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It would be easy to set forth many other reasons, inducing us to suggest the entire abolition of these jurisdictions; but as we are not aware of any one benefit which would result from their continuance, we conceive that the circumstances already stated will suffice. We therefore propose that the peculiar jurisdiction should be abolished.'

So much for number 1, the Courts Peculiar. Let us now turn to number 2, or the Diocesan Courts. Are these courts merely to be deprived of the power of persecuting? Is part of their jurisdiction to be preserved? Again we must refer those who are favourable to a discriminating law, abolishing the 'civil' jurisdiction, and retaining their spiritual or ecclesiastical power, to the deliberate recommendations of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners ;* In the course of our inquiry we became con'vinced of the impracticability of having JUDGES DULY QUALI"FIED WITH A COMPETENT BAR and skilful practitioners to ́ administer in the diocesan courts the testamentary and matrimo'nial laws which involve matters of such very high importance to the parties litigant, and to the public. The RETURNS which have 'been obtained from the diocesan registries show that the annual ' amount of business, and the emoluments of the judges and other officers, and of the practitioners in these courts, MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE IN THE GREATER NUMBER OF THE DIOCESES, THAT 'EFFICIENT COURTS CAN BE MAINTAINED.'

The Commissioners dismiss the Diocesan Courts by recommending the entire transfer of the contentious jurisdiction (i. e. the power to judge and determine differences between contending parties) possessed by them, to the provincial courts; and no one can fairly peruse the statements just quoted, and the facts with which the report abounds, without feeling satisfied that it would be an act of folly and unjust not to abolish these mock tribunals. All attempts to patch them up, must be unsatisfactory and idle: no man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for thereby the rent is made worse. Without entering further into the questio vexata of church discipline, or discussing the propriety of narrowing still more the jurisdiction of the courts of York and Canterbury, we conclude by protesting against any thing short of the extirpation of the diocesan and peculiar courts, joined with the abolition of the civil jurisdiction of the provincial courts. If they are not abolished, like the staff of a mi

*The following individuals composed the Commission: the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishops of London, Durham, Lincoln, St. Asaph, and Exeter, Lord Tenterden, Sir William Draper, Lord Wynyard, Sir. N. C. Tindal, Sir W. A. Alexander, Sir John Nicoll, Sir C. Robinson, Sir Herbert Jenner, Sir C. E. Carrington, and Stephen Lushington, and Cuttar Ferguson, Esqrs.; the deliberate opinion of such a body carry, in this case, peculiar weight.

litia, their powers can be enlarged at any particular exigency; and the breath of a Tory ministry can in a moment resuscitate them, to enter afresh, like an awakened giant, into the field against truth and liberty!

It is not to be expected that these relics of superstition and hierarchical tyranny will be surrendered without a struggle. They are too german to the system from which they sprang to be readily relinquished by its supporters. But their doom is sealed and cannot be much longer delayed. Denounced by the wise and considerate of all parties, branded with an infamous parentage, pregnant with evil but impotent for good, they stand out an anomalous and hateful institution, abhorrent to English freedom, and an insult to the christian faith. It remains to be seen what the government and parliament will do; but we must not trust to the supposed friendliness or professed intentions of either. Too implicit confidence has been the error and the crime of Dissenters in past days. Unaccustomed to the language of conciliation and respect from men in power, it is not to be marvelled at if they have suffered themselves to be ensnared by the good opinions and respectful treatment-so far at least as words are concerned-with which they have recently been entertained. Nor are we disposed to place all this to the account of mere hypocrisy, or even of political finesse. Some of our contemporaries, whose zeal far exceeds their charity and wisdom, may do so, but we cannot. It partakes, in our judgment, neither of candour nor of sagacity, and is adapted to irritate auxiliaries, rather than to combine and stimulate friends. We are not so forgetful of the past as to be unmindful of the services rendered to our cause-the cause of religious liberty, and therefore of christian truth-by some members of her majesty's present government. Those services were rendered at a time, and with a promptitude and zeal which bespoke their sincerity, and entail on us a debt of lasting gratitude.

But while we make this admission in all frankness and sincerity, we are at the same time concerned-deeply, growingly concerned to admonish the Dissenters of Great Britain, against that easy credence and implicit trust of men in office, which, as recently exhibited, has gone far to render us a laughing stock to our neighbours. Under God, we must trust ourselves and ourselves only. We must take our cause into our own hands, and with all the energy of men deeply versed in their principles and resolved on their vindication, must stand out open, unmasked, and fearless; having no reserve, and seeking no counsel from the world. So long as we trust our cause to politicians--no matter

VOL. VII.

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whether whig, radical, or tory-that cause will be betrayed and tampered with; will be patronized one day, and looked upon with coldness the next. Our course is simple, and requires only an honest mind to be pursued successfully. Where aid is proffered, let it be thankfully received; but it is at the peril of our fidelity to enter into any compromise, to be parties to any treaty, implied or expressed, whereby principle may be surrendered to expediency, and the moral power of our communities be diverted from its legitimate occupation to the achievement of petty triumphs. The practical grievance' ground, long held by the metropolitan leaders of dissent, is in our solemn judgment an erroneous, short-sighted, and treacherous position. It is a surrender-not intentional, we well know, but still practically a surrender, of the high and holy ground of religious obligation, the duty owed to God and his truth, for the promotion of our personal comfort and social respectability. In the one struggle, self is lost in the purity and heavenly-mindedness of the object sought; in the other, it is the very God of our idolatry, under whose banner we fight, and to whose glory all our successes mainly tend.

