op. (1.) The commission of the Assembly having maturely deliberated on the instructions to the royal commissioners for inquiring into the means of religious in struction and pastoral superintendence afforded to the people of Scotland, express their deep regret that his Majesty's Ministers have not been pleased, in consequence of the judgment of the last meeting of the commission of the General Assembly, to make any change in the composition of the said royal commission. And whereas that commission, from its authorizing the commissioners to inquire generally into the portunities of religious worship, the means of religious instruction, and the pastoral superintendence afforded to the people of Scotland, may be, and has been, interpreted as at variance with the principles and polity of the established church, and as calculated to weaken or to overthrow it, partiticularly as it seems to involve in it a principle subversive of this and all other ecclesiastical establishments; viz., that whenever religious instruction and pastoral superintendence are found to a certain extent afforded by any sect or denomination whatsoever, then the services of an established church are not required, and may be dispensed with; the commission of the General Assembly publicly and solemnly protest against whatever has such a tendency, and declare that they consider it to be the sacred duty of the legislature to support and protect the national church, and to secure accommodation and religious instruction to the people of Scotland, so that they might attend regularly upon divine ordinances, and may profit by the pastoral exertions and superintendence of its ministers. With a view to these most important objects, and under the protestation herein contained, they approve of such members of the church as may be required to do so, by the commissioners nominated by his Majesty, furnishing accurate information as to all statistical matters, and also approve of all church courts allowing inspection of, or giving extracts from, their records of all entries relating to the same matters, it being clearly understood that the commission of the Assembly hold that it is not competent to the commissioners to put to individual members any questions relating to the doctrine, worship, government, or discipline of the church." (2.) "That the commission of the Assembly encourage the committee on church extension to persevere in the prosecution of those important statistical investigations in which they have hitherto been engaged, and more especially in those districts which are being attached to the recent chapels of ease, and the newlyerected churches, that all grants from the assembly's funds might be proportioned to the exigencies of the respective localities for which they shall be required; and aware that, notwithstanding all the attempts which have been made to diminish or disguise it, there is a vast extent of real and most affecting ecclesiastical destitution n the land, which even with, and more espe cially without the aid of Government, will require the aid of many years of most strenuous exertion and liberality ere they can be fully supplied, the Commission of the General Assembly make an earnest appeal to the Christian benevolence of the people of Scotland, and call upon them at this season, when the adversaries of the establishment are so intent upon its overthrow, to attest by their subscriptions and their sacrifices their attachment to the church of their forefathers, and their hearty co-operation with the efforts which the church is now making for the moral and religious well-being of the population.” The SCOTTISH EPISCOPAL CHURCH. We understand that the present destitute state of this venerable communion, in many parts of the country, will be brought under the notice of the recently issued church commission. In the city of Glasgow alone there are, it is calculated, nearly 10,000 poor episcopalians, chiefly employed in the factories, who, it may be said, are at present altogether destitute of the means of religious instruction and consolation. Rev. David Aitchison, of Queen's College, Oxford, with a zeal which reflects upon him the highest credit, is at present devoting his gratuitous services in their behalf, and, we learn, only wants the means to be enabled to establish a chapel, with a large proportion of free sittings, for the permanent administration to these poor people of the means of grace in the communion of their mother church. At present, with the sanction of his diocesan, Bishop Walker, he is officiating in a bired room, which is altogether inadequate to contain the Christian congregation which he has been the means of rescuing from the most distressing state of poverty and religious destitution. This is a case which calls loudly for legislative inquiry and support. In many parts of the Highlands, too, the opportunities afforded to the Gaelic Episcopalians of divine worship are lamentably deficient. We are informed that many of the episcopal clergy in the Highlands are doing the duty of two, and, in some instances, of three chapels, for a pittance of less than 101. annually.