We must go farther, and add, that instead of Mr Miles requiring, or wishing, that the liturgy should enter every pulpit that he enters, as if it were the very genius of his success, he ought to be seriously considering by this time, whether the baptismal regeneration of the English service be not equally revolting and blasphemous with the transubstantiation of the Scottish. Mr Miles tells us, that he was disposed at first to think that the passages in the Scottish communion service, which insinuate transubstantiation, were neutralised by others, which seemed to change their meaning; but that he was ultimately compelled to admit that the service was intended to be popish, and that the church itself was in all its predilections the same, after a careful examination of recent facts, and the history of the Scottish Episcopal community from its earliest times. This is fair and sensible. But let Mr Miles courageously apply the same reasoning to the baptismal service of his own liturgy, and he will no longer hold, that what is apparently unsound in it derives a more favourable construction from passages that qualify its seeming import. Only let him go with some depth into the history of the Church of England, from the time of Henry VIII., and mark the current of influences under which it is moving at present, and unless obstinately prepossessed, he will learn that its uniform tendency has been, even as it still is, to return back to the harlot from which it was unwillingly divorced. If nothing else will open Mr Miles's eyes to this truth, surely he cannot resist the conviction, when the Bishop of London comes forward, in a letter published by the Bishop of Glasgow, to espouse the side of the Scottish prelates, and tell all who dare separate from their communion, that they need expect no indulgence from him. What is this, but proof the most conclusive, that one spirit actuates, and one end is aimed at by the Episcopate of England and Scotland, and that their churches stand on the same basis? Really it is of no great importance, then, as a testimony in favour of insulted truth, though Mr Miles leaves the Scottish communion, if at the same moment he withdraws into the bosom of another church, the heads of which proclaim that he is utterly wrong, and his bishop altogether right.

Blind as Mr Miles is to the true character of the Church of England, which we are not surprised at, he is not less blind to the dangers which may arise from the civil power, but even invokes the interposition of its arm to keep arrogant bishops in Scotland under check; and this does surprise us. As the Greeks used to say, this is flying to the surgeon's lancet to escape the apothecary's phial, and betrays a lamentable ignorance both of past history and recent events. Does Mr Miles not know that the Bishop of London is a finger of the hand of the civil arm,-and would he make things better than they are? Has Mr Miles forgotten that Laud, not Leigh

ton, could at any time have the ear of Charles, and wield his arm too? Did Mr Miles never hear of what the Free Church has suffered at the hand of the civil power? Only let the managers of St Judes come within the reach of certain learned judges, and noble statesmen, and they will have something to teach their late incumbent as to the civil power, which he has not yet learned.

It is true, as Mr Miles complains, that the despotism and intolerance of the Scottish prelates are alarming. They accuse, and judge, and condemn to Satan an individual whom they never even cited to their bar, and in a secret conclave. This is full of omen; but the civil power is not the remedy, for such tyranny is inherent in the very nature of Episcopacy; and Mr Miles must not be astonished, if our apostolic church' be again, as of old, the right hand of persecution in wearing out the saints.' Prelacy is essentially despotism, -and how can a clean thing come from an unclean?

In one respect Mr Miles has been treated better than Sir William Dunbar. He was summoned to defend his conduct. But when? Nor until he had left the bishop's jurisdiction! This cannot, however, shield him; and it did not. Though no longer under the authority of the Scottish prelates, they tried him; and his case, Dr Russel tells us, is ripe for sentence. What the sentence may be we cannot exactly divine; but of this we may be certain, that unless the bishop of Glasgow mean to stultify himself for ever, it must be of the same tenor as that issued against Sir William Dunbar, for the offence in both cases is identical. Sir William was 6 cut off from Christ,' because he retired from the Scottish Episcopal community. But this is the very thing that Mr Miles has done, and therefore he may feel assured that a more lenient anathema cannot, in honest consistency, he launched at him by a bishop, who has at last declared, that all that has been done by the Primus in the Aberdeen case has his unfeigned consent and approbation.

Here we leave this matter at present, waiting for further developments, to return to it at greater length. Nor are we likely to have long to wait. The Romish leaven is working with amazing energy throughout the whole mass, both of English and Scottish Prelacy. It is fast rending these two churches in twain, for it is now manifest that the laity of England are beginning to take up matters with an earnest hand and a bold determination that may yet displace the mitres both of Exeter and London. England is now in a flame, and portending a mighty conflagration, and the bishops, in the infatuation of spiritual despotism, are busy feeding it with oil, and fanning it into strength. All joy to England! The day of her spiritual deliverance seems at last dawning in the east. Her prelates are madly seeking to rivet her chains, and clasp to suffocation round her neck, the yoke which her fathers could not bear. Her

sons are beginning to look around in astonishment, asking what these things can mean. But alas what can they do! The fetters that are locked about them are the very liturgies, and rubrics, and forms, which they professed to idolize! Well may the bishops say, Why first laud the fetter and then rebel when it is put on? Why extol the prison house and then murmur when you are shut in? And what can all this confusion lead to, but a thorough scrutiny into the constitution of the Church, and a vigorous effort to reform her, if she can be or will be reformed. And when they discover, as they most certainly will, that reformation is impossible, what remains hut that they forsake her fellowship, and come forth out of her another goodly band of protesting Puritans to build for themselves a freer purer church, afrer the primitive mould.

ART. VI.-1. Lectures delivered to the Working Classes of Edinburgh on the Means in their Power of Improving their Character and Condition. By JAMES SIMPSON, Esq. Advocate. Edin., 1844. 2. Report from the Poor-Law Commissioners on an Inquiryi nto the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain. London, 1842.

