show how vulgar an error this is. We think less of our heroes than do the French, and less of our musicians than do the Germans. But we are as plentifully provided with both as our good friends who protest to the contrary, We only talk less about them. It could never be remarked of us as a Prussian student once said of his own country, that, "in Berlin, people talked only of Thalberg and God!". We have other ways of viewing religion and music, though we may be inferior in both, nevertheless, to those who view them differently. We fear we have hardly done Max Schlesinger's clever book justice, but that will be done to it by the public patronage; to that we commit it, only adding a word of praise to the ability of the accomplished translator, who handles our English as though he were to the matter born. There are occasional little expletives used which evidently do not fall on M. Wenckstern's ear as they do on those of most English people, but these we should be sorry to miss notwithstanding. They are as pleasant sauce to an exceedingly pleasant dish. J. D. RICHARD BAXTER'S PULPIT AT KIDDERMINSTER. THE character of this great theologian of the seventeenth century is sketched by Granger in his Biographical History of England with even more than his wonted skill. "Richard Baxter (he remarks) was a man famous for weakness of body and strength of mind; for having the strongest sense of religion himself, and exciting a sense of it in the thoughtless and profligate; for preaching more sermons, engaging in more controversies, and writing more books, than any other Nonconformist of his age. He spoke, disputed, and wrote with ease; and discovered the same intrepidity when he reproved Cromwell and expostulated with Charles II. as when he preached to a congregation of mechanics. His zeal for religion was extraordinary, but it seems never to have prompted him to faction, or carried him to enthusiasm. This champion of the Presbyterians* was the butt of men of every other religion, and of those who were of no religion at all. But this had very little effect upon him his presence and his firmness of mind on no occasion forsook him. He was just the same man be fore he went into a prison, while he was in it, and when he came out of it, and he maintained a uniformity of character to the last gasp of his life." It was in the year 1641, at the age of six-and-twenty, that Baxter commenced his ministry at Kidderminster. The Committee for Scandalous Ministers was at that time pursuing its inquiries, and the parishioners of Kidderminster memorialised it, stating that their Vicar was utterly insufficient, had been presented to the cure by a Papist, was unlearned, preached but once a quarter, and then so weakly as exposed him to laughter, and impressed them with the belief that he understood not the very substantial articles of Christianity; that he frequented alehouses, and had sometimes been drunk ; that he turned the Table altarwise, &c. &c. with more such as this. He had a Curate who bore no better character; and another at a chapel in the parish, who was many degrees worse. The Vicar, being conscious of his insufficiency, was induced to make terms with the Committee. He agreed Baxter did not, however, himself own to the description of a Presbyterian; but regarded it as a reproachful term, put upon himself and his friends by their opponents. "Baxter for Bishops!" said the brow-beating Jeffereys, when the Theologian was arraigned before him in the Court of Chancery, "that's a merry conceit indeed; turn to it, turn to it." Upon this Rotheram (one of Baxter's counsel) turned to a place where it is said that "great respect is due to those truly called to be Bishops among us," or to that purpose. "Aye," saith Jeffereys, the Chancellor, "this is your Presbyterian cant, truly called to be Bishops; that is, himself, and such rascals, called to be Bishops of Kidderminster, and other such places; Bishops set apart by such factious snivelling Presbyterians as himself,-a Kidderminster Bishop he means." F GENT. MAG. VOL. XLI. that, instead of his Curate in the town, he should allow 60l. per ann. to a Preacher, to be chosen by fourteen of the congregation; that he should not hinder this Preacher from preaching whenever he pleased; and that he himself should read Common Prayer, and do all else that was to be done: and so they preferred not their Petition against him, nor against his curates, but he kept his place, which was worth to him near 2007. per ann. allowing that 60%. out of it to their lecturer; and to perform this he gave a bond of 500l. The first Lecturer they thought of was Mr. Lapthorn, a preacher of some celebrity; but, he not being approved, they next resolved to invite Baxter from Bridgnorth, where he was then resident, and he was summoned by the Bailiff and feoffees to preach before them, in order to a full determination. My mind (he says) was much to the place as soon as it was described to me; because it was a full congregation, and most convenient temple; an ignorant, rude, and revelling people for the greater part, who had need of preaching; and yet had among them a small company of converts, who were humble, godly, and of good conversations, and not much hated by the rest, and therefore the fitter to assist their teacher; but, above all, because they had hardly ever had any lively, serious preaching among them. As soon as I came, and had preached one day, I was chosen nemine