No 80.

DECEMBER 14,

1833.

HAMPTON COURT PALACE, CARDINAL WOLSEY, and HENRY VIII, are inseparably connected iu a most eventful period of English history.

Cardinal Wolsey built this palace, which, with some modern enlargments, is the most magnificent, and said to be the most capacious of all the royal palaces in England. Originally there was a manor-house near this spot, when the cardinal procured a lease of the estate from the Knights Hospitallers. Corresponding with his ambition and pride, Wolsey employed a portion of his ill-gotten wealth in raising a structure more polished in character, and more splendid in arrangement, than had at any period previously adorned this country. The interior was so capacious, that it was said to have been provided with 280 silk beds for visitors of superior rank!

Wolsey, in 1526, presented this most sumptuous palace to his royal master, Henry VIII; and for two centuries it was the favourite residence of our British sovereigns. Edward VI was born here, Oct. 12, 1537. Here Catherine Howard was openly showed as queen. Catherine Parr was married here to Henry, and proclaimed queen, July 12, 1540. Philip and Mary kept their Christmas at Hampton Court with great solemnity in 1558, the great hall of the palace being illuminated with 1,000 lamps. Queen Elizabeth frequently resided VOL. II.

here; and in this palace the celebrated conference was held before James I, in 1603, between the Presbyterians and Episcopalians, and which led to the present "authorized version of the Bible." Charles I, Charles II, James II, William and Mary, George I, and George II, more or less resided at Hampton Court.

On

The west front is the usual entrance: after passing through the archway of the portal is found the entrancecourt, a quadrangle whose dimensions are 162 feet 2 inches, by 141 feet 7 inches. Through a groined archway, finely ornamented, there is a passage to the middle quadrangle, 133 feet 6 inches by 91 feet 10 inches. The turrets are ornamented with busts of the Cæsars. the left side is the great hall. On the front of the third story is a splendid and curious clock, by Tompion: on the south side is a stone colonnade of 14 columns, leading to the great staircaise. The third great quadrangle, or fountain court, consists chiefly of buildings constructed by Sir Christopher Wren, under William III. A fountain ornaments the area, which is 117 feet 3 inches by 100 feet 7 inches. On the north is the queen's staircase, the ceiling of which was painted by Vick. Here are Charles II, and his queen, with the Duke of Buckingham, representing Science in the character of Mercury, while Envy is struck down by naked boys.

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THE CHAPEL, situated on the north of the Fountain Court, forms the south side of a small quadrangle. On the outer wall, at each side of the door, are the arms of Henry VIII impaled with Seymour; and the initials H. I. united by a true-lover's knot. The interior of the chapel was fitted up by Queen Anne, adorned with winged angels having musical instruments: the altar-piece is Grecian, with Corinthian columns.

THE GRAND FRONT of Hampton Court Palace on the east was begun 1690, and completed 1694, after the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. This grand elevation is 330 feet in extent, chiefly of brick, but the decorations of stone. The southern front extends 328 feet, of a less embellished character. On the entablature, sustained by four columns, is inscribed GULIELMUS ET MARIA, R. R. E. On a parapet, are placed four statues of Flora, Ceres, Diana, and Pomona.

THE PAINTED GALLERY, and KING'S STAIRCASE, Contain numerous rich paintings, especially from subjects of the Roman and Grecian Mythology.

STATE APARTMENTS. The Guard Chamber contains arins for 1,000 men variously placed: many portraits of naval coinmanders are here seen: over the fireplace is represented Vespasian's amphitheatre at Rome, and opposite is George, prince of Denmark. The King's First Presence Chamber. The Second Presence Chamber. The Audience Chamber. The Drawing Room. The State Bedchamber. The King's Dressing Room. The King's Writing Closet. Queen Mary's Closet. The Queen's Stute Bedchamber. All these apartments contain many splendid paintings, and rich tapestry, with various sumptuous furniture. In the State Bedchamber is a clock that will go a whole year without winding up!

