step to the duty of nations to protect any member of the family which is attacked by a stronger one. If national existence be a reality, and if some nations are weak compared with others, it would seem to follow that the other nations ought, like the individuals composing a society, to defend the injured one against the wanton aggressor. Territorial burglary, and murder by wholesale, are as much opposed to national existence, as common burglary, and individual murder, to the existence of society. Against the nations who live in amity with neighbour nations there is no law; but against the nations who rob and murder other nations the law remains in its full force,-and must be put in force. It may cost us great sacrifices of life, as well as of money, time, and comfort, to do it; so it does, in a less degree, to enforce the civil laws which uphold society; yet, however heavy the cost, it appears to us one of the primary necessities of human nature in its fallen state, a necessity which revelation presupposes in all its teachings bearing on the subject. FORCE is, and as we believe will be, a necessity, till the universal reign of LOVE shall supersede it.

Wherever love

rules, force is even now unnecessary. To diffuse love in the heart, force is useless;and hence the wickedness and folly of statechurches;-but against those who refuse obedience to the law of love, and yet more against those who will not obey the law of simple justice, force is as indispensable to the existence of society, while its members are imperfect and sinful creatures, as piles to a building when the foundation is bad. It is, however, impossible to explain so large a subject, and to answer all objections, in a brief notice of a tract. While we differ from the one important assertion we have now commented on, we can truly say, that there is not in the letter itself a consideration suggested, to which we do not earnestly invite the attention of all our christian readers. Very many will probably think that on the point adverted to we have the worst of the argument, and we own we shall not regret it much if they do. We may differ about the modes of arriving at the result. We are sure it is nowhere said, Blessed are the war-makers, while we know where it is written, "Blessed are the peace-makers, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

TEMPERANCE MEMORIALS OF THE LATE

ROBERT KETTLE, ESQ., CONSISTING OF

SELECTIONS FROM HIS WRITINGS ON THE
TEMPERANCE QUESTION. WITH A ME-
MOIR OF HIS LIFE. By the REV. WIL-
LIAM REID. Pp. 192. London: Houl-
ston and Stoneman.

Mr. Kettle was, perhaps, best known to our readers, and the christian public generally, as one of the adjudicators of the Working Men's Prize Essays on the Sabbath, which attracted so much attention two or three years ago. He was, however, also an eminent member of our own denomination in Edinburgh, an occasional preacher, a large-hearted philanthropist, a man of love and good works; and he well deserved such a memorial as his friend Mr. Reid has furnished in this volume. The memoir is interesting and instructive, full of proofs of goodness, and moral and christian worth; and the Temperance Memorials by Mr. Kettle, are earnest, pointed, generally forcible, though, as will be expected, scarcely free from those extravagances and exaggerations, which enthusiasts in all causes are occasionally guilty of. We should be glad to hear of the book being largely circulated and read: the christian influence of its contents would always be elevated; and it could not fail to bring impressively before religious people especially the claims of a movement which has been too much neglected by those to whom its advocates had a right to look for sanction and aid.

THOUGHTS AND SKETCHES IN VERSE. BY CAROLINE DENT. Pp. 262. London: A. Hall and Co.

One of the critics in the Edinburgh Review once said, that "to publish verses is become a sort of evidence that a man wants sense, which is repelled not by writing good verses, but by writing excellent ones.' If our high notions of poetical excellence enable us only to award the more moderate praise to these compositions, both our gallantry and our sense of justice would prevent us from supposing the alternative true; for this volume contains several productions that many a "man of sense" might well be proud of, and they all indicate a high tone of thinking and feeling, which will not fail to be appreciated by those especially "who rejoice to listen to the messages which the beautiful outward world brings to the spirit of man,-and those in whom the consciousness of mortality asks a persuasion of immortality to

sustain and console." One of the most touching productions in the volume we took the liberty of inserting in our March number: perhaps we may find room for others before long: meantime, we can sincerely commend the work, as a whole, as vastly superior to much that passes for poetry now-a-days, and we trust the authoress will have the reward she seeks, the awakening "elevating and soothing thoughts" in the minds of her readers.

COMPLAINT AND CONSOLATION. TWO SER

MONS ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEATH OF THE REV. WILLIAM SAVORY, OF BRIGHTON. WITH THE ADDRESS DELIVERED AT HIS

"To encourage God's people to cry to their heavenly Father for 'help,' and to hope in God through Christ, is the design of these pages: also to present to a bereaved church some memorial of an affectionate pastor, who has finished his course, and now rests from his labours. The departed was known to a large circle of christians, and very highly esteemed by them; this little memento of him to whom they have listened with pleasure, and with whom they have taken sweet counsel, is presented to them by one who enjoyed his friendship for many years."

