AFFIRMATIVE.

I FEEL it to be my duty to go in for the affirmative of this question -for more reasons than the space allowed in this serial will grant me time to elucidate; but the chief one is freedom. The great lessons of the past show that it is only by giving liberty of conscience, in matters pertaining to religion, that England has risen to the power and position she now happily enjoys. The present is not a question as to whether the Roman Catholic religion is right or wrong, whether it propagates error or truth; but whether, as a part of the English nation, members of that persuasion have not a right to enjoy the same privileges as those of the State Church. As a sincere Protestant, I believe the Roman Catholic doctrines to be false; yet, as a sincere Protestant Dissenter, I accord to all sects or creeds the same right to wor ship God as their consciences dictate, as I claim for myself. It is admitted by all parties conversant with the facts, that the greatest proportion of our criminals either profess the Roman Catholic faith, or no faith at all; why, then, should they not have the benefit of the ministrations of their priests? And, furthermore, why should the priests not receive some remuneration? Let the supporters of Orangeism prove the fallacy of granting this liberty, if they can. The bill introduced by Sir George Grey is supported, I am happy to say, by members of both sides.-FELIX.

Although neither a Roman Catholic nor a Dissenter, but a Churchman, I am decidedly in favour of the bill. Justice demands it, fair play ought to secure its passing, and jealousy should be entirely put aside. I have no patience with those one-sided bigots who wish 1863.

everything withheld from their neighbours in these days of liberty and freedom of thought; other principles than bigotry and selfishness must rule our conduct.-R. D. ROBJENT.

It seems to me that the provisions of the Prison Ministers Bill are simply in accordance with the dictates of common justice. A large proportion of the criminals in our jails and houses of detention are professedly of the Roman Catholic persuasion. Whether their religion is of what is called a vital nature or not, it is not for us to inquire too closely. We ought not to set ourselves to judge what any class of men really are in the heart; we ought to have charity enough to admit that they believe themselves to be what they profess. Now we all know that, of all the various religious bodies in existence, the Roman Catholics are the most stubborn in the tenacity with which they hold their own opinions. It is the bounden duty of the State, as long as it recognizes the propriety of aiding religion at all, to provide for the religious instruction of its social hostages, the criminals. That religious instruction ought to be that which is the best suited to meet the requirements, and even the prejudices of those unfortunate people. It is the Catholic priest alone who is able to, in any manner, have a beneficial effect upon the criminals for whose benefit the bill under consideration is framed; and the State is only doing its duty in authorizing those ministrations that alone can produce any good upon the minds of the Catholic prisoners. The offices of the ordinary prison chaplain are and cannot but be received with indifference and disdain by those who have all their lives been taught to regard the religion of 2 H

their chaplain himself as false and heretical; and to provide them with their own forms of worship and their own teachers of the Gospel is but "doing unto them what we would they should do unto us."-J. G. J.

"The labourer is worthy of his hire," whether he be Romanist or Protestant. If a priest works for the State, he ought to be paid by the State. To take his work from him without pay is robbery for religion's sake. There can be no outery made about propagating Catholicism, for the bill only allows payment -or rather proposes to allow paymentfor actual work done in visiting Roman Catholic prisoners. Nothing can be fairer than to pay honestly for work done.-G. D. S.

NEGATIVE.

Crime is too vicious a thing to put a bonus upon. To make a priest's pay depend on the amount of prison work he has to do, is placing an unnecessary temptation in the way of a man otherwise exposed to sufficient temptation. The greater proportion of criminals profess to be Catholics, for two reasons:1st. They think it gratifies Protestants to throw blame upon the Church they hate, by enabling them to point to the large amount of Roman Catholics in prison. 2nd. They expect commiseration from Protestants as the misguided subjects of an erroneous faith. The priests know these things well, and this bill would give them a money interest in the increase of the criminal classes. This won't do.-JAMES J.

Surely a sop to Cerberus is much needed when the Home Secretary requires to bribe it by throwing criminal visitation pence into the church treasury of the Romanist! and surely the mouth of that same Cerberus must be rather uncleanly when it accepts rogue-money as a bounty! To endow Popery by crime is a stretch of statesmanship never attained before. Yet, perhaps, like likes like.-L. M. P.

When churches are so ill off for paying members as to require to haggle

with the State for head-money for each jail-bird, things have come to such a pass that the claimant church puts itself out of the pale of Christian sympathy. IGNATIUS.

