while the attention of the garrison has been drawn off in that direction, the forces of Puritanism are establishing themselves in the very centre of the citadel, and quietly occupying all the posts.

"This is the real danger, if men could but be brought to discern it" (Gresley's Second Statement, pp 77-79).

:

This is the real danger of that there can be no doubt. Though some have, unworthily enough, betrayed the Church by advocating Roman doctrines and practice, yet are they not the only traitors: the opposite extremes have been as insidiously at work in the direction of Dissent. Nay, not only has the party to which we allude been as insidiously but much more effectually engaged: they have sounded the "tocsin of Popery" to cover themselves, and right well has it answered their purpose. One cannot go into a large town, and scarcely into a large village, without tracing their footsteps, even as one cannot go into such places without tracing something to bewail: the Church can hardly get a hearing anywhere through the infidelity of her sons. "A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so and what will ye do in the end thereof?"

Were the differences of opinion upon less important points, or had nothing been done to set matters upon a proper footing, so much need not have been urged upon the attention of the public, because either fundamental doctrines would have escaped attack, or found a safe-guard in the antagonism of parties. As it is, however, nothing can be done in the way of counteraction short of the resort to authoritative reproof. Extreme parties can only be met by other parties that may have something to cede by being in an opposite position of equal extremity; for, if we are to be left to ourselves and none are to be cast out, it is only by mutual concessions we shall come to agreement. But the High Church party cannot concede anything to their opponents without lowering the doctrines of the Church: what remains, then, to be done but for the authorities to step in? Either that must be done, or uniformity will be hopeless. The Romanizing and the Evangelical parties might have reduced each other to something like agreement, not only with each other but with the Church; but now, that one of these parties is destroyed, things cannot get to their proper level by being left to themselves: the party that is left will not surely lose any of its influence from want of antagonism-the contrary effect will be produced; so that it must go on in its process of absorption unless the arm of authority be stretched out to

prevent it. This surely cannot be the wish of our bishops, or any of the true friends of the Church.

We do not wish to see the Evangelical party put down because the Romanistic party has met with that fate: we desire only that the Church should be rid of the undue influences that are at work within her pale, and we would effect this object by the restriction of the Evangelical party through the interference of the bishops and of the sound part of the clergy. We never thought that the Romanistic faction were the true guardians of the Church, as any one may see who will turn to our pages; but their absence from the scene of discord only makes it more imperative upon those who are left to resort to other means to restore the balance; and those considerations of justice, which actuated us in our last number to enter upon this subject, will not allow us to withdraw as yet from the assertion of the danger of the Church, or the denunciation of the causes that have produced it. We have nothing to do with revenge, as we have nothing to do with the party shaken off; but we cannot refrain from the advocacy of the integrity of the Church for fear of giving offence to the extreme opposite party-especially as it is most patent that that party is in error. Nay, we respect the party that is gone more than that which remains to disturb the Church; because, erroneous as it was, it has shown its honesty -a quality which we look for in vain in its rival. That party at any rate has fairly acknowledged that it was wrong, and is gone when will Mr. Close and his compeers follow its example?

We say nothing now of the Evangelical Alliance, and the foolish members of the Church of England who have joined it, though we do not think that their coquetting with Dissent is more laudable than the coquetting of others with Popery; but we wish to show, by speaking of those who think themselves the most moderate of their party, that none of the party are, in our view, consistent Churchmen, and to suggest to them what to do. If they will but go they will save their lordships, the bishops, a world of trouble, and that is surely something in days like the present.

But still better would it be, if, remaining in the Church, they would become consistent Churchmen; would take their theology from the authoritative declarations of that Church, in the plain literal and grammatical meaning of the words; then would they be a strength and a comfort to their mother, instead of pursuing a course which is calculated to bring her with sorrow to the grave.

429

ART. IX.-A Pilgrimage to the Temples and Tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and Palestine, in 1845-6. By Mrs. ROMER. Two vols. 1846.

THE very lively lady to whom we are indebted for these volumes commences her tour with a few observations on the scene of St. Paul's shipwreck, which has been placed by some writers in the Melita of the Adriatic, and by others in the Melita of the Mediterranean sea. The Maltese will accept no compromise of their claim, and Mrs. Romer enumerates several strong points in their favour. The ship in which the apostle sailed was bound to Puteoli, and Malta lies in the direct course from Alexandria to that place; whereas the Melita of the Adriatic, lying off the Dalmatian coast, would require a considerable deviation to reach it. In addition to this, it is properly urged that Malta enjoyed a large traffic; and it is suggested that the vessel may have discharged there a cargo of wheat from Egypt in exchange for cotton, for the growth of which the island was at that time famous.

"Besides, St. Paul mentions that in their progress they touched at Syracuse, which would have been again out of the way for a vessel voyaging from the Adriatic Melita to Puteoli; for, assuming that he sailed from the Adriatic Melita, it would have been unnecessarily dipping down to the southward to touch at Syracuse, and from thence he must have again steered northward in order to regain the course by Reggio and the Straits of Messina: whereas Syracuse lies in the direct and unavoidable course from Malta to those Straits, through which, under either supposition, St. Paul decidedly passed."

