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NOTICES.

THE correspondence between the Bishop of Cashell and Bishops of Moray, and Edinburgh has occupied great attention. We subjoin, without comment, an extract from a letter of the former, which sums up his Lordship's view of the Scotch Church; a view very natural to a person of his Lordship's opinions and the publication of which reflects equal credit on his own sincerity and that Church's faith.

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'To this question my answer is short and plain. I learned the unsoundness of the Scotch Episcopal Church from herself. I asked no man's opinion. I let your Church speak for herself, for example, in her Communion Office. You say that office is almost identical with Cranmer's first office of Edward VI.; and if your Communion Office only went back towards Popery as far as to the first Prayer-book-if it only brought the people back to that formulary which Cranmer and our other Reformers thought so objectionable as to require reformation and amendment, it would be a sufficient reason why those who have given their assent to the amendments as they now stand in our Prayer-book, should not connect themselves with a Church which rejects the amendments which we approve, and goes back to errors which we have given up; but I would remind you that your Communion Office adopts language for which it has no precedent in the First Prayer-book of Edward VI., nor even in Archbishop Laud's Prayer-book of 1637. Your Prayer-book goes back towards Popery in a degree for which she has no precedent in the formularies of any reformed Church. In the First Prayer-book of Edward VI., and in Archbishop Laud's Prayer-book of 1637, in the Prayer of Consecration, we find these words-" With thy Holy Spirit and word vouchsafe to bless and sanctify these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine, that they may be unto us the body and blood of thy most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ." But in your Communion Office, which I now have before me, you have these words-" Vouchsafe to bless and sanctify with thy word and Holy Spirit these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine, that they may become the body and blood of thy most dearly beloved Son."

'I give it as my most deliberate opinion, that the introduction of these words into the Prayer of Consecration, more than justifies the separation from the Episcopal Scottish Church, of any person who has signed and ex animo assents to the Twenty-eighth Article of our Church; and when our Church, in reforming and improving our Liturgy, deliberately rejected and omitted far less objectionable words, I cannot but think that any consistent member of our Church ought to bear his protest against such an objectionable and indefensible deviation from our scriptural Communion Service; and this should be the more considered, because the Scottish Episcopal Church appears to consider that some peculiar character is impressed upon her by this Communion Service. . . . . . She admits, it is true, the Communion Service of the Church of England, but she holds the doctrines that are expressed in the language of her own office; and, on account of her holding this doctrine, which differs little, if at all, from the Transubstantiation of the Church of Rome, I feel myself bound to dissent from her,

and to sympathize with those who, being led to consider her doctrines, bear their testimony against her. I need not go into other doctrines implied by the changes made in the "Prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church," the introduction of the word "altar," the alterations in the services of Baptism, Confirmation, &c. These, I think, fully bear me out in my declaration, that, if providential circumstances should take me to Scotland, I should hold communion with the Church of England in Scotland, rather than with the Scottish Episcopal Church.'

Mr. Petrie's 'Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland anterior to the AngloNorman Invasion,' (Dublin, Hodges and Smith,) is by no means, as many seem to think, a mere disquisition on the Round Towers, although the nucleus of the present elaborate volume was a Prize Essay on that subject. Certainly it does seem to set this most vexed question at rest; and so satisfactorily, that, as in all other discoveries, the wonder now appears to be that there could ever have been two opinions about it. This character of simplicity is, as in other cases, a main characteristic of Mr. Petrie's line of proof; viz. that the Round Towers are of Christian and Ecclesiastical origin, and were erected at various periods between the fifth and thirteenth centuries—that they were designed to serve as belfries, and strongholds in times of emergency, and, probably, as beacons and watch-towers. And this conclusion is supported by such facts as these:-1. That the Towers are never found unconnected either with churches or other religious structures; 2. That their construction and style are identical with those of the original churches to which they are attached; 3. That many of them display Christian emblems; 4. And that invariably they possess architectural and distinctive features not to be found in ascertained Pagan buildings. Of these branches of proof, just mentioned, we consider the second and fourth the most important; and this, because, upon the Fire-temple and such theories, the churches might have been attached to the sacred sites of Paganism, and the Towers, consequently, might have been anterior to the churches; and, again, because the symbolic ornaments might have been insertions. We are bound, however, to acknowledge that the positive induction, both with respect to the identity of structure observable in such buildings as the early Christian cells, as well as churches, and all the Round Towers; and, again, the negative argument arising from the universal absence from Pagan buildings of the peculiar features of the Towers, is, to our minds, decisive. Mr. Petrie's victory we consider complete; his learning in Irish antiquities seems very extensive; and his book is one of the most beautiful which has lately appeared-executed not only with very great skill in the way of drawing and engraving, but, which is even more important, with a temper and caution, as well as reverence for sacred things, of the absence of which in antiquarian inquiries we have often had serious occasion to complain. We consider its appearance highly creditable both to the national feeling and genius, as well as to the liberality which, in many quarters, must have contributed to its appearance. There are, however, higher reasons for which we very especially recommend it to English readers. Irish Ecclesiology is a field almost untrodden; and from the present volume we gather how much may be done by individual inquiry. Very few of us are prepared for what forms the most valuable part of Mr. Petrie's handsome volume, that

