SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

STATISTICS,

Local Reports on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of England, in consequence of so Inquiry directed to be made by the Peor.Law Commissioners. Presented to both Houses of Parliament, by Command of her Maiesty. July 1842. Sanitary Inquiry: England Her Majesty's Stationery Ogee Local Reports on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Scotland, in consequence of an Inquiry directed to be made by the Poor-Law Commissioners Presented to both Houses of Parliament, by Command of her Majesty. July 1842 Sanitary Inquiry: Scotland Her Majesty's Stationery Office. CHURCH Hurrouv.

History of the Church of Christ. until the Revolution A.D. 1688 : in a course of Lectures. Ily the Reverend Charles Mackenzie, M.A., Vicar of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate ; and Head Master or Queen Elizabeth's Grammar Sch. oh. St. Glare's, Southwark Swith and Elder.

FICTION,

The Herberts. By the Author of •• Elphinstone." In three volumes.

Saunders and Otley,

LOCAL REPORTS ON THE SANITARY CONDITION OF THE POOR OF GREAT BRITAIN.

THESE Local Reports, addressed to the Poor-law Commissioners in answer to their circular inquiring as to the condition of the poor, in'one respect fall behind the Report prepared from them by the Secretary : they want the unity of purpose and distinct- ness of arrangement which characterized that official document, In all other respects they exceed it—in variety of subject, in freshness of observation and individual character, as well as in the pictures they furnish of the actual condition of the poor, and very often in soundness of view, and a sensible philosophy with- out any air of philosophizing. They have also another feature. It was no doubt far from Mr. CHADWICK'S intention to garble the documents submitted to him, or even to select their information in order to advance any views of his own as to the theory of disease, or to mislead Parliament into legislating for sanitary purposes. But the person who attentively examines these Reports will draw conclusions different from those which he would gain from Mr. CHADWICK'S volume ; for a fair proportion of the medical authori- ties as regards number, and we think a convincing proportion as regards weight, consider that pocerty and its concomitants are the real cause of the infectious diseases which affect the poor ; and that the action of dirt, bad drainage, and bad ventilation, (though highly proper things to be remedied by legislation,) is slight in the operation upon the human system, compared to the depressing effects of hunger, scanty clothing, and the mental anxiety of desti- tution.

The two volumes before us contain the several reports respecting two countries ; England and Scotland. Those of England are chiefly furnished by Assistant Poor-law Commissioners, and me- dical men ; those of Scotland, entirely by the profession and a few volunteer statists, no functionaries existing in the Northern kingdom who could give any reply to the queries of the Commis- sioners. In a more rigid adherence to the objects of the in- quiry, as well as in a certain formal skill in presenting their in- formation in a more classified way, and most assuredly in answer- ing the questions put, the volume of English Reports excels that of Scotland : in other respects the Northern contributions have de- cidedly the advantage, and leave a very favourable impression of the general intelligence and professional acumen of the Scottish practitioners. Some, indeed, have interpreted the sanitary objects of the Commissioners into a full inquiry into the condition of the poor ; one or two others have taken advantage of the circular to pen in reply a sort of typographical and historical account of the dis- trict, over and above its economical and hygienic condition ; and crotchets may be found here and there without difficulty. These ex- traneous parts, however, are by no means the least interesting; for they present glimpses of the habits and condition of several classes of persons about whom we were not likely to learn any thing through other channels. The deviation from the prescribed routine of sta- tistics and Poor-law Reports is also favourable to independence of view, giving an original air which it is in vain to look for in the more methodical papers, and not unfrequently in the compilations of the English functionaries from communications furnished to them by persons connected with the Unions ; whilst, though little notions may occasionally be found in the Scotch Reports, they have not so parish an appearance as several of the English, or so much the character of llogberry philosophy. The picture of the poor in the two countries is the reverse of the description of them ; the balance upon the whole inclining in favour of England, and greatly in two main classes, that of the agricultural labourers and the destitute poor. Some of this supe- riority perhaps may be traced to a higher rate of wages, which inducing a better standard of living, gives the falling as it were a further fall before they reach absolute destitution. In the agricultural districts something may also be attributed to the greater density of population, which gives the sick and helpless a better chance of neighbourly assistance, and brings their dis- tress more distinctly before their immediate public. The great difference, however, arises from the Poor-law ; which compels the English authorities to provide for the actually destitute, to furnish medical attention to the sick, to meet cases of special difficulty, such as lunacy, in a fitting way, and has imparted a higher tone to the public mind as regards the right of the poor to a subsistence. Instances of neglect and of abuse may doubtless be discovered, especially in small workhouses, where there are not sufficient funds, or sufficient numbers to go to the expense of good management; but they are exceptions, and as soon as the evil becomes known it receives some kind of remedy. In Scotland, on the other hand, the class of poor who are past work, or are unable to work from sickness or extreme youth, or whose sex prevents them from earn- ing enough to support life, seem reduced, not here and there or by accident, but universally, to a state bordering on starvation ; cases of which may continually occur A-ub silentio, from the absence of a Coroner's 'inquest in Scotland. The usual allowance from the beritors and the church-collection appears to be a shilling a week ; and in many places there is not enough raised to pay this ; whilst there is no house of refuge for the aged and helpless, and generally no medical officer appointed upon whom the sick poor have a claim as a matter of course. The consequence is, a fearful state of distress, (the greater part of which, no doubt, never reaches the public ear,) and the occurrence of deaths with little more attention than is paid to wild animals. We take a few examples of what is known.

