East and West; yet within those limits she steadfastly holds forth a certain "form of sound words," which all her members are required to receive and believe. As inheriting a definite creed she is decidedly opposed to all latitudinarian theories, which would seek for a wider comprehension by a surrender, whether avowed or virtual, of any doctrine of the Christian faith which God has expressly revealed; but Lord John Russell is well known to entertain a strong tendency toward the views of the late Dr. Arnold, who was favourable to a combination of the various religious bodies in England, by the abolition of all fixed creeds, so that the Church, instead of being "the pillar and ground of the truth," should be a gigantic mass of contradictions, in which error and confusion should be consecrated. His lordship has shown more than an inert sympathy toward this system. It has always been the destiny of Christ's holy Church to encounter hostility ab extra-its very name, the "Church Militant," suggests to the members of it what they are to expect; so that, instead of being startled by it as a strange thing, they should recognise it as their earthly portion; but he has carried out his warfare from within, by fostering in her own pale principles not only antagonistic, but even subversive, of her essential characteristics.

The great philosophical historian of the Peloponnesian war has left on record, a most admirable and life-like picture of the manner of the warfare carried on by the Athenians and Lacedemonians, upon the battle-field of Greece. The aristocracy and the populace in each minor State, when one of them found its strength waning before that of the other, sought the assistance of either of the two, which was readily granted, and the ascendancy of one of the rival people thus secured. If the aristocracy were to be rendered predominant, the State became virtually subject to Sparta, or if the populace to Athens. Thus in the bosom of each of these States, an alien influence was maintained among and by themselves, more destructive and disorganizing than if a hostile force were thundering at their gates. They saw Sparta or Athens triumphing over them in the person of their fellow-citizens speaking their language and sustaining offices designed for their own protection, but which were turned into weapons of offence and injury. A similar course of policy has been pursued by Lord John Russell with respect to the Church. In his exercise of the Crown patronage, he seems to have had in view, rather the gratification of the dissenting interest by his nomination of persons of not dissimilar views, than the advancement of the influence of the Church, in the promotion of those who faithfully reflected her distinguishing principles.

Lord John Russell has endeavoured, and not without some success, to raise political capital by his famous letter on the Papal Aggression, addressed to the Bishop of Durham, dated November 4th, 1850. There are few incidents in the history of our own times more sad, and calculated to give rise to more painful reflections, than the consideration of the terms of this production, and the comparative success with which it was attended. If it were produced without any signature, and an enquiry were instituted as to the author's name, it might without any want of probability have been attributed to the Earl of Winchelsea, the Earl of Roden, or some other equally wellknown, zealous, and consistent Protestant champion. But the writer, whose new-born zeal in the cause of Protestantism so far exceeded the bounds of prudence or moderation, and who was more Protestant than the Protestant Association itself, was the statesman who has for a number of years employed all his influence and authority to support the pretensions, and even satisfy the resentments, of the Church of Rome in the British dominions. In the year 1835 he did not consider it unworthy of his great name and station to lend himself as an instrument to wreak out the theological hatred, of the Romanist party in Ireland, upon the Established Church. In 1845, he professed himself not unwilling to concur in a repeal of that clause of the Catholic Emancipation Act, which prohibits the use of titles by Romish ecclesiastics, derived from sees occupied by Anglican prelates. The Earl of Clarendon, late Lord-Leiutenant of Ireland, whose conduct upon the occasion was well known to Lord John Russell, and which, as he did not censure, he sanctioned, addressed them with titles of honour, sought their advice, and courted their favour with all those persuasive arts for which the noble earl is so distinguished. Not content with confining the conciliating away of the Queen's supremacy to Ireland, he called the attention of the Colonial Secretary to the matter, and drew forth from Earl Grey a despatch requiring colonial governors to grant precedence to the Pope's bishops in some cases before, in all instances immediately after, the bishops of the Anglican Church! Upon the occasion of the visit of her gracious Majesty Queen Victoria to Ireland, among the names of the personages admitted to the privilege of the entrée occur those of the Roman Catholic Primate, and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, which was done by a mistake of some person in the Chamberlain's office, but left without explanation, until the public feeling was aroused in England by the Papal Aggression. When the statutes of the Queen's colleges in Ireland were completed, the noble Viceroy of Ireland caused

them to be submitted to the approbation of the Pope, with strong expressions not only of personal respect, but of a desire to conform those institutions as far as possible to the views of his holiness! It was not at all uncommon to find Protestant clergymen recommended to the Earl of Clarendon, by Romish ecclesiastics and corporations, for the highest dignities in the Established Church, and rarely without effect. Such were the lengths to which concession and conciliation toward the Roman Catholic religion proceeded, especially in Ireland, that, instead of the expression of indignation with which the Durham letter opens, the newly-appointed cardinal and his hierarchy might have rather expected to have been received, upon their landing, with every possible mark of distinction on the part of the constituted authorities. And so they probably would have been, were it not that the feelings of the people, and it is said of the Queen, were strongly excited upon the subject; and hence, in accordance with his usual course of proceeding, the noble lord threw himself into the midst of the clamour, and was louder and more vehement than any other in denouncing the natural and not unreasonable consequence of his own policy.

