"

The chapters on "Religious Training," "Christian Morals," and 'Discipline," and the religious part of the view of the "schoolmaster's office," are undeniably good, but there is too much generalizing to enable a man to shape out a definite daily rule for himself from them. There is no doubt wisdom in this, being, as it is, the first attempt of the kind; but if any set of men need to live by rule it is the schoolmasters, and the more we can help them so to live the more efficient and faithful in their vocation will they become,

We want to see schoolmasters a religious body, and until they are so they will never do the work there is to be done. Until they have a character unmistakeably setting them apart for their work, they will never do it properly. Parish schoolmasters are now secretaries to various parish societies, collectors of subscriptions, and even taxes, land measurers, &c., and thus increase their so often miserable stipend, but at the decrease of their standing and status as schoolmasters, not to others so much (at least with people's present notions,) but chiefly to themselves.

Our training establishments unfortunately are not religious establishments (we use the word "religious" in its old sense) and are by no means calculated in their present form, to impart the character we are contemplating, indeed we fear they are calculated to do just the opposite. Valuable as they undoubtedly are, they have too much the appearance of either workshops or studios, and nothing of the quietness and repose of a house where the inhabitants are learning the ways of GoD, and how to walk therein. Indeed, under the present system it cannot be, (but as an exception) that men go forth from them with the love of God as the simple incentive to their labour.

It would be a great thing if the Canons were obeyed and each schoolmaster received his licence from the Bishop, ere exercising his vocation, for that would give him a status which would be a stimulus to his spiritual improvement, inasmuch as he would feel the responsibilities of an authorized servant and officer of the Church. One of the greatest evils of this age is the loss of distinctive external character, and in no class is the evil so apparent, or of such pernicious effect, as in those whose vocation is religious.

The remarks we made above as to the Priest taking no part in the school duties, would not of course apply to the Deacon. It is, and should be, a peculiar part of their vocation to work in the school, and we do not see why, quite in accordance with the institution of their order, they should not take charge of schools. At allevents why not make a Sub-diaconate of schoolmasters? A most useful and efficient body of labourers in the Church would thus be brought to bear. The present system which has no hold whatever upon a man, nor, worse, which gives a man no hold upon his vocation, is most pernicious, of which we have daily evidence.

We cannot but recommend the perusal of Mr. Robins' book to all schoolmasters, and indeed to Clergymen too, for Mr. Robins is what very many clergymen are not-practical; and a perusal will, we should hope, give them juster ideas of a schoolmaster's difficulties than many entertain, and so prevent vexations which many a well intentioned

man puts unconsciously, and from ignorance, in the way of his Master. At the same tim we look forward to a work of a much more decided character, which will give a man still higher views and more exact rule than this pretends to.

Those who are acquainted with the Tales of Kirkbeck, will be glad to hear that the author has just put out another little volume entitled Aunt Atta. (Cleaver.) Any one who is not familiar already with the writer, will do well to order one or other of her works.

The Rev. WYNDHAM MALET has just published a Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, The Funds of the Church; their appropriation and Alienation the cause of Ignorance, Heresy, and Schism; and Church selfgovernment the only remedy for these evils, (Masters,) which it appears his Grace has "kindly acknowledged ;" but there we expect the matter will end. The writer belongs to that class of reformers whom Bishops, as well as Prime Ministers and Ecclesiastical Commissioners, least like. Thus one of the abuses here complained of is the entire alienation of the tithes of a parish in Kent (amounting to £3,333 per annum) to the See of Canterbury! Mr. Malet is not a good writer, and sometimes pushes his theory too far; or at least pays too little regard to difficulties which may stand in the way of its being carried out. But every one must admire his singleness of purpose; and we quite subscribe to the general truth which the title of his pamphlet enunciates.

The Church Musician goes on vigorously. And certainly not a little energy must be required; for, if we are not mistaken, (and we judge only by internal evidence,) simultaneously with the management of his periodical, the Editor has no fewer than three great enterprises in hand -the supply of an entirely new series of anthems, according to the order of the ecclesiastical year; a most copious collection of Church hymn tunes, which, if not original, are adaptations of old ecclesiastical melodies; and a new notation of the Church service, for recitation, including the Psalter! This certainly seems to us rather too much for any one man or body of men to undertake, and perhaps may be, in some respects, a little more than the Church wishes to have done. However, there is a great deal with which we quite agree.

