His Holiness now reigning is designated by Aquila rapax; and though his own character would deserve a much more amiable description, yet the rapacity of the French Eagle has certainly made his history singular among that of all the successors of St. Peter; and it is well if the rapacity of the double eagle of Austria does not make it more so. It is interesting to know, that our countryman did not anticipate more than fourteen popes from the present time, who are predicted under the following emblems. 1. Canis et Coluber. 3. De Balneis Hetruriæ. 5. Lumen in cœlo. 6. Ignis Ardens. 7. Religio depopulata. 8. Fides intrepida. 9. Pastor Angelicus. 12. De medietate Lunæ. The concluding words of the prophecy are these: In the last persecution of the holy Roman Church, Peter of Rome shall be on the throne, who shall feed his flock in many tribulations. When these are past, the city upon seven hills shall be destroyed, and the awful Judge shall judge the people* .'" P. 472. One or two orthographical reforms have pleased us in this volume. Mr. Burton writes aquaduct; we are surprized that Johnson ever permitted himself to write aqueduct. The unmeaning term Coliseum is exploded; and though we hail with joy the restoration of a word which we can understand, Colosseum, we should be still more satisfied if the Flavian amphitheatre was spoken of under its ancient legitimate designation only. Mr. Burton is inclined to call the Pontine marshes, Pomptine, as he derives their name very correctly from the Volscian Suessa Pometia. Our opinion of this work may be collected from the length into which we have been seduced in its consideration. It is one which is indispensable to the student, and to which the riper scholar will often refer with equal advantage and amusement. ART. III. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Llandaff, at the Primary Visitation in August, 1821. By William Lord Bishop of Llandaff. 4to. pp. 24. Rivingtons. 1821. AT the very commencement of this useful and interesting Charge, we meet with a statement to which we think we may * A treatise has been written upon this prophetical catalogue by Menistrier. be justified in attaching a more than ordinary degree of importance; not only because in these days of calumny and misrepresentation, the approving testimony of their official superior must be doubly grateful to the Clergy in whose favour it is given; but for other reasons, in which the character of our whole Church may be in some degree involved, as well as the welfare and respectability of that particular portion of it, of which the Bishop has felt himself justified in holding a language so satisfactory. "I am happy," he says, "to state, even in this early stage of our acquaintance, that I find myself connected with a body of Clergy generally well affected to our Constitution in Church and State, attentive to their pastoral duties, observant of ecclesiastical discipline, and disposed to receive with kindness my endeavours to maintain that zeal and diligence, that order and decorum in the discharge of their spiritual functions, without which the clerical character cannot be sustained with dignity or effect. Very few complaints have come to my knowledge of misconduct or neglect ; and if in any instance reprehension seemed to be called for, the purpose has been effected rather by amicable than by authoritative interference. Such, I trust will continue to be the case, among those whom I shall ever be anxious to attach to me by ties of affection and good-will." P. 6. We may perhaps be expected to state, why we have thus dwelt on a testimony which establishes no more in favour of the diocese of Llandaff, than may perhaps be affirmed with equal justice of every other diocese in the kingdom. We are undoubtedly disposed, not more we trust by our professional partialities, than by an honest conviction of its truth, to admit this position to its full extent. We certainly believe, that in speaking thus favourably of his own Clergy, the Bishop of Llandaff has drawn the portrait of the whole body of Clergy in the land. And we doubt not, that the more jealously their conduct is scrutinized, the more honourable to them and satisfactory to the nation at large, will be the result of the investigation. Still, we repeat it, we have read this passage with peculiar pleasure; and we hope we shall not be deemed to speak invidiously of any body of men, nor with unnecessary severity of any individual, while we produce the reasons of this feeling. The Clergy of the diocese of Llandaff have long been obliged to struggle with peculiar difficulties. Besides the disadvantages resulting from the poverty of their ecclesiastical endowments, from the limited means which they have possessed of access to the great sources of information and improvement, and the impediments presented by the verna cular language of their congregations to their official and pastoral communications: they have long been deprived of all the benefits to be derived from the watchful eye, the presiding mind, the encouraging approbation, the ready advice, and influential example of a resident diocesan. It was notorious to the whole kingdom, and a subject of regret to all who had the interests of the Church at heart, that for thirty four years, during which the see of Llandaff was filled by the late Bishop Watson, his communications with his Clergy were for the most part limited to the brief periods of his stated visitations, or to an occasional correspondence with individuals by letter, upon topics on which his official interposition was indispensably necessary. Of the character or conduct of his Clergy, he could know little but by report: and of their Bishop the Clergy had scarcely more information than that which they shared with the whole nation; by which he was known as a disappointed and querulous, though able man, who had buried himself in the wilds of Westmoreland, and then complained that he was forgotten: and had signalized himself upon two occasions as an able apologist for Christianity and the Bible. Under such circumstances, had the Clergy of this secluded and deserted district, thus left to their own guidance and discretion, been less attentive to their pastoral duties, less observant of ecclesiastical discipline, less zealous and diligent, less orderly and decorous than their fellow-labourers in the ministry who enjoyed advantages denied to them; it would have been a subject rather