THE CARTOON GALLERY is most celebrated as containing the Cartoons, the latest and most esteemed works of the "prince of painters," the renowned Raffaelle. They were executed by desire of Pope Leo X, about the year 1510, and represent

1. The Miraculous Draught of Fishes. Luke v. 2. The Charge to Peter. John xxi.

3. Peter and John healing the Cripple. Acts iii
4. The Death of Ananias. Acts v.

5. Elymas the Sorcerer struck blind. Acts xiii.
6. Paul and Barnabas at Lystra. Acts xiv.
7. Paul Preaching at Athens. Acts xvii.

THE BEAUTY ROOM contains the portraits of Queen Mary, consort of William III, and eight of her distinguished ladies.

THE PLEASURE GARDENS are very extensive and beautiful; and here is a celebrated Vine, which is believed to surpass every one in Europe. It was planted in 1769, and the stem is about thirteen inches in girth: in one season it has produced 2,272 bunches of grapes, weighing 18 cwt.! The Maze, or Wilderness, is a labyrinth, in which some visitors are greatly amused. The whole park and grounds are about three miles les

in circumference, and are situated about fourteen miles. from London.

To an intelligent and devout Christian, one of the most interesting circumstances connected with this royal palace, is the famous "Hampton Conference," to which a reference has been made; but to which, in connection with the new Translation of the Scriptures resulting from that conference, we purpose again calling the attention of the readers of the Christian's Penny Magazine.

A biographical notice of Wolsey, which we had intended should follow this account of Hampton Court Palace, must be postponed till our next Number.

SCRIPTURE BIOGRAPHY.

ABRAHAM.

Abraham's Care for the Conjugal Happiness of Isaac.

THE death of his beloved mother, deeply affected the tender heart of Isaac, who, at the period of that event, was thirty-seven years of age. Residing under the consecrated roof of his revered father, he cherished his principles, and walked in his holy footsteps, by faith in the promises of their covenant God.

Abraham contemplated the character of Isaac, the heir of the Divine promises, with heartfelt satisfaction; and his elevated piety was a sure indication of his being blessed and destined for a blessing. Bereaved of his faithful and long-endeared partner, Abraham turned his heart to the son of their affection, anxious to secure his conjugal felicity, before his own removal to his eternal rest. He desired to see him blessed with such a wife, as should be worthy of the excellent son of Sarah, and presiding over an increasing and happy family.

His circumstances among the Hittites were extremely unfavourable to the accomplishment of his wishes. The Canaanitish lords, though polite and courteous to Abraham, had not embraced his religion. They were still degenerating, evidently neglecters of divine worship, and enemies to the true God. Their daughters, though elegant in form and beautiful in features, having been trained in the ceremonies of idolatry, and alienated from spiritual religion like their fathers, might be a snare to Isaac, injurious to his peace of mind, if not the instruments of his eternal ruin. He dreaded an alliance with them for his son; and, after prayer for the Divine direction, he formed a plan for his escape from the tempting danger. He remembered his brother Nahor, who had remained at Haran in Mesopotamia. He had heard of the increase of his family; and, as his brother had been converted from idolatry by his ministry, Abṛaham had reason to believe that his children were instructed in the doctrine and fear of the Lord.

The

The holy patriarch called his faithful steward, gave him a commission to make a journey to the house of Nahor, and thence, as he would be directed by an angel of God, to take a suitable wife for his son Isaac. pious servant executed the important trust committed to him, and succeeded, according to the desire of Abraham, in obtaining the excellent Rebekah. The instructive narrative of this affair belongs more especially to the history of Isaac, in which they shall be further considered. In the mean time, we cannot but observe how little Abraham esteemed the wealth of the Hittite princes, as a portion for their daughters, while they were destitute of the fear of God, and of those principles of religion, which sanctify, and enrich, and ennoble the mind. He well knew the deep corruption of human nature, and the power of female charms; and eminent as was his intelligent piety, Abraham considered verted from the ways of sacred truth by the influence his devout son Isaac in far greater danger of being per

of an idolatrous wife, than a woman of Canaan would be likely to be converted to the love and service of the true God, by means of a believing husband. The judg. ment and conduct of Abraham in this particular, are seriously admonitory, and afford to us, both parents and children, one of the most instructive lessons in the whole of his improving history.

