"The next morning, whilst seated around the breakfast-table, an evening walk to the carpenter's cottage was proposed by Mrs. Clifford and Emma. I was therefore somewhat surprised on returning to my friend's house, at the close of the day, to find the latter at home, and alone. How is this, Emma?' said I: I thought you were to have accompanied your mother this evening?' "Emma's eyes were already filled with tears, which at the qnestion trickled down her cheek. She blushed, hesitated, and then said, 'I have offended my mother, sir.' I was sorry I had made any remark, and continued silent; till my friend soon after entered the room, and proposed walking to the village of Hy, to meet Mrs. Clifford, who was alone. "On our way thither, as soon as the noise of rattling wheels would permit, Imentioned my surprise at finding Emma at home. To this Mr. Clifford replied, in nearly the following words. You may have observed that each of our girls is accustomed to contribute her little stock of usefulness to the general order and comfort of the family. Not so much, says their mother, on account of the trifling assistance they can render, as for the sake of forming habits of industry. From employments of this kind, Emma is naturally averse; an evil, which not the most unremitting watchfulness has hitherto availed entire ly to eradicate. To-day a glaring instance of this fault occurred; occasioned, I believe, by too eager an anticipation of this evening's visit.' 'Well then,' said I,' as this negligence arose from so amiable a quality as benevolence, surely, for once, it should have been overlooked.' "Clifford shook his head. You are not a parent, and perhaps can be little aware of the weighty responsibility which this relationship involves. Re. flect for a moment on the results which might possibly accrue from neglecting to check this fault, merely because it was connected with a quality in itself amiable. Might not the occasional negligence, if indulged in youth, in maturer years ripen into a habit of confirmed indolence? Would it be surprising if, at a future day, the same unrestrained tenderness of heart which has now be trayed her into the omission of a wellknown duty, should, on some more important occasion, induce her to over "Mr. Clifford smiled. And do you think then, Bently,' said he, that this dear girl's mind is insensible to the impulses of a passion so universally felt, and so generally indulged. No, believe me, the superiority of which you speak was not acquired but by the sacrifice of many trifling gratifications, and in the endurance of many transient mortifications. One instance, in particular, recurs to my memory, which will fully prove this. It took place about six months since; when, having spent a day or two at her uncle's, Emma returned home, evidently vexed and unhappy. In part, I guessed the source of her chagrin; and as well to divert her mind, as to discover the real cause of her uneasiness, I proposed taking her with me. for a walk. "In our way we passed the rooms of a fashionable dress-maker, when Emma, who had before remained unusually silent, stopped, and exclaimed with earnestness, This is where my aunt purchased Maria's new pelisse, papa. You cannot think what a contrast there was, in her's and mine, to-day. One looks so nicely, and the other so old fashioned, and so shabby, that I did not like to walk with her. 1 am very sorry for that, Emma, said I: yet I must confess, that had you not told me it was so, I should have discovered nothing so very obsolete or mean in your pelisse. However, I added, since it exposes you to so serious a mortification in wearing it, I will make you a present of a new pelisse like Maria's, if your mamma have no objection. "Emma thanked me, with an empha sis that too plainly evidenced the nature of her disquietude; and now that the cause was removed, she entertained me with her wonted good humour, until we reached the place of our destination. "The object of my walk was to seek out the residence of a little girl in our Sunday-school, who had for some time been absent, on a plea of illness. With Some difficulty we discovered the house; and entering, found the child, who a few weeks before, appeared healthy, strong, and cheerful, sitting by the side of a nearly extinguished fire, pale, emaciated, and dejected. I inquired into the nature of her illness, and found that it had been a violent fever. She was the eldest of seven little children, who though clean and apparently healthy, were but very indifferently defended from the rigours of the season. "And where is your mother, my good girl? I demanded, Surely you are not in a condition to be left alone. Sir, replied my Sunday-scholar, bursting into tears, my father's wages are very small, and my poor mother has already lost so many days in nursing me, that she was obliged to go to work to-day, or we should have had no fire, and hardly any thing to eat the re mainder of the week. And how is your appetite? I inquired of the poor little sufferer. Not very good, sir, said she, and that makes my poor mother fret, because she cannot get the things I fancy I could eat. "Whilst she spoke,I looked atEmma, whose eyes, suffused in tears, were first fixed on the wan cheeks, and sunken eyes of the child, and then on me, with an imploring earnestness. "On leaving the house, I perceived that Emma, chilled with the unusual severity of the weather, shuddered as she took my arm. O, my dear papa, said she, with a soft beseeching look, will you not send these poor people in some coals, before we return home; for I am sure I shall have no pleasure by the side of our own comfortable fire, if that poor girl has none to warm her? cannot afford it, Emma, I replied: you remember that I have promised you a pelisse, like Maria's: it will therefore be necessary to refrain from giving to I this poor family, and perhaps to severa others, things which they greatly need. "The reproof was sufficient, and, bursting into tears, she exclaimed, Forgive me, my dear papa; and since