Ireland contains a multitude of examples of ornamental architecture, executed prior to the Norman invasion of England, and that remains of the strange Cyclopean masonry exist in undoubtedly Christian ruins of the sixth and seventh centuries. Of the development of pointed work from the debased classical, or even, as it seems, from Etruscan, if not Egyptian, (pp. 163, 169, 170) types, the present work presents abundant, though indirect, illustrations; while, in a different direction, we find that Ireland supplies examples of skill in the ornamental craft of jewellery and goldsmiths' work of an earlier date than even the well-known Alfred's jewel, or the Saxon illuminations preserved among ourselves. Two, and quite unconnected, thoughts, which we leave for others to expand, suggested themselves by the perusal of Mr. Petrie's work. 1. How is it that, with the firm impression which the parochial system made, both in England and Ireland, before the Reformation, it seems so little to have been the rule in Scotland? How few are even the ruins of parish churches of Catholic times, in the northern half of the island. 2. What, if any, connexion exists between the Round Towers and Round Churches of Europe? Apart from the undoubted connexion of the latter, in many cases, with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, round churches exist in the island of Bornholm, some of which are of considerable antiquity; and in connexion with which there is documentary evidence that they were used for one of the purposes mentioned by Mr. Petrie, as keeps in sudden predatory attacks. And this fact might help Mr. Petrie to strengthen a position which we think tenable; viz. that Round Towers or Churches were adopted by the Danes from Ireland, rather than the reverse statement, which has been hitherto the received theory.

Two volumes have appeared—' Eight Dissertations on Connected Prophetical Passages of Holy Scripture,' by Mr. Stanley Faber, (Seeley.) They were composed, we believe, not published, some thirty years ago. They contain all Mr. Faber's peculiarities-his unquestionable learning-his strange style in composition and expression, which, for want of an adequate nomenclature, may be designated as the Faberese tongue-and his more than questionable speculations on all sorts of subjects, sacred and profane. Among the latter, and certainly not the least ingenious, we should be disposed to reckon his very singular theory of the blackness of the Negro race. Mr. Faber considers the dark colouring matter residing under the Negro cuticle, as the transmitted and penal result of the physical disease inflicted in the sixth plague of Egypt, the boil breaking forth with blains.' Of course two points are required for the establishment of this theory; the absence of such blackness before the plague, and its universal presence in the whole Egyptian people after its infliction: on neither of these is any evidence offered by Mr. Faber. With his refutation of Sir William Betham's inconceivable folly in his version of the Eugubian Tables, we are quite satisfied. But of our author's rashness, not to say audacity, in rejecting Mr. Petrie's conclusion on the Christian origin of the Round Towers, before he had seen Mr. Petrie's book, we are hardly called upon to offer an opinion, though we might express a strong one. The fact is, that Mr. Petrie has actually done what Mr. Faber thinks proper to assume that he has not done;

viz. from an induction of all the particulars to conclude a general proposition. However, Mr. Faber's Dissertations will be read with interest even by those, and they will be the majority of his readers, who are not prepared to accept his conclusions, always fanciful, and generally extravagant. Although, let us add, we are not desirous to disparage the labours, however crotchety, of the author of the book on Election.

