away neglected. We live in an age of great mechanical improvement, an age which prides itself on substituting vast wholesale methods for the more tedious processes of manual labour. These must all be encountered and investigated; where useful and legitimate, pressed into the service of the Church; where spurious, levelling, spirit-crushing, exposed and rejected.

We never must forget, while following out our ritual studies, that the vast domains of Christian art are also our heritage, an heritage which it is our duty to bequeath as much improved to our descendants, as they received it improved from theirs. We must once and for ever burst the bonds of mere pedantic archæology, we must pray that other ages may exclaim, "See how the architects of the mindle ages improved upon their Romanesque inheritance, see how Giotto and the Blessed Friar glorified the forms of Byzantine art. See also how their children of the twentieth century improved upon them, see the noble churches, the exquisite paintings, the choice carved work, and costly chasings, the lustrous glass which they produced and left to us. See how we of this late age, following their great example, are striving humbly, and under the blessing of GOD, to surpass even them in the honour which He vouchsafes to permit us to render to HIM."

We will only further add a hearty wish that this most interesting paper might be reprinted in a form more suitable for general circulation that that in which it at present appears.

HOUSES OF CHARITY.

"WE have seen a prospectus, explaining a plan for the establishment of a new charitable institution, which appears to us well deserving of notice. It is proposed to found a House of Charity for Distressed Persons in London,' with a view to two main objects

"1. To afford temporary relief to deserving persons especially recommended or selected.

2. To enable persons whose time is much occupied by professions, or other active duties, as well as those who have more leisure, to cooperate in works of charity, under fixed regulations."

"

The class of persons to be relieved is not precisely defined at the outset, for reasons stated in the prospectus, but it is observed :

It may suffice to state generally, that the chief object in view will be to rescue those who are received from dropping down into hopeless destitution or pauperism, or from betaking themselves to systematic vagrancy. The greatest care will, therefore, be exercised to select those persons, with regard to whom there is the most reasonable hope that, by having a home for a few weeks, they may be enabled to provide for

themselves in London, or assisted to return to their friends, if they belong to the country.

"It will be advisable to select, in the first instance, some one or two classes of cases; and probably the best to begin with would be, first, patients discharged from hospitals, and out-patients, not able to support themselves or their families by their accustomed labour; secondly, selected cases, chosen out of those who apply to the Mendicity Society or elsewhere by officers accustomed to discriminate between the common vagrants and the deserving poor."

"The portion of the plan, however, which has chiefly struck us, is an attempt to give effect to a great practical truth, which in most of our charitable schemes has been grievously neglected. It is laid down as a fundamental principle of the institution, that its ordinary working shall depend on the personal services of such of its members as are ready to take part in its active duties: and that those only who enter into an engagement to be responsible for their share of such duties, shall be eligible to be members of the administrative body.'

"The recognition of personal service on the part of members, as being of primary importance, and as forming a high qualification for exercising control than any mere pecuniary contribution, embodies a principle upon which the chief good of charitable exertions depend. It points to a provision for alleviating the mental sufferings, as well as relieving the physical wants of the distressed. It often happens that where meat and drink alone are received with sullen thanklessness, or with the apathy which a long course of misfortunes is apt to engender, a kind word or look opens springs of grateful feeling which without such a talisman might appear to be wholly dried up. It is one of the results of high civilization, that the cases of distress which the hand of charity is called upon to relieve, present from day to day a more and more complicated and perplexing mixture of moral and physical sufferings. The relief which law can safely afford touches the former only, and even those in such a manner that in many cases there is insuperable reluctance to accept the aid. Legal charity must always have a hard and inflexible, not to say repulsive aspect. It is for voluntary Christian zeal to supply its deficiencies. But how closely do many of our voluntary charities resemble the creations of the law in the aspect which they present to the distressed. Their funds are provided by subscription, and not by assessment, but how often does it happen that there the difference ends. The money once provided is applied to its purposes by a series of stipendiary officers, and the charity is as much forgotten by the bulk of its supporters between one annual meeting-day and another, as if it had no existence. Now, it seems to us a great improvement to found an institution on the principle of yielding the highest estimation to contributions of personal service, and of requiring men to be charitable, not with their money only, but with their sympathies and thoughtful attentions. The only question is, whether there is enough of zeal, of self-denying energy, of disposition to sacrifice refined pleasures to the performance of obscure and unattractive but important duties, amongst our propertied and professional classes, to reduce so noble a scheme to practice.

"One part of the plan will shut out the promoters from valuable aid which they might otherwise have received. Its internal regulation and management are to be in connection exclusively with the Established Church. We should of course have much more sympathy with an institution founded on a less sectarian basis; but there is on the other hand much to be said in favour of connecting a charity of this peculiar nature with one religious body as ensuring a more lively zeal and a more harmonious pursuit of the common object than would otherwise be attained. Active personal exertion may, perhaps, be best promoted by the strictest union and most complete sympathy amongst the members, especially when it is too clear that the bitter sectarian animosities which divide Christians in this country render co-operation in many matters impossible. It may be added that the plan, if successful by an association of members of the Established Church, might be just as well acted upon by an union of earnest and charitable men of any religious persuasion."-From the Morning Chronicle, September 22, 1846.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

Chollerton, a Tale of our own Times, by a LADY. London: Ollivier. We do not profess, like some of our contemporaries, to be shocked at the idea of a Religious Novel." The business of a novel we conceive to be the conveying a faithful picture of the age; and it would be hard to find any society in "our own times" where religious controversy had not found its way. All then we think that can be required of a writer, is that he handle the subject reverently, and be careful not to attribute to parties opinions which they do not entertain. In these two respects

we have no fault to find with our lady-authoress; and further, we can say that the tale is cleverly written and very interesting. It is a relief, moreover, to find that Arthur and Anna do not marry. The great, and indeed only drawback to the volume, is the harshness and awkwardness with which Arthur Fosdyke applies his principles. And this want of skill in the writer, contrasts very surprisingly with the great tact and delicacy displayed in the two principal female characters. The hero of the tale would certainly be pronounced a bore in any society. In spite of this, however, we repeat, the volume will be read with interest; and we believe in many quarters be productive of good.

