Gifford, Prof. T. Evans, Rev. J. Waite, and
Prof. J. Lightfoot as contributors. To the
Archbishop-elect of Dublin and the Master of
Balliol is assigned the rest of the Sacred
Canon. We are told that the names of the
editors and contributors" ensure orthodoxy."

From The Athenæum, 21 Nov. COMMENTARY ON THE BIBLE. THE plan of a new commentary on the Bible is due to the Speaker of the House of Commons, who consulted several bishops on the subject. The Archbishop of York, at his instance, undertook to organize a scheme for We congratulate the Church of England on producing a commentary which should "put the prospect of being at length released from the reader in full possession of whatever in- the disgraceful position in which, through the formation may be requisite to enable him to supineness of our bishops and professors, she understand the word of God, and supply him has been lying so long, while Germany, Holwith satisfactory answers to objections resting land, and France have been awake and proupon misrepresentation of its contents." The gressing. The reproach which has rested plan has received the sanction of the primate. upon us as a nation for many years is at length A committee, consisting of the Archbishop to be rolled away; and our Church will apof York, the Bishops of London, Lichfield, pear as the earnest expositor of the Bible, preLlandaff, Gloucester, and Bristol, Lord Lyt-pared to enlighten the nation, and to clear telton, the Speaker, Mr. Walpole, and Drs. away the objections which have been adJacobson and Jeremie, takes the general su- vanced of late against the written Word. So perintendence of the work. The Rev. F. C. it is alleged. But it is remarkable that the Cook will be the general editor, and will ad- excellent suggestion should have come from vise with the Archbishop of York and the a layman, to whom all honor is due. The Regius Professors of Divinity at Oxford and bishops are too prone to abuse inquirers who Cambridge upon any questions which may publish critical works on the Bible, resorting arise. The work will be divided into eight to denunciation and calling names instead of sections, the first of which will consist of the fairly replying to what they deem heretical. Pentateuch, and will be edited by Prof. Har- A layman, however, comes forward with an old Browne; the Revs. R. C. Pascoe, J. F. excellent practical proposal-the very one reThrupp, T. E. Espin and W. Dewhurst con- quired from the first by the necessity of the tributing. The historical books will be con- case. It is unfortunate that the men about signed to the Rev. G. Rawlinson, as editor; to favor us with the new work are almost all the Revs. T. E. Espin, and Lord Arthur Her- unknown in the department of Hebrew litervey contributing. The Rev. F. C. Cook will ature. A few of them have written on the edit, and the Rev. E. H. Plumptre, W. T. New Testament; but which has given any Bullock, and T. Kingsbury will annotate the proof of acquaintance with the Old? Mr. poetical books. The four great prophets were | Thrupp has written a book on the Psalms; to have been edited by Dr. M'Caul, but death Mr. Drake, little commentaries on Jonah and has now removed him. The Revs. R. Payne Hosea; Harold Browne, some lectures on the Smith and H. J. Rose are to be contributors. Pentateuch and Psalms; and Lord Arthur The Bishop of St. David's and the Rev. R. Hervey has published on the Genealogies of Gandell will edit the twelve Minor Prophets, our Lord. One or two have written replies and the Revs. E. Huxtable, Wm. Drake, and to "Essays and Reviews," or essays in " Aids F. Meyrick will contribute. The Gospels and to Faith." A few have contributed some arActs will form the sixth section. The first ticles to Smith's " Dictionary of the Bible." three Gospels will be edited by Prof. Mansel, As to Hebrew scholarship, however, not the Gospel of St. John by the Dean of Canter-one has yet given proof of it; and all will bury, and the Acts by Dr. Jacobson. The probably have to read up the subject thoreditorship of St. Paul's Epistles is assigned to oughly for the first time. Bishop Ellicott and Dr. Jeremie, with Dr.

ferred to as an invaluable official, to justify | I will not sanction the Message, and you the demand for increased salary." ought to be ashamed of yourself!"

"If your Highness will look at the con

"My eye! he's kneeling, and has stuck his spur into himself. Oh, this is one of text-" the best comedies I ever saw!"

"Those are the only alterations, your Highness, and I venture to think that you will approve of them."

"How he keeps rubbing himself. I wonder whether those spurs are really pointed, or whether it's only fun."

"I may assume your Highness's approval, and deliver the Message?" said the Minister, rising.

"Eh, sit still. I swear I have not heard one word that you've been saying. Can't you hold your tongue till the play is over?" "In that case the Deputies will lose the night train, your Highness, and they have had a long session."

"I tell you what, Baron," said the Elector, getting angry, "it is not only impertinent but disloyal to come bothering me in this. manner. Is the theatre a place for such important business?”

"Your Highness did me the honor to command my attendance at the Palace, and then not to be there to receive me."

"I suppose I may go to the theatre if I like! When I made the appointment I hadn't seen the play bill, and I didn't know that Soldiers and Sausages was to be played. It was your business to have informed me." "I beg leave to place my portfolio in your Serene Highness's hands," said the Minister, bowing coldly, "and trust that my successor will be better aware of the duties of a statesman."

"Now then, there you go, flying out like gunpowder because one just speaks to you,

"But I wont, and I don't see any context. Where's the context - do you mean the green ribbon-what's that got to do

with it?"

"I mean the sense of the passage, Highness."

"There's no sense in the passage, and you just go out into the passage and scratch the word out, or I wont prorogue."

