The Welshman

UNIVERSITY FOR WALES. TO THE EDITOR OF THE "WELSHMAN." SIR.-Some weeks ago there appeared in your journal a letter from the Secretary of the Welsh University, inviting intending students to communicate with him. I do not know what may have been the result of that invitation, but I have heard a wish ex. pressed by many to see a prospectus of the College of which, possibly, they may become members. May I, therefore, request the favour of your pub- lishing this letter, in the hope it may induce the authorities to advertise their scheme. The public want information on the following points:—The length and division of the academical year. The period of residence required before graduating The names of the proposed Professors, with a brief statement of their respective qualifications. What discipline is to be enforced. And above all, the estimated expense. I feel sure that if the country is satisfied on these, particularly the qualifications of the Professors, and the reasonableness of the expense, the time will soon arrive when the University for Wales has realized the hopes of its most sanguine supporters. 1 remain, sir. Yours obediently, Oct. 11th. ENQUIREE.

THREE ASPECTS OF MODERN RELIGION. Archbishop Manning, Dr Cumming, and Father Hyacinthe have lately been directing the attention of the world to three aspects of modern religion which are worth study on account of the light they throw on different shades of human weeakness. ARCHBISHOP MANNING delivered a discourse the other day at Kensington which contained the following passage What was the meaning of modern civilization ? The state of poli- tical seciety founded upon divorce, secular education, infinite divisions, and contradictions in matters of religion, and the absolute renunciation of the supreme authority of the Christian Church. Could it, then, be matter of wonder that when the Roman Pontiff published the Syllabus all those who were in love with modern civilization should have risen in uproar against it ? Or could it be wondered that when the world, with great courtesy sometimes, with great superciliousness at anothor time, and great menance always, invites the Roman Pontiff to reconcile himself to Liberalism, progress, and modern civilization, he should say, "No I will not and I cannot. Your progress means divorce I maintain Christian marriage. Your progress means secular education I maintain that education is intrin- sically and necessarily Christian. You maintain that it is a good thing that men should should think as they like, talk as they like, preach as they like, and propa- gate what errors they please. I say that it is sowing error broadcast over the world. You say I have no authority over the Christian World, that I am not the vicar of the Good Shepherd, that I am not the supreme interpreter of the Christian Faith. I am all these. You ask me to abdicate, to renounce my supreme authority. You tell me I ought to submit to the civil power, that I am the subject of the King of Italy, and from him I am to receive instructions as to the way I should exercise the civil power. I say I am liberated from all civil subjection, that my Lord made me the subject of no one on earth, king or otherwise, that in His right I am sovereign. I acknowledge no civil superior, I am the subject of no prince, and I claim more than this-I claim to be the Supreme Judge and director of the consciences of men -of the peasant that tills the field and the prince that sits on the throne- of the household that lives in the shade of privacy and the Legislature that makes laws for kingdoms— I am the sole last Supreme Judge of what is right and wrong. This is certainly plain speaking, and we can quite understand that those who th'nk that clearness is identical with strength because it is an element of strength may go into ecstasies over its vigour and logic. To us it appears to be nothing but arrogant and spasmodic weakness desperately attempting to get rid of its difficulties by making assertions so monstrous that their very enormity in a certain way protects them and their author from discussion. When Dr Manning tells us that the Pope is a God upon earth, the last sole supreme judge of what is right and wrong," the supreme director of the conscience of men, the abso- lute moral monarch of the world, he acts as an insolvent would act who attempted to escape from his duns by denying as a general proposition the liability of men to pay their debts, and the truth of the arithmetical principles by which his own insolvency was proved. You tell me that twice two make four, but I tell you that twice two make five. You tell me that if a man borrows he must pay, but I tell you that this is a vulgar error, and that I for one need not and will not pay; for I am the supreme judge over arithmetic, and over the whole law relating to contracts. A man who talked thus would no doubt get the advantage of freeing him- self from the importunity of argument, for no one would condescend to argue with him except through the medium of a sheriff's officer. This rough test, however, is not always available. When a man makes assertions about things beyond the reach of human experience he is safe from positive refutation, and he knows it. If Archbishop Manning told us what is going on in Saturn no one could distinctly prove that he was wrong, because no one had ever been in Saturn to see, and some weak minds might admire his logic and courage in making the assertion and acting upon it but reasonable men would feel that to make positive assertions on matters of which you know nothing, or at least do not prove that you know anything more than your neighbours, is merely one of the million evasions by which people attempt to escape the honest confession of ignorance and the pain of doubt. No one can posi- tively affirm that there is not an invisible power which in a future state will punish those who upon earth re- fused. to^'d be ruled by the Pope, or those who refused to be guide by Mahomet or by Mr Spurgeon. It is no less true that no one can disprove the asser- tion that those who have been vaccinated will possess in the next world a vast advantage over those who have not. Any one who has sufficient self-confidence can say anything about the world be- yond the grave but rational men pay no attention to what they say unless they prove it, and inasmuch as Dr. Manning appers, as far as we understand him, to teach not only that the Pope and his agents are the moral sovereigns of the human race, but that this is the first principle of all theology and all morals, upon -I-- n t and bv th- 1;?cht of which thu'-st (ii ?t 1) pereelveci, Te and ?ey ap¥ to us to be precisely in the position of people who choose to make any other perfectly fanciful and arbi- trary statement about matters of which they are just as ignorant as the rest of the world. They are, in plain language, audacious quacks professing to be in posstssion of miraculous powers for the existence of which any- where there is no warrant whatever except their own word. Two remarks, however, may be made in addition to this, upon Dr. Manning's theory. In the first place, was there ever so false a description of modern society as that which he gives in the beginning of the passage which we have quoted ? Modern civilization," he tells us, is a state of political society founded upon divorce, secular education, infinite divisions, and condradictions in matters of religion, and the absolute renunciation of the supreme authority of the Christian Church." Was there ever a more monstrous calumny ? Divorce, secu- lar education, and religious doubt, says the Archbishop, are the" foundations" of moral civilization. It is not true. Divorce is a remedy for an evil. Secular educa- tion and religious doubt are provisional remedies for evils introduced by priests and theologians extreme confidence in the truth of false or doubtful assertions. The problem which modern