that great advocate of Episcopacy, Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, who stood up for the independence of his church against the attempted primacy of Rome. They do not object to the independency of the churches of England, Scotland, Denmark, New York. They do not say with the Romanists that all Christians should form one external government: it is therefore a question of degree only, how large churches shall be. Single dioceses of England now contain a population equal to that of many ancient churches combined. It cannot be pretended that there is any ecclesiastical necessity that the limits of a Church be co-extensive with those of the civil government: and in fact, protestant Canada, Scotland and England are at present three independent churches, though talking the same mother tongue, and enjoying the same rights as British subjects. After such a reform, the Bishops would be at liberty to assemble for consultation in public Synod, as freely as the Anti-State-Church Association; which is not the case now : and although their conclusions would have no authoritative power over the churches, neither have they now. Whether it would be expedient for the State to enact that the office of Archbishop should expire with its existing holders, or should leave the matter until the churches themselves began to cry out against the uselessness of such a sinecure and excrescence, must depend on the temper and numbers of the opponents of the abolition. But surely, one who ever so much desired to retain the office of Archbishop and the formal unity of the Episcopal English Church, would be forced to confess that this might be bought too dearly. It is with the greatest reason that many sigh after a Convocation for managing the affairs of the church: not that the Convocation, as formerly constituted, is a suitable organ, but that Parliament is utterly unsuitable, and that one purely representing spiritual interests is every way needed. It is perfectly monstrous that the Articles and Liturgy, and the entire ecclesiastical system, should rest on the enactment and be liable to the corrections of a Parliament, whose members in part are avowed enemies to the Church, while none either are or ought to be chosen for their spiritual qualifications. Under this outrageous anomaly all churchmen groan. It is a gigantic grievance, beyond comparison greater than any to which Dissenters can point. It para lyses the highest functions of the Church, and utterly prevents that accommodation of her system to change of circumstances, without which the noblest institutions must sink into weakness and decay. Now there are two possible ways of getting free from this miserable thraldom;-by using the rights of Britons to secede without consulting the organs of the State, -or to persuade the State to consent to an alteration. The former method has been long in their power, but is not used: beside the impossibility of attaining unanimity, an entire sacrifice of the Church property would follow of course. Now we would appeal to the Bishop of Exeter, to the Bishop of London, to the Archbishop of Dublin, to the Bishops of Winchester and Chester, to the acknowledged leaders of any religious parties within the Church ;-whether it is in any case to be expected that the State will allow so formidable a confederacy as the united Church of England to be set up in independence of it: and whether, under any circumstances, they could expect to gain so great advantages at a slighter price than the separation of dioceses which has been here suggested. In a state of ecclesiastical independence, the system of Church Reform suggested by the anonymous clergyman might prove highly satisfactory to some dioceses. Others might go farther, and adopt suggestions from the Rev. Mr. Spencer. If his views and those of Dr. Arnold should prevail, concerning the size of dioceses, we should before long hear of the Archbishops of Lichfield and Chester, and of the Bishops of Liverpool and Sheffield: and those who are attached to these titles might be more amply gratified than at present. We have not intended to express an opinion unfavourable to the church regulation and reform suggested in the various works at the head of this article, but merely to state our conviction, that they must be carried out, if at all, by another authority than that of Parliament; and that there is an earlier measure for the State to enact; by which it would provide suitable organs for the work. This earlier measure is that in which alone Dissenters could be much concerned, or could wish to interfere and concerning it, there is no collision of interests between them and the Church, worth naming. The condition on which we have insisted,-that every diocese should be made an independent church,-is that which would be more likely to offend the prejudices and associations of High Churchmen than any other which we have imagined: but this would be necessary, to appease the fears of Statesmen, not to satisfy the rivalry of Dissenters. At the same time, from our own point of view, this part of the scheme would be of vital importance. Whatever other excellent points