Moses; and this we infer from their being performed to a certain length and no further.

The miracle concerning Julian's attempt to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem, is considered by Mr. Penrose as a matter of which we do not possess clear and incontrovertible proof. pp. 72,

&c.

The appearance of Samuel at the evocation of the Witch of Endor, Mr. Penrose thinks with Farmer to be a divine miracle. p. 342. Justin Martyr holds that she was a ventriloquist; but it is plain that, if miracles were explicable by human understanding, they would be no longer miraculous, and that Providence could not intend miracles to be introduced, unless they were miracles in reality, for otherwise they would prove nothing, and be useless. Moreover, as they only imply temporary suspensions of the laws of nature, or affect individuals only, there is no violation of order, because the customary operations of nature continue the same, except in such temporary or individual cases.

We recommend Mr. Penrose's work as edifying and instructive.

29. An Address to the Members of the New Parliament, on the Proceedings of the Colonial Department, in furtherance of the Resolutions of the House of Commons of the 15th of May, 1823, "for ameliorating the Condition of the Slave Population in his Majesty's Colonies ;" and on the only course that ought now to be pursued by his Majesty's Government. 8vo. pp. 36. "TO raise the devil" may be a very easy thing, for our ancestors conceived that it was done by only saying the Lord's Prayer backward; but "to lay him again," according to the same old saws, was a far more difficult matter. We form the same opinion concerning the Slave Trade; it is very easy to commence it, and very difficult to suppress it. We have considered its abolition to be a surgical operation in which the tient may bleed to death in the process, and we have spoken cautiously, but not in disapprobation. To prevent misconstruction, we beg to lay before our readers the following short abstract of a statement in the Quarterly Review of September last (1826), No. Ixviii. p. 579-608, as being the opinions of others. It is there said, (1) that the intemperate and misguided

pa

proceedings of our Ultra-abolitionists are much better calculated to injure than to ameliorate the fortunes of the African race (p. 582); (2) that they have only tended to give an increased appetite to speculation in the Slave Trade (ibid.); in short, that they have only been the means of transferring the trade from ourselves to foreigners. It is further to be added, that the presumed object of the Abolitionists is a spurious kind of reputation and importance, or else a mercantile speculation, grounded on the idea that the ruin of our Western Colonies would promote their own personal interests in the East. p. 581. Lastly, that "a general and indiscriminate massacre would be the result of the recommenda tions of the Abolitionists among the varied population of our sugar islands; that a total destruction of all property would be inevitable; and, in a word, that these valuable possessions of the British empire would be utterly lost and annihilated." pp. 579, 580.

We are among those who, "looking before leaping," do not like violent measures in politics, and think, upon Lord Bacon's authority, that enthusiasts are only fit to execute, not to contrive. We repeat that, while money can be made by any species of traffic, however base, that traffic will be continued, and that difficulties interposed will only advance the price of the article. This has been shown by the dearness of dead human bodies for Indians. Both trades have been obsurgeons, as well as live ones for West structed. In fact, the only mode by which, according to history, slavery has ever been abolished, is that of religion and civilization. The author of the pamphlet before us sees the subject in a temperate light, and is disposed to act with reason, and not in expelling one evil spirit to cause seven others more wicked than himself to be called in. He proposes

"A Parliamentary declaration to the effect that there is no intention to deny the rights and privileges of the colonists; that before the adoption of any measures affecting their interests, the fullest and most ef fectual investigation will be allowed; that Parliament is sensible that the condition of

the slaves has been ameliorated of late years; that there is, therefore, a well-grounded expectation that the planters will introduce the ameliorations recommended by his Ma jesty's Government with as little dele

is consistent with a due regard to the safety of the colonies. That in regard to the question of permitting the slaves to purchase their freedom, without the consent of their owners, nothing should be pressed on the colonists, until the important subject has undergone the fullest investigation in the way best calculated to do justice to all parties. Such a declaration would conciliate the colonists, and incline them to do every thing in their power to consult the wishes of Government." P. 94.

