which is properly termed Hii, and claffically Iona, was the depository of a vast collection of valuable papers and books, all of which were dispersed or destroyed at the Reformation. Other buildings of a monaftic character can be traced throughout the island.

Martin in his account of the Western Ifles, fays that Columba built two churches and two monafteries, one for men and one for women.—That in an empty piece of ground betwixt the church and the gardens, murderers and children who had not received baptism were buried. That near the west end of the church, in a little cell, but without any inscription, is the tomb of Columba.-That a little further to the weft lie the black ftones on which Macdonald, king of the Ifles, delivered the rights of their lands to his vassals in the isles and continent, with uplifted hands and bended knees; and in this posture, before many witnesses, he folemnly swore never to recall those rights; and this was instead of his great feal. Hence it was that when any one was certain of what he affirmed, he said pofitively "I have freedom to swear this matter upon the black ftones." At fome distance from the cathedral is St. Oran's Church, commonly called Reliqui Ouran, because the faint of that name is buried in it. About a quarter of a mile further is the church of Ronad, in which the prioreffes were buried.

Much deftruction of these remains has taken place fince Martin vifited the place, and much had been perpetrated before. It is faid that there were formerly three hundred and fixty stone croffes in the Island of Iona, which fince the reformation have been reduced to two, and the fragments of two others. The fynod of Argyle is reported to have caused no less than fixty of them to be thrown into the sea at one time; and fragments of others, which were knocked to pieces,

are to be seen here and there, fome of them now converted into grave-stones. Amongst the most curious sculptures remaining, are Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit under the tree, on St. Martin's cross, which is eight feet high, composed of the red granite of the island, as are also the carved pavement of St. Oran's chapel, especially that of some singular bells, and the grotesque scenes carved on the capitals of the pillars in the cathedral.

The deftruction here, in which the original erections of the Primitive British church have fuffered for being found in connection with the additions of their Romish successors, are greatly to be regretted, especially when we observe the masterly ftyle of the fculpture, the fingular ftories indicated in some of the carving on the walls, and the unique and beautiful foliage and flowers with which the tombs are adorned by the chisel, which cannot be seen without a lively admiration. No time of itself could have destroyed them; for they are mostly of the red granite, or fyenite, of which the rocks and iflets around confift; and are enclosed by low walls of the same stone, rounded into great pebbles by the sea.

The wild and defolate aspect of the place ftrongly impress on the visitor the perils and perfecutions of those savage times, which drove the profeffors of the Christian faith to such a ftony wilderness, amid the howlings of thefe northern feas. The present inhabitants of the island are exceedingly poor and ignorant. As you draw near the coaft, you behold a low bleak shore, backed by naked hills, and at their feet a row of miferable Highland huts: and at separate intervals the ruins of the monastery and church of Ronad, the church of St. Oran and its burying-ground, and lastly, the cathedral raises its square, red, folemn bulk. You are immediately on landing furrounded by little children offering pebbles of green ferpentine, which

they collect on the fhore, in little dishes: and by the guide offering his little books descriptive of the place and its antiquities. Every few days through the summer the steamer lands its paffengers to view the ruins; but these bring no advantage to the place, for they make their furvey, and then proceed on their voyage.

But from the prefent defolation the mind afcends back with an affectionate intereft to that time when, from the fixth to the tenth centuries, the profeffors of the ancient Chriftian church of Britain and Ireland flourished here, guarded by the elements and the ftern fterility of these then remote regions"far off amid the melancholy main," and sent forth their devoted disciples to preach Chrift, not only over the British ifles, but on the continent. To those who would inform themselves of this noble race of preachers of a pure and primitive faith, we would recommend the perufal of a most interesting little volume entitled, "Annotations on Dr. D'Aubigné's Sketch of the Early British Church," by Mrs. Webb of Dublin.* In this ably and earnestly written little volume Mrs. Webb has most completely demonftrated the error of Dr. D'Aubigné, in attributing the labours of this church to the Scotch inftead of the Irish. To none but a foreigner could the name of Scots at that period have been supposed to refer to natives of Scotland. The Scots were natives of Ireland, who carried their name to Scotland, by migrating to the Highlands, the inhabitants of which are their defcendants. Up to the eleventh century, Scotland bore the name of Albin, or Alba, latinized to Albania. "Irish and Ireland," justly remarks Mrs. Webb, "Scotch and Scotland, as at present applied, were introduced by the Normans. in the eleventh century. Hibernia and Scotia, prior to that

