proper growth of such a time, as an impulse of benevolence, or as affording any ground of hope for the melioration of the lot of man.

But we turn to the second of those subjects which we mentioned as incidental to our argument. This is the altogether peculiar position which we, the people of England, at this passing moment occupy, in relation to the human family. Has not the part of an elder brother of this great family actually fallen upon the English race? and have not the solicitudes of such a relationship actually become ours? Are we not by many interests, and by motives higher than any interests, compelled, in some measure, nay to a great extent, to think for all, to care for all, to defend the weak, to forefend the strong; and is there not now pervading the people of this country, even as a temper which has become characteristically British, a kindly sympathy in what affects the welfare of each race of the human family; such a feeling, at least, as has never belonged to any other people in any age? If many partake not at all of any such feeling, they are fewer than those who are alive to it in a good degree.

"With all the paths of the world now mapped before us, and with means of communication which, for practical ends, condense the population of the earth, as if the thousand millions were crowded upon a ball of one third the diameter; and with actual colonial possession of a large portion of the earth; and with moral possession, by high character and repute, of almost the whole of it; and with all these uncalculated and untried means of influence now ripened, and presented afresh to our hands, who is it that can altogether control those mingling emotions of patriotism and of expansive benevolence, which become us, occupying as we do a position, whence we may go forth to conquer the world, not for ambition, not for wealth, but for Truth and Peace!

"And as we do stand in this position, and as we do, in so great a measure, entertain the feelings proper to it; so is there a reciprocity of feeling widely diffused among the nations.-British political influence or natural supremacy apart, the British feeling-its honour, its justice, and its humanity, are in fact understood in the remotest regions, and are trusted to by tribes whose names we have not yet learned to pronounce. The several designations by which English benevolence, in its various forms, styles itself, have, as watchwords of hope, traversed the ocean, and have pervaded wildernesses; and these titles of our organized philanthropy have already wakened the dull ear of half civilized continents, and are reverberated from the hill-sides of the remotest barbarism.

"It is true that England is looked to, as the helper, guardian, guide of the nations. And assuredly it is the CHRISTIANITY of England which gives depth, substance, life, to her repute through the world, as the lover of justice, and the mover of good."-(pp. 158-160.)

"What we need, then, for the renovation of the human family is—the spread of that life-giving doctrine which we find in the Scriptures, and which challenges the abject and the wretched, universally, and unexceptively, as the heirs of immortality, and as individually embraced in the intention of the gospel.

"It follows from this doctrine that men, even the vilest, are no more to be contemned;-for the Almighty does not contemn them:-they are no longer to be forgotten, or despotically abused, or selfishly despaired of; for the Son of God has redeemed them. On the contrary; they must now singly, and at whatever cost, be sought out, instructed, cared for, and succoured.

"We ask only that a doctrine such as this should be heartily embraced by Christian nations, and should be carried out wherever such nations are coming in contact with barbarous and semi-barbarous races: must it not become a mighty energy, tending, directly and certainly, to the renovation of the world?"-(p. 163.)

We fear that the description of the feelings with which England is

regarded is too highly coloured, and that the accuser of the brethren, if permitted to plead against our country, would find, in our policy towards the heathen world, many counter-pleas of fearful weight to present in the courts of heaven. Nor do we believe that the word of God warrants us in looking to such means alone, as are here mentioned, for the consummated triumph of the world's redemption. Much as we love our country, and rejoice in the great work which God has set before it, it is not to England but to Palestine, not to London but to Zion, the mountain of God's holiness, that we must look, as the earthly centre of our hopes, and the springhead from which blessings shall flow forth upon a long apostate, but ransomed world. But the duty of British Christians is abundantly clear, nor is the encouragement small which the providence of God has afforded them, in the political grandeur and wide-spread commerce of our country, for the prosecution of this great and holy work. Let them cheerfully and gladly consecrate their substance, their prayers, and their labours, to this divine and heavenly warfare against heathen darkness, and an abundant firstfruits of success will be given them even now, and a reward of pure and unspeakable joy in the day when their Lord will reap the full harvest of blessing.

ST. ANTHOLIN'S; or, Old Churches and New. A Tale for the Times. By FRANCIS E. PAGET, M.A., Rector of Elford, and Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Oxford. London: Burns. 1841.

