ism was extinct in France,' the sentence was not ungrateful to the ears of the grand monarch.' The apologists of Louis XIV., amongst whom we must be permitted to class De Rulhière, would represent him as altogether averse to the persecutions inflicted on the Reformers: he was led by their zeal for conversion, against his inclination and his principles, into an intolerance from whose rigour he at first revolted!' Father la Chaise and Madame de Maintenon are supposed to have inspired this good-natured monarch' with such a zeal for making converts, that he agreed to the summary mode which they proposed of accomplishing conversions; others again would represent the act of revocation of 1685 as entirely political; they accuse the Huguenots of attempts to gain an ascendancy; and of aiming at a political rather than a religious distinction it was necessary, they say, to destroy their fortress of La Rochelle, and deprive them of their power, (amounting to an imperium in imperio) in other places of France;' but to such arguments we reply, that it was not necessary to deprive them of the rights which had been solemnly granted and enjoyed by them for eighty-five years, and which were purely of the nature of a religious liberty. The documents collected by Mr. Scott will be found of the greatest interest in elucidating these points, and we think will bring his readers generally to the conclusion that the act of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes was the result of a deeply-laid scheme for the total suppression of the Reformation in France.

:

Mr. Jameson, who has given us a very interesting volume of Notices of the Reformation in the South-west Provinces of France,' says The Romanists do not conceal that it was the fixed purpose of those two monarchs (viz. Louis XIV. and his predecessor) to destroy Protestantism, and that all their declarations of protection and advantage were only held out to keep their victims in a steady posture on the block till the moment for execution came.' This system was steadily pursued for eighty-five years; but whether the two monarchs had any fixed purpose of their own, or were the mere tools of the Romish hierarchy, can only be known by a closer investigation of that portion of French history than has yet been attempted. We do not mean to insinuate that Mr. Dundas Scott differs from us in opinion as to the systematic suppression of the Reformation in France: from the few observations he has inserted at the bottom of his pages we gather something of his own view on this matter; but we put this point prominently forward to show the necessity of not allowing such apologists as De Rulhière to appear before the public without proper credentials; for we have no notion of that sickly sentiment, technically called a charitable construction put upon men's actions,

which would excuse the atrocities of a monarch, now generally allowed to have been a tyrant, upon the ground that his intentions were good, and that he was led to mistake religious persecution for political authority. The king,' says De Rulhière, 'found himself engaged in a persecution repugnant at once to his natural good sense and to his whole character!' When the author of the "Historical Elucidations,' who is continually reminding us of the pensioned Court Tutor, by such sentences as the foregoing, is properly understood, his eclaircissemens may be read with much interest, and will elucidate the history of the French persecution. The melancholy results of the act of Louis XIV. have been nowhere more faithfully described than by this same De Rulhière. 'The king,' said Madame de Maintenon, is highly pleased at having completed the grand work of reuniting the heretics to the church.' Father la Chaise and M. de Louvois promised that it would not cost a drop of blood. 'The event showed,' adds De Rulhière, what the promise was worth, and we might add, what a high satisfaction the king's magnanimous spirit' (p. 167) must have experienced at the completion of such a work.'

"We shall not here recal that disastrous emigration which during seventy years never stopped, but which even now (1789) is ever ready to begin anew. We stop not to inquire how many thousands of men, women, and children perished amid the dangers and fatigues to which they were exposed in endeavouring to escape. We shall only say with Boulainvilliers, though far from being an exact author, that ten thousand men fell victims to fire, the wheel, and the gibbet. And, to quote more authentic testimonies, we have just seen that Noailles reckoned that there were 240,000 Calvinists in the province of Languedoc alone; while Baville, fifteen years after, does not make that unhappy race amount to more than 198,000, and yet the troubles of the Cevennes had not yet commenced."-(pp. 167-168.)

Mr. Jameson's work is confined chiefly to the local history of Bearn, and we think he has employed his leisure time during his winter residence at Pau to great advantage. The sources from which he has derived his knowledge of the portion of history on which he professes to treat, are not to be found in every library; and the personages whose memoirs he relates may be considered as among the most important in the annals of French Protestantism. The character of Jeanne D'Albret, and her strong attachment to the reformed faith, are ably delineated in the former chapter of Mr. Jameson's work; and we imagine none of our countrymen who resort to Pau for a winter residence, will go without Mr. Jameson's little work, which will add an interest to the chateau of Henri IV. and the beautiful scenery of that once flourishing district.

The religious condition of France since the last revolution has engaged the attention of many benevolent persons in this country.

