on this poem, by having a tendency to limit too much his Christian sympathies. If he has to introduce a Christian physician, a preacher, or a Christian sufferer, he confines himself too much to the annals of dissent. Robert Hall is introduced as delivering a discourse among the departed spirits; Dr. Henry Sampson (a nonconformist) is introduced, under the name of Timanthes, as the Christian physician; and Susanna Harrison and Mrs. Ann Steele (both of them dissenters) are brought forward, under the names of Susanna and Theodosia, as models of Christian resignation under suffering. A note is appended to most of these instances, which gives, indeed, a pleasing view of the character of the individuals; but still the introduction of them in a general poem will naturally strike those who are not dissenters (though not correctly in Mr. Sheppard's case) as evidences of that exclusiveness which is sometimes attributed to the church, but which dissent is perhaps more calculated to cherish.

Having made this remark, not in an uncharitable spirit, but simply as an observation which strikes one on reading the volume, the reviewer would conclude by expressing the gratification he has derived from reading this work, and by assuring Mr. Sheppard, who seems to fear that sarcasm and ridicule may arise from the nature of his subject, that those who can find anything to ridicule or to be sarcastic upon in his poem must be so utterly contemptible, that their weapons need be no object of fear.

There are some appendices which contain copious collections from all the great writers upon the great questions relative to the immateriality of the soul, the reason of animals, &c.

Old Friends in a New Dress, or, Esop's Fables in Verse, by R. S. Sharpe, has reached a fifth edition, and the profits of the last edition have been spent in ornamenting the present. It received, on its first publication, the highest praise from Lindley Murray and others, and seems to deserve the favour which it has met with.

The following Sermons may be mentioned with commendation:— The Slumber of the People, by the Rev. E. Thompson, of St. John's, Marylebone, and An Earnest Appeal to the People against Apathy in Public Prayer.-The Gospel Preached to the Poor, by the Rev. J. Morton, preached at Holbeach, for the Church Building Society.And a Village Sermon on the Prevailing Epidemic, by the Rev. Robert Eden, which last ought to have been noticed long ago, as it might have proved useful and interesting during the continuance of that disease.

The last Number of The Ports and Harbours of Great Britain is devoted to Portsmouth, and succeeds completely in giving the character of that peculiar place.

560

MISCELLANEA.

UPPER CANADA.-KING'S COLLEGE, TORONTO.-CHURCH AT

GUELPH.

Ir reformers are not really gifted with a degree of foresight and wisdom to which a nation's destinies, and its hopes of peace and stability, may be safely confided, they seldom fail to shew a degree of watchfulness for occasion of increasing their power and promoting their views which might be advantageously imitated by those who are averse from ill-considered changes. There is one mode of action by which the promoters of change have been anxious indirectly to further their objects, the importance of which has not been duly weighed by their opponents. The former are physiologists enough to know, that though they may be unable to poison the blood in its very fountain of the heart, yet their object will be as fully, though not so speedily attained, by poisoning it at the extremities:-if they cannot overturn the institutions of the mother country, they may tamper with those of its colonies, and thus the poisoned stream of innovation will at length revert to the centre and origin from which all the institutions of those colonies proceed. Ireland, indeed, is not a colony, but it affords an apt illustration of this remark, because the establishment of the scriptural extracts, and the amalgamation system, in national schools, adopted there, was immediately appealed to as a precedent, in Liverpool, at least, if not elsewhere. Turning, however, to our colonies, properly so called, what do we find? We find our government appointing salaries to popish bishops and priests in Australia, while the Protestant population, after a hard struggle for one bishop, is spiritually starved for want of priests and deacons. Will any one believe that this will not be appealed to as furnishing a precedent for salarying the Roman-catholic priests of Ireland? The co-ordinate establishment, or at least endowment, of different denominations in Canada and in India, is already a regular and hackneyed argument in all treatises against the church establishment of England. And thus one might swell this article, with detailing one mischief after another, which is brought into the mother country by a side-blow from its affiliated states. It is not seething the kid in the milk of its mother, but poisoning the kid that it may infect its

mother.

