"8 A sheltering home Thou art to me, It is to be regretted that those changes of metre which are used by the author to mark the transitions of thought in the longer Psalm, have not also been employed to mark the alteration in style in the original Poems. For example, in Psalm xix., where, so great is the diversity of style, that many critics are of opinion that at the 7th verse a different Psalm commences, Keble has used one uniform metre; while in the 119th Psalm, an acrostic poem with no diversity of style, each successive eight stanzas are adopted to a different metre. The most striking fault is the obscurity of some lines and the ambiguity of others; as, for instance, at the opening of Psalm xx. we read, "1 The Lord look down in evil hour, When thou dost pray; thy fort and tower Be the great name of Israel's God; 2 He send thee from His holy place The first line more easily recals to the mind a curse, than the tender wish, "The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble." But a rich and noble gift like this truly Poetical Version of the Psalms, which is a blessing to our land, and to all lands so long as the English tongue shall endure, is not to be looked at in a narrow spirit of criticism. Its merit consists not alone in what the author has achieved-it is almost equally useful as an incentive to others to follow in his course. That which is actually done has ever some stain of mortal weakness; that which is nobly conceived is perfect as far as the idea is concerned, and that works ever onwards, seeking new and more complete forms for its outward manifestation. HOW TO CURE THE FOLLIES OF FANATICISM. Ir is true that some of the Quakers were extravagant and foolish; they cried out from the windows at the magistrates and ministers that passed by, and mocked the civil and religious institutions of the country. They riotously interrupted public worship; and women, forgetting the decorum of their sex, and claiming a divine origin for their absurd caprices, smeared their faces, and went naked through the streets. Indecency, however, is best punished by slight chastisements. The house of Folly, has perpetual succession; yet numerous as is the progeny, each individual of the family is very short-lived, and dies the sooner where its extravagance is excessive. A fault against manners may not be punished by a crime against nature.-Bancroft's History of America, I. 454. HOW TO PUT DOWN "SECTARIES." I never shall forget the answer of one of our primates to a body of clergy, who brought him an address, complaining of the increase of sectarian and itinerant preachers, asking his advice what they should do. "Gentlemen," said the reverend man, "outpreach them-outlive them!" There is in fact no other way.-General Floyd to Dr. Bell, Nov. 24, 1811-Bell's Life, II. 640. CRITICAL NOTICES. Wright's History of the House of Hanover, &c. WE return to this very amusing work and its cento of humorous illustrations, chiefly for the purpose of selecting some extracts on topics bearing on the religious history of England. The reign of Queen Anne was a period singularly dangerous to religious liberty; and during the closing months of her life, it seemed as if much of the freedom secured by the Act of Toleration was about to be destroyed. The death of the Queen put a stop to the course of High-church legislation, which would have made it an offence in a Nonconformist to educate even his own son, but it could not disabuse the minds of the ignorant and brutal populace in the cities of England of the gross prejudices and the rank hatred which, for selfish ends, had been instilled into them against Dissenters. This is Mr. Wright's account: "The prejudices against Dissenters were inflamed in every possible manner, for the hardly concealed purpose of raising a new High-church mob, and exerting through it the same violent influence over the elections which had been so successful in bringing together the Parliament that was now separating. Two agents, opposite enough in their characters, were actively employed in this work -the pulpit and the stage. Before the end of December it was found necessary, by a royal proclamation, to order the clergy to avoid entering upon state affairs in their sermons. At the theatre, the plays or the prologues often contained political sentiments or allusions which led at times to serious riots. Farces were brought out in which the Dissenters were exhibited in an odious or degrading light. The effect of this incessant agitation was not long in shewing itself, for the first outbreak took place on the day of the King's coronation, the 20th of October, 1714. On the evening of that day, the citizens of Bristol illuminated their windows and made bonfires in the streets, and the corporation gave a ball. The first signal for the riot which followed is said to have been a report that the Whigs were going to burn the effigy of Sacheverell; upon which a mob suddenly collected together and rushed through the streets, breaking the windows that were illuminated, and putting out the bonfires, at the same time raising ferocious shouts of Down with the Roundheads!' 