erred in both these respects, and thus unnecessarily multiplied those distinguishing peculiarities which separate them from other true Christians. At the same time we do most deeply lament the abuse of oaths, and fully believe that there are very few transactions indeed in which they are necessary or desirable.

One objection which we feel to Quakerism, as a system of Christianity, is, that it appears to us to preclude the propagation of it on any large scale. Its religious peculiarities do not admit those broad and comprehensive "grounds of religious union among our fellow men and Christians,' which Mr. Gurney himself nevertheless proposes. We feel persuaded that it is not either by the multiplication of mere external distinctions, nor yet by claims to direct inward illumination independent of the revealed word of God, that true Christianity is to be universally extended. It is the plain, direct, forcible, pointblank appeal to Scripture, the whole Scripture, and nothing but the Scripture, which, by the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit, will effectually disturb the security of satan's kingdom, and which alone can finally overthrow it, and establish on its ruins the pure and immutable king dom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The zeal of Friends indeed, our most hearty and affectionate fellow-labourers, in propagating the Scriptures, cannot be too highly commended; and we are disposed to "attribute it to a happy inconsistency that they should so strenuously support that in practice which they theoretically deem but a secondary light and we accept it as a clear proof that their real respect for the Scriptures is of a far higher order than their expressions would seem sometimes to imply; and that they Dare approximating and adhering more and more to that only infallible standard of pure Christianity, 'which those Scriptures contain.

In conclusion, we would entreat "Friends, with all respect and affec

tion, well and duly to reconsider their opinions of the method by which the Holy Spirit, in His ordinary movements, imparts his inspiration to the mind; and to reflect whether it be safe or Scriptural to plead for any other method than that of his operating by means of the written word on our reasoning and understanding faculties, and on the affections of the heart; or for any other sufficient and conclusive test of his presence and influence, than those holy fruits of righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, which alone seem to us infallibly to mark his divine inspirations.

We feel ourselves conscientiously constrained to add, that, on the subject of the sacraments, after the full exposition of their sentiments now given to the world, we cannot discover that Friends have any adequate excuse for abstaining from their use. They may claim their political exemption from oaths, and from war; and it is to the mutual credit of themselves and the legislature, that the exemption was solicited and allowed. But we regard with different feelings, we mean feelings of deep regret, the responsibility which they appear to us to assume in compromising the laws of the Great Governor of the Universe. And whatever it may have been which induced their founders to throw up these distinctive and commemorative adjuncts to Christianity, their successors surely are not bound by their decision; they are rather bound to be governed by their own good sense and good feeling, in returning to the plainest and most express and emphatic laws, of a positive kind, ever enjoined by our Lord and Saviour on His redeemed creatures.

We have entered with very considerable reluctance and regret on the present examination of the religious principles of Friends. Entertaining for them, as a body, a sincere respect, and for many of them individually the most cordial esteem and affection, we should have been

glad to have avoided, had it been possible, every thing which might prove painful to their feelings, and especially to those of the amiable and excellent author of the present vindication of their principles. That vindication, almost of necessity, involves so direct a condemnation of such as refuse to embrace those principles, that it became our duty, as responsible agents, to examine for ourselves the basis on which they rest, and the arguments by which they are upheld. We felt that, if Mr. Gurney's able and elaborate exposition of his own views and those of his friends was borne out by reason and Scripture, no alternative was left to us, as accountable beings and as Christians, but that of adopting them, and acting upon them. We further felt that when, after much pains in investigating the matter, we had come to a contrary decision, and had attained a settled conviction that the leading peculiarities of the Quaker system, more especially in what respects the operations of the Holy Spirit and the use of the sacraments, were not well founded, no choice was left to us, as Christian Observers, but explicitly to communicate to those who honour us with any share of their confidence, the conclusions at which we had conscientiously arrived. This duty we have been anxious to perform in a spirit of friendly conciliation and truly Christian regard; and if we should have failed in this respect; if we should have employed a single expression, not called for by the interests of the great questions that are at issue, which may seem unnecessarily harsh or offensive, we request Friends, and especially the highly valued Friend who is more directly opposed to us, to forgive

