moment they were called to ascend the primatial throne of Alexandria, Milan, Constantinople, Canterbury. But the jealousy of the Bench could not recognise the facts of history, nor see that genius is often better than experience; and it was, therefore, at length determined that the Synod of Armagh should only have the choice of four of the then existing bishops, out of whom the bishops themselves should select their Primate; the vacancy thus made being filled up by one or other of two presbyters, one nominated by the Synod of Armagh, one by the Synod of the diocese from which the new Primate was promoted. Here, too, experience will decide as to the merits of a scheme which, though ingenious, is complex and uncanonical; and rests on a foundation such as one would not wish to lay. The consideration of the Canons and Ecclesiastical Courts of the Future Church is deferred till the October session. Before the Convention broke up, after seven weeks of the most unintermitting toil-carried on, not in a luxuriously-furnished, heated, lighted, and ventilated apartment, with every convenience for refreshment and withdrawal; but in a cold, half-underground cellar, badly lighted, and with no ventilation except that caused by draughts, the effect of which on the health of numbers of its more assiduous members was disastrous-it adopted certain resolutions on that subject which will form the touchstone of Irish Protestantism -the future maintenance of the Church. The formation of a sustentation fund was recommended, and also the formation of a separate guarantee fund, to enable the clergy, with safety to themselves, to commute their life incomes on the terms offered by the Church Act. This capitalizing of existing life interests has come to be regarded by many persons as a perpetual endowment for the future Church. This it never could be, unless either the clergy were prepared to live on half their present incomes, so as to preserve the capital intact; or the laity were prepared to guarantee to the clergy the difference. For this pupose a yearly contribution of £230,000 would be required for the next fourteen years; and of the raising of anything approaching to such a sum annually there seems not the smallest probability. Irish Protestants are indeed wealthy, they own nearly three-fourths of the land of Ireland; but they are generally either landlords or farmers, and neither of these classes is proverbial for liberality. The present writer sees no prospect of any permanent endowment. Every one thinks that others should be liberal; the laity, especially, are quite convinced in many instances that the clergy ought to make sacrifices which they themselves would under no circumstances dream of making; the writer has even heard wealthy laymen state that in their opinion it was the mere duty of the clergy to endow the future Church of Ireland out of their own incomes, the average of those incomes being far under £300 a year. Meanwhile every one suspends his judgment with regard to what he ought to give till he sees what the Church is likely to become; and since the Convention broke up a "wretched pamphlet," to use the words of the Bishop of Killaloe, unfortunately put into the hands of a few persons in a Dublin parish, has been very successfully used for the purpose of exciting a tempest of suspicion. Men who had used the Prayer-Book all their lives before without question now find out that it will be requisite to alter it in order to exclude "Ritualism," before it will be safe to give anything to endow the Church, and the dislike to parting with money thus becomes consecrated by the name of zeal for purity of doctrine. The Sustentation Fund has not yet reached £250,000, and the largest givers to it, with three exceptions, have been some of the bishops. All this is not encouraging. Probably nothing but the stern logic of facts, as one clergyman after another dies, leaving no funds to provide for a successor, except in the hitherto unexercised liberality of the parish, will teach men that it is God's law that the Church shall be maintained, not by the clergy but by the people, or disabuse the public mind of the strange delusion that the Irish Church has been left two-thirds of its endowments, simply because the Irish Church Act respects the vested interests of its present clergy. C. P. REICHEL. PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S LAY SERMONS. IN Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews. By THOMAS HENRY N this volume Professor Huxley enables us to form a general judgment of the character of the teaching which he has been most solicitous to press upon public attention. Of the fourteen papers included in the volume, the greater number are pretty familiar to general readers, having for the most part appeared in one or other of the magazines or reviews. The general effect of a reperusal of them is a sufficient justification of Professor Huxley's republication. Of this one feels quite certain before beginning. But our remark points rather to what could not have been so certainly recognised, except by their simultaneous perusal, that they discover a progression of thought as to the great scientific problems of the day. The lecture to the Cambridge Young Men's Christian Association, on the philosophy of Descartes, which only a few weeks ago came under the eye of the public, and which is the last paper in the present volume, must have awakened very general interest, as showing that Professor Huxley had come now to deal, in his usual fair and manly spirit, with the conflict between mental philosophy and science. Starting with "natural knowledge," and continuing for a long time to regard this as almost exclusively knowledge of physical science, or at the most, giving only occasional side