must be confessed, less beneficent. As early as 1785, Dr. Franklin inserted in his treaty between the United States and Prussia, a clause stipulating that in case of war neither of the two countries should employ privateers for the annoyance of the other. Privateering, however, has always been regarded by the American government as but a single branch of the general practice of waging war on private property upon the sea. The aim, therefore, of this government has always been to effect the entire abolition of this species of warfare, and to secure in time of war the perfect immunity of the goods of private citizens, alike upon the sea and upon the land. This principle has been repeatedly urged upon the attention of foreign powers, and especially of Great Britain, by American negotiators, but they have never consented to its recognition; and, on the other hand, when the abolition of privateering has been urged upon the United States by other nations, we have always promised to acquiesce as soon as they would allow the immunity of unarmed vessels and their cargoes. This position of our government has been severely condemned, and ascribed to the predominance of selfishness over the impulses of humanity. But this is after all a hasty conclusion; for in this country, where standing forces are at variance with the spirit of the people, militia upon the land and privateers upon the sea have always been a great reliance in time of war. To abandon either would be to cut off the main sources of the national defence. The government, therefore, does not consent to the abolition of privateering so long as private property upon the ocean is still exposed to the chances of war, a policy which only refuses the lesser good until the greater can be secured with it.

Some of the ablest writers on public law,* both in Great Britain and France, have maintained that this great endeavor of the American government would prove but an ambiguous blessing if it were fully accomplished. By them it is contended, not without much show of reason, that such immunity

*“Commentaries upon International Law," by Robert Phillimore, vol. 1, Preface. Also Proprietés Priveés des Sujets Belligérants Sur Mer., par M. L. B. Hautefeuille.

of private property on the sea would allow governments to carry on war without consulting the interests or the wishes of their subjects, and that thus wars would become more frequent and more protracted. This separation, it is urged, between the interests of States and the interests of subjects would only prove unfriendly to the promotion of peace and good-will among men. The view taken by these writers assumes it as a principle of human affairs, that wars between nations will become less frequent in porportion as their calamities are felt by all classes, of the people. This aspiration of the United States has also been objected to as incompatible with the right of blockade; to which our government has replied that blockade then ought to be abolished. The position of our country and her widely extended commerce, combine to make this question one of the utmost interest to our people. She would undoubtedly be the loser by the universal abolition of privateering, but she would be immensely the gainer were all merchant vessels and their cargoes exempted, by common consent, from capture on the sea, and were the practice of closing by blockade the ports of an enemy to the commerce of the world universally abolished; for thus maritime war-the only kind of foreign war in which, at present, we are likely to be engaged — would be restricted within the narrowest possible limits.

We have thus, in a very imperfect manner, indicated the character of the science whose study President Woolsey, in the volume before us, so judiciously introduces to the students and the educated men of the country. We have also alluded to the agency of the United States in establishing some of the doctrines to which this science has lately given its sanction. In addition to all to this, we have hitherto fondly cherished the patriotic hope that our republic of confederate States -which for three-quarters of a century has been crowned with blessings such as Heaven has bestowed on no other people might prove to be but an epitome and model of what the nations of the earth might become in their relations with each other. The splendid triumphs of our American nationality have been watched with eager interest over the wide world, and many a thoughtful sage and philanthropist has imagined

that in the progress of Christian civilization the day might not be distant when, like these hitherto prosperous States, the great nations of the earth might be brought together in a grand confederacy of international interests and powers-a confederacy which by a common arbitration would remove the occasions of war, and secure the reign of universal peace; which would protect by its authority the onward march of humanity, and recognize the brotherhood of man as the basis of national policy and national rights. This hope has inspired many a noble mind in other lands, and the possibility of its realization has linked the fortunes of our republic to an unusual degree, with the interests of mankind. But how is this beautiful vision of our country's destiny darkening beneath the shadows of recent and of coming events! Corruption and treachery have poisoned the heart and paralyzed the arm of the goverment; fanaticism and falsehood have spread themselves among the people, and the melancholy result is before us. As we write these closing lines, we look forth in sorrow and humiliation on the disgusting spectacle of a distracted and dishonored country; on industry suspended and intercourse destroyed; on peaceful citizens outraged and even murdered by brutal mobs; on cities agitated with the wildest passions, and States rising in rebellion against the national authority, and arming for civil war. Omens like these fearfully portend the decline of our boasted civilization, and the returning reign of barbarism among our people, the speedy termination of our brilliant, though vain-glorious national career, in dismemberment and ruin, amid violence and blood. From these impending calamities may God in mercy interpose to save our beloved country!

