The perusal of these choice passages of descriptive English prose will do much to give clearness and intensity to the idea of historical events which young minds will form, and there can be no doubt that he has done a thing thoroughly worth doing in picking out and bringing together, within the brief compass of these little volumes, the quintessence of English histories. They will do much to teach the teachers as well as the scholars, for it is not every teacher that possesses or has even read half or a quarter of the works here quoted. We are not surprised to hear that where the plan of these occasional readings has been tried, 'history has become popular with scholars, while the dry parts of the text-books are mastered with far greater accuracy than of old.' We may, perhaps, suggest that the full titles, and the publishers of the works quoted, might be given in an appendix.

Spenser. By Dean CHURCH. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1879.) Burns. By Principal SHAIRP. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1879.) THE series of Lives of Men of Letters, which Messrs. Macmillan have lately been bringing out, is most valuable. Each subject has been placed in sympathising hands, so as to be understood and drawn out as thoroughly as possible. The Dean's sketch of the plan, scope, and allusions of the 'Faerie Queene' is most valuable to those who have strayed through it like Spenser's own wanderers in a forest without a clue. On the whole, it is perhaps pleasanter to think of the fable without its personalities. Belphoebe does not gain by her association with Queen Elizabeth, and her adventure with the unfortunate Timias is far too poetical to be a version of her Majesty's displeasure with Raleigh; Sir Artegal, our favourite hero of the poem, is too noble in our eyes to bear comparison with the cruel deputy Sir Arthur Grey, and the devoted lovers of Queen Mary of Scotland cannot forgive her portrayal as the false Duessa and the snowy Florimel. And yet it is wholesome for us to see how very different was the judgment of contemporaries from that of posterity. There is no doubt of Spenser's having been a high-minded, upright, religious man, full of the noblest romance, and yet he throws his whole soul into admiration for what we have come to think ferocious cruelty and abject cringing. How much is prejudice on his part or ours? Which of us is the best qualified to judge? Which of us is the most mistaken? Or is it that the men were better than their deeds?

The sad yet brilliant career of Burns has been most ably and wisely drawn by Professor Shairp, who has been able to avoid his countrymen's too common habit of exalting a genius into a hero, and condoning, if not exalting, his errors. The criticism on his poetry is admirable, and it is a volume to be grateful for.

Bel-Marjory. By L. T. MEADE. (London: John Shaw, 1879.) David's Little Lad. By L. T. MEADE. (London: John Shaw, 1878.) It is as well to make a note of Miss Meade's writings as peculiarly and wholesomely meeting the craving for the pathetic that exists in the minds of a large class of readers. The stories are also deeply VOL. IX.-NO. XVII.

T

interesting, and at the same time noble, high-minded, and religious. They have not the strong reality of Hesba Stretton's; indeed, there is generally an absolute impossibility in the plot, such as the sale of all Marjory's property while she is still a minor; but still there is a beauty and a self-sacrifice in the characters which make them winning, and there is a strong sense throughout all that the love of God is above and beyond all else. They are not exactly what is distinctively called Church literature, but it is the religion of the Church that they teach. Only' David's Little Lad' being concerned with Welsh colliers, represents the best people among the poor as Dissenters; and if the picture be true, they must be very stern ones, for a little girl refuses to have coloured pictures on the cottage walls, deeming them worldly vanities. David himself, owner of the mine, is one of the noblest and most touching characters we have met; and though we could point to many faults in these tales, we still think that any one purveying works for the numerous and impressible class of half-cultivated readers would do well to procure them.

Burnt Out: A Story for Mothers' Meetings. By C. M. YONGE. (London: Mozley and Smith, 1879.)

THIS is a very striking story, with all Miss Yonge's intense individualisation of her characters and thorough knowledge of the ways of thinking and acting of the English rural poor. And it seeks also to lay its finger on one or two unobserved dangers which lurk in the carrying out of the very best plans and purposes.

Two poor families lose all in a fire, and Miss Yonge brings out in their subsequent history the demoralising effect of running about with petitions, and not this only, but also the danger of the plunge from a model parish to a neglected one; while as regards the thoroughly well-worked parish she illustrates the two contrasted dangers which it involves-to one person to do what is right for the approbation of social superiors, to another to turn away from religion from the morbid dread of seeming to curry favour. This last may

seem rather fine-spun, but so we read the story, and sure we are that Miss Yonge has hit upon what is secretly, if most unreasonably, influential with many a strong, proud, self-conscious character which dreads hypocrisy. And our villages have many such.

Wild Life in a Southern County. (London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1879.)

THIS is a charming picture of the scenery and inhabitants of the Sussex Downs bordering on the sea. It might almost rank with Kingsley's 'Idylls,' and we wish that every district had as able a chronicler, who would embalm old scenes, old customs, and the like with the same loving and poetical spirit, ere yet the railroad and the schoolmaster have obliterated all such distinctions.

NOTE TO ARTICLE ON CATHEDRALS IN THE JULY NUMBER. WE have received a letter from Bishop Abraham of Lichfield, referring to the above-named article, of which the following is the main portion:

'Your Reviewer says, in page 336, "Though the old Latin Statutes of Lichfield are not before us, we may venture to affirm that they do not materially differ from those of S. Paul's, both being Cathedrals of the old foundation."

