much as it escapes all the heat and glare of the sun after an early hour in the morning. I found him sitting on his stool, with three old Brahmins from the town chatting with him; he had chairs, a cot, a table, and many more little conveniences than most natives have. On an old rug on the cot sat, cowering and mumbling like a monkey, a young man, who apparently aspires to be the future possessor of the cave. The hermit himself was a comfortable, fat, elderly gentleman, with a clean cloth round his waist, and a clean skin on his body, which, by its comfortable folds, shewed the good living he enjoyed. He saluted me in a very friendly manner, and gave me a chair, and then began to enumerate the number of European gentlemen who had paid him a visit, and exhibited their kindness by leaving him a present. I treated him with great respect, and, after some general conversation, I told him I had a question to ask him, for which I should be much obliged if he could give an answer. I had committed many sins,' I said, and I knew that it was only just that God should punish sin; how could I escape this punishment?' He answered me very readily by the old tale, 'You must meditate upon God, you must pray, you must give alms,' &c.; and he was quite satisfied with his answer, as were also the Brahmins who sat listening. I told him in a humble way, that even I was able to discover that this would never do to remove my sins; for all these prayers, devotions, alms, &c., proceeded from out of my evil heart, and how could they, being evil, cure its corruptions? I added, by way of illustration, (what I find to be unanswerable, and a most useful simile), that in Masulipatam there are salt wells, and consequently the water in them is useless, and I knew that if a man was to draw a few buckets full of the salt water out of one of them, and then pour it back again into the well, he would never by this means make the salt water sweet. He acknowledged my illustration, and passed on to general conversation: but I brought him back again, reminding him that he had not satisfied my question; he merely repeated his former recipe, and I told him again that I knew it would not do, for that for years past I had been praying to God, &c., as he told me, and yet all this socalled righteousness had not removed my sins, nor given me that peace of mind which ought to accompany forgiveness. He still had no other remedy to give me, but said if we poured good water into the salt well, would not that cure it? I acknowledged it might, but where is the good water to come from? my heart produces only salt water.' At last I told him and his friends that I would go home and try their experiment with a salt well near my house; this made them laugh, for they saw my intended application. On finding that the conversation was going to turn in other directions, I told them plainly that I knew a way of remission of sins: and then unfolded Christ to them, dying on the cross to suffer our punishment and to pay our debt. After talking on this subject some time, I left three or four tracts with them and came away." (pp. 212-214.)

When wearied by the perpetual conflict with human nature under a very degraded form, Mr. Fox was not left without that comfort which the Christian always finds in contemplating the beauties of earth, and wood, and sky. He can "always rejoice in giving thanks for the operations of His hands."

"The same afternoon I ascended the hill immediately behind our little bungalow my path lay up the slight hollow or valley which separated the rounded purple crags of two projecting parts of the mountain: it was a good path, consisting of irregular steps, made of large blocks of granite, and was probably formed 300 or 400 years ago, when the Hindoo kings dwelt in the palace on the rock. The ascent was delicious; the sun was just hid from me by the crest of the hill I was ascending, but shone brightly on the sides of the projecting rocks, and made the green trees that fringed them yet greener, and filled the plain below me, and the wooded range of hills beyond it, with a flood of bright light. The path lay through a low but luxuriant wood, and the rich scent from numerous flowering creepers, so filled the air as to remind me of the deliciousness of an English hot-house full of tropical plants; but there CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 155. 5 L