Conversations on Human Nature, by Mrs. CONYNGHAM ELLIS, (Skeffington and Southwell,) is an attempt (and by no means unsuccessful) to present Bishop Butler's system of morals and theory of human nature in a popular shape. It is guaranteed by a very brief preface from the Bishop of Oxford.

Practical remarks on the Reformation of Church Music, (Rivingtons,) though published last year, has only just reached us. It contains very useful instructions and directions.

Guardian Angels, a sacred allegory by MARY F. LESTER, (Masters,) is neither better nor worse than the ordinary books of this class. It is pleasingly written, and teaches a very useful lesson.

MR. BURGESS, of Chelsea, has published the result of an Enquiry into the state of the Church of England Congregations in France, Belgium, and Switzerland, (Rivingtons) which he undertook with the sanction of the Bishop of London, who is professedly responsible for those anomalous bodies. He reports that there are thirty-one English Clergymen officiating with more or less of regularity in those countries, and with the view of bringing them under more effectual Episcopal control, he suggests the adoption of one or other of these four courses: the union of the Channel Islands and the English Continental Chapels with the See of Sodor and Man; or else the foundation of a Bishopric of S. Helier's; or the consecration of a Suffragan, at Dover, with the emolument of a Canonry at Canterbury; or lastly, the appointment of the Chaplain at Paris, as Commissary of the Bishop of London. We should gladly see a Bishop appointed to the Channel Islands; but with the examples of the Bishoprics of Jerusalem and Gibraltar before his eyes, we trust that the Bishop of London will not countenance the project of pretending to give jurisdiction to an English Bishop in Dioceses which are wholly independent of him. The mischief that is now being done in the Levant, professedly in the name of the English Church, is beyond belief.

MR. NEALE has thought it necessary to publish a Letter to Archdeacon Hare with respect to his Pamphlets on the Gorham Question. (Masters.) We scarcely think the Archdeacon worth the powder and shot that has been expended on him. What has happened however in his own archdeaconry deserves to be extensively known. We give it in Mr. Neale's words.

"I can easily conceive the chagrin, with which, notwithstanding your four pamphlets, if I may so call them, on the subject of the decision, you received memorials signed, in all, by about seventy of your clergy, requesting you "to call a Meeting of the Archdeaconry, to take into consideration what proceedings may be necessary in consequence of the Judgment pronounced by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the case of Gorham versus the Bishop of Exeter; or otherwise to express the sentiments of the Archdeaconry on the subject.

"But, I confess, it is rather amusing to find the advocate for freedom of conscience, the writer who would free men 'from all human restraint in receiving the truth,' who would drive no man over the Asses' Bridge by Balaam's method, venturing on a violent exercise of official authority, an ultima ratio to which no other Archdeacon has had recourse. This, however, is only after the fashion of other liberals. It is more astonishing to me that you could found your refusal on the supposition that probably many of the requisitionists were not aware of the real bearing of what they signed, and on the difficulty of saying No. For not to mention that not a single clergyman was obliged to say No, since he might leave the matter totally unnoticed, I cannot but wonder, that you could so, to use the words of an able reviewer, have 'addressed an assembly of clergymen, your brethren, and, as to ecclesiastical orders, your equals, many of them far your superiors as divines.' It is a valuable example of what this liberty of belief for which you contend really

means.

MR. PHIPPS, Rector of Devizes, has published a Catechism on the Holy Scriptures, (Masters,) which will be useful in schools and families. It is full and follows the text very closely.

The Rev. J. EDWARDS, of King's College, London, has published A Devotional Exposition of the Psalms. (Darling.) The "Exposition" is mixed up with the Text, though in a different type, and there are added two columns to each page, the one containing "Scripture Testimony," the other "Suggestive Remarks."

Mr. KILVERT (the authorship is now acknowledged) has published a second part of his Pinacothece Historica Specimen. (Bell.) It is quite equal to the first, and indicates the like desire to do justice to persons of all parties and communions.

