writers whose works she has been reading, she says:

The perusal of Southey's "Life" has lately afforded me much pleasure. Some people assert that genius is inconsistent with domestic happiness, and yet Southey was happy at home, and made his home happy; he not only loved his wife and children though he was a poet, but he loved them the better because he was a poet. He seems to have been without taint of worldliness; London with its pomps and vanities, learned coteries with their dry pedantry, rather scared than attracted him. He found his prime glory in his genius, and his chief felicity in home affections. I like Southey. I have likewise read one of Miss Austen's works-"Emma". read it with interest, and with just the degree of admiration that Miss Austen herself would have thought sensible and suitable. Anything like warmth or enthusiasm, anything energetic, poignant, or heartfelt, is utterly out of place in commending these works. All such demonstration the authoress would have scorned as outré and extravagant. She does her business of delineating the surface of the lives of genteel English people curiously well; there is a Chinese fidelity, a miniature delicacy in the painting. She ruffles her reader by nothing vehement, disturbs him by nothing profound. The passions are perfectly unknown to her she rejects even a speaking acquaintance with that stormy sisterhood; even to the feelings she vouchsafes no more than an occasional graceful but distant recognition; too frequent converse with them would ruffle the smooth elegance of her progress. Her business is not half so much with the human heart as with the human eyes, mouth, hands, and feet. What sees keenly, speaks aptly, moves flexibly, it suits her to study; but what throbs fast and full though hidden, what the blood rushes through, what is the unseen seat of life, and the sentient target of death-this Miss Austen ignores. She no more with her mind's eye beholds the heart of her race than each man, with bodily vision, sees the heart in his heaving breast. Jane Austen was a complete and most sensible lady, but a very incomplete and rather insensible (not senseless) woman. If this is heresy I cannot help it. If I said it to some people (Lewes, for instance), they would directly accuse me of advocating exaggerated heroics; but I am not afraid of your falling into any such error.

It is not my intention to comment on the foregoing letters or to dwell on the talent and ability of their composer. So much has been done by able and loving hands to keep her memory green that further attempt at praise or criticism is unnecessary, and would indeed bear too much resemblance to the superfluous process of "refining a violet" to which Charles Lamb_so_characteristically objects. E. BAUMER WILLIAMS.

From The Fortnightly Review. ARCHBISHOP MAGEE.

England is mourning the most brilliant of By universal agreement the Church of her prelates. When his appointment to the northern primacy was announced some four short months ago, the fairness of the selection was at once recognized, whether the test were zeal, industry, practical abil ity, eloquence. Bishop Magee had all these gifts. The one doubtful element in the problem was the fact that he had entered upon the seventieth year of his age. Moreover, his constitution had been se verely tried by a serious illness eight years ago.

is not an

Though Dr. Magee sprang into general fame almost suddenly, those who had an intimate knowledge of what was going on in the religious world knew his great abil. ity. Many church-going men, thirty years ago, who were in the habit of looking at announcements of preachers, and who found the name of Dean of Cork on the placards, settled the next Sunday's movements for themselves by arranging to go and hear him. He preached one night at one of the special services at St. Paul's from the text: "They say of me, Ah Lord God, doth he not speak parables?" The congregation was one of the largest that had ever been seen there - such an one uncommon sight now- and many who came away declared that they had never heard so magnificent a sermon. It was a characteristic one; quite extempore; and an uncompromising assertion of received Christian doctrine, the central idea of the sermon being that it was the preaching of mystery and of the supernatural power of God which angered unbe. lieving Israel. If the prophet, so the preacher contended, had watered down his teaching into the general philanthropy and unsectarian generalities which many were crying out for now, no objection would have been taken to him. I mention this sermon at the outset, not merely because it was a very brilliant piece of declamation, but because it was a characteristic example of his preaching. You might agree or disagree with Dr. Magee's theology, but certainly he knew what he meant, and was never nebulous. An oration of similar substance, but not, in my judgment, so happy, was delivered by him on a memorable occasion fifteen years later, after he had become Bishop of Peterborough. When his name appeared at the beginning of the month of July, 1881, as the preacher selected for the Westminster Abbey evening sermon on the twenty-fourth, any one