'He then proceeds to quote from the new Lichfield Statutes certain clauses relative to the residence of the Dean and Canons; he contrasts the bald tone of those clauses with the earnest religious tone of the Pauline Statutes, and he assumes, nay he "affirms," that Bishop Selwyn found that same earnest tone in the old Latin Statutes, and pared it down to the dry bones of the present English form.

'I have looked carefully through the Latin Statutes, and can find no trace of the letter or spirit of the Pauline Statutes.

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'The pean the late Bishop sang over the euthanasia of Bishop Heyworth's composition [A.D. 1428], was not in a self-satisfied tone; but no doubt he rejoiced for the sake of the Church that a composition" was cancelled, which forbad the Bishop to visit the Chapter oftener than once in seven years. Moreover, he might well call much of the old Statutes "unintelligible stuff," when he found that they first required him to supplement the negligences of the Chapter, and then forbad him to correct the offences he discovered, unless he could obtain the consent of the Chapter itself.

'Would it not have been more in accordance with justice, if the Reviewer had applied President Routh's immortal dictum and verified his assumption?'

It seems a simple question enough, whether the ancient Lichfield Statutes at all resemble the Pauline, and yet we doubt if the question between our Reviewer and Bishop Abraham is quite so simple. There are strata in Statutes. The old Statutes by which Lichfield was governed in 1852, and which we take to be those set aside by Bishop Selwyn, and condemned by Bishop Abraham, are printed in the Appendix to the first Report of the Cathedral Commissioners of 1852. They seem to be a codification by Bishop Lloyd in 1693, based on a compilation of Bishop Hackett's, made soon after the Restoration, and continued by additions throughout the eighteenth century. They are jejune and business-like, certainly contain little of any high tone, nor do they pretend to rise above plain practical rules. But they are very long, and, without an elaborate collation, it would be hard to say how much of earlier Statutes may not be imbedded in them.

Going further back, we come to the body of Statutes confirmed by Bishop Blythe, submitted to Cardinal Wolsey, and printed in the Monasticon, vol. vi. pp. 1255–1266. This contains several series of Statutes from 1190, or thereabouts, to 1526. Here several passages occur word for word the same with the Pauline Statutes, but with

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Note to Article on Cathedrals.

less decorative work about them; that is, with less rhetoric or pious comment. If Bishop Abraham refers to these, when he says that he finds no trace of the letter or spirit of the Pauline Statutes, all we can say is that we think he must have read them very cursorily. For there is a good deal of the letter, and although some part of the spirit may have evaporated, the stringency and general completeness and regularity of the system are there..

Of course, in the matter of residence, a somewhat higher standard might not unreasonably be looked for at St. Paul's, so near the Court and seat of Government. The Dean of Lichfield, if a courtier, must break into his Lichfield residence, which the Dean of St. Paul's need not do. Yet the rule for residence of the Dean, given in the Monasticon, p. 1260, is very strict, and has rules about patientia, humilitas, mansuetudo, and benignitas, all right. Doubtless there are passages in this older code which, as well as those of the Pauline Statutes, represent some still older work, or common rule.

Altogether, we are disposed, primâ facie, to believe that Bishop Abraham's criticisms refer to the more recent body of Lichfield Statutes, which were suppressed by Bishop Selwyn, and not to the earlier. For in those earlier Statutes might be found a higher rule for the direction of a Cathedral than is to be discovered in the practice of Cathedrals for some time back, and which seems to have been the standard accepted at Lichfield.

ERRATUM.

In the Article upon 'The Situation,' given in our last number, we quoted, on page 471, the Supplementary Ornaments Rubric, as adopted by the two Houses of the Convocation of Canterbury, without the words now included in brackets: 'Every priest and deacon shall wear a surplice with a stole or scarf, and the hood of his degree [, and in preaching he shall wear a surplice with stole or scarf and the hood of his degree]; or, if he think fit, a gown with hood and scarf,' &c.

THE

CHURCH QUARTERLY REVIEW.

No XVIII. JANUARY 1880.

Art. I.—REVISION OF THE RUBRICS BY THE RITUAL COMMISSION AND THE CONVOCATIONS.

1. Report of the Ritual Commission. (1870.)

2. Chronicle of Convocation. (1874-1879.)

3. Amendments in the Rubrics adopted provisionally by the Convocation of the Province of York, and reported to Her Majesty. (1876.)

cation.

4. York Journal of Convocation. (1875-1879.)

FOR some years the Rubrics in the Book of Common Prayer have been undergoing a large amount of examination and sifting. After peacefully resting for nearly two centuries since the abortive attempt to revise the Prayer-Book in the reign of William III., the Ritual of the Church of England has been summoned to the bar of public opinion to give an account of itself, and to show cause why it should not be altered. The practical results in the way of change are likely to be small, and it seems more than probable that this generation will hand on to its successor the Rubrics as it found them; but nevertheless the examination will have been important, and the literature which this examination has produced will record an eventful chapter in the annals of the Church of England.

For the revision was undertaken with an object, and all that has occurred in connexion with it has served to illustrate the state of opinion in the Church, and the relative force of the opinions and parties to be found within her borders. Extending over a period of more than twelve years, the