occupation in hours of repose. We think the authors have needlessly spoken apologetically of the ballad style of poetry in their preface. We are convinced that it will become very popular, and we hope ultimately to see it used as an effective and winning mode of embodying those noble deeds of Christian men of old, which would form the highest theme for poetic genius. One of the poems in the earlier part of the volume, entitled the "Meed of heroes," is strikingly beautiful, it is supposed to be the hymn sung in honour of the warriors who fell at Marathon, but the Christian mind of the author seems to have tinged it with a deeper sacredness, which makes it scarce possible to believe, that he is not telling of the rest of the just in paradise, rather than the fabled rewards of a heathen worship. In the "Songs of the Moorish wars," and others, we find some ballads which come to us with a truer interest, and are no less beautiful; that especially entitled "Alaric in Rome," conveys to us with great eloquence a striking episode in the annals of the true faith; none the less valuable, that it is furnished as authentic by the infidel Gibbon, who cannot withhold his admiration from the spectacle of the aged nun defending the sacred vessels of the Church, from the whole army of the northern conquerors, and constraining the vast host of savage warriors to bow down before the Majesty of Christianity as displayed in the person of one weak woman. Recollections of Childhood," one of the longest poems in the book, is graceful from the easy flow of language, and induces a kindly feeling towards the author, but we confess it seems singularly vague and pointless. The authors appear anxious to deprecate the charge of imitation which they fully expect to be brought against them, but we see no reason why they should be afraid of it; an honest imitation of a good thing is worthy of all commendation, and they will do well if they adopt from Macaulay nothing worse than the construction of verses.

The Rise of the Papal Power, traced in Three Lectures. By ROBERT HUSSEY, B.D., Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History. Oxford: J. H. Parker.

THE historical portion of this little volume is plain and lucid, according to the Professor's usual method. Indeed some will think that in attempting to assign the origin of the Papal Power to a specific Canon of a specific Council (that of Sardica, A.D. 347,) he affects a positiveness which is not attainable; for on the one side it might be said that the power of receiving Appeals given by this Council to the Bishop of Rome was quite different in kind from an inherent Supremacy; and on the other, that it was the custom of Councils to explain and authorize the existing law of the Church rather than to enact anything anew.

But letting this pass, we would desire to say a few words upon the tone of Mr. Hussey's Preface. In the main it is highly commendable. It is no pleasure to me, (he writes) God knows, to dip ny pen in gall. . . . . And in these times of doubt and fear especially, every good man would rather labour to build up, than to pull down.' And there is much sense, it strikes us, in the remark which follows:

"While Rome was the metropolis of the Roman empire, it might have been imagined perhaps that even if S. Peter's authority' had been exaggerated a little beyond rightful truth, it could be borne with, for the sake of the great advantage accruing to the Church from the having one efficient centre of operations. But now this phantom, magnificent as it once might have seemed to some minds, has vanished: and the Roman Supremacy, under all the varieties of nation, manners, laws, and language, could produce nothing but disunion and disorder; while nevertheless it pretends elaborately to preserve universal agreement in one point, namely, in outward worship, by the use of a language which is unintelligible to all nations alike.”

But when he proceeds to argue that no public act of the Church of Rome can be allowed to have effect, in an independent country upon any principle of sound policy," he appears to us to be proposing a line of policy as intolerant as that of the fourth Lateran Council, which he condemns, without the excuse which the Fathers of that Council had ; for they believed that they were merely enforcing the divine law; the Professor rests solely on expediency and self-defence: they, moreover lived in an age when freedom of opinion was not much respected; we in an era which boasts of its freedom from all intolerance.

Such a method of arguing appears to us, we must confess, quite unworthy of Oxford. Whether the Church of Rome be represented in any country by Vicars Apostolic, by Bishops, or by Cardinals, her claim to exclusive obedience, it is known to every student, is the same. It is a moral, a spiritual claim, which no Act of Parliament, no Imperial Ukase can disannul. Were there any chance of the Legislature by an effort of national resipiscence heartily and conscientiously re-adopting the Church of England as the alone divinely authorized exponent of Christian Truth among us, great cause there would indeed be for rejoicing. But the enforcement of pains and penalties by an heretical government, is what we could not bring ourselves to ask for. The claims of Rome must now be disproved, not silenced. But the argument, it appears to us, which will most effectually disprove them in this practical generation, is the visible and unmistakeable existence of a Church already in possession, which demands in GoD's name the obedience of this people, offers to give food convenient to the famished hearts of our poor, and goes forth into the highways and hedges, the streets and lanes of our cities, to compel men to come in.