But in such a state of the public mind it was necessary to find some object upon which the indignation so generally felt, and so vehemently expressed, might be wreaked out, and this was provided by the rather self-interested care of Lord John Russell. Pointing to the Tractarian divines, he said, “Here are the authors of this aggression; upon them let your anger fall; they are both criminal and incorrigible."

A little reflection would, however, convince every person of candid mind, that no authority can by any means be compared with that of the State in affording stability, extension, and authority, to any system which it may favour. If it be granted that the Tractarians produced all the effects attributed to their teaching, yet their influence could have been only slight and partial, compared with that of the Government, steadily directed to countenance Romanism for such a number of years. This is what its most zealous advocates so earnestly desire, and in return for which they are ready to barter their political support, as appears from the letters of Mr. Sergeant Shee, addressed to a Roman Catholic priest in Cork, who, after referring to the continued preservation of their faith amid persecution, asks:—

"Is that a reason why we should not strive to obtain for our Church, on terms compatible with its perfect freedom, the visible external homage of public opinion and authority-that countenance which once given can never be withdrawn-that testimony by the State to its worth and excellence, by which the high and mighty of this world

may be brought within the range of its happy influence for their own great profit and the unspeakable blessing of all whom Providence has placed under them ?"

This aspiration has been fulfilled by Lord John Russell and the Earl of Clarendon, to the utmost extent of their opportunities, although without the result of bringing "the high and mighty within the range of the happy influence of Rome," in any considerable numbers; and now, that the first excitement produced by the Papal aggression has passed away, we trust our fellow countrymen will recognise the true state of the case, and award the blame where it is so justly due.

In the life of nations, as well as individuals, progress is the condition under which it exists until it has reached maturity. England assuredly bears within her no symptoms of old age; but, on the contrary, exhibits on every side all the marks of vigorous development which is far from having attained its remotest limits. There is no party deserving the name which will not admit the necessity of progress: the only question is, as to the extent to which it should be carried, and the principle by which it should be regulated. They who desire a progress gradual, moderate, and arising from the expansion rather than the reconstruction of our ancient institutions, under the shade of which the English people have been long and securely sheltered, will use all their influence to strengthen the Administration of the Earl of Derby. They who prefer tentative and ad saltum measures, which are perpetually shifting old land marks in order to gratify the lovers of change and disorder, will rally round Lord John Russell. We would only add, in the words of an Athenian orator, "Let what has now been offered, and what your own thoughts must supply, be duly weighed, and pronounce such a verdict as justice and the interests of the State demand."

ART. IX.-Filia Dolorosa. Memoirs of Marie Thérèse Charlotte, Duchess of Angoulême, the last of the Dauphines. By MRS. ROMER. Two Vols. London: Bentley. 1852.

THIS is a deeply interesting record of the life of one whose sufferings have dignified her in the estimation of the world and whose sorrows belong to history. Illustrious alike by her birth and virtue, the Duchess d'Angouleme occupies no mean space in the pages which chronicle the events of modern times. The story of her griefs has, indeed, been often told,

and there are few who are not in some measure familiar with the facts with which it is connected. Many of these facts may be numbered within the compass of a lengthened life, and are yet matters of recollection with a few; whilst those, whose memory they antedate, have doubtless read them in the current histories of the day. Still, they have been so eventful-so deeply interesting in their character-that we are not wearied by the recital. They are ever coming to us with the reflection of some new light, expressive of their real nature and explanatory of their real causes. Something that was not generally known before is from time to time presented to us, as the memoirs of those who were the miserable sufferers, or still more miserable actors, in scenes which have no parallel, issue from the press. Hence lessons containing new matter of instruction are derived from the fresh phases which the facts themselves are made to assume. Moreover, a moral and political impulse was given by them, the full fruition of which the world has yet to reap. We have witnessed some of the results: we are passing through others, and are awaiting the rest in anxious suspense; but, as they succeed to each other in our experience, they furnish us with fresh materials for conjecture. What may be their final issue occupies the ingenuity of speculation to its fullest extent, but is utterly beyond the decision of human sagacity.

The history of the earlier days of the Duchess d'Angouleme, is of necessity the history of the French Revolution-that Revolution we mean-(for revolutions are not now solitary events, and it is therefore necessary to specify)-which first overthrew the dynasty of the Bourbons and ultimately placed a military adventurer on the throne of France. Our readers will, therefore, not be surprised that one of the volumes before us is entirely occupied with the earlier period of the duchess's life and the scenes with which they were immediately connected. From the moment when she was ushered into the world, the first-born of her royal parents, the joy of her mother's heart, but the disappointment of a nation, to the hour of her deliverance from the foul and gloomy solitude of the Temple, occupied but the short space of seventeen years. Of this space, the scenes which were enacted from the outbreak of the insurrection in July, 1789, to the close of the National Convention in October, 1795, occupied the still shorter period of six years. Short, however, as was the period, it was an age in the history of the world, and more than a life in the individual experience of those who passed through it. Into that brief space of time were crowded