truth. If the painful levity (often, we must say, the distressing vulgarity) of expression, which was frequent in the earlier letters, be at all modified in these, it is but slightly. It was a habit which, we fear, continued with the author to the last, and which certainly reveals a deep deficiency of religious feeling, and which leaves on the mind of every Christian reader a most distressing association with this otherwise agreeable book.

VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

It is again our privilege to record the absence of any such movements on the Continent, as, while they afford capital materials for the journalist, are ordinarily fruitful of wretchedness to those who are the subjects bjects of them. The nations of Europe are for the most part resting like combatants whose strength, but not whose hostility, is exhausted; and who are not unlikely, we fear, to renew the fight, when their physical powers are recruited. In no one case, as it appears to us, are the elements of confusion destroyed.

From Spain we have received, during the month, rumours of those renewed ministerial agitations which have for a long time distracted that unhappy country. Our own connection with it, after a considerable interruption, is renewed, and if this tend to the benefit of Spain, we shall be glad. For ourselves, it would seem, that the less we have to do with her the better. The English appear to be poor hands at intrigue and faction; and, whenever we have meddled with them, either in Spain or other countries, we always seem to burn our fingers.

Russia seems to repose, like a sleeping giant, among her snows; looking a little wistfully at the Caucasus, a little hungrily at Constantinople; and launching a few dignified rebukes at Lord Palmerston on the subject of Greece, to which he seems very reluctant to attend. That noble Lord appears to have the good word of scarcely any party at home or abroad; but he no sooner gets into a scrape, than he discovers the most surprising facility in getting out of it: and from whatever height he falls, always seems to come upon his legs.

The Pope has at length really returned to the "Holy City," if so that city is to be called, where superstition and infidelity occupy the throne and usurp the rights of truth and holiness; where the government is withheld from the most odious tyranny only by fear, and where French bayonets are the only security for peace. Nothing can be more affecting than the contrast which presents itself between the real and apparent state of things in Rome. The Pope was received with rejoicings and illuminations, when, at the same moment, there were rolling through the streets and corners of the city, curses deep and loud against all religion and law. The illumination, we fear, which would have been most acceptable to multitudes in that city, would have been lighted up with the beams of the Vatican.

Prussia seems to be very far from realizing her dream as to the sovereignty of the German nations. Such an edifice cannot stand when the four great pillars of Austria, Bavaria, Saxony, and Hanover, are withdrawn from the support of it.

Our own proceedings in Parliament have not been of a very prominent character.

During the last week of March and the first week of the present month, a brief holiday was granted to the hard-worked members of Parliament; and they had leisure, at least, and in many instances, we doubt not, the will, to cultivate, in the holy services of the season, those dispositions of mind, and principles of action, which are alike essential to communities and individuals. It is impossible not to contrast with the deepest gratitude and joy the opposite character of our own national assemblies and those of the continent. In the one no man is ashamed or afraid to appeal to the word of God as the great fountain of law and wisdom; while, in others, all the affairs of this world are discussed as though there was no world beyond it, and no other Administrator of nations but the poor creatures of dust and ashes who are called to "strut their hour" in robes and crowns; who are kings and ministers to-day, and may be corpses to-morrow.

The House of Commons entered on their work on the 8th of April, by the discussion of the navy estimates, when a motion was carried, in spite of the Admiralty, to give the surgeons of the navy a higher and more favourable position in the vessels to which they are attached; a regulation much needed, especially now that these officers appear to be so often selected as the superintendents of convict ships. The ministers were nearly defeated on the subject of the Window tax. But the smallness of the majority must be regarded rather as the result of accident, than of opposition to a tax which, however undesirable, is one of those with which, in the present state of our national finances, it is impossible to dispense.

