regarding faith or doctrine, but as regarding jurisdiction." Queen Elizabeth, it is well known, was unwilling to assume the title of Head of the Church; and those who have since been decried as Genevans and ultra-reformers, Sandys, Cox, Jewel, and their friends, relate the story of her reluctance with many apologies, and with unfeigned regret. But since her time it has been used by the Sovereign, in the sense, of course, in which the Convocation of 1531 explained it, and is in fact to be met with in several acts of parliament; in one, at least, of as recent a date as the beginning of the last century.

In short, the matter stands thus:—In stat. 2 & 3 Anne c. 11, s. 1, the following words will be found: "your [Majesty's] most religious and tender concern for the Church of England (whereof your Majesty is the only supreme head on earth).”

Queen Elizabeth, it is true, would not take the title of "Supreme Head," but adopted that of "Supreme Governor" (vide Stephens' Eccles. stat. 358 in note) as less offensive to the popish party.

"Le Roy est supream ordinary." 2 Rolle's Abv. 232. What can be more express ?

For our own part, far from regarding this as impious or unbecoming, we are thankful for an ecclesiastical constitution so wisely framed, and have no more scruple in acknowledging that the Queen is the supreme head of the church, quantum per Christi legem licet, than we have in calling her Majesty our supreme earthly Lord and Sovereign ruler. We see quite as much impiety in the one as in the other.

Of foreign affairs we have little to say. The French make little progress in the conquest of Mexico; and our own troops are said to have been repulsed in China. In Italy Garibaldi is restless; and the Pope is disquieted with just alarms. But while the French troops remain he may calculate with some confidence on his precarious sovereignty. The rest of Europe may be described as in an uneasy state, but nothing seems to portend immediate changes. Canada has disappointed the mother country by its reluctance to raise troops for its own defence in sufficient numbers. But the matter is taken up far too peevishly by our public writers, and with too little consideration for the real state of the Canadian people. They have had everything done for them. Now, in a crisis requiring the greatest exertions, it is unreasonable to expect that they should all at once do everything for themselves. We place the highest value on our connection with Canada; and those who affect indifference to it may express their own opinions, for ought we know, correctly, but they are certainly profoundly ignorant of the national feeling of all Great Britain.

In America the tide of war has turned; and the campaign, which seemed six weeks ago to promise the conquest of the South, closes with a series of disgraceful and humiliating defeats to the Federals. We need not repeat the details which must be known to all our readers. The grand army of the Potomac, beaten in four successive battles at the end of June and beginning of July, has been driven with dreadful losses from its position in front of Richmond, and now lies under the protection of Federal gun-boats on a peninsula of the James river. Other defeats in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Western Virginia, have added to the misfortunes of the Federal cause; and

Of

the conquest of the South is clearly impossible by any force which the Federals can now bring against her. Yet the telegraph from New York, received while we are writing, tells us that they are madly bent on prosecuting the war, while ruin stares them in the face, and a national bankruptcy is already coming into view. Foreign intervention is denounced with gratuitous indignation, or rather, if our suspicions are correct, with the well-worn affectation of it. armed intervention they have heard nothing from European shores, and from this they have nothing to dread. On this point they may bluster safely; not without a secret hope, perhaps, that the noise they make may call attention to the subject, and induce European States to compose their differences by a peaceful mediation. Mr. Thurlow Weed, who has just returned from this country, has published in New York the most calm and sensible statement we have met with on the present state of English feeling towards America. On one point, however, he is decidedly wrong. He thinks that when the war broke out England was predisposed to blame the Northern States. The truth is precisely the reverse of this; it is the subsequent behaviour of the Federals, and that alone, which has led us to view their conduct, as we now do, no doubt, with great dissatisfaction. But they must still take considerable pains before they stir up this country to a serious quarrel. We pity them and blame them too; and it is not our character to be silent, or to pretend indifference, when we feel indignation; but we have not forgotten the ties of kindred, or the friendships of the past. England, from the first, foretold all that has come to pass; the enormous debt, the national degradation of character, the unutterable domestic misery, the social hatreds, and the final disruption. The last step alone remains. All besides is in awful progress, or has had its terrible completion; in every case, indeed, the facts have far outrun our gloomiest anticipations; and yet, at present, so America tells us, there is no sorrow for the past, no intention of amendment.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

THE Rector of Kinwarton is under an erroneous impression. We did not call his attention to the Review of the "18 Years of a Clerical Meeting," of which he is the Editor. He is mistaken, too, in his supposition "that the Reviewer had only read the heading, and not the contents of the Volume." We do not doubt that amongst the members of the Meetings "there have always been men of very deep piety;" but sincere and even very deep piety may be misinformed, or very partially enlightened; and if so, just in proportion to the excellence of the man is the danger of his influence.

In answer to another correspondent, who wishes to be informed whether St. Peter ever visited Rome or not, we can only say in general, that it is always very difficult to prove a negative, which in this case can only be done by proving an alibi. Irenæus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius, and one or two others, admit the fact, as do Cave and Lardner. We cannot conceive it to be of the least importance, except as a matter of historical interest, nor are the testimonies of the fathers, after the first and second century, of any value. What would be the weight of the unsupported assertion of any historian of this day with regard to an event which took place two hundred years ago? It is curious that the Roman Catholic writers, finding nothing else in the recorded life of Peter to bear out the assertion, have taken refuge in the supposition that the church of Babylon (1 Peter v. 13) was no other than the church of Rome.

