style, we find a minuteness of examination, a clearness of exposition, a sifting of evidence so persevering, and so large an acquaintance with English theological writers, that we are bound to represent it as a valuable addition to the evangelical literature of our language. There are few examples of greater concentration of thought, through nearly a lifetime, on one subject; and we have a confident expectation that labour so well employed has not been thrown away, but will be crowned with good fruit in time to come.

A Monotesseron on the Gospel Records of the Life of Christ. Combined in one narrative, on the basis of Dr. Carpenter's Apostolic History.' Edited by Russel Lant Carpenter, B.A. London: Whitfield. 1851. THIS is a laudable and successful attempt to embody in a compendious and cheap form, for the use of private readers and the conductors of B.be classes, the substance of many costly volumes. The introduction relates the circumstances connected with the birth and childhood of John the Baptist and of Jesus Christ. The records of Christ's ministry embrace ten parts. The narrative is given in the words of the Evangelists, but not according to the received version. The text of Griesbach is followed, and the translation of Dr. Carpenter is remarkably literal. In more than 1600 portions, there are not more than thirty cases in which a word is supplied to connect the parts, and the words supplied are printed in italics. Occasionally a various rendering, or a verbal explanation, is given in the margin. These notes are numerous, and contain nothing sectarian or controversial. The volume is accompanied with a convenient map. By referring to a brief index at the end, the reader can easily find any passage, according to its proper place in the separate gospels. We are much pleased with the work, and wish that it may be extensively used.

Formation of Character. A Book for Young Men: being a Companion to Maidens and Mothers. By the Rev. Thos. Binney. London: James Paul. THE title-page of this work implies that it is published by Mr. Binney, which is not the case. He has nothing to do with it; has not given the title; and can scarcely be expected even to approve of the publication, as by him, of discourses taken in short-hand, and not revised by the preacher. As a matter of literary justice to a distinguished preacher and author, we protest against such a proceeding, and abstain from any further notice of a work produced in such a way.

The Messenger of Mercy; or, Words of Warning addressed to the Guig. London Partridge and Oakey.

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THIS publication consists of four numbers, and was intended to be continuous; but the editor states that his multifarious engagements compel him to terminate his little work, which he earnestly hopes may be resumed by others. It may be recommended as forming thus far a kind of enlarged tract, composed chiefly of extracts from the pungent appeals of several good writers to the unconverted. It is calculated to benefit the multitudes who unhappily belong to this class, and we therefore wish it a wide circalation.

Remarks on Certain Statements by Alexander Haldane, Esq., in his Memoirs of Robert Haldane, Esq. of Airthrey, and his brother James Haldane.' By John Brown, D.D., professor of Exegetical Theology to the United Presbyterian Church. 8vo. pp. 16. Edinburgh: W. Oliphant and Sons.

WE referred casually to this pamphlet in the review of Mr. Haldane's volume, in our journal for September last. Since then, we have read it attentively, and in doing so, have arrived at a more positive judgment than was expressed in our former article. While entertaining the most profound respect for Dr. John Brown, we should hesitate to recur again to the subject in dispute between him and Mr. Alexander Haldane, did we not feel that it was due to his character, and to the grave interests of truth, that we should do so. A clearer case of mis-statement, both as it respects opinion and fact, was never submitted to public judgment, and we hasten, therefore, to avow our entire and most cordial concurrence with Dr. Brown in the matter which has occasioned his pamphlet. Referring to the Memoirs' of the Messrs. Haldane, he says: Without adverting to minor mistakes, there are two mis-statementsthe one in reference to the opinions said to have been maintained by me, and the other, in reference to certain effects said to have been produced by the controversy,-which are of such a nature, that I feel that it is doing the author an act of kindness, as well as myself an act of justice, to furnish the means of correcting gross, though it may be unintentional, misrepresentation, and of repairing serious, though it may be unintentional, injury.' On the first of these points Dr. Brown's vindication is complete. Indeed, nothing short of the hasty and uncandid spirit of a heated polemic could have hazarded the charge. Mr. Robert Haldane was a noble man, but in his zeal for what he deemed truth, he was not always mindful of the charity which 'thinketh no evil.' Like other polemics, he was too apt to attribute to an opponent the conclusions which he drew from the opinions avowed. The biographer would have done well to acknowledge the injustice perpetrated in this case, and all christian men would have commended the highmindedness of the act.

