vacillating multitude. The whole thing is quite a lesson, and shows a comprehension of the humours of a crowd, and the way to rule them, the want of which loses many a cause. First, Pigeon gets up, under strong professed sense of 'dooty,' to complain of the minister-not of his sermons, though they was not to call rousing up, but as far as the work of a congregation went. He might have held his peace, but things was come to ⚫ that pass in Salem as a man had to do his dooty if he was to be 'took to the stake for it.' The allusion to the stake is highly characteristic of this style of oratory; but Pigeon had not the art of exciting violent feeling. Then stood up Mr. Tufton to plead for his young brother, trying his wife's nerves and patience by his clumsy mismanagement of the cause.

'Mr. Tufton did his young brother no good. He was so sympathetic over the misfortunes that had befallen Vincent's family, that bitter tears came to the widow's eyes, and her hands once more tightened in a silent strain of self-support. While the old minister impressed upon his audience the duty of bearing with his dear young brother and being indulgent to the faults of his youth, it was all the poor mother could do to keep silent, to stifle down the indignant sob in her heart, and keep steady in her

As for the other minister's wife, poor Mrs. Tufton's handkerchief dropped a great many times during her husband's speech. Oh, if these blundering men, who mismanage matters so, could but be made to hold their peace! Tears of vexation and distress came into the eyes of the good little woman. Mr. Tufton meant to do exactly what was right; she knew he did; but to sit still and hear him making such a muddle of it all! Such penalties have to be borne by dutiful wives. She had to smile feebly, when he concluded, to somebody who turned round to congratulate her upon the minister's beautiful speech. The beautiful speech had done poor Vincent a great deal more harm than Pigeon's oration. Salem folks, being appealed to on this side, found out that they had, after all, made great allowances for their minister, and that he had not on his part shown a due sense of their indulgence. Somebody else immediately after went on in the same strain: a little commotion began to arise in the quiet meeting. "Mr. Tufton's 'it it," said a malcontent near Mrs. Vincent; "we've been a deal too generous, that's what we've been; and he's turned on us." "He was always too high for my fancy," said another. "It ain't the thing for a pastor to be high-minded; and them lectures and things was never nothing but vanity; and so I always said.”—Ibid. pp. 714, 715.

Things were going badly for Vincent. The spirits of the Tozer ladies flagged, the female Pigeons looked triumphant, Mrs. Vincent began to give up all for lost. It happened that shortly be fore this she had had a conversation with Tozer, and had diplomatically expressed her fears that her son, following the example of other clever young men impatient of interference, should 'throw it all up,' and renounce the ministry. The widow, like people who choose their arguments not so much for truth as for effect, had no real faith in it, but it assumed a form to Tozer,

and suggested his line on this great occasion. His speech is so able a comment on the working of Dissent, and bears out so forcibly what has been shown by sufferers from the system, and been brought forward by Church advocates in discussion with various branches of Nonconformists, that we are tempted to quote largely from it as a sort of summary of the whole question. He opens by complaining of a certain underhandedness in the attack, avowing his opinion that they are quarrelling with their bread-and-butter. Probably our readers will see the enormous advantage a man has, the door of eloquence opened, by simple freedom from the trammels of grammar and mere finical niceties of elocution:

"Yes, ladies and gentlemen! them's my sentiments! we don't know when we're well off! and if we don't mind, we'll find out how matters really is when we've been and disgusted the pastor, and drove him to throw it all up. Such a thing ain't uncommon; many and many's the one in our connexion as has come out for the ministry, meaning nothing but to stick to it, and has been drove by them as is to be found in every flock —them as is always ready to dictate to throw it all up. My friends, the pastor as is the subject of this meeting "-here Tozer sank his voice, and looked round with a certain solemnity-" Mr. Vincent, ladies and gentlemen, as has doubled the seat-holders in Salem in six months' work, and, I make bold to say, brought one-half of you as is here to be regular at chapel, and take an interest in the connexion-Mr. Vincent, I say, as you're all collected here to knock down in the dark, if so be as you are willing to be dictated to the same, ladies and gentlemen, as we're a-discussing of to-night-told us all, it ain't so very long ago, in the crowdedest meeting as I ever see, in the biggest public hall in Carlingford —as we weren't keeping up to the standard of the old Nonconformists, nor showing, as we ought, what a voluntary Church could do. It ain't pleasant to hear of, for us as thinks a deal of ourselves; but that is what the pastor said, and there was not a man as could contradict it. Now, I ask you, ladies and gentlemen, what is the reason? It's all along of this as we're doing to-night. We've got a precious young man, as Mr. Tufton tells you, and a clever young man, as nobody tries for to deny; and there ain't a single blessed reason on this earth why he shouldn't go on as he's been a-doing, till, Salem bein' crowded out to the doors (as it's been two Sundays back), we'd have had to build a new chapel, and took a place in our connexion as we've never yet took in Carlingford!"'-Ibid. pp. 716, 717.

