the Commissioners' certificate of merit is of no recognized value. Although it is, no doubt, much to be regretted that every plea urged on behalf of Ireland is the plea of the beggarman; 'Do something for us; give us something,' being the constant cry, and self-help wofully at a discount; yet there does seem to be more ground in the present instance for Mrs. Meredith's appeal. She is sanguine that if Irishwomen had special training for their artistic faculties, Ireland might be, in the British dominions, what Vosges, Ypres, Malines, and Valence are in their respective countries. ་ We are glad to find on our table the first number of a Social Science Review,' a quarterly journal of political economy and statistics, published at No. 161, Broadway, New York. The names of the Editors, Alexander Delmar and Simon Stern, are on the cover. The number contains five articles. The first is a long protest against all governmental interference with labour and commerce. The protest would be excellent if not worded too absolutely. It argues that man is fully and perfectly governed by natural laws and forces; that human law cannot be beneficial, unless perfectly in accordance with natural laws; and that if so in accordance, it is unnecessary: human laws, it is urged, are only necessary when it is desired to ensure actions which men are disinclined to make: if men are disinclined, that must be because they deem the required action either injurious or not beneficial to themselves: on such points they must be the best judges; therefore they ought to be allowed to control freely not only their own actions and those of their children, but also all property legitimately acquired by them, so long as they do not infringe the equal rights of their fellow-beings. This is all very well in its way. But if it be admitted that men are always the best judges of the injuriousness or beneficial character of their actions, it must also in fairness be allowed that minors may be so too; and thus we abolish, at one fell swoop, the sacred right of family control. If, on the other hand, men do infringe the equal rights of their fellow-beings, what becomes of the all-sufficiency of laws natural, and the non-necessity of laws human? Because of offences, because infringements do occur, government becomes necessary; and to argue its non-necessity from the mistakes and malpractices of past governments is to overshoot the mark. The second article contains a sound critique of the late report of the Secretary of the United States Treasury. A rapid review of Herbert Spencer's philosophy is given in article the third; the review is not profound, and the construction, we are sorry to see, is sometimes ungrammatical. Following this, is a notice of About's 'Progrès;' and an article on the limits of political economy completes the number. Although not in every respect satisfied with the first number, we are very glad to welcome its appearance, and we desire heartily a long and useful career to our new contemporary. There are more who are anxious to acquire money, than to spend it wisely. To the minority there would be pleasure, to the majority there might be much profit, in the perusal of Money, a Popular Exposition in Rough Notes; with Remarks on Stewardship and Systematic Beneficence, by T. Binney.' This volume now, we are glad to see, in its second edition, is from the press of Jackson, Walford, and Hodder, of 27, Paternoster Row; it contains fourteen sermons, and an introductory section; forming, in the whole, an almost complete treatise on whatever in the letter of the New Testament bears directly on the use and abuse of riches. The author explains in his preface that these sermons were delivered in compliance with a request that he would bring before his congregation the claims of the Systematic Beneficence Society; that the two, to which he had intended to confine himself, grew into fourteen ; that the introductory section was written in pursuance of a design to re-write the sermons and make them chapters of a book, instead of a series of pulpit discourses; that the said design was frustrated by repeated and severe attacks of illness; and that thus is accounted for the phrase in the titlepage, a popular exposition in rough notes.' As this, the preface to the first edition, is repeated in the second, we are to presume that the affair remains just as it did when the first was issued, and that no revision has been attempted by the author. There is the less to regret in this, as the work is really very excellent as it stands. The writer starts with the proposition that the Bible, albeit wonderfully developed, resolves itself into a great system of truth and duty. He points out the common mis take Brief Notices of Books. take of giving to some one doctrine or Perhaps of all the issues of John Bunyan's most famous book, that which would please him best, could he now see it, would be the Sunday School Edition,' just published by Elliot Stock, of 62, Paternoster Row, London. Christian and Christiana and all their company are now for the first time brought within reach of the humblest child. An unabridged copy of each of these delightful old allegories, adorned with illustrations, averaging considerably more than one for each page, may be had for a single penny; or the two together, in a neat cover, for twice that trifling amount. To