time, he has exposed some of the common objections to tithes, and shewn the preposterousness of many of the complaints against the bill, in a manner so temperate, and at the same time so complete, that the authors of these complaints and objections can never forgive him. The poor corporation of Doncaster makes a most sorry figure in his hands. The pamphlet is one of very great interest altogether, as it throws light on several problems as to agriculture which have puzzled persons less skilled in one of the two points, practice or theory, with both of which Mr. Jones is so perfectly conversant.

Conversations at Cambridge, &c. 12mo.

London: John W. Parker. 1836.

THIS is one of the books which puzzles a reviewer, by its fragmentary character. Where a writer gives his opinion on a hundred subjects, in essays of half a page long, one can give no general character of all his speculations as matters of opinion. Of the present volume, however, it may be said, that it shews ability, taste, and great knowledge of our early and sound English literature, and a wholesome religious feeling. It will probably attain a second edition, and then the author is counselled to leave out the "Macauley's Juvenilities,” and not to do a common-place clever man like Mr. Bulwer (who wishes, without any power of doing it, to play the metaphysician and philosopher) the honour, or Cambridge the dishonour, of counting him among her worthies. The "Lost Student" may be also omitted with advantage.

History of the Reformation. By the Rev. H. Stebbing, A.M. Vol. I. (Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia.) Longman and Co. 1836. 12mo.

THERE is so much good feeling and good sense, as well as clear indication of attentive study of the subject, in all which Mr. Stebbing writes, that one is always glad to find him employing his pen. To write the history of the Reformation in Germany in a short form is a very hard task to impose on any man. It wants as many years to condense such a subject, so as to convey the spirit and lose as little as possible of the life of the history, as it does to study the subject itself. And then the mass of readers is little able to appreciate this kind of toil or ability, which makes no show in bulk or apparatus of quotations, &c. &c. Mr. Stebbing, however, has taken great pains to give as much as possible of what is most important and interesting; and the book altogether does him great credit.

The Physical Theory of another Life. By the Author of the "History of Enthusiasm." &c. London: Pickering. 1836. 8vo.

A BOOK, even with this unpromising title, by the author of the "Natural History of Enthusiasm," is sure to sell rapidly and widely; and when once the public become acquainted with it, the subtlety,

the beauty, the ingenuity, and the apparent truth of many of the speculations in it, will give it, with readers fond of speculation, all the interest and charm of a romance, with perhaps a belief of the tolerable probability of a great portion of it. A large part of the book, it must be ob served, rather opens to us new views of what is, than mere speculations as to what maybe-views hardly less new than they are interesting and valuable. The author justly says, too, that if we cannot attain certainty as to the mode of our future existence, it is well to have the thoughts called off from devotion to the things of sense, and fixed on that state to which we are passing.

His speculations respecting memory appear to the reviewer to be most questionable, and to cast much doubt on the rest. Such use of it as he supposes is not consistent with a happy state. In p. 109, there is an almost incredible misrepresentation of Scripture.

Mature Reflections and Devotions of the Rev. R. Hill, A.M., in his Old Age. By the Rev. E. Sidney, A.M. London: Baldwin and Cradock. 1836. 12mo.

THERE is a great deal that is good in many of Mr. Hill's observations, both in sense and feeling; but a great deal of the volume is very common place.

The Christian Atonement; or the Principle of Substitution Illustrated. By the Rev. Joseph Gilbert. London: W. Ball. 1836. 8vo. (Congregational Lectures, No. III.)

AFTER the long discussion of Dr. Whitley's work on the same subject as this, it will not be necessary to enter at length into Mr. Gilbert's. It is only just to him to say, that if the reader will not be offended by a style repulsive often by its obscurity and still oftener (before Mr. Gilbert is warmed by his subject) by coarse phraseology and words, he will find this book exceedingly well worth a careful perusal. There is a great deal of sound and powerful thinking in it, a great deal of justice and truth in the views which it contains. Mr. Gilbert maintains distinctly the orthodox view of the Atonement, that Jesus Christ became, in relation to the condemning sentence of the law, actually our substitute, and that his death was a real expiation for our sins-that he died not only to reconcile man to God, but God to man. In the third lecture, he shews, very ably, that the very notion of a substitute is wholly incompatible with that of vengeance, which would never admit of any suffering but that of the offender himself, or some one whose suffering might give pain to him-and that the objections commonly made on this subject have therefore no meaning. In the fourth, he goes on to shew the value of moral administration, and that it is as supreme moral governor only that God requires or could accept substituted suffering. In the fifth he gets rid of many objections of various kinds, arising sometimes from obscure views in objectors to the doctrine, sometimes from vague or false ones in its advocates. But this lecture is very confused. The stream of arguVOL. IX.-May, 1836.

