a rich widow worth thirty thousand pounds sterling in prospectu in Chapter XI, sets up a Philomathian Institute, the whole of the chapter being occupied with his advertisement - in Chapter XII, his wife affronts the scholars, by "swearing by the powers she would be afther clearing them out the spalpeens!

that's what she would, honies!" The school is broken up in consequence, and Mrs. Wheelwright herIself turns out to be nothing more than "one of the unmarried wives of the lamented Captain Scarlett,' the legal representative being in secure possession of the thirty thousand pounds sterling in prospectu.

In Chapter XIII, Mr. Wheelwright is again in distress, and applies, of course, to the humane author of the " Ups and Downs,' "who gives him, we are assured, "an overcoat, and a little basket of provisions.' In Chapter XIV, the author continues his benevolence

- gives a crow, (cock-a-doodle-doo!) and concludes with there is no more charitable people than those of New York!" which means when translated into good English - "there never was a more charitable man than the wise and learned author of the Ups and Downs.'

Chapter XV, is in a somewhat better vein, and embraces some tolerable incidents in relation to the pawnbrokers' shops of New York. We give an extract believing it to be one of the best passages in the book.

Chapter XVI, is entitled the end of this eventful history." Mr. Wheelwright is rescued from the hands of the watch by the author of the "Ups and Downs". turns his wife, very justly, out of doors — and finally returns to his parental occupation of coach-making.

We have given the entire pith and marrow of the

book. The term flat, is the only general expression which would apply to it. It is written, we believe, by Col. Stone of the New York Commercial Advertiser, and should have been printed among the quack advertisements in a space corner of his paper.

THOUGHTS ON THE RELIGIOUS STATE OF THE COUNTRY; WITH REASONS FOR PREFERRING EPISCOPACY. BY REV. CALVIN COLTON. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS.

[Southern Literary Messenger, June, 1836.]

If we are to consider opinions of the press, when in perfect accordance throughout so wide a realm as the United States, as a fair criterion by which to estimate the opinions of the people, then it must be admitted that Mr. Colton's late work, "Four Years in Great Britain," was received, in the author's native land at least, with universal approbation. We heard not a dissenting voice. The candor, especially — the good sense, the gentlemanly feeling, and the accurate and acute observation of the traveller, were the daily themes of high, and, we have no doubt, of well merited panegyric. Nor in any private circle, we believe, were the great merits of the work disputed. The book now before us, which bears the running title of "Reasons for Episcopacy," is, it cannot be denied, a sufficiently well-written performance, in which is evident a degree of lucid arrangement, and simple perspicuous reason, not to be discovered, as a prevailing feature, in the volumes to which we have alluded. VOL. IX. - 3

The candor of the Four Years in Great Britain," is more particularly manifest in the "Reasons for Episcopacy." What a lesson in dignified frankness, to say nothing of common sense, may the following passage afford to many a dunder-headed politician!

But the truth is that Mr. Colton has been misunderstood. To be sure, he has frequently treated of the evils attending the existence and operation of the church establishment in England - the union of Church and State. He manifested deep sympathy for those who suffered under the oppression of this establishment, and even allowed himself to be carried so far (in some early communications on the subject which appeared in the columns of a New York weekly paper,) as to animadvert in unbecoming terms upon a class of British clergymen, whose exemplary conduct deserved a more lenient treatment, but whose zeal for the Church of England blinded them to a sense of justice towards Dissenters, and induced them to oppose that just degree of reform which would have proved effectual in remedying the great causes of complaint. He contended, however,

if we are not greatly in error, that total reform, to be safe, must be slow that a separation at a single blow, could not be effected without great hazard to the public interest, and great derangement of private society.

It is even possible (and Mr. Colton himself admits the possibility) that, mingled up with these animadversions of which we speak, might have been some censures upon the Church itself. This was nothing more than natural in an honest and indignant man an American too, who beheld the vices of the British Church Establishment. But it appears to us quite evident, that the strictures of the author (when consid

ered as a whole and in their general bearing,) have reference to the character

of the Church of England.

not of the Church -but Let us turn for an exem

plification of what we say, to his chapter on "The Church of England," in the "Four Years in Great Britain." This chapter consists principally of a collection of facts, tending to show the evils of a conjoined Church and State, and intended especially for the perusal of Americans. It is great injustice to confound what we find here, with an attack upon Episcopacy. Yet it seems to us, that this chapter has been repeatedly so misunderstood, by a set of people who are determined to understand every thing in their own particular fashion. "That Episcopacy, says Mr. Colton, in vindicating himself from the charge adduced, is the established Church of England is an accident. Presbyterianism is the established religion of Scotland and of some parts of the north of Europe. So was it of England under the Protectorate of Cromwell. No matter what had been the form of the established religion of Great Britain, in the same circumstances the results must have been substantially the same. It is not Episcopacy that has induced these evils, but the vicious and impracticable plan of uniting Church and State for the benefit of society."

While in England Mr. Colton wrote and published a book on the subject of Revivals, and declared himself their advocate. In the fifth chapter of his present work he opposes them, and in the Preface alludes to his so doing, maintaining that these religious excitements are materially changed in their character. He speaks also of a chapter in a former work, entitled "The Americans, by an American in England" chapter devoted to the removal of aspersions cast in

a

England upon the developments of religion in America. For some such defence it appears that he was called upon by friends. The effort itself was, as Mr. C. assures us, of the nature of an apology — neither attempting to recommend or establish any thing - and he thus excuses himself for apparent inconsistency in now declaring an opinion against the expediency of the practices which were scandalized.

The Episcopacy of Mr. Colton will be read with pleasure and profit by all classes of the Christian community who admire perspicuity, liberality, frankness, and unprejudiced inquiry. It is not our purpose to speak of the general accuracy of his data, or the soundness of his deductions. In style the work appears to us excessively faulty · even uncouth.

A PLEASANT PEREGRINATION THROUGH THE PRETTIEST
PARTS OF PENNSYLVANIA. PERFORMED BY PERE-
GRINE PROLIX. PHILADELPHIA: GRIGG AND ELLIOT.

[Southern Literary Messenger, June, 1836.]

We know nothing farther about Peregrine Prolix than that he is the very clever author of a book entitled "Letters descriptive of the Virginia Springs," and that he is a gentleman upon the wrong side of forty. The first fact we are enabled easily to perceive from the peculiarity of an exceedingly witty-pedantic style characterizing, in a manner not to be mistaken, both the Virginia and the Pennsylvania Letters the second appears from the first stanza of a rhyming dedication (much better than eulogistic) to John Guillemard, Esquire, Fellow of the Royal Society, London