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ings are often painfully tortuous and has produced a free press. Possessed of methodical. Words are weighed, and this "GREAT CHARTER," no country can precedent reverently worshiped. Coop- be permanently a slave; despoiled of it, ed up within the arena of this national none can be permanently free; its holiest colosseum, our classical gladiators, alter- sympathies flow in the life-blood of the nately the Retiarii of the government, enfranchised. The free press of England and the Secutores of the Opposition, are dates its real origin from Wickliffe and intent only on the petty conflict of the his Bible, Cobham and his Lollards; from hour. Meanwhile, the mighty flood of Cranmer, and Ridley, and Latimer, and life without is pursuing its grand course Jewell, and Knox; know we that Milton, in freer tides of existence. Voice rises and Bunyan, and Baxter, and the Seven upon voice-wave rolls onward upon wave, Bishops in the Tower, and Cameronians, an ocean of life and of sound. On the and Covenanters, and Puritans, and Nonmargin of this multitudinous deep, stands comformists, and Independents, and Bapthe true national Canute. It is the Press. tists, and Wesleyans-those were foundHis power, like that of his great proto- ers: these builders of our free press. type, lies not in listening to flatteries, but None but Christians could weary out opin the enunciation of Truth. The free pression with the copious offering of their press is the viceroy of a free people. To lives. They conquered when coward be faithful, or to fall-such is his destiny. intellectuality had fled the field. Let our Treachery would insure his deposition. statesmen never lose sight of the fact, While England presents us with this that the free policy of England has arisen noble spectacle of an independent cor- out of its pure Christianity. That conrective of the deficiencies of our states- stitutes a moral grandeur which all the men and legislators, we can not but be cabinets of statesmen, and all the autocurious to ascertain that law which has graphs of princes, can never equal. It is produced so remedial a publicity in our in this point of view that we can not own land and its colonial off-shoots: so but regret the cheap religious flippancy compulsory a silence in nearly all others. of the principal political organ of the In France, the press has been alternately day. the exponent of anarchical license and of It is in this spirit that the Metropolitan abject submission. Throughout the whole of the Press informs us, in one of its of Europe it is, at this moment, either leaders, that though "the letter killeth silenced or muzzled, as though it were in some cases, we do not think it does in some wild beast and not a reasoning the case of the Bank of England note ;" power. Spurious civilization has tamely or, in another, that such and such a one endured this ignominy; not so genuine is like "the son who had his allowance of enlightenment: for the latter consists not fatted calves so regularly, that he thought in the gloss of the exterior, but in inward it a matter of course;" or, in a third, that purity of principle. Let us face the plain"there are men who have their names facts of the case as honest men should do. down not only in the Book of Life, but And here we would inquire, as we have also in the Peerage." In fact, discreditdone elsewhere, what that is which has able levities of this stamp are of congiven a superior moral tone to our press tinual occurrence, constituting grave blots generally? We can not deny that it is on the great mirror of public intelligence. genuine Christianity, in its uncorporate, Nor has this peculiarity been unobserved. individual, abstract form. All the decora- That a part of the press, that is so strong tive holiness of substance or of sound-an advocate of the union of the Church of robe or of reverend of altar or of music, which make up the religion of the Papal continent-have done nothing for the freedom or moral dignity of the English press. Had they done so, the evidences would have also appeared in that of Italy, of Spain, of France, and of Austria. We are, then, thrown back upon the fact, that the morality of our press has been raised, because a purer Christianity has raised it. In fact, a free Bible

of England with the state, should descend to flippant remarks upon that Book, which the articles of our own Church declare to be "HOLY SCRIPTURE," is surely a strange mode of defending her. Such a line of conduct can not convey to foreign nations a very exalted opinion of the moral self-respect felt by writers who are dignified with the title of Protestant gentlemen and scholars; still less will it raise their character as Christians among

the reflecting portion of their fellowcountrymen. To desecrate the volume of Revelation by using it as a reference book for cheap witticisms, shows alike poverty of invention and bad taste. It does worse than this: it virtually countenances the Bible-burnings of papalized Italy, Austria, and Spain. Nay more, we have seen it, like the medieval noble, take into its service the cap and bells of the professional jester; while, with a taste peculiarly its own, and more cannibal than Christian, it has esteemed the hunch of the buffoon as flavorous as that of the buffalo. We quarrel not with the poor deformed heathen, who submissively does the will of his master,

