to Eck, in a reproachful tone), you had given me a very different idea of this doctrine and of this affair." This was the general cry; accordingly the sophists, as they called them, were embarrassed. "But after all (said the Duke of Bavaria to them), can you refute, by sound reasons, the confession made by the elector and his allies?" "With the writings of the apostles and prophets-no! (replied Eck); but with those of the fathers and councils-yes!" "I understand, (quickly replied the Duke), I understand the Lutherans, according to you, are in Scripture, and we are outside" (242).

1

;

A considerable portion of this volume is occupied with the discussions between Luther and Zwingle, concerning the real presence in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Luther was never able to shake off entirely the erroneous and confused dogmas of the Roman Church in support of transubstantion and Zwingle had the better arguments on his side, Luther being able to oppose nothing more than the mere letter of Scripture this is my body;" and refusing to enter on the question of the manner or the nature of the change; and refusing to declare whether he understood it to become, by consecration, the body which Christ had when he spake the words, or the risen body, or that which is now glorified, or a spiritual mystery. But it appears to us that the two Reformers really meant nearly the same thing, and that it was chiefly a dispute about words. For when Luther was required to put into writing the differences. between them, he thus expressed himself: We all believe, with regard to the Lord's Supper, that it ought to be celebrated in both kinds, according to the primitive institution; that the mass is not a work by which a Christian obtains pardon for another man, whether dead or alive; that the sacrament of the altar is the sacrament of the very body and very blood of Jesus Christ, and that the spiritual manducation of this body and blood is specially necessary to every true Christian" (123). This mode of expressing it, Zwingle and his companions could assent to, and both parties signed the declaration-leaving the scholastic question undetermined-pledging themselves to cherish more and more of Christian charity for one another.

This fourth volume of D'Aubigné's history is the first that has been published by him in English-the former volumes. having been first published in French, and translated by the booksellers in England, or the other countries, without the concurrence or superintendence of the author. It is gratifying to be informed, that from 150,000 to 200,000 copies of the former volumes have been printed in the English language; while copies of the original French work have only been sold

VOL. XIX.-G G

to the amount of 4,000 or 5,000. This decided the author, who does understand English, to choose that language for the future volumes of his work; and he also, very properly, determines himself to publish an English translation of his former volumes. We desire to encourage him in this determination, by assuring him that the want of it is felt, from the careless way in which some of the translations have been made, and from the necessity, in a work of this kind, that the author himself should take care that his meaning is neither weakened nor exaggerated; and we are sure that every one who possesses the fourth volume would desire to possess the preceding ones, prepared with the same care, and printed in a similar manner. "The best translations are always faulty; and the author alone can have the certainty of conveying his idea, his whole idea, and nothing but his idea. Without overlooking the merit the several existing translations may possess, even the best of them is not free from inaccuracies, more or less important." (Preface iii.)

We regard, therefore, this work as an English publication; and hope shortly to see, not only the former volumes in the same form, but a continuation of the history and into those times which are so peculiarly interesting to an Englishman— the establishment of the Reformation in these lands. We have already said that Englishmen, to estimate the Reformation aright, must look at it, not only in England, but in other lands; and we are desirous of knowing the converse of this also-viz., how a foreigner, like D'Aubigné, will regard the English phase of the Reformation. It is evident that our author, like every Swiss, has a warm and even partial regard for his own land; but we have not yet observed that it has so warped his judgment as to render him blind to the merits of others; and we have no fear of being unjustly censured, but a strong desire to hear the opinions of so enlightened a foreigner as Merle D'Aubigné.

The faith of a people cannot but receive a colouring, as we may call it, from their national character-not so as to affect fundamentals, or make the faith of the Church more than one -but to leave room for diversities of form; while the substance remains the same. It was said by a looker-on, during one of the fiercest controversies, that a pious Arminian was a Calvinist on his knees. We believe that, both in doctrine and in practice, the Church of England has more nearly attained the happy medium than any other of the established Churches; and she has, therefore, been able to maintain at all times the most friendly relations with both the Lutherans of Germany, and with the Calvinists of Switzerland.

451

ART VIII.-Tithes! Corn! Land! Facts and Figures. No. 1. London: Longmans. 1846.

2. Corn and Currency. By the Rev. C. NEVILLE. London: Ridgway.

1846.

3. Compensation to the People for Aristocratic Poor Laws and Unfair Taxation. London: Fisher and Son. 1846.

WHEN we received the first intimation of Sir Robert Peel's intention to interfere with the existing Corn Laws, we suspected, as has been the case on other occasions with this singular and instatesman, that, as his conversion to the free trade philosophy consistent was sudden, so would it be complete; and that the result would be, that he would not only abolish all protection on corn, but that his measure would be panied with other enactments, in the general policy of the country, which might render it safe, and act as a compensation to the landed interest. We regret to say that our surmises have been but too truly verified. proposals which are to form a part of the great measure are notoriously inadequate, as a compensation; and such as they are, they appear unwillingly dragged in, as a sort of make-weight, for which they are not only insufficient, but are, withal, crude and indigested in their composition, and display the marks of carelessness and precipitation.