LUNATICS AT TRANENT.

In and around Tranent there are many insane persons. There are about twenty idiots in the parish of Tranent. The relatives of many of these arc very unable to provide for their subsistence. I do not think that any assistance is given by the parish towards their maintenance. Deranged persons, who are dangerous to themselves and others, should he provided for, and put under restraint. Two individuals are thus provided for by the parish of Tranent. But I know of one person who is not thus provided for : she is a young woman ; she lives with her mother, an old widow. She is very furious, is confined in a dark closet; I believe she is completely naked; has no bed save a little straw, and has no bed-clothes. She roars like a wild beast ; I have heard her; she tears every thing that comes in her way ; she tore with her teeth a strait-waistcoat in which she was once restrained. She lives like a hog ; and her dark closet is cleaned out during the night, that the neighbours may not be horrified by the sight. The parish authorities have failed to send this person to an asylum, although solicited by the mother, a poor but most respectable person. The heritors, I believe, allow 2s. 6d. per week for the maintenance of this object.

DEFICIENCY or MEDICAL ATTENDANCE.

There are very few parishes in Scotland where a fixed sun) is given for me- dical attendance on the poor. The poor in general seek assistance where they MR get it ; and on many occasions go without it altogether. When a cage of urgent distress occurs, the minister of the parish sometimes requests a medical gentleman to see it; and payment is made from the parish-funds. This is a very inefficient way of providing medical assistance. People who are very ill sometimes die without assistance. Some clergymen treat cases themselves ; and the consequence may be readily conceived. Moreover, when assistance is pro- cured, it frequently happens that it comes too late to be of any use. The mi- nister may be from home, or engaged, and may not at the time consider the matter of such importance as to require immediate attention. Some clergy- men are very attentive to the poor. A great deal of this evil would be pre- vented were parish-surgeons appointed throughout Scotland. I would strongly recommend the immediate adoption of this step; it would save the lives of many persons, and relieve the sufferings of thousands.

The above account is from Tranent, a parish in the heart of the country : the following is from the Report on Tain and Easter Ross, remote parishes in the far North.

