ages could find some credence, but which, in our days, only reveals the utter hollowness and absurdity of their unbelief. Is it asked, What, then, were the chief objections of those early adversaries of Christianity? Many of them were based on the assumed truth of then existing religions, and, of course, have no weight now; for with modern skepticism, the question is not between Christianity and some other religion, but between Christianity and no religion. But many of the objections of early unbelievers were based on essential and immutable features of our religion, and on features, which now, so far from demanding apology, contribute the most largely to its defence and its honor. Things, which were to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness," are now on all hands acknowledged to be full of divine wisdom and beauty. Thus Celsus dwells much on the lowliness of our Saviour's birth, and on the circumstance, that the gospel addresses itself to the poor and humble, facts, which have so entirely revolutionized the opinions of all Christendom with regard to the accident of birth or outward rank, that no modern infidel would dare to cite them in disparagement of Christianity. The cross was perpetually cast in the teeth of the early Christians; but what Christian now would think of defending the cross, or of making an apology for the prayer," Fac me cruce custodiri"? That, whereon the Man of Sorrows was hung in ignominy, from having been a grievous burden and reproach for ages to his church, has now become the proudest and most cherished of symbols, sparkles in the diadem of royalty and on the brow of beauty, and claims homage a hundred-fold for the old world's contempt and scorn. And, in this marvellous transfiguration, the cross is a type of numerous features of its own religion, which, in the early ages of the church, were shot at from every quiver, but which are now placed for ever beyond attack and above defence.

In modern times, unbelief has taken a different route. It has confined its objections, for the most part, to the records and the facts connected with Christianity, the evidences of which are buried in remote antiquity; while it has made the largest and most valuable concessions with regard to the practical working of the Christian system, its beneficial tendencies and results, its elevating and reforming influence upon society,points, of which the early unbelievers were

incompetent judges, but which sixteen or seventeen centuries of successful experiment have enabled modern infidels to decide satisfactorily. We know not where to look for more eloquent and discriminating testimony to the intrinsic worth and power of our religion, than we might quote from the writings of English and French infidels of the last two centuries. Rousseau, whose name, to almost every ear, is identified with infidelity, in some of his works professes the most enthusiastic veneration for the sacred writings, dilates upon the sanctity of the gospel code of morals, protests against the comparison of the writings of the ancient philosophers with the books of the New Testament, and with passionate eloquence exalts the character of Christ above every other ideal of excellence that man has ever beheld or imagined. He maintained, that the institutions of Christianity ought to be supported at public expense, as the bulwarks of society, and the sources of the most beneficent influence to all classes and conditions of men. The same sentiments, which Rousseau dressed up in the most glowing, moving rhetoric, we find set forth at great length, and with much explicitness of statement, by Woolston, Morgan, and other English infidels, — men who, with consummate inconsistency, first demonstrate, with great show of sincerity, that Christianity is useful and good, pure and true, in its doctrines and its precepts, and then attempt to persuade their readers that it is not a gift of God, and ought by all means to be despised and rejected.

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Such are the concessions of infidels in favor of Christianity. Their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges." The temple of our faith stands entire in strength and beauty, as those enemies testify, each with regard to the portion to which he is a competent witness. Those, who lived near the time when the cornerstone was laid, bear testimony to its depth and firmness; those, who have beheld the finished building (while they question the sufficiency of the foundation, which they must dig deep to see), own its proportions fair, its walls complete in grace and majesty, its altars chaste and venerable, its sanctuary pure and holy. Our adversaries, taken together, make good our cause. They furnish Christianity with a sufficient defence. We need only collect and arrange their admissions, nothing of our own is wanted to complete the pile of evidence.

We close our notice of Dr. Palfrey's work, (a notice more brief and cursory than it claims and deserves,) with our sincere thanks. for a compend so able, thorough, and scholarly, and with the earnest hope, that other engagements may not permanently alienate him from those departments of Biblical and theological learning, which his accurate habits of thought and a life of diligent and profound study have so admirably qualified him to enrich and adorn.

ART. III. Ueber die Moeglichkeit eines zwischen dem deutschen Zoll-Verein und den Vereinigten Staaten von America abzuschliessenden Handels und SchifffahrtsVertrags. (On the Possibility of a direct. Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between the States of the German Tariff-League and the United States of America. "The German Quarterly," of January 1st, 1843.)