contradicente; for, though fourteen only had the power of choosing, they desired to please the rest. And thus I was brought, by the gracious providence of God, to that place which had the chiefest of my labours, and yielded me the greatest fruits of comfort. Baxter's first residence in Kidderminster was not, however, long undisturbed. On the breaking out of the civil war the Royalist party prevailed in the town, and, as Baxter was stigmatised as a Roundhead, he was glad to retire. He went to Gloucester, and afterwards to Coventry and elsewhere, as a chaplain to the army. Nor was it until some time after the wars had closed that he was able to return, having in the meantime lain ill for five months in the house of Lady Rous at Rous-Lench. When he did so, he found the vicarage had been sequestered, and he was urged to accept it; but this he refused, telling the magistrates and burgesses that, I preached before the Wars twice each Lord's Day; but after the war but once, and once every Thursday, besides occasional Sermons. Every Thursday evening my neighbours that were most desirous and had opportunity met at my house, and then one of them repeated the sermon, and afterwards they proposed what doubts any of them had about the sermon, or any other case of conscience, and I resolved their doubts and last of all I caused : sometimes one and sometimes another of them to pray (to exercise them), and sometimes I prayed with them myself, which, beside singing a psalm, was all they did. And once a week also some of the younger sort who were not fit to pray in so great an assembly met among a few more privately, when they spent three hours in prayer. Every Saturday night they met at some of their houses to repeat the sermon of the last Lord's Day, and to pray and prepare themselves for the following day. Once in a few weeks we had a Day of Humiliation on one occasion or other. The afternoons of Monday and Tuesday in every week he spent in visiting and privately catechising from house to house but for the further minutia of his ministry the reader must now be referred to his interesting autobiography, or to his book called "The Reformed Pastor." minated one of the King's Chaplains, At the Restoration, Baxter was nonolds, two other distinguished divines and together with Calamy and Reyof kindred sentiments, was offered a bi shopric. Reynolds became Bishop of Norwich; but Baxter and Calamy both pronounced their Nolo Episcopari in better fate than to retain his favourite right earnest. Baxter wished for no pulpit at Kidderminster : When I had refused a Bishoprick (he says) I did it on such reasons as offended not the Lord Chancellor (Clarendon); and therefore, instead of it, I presumed to crave his favour to restore me to preach to my people at Kidderminster again; from whence I had been cast out (when many hundreds of others were ejected) upon the restoration of all them that had been se questred. It was but a vicaridge, and the Vicar was a poor unlearned, ignorant, silly Reader, that little understood what Christianity and the articles of his creed did signify, but once a quarter he said something which he called a Sermon, which made him the pity or laughter of the people. This man being unable to preach himself, kept always a curate under him to preach.... My people were so dear to me, and I to them, that I would have been with them upon the lowest lawful terms. Some laughed at me for refusing a bishoprick, and petitioning to be a reading vicar's curate; but I had little hopes of so good a condition, at least for any considerable time. him. Lord Chancellor Clarendon endeavoured to effect Baxter's wishes; but the local influence of Sir Ralph Clare, who supported the old Vicar, and the disinclination of Dr. Morley, then Bishop of Worcester, prevailed against Sir Ralph Clare declared in the Bishop's chamber that Baxter would give the sacrament to none kneeling, and that of eighteen hundred communicants, there were not past six hundred that were for him, whilst the rest were for the Vicar. When the people at Kidderminster heard this, in a day's time they gathered the hands of sixteen hundred of the eighteen hundred communicants, and the rest were such as were from home. But all was in vain. The Bishop looked at Kidderminster as a factious, schismatical, Presbyterian people, that must be cured of their overvaluing of me, and then they would be cured of all the rest: whereas if he had lived with them the twentieth part so long as I had done, he would have known that they were neither Presbyterians, nor factious, nor schismatical, nor seditious; but a people that quietly followed their hard labour, and learned the holy Scriptures, and lived a holy blameless life, in humility and peace with all men, and never had a sect or separated party among them, but abhorred all factions and sidings in religion, and lived in love and Christian unity. On his last visit to Kidderminster Baxter preached twice or thrice, and then the old Vicar, under advice of his prompters, denied him the liberty of entering the pulpit any more. From that time until his death, nearly thirty years after, his preaching was confined to the meeting-houses of the Nonconformists, chiefly in and about the metropolis. Baxter s Pulpit is still preserved at Kidderminster, but no longer in the church. In his day it stood on the north side of the nave, against the second pillar from the east. But in 1786, the church was "repaired, repewed, and