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illustrative anecdotes gleaned by himself. Here is one :

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tion in 1850 more fully than Mr. Fox's bill for a national system of secular Curious, indeed, is their mode of education. Lord Ashley was one of the most determined opponents of that

tention at the outset, to borrow as largely as possible from his own recorded words, we set down the following from the report of his speech on the 17th of April:

life. I recollect the case of a boy who, during the inclement season of last win-measure, and in pursuance of our inter, passed the greater part of his night in the large iron roller of the Regent's Park. He climbed, every evening, over the railings and crept to his shelter, where he lay in comparative comfort. Human sympathy, however, prevails even in the poorest condition: he invited a companion less well provided than himself, promising to let him into a good thing.' He did so, and it proved to be a more friendly act than many a similar undertaking in railway shares;" and he winds up the whole mass of evidence by a brief account of the part he has taken in bringing the whole to light, speaking thus:

"Now these statements are by no means exaggerations. I would not make such assertions if I could not do so on my own personal knowledge. I have gone over many parts of those districts, and have devoted a considerable portion of my time to the prosecution of investigations on this subject. When, in 1846, I lost my seat in Parliament, and finding myself studiis florentem ignobilis otî, I determined to explore the unknown parts of the metropolis. In company with a medical man and a city missionary, I have ventured to go over many of those places, and I am able to say that the description I have now given is below the truth. And sure I am, that if I could persuade any honourable member to visit those disgusting localities, there would be no more need for argument or description. They would join, one and all, in a general effort to wipe away a state of things so disgraceful to the kingdom, and so injurious to the peace and welfare of the whole community."

The issue of this appeal, through Parliament, to the Queen's Government was a small grant of £1,500, to assist young emigrants from ragged-schools.

In the next session of 1849, his lordship employed his diligence in promoting various important objects, such as the division of populous parishes, in order that a larger amount of clerical agency might be employed among the masses of comparatively recent populations. And he applied himself earnestly to improve the sanitary condition of London.

Few subjects occupied public atten

"The honourable and learned gentleman had declared that the difficulty of the case arose from the differences of creed among those who called themselves Christians; the morality of all sects being, as he said, the same. That was an incorrect position. There were vast bodies who called themselves Christians, from whose morality the whole of that House would dissent. And, moreover, he protested against the principle which the honourable and learned member had laid down, that the morality of the Scriptures had nothing whatever to do with its mysteries and doctrines. The moral precepts and the doctrines or dogmas of Christianity were inseparably connected. He only could receive the full force of the moral precepts of Christianity who received the dogmas and mysteries with implicit belief; and in vain would they attempt to enforce upon the minds of children the binding nature of the parables of the 'Good Samaritan,' and the Sower,' or any of the other beautiful and moral precepts of the New Testament, if they left them under the conviction that he who delivered them was a mere man, and not the true and eternal son of the living God. It was from that great truth that the Christian precepts derived their force; and it was by that truth alone that it would be possible to regenerate mankind.”

"In a recent visit to Paris he (Lord Ashley) found it the universal testimony from persons of all ranks and all politics, that religion alone - the religious habits of the people-had enabled England to stand erect during the time of European convulsion. Yet we were now to introduce a system of education which, if not in words, at least in act, would deny the truth and necessity of these very principles. Nothing was more true than that religion had saved this country through famine and disease, and carried us through long and perilous wars; and the civilized world had not seen a nobler spectacle than when our thousands and our millions flocked to places

borne us

of worship, to acknowledge the mercies of Almighty God on the days of humiliation and thanksgiving. It was now proposed to us, and we must decide6 Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.' He (Lord Ashley) could only answer for himself—yet he believed he might give the answer in the name of millions in this country-As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.""

where the Roman Catholic religion is established, touching the exercise of that Protestant religion."

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On the formation of the Protestant Alliance," Lord Shaftesbury became its president; and he still discharges the duties of that office with characteristic industry, himself presiding with great frequency, both at meetings of the general and the managing committees.

Another event of that year was the temporary suspension of Sunday labour in the Post Office, to which his lordship contributed; and, when the subject was before the House, presented a petition in its favour from 31,000 of the inhabitants of Manchester. He also united his labours for the abolition of intra-poor by railway companies, and in clearmural interments.

