licensing them on the Lord's Day; thus placing the human and the Divine festival on precisely the same footing. Laud's chaplain, Dr. Heylin, wrote an elaborate treatise to prove that this is the true theory of the Lord's Day and Saints' Days and that the practice ought to accord with it. And further, as the authority of the "Church" is pleaded by the members of the sect of the Ninety Tracts for whatever they are pleased to call "catholic usage," the judicious limitations of the Anglican Prayer-book are overstepped and sneered at. The old popish "St. Cross Day" has been revived at Leeds; and a new Saint's Day has been calendered in the Oxford Tracts for the nonjuring bishop, Dr. Ken; and Mr. Paget, the Bishop of Oxford's chaplain, affirms that the young men who have been hatched from those Tracts, "date notes to their tailor or green-grocer, from St. Ethelburga's Day, or 'The morrow of the translation of the bones of St. Symphorosa.' Our allusion to Mr. Paget reminds us that the writer of the pamphlet in our hands was born at the era which Mr. Paget specially marks in the following pas an infant. We say "too many;" for we last month had occasion to exempt the clergy called "Evangelical" from the charge; nor has any change in this respect come over the opinions of the more grave and reverend of those who were called "orthodox." Bishop Jebb of Limerick wrote as strongly against unclerical amusements as Archbishop Trench of Tuam could do; and such a man as our old friend Dr. Gaskin would have been as much shocked to have been classed among "the dancing clergy" or the hunting clergy, or the Newmarket and Ascot clergy, as Mr. Wesley himself. If Lord John Manners's entrance upon public life and authorship is dated from the period when Mr. Paget tells us Puritanism and Methodism having failed; and " Evangelicalism having been weighed in the balances and found wanting;" and men being tempted to embrace "Socialism, or Momonism, or some kindred heresy, which offers for the moment a spiritual resting-place;" Tractarianism happily came to the rescue. the "balance" be "the balance of the Sanctuary," not that of Rome, the doctrines of "the Evangelical curate" are in no danger of being "found wanting" when weighed against Tractarianism, Pagetism, or what, from Mr. Paget's nomenclature respecting those Oxford "blockheads" who outrun the Tracts, is likely enough in future to be called "Geeseism." This system, whatever its name, "offers for a moment a spiritual resting place;" but its offers are delusive. It does not lead the penitent sinner to the all-sufficient atonement of the Saviour; it does not place his feet upon the immutable Rock of ages; it offers after baptism no baptism but the laver of tears; its sceptre of hope is the scourge of penance; and it has proved literally only "for a moment" a resting-place to those more clearlyjudging Tractarians who, like Mr. Sibthorp, perceived its slipperiness, and stepped across it to Rome. But our present purpose is not to discuss Tractarianism in general, but to caution the unwary against being led into its precincts by the specious pretext of advocating "national holidays." It is ominous and painful to observe how grievously Tractarianism has placed in abeyance the momentous question of the necessity for improved legislative enactments for the better observance of the Lord's Day. A few years since the subject excited much attention in Parliament, and there was ground to hope that some good measure would be adopted. But now, while our Sabbaths are grossly profaned, we are told that the Lord's Day is only a Church ordinance, just as Saints' Days are; and a desire for the better observance of the Lord's Day is sneered at as "puritanical," as it was in the days of Laud; and we are told that what is chiefly wanted is a better observance of Saints' Days. "When," said Laud's Proclamation (we call it his, for his royal master was but the puppet in his hands), "when shall the people have leave to exercise," (namely in "dancing, either men or women, archery for men, leaping, vaulting, May-games, Whitsun-ales, Morrisdancing, and the setting-up of May-poles and other sports therewith used")" if not upon the Sundays and holidays, seeing they must apply their labour and win their living in all working days?" This irreligious and impudent juxtaposition of "Sundays and holidays," as if there were not the slightest difference between them, either in regard to authority or due observance; and the fencing them both alike from "working days," in which men might lawfully and religiously "win their living;" are historical indications which ought not to be lost sight of in estimating the opinions and wishes of those of our modern Tractarians who practise some "reserve," in order not too violently to offend the prejudices," and excite alarms, of a still Protestant nation. the Whether or not Lord John Manners exhibits this prudent reticence, must be judged of by a careful survey of the tendencies of his pamphle; and as it might be said that we are morbidly susceptible in these matters, we will copy the following from a publication which varies its notices of literature and fashion with passages of theological and ecclesiastical discussion, written apparently by some Romanist in disguise, who is obliged to rein in his opinions. The reviewer is setting forth the merits of his Lordship's "Plea for National Holidays." "Sir Andrew Agnew's mission was Manners's for the diffusion and encoura crusade against cheerfulness; Lord J. agement of it. They both indeed desire a better observance of the Sabbath, but they interpret better differently. We, as is well-known, take rank under the banners of Lord John. He advocates the restoration of national holidays and recreations; and though he endeavours to keep clear of the question whether Sunday shall be treated as a holiday, it is obvious that his leaning is in that enough, our recollection