"When any epidemic or contagious disease prevails among them, it com- monly diffuses itself with a fearful rapidity and malignity. The state of such families on these occasions is truly pitiable. Out ot many similar cases that have come under my own observation, I mention the following. Some months ago, while passing through the western part of the parish of Edderton, I was waited on by a female, who besought me to visit her sick husband. I complied; and was led to a miserable hut, consisting of two small apartments, one of which was used both for kitchen and byre, wherein I found two half-naked children and a starveling heifer. In the second lay the husband, in the last stage of continued fever. He had now been ill for three weeks; and during the last week he could get no assistance towards turning him in bed; his wife, who hap- pened to be in the last stage of pregnancy, being utterly unable to do so. On his back I found a large bed-sore. All the cash in the house consisted of 18.6d., and the eatables of a peck of meal and a few potatoes. The whole furniture was not worth 20s. A day or two thereafter, I again visited this wretched family. I fifund that, during my absence, the mother was delivered, her only attendant being a feeble old woman ; and I found a child of five years of age nursing the infant, whilst the mother was obliged, in this situation, to attend to the household duties. A few hours after I left, the husband was a corpse. This helpless family could not afford medical attendance. • * •

"There is no institution whatever toward affording medical aid to the sick poor. The ratio of mortality is high : in my opinion, nineteen out of twenty the without having had the benefit of medical advice."

The following extracts from the same authority, Mr. CAMERON of Taim convey a sad picture of the poverty of a class who in the Southern part of the island are at least raised above the de- gradation of mendicancy.

"The houses of crofters and day-labourers arc generally inferior to those of farm-servants. They are also less cleanly in their habits: in many cases they and their cattle live under the same roof. In not a few cases their houses are constructed wholly of turf, the smoke being allowed to find its way not wherever it can find an aperture. In many cases the cattle enter through the same door with the inmates, and the 'domestic' fowls, strictly so called, perch themselves on the rafters or couples above the heads of their lords. This de- scription however, is happily applicable only to the minority and the more ancient al' these dwellings. "It must be remarked, that the number of real paupers is known to be &able that of those who actually apply for relief. Delicacy, or a species of pride, or commiseration for those who are more depressed and wretched than themselves prevents the former from becoming candidates for the miserable Pittance doled out to them by the Kirk-Session. Indeed, from the scantiness of the funds, it often happens that importunate applicants are sent away un- relieved. In some parishes it is the custom to attach the furniture of the pauper after his death, at the instante of the Kirk-Session, in order to swell the pauper-funds. The average value of the furniture is from 5s. to 15s. 'The only other resource of the poor is mendicancy. The houses of almost all the respectable inhabitants of the district are open to vagrant beggars. Considerable sums are often collected in this manner by the poor. Some re- spectable families in the country contribute largely to the vagrant poor—much more so than they would have to do were a legal assessment in force. The expense of supplying wandering mendicants falls most heavily and dispropor- tionately on the benevolent and kind-hearted.

" It must not he supposed that poverty is confined to the enrolled paupers. It may too often be found in the turf cabin of the lower sort ofcrofters ; whose few acres of sterile ground are not sufficient, after the most patient cultivation, to yield even a supply of potatoes, the only or principal article of their aliment. How are these, when infirm or old, enabled to pay their rent—except, perhaps, by begging in a quarter where they arc not known?" We have been chiefly speaking hitherto of a class of poor who ever must be poor, and whose poverty can only be alleviated by• the money of society,—the impotent from age, from infirmity, from sickness, or from childhood, as well as women whose sex precludes them from many employments, and whose relations have deserted them or are unable to assist them. As respects town-labourers and artisans in health, the general current of opinion in these Reports seems to be, that much of their distress is chargeable upon themselves, and that neither dirt nor the appearance of abso- lute destitution is any proof of misfortune, but often the reverse. The money earned by many of the dirtiest persons, inhabiting the most deplorable-looking places, is much greater than that of well- conducted individuals with less wages, and sometimes than that of persons whose station compels a regard to appearances. The first cause of this result is attributed to drunkenness; the next, if it be not frequently the origin of drunkenness, is the deficient housewifery of the female, which often drives the husband to the public-house, and always wastes or mismanages their resources ; in the manufac- turing-towns something is attributed to insufficient control over children, who at an early age emancipate themselves from the au-• thority of their parents if they are not allowed to subtract a large portion of their earnings for their own expenditure, by which the joint-stock-purse is diminished, independently of obvious moral evils. Ignorance is also advanced by some writers as a cause of distress ; but others think that mere book-learning is of little use without domestic or home training, and that, as a general rule, wherever there is economy and cleanliness in the poor man's room or cottage, the occupants have inherited their household virtues.

