men-a pretty fair specimen by the way-of the Jeffrey notion of what is just and right in adverse criticism. Coleridge "at last actually, and in good set terms, denies that any dissenter has a right to toleration! and in perfect consistency, maintains that it is the duty of the magistrate to stop heresy and schism by persecutionif he only has reason to think that in this way the evil will be arrested, adding, by way of example, that he would be ready to ship off-anywhere, any missionaries who might attempt to disturb the undoubting Lutheranism of certain exemplary Norwegians, whom he takes under his special protection.

Certain exemplary Norwegians! Whom he takes under his special protection! What a funny air does this way of putting it give to the passage supposed to be cited;-cited, too, not from a treatise sanctioned or deliberately given to the world by its author, but from the reminiscences of a great man's Table-talk. Now, we will, by the aid of an imperfect recollection, not having the volumes before us at present, give what we conceive to be the substance of what Coleridge really said.

If we remember aright, he spoke of the practical necessity for toleration in modern England, as something felt to be axiomatic on all sides; and yet when one begins to think about it, singularly difficult in theory,-of the doubt which might attach to what is taken for granted to be the dissenter's right to it on general constitutional grounds, irrespectively, of course, of the Toleration Act. He then says, that, though practically an advocate of toleration in England and countries similarly situated, he might be very much disposed to "ship off" any disturber of religion among a people like the Norwegians, who are united in a faith and practice, right at least relatively, to the supposed disturber. Now, if Lord Jeffrey can see no difficulty here, if the case supposed be perfectly clear to him, he must excuse our saying that it is because he has never really estimated the several bearings of the subject.

But we must hasten to a close. Mr. Macaulay's contributions to the Edinburgh Review have, as we need scarcely say, a far higher literary value than Lord Jeffrey's; but by the time that the former gentleman got access to that Review, it had ceased to have any national character, whole numbers being written, quite as probably in England as in Scotland. About Mr. Macaulay, whether we look at his birth, education, acquirements, or cast of thought, there is obviously nothing Scotch save the name. We may, therefore, stop at this point of our reviewing labours, and ask in what the intellectual life of Scotland either has consisted, or is likely ever to consist?

Its past character, has, in every important point of view, been deplorable enough; but is it likely to be better hereafter? We fear not, except as regards one ground of uncertain hope. At present, we fear that Scotland is undergoing a steady process of

deterioration and vulgarization. The coterie of Lord Jeffrey was a refined and brilliant one-that which dispossessed it, the school of our princely friend, Christopher North, though very superior in its literature, was too eccentric, to say the least, to guide the national mind. Is there any third one at present worth naming? Is there any refining, humanizing influence at this moment at work in Scotland? There is a spread of prejudice and vulgarity-a Yankee state of matters-fearfully on the increase there; but we could look at such a state of matters in the face, frightful though it be, were we sure that there were opposing powers in operation. But the aspect of Scotland is not encouraging. Year by year does the past seem to get more obliterated there. Year by year does a mere mechanical progress gain ground over the real civilization of ceremony and observance, and fierce passions grow in ever-increasing strength, without any venerable objects to check, and soften, and raise and purify them. This people seems unable to keep the little that is fine in art which it had spared to itself in the hour of its madness. The venerable minster of Glasgow, the only complete one left in Scotland, except that of Kirkwall, is now propped up along the north-side; and so unable has that wealthy Presbyterian city proved itself to preserve its grandest ornament, that, if it remains much longer in their hands, this beautiful and very peculiar structure must perish.*

In so dark a time, we must turn to the Church: she alone can preserve Scotland from passing into an altogether iron age. She is now preparing for herself a college. Let her remember all her functions; let her betake herself to the sedulous cultivation of whatsoever things are lovely and of good report; let her preside over the minds as well as the consciences of her children; let her draw out their faculties; let her get ready (for it will soon be her task) to cultivate that national character which, amid the wreck of all else, remains tough and ineradicable in Scotland; and she may yet become the mother of a literature and a school of sentiment as well as of practice, as superior to all which that country has hitherto known, as are her divine character and universal aim, to the human origin and narrow scope of the sect which has too long usurped her place and obscured her claims.

