drawback upon the advancement of the community, an impediment to education, the means of which are sadly deficient, a great hindrance to the operations of the church, to the administration of the laws, to the diffusion of sound opinions, and other general benefits of social intercourse. Certain persons, whose intentions are doubtless good, but whose zeal might find, we think, a better field in the present age than the perpetuation of useless distinctions, are at prodigious pains, by means of festivals, associations, badges, premiums, and similar machinery, to cherish and still further diffuse the native language of the Principality-a language which it is no libel to describe as singularly deficient in beauty or euphony, and which possesses scarcely a particle of literature deserving to be rescued from oblivion. It would be a curious speculation how much of the mischief of the present day is perpetrated through the medium of well-intentioned societies. We venture earnestly to recommend some of the concluding observations of the Report on South Wales to the consideration of these zealous archæologists, and to suggest as a worthier object of their intelligence and patriotism, and a better application of the sums devoted to the sustentation of this worthless relic, the extension of their aid and co-operation to that humble but discerning class who regard the English language in a spirit that does credit to their sagacity, as the language of advancement and promotion, and who “gladly embrace any opportunity of giving their children the advantage of acquiring it.'

The subject with which we shall conclude these remarks is one on which, had not our limits been already too far exceeded, we should bave desired rather to dilate, though with far other feelings than satisfaction. The condition of the Established Church in the Principality, as described by the Commissioners at the close of their Report, is a melancholy picture. Who shall say that it has had no connexion with the deeper causes of Rebeccaism?

• We feel it incumbent upon us, before closing this Report, to add a few words upon a subject which it is impossible to regard without feelings of serious concern and regret: we refer to the existing position and circumstances of the Established Church in South Wales. That so large a proportion of the lower and middle classes are seceders from her communion is a fact which, on whatever other grounds it may be partly accounted for, the deficiency of her means has beyond all doubt greatly contributed to promote. In no part of the United Kingdom has so large a proportion of the great tithes been diverted into lay hands. In the diocese of St. David's, which includes nearly the whole of the six counties, the average value of the vicarages is stated to amount to only 1377. per anuum. In consequence of this state of things many of the rural and thinly-peopled districts have been left without accessible means of worship or spiritual instruction, while the ministers of large and popu

lous town-parishes have received stipends wholly inadequate to provide them with those requisites which are usually deemed necessary for their station, or to the demands which their office involves.

Of the very serious evils now adverted to, a large class is still in active operation, and the consequences are apparent in that wide-spread alienation from the doctrines and discipline of the Established Church, which is so prominent a feature in many districts of the country. To suggest the remedies applicable to such a state of things would exceed, as it appears to us, the province of our duty; but we have thought it too important to be left without comment, both in respect to its general bearing on the sentiments and feelings of the people, and on account of the indirect, but not less powerful, influence which may be traced to it in connexion with those disturbances which were the immediate object of our inquiry.'-p. 37.

Art. VI.- Die Königliche Rede an einen Katolischen Bischoff, 8c.

Frankfort, 1842. M.

Calvinist, observes in his entertaining · Voyages en Zigzags,' p. 457, on entering into Italy, ‘on reconnoît bientôt qu'on vient d'entrer dans une contrée sui generis, dévote mais religicuse, fidèle à son culte, à ses traditions, à ses mœurs, saine à sa manière ; chez une nation enfin, et non pas chez un assemblage d'esprits sans lien et sans unité.' Fully alive to all the blessings which we ourselves owe to the Reformation, and more keenly sensible than most, from a thorough and intimate knowledge, derived from long residence in the bosom of Romanist families, both at home and abroad, of the practical evils of the papal system, we, nevertheless, acknowledge that we never passed from France or Switzerland into Italy without something near akin to the feeling so well expressed by M. Topfer. It is, therefore, with no unmixed pleasure that we proceed to give an account of certain workings which have been long operating secretly amongst the members of the Church of Rome, and which must soon produce a division amongst them, similar to that which has just taken place in the Church of Scotland. Not that we have any disposition to justify or palliate tyranny and cruelty, civil or ecclesiastical, in Russia or in Rome. But we confess that, looking at the European continent as a whole, it is not from that quarter that we think the danger is most imminent. To exclaim in these days against oppression and superstition is much as if a Frenchman, an Italian, or a German, in the midst of a deluge of rain, were to be taking precautions against a fire. It is impossible to have resided in these countries, and not sympathize to some extent with those sober and reflective natives who dread all attempts to gain increased

liberty liberty and increased religious light by appeals to the million, as being but masks for the furtherance of revolution and infidelity. If it were necessary to choose between any such extremes, most Englishmen would prefer to live under the government of Austria rather than in America, and the faith of Rome to the (so called) theology of the North of Germany.

