hearers to understand themselves. They are casuistry, in the best sense of the word, in action. Abating for what we consider their defect, indistinct statements of doctrine, we know of few sermons their superior in teaching the use of self-knowledge and self-discipline; and we may look with the greatest interest to the good omens under which the Bishop of Calcutta's episcopate is begun.

Dr. Faber's translation-if it is Dr. Faber's-Translation of the Life of S. Francis Xavier' (Jones), has of course its value. It is only his old Italian biography simply reproduced, without an attempt at any critical revision. In a characteristic preface, the Editor hints that the parallel to Xavier's labours is to be found in the work of Oratorians now going on among ourselves. We can only remark that we should not have discovered it in the effects which they have wrought on the social state of London. We all remember what Cardinal Wiseman chalked out as the vocation of his religionists when assuming the exclusive spiritual charge of the archiepiscopate of the City of Westminster. The great plan survives in the superb promise made after the return from the Flaminian-gate, in those copies of the pamphlet which still enrich the libraries of the curious. The Irish progress may be a triumph of the Cross, but it was not what we were promised.

We announce a simple yet most practical sermon, by Mr. Keble, preached at Sudbury on the interesting occasion of the anniversary of the emancipation of the parish church from the tyranny of pew-rents. Its title, 'Rich and Poor one in Christ' (Hayes).

Judging from the evidence afforded by the First Visitation Charge of Montagu Villiers, Lord Bishop of Carlisle,' the moral condition of Cumberland and Westmoreland is below that of any other diocese in England. It is hard to see the reason for this. Free from what is thought the pollution of crowded cities and stirring manufacturing towns, we should naturally expect to find the rural retired lake district also free from such special forms of vice as disgrace Manchester or Glasgow, and the chosen seat not only of Arcadian simplicity and content, but also of virtue. Whether the nearness to Scotland tends to deepen profligacy or no, certain it is, from the most unexceptionable evidence of its bishop, that in ‘drunkenness and unchastity' this diocese has attained to an unenviable pre-eminence ;' and, 'without any exception, the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland exceed, in the number of illegitimate births, any county ' in England.' The right reverend prelate is unable to trace the evil to its root. He, indeed, tells us, that 'having most carefully read the writings of many of that party,' i. e. the Church party, and having observed their tendencies, and, I may say, their practical and actual results,' he feels not a little grateful, under God, to him who preceded him in the diocese, 'that no encouragement had been given in the diocese to the dissemination of 'views so diametrically opposed in spirit to the writings of the reformers and to the scriptures of truth.' He is also thankful that we appear to be clear of the filthiness of the Confessional, as well as free, in nearly every parish, from the more harmless puerilities connected with the service of the Church of Rome;' but in the midst of his gratulations, on the very same page that he announces that in Carlisle he is relieved from High

Churchmen, surgit amari aliquid, he is somewhat sorry to add that the result of all this freedom from that which is so near akin to the errors of Romanism,' is more of drunkenness and fornication than in any other diocese of England. With ordinary mortals one would have thought that the cause for regret and lamentation-the deep festering moral pollution— would have attenuated the note of triumph and vulgar party rejoicing. Some persons, and Bishop Villiers amongst the number, are, however, thankful for very small mercies; nay, so humble are they, that they raise their notes of joy over very positive wickedness. In this diocese no question on the seventh commandment has been asked by the lips of bishop, dean, late or present, nor of any of the mountain clergy: no indiscreet inquiries by the non-tractarian clergy about sins of the flesh, but in place thereof, open, unblushing, all but universal profligacy, 'more drunkenness, a greater number of illegitimate births.' Driven to account for this state of things, an Evangelical clergy, no Roman puerilites, no filthy questions, but only filthy living, he suggests and in the same breath withdraws the suggestion, that neglect of landlords and. statute-hirings may have something to do with it; but as 'the landlords of the north are as zealous for the improvement and the comfort of their tenants as landlords in the south' (p. 17), and as statute-hirings exist in other dioceses as well as in Carlisle, it is difficult to understand the logic as we confess that we are sometimes puzzled at the grammar of this charge. Surely the extent of such evils as drunkenness and fornication, and the pre-eminence in wickedness to which Bishop Villiers assures us that the diocese of Carlisle has attained, should have made him suspect that there was some truth in his own statement, and that the absence of what he, borrowing a phrase from Mr. Baring, terms the filthiness of the Confessional,' and the exclusive prevalence of teaching, such as he deems Evangelical, may, after all, if not conduce to swell the amount, at any rate, not tend to stem the flood of drunkenness and debauchery.

