the colleges-and the senate has had no share in either of these results.

The foregoing statement furnishes evidence-if it be needed -not only of the inherent strength of a good cause, but of the necessity of a clear understanding of its principles. It is within our knowledge that, barely six months since, it was a question among the conductors of the movement whether it should not be altogether abandoned. We were ourselves present at the meeting at Radley's Hotel, at which its prosecution on the late extended basis was resolved on. But nothing could have been done without a clear perception of the principle at stake, and a firm determination to carry it through. Without this the fact (which actually happened) would have been impossible, of a conference at the same moment, in one room with Cardinal Wiseman, and in another with a member of the Protestant Alliance. It may be true-we believe it isthat Roman Catholics generally, in giving their confidence to avowed Dissenters on the common principle of religious freedom, have not the same clear perception of its true meaning, and are not prepared to follow it out to its legitimate results. There may be some among them--and we act upon the assumption that this also may be true-to whom the principle is but a convenient phrase, and who long for the liberty we are helping them to win, for our more easy oppression. To us our part is not the less clear. Obedience is ours: consequences are God's.

Since the above was in type, the Report of the Select Committee has appeared in the public journals. Although indicating, with sufficient distinctness, the effect of the operations we have detailed, it is not such as to render that detail unnecessary. It is based upon assumptions; and it contains recommendations to which we can by no means assent; and the senate has postponed its consideration until the new parliament meets. This latter circumstance, no doubt, is accounted for by the electioneering engagements of influential senators; but it is unfortunate that every opportunity has, in point of fact, been taken of not coming to any decision. We hope, however, that the graduates may at length be said to see land. The senate can hardly now refuse a convocation of some kind; and it is equally impossible they can abide by the constitution proposed by the Select Committee. Based upon the principle of selection, which we are willing to consider as admissible, it offends in all the qualities essential to its adoption. It represents the faculties in an inverse ratio to their relative numbers; and it gives about equal advantages to seniority, distinction, and the want of both. So ignorant were its framers of its working, that

their intention was to admit immediately into convocation upwards of 200 graduates; and it was only discovered in time to prevent the error appearing in the Report itself that they had provided for no more than 150. It was, unfortunately, easier to abandon the intention than to confess the error; the more especially as the senate had declined the proffered assistance of the graduates' committee. The Report enumerates several distinctions between London and the older Universities. Almost the only sound distinction mentioned, is that of its being open to all religious denominations. The recommendations are so felicitously wrong as to exclude in a body all graduates from the Roman-catholic colleges. Let it, therefore, be fully understood on all hands-among the graduates, colleges, and all friends of religious freedom-that the senate is not now to be suffered to withdraw its offer of a convocation; let this once be determined upon out of doors, and there will be little difficulty in arriving at a satisfactory conclusion as to what that convocation is to be.

A Commentary on the Book of Proverbs.

By Moses Stuart, late Professor of Sacred Literature in the Theological Seminary at Andover, Massachusetts. London: Delf and Trübner. 1852.

THIS last publication of the venerable professor bears the marks of a ripened judgment, and is the completest examination of the words of this book of Scripture that we have ever read. The writer purposely, and we think wisely, abstains from attempting to illustrate or apply these words

of wisdom; this he leaves to the ordinary ministrations of Christian pastors. For them his philological skill and experience have provided an invaluable help, of which we hope there are few who will not gladly and thankfully avail themselves. The meaning of the Hebrew text is clearly developed by applying to it the laws of the language and the usages of the people. We recommend the volume especially to the students of Hebrew. We look with strong desire to the cultivation of that study, carried out to the independent investigation of every portion of the Bible, as the successful antidote to the ignorant perversions and to the supercilious levity with which the Book of God has been so irreverently treated. How few there are who have given themselves to such an investigation! If men will content themselves with jangling about the Scriptures, instead of calmly ascertaining what they are, what they say, and what they mean, we may have controvertists, sceptics, and bigots in abundance; but we shall have no theologians worthy of the name. To such labours Professor Stuart devoted the greater part of a long and industrious life. If others have done more immediate good, there are not many whose productions will be found hereafter to have done so much for the permanent interests of revealed truth. We are far from representing Professor Stuart as a perfect guide to high, enlarged, comprehensive views of Scripture. All we value him for is the humbler, more laborious, yet not less requisite appliance of grammatical acumen and philological learning to the business of interpretation, which must underlie all safe and satisfactory developments of the principles involved in the sublime instructions of the sacred volume. Just interpretation of Scripture is related to theology as careful experiment and exact observation are to the physical sciences. Neither is complete in itself. Both are required in order to a true philosophy in physics, and a true theology in religion. The peculiarity of the book of Proverbs consists in its pre-eminently practical character; its enforcement of the demands of integrity, purity, and benevolence, and its elegant terseness, boundless variety, and poetical beauties, are subservient to its higher attributes as a guide to man amid the impulsive passions and the ever-changing temptations through which his path lies towards the eternal future. In the heat of the Arian controversy the orthodox party laid hold of the magnificent personification of wisdom in the eighth chapter, and the current view of expositors has recognised the identity of the wisdom' of the Proverbs, with the logos' of John. Professor Stuart objects to this view, and shows that no theological conclusion in support of the orthodox doctrine can be fairly drawn from the language. Though we are disposed to agree with him in this, so far as controversial discussion is concerned, we are not prepared to admit that there is no foreshadowing here of the grand truth revealed by the apostles that Christ is 'THE WISDOM of God.' This is precisely one of those instances, of which we believe there are many, in which a higher faculty than that of verbal criticism is needed for bringing out the grand truths of Scripture-those truths that are reached only by a mind which the spirit of devotion has exalted and purified, so that it can see beyond the minutie of language into the heights and depths of revelation as a whole.