On the subject of the equalization of stamp duties, the ministers were in a minority of 29; and, in this case, the defeat cannot be attributed to the " smallness of the house. Other inferior questions have been since discussed in the house; as, the measure suggested by Mr. Ewart for establishing public libraries in the large towns; the increase of facilities for disposing of encumbered estates. And, on Wednesday, April 17th, came on the second reading of Mr. Fox's bill for the establishment of Parochial Schools in which religions instruction was to be left altogether to shift for itself. In this discussion we were happy to find that Lord John Russell, who had voted for leave to bring in the bill, spoke out decisively in objection to it; and endeavoured to convince Mr. Fox and his friends, that deploring, as he himself did, the deficiency of national education, and the aversion of a certain body of opponents to the measures of the "Council of Education," he felt the strongest repugnance to every attempt to disconnect religion and secular learning in any system of national education. Mr. Fox's proposal met with the disgraceful defeat in the House which it so richly deserved. On Friday, April 12, Mr. Horsman moved that the inquiry with respect to the reduction of official salaries should be extended to the incomes of the Bishops. No remonstrance, from either friends or foes, appears to have any power with this pugnacious assailant of the dignities of the Church. The House refused their consent to his proposal, by a majority of 208 to 95; and this majority may serve to teach him to what an extent he has marred a good cause, by intemperance, and forfeited that public confidence which might have rendered him an efficient labourer in the accomplishment of many useful reforms. Has he not learned that it is in the nature of the English mind to fly to the refuge of the injured, and to shelter even a fault which is exaggerated? The petitions against the continuance of Sunday Post Office Labour are multiplying without limit. Mr. Rowland Hill is throwing various sops to the petitioners, none of which, we trust, will be accepted in place of the total extinction of labour which is demanded, and which Lord John Russell's favourable reply to a deputation of bankers, merchants, &c., gives us reason to hope will be granted. What a merciful result to a mischievous attempt on the part of the Post Office authorities! They must now wish that they had seen it right, in the first instance, to leave well alone. How consolatory is the hope that hundreds of released labourers will now have the opportunity of giving to their souls and to their families, the hours spent in assisting others to violate the day of God. But we must now turn from Parliamentary proceedings, to the few points of general interest at the present moment.

And here we should have felt it our duty to call the attention of our readers to the question of the slave squadron on the coast of Africa, (which the Radical party, with Mr. Hutt as their leader in Parliament, and the Times as their auxiliary out of doors, are continuing to assail with the utmost violence); but that we hope, with as little delay as may be, to give the matter a more extended examination in another department of this work. For the present, we can only implore our readers not to believe even the tithe of what they hear and read; to distrust the counsels of certain old friends of the Abolition, who object to this as they would to every scheme connected with ships of war; and to rest assured that the squadron is rendering, and is likely to render, the most valuable assistance to the kingdoms and people of Africa. We have had it on our minds to enter pretty fully on the Education Question. But, for the present, matters of still higher interest so occupy the principal agitators upon the subject, as to leave us no hope of getting a hearing upon this. There is one point, however, to which it may be well to direct the consideration of our readers.

It has been confidently asserted, in and out of Willis's Rooms, that the Council of Education have most partially and wickedly granted privileges to Dissenters, as to education, which they have refused to Churchmen. The fact is so improbable, that those who alleged it might have been expected to "look before they leapt," and to have examined carefully the grounds of the allegation. For ourselves, we are persuaded that the Council have proceeded with the utmost consistency and fairness; and that, if circumstances have given to the existing arrangements the colour of partiality, the Council are not in fault.

In the first place then, it will not be disputed that management clauses of some kind or other have been proposed, not only to the Committee of the National School, but also to the British and Foreign Schools, and to the schools of the Wesleyan body. Let those clauses thus proposed to those various bodies, be examined, and it will be found that one rule of proceeding has been adopted by the Commissioners in every separate case. In all, as it seems to us, the management clauses are so framed as to be in harmony with the religious constitution of the respective communions; and their object is to carry into effect the principles on which the members of these different communions profess to govern their own schools. Accordingly the clauses of Church of England schools have been based on the terms of union with the National School Society; the clauses for British schools, on the fundamental principles of the British and Foreign School Society,--" the maintenance of local as opposed to central government, by leaving each separate communion the power of electing its own teachers, and in all respects directing and controlling its own schools." The clause for Wesleyan schools, upon the basis adopted by the Wesleyan General Committee of Education, which stands in the same relation to the Wesleyan body that the National Society does to the Church of England.

