the most lamentable disorders and desolations had their course in those towns where Separatism put forth its full work.

Edwards and his peculiar friends were accused by the Separatists as renegades that had stricken hands with God's enemies, to uphold an unrighteous cause, but it is questionable whether there are any names in the religious history of New England worthy of so much honor as those of the men who forsook the formalism in which they had been brought up, without abandoning the foundations on which the Fathers of New England had planted themselves,-who heard and followed the awakening voice of the Spirit without being lured into extravagance and enthusiasm, or into the remediless error of schism. For willing as we may be to palliate the wrong-doing of sincerely good men, we cannot blind our eyes to the fact that even to the present day, there are families and even whole neighborhoods in the region of which we have been speaking, that have been by the operation of the Separatical movement left without any attachment to any administration of the gospel, or (if any) least of all to that which their forefathers loved. A particular family might be mentioned, which has from the first maintained a respectable standing in one of the towns above named, and which was in early days connected with the church in that place, out of which since the Separation, not an individual has united with that church, few have been worshipers with the church of their fathers, and few of late years have been attached firmly to any evangelical denomination whatever. Similar facts might be multiplied.

We wish however to mention one of another character, for which we have the authority of Rev. Dr. McEwen of New London. At the time of his settlement in 1806, he found himself the only Congregational Pastor in an extent of country, forty miles by fifteen, including the present towns of Salem, East Lyme, Waterford, New London, Groton, Ledyard, Stonington, North Stonington, Voluntown, and Sterling. "I entertained no hopes," says Dr. McEwen, "that any of these parishes would settle a pastor without extraneous aid, unless it were Stonington. That parish did settle Mr. Ira Hart about two years afterwards, and four years later, Mr. Tuttle took charge of Groton and Ledyard. Of all the remainder of the Waste we had no hope. Mr. Hart and I, one night at my old parsonage, talked on the subject and came to a resolve to have a County Missionary Society. After proposing our project to our District Association, and perceiving that other parts of Connecticut were looking at their Wastes, New London Association sent me with a memorial to the General Association at Farming

ton. The proposition was eagerly received, and the result was the institution of the Domestic Missionary Society of Connecticut, the first in all this country." We will not say that the wide waste, which Dr. McEwen here describes, was wholly the result of Separatical influence; but it is remarkable that this was the very region where the fires of that excitement raged the highest.

But although we characterize the movement of the Separatists as a mistake, a lamentable mistake on the part of those who led in it, we are not blind to the fact that God has overruled it for good. He makes no mistakes in his providential government of the world, and guards with peculiar care the interests of his church. Among the happy results which God has brought out of the events we have been considering, (working by men or against them,) we reckon the more wholesome views, now prevalent, of the relation of the churches to the state,-of the liberty of worship, and of instruction, and of the mutual rights and duties of instruction, and of the mutual rights and duties of pastors and people. These subjects have been practically illustrated before the eyes of men; and, though slowly, the truth doth really advance in power and influence. We look back with wonder at some of the doubts and some of the decisions of past generations; but we need to keep in mind their experience of good and evil, lest we fall into errors as great and evils as terrible.

And withal we ought most devoutly to thank Him who hath blessed our beloved state, and the churches therein, with such a watchful guidance. Remembering not only our personal errors but our father's faults, we should humble ourselves before Him, and daily pray with fervency,-"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done!"

ART. IV. THE EDITORIAL PROFESSION.

Evening Post, Commercial Advertiser, Courier and Inquirer, Journal of Commerce, Tribune, and New York Daily Times. Autobiography of William Jerdan. 3 vols. London: Hall, Virtue & Co.

Buckingham's Personal Memoirs. 2 vols. Boston: Ticknor & Co., 1852.

Buckingham's Specimens of Newspaper Literature. 2 vols. Boston: Little & Brown, 1850.

THE Literary circles of England have been not a little amused, within a few months past, by the publication of an autobiography of William Jerdan, long known from his connection with the Sun, the Literary Gazette, and other London Journals. Having passed nearly all of a long and active life in literary pursuits, and having been intimately connected with periodicals of character and influence, he has been spending his declining days in collecting the incidents with which he has been familiar, in reviewing his editorial career, and in noting down for the benefit of his juniors engaged in such labors, the discouragements and warnings which he considers may be justly derived from his long and varied experience.

Although his sphere was different, a similar service has been rendered to the American public, in a decidedly better spirit, by Mr. Buckingham, so widely known in this country from his management of the Boston Courier. He indeed has accomplished a double task, detailing not only the results of his own editorial life, but investigating with becoming professional zeal, and true antiquarian patience, corresponding particulars concerning his predecessors in New England, and the various periodicals which they have conducted from the time of the Boston News Letter, the first paper established in North America, quite down to the days of contemporaneous literature.

