"Why "As

mournful to hear her appealing in vain to his forbearance. not let me alone," she said; "you are the first to trouble me." long as I follow my conscience, I wrong nobody in belonging to the Anglican Church, and taking its sacraments in a Protestant manner, and on Protestant principles; and nobody has any right to interfere with me. If any body does, (and you are apparently the only person who troubles yourself (himself) about me) they are only adding to my persecutions, and that to no sort of purpose, as I can go elsewhere." "I care not how or whether I belong to this or that visible Church, I only care to belong to the new Jerusalem."

Bishop Luscombe, on receiving from Mr. Palmer a full relation of what had transpired between him and Mde A., "thought it his duty now to write to her himself." The only material part of his note is that in which he prescribes the necessary qualifications which she must possess, before he could deem himself justified in admitting her, as a stranger, to the communion. These are-I. "That Mde A. should believe all the articles of the Christian faith, as contained in the Apostles' creed, and desire to believe them in the same sense in which they are held by the English Church. II. That Mde A. should have been baptized in this faith, with water, in the name of the Holy Trinity, and confirmed by a Bishop, or with chrism, consecrated by a Bishop. III. That Mde A. should be free from all kind of just excummunication by the canons of that Church in which she was baptized and confirmed." We are unfeignedly sorry to say so, more esespecialy since Bishop Luscombe has gone to his account, but we are positively quite unable to regard this note as any thing else, or any thing better than a trap, set to catch Mde A.; and our wonder is, that any lady, uninstructed in the subtleties of the men, and the school with which she had to deal, should have escaped. Either, these terms of communion were ambiguous, and utterly worthless; or they were purposely equivocal and pettifogging-intended to betray the party to whom they were proposed into a profession wholly beyond her meaning. But Mde. A. did escape, simply, as it seems to us, because she neither understood the conditions, nor suspected their source. After the passage just quoted, it had been added-" the Bishop trusts, that Mde. A. has all these qualifications, and he will be ready to take her presentation of herself at the communion (without giving herself the trouble to reply to this note,) as an assurance that she has them, and to give her the communion whenever she shall desire it." Mr. Luscombe seems to have interpreted the answer which Mde. A. did send, as alluding to this sentence; for ourselves, we cannot make out whether she alluded to it at all, or, if she did, how much of it fell within the scope of her thoughts. Had she been a diplomatist, and had written only this one answer, we might have surmised that she was quite a match for her correspondents. But the truth is, that she was utterly lost in their technicalities and refinements. The answer, translated, for it was written in French, is as follows:-" After mature reflection, my Lord, I have resolved to refer myself to the last part of your esteemed letter. I will come to the communion with you on Sunday

next, and I can assure you, my Lord, that in acting thus, I am perfectly in peace with my conscience before God." Mde. A. accordingly did communicate in the English chapel, continuing to profess the same Protestant opinions as before. Mr. Palmer charges her bluntly with deceiving Bishop Luscombe by this course of conduct, which proves, among other things, that gallantry is not to be reckoned among the virtues of Tractarian ethics.

But we have been slightly anticipating. On Friday, January 28th, Mr. P. received a note from Mde. A., naming the ensuing Sunday, at 4 o'clock, for a final interview. "The tone of your note," says our deacon in reply, "though very kind and civil to me, seems to whisper in my ear, now I hope I shall get rid of you at last. Along with his answer, Mr. P. enclosed for Mde. A. a sketch of an imaginary letter, such as she might send to the Archbishop of Canterbury, requesting the guidance of his opinion on her case; and also drew out for her use certain "statements of the relative positions of the Anglican and Eastern communions." These, for the theological inquirer, are interesting documents; but as the imaginary letter appears never to have been sent, and as the other matters may be more fully gathered from a publication of 1846, entitled "A harmony of Anglican doctrine with the doctrine of the Catholic and Apostolic Church of the East," edited at least by Mr. P., we shall take no farther notice of them here. The interview of January 30th took place as pre-arranged, and was quite warm enough for any zealous deacon and devout lady. "Even a pagan," the latter said, "much more a Christian, would have pitied her, and would not have sought to add to her persecutions and difficulties, as I had now done. For that now she must consider with her conscience what to do; she could not tell yet what she would do. Perhaps I might succeed in taking from her her only remaining comfort, that which she had hitherto found (and her joy and gratitude for which her letters to Russia had expressed) in the free communion of the Anglican Church. Perhaps I might succeed; she could not tell. But no she had our Saviour with her and so he would deliver her." As before, the conversation led to no result.

