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the requirements of the great fast day of Christianity. The more widely the "Three Hours' Office" is used the more fitting does the service prove for filling, in a devotional manner, the afternoon of a day which it is avowedly difficult wholly to pass in sympathy with the event commemorated. But the English churches in which the service has been restored may still learn something from the Communion whence the restoration was borrowed, and whose use they were led to follow.

My attention having been early directed to the "Three Hours" at home, I availed myself of an opportunity when abroad to compare notes between the original and the copy, at least in a single instance of both. Comparisons in such cases need not be avoided. Indeed, it is both wise and devout to avail ourselves of the experience of fellow Christians on the Continent, living as Englishmen do live, in spite of their migratory habits, and especially in religious matters, a life of intense iusularity. Hence, it is not without a hope of being able indirectly to suggest certain outward additions to the service as conducted amongst ourselves, that I venture to describe what may be seen in another religious obedience. I therefore will give some account of the externals of an Office in which I was privileged to join on Good Friday in the city of Florence. The Office was one of the most impressive which it has been my lot to witness. It was conducted in the grand old church-grand even in days of disendowment and suppression-of Santa Maria Novella. Some words on the church itself, in the first place, will tend to make what may follow the more plain. They will also enable me, briefly, to describe one of the parish churches in Florence the beautiful. Persons at home are little aware of the grandeur of size and proportion, the wealth of art treasure, and the number of services to be found even in a single parish church abroad. And the Novella is by no means the stateliest, or the most rich, or the best served, of the Florentine churches. Neither has it escaped successive and even recent spoliation both by friends and foes, of works of art, money, and priest-power. Yet the building is both a museum of art, of the architect, painter and stainer of glass, and a temple for constant prayer, specially in the season of Lent. Architecturally it is one of the most imposing and solemn fanes of Gothic character in this favoured city. In spite of the glories of its frescos and the magnificence of its glass, I will confine myself to its architecture. This-by reason of your space and my object in writing. With its outline I have become fairly familiar. I have lived for months almost under the shadow of the old church, and actually within bell-call of its services. The advantage of worshipping daily before its altars, at one of its many offerings of the Mass, has been mine; and I have become attached to the now no longer new Church of St. Mary.

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Santa Maria Novella takes rank as the oldest and largest conventual foundation of the Dominican Order in Florence. When the brotherhood of preachers, within a few years of its establishment, obtained a permaneut footing in the city, the magistracy and people bestowed upon the infant Society a large plot of land, which is now almost bounded by the walls of the town on its north-west side. This occurred in A.D. 1222, and the piece of ground then stood without the city walls. Upon this plot were eventually built two large quadrangles, and several smaller cloisters, with cells for the friars, conventual offices, a refectory and chapter house, chapels, a dispensary, a campanile, the sacristry of the proportions of many an English Church, and the present noble fane under the patronage of Mary. These buildings were erected gradually and with picturesque want of uniformity. The largest quadrangle is a fine cloister, rather more than one-fifth of a mile around: the convent, being now to a large extent secularised, this cloister affords a grateful retreat for those who care to enter for shelter and exercise in bad weather, for warmth and reverie in the winter sun, and for shade in the hotter weather. Beneath the wide colonnade the lunettes of the arches are covered with somewhat damaged frescos, the more worthy having been painted by Cigoli and Santi di Tito. Immediately without the cloister arises the campanile, the bells of which are musical to a degree seldom found in Italy, reminding one on a festa of sounds heard under the like circumstances in the heart of an English town parish.