* We believe that what is called the Residuary Establishment, finds liberal towncounsellors not over-willing to support all the kirks now thrown on their hands, maintained as those in towns are by pew-rents, which do not appear to be sufficiently forthcoming. Might not wealthy Churchmen bide their time, seize the favourable opportunity for purchasing what was the cathedral of Glasgow, on such terms as shall make both buyers and sellers willing to obtain the necessary parliamentary sanction, and thus restore a noble temple to a body, from which it should never have been taken, and which, unlike its present sectarian usurpers, would, we trust, know both how to maintain and how to use it?

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NOTICES OF BOOKS.

Über das verhältniss der Bischöflichen kirche von England zu der ursprünglichen Apostolischen. Von M. CHLEBUS, Licent. d. Theologie, &c. Leipzig, 1842.

Die Zustände der Anglicanischen kirche, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Verfassung und des Cultus. Von HERMANN F. UHDEN, Candidat des Predigtamts. Leipzig: Tauchnitz. 1843.

THERE is no lack of tokens of a movement of the powers of the mind in the generation in which we live toward the work which all good Christians believe that the Author of the Gospel left behind him upon earth. It is impossible to accuse this generation of apathy and inactivity; and, however justly Mr. Uhden may characterise the past century as a time of universal torpor, and forgetfulness of the terrible issue of all human action, which the Gospel foretels will be consummated by the powers that obey God in another world, it would be clearly unjust to bring such a charge against this present generation. We have clearly made a step towards an earnest and thoughtful anxiety for the things of the world to come. We have begun to be concerned about the issue there promised, to the different schemes and efforts which we observe to be now making here. In some wonderful manner the idea of a day of reckoning, a literal tribunal, a judge, an inquiry, and a sentence, has stolen over the mind of the English nation, and has found a resting-place in the hearts and thoughts of many amongst us; who, by their possession of those worldly advantages, would at another time have been thought above the reach of notions so superfluous, or at least so unwelcome. Let it, then, be understood that all that is said, talked, written, and controverted upon questions which either draw their interest out of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, or affect the Church which He has left upon earth, is something more than a mere caprice of the human mind, wandering in the wilderness, and fixing its gaze upon Mount Sinai, only because it is tired of Mount Hymettus, and is tempted to go a honey-gathering in some fresh region. The heart of man is the same on the whole, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ is certainly the same to-day, yesterday, and for ever; and though to speak of one time as a time of religious indifference, and another as a time of religious activity, is so far an ex cathedrâ judgment, upon which but little real dependence is to be placed. The Apostle would say, "judge nothing before the time," yet the acts and the conduct of any people undoubtedly afford materials for the formation of a judgment approximating to the truth, as far as truth is required for practical purposes, provided the person taking the office of judge upon himself be careful to look well and patiently below the surface, and, above all, see that he brings an unbiassed and an unwarped discernment to the task. Upon this score, as will appear by and by, we have less fault to find with Mr. Uhden

than prima facie could be expected in the case of a German theological student, brought up in the hot-bed of mere intellectual theology, and writing, as most German authors have now for some years accustomed themselves to write, without any clear practical object in view. As for Mr. Chlebus, we are at a loss to know what possible end the author could have intended his pamphlet to serve; and, with all the kind feeling which is due to a foreigner, and to one who takes up so important a subject, the perusal still leaves us in the dark. "What meaneth this great display of knowledge and discernment?" Good sir, whom are you labouring to persuade? and what is the particular line of thought which you seek to recommend?-Like the Barmecide's entertainment, the table is decked out with its garniture of plates, couches, and carpets, and an endeavouring entertainer would have all his guests believe that he has nobly provided for their satisfaction, but, when it comes to the question of literal viands, he leaves us most cruelly in the dark; where they are to be found, and at what hour of the feast he will please to order them to be brought in. Perhaps, however, we are throwing away tine and space even in this passing notice upon a publication, the chief characteristic of which seems to be its off-hand exhibition of superficial research, the more to be regretted, for the author's sake, from the miserably low estimate he must needs have formed of the sacred character and deep interest of the subject he has so lightly approached.

