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"found in the nation who really believes our condition as a people is improved within the "last thirty years?" We have no hesitation in answering in the affirmative. may be the present pressure of distress in any particular quarter, we maintain that our condition as a people has greatly improved in the last thirty years. Our political rank and influence among the nations of the earth has advanced. Our character for arts and arms, and science, and literature, has improved. The religious and moral atmosphere of our country is vastly superior to what it was then. There has been an immense increase of schools, and places of worship, and benevolent institutions. There has been a great revival of religion within and without the Establishment. Bible, and Missionary, and Tract Societies of almost every denomination have been not only instituted but carried on to an immense extent; and every plan of mercy which can be devised meets with zealous, active, and liberal supporters. The principles of civil and religious liberty are infinitely better understood; there is far less of bigotry, and intolerance, and tyranny, and oppression. All classes of society are better clothed, and lodged, and fed than their forefathers were. There is a much more general diffusion of the comforts and luxuries of life. There are fewer atrocious and appalling crimes in proportion to the increase of population; and the national guilt of enslaving and oppressing innocent nations has received a fatal blow. While viewing these and many similar circumstances, we can only express our surprise and our regret, that any should overlook what God hath wrought; should repeat the thousand times repeated tale that we are a ruined people, in the face of all the evidence of prosperity which still exists, in forgetfulness of the manifold deliverances we have experienced, and in contempt of the abundant evidence which may be adduced, that there does not at this moment exist, if there ever has existed, a nation so favoured as we are with peace, and liberty, and solid advantages.

Here, then, we take our leave of Mr. Hall. We regret exceedingly his unnecessary and unfortunate revival of this forgotten work. We regret it, because it has removed him from that high rank which he possessed, and tends exceedingly to diminish that usefulness which might justly be anticipated from the employment of his commanding talents. In taking leave of Mr. H. we take leave also of this controversy. If any error should be pointed out into which we may have been inadvertently betrayed, we shall ever, we trust, be ready to apologize; but it is not our intention to notice any farther replies or remarks which may be made on the sentiments we have advanced, either in this or our former article on the same subject.

The first part of the Life of Huss is received, and will of course appear in our next. The Sixth Annual Report of the Rev. Peter Roe has been received, and will appear. We are much obliged by his suggestions, and shall endeavour to adopt them as far as is practicable.

We are not quite prepared to say, whether the plan suggested by our worthy Correspondent from the neighbourhood of Stone can be adopted. We almost doubt whether impressions of the plates could be furnished so cheap as to answer the desired end. For minor rewards, the Bristol Tracts, Watkins's Sunday School Tracts, &c. would perhaps be found more convenient; and for the higher classes, we conceive the loan of the Guardian in the first instance, and the gift of the volume (which might be half-bound at a small expense) itself, at the end of the year, would perhaps produce much greater effect than the gift of a mere picture, especially as it would not be very easy to add any thing of an useful nature in the small space at the bottom of the plate. We merely suggest these hints to the consideration of our correspondent, from whom we shall be happy to hear at a future time.

R. T. will be inserted; we are happy to meet with his approbation, and that of many other valuable friends and correspondents. We shall be much obliged by the communication he so kindly offers.

The Poetical Version of an American Anecdote will be inserted. We are obliged to Henry for a copy of the original anecdote, which would have been inserted had it not previously been circulated in this country.

We are favoured with communications from Zelotes, Cambrian, C. P. N. W.-J. F. -C. T.-Ramftler, Gregory Peter, &c. which are under consideration.

We regret not having room this month to notice the Naval and Military Bible Society as its importance demands. We shall not lose sight of it.

J. F.'s favour will most probably not be inserted.

Were Titus serious, we should recommend Scott's Answer to Mant, and one or two other publications, to his perusal; but the levity which appears on the face of his letter, and in the Anecdote he has inserted, induces us to think that he is "wiser in his own eyes than seven men that can render a reason;" and we therefore beg leave to remind him, that the first steps to wisdom are seriousness and humility.

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JOHN HUSS, D. D.

Ir it be one of the more pleasing offices of historical criticism, to trace effects of a merely secular nature to their remote causes, it is in a more eminent degree gratifying and profitable to the pious reader of ecclesiastical narrative, to mark the finger of a gracious Providence in the connexion of events tending to the establishment of his Church or the diffusion of his truth.

