above the study of mere mechanical and constructive details, or that cold antiquarianism to which too many similar bodies seem to imagine that their thoughts and discussions must needs be confined.

The question which the present work is intended to answer, will occur naturally to any one who looks into the second part of the Roman Pontifical, or considers the nature and intent of the rite of Consecration. The Pontifical, besides giving forms for laying a first stone of a church, for its consecration, and the benediction of its vessels and furniture, supplies one for the reconciliation of churches and cemeteries. The question therefore arises, under what circumstances is the latter to be employed? And again, if we consider the nature of consecration, we shall at once be led to inquire whether such a change may not be made in the material fabric of an ecclesiastical building, by enlargement or re-construction, that a new consecration may become necessary. On the other hand there is this difficulty, that the Catholic Church has always, as in the case of Baptism, so in that of sacramental benedictions, been extremely careful to guard against iteration; the unnecessary repetition of such ceremony or Sacrament being always held to imply a virtual impugning of the validity of that which preceded. And lastly, there is a further consideration, whether by the commission of crimes, or other profanities, within a building already consecrated, it may not become so far unhallowed as to require a solemn reconciliation; and if so, under what circumstances such ceremony is to be thought indispensable.

Such questions as these, Mr. Harington says, are now of often occurrence; and "the church-building and architectural societies are accordingly placed at times in the position of being called upon to form an opinion, and to give advice upon some intricate point connected with this subject, the solution of which lies concealed in some ponderous tome of Canon Law.”

With regard to the question of reconsecration, the general maxim of the Canonists appears to be "sacrum trahit ad se non sacrum, et major pars minorem;" and accordingly that unless the new part of the church exceed the part previously consecrated, no reconsecration is necessary. Still, in the case of great delapidation, Durandus, (Rit. Div. Off. I. vi. 31.) recommends that it be "reconciled with exorcised water, and by solemnizing a Mass therein." And Mr. Harington very properly suggests that in many cases where reconsecration would be unadvisable, some episcopal act is requisite to satisfy those who would follow the rule of S. Ignatius, “ ἄνευ τοῦ ἐπισκόπου μηδεν #ράσσε7ε." In such cases as these he recommends, on the authority of Bishop Montaigne in 1622, and the present Bishop of Exeter, that letters of Confirmation should be granted by the Bishop, and that the edifice should be re-opened with "public prayer read under the authority of the Bishop, by the Priest ministering vice Episcopi, pro benedictione operis."

In the case of the pollution of a church by the commission of any crime therein, the rule of Canon Law is rendered rather obscure by the confusion of the words "consecrare, benedicere, reconsecrare, rebenedicere and reconciliare." The rule however, appears to be, that when the

church is polluted in one of the two ways specified by the Canonists, or is partly destroyed by fire, the form for reconciliation is to be used, although in the latter case the words "infidelium spurcitiis contaminatam" occurring in the Ordo Reconciliandi would hardly be applicable. Questions of great importance might be raised respecting the treatment of churches canonically consecrated, but used like those of Scotland, for purposes of heretical worship. We do not read of any forms adopted for the purgation of churches after the termination of the Arian controversy, and the only case alleged by Mr. Harington which bears on this point is Bishop Hacket's Reconciliation of Lichfield Cathedral; it seems probable that such misuse of the sacred edifice would require that it should be reconciled, more especially since the heretical occupiers would doubtless destroy altar and all the insignia of Catholic worship.

As the Pontifical of the Church of England unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) contains no offices but those of Confirmation and Ordination, all forms of consecration and benediction save those of a new church or cemetery have in effect been laid aside. It seems certain that the increased attention with which the decency of Catholic worship is regarded will lead to the adoption of forms for the benediction of new altars, holy vessels, vestments, and other ecclesiastical furniture. Mr. Harington's learning in the Canonists would stand us here in good stead. As our practice at present goes, altars, plate, fonts, vestments, &c., are too often used at once, without any previous ceremony; but surely, as we observed on a former occasion, the time is not far distant, when Catholic forms of benediction will be thought in such cases indispensable.

