We would call special attention to the above extract, on the subject of the Bible being not only a revelation, but also a history, and, moreover, a concurrent history. This work will amply repay perusal, and although brief, and anything but pedantic, has evidently been composed with much thought and ability, and appears to us satisfactorily to prove the Inspiration of the Bible from the Bible itself.

Turning from graver matters, at least from larger books, our readers must permit us to notice the Almanacks of the Christian Knowledge Society for 1862. Besides the Churchman's Almanack, mounted on rollers, and fitted for the study or the vestry, and in various other shapes and sizes, there is a Cottager's Penny Almanack, with a text for every Sunday, and a great deal of pleasant and useful information. Nor would we overlook the Children's Almanack, very nicely got up, with a text for every Sunday, as well as other days for which we have a collect. Here, too, there is a great deal of useful information, such as a child likes to read, and above all a coloured title page, and vignettes for every month. It is a very suitable present when the school breaks up. Almanack literature, at least, has not been stationary since the days when Moore prophesied to credulous dupes, or Zadkiel inundated our cottages with his trash.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

WINTER is upon us with premature severity, and our prospects for the working classes are but gloomy. The operatives in the cotton manufacture are scarcely employed half their time, and the number of the unemployed increases from week to week. It is not only the want of the raw material that stops our cotton mills; it is said that all the markets of the world are glutted. Had there been no civil war in America, our manufacturers would have been obliged to suspend their operations from the want of a demand for the fabrics they produce. We need scarcely say that cotton being now the staple manufacture of England, all other branches of industry are affected by it; and, in consequence, want of employment and the depression of trade is beginning to be felt in every manufacturing town; while the influence of these adverse circumstances may soon be expected to show itself in every country village. We do not write thus in any desponding mood. Our condition has often been far worse, and our prospects far more discouraging. If the poor can be led to exercise a little forethought; if the gentry and clergy will at once explain to them, at such social meetings of working-men as may easily be collected in almost every parish in town or country, the real state of the case as regards themselves,-the necessity of self-denial, the absolute duty of abstaining from the foolish and hurtful luxury of spirituous liquors, and, as far as possible, from intoxicating drink of every kind; they may prevent a wide spreading misery, and confer social benefits which will be felt long after the pressure of the winter shall have passed away. Nor would such an office, though not strictly ministerial, unbecome the ministers of Christ. When Paul was in the storm, he

did not disdain to give excellent advice as to the management of the ship and the conduct of the crew; taking care, however, to remind them at the same time "whose he was, and whom he served." It is at such times indeed that the faithful minister of Christ often makes the first discovery of his real strength, and learns how strong a hold he has upon the confidence even of some of his most ungainly parishioners.

Of our home politics we have happily but little to relate. It is an old remark, that when the State is most prosperous its history is least interesting; and with the exception we have noted, England must be described as a happy, and certainly, compared with other countries, as a prosperous land. Whatever the result of the American civil war or its duration, our manufactures will, no doubt, revive, and our difficulties will not be without their use in compelling our merchants to seek for new markets and new fields of enterprise. No great questions distract us. We are in a contented state of quiet and moderation. The borough of Finsbury, which is vacant in consequence of the decease of its late member, goes a-begging for a candidate, and hitherto her suit has been in vain. We infer not so much that seats in the House of Commons are not an object of ambition, as that even liberal members will no longer submit to the dictation and interference of liberal constituencies. There is some agitation for a reform in parliament, but it meets with little encouragement from any man who rents a house of the value of ten pounds a year; and this includes the vast majority of that class of artisans whose information, intelligence, and independence really qualify them to judge of their own interests or those of their associates. Parliamentary reform languishes, because the House of Commons represents the people, and this but too faithfully in some respects. If it is apathetic upon great questions of vital importance; if it is opposed to some measures which regard to God's honour and the welfare of the State alike demand; if it endows Maynooth, permits the desecration of the Lord's-day, does little or nothing to provide wholesome dwellings for the poor, or to place the incentives to vice and drunkenness out of their reach; it is because in all these instances the majority of the constituents are, we fear, just as apathetic as the Parliament itself.

