of Bohemia. The last, Villiers, carried a | The Infanta persuades James to compel proposal degrading enough, but with which his son-in-law to give up this town into Frederick was forced to yield compliance the hands of the Spaniards, on the promise -that he should relinquish all claim to the that it shall on a future day be garrisoned crown of Bohemia, on condition of having by English troops. With this insane prohis paternal domains restored to him. ceeding Frederick is forced to acquiesce. With this proposal, which ought never to But though the last town in the Palatihave been made, the arrogant Emperor nate has fallen, Duke Christian of Brunswould no longer agree, but revived some wick, and Mansfeldt in Holland, Gabor obsolete claim on certain portions of the Pa- and Jagendorf in Bohemia and its conlatinate. James next refuses his children fines, are still in arms; and Austria is an asylum in England, through fear of any beginning to be pressed by the Turks, stimulus being given to public opinion, while Spain is heartily tired of the strugand dreading a rupture with Spain, with gle. All might yet be regained by the which the Spanish party threaten him. skillful and prompt combination of the They then turn to the Hague, where they forces in the field. But at this moment are honorably received. While they are James was more than ever under the inhere, the timid Princes of the Union con- fluence of Spain: his son Charles was in sent to be forgiven all past misdemeanors the hands of that power, and might be against the house of Hapsburg, on con- retained at pleasure. When, therefore, a dition of totally abandoning their former truce of fifteen months was proposed by head and councillor; and Frederick is, by the Imperialists, in order to gain time, name, excluded from the pacification. But James consented, and undertook to effect the army of the Princes of the Union, the submission of his son-in-law. After a being mercenary, is not obliged to lay prolonged resistance to this cruel injustice, down arms; and Frederick implores James Frederick is actually compelled to sign to give him the means of retaining this away his dearest hopes, and is rewarded by force, while yet some places hold out for the publication of a treaty, with his sig. him. James refuses, at the same time pro- nature annexed, containing articles much fessing the strongest personal attachment. more unfavorable to him, and which he did Frederick next, in despair, joins the Dutch not sign. It is consoling to be assured, that army of the Prince of Orange as a volun- the treachery of Spain with regard to the teer: James exerts his socerine authority, Palatinate broke off the Spanish marriage, and brings him back. Frederick remon- through the firmness of Charles in declinstrates; James sues for peace, and gets to- ing to marry the Infanta, unless intelligigether a conference at Brussels. This ble conditions, with respect to its restorafailing, Frederick is at last allowed to join tion, were drawn up. The ultimatum of his struggling subjects in the Palatinate; Spain was, that the Palatinate should be and, shaving his beard, reaches the camp restored to Frederick's son, provided that of Mansfeldt incognito. He is fettered, Prince were educated at the Imperial however, by the proviso, that he acts Court, married the Emperor's daughter, strictly on the defensive. The campaign and embraced the Catholic religion. These is doubtful. Frederick is forced by Tilly terms were peremptorily rejected by Fredto retire from Heidelberg, but crosses the erick; and at length, on the pressing Rhine, and enters Hesse Darmstadt. This instance of Charles, and the eagerness of bold step alarms James, who dispatches Parliament in granting supplies, James his ominous ambassadors to bring the King began to show symptoms of a real deterto order, commanding him to act strictly mination to enter into the struggle. He on the defensive, on pain of total desertion. was beginning, however, to cool again, Frederick hesitates, but at last obeys. Tilly, when his further vacillations were prethen relieved from the necessity of watch- vented by death. He traversed in his ing Frederick, lays siege to Heidelberg, public career a maze of shabby subterdeclaring that he is not himself bound by fuge, but preserved inviolate the title of any of the conditions which his enemy may of "Rex Pacificus," his most valued possee fit to observe. Heidelberg falls, and session. Frederick returns to the Hague. Then James promises to arm. The only place yet holding out for Frederick is Elizabeth's dowry town, Frankenthal. We cannot enter further into the history of this great struggle, nor pursue the fortunes of Elizabeth of Bohemia. Neither will our space allow us to examine the admirable narratives, with which the work | authoress through an undertaking involvconcludes, of the lives of the daughters of ing the expenditure of so much time and Charles I. This we much desired to do, application. In her Preface, Mrs. Green as they are among the most careful and says that "she can conscientiously affirm, copious of the biographies. We must be that no pains have been spared to render content to assure our readers that they the biographies authentic. Authorities will derive invaluable assistance in the have not been taken second-hand, when it study of history from Mrs. Green: her was practicable to revert to the originals. style is unaffected and simple, yet strong' Much care has been bestowed upon the and terse; her industry is equalled by her verification of names, dates, genealogies, judgment; and we do not hesitate to and other points of historic importance; say that the volumes before us constitute and when the paucity of information has a great historical work, and a worthy com-left much to conjecture, the line between panion to the "Queens of England." We fact and probability has been carefully cannot too strongly commend the reso- drawn." That this is the case, is evilute industry which has carried our denced by every page in the series. From Fraser's Magazine. SCOTCH PREACHING AND PREACHERS.