of the interests of religion, the House was called upon to interfere and to take care that the basis of the church was as broad and solid as duty to God and the welfare of the state would allow. The Right Reverend Prelate had done what, till his time, had not been attempted since the Reformation. He strove to straiten and narrow the basis of the church, and the speech he had made shewed that those who wished for the peace and security of the country, ought either to put an end to the practice he had begun, or at least to institute au inquiry into its legality and policy. The Right Reverend Prelate objected to the extraordinary interference of the House, yet he himself, day after day, had sat with exemplary patience to support a Bill of Pains and Penalties against the first subject of the realm, on the ground that the ordinary law did not reach the case. Here the ordinary law did not reach the case, yet he contended that there was no remedy but through a Convocation. As to the power of Convo cation, it was unquestionably a very pretty power to be read of in books; but God forbid that he (Lord Holland) or any man should live to see the day when it should be again exercised in this king

dom.

Lord CALTHORPE contended that the mode of proceeding adopted by the Right Reverend Prelate closed all those openings in the Thirty-nine Articles purposely left for the scruples of conscientious minds. He thought it most desirable for the welfare, and most essential to the peace, of the country and the interests of the clergy, that this House should express its decided reprobation of the course which had been pursued by the Right Reverend Prelate. (Hear.) He did hope, that their Lordships by their vote of that evening, whatever it might be, would make it clearly understood that they would not lend their high sanction to a proceeding, more menacing and more fatal to the prosperity of the church, than any which had ever been ventured on by any other Prelate, since the period at which the reformation of our religion was effected. (Hear.)

The Earl of HARROWBY said, that as he had, on the last occasion of this subject's being agitated, voted that the petition should not be laid upon the table, he felt anxious now to explain the grounds upon which he should now be disposed to give a contrary vote. The allegations which the petition contained appeared to be of the gravest character; and, looking to the high and important interests which might be in some sort affected by them, he did think that some further inquiry

ought to be instituted into the matter. He was satisfied, in regard to the church and its welfare, that to narrow the base was not the best method of securing the superstructure. The categories (as we understood his Lordship) of the Right Reverend Prelate, he considered to be clearly most impolitic. While he (Lord Harrowby) was disposed to vote for the reading and laying ou the table of the petition, he was far from pledging himself to support the proposed address.

The LORD CHANCELLOR thought it would be a most extraordinary course for their Lordships to take, to refuse to allow the petition to lie on the table, and yet not to reject it, but permit it to be read. If the noble Earl who had spoken last saw nothing in this petition which nade it improper to be received, or to be allowed to lie upon the table, (taking it to be a general representation of the sentiments entertained by the gentlemen who had signed it,) it appeared to him (the Lord Chancellor) that it ought to be permitted so to be read and laid on the table, whether their Lordships shonid choose to found any ulterior measure upon it or not. And such a proposition he was himself inclined, therefore, to support. But if it was intended, by laying the petition on their table, to imply any censure on the Right Reverend Prelate, whose conduct it called in question, he (the Lord Chancellor) would vote against it, even in that stage of the question. He could not see how the Right Reverend Prelate, indeed, could go on to the subscription, without previous examination. In voting that the petition should lie on the table, he (the Lord Chancellor) desired not to be understood as imputing any blame to the Right Reverend Prelate.

The petition was then read, and ordered to lie on the table.

Lord DACRE then observed, he had intended to have followed up the last motion, by moving an address to the Crown on that subject; but from what the noble and learned Lord on the woolsack, and other learned Lords, had said, it was clear that he (Lord Dacre) should find much difficulty and opposition if he persevered in his intention. He was therefore inclined to substitute for it a motion "that this petition be referred to a Committee to consider the matter thereof."

The LORD CHANCELLOR having explained the terms on which he would consent that the petition be laid on the table, would only say that he could not consent to this motion.

