presence of other men, may think of escape; but in his own soul! there he is, and is to be perpetually. Then what a predicament, when a man, directly and immediately, as being in himself, feels the apprehension of evil and danger!-feels in the presence of something he dreads to abide with, and would fly from; would be glad to separate by a partition or veil. So that, be where he may, with other persons or alone, he has still the inevitable presence, with him and in him, of something which he cannot be at ease in trusting himself with.”Pp. 336-340.

We now wait, as we have already said, for Foster's "Life and Letters," or, we should say, for whatever he has left which may fairly, and in consistency with his own expressed or understood intentions, be given to the world-given, not indeed to an eager public, that will snatch up its five or ten thousand copies, and then think not again of the momentary gratification which it has thence derived; for Foster was not the writer to hold at his command any such "public" as this; nor, in truth, is this the moment when the remains of an intellectualist of so high an order would produce any great sensation. But his literary legacy, bequeathed to the reflective and cultured minds of this age and the next, will soon be looked for by the immediate legatees; and we hope it will be duly and faithfully made over to them by those to whose hands these "assets" have been intrusted.

How earnestly, how devoutly is it to be desired that the tempest-tossed religious mind should, at this time, be drawn away from the circle of agitation! Whatever may be the ultimate consequence-the intended issue, of the controversial and ecclesiastical turmoil of the last few years, every one who quietly and seriously observes and listens, painfully knows that the proximate effect of all this wrathful stir and hubbub has not been good: nay, that it has deeply vitiated the Christian mass, and has been fatal to personal piety in innumerable cases, diffusing a spirit the very opposite to the temper which the religion of Christ cherishes and sanctions. A soul, elevated and rendered tranquil by the habitual meditation of that which is infinite and eternal, and a disposition and deportment such as this state of the mind generates, do not comport, and never have they been found to consist with a thorough and consenting embroilment in ecclesiastical contentions. Christian men, whose fate it has been to be dragged down upon the arena of Church combats, know this, and how joyfully do they accept an honourable discharge from the lists! And such men contemplate, with sorrow and dismay, the ill effects of the same unholy influences, as attaching to the masses, called religious. But how shall they give a different and a happier direction to the current? How stem the tide? How brunt the swelling waters, and bid them revert to their channels? To do so fully

surpasses human power; and yet right-minded men will not cease so to desire such a reaction as shall tend-effectively tend--to bring it on; and the line on which these Christian-like endeavours may be made, will be that of a direct recurrence to the loftiest themes of religious meditation-to the elementary truths of the Gospel-to those principles which constitute "THE TRUTH,” compared with which all matters of contestation among Christian men sink into their place of utter disfavour, if not contempt. At this very moment, let but a few minds-minds of powerful structure and right direction ;-here one, and there another assume the leading office that belongs to them, and loudly challenge the scattered multitudes in the name of Him who is shepherd and bishop of souls: let this be done, and more than a few, in all communions, would hail with delight the summons; and thousands around them would listen also. The fomenters of discord, the leaders of faction, the arrogant hierarch, as well as the turbulent sectarist, would feel and know that their summer time was past— their hour gone by!

But we stop short. The reader will scarcely need that we

should unfold that connexion of ideas that has led us on toward this theme on the present occasion; nor will he wonder that, with John Foster's name before us, we should think of others his companions, his colleagues, his contemporaries, who are gone whither he is gone; or that we should wistfully ask, "Who shall now lead the people toward that which is true, great, eternal?" The most surely successful pacificators of the Church at this moment, would be those who, taking their stand upon elementary doctrines, should carry trouble and dismay into the consciences of men individually. Men professedly Christian, would cease to strive one with another, if roused to fight with the adversary of their own souls. An awakening call to "Repent and be converted,” heard up and down through the land, would speedily bring to its end the delusion of baptismal regeneration: and how like a mist would the mummeries, and the monkery, and the Romish-aping, and the demure nonsense of Oxford disappear, if men, great in temper, and "mighty in the Scriptures," were to come forth-not boasting indeed of their apostolical succession, but demonstrating it!

ART. IV.-A Narrative of a Visit to the Mauritius and South Africa. By JAMES BACKHOUSE. Illustrated by Two Maps, Sixteen Engravings, and Twenty-Eight Woodcuts. 8vo. London, 1844.

MR. BACKHOUSE is a pious member of the Society of Friends. A few years ago, he believed that it was his duty to pay a religious visit to Australia, the Mauritius, and Southern Africa. Under the influence of this impression, he submitted to all the perils, and passed through all the toils and privations, which the fulfilment of what he regarded as a sacred obligation required. After his return, he published, some twelve months ago, a " Narrative" of the Australian portion of his visit, in which he pointed out, and by the statement of numerous facts, clearly illustrated, the great benefits which the Gospel communicates to settlers in a colony like that of South Wales; and especially its mighty and most advantageous influence on those persons who had been removed from their native land by the sentence of the laws which they had violated. Many parts of his volume might almost have been termed, "Illustrations of the Epistle of St. Paul to Philemon." The Gospel of the grace of God proclaims the solemn, but delightful truth, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even the chief; and through its power, many who were once, like Onesimus, to society most "unprofitable," have been brought to experience, not only the exercise of the Divine mercy, but the power of that grace which restrains them from their vices, and brings them under the influence of motives and rules which transform them into "profitable" members of the community. Most truly may it be said of them, that what the law of man could by no possibility accomplish," the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus" has effectually done. They have been “made free from the law of sin and death." Evil and strong as were their former habits, the Ethiop has changed his skin, and the leopard its spots. They have become not merely reformed criminals, but new creatures: old things have passed away, and all things become new.

