REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

Arctic Explorations. By ELISHA KENT KANE. (Philadelphia: Childs and Peterson. London: Trübner and Co.)

AFTER SO many years of persevering and perilous adventure on the part of our navy in exploring the ice-bound realms of polar regions, the narratives of the leaders have throughout abounded both in interest, and in admiration of the bold endurance of hardships and risks which our gallant seamen are ever ready to withstand. To this, in the more recent of these voyages, has been added the engrossing anxiety of hastening to the aid of those of Sir John Franklin's expedition, if any such were still struggling for life in these inhospitable regions. Among the many gallant crews who have so willingly rushed to rescue, there is a degree of generous chivalry attached to the adventure of a benevolent citizen of the United States, in this our national cause, which calls for our just admiration. A small vessel was for the second time prepared by this liberal individual, to aid in endeavouring to discover the fate of an expedition so long the cause of anxiety in England. An American surgeon of the navy, Mr. Kent Kane, was placed in command of the vessel, with a crew of eighteen volunteers cautiously selected, as well fitted for the adventure, as the result proved them to be. It was by many conjectured, that the vessels of Sir John Franklin-if still in existence might be ice-bound, if not wrecked, in the stormy region of Smith's Sound, which he would probably enter in hopes of reaching the great Polar Sea, whose existence Parry had guessed. Smith's Sound became accordingly the scene of Kane's explorations so long as the season admitted of navigation. Here accordingly the American vessel became frozen up for the winter, during which, while light remained, Kane proceeded with dog sledges to survey the shores of the Sound, and forming a friendly intercourse with the few straggling Esquimaux, that hunted bears, walruses, and seals, in so very northern a latitude beyond 78°. The tardily succeeding summers did not succeed, with all the help the crew could give of releasing the vessel from its ice-bound prison, so that Kane's surveys were energetically continued, and often with great peril, over the glaciers and seemingly permanent ice of the most northern regions of Greenland; and here his conviction of the open Polar Sea seemed to be greatly confirmed, and he sighed in vain for the release of his vessel, in order to explore that wide expanse of open sea which presented itself beyond the northern coast of Greenland, and to ascertain whether it really was the case that the intensity of cold towards the Pole, as appearances indicated, was not so great as in the frozen regions they had traversed in a somewhat lower latitude. Poor Kane and his crew were condemned to a second winter of great severity, as it was quite impossible to extricate their vessel from the deep ice in which she was firmly imbedded; and here, with a scanty stock of provisions, their coals exhausted, in utter darkness from October to the subsequent May, with cold averaging from 50° to 70° below zero, they had to pass a winter of intense suffering, sickness and scurvy

torturing all, and death removing three of their number. The daily record given by Mr. Kane of this period of trial is exceedingly moving, as in the course of his narrative he had made his reader intimately acquainted with the character and actings of all the associates of his enterprize. The meteorological and other scientific notices given by Mr. Kane, as well as some of his subordinate observers, are valuable; but above all, the unwearied attention and kindness which Mr. Kane throughout, under such trying circumstances evinced to all under his charge, is beyond all praise, as surgeon and physician, sick nurse, and cook and kind consoler, without any one able to assist him-the whole almost of his suffering crew being confined from sickness and accidents to their hammocks. Soon after the return of daylight, the ship still fast locked in its icy prison, and their stores exhausted, the abandoning of her, and preparing to reach with their boats the open sea somewhere, however distant, was the only resource left them, in which they fortunately, after much labour, loss, and suffering succeeded; and at length the reader, after the perusal of many interesting adventures, not by flood and field, but by flood, storm, and sea, under all its most repulsive aspects, is relieved by the arrival of the adventu rers at a far north Danish out-settlement. And on the whole, Kane's narrative may justly be pronounced not the least interesting of Arctic adventures, as it is most creditable to him in every way. We should add, that the volumes are most profusely and beautifully illustrated.

Kaiserswerth Deaconesses. By a Lady. (Masters.)

