Prayer Books are almost the same; but there are variations which are sufficient to prevent their being exactly so. If the Articles cannot be cleared, we shall not be required to go into the other question.

As to the union between the Churches, upon which Dr. Elrington hesitates to enter, I assert that the English Church has never accepted or sanctioned it, in any way; and, really, it is for Dr. Elrington to produce the evidence to the contrary, if it be not so. On this, however, I will offer him some help; being quite ready to admit, that the question of the Royal Supremacy over the Church of England is mixed up with the inquiry; but then I must also ask, is Dr. Elrington equally prepared to take that ground, or some other, in support of his objections to my statement?

I would add, heartily and sincerely, that I am anxious to discuss this whole matter in a kind and Christian spirit. It is of the highest importance. It has been opened plainly, and in deliberate words of distinct affirmation of very serious accusation against the truth of the position of the Irish Establishment, as a Church. Having been opened, it must be argued out: the salvation of thousands may depend on it; it is certain that the minds of many will be unsettled and made doubtful even by the mere assertion of the possibility of such a charge being true. And it will not be enough to bring vague denials: there have been facts brought forward on the one side; let there be facts produced upon the other.

A word, only, with Mr. Clay: he is a person for whom I have a sincere regard and respect, independently of the thanks we owe to him for his labours; and I am quite sure he must be right in his impressions of what his own book was intended to tell us. We can only regret that it has not been put a little more clearly.

As it seems to be a mere matter of opinion how far Herman's book was referred to by the people who made up our present Prayer Book, I shall prefer to abide by what was said in the Review. Mr. Cardwell's "clearness" of vision about it may be what it will. When he reprints old documents, I can rely generally on his accuracy: when he gives us, besides, his view of their meaning, I decline it: one likes to look through one's own spectacles.

Yours sincerely,

My Dear Sir,

THE AUTHOR OF THE REVIEW OF

MR. STEPHENS' PRAYER BOOKS.

192

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

History of the Church of England. By J. B. S. CARWITHEN, D. D. 2 Vols. small 8vo. Oxford J. H. Parker.

:

We are sorry that we cannot concur with an esteemed contemporary in praising Dr. Carwithen's "History of the Church of England," of which a new edition has just been published by Mr. Parker of Oxford. We do not see that it is at all superior to the Bishop of S. Asaph's history. Dr. Short is somewhat of a liberal in religion, as avowedly in politics; and Dr. Carwithen was a strict via media Anglican. But for ourselves, if we must make a choice, we are disposed to think that truth through the long course of history, has a better chance from a really candid liberal, such as the Bishop is, than from one whose opinions are fixed in a narrow school of Post-Reformation orthodoxy. However we are not anxious to draw invidious distinctions: all we care to maintain is that neither are entitled to be received as historians of the English Church. Dr. Carwithen's book is at best a history of the Reformation; the whole previous period being disposed of in a single brief chapter and even that chapter is polemical, treating each circumstance mentioned in a manner so as to justify the Great Event whose shadow fills the whole work; we mean the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Now we are decidedly of opinion, that no person who sets about a history of the English Church in this spirit, can possibly produce a work that is worth reading. Each age must be judged by its own light, not by that of another period selected arbitrarily by the writer; and in point of fact to give up all the ante-Reformation centuries as is in effect done when we call the Church of that date "Roman at once disqualifies the writer from doing it justice. In theory all Anglican writers claim continuity for the English Church from the days of the Apostles to the present day: but in practice there are very few who have the courage to carry their theory out. And what is the consequence? First they are tempted to dress up the facts of history so as to make them conform to an ideal of their own imagining ; and in the next place instead of that generous sympathizing spirit which is the first requisite for an historian, it fosters a proud and supercilious treatment of the great men of all ages on account of some difference between them and the writer which from circumstances is forced into an unnatural prominence. In this spirit, men like S. Dunstan and S. Thomas-a-Becket, are made abettors of the Papacy, rather than champions of the Church; and the extravagancies of the Lollards, and Wickliffe, and Luther, are palliated or even defended. Whoever shall write a history of the Church worthy the name must throw himself heart and soul into each successive period that he is pourtraying, and try to see things with the eyes with which churchmen then saw them. The reader does not want to know what Dr. A. or B. thinks of a certain event in past ages; but how the people of that day felt and acted; and they are not to be judged by the experience of the nineteenth century, but by the principles and knowledge of the age in which their lot was cast.

Four Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge, in November, 1849, by the REV. J. J. BLUNT, B.D., Margaret Professor of Divinity. Cambridge: Deighton. London: Rivingtons.

We have read these Sermons with very great pleasure. They treat of the Church of England under the several heads of (1) its Communion of Saints, (2) its title and descent, (3) its text-the Bible, (4) its commentary-the Prayer Book; and though not bringing forth (we rejoice to say) any new view, but simply that view which began to be revived among us, in the sister University, about seventeen years since; they are written with that peculiar freshness and vivacity of style which cannot but arrest the attention. We trust that we may take the publication of these sermons along with other circumstances, as certain evidence that the foundations are being laid of a theological school at Cambridge, such as that University has not witnessed since the Reformation.

Sermons preached in S. Stephen's Chapel, Dublin. By FRANCIS B. WOODWARD, M.A. London: Rivingtons. 1850.

