not when hedged about with guards and cautions, as the proposed measure is shown to be?

And finally, Presbyterianism cultivates a broad and expanded spirit; and when the reason for a thing is seen to be sufficient, it has less patience than some systems, with the insensate obstructions of custom and prescription. Let then the reason of the principle now proposed be sought-let it be weighed—if found wanting, let it be condemned; but if sufficient, let not its claim be denied. We doubt not, indeed, that some minds, after all that can be said, will still cling, with fond affection, to the idea, that the "office of the ministry is inviolable." But what is inviolable? Is it the spirit of the ministry? No, for this is sometimes lost, although without increasing the liability to ecclesiastical censure. Is it the ability to discharge the duties of the office? No, for this is often cut off by the fiat of Providence.

Of what use then to cling to the inviolability of the empty title, when all that constitutes its significance and value is gone? Why still cherish the mouldering body, when the life, the soul has departed? We would, with the utmost respect, press the question, what in the office of the ministry is inviolable? When both the ability and the spirit which are essential to its exercise are lost, what is it that remains? There remains the legal form, but this surely is not inviolable, for it is of man's creation, and is by man often taken away for crime, why not for disability? What is it then that still remains, what, unless that mysterious "virus," that is supposed to pass from the opus operatum of ordained hands? We must be careful lest the maxim "once a minister, always so," may make us superstitious, instead of reverent.

To the foregoing considerations we might add an argument chosen from convenience and usefulness, but which our readers will doubtless suggest to themselves. When a minister ceases to exercise the ministerial office, he is usually needed in the church and congregation where he resides, as a layman,— perhaps as a trustee, an elder, or deacon,-offices which his superior intelligence qualify him to fill. Remaining a minister, he not only cannot hold these offices, but in nine cases out of ten, cut off from fellowship and sympathy with the people as one of them, he does not lay his hands vigorously to those lay

duties which are open to him. Neither minister nor layman, he is in danger of becoming a cipher, and his usefulness in the church and to the world, is sacrificed to the inviolability of an empty title.

The most painful fact connected with this consideration is, that too often it is illustrated in the religious as well as in the social and ecclesiastical character of ministers occupying this anomalous position. We presume it will be admitted that the piety of ministers who have ceased from their official duties has not always stood the test too well. May not the reason be that first suggested? Retaining the idea that they are still ministers, they hold themselves excused from those duties of laymen which might serve to cultivate piety, and which would be met and discharged with the happiest effect were the ministerial office laid altogether aside. But their position in the ministry is not such as to afford a substitute for those duties. They are thus deprived, on each hand, of important aids which God has thought necessary for the cultivation of piety. No wonder that when the harness is thus put off, and the sword rests in its scabbard, when responsibility is forgotten, and the Divinely appointed means of grace ignored, as the strength withers the heart should also grow cold, and that so often we should be found to blush that such a man is still in regular standing as a minister of the Presbyterian Church. Something like these evils seems to have been in the mind of a writer in this Review, when he said, (Sept. 1852) the "worst use you can put a man to, is to hang him." Very true, but suppose the man has already hung himself, the worst use you can make of his name is to retain it on the roll of your army, where it will deceive you by an empty show of strength, and dishonor you before the world by revealing your uncertain and confused organization. Let it not be forgotten that we recommend demission not as a substitute for that sympathy and encouragement to the feeble or the faint hearted, which Witherspoon, Alison, and McWhorter suggested, but as a means of relieving the honor and sacredness of the office from the burden of the those who are already lost to its effective labor. will be, and must be, who will in practice demit forever the sacred office; shall useless names be retained at the expense of

names

of

Men there

so much inconvenience, evil and loss, as have been pointed out; or shall human ordination be subordinate to the Almighty decree, and names and laws conform to irreversible facts?

ARTICLE VII.

"Memoire du Sr: D'Iberville sur le pays du Mississippi." 1702. (Manuscript.)

Histoire de la Nouvelle France, Par le P. De Charlevoix. A Paris. 1744. 3 vols. quarto.

Historical collections of Louisiana. 5 vols.

Annals of the Minnesota Historical Society. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4.

It is a fact difficult to realize, that some years before an European vessel of any kind entered the mouth of the Mississippi, the shores twenty-three hundred miles above had been explored, and one of its large western tributaries stretching towards, and at seasons interlocking with the streams that flow into Hudson's Bay, had been ascended for many miles.

About the time that Hennepin returned to France, to tell "lying wonders" concerning his captivity among the fierce Dakotas, his noble hearted patron, La Salle, by way of Chicago, and the Illinois river, descended the Mississippi with frail canoes, and near its mouth, chanted the "Te Deum," and buried the leaden plate to mark the discovery.