4 A

ment, like the Rhine, has flowed down, strong and clear, so far, but then it breaks into a quantity of minute channels, and which is the main stream one cannot make out. In the sixth, however, Mr. Gilbert resumes his argument more clearly, and shews, well and ably, that Satisfaction is simply a provision which shall, in the view of wisdom and practical effect, be adequate to maintain that MORAL ORDER in which Holiness delights, and to the maintenance of which Justice is bound. This is his great object and argument, and the reviewer is inclined to think that he argues here clearly, and therefore that his view is deserving of great attention. But Mr. Gilbert should remember that it is not a new one. He should have remembered, too, to do justice to his predecessors. Archbishop Magee, in particular, has dwelt at great length on the point insisted on by Mr. Gilbert-that the Father shewed as much love to the world as the Son.

In conclusion, one cannot but regret to see a man like Mr. Gilbert studiously avoid all reference to writers of the English church; with the exception of Stillingfleet, he appears not to know of the existence of the many great men who have treated this and kindred subjects. Or does Mr. Gilbert think that he can keep them out of notice? Does he hope that "though he cannot blot the sun out of heaven, he may raise a smouldering smoke which may hide him from men's eyes?" Who will be the losers? It will hardly be credited that in producing Bishop Butler's celebrated doctrine as to the uses of Anger and Resentment, he refers, not to Butler, but to Dr. Thomas Brown! (p. 442.) The reviewer thinks that Mr. Gilbert's notion that Satisfaction was necessary on account of moral beings in other worlds to whom the scheme of moral order was to be vindicated, is very questionable. Surely we can find sufficient reason here.

Mr. Coneybeare's Lectures have arrived at a second edition, which is very satisfactory, as they contain much valuable matter in a small space. At the same time, they require to be read with caution. Mr. Coneybeare (if one may take the liberty of making the remark on a gentleman entitled to the highest respect) labours under a very common disease in these liberal days-viz., over-candour. Take, as an example, his anxiety to give up all disputed texts without weighing the evidence. Does he not think, for instance, that, in 1 Tim. iii. 16, (where he has wholly omitted the fact that almost all the MSS. have the reading which he sets aside !) the fact that the substituted reading makes all but downright nonsense ought to have any weight? And, again, vigorous protest must be made against the setting either Dr. Pye Smith or any one else upon a pedestal and worshipping him as an infallible authority. Dr. Pye Smith is a highly respectable man and scholar; but it is a little too much to let his doctrine settle everything, because it is candid to allow a dissenter his full meed of praise. Will Mr. Coneybeare say that this reverence for Dr. Smith arises from a complete and critical examination of Dr. Smith's criticisms and scholarship?

The second volume of the complete edition of Dr. Chalmers' Works

has appeared, completing the portion which treats of Natural Theology. There is no time nor space for a complete review; but a second perusal of the first portion of the work has confirmed the reviewer in his opinion of the great value and importance of it.

There are two parts of Observations on the English Universities published, (Fellowes,) on which it is much to be regretted that no space for remark can be found now. But such a book must not be left unnoticed; and if it is not noticed very kindly, one can only say, that if people will make scandalous charges and absurd observations, they cannot complain of that being proved against them.

PAMPHLETS.

Sufferings and Persecutions of the Irish Protestants, (Nisbet,) 12mo., is a very valuable collection of documents. If a second edition is called for, the writer would do well to add yet more. An Argument, drawn from Scripture, to prove that the Ministry of the Gospel should be entirely Gratuitous, (Groombridge,) is a wise recommendation that no persons should be ministers but those who earn their own bread by some worldly trade or profession, or can live by their own means. The author, after compassing sea and earth for every argument he can muster, very wisely declares that he will answer none which are not brought from Scripture. As Scripture was not written to be filled with arguments against mad or foolish people, he is quite safe. Maynooth, in 1834. By E. F. O'Beirne, late Student there. (Dublin: Carson, &c.) The extracts from the Commissioners' Reports, which are found in this pamphlet, are curious, and give one no favourable notion of the teaching at Maynooth; but Mr. O'Beirne does not write in a style or temper likely to gain attention with right-minded men, nor is a student exactly qualified to sit in judgment on the abilities and learning of his teachers, or the system of discipline pursued.

