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in some of the districts visited by the writers, than is generally supposed to exist in Oriental countries in modern times. At Eruess they found a school in which about seventy children of various ages under twelve, were learning their lessons according to the fashion of their country." (vol. i. p. 103.) In Rhodes they found an institution of a more important nature :—

"That the good points of the Turkish character, such as it displayed itself to us, lie deeper than in mere external politeness, natural mildness of disposition, and dislike of exertion, is evident, if we inquire into the provision made for the education of the rising generation among them. In the town of Rhodes the Osmanlis have a public library, containing about one thousand volumes, and placed in a neat building erected for the purpose, founded about fifty years ago by Turbend Agasi Achmet Aga. We had an interview with the present librarian, Hadgi Mehemet Effendi, a highly intelligent old man, at his house, where we found him, buried among manuscripts, like a true book-worm. He took much interest in the account of what we had seen in Lycia, and discoursed, according to the learning of the East, on the ancient history of the country, as described in volumes around him. To the library under his charge, the students of the Madreseh, or higher schools, have access. These students, about one hundred and fifty in number, are instructed, boarded and lodged, out of funds provided from private bequest. There are five other schools for boys, the teachers of which are paid by the parents. The three principal number upwards of three hundred scholars. There are six schools for girls, attended by upwards of five hundred pupils, between four and twelve years of age. The teachers are females, and are paid by the parents. These facts show how alive our Turkish friends of Rhodes are to the value of instruction for the young. We may question and despise the quality of education given; but the effort to educate, and the spirit which has led to the endowment of public institutions for free education, must commend onr respect, and force us to acknowledge the good qualities of the people among whom it is displayed." (Vol. ii. p. 8.)

This very interesting passage presents to our notice one or two remarkable facts. In the first place, we have evidently the collelegiate system at work in the very heart of Islam. And further, to say nothing of the quality of the education in question, its quantity bears a very remarkable proportion to the population. For we are informed in a note, stated to be communicated by Mr. Sandford, that the Osmanli or Mohammedan population of Rhodes does not exceed eight thousand, the remaining population of the island consisting of about three thousand Jews, twenty-three thousand Greek and one hundred and twenty Roman Catholics. Let it be our earnest prayer that this evident seeking for light may be rewarded by bringing them to the True Light,-that they may "hunger and thirst," not after knowledge only, but "after righteousness," and so may be filled."

In taking leave of this valuable work, we must apologize for our very imperfect and inadequate notice of it;- we must also apologize for the censorious tone which in one or two instances we have been forced to assume;-the work has so many good qualities that it can well afford a little detraction. Its style is just what that of a travel-book ought to be, clear, simple, concise and narrative; with abundance of good, sound, English, common sense. It has also a fair sprinkling of lively and picturesque descriptions, and is illustrated by several very beautiful landscapes: among the latter we are inclined to particularize a view of Minara, supposed to be the ancient Pinara, given at the close of Vol. i., and a sketch by Mr. Daniell, taken from Adalia, now his resting-place. To these we must add a view of the elevated city of Tlos, by Professor Forbes, the description accompanying which presents an even more masterly picture we have reserved it until the end as a bonne bouche for the courteous reader whose patience and condescension has led him through our remarks, to give him an idea at once of the glorious scenery of Lycia, and of the ability of our authors to depict it :

"In front [of the house which they occupied at Tlos] was a flat grassy court-yard, being the levelled summit of the Acropolis. At sunset, the view from this platform was surpassingly beautiful. The distant snow became tinged of the brightest crimson, and rested on mountains of the deepest purple. The valley which lay outspread far below seemed a sheet of dark golden green, through which wound tortuously the silver thread of Xanthus. Cragus, towering between us and the sun, was a mass of the darkest blne. In the far distance lay the golden sea; and the few clouds which hung in a sky of azure above and gold below, were like fire altars suspended in the Heavens. Poor Daniell, whose spirit was deeply imbued with the love and appreciation of art-the friend and enthusiastic admirer of Turner-would sit and gaze with intense delight on this gorgeous landscape, and eloquently dilating on its charms, appeal to them as evidences of the truth and nature which he maintained were ever present in the works of the great living master, whose merits he thoroughly understood." (Vol. i. pp. 37, 38.)

16

ON CHURCH PLATE, AND THE EMPLOYMENT OF METAL IN CHURCHES.

THE revival of Ecclesiological science amongst us, has induced a far greater and more general regard for the fitness and beauty of all vessels, appertaining to the Church's service; and, unless Ecclesiology be nothing more than a constructive science,—if it is not to be barren of all fruit,—and if it is to have any life in itself,—this must follow as a necessary consequence. An increased desire to adorn, in a most becoming manner, the fabric of the Church, and more especially an anxious longing for a more solemn celebration of the Church's Ritual, must precede and accompany any revival of Ecclesiastical architecture,-if the work undertaken is to have any effect in moulding the national character, and habituating it to a greater reverence for holy things. While, in a like manner, a neglect of church art and church ornaments, (as its origin may be traced directly to the spirit of irreverence and profaneness,) will invariably display itself in a contemptuous disregard of Rites and Ceremonies, before it proceeds to develope its antipathy to the material edifice. And so has it been with us. The irreverence and pride of the period of the great Rebellion, and as safely may we say it of the age which preceded and gave rise to it, vented itself first in the depreciation of the Church's ordinances,-then in the desecration of the sacred vessels and ornaments, and finally wreaked its vengeance upon the Church itself. Nor were these devastations remedied by the pious hand of the church-restorer and benefactor; for then, with its spirit of deadly apathy, occasionally rousing itself to a more positive and open opposition, only however soon again to relapse into its wonted feebleness, followed the eighteenth century and all holy things were neglected, churches allowed to fall into ruin, and all decent celebration of the Holy Offices intermitted: till, at last, when our eyes were opened, and the work of revival was, with some degree of zeal, begun, and, as far as might be, carried forward, we were left to the uncertain guidance of obsolete usages, or mouldering records, to aid us in our endeavours for the restoration of the Church's Ritual. And so completely had the long omission of it obliterated from the minds of all first one custom or rite, and then another, that many even of those, who considered themselves upholders of the cause which had just begun to invite as its adherents all who had the welfare of their Church at heart, were led to imagine, that the English Church must confine herself henceforth to those meagre and scanty portions, which three ages of open desecration or chilling neglect had yet left to her. But this view, (so narrow and impractical, as being neither prospective or retrospective,) had no firm foundation whereon to