The present church of the Novella was begun towards the close of the thirteenth century, and was completed some eighty years later--a lesson to those builders of the present day, who "run up" churches of the slightest possible construction in less than a quarter of the same number of months. It was entirely raised under the direction of successive architects of the Order of St. Dominic. It has a nave length of nearly 330 feet, and is upwards of 200 feet in breadth, between the walls of the transept chapels-the length alone of a huge London church. The sacred edifice is built upon a plan common, with more or less variety, to many Florentine churches, and to other temples of the same order in other cities, amongst which may be named Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. A long wide nave and aisles, without externally projecting side chapels to the latter, run into a transept of nearly equal length with the united breadth of nave and aisles; a transept with longitudinal chapels as well as with a chapel at either end which increases its length; a chancel wider, longer and loftier than the chapels; a large affiliated chapel which does not affect the internal appearance of the building; & fine, roomy and ornate Sacristy, itself once, perhaps still, a fashionable church for marriage-such forms the simple outline of the church. The regular chapels of the transept face east, and in this instance are four in number, two on either side of the chancel, which itself is only sufficiently deep to contain the once necessary stalls for the brethren, behind, as is usual, and not in front of the altar. The chapels of the transept, one at either end, which have been added, face south and north. These are respectively the Rucellai Chapel, which is enriched by the celebrated Madonna and Holy Child of Cimabue, formerly the favourite, but now the neglected picture of the fickle Florentines; and the Strozzi Chapel, still radiant with the glories of Orcagna's frescos, painted both on the walls, which are entirely covered, and also as an altar-piece. Both the latter chapels are picturesquely built above the highest floor level of the church, and are approached by a flight of steps. Hence, the ground plan of the building, though technically cruciform of the Latin form, more nearly resembles the tau T cross in shape, with

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slight projections to the east and to the north and south of the transept arms. It may be well to remark in this place that the Novella Church is not built with an orientation, but stands north and south. But in the present account, and to prevent needless confusion in terms, the usual geographical lines are supposed to exist.

The levels of the pavement are threefold, and answer to divisions in the church not unfrequently met with in conventual or monastic buildings. The second and third of these are severally two and four steps above the lowest level, which latter includes nearly one-half the available flooring and two-thirds of the area of the nave. The nave consists of six bays, each spanned by a wide and lofty gothic arch of the Italian type. The breadth of the transept forms a seventh bay; and the chancel may be termed the eighth. Of these eight, nearly four bays Occupy the lowest level of the church. At the third column from the east end the nave pulpit is erected; and during the Lenten Season of preaching (which extends in this church into that of Easter), over two of the bays and from three plllars of the nave is hung a thick covering of a dark coloured stuff, to make a false ceiling to the huge expanse of the interior, for the benefit both of the preacher and audieuce. An ascent of two steps in the whole width of the church leads to the next level, which rumour assigns to the use of the un-priested Frate, as the lower level was of old devoted to the laity.

The second level extends to the west end of the transept, and by two more steps the level of the transept chapels is gained. The choir and chancel are reached by three more steps; and a platform is made in body of the transept. Thus the altar stands seven steps above the lowest front of the altar by the last five steps being brought westward into the floor-level of the church; and well does it fill its place at the entrance of the sanctuary, and immediately beneath the high pointed chancel arch which rises, at a hazard-for dimensions are difficult to discover in Italy -eighty or ninety feet from the platform. The proportions of the altar are suitable to its position. With the addition of a handsome modern screen of marble, which projects beyond its limits on either side, the altar conceals the choir; and the entrances to it, both north and south, are further protected by heavy curtains-on Good Friday, of black velvet material. The screen is some thirty feet long and fifteen high. It is made of white marble, banded with serpentine and red marble, and flanked and supported by projecting columniar buttresses surmounted by angels, one on either side, of about one-third the human size, in white marble. There is, of course, mid-altar, a tabernacle-a handsome domeshaped receptacle, filly and elaborately ornamented. There are also altarledges in marble for five or six rows of candles and flowers. On the top of the screen is constructed a narrow platform, on which stand twelve silvered six-foot candlesticks; above them soars towards the apex of the arch, and high above lights and flowers, a plain massive crucifix with a Figure in bronze of more than life-size. The arms of the sacred tree are plainly trefoiled, without other appanage to detract from the cross' simple dignity. In short, though the altar is moderu, looks new, and is not worked in the old elaborate way, it is, on ordinary occasions and without adjuncts, a grand specimen of a Christian altar.