And in the present year he has fol|lowed up his great object, the amelioration of the condition of the working classes, by drawing attention to the distress and mischief that have resulted from the demolition of dwellings of the

ing ground for new streets, without In 1851 he strenuously supported making a correspondent provision for the Ecclesiastical Titles' Bill. And re- their accommodation in the same neighsuming a subject which had previously bourhood. And out of Parliament, as engaged his attention, obtained leave well as in it, he takes the lead in proto bring in a bill to encourage the es-moting the erection of suitable buildings tablishment of lodging-houses for the for lodging-houses and dwelling-houses. working classes. The common lodging- Under the patronage of her most grahouses, whither the beggars, thieves, and cious Majesty the Queen, there is a other criminals resorted, were haunts society" for improving the condition of of pollution, and hot-beds alike of disease the labouring classes," having this oband vice. Poor persons of a different ject especially in view. His Royal class were also driven to those places for a sort of shelter, or they were beguiled into them and ruined. This was his last act in the House of Com

mons.

On the death of his father he became Earl of Shaftesbury, and was called to the hereditary seat in the House of Lords, where he first addressed their lordships a few words on the second reading of the same bill in its passage there. The interests of religion being no less dear to him than those of humanity, and the recent "Papal aggression" having aroused his concern in all that relates to that evangelical confession of it which we call Protestantism abroad, as well as at home, he moved an address to the Queen, “praying that Her Majesty will be graciously pleased to direct that a circular shall be addressed to the several ministers of Her Majesty at foreign courts, and also to the consuls, where they discharge diplomatic functions, instructing them to report on the facilities which are offered in the several countries in which they reside for the erection of Protestant chapels, and for the formation and regulation of Protestant burial grounds; and also on the laws which prevail in the several countries

Highness Prince Albert is president, with a brilliant train of vice-patrons and vice-presidents, the work being done by a committee, at which the Earl of Shaftesbury sits as chairman. Already the high influence of this institution, and the model dwelling-houses raised by them and some more especially under the direction of their royal president, have done much towards establishing a better sort of human habitation, and sustaining by this material instrumentality, the moral efforts made for the improvement, for the temporal and eternal happiness of the poor of our country. His lordship also presides over the Labourers' Friend Society, and it would be difficult to enumerate the institutions to which he occupies a similar relation. The Bible Society, the Pastoral Aid Society, the Malta Protestant College, and the London Society for the conversion of the Jews, may be mentioned as among the principal.

Not without some opposition, yet successfully, his lordship has just now carried a measure for the suppression of juvenile mendicancy. There are persons unworthy of the name of parents, and a disgrace to humanity, who turn out their young children on the streets

to beg. Beggary is to be their vocation, and they are compelled to follow it, with its adjuncts of cold, nakedness, and hunger. Crime, too, is an accompaniment of beggary, and into that they are initiated. Vice rather than indigence at home, has been in almost every instance the motive to this abomination, and no kind of necessity can be pleaded in its extenuation. But it is now swept away, so far as the law can do it, from the metropolis of England, and those who observe the diminution of infant mendi

cants in our streets will do well to recollect to whom this change is due.

And here we must close this sketch of the Earl of Shaftesbury. It does not pretend to do full justice to the subject, nor could it be expected that, even with the most ample material, that could be done within so small a space. But no labour has been spared to make sure of trustworthy information, and, which is not less necessary, to avoid the insertion of statements which would not stand the test of the most rigid inquiry.

DAVID FRIEDRICK STRAUSS.

town in the kingdom of Würtemberg, on the 27th January, 1808. Having received the rudiments of education in his native town, he was, at the age of thirteen, placed in the theological seminary of Blaubeuren, a small town in the same state. At this primary theological school he remained for four years, going through a regular and fixed course of study, whence he was transferred to the university of Tübingen. Here he completed his preliminary studies. In 1830 he became assistant to a country clergyman, in which capacity he seems to have officiated only for a few months. The following year found him at Berlin, then and since the great centre of attraction to German students. Hegel, the celebrated philosopher, had just died; the sun of the philosopher having gone down, while with the philosophy itself it was noon-day.

