Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

impeached it. Of his abilities he has himself given proofs enough. He is about forty-five years of age, of middling height, rather thin, of a dark complexion, and has brilliant and piercing black eyes. He is modest and straightforward in his manners, and most frugal in his habits. When Triumvir, he made not the slightest change in his mode of living. He occupied the smallest, most retired, and least comfortable room in the palace, wherein the lowest official had a magnificent apartment. He dined at a restaurant for a shilling, had no servant, and in fact lived neither better nor worse than when he was an exile in London. He has but one fault with which his friends reproach him, and that is too great an inclination to believe every one as conscientious and nobleminded as himself."

HEROISM OF THE ROMANS-HORRORS OF WAR.

"Who can ever relate the many proofs of heroism which were given by the people of Rome! who can describe the ardour and intrepidity of the men-the devotedness and charity of the women! From the boy of twelve years to the white-haired man-from the duke to the cobbler--all were on the wall. Servants and masters, professors and scholars, friends and foes-all united with one accord in defending the city. At such a time a gun was more precious than all the wealth of the gallery of the Vatican-and neither by reward nor by menace could any citizen, above all Trasteverino, bave been induced to lay down his musket or leave his place on the ramparts. The great trial was, that when one fell, no other was willing to leave his post in order to carry the sufferer to a safer place. A continued succession of women might be seen conveying food to their husbands and sons upon the wall, that they might not die of exhaustion; and these gentle creatures seemed fearless of the fighting, and looked on without dismay at the horrors of war. Many of them, while on their pious errand, perished amid the shower of shot and shells by which the French attempted to drive us from the walls. One case excited particular compassion. The wife of an officer who had not left the ramparts for days and nights, brought her husband some food. After many prayers she prevailed upon him to leave the wall and take a few minutes breathing

time and rest. At some three hundred yards within the wall,
they sat down on the ground, where the lady, laying out her
husband's food, placed herself with womanly concern between
him and the enemy, saying, with some coquetry, If a bullet
comes this way, I will defend thee from it.' The husband
laughed and repaid her with a caress. While the soldier
was eating, the affectionate wife wiped the sweat from his
brow, arranged his hair, pitied his jaded condition, but
proudly kissing him, encouraged him to fight valiantly. But
alas! while she was so admiringly caressing her brave hus-
band, a bomb severed both her legs from her body. She
lingered some minutes. The rough soldier could not restrain
his tears and lamentations, whilst the dying woman, with
her last accents faltered 'Go, dearest!
me. Go, rather, and avenge me!-Farewell! and ex-
weep not for
pired.

"Another case also created a great sensation in the Rione of Trastevere. An aged widower, whose little daughter, eleven years old, was about to retire to rest, was kneeling with her at her bed-side, praying to God for their countryfor their son and brother who was fighting in its defencewhen a bomb, crashing through the roof exploded between them, and killed both."

Sitometrion: An Arrangement of the Sayings and Teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. Part I.

"LET the Word of Christ dwell in you richly," was Paul's exhortation to the Colossians, and the author of this tract geems bent on enforcing the advice. The words actually

spoken from Christ's own lips will usually be found to be characterised by a very peculiar measure of power and sweetness, and of adaptation to the feelings, difficulties, and wants of men. The present tract, arranged on the principle of counting as one saying every continuous utterance of Christ's lips, finds of these 366 before his death, (or one for every day of the year), 31 between his death and ascension, and 7 after his ascension. We do not altogether approve of the plan of arrangement here adopted, as a scheme for daily use, liable as it is to the great inconvenience of presenting us for meditation one day with perhaps a single word, or a few words whose sense is not complete, while for next day we may have a long discourse, like the sermon on the mount.

377

quently), we highly approve of the scheme, satisfied that the But with that exception (and it does not occur very freings will be greatly blessed in promoting a personal intimacy daily pondering and praying over some part of Christ's saywith the Saviour, and elevating the whole tone and spirit of the Christian life.

The Oriental Bible. Illustrated with Notes, Woodcut Illustrations, and Steel Maps. By Rev. INGRAM COBBIN. London: 1850.

THIS edition of the Scriptures aims at supplying Oriental notes and illustrations in elucidation of the Sacred Text, without swelling the volume to undue limits. Mr Cobbin has executed his task with wonted skill and judgment. A large number of notes and woodcut and other illustrations are interspersed, which must be particularly useful to those who do not possess larger works of the same kind. In the antique style of binding, this edition of the Scriptures is particularly attractive.

Sketch of the Religious History of the Slavonic Nations.
By COUNT VALERIAN KRASINSKI. 2d Edit. Enlarged.
Edinburgh: 185).

