plains at great length in this pamphlet, is this :-Being safely ensconced in the Church of Rome, he began to prosecute certain enquiries into the Creed of that Church. And he found, as he irrefragably shows, that the said Creed was never framed, allowed. or accepted, by the Church, but was imposed upon her by secular authority. He labours this point through several pages, but the result seems undeniable. The present Creed of the Church of Rome was never compiled or agreed to by any Church Council or Synod, but was forced upon her acceptance by king Recared of Spain, who, in A.D. 589, promulgated this creed by his royal authority. On this point, however, we do not mean to dwell. Mr. Ffoulkes's testimony on more recent matters of fact, is, in our view, very much more valuable.

He left the Church of England. Very naturally, he wandered over the seas, to lands where “ Catholicism" was regnant, and where “ the true faith” had held undisturbed sway for centuries. He was startled and confounded by what he saw. We will copy his own description :

“I spent the latter part of Lent, including Holy Week, at Seville: and had looked forward to the ceremonies immediately preceding Easter there with no small interest. But when the time for them arrived, I never saw services more coldly conducted or more scantily attended, and ceremonies less productive, in appearance at least, of any devotional feelings. I returned from them each time pained and scandalised. About the middle of Holy Week I fortunately had occasion to go to my banker's; and on entering I found a priest there waiting like myself to be served. Something induced me to accost him in English ; on his replying to me in the same, we soon entered warmly into conversation. He turned out to be a young priest who had 'served his time' at the Brompton Oratory, though not a native of England. I confided to him what I thought of the services. He expressed no surprise: on the contrary, he dissuaded my going again to the churches I named. 'Come to our church,' he said, 'and I think you will see things done as they ought to be, and a very different style of congregation. I went and found it all as he had told me. There was life in the services, earnestness in the celebrants, devotion in the worshippers. The Brompton Oratory, that heart-stirring creation of old Oxford aud Cambridge men, had sent out missionaries to evangelise Seville. Nobody who had frequented and compared it with the churches all round could dispute its claim to be the beginning of a new order of things there. As I am in Spain already, I may as well go on. From Seville I proceeded to a small village in the neighbourhood of the Sierra, of most primitive description. There I remained several months. There was early Mass most mornings of the week: but I seldom, if ever, saw any but women at it: and these rarely more than from ten to twenty. But on Sundays at High Mass, the church, which was of considerable size for a village church, was crammed full of men and women, the former thronging the choir as far as it would contain them, where I sat myself. I took some pains to examine, but I never could discover anybody, man, woman, or child, in the whole congregation who used a book besides myself: and whatever may have been their inmost feelings, which I do not pretend to decipher, the countenances of the men bespoke nothing but listless apathy. Vespers were invariably attended by the priest, one cantor, and myself: in all, three, and to the best of my remembrance, never more. There were no evening services of any description while I was there. The only spark of devotion I ever witnessed and I record it with as much pleasure-was that now and then I used to see parties of four or fire women sitting outside their doors in the cool of the evening reciting their chaplet. The priest was affable and intelligent: and seemed auxious to promote education : but he was a good deal mixed up in the secular affairs of his neighbours as well : and the honours of his house were always done by one who went by the name of his 'cugina,' but I was laughed at for supposing it meant the relationship that we understand by it. I could only therefore account for the average respect that was paid him on the supposition that such things were not uncommon. Aitogether I quitted this village feeling strongly that there was certainly not more real Christianity practised in it than in my own native parish in Wales, if so much : that the Welch there were better educated and more intelligent in their devotions beyond comparison than these specimens of Andalusia, and that the clergyman could not at all events have a woman sitting at the head of his table who was neither his wife nor his relation. Yet this was a country that had remained exclusively Roman Catholic since its release from the Moors.” (pp. 51–53.)

These are the confessions of an honest man. He has not yet, apparently, drawn all the deductions which naturally flow from the facts. He has only reached this conclusion :

“ That English Christianity-by which I mean that of members of the Church of England in general, I cannot speak from experience of any other-is as good and genuine, and for ordinary purposes as beneficial, as what is found in other nations-France, Spain, and Italy, for instance

-so that either it is produced, fed, and nourished by all the Sacraments, as theirs is : or else, produced, fed, and nourished by a single Sacrament, it penetrates society and forms character to the same extent as that which has the support of all the Sacraments, and is no less efficacious for good in most other respects.” (p. 55.)

But he is on the way to more absolute and positive results. He sees, he confesses, too much indifference, too much carelessness, in the Church of England, touching the sacraments. But in the Church of Rome he sees something much worse. He finds that precautions have been found necessary, and have been actually taken, to guard against the poisoning of the Pope in the Eucharist. He thinks, and very reasonably thinks, that this is worse than anything he remembers in the Church of England. On the whole, we trust that we have good ground for hoping, that Mr. Ffoulkes is prosecuting an honest and searching enquiry, which must ultimately destroy his faith in the Roman Church.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

The elections are over, and have produced their natural result. The new Parliament has not indeed spoken, but its power has been already felt.