was not the moist closeness of such a place. Twenty minutes of delightful ascending led me to an old ruined gateway, overhung by the dilapidated remains of the palace, beetling over the rock. pushed on through it, and had not gone many yards before a most lovely spot opened itself to me. My path lay on the edge of a small basin, in the heart of the hills. A level bottom half-a-mile across was covered with marshy grass, and in one corner had a rocky pool of clear water. I stood about twenty feet above it; at its edge were two or three large banyan trees scattered about, with their pendant threads hanging down to the marsh below, and full of parrots and minas on all sides rose and fell the ridge of the hills in a most irregular broken line, sometimes presenting bare crags, but more commonly covered with irregular wood, and bright green tufts of grass. Winding my way by the edge of this beautiful nest among the hills, full of greenness and of bright light, and not altogether without marks of human work, for the crumbling wall of the fortress here and there showed itself among the trees, or crowned the peak of the hill,-I arrived at the gate at the opposite side to that by which I had entered; and here there burst on my sight a view as beautiful as it was unexpected. At once stretching away below me, and reaching to the right hand and the left, lay quite a sea of bright green forest, closely covering the rugged spurs and supports of the main ridge of mountain, which reached away to the distance of three or four miles. Beyond this was the level plain in sober colouring; but a little to the left, glowing like silver in the rays of the evening sun, which dazzled my eyes as I looked westward, lay the great river Kistna, a couple of miles in width, and studded with small islands. I had not seen so fair a scene since I left the Neilgherry Hills; nor can I call to mind any one spot there which was so lovely: there were many on a larger and grander scale; I think I know of none more beautiful. I spent an hour in scrambling by rugged paths, all made in olden days, up to the top of some of the surrounding peaks and ridges, which were surmounted by long walls and bastions, except where the rock was so precipitous as not to need any defence.” (pp. 285, 286.)

And we cannot deny our readers the pleasure of observing, amidst so much that is discouraging, and even repulsive, in the Hindoo character, one feature at least which shews a capacity for what is good, and true, and noble :

"The same evening, as I was returning to our bungalow, I fell in with a most interesting character; he was a Sepoy, who I found, after a few words of conversation, was there on leave of absence, and was about to start to rejoin his regiment (the 16th Madras Native Infantry) in a few minutes. I discovered that though he was a stranger to me personally, yet by his gallant exploit he was well known, not to me only, but to thousands more. In the war in the Sawun Warre, in 1845, he had been taken one day as an orderly by a Lieutenant Campbell, of the Bombay European Infantry, who, with a party of thirty or forty of his own men, had been ordered to dislodge a party of the enemy from the dense jungle close at hand. This Sepoy, Kótappa by name, was the only native of the party, all the rest were European soldiers. When they had advanced a little way into the forest, they were fired on by an unseen enemy with deadly aim, and nearly half the soldiers were struck down dead. He described here the wounds of several of them: among others, the officer was shot in the forehead, and fell dead. The soldiers retreated; Kótappa, who was thus left alone, threw himself flat on the body of the officer, and after a few minutes discovered that the enemy had retreated, as well as his friends; so, rising up, he took the dead body on his shoulder, and carried it some little distance to the rear, where he laid it down, to return for the cap, sword, and double-barrelled gun of Lieutenant Campbell. While he was returning with these, five of the enemy made their appearance, armed with matchlocks; one of them fired at him and wounded him in the fleshy part of his arm. He said that he was in a great fright himself, expecting that his last hour was come, but he knelt down and took deliberate aim with the officer's gun, which was in his hand, and shot one of the five men in the

knee; the others, seeing him fall, took to their heels; and some of our officers hearing the firing, concluded that there must be some of the party who had advanced into the jungle yet alive, and sent forward some troops to bring them off: these brought back Kótappa, the wounded enemy, and the dead body. For this gallant action, Kótappa has been rewarded by the Madras Government with a star of merit, to be worn on the breast, and with promotion to the rank of Naick (corporal). But the circumstance which had led to my being familiar with this story was this ::-some of the inhabitants of Perth in Scotland, of which town Lieutenant Campbell was a native, had struck a large and beautiful gold medal, on which was recorded, both pictorially, and in Hindustani and English, the event which drew forth this mark of their gratitude; and sent the medal to Kótappa. He brought us the medal to the bungalow, to show it to us, and seemed to be justly proud of the distinction conferred on him, though at the same time he was a man of quiet and humble manner. He was very grateful to the East India Company, for the rewards which he had received from them. He is a native of Condapilly, and of the Golla or cowherd caste. I was reminded of David, the shepherd, who went up against the lion and the bear and slew them, and I grieved at the difference of this poor man and the Bethlehemite; for the former knew not how to go up in the strength of the Lord.' We took the opportunity of telling him of a yet better Master than the Company, and of yet more glorious deeds done for him than he had done for his officer, and gave him a couple of tracts to read on the way." (pp. 286—289.)

