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The votes recorded against Lord Palmerston's amendment must henceforth be taken,' as the 'Daily News' remarks, 'to represent the strength of that remnant of the landlord force who refuse to be marched through Coventry by Mr. Disraeli.'

THE CONVOCATION OF THE BRITISH CLERGY begins to wear very much the appearance of a fait accompli. It is true that Lord Derby explicitly declares, in reply to a memorial, "That her Majesty's Government have no intention of advising her Majesty to grant the royal sanction to any revival of the active functions of Convocation ;" and it is equally true that the Home Secretary has more recently declared— that the Government would interfere to prevent this ecclesiastical par· liament from enacting canons. Nevertheless, for the first time for nearly a hundred and fifty years, the Convocation exists as a deliberate assembly-a sort of quasi-Parliament, a Napoleonic intrigue, an embryo imperium in imperio. The instability of principle, and consequent vacillation of policy, which marks the present Government, is as conspicuous in this question as in that which more nearly touches the domestic comforts and commercial interests of the British people. On the one hand they fear to nurse into vital activity that ecclesiastical adder which has in all ages been the bane of states. On the other hand they cannot afford to brave the hostility of a large proportion of the clergy. Hence they let I dare not, wait upon I would,' and raise and flatter vain hopes in the minds of ambitious churchmen, which they well know that the fixed resolution of the British people will forbid them to fulfil. Meanwhile, to the surprise of the nation, the Convocation is once more a thing in esse, and great is the dexterity with which this body are quietly surveying and compassing their ground, lengthening their cords and strengthening their stakes. With a sinister wisdom, they are abstaining from all manifestations which might startle the sleepy protestantism of the laity; but meanwhile they are accustoming the public ear to the formal language of an ecclesiastical parliament. Distinct expressions of opinion are resolutely put down, and a wily tone of moderation is carefully maintained; and by this sleek demeanour a Romanizing clergy are seeking to circumvent the 'distant folds' whom they lull with their 'drowsy tinklings' into a forgetfulness of those names which are the watch-words of protestantism, and, if possible, of those principles which constitute the only antiseptic element which can save a nominal church from putrefaction. At least one member of Convocation has made his voice heard above the prudent hush' of his brethren, and declared that a revival of the active powers of such a body must necessarily lead to a severance of the Church from the State. Should

injustice of which we should remedy as soon as we can, and the folly of which we should attempt to correct, by reversing the system as soon as popular opinion would allow us. I think the right honorable gentleman's amendinent so much open to such an interpretation, that I, for one, could never consent to its substitution for the words proposed either by the honorable member for Wolverhampton, or by the right honorable member for Carlisle. The question, sir, is one between free trade and protection.'

this prediction prove true, we shall at length reverse our opinion as to the utility of a clerical convocation. The drainage of the ecclesiastical marsh may create a solid path, on which the forces of reform and religious freedom may advance to a final triumph.

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, after the death of Messrs. Calhoun and Clay, had no greater loss to apprehend than the decease of their much distinguished statesman, Daniel Webster. This great man, second perhaps only to General Washington in Transatlantic annals, has at length been removed from the scene of his wide influence by the hand of death. It may perhaps be said, without irreverence to his memory, that our own country has no great reason, on merely political grounds, to lament his decease. The cordial friendship, which will, we hope, ever subsist between these two nations, was certainly not much cemented by the politics of Mr. Webster. The personal circumstances of his decease, however, were of a highly interesting character, and forcibly recall our recollection to that almost sacred chamber in Holland House, in which Addison showed the circle of illustrious mourners 'how a Christian could die.' Almost coincidentally with this event, we have to notice, with very mingled feelings, the election of General Pierce, by the largest majority next to that which returned Washington himself to that presidential chair on which the deliverer of America laid down the sword, which most other conquerors have made the emblem of sovereignty. On the one hand, it is matter of deep regret that the new president is favourable to the continuance of American slavery; a fact which, under the present excitement of feeling, seems to bode ill for the domestic peace of the States. On the other hand, this country is to be congratulated on the fact, that a free trader occupies the temporary supremacy at Washington. This promises a closer commercial union between ourselves and our Transatlantic brethren; and we venture to predict that a reciprocity of commercial advantage will prove, far more than the spirit of chivalry mourned over by Mr. Burke, 'the cheap defence of nations.'

