they may, let them come. But this great disruption between ourselves and our common country-for it amounts to nothing less has not come from our principles, but from our want of such an understanding of those principles as might have placed us in possession of our full Christian liberty. By what means our religious voluntaryism is to become mighty in this realm, so as to curb the arm of Lambeth or Canterbury, when we have been at so much pains to cut ourselves off from all the sources whence accession of strength may be derived, is a question quite beyond our power to answer. It seems to have been forgotten, that having cast off all the parties of the state-yea, flung the language of defiance in nearly every form at them all-there could be nothing but social vacuity left-vacuity, or the settled hostility of the confederacies whom we had thus denounced and bidden to their worst. Our own conviction for many a year has been, that English dissent has suffered greatly from being so much collapsed upon itself; and that few things would conduce more to its interests than effort to remove the partitions separating us so much from general society, and to multiply points of affinity rather than points of repugnance in that quarter. We complain of our isolation and neglect, and we court the very griev ance we deplore.

If the government had continued to present itself as adhering to that partial and unbending course which it seemed in the early stages of this question to have adopted, our uncompromis ing opposition might have received large aid from enlightened and sound-hearted men throughout the kingdom. But in the absence of aggression on the part of the government or the church, of a degree sufficiently marked to enlist the sympathy of the nation again in our favour-for at present we have lost that sympathy-our only hope is, in bringing a greater earnestness than ever to what should be felt at all times as our great mission -our effort to diffuse an intelligent and deep piety among our people, and by their means over a larger surface. Nonconformity will never be widely propagated as a system of mere polity. If it is ever to become greatly more prevalent and powerful than at present in this country, it must be by its becoming greatly more than at present a system of piety. We covet not men as dissenters who become such under any influence below that of devout Christian conviction. Men with whom dissent is only a section of their general politics commonly do us more harm than good.

We must regret the necessity of the extended personal allusion in the early part of this article; but the party accused felt it to

be due to himself that some such statement should be deposited in these pages; and here he is content it should be left to be judged of by all impartial men, either now, or when the present excitement shall have passed away, along with the many which have preceded it. Dr. Vaughan, in the language of Milton, has claimed, above all other liberty, the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely, according to conscience:' and no thanks to some of his assailants, if the punishment of his presumption in so doing be not as heavy a moral and social injury as it may be practicable to inflict on him. The attempt to convey this infliction may be clothed in what is meant to be soft and quiet speech, or in coarser and louder phrase-but in either mode there is no mistaking the intention. Whatever the supposed delinquent may have thought of these proceedings, he has not been moved from his purpose by them. In taking the side he has done on education, he has looked to the untaught poor of this great empire, and has wished to do them good; and to the evil likely to come on dissenters, should they pursue the course which many of them have taken, and he has wished to prevent that evil. In reviewing the past, he has nothing to retract-nothing for which to apologize. He cannot regret that he has spoken freely and to the full on this subject, unawed by the probable frowns of politicians at one time, or of misguided brethren, as he deemed them, at another. He is happy in the consciousness that neither fear nor favour has swayed him in this business. The majority of the contributors to this journal think substantially with its editor on this question; and the same may be said of the parties who aided most materially in giving it existence. This opinion we knew to be the type of a considerable extent of opinion elsewhere: and we resolved that it should have utterance, and that, on whatever side the majority might ultimately be found, fair-play should not be thrust to the wall. Time and circumstances will bring many who have been at issue in this debate to see more alike, and we are willing to wait until such influences shall have accomplished their appointed result. There are occasions when Christian principle and good sense work the best by being left to do their office in their season.

The Commissioners selected for the proper application of the Arts to the adornment of her Majesty's Palace at Westminster, have just issued another folio, which, like the Six Reports that have preceded it, contains more of suggestive arrangements for the future, than statements of work done. Still we learn from it of Statues of Hampden, Clarendon, and Falkland, progressing satisfactorily; and of Models commissioned, at a cost of 2700l., of the Magna Charta Barons and Prelates, to fill the vacant niches in the House of Lords, Nine sculptors have been selected for this portion of the decorations, some of them as yet hardly known to fame. The Commissioners have taken advantage, we presume, of the somewhat secondary nature of these sculptural adjuncts to the already gorgeous House of Lords, to give to some of our less known and provincial artists an opportunity of showing what they are capable of.

The portion of this Report, however, which possesses the most general interest, is the return of a Sub-Committee, which has since been approved and adopted by the Commissioners. It may therefore be regarded as a complete embodyment of the general scheme to be committed to British Artists, for speedy execution within the legislative palace of the nation. We have not room for a detailed examination of its largely varied contents, including alle gorical figures and subjects; patron saints; traditions and legendary fables, as well as historical subjects, from nearly every period of authentic history. The following list of subjects intended for the Peers and Commons' Corridors,