The question being put,

The Earl of CARNARVON could not re

press his astonishment on finding, that when so important a subject as this was brought before the house, the bench of Right Reverend Prelates had not declared in words-no, nor by a nod-nor even by a gesture, whether they meant, to a man, to sanction or condemn the conduct of their Right Reverend Brother. (Hear, and a laugh.) Usually those Reverend Prelates were not backward in expressing their opinions on subjects comparatively unimportant. They had long been in the habit of attending, and very regularly, the discussions of their Lordships; but whether for mere ornament and appearance, or for any more useful purpose, their conduct on this evening might possibly decide. Could their Lordships see with indifference a Bench of Bishops thus sitting in timid silence? Was it not almost a desertion of those whom it was the bounden duty of those Right Reverend Prelates to instruct? On any great constitutional question, particularly a year or two ago, they formerly could not complain that either the noble and learned Lord on the woolsack, or those Right Reverend PreFates, were slow to give the House the benefit of their wisdom and experience. But here, on a question of church policy, both were silent. That the Right Reverend Prelates had come down to vote one way or other, was evident enough; but the grounds upon which their votes were to proceed, their Lordships were not to learn. What would the public think, when it was informed, that of the very many Reverend Prelates who had come down that night to the House, not one was to be found who had a single word to offer upon the subject before their Lordships? (Hear.)

Strangers were then excluded from below the bar.

On our re-admission, we found the numbers to be (on the question of referring the petition to a Committee)

Contents, 19; Non-contents, 58. Majority against the motion, 39.

[The above subject has been introduced into the House of Commons also, as appears from the following paragraph in the Times of Friday, June 28:-"We understand that, after a division which took place in the House of Commons on Wednesday night last, and before the readmission of strangers into the gallery, Mr. FoWELL BUXTON stated, that he had been desired some time since to present two petitions from very respectable clergy men of the diocese of Peterborough, complaining of the conduct of their Bishop, with respect to the eighty-seven questions which that Right Reverend Prelate had

prepared. Mr. Buxton added, that wishing, if possible, to avoid introducing the discussion of such a subject into the House of Commons, he had not yet complied with the request of these two gentlemen. He had felt desirons, also, that their petitions should be considered in the first place, in the House of Lords, where the Right Reverend Prelate might have the opportunity of vindicating himself from the allegations they contained. That discussion having since come on, he (Mr. Buxton) did hope that what had been said by their Lordships might have the effect of inducing the Bishop to reconsider the subject in question, and to return to that which had now for so long a period been the practice of the Established Church. If, however, the conduct of the Right Reverend Prelate should disappoint these hopes, Mr. Buxton said, he should consider it his duty to call the attention of the House to this matter at an early period of the next session."]

HOUSE OF COMMONS,

JULY 31, 1822.
Marriage Act.

Mr. BUTTERWORTH wished to call the attention of an honourable and learned Member (Dr. Phillimore) to a clause in the new Marriage Act, which seemed to him to involve considerable difficulty. There were sects of Dissenters who did not baptize their children until they became adult, and in fact there were probably a great many persons in the country who, acting under their peculiar principle, were never baptized at all. Now such individuals would be placed in a situation of great inconvenience by that part of the new Marriage Act which went to provide that no person should be married without producing a register of his baptism.

Dr. PHILLIMORE begged to be distinctly understood as having had nothing to do with the clause to which the honourable Member adverted. The clause had been inserted in the Upper House: if he (Dr. Phillimore) had framed it, it certainly would not have stood in its present shape. For the benefit of such persons as were unable to produce registers, there was, however, a saving provision in the Act: where it appeared that the register of baptism could not be obtained, the Surrogate might be satisfied by an affidavit from any sufficient person, that the party unregistered was really twenty-one years of age. That provision he (Dr. Phillimore) apprehended was enough to remove the difficulty which the honourable Member (Mr. Butterworth) complained of; but he personally knew nothing of

the clause in question, and could only refer the honourable Member for farther information to the noble Lord above, who had taken part in framing it.

Mr. BUTTERWORTH was obliged by the answer of the honourable and learned gentleman (Dr. Phillimore): he had merely asked the question in order to set the public mind at rest upon the point. Many persons had been seriously uneasy as to the effect of the clause.

:

FOREIGN.