vanity can only be gratified by such cruel selfishness as this, I hope I shall never again be ashamed if my clothes are not so expensive, or so fashionable as Maria's. "I then immediately complied with her request, and we ordered in the coals, and purchased several little indulgencies, which sickness converts into absolute necessaries. And all these cost but a very inconsiderable part of the sum which must have been expended on a new pelisse. "She now passed the dress-maker's door, with a pleasure wholly unmixed by one latent regret for the sacrifice she had made. And when we arrived at home, folding up her pelisse with more than ordinary care, she said with a heartfelt satisfaction glowing on her cheeks, Mamma, I have learned this evening, by a lesson which I hope I shall never forget, the truth of what you have often told me, that extravagance is selfishness, and that the economist alone is truly generous.'" pp. 113-118. It adds very considerably to the interest we take in this pleasing little work to know, that in circumstances of peculiar difficulty and even distress, the conduct of the author has served to illustrate her own lessons; and that especially, in the various domestic relations of daughter, wife, and mother, she has furnished a living and lively exemplification of the character she has laboured to recommend, REVIEW OF REVIEWS. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. HAVING read in the Christian Ob. server some strictures on the concluding part of the late sermon of our most excellent diocesan on the death of the Princess Charlotte, I feel it due to the cause of truth, as also to his lordship, to state in reply: 1. That from my knowledge of the sentiments of his lordship, no one, I am sure, would more decidedly object to any liturgical prayer for the dead than would the Bishop of Chester. 2. That the prayer excepted against, (and here lies the main, the essential difference,) was offered up solely through the merits and intercession of our universal Redeemer Jesus Christ, and was merely a reiteration of that "sure and certain hope" which had been before expressed at the grave. 3. That it was most explicitly guarded and limited by the words, as far as we may and it becometh us:" the prayer therefore, unless it were a proper prayer, was not offered at all. If there be any one, who, upon losing a near and dear relation, would not, immediately, on his knees and in his closet, pour forth to his Maker a fervent bope through Christ for the happiness of the deceased, let him cast the first Btone at the Bishop of Chester. CLERICUS CESTRIENSIS. The passage in our work, alluded to by Clericus Cestriensis, occurs in our Review of the Bishop of Chester's Sermon on the Death of the Princess Charlotte (January Number, p. 56). We are glad to find from the personal knowledge of our correspondent, that the Right Rev. Prelate would "decidedly object to any liturgical prayer for the dead." Whether the word "liturgical" is intended to be emphatic, so as still to allow of any other kind of prayer for the dead, we cannot exactly ascertain. We, however, consider it as merely an expletive, and that our correspondent intends to assert, that the Bishop of Chester disapproves of prayer for the dead in whatever manner it may be offered. What we, in common with our contemporaries and the public at large, considered as a prayer, our correspondent maintains to be but a reiteration of that "sure and certain hope" before expressed at the grave. Now, we readily ac knowledge that in ordinary conversation a hope for the safety of a departed soul might very naturally assume the appearance of a prayer, without being really intended to contravene sound doctrine. But, in the case before us, the words were uttered publicly, before a crowded auditory, as part of a written composition betraying no marks of haste or verbal incorrectness. They were afterwards committed to the press. And what words could be more explicit? "O, merciful God !...............we commend, as far as we may, and as it becometh us, into thy hand, the soul of her who is departed. We pray, we humbly pray, that she be received into the mansions of the blessed; that she exchange a corruptible crown for one that is incorruptible and that fadeth not away." The qualifying phrases, "as far as may be," &c., by which our correspondent thinks the prayer was "guarded and limited," either mean nothing, or convey an inference very adverse to the supposition of his lordship's "decidedly objecting" to the practice in question. They would rather indicate, either that his lordship's mind was not "decided" upon the subject, or that, if decided, it was on the affirmative side, and that the qualifying clauses were but a kind of compromise with the general feelings of his fellow-churchmen. But, strictly speaking, the qualifying phrases do not appear to us to apply to the prayer itself, but only to the previous commendation. The prayer itself seemed to be offered up directly and without qualification. We could not therefore have supposed that it was but contingent, and, that "unless it were a proper prayer, it was not offered up at all." Even admitting the quali fication to have been a part of it, it certainly was offered up; and both our clerical correspondent and his lordship agree that it ought not to have been offered up. It is, to say the least, a very unsatisfactory mode of reasoning, after making such an assertion relative to his lordship's opinion as must necessarily have prevented a prayer for the dead being offered up at all, to rest the argument on its being of fered up only in a certain "guarded and limited" manner. If his lordship's sentiments be, as asserted by Clericus Cestriensis, hostile to the practice of praying for the dead, the expressions in his prayer must have been merely the effect of inadvertence: and as such, our correspondent had better have frankly given them up as improper and indefensible, and have rested his apology on the ground of their not accurately conveying his