With regard to compulsory manumission, it is clearly shown that negroes will not work for hire; and that, if the planters were left to the mercy of

the free negroes,

"No estate would be worth two years purchase. With such possibilities in prospect, it is not surprising that the planters should be opposed to the opening of any other door to let out slavery, than that which is now open, and through which there is a gradual escape. In Jamaica the manumissions are said to have been four thousand between the years 1820 and 1823; and in the beginning of the present year, there were upwards of one hundred voluntary manumissions in Demerara. It will probably be found, on examining the question, that any larger opening would be incompatible with the well-being of the slaves themselves, with the safety of the colonies, and with a fair and equitable consideration of the rights of private property."

P. 36.

estate subject to tithes, and does not deduct that and all other claims from the reasonable value of the rent, it is at his own peril. As to tithes operating in prohibition of improvement, it is not true, because, if nine parts out of ten can be gained by a particular measure, an improver will no more be checked than he would be by the expence of a journey to receive a legacy. In short, the late Lord Chancellor Bathurst declared, that he had long and deeply studied the subject, and that he could find nothing so advantageous to the farmer as the present system. Any idea of commutation by land, except in case of new inclosure, is erroneous, because tithes will only sell for fourteen years purchase, and land cannot be bought under twentyfive or thirty.

If a man must either pay tithes in the form of rent or taxes (as he inevitably must), whether he pays it to a man in a black instead of a brown coat, can be no other difference than this, that the money is paid, for support of religion and morals, to the former, and to the other, is a mere dishonest robbery for no public purpose whatever.

The Major has talent, and we should be glad to see it exhibited upon sound premises.

31. The History of Hertfordshire. By Sir Henry Chauncy. Reprinted by J. M. Mullinger, Bishop Stortford. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 1100.

MR. MULLINGER has rendered a service to the County of Hertford by reprinting a new edition of Sir Henry Chauncy's scarce and valuable History in a reasonable and commodious form; a work which, from the variety of curious matter and general information contained in it, must always be held in high estimation by the Antiquary and Topographer. It appears from the original Prospectus that 500 copies of the folio edition were printed. These have been eagerly purchased at high prices, whenever they have found their way into the market; and consequently have been beyond the reach of the generality of readers. At a period too when, from the diffusion of learning, every person is expected to be more or less conversant with subjects which a century ago were confined to the Hearnes and

Browne Willis's of the day. We cannot, however, agree with Mr. Mullinger, that, because Chauncy did not think it worth while to correct the errors in the monumental inscriptions, it was justifiable to print a new edition, in which not only all the former mistakes are carefully copied, but the list of Errata fearfully augmented (see pp. 318, 319, of vol. I.) so much so, that many of the epitaphs, as they now stand, are almost unintelligible. We throw out this hint, that other persons employed in similar pursuits may not be lazy enough to adopt the same mode of proceeding. Neither should we recommend the coarse specimens of Lithography as worthy of imitation.

words are rendered in the sense peculiar to the Church of Rome, as do penance, instead of repent, and so forth.

"Translations of the Old Testament may be allowed, but only to learned and pious men, at the discretion of the Bishop; provided they use them merely as elucidations of the Vulgate version, in order to understand the Holy Scriptures, and not as the Sacred Text itself.

IT is said in Birt's Letters, that, when the wife of a Scotch Minister was showing the parish Kirk to an English visitor, he asked why the pew of the laird was not hung with green baize? She replied, that her husband would never suffer it, for he would think that it savoured of Popery. Not more hypercritically fastidious was this Minister, than has been the Church of Rome, in its prohibition of books. It makes of a library a doctor's shop. This is poison, that is dangerous,these two or three are indifferent; but all those shelves are filled with good things; part of that peculiar class of medicine which the owner of the shop considers and recommends as particularly good. The Church of Rome, however, acts very prudently in this respect; for a legerdemain conjuror would not do wisely, if he showed the spectators how his tricks were performed.

Mr. Mendham observes, very justly, (Pref. viii.) that these expurgatory Indexes well show "the sentiment, spirit, and policy of an empire claiming, with the most critical exactness, the terrific appellation of THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY."

