other than our valued friend, Dunshunner, who, being in Naples at the time, wished to pay some attention to a countryman, however eccentric his appearance. If so, Augustus must have been infinitely astonished by the Doctor's unceremonious contradictions. However, we are thankful to say that after all he encountered no persecution, but found his way to Rome; where, after a word or two, we intend to leave him. When Father Cahill utters one of his ferocious and rabid attacks upon Protestantism, every one of us feels as though he could, with hearty good will, administer personal chastisement to the calumniator. It is not the abstract opinion which provokes us-it is the brutal method of expression. We do not expect that a Roman Catholic should like Protestantism; but this we do expect, that he shall express his objections to its doctrine decently, and with moderation. Violence and scurrility, very rarely, if ever, effect conversion; they only serve to render strife and dissension more bitter than they otherwise would be. But while we thus protest, with excellent reason, against the language of our antagonists, we are bound to visit with disapproval the conduct of any of our friends who may commit a manifest breach of decency and decorum. Dr Aiton may inveigh as much as he pleases against the doctrines and practices of Popery; he may expose its superstitions, ridicule its follies, and point out its deteriorating effect upon the human will and understanding all that comes within his province, and we doubt not he could do it effectively; but when, instead of argument, or clear and clever exposition, we stumble upon such pieces of frantic and vituperative railing as is illustrated by the following passage, we feel very much as we may conceive an Argive to have felt, had he beheld Thersites standing forth before the embattled host, and reviling the race of Priam. Here is his description of Rome : "There is no worldly picture of earthly carnality at all to compare to it on the face of the earth. If ever the Devil really held a Vanity fair in this world, and set up in it toy-shops, swinging-machines, hobby-horses, panoramas, shows, circuses, theatres, brothels, shooting galleries, billiard-tables, brandy palaces, and gaming houses, it must have been in Rome. I had heard of the craters of mount Etna, of Stromboli, and of Vesuvius being the mouths of hell, but they are not half so like it as this city is, filled with all manner of spiritual and temporal abominations. I had seen the filth of Smyrna, of Cairo, and of Constantinople, with the dead dromedaries and donkeys mortifying in the burning sun; but these were nothing to the corruptions and carnalities of Popery on the banks of the Tiber. I had read of the criminalities and cruelties of Nero and of Turkish despots, who imprisoned, scourged, and killed the bodies of their saints and subjects. what is that to the ignorance and error and incestuousness chaining down the infused into the mind, or to the heresies soul till it be made meet to become a But partaker of hell? Here Satan has been loosed out of his prison to deceive men, that he might cast them into the lake of fire and brimstone. Verily has this Babylon the Great become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird, and all nations have drank of the wine of the wrath of her fornications. Here, sitting on every one of the performing high mass in St Peter's, may seven hills, sleeping in the Vatican, and certainly be seen the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication." Now, if this is to be taken as an outward picture of Rome, we have simply to state, that it is not a true one. There is tenfold more open debauchery and immorality to be seen in the streets of London, or any other great English town, than the eye of a traveller ever beheld in Rome. If it is to be taken as an inward picture, then we say that it is uncharitable in conception, and excessively coarse in expression. If it is meant to be typical, as we presume it is, surely Jerusalem, which is now a Mahometan city, ought to have been denounced in at least equally strong terms-unless, as we have already hinted, Dr Aiton prefers broad infidelity to that form or profession of the Christian faith which prevails over a great proportion of Europe. We are anything but insensible to the errors of Popery, or to its intolerant and bigoted spirit; but what good end can possibly be served by such rabid raving as this, which, when we come to consider it, sentence by sentence, conveys nothing to the mind except an unpleasant sense of the absurd violence of the utterer? It is exceedingly disagreeable, nay, most painful for us, to be compelled to make such observations at the close of a notice of a book in which we have cheerfully recognised much that is pious, eloquent, commendable, and kind. But it is not right that men-even though they be Doctors of a Protestant church-should be allowed, in this way, to hurl indiscriminate abuse, without censure; or unnecessarily or wantonly to insult the faith of other Christians. It is not for us to quote texts; nevertheless, in perusing the foregoing and other such passages towards the close of Dr Aiton's volume, one verse of holy Scripture from the General Epistle of Jude forcibly occurred to our mind-and with it we close our notice-" Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." DAY DREAMS OF AN EXILE. ORIBATES. UP, brethren, up, be journeying and doing, Hillward the sun is fierce, the winds are bleak. Its flitting, sheltering alternation throw, Why do we laugh? the power of fate around us Hide, while they work, the sentence of the soul. And bright and fair the place from whence we go; Is it not so? "I will look unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." His hand who rules the calm and storm May lose its soul-sustaining powers, I knew not that they moved, until I saw their slowly folding train Creep on from peak to peak, at length A strange deliverance from pain. The ever-steadfast hills abide, The densest clouds will pass away; When those are past our Heaven that hide. MUSIC. STRIKE the harp-the sylphs descending Each with each the fine tones blending Smite the chords, the tones they borrow Strike the harp, the grasp of anguish Strike the strings-as brooding madness THE MANCHESTER MOVEMENT. "MORE states have been ruined by faction than have fallen before the sword of the conqueror." Such was the observation of one of England's wisest moralists; and the temper of the times is such as to give it great significance. For, in the movements which have taken place immediately before and since the assembling of Parliament in the unscrupulous, bitter, and almost unprecedented attacks directed by a portion of the press against her Majesty's present Ministers-we can detect nothing else than the spirit of absolute faction. Absolute, and yet unmeaning, since, in the present case, even the usual pretexts for opposition are awanting. There is, as yet, nothing at issue between the policy of Ministers and the feeling of the country. Not one single point in the Speech delivered from the Throne has been, or can be, selected as a substantive ground for opposition or amendment. That system of commercial