We have now introduced our two authors, chiefly, as probable samples of a class hereafter to become more and more numerous, in proportion to the increasing intercourse between our own nation and the cultivated portion of northern Germany; and before we lay before our readers any portion of their labour, it may be desirable to say a few words upon the nature of the circumstances under which the Protestant of Germany is compelled to form his views of religion.

Professor Möhler has well remarked, in his singularly lucid investigation of the heterogeneous religious associations which issued out of the convulsion that attended the Reformation, that the grand dilemma into which its leaders came, was felt to be, how to provide for the authority of the Teacherhood that was to stand in the place of the Apostolic Ministry which they removed. They tried various pleas, such as the utility of the public preaching of the word of God, and the expediency and propriety of maintaining order, and providing for the service of the houses of God (which were retained, notwithstanding that the liturgy that had been before connected with them was banished). Yet, if it were lawful to cast out an Apostolic succession of ministers, and to discard their ritual, it was not less lawful for all who desired to reject that which came in their place; and to set up, as soon as ever they had a mind, some rival something more in unison with their individual taste: Luther and those who succeeded laboured strenuously to deter from all such attempts, and to support the authority of the ministrations which they were the means of forming; but the only one ground which can maintain the minister of religion" the power and commission of Almighty God,”—they did not dare to claim for their institutions, except upon such weak and vague grounds as threw the claim open to all others whatsoever.

The Apostolic power, conveyed by the laying-on of the hands of the Bishop, they could not appeal to; they had put asunder what God had joined together, and their self-formed ministry proved unable to stand the test of time. It was subject to the denunciation of the Prophet, (Isaiah viii.) "Associate yourselves, oh ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; take counsel together and it shall come to nought; speak the word and it shall not stand, for God is with us." What more, it may have been thought, can be wanting according to the best human foresight? Here is the glorious light of the Reformation, the pure evangelical truth of the Scriptures, proclaimed and set forth by men earnest in their work, who have braved great personal dangers for the sake of their belief. What more can be desired? Yet something more was wanting, as the sequel has shown; and that was, that, however pure the truth may have been, however earnest the intention, however irreproachable the object, it was still incompatible with the glory and honour of Almighty God that men should associate themselves to do these things. Almighty God has decreed that what He does, that shall stand, and that what men associate themselves to do, shall not stand; and therefore it is that for the three hundred years that have passed since the days of Luther, the associations which he and his friends formed to maintain the purity of the Gospel, as they thought, have been growing worse and worse; and it needs no more than a superficial acquaintance with the actual state of society, as it has grown up, and now is, in Northern Germany, under the influence of these associations and their innumerable subdivisions, to have abundant proof, that, though they may have spoken the Word, yet that it has not stood, and that, though they may have taxed human efforts to the utmost to maintain their cause, yet that their cause has failed. Theology has fallen in the hands of these associations: in one point of view, into a mere quagmire of the intellect, and in another, into a profession that is recruited from the refuse of the people. So that with the exception of one or two individuals remarkable for their sagacity, the reputation of a theologian holds the lowest rank in Protestant Germany; and it is not beyond the truth to say, that, putting the talent and qualifications of individuals aside, and the plain, humble, and praiseworthy zeal of some few of the country ministers, the whole body of German religious teachers are held in the meanest estimation by the people at large. So true is Professor Möhler's observation, that the doctrine of Luther was equal to the task of destroying the fabric of spiritual allegiance to the existing Church, but it could not compass the building up a new Church in its place.

It would be foreign to our object to make any allusion to the existing state of the particular religious association of which Mr. Uhden is a member. What we have said belongs to our subject, as an explanation of the fact, Why a foreigner should take such an interest in exhibiting the different parties and rival interests actively at work in the bosom of the Anglican communion. The very atmosphere that a Protestant German student of Theology breathes from his birth, is party spirit; the gymnasium where his boyhood is passed is full of it, the university where he attends his theological course is