The principle in question is stated in the 33rd section of the 2nd head of "The Principles," &c., and is as follows:

"Each school now or hereafter to be formed on Wesleyan principles, shall be under the immediate care and direction of a Local Committee, annually appointed, which shall invariably include the Wesleyan Ministers of the Circuit for the time being; the officers of the school, such as the Treasurer, Secretaries, and Visitors; and a suitable number of the friends of education connected with our body, either as members of our Society or as worshippers in our chapels." (See 10th Report of Wesleyan Committee of Education, p. 6.) Thus far, then, there is not the slightest foundation for any imputation of partiality on the part of the Committee of Council. So much the reverse, that, whereas it is provided that all the members of the Committee of Church schools shall be boná fide Churchmen, in the Wesleyan schools it is only necessary that two-thirds of the elected members of the School Committee shall "at the time of their appointment be members of the said Wesleyan body." (See Correspondence, &c. 1848, 1849, p. 65.)

3. Neither in the British Schools, nor in the Wesleyan Schools, is any provision made by their governing bodies for any Appeal from the decision of a majority of the Local Committee.

A simple majority determines every question.

Accordingly the Committee of Council have introduced into the clauses for these schools no such appeal.

In the Wesleyan clause it is prescribed, that when the votes are equally divided, the chairman shall have a casting vote.

The case is wholly different with respect to National Schools. The terms of union provide for an absolute appeal to the Bishop, on any disputed point relating to "the religious instruction of the scholars, or any matter connected therewith."

Hence a provision for this Appeal was inserted in the Management Clauses as originally lly submitted to, and accepted by, the National Society.

No appeal on matters unconnected with "religious instruction" is so much as hinted at in the terms of union. Consequently, no such appeal was, in the first instance, proposed by the Committee of Council.

The demand of an appeal on secular matters was advanced for the first time in the well-known memorandum of April 11, 1848.

This demand was met by the Committee of Council in a most conciliatory spirit; and it has been conceded, as far as it was possible for them to do so, consistently with those general principles by which their administration of the Parliamentary grant has been invariably regulated.

The Appellate tribunal which they have appointed is adequate to deal with every case that can occur. As the School Committee is not purely clerical, but contains lay-members of the Church; so the Appellate tribunal most properly represents the civil as well as the ecclesiastical element of that Committee.

It is the refusal of the Committee of Council to grant an absolute appeal to the Bishop on all matters whatsoever, secular or religious, which has given rise to this deplorable agitation.

To return to the specific question which has been proposed. The reason why a provision for an appeal has been inserted in the Trust Deeds of Church Schools, and not in the Trust Deeds of British or of Wesleyan Schools, is, that such appeal was, in regard to religious instruction, inserted in the Terms of Union, and, in regard to secular matters, was demanded by the National Society; and that no such appeal is either provided for in the recognized documents of the two latter bodies, or has been demanded by them, in any subsequent communication with the Committee of Council.

It may, therefore, we think, be concluded that the Privy Council do not "make different terms with the Church Schools from those which they make with Dissenters." And a satisfactory reason has been assigned why the Dissenters are not "called upon to refer their differences to persons perhaps out of their own body."

Such, we think, is an impartial statement of the proceedings of the Committee of Council with the various religious bodies, and we are unable to see in what way they have dealt unfairly with ourselves. On the whole, we cannot but express an earnest hope that the Committee of the National Society will not be frightened or cajoled into an open rupture with the Government. Such a concession will be the signal for large numbers, whose dislike to the Sunday instruction of the school in Westminster, and the every-day instruction at St. Mark's, has been long and loudly manifested, to erase their names from the Society. They feel the inconveniences of connection with the Government too small, and the advantages too great, to quarrel with them at the bidding of Mr. Denison; and if the question be between the National Society and the Commissioners, they will take their place in the ranks of the latter.

We now turn to the subject with which every houghtful and serious mind must be in some measure occupied at the present moment-the case of Mr. Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter. On surveying the length and breadth of it we have come to the conclusion that it is in another part of this work we must enter upon its investigation; and this we hope to accomplish in the ensuing month. We shall attempt little more, now, than to state some of the leading events of the month which bear upon the question.