Behind and above the altar-screen, to one standing in the nave, the light shines through three magnificent windows of ancient Florentine glasswindows too wide to be called lancet, and not wide enough to need the malign influence on this style of glass of tracery. The walls of the chancel, as every one knows who has, and many know who have not, visited Florence, are enriched by the master efforts in a nearly lost art, of Domenico Ghirlandaio, a fresco painter who, though he lived at the close of the fifteenth century, seldom (if ever) painted in oils. Of his works in the Novella Church I will only say this much, in order to illustrate what follows, that the frescos completely cover the sanctuary, its walls on either side south and north, between the windows on the east, and the vaulted roof; that they have both faded and blackened; that their general effect, viewed from a distance, is sombre and dark.

Santa Maria Novella is one of the few churches in this city which modern vandalism of the last or preceding centuries has not, architectural'y, entirely spoilt by adapting Gothic windows and altars to those of a classical or cinque-cento style. I speak of the nave only for the transepts have suffered much; nor has the nave escaped scatheless. For, though twelve modern and monotonously uniform altars, with nearly valueless pictures, have replaced the old altars and probably valuable paintings, yet the Gothic windows of a like character with those in the chancel have been preserved. It is true, they have been shortened by a few feet, as may be perceived from without the church, to allow the altar-piece to be placed at a suitable elevation. But otherwise they are intact, and only need restoring to the extent of removing ill-painted modern glass and replacing it by colourless glass, which will let in pure light and not conceal the blue Italian sky.

The nave proper, as above said, consists of six bays. Each of the three sets of two arches are of unequal span; the larg st, standing in the middle, are some fifty feet wide, and the smallest, standing at the east end, are some ten feet less in width. The nave, with a width of upwards of forty feet, is supported by aisles of about one half as wide. The crown of the arches which divide the nave from the aisles reach to within a few feet of the spring of the vaulting of the roof. There is, therefore, no attempt at a clerestory. But necessary light is obtained, where clerestory windows would otherwise be pierced, above the lean-to roof of the aisles and in the apex of the arch of the wall, from large, Circular windows innocent of tracery and free from modern painted glass. The arches are severely plain, unmoulded, and very wide for their height. The columns are built in the same grand, simple form-fine circular shafts supporting broad arches not less grand. The vaulting matches both column and arch, and is formed by four parallel and two intersecting arches of the simplest kind of groining. The pavement is laid with black and white stones placed diamond-wise: and the six feet of surface in the breadth of the piers, and lying between them longitudinally, have been filled with a series of uniform tombstones of late make but early commemoration, which apparently have replaced the ancient floor monuments that may be elsewhere seen. The prevailing

colouring of the body of the church is decidedly dull. The pillars and arches are washed in a blueish gray tint, and the walls in a yellowish drab. The only redeeming shade of colour in the nave is cast through a gorgeous circular west window, thoroughly Florentine in tone, and a Giotto-painted crucifix surmounting, and two frescos supporting, the grea western doors which open into the piazza of the church.

These architectural details are sufficient to make what follows intelligible.

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The Three Hours" Office on Good Friday was the last of the great Lenten services at Santa Maria Novella. In Passiontide the church had assumed a mourning garb. All the altar-pictures and crosses had been covered with purple stuff, and for the Great Day itself the altars had been stripped of every ornament but the veiled crucifixes. The effect of this veiling, upon the twelve side-altars of the aisles and those in the transept, was marked. In the Strozzi Chapel and beneath its open altar had been laid a full-length, life-sized, recumbent figure of the Dead CHRIST, which was carried thither in solemn procession, and before which the faithful were wont to pray. In the Rucellai Chapel had been made, on Maundy-Thursday, with much labour, a Sepulchre " for the reception of the sacred Host, in preparation for the Mass of the Presanctified. And the last Tenebræ service-an Office of striking beauty again to be heard in churches at home-had been sung on the evening of the same day. During the forty days a platform draped in black, six feet high, about fifteen feet long, and of proportionate breadth, furnished with a chair, a faldstool, and a crucifix, was erected in the nave beneath the Lenten curtain. For Good Friday this platform was removed close to, and in sight of, the transepts in front of the chancel; and on the opposite side of the nave, in a corresponding position, was built an enclosure for the orchestra, hung with black drapery to conceal the players. Hence, the congregation was intended to move up from the west-end of the church to the neighbourhood of the high altar, and before mid-day on the Great Fast the transepts furnished with open benches, and the easternmost end of the nave, which was gradually filled with chairs, were both crowded.