THE news from the continent of Europe has been of late various and contradictory. The GREEKS are still struggling with their oppressors, and have obtained some decided advantages in the Morea and at sea. SPAIN has been agitated with insurrections of the party who are for restoring Absolute Monarchy and the Inquisition strange delusion! to be explained only by the yet remaining influence of the Priesthood in that land of the Faithful. These mad attempts to plunge the country back into superstition and despotism have 'generally failed, and the failures will, it is to be hoped, strengthen the hands of the Cortes and of the friends of the new Constitution. There is external quiet, but deep dissatisfaction in FRANCE. The press is shackled beyond all recent example, and the prisons are crowded with persons convicted or, which we fear is much the same thing in France, suspected of seditious designs. The scaffolds too have streamed with blood. In the trials of the persons who have perished, the unrighteous character of the French tribunals was most glaringly and disgustingly exhibited; undisguised attempts being made by the servants of the crown to implicate some of the distinguished friends of liberty in the plots for

which the prisoners were tried. BENJAMIN CONSTANT seems to have been particularly aimed at, but he has defied and, as yet, repelled the malice of his persecntors. One act of the French government has excited great attention in Eugland: we feel so strongly upon the subject, that we are constrained in prudence to content ourselves with recording the fact without a comment. Our friend and correspondent, Mr. JOHN BOWRING, has been arrested by order of the government, and thrown into prison. He was on the point of embarking at Calais for Eugland, when a telegraphic dispatch ordered his detention and the seizure of his papers. He was the bearer of dispatches from the Portuguese Ambassador at Paris to the Portuguese Ambassador at London; and it is conjectured that his arrest was commanded for the sake of procuring these documents. He had about him, likewise, as we suppose every Englishman has who returns from France, certain private letters, of the contents of which he knew nothing. For having these in his possession, he has been accused of being the bearer of "a treasonable correspondence." At first, his confinement was au secret, but we rejoice to hear that the severity of his prosecutors has been recently relaxed. It remains to be seen whether he will be brought to trial: if he be, we anticipate, even under French law, his honourable acquittal. Our own Government seem to have done every thing in their power to vindicate the rights of an English subject, and to relieve the distress of Mr. Bowring's family and friends; and of friends no man living has a wider circle, or in the circle more that from qualities of both head and heart make their friendship valuable.

HE whole life of Ochin was a

ment with which a Catholic writer commences his memoir of this celebrated person; ↑ and certainly, if we are to receive as credible all that has been related of him by friends and enemies, among Catholics and Protes tants, his character will appear to be made up of the most discordant qualities that ever were found united in the same individual; for he is alternately represented as the greatest and the weakest of men, the most exem-plary saint, and the most profligate sinner, a zealous and devoted confessor in the cause of truth, and the most shuffling prevaricator and hypocrite; an angel of light and a fiend of dark ness; novus Satan et filius tenebra

rum.

Bernard Ochin was a native of Sienna, in Tuscany, where he was born about the year 1487. Of his parents nothing certain is known: it is probable that they were of a humble condition in life, as the son appears to have enjoyed few advantages of early education, and evidently owed his advancement and celebrity to his personal conduct, and the native force of his extraordinary genius. He seems to have known but little of Latin. Of his native tongue he was an accomplished master, wrote it with great

[Vol. XVII.

purity, and spoke it, in his public

of eloquence which charmed and captivated his hearers. Early in life he became a monk of the order of St. Francis, and took the habit of the Cordeliers. In 1534 he exchanged his habit for that of the Capuchins. This was a reformed branch of the same order, who pretended to observe the rule of St. Francis with greater strictness, and derived their name from the long and pointed form of their hoods, which, they maintained, bore the nearest resemblance to that which had been worn by St. Francis himself. Beza and others, with unaccountable inaccuracy, have represented Ochin as the founder of the Capuchins; but this honour, whatever it may be, belongs to a fanatical monk of the name of Matthew de Bassi, who was shortly joined by a man of greater talent, Louis de Fossombrone, who chiefly contributed to the final establishment of the order. The Capuchins made their first appearance in 1525; the order was confirmed by a Bull of Clement the Seventh in 1528; and they are reckoned to have been three hundred in number by the year 1534, when Ochin took their habit.*