WHETHER, in the "movement now making in defence of the Church and her principles," the novelist department has been assigned to Mr. Paget, as that of mysticism to Mr. Newman, and of ethics to Professor Sewell-or whether his lively narratives, entitled "Tales of the Village," are voluntary contributions to a common cause, we will not take upon us to determine. Certainly, the companionship in which his novellettes appear, would incline us to the first of these suppositions; nor should we be less disposed to arrive at this conclusion, after the perusal of the present work, which is levelled, not at his former windmill antagonist, Ultra-Protestantism, but at what Mr. Paget, we suppose, would term one of its consequences the practice of building lath-and-plaister churches. In order therefore to counteract the mania for erecting "preaching

houses" instead of cathedrals; placing the pulpit in a position where the preacher can be seen as well as heard; and accommodating a few hundreds more of immortal and responsible hearers by means of galleries, he has indited this "Tale for the Times." And a very lively and amusing tale it is, though designed, he tells us, to inculcate an unwelcome truth, by leading men to admit certain premises before they are aware that the conclusions apply to themselves. Even with this premonition, however, and knowing what we are to expect, we will nevertheless venture to accompany Mr. Paget: and one thing we can assure him at the commencement, that whatever we may think of his premises, we should be well contented, whether as Church-builders or Church-restorers, to arrive at his conclusion.

The parish of Tadbrook, St. Antholin, possessed an antique, substantial, cathedral-looking Church, a little the worse for wear, and a popular churchwarden, who never called for more than a halfpenny rate; whitewashed the Church once in seven years, and the surplice twice in twelve months. The old archdeacon, however, who had been for many years a very indifferent " eye" to the bishop, dies at last; and another is appointed, rejoicing in the appropriate cognomen of Dr. Sharpe, who loses no time in proving his title to the name. To the utter astonishment of Mr. Churchwarden Ouzel, and at the imminent hazard of his own neck, the new dignitary makes his way up a crazy ladder and through a cloud of jackdaws' nests into the belfry, where he finds the bells mute, the beams mouldering into touchwood, and the steeple considerably out of the perpendicular. The Archdeacon orders repairs; the churchwarden by postponement and quibbling contrives to evade a Church-rate, and thus gives name to Chapter I., which is "How to please everybody." But the best churchwardens are mortal— "Muster Ouzel" dies, and so does the rector; a new incumbent succeeds, who nominates a new churchwarden, and the parish on their part elect Mr. Walter Tyler, the cornfactor; the rector and his churchwarden desire to set about the repairs ordered by the archdeacon, but Wat Tyler objects, until a piece of plaister, falling on his head during divine service, threatens him with the fate of Abimelech. He then concurs with the others in obtaining an estimate for repairs from Mr. Scantlings, the builder, which amounts to the sum of £700 (rather more than double the sum which would have sufficed in the first instance) and a vestry called to receive the estimate and make a rate for the repairs. This forms the title of Chapter II., "How to please nobody." The proceedings of the vestry are described in Mr. Paget's liveliest manner, and interspersed with several of his best jokes-and

having ourselves witnessed scenes not very dissimilar, we can better vouch for the fidelity of the representation, which is worthy of Charles Dickens himself:

"I think the fairest thing would be that everybody should repair that part of the roof which is over his own seat,' observed a rate-payer who had a very small pew.

"For my part,' said another, 'I don't see that things are worse than they were a year ago." Mr. Tyler shook his head, for he thought of the plaster. 6 At any rate, I think the roof or the walls, or whatever is amiss, might be shored up, so as to make all safe for a while longer.'

"I fear,' said Mr. Sanderson, who sat patiently listening to all this nonsense, in the hope that it would bring its own condemnation with it in the minds of the more respectable part of his parishioners, who were sitting silent and undecided: "I fear that all these suggestions will only palliate the evil, not remove it:' and then, feeling that he had to deal with persons who (alas! for the low, cold, covetous temper of the age!) could only be worked upon by pecuniary considerations, he added, there is one point which you will do well to consider: the repairs will now cost £700; if experience is to be our guide in such matters, a few years hence (if the edifice stands so long) the expense may increase to £1,400 or £1,500.'

"Aye, but it will last our time, I reckon, and the young uns may look arter themselves,' said Cobbler Tapps, with a wink and a shrug which he intended should be very convincing. By your leave, gentlemen, I'll tell you how it is. I am a man, gentlemen, that don't noways like to part with my money without just cause and impediment; and so as I am a rate-payer, I should just like to ax a question or two. Pray, Mr. Churchwarden Andrewes, what business has that Dr. Sharpe to come here meddling about our church? If it hadn't been for him, nobody would ha' seed that there war anything amiss in it.'