might have foretold a large congregation. | obliged to shift his ground half way As it was, every available foot of the through, and to change his standpoint Abbey was filled an hour and a half be- altogether, and then compares him to fore the service began. There had been crowds at the two preceding services when Farrar and Dean Vaughan preached. For Dean Stanley was to be buried on the morrow, and thousands who admired and loved him came to hear the funeral sermons, but all expected that Bishop Magee would carry off the palm. There were present that evening not only wellknown churchmen, but a multitude of men outside the Church, whom Stanley had gathered round him and reckoned among his friends, among them leading Positivists and Agnostics. Two of the best known sat immediately under the pulpit. Stanley himself might have said smooth things to them; at least, he would have endeavored to find some common ground; but Bishop Magee had no tenderness in this direction. His sermon was as uncompromising a manifesto of mingled invective and sarcasm as ever had been heard within the walls of the Abbey. The impugners of the Pentateuch were smitten hip and thigh; but it may be doubted whether the effect went beyond intense irritation in those who felt themselves attacked. The bishop had, no doubt, anticipated the opportunity, and he used it with a vengeance. His sermon lasted just an hour, but the Guardian, while printing the other two sermons verbatim, gave the bishop some twenty lines only, called it "eloquent," and merely quoted the eulogium on Stanley.

*

As uniformly consistent was another conservative line on which the bishop steadily moved. During his tenure of the rectory of Enniskillen, he published a pamphlet, which in later editions grew into a little volume, in favor of Church Establishment. Like everything which he wrote, it is racy reading. For example, after urging that the "voluntary system so called is viewed by its advocates in an ideal state which never has been or can be realized, while the same controversialists magnify and distort the evils in the Establishment, he applies his tests to a pamphlet of Mr. Miall's, says that this is so conspicuously unfair that Mr. Miall is

The following are the chief dates in his life: Born December 17, 1821; Ordained, 1844; C. of St. Thomas's, Dublin, 1844-1846; St. Saviour's, Bath, 18471850; Min. of Octagon Chapel, Bath, 1851-1856; Inc. of Quebec Chapel, 1856-1864; R. of Enniskillen, 18601864; Dean of Cork, 1864-1868; Dean of Chapel Royal, Dublin, 1866-1869; Bishop of Peterborough,

1868-1891; Archbishop of York, 1891; died May 5, 1891.

Balak. "Some men love to choose their
standing point for the survey of any sys-
tem to which they are opposed, as Balak
advised Balaam to choose his long ago:
'Come, I pray thee, with me unto another
place, from whence thou mayest see them;
thou shalt see but the utinost part of them,
and shalt not see them all; and curse me
them from thence."" A few pages further
on, another passage in the same pamphlet
is thus described: "We have a long string
of concordance-gathered texts command-
ing Christians to give freely,' to be 'ready
to give and glad to distribute,' and so on;
which, with many references to the great
success of our voluntary societies are
urged as overwhelming proof of the
scriptural inconsistency of those who,
with such texts in their Bibles, venture to
defend an Establishment. As if, forsooth,
any one denied that voluntary effort was a
Christian duty, as if we did not quote and
enforce these texts in every charity ser-
mon that we preach." Again, the term
voluntary system is applied, he says, to
chapels with pew rents. "The minister
on this system first buys or hires a chapel,
duly provided with comfortable accommo-
dation, pewed, cushioned, lighted, heated,
and beadled; and he proceeds to let out
this accommodation, and his own ministry,
and the ordinances of the Gospel with it,
to those who can afford to pay for them.
Terms cash. If this be voluntaryism, it
certainly is not the voluntaryism of the
New Testament, to which our opponents
are so fond of appealing. The primitive
Church, we are told, had no tithes and no
church rates. Had it any pew rents? Do
we read that Paul was appointed by the
elders to a fashionable church at Ephesus,
or that James possessed an eligible pro-
priety chapel at Jerusalem? Does the
pew-rent system provide for the preaching
of the Gospel to the poor?" He taunts
his opponents with having their minister
at their mercy and keeping him so. They
treat him like a wild beast who is kept
humble by being kept poor. They pray
for a blessing upon his basket and his
store, while they take care that his basket
shall be empty and his store nothingness
itself." It had been argued that you se-
cure more spirituality by means of the
"You do not;
poverty of your ministers.
you only obtain your supply of ministers
from a lower class of men. Your only
difference will be that you will have igno-
rant and ill-bred worldliness. . . . Some

