power dost thou, Apelles, remove my landmarks? This is my possession: why do ye sow and feed here at your own pleasure? It is my possession: I have held it of old: I held it first: I have a sure title down from the first owners thereof, whose the estate was: I am the heir of the Apostles. As they provided by their own testament, as they committed it in trust, as they have adjured, so I hold it. You, assuredly, they have disinherited and renounced, as aliens, as enemies!" You have no succession from the Apostles: your community in England and Ireland dates from the year 1570, when it forsook the Apostolic Churches here, and erected the standard of sedition. You do not, even now, succeed to the ancient and time-honoured sees of England.

While England is still presided over by the successors of Eborius, of Restitutus, of Adelphius, of Augustine, of Aidan, of Ceadda, of David, of Dubricius, of Cedda, and of Aldhelm; while the ancient metropolitan rights sanctioned by so many ages; while the episcopal sees known to all Christendom from time immemorial, are still in existence, with all their rights, titles, jurisdictions, and canonical privileges untouched, you have attempted, without permission or consent of that lawful hierarchy, to usurp titles and jurisdictions within that portion of the fold of Christ which is intrusted to their care! You have recognized their existence; and have, in consequence, assumed new titles in order to avoid the appearance of interfering directly with them! You know that there are already metropolitans and bishops who preside over the people of this land, and yet you establish a rival and a schismatical hierarchy in opposition to them!"-pp. xix.-xxi.

After a course of argument, in which Mr. Palmer assails the Cardinal with his own weapons, and exhibits the invalidity and nullity of the Romish Schismatarchy, he adds:

"The authority of the General Council of Chalcedon, which all Romanists recognize as INFALLIBLE, conclusively establishes the unlawfulness of a second Metropolitan in the same province,—that is, a real Metropolitan; for the Council permitted a titular or honorary Metropolitan to be appointed, provided he did not in any way interfere with the jurisdiction of the actual Metropolitan."-p. xxv.

After pressing these matters still further, the author adds:

"But you will, of course, reply to all this that the Papal dispensation is perfectly sufficient to remove irregularities; that the Pope is infallible; that his will as the viceregent of Christ, removes all opposing jurisdictions and canons, and supplies all defects in your ordinations and appointments. Now I need only say a word or two in reply to this. In the first place, the infallibility of the Pope is a doctrine which the Church of Rome has never yet defined as an article of faith. It is a disputed point amongst yourselves, even at the present day. Since, then, the Pope is not certainly infallible, it follows that he cannot be the head of the Church by the institution of Jesus Christ; for if God had placed him at the head of the Church, and given him universal

jurisdiction, he must necessarily have been infallible; or else every Christian would be bound to obey an authority which might teach heresy and idolatry! This argument is confirmed by the decision of the General Council of Chalcedon, to which you, and all other Romanists, bow as infallible; for this General Council declared that 'THE FATHERS had granted privileges to the See of old Rome, because it was the IMPERIAL city,' i. e., on account of its temporal rank. So that in the fifth century, this synod of all Christendom subverted, by anticipation, the supremacy of Rome, considered as a Divine institution; they only acknowledged in it privileges granted by THE FATHERS!' And if, then, this jurisdiction of Rome be viewed as a human institution, as you have argued its cause in the articles above referred to,—if it be treated as a Patriarchal jurisdiction, extending, in virtue of the canons, over all the West,-we can easily demonstrate its unlawfulness and nullity in this realm; for the Bishop of Rome exercised no patriarchal jurisdiction here for the first four centuries, nor, indeed, could he; for Ruffinus, at the end of the fourth century, declared that the jurisdiction of Rome extended only to the suburbicarian provinces, i, e. -a part of Italy, Sicily, and the adjoining islands. And his jurisdiction only commenced in France in the fifth century. Britain was free and independent in the early part of the fifth century, when the General Council of Ephesus made a decree that, 'No one of the Bishops beloved of God, take another province which has not previously and from the beginning been under his rule, and that of his predecessors; but if any one should have taken it, or have caused it to be subject to him by compulsion, he shall restore it. Wherefore it has seemed good to this Ecumenical Council that the rights of every province, which have always belonged to it, should be preserved pure and inviolate, according to the usage which has ever obtained, each Metropolitan having full power to act according to all just precedents in security. And, therefore, the subsequent usurpation of jurisdiction by the See of Rome in England was unlawful; and it was strictly in accordance with the decree of this synod, which you believe to be infallible, that the Papal usurpation was removed by the Church and State upwards of three centuries ago. The See of Rome has, in consequence, no jurisdiction whatever, either by Divine institution or by canonical right, in Great Britain or Ireland. (I might, indeed, add several other countries.) So that any faculties, dispensations, briefs, or regulations of any kind, affecting the spiritual and ecclesiastical concerns of this country, proceeding from the Bishop of Rome, are null and void, and are incapable of conferring any spiritual powers or jurisdiction on the 'new' hierarchy; and in order to obtain licence to exercise any episcopal or sacerdotal functions in England, they must first submit themselves to the 'old' hierarchy, and relinquish their present claims."-pp. 27-30.

