the fellowships, the tuition, and the govern- | Oxford in excluding the inroads of Romanment of the University; and will exclude ism. No establishments for conversion the diligent, the acute, and the conscien- have been erected in her neighborhood. tious.

Her fellows do not declare their abhorrence We feel, and have again and again ex- of Protestantism. None of her tutors have pressed indignation at the subterfuges by been ever suspected of lecturing on the which the test is evaded-we feel much modes of explaining away its doctrines. It more against the intolerance by which it is is safe to send a young man to Cambridge. imposed. The dishonesty of the slave is She has been at least as successful as Oxonly despicable; the cruelty of the tyrant ford in preserving the internal peace of her is hateful. All Great Britain was roused a society. She has not passed a statute defew years ago, by stories of the mis- claring her utter distrust in the orthodoxy chiefs of Factory Labor. We were told of the most learned and the most acute that those who had been subjected to it in among her professors. She has not inflictyouth, grew up stunted or distorted. And ed on another, less distinguished but still the interposition of the Legislature was re-eminent both in station and in learning, a quired and granted. But is not the stunt- penal suspension from his functions. Her ing and distorting of the mind a still more combination rooms are not hostile camps, mischievous oppression? And can the in- nor her colleges or her pulpits instruments tellect be more effectually depressed and warped, than by being tempted to seek nothing but premises for pre-appointed conclusions? or the moral feelings be more effectually depraved, than by being engaged in constant internal conflicts in which success cannot be honestly obtained!

for the propagation of contradictory precepts. Her public lecture-rooms have not become deserts-nor her divinity schools scenes of wrangling. No Head of a House has posted in his Hall a notice, that all who presume to attend the lectures of the Regius Professor of Divinity will be denied testimonials for orders. No candidate for her degrees has brought a legal action. against his examiner, and forced the Uni

To a certain degree, experience assists us in estimating the probable influence of such an education, by comparing the effects of a comparative lax with a compara-versity first into a suspension of her accustively strict test. For many years past, tomed modes of examination, next into an Cambridge has been subject to the former, abortive attempt to legalize them, and at and Oxford to the latter. It is true that last, into a recurrence to the old monkish Cambridge is subject to the severer test in- forms of disputation. She summons no flicted on Heads of Houses by the Act of Convocation to pass privilegia against her Uniformity; but she herself imposes no members. Her Vice-chancellor is not astest, except a declaration previously to a sailed by defiances from graduates demanddegree, that the candidate is a bona fide ing to be degraded. She does not exhibit, member of the Church of England. And in short, the symptoms which precede poit is true, also, that the Oxford test has not litical dissolution. attracted, in times past, the attention, and consequently has not exercised the influence, which, we believe, will belong to it in future. However, though neither the freedom of Cambridge, nor the slavery of Oxford, has been complete, they have been sufficient to give some indication of the probable results of each system.

How, then, is Oxford to escape the fate which the intolerance that enacted the Caroline statutes, and the apathy not unmixed with intolerance that has preserved them unrepealed, seem to prepare for her? If there were any use in suggesting a course which we know will not be adopted, we should say, by following the advice of Dr. We believe that few Oxonians will be Hampden,* and abolishing all tests except bigoted enough to deny, that at the bar, on those which Parliament has imposed, and the bench, in science-in short, wherever which Parliament, therefore, alone can resuccess depends on moral and intellectual move. The next best expedient would be vigor and independence, Cambridge now to follow Dr. Paley's advice, and change has, and long has had, the decided supe- subscription from a profession of faith into riority. Nor does this superiority appear an engagement of conformity. If, as we to have been purchased, by letting in the fear is the case, the genius loci, the present errors and the dissensions which it is the

supposed office of tests to shut out. Cam- Observations on Religious Dissent, p. 39. bridge has been at least as successful as 1834.