men would fain treat their ministers as the
Brazilian ladies treat the fireflies, which
they impale upon pins and fasten to their
dresses, that the struggles and flutterings
of the dying insect may give out sparks
of light for their adornment. ... I once
heard of an ill-paid minister who went to
his deacon to solicit an increase of salary.
Salary!' said the deacon, I thought
you worked for souls?' So I do,' replied
the poor man, 'but I cannot eat souls;
and if I could, it would take a good many
souls of your size to make a dish!'"

·

popery is nothing if preceded by plunder of the Protestant Episcopacy. Putting two sins together, they make one good action.. Throughout its provisions this bili is characterized by a hard and niggardly spirit. I am surprised by the injustice and impolicy of the measure, but I am still more astonished at its intense shabbiness. It is a small and pitiful bill. It is not worthy of a great nation. This great nation, in its act of magnanimity and penitence, has done the talking, but has put the sackcloth and ashes on the Irish Church, and made the fasting be performed by the poor vergers and organists."

as

I cannot give more of these quotations, but have taken so many because they make up a good specimen of Magee's The other passage is from his peroraearly utterances on this subject. His tion. Menaces had been uttered against great effort came in his memorable speech the House of Lords should the bill be in the House of Lords on the Irish Church thrown out by them. The bishop's reply Disestablishment Bill on the 15th of June, is the following: "My lords, as far as 1869, a speech still talked of with enthu- menaces go, I do not think that it is necsiasm by those who heard it, and of which essary that I should say one word by way the late Lord Derby, then within a year of of inducing your lordships even if I his end, said that it surpassed in eloquence could hope to induce you to do anything any that he had heard in that House. He by words of mine to resist these menhad been selected for the see of Peter- aces. I believe that not merely the spirit borough by Disraeli, who was delighted of your lordships, but your lordships' with his sermon on the meeting of the high sense of the duty you owe to the Church Congress at Dublin, when Mr. country, would lead you to resist any such Gladstone had declared for the Disestab-intolerant and overbearing menaces lishment of the Irish Church. The elec- those which have been uttered towards tions had not yet come off, Disraeli was you. I believe that if any one of your lordstill premier, and he took the opportunity ships were capable of yielding to those of making Magee an English bishop. The menaces, you would be possessed of suffichoice was abundantly approved when he cient intelligence to know how utterly stood up next year in the House of Lords useless any such humiliation would be in on behalf of the doomed Church. It is the way of prolonging your lordships' excurious in reading that great speech to istence as an institution, because it would note that much of it, both as to arguments be exactly the case of those who for the and incisive illustrations, is taken from the sake of preserving life lose all that makes early work from which I have quoted, but life worth living for- it would be an abthe style is more finished, and each argu- negation of all your lordships' duties for ment is driven home. There are two pas- the purpose of preserving those powers sages only which space will allow me to which a few years hence would be taken quote. The first has reference to Mr. from you. Your lordships would then be Gladstone's peroration, in which he spoke standing in this position in the face of the of the bill as an act of justice and repara- roused and angry democracy of the countion to Ireland. try, with which you have been so loudly menaced out of doors, and so gently and tenderly warned within these doors. You would then be standing in the face of that fierce and angry democracy with these words on your lips: Spare us, we treat and beseech you! spare us to live a little longer, as an order is all that we ask, so that we may play at being statesmen, that we may sit upon red benches in a gilded house, and affect and pretend to guide the destinies of the nation and play at legislation. Spare us for this reason that we are utterly contemptible, and that we are entirely contented with our ignoble

"What a magnanimous sight! The first thing that this magnanimous British nation does in the performance of this act of justice and penitence is to put into her pocket the annual sum she has been in the habit of paying to Maynooth, and to compensate Maynooth out of the funds of the Irish Church. The Presbyterian members for Scotland, while joining in this exercise of magnanimity, forget that horror of popery which was so largely relied on and so loudly expressed at the last elections in Scotland. They have changed their mind, on a theory that a bribe to

en.