Mr. VAUGHAN, of S. Martin's, Leicester, has published a noticeable Volume of Sermons. (Rivingtons.) In point of thought and diction they are superior to the common run of pulpit discourses; and they contain some qualifications of the stereotyped "Evangelical" theology which are not without value. It was formerly, we know, the fashion to call S. James' the Epistle of straw." But Mr. Vaughan tells us that "it will be found perhaps, that those who are brought by their daily work into closest contact with the wants and evils of our own times, are made to feel continually more and more deeply, the meaning and the value, of the instruction which God has provided for them in this portion of Holy Scripture." Again, "There are occasions when it is peculiarly fit that the conscience should unload itself in free confession of specific acts and impulses of sin ;" and then he refers to the Exhortation in the Communion Office. Once more, (and we quote only from a single sermon,) It is a matter of self-accusation, now become almost hackneyed amongst those who deal in criticism on the present state of the Church, that religion has become too much an individual thing; that all sense of communion, of being members of a body, soldiers in an army, has been lost amongst Protestants. And those who do not love such criticism of the Church in which God's Providence has placed them, but are endeavouring, as God enables them, to fill up their place in her, and to do their work according to her appointed order, are made to feel painfully that the reproach is by no means groundless." Such evidences of the indirect operation of sound teaching are most encouraging.

Mr. SEWELL'S Sermon on behalf of the Westminster Churches, (J. H. Parker,) is very plain-spoken and uncompromising, and if our readers saw the account of the church in which Sir Robert Peel was buried, they will guess that these home-truths may still not be unnecessary in the neighbourhood of Whitehall.

The Principles of Church Building, (Andrews, Durham,) is scarcely so practical as a provincial Architectural Society requires its papers to

be.

The writer has a strong sense of the imperfectness of the FirstPointed style; and justly observes that it demands a great deal of ornament. What this style effected by vast series of arcades along the whole wall the Middle-Pointed more legitimately accomplished by the tracery of the window.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

MR. STRETTON has written to say that he intended the Hymns of the Sunday to be repeated like the Collect, during the week. We are glad to find that he had really not overlooked the matter. In another edition it will be desirable, we think, to make the sense a little more clear.

NOTES FROM NINEVEH.

Notes from Nineveh. By the Rev. J. P. FLETCHER. 2 vols. 8vo. Colburn Marlborough Street, London.

We opened this work in the firm expectation that we should draw from it the material for some very philosophical meditations over the ruins of Nineveh, or for reflections still more dry and learned on the etymology of ancient names and the localities of ideal sites. Such we conceived to be the legitimate course of thought which the book (judging from its title) was expected to produce, and yet, in spite of our most laudable efforts, we found ourselves irresistibly led into a very different train of ideas on a subject to which there is a casual allusion in almost every page.

Turn where we would in the history of our author's adventures, we never failed to stumble on some indication of the opinion entertained by the natives of the East-of the creed and practice of the English as displayed before them by the travellers and missionaries who swarm in those regions; and it is certain that any such details are of greater moment than is generally supposed by those who can only judge from report.

We have long been painfully aware through our own experience of the East, that the nature of the impression made by the English in those countries is really a matter of the very highest importance, not as the orators of Exeter Hall would tell us, "in order that we may by our superior enlightenment convert them from the error of their ways, and convey the light of Gospel Truth to a benighted people," &c. but that we may not, by our irreverence and heretical tendencies, bring discredit on the one Church Catholic, to which we profess to belong, in lands which without our efforts have already been somewhat more effectually christianized by the work of Apostles and martyrs themselves.

Were it not so serious a matter, it would be ludicrous enough to compare the real influence of Great Britain on the religious faith of the East with that which it is supposed to exercise by those bewildered philanthropists of sedentary habits and missionary spirit, who are wont to talk so wildly of the spiritual achievements of their countrymen in those climates. That pleasant complacency with which Englishmen (even those who have travelled) repose in their assumed superiority to the rest of the world, seems to dilate itself most remarkably on this subject; and considering what vast numbers of books of Eastern travel have come like a very cloud of locusts to settle down on the present generation, it is extraordinary that so much misconception should still exist on the spiritual VOL. XI. SEPTEMBER, 1850.

8