GIRL.

CHAPTER V.

We will now leave the little boy to the discipline of his uncle's family; he had begun to think it wisest to submit to the powers that be, concluding that whether a "living" was worth so much scrambling for or not-it was "death" for him to stop, and so from sheer prudence he joined the

race.

Cold winter had come to the little family at the cottage. The deep snow-drifts were piled around, while the windows were covered with a thick incrustation of curiously wrought devices, executed by the skilful hand of King Frost.

Adaline and her mother were within, still in watchful attendance upon the invalid husband and father. For Mr. Green was still an invalid,-the doctor had pronounced him convalescent, it is true, several weeks before, but still his cold withered limbs refused to sustain the weight of his body, emaciated and light though it had become, and there he sat bolstered in his arm-chair, wrapped in blankets and quilts, and before a nice warm fire. None of it, however, imparted a glow to his pale cheek, or illumined his sad countenance. poor man was discouraged. He expected before this time to have been in his shop, and his irritable nature could ill brook such delay.

The

"You need not trouble yourself to wrap me so closely, Adaline," said the impatient

man; "I might as well die now, as live to be longer a burden."

"" Die," echoed Ada; oh, father," and she bent again over the cushions she was adjusting for his feet.

"Why not, girl," said her father bitterly; "here I have been sixteen long months confined to this little room. Your mother is wearing herself out in nursing me,-besides, we shall all be on the town at this rate. It were better that I should die, than live to be such a burden."

"It is a solemn thing to die, father," said Adaline, resuming her knitting.

"It is a solemn thing to live, I think, plagued as I have been."

"But," said the little girl, hesitating and colouring," perhaps it is all for your good. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, you know."

"A strange kind of love, I should think," muttered the peevish man, "and such as I could well dispense with."

Adaline was grieved and shocked at the spirit her father manifested. She bent her head over her work to conceal the large drops that were gathering in her eyes, but something prompted her to speak yet again.

"But, father," said she, lifting her swimming eyes to his face, "if all these things should lead you to love the Lord Jesus Christ and be a christian and pray with us, what a blessing it would be,-it would be like what I was reading to mother yesterday when you were asleep."

"And what was that, Ada?" asked the father, in a much more pleasant tone.

"It was in Psalms, where David says, Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now learn I to keep thy law.'"

"And so you think your father is a lawbreaker, Adaline?" asked Mr. Green.

"We all are," said the little girl; "the Bible says we have all gone astray, there is none that doeth good, no, not one."

"Why, Ada," said her father," you seem to have the Bible by heart; how came you to know so much Scripture?"

"Oh," said Ada, "we read the Bible at school, and I read to mother; besides, I get verses to repeat at the Sabbath school, and the teacher tells us the meaning."

"Well," replied the sick man, putting his hand upon the head of Ada, and smoothing her flaxen hair, "I think you are a good girl, but there's one thing I want you to tell me; if everybody has become wicked, all gone astray as you say, what's going to be done for them, and why am I worse off than others?"

The countenance of the little girl brightened at her father's queries,-dropping her knitting, she drew her stool so near, that she could lean her arm on his knees.

"Why, father," said she, "havn't you heard about the Saviour?"

"Perhaps I have," was the answer, "but you may tell me about him."

"Well, you see," said the young expounder, "that when the world had broken the law of God, and had all gone wrong, the Saviour came down here, and because he was the Son of God he knew no sin, and because he was man he knew all about the troubles that people have; he lived here many years, to show how people ought to live in this wicked world. In that he was our example; then it was that wicked men put him to death, and so he became our sacrifice. Now you see, father, that people can get right again, and be prepared to dwell with Jesus for ever."

"According to your argument, Ada," said the father, "they have all got right. I don't see that they have anything to do but to go on their way rejoicing."

"Oh, yes, father," responded the child, "they have now to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they have to love him, and follow in his footsteps."

"Well, Adaline, don't people in general do those things?" asked Mr. Green; "I mean all but the very wicked; for instance, child, what is it I do so bad ?”

This was rather a delicate question to a

child that had always been remarkable for filial piety. Slightly blushing, the little girl drooped her eyelids and continued silent. The father, willing to prolong a conversation that in spite of himself had become interesting to him, playfully remarked,

"I think, Adaline, you must confess that I am a very good christian; I have ever been honest, industrious, and respectable, benevolent too, as our circumstances admit. I don't see pious people, even church members, do any more; what do you think?"

"That sounds like what the young man in the gospel said," was Adaline's reply, in a very low voice, "but the Saviour said, 'Yet one thing thou lackest.'"

"And what was that?"

"Take up thy cross and follow me."

