psalm-playing in this place, that though there are many members of the congregation who are anxious to praise God with the best member that they have,' yet they are obliged to content themselves with singing with the heart unaccompanied by the voice. These things ought not so to be. Either the organist should be displaced, or else he should be properly controlled. The worship of God ought not to be rendered a nullity by the fault of one person.

Nor is this a solitary case; we have heard of an organist in the very heart of the metropolis, in a church recently erected, who, we are told, can play decently if he pleases; but he is not content to

let well alone,' and so spoils all. He is like the peacock, who seems to fancy, while proudly spreading his tail, that he is exciting the admiration of the spectator. The foolish bird shows as much sense as the man who aims at something fine on an organ during the time set apart for the worship of that Being who will not allow any desecration to pass with impunity.

We hardly know whether God is most dishonoured by such performance, or by the total absence of this part of the service. With respect to the latter Mr. L. marks

re

We shall thus perceive that in most cases where the singing is passed by, it arises not so much because no one can sing, for there are few parishes indeed where no one can sing,-but because the minister and people feel they have an irksome duty to perform, and are in haste to be gone.

The service is to them a burden, and their only anxiety is to throw it off. But under other circumstances, the psalm is not only adopted as a rich and edifying cordial, but as needful to relieve the attention, and preserve the tone of devotion from sinking through fatigue. For such is the nature of man, that even when his soul has spiritual desires, he requires variety and interchange to correct the weakness of the flesh. It was from a con

viction of this, and the necessity of meeting it, that our Church so greatly varied her form of worship. We are not called upon to unite in one long prayer of an hour's extent, but the time is filled up with short prayers and ejaculatory petitions-with reading sometimes the psalms alternately, and sometimes chapters from the Scriptures. In some parts the people are invited to repeat after the minister; and it is a great pity, when, instead of joining heartily in the Responses, as they are termed, the congregation are silent, and leave this duty, so peculiarly their's, to the clerk. A glance into the Prayerbook will at once shew, that the people are required to answer, not the clerk alone, whose office it is merely to lead. Again, still to relieve the attention by agreeable interchange, you are called upon to stand, then to kneel, and occasionally to sit; so that it is possible to have the attention fixed throughout the Liturgy, even in the morning service, without much weariness.

To enliven the service, and sustain the attention, it was not, however, considered sufficient to adopt this grateful variety. Music presented itself; and our Church followed the example of all the true worshippers of Jehovah, whether under the Old or New Dispensation, from Moses to Hezekiah, from David to our blessed Lord himself, and from the prophets to the apostles, and thankfully admitted it into her services. I need not remind you of the many places throughout the Rubric, where it is enjoined.-Pp. 32-34.

But we

are outstripping our limits. We shall therefore proper curb ourselves a little, in order to give our readers a more general idea of the excellent little work before us.

The peculiar advantage of the Psalmtune is, that, whereas other kinds of church-music are in general too difficult to be performed by any but the choir alone, the Psalm-tune can be sung by the whole congregation. This arises from the nature of the tune itself, which consists of slow notes, affording time to all persons, however untuneable their voices, and deficient their knowledge, to accompany it without being hurried-and of full chords, enabling every kind of voice, treble, alt, tenor, and bass, to fall into their proper order without confusion, and by forming together a body of sound, to

cover, more completely than in lighter compositions, the musical errors which, considering the qualifications of those who sing, are sure to be made.

No other species of music is thus generally useful; and therefore as long as the love of music is so universal, the commands to its spiritual use so express, and the benefit to be derived from it so decisive, the Psalm-tune will always be cherished as an important, and even necessary part of public worship.

In many churches the tunes sung are bad in themselves; and thus whatever pains is taken to sing them well, it is only like polishing bad metal; the more labour you spend upon it, the more manifest the defect. That which professes to be solemn is heavy and dull; and what was intended to be lively, proves noisy and unsuited to a becoming seriousness. It may be, that this latter kind of tune pleases some per sons; but it must be remembered, that taste is not always a good taste; and the question is not so much what pleases the people, as what is best calculated to edify them; not what tickles their natural and uncircumcised ear, but what may best convey the idea to the heart. Besides, other things being the same, such tunes ought to be chosen, as may least feed the vanity of the singers, and tempt them to display themselves, when their duty is simply to assist others.