The late Ministry, as soon as the result of the elections was known, pursued the course which public policy and a regard to their own characters alike suggested. It had been expected that they would await the meeting of Parliament, when an

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amendment to the Address, in answer to the Speech from the Throne, would have been carried by a large majority, which would have rendered their longer continuance in office impossible. It was, however, obviously undesirable that the Queen should, by any expressions used in Her Majesty's Speech, appear to be committed to a policy which it was known that a large majority of the House of Commons were prepared to condemn. By the advice of the retiring minister, Mr. Gladstone was sent for, and to him was committed the charge of forming a new Administration. This task has been performed apparently with little difficulty. No doubt, abundant materials were to be found on the Opposition benches for filling the various offices with men of sufficient ability; and the only difficulty must have consisted in combining together, in one Cabinet, those who would be likely, for any considerable time, to act harmoniously together. How far this difficulty has been overcome, time alone will show. We very much mistake the character of Mr. Bright if he will long remain one of a body of men among whom his authority is not supreme, and it seems scarcely possible that this can be the case in a Cabinet of which Lord Clarendon and Mr. Lowe are members.

Upon one point, however, there will be little, if any, difference of opinion among the fifteen members of the administration, and that is the measure for the disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish branch of the Established Church, Upon the principle of that measure they are perfectly agreed, and to the consequences of it, as it was sketched during the last session, we need not say that we look forward with great anxiety. Much, however, may depend upon the details of the Bill to be brought in. We cannot help even yet hoping that the Bill may be presented in a somewhat different shape from that which was talked of during the last Parliament. Ex. pressions have fallen from influential members which seem to show that all are not agreed as to the exact meaning of the words 'disestablishment' and 'disendowment.' Modern endowments, we are sometimes told, are to be recognized. If this expression is taken in its widest sense, it may include the glebe and the church lands, which would afford a considerable income, And we can conceive a measure which some might call disestablishment, by which, though the bishops and clergy were deprived of all civil and political distinctions, the Queen's Supremacy might be preserved, and the rights of both clergy and laity might be prescribed by the law of the land, and that law interpreted by our Courts.

If we pass from the Irish to the English branch of the Esta. blished Church, the immediate perils to be apprehended seem to be from within, rather than from without. We cannot, indeed, shut our eyes to the danger which will arise from the

encouragement which a successful attack on the Irish branch will give to the assailants of all Established Churches. But we look with more apprehension on the increasing divisions of our Church. The growth of practices which plain people know not how to distinguish from Popery, is alienating the affections of many from the Church of their fathers. If the Established Church is to be maintained in this country, it must be as a Protestant Church; and unless something is quickly done to restore the confidence which has been rudely shaken, we feel that the resistance to the attack from withont, which will soon come, will be feeble and half-hearted. To the heads in our Church we have looked in vain for anything like energetic action. We hoped much from the Ritual Commission, but as yet they have done little but furnish an excuse for doing nothing.

An unusual amount of Ecclesiastical patronage has been at the disposal of the late Prime Minister; and upon the whole we have reason to feel grateful to Mr. Disraeli for the selections he has made. The appointment of Dr. Magee to the Bishoprio of Peterborough was in itself an admirable appointment, and was peculiarly appropriate at a time when we were contending for the identity of the English and Irish branches of the Established Church. To the appointments to the sees of London and Lincoln, and to the Deanery of St. Paul's, no reasonable objection can be made; and we hope that the relief from the immense amount of labour necessarily required from a Bishop of London may, under God's providence, be the means of prolonging the valuable life of the new Archbishop of Canterbury.

The state of the Continent furnishes few subjects for remark. The irritation which existed on both sides of the Rhine, and which at one time seemed likely to produce a war between France and Prussia, appears to have gradually subsided. Both countries have a deep interest in the maintenance of peace. Every year that passes is likely to find the North German Empire more firmly united; while in France, the state of the finances, and the smouldering discontent which a single mili, tary reverse might cause to break out into a flame, would make war a dangerous game for the Napoleonic Dynasty.

Spain is suffering some of the evils which are almost sure to arise from the easy overthrow of all constituted authority. A formidable insurrection at Cadiz for a time threatened the overthrow of the self-constituted Government. It has, however, been suppressed, and its submission has strengthened the hands of the present rulers. It yet remains to be seen, whether a people degraded as the Spaniards have been, will prove themselves worthy of the liberty they have acquired. It would certainly be difficult to form a Government worse than that which has been overthrown. In the meantime we cannot but rejoice that some of the impediments to the proclamation of the Gospel of Peace have been removed, and shall be glad to find that those who have removed them are animated, not merely by a blind hatred of the priests, who have at once enslaved and debased them, but by an honest desire to allow the truth, which alone can make them really free, to be made known.

Lord Stanley informed his constituents, not long since, that he feared that a cloud was gathering in the East. His fears have been quickly realized; for Turkey has suddenly broken off all diplomatic relations with Greece, and is threatening her with hostilities, unless the demands she has made are at once complied with. Nor do her demands seem wholly unreasonable. It was, indeed, natural that a strong sympathy should be felt and manifested throughout Greece for the insurgents in Crete, and that that sympathy should be shown by active efforts to assist them in their struggle. Probably the Government of King George was not strong enough to venture to resist them; but it was not to be expected that Turkey would allow the contest in Crete to be prolonged by assistance afforded by a nation professing to be at peace with her. It is hoped that, by a judicious interference of the great European Powers, a war which Greece could scarcely hope to maintain successfully may be prevented.

Since the above was in the press the judgment of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, in the case of Martin v. Mackonochie, has been pronounced. We have not time or space to dwell upon it. It is enough to state that by it several of the questions which the Ritualist party have so foolishly raised, have been finally decided. The questions raised were, as to the lawfulness of the use of lighted candles in broad daylight during the celebration of the Holy Communion, the prostration of the body during the prayer of consecration, the elevation of the elements, the mixing water with the wine, and the use of incense. All these practices have been unequivocally condemned, and Mr. Mackonochie is ordered to pay the costs both of the original suit and of the appeal.