not very wholesome. In the present volume we have nothing that lies outside the most real, everyday circumstances of a working-man's life. Yet, to any well-constituted mind, the book will be full of interest. It embraces a whole circle of important questions :-"How the workingman's family is lodged and provided for? Why there is so little of home in the mechanic's lodging? Sketches of his dwelling as it is; followed by descriptions of what it ought to be. The workingman's Sunday; how it should be spent? The 66 genus Mendicant;" what to do with it? The sick poor; what provision ought to be made for them?" So immensely important and so deeply interesting are these topics, that we are not surprised that a volume of 380 pages is occupied with them. A work of more real value, one more full of suggestions and counsels of the deepest moment, we have never seen. We scarcely know where to select, from a book which is throughout full of interest, but we will give one passage from the close of the chapter on "The Working-man's Sunday :"

6

"But, brother-workman, we appeal to you. Is it true that the God who gave you the Sabbath offers to you in it nothing but animal repose? nothing that can change your brooding mind, or raise it up'? Is there nothing comforting or elevating in the truths on which a weekly rest from toil gives you leisure to dwell? nothing comforting in the thought that you, poor and of little account in society, are of great price in the sight of God? that your welfare-yours individually, as one of the human race-prompted Him to a sacrifice so vast, that those who can understand it best, gain but a dim concep tion of it? Is there nothing comforting in the belief that your present life of toil and privation is no proof that God has forgotten you, but rather that He has planned for you a course of education and discipline which may, if you will yield to His hand, and interpret Him aright, prepare you for honour and dignity, and a royal standing, in the immortality to which you are hastening? 'Brother-workmen, it is better to rest than to drink; but why be satisfied with resting, when you may pray? It is better to spend a quiet day in your own home, than a day of revelling in the beer-shop; but why be satisfied with that, when God invites you to His house, and will give you such a welcome there as may lead you to say with one of old, 'A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand?"

66

"This is the real glory of the workman's Sabbath, but these are principles of action to which comparatively few will subscribe; some will laugh at them as visionary, some will condemn them as exclusive, others will renounce them as incomprehensible, unpractical: the ranks of workers who would combine to rescue Sunday from being a drinking-day, and to establish it as a day of rest, will be greatly thinned when it becomes a question of recognising it as a holy day.

"But if few in number, they are firm in purpose, and are animated by motives which admit no relaxation of effort. If on the lower and more general basis it was difficult to find expedients whereby to make a day of repose satisfactory and interesting to the workman; on this higher and more restricted basis it is needless to suggest them, so many and varied are the agencies already at work.

"To enumerate a few. We have Sunday-schools and classes for all grades among the young; and this is a work in which men of leading talent and position do not disdain to take part. The Attorney-General does not deem that his time is wasted in taking a class in the Sabbath schools of the church which he attends in Langham Place, and we have reason to know that the personal influence exercised by him over his scholars is so strong, that after they marry, and become fathers of families, they still beg to retain their places as members of his class. Again: classes are formed for milliners and dress

makers, for servants, for young women waiting in shops, for foreigners, and, as we have said, for donkey drivers: hardly any neglected ones can be named who have not, somewhere or other, drawn forth effects of Christian sympathy and care. City missionaries visit gas-manufactories, cab and omnibus-yards, and other places where the nature of the occupation allows to the labourer no Sabbath of rest. Similar agents carry the war into the enemy's camp, follow the drunkard to the tavern, and ply him there with the good news of Gospel love, and the solemn importance of eternal realities. We were struck with the ready tact shown by one of these missionaries but the other day, in a conversation he related to us, which he had held the Sunday before in a beer-shop with those assembled to drink.

"He entered with a few little books in his pocket; and taking out one, which was a dialogue, offered to read it in parts with a man who stood near. "Oh, yer one of the soul-mongers! Always at it! talkin' of what yer don't understand. I'd like to know, what is a soul? Come, old fellow, can yer tell us that ?'

"Attention was aroused, and the answer to 'Bill's' question was waited for with some curiosity.

“My friend,' said the missionary, ‘a man generally asks a question for one of three reasons: either he cares to get an answer, or he asks from curiosity, or he wants to puzzle the man whom he questions.' A knowing wink from Bill to his mates showed that the last suggestion had hit the mark. Yes, I see,' said the missionary, 'you want to puzzle me, to show me up; now, you know, two can play at that game, and before I answer you, will you be so good as to tell me what are the component parts of oxygenated muriatic acid

of lime ?'

