in these volumes for our instruction and astonishment. The author had no official employment in this expedition, and consequently had no daily burden of duties upon him; but sailing as an amateur, and at his own charge, he occupied himself with making daily observations of the course which the ships took, and of the latitude they attained to; he took sketches of the scenery, trafficked with the natives, collected many specimens of their works of art, their weapons, their household utensils, and natural productions-and which he contrived to bring to Europe with him, and to deposit in the Royal Museum at Berlin.

But his occupations were not at all times either so peaceful or pleasurable; he once trod up a lion, and the two looked at each other with equal astonishment, if not with equal apprehension, but no disastrous consequences followed to either from this brief interview. At another time he stepped out of some reeds into the company of a dozen huge crocodiles, but instantly bethought himself that discretion, in some cases, was by far the better part of valour. Then there are casual encounters with elephants set battles with the hippopotami, who were found to be formidable foes to small vessels-wild buffaloes also and hyenas, were at times dangerous neighbours, and occasionally they were gratified with the sight of herds of antelopes, some hundreds or a thousand strong. Still the shores of the White Nile are more thickly inhabited than are the shores of any river we have hitherto heard of, the village of the numerous tribes crowd in succession upon the banks, and Mohammed Ali, when he steamed up the river in his yacht in 1838, might well have formed the design of establishing a new and a mighty empire among these athletic, and gigantic, and half-civilized people.

The author's descriptions of their general and peculiar customs, of their intelligence and productions, will highly interest the reader, and we expect that this book will draw the especial attention of the missionary societies to the vast field that it lays open before them, and to the peculiar character of these pastoral tribes, with their primitive habits and unwarlike propensities, as a most favourable indication that they might readily receive the gospel at their hands. On the whole, the work will instruct many, and amuse more; it is valuable from its geographical details, and affords us a vast amount of information about a portion of the world of which we had hitherto known nothing. We wish for the sake of science, for the advancement of civilization, and for the promotion of commerce, that Mr. Herne had the exclusive command of a similar expedition up the White Nile. He would do great good as he went, and would bring back to us much valuable information on his return.

Lachrymæ Ecclesiæ. By the Rev. George Wyall. Cleaver. London.

This book, though new to us, has been for several years before the public, who have probably by this time, in most quarters, formed their own opinion of it. Its subject is the sufferings and destitution of the clergy during the great rebellion, a harrowing and painful subject at all times, and one which stirs the blood and disquiets the spirit whenever we think of it: still we are of opinion that it is a subject that must never be allowed to sleep-that must never be forgotten, and that cannot be too accurately, nor too forcibly, nor too frequently

be brought under the notice of the English people, especially in the form which the volume has of a 12mo.

The sufferings of the clergy were, indeed, great, and there is no lack of will in many men now to repeat the worst deeds of the worst men in those times; there is the same rabid and senseless hate existing in the minds of many against the church now as formerly; there is the same description of men to be found still, who are ever ready, ever eager to howl and yell against every one that is holy, and against every thing that is sacred.

Luckily the class of godly haters and destroyers have been immortalized by a pen that will carry down their chief characteristics to the latest generation. Never will they escape from the fangs of Hudibras -never will they be ever otherwise known, by all the sensible portion of mankind, than in the terms in which he has described them as

"A various rout

Of petulant, capricious sects,
The maggots of corrupted texts
That first run all religion down
And after every swarm its own,"

and whose constant saying it was—

"Is 't not ridiculous and nonsense,

A saint should be a slave to conscience?
Who ought to be above such fancies
As far as above ordinances."

But we are bound to look back to those troubled times, to those evil days, for some measure of instruction to ourselves. It was mainly owing to the bishops that so much distress fell upon the clergy: it was from the impolitic conduct of the Lauds and the Williamses of those days filling every lay office with clerics, and striving to make of the state nothing but an inheritance to the church that roused the laity to such an excess of ill-will against the clergy. Human nature is the same in all ages, and it was the grasping and covetous spirit in the Sparkes of Ely, and the Tomlines of Lincoln, that made men hail the appointment in late years of that anomalous and dangerous church commission. Even this was considered the lesser evil of the two; even a commission avowedly of despoilers of the church's temporalities was better than a batch of bishops who were fast despoiling the church of its best inheritance, and its true riches,-the people's respect and

affection.

Our enemies, and we have not a few, will have no power to hurt us, unless we ourselves furnish them with the means to do so; and the history of the past will always be found a most useful daily lesson to us, who, while we live, would wish to learn what the errors of the old times were, and how in these times we can best do what the times urge us to do, efficiently and conscientiously, spiritually and righteously.

BOOK THE FIRST.

CHAPTER I.

The Peabody Family.

It was mid-winter; and a heavy fall of snow, depositing itself in all manner of odd nooks and crannies, and leaving sundry parts of the variegated architecture standing up bare and black, was rapidly converting the housetops of a little town on the eastern coast into a chaos of unintelligible shapes and shadows. If the moon could have penetrated the haze which intercepted that heap of human habitations, it must have been considerably perplexed to pick out from the confused mass the outlines of the familiar eaves and fantastic gables of Yarlton...

Down in the narrow, zigzag streets, the snow was playing the same pantomimic tricks upon window-sills and shop projections, and up entries, and gateways, and blind alleys. Wherever there was a corner that took the wind's eye, it was blockaded by the besieging drift, which swirled upwards in fierce eddies to the chimney-pots, round which it danced and leaped like mad. Old porches, here and there, looked like sheeted sentry-boxes pitched against the dark back-ground of the houses. Crazy wooden lamp-posts were crowned with queer white caps, tied under the chin of the dim red light in strange ragged knots. Grotesque forms, resembling fragments of cats and baboons, were squatted on the swinging sign-boards; and the Golden Canisters, and Red Boots, and Original Hats, which advertised the marine public of Yarlton where the best articles in their several lines were to be obtained, had put on a wild sort of masquerade, like gorgons and griffins glaring upon you through a mirage.

There were that night in many great mansions blazing fires and loud revelry, all in-door comforts being wonderfully enhanced by a sense of triumph over the storm which rages outside in the window-panes, but cannot find entrance; and there were also on the bleak highways, and in the ruts on the skirts of villages, many torpid and famished wretches creeping for shelter under

VOL. XXVI.

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