of Charles the direction; and he revives, appropriately First's re-issue of his father's Declaration on the subject. Not less for its own merits, than as the sentiments of the Church has enrolled in its calendar, we only martyr which the English Reformed shall quote some portion of that docu ment. who espouses Lord John ManThis is the statement of one ners's project; and confesses why he does so. He proceeds with exultation as follows: "The average number of visiters on Sundays at Hampton Court are one third more than on Monday; nearly three times as many as on Tuesday; day and Thursday, and nine times those about four times the number on Wednes on Saturday. On Sunday the 17th July 4,660 passed through the State apartments. They go in vans holding twenty or thirty people. Sometimes eighty of these vans may be counted at Hampton Court on one day. One or two musicians generally accompany each van to enliven the journey, and to make music for the dances which go forward under the chesnuts in Bushey Park. In the opening of Hampton Court on a Sunday we see the germ for a more satisfactory employment of that blessed day than, &c." Then follow some passages which Southey put into the lips of his Romanist, Don Espriella, about our "melancholy English Sundays," and the blessedness of "the dance and the viola" as Lord's-day recreations. "We join with Lord J. Manners," adds the reviewer, "in recommending these passages to the Council of Education." Whatever may be Lord John Manners's intention, he will see in what light it is construed by no unfriendly interpreter. He entitles his pamphlet "A Plea for Holidays," and dates it on a Church festival; but the character in which it is hailed by those who advocate the revival of Laud's Book of Sunday Sports, and admire the present disgraceful Sunday doings at Hampton Court, is that it is a plea for the desecration of the Sabbath, and a set off against the Puritanism of Sir Andrew Agnew. We shall offer no opinion on this nice question, seeing that though the author quotes the "Book of Sports" in favour of his arguments, he claims the privilege, as a layman," of not being obliged to give an explanation on that much-discussed subject, the due observance of Sunday." He might have pleaded that Mr. Paget, a clergyman, claimed the same privilege; for after all the goading of his critics as to what that reverend gentleman did, or did not, mean by what he had written about Laud's anti-puritanical edict for Sunday dancing round the May 66 pole, the utmost that could be extracted from him in reply, was, that he had not stated his opinion on the subject. Lord John Manners declines saying whether he considers the "Cavaliers or the Puritans were right" in regard to the Book of Sunday Sports. This is to say, in other words, either that he views it as a doubtful matter; or that he regards the question as of no importance; or that he does not think it politic to speak his mind. But silence speaks as loudly as words; for who that reverences the Christian Sabbath as a divinely-appointed institution to be kept holy to the Lord, but denounces that ungodly Proclamation? It was not "Puritans " only (if by that term be meant any sect, doctrinal or ecclesiastical) who protested against that unchristian edict; for all the true Anglican Churchmen of the school of the Reformation were beyond measure afflicted at its promulgation, and refused to comply with it, considering it their duty to obey God rather than man, and submitting to fines and imprisonment for conscience sake. We will, however, quote a few passages from Lord John's pamphlet, from which each reader must collect as he can the particulars of the proposed scheme. "It will be said that I am strangely perverting fact. I shall be told that there never was a period when amuse ments were so diversified or so refined: whole treatises have been written during the last ten years on every imaginable sport; every county in England possesses its pack of fox-hounds, or its harriersshooting may be said to have reached the pitch of the pitch of perfection; more game is probably slaughtered now-a-days on a first of September, with all imaginable ease, than was used to be killed with difficulty in a whole year under good Queen Bess; and our breed of racehorses is the admiration of the world. This is all very true; but, with a partial exception in favour of the latter, I must contend that these sports are the sports of the higher, and not of the lower or ders; and that, conducive as I believe them to be to the formation of a manly, robust character among those who enjoy them, their very excellence, so far from constituting an objection to a revival of humbler sports for the humbler classes, is the strongest argument in its favour." All that we can gather from this passage is, that his Lordship wishes "the humbler classes" to enjoy sports which will conduce as highly to the elevation of their character, as fox-hunting, harehunting, the "slaughtering" of game, and horse-racing, do to that of "the higher orders." He admits, however, that "the lower orders" do to some extent participate in the blessings which flow from horse-racing; so that Mr. Paget will perceive, that though the clergy are deprived of them, the plebeian laity have still in part the benefit of studying in those schools of virtue and religion which their richer neighbours have established at "Ascot and Newmarket;" and of which Lord John Manners tells us that "their very excellence" presents a model for popular sports. We will quote another passage: "What should we in England have said of King Louis Philippe, if, in answer to the remarkable address presented to him on a late occasion, by the Archbishop and clergy of Paris, he had told them that though, in a religious point of view, it might be right to close the shops and give up business on Sundays, yet the auri sacra fames justified the present heathen desecration