civilization is trying to work out is the promotion of human happiness by good institutions founded on a knowledge of truth. It is no more founded on divorce than it is founded on adultery. It has to recognize the fact that people at times break their marriage vows, and by that great sin turn the holiest and best of human institutions into a hideous slavery. How is it to deal with that fact ? Is it to chain a man for life to the woman who has dishonoured him, or a woman to the man who has outraged and be- trayed her ? Modern civilization refuses to do this. It permits divorce in certain cases, not because it repudiates marriago, but because it wishes to make marriage answer its purpose and this is called founding society on divorce. Nor again is modern civilization founded on secular education and religious doubt. No doubt it is gradually coming to see that the religion taught by Archbishop Manning's view of religion is false, and that in consequence of the non- sense for which he and his predecessors are responsible the natural difficulties which surround the subject have been artificially converted into a maze of bewildering and mischievous nonsense but no one denies that the knowledge of religious truth would be of all blessings the greatest, or that the influence of that knowledge on education in particular would be unspeakably beneficial. How is truth to be attained on this subject? Modern civilization thinks, we rejoice to say, that it is to be found by honest inquiry as far as it is accessible at all, and not by listening to the oracles of people who are no wiser than their neighbours, and differ from them only by the monstrous demands which they make upon credulity. Modern civilization is not founded upon religious doubt. It is founded upon the doctrine that rational inquiry is the only road to truth in religion and that principle does lead, and will lead more and more, to the conclusion that the priests whom Arch- bishop Manning calls the Christian Church are entitled to no greater attention than any other men. The second remark upon Archbishop Manning's theory is that a convert's zeal is apt to overrun itself. He must be very bold, or else he must regard ordinary Protestants as densely ignorant, when he puts forward the doctrine of the absolute monarchy of the Pope as the creed of the Roman Catholic Church. If this doctrine is true at all, it must, one would say, be the cardinal article of the Christian faith, for it is certainly used by Archbishop Manning as the foundation of the rest. But it is notorious that it has been denied by some of the greatest of Roman Catholic writes. The following are the words of the fourth proposition of the famous Galli can declaration of 1682:—"In fidei quoque disputationibus praecipuas summi Pontificis esse partes ejusque decreta ad omnes et singulas ecclesias pertinere, nec tamcn irreformabile esse judicium nisi ecclcsia consensus aecesserit. These phrases may sound harmless and modest, but to understand their force Bossuet's defence of them should be read. Several successive chapters of the "Defensio Declarationis CIeri Gallicani" are filled with proofs of the errors of Popes. Chap. 33, for instance, tells us the history of Liberius and his Arianism Liberius nec ipse dubitavit datis feedissimis ac miserabilibus literis cum omnibus Arianis communicare," Desperate efforts, says Bossuet in the next chapter, were made by Bellarmine and Baronius to prove that Liberius bad not been guilty of heresy, but after replying to their arguments he remarks, Has quidem cavillationes sat scio viros graves etaBquos facile contempturos et tamen ad'ersarii ad htec minuta et futilia sua subtilitate nos redigunt The 35th chapter relates how Zosimus, a Pope, approved the heretical opinions of Caelestius, a Pelasgian, in the teeth of the judgment of Pope Innocent, his predecessor. Further on we are told how Stephen II. gave opinions which no one can defe do, h b.. nO One can defend" on the subject of marriage how st reg y 11. sanctioned bigamy under certain circum- stances bow Nicolas I. erred about baptism. As for Gregory VII. and his successors, liquido demonstravi- mus, says Bossuet, evangelicee veritati et antiquis- simaj traditioni repugnasse cum reges deponere aggressi sunt." Ha alleges many other cases of error on the part of Popes to which we need not refer. If Bossuet had been an obscure person, or the Church of France an unimportant body, if the matters to which we have refer- red were not what lawyers would describe as common learning. Archbishop Manning's line would be intelligi- ble but, as things actually stand, it does seem to us that human audacity cannot well go further than he carries it Here is a man who dares to ask the world to believe that he has become a part of an incarnation of the Holy Ghost (for that is the position which he claims for the Roman Catholic clergy in so many words in a book called the Temporal Mission of the Holy Ghost ), and that the man who put him in that position is him- self a God upon earth, the Supreme JudgE; of right and wrong when he himself proved his FA J LJ T changing his religion in mature life; where his idol and his idol's predecessors have never yet dared to claim the position which he alleges to be theirs and when the most illustrious branch of the Church to which he belongs, and the greatest writer which that branch of the Church ever produced, condemned and refuted the opinion which he holds when it was put forward by others on behalf of the Popes. DR. CUMMING. We made some remarks on Thursday upon Archbishop Mannings' pretensions on his own behalf and on be- half of the Pope whom he serves. We propose on the present occasion to say something of another person who illustrates a different side of the present state of religious feeling. Dr Cumming, who has been so much before the world of late, presents a strange and mortifying contrast to Archbishop Manning. The Archbishop, at all events, is a gentleman and a scholar, and, wild and monstrous as his pretensions appear to us to be, he seldom if ever is guilty in expressing them of those faults of taste which are common in popular Protestant theologians, and which display an in- curable flippancy, coarseness, and vulgarity of mind very suggestive of moral defects, and in themselves amounting, as it appears to us, to something of the sort. These faults are displayed in their fullest development by Dr Cumming. It would, we think, be difficult for any man to have made such an exhibition of himself and of the cause which he injures by his advocacy as he has been making for many weeks past. For some reason or other, perhaps from a certain con- geniality of temper, he has always been greatly favoured by the Times, which at last, indeed, has come to be infected by his peculiar style. With the help of this powerful auxiliary, he has for several weeks past been swaggering before mankind at large, showing off second-hand and second-rate learning, challenging the Pope to fight, and holding himself out to to the world as the representative and champion of Protestantism in the manner of a cheap Jack at a country fair. Here am r. John Cumn.ing, the real Protestant Hero. Will you, Holy Father, give me a hearing as the representa- tive of the Protestant world P Archbishop Manning, will the Pope burn me, like John Huss, if I go to Home next winter ? Gentlemen and ladies of the Protestant public, please to observe my ecclesiastical Latin See bow civil I am to these dignitaries, chaffing them with elegant freedom, and showing you all the time how completely I am their master at all possible weapons. Could you wish for a more perfect representative of the Protestant faith than I am ? Has Protestantism any- where a writer so elegant, so profound, so amusing on great subjects ? Now when a man puts himself for- ward as the representative of a great cause it is natural to inquire a little into his qualifications, and as we