loud voice, "Good people! I have taught you nothing but God's holy word, and those lessons that I have taken out of God's blessed book, the Holy Bible; and I have come hither this day to seal it with my blood." With that word, Homes, yeoman of the gnard, who had used Dr. Taylor cruelly all the way, gave him a stroke upon his head with a waster, and said, "Is that the keeping of thy promise, thou heretic?" Then he, again finding they would not allow him to speak, kneeled down and prayed, and a poor woman came from among the people, and prayed with him; but her they thrust away, and threatened to tread her down with horses; notwithstanding they could not remove her, but she would remain, and prayed with him.

WHEN he had prayed, he went to the stake and kissed it; and getting into a pitch-barrel, which they had set for him to stand in, he stood with his back against the stake, his hands folded together, and his eyes towards heaven, and so he continually prayed. When they had bound him with chains, the sheriff commanded one Richard Donningham, a butcher, to pile up faggots; but he refused to do it, and said, "I am lame, sir, and not able to lift a faggot." The sheriff threatened to send him to prison; still he would not do it. Then appointed he one Mulleine, of Kersey, a man for his virtues fit to be a hangman; and Soyce, a drunkard; and Warwick, who had lost one of his ears for his seditious talk in the commotion in King Edward's days; and also one Robert King, a deviser of interludes, who applied the gunpowder. These four were appointed to set up the faggots, and to make the fire, which they diligently did; and Warwick cruelly cast a faggot at him, which fell upon his head, and broke his face, that the blood run down his visage, Then said Dr. Taylor, "O friend, I have harm enough; what needed that?" Also, Sir John Shelton, hearing him speaking, and saying the psalm "Miserere," in English, struck him on the lips, and said, "Ye knave, speak Latin: I will make thee." At last they set the pile on fire, and he, holding up his hands,

called upon God, and said, "Merciful Father of Heaven, for Jesus Christ, my Saviour's sake, receive my soul into thy hands." After this he stood still, with his hands folded together, till Soyce, with a halbert struck him on the head that his brains fell out, and the dead corpse fell into the fire.

THUS rendered this man of God his soul into the hand of his merciful Father, and to his most dear and certain Saviour Jesus Christ, whom he most entirely loved, faithfully and earnestly preached, obediently followed in living, and constantly glorified in death.

It is the boast of the Church of Rome that she is always the same; if so, what may not Protestant England expect if she ever gains her ascendency: may we not expect similar usage from her as our Reformers had? Civilization has no effect upon her; the dark ages left her barbarous, and she is barbarous still. May God, in his goodness, shew her her ignorance and apostacy.

PORTUGAL-ITS CHURCH AND POLITICS.

SIR,―The state of Portugal is very unsteady; but Saldanha seems trying to reconcile the existence of a House of Peers and an orderly government with liberty; so that for the present I wish him well. A third edition of Portugal and Galicia has come out; it is, though old and written by a Miguelite, perhaps the best work on the subject. In corroboration of my statement that the people are priestridden, I add that an English officer, on whom I can depend, who was in Madeira in 1828, assured me that the influence of the priests who were seen passing backwards and forwards to the Miguelites, occasioned the flight of my father's troops. These, though strong enough to hold the island, left him and a few brave officers to shift for themselves, after the most enthusiastic protestations of their loyalty.