"And thinks, admitted to some equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company." Well would it be, however, if the misshapen creature would attire himself more decently in this Christian land, dressing his canine companion with a cleaner frill. He might then joyfully exclaim with

Gloucester:

"I'll be at charges for a looking-glass,

And entertain a score or two of tailors
To study fashions to adorn my body:
Since I am crept in favor with myself
I will maintain it with some little cost.'"*

But what, we proceed to ask, are the special aptitudes which have made England the great colonizing power of the world? What has made her the great Mother? What is that which has given to Great Britain a healthy, surging vitality unknown to the dead sea of continental politics? We answer. It is, primarily, the mighty maternity of Revelation. Barrenness―utter barrenness, is the sentence passed upon the great despotisms of Europe. Effete of offspring-clad in armor, beneath whose ponderous weight they are well-nigh borne down, like the "Giant Despair" of Bunyan, they are ever ready to fall into one of the giant's fainting fits. What a moral for the statesman, the legist, and the Christian, is presented by the colonial history of Europe! Why is it that the great military powers of the West have been stript of their vast outlying possessions? France, overborne in a death-struggle in the East, and expelled from India, to make way for Eng

Caste and Christianity. By TEMPLE CHRISTIAN FABER. Robert Hardwick, Piccadilly, London.

land and her mighty sovereignty over two hundred millions of human beingsCanada, and the greater part of her island possessions torn from her grasp, with little more than the barren savagery of Algiers to console her for her losses; Spain, with her once vast empire of South-America and the Netherlands lost to her forever, with Cuba gasping under the pressure of the United States; Italian Genoa and Venice, with their former extensive commerce in the Black Sea and the East, long since decayed; and Austria, with the grasp of the Papacy upon her gorge, bidding her "deliver or die;" what and why are all these great facts in the world's history? Let the reflecting individual ponder deeply upon them, for they constitute the mirror of the future. Let the Univers meditate upon the singular spectacle, and honestly consider if such an array of remarkable facts harmonize with its own fond vaticinations of Enggland's decay and proximate downfall. What a magnificent progeny shall, ere long, have sprung from these little islands! In less than fifty years, there will be a larger number of our race speaking the English tongue than any other throughout Europe; and with one or two exceptions, throughout the world. With the population of North-America trebled, and its teeming multitudes crowding downwards to its southern regions; with the Canadas swollen with a vigorous and industrious people; with Australia, India, and the Ocean Isles wondrously replenished with our great Anglo-Saxon stock; what a grand spectacle will there not be presented to the philanthropist and the Christian! And let us, above all, remember that this free race will not fail to take with it its own free institutions and its own free literature. Of the latter, what a mighty pabulum already exists for the intellectual nutriment of these energetic myriads! What nation is so rich as Great Britain in works of sterling, practical science; of wondrous travels; of interesting biography; of earnest and profound theology; of independent thought; of maritime discovery; of manly enterprise; of lofty Christianity? Here is an ample store for the mental aliment of England's world-wide progeny. Let us not willfully ignore the fact, that the true germ of policy in every land lies in the purity or impurity of its religion—in the unshackled independence of soul, of in

tellect, of moral action. Let us not forget that when we talk of "social questions," we are, in fact, standing upon higher ground and breathing a purer atmosphere than belong to society. We can not even talk of "morality," without perceiving that this "morality" is not a parent but a child-not a master but a servant. Impartial history has taken the measure of these two stunted dwarfs of Rome and Greece, and has handed down to us no very laudable tales of their conduct. We have no desire to drink from a scoured pig-trough, when we can have access to a CRYSTAL FOUNT. Poor Mungo Park had no choice-he was dying of thirst, and he shared the liquid life with the swine. How long shall the masses of what is pompously called "Christendom " remain in a similar or even worse category? All freedom must begin from within. It is not a parasitic, but the tree. "What," it has been asked, "but the free spirit of the Reformation founded, Bible in hand, the majestic array of the American Colonies ?"

"Not as the conqueror comes,

They, the true-hearted, came
Not with the roll of the stirring drums,
Nor the trumpet that sings of fame:
Not as the flying come,

In silence and in fear:
They shook the depths of the forest gloom
With their hymns of lofty cheer.'