But it is more difficult to account for the course pursued on the question of fact. We cannot acquit Mr. Alexander Haldane on this count. He has clearly been guilty of gross neglect in the examination of evidence pertaining to a point on which he pronounces a decided opinion. What renders this the more surprising is, that the evidence was easily accessible; nay, was so public and glaring, that it is difficult to understand how it could be overlooked. The facts are simply these :-Dr. John Brown having avowed, in 1837, his intention of submitting to any penalty rather than pay the Annuity-Tax levied for the support of the established clergy, Mr. Robert Haldane addressed an expostulatory letter to him through the medium of one of the Edinburgh newspapers. Dr. Brown subsequently published his celebrated treatise on The Law of Christ respecting Civil Obedience,' to which Mr. Haldane replied in eleven letters- Until,' says his biographer, 'the judgment of the public seemed so entirely to go along with his argument, that the agitation against the

tax was abandoned.' In support of this statement, the Morning Herald of December 3rd, 1840 is quoted, which states that, immediately after the publication of Mr. Haldane's letters, the number of recusants was reduced from 1961 to 15; and such,' says the authority adduced, was the revolution caused in the public mind, that the tax was afterwards collected without difficulty.' Now, here is a plain matter of fact, on which it ought not to be-and we are bold to say, it is not-difficult to ascertain the truth. The facts of the case are recent and public; they have been spoken to before parliamentary committees, and may be decided on the evidence of blue books. Dr. Brown briefly adduces this evidence, and then sums up his case in the following most significant inquiry,—' Is it possible to reconcile these statements-first, that immediately on the publication of Mr. Haldane's letters, the agitation was abandoned, and the tax afterwards collected without difficulty; and second, that the arrears, which in 1837 were about £700, had in 1850 mounted up to nearly £29,000; and that, in the summer of 1840, the tax could not be got by the ordinary methods of solicitation, poinding, and imprisonment, and THE MILITARY WERE RESORTED TO?' We need add nothing. Never was a mis-statement more triumphantly demolished, and we hope that Mr. A. Haldane, in the event of a second edition of his work, will clear himself from suspicion by doing justice to Dr. Brown. The temper of Dr. Brown's pamphlet is admirable. He is content to vindicate himself and the truth with which he is identified, leaving it to his assailant to judge what he ought to do in the circumstances into which he has brought himself.'

Leila Ada, the Jewish Convert.
W. Trenery Heighway.

An Authentic Memoir. By Osborn London: Partridge and Oakey.

HERE is a romance of real life. For some time during the perusal, we were strongly tempted to think it was a fictitious narrative, on account of the concealment of names and dates, and the novel-like manner of its commencement. But we have been convinced it is no fiction, and the authentication on the title-page is even verified by the character of the portrait prefixed, in connexion with the religious and literary fragments of the youthful subject of the story. The incidents are few, but the narrative is one of thrilling interest. So beautiful an exhibition of christian principle is not often seen; nor, indeed, is there often a combination of such circumstances to furnish the opportunity of its display.

The heroine was the daughter of a wealthy Jew, living in Cornwall. She was highly educated, and could speak several languages. As a Jewess, she was exceedingly tenacious of her religion; but after studying the Scriptures of the Old Testament, she resolved to read the New, notwithstanding the curse which rested on such a proceeding. Conviction soon ensued, that she knew not the way of salvation; and the light began to dawn upon her, and render her at once uneasy and joyous during a long journey with her father through Switzerland, Italy, Greece, and the Holy Land. On her return, she discovered a

