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extreme retaliatory measures adopted by the Protestants. But these were in religious error. And only after the worst had been done to them did they take the law into their own hands; and even then their worst excess might be contrasted favourably with the lightest of their opponents. Again, it is urged, England has been herself a bitter persecutor. Has she indeed? For about one thousand years-half of it spent in nominal submission to the Roman See-not a single soul suffered for religion. Towards the close of that time, indeed, the House of Lancaster enforced the new law de heretico comburendo. By a singular coincidence, it was John of Gaunt who first, in his station, countenanced the Lollards. In Henry VIII.'s reign perhaps 100 perished for either being unable to clear themselves from the charge of Protestantism, or for refusing to recognise the new doctrine of the Royal Supremacy. If we put to the account of Mary, 300; and to Elizabeth, 317-not counting those who suffered under her for crimes of an indeterminate character, political or religious, and they were legion—we have a total for a millennium, which falls far below the number slain in France, in any one week, directly or indirectly, for religion's sake during the years which intervened between 1789 and 1524, when, during the captivity of Francis I. at Madrid, the Parliament of Paris-the first appearance of a thing of the sort in France-virtually constituted itself a Court of Inquisition. Indeed, it will not be too much to say that upwards of a million and a half perished for religion's sake during those 265 years, which would give a loss of life in one week in France nine or ten times greater than in England in one thousand years. make this statement, as far as we know, with no secret pride; we mean not to imply that we are more righteous. Delivered as we have been, by God's good providence, from the overpowering and intoxicating delusion of a pontifical infallibility, we may be, in the sight of the Great Judge, really the more criminal of the two. National, constitutional, and insular influences have been at work among us to appease, at each critical moment, the readily flaming passion of fanaticism. In dust and ashes let us join to bewail before the Cross the appalling degradation of the Church of God. This is a time when a great desire for the reunion of Christendom has been awakened on every side. There is not a soul by grace awakened, by grace made conscious of the power of the Blood of God, by grace mindful of the prayer of the Great Intercession, but is importuning God our Father for the peace of that Church which has been purchased by the life of His dear Son. But we must not forget, we must not blind ourselves to the fact, that the first step in every spiritual effort is an act of repentance.

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Vain will it be for us to try and harmonize confessions, and reconcile theological and ecclesiastical discrepancies, while we shrink from lamenting the sins of the Church; while we bitterly charge on any part of the Church its own sin, forgetting to take upon ourselves, after the manner of Christ, the spiritual responsibilities of others. We are to bear one another's burdens. The 'Law of Christ' which we shall so fulfil is not a mere direction to this effect from our Lord's lips: it rather means the example of the Cross itself where Christ in love suffered for the sins His pity had made His own. It is a great exercise of Divine repentance, where, owning themselves the children of them who slew the prophets, the members of the Church pray

'Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the offences of our forefathers; neither take Thou vengeance of our sins.

'Spare us, good Lord.

'Spare Thy people, whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious Blood. 'And be not angry with us for ever.'

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ART. VI.-1. The English Constitution. By WALter Bagehot. London: Chapman and Hall. 1867.

2. The Government of England: its Structure and its Development. By WILLIAM EDWARD HEARN, LL.D. London: Longman and Co. Melbourne: George Robertson. 1867.

THE volumes on the English Constitution, the names of which are placed at the head of this paper, mark in various ways the interest which the subject continually excites among Englishmen. Whether in Great Britain or in Australia, whether in a kingdom settled for centuries or in a colony whose brief span of civilized existence has scarcely extended over more than the lifetime of a generation, the principles of good government must be one and the same, the necessity for such a government must be the first object to be desired; and the present time is especially one when every well-wisher of his country must desire sound information on the subject to be broadly diffused. A few months hence the first Parliament of the New System will meet ; meanwhile it is most desirable to look carefully over the working parts of that machinery which is not unlikely to be largely modified in the future. It is worth while to remark, at the outset, how modern, in many points of view, the system is which will so shortly pass away. The troubled times of 1832 are passing into that 'dusty crypt of darkened forms and faces,' which awaits too surely the memory of all things human. Already we see the present Parliament described most unduly as the last of the old Parliaments of England,' just as if its rearrangement dated from the Plantagenets instead of from the time of the last William, so soon has its reform been forgotten in preparing for its departure. Very heartily, therefore, we welcome two such volumes as Mr. Bagehot's and Dr. Hearn's. Mr. Bagehot's possesses the claim on a careful reading, which is always due to the work of a man who has given such subjects a deep and earnest attention; who comes prepared to his task not only by a study of past, but by a knowledge of present times; who brings to it also the quality of mind only possessed by a man who has mixed in such things for a practical purpose. Dr. Hearn's treatise aims at a rather different object. It is a most interesting fact to all who take an interest in constitutional history that this stout volume of nearly 600 pages should be published in a colony-bearing the name of Messrs. Wilson

