nufacture. And then take the next ar ticle: "Ultimate bad effects of large allotments hidden by small immediate ad vantages." This fully coincides with our own often-expressed opinion, and we turned to the pages referred to for the facts adduced. But there is nothing in the text about large allotments being attended with "ultimate bad effects," or of these being "hidden by small immediate advantages." All this is the indexer's own careful manufacture, in order that his Majesty's subjects may not be led astray. The witnesses merely state, with great zeal, that allotments are good, very good, almost the sheet-anchor of the national bark; the index-maker, and we believe he is right, admits the facts, but thinks the witnesses do not look at the result in the course of years upon a large and national scale; and therefore, instead of saying" advantages of allotments,' or "alleged advantages of allotments," he tacks on the epithet "immediate," and then qualifies this by the word "small," and finally puts the whole into a shape which is directly contrary to the intention of the passage, which says nothing of the "ultimate bad effects," which the Index tells us is to be found in it. And so, in the very next article, we have " ultimate consequences (of allotments) to parishes shewn in an enormous increase of poor rate; "a large and fearfully sounding inference; but the text does not bear it out: it merely mentions a case of a grossly mismanaged parish, in which the rates greatly increased; for which there were various causes, one of which might be, as the indexer concludes, the farmers letting out potatoe gardens, though the friends of allotments would maintain the contrary. But instead of one fact, in one parish, as recorded in the text, the indexer gives us his own general view of political economy, "Ultimate consequences to parishes," &c.; and, as a proof that he has not followed the ordinary laws of a "contents" collector, he has omitted all that occurs on the other side-for instance, in the Saffron-Walden report, just alluded to, and actually paginated by him, and which upon his system ought to have been indexed," Ultimate consequences to parishes shewn in an enormous decrease of poor rate." The whole index, incorrectly termed "contents," seems compiled upon the same ex-parte system; which we much lament, because the deduction of inferences was the business of the report, but an index ought to give the contents of the book. We think the compiler right in his view; but we must protest against such a species of cataloguing, however laudable his dread lest the reader should not deduce just conclusions.

The great majority of the readers of our modern popular publications, such as the Saturday and Penny Magazines, are little aware of the mass of prejudices,

false facts, incorrect inferences, and ab surdities, which they escape by the improved habits of investigation of modern times. We have at this moment lying before us the philosophical treatises of Bacon and Boyle, the founders of the modern system of philosophical induction; and yet there is scarcely a page in the writings of these eminent men that we could confidently lay before an igno. rant reader as a satisfactory record either of facts or opinions, merely upon the authority of the writer. We open, as an illustration, at the very first page of Bacon's elaborate "Natural History," and find-the first article to be a statement that if a well be digged in the sand by the sea-shore, it will be filled with fresh water by percolation from the ocean. Bacon adds, that Cæsar dug such pits when besieged in Alexandria; but that he mistook the cause of the water's being fresh, by attributing it to some "natural springs of fresh-water;" whereas, says Lord Bacon, it was no such thing, but the water oozing through the sand lost its saltness ;-which every child instructed in modern science knows would not be the case, the salt being inseparable by mere percolation. Indeed, Bacon adds, that he had somewhere read that salt water had been made to pass through ten vessels of earth without losing any of its saltness, but that when passed through twenty it became fresh; and he proceeds to find out a number of notable reasons why this does not contravene the sea-side experiment,-such as, that "the imitations of nature are poor;" that the sea-water rose by percolation, instead of descending; and that "the very dashing of the water that cometh from the sea is more proper to strike off the salt part." Here then Bacon, at the very outset of his work, takes up an alleged but unproved fact, and, instead of verifying it before he argues upon it, he assumes as true what is false, and then gives absurd reasons to account for the phenomenon. Yet Bacon was far in advance of other men of his age; and Boyle in experimental caution afterwards went still further; and yet there is scarcely a fact or an inference in their writings that can be relied upon, without a rigid scrutiny of all the circumstances. We mention this merely to shew the advantages which even the popular reader of the present day has over the most acute philosophers of the seventeenth century, in not having to spend the larger part of his time in unlearning instead of learning.