But the object of this notice is not to declaim generally on the policy of innovation, but to point public attention to a specific instance. The attack upon the universities, as to the admission of dissenters, having failed for the present, the few collegiate establishments which our colonies possess are not unworthy the consideration of the genius of reform; and King's College, Toronto, Upper Canada, has been subjected to most vexatious delays, and most serious impediments, in order that it might be sacrificed as a holocaust on the altar of that all-devouring spirit. Two important and interesting documents-a bill to amend the charter, and a report from a committee of the legislative council on that bill-relative to this point, have just been transmitted to the writer of this notice. They are worthy of very serious attention; and it may be desirable, in another number, to offer some extracts from the report. The following brief statement, in the meantime, may prove interesting :After the provincial authorities had for many years expressed a desire for the establishment of an university, the late king, in 1825, established, and munificently endowed, a college, to be called King's College, and to have the style and privileges of an university. After several attempts at changes and modifications &c. of the charter, the House of Assembly (the more democratical part of the colonial legislature) proposed a bill for the reform of the charter, in the session of 1832-3, but nothing was done. In the last session, another bill of the same kind was brought to the upper house (the legislative

council) which was referred to a select committee, from whom the report alluded to above proceeds. The liberality of the institution, as originally formed, is such, that it is open to all denominations; and the professors, except those which are ex-officio members of the council of the college, may also be members of any Christian denomination; and the charter requires no religious tests for any degrees, except degrees in divinity! Now this was a degree of openness and liberality which, one would conceive, might have satisfied the very universal-suffrage and annual-parliament reformer; but, no! the House of Assembly desired that things might be placed on a still more liberal basis! There are some passages in the report comparing the charter of King's College, Toronto, with the universities of Great Britain, and those of America. It shews that all have a religious character, and some, even of America, an exclusive and sectarian character, such as the Unitarian University of Harvard, and the Congregationalist College of Yale. This, however, will not satisfy the Toronto House of Assembly. The members of the council were to sign the Thirty-nine Articles, and this was voted exclusive and persecuting; and the council were therefore to be free to choose their own religion, except a general declaration about the authority of scripture and the doctrine of the Trinity.

Other alterations were made in the charter by the proposed bill, with the intention of placing the college under the control of the colonial legislature, and depriving the king of England of his interest in the college he founded and endowed; but these cannot now be specified. The course taken by the upper house was, to refer to the council of the college, and to endeavour to strike out some plan satisfactory to the House of Assembly, and to them also. How much the council were disposed to concede will be seen from the annexed comparison of their offer and the proposed bill, taken from the report itself:

Charter as amended by the College Charter as amended by the Bill

Council.

1. The Court of King's Bench substituted as visitor, for the bishop.

2. The president-a clergyman of the church of England. but not necessary to be the archdeacon of York.

3. Relieves the council from signing the thirty nine articles, but requires the members to belong to the church of England.

4. Removes tests even from

under consideration.

1. The same the court of King's Bench, &c. &c. &c.

2. The president shall not be required to be the incumbent of any ecclesiastical office.

3. Relieves the council from signing the thirty-nine articles, and need not be members of the church of England.

4. Removes all tests and qualidivinity degrees, but allows re-fications, even from divinity degulation, without which they grees. Under this bill no degrees could not be conferred. in divinity can be conferred, if literally interpreted, it must have by-laws and regulations.

If this will not satisfy the democratic spirit now abroad, surely it may be asked what will, or what can ever, satisfy it? There is no room now for further remark; the only suggestion the writer would offer, is this: Let the conservative party in England look to these matters, and lose nothing from neglecting to support their own cause, whether at home or in our colonies,whether in the great matter of the English universities, or the apparently smaller matter of King's College, Toronto.

While on the subject of Upper Canada, it may be allowable to recommend most earnestly a subscription for promoting the spiritual interests of a large district, called Guelph, in that country. It is a district of nine hundred square miles, with a chief town of 3000 inhabitants, confided to one protestant clergyman; and while under great difficulties, the present rector of the parish (Rev. A. Palmer) has contrived, by great exertion, and the subscription of his friends, &c., to build a church at Guelph, there is no means of religious in

struction for the rest of this large district, unless he can get sufficient to enable him to build school-houses in different parts of it, and place a schoolmaster or catechist in each, and it must then be left to its present awful state of spiritual destitution. An address has been printed, containing full information on the subject, and may be seen at the following places, where subscriptions are received :-John Perry, Esq., at the Office of the Canada Company, St. Helen'splace, Bishopsgate-street; Messrs. Cocks and Biddulph, Bankers, 43, Charingcross; L. and G. Seeley, 169, Fleet-street; Rev. Dr. Pusey, Regius Professor of Hebrew; Dr. Macbride, Principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford; and Rev. J. Stanley Faber, Sherburn Hospital, Durham, &c. &c.

COLLEGE OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT LA TOUR, IN PIEDMONT, Ir will be seen by an advertisement in the British Magazine of this month' that several zealous friends of the Waldenses (among whom are Dr. Gilly and the Rev. W. Palmer, of Magdalen College, Oxford) are anxious to establish a college in Piedmont, for the education of the Waldensian youth, so as to obviate the necessity of sending them to Geneva, there to imbibe all the unsound notions with which unhappy Switzerland has lately been deluged. No mode but this, appears, humanly speaking, to give a hope for the maintenance of sound opinions in that church; and the contribution of books to the library or funds to the college will be a most valuable assistance in this righteous cause, and it is earnestly to be hoped that this simple appeal may not be disregarded.