part of the bishop or his biographer, that Bishop Magee was insincere in this speech, the ground of the charge being that he had already expressed his opinion that it was of no use fighting a losing battle (iii. 283). Among Bishop Wilberforce's great qualities, freedom from jealousy was never conspicuous. I have two remarks only to make on the condemnation of Magee. (1) Reports of bishops' confidential meetings had always been held absolutely sacred until that biography published some of them, and this, too, in a manner of which the accuracy in several cases has been strongly denied. (2) There was no inconsistency in Bishop Magee's conduct. He said in substance: "I feel that I am bound to support the Irish bishops. My personal opinion is that this is a bad bill which we may as well pass and then amend it; but if the Irish bishops think otherwise, it is our duty to accept their view" (p. 287). That the bishop's speech did not convince the House of Lords need not be added, but it is worth while for any one, reading his speech at length, to see how many of his prognostications have proved true.

position! Spare us for this reason that we have never failed in any case of danger to spare ourselves! Spare us because we have lost the power to hurt any one! Spare us because we have now become the mere subservient tools in the hands of the minister of the day-the mere armorial bearings on the seal that he may take in his hands to stamp any deed however foolish and however mischievous! And this is all we have to say by way of plea for the continuance of our order.' My lords, I do not believe that there is a peer in your lordships' house, or any one who is worthy of finding a place in it, who could use such language or think such thoughts, and therefore I will put aside all the menaces to which I have referred. For myself, and as regards my own vote, if I were to allow myself to give a thought to consequences, much might be said as to the consequences of your lordships' vote to your lordships' house and to the Church which I so dearly love; and I, a young member of your lordships' house, fully understand the gravity of the course I am about to adopt, and the serious consequences that may attach to that vote; but, on the other hand, I feel that I have no In turning to a different subject we see choice in the matter that I dare not the same principle at the bottom of Bishop allow myself a choice as to the vote that Magee's action. In doctrine and practice I must give upon this measure. My lords, he was all his life through a strong ConI hear a great deal about the verdict of servative, yet one who keenly watched the the nation on this question, but, without signs of the times and the methods open presuming to judge the conscience or the to him to preserve all that he could. He wisdom of others, and speaking wholly had been an Evangelical," as the phrase and entirely for myself, I desire to remem- goes, at Bath and as Dean of Cork, and ber, and I cannot help remembering, this, his convictions remained steadfast to the that there are other and more distant ver-end. But he was too wise and too earnest dicts than the verdict even of this nation a man not to recognize the good that was and of this moment which we must, being done by the High Churchmen, and every one of us, face at one time or an- these always gave him their confidence other, and which I myself am thinking of and grateful love. Two of his charges while I am speaking and in determining administered sharp rebukes to the Ritualupon the vote I am about to give. There ists, and warned of the mischief which is the verdict of the English nation in its they were in danger of causing, but he calmer hours, when it may have recovered was like a faithful husband who admonfrom its fear and its panic, and when it ishes his wife when she deserves it, but may be disposed to judge those who too allows nobody else to speak harshly to hastily yielded to its passions; there is the her. Perhaps the most brilliant speech verdict of after history, which we are mak- he ever made in Parliament was his motion ing even as we speak and act in this place, for the rejection of Lord Shaftesbury's and which is hereafter to judge us for our Ecclesiastical Courts Bill, in which that speeches and for our deeds; and, my lords, peer made the memorable proposal that there is that other more solemn and more three persons in any diocese might instiawful verdict which we shall have to face; tute proceedings against a clergyman for and I feel that I shall be then judged not alleged violation of rubrics. In a speech for the consequences of my having made full of Irish humor, and delivered (so a mistake, but for the spirit in which I Archbishop Tait averred in conversation) have acted, and for the purposes with in a rich Cork brogue, the bishop so pelted which I have acted." In the "Life of the bill with satire and indignant denunciBishop Wilberforce " it is implied, on the ation, that it was thrown out by nearly two

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