The golden proverbs, alike of national piety and national enterprise, are correlatives. There are, indeed, great things which have produced but little results; there are glorious things which have but tended to inglorious effects. The pomps of art and the gorgeousness of an hierarchic array may shed their magnificence over the dazzled senses-they may produce a delirious-day-dream, but they have never yet produced a nation of FREEMEN. The spirit of commercial enterprise, and the national distinction of grand mechanical agencies, are diametrically opposed to superstition. The one flourishes by inquiry, the other exists by monotony; the one is the creature of light, the other of darkness. The former gratifies taste and gilds corruption; the latter grows mighty from judgment. The first clears the intellect of communities; the latter soothes by a narcotic. The one imparts to its offspring a giant mould; to the other is born a stunted progeny.

VOL. XLIV.-NO. IV.

"The railway, the steam-engine, the vast mechanism of the factory, the widening glories free life of a world in the west-all these are of our English constitution, and, finally, the the offspring, not of form, but of life-not of mendicant fraternities, but of the free brotherhood of Christians; not of Loyola, but of Luther in one word, not of superstition, but of Christianity. A nation that can exhibit results so grand can well afford to endure the taunt of gross materialism. But let it be remembered that it was intellectual freedom that called into existence the ministering agency by which these wonders were produced, by which the sustenance and the intelligence of myriads were stimulated and insured."*

But let us ask if these agencies have Let us produced their natural effect. listen to the same authority. He thus

writes:

"We have lived to behold, even beneath the blaze of freedom's sunlight, the leprous progeny of medieval priestcraft and mediæval tyranny, scorning to hide the ghastly whiteness of their taint, by robes empurpled by the blood We have lived to of Christianity and Freedom. see barbaric force and fraud struggling to realize the mad dream of universal empire. We have lived to see artificial nationalities made to order, and the soul of a free people made an inflated toy for the sport of imperial childhood. We have lived to see, unexcused by the gloom of the dark ages, ecclesiastical corporations stretching between the Christian and his sUN the flimsy tawdriness of curtains, stained by the blood of martyrs; but the LIGHT still shines. We have seen them vainly banded together to arrest the revolution of the intellectual world

'e pur se muove,' we exclaim, with Galileo. Yes! it still moves with increasing majesty and momentum. We have lived to see the power, wealth, and dignity of a whole people deliberately laid low, on the very vestibule of nationpontifical shoe. ality, as a mere mat for the cleansing of the pontifical shoe. We have lived to see, in our own Protestant Church, ecclesiastical arrogance enthroned on the dais of priestly caste, exclusive as its own brazen gates, and as narrowminded as its phylacteries are broad. In lieu of living for souls, priests have connived at the sale of souls for a living. When Christianity is baptized with the pagan waters of Lethe, the shower of Danae with the sprinklings of regennational godfather is apt to confound the golden eration. The scandal, however, is a genteel one, and it befits a people of caste like the English.

"Chapman of souls! that from fair Isis' banks, Bring'st with thy purchase-price of flock and

fold,

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change than ours. We are not naturally

For daily floral sacrifice for sin,
Where SELF, man's great high-priest, the Holiest, fickle-minded, but rather apathetic, phleg

enters in."

matic, and contented. The nation will tolerate much from its professional statesmen, but it will not tolerate national degradation. Increased publicity in diplomatic affairs will be insisted on.

These are hard things; but after Mr. Osborne's letters, we fear they must be pronounced to be "proven." Meanwhile, we can not but deem the great political If the isolation of England has been organ of the day essentially wrong in its complained of by foreign writers, let it be almost dishonest system of Compromise. remembered that it is the isolation of the This compromise is its paradise of truth. Freeman from the bondage of the Slave. But compromise has never yet produced Nay, more, it requires no great forecast great poets, great statesmen, nor great to perceive that that isolation will be inChristians. We can not laud that slavish creased by the increase of national moservitude that waits on the chariot-wheels rality and a more simple Christianity. of success-that represses earnestness Publicity can not be made to chime in earnestness, which is the very life-blood with Secresy-a closed press with an open of British enterprise. Nor can we ad- one-light with darkness-communities mire that singular idiosyncracy which ex- of religious harlequins with a people of pects all mankind, Mr. Spurgeon not ex- rational piety. Whatever may be done cepted, to be borne in the arms of its dry by the rulers of France and England, we nurse, Mrs. Punch, to the baptism of its may rest assured that the bulk of either own leaden font. The impartial monkey population will never harmonize until the who nibbled off the cheese of the litigant first great principle be harmonized from cats was certainly not a very respectable which the legislation of each has sprung judge-in-equity; nor can we attach much up. Congresses have been fashionable of greater judicial dignity to those astute simiæ of the Press, whose simulated gravity now passes sentence on the Protestant, now on the Catholic; anon jauntily takes its judicial seat on the Bible, and anon holds out its friendly paw to Christians. England does not want an overgrown Chimpanzee for its mentor, but an honest man. Somewhat more than versatility, time-serving, and simulation, is in requisition. A higher tone of morality is also demanded for our public men; nor will capacity be tolerated instead of steadfast integrity.

