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in the which it was commonly said that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain and guilt, are declared to be "blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits." Mr. Pagani's doctrine really substitutes the sacrifice of the Mass, as the salvation of the world, for that of the Cross, though the latter is nominally admitted.

VIII.-The Order of Confirmation, &c. By the Rev. HENRY HOPWOOD, M.A., &c. London: J. H. Parker.

THIS is the third edition of a Manual on Confirmation, which not only contains suitable devotions, but very considerable information on the history of this rite, and its practice in the primitive Church.

IX.-The History of a Family; or, Religion our best Support. London: Grant and Griffith.

THIS is just one of those books which make us wonder how well-meaning people can give themselves the trouble to put together the most utterly common-place circumstances and conversations, and then imagine that they are doing good. The book is one which a school-girl might have written.

x.-Smith's Canadian Gazetteer, &c. Toronto: Rowsell.

London: Aylott and Jones.

THIS work will be found very useful by emigrants to Upper Canada, comprising as it does a great mass of statistics and local intelligence, arranged in the shape of a Gazetteer. Post-offices, distance-tables, stage and steam-boat fares, hotels, tolls, prices of lands, nature of soils, climate, &c., are all ingredients in this compilation, the accuracy of which we have no means of testing, but which we see no reason to doubt. It will doubtless be welcomed by many emigrants.

XI.-Roman Forgeries and Falsifications; or, An Examination of Counterfeit and Corrupted Records; with especial reference to Popery. By the Rev. RICHARD GIBBINGS, M.A. London: Petheram.

THIS volume, which appears from the Preface to have been composed several years since, comprises a critical survey of the forgeries of documents purporting to be of Apostolic antiquity, on some of which Romish doctrines or practices have been made

to rest ere now. The Epistle of Abgarus, of the Virgin Mary, and other documents, are criticized with very considerable learning and research; but we think the work is somewhat overloaded with quotations; nor can we agree with the author in all his conclusions.

XII.-The Four Gospels, with Annotations. By the Right Rev. JOHN LONSDALE, D.D., Bishop of Lichfield, and the Ven. WILLIAM HALE HALE, M.A., Archdeacon of London. London: Rivingtons.

THESE Annotations take their origin, if we mistake not, from a projected Commentary on the Bible, which was, many years since, under contemplation by the Christian Knowledge Society; but which was subsequently abandoned. The Editors of that intended work, have now given to the world a portion of their original undertaking, on their own responsibility.

These Annotations are intended to aid ordinary readers of some little education, in their study of the Gospels; and they appear to be very well calculated for their purpose. We should be glad to see the same plan carried further out, and to have an annotated Testament, in a cheap form, for circulation.

XIII.-The Search after Infallibility. Remarks on the Testimony of the Fathers to the Roman Dogmas of Infallibility. By J. H. TODD, D.D., &c. London: Petheram.

THIS Volume contains a critical examination of all the passages from the Fathers adduced by a Romish Priest, named O'Connell, in a pamphlet which was published some time since, in support of the Romish doctrine of Infallibility. Dr. Todd has carefully examined all these quotations, which he shows to be taken at second-hand from the work of Messrs. Berrington and Kirk; and he has very effectually demolished the whole of Mr. O'Connell's arguments. The tone of the inquiry throughout is exactly what it ought to be.

XIV.-Posthumous Works of the Rev. THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D., LL.D. Edited by the Rev. W. HANNA, LL.D. Vol. vi. London Hamilton, Adams, and Co.

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THE Volume of Dr. Chalmers's Posthumous Works before us, will, we suspect, excite more interest than any of its predecessors. Such, at least, has been its effect on ourselves. It comprises a

series of Sermons delivered by Chalmers at various periods, from the commencement of his ministry till its conclusion, and it is curious to trace the growth and development of his very peculiar style. In those Sermons which were delivered about the period when he first became known to the public at large as a powerful and eloquent preacher, there is a peculiarity in his subjects, and in his mode of treating them, which renders them wholly unlike any other discourses that we have seen. They refer to all the political and social events of the day, with a familiarity and a vigour of illustration, which would, we suspect, in any English congregation, make the hair stand on end with amazement. In places, his Sermons are all but jocose. We must really quote some passages from a discourse which he preached, complaining of the amount of secular business pressing on the ministers of religion.

"I proceed, in the first place, to the narrative.

"Among the people of our busy land, who are ever on the wing of activity, and, whether in circumstances of peace or of war, are at all times feeling the impulse of some national movement or other, it is not to be wondered at that a series of transactions should be constantly flowing between the metropolis of the empire and its distant provinces. There are the remittances which pass through our public offices from soldiers and sailors in the service of Government to their relations at home. There are letters of inquiry sent back again from their relations. There is all the correspondence, and all the business of draughts, and other negotiations which come upon the decease of a soldier or sailor. There is the whole tribe of hospital allowances. There is the payment of pensions, and a variety of other items, of which I am sorry that I have kept no register. . . . . So it is. The minister is the organ of many a communication between his people and the offices in London-and many a weary signature is exacted from him, and a world of management is devolved upon his shoulders; and instead of sitting, like his fathers in office, surrounded by the theology of present or of other days, he must turn his study into a counting-room, and have his wellarranged cabinet before him, fitted up with its sections and its other conveniences for notices and duplicates, and all the scraps and memoranda of a manifold correspondence.'