The chancel was completely darkened by double and thick black cloth curtains hung over the windows; and the subdued colouring of the Ghirlandaio frescos, as seen over the altar and beyond the altar wings, were spec re-like and uncanny in appearance. Not a vesture of the white marble altar and altar-screen was visible, save its grand outline, and the two angels standing in relief in their native whiteness, at the extremities of the screen, and keeping their silent watch. The screen and altar were entirely draped in black; and the hangings were so arranged as to allow three steps only to be marked between the pavement and the platform on the top. Every ornament and all the ordinary candles had been removed. On each of the three steps, on the altar, half way up, and at the top stood pairs of heavy candlesticks supporting thick tawny coloured lights. The large bronze crucifix, with its passion symbol attached during the season-an upright palm-branch-which added to its height, had been taken away. In its place, high aloft, in the centre of the altar, and beneath the lofty arch, had been erected a wooden Figure of the Crucified, nature painted, which stood out in awful relief against the dark black back-ground of the sanctuary, and in striking contrast with the white glistening angel-guards. On the platform, at the top of the altar, and on either side of the Cross, might be seen, before the commencement of Divine Service, an upright object, completely covered, some six or seven feet high. These objects, when the candles were being lighted, were undraped and disclosed themselves to be figures of the Blessed Virgin and St. John, painted in their traditional colouring. The beloved Disciple looked upwards at his crucified Master, and our Lady was pierced with a sword also through her virgin breast. The cross was made to spring from a rocky support, as a Golgotha, and the effect of Mary and John, perhaps of heroic dimensions, standing beneath the sacred tree on the high platform of black, in the sight of all men, guarded by the angels and surrounded by the dimly-perceived Scriptural scenes upon the walls, was striking. Never had I seen, in the best sense of a word ill-used on the lips of some, so truly a histrionic effect within the walls of a church; and it commended itself to my mind that such simple and effective teaching, through the medium of the senses, of the culminating act in the Passion of our divine LORD, might profitably be described for our example and imitation at home. Of course, the surroundings in art and architecture of the Novella Church cannot be had in England; but there is no reason why the visible representation of the Crucifixion might not be placed before the eyes of the faithful during the verbal recitation of the sacred story of the Passion on the day of its commemoration. Little is needed, except three life-sized figures and black cloth; but the result would be beyond comparison greater than the efforts used to secure it. Its effect would not quickly fade from the memory.

It is with the hope of suggesting this representation to some who will adopt the idea that I venture to send you the above account. Of the service of the "Three Hours" itself I do not purpose to speak. It followed the usual course of such a devotional exercise, and was attended by a very large number of persons of both sexes and all ranks in society. The chief difference from the English reproduction of the service, which I have witnessed, consisted in the absence of congregational singing, the silence of the organ, and the use of orchestral music only. The seven sermonettes, eloquently delivered by a friar of the Order of Preachers, must have been heard by the immense congregation assembled in the transepts and nave, so clear and loud was his articulation. They were followed, one by one, by impassioned prayer at the faldstool, and were divided from each other by modern music performed with taste and care by the unseen orchestra, the preacher meantime reposing in the chair provided for his use. Not being able to form a musical opinion, I offer no critical account of the vocal and instrumental performance; but to a non-professional ear it sounded appropriate and good. Of the devotion of the congregation, however, I can speak. It appeared to be most devout; and there was a constant succession of attendants at the service, though the large majority of worshippers remained throughout the "Three Hours' Office." O. S.

PROPOSED CHURCH EXTENSION.