The Calendar of the Anglican Church Illustrated; with brief accounts of the Saints who have Churches dedicated to their names, or whose images are most frequently met with in England; the early Christian and Medieval symbols, and an index of emblems. Oxford and London: J. H. Parker.

We have to thank Mr. Parker, not exclusively, we apprehend, in his capacity of publisher, for a most useful, laborious, and well got up volume. To all who delight to dwell upon the sufferings and trials, and good deeds of that portion of the Church which is now at rest, the present work, like the Lyra Sanctorum, which we lately noticed, and to which it forms an excellent companion, will be a most acceptable gift. To the Ecclesiologists, and those who are engaged in the various arts which are permitted to minister to the beauty of the sanctuary it will

form a most material aid, and will we trust, in conjunction with Mrs. Jameson's two volumes (the latter of which should have been noticed before this in our pages) give a decided impetus to more than one of them.

The volume opens with an interesting chapter on the Calendar, but we would ask why use the phrase "Anglican Church?" For ourselves we object to it in every form, though we are aware that it will sometimes find its way into our own pages: it is liable to the obvious inconvenience of bearing two senses-one simply as a synonym to English, as we imagine it is used here; the other as employed by Mr. Dodsworth, and other controversial writers, as expressive of the High Church theory.

Wheatley's theory of their being retained simply for civil purposes, (as furnishing dates, or being connected with various crafts) the Editor justly considers as most unsatisfactory, both as failing to account for the retention of such as SS. Enurchus and Nicomede, and for the omission of such popular names as SS. Cuthbert, Christopher, Anthony, and Patrick. The Editor omits to notice a remarkable circumstance, which is still more destructive of Wheatley's view, viz. that some additional Festivals were restored in Edward's second book. He should also have noticed the Saints which were restored by Archbishop Laud, and still belong to the Scotch Calendar. This chapter also contains a curious description taken from Dr. Plot of the Runic or Clogg Almanacs, which were derived from the Danes, and used to be common in this country so late as 1668. Our space will now only permit us to make one or two remarks upon opinions incidentally expressed in this volume. And first, we would enter our most decided protest against the idea of the Catacombs of Rome being the best authority for designs to be used in our churches, on the ground of the English Church being "reformed on the model of the Christian Church of the three first centuries." This is a manifest error; the symbols there found all belong to an age, when Christians, in order to protect their practices and doctrines from the ridicule of the heathen, were compelled to conceal their meaning under signs which the initiated alone could comprehend.

We may notice also another kindred error in the surprise which the writer expresses at the rare occurrence of Churches in England under the invocation of the Apostles. It is the same in all, at least, of Western Christendom. The earliest dedications were invariably to local Saints; and if we are to go back to "the three first centuries," we are bound to revive the practice. The honour of the ever Blessed TRINITY is of course guarded by every dedication being solemnized in that Holy Name. And after that the most natural method seems to be to commemorate some departed member of the communion of Saints, whose "faith" we would fain " 'follow;" whose history is connected with the locality in which we build. SS. Augustine, and Aidan, and Wilfrid, and Chad, occur much more naturally to Englishmen than the name of the Apostle whose life was spent in India, or Scythia, or Egypt. In a second edition we are promised a complete index of dedications for the whole of England. The compiler will also be glad of information accounting for particular dedications.

Samuel; a Story for Choristers, (Masters,) appears well calculated to work the end which the author has in view-that of awakening choristers and all connected with them to a true sense of the sanctity and importance of the office to which they are appointed. It is perhaps too exclusively adapted to that class to be very generally useful.

The One Catholic Supremacy, the Divine Salvation of the Church, (Ollivier,) is a mixture of good and bad. The writer we presume to be an Irvingite; but it is not this which makes his writing objectionable.

We have seldom read a more sensible or useful tract than Mr. J. F. HODGSON'S Plea for United Responding in the Public Worship of God, (Masters.) We advise every clergyman, who has not gained a full, hearty, unisonous response from his congregation, to read and to circulate this short, cheap, and seasonable tract.

