Review of Books. SPONSORS FOR THE POOR. By the Rev. WE place this little book at the head of our list with an anxious desire that it may attract the special notice of our Christian friends. The evil which drew it forth is one, the frightful nature and extent of which is much concealed from the observation of the better classes by that modern arrangement which transfers the solemn sacrament of baptism from the midst of our public services to the end; so that the events accompanying the administration of the rite are confined to the clergyman, the under officers of the church, and the parties applying for it. To a pious minister, the scenes that he is often compelled to witness in the performance of this his privileged duty, are heart-rending: we can attest that Mr. Hawtrey has given but a very faint outline of them. To obviate this frightful desecration of God's holy ordinance he has suggested a plan; and has supported that suggestion both by arguments and calculations, which, to say the least of them, are well worthy the most serious attention of Christian ministers and the communicants of their flock. We hail it with joy, as affording a hope, through the growing zeal and devotedness of the Lord's people, that many who now sigh and cry for the abominations that be done, will put forth a vigorous effort for their extinction. We give no particulars, because the book, which may be read through in half an hour, speaks for itself more effectually than we can do for it. We merely state our conviction that such a system, once introduced and acted upon in a Christian community, would more than justify the hopes expressed by its pious and benevolent proposer. PROTESTANT ASCENDANCY VINDICATED, and National Regeneration, through the instrumentality of National Religion, urged; in a series of letters to the Corporation of Dublin. By the Rev. T. D. Gregg, A. M. Bleakley, Dublin; Groombridge, London. THE attempt which in each successive session of parliament is renewed, to wrest the municipal institutions of Ireland from her Protestant sons, and to deliver over to the Romish priesthood and their ready instruments the whole of that extensive and powerful machinery, has called forth, as it ought to do, a mighty re-action, which will work for good in some way, even should the cruel, unjust, and treacherous outrage be perpetrated by those who have the perAPRIL, 1840. 2 B mitted power so to do, and who do not fear to brave the consequences of so abusing that power. Among other good things elicited by this evil device, we have a series of letters from the Rev. T. D. Gregg, who, in his capacity of chaplain to one of the corporations, has taken up the subject and treated it with great power. The utter hopelessness of legislating upon any other than Christian principles is insisted on with the characteristic energy of the writer, and the antichristian character of Popery most clearly exhibited. These letters have produced a considerable awakening already among some of the too quiescent bodies of Protestants in Ireland; and we hope their publication in a volume will extend their usefulnesss. THE LIFE OF KING WILLIAM THE THIRD, King of Great Britain and Ireland, Stadtholder of Holland, Prince of Orange, &c. &c. By John Ryan, Esq., M.R.S.L., Author of the History and Antiquities of the County of Carlow,'' An Inquiry into the Nature and Effects of Popery,' ' A Letter to the Protestants of Ireland,' &c. &c. Grant and Bolton, Dublin. In an admirable preface Mr. Ryan tells a plain unvarnished tale of the plentiful crops of nettles that poor Ireland, and poor England, too, had been already compelled to reap, up to January, 1836, from the sowing of 1829. What a harvest time we have subsequently enjoyed to this present period, 1840! And, alas, how the budding promises of a more abundant crop are multiplying in every corner of the soil! Truly does he say, after remarking on the triumphs achieved by the enemy through that wicked bill, that 'to the other body now belongs the mortifying consolation arising from the fact, that the justness of their opinion is fully established, their prognostications completely verified, that, in a word, their opponents have, undeniably, perpetrated, perhaps the most pernicious act of legislature to be found on record since the epoch of 1688.' He might have drawn his pen through the word 'perhaps.' The description of the neutrals is but too just: that Laodicean body does more harm than the red-hot opponents of Protestantism can effect; but coming events will soon startle them out of their lethargy. 6 Of the history itself, thus prefaced, we need only remark, that it abounds with interesting details principally relating to the great struggle in Ireland, but embracing also the whole of the monarch's triumphant career, who was raised up of God to deliver this realm from Papistrie,' as the pious young Edward expressed it in his dying prayer. Many particulars are related, drawn from authentic sources, which to the readers of our common English histories will be equally new as instructive. Mr. Ryan writes like a man who knows his own principles, and is neither afraid nor ashamed to avow them. This is what we like; and, though it be but of Protestantism in its political character that he, in common with other historians, treats, such books are of high value in a library. Nothing has more tended to deteriorate the quality of our patriotism than the 'liberal' style in which men have ostentatiously written the history of past struggles. Any deviation from such a meandering track into the straight path of consistency, falsely denounced as party spirit, must produce good. incomplete as to forming the character of woman in her own proper sphere of domestic usefulness. We regard the present as a sequel, and richly calculated to aid our sex in putting on the adornments which shone so brightly on 'holy women of old.' Spiritual duties are first and forcibly insisted on; then the fruits to be looked for from the exercise of habitual faith and prayer, in the various duties of home; and all appropriate works of benevolence. It is a most engaging volume, interspersed with several 'sweet pieces of poetry. MEMOIRS OF JAMES AND GEORGE MACDONALD, of Port Glasgow. By Robert Norton, M.D. Shaw. We are always reluctant to take up the pen for the purpose of condemning books. Our plan is to read what we can out of the multitude submitted, and to notice such as we deem most useful, passing others by. Nothing is more disgusting than the discharges of spleen, conceit, malice, and not unfrequently of envy, which the riflemen of the press fire off from their ambuscade in the form of criticisms against brethren or sisters of the pen, seeking to demolish books which they never could have written, and on which they are not competent to sit in judgment. In the present instance we feel compelled to warn our readers that the work before us is a strenuous effort to revive the delusion that so troubled the church some ten years since, on the subject of miraculous gifts. It is intended to illustrate a work that preceded it, called ' Neglected Truths,' and to prove that the Macdonalds were actually endowed from on |