when we remember the many manly wits and men of quick genius who have filled the place with the soul of merriment and poetry, or the many fair damsels and noble ladies whose eyes have sparkled beneath those umber-shaded timbers, as they have swept along the old Hall in their gorgeous draperies-and that now it has descended to the lowest uses has become a cart-house-a general lumber-room, where any rubbish may be piled-and that its rich carvings and fine stone mouldings are only points from which the spider may more readily spin its web-whilst in the rafters numerous birds have built their nests and reared their young unmolested, we may well say that mutability is the character of all things.

There are several other remains of the Old Palace worked up in the neighbouring buildings, and on the platform of the Terrace is a trapdoor letting down into a series of long vaults about the height of a man, the end of which is not known. In the neighbouring fields, according to our cicerone, many coins, rings, and other mementos of old times have been found by the labourers.

As I left the Old Palace, the shades of evening were beginning to close around, the sun had set, and the few light clouds that floated in the abyss of space were richly tinted with crimson and gold. As I turned round to take a last look of the Old Hall I thought of the words of the Persian :

"The eye which seeketh for instruction, why looketh it into the palaces of kings?

To behold what they have suffered from the ravages of time?
The spider hath become the chamberlain at the door of Khosrou,
And the owl keepeth watch in the tower of Afrasiab."

ANAX.

To the Editor of the City of London Magazine.

SIR,-You may think the following a silly thing; so do I, and all drinking songs are silly things.

Yours, &c. &c., HIPPOPOTAMUS.

DRINKING SONG.

TUNE.-Hurrah for the Nectar.

Hurrah for the teapot! the teapot! the teapot!
Our weasands we'll wet, and our noses 'll keep hot;

The streams that gush forth from that graceful old spout, Sirs,
Will drown your dyspepsy, and banish your gout, Sirs.

When an overfed paunch has bred headache and hiccups,
What music so sweet as the clatter of teacups?
We'll chat, and we'll laugh, as the hyson waves ripple;
Pass round the old cream-jug, and tipple, boys, tipple!

Big Bacchus may sneer: what of that, boys? he's jealous
That we, without him, can be such jolly fellows :
Then down with those drunkards-Anacreon and Horace,
We are glorious on TEA-don't we know what's good for us.

HOWITT'S "RURAL LIFE."

A BOOK of truest beauty-not of show;
No gaudy plaything whose begilded leaves
Fashion will feebly turn in some dull hour
To make the world suppose she cares to read:
Here are sweet thoughts to win the Poet's heart;
Great thoughts to make Philosophy more wise;
Bright thoughts to shine upon Life's hour of care;
Kind thoughts to bind more closely man to man!
Howitt-there is a magic in thy name;

It is a spell that wafts us far away

From the dull haunts where Mammon holds her Court,
The tumults and the vanities of Town,

To the free breezes of the Hills and Dales

That grace our Fatherland:-We seem to tread

Their verdant turf with thee. Once more we gain
New strength to grapple with our daily toil,
New hopes to make our pathway beautiful,
And closer views of HIM who clothes the Hills
With grandeur, and doth care for those who climb,
In weakness, but in Faith, Time's rugged steep.
And lo! with thee we roam through fertile plains
Where the clear air is musical with sounds
Of streams that gush in sunlight-village bells,
-Those holy melodies-of humming bees
Wending harmonious way to stores of sweets-
The laugh of children culling joyously
The golden beauties of the spangled meads;
Whilst from the new-mown hay fresh odours rise
And countless flowers uplift their glowing heads
To the bright sky in fragrant gratitude.

And with Thee too we watch on Summer's Eve
The dying day sink to a glorious rest;
And, as the lengthening shadows herald night,
Feel solemn thoughts awake within the soul:
Solemn, but not despairing;-thoughts of Death,
But Death "the gate of life"-of long lost friends
And of re-union in that "better land"
Whose joys are all Eternal ;-where no care
Wearies the heart-no sickness rends the frame-
No sin pollutes the soul;-where sun and stars
Are needed not, for the Primeval Light

Is radiant ever there, revealing truth,

Dispelling all the mysteries of time,

And shedding endless lustre on those hearts

Whose path on earth was guided by His rays.

Thrice blessed thoughts! and blessed Summer's Eve
That bringeth them, and Glory, chief of all,

TO HIM whose wisdom causeth Summer's Eve,

And giveth hearts to feel, and Poets too

To make His wonders manifest, and cheer

The Present with bright memories of the Past-
The Guardians of the Beautiful who breathe
Sweet melodies around a world of care!

DELTA.

107

Literary Notices.