Allowing that Roman Catholics and others have the right to demand paid prison ministers for members of their own persuasion as well as the Church of England; still, for all that, it is wrong on principle to pay any prison ministers of the Gospel. The Gospel should be preached without money and without price. The more this principle is carried out, the more earnest will the men be to do good for goodness' sake, and not with an eye to mammon. Jesus Christ, St. Paul, and the other apostles, did not require yearly salaries to prompt them to visit prisoners in their cells; what they did was freely done,-they did it for the salvation of the soul. They could not serve two masters well, -God and lucre. It creates in man mercenary views; he takes it in a loaf and fish light; he also has an eye to the fat living more than to the good be can do his fellow-man. Therefore I contend it is wrong, and it ought not to become law to pay prison ministers. The unpaid local preachers of this country, as a rule, are the most zealous and earnest in doing good of any of them. All ministers of any denomination at present have access to prisons on their respective members wishing to see them What more do we require? Teaching at the present day is more like a trade than anything else. Let it be the voluntary system, and then we shall be able to separate the gold from the dross; then ministers will be serving their Master in "spirit and in truth," "without money and without price."-DIOGENES.

The established religion of this country is Protestantism, the principles of which are entirely antagonistic to those of the Church of Rome. It would therefore be unwise, in such a state of matters, to do anything which might encourage the pretensions of Catholics. Such encouragement might in the end prove dan

gerous, not only to the State churches, but also to the cause of Protestantism in England and elsewhere, as Rome will be satisfied with nothing short of supremacy should she get fairly established. In Scotland, the bill is steadily opposed by both Churchmen and Dissenters, and the latter do not enjoy at present the privileges proposed to be conferred on

Catholics. As the law stands, a Catholic if in prison may be visited by a priest, if the prisoner wishes it; there would therefore be nothing intolerant in reject ing the bill as at present framed. The additional expense might also be adduced as an argument against the passing of any such measure.--DUN

DREARY.

QUESTIONS REQUIRING ANSWERS. 384. Could you or any of your readers give me any information of the following five ancient literary men?-Robert of Brunne, Orm or Ormin, Warkworth, Guy of Warwick, Lydgate.MARWOOD H.

385. Do you know of any zoological magazine, suitable for one whose knowledge on the subject is rather limited? If you or any of your readers could recommend one, and give a few particulars concerning it, I should be much obliged. -M. H.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS. 371. The following works may be read with considerable advantage:La Harpe's "Cours de Littérature,” Fénélon's "Aventures de Télémaque," Molière's "Comédies," Boileau's "Satires;" Voltaire's, Racine's, and Corneille's "Tragedies" Voltaire's "La Henriade," "Histoire de Charles XII.," "Histoire de Pierre-le-Grand;" La Sage's "Histoire de Gil Blas," La Bruyère's "Caractères Moraux." Madame Sévigne's "Lettres," Buffon's "Histoire Naturelle," Montesquieu's แ Esprit des Lois," La Rochefoucauld's "Maximes Morales," Châteaubriand's "Génie du Christianisme," Bourdaloue's and Massillon's "Sermons," Bossuet's and Fléchier's "Oraisons Funèbres," Lamartine's "Histoire des Girondins," Béranger's "Poèmes," &c., Thiers' "Histoire du Consulat et de

l'Empire." Foremost among the intellectual athletæ of la belle France stand Jean Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire; but the objectionable principles these two authors inculcate exclude them from general admiration. Among the galaxy of living littérateurs conspicuously shine Le Comte de Montalembert, M. Guizot, M. Victor Hugo, M Dumas The "Odes et Ballades " and Les Misérables" of M. François Victor Hugo deserve particular attention. Cheap editions of many of the works here enumerated are published by MM. Hachette et Cie., à Paris, and may be obtained through Davies and Co., 1, Finch-lane, Cornhill; R. Clarke, 51, Threadneedle street; - Turner, Charlotte-row, Mansion House; P.A. Roques, 51, High Holborn, London.-F. C. C.

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379. Study, first, Neil's "Composition and Elocution;" then pass on to his "Elements of Rhetoric;" perform the exercises in the former thoroughly; test the latter carefully by references to your daily reading. Read Chambers' Cyclopædia of English Literature one hour per day thoughtfully, or, if that is too expensive, Spalding's "Outlines of a History of English Literature," or Craik's "Manual of English Literature;" consult Trench on "Words," and Crabbe's "Dictionary of Synonyms." After that, read good authors, write your opinions of them down, and revise these frequently. When this is done, any thesis will be easily treated by the

student in a good style. But it is obvious much study will be required: a thorough mastery of style is the achievement of a life. All the past volumes of the British Controversialist contain important hints on this topic. "Thesis" should consult them.-SCRIBE.

