Methodist Churches, and five non-episcopal, which will allow the American Methodist much latitude of choice in the matter of his religion.

We are now at liberty to enquire what are the results which Methodism has achieved? In order to answer this question we have minutely investigated the reports of the Methodist Churches, and have endeavoured to hold a just balance between opponents and the self-laudation which does not hesitate to say: The Bible Society, the Missionary Society in the modern Protestant form, those great publishing institutions misnamed Tract Societies, the adoption 'of Sunday schools by the Church, the religious periodical 'publication, and most other characteristic religious agencies of our day, sprang directly or indirectly from Methodism.' With strong confidence in the accuracy of our statements, we compute the adherents of Methodism at five millions in connexion with the Bristol Conferences and fourteen millions with the American. The ecclesiastical property in Great Britain may be calculated at eleven millions, and in America at eighteen millions sterling. The annual contributions for purely Methodist purposes in Great Britain amount to two and a half millions sterling, and in the rest of Methodism to three times that amount.

6

Wesleyans are the only branch of Methodists in England that have busied themselves with primary education. The success that has followed them in this is apparent in their annual Government grant-in-aid, which amounted in 1879 to 96,7007. They have training colleges for their teachers, and have expended much pains upon them. At the last change in the educational policy of the country Wesleyans showed much division of feeling. On the one hand they had never subscribed to the doctrine that the State acted beyond its legitimate powers in dealing with education; but, on the other, they were alarmed and irritated at the growth of Ritualistic intolerance in national schools, but could not embrace the theory dissolving the alliance between religious instruction and secular knowledge for fear of playing into the hands of the secularists. Mr. Forster's proposals afforded a ground for compromise, and Wesleyans, while retaining denominational schools, have generally used all their influence to secure Board schools with Biblical instruction. In the course of the controversy, a marked hostility was exhibited towards the High Church party, and the old traditional policy of Methodism was much strained. Middle-class schools are to receive more attention at the hands of Wesleyans, who have recently apportioned 10,000l. to this

VOL. CLIV. NO. CCCXV.

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purpose. The higher class of the laity have a Methodist education provided for them in two colleges affiliated with the London University, and in a recently erected High School at Cambridge. The Primitive Methodists are showing much activity in education, and are proud of the successes achieved by their pupils. In America and Canada, Methodists have been behind no religious community in similar efforts. The removal of religious disabilities in the English Universities has thrown them open to Methodist parents. We find a few Oxford and Cambridge graduates entering the Wesleyan ministry, while those who remain among the laity show a preference for more ornate services, and for the alteration of various points of the ancient discipline; but, on the whole, it is yet too early to say what the influence of University culture will be on Methodism.

It may be an object of curiosity with some as to what amount of learning can have been obtained by Wesleyan ministers since the Universities were closed to them, and they had not even theological schools till a late period of their history. But in this respect they owed much to Wesley, who was a man of varied attainments and endeavoured to impress his people and the preachers with a genuine love of learning. He consulted with the most eminent Nonconformist minister of his time, and drew up a course of theological reading which has been well kept in view by these hard-working preachers and evangelists. On the Old and New Testament revision committees, Wesleyan representatives have won the hearty recognition of competent scholars. In the lists of missionaries are to be found names better recognised by Germans as masters of Eastern idolatries and mysticism than by Englishmen. Some of the grammars of barbarous dialects compiled by them have been highly praised by philologists, but as a rule they have excelled only in pietist literature. The forte of the Methodist minister has long been held to be in his preaching and yet there is no Methodist preacher to rival Spurgeon; there is no pulpit orator to emulate Farrar or to vie with Liddon; nor is there the memory of one to compare with Robert Hall. Methodist chapels are often crowded to hear popular preachers, but the audience is almost exclusively Methodist. Popular literature has caricatured the average Methodist preacher; but the accompanying sketch of a Wesleyan minister of the highest type is said to be drawn from real life:

'He is a man of devout and earnest piety. He loves supremely his proper work of preaching and of spiritual intercourse with his people.

He is generally bookish and studious, can find food for his public and private ministrations in other's libraries, while his own is select, but various and extensive; bright with the presence of the fathers and saints of all ages, and of the thinkers, not always saints, of all schools. His tastes, too, are in constant cultivation; they win the sympathy of spirits similarly constituted; they tell insensibly, but surely, upon the coarser humanity which generally surrounds him. He is frank, open, unreserved, natural; never concealing the man, never forgetting the minister. He studies human nature-human nature as it is to begin with, and as Divine grace develops, modifies, and sanctifies it. He is loving, and tender, and forbearing; but with no counterfeit amiabilities of demeanour and address. He belongs in spirit to all Christian communities. He takes pains to understand them. He mingles largely in their society. He reads their books and records. He construes favourably their avowed opinions. He is a politician too; not a busy, fussy politician, seen and heard, so often as he can get a hearing, at every gathering of partisans; but a calm watcher and patient helper of the sure processes by which the kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ; roused now and then— when some intolerable evil threatens-to fearless speech and action; always standing up for the wronged and wretched; never courting, never shirking, a contest for the truth.'*

It must be confessed that there is often as great a contrast between this sketch and reality, as between the ideal curate of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Charlotte Brontë's Ma'lone;' but it is pleasant to see a faultless picture of what is fitting.

