templated by them, the attempt, whatever it may be, will be ascertained not by inference, but from intimations not liable to be misunderstood. I am, my lord, a dissenter by birth, by choice, and from principle; but I am neither a political nor an undermining dissenter. I cherish no personal or professional enmity to the church of England. I rejoice in all the good that is in it, and in all the good that has been done by it. I envy not its temporalities, nor could I enjoy them, were they within my reach. As a minister of Christ and the chosen pastor of a christian society, I am independent of any provision which the state could make for me, and enjoy a higher honour than any which it has in its power to bestow. The destruction of the church of England would therefore add nothing to my secular interests, and can present no field to my ambition. I devoutly pray that the lives and doctrine of her prelates may be pure as the lawn which adorns them; that her clergy may be the active and successful ministers of righteousness, and that all her members may be heirs of the kingdom of heaven. In the expression of these sentiments and feelings, my lord, I am confident I do not speak for myself alone; but that I express the views and wishes of the body of the protestant dissenters, and of the dissenting ministers of England.' pp. 37-39.

Mr. Leifchild has done himself honour by the truly Christian antidote which he has provided to the fanatical excitation produced in his immediate neighbourhood by a reverend alarmist, whose vehement eloquence is not always employed on the side of wisdom and righteousness, and who, on the occasion referred to, appears to have been carried away far beyond the bounds of sobriety or loyalty. We transcribe with pleasure the following just sentiments from this spirited and sensible reply.

The cause of protestantism not only has nothing to fear from the meditated concession, but every thing to hope from the rejection of those weapons which are alien to her nature, which her ablest advocates have long since abjured, and which dissenters, above all others, have so generally and loudly proclaimed to be hostile to her triumphs. Has not this cause uniformly advanced most securely and successfully, when it has been sustained only by its own pure and celestial efficacy? Has not popery been kept vigorous and hostile in these realms,-has it not been made alarming in its present growth and attitude, exclusively by the remains of the bigoted and persecuting spirit of our established protestantism? Have we not ourselves condensed the combustible spirit into a high and dangerous degree of power by the very means employed to repress it,-when, had it been left perfectly free, it would have evaporated innocuously, or been purified by the accession of a more healthful air, with which it might have commingled, and in which it would have disappeared? I advocate these concessions, then, because I am a christian, and durst not persecute any man even to the deprivation of a shoe-latchet for his religion. I advocate them because I am a dissenter, and consistency requires me to concede to all others what I claim for myself as a good citizen and loyal subject. I advocate them because I abhor popery, whether I find it in

catholics or protestants, and because I love pure, consistent protestantism, and wish to see it triumph-which I feel assured it never can do, till it has despoiled popery of the only remaining argument it possesses against protestants, and till it shall resign the exclusive honour of being intolerant to those with whose religion it comports, and whose cause cannot command better weapons.

But if the adherents of popery derive no accession of argument to their religion from the expected measure of concession, still less is it likely to contribute to their ardour in its propagation, or their desire to meddle with the government by whom it is no longer coerced, since the only reasons by which they could be made unfriendly to that government, the only reasons for which they could dislike it, and seek its overthrow, will be abolished. They may continue to dislike our religion, they may freely express their hatred of our common protestantism-this they can do now-but they will have no fair ground to arraign our civil polity-they will be despoiled of all pretext to move against it the discontented and the disloyal. It will rob their quiver of every arrow for this warfare, and place them in a state of the fullest and fairest equality with their religious adversaries.' pp. 24-26.

