cassian race. "Neither Europeans nor Americans,' we are told, have been able to become acclimated there; so that it would ⚫ seem that Providence has specially appropriated this portion of the world to the original inhabitants and their descendants.' This argument, carried out to its full extent, would be of somewhat inconvenient application; for, upon the same principle, what business have Europeans in the West India Islands, in Guyana, or in Bengal, where the climate equally reproves the presumption of the white intruders?

NOTICES.

By

Art. VI.-1. A Letter addressed to the Bishop of Salisbury. William Tiptaft. Containing various Reasons why he resigns his Living, and cannot continue a Minister of the Church of England. 12mo. pp. 12. Price 3d. Abingdon, 1831.

2. A Sermon on Revelation xiv. 13, tending to shew the Absurdity and Impiety of the promiscuous Use of the Church Burial Service: preached in the Parish Church of Stadhampton, Oxon, on Sunday, Dec. 11, 1831. By Lancelot Charles L. Brenton, lately the Offciating Minister in the Parish of Stadhampton. 8vo. Price ls. Oxford, 1831.

3. An Expostulatory Epistle addressed to the Hon. and Rt. Rev. Henry Ryder, D.D. Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry on the Rite of Confirmation and the present State of the Church of England. By John Sibree. 12mo. Price 6d. London, 1831. MR. TIPTAFT is, we understand, a friend and companion in labour of the Rev. Mr. Bulteel, whose irregular proceedings have procured his recent ejection from the Established Church. Fourteen reasons are assigned by Mr. T., for his voluntary secession from the Church of England, on discovering that he cannot hold his living and a good 'conscience too.' The first relates to the baptismal service; the second, to the burial of the dead; the third, to the Catechism; the fourth, to the order of Confirmation; the fifth, to the service for King Charles the Martyr'; the sixth, to the expression, our most religious and gracious king'; the seventh, to the order of the administration of the Lord's Supper'; the eighth, to the form of solemnization of marriage, as it can only be conscientiously read by an enlightened minister, when the persons to be married are true servants of the Lord, which of course is very seldom the case'; and on similar grounds, he objects, ninthly, to the service for the churching of Women. The next four reasons assigned are of a more general nature. Mr. T. objects to the appointment of the bishops by the king, and to the whole system of Church patronage ;-to the whole system of preparation for a minister of the Church of England';—to the total and

acknowledged want of discipline in the Church ;-and to the bishops having seats in the House of Lords.' His fourteenth reason we give in his own words:

I object to the oaths, subscriptions, and declarations that are required of the candidates for the ministry, and of every one who is licensed to a curacy, or instituted to a living; and I object especially to the subscription, "that there is nothing in the Book of Common Prayer contrary to the Word of God.”'

Were not the history of the Act of Uniformity so well known, it might excite astonishment, that such a declaration as the last should ever have been extorted from the clergy. A more useless, vexatious, and unjustifiable oath was never imposed: useless, because it might be presumed that the subscriber would not consent to use a book which he believed to be at variance, in its doctrines, with the word of God; vexatious, as binding the conscience in a matter of mere opinion; and utterly unwarrantable, as affirming what cannot be proved to be true, and what a majority of the Protestant world judge to be untrue. Why, then, was this shameful condition of ordination imposed? Or rather, why is it continued? Is there a single conscientious clergyman in the Establishment, who does not object to some of the oaths, subscriptions, and declarations required of him? If their objections are not so strong as to compel them to nonconformity; still, there are thousands within the Establishment, who are increasingly dissatisfied with some parts of the service they are pledged to approve and discharge. Why do they take no steps to have their consciences freed from the yoke imposed by a profligate king and his wicked prelates? Will such instances of integrity as those of Mr. Hurn, Mr. Tiptaft, and other recent seceders, have no effect in opening the eyes of the rulers of the Church to the signs of the times?

Mr. Sibree's Expostulatory Epistle relates to that part of the rite of Confirmation, in which the Bishop pronounces upon the kneeling multitude the solemn assurance, that God has vouchsafed to regenerate them by water and the Holy Ghost, and to give to them forgiveness of all their sins. The doctrine of sacerdotal absolution and sacerdotal regeneration, countenanced by such language, to say the least, and actually maintained by numbers of the examining clergy, is one of the most demoralizing of the Popish heresies. Mr. Sibree thus expostulates with the amiable and pious Prelate, who, alas! is, equally with the humblest curate, tied and bound by the unscriptural trammels of human authority.

Your religious opinions, my Lord, as well as your public and private character, are held in high veneration by many of the inhabitants of this city and neighbourhood; and if they hear you, a devoted Christian, an evangelical Bishop, whose religious sentiments, with many, are almost oracular, declare in this solemn manner, before the face of Almighty God, that hundreds of young men and women are actually regenerated, and pardoned, while they are living in the "neglect of the great salvation," in the profanation of the Sabbath, in the indulgence of sinful, worldly pleasures,-the evils which your Lord

ship, by this act, will occasion, will be incalculable, and most deplorable! May I then, as a friend to the spiritual efficiency of your Church, entreat you, before you again offer such language as that of the Confirmation Prayer, in the presence of the great Searcher of hearts, to pause-to consider, and ask yourself-Do I in my heart believe that all those whom I am about to confirm, are regenerated by the Holy Ghost, and have received the forgiveness of all their sins? If your Lordship has any doubt on this point, how can you utter before God, the language of assurance? "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin ;" and the sin of deceiving immortal souls, is one of no ordinary magnitude. You "watch for souls as one that must give an account:" and having taken the charge of such an extensive diocese, containing hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, you have, as a Christian Minister, incurred a most tremendous and awful responsibility!' p. 9.