* NEARLY forty years since, Dr. Chalmers, | had not heard a preacher like him for one of the parish ministers of Glasgow, seven years, and did not expect to enjoy preached several times in London. He a like pleasure for as long a period to was then in the zenith of his popularity come." So, at all events, says a paraas a pulpit orator. Canning and Wilber- graph in The Times, of December 12th, force went together to hear him upon one 1855. occasion; and after sitting spell-bound under his eloquence, Canning said to Wiberforce, when the sermon was done, "The tartan beats us; we have no preaching like that in England." In October last, the Rev. John Caird, incumbent of the parish of Errol in Perthshire, preached before the Queen and Court at the church of Crathie. Her Majesty was so impressed by the dis course that she commanded its publication; and the Prince Consort-no mean authority-expressed his admiration of the ability of the preacher, saying that "he *Religion in Common Life: a Sermon preached at Crathie Church, October 14, 1855, before her Majesty the Queen and Prince Albert. By the Rev: JOHN CAIRD, M. A., Minister of Errol. Published by her Majesty's Command. Edinburgh: Blackwood. 1855. It is somewhat startling to find men of cultivated taste, who are familiar with the highest class preaching of the English Church, expressing their sense of the superior effect of pulpit oratory of a very different kind. No doubt Caird and Chalmers are the best of their class; and the overwhelming effect which they and a few other Scotch preachers have often produced, is in a great degree owing to the individual genius of the men, and not to the school of preaching they belong to. Yet both are representatives of what may be called the Scotch school of preaching; and with all their genius, they never could have carried away their audiences as they have done, had they been trammelled by those canons of taste to which English preachers almost invariably conform. Their manner is just the regular In style; but most unquestionably, I have never heard, either in England or Scotland, or in any other country, a preacher whose eloquence is capable of producing an effect so strong and irre sistible as his."* The best proof how much Chalmers owed to his manner, is, that in his latter days, when he was no longer able to give them with his wonted animation and feeling, the very same discourses fell quite flat on his congregation. It is long since Sydney Smith expressed his views as to the chillness which is the general characteristic of the Anglican pulpit. In the preface to his published sermons, he says: Scotch manner, vivified into tenfold effect | was mainly the result of manner. by their own peculiar genius. Preaching point of substance and style, many Engin Scotland is a totally different thing lish preachers are quite superior to the best from what it is in England. In the former of the Scotch. In these respects, there are country it is generally characterized by no preachers in Scotland who come near an amount of excitement in delivery and the mark of Melvill, Manning, Arnold, or matter, which in England is only found Bishop Wilberforce. Lockhart says of among the most fanatical Dissenters, and Chalmers: is practically unknown in the pulpits of the national Church. No doubt English and better arranged in point of argument; and I "I have heard many men deliver sermons far Scotch preaching differ in substance to a have heard very many deliver sermons far more certain extent. Scotch sermons are gener-uniform in elegance, both of conception and of ally longer, averaging from forty minutes to an hour in the delivery. There is a more prominent and constant pressing of what is called evangelical doctrine. The treatment of the subject is more formal. There is an introduction, two or three heads of discourse, formally announced, and a practical conclusion; and generally the entire Calvinistic system is set forth in every sermon. But the main difference lies in the manner in which the discourses of the two schools are delivered. While English sermons are generally read with quiet dignity, in Scotland they are very commonly repeated from memory, and given with great vehemence and oratorical effect, and abundant gesticulation. Nor is it to be supposed that when we say "The English, generally remarkable for doing the difference is mainly in manner, we think have reserved the maturity and plenitude of their very good things in a very bad manner, seem to it a small one. There is only one account awkwardness for the pulpit. A clergyman clings given by all who have heard the most to his velvet cushion with one hand, keeps his striking Scotch preachers, as to the pro- eye riveted on his book, speaks of the ecstacies of portion which their manner bears in the joy and fear with a voice and a face which indieffect produced. Lockhart, late of The cates neither; and pinions his body and soul into Quarterly, says of Chalmers; "Never did the same attitude of limb and thought, for the world possess any orator whose mi- The most intrepid veteran of us all dares no more fear of being thought theatrical and affected. nutest peculiarities of gesture and voice than wipe his face with his cambric sudarium; have more power in increasing the effect if by mischance his hand slip from its orthodox of what he says; whose delivery, in other grip of the velvet, he draws it back as from words, is the first, and the second, and liquid brimstone, and atones for the indecorum by the third excellence in his oratory, more fresh inflexibility and more rigorous sameness. truly than is that of Dr. Chalmers."