In the history of illustrious Destructives, | wigsburg, a handsome and well-built the name of Strauss occupies a prominent position. He is the great modern iconoclast. With a strong hand and a cool heart, he has entered into the Christian temple, extinguished the lights of the golden candlestick, stripped the holy oracle of its grand historical signs and wonders, left no personal God to be worshipped, and substituted a figment in the room of the God-man Christ Jesus. On the battle-field of German criticism, not a few daring and welltrained captains had previously committed great spoliation. But a lull had ensued. The interest in the strife was on the wane. The ground was open for some new development in the art of strategy. A new hero was looked for, when up rose Strauss, a master-spoiler in Israel. He centered in himself all the scattered powers of scepticism. He arrayed himself in the spoils of preceding depredators, in boldness and unsparing severity outdid them, and on the rationalistic throne

exalted sat, by merit raised To that bad eminence."

It is a leading design of this journal to exhibit the distinguished of all time "in their relation to the immutable principles of truth." In accordance with this, we shall endeavour to present our readers with a condensed biographical and critical sketch of this celebrated neologist.

"I am downcast about my philosophy," said Hegel not long before his death; "for, of all my disciples, one only understands it; and he does not." It has indeed been questioned whether Hegel himself understood it. Its popularity, nevertheless, was amazingly high. Multitudes, to whom it was in a great measure incomprehensible, believed it to be all true. Schleiermacher, who occupied a sort of midway position between the rationalists and the evanDAVID FRIEDRICK STRAUSS, who still gelical party,— inclining much more to lives, and whose name must not be con- the latter than to the former,- was founded with that of the eloquent court then at the head of the theological depreacher at Berlin, was born at Luds-partment. This great man, to whom

belongs the honour of originating the modern evangelical movement in Germany, was vainly endeavouring to unite the deductions of the new philosophy with the Christian faith. In this attempt he made great concessions. "Like a man attacked by a violent storm, he sacrificed masts and sails to save the hulk of his vessel." He who has been instrumental in bringing many off from rationalism, was nevertheless urged far beyond the simplicity of Christian truth by a rationalistic philosophy.

philosophy, and an occasional contributor to periodical literature. In a still narrower circle, it was not only known that the mountain was in labour, but a thing was expected to come forth that would produce great consternation in the theological world. Ominous reports had gone abroad that the young popular lecturer at Tübingen was about to spring a mine, and desolate the Christian world at a blast. But the appearance of "Das Leben Jesu" was more than Germany expected. It produced a prodigious sensation. It disconcerted the boldest among a people accustomed to bold things in speculation. Its author, then in his twenty-seventh year, had, by this publication, his name, for the first time, brought prominently before the public.

This famous work gave at once a new direction to the course of biblical criticism in Germany. The interest which had hitherto been centered on the Pentateuch, so long the battle-ground of German critics, was now gathered around the four gospels. Strauss sub

Strauss, on entering the university of Berlin, attended the prelections of Schleiermacher, attracted more by the scientific than by the Christian interest -having a stronger zest for the liberal exercise of criticism than for the living piety, the union of which two elements constituted the broad characteristic of Schleiermacher's theological tendency. Returning shortly after this to Tübingen, fully equipped with the Hegelian armour, he began to read lectures in the university, expository of the new philosophy, with great applause. Here he endea-jected them to the same critical treatvoured quietly for some years to sustain ment that De Wette had brought to two incompatible characters-that of a bear on the five books of Moses. The tutor in a theological and evangelical latter having been deprived of their his school, and that of an assailant of evan- torical basis and resolved into a system gelical truth. By his position as a of myths, it only remained to complete teacher he was bound to unfold and de- the work of demolition by applying to fend a historical Christianity, whereas, the New Testament the principles of by the very principles of the philosophy mythical interpretation which had been to which he had yielded himself, he was applied to the Old. The necessity of constrained to reduce Christianity to a this had been avowed by De Wette skeleton, and deprive it of its historical himself. But it was reserved for the basis. Strange to say, the philosophy bold hand and the icy heart of the Tüwhich furnished the weapon to stab bingen lecturer to bear the evangelical Christianity in the heart, threw a cover-histories into mythical ground, and place ing over the assassin which for a time concealed him. Hegelianism had a Christology which in words differed but little from the evangelical creed; it retained the Bible phraseology while it tore the heart out of the Bible itself. With that phraseology Strauss clothed himself, and thus in the Christian mask he assailed the Christian cause. Schleiermacher endeavoured to preserve the doctrine of Christ in its integrity, and philosophy unimpaired in its leading principles. Strauss not only saw the futility of the attempt, but from his Hegelian stronghold he covertly sought to dismantle the towers and bulwarks of the gospel. Still Strauss was unknown to the world. Within a limited circle he was famed as an expositor of the new