A comparison of some of the specimens of early editorials as quoted by Mr. Buckingham, with those of modern times, forms a curious comment upon the changing habits of the world. For

The first Number of the Boston News Letter was published April 24, 1704. Previous to this, however, on September 25, 1690, appeared a newspaper "printed by Richard Pierce for Benjamin Harris." One Number only is supposed to have been issued, and that was of so nondescript a character, as to be called “a Pamphlet," by the legislative authorities, four days after its publication.

instance, in 1719, the editor of the News Letter congratulates his readers that whereas former numbers of his paper had been thirteen months behind hand in the public news of Europe, the present number is only five months behind! If public enterprise is greater, public morals are no better in these modern days, when the telegraph is not sufficient for the transmission of important items of news, but Sunday expresses must regularly forward from one city to another, more particular information in regard to such foreign or domestic intelligence as may become known in the course of the Sabbath day.

Indeed, the modern newspaper, the result of so many modern inventions, is a wonder of the age. Seven successive numbers, the weekly issue of an ordinary newspaper, might almost be entitled the modern "seven wonders," and we are still further inclined to think the editorial corps of almost any respectable journal, to use a newspaper phrase, would "by no means compare unfavorably" with the seven wise men of Greece!

It is somewhat curious to observe how by common consent at the present time, the Newspapers of New York City are acknowledged to have a metropolitan character. Although no one can yet hold a position corresponding to that of the London Times, the regulating clock of all the British Empire, yet collectively the daily papers of New York exert a similar influence, surpassing far that which is exerted by the papers of any other city in our land, not excepting those which are published from the very seat of government. While the hawking of other papers is for the most part confined to the neighborhoods where they are published, the dailies of New York are to be found at every railroad station, and in every petty news office, from Maine to Louisiana. In numerous cases they are preferred by the people of other cities, to their own local journals, and indeed we are sometimes surprised that in various towns of New England, the increasing circulation of city papers, of course to the injury of country periodicals, is endured with so little opposition. The publication of the latter is too important for local purposes to be entirely cut off by better vehicles of general news. Yet the papers of New York do lead the lists, and information of all kinds is so sure to reach them, and to be distributed by them to hundreds of other papers, that we are forcibly reminded of the fable of the Lion, to whose devouring den animals of all kinds were seen to flock, never again to come forth except in mangled and dismembered parts.

Stimulated by these facts, by the rivalry of their contemporaries, and the successful results of past enterprise, the papers of New York, in common with those of the whole country, are

constantly taking higher and higher rank, and although they still fall short of the high standard not only attained, but steadily maintained, by the press of Great Britain, yet they hold an honorable position, and exert a mighty power. It is not however our present purpose to discuss the newspaper, suggestive as that theme would be, so much as the Editor, and particularly the qualifications, both natural and acquired, which he needs in order to place the newspaper in the high position which it is justly entitled to hold. We are inclined to think that as soon as special preparation for editorial duties is manifest, as a common and not as an occasional thing, in those who conduct the periodical press, so soon will that profession take rank among the foremost in which a liberal education may be directed to the practical good of mankind. Let us then proceed to consider the importance of special training for the editorial profession.

But three learned professions are now recognized in the world of letters. For their advantage, three separate departments have been organized in the universities, and three distinct courses of degrees have been provided, so that lawyers, ministers, and physicians, have by common consent been known and recognized as professional men. But as the general diffusion of knowledge is making high scholarship in particular departments of science, more advantageous to the possessor, and more essential to the public, advanced professional instruction analogous to that which has long been given in medicine, law, and theology, is demanded in other studies. Teachers, chemists, engi neers, agriculturists, statesmen, librarians, and editors, all need to greater or less extent some special training in addition to that which is received in a liberal, or collegiate education. As the demand for such instruction increases, in one and another of these practical professions, provision is made for its gratification, and when a more general desire exists for other advanced courses of study, the requisite facilities will unquestionably be supplied. By the operation of this principle, Normal Schools for the education of teachers are springing up in various portions of our land, which although ordinarily of too low a standard to meet the wants of college graduates, are accomplishing an important work. But far better provision has been made for instruction in particular branches of science, by the establishment in our universities, of a fourth, or Philosophical Department, for the education of graduates. At Cambridge and New Haven, facilities are now offered for pursuing eclectic courses of study, in continuation of the four years' Academic course, and yet distinct from those of theology, medicine, and law. Two schools of this department, the Chemical and Engineering, are