With what feelings of peace and pensive satisfaction does the mind arise from the contemplation of Memoirs such as these! How far is this from being the case, when we have been occupied in the study of the biography of mere men of the world! Let the Christian student, for example, take up one of those deeply interesting volumes in which Lord Campbell has supplied us with the Lives of the "Chancellors" and "Chief Justices of England," and, if his mind sympathises with ours, he closes the book with a feeling of melancholy, as he perceives the remote alliance which in many cases appears to subsist between moral and intellectual greatness; and between worldly prosperity, and true happiness. When some of those, the most distinguished in the annals of public life, quit the stage on which they have played so brilliant a part, we are tempted to ask, "Your fathers, where are they?" and we make haste, perhaps, to shut our eyes upon the contemplation of the future and the eternal. But we watch the flight of such a man as the subject of this Memoir, almost in the same frame of mind with those who gazed on an infinitely more glorious ascent, and who "returned to Jerusalem with great joy." His sayings abide with us

"As though an angel,

In his upward flight, had left his mantle
Floating in mid air."

We long to receive the descending garment; and the desire of our heart is, that his God may be our God for ever and ever.

A Letter to the Rev. Dr. Pusey, on his practice of receiving Persons in Auricular Confession. By WILLIAM MASKELL, M.A. Pickering.

SUFFERING treads closely on the heels of evil doing; and what

we are obliged, most painfully to ourselves, to call the disingenuous course pursued by Dr. Pusey, as a member and minister of the Church of England, is beginning to be visited in heavy penalties upon him. The author of the "Morality of Tractarianism," to which we have lately called the attention of our readers, plainly had the Regius Professor distinctly in view, in his strong and touching remonstrance and rebuke, against the leaders of the "movement" party. Mr. Dodsworth has more recently sent forth a Letter to him which must, we think, have planted a thorn in his pillow. And now comes his late friend and companion in arms, Mr. Maskell, who has thought fit to celebrate the honey-moon of his new alliance with the Church of Rome, by such an assault upon his old friend as must, we think, either force him into Popery, or utterly spoil his happiness as a member of the English Church.

It appears that Mr. Dodsworth, Mr. Allies, and Mr. Maskell, had become startled, as well they might, with the extent to which Dr. Pusey was carrying on the office of a "Confessor" in the Church of England. Not only had he justified the practice of "auricular confession" under particular circumstances, but had "enjoined" it as an ordinary qualification for the Lord's Supper; and, moreover, had assumed to himself the office of a General Confessor and Priest,-going through the length and breadth of the land, perhaps requiring, and certainly receiving confessions, and pronouncing priestly absolutions. In consequence of the doubts suggested to these three gentlemen, in May 1850, they addressed a joint letter to him-to which he, as perhaps thinking that "the least said was the soonest mended," made no reply. After repeated applications for an answer, a letter was at last sent, not to themselves, but to Mr. Richards, the minister of Margaret Chapel, who, with some of his curates, was supposed to be largely implicated in the same Romanizing violations of the discipline of the Church of England.

We have already given, in the pages of a late Number of this work, some extracts from Mr. Dodsworth's letter to Dr. Pusey. The pamphlet before us is much to the same purpose, though it is mainly confined to the one topic of "Auricular Confession." We have thought that, as these are the days of " development," it was our editorial calling to develop the progress of those charges which these inferior-though scarcely inferior-officers of the present agitation are, day after day, bringing to bear upon him who has so confessedly stood at the head of this enterprise, as to give his name to it.

