forded of the high temperature endured. Some eggs and a beefsteak were placed on a tin frame near the thermometer, but further from the entrance than from the wall of the room: in the space of twenty minutes, the eggs were roasted quite hard, and in forty-seven minutes the steak was almost dry. Another beef-steak, in a similar place, was rather over-done in thirty-three minutes." There are some beautiful engravings in the volume, which is altogether a really superior and delightful work for our young people. OBSERVATIONS ON THE RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS OF INSANE PERSONS; and on the Practicability, Safety, and Expediency of imparting to them Christian instruction. By NATHANIEL BINGHAM, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, &c. Hatchard and Son, 187, Piccadilly. ONE of the most gratifying changes produced by the advancing prevalence of enlightened views, in modern days, is the improved method of treating insane persons. No longer regarded as beings less than human, for whom chains, whips, cold and neglect, were appropriate modes of treatment, they are recognised as patients suffering under one of "the numerous ills" to which "flesh is heir;" and differing from other patients only in the part of the body affected, the brain,-the organ of the mind. The parliamentary investigations into the state of asylums, public and private, which this century has witnessed, have been productive of most salutary reforms; and even the lingering degree of coercion, which has hitherto, in certain cases, been considered necessary, bids fair to be wholly done away. We cannot leave this point, however, without inculcating the greatest caution. Otherwise, in case of patients at once mischievous and cunning, very serious consequences will result. Our author notices this point, and gives a striking case in illustration : "A friend of mine had a very narrow escape from a gentleman, who had been dining with himself and wife; and who, on being defeated in his plan, affected to be only in a playful mood. His play, however, was to strangle my friend with a piece of rope, which he had artfully procured and concealed; after contriving a knot which would have secured the ac- Dr. Abercrombie, in his treatise on The Many interesting anecdotes, relating to insane persons, particularly those suffering under what has been called "religious madness," are scattered through the work. In cases of this de scription, it has been too much the custom to forbid all religious exercises. Such instances as the following, therefore, are peculiarly welcome : "As to the inference that religion must always be injurious to such patients, nothing can be more inconclusive. It reminds me of a request I heard made to a superintendent, by one under his care: May I attend chapel with the rest? My own keeper will be with me; and I am not likely to become too religious, or anything of that sort.' He was allowed to attend from that time; and I never heard that he was the worse for it." (Page 121). The following testimony to the good qualities of deranged persons, (quoted by Mr. Bingham from another writer,) is also very pleasing to all medical men; and to all the friends THE SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY TREA- Longman and Co., Paternoster Row. "I cannot here avoid giving my most decided testimony to the moral qualities of maniacs. I have no where met, except in romances, with fonder husbands, more affectionate parents, more impassioned lovers, more pure and exalted patriots, than in a lunatic asylum, during the intervals of calmness and reason. be lost, the ornamental border surroundA man of sensibility may go there every ing each page, is furnished with "Notes, day of his life, and witness scenes of in-containing concise facts with appropriate describable tenderness, associated with observations." These notes refer to most estimable virtue."-(Page 115). some word or subject discussed in the We are not to suppose that all mad page to which they are appended; but, persons are idiots ;-the latter constitut-when separated from their connection, ing only one class,-hopelessly incu- they present a very miscellaneous character; relating to subjects "wide as the poles asunder;" but all conveying knowledge, of a useful kind, in a portable form;-quite a "multum in parvo.” We shall copy a few as a specimen : rable: "An aged female has been known to set a learned man right, as to the meaning of the last chapter of Ecclesiastes; and what shall we say of the capacity of another, who could give the following account of herself? You do not look well to day,' said the superintendent; 'you are not merry; what makes you so dull?'-' I often think of my sins!''Why, what sins can you have been guilty of? did you ever commit murder? Yes, I think I have; for I have often been out of temper, and angry with persons; and I have sometimes wished to do them an injury; and that is committing murder in my heart! This was pretty well for a mad woman, considered one of the incurables!"