to add, can a living dependence on His agency consist with such a view of its amount as makes it scarcely distinguishable from the influence of one created mind on another, by the force of suasion. It must, at least, be allowed that the history of all success in bringing mankind to the ways of truth and holiness, is with those who have held the belief advocated in the volume before us; nor do we feel encouraged to hope for any wide revival and extension of religion, in these latter ages, unless as accompanied with the deeper, more awful sense, through the whole Christian church, of dependence for its life and hope on the Spirit of grace, as well as on the death of Christ.

Any commendation of ours, with respect to the present work, is needless. Our estimation is sufficiently attested by the lengthened exposition we have given of its reasonings. We esteem it a lasting and precious accession to that department of theology to which it appertains. While its principles and views are sound and scriptural, their manner of exhibition is new and fresh, as if they had never been enunciated before. Nor are these lectures unequal in their power as compositions. There is the same complete competence, the same clear command of principles, the same conscious facility and richness of diction, in the last part as in the first. If we ventured any reference, by way of drawback, it would be to something like excess in the rich colouring which everywhere pervades and adorns the volume, the effect of which is to spread a bright haze over the sentiments; and which, whilst it may make the volume more attractive, perhaps, to the general reader by its copious and eloquent expression, diminishes, or at least conceals, its value as an argumentative treatise. In fact, there is less of the process of reasoning unfolded than we could wish from one who knows to reason so surely. Decisions are rather announced and illustrated than argued under the reader's eye. This, however, is a deficiency, in the present case, rather of form than reality; for deepest reason, though not cast into antagonistic argument, fills and informs the volume. We may add, too, that had its discussions borne somewhat more directly on the real or supposed errors of existing parties and living writers on the subject, it might have been felt as more to the time, and have been more useful; but we can understand the reasons that may dispose a man to keep clear of such entanglements.

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ART. IV. A Handbook for London, Past and Present. By PETER CUNNINGHAM. 2 vols. Murray.

A LARGE and closely-written volume is London, wherein, not in words and sentences, but in picturesque remains, and crowding and vivid associations, we may read the history of nineteen centuries. And yet, how few realize the actual antiquity of our great city-an antiquity higher than most continental capitals can boast, and linked, too, with a history more important in its bearings on the whole civilized world than any other. Those nineteen long centuries!-let us reverse Mr. Macaulay's graphic but melancholy picture, and looking, not to the possible to come,' but to the actual past, take our stand in fancy, not on a broken arch of London-bridge, gazing on the ruined city, but on the green slope, sheltered on the north by forest-clad hills, and mark the rude cluster of wattled huts, the giant cromlech, perchance, crowning the highest ground; while, spread out in an almost lake-like expanse of waters, the Tam-Ise slowly rolls along at its feet, bearing only the osierbound coracle, and the skin-clad fisherman on its tide. Yet this, nineteen centuries ago, was London-imperial London of the present day;- Llyn-Dun,' as later antiquaries have interpreted the name-the city of the waters.' But a change is at hand; the Briton has been 'conquered to his gain, and undone to his advantage;' Rome has added this uttermost part of the earth to her vast empire, and Roman arts and civilization, have succeeded to Roman arms. The cromlech, the rude dwellings, are swept away; and the forum, the theatre, the prætorium, the temple, with marble arch and tesselated floor, mark the Roman city. Stately and wealthy was Londinum-a city of commerce, too, even ere a century had passed; and in stately majesty must she have stood, girdled in by her massive wall, with column, and arch, and gilded roofs, reflected in the broad stream beneath.

But Roman London passes away like a dream, and yet another change. Temple, forum, palace, all cast down by violent hands, or slowly falling to decay; and tall trees take place of the marble column, and grass spreads over the tesselated floor: changeless nature has triumphed over perishable art. But Londinum is not all a solitude; the abodes of men are still there— scattered dwellings of unhewn stone, or clay strangely mingled with sculptured remains, and each overshadowed by its trees, and still guarded by that massive wall, but more surely by the seaxes of those who have chosen that spot as their dwelling-place;

for the Saxon is in the land. Rude and barbarous is the racerude and barbarous is their tongue; but they have brought with them a noble heritage-a system of laws which shall become a model to the civilized world-to mankind in the nineteenth century-and a language that shall be the birth-tongue of half the human race.

Years fleet on; the London vessels, manned by bold and hardy mariners, set forth; her traders eye the king's thegns proudly, and the long-bearded fathers of the city meet in solemn folk-mote, to demand their franchises, even of Athel

stan.

Again a change. The Norman has triumphed on the field of Hastings; but London, the Mercian capital, bears herself proudly. The Conqueror, by his precious slip of parchment, has declared the inhabitants law-worthy;' their Saxon usages are respected, and in the Mercian city, Saxon and Norman ere long dwell in friendly rivalship together. And now each generation beholds the progress of the 'good city' in wealth and importance; almost every year some new and stately building graces her picturesque streets; and the spirit that quailed not before the fierce Conqueror, bears itself proudly in the presence of our lion-hearted Plantagenets, for a new glory is thrown around the ancient city. Geoffry of Monmouth has told,-not to England alone, but to Europe, his wondrous story of the British kings, and the inhabitant of London bears himself even more proudly still, for he looks back with unfaltering faith on the days of Cadwaller and King Lud, on Brutus, grandson of Eneas, and boasts that his civic franchises are no recent acquisition, but are lyke and after the manner of olde Troye.'

