to Dr. Davidson, who is a Dissenter, or Chevalier Bunsen, who is a German!

We have been pleading the cause of Cathedral Colleges, to complete the training for Holy Orders, which the Universities leave incomplete. We have contended that academic lectures give the candidate little education, and senate-house examinations are no sufficient test of his fitness. The majority of our Bishops, unhappily, think differently, and demand the voluntary. We trust that our endeavour to investigate this question will meet with attention amongst those on whom will ultimately depend the success of any effort at improving the tone and preparation of the Clergy; but, in doing this, we feel that we have been pleading the cause of theology and religion itself. On behalf of the candidate we have asked for a better training than the Universities can give. For the officers of our older Colleges we have begged for employment which will elevate and sanctify them; on behalf of another class of men, who are daily rising into greater importance, we have petitioned for a better and more wholesome education than they can have at present; on behalf of the Professors, we have entreated for work congenial to their calling; on behalf of the truth of God, we have prayed that its lustre may not be dimmed by our neglect, nor its lamps quiver and expire for want of the hand to trim. And so we leave the case, entreating our readers not to think that in this. matter there can be any real opposition between cathedral-city, and old University, beyond that ever useful rivalry, the provoking to love and to good works. We leave it, humbly praying God that He will bless these and all other means of promoting His kingdom, and spreading His truth, until the time come when: labour shall end in rest, and imperfection be lost in glory.

P.S. Since our remarks have gone to press, the University of Cambridge has adopted the recommendations of a Syndicate appointed to suggest improvements in the theological studies of the University. Henceforth there will be two examinations in each year-at Easter and Michaelmas-the subjects being the following, "The Historical Books of the Old Testament, the 'Greek Testament, the Articles of Religion and Liturgy of the 'Church of England, the Ecclesiastical History of the First Three Centuries, and the History of the Reformation in Eng'land.' At first sight this list appears tolerably extensive: the subjects may branch out in different directions, and introduce much reading. It will be observed, however, that no knowledge is required of the Septuagint, or Hebrew, and none of the Psalms or Prophets, even in English.

Moreover, the Syndicate recommended, and the University

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decreed, that once in each year there should be an examination for 'honours in Theology;' and 'the candidates for honours shall be further examined in the Greek Testament, in assigned por'tions of the early Fathers, and of the Septuagint version of the 'Old Testament, and assigned works or parts of works of stan"dard Theological writers.'

To this we know many of our friends object; for our own part we welcomed the announcement, in the hope that it might be the means of introducing many students to some great works, which would lie beyond the range of a Bishop's examination; we shrugged our shoulders at noticing what a favourable opportunity was lost for promoting the study of Hebrew-but, in its stead, we expected reference to the Apostolical Fathers; some treatises say of S. Basil or S. Augustine, amongst the ancients; or, of Bull and Waterland amongst the moderns. Of course, the knowledge of the whole of the Old Testament in the English version, of Butler, Pearson, and Hooker.

The list was published about Dec. 21. It contains—

'Septuagint: Book of Genesis.'

"The assigned portions of the early Fathers' is (we beg pardon for our English)

The First Epistle of Clemens Romanus.

'The assigned works, or parts of works of standard Theological writers,' are

'Butler's Analogy. Part I.

Pearson on Creed. Art. II.

Paley's Hora Paulina. Introductory Chapter, and Chapter on the
Epistle to the Romans.'

We would now ask Dr. Heurtley, who are they that are lowering the tone of Theology? who that are endeavouring to raise it?

215

NOTICES.

