spreading on the one hand, and a spirit of religious indifference was gaining ground on the other. Mr. Townsend did not believe the character of the Church of Rome changed; he saw, in the nineteenth century, not merely the same idolatry, but the same cruelty, as in the dark ages. Historians, poets, statesmen, wrote and reasoned as if Romanism had laid aside all its characteristic features, and was becoming mild and gentle-inquiring and forbearing. A tolerant Pope and his enlightened minister, led many an unsuspecting Protestant to believe that the Vatican would never again fulminate Bulls against Bible Societies and Lancasterian Schools. Our friend thought differently -he predicted that the Jesuits would again become formidable; that a spirit would again arise in Catholic countries that would aim at the suppression of all most dear to Protestant Christians. Thirteen years have elapsed since the re-publication of Claude, and, during that time, such rapid strides have been made by the Jesuits to recover their former influence and power, that they are filling almost all the professors' chairs in France, and will probably soon gain the entire education of youth. Convents have increased, and now amount to an incredible number. Another Pope has arisen, who has denounced the Bible as a book to be read only by the learned-Lancasterian schools have been suppressed, and all works prohibited that can enlighten the human mind, or teach the way of salvation purely and spiritually. With such sentiments, and under such impressions, Mr. Townsend published Claude, and

in a sketch of his life, made some spirited observations on the influence of Popery.

From the dedication, which was to His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, we quote the following passage. "Our present blessings, under the favour of divine Providence, have been procured through the medium of long-continued sufferings, and strenuous and persevering conflicts with religious intolerance and political despotism. The recollection of these endears them to every bosom truly British. I am satisfied that it will not be. forgotten by your Royal Highness, or by the other Princes of your family, that as the Reformation itself, and the zeal of the English Protestants in its defence, led ultimately to the Hanoverian succession,-so it is the genuine, the unbending, and the steady principles of our Protestant communities, and their unshaken attachment to the Reformation, which still form the most natural, the most invulnerable, and the only legitimate rampart round the Throne, the Constitution, the Bibles, and the Altars of our beloved country."

We hope our readers will not find the following passages from the life of Claude dull and uninteresting. They embody so many of Mr. Townsend's sentiments on Romanism, that we should not be faithful biographers, were we not to allow his firm attachment to the Protestant Faith to be a prominent part of this memoir. "Men of education and taste have their partialities with respect to articles of biography. Some are only captivated with accounts of the warrior and the hero, and are never tired with gazing at the exploits, and tracing

the triumphant progress, of those who have traversed the martial field. Others are gratified by viewing the characters, and inspecting the labours, of men of science, who, by lessons of useful instruction, have diffused knowledge-promoted industrious and social habits-extended civilization and domestic happiness-and procured to themselves the honourable title of the benefactors of mankind. A third class read, with equal admiration, the lives of celebrated politicians, the thunder of whose eloquence has astonished and electrified crowded and applauding senates, while the wisdom and energy of their measures have immortalized them as the saviours of their country.

"Entertaining and interesting as these several species of biography may be to readers in general, one class still remains to be mentioned, which, in the estimation of an enlightened and zealous Christian, excels them all. He delights to pore over the pages on which are drawn the intellectual and moral portraits of those wise, disinterested, and holy men, who, duly appreciating the value of civil and religious liberty, whilst surrounded on every side by darkness, superstition, and intolerance, have discovered an ardent attachment to Protestant principles, openly and successfully pleading for them; and also cheerfully and patiently enduring a great fight of affliction on their behalf. These truly honourable men might say to us, Other men have laboured, and ye have entered into their labours. To those who venerate such characters, and who justly estimate their worth, the editor of this new edition of Claude's

Defence of the Reformation, encourages a hope that this sketch of the life of its author will yield satisfaction and instruction.

"The intolerant spirit and the cruel persecutions of the Romish Church, have for many ages filled the world with lamentation and horror. The history of almost every age and every country is stained and disfigured with the black and hideous catalogue of her infamous crimes. The bigoted and interested advocates of her communion, and the vindictive ministers of her unrighteous vengeance, have impoverished, imprisoned, and murdered thousands, even of their own countrymen, to force the remainder to bow down to the idol of their prejudice, and pronounce that unscriptural and barbarous shibboleth, which they have impiously set up as the only passport to life eternal. Some may think I speak too strongly; let then their own language, and their own actions, decide what kind of spirit the enemies of the Reformation exhibited in the ages which preceded Claude; his own life and experience will show what it was in his time.

"The Christian minister, whos emind is imbued with the love of God and the love of his neighbour, will at all times fill his post, and discharge the duties of his station, with fidelity and firmness, and, by his well-timed instructions and powerful example, diffuse moral and spiritual blessings all around him. His character, however, is most advantageously developed, and his value best ascertained, when the Church is surrounded with dark clouds; when the pitiless storm rages with

fury; when all is danger, confusion, and distressthen he rises out of obscurity, places himself in the foremost point of difficulty and danger, and, by his counsel and energy, encourages the hearts, and strengthens the hands, of the true friends of religion; while, at the same time, he confounds the most artful, and appals the most confident and furious of his enemies. Such a man was John Claude, the subject of this memoir.

"In any period of the Church, such a champion must have held an honourable station, and have obtained the unanimous and grateful suffrages of his fellow Christians, for his acceptable and useful labours in behalf of our common Christianity. But it pleased the great Head of the Church, that he should exist at such a time, and be placed in such a sphere of action, as should render his character, his talents, his influence, and his zeal, not only more conspicuous, but abundantly more subservient to the great interests of the Protestant cause, than they could possibly have been in any other age, in any other place, or under any other circumstances.

"The true ground of Claude's eminence as a minister among the Protestants was this: he discharged the duties of his office, in a manner, and with a spirit, which made it evident that he was not a time-serving teacher-not one that sought his own honour or interest, but a genuine pastor, who felt his own responsibility to Jesus Christ, and studied those impressive charges given to pastors and teachers in the 3d and 33d chapters of Ezekiel's Prophecies by Jesus Christ to his disciples,