sistence, and her captive bishops conquered him in Westminster hall, before William could interpose to rid the nation of his rule. But now, alas! the nation has sinned, and implicated the throne in its dark transgression, while the church permitted it. What follows? Judgment begins at the house of God; Popery is openly preached by men appointed to minister in pure Protestant forms of worship, and where are the seven bishops, where is the one bishop who will now, wielding the authority that of right belongs to him, say to the overflowing pollution, stay.' Once more I can look out upon the fleeting glories of summer: once more I follow the retiring gleams of day, and feel that my country's sun must also set ; but I feel it less acutely-I cannot desire that my God should be dishonoured, and his enemies permitted to laugh him to scorn. No-let England repent, or let England perish.

C. E.

THE THREE MARIES.

THE three Maries most readily suggested to the minds of my readers, probably are those of the holy women of old, who, while "all His disciples forsook him and fled," attended our blessed Saviour in his dying agonies. These were indeed great women-noble women; great and noble in the eyes of Him who seeth not as man seeth. In the eyes of men, however they were poor and despised; their name and their memory would never have found a place in the pages of worldly historians, the panegyrists of ruthless conquerors and blood-stained heroes; but their deeds are recorded by the Holy Spirit, and their names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

But the three Maries of whom I now mean to speak were the reverse of those; the Hebrew Maries were poor and humble; the British Maries were at the summit of human grandeur; each was the daughter of a king, and each was herself the possessor of a throne. Having said this, I need hardly announce them as Mary Tudor, Mary Stuart, and Mary of Orange.

Whatever may be the acquired taste in literature, which varies in different nations and at different periods of time, we may safely assume biography to be that to which the natural taste of man is most strongly directed. The early history of every nation is only to be found in the records of its heroes; their

notable exploits and sage counsels being the sources whence we incidentally learn its political and social state. And in the infancy of each individual there is always an earnest desire for stories about persons, rather than accounts of things; and of persons, too, of like passions with ourselves; for though the giant and the hobgoblin may add great interest to the tale, it is not so much those powerful personages considered in themselves, that affect the youthful listener, as the impression they make on the minds of the inferior actors, and the consequences of the controul they exercise in their affairs. And though, from duty, or interest, or necessity, other branches of literature may form the chief study in after life, yet biography never ceases to possess a powerful charm for every reader, a charm founded on the involuntary sympathy we feel in the joys and sorrows of others.

This sympathy is doubtless most lively, when those, whose memoirs pass under our review have been in circumstances somewhat similar to our own. But if it be less interesting, it may not perhaps be less profitable to study the working of those propensities and feelings on the great scale, that in private life are necessarily restrained within more narrow bounds. It may therefore not be unprofitable to Christian ladies, in any sphere of life, to contemplate the characters and conduct of the three British Queens.

Mary, the eldest daughter of King Henry the Eighth, was born at Greenwich on the 18th of February, 1516. Her youth was not spent like that of most of those who are in her exalted station: she was exempt from the frivolous gaieties of a court, and the flattering adulation of its attendants. When she was only ten years old, her father began to estrange

himself from the society of her mother, on the plea of considering his marriage unlawful with her who had previously been the wife of his brother. And ere she was seventeen, she saw a rival ascend her mother's throne, and her parent condemned to spend the rest of her life in obscurity and disgrace. She was thus educated in a school that has produced many of the great and good-the school of adversity; but she has left us a proof that affliction cannot of itself lead the alienated heart to God; and that no outward dispensation is a specific against the disease of sin.

She received in early life a liberal education, under the tuition of Dr. John Harman, afterwards Bishop of Exeter; and amid the cutting neglect to which her exile from her father's court naturally exposed her, she found a solace in her books. How far she studied the word of God for her own edification is probably not known; but she was not ignorant of its contents; as we find that when her stepmother, Queen Catherine Parr, was afterwards engaged in the good work of getting Erasmus' Paraphrase on the New Testament translated into English, she employed her to translate the paraphrase on the gospel of St. John; and the whole work was seen by her previous to its being printed. She must therefore not only have read, but carefully studied, that precious record concerning the person and work of "the Word made flesh; "" and hence must have known his important declaration, that "except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." But she had been instructed in those traditions of man that make the word of God" of none effect;" and it is always more agreeable to man's

natural indolence and indifference about spiritual things, to be content with a human explanation of the doctrines of revelation, rather than with humble earnestness to seek the meaning of it at a throne of grace.

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When the Princess Mary was twenty years of age, her mother died. This event was said to cause such joy to Queen Anne Boleyn, that, according to Heylin, she expressed her pleasure by being apparelled in lighter colours than was agreeable to the season, on the sad occasion.' What a striking picture this presents of the instability of human greatness! In the month of January, Anne exulted over the decease of her predecessor Catharine; exactly four months after, the unfounded jealousy of her despotic husband laid her head on the block.

Mary considered the death of her mother's rival a favourable opportunity for attempting to gain the good-will of her royal father; and wrote him a submissive letter, humbly craving some token of his affection. King Henry, on receiving this, sent instructions to the Duke of Norfolk to dictate to her the terms of a reconciliation. The manner in which he speaks of himself in this letter of instructions, when contrasted with his real character, renders it a curious document. After setting forth the grievous and long-continued obstinacy of his daughter the Lady Mary, and stating that any private person' would have for ever abandoned such an unkind and disobedient child, he says: yet such is his majesty's gracious and divine nature, such is his clemency and pity, such his merciful inclination and princely heart, that as he hath been ever ready to take pity and compassion of all offenders, repent

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