follows, and the touching allusion to the restlessness of disease and sorrow under which he was gradually sinking to the grave..

'Dear Robert,

''PULL TOGETHER,'-yes, with all our hearts, and hands, and strength. Let us be decided on that. Let us not be over sanguinelet us not give up plans that have been long matured, to please any individual. Let us concentrate our exertions-let our plans be formed on the broad scale. The Lord make us humble, and enable us to display due respect to our fellow servants. It is now midnight, I cannot sleep now-a-days, often till two o'clock in the morning. Ever yours,

'R. Morrison, D.D.

'W. M.'

Mr. Philip's narrative carries us on to the year 1822. Dr. Milne died on the 2nd of June. On the 20th of March we find him writing thus:

This is the third anniversary of my dear Rachel's death. I have done but little in my work since last anniversary, and now it seems doubtful whether I be spared to labor more.-It seems my duty on this occasion, and daily, to pray with submissive earnestness, that I may not be cut off in the midst of my days, but that God may spare me a little till I recover strength before I go hence and be no

more.'

• 1. Until my soul be better prepared for the heavenly world, and have more clear and satisfactory evidence of being in Christ.

2. Until I complete, or put in a more favorable train, some Chinese works, either now on hand or contemplated, for the benefit of the church of Christ among the heathen.

3. Until my children be made better acquainted with the holy Scriptures, and disposed of for their education.

Fully sensible that I deserve not so high a privilege as to be heard on these things, I have this day tried, with a humble and submissive heart, to solicit these blessings as free gifts from the Father of mercies and guide of all my ways.'

The remaining portions of the work discover, on the part of their author, a great deal of patient research, much discrimination-and, on some points, considerable ingenuity. The Lamaism of Asia we may particularly distinguish-and a voice from the tombs of Morrison and Milne to the schools of the prophets, is written with great power. It is, indeed, disfigured with some of the writer's peculiarities of style, which we do not admire.

Before we part with Mr. Philip, we have a duty to perform to the dead as well as to the living. We refer to what he says of the late Robert Hall in his seventeenth chapter, entitled 'Jewish winesses in China.'

After stating, that among the dissenters and methodists the seed of Abraham are almost forgotten except in prayer, and

adding, If we were hardly right when we did something to 'gain the Jews,' we are fearfully wrong now that we do nothing! Mr. Philip remarks

Robert Hall felt this dilemma so painfully, that he plunged into a speculation about the possibility of their salvation, apart from the belief of the Gospel. A paper of his on this subject was published in the Baptist Magazine' some years before he died; and its extravagance excited suspicions, not of his orthodoxy, but of his mental composure at the time.

There was no mystery in it to those who, like myself, had uneasy consciences on the subject. His conscience was not at ease whilst he was doing nothing to gain the Jews; and, as he saw no way of doing anything at the time, he tried to relieve himself from self-condemnation by applying to their case the words of Paul,-without the work of Paul- as concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for your sakes; but as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sake.' Rom. ii. 28. This is, I believe, the real secret of that strange speculation, although his biographers overlooked both.'

Now, from the beginning to the end this is altogether a misrepresentation; Mr. Hall's speculation was not about the possibility of the salvation of the Jews apart from a belief of the gospel. The paper is entitled 'Spiritual Condition and Prospect of the Jews.'-After stating their condition as peculiar, and having shown in what respects it is so, Mr. HalÎ adds— " Their disbelief of the Gospel is supposed, without any exception, to render them liable to the penalties of eternal death. I have sometimes been tempted to doubt this; and the design ' of my addressing you on the present occasion, is briefly to 'state the grounds on which my doubts are founded, not with 'a view to provoke controversy, but solely to elicit the inquiry of superior minds.' This article appeared not in the Baptist Magazine, but in the Christian Repository, published many years since, and edited by Dr. Cox. It was written from a motive totally different from the one assigned to it by Mr. Philip-it was not to relieve a burthened conscience, nor did it expose the illustrious writer to the cruel imputation of having lapsed into insanity;-the piece, whatever Mr. Philip may think, is more easily censured than answered.

Our taste, we are persuaded, will not be questioned, if we assure Mr. Philip that we value the concluding page of this 'strange speculation' of Mr. Hall above many sheets of more modern writing, and we fear not a reflection on our orthodoxy or mental composure, if we conclude our remarks by introducing it to our readers.

The chief practical use to be derived from the hypothesis, which I have ventured to suggest, is to inspire us with an increased tender. ness and respect for the seed of Abraham, as containing, notwithstand

ing its occupying a distinct fold, a portion of the true church of God. If we can be induced to hope that he has still a people among them, we shall be ready to look upon them with something like fraternal affection, and to embrace every opportunity of reprobating and removing the cruel privations and restrictions imposed by Christian nations, who, absurdly imagining that they do an acceptable service to God by their persecution and depression, are, in reality, treasuring up wrath, by aggravating the affliction of those whom he has smitten.' A large arrear of guilt has been contracted by the nations of christendom on this account; and in this age of liberality, when such mighty efforts are made to procure the removal of political disabilities on the score of religion, it is surely high time their attention was turned to the relief of the oppressed and persecuted children of Abraham. Their political emancipation, and restoration to the equal rights of citizenship, might be reasonably expected to soften their prejudices, and dispose them to a more favorable hearing of the Christian cause; nor could anything be more becoming the character and pretensions of the Jewish Society, than to take the lead in that noble enterprise. As the basis of all social virtue is laid in justice, so by none should its obligations be deemed more sacred than by those who make loud professions of Christian zeal and exalted charity.'