The Resolutions issued with the signature of Archdeacons Manning, Wilberforce, Thorpe, &c. &c., to which we referred in our former Number, was soon followed by a Letter of Archdeacon Hare's, addressed to one of the protesters, and written with admirable force, temper, and earnestness. To this Letter, and to the Charge published just before the Letter, we desire strongly to call the attention of our readers, assuring them that their labour will be well recompensed. We should be surprised at any man rising from them without strong convictions-1st as to the soundness of the decision of the Judicial Committee; 2ndly, as to the utter futility of the objections taken against it by Archdeacon Manning and his coadjutors; 3rdly, as to the freedom of conscience with which men on both sides may continue to minister in the Church of England; and 4thly, as to the imperative duty of all parties looking less to the points on which they differ, and more to those in which they agree; and cherishing in their inmost souls the temper and spirit of the blessed Master they profess to serve. Without expressing our acquiescence in all the expressions in the following passage, we give it, as despairing to urge with the same force in any language of our own, a line of conduct which we have much at heart to promote :

"Into the great question on which this controversy turns, I cannot of course enter in this note. Yet neither can I refrain from addressing a few earnest, affectionate words to my brethren on both sides in this deplorable contest. For with both of them, I feel that I have many bonds of common faith, and love, and duty: with both of them I heartily desire to work together in the service of our common Master. With each of the two parties, I am aware, on sundry points I differ in opinion, more or less widely; but why should this cut me off from them, or why should it cut them off from me? May we not hold fast to that whereon we are agreed, and join hand to hand, and heart to heart, on that sure, unshakeable ground, which cannot slip from under us, and wait until God shall reveal to us what we now see dimly and darkly? Shall the oak say to the elm, Depart from me thou hast no place in God's forest-thou shalt not breathe His air; or shall the oak say to the birch, Avaunt! thou art not worthy to stand by my side.. ..cast thyself down and crawl away, and hide thyself in some outlandish thicket? O my brethren! the spring is just about to clothe all the trees of the forest in their bright fresh leaves, which will shine and sparkle rejoicingly and thankfully in the sun and the rain. Should it not also clothe our hearts anew in bright hopeful garments of faith and love, diverse in form, in hue, in texture, but blending together into a beautiful harmonious unity beneath the light of the Sun of Righteousness, who died for us all, and rose again for us all, and sends down His Spirit for us all, and has vouchsafed to regenerate us all by the waters of Baptism, and is ever desiring to feed us all, not only with His Word, but also with His Holy Body and Blood? O, if we would let one gleam of His divine love descend upon us, if we would open our hearts to receive it, and would let it glow and kindle there, we should cease from quarreling with our brethren; we should cease from scowling at them; we should feel that our highest privilege, our most precious blessing, is to be one with them through Him and in Him."

Dr. Hook has also published a Letter on the present crisis of the Church, which breathes very much of the same spirit, and is written with great vigour.

The Times newspaper, also, as though roused to better things by the importance of the crisis, has cast away its doubts and contradictions upon this subject, and has come forth with extraordinary power, and in a high moral tone, to rebuke the arrogance and madness of those who would close a door in the Church which the wisdom of centuries has left open, and thus shut out from its bosom the most efficient of her labourers; and also to persuade all parties to beat their swords into plough-shares, and not rend the sacred garment of which they are the privileged guardians.

Lord Campbell, too, the Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, has, in a correspondence with an amiable and devout, but obviously weak young lady, lent his aid to the cause of truth and charity. It is singular enough, that this learned Lord should have been called, as his first act in a judicial character, to give judgment in a case which involved a question upon his own qualification to sit in judgment upon the question of Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter. The counsel of the Bishop had raised a question founded upon certain obsolete statutes, whether the appeal from the Arches Court, in a case where the Crown was concerned, was not to the upper House of Convocation. Had this point been established, as no upper Court of Convocation existed, no appeal could have been made, and Sir Jenner Fust's Judgment must have stood. Lord Campbell, in a very masterly address, and with the concurrence of all his brethren, set aside the application for a rule, and the decision of the