in Lyons, there are hardly a few exceptions to the rule, that a supporter of the government is necessarily an infidel and a usurer, who believes in nothing but pounds shillings and pence. And what I am now saying of the second city in the kingdom, may be asserted of the South of France... One of the parishes in Lyons is principally inhabited by persons of rank and fortune. In order not to take the oath of allegiance, they have abstained from voting in the elections. Their number amounts to no less than 200 in this single part of the town.' Now, if there be any portion of the Catholics who incline to Dr. Wordsworth's view of the duty of the Church, to claim the education of the children who belong to other religious sects, it is just that portion who yet cherish the traditions of the old régime. With such persons, political and religious ideas are so mixed up in their minds, that they are unable to distinguish between them; and it is no wonder, when the Church in France. was so long in intimate alliance with the monarchy, that the two should be thought inseparable. Under Louis XIV. this was the case; but to hold up Louis Philippe as the object of the same loyalty and consideration on the part of the Church rulers as Louis XIV., is a most puerile and unpractical doctrine, and one which could not be acted on for a moment. The King of the French is not only not a Catholic officially, but he is bound officially to present the same face to all sects; it is part of the tenure of his throne, that he must show no favour to one above another. The crown (not the individual wearing it) is of all religions. A Communist is as integral a part of the State as a Catholic. Dr. Wordsworth wishes that the Catholic clergy should consent to become the tool of a Government which must not be Catholic, to secure the orderly submission of the people to it. He complains that now, as it is, they are only martyrs to the Charte, and he would have them martyrs to the old monarchy, to the principle of establishment; to the doctrine, that the Church is co-extensive with the kingdom of France; to an accident which, in Dr. Wordsworth's peculiar point of view, is become an essential of the Church. He expresses no sympathy for the peculiarly hard position of the Catholics in France, viz. that they are the only one of all the religious communities, the free exercise of whose religion is forbidden or curtailed by the law. To have these restrictions removed; to be put on a footing with the other sects; to have given that liberty for the exercise of their worship which the Charter promises, is all the independence they ask. And it might appear strange, if the source of his prejudice were not so obvious, that Dr. Wordsworth should grudge them this independence. 'M. Gondon,' he says, did not seem to apprehend, that in asserting their complete independence, and effecting their absolute emancipation from all civil power in their own country, they might fall under the thraldom of an extra-national, and anti'national despotism of a spiritual and unlimited kind.' But a truly spiritual authority is no more a thraldom to the Catholic, than is the law of virtue to the virtuous. The good man seems to the wicked to be a slave to his principles, because he wants the liberty to do evil; so the statesman thinks obedience to spiritual authority the same restraint that obedience to the civil authority is, not knowing that spiritual authority is but the expression and form of the law of conscience as enlightened by the Gospel a help to the conscientious to ascertain his duty,-to find out what, when found, it is his single desire to do. Dr. Wordsworth's continual complaints, that the Church of France has become unnational, or anti-national, are equally unfair; and we really do not understand what he wants it to be. He is not content, as we have seen, that the clergy should rest satisfied with the present constitution, but wishes them to claim the right of superintendence over the children of other sects. This would be to be indeed anti-national, and would be falling back upon what is the object of the greatest jealousythe political doctrines of the ancient monarchy. The only party whose doctrine on Church and State Dr. Wordsworth would agree with, as far as we can make out, is that represented by M. Dupin's book, which has been condemned formally by all the French bishops, which is a revived Gallicanism--a doctrine which, even under Louis XIV., savoured far too much of a superstitious and adulatory deference for earthly powers, but which, when applied to the present monarchy, is an unsubstantial phantom, and is, in fact, only maintained in France by a ministerial party, for ministerial purposes-a party who have lately begun to effect a hypocritical deference for the Gallican Synod of 1682, and to wish to enforce upon the clergy the very ordinances of Bourbon despotism, which they have so energetically repudiated for themselves. At times, indeed, Dr. Wordsworth seems to feel this, and he is once inclined to allow, that it is not to be wondered at, that their sympathies are rather with the Vatican than with the Tuileries: that their tendency is to regard themselves as 'ministers of the Church, rather than as citizens of France, and 'that their energies are directed to support the chair of the successor of S. Peter, rather than the throne of the King of the 'French.'-P. 39. Even here, indeed, his friendly annotator' seems to have thought that he was speaking ironically; and this is not the general tone of the book. In the last page we find him quoting with approbation the opinion of the Edinburgh Review, that had 'Louis Philippe been sure of his throne, no one can doubt that 'his high intelligence and abilities would have led him to see the 6 true salvation of France, in reanimating the freer Catholicism ' of better days among his people.' To pass over the vagueness of the high-flown phrase, 'freer Catholicism of better days,' expressions to which, perhaps, the reviewer himself did not attach a very definite meaning,-it really seems as if Dr.Wordsworth thought that religion was at the beck and call of a king, and would appear and disappear, could be diffused or withdrawn, as it suits the purposes of a government. It is quite humiliating to hear a Christian minister talking in the undisguised way in which Dr. Wordsworth does, of making the Church subservient to political ends-and such an end, too, as that of maintaining Louis Philippe on his throne. 