THE German Quarterly (Die Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift) of the 1st of January, 1843, contains an elaborate article in support of certain opinions that coincide in a singular manner with the views expressed by Mr. Webster, at Baltimore, respecting reciprocity treaties, and combating with much energy the particular treaty of commerce and navigation, which now exists between the Hanseatic towns, Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck, on the one part, and the United States on the other. This reciprocity treaty, the writer declares, has proved entirely illusory in respect to the benefits expected from it for both countries. Germany, he says, secures to her large manufacturing population in Saxony and Westphalia no advantage that is not, by the mere operation of the tariff laws of the United States, equally shared by Great Britain and France; while the United States, by securing the market of the Hanse Towns for their great staples, have not yet gained a débouché in Germany. The United States have, by treaty, put the ships of Bremen, Hamburg, and Lubeck on the same footing as their own; but in return, they are not permitted to send their cotton, tobacco, and rice to the States of the German League, except on such terms as the latter may think prop

er; and the League, in judging of that propriety, looks to its own interests, and not to those of the Hanse Towns. We fully agree with the writer in the German Quarterly, though we may not share his views in respect to the maritime prospects of Germany.

"Whether Germany, within her present limits," says this writer," will ever be able to become a maritime power, is a question which has been answered by enthusiasts in the affirmative, which has caused many a sardonic smile to the incredulous and doubtful, and which has been flatly denied by those who seem to be most deeply concerned in the matter. The South of Germany is in favor of a national navy; the North, and especially the States which border on the Baltic and the German Ocean, are against it. The difficulty is supposed to lie in the want of good harbours; but Embden, Brake, and a number of the small ports in the North Sea and the Baltic, might, with very little expense, be made naval stations. Hanover, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, Prussia, and the Hanse Towns at the North, and the Austrian ports in the Adriatic Gulf, would give to a united German empire greater maritime advantages than are possessed by France, which, after all, has only the miserable port of Havre de Grâce in the British Channel for its principal Transatlantic trade, and Marseilles on the Mediterranean, which scarcely rivals Trieste, for the trade of the Levant. Germany, united into one nation, in all probability would possess greater advantages for com. merce and navigation than any continental power of Europe, and would find in her custom-house regulations a sufficient means of making reprisals for either British, French, or American encroachments. She would then contain an eminently industrious population of nearly sixty-four millions, who, by the exclusion from their markets of any particular kind of foreign merchandise, would be able to obtain from any country such concessions to their commerce and navigation as would comport with their power and dignity."

Such are the political speculations of German writers of the present day. On this side of the Atlantic, we are disposed to ask, Will the powers of Germany ever be united, and, when so, will they be willing to make a favorable treaty of commerce and navigation with the United States? We think, from present indications, that the chances are in favor of such an event. No other country on earth has felt the evils of internal dissensions more severely than Germany; none other has, in consequence of its divisions into many in

dependent States, been brought so near the verge of destruction. The Germans now understand very well, that the Peace of Westphalia destroyed their national existence, and that, in this age of material philosophy, nothing short of an appeal to the immediate interests of the people and their princes can again unite them. The intended union of the material interests of the country, ever since the year 1830, has been used as a check on the democratic tendencies which began to manifest themselves at that period. Here was a common road, on which both the people and their rulers might travel side by side, and, as it was the only one which remained open to them, it was but reasonable to suppose that they would take it.

The mass of the German people looked upon the mere abstract theories promulgated by the French Republicans partly with suspicion and partly with horror; but they easily comprehended the immense advantages to be derived from a firm union among themselves, and from the abolition of the odious excise, which prevented free trade and intercourse between the different States. Louis Philippe gave the world an example of a judicious government. He occupied himself with plans for improving the condition of the middle classes, and, by that means, held both the remnant of the ancient nobles, and the lower orders in subjection. The example was too striking not to be followed in Germany. The education of the Germans had, for many years, been in advance of their physical means and comforts, a position, which, of all others, is most fraught with danger to the happiness and tranquillity of a people. Now was the time to furnish aids to their industry and to improve their social condition. Never was there a period more propitious for the establishment of a peaceful union; and, as if to guaranty a happy issue, two attempts of this sort had already been made and had succeeded. Bavaria and Wurtemberg had formed a commercial league, and the Hanse Towns, with this end in view, had made a proposition to Hanover, Oldenburg, and Hesse Cassel, which, we believe, was accepted, if not actually executed. Prussia at last proposed to place herself at the head of the movement, and, in spite of the political jealousies of the minor States, skilfully fanned and operated on by British and French agents, succeeded in establishing what was then called "The Prussian Tariff-League" (Der Preussische VOL. LVIII. No. 122.

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