Ochin observed the rules of his order with exemplary strictness, and by the austerity of his manners, and the sanctity of his life, secured universal

* See a curious little work intituled, "La Guerre Séraphique, ou Histoire des Perils qu'a courus La Barbe des Capuchins par les violentes Attaques des Cordeliers. La Haye, 1740." Under this quaint title the author has published an account of the rise and establishment of the Capuchins, with the view of correcting the mistakes and exposing the extravagances of Boverius, the professed annalist of the order,

esteem and veneration. As a preacher his fame spread throughout all Italy, and his popularity was unbounded. "He was held in such high estimation," says a Catholic writer, "that he was considered the best preacher in all Italy, who, by a wonderful delivery and fluency of speech, turned the minds of his hearers as he pleased, and this the more particularly because his life harmonized with his doctrine." Some have affirmed that he was preacher and father confessor to the Pope, but the assertion seems to rest on insufficient evidence.

In 1538, at a chapter held at Florence, he was chosen, by an unanimous vote, the general of his order, which he ruled with so much ability

* Boverius, as quoted by Bayle, Art. Ochinus. Bayle gives the following account of Ochin from the Bishop of Amelia's Life of Cardinal Commendon :-"His old age, his austere way of living, the rough garment of a Capuchin, his long beard, which reached below his breast, his grey hairs, his pale and lean face, a certain appearance of a weak constitution very artfully affected, the opinion of his holiness, which was spread all around, made him be looked upon as a very extraordinary man. Not the common people only, but even the greatest lords and sovereign princes revered him for a saint. When he visited them, they used to go and meet him with the greatest demonstrations of love and esteem imaginable; and waited upon him after the same manner, when he went away. For his part, he made use of all the artifices that could support the good opinion men had of him. He always walked on foot in his journeys, and though he was old, and of a weak constitution, he was never seen on horseback. When princes obliged him to lodge at their palaces, neither the stateliness of the buildings,nor the magnificent dresses, nor all the pomp of this world, could make him abate any thing of his usual poverty, nor omit the least mortification required by the statutes of his order. At entertainments he would never eat but of one sort of meat, and even of the coarsest and most common, and he drank hardly any wine. He was desired to lie on very good beds, richly adorned, to refresh himself a little of the fatigues of his journeys; but he would only spread his cloak upon the ground and lie on it. The reputation he gained and the honours he received throughout all Italy are incredible."

and discretion as to raise it very considerably in the public estimation, and to obtain for himself the title of its second founder. After having held the office with distinguished reputation for three years, he was again, in 1541, at a chapter held at Naples, elected to the generalship. On this occasion he evinced great reluctance to re-accept the honour. His reasons for wishing to decline it have been variously represented. Some have thought that his reluctance was merely assumed; but others have conjectured, that it was occasioned by conscientious scruples respecting the faith of the Roman Church, which he would be thus pledging himself to defend. It is certain that during his residence at Naples at this period he formed an intimacy with Valdesso and Peter Martyr, who had embraced some of the leading tenets of the Reformers, and were actively engaged in making proselytes. That from his conversations with them, or by the perusal of the writings of the Reformers which they put into his hands, his confidence in the truth of his own system was shaken, is highly probable. He did evidence of a change in his opinions, not then, however, give any public but after some hesitation and resistance, suffered himself to be reinstated in his office as general of the Capuchins.

In the year following (1542) he was, at the earnest solicitation of the inhabitants, appointed to preach at Venice, during the season of Lent. In the sermons which, on this occasion, he delivered to crowded auditories, composed not merely of the common people, but including many of the nobility; it is stated that he introduced many things which appeared to some of his hearers to be at variance with the doctrine of the Roman Church. Fortunately for the preacher, the Inquisition was not yet established at Venice, where it was not admitted till after the Council of Trent. But the Pope's Nuncio having received intimation of the obnoxious words, summoned him to appear to render an explanation of his conduct. As Ochin had spoken in vague and general terms, no specific accusation could be proved against him, and he easily succeeded in making his peace. A few days subsequently to this inter