lence. To this it may be added, that, if the reputation of the theological learning of our English Church has travelled into the remotest parts of Europe, it is principally through the writings of this eminent scholar and divine; who like Hooker of old, still remains in a private station. Such a rank indeed its faithful sons and defenders will ever feel proud to adorn.-That the principles of the Roman Catholic Church as discriminated from those of our Protestant, should have been traced by our author's penetrating mind, and exhibited by his luminous exposition appears non sine numine, at a time when a right understanding of the principles of the Roman Catholics is of more than ordinary importance. Against the persons and even the principles of our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, we trust that we entertain no undue prejudice, nor any sentiment of po lemical asperity. We wish that toleration in its fullest measure should be extended to them, as well to every one of those Protestant sects which are unhappily divided from the unity of our established national Church. But we conceive that the cause of toleration itself is deeply concerned in withholding political power from the Roman Catholics, upon the clear and masterly representation of their real tenets with which Dr. Marsh has presented us.

The revival of the Jesuits at the present crisis, does not af ford a very flattering prospect of any mitigation of the obnoxious tenets of the Church of Rome, nor does it evince that the pontifical see from which this restoration emanated, as it is the first fruits of the restoration of the present Ponuff to his spiritual and temporal power, has changed its views, or abated its claims. We know that every dangerous tenet which rendered the Roman Catholic religion obnoxious to the legiti mate power of the magistrate, was in that order sublimated to the highest pitch of absolute infallibility and formed the very basis of their society. Those maxims of paramount authority on the part of the Pontiff, and of the most prostrate submission on that of his spiritual subjects, which other orders of Roman Catholics received with more or less limitation or qualification, they advanced without restriction or disguise. They hampered themselves with none of the distinctions by which others endeavoured to reconcile the minds of men to those unpalatable doctrines. By a system of contrivance, which the world never before witnessed, they obtained the most complete command over the consciences of men through their favourite passions that could be believed. But their spiritual empire. they employed with unrivalled skill in acquiring political ascendancy, and in such encroachments upon the power of the magistrate, as endangered his person and undermined his autho

rity.

VOL. III. MAY, 1815.

rity. These designs were accomplished by intrigue, so consummate, and, cunning so irresistible as to baffle every effort to obstruct their views or counteract their designs. Wars, discords, tumults, and assassinations were the result of their incessant struggles and stratagems. These were carried to such a length, that even in countries most zealously attached to the Roman Catholic religion, they became absolutely intolerable. The Jesuits were successively driven from France, Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, and even after they had retired to the papal dominions and other parts of Italy, they still so continued their course of action, that it was conceived that nothing short of the extinction of their order could restore tranquillity and security even to the Roman Catholic States of Europe. The favourable moment was therefore seized upon when an amiable and mild Pontiff was in possession of the popedom, who, notwithstanding all the native worth and humanity of his disposition, reluctantly (as it was asserted by some) consented to their abolition.

The revival of an order which was so recently abolished, under such circumstances and on such motives, we cannot construe in any other manner, than as an indication on the part of the reigning Pontiff to assert the highest claims of jurisdiction which have at any time been advanced by his predecessors. And we think it can scarcely be denied that the grant of political power, such power as that which is included under the project of emancipation, though extremely unsafe under any circumstances, is attended with peculiar danger, during the present convulsed and unsettled state of human affairs.

We concur with the worthy professor in his sentiments concerning the Inquisition, in which within the compass of a few sentences he has conveyed the true character of that tribunal. The recent revival of this in Spain cannot but give concern even to very many moderate Roman Catholics, who, we believe are animated by sentiments of real humanity and goodness. This assuredly does not allow us to hope that the spirit upon which the governing power in the Roman Church acts, has undergone that melioration and abatement which is so often contended for by the Protestant advocates of emancipation, and which we, who have every charitable wish to our fellow-subjects, would have been happy to have traced, and forward to have acknowledged. But in fact, those events which even Roman Catholics must lament as well as ourselves, and which some of their very ablest writers do lament, point out the extreme dauger of departing from the spirit and letter of our constitu tion as established at the grand Revolution, 1688. It is indeed impossible not to see that the same circumstances, under which our