glances at purely intellectual problems, the volume comes at the close to a broad, vigorous acknowledgment that philosophy and science must be harmonized. This only means that all the facts of human experience must be interpreted by us in any system of knowledge; that in so far as the facts of human life are similar to those of lower forms of life, this similarity is to be scientifically established and maintained; and that in so far as it is alleged that certain facts in human experience are distinct from the facts which have been scientifically established as regards other forms of life, the professed philosophy of these special facts must meet science on a border territory, to consider quietly and fairly the harmony of their teaching. Those whose main line of study is restricted to mental philosophy must hail from such a quarter the summons to confer as to the relative claims of two departments of study which have been kept too far apart. And, entering upon such a conference, mental philosophers will join with scientific men, in the common understanding that results are to be accepted only as scientifically established. As this proposed reconciliation seems to us the outstanding feature of the book, and of obvious present importance, we shall direct the main part of the present notice to the last of the articles in the volume, premising only a very few general considerations. The volume opens with an introductory letter to Professor Tyndall, intended to serve the part of a preface. In this letter there are candid statements as to modifications of opinion, and acknowledgments which may be due for severity of language, as well as explanations which are of much value in forming a judgment of the papers as a whole. This prefatory letter is very admirable of its kind. In so far as the discussions here republished bear upon questions of education, we believe their great importance and their inherent value will now be generally admitted. Professor Huxley and other coadjutors have had to insist frequently and loudly on the necessity for a better position being given to physical sciences in the educational arrangements of the country. And if it be only remembered by what rapid strides these sciences have risen to their present position, it will not seem wonderful that the great educational institutions of the country have found it difficult to make room at once for all the departments of scientific research which could present a fair claim for the honour. We trust, however, that not much more time will be required to secure in all the national universities a thorough representation of science. We hope the time is nearly past when there shall be occasion to repeat these words of Professor Huxley in 1868, as to the disciples of science when passing through university training : "Our universities not only do not encourage such men; do not offer them positions in which it should be their highest duty to do thoroughly that which they are most capable of doing; but, as far as possible, university training shuts out of the minds of those among them, who are subjected to it, the prospect that there is anything in the world for which they are specially fitted." Throughout this volume there is repeated evidence that Professor Huxley has been often sensible of injustice in the criticism to which he has been subjected. We incline to think there has been ample occasion for this feeling on his part; and yet it must be allowed in fairness, that his words seemed at times almost to court the criticism they awakened. He has not been very sparing in his own handling of opponents; nor was there any reason he should be; and he is, we doubt not, quite prepared to take blows at least as severe as those which are given. But every allowance being made, Professor Huxley has had anything but justice at certain turns in the current of criticism. When dealing merely with scientific truth, and stating his convictions in a reasonable manner, motives have been unfairly attributed; and, under the first hasty impressions, he has been dealt with as if his object had been to injure the foundations of our faith. It is deeply to be regretted that this has been done in the supposed interest of religion. Taking the stand-point of the critics, we can understand the earnestness they show in the matter; but it is extremely to be lamented that, in presence of scientific research, religious men so often show themselves concerned for the foundation of their belief. An unworthy sense of fear leads to an outbreak of the spirit of intolerance, as unworthy as the fear from which it springs. Whatever diversity of opinion there may be on fundamental questions, the great proportion of thoughtful religious men must join with Professor Huxley in holding that it devolves on us to do "what lies within our power to prevent the Christianity of the nineteenth century from repeating the scandal" arising from intolerance of free inquiry shown in former centuries. And, in the same spirit, it is fair to ask the leaders of scientific inquiry to exercise some restraint in the denunciation of opponents. Professor Huxley may even himself allow that it is not the most happy mode of describing the anxiety of many whom he classes with "the best minds of these days," to represent them as looking on "in such fear and powerless anger as a savage feels" during an eclipse. In this matter he may admit, what he afterwards allows as between the students of philosophy and of science, that there have been errors on both sides. The "lay sermon," which of all his recent productions most brought down the storm of condemnation, was that on "Protoplasm, or the Physical Basis of Life." And in reference to this some interesting statements are here given. In the prefatory letter he |