lordship's meaning. We should be much better pleased to find that a prelate of our church was correct in sentiment, though inadvertently betrayed into incorrect language, than that his incorrect language was but the consistent offspring of an incorrect creed; and this, it would now seem, is the real solution of the appearance which has caused so much surprise and discussion. We rejoice to believe that it is. With regard to the practice itself to which we have now the satisfaction of finding that his lordship "decidedly objects," we need not say that our opinion remains unaltered. The doctrine of Purgatory alone can render the practice admissible; and to what evil effects that doctrine must inevitably give rise, wherever it is generally admitted, our readers need scarcely be informed. We however refer them among other writers to Bishop Burnet on the Twenty-second Article, for a useful discussion of the subject. We shall close our remarks with a brief extract from the Homily on Prayer, which we have no hesi tation in saying conveys the doctrine of Scripture as well as that. of the Church of England, upon the point. "New to entreat of that question, whether we ought to pray for them that are departed out of this world or no-wherein, if we will only cleave unto the word of God, then must we needs grant that we have no commandment so to do. For the Scripture doth acknowledge but two places after this life, as may be well gathered by the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man.........These words, as they confound the opinion of helping the dead by prayer, so they do clean confute, and take away the vain error of Purgatory, which is founded upon this saying of the Gospel, Thou shalt not depart hence until thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.' Now doth St. Augustine say, that those men which are cast into prison after this life, on that condition may in no wise be holpen, though we would help them never so much. And why? Because the sentence of God is unchangeable and cannot be revoked. Therefore let us not deceive ourselves, thinking that either we may help other, or other may help us, by their good and charitable prayers in time to come. For as the Preacher saith, Where the tree falleth, in what place soever the tree falleth, there it leth;' meaning thereby, that every mortal man dieth either in the state of salvation or condemnation.......... Where then is the third place, which they call Purgatory? Or where shall our prayers help and profit the dead?............ Neither let us dream any more that the souls of the dead are any thing at all holpen by our prayers; but as the Scripture teacheth us, let us think that the soul of man, passing out of the body, goeth straightways either to heaven or else to hell; whereof the one needeth no prayer, the other is without redemption.” LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL INTELLIGENCE, &c. &c. A GREAT BRITAIN. PREPARING for publication:-Lectures on the Church Catechism, by the Rev. T. Haverfield; - History of the Civil Wars in England, by G. Arnold;- Letfers of a Prussian Traveller, by John Bramsen; History of America, by Dr. A. Brown;-The Geognosy of the Hebrides, by Dr. Macculloch; - History of the United States, by D. B. Warden; -The remaining Numbers of Rees's Cyclopædia, to be completed within the present year;-The Statistics and Commerce of the Shores of the Pacific Ocean, by Captain M'Konochie ;Narrative of a Voyage to Senegal, by J. Savigny, and A. Correard;—Observations on Greenland and the adjacent Seas, &c., by B. O'Reilly;-The Anniversary Oration on the present State of Medicine, delivered before the Medical Society of London, on Monday the 9th of March, by Dr. Uwins; - Indian Church History; or Notices relative to the first Planting of the Gospel, in Syria, Mesopotamia, and India. Compiled chiefly from the Syrian Chronicles, with an accurate Relation of the first Christian Missions in China; by T. Yates. In the press-A New Translation of the Gospels, from the Greek, into Welch, by Dr. Jones, of Landybier;- The Harvest, a Poem, by Charlotte Richardson;-Privileges of the University of Cambridge, by Mr. Dyer;-Birkenhead Priory, a Poem, by S. P. Thompson; Two Volumes of Discourses, by Rev. W. Hett;-History of the French Protestants, by the Rev. C. Philpot. "He would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies." Scotland. By the Act of Union it was specially provided, that the Regalia of Scotland were to remain for ever in that country; and they were accordingly deposited, with official ceremony, in a chest in a chamber of the Castle of Edinburgh, called the Crown-room, which was formally and strongly secured for the purpose. A report, however, was current, in the last century, that they had been transferred to London during the troublesome times of 1715, 1718, or, as some imagine, as late as 1745; and it is stated, that a crown has been for many years exhibited in the Tower of London, alleged to be that of Scotland. A royal commission was issued in 1794 to the officers of state in Scotland to enter the room, in order to search for records, supposed to be deposited there. At that period all things seemed to be in the condition in which they may be supposed to have been left in 1707. The dust of a century, about six inches thick, lay on the floor and on the lid of a very large chest, in which the Regalia were stated to have been deposited. There was no reason to suppose, from the uniform surface of the dust, that the chest had been opened since the original depositation. But the commission authorising only a search for records, the matter was still left to conjecture. Another commission has just been issued by the Prince Regent, for completing the investigation. On the 2d February the commission proceeded, with some difficulty, to remove the whole of the fastenings of two doors, one of oak and the other of iron. Every thing remained as it was left in 1794. Nothing was found in the room but the abovementioned large oblong oak chest, |