With such aid as this report announces, towards the accomplishment of the important object of providing a system of sound education, at home, for the young men of the Waldensian community, who are preparing for holy orders, there is every reason to hope that, under the Divine protection, the new academical institution at La Tour will prove a blessing to the protestant valleys of Piedmont. The Committee have the satisfaction of stating that the schools of the Vaudois are now being put into a state of great efficiency, through the zealous efforts and liberal benefactions of an English gentleman, who is personally superintending their improvement, and devoting his time and resources to the promotion of every object which is likely to be beneficial to the Waldenses and their church.

Subscriptions are received by Messrs. Bosanquet and Co., 73, Lombard Street, London, bankers to the committee.

CHURCH MATTERS.

ROMANISM AND DR. WISEMAN.

THE "progress of popery" in this country is in reality a much more serious subject than we are many of us willing to believe. They who know Romanism only by its more offensive features talk of the enlightenment of the age as a sufficient safeguard,—as if that had preserved us from any folly, fanaticism, or absurdity whatever, in religion, politics, or literature. They who are aware that when champions of our own faith, who really understood the grounds on which it stands, could be found, the Romanist was always defeated, rest satisfied with former victories and the ground on which they might be won again. And the indifferent cannot believe that Romanism will have any more effect than any of the other forms of faith, about which they are utterly careless. But the Romanist knows far better and sees much farther; nor need the reformed catholic be a very profound adept in the knowledge of human nature, or in judging of human circumstances, to see much farther too. It would take too much time to arrange all the circumstances of the case in their most logical and most effective order. The reader must be contented to have his attention called to some of them, in the order in which they occur. First of all, it is clear enough that the outward enclosure of feeling (which lies, indeed, beyond the region of argument, but which, be it remembered, was of no self-erection, but was built up partly by argument-shewing what evils Romanism, fully developed and triumphant, must—and partly by memory-shewing what evils Romanism triumphant did-bring forth)is very much broken down. The enlightenment of the age has assured us both that Romanism has lost all its worst features-that forms of faith are matters of no moment -that a few errors and falsehoods more, or a few points of faith less, are really things below an enlightened Christian's care-as it is quite enough if men act as they ought and worship as they will. Our free commerce with papal countries has made more of these breaches. In many foreign cities there is no protestant place of worship; and rather than go nowhere, the English go to mass. The fashionable would not exhibit themselves to their friends of rank and station in

those countries as narrow bigots; the young are full of curiosity, and many are devoid of right principles and clear knowledge. Then the charm of novelty and the excitement of forming new sympathies-of magnificent temples, exquisite music, the petty vanity of shewing that we can overcome prejudices, and enter, with a philosophical and catholic spirit, into the real genius of Christianity, as developed under various forms, &c., &c., &c.,—all this tells to an enormous extent. If we do not believe that it tells, at least the Romanist does. Let us learn this from his actions. From the time that this disposition was first observed, care was taken to have an excellent and skilful English disputant and preacher at Rome, to lay hold of the English residents and give them the sort of Bossuet exposition of those offensive points of the Roman creed which were likely to diminish or do away the offence. Bishop Baynes and Dr. Wiseman, successively, have done good service in this way; and then, coming to England, they can keep up and foster the connexions they have formed with English abroad, and water the seeds they have sown. Their sermons were attended by crowds of English, probably (in nine cases out of ten) without any of the knowledge which should detect the sophistry to which they were exposed-or at best with some of those vague notions of general protestantism which cannot stand a moment even against sophistry. This year the same game has been tried, though, it is understood, not very successfully, at Paris.