temper of the place, renders this impracti- of the religion and liberty of this country. cable, as a last resource the plan might be In the times of the Reformation, during adopted which has apparently succeeded at the civil war, and, above all, in the struggle Cambridge. No test should be required on to save the ark of civil and religious freematriculation; and no test previously to a dom towards the close of the reign of degree, except that the candidate is a bond Charles II., the genius of that house was fide member of the Church of England. An felt as a potent influence in public affairs. engagement night be added to withdraw Lord John Russell inherits most of the from the University on ceasing to hold the higher qualities belonging to his ancestors. doctrines of the Church of England, and a In capacity, and in general culture, he is tribunal created to decide on any imputed greater than the greatest of them. What breach of this engagement. To decide he has done as an author, is overshadowed such questions by piouara, by judicial and forgotten by reason of the much greater acts performed by a deliberative assembly, prominence which he has obtained in the is revolutionary. It is an imitation of the public eye as a statesman. His writings, worst practices of the worst democracies. however, warrant the conclusion, that, had Under such an arrangement, no one would he chosen to steer his course at a distance be necessarily excluded from the studies or from the vortex of politics, and given himthe honors of the place. A Dissenter, or a self to comparative ease and quietude as a Roman Catholic, if he thought fit to com- man of letters, he might have risen to emiply with the usages, and receive the in- nence in that department. His 'Essay on struction of his College, might pass his ex- the English Constitution,'-the production amination, and be enrolled in a class, and of his early life, gave unequivocal token of obtain an under-graduate's prize. But the taste and capacity which might have he would be excluded from a degree, and led to such distinction. His 'Life of Lord therefore from the government, and, gen- William Russell' exhibited the same varied erally speaking, from the emoluments of knowledge, the same disciplined intellect, the University. The sincerity of a graduate's declaration must be left to his own conscience; but, if he broke his engagement of conformity, the proposed tribunal would afford a remedy, which it will soon be found that Convocation does not.

LORD JOHN RUSSELR.

From the British Quarterly Review.

and the same literary apitude, but all in a higher tone of maturity. His 'Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe from the Peace of Utrecht,' relate to a section of modern history which interested men previously to the outbreak of the French Revolution, but which seemed to drop at once from their thoughts as that astounding event and its consequences began to develope themselves. The subject, accordingly, was not well chosen, except for persons of calm and aristocratic taste, more disposed to meditate on the repose and tameness of the past, than

This article is from the pen of Dr. Vaughan. to sympathize with the onwardness and

-ED.

1. An Essay on the History of the English Government and Constitution from the Reign of Henry VII. to the Present Time. By Lord John Russell. 8vo. London.

2. Life of Lord William Russell. 2 vols.

Svo. London.

energy of the present. But the execution of the work evinced a large acquaintance with European affairs subsequent to the death of Louis XIV., much political sagacity, and that greater command of language which comes as the natural result of greater subsequent essays on the causes of the practice in composition. His lordship's French Revolution may be regarded as a supplementary chapter to the preceding work. It shows that the philosophy, the literature, and the state of society generally in France, which propelled affairs towards the crisis of the Revolution, were not only 8vo. topics about which the author had read considerably, but matters on which he had bestowed some patient reflection.

3. Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe from the Peace of Utrecht. 2 vols. 4to. Lon

don.

4. The Causes of the French Revolution.

Svo,

London.

5. What have the Whigs done? London.

IT has fallen to the house of Bedford to be conspicuously associated with the history

In respect to literature, however, as in

respect to some other things, his lordship's achievements would have been more conventional than natural; more correct than profound; evincing more of the caution which avoids great mistakes, than of the boldness which strikes out a new path. He might have improved somewhat on the school of Addison and Pope, but, in regard to style, he would have been moulded by it, and in regard to compass of thought, he would never have ventured far in advance of it. With a considerable portion of the progressive spirit, he would not have failed to unite a stately worship of the old landmarks. In all his voyaging, he would have resembled those early mariners, who, wanting the compass, were distrustful of the frail bark beneath them, and always made their way within sight of land-men who might have continued to navigate the old world, but could never have signalized themselves as discoverers of the new.

It would have been, as we assuredly think, much better for him, and much better for his country, had there been more decision in his denunciation of some abuses; and had his commendation of some great principles been more frequent and more earnest -such as would have carried more manifest heart along with it. Of course, if it were well that his lordship should have spoken more strongly on such occasions, it would have been well if his policy in relation to such matters had evinced greater promptitude and greater vigor. But if he has not conformed himself strictly to our moral standard at such times, we can believe that he has been obedient to his own.

To touch on religion, in its relation to a living statesman, may be to enter upon delicate ground. But Lord John Russell has not scrupled to favor the world with some expression of his views on that subject, and it cannot be amiss to scrutinize what is thus submitted to scrutiny. His lordship's views concerning the different sections of religion in this country, present one very material phase of his own character. The course of his policy also, has been much influenced by those views.