The

Such sudden and radical changes, in the political views of a minister, in whose hands the nation has placed the custody of its laws and institutions, are likely to be attended with the most disastrous consequences to the people over whose destinies Sir Robert Peel has been called to preside. Such is the common sense view of the subject, forbidding any other interpretation, except on the supposition, that the minister is gifted far beyond all other men of his generation, and capable of taking a more enlarged and comprehensive view of the causes and effects which sway and accompany the affairs of men. We do not pretend. that the course of human affairs can ever remain stationary. The tide of moral, commercial, and intellectual improvement is ever progressing, and advancing with unceasing flow, and without a retrograde motion, to some grand termination, which is to accomplish the designs of the Creator with respect to his beloved race of man. But the progress has ever been gradual-almost imperceptible and we profoundly doubt the wisdom and stability of great social revolutions, carried out, like the measure now before Parliament, upon some sudden impulse of expediency, or founded on the speculations of some untried theory. The social existence of all nations, throughout the world, is so

interwoven, and the machinery of its operations so vast and complicated, that all changes forcibly introduced into the system, and not arising from its own natural and spontaneous action, must inevitably prove injurious to the general frame-work of society. Such we consider the character of the measure now propounded by Sir Robert Peel. It is an attempt to force the national will. What hint or suggestion have its projectors received from the nature of things? What commercial crisis throughout the world has arisen? What social emergency has happened amongst the nations to suggest the necessity o of a revolution in their modes of intercourse? No such crisis has arisen-no such necessity has happened. The world is progressing, each portion within itself, on the certain laws which have always guided its onward course, wrought out, on the experience of its own necessities.

In no part of the habitable globe have the inhabitants discovered that a crisis of commercial intercourse has arrived, which renders it necessary to reject the lessons of all past experience-repudiate the maxims of all former statesmen-aboish the laws and usages of international policy; and, in their stead, establish a system of universal interchange a vast republicanism of commerce-in which the technicalities of rule, and restriction, and treaty, sanctioned by the use of all men, of all times, and of all places, shall be for ever abrogated!

We do not give this prodigious, scheme (we use the word prodigious" in its classical acceptation) credit for greatness, O r comprehensiveness of conception. So far from thinking the minister who proposes it worthy of admiration for enlarged views beyond the common range of the human mind, we consider him as merely adopting-and in a very clumsy manner the sentiments of men whose grandest conceptions are formed on bales of cotton, and whose most comprehensive views of political intercourse do not extend beyond the folios of their "day-book" and "ledger." This may be considered as an assertion without weight or importance. Be it so: we have other grounds for asserting our belief, that Sir Robert Peel's mind is not so far removed from the ordinary standard of human intellectual power, as that its acts are not capable of being judged of by the rest of his countrymen. We rest our assertion on his own words and deeds. He has taken up and disposed of other matters of mighty import; and to this day, in the judgment of a great majority of his countrymen, he has utterly failed; and, after years of experience, every day only serves to prove the fatal tendencies of those measures. What confidence, then, can we repose in a minister whose every great step has been a false

one? Is not the present measure, vast as it must be in its consequences, as likely to prove a false step as any of those great measures which have preceded it? From the bottom of our hearts, we believe it is. We believed those former measures, to which we can only allude, to be fraught with injury to the institutions of the country; and Sir Robert Peel, when he proposed their adoption, would then have been banished from the counsels of the country by an indignant community, had he not made elaborate professions of "Conservatism," and declared, that what the difficulties of the times had extorted from him, he would make up by a faithful adherence to British principles; and that it should be his care to "walk in the light of the constitution." A generous people applauded his resolution, and in their returning confidence were willing to forget his past delinquencies. Witness their forgiveness in their almost unanimous declaration of sympathy and support during the crisis which happened in the reign of William IV. Sir Robert Peel was then, indeed, a great man-he had reached the summit of all human wishes and expectations-he was held in the highest 'esteem by his sovereign, whilst his name was carried from one shore to the other on the plaudits of his countrymen. The addresses of popular confidence, which he received from all parts of the kingdom, comprise many folio volumes, and are deposited in the archives of Drayton Manor. We, too, were amongst his ardent admirers; and so well did we think his honours merited, that we rejoiced in his being able to hand down to his posterity an heir-loom of such inestimable value. Had he then retired from public life, with what distinguished honour must his name have been inscribed on the roll of England's fame as a benefactor to his country! But, alas !—he has lived to see the end of his own glory. He has treated the warmest sympathy of his countrymen with coldness and indifference-stigmatized their support with epithets of contempt-again and again betrayed their confidence, and answered the expression of their sentiments with insulting silence. He has patronised the constitution only to betray it-he has promised his constituents only to deceive them-he has wooed his countrymen only to ruin them. We do not write with bitterness, although our words may appear harsh. We wish to preserve a Christian temper when speaking of wrongs-public wrongs of a sufficiently tormenting nature to give speech and vehemence to the very stones, But we speak the words of truth and soberness when we say that Sir Robert Peel's conduct, as a statesman, is altogether inexplicable. He has pleaded one thing, and practised another; other men have carried out, with as much consistency as cir