We state these views broadly as we have deduced them from the scattered opinions before us ; but we have some doubt as to their truth. Without denying that good management, domestic indus- try, and cleanliness, would very greatly improve the condition of the poor, we yet question whether the wages of the bulk of them will do as much as some of these writers, especially the Somerset House writers, suppose ; and still more, whether allowance is made for the times of eat-reed idleness, or the loss and expenses of unforeseen afflictions. We fear that the condition of the "weavers and out-door labourers of Ayr," as described by Dr. Site, is too true a definition of a very large class of working-people--- "Their wages, when they are regularly employed, are merely suf- ficient to procure such a subsistence for their families as keeps them constantly on the verge of destitution; and when they are thrown idle by vicissitudes of trade, or by the inclemency of the weather, or when they have their expenses increased by domestic affliction, they are unable to provide for the wants of their families even during a very short period." Passing over a variety of incidental topics, connected with the morals, habits, and condition of the poor in various places, we re- turn to an important point — the manner in which the Somerset House officials have dealt with the communications submitted to them at their own request. If a party-writer, professing to found his conclusions upon the facts and opinions in documents before him, should suppress all that militated against his own views, he would be considered to exceed the licence of party-writing, and subject himself to strong censure. If an author, professing to announce his own opinions, were to behave in a similar manner, he would be obnoxious to still severer remark. The case before us is worse than either of them ; for we find a person clothed with an official character, collecting information in virtue of that character drawing up a Report which receives the sanction of his own and his superiors' public position, and is intended to lay the foundation of a legislative measure, suppressing opinions opposed to his peculiar views. The object of Mr. CHADWICK'S Report, adopted by the Poor law-Commissioners, is to procure an act of Par- liament, empowering local authorities to remove dirt, drain streets and houses, arch over ditches, and in short, cleanse. One main basis of the alleged necessity for this act is the assertion that dirt and deficient ventilation cause fever. This opinion may be correct, or it may be erroneous : it may be—we think it is— very proper that legislative measures should be adopted to remove nuisances and enforce public cleanliness : but, as a public officer, charged pith preparing a Report from public documents, for a par- ticular purpose, we think Mr. CHADWICK bound, as a matter of official honesty, to have given as much prominence to the following opinions, which contradicted, as he did to those which favoured his own views,—especially as he could "travel out of the record" to quote from French reports and Army orders. The passages quoted are in one sense of an unnecessary length, as they all ex- press a somewhat similar opinion ; but it was necessary to show that the view was not that of a single individual.

