has been confounded with glaucus, which Ainsworth interprets with whimsical uncertainty, "grey or blue, sky-colored, azure, or sea-green; or, according to others, a bright and fiery red, as in the eyes of an owl." But a passage in Vegetius, (de Re Mil. IV.) settles with more precision the colour venetus. He calls it cæruleus, qui color est marinis fluctibus similis. Color Thalassicus. And so Gibbon has treated it in his account of the factions of the Circus.-(Decline and Fall, chap. xl. note 42.)

We here take our leave of Mr. Blunt, with many thanks for the gratification which we have derived from his most agreeable essay. We are by no means conscious that we differ from him in any of the opinions which we have expressed; though we must again repeat our dissent from the argument proposed by Conyers Middleton. The idolatry of the Church of Rome, (and that she is chargeable with idolatry, we readily admit,) is not the idolatry of Paganism. The worship of the Host, however far removed from the doctrine of the Gospel, cannot be fairly confounded with the image-worship of ancient mythology; and as for the adoption of pictures and statues in churches, we are among those who cordially wish that the offer of Barry and Sir Joshua Reynolds, for the decoration of St. Paul's, had not been rejected, from motives, which appear to us, to savor of ultra-squeamishness. That such material objects may be perverted to superstitious uses there can be little doubt; but the genius of Protestantism leaves small room for fear that this would ever have been the case among ourselves; and the fashion of the present day, on the other hand, leads us to dread that Jack and Martin, under pretence of tearing off embroidery, will care little how harshly they rend the coat itself. In reference to such matters as these, the contrast between the present essayist and his predecessor in the same line is most favourable to Mr. Blunt. He has travelled like a scholar, a man of taste, and a man of reflection; and his volume has strong claims upon the attention of all those who wish, in these points, to be thought to resemble him.

ART. VII. A Letter to Henry Brougham, Esq. M. P. upon his Durham Speech, and the Three Articles in the last Edinburgh Review, upon the subject of the Clergy. 8vo. 108 pp. Rivingtons. 1823.

ART. VIII. A Remonstrance addressed to H. Brougham,

Esq. M. P. by one of the " Working Clergy." 8vo. 50 pp. Rivingtons. 1823.

IN our Review of Dr. Phillpotts Pamphlet we expressed a firm conviction that the attack upon the Church of England would be gallantly and successfully withstood. The ink with which we wrote was hardly dry when the prediction was accomplished by the Letter and the Remonstrance to Mr. Brougham. Much had been previously effected by the Address to Mr. Jeffrey. The Durham Case had been placed in its proper colours, the object of Mr. Brougham and his Client had been exposed, the question had been brought into a narrow compass and a tangible shape. The writers now before us avail themselves of these circumstances. Steering clear of the particular merits of the Durham libel, which have been amply explained by Dr. Phillpotts, they proceed to repel the general assault upon the Church. Taking no notice of Mr. Jeffrey, who was the receiver of the stolen goods, they turn to Mr. Brougham, who was the actual perpetrator of the outrage. The Editor of the Edinburgh Review may be regarded as the keeper of a flash house at which sacrilege is talked over and planned; the contributors are the band that actually do the job. The conviction and punishment of the latter will be most likely to deter others from similar crimes. And such a task was never more happily accomplished than by the publications under review. They enter fully and fairly into the charges which have been made against the Church, disprove the accusations, and retort upon the accusers. A more triumphant defence was never made; and seldom, even in these days of misrepresentation and calumny, have the ignorance, the insolence, the inconsistency, the self-contradiction of reformers been more happily or more completely exposed. We shall endeavour to put the reader in possession of an outline of these pamphlets, but recommend him not to rest satisfied without perusing them for himself.

The first charge against the Church to which the letterwriter adverts, is that of " pluralities and non-residence, and unequal distribution of wealth, leaving the working parish priest oftentimes to starve while the sinecurist of the cathedral revels in all the enjoyments of rank and fortune." Upon

this he observes

• Your Reviewer has here echoed a favourite distinction of your own, between the working and the dignified Clergy; the parochial Minister and the cathedral Sinecurist-a distinction which I have before observed not to be founded in fact. The parochial and the

dignified Clergy are not, like the Regulars and Seculars of the Roman Catholic Church, distinct bodies of men, but they are the same. There are not twenty dignitaries in the kingdom who are not also parish priests. Nor do the dignities which they hold exempt them from residence on their respective livings. The law does not allow of any longer absence from their parochial cures than the statutes of their respective cathedrals require, and this absence is in general from one to three months. For three months, then, they are dignitaries, and for nine they are parish priests. Even in the very cathedral, against which your invective is especially directed, eight Prebendaries out of the twelve are resident and working parish priests. You see Mr. Darnell for one month in his stall-follow him down to his heavy parochial charge in the city, and where will you find a more active or a more Christian minister? Follow Dr. Gray to Bishop's Wearmouth, and in that populous and important parish, what trace can you discover of the cathedral sinecurist? Take the other six, and you will find them as well known in their parishes as they are in their stalls. In selecting Durham, I select a cathedral the most unfavourable to my argument, for there are two of its prebendaries without any parochial cure, a circumstance which you will hardly find in any other chapter in the kingdom.

"Look around you, Sir, in the metropolis. Is the good Dr. Andrewes the less active, at St. James's because he is the Dean of Canterbury? Are the labours of Dr. Hodgson less effective at St. George's because he is the Dean of Carlisle? Look, Sir, at the exertions of that truly Christian minister, Archdeacon Pott, in the poor and populous parish of St. Martin, and do you grudge him a prebend of 500l. per annum, to which he has lately been presented, as the reward and the support of his labours. In London and its neighbourhood I can count more than twenty resident and working parish priests, who are each possessed of some cathedral dignity, which so far from diminishing, adds to the powers of their parochial utility.

