accused of being party men had been enrolled and were communicated with from a central point of union. Truly guileless of any such definite mutual understanding as this, are most of the Church's working friends! But this movement is no party, in another and most important sense. Its definite fruits are not so much in the number of its professed admirers, as in the influence which it has forced upon others, even their opponents. There is such a thing in military tactics as forcing an enemy from one point to another, in the form of a well-ordered retreat, without any apparent victory, till you are possessed of all the ground you want or claim, and care little more what becomes of the fee. The final and annihilating assault on Tractarians' has been so long delayed, though so many preparations seem to have been going on through a course of years, that we cannot but fancy they are all the while gaining, by little and little, the very ground they contest for. Certain it is that although, as a party, they are viewed in as hostile a light as ever, yet many of their principal objects, their great truths and practical appeals to human nature, are very generally adopted by all but extreme latitudinarians. Compare, for instance, the general views now held by respectable members of the English Church on the subject of baptismal regeneration, with what they were twenty years ago. No one will deny the universal hold which that doctrine has now taken, in spite of all preachings and legal decisions to the contrary. Look to the diocese of Exeter. Could the late synod have been carried out as it has been, twenty years ago? Čompare again the arrangements, both ritual and architectural, which now prevail, with the state of our churches in these respects the same time ago. It is amazing how an improved taste has penetrated the remotest corners of the land. Architects now will not build the flagrant churches which used to be reared; high pews are obsolete in the carpenter's art. Church music is extensively cultivated; while punctuality, reverence, and a certain amount of ceremonial dignity is now universally expected by any intelligent congregation. Candlesticks on the altar may still be objected to; but much has, undoubtedly, been gained in due reverence toward the administration of the Holy Eucharist. Chanting may still be more or less unpopular; yet a careless hurrying over of the prayers, as a mere introduction to the sermon, or for no other account but that of laziness, is not now tolerated as it used to be. Moreover the more bold and decided workings of Tractarian views are every where springing up around

us.

The indefatigable labours of twenty years are not unrewarded, even by results in some degree picturing the original type of a revived Church worshipping in the beauty of holiness. Think also of the influence possessed through the many publica

tions which have never ceased to supply the Church instruction of young and old, rich and poor. Newspapers, periodicals, and the power of the press generally, are the most important medium in the present day by which sentiments are conveyed from one to others, and by which subjects of interest obtain a hearing, as also selfishness and injustice are exposed. There is no legitimate class of literature which is not enlisted in the Church's cause; nor can this open and bold use of the intellectual arena of the day, fail to impress on the public mind that they who flinch not from such ordeal, in spite of persecution, and in spite often of pecuniary loss, have truth and common sense at the bottom. But a remarkable proof of the mens conscia recti on the part of Tractarians,' which, when looked upon as a consistent line of policy from first to last, cannot but win the esteem of honest and impartial men, is the habitual appeal to law and to the courts of their country. Men who feel that they are introducing a new element into the constitution, are not willing to throw themselves upon the decision of its written laws. The Church party, however, has always striven to work out its peculiar aims in the same legal and constitutional manner that other grievances are rectified, other claims asserted. They have thrown themselves on their country, appealing to its written laws, its justice, and its common sense; and it is sad to think that their confidence has been, on more than one occasion, betrayed. Let high powers beware of the risk they incur by discouraging legitimate appeals to right and reason, in this age of voluntary confederation and irregular leaguing together to obtain by force whatever men desire. Yet, who can tell the good which has been done by these appeals, whatever the immediate verdict may have been? Theological and ecclesiastical questions have been carried with infinite labour, care, and novelty of investigation, through every legal court of the country, up to the notorious Committee of Privy Council. Is this for nothing? May it not have been an education, or in some way a preparation for a better mode, hereafter, of settling the disputes of our Church? The experience and wisdom gained by those lengthened investigations, we are sure, will not all be lost. A little mature consideration on subjects thus suddenly brought to the notice of our legal courts, may work a change of feeling by the next time that their services are required. We, at any rate, have that confidence in the Church's cause, that we only want a fair, impartial, and constitutional tribunal; and in proportion as that is obtained, so far will our wishes be granted, our objects attained.

But we have wandered far from Dr. Copleston, and Orieltoo far to make it worth while returning. Requiescat in pace.

30

ART. II.-College Life in the Time of James the First, as illustrated by an Unpublished Diary of Sir Symonds D'Ewes, Baronet, and M.P. London: John W. Parker. 1851.

A MEMBER of the Long Parliament would naturally present himself to our imagination as a fierce, gloomy, and unscrupulous fanatic, a man of dark passions and determined resolution. The horrors of injustice, sacrilege, rebellion, and murder, which he must have been party to, make the blood run cold at the very thought of such a grim presence. Yet we are framed for forgiveness, and especially when death has disabled the objects of our horror, and many generations of men have passed since their vapoury but noxious lives were a burden upon earth's ways. That dark conclave of Westminster we see before our eyes in simple attire, almost in the dress of professed ascetics; yet we trace a military adaptation of a religious dress, which curtailed flowing locks and embroidered coats, on principles of convenience as well as of religion. If their dress seemed to say, We have no frivolous vanity; our trust is in things unseen,' it seemed also to have for its object the display of muscle and sinew, in immediate readiness to support the supernatural theory by the powers of nature, or metaphysical reasonings by physical force. We hear them use sacred words, and a style of illustration which implies considerable acquaintance with the sacred writings; yet, as if to cut off that sympathy which we are disposed to feel toward all whose religious impressions are in any way single-minded, or even in theory include the practice of morals, whatever their obedience may be, we hear designs for deluging their country with blood, and for murdering the Lord's anointed rulers, on the throne, at the council chamber, and at the altar.