"Silence for a moment, then a nudge and a chuckle on the part of a mate. 'Eh, Bill, he's got yer there!'

"You can't tell me? Well, at least repeat my question,-what was it I asked you?'

Bill hardly liked to give in, and turned his head from side to side in a vain effort to recall the words.

"Can't you say?' inquired the missionary.

"I'm a thinkin'.'

646

'Thinking, are you? What with? your finger-ends? the hair on your head? What is it in you that thinks ?'

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Caught you, Bill! the old fellow's caught you, he has!' chimed in another neighbour.

"I have answered you, my friend: what thinks, is your soul.'

"He then took occasion to speak of its immortality and its redemption, to listeners who were now all eager in their attention. Such readiness in turning circumstances to advantage can be acquired only by experience, but we rejoice to think how many are thus aggressively, Sabbath by Sabbath, seeking out in their own haunts the careless, the unconcerned, and the morally degraded among the working classes."

This book belongs to a class and department of literature which is rapidly increasing amongst us. Men have, for some time past, come to recognize the important fact, that human beings have both bodies and souls; and that it is irrational to care for the one and neglect the other. To live in a sty, with the habits of swine, is not reconcileable with the character of the humblest Christian. Yet, in our great towns, unless some help is given them, too many of the poorer of the working-classes have scarcely any escape from this position. How that help can most efficiently be afforded, is the question discussed in this very useful volume.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

FOR a time all other considerations are forgotten, and our attention is fixed only on the Commercial Panic. It has come upon us with a noiseless step, but in the midst of fancied security we find ourselves suddenly upon the brink of danger. We do not doubt that a few prescient men may have foreseen what has come to pass. But to our great national financiers of both parties in the House of Commons it was wholly unexpected. It was not till the last moment on Friday night, after the memorable day which had witnessed such a run upon the London bankers as they had never before been called upon to sustain, that Mr. Gladstone gave his consent to a suspension of the Bank Restriction Act, enabling it to enlarge its issues, though still at a discount of ten per cent. This is the more remarkable, as Mr. Gladstone represents a constituency which, for the wealth, intelligence, and yet more the variety of its interests, mercantile, commercial, and manufacturing, is almost unequalled even in the metropolis. Yet even he seems to have been unaware of danger, though we may conclude that, had his constituents seen its approach, he would have had many an urgent intimation not to add fuel to the wild-fire of thoughtless speculation by a too sanguine Budget. Yet he spoke only in the most cheerful tone, and having a balance in hand, notwithstanding hist large reduction in the income-tax, and other taxes, a year ago, and anticipated the time when, within comparatively few years, a very sensible impression might be made on the national debt.

The next day, Lord Clarendon transmitted, through the Foreign Office, to the British embassies and legations throughout Europe, a circular letter, in which the causes of the panic are admirably explained:

"Long-continued prosperity in commercial affairs, and the general wealth consequent on it, have produced their ordinary results in encouraging speculation, especially of a monetary or financial character, and fostering hopes-of acquiring wealth by more speedy means than are presented by the ordinary methods of commercial industry. Again, the events which are taking place on the Continent have tended not only to produce immediate derangement in commercial transactions, but also to shake that confidence in the future without which a return to a sound state in monetary matters was not to be looked for.

"The immediate cause, however, of the crisis lay in the stoppage of the great discount house of Overend, Gurney, and Co., in whose hands were lodged many millions sterling, which, in other times, would in great part have formed, and which perhaps ought to have formed, the reserves of the various private and joint-stock banks of the country. This failure directed the action of the panic against the banks in London, and it was to be apprehended that the movement in the capital would be followed by a similar agitation in the rest of the kingdom, where, in addition to the large deposits in the hands of the bankers, there are many millions of paper circulation resting only on the commercial credit of the issuers.

"In this state of things it could not be surprising that the reserve of the Bank of England was heavily affected yesterday, and it was the combined con

sideration of what had then actually happened, and of what might follow on subsequent days, which induced Her Majesty's Government to adopt the measure on which, in the course of the evening, they decided. For the money drawn from the banks having been withdrawn from circulation under the influence of panic, the Bank of England might, without some new resource, have been unable to continue its accustomed assistance. Thus the crisis, which had been anxiously apprehended from this combination of circumstances, has come at last, but with a severity and suddenness in regard to its immediate consequences which could not have been anticipated."