With regard to that one quality of a statesman, without which every other must be untrustworthy, we deem Lord John Russell to be above fair impeachment. We believe him to be an honest man. No amount of popular misconception, no strength of party invective, has sufficed to produce in us the The last chapter in the second volume slightest misgiving in regard to his strict of the Memoirs of Affairs in Europe,' is political integrity. We are glad to know occupied with a view of the state of religion that the gentlemen among the frequenters in England during the former half of the of St. Stephen's of whom so much cannot eighteenth century. This retrospect embe said, need no further instruction on that braces remarks on the condition of the point. All parties of that description have church of England during that interval, and had proof enough that his lordship is not a on the rise, progress, and character of man to their purpose. He does not touch methodism. According to the showing of the unclean thing. In some instances he his lordship, the great belligerent churchhas drawn the line between the conventional men of those times, whose shades are made and the absolute in political morality, at a to pass in succession before his readers, were point which we should not ourselves have men so intent on their particular controchosen. But the distinction made, we versies, as to have left the body of the nation doubt not, has commended itself, upon the in a wretched condition of ignorance, imwhole, to his own moral judgment. The morality, and irreligion. But the remedy casuistry of some state questions may be for this neglect, as supplied by the zeal of simple enough. Their justice or injustice methodism, is regarded as being on the may be seen at a glance. But the greater whole worse than the disease. The labors number of such questions are not of that of Whitfield and Wesley are described as order. In general, the wheat and the tares producing a kind of paroxysm, the immedigrow up strangely together, so that many an ate effects of which were rather injuriou honest man-ay, and many a wise man, than beneficial, while it was sure of being too-may be led to the conclusion, that to followed by lassitude, and by great moral root out one without destroying the other and religious mischief. Some passages are would be found impossible. Leaving all given, which are meant to exhibit the more fair space open to difference of judgment favorable view of that great religious movefrom this cause, we believe that the char-ment, and of the character of the extraoracter left to posterity by Lord John Russell dinary men by whom it was originated and will be, in respect to integrity, of a high sustained; but the unfavorable greatly preorder.

ponderates, and the general conclusion is to instruction, to the cultivation of high as we have stated it. comparative moral feeling, and to the influIt is to be regretted, that a writer possess-ence of those elevating affections which ing the candor and discernment of Lord John have respect to the Infinite and the Eternal. Russell, should have deemed himself safe, What philosophy has ever raised the on a subject of this nature, in trusting to mind of the rude multitudes of men after such guides as Southey's 'Life of Wesley,' this manner? What established church and Nightingale's Portraiture of Method- has ever so done, except as it has become ism.' Still more is it to be regretted that a preacher of doctrines, and has been anihis own mind should have performed its mated by a feeling, which we fear his lordoffice so feebly in regard to the materials ship would be too ready to describe as which even those writers, together with the very methodistical? facts coming within his own observation, must have supplied. We should have been happy to have seen him distinguish, in the spirit of a high Christian philosophy, between the wisdom and the folly, the good and the evil, of the great moral revolution which was assuredly brought about among the people of this country by the labors of those said Methodists.

We see the errors, and some other faults of graver import, which belong to the earlier history of methodism, no less clearly than his lordship has seen them; but we see the truth and the goodness that were in it, as greatly outweighing their opposites. We regard that memorable outbreak against the heartless formalism, and the low profligacy of the times, not only as having given a new moral and religious character to the English people, but as having extended its leaven of improvement to classes far above the multitude. By elevating the poor, it has done much towards shaming the rich into better conduct. If our courts and baronial halls are not the homes of that factious selfishness, of that everlasting frivolity, or that infidel licentiousness, which prevailed in them during the greater part of the last century, we owe this improvement in high places, to improvement which began much lower down. The regeneration which took place among the lowest, contributed to enforce a moral reformation upon the highest. The pulpit of methodism, moreover, has had its favorable influence on all other pulpits. Thus the character of methodism has given a strong impress--an impress greatly for the better, to our national character. We deny not that it had its extravagances --we deny not that it has them still; but what is the chaff to the wheat? Admitting nearly all that may be alleged against it, it has been the means of disposing millions of our people, who would otherwise have passed their life in sheer worldliness, or in the lowest vice, to give themselves

In short, we do not mean to conceal that we have long regarded the tone of would-be philosophy, in which some classes of men in this country are wont to express themselves concerning the religion of all persons who appear to be more in earnest on that subject than themselves, with no small measure of dissatisfaction. The shallowness which frequently assumes the air of wisdom on such occasions, is to us very pitiable. The ample candor often evinced by such persons in favor of those who are enemies of religion or of those who profess it in some of its most corrupt forms, stands in singular contrast with the want of such kindly discrimination, when evangelical piety is the matter to be judged. The philosophy which fails to see a preponderance of good even in methodism, is not a sound philosophy. It argues great want of perception, or of humane feeling, when the lesser evil is allowed to prevent men from perceiving its relation to a greater good.

