most unscrupulous efforts were made, and are still made, to heap infamy upon its author. White [the author] was a barrister; and had he been the man his enemies would make him, the most wealthy and influential House of Commons England had ever seen would hardly have placed him in the chair, when going into committee on the grave subject of religion. It may be that in some instances the charges preferred were exaggerations, or even falsehoods, but the impeachment, in its great substance, has never been disturbed by any counter evidence. A great cry was raised against what was done. The account published by White was a form of self-defence, which was natural in such circumstances." (p. 121.) We challenge Dr. Vaughan to prove the truth of any one of these statements. The disclosures are certainly foul, and many of them as false as foul. Their malignity is written on their forehead. The efforts to heap infamy on its author now made are not unscrupulous, nor, as far as we know, have they ever been so. If party rancour, carried to the extreme of low malignant hatred, if a spirit as mean and as vindictive as ever dwelt in human nature, are sufficient to heap infamy on the author of these libels, the pamphlet itself determines the character of its author. But what can be said in answer to Dr. Vaughan's argument, that had this man-White, the barrister-been the man his enemies would make him, "the most wealthy and influential House of Commons England had ever seen" would hardly have placed him in the chair. The character of a man does not all at once appear, and many an unworthy agent is employed by virtuous principals. But White's true character was not apparent until the opportunity appeared for the exercise of his malignant passions; and this was not till after the retirement of a great part of the House of Commons, who followed the king to Oxford when the war broke out; and when the more wise and moderate of those who remained at Westminster had become utterly disgusted, and left the management of church affairs in the hands of a factious rump. Of such men White was naturally the easy tool, as well as the evil genius. But it is enough to say that the nation, then in the vortex of its passion, loathed the infamous pamphlet. Englishmen could not quite forget their nature. Why was no Second Century ever published? Why did the pamphlet sink into contempt as soon as it appeared? Because, had every word been true, pure minds loathed it, and honest men resented the audacious attempt to hunt down a body of ten thousand Protestant ministers, even supposing that a hundred worthless hypocrites had been found amongst them. pamphlet is now rare; the only one we ever saw is the copy in the British Museum. No doubt the Red Cross Street library contains another. The We must contrast with this Dr. Vaughan's treatment of Walker, who wrote the "Sufferings" of these ill-used episcopalian ministers. We need not now inform our readers that we are no great admirers of Dr. Walker. Had he done his work in a better spirit, he would have done better service to the Church of England. But the man who writes the story of the sufferings of his party at the close of a fierce and sanguinary revolution, may be forgiven if he should sometimes lose the candour of a calm historian, or even fall beneath the requirements of christian charity. Dr. Vaughan admits that, "as the sequestered clergy were many, we can easily suppose that some among them might have a right to complain of harshness and wrong. Some among them! Walker gives a catalogue of six thousand sufferers. He gives the particulars connected with the ejectment of each, so far as he could recover them,and he has recovered them in the case of hundreds,-from anthentic sources, from the mouths of living witnesses, from original letters and family documents, from published sermons, and sometimes from the testimony even of their foes. Walker himself admits that he may have sometimes entered the same name, twice or even thrice over, upon his list of sufferers; as, for instance, where the same person held pluralities in different dioceses, and was, in addition, a prebend in some cathedral. But these instances must have been rare, and we do not envy the dissenter who can read without shame the gloomy record of the malice and wickedness of this Presbyterian or Independent parliament and its sycophants, any more than we can applaud the churchman who has no blush for St. Bartholomew's day. But Dr. Vaughan feels it his high vocation to do the bidding of his party. "Scandalous White" he takes beneath his wing. Walker is unworthy of credit, or even of investigation. He quotes, indeed, a violent passage from his preface, and desires the reader "to judge from it as to the dispassionate and safe guidance" which Dr. Walker is likely to furnish on so difficult and delicate a question as the number and sufferings of the sequestered clergy. As if an ill-tempered man could not write a biographical catalogue: as if a party-man could not relate the sufferings of his party. So, on the whole, all the sorrows of the episcopal clergy are dismissed with a bland smile : "The day of adversity had now come on the courtier priest, and on those who had chosen their place in his following; and as the sequestered clergy were many, we can easily suppose that some among them had a right to complain of harshness and wrong. "But it is important to distinguish between the real and the fictitious in relation to the experiences of the episcopal clergy between 1640 and 1660. Much has been written on this subject which is not true; much has been disfigured by exaggeration; and some of the things pronounced as so much grievous wrong should hardly been so described." Nothing can be more unfortunate than the position which dissenters have taken up. They have endeavoured to pass themselves off as the descendants of the memorable two thousand of St. Bartholomew's day. There was probably not one man amongst these two thousand who would not have rejected their darling theory of a nation without a national religion and a national church with the utmost abhorrence. They have endeavoured to prove themselves an oppressed race from the facts of history. The facts of history turn full upon them, and confront them with the charge, if they are indeed the children of the Puritans, of being, whenever the occasion presented itself, at home or in New England, themselves the oppressors. Dr. Vaughan, with all his ingenuity, cannot hide either of these conclusions from the observation of even a superficial reader; and we repeat once more the remark we have already made, that it is much to be deplored, that his fair name should be associated with such a work as this. Dr. Vaughan himself, however, may be the best judge of this matter; and no doubt the keeping of his own fame must be more important to him than to other men. That which affects us more deeply, is the spirit which such a book, coming from such a source, displays; and