Just published, fcap. 8vo, cloth, 5s. THE SUFFERINGS OF THE CLERGY DURING By the Rev. JOHN WALKER, M.A., sometime of Exeter College, Oxford, and Rector of EPITOMISED BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE ANNALS OF ENGLAND." THE shameless perversion of history which made martyrs and confessors of the ejected Nonconformists of 1662, and ascribed their so-called persecution to the Church, caused the Rev. John Walker, a Devonshire incumbent, to draw up, more than 150 years ago, "Some Account of the Sufferings of the Clergy during the Times of the Great Rebellion, by Way of Answer." A revival of the oft-reputed calumny at the present day, by the proposed Bicentenary Commemoration of theBartholomew Confessors," appears to render the publication of an epitome of his work desirable. It is to be regretted that it should now be necessary to recall the memory of the calamities inflicted so long ago by one set of Christian men upon another, but the conduct of her enemies leaves no choice to those who are not willing to betray the cause of the Church, and of truth. The sufferings of these men, if at all generally known, would reflect indelible disgrace on all who caused and sanctioned them; and, therefore, as many of the actors in the tragedy are popularly looked on as the champions of civil liberty, an attempt has been made by others than professed Nonconformists to bury the matter in oblivion. This attempt has had more success than would otherwise have attended it, from the circumstance, that at the Restoration all papers relating to the persecution of the clergy were, as far as possible, destroyed by the guilty parties-and it is to be feared that subsequent writers have thus been emboldened to deny once notorious facts, because they believed they could not be legally proved. Modern research, however, has shown that the destruction was not so complete as has been supposed; papers carefully concealed whilst legal proceedings might be founded on them, are now available to the historical student, and they may from time to time be expected to find their way into print, when it will be seen that the statements are capable of proof in every mate rial point, and even in very minute particulars. As to the epitome of Walker's Suffering of the Clergy, now offered to the public, we brief remarks may be necessary. To those who know the original of 800 folio pages, it will be sufficient to say that the present small volume is an abridgment of the First Part, or general narrative, with the addition of some special instances of suffering, from the Second Part, or List of some of the Sequestered Clergy, and a few │ specimens of the evidence still remaining of the charges made against them, and the war in which evidence was fabricated. These an drawn from the papers of Sir Edward Dering, the chairman of the Committee of Religion in 1640. Beside the personal indignities and losses that he has recorded, and of which perhaps one-tenth are here reproduced, Mr. Walker, purposed to detail the sacrilegious devastation effected in churches, &c., but he did not live to effect this. A few statements on the subject have therefore been added to his narrative from other sources, in particular from the Journal of William Dowsing, sa active agent in destruction; and, with a special view to the claims set up fr the "Bartholomew Confessors," some brid notices have been gathered, which describe many of the ejected, and afford the mess of judging of too many of the rest. To those who do not know the work bere summarized, it will be well to explain that the somewhat diffuse style of Mr. Walker has been condensed, and that very considerable pains have been taken to select from his almost innumerable details of wrong and ! suffering, those which show how a good cause and a good conscience can support the aged and weak, the hoary priest, the desolate wife, and the helpless child, -amid all the trials that the wickedness of those who "turn religion into rebellion" can devise ¦ and execute. OXFORD and LONDON: J. H. & JAS. PARKER. Printed by WOODFALL and KINDER, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London. Communications received after the 20th instant cannot be attended to in the next Number, but will be answered or acknowledged in the Number following. W. H. BARNETT.-We are not aware "whether any tetrachord, or other passage of four notes, can be considered the exclusive property of a particular composer," but decidedly the manner in which those notes are employed can. We are satisfied from your note, that had you discovered the similarity, you would have refrained from sending the compositions. But the best of men are at times apt to treat as original conception that which is only recollection. OMEGA. The best edition of the PrayerBooks of King Edward VI. Compared, is that edited by the late Dr. Cardwell, and printed at the Oxford University Press. The price is 7s. (2.) With regard to the Dominical or Sunday letter, you have only to read carefully the directions" How to Find Easter Day," in the be ginning of the Prayer-Book. The reason of having a Sunday letter is this. The