The 'Abbotsford edition' of the Waverley Novels, (Cadell, and Houlston and Stoneman,) has issued three volumes since our last notice. The work, on the whole, goes on very satisfactorily; not the less so, because, in some cases, the illustrations are produced with somewhat less prodigality. Of these, which constitute the chief element of its deserved popularity, we are disposed to reckon very highly Mr. Mulready's admirably clear drawings for Peveril of the Peak. One, Alice Bridgnorth dancing before her Father,' we think little short of perfection in its subdued comedy; and another, 'The Peverils attacked by the mob,' in its truthful and severe power of lines. The scratchy tinny steel engravings-the bane and disgrace of English art— which look so pretty, and are so bad, we could thankfully banish from the whole series. Franklin's drawings in the Talisman have all his vigour, and, may we add? his extravagances and out-Germanized Germanism; while Creswick has some beautiful landscapes, for which we think wood an inadequate medium. The antiquarian head and tail-pieces are the chief value of this edition, and of them we can generally speak in thorough commendation; though, now and then, anachronisms are fallen into, perhaps necessarily, when the object is rather to illustrate the present notions connected with the scenery of the Novels, than their then existing features. For example, in the Betrothed, p. 404, we get the choir of Gloucester Cathedral, with its inconceivably ugly and gigantic east window, of the most oppressive and inconsistent perpendicular, and its present preaching-box, right in front of the altar. And in the Fortunes of Nigel, p. 132, we are presented with the Temple Church, accompanied with the cloak and ruff of King James, and that abominable bell-cote, for which our own days are responsible. We may as well point out a more serious literary error connected with this edition. It ought to be, and, in many particulars, it is the standard edition. Now, although Scott was no scholar, the time has arrived when an English classic, as he is, should be relieved from his strange blunders in common quotation. There is, or there ought to be, an editor of these noble volumes; and we think it quite consistent with faithfulness to the original editions, or to the MSS. themselves, to remove some of these more palpable blunders. For example, King James was a scholar; and whatever Scott wrote we are quite sure that he did not intend the pedantic monarch to quote the 'lex horrendi carminis' with other than scrupulous exactness: we desire, therefore, an emendation in the phrase infelici arbori suspendite.' (Nigel, p. 316.) It is time, too, that Darsie Latimer altered his 'Cur me exanimas querelis tuis?' (Redgauntlet, p. 11.) If Virgil is to be quoted (Quentin Durward, p. 162), the misprint Vox duoque Morim,' may as well be corrected. And there never were heard in any place or time, the sublime notes of the Catholic Miserere me, Domine.' (Betrothed, p. 364.) On the whole,

while we are on the subject, we may express ourselves satisfied with the illustrations of medieval architecture and the Catholic ceremonial throughout the series. We do not find anything, under this head, quite so grotesque as a recent picture at the Royal Academy, where the celebration of the Eucharist before the battle of Bannockburn was represented by the administration of the chalice to a whole army; or as the baptism of Ethelbert, in one of the Cartoons, in which an acolyte was vested in a violetcoloured cassock and laced surplice at a perpendicular font. However, the Abbotsford edition is far from faultless in this respect; as witness the chapel (Betrothed, p. 340), and the gateway (p. 362), of the GardeDoloureuse; and the 'Saxon doorway' at the Temple Church, (Ivanhoe, p. 361,) which is, as everybody knows, no such thing. Somewhere, we remember the drawing of a pastoral staff misnamed a crosier; but this error is so common, even in well-informed quarters, that it requires notice rather than censure. However, with all these, and they are minor, drawbacks, the set of volumes is a noble monument to Scott, and we wish it, what it already commands, every success.

The Round Preacher; or, Reminiscences of Methodist Circuit Life,' (Simpkin.) We have little sympathy with any exposure of an inferior religion. Wesleyan Methodism is mean and tricky, full of all sorts of vulgarities and scheming pretences; says this writer. Perhaps it is; but it is a vast fact nevertheless, which, with all its mean associations, has absorbed, even if it has spoiled, a mass of earnest, simple souls, which we have never been able to attract or to keep; and this only because it has —what we have little pretence to-system. And we cannot bring ourselves to laugh at this, or to draw grotesque caricatures of the little absurdities, or hypocrisies, of which Methodism is made up. This sort of warfare is small. Besides, the present book is but an obvious imitation, though with occasional offences against right feeling,-to say nothing of good taste,-quite its own. As a fiction it is very inartificial, and loose as a composition.

There is something which we much like about Mr. Ernest Hawkins' "Notices of the Missions of the Church of England in the North American Colonies,' (Fellowes.) At first we thought the charm resided in the subject, though Missions, perhaps, are not the richest page in our history. But we are sure that what does constitute the great merit of the present book is its quiet, sensible, business-like tone and manner. There is neither affectation nor what is called prose in it; it reads, just as it ought to read, like annals, and nothing else. Whenever, and that is often, a lesson is to be learned, Mr. Hawkins does not call attention to the fact and assume didacticism, but he allows his narrative to do its own work in a simple way. Now and then, perhaps, this dislike of straining after effect does Mr. Hawkins less than justice: for instance, when he seems-and only seems-scarcely to sympathize enough with Seabury and his consecrators; still less with Talbot and Welton. The author's official position has enabled him to enrich his work with documentary matter of great value and hitherto of little use; from which we draw this, in its way, consoling