"Why, Tapps, you know well enough: he's the archdeacon: and it is his business to see that all parts of the church are in repair-walls, windows, pillars, arches, and so forth.'

"Oh, that's the reason, is it, that he's called an archdeacon? Well, but suppose he orders one thing, and we do another?'

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Why then, Tapps, he may bring us into all manner of trouble.'

Bring a fool's head into trouble,' cried Tapps, growing eloquent. 'I'll tell you how it is, gentlemen; if poor Muster Ouzel warn't in his grave we shouldn't have heard nothing of all this rigmarole. To be sure, by all accounts, he gave your archdeacon as good as he brought: he know'd his business, and warn't going to let poor folks be imposed upon. Yes, gentlemen, he was a good man-and a great man, gentlemen-worthy to be admired, gentlemen; and imitated, gentlemen: and I wish with all my heart we had a spice of his equanimity and jurisprudence. Sure, gentlemen, if there is one thing more than another which is the birthright of Englishmen, it is civil and religious liberty. See how that there man tramples on our rights! Pretty religious liberty we should have if we can't do what we will with our own church! and for civil, I'm sure there's as little civility as need be, on his part, at least! And so, gentlemen, I shall move that we put off receiving them there estimates for six months, in order to give us time to look about us, and see if we can't agree among ourselves what's best to be done, without archdeacons or any such cattle-no offence to his reverence, Mr. Sanderson. Crabley, will you second me?'

Crabley (the only dissenter in the parish, and a rate-payer to the amount of twopence halfpenny per annum) nodded.

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Gentlemen, I move this meeting be adjourned from this present day, the 7th of January, 1839, to the 7th of July next.'

"It was evident that the wealthier rate-payers, who had taken no part in

the preceding discussion, were not sorry to have the odium of originating such a proposition shifted from their own shoulders; but they were not ashamed to support it. One or two murmurs of assent were followed by a general expression of opinion, that after all there would be no harm in a little delay-that Tapps had made a very fair suggestion; and that it was better to have a little time to look about them, and not take a leap in the dark.

"The question was then put by Mr. Sanderson, and, to his no small regret, was carried by an overwhelming majority; in fact, Churchwarden Andrewes and himself were the only persons to vote against it. Mr. Walter Tyler was neutral.”—(pp. 28-31.)

Mr. Paget's knowledge of ecclesiastical law or, at least, of the custom of parochial vestries seems, however, to have failed him here. We wonder it should never have occurred to him that the rector, being in the chair, could vote neither against the motion nor for it, unless the numbers were equal-while yet, as he tells us, here was "an overwhelming majority against the rate."

Chapter III. entitled, "Who would have thought it," may be speedily dispatched. On the evening of the day of the vestry meeting, while Tapps, exulting in his success, is drinking himself drunk at the Leg of Mutton, a storm comes on, which beats down first "the old oak tree on the left of the hatch gate," then a huge stone from the Church spire, then the weathercock with some twenty tons of stone, and lastly the spire itself. The description of this final catastrophe, as compared with the former extract, displays Mr. Paget's powers as a writer in an equally striking and more favourable point of view :—

"But this was only the prelude to a yet more terrific sight. Whether from the still increasing fury of the tempest, or the damage caused to the lower portion of the dilapidated building by the fall of the upper part of the spire, was never known; but as the blast swept by once more, the whole body of the steeple from base to crown was seen to shake and totter-to reel and stagger like a drunken man, and then slowly inclining to the south-east, fell in a slanting direction across the whole length of the church, and with the roar, as it seemed, of a hundred cannon, carried downwards in its descent, not the roof only, but a large portion of the southern and eastern walls of the church, which stood uninjured for a moment, and then crumbled, as it were, outwards, and so came to the ground.

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A thick cloud of smoke-like dust rose from the ruins; but ere a minute had elapsed the wind drifted it away, and the distant echoes of the catastrophe were drowned in the noise of the tempest, which seemed to howl and moan with rage and shame for the devastation it had caused.”—(pp. 52, 53.)

Chapter IV. is appropriately entitled, "What's to be done now?” There was no need to summon another vestry, for the whole parish had flocked spontaneously to the scene of desolation, except Tapps, the mover of the previous evening, who was drowning his vexation at the Leg of Mutton, and Wat Tyler, who was afraid of sharing the storm of reproach which was now showered without compunction on the memory of that best of churchwardens, Mr. Oliver