trust in second-hand authority, but to ascertain the facts by a reference to the volume in question. On examining it, our first surprise was to find that this paragraph had not been published "at the same moment," with the Bishop of London's Sermons "On the Church," but more than twenty-two years ago, in a volume entitled, "Sermons by Edward Maltby, D.D., vol. i., 1819," long before Dr. Maltby was a bishop or was likely to be made one, and therefore not delivered ex cathedrá at all. Our next annoyance was occasioned by the discovery that the sermons in this volume are without titles, and consequently that there is no discourse "On Itinerant Preachers and Haranguers in Private Houses." We found, however, on closer inspection, that these words occur in the twenty-third sermon, on 1 Thess. ii. 3, 4, "For our exhortation," &c. The leading point of the preacher is to show, that if the ministry of the apostles was, in their own age, personally attacked and contumeliously reviled by ignorant and silly men, it cannot, therefore, be a subject of wonder that increasing opposition should now be made to the ministers of the Gospel who are placed by authority in the church of Christ. "Be it observed," the doctor adds, "that I am not speaking of dissenters in general, but of those who, having been educated in the bosom of the church, desert it upon the plea that they cannot have the Gospel expounded there faithfully." He then proceeds to state that the true nature of the Gospel must be determined by an appeal to the original Scriptures, and asks the question which party is likely to execute such an undertaking the best? "The seceders from the church and itinerant preachers; expounders of the word of God as unauthorized as they are unqualified, being most of them persons of little or no education, and utterly unacquainted with the learned languages; or those who have been trained up from their earliest youth," &c.—p. 475. At the end of the volume there are more than forty pages of "Notes and Collections," learned, curious, and instructive; at page 547 the following note occurs upon the passage just quoted :-p. 475, 1. 4. "Itinerant preachers; haranguers in private houses. "I lately saw an extract from an old pamphlet, entitled 'A Briefe Description or Character of the Religion and Manners of true Phanatiques in general, scil. Anabaptists, Independents, Brownists, Enthusiasts, Levellers, Quakers, Seekers, Fifth Monarchy Men, and Dippers, showing and refuting their Absurdities, by due Application; reflecting much also on Sir John Præcisian, and other Novelists. Non seria semper. London: printed and are to be sold by most stationers, 1660.' This passage I lay before my readers as a very curious specimen of the language of controversy, at the time of the Restoration: "They are motley and mongrel predicants, centaurs in the church, half clerics and half laics, the by-blows of the clergy, gifted hypocrites, severe momusses, a whining people, triobolary Christians, new dwindling divines, the prophetical pigmies of this age, unordained, unblest, untried, unclean spirits, whose calling, commission, and tenure, depends on popularity, flattery, and beggary; their excellency consists in tautologizing, in praying extempore, that is, out of all time, without order or method, being eminent in nothing above the plebeian pitch and vulgar proportion. They spin out their sermons at their wheels, or weave them up at their looms, or dig them out with their spades, weigh or measure them in their shops, or stitch and cobble them with their thimble and lasts; or thresh them out with their flails, and afterward preach them in their barns to their dusty disciples, who, the better to set off the oddness of their silly teachers, fancy themselves into some imaginary persecution, as if they were driven into dens, and caves, and woods. Their holy and learned academies, where they first conned this chemical new divinity, and are since come to so great proficiency, were Munster's Revelations, Geneva's Calvinism, Amsterdam's Toleration, and New England's Preciseness.' ”—p. 548. Now, although the passage to which this note is appended was not very courteous toward itinerant preachers, and the quotation was made, as it seems to us, to illustrate, if not to confirm, the text, still it was too bad" to attribute it to Dr. Maltby's pen, and to make him alike answerable for the style and the sentiment. As our reviewer's citation thus signally failed of proof, our readers will be impatient to know how this mistake could occur. They may be assured that it is truly humiliating to our editorial dignity, and very perilous to that infallibility which multitudes still attribute to the oracular "we," for us to tell a plain unvarnished tale, not only of the manner in which our gifted reviewer was misled, but how, another brother of our gentle craft was misled also. In The Christian Examiner for May last, there appeared the following paragraph : "A PRELATIC DESCRIPTION or Dissenting MINISTERS. "We often admire what we cannot imitate. Especially is this true in the literary department. We give an illustration. We have recently met with the following graphic description of Nonconforming ministers, and we confess ourselves totally unable to imitate its beauty and its power. Nor can we be greatly humbled when we make this confession--for, who is the author? Not a Nonconforming presbyter like ourselves, but a profoundly learned, a right reverend prelate of the first order! A prince and a prelate! No less a personage than the Right Reverend Father in God, Dr. MALTBY, the Bishop of Durham. In his sermon on Itinerant Preachers and Haranguers in Private Houses,' he, the ineek and mild successor of the apostles, beautifully introduces the following admirable scholium." Here occurs the passage already quoted. "Read this, ye dissenting ministers of the empire, and say, if this description of your character, attainments, pursuits, and habits, has ever been surpassed! The classic