Among the most interesting cases that furnish matter for such observation, is the alliance which took place in the fourteenth century between the sovereign houses of England and Bohemia. The young King of England, Richard the Second, was peculiarly happy in the choice of a partner of his throne. The princess Anne was daughter of the Emperor Charles IV. and sister to Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia, and Emperor of Germany. The only portion she brought him was that of character. Gentle, pious, and well-informed, she obtained among the English the epithet of the Good," and her first act was to prevail on her husband to grant an amnesty to many persons implicated in the rebellion of Wat Tyler. Her delicacy was shown in the introduction of riding on side-saddles among the British ladies, who had hitherto followed APRIL 1822.

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the custom of male equestrians. But whatever general effect on public morals and manners produced by her example, we are chiefly concerned to notice the regard which she paid to Wickliffe, in common with the dowager princess of Wales, by whom he was probably recommended to her patronage. He thus mentions her in his work, "On the threefold Bond of Love:" " It is possible, that the noble Queen of England, the sister of Cæsar, may have the Gospel written in three languages, Bohemian, German, and Latin; but to hereticate her on this account would be Luciferian folly." She exerted her influence at court in screening his followers from insult and persecution. But she departed in 1394, having lived with Richard only eleven years. The eulogium spoken at her funeral, in a sermon preached by Arundel, Archbishop of York, is a proof of the extent to which a courtier may be led to praise exalted characters whose principles in the abstract he abominates. He noticed the remarkable circumstance of her possession of the Gospels in the English language, though a foreigner, with four learned commentaries upon them. He added, that" she had sent to him, for his inspection and judgment, her four English translations of the Gospel, and that he had found them true and faithful; that it

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appeared to him a wonderful instance of godliness, that so great a lady should humbly condescend to study such excellent books; and that he never knew a woman of such extraordinary piety *."

The connexion established by this union between the insular and continental court, with the intercourse which it opened between the two countries, was attended with much spiritual advantage to Bohemia. Wickliffe is known to have died in full confidence that his doctrines would spread. He believed that one third of the English clergy had embraced his view of the Sacrament; and historians consider half the. laity as favouring his tenets. But as many persons accompanied or followed the young Queen either for the purposes of study, commerce, or travel, besides those who bore offices about her person, they could not but be introduced to much religious discussion, and become acquainted with the sentiments of the reformers. Some of Anne's attendants, after her death, carried the works of Wickliffe with them on their return to their own land. Foulfish, a Bohemian gentleman, who had studied at Oxford, became a sincere convert to early Protestantism, and seems to have been the immediate agent of Providence in bringing John Huss to the knowledge of these writings. Because this intelligent youth happened to bear the name of Foulfish, so elegant a writer as Eneas Sylvius cannot refrain from an ill-natured pun, observing that, "imbued with the poison of the Wickliffites, and ready to spread contagion, he proved himself of the race of Foulfish, by venting his stinking savour among his own countrymen .

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Matt. Parker de Ant. Eccl. Brit. + Cochlæi Hist. Hussit.-Fox's Acts and Mon.

Fasciculus Rerum expetund. fol. 148.

The parentage of the great Bohemian Reformer himself was obscure. As his baptismal name was John, so he drew his surname from Hussenetz, his native village on the borders of the Black Forest, not far from Prague. On his mean origin, Fuller remarks after his manner; "The fair fruit of effects is virtually couched in the small seeds of their causes. John Huss is a pregnant instance thereof, whose inconsiderable, yea contemptible beginning, improved itself to give a blow under the fifth rib, in Scripture always observed mortal, to the man of sin ||." He was born in 1373, and received the first rudiments of learning at the neighbouring town of Prachatiz, at a public school; after which he became servitor to a professor at Prague, where he was assisted by his poor widowed mother, who followed up the intention of his father in giving him a good education. His master, discovering signs of talent and application, lent him books, and enabled him to prosecute his studies. He paid attention to the Scriptures and the Latin fathers, and particularly delighted in church history and accounts of the old martyrs §. In his twentieth year he became Master of Arts, and soon after Bachelor in Divinity. Obtaining great reputation on account of his abilities, learning, and piety, he was made Professor of Divinity in 1400, and about the same time Confessor to the Queen. A particular circumstance gained him credit with the university. This seminary was founded by Charles IV. who composed it of members from the four states of Bohemia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Poland. This constitution giving the Teu

Abel redivivus, p. 12.

§ He is said, after reading of the constancy of St. Lawrence who was roasted alive, to have thrust his hand into the fire to see how he could bear the pain; but the story is not well authenticated.

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