Though sins are found in praying families, yet much is prevented, somewhat is reformed, and all is bewailed.-P. Goodwin.

RELIGION IN FRANCE.

(Continued from p. 387.)

BUONAPARTE, though equally irreligious with the Atheistical Jacobins, displayed incomparably more policy, and employed the church establishment as a defence of his sovereign power. Perceiving that the Anarchists had failed in their attempt to eradicate all religious belief, and that a great part of the nation was still attached to the Catholic church, and that those clergy who had sacrificed their temporal interests to their religious principles were generally revered, he determined on making the whole of the priesthood his friends, by formally re-establishing the Romish church. For that purpose, a Concordat was entered into between Pope Pius VII and the First Consul; by which it was provided, that the Catholic religion should be that of the state; that the nominal prelates of France should give up their sees, as required by the pope, in order to receive them at the hands of the new government; that the nomination of all vacant sees should be in the first consul, and that of parish priests in the bishops; that the bishops and clergy should, before they entered upon their functions, swear fidelity to the existing government, and engage to discover any designs against the state that came to their knowledge; and, as nearly all the ecclesiastical property had been alienated during the revolution, it was ordained that it should remain in the hands of those who had obtained it, but that the state should provide for the maintenance of the clergy; and that all the rights and prerogatives which the former French monarchs possessed, should be confirmed to the supreme ruler of the French nation. Among other articles of the Concordat, the following enactments were made: "that no bull, brief, or other proclamation of the court of Rome, should be effectual in France without the consent of the government; that no nuncio or legate should be permitted to exercise his functions in France without the consent of the government, or in a way which may derogate from the privileges of the Gallican church. The national council, or diocesan synod, might be held without the consent of government. Disturbances on account of religion to be under the cognizance of that council."

they were to inculcate and the sentiments of the people towards the imperial dignity, a Catechism was published, the joint production of himself and his time-serving clergy, as a manual of political and religious belief. This Catechism was sanctioned by the pope's bull, and prefaced by the archbishop of Paris, who enjoined all the clergy of his diocese to use this work alone in the instruction of their flocks. While the pontiff is called by his legate, in the preface to the bull, "Our most holy Lord Pope Pius VII," Buonaparte is styled by the archbishop" The modern Constantine," and "The Protector of the true Religion." Napoleon, in return for such an honourable appellation, and as a faithful son of the church, confirmed the whole, adding the edge of the civil sword to the spiritual, by his authoritative man. date to his minister of religion to see to the execution of the decree. This Catechism was compiled principally from one drawn up by the famous Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, with additions suited to political circumstances, and including all the peculiar doctrines which Protestants regard as antichristian-transubstantiation, the worship of saints and angels by prayer to them, an inherent power in the church to make new commandments or dispense with the old, the immaculate conception of the blessed Virgin, her holy nativity, her divine maternity, perfect obedience, and glorious assumption into heaven, the exclusive privilege of keeping the keys of the kingdom of heaven, which can be entered by none who are not in the pale of the Roman catholic church, &c.

Buonaparte, however, reaped but little advantage from his system of church government, principally from the sternness and irritability of his temper, which could not persist long in apparent veneration for a power of his own creating, but exposed the new prelates to contempt and neglect. The more conscientious of the clergy kept aloof from his court: they could not brook his contemptuous treatment of the Holy Father, whom he kept as a kind of state prisoner, after having brought him all the way from Rome to Paris, to place the imperial diademn on his head: and the pope himself felt indignant at being made a mere tool to serve the purposes of the ambition of Napoleon. Though stript of all his temporalities, he still asserted his high dignity, and spurned at being made a passive instrument in the

therefore sternly refused to ordain such as Buonaparte had nominated to the vacant sees; and the bishops, on the other hand, though willing enough to flatter him, and to offer blasphemous thanksgivings for the success of his arms, yet would not support him in opposition to the pope, or act in defiance of the catholic church; and the Gallican church, consequently, remained in a comparatively disorganized state during the whole reign. of the Emperor Napoleon.

Buonaparte's re-establishment of the hierarchy divided France into ten archbishoprics, with an allowance of 15,000 livres, or 6257. each; and fifty bishoprics, with salaries of 10,000 livres, or 4167. 13s. 4d.