Many persons feel that they are not competent to pronounce upon the excellence of a tune. Mr. L. has therefore thought it expedient to lay down a few simple rules by which such persons may be enabled to decide.

1. It should be slow and solemn; by which is not meant, that it should drag itself sluggishly along, but convey the impression to both singer and hearer, that the service is the service of God, and partakes of the awe and deep reverence which become a worm in approaching Him. Having, therefore, chosen such a tune as the Old Hundredth, it should not be sung so slow, that the voice is exhausted upon each note, but should be continued at a pace suited to the character of the hymn.

2. The choice of the tune should be determined according to the subject or

style of the hymn. But whatever be the nature of the tune, it should

3. Be in general such that each syllable of the hymn may have its distinct note. I say in general, because sometimes a couple of notes may be applied to a syllable, and have a good effect. Some tunes have several notes applied to one syllable or single word, which is objectionable for many reasons, but especially, because the people, whose voices are of necessity difficult to manage, cannot follow, and thus, where such tunes abound, they are deprived of their privilege and right to sing the praises of God. The tunes, moreover, that have these runs and many notes are in general bad tunes, composed by men who knew nothing of good music.

4. A good psalm-tune must have few or no repetitions. Many objections may be stated to repetitions. They are difficult to understand; they have frequently no meaning; they sometimes require a word to be broken off in the middle, and so make nonsense; they encroach upon the service by needlessly lengthening the time allotted to the Psalmody. The more simple the tune in this, as in every other respect, the better adapted is it for its express object.

5. A good tune, besides possessing melody to please the ear of the people at large, should abound in plain but full harmony, that it may afford scope for every kind of voice and musical perception.

As a guide to those who may not be able to trust their choice, I would mention the names of a few good tunes as specimens of the kind recommended.

LONG MEASURE.

The Old Hundredth. Winchester. Rockingham. Angel's Song. Magdalen.

COMMON MEASURE.

Bedford. St. Ann's. Nayland. Abridge. St. James'. London new. St. David's. St. Mary's. Southampton. Windsor. York. Irish. St. Matthew's (double).

SHORT MEASURE.

Tytherton. St. Brides'.

We almost wish our author had told us from whose selection of tunes he formed this list; probably he is not aware that some tunes in different selections bear different names. Nayland is, we believe, usually called St. Stephen's.

The next chapter is on the subject

of the Chant, and here we feel ourselves to be on delicate ground. We are aware that our pages are perused by some of our Nonconformist brethren, among whom there prevails a disposition to ridicule this style of music. We trust, however, they will bear with us, while we remark that when their forefathers, in their zeal to get rid of Popery, set down chanting as a part of that system which must not be allowed to rear its head, lost sight of the important fact, that a large portion of holy writ-as for instance, many of the Psalms-was evidently meant to be sung in that manner. We have indeed before us two extremes. The Popish services, almost entirely consisting of chants-and the Nonconformist worship, not allowing the most remote resemblance to that style of music. We conceive that both Dissenter and Papist are wrong, and taking Moderation' as our motto, should wish to see the chant occasionally introduced into each of our churches. On this subject, we shall merely put down the heads of Mr. Latrobe's chapter :

In some churches the Canticles, or short psalms without metre, between the lessons are sung, and when that is the case, the music chosen must, to be at all applicable, have a character of its own.

But it may be said-Why should we apply them to music at all? Is it not better simply to read them? In answer

to this, I will suggest a few reasons, why it is better to sing, than to read them.

1. The psalms without metre were composed by the inspired writers to be sung.

2. As poetry, they are better calculated to be sung than read.

3. They afford, when sung, a pleasing interchange to the parts of the service.

4. They relieve the minister.

Our author next replies to some objections that have been urged against the practice of chanting:

1. You will hear it said, that the Chant sounds indevotional.--This is indeed a grievous charge, for if it could be established, no Christian could possibly en

courage or advocate its use in divine worship. We must, however, bear in mind, that a service may be indevotional in two ways; either essentially, in itself, or from the manner in which it is performed... The Church Prayers are sometimes read in an indevotional way; are we then authorized to say that the Prayers themselves are indevotional?