We shall begin by extracting a portion of the letter addressed by the gentlemen referred to, on Ascension Day, 1850, to Dr. Pusey:

"We wish to put to you a question on a point nearly concerning our own peace of mind, and that of others. It is this, What authority is there for supposing that the acts of a priest are valid who hears confessions, and gives absolution, in mere virtue of his orders, without ordinary or delegated jurisdiction from his bishop?

"We believe it to be the undisputed law of the Church that acts flowing from Order, though done wrongly and illicitly, are yet, when doue, valid; (!!!) the reason of which is, that the power of Order, being given by consecration and indelible, cannot be taken away: but that acts flowing from Jurisdiction, if done upon those over whom the doer has no Jurisdiction, are absolutely invalid and null; the reason of which is, that Jurisdiction being a relation of command between a superior and a subject, one who has no subject can have no jurisdiction, and accordingly cannot exercise a power which he has not received.

"But the act of remitting sin, upon confession, is an act, not only of Order, but of Jurisdiction. That it is an act of Order nobody doubts, and therefore proof is needless: that it is likewise an act of Jurisdiction is proved by two considerations: first, it is a judicial power, and all judgment, to be valid, requires jurisdiction: and secondly, it is not only a power of remitting, but also of binding, and none can bind one who is not his subject.

"Now priests, by virtue of their ordination only, and their sacerdotal character, have not subjects in the Church, nor has the Christian people been committed to their care and government. To bishops alone the flock of the Lord is entrusted, to feed it; (!!!) and they have to render account to God for the priests likewise, who act under their commission. Every particular Church is founded upon its own bishop, inasmuch as he is its head, and, as such, is the principle, fountain, root, and centre of its unity. Therefore every ecclesiastical act and function ought to be regulated by the bishop, either doing it immediately, or by means of others, who receive from him their commission and authority to do it. And especially an act so principal in the government of souls as the absolving them from sins cannot be regulated but by the bishop, nor done, but by authority emanating from him.

"Such authority emanates from him when he commits to any priest the cure of souls, thereby entrusting such an one with a part of his own ordinary jurisdiction, as regards such particular souls, for all purposes of the Christian ministry, and, among them, for absolution from sin in order to the due reception of the Lord's Body and Blood.

"Such authority, again, he can commit to any person qualified by sacerdotal orders, over the whole or any portion of his flock, as to a vicar-general, or a penitentiary: who would accordingly have a delegated jurisdiction.

"But what we wish to know is, whether there be any authority for considering valid the absolution of a priest, who has neither received such ordinary jurisdiction in the cure of souls, nor such delegated jurisdiction, or, again, who, having the cure of souls, absolves not only his own parishioners, but others also, without license from their own parish priest, or bishop.

"We can find in the first fifteen centuries of the Church's history no trace of any such power being allowed to reside in priests in virtue merely of their ordination on the contrary, the further we go back, the stricter appears to be the dependence of the priest on his bishop in all such acts, until in the first ages we find the bishop alone in person receiving penitents and admitting St. Cyprian is an instance of this in the case of the them to absolution. lapsed and the discipline then allowed was a relaxation of a severer law.

*

*

*

*

"We have not overlooked the sentence in the exhortation appointed in the Common Prayer Book before communion: Let him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned minister of God's word, and open his grief,' &c. &c. But, after the best consideration in our power, we have come to the conclusion that, so far from weakening the difficulties which we have suggested, it strengthens their force.

The words 'some other,' &c., would of course be intended to be understood only in the sense of the common practice and discipline of that time, (1548) in this matter: and we believe there is not any doubt whatever what So that the some other,' &c. would of that practice and discipline were. necessity be a priest, who had been appointed by the bishop, for that diocese and district.

"It will certainly follow from all this, as it seems to us, that the authority which for some time past has been exercised by some among us, and especially