We are always quite willing, nay, gratified, that the conductors of other publications should copy any article from our pages; nor are we particular in wishing that they should acknowledge their obligations; but ludicrous mistakes sometimes arise from their not distinguishing between document and comment. We frequently observe articles which we have collected

from several sources, or which were supplied by foreign correspondents, served up in other publications as original communications, with the condescending adoption of our humble remarks thereupon, as the editor's own annotations. When our Numbers were dated a month back, the practice had this inconvenience, that if a reader should refer to any article thus copied in any work which was dated on the day of publication, he would suppose that one person had catered for both works, unless he recollected, that, though dated alike, the Christian Observer of that date was a month older than the other. We could point out, for instance, in various Numbers of our good friend the Dublin Christian Examiner, three, four, or five of our minor articles of Literary, Religious, or Miscellaneous Intelligence, inserted verbatim, with our comments on them, so that our readers might suppose that our friend and ourselves had been rather economical, in employing one editor for both magazines. The recent alteration of our mode of dating in some measure remedies the inconvenience; though, even as it is, an uninitiated reader would be at a loss to account for many odd circumstances. For instance: in the last Number of the Dublin Examiner he finds a column as from the editor of that work, on Popish Superstitions, and Count Genamb of La Trappe, and his pilgrimages and penances, in the very words (the sentiments as well as the facts) which he had read in the Christian Observer the month before. Of this we make no complaint, as we feel honoured that any friend should think our sentiments worth fathering; but then follows again a column and a half about the Melleray Monks, just as it appeared in our Number, and commencing, as did ours, with the remark: 66 By a singular coincidence, we had scarcely written the last paragraph when there fell into our hands a printed appeal, issued in London," &c. Now it must strike a reader as rather strange that this identical "coincidence" should have befallen two brother editors, and that both should have given an account of it in the same words; and he might think it still more strange to learn that our good brother had never" written" the paragraph at all, but only cut it out from the Christian Observer; and that the appeal which "fell into our hands "we know exactly when and where-had never fallen into our friend's hands at all. We repeat, that we have no objection to any person's using our pages as he likes; but it is best to distinguish between the common property of facts, and the private property of comments. We should not, however, have said so much on such a trifle, but that our readers might think we gave them borrowed articles, which were honestly our own. If we can read our own feelings aright, CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 377.

it is our anxious wish never to misrepresent the opinions or practices of any class of persons, however zealously we may think it our duty to oppose them. In the case of any sect or party whose notions are the subject of discussion, we have always endeavoured to avoid falling in with the stream of popular odium or eulogy, and to resort to authentic sources of information, with a view to form a correct judgment. In regard to no class of persons have we done this more conscientiously than as respects the members of the Church of Rome. We hear it frequently asserted that the popular teaching of the Roman-Catholic priesthood is not to be judged of by the statements of old writers; and though the Papal church claims infallibility and immutability, yet it is often said by her Protestant advocates for such there are-that in point of fact Popery is virtually reformed, and has silently dropped many of her false doctrines and superstitious practices. Our firm belief is, that there is not a shadow of truth in this statement; and that not only among the ignorant multitude in Spain or Ireland, but in the heart of Great Britain, wherever Popery really exists, and has not degenerated into_infidelity, it is what it ever was. readers may think it uncharitable for us to recite such facts as are often mentioned in our pages (for example, in our Number for January, p. 54, and April, p. 247), but are they not truly characteristic of a system which even to this hour deludes millions of human beings in the most important of all concerns?

Some

We were led to the preceding remarks by perusing a sermon just published, entitled, "Discourse pronounced at the Funeral of the Right Hon. Frances Xaveria Stafford Jerningham, Baroness Stafford, Consort of George William Baron Stafford, in the Catholic Chapel, Cossey Hall (Norfolk), Nov. 27, 1832, by the Rev. F C. Husenbeth." In a discourse pronounced at the obsequies of the lady of an English nobleman, and given to the British public from the press, the preacher would naturally abstain, as far as his conscience would allow, from exhibiting his faith in a manner calculated to lay him open to the arguments of Protestants. It could not be expected that he should speak exactly in the same strain as the Ignatius Loyolas and Francis Xaviers of former days, whose names are still adored, and are even feminized to grace the baptismal font. Indeed we read several pages of this sermon without perceiving in them, as regards doctrine, any thing but what we have often found in professedly Protestant discourses; and we could not peruse without emotion the interesting account given of the virtues of the deceased lady, while the preacher at the same time disclaims, with truly commendable feelings, and with much eloquence 2 S

of language, the desecration of the pulpit to the flattery of human distinction. "It is not, my brethren, for the Christian preacher to descant upon accidental advantages of birth and fortune and human admiration; and she, indeed, who possessed all these so eminently, had long learned their vanity, and referred them to the glory of Him who gave them."

