and reverenced; but the best mode of securing due reverence by promoting attempts at imitation, and no attempts at imitatio are so efficacious as those which are based upon the endeavour express equally well in other languages that which is most ne to perfection in our own. We think that Mr. Hodgson has oft contrived so aptly to render some of the most beautiful passag in Scripture, that a school-boy following in his path, would fe that a new light had flashed across him, and be tempted to se for further and deeper meaning in other passages hitherto b carelessly observed. This is surely a result the importance which cannot be over-estimated, and it is one which, we rejoice know, entered into the hopes of the amiable and accomplish scholar, when he undertook this arduous and enterprising tas In the preface to the "Select Portions of Sacred History, which the "Sacred Lyrics" are announced as intended to follo he says

"If by these means any portion of additional knowledge of t Scriptures shall be conveyed to those of our youth who are engaged the study of the Classics, the author will indeed have reason to rejoi in the time and attention that he has bestowed on such an unde taking."

We, too, heartily rejoice in this further proof, that those whom education in these our days is intrusted, are alive to t vast importance of losing no opportunity of doing all to the glo of Him "who touched Isaiah's holy lips with fire," and who word cannot be seriously pondered, without rendering the eloque more eloquent, and yet more humble; the learned more learne and yet more anxious to be taught.

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We trust that works such as those we have referred to, ar studies such as those we have recommended, may long continu to form a part of the education of our boys and young men. believe the cultivation of a pure taste and classical style is mo easily to be pursued by such means, and that the acquisition of pure taste and classical style cannot be made without the acqu sition of other advantages of the utmost value and importanc which it is our duty strenuously to attempt to ensure. We ar therefore, most grateful to those who pave the way for our yout first to imitate, and then to admire-as those alone can admir who have tried to imitate-the beauties of thought, and languag (models for all time to come), which teem in the pages of Lucr tius and Virgil, of Ovid, of Horace, and of Catullus. On impregnated with the choicest of those thoughts and masters the flowers of that language, they will, in our opinion, infallib become abler, wiser, and nobler men.

ART. III.—1. Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England. By JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, D.D., Priest of the Congregation of St. Philip Neri. London: Burns and Lambert. 8vo. pp. 388.

2. Newman and the Protestant Logic. From the "Weekly Dispatch," September 28, 1851.

3. Discourses to Mixed Congregations. By JOHN HENRY NEWMAN. Second Edition. London: Longmans. 8vo. pp. 402. 4. Letters to a Seceder from the Church of England to the Communion of Rome. By W. E. SCUDAMORE, M.A., Rector of Ditchingham. London: Rivingtons. 8vo. pp. 326.

5. A Letter to the Rev. Dr. Marshall, late a Clergyman of the Church of England, now a Roman Priest. By the Rev. E. A. STOPFORD, Archdeacon of Meath, and Rector of Kells. Second Edition. London: Rivingtons. pp. 60.

6. Report on the Law of Mortmain. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, July 17, 1851. pp. 690.

7. A Continuous Confutation of the Birmingham Lectures. By PRESBYTER. London: Masters. pp. 63.

BEFORE entering upon the subject of this paper, we must apologize to our readers for placing at the head of it any extract from the columns of so disreputable a journal as the "Weekly Dispatch." Before it is finished, we trust to be able to show that we have good and sufficient reasons for so doing.

Our object in writing this paper is twofold. The main idea which pervades Dr. Newman's Birmingham Lectures, the work which has gained for its author, of all his productions, the largest share of notoriety, is this-that "Protestants" have such a very indistinct notion of the real merits or demerits of Romanismtheir prejudices are so inveterate-their passions so strong-their "evidence" so entirely based on fraudulent misrepresentation, and cool deliberate "lying"-that they are utterly unqualified for coming to any thing like a correct judgment respecting it. We purpose then, first, to examine, somewhat in detail, the Lectures themselves, correcting as we go on, a few of the "errors" into VOL. XVII.-NO. XXXIII.—APRIL, 1852.

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which Dr. Newman has fallen. We purpose, afterwards, to in quire whether, independently of historical testimony, irrespectiv of its own internal organization, there have not occurred a numbe of facts, within the last few years, which do altogether of them selves, justify "Protestants" in entertaining that deep-seate suspicion and mistrust of Romanism which, most undoubtedly does exist among us―

"If," says Dr. Newman in his fourth lecture, "you would have som direct downright proof that Catholicism is what Protestants make it t be, something which will come up to the mark, you must lie; else yo will not get beyond feeble suspicions, which may be right, but may b wrong. Hence Protestants are obliged to cut their ninth command ment out of their Decalogue. Thou shalt not bear false witnes against thy neighbour' must go, must disappear; their position require the sacrifice. The substance, the force, the edge of their Tradition slander 1."

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We say nothing of the elegance of the phraseology employe in this passage, nor of the rashness of the allusion to a mutilatio of the Decalogue; we quote it as containing the real germ of th whole series of Lectures. We purpose then, to combat Dr. New man's assertion; to show, if there be any "lying" in the matter to which side of the question it may most properly be ascribed.