We shall extract a passage, showing how far perusal of the Bible is allowed, though we need not of course premise that translations of it by Protestants are condemned in toto, unless certain GENT. MAG. February, 1827.

blus's Bible, or any part of it. But the preface and prolegomena of the Bible, published by Isidorus Clarius, are, however, excepted; and the text of his editions is not to be considered as the text of the Vulgate editions.

"Inasmuch as it is manifest from experience, that if the Holy Bible, translated into the vulgar tongue, be indiscriminately allowed to every one, the temerity of men it, it is, on this point, referred to the judgwill cause more evil than good to arise from ment of the Bishops or Inquisitors, who may, by the advice of the Priest or Confessor, permit the reading of the Bible translated into the vulgar tongue by Catholic authors, to those persons whose faith and piety they apprehend will be augmented and not injured by it; and this permission they must have in writing. But if any one shall have the presumption to read or possess it without such written permission, he shall not receive absolution, until he have first delivered up such Bible to the ordinary. Booksellers, however, who shall sell or otherwise dispose of Bibles in the vulgar tongue to any person not having such permission, shall forfeit the value of the books, to be applied by the Bishop to some pious use; and be subjected to such other penalties as the Bishop shall judge proper, according to the quality of the offence. But Regulars shall neither read nor purchase such Bibles, without a special licence from their superiors." pp. 33-35.

We have heard that Protestant servants in Catholic families have been dismissed, only for reading their Eng-lish Bible upon Sundays. We think prohibition of reading the Bible to be a great sin, and serious political mis

tues, or abundance of his vices. The unceasing quicksand of Time is found too commonly to bury the first, while his scythe leaves unmown all the rank growth of the latter. Charity may doubt if Marlowe, at an age scarcely mature, did not follow the foible of the day, in assuming loose principles of religion; and if the fatal event of his disreputable death might not have been as faithfully, if more favourably, narrated.

Let it be recollected that Marlowe classes within the first fifty known writers for the English Stage, and wrote at a time when the drama was little more than attempting to shake off the trammels of buffoonery, so necessary to the support of interludes, and the strait-laced sanctity of dull moralities. The emancipation was slow in progress, and to throw off the leaven of time, there was a strong stimulatory counteraction necessary. Every age revels in its own fashions, which are no sooner cast by than it is usual to denounce the whole as absurdities. Still, by those who follow, their temporary influence must not be forgot. Thus the groundlings of the early theatres, accustomed nightly to hear if not hold converse with the Clown, or his forerunner the Vice, could not be expected quietly to permit such important characters to be banished without some equally important feature of novelty, and bold must have been the author who ventured to expect success without the assistance of either of those ancient and almost hereditary favourites. In that attempt Marlowe was an early voluntary, and no doubt met with success. To point out his substitutes for the usual subordinate characters just noticed, they seem to be found, taking his most popular pieces, in the exhibition of Bajazet in an iron cage, and his "braining" himself therein, as represented in the first part of Tam

berlain; the extravagant action of Tamberlain in the second part; the rapid succession of tragic incidents in the Jew of Malta; as also in the Massacre of Paris; with the magical power given to Dr. Faustus, and the imposing character of his attendant Mephostophilus, two persons that have recently flourished with renovated repute. These appear manifest proofs of Marlowe's dramatic genius, and of his power to rivet the attention of the restless groundlings to the story of his drama, and secure approbation and success to the labours of his muse. Certainly his productions appear no unimportant stepping-stone in the progress of the improvements of the Stage, which afterwards obtained such powerful and decisive aid from Shakspeare; and the present work may be confidently pressed upon the attention of every lover of the drama, even if he is fortunate enough to possess some of the original editions.

The third volume contains most of the author's Poems, not now attainable, as the Hero and Leander, Lucan, Ovid's Elegies, printed at Middleburgh, unmutilated; and with other pieces, those simple lines that cast an unfading halo round the name of Kit Marlowe, to remain while the English language lasts. Needs the memory of any reader refreshening for the reference ?