Congregationalism; or, the Polity of Independent Churches, viewed in relation to the State and Tendencies of Modern Society; by R. VAUGHAN, D.D., Second Edition. London: Jackson and Walford, 1842; 8vo., pp. 218. DR. VAUGHAN is a writer of uncommon force and eloquence, with admirable brilliancy of thought and richness of illustration; and we should have felt convinced, before reading the present work, that if any one could have made Congregationalism appear charming, he was the man. Greatly as we may respect the Doctor for his various and glittering attainments, and grateful as we may feel to him for his able and zealous exertions in the promotion of taste and science, we will not scruple to express fully our opinion of the unfortunate display with which he has here furnished us. Instead of finding the candid liberality and wide embracing charity which his professions might have led us to expect, we discern narrow prejudice, morbid irritability, and scarce concealed jealousy. All this is mingled with much that is great and good, much of elegance and imagination, much even of philosophy. There is quite enough in the book to tell us, if we had not known it before, that our author is a man gifted with talents of the most popular kind imaginable; and we see at a glance that it is nothing but the unfriendly atmosphere of the great central Congregational Union that has thrown a mildew on his genius.

First of all, we must beg cordially to sympathise with the Doctor in his piteous lamentation, that the limits of this subject preclude him from touching upon the evidence which might be adduced from the pages of the New Testament in support of the scriptural character of Congregationalism," (p. 1.); for before sitting down to peruse his book we had really been so foolish as to imagine that it would be a matter of great anxiety to the writer of a work on Congregationalism, addressed to Christians, to show first of all that Congregationalism was founded upon Christian principles. Dr. Vaughan, however, has not chosen so hacknied a line of argument. He has covered one page in asserting that the principles which he advocates are according to the teaching of Scripture, and then fills up his narrow limits of 218 pages in showing off the advantages of Congregationalism.

Congregationalism" arrests the attention of every intelligent observer on the first glance," by "its broad and equal justice," (p. 33.); "it is constituted at once to resist oppression, and to fail if it should attempt to become an oppres sor;" "it provides for a resistance of tyranny from within, as well as from without;""prohibits exclusiveness in every form, internal and external," (ibid.); is in beautiful harmony with the great outlines of Divine Providence towards the nations of the world; and with everything most salutary in the social institutes of the most enlightened States," (p. 38.); it is "animated by that love of liberty which ensures to " its "churches their separate independence," and is "at the same time so far governed by a love of order as to be capable of giving" to itself "a character of unity," (p. 55.); in a word, "it is not only in harmony with all the beneficial tendencies which now characterize society generally, but, in respect to them, while there is very little it can learn, there is much that it can teach" (pp. 9, 10.).

Now, we neither affirm nor deny that this is a correct description of Congregationalism-it is not our province to enter upon such a discussion, and we therefore carefully avoid it. We look upon the book merely as a literary production, and cannot do amiss in bringing it to the test of ordinary criticism. We would have it distinctly understood that we do not say that this system of religious polity is incapable of a successful defence-that question we leave to divines-but we affirm that we cannot find a successful defence in Dr. Vaughan's work. Our complaint is, that he quietly escapes the task of proving the principles of his system, but thinks to delight or allure his readers by a display of all the glorious consequences which, in his view, would result if the

whole English nation were absorbed into Congregationalism, and clenches the argument-if argument it may be called, whereby nothing is proved-by a fair round of invective against every opponent. Now, with us who confess we have a strong prejudice in favour of Scriptural authority in all matters of religious doctrine and discipline, such flat assertion and fond castle-building does not carry with it all the might and force of solid reasoning. Whether St. Paul was or was not the founder of Independent Meeting-houses at Corinth and Athens, or whether St. John, St. Peter, St. James, and the other Apostles, were or were not Brownists and Robinsonians, we do not pretend to decide; all we say is, that our author has not proved it.

But perhaps we may be assured that we have mistaken the aim and object of the book-that it was designed not to prove, but recommend Congregationalism. But if so, the force of our objection is as strong as ever, nay stronger. It is enormous to recommend a form of religion without demonstrating it-to demand approval when you have given no proof. To men of his own denomination, a dissertation of this kind will not serve to present more extensive and enlightened views of their own principles, nor enable them to give a more intelligent reply to captious opponents; but is little more than a stroking of their self-complacency, a patting of their pride. If it be meant to satisfy serious inquirers, it is, alas! beside the mark. For although there is enough of assertion and disputation, ovation and invective, all demonstration, unfortunately, has been omitted for want of room.

We have another glaring instance of our author's deficiency in argument, where he attempts to reconcile the great apparent anomaly which exists in that peculiar development of Congregationalism which he labours to recommend. The main principle of his system of church polity he thus enunciates:

"The Church at large has no right to impose laws of its own on any particular Church." (p. 3.)