:

Mr. P. left Paris on Monday, 31st January 1842, but had previously taken care to make himself acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. O, through whom he might be able, as opportunity occurred, to continue his communications with Mde. A. Our deacon, of all mortal plagues, proved one of the most difficult to get rid of. Mr. O. spoke of himself as "something of a Puseyite," was in "terms of intimacy with many Catholics of distinction," Dr Wiseman among the rest, "and sympathized personally with Catholic opinions." A Sunday dinner with this gentleman gave Mr. P. the advantage of concerting his measures before he left the French capital. At Oxford, accordingly, Mr. P. received, on the 17th of February, a letter from Mr. O., informing him that Mde A. continued firm in her Protestantism, and that the only point which the writer could urge "at present," was that she should " see and converse with the bishop." Through another channel Mr. P. ascertained that Mr. and Mrs. O, had inspired Mde. A. with great con

fidence, by showing her the "39 Articles, which she had never before read, and which she thought gave her a clear case." Mr O. himself, taking much the same view of these Articles, called forth from our deacon a lengthened dissertation, in which, by means of hard squeezing, an attempt is made to discharge from the tortured language, every element and tincture of their obnoxious Protestantism. Having accomplished this arduous task to his own satisfaction, Mr P. despatched on the 21st of February, an account of what had taken place, for the edification of Mr. A., the husband of the persecuted lady.

Meanwhile, Bishop Luscombe, by a very innocent-looking letter, received on the 15th of March, was unconsciously precipitating a new crisis of affairs. He merely mentions that Mde. A. had been among his communicants on the preceding Sunday, having previously notified her intention, and given him "reason to feel that his letter (prescribing the conditions as above) had been approved." This intelligence, however, was followed by a letter from Mr. O., containing this alarming sentence, "were I able to prove to her (Mde. A.) that the true spirit of the Anglican was in perfect accordance with the Greek Church, it would only drive her to a more Protestant congregation; as her great wish appears to be to quit the Greek, and to take the Anglican only on her own terms and conditions." Mr. P. then was completely foiledhad made no progress whatever. The lady still maintained that she was a Protestant-a convert-thus effectually barring his access to the Russian communion, and defeating his endeavours to identify the Anglican and Eastern Churches. He wrote to Mr. O.-he wrote to Bishop L.-he wrote to Mde. A. herself, under cover to the bishop; there might have been no limit to his desperate fit of writing, had not his inflamed zeal defeated its own aims. The bishop was not disposed to go farther; "I wish to avoid any discussion," he said in reply, "of your last communication. I have done all that I think it becomes me to do; and I leave the matter to her friends." So another bishop had, for the present, failed our poor deacon. Mr. O. also, "himself something of a Puseyite," endeavoured to get out of the affair. A short note received from him on April 13, closed all communication with the lady through that medium. And Mde. A. herself-she was excited to indignation, and declined to send any reply. Whence, then, this sudden check? Mr. P's letter to the lady explains it all. We wish we could transcribe that letter to let it speak for itself, but must content ourselves with characterizing it as a lecture, long, stern, cold, and cruel, yet containing no excess of indecency, which the foregoing narrative would not have led us to expect. She herself described it to her husband as une lettre affreuse, and says that even Mr. O, "could not refrain from expressing his indignation at it." For the said Mr. O. and Bishop Luscombe both, it proved an effectual cooler, while it kindled her resentment into a flame. Her letter to Mr. O. regarding it, deserves to be inserted, and it is not very long:

"Your last visit, Sir, had, no doubt, for its motive, the last letter written to me by Mr. N.,' (that is Mr. Palmer,) which I guessed before to have

B

been sent through you ;' (it had in fact, as we have seen, been sent through Bishop Luscombe) I therefore beg you, Sir, as a friend and correspondent of Mr. N., to tell him from me, that I do not admit that he has any right to question me; that I am not obliged to answer; and that I shall not answer him. What is more, I will never speak with him again. Whatever he may say, whatever he may do, my only answer shall be that of our Saviour before Pilate, that is, silence. I held a conversation with him three times, to please my husband; but all that I said having been falsely interpreted by him, and having merely been a scandal to him, I will never again say to him one single word more.

"I am very well pleased that he has laid aside that tone of false gentleness and charity, which he thought it right to adopt with me, in the hope, a hope entirely vain, of inveigling me into his doctrines. Even if my own convictions had not been already, by God's grace, unchangeable, when he came to stay here, his egotistical and cruel agitation would have sufficed to arm me against all his arguments.