There was a shade of impatience crossed the countenance of Mr. Green, for his daughter's remarks had found an echo in

his own conscience. Speaking to that rather than the child, he answered rather pettishly,

"Well, I know of no better religion than for one to do the best he can; I guess if we do that we shall come out well enough in the end."

For a moment Adaline lost all timidity in her faithfulness.

"Oh, father," said she, kneeling at his side and lifting her glistening eyes to his face, "the Saviour says, Him that confesseth me before mea, will I confess before my Father; but he that denieth me before men, him will I deny before my Father and the holy angels. That must be at the last, dear father, and, oh, isn't it a dreadful thing to be denied by the Saviour of the

world!"

Just then Mrs. Green called Adaline out, and her father was glad to be left alone. This was the second time that the little girl, by her affectionate warnings, had aroused the slumbering conscience of the poor man. Born and educated by pious parents, constantly attending a ministry that shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God, it was not strange that the faithful remarks of the child awakened dis

quieting memories. The pious, faithful wife saw with pain that her husband was struggling to regain the flimsy covering which had become too narrow for him to wrap himself in, and earnestly did she pray that she might see him adorned with the robe of righteousness. Mr. Green sat musing for some time after his daughter

departed. "That is a strange child," said he mentally," something remarkable about her. I wonder where she gets such ideas." Conscience answered, "They are not pew; from a child thou wast taught the Holy Scriptures; thou shouldst have been wise unto salvation."

"But the age has improved," said the would-be philosopher, "such doctrines are unsuited to the new light that has dawned on our world. People have found a better way. They are far wiser."

Again conscience thundered forth its part in the controversy. "Where is the wisdom of the wise, since it hath failed to give a resting-place for the soul? Where is the 'way' that can be compared with the 'way cast up in the wilderness for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in'? Beware, oh man, that thy new doctrines do not become a snare to thy soul, and thy boasted light prove a phantom, that shall lure thee to the shades of endless night."

(To be continued.)

THE MONTH.

One of the most important events since our last is the withdrawal of the Reform Bill by its proposer, Lord John Russell. It was the greatest political sacrifice ever made by the noble lord, and all the attendant circumstances showed that he made it with the greatest pain. Our opinion is raised, not lowered, of his sincerity. We are sorry to believe that, as to all the feelings of a true-hearted English nobleman and liberal, with all his aristocratic leanings, he is decidedly the best man of the Cabinet; we are inclined to believe, too, that had he been Prime Minister, we should not have had Russia in the Turkish provinces, or should have had her out by this time; and have been spared the terrible massacre at Sinope, and the miserable inaction of our fleets in the Black Sea, while the Russian navy was carrying about its troops to places where they could do most injury. The war is the pretext,-the real reason is the coolness of professed liberal members and Government supporters; the contempt for the House of. Commons consequent on the Committee disclosures of last year, must be increased by its shabby evasion of Reform through the excuse of a war. Another Bill, of great value to the poor, has also been withdrawn-the Bill to abolish the

law of compulsory removal of paupers, and to establish Union rating. This was due to the mean jealousy of the Irish members, who would not allow English paupers to be delivered from the old law, till it had been provided that Irish paupers who might flock hither should enjoy a like privilege. We deeply regret their factious and ignoble policy; the more so, since every disposition was evinced to make the most kind and just arrangements on behalf of Irish paupers. A Government Bill for Scotch Education, which was introduced with some applause, is now so vehemently opposed by the Scotch church, that it has but little chance of success. Whatever the merits or demerits of Government National Education, it really does appear to be, practically, as our friend "The Nonconformist

observes, the "unmanageable question." For the present, all classes of Educationists cannot err in endeavouring to arouse the working classes to prefer their children's education to a glass of beer or gin for themselves, and by erecting schools to test the adaptedness of their several plans to different districts. We have often wondered that the advocates of Secular Education have nowhere tried the asserted attractions of that plan for the working classes, especially in localities where other plans have failed: a few facts would tell more for them than columns of declamation.

Ecclesiastical matters since our last have presented little particularly note-worthy. Mr. Gladstone, through the liberal SolicitorGeneral, is trying to worm a bill through the house to give the Episcopal Church in the Colonies the liberties of voluntary churches, with the privileges of the English Establishment and probably hopes to import Convocation from the Colonies. Church-rate battles are numerous, and generally are fought successfully. We strongly recommend Dissenters to fight earnestly this battle in every parish. It is so instructive to those who cannot comprehend abstract arguments Ere this reaches the reader, a day of National Prayer will have been held, for the success of our arms against Russian aggression. Probably few will object to the Government requesting the prayers of christians; the form of "command" is, of course, objectionable. It may serve to lessen this objection, however, if we remember that it is but form; the Crown never invites; it always commands a subject, even to a dinner in the palace.