"But the disease which is the most formidable scourge of the poor is con- tinued fever. Of this the town is never free, though it prevails to a much greater extent at one time than another. • • • At this moment it is raging chiefly in Newington Green, in which very few cases occurred during the previous years. It thus appears, that notwithstanding the great diversity in the nature of the abodes of the poor in regard to pure air, at least around the exterior of their houses, still fever does not give a preference to one locality over another, but searches out the destitute wherever they are to be found. The year 1836 was the commencement of severe depression in the muslin manufactures, so that hand-loom weavers and female sewers were reduced to extreme difficulties. Cross Street is the principal residence of these people; and accordingly, Cron Street was the great (mutt of fever in 1836. In the parish of Ayr, a subscription was raised, and the weavers were all kept at their looms till they received work again from Glasgow and Paisley. In that year they were better off than the weavers of Wallacetown ; and fever prevailed leas in Townhead than in Cross Street. The low wages at which the weaverrs have been working to the manufacturers since 1836, have not proved sufficient to arrest the disease, and it has now visited each quarter of the town in its turn. We have seen that the portion of the High Street between the old bridge and Wallacetown is not only the moat crowded part of Ayr, but it contains all the nuisances ; yet fever has prevailed more at Townhead than in this part of High Street. and there have been very few cases of it in the neighbourhood of the slaughter-house, the churchyard, swinefield, and the stables and cowhouscs in the narrow back alleys : the inhabitants of these places are in general not so poor as those of Townhead and Cross Street. Again, Cross Street is in- habited by colliers as well as weavers; the houses of the two classes arc inter- mingled ; the stench around the doors and the filth of the interior are as great among the colliers as among the weavers : but the colliers and their families live on a more nutritious diet than the weavers ; and my talented friend Mr. Gibson, who is surgeon to the coal-works, informs me that while fever ranges among the weavers it is not by any means a prevalent disease with the colliers, although small-pox and other epidemics are equally severe with both trades. This is not owing to the colliers being men of sounder constitutions than the weavers ; for they are unhealthy-looking, broken down by accidents and whisky, generally affected with chronic bronchitis, and on the whole short-lived. Their blood, however, is of a better crasis than that of the half-famished weavers, in consequence of their superior diet. In short, I cannot, from the investigation I have made into the localities and progression of fever, connect its ravages with the nuisances which are exterior to the houses of the poor. It seems to me to be the offspring of their poverty itself, which renders their constitution susceptible of attacks, especially when exposed to contagion."—Dr. James 83mts Ayr. In another passage, the same author comes to a sound conclu- sion—a conclusion more likely to carry conviction than the one- sided statements of an official doctrinaire, especially when their onesidedness has been detected.

" 1 have thus arrived at the conclusion, that fever among the poor is not so much to be attributed to the nuisances by which they are surrounded and the filth of their houses, as to the innutritious diet and other hardships which re- sult immediately from poverty itself. I am far, however, from maintaining i that the former are not njurious to the health of the poor, or that they arc unworthy of the consideration of a wise legislature. On the contrary, I know that they have a powerful influence in producing that cachectic state of the constitution which renders it prone to many fatal diseases; and I have no doubt, to fever among the rest. I have prevailed upon delicate families to leave the vicinity of these nuisances, and the result has been a happy change in the state of their health. The blood requires the respiration of an uncon- taminated atmosphere to maintain the body in a state of perfect health, and the less pure the inspired air the less perfectly will the blood perform its office. But we do not live upon air alone, and the most offensive air we ever breathe differs less from pure tar than innutritious and scanty food differs from a whole-

some and sufficient diet. Whilst, therefore, the malaria of animal and vege- table matters in a state of corruption is unquestionably detrimental to the general health, I consider that its influence in predisposhig the system to fever is utterly insignificant in comparison with the effects of protracted semi-starva- tion and the other evils which have poverty for their immediate source; nor do I conceive that it contains at all the specific morbid poison by which continued fever is excited, in the way that marsh-miasmata contain the specific poison of intermittents. As, however, it is highly injurious to the general health, I most earnestly recommend that every practicable measure should be adopted for relieving the town from its influence."—.Dr. James Sym, Ayr.

Here is what Dr. Scorr ALISON says upon the same subject, though in a more qualified way. 'I think these unwholesome circumstances for the most part act thus. They assist the rime and progress of continued fever; they induce many acute diseases of the stomach, lungs, and liver; but the chief mode in which they operate is by inducing a general bad state of health. Perhaps for every one that suffers acute disease, two have their general health impaired. The forms of impaired health, which most commonly arise in those who are exposed to the operation of these unwholesome agencies, are irritable befit of body, ptal- rnonary consumption, fistula, indigestion or dyspepsia, general debility, often connected with organic alterations of the lungs, liver, spleen and kidnies, bad and strumous habit of body, leading to pastas and lumbar abscess and disease of mesenteric glands. I do not think that any or all of the unwholesome circum- stances which have been pointed out produce all or nearly all the febrile diseases mentioned in the beginning of this report as being prevalent in Tranent."—Dr. Scott Alison, Tranent.