But it is often said that men associated together are more unscrupulous than individuals acting on their single responsi bility; members also of a violent and energetic body may be carried on to agree with what they have not the influence to prevent, but have not the courage to protest against.

Sir Symonds D'Ewes, Baronet, who is the subject of the work before us, was of this long and memorable parliament. He was therefore a party to many of the evils we have mentioned. But with his parliamentary position we have no concern; we purpose to look into the early training of this

Nor shall we

'constituent part of so terrible a body of men. concern ourselves much with his individual character even then, but rather the condition of that University which trained so responsible an actor in the great seventeenth-century drama. Yet we cannot but moralize on the great truth that Union is strength; for men like Sir Symonds could certainly not carry much weight single-handed, or be very formidable disturbers of order. It is curious to trace so gloomy a performance of public responsibilities in mature life to the silly affectations of a thirdrate yet well-meaning youth. We see him boring his friends with the scholar-like use of the Latin tongue' in conversation; we see his intense desire to excel in theological declamation, with a somewhat ridiculous failure; we find him eager beyond all bounds in the hearing and criticism of sermons; and cannot but trace in all these habits of mind the conceited fanaticism with which he was afterwards associated, and which was so disastrous in its results.

Before, however, we proceed to draw any conclusions, that we may imagine to be derivable from this book, it is right that we notice its composition, in order that our readers may judge how far it is to be relied on, as presenting a genuine picture. The book is entertaining; but more, perhaps, in proportion to the tact with which the original matter is cooked up, than to the simplicity with which the hero speaks for himself. It only in part professes to be a diary, so largely is it made up by a modern hand. Bits, and those generally very short ones, of the professed genuine matter, are interspersed with large and copious modern writing. It must necessarily give it a seeming want of authenticity; it must weaken it as a thing to be relied on, and so far make it optional to credit, or not, any deductions that may be apparent on the surface of the book. The quaintness of phraseology used in the reign of James I. may also predispose the nineteenth century of Pepys his diary' to an unfairly humourous version of antiquely-written journals. Nevertheless, on the whole, we are content to accept this book as being, in a great measure, a fair representation of the man by whose diary it is illustrated. There are touches of unmistakeable individuality in some extracts, which so far harmonize with the general tone of the book, that, leaving it an open question for others to do the same, or not, as they think fit, we shall not hesitate to accept the portrait as genuine, and shall proceed on that supposition.

The rise of Puritan doctrine and manners was as conspicuous in Cambridge during the early part of the seventeenth century, as an opposite tendency is said now to be the characteristic of Oxford. Sir Symonds was born nearly with the century, and

entered into its broad marks of character, and its external features, with that peculiar heartiness which is almost confined to such as are not endowed by nature with any very distinct individuality. It is indeed humiliating to any presumption of genius, which may be set up in behalf of those who have taken a prominent part in the epochs of English ecclesiastical history, to see the very great sameness in both the subjects about which men were excited, and in the arguments used on either side. It is humiliating to observe this, if nothing is looked for but material for hero worship; but it is at the same time the strongest confirmation of the reality of these common and apparently worn-out topics of religious discussion. The two distinctive ideas of the Christian religion expressed by the Puritan and the Church parties, have never ceased their hostility since the Reformation; there has been no harmony of these contrary elements, except when both have been torpid and inactive. That fancied repose in our Church, with two opposite principles co-existing, but not interfering, is altogether a fallacy. Great outbreaks there have been which, in the pages of history, absorb all attention, leaving the intermediate periods quite free from such-like influences and disputes; but facts show that these seasons of quiet were but by comparison,-were but the subsiding of one outburst or the gradual approach of another. The Elizabethan divines were polemical on one side, as the followers of Laud were on the other; nor was the intermediate reign of James I. remarkable for any amicable settlement of difficulties, if we may judge from Sir Symonds's Diary. The age of the Commonwealth was neither famed for mutual concessions nor individual comfort; and 1688 had not long after a peculiar aspect of ecclesiastical history, of which it is sufficient to our present purpose to say, that the part of our Prayer-book given at our Court at Kensington, the twenty-first day of June, 1837,' by J. Russell,' too carefully commemorates the notice of certain 'cruel and bloodthirsty enemies,' to make this Albertian era any exception to our present argument. With regard to the 18th century and the Georgian fidei defensores, the less said on either side the better, for they do not manifest any development of moral or religious zeal, as the result of an apparent subsidence of theological disputation; and, in modern times, we may easily identify the subjects of difference with those that have prevailed at all previous times of religious activity.

This Puritan element being then, by nature, parasitical in the side of the English Church, it is only force of circumstance which brings forward individuals as prominent exponents of such views at periods like that of the Long Parliament. There