senters will doubtless continue to resist church-rates, for indubitably their unanimous concurrence will never be obtained to their imposition. And if so, then farewell to the hope held out in the first portion of the speech of the Premier, that when the benefits resulting from this new system should become obvious, Parliament might be induced to make suitable and necessary grants for Church Extension. If Sir Robert Peel, or any future statesman, is to wait until he has obtained "the unanimous concurrence of the house and of the country," before he shall ask for a Government grant for Church Extension and Endowment, the Dissenters may rest perfectly contented and calm, for as long as one Dissenter shall exist in the land, unanimity or concurrence could not be obtained. And as to preferring this very small, wholly inadequate, and admitted to be special and peculiar plan, only for providing, during sixteen years to come, an annual sum of 30,000l. to be applied solely for the endowment of churches in populous districts, to a general measure of Parliamentary or national grants for building and endowing churches, glebe-houses, and schools, simply because in the latter case some would "reluctantly vote," and others "reluctantly pay" them, we think there is more of sentiment than of principle-more of "a desire to please or to propitiate," than there is of sound orthodoxy in the declaration.

If taxes were not proposed until they were called for, and were popular, the treasury would soon be empty, and tax-collectors might destroy their books. No, that is not the way of stating the question. Is the Church of England the Church of an immense majority of the nation? Yes, or no? We say, and we are fully prepared to prove our assertion, yes. Then, is this Church to be supported, or is it to be allowed to decline and decay? We say, supported. Is it so at present? No. Are the people of this country supplied with adequate church accommodation, and with a sufficient number of clergy? No. Will this plan of Sir Robert Peel do more than endow a certain number of new churches, in populous districts, for sixteen years to come? It will not. Then why is the Government of this country, in the face of a state of things almost unparalleled in the history of any Christian land, to remain for sixteen years to wait the results of this small and wholly inadequate "experiment," because there are some who would reluctantly vote," and others "reluctantly pay," a tax for Church Extension? We pause for a reply. That reply we do not meet with in the speech of Sir Robert Peel, nor in any of the addresses delivered in behalf of this "Ecclesiastical Commission and Bounty Board Loan transaction!"

Sir Robert Inglis, that real champion of a living, active,

energetic Church, has complained of the Bill, that by it the Government confined itself to enabling one part of the ecclesiastical system to assist another, and refrained from calling on the State to contribute one fraction to Church Extension. "If (asked the honourable baronet), if the welfare of the country be dependent on its religious principles, is this the only way in which those principles are to be advanced by the Parliament and the Government?" The same intrepid champion of Church principles, and of our Episcopal institutions, attacked, in measured, but in pointed and well-directed terms, the expectations and hopes of the Premier, that, by not applying for a Parliamentary grant, he would appease and satisfy the Dissenters.

"No (said Sir Robert Inglis), the Dissenters will not be pacified by such a measure as this, and the experience of these last three days ought to have carried conviction to the mind of Sir Robert Peel, that no measure he could bring forward would succeed in effecting such an object. In every point of view it would have been far better to have said at once, We shall support the doctrines, discipline, and interests of the Church of England-a Church not merely established by law, but also established in the hearts and affections of the people.'

Not only, however, has Sir Robert Inglis, but other warm and enlightened friends of the Church have objected to this measure. Those objections may be summed up as follows:

It does not carry out fully and effectually the parochial system.

It is only the ekeing out the Establishment in one part of the country, and curtailing its resources in another.

It is a measure of too circumscribed a nature, and is only adapted to meet one portion of a class of evils, and not all portions or classes.

It is a measure of a temporary character, and will cease at the end of sixteen years.

It is a measure which makes Parliamentary grants for Church purposes subservient to the satisfactory or unsatisfactory opinions, which may be entertained hereafter, as to the results obtained by this proceeding.

It is a measure which encourages the principle of loans, and which ought to be discouraged by all religious bodies.

It is a measure which gives a permanent sanction to the constitution of the Ecclesiastical Commission.

To the minutia, and to the financial working of the measure, other objections have been urged; but Sir Robert Peel has replied to these more satisfactorily than he has to those raised against its principle.

Before we terminate our remarks, it is only an act of com

mon justice to record, that whilst the measure is objected to by some, it is warmly approved by others. The friends of the Government plan say

"The first object was to provide for the support of the clergymen in the several places wherein they might be wanted, and the next to build churches." Therefore the measure is praiseworthy.

"Wherever the clergy are found useful, churches will follow." Therefore send the clergy first, and support this plan.

"The Bill will encourage the preaching of the Gospel in populous and neglected districts, where that Gospel would continue not to be preached if churches must first be erected." Therefore support the plan.

The Bill will prevent an increased degree of animosity being cherished and indulged in against the Church by Dissenters.' Therefore vote the measure.

"The Bill proceeds on the principle acted upon by our pious ancestors of leaving it to individual benevolence and private virtue to erect places of worship." Therefore rally round the scheme of the Govern

ment.

"The Bill will give to the country at least three hundred additional clergymen." Therefore those who believe in the moral, social, and religious influence of the clergy, should plead for the Bill.

"The Bill is at least a step, and a most important one, in the right direction." Therefore, at least, accept the plan as a promise of future good.