Nor are these triumphs unimportant even in a political point of view. Along with advancing civilization has hitherto always been advancing crime. Legislators are perpetually employed in so altering their laws as to adapt them to the actually existing state of society, but not all they can do avails to lessen the number of criminals. And who has not both observed and deplored the fact, that even the penal inflictions of law often operate so as to strengthen, rather than diminish, the propensities to the conduct which calls for them? Among philanthropic legislators,

there is not a more common topic of complaint than that which is furnished by the fact, that they who have been imprisoned for the infraction of human law, have left their prison with increased subtlety and hardness, taking their place in society again with a disposition to crime, and an ability for its commission greater than ever and if this be the case where the immense mass of the community walk in orderly obedience to government and law, what must be the social condition there, where society is so largely composed of liberated convicts-that is, of those whose crimes have required, not the comparatively lower punishment of temporary incarceration, but the higher and most decided one of expatriation? Composed of such materials, what must the mass be, especially where the corruption is a pervading and active leaven, continually strengthened by fresh admixtures, becoming, by its activity, more intense in its operation, and constantly tending to the contamination of what may have remained comparatively pure? Statesmen have felt the difficulty, and devised various plans for its removal; but however unwilling they may be to confess it, the constant proposition of fresh plans proves that they feel their labour to be, to a great extent, in vain. The evil is deeply seated within, and their appliances possess no inward power. We say not that their plans are altogether useless. Far from it. They prevent many outbreaks of crime. But the law, as a terror to evil-doers, only prevents the commission of the particular evil which it prohibits; while the evil propensity still remaining, soon finds a direction in which it may be developed with safety. Education is often mentioned, but what is commonly meant by education possesses not the slightest curative power. The knowledge of the Rule of Three will not make a man honest. Legislators begin to perceive this, and admit that education, to be moral in its influence, must be connected with religion. But everything depends on the nature of the religion with which it is connected, and on this subject we cannot help having many fears. Not that our statesmen have not had their attention called to what we believe to be the only correct view of the case. Many an amicus curia has come forward, respectfully offering to aid them in their deliberations, and earnestly soliciting to be permitted to do so. They have been repeatedly told that the only influence which can be effectual is evangelical, and that this always is so. We think it a most remarkable circumstance, that the attention of a celebrated theologian of our own day, whose writings are richly evangelical, should have been led to those very subjects of political economy which have of late years been so keenly agitated, and which, indeed, the present condition of society has rendered it impossible to overlook. With many, his treatises on certain questions have become classical, and the manner in

which his opinions are referred to by those to whose own they are favourable, shows the importance that is attached to them. Many a modern statesman has thus had the saving truth of God brought directly before him, connected with those earnest but luminous argumentations which exhibit its proper mode of operation, and trace the developing cause to its effects. They have not only been told that it will reform men, but shown how it will, and why it must reform them. Whether they have heard, or whether they have refused to hear, yet, by what we must ever consider to be a providential, as well as a remarkable circumstance, a prophet has been sent among them. That they should "hear," was perhaps more to be desired than expected. He who has no care for anything beyond a nominal Christianity, is as much opposed to the true Gospel of God as he is to the true law of God. Such persons now often talk of religion. Truth has so far won its way in English society, that they can no longer avoid doing so; but, on the real nature of religion, a most melancholy ignorance is often found to exist, and along with this ignorance, a very decided antipathy to that by which alone the effects can be produced, which all profess to desire. Mr. Backhouse's former "Narrative" furnishes many luminous illustrations of the true process of evangelical reasoning. Let the genuine Gospel be preached, and though its hearers should be such as the Apostle describes when writing to the Corinthians, the preacher will soon have to rejoice in a success such as no philosopher, no moralist, no formalist, ever experienced.

But we refer to this, not merely as showing the value of genuine Christianity in such a state of society as must exist in New South Wales, but as illustrating its value at home. That by which the banished criminal is truly reformed, would, at an earlier period, have prevented the commission of crime. And even this is but a small portion of the obligations which it confers on society. Wherever there is high and advancing civilization, multitudes are found living in a very artificial state, and pursue lines of conduct which, without leading them to what the law condemns as criminal, do nevertheless issue in extensive and injurious mischief. Even though Christianity were not the true source of civilization, yet, such is human nature, that advancing civilization has its evil as well as good; and an efficient, certain correction of the evil, can only be found in the concurrent influence of a genuine, and therefore powerful Christianity. Let society, in its present condition, be closely observed. The observer may lay out of sight all those portions which are exposed to the penal visitations of

* 1 Cor. vi. 11. See also verses 9 and 10.