After the recent elaborate accounts of Cairo bestowed upon us by so many liberal hands much of novelty was not to be expected from a passing lady-traveller. We have, however, met with one or two pleasing notices; among these is a visit to the collection of Dr. Abbot, a physician in that city. To him belong what may be supposed to be the oldest memorials in the world-the gold ring of Cheops, who built the great pyramid; and the ring, in the form of a scarabæus, which once encircled the finger of the Pharaoh of the Exodus. He also possesses the helmet and a portion of the breastplate of Shishak, that Pharaoh who sacked Jerusalem in the time of Rehoboam, within fifty years of the reign of Solomon, and nearly ten centuries before the advent of the Saviour.

On the 10th of November, 1845, Mrs. Romer commenced her journey upon the Nile-that broad redundant Nile which has flowed through so many splendid descriptions in poetry and

prose, from Claudian to Gray. She did not commit her fortunes to one of the frail boats which Lucan mentions and Gray fills with dusky people, who to

"neighbouring cities ride,

That rise and glitter o'er the ambient tide."

The common boats of the country are sufficiently miserable to call down the most poetical malediction: employed chiefly to transport slaves and merchandise, they are so populous with vermin as to require an immersion in the river for two or three days, and a new coat of paint, before they can be ventured upon with any reasonable anticipations. Mrs. Romer succeeded in hiring a Dahabech. These boats, ofwhich there are only three on the Nile, cost thirty pounds a month, and offer many conveniences: they carry two masts, with three Latteen sails, and have cabins in the after-part of the deck, fitted up with Turkish divans, contrived like Goldsmith's chest of drawers, "a double debt to pay," being fitted up at night into four beds; a cabinet de toilette and a tent for the servants completed a very satisfactory floating hotel.

The travellers proceeded on their voyage without lingering much by the way; but they could not pass without a pause the magnificent temple of Luxor, with the rosy light colouring those gigantic pillars. They also visited the quarries of Syene, from whose bosom were dug out the obelisks which, in the twilight of antiquity, drew men's eyes to Thebes and Memphis, and are now scattered over the cities of Europe. The beds of stone were visible through the drifting sands.

Going up the Cataracts is one of the most difficult achievements of the Egyptian traveller; a strong wind is necessary; and here, if anywhere,

"With advent'rous oar and ready sail,"

the Dahabech and its crew

"Drive before the gale."

The first appearance of the Cataract is very well described:"After the tame scenery which characterises the banks of the Nile from Alexandria to Es-souan, it was quite refreshing to our eyes to rest upon something rugged, and differing in form from the eternal dhorra fields and palm-trees. The commencement of the Cataract presents a complete Archipelago of granite rocks, some red, others black, and shining in the sun as though highly polished, with various torrents rushing between them in all directions. These rocks are of the most extraordinary forms; now awful, now grotesque, they look as old as the earth itself the skeletons of the antediluvian world! the western shore the sands of the Great Desert, yellow as gold, and rippled by the action of the winds into wavelets, descend to the water's

On

edge, interspersed with great masses of black basalt. On the east, rocks rise above rocks of granite, piled up in such strange and uncouth forms that one is led to attribute them to some terrific volcanic eruption-to one of those early revolutions of the elements which changed the surface of the globe-the creation of that chaotic wilderness. The breeze held strong; and well it was that it did so, for I cannot conceive how destruction could be avoided, if, for one moment, the impelling power should be overcome by the resistance of the torrent we were driven through. Here and there our course lay between rocks narrowing so closely together, and towering to such a height, that the wind was momentarily taken out of the sails; and, I assure you, such moments were awful, for it was just a struggle whether the impetus with which we entered the narrow pass would carry us through it or not; and often there was a momentary pause, when that struggle rendered the boat stationary.

"I had established for myself a test of the safety of our progress, which inspired me with more confidence than the friendly visits of Reis Ali; and this was our excellent cook, Hadgee Mustapha, whose little portable kitchen, in which he performs such great feats, is placed just opposite to the awning where I was standing. There he was, fixed to his post, and, in the midst of the deafening noise and bustle around, imperturbably making preparations for dinner, which I began to think it doubtful that we should ever eat: but his unruffled sang froid satisfied me that he, who is a Nile bird, thought that there was no danger; and in my fancied security I lost sight of the fact that as a Moslem and a Fatalist-above all, as a cook-he was, in religion and honour, bound to show an immovable countenance- -to leave the boat to its fate and to stick to his casseroles, and snap his fingers at the Cataract. Thus matters stood at noon; and, in reply to the anxious enquiries I addressed to Mohammed, he declared that we should soon arrive at that part of the Cataract called the Bab, or gate, where the eighty men were stationed to haul the boat up the rapids; and, that operation once achieved, half an hour would bring us to the island of Philæ, when all our troubles would be over. Scarcely had he made me that assurance when the Swift entered one of those short but furious torrents through which the practicable channel lies. A scene of general confusion ensued. I heard the voice of every man of the two crews screaming in angry vociferation, and the hoarse shouts of the Reis loud above the rest. I saw Mohammed draw his sabre and rush towards the spot where the Reis of the Cataract's pilot was stationed. I was immediately conscious that our onward course was not only arrested, but that we were retrograding; for the surrounding rocks, which but an instant before we were rapidly passing by, now appeared to be running away from us ahead. I looked up and saw the sails trembling; I looked forward and-oh, comble de désespoir !-beheld the cook drop a pudding-mould from his hand, and, seizing one of the poles which the crew employed to prevent the vessel wearing round, go hastily to work with the rest. All is lost, thought I, since Hadgee Mustapha abandons his pudding!" (T. i., pp. 169-73).

This is sufficiently amusing, even though the affected grimace