the worst signs of our times, those who pander to excitement will obtain a certain weight in society. He, therefore, who would disseminate evangelical truth and apostolical discipline, must expect opposition and misrepresentation. He must make up his mind, not to persecution, for that is out of date, but to be disowned by all parties, and be acknowledged only by those free from party spirit.

We have now considered the Episcopal duties as those of the Prelate, the Pastor, and the Theologian. We come, in the last place, to review those of the Legislator. Even from the period in which the Episcopal order was instituted in this country, it has always been on the side of constitutional privileges that the Bishops have been found. They have sometimes suffered in reputation, often in circumstances, and not a few even now are defrauded of their honest fame, who, in their own day, performed boldly their sacred duties. Mr. Churton, in his admirable work just published, "The Early English Church," thus speaks of one of the most haughty and ambitious of Primates, and of another whose memory is far from popular :

"Neither BECKET, nor STEPHEN LANGTON, who, in King John's time, played as distinguished a part, did much to increase the dominion of the Pope in England. It was one who is generally passed over BY OUR HISTORIANS, WILLIAM OF CORBOIL, the French priest, who brought the yoke upon the neck of the English Church. This is the very essence of Popery, to give the Pope the authority of Universal Bishop, and to act only as his deputy. Other errors, and superstitions, and bad practises may be remedied: but if there is only one authority in the Church, from which all reformation must come, we are without hope till the Pope is pleased to grant it. Stephen Langton is a remarkable person in Church history, as having made the convenient division of the Bible into chapters, as we still keep it. He was a diligent preacher and commentator on Scripture. It is well known that King John and the Monks of Canterbury, being at variance about the election of an Archbishop, Pope Innocent III. took the matter in his own hands, and sent over Stephen Langton, A.D. 1206. He was, however, one who preferred the liberty of his Church and country to the interests of either Pope or King, and he took a leading part in the efforts made by the Barons to procure a better government, in the struggle in which Magna Charta was obtained. It is well known how, in that struggle, the Pope having humbled King John to his heart's content, took his part against the Barons, absolved him from fulfilling the terms to which he had given his promise, and told Langton to excommunicate the champions of liberty. But he chose rather to abide the Pope's ban with them."

And thus, if we contiuue our survey to the times in which we live, we shall find the interests of the Church and the

nation (as inseparably connected) maintained by the Episcopal order. Nay, so essential a part is it of our constitution, that it fell with royalty and aristocracy; and when they were restored, it assumed also its appointed place.

The unanimous Conservative feeling of the Church would alone be sufficient to secure a majority of Conservative Bishops; and, indeed, we find that men qualified for so high a spiritual office will rarely submit to be made the tools of any Administration. It had been our intention, when we began this paper, to abstain from particularising any individual Bishop. But, while speaking of that devotion to the rights and interests of the Church, which we have designated as the fourth duty of a Bishop, we cannot refrain from saying a few words on behalf of the much misunderstood and much misrepresented Bishop of Exeter. This accomplished Prelate, by his eloquence and by his sound judgment, has attracted to himself a very large share of the public attention. He, like the Bishop of London, is so active and indefatigable, so perspicacious and persevering, that he at once catches the important bearings of a question, places them in the most prominent point of view, clears away all difficulties, crushes all the efforts of sophistry, and having thus made the subject in dispute plain to the intellect, he then appeals, in the most forcible manner, to the heart and to the conscience. We say, "like the Bishop of London ;" and this, because their eloquence, though in many respects different, is yet distinguished by the same high qualities, and both are so skilled in the management of their time and powers, so quick to perceive what must be done by themselves and what may be left to subalterns, that, while their dioceses are admirably attended to, they are themselves able to examine all public events which are, or may be, important to the Church. At the time when the Bishop of Exeter was raised to his present dignity, he was in the enjoyment of a much larger income than so poor a see as Exeter can produce. He was also, by the very act which placed him on the Bench, deprived of the prebend which he held at Durham and the living of Stanhope. He was, at the same time, necessitated to keep up the state of a peer, and to contribute largely, more largely than before, to charitable and religious societies. But not only did he thus suffer in his pecuniary condition from his elevation, but the loss was made more unpleasant from the fact, that they were of the Bishop's own party who required it. It was his political friends who sacrificed his interests; and this with the full conviction that they were adding to their ranks one, before whose intellectual might the stoutest of their enemies would tremble. If

this, then, was the treatment which the Bishop of Exeter met with from the Tories-and it was a poor inducement to hope for any further advancement at their hands: what could he expect from those whose weakness he had exposed, whose arguments he had refuted, whose craftiness he had baffled, and the whole plan of whose policy he had condemned.