are not disposed to accept Dr Cumming as the representa- tive of anything whatever except the coarsest form of English religios ty, we propose to give a few illustra- tions of his claims to the position into which he has gratuitously puahed himself forward. The charges we are about to make against his pretensions are not now made for the first time. They are brought together from articles published between 1855 and 1860 in the Saturday Review but we vouch for their correctness, and challenge disproof of them. 1. A good many years ago Dr Cumming published a book caUed "Apocalyptic Sketches." It was a mere abridgment of Mr E. B. Elliott's Horae Apocalypticse." It reproduced much cf the language and many of the quotations of that writer, without any other acknow- ledgment than a general and very impudent declaration in the first page of the book that he had little to say which was original, and that he would If eg and borrow from Mr Elliott all that he could." Under the cover of this, and with no authority from Mr Elliott, he abridged chapter after chapter of the Horse Apocalypticse," adopting even the quotations from the Bible, and referring here and there to Mr Elliott as one of several authorities. By this means he compressed Mr Elliott's four costly volumes into one small volume, many thousand copies of which were sold for his own benefit. Being charged with this by the Saturday ,Affit,w in June, 1856. he wrote a letter to that journal in Febru?? 1857, in which he denied that the book was writt t,r his own profit, inasmuch as the sum given for copyright went to the repairs of the Scotch Church, which is public property vested in trustees," and from officiating in which Dr Cumming, we presume, derives part of his income. H'» answer to rest r ?-iy or the iyaru/itey Review, to which, so far as we know, be made no rejoinder, are too long to quote here, but may be easily consulted by any one who cares to do so. 2. He taught in the same Apocalyptic Sketches" that since the year 1790 the Roman Catholic power bad been advancing. Thus he says:—"I believe the Roman Catholic Church is doomed to reach a prodigious but a very shoit ascendency. I believe she will set her throne among the stars, that the stroke which precipi- pates her to hell may be only the more terrific and destructive." In a subsequent publication, called The End," he argued elaborately to show that Romanism bad diminished since the French Revolution. In the "Apocalyptic Sketches" he says, "America is overrun with Popish priests. In that country 1 useyism and Popery are rampant, so much so that 1 see in it the workings of a spirit that is supernatural. in The End he argues that Popery is tailing in America. 3. In his various works there occur the following proofs of gross ignorance of matters with which he claimed to be familiar. In The End he says Unpolite literally means living out of the city." Every one who knows Latin ought to know that un- polite means unpolished. Commenting on the verse, This generation shall not pass away," &c., he says, A generation in the sense of an existing people of thirty years was not known to the ancients." Being re- ferred by the Saturday Rtvinv to passages of Homer and Herodotus, one of which expressly says, "Three generations of men are a hundred Jears," Dr Cumming observed in a later work, called "The Great Tribula- tion," in reference to the same text, that gcnca is sed occasionally by classical writers in the sense in question, but always in Hellenistic Greek to mean a race, a nationality, a class." The Saturday Review hereupon referred Dr Cumming to Matt. i., 17 "All the genera- tions from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, &c. We never heard of any answer to this. Here is another passage: "Sebastopol the august city. If its ancient spelling was, as I believe, Sebastea- pol, my derivation seems most probably the correct one." This combines ignorance of Greak with igno- rance of modern history. Sebastopol was founded by the Empress Catherine in libU on the site of a village called Aktiar. Its name was an obvious allusion to the Russian plan of reviving the old Eastern Empire. Again "Nothing is more usual than to call a people by the name of the river on whose banks their chief capital is built. The Saracens, after their first irruption ceased, settled finally in Bagdad, on the Euphrates," "These Saracens settled in Bagdad, on the banks of the Euphrates, and from that \ery spot—Bagdad, on the Euphrates-tbe Turks," &c. His object was to show that the drying up of the Euphrates is a pro- phetical description of the fall of the Turkish power. Bagdad is on the Eastern bank of the Tigris, and not on the Euphrates at all. It is 200 miles above the junction between the two rivers. In the "Apocalyptic Sketches," Dr Cumming says that Napoleon's celebrated codes" were promulgated between 1789 and 1793. Napoleon was hardly known at all till after 1793, and Code Napolean was not bc"un till about ten years afterwards. In a book called The Great Tribulation," be quotes a wellknown line of Horace thus Rem recte si possis. Si. non rem Quomodo rem. He thus turns a hackneyed quotation into unintelli- gible nonsense. In the same work he tells us that God is not the I.Itc)-etiaii deity, all love, all goodness," &c. The Lucretian gods were proverbial for their absolute indifference to mankind. he also observes In China the stupid and degraded superstition of Confucius," &c. The characteristic peculiarity of Confucianism is the total absence from it of all reference to supernatural agencies of any sort. As to its stupidity, it has been the creed of the educated part of the largest nation in the world for a length of time greater than that during which any other religion has been in existence. 4. Dr Cumming has passed many years in fortelling the approaching end of the world. He has, like all his kind, avoided positive definite predictions for obvious reasons, but the object of 11 The End," for instance, to say nothing of other books, was to show that in all probability the world was on its very last legs. "The End" was published thirteen years ago, and the world still lasts. In Redemption Draweth Nigh" he suggested that in 1867 or 1868 was to be the eventful year. It is now October, 1869. 5. The following are specimens of Dr Cumming's taste :—" It is not the nervous system, it is not electricity, it is not galvanism that gives its pulses to your heart. It is God. Your heart first beats, then it baits; again it beats, then it halts then it beats again, and then another pause. It seems to me that during each pause intervenes between each beat your heart lifts itself up to God and says, 'May 1 beat again ?' and God says, Another beat.' And it asks, May I beat again ?' and God says, Another beat still.' In Redemption Drawoth Nigh" Dr Cumming observes I pity from my heart people that are always prosperous, people who havo plenty of money, lands, estates, dignities. I pity rich men. I should not like to die a rich man, They have fewest of the seals and tokens of God's favour," &c. The dedication of the book is in these words :— "To the Most Honourable Maichioness of Stafford.— Dear Marchioness of Stafford,—I feel it no common pleasure to be allowed to dedicate this work to your ladyship. You heard the greater put of this volume in tho form of lectures, and, you were good enough to tell me, with profit and pleasure. I have also often conversed with your ladyship on the glorious themes, and never without advantage from the remark of a thoughtful mind. Permit me, therefore, to inscribe the work to your ladyship as a humble expression of respect and esteem as well as of thanks for yuur munificent aid, and still more unwearied personal attention to our numerous schools," &c>j &c. These are some of the reason why we object to Dr. Cumming being regarded as a representative of Protes- tantism, or of anything else1, except himself and his admirers.