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"But the history does not stop here. The example of Government has descended, and is now quickly running through the whole field of private and individual agency. The negotiation of the business of prize-monies is one out of several examples which occur to me. The emigration of new settlers to Canada is another. It does not appear

that there is any act of Government authorizing the agents in this matter to fix on the Clergy as the organs, either for the transactions of their business, or the conveyance of their information to the people of the land. But they find it convenient to follow the example of

Government, and have accordingly done so, and in this way a mighty host of schedules, and circulars, and printed forms, with long blank spaces, which the minister will have the goodness to fill up according to the best of his knowledge, come into mustering competition with the whole of his other claims and his other engagements. It is true that the minister in this case may decline to have the goodness—but then the people are apprized of the arrangement; and trained as they have been too well to look up to the minister as an organ of civil accommodation, will they lay siege to his dwelling house, and pour upon him with their enquiries.

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"When a patriotic fund, or a Waterloo subscription, blazes in all the splendour of a nation's munificence and a nation's gratitude before the public eye, who shall have the hardihood to refuse a single item of the bidden co-operation that is expected of him? Surely, such a demand as this is quite irresistible; and, accordingly, from this quarter too, a heavy load of consultations and certificates, with the additional singularity of having to do with the drawing of money, and the keeping of it in safe custody, and the dealing out of it in small discretionary parcels, according to the needs and circumstances of the parties-all, all is placed upon the shoulders of the already jaded and overborne minister." "But the greater number of these employments, it may be thought, originated in our state of war; and now that war is at an end, they will cease with the winding up of the old system! Oh! no, my brethren this great event which has brought peace to the whole country, has brought no peace to the minister. In some unlucky hour or other the Secretary-at-War seems to have had a conversation with the Secretary for the Home Department, and to have supplied him with the mischievous hint of how vastly convenient a set of people were we ministers. I do not know if this is the exact account of the matter; but this much I know, that some such hint has been given, and that the hint is most assuredly acted on-for the practice has now fairly got in, when the right man cannot be found for doing any piece of provincial business, just to hinge it all upon the minister. Ay, my brethren, and should you hear of your minister sitting in judgment on the qualifications of hawkers and spirit dealers, and of certifying accordingly, you must just put it down among the first-fruits of that precious system which has lately been devised, and is now in a state of hopeful perseverance, for conducting the matters of our home administration."

This is undoubtedly a very curious style of preaching. We cannot of course regard it as a good model; but it is most singular; and much of the volume is in the same style, though on various subjects. In the earlier discourses, there is a remarkable deficiency in appreciation of the doctrine of grace.

xv.-Epitome of Alison's History of Europe, from the Commencement of the French Revolution in 1789, to the Restoration of the Bourbons in 1815. Blackwoods: Edinburgh and London. THIS volume is intended for the use of schools and young persons, and it is most admirably adapted for its purpose. The interest is sustained throughout, and enough of detail is given to impress the more important facts on the memory. We rejoice to see the fruit of Mr. Alison's labours thus brought, in some measure, within the reach of every one.

XVI.-Outlines of English Literature. By THOMAS B. SHAW, B.A., Professor of English Literature in the Imperial Alexander Lyceum of St. Petersburg. London: Murray.

MR. SHAW has supplied a desideratum in English Literature. His book contains a brief but satisfactory sketch of all the great English writers, from the earliest period to the present day. On the whole, it appears to be a fair and impartial summary, and ought to find a place in all libraries. We cannot say much for the author's views on religious points.

XVII. 1. The Trial of Creation, and other Poems. By the Rev. G. W. BIRKETT, A.M. Oxford: John Henry Parker. 1848.

2. The Sea King, a Metrical Romance, in Six Cantos; with Notes, historical and illustrative. By J. STANYAN BIGG. London: Whittaker. Ulverston: Soulby. 1848.

It is certainly very pleasing to contemplate our own benevolence, and the sympathy which we now so largely bestow on the less fortunate members of our community; and if we doubt the extent of that benevolence, or the intensity of that sympathy, we have only to look at the public press, and we shall soon be satisfied. Look at the volumes before us: a series of mercantile and financial misfortunes, added to the recurring failure of the potato crop, and aggravated by a series of revolutions abroad, and an excessive quantity of rain at home, has reduced our working classes to great distress. In this dilemma, it has occurred to Messrs. Birkett and Bigg that the best way of alleviating the distress of the working classes is to furnish them with remunerative labour as printers' devils. Fired with this glowing thought, they have each of them perpetrated a volume of poetry!

"The Trial of Creation" is a very poor affair, in our opinion; but some of the smaller poems are rather pretty than otherwise.

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