'But our religion, it is said, will thus suffer a great advantage to be given to her rival, by affording her the highest facility for the furtherance of her aspiring wishes. The catholics, emboldened by this show of favour, will prefer new claims; they will eagerly employ the power acquired, in desseminating their faith; will make many new converts, and may possibly change the face of the country. I will not say that popery is not aspiring; that it may not even increase in political im portance; or that with its increase it will ever cease to be intolerant. I can look at the thing with as little complacency, with as little belief of its melioration, as any of the foes to concession. I do not sympathize in the alarm of Mr. Thorp, neither do I symbolize with those of its eulogists who represent it as now entirely dispossessed of the evil spirit-if ever it were moved by one. I believe the system has undergone no process of exorcism. It is now what the Council of Trent decreed it. And let no one say, that I am less decided in my abhorrence of all and every part of it, than my reverend brother. I will stand second to no man in my resistance of popery. Should the brunt of controversy come, I will take my place in the front of danger; but I will gird myself only in the armour of truth, and wield no sword but that of the spirit. The rights of the men, however, are not the rights of the system. Here let every man make a clear distinction; he may hate the system with a perfect hatred-he may treat it with unmeasured scorn-he may curse it in the name of the Lord; but let him treat the men as men, as brethren, and fellow-citizens, and call them to his bar only when they have violated the terms of the social compact. Popery I wish to see exterminated, but papists I must treat as if I wished them to be saved from the errors of their system, without subjecting them to any of their own purgatorian fires. Let it then be distinctly understood, I do not concede to Mr. Thorp the honour of more intensely hating popery than myself, nor the credit of being more thoroughly sensible of its deformity and malignity. I am the advocate neither of its gross errors, its impious abominations, nor its bitter

and relentless spirit of persecution. It may learn a lesson for its good behaviour from the prejudices so prevalent against it, which would suspend even the free operation of the principles of equity and liberty on its account. These are honest prejudices, and but too well justified by its past history and character, though now wrought upon and misrepresented for sinister purposes. But what advantage will this meditated measure confer on the catholic religion, that will not be more than counterbalanced by the full and free operation it will allow to the arguments for the protestant faith? Though the boon afforded may not, especially at first, be extensively beneficial to them, yet as the want of it was felt to be an indignity, a galling chain around their neck, the wearing of which, however, did not altogether prevent them from listening to our religious appeals, and from being, in not a few instances, induced by them to change their creed, surely those arguments will not be the less attended to, or the less likely to exert their legitimate influence, when we meet them as fellow citizens, and without any ostensible ground on their part for distrust and complaint.'

pp. 30-32. Mr. Curwen thus concludes his forcible appeal to the humanity, the consistency, the Christian principles of his hearers.

We are all assured of the final triumphs of divine truth; but in order to the achievement of that triumph, sometimes the breaker must go before the onset; and the loyalty of that moral dominion needs to be marshalled into systematic hostility and systematic movements against "the man of sin." You are forbidden to attack him with the force of coercion. The sword and the bow and the battle, are not the engines by which you are to destroy the refuge of his ignorance and his vice. No, your weapon is truth, the sword that goes out of the mouth; and your artillery is made of arguments :-But to these at present the Irish Catholics are invulnerable; they retire at your approach. They fall back into a consolidated phalanx, and hold your influence at defiance. They are afraid of you. They suspect your mo tive. They cannot be persuaded to think that the law of kindness dwells beneath your tongue, while unreasonable and cruel enactments are not blotted from your statute-book. It requires a miracle to convert Ireland to the faith of Protestants while civil restrictions deny them the rights of men. Remove these restrictions, and you will seem to be kind: your goodness alone can lead them to repentance.

When once you have obtained their confidence in your sincerity and secured your entrance to their reason and their conscience ;-when once such a door "wide and effectual" is opened to you,-then you can proceed to your glorious enterprise ; and then, of the evangelists of nations it shall be said, even in reference to this land of rebellion and conflict; "His reward is with him and his work before him."

The enterprise of the Hibernian and Irish Evangelical Societies is a most glorious one, and we rejoice in the removal of civil disabilities on all accounts, but chiefly, as it will tend in no small degree to accelerate the march of those institutions, and contribute to the achievement of their triumphs. Then the soul of Ireland shall be emancipated; the native majesty of her high spirit, moved with contempt for

the images of her superstitions, shall break them to pieces with her own hands; and her heart, that alternately bled with sorrow and burned with revenge, shall become the seat of affection, of contentment and joy. The cross, and no longer the crucifix, shall be the theme of her gratitude and the hope of her redemption ;-the cross of that glorious Mediator, whose benevolence regards all mankind as but one family of orphans,-whom he pitied, over whom he wept, for whom he bled; and whose errand from the bosom of his Father, it was, to hush their tumults, to wipe away their tears, to reconcile each to the other, and all of them to God.' pp. 39–42.

NOTICES.