6

A Manual of Geographical Science, Mathematical, Physical, Historical, and Descriptive. London: Parker. 1852.

THIS very comprehensive work is the production of four separate writers, whose names are well known--Professor O'Brien and Professor Ansted, of King's College, London, Colonel Jackson, late Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, and the Rev. C. G. Nicolay, Librarian of King's College. It is an attempt to avoid the minute details of former works, and so to arrange the information as to make it at once available alike to teachers and to learners. A hundred and forty-two very closely printed pages are filled by Professor O'Brien with a general statement of the Celestial Motions-the Celestial Sphere and its Circles-the Constellations-Astronomical Time-Problems-Optical Principles-and Instruments the object being not to give an outline of the whole science, but simply to afford the means of determining the relative position of places on the earth's surface. We regard the whole treatise, with its numerous and clear diagrams, as eminently fitted to the practical end which the author contemplates. Almost everything that can be said on the subject of globes and maps is lucidly condensed in Colonel Jackson's treatise of forty-one pages. Professor Ansted's classification of the topics belonging to Physical Geography is divided into three parts-1. The Earth's Surface, including its inorganic matter, its meteorology, the form and distribution of land, hydrology, and atmospheric and aqueous action; 2. The Structure of the Earth, combining the condition of the interior of the earth, igneous action, and aqueous action; 3. Organization-distribution of Vegetables-animals and organic remains-and ethnology. This, the largest portion of the work, is drawn up with great care, and exhibits in scientific order the leading facts. It occupies 220 closely printed pages. The remainder of the volume by Mr. Nicolay fills thirty-three similar pages, with his Theory of Description and Geographical Terminology.' It is divided into two chapters-the first embracing the position, extent, form, and natural productions of the earth; the second, treating of political geography, or the consequences of man's residence on the earth. The second part of the work of which this volume is the first, will contain The World as known to the Ancients,' considered topographically, and The World as known at the present time,' considered first as a whole, and then in its larger divisions and minuter subdivisions, natural and civil. The editor mentions some peculiarities of the Atlas attached to the work of which we shall be glad to give our report if it comes under our notice. From the contents of the present volume we have little doubt that the Manual of Geographical Science' will be an invaluable addition to our means of extending practical education on the soundest scientific principles.

The Lily of St. Paul's; a Romance of Old London. By the Author of 'Trevethlan. London: Smith, Elder and Co.

THE scene of this novel, as the title imports, is laid in London, and the period to which it pertains is the close of the reign of Edward III. It is written with considerable skill, is free from the moral blemishes which

defile the productions of our older novelists, and evinces a knowledge of the times, an historical appreciation of character, a masculine sense, and a power of graphic description which raises it vastly above the inanity of many modern fictions.

The work opens with a description of the appearance of Wycliffe before the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, in February, 1377, at the instance of Pope Gregory XI. The scene is vividly sketched so as to interest the reader very deeply, and introduces some of the leading personages of the narrative. The haughty bearing of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, between whom and Lord Percy the great reformer entered the cathedral of St. Paul's, the fierce altercation between Lancaster and Courtenay, the rage of the populace, the riot which ensued, and the generous heroism of Raymond Gaultier, are sketched with considerable power. With these are admirably contrasted the quiet character and home of Adam Tynwald, the bead-maker, whose devotion to his calling had been cherished at the sacrifice of sight, his beautiful and pure-minded daughter, Lilian, occasional glimpses of Wycliffe himself, and the foster son of Tynwald, around whose history and position so much mystery for a time lingered. We will not detail the course of the fiction; suffice it to say, that, while the evolution of the plot is skilful, individual characters are sketched with much vividness and reality. The habits of the times are also accurately noted. We are introduced to the pastimes of the day, behold alternately the mirth and the rage of the populace, learn something of city politics, see the same bad qualities as are now visible in the retainers of the great, and gain a clearer insight into the proud, defiant, haughty, yet generous character of Gaunt. The interest of the work is sustained to its close, which may be perused throughout without the most sensitive delicacy being wounded.

The Pictorial Family Bible. With copious Original Notes by John Kitto. 4to. Parts XXIV. and XXV.

The Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Poets, Philosophers, Statesmen, Divines, Painters, &c. With Biographies originally published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Imperial 8vo. Parts V. and VI. London: W. S. Orr and Co.

We are glad to report the steady progress of these reprints, the character and merits of which have been set forth on previous occasions. Amidst the many improvements of our day, few are so gratifying as the reduced price at which works of stirling value are now supplied. Until recently such works obtained only a very limited circulation. They were the luxury of a few, and were issued at a price which precluded the possibility of their being purchased by thousands who desired their perusal, and were competent to make good use of the treasures they contained. Such happily is the case no longer, as is shown by the works before us, and unless the rising generation be unfaithful to themselves, they must on this account greatly surpass their predecessors.