It is impossible not to be struck with the frequent collisions increasingly occurring between what is called the Executive and the Commons. It has become increasingly difficult to carry on the government. What does this show but that we have entered upon another phase of the so-called "constitution ?" That constitution may not fully answer the requirements of this great country. No nation is less inclined to change for the sake of

late years; materialities and "material pledges" have been dealt with pretty liberally; but we have as yet had no notice of a Congress for securing the freedom of conscience for the entirety of Europe. We respectfully invite the Pope to the presidency of this conference. Before statesmen take one step in any direction, statistic or political, it behoves them publicly to lay down this great principle; and we beg of France, "the first of civilized nations," to see it carried out. There is no half-way house to TRUTH. That is the only promontory which has ever commanded one unbroken prospect over the tide of time. From any thing short of this, there is no prospect at all. The lightnings of the political heaven may play around its summit-the popular billows may thunder at its base; but the PILGRIM of TRUTH, and the mighty pedestal upon which he stands, remain alike unscathed by the elemental war and the red artillery of the skies.

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THE afternoon of a hot June day was drawing towards evening, and the great world of London-for it was the hight of the season-were beginning to think of dinner. In a well-furnished dressingroom, the windows being open for air, and the blinds drawn down to exclude the sun, stood a lady, whose maid was giving the last touch to her rich attire. It was Lady Sarah Hope.

"What bracelets, my lady?" asked the maid, taking a small bunch of keys from her pocket.

"None now: it is so very hot. Alice," added Lady Sarah, turning to a young lady, who was leaning back on a sofa, "have them ready displayed for me when I come up, and I will decide then."

"I have them ready, Lady Sarah ?" returned Miss Seaton.

"If you will be so kind. Hughes, give the key to Miss Seaton."

Lady Sarah left the room, and the maid, Hughes, began taking one of the small keys off the ring. "I have got leave to go out, miss, she explained, "and am going directly. My mother is not well, and wants to see me. This is the key, miss." As Miss Seaton took it, Lady Sarah reappeared at the door. "Alice, you may as well bring the jewel-box down to the back drawing-room. I shall not care to come up here after dinner: we shall be late, as it is."

"What's that about a jewel-box ?" inquired a pretty-looking girl, who had come from another apartment.

"Lady Sarah wishes me to bring her bracelets down to the drawing-room, that she may choose which to put on. It was too hot to dine in them, she said."

"Are you not coming in to dinner today, Alice ?"

No. I walked out, and it has tired me, as usual. I have had some tea in stead."

"I would not be you for all the world, Alice! To possess so little capability of enjoying life."

BRACELET.

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"I can hear the dinner being taken in," said Alice: "you will be late in the drawing-room."

Lady Frances Chenevix turned away to fly down the stairs; her light, rounded form, her elastic step, all telling of health and enjoyment, presented a marked contrast to that of Alice Seaton. Alice's face was indeed strangely beautiful, almost too refined and delicate for the wear and tear of common life, but her figure was weak and stooping, and her gait feeble. Of exceedingly good family, she had been suddenly thrown from her natural position of wealth and comfort to comparative poverty, and had found refuge as "companion" to Lady Sarah Hope.

Colonel Hope was a thin, spare man, with sharp brown eyes and sharp features; looking so shrunk and short, that he must have been smuggled into the army under hight; unless he had since been growing downwards. No stranger could have believed him at ease in his circumstances, any more than they would have believed him a colonel who had seen hard service in India, for his clothes were frequently thread-bare. A black ribbon supplied the place of a gold chain, as guard to his watch, and a blue tin-looking thing of a galvanized ring did duty for any other ring on his finger. Yet he was rich; of fabulous riches, people said; but he was of a close disposition, especially as re garded his personal outlay. In his home and to his wife he was liberal. They had been married several years, but had no children, and his large property was not entailed: it was believed that his nephew,

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