WITH reference to the honesty of the Portuguese, I have been assured by English ladies, who lived for years in Madeira, that they found them far more trustworthy in their dealings than their own countrymen who resided there. It is, however, not in Portugal alone that the English show the dark side of their characters to foreigners; and from what I have seen and heard abroad, I fear the clergy are as much to blame as the laity. A wealthy Belgian acquaintance once remarked to me it was a great pity the English Government sent all the bad clergymen abroad, as it led people to think the rest were like them. My Belgian friend is not so far wrong as he seemed at first sight; for be it remembered a clergyman who dares not stay at home, and is therefore virtually sent abroad; he may go and set up for himself, like a jolly jumper, at any town on the continent where toleration exists for foreigners; collect a congregation, read the Liturgy, or part of it at his discretion, (I know one respectable chaplain who commenced the Communion service with his sermon ;) many within the forbidden degrees consort with the Presbyterians and Lutherans, or join in the Romish service as may best suit them; use the name of the English Government (lent to them as its officers), to run into debt with greater ease, and when credit is gone walk over the next frontier. I do not mean to deny that there are many respectable and some exemplary clergymen on the continent; but I fear that Dr. Biber has underated the evils resulting from the want of episcopal superintendence in his very useful and interesting pamphlet on the English Church abroad.

PEDRO TRAVASSOS VALDEZ.

THE LATE REV. THOMAS MORTIMER B.D., ON DAILY PRAYER, WEEKLY COMMUNION, AND CATHEDRAL ESTABLISHMENTS.

To the Editor of the Church Warder.

SIR,—I hope to see the enclosed extract from a sermon, preached in the year 1833, by the late Rev. Thomas Mortimer, in your next number.

MR. MORTIMER was one of the most popular preachers in London, and much followed by Protestant Dissenters; he was formerly one of the ministers of Wheeler Chapel, (now S. Mary's Church), Spitalfields and Evening Lecturer of S. Olive's, Southwark; he was afterwards minister of S. Mark's, Middleton Square; Sunday afternoon Lecturer at S. Leonard's, Shoreditch, which lectureship he held for nearly fifteen years; and he was lastly minister of the Episcopal Chapel, Grays in Lane, St. Pancras, which he resigned a short time before his death which took place in November or December, in last year.

THOSE of our clergy who, in obedience to the prayer book, have daily prayer and weekly communion in the churches in which they minister, are by dissenters and others who are denominated "Low Churchmen," falsely charged with a tendency towards Romanism and have oftentimes met with a deal of opposition and persecution—the testimony therefore of Mr. Mortimer is worth printing just now, and I know of no better channel for publishing it than the Church Warder. W. C.

Shoreditch, July, 1851.

WILL you bear with me, if I say that, with all our improvements in science, and in human learning, we are a degenerate people as to religion, we are a degenerate people as to the worship and service of God. I am not now comparing our state in the nineteenth century with what we were in the middle of the last century. Thank God, things

are now better with us in many respects than they were then. But look at the state of things in the church and the nation at the period of the blessed Reformation, and ask yourselves whether we have not greatly degenerated from what we then were. If you look into the prayer-book you will see that there is a service appointed for every day throughout the year:-Psalms for every day, portions of Scripture for every day; and the rubric has expressly ordered that, "The priests, not being let or hindered, shall, at every morning and evening prayer, cause the bell to be tolled, that the people may hear thereof, and may come to join them in prayer, and to hear God's word." Is there anything like that in the land? Yes, in some places,—yes, thank God, it is still maintained in our cathedrals. I venerate those sacred edifices; I pray God that the hand of blasphemy and infidelity may never be allowed to lay them level with the dust. England's cathedrals are the only places in the land where there is every morning and evening the worship of God. But ought this to be so? I think not, my brethreu. I look not merely at our own church; but I turn back to the page of Ecclesiastical history, and what do I find the early Christians did? I find they assembled together every day for the purpose of public worship, and serving God; I find they took the sacrament of the Lord's Supper every Sabbath, and frequently oftener than that. Now, I am told by some, that the Wednesday evening's service is quite unnecessary,—that it is quite enough, surely, if I can get the people to come together on a Sunday, to worship God. I do not think so. And then I am told that as to our service during Lent, why, we have prayers and a sermon on a Friday, as well as on a Sunday. Ah, brethren, would to God I could bring you back to the old Christian way, and have service every day of our lives! I would that this could be the case! We are very far, as yet, from being a kingdom of priests, and of holy people. I may perhaps be told, This would very much interfere with our character as a great commercial country.