THE INVESTMENTS FOR INCOME. There is a numerous class who derive their income from investments in some one or more of what are called the public securities, that is some sort of stock or I shares. A great number of this class lose one-half per cent. interest,, or, to put it more plainly, might receive 10s more a year for every £100 invested, if their capital were invested in a different stock from what it is, and in some cases considerably more. And these people would not only receive a larger income, but they would have precisely the s:tme security or safety for their capital and for their interest. There cannot be many people who would object to an increased income, however large their present income may be, and therefore people who invest their money in one stock when they might invest it in dome other stock which gives them a similar security for their capital, and at the same time a higher rate of interest, can only do so through ignorance or prejudice. At a time like the present, when the investing public have little or no contidence in anything, this is particularly evident. After there has been a panic in the money- market prices of stocks are often a long time recovering to anything like their former level, with the exception of the English Funds, and these rise rapidly, and usually attain a very high price. The reason of this is evident. People distrust everything but the English Funds, and in consequence they will for a t,me invest in nothing else, and therefore the price rises; whilst the prices of other stocks remain stationary or still further decline. The price of Consols at the present time is high. It is not so high as it has been in the actual figures, but on taking into consideration certain facts, it appears that in reality it is higher than it was when the figures of the price apparently denoted a higher market value. These facts are-the enormous increase in the quantity of the various classes of securities in which money can bo invested, and, in con- sequence of this increase, the much lower price of securities now than before this increase. With regard to the first of these facts, if we take one class of securities in the Stock and Share List- namely, that under the heading M iscellaneous- we find that in 1851 there were six companies under this heading, and that their total capital amounted to something under £ 1,000,000. Under the same heading in the Share List of to-day we tind 120 different companies, with a total capital of about £ 30,000,000. With regard to the second fact-namely, the lower price of securities—Russian Government, stocks bearing 5 per cent. interest stood at par (100), and are now quoted at 86. There are stocks which are quoted higher now than they were in 1851, but these stocks have been affected by individual circumstances, such as increasing the rate of interest they paid, and therefore do not affect the question, as their relative market value has been raised by other than general circumstances. To return to the question that investors do not receive the highest rate of interest fur their money which they might, without changing the class of stock that they hold. To explain more fully what is meant, take an example. Consols bought at the present price (93) will pay the investor X3 4s 4d per cent. per annum. Canada Four per cent. Bonds, with the interest guaran- teed by the English Government, pay the investor at the pesent price (103) £ 3 17s 8d per cent per annum. The former stock has three months interest accrued and the latter has just had six months' interest taken off the price. An income derived from money invested in Consols, say of I 100 a year, would be increased by X 15 if the same amount of capital were invested in Canada Four per Cents, or an income of £1,000 a year would be increased by £1:50. The Canadian Four per Cents, are payable off at par (100) in 1903. The investor buying at 103 would there- fore have to put away about 28 6d a year for every £100 of income received, or, in other words, would receive £ per cent. less interest than if the capital were not repayable. This has, liowenu, I,. allowed for in the above calculation, and also the three months' interest accrued on Consols, and in round numbers the Canadian Four per Cents, pay at their market price per cent. per annum higher interest than Consols. Look at this in another way. Xloo a N,ear may be secured by an investment of £414 less in Canadian Four Per Cents, than in Consols, or an income of el,000 a year by an investment of X4,140 less. The security is In each case similar for all practical purposes, one being the debt of the English Government, and the other being guaranteed by the English Government. With regard to the form of the security, the Canadian Four Per Cents, are in the bonds to bearer, and on this account are not so convenient to some investors who do not care to have any valuable documents to take care of. Consols, on the other hand, of course, are registered at the Bank of England, and there is no valuable docu- ment to be locked up. The case named is only one of many of a similar character, amongst which may be named Indian Government Stocks and Indian Railway Stocks. — Pall Mall Gazette.