for sorrow than surprise. And, though the enemies of the Church might have watched the defection with malignant joy, and her friends observed it with deep though silent regret; unprejudiced persons would have been more fully convinced of the indispensable necessity of the episcopal office, by remarking the injury which the Church had sustained even from a partial dereliction of its solemn duties. That such injury was in fact sustained, we do not mean to deny but, while we admit the fact, we admit it only in a qualified sense. The Clergy were deprived of their official head, and the whole body in all its faculties, functions and exertions, suffered by the loss. But the injury was neither vital, nor permanent. And, though the immediate successor of Bishop Watson did not reside upon his see; yet bis zealous and active mind feelingly alive to the situation and wants of his diocese, communicated a kindred spirit of zeal and exertion to his Clergy, and did much to compensate for his personal absence. His vigilance and ability were VOL. XVII. JANUARY, 1822. D successfully applied to the better regulation of several matters in which some amendment had become necessary." P. 6. and better evidence cannot be given of the value of his labours, than is contained in the satisfactory opinion which his successor has expressed of the Clergy, over whom he had for so short a time presided. After paying this merited tribute to the conduct of his energetic and active predecessor, the Bishop notices the useful labours of the rural deans; a body of ecclesiastical officers, whose operations have been found to be so beneficial in every diocese in which they have been called into action, that we are anxious to see their appointments become more general. As subsidiary to the Archdeacons they would be very serviceable, in vigilantly superintending the state of ecclesiastical buildings; for the extended sphere of an Archdeacon's authority as well as the very inadequate provision in general made for the support of his official dignity, must render a parochial visitation of his Archdeaconry an undertaking too laborious in itself, and too ruinous in the expences attending it to be often repeated. The Bishop makes a favourable report of the state of the existing Churches in his diocese. The proportion of those now in decent and respectable condition being nearly as five to one; and of the rest several are stated to be actually under repair. At the same time, the want of Church room in some parts of the diocese, in which mining and manufacturing speculations have congregated multitudes, is feelingly deplored. The extent of the deficiency in one instance, that of Myrthyr Tydwl, which from an inconsiderable village has been raised by its extensive iron works to the size and importance of a large town, and peopled with a singularly rude and uncultivated multitude, is thus stated: "Till lately, there has scarcely been accommodation in the Church of this parish for more than one fortieth part of the number of inhabitants. By the recent erection of galleries, the number of seats has been nearly doubled; but for a population exceeding eighteen thousand, there is now room for only about nine hundred persons. (P. 9. note.) This, though in itself a case of such pressing necessity as to call the attention of the legislature to the propriety of speedily replenishing the exhausted funds of the Commissioners for building new Churches, is only one, and not perhaps the most importunate of the claims, which almost every manufacturing district in the kingdom might prefer. By the last Report of the Commissioners to parliament,it apnears, that twenty-five applications from different parishes had been postponed on account of the state of the fund. All of these are cases in which aid would probably have been granted, had the commissioners possessed the means. We will select four of these cases, which occur in four different dioceses; and we will leave our readers to judge, from this specimen, of the still existing deficiency of Church-room in the more populous districts of the kingdom, whether a farther call may not be made upon the national purse, too loud to be disregarded by any who wish to support the Established Church, and are prepared to allow that the welfare of a state depends upon the religious principles of its inhabitants. In the diocese of York, the parish of Bradford has applied for aid; and has stated that a population of 48,113 souls is resident within its limits, of whom its Churches can accommodate only 6,004. That part of the district of Norwood, which lies within the boundaries of the parish of Lambeth, and in the diocese of Winchester, is inhabited by 50,000 persons; and its Churchroom is only adequate to the accommodation of 1600. In districts in the parish of Rochdale, in the diocese of Chester, were contained 37,229 persons in 1811; and the population has probably increased there in the same ratio as in other manufacturing districts. Of this multitude, only 4,620 can attend public worship in the Churches within the district. Sedgley, in the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, according to the census of 1811, contained a population of 13,937; and its Church will hold no more than 406!!! In none of these cases have the commissioners the power of affording relief: and these, we repeat, are four only out of 25, which they have been obliged to postpone for the same reason. They are indeed four of the strongest cases which they have so reported; but all which they repeat evidently in their opinions require aid, and we have no doubt that very many more still remain behind unreported and unknown. It is indeed in itself a lamentable proof of the inveteracy of the evil under which the country is suffering, that where the deficiency is the greatest, there it is least observed or complained of. The apathy which prevails on this subject in some large manufacturing districts, can only be conceived by those whose lot it is to witness it. Neither the turbulent and ferocious spirit of insubordination, which in the hour of adversity threatens their property and their lives; nor the idleness and drunkenness, which in a more thriving state of trade is so prejudicial to their interests; nor the perpetual occurrence of petty and vexatious depredations, to which under all circumstances they are subjected, has yet awakened the master manufacturers, generally speaking, to any adequate |