3. Report from the Poor-Law Commissioners on the Training of Pauper Children. London, 1841.

A WORK may derive importance from other causes than its intrinsic value, or even the celebrity of its author. Its subject may be vital or novel,-its circulation peculiar or extensive. It may be another stream that will swell the great current of existing influences, and which, though narrow, and languid, and muddy in itself, must alike derive and impart a new impulse from the circumstances in which it has found its rise. Or, it may be more than the conviction, and deliverance of a single mind serenely communing with truth under the shade of its own fig-tree,-it may amount to the verdict of a large and unanimous jury speaking through their foreman. As an instance, let us take the Camden Society reprints. For the most part, they comprehend works which can awaken no general interest, or be fraught with any true advantage. But, then, they are no trade speculation, nor amateur monopoly. On the contrary, they are an anthology of obsolete treatises suited to the tastes of a growing party, and do at once express and promote the sentiments they are intended to revive. Thus, though trivial in all literary and theological respects, they cannot but be possessed of a disastrous value far beyond what their arid titles would suggest. Another case in point, and fully more striking, is Chambers' multifarious publications,

-for, though their merit was a great deal less than it is, no one could rightly estimate, either what the public mind of our day is demanding in the way of intellectual fnrniture, or the die and pressure that are moulding it so rapidly for evil, or for good, for righteousness, or infidelity, without adverting to the character of works which have access to more households and hearts than any other within the kingdom. Or, let us suppose that M'Neile and Wardlaw had sent out their lectures upon the Establishment controversy just as an exposition of what themselves deemed the truth; and from the feebleness and deficiency which characterize the argument of both, it inext to certain, that their works would not have called forth the opposition and criticism they did enjoy. But in the delivery of their views, these gentlemen spoke on vantage ground of almost unparalleled eminence, and their respective volumes, even though entitled to consideration for no other reason, must have excited very deep solicitude from the character of those before whom they were first delivered, and under whose imprimatur they were issued. Now, what we have remarked in these cases, as to the adventitious interest conferred upon any work, either from the position of the author, or the popularity of its theme, holds true in a striking degree of the first publication that stands at the head of our article.

We are far from assimilating Mr Simpson's brochure to the publications alluded to above, either as an exposition of what is, or as a prognostic of what may be; yet, from accompanying circumstances, as in their instance, it acquires an interest which otherwise would not have fallen to it, and demands an examination which could not have been awarded to it on the ground of its substantial merit. The truth is, these lectures of Mr Simpson were prepared at the request of not fewer than three thousand of the labouring population in Edinburgh, they were delivered dnring four successive months of winter, to audiences never below the number which at first engaged the lecturer's services, and they were scarcely printed before they could boast of no less a circulation than seven or eight thousand copies. They are unquestionably, therefore, as descriptive of the requisitionists and audience, as they are characteristic of the lecturer. Mr Simpson is the expositor, but his friends have selected the text. They have fixed upon the tune, and all that he has to do is to arrange the music of the piece. No doubt a fair latitude was allowed our author, and he had the courage to avail himself of it. Still, however, the simple fact that Mr Simpson was chosen by a class of men so tenacious of all their views as our operatives, to expound their rights, and duties, and pleasures, may satisfy us that no wide discrepancy of sentiment could exist between the parties, but that upon the whole, so far would it be the lecturer's aim to reproduce, and promulgate the habitudes, and predilections, and yearnings of

the million he personated, that we may regard his pages to convey a most authentic delineation of the tastes and feelings,-the speculations and prejudices,—the desires and aims which distinguish our working classes.

Dr Chalmers, some years ago, gave a series of lectures to an audience of mechanics and labourers, similar to that Mr Simpson was surrounded with, and this too, at the solicitation of the working classes themselves. The Doctor, however, erected his own platform, and spoke from his own desk,—he was not the representative, but the counsellor of his hearers, he dealt with their wants only, and freely postponed their wishes,-not for a moment would he step down to their level, but most patiently he strove to win them up to his,―he held a mirror in his hand, but it was presented to the Bible as well as to science, and most vivid was the calotype it gave out of an enlightened believer attired in the clean and simple apparel of a hardwrought artizan. Such a course, accordingly, derived its value, and a surpassing one it was, from the lessons it inculcated, but not from the picture it embodied. Its value was entirely philosophical. On the other hand, the value we attach to the lectures before us, is almost quite historical. Mr Simpson speaks as from the shoulders of his audience, and it is to them he adjusts his mirror. The likeness, therefore, which he furnishes is just a likeness, we are convinced, of our labouring population,-washed, indeed, and combed, and well-put-on,-yet after all, not any beau-ideal of what may desired, but an animated portrait of what exists at this moment around us. We say not this, by any means, in a way of disparagement or reproach.

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Mr Simpson would be the last man to encourage any prepossession or dislike that he believed to be hazardous and unworthy; neither would he speak otherwise than from independent and personal conviction. At the same time, so identical to a large extent are his sympathies with those of the audience he addressed, that we are quite safe in regarding his lectures as a correct specimen of the style of thought which now predominates among our working classes. And hence the interest, if not the value, of this contribution of his. It is not very easy to collect with minuteness and precision the evershifting mental phases of our labouring population; and when we come to found any thing upon their studies and sentiments, we grope too much in the dark. Forgetting wholly that they have been advancing, not less than ourselves, we are apt to regard them very much as they were fifty years ago, and so our rope falls far short of the vessel. Indeed, what those who are under us in the social scale have even been reading, we scarcely know, nor how it has shaped them do we know. And so our schemes for their improvement are too often better in their design than their suitableness. Such pages