But in what way are the Romanists taking advantage of the present decline of all adverse feeling in England? By building chapels and schools to an enormous extent, not where they are wanted only, but where they are not wanted yet. They take advantage of a quiet state of feeling thus openly to prepare the machinery of proselytism, and to plant, as their funds may serve, active priests in the midst of nonRomanist populations. But if this were all, perhaps it might be little. The Romanists have much better grounds, and see their strength. The strongest of all is the countless variations among protestants, their numberless sects, and their utter ignorance of the meaning of the word church, their utter disbelief that Christ ordained one holy church as the means by which the privileges of Christians were to be given to them, and that it is necessary for those who would enjoy those privileges to be in communion with some true branch of that one church. This doctrine is so offensive to the large mass of protestant sectaries, and to so many of kindred feelings, who professedly adhere to our church, that this statement will give great offence, and be called bigotry, darkness, &c., &c. Without stopping to defend it, it will suffice to say, that where the opposite views have been held, minds of strong feeling, in so many cases, experience a sense of uneasiness and unrest, a want of repose, and tranquillity, and confidence in the truth of the views proposed to them,-that they who come forward with any plausible pretensions to offer repose will constantly find a ready acceptance. The spectacle presented by a countless variety of sects is one so opposed to every precept of the Lord and his apostles, and the vanity of the common defence offered for it-viz., that although fighting, struggling, and hating one another mortally, they are one in doctrine, VOL. IX.-June, 1836.

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and that outward unity is neither requisite nor important-is so obvious, that the Romanist who comes and points out this as skilfully as an acute Romanist can, will not fail to gain hearers. He takes care to say, as he can with reason, that the authority of the church is the first point, and that when that is settled it will be time to inquire into particular doctrines. And then, beguiling the unlearned by a mixture of truth and falsehood, and seducing the unhappy by the prospect of a haven and resting place, he impresses on them a belief in an infallible authority, and by that channel can subsequently introduce the belief of any doctrines he pleases. But not the unlearned only, but the halflearned are in danger. For an acute Romanist is perfectly aware of the obvious truth that the various forms of dissent are so utterly unlike anything which history represents of the early church, that he can call attention to the condition of the primitive church with great effect. They who see this utter and entire difference, and then observe the resemblance of Romanism to the primitive church, (its likeness is the very means of its carrying on its imposture,) will often be misled, and, quitting what they distinctly see to be one form of error, will embrace another. Had there been anything in the primitive church, in government, worship, customs, at all like the spectacle exhibited by the large mass of dissenters in the present day in these respects, it is obvious that it would have been next to impossible for Romanism to have arisen. The Romanist, again, can justly and truly appeal-not, indeed, to the rejection of the sacraments-but to the little value set on them by the large mass of dissenters, in comparison with preaching, and to a similar tendency in too many members of our own church, and can triumphantly ask, whether this (even) comparative coldness about those blessed ordinances is not in the most direct contradiction even to that written word to which protestants so confidently appeal? and whether any who know what the immediate successors of the apostles thought, can at all tolerate such coldness and such depreciation of the sacraments?

Such are a few of the causes which may, and probably will, assist in giving Romanism a temporary success. Were time and space at command, many more might be added. With imaginative natures, for example, its outward connexion with past times, on which they have often thought and of which they have often read, will have no small influence. The extraordinary success of Sir Walter Scott's writings is doubtless owing to the marvellous skill of that great writer in taking advantage of a peculiar and most powerful principle in our nature; and the skilful Romanist knows well how to appeal to it, and to represent all the errors and corruptions of his faith, as well as the truths around which they cling, as indissolubly connected with the glory and beauty of ancient days. In times like these, when everybody is hunting for excitement, there is no inconsiderable class, strong in feeling and weak in knowledge and principles, with which this kind of delusion will prevail considerably. Nor can it be doubted that where, among various classes of dissidents from the church, religious excitement, instead of fervent piety, has been cherished, the Romanist will find the ground prepared for him. The judgment, such as it was, has not been satis

fied; the heart, perhaps, has sometimes been revolted; and each was uneasy. The Romanist, by his double argument, his claim to infallible authority, and his appeal to the sensuous part of the nature, will at once occupy the ground and maintain it. Perhaps, not least of all, the right and true claim for unity of faith, put forward by a class not in power, and the lively picture which they can with truth draw of the monstrous evils of all kinds effected by the present licentious and libertine indulgence of the self-willed principle, have had, and will have, their effect. In many cases, too, where disputes have been held, the Romanist came prepared for debate, well skilled in the niceties of the argument and in the cleverest mode of managing it. His opponent has sometimes been without learning, often without the habit of logical or scholastic disputation,-confident, indeed, in the strength of his cause, but, if an episcopalian, not always knowing where that strength lay, and, if not, still less conscious of his weakness till the time of trial came.* It is true, indeed, that the subject of the church is so little understood by the mass of protestants, that many non-episcopalians and uninstructed episcopalians also, have no notion when they are beaten; and even though vanquished, they will argue still. But their defeat is not less clear and established in the eyes of all instructed observers.