* The Is it wonder, then, that every semi-delirious secsame words might be repeated of Caird, with the genuine look and voice of passion, tary who pours forth his animated nonsense who has succeeded to Chalmers's fame. A should gesticulate away the congregation of the hundred little circumstances of voice and most profound and learned divines of the estabmanner-even of appearance and dress-lished church, and in two Sundays preach him combine to give his oratory its overwhelming power. And where manner is every thing, difference in manner is a total difference. Nor does manner affect only the less educated and intelligent class of hearers. It cannot be doubted that the unparalleled impression produced, even on such men as Wilberforce, Canning, Lockhart, Lord Jeffrey, and Prince Albert, *Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk, vol. iii. p. 267. VOL. XXXVII.-NO. IV. bare to the very sexton? Why are we natural everywhere but in the pulpit? No man expresses warm and animated feelings anywhere else, with articulates with every limb, and talks from head his mouth only, but with his whole body; he to foot, with a thousand voices. Why this holoplexia on sacred occasions only? Why call in the aid of paralysis to piety? Is sin to be taken from men, as Eve was from Adam, by casting them into a deep slumber? Or from what possible 30 *Peter's Letters, loc. cit. perversion of common sense are we all to look likely animated: while the enthusiasm and energy he field-preachers in Zembla, holy lumps of ice, numbed into quiescence and stagnation and mumbling?" Now in Scotland, for very many years past, the standard style of preaching has been that which the lively yet gentle satirist wished to see more common in England. Whether successfully or not, Scotch preachers aim at what Sydney Smith regarded as the right way of preaching "to rouse, to appeal, to inflame, to break through every barrier, up to the very haunts and chambers of the soul." Whether this end be a safe one to propose to each one of some hundreds of men of ordinary ability and taste may be a question. An unsuccessful attempt at it is very likely to land a man in gross offence against common taste and common sense, from which he whose aim is less ambitious is almost certainly safe. The preacher whose purpose is to preach plain sense in such a style and manner as not to offend people of education and refinement, if he fail in doing what he wishes, may indeed be dull, but will not be absurd and offensive. But however this may be, it is curious that this impassioned and highly oratorical school of preaching should be found among a cautious, cool-headed race like the Scotch. The Scotch are proverbial for long heads, and no great capacity of emotion. Sir Walter Scott, in Rob Roy, in describing the preacher whom the hero heard in the crypt of Glasgow Cathedral, says that his countrymen are much more accessible to logic than rhetoric; and that this fact determines the character of the preaching which is most acceptable to them. If the case was such in those times, matters are assuredly quite altered now. Logic is indeed not overlooked; but it is brilliancy of illustration, and, above all, great feeling and earnestness, which go down. Mr. Caird, the most popular of modern Scotch preachers, though possessing a very powerful and logical mind, yet owes his popularity with the mass of hearers almost entirely to his tremendous power of feeling and producing emotion. By way of contrast to Sydney Smith's picture of the English pulpit manner, let us look at one of Chalmers's great appearances. Look on that picture, and then on this: "The Doctor's manner during the whole deivery of that magnificent discourse was striking threw into some of his bursts rendered them quite overpowering. One expression which he used, together with his action, his look, and the tones of his voice, made a most vivid and indelible impression on my memory. While uttering these words, which he did with peculiar emphasis, accompanying them with a flash from his eye and a stamp of his foot, he threw his right and brandished it full in the face of the Town arm with clenched fist right across the book-board, Council, sitting in state before him. The words seemed to startle, like an electric shock, the whole audience." Very likely they did: but we should regret to see a bishop, or even a dean, have recourse to such means of producing an impression. We shall give one other extract descriptive of Chalmers's manner: "It was a transcendently grand, a glorious burst. The energy of his action corresponded. Intense emotion beamed from his countenance. I than by saying it was lighted up almost into a cannot describe the appearance of his face better glare. The congregation were intensely excited, leaning forward in the pews like a forest bending under the power of the hurricane,-looking steadfastly at the preacher, and listening in breathless wonderment. So soon as it was concluded, there was (as invariably was the case at the close of the Doctor's bursts) a deep sigh, or rather gasp out the whole audience."