We wish that Mr. Sibree had confined his mild and respectful remonstrance to the immediate topic of his Letter. His reference to the tithes and the alliance', by mixing up secular questions with higher considerations, tends to lessen the force of his appeal. The present tithe system is a national grievance; but Dissenters have no better right to hold their land tithe-free, than Churchmen. They might as reasonably complain of the injustice of the land-tax or assessed taxes, or any other imposts. By attacking the Church property, Dissenters only bring their motives into suspicion.

Art. VII. The Sacred Offering, a Poetical Annual. MDCCCXXXII. 32mo. pp. 192. Price 4s. 6d. in silk. Liverpool, 1832.

WE noticed with pleasure, and in terms of deserved commendation, the first volume of this sacred offering,' and are happy to find that the whole impression was called for. The Editor expresses the hope that, 'connected with the pleasure arising from a poetical source, more 'serious objects will be attained.' We shall make room for one entire poem of very superior merit and thrilling interest. The feelings it expresses, may have been participated by many, but we do not recollect to have seen them disclosed in the language of poetry. The whole volume is characterized by poetic taste, feeling, and piety.

THE CONDEMNED.

Night spreads around the outcasts of the earth
Silence, and the similitude of peace;

But the relentless mandate hath gone forth,

That time, and heaven's own light, for them must cease.

Hushed was the dungeon.-The appalling gloom,

But not the quiet, of the grave was there:

Its living tenants knew, and felt their doom.
And o'er the fearful night-watch of despair,
Or o'er its heavy slumber, broke that bell,

As on the ear of death the archangel's trump might swell.

VOL. VII.-N.S.

L

'Tis sad to watch life ebbing to its close
By stern disease, or nature's slow decay,
When pain hath lent a blessing to repose,
Or time hath worn the springs of life away;
But to see man, when all his feelings rise
In their full vigour to the last dread strife,
Strong in the strength of manhood's energies,
And all his pulses beating high with life,
Coolly led forth by human hands to die—

Hast thou aught else like this-poor, proud humanity!

Yet all those thousands-how they onward press,
Eager to catch each groan, each glance to see;
As if their spirits revel in distress,

And thirst for scenes of mortal agony !

While the sun smiles on the awakening world,
Thrilling fair nature's train with vigour new;
With morn's bright glories to their eyes unfurled,
And nature round them, from the brightening hue
That glows above, to the green turf beneath,

Teeming with happy life,-they rush to look on death!

The convict comes. He stands upon that spot,
To him the threshold of a world unseen;

But in that moment he betrayeth not

What his last hours of conflict may have been;
His eye already glazed, his cheek all pale,
Bear not a record of the struggle past;

Feeling itself a deep impervious veil

O'er its own devastation may have cast;

And that unmeaning look rests like a shroud,

Between his anguished heart, and yon expectant crowd.

'Does he for mercy plead? His prayers are then
Vain, as intreaties uttered to the wind.

Of warning speak? With the disowned of men
Dwells there so much of interest for mankind?
A light springs up! Is it that hope hath caught
A brightness from the passing memory,-

How in the hour, when first that hope was taught,
He kneeled beside a pious mother's knee,—

That a faint smile doth o'er his features play,

As the still lightning gleams, when storms have pass'd away?

́Or, that from all the hate that round him burns,
The scorn, that even a felon's soul can move,
From the rude laugh in bitterness he turns,
And turning looks to God-" for God is love".
But the law holds him in its iron clasp,
The hand of death descendeth at its will;
And o'er the heart, that trembles in its grasp,
The last convulsion comes with sudden chill,

While the first glow of faith is kindling there,

While yet the eyes are raised, the lips unclosed in prayer.

Another comes, to pass the awful bound,
With brow of adamant, and heart of steel:
Not his own fate, nor that last earthly sound,
The world's deep curses, teach his soul to feel.
They rage against him as the billows roar
Round the flint rocks, that limit their domain.
No light is there. He deems all will be o'er,
When the last pang has shook his mortal frame,
And the immortal soul, that there hath dwelt,
Departs in utter darkness-" darkness to be felt."
Judges! now look on the condemned once more.
Christians! where is their place amongst the dead?
Do you not think that every hope is o'er,
When the lost spirit from its clay hath fled?
They whom distress hath hurried on to crime;
They whose own passions urged their mad career;
And they whose untaught minds craved but for time,--
Who yet were babes in knowledge,—all are here,
Unlike in guilt, yet to one ruin driven,

Cut off,-not from the hope of earth alone, but heaven.

Was this revenge, requital of the ill

Which at the hand now powerless was received?
Rulers! have ye not read your Judge's will,

Or, having read, how are ye thus deceived?
HE at whose bar you must appear, hath said,

"Though in time past was rendered wrong for wrong, Ye shall resist not evil." Are ye led

By feelings which to these mild words belong?
When did his lips the work of death command?
What have ye done for those who perish by your hand?

'Or what for others? If the plea be true,
That for example's sake all these have died.
What! must example teach, that man may sue
For life, his birthright, and may be denied?
Must you, the delegates of Heaven's high will,
Teach all that multitude assembled round,
That some there are whom it is just to kill,
Whose blood in vain will murmur from the ground?
What can they learn from all they witness here,
Except to look on misery without a tear?

" Think ye

this pageantry of slaughter now
Hath the sublime and awful truth expressed,
That man's high calling, stamped upon his brow
By the Creator's image there impressed,