Napoleon, in thus re-establishing the papal hierarchy, had an imperial diadem in contemplation, and a near prospect of having his temples anointed with the holy consecrating oil, miraculously conveyed to Clovis at his baptism, and as miraculously preserved ever since at Rheims. He was crowned Emperor of the French, Dec. 2, 1804, by the pope in person, in Notre Dame. In order therefore to make the hierarchy the pillar of his throne, and the clergy subservient to his will, and thus form an alliance between the religious creed which

The mighty emperor falling in 1814, the pope was set at liberty in the revolution; and Louis XVIII, being a most devoted catholic, adopted measures to re-establish the ancient ecclesiastical regime. He added also 5,000,000 of livres, to improve the salaries of the catholic clergy. But the reign of popery in France had been broken the long disuse of the Romish worship by the present and rising generation, left their minds void of veneration for popery or its rites. Now, as before the Revolution, all the pomp of the catholic worship may be exhibited, and all its forms may prevail, while the mass of the population, who pay some external regard to them, are infidels at heart: and it seems impossible that so acute, intelligent, and scientific a people as the French are, can swallow down the absurdities of doctrine which the Catechism contains, or cordially approve the ceremonies of its worship. The general effect seems to be a disposition to establish a double doctrine—a sys

tem of infidelity for the initiated; with a contemptuous indulgence, and even active encouragement of superstition among the vulgar; similar to that which prevailed among the philosophers of Greece and Rome before the promulgation of Christianity.

Serious impediments to the advancement of evangelical Protestant religion still continued in France, and rather increased under the government of the bigoted Charles X, who became the dupe of the priests and the Jesuits. Popish intolerance became every day more oppressive, and Charles was counselled to set at nought the rights of the people, till they rose against his government as a united nation, determining to humble the intolerant priesthood, and rid themselves of a despotic king. This they accomplished in three days, after much bloodshed, July 27, 28, 29, 1830. The duke of Orleans, now Philip I, was called to the throne, and a new order of things arose, to the admiration of every Protestant nation. The article of the French charter, which de clared the “Roman catholic and apostolic religion to be the religion of the state," was abolished, and in its stead the following was adopted: "The ministers of the catholic, apostolic, and Roman religion, professed by the majority of Frenchmen, together with those of other Christian doctrines, shall be supported at the public expense."

Popery has thus received a decisive blow in France, and the field has been opened for the diffusion of pure Christianity, as taught in the Holy Scriptures.

(To be continued.)

SYRIAN CHRISTIANS OF ST. THOMAS.

(Continued from p. 385.)

"THE SYRIAN CHRISTIANS now exist under three denominations.

"First. The Syrian Churches, of which there are fiftyseven in Quilon and the neighbouring districts, comprehending a Christian population of 70,000 persons, who are governed by a metropolitan, and retain a comparatively pure doctrine, although its professors are in general in low condition.

"Second. The Syro-Roman Churches, who had adopted the Roman ritual with its corruptions, but still perform their worship in the Syrian language. These are in number ninety-seven churches, with a population of about 96,000; viz. fifty-two churches, with a population of about 49,000, under the archbishop of Cranganore ; thirty-eight churches, with a population of 40,000, under the vicar apostolic of Verapoli; and seven churches, with a population of about 7,000, under the bishop of Cochin and Quilon.

"Third. The Latin Churches, which have fully conformed to the church of Rome, and use a ritual in the Latin language. These are in number forty churches, with a population of about 54,000; viz. twenty-one churches, with a population of about 29,000, under the vicar apostolic of Verapoli; and nineteen churches, with a population of about 35,000, under the bishop of Cochin and Quilon. In addition to these churches, and dependent on them, there are numerous chapels of ease scattered over the country, in many instances four to each principal church.

"The Syrian churches keep quite distinct from the Latin churches, and do not intermix with them.