Daily Steps towards Heaven (J. H. Parker) are formed somewhat on the model of Bogatszky's "Golden Treasury;" and the popularity of that very unsatisfactory Manual is abundant justification for the appearance of a competitor, which we hope may be destined very generally to supersede it. The "Steps" are arranged so as to provide a short subject for each day's meditation: from Advent to Trinity Sunday, the course of Church Services is followed; and the remainder goes through the Miracles and Teaching of our LORD, according to a Harmony of the Gospels which is prefixed. As regards the execution. of the work, we have noted a few places where there appears rather a want of accuracy in statement, which should be amended in another edition. Thus the Meditation for the First Sunday in Advent speaks of man's restoration from the effects of the fall being effected "by grace through faith and the contemplation of CHRIST." Again, our LORD's words, "I am with you always," are applied exclusively to His Presence in the hearts of individual Christians! Other defects and errors might easily be pointed out: but upon the whole, we may welcome it as a useful Manual of that kind of regular devotion which we so much need.

The Story of a Dream, (Masters,) by the author of " Hymns and Scenes of Childhood," seems to claim to be an historical "Little Red Riding Hood." We have no doubt that it will prove a decided favourite in the nursery.

The Post-Office Sunday Labour Controversy has been enacted in a very characteristic manner at Harrow. A petition was started by the Vicar (Mr. Cunningham) containing the usual amount of assumptions, and supported by the usual Judaical arguments. (It is curious by the way how those who so commonly depreciate the law," here take their stand invariably upon it.) For these reasons Dr. Vaughan declines signing the petition, and in a very gentle letter declares his reasons for refusing. Hereupon he finds himself preached against in his parish church, and denounced in the most bitter terms by the Record and by sundry "Evangelical" pamphlets. This necessitates a second letter of defence, (Murray,) which will quite repay reading.

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MR. BENNETT, of S. Paul's, Knightsbridge, has just published a second series of Letters to his Children. (Cleaver.) In the former his chief object was to explain the external framework and constitution of the Church in the present volume he dwells for the most part upon those moral habits which must ever characterise the true children of the Church obedience, purity, the government of the temper and the thoughts, &c. They contain a number of home truths forcibly expressed; and are calculated to do great good. They will reach too to that highest class of society which is scarcely accessible to the ordinary means of exhortation or remonstrance.

In a new edition of the Bishop of Brechin's very persuasive little Tract, A Plea for Sisterhoods, which we are glad to announce, it is stated that nine of these Communities are now in active operation in England. Similar institutions, for men as well as for women, are also springing up, it appears, in the United States of America.

Among new Editions we may mention with great commendation one both cheap and well arranged, of Pearson on the Creed. It is in a single volume, and has been brought out under the care of Mr. Temple Chevalier. (J. W. Parker.) A rare and valuable Book has also been reprinted in the Anglo-Catholic Library,-two volumes of Festival Sermons by Dr. Mark Franks, sometime Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. The author was largely endowed with that wit and humour which characterised all the great Jacobite and Caroline preachers; and like them was fully master of Theology. We are indebted to Dr. Mill for these volumes, which, after Laud and Andrewes, seem to us almost the most valuable in the Series.

Mr. Badeley, we are glad to see, has published the substance of the very able speech which he delivered before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the recent case of Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter.' It should be read by every one who entertains the smallest doubt concerning the Church's Doctrine.

The Garden in the Wilderness is allegorical, and derived appa. rently from German sources. It is pleasingly told and nicely got up.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The lamented death of Dr. Elrington induces us once more to postpone the discussion of the Irish articles, although the Reply of the Reviewer is in type.

THE TREATMENT OF DISSENTERS.

THE subject embodied in the title prefixed to this article is one just now of increasing interest and moment, which therefore is, as it ought to be, more and more engaging the practical attention of earnest churchmen in this country, especially of those most immediately concerned with its consideration, the parochial clergy. The truth of this statement has been forcibly impressed upon our own minds on a quite recent occasion, which indeed first suggested the preparation of the article. In lately removing from one neighbourhood to another in a distant county, our change of residence was coincident with a muster of the clergy of both districts; the one a convention of the ruridecanal chapter on the citation of their dean; the other simply what is called a "clerical meeting," of a voluntary, private, and less formal kind. In both meetings alike the question proposed for discussion was identically the same; and that, it so happened, was stated in the ipsissima verba of the above title.

