reality! None of these things are due to Rome-she has never had them-she is without them at the present day. Even from the grandeur of Pagan Rome she is now sadly degenerated— from the external, and still more from the moral grandeur of ancient Rome. She calls herself still the mistress of the world. In the days of imperial Rome it was a truth: she was so in reality as well as in name. What is the name now? An empty sound-an unmeaning pretence! Instead of being, as under the Caesars, the centre where all earthly glory was accumulated, it is now the place where all earthly wretchedness centres, and finds its acme and its vortex; where in both visible and material as well as spiritual things, the worst of all kinds is to be found. Profligacy and vices of the most hideous kinds, and that perpetrated by the priests themselves; superstition and infidelity, both in their extremes-both in immediate juxtaposition; weakness and ignorance in the governors; misery and lawlessness in the people; banditti almost at the gates of the city, and the government unable to repress them, save by hiring one band to withstand another, and leaving the people to be plundered by them both; commerce and agriculture stagnant, yet refusing to let a railroad pass through its dominions, lest it should let in the light and freedom of other lands; the city itself more ruins than houses, the largest part of it only one huge ruin; and beneath it catacombs of the dead, more extensive than the abodes of the living; around it, and continually more and more encroaching, an atmosphere, the malaria, whose very name is pestilence; marshes of desolation spread out on every side, where once smiled corn, and wine, and oil; and as if to complete the picture of ruin, and leave no symbol without a tongue to proclaim the destruction which is at hand, the very dome of St. Peter's-the pride of modern Rome-is cracking and yawning in all directions; and, though bound with hoops of iron, can scarcely be regarded as safe for a single day, but may come down in one mighty crash at any hour. Yet still, in the midst of this ruin, as if in the keenest irony-as if with the most pointed satire--as if from the bitterest scornRome is still called by her votaries-THE ETERNAL CITY!

Tract XC. Historically Reported: or, a Reply to a Work by the Rev. F. Oakeley, entitled, "The Subject of Tract XC. Historically Examined," By WILLIAM GCODE, M.A. London: Hatchard and Son, 1845. 8vo.

MR. Goode is indefatigable in his researches and labours in the Tractarian controversy; and, by this seasonable and elaborate documentary publication, he has acquired new claims to the

gratitude of every honest and faithfully attached member of the Church of England. In the second edition of his pamphlet, Mr. Oakeley had vain-gloriously stated that, as it had received no regular censure, he feels it no sort of presumption to suppose that the statements on which it rests have not been disputed, because they are in reality indisputable." (p. xi.) To all this empty boasting, Mr. Goode has now put an end. Point by point, he has met the allegations of Mr. Oakeley, whom he has convicted of very numerous misstatements and misrepresentations, every one of which he has most completely refuted: and Mr. Goode has further added a long series of testimonies of English sovereigns, archbishops, bishops, and other divines, which testimonies demonstrate the absolutely Protestant character of our Church with such accuracy and clearness that we know not how any ingenuous Tractarian (if such there be-we have never yet met with one), can elude the force of his facts and conclusions. So that he is fully justified in using the following severe language concerning Mr. Oakeley's Tract :"It is as remarkable a collection of misstatements and mistakes as could be easily crowded together within the same space. I doubt whether there is one statement of any importance to the main argument, from the beginning to the end, which will bear examination. And I would earnestly implore those of the party, who are really desirous of knowing the truth, to pause before they commit themselves to the guidance of such leaders," (p. 5). And again:-"To subscribe Protestant articles of faith, and take office and emolument in a Church on the faith of that subscription, while holding Roman doctrine; and justify it on the ground that the words of those articles can be twisted and tortured so as not to condemn the doctrine, which common sense tells mankind they were intended to condemn, is an act subversive even of the bonds by which society is held together. And men cannot but feel, that they, who are sapping the very foundations of morality, are not likely to be the best teachers of religion." (p.91). [These Italics are ours.] We tender to Mr. Goode our best thanks for the very important additional service which, by this publication, he has rendered to the Protestant Church of England, whose cause is none other than the cause of pure and undefiled religion, in opposition to all Popish and Tractarian, unscriptural and anti-scriptural, errors in doctrine, and superstitions in practice.

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1. Ireland and her Church: in Three Parts. By the Very Rev. RICHARD MURRAY, D.D., Dean of Armagh. The Second Edition, Enlarged. Seeley, Burnside and Seeley. 1845.

2. The Early Irish Church; or, a Sketch of its History and Doctrine, in Two Parts. By the Rev. M. W. FOYE, M.A. Second Edition. London: Seeley. Dublin: Curry. Birmingham: Hunt. 1845. THE misfortune of Ireland is, that her children are so imaginative that the every day realities of life have no attractions for them-occupy not their soaring thoughts-are too humble to be worthy of their care. To this it is that their demagogues address themselves, in stilted rhapsodies, which every educated man must wonder at and despise, but which are not so contemptible when regarded as addressed to a people who are at once ignorant and imaginative. The Irish are prone to dwell upon past glories, to escape present duties; and upon wrongs inflicted by others, to hide their own misdeeds: and they care not to ascertain whether the glories and the wrongs may not be both imaginary, provided they can be cheated into forgetfulness of the things that are; and of the remorse and shame on the one hand, and the responsibilities and duties on the other, which the calm contemplation of such a state of things should produce and perpetuate in Irishmen.

