not consider it as adapted to their purpose, he has no doubt that the author will yield to so very many requests, and publish it without delay.

"A. Z." will find that the tract just spoken of will exactly answer his purpose.

"R." is informed, that there is no doubt but that, by the well-known decision of Sir John Nicholl, clergy refusing to bury children baptized by any one are liable to punishment. The Editor is not aware that there is any law which can restrain a dissenter from acting as "R." mentions. "R." is probably aware, that in some chapels, licensed as dissenting chapels, the whole church service is read.

"A Young Person" is recommended, on the whole, to use Bishop Wilson's "Introduction to the Lord's Supper," containing the office with appropriate private devotions; and the prayers, &c., in Hele's "Select Offices of Devotion."

The letter on Origen shall appear in the next Number. The following are received:" E. B. P.," Mr. Winning, -, on the Dark Ages," a Letter from the neighbourhood of Wakefield, a paper on " Sponsors," "D. E. H." and "B.A." The Editor hopes in several succeeding numbers to give an useful selection of short Tracts on Popery.

The following pamphlets and Sermons deserve notice, which there is no room to give :"An Essay on the Disorders incident to Literary Men," by W. Newnham, Esq., (well worth reading); a most admirable Sermon, by the Rev. W. F. Hook, for the Irish Clergy, (“The Catholic Clergy of Ireland"); a very useful work, called "the Catechist, or Church-of-England Catechism explained, by the Rev. T. Henderson, M. A., of Messing; Dr. Russell's (of Leith) "Observations on the Advantages of Classical Learning," (though, as to the dark ages, he would do well to look to the papers in this Magazine); a Sermon on the Atonement, by Mr. Ketley, the late Unitarian Minister at Ipswich; an interesting Sermon, by the Rev. James Anderson, for the Sussex County Hospital; a Sermon, by Mr. Stowell, on the death of his father, (a kind of address which one can never read without something of the feelings under which it is written, but of which it may be doubted whether it is advisable for so near a relative to undertake the task); a most excellent letter from Mr. Collinson, of Gateshead, to Mr. Dick, on his work on " Church Polity;" a pamphlet called " Dissent Anti-monarchical and Democratical;" a Letter to Dr. Murray, by a Protestant, summing up very well the controversy as to Dens; and Bishop Coleridge's Address to Deacons before Ordination, from which, it is hoped, that some extracts may be given in the next Number.

Mr. King has just published a Second Letter to Mr. Maitland, in which he notices Mr. M.'s Second Letter to Mr. Rose, and that part of Mr. M.'s letter to himself (Mr. King) which relates to his own affairs; but he entirely omits all that very important part of it which relates to Milner. Thus he is always one letter in the rear of Mr. Maitland. Surely this is not desirable. As to the answer which he gives to Mr. Maitland's specific charges against Milner, it must be left to Mr. Maitland to deal with them, for they are really matters of detail. Without meaning any discourtesy to Mr. King, it must be plainly said, that Mr. Maitland need not take the trouble of answering what refers to himself, but may safely leave the public to decide.

The cheap and beautiful publications so often noticed "Switzerland," by Dr. Beattie, and "Memorials of Oxford,"-go on as well as ever.

The clergy will find in the new edition of the " CLERICAL GUIDE" a book very much improved in all respects. The type is clear and beautiful, and many particulars not contained in the last edition are given in this. The livings which have a glebe-house are marked; the revenue, church-room, &c., are also stated.

They who wish to acquire easily a notion of the tendency of Rabbinical teaching, should take in the numbers of the penny controversial work, issuing just now by the London Society, and published by Duncan, or by Wertheim, 57, Aldersgate-street. Rarely, indeed, in such a form, does one meet with so much real learning and powerful argument.

A committee in London is publishing weekly extracts from the Report of the Intimidation Committee of the House of Commons, shewing the part taken by the Roman priests in elections lately. They are published by Tyler, 164, Tottenham-court Road, and are well worth attention. In the Editor's opinion, it would be better to give the evidence without a single remark beyond the italics. It speaks for itself. And no one of any party can object to the publication of evidence.

Mr. Whewell's pamphlet on " Flamsteed and Newton" will give real pleasure to all who feel that the untouched character of a great man for moral excellence is a treasure, of which no one has a right to rob our poor humanity except on indisputable evidence.

The Bishop of Salisbury's Letter to Lord Melbourne (republished by a zealous churchman at Exeter as a penny tract) has already reached a fourth edition.

Two tracts, called "The Voluntary Principle tried by the Scriptures of the New Testament," and "The Church Establishment Defended," just published, are strongly recommended to notice.