ancestors

ancestors recognised the most imminent danger in admitting those of the Roman Catholic persuasion into political power, still remain in their unabated force. It surely must seem almost impracticable for those who diligently attend to the irresistible reasoning of the learned Professor, to admit those whose consciences are fettered by an exclusive religion and subject to a foreign head, to a grant of civil authority in a constitution consisting of a free state essentially and inseparably connected with a Protestant Church establishment, and a Protestant Monarch at the head of both. In truth, what the Roman Catholics now claim, must sweep away, like so many ancient cobwebs, the test and corporation laws, and every other protecting sanction by which an established Church is guarded. And what is the ground on which this momentous and perilous alteration is to be made.? That dissidents from our Church may be admitted into the benefits of the British Constitution. This is a contradiction in itself for if the test and corporation laws are abolished, and of consequence the establishment by being laid open to the incursions of its opponents, is weakened and destroyed, the constitution we contend for, as settled at the Revolution, must fall with it, because it was specifically delivered down to us, as a constitution in Church and State. If a grand component part is withdrawn, the benefit of the combination must be lost, and the same result cannot be expected; and we would confidently ask, what has been, since that happy æra of true civil and religious liberty, this result? The most equal and impartial administration of justice, dispersed without a shadow of. complaint or a single exception among those of all sects and denominations; a protection of liberty, property, and comfort without the smallest regard to religious differences; the rights of conscience respected in the most complete extension of religious liberty to every man in the public profession of whatever creed he may think it right to adopt, and in the most effective protection of whatever public form of worship he may chuse to exercise. These are indeed the benefits of the English Constitution in Church and State: and we trust that considerate men even among those who may differ from us, will discern the interest they have in its preservation, and be convinced of the shortsightedness of expecting the benefits of refuge and shelter in this noble edifice, the foundation of which they have previously destroyed. And it may here be reasonably asked, whether if our excellent establishment be undermined and ultimately destroyed, any system more favourable to real civil and religious liberty can be expected, either in the prevalence of a wild anarchy, or in the predominance of a less tolerant

sect.

The practical conclusion from all that the learned Professor has advanced in this comparative view, we think is, that all concession of political power (for of the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty we rejoice that the Roman Catholics are in complete possession) to those who acknowledge the spiritual supremacy of a foreign potentate, could not but be attended with extreme hazard, in all its extended results and conse. quences. And the stress the Professor lays upon this circumstance appears to be most able and judicious, from the slight and very indefinite boundaries which even sophistry can institute between spiritual and civil jurisdiction.

The inexpediency of allowing men professing such principles as the Romanists of the present day are proved to entertain, to legislate for a Protestant Church, even they themselves cannot with consistency deny. As by far, the most numerous party among them, sanctioned, as we believe, by the Pontiff himself, deny to a Protestant Parliament the smallest interference with their ecclesiastical system in the provision of those safeguards which may be thought necessary to secure the Protestant establishment, how can they in reason suppose that we shall concede to them that place in our Senate, which will enable them to take a share in every enactment relative to the discipline, the order, and the revenues of the established Church? The very interference against which in their own case they so strongly protest, they would require us in ours to concede.

To close all, we cannot but rejoice, whatever may be the re. sult of the eventful period in which our lot is cast, to our national Church, that she has found among her sons a defender in every way so worthy of her; who in so many various directions and against so many opposite assaults, has sustained her cause, in a manner which even her adversaries must respect, and which would have adorned her best and brightest ages. The consciousness of an intrepid discharge of duty, and the affectionate gratitude of those who have understanding enough to appreciate, and heart enough to feel the value of his labours, will be his first, his best reward. The younger part of the University we cannot but congratulate upon the possession of such a guardian of sound principle, and of such a guide in their theological

career,

Tua dicere facta

Assuescant, primis et te mirentur ab annis.

ART.

ART. V. Paris Chit-Chat, or a View of the Society, Manners, Customs, Literature, and Amusements of the Parisians. 2 vols. 12mo. 10s. Hookham. 1815.

DURING the short interval of repose which the passing events of the last year afforded us, the intercourse between the two rival powers was considerable, but the amalgamation of society and manners was by no means proportionate. John Bull returned from Paris, for the first time, with his native simplicity unencumbered by an aukward imitation of foreign elegance, and with his honest patriotism uncorrupted by the frivilous and contemptible sophisms of French philosophy. On the contrary, we believe that the French became imitators of the English, who introduced both in dress and manners far more elegance than they found. The jealousy of the nation was not a little roused, as appears indeed from the book before us, by the general adoption of bonnets, hats, coats, and gaiters a l'Anglaise. But as our travellers imported neither principles nor manners from the opposite continent, neither did they import any information respecting the society, the literature, or the life of the Parisians. We have seen many of the tours which the present year has presented to the world, with all of which our curiosity would tempt us to quarrel, did not our patriotism get the better of our taste, so purely English are they all. An enumeration, generally inaccurate, of the wonders of the Louvre, a catalogue, sufficiently meagre, of the public amusements, a description, provokingly dry, of the streets of Paris and the turnpike roads of the country form the sum total of a continental tour, which is presented with appropriate solemnity to the publie as an introduction to Parisian life and manners.

We consider the volumes before us as the only true French publication which has yet appeared in the country, the only one we mean, which acquaints us with the character, introduces us to the society, and initiates us in the turn of sentiment which prevails in that nation. It is a continuation of a series of Essays under the name of the "Franc Parleur," which was received with much approbation at Paris; it presents us with detached histories, anecdotes, and essays which develope the French character in a manner far more satisfactory than any publication which we have yet read.

We were much pleased with an essay on courtiers and their flattery, which in the reign of Louis the XIVth was carried, as an art, to an extent which to an Englishman is almost incredi ble. The courtiers of that day appears so accurately to have

studied