what else could be done, The Edinburgh Witness says, that, if Cromwell had been living, and the Pope had dared to send a Cardinal to England (an impossibility!) the Cardinal "would have been hung up by the neck in his red stockings, with his face to France over the end of the long pier at Dover, some ten minutes after he had landed; Admiral Blake would have been despatched to Civita Vecchia, with a strong squadron and a few battalions of the Ironsides; and the Papal chair, with its Mohammedan inscription, would at this moment be as certainly one of the curiosities of the British Museum, as the great bull of Nineveh." But Cromwells are rarities, and the spirit of the age has changed, fortunately for the Pope, though he himself changeth not. Lord John had to steer between the principle of toleration on the one hand, and State religion and Royal supremacy on the other. There was hardly room for a passage, but he scraped through with his damaged craft without giving the man at the helm much work to do; and after all, at the end of the passage is seen the Mariolatry-vessel, with its scarlet colours still flying and its crew waving in derision.

The Witness recommends as a counteraction to Papal aggression in England a system of Protestant aggression abroad, and maintains that British rights in foreign countries should be protected by British authority, at least in the following particulars: 1. The free circulation of the Bible. 2. Liberty to build a church and celebrate worship, wherever there are a dozen British Protestants. 3. Liberty to preach in the tongue of the country and to receive native converts, who shall enjoy the same immunities and privileges with British Protestants. 4. The right of burying-grounds. The staunch Scotch editor adds, "Let Britain and America strike hands in this matter, and there is not a miscreant in hood or stole on the face of the earth, who would dare henceforth to burn a single Bible, or hurt a hair of a minister of the gospel." Alas, when shall either country have life enough to be Protestant before the world! England has at least three things to do before she can accomplish much evangelical aggression. 1. Instead of hanging Cardinals, let her tie the knot of ecclesiastical discipline around the spiritual neck of Puseyites, who break her own ordinals, and who destroy all her articles. 2. In the second place, her church and state connexion is a great hindrance. "It is impossible for the enlightened observer not to see that the pinch of the whole question is here: Rome has once possessed England, ecclesiastically and territorially; her old territorial divisions, endowments, cathedrals, churches, colleges, yet remain ;— they remain in the hands of a rival corporation, in the established church. We still have Rome, with a modification: old Rome naturally wants her own again.' The remedy for this, as an Eclectic Reviewer has said, is 'to burn the jungles.' This process, and this alone, will extirpate the ecclesiastical vermin." 3. In the third place, let the Liturgy be a truly Reformed Liturgy. Let the alterations contemplated by the Puritans, but trod upon by the queenly foot of Elizabeth, be carried on "to perfection." With these various amendments, England might do much, first within and then without. But what can America do, in response to the suggestion of the Witness? Not much abroad nationally. The power of the American Church is almost the sole reliance, and that reliance is great, if the Spirit of Christ accompanies his Church. Our country is not Protestant, except in the religion of the majority of its citizens. Every sect is here tolerated; and therefore the government will not be likely to stand forth the champion of Protestantism in Papal countries. No. We must look to the Church,

rather than to the State. The prevalent error in England at the present time, in our judgment, consists in eyeing the queen's sceptre rather than the Cross of Christ. There can be no doubt that England is in a condition of great danger, as a Protestant nation; and the danger arises from the fact that there is so much Pusey-Popery among the educated classes, and so much utter ignorance among the masses. May her protection be "Dieu et mon droit!"

GROWTH OF POPERY IN IRELAND.-We copy the following statement from the new-year's address of a Society in Ireland for the spread of Protestantism in that country, entitled "the Priests' Protection Society." It is merely a specimen of similar facts in other parts of the island, even in Belfast.

In Dublin, in the year 1644, the Protestant population amounted to 5551, and the Romanist population to 2608: more than two Protestants for every Romanist nearly three to one. We, find, by the same report of 1834, that the population of Dublin was as follows:-61,833 Protestants, and 174,957 Romanists. The increase of the former has not kept pace with that of the latter. On the contrary, the reverse is the case; there are now two Romanists for every Protestant-nearly three to one!

This melancholy result is in our view a strong argument against religious establishments, and in favour of voluntaryism. The directors of the Society, who are members of the established church, regard it merely as the consequence of the mismanagement of the establishment.

THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.-In the autumn of 1848, the French Protestant Foreign Missionary Society, sent an appeal to the churches in this country for their missions in South Africa, which were suffering for want of funds. Copies of the appeal reached the Sandwich Islands about the time the French made their ruthless assault upon Honolulu. The result of this appeal has been as follows: From the United States, $371; from Canada, $15; from native churches at the Sandwich Islands, $529 83. The Rev. Mr. Coan at the Sandwich Islands, lately sending one hundred dollars as a donation from his church at Hilo, states that the same church (recently gathered from heathenism,) had contributed $2,000 to various benevolent objects during the last three years.

A monthly religious periodical, the New Zealand Evangelist, is now conducted in the country that not long since was the home of cannibals. Surely what has God wrought!

LANGUAGES OF AFRICA.-At one of the London meetings, Rev. John Clarke, formerly missionary in Jamaica, and afterwards in Fernando Po, in Africa, said that he thought the Word of God would have to be translated into two hundred languages before all the tribes of Africa will be able to read it in their own tongue. The Mohammedans, who are spread through the length of the continent have many who can read the Koran in the Arabic character. If, therefore, the word of God were translated into their tongues, and printed in that character, many, not only of the Hovas and the Arabs of the desert, but also of the Foolahs, Mandingoes, and Housah, who professed Mohammedanism, would be able to read concerning Jesus Christ. It is said that one of the Sierra Leone agents of the Church Mission Society of London, has discovered a written language existing in the interior of West Africa, the alphabet of which consists of about one hundred letters, each representing a syllable.

Fragments not Lost.

OUR SABBATHS.

OUR Sabbaths are resting stages in the journey of life. And we rest as upon a little hill, where we can look a short way forward and backward, see the open sky, breathe a pure air, and mark quietly what lies around us. Here we are cheered by meeting with fellow-travellers, who are resting like ourselves. The hills on which we thus rest vary in elevation, but we may be always high enough for our view to be greatly widened, and for us to gain a truer general conception of the country through which we are moving. "Now we are glad because we be quiet." We rest from our labours; and we sanctify the "work of our hands" by thoughts of its importance and its hopefulness. And as one beholding the glorious company of all the bright lights of heaven, first may feel as nothing by contrast with such greatness, and then immediately may rejoice in his dignity because of his true relationship thereto, for he also is a son of the Lord of glory-so on our Sundays, in presence of heavenly truths and commandments, first we may say, What are we, and What can we do? and then rejoice that we are God's sons, and Christ's brothers; that the first of us dwelt in Paradise, and that our race was redeemed on Calvary.-Ch. Spectator.

RELIGION AND BUSINESS.

Consider a man in the full flow of weekly business; he is surrounded with things that cry-"Act," "decide." He must be prompt, rapid. He has little time for reflection and moral analysis. If he does right, he does so from the healthy state of his moral instincts. He wants presence of conscience as well as presence of mind. Now if his heart has throbbed healthily with Christian love, and his conscience has been vivified with thoughts of Christian obligation, he will in his business stand forth as a man of Christian integrity and kindliness. There cannot be much divine study during the hours of business, but there may be divine service-not frequent direct thoughts of God, yet a real and a wise obedience; and he who would transact business divinely, must seek the necessary strength and disposition in the worship and thought of other times. Whilst, however, direct spiritual exercises are essential to enable a man to do common work in a spiritual temper, the doing of common work in such a temper greatly promotes spirituality; and unless it be so done, spiritual exercises will soon become to the man a form and a weariness, or at best a reproach and pain; and to his God an offence and a mockery.

APHORISMS.

It is well that the mind should not be fixed too long and exclusively on the same things. If it be, there is danger of its becoming not only partial, but erroneous. The eye that looks upon an object with steady and prolonged gaze not only does not see any thing else, but cannot see even it.

A vast deal more may often be done by a wise superintendence than a personal activity. The shepherd does nearly all his work by his dog.

There is no payment for some things. The difference is between one who can do them, and all the rest who cannot.

Next to the doing evil that good may come, is the not doing good lest evil should come.

Of course none of us is a Paul; but we may be perfectly like him in will, however meaner and weaker in faculties. The iris in the dew-drop is just as true and perfect an iris, as the bow that measures the heavens, and betokens the safety of a world from deluge.-J. Sterling.

The soul of man, approving of the true and the right, whether it will or no, wherever these are discerned, points with unerring certainty to that which is the source of this its moral power, viz: the rectitude of the Divine charactereven as the poised steel, turning ever to the mysterious north, indicates the existence of that unknown power, which from afar controls all its vibrations, whose influence it ever feels, and at whose presence it trembles.-Rev. J. Haven.