policy which was inaugurated six years ago, is not to be disturbed. That resolution, at which Ministers have arrived after careful and mature deliberation, has been communicated to the country with a distinct assurance that it shall, in no way, be infringed. What specific measures may be proposed with regard to fiscal arrangements, is, at the moment we write, absolutely unknown. But we are assured that such measures are prepared, and that they will immediately be submitted to the House of Commons. Ingenuity itself can lay no direct charge at the door of Ministers-even suspicion can hardly be hinted at; and yet even now, both within and without the walls of Parliament, faction is hard at work, in order to prevent, if possible, even the disclosure of the Ministerial schemes. This cannot arise from a conviction that the measures of Lord Derby's Government are likely to be distasteful to the country. Were it so, the surest method to destroy the Ministry would be to allow them to develop their schemes. After all that we have heard about bottles of smoke, and conjurers, and such pitiable trash as even Sir James Graham was not ashamed to retail, surely it would be worth while, were it only for amusement's sake, to have waited for the fantastic apparition. It could not be long delayed-it was not intended to delay it. But, as time drew on, the very painful idea seems to have occurred to more than one of those facetious prophets, that the disclosure, when it did arrive, might be in entire accordance with the feelings and wishes of the country. That certainly was a consummation which they were deeply interested to prevent; and hence the present factious movement, to which the sound sense, honour, and interest of Great Britain are alike opposed. It is not in the least degree surprising that those who were the leaders of the Free-Trade party should insist on this-that before the actual business of the Session com. menced, Ministers should distinctly and unequivocally avow whether they intended to propose a return to the Protective policy, or to adopt the present system, and work it out fairly and conscientiously. For that purpose, Parliament was summoned to meet before Christmas, and the declaration has already been made. But it appears that such a declaration will not be held as satisfactory. Action is not sufficient for some of our modern Liberals-the thumb-screw must be applied to the mind. Nolens volens, the man who believed in Protection as a sound principle must not only cease to advocate it, after the verdict which the country has pronounced, but he must deny every separate article of his faith, and confess himself to have been utterly in the wrong. And no saving clauses are to be allowed him. He is not to be permitted to allude to anything which has taken place between 1846 and the present-to the Australian and Californian gold discoveries, which have obviated the hideous errors of the Currency Restriction Acts—or to the unparalleled emigration consequent upon Free Trade, which has occasioned a scarcity of labour. He must become absolutely a hypocrite to himself. Such was the tenor of Mr Cobden's speech at the preliminary political banquet at Manchester; and such, taking the cue from him, is the present language of the faction. To say that no such recantation will ever be made, is simply to assert the honour of English gentlemen. There are at this moment many men who question the policy of the Catholic Emancipation Act, but who nevertheless acquiesce in its provisions without any idea of repealing it. But these Manchester dictators have no wish that opinion in this country shall be free. They are not one whit more tolerant than the officials of the Inquisition; they want to have a Test Act, to which mere subscription will not suffice. And what is their object? Not to secure the safety of the policy which they advocated-for they have the fullest assurance on the part of the Government that nothing will be done in any way to disturb that policy;-not surely to gain a triumph, for theirs is the triumph, however gained: their object is simply this-to break down the present Government upon any pretext; because they are apprehensive that the wisdom and beneficial nature of its measures may render them so popular as to retard the advancement of the revolutionary schemes of which Manchester is the hotbed, and which have long been matured and prepared by the chiefs of the democratic confederacy. Those who are in the secret of the real League existing against the venerable institutions of England, were never so deeply mortified as when it was announced to them that Lord Derby-in the fulfilment of his duty as the first adviser of the Crown, and yielding to the force of circumstances, which clearly showed to his masterly and experienced mind that it was not advisable that an internal struggle so very serious as this should be prolonged-was resolved to take the result of the general election as conclusive upon the question at issue between Protection and Free Trade, and to shape the future measures of the Government accordingly. The only account he had to settle was with those who had confided these interests to his hand. And it is most creditable to the agricultural interest of Great Britain that we can say, generally, that the course which Lord Derby has taken has met with their approval. Some there are, no doubt, who are opposed to any surrender— but what kind of surrender is this which Ministers have made? Not one of opinion, certainly; for Lord Derby has distinctly and emphatically disclaimed anything of the kind. It is simply a yielding to the force of circumstances, which no human power could control. It implies nothing more than acquiescence in an inaugurated policy, against which an appeal was taken to the country, considered, and definitively refused. Therefore, to the country party, though defeated, there is no loss of honour. To them belongs the grace, which vulgar minds cannot appreciate, of relinquishing the contest when further resistance could be followed by no practical result. Free Trade has become an unopposed system, not because the bulk of the Conservative party are convinced of the soundness of the principles upon which it professes to be founded, but because they were convinced that by longer continuing the struggle, the dignity, the authority, and even the safety of Britain might be imperilled. And, setting faction aside, it is impossible to conceive a more noble or instructive spectacle, than that of a great political party, with enormous interests confessedly at stake, bowing in acquiescence to the verdict of the nation constitutionally obtained, and sacrificing, to the public tranquillity, the assertion of what it considers to be its claims. And yet it is this very sacrifice which has so much incensed the Faction! They, with a principle which they professed to hold dear, would much rather that Lord Derby and the Protectionists had remained stubborn, and, even after the election, maintained the war à l'outrance. They have got everything that they wanted to get at least in so far as commercial measures are concerned—and yet they are not satisfied. They say that nothing will content them short of the |