'God bless Dr. Sacheverell!' They repaired to the town-hall, and threw large stones through the windows of the back room, to the great danger of the persons assembled there. The attacks of the mob were now more especially directed against the Dissenters; they entirely gutted the house of one of them, a baker named Stevens, who was killed by the assailants in an attempt to expostulate with them. This fatal catastrophe appears to have arrested the mob, and no further mischief was done; but several of the rioters were tried and severely punished. The town of Chippenham, in Wiltshire, continued in an uproar during several nights, and houses were attacked and their inmates ill treated. Other riots, equally alarming, occurred at the same time at Norwich, Reading, Birmingham and Bedford. At Birmingham the mob was very violent, and their shout was, 'Sacheverell for ever! Down with the Whigs!" At Bedford, where the proceedings of the mob seem to have been countenanced by the magistrates, the public May-pole was dressed in mourning. In spite of a proclamation against riots, issued on the 2nd of November, the mobs in many places continued to create disturbances. At Axminster, in Devonshire, on the 5th of November, the 'High-church rabble,' as the newspapers call them, shouted for the Pretender, and drank his health as king of England."-I. 22, 23. "On the 23rd of April, 1715, the anniversary of the birthday of Queen Anne, the London mob began to assemble towards evening at the conduit on Snow Hill, where they hung up a flag and a hoop; and money having been given them to purchase wine, they collected round a large bonfire. From thence they moved off in parties in different directions, patrolling the streets during the whole night, shouting, 'God bless the Queen and High-church! Bolingbroke and Sacheve *Continued from p. 51. rell!' and attacking houses, breaking windows, insulting and robbing passengers, and levying contributions every where. Many of the mob were armed with dangerous weapons, and several persons were severely wounded. It was at one time proposed to pull down the Dissenters' meeting-houses, but this project was for some reason or other abandoned. The streets continued to be more or less infested in this manner night after night for some time. The 29th of April was the Duke of Ormond's birthday, and that night the streets of London were the scene of new riots and outrages. On the night of Saturday, May 28 (the King's birthday), and on the Sunday night, the 29th (the anniversary of the Restoration), the mob committed great outrages in different parts of London, and dangerously wounded some of the constables and watch. They burnt the effigies of the chief Dissenting ministers, shouted 'High-church and Ormond!' and publicly drank the Pretender's health in Ludgate Street and other places. A riot of a similar character occurred at Oxford on the King's birth-day, and the Quakers' chapel was attacked and stript by the mob. Within a few days of this time, the same riotous spirit had carried itself into several of the largest provincial towns. At Manchester, early in June, the mob had become absolutely master of the town for several days; they destroyed all the Dissenters' chapels, threw open the prison, drunk the Pretender's health, and committed many outrages. There was near the same time a Jacobite riot at Leeds, in Yorkshire. A troop of soldiers were sent to Manchester, and the Mayor of Leeds, who was accused of connivance, was brought to London in the custody of a King's messenger. Yet in July this spirit had become still more general, and had spread especially through Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire. Very serious tumults occurred at Wolverhampton, Warrington, Shrewsbury, Stafford, Newcastle-under-Lyne, Lichfield, West Bromwich and many other places. The meeting-houses of the Dissenters were every where destroyed, cowardly outrages were committed, and in some places sanguinary combats ended in loss of life. When the mob was pulling down the meeting-house at Wolverhampton, one of their leaders mounted on the roof, flourished his hat round his head, and shouted, 'D- King George and the Duke of Marlborough!' At Shrewsbury, where the old cry of 'High-church and Dr. Sacheverell!' was raised, a justice of the peace and a substantial tradesman were convicted of being ringleaders of the mob. At the end of July there was a serious riot at Leek, in Staffordshire, where much mischief was done; and there was another at Oxford as late as the 1st of September, when the mob shouted, 'Ormond!' and 'No George!' and the Pretender's health was said to have been drunk in some of the colleges. "These tumults called forth the Riot Act. still in force, which was passed in the month of June, and which, by making the offence felony, and obliging the city or hundred to make good the damages committed, did much towards restoring order, &c. "The Flying Post, a violent Whig paper, in its intelligence from Coventry of the date September 10, gives rather an amusing anecdote of the preventive effect of the new Riot Act, and of the methods sometimes taken to evade it for the