It is a great thing in popular speaking to have one object, the mind concentrated on one point, and Salem was this centre in our orator; all knotty questions of discipline and doctrine merging in the one necessity to fill the chapel and make an imposing appearance. It was not so very different with Vincent, only he was his own Salem.

"But it ain't to be," said Tozer, looking round him with a tragic frown, and shaking his head slowly. "Them as is always a-finding fault, and always a-setting up to dictate, has set their faces again' all that. It's the way of some folks in our connexion, ladies and gentlemen: a minister

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ain't to be allowed to go on building up a chapel, and making hisself useful in the world. He ain't to be left alone to do his dooty as his best friends approve. He's to be took down out of his pulpit, and took to pieces behind his back, and made a talk and a scandal of to the whole connexion! It's not his preaching as he's judged by, nor his dooty to the sick and dyin', nor any of them things as he was called to be pastor for ; but it's if he's seen going to one house more nor another, or if he calls often enough on this one or t'other, and goes to all the tea-drinkings. My opinion is," said Tozer, suddenly breaking off into jocularity, young man as maybe isn't a marrying man, and anyhow can't marry more nor one, ain't in the safest place at Salem tea-drinkings; but that's neither here nor there. If the ladies haven't no pity, us men can't do nothing in that matter; but what I say is this," continued the butterman, once more becoming solemn; "to go for to judge the pastor of a flock, not by the dooty he does to his flock, but by the times he calls at one house or another, and the way he makes hisself agreeable at one place or another, ain't a thing to be done by them as prides themselves on being Christians and Dissenters. It's not like Christians-and if it's like Dissenters the more's the pity. It's mean, that's what it is," cried Tozer, with fine scorn; "it's like a parcel of old women, if the ladies won't mind me saying so. It's beneath us as has liberty of conscience to fight for, and has to set an example before the Church folks as don't know no better. But it's what is done in our connexion," added the good deacon with pathos, shaking his forefinger mournfully at the crowd. "When there's

a young man as is clever and talented, and fills a chapel, and gives the connexion a chance of standing up in the world as it ought, here's some one as jumps up and says, ' The pastor don't come to see me,' says he'the pastor don't do his duty-he ain't the man for Salem.' And them as is always in every flock ready to do a mischief, takes it up; and there's talk of a change, and meetings is called, and-here we are! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, here we are! We've called a meeting, all in the dark, and give him no chance of defending himself; and them as is at the head of this movement is calling upon us to dismiss Mr. Vincent. But let me tell you," continued Tozer, lowering his voice with a dramatic intuition, and shaking his forefinger still more emphatically in the face of the startled audience, "that this ain't no question of dismissing Mr. Vincent; it's a matter of disgusting Mr. Vincent, that's what it is-it's a matter of turning another promising young man away from the connexion, and driving him to throw it all up. You mark what I say. It's what we're doing most places, us Dissenters; them as is talented and promisin', and can get a better living working for the world than working for the chapel, and won't give in to be worried about calling here and calling there—we're a-driving of them out of the connexion, that's what we're doing! I could reckon up as many as six or seven as has been drove off already. ... It shall never be said in our connexion as a clever young man was drove away from Carlingford, and I had part in it. There's the credit o' the denomination to keep up among the Church folks-and there's the chapel to fill, as never had half the sittings let before-and there's Mr. Vincent, as is the cleverest young man I ever see in our pulpit, to be kep' in the connexion; and there ain't no man living as shall dictate to me or them as stands by me! Them as is content to lose the best preaching within a hundred miles, because the minister don't call on two or three families in Salem, not as often as they would like to see him," said Tozer, with trenchant sarcasm, 66 can put down their names again' Mr. Vincent; but for me, and them as stands by me, we ain't a-going to give in to no such dictation we ain't a-going to set up ourselves against the spread of the Gospel, and the credit o' the connexion, and toleration and freedom of

:

conscience, as we're bound to fight for! If the pastor don't make hisself agreeable, I can put up with that-I can ; but I ain't a-going to see a clever young man drove away from Salem, and the sittings vacant, and the chapel falling to ruin, and the Church folks a-laughing and a-jeering at us, not for all the deacons in the connexion, nor any man in Carlingford. And this I say for myself and for all as stands by me!"'-Ibid. pp. 717, 718.