A public meeting was held on Saturday afternoon at the Clarence Hotel, Exeter, to consider the proposed restoration of the old Cornish Bishopric. The Mayor occupied the chair, and amongst those present were the Bishop. Earl of Devon, Rev. Precentor Cook, Rev. Canon Lee, &c. The Dean of Exeter, who was suffering from indisposition, wrote offering to pay £100 when two-thirds of the amount required was promised, and a similar amount when five-sixths was promised. Mr. C. Turner and his son promised £25 each, Mr. J. Were promised £100. After three or four speakers had addressed the meeting, the Mayor asked whether anyone else wished to offer any remarks, when

Alderman THOMAS, whose rising was the signal for a great deal of applause, said: I rise with much pleasure to support the proposition which has been made by Earl Devon; but in common with a great many Churchmen, I feel that there is a subject which has not been touched upon, and an expression of opinion upon which a great number of Churchmen would like to see incorporated in the resolution proposed. 1 think that the movement for raising money for the purpose of restoring the Cornish Bishopric would receive great assistance, and that a very large number of Churchmen would become contributors to the fund, if some power were given to the Church in the appointment of the Bishops. With a desire, therefore, that the object of this meeting shall be advanced to the very fullest extent, I would suggest that the mover and seconder of the resolution should adopt the following rider: "That this is a fitting opportunity for asserting the right of the Church in Cornwall to some real voice in the appointment of the proposed new Bishop and his successors." The manner in which that should be carried out I won't presume to dilate upon. I hope the words will not be objected to, for I feel sure that many Churchmen will withhold from contributing if some expression favourable to them is not made.

The Rev. J. L. GALTON, the Rector of St. Sidwells, was loudly cheered on rising to second the rider. He said: I feel at this juncture that if anything is to be done to free the Church from an amount of tyranny under which she has long been suffering, that this is the time. Here you are asked to provide means for the erection of a new Bishopric, and is it fair that the Church shall have her mouth closed in the appointment of the proposed Bishop? The late Bishop of this Diocese, when he referred to transactions perhaps not known to most here, but known to myself and others equally old, called the statute of premunire the most hateful and most tyrannical law which is permitted to pollute our statute book; and in the House of Lords soon after, when the appointment of Dr. Hampden to the See of Hereford was discussed, it was called the Magna Charta of tyranny. Under that statute the Church is at present precluded from any voice in the election, in the confirmation, or in the cousecration of her Bishops. I know very well that when Dr. Hampden was appointed to Hereford, the Dean there was valiant enough to stand alone in refusing to proceed to any election when the name of Dr. Hampden was sent him; and in writing to the Prime Minister of the day notifying his intention, he received the following curt reply, dated Christmas Day :-"I have had the honour to receive your letter, in which you intimate your intention to violate the law. I have had the honour to be, your obedient servant, RUSSELL." The Times on that occasion took a right view of the matter-a thing it had not of late often done in Church matters-and told them that whilst Churchmen were called upon to object, they had to shut their mouths. That was the treatment the Church had received with regard to the appointment of her Bishops, and he asked if this was to continue? He for one declared it to be a grievous blunder to their whole Church system. To show them that the law itself was warped-for he could call it by no other name -he read the report of an appeal made to the Queen's Bench upon that case, and the remarks of Judge Coleridge and Judge Patterson, whom Devon would ever love for their being on the side of the Church, and the remarks of Lord Chief Justice Denman, who regretted having to refuse an inquiry which he would have granted even in a railway case. In consequence of this awful statute the Church had no voice. It was held out as a gag to all who came forward and demanded the liberties of the Church. Mr. Galton concluded: I for one say I will not stir one inch to promote any increase in the Episcopate unless the Church has a proper voice in the appointment of the Bishops. I know I am not standing alone in this place. There are Churchmen throughout the land who will give to their utmost to provide for an increase in the Episcopate, provided that they have at least a veto with the appointment of an unfit candidate. There were hundreds of thousands in the days of the Bishops I have named who would have said, "we don't want such as Bishops in our Church."