"A protestant college having been established at La Tour, in Piedmont, under the name of the College of the Holy Trinity,' for the education of the Waldenses in their own valleys, the friends of the cause are requested to give their aid to the institution, by assisting in the foundation of a library.

Contributors to this Collection :-Col. Beckwith, Bishop of Chester, Rev. J. Collinson, Rev. F. Cunningham, Rev. H. Douglas, G. T. Fox, Esq., Rev. Dr. Gilly, Rev. Wm. Palmer, Rev. C. Perigal, Rev. C. Townsend, and the Church Missionary Society.

"Any contributions in Books, or otherwise, to the College of the Holy Trinity,' will be thankfully received by Messrs. Rivington, St. Paul's ChurchYard and Waterloo-place, London; Rev. Dr. Gilly, Durham; and the Rev. Wm. Palmer, Magdalen College, Oxford."

ACCOUNT OF THE DIVINITY STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF

DUBLIN.

[To be followed by some Extracts from the admirable Examination Papers, and remarks on them.] In the University of Dublin, all undergraduates, during the first two years of their studies, must give proof of their acquaintance with the Scriptures and with the Catechism of the church of England, unless they be Roman catholics, or members of any other dissenting body, who profess to have scruples of conscience against receiving religious instruction from the clergy of our church. During this period of the undergraduate course, resident students are lectured and examined every Saturday during term, in the Scriptures, and nonresident students must pass an examination at the beginning of every term in the same subjects.

The order in which the scripture is read at these lectures and examinations is as follows:

FIRST YEAR.

Michaelmas Term-The Gospel of St. Luke.

Hilary Term-The Acts of the Apostles.

Trinity Term-Archbishop Secker's "Lectures on the Catechism."

SECOND YEAR.

Michaelmas Term-Genesis and Exodus.

Hilary Term-Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the Books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles.

Trinity Term-Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Zechariah, Malachi.

These lectures, or, in lieu of them, examinations in the same subjects, must, as has been said, be attended by all students, candidates for the degree of A.B., whether they be intended for holy orders or not, provided only that their parents do not profess to have any religious objection against permitting them to enter upon such a course of study. Prizes are given, both at the lectures and at the examinations, to the best answerers.

In the fourth year of the undergraduate course, students who are candidates for holy orders commence their professional studies; and all such students must, during their attendance on divinity lectures, be resident either in the city or in the University, and must keep two years, or six terms, before they can become entitled to the Professor of Divinity's testimonium.

These terms are kept by attendance on a twofold course of lectures delivered during the Academic Term by the Professors of Divinity and their Assistants. The lectures of the Professors are prælections; but those of the Assistants are actual examinations, held twice every week during term; and students are frequently refused their testimoniums for insufficient answering at these examinations.

During the first year of attendance on the divinity lectures, students are required to attend the prælections of Archbishop King's Lecturer in Divinity, delivered twice every week during term, and also the lecturers or examinations held by the Assistant Lecturers on the same days.

The subjects of the prælections are the "Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, and the Controversies with Deists and Socinians."

The subjects of the examinations are as follows:

Michaelmas Term-Paley's "Evidences of Christianity."

Hilary Term-The Gospel of St. Luke, and the Harmony of the Gospels-in the original Greek.

Trinity Term-The Epistle to the Romans.

At the end of the first year a public examination is held by Archbishop King's Lecturer in the subjects treated of in his own prælections, and prizes are given to the best answerers. Attendance on this examination is, however, voluntary.

During the second year of attendance on the divinity lectures, students must attend the prælections of the Regius Professor of Divinity, delivered twice every week during term, together with the examinations held on the same days by the Professor's Assistants.

The Professor lectures on the Criticism and Interpretation of the Bible, the Canon, the Text of the Sacred Scriptures, the Articles and Liturgy of the Church, and the Controversy with the Church of Rome.

The examinations of the Assistants are on the following subjects :

Michaelmas Term-The Epistle to the Hebrews. Hilary Term-Ecclesiastical History of the First Four Centuries, (Mosheim, the text-book,) and the first half of Burnet on the Articles. Trinity Term-Ecclesiastical History of the Reformation, and the remainder of Burnet on the Articles.

The Regius Professor of Divinity holds an annual public examination, open to all Bachelors of Arts, in which prizes are given to the best answerers.