Not that there was the least occasion for this exhibition which Bishop Villiers has made of himself. One who is usually bracketed with him, the Bishop of Norwich, has pursued a very different course. Dr. Pelham's views are well known, are held, we are sure, conscientiously, and are coupled with some ability, entire earnestness, and the manners and feelings of a gentleman. Where these are, a Bishop is saved from the mistakes which attach to a blundering partisanship. a blundering partisanship. The Primary Charge of the Bishop of Norwich' (Rivingtons) is written in the most temperate and conciliatory spirit; it is entirely devoted to work, and there is not a single reference to the controversies of the day. Dr. Pelham feels that he is Bishop of a diocese, not the representative of a faction. No doubt he retains precisely the same views which he held in Marylebone; but he does not make his throne the place for enforcing them with an authority as unjust as its policy is short-sighted.

And so on another side, the 'Bishop of Salisbury's Charge' (Rivingtons) is of the same plain practical character, warmed as it could not but be by the affectionate, anxious, loving, and most paternal mind and manners of the respected author. Bishop Hamilton could not but speak strongly on the Divorce Bill; and we cannot forget that had the Bishops as a body

done their duty to the Church in this matter, we had been spared an evil of which, large as are the immediate consequences, they are as nothing to the remote evils attached to it.

The People in Church' (Bell & Daldy) is the title, and not a very fortunate one, of a complete and formal treatise on the Choral Service of the Church, by Mr. Pittman, Chapel Master of Lincoln's Inn. The author of course has the advantage of writing after the labours of others into the history and construction of the Prayer-book; and though this may detract from the originality of his investigations, yet the spirit and reverential feeling which it displays are Mr. Pittman's own. The few last pages do as much credit to the writer as a man of sound feeling, as the more technical portion of the volume does to his professional attainments.

'A Letter to the Bishop of London on Confession and Absolution, with special reference to the case of the Rev. Alfred Poole, by the Hon. and Rev. R. Liddell' (Hayes), is the authentic account of a case on which we do not trust ourselves to speak. The result of the Boyn Hill inquiry,' however, confirms a sentence of Mr. Liddell's, which we believe to contain the exact truth :

6

For my part, I have strong conviction, that truth will always bear sifting; and I have no doubt that God will, in His great mercy, bring out 'the true doctrine of our Church upon this controverted point, by the instrumentality of its very adversaries. Satan is very crafty-but he generally overreaches himself.

The doctrine of the two blessed Sacraments of Christ our Lord, has, ' each in its turn, been vehemently assailed of late years. And what is the ' result? They are both far better understood and more deeply reverenced 'by the mass of English Churchmen than they were before.'

As we have already committed a slight breach of promise by departing from the brevity with which we pledged ourselves to treat of events in Scotland, we shall be excused for not noticing every pamphlet that has appeared. Three are now before us, two of which are not important enough to demand reply, or provoke the only kind of criticism which would be their due; we shall therefore leave them unnamed. But there is a third of very different character, the terse, vigorous, and masterly publication from the pen of the Rev. Canon Humble, of S. Ninian's, Perth, on the recent Episcopal Decisions' (Edinburgh: Lendrum). It is a searching criticism of the late Episcopal Synods and of the Synods of Aberdeen, as tested by Catholic and Scottish precedents. Any of our readers who have felt the slightest interest in the article on Scotland in our present number, may feel assured that a study of Mr. Humble's pamphlet is much needed, if they would attain to anything like a complete view of the case in all its bearings. Not only does the respected author approach the subject from a different (and that a very momentous) point of view, but he has likewise filled up several important lacunæ in our own critique. We believe that the bold freedom of speech here exercised will in reality (however unpalatable in some quarters) prove of essential service to the cause of moderation and equity.

SHORTER NOTICES OF BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS.

R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL,