seen at Oscott, was brought among the Moravians; then for a season communed with the Wesleyan Methodists; then overcame a lingering scruple about the use of the lot, and returned to that still fold to which the Great Shepherd had first led her. There she remained, though, in the shadows of life's late evening, she was perilously lured by influential visiters toward Romanism. To that siren-music she was far too ready to listen; but among her last rejoicings and thanksgivings was this, that her bark had not been drawn within the attraction of the falls. She gained the fair havens, with "an abundant entrance," after many a tempest. Here is much to be pondered by those who have the great task of educating childhood, especially childhood gifted with superior faculties. Here is much, also, to caution those who deem it a harmless thing to introduce the young to familiar acquaintance with patrons of error, or of doubtful practice; to use the words of Mrs. Schimmelpenninck, with "cold and argumentative unbelievers," or "profane and immoral persons of genius." In this respect, the narrative under review is as a beacon-fire; and the warning light blazes to the very close. All glory, then, to the grace of God, which brought out a truly magnificent character, and sustained it amid vicissitudes and dangers to which we cannot look back without trembling.

Fiji and the Fijians. Volume I. The Islands and their Inhabitants. By Thomas Williams, late Missionary in Fiji. Volume II. MissionHistory. By James Calvert, late Missionary in Fiji. Edited by George Stringer Rowe. Heylin.Though this column cannot do justice to the work before us, we will not defer the pleasure of recommending so important an addition to our Missionary library. The former volume gives, in clear and good style, the fruit of thirteen years' re

search,-to which a graceful pencil lends value, as well as attractiveness. Information will be found here in abundance respecting the discovery of the islands; their extent, natural features, and meteorology; the origin of the inhabitants; their polity and government, social distinctions, and forms of justice; their wars, shipping, fisheries, and industrial arts; their characteristics, dialects, and poetry; their manners and customs; and their religion.-The second and more copious volume contains what might be not unfairly called a romance of modern church-history. Its true stories are, indeed, more marvellous than fiction. A reluctant hand points to the abominations which-more loathsome, if possible, by contrast to all the beauty of creation around-long polluted those isles of the Pacific; and this prepares the way for tidings of a work of grace which has few parallels, and which lays on our churches a heavy but most sacred burden. For the facts of the narrative Mr. Calvert is responsible for the choice of details, the reflections, and the literary vesture of the whole, (except a chapter on Language, from the pen of the accomplished Classical Tutor at Didsbury,) we are indebted to Mr. Rowe, whose task is very well executed.-To name Fiji is enough to fix attention. An author of our own day has written on the Decisive Battles of the World. When some competent historian shall take up the Decisive Battles of the Church, the Fijian campaign will find record in pages more thrilling than those of Thucydides or Livy, of Niebuhr or Alison. For one section of that great work here is the material.

The Afternoon of Unmarried Life. By the Author of " Morning Clouds." Longmans.-Inscribed "to the unmarried gentlewomen of England whom time has made familiar with sorrow, and not averse to thought,” this volume contains much that is

undoubtedly excellent; and it may well displace fifty trashy novels which pretend to delineate woman's experience. Still, we want more

simplicity, more directness, less of the mere embroidery of quotation, and, most of all, a flood of Gospel sunlight on the dreary maze.

WHILE the future of India occupies politicians of every school, it is encouraging to find men like the Chief Commissioner of the Punjab and the Commissioner of Peshawur awake to the responsibility which attends British power in the East, and to the value of Christian faithfulness as conservative of that power. Sir John Lawrence expresses his conviction, that "the teaching of the Bible in Government schools and colleges ought to be offered to all those who may be willing to receive it." Christianity must be made known to the natives, if at all, by our means. "This religion," says Sir John, therefore, we should teach exclusively, so far as we can, from the preference which it is our right and our duty to give to what we believe to be truth." He judges it "impracticable" to withdraw endowments already settled; but is against any future gift, or concession, or compact, in favour of antichristian systems. He advises "that no prejudice, whether of caste or otherwise, should be in the least allowed to interfere with the performance of any military duty, or

66

of any fair service that might be required;" and says that "Christian recruits, if they offer themselves, ought to be accepted." The raising of Christian regiments in some parts of the empire he thinks quite possible, and of the highest importance. He agrees in judgment with Colonel Edwardes that it is proper to forbid religious processions of the natives in the streets under guard of the police, and would indeed prohibit religious processions of every kind. He would " sever Government connexion with the production of opium," and impose "a heavy export duty on the drug."-Whatever may be thought of some of these particulars, there is a crowning observation of this experienced statesman in which all the wise and good will concur, and which, let it be devoutly hoped, will have an influence in high quarters: "CHRISTIAN THINGS DONE IN A CHRISTIAN WAY WILL NEVER ALIENATE THE

HEATHEN."

*

Farther east, vast fields are opening to our commerce, and, as we trust, to our Missionary zeal. China, as represented by the Im

66

perialists, is proclaimed accessible; and the still more recent treaty with Japan is a step gained in the same direction.

Nearer home, there is much to awaken apprehension for the Turkish empire. The glory of the Ottoman belongs to the past. The mystical Euphrates seems to be drying up. It is but a feeble struggle, if we may judge from recent signs, that the Sultan and a few of his enlightened advisers are holding against the advocates of the old policy. "The attempt to elevate Turkey to a level with the civilized nations of Europe," says a shrewd observer," is like putting new cloth on an old garment, or new wine into old bottles." While Constantinople trembles with discords and stratagems, provinces at a distance are in open turmoil. To quote again: "The massacre at Jeddah by the fanatical Mussulmans, the news of which was received with shouts of exultation at Mecca by eighty thousand congregated pilgrims, who publicly thanked God and the Prophet for this shedding of Christian blood, is succeeded by an insurrection in Bosnia, where the Greek and Latin Christians have assailed the Mussulmans, constituting only a third of the population, and, in a conflict which took place, slew a certain Reschid Bey Gradaschevitsch, described as a notorious oppressor of the Christian population. In the contiguous province of Servia there has been a sanguinary strife between the Mussulmans and the Roman Catholics, in which a number of the former lost their lives. Throughout the empire the fanatical old Turks are fomenting jealousy and dread of the reformers at Constantinople, as the enemies of the faith of Mohammed; and the Mussulmans contend the more fiercely against the Christian population, as feeling conscious that Mohammedan influence is rapidly waning, and that the Chris

tians are acquiring exclusive command of the commerce, navigation, agriculture, and wealth of the empire. Only concede equal privileges to the Christians, and in a brief time their supremacy in the empire will be inevitable. To this end the reforming policy of the Ottoman Porte is tending; and that the tendency and result are equally foreseen by the old traditional party, accounts for their efforts to thwart the Government by counterplots at Constantinople, and by fomenting discontent in the provinces. This is manifestly a policy which cannot succeed for any length of time."

The freedom, order, and zeal for social happiness, which distinguish our own land, are benefactions conferred-if indirectly, yet no less truly-by a religion which the princes of this world have yet to appreciate. That eloquent descant which most strangely brings M. de Montalembert to the bar of France, contains a sally on the supposed affinities of British and "Catholic" sentiment, which may be admired as purely romantic. If we would bring England down to the level on which it is possible to find subject of a public trial in a few passages like those just incriminated by our neighbours, we know how to go about the unpatriotic work. History is not to be silenced, nor should its lessons be turned aside by a delusive change of terms. M. de Montalembert is not the man to accept the novel distinction between "Roman Catholic" and "Papist." Let us, too, be on our guard against any fallacy to which a just concern and admiration for the impeached may lend a certain enchantment.

Such a note of caution is not out of date. The ecclesiastical horizon is hung with clouds. Opinions are in conflict as to a revision of the Liturgy; and, argument on this grave question apart, it is pretty

clear that the changes which find favour do not promise any increase of satisfaction to the earnest Protestant. The Scottish Episcopal Church is agitated in its highest councils. Mr. Cheyne, of Aberdeen, has spoken out boldly, affirming "the sacrifice of the Eucharist" to be substantially the same as the sacrifice of the Cross, and to differ only in the manner of offering. He further expounds his creed in the following language: "When I speak of the Real Presence, I mean as the Church means, that after consecration WHOLE CHRIST, GOD AND MAN, is really, truly, and substantially present in the Eucharist under the form of bread and wine." And again : "The only thing necessary to the completion of the sacrifice is the communion of the Priest." The Bishop of Aberdeen found this advanced brother guilty of erroneous doctrine. Mr. Cheyne appealed to

the Synod of Scottish Bishops; who, with one dissentient, (the Bishop of Brechin, who held that the teaching in question is sustained by the ancient liturgies,) affirmed the judgment of the Bishop of Aberdeen. So far, good. Sentence was deferred till December 2d, in hope that the appellant would meanwhile retract his opinions, and thus avert consequences which the Court must regret. On these proceedings comment is not needed. If the battle of the sixteenth century must be fought over again within the Episcopalian enclosures, let those who love the truth remember its defenders there. And let us all ponder the Master's deep words: "IT IS THE SPIRIT THAT QUICKENETH; THE Flesh profiTETH NOTHING: THE WORDS THAT I SPEAK UNTO YOU, THEY ARE SPIRIT, AND THEY ARE LIFE."

London, November 20th.

DISCOVERY OF THE RUINS OF CARTHAGE.-Many of our readers may be startled by the announcement that at the present moment it appears to depend upon ourselves whether or no we choose to dig up Carthage. Such, however, is the case. An Englishman-Mr. Newton -has been delving for some time past upon the site of the old city. He has already struck his pickaxes and spades upon many objects of great interest in themselves, but which yet possess higher importance when we look at them as the earnest of future discoveries. These Carthaginians, we suspect, have been a much maligned people. For a time, and at the critical portion of Roman history, they contended with Rome for the empire of the world. They lost the stake, and their triumphant enemies have handed down to posterity the chronicles of the mighty game. In a contest between two such powers it is most probable that the virtues and vices, the acts of heroism and of perfidy, upon either side, were very similar in kind and degree. Carthage, however, was worsted; and " Punic faith"

has remained a term of opprobrium from the days of Scipio to the days of Napoleon. Had England been defeated in her great struggle with Imperial France, and had the inventions and indignant philippics of the French chroniclers of that day remained the only records upon which the opinion of posterity could have been formed, we should have been the heroes of no pleasant page in the annals of the human race. If the first Napoleon could have razed London to the ground, have made the whole island desolate, and removed the inhabitants to perish in swamps and mines, such, undoubtedly, would have been the historical impression concerning our forefathers to all time. But these Carthaginians carried on commerce with greater spirit than any other nation of the ancient world. They travelled more, they knew more of what was really worth knowing, than their rivals. Intelligence and treachery do not seem to go hand in hand, as far as our own immediate experience has enabled us to form an opinion upon the point. There is, perhaps, scarcely any nation of

antiquity which presents such remarkable problems to the historical inquirer as these Carthaginians. They were among the most powerful races of which we have any record; their struggle with Rome proves it. In peace they must have been highly civilized; for their ships traded with the Syrian ports on the one side, and passed through the Pillars of Hercules on the other. In war they must have been intelligent as well as brave; for they can claim as their own one of the three great Generals of antiquity. But of their annals we know next to nothing. Their literature was probably of no great account; for that of Rome was but little worth at the date when Carthage fell. Still, one would imagine there must be something which might now be brought to light. A few chapters from the pages of hostile historians; a few splendid stanzas from a hostile poet beyond this what do we know of this grand people?—Times.

THE CLOUDS.-One need not go to the sea to perceive the grand work which the clouds perform in collecting moisture from the crystal vaults of the sky, in sprinkling it upon the fields, and making the hills glad with showers of rain. Winter and summer "the clouds drop fatness upon the earth." This part of their office is obvious to all, and I do not propose to consider it now. But the sailor at sea observes phenomena, and witnesses operations in the terrestrial economy which tell that, in the beautiful and exquisite adjustments of the grand machinery of the atmosphere, the clouds have other important offices to perform

of

besides those merely of dispensing showers, of producing rains, and weaving mantles of snow for the protection of our fields in winter. As important as are these offices, the philosophical mariner, as he changes his sky, is reminded that the clouds have commandments to fulfil, which, though less obvious, are not therefore the less benign in their influences, or the less worthy of his notice. He beholds them at work in moderating the extremes of heat and cold, and in mitigating climates. At one time they spread themselves out; they cover the earth as with a mantle; they then prevent radiation from its crust, and keep it warm. At another time, they interpose between it and the sun; they screen it from his scorching rays, and protect the tender plants from his heat, the land from the drought; or, like a garment, they overshadow the sea, defending its waters from the intense forces of evaporation. Having performed these offices for one place, they are evaporated and given to the sunbeam and the winds again, to be borne on their wings away to other places which stand in need of like offices. Familiar with clouds and sunshine, the storm and the calm, and all the phenomena which find expression in the physical geography of the sea, the right-minded mariner, as he contemplates "the cloud without rain," ceases to regard it as an empty thing; he perceives that it performs many important offices; he regards it as a great moderator of heat and coldas a "compensation" in the atmospherical mechanism which makes the performance of the grand machine perfect.— Maury.

I.