"Such of these churches (and they are numerous) as are within the Company's territory, have enjoyed not only that general protection for persons and property, which is common to all classes of natives; but many grants or loans of money, and grants of land for the erection of churches and for cemeteries, have been

made to them. A volume might be filled with the details of these grants. The claims of the Christians for protection against Mahomedans and Hindoos, are also not unfrequent. The following is a somewhat remark. able instance. In one of the villages within the territories of the Ex-Paishwa, lately transferred to the Bombay presidency, there appears to have been a body of these native Christians, who, immediately on the establishment of the British power in the district, applied to the magistrate to relieve them from the dis agreeable obligation of drawing the Hindoo idol's car on his festival day. The Hindoos put in a formal answer to the claim of exemption, pleading that the practice had continued for more than eighty years, which amounted to custom beyond the memory of man to the contrary. The cause was duly, and it may be presumed ably, argued by native vakeels, before the British magistrate; who decided, that no custom, of however long continuance, could justify a practice so monstrous, as that of compelling Christians to draw the car of an idol. The decision was final: whether it gave universal satisfaction, the record does not state."

CREED OF THE SYRIAN CHRISTIANS OF ST. THOMAS.

To this interesting account by Mr. Fisher, we add the Creed of the Syrian Christians, "being a written communication from the Metropolitan to the Resident of Travancore," and given in the "Report" by Dr. Kerr.

"In the name of the Father, Sou, and Holy Ghost: We, the Christians, believers in the religion of Jesus Christ, subject to the jurisdiction of Mar Ignatius, patriarch of Antioch, being loyal Jacobians*, hold the following Creed:

"We believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Three Persons in one God, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance, One in Three, and Three in One.

"The Father generator, the Son generated, and the Holy Ghost proceeding.

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None is before nor after other in majesty, honour, might, and power; coequal, unity in trinity, and trinity in unity.

"We do not believe, with Arius and Eunonimus, that there are three different and separate substances.

"We do not believe, as Sabellius believes, by confu sion of substance.

We do not believe, as Macedonius said, that the Holy Ghost is less than the Father and Son.

"We do not believe, as Mawney and Marcianus said, that the body of Christ was sent down from heaven. "We do not believe, as Julianus said, that Christ was only man.

"We do not hold, as Nestorius, the doctrine of two natures and two substances in the Messiah.

"We do not believe, as the Chalcedonians said, that there are two natures in the Messiah.

"But we believe, by the doctrine of the Trinity, that the Son is coequal with the Father, without beginning or end: that, in the appointed time, through the disposi tion of the Father and the Holy Ghost, without disjoining from the right side of the Father, he appeared on earth for the salvation of mankind: that he was incar

* Eastern Christians, who renounce the communion of the Greek church, and differ from it both in doctrine and worship, may be comprehended under two distinct classes. To the former belong the Monophysites, or Jacobites, so called from Jacob Albardai, who declare it as their opinion, that in the Saviour of the world there is only one nature; while the latter comprehends the followers of Nestorius, frequently called Chaldeans, from the country where they principally reside, and who declare that there are two distinct persons, or natures, in the Son of God.

nate, God and man: so that, in the union of the divine and human nature, there was one nature and one substance. So we believe."

The Church Missionary Society has paid considerable attention to the Syrian Christians, especially in the revival and advancement of learning amongst them. The establishment of a college at Cotym is an important object in this respect, as by it a supply and succession of faithful pastors may be raised up, not only for their own churches, but to spread the gospel to the heathen. The Committee of the Church Missionary Society, in their Report for 1831, state,-"The experience of each succeeding year recommends the principle on which this Mission has been undertaken and conducted; and although it may be long before the ulterior objects of the Society are attained, there is reasonable ground for the conviction, that in attempting, under the Divine blessing, the renovation of that ancient church, the foundation has been laid of permanent and extensive good to the Heathen population with which it has been surrounded. Let but the Syrian church in Travancore be restored to the pure faith of Christ, and she will become a faithful witness for God among those who dishonour and disobey him, and a fight to guide many of those who are now in darkness into the way of life and peace."

Letters to a Mother, upon Education.

LETTER XLI.

Upon those points in which the Education of Females ought to be different from that of Males.

Dear Madam,

I AM about to conclude my advice to you upon Education by letter, in four additional Letters devoted to the topic now named.