We do not see how the utmost ingenuity of our adversaries can escape or elude this reasoning. It appears to us simply unVOL. XV.—NO. xxx.—June, 1851. G g

answerable. And here we are reminded of an earlier work by the same author, and one which we commend to all those who require information on the subject-"British Episcopacy Vindicated," which establishes the sole and canonical authority of our old hierarchy.

v.-The Pattern showed on the Mount; or, Thoughts of Quietness and Hope for the Church of England in her Latter Days. By the Rev. T. T. CARTER, M.A., Rector of Clewer, Berks. Oxford and London: J. H. Parker. 1850.

In

THERE is much sound sense and piety in this little tract, though we like a more simple style, and a less ambitious diction. fact, we prefer good plain straightforward Saxon English, such as is intelligible to farmers, tradesmen, and labourers,—to all the charms of the most elaborate construction and the most ornamental language; and whilst we object to any thing approaching to undue familiarity in the treatment of divine things, we are equally averse to obscurity or mysticism. The following passage strikes us as containing much valuable matter:

"There has ever been, in various parts of the Church, an overweening longing to form on earth a kingdom of the saints. The effort has invariably failed, simply because it was before God's appointed time. There is to be such a kingdom, but not yet. In building the Tower of Babel, the effort was to reach to heaven. All hasty forecastings of promised glory to be revealed to sight, while yet we walk by faith, are ever to be viewed with no common suspicion,-sometimes even with distress and with fear. One of the snares of Rome has been of this very nature. That Church has sought to seize by earthly force, and present to carnal sight, what can be won only by faith, be built up only on humility, and be fully realized only in another world. Thus, seeking to establish a perfect guidance for the soul, she has raised up a terrible earthly tyranny, in which the very responsibility of man is destroyed. Thus, too, she has sought to enforce an unquestioning unity of faith; and the issue has been, either that the reason, one of God's greatest gifts to man, is crushed, or the revolting mind learns to reconcile the coldest infidelity with the mere mechanical observance of outward forms. Many of the peculiar dogmas of Rome may be explained by this one cause of error- that she has sought to realize, in a carnal manner, and before the time, the mysteries of the kingdom which can exist only beyond the veil. What we, in the true Catholic Church of England believe, she will touch, and handle, and, in too presumptuous a grasp, alas! most awfully profane. Thus the real spiritual presence of Christ in the sacrament becomes, in her hands, material and carnal. Thus confession, which is to the quieting of an overburdened or scrupulous conscience, becomes, in her popular creed, as the very judgment of the last day. The blessed power of absolution, Christ's own appointment

for conveying to the very soul of the penitent sinner his message of for giveness and peace, becomes the actual sentence of the All-seeing Judge Himself. Thus the veil of reverence which God has drawn around the dead, and around the spirits who minister before his throne, is torn aside to make way for what the frail earthly fancy can invent; and purgatory, and the familiar worship of the saints, is the miserable substitute for the mysterious holiness and grandeur that pervade the Revelations of St. John. All is materialized. Nothing is left to the pure visions of holy hope and fear; nothing is permitted to remain in the dim but awful shadows, the dread uncertainties, that must hang about the confines of another world. There is throughout the Roman system a peculiar lack of the faith and patience of the prophet, who stands upon the tower to watch, whilst the Lord reveals to those who do his will, clearer views, and a growing assurance, as the morning breaks on the everlasting hills, and the day-star arises in their hearts.