will interest most of our readers as the proposed illustrations of the two Great Revolutions:-Charles I. erecting his Standard at Nottingham.'-' Basing House defended by the Cavaliers against the Parliamentary Army.'-'The Expulsion of the Fellows of a College at Oxford for refusing to sign the Covenant.The Burial of Charles I.-'Speaker Lenthal asserting the Privileges of the Commons against Charles I., when the attempt was made to seize the Five Members.'-'The Setting-out of the Train Bands from London to raise the Siege of Gloucester.'-The Embarkation of a Puritan Family for New England.'-'The Parting of Lord and Lady Russell.' The Commons Corridor will have :-Charles II. assisted in his escape by Jane Lane.'-'The Executioner tying Wishart's Book round the Neck of Montrose.'-' Monk declaring for a Free Parliament.'- The Landing of Charles II.'-' Alice Lisle concealing the Fugitives after the Battle of Sedgemoor.'- The Sleep of Argyll. The Acquittal of the Seven Bishops.-The Lords and Commons presenting the Crown to William and Mary in the Banqueting House.' Some of the subjects are admirable. Others, such as that of The Landing of Charles II.,' lack all striking incident, and are capable of nothing more than a gaudy display of costume. We imagine that, however admissible early traditions and mythic fables may be, as poetic allegories containing a hidden meaning, the utmost care should be taken to represent only strict historic truth in all records of authentic history. Yet here we have Argyll's Sleep,' a matter at least very questionable in the sense in which it is understood, the sleep having been, according to contemporaries, the result of a habit engendered by disease. What shall we say of Canute reproving his Courtiers?' to us it has always appeared best fitted for the nursery! A correspondent of the Times calls attention to more egregious blundering, in the proposed Raleigh landing in Virginia;' poor Raleigh having never been permitted to set foot on any part of the North American shores ! Queen Eleanor sucking the poison from Edward I.'s Wound,' is another of the very questionable fucts of history. Then again, we have Marlborough at Blenheim!' Would not the signing of the Peace of Utrecht be equally glorious and honourable to the nation? the unpaid score for Blenheim will hardly rub out by such means. As to 'Monk declaring for a Free Parliament,' we presume it is intended to adopt the good old fashion of putting a label from his mouth with the Declaration! One class of the subjects seems to result from an anxiety on the part of the Commissioners to select from the history of each section of the United Kingdom. In this, however, their good will is more apparent than their knowledge. Wales and Ireland sadly puzzle them for subjects that shall not reflect on England; and Scotland, whose history is rich in picturesque incident, is very superficially treated. For the Painted Chamber we have James VI. receiving the news of the Death of Queen Elizabeth;—or, setting out for England as James I.'. A choice of subjects, which are both poor. Why not rather take 'The Marriage of James IV. to the Princess Margaret of England?'-A far nobler prince, the subject of one of the finest poems in the language, Dunbar's Thrissil and Rois,'- -a theme, too, made popular by Scott's Marmion,'-and the source of that peaceful accession to the English throne, by which the union of the rival kingdoms was effected. The more generally this Report is discussed the better; if it is easy to find fault, there is the more need it should be done, we may hope thereby to arrive at a result as faultless as a well devised scheme may be. We are happy to see that one of the subjects is The Embarkation of a Puritan Family for New England.' But why the Embarkation of a Puritan Family? Why not the embarkation in the May Flower? Why draw thus tamely on the imagination, when real history presents so rich a subject?

II. The Bottle. By GEORGE CRUIKSHANK,

The Bottle is a series of Temperance Prints, after the manner of Hogarth, executed by the clever caricaturist in the recently invented art of glyphography. The prints are large, and the aim of the artist is evidently to take his part among the moral teachers of his day. We must confess we have little faith in the regeneration likely to result from such overdrawn picturing of the great moral pestilence of our age. The story is of an English labourer and his wife. The scene opens with a comfortable domestic hearth, and the bottle introduced for the first time. Through the series of eight plates, we have drunkenness and destitution, an execution for rent, stripping the once happy home bare,beggary, the paupers' coffin for their infant, killed by cold and want,murder, prostitution, and lunacy. Such is the dreadful picture drawn by an able artist, but, we must say, with far less than usual talent and invention. We remember one of his Etchings-in his Omnibus, we think-The Car of the Modern Juggernaut,' which was worth the whole lot of these, both in genius and moral teaching. Plate I., 'The Peaceful Hearth,' and Plate VI, The Brutal Drunken Quarrel,' are universally applicable, and should be issued alone. That drunkenness may lead to the gallows, and has often done so, is unquestionable; but, after all, these are the rare exceptions. The grand lever of the moralist, which none can evade the application of, is the 'Look on this picture, and then on this,' of the two we have selected. Alas! we fear leviathan is not to be so easily tamed.

III. Windsor Castle. Painted by D. O. HILL; engraved by WILLIAM RICHARDSON.

We are glad once more to see a good line engraving issue from this publishers' hands, and to find an engraver bold enough to undertake the laborious task. The painting by Mr. Hill, the Secretary of the Scottish Royal Academy, is a very happy representation of the magnificent old castellated Palace of Windsor, under the effect which Turner so much delights in-viz., a sunset effect with the rising moon. The engraver, Mr. Richardson, is already well known for his successful rendering of Professor Cockerell's 'Tribute to the Memory of Sir Christopher Wren.' We say enough when we remark that this beautiful plate will greatly add to his reputation. There can be no doubt of its becoming a popular print.

BOOKS.

IV. Home Influence; a Tale for Mothers and Daughters. By GRACE AGUILAR. 2 vols. 12mo. Groombridge, London. 1847.

We were pleased with the title of these volumes, and have been so much pleased with their contents that we shall allow the author to state her object in her own terms:

The following story will, the author trusts, sufficiently illustrate its title to require but few words in the way of preface. She is only anxions to impress two facts on the minds of her readers. The one-that having been brought before the public principally as the author of Jewish works, and as an explainer of the Hebrew faith, some Christian mothers might fear that the present work has the same tendency, and hesitate to place it in the hands of their children. She, therefore, begs to assure them, that as a simple domestic story, the characters in which are all