We may fairly say, that both the circumstances and the prospects of Dr. Phillpotts were injured by his elevation; and what inducement to accept it could he therefore have, save that of doing good to the Church? He renounced himself, and has stood forward with a noble self-devotion to stay the downward course of our once well-governed country. But this is not all, or even the chief sacrifice, which he has laid on the altar of patriotism. He lost the good opinion of many whose esteem was valuable; and it is only now that he is beginning to be better understood, now that nearly ten years of constant, zealous, unremitting labour have passed over his head without bringing any other reward than the "answer of a good conscience.' Like many

other Prelates, his seniors on the bench, he was led to alter his opinions on the probable consequences of what was called Romish Emancipation: shortly after this he was made Bishop of Exeter. Now, we believe that he would not have been made a Bishop at that moment, had it not been for this change of opinion. Moreover, we feel that his Lordship was right in his previous sentiments, and, therefore, wrong when he altered them. But we have already seen that the see of Exeter could have been no inducement, in itself, for Dr. Phillpotts to leave his former preferment; and to suppose, as the galled adversaries of the Bishop pretend to do, that the hope of the mitre could be the cause of his altered opinions, is positively absurd. This advocacy of emancipation cost the Bishop the favourable opinion of a large proportion of the clergy, and has embittered the opposition of those who dislike his noble advocacy of the Church. The time is now come for this great and good man to be seen in his true light.

It is worthy of remark that, the presence, in the House of Lords, of a body of dignified ecclesiastics, is the only way in which the clergy can be represented at all. Every other corporate body has its peculiar class out of whom it may choose men qualified to promote its interests. The army and the navy are represented by military and naval officers; the law, by numerous barristers and attornies; the medical profession, by members from its own ranks. Merchants, bankers, manufacturers, country gentlemen, tradesmen, all have men of their own classes to represent them in one or the other House, and

most in both; but a clergyman must be represented by a lawyer, a banker, a manufacturer, a naval officer, because he cannot give his vote to a member of his own order: hence then, seeing that the interests of that body with which those of the Church are most intimately blended, cannot be represented in the House of Commons at all, it is most fit, were it only as the representatives of the clergy, that the Bishops should sit in the House of Lords, and be constant, too, in their attendance. The Members for our Universities represent science and learning; they represent, moreover, certain large corporate interestsbut they do not, they cannot, represent the clergy. A dissenting minister may get into Parliament, if he can prevail on any radical constituency to elect him; and the attempt has not unfrequently been made. He may represent as much false doctrine, heresy, and schism, as he thinks fit; but a clergyman is debarred from entering the senate. The constitution has, therefore, provided for this case, by placing all the governing members of the Church in the great Council of State. She has thus hallowed her deliberations, by requiring the presence of God's ministers, and acquired a right to the title of a Christian country, by requiring the sanction of Christian Bishops to her legislative enactments.

Looking at our present Prelates, we find them active and judicious Governors-sincere and affectionate Pastors-learned and orthodox Divines--EVANGELICAL-HIGH-CHURCHMENsound and consistent Christian Legislators; and it becomes the duty, therefore, not only of clergymen who have sworn canonical obedience to them, but of all churchmen, to strengthen their hands to aid in their holy designs with all the influence that such churchmen can command, with all the wealth they can spare, and with all the prayers they can offer.

ART. II.-Recent Measures for the Promotion of Education in England. Ridgway, Piccadilly. 1839.

THE subject of National Education, always one of the highest importance, has acquired, of late, in this country, a deep and painful interest. And indeed, if ever there were a nation, and a time, when it might justly engross the attention of every true patriot, that nation is England, and that time is the time in which we now live.

Let us reflect for a moment on the present position of our country. Favoured, for near eighteen centuries, with the light

of Christian truth, never wholly extinct, we have for three hundred years, been enjoying its recovered fulness. Our Church, through the gracious Providence of God, has been privileged even above other Protestant churches, by retaining primitive order, along with the revival of pure doctrine. This rare union, within the Church, of spiritual freedom with just authority, has acted on the State itself with a mighty and healing power. Our civil constitution has owned the plastic influence. Reflecting, like a mirror, the tempered harmony of Protestant freedom and Catholic faith retained in the Church, it has blended, in just proportions, the rights of the commoner, the dignity of the noble, and the prerogatives of the throne. The blessing of God has manifestly rested on our land. The haughty thunders of the Vatican have been launched against us in vain; the fleets conjured against us by the wand of that dark enchanter have been scattered on our shores; the plots of Jesuit treachery have perished in the birth; and, in later times, even the wild fury of infidel anarchy that swept over the continent has rolled its tempest around us without the power to harm. We have reached, as a nation, the very pinnacle of outward greatness. Our commerce and our colonies spread through every corner of the globe. With one hand we grasp America-India with the other; and our empire plants its foot on the most southern regions of the earth. The sun, it has been said, never sets on our dominions, and near one-fourth of the world's inhabitants own our sway. The wars of the revolution raised our military fame to its height, and left our navy without a rival on the seas. Surrounding states looked upon. our greatness with envy and with wonder; and even now the moral weight of our influence can scarcely be reckoned. And when to these things we add the vast extent of our trade, the maturity of British science, the triumphs of British art and skill, the rich stores of our literature, and our ancestral glories, and, above all, our Christian privileges, our missionary labours, and the hallowing ordinances of the Church of God, we might almost fancy the ocean that surrounds us to be a sea of crystal engirdling an earthly Paradise.

What a glorious prospect would be opened before us, if our advance in morals and religion had kept pace with our external grandeur. But here is the painful contrast. While the British oak spreads its branches so proudly to the world, there is a cankerworm at the root, and rottenness at the core. This queen of nations is smitten with a foul moral leprosy. This mistress of the seas has the plague-spot on her countenance, which marks but too plainly what a deadly disease rages within. The events of