Calendar at the beginning of the Prayer-Book is a perpetual one. Now, each year, any given day of. a month falls on a different day of the week from that in the preceding year. August 24th this year fell on a Sunday. Last year, 1861, it fell on a Saturday, and therefore the 25th was a Sunday. Last Now E being the Sunday letter this year, you find E against the 24th, which falls on a Sunday, and against all the other days of the month which fall on a Sunday throughout the year. If F had been the Sunday letter, and you turned to the Prayer-Book Calendar, you would see that the 25th was a Sunday. year the 25th was a Sunday, and F the Sunday letter. The seven letters, A to G, represent, therefore, the seven days of the week. Of course, the primary use is to find the greatest of all Sundays, namely Easter Day. That is fixed as the first Sunday after the full moon. Having found this by the aid of the golden number, you then obtain the exact day by aid of the Sunday letter. (3.) An edition of the "Canons of the Church of England," is published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, price 18. 6d. IGNORAMUS. By no means is it common to see this, but we can easily understand that it is done with the object of promoting uniformity. N. J.-A doubtful case, but we should say turn to the cast. A young lady, who gives neither name nor initials, asks three questions, signing them respectively, "A Garland of Columbine and Wild Roses," "Almasius," and "The Myrtle Wreath." The signatures take up so much space that there is none left for us to reply to the questions. If asked with initials attached we may possibly attend to them. E. H.-What you say is only one side of the question. The extracts in question, we believe, will, on the whole, do more good than harm. S. J. C.-The question about the Gregorian tunes being ascribed to David, has been referred to before in the "Editor's Box." CATHERINE.-Sce Reply, No. 57, in the last volume. C. F.-Arden's Breviates from Holy Scripture, arranged for the Bed of Sickness," (Parkers, 28.) is, perhaps, as good a book of the kind as you will meet with. B. R. We prefer not to insert questions relating to difficult texts of Scripture. A. T.-Jackson's "Stories" and Lessons on the Catechism is probably what you refer to. It is published in 3 vols. by Messrs. Mozley,the price 148. E-The best suited to your requirements is Heathcote's Prayers for Children in Parochial Schools. 2d. (Parkers.) S. L. A.-Probably the above would also be suitable for your purpose. We know of nos particularly arranged for a Bible class. (2) has not been translated, but it is a quest to ask a publisher whether such a transact is likely to meet with a sale. A. E. W.-We have never heard the q tion raised, but should consider that no is tinction of the kind you mention should be made. The little tract referred to in p. 121 of our July Number has reached a fourth edition, and is now published by Messrs. Wertheim and Mackintosh. A DIVINITY STUDENT. (1.) There is m general matriculation examination, but each college examines its own members on e trance. In some colleges such examine is harder than in others. (2). There are a limits of age. (3.) It is impossible to state the expense. In some colleges and halls there are means provided for passing through the University for a moderate sum, but the chief expenses of students are generally found to be those incurred out of, and independent of, the College. Letters standing over from H. F. E. B. S. H.-P. A. P.-INQUISITOR-G. M. B.-T. N. - ESSEX. THE RESULTS OF THE "BICENTENARY." THE "Commemoration," which has been heralded with so much vigour during the past six months, has been held. Not one in a thousand, probably, of our readers will have perceived any difference between last Sunday and any other Sunday. Beyond the fact that the dissenting ministers chose for the subject of their discourse the worn-out topic of the persecution, as they term it, of two thousand men, there was nothing to mark that any commemoration was being celebrated. As we shall not, we hope, have again to recur to the subject, we print from a contemporary some pertinent remarks upon the actual results gained, or likely to be gained, from the agitation. The Bicentenary movement has turned out to be one of those weapons of war which damage their friends more in the recoil than their enemies in the stroke. It was from the first neither wise nor modest to dream that when attention was called to the Act of Uniformity of 1662, the public would inquire no further into the eventful drama of which that was but the closing scene. When once the Bicentenary project was started, it was absurd to think that we should all be satisfied to talk about "Black Bartholomew" and the "Two Thousand Confessors of Nonconformity," without stirring up some previous and very pertinent questions. Had "The Two Thousand" any right to the benefices of which they held possession at the Restoration? Had their own conduct to others provoked hard measures against themselves? Did their own violence and unreasonableness contribute at all to their ruin? Was it practicable or politic to