It may be not an unfit introduction to a few remarks we intend to offer here upon the subject, to describe summarily the proceedings of the meetings, or of one of them, for the result was much the same in both. That at the house of the rural dean, which was the largest, consisted of some five and twenty of the working clergy from the neighbouring parishes, (town and country parishes, in an agricultural district), active men, of all ages, and temperaments, and representatives of the whole cycle of theological differentia comprisable within the same communion. It was agreed, that the best way of bringing the question forward in a practical shape would be for each individual in order to state, as a matter of fact, what had been his method of treatment hitherto in regard to the dissenters of his parish. One after another, therefore, as it came to his turn, with more or less particularity, delivered his experiences on the subject. A thoughtful reader, doubtless, will anticipate the real issue of such delivery. If he himself be in orders, and has been for any length of time personally conversant with the pastoral charge of a parish in which dissent in any form abounds, he will pause to consider the result of his own experience, and be prepared by that consideration to expect, that the testimony of these five and twenty or any number of English clergymen belonging to the various schools, would prove singularly unanimous on this one point; namely, that their plan of "treating dissenters" did in fact and practically amount to nothing,-to leaving them alone! Such, however, was the case at both the meetings to which reference has been made. Allowing for a very considerable difference of tone in the manner of dealing with the subject, according to the degree of severity or favour with which the notion of dissent in the general was entertained by VOL. IX.-MARCH, 1850.

different individuals, and for some slight difference of practice in regard to the treatment of individual dissenters under certain circumstances, (as in sickness, when the clergyman was sent for, or when brought for burial to the church, or in visiting from house to house promiscuously on newly entering upon a cure), yet the main question at issue was disposed of alike by one and all with a confession of having really done nothing,-nothing, that is, directly, systematically, and on a large scale, to combat the acknowledged evil.

A difference of tone in the manner of speaking of dissent was admitted to be observable on these occasions. But even in this respect there is so far an actual agreement, that most churchmen seem to speak of it in a sort of off-hand random way, as if not very clearly realizing wherein its essential evil or inconvenience consists. They speak of it, some bitterly, some contemptuously, some indifferently, some with connivance and a patronizing air, but never or not often so as to indicate a very definite conception of the particular reasons which disparage it by comparison with the Church, and render it desirable that men should belong to the latter in preference to it. And it is the need, we suppose, of more precise ideas upon the subject, which leads to so much unreal speaking and to so little effectual working in the matter. Under this impression, however, we proposed to ourselves an article embodying some reflections suggestive of a less indefinite view, which might help also to bring to a practical result the further discussion of the question, which, at least on both the occasions referred to, was adjourned sine die, at the point above stated, and adhuc sub judice lis est.

Our object then, is to determine more exactly the position of dissenters in relation to the Church in England; why it is desirable to endeavour to reconcile them to the Church at all; and what is the system of treatment most probably conducive to that end.

He says

The popular ultra-Anglican theory appears to be, that the "various denominations" of Protestant dissenters in this country are in the guilt of unmitigated schism. Mr. Palmer in his Treatise on the Church, asserts and maintains this wholesale proposition in the most sweeping and uncompromising terms. (P. i. ch. xiii.), “I am now to speak of the societies which are separated from the communion of the Anglo-catholic Churches. As I shall consider elsewhere the character of the Romanists and the Scottish presbyterians, it only remains here to treat of the various sects of dissent. Of these communities, whether collectively or individually considered, I affirm, that they are no part of the Church of Christ." Further on in the chapter he repeats and defends this unqualified position by the following curious and not very conclusive piece of logic: "Owen, their chief writer, speaks of 'baptizing the children of church-members, giving them thereby an admission into the visible Catholic Church." Baptism, then, admitted into the visible Catholic Church; but baptism did not admit into dissenting Churches of professing saints; therefore the latter form no part of the