think him right in trying to lay the whole blame of these disas trous occurrences on the fathers of the students, to the exculpation of the university authorities. He is pleased indeed to tell us positively, that no legislation will do the least good' (p. 369); but, with deference, we claim leave to doubt his assertion. Why might it not be enacted that no tradesman should be entitled to payment for any bill exceeding £5, unless a copy of it were sent in to the college authorities within a quarter of a year after it became due? On getting his bill back with the signature of the dean or tutor, he would hold in his hands the legal document which made his claim good for the future; and in case of undue extravagance, a parent would receive timely notice. Nor could such a plan be justly deprecated as unduly exposing a young man's private expenses. Whoever wished to conceal from his tutor how many muffins his friends ate, or how many coats he had had from his tailor, would hold the remedy in his own hands-to pay within a quarter of a year. If unable to do that, he ought not to complain of a wholesome check to extravagance. So simple a plan as is here suggested, would at once destroy the unwholesome competition of tradesmen in giving credit; which the author truly describes as equally injurious to them and to the young men.

We observe that Dr. Arnold, in his published correspondence, severely chides the college authorities for taking so good precautions that they themselves shall not suffer bad debts from the young men, while no care at all is taken to secure the tradesman from loss. The contrast, no doubt, forcibly shows that there is much culpability in the ruling part of the univer sities but we think it clear that Dr. Arnold's remedy-that of exacting from the students caution money large enough to indemnify tradesmen-would prove impracticable or insufficient, unless accompanied with measures to enforce a quick delivery of bills. To demand £500 caution money, to be deposited with the college authorities, would not be too much for the security of tradesmen, as things are now managed: but such a demand would be oppressive and unjust, and could not possibly be

enforced.

There is something laughably simple in the author's complaints of the stupidity of fathers :

"And here I cannot refrain from observing, that of all the blindness I have ever witnessed, that of the fathers of my fellow-collegians seems to be the most remarkable.

If a man brings up a son as a lawyer, a surgeon, or a merchant. he makes such an arrangement with a professional man in his own town, that when the hours of business are over, he may take charge of his son under his own roof; or else, if he sends him to a

distance, he articles or apprentices him to some substantial family man, who undertakes to act a parent's part. But if the same man sends a son to Oxford, though he might feel sure that, from the number of thoughtless youths who meet together, the temptations must be stronger than in any mercantile town in England, he leaves him without check, and without inquiry, for three years together. He may say, that he presumes tutors will render his vigilance unnecessary; but with what reason can he presume that any tutor can adequately perform a parent's part? Common sense must tell him it would be very difficult to do; common experience proclaims that it often remains undone. In every newspaper a father may read the fact, that there is no such check at either university as will prevent a young man from incurring as many debts as the tradesmen believe he will be able to pay. To this extent every father knows his son may every where obtain credit; but at Oxford or Cambridge he may be sure that he will be trusted to a larger amount, because, as a mem ber of the university, he is naturally presumed to have more money at his command.

"A second observation I have made about fathers is, that when they do attempt to advise or to instruct their sons, they evince such an ignorance of their ways, and such want of sympathy for their feelings, that they utterly fail in gaining their confidence. Once, and only once, did I ever hear a man say that he could call his father a truly confidential adviser, and a friend. For the most part

a father and 'father confessor' are two widely different characters. I have heard many a man declare, that if his father had ever manifested indulgence and consideration towards him, instead of a distant austerity and impatience, as if he expected to find him a very model of perfection, he should have been glad to have asked his advice and assistance, and that, too, at a period when he might have avoided the most ruinous consequences.''-pp. 337-339.

reason?

This is odd indeed. English fathers are, in other times and places, sensible and thoughtful; but as soon as they come into contact with the universities, they are besotted. The facts which he alledges cannot be wholly denied: but what can be the Has it not occurred to him to inquire? A hint indeed is thrown out, that the father presumes that tutors will render his vigilance unnecessary. We fully agree with the author that this is an absurd presumption: still, there must be some reason, why people are cheated into the belief of it. Since he seems unable to help us to the discovery, we will venture a conjecture of our own. A large part of the English public has far too high an opinion of the moral excellence of those religious asylums which a dissenting foot may not profane. Superstition blinds even prudent men; and those who would watch anxiously over their sons in a merchant's counting house, fancy they are safe in a society into which they cannot be admitted without

signing thirty-nine articles of religion, attending chapel every day, and regularly receiving the Holy Sacrament. Nor do we hold the universities to be blameless in the matter: for the pretensions which they make to 'forming character,' 'training christian gentlemen,' and the rest, must necessarily delude those, who are soft enough to believe it, into the idea that tutors have a great deal more power over the habits and pursuits of the young men than they actually have. After all, the truth comes out, that the young men train one another to be gentlemen; and that the tutors have but little influence over the mass. We therefore hold the college and university authorities to have (generally) a double guilt in this matter; first, for allowing a false idea to spread of their power to train their pupils ; and next, for neglecting to obtain the obvious means for checking the accumulations of debt which have brought misery on so many. But enough of this. If all residents in the universities were as intelligent and well disposed as our author, we do believe that a great improvement would take place; and in spite of adverse theological appearances, we live in hope that Oxford is destined hereafter to run an honourable career, after working out the clear proof that she must be REFORMED.