A VERY DECIDED ADVANCE HAS BEEN MADE IN THE AFFAIRS OF LONDON UNIVERSITY. It seems now out of all reasonable calculation that the claims of the Graduates to share in its internal government should not to a great extent be realized; and there is also great reason to hope that at least one of the now vacant seats in the House of Commons may be assigned to the University during the present session of Parliament. To take each of these points in order. Our readers will remember that last July we stated that a Select Committee of the Senate had reported in favour of Convocation being established, but that that report proposed to constitute it on an extremely narrow basis. Our views have received the concurrence of the Graduates (who complain that five-sevenths of their body will be permanently excluded from all share in the management of the University), and also of those colleges generally which had previously memorialized the Senate on the subject. The Graduates' Committee and these colleges have again addressed the Senate, expressing their great satisfaction that Convocation is to be established, but pointing

out very freely the defects of the present scheme. They have obtained the important accession of the University College Council, who up to this time have been rigidly neutral, but have now sent in a Remonstrance substantially identical with that of the Graduates' Committee. We have reason to know that these, and other representations, have satisfied some of the more influential members of the Senate that the scheme of the Select Committee must be reconsidered, and the right of admission to Convocation be much more widely extended. The Senate has fixed to-day (December 1) to consider the matter, and we hope, therefore, for a speedy settlement of this long dispute.

With respect to the Franchise, several Members of the Senate, and the principals and other authorities of the colleges, have formally associated themselves with the Graduates' Committee and the graduates generally, to press upon Parliament the claims of the University in this particular. Among the adherents we find the names of Lord Monteagle, Professor Empson, and Mr. Grote, of the University Senate, Lord Fortescue, Mr. John Taylor, Messrs. Field, Gibson, and others, of University College Council, and several of the professors. Sir James Graham and Mr. Gladstone have given assurances as decided and cordial as, in their respective positions, could be wished for. Among other M.P.'s, Sirs De Lacy Evans, James Duke, J. V. Shelley, and George Goodman, the Lord Mayor of London, Messrs. Thomas Barnes, James Bell, J. Cheetham, A. P. Collier, G. Hadfield, James Heywood, Dr. Layard, P. M Mahon, E. Miall, Monckton Milnes, A. Pellatt, S. M. Peto, and T. Thorneley, have committed themselves to the movement. Mr. Heywood presided on the 30th at a meeting of the Friends of the University at the Freemasons' Tavern, at which a Managing Committee was appointed, and a subscription opened, for the vigorous prosecution of the movement. We must refer our readers to the daily press for further information, until we are able to return to the subject.

THE FUNERAL OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON has crowned the climax of popular excitement, first occasioned by the decease of the Great Captain of the age, and subsequently stimulated by the highest efforts of the British press, and, we must add, of the British pulpit. Nations and

governments have contributed their homage to exalt the interment of the victor of Waterloo into a species of apotheosis. The spectacle of the 18th of November was perhaps one which the whole history of England cannot parallel. Every great institution of our country was represented by its most distinguished functionaries in that funereal triumph. An array of soldiery, which almost baffled calculation, attended the coffin of Wellington to its last resting-place, beside the ashes of Nelson. The continent of Europe delegated its magnates, glittering with the orders of military glory, to adorn the pomp of the procession. The wail of trumpets and the dirge of military bands, uttering the most inspired accents of the greatest musical composers, rent the air with harmonious lamentation. The united senate of the land assisted in all their state; and, by a delegated sovereignty, the 'king himself followed the bier. No element of sublimity and impressive

grandeur, no pensive accessory that could affect the heart, was wanting to impress an everlasting remembrance on this great historical event; and he who saw the corpse of the Great Duke descend into the grave in the centre of that august assembly to the cadences of Handel's 'melodious tears', and the more congenial thunder of British artillery, gazed at such a spectacle as the world is not likely to witness again for generations to come.