most unintentional, and to number it among those defects"Quas aut incuria fudit,

Aut humana parum cavit natura," But while we have felt ourselves compelled by a sense of duty, to animadvert freely on some of the

views entertained by Friends, we shall by no means be slow to admit that the situation occupied by their society is one of considerable importance to the cause of righteousness." We entertain, and have often expressed, a similar opinion with respect to other bodies of Christians, as the followers of Wesley and Whitfield; who, though chargeable, as we humbly conceive, with some important aberrations, have unquestionably been the instruments of most extensive benefit, direct and collateral, to the church of Christ. We esteem their piety, we honour their self-denying labours in their Saviour's cause, we rejoice in the good they have done; yet we not approve what we regard errors. Such also are our

Can

as the

feelings with respect to Friends. What degre of speculative error (and we cannot be right) is consistent with real evotedness of heart to God, and res Saviour and his cause, ive to the sumptuous to attempt to pre what degree also the speculat errors of the Quakers (at least what we esteem such) are practically modified and counteracted by their admirable state of domestic and social discipline, and the valuable habits which are thereby engendered, it would require much more time and space than we can now command fully to develop. It is obvious at first sight what a powerful counteraction of the tendency to abuse in their speculative principles, on the subject, for example, of the direct and sensible impulses of the Holy Spirit, is afforded by that point in their ecclesiastical discipline, which places the spirits of the prophets in absolute subjection to the prophets. Men will ever be found much less tolerant of the heated imaginations and extravagant pretensions of others than they would be of their own. But whatever be the real solution of the facts of the case, it cannot be denied that the Quakers, as a body, are honourably distinguished by their abstinence

under such a state, might have been or may still be operating on the pagan mind, it may appear at last to be intended that we should not know, and therefore to be utterly useless to investigate. The inquiry most obviously presented to our minds by existing circumstances, is happily of a different cast; and is not, how far we may satisfy ourselves with the possiblity of some faint ray of the Spirit, like a sepulchral taper, still glimmering in "the dark places of a world full of the habitations of cruelty;" but it is how far we may now reasonably hope for the near approach of those times when the true Sun of Righteousness is to arise with healing on his wings on the whole earth; when the sun shall never more go down, neither the moon withdraw herself; when the Lord shall be our everlasting light and our God our glory.

"The prospects," says Mr. Biddulph,

in his last chapter but one," which arise before the missionary labourer in various parts of the heathen world, may be found in the annual publications of the numerous societies formed in this country, on the continent of Europe, and in America, for promoting the regeneration of a ruined world. The hopeful symptoms of an approaching fulfilment of clear and decisive prophecies, which ensure the future conversion of the Jews, must not, however, be omitted in this review of the evidences of Divine interposition, rapid and brief as that review must necessarily be. The eagerness with which the Jews on the continent of Europe receive the New Testament, in Hebrew or other languages which they understand; the candid temper with which they read it; the freedom of discussion which they allow, without offence, on the subject of the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth; their abstinence from those

bitter reproaches with which, in times past, they have been accustomed to brand his adorable name and character; the admission of many among them that the ble; and the open profession made, by evidence of Christianity is incontroverti

not a few of them, in the Christian rite of

baptism,-these are symptoms which may well encourage hope that the period is not far distant, when the natural branches of the olive tree are to be again grafted into their own stock. Here and there the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines in blossom, emitting their fragrant winter is passing away, and that the reign of Divine indignation has ceased;-that the flowers of Paradise will soon redecorate the now desolate fields of Canaan,— the time of spiritual melody be renewed in her now silent groves, and the voice of the turtle be again heard in the land." Biddulph, pp. 232, 233.

odour, seem to demonstrate that the

After reading this glowing passage, our readers, we fear, will regret that we have allowed what

Dr. Hume Spry emphatically calls "the duty of controversy to detain us from Mr. Biddulph's valuable publication, till our outraged limits forbid our reviewing it in detail. We can only recommend it to their attention as an able sketch of the operations of the Holy Spirit from the creation of man to the consummation of all things."

We must also take our leave equally abruptly of Mr. Mortimer's truly practical volume, and the first pamphlet on the Influences of the Holy Spirit; only adding our most fervent prayer that all the publications before us, by the agency of the Holy Spirit, to whose operations they relate, may produce the blessed effects desired by their authors, and hasten on the the glories of a true Millennium.