THE CHURCH CONGRESS The Church Congress at Liverpool wss opened on Tuesday, with a thoughtful and very liberal Sermon from the Dean of Chester (Dr. Howson), who dwelt on the coming Œcumenical Council in Rome, as we have ven- tured to think most sincere Protestanls as well as most sincere Catbolics will regard it, as iikely to mark a great era in ecclesiastical history Already," said the Dean as was lately said to me in Italy, Sr. Mary and St. Peter have absorbed the homage which ought to be given to Christ, —already a divorce seems almost proclaimed between the decisions of the Church and the achieve- ments of -cieiice,iiretidy the necessities and convic- i tions of modern civilization arc declared incompatible with religion. What it ail this should Le itiicrsitied and made irrovoc ibie r and what it then, under the iru- pulse of a vehement iva.ion, the ecclesiastieal attitude of three hundred and iiity years, and even the doctrinal decrees of the Council of Trent, should be viewed, by Roman Catholic theologians, as open to revision,—if the formation of national Churches should become a feature of the period that is before us,—and if those who from among ourselves have so eagerly joiued the Latin com- munion should liud that they have committed an ana- chronism That is possible, no doubt. But we fear that the present mental agitation of moderate Catholics not having come, like the agitation of the Reformation, from inner conviction, but simply from the shock produ- ced by the zeal of the Ultramontane, party would be more likely to land them in general unbelief than in branch Churches. Towards unbelief also the Dean's attitude was liberal, frank, and thoroughly manly. The Congress has hid the u-mal fato of Congresses,— to give occasion to some useful discussions, some amus- ing discussion, some thoughtful speeches, many earnest, speeches, and a vast deal of trash. The progress of liberal and generous feeling eveu amongst the High- Church party was, however, very remarkable. The Rev W. R. Clarke, of Taunton,-dtcide(liv High-Church, we believe,—spoke of the deepest scepticism in a tone of generous and manly sympathy with the suffering and struggles it entails which almost appalled his audience, already sufficiently shocked by one or two very can- did" laymen. The Rev Dr Salmon, the Rev Dr Tris- tram, and the Rev J. Macnaught followed in the same tone and though the two cleigymen, Mr Garbett and Mr Woodgate, who began the discussion on Ii Phases of 1 Unbelief" had been much more c iiitious and patroniz- ing in their tone,—as if doubt were a sort of frailty, on which the glorified clerical conscience should look down with severe pity and conditional condescension,—the tendency even of the clerical upinion was probably to- wards a more generous and frank appreciation of the sincerity and earnestness of many of the modern septics, than that of the general audience addressed. We doubt if that audience even appreciated the grotesque simpli- city in the speech of a Ile, Mr Yonge, who commenced by attributing all doubt and difficulty to the Devil, to whose rapid intellectual progress during the last two thousand years be bore personally his explicit and courageous testimony. The Devil, he said (quite seri- ously), had profited vastly "by experience," and had a great many resources now of which he was not master then. Perhaps, after all, then, Burns may be right, that there is a chance for him yet. Steady intellectual pro- gress for two thousand years is hardly consistent, with absolute and uniform infamy. Diabolical progress,— in any depE.rtmcnt,-is a doctrine of dubious drift. One of the best papers of the Congrees was rc-ad by its honorary secretary, Mr Espin, the Rector of Wallasey, Birkenhead, on the supply and training of the clergy,—a paper so large in its views and so con- cise in its statements cf facts and data that it is not unlikely, we think, to lead to a real recast of the special theological training of the clergy,—in which we are really behind not only the Protestant Continen- tal Churches, but a great many of the Nonconformist bodies of this country. Mr Espin, is of course, like all thinking men, exceedingly anxious that as many of the clergy as possible should pass through the Universities, without which they cannot be nearly so well fitted to understand the difficulties and wants of the more educated lai'.y of their time. Mr Espin would have a central literary examination for all candidates for holy orders quite distinct from the Bishops' theolo- gical examinations, and then he would get the Bishops to combine to demand some thorough training in the- ology before admission to orders and the candidate for this examination should be required to have passed through not merely a two years', but a three years', training in a good theological college after completing his literary course. Without the consent of all the Bishops this could not be effected, since at present the bishop who expects least of the candidates gets almost all the applications for ordination, and so drains any theological college which teaches, and insists on teaching, more. Mr Espin's paper was admirable, but what on earth does a really wise man like him mean by admitting the indelibility of priests' orders, while desiring deacons to have a locus pcnitcntice,— the power, like that of a novice in a monastery, of returning to the world if they will? The "forsaking of all other cares and studies, and giving themselves wholly to this one thing," as the Ordination Service has it, is, in itself, a strained account of the duties of the priesthood, suggesting celibacy ;-and should we have been right in asking the Bishop of St David's to give up the study of history, or Mr Pritchard the eminent astronomer to forsake astronomy, or the late Master of Trinity to neglect the -inductive philosophy, simply because they were in priest's order ? But that question apart, does the policy of burning your ships and breaking down your bridges behind you really conduce to true spiritual earnestness of the wholesome kind ? And it a rran does fall into serious doubt late in life, what can be either so mischiev- ous for him or so injurious to the people he can no longer sincerely teach, as to embarrass his way out of the profession, and debar him. as far as possible, from active and wholesome secular life ? We read Mr Espin's protest against cancelling the indelibility of priest's orders with sincere astonishment.— Spectator.

TWO PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS WITH REGARD TO IRELAND. The time for discussing the plans and intentions of the Government in reference to the settlement of the Irish land question will come at a later date, when trose plans have been formed and when those intentions shall be announced. At present we believe both to be in nubibiiK, and almost as much hidden from the members of the Cabinet themselves as from the public, and all discussion of them would therefore be premature. Mean- while inquiry into the subject is going on in an active though desultory fashion scheme after scheme is ven- tilatecl-- morvellouIV wild and crude these schemes for the most part-and public opinion is gradually though slowly clearing and condensing. Insane demands, im- possible projects, vague, ignorant, and unwise sugges- tions, are by degrees separating themselves from the prudent, the practicable, and the really beneficial, till I we begin to entertain some hope that by the time the Government measure is brought forward Mr Gladstone will have discovered the direction in which alone good, either political or economical, must be sought, and the nation will have recognized the limits within which wisdom and justice alike require the necessary changes to be confined. The elimination of what is simply not feasible, the rejection of what would be probably noxious, and the general