if anything in the same spirit has been written on our own side of the question, we regard it with equal, or with greater, sorrow. We feel as if the weapons would fall from our hand when we are told by the world, that, after all, your religious people are little men of little minds. Here we stand-we upon whom it would seem that the ends of the world are comein the midst of the mightiest conflicts that ever raged between the powers of darkness and the Church of Christ; and instead of combining our forces, and bearing down upon the common foe, we are carrying on a drivelling contest, a wordy brawl with one another. Happily, the world without take little cognizance of our contemptible squabble. The sound has scarcely reached them; but when it reaches them, they will learn that it all urns upon an historical question of the civil wars which agitated this kingdom two hundred years ago; the question being, in fact, not whether Cavaliers were worse than Roundheads, but whether Roundheads were not immaculate, and had positively no faults at all-none but those which are capable of extenuations such as to make it criminal in posterity to notice them. But this, like other follies, will have its day, and be forgotten. It has already done much to check those more kindly feelings towards each other, which seemed to be growing up among churchmen and dissenters. It will not be without its use, if it should lead the wiser men of both parties to consider anew the grounds on which they really stand; and we believe it will have this effect. Dissenters will ask themselves whether, after all, dissent be justifiable, if these indeed are its chief claims to their allegiance; whether secession from the national church, even if once justifiable, by persecution and acts of violence, is thus to be justified now. Churchmen will be led to inquire whether barriers, some of which were erected in evil times and by violent men, may not safely be removed; whether, without admitting false doctrine, heresy, or schism, the door may not be opened so as to admit those who have a longing desire to return, and yet scruple to embrace all that the national church demands. But, more than all, it becomes real Christians of every denomination to guard against the bitterness which attends a paltry squabble, though scarcely felt upon nobler fields of battle; and, since there is little prospect, it would seem, of other union, to keep at least" the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." NOTES OF A TOURIST IN NORTH ITALY, I Do not purpose to give any account of the successive days of my journey, or of the successive places which I visited. Neither shall I describe localities which, in description at least, will be familiar to my readers. If I can glean anything which has escaped the Guide-books, I shall be happy to communicate it; and shall be glad, too, if I can give a word or two of practical counsel. I shall confine my remarks to the state of the country, and the current history, so far as the limited range of my travels permit me to form opinions worth recording. Politicians have played strange vagaries with geography. The Lake of Constance, according to every geographical consideration, ought to belong to Switzerland; the Lake of Lugano, according to every geographical consideration, ought to belong, not to Switzerland, but to Italy. According to the treaty of Plombières, it is understood that the canton Tessin should be conceded to Italy, if the Swiss could be brought to consent, in return for Sardinian concessions to France. By the Lake of Lugano I lingered for some weeks, in a veritable Italian land, which nevertheless is not Italy, and where the people seemed to take equal interest in the limited politics of Switzerland, and the more general politics of Italy. To the politics of the Swiss on the south slopes of the Alps, I ought to make some allusion, so far as they are connected with Italian questions. The canton Tessin is divided into two parties, the Catholic party, and the Liberal party. The Liberal party would proceed on a course of ecclesiastical reformation analogous to our own, so far as respects temporalities; but, so far as I could judge, this procedure is not accompanied by any earnest religious feeling. The finest hotel at Lugano was eight years ago a convent, but its conventual existence was suppressed by the State. This is an instance of the course which the Liberals have adopted, and in which they would desire to proceed; but, as the inhabitants of the canton are exclusively Catholic, there is great opposition. An exciting election came off at Lugano on Sunday during my stay, which resulted in the return of the Liberal candidate. The Lake of Lugano is, so to speak, an agglomeration of lakes; it is of the shape of a star-fish, flinging off lake-like bays in every direction, and so encircling Mount Salvadore, renowned for its panoramic view, as almost to render it an island. Along the shores of this enchanting lake, which, in some portions, excels the other Italian lakes in point of sublimity, the diligence proceeded that was to carry me to Milan. At a point where the lake narrows to the dimensions of a river before it again spreads into a noble expanse of water, a bridge is constructed to meet this natural caprice, and almost without knowing it we are traversing the opposite side. The roads are kept in a beautiful condition, that would shame many parts of England, and there are few modes of locomotion more luxurious than the coupè of a diligence. Leaving the Lake of Lugano behind, and travelling down an incline, you pass barrack-like buildings on which you discern the white cross of Savoy, the intimation that you have reached the kingdom of Italy. As you descend lower still, over the gardens of the villas you catch glimpses of the Lake of Como, and presently you are at Camerlata, on the outskirts of the vast Lombard plain. About a mile from the station of Camerlata is the town of Como, on the confines of the lake. My recollections of the Lake of Como are most pleasing; but of them I shall not at present speak. The railway carries me to Milan, where for the present I pause. The momentous history of Italy for the last few years has not been gathered into any work of standard importance; and as our recollections of the contemporary press are apt to be fragmentary and indistinct, I shall place in order a few leading facts which it is as well to bear in mind. The history of Piedmont is the most cheering portion of Italian history. For eight centuries the princes of Savoy and their subjects, beyond any nation in Europe, exhibited the spectacle of internal union and peace. We can, however, only allude to events of a modern date, when the Napoleonic deluge swept over Europe. Charles Emmanuel IV., declining either to go into exile or side with the coalition, abdicated his crown in favour of his brother, Victor Emmanuel I., who again resumed it after the fall of Napoleon, to the enthusiastic joy of |