THE form in which the well-known Irish ecclesiastical historian, Mr. Robert King, Diocesan Curate, Armagh, has published his Memoir introductory to the Early History of the Primacy of Armagh,' (Armagh: John Thompson, 1854,) is curiously illustrative of the amount of encouragement which, with all the national pretensions, is given in Ireland to undertakings of real research. Despairing of being able to produce the work in an independent form, Mr. King had recourse to the columns of a friendly local newspaper, which not only published it by divisions, but worked off a small folio sheet week by week, without which assistance the treatise could not have appeared. We must add, that the tone of the dedication points to further efficacious aid afforded by the present munificent occupant of the primatial see. The results which Mr. King considers he has arrived at are, that while no other form of ordination except the episcopal 'was known or heard of in Ireland in the early ages, (from the first preaching, in fact, of Christianity in the island to the period of the British Reformation,) yet no diocesan episcopacy was settled in this country, or ' employed for the government of the Irish Church, until introduced by the Church of Rome in the twelfth century;' and that accordingly, on the one hand, there were administrators of Church government in the persons of the abbots of certain monasteries, deriving their importance as, and entitled, successors of early saints, founders of those Churches; and, on the other, there were bishops, ordainers of the clergy, who might or who might not be these abbots, but who as bishops had no territorial jurisdiction, or settled limits of episcopal action. Every tyro in Church history is aware that Venerable Bede mentions this anomaly as characteristic of the Culdee monastery of Iona, founded by S. Columba, and that Presbyterian controversialists have not scrupled to distort it in favour of their system. Mr. King contends that the anomaly in question was not confined to Iona only, but was the practice of all the Irish Churches till the time of Maolmogue O'Morgan, better known as St. Malveley. Accordingly, he states that the prelates of Armagh up to this date were not properly archbishops at all, but abbots, who as loarbs,' or successors of S. Patrick, held the first place in the Irish Church, but who were very far from universally being invested with the episcopal order. S. Bernard, it is well known, complains bitterly of the usurpation of the see of Armagh by monied and unordained persons. It would follow from Mr. King's theory, that the latter portion of the complaint, with which all must sympathise, was not so much a corruption introduced into the see of Armagh, as a state of normal imperfection pervading the entire community. It must be noted that celibacy does not seem to contribute an essential qualification for an early Irish abbot. We commend this very curious portion of ecclesiastical history to the attentive examination of studious theologians. Mr. Petrie has shown how rich a field of ecclesiological research exists in the præ-Roman ecclesiastical buildings of Ireland. A parallel line of study offers itself in the documentary annals of carly Irish Church polity.

Heartsease; or, the Brother's Wife.' (J. W. Parker.) A new work from the pen of the authoress of the Heir of Redclyffe' is certain of a reception almost too cordial for its best interests. Its predecessor secures it a warm welcome, at the expense of a high reputation to keep up, and raised expectations to satisfy. How far the admirers of the pure chastened tone of romance in the Heir of Redclyffe,' with its chivalrous hero and superlative heroine-evidently darling conceptions of the writer-will find their anticipations met by the more ordinary group of characters, whose fortunes are the subject of the present story, may be doubted. But 'Heartsease' deserves to be judged on its own merits. It is a tale full of interest, with scenes as vivid, though not so highly wrought, as the last. The story is new in its plan, and well sustained; the characters for the most part natural, and acting well upon one another; the dialogue, as always with this writer, animated and clever. The interest perhaps too much centres in the heroine; but she is a very real and sweet person, and her attractions so genuine, that we see nothing improbable in the extent of good which her modest gifts and graces achieve, while whatever is painful in her position may be regarded as necessary to the moral of a marriage like hers, with which the story opens. Theodora, the sister-in-law, in whose delineation great pains and almost too much space are bestowed, we cannot think so successful. In the necessity of inventing trials for the heroine, she is made too faulty either for nature or any share in the reader's sympathy, who cannot see sufficient reason for her vagaries in her jealousy of the affection of a very common-place brother. She is, however, a favourite with the writer, and the occasion of many striking scenes. The sketch of Theresa Marstone is so good, that we were disappointed not to see more of her. There is in our authoress a rectitude and clear-sightedness in matters of right and wrong, which qualify her to unmask prctension, and to expose the fallacies by which some high religious professors scem to hold themselves exempt from the common rules of honesty and conscience. One word of criticism we are tempted to offer, which applies indiscriminately to all stories by this writer: we mean the undue prominence of physical suffering. Casualties, accidents, sudden deaths, lingering sicknesses, all forms of pain and bodily weakness, are used too much as engines to excite sympathy, and for the sake of incident. Probably the invention will fasten on these obvious stimulants to interest and excitement; but it is not the less a fault to be guarded against. Not that the present tale is at all an extreme case, only a general delicacy of constitution pervades the dramatis persone, and Violet suffers from an habitual languor, bordering upon hysteria. We doubt, by the way, if it is fair to husbands to represent wives as a sort of fragile ware, which will break and slip through their fingers unless constantly nursed and guarded. A man may be a good husband, we plead, and yet so indifferent a nurse, that he must trust his wife to the management of her own health: but we speak under correction. Perhaps the direct religious tendency of this story is not so prominent as in the Heir of Redclyffe;' but there is enough to show how habitually the writer is directed by the highest rules of action, and to lead the reader's thoughts on to the true source and example of all excellence.