stand; being embraced by those who, while anxious for restoration, partial indeed though such a restoration be,) were yet checked continually by the force of natural and long continued prejudices, and so become a real hindrance to others. If we hope to do much, if we desire that our posterity should be the children of a Church more reverenced, and possess a ritual more holily observed, than that which our immediate ancestors have left to us, we shall in no way further the accomplishment of our desires, by resting content with what poor remains we still retain of by-gone splendour, but by a most diligent search after, and contemplation of, those splendours, so far as they are matter of history and research, and by an earnest endeavour to discover, how far we are bound, and how far also we are at liberty to restore them.

That branch of church decoration, which it is our present purpose to consider, leads us to contemplate the art of the workers in silver and gold, in brass and iron. And this must necessarily be little more than a history and general survey of the art itself, and the estimation in which for a long period it has been, and even now but too generally is held, and of its results as manifested in the present state of works of this character, when compared with those produced in the ages when all such things were deeply and consistently studied.

In this portion of ecclesiastical art, less perhaps of real improvement has taken place than in any other; the attention of Ecclesiologists has been hitherto almost entirely directed towards the actual building, or has been bestowed upon their internal decoration with the dazzling creations of the painter's skill. Certainly the subject of church plate has not acquired that prominence, which might reasonably be claimed for it. And the consequence of this neglect, as might be expected, is the very backward state of this art, and the difficulty which is felt in the endeavours to raise the standard higher. Even at so late a period as the present, it may with little fear of contradiction be affirmed that there exist few, very few, artizans, who, to put it on no higher ground, feel any honest pride for their profession, still fewer who labour from a spirit of real reverence for the Church, to whose service the work of their hands is to be dedicated, while all the rest, regarding their occupation as nothing better than a trade, toil on in their drudgery to amass a fortune, or earn a subsistence. And, owing to the want of interference from the proper quarters, (for, at least till lately, the church-restorer would hardly have considered it his province to furnish designs for vessels of sacred use,) all designs have been in the power of these trading artificers: and how then could it be expected that any so produced could ever rival the wonderful appropriateness and beauty of the ancient examples? And, besides all this, many processes belonging to the art were, until a very recent period, entirely lost, or else completely laid aside as too laborious and too expen

sive to be ever employed again: and useless they might, with fair show of justice, deem it, to produce works of real worth and skill for an age which could tolerate, and for selfish reasons even prefer, any species of deception, which would enable them to pass off a baser metal for the genuine gold and silver. Most certain course to ensure the degradation of the art; and the result followed inevitably; it is seen in the few scanty contrivances to make one material assume the appearance of another which is very different from it, and the few meagre and unmeaning, or rich and extravagant forms and details of the various vessels with which the greater number of our churches are supplied: it is seen also in the utter inability for the most part of the artizan to accomplish any work involving much skill and laborious process, at least of a kind which is foreign to his own hackneyed practice; and the ignorance in numberless cases displayed of even the manner of setting about it. What remains then but to use every effort, that the position and character of these artizans, and the standard of their arts, may be raised, and (difficult though it may be) to withhold all encouragement, which may tend to perpetuate those miserable contrivances of the present day, to attain the appearance of the works of our forefathers, without their patient industry, devoutness, and skill, their outward splendour, with none of their reality?

No lengthened discussion is needed here on the employment of an inferior material, which has been previously so disguised as to assume the appearance of what would be really worthy of being employed in sacred use; the practice has been alluded to already, as bearing with it its own condemnation; for (so far from any precedent being adducible in its favour,) we may search in vain, either in ancient or modern times, and never, except in these later centuries, shall we find such unworthy means employed; for never before had such indifference for all such matters existed. Errors and heresies, nay, revolutions and rebellions there have been very many, but now apathy and indifference are foes far more subtle to contend with, and difficult to overcome, although their effects may chance to be less immediate. This practice however, it is hoped, must be now becoming more rare, as certainly it is more stigmatized: still, not unfrequently, do we hear even now of public sanction afforded to the practice, by those whose sacred office should make them the first to discourage it; and the very ground of their praise is the completeness of the deception, and the expense which is avoided in consequence. But, while we are urging this, it is not meant, that nothing but gold and silver should be employed in sacred vessels; for this cannot be and even the examples just adduced are reprehensible, not so much because they uphold the practice in itself, as because they commend its adoption in instances where it ought never to be allowed, viz., in the Eucharistic vessels, which ought invariably to be either of gold or silver, for

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