All this has doubtless no inconsiderable weight; and these reflections will perhaps in some degree explain the great efforts which Romanists are now making. But there is yet another cause, of a very different kind. The Romanists are quite conscious that influences are fast rising which will make a future attempt far less promising; that there is, in short, a revival of the old and true notions in the church of England, as to the nature of "the church," and the "powers of the ministry," and "revived value for the ordinances of the church." The readers of this Magazine may perhaps remember, in an early number of this year, an extract from one of the religious newspapers, in which, among the melancholy signs of the times, was enumerated the large proportion of clergy of whom that newspaper had hoped better things, but who, sad to relate, had degenerated into high church notions. The fact, indeed, that among all classes of churchmen the subject of "the church" is beginning to be studied, and that more sound and wholesome notions are beginning to be entertained respecting it, is, happily, indisputable. And this fact, it is repeated, in all human probability, has a good deal of connexion with Dr. Wiseman's Avatar on England. Romanism hates protestant episcopacy with a deadly and irreconcilable hatred. Well aware that the truth is there and nowhere else, it is indifferent to all other forms of protestantism,-is perfectly aware that, when it comes to close combat with them, there is in all of them one incurable weakness, which will ensure the victory

In America they have had much success. The Presbyterians have taken up the cause of Protestantism every now and then, and have, of course, always been beaten on one great point. They feel this; and many of them have not scrupled to say to the episcopalians there, that they believe that they must be put in the van of the battle with popery.

to itself. It can therefore crush them at any convenient moment, and will, consequently, for a time, for its own purposes, coalesce with them for the sake of aiming a more deadly blow at its one real and true foe. With presbyterian, baptist, independent, with every form of religionist (as well as of infidel and atheist) one finds Romanism in alliance, but never and nowhere with protestant episcopacy. They are like the opposite poles of the magnet. There is an inseparable repulsion between them. The Romanist knows, better than the episcopalian protestant has latterly known, the real power of this foe; and he knowɛ, too, that if he can once understand the strength of his weapons, and will use them, the game is up again, as it was before. When he sees his antagonist, therefore, awakening to a sense of his strength, and buckling his armour on, he sees clearly enough that this last moment must not be lost. And so we have Dr. Wiseman sent for, (probably to shew the strength of the champions of the cause in England!) to slay and devour us all by himself,-to lecture, preach, confute, convince, and, last of all, to enter into an holy alliance with Mr. O'Connell, to exterminate by a review (till the better times come) the heretics whom he cannot convince by his sermons and lectures. And what is his first object in this review? With the true policy which has always marked that church, Dr. Wiseman has either seen for himself or been instructed by others, that the great object is to render these better and truer notions of the church, which will be the ruin of the Romanist cause if they obtain their due influence, so suspected and disliked that they never may obtain it. This Dr. W. knows that he cannot do more effectually than by pretending to be exceedingly pleased with them, and expressing his conviction that they will ultimately lead those who hold them into the bosom of the Roman church. It is not that Dr. Wiseman and his friends believe this. No; they know much better. They know that, in fact, there are no persons who are so utterly irreconcilable as the true high churchman and the Romanist, because no one but the high churchman knows the full and real strength of the cause, or sees the extent to which the Romanist has corrupted the truth on all points. But Dr. W. knows that his affecting to be pleased with it is the very mode to render it hateful to all strong protestants. This, therefore, is the line which he adopts in his new review. Truly, when one looks at the combination against true church principles, it is a goodly band. We have Dr. Wiseman attempting to destroy them by insidious praise; Dr. Arnold openly holding them up to contempt, and railing at them; the Savilian Professor at Oxford following his example; the "Edinburgh Review" declaring that they are wholly out of date, and that episcopacy rests on act of parliament; the pious author of the "Pope's Pastoral" making jokes on them; and that more pious newspaper, the "Record," extracting these instances of good taste, and highly delighted with them. It is, indeed, a motley groupe. The papist, the low churchman, or no churchman, the allbut infidel review, the scoffing joker at serious things, and the professedly religious newspaper!

Of all these, perhaps, they who knew Dr. Wiseman's earlier life will most wonder at his course. He had the character at least of being