MISCELLANEA.

MR. GOULBURN'S SPEECH ON THE MARRIAGE BILL. MR. GOULBURN said that the noble lord (Russell) had stated that this bill would be of benefit to the dissenters of England, and would relieve them from the conscientious objections which they entertained to the obligations which the law at present imposed on them with respect to marriage; and so far as the bill now before the house tended to effect that object, he (Mr. Goulburn) had no hesitation in saying that it should have his most cordial support; but, while he acknowledged that they were bound to take care of the dissenters, and to afford them all possible relief on the one hand, he thought they should be equally careful not to impose additional burdens on the members of the church of England; and if the bill was to be allowed to remain in the state in which it was at present, he should be prepared to satisfy the house that it would impose upon the members of the church of England obligations which they could not conscientiously comply with as members of that church, and from which they were now, and always had been, exempt. If he should succeed in satisfying

the house upon this point, he was sure he would receive the support of gentlemen of every shade of political and religious principle in opposing the measure. He therefore proposed, in the observations he was about to make to the house, to confine himself to this question-whether the bill now before the house did not give enormous facilities for effecting clandestine marriages, and the opportunity to every man, whether a dissenter or whether a member of the church of England, to enter clandestinely into the marriage contract, a circumstance, of all others, the most essential to the peace and welfare of families. With this view of the subject, he was anxious, as far as his limited means of information would permit, to lay before the house what protection he considered the present law to afford against clandestine marriages, to see how far that protection would be effected by the bill now before the house, and to shew how utterly inadequate were the provisions of this bill, as he viewed them, to prevent clandestine marriages amongst all classes of his Majesty's subjects. By the present law there were certain protections against clandestine marriagesfor instance, those of bans and licences. The protection afforded by bans was this: they must be published three several times in the parish in which the parties had resided for a certain period; they therefore had the fact published -be it more or less efficiently, he would forbear at the present moment to inquire-in the presence of those who had a chance, at least, of being acquainted with the parties, or either of them, who were hereafter to enter into the matrimonial contract. The bans alone, as regarded the publishing of the intentions, in rural districts were a certain, at least a tolerable certain, protection, and in other places they were, as far as they went, also a protection, inasmuch as there might be persons, within the period of their publication, to make known the fact to parties acquainted with those who formed the subject of those bans. Another protection afforded by the present law was the necessity that it imposed of having the marriage ceremony celebrated in the church of the parish, in a place accessible to all, in a place known to all, through the medium of the bans, and where every one who pleased might be present at the time of the celebration of the marriage. Another protection of the existing law was, that the marriage ceremony must be performed by or with the consent of the clergyman of the parish. His next point was, that the marriage ceremony must be celebrated between the hours of eight and twelve o'clock in the forenoon, which was also a security against clandestine marriages. Another form connected with the present law was, that the marriage must take place within three months after the publication of the bans. It was no small security either that the marriage must be celebrated in the church of the parish and by the established minister of the parish, or (with his permission) by a minister acquainted with the parties to be united, and who therefore had means of judging or ascertaining whether it was attempted to effect a clandestine marriage or not; and last of all, which he (Mr. Goulburn) thought by no means one of the weakest protections, which, in fact, he would call one of the strongest protections, against the celebration of clandestine marriages, was the obligation imposed on the parties themselves who were about to enter into the matrimonial state, of having the awful sanction of a religious ceremony performed, before the contract could be legitimately sealed. Having thus briefly enumerated the various modes of protection which he considered the existing law to afford against clandestine marriages, his next object was to see what the effect of the proposed measure would be; and the house would perhaps be not a little surprised when he informed it that by the present bill every one of these protections were shaken. The parties were not even bound to have the bans published; the celebration of the marriage was not confined to the parish in which either of the parties resided, but might be performed in any parish in England to which they thought proper to go; it was not, in fact, necessary to have it performed in a church at all, or in any recognised building, but, as he should be able to shew when they came to discuss the bill, might take place wherever those who might be supposed to be interested in any case, and who, in case a