had set his heart, and in which the rights and happiness of the community were involved. He has revealed to us the principle by which he was actuated, in the following advice to Lord Devon, then a master in Chancery, and who had asked him, on his appointment, whether he ought not, under the circumstances, to resign his retainer as the standing counsel for Queen Anne's bounty: Speaking as a friend,' said he, I would advise you 'to do no such thing; the true rule, I fancy, is to get what you 'can, and keep what you have.' His piety was intolerance of all religious interests and objects that interfered with his idea of a church. He was not only a bigot, but the impersonation of bigotry-a bigotry equally removed from enthusiasm and fanaticism. Enthusiasm has the glory of the sun to kindle up its mists and clouds with beauty. Fanaticism has thunder and lightning, and meteors in its gloom. But the malignant spirit of bigotry shrouds itself in the palpable obscure, and spreads around it only darkness and terror. Lord Eldon was consistent in his bigotry-it governed his mind and his heart. If the enfranchisement of the Jews was contemplated, he could not listen to the proposal, for Christianity was the law of the land. If catholic emancipation was desiderated, it could not be granted, for the revolution had bound us, hand and foot, to protestantism. If protestant dissenters demanded the repeal of the persecuting statutes by which they were degraded, he informed them that their disabilities were bulwarks of the national establishment. And what was his idea of this said establishment-or, as he calls it, in one of his letters, The poor old church.' How little he understood both the nature and character of the church, is evident from his memorable apophthegm,' as Mr. Twiss designates it, in which he says- My opinion is, that the establishment is formed, not for the purpose of making the church political, but for the purpose of making the state religious.' This sounds very well. But the church, as an establishment, is the mere creature of the state. The more despotic the government, the more obsequious the priesthood. As the chief patronage of the church was in the hands of Lord Eldon for a quarter of a century, the character of the clergy promoted and presented to livings, and other ecclesiastical preferments, by him during that time, are, we fear, evidence by which to test the truth and prove the fallacy of his apophthegm. Have they made the state religious? Mr. Twiss admits that in his distribution of church livings he gave too little to eminent ability and learning. He gave less to eminent piety; but it seems he did promote Maurice, the author of the Indian Antiquities,' Benson, now master of the Temple, and Phillpotts, now Bishop of Exeter. A protégé of the Duke of Wellington, too,

NO. I.

Y

shared in his patronage. His claims to the chancellor's favour are thus stated in the duke's application on his behalf:

-

'I will not detain your lordship by enumerating his services; but I must say this for him, that, by his admirable conduct and good sense, I was enabled more than once to get the better of methodism which had appeared among the soldiers, and once among the officers.

The advocates of liberal principles were generally denounced by Lord Eldon and his party as the enemies of religion, as the abettors of infidelity and atheism ;-men who, outwardly, at least, showed their reverence for the religious institutions of their country by their attendance on public worship, which by him were habitually neglected.

'It is true, perhaps, that he was not sufficiently attentive to external observances; indeed, for many months in each year, during the pressure of official business, his devotions were almost wholly private. It may be some apology that he had begun life at a time when the duty of public worship was not so generally regarded as it is now; but it is said that Sir Samuel Romilly, who attended the parish church at which the chancellor ought to have been, used to comment, with no slight severity, on never seeing him there.' On an occasion when his merits were in discussion among some lawyers, one of them, a warm partisan of the chancellor, called him one of the pillars of the church; 'No,' said another, he may be one of its buttresses, but certainly not one of its pillars, for he is never found within it.''—Vol. iii. pp. 488-9.

These memoirs of the Earl of Eldon bring us down to the period when the storms which threatened to overwhelm the country with the disastrous effects of tyranny and anarchy, and which raged with greater or less fury for nearly half a century, are hushed into something like a healthy repose. In spite of the eloquent lament of Burke in the eighteenth century, and the forensic drivelling of Eldon in the nineteenth, the cause of popular freedom has advanced; and our own halting statesmen will ere long be taught that civil and religious liberty must triumph over partial legislation, aristocratic feudalism, and the intolerance of secularized religious pretensions.

On the 13th of January, 1838, in the 87th year of his Lord Eldon departed this life.

age,

He died full of years, riches, and honours. And this a man may do without conferring any solid benefits on his own generation, and without any title to the grateful homage of posterity. There have been public men, whose sincerity no one who knew them could question, and yet their country was all the worse for their patriotism. Like unskilful pilots, they foundered the vessel they undertook to steer, or, if it escaped destruction, it was their timely removal from the helm that averted the catastrophe.

323

BOOKS AND LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC

INTELLIGENCE.

The Philosophy of Christian Morals. By SAMUEL SPALDING, M.A., 8vo, pp. 430. London, 1843.

THE author of this volume was a student in Coward College, and prosecuted his studies in general literature and science in the classes of University College, London. In taking his degree, Mr. Spalding distinguished himself in the examinations on Mental and Moral Philosophy; and during the years of ill-health which followed, until his decease at the age of thirty-six, he found his chief employment in preparing this work for the press. The subject is one of great importance. Our theology, and our general intelligence, have suffered much from the inadequateness of the attention which has been paid to it. The book treats luminously and powerfully on the origin, nature, objects, and law of our moral emotions; and, without pledging ourselves to every sentiment which it contains, we most cordially recommend it to the attention of our readers. It is a work which reminds us forcibly of the tone of culture on such subjects that should be more encouraged in our colleges.