be made thus 187 universally accessible would have delighted, the heart of the illustrious old dreamer; one of whose dearest wishes it must have been that the very poorest should be enabled to 'Come hither, And lay his book, their head, and heart together.' "The Mother's Manual for the Training of Her Children,' consists of hints derived from personal experience and conversations held at 'mothers' meetings' during more than thirty years. It is compiled by Mrs. Reed, and is published in London by Jarrold and Sons, of 12, Paternoster Row. The book comes before the world recommended by members of Mrs. Reed's family, who bear testimony to the happy effects produced on themselves and many others by parental and Christian influence, and abide in the firm persuasion derived from experience, that fathers and mothers, animated by the principles and spirit of the excellent maternal meetings' described in these pages, would, with the Divine blessing, lay the children of the present generation under a similar weight of obligation to that which themselves so deeply feel. An examination of the book itself shows that this recommendation is not without justification. Many wise counsels are here proffered; much help is tendered to such as seek to train their children in piety and good works. The book gives a history of maternal associations, and shows how they were commenced, and how conducted; with what guiding motives, and under what proven necessity. It gives also extracts from the minutes of a Central Association, with advice therein on a large variety of points arising in practice; and it supplies contributions derived from friends who actually conduct maternal meetings.' Lists of Scripture passages especially suitable for reading and meditation by mothers, and of books adapted for parents, children, and servants, complete the volume. The Rev. Edward Birch, M.A., Rector of St. Saviour's, Manchester, has written a tract for church-goers on Behaviour at Church,' and Messrs. Wertheim, Macintosh, and Hunt, of Paternoster Row, and Messrs. Hale and Roworth and Mr. Anderton, of Manchester, have published it. The tract adverts almost wholly to what is outward and visible; and it recommends, as proprieties of public worship, early attendance, preliminary asking for a blessing, blessing, fixed attention to the Prayerbook as opposed to noticing other people, audible responding, singing aloud, and a kneeling posture in prayer. Whilst approving of a kneeling posture, we cannot help remarking that Mr. Birch speaks too strongly about a matter which, after all, is a nonessential; he even ventures to intimate that God will not look down wellpleased upon a man who can and will not kneel at church!' The closing words of the tract are excellent :-' It is not, indeed, pretended that ** outward and visible service is of the essence of prayer. It is but the shell thereof; and the kernel, after all, may have no soundness in it. But still a devout manner has its use and value. Enough it should be for us that God requires it, alike in earth and heaven; and all who honour Him, whether men or angels, by doing even the least thing that He requires, He will honour." But is it not rash to deny to ancient or modern worshippers a devout manner in all cases where the manner does not happen to coincide with our own? Convict Discipline in Ireland,' by John T. Burt, B.A., is an examination of Sir Walter Crofton's 'Answer' to 'Irish Facts and Wakefield Figures,' a previous publication from the same pen. The London publishers are Messrs. Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts. The rev. author fights with much spirit against Sir Walter Crofton, in whom he has an antagonist certainly well worthy of his steel. A dissection of the new pamphlet would require much more than one of these brief notices. The Rev. A Gordon, LL.D., has put forth, with the assistance of Mr. Elliot Stock, of 62, Paternoster Row, London, the second edition of a pamphlet on Puseyism: a Brief Exposition of the leading Tenets and Aims of the Oxford Tractarian Divines and their Fellows.' Whilst acknowledging that able treatises exposing the errors of Puseyism exist plentifully, the rev. author pleads that there are many people who have neither time nor inclination to read large books, and that the result is, an abounding lack of information, to abate which he has written this little work. He blows the trumpet of alarm with earnest vigour. "The Three Liberals' is a tale, in three parts, by Rev. H. Newton, B.A., of Southwark, author of The Fall of Babylon,' a poem which we recently reviewed. The principal object of the author in his Three Liberals' appears to be to chastise the conductors of 'Evangelical Christendom,' the 'London Quarterly Review,' the 'Athenæum,' the 'Spectator,' and sundry other magazines containing unfavourable notices of his epic. Having administered the whip to these, and further relieved his mind on sundry matters ecclesiastical, the author appends a reading from the Fall of Babylon,' to give those who have not seen the work in bulk an opportunity of tasting its quality in sample. The Rev. Charles Bullock, Rector of St. Nicholas, Worcester, continues to edit Our Own Fireside,' a monthly magazine of home literature for the Christian family. A full-sized engraving on wood adorns each number. In this magazine pleasant and useful readings for old and young abundant. are 'The Alexandra Magazine and Englishwoman's Journal' is, we say it emphatically, the magazine for thoughtful women who desire to know what foremost minds of their own sex can tell about sundry matters, especially the various fields of employment for women. It is published in London, by Jackson, Walford, and Hodder. The Church of England Temperance Magazine,' a monthly journal of Intelligence, from the houses of Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday, 54, Fleet-street, and S. W. Partridge, 9, Paternoster Row, is still first in its own class, spiritedly conducted, and worthy of wide recommendation. Meliora. ART. I.