elegance of the style is only equalled by the Christian meekness of the spirit!" This extract, it appears, met our reviewer's eye, and he, "good easy man," relying on the fidelity of his literary brother, penned the unhappy passage for which we have now to apologize. Should our readers inquire again, what the editor of the Christian Examiner can say to this, we have to state, that his attention has been called to it, as well as ours, and that, in his number for December, the following apologetical passage appears. "THE BISHOP OF DURHAM. "It is our fixed purpose never intentionally to do injustice to any man in conducting this journal, and hence the following explanation. We were furnished, some months ago, by an intelligent correspondent, with extracts from a review of Sermons by the present Bishop of Durham, in which extracts, curious epithets were applied to dissenting ministers. The impression produced by this statement, as furnished to us, and by us, would be, either that Dr. Maltby had applied these offensive epithets to dissenting ministers, or that he had quoted them with approbation. We find that in either case the impression would be erroneous-that instead of using these epithets in his Sermons, the Bishop only quotes them in a 'note,' as a specimen of the way in which former churchmen had been wont to vilify dissenting ministers. The language thereof is a proof of the bigotry and intolerance of some churchmen, but not of the present Bishop of Durham. We have sincere pleasure in voluntarily offering this explanation; our regret that, through inadvertence on the part of a friend just as incapable as we are of intentionally misrepresenting any man, we fell into this mistake; and our best thanks to Mr. Kidd, of Scarborough, who, though he did not first call our attention to the subject, carefully examined the document, and thus aided us in the inquiry. These lines render, of course, unnecessary the insertion of his letter." It is not for us to pronounce a judgment upon the editor of the Christian Examiner; all that is necessary to a just and candid opinion on his conduct, and that of his correspondent, is now before our readers, and they will determine for themselves: but this we will say, that in these times of deplorable estrangement and party hatred, it must be the imperative duty of those who conduct and those who contribute to our religious periodical literature, to use their utmost caution that their quotations are honest, and their inferences just. It is for a lamentation that there is enough coming forth from the press, from day to day, to promote dissension, without needlessly bringing to light again. what was printed twenty years ago; enough too to justify and perpetuate existing divisions, without putting into the mouths of our opponents language they never uttered. We fully believe that our brother editor would not intentionally do injustice even to a princely prelate; but, at the same time, the account now given is alike admonitory to him and to ourselves, to take heed in conducting our respective journals, that we needlessly add nothing to an excitement which can do no good,-for "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." EDITOR. REVIEWS. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of London, at the Visitation in October, 1842, by Charles James, Lord Bishop of London. 8vo. London. THE Bishop of London considers the present controversy, which is now "carrying on" in the church, as of so much consequence, that he thinks it right that what he has to say to the clergy, on the present occasion, should entirely relate to this all-absorbing subject. He is sensible, he says, that he is expected to speak with the authority belonging to his office, on matters respecting which his clergy have a right to know his opinion; and which relate partly to the doctrines, and partly to the ritual of the church. He avowedly abstains from lengthened argument and discussion, and evidently wishes to be understood as speaking ex cathedrd. He hoped that those who are engaged in the present controversy would have seen the evils that must, he thinks, ensue to the church from its continuance, and would have been led to modify some of their opinions, or "at least to keep them within their own bosoms." But his lordship has been disappointed, it seems, in supposing that the Puseyite clergy would consent to regard their favourite dogmas as something only esoteric, and to be held in petto. No; there is somewhat more of a self-sacrificing spirit in a thorough-going Puseyite; and the bishop clearly sees that he has awkward materials to deal with. The Puseyites, therefore, must be managed; and, besides, some of their notions constitute rather a "flattering unction" to the souls of the right reverend spiritual descendants and successors of the fishermen of Galilee. Hence his lordship has had rather a difficult course to steer: but he has done his task with considerable adroitness, and has shown a tolerable acquaintance with both wind and tide. In their mode of talking of the church of Rome, and their coaxing behaviour towards that community, we must admit (to do the bishop justice) that the Puseyites get little encouragement from him; and, in several passages of this charge, he speaks out strongly against several of the prominent doctrines of Popery. Towards sundry ceremonies, he is more indulgent; and, though he here adopts his usual caution, the query is, whether, by the concessions which he appears to make, he is not, in certain quarters, raising a ghost which he may find it somewhat difficult to lay. Of the spirit in which the diocesan of London enters on the subject, the declaration with which he sets out will convey some idea; and will, at the same time, show how far the genuine ecclesiastic views the question, "What is truth?" in the light of the New Testament. remains for me," says the bishop, "to perform the duty of pronouncing that deliberate judgment which the clergy of my own diocese "It |