As to Foreign Affairs, we need not apprise our readers that war has been declared in due form, and that a fleet has sailed to the Baltic under the command of Admiral Napier. At the time we write, nothing has been done there, nor can be, on account of the ice. In the Black Sea, the supineness of our admirals, the liberty they have permitted to Russian ships of war, combined with the time unaccountably lost in for

warding the embarked troops to the spot where they were needed, all tend to the gravest suspicions as to the inclinations and ability of our cabinet, and chiefly of its premier. The Russians have been suffered to cross the Danube, to carry about their troops by sea to places most important to keep them from, to strengthen the garrisons of towns which by this time ought to have been in our possession, indeed in every way to increase the loss of civilised life by which their barbarian inroads can be repelled. A little longer prosecution of similar proRussian tactics will inevitably arouse the people to demand an alteration in the cabinet. Even the most ardent friends of peace feel that the inexcusable hesitations of Lord Aberdeen and his Peelite colleagues have most disastrously emboldened the Emperor of Russia in his projects, and prodigiously increased the difficulties and the cost of the war on which we are entered. The German Powers are playing the part of despots, who lean on the Czar to uphold them against their own subjects. If they offend him, they must lose the fruits of their bloodshedding and perjury, and restore their subjects' liberty; if they remain neutral or aid him, they hazard a ruinous explosion at home. They are tormented between the choice of slavery to the Czar, or of having to rule a free people. The King of Prussia is, moreover, brother-in-law of the Czar, and one of the most vacillating of tyrants, by turns afraid of Nicholas and of his own people. With all Germany thus despot-ridden, Italy, and Hungary, and Poland in the same condition, and burning to liberate themselves from the most intolerable oppression, no one can pretend to foresee the revolutions and wars to which the madness of Russia may yet give rise; none can predict whether we are entered on a "short and sharp struggle," or one of many years' duration. But for the aristocratic aversion of our cabinets, one and all, to the peoples of Europe winning their liberties from their oppressors, as we did from the Stuarts, we believe that all Europe might now be united against the monster who disturbs it.

One thing we would fain hope, that our Government will not be betrayed, in in any emergency, to join with France or Austria, or any other Power, to put down any movements for their own liberty which any of the oppressed peoples may make. It is thought by many that the war which is now begun may resolve itself into a struggle between the two principles of Despotism and Liberty. Our Governments, through their despot-serving practice of secret diplomacy, have uniformly, ever since 1815, been either abettors, or bland lookers on, while every popular revolution on the Continent has been crushed

by fraud, perjury, and military force; and have even violated the secrecy of our Postoffice to aid Austria in her bloody rule over Italy. It is for the English people to say how much longer they will tolerate such double-faced dealing between them and their brother peoples on the Continent. The Crown and its ministers are the people's servants, and till we demand to know what our servants are doing, abroad as well as at home, we shall perpetuate the odious character we have already gained in many countries, of loving freedom for ourselves, but upholding tyrants for others. The occupation of Rome by the French, and the invasion of Hungary by the Russians, were both equally flagrant acts of territorial burglary with the Russian seizure of the Turkish provinces; our interests, however, were not so much in danger; yet had we interfered then, when all the peoples of Europe were comparatively in power, we should have saved the present costly war, and the precious cause of European liberty would have been saved also. It is but too true that our Imperial ally against Russia is a deeply perjured and bloody traitor to French liberty, and the determined foe of the two noblest European statesmen and patriots of the day, Kossuth and Mazzini,— men whose names, should Providence yet bless them with success, will consign to ignoble oblivion those of the vulgar common-place despots of Russia, France, Austria, and Prussia.*

WEEKLY TRACT SOCIETY.

A

The sixth annual meeting of the members and friends of the above Society was held on the evening of the 12th instant, James Kershaw, Esq., M.P., in the chair. The Report showed that the Society had put into gratuitous circulation about 520,000 tracts, and sold at cost price 160,000, making a clear total issued of 680,000 tracts during the year. The funds, and the operations of the Society, appeared to walk hand in hand. The Treasurer's Report showed a balance in hand of £45 8s. resolution, adopting the report, was moved by B. Swallow, Esq., and seconded by the Rev. J. E. Ashby, B.A., F.R.A.S.; after which, sentiments embodying the nature, operations, and prospects of the Society were spoken to by the Rev. Thomas Archer, D D., Rev. W. Leask, and Rev. C. H. Spurgeon. A vote of thanks to the Chairman was then moved by Mr. Churcher, and seconded by Dr. Oxley, which, having been acknowledged, the interesting proceedings terminated.

BURTON-ON-TRENT.

The Rev. J. Y. Aitchison has given intimation that he will resign his connexion with the First Baptist Church (Salem Chapel) in this place, at the end of June.