IN the Number of this Magazine for February 1850, (p. 58),
the first edition of this work was brought under the attention
of our readers. At that time, the work retained the form of
lectures, the author having it presented to the public in
that way the information contained in it. Now, however,
he has cast his materials into the form of a regular history,
and greatly amplified the details. The first chapter treats,
as before, of the Slavonians generally; then follow four chap-
ters on Bohemia, in which we have full details of the interest-
ing history of Huss, Jerome, Ziska, Procop and the Tabor-
ites; next, the religious history of Poland is discussed in
eight chapters; and the work concludes with two chapters on
Russia. The value of the work, we need hardly say,
enchanced by the additions that have been made to it; and
is greatly
whether the reader seeks for a history of the Protestant faith
Papal persecutions and Protestant struggles in general, he is
in these distant countries, or for an animated narrative of
sure to be equally gratified in the perusal of the volume.
Reserving a few larger extracts for some future occasion, we
beg, in the mean time, to transcribe the following account of
the successful labours of the Rev. F. W. Kossuth, a near re-
lation of the celebrated Hungarian, in forming a Protestant
congregation at Prague:-

Many British Protestants have undoubtedly heard of the successful efforts of the Protestant pastor (of the Genevese or Presbyterian Church), Kossuth, to reanimate and to extend the national Bohemian Protestant Church; and I have received from Prague, in a letter dated July 9th, this year (1851), the following details about the labours of this modern reformer.

"The number of Bohemian Protestants at Prague and its vicinity was very small, and they had no church of their own, as the only Protestant place of worship at Prague was a Lutheran chapel. In 1784 they petitioned the government to authorise them to build a church; but the request was refused, because the laws of Austria require that the congregation should amount to 500 souls in order to obtain such a permission. In 1846, the Rev. Frederic William Kossuth, to whom I have alluded, undertook to found a real Bohemian Protestant congregation at Prague; and he succeeded, by dint of great efforts and perseverance, to reanimate the zeal of its members, by preaching the pure Word of God. He acted at the same time upon their national feelings, reminding them that they were the descendants of the great and glorious Hussites; and this made a powerful impression on many Roman Catholics, amongst whom several converts were made.

"The year 1848 brought religious liberty to Austria; the gospel could be preached with more freedom. The room where Kossuth preached was filled every Sunday, and Roman Catholics joined his congregation by hundreds. This excited the attention of the government and of the Roman Catholic clergy, who began to preach against Kossuth, attacking him in the most unmeasured terms, and some of them going even end of the world was approaching. These denunciations exso far as to declare him to be the real Antichrist, and that the posed Kossuth to several insults from the mob. He excited the hatred of the Roman Catholic clergy for his religious efforts, of the Germans for having powerfully promoted the

reanimation of the national spirit amongst the Bohemian Slavonians, and the suspicion of the government for the same reason. The most absurd calumnies were propagated against him by means of the press, and every kind of persecution which it was possible to exercise against him was employed to crush the bold reformer. Kossuth, undaunted by all this, continued his efforts in the cause of true religion and the nationality of Bohemia; and he began to edit in 1849 a religious periodical, entitled, Czesko Bratrsky Hlasatel, or the Herald of the Bohemian Brethren, which was very successful, and produced excellent results, but was prohibited by the government. His congregation was meanwhile rapidly increasing by conversions from Romanism, and became so large that the room in which he was preaching could not contain half of it. His chief object is to spread the Scriptures, and he disposed by sale of eleven hundred copies, and would have sold more, if he had had any. Kossuth's congregation has increased by more than seven hundred converts from Roman Catholicism, amongst whom there are three clergymen, and by two Jews, whom he has baptized, so that it reckons now more than eleven hundred souls. Kossuth was turned out of the room in which he had been preaching, and which was hired for this purpose. He petitioned the government to give to his congregation one of the empty churches of Prague, and which had belonged to their spiritual ancestors the Hussites, but this petition was rejected. Kossuth collected, therefore, with great pains, the sum of 6000 florins (600 English pounds), and purchased an old Hussite church, which, since the year 1620, had been shut up, for the price of 27,500 florins (2750 pounds). The 6000 florins which he had collected were paid down, and he is to pay the remainder of the purchase-money by yearly instalments of 3000 florins.

This is indeed a very heavy burden for a poor congregation, which, however, manfully and cheerfully struggles on, in spite of all the difficulties with which it is beset. I would, however, most earnestly press this subject on the attention of British Protestants, and particularly of those who are alive to the dangers to which their own Protestantism is exposed from the unceasing attacks of Romanism, whether every consideration of duty towards the cause of their religion and its interests does not recommend to their active sympathy the congregation of Prague, which in a short time has wrested seven hundred individuals from under the dominion of the Roman Catholic Church."