condemnation of what would be palpably unjust, will in the end reduce the question, which now seems so vast, so confused, and so menacing, within a comparatively manageable compass. This view of the subject will of course disappoint and exasperate those who are beat upon heroic rtmedies-who believe that such remedies would work wonders, and that no others are adequate to the emer- gency-and who unconsiously estimate the amount of the benefit to be anticipated simply by the magnitude of the change proposed. The phrase is vague as well as grandiloquent; but by "heroic" remedies are usually understood projects quite out of the ordinary line- enacments that are neither cautious, gradual in their operation, nor of the recognized order—something unusual, startling, and daring-sometime hazardous in |act_something that at once transcends the usual bounds and trangresses the habitual principles of legis- lative action. The phrase may mean fixity of tenure," the permament establishment of every cottier and farmer in the holding he chances to occupy at this moment, to the exclusion of every fair competitor and of every preferential tenant. It may mean the com- pulsory granting of leases to the fit and the unfit oc- cupiers alike. It may mean the expropriation by Government action of great Saxon landowners and the division of their estates (by purchase of course) among native cultivators. It may mean the creation, by every artificial means short of actual confiscation, of a race of peasant proprietors," who are to supersede, or to perpetuate, the present class of wretched crofters. In fact, it does mean one or all of these things according to the parties using it. Now, without discussing any of these" heroic" reme- dies, we wish to call attention to the almost forgotten though altogether undeniable circumstances—first, that the c(,untry to which it is proposed to apply them with a degree of haste and urgency only befitting a case of life and death is a country which of late years, and for a long period, has improved in material and social con- dition faster and more decidedly than any other in Europe and, secondly, that the moment at which it is proposed thus daringly and completely to change the. entire relative status of the owners and occupiers of the soil, is precisely and notoriously the moment when, as a general rule, the owners have shown themselves most alive to their duties and most active and enterprising in the discharge of them, and when, universally, the occu- piers are more rich and prosperous than at any former period. These are the two preliminary considerations which the nation, when urged to adventure on an en- tirely new course of legislative action, will do well to ponder. The general, marked, and rapid improvement, in the condition of the people, as indicated by nearly every symptom, is the common remark of both visitors and residents, and is confirmed bv "ncb statistical facts as are adduceable. As far as the peasantry are concerned, their dwellings (still often bad enough) have decidedly improved, and the number reported as unfit for habita- tion is scarcely one quarter what it was, while the decent ones have increased 60 per cent. for a smaller population. They are far better clothed and fed than termerly, Indian corn, to the extent of nearly two millions oi quarters annually, being used as auxiliary to, be i r, use d as auxi l i ar y to, or a substitute for, potatoes. The effect of this change of diet is visible at once to every observer. The num- ber of paupers varies naturally from year to year, but on an average it stands at only one-fourth of those relieved twenty years ago. Lastly, wages though vary- ing aso with the amount of enterprise and public works going on, have risen in the last quarter of a century from 25 to SO per cent. So much for the mere labourers. As regards the occupiers, ou whose behalf the loudest demands and complaints are now heard, the facts are these :-Their holdings on the average are very much larger than they were the extent of land under cultivation, though vary- ing slightiy with the seasons and wit u the operation of other causes, is as nearly as possible as it was 20 years slice, though the population-the numbers requiring food and employment—has faben off nearly one-third the character of the crops bas changed for those less fitted to those more fitted for the climate and less pre- carious the prices of the most important articles of the Irish farmers' produce have not fallen, and some have risen most materially the number of horned cattle has increased o0 per cent., and that "t sheep 120 pc-c cent., while the respective prices 01 the two per head have risoD from 10 to 20 per cent., so gieatly has cpaality been improved. Other indications point to a simiiar conclusion. The investments in savings banks have varied and diminished, especially when, as of late, affected by politic.il disturbances aud a genera: sense of insecurity b:if the aggregate of private deposits in the ordinary banks has boubb.-d, and the value of rroperty passing under probate and letters of administration has increased, though more varyir.gly, in a nearly similar ratio. Every essential fact that Can tie quoted points to advancing prosperity arid wealth, and no casual or partial fluctuations can affect the general conclusion. We have not encumbered our statement with detailed figures but a reference to official returns, to Mr Thorn's admirable and exhaustive statistics, to the evidence of Judge Longfield and many others before Parliamentary Committees, and to the careful and moderate pamphlets of Lord Dufferin and Dr Neilson Hancock, will fully bear out our assertions. Two other facts may be mentioned to complete the picture. The common statement and belief is that in Ireland, almost invariably, it is the tenant and not the landlord who lays out money on the soil and provides buildings and brings new land under the plough. This, as we know is the chief ground now urged for treating the relation of landlord and tenant in Ireland Ion exceptional principles. It used to be so. no douùtj it is fast ceasing to be so now. The Encumbered Estates Act, by transferring so many estates from in- solvent to wealthy owner, has worked a remarkable and most salutary change in this respect, and the larger proprietors are now habitually investing vast sums in the improvement of their land, both by erect- ing suitable buildings and introducing better cultiva- tion. Mr Trench mentions four cases within his personal knowledge, in each of which upwards of £ 3,000 a year is regularly laid our, upon the e,-tite-a sum often amounting to a large proportion of the rental— and these cases are very far from being exceptional. The other fact is that at no period within the memory of living men have rents been so regularly paid or so rarely in arrear as now never have Irish farmers been in such prosperous circumstances or had so much money in the bank. It is well known, moreover, that the consumption of customable and excisable articles, which has of late been checked in England by the badness of trade, was at the same period increasing in Ireland. We are warranted, therefore, in asking whether a country which has improved so rapidly ought to be chosen as the special field for daring and hazardous experiments, or whether a period when the class who are to be the more especial subject of those experiments are exceptionally well off, is precisely the fittest moment for such ventures. Of course, we know how deep and how wide-spread, as well as how vague, are the present agitations in Ireland we, also, bear thousands of Irishmen proclaiming that they will never be pacified any more unless some "sweepiug change" or other be made in the tenure of land but we do not admit that political ignorance and impatience justify headstrong and violent legislation.- I'all Mall Gazette.