And how many are the associations that cluster around London of the middle ages-that beautiful city, as even visitors from Italy deemed it; her silver stream, spanned by that noble bridge, which seemed to our marvelling forefathers the work of infernal agents, compelled by the holy power of Peter of Colechurch to do his bidding; that ample stream made more beautiful by the flocks of swans that sailed by hundreds upon its bosom; her lofty cathedral, with the exquisite spire rising high in mid-air, and her churches and halls, of the graceful early, and more beautiful middle Gothic. And then, the great men that trod her streets; the great principles set forth and maintained there; that noble strife for freedom, which begun in the days of Becket, found in London bold hearts pledged to carry on the contest, even until the day when the 'prentice brought his hoarded money-box, the maid-servant her silver bodkin, the poor woman-with nought else to give-even her marriage-ring,

to aid the good cause; and London, with the heart of one man, marched forth beneath the Parliament banner. And London, of later times-of the Protectorate, of the Restoration, of the Revolution, of the indolent, prosperous, unimaginative, but still to us suggestive, days of the two first Georges-what varying phases of society do they each present to the mind; and what multitudes of those who have wrought out an imperishable name pass before us, as dwellers, thinkers, workers, within the bounds of this great city!

It was with some degree of interest that we heard, years since, the announcement of Mr. Cunningham's work; for, notwithstanding the singularly attractive character of the subject, we are sadly in want of a good history of London. All honour to Master John Stow, citizen and merchant-taylor, who, moved, not by gain, but led by pure love to the city that was to him 'so dear and sweet,' and by delight to wander along the devious ways of hoar antiquity,' so diligently sought information, and so carefully digested it into his 'Survaye.' All honour to him, and to his labour of love; but antiquarianism, in his days, was in its infancy; and besides, many are the records, and remains, and illustrations which since his time have been brought to light. Much study, too, has been bestowed on middle-age art; and the customs and habits of these times have exercised the minds of many a scholar. Of Munday, Stow's continuator, little can be said. As to prosing Master Strype, the additions which he has made in his two ponderous folios to the beforementioned writers, only refer to his own time; and it is with a mixture of amusement and vexation that we follow him into the courts, and alleys, and bye-places of London and Westminster, whilst, like a very foreman of a ward-inquest, he pronounces 'Cherry-tree Court' to be a fair, well-paved place, with tolerable houses;' and Chimney Alley' as very ordinary, and dirty, with decrepid houses all ready to fall.' But although, for prosingness, and 'much ado about nothing,' Master Strype may boast an unenviable pre-eminence, we cannot say much in favour of later writers on London. Strange that the stirring, the picturesque past, should appear to the professed antiquary but as a series of so many dry, dull matters of fact, to be duly sorted, and labelled, and packed up, either in strict order of time, or in alphabetical order, for the benefit of prosers like himself. We can remember but one exception, and that is Knight's 'London.' Not only because in style it is so different from these, but for the genial poetic spirit that pervades many parts, we like Knight's London.' Had there been less inequality among the writers-had the editor, indeed, written more, and had a little

more knowledge of the subject been put in requisition-for it is not knowledge, but an incapacity to use it pleasantly, that makes the prosing antiquary-the work would have stood far above the others in value, although it yet would not have supplied, what is still wanting, a good history of London. But however we had anticipated Mr. Cunningham's work, we greatly doubted its adequacy when we first saw the title, for it is more than a mere 'hand-book' that is wanting; and the past is voluminous enough without the present. The work before us is, indeed, a hand-book for country cousins, abounding in miscellaneous information, some very good, and some trifling enough; about London Wall, and Astley's Theatre; Temple Church, and the best houses for ale and porter; even Birch's buns come in for a celebration, as well as the Monument, and the armoury in the Tower;-in short, it is a mere alphabetical list of streets, squares, and public buildings, with notices of their founders and the celebrated persons who lived there; while whenever reference is made to old London remains, Stow and Munday are quoted. We feel we have scarcely right to find fault with Mr. Cunningham, that his book is not what, doubtless, he never intended it to be; but we may fairly express our regret that, while careful research is made into the earliest history of the nations of antiquity,-while the plain of Troy-half-fabulous Troy-has been carefully surveyed, and the site of the Lycian cities, which have lain hundreds of years in ruins, been accurately laid down, no attempt has been made either to construct a map of Roman London, or to define the boundaries of the Saxon city, indeed, to do for our great metropolis what has been done for many of our second and third-rate towns.

Very little inquiry, indeed, has been bestowed upon Londinum, although there are some questions connected with it well. worthy our notice. An antiquary of some standing has lately been advocating the opinion that Roman London extended westward only to Wallbrook, and he chiefly grounds it on the belief that the site of St. Paul's was a burial-place, and the fact. that the Romans buried outside their cities. But tesselated pavement and foundations have been discovered very lately, considerably westward of the Wallbrook-at the west end of Gresham-street, for instance, and other places; while the very ancient tradition, that London Wall was constructed by the Romans-and this has been corroborated by a close examination of its remains-would of itself prove that the boundaries of the Roman, the Saxon, and the medieval city were co-extensive. A party of intelligent northern antiquaries set out, this summer, on a pleasant pilgrimage along the Roman wall, and