Poems by Mrs. ALFRED MONTGOMERY. Rivingtons, 18mo. pp. 134. THIS is not religious poetry; but wherever religion is introduced, it is treated reverently and orthodoxly. The general spirit of the volume, we should say, was of a melancholy and almost sentimental character. The verification is good, and some of the thoughts striking. Witness the following,

"LIFE WITHOUT HOPE.

Away fond Hope! and cease thine idle tale,
Thy long-drawn song of flattery and lies;
Too well I know thy words of no avail,
Thy promise broke with every hour that flies.

Let me be free then! let me travel on
Without thy star and its misguiding beams,
Without thy treacherous arm to lean upon,
Unnursed by fancies, and unfed by dreams.

It grows upon my sight! the abyss of years,
The lengthened lines of all my future life.
It spreads, it spreads, that gloomy vale of tears,
Fill'd with the mingled sounds of woe and strife.

Hark, hark! a shriek, the voice appear'd my own,
And 'tis the shadow of my form I see

Wandering with feeble steps and plaintive moan;
Is this thy prospect, hard Reality?

My sight grows dim, my heart is sick with pain,
I cannot bear it! Oh, blest Hope, return!
Make me thy victim and thy sport again,
Still let thy light o'er life's dark valley burn."

The Perfecting of Saints the Object of the Ministry, a sermon preached by Mr. CARTER, Rector of Clewer, at the Visitation of the Archdeacon of Berks, (Rivingtons) is a cheering sign. Who can despair of the English Church, when almost every Visitation produces testimonies such as this of Mr. Carter's to a growing realization of the blessings of the Church's system among her Parish Priests? The sermon is published at the desire of the Archdeacon in consequence_of objections that were taken to it by some of the Reading clergy. For this firmness, Archdeacon Berens deserves the especial thanks of churchmen. A one-sided endeavour to avoid offence is too commonly the ruling principle of those in authority. On this pretext zeal is to be repressed, and truth obscured.

We are glad also to be able to recommend a sermon preached before the University of Cambridge, on the Festival of the Annunciation, by the Rev. HARRY DUPUIS, Fellow of King's College. (Cambridge, Deightons). It contains some very seasonable remarks upon the duties which persons inheriting the great mediæval foundations, as cathedrals and colleges, owe to the Church of the present day. "Freely they have received: freely should they give.”

The Rev. Sir GEORGE PREVOST has also published a Sermon, Means of Communion with God in Divine Worship, (Burns,) preached upon an interesting occasion,-the opening to the public of the chapel of S. Margaret's Hospital, at Gloucester. We have long thought that in our present state of spiritual destitution, and in the difficulties which often hinder the application of an effectual remedy, more use might be

made of private chapels, and of chapels attached to hospitals and almshouses. We can ourselves testify to the good order of the services at S. Margaret's, in a city where the Daily Sacrifice is not offered in a single parish church; and to the estimation in which they are held by a numerous and attentive congregation.

The People's Library of the Fathers, (Masters,) has our hearty approval in every thing but the name, which is rather too much of the ad captandum kind. A judicious selection from the writings of the Fathers, must, it cannot be doubted, be eminently serviceable. And we sincerely hope that this cheap and well-arranged edition may secure for them such a circulation as their own merits deserve, and the circumstances of our Church require. The first part of the Series contains two treatises of S. Cyprian, on Unity, and on the LORD's Prayer.

Since our last notice of the Practical Christian's Library, several important additions have been made. Among reprints of standard devotional works, are cheap editions of some of the most valuable of Mr. Parker's Oxford series. A new and improved edition of Steps to the Altar has also been included; Meditations, extracted from the writings of Gerhard; and an interesting and useful treatise on the Doctrine and Discipline of the English Church, taken out of the Preface to Heylin's Cyprianus Anglicus. We trust that the clergy throughout the country will give every encouragement to this most useful series.

Songs of the Wilderness, by the BISHOP OF MONTREAL, (Rivingtons,) will, we doubt not, be received with favour and interest by the Church at home. They are characterized by a vein of pious and unaffected feeling, and are accompanied by notes descriptive of a portion of Canada, where the Indian still dwells undisturbed, and for which it is hoped, that ere long, a special Bishop may be consecrated. The proceeds of the present volume are to be devoted to the Diocesan College of Lennoxville, Lower Canada.

Mr. JOHNS' Easy Dictation Lessons, (Masters,) will be found an exceedingly useful little book in schools. Indeed we consider it impossible that any school can be in an efficient state where exercises of his kind are not largely used; and we believe this to be the first collection that has been yet published. The method combines the three-fold advantages of teaching spelling and writing in the most exact manner; of conveying a good deal of miscellaneous information: and of furnishing a quiet occupation to the classes engaged in it.