Art. VII. Der Hochselige König Friedrich Wilhelm III.; ein Biographisches Denkmal. (The late King Frederic William III.; a Biographical Memoir.) 1 vol. 8vo. Berlin: Heyman. 1840.

THE accession of a new monarch to the throne of Prussia

has given rise to many speculations among political parties in this country with regard to the future prospects of that kingdom, and the line of policy likely to be adopted by the government in the management of its external and internal affairs. Some pretend to see symptoms of an approaching revolution, while others predict with an assurance little short of prophecy, an amicable compromise between the monarch and his subjects, on purely constitutional principles. These political philosophers, however, never consider that of all the states of Germany, Prussia has long since undergone her necessary political revolution. It was the late king himself who effected it, being wise and prudent enough to put himself at its head as soon as it made its appearance. Both in France and Prussia, the cause, effect, and end of the revolution were the same, though the crisis was brought about in each country in a different

VOL. X.

way.

* Hall's Works, vol. iv. p. 473,

G

In France, poverty and the great misery of the lower classes on the one hand, and the most extravagant privileges of the higher classes on the other, had led to those frightful convulsions which changed the whole aspect of her internal affairs, greatly promoted by the success which attended the French arms abroad; while in Prussia the same pernicious influences gave rise to an unhappy war with a foreign foe, which brought about the necessary reforms in the domestic economy of the state. Prussia has had her 20ths of June and 10ths of August, in the memorable days of the battles of Jena and Auerstaedt; she has had her Mirabeaus and Carnots in men like Stein and Gneisenau, and her noble and aristocratic emigrants in her Kleists, Ingersleben, &c.

We have only to cast a scrutinizing look at the alterations and reforms which have taken place in the fundamental laws of Prussia from the peace of Tilsit to the downfall of Napoleon, to be convinced that the so dreaded or anticipated revolution in the north of Germany is long since past. By the edict of the 9th of October, 1807, the right of possessing landed property was extended from the nobility to all classes of society, releasing at the same time the peasantry from the feudal bondage which had continued in full force ever since its introduction in the middle ages. By the ordinances of the 3rd and 6th August, of the same year, corporal punishment was abolished among the military, and promotion in service made independent of birth and family, establishing personal merit and character as the sole principle in military advancement. By a cabinet order of the 19th of November, 1808, municipal rights were conceded to the various communities of the towns and cities, and by a regulation under date of October 30, 1810, the monasteries were abolished, and the old privileges withdrawn from the corporations of the various trades and branches of industry, by which competition and emulation the useful arts were encouraged. In May 1812, the Jews were emancipated, and placed on an equal footing with the other citizens of the realm.

Thus the reforms and ameliorations which France owes to her civil conflict, Prussia is indebted for to her misfortunes in external wars, and to the lesson the monarch was wise enough to derive from them. What is now wanting to ensure the welfare of the nation is, to stamp those humane cabinet-orders with the character of state-laws, to render their existence permanent. V. Raumer justly observes in his work on the State of the Proper Authorities in Prussia,' that 'it is high time to have it clearly understood that among a nation possessing 'neither diets nor representatives, and whose government is strictly despotic, true talent for administration on the one hand, and a due sense of salutary obedience on the other, are

'altogether out of the question, since there is no power estab'lished by law, authorized to interfere with the tyrannical 'measures of an arbitrary monarchy. The benevolent disposi'tion of a few individuals at the head of government is no guar'antee for the lasting welfare of a nation, unless those noble 'sentiments are rendered immutable by their conversion into as 'many state-laws.'

The municipal rights, granted to the towns of Prussia in 1808, are the true basis and bulwark of her national prosperity, civilization, and even liberty, despite her despotic constitution. It is, therefore, of paramount importance to have those rights fully analyzed, and more especially so, since the revision they underwent in 1831, has furnished a party in Prussia with a pretext for charging her government with a tendency towards a retrograde movement.

Before we enter more fully into the justice or injustice of this accusation, it will be necessary to have a clear understanding as to the definition of the terms progress and regress in civil liberty. The honest and impartial among all parties must acknowledge that any measure calculated to promote national welfare is a step in advance, and vice versa, any enactment or law tending to injure it, is tantamount to a retrograde pace in civilization; all they differ in is, as to the object that constitutes national welfare, and the means by which it may be obtained. We, for our part, seek the welfare of a country in the harmony between her material and intellectual resources, in addition to the free and independent development of those national elements which form the source of civilization. True civilization ought never to be partial, or exclusively directed towards the development of only a few branches of humanity. A nation eminently distinguished for literature, generosity, or wealth alone, may be placed by this partial progress in civilization in a far worse condition than when knowledge, sentiments, and riches bore amongst them a more harmonious and proportioned character, not to mention that partial civilization never can or will obtain a firm and durable hold on the mind of the people. Look for instance at the wealth of the ancient nations, which, having been the result alone of skill in war and conquest, was far in advance of the other departments of civilized life, and in consequence soon passed into the hands of poorer tribes after having enervated and corrupted its possessors. Carthage, with her universal commerce, disappeared before the power of predatory Rome, which again in her turn, having revelled for a time in booty from three parts of the globe, vanished under the swords and clubs of the half-naked savages of the north.

The care of a well organized government must, therefore, be directed not only towards the furtherance of the free develop