The vigour which has been infused into the Protestant institutions, especially the Academy of Montauban-the zeal which has been displayed in the formation of several societies for promoting the doctrines of the Reformation-the surprising number of Protestants, (amounting, it is supposed, to 1,200,000)-the revival of pastoral conferences, preparatory to a Synod, and the yearly increase of congregations in places where none have previously existed-all these things have awakened in the minds of several of our zealous countrymen great expectations of some important change in the religious condition of France. A Society, which is designed to unite and consolidate the various schemes and somewhat desultory attempts of our good propagandists, has just been formed, under the title of the Foreign Aid Society;' its object being, as we find from the prospectus, to collect funds in this country for the purpose of aiding the orthodox Protestants in France to promote the religious principles of the Reformation. It may be sometimes difficult to ascertain whether a Frenchman, calling himself a Protestant, be an orthodox believer or not; for as there is no confession of faith, or any other standard of doctrine to resort to, nothing less than a personal knowledge of individuals can in the present state of things be satisfactory. We must be careful, however, how we draw our conclusion from such superficial remarks as are contained in the journal of Mr. Sheppard, who appears to think that a conversation with a fellow-traveller in a diligence, or on a steam-boat, may give a very fair notion of the state of religion in France.' For our part, we shall never think any scheme that may be formed for spreading, or rather reviving the principles of the Protestant Reformation on the Continent, established on a solid footing, until the few men who are Christians in faith, and prove it by their practice, apply themselves to obtain these two essential elements of a visible Church-a properly ordained ministry, and an accredited confession of faith. Meanwhile, we are glad to see religious tourists, like Mr. Sheppard, taking notice of the present state of things; and we have no objection to that unlimited zeal which attaches importance to the dropping of a religious tract, or to a word in season' at a Table d'Hôte; for amongst a people so utterly regardless of all serious religion, if such tourists do no good, they can scarcely do much harm. We look forward, however, to some more effectual mode of bringing our French neighbours to a rational and scriptural view of Christianity. In the mean time we have yet much to learn of the past and present religious condition of France, and shall be glad to see a continuation of Mr. Scott's historical researches.

A CHARGE, delivered to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Surrey, by SAMUEL WILBERFORCE, M.A. at his Primary Visitation, in September and October; and published at their request. Burns. 1840.

We do not propose, under ordinary circumstances, to devote any considerable portion of our pages to works which are, from their very nature and object, of local or partial or temporary interest. Such must always be the case in regard to episcopal, decanal, or archidiaconal charges, which have, or at least ought to have, a primary, if not an exclusive reference to the special concernments and exigencies of the district or the diocese over which the Author may preside. We now deviate, however, from our prescribed rule, thus early, for two reasons; first, that the publication before us touches a most important subject, which we trust the Author will be induced to prosecute at greater length and into more minute detail hereafter the exercise "of the dormant powers with which the system of the church is instinct for the healing of the age ;" and secondly, because no work can be otherwise than of universal interest to the christian world, to which is prefixed the name of WILBERFORCE.

Of that clarum et venerabile nomen' the charge before us is not unworthy, whether we look to the modest and unassuming, yet by no means undignified manner, in which the Archdeacon of Surrey introduces himself, in his new character, to the notice of the assembled clergy; or to the view which he has formed of the spiritual functions and responsibilities attaching to his important and responsible office; or above all to the solicitude which he manifests to obtain the fraternal sympathy and co-operation of those among whom he is to take the delegated oversight, not as "having dominion over their faith," or about to exercise a vexatious and inquisitorial scrutiny over their proceedings, but as "a fellowhelper in the truth-a fellow-labourer in Christ Jesus." The recognition of Christian brotherhood between the different orders and offices of the ministry, not only in mere expressions of compliment and courtesy, which are often as unmeaning if not as insincere as the designation of the self-styled Vicar of Christ," Servus Servorum Dei"-but in the detail and practice of the pastoral office, in its manifold and complicated anxieties, perplexities, and difficulties, has long been a thing much to be desired in the Anglican Church. It is most needful, and would surely be most beneficial, that the parochial clergy in general-but more especially

those of the younger clergy, who do not enjoy the benefit to be derived from the presence and counsel of a resident Incumbent, but are left, without experience and without assistance, to sustain the grave responsibility of a parish-should have an adviser to whom they may apply, in cases of necessity, not only by sufferance but of right; one whose experience would inform their ignorance, and whose authority might embolden them in duty-one who should reside within such a distance, and possess so far the control over his own time, that he might, in all extreme exigencies, undertake to visit, admonish, strengthen, or direct-supply what was wanting, correct what was erroneous, or sanction what was rightperform in fact all those functions, which are so explicitly enjoined in the "Reformatio Legum," in a passage which the Archdeacon has thought fit to quote-but not to translate. A literal translation, indeed, would suggest what is the real state of the case ;-that the Archidiaconate is among the first official recognitions of that pernicious principle, which has been in every age as much a "scabies ecclesia" as the "disputandi pruritus" itself-viz. that spiritual functions are capable of being discharged by proxy. It is true that the usefulness, the necessity of the Archdeacon's office cannot but be admitted in the present state of the church; when, to use Mr. Wilberforce's forcible expression, 'a whole ocean of human life is pent up within the limits of our straitest diocese.' But the very expression "Sint itaque oculi episcopi," "Let the Bishop use the Archdeacon as his eye," will at least suggest the question whether it would not be more in accordance with the constitution of the primitive church, and more consonant with true apostolicity, if the extent or the population of dioceses were so apportioned, that the Bishop could use his own?

But

A substitute shines brightly as a king
Unless a king be by;

and we will admit, that functions which cannot be performed by Bishops in person will be much better delegated to an efficient representative, than not performed at all-nay, we will go farther, and acknowledge that, in the present state of the church, and assuming that a return to the episcopacy of apostolic times is altogether out of the question (though we may find somewhat to observe on this subject hereafter), the substitution may operate advantageously to the interests of religion, and to the comfort of the clergy. The interval between the bishop and those who "in functionibus sunt inferioribus" is too great to admit either of frequent or unreserved communication; and the Archdeacon might be, if he were so disposed, a connecting link between the two extremes-the Alpha and