THIS is a full and accurate account of this interesting institution, by one who has both spent some time within its walls, and also had the opportunity of observing the work of the "Sisters," in several of the manifold fields of labour to which they are sent out from time to time by the authorities. It contains also a translation of the Service used at their Ordination (in Catholic language it would be called "Consecration.") There are also some excellent questions for "Self-examination," which show that Pastor Fliedner has really elaborated a very good practical system. The whole number of Sisters that have been trained is two hundred and forty, drawn from all classes of society; and the Establishment embraces a Training-House, a Hospital, a Day and Infant School, an Orphan Asylum, a Magdalen, and also a Lunatic Asylum.

Dr. BIBER has printed the Speech which he recently made at the meeting of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (Rivingtons). The propositions which he maintains, and very ably argues, are, "1. That the acknowledged imperfections of the Authorized Version call for the application of a remedy on the part of the Church; 2. That the proper remedy is, not, as has been proposed by some, the substitution of a new translation for the existing Version, but an edition of the Authorized Version with the addition of marginal readings of an explanatory and emendatory character; 3. That this Society is the proper body to undertake the publication of such a work, and to render to the Church this important service."-P. 6.

We are glad to find Mr. BURGESS, the Editor of the "Journal of Sacred Literature," and of the "Clerical Journal," maintaining that "the Church, and not the Bible, is the divinely-appointed instrument for converting the world." This is the main burthen of his pamphlet, The Bible and Lord Shaftesbury (J. H. Parker), which was called forth by a platform speech of that not very profound nobleman. The other subjects on which Mr. Burgess treats, are a Revised Translation of the Bible, and the Theory of Inspiration. As Editor of the Clerical Journal, Mr. Burgess has also, we are glad to see, very decidedly backed a series of very outspoken letters, by the Rev. W. B. Barter, on a heresy, propounded by Mr. Close, and to which Mr. Barter had before called attention in the sequel to his pamphlet on "The Progress of Infidelity." We feel that we ought ourselves to have noticed this point in our review of the pamphlet, for it is really quite time that the LowChurch Clergy should be brought to account for their ignorant and unsound statements of doctrine.

It is superfluous for us to call attention to the Bishop of CAPE TOWN'S journal of his Visitation Tour in 1855 (Bell and Daldy). It is a most interesting record of patient toil, which we fear will not be a little discouraged by the recent appointment to Graham's Town.

The Notes from South Africa, made in 1854-5, is a similar work to the foregoing, and is written by a kindred spirit-the late Bishop of Graham's Town. It is a record-we need scarcely add a most inteinteresting one in every way—of what has been done in the diocese during the first year of his episcopate. It forms part of the series entitled Missions to the Heathen, published by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

Long, long Ago, (Mozleys,) is a reprint of some simple, unexciting Recollections of Life, from the pages of the "Monthly Packet," which, by the way, we are sorry to see has raised its price again.

Our old friend, The Church of the People, (Kent and Co.,) on the other hand, has come down to a penny, and is published weekly.

Mr. Masters keeps up abundantly the supply of wholesome and interesting juvenile literature. In one packet we received a Christmas Present, from the German; with Brainard's Journey, and The Little Gardeners, two Allegories, by unknown but not unskilful writers.

The Rev. F. GODFRAY has translated the Bishop of Oxford's wellknown Sermon on the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception into excellent French. (J. H. Parker.)

Church Papers, (Masters,) go on slowly yet surely. The two last tales, The Birdcatchers of Steege, and Donaldson's Lantern, are full of interest; and the series on the idea of the Church as derived from Holy Scripture, cannot fail to be very useful to a large class of readers and inquirers.

We hope shortly to give a full notice of Dr. WORDSWORTH's scholarly and sound Greek Testament, with Notes, (Rivingtons.) It is small praise to it, we feel, to say that it is the best English Commentary in existence. The first part contains the Gospels.

REICHEL'S LECTURES ON THE PRAYER BOOK.

Six Lectures on the Book of Common Prayer, with an Introduction and Notes. By CHARLES PARSONS REICHEL, B.D. Dublin: Hodges, Smith, and Co. 1857.