The Rev. J. TOYE, Rector of St. David's, Exeter: When I came into this room I had not the slightest intention of addressing this meeting, but when Canon Lee describes the action of the mover and seconder of the rider as being cowardly, I must confess that there is a certain amount of English blood in me which won't allow such words to pass. I am sorry to differ from the noble lord, for whom I have the greatest respect, but here is a question involving a principle touching those who advocate it much more keenly than those who support the Bishopric fund imagine. Money is wanted. It's the object of the meeting to get money. A large sum is required, and if this principle is recognized, I believe it will tend further than anything I know to supply the deficiency. How is the Bishop to be appointed? Under this Act, which is a most awful mockery, he may be appointed by the present Prime Minister, and without saying one word about him the Bishop may be appointed by his successor in office. It may be that the Bishop may be appointed by a man who reveres God, and it may be that he may be appointed by a man who cares not for God at all. If the Bishop of the Diocese were consulted, I have no doubt he would do everything he thought proper, but may take that as an argument in favour of interference with absolute appointments, and ask why if one person was consulted Cornwall should not express an opinion? There are many persons in the two counties who would be able to represent whom they considered to be fitting persons. Here we are asked to provide money to endow a Bishopric, but not to have a voice in the appointment. Never.

THE GAUNTLETT FUND. Prout, Ebenezer, Esq.

THE Sudden Death of the late HENRY

THE

JOHN GAUNTLETT, Mus. Doc., the eminent Composer and Organist, has induced some of his friends to raise a fund for his widow and family, who are, they regret to say, left entirely unprovided for. Acknowledgment has been made in the several notices of his life which have appeared in the leading public prints, of the valuable services he rendered in the cause of Art generally, and more especially that of Church Music. To Dr. Gauntlett we owe most of the improvements in the construction of organs which have been carried out during the last 40 years.

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THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS: NABRIDGED EVIDENCE given

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Being the Order of the ADMINISTRATION of the Holy Eucharist according to the Use of the Church of England, with the Complete Devotion, Literally Translated, of the ANCIENT LITURGY of the WESTERN CHURCH. Together with some Rubrics from the First Book of King Edward the Sixth.

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By PAUL LACROIX. Translated from the French by C. B PITMAN. Illustrated with 21 Chromo-lithographs and 351 Wood Engravings. Imperial 8vo. Half morocco. £2 28.

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The PEOPLE'S MASS BOOK is intended to supply the want, largely felt by the English Catholic laity, of a devotional Office, at once in perfect barmony with the Liturgy of our Prayer Book, and with the Ancient Missal of the West. It contains in a popular form, adapted to the simplest comprehension, as well as to the requirements of the most advanced Churchman, those formularies of Eucharistic Worship. undoubtedly Apostolic in their main features, which have been used by the great Saints, Martyrs, Confessors, and Doctors of Western Christendom during, at least, the past fifteen centuries; and which, to the present day, are employed in the celebration of the Christian Mysteries throughout by far the larger part of the Church of God. These devotions are combined with the Eglish Liturgy in such a way as to present both the one and the other complete, and yet without confusion. The Manual is equally adapted for use at plain nd at Choral Celebrations; and contains Forms of Prayer for those who communicate, as well as for those who merely assist, at Mass.

The Rubrical directions, introduced from the First Book of King Edward VI, may serve to show the real mird of the English Church respecting those ritual observauces which Puritanism contrived, in former days (as the Preface to our present Prayer Book, with evident rep ehension, points out), to decry and bring into contempt.

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London: JOHN H. BATTY, 376. Strand, W.C. In Neat Wrapper, pp. 48. price 6d., post free 64d., THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE of the CHRISTIAN SACRIFICE; and the FIRST PRINCIPLES of RITUAL. With Remarks upon the Use and Symbolism of the Vestments, Lights, Incense, the M xed Chalice, the Sigu of the Cross, and the Position of the Celebr nt.

By WILLIAM GRANT, Layman of the Church of England, Author of The People's Mass Book."

"Will be found very useful both on account of the simplicity of its style and the low price at which it is published, which bring it within the means of anyone who wants to know the meaning of what is one in Church, and what it is that is really taught. We are glad to notice two points, both in their way signs of the times: the first is that the author is not a Kitualistic Priest, but a Layman; the second is that he is able to refer to a Charge from one of our B.shops (alas! seemingly soon to be taken from us), Bishop Douglas of Bombay, as containing the best possible resume of the Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist set forth in this Tract.'-English Church Union Gazette.

