saying: "I do not vouch for the facts; I have them from Mrs. Ibbotson?"

Is he now within boundaries of candour and of justice? If he is not a little more careful respecting what he says, and the manner in which he says it, it will not be difficult to foresee, that he must at length be brought to see and feel that he is amenable to his country's laws for his unsparing attack upon reputable

names.

But Lady Byron herself does not elude the grasp of our author so easily as might appear from the above extract. An appendix follows; in which he seems to repent of his lenity; and directly accuses her of the want of generosity and delicacy, in a transaction with Moore and Murray, respecting the publication of Lord Byron's Life. We shall say but little about this, unless he should be so ill-advised as to inflict upon the public his threatened Life of Mrs. Ibbotson, &c.; in which, we suppose, morę on this subject would be forthcoming. We only observe, that, judging exclusively from the story of the author's talkative acquaintance, it is by no means clear that Lady Byron did any thing inconsistent with the most perfect equity, generosity, and good manners. But Lord Byron is a favourite with many-the faults of his character are lost in the blaze of his poetry; and it is the fashion to pour on the head of an injured and unoffending wife that reproach which, after all, must adhere to the noble poet's own character, notwithstanding the splendour of his talents and the witchery of his versification.

With respect to our author's style, we may remark, that it is generally easy, and free from faults; sometimes it is good, and causes the reader to regret that it has not been employed in a better cause.

His stories are wanting in the truth of nature-in that good keeping, which makes the whole probable; and yet not tame and uninteresting. If he were a little more attentive to the proba bility of his facts, he would be able to produce a work which should be read with pleasure; though he requires higher quali ties to be able to compose one which should be read with profit, His description of Jeffrey we will give, as a specimen of what he can do; and we think it the most favourable which the volume furnishes.

As to Jeffrey, I never heard a man talk so fast, or woman either; the rapidity with which, after dinner, one idea followed another, (he said little before, and looked fagged and jaded), was to me, who then saw him for the first time, matter of pure amazement. But though he talks ably and fluently, he does not talk pleasantly; there is a dash of conceit and arrogance in his manner, a bitterness and sarcasm in his tone of feeling, which will not stand the test of rereflection; there is not an atom of repose about him. In person, he is a little,

thin, spare, acute-looking man; with a penetrating eye; and, take it altogether, a most unpleasant countenance. One listens to his conversation, and looks at his saturnine complexion, and fancies that there is a redundancy of bile both in his moral and physical constitution; and feels persuaded that a few more grains of self-knowledge would be as beneficial to the one, as six weeks' residence at Cheltenham would be to the other. The most extraordinary thing about him is the rapidity with which he catches, comprehends, and answers your ideas; long before I had finished my sentence, and often when a few words only had escaped me, he had anticipated iny reply, and had advanced half-way in his rejoinder. This happened again and again, and, I was comforted by observing, to others as well as to myself. Yet, after all, gifted as he is, his powers, great as they are, do not leave a pleasant impression on the mind. The head may all wisdom, the heart all gall! The compass and versatility of his attainmentsthe point and power of his conversation-the brilliancy of his sallies-the bitterness of his invective-all fail to disguise the melancholy truth, that JEFFREY IS A DISAPPOINTED MAN. True, his sneer is withering-his sarcasm cutting-let him pride himself on both; there is no peace or harmony within! p. 286.

be

The last chapter in the book is an eulogy on Archdeacon Daubeny. The personal character of this venerable man we respect as highly as our author does. We admire his charitable disposition, his munificent distributions to the necessities of the poor, and his well-intended zeal for the prosperity of our excellent Establishment. But we consider him as greatly mistaken, and as having prejudices which perhaps will not easily be removed. The unqualified praise of the Country Curate looks a little too much like adulation; and notwithstanding his strong disclaimer, we are half inclined to think that something is hoped and expected, directly or indirectly, from this grey-headed dignitary of the Church. This we are sure of, the Archdeacon will not act with the liberality for which our author so highly celebrates him, if he does not cast a favourable glance upon the work; and recommend the writer of it to the notice of the Lord Chancellor, or the Bishop of his diocese, or some other worthy patron, who may know how to estimate such talents for preaching as the book before us discovers. At least we would hope, that as the Dean, to whom the present publication is dedicated, refuses to take the nursling in his arms, the worthy Archdeacon will have compassion on the outcast; and that the next edition of it will both begin and end with the praises of Dr. Dáubeny.

We have now but one word of advice to give to every curate in town or country: Not to be a préferment-hunter-not to be a time-server-not to attempt a compromise between God and the world-not to study stage effect-not to be artificial and unnatural in his manner of preaching; but with sober earnestness to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ; with holy zeal to aim at the conversion of sinners; and with self-denying diligence to fulfil his hallowed vocation, keeping himself unspotted by the world."

368

Sermons on various Subjects. By the Honourable and Venerable AUBREY G. SPENCER, Archdeacon of Bermuda, Rector of Pagets and Warwick, and one of the Members of his Majesty's Council. London: Rivingtons. 1827.

THE author has "presumed to dedicate" "the following discourses to the Lord Bishop of Nova Scotia. Considering the mass of false doctrine which it contains, we might indeed well consider it a presumption to dedicate such a volume to the lowest minister of the Church, much less to a Christian Prelate. But our author need not be uneasy on that head, because some of the worst and the vilest-we repeat the word, vilest sermons, discourses, and treatises on Christian doctrine, have been sent forth into the world as an insult to the highest orders of the Church, having come forth under their sanction and patronage.