Art. III.-Essays on Christian Union.

and Co.

London: Hamilton, Adams,

ORDER and harmony pervade the works of the Deity, so as to constitute the general law of all. To reproduce these, wherever disarrangement has occurred, must necessarily be the design of Providence. The existence of evil and its continued prevalence may be a mystery to our minds, but we cannot justly entertain any apprehension that the extermination of whatever opposes the righteous will and perfect government of God, will not be finally accomplished. The process of moral amelioration is, according to the predictions of scripture, to go on, with more or less degrees of advancement, till the period arrives when the present workings and counter-workings of things shall result in the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness;' and happy are they who, by ever so feeble an influence, contribute to this glorious consummation !

The material universe is replete with beautiful analogies and instructive teachings. The admonition of inspired wisdom is, 'Go to the ant, thou sluggard,' and learn diligence; so may we

say, 'Go to the visible heavens and the outspread earth, and learn union.' There behold the laws that operate, the links that bind, and the relations, circumstances and influences that are bound together in the harmonious whole.' There see how powerful is combination; and how simple too the constitution of that which is at once useful and strong. Walk the paths of science, that you may be encouraged to pursue the path of religion; for the God of nature is the God of scripture, and he has stamped on both the sublime character of his own oneness. The stars in their courses' do not pursue ungoverned wanderings, or roll along divergently and deviously, as though urged by mere material impulses to incalculable or unconnected deviations; but they obey the gravitating law which admits of their varieties of form and motion, and yet perfectly controuls and unites them all, in orders, constellations, and systems. The diversities of hill and dale, of wood and water, down to every rivulet and every leaf, are equally comprehended in one vast association, in which we see variety and unity, difference and agreement, change and regularity, and even regularity in change, in endless reciprocities of influence and amalgamation. Whatever is contrary in nature has still its law, and sooner or later is brought by an evident design into subserviency or into aid to the grand and universal scheme. We are not to be turned aside from this fact by any present, or it may be, to our minds unaccountable appearances; the machinery is there to which every atom is attached, working out its wondrous purpose, and touched on the prime-spring by the Almighty Disposer. But that same agency is infinite, and not at work alone to regulate the phenomena of the physical world; the moral power and purpose are more especially observable in the world of mind. The permissions of evil, in the church of God, or out of it, do not lie beyond the reach of omniscient wisdom and power, or apart from its calculations. All are destined to work to one end, to result in one great purpose; and we, as intellectual and moral or accountable beings, formed under the influence of religion, are destined not only to be parts of a great and harmonious whole, but sub-agents in carrying out to its ultimatum the predicted oneness of the universe in God. High, therefore, and heavenly is the destination of the christian community, and of the christian man!

According to the more recent announcement of astronomers, there are vast elemental masses lying scattered through regions of space assuming to our vision the character of shadowy forms termed nebula, within which certain processes tending to new combinations are continually going forward. In a sphere of this matter, for instance, comprising millions of miles

in superficial extent, stretching along the borders of the most distant firmament, a gravitating and concentrating power is ever in operation to unite into suns and stars and systems what is now so diffused. Atom attracts atom, and from a comparatively small and radical nucleus swelling by its concretions into greater magnitude, world after world is produced, and each made to take its place in the sidereal hemisphere. So may we conceive that by the laws of moral attraction and affinity, under the guidance of Divine Providence, church after church will be formed and associated, the scattered elements of individual opinion or action combined together, till the world of union, christian harmony and peace, shall emerge from the yet distant and unorganized materials of a wide-spread christianity.

And this reminds us of another analogy arising out of these facts, namely, the slow progress of these combining affinities. Years and ages elapse ere they assume shape and character although, undoubtedly, omnipotence might mould them into compactness and beauty at once. The physical universe, however, is not governed by miracles, but by laws, and these laws of necessity require time for evolving great results. The same may be said of the moral world, where the principles of reason and the passions of men are at work; and where the divine agency does nothing as with the lightning's flash, but by allowing cause and effect to proceed, and by throwing in mighty impulses to carry forward the purposes of heaven. We must not, therefore, stand in the midst of combining and adjusting circumstances, which have relation to some grand ultimatum, and despondingly say, this or that is not accomplished-here and there our calculations fail-these tendencies and those operations disappoint our hopes, and come short of promise and prognostication. It is as though the little insect flitting in the sunbeam should undertake to judge of the solar orb, the motions of planets, or the mechanism of the spheres. In contemplating, therefore, the state of things in relation to what may be anticipated as the happy future, if for the present, strifes and divisions prevail, we must remember that the whole scheme of divine government prepares for a gradual development; and that, like the flowing tide, while each particular wave advances and recedes alternately, yet the mass of waters still rolls on to their fulness, the events that agitate the world or disturb the church, are but subordinate to the general movement that is ever onwards towards the final crisis.

No christian can question the importance of promoting union among the avowed followers of Christ, to the utmost practicable extent; nor can any reasonable person dispute the fact that in a degree it already exists, at least amongst some christians.