and became all that her husband desired-a good wife and affectionate mother."

There have been instances of persons being confined for many years in these houses; mostly by coercion, but some voluntarily. An elderly man, who had acquired a competency, after he had retired from business, took to drinking, and that to an excessive degree; during which fits of intemperance he made away with his property, and showed every symptom of spending or wasting all he had, and reducing himself and family to beggary. His wife was advised to place her husband in a Verbetering Huis; an act for which he thanked her, and acknowledged it was the only means by which he could be restrained from ruining himself. At the end of five months' discipline, in a house where all his wants were supplied, and nothing debarred him but intoxicating liquors, he was deemed to be sufficiently reclaimed; and went back to his house, cured, as he hoped, of a vice that he had not acquired in his youthful days. He did not feel the least anger or resentment; but, on the contrary, told his wife and sons, if he should again relapse into that odious vice, to send him back, and there keep him. For a time he maintained his resolution, but by degrees fell off; and in less than a year he was become as bad as ever. His family were grieved; but such was their fondness of him, they would not again put him in a state of restraint, lest their friends should reflect upon them, and impute their conduct to sordid motives alone. One day the old gentleman was missed, and the night passed without tidings: the next morning the messenger from the Verbetering Huis arrived with a note, informing his wife and family, "that, feeling his own inability to conquer a propensity that was alike ruinous and unworthy of his age and former character, he had betaken himself to his old quarters, where he was determined to live and die, as he saw no other means of avoiding the ignominy of wasting his property, and making beggars of his family."

In Holland, the majority of males is twenty-five years; and if a young gentleman is very incorrigible, his parents or guardians can place him in in one of these institutions; and the same respecting young women.

A tradesman's daughter in the Warmoe's street, in 1803, formed an attachment to a married man. Her parents, with a view to save her from ruin, placed her in one of these houses for six months. Solitude and reflection, and the religious lectures read to her by the minister who was appointed to attend, wrought a change of sentiment; but the shock was so great that she died soon after her release a victim to her unfortunate passion.

An English tradesman, who lived in the same street, had a wife who was rather too much addicted to drinking, and he placed her in one of these houses; but, whether it was the confinement, or some extraneous causes, the unfortunate woman went raving mad, in which state she died. It is a curious fact, that, of the English who have been placed in these sort of houses, scarcely a single instance has occurred of any radical good being effected, further than the

restraint imposed by the rules of the place; whilst, among the native Dutch, in at least one-half the cases that had occurred in 1803, a radical cure had been effected.

All these institutions are placed under the superintendence of the police; most of them are provided with dark chambers for the confinement of the refractory, and also a geessel-paal, or whipping-post; but no one can be confined in the one, or whipped at the other, without an order from the magistrate; and the latter punishment must be applied in the presence of the visitors, and not by any servant of the house, but by the common executioner; which inflictions are not held as infamous, or even dishonourable; and many instances have occurred in which the great and opulent have had their children punished in this manner.

During the prosperity of the Belgic republic, these institutions were very beneficial to the community; but after its decline and fall, and the universal poverty and depravity which ensued, they became less an object of terror, as only the rich, and they were few indeed, could afford to pay for their relatives, to whom such coercion might have been useful.

Correspondence.

CLERICAL COSTUME.

To the Committee of the Churchman.

GENTLEMEN, It would give me pleasure if, through your instrumentality, the attention of the clergy generally could be drawn to the necessity for adopting some ecclesiastical costume. To all who allow themselves to think upon the subject, several weighty and good reasons will present themselves, why a distinguishing dress should be employed. Having lately broached the question to several of my brethren in the ministry, of every shade of opinion in other matters, I find a feeling in favour of such a measure existing amongst them. If I might make a suggestion I should recommend the cassock and cap. Of course, if backed by the authority of our ecclesiastical superiors, we shall take this step under more favourable auspices; and we might expect, in consequence, an outward improvement, at least in some of that now not very numerous class who indulge in amusements altogether inconsistent with their sacred office. The 74th canon is grounded in wisdom, though perhaps in some particulars it descends to what now seems needless minuteness. I remain, Gentlemen, your well wisher,

CHARLES LUCAS REAY.

MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS.

WE propose to devote a series of papers to the investigation and illustration of the Monastic Institutions that existed in England: the subject we think will be an acceptable one to the readers of The Churchman. To the Christian and the scholar our theme will be alike

attractive; by the former it will be remembered that, however obscured by idolatry and superstition, the Christian religion was nurtured in its infancy in those establishments; and the scholar will be reminded, that all he possesses of classic lore was there preserved, and that the monkish chroniclers were the pioneers that cleared the ground and laid the foundation of that goodly structure of English history of which our country may well be proud.

We propose not to confine ourselves to the dry details of founders and benefactors-to the discipline of the cloister and the choir: but to lay before our readers sketches of the politics, manners, and interesting events of the times. There are few of those monasteries unconnected with the history, the revolutions of the period; few of their abbots or priors who have not been engaged, either in the internal administration of the country, or ambassadors to foreign courts. Canterbury had its Becket, Ely its Longchamp, Durham its sumptuous and warlike Anthony Beck, and the wild tales of the foundation of the last, has attracted the notice, and been illumined by the pen, of the Wizard of the North.

The splendid genius, joined to the patient research of a Whitaker, a Surtees, and a Rame, has been directed to the subject; and how nobly they have acquitted themselves in their task! for ourselveswe can boast of our kindred feeling with those great names-a sincere and ardent love of the subject; and a mass of materials, published and inedited, which makes compression our greatest difficulty, will, under the influence of that feeling, be ransacked to afford amusement, perhaps we may say instruction, to our readers.

E. BLAKE BEAL.

To the Secretary of the Committee of Management.