"The book is most instructive, and its simple explanation of ceremonial, and the authority of the Church for the use of the same, entitles it to be perused nct alone by those who sympathise with the Ritualistic movement o caled, but also by those who desire to know the reason why so much agitation is being raised, and in what way and to what extent the extreme High Church party are palpably supported in ceremonial by the authority of our National Church."- Camberwell and Peckham Times. London: JOHN H. BATTY, 375, Strand, W.0.

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before the ROYAL COMMISSION on VIVISECTION, on the 1st and 6th November, and 20th December, 1875.

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Now ready. Second Edition. Small quarto. Beau ifully printed at the Chiswick Press. Price 2s. 6d.

THE ORDER for the VISITATION

THE ORDER for SICKSTATION

Said. Intended chiefly for the Use of the Sick P rson and Those who Assist in the Charnber. Set forth with Notes and Directions in the hope of Promoting greater Rever nce and Understanding in the Celebration of this Sacred Office.

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London: THOMAS PRATT and SONS, Tavistockstreet.

Demy 8vo., cloth extra, with Photographic Portrait and Illustrations, price 12s.,

MEMORIALS of the Late Rev. Robert

STEPHEN HAWKER, Vicar of Morwenstow.

By the Rev. F. G. LEE, D.C.L.

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"I can hardly find words to express to you how much I like your Memorials.' The truthful and most charitable loving-kindness running through the whole book shows the true friend in need to one who rever ought to have been judged like another man."-Rev. R. S. Hawker's Sister to the Author.

CHATTO and WINDUS, Piccadilly, W.

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A Journal of Religion, Politics, Literature

No. 4.-VOL. I.]

T

and Art.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 1876.

RELIGION AT OXFORD.

HE fatal results of a policy of wanton and wicked destructiveness, such as that which has for so long a period marked the ascendancy of Liberalism in this country, are nowhere more clearly visible than in the condition to which it has brought our Universities-the ancient homes of Religion and Learning. The pious work, which, reared under the fostering care of saintly and venerated founders and benefactors, had after several centuries reached maturity, will now, in about as many years, be silently but effectually uprooted by the profane and unsanctified machinations of those whose aim it is, not merely to undo the good old work by depriving the Church of her resources, but also to endow therewith a hostile system. The broad effect of recent legislation with reference to Education generally has been to raise a new Establishment on the ruins of the old. Indeed, as regards primary education, the new Secularist Establishment is elevated to a position far more highly privileged than any which ever belonged to the Church; inasmuch as, in any place where a School-board is set up, the whole community is forced to contribute to the support of the schools belonging to the Secularist sect. And that attempts are being made on all sides to despoil and plunder the old National Church, in order to provide endowments for the new Secularist Establishment, is sufficiently illustrated by a reference to the Burials' question. In the case of the Universities the design of pocketting the endowments of the Church for the benefit of a hostile

sect has been carried out with great success. It is notorious that Secularism has done less than any other "denomination" so-called, to promote, at its own expense, even purely secular instruction. The burden of primary education it has never touched with one of its little fingers, whilst the sum total of its efforts to grapple with the problems of the higher education is visibly represented by a certain building in Gower Street-the ugliest and most revolting object in all that dismal region—a structure whose ghastly horror is entirely appropriate to, and eminently typical of, the unloveliness of a Godless Infidelity. We all know the fate of this precious scheme the darling project of Liberal doctrinaires and Whig charlatans-which is as worthy of comparison with the old religious foundations, as Gower Street itself is with "the High" at Oxford, or as the "packing-case" erection aforesaid is with Magdalen Tower. This heathen establishment having failed to gain a decent name for itself, was at last compelled to borrow some degree of respectability by ignominiously taking refuge under the wing of King's College-a Church institution. It was evident that the end in view could not be attained by pitting a pinchbeck "University" in competition with Oxford and Cambridge. The alternative plan was to liberalize the latter; so that all the prestige belonging to these ancient seats of learning, which they had derived from their union with the Church, might be used as a weapon against her. How completely this design has been carried out, men are only just beginning to realize. In the case of Oxford, those who are most intimately acquainted with its religious condition speak of it in the most gloomy terms. They declare that no adequate provision is made for the religious needs of the Undergraduates. The author of a remarkable pamphlet just published, who is evidently well informed on the subject, and the accuracy of whose statements we can thoroughly verify, has addressed a stirring and seasonable appeal to the Bishop of the diocese to establish a Church for the exclusive use of Undergraduates, where frequent and dignified services, including especially the Holy Eucharist, may be solemnly celebrated, and where the DocSpiritual Destitution at Oxford. A Letter to the Bishop of Oxford. By a Fellow of a College. (Oxford: George Shrimpton, 1876.)