* Published by Wertheim and Macintosh, Paternofter-row; A. W. Bennett, Bishopfgate-street; Robertson, Dublin; and Paton and Ritchie, Edinburgh.

date, were exclufively applied to the present Ireland, and should have been so tranflated from the original of Bede's history." Bede used the term Scot and Scotia as they were used in his day, Irish and Ireland being names unknown.

We shall not quote further proofs of the correctness of our authorefs's statement; they are too obvious to be denied. We shall rather avail ourselves of her facts, to fhow how noble a place was once Iona.

After the first preaching of Chriftianity in Britain, and during those centuries in which Rome was overrun by the northern barbarians, the pagan Saxons perfecuted and expelled the Christian teachers from England. Charlemagne converted the Saxons on the Elbe by the perfuafive arguments of fire and fword to a nominal Christianity: but the pagan Saxons, who made themselves mafters of England, murdered the Christian natives, and gave them no alternative but apoftacy or death. Numbers of these escaped into Ireland. Mrs. Webb claims for the Irish the enjoyment of letters from a period much anterior, and that they accepted these fugitive apoftles of Chrift's faith, "which was pure from any admixture of Roman elements, either of sophistry or luxury, with open arms. And soon they sent forth a purer development of unsophisticated, practical Christianity, than had issued from any of the old regions of Roman dominion. Hibernia's induftrious, felf-fupporting schools, produced the principal Christian luminaries that irradiated the gloom of the continental nations between the fifth and eleventh centuries. During that period her indefatigable miffionaries, with their fimple habits and fingle-hearted devotion, spread a knowledge of the gospel and a taste for letters among the English Saxons, the Picts of North Britain, the Franks of Gaul, the inhabitants of Switzerland, and the Scandinavians of Iceland. Flanders, Germany, and even Italy herself, in those

ages, were indebted to Hibernia for their most accomplished teachers. And finally, ere the ecclefiaftical ambition of Rome, leagued with Norman love of power and plunder, had crushed the independence of the Hibernian church, she had impreffed the phase of gospel principles on the dwellers in the mountains of the Vofges, the Alps, and the Apennines, where they still live amid much poverty and godly fincerity."

In afferting the general justice of Mrs. Webb's statements, we must at the same time remark, that, like all zealous advocates, she has gone a little into the extreme. In defending the church of Ireland fhe has overlooked the primitive church of Wales, etc.: in maintaining the Bangor of Ireland she has ignored the Welsh Bangor. But the truth is, that when the Christians of England were perfecuted by the invading Saxons and Danes, they fled to Wales, Cornwall, and Armorica, as well as to Ireland; and great numbers remained there till finally crushed by the church of Rome. Bangor in Wales, as well as Bangor in Ireland, was a great school of that church. We know that after the arrival of St. Auguftine from Rome in 597, with the forty monks fent by Gregory I., the system of aggresfion on the British church was perfiftently carried on till it was finally overpowered. We know that Ethelfrid, the king of Northumberland, the obedient inftrument of Auguftine, killed two thousand of the British clergy in cold blood at Caerleon, or Chester. Neither must we admit, what Mrs. Webb feems to infer, that the apostles of Ireland first planted the truth amongst the Waldenses, Vaudois, etc. That truth existed there from the apostolic times, and would make them welcome fuch men as Columba, Gall, and Clement, who there strengthened but did not originate those churches.

But too much praise cannot be bestowed on these Irish and Iona miffionaries for what they did. St. Patrick appears to