The acquisition of a good style is not easily obtained, and there is only one mode of acquiring it, namely, of reading the works of the best prose and verse writers, and modelling your style by them. This is the work of some years, and "Thesis" will find that to be a thorough scholar in the English language is not attainable without a long span of drudgery. Concerning what works to read, we leave to his own judgment, as he will probably know as well as we do; but if he cannot obtain the works of Addison, Macaulay, &c., let him read everything that comes in his way; and. provided he does not copy the style of the lower class periodicals, he will do well. For a general knowledge of the English language we would recommend Adams' "English Language," or Latham's "Handbook of the English Language." We have read both, and according to the use "Thesis" wishes to make of them, they should be applied. "The English Language," by Dr. Adams, of University College, London, is a work we think would answer "Thesis'" purpose; its only fault is, perhaps, its omission of the rules of prosody. Dr. Latham's book contains rather too much of what would be to him the more useless parts of the language; but an especial point in it is composition. If "Thesis" gets both of these books, he will know more of the English language than the generality of people.-MARWOOD H.

381. We wish to recommend "A Bewildered Student," "The School History of England," an excellent book, and one, we believe, that is almost universally used. He will not need more history than it contains for any ordinary examination. With regard to elementary science, he will not find a

better or cheaper work than Cassell's

Popular Educator," which not only embraces science, but also several other things that would be highly necessary for any well-informed person to know. Should his knowledge already extend beyond these, we have no doubt "the Editor" will, with his usual kindness, forward him our address on application, when at any time we shall be happy to render him all the assistance in our power.-MARWOOD H.

In the first volume of the British Controversialist there are several courses of reading recommended for different classes of students. To these, and to the papers on Self-culture, Reading, and Study, which gem and jewel the pages of this thinking man's magazine in every volume, we would refer the inquirer. It constitutes of itself a whole "library of useful knowledge." But lest our friend may not have these volumes at hand at present-though we would advise him to become possessor of them as soon as possible-we shall advise a very brief course here.

Religion.-THE BIBLE, read with a Bible cyclopædia, and consulted by aid of a concordance-daily.

History.-Charles Knight's "England;" Eadie's "Early Oriental History;" Grote's "Greece;" Merivale's "Rome;" Gibbon's "Decline and Fall;" Bonnechose's "France;" Spalding's Italy:" and Prescott's Robertson's "America."

for abstract-making, reviewing, and criticism, would make a student pass fair muster among men generally well read. In our day it is impossible to be homo unius libri; nor was the saying ever intended to have a literal applica tion or use. The phrase is only a forcible wayof naming a thorough studentone who so uses each book as if there were no other, and so masters the whole meaning and relations of its contents. Every library should contain a dictionary and a biographical dictionary; every work read should be read after gaining as much knowledge of the writer's age and doings as possible; and all words not readily and accurately familiar ought to be sought in the lexicon, and the several meanings there given ought to be substituted for the word in the sentence, until the right signification has been discovered. Earnest and thorough (not limited) study is the great need of the present day.-R. M. A.

382. The choice of a college really is not of much importance with respect to the advantages they afford for men who go out in the poll, or take but an ordinary degree. Trinity, perhaps, is the best, and offers every advantage that the smaller ones do, yet it is rather more expensive. John's is the cheapest, yet it is looked down upon, and its men are considered a shade lower than those of other colleges. Queen's and Catharine Hall should be avoided for the same reason. Trinity Hall is expensive. The other colleges, as far as I know, vary but little in their advantages or expenses. If N. S. hopes to take honours, either mathematical or classical, there may be some little advantage in the choice, but, judging from his ignorance of university intelligence, I presume he

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has not bad that early training which is absolutely necessary to a high place in the classical; as for the mathematical tripos, I cannot speak so definitely, but, knowing the severe competition for high places here, as well as in the classical, I should think early training is almost as necessary; though I hear that mathematics are "fagged" up much more readily and as to low places-say third classes-the position is not worth the strain that it would cost one who enters late into the arena. But to answer R. S.'s questions in order: 1. I would recommend Pembroke, St. Peter's, or Jesus'. 2. The expenses as estimated by Latham arelowest estimate, £125; average, £180; highest estimate, £250 per year. 3. A poll man, or an ordinary degree man, can obtain his degree with a very small acquaintance with the studies that honour men carry to such an astonishing height: you can go up without knowing anything, but you cannot pass the first examination, which takes place a year and a half after entrance, without a good knowledge of arithmetic, three books of Euclid, a small book of Paley's "Evidences," one of the Gospels in Greek, and a Latin and Greek treatisesuch as two books of Horace, and the same of Xenophon's Anabasis: these are easily crammed up, and no men except the idle get plucked. Should N. S. wish any other information respecting the colleges, &c., or the emoluments they offer, I would recommend him to consult the "Student's Guide to the University of Cambridge" (5s. 6d.), or if he is in doubts about his work, and is particularly anxious for advice thereon, he may correspond with me through the Editor of this Magazine.-ELPIS

TICOS.