In these able sermons the writer attacks many popular doctrinal misconceptions in clear, concise, and unaffected language. The character of the discourses is argumentative and expository. It is the natural inclination of the author's mind to seize upon some acknowledged difficulty, to show how it has been misunderstood, and to point out, with much precision of thought, the solution that appears to him to be correct. In this way, he has dealt with three of our LORD'S Parables-the Prodigal Son, the Unjust Steward, and the Labourers in the Vineyard. Most persons will allow that the ordinary interpretation of these parables is not satisfactory. Mr. Trench, in his Notes on the Parables, collects some interesting matter from patristic and German sources, which throw light upon particular parts of them; but the real difficulty, like most commentators, he leaves as he found it. We think Mr. Woodward has solved the difficulty in each of these parables, and we recommend his solution to the attention of our readers. We would also recommend the Sermon on Fasting, in which the necessity of this duty is proved in a very forcible manner. The sermon preceding it, "On the Hindrances in the Road to Heaven," is an able discourse, and contains some truths which are well applicable to the present times. Altogether, we should say of this volume, that it reminds us of Bishop Horsley's sermons, as well in clearness of style as in close and accurate reasoning.

Mr. Woodward's sermons are dedicated to Dr. Elrington, "in token of unfeigned respect for his character, and of gratitude for years of unremitting kindness." It is a melancholy circumstance that this dedication could have been scarcely printed, before the eye for which it was intended was closed in the sleep of death.

Cottage Prints from Sacred Subjects. Edited by the REV. H. J. ROSE, and the REV. J. W. BURGON. Oxford Parker.

THIS work has been commenced in order to supply a want which has

Bishop Jewel's views on the two Sacraments have been printed in a separate Tract by Rivingtons. We should scarcely have thought this worth while.

Mr. STREET, of Bishop's College, Calcutta, has published a small volume of orthodox Sermons. (J. H. Parker.)

Parochial Institutions, (London, Darling,) by the Hon. and Rev. SAMUEL BEST, contains the history of some very varied and apparently very encouraging efforts for the temporal and spiritual amelioration of the people of Abbott's Ann. It is a question, we think, if greater simplicity could not be introduced into this machinery. In all such projects it appears to us most desirable not to weary the poor with too great fussiness and complicity of rules.

Mr. TRIP has published a judicious and useful selection from Percy's and Evans' "Ballads." (Bell.)

For combined beauty of composition, (it is in verse) typography, and illustration, we will venture to pronounce Margaret, an Olden Tale, (Masters,) even in this day of handsome books, unrivalled. We would only suggest, that as the writer has not followed exactly the history of S. Margaret, it might have been better not to have taken her name.

ARCHDEACON HALE, ("whose title," he tells us, "denotes a primacy amongst the Deacons in the most populous Protestant City in the world,") has published a pamphlet, The Duties of Deacons and Priests, (Rivingtons,) which, though rather circuitous in coming to the point, is really of importance, as showing the growth of a conviction, even in minds the most slow to receive new impressions, that the exigencies of the Church demand the revival of some of the inferior orders among us. The Diaconate in England (as in France, from a different cause,) has well nigh ceased for practical purposes, to be a distinct order; and we quite agree with the Archdeacon in thinking, that what is wanted is the restoration of the Sub-diaconate or Readership. We cannot notice this pamphlet, however, without protesting against the essentially unsacramental view of the Priesthood set forth by the writer. We certainly did look for a higher tone in the Archdeacon of London.

Education in England historically considered, (J. W. Parker,) by the Rev. W. H. TRALE, is an inquiry that will astonish others, perhaps, besides Sir R. Kaye Shuttleworth, and those who with him are in the habit of asserting, that education was never cared for till the institution of the Committee of Privy Council in 1839. The sketch of the progress of education, from the Anglo-Saxon times to the Reformation, is exceedingly interesting; while full justice is done in later times to Archbishop Cranmer, Robert Nelson, Dr. Bell, &c. It is the great merit of the writer, indeed, that he can appreciate as well the labours of S. Dunstan, as of the founders of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

Our readers will be pleased with Hints on Church Colonization, (J. W. Parker,) by the Rev. J. C. WYNTER. The views of the writer are sound, and his writing spirited.

MONK'S ANGLICAN CHANT BOOK.

The Anglican Chant Book. By E. G. MONK, Mus. Bac. Novello.

HAD the above publication been simply a collection of chants, we should only have expressed regret that another had been added to the already perplexing number that exist; (an evil, indeed, admitted and regretted by the compiler of the book before us.) But the reasons alleged for adding to this evil, and the theory propounded by the author are such as compel us to notice this production at greater length than we should have felt disposed to do had it been simply a music book and nothing more. And, moreover, because we think the arguments sufficiently plausible to influence those who have not time, or will, or means, or perhaps ability, to inquire and judge for themselves, we wish to throw out a caution as to the reception of Mr. Monk's statements; premising, however, that any one who knows even but little of the historical part of the subject, will see at a glance how absurd and untenable a theory it is that is here set up.

We have real respect for any man who so boldly throws out an idea, and pushes it with the vigour here displayed, albeit his weapons are straws, his defences lath and plaster; and we distinctly disclaim any disrespect for the individual, however roughly we may deal with his work. We may respect a carpenter for his excellent character, but, if his work tumble about our ears, we cannot respect that. In the present case, as we are told, we have every reason to esteem our author as an industrious, earnest, hardworking man; and we almost feel disposed to prophesy, from a certain something which pervades the whole of his preface the negative support of his avowed opposition, which seems on his own showing to be without rhyme or reason, may be one item in producing this feeling, for we seldom find men at one extreme without soon after discovering them at the other-that not many years will pass ere we find him as strong an advocate for, as he is now against, the ancient Ritual music, commonly called Gregorian.

The fact that first strikes us is the "pretension" of this book, a fact we are carefully advised of in these words: " Any one who glances his eye over these sheets can scarcely fail of observing two things-an appearance of pretension about their title, and the obvious exclusiveness of their contents." It is this pretension, for it is not merely an appearance of" but a positive "pretension," that we wish to examine; its exclusiveness we do not quite so clearly see. We must here advert to the inference which, whether VOL. IX.-APRIL, 1850.

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