of those and other holy days in that city? For this is precisely the argument of those I am writing against." The noticeable point in this extract is, that Sundays and Popish holidays are placed on "precisely" the same footing. A fallacy lurks in those three ad captandum Latin words; for men are divinely forbidden both to work for wages, and to "sport" for amusement, on God's day; but they are not for bidden to do so (if the work and sports be lawful) on St. Becket's or Saint Dunstan's. Again: "Well may Mr. Southey, in his Spanish disguise, exclaim, It is the peculiar character of the true religion to sanctify what is innocent, and make even merriment meritorious; and it is as peculiarly the character of Calvinism to divest piety of all cheerfulness, and cheerfulness of all piety, as if they could not co-exist; and to introduce a joyless and graceless system of manners, suitable to a faith which makes the heresy of Manes appear reasonable. He admitted that the evil principle was weaker than the good one; but in the mythology of Calvin there is no good one to be found.' In another place, after describing the melancholy way in which the English pass their Sunday evenings, he adds, And these are the people who ridicule Spanish gravity, and think they have divested it of all that is cheerful, have reformed religion, because they all that is beautiful, and all that is inviting. Our (Spanish) peasantry have a never-failing source of amusement in the dance and the viola.” ” sons; as Lord John says justly, "Well may Mr. Southey, in his Spanish disguise [of a bigotted Papist,] exclaim, &c. ;" but if he had been speaking in his own Protestant person, he would have exclaimed very ill; and that for several reainvidiously-a Romanist might do to wit, in unjustly and it ignorantly-nicknaming the due observance of the Lord's-day "Calvinism;" and denominating going to church on Sunday evening; or reading the Bible, or some uninspired religious book; or conversing in a Christian manner in the family; or singing psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, "the melancholy way in which the English pass their Sunday evenings." Does Lord John really wish the reverend clergy to recommend "the dance and fiddle" on the village-green, or round the May-pole, for their Sunday evening solace, after the "melancholy " of Divine service? Does he think such things will quell popular discontent, and promote Conservatism? Alas, does a Manners-tu quoque-account history an old almanac? Has a scion of the house of Rutland, writing from the walls of Belvoir, forgotten what followed the Sunday Book of Sports in the days of Charles the First; andalso how the Sunday-evening dancing people of Paris demolished the proudest castles, and revelled in patrician and kingly blood? Of all charms, fiddling is least likely to soothe an infuriated mob. Lord John Manners has reprinted the whole of the "Declaration about Lawful Sports," which is equal in length to about one-fourth of his own remarks. Of one passage he is so enamoured, that he prints it in Italics to catch attention, and also quotes it in his argument. We have already alluded to the passage. "For when shall the common people have leave to exercise, if not upon Sundays and holy-days, since they must apply their labour and win their living in all working days?" We have expressed our conviction that the week-day festivals, as retained in the Anglican Church, are lawful, and, if rightly observed, are for the use of edifying; and we should rejoice if a goodly number of the labouring classes could, and would, avail themselves of the benefit of attending divine worship at these solemnities; as would be more generally practicable than may now appear likely, if there were a will to devise a way; and especially if their employers, and other persons in the middle and higher circles of life, would both set them an example, and endeavour so to arrange matters as to give them the opportunity, without subjecting them to lose a portion of their daily pittance by their devout observance. But Saints' Days are not Sundays; and therefore there is no reason that the labouring population should abstain the whole day from their ordinary employment, if they see fit to work; nor do we believe that, as a general rule, it would minister to their health or happiness to do so. We repeat, that it is not the principle of our Church to place ecclesiastical days on a level with God's day; and the breaking down the wide distinction between them, would lead again, as it did heretofore, to superstition, Sabbathbreaking, and wide-spread ungodliness. The Romanists distinguish between those days upon which men may follow their daily employments before and after attending Divine service; and those in which they must abstain from useful labour the whole day, though they may revel and dance round May-poles without censure; and among the latter class of days are included some of those set apart in honour of men whose memory is not very fragrant. Thus, in the directions of Archbishop Islip, for the province of Canterbury, we find the festival of Thomas à Becket placed in the fore-ground, among the days in commemoration of the events of our Lord's life, and the days kept in memory of his Apostles. So also Archbishop Chicheley commands St. George's Day to be observed by total absti nence from labour; while in the same ordinance, St. David, St. Chad, and St. Winefrid are honoured "with choral service and proper lections," but without an injunction to total abstinence from labour. If we are to revive these ritualisms, every peasant would need, both for his soul's health, and to avoid the penalties of law, to be a walking calendar. The name and age of Lord J. Manners, and Mr. Paget's mention of what were the habits of too many of the clergy five-and-twenty years ago, bring before our recollection some passages in the life of Crabbe, the poet, who was |