The picture drawn of the virtues of the deceased lady, particularly her charity and kindness to the poor, is most pleasing; but, then, let the reader mark the ap plication; for these things are represented, not as fruits of faith, but as meritorious claims upon God, as challenging his justice, instead of humbly looking up to his mercy, and trusting through the infinite merits of the Saviour for forgiveness. Let the reader weigh the following:

"Do you know, my brethren, how rich a reward is promised to works like these? Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor: the Lord will deliver him in the evil day.' Nothing more powerfully propitiates the Divine justice, or more effectually smoothens the passage to the grave, than the exercise of Christian charity. Every thing is promised to it it redeems our sins, it delivers from the sting of death, it secures a neverending recompence. In favour of the charitable, God has promised to soften the agonies of death, in these tender words: may the Lord help him on his bed of sorrow: thou hast turned all his couch in his sickness.' And thus we have an assured hope that this lady, so merciful through life, found mercy at the hour of death. She who had so well understood concerning the needy and the poor suffering members of Jesus Christ, was consoled by the angel of peace on her bed of sorrow and had all the bitterness of death so softened and sweetened, that she breathed her last, calmly, peacefully, and scarce perceptibly. A soul so pious and so full of holy charity could not but possess interior peace at the last hour: : Strength and beauty are her clothing, and she shall laugh in the latter day.... Give her of the fruits of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.'

:

"And thus, my brethren, does religion furnish the secret of drawing comfort even from a scene so bitterly afflicting. Thus has even this house of mourning become to us a place of Christian consolation. Though death be a cruel ravager, and though here he has done his worst deed of desolation; yet has he gained no victory, and inflicted no sting. Religion and its treasured virtues, animated faith, earnest hope, and greater than all, ardent, unbounded charity, had covered the deceased with a panoply, and secured her title to a recompence from Him who will render to every man according to his works.""

We may be told that we meet with something very like the above in many

writers who are called Protestant; and this is unhappily true, for the race of Dr. Wartons, who depicture death-bed scenes and mortuary appliances very much after the fashion of Papists, is not extinct. Popery, so far as its doctrine of merit and claims is concerned, is the natural religion of the human heart; we are all too apt to gravitate towards Rome, "tendimus in Latium;" but the doctrine is not the less pernicious, whether taught undisguisedly in a Popish chapel, or in a Protestant cathedral; whether it issue from the press of a Protestant Episcopalian bookseller, or of his Socinian neighbour to the right, or his Popish neighbour to the left.

From one portion of idolatry which attaches to the Church of Rome, Protestants are exempt; we allude to the fearful substitution of the sacrifice of the Mass for the true sacrifice of Christ, the only atonement for sin. We cannot read without horror such a passage as the following, in this funeral sermon.

"Monica, the mother of the great St. Augustin, lived and died a saint, but that pious son, that illustrious doctor of God's church, tells us in the most affecting terms, that the 'sacrifice of our ransom was offered for her, that same great sacrifice of the Mass which we offer here, at the distance of fourteen centuries, for this departed soul. Pure as his mother had lived, St. Augustin tells us how earnestly he continued to pray for her after her holy death. O God of my heart,' said he, "my praise and my life, setting aside a little her good deeds, for which rejoicing, I give thee thanks, now do I beseech thee for the sins of my mother. Graciously hear me, by that remedy of our wounds which hung upon the wood' of the cross, 'and seated at thy right hand intercedes for us. I know that she did works of mercy, and forgave from her heart them that trespassed against her do thou also forgive her trespasses, whatever she may have committed during the many years since her baptism. Forgive, O Lord, forgive her I beseech thee; enter not into judgment with thy servant. Let thy mercy prevail over thy justice, for thy words are true, and to the merciful thou hast promised mercy.'

"My brethren, if a saint like Augustin thus prayed for a saint like Monica; if a pious and dutiful son thus implored heaven for a holy parent; well may the afflicted children of this mother pray in like manner for her eternal repose. And, turning again to the holy altar of God, let us offer for her the great sacrifice of our ransom,' and pray that her place may be this day in peace and her abode in holy Sion. Amen."

We see no reason why Protestants should of late years be so squeamish in designating doctrine like this by its proper

name.