"I undertake to do so, Highness. With that correction, may I deliver the document in?"

His Serene Highness was going to refuse, but at this moment the fair Magdalen sat down to take off her shoe for the further castigation of her unwelcome lover, and the Sovereign impatiently signed to his Prime Minister to be off.

So the lover was slapped and the Message delivered, and the Parliament of Hesse-Cassel prorogued. And this is the way the Germans submit to be governed-the great Germans who claim a voice in the affairs of Europe.

THE EAGLE'S INVITATION.

THE Eagle called himself the pink of birds,
No winged thing more modest, milder, meeker ;
Proved by that best of all criteria, words,
In every quarrel guardian of the weaker.
And yet, from ill designs however clear,

The Eagle was misconstrued and mistaken; The lambs drew tow'rds the Dog when he sailed near,

The Pigs made haste to save their piglings' bacon.

and here we are missing no end of fun. Here, The Turkeys sought their pen; fussy Dame Partporcupine that you are, give us hold of the paper. What a beastly handwriting! I suppose it's that stiff-backed ass, Pumpleblueskin's."

"My nephew may not have all the graces of a courtier, your Highness, but he is a faithful servant of yours."

"He looks like a servant out of livery. Well, as far as I can read it, the thing seems all right. Stop, what's that word?"

"Which, Highness??'

“That! Why, it's 'constitutional'! How dare you put such a word into my mouth?

let Clucked in her chicks or ducklings where they dabbled;

His wing's broad shadow the whole basse-cour startled,

All save the Geese, who still serenely gabbled.

Such general distrust among his kind
And he cast round, in his much-pondering mind,
Was very painful to the Eagle's feelings,
To efface this false impression of his dealings.

"The potent beak and talons Nature gave

I cannot lay aside the more's the pity!
Or both from head and feet I'd gladly shave,
Though the proud buffetted, and jeered the
witty.

Report by the Daily Advertiser.

ON THE WEANING OF AMERICA.

LECTURE BY DR. O. W. HOLMES.

of 1663, for the purpose of monopolizing colonial trade and manufactures and the system of taxation for the same purpose begun imA GREAT change has evidently taken place mediately after the signing of the Treaty of within the last two or three years in the re- Peace in 1763, and which ended in producing lations of our people and nation to the dynas- the revolt of the North American Colonies. ties of the Old World, especially to the pre- It might have been pleasant to trace the dominant power of England. It will appear, growth of a distinct American intellectual on examination, that this change is the last culture from the time when all our scholars of four distinct stages of separation from the came from Oxford and Cambridge, when Ann mother country, all of which were necessary Dudley-" The Tenth Muse," Governor Dudto break up our colonial relations, and make ley's daughter, Governor Bradstreet's wife— us in fact, what we have long been in name, published her little volume of poems in Lona free, independent, self-governing nation. don, to the period when a new aspect of The first stage of separation was simultane- thought and national character came in with ous with the foundation of some of the Colo- our political separation from the mother counnies, being indeed the very reason of their es- try. But the clock was inexorable, and it tablishment. It forms the epoch of Religious would be necessary to confine himself to the Independence. The second dates from our hasty examination of the later phases of the existence as a distinct sovereignty, and begins last stage of progressive independent developat the period when the Colonies declared their ment referred to and such lessons as seem natPolitical Independence. The third has no urally to flow from our glances at its history. precise limits in time, and has never been perIt could not have been expected that the fectly established,-probably never will be, growth of intellectual culture would be faexcept in case of a war with some European vored by the long struggle of the Revolution power, which would throw our country upon and the poverty and unsettled order of things its own material resources. This is the move- which followed. Art, in the persons of West ment towards Industrial Independence, the and Copley, fled from the scene of tumult to ability to provide for all our own material the protection of the mother country. Sciwants. The fourth and last stage of separation from the parent country is that which the past two or three years more especially have been bringing about. It is the final emancipation of American opinion from British, from Old World mastery, and is marked by the rapid growth of our Intellectual Independence.

He said that it would be interesting, if the time allowed, to show how entirely dependent in all but religion the colonists continued for a long period. It would be easy to show that their loyalty remained unimpaired, nay, ardent and unquestioned nearly up to the time of the Revolution, when it underwent so rapid a change that, in the words of a contemporary writer, "In the short space of two years nearly three millions of people passed over from the love and duty of loyal subjects to the hatred and resentment of enemies." It would not be uninstructive to review the course of English legislation with reference to the commercial and industrial interests of the Colonies, taking as fixed points two movements made precisely two hundred years ago, respectively, namely, the act of Parliament

ence forgot her tasks when Franklin went to France as an Envoy, and Rittenhouse became the State Treasurer of Pennsylvania. Literature seemed to have no existence, except in the inflamed appeals of patriotism and the popular rhymes which embodied the feelings of the time. Our true literature of this period was in truth almost exclusively political. It was to be looked for in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the Union and the several States; in the Messages and Farewell Address of Washington; in the Essays and Debates agitating the great practical questions of government. These were what we had to show our British critics, and we had no right to expect them to understand such a literature.

Dr. Holmes went on to show that the true intellectual character of the Revolutionary period was to be looked for in political writings almost exclusively. American scholarship was European in spirit and imitative in form. British criticism aimed to keep up the provincial character of colonial authorship as it had formerly done with regard to industry and commerce. After showing that Irving