'What would not Louis Philippe give for a National Church, founded on the solid basis of evangelical truth and apostolic discipline, devoted to the monarchy, and untrammelled by Rome! And why should he not endeavour to restore to France the Church of his forefathers? Why should he not attempt to revive the Church of S. Hilary and S. Irenæus ? If he could effect this, he would have nothing to fear from the Jesuits; he would have his eighty bishops devoted to his throne.'-P. 157. Thus the restoration of the Church of S. Hilary and S. Irenæus is desirable, because it would secure the branch of Orleans on the throne! But S. Hilary and S. Irenæus will not come because Louis Philippe wants them; and if they did, we fear they might not be found such docile instruments in his hands as would be required for his purposes. ART. IV.-1. Amy Herbert. By A LADY. Edited by the Rev. W. SEWELL, B.D. Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. 66 2 vols. 2. Stories Illustrative of the Lord's Prayer. By the Author of Amy Herbert." Second Edition. London: Burns. 1844. 3. The First Voyage of Rodolph the Voyager. Edited by the Rev. WILLIAM SEWELL, B. D. London: Burns. 1844. 4. The Second Voyage of Rodolph the Voyager. 1844. 5. The Mission; or, Scenes in Africa. Written for Young People. By Captain MARRYAT. 2 vols. London: Longmans. 1845. 6. Abbeychurch; or, Self Controul and Self Conceit. London: Burns. Derby: Mozley and Sons. 1844. 7. The Birthday. By the Author of " Gideon," "Josiah," &c. &c. Second Edition. London: Burns. 1845. 8. Little Alice and her Sister. London: Burns. 1843. 9. Stories of Cottagers. By the Rev. EDWARD MONRO, M. A. Perpetual Curate of Harrow-Weald, Middlesex. London: Burns. 1843. 10. Tales of the Village Children. By the Rev. F. E. PAGET, M.A. Rector of Elford. Second Series. London: Burns. Rugeley: Walters. 1845. 11. The Bird-keeping Boy. Derby: Mozley and Sons. London: Burns. 12. Magazine for the Young, 1842, 1843, 1844. London: Burns. THE production of books for the young has long ago claimed and obtained a distinct place in the field of authorship. It has been for some time admitted that children have as much right as the men of science, taste, or amusement, to create their own peculiar demand, and obtain a corresponding supply in the literary market. But a considerable change has taken place, or rather, is still in progress, in this department, not only in the amount, (where the most careless eye may detect it with no further observation than the advertising columns of a newspaper will supply,) but also, and even more, in the character of its stores; for, while it has received great accessions, both in the number and talent of its contributors, it has lost somewhat of its distinctive features, somewhat of its original intention. The writers of the books in which our own childhood delighted, Mrs. Barbauld, Miss Edgeworth, and even Mrs. Hofland, wrote most evidently for children, and for children only; now, on the contrary, many books written professedly for children, are such as will afford perhaps greater instruction and amusement to an elder class of readers. Harry and Lucy, or the Parent's Assistant,' or the Court of Oberon,' are not often the recreation of any more advanced age than that for which they were originally designed, but most of our readers will be able to recall modern children's books,' which they have read with as much zest and enjoyment as if they had appeared in the authorized shape of a three-volumed novel. Nor is this mentioned as a necessary ground of complaint; on the contrary, the book which pleases a more cultivated mind, endowed with the fuller knowledge and more extended experience which must be supposed to accompany advancing years, is so far of a higher character than one which rests contented with the approbation of a younger intellect; nor is it necessary that one which pleases the former should be injurious or ill-adapted to the latter. But though not necessary, no one will deny that this result is possible, and even probable; and if it require a skilful hand to collect and shape the materials so as to suit the palate, and advance the health of any one class of persons separately, far more careful must be the selection, and more delicate the touch, of the author who aspires to write for several at once; and though one would not wish to discourage the attempt, it may not be useless to throw a strong light upon the dangers incidental to it. Some of these will appear in a more detailed survey of the books at present before us; some more harmless instances, however, of the confusion of thought thus. induced, are suggested by a more cursory observation; for, as the individual book is often adapted, and therefore we may venture to say intended, for adult as well as younger readers, so the general name appears to cover a wider range than its terms fairly import. With most persons, the mere names, or at any rate the exteriors of the books before us, would be enough to stamp them at once with the name of 'children's books,' and yet there are several among them which probably do not claim that title for themselves. The Stories on the Lord's Prayer,' which is a pleasing endeavour to bring out its petitions into a fuller meaning, by connecting them with the events of a poor widow's life, seems to be intended rather as a tract for the poor than a tale for the young. And the object of the Stories of Cottagers' is, as the writer himself tells us, to instruct the upper classes in the condition of the poor, by an exhibition of the tragedies of real life which occur among them, of very much greater interest than the most highly-wrought tales of fiction-scenes which 'call forth the true, deep feelings of men, who, owing to circum'stances, seldom express them, yet as truly possess them as many 'who make greater profession.' Nor is the writer deceived in his estimate of these Annals of the Poor;' several of these |