We will now cross the Border to England. -

" It is very remarkable that not one home-patient affected with fever was admitted at the Salford Dispensary from this Insalubrious place from June 1838 to June 1839 ; strong presumptive evidence that something in addition to an unhealthy site is necessary for the generation of typhoid fevers. • * • " Notwithstanding the generally admitted fact that fever is most prevalent in localities where refuse is allowed to accumulate and decay, and notwith- standing all the evidence which has been adduced here in support of that opinion, the existence of some other cause seems necessary for the generation of the disease. It would not be difficult to point out places in a most abomina- bly filthy state, which have remained free from fever for a long period ; yet no sooner has one case occurred, than the disease has spread with the greatest ra- pidity. In the course of my necessary inquiries for the preparation of this re- port, I have met with many more filthy situations, in which the occurrence of fever is extremely rare; a fact of which I have satisfied myself, both from the records of the medical institutions and from the evidence of the residents.

"My own impression is, that the overcrowding and neglect of ventilation, the dissipated habits, and above all the poverty and destitution which prevail among the inhabitants of the low and filthy quarters of large towns, are more powerful causes of fever than the malaria to which those people are exposed ; for we find that persons who are well fed and abundantly supplied with the ne- cessaries of life, bear with impunity exposure to the most offensive effluvia arising from putrefying animal matters, or at least that in them it does not

produce fever. • • "Enough has, however, I think, been said to prove the frequent dependence of fever on the distressed and destitute condition of the poor; and I should be concealing a conclusion to which all my observations and all my experience have led me, and of the truth of which I am firmly convinced, if I did not dis- tinctly avow my belief, that whatever the essential cause or causes of con- tagious fever may be, poverty and want are the most influential causes of its prevalence and extension among the labouring classes in Manchester."—Dr. It B. Howard, Manchester.

" We beg to observe, that upon turning to our remarks upon the localities of disease in this town, it will be found that fevers and those forms of disease which are by many believed to arise from a confined and impure atmosphere, do not prevail more in one situation or one kind of house than in another; and that contagious disorders are quite as frequent in houses of a different con- struction, in the front houses in the streets and in airy situations, as in the dwellings in the courts which are built as we have described. • • •

" The next question which has occupied our attention is, whether fever has any peculiar localities in Birmingham—whether there are any parts of the town in which it constantly or more frequently exists than in others ; whether it appears in dwellings of any particular construction more frequently than in others and whether it affects individuals following certain occupations more than others. Our inquiries convince us that there is no part of the borough in which fever can be said constantly to exist ; and we are not able to fix upon any parts of the town in which its appearance most frequently takes place. Ave find it occurring in the elevated as well as in the lower situations, in the more recently built as well as in the old parts of the town, in the front houses in streets in open and in airy situations, in the narrow and ill ventilated courts, in the houses which are built back to back, and in the double houses which possess a thorough ventilation. The poor are certainly more frequently the subjects of its attacks than those in a better condition of life; but we are unable to discover that any particular occupations carried too in this town pre-

dispose to its accession or promote its fatality. •

" Whatever depresses the vital powers appears to place the human body in a condition which is favourable to the attack of fever, or to render the disease more violent. Filth, an impure atmosphere, and putrid exhalations, by their depressing influence upon the vital energies, may produce these effects, or per- haps originate the disease ; but, in our opinion, anxiety of mind, penury, and starvation, and the depression of the bodily and mental powers which attends these conditions, are more frequent causes of fever than all the other sources to which it is attributed."—Physicians and Surgeons of Birmingham. " Notwithstanding this crowded and deplorable state of these habitations, contagious diseases do not appear to have generally prevailed ; and in three in- stances only, viz, in the Wrexham, Bala, and Festiniog Unions, are they at all attributed to this origin. For the distinction thus indicated between these and their neighbouring Unions I am aware of no reason; and I feel more inclined to believe that the real cause is rather to be found in the habits of the inmates than in the construction of the dwellings."—Mr. W. Day, Assistant Poor- law Commissioner.