6

From a list in the Methodist Almanac' published at New York, we find that an immense stream of periodical literature pours from the united bodies of Methodists. Four quarterlies are published in England and America, and one hundred and fifty periodicals in English, French, Italian, German, Swedish, Dutch, and some other non-European languages. The oldest of these is the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine,' commenced by John Wesley, under the title of the Arminian Magazine,' in 1777; the most recent is entitled Experience,' apparently an expiring effort to represent early Methodist asceticism. The number of Methodist biographies is enormous, commencing with Lives of Early Methodist Preachers, principally 'written by themselves,' containing some most naïve revelations of earnest, simple, and frequently quaintly credulous piety, but rising occasionally into passages of description that Defoe would have been proud to write. If the religious history of the English people is ever written, some of these

* Memorials of Rev. W. M. Bunting, p. 22.

biographies will be invaluable for the light they will throw upon religious feeling in these circles.

Without any attempt to sit in judgment upon Methodism, we leave it to speak for itself. The religious martinet may condemn it, because its drill is not conducted according to certain regulations. The professed theologian may declare himself unable to find its raison d'être in its tenets: but the fact of its existence, its organisation, its adaptation to practical ends remains. The heyday of its enthusiasm is over, but it will perpetuate itself by education and the working of its system. It will increase the distance between itself and other Christian communities. It will, in all probability, never see the days when it will be invited to share the editorial councils of a new 'Eclectic Review,' nor will it throw open its chapels to the formation of a new Evangelical Alliance. The gentler spirits in its borders will continue to entertain hopes of a Church of the Future with the disciples sitting at the Great Master's feet in unbroken accord; but they will sadly acknowledge that the distinctiveness of Wesleyanism must be sacrificed before that consummation can be obtained. The liberal theologian will sorrowfully confess that Wesley's dream of a Christianity which dwells more upon the most excellent gift of charity than the forms of polity, has gone away from men by the ivory gate; and, while he cannot but regret the share that Wesleyans have in this dislimning of the vision, will more deeply reproach those religionists who survey every prospect through the perplexing medium of a cathedral window, and can endure nothing unless traced with the mediæval pattern that meanders round all their sacred things.

What doctrinal conflicts await Methodism it is impossible to tell. Whether its theology of the heart can withstand the assaults of the time, or whether it must change its front, are questions of the future. But Methodism is plainly a middleclass form of faith. It has not held its first conquests achieved amongst the upper classes. Lady Huntingdon's Connexion has proved a successful rival in that respect. And we are not aware that any persons belonging to the higher ranks of the nation, either in station or in celebrity, belong to this persuasion. Nor has it held the poorest classes in its meshes. The long and fierce contests against popular control have weakened it. Wesleyanism has never surmounted the difficulties thrown in its way when the tide of revolutionary ideas, which in 1848 swept over Europe, invaded its sanctuaries. The working-classes fell away from it then, and have never returned to their allegiance. The increased activity of the

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Church, coupled with its resources, and the undoubted devotion of the majority of the clergy in large towns to the interests of their flocks, has seriously crippled Methodism. The lowest strata of English society are barely touched by it, either in rural or urban parishes. The poor, the unfortunate, the miserable, and the vicious are the unquestioned objects of the clergyman's care: the prosperous mechanic, the well-to-do tradesman, the manufacturer, for one or two generations, are the chief supporters of Methodism. But Methodism has in its constitution a principle of strength and authority far surpassing the more lax and tolerant rule of the Anglican Church; it is one of the great bulwarks of the faith amongst the middle classes of this country, opposed alike to the secularism of one party and the Romanising tendencies of another party; and we are thankful that a movement which has so impressed the religious life of the country, is true to the fundamentals of Christian conduct, renders valuable services to the cause of virtue at considerable personal sacrifices, and deserves well of the commonwealth from its loyal adherence to counsels of justice and moderation in times of national disturbance.

ART. II.-1. The Invasion of Britain by Julius Cæsar, with replies to the remarks of the Astronomer Royal and of the late Camden Professor of Ancient History at Oxford. By THOMAS LEWIN, Esq., M.A. 2nd edition. London:

1862.

2. Caius Julius Cæsar's British Expeditions from Boulogne to the Bay of Appledore, and subsequent Formation geologically of Romney Marsh. By FRANCIS HOBSON APPACH, M.A. London: 1868.

FEW NEW events in history have given rise to so much comment and to such various opinions as Cæsar's campaigns in Britain. The figure which the General occupies in the world's history, the renown and skill of the soldiers he commanded, the fact that he was the first great conqueror who is recorded to have invaded these islands, and that with his invasion the history of Britain emerges from chaotic darkness into a definite and consistent shape, have all assisted to enhance the natural romance of the story. The first mention made of Britain by any Roman writer is in a well-known passage in which, speaking of the Suessiones, who gave its name to the diocese of Soissons, and whose country was of great extent and very fruitful, Cæsar says: Within our memory' (i.e. probably

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