"The Bill proceeds on the right principle of exhausting the means of the Church herself, before application is made to Parliament." Therefore vote for the Bill.

“The Bill is a germ of a great principle." Therefore cultivate the germ.

"The Bill is really one for the advancement of the temporal comforts of the people-for those temporal comforts are never more effectually secured than by the presence of a good resident minister amongst them." Therefore support this Bill, even as politicians, independent of doing so as Christians.

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The Bill secures to the new clergymen such stipends as will enable them to discharge, in a manner befitting their station, the duties attached to their office." Therefore those who are for supporting the dignity of the clerical office plead for the Bill.

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The Bill will develope the yet undiscovered and unexhausted resources of the people of the country in support of religious instruction." Therefore all friends to the religious instruction of the masses should support the Bill.

"The Bill, dealing as it does with the property of the Church, is a very fair and just measure." Therefore vote for the Bill.

"The Bill is fair and just towards Dissenters, and none can with propriety oppose it." Therefore all who are averse to agitation should support the Bill.

Thus the measure has its votaries as well as its opposers, and

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the former unquestionably predominate in both houses. How could it be otherwise? Churchmen adopt it, because an instalment on a debt is better than no payment. The Dissenters do not oppose it, because it makes no appeal to their pockets, and does not interfere with their prejudices. Romanists are indifferent to it, because they are too much engrossed with the progress of their own Church to take any interest in that of others. And the great mass of the laissez aller portion of the community think no more about it than if it had never been proposed, for what care they for the Church, for morals, or for religion? So the Bill will pass, and some good will be effected; but the grand question of CHURCH EXTENSION will be left, as before, undecided! Is this wise?

ART. VII.-The Ancestry of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and of His Royal Highness Prince Albert. Comprised in Thirtytwo Tables, with Biographical Memoirs and Heraldic Notices. By GEORGE RUSSELL FRENCH, Architect. London: Pickering.

2. The Genealogy and Armorial Bearings of the Sovereigns of England, and a Description of the different Styles of British Architecture. By ARCHIBALD BARRINGTON, M.D. With an accompanying Chart. London: Varty, York House, Strand. THAT reverence for antiquity which forms so large an ingredient of Catholicity in religion-which turns the hearts of the children towards the fathers, and binds together as one household of faith the brethren of all generations of the Church, forms also a large ingredient of loyalty in States, which, like our own, enjoy the privilege of hereditary institutions, and under which we can look back with pride, as well as reverence, to those from whom we have derived those institutions, and emulate their virtues, and transmit those institutions unimpaired to our children. those august persons who stand at the head of such institutions, and are entitled to all reverence from their subjects, have themselves to remember that they are men; and to them also it is most necessary to bear in mind the principles upon which their power is based, since it is by uniformity of rule alone that fixed institutions can subsist, and their stability be perpetuated.

And

As none of the States of Europe can at all compete with England, for institutions stretching into the most remote antiquity, and remaining steadfast, because fixed in the affections of the people, under convulsions which have overturned all the ancient institutions of other States; so the sovereigns of Europe

cannot at all compete with Queen Victoria in point of ancestry, whether we look to length of line, brilliancy of collateral alliances, or the mighty deeds of the individuals by whose bravery, wisdom, and virtue, the line has been perpetuated.

Of these heroic deeds of the illustrious dead, heraldry and architecture furnish the abiding records. The achievements of the individual are embodied in his arms, and perpetuated in stone, to form his monument; and these arms transmitted, to posterity, excite in them an emulation of the noble deeds, and a desire to add fresh lustre to the memorial, that they may show living testimonials of their descent, in similarity of character to those whose arms they esteem it an honour to bear.

We are induced to put together two works, each of which is very meritorious in its kind, both to remark upon the great diffusion of information in the present day-and this information not necessarily superficial in consequence of its diffusion-and to take the opportunity of combining architecture with heraldry, in the remarks which we have to make. For though heraldry does not combine at all with Grecian architecture, and has nothing to do with architectural principles or classical models, and so they must be considered as two independent professions, requiring distinct courses of study; yet in British architecture there

an association of heraldic ornament, which not only throws considerable light upon the history of the buildings, but has such an importance, that to it the form and arrangements of the building are often made subsidiary.

The first of these works is by an architect, but it is strictly what it professes to be-genealogical and heraldic; and it shows an acquaintance with the subject and an accuracy of facts which would do credit to a professional herald; while it is wholly free from pedantry, and those dry technicalities and minute and unimportant details which are so often found in professional works, to the disgust of mere general readers. Advantages these which are attributable to the good taste of the writer, and to his fortunate access "to the excellent genealogical and heraldic library, collected by the late Sir Thomas Gery Cullum, Baronet, and Bath King of Arms." (preface viii.)

The text gives, in an unpretending and in an amusing form, all that is generally requisite to be known concerning the several branches of the illustrious houses of which it professes to treat, the arms borne by them being not engraved, but described, and chiefly on the authority of Robert Glover, Somerset herald in the time of Elizabeth. And the tables at the end of the book present very clearly the summary of each branch separately and successively; being, as the author anticipates, an improvement