beautified," in the style of those good old times when, it being thought advisable to have a new pulpit built in a central situation, Baxter's old pulpit was condemned, and, together with other pieces of carved work, was offered for sale (!) by the then churchwardens, as old and useless church furniture. The churchmen of that day appear to have held the same opinions as their wardens; so the pulpit (with the exception of its pedestal) was purchased by the Unitarians of the place. Their successors have carefully preserved it, and it now stands in a room adjacent to their chapel. The pulpit is of oak: octagonal in its shape, and properly decorated with flowers and architectural ornaments, in the well-known style of the reign of James I. Gold letters, inserted in six of the panels, somewhat ostentatiously informed the congregation that— ALICE. DAWKX. WIDOW. GAVE. THIS. On the face of the pulpit, and immediately beneath the preacher's desk, is the text: PRAISE. THE. LORD. And round the sounding-board are the words: O.GIVE.THANKS. UNTO.THE. LORD. AND On the oak board at the back of the pulpit is the date: ANNO. 1621. surmounted by a projecting crown and cushion of bold workmanship-probably an addition after the Restoration. The mariner's compass is painted on the under-side of the soundingboard, and the entire pulpit bears manifest traces of having once been adorned with gold and colours. The octagonal pillar and pedestal on which the pulpit once stood now serve to support the floor of a bookseller's shop in the High-street. Within the room where the pulpit is now preserved is placed a folio copy of Baxter's Works in four volumes, and an engraving of "the reverend and learned Mr. Richard Baxter," taken from the original picture in the possession of Mr. Fawcett, formerly of Kidderminster. A handsomely carved chair, formerly the property of Bishop Hall, is also placed near to the pulpit. CAMBRIDGE IMPROVEMENTS, 1853. A VERY striking and extensive improvement has recently been effected in this town. About four years since eight houses on the western side of the Market Hill and in the adjacent streets were destroyed by fire. The Corporation promptly took advantage of this misfortune and obtained a local Act empowering them to purchase by compulsion the sites of these houses, and all the other property between the Market Hill and the eastern end of Great St. Mary's Church. Under this Act they have at length purchased twenty-four houses and sites of houses at an expense of about 50,000l. The whole space has been cleared, and the Market Place has been thereby more than doubled in size, and is now one of the largest in the kingdom. New and splendid views have been opened of Great St. Mary's, the Senate House, the University Library, and King's College Chapel, whilst the Market Hill makes a fine appearance from the open space near the Senate House. In effect, the Senate House Hill and the Market Hill now form one spacious area, having Great St. Mary's Church in the centre. The chancel of this church (which as been hitherto hidden from public view by old and mean houses,) greatly requires renovation. As, however, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College are patrons of the church in question, there can be little doubt that they will undertake the work with their accustomed liberality, and the Master's extensive knowledge of architecture affords a guarantee that what is done will be well done. The University will, it is expected, take the opportunity of getting rid of the offensive throne, pit, and galleries, and will fit up this fine church more in accordance with ecclesiastical usage. The Conduit, named after the cele brated carrier, Thomas Hobson, will probably be removed to a more central position on the Market Hill, if a larger and more ornamental structure be not substituted for it. The improvements on and near the Market Hill to which we have adverted are certain to lead, sooner or later, to the erection of a new, more spacious, and more commodious Guildhall. The present structure is of no great antiquity, but it is mean, ugly, quite inadequate to the increased and increasing wants of the community, and utterly unimprovable. There are certain negociations pending between the University and Town authorities for the establishment of more amicable relations between the two bodies; and if, as anticipated, the result should be a settlement of the long pending question as to the contributions of the University and Colleges to local burthens, no time will, we are assured, be lost in taking up the subject of a new Guildhall with that energy which must en sure success. The front of Trinity Hall, which was destroyed by fire a year or two since, has been rebuilt on a more extended and lofty plan, from the designs of A. Salvin, esq. who has also rebuilt the Master's Lodge; and is the architect of a new hall and other buildings at Caius College, of red brick, with stone dressings, in the later Tudor style. It is, we believe, intended to rebuild and enlarge this College towards Trinitystreet. If this be so, the buildings ought to be set back considerably, and we trust so opulent a society will not be satisfied with anything but stone for their principal front. A new and enlarged north aisle and porch have been added to St. Benedict's Church, by G. G. Scott, esq. and it is proposed to take part of the old churchyard (no longer used) to enlarge the adjacent streets. |