*

[PRICE THREEPENCE.

trines of the Christian Faith may be taught by men who will be equal to the task of unfolding a true Christian Philosophy. We think that such a proposal, put forward in this sober, practical way, will probably, and not without reason, somewhat startle people who either do not know, or have not yet realized, the results wrought by recent changes in Oxford, and who will be disposed to ask what has become of all the means hitherto supposed to be available for the purpose of teaching Religion. What are the Colleges about? What is the use of College Chapels? And what about St. Mary's? These and other like questions are answered only too completely in the pamphlet before us. Religious forms indeed remain, but a silent revolution is taking place. The substance is yielded though the shadow be clung to. The foolish and fatal concessions of Churchmen themselves to the crafty proposals of the Secularists have, as usual, wrought nothing but disaster. The mischief has not been direct or immediate ; but the indirect consequences of the abolition of religious tests have been none the less serious. The Bishop of Oxford, in his Charge delivered in April, 1875, spoke of a considerable number of Graduates holding office in the University, or Fellowships in the Colleges, who had ceased to be Christians in anything but name, while in some cases even the name had been repudiated; and he added that there was moreover a reserve on the part of Christian teachers in communicating their own belief to their pupils. Recent legislation has severed the connection between the Colleges and the Church, and the Colleges are getting more and more unmindful of the religious character which their founders above all things intended them to possess. And these evils will probably be increased by the tendency of modern legislation to sacrifice the College system to that of the University, whereby the old bond of intimacy between tutor and pupil is much weakened, and the very object with which the Colleges were first called into being-to counteract the evils which had arisen out of the University system-is defeated. And here we must beg leave to differ, with all respect, from the opinion expressed by Bishop Mackarness, that the evils which he deplores do not owe their origin, at least very largely, to the removal of tests.

His Lordship confesses that he himself voted in Parliament for their abolition-an admission which fills us with painful amazement. After the evidence given before the Royal Commission in 1870, it is simply astounding that anyone should have a doubt on the subject.

It has been customary with the advocates of the Liberal policy to urge that, if the Church really is what she claims to be, her Divine Message will not need any external aid, but will win its way, as it has often done before, by the sheer force of Truth. Viewed as an argument for ousting the Church from her temporal rights, we have always thought this proposition a tolerably audacious one. The question is, whether the Church is to be robbed of her means of teaching The Truth, in order to hand over her vantage-ground to the teachers of soul-destroying falsehood. That, in spite of all obstacles, she is faithful to her mission in Oxford is shewn by the strenuous and successful efforts made by individuals to supply the shortcomings of a vicious system. And here, first and foremost, rank the labours of the Divinity Professors. It is impossible to overrate the debt of gratitude which many and many an Oxford man must always owe, not merely to the public teaching, but also to the private influence, of such men as Doctors Liddon, Bright and King. Not to mention the Warden of Keble and his fellow-workers, or such a wellknown champion of the good cause as the Dean of Chichester, there are, throughout the University, men of mark, such as the sub-Rector of Exeter, Mr. Noel Freeling and Mr. Wilson of Merton, Mr. Bramley of Magdalen, and Mr. Wordsworth of Brasenose, as well as younger men like Mr. Holland of

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