The Devonshire clergy are agitating against the ap- pointment of Dr Temple to the see of Exeter. It is stated that unfavourable reports of Mr Gladstone's present state of health reached London on Monday afternoon. The President of the Poor Law Board is now making a personal inspection of the principal workhouses of this country. On Tuesday be was in Birmingham, Wed- nesday and yesterday he occupied in visiting the various establishments in and near Manchester. The Liverpool Mercury regrets to learn that the Earl of Derby has been for some days prostrated by an attack of the gout more severe than any which his lordship has for years suffered. The more acute symptoms, are, it is believed, gradually subsiding under medical treat- ment, but the severity of the attack has rendered his lordship very weak. The Baptist Union Congress, which has been sitting at Leicester this week, has passed resolutions in favour of a Government system of secular education, under the management of district boards, and of giving the State or the local authorities, when school accommoda- tion has been provided, power to compel the attendance of children not otherwise receiving education. The Bishop of Rochester has issued a paper of searching questions to be answered by all the incum- bents in his diocese preparatory to his general visitation. The questions relate to the residence of the clergy, the frequency of the services in their churches, the number of attendants, the administration of the Sacraments, the state of the schools, the amount of dissent, and the moral and physical condition of the people. To what extent scarlet fever, from which London is now suffering, prevails throughout the country, there are (the Lunctt says) no accurate means of knowing but the fact that the disease was even more fatal last week in Liverpool than in London, and almost as much so in Sheffield and Leeds, gives very strong indication that we are passing through one of those periodical epidemics which reveal all the weak places of the countrv-an advantage which is far too dearly pur- chased at a lamentable cost of human life. The official declaration of the poll iu East Cheshire was made cn Tuesday at Macclesfield. The numbers were—for Mr Brooks, 2,f»08 Sir E. Watkin 1,815. Both gentlemen were present, and addressed the electors. Sir E. Watkin said that if, after the ballot was obtained he should again contest the division, as probably he should, and was defeated under that system, then only be would acknowledge that he was really defeated. This was but the first contest by which the Liberals intended to free the county of Chester from Tory domination. We see with sincere regret that Messrs Schneider and lenwick, who were unseated for bribery at Lan- caster, and who, afterwards withdrew from the Com- mission of the Peace, have just been restored to that Commission,-we suppose, by Lord Dufferin, who as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, has, we believe the duty imposed upon him of sanctioning these appointments. Both gentlemen are Liberals, and both, we believe, rich Liberals, so, we suppose, they have in- fluence. But this is a very unfortunate moment for the Government to abow itself disposed to pass over this kind of offence as a slight peccadillo. 1s it possible that the poor can have confidence in the justice of men who are known to have bought their way into pohtical power r V ill they not be certain to fancy —however inaccurately and nnjustlytbat a man who will corrupt electors will hardly be himself incorruptible on the bench ? — SJM ctt'for, SERIOIS RAILWAY ACCIDENT.—A shocking railway accident took place on the Midland Railway on Saturday night. Four excursion trains, conveving over 4,000 persons, leil Leicester in the afternoon for Nottingham Goose Fair, and the last of the return trains, which consisted of thirty-five carriages, returned from Notting- barn about twenty-five minutes past eleven o'clock, the mail train from Nottingham, which meets the down train to the North at Trent, being timed to leave five minutes later. At Long Eaton Junction, about hal< a mile east of Trent station, the excursion train was stopped by a block" on the line, the Derby mail having run into a Ù. and Jasbt'd lI1tü goods train, and the mail train came up and into I rate 0 ort. vc the end of tbe excursion train at the rate of forty-five miles an hour. Several of <he carriages were smashed to pieces, seven persons were kUIcd, ano about eleven injured, many of them very seriously Ihe ijight was injurclI, many of them very serJOU. .1 "d dark and foggv, and the driver of the mail train is said not to have seen the signal which warned him to stop.

General Garibaldi is about to appear as a novelist. His work, which will be published by Messrs. Cassell, is founded on facts, and bears largely on the social and ecclesiastical condition of modern Italy. In the last number of Notes and Queries a correspon- dent calls attention to the following prediction in Spanish Father Baltassar Mas, who in 1G30 was a preacher in Granada, and passed from thence to Rome on his way to the Indies, related to Father Martin Alberro a relation made to him;—'I saw a land swallowed by the sea and covered with water, but afterwards I saw that, little by little, the sea retreated and left the land lisible, and the upper parts of towers and the turrets of the cities rose and appeared more beautiful than before being swallowed by the sea and it was told me that it was England.' This is a very disagreeable vision. especially as it is countenanced by the fact that so many of our public buildings and private dwellings We in a most sinful state of dirt and griminess. A NEW WORK BY ME. DARWIN,-We have just learned that Mr Darwin is preparing a new work, in which the main conclusions arrived at in his Origin of Species," and accepted by most of the younger natu- ralists throughout Europe, will be applied to Man. The work, to be published next year, will consist of three parts I." The Descent of Man;" II. On Sexual Selection;" and III. On Expression of the Emotions. In the first of these the evidence will be mainly drawn from a comparison of the structure of man with that of the lower animals, and from the facts of embryology the more general arguments from the laws of geographical distribution and of geographical succession being here inapplicable. The difficult ques- tion of the gradual development of the characteristic moral and intellectual attributes of man from lower types will also be briefly considered. With respect to the races or so-called species of Man, Mr Darwin has been led to the conclusion that sexual selection has played an important part. This principle depends, on the one hand, on the rivalry between males of the same specifes for the possession of the female and, on the other, on the choice by the females of the more attrac- tive males-combined in each case with the transmis- sion to the offspring of the characters of the more suc- cessful individuals of either sex. This part of the work will be illustrated by copious details. In the supple- mentary discussion on the expression of emotions by man through muscular movements of the face and limbs, three questions will come under notice. (a,) Row far is man endowed with muscles solely for the purpose of expressing emotion; (b.) how far the same expressions prevail among the different races of man and (c.) in what manner the various animals exhibit their emotions. A curious book, entitled Notes of a Spy," was lately published at St. Petersburgh. These notes are the memoirs of a Russian sub-officer named Boulantzoff, who, according to his own showing, acted as a spy for the Russian Government during the last Polish insur- rection. Having lived for ten years in Poland, he had completely mastered the language, and by this means and