THE Irish Church has not of late years contributed much that is valuable to Theology. With the exception of one or two writers of acknowledged eminence, those who thrust themselves upon the notice of the literary world seem to be as wholly unacquainted with logical rules, as they are void of any just appreciation of Catholic truth. At the best they rise to a certain dry orthodoxy, which satisfies neither the heart nor the head; and to expect in them. that comprehensive grasp, or that large sympathy, which seizes and embraces the truth, as it exists distinct from modern perversions and modern polemics, would show boundless simplicity or entire ignorance of the religious mind of Ireland. Even that small body of churchmen who have some regard for a better state of things, seldom oversteps the traditions of the Puritan school in more than a few points, which may be called the very alphabet of Churchmanship. The contact with not the highest phase of Romanism has been the cause of the gravest errors in the Irish Church. Shrinking from that communion with an uncharitable horror, she has learnt to confound right and wrong, and while allowing the presence of nothing estimable in the Romish system as developed in Ireland, she has endeavoured to conciliate Presbyterians and other dissenters, by lowering her own living standard of doctrine and ritual to their level. The book before us is an instance of this spirit as it exists in one who makes some pretension to High Churchmanship, and tells his auditors that "Puseyites and Tractarians" deserve gratitude rather than obloquy. And though we are gratified at such a stretch of charity, a further perusal of the work forces us irresistibly to exclaim, 'Save us from our friends.' Certainly it is cheering to find that an Irishman can uncondemned assert the expediency of Daily Service, Weekly Communion, chanting the Psalms and Canticles, and the division of services; it is also something to hear that a hymn is not the fitting commencement of Matins and Evensong, that the Benedictus, Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis, are to be used in preference to the other arrangements, that the oldest chants are the best, and that baptism should be performed in the service. A protest against Brady and Tate's Version as "a miserable caricature," (p. 54,) is a good sign: "Why can we not learn to sing the Psalms stead of coldly reading them, and then singing a few unconnected words of a parody?" (p. 58.) But when we have said this, we VOL. XIX.-MARCH, 1857.

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have given to Mr. Reichel's production all the commendation of which in our judgment it is worthy.

It is very possible that the congregation to whom these lectures were delivered required the most elementary instruction, and would listen to the enunciation of the merest truisms as to discoveries of great novelty and importance. But if their acquaintance with the subject was so limited, or their intellectual capacities so small, that information of a higher character would have been unsuitable, it more behoved that the lecturer, if simple, should have been correct, and the explanations of the Prayer Book, not the mere assertions of a partial and not over-learned guesser at truth, but the authorized elucidations of a judicious and well read student.

Of course we do not mean that no parish priest should undertake to explain the Prayer Book to his people unless he be an eminent ritualist, or have thoroughly mastered the subject for himself. Nor do we intend to accuse Mr. Reichel of any want of learning, except in regard to the special matter of his sermons: but we do think it is incumbent upon any man who engages to give information about the Prayer Book, and to correct the prejudices of dissenters and other aliens against it, at least to make himself acquainted with the labours of others upon the subject, and not, with materials ready to his hand by which to form correct opinions, to void his own crude guesses and interpretations, rejecting the only assistance which would enable him to produce a right and useful exposition. The book before us exhibits no research whatever. It might equally have been written had Cosin, Palmer, Maskell, Neale, Chambers, Proctor,1 Freeman, never elicited the true origin and interpretation of our ritual. Instead of exhibiting in plain language the results of the labours of these distinguished ritualists, the lecturer takes upon himself the responsibility of putting forth his own private idea of what our formularies signify, and involves himself in a labyrinth of evasions and misinterpretations which must have confused without edifying his hearers.

Before proving what we have advanced by a few extracts, (and a few will be all that our readers will care to see,) we must take exception to that pugnacious spirit which sees in every part of our services protests against the practice and doctrine of other Christians. If our congregations are to be taught to bring with them in their public devotions the bitterest controversies and polemical differences, where are they to look for peace and charity? If people hearkened to Mr. Reichel's advice, they would never say their prayers without a Pharisaical assumption of superior purity, and a condemnation of other religious bodies, implied if not expressed. Thus the direction that the LORD's Prayer be said in an

1 There is one reference to Mr. Proctor's work at the end of the volume, but that is the only indication given of any acquaintance with certainly the best general exposition of the subject which has yet appeared.