the top-stone on the mythical structure. Not a whit of originality is in his theory. He has only the merit, if merit it be, of having adroitly advanced on the path marked out by his predecessors, taken the weapons out of their hands, and, with a heroism worthy of a better cause, borne them to new points of assault. "This work," says Edgar Quinet in his eloquent article on the "Leben Jesu" "was the consequence of premises laid during half a century. The author, for the first time, put together the most contradictory doctrines,—the schools of Bolingbroke, Voltaire, Lessing, Kant, M. de Maistre, under whatever names they were transformed or disguised-materialism, spiritualism, mysticism; amateurs of symbols, of natural, or figurative, or

truth and falsehood, from wishing to be accounted a builder up and a puller down, an infidel and a Christian, at the same time. So the Würtemberg council of education seems to have judged. Strauss was removed from his office, and henceforth became, in the estimation of many who could see principle sacrificed at the shrine of liberty, a martyr to the claims of free inquiry.

dogmatical explanations, of visions, of historical assumption. It would require animal magnetism, of allegories, of a very refined casuistry to show that etymologies; and interpreting them, this differs in any thing from attempting entangling them, breaking them one to reconcile sincerity and hypocrisy, against the other, by dint of an indefatigable logic, he drew from them all the same conclusion. In a word, he concentrated all doubts in one, and formed into a bundle the scattered shafts of scepticism. Add to this, that, in tearing aside the metaphysical veil which palliated these doctrines, he brought the question down to its simplest terms; and thus was openly seen, and for the first time, what a work of destruction had been accomplished. He lifted, like Antony, the robe of Cæsar, and every one could recognise in this great body the blows which he had given in secret."

The Prussian Government was disposed, at first, to suppress the publication of the work. Hengstenberg and some of his school would have wished a ban uttered against it. But wiser counsels

This goes far to account for the ex-prevailed. traordinary celebrity of the work. Learned Germany started and fled before it as her own; reminding us of the "formidable shape" in "Paradise Lost," who, at the sight of her own offspring,

Neander, than whom German theology has no more illustrious name, was consulted in the matter by the minister of public worship. He at once deprecated such a censorship as calculated to give the work a false importance, and to produce an impression fled, and cried out, Death! injurious to the interests of Christianity. Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed Some have the presumptuous folly to From all her caves, and back resounded, Death!" imagine that "the rock which has The work ran speedily throughout towered above the revolutions of cenGermany. In a few years it passed turies can be overturned; and the through four editions. It has been suppression of Strauss' book, by au translated both into French and Eng-thority, would have been a tacit acknowlish. It has formed an armoury out of which our modern English sceptics have taken their furbished-up weapons, and has called forth from all quarters such a series of able replies as few controversies can boast of.

To this

ledgment that his assault was invincible.
Neander, while strongly convinced that
the views of the "Leben Jesu" were in
direct conflict with historical Chris-
tianity, advised that it should be brought
to the bar, not of the civil magistrate,
but of searching argument.
bar he and a host of other noble hands
in rapid succession summoned it; and
the consequences have been a thorough
exposure of the false critical principles
on which it is based, and an emphatic
condemnation pronounced upon it by
the scientific public in Germany.

The Würtemberg council of education, immediately on the appearance of the "Leben Jesu," called on Strauss to reconcile, if he could, his position as a professed Christian teacher with the destructive principles embodied in his work. This hopeless task he did not shrink from undertaking. He adopted a line of defence which it is difficult to The next event of importance in the reconcile with any thing deserving the life of Strauss was his election, in the name of morality or honourable hu- year 1839, to the professorship of dogmanity. Having, by his mythical hypo-matical theology and church history in thesis, stripped the New Testament of its historical character, and reduced the Gospel to little more than an idea, he maintained that his conception of that as an idea which the people received as valid history, did not disqualify him for ministering at the altar, and instructing young men for the Christian ministry. His was the task, he asserted, of harmonising the ideal conception and the

the university of Zürich, in Switzerland. This took place in spite of loud protestations from various quarters, and was followed by an outburst of indignation from the whole canton. The people, whose religious feelings had been outraged by this injudicious appointment, rose almost to a man, and assumed an attitude so firm and serious as to lead ultimately to his resignation of the

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