Before, however, we proceed to the main business of this paper we purpose to take a cursory glance at the volume of "Sermon to mixed Congregations," of which the second edition, publishe in the last year, is now lying before us; prefacing that glance b a few brief remarks of a personal nature, as to the estimate w have been compelled to form, from his writings, and from ther only, of the character of the author. We deeply regret to sa that that estimate is most unfavourable to Dr. Newman. And in stating this, we claim the right of being believed, when w declare that this opinion is not one of our own seeking, is not th result of prejudice, but is forced upon us by circumstances. W should be ashamed of ourselves if the mere fact of Dr. Newman position should, in the smallest degree, cause us to judge hir harshly or unfairly. We can respect an opponent while compelle to differ from him. We would most gladly, if we dared, join wit the able writer of the "Continuous Confutation" in expressin "our sincere admiration for Dr. Newman personally, and our ful persuasion of his conscious sincerity." But we dare not do so We cannot entertain a "sincere admiration" of one who, as in hi Birmingham Lectures, has descended from the high position h once held, to a level with the mountebank and the buffoon.

1 P. 122.

Our notice of the "Sermons' "must be very brief. Eloquent they undoubtedly are, and earnest, but they afford very sad evidence of the transformation which the grave, thoughtful, unimpassioned vicar of St. Mary's has undergone since his perversion. Wonderful it is even to imagine that many passages of the volume before us could possibly have been delivered by him from the pulpit. We are not now speaking of doctrine, but simply of the difference of style. Let any of our readers take up a volume of the sermons preached at St. Mary's, and then read the following extract; and let him say whether it is not very difficult to believe in the personal identity of the writer.

....

"O what a moment for the poor soul, when it comes to itself, and finds itself suddenly before the judgment-seat of Christ. . . . . And, oh! still more terrible, still more distracting, when the Judge speaks, and consigns it to the jailors, till it shall pay the endless debt which lies against it! 'Impossible, I a lost soul! I separated from hope and from peace for ever! It is not I of whom the Judge so spake! There is a mistake somewhere; Christ, Saviour, hold Thy hand,—one minute to explain it ! My name is Demas: I am but Demas, not Judas, or Nicolas, or Alexander, or Philetus, or Diotrephes. What? eternal pain! for me! impossible, it shall not be.' And the poor soul struggles and wrestles in the grasp of the mighty demon which has hold of it, and whose every touch is torment. O, atrocious!' it shrieks in agony, and in anger too, as if the very keenness of the infliction were a proof of its injustice. A second! and a third! I can bear no more! stop, horrible fiend, give over; I am a man, and not such as thou! I am not food for thee, or sport for thee! I never was in hell as thou, I have not on me the smell of fire, nor the taint of the charnelhouse '!'"

And again—

"You think it the sign of a gentleman to set yourselves above religion, to criticise the religious and professors of religion, to look at Catholic and Methodist with impartial contempt, to gain a smattering of knowledge on a number of subjects, to dip into a number of frivolous publications, if they are popular, to have read the latest novel, to have heard the singer and seen the actor of the day, to be up to the news, to know the names, and, if so be, the persons of public men, to be able to bow to them, to walk up and down the street with your heads on high, and to stare at whatever meets you ;-and to say and do worse things, of which these outward extravagances are but the symbol 3."

Side by side with this we would place the following passage from the Birmingham Lectures :

has deliberately falsified Holy Scripture for the sake of his ow hypothesis.

But let us turn our attention from the Sermons to that pro duction of Dr. Newman's, which it is the more especial object o this paper to discuss, we mean his "Lectures on the Presen Position of Catholics in England,"-a production of which the whole "Catholic" world has sounded the praise; which is looke upon as a death-blow to "Protestantism," from which it is a moral impossibility that it should ever recover. We very much doubt if the time will not come, when the "Catholic" church will deeply regret the sanction it has given to this publication It was shrewdly observed by Dr. Wordsworth, in his Letters to M. Gondon, that by the publication of his " Essay on Develop ment," Dr. Newman had really committed a very grievous injury against the Church of Rome; that, so far from rejoicing over she ought rather earnestly to deplore that publication. We firmly believe such to be the case now. As, in that instance Dr. Newman has shut the door for ever against any appeal to Primitive antiquity, in support of the peculiar dogmas of the Romish Church; so, in the present case, he has cut the ground from under the feet of those persons who, like innocent Mr Dodsworth, wish to exonerate their religion from the charge of "superstition;" he has, as we will show plainly enough ere this paper is finished, by his rash assertions respecting Romish miracles, done more than any man living to let in a flood of scep ticism and infidelity. We honestly believe, spite of the éclat by which his slanders against the Church he has deserted have been hitherto received in the "Catholic" world, that Dr. Newman ought, if he had his real deserts, to be considered the evil genius of the Romish Communion.

Within the limits of a paper like this, it is obviously impossible that we can pretend to any thing like a critical and detailed examination of the whole of the Lectures; we can only touch upon a few of the most salient points; can only expose a few of the "errors" into which the writer has fallen.

And first, we would say a few words on the miserable sophistry by which Dr. Newman has endeavoured to throw dust in the eyes of the English people, to blind their judgments respecting the Jesuits.

"If," he says, "there is any set of men in the whole world who are railed against as the pattern of all that is evil, it is the Jesuit body. It is vain to ask their slanderers what they know of them; did they ever see a Jesuit? can they say whether they are many or few? what do they know of their teaching? Oh! it is quite notorious,' they reply;