Art. IX. 1. A Help to the Private and Domestic Reading of the Holy Scriptures including several Essays in Relation to the Scriptures; an Arrangement of the Books of the Old and New Testament in Chronological Order; An Analysis of Mr. Mede's Scheme of the Apocalypse; and an Explanatory Index of Various Matters contained in the Bible. By J. Leifchild. 12mo. pp. 132. Price 2s. 6d. London. Nisbet.

2. The Scripture Student's Assistant; being a complete Index and concise Dictionary to the Holy Bible: in which the various Persons, Places, and Subjects mentioned in it are accurately referred to; and every difficult Word briefly explained. Designed to facilitate the Consultation and Study of the Sacred Scriptures. By the Rev. John Barr, Author of Plain Catechetical Instructions on Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 12mo. pp. 178. Price 3s. 6d. Glasgow, 1829.

THE demand for helps of this description, is a pleasing indication of the increased attention paid to the reading of the Holy Scriptures; and our warmest approbation is due to every attempt to present in a compressed and popular form, the auxiliary information which is requisite to their being adequately understood. Mr. Leifchild has contrived to furnish, within the compass of a few pages, a vast portion of multifarious details, historical, chronological, etymological, and didactic. We must regret, however, the extreme brevity to which he has found it necessary to confine himself; as it has led him to crowd his matter too much, and to run various distinct topics together. Many of the sentences read too much like mere hints or heads, requiring to be expanded by a living teacher. Some of the statements, too, are of a controverted and doubtful character, and ought not, we think, to find a place in such a summary. We may refer, for instance, to several of the remarks which occur in the Account of the Collection of the sacred books of the Old Testament, and to the Explanations of the prophetic symbols. The Epitome of the Life of Christ is also open to exception. That Our Lord had not a literary, but a religious education', as well as some of the statements which follow, is an assertion of questionable

propriety. The Concluding Remarks upon the Style of the New Testament writers, are much too summary and imperfect. These criticisms will be thought minute; but, in proportion to the value and usefulness of such works, ought to be the pains bestowed upon their compilation, and the severity with which they are scrutinized.

Mr. Barr's Dictionary to the Holy Bible, is intended to serve at once as a Glossary and an Index. A very great number of words have on this account been admitted into it, which require no other explanation than is supplied by a common Dictionary. These might evidently have been multiplied ad libitum: e. g. Intermeddle, Intrude, Invade, Invisible, Irony, Superfluous, Visit, Voluntary, &c. He has also introduced, in many instances, etymologies alike doubtful and useless. That Chloe means 'green herb', and Julia soft hair', can really throw no light upon the Scriptures; nor can it be necessary to inform the student, that 'cucumber is a plant, the fruit of which is fleshy like an apple', or that 'goldsmith is one who makes golden wares'. The 'Asia' of Scripture is not one of the quarters of the earth'; nor is Armenia a province of Asia. Devils' are not spoken of in Scripture, although demons are. Tabor was certainly not the mount of transfiguration'. Kiss', ought to have been explained as a mark of homage and fealty. We hope that Mr. Barr will take these suggestions in good part, as our object in offering them, is the same that he has had in compiling his volume, which, notwithstanding these faults of redundancy, and some instances of incorrectness, we can cordially recommend.

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Art. X. Observations on Early Rising, and on Early Prayer, as a Means of Happiness, and as an Incentive to Devotion. By Henry Erskine Head, A.M. Foolscap 8vo. pp. 190. London, 1828. THE faults of this little volume are, want of precision and a tendency to wordiness; its better qualities, a large proportion of seasonable admonition, an occasional display of eloquent writing, and a series of interesting extracts from valuable authors,-Jeremy Taylor, Hooker, Law, Locke, and Tillotson.

ART. XI.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

In the Press, Beatrice, a Tale founded on Facts. By Mrs. Hoffland. 3 Vol. 12mo.

In the Press, Memoir of Mrs. Ann Judson, wife of the Rev. Adoniram Judson, Missionary to Burmah, including an account of the Commencement and Progress of the American Baptist Mission in that Empire. By James D. Knowles, Pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Boston, Masachusetts.

In the Press, the Family Chaplain, or St. Mark's Gospel analysed and prepared for Reading and Expounding to a Family Circle. By Rev. S. Hinds, M.A. Vice-principal of St. Alban's Hall, Oxford.

The Rev. J. H. Hinton, of Reading, is preparing for Publication, a Treatise on the Nature and Necessity of the Influence of the Holy Spirit.