In Ireland we behold a country far, very far, behind the rest of Europe in civilization; and wishing to remain so, and resisting all endeavours to civilize her-driving away those who endeavour to ameliorate her condition in any way; and if threats and annoyances will not suffice to expel them, proceeding to the expedient most characteristic of the savage-assassination. When we ask for an explanation of this phenomenon, the answer is, English tyranny. Is Ireland, then, the only country under English government, that in Ireland alone such a monstrous state of things should exist? Alas!-alas! It is the savage character of the Irish that has fixed the stigma of barbarism upon Ireland. While Wales and Scotland, standing precisely in the same relationship to England, are advancing pari passu together with England, Ireland, with natural advantages superior to either of them, is lagging whole centuries behind.

The truth is, as Dr. Phelan observes, the great source of Irish misery has been--not the power of England, but its want of power. The factions, both political and religious, have had it all their own way; and England, so far from being able to curb these factions, has not been able to defend peaceable subjects from assassination-has not been able to bring the assassins to justice and that because the deluded people have been made drunk with imaginary wrongs of the Tudor or Plantagenet

legendary periods; and the murders of Blake or Norbury are forgotten in some Ossianic rant about the hill of Tara, and Saxons, and Danes, and Normans.

We have been led into these reflections by observing that even the historians of the Irish Church are glad to escape from that which is, by recurring to that which has been, or hoping that which shall be; and so while the imagination is indulged, the spirit which should work is lulled to repose. The energies which might evangelize the nation, and disperse the thick clouds of superstition, and educate the people of the land, is wasted in the self-complacent idea that Ireland was, in the sixth, seventh, and eighth, centuries, very enlightened and so forthand what would you have more-why need we trouble ourselves now?—

"During the sixth, seventh, eighth, and part of the ninth centuries, she was the school of the west, the quiet habitation of sanctity and literature. Her mitred missionaries were the honoured instruments in the hands of God of evangelizing the greater part of Saxon England and Scotland; and not content with this, she extended the cords of her tent over almost every part of the continent of Europe......Her seminaries and her churches at home, during the same period, were the asylums of learned men from all parts of the continent of Europe. King's sons were among her honourable pupils, &c., &c. All proclaim the same truth, that Ireland was the focus from which the light of divine truth was shed over the greater part of the continent of Europe." (viii.)

Would it were so now! we say with all our heart. Would that it were the focus for anything but what it is! Would that the reciprocity were not all on one side! Or that it would now condescend to be the focus for receiving back some of that light which it formerly thus diffused over the continent of Europe. Granting the facts to be true, what do they prove? Not that Ireland had any exclusive patent for the instruction of Europe; not that the whole continent agreed to constitute Ireland its teacher; but that Ireland, by superior attainments, was qualified for such a place of pre-eminence-that knowledge, which is power, vindicated its right to the foremost place. Before Ireland could thus teach others, Ireland herself was taught. The blessing first filled the land, and then overflowed to others. Pupils went to her, as well as teachers from her. Intercommunion is the life-blood of civilization, improvement, and strength. The savage cry of "Ireland for the Irish" is strangling this life, staying improvement, withering strength. The recollections of the past, if they stand in contrast with ourselves, become a libel upon the present generation; and if they tend

to generate any degree of dreamy inertion, which would paralyze action, and let things take their course, they then become worse than a reproach, and amount to a positive crime-they both disgrace us by comparison, and rob God and our country of those services, which are their due.

But, say the Irish, the Danes invaded Ireland; "and three centuries of invasion will suffice for the corruption of the finest people." Did not the Danes also invade England? England recovered from all such calamities, by vigorously taking in hand the proper remedy, whatever that might be-resistance, concession, or making the best of conquest itself, by amalgamating with the conquerors when resistance was vain: above all, England has been advancing with the rest of mankind; has not separated herself from her neighbours; has not kept up the little feuds and jealousies of barbarous times; has abolished centuries ago the clanship and family quarrels which ensue, and which, so long as they subsisted in Scotland, retarded its civilization, and are to the present day the bane of Ireland, filling the whole land with petty broils, and perpetuating barbarism and bloodshed.

God helps those who will help themselves. Ireland will neither do this nor allow others to help her. The people are ready enough to combine for evil purposes-to plan a midnight murder, or to screen the assassin. They will combine to grub up plantations, to scare away improvements of any kind, to isolate and barbarise the land yet more and more they will not combine for good-they will not obey the laws themselves, much less assist others in upholding them; as if a whole nation had agreed to say-" Good, be thou my evil-Evil, be thou my good!" In such a state of things we care not which party claims the equivocal honour of being the rightful pastors of such a people. The Roman Catholics say that seven-eighths of the Irish people belong to their communion; therefore we suppose that to the Roman Church must be given seven-eighths of the credit of such a state of things. And the misery of it is, that infatuation has reached such a height, that the people believe that the remedy lies in the very thing which has produced the disease, and which would now aggravate its evils an hundred fold. Too much separation has shut out from Ireland the light of civilization, in so remarkable a manner diffused over all the rest of Europe; and now they would shut it out altogether, that a few demagogues may have the pleasure of gathering a crowd on the hill of Tara, to talk about round towers, and Milesian ancestry, and Ogham lore. They want to become like other people of the present day, instead of becoming more and more