We noticed last quarter a Letter to Mr. Dale' by Mr. Millner, incumbent of one of the district churches of S. Pancras, intimating an opinion that it revealed a state of things the existence of which it would be well in those most concerned to disprove. These are the abuses-and a kindred one exists in Cripplegate-which will ruin Chapters, that of S. Paul's in particular. Not only does the charge remain unanswered, but it has recently been restated, and the unfortunate condition of this immense parish more pointedly brought out, in 'An Appeal to the Bishop of London, by a District Churchwarden.' (Darling.) S. Pancras is in ecclesiastical matters governed by a strange body of trustees, the messenger and clerk of whom, it seems, is better paid than nine Clergymen out of ten in the parish. The Churchwarden states, which seems extraordinary, that Mr. Millner's printed letter was answered by Mr. Dale, in the pulpit of S. Pancras church.'-P. 7.

'The Bishop of Winchester on Convocation,' is the reprint of an article which appeared in the Ecclesiastic and Theologian for October. (Masters.) It is written in very vigorous, and, as it is called, strong language; not stronger, we are sorry to say, than the occasion-a distressing one

warrants.

Mr. W. Rogers, in his 'Educational Prospects of S. Thomas, Charterhouse,' (Longman,) prints a pamphlet in the shape of a Letter to Lord John Russell, showing how his large and important schools have brought him into pecuniary distress and trouble. The experience of every 'new district,' especially in London, confirms Mr. Rogers' statement. As a mere matter of taste, we are not very partial to specimens of ministerial autobiography, and successes, and sacrifices; but Mr. Rogers tells his in a lively way.

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Mr. Biden, the author of a work called 'Truths Maintained,' and 'The Church and her Destinies,' (Aylott and Jones,) seems very anxious that we should give an opinion on his productions. He has, he tells us, acquired one great fundamental truth, viz. that the past of Christianity, from soon ' after its first promulgation, has been at variance with the Gospel-the 'whole machinery of an ecclesiastical Church is inappropriate, and the whole 'body of doctrines taught false.' As to 'Truths Maintained,' the author assures us that it has done its work; by its aid the devil is bound for a thousand years,' p. 54, an intimation which is hardly reconcilable with Mr. James Biden's subsequent complaint, which some people will be oldfashioned enough to consider a little blasphemous, (Appendix, p. 79,) 'that 'the author has been specially called to God's service, and has now been 'steadily employed six years-the six working-days-apparently with 'little result upon the opinions held in Christendom.'

"The Castle Builders' is a reprint by Miss Young, the authoress of the 'Heir of Redclyffe,' of a tale which has appeared in Mr. Mozley's excellent magazine, The Monthly Packet.' We are not sure that a smaller canvass does not suit this writer better than a large one. Her skill is rather in the delicate elaboration of character than in plot. For single pathetic scenes, such as the drowning of the noble boy Frank, she stands very high; it will quite bear comparison with the wonderful sea-side inci