there may be in the three plans of reform which we have before us, they are all open to the objection that they would enforce on all England a new "Act of Uniformity." It is not to be imagined that the same regulations are intrinsically suited for all parts of the land, much less that men's minds are every where ripe for the same changes. If all are tied up into a single system, either constant struggle or total apathy is to be expected: no room is left for permitting each part to reform itself, as soon as its eyes become open to its wants. The strong tendency of human nature to follow precedent, is seen equally in the Independent Churches of England and in the ancient Churches of the second and third century; and if different dioceses should under a free system begin to exhibit diversity, it would prove that a constrained uniformity would have been hurtful. We have endeavoured to set forth the considerations which make us believe that in the next great movement which shall be made in the ecclesiastical affairs of England,—if it shall proceed, as we earnestly trust, out of a sincerely religious spirit,--no real difficulty will be found in satisfying the reasonable demands of the parties which are ostensibly and politically religious adversaries. No doubt, when that crisis shall have passed, if it pass as favourably as we wish, a new course of effort will commence for the Church itself. Like youths entering upon life, the new Church organs would be liable at first to commit errors, from inexperienced zeal or from bashfulness and timidity. But a career of action would be opened, of immense importance to England; we should begin to shake off the fetters of compromise, and disdain the concealments of hypocrisy. Earnest inquiry after truth would more and more cease to disqualify persons from acting within the Episcopal ministry, and political influences would no longer fill the appointments of the dignified clergy. If to any person the various advantages of a living and self-controlling system seem to be nothing, in comparison to that of a fixed creed, mechanically fastened down by the enactments of distant generations;-if nothing can please him, unless a public body of mixed religionists and irreligious continue to compel the Church to be orthodox; -if his idea of Church Unity consists in enforcing the same rigid system of external worship over all parts of a great nation, and forbidding each part to adopt regulations which it finds suitable to its position or feelings;-it would be little to say that such a one has to learn the first lessons of Christianity: it may be more to the purpose to say, that the growth of the English mind within the Church must at length snap the Church asunder, unless the outward shell is endowed with some vitality to expand proportionally and if the present state is allowed to continue, the convulsion which must come at last, will give very short warning when it does come. : CHRISTIAN TEACHER.—No. 30. 2 R ART. III.-ROME, ANCIENT AND MODERN, AND ITS ENVIRONS. By the Very Rev. JEREMiah DoNOVAN, D.D. Rome: Printed for the author, by Crispino Puccinelli, 1842, 1843, 1844. (4 vols. octavo.) THERE is no spot in the world of which all the learned men of Europe, could they be gathered together in it, would know so much as of Rome, and yet no where would they so earnestly desire a guide. "Oh! that I had here an experienced man,” exclaims a celebrated German author, "to interpret to me these unnumbered appearances: how often have I wished myself in Rome, but destined thus to visit it alone, I rejoice that I am come so late." The eye swiftly glances over the visible monuments of more than two thousand years' civilization, and when the first intoxication of delight is over, we seek to know the significance of all that we have beheld. There is the Pantheon standing in unchanged magnificence; there are the broken columns of many a temple; there are the glorious statues of the gods bearing visible witness that, ere the dawn of our era, men knew how to consecrate to the unseen powers of heaven, the noblest efforts of creative art. Then follow the triumphal arches and columns, the Baths and the Basilicas, filling with political monuments the period left vacant during the struggle of departing heathenism. Then succeed in an unbroken series, the edifices dedicated to Christian worship, at first adopting the simple form of the ancient Basilicas, but by degrees developing new forms suited to the increasing pomp of the rites celebrated within them. All these sights overwhelm at first, nor can the acutest discerner trace with unassisted genius the links of the progression. The authentic voice of documentary evidence must be appealed to, to settle many a point of chronology, and to dash aside many an ingenious conjecture. For though Rome is full of wondrous works of Art, her people possessed not that refined sensibility which calls them forth in ever-new and self-developing forms. All that we behold has been derived first from Etruria, secondly from Greece, and lastly from the north of Italy. But as a just and eternal reverence is paid to Rome as the Patroness, though not the |