We have felt constrained to make these observations, because the remarks of Lord John Russell on this subject are opposed to the distinctive truths of evangelical religion, as certainly as to some peculiarities which have been grafted on those truths by methodism. Christianity, in his view, does not seem to include any thing of the supernatural. The religion of a Christian, on the theory of his lordship, is to consist in the purely natural influence of revealed wisdom on the susceptibilities of the mind. The church of England is regarded as adapted, in an eminent degree, to sustain this sober kind of goodness, while all sects are in danger of verging upon extravagance.

Puritanism, that 'gloomy vortex which was to attract so many of the manliest spirits' of the seventeenth century, his lordship has estimated more justly. The reason of this distinction is obvious. Pu

ritanism was allied with far higher intel- candor, will, we trust, be disposed to place lectual qualities than methodism. It stood the most charitable construction on reprein a more manifest relation to the progress sentations which may seem to them to be of freedom and of society. Distance, more- greatly wanting in charity. Such truly over, has greatly reduced the apparent amount of its faults; while the soul which it infused into English history during the thirty or forty years which preceded the Restoration, is such as no remoteness of time can obliterate or obscure.

Christian magnanimity would do them honor, and would be the best refutation of some of the most plausible charges often preferred against them.

With such views of religion and of religious parties, it is natural that Lord John It is observable, also, that the sober, the Russell should be a steady adherent to the properly descended nonconformists of the principle of church establishments. In his last century, obtain respectful treatment at view, institutions of that nature may afford the hands of his lordship. They were no all the necessary means of religion to a peobrawlers. They were men of unimpeached ple, and may preclude, in the greatest deloyalty. They were proud to lend their gree practicable, whatever tends to the aid to whigs and protestants-church- deterioration of religion. It is proper that men though they were-against tories and separatists of every grade should be tolerapapists. Their leaders were men known ted, partly because toleration is founded in by their theological and general learning. justice, and partly because to persecute such They were the correspondents and friends people would be a very impolitic as well as a of dignitaries and prelates. In all their very troublesome course of proceeding. proceedings there were the signs of modera❘ But in all cases, the most competent judge tion. The sight of them, especially on one in regard to points of theology and matters of those occasions when they availed themselves of their privilege to be presented at court, and to address the throne, was as a kind of proem to all that could follow from that quarter. A courtier on a levee day, was hardly more careful about his costume and appendages than was the eminent nonconformist divine of that period. The threecornered hat, the neatly powdered and largely projecting wig, the coat without the encumbrance of a collar, with its straight front, exhibiting its long row of large buttons on one side, and of finely worked button-holes on the other, the waistcoat descending so low as almost to serve the purposes of waistcoat and apron, and the nicely disposed buckles at the knees and in the shoes,all were in keeping with that calm and intelligent physiognomy, with that attention to all the lesser courtesies of life, and with the generally stately bearing which distinguished our Annesleys and Doddridges a century since.

of religion generally, must be such assemblies as are convened nightly at St. Stephen's, and the best religion for the people must be that which has been so provided for them. Whatever shall find entrance otherwise than by that door, must be at best of an inferior quality, and, to a large extent, of a nature to do harm rather than good.

But here we are strictly at issue with his lordship, both as to the nature of the religion which the church of England was instituted to inculcate, and as to the manner in which she has performed her office in that respect. The most distinguished churchmen of the eighteenth century, such as Hurd and Warburton, Clarke and Hoadley, to whom so much honor is done by Lord John Russell, are poor expositors of the theology set forth in the articles of the established church. By some of these men the husks of orthodoxy were retained, and hot wars were carried on in defence of them. By others, the Much less of a disposi- articles of faith most open to objection on tion to appreciate the orderly, the establish- the ground of mystery, when not openly ed, and the aristocratic, than is observable impugned, were skilfully neutralized, or in Lord John Russell, would have sufficed systematically forgotten. The class of perto mark the wide difference between such men and the conductors of a Methodist love-feast or revival-meeting.

sons adverted to had come into the church of the reformers, but were too much the worshippers of the reputable ever to have The parties, then, adhering to the old been themselves reformers. They were school of dissent, have no reason to com- men who enjoyed their literary leisure, and plain of any thing said concerning them by set a great value on the stateliness and the his lordship. And the more recent seceders means of indulgence which their position from the established church, who have not afforded them, and for the most part died been mentioned with the same degree of rich. They scarcely seemed to be aware VOL. V.-No. III.

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