-Aberdeen Journal. IRELAND. The following letter has been addressed to the Editor of the Dublin Evening Mail: Sir,-May I beg to acknowledge, through your valuable paper, the receipt of fifty pounds from the Dowager Countess of Rosse, towards the completion of the New Church at Errigle. This contribution is the more valued, seeing she has not an acre of land in the parish. I trust you will notice such liberality as it deserves. I have the honour to be, your obedient humble servant, F. HURST, Vicar of Errigle. Errigle Glebe, County Monaghan, September 10, 1835. (From the Dublin Evening Mail.) TO THE MOST REVEREND JOHN GEORGE, LORD ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH, AND PRIMATE OF ALL IRELAND. We, the Clergy of the Diocess of Dromore, assembled at your Grace's Triennial Visitation of this Diocess, cannot refrain from expressing our high appreciation of the wise and pious counsels contained in the charge just addressed to us, which we fervently pray may remain impressed on our hearts, and, by Divine grace, produce suitable fruits in our ministerial conduct. At the same time we embrace this opportunity of requesting that your Grace will accept of our sincere thanks for your assiduous exertions in maintenance of the integrity of the United Church of England and Ireland, and in defence of those temporal rights of the Irish clergy, assailed in the present day with such violence and pertinacity-exertions on the part of your Grace and other venerable heads of the United Church, as well as of many of its other firm and influential friends, which we trust will eventually, under the blessing of Almighty God, prove successful. But, to whatever persecution and tribulation it may please Divine Providence to subject us, we shall never shrink from the profession of those sound and scriptural doctrines upon which our Church is founded, and the practice of those duties so ably recommended to us in your Grace's charge. We would now, with one voice, reject the imputation which, we understand, bas been alleged against the clergy of Dromore, that we for a moment could be brought to express even a reluctant approbation of measures tending towards the dismemberment of our Church, and the alienation of her remaining revenues to other than ecclesiastical uses, under the weak and senseless expectation of deriving security to our tithe incomes, from the compromise of principle, which so unworthy an expression of opinion would justly attach to our body. That your Grace may long live to preside over this portion of the National Church, is the prayer of your faithful servants in Christ. Signed by desire and on the part of the Clergy of the diocese of Dromore, JAMES SAURIN, Archdeacon of Dromore. His Grace, through the Archdeacon of Dromore, returned the following answer : TO THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE OF My Rev. Brethren-The address which you have presented to me by the hands of the venerable the Archdeacon, you may be assured, is most gratifying to me, as an evidence of your approval of my exertions on behalf of the Established Church, and as a formal denial of the charge brought against you, that in your opposition to the late Bill for regulating Ecclesiastical revenues, you were acting in compliance with Episcopal suggestions, and not in accordance with your own convictions, as expressed in your petitions to the Houses of Parliament. In a matter of so deep concern to the Established Church, you were incapable of being biassed by worldly motives, and you have now, with becoming warmth, repelled the insinuation. This declaration of your sentiments is the same as that expressed by the clergy of those dioceses which I have visited in this my triennial course. In times like these, abounding in questions of much practical doubt and difficulty, it is most consolatory to find myself supported by the clergy in the measures I have pursued, and to be assured by them, that they disregard all temporal advantages, however great, when put in competition with the security of the Church Establishment, and the religious interests it was intended to promote. I am deeply sensible, my Rev. Brethren, of the insufficiency of all human power, unassisted by Divine Grace, to uphold the cause of pure religion in the world; and I bid you, therefore, in reliance on the Divine promises, to join with me in prayer, that Almighty God will be pleased to bless our endeavours to advance his glory and the spiritual welfare of men, by the wider diffusion of the genuine truths of his Gospel in this country.-I remain, your affectionate and faithful servant, JOHN G. ARMAGH, NE W BOOKS. JUST PUBLISHED. Democracy in America. By M. de Tocqueville. Schlegel's Philosophy of History, translated by By Edward Hogg, M.D. 2 vols. post 8vo. 21s. Gurney's Essay on Love to God. 8vo. 4th edit. 45. Jennings's Landscape Annual for 1836, “Andalusia." 21s. Large paper, 27. 12s. 6d. Bateman's General Highway Act. 12mo. 5s. A Treatise on the Disorders of Neat Cattle, with the Causes, Symptoms, and Mode of Cure. By Abel Earl. 12mo. 5s. Scott's Guide to the Lakes of Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire, with a Sketch of Carlisle. 18mo. 38. Cole on God's Sovereignty. 12mo. 4s. Evans's Letters of a Pastor to his Flock. 2nd edit. 32mo. 1s. Dissent Exploded; or, the Bubble Burst. 