-PARLIAMENTARY DELIBERATIONS AND DEBATES UPON THE DRINK TRAFFIC. 1. Cobbett's Parliamentary History of England from the Norman Conquest (1066) to the Year 1803. London: R. Bagshaw. 2. The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time (1829). London: Longman and Co. 3. Hansard's Parliamentary Debates. Third Series. From the Accession of William IV. London: Hansard's Office, 23, Paternoster Row. WHAT HAT would the historian and antiquarian give for a volume of the proceedings and debates of an Anglo-Saxon Wittenagemot? If notes and journals of those venerable assemblies were ever taken, their very memorial has long ago and for ever perished. A few copies of laws once in force in sections. of the Octarchy are all that are left to awaken curiosity, with not a syllable of the speeches and consultations which preceded their adoption. In the laws of Ina, promulgated early in the eighth century, mention is made of ale and ale-houses, and it is not very probable that the Ceapealetherum (places where ale was sold) escaped the animadversions of the wise men with whose consent the Saxon laws were enacted. Edgar or Eadgar (959-75) is said, acting under the advice of St. Dunstan, to have adopted two measures for reducing the evils connected with the liquor traffic of that early period; the one limiting each village to a single ale-house; the other prescribing that drinking cups or tankards should have pegs inserted in them at regular spaces, no man to drink more liquor than the quantity between two pegs. Dunstan's popular fame rests upon a certain sharp bodily encounter with Diabolus, with which he was credited by his admirers; but, in truth, he was more of a statesman than a pious recluse, and Vol. 8.-No. 31. N his his legislation against intemperance must have occasioned the Prince of Darkness more concern than a hundred tales of victories gained, tongs-in-hand, by the fiery monk. History is silent as to the execution of the village ale-house law, but it informs us that the drinking peg contrivance became afterwards perverted into an encouragement of intemperance, so that by the canons of St. Anselm (A.D. 1102) priests were forbidden to attend drinking bouts and to drink to pegs (ut presbyteri non eant ad potationes nec ad pinas bibant). The Normans are said to have far exceeded the Saxons in sobriety at the time of the Conquest.* The subsequent drunkenness of the ruling race was, however, closely connected with, and promoted by, the free use of the wines imported from France, and the intoxicating beverages of insular manufacture. turies passed, during which public liberty was slowly broadening down from precedent to precedent;' and the glimpses we catch of the drinking habits of the nobles and commonalty do not indicate that temperance was a flourishing virtue in the England of the middle ages. Vintners alone were allowed to deal in wine, and these consisted of two classes-the vinetarii (wholesale dealers) and tabernarii (retailers)-but side by side with the taverns or inns of the latter were the humbler ale-houses that were suffered to exist till the disorder they created provoked a summary suppression of the worst for the warning of the rest. Under Edward I. they were all closed at curfew bell, and the municipal charters of the larger towns gave the authorities powers which they often claimed, if they did not employ them, for punishing the ale-vendors who 'gave short quantity or sold adulterated articles.' The home-made liquors, though fermented, were generally drunk fresh, and were not very intoxicating; but quantity did the work of alcoholic potency, and the period is yet to be discovered in the four hundred years that followed the Conquest when drunkenness was not the shame and scourge of the English people. The close of the party wars of the Roses allowed of more attention to civil affairs, and we soon come upon legislation that mirrors the state of the liquor traffic in no bewitching form. Common ale-selling had proved a common nuisance, to abate which a comprehensive clause in the 11th Henry VII., * Macaulay's contrast, one probably overcoloured, is thus drawn: The Normans renounced that brutal intemperance to which all the other branches of the great German family were too much inclined. The polite luxury of the Norman presented a striking contrast to the coarse voracity and drunkenness of his Saxon and Danish neighbours. He loved to display his magnificence, not in huge piles of food and hogsheads of strong drink, but in banquets delicate rather than abundant, and wines remarkable rather for their exquisite flavour than for their intoxicating power. History of England.' Vol i., p. 11 (12th Ed., 1856). |