It has generally been believed, that the education of females ought to be essentially distinct from that of boys; and though the difference is undoubtedly estimated at less now than it used to be, still it is even now supposed to be considerable.

For my part, I cannot see any reason why the physical, moral, intellectual, and religious education of the two sexes should not be in all respects the same, except in those branches of the intellectual part only, which are directed towards the pursuit of some particular profession. It would not, for instance, be requisite or advisable in general circumstances, that the sister of a boy who is to be educated for a learned profession, should learn Latin and Greek along with her brother; but in every other general branch of education, there ought to be no difference.

1 see no reason why a girl should not bowl a hoop and be amused in the open air as well as a boy. There are abundant reasons, which I cannot particularize, which require that every female should possess the most vigorous, healthy, and active frame of body, and all the moral habits and moral knowledge, and all the abstract intellectual culture, and certainly all the religious knowledge, which is allotted to a son in the same family. Ought the education, in the proper sense, of the mother of the future generation to be less accurate and comprehensive than that of the father? Since the character of the offspring is dependent far more upon her than upon him, ought it not to be at least equal?

But with regard to the physical education, it has too long been imagined, that the compression of her form from birth to womanhood, by barbarous swathings, is essential to elegance of shape; and hence has arisen

the disinclination to exercise, and even the physical incapacity of it. It has also been imagined, that were the physical education of girls to be the same with that of boys, they would acquire a roughness inconsistent with the approved notions of female delicacy and beauty. The preventive appears to me to be obvious. Let the entire fourfold system of education be begun and carried on at once, and let each branch be attended to in its own due proportion, and the influence of each will best aid that of every other, and the united effect will be proper and even beautiful.

True feminine delicacy does not consist in imbecility and helplessness; but of all women, those who have been bred up as if it did, are the least lovely. Health is beauty; and the desire of Bishop Ken for his daughter speaks a volume of directions:

"But, oh! be thine a frame with health,

The truest beauty, blest."

Beauty, dignity, grace, elegance, are all natural, or they never exist. Nor can they ever be acquired: where they exist they are never aimed at; where they do not, all imitation of them is affectation, and all affectation is worse than downright ugliness.

I could wish then that a female from her earliest dawn be left utterly to nature as to her form and as to her manners, and every means adopted to render her healthy, full grown, and robust. The vigour of her health, the strength of her mind, the natural unaffected bearing of her manners, constitute general loveliness, compared with which, the timid, invalided, and helpless girl of a fashionable boarding school is an object of the deepest commiseration.

With regard to the moral cultivation of the female mind, no question surely can exist, whether an identity of system should be pursued in both cases.

In the intellectual branch, it appears to me that the same rules are generally applicable; namely, that she should be educated with a view to the station which she is likely to fill in after-life, that station being inferred from that occupied by her parents.

Yet how many instances may we observe, in which the folly and vanity of the parents utterly destroy the prospects of their children in this respect! Perhaps they have set their mind upon educating their eldest or other daughter at a fashionable boarding-school. There, conscious of the inferiority of her family to that of the girls around her, she becomes chagrined, or else degenerates into a sycophant, or becomes contemptuous. Still she is sent thither by the silly parents under the idea, that the more they educate her, the higher will her station be hereafter. She will marry all the better for it; and whatever they may endure in making up the expenses, they will find all repaid when some wealthy suitor, attracted by mere excellence, as is sure to be the case, selects the girl, not indeed already living in a mansion, but so accomplished and clever, transplants her to his own. At all events, the father thinks it is education makes the man or woman, and therefore he will do all he can to educate his children, as he calls it, and then he need do no more: they are sure to find their level; they will then make their way; or at the least the child so expensively finished will be able to instruct her other sisters; as if any child could, or would, or ought to be set to be the governess of her sisters! What is the result? The girl goes home, and brings several glaring pieces of embroidery, a portfolio full of drawings, a prize for her French exercises, and she can play the Battle of Prague or Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, and she can dance several quadrilles; she has also learned to dress and to talk affectedly.

Accordingly, many a pitying neighbour smiles at the transformation, and the simplicity of a neighbouring villager enables him to predict the result. The young