The effect of these arguments is conclusive. The meetingexcept the minority of malcontents, cruelly identified as them as likes to dictate-awake to the fact of Vincent's merit. The meeting of inquiry turns into an ovation. But Vincent has made up his mind. Not all Tozer's private entreaties, not an address of sympathy, not the offer of 501. increase of salary and a piece of plate, can turn him from his resolution of throwing it up, and the widow sees the phantom she has conjured up turn into an obstinate reality. There is something quite pathetic in Tozer's efforts to keep Vincent in his place; but these we must leave the reader to follow for himself. Vincent retires from his labours in the ministry, leaves Carlingford, and sets up a philosophical review, having first given his views on the nature of his own ordination as the conclusion of his speech :—

"Wait before you applaud me," said the Nonconformist. "I have said nothing that calls for applause. I have something more to tell youmore novel than what I have been saying. I am going to leave Carlingford. It was you who elected me, it is you who have censured me, it was you last night who consented to look over my faults, and give me a new trial. I am one of those who have boasted in my day that I received my title to ordination from no bishop, from no temporal provision, from no traditionary Church, but from the hands of the people. Perhaps I am less sure than I was at first, when you were all disposed to praise me, that the voice of the people is the voice of God; but, however that may be, what I received from you I can but render up to you. I resign into your hands your pulpit, which you have erected with your money, and hold as your property. I cannot hold it as your vassal. If there is any truth in the old phrase which calls a church a cure of souls, it is certain that no cure of souls can be delegated to a preacher by the souls themselves who are to be his care. I find my old theories inadequate to the position in which I find myself, and all I can do is to give up the post where they have left me in the lurch. I am either your servant, responsible to you, or God's servant, responsible to Him-which is it? I cannot tell; but no man can serve two masters, as you know. Many of you have been kind to me-chief among all," said Vincent, turning once round to look in Tozer's anxious face," my friend here, who has spared no pains either to make me such a pastor as you wished, or to content me with that place when he had secured it. I cannot be content. It is no longer possible. So there remains nothing but to say good-bye--goodbye!-farewell! I will see you again to say it more formally. I only wish you to understand now that this is the decision I have come to, and that I consider myself no longer the minister of Salem from this night."-Ibid. pp. 78, 79.

Into the story as a story we have not entered; it is, however, romantic and eventful enough to engage the interest of the class called novel-readers, who may not be alive to the attractions of Mr. Tozer. The whole book is written with a fervour and thorough possession of the subject which compels the reader's attention and sympathy. All the characters are real to the authoress. She labours to make them such to ourselves from a joint energy of fancy and memory. If she is one-sided in some of her delineations of Dissent and its workings, it is from no common-place prejudice, but from some experience in which her heart was engaged. It is impossible to enter into such à character as Tozer's without feeling that in the present state of our middle classes (as the term is often understood) Dissent opens a field for talent and energy more congenial to their education and general tone of feeling than our Church presents, except in rare and exceptional cases. We do not say that it is desirable that men should meddle in matters above their handling, and so be driven to lower the subject to better keeping with their mode of treatment; but wherever there is power and desire to be useful there must be some legitimate application for them in the cause of religion and hearty religious fellowship; in which last so many a Church congregation fails-fails in a sense of union and joint action. It would be a very legitimate point for the worshippers in our town churches to aim at, that of filling the benches though they may not let them, and of exhorting each other to liberal collections, though they may not assume the distribution of them. Many a good man of business, whose thought and interest in the Church are now confined to the Sunday hours of service, might be stirred into more active co-operation, if there was a machinery which would give him some authorized place; and the increase of activity and life might well atone for some fussiness and even faulty taste in the doing it. These are vague thoughts. It is one thing to feel a want, and another to suggest a remedy that would not be worse than the original disease. But many of our readers will, we believe, share with us in the wish, that the 'flower of the middle classes' in our connexion were stimulated into a zeal as real, but purer, better regulated, and under more effectual control, than that which prompted to such signal action the master-spirit of Salem Chapel.'