A public meeting of the University of Oxford was held in the Sheldon Theatre on the 22nd instant, to promote the establishment of cheap public schools, for what was there styled the lower middle class; but, in fact, to promote a great school or college, under the direction of the Rev. Mr. Woodard, of Shoreham, which has hitherto been conducted at St. Nicholas College, Lancing, Sussex, in connection with a College at Hurstpierpoint, and a school at Shoreham. It is now proposed-indeed, this meeting "pledged itself" -to assist "the Society of St. Nicholas College in erecting a public boarding school for the lower middle class on the site obtained near the Balcombe Station of the London and Brighton Railway." It is intended to be on a great scale, and to accommodate a thousand pupils. Several bishops, and all that was of chief weight in the University, were present. The report in The Times informs us, that the theatre was filled in every part with an audience composed of either sex. The members of the University present, who mustered in

The resolutions were

great force, appeared in academic costume. carried unanimously, and it seems with vast enthusiasm. Dr. Jeune, the Vice-Chancellor, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, (Mr. Gladstone,) and the Bishop of Oxford, were the chief speakers. Of the plan itself we say nothing. Upon an episode which occurred we shall make a few remarks. It should be mentioned, that, as the meeting was assembling, an anonymous handbill was circulated, warning them against certain Romish practices said to be encouraged among the youths of St. Nicholas College. It was thus alluded to by the Vice-Chancellor in his opening speech :

"A few moments before entering that room he had been asked to permit the circulation in his College of the paper which he held in his hand. His reply was, that he could not permit its circulation in his College, where it could not be refuted, but that he would bring it himself before that meeting. It was a paper, be it observed, without a printer's name, and without a signature. But he confessed he rejoiced that it had been brought there. They all remembered the great robber in Virgil, in whose cave, the moment the track to it could be discovered, and daylight could be introduced into it, nothing was to be found but rage and smoke, and a monster easily to be slain. The paper to which he referred stated that the attention of members of the University and others about to attend that meeting was called to the following facts:-1. Confession is encouraged among the boys at these schools. Many influential clergy in the neighbourhood withhold their support from the schools on this account. 2. Crucifixes are distributed among the boys on leaving the schools. The following statement can be supported on oath:-Some three years since a young friend of mine, who was being educated at St. John's College, Hurtspierpoint, lodged in my house during an illness. He wore a crucifix, some four inches in length, made of silver, and suspended by a ribbon round his neck. He declared that he, in common with his companions, had it given him at the above-mentioned College.' The able projector of that scheme of education was now before them, and would probably scorn to answer that handbill; but in that case, assuredly, silence, in opposition to the usual proverb, would imply the most emphatic dissent. Moreover, they had also among them a right reverend prelate who had once filled the office which he himself now held, and who certainly had no leanings in the direction indicated by that handbill. That right reverend prelate had largely supported, and had taken under his own superintendence, the institutions now recommended to their notice. That was surely enough to dispose of that unhappy paper."

It appears clear to us, and would have done so had we been less assured of Dr. Jeune's high character as a Protestant divine, that for his own part he utterly disbelieved the statement, and introduced it only that it might be publicly refuted. But it was not refuted; and until this be done, and that too in the most unequivocal manner, we shall brave the displeasure of the Sheldon Theatre and its thousand enthusiastic undergraduates, and tell them plainly that such an institution is utterly unworthy of the countenance of a Protestant University. The Times, we see, writes in favour of the scheme as a whole; yet it is not blind to that "excessive clerical supervision" which, if per

sisted in, "will be absolutely fatal to its success. Some error of this kind," it adds, “must probably have been at the bottom of the vague charge of confessional practices so cavalierly treated by the ViceChancellor and the Bishop of Oxford. Such imputations, unfounded as they may be, ought to be directly contradicted, as well as ridiculed; for it is difficult to conceive a slander better calculated to damage a place of education in the eyes of the middle classes." We hope it may prove to be a slander; but at present it stands uncontradicted.