his patriotic professions he managed to obtain the confidence of several of the insurgent leaders, whom he afterwards betrayed to the Government. He gives the Joitials of these chiefs, all of whom have been either hanged or banished, and seems to have taken quite a pride in his shameful work, describing with much inction how he got at the secrets of the political prisoners by pretending to be one of themselves, and how he used to go to the houses of rich landowners in the disguise of an insurgent, in order to induce them to break the law by giving him refuge, and thus furnish him and the police with a pretext for plunder and vio- lence of every kind. As might be supposed, these memoirs are full of adventure, and their author seems to have had some very narrow escapes. Once, as he was walking in the disguise of an insur- gent near the village of Zyski, he was attacked by Cossacks, and was pressed by them so closely that he had to run and hide in some corn and as the peasants were threshing at the time, and bad not seen him, he expected every moment to be cut down with their flails. On another occasion he was pursuing an insurgent at the head of his Cossacks, when the Pole suddenly turn- ing round struck at him with such force with his un- loaded gun that he fell to the ground with his horse and boroke his arm. His assailant then raised his weapon for a second blow, which would probably have killed him, but luckily eight Cossacks rushed forward and pro- tected him from further injury. FLORA MACDONALD. The Inverness Courier, in noticing the announcement of an autobiography of this celebrated lady, preserver of Prince Charles, which has been carefully preserved in the family record chest, and is now preparing for publication by Mr Nimmo, of Edingburgh, observes:—" That none of our Scottish historians or topographers, who explored so minutely the wanderings and vicissitudes of Charles ctward, seem to have been aware of the existence of the above manuscript. Flora-or Flory, as she signed her name in her marriage contract-had a singular and fomantic career, and if she recorded fully her own trials and the state of the Highlands in the middle of last century, her autobiography cannot fail to possess Interest. She was in her twenty-fourth year when she galIantly riskAd hAr nwn fr to nreserve t?°? 8&Uantl?v aarTes. Bhey r the JaCoDltes 0 t hat sejvp- *?o V wa 'delized. A private subscription was opened for her, which soon amounted to £ 1,500, and she sat to Allan Ramsay for her portrait, still preserved in Oxford. The features are decidedly Celtic-the complexion dark, Contrasting with the ample white rose that decorates the bust. Boswell and Johnson describe her in 1773 as a little woman of genteel appearance and pleasing address. When she returned, the heroine of the day, to the Highlands, her society was courted by all classes, and between three and four years afterwards she gave her hand to young Kingsburgh, who was the model of j a Highlander in countenance, figure, dress, and speech. l Affairs do not seem to have gone prosperously with em, and in 1774 Flora and her husband emigrated to ?rth Carolina. When the war broke out Kingsburgh Joined the Royalist forces, was taken prisoner, but regained bis liberty, and served with the 84th in Canada. They returned, and it is related that the *essel in which Flora and her husband sailed was at tacked by a French privateer, and while the Celtic heroine stood on deck bravely animating the seamen, she was thrown down and one of her arms broken. She was destined, however, to die at home at last, de- Parting in her 68th year, in 1790, and her shroud being formed of part of the sheets in which Prince Charles slept at Kingsburgh. Here are materials for romantic biography the hair-breadth escapes of the royal wanderer-the state of the Highlands while society yet retained some of the picturesque features of clanship-the emigrant voyage across the Atlantic and the subsequent American war-the perilous return to Britain-and the final ten years of peace while all Was changing in the Highlands and islands, and the old race was disappearing from the land—such are the striking events in the life of Flora Macdonald. th ST. PAUL AND PROTESTANTISM.-The Cornhill gives the first part of an essay by Mr Matthew Arnold on St, Paul and Protestantism." He opposes to M. Renan's dictum that St. Paul is now coming to an end of his reign," a strong conviction that it is the Protestantism which has misused St. Paul which is doomed; that the reign of the real St. Paul is only beginning." It is an essay that will provoke, as the reader may suppose, a storm of wrath. The God of Puritanism, says Mr Arnold, after sketching the Cal- 7inistic and Arminian schemes of theology, is a mag- nified non-natural man." It will be fiercely retorted on him that he is himself a pantheist. When he writes, "That stream of tendency by which all things strive to fulfil the law of their being, and which, inasmuch as Our idea of real welfare resolvs itself intothis fulfilment ?M ? the law of one's being, man rightly deems the foun- am of all goodness, and calls by the worthiest and most solemn name he can, Science also might willingly own for the fountain of all goodness, and call God, e obviously lays himself open to attack. Mr Arnold's own attack upon the systems of theology of which the 409mas of election and justification are severally the key-stones is of crushing force he believes that St. Paul would have said of these, had they encountered him, what he said of dogmas that did encounter him, that circumcision is nothing and uncircumcisiou is Nothing." He says :I What is it that sets St. Paul In motion ? It is the impulse which we have elsewhere noted as the master-impulse of Hebraism, the desire for i[jhteoU8nt8S. What distinguishes St. Paul is both his conviction that the commandment is holy, Just, and good and also desire to give effect to the commandment, to establish it. It was this that gave Jm insight to see that there could be no radical dif- erence in respect of salvation and the way to it between JreW and Gentile. Upon every soul of man that worketh eV¡I, whoever he may be, tribulation and anguish; to wery one that worketh good, glory, honour, and peace." h r Arnold's most difficult task remains to be done to how that St. Paul did not have recourse to the heurgy of election, substitution, vicarious satisfaction, 4ild imputed righteousness." These are ghosts which lire very difficult to lay we must own that they rise kgain whenever we read the Epistle to the Romans, nd we wait with supreme interest for what our new nterpreter will say. Meanwhile, we may weigh some 4drairable passages on the method of interpretation '< Paul, like the other Bible writers, and like the Semitic ace in general, has a much juster sense of the true cope and limits of diction in religious deliverances than P have. He uses within the sphere of religious emo- 1 II)II expressions which, in this sphere, have an elo- HUence and a propriety, but which are not to be taken of it and made into formal scientific propositions. < have used the word Hebraize for another purpose, t" denote the exclusive attention to the moral side of kllr nature to conscience, and to doing rather than Rowing; so to describe the vivid and figured way in "aich St. Paul, within the sphere of religious emotion, 8es words without carrying them outside it, we will 11ae the word Orientalize. When Paul says, 'God has (Joneluded them all' in unbelief, that He might have Jercy upon all he Orientalizes that is, he does not 1!:le G d ted with this set d n to assert formally that God acted with this set :,e8lgn, but being full of the happy and divine end to the unbelief spoken of, he, by a vivid and striking figure represents the unbelief as actually caused with le" to this end." -Spectator. I I