After this voyage, hope began to revive in the breast of the oft-disappointed explorer. He saw that it was practicable to export heavy buffalo robes, by way of this stream, direct to France, and he anticipated wealth, and the glory of building up another colony for France, in the valley of the Mississippi.

Repairing to Paris, he obtained the favor of government, and four vessels, with two hundred and eighty persons, were placed at his disposal. The fleet sailed on the 24th of July, 1684, and at the commencement of the next year they were off the coast of Texas, having missed the mouth of the Mississippi. A portion of the fleet stranded on the shoals and great heaviness of

heart prevailed. La Salle made several expeditions in search of the Mississippi, but without success. On the 12th of Janu

ary, 1687, with sixteen of his party, he commenced a journey to the Illinois river, expecting to go from thence to Canada and France, and obtain fresh supplies. While travelling over the boundless prairies a spirit of revolt arose, and in the month of March, the brave and unsuspecting explorer, was shot in the head while in conversation with one of his men.*

In the archives of the Marine Department at Paris, there is a manuscript, the title of which is at the head of this Article. The mantle of La Salle appears to have fallen upon the writer of the "Memoire." D'Iberville was no mean man. He belonged to one of those families that seem destined for public life. His father had been influential in the affairs of Canada, and gave to the world not less than eleven sons, natives of Canada, all of whom "acted well their parts." One was a Captain of Marine, and was wounded during the attack of the English on Quebec, in 1690; a second one had the same rank, and was killed by the English colonists in Carolina; a third was murdered by the Iroquois; a fourth was the commandant at Rochester; a fifth met his brother's fate among the Iroquois ; a sixth was Governor of Cayenne; a seventh was an officer of Marine; an eighth a Captain of Infantry, was killed by the Indians in Louisiana; a ninth died at Biloxi; a tenth was, like the author of the "Me- . moire," Governor of Louisiana. He had, when a mere stripling, distinguished himself in naval conflicts with the English, in Hudson's Bay, and was favorably known in the mother country.

In 1698 he was appointed to complete the exploration, so unhappily terminated by the death of La Salle, and in January, 1699, landed his company of colonists on Ship Island in the Gulf of Mexico. With two barges, one commanded by his brother Bienville, he started on the 27th of February, in search of the Mississippi, and on the second day of March entered the mouth of the long sought stream.

"On the 14th, the party arrived at the Bayagoula and Mongoulacha nations, numbering about eight hundred warriors. They found here several cloth cloaks which had been given

*Jontel's Journal in French's Collections.

them by Mr. de la Salle. These nations received them very kindly and gave them some chickens to eat, which they said had come from a ship that had been wrecked on the coast about four years before. Mr. D'Iberville was still uncertain whether it was the Mississippi, having met with no Indians which had been described by de la Salle, until it was told him that the Tangipaos had been destroyed by the Quinipissas, and that they had taken the name of the Mongoulachas. It was here, while looking for Father Anostases' breviary, they found several prayer books in an Indian basket, in which were written the names of several Canadians, who had accompanied de la Salle down the river; together with a letter addressed to him by the Chevalier de Tonty. * * * * This discovery now relieved them from all doubt of the river they were in, and they ascertained the Mississippi to be in about twenty-nine degrees north latitude. A coat of mail was also found here which the Indians said had once belonged to Ferdinand de Soto."*

Returning from this expedition, D'Iberville established a fort at Biloxi, which he entrusted to his brothers Bienville and Sauvolle, and then, on the 4th of May, sailed for France.

On the 7th of December, 1699, the guns of the fort announced his return, with two frigates and many passengers, among others, Le Sueur, his relative,† the explorer of the Minnesota river, with thirty miners, despatched by L'Huillier, Farmer General of France, to work some supposed copper mines on the Mankahto river, in the far distant region, now the territory of Minnesota.

On the 10th of February, 1702, Le Sueur returned from the Mankahto to the Gulf of Mexico, and found D'Iberville absent. On the 18th of March he again arrived from France, with supplies, and after spending a few weeks, he again set sail for the old country, Le Sueur accompanying him.

The manuscript, of which we propose to give an abstract, was completed on board of the ship, on the 20th day of June, and was no doubt, in part, the labor of Le Sueur, whose acquaintance with the Indian nations had been so extensive. The title of the manuscript is, "Memorial of M. D'Iberville upon the country of the Mississippi, the Mobile and its environs, their * La Harpe's Louisiane. † Charlevoix.