deal with them otherwise than they were dealt with? Did they profess principles at all like those of the modern Voluntaries who are now extolling them? The answers to these questions have been clear enough, and have been fatal to the success of the whole movement. Nothing can be more amusing than the indignation of the Dissenters at the mode in which the Evangelical clergy have received their polite invitations to follow the example of the "Two Thousand" by resigning their benefices. In truth, their anger is not unnatural; for the Bicentenary has proved not only a coup manqué as regards the Church at large, but has alienated from Nonconformists many friends they had amongst us, and greatly abated disunion amongst ourselves. Englishmen forget private and domestic differences in face of a foreign foe; and Churchmen have now shown that they can and will in like manner stand shoulder to shoulder when institutions common and dear to them all are attacked. Once used to act together on the defensive, we find ourselves more of a mind than we had ventured to hope; and we shall be able to co-operate more heartily than heretofore in the work of extending and completing our Church system, and carrying it out amongst the neglected masses of populous districts. The Bicentenary agitation has likewise driven further the split-previously sufficiently pronounced-between the political and the religious Dissenters. The former are a restless, clever, noisy, but not in themselves very numerous knot. They have on other occasions than this dragged their co-religionists through a good deal that has not been very pleasant nor welcome. After this bad business of the Bicentenary, we may hope that the more conscientious, moderate, and conservative Dissenters will no longer allow themselves to be made tools of by the Liberation Society and its allies. The discredit of such palpably dishonest manœuvres as those connected with the Bicentenary cannot but extend more or less to the whole Dissenting community. 1 There is nothing at all for which the modern Dissenter can consistently honour the seceders of 1662, except it be for the mere fact that they left the Establishment, created a vast schism, and did their best to perpetuate it. There are, indeed, religionists who take Korah, Dathan, and Abiram as their apostles; who seem to regard divisions amongst Christians as something to be sought and fostered for their own sake; and who contemplate that as the normal state of the Church in which every one's creed differs from his neighbour's and every private conscience gainsays every other. But we do not think that such notions will commend themselves to our fellow-countrymen at large. At a time when earnest men of all denominations are longing for reunion, and casting about for the means towards it with no little intensity of desire, it is singularly maladroit and unseasonable t call on men to celebrate by a new festival the greatest split which has ever taken place amongst reformed Christians in England. We would hope that this attempt to canonise strife and division may induce many thoughtful Dissenters to res sider their whole position as Dissenters. Let them ask themselves whethe evangelization of this great country can ever be effected whilst Christian quite as much time, money, and energy in counteracting one another as they in warring on godlessness and vice, the common foes. Let them ask themseires again, whether united religious action amongst all Englishmen who bear the name of Christ is practicable in any other way than through their own reunion with the ancient and national Church, which has always claimed their allegiance, and would joyfully welcome their return.-From the Guardian. THE TWO CHAPTER XIII. SISTERS. (Continued from page 148.) ND how did it all happen ?-How bus perhaps of death, and Lizzy afraid to enter her sister's chamber? I have tried to show you that there is no such thing as a little sin, but that one wrong feeling indulged is sure to lead us into many others, until we have wandered far away from the right and holy path in which we once were. When first we saw Lizzy and Bella they were going hand in hand up the same path, with but one difference-Bella thought of the "end" to which it was leading, Lizzy only thought of the present. Dear children, which do you think most about? I must now go back to when the service was over. Miss Stanfield bid her class good-bye, and (as it was getting dark) arranged for several of them to walk home together. In this manner Mary Davis, Mary Godfrey, and Isabella were sent together, as they lived near each other in the square close by. Soon after leaving the church porch, a tall girl, who, with a number of older ones, was idling at the corner of the square, jeered at them, and as Isabella passed pointed her finger, saying that the girl Bella was frightened, and hurried on pulling little Mary Davis with her, while the rest of the group joined in a rud laugh. "Whatever does she mean?" whispered Bella, when they had crossed over the road. "Oh, it's only Millie Woodhouse, it's ber way!" replied Mary Godfrey; "did you hear what she said?" |