"This independence of particular Churches is the centre principle-the great element of Congregationalism. The administrative power in each Church is the voice of its majority, from which there is no appeal, except by the consent of both parties, and even then simply in the spirit of arbitration." (ibid.)

But when he comes to reconcile the independency of each separate Church, from whose judgment " there is no appeal," with the union of all under one great deliberative assembly, he signally fails. And that not by reason of narrow "limits:" for he can afford to devote 24 pages to the attempt, and finds occasion to transport us to "the cities of Greece," to "Rome in its better days," to "the nations of modern Europe," to Germany, France, Spain, and the Low Countries, to "the municipal corporations of these kingdoms," to "the Asiatic despotisms," "the United States of America," and "the Congress representing all the States," and, finally, compares his system to "the far-famed Grecian phalanx, in which each man was fully armed, and brave in heart, and the whole so conjoined as to become one moving mass of skill and courage-bearing, like the pressure of a mountain, against all that opposed it in the battle-field!" (p. 57,)

But with all this profligately profuse variety of illustration he does not come fairly to the great difficulty, how the advantages of union can be secured when the mere will and pleasure of each member of the association is the only bond of union? How any permanent benefit can be derived from the decisions of a Synod, wherein the minority upon any question are acknowledged to possess as much right to act according to the motion rejected, as the majority according to the motion adopted? And it is very obvious that the allusion to "the Grecian phalanx" is altogether out of place, inasmuch as there is no parallel between the cases. The phalanx was a body of men who were forced to conform to the sternest and severest discipline, who had to submit and not to reason, to act and

not to will but the union which Dr. V. recommends is to be, as he acknowledges, a union without "conformity;" in other words, a loose and indiscriminate glomeration of perfectly distinct and independent elements-an agreement which consists in "agreeing to differ," with a legislative power which is only able to enforce its laws upon such as choose to obey. Nevertheless, we consider there is much truth in the following remarks-though we confess we cannot readily see how they harmonize with what the Doctor calls" the centre principle of Congregationalism."

"We are in danger of finding it scarcely more difficult to suppose that there is no true religion, than to suppose that the true religion should be devoid of the sublime aspect of unity. It is scarcely to be doubted that the pretensions to this quality which are set forth by the Church of Rome, false as they are in the main, have been the most successful of all the instruments which that Church has employed in making proselytes to her communion. It is too true, I fear, that our 'variations' as Protestants have been the great cause why Protestantism has made so little progress during the last two hundred years, and why the converts which have been made during that interval have been in so great a degree either to infidelity or to Catholicism." (p. 59.)

Our author having given us a long diatribe on the advantage and necessity of unity among Protestants in his eighth chapter, proceeds in his ninth, with admirable consistency, to a vigorous attack upon the clergy of the Established Church. He divides them into two classes, "the weak," and "the strong;" the former, gentlemanly fools-the latter, worldly minded hypocrites. "In their excessive solicitude that the clergyman should not be a vulgar man, they have forgotten that it is important he should be popular. He is a man of taste, in some sort, but he is a man without power. It has been found possible to drill him to his present standing, but nothing can now be done to make him effective. He has had capacity enough to learn the technical things which he has been obliged to learn, but he is found sadly wanting in the ability to teach the useful things which it should be the great business of his life to teach. He is very polite, but very insipid; very decorous, but very dull. Even the common people see his obtuseness and inaptitude; and in the conflicts which ensue between robust worldly sense, and incurable College stupidity, the man who has been prepared for his office by a process designed to secure him especial reverence, finds himself despised.

"All this applies to the weak only; but in the case of the strong, the change is often for the worse. The man who might only have been pitied before, may now become hated. The great requisites in the former case have been demanded in his, and he is withal a man of some shrewdness and power. But the whole has issued in the formation of that too familiar character-a worldly-minded priest. He is a minister of religion, but he is himself without religion. He has taken upon him a sacred office, but it is solely because it happens to be allied with worldly credit and emolument. Christian he may be in name, but he does not understand Christianity, and cannot, in consequence, either love it or teach it." (pp. 73–75.)

This is a specimen of small abuse and pitiful narrow-mindedness which we should have thought beneath a man of Dr. Vaughan's worth and reputation. It is an exaggerated caricature, which we might have pardoned in a farce, but cannot endure in a serious, and above all, a professedly religious composition.

We must not forbear to notice a sentence following, which, while it accuses the whole Church of England of the most distressing illiberality, is itself an undisguised sample of the very vice which it is intended to deprecate.

"Multitudes whom the Church of England has denounced as schismatics, and left to the uncovenanted mercies of God, would have been cherished by the Church of Rome as favourites among her offspring." (p. 77.)

Upon this quiet insinuation it is enough-perhaps too much-to remark, that we were never before aware that the Church so distinctly and positively assigns the eternal abode of all schismatics, as our accurate author