The Protestant Reformation in all Countries; including Sketches of the State and Prospects of the Reformed Churches. A Book for Critical Times. By the Rev. JOHN MORISON, D.D. London. 8vo, pp. 527.

This work embraces a view of the state of Europe previous to the commencement of the Lutheran Reformation, and tracing the progress of protestantism in the different nations of Christendom during the sixteenth century, concludes with an estimate of the condition and prospects of the reformed faith in our own times. While the field chosen by Dr. Morison is thus comprehensive, we need not say that the subject is one of deep interest, and we are happy in bearing our testimony to the ability, the judgment, the piety, and the earnestness with which the author has executed his plan. We know of no one volume beside on this subject containing so much to give it value; and the adaptation of the work to the critical,' in the times in which we live, gives it a special claim on public attention.

The History of the London Missionary Society, comprising an account of the Origin of the Society; Biographical Notices of some of its Founders and Missionaries, with a record of its Progress at home and its Operations abroad. Compiled from original documents in the possession of the Society. By WILLIAM ELLIS. Vol. I. pp. 579. Snow, London, 1844.

This volume embraces a history of the London Missionary Society, in its connexion with the South Sea Islands, and with the countries beyond the Ganges, from the commencement of its labours to the present time. The Tahiti question and the China question are here calmly and ably exhibited in their full relation to history, and in the posture which the affairs of the society had assumed in those quarters up to September last. All that is gloomy and foreboding in the one region, and all that is bright and animating in the other, are accordingly here. The great and good men who have filled up the chain of these apostolic labours through half a century in those distant regions, all find their just memorial in this volume; and we earnestly hope that it will be extensively read by the friends of missions generally, and that no vestry library, or congregational reading society in Great Britain or Ireland, will be without a copy of it.

Chemistry, as Exemplifying the Wisdom and Beneficence of God. By GEORGE FOWNES, Ph. D. 12mo, pp. 184. Churchill, London. This book throws further light on one branch of the argument so admirably conducted by Paley in his Natural Theology.' The trustees of the Royal Institution of London, have a septennial prize of One Hundred Guineas placed at their disposal for the benefit of the author of the best essay on some subject of this nature. In the competition of the last year this prize was awarded to the author of the above essay. We scarcely need say more to recommend the volume to that portion of our readers who are interested in such inquiries.

Critical Essays on a few subjects connected with the History and Present Condition of Speculative Philosophy. By FRANCIS BOWEN, A.M. 12mo, pp. 352. Boston. Wiley and Putnam, London.

This is a collection of Essays which have appeared in the American Christian Examiner,' or in the North American Review.' The Essays are on the following subjects:-Locke and the Transcendentalists. Kant and his Philosophy. Fichte's Exposition of Kant: Philosophy applied to Theology. The Philosophy of Cousin. Paley: the Argument for the Being of a God.-Subject continued: the Union of Theology with Metaphysics. Berkeley and his Philosophy. Elements of Moral Science. Political Ethics.

This is an admirable volume, teeming with proofs of learning, acuteness, and sound judgment. The author has traversed the shadowy regions of the German philosophy, and has discriminated between its evidence and its dogmatism; its wisdom and its folly; its religion and

its irreligion; with greater force and justness than any writer with whom we are acquainted. We do not accord with all his conclusions, but, in the main, there is a strong English sense in this transatlantic brother, which, as contrasted with the ignorant wonder or besotted worship wherewith the Teutonic mysticism is regarded by many among ourselves, has been to us not a little refreshing. The characteristics of the English, German, and French schools of philosophy are all clearly indicated in these different papers, and to any mind disposed to studies of this nature the volume must be eminently acceptable.

A Series of Discourses on the proper Deity of the Son of God, and the primary design of his Mission. By the REV. T. EAST, of Birmingham. 8vo, pp. 440. Bartlett, London.

Mr. East's work is the result of a long and careful attention to the teachings of Holy Writ. It is an instructive illustration, also, of what may be done by long practice in the way of giving clearness, point, and force-we had almost said irresistible force, to the lessons of that volume. As a popular treatment of the controversy to which it relates, the work stands alone in our language. It possesses all the solid strength of Fuller, with treble-fold the spirit of that writer. Mr. East is even more positive in his announcements than his highly gifted predecessor, but he is also a man of more varied reading, of higher cultivation, and with more to justify him in his tone of severity, is certainly less capable of showing mercy to an adversary. He takes the same firm hold on his subject from the beginning of the volume to the end, and does not leave the argument which he assails, until the last shred of consistency seems to be shaken from it. It is the book which the student of divinity should read as his first book on the subject; he will then be prepared to proceed with advantage to the perusal of our more critical and erudite treatises on the same argument. We shall probably have occasion to return to this volume, but for the present must restrict ourselves to saying thus much in its favour.

The Aristocracy of Britain and the Laws of Entail and Primogeniture, judged by recent French writers; being selections from the works of Passy, Beaumont, O'Connor, Sismondi, Buret, Guizot, Constant, Dupin, Say, Blanqui, and Mignet: showing the advantage of the Law of Equal Succession, with Explanatory and Statistical Notes. 12mo, pp. 232. London.

This work is of similar import with the preceding. The peace of 1815, restored kings to the continental nations, but did not restore nobles. The wealth and privileges of the English aristocracy, accordingly, have no parallel in those countries; and this distinction, in which Englishmen are sometimes disposed to pride themselves, is pointed at by the most distinguished writers and statesmen of France, as one which must cease, at least comparatively, if our nation itself is not to come to an end. It is our habit to conclude that what has