ings on the cliffs. A lower isolated light, of a red hue indicating the light-house, at the pier-head. I paced the deck for some time, in the darkness of night, looking over the expanse of waters, and viewing on one side the North Foreland light, and on the other side, each of those of the Goodwin sands, as the latter appeared in succession. The bare mention of the Goodwin sands superinduces a train of melancholy ideas: for to say nothing of their being now the cause of so many wrecks, we cannot lose sight of their disastrous origin. We read that in the reign of Edward the confessor, the sea, rising to an extraordinary height, overflowed the coast of Kent, and swept away abundance of people and cattle; and among other works of destruction, this awful inundation covered the lands which then belonged to Earl Goodwin, who was also Earl of Kent; and the sea has ever since retained its dominion over them.

CHAPTER II.

"Now, to the warlike Angles, see from Rome,
The peaceful Austin and his brethren come;
To preach the gospel, and the song resound,
Of Moses and the Lamb."-

ETHELBERT.

As a fellow-passenger and I were gazing at the Ramsgate lights, I observed "I feel much veneration for that spot which lies between Ramsgate and Sandwich," "Why?" said he, "Because" said I, "it was at Retsborough castle, which lies between those two places, that St. Austin, and his brother missionaries from Rome, landed, and had an audience from the immortal Ethelbert, to whom St. Austin addressed himself on the subject of the Christian faith, and, from whom St. Austin obtained

permission to settle at Canterbury; and Ethelbert assigned him a chapel wherein to preach. So that it must be allowed that the Kentish Heptarchist was no bigot. Ah! it were well if some churchmen of our day, were as tolerant as was that pagan of the sixth century. But such were the ignorance and superstition of those early ages, (as the historian Bede relates as an unquestioned fact,) that Ethelbert, being apprehensive of charms or spells, seated himself in the open plain, in the neighbourhood of the castle, to give St. Austin audience; thinking that in the open air, they could have less power over him." "Droll enough," said my fellow-traveller, "but is it not true that Christianity was prevalent in England before that time, and that the Roman Catholics unjustly claim the honour of having introduced it? For I have heard speakers at protestant meetings, assert it as a fact." "Did they quote their authority?" said I, "No" said my fellow traveller," they did not." " And you

may safely add," said I," that they could not; unless like Tarquinius Superbus, the sixth Roman king, they got some sibyl to supply them with records hitherto invisible to mortal ken, and like a physician's prescription, written pro re nata. I lament from my heart and my soul, people at public meetings, making such statements. If a Roman Catholic priest were to make one assertion, equally pseudological, I believe (to use the language of that great luminary, Daniel O'Connell,) we should never hear the end of it." The papists are charged with perjury, intolerance, and agitation: whilst these protestants, who open their meetings with prayer, and conclude with singing doxologies, make violent and unchristian speeches, qualified to excite malignant, ungenerous, and intolerant sentiments in the breasts of their hearers. Now mark how captious is the statement, "that the gospel was preached here before St. Austin set his foot in England." I admit, and history tells me, that the gospel

was preached in England, and that many were converted to the faith, soon after the commencement of the Christian era; but history also tells me that after such primal conversion, the nation had lapsed into idolatry, long before" St. Austin set his foot in England."

"Though erst the Word of God to Britain came,
Through pious men of apostolic fame;

Who preached the truth, and by its brilliant light,
Dispelled the darkness of the heathen night:
The light and truth men saw, and they embraced,
But by apostacy themselves disgraced."

When St. Austin arrived, he preached and propagated the gospel again; which (like the grain of mustard seed,) under the blessing of God, covered the land, and has flourished ever since.

Therefore, to say that the Christian religion was prevalent in England, before the time of St. Austin, is a captious statement, qualified to lead uneducated or unreflecting men to conclude that it was in a flourishing state, or generally existed when St. Austin