The Church owes a fresh debt of gratitude to Mr. GRESLEY, for an excellent Letter to the Dean of Bristol on what he considers the “ fundamental error" of Tractarianism. (Masters.) Assuming Dr. Elliot to be an Evangelical, (it must certainly be according to a Gospel that we have not received,) he produces some remarkable evidence to show what is the real tendency of the present outbreak; and adjures that party not to lend themselves to a movement which must be fatal to themselves in common with the whole Church. The great question of the day he represents to be-Whether the Church shall be adapted to the State, (the two being obviously in a false relation to each other,) or the State to the Church. And he gives some hope, that he will on a future occasion proceed to the discussion of that subject. We earnestly trust that this expectation may be fulfilled. It is plain, from the recent agitation, that churchmen of all ranks and degrees are very ill instructed in the plainest principles of faith and duty; we must be content to begin again from the beginning-"line upon line, and precept upon precept."

Under this conviction we gladly welcome a series of Tracts for the Middle Classes, published by the "South Church Union," and another entitled The Poor Churchman's Friend, both to be had at our Publisher's. Persons writing for these classes should bear in mind, that while ignorant of facts and principles, they have good hard heads, and expect close reasoning well expressed.

The Probable effect of the late Papal Aggression, by W. POUND, M. A., (Hatchard,) is a thoughtful and well reasoned pamphlet. The writer's object is to prove that the "aggression " is "bold, systematic, and well organized," and that the Anglican Church is "disorganized, State-ridden, and prostrate." Perhaps both the portions of the subject are too highly coloured, and we do not agree with some of the premises from which these conclusions are drawn, nor with all the remedies of the evils resulting from the conclusion, but we recommend Mr. Pound's pamphlet to the careful perusal of all who wish to see how an earnest and honest mind is impressed by the present position of the English Church. The history of the growth of the Royal Supremacy, in the present mode of electing Bishops, is very important, and shows considerable research.

The Scottish Church Tracts, (Lendrum, Edinburgh.) which we have not noticed for some time past, have been issued at about monthly intervals, during the last year. The late numbers contain for the most part a good deal of condensed information. This is certainly a great recommendation to a tract which is intended and obliged to occupy the place of a larger treatise for the cottager's perusal and which ought for this reason to be of such substance as to bear repetition. Some of them have followed the course of the Ecclesiastical Calendar; and, besides one on The year of the Church, supply readings for Easter, Pentecost, and All Saints, as well as practical admonitions and suggestions for Lent and Holy Week. A few are American contributions, among which we may notice favourably the one on The Moral Training of the Church, originally a Lecture delivered by Mr. Ingraham Kip, of Albany. A second and very useful Series of four pages each has also been published, consisting chiefly of practical rules.

The Family Almanac, and Educational Register (J. H. Parker) may be recommended as containing an immense mass of useful information, touching Universities, Schools, and other public institutions.

Another convenient member of the same series is Whitaker's Clergyman's Pocket Book and Diary.

We call attention to the Synopsis of the Hymnal Noted, published under the superintendence of the Ecclesiological Society, of which the advertisement appears with our present number. The undertaking is so important that we shall return to the subject at an early opportunity.

The External Unity of the Church, (Masters,) is the title of a very striking and original Sermon by the Rev. EDWARD STUART, Curate of Christ Church, S. Pancras.

Mr. FLOWER'S Plea for Musical Services, in a letter to the Bishop of London, is a challenge which his Lordship may choose to ignore and disregard, but it is one which he cannot answer. The author, we are glad to know, not only defends, but uses the Church Service; and proves experimentally in a large and ill-trained parish, that it is a most essential means of edification.

Dr. CROLY has thought that it would redound to his credit to republish Three Speeches which he delivered in the height of the recent Protestant fever, and therefore we presume that we shall fulfil his wishes in sending them to us for review, by quoting one extract. "England, cut up into quarters like a sheep, for the provision of twelve Papists! England mapped out like a wilderness at the antipodes for the settlement of the paupers of Rome! England, the farm-yard of the 'lean-kine' of Rome!" From the character of these elegant similes, our readers will at least think that the speaker was haranguing a board of guardians in the country, or a congregation of boors. He was however addressing himself to the clergy of "the most educated metropolis of the world." He then goes on to ridicule the Pope's presumption in daring to issue a mandate to proud Protestant England-little imagining that it would be found in a few weeks that the Pope was actually by this very agitation invested with the power of driving the Prime Minister of England from his high pre-eminence !