REV. SIR,-The plan of the new and enlarged series of The Churchman, which you have been so good as to transmit to me, is, I think, capable of being rendered eminently useful. Such a work, conducted on the real principles of our Reformed Anglo-Catholic Church, was certainly, in the present day, not a little wanted: and, so long as it faithfully adheres to those principles, I wish it all success. Should it suit your plan, I beg to offer, as my contribution, a series of Letters, addressed to yourself under the title of Provincial Letters.

The subject of them will be the principles of that school, which, from the corporate publication of the Tracts for the Times, may perhaps be the most conveniently called The Tractarian School; for, I think, you will agree with me in disliking the nickname, which, from the name of a personally most estimable individual, it has been attempted to impose upon our modern Tractarians.

In my evidential establishment of the systematic bearing of those principles, I shall certainly not confine myself to the Tracts for the Times. My business is, not only with the avowed publications of the Tractarians, but likewise with those of their associates and abettors and adherents. For, where I find Tractarian principles

inculcated and maintained, or where I find speculations advocated and defended which directly work to promote and aid the cause of Tractarianism: there, I conceive, I have a fair right to deem such maintainers and such advocates at least virtual Tractarians. Writers, therefore, of this description, will come within my plan: and, from the combined evidence which I have collected, I fear it would but too plainly appear; that, although I would not presume to impute MOTIVES to any person, yet the palpable PURPOSE and SYSTEM of modern Tractarianism is, to white-wash the Church of Rome and to blacken and vilify the Reformation.

This is a serious charge: nor should I have ventured to make it, had I not already the evidence collected in my hand.

My Letters will probably run to some fourteen or fifteen; they might easily have been extended to an almost indefinite length: but, when the key is furnished, it would be an insult to the English public to deem them incapable of using it, without myself standing perpetually at their elbow in the quality of a prompter. Nothing is requisite, save the construction of a key: and, if it be not found to answer every variation of lock, let it be thrown aside as an useless implement.

I purpose to transmit one of the Provincial Letters every month, should life and health be spared to a person who is rapidly approaching to the age of man.

The offer being made, its acceptance or rejection rests with yourself and your Committee of Management. I have the honour to be your humble servant,

Sherburn House, Dec. 5, 1840.

Review.

G. S. FABER.

Tracts of the Anglican Fathers. London: Painter. 1841. Of all the series of tracts ever put forth since tracts were invented, the present is most after our own heart. It cannot be too often repeated, nor can we sufficiently impress it on the minds of Churchmen, that the great spiritual revival, of which we are now enjoying the fruits, was not the work (as it is too often represented) of Dissenters. How often do we hear Churchmen, and even clergymen saying, that Dissenters have made our Church what it is-have stirred up her languid piety, and prompted her once faint efforts to more active exertions. On the contrary, though we are willing to admit that the Spirit of God was abundantly poured out upon the land, and that all the various schismatic bodies had a share of the blessed influence: yet we are also in a condition to prove that the first workings of that mighty lever took place within the pale of the Establishment. It was in a small college at Oxford, and among ordained priests, that Methodism took its rise; and Methodism was the fruitful source of much vital religion, though, alas! of great irregularity. To show how far the latter outbalanced the former-to point out, in fact, whether we should have been better without Me

thodism, and to what extent-makes no part of our present enquiry. We advert to the popular mistake here, because the series of tracts now announced, and more especially the volumes which are to appear in rapid succession, are admirably qualified to correct it. That our Church is now, and ever has been since the Reformation, pure in her doctrines and apostolic in her discipline, is a fact which, though tacitly acknowledged by all her members, is but partly believed. Its grounds are but partially understood; and not a few, even among the ordained members of the Church, entertain the notion that religion is something better now than it was in the days of the Reformers. Practically speaking, it is positive blasphemy to suppose that the light of the nineteenth century-this æra of conceit and affectation -can illumine the truths of religion. The Spirit of God operated in the dark ages on the minds of men in the same way, and reached them through the same channels as it does now; and it is one of the best signs of the times, that a belief in this important fact is gradually making its way. The writings of the Fathers are studied, because in the earliest ages of the Church a great degree of spiritual light, much power with God, strong faith, fervent hope, and catholic charity was granted to her; and her doctrines and discipline become, therefore, to us, a matter of deep interest and mighty moment. Hence we look with reverence to the writings of a Polycarp or an Ignatius, as witnesses of the truth, as showing us what was believed and done in their day; and surely we do not imagine that "we can understand the Scriptures better (as Isaac Taylor beautifully observes) than those who read them while as yet the ink of the apostolic autographs was scarcely dry." But while we willingly accord this honour to those who are our elder brethren in the Church, and while we attach this value to their testimony, we regard their opinions, being uninspired, as of no more value than our own. The opinion of Athanasius, for instance, we value no more highly than that of Arius; but when we find the Catholic Church, by a general council, adopting the interpretation of the one and condemning the heresy of the other, we are bound to place a great difference between the two; and we adhere to St. Athanasius not merely, or even chiefly, because his opinion agrees with our own and that of Arius differs from it, but because it is proved that what is now the sense of the Church universal upon one of the most, if not the most, important doctrine of Christianity, was also her sense in his day, and has been from the beginning.

In like manner do we regard the Reformers, whom the preface to the volume before us eloquently and appropriately calls "the second Fathers of our Church." To their opinions, as individuals, we attach no weight above those of others; but we look on them as bearing evidence to the doctrines taught by those who delivered us from the yoke of papal Rome; and we find that so far from rejecting, in the heat of controversy, the idea of ecclesiastical authority, they made a just distinction between Popery and Catholicity; and while they rejected all the evil, willingly retained all the good which they found in the Church of Rome. In fact, the works of our Reformers