12mo. 2s. 6d. Twelve Sermons, preached at Keyworth, by the Rev. E. Thompson, M.A. 12mo. 5s. 6d. Family Commentary upon the Sermon on the Mount. By the late H. Thornton, Esq., M.P. 8vo. 5s. Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, and other Poems. 32mo. 1s. 6d. Sacred Classics, Vol. XXII. Vol. LXXI. (Literary and Scientific Men of Italy. Vol. II.) Fc. 6s. Reminiscences of Niebuhr, with a Portrait. Post 8vo. 9s. 6d. Steam to India; or, the New Indian Guide. Post 8vo. 12s. Twenty Years in Retirement. 2 vols. 8vo. 24s. The Merchant Seaman's Act, with Notes. By C. 12mo. 5s. THE Editor is much indebted to "J. G. A.," but fears that the Biography in question would not have any connexion with the objects of the British Magazine. "A Constant Reader," after some remarks in commendation of Mr. Gresley's “Ecclesiastes Anglicanus," goes on as follows:-"But the object of my present letter is to offer a few remarks on the general usefulness of didactic treatises. Whether any one ever studied a didactic treatise in order to know how to become a poet or an orator? and whether, if they did, it did them any good?' are questions which, with yourself, I should be inclined to answer in the negative-Poeta nascitur non fit;' and the same may be said, perhaps, of orators, and of a few preachers. But, surely, if there were a poet-laureate in every parish, who was bound to furnish an ode once a week, there would be need of some new treatise, 'de Arti Poeticâ,' to suggest even the first principles of versification. I cannot but think that our young clergymen need some help of this sort. How many are totally unacquainted with their office when they begin to preach, and are settled in parishes where there is no one competent to give them the slightest hint, and where they hear their own voice only from one year's end to another. It is true that common sense will suggest many rules to a preacher, but I apprehend that many flounder on for years before they even discover their manifold deficiencies, which a plain and sensible treatise would at once point out to them. Perhaps one of the principal uses of a didactic treatise is, to turn the attention of young preachers to the different branches of their office, and this seems to be sufficiently done in the "Ecclesiastes Anglicanus.” Without being, or professing to be, a precise and formal treatise, it unfolds the subject in a plain and intelligible manner, and presents it to the good sense of the reader to form his own judgment upon. If any divine of acknowledged ability and piety would furnish the younger clergy with a more perfect work, the "Ecclesiastes Anglicanus" must, of course, retire into the shade; but in the absence of such a work, I think it a pity that your influential Review should check its circulation. The following letters have been received :-" W. P.," "B. A. Cant.," " A Curate,” “ An Undergraduate of Cambridge." The following are in type:-"On the Days of Creation," "Musical Festivals," "Parochial Psalmody," ""Leslie on Ecclesiastical History," "Sabbath and other Levitical Ordinances," "Society for Propagation of the Gospel." It would be a great kindness if correspondents would study brevity. The first of the above letters in type makes five pages and three-quarters. Of course, such length is most inconve nient. An extra half-sheet of letter-press is given with the present Number in consequence of the Proprietors being disappointed in receiving a plate. THE BRITISH MAGAZINE. DEC. 1, 1835. ORIGINAL PAPERS. THE WRITINGS OF ST. PATRICK. It is not, I believe, very generally known, that several short works are extant, some of which perhaps falsely, but others with great probability, are attributed to St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland. As a sequel to the valuable paper "On the Introduction of Christianity into Ireland, and on the Life of St. Patrick," which appeared in the September Number of the "British Magazine," (p. 259), I have drawn up the following account of these remains, (including the canons of synods at which St. Patrick is said to have presided,) which, I trust, will prove acceptable to those who have been interested by the paper alluded to: In the year 1656, Sir James Ware,* to whom Irish antiquities and Irish church history are so deeply indebted, published these remains of St. Patrick in a small volume, which is now become scarce; and, in the beginning of the present year (1835), a new and very valuable edition of them, accompanied by notes replete with learning and deep knowledge of ecclesiastical antiquity, was published in Dublin by a Spanish Roman-catholic priest, who is now a resident of that city, having been compelled, as it is said, to leave his own country in consequence of his political opinions. From these works I have drawn the chief materials for the following account of the extant writings of St. Patrick. * S. Patricii, qui Hibernos ad fidem Christi convertit, adscripta Opuscula, &c. opera et studio Jacobi Warai Equi Aurati. Lond. 1656. The title of this work is as follows-" Sancti Patricii Ibernorum Apostoli, Synodi, Canones, Opuscula, et Scriptorum quæ supersunt fragmenta; Scholiis illustrata a Joachimo Laurentio Villanueva, Presbytero." VOL. VIII.-Dec. 1835. 41 |