But no scenic splendour, no imperial pomp, and none of those more tender associations that address the heart, should seduce the Christian journalist from those views, which, while they are suggested by reason, are enforced and sanctified by revelation. It has been remarked, with as much truth as eloquence, by one of the most distinguished ministers of the metropolis, that the unseen spirit of the British people was the chief mourner in that grand ceremonial; and this is a happy suggestion, inasmuch as it beckons the mind away from obtrusive externals to the inner secrecy of spiritual realities. The most emphatic thing in the whole ceremony was the absence of the hero. The shrine was adorned with the offerings of opulence, and the trophies of empire, but the oracle was gone! Tacitus teaches us that it is for women to lament the dead, and for men to remember them. In that manly remembrance resides all the honour of obsequies, and surely it is more consistent alike with refined sentiment, with enlightened reason, and with Christian piety, to follow the departed great to the mysterious region into which they have passed with silent but hopeful sorrow, than to celebrate the penal ruin, and reduction to native dust, of that 'earthly house of their tabernacle' which they have quitted for ever, even with all the material glory which regal favour and national affluence can shower on a tomb.

Literary Jutelligence.

Just Published.

The Martyrs, Heroes, and Bards of the Scottish Covenant. By George Gilfillan, M.Ä.

Cyclopædia Bibliographica: a Library Manual of Theological and General Literature, &c. Part II. November.

Isis: an Egyptian Pilgrimage. By James Augustus St. John. 2 vols. A System of Modern Geography, including Sacred and Classical Geography, Problems on the use of the Globes, and Directions for the Construction of Maps, &c., &c., Edited by Hugo Reid.

The Dead in Christ; their State, Present and Future; with Reflections on the Death of a very dear Christian Friend. By John Brown, D.D.

Principles of Imitative Art. Four Lectures delivered before the Oxford Art Society. By George Butler, M.A.

The Pentateuch and its Assailants: a Refutation of the Objections of Modern Scepticism to the Pentateuch. By William T. Hamilton, D.D. Moral Portraits; or, Tests of Character. By Rev. W. Leask.

Christian Experience in its several Parts and Stages. By Rev. J. Leifchild, D.D.

INDEX.

VOL. IV. NEW SERIES.

Adshead, J., The Progress of Reli-
gious Sentiment, 109.

Anschar: a Story of the North, 244.
Aquilar, G., The Days of Bruce, 240.
Australia: its Capabilities and Pro-

spects, 389; extent and climate of
the colonies, 392; abundance of
employment, 393; caution neces-
sary in emigration, 394; reward
to the emigrant, 396; effect of the
gold discovery, 400; public works,
404; books on Australia, 405.

Baxter, W. E., The Tagus and the
Tiber, 501.

Baynes, T. S., An Essay on the New
Analytic of Logical Forms, 316,

329.

Bentley, J., Health made easy, 245.
Bibliotheca Sacra and American Bibli-

cal Repository, 626.

Binney, T., Formation of Character,
628.

Birks, T. R., Memoir of the Rev. Ed-

ward Bickersteth, 498.
Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws
of England, 186; antiquity of Tes
taments, 187; restrictions in be-
queathing landed property, 188;
power of bequeathing the whole
property, 189; state interference,
192; power of entailing, 193.
Blakey, R., Historical Sketch of Logic,
316, 321.

Book for the Sea Side, A, 377.

British Museum and the National
Gallery, 517; origin of the former,
518; confusion in the arrange-
ments, 520; necessity for a cata-
logue, 524; proposed new National

N. S.-VOL. IV.

Gallery, 526; alterations required
in the Museum, 528.
Brooke, R. S., Poems illustrative of
Grace, Creation, Suffering, 501.
Brown, Dr. J., Remarks on Certain
Statements by Alex. Haldane, Esq.,
629.

Brown, W. W., Three Years in Europe,
616.

Bungener, L. F., The History of the

Council of Trent, 704; demands
for the Council, 705; desire of
church-reform, 706; effect of ex-
tension of learning, 708; opposition
of the Popes to the Council, 709;
use of sacraments by the Church of
Rome, 713.

Carlen, E., Ivar; or, the Skjuts-Boy,
374.

Carlile, Dr., Manual of the Anatomy
and Physiology of the Human Mind,
316; classification of subject, 317;
subjects treated, 318.
Carpenter, R. L., A Monotesseron of
the Gospel Records of the Life of
Christ, 628.

Catharine Sinclair, 506.
Catlow, M. E., Popular Scripture
Zoology, 375.

Chalmers, Dr., Memoirs of, 293;
discord in the Scottish Estab-
lishment, 294; church-extension
in Scotland, 295; Dr. Chalmers
on religious establishments, 298;
decisions of law courts against the
General Assembly, 300; disrup-
tion in Scottish Church, 303; Dr
Chalmers' connexion with, 305.
Chamier, D., Memoir of, 493.

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