ARTICLE VIII.-RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

THEOLOGY AND RELIGION.

RECENT INQUIRIES IN THEOLOGY.*-It has been well understood for some years past that Rationalism has made serious inroads upon the Anglican Church; but this is the first concerted attempt to give expression to the views of the new party. We say concerted attempt, because, though the writers in one of the three sentences of their preface tell us "they have written in entire independence of each other, and without concert or comparison," yet no one is to suppose that the selection or the treatment of the topics has been either accidental or without regard to a common purpose. That the authors did not compare their several productions before publication, and that in writing them they were not subject to let or hindrance in the treatment, by any common agreement, is evident enough from the essays themselves. All idea of such concert or comparison is precluded by the recurrence of the same or similar thoughts and allusions in all, while the bearing of each on the common aim is discernible on every page.

This volume, known in England by the more modest and we think the more appropriate title, "Essays and Reviews," is having a rapid and extensive circulation, both in that country and in this. We are not surprised at the avidity with which it is read. The anomalous position of its writers attracts the universal gaze, while the novelty of their views stimulates curiosity to know their sentiments and their aims.

But their aims are by no means identical with their actual achievements. Protest as they may against the wish to invalidate the true authority of Christianity, and reiterate as they may the design simply to relieve the Bible of treacherous supports and unworthy friends, every blow they strike falls directly on the Bible itself, and the religion which the Bible reveals. In vain they profess to strike only at the barnacles

* Recent Inquiries in Theology, by eminent English churchmen; being “Essays and Reviews." Reprinted from the second London edition. Edited, with an Introduction, by REV. FREDERIC HEDGE, D. D. Boston: Walker, Wise & Co., 1860.

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that encumber the vessel on which we have embarked our heart's treasures, while every blow they strike reaches the keel and sends its force through every timber. The Westminster Review, certainly no unkindly judge of their exploits, declares that "they come forward as defenders of the creeds from attacks from without; but their hardest blows fall not on the assaulting, but on the resisting force. They threw themselves into the breach; but their principal care is to clear it of its oldest and stoutest defenders." The only cordial welcome and defence of the volume that we have read from any American author (doubtless from a personal friend of the American editor), pronounces the first essay "somewhat fanciful," and admits that "there is an element of fiction both in its scheme and the argument for it ;" takes "strong exceptions to the excess of dogmatism, and to the positiveness of assumption" of the second; calls the third "rash and portentous;" charges the author of the fourth, with "making an exceedingly forced application of his generous theory," with "melancholy special pleading," and with "setting himself to the sadly sophistical attempt of arguing," etc.; and reserves for the last, "on the Interpretation of Scripture" by Prof. Jowett, the unconditional praise of being "a piece of composition unmatched in the whole range of theological literature." The first six essays are too "destructive" even for one who " recognizes heartily the valuable contribution;" but by what process he would justify his extravagant praise of Prof. Jowett, whose aim and method are not one whit less fatal to all faith in the Bible as a Revelation, does not appear.

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The first essay, by Dr. Temple, the successor of Dr. Arnold at Rugby, traces, even to puerility of detail, a supposed parellelism between the education of the world and of an individual. The second, under cover

of an "exposition" of Bunsen's Biblical Researches, aims to break down our confidence in "this fiction of an external revelation," by an utter overthrow of the biblical chronology. The third, by Baden Powell, on "The Study of the Evidences of Christianity," is directed against "all evidential reasoning" in support of an "external revelation," and is specially vehement against miracles as more a "hindrance" than a help to Christianity. The fourth, by Henry Bristow Wilson, on the National Church, advocates the theory of "multitudinism" as against "individualism," that is, of a church so broad as to include a nation instead of individual believers. The fifth, by C. W. Goodwin, pits science against the Mosaic Cosmogony, to show how hopelessly the latter must fall The sixth, by Mark Pattison, finds in the "religious thought" of England between 1688 and 1750 a likeness and a relation to its religious