perpetration of mischief. On the Sunday preceding, a mob had been collected at Burton-upon-Trent, with the desire at least of pulling down a Dissenters' meeting-house there at the time of divine service; but, informed of the consequences, they procured a young bull, cut off its ears and tail, tied squibs and crackers to it, and thus goaded it forwards towards the meeting-house door. The Whig writer exultingly tells us how the tortured animal suddenly turned round and rushed through the mob, knocking down and trampling upon all who stood in its way; and how it then ran nearly two miles, and furiously threw itself into the parish church, where it killed and severely injured several of the congregation.' "I. 31-34. Mr. Wright has gathered some amusing facts illustrative of the Bangorian controversy, also respecting the Non-jurors and Bishop Atterbury; but we will pass on to his account of an eccentric charlatan, whose arts have had many unsuccessful imitators, some in our own age. Orator Henley was probably quack and madman in equal proportions. He had the good fortune to light on an age when the press had just sufficient activity to aid his schemes for drawing public attention, but not sufficient power or honesty to expose his folly. "In the summer of 1726 appeared what the Political State for that year describes as a blazing star, that seemed portentous to the Established Church.' John Henley, a native of Leicestershire, had graduated at Cambridge; but filled, as it would appear, with overweening vanity and assurance, he defied the authority of the Established Church, and not only set up a new religious scheme, which he called Primitive Christianity, but, with a mere smattering of knowledge, undertook to teach and lecture upon all sciences, all languages, and in fact all subjects whatever, on which, to judge from all accounts, he must have talked a great deal of unintelligible rigmarole. On the 14th of May, 1726, Henley first advertised his scheme in the public newspapers, and on the 10th of July, having taken a licence from a magistrate to deliver public lectures, he established what he called his 'Oratory' in a sort of wooden booth, built over the shambles in Newport market, near Leicester Fields, which had been formerly used for a temporary meeting-house by a congregation of French refugees. Here and in Lincoln's-Inn Fields (the corner near Clare Market'), to which latter place he removed at the end of February, 1729, Henley continued to hold forth for some years, preaching on theological subjects on the Sunday, and on all other subjects on the Wednesday evening, to which sometimes he added a lecture on Monday and Friday. In spite of his locality among the butchers,-to whom at times he gave a lecture, which he called his butchers' oration,'-the orator exhibited himself in an ostentatious manner, clad in the full robes of a priest, attended by his clerk or reader; and he employed a man to attend the door, whom he dignified with the name of his 'ostiary,' and who took a shilling a-head for admission. On certain occasions he administered what he termed the primitive eucharist,' and he performed other religious ceremonies. The clergy were highly indignant at this man's proceedings, and he met with opposition from other sources; on the 18th of January, 1729, he was presented by a Grand Jury for profaning the character of a priest, by delivering indecent discourses in clerical robes, which was probably the cause of his removal to Lincoln's-Inn Fields; but he braved all, until he gradually lost the popularity which filled his oratory with a numerous audience. This man continued his performances in Clare Market till after the middle of the century. "When we look over Henley's weekly advertisements in the newspapers, we cannot but give him credit for singular ingenuity in selecting subjects calculated to excite general curiosity, both in his theological discourses on the Sunday, and in his miscellaneous lectures on the other days of the week. As he proceeded, he took up exciting political questions, discussed very freely the character of the statesmen and the scholars of the day, made historical parallels, and became abusive, scurrilous and licentious in his language, invoking the lowest passions rather than the reasoning faculties of his hearers. This course has been attempted in later times, but never with the extraordinary success which for a time attended the discourses of Orator Henley."-I. 103-105. "We are easily led to doubt the morality of a schemer like Henley, and the reports of his contemporaries seem to rank it rather low. Hogarth introduced him, according to common report, among the characters in his Modern Midnight Conversation; and the same satirical artist represented him in another picture performing the rites of baptism, but evidently more attentive to the beauty of the mother than to the operation he is performing on the infant. Another rough sketch by Hogarth represents in burlesque the interior of the oratory during service. The orator's fame was, however, so great, that several engravings were made of him, representing him holding forth from his pulpit, enriched with velvet and gold."