-(Page 112). We recommend this work to all persons connected with lunatic asylums, public and private; whether as governors, proprietors, visitors, physicians, surgeons, superintendents, keepers, or nurses ; "The famous temple of Ephesus was built upon wooden piles, which had been charred on the outside, to preserve them. The beams of the theatre at Herculaneum were converted into charcoal, by the lava which overflowed that city. Charles XII. of Sweden, played at chess, when he was closely beseiged in the house near Bender, by the Turks. Flower of sulphur, thrown into the grate when a chimney is on fire, extinguishes the latter, by decomposing the atmospheric air. Religious feuds, with regard to the Divinity of Christ, commenced in the second century, and led to proscriptions and persecutions. The first history of the Christian Church was written by Eusebius. The patriarch at Constantinople is the head of the Greek Church; as the pope is the head, or chief, of the Church of Rome." Let no one expect from this work, what it does not profess, and what it was obviously impossible to give ;-full and complete details of every subject introduced. General principles and accurate explanations, are all it aims at; and are what is generally required. Particular details must be sought in larger volumes. An octavo edition, with a few thousand wood cuts, would be a more expensive, but a still more valuable work. Cloth THE HANNAHS; or Maternal Influence In the introductory chapters there are some passages, that are particularly striking; we have marked three of them for extract, but from want of room this month, we must reserve them for successive spare corners in future numbers. They will strongly commend the work to the reader. It will, no doubt, however, from the nature of the subject and the repute of the author, have a very wide circulation; and we think it well deserves it. THE SEED. pp. 32. THE HONEY BEE. pp. 32. Religious Tract Society. THESE three little books are the commencement of a series of works, of a somewhat similar class to the more expensive scientific treatises published by this Society; differing, however, in this, Virtue, Ivy Lane. THE author of "The Marys," "The Marthas," and "The Lydias," has a delightful subject here; and he writes like one who is at home upon it. His difficulty seems to have been, to select that they are issued at a price which from an abundant store, and we own we places them within reach of all. They are a little disappointed, that he has are got up with equal care and exhibit confined himself to a comment upon equal talent, and they deserve equal enScripture instances of maternal influ-couragement. We are promised, in the ence-taking successively, the cases of same style, "The Feather,' "The Eve, and of Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Flower,' "The Ant," "The Fruit," Moses, Samuel, David, Solomon, John "The Spider," &c. The success of tethe Baptist, and the Saviour, in a series undertaking cannot be doubted; and of chapters, which we might call ser- its success is only justice. Science, mons; we should have liked a little more broken up into fragments, suits the of reference to modern habits and man-young mind, before it has strength to ners; but what we have is good and grasp a large subject; and for this valuable, and the book is not one to purpose, books like these three are infind fault with, but to admire. valuable. tance to the public welfare, and that | from the Ecclesiastical Court, commandtheir continuance in office under such ing the parishioners to make a rate. circumstances was at variance with the [See ante page 216, for explanation of spirit of the constitution:" Parliament this process.] An amendment was was, under their advice, dissolved on the | carried, refusing a Rate, as "unjust to twenty-third of June. Dissenters and unchristian." The Chairman then announced, that he should consider all votes in support of that proposition as beside the question and thrown away; and addressing those who were willing to obey the monition, he requested to know if any one objected to the amount of the rate proposed; and no one objecting to the amount, he declared it carried. CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Ar a Special General Meeting of the Church Missionary Society, on the sixteenth of July, it was resolved-"That all questions relating to matters of ecclesiastical order and discipline, respecting which a difference shall arise between any Colonial Bishop and any Committees of this Society, shall be re- At Norwich, the Vestry assembled ferred to the Archbishops and Bishops of under similar circumstances, but the the united Church of England and Ire- opponents of the rate were more inland, whose decision thereupon shall be genious. Understanding that the names final." The Bishop of London has since of voters against it would be returned to given in his adhesion to the Society; and the Ecclesiastical Court, they carried a the Archbishop of Canterbury, it is un-resolution that the vote be taken by derstood, will also now countenance its ballot. The result of the ballot was proceedings. against the rate. MISCELLANEOUS. CHURCH RATES.-On the twenty-third of June, Mr. Baines was liberated from Leicester gaol, the rate and costs having been paid by some person anonymously. The sums received by Churchwardens in England and Wales, from Easter 1840, to Easter 1841, were £446,247 12s. in Church rates; £51,919 1s., from estates; £18,216 from mortuary, or burial fees; £41,489 17s. poor rates; £39,382 12s. pews and sittings; and from other sources not stated, £66,559 16s.; total, £663,814 18s.; of which was expended in repairs of churches, &c., £248,125 16s.; organs, bells, &c., £41,710 15s.; books, wine, &c., £46,337 19s.; salaries to clerks, sextons, &c., £126,185 17s.; other purposes, principally visitation fees and travelling expenses, £183,523 2s. ; total, £645,883 9s. A pew rent has been substituted for the Church Rate in some places; Limehouse and Tiverton are among them. We proceed with our list of contested LORD MORPETH ON CHURCH RATES AND CHURCH EXTENSION.