"This same snare, alas! has been fatal to some among us, who once stood with us side by side, but now are parted from us by so wide a chasm. Of those who left our Church in these latter days, the greater number have done so from this cause. They saw, as they thought, in the distance, within the verge of Rome, a substantial unity, and an unearthly peace. They left their appointed path, and turned aside to taste the living waters-ah! it was but the mirage, the deceitful vision of the desert! Alas! has not to many that ensnaring beauty disappeared as they approached it nearer ? To how many has it not proved only a barren waste! While they caught so hastily at these semblances of heavenly promise, to what fearful errors have they bowed down, as the price of that supposed peace for which they could barter away their former faith, their early loves, their simplicity of truth, and, greatest sacrifice of all, the sacredness of their own self-responsibility!"pp. 11-15.

VI. Wild Life in the Interior of Central America. By GEORGE BYAM, late Forty-third Light Infantry. London: John William Parker.

1849.

WILD Life in any part of the globe has always its charms, especially on paper; but Wild Life in Central America must be peculiarly exciting and entertaining, to judge from Mr. Byam's very animated and interesting account of it. The book is full of incident and anecdote, vivid description and valuable information; indeed, there is not a page put in to fill up-a rare merit in these days. Our first extract, a long one, describes phenomena that are frequent, and superstitions that are prevalent, in the beautiful region which was the scene of the author's adventures:

"Early on the morning of January 20th, 1835, a few smart shocks of earthquake were felt, and the inhabitants, as they invariably do, ran out of their houses into their 'patios' (courtyards), or into the streets.

The alarm soon subsided, and the people returned to their dwellings; but the earth did not seem quiet, and continual repetitions of running out of the houses and returning, showed that the inhabitants were kept on the qui vive. These shocks continued at intervals all day, and the night was quieter; but early on the 21st the people were again driven out of their houses by a very violent one that lasted a few seconds, and it was some time before they would return, when, as it was still very early, most of them turned into bed again, or laid down in their hammocks. But the darkness seemed most unusually prolonged; a feeling of suffocation was universally felt: and when, at last, the people rose, they were still more alarmed by finding the air filled with a fine impalpable greyish black powder, which, entering the respiration, eyes, nose, and ears, produced a perfect gasping for breath. The first remedy was to shut up doors and windows as close as possible; but it was soon found worse than useless, as the powder was so subtile that it penetrated into every apartment, and the exclusion of air made the rooms insupportable. Possibly half a dozen persons in the country might have heard of the last days of Pompeii, and perhaps might have anticipated being discovered in some future ages in a good state of preservation; but the remainder put their trust in the Virgin Mary, and their different patron saints, especially St. Lorenzo, who is supposed to have a special interest in volcanos, eruptions, and burnings of every sort. "The doors and windows were thrown open, and, generally, the wiser plan was adopted of covering the head and face with a linen cloth, dipped in water: some saddled their horses and mules, thinking to escape, but they would only have been going to certain death. The poor brutes were gasping for breath; but those who had the care and humanity to throw a wet poncho, or cloth, over the animals' heads, saved their beasts, but many died. To add to the terror of the day, at intervals smart shocks of earthquake made themselves felt, and a distant roaring, like thunder afar off, was heard during most part of the day. Still the ashes fell; and so passed that day,-the very birds entering into the rooms where candles were burning, but scarcely visible; and the sun went down, and the only perceptible difference between day and night was, that total darkness succeeded to a darkness visible, like that which we may fancy was spread over the land of Pharaoh. Night came on, and the lamp placed on a table looked like the street lights in a dense London fog, scarcely beaconing the way from one lamp-post to another; and the night passed, and the morning ought to have broken, for the sun must have risen; but, no! the change was only from black darkness to grey darkness; and some of the men, and nearly all the women, hurried to the churches; their forms wrapped up, and very dimly discerned through the deep gloom; and their footsteps, noiseless on the bed of ashes, recalled to the imagination Virgil's description of the shades; and they went and prostrated themselves at the feet of their saints, and, beating their bosoms, vowed candles and offerings for relief; but the saints were made of wood or stone, and heard them not; and another sun went down on their agony, for agony it was.