WHEN we speak of the period on which we are now entering as a period of blight, it must be borne in mind that a blight is an external visitation. It is a trouble or calamity which visits a tree or plant, and which is not inconsistent with life and growth. It loosens and throws off the weaker blossoms; but the tree may still grow, and become stronger. So was it in Madagascar. The seed having been sown, and the leaf and blossom beginning to appear, a blight,-an unhealthy atmosphere, first tried the life and strength of the plant; and this was followed, after a time, by a biting frost of persecution, which soon destroyed, to mortal eye, all the promise of the infant

tree.

Radama, the first king of Madagascar, who, by his ability, energy, and patriotic views, had conferred great benefits on his country, died, it is to be feared, the premature death of a victim to sensual pleasures, in July 1828. Solomon, who himself had tried to "give his heart to wine, without losing his wisdom,"* had warned men, many centuries ago, that "wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." t He had told us that "at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder." It had slain Alexander of Macedon, and many other men of note; it now slew Radama of Madagascar.

The scenes which followed, too, remind us of those which were witnessed on the death of the great Macedonian. No son stood ready to take up the sceptre of Radama. His nephew,

Eccles. ii. 3.

Vol. 61.-No. 297.

† Prov. xx. 1.

40

Prov. xxiii. 32.

Rakatobe, the eldest son of his eldest sister, was the rightful heir; but a woman of strong mind and will, Ranavalona, one of Radama's wives, was on the spot; and by the help of two or three of the chief officers of the court, she succeeded in grasping the reins of power, in seizing the palace, assembling troops, and being proclaimed queen. As is usually the case in barbarous or half-civilized countries, all persons who were deemed likely to be rivals to the usurping queen were quickly despatched. Rakatobe, to whom the crown rightly belonged, was sought for, and instantly speared. His father, Ratafe, or Rataffe, whose visit to England in 1821 has been mentioned, was summoned to court, charged with deserting his post as commandant at Tamatave, and on this pretence was imme.diately put to death. His wife, who was Radama's own sister, could not decently be slain by the sword: so she was confined in prison, and there starved. Two or three other relatives of the late king, being open to no accusation, were got rid of in the same manner. And thus, in the space of a few weeks, every competitor was removed, and queen Ranavalona stood, unmolested, the indubitable ruler of this fine country. A young officer, named Andriamihaja, had been her principal agent and adviser in all these proceedings; and in a few months he received his appropriate reward. In a fit of jealousy, the queen ordered his execution. He was poignarded in his own house, but allowed the rites of burial. The queen's son, who was born nearly a year after the death of Radama, was believed by many to be also the son of Andriamihaja. After this favourite had been got rid of, two brothers, Rainiharo and Rainimaharo, the one commanding the army, and the other governing the queen's household-became the actual rulers of Madagascar. To them, in the popular belief, all those despotic and cruel measures were to be ascribed of which we shall presently have to speak.

The character of the queen, Ranavalona, seems to have been compounded of ignorance, bigotry, and a strong will. Her advisers, however, thought it expedient to proclaim, on all occasions, as the policy of her government, that "nothing is to be changed." It was repeatedly declared, that whatever Radama had ordered, or established, was to remain. Hence the missionaries and their schools were assured at the outset that they would be protected as heretofore. But at the same time there was an avowed attachment to the idols, and to the traditions of Madagascar-a feeling which, in Radama's time, was absent; and this idol-worship necessarily came into collision, on many occasions, with the teaching of the missionaries. The government of the queen, too, was of a wholly different character from that of Radama. It was soon found to be despotically cruel and tyrannical; in short, it quickly became a

reign of terror to Madagascar. The military power which Radama had created for the purpose of maintaining one central, royal authority in the island, was soon, by the queen's advisers, largely augmented, for the purposes of the most terrible oppression. The army was raised by forcible impressment to 25,000 or 30,000 men; and frequent warlike expeditions were sent out, to different parts of the island, to ravage the country and subdue its inhabitants. Thus, in 1831, Rainiharo led a force to the South, into the Betsileo country, surrounded a village containing above 1000 people, killed all the men, and took the women and children captives. Another general, Ravalontsalama, marched to the West, where he was still more successful, bringing back some thousands of captives. In the next year, Rainiharo and Ramboasalama marched to Ivato, a very large town, where they had the pleasure of killing some thousands, and of carrying off 13,000 prisoners. In 1833 Ratsimanisa led a new expedition to the South, killed many, and brought back 2000 captives. In 1834 the force sent out was still more successful, bringing home nearly 10,000. In 1835, a very large expedition, commanded by Rainiharo, was, comparatively, a failure; the army being too large, it suffered much from want of provisions. About 1100 of the soldiers died, and the prisoners taken were only 1000. these continual warlike expeditions it has been computed that, during the first ten or twelve years of the queen's reign, not fewer than 100,000 of the inhabitants of Madagascar were destroyed or reduced to slavery.

By

Such a government could not look favourably on Christian missions; but it was the policy of the queen and her advisers to profess to follow in the steps of the late king. In her speech at the ceremony of her consecration, she had said, addressing the people, "I will not change what Radama and my ancestors have done, but I will add to what they did." In accordance with this profession, she sent a message to the missionaries, assuring them of her intention to carry on the government on the principles adopted by Radama; and to support and encourage all the educational plans to which he had given countenance. But while these were the general professions of the new rulers of Madagascar, their deeds soon showed a totally different bias from that which had been manifested by the late king. For six months the schools were closed, as a part of the public mourning. They were then allowed to be re-opened; but soon after, about seven hundred of the native teachers and elder scholars were withdrawn as recruits for the army. Then came a prohibition to hold any school in the villages where the idols were kept. Under all these circumstances, it is not surprising that the schools exhibited a decline, or that, at the close of 1829, there were less than half of the numbers under instruction that had been found eighteen months before.