Of America we would gladly say nothing. We are aware that our pages are read, both in the North and South, with a degree of interest which cannot but be flattering to ourselves; though at present, we fear, they are equally distasteful to both parties. The storm of passion howls, and the waves run high; and to men in such a state moderate counsels always appear unfeeling and impertinent. The North is angry because we do not espouse their cause; for their cause, they say, is that of the constitution and of the slave. On the constitutional question few in England are disposed to enter. It is enough to say, that the secession of the South does not appear, to the great majority of our countrymen, to justify their being treated as rebels; nor, in fact, has the North dared to treat them as such. But this is a question which has not yet been brought officially before our government. With regard to emancipation, the North claims our sympathy, because it is fighting the battle of the slave. Would that it were so, and that it had been so from the beginning of this unhappy war. England, as one man, would have thrown her sympathies into the Northern scale. But what are the facts? While the Federalists are loud in their professions of zeal for Negro liberty on this side of the Atlantic, their conduct on the other belies them. The voice is Jacob's, but the hands are Esau's. General Fremont, in Missouri, offers liberty to the slaves who join his camp. The President at once disowns the act of the General, and follows it up with his abrupt dismissal. Mr. Secretary Seward, whose delicacy does not forbid his threatening England with an invasion of Canada, is afraid to interfere with the constitutional rights of the slaveholders of the South. An armament has been equipped at New York to seize on the Southern ports. We write on the 25th, and the news has just reached us of its successful landing at Port Royal, between Charleston and Savannah; but its instructions are to respect the constitutional rights of the rebel states, that is, to protect the slaveholder. The only argument we have heard in defence of this policy is, that the North has no power to interfere in a question which can be dealt with only by the whole Union. The only answer it requires is, that rebels have no rights. If they are rebels, not only their slaves, but all their property, is forfeited; and nothing but an act of grace can make it theirs again. If they are not rebels, the case is still more clear. The Northern states are then dealing with belligerents, and might long since have made their own decision. They might have given the Missouri compromise, the Dred Scot decision, and all their degrading concessions with slaveholders, to the winds, and declared the Northern states as free to the Negro as Canada or Great Britain. They have not done this; and if they have lost much of the sympathy and the respect of England, they themselves have been to blame.

Yet we cannot throw ourselves into the cause of the Confederates. We can respect their courage, we can appreciate the manliness which disdains bombast, and leaves others to mark the wisdom of its Fabian policy, and the moderation of its official language. But the blight of slavery remains. The time must soon come, beyond a question, when the Confederates will be admitted into the great family of nations; but from England, while their slavery continues, they will never have a cordial embrace. We do not expect them to release their 4,000,000 negroes all at once; but even now they may prepare the way. Three things they may do tomorrow. They may forbid the separation of negro families; they may prohibit the use of the lash; they may facilitate the emancipation of the slave, by allowing him to purchase it by working at over-hours, or placing a small portion of time each week at his own disposal. If this were done at once, the feeling of all England, which now respects their chivalry, would ripen into a warmer friendship. For the determination of England is, if possible, to be the friend and ally both of South and North, and with their internal discords to have no concern.

In France a financial crisis has occurred; just such a one as introduced the revolution of 1789. A deficient harvest, and a bankrupt revenue, then placed M. Neckar at the head of the finance; a deficient harvest and an unfunded debt of forty millions sterling, contracted on the sole responsibility of the Emperor, places M. Fould in the same office in 1861. In some respects the task of the latter is the more difficult. There is no longer a States-general to convoke. No fresh taxes can be thought of now. He is "to conjure the difficulty," we are told. Neckar and his friends used the same language; but Neckar had not to contend with an imperious will and an absolute master; nor had he to provide for an army of 650,000 men, and a fleet in magnitude and costliness the rival of our own. Before the year closes we shall be better able to judge both of the Emperor's sincerity, and of the probable issue of M. Fould's financial scheme for retrieving France from the verge of national bankruptcy.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

CANTABRIGIENSIS did not send his letter till the end of the last month, and the interest of it has now in some measure passed away.

B. is received. He defends his former proposition in answer to Clericus G. and others; namely, that the prophecies regarding the restoration of the Jews have a spiritual and not a literal accomplishment. It is evident that a controversy on this point, once opened, may be almost interminable, and the space at our disposal obliges us to refrain from entering upon it. In literary warfare we have observed that the combatants in general bring their heavy artillery into the field at first; and the fire of small arms that follows seldom affects the issue of the fight. We are willing on most subjects to give both sides a hearing once; but after that our readers, we believe, are better pleased to have the subject left to the decision of their own judgment.

We must request all our Correspondents to study brevity as much as possible. Our present Number contains a sheet more than usual, and yet we are obliged to postpone many contributions which are of considerable interest at the present moment, though a few months hence, in this changing world, they may have lost their value.