-Lord Morpeth, (whose sentiments are the more important from his being a Cabinet Minister,) being applied to at the recent Election for West Yorkshire to state his views respecting the Church questions, addressed a letter to the Rev. J. E. Giles of Leeds on the 31st of May last, in which he declared himself " ready to support a measure" for " charging the maintenance of the fabrics of the existing parochial Churches upon the improved property of the Church.' His Lordship then proceeded as follows: Believing that the extension of religious instruction and worship, whether among Dissenters or among Churchmen, is a more paramount want of the age than almost any other, I am yet, in the present circumstances of the country, opposed to the scheme of carrying out the extension upon a compulsory principle. I should be nearly as willing to tax Churchmen for new Baptist places of worship, as Baptists for new Churches; but as I should not expect to effect one Rate carried. object, I am willing to abstain from the Rate refused. other." Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. Ditto. At Braintree a Vestry was held on the 15th of July, in pursuance of a monition REV. DR. PYE SMITH.-The Watchman having recently charged Dr. Pye Smith with declaring, that "to require religion in a Parliamentary candidate would be just as reasonable, as to decline employing a medical practitioner because he happened to be ignorant of law;" the Doctor has denied, in a Letter to The Patriot, dated the 26th of June, that he "ever had such a thought or uttered such a sentiment," adding that this sentiment is utterly contrary to the habitual character of his conversation, preaching, writing, or any other mode of giving utterance to thought;" and for proof of this he appeals to his sermon, entitled "Religion essential to the well-being of a nation," and says that "the sentiments maintained in that sermon are, and he is persuaded ever will be, his fixed conviction." As this notion is often attributed to Dr. Pye Smith, it may be well to explain, that the words are those of The Times newspaper of August 1, 1837, where the Editor, commenting on a speech of the Doctor's in support of Mr. Hume (then candidate for Middlesex), alleges that this is its meaning and effect. In the speech in question, Dr. Smith had contended, "that religious character could not atone for political incompetence, while doubts with respect to the genuine piety of a candidate ought not to prevent the election of a man, who possessed those qualifications which are peculiarly requisite in a member of Parliament"-(we quote from The Patriot). The Doctor appears to have said "Suppose that I see a man whom I have the pain of apprehending to fall short of what I deem important views in religion, but a man of honourable character, in domestic life exemplary, a firm supporter of the rights of conscience-the great Protestant principle that a man must judge for himself in matters of religion, &c.--I feel myself obliged, upon every ground of reason and religion, to do all that I can, by fair and candid argument, to promote his return to Parliament. Such a man I believe Mr. Hume to be. He has, I fear, at different times, given utterance to rash and very painful expressions, the unhappy effect of which has been aggravated by their being misunderstood and misreported." &c. "RIGHTS" AND "DUTIES" OF PROPERTY.-Earl Brownlow, in refusing to let a piece of land for building a Wesleyan Chapel at Torksey in Lincolnshire, has stated that "with every sentiment of goodwill and of perfect toleration towards the Wesleyan Methodists, it is not consistent with his principles of attachment to the Established Church, to contribute to the propagation of Dissent from her discipline and worship." Earl Fitzwilliam, however, having endeavoured by a suit in Chancery to stop the erection of a school house in an Irish parish, intended for a strictly Protestant education, Sir Michael O'Loghlen (a Romanist and Master of the Rolls) observed in giving judgment, that the noble Lord being owner of all most all the land there, it was an odious tyranny to attempt to debar the Protestants from obtaining education for the children of their brethren among the poor, unless at the violation of their religious scruples." PROJECTS OF THE PAPISTS. On the eve of Lord John Russell's election for the City of London, a Romanist Deputation waited on him to endeavour to obtain a pledge to vote for their equal participa tion in educational grants and Colonial religious endowments, and also "The repeal of the disqualifying and penal clauses in the Catholic Relief Bill." The main object of this demand, it is said, is to legalise the establishment of the order of the Jesuits in England; but we suspect, that Jesuits care very little for such penal laws, in the present state of society and public feeling here. Lord John Russell refused to pledge himself to " any specific vote," but referred to his parliamentary conduct in proof of his determination to maintain "the equality of civil rights without disqualification on the ground of religious faith." POWER OF 66 THE PEOPLE." "There is something greater in this age than its greatest men. It is the appearance of a We will only add, that every one must new power in the world; the appearance admit the "ubiquity of religion": the le- of the multitude on that stage, where as gislator, it has been well observed, can- yet the few have acted their parts alone." not take a step in politics, without-Channing's Address on "The Present stumbling on some question or other, Age," May 11, 1841. which involves for its satisfactory settlement a right perception of important moral and religious principles. |