GREAT BRITAIN. PREPARING for publication:-The Sistem of Infant Schools; by the Rev. William Wilson; A Tale of Paraguay; by R.

Oxford. The following subjects are proposed for the Chancellor's Prizes, for the ensuing year; namely Latin Verses: "Incendium Londinensi anno 1666.”-English Essay: Language, in its copiousness and structure, considered as a test of national civilization."Latin Essay: "De Tribunicia apud Romanos potestate." Sir Roger Newdigate's Prize, for the best composition in English Verse, not containing either more or fewer than fifty lines, by any Under-Graduate who has not exceeded four years from the time of his matriculation" The Temple of Vesta at Tivolis?)

It has been calculated that the London daily newspapers, with those published twice or three times in the week, amount to at least 40,000 daily, or 240,000 weekly, and the Sunday papers to nearly 60,000; making altogether about 300,000 weekly. The country newspapers may amount weekly to 200,000, making al

It is

five hundred thousand copies. to calculated that more than seven hun dred thousand pounds sterling, exclusive of advertisements, are expended by the newspaper press annually, of which about 360,000l. go to the Government for stamps and the excise duty on paper. Would that we could add that this powerful en gine was generally employed under such strong feelings moral and religious re sponsibility as would render it as great a blessing as it might be to mankind!

The autograph of Edward the Black Prince, which antiquaries have been in search of for many years, has been recently found, with many other curious signatures, on the roll of the Artillery Com

Lieut. Goldsmith, the naval officer who lately displaced the celebrated Logan stone in Cornwall, has succeeded in restoring it to its former position, where it oscillates as before its removalzmodels) 160M be The Royal Tapestries, made by order of Pope Leo X. for or Henry VIII. from the Cartoons of Raphae, and sold by order of the Commonwealth, in 1650 with the private property of Charles I., have recently been recovered by Mr. Tap per, our Consul in Spain, from a palace of the Duke of Alva. There are two subjects not included in the paintings at Hampton Court; namely, the Conversion

of St. Paul and Christ giving the Key to St. Peterd of hero so of babascal

The concert pitch to which instruments are now tuned, has lately been ascertained to be such, that the note flat D,' below the lowest line of the treble stave, is just eight octaves above an imaginary (becatise inaudible) note, coinciding in its pulses or vibrations with the swings of a seconds pendulum, of mean time, at London. It follows by calculation, that this note makes 256 vibrations in a second; which gives 240 vibrations for C below it, as the gel neral standard for comparing the acuteness or gravity of other notes of the scale.

POST SWITZERLAND.

At a late meeting of the students in theology, the Bishop of Basle earnestly exhorted the pupils of the Catholic persuasion “to preserve amity and good feel. ing with their Protestant class-fellows under pain of being refused ordination.”; as KALYANI SWEDEN. - gamais

The Swedish government has addressed to the consistory courts an edict requiring them to select, for the office of churchwarden and parish instructor, such persons only as shall be capable of teaching by the system of mutual instruction; in order to replace the curates, who are stated to be far more numerous than necessary for religious purposes or economy, by wellinstructed schoolmasters; to economise the fees of church livings, and the funds now in the hands of the clergy, and to render them available for the purpose of public education."

RUSSIA. The Russian Admiral, M. de Krusenstern, has written to Professor Barlow, of Woolwich, a most satisfactory letter on the result of some experiments made on 2 ship of the Russian navy, at Cronstadt, with the guard-plate for correcting the errors of the mariner's compass needle from the local a attraction of the ship's guns and other iron stores. The Russian government have given orders for all their ships to be furnished with correcting come pass plates, similar to those now fitting up for the ships of our navy, and unany of our merchant ships,310 2910s (low

Bend BURMAN EMPIRE.

The white elephant at of Ava and Siam, so pompously alluded to in the Burmese state papers, has his residence contiguous to the royal palace, with which it is onnected by a long open gallery. At the further end of this gallery a lofty curtain of black velvet, richly embossed with gold, conceals the animal from the eyes of the