2. Another charge brought against the Chant is, that it is unintelligible. It will be at once seen, that when the chant is properly performed, this charge is absurd. There is no repetition, no transposition of parts, no uneven prolongation of syllables, no inversions-every word is sung in the order in which it stands, according to set rules, in the simplest manner, and only generally differs from reading, by the voice assuming a singing and even tone. We may at once then dismiss this charge.

3. It is further objected, that the tone of voice in chanting is not natural. It is true that it is not the same tone of voice in which we hold conversation one with another, and in so far it may be said not to be natural-but as the voice of joy and thankfulness, it is almost more natural than common speaking. This you will at once see by observing children of tender years, when nature expresses herself in the most unrestrained manner. Without being instructed or even enticed, they naturally evince the gaiety of their spirits by singing, and if you listen to their singing at such times, you will find that it more nearly resembles the chant in many particulars, than any other kind of music.

4. There is only one other objection worth noticing against chanting the Canticles, viz. that it occupies too much time.... But what may be the difference of time between reading and chanting the Canticles? Six, or at most ten minutes in the whole service.

Mr. L. then adds some rules for those who are disposed to join in chanting, which, with other important passages, we had marked for insertion. We have, however, extracted so largely from his work, that we have only room to express our hope that such of our readers as feel the importance of the subject, will purchase and carefully peruse it for themselves.

His Majesty's Government having announced an intention of gradually diminishing and finally withdrawing the parliamentary grant annually placed at the disposal of this society, the standing Committee have recently published the following Report.

'The establishment of Christian ministers, professing the doctrines of the Church of England, was regarded by our forefathers as an object, both in a religious and in a civil point of view, of the highest importance to the inhabitants of British North America. And this object was cherished by the British Legislature, who took measures to secure a permanent provision for the clergy, by a reservation of lands to be appropriated to them, in the several colonies. But the reserves have not yet become available to the completion of the proposed object, since the lands have not been brought into general cultivation; and His Majesty's Government have accordingly been in the habit of proposing to Parliament annual grants for the support of the colonial Church.

'In the year 1813 the Government, which had previously made the payments to the clergy of Nova Scotia and Quebec through the hands of the colonial agents, considered it a cheaper and more convenient mode, to avail themselves of the services of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; and from that time to the year 1831, the Society annually received the Parliamentary grants, and distributed the sums paid to them, in addition to the allowances which they made from their own funds.

'In the last year (1832) His Majesty's Government acquainted the Society, that taking into consideration the finances of this country, and the condition of the colonies, they felt it their duty to give notice to the Society, that the Parliamentary grants would be gradually reduced, and, at the end of three years, discontinued. On the receipt of this information, the Society made a respectful remonstrance to the Government, urging, but ineffectually, the claims of the Church and OCTOBER, 1833.

clergy in British North America. An expectation, however, was held out, that, in the interval, means might be found within the colonies themselves for supplying the deficiency thus produced in the income of the clergy.

'The Parliamentary grant was reduced in the year 1832 to 12,000l. and the Government have undertaken to propose for 1833 a grant of 8,000l. and for 1834 a grant of 4,000l. and after that year no further grant is to be expected.

These are the circumstances under which the Society are called upon to determine, without loss of time what steps shall be taken in their future correspondence with the dioceses of Nova Scotia and Quebec.

'On reference to the accounts of the Society it appears that, in the year 1831, the number of the Established clergy in British North America was 148, and that the salaries paid to them amounted to 25,6351. that the Parliamentary grant amounted to 15,500l. and that the remaining sum of 10,135/. was supplied from the funds of the Society. It appears also that this expenditure of 10,135l. was independent of 5,000l. paid by the Society, in various sums, to catechists and schoolmasters, and for the building of new churches in the colonies.

'It appears, on the other hand, that the whole annual income of the Society, arising from subscriptions and donations, and the interest of money vested in the public funds, and applicable to its various objects in North America and India, amounts to about 12,000l. and that all excess of expenditure beyond that sum has been met in each year by a sacrifice of capital.