"When I say that I consider poverty as a fruitful source of disease, I do not mean to assert that even extreme poverty is adequate to the production of fever; yet I am nevertheless of opinion that it is one of the most predisposiug causes, and that it cannot exist long without contagious fever making its appearance, more particularly in densely-crowded situations. Poverty not only indicates an inability to procure proper food in quantity and quality, but it also indicates a like inability to procure all other necessaries of life ; and it is universally ad- mitted, that where circumstances combine to enervate the human constitution, contagious diseases extend with a frightful rapidity. I do not wish, however, any remarks I have madein this letter to be considered as having reference to fever alone; but as applying with almost equal force to the production of dis- eased action generally."—Dr. Edward .De Vibe, Lancaster. We pass no judgment on these opinions : we will even allow them to be medically wrong : but it was much more morally wrong in Mr. CHADWICK, not to give them as great prominence as his own views, though he could not have made them so all-pervading. Unless we have overlooked the passages, however, he has sup- pressed them altogether; though he makes some of the writers authorities, by quoting them when it suits his purpose. And what will this disingenuity yield, but weapons against his objects ? He has armed all those whose interests or prejudices may induce them to oppose any change in the law with a charge of dishonesty, which cannot be confuted ; whilst he attaches a weight to the views of the writers we have quoted, ,which they would never have possessed had they been fairly put forward at the outset. So much for that "policy" which is not "the best."

MACKENZIE'S LECTURES 02i CHURCH HISTORY.

These Lectures were delivered during the winter-months of 1839 and 1840, in the parish-church of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, in con- sequence of a foundation by Sir MARTIN LUMLEY. They consist of a summary of the principal events in church history, from the meet- ing of the Apostles immediately subsequent to the Resurrection, till the English Revolution in 1688: and these events are mainly limited to the Primitive, Romish, and Anglican Churches ; par- ticular facts being moreover selected with an especial eye to the points in controversy between Rome and England, as well as to the object of establishing the Anglican to be the true "visible church." • In a literary point of view, these Lectures are entitled to the praise of clearness, rapidity, and pleasantness, with occasional pas- sages of scholastic eloquence,—that would have been more effective, however, had they possessed greater individual raciness, though at the expense of the well-balanced periods of the well-tutored sermon-writer. The matter of the Lectures strikes us as partak- ing somewhat of the common stock character of the style ; and, both in its historical facts and its controversial commentaries, to be rather derived from the standard books of a thoroughly-educated divinity student, than from any original reflection and research. As a mode of disseminating, from the pulpit, information among the laity of a theological though not of a strictly religious character, the design is entitled to credit, whether suggested by the terms of the founder's will, or originated by Mr. MACKENZIE as a means of varying the nature of discourses from the pulpit on a day not specially appointed by the Church to religious services. In this point of view, it is not unworthy of imitation by pastors, who with the re- quisite reading and ability have the wish to attain something more than a legal or conventional hold over their parishioners, by adapt- ing their instructions to the state of the times. The principles of the lecturer are those of the old High Church- man, or perhaps of the Puseyites. He stands stiffly up for the Apostolical succession, and the existence of the "true visible church" in the present Establishment : he implies the doctrine of non-resistance and " right divine" in rulers, as well as the supe- riority of the priesthood, not from their education or profession and the human consequences thence arising, but as set apart by Divine ordinance, and inheriting or receiving by transmission a Divine authority; whilst, though opposing the more superstitious dogmas of Rome, he regrets the discontinuance of some of her prac- tices—as confession. Individually, there is much of good feeling, and nothing that can be personally offensive to other religionists: but the notions of the ordained minister are continually peeping out ; one instance of which is as good as several. Mr. MACKENZIE more than once refers to Dr. VAUGHAN as an authority, and once, in his ac- count of Wicnirr, has possibly forgotten his references, but on the only occasion he alludes to him, he calls this distinguished clergyman