Thus suddenly are the prospects of a nation overcast; and without presuming to know all the purposes of an Almighty Ruler, it would be strange indeed if every devout Christian did not draw this one profitable reflection: "That as in spiritual, so in political things. He that walketh humbly, walketh surely; but pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."

Parliament pursues its labours upon the Reform Bill. At present no enthusiasm exists upon the subject, either within the House or beyond it. But there is a very general desire to have the subject set at rest. The continual agitation of great social changes is often more pernicious than a change even for the worse, if quietly accomplished. For the first time, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on behalf of the Government, has produced a Bill for a settlement of the Church-rate question. It is a compromise, and all reasonable men have long since come to the conclusion that it is only by a compromise that a subject that has now disquieted the country for thirty years can be settled. We will not now attempt to analyse Mr. Gladstone's measure, but it seems to us too complicated; and on several points, which will give no relief or satisfaction to Dissenters, it is rather injurious than otherwise to the Church of England. It will no doubt be much altered, if not, for this session at least, withdrawn; so that we shall have an opportunity of returning to this subject.

The House of Commons has just adjourned over "the Derby-day," when thousands, or rather tens of thousands, rush down to the Epsom races. The spectacle no doubt is exciting; the noise and mirth seem the expression of light hearts, and untroubled consciences; and for days afterwards the Times, and almost all the newspapers, devote pages to the description of the national holiday. Alas! there is a gloomy chamber of horrors in the background, to which they dare to make no reference. The misery that follows a Derby-day has never yet met with an honest chronicler. Indeed it shuns the light, and can never be fully known. On the previous Sunday, all the horses are paraded in the afternoon, and Epsom is a scene of wild excitement. The churches are deserted, but the public-houses in the town and neighbourhood are crammed to suffocation. On the Derby-day, gambling is the demon which presides at every village within several miles, and upon the whole road to Kennington. Thousands of tradespeople surrender themselves to its baneful influence. They bet, and lose or gain great sums; but, still worse, their habits of sobriety are undermined, and the ruin of soul and body overtakes a number of its victims. But who shall dare tell of the dreadful suicides that every year, without exception, follow the ruined gamester after the Derby

day? Who shall paint the remorse and anguish of those who have beggared themselves and their families upon the result of a horse-race ? We leave it to others to tell how many apprentices rob the till to pay for the excursion, or to meet the gambling debt. How many clerks in superior situations are driven to theft and forgery, because they are not prepared for the "settlement." We have seen a great part of what we are describing: the worst is known only to God-the world itself tells us of the rest.

Mr. Recorder Gurney and his legal assessors have been at home a month; but the promised Blue-book of a thousand pages has not appeared, and we are still disposed to wait. Governor Eyre's conduct has long been cleared from the unjust and vindictive charges brought against him by a faction at home. The unhappy Colonel Hobbs lost his reason, and on his way home destroyed himself. He felt, no doubt, that England would with one voice condemn his cruelties to the negroes, whatever their guilt may have been; and the massacres of Morant Bay are no longer denied. Indeed, the Commissioners have had two men tried by a jury, and hanged, as accomplices in that horrible day's work. They died confessing their crime, and in the last words they uttered ascribed their death to Gordon's wicked suggestions.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

WE wish to make a few explanations with reference to our paper, in the last number, on the Conference of the Bishops and others in 1641. They sat, we believe, at the Savoy; but the "Savoy Conference" is generally understood to mean the disputation between the Bishops and Presbyterians in 1661. The Gravamina laid before them proceeded from the House of Commons, but it was then, as we said, a dutiful and loyal body. And all the proceedings of that Parliament, down to the secession of a majority of the Peers, and a great number of the Commons, who followed the King to Oxford, just before the war broke out, were, by a special Act of Charles II., declared to be in full force. And so they remain to this day.

MORETON was afterwards Bishop of Durham, not of Dublin, as stated by a misprint.

A Member of the Church of England, who writes from Clifton, is referred to an important article on Plymouth Brethrenism in a former number of the Christian Observer. We intend to return to the subject. Our friends in Italy complain that it is doing much harm there, in turning the attention of inquiring Italians from the great essentials of the Gospel to the "mint, anise, and cummin " of a pharisaic, and yet impracticable, scheme of Church Government. The paper we refer to is to be found in our Vol. for 1862, p. 433.