Free Church Entelligence.

MEETING OF COMMISSION.

THE usual quarterly meeting of the Commission was held on the 19th ult. The most important business before the House was the Sustentation Fund, for the future regulation of which the special committee appointed by last Assembly reported a plan, through its Convener, Dr Buchanan.

The chief features of the proposed plan are, that the next Assembly shall appoint a special sub-committee, who, on a careful view of the numbers and resources of each congregation, are to adjust the sums to be contributed to the Sustentation Fund; that the aggregate of all congregational contributions, under and up to the standard so adjusted, shall be equally divided among the ministers of the church, the adjustment to be made on a scale that, if realised, will yield to each minister £120 a-year, besides the sum payable to the Widows' and Orphans' Fund. If the contributions of any congregation exceed the standard amount, the excess shall be added to the allowance of the minister, until that allowance amounts to £150 clear. Any excess of contribution beyond this last point, to form a fund for the extension of the church, and the increase of the stipends of outed parochial ministers. Congregations may appeal to the General Assembly of 1853 against the special sub-committee's decision regarding them;

and at any future time, a representation may be made for the
gregation.
re-adjustment of the standard rate of contribution in any con-

proposed plan to the consideration of Presbyteries, with their
The Commission unanimously resolved to send down the
strong recommendation in its favour.

the Education Scheme. Reports were given in from some Dr Candlish reported favourably of the financial state of addressed the Commission on the state of religion abroad. other schemes; and in the evening Dr Baird of New York

HOME MISSIONARY EFFORTS.

Mission cause.
WE are glad to find, that progress is being made in the Home
We understand that in Glasgow, arrange-
ments are now in active progress for the vigorous starting of
several territorial churches and schools. We beg to refer to
the article in the present number, entitled "Roger Miller, or
Heroism in Humble Life," for some deeply interesting details
of the labours of a devoted man in London in this cause. Such
records should stimulate all to activity, and should remind us
of the motto of Elliot-" Prayer and pains, through faith in
Jesus Christ, will do any thing."

OPENING OF THE NEW COLLEGE.

THE introductory lecture, at the opening of the New College, subject of the lecture was the doctrine of Scripture, mainwas delivered by Principal Cunningham on the 4th ult. The Church and State. The Principal intimated that the introtroductory lecture next session would be delivered by Dr tained by the Free Church, on the proper relation between

James Buchanan.

of students is already of very encouraging amount, though We are glad to learn that the enrolment rather less than last year, when it was unprecedentedly large. The Divinity Hall at Aberdeen has also been re-opened for the session, under Professor Maclagan, with a considerable number of students.

PEASANT-PROPRIETORSHIP BEGUN IN IRELAND.

THE first practical attempt of the project for the establish-
ment of a Proprietor's Society in Ireland, suggested by Mr
Vincent Scully and Mr John Sadleir, M.P., was carried into
effect on Thursday last, in the purchase of a small estate in
the county of Kilkenny, which was sold under the Encum-
bered Estates' Court. The property, which is worth £140
per annum, was put up in two lots, and purchased by Mr
Concoran, a solicitor, and the Very Rev. Dr Connor, vicar-
general, and parish-priest of Maryborough. This second lot
occupation respectively, the means of becoming the absolute
was purchased with the view of affording to the tenants in
owners in fee-simple of their farms, by the payment of an
completed, a number of men who are now the mere occupiers
annual sum for a given period. When the arrangements are
of this estate as yearly tenants, will be gradually converted
into the proprietors of the soil on which they and their ances-
tors have been bred and born. This change will be effected
by the machinery of the Land Company, advocated by Mr
Sadlier, M.P., the company being founded on the model of
the English Benefit Building Societies, and in accordance
with the principles contended for in the tract entitled, "A
Proposal for the Formation of a Small Proprietors' Society
Scully, Q. C. It is also understood that the other lot is in-
for Ireland," and in the pamphlet published by Mr Vincent
tended to be disposed of in the same way.-Irish paper.

portant movement.
[It appears that the Irish are ahead of us in this very im-
suitable part of our country, and break the ice, that others
Where shall some one be found to
imitate this example in the Highlands, or in some other
may follow ?]

END OF VOL. VIII.

Printed by JOHNSTONE & HUNTER, 104 High Street; and published by JOHNSTONE & HUNTER, 15 Princes Street, Edinburgh.
And sold by the Booksellers throughout the kingdom.

« AnteriorContinuar »