The course to be adopted in future does not admit of a moment's doubt, and the sooner we address ourselves to it the better. Our principles must be clearly unfolded, their legitimate applications and tendencies must be pointed out. We must address ourselves to the judgment and conscience of the nation; and in the spirit of our holy faith, must summon the religious of all parties to do justice to the insulted name and supremacy of their Lord. There is a power in such an appeal as this, before which spiritual wickednesses in high places, must fall prostrate. It will carry with it the beneficent aspect of a religious enterprize; and though opposed by prejudice and denounced by interested partizanship, will ultimately disabuse the judgment of this great empire, and effect another Reformation more scriptural, and far more complete, than that which our fathers wrought in days of old.

The

Our opponents are preparing the way of our triumph by the illustrations they supply of the temper and tendency of their system. A few years back, and their ecclesiastical courts may have been represented as innocuous though unseemly institutions. But they cannot be so now. The sleeping tiger has sprung from his lair, and his bloodthirstiness is as great as ever. system is the same it always was, and there are not wanting men we say it in the fullest confidence in the truth of our declaration-who possess the will to work it with all the murderous energy it displayed during the palmy days of the Stuarts. If any doubt our statement, let them look to Chelmsford jail. Oh, ye bishops and dignitaries of the parliament-made church, and ye especially among her members who profess the spirit of the meek

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and lowly Jesus, what can ye mean, when we hear you prate about your Church being the most tolerant church in christen'dom. Tolerant, indeed; then what does the incarcerationthe long and wearisome incarceration-of John Thorogood mean? He believes your system to be unscriptural, your altars to be polluted, and his conscience tells him he must not be actively concurrent in their support. Admit that he may be wrong in this, still such are his convictions, and as an honest man he acts accordingly. This is his only crime, and how do ye meet it? Shame upon ye, Protestants! lasting, burning shame! Discard the name ye bear, or open the doors of his prison-house, and let the captive go free. The very papists hiss, and smile contemptuously upon you. Rome invites you to her bosom, and hopes to find in your rampant bigotry materials more fitted to her purpose than her own communion supplies.

The claims of John Thorogood on the friends of religious liberty cannot be overrated. This is simple truth, and it is due to the victim of priestly intolerance to state it. If those claims have been neglected in any quarter, whence sympathy and kind feeling were especially to be expected-and we confess our suspicions that such has been the case-yet the future may remedy in good part the past, and teach our enemies that whatever oversights have been committed, and temporary misunderstandings have arisen, we are nevertheless one in heart and purpose. have neglected a duty is bad, to persist in and to justify such neglect is tenfold worse.

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Art. VI. Guy's Hospital Reports. Edited by GEORGE H. Barlow, M.A. and L.M., Trin. Coll. Cam., and JAMES P. BABINGTON, M.A., Trin. Coll. Cam. October, 1839. Art. Mr. Towne's Observations on the Incubated Egg. London: Highley.

A GROWING interest in scientific researches is one of the features of the present times. The knowledge which is accumulated from this source is no longer the exclusive property of a profession. Chemistry, so replete with wonders, is cultivated by others beside the medical profession. Her opulent treasures, while collaterally they multiply the agencies of the healing art, are the source of wealth to the merchant, of fascination to the studious inquirer, and of numerous delights to society at large. The kindred sciences of anatomy and physiology present attractions also to the general reader. The cumbrous and forbidding phraseology which surrounds them affords but a feeble barrier against intruders, and

when carried into the wider department of inquiry which the animal kingdom supplies, the phenomena they reveal constitute an assemblage of designs, illustrating the adaptation of means to ends, and emphatically announcing the power, wisdom, and beneficence of the Creator. It is here the contemplative mind delights to repose. Avoiding the mazes of speculation, it enters a world of realities, every one of which bears the impress of the divine hand; and amidst the scene of wonders which are unveiled, none would be more amazing, than that the investigator himself should return with his mind unawed, unrefined, unimproved.

To watch the development of the chick under incubation has long been a favorite pursuit among scientific naturalists; and an array of eminent men, during a long series of years, might be cited as having lent their talents to elucidate the process. The subject, indeed, is inviting. It is the only means, within reach, where the formative process can accurately be noticed, and from the domestic habits of the hen, and the facility with which eggs can be procured, experiments may be repeated and conclusions tested, without restriction. It is, too, free from the revolting method of injuring the mother, while it embraces all that can be desired for close, extended, and conclusive observation. We had, indeed, reason to believe that the field had already been well-troddenthat the structures, harmonious actions, and relations of this beautiful microcosm had been displayed, and that only occasional and isolated additions were left for future investigators. It appears, however, that in this we have been deceived, for our attention has been directed to some observations by Mr. Towne, of Guy's Hospital, in which the author propounds several opinions utterly at variance with those ordinarily entertained on the subject.

It would be foreign to our purpose, and incompatible with our limits, minutely to describe the various changes which attend the evolution of the chick. An account of them, with illustrative engravings, may be seen in the fourth volume of Sir Everard Home's works, or as copied from him, in a much more accessible form, in the volume on the Domestic Habits of Birds, published in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge. Our object at present will be just so far to sketch the process as to render it intelligible to our readers; and by condensing the results of previous experimenters and reviewing the observations of Mr. Towne, impartially to seek out the truth."

The time required for the complete formation of the chick is twenty-one days. Commencing as a small spherical speck on the surface of the yolk, it gradually enlarges, and variations are appreciable on each successive day. The yolk, being specifically lighter than the white or albumen, has a tendency to rise to the part which is uppermost, whilst by some small ligamentous bands termed the chalazes or poles, it is permitted to revolve on its

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