"The most extensive Cures are generally the worst paid; and the demands upon the incumbent are often the largest, when his means of satisfying them are the least. Here, then, a cathedral stall comes with peculiar advantage in aid of the meagre resources of a parish priest. By this addition to his income, the parish priest is enabled to perform those generous acts, such as the building or the maintaining parochial schools, which in your speech before the House of Commons you so justly panegyrized. I can with truth assert, that more than one half of the annual income derived from cathedral preferments is expended in the parishes of their several possessors.

"But it is not only to sustain the income and to find resources for the liberality of the working parish priest, that cathedrals, were established. Their dignities were intended as a reward for meritorious exertion in every department of the Church. These are the

stations in which should be placed men of superior piety, learning, and worth-men who as scholars have exerted their talents in the defence of the Gospel, or as parish priests have laboured in its mi nistry. True it is, that these venerable and august foundations may be made the instruments of political jobbery, or of Episcopal nepotism. If it be so, let the authors of the mischief be answerable at the bar of public opinion here, as they must be at the bar of a higher tribunal hereafter. But let not the abuse, happen when it may, be visited upon the use. The hope which these high stations hold out, is, if properly regulated, the fostering parent of Ecclesiastical merit; it is an encouragement for high-talented men to enter the sacred profession, and when they have entered, it is an incentive to holy and honourable exertion." Letter, &c. P. 12,

"With respect to pluralities, I have only to observe that they are by no means so injurious in practice as you might at first imagine. Your Reviewer (p. 364.) describes the pluralities and nonresidence of the English Church as existing in a degree unknown even to the Romish scheme. That this is an assertion unfounded in fact, the experience of most men in their own immediate neighbourhood will decidedly testify. Your Reviewer has coupled also pluralities and non-residence together, as if the former evil was necessarily productive of the latter; and so it unquestionably might have been, if the vigilance and activity of the Bishops had not changed the system of things. It is now, I believe, a rare occur rence to find a benefice without a resident Clergyman, where residence is essential to the proper discharge of the duties of the parish. There are hundreds of contiguous parishes indeed whose population is so small as to admit the same Clergyman to discharge the duties of two at once, in the most conscientious and effective 'manner. There are hundreds, I may say thousands of parishes, whose revenues are so trifling that two together will go but a little way to support their minister. What says the Edinburgh Review upon this point ? In such a state of endowment, all idea of ris gid residence is out of the question; emolument which a footman would spurn can hardly be recommended to a scholar and a gentleman. Vol. ii. p. 204. In such cases, at least, pluralities are not only defensible, but they are actually necessary. But let us turn our attention to another species of plurality. Many a Clergyman who lives in the active discharge of a heavy parish in a populous town, (a cure which is in general very scantily paid,) is the incumbent of another benefice in the country, with a smaller population and a larger revenue. Upon this latter benefice he maintains a resident curate, and occasionally visits it himself to see that the duties are duly discharged, and with the remainder of the revenue he supports himself in his residence on a laborious and unprofitable charge. Here, then, we have the working parish priest, and the non-resident pluralist united in the same person, and in what respect is the religious interest of the country injured by the U

VOL. XIX, MARCH, 1823.

union? This is a more common case than you might at first imagine; both the incumbents and the curates of poor and populous parishes will often be found, in this sense, to be pluralists." Letter, &c. P. 19.

Mr. Brougham had taken occasion to contrast the Church Establishment of England with that of Scotland-deciding, as was to be expected, in favour of the latter. The letterwriter convicts the orator of an error in stating that there are no such things as curates on the other side of the Tweed, admits the general merits of the sister Church, laments the small number of their eminent theologians, and compares their services in that character with the works of the English Clergy. The whole is summed up in the following terms:

"If you abolish the dignities and level the distinctions of the sacred profession, you take away those inducements which, in the mind of many a hesitating youth, will turn the scale in its favour. What will be the consequence? Young men of academical distinction and attainment will no longer think of the Church as a profession; the Ministry will pass into inferior hands; instead of a learned and a high-talented Clergy, you will have a body of men without weight and without influence. Such men in a country parish may be worthy and efficient ministers; but against the progress of scepticism and infidelity in the higher orders they will be unable to oppose the slightest barrier.

"For many years, as you, Sir, well know, Edinburgh has been the head-quarters of infidelity. The diffusion of scepticism among the higher ranks is fully equal to that of religion among the lower. The philosopher is teaching the academic to scoff, while the minister is teaching the plough-boy to pray. This is a system, Sir, which cannot long continue. The diffusion of knowledge, and the interchange of opinion which marks the present day, will effectually prevent the conversion of religion into an engine of state police. In the more distant part of Scotland, where the primitive simplicity of the national manners still continues, the clergy may retain their beneficial power; but in those more populous districts, which are illuminated by the productions of the liberal press, the influence of the Clergy is rapidly diminishing. This diminution is excellently pourtrayed in a little work which is familiar to every English reader, "The Annals of the Parish." The fact is, that the Scottish Clergy, as a body, have neither the learning nor the power which is necessary, in these times, to defend the citadel of Christianity, and to silence its assailants. As a peace establishment they are admirable, but in time of war they are inefficient. There is no inducement held out in the Scottish Church for a young man of family, of talent, or of attainment, to enter the Clerical profession, or to bring any superior endowments to the defence and support of the sacred cause. In England the case is other