4. Cur Deus Homo; or, Why God was made Man. By ST. ANSELM. Translated by a CLERGYMAN. J. H. & J. Parker, 1865.

IT is a sign of a healthy activity of mind in relation to theology, when writers of more than common ability and thoughtfulness devote themselves to the expansion or elucidation of single subjects in separate and elaborate treatises. Great and varied as are the requirements for a good commentator on Holy Scripture, the development of a particular doctrine demands a stronger concentration of thought, and more profound and continued meditation. So many and various are the relations of all great Christian truths, that it needs time and patient dwelling on them, one by one, to gain even that conception of their significance which the human mind may be reasonably expected to attain. Such persevering attention cannot perhaps be afforded by those whose duties require of them the constant composition of sermons. For although a good sermon always contains true and solid thought, still the thought has to be presented with an immediate view to its practical effect, and this is not favourable to profound inquiry, continued meditation, or close reasoning. Rather it is the province of the theologian to apply these instruments, uninterrupted by practical digressions, to his sacred subject. In proportion as his meditation is profound. and true, it will be fruitful indeed in practical edification; for nothing is so immediately edifying as Divine truth. But he will leave it to work there by its own suggestive power, knowing that as his readers follow him into its depths, trace its manifold relations, and become bathed (as it were) in its living waters, so it will unfold its great proportions, and issue, of necessity, in practical effects.

Of all qualities which the theologian must possess, it need hardly be said that a devotional spirit is the chief. For the soul is larger than the mind, and the religious emotions lay hold on the truths to which they are related on many sides at once. They embrace the facts of revelation, as the ivy clings to the elm, by many tendrils and delicate instruments of appre

hension. A powerful understanding, on the other hand, seizes strongly on single points, and however enlarged in its own intellectual sphere, is of itself never safe from narrowness of view. For its very office is to analyse and to elucidate, which implies that the thought is fixed down to particular relations of the subject. It is obvious that no mental conception, still more no expression in words, can give the full significance of any fact, least of all of a Divine fact. Hence it is that mere reasoning is found such an ineffectual weapon against simple piety, and devotion is such a safeguard against intellectual error. The less powerful but more devout mind feels that an objection may be difficult to answer, yet that its faith is not shaken, since it is conscious of touching the truth assailed at many other points besides the one attacked. Hence also the disinclination felt by the same class of persons to narrow, especially to negative dogmatic statements. They know by experience that the intellect is apt to deceive itself in expecting to exhaust the truth which it contemplates, or to condense its import into short statements. They know that the more powerful the mind, and the more eager, the greater is the danger of its binding itself in its own chain, perhaps of worshipping its own thought as the truth itself.

But if the devotional spirit is the first qualification of the theologian, there are intellectual talents which are scarcely secondary. He must possess the clearness of apprehension which can separate the essence of a truth from what is accidental to it, and must be able to contemplate with fixed attention particular parts of an idea, without forgetting that they are only parts of it. In relation to Holy Scripture, he must have the habit of dwelling on its statements by contemplation, letting them possess his mind, and become, as it were, a part of it; and at the same time, he must have the critical faculty to see how far its modes and figures of representation are intended as vehicles of inner truth, or are of the very essence of the truth itself. He must be familiar with theological language, and able to trace the history of its terms, otherwise he will be apt to confound human thought with Divine faith. He must be acquainted with the controversies which have moved the mind of Christendom, else he will not know the grounds on which the doctrines of the Church are based. He must guard, above all things, against precipitate conclusions, being ever conscious of the vastness of his subject and its infinite relations. And he must have that intellectual courage, which is but another form of moral courage, in a thinker, the courage not to take for granted received opinions, but to sift them; and that faith in truth and in the human mind, duly prepared and sanctified, as its organ, which