Some of the sermons in the present volume were delivered "before the Bermuda District Committee of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge," and "had the good fortune to elicit considerable liberality in aid of the society, from the inhabitants of this colony." Our author appears to be a respectable man of that tribe of writers and preachers to which he belongs-a tribe which, we unhesitatingly declare, unless they had been met, and combated, and refuted by the despised tribe of Evangelicals, would long before now have conducted our mother, the Church of England, back to the Church of Rome, to the great joy of the cardinals, the pope, and the devil. We say this neither jocosely nor sarcastically, but soberly, gravely, advisedly, and in the fear of God. To the persons of such men as our author, we would feel nothing but kindness to their unscriptural, we had almost said damnable, errors in faith and doctrine, we must bring "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God ;" and if that sword make havoc among them, the fault is not ours, but their own.

We doubt not that some of these sermons, delivered before the Bermuda District Committee of the Christian Knowledge Society, did elicit considerable liberality from those who heard them. They contained statements calculated to nourish and foster the deadly principle of self-righteousness in the corrupt heart of man, and such doctrine as was scarcely a remove from the popish doctrine of indulgences. No wonder, then, that they met with encouragement.-But let us hear the author's own words. In a sermon preached before the above society, from Matt. xxv. 40, our preacher informs us that "He" (Christ)

proclaims the redeeming virtues of charity." After quoting the whole passage, from verse 31 to verse 40, he thus continues:

My brethren, the moving lesson which this divine Scripture embodies is easily elicited. It is, that every work of charity, which from a love of Christ is unostentatiously operated in favour of a fellow-creature, is written in the book of life, as an obligation conferred on God; that such deeds, of whatsoever description they be, whether of supplying to the necessitous either food, or raiment, or cure, or comfort, or instruction (which may supply the place of all), will devolve upon their doer the everlasting happiness of heaven; and that upon such benignant spirits shall be iterated from the judgment-seat of Christ the blessed sentence, which will confirm their inheritance of that "kingdom, which was prepared for them before the foundation of the world." p. 18.

We shall, perhaps, be told, that our preacher has in this paragraph inserted the words " from a love to Christ." But we are not to be deceived in any such way. The words, in their connection, go with us for nothing, and indeed for worse than nothing: they are evidently put in to deceive the unwary hearer or reader, and to lead him to suppose that our author preaches Christ, and him crucified, when in truth he does no such thing. The man who could talk before of the "redeeming virtues of charity," can know but little theoretically of the doctrine of Christ, and still less experimentally of his love. We doubt not that our author is an exemplary and a diligent parishpriest; that his life exhibits much that is moral and amiablein fact, as to his outward conduct, we would charitably hope that he is "endued with innocency of life;" as far, we mean, as innocency of life can be separated from that "truth of doctrine" spoken of by our Church, and of which our author is evidently and monstrously ignorant-Strong terms, but manifestly called for when a Dignitary of the Church, in the face of the Bible and the Thirty-nine Articles, dares to give utterance to such Popish sentiments as the following:

The little ones of the earth, the least of these his brethren, in whose behalf our Saviour so fervently invokes our compassion, are the young and the ignorant, the sinful and the unconverted, whom it is our especial duty to educate and reform.

Every mouthful of the bread of life which we provide for these hungry, every cup of living water which we minister to these thirsty claimants on our bounty, will tend to enrol ourselves among those "blessed of the Father," who are noted as giving unto Christ. But by this employment of our time, our talent, and our wealth, we are not only advancing the final salvation, but we are working the present happiness of our fellow-creatures. To attest the truth and importance of this remark, I call upon the best and noblest feelings of your bosom, and invite alike your reason and your affections to be my COMPURGATORS. pp. 19, 20.

A difficulty here presents itself; and, though we have just drawn up our window-blind to get a little light on the subject, we must still confess ourselves in the dark as to whether

of the twain be the worse, the English or the divinity of the above extract.

We would retort upon our preacher his own words, and would say, Perish those dreams of Utopian vanity which would erect the fabric of a nation's happiness on any other basis than a nation's faith." With this faith, so far at least as it is the faith of the Gospel, our preacher is unacquainted; while the insidious manner in which the word of God is mingled with the word of man, till truth appears lending its aid to falsehood, calls for notice and exposure. Take a specimen.

As the advocate of this cause, as the minister of Christ, I must demand of you that liberality and positive exertion which the occasion warrants, so that your prayers and your alms may go up together, like those of the good centurion, as a memorial unto God. p. 22.

Did the Archdeacon forget the peculiar circumstances of Cornelius ?-whose prayers and alms came up for a memorial before God, not by way of merit (" for in thy sight shall no flesh living be justified"), but as a memorial that he was true to the light he had, and was prepared thankfully to follow the instructions of a preacher of Christ, who was immediately sent to him. And how did St. Peter discharge the solemn duties of his office? He proclaimed Jesus and the resurrection; declaring that he had it in command to "preach unto the people, and to testify that it is Christ which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead; and that to him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins." While the Apostle spake these words the Holy Ghost descended; Cornelius and his company experienced the blessed influence, and were admitted by baptism into the Christian church.

But that the venerable society might have a good collection our author is anxious to make out a strong case; and a strong case, indeed, he does make out. He shall, however, speak for

himself.

We have provided for you every security that can be given by any corporation to its constituents, that your offerings at the blessed shrine of charity shall be perverted to no alien purpose; while a proportion of our funds is dedicated to the general designs of the Parent Society, a very large majority of them, as you well know, is devoted to the education of the children of this colony. It may not be given to you to ascertain all the good which one portion of your bounty is operating in the common cause of humanity; it may not be given to you to see the improved condition of the distant tribes to whom your donations may extend; it may not be given to you to hear the grateful thanks of millions whom you have helped to redeem from perishing

p. 23.

This paragraph contains two sentences. To the first, we can have no objection, as we cordially wish well to the society