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and Mackinnon, Printers, Melbourne,' to whose typographical powers, we may add in passing, it does great credit. praise, too, is due to the public spirit which has published such a book, appealing, as we may presume it does, greatly to colonial readers for support and circulation. It is most interesting and satisfactory to every well-wisher of his country, that a volume containing so much sound information on so solid a subject should have appeared under such circumstances; and we hope it may meet with all the success which both author and publisher can desire. Mr. Bagehot writes as a practical politician. Dr. Hearn takes rather a different stand-point: I am,' he says, 'fully sensible of the difference which Mr. Burke 'has noticed between a statesman and a professor in a university. "The latter has only the general view of society; the former "has a number of circumstances to combine with those general "ideas and to take into his consideration." But while it is the 'province of the practical politician to apply to the existing 'circumstances of his country and of his time the theorems of 'politics, it is the duty of the political student to ascertain the 'general principles involved in our polity, and to examine the character of changes which these principles exclude, or with which they are consistent.' It is very satisfactory to think that the teaching of history and political economy in the University of Melbourne is intrusted to such hands. Mr. Bagehot's Essays, which were originally published in the Fortnightly Review, take neither the form of a history nor of an exact treatise. They may be considered rather as a series of comments on the Constitution, interspersed with many deep thoughts and brilliant illustrations, the weighty remarks of a man who has prepared himself for the task by a long course of mental training. The great work of Hallam, and the useful supplement to it by Sir E. May, have taken much of the same ground before, but both these books, and especially the former, will always be rather the highly valued friends in the library than the manual in ordinary use. Far be it from us to speak slightingly of works of such sterling merit. Our meaning is that their very depth, the quasi judicial feeling with which they are written, will always tend to make them less accessible to the ordinary reader. There was, therefore, the more space for these Essays on the English Constitution.

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Most truly does Mr. Bagehot remark in his opening pages on the undergrowth of irrelevant ideas which has gathered round the subject. Tradition always exerts an immense power in every settled government. Tradition still causes many to believe that the government of Queen Victoria, if not exactly like that of Queen Elizabeth, at all events considerably resembles that of

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Queen Anne. The constant changes in the inner, less conspicuous, elements of government, are hidden from the general public by the unaltered bearing of the more visible portions. The continuance of the old forms, of the old names, perpetuates a belief that the powers that be' are the same as when these forms were first instituted. The Queen proceeds to open Parliament with ceremonials scarcely altered, in many points, for centuries. How few who see the State procession care to analyse exactly the position which the monarch really occupies in the pageant. Mr. Bagehot acutely describes this continuance without resemblance, by observing, An ancient and ever-altering constitution is like an old man who still wears, 'with attached fondness, clothes in the fashion of his youth: 'what you see of him is the same; what you do not see is wholly altered.' The illustration is a very graphic one; all of us at one time or other must have seen such a spectacle as is here described, threading his way through gas-lighted streets in garments which were fashionable when highways were only lighted with oil; but if it may be permitted to carry the simile a little further, it is not merely as if the old grandsire himself preserved the cut of his youthful attire, but as if all his descendants-sons and grandsons alike-testified their respect for their venerable relative by continuing to dress in the same style. We proceed to analyse Mr. Bagehot's remarks. Every government is immensely a gainer by the fact that a deep respect for the dominant powers should exist. It gives an immense advantage in all those doubtful cases (and their number is not small) in which it is desirable that the co-operation of the subject should be conciliated by good-will, not compelled by overbearing force. As a rule, deference to authority is the natural instinct of the nation, and this deference is greatly kept up by the immense length of time during which the existing forms of government have been maintained. Hence the central idea of government in Great Britain, the monarchy, maintains a deep hold on the imagination. Dignity, if not divinity, doth hedge a king, Roughly speaking, the essential parts of the government divide themselves into two branches-the dignified and the efficient, Advanced thinkers may say the first portion might be omitted with safety; but the uneducated masses still hold that in the elements of dignity lie hid all the vital forces of authority. It is not the most imposing portions that are the most useful. To ascribe the real strength of government to them would be to attribute the energetic force of the sap to the fleeting elegance of the flower. But the true merit of a government lies in being able to reconcile the somewhat opposite qualifications of these different elements.

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