and all but Bishop of the Congregationalists the "talented essayist." These sort of prejudices are the blot of the book, and will not only bar its cordial reception by all Protestants save a limited sect, but they also induce some literary weaknesses. It may be a question whether it is discreet in any but a Romish theologian to moot the question of the "visible church," not interpreted as the general congregation of the faithful but of some particular establishment like the Anglican or the Greek Church : because the practical corruption of the Romish Church for many ages, with its doctrinal errors for some thousand years, and still per- sisted in, prevent it front being recognized by the Anglicans as the true church ; indeed, if it were, the Protestants would he guilty of schism. Similar causes, though not obtaining to the same extent, militate against the recognition of the Greek ; and the error of the Waldenses in altogether rejecting the doctrine of the "visible church," sufficiently removes their claim. It therefore follows, that for some ages there was no "visible church" at all; which is directly contrary to the text. This is a fundamental error. The following reasons in favour of the Apostolical succession in the Anglican Church, and the Divinely-delegated authority of the priesthood, is a weakness scarcely essential to the argument.

INTRODUCTION OP CHRISTIANITY AND THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION AMONG THE ANGLO-SAXONS.

Gregory the Great, of Rome, about 150 years after the arrival of the Saxons in Britain, having been interested in the cause by the sight of some English prisoners exposed for sale at Rome, sent missionaries for that purpose into Bri- tain. The chief of those missionaries was Augustine; who was kindly re- ceived by Ethelbert and his Christian Queen Bertha, the daugbter of the French Monarch Caribert ; and for whom it had been stipulated that she should be permitted to make free profession of the religion in which she had been educated. When Ethelbert had resolved upon embracing the same truths, he gave a mansion in Canterbury, with a licence to preach, to Augustine and his followers • and Augustine returning into France, received ordination as the Archbishop Of the English Church, from the Bishop of Arles.

Here we must pause to notice a few particulars that are important to Englishmen, who have protested against the errors of Popery, and, claiming to be members of the true Church, profess to derive the authority of their priest- hood uncorrupted from the hands of the Apostles.

By going abroad for episcopal ordination, Augustine acknowledged the im- portance of authority being properly delegated. His commission as Arch- bishop was not a mere royal grant, nor was it sufficient that his colleagues should elect him to that office. Besides the protection of the Bing, and the consent of his followers, he required also that he should be consecrated to his office by one who was already a Bishop. If this argument be of any weight for the consecration of those who are already priests, to the office of Bishop or Archbishop, it must have more force when applied to the ordaining of men to the ministry of the Word ; so that no man may take this office on himself before he be called and sent to this work by men having authority in the congregation to call and send ministers into the Lord's vineyard. Again, by going to Arles, and not to Rome, for consecration, Augustine supplies an argument against the right of Rome to exercise authority over English Bishops, and relieves those prelates from an objection that might in some minds exist against the purity of the channel through which their com- mission from the Apostles has been transmitted. It is not disputed that Augustine came from Rome by the desire of Gregory ; nor that he afterwards wrote to him with reports of his success, and for the solution of existing difficulties; nor that, upon his intimating that the harvest was pleateous and the labourers were few, more missionaries were sent to Lim from Rome. But these are only the natural steps when one people attempts

to evangelize another. • • • • •

Nevertheless, it was to Arles, and not to Rome, that he went for consecra- tion; and consequently, if there were any thing corrupt in the line of Romish Bishops so as to invalidate their claim to Apostolical succession, such a charge could not in consequence be brought against the Anglican Church.