"Has any one a right to speak in God's name, when he manifestly has not the spirit of God? and Mr. N. has it not; I say it to him in all truth, and in presence of our God; Mr. N. is, for the present, abandoned of God. "The end of his letter is an open declaration of hatred and of war. I accept his defiance with boldness, not as of myself. A woman, without strength, and without support-a woman suffering from an aneurism of the heart, which alone may kill her at any time, is not at all the person to relish the strife of war. But in the name of my Master and Saviour, who is the strength of the weak, and the hope of the hopeless; in the name of his promises to them that suffer for his justice and his truth; in the name of his faithfulness and his mercy, I accept the defiance of Mr. N. I await unflinchingly all the harm that he wishes to do me, or that he can do me. A hair will not fall from my head without the permission of God. All the troubles that can come upon me, they will be of the will of God for the good of my soul; and with his divine aid, they shall find me resigned. Death itself (which I hope for, and ask of God) will not terrify me more when near, than it does already, when the beating of my heart from time to time, makes me suppose it to be at hand. And may my death, as well as the sufferings of my poor life, glorify my God and my Redeemer; and prove that I have not been altogether ungrateful for the extraordinary benefits which God has poured from the cradle upon me, the worst and weakest of his creatures."

This is miserable work, and one could weep and say many strong,— many mournful things, in the contemplation of it. But all that is needful, in the way of commentary, will readily occur to the reader. Such a letter might have curdled the blood of an ordinary man; Mr. P's heart, however, is made of no shrinking stuff. Said we not rightly that he is the staunchest of heroes? The bishop had retired; Mr. O. had made his bow. Mr. P. next consulted a barrister, learned in ecclesiastical and canon law, who advised him that "nothing could be done to any purpose." So he wrote to Mr. A. at considerable length; and Mr. A., in reply, seemed gently to discourage the prosecution of the subject. To all appearance, the affair had terminated.

Reader, have we reached the end? Yes-of the introduction.

The Life of Christ in its Historical Connexion and Historical Development. By AUGUSTUS NEANDER. London: Samson Low.

Dr. Augustus Neander, Ordinary Professor of Theology in the city of Berlin, has earned for himself a distinguished place among the living writers who have consecrated their faculties to the cultivation of Christian literature. In Germany he wields an extensive influence. His works bear the stamp of an original and vigorous mind. They have passed through many editions, and the author's literary reputation is still upon the increase. He stands in the first ranks, among the hosts of learned men in the fatherland. In massive erudition, laborious research, faith, and earnestness of spirit, he surpasses most of his compeers. The field selected by him for the exercise of his talents and genius is Church history, and its kindred subjects. He has explored with unparalleled industry and philosophical discrimination, the annals of remote antiquity. He possesses the power of living in the past, and presenting in truthful delineation, the thoughts, feelings, and acts of those, who exerted an influence for good or evil in bygone days.

Augustus Neander is of Jewish extraction, and though his education and modes of thinking are thoroughly German, he nevertheless displays many of the mental features and marked peculiarities of the ill-fated but illustrious descendants of Abraham. He commenced his academical studies at Halle, early in the present century, a short time after he had renounced the Jewish faith and embraced Christianity. He was destined not to remain long in obscurity; a work which he published, entitled, "The Emperor Julian and his Times," attracted notice, and brought him favourably before the literary world. This work, replete with learning, and fresh delineation, evinced the hand of a master, and pointed him out as an author who could appear with great advantage in the province of Church History. He sustained his first reputation and added fresh laurels to it, by a work on "Gnosticism." He afterwards gave to the world lives of Tertullian, Chrysostom, and Bernard. His "General Church History" is the great work of his life, and that on which his fame with posterity shall chiefly repose. From many of his positions and views future generations will perhaps dissent, but his amazing learning, ardent sincerity, and manly candour, will never fail to constrain admiration.

For a long series of years, Germany has been kept in a state of fermentation, by opinions the most extravagant and discordant. The separate departments of metaphysics, mental philosophy and religion, have been thrown into a state of chaos by wild and infidel speculations. An earnest inquirer after truth is more likely to be bewildered than guided by those men who have set themselves forth as the instructors of others. One school rises in arms against another. An ardent speculator musters all his strength to slay some great champion. No sooner has he succeeded in his daring deed, than he, the slayer of the last Goliath, is, in his turn, slain by some heroic stripling who appears upon the arena burning for combat. The chief cause of this unhappy state