The publishers beg to mention that they refused a small parcel coming by an Irish mail, in consequence of the excessive carriage charged, and their having no knowledge of its contents. If it contains anything of consequence, perhaps the person who sent it will communicate with them.

BRITISH MAGAZINE.

MARCH 1, 1836.

ORIGINAL PAPERS.

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THOUGHTS ABROAD.-No. II.*

WHEN I was at Rome I fell in with an English acquaintance, whom I had met occasionally in his own country, and when he was on a visit at my own university. I had always felt him a pleasant, or rather engaging companion, and his talent no one could question; but his opinions on a variety of political and ecclesiastical subjects were either very unsettled, or at least very uncommon. His remarks had often the effect of random talking; and though he was always ingenious, and often (as far as I was his antagonist) unanswerable, yet he did not advance me, or others, one step towards the conviction that he was right and we were wrong in the matters in dispute. Such a personage is no unusual phenomenon in this day, in which every one thinks it a duty to exercise the "sacred right of private judgment;" and when, consequently, there are, as the grammar has it, "quot homines, tot sententiæ;" nor should I have distinguished my good friend from a score of theorists and debaters, produceable at a minute's notice in any part of the United Kingdom, except for two reasons— first, that his theories lay in the different direction from those now in fashion, and were all based upon the principle of "bigotry," (as he,

The Editor desires especially to turn attention to this very interesting and valuable paper, which does not profess to give opinions, so much as to represent the arguments which are brought forward by persons of different views on a most momentous subject. We are going, it would seem, straight into a controversy with the papists : most earnestly is it to be desired that we should not imagine that the question is settled by shewing that they have no ground for erecting seven sacraments, or that their image worship is idolatrous. There are other, prior, and greater questions to be handled and considered by those students who wish to understand the question, and not to be ignorant alike where they are right in argument and where (from their own ignorance) they are wrong. It seems most important to place before such students (those, that is to say, who mean to know the thing thoroughly) the arguments which have beguiled many, in all their force, and not to let them be taken by surprise when engaged, perhaps, in a controversy with a wily adversary. Another paper concludes the discussion.

VOL. IX.-March, 1836.

21

whether seriously or paradoxically, avowed)—next, that he professed his views not to be novelties, but to be as old as the gospel itself, and as continuous as the line of its witnesses. Yet, in spite of whatever recommendations he cast about them, they did not take hold of me. They seemed unreal; this will best explain what I mean :-unreal, as if he had raised his structure in the air, an independent, self-sustained pile of buildings, sui simile, without historical basis or recognised position among things existing, without discoverable relations to the wants, wishes, and opinions of those who were the subjects of his speculations.

We were thrown together at Rome, as we had never been before; and, getting familiar with him, I began to have some insight into his meaning. I soon found him to be quite serious in his opinions, but I did not think him a whit the less chimerical and μeréwpos than before. However, as he was always entertaining, and could bear a setdown or a laugh easily, from the sweetness and amiableness of his nature, I always liked to hear him talk. Indeed, if the truth must be spoken, I believe, in some degree, he began to poison my mind with his extravagances.

One day I had called at the minister's, and found my friend there. We left together. The landing from which the staircase descended looked out over Rome, affording a most striking view of a city which the Christian can never survey without the bitterest, the most soothing, and the most melancholy feelings. I will not describe the details of the prospect; they may be found in every book; nothing is so common as panoramic or dioramic descriptions. Suffice it to say, that we were looking out from the capitol all over the modern city; and that ancient Rome, being for the most part out of sight, was not suggested to us except as the basis of the history which followed its day. The morning was very clear and still all the many domes which gave feature to the view before us rose gracefully and proudly. We lingered at the window without saying a word. News of public affairs had lately come from England, which had saddened us both, as leading us to forebode the overthrow of all that gives dignity and interest to our country, not to touch upon the more serious reflections connected with it.

:

My friend began by alluding to a former conversation, in which I had expressed my anticipation that Rome, as a city, was still destined to bear the manifestation of divine judgments. He said, "Have you really the heart to say that all this is to be visited and overthrown ?" His eye glanced at St. Peter's. I was taken by surprise, and for a moment overcome, as well as he; but the parallel of the Apostles' question in the Gospel soon came to my aid, and I said, by way of answer, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!" He smiled, and we relapsed into our meditative mood.

At length I said, "Surely, as far as one's imagination is concerned, nothing is so hard to conceive as that evil is coming on our own country: fairly as the surface of things still promises, yet we both expect evil. Not long before I came abroad, I was in a retired parish in -shire, on a Sunday, and the inestimable blessings of our present condition,