chapel in a small village near her residence, to which she paid secret visits, and there cherished the saving knowledge of Christ which she had obtained. But how was this to be disclosed to a father who loved her with the utmost paternal tenderness, but equally hated the christianity she had adopted? It was, however, done amidst tears and severe rebukes-the tears of the martyr, and the rebukes of the prejudiced Jew. Dreadful in all respects was the crisis, continuing through many days. She was dismissed from home to an uncle, where her difficulties increased. An assembly of rabbies pronounced their characteristic curses on her, and her father, if he should come near her, or have anything further to do with her. The affection of the father, however, triumphed over the prejudices of the nation and of his own heart. There was a reaction. She was recalled in resentment of the indignities she had suffered, and was permitted to be a Christian. But, alas! her sufferings and anxieties had destroyed her constitution. Her dying request to her father was, that he would read the New Testament, and what was the joy of that moment when he replied, 'My dear, I have begun to read it. I have seen that your religion must be true. I never expected to witness a death like yours, my daughter. I have begun to pray; you pray too, that God would help me to follow you to heaven. I believe, my dear; I confess to you and all present that I believe in Jesus!' On her tomb were inscribed these words: This testimony (alluding to what was before said) is written by her father; who, to all eternity, will praise God for such a gift; he being, through her instrumentality, converted from the darkness of Judaism to the faith of the Gospel of Christ.'

The Analysis of Sentences explained and systematized, after the plan of Becker's German Grammar. By J. D. Morell, A.M., author of 'An Historical and Critical View of the Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nineteenth Century,' &c. London: Theobald.

THIS is a very useful grammatical compendium-the evident fruit both of study and experience. It is divided into three parts, comprising:-1. The parts of sentences; 2. The different kinds of sentences; and 3. The logical analysis of sentences. The reader will form a good idea of the work if we allow the writer to speak for himself, by giving a short extract from the preface. The method of analysis I have adopted is that which has been applied to the German language with so much advantage by Dr. Karl Ferdinand Becker. Since the publication of his celebrated grammar in Germany, every enlightened teacher in that country has seen the advantage of proceeding upon the principles there inculcated. In addition to this, however, I have also compared the plans of several other schoolgrammars, particularly that by Dr. Heussler, of Basel, which, though based entirely on Becker's principles, shows many excellences of its own in point of concentration and arrangement.

'These, then, are the literary authorities I have followed in reference to the method of analysis. What I have done over and above this is chiefly to adapt the method to the usages of our own tongue; to furnish it with examples in the English idiom; and to remodel the whole form in which

the subject is presented, so as to make it as accessible as possible to the youth of our own country.

The chief advantage I look for from pursuing grammar on these principles is to show the folly, in education, of putting etymology over the head of syntax, or of inculcating the mere study of individual words and their structure, in preference to the investigation of language as the complex organ of human thought. I have long been convinced that the proper study of language is the preparatory discipline for all abstract thinking, and that if the intellect is to be strengthened in this direction, we must begin the process here.'-Pref., p. v.

Modern Poets and Poetry of Spain. By James Kennedy, Esq., Her Britannic Majesty's Judge in the Mixed Court of Justice at the Havana. London: Longman and Co.

IF every judge or other public functionary in the service of the state in foreign countries, would devote some of that leisure which even the busiest life affords, in a manner similar to that which was adopted by Mr. Kennedy, the cause of literature would be greatly advanced. It is much better to study the language of a people than merely to mingle in their amusements; and thus to cultivate rather than to dissipate the mind. How much more satisfactory the reflection that something has been done, or at least zealously attempted, to promote one's own improvement, and to contribute to the general stock of knowledge, than that days of professional duty have been simply filled up by hours of gaiety or of slothful indulgence. Mr. Kennedy has certainly earned this praise; and though the result is not all we could wish, inasmuch as he has not always selected for his literary promenades the very highest lands of Parnassus, yet many may be thankful for the degree of intercourse to which he introduces them with some of the modern poets of Spain. Few persons,' he remarks—and it is a fair and candid confession-going abroad for a short period, or for a specific purpose, could be expected to acquire such an intimate knowledge of the literature of any country as to be able to render a satisfactory account of it. Where, however, any one had the means and the leisure to do so, that seemed to me the task most worthy for him to undertake.'

Accordingly, Mr. Kennedy set about acquiring the Spanish language, and very soon began translating its productions as a means of accurate knowledge. He was especially desirous of furnishing a comprehensive view of Modern Spanish Poetry,' and thus completing the representations of Spanish society and manners given by other writers. The work embraces two objects; first, the communication of critical and biographical notices of the principal modern poets; and secondly, the translation into English verse of the most favourable specimens of their productions, that the English reader may form some idea of their comparative merits.

Of the twelve distinguished poets of whom we have an account, and from whose writings extracts are made, we have Spanish authority for saying that Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos is the most eminent. He, like several others of the poetic community of Spain, had noble family con