Those amongst our readers who are acquainted with the Life of Monseigneur de Wessenberg, the Prince Primate of Constance, are aware of the contest which was carried on during the whole of his episcopate between him and the Roman Government; but in this, as in most similar cases, the true source of disagreement does not appear

in any printed account:-all that is manifest is a mere skirmishing of outposts, not the real cause of war. In like manner, in the encyclical letter to the bishops in Poland,* transmitted at the time of the Polish Revolution, the Pope speaks, or rather is made to speak, in very strong terms of certain unquiet spirits which had been for many years troubling the Holy See with unreasonable requests-requests which, although always refused, were with unconquerable pertinacity continually renewed; but they who merely read this letter were as much in the dark as ever as to the nature of these demands; it was not the intention, as it was not the policy, of the Court of Rome to declare them * The words in the Epistola ENCYCLICA (1832) are as follows:

openly. The subject has been referred to in divers journals and pamphlets from time to time, but always in such a way that none could understand the points at issue save those who had other means of information. The censorship of the press, which in most Roman Catholic countries is in the hands of ecclesiastics, and generally of Dominicans, effectually prevents anything from transpiring that could give information to the Roman Catholic laity; and no question within the bosom of the Roman Church itself has much chance to attract the attention of Protestant polemists.

We say within the bosom of the Church itself, because nothing but the fear of schism has prerented many members of the Church of Rome in Germany from long ere now taking effectual measures for ensuring the redress of the things of which they complain. Down to this moment they have avowed and acted on the resolution not to admit of any discussion of, or departure from, any one doctrine or article of faith; confining their desire of alteration to such things as are mere matters of discipline, and which the Pope might rectify to-morrow if he pleased ; and, till very lately, they also professed their determination to suffer anything rather than produce a separation from the See of Rome. A change, however, has now been wrought on this latter point-and fully admitting the dangers of schism, and all the difficulty of preserving, after separation, anything like authority in matters of government or doctrine- they are, nevertheless, at last resolved to risk all these evils rather than suffer the things of which they complain to continue. · It is obvious that these persons must have a very strong case, or at least think they have a very strong case, before, with such sentiments as we have described them to hold, they could be brought to adopt the measures they now contemplate. Slowly and reluctantly must they have made up their minds that, without a bold movement against authority, their case is a hopeless one. They are well aware of the difficulties they must find in justifying their final resolution to the Roman Catholic world at large; and one great difficulty with which they have to contend, and which is a difficulty to us in stating their case now, arises from their justification being complete exactly in the proportion in which it is unfit for the eye of the public.

The four points upon which they have been insisting are, first, that the public worship shall be performed in all countries in the vernacular tongue; secondly, that the cup shall be given, as well as the bread, in the Sacrament to the laity; thirdly, that the frequenting of the confessional shall not be compulsory; fourthly, that vows of celibacy shall not be obligatory on the clergy. With regard to the first of these points—they complain not

of

of the doctrine that the law of the Church is one and unchangeable;' but they assert and complain that the doctrine lias been pushed and used so as to have the effect of a fraud. They complain that the priests of Rome have multiplied the unchangeable laws to an extent which they know it is impossible to maintain, in order that they may obtain money for dispensations to break them. They complain, too, that this particular law against vernacular prayers has been relaxed elsewhere--but not for them. In France the people commonly use a prayer-book called the • Paroissien,' which has the Latin service and the French translation in parallel columns; but such a work is prohibited in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and all countries where the power of the Church is absolute. In the North of Germany and the Tyrol they use a German mass-book, but it is rarely to be met with in Austria, Bohemia, or Styria. Nor let it not be supposed that this is a question affecting the laity only; a large majority of the priests in these regions are as ignorant of the meaning of the Latin which they chaunt, as the Jews are of the Hebrew which they read in the synagogue. Jews and Romish priests learn to read Hebrew and Latin, but they do not learn to understand it; even in the towns, to say nothing of the country parishes, very many priests understand no more of Latin than the people: and hence the importance, even as respects the clergy, of this first point for which they are contending.

On the second point, the custom of the Church of Rome is for none but the celebrants to partake of the chalice: the expression, therefore, 'refusing the cup to the laity,' so common at Exeter Hall and elsewhere, is not correct; priests are as much refused as laymen if they present themselves to receive the blessed Sacrament: but they seldom present themselves, because each one ought to say mass himself every day, and therefore he would not go a second time to receive it. It is certainly remarkable that of the two elements, the one of which it is specially said • Drink ye all of it,' should be that one which is refused to all.

With the third point commences our difficulty, and one before which we confess ourselves compelled to yield: we are precluded from the possibility of proving our position, and we must state at once our conclusion, which is this that if it had been the intention of any body of men to corrupt the morals of the human race, to habituate children of both sexes to impurity, filth, and profligacy, it would have been impossible to have devised a scheme more completely adapted to produce that effect than the practice of the confessional, as it is now carried on in the Church of Rome. The common sense of mankind, the ordinary feelings of morality, would have made it impossible to carry into practice