-I. 106, 107. Among a number of prints and caricatures relating to Henley, one in the collection of Mr. Hawkins represents him as a fox seated upon his tub, with the words the orator' beneath. A monkey peeps from within, with neck-bands (acting as clerk), and pointing to money in his hand, the object of the orator's worship; beneath him is written the word 'Amen.' Behind the orator is a curtain, on which Henley is pictured addressing a large audience, with the inscription, INVENIAM AUT FACIAM, the vainglorious motto which he placed on medals struck for distribution among his followers."-I. 114. We can make room at present for only one other extract from Mr. Wright's first volume. It relates to the Jew Bill; and the incidents collected by our author will shew that the advances made during the past century are very great, and may assist us to be patient of the feeble intolerance of 1848 in resisting the Ministerial measure for giving to Hebrew citizens the right, when elected, of sitting in Parliament as the representatives of their fellow-citizens. "The Act of Parliament of 1752 to permit the naturalization of foreign Jews, which was the work of the Pelhams, had not passed without a violent opposition in the House of Commons; and, although the Bishops had offered no opposition to it in the House of Lords, the clergy out of doors raised such a general outcry, as reminded people of the High-church agitation of the days of Sacheverell. The alarm of the Church party had been further excited by the deistical tendency of the posthumous works of Lord Bolingbroke, whom, while alive, they had almost sanctified as their political champion. The merchants of London began also to be alarmed at imaginary commercial advantages which the Jews were to derive from the measure. As the period for the general elections was now fast approaching, the excitement increased tenfold. Multitudes of controversial tracts were published on this subject as well as others, the more immediate design of which was to inflame the passions of the mob. Among these were histories of the Jews, written in a partial spirit, and magnifying their pretended sins; fearful prognostications of their increasing power, and of their encroachment on the liberties and on the commercial power of the country; and strange imaginary pictures of the state of the country under Jewish supremacy, when it was supposed that the Jews would gradually have made themselves masters of the estates and property of the English nobility and gentry. Caricatures against the Jews were exhibited in the windows of the print-shops, and ballads equally bitter were sung about the streets. Thus, in August, 1753, a caricature is advertised under the title of 'The Circumcised Gentiles, or a Journey to Jerusalem,' stated to be engraved by Issachar Barebone, Jun.; and, in December, another caricature was announced, entitled, "The Racers Unhorsed, or the Jews Jockey'd.' *The faults of the Jews, and the dangers to be apprehended from them, are portrayed in doggrel verses, and vengeance is called down upon those who had advocated their cause. The Jews Naturalized, or the English Alienated; a Ballad,' breathes the same spirit, and ascribes the passing of the Naturalization Act to that extensive system of bribery with which everybody was then familiar. Even the clergy preached against the Jew Bill from the pulpit; and the Ministry became so alarmed for the elections, that they weakly yielded to the foolish clamour, and repealed their own Act at the commencement of the session at the end of 1753," I. 224, 225. We find we must reserve to a third notice some passages in the second volume which we have marked for extract, some of which indicate on the part of the author a less liberal spirit than that we recognize and commend in the other parts of his work. Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool during the Thirty-sixth Session. London-Parker. THESE proceedings contain ten papers read before the Society on very various subjects. Amongst the best are papers by Mr. Yates, entitled Archeological Notices respecting Paper, by Mr. Rimmer on Gothic Architecture, and by Rev. A. Hume, LL.D., on the Intellectuality of the Lower Animals. We give as a specimen a portion of Mr. J. B. Yates's Archæological Notices respecting Paper used for writing and printing. "The papyrus, composed from the fibres of the reed of that name, was used in Egypt long before the Christian era; but it was evident that, simultaneously, much writing was executed upon simple leaves of palm, plantain, &c. Indeed, the word folium, leaf, anciently used, and still retained in modern languages, would lead to the conclusion that this more simple vehicle for writing may claim the priority. In proof of this, several specimens were produced of hieroglyphic, coptic and demotic writing upon leaves as well as papyrus. In the fifth century, papyrus became very scarce and dear; parchment was therefore much substituted, until that also became scarce, when the manufacture of paper was introduced into Europe, about the tenth century. This, as compared with the |