* for breath, accompanied by a movement through There is indeed in the Scotch Church a considerable class of most respectable preachers who read their sermons, and who, both for matter and manner, might be transplanted without remark into the pulpit of any cathedral in England. There is a school, also, of high standing and no small popularity, whose manner and style are calm and beautiful; but who, through deficiency of that vehemence which is at such a premium in Scotland at present, will never draw crowds such as hang upon the lips of more excited orators. Foremost among such stands Mr. Robertson, minister of Strathmartin, in Forfarshire. Dr. McCulloch, of Greenock, and Dr. Veitch, of St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, are among the best specimens of the class. But that preaching which interests, leads onward, and instructs, has few admirers compared with that which thrills, over *Life of Chalmers, vol. i. pp. 462-3, and 467-8. It should be mentioned that Chalmers, notwithstanding this tremendous vehemence, always read his sermons. whelms, and sweeps away. And from the impression made on individuals so competent to judge as those already mentioned, it would certainly seem that, whether suited to the dignity of the pulpit or not, the deepest oratorical effect is made by the latter, even on cultivated minds. Some of the most popular preachers in England have formed themselves on the Scotch model. Melvill and M'Neile are examples: so, in a different walk, is Ryle, so well known by his tracts. We believe that Melvill in his early days delivered his sermons from memory, and of late years only has taken to reading, to the considerable diminution of the effect he produces. We may here remark, that in some country districts the prejudice of the people against clergymen reading their sermons is excessive. It is indeed to be admitted that it is a more natural thing that a speaker should look at the audience he is addressing, and appear to speak from the feeling of the moment, than that he should read to them what he has to say; but it is hard to impose upon a parish minister, burdened with pastoral duty, the irksome school-boy task of committing to memory a long sermon, and perhaps two, every week. The system of reading is spreading rapidly in the Scotch Church, and seems likely in a few years to become all but universal. Caird reads his sermons closely on ordinary Sundays, but delivers entirely from memory in preaching on any particular occasion. tics were still, and appeared attentive. They regarded their clergyman as a powerfu' preacher;' while the most nervous thought, uttered in more civilized tones, would have been esteemed 'unco weak.' We are speaking, of course, of very plain congregations; but among such a powerful preacher' means preacher with a powerful voice and great physical energy. a Let not English readers imagine, when we speak of the vehemence of the Scotch pulpit, that we mean only a gentlemanly degree of warmth and energy. It often amounts to the most violent melo-dramatic acting. Sheil's Irish speeches would have been immensely popular Scotch sermons, so far as their style and delivery are concerned. The physical energy is tremendous. It is said that when Chalmers preached in St. George's, Edinburgh, the massive chandeliers, many feet off, were all vibrating. He had often to stop, exhausted, in the midst of his sermon, and have a psalm sung till he recovered breath. Caird begins quietly, but frequently works himself up to a frantic excitement, in which his gesticulation is of the wildest, and his voice an absolute howl. One feels afraid that he may burst a bloodvessel. Were his hearers cool enough to criticise him, the impression would be at an end; but he has wound them up to such a pitch that criticism is impossible. They must sit absolutely passive, with nerves tingling and blood pausing: frequently many of the congre-. gation have started to their feet. It may be imagined how heavily the physical energies of the preacher are drawn upon by this mode of speaking. Dr. Bennie, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, and one of the most eloquent and effective of Scotch pulpit orators, is said to have died at an age much short of fifty, worn out by the enthusiastic animation of his style. There are some little accessories Still, he must seem warm and ani- of the Scotch pulpit, which in England mated; and the consequence is frequently are unknown: such as thrashing the loud speaking without a vestige of feeling, large Bible which lies before the minister and much roaring when there is nothing-long pauses to recover breath-much whatever in what is said to demand it. Noise is mistaken for animation. We have been startled on going into a little country kirk, in which any speaking above a whisper would have been audible, to find the minister from the very beginning of the service, roaring as if speaking to people a quarter of a mile off. Yet the rus It may easily be imagined that when every one of fourteen or fifteen hundred preachers understands on entering the Church that his manner must be animated if he looks for preferment, very many will have a very bad manner. It is wonderful, indeed, when we look to the average run of respectable Scotch preachers, to find how many take kindly to the emotional style. Often, of course, such a style is thoroughly contrary to the man's idiosyn crasy. wiping of the face-sudorific results to an unpleasant degree, necessitating an entire change of apparel after preaching. The secret of the superior power over a mixed congregation of the best Scotch, as compared with most English preachers. is that the former are not deterred by any considerations of the dignity of the |