Before her wain begins on heaven's blue coast. P. 60.

There are two Sonnets in laud of Edward the Sixth. We know nothing in that youth's conduct or character which could lead to the reasonable expectation that he would have been better than those who went before or those who followed him. If his intentions were good, his deeds were execrable. If his early tears can wash away the stains of his after errors, they have more virtue than the tears of meaner men. If Edward was not a cruel and a wicked young man, he was a miserably weak and silly one; but he was a monarch, and must have his portion of praise.

A noble Sonnet, (p. 75,) and repeated in the volume of Memorials, p. 14, meant to illustrate the "Gunpowder Plot," might with much more correctness be applied to the magnificent array of despotic power, which so often blinds and deludes the gazer and conceals the terrors which are linked to it:

"The Virgin Mountain, wearing like a

"Nor shall the eternal roll of praise reject

Those Unconforming; whom one rigorous day

Drives from their Cures, a voluntary prey
To poverty and grief, and disrespect,
And some to want-as if by tempest
wreck'd

On a wild coast; how destitute! did
They

Feel not that Conscience never can be tray,

That peace of mind is Virtue's sure effect. Their Altars they forego, their homes they quit,

Fields which they love, and paths they daily trod,

And cast the future upon Providence ;

As men the dictate of whose inward

There is no truth in the notion that the Revolution in 1688 was a popular one. Wordsworth calls William the

Third "Conqueror beloved! expected anxiousdy!" P. 88.

Did he ever read the history of his early reception in the West of England? He was "anxiously expecthad been dismissed by James, and ed," no doubt, by those placemen who who, for their selfish interests, plotted revolution was ever so worthless in the overthrow of the Stuarts; but no its results as that which brought in the House of Orange.

Several of the Sonnets are dedicated to "New Churches," Cathedrals," College Chapels," &c.

"Bright ladders to the world above;" and the poet seems to consider their architectural beauties worthy of Him

to whom they are dedicated. But in any abode where a just sense of the Deity fills the soul,

"Such bubbles burst, and folly's dancing foam

Melts, if it cross the threshold; where

the wreath

Of awe-struck wisdom droops." P. 106. We meant to say not one word more on the subject of Wordsworth's politics, but the Sonnet of " Congratulation," p. 98, has flashed upon our eye, and we cannot refrain. Mr. W. has lately travelled through the South of Europe. He can hardly have journeyed a league without hearing indignation in every form against his country's perfidy. He has probably been at Genoa. He knows that England is every where accused of having consented to every scheme of spoliation and tyranny. He knows that every country which has lost its liberty looks upon England (or the English government) as having rivetted its chains. He knows that England has lost her reputation for hospitality and generosity, ever since she denied (no! England has not denied!) the protection of her laws to the exiles who might seek her shores. The cruel and Antienglish Alien Bill exists-and Words. worth writes:

"We have felt, As a loved substance, their futurity; Good, which they dared hope for, we have seen;

A State, whose generous will thro' earth is dealt :

A State, which balancing herself between Licence and slavish order, dares be free."

ing to be thus sung-worth suffering to be thus consoled.

The Ode to Enterprize is, perhaps, the master-piece of the volume. The sublime aspirations are clothed in the richest imagery, and a variety of objects admirably grouped and powerfully described.

"And thou

Didst oft the flame-eyed eagle scare
With infant shout,-as often sweep,
Paired with the Ostrich, o'er the plain;
And, tired with sport, wouldst sink asleep
Upon the couchant Lion's mane !"

P. 73.
"Inflamed by thee, the blooming Boy
Makes of the whistling shrouds a toy,
And of the Ocean's dismal breast
A play-ground and a couch of rest."
P. 74.

All the charm and beauty of that poetical creed of which Wordsworth is the high-priest, is contained in the following powerful lines:

"But oh! what transports, what sublime reward,

Won from the world of mind, dost thou prepare

For Philosophic Sage-or high-souled

In simple democratic majesty;

genuous, the susceptible and the strong-minded have laid down their grateful offerings. Though noiseless as the voice of time, he has produced a deeper and a more lasting influence on modern English poetry than any writer of his epoch. His spirit may be traced in almost every thing that has obtained the chance of enduring fame. His poetry has made its way -an unobtrusive, gentle proselytizerlike the great stream of knowledge and improvement. He has not gathered the harvest of general applause: it will be for his memory and not for his earthly triumph. Of the living names which will be immortal, Two at least will be said to have been little honoured in their day and generation.

B.

ART. III-A Letter to the Ven, and Rev. Francis Wrangham, M. A., F. R. S., Archdeacon of Cleveland, on the Subject of his Charge, delivered to the Clergy at Thirsk, on the 18th of July, 1821. By Captain Thomas Thrush, R. N. With an Appendix, &c. 8vo. pp. 144, York, printed by Wilson and Sons; sold by Hunter, London. 1822.

APT. THRUSH's excellent Let

Cer to his Fellow-parishioners has excited, it seems, no little attention in his immediate neighbourhood. Several clergymen of the vicinity have thought it their duty to warn their respective flocks against his errors, and Mr. Wrangham, the archdeacon of Cleveland, delivered and has since published a Visitation Charge to excite the Clergy to watch and counteract the heretical efforts of the Naval Officer. Undaunted by this polemic array, and unwearied in the cause of truth, Capt. Thrush has addressed this Letter to the Archdeacon, containing much sober argument and Christian remonstrance. In the Appendix, he has re-published the "Letter to the Inhabitants of the Parish of Filiskirk," "and on this subject he says,

"That those who have heard or read

P. 98.

Wordsworth is indeed a great poet. If his admirers be few, they are chosen from among the best of our species. At his shrine the young, the in

descend to read these pages, may form a correct judgment concerning any delin

This "Letter" was reprinted in the Christian Reformer, Vol. VII. pp. 169— 178, 194—202, 238—246.

quency, I think it necessary, in my own justification, to reprint the offensive letter or tract, under your cover, that the public may be enabled to decide between us. If to advise my poor neighbours, who have every variety of doctrine preached to them, to stick to their Bibles, to read them with diligence and attention, and to judge for themselves in the important concern of religion, be to lead them to Deism, then am I culpable; for this advice have I given them. In doing this, I have been guided by a wish to protect them at the same time from Infidelity and the fashionable errors in religion. I hope and trust that I am as far removed from the former as you are, or can be; and had I, with my opinions, and the high value I entertain for the Christian religion, written any thing that had a tendency to impede its progress, it would be to me a cause of the most sincere and lasting regret; and I should justly deserve your censure and execration, and that of every good and virtuous man. I assure you I place a high value upon the good opinion of such, though I should be sorry to obtain it by means rendering me, in my own estimation, unworthy of it.

"The good character I have maintained in the world, (for I will not be guilty of the affectation of professing that I have no such character,) has, I believe, been awarded me by some, in a great measure, in consequence of my regular attendance upon the ordinances of the Established Church. The small still voice of conscience has at all times whispered to me, that, instead of deserving the praise of others for this, I have merited their censure. Could they have read my heart, they would have discovered that, instead of discharging my duty with Christiau candour and sincerity, I was (in part at least) acting with disingenuousness, not to say duplicity and deceit; and this not only towards man, but towards God: instead of serving him in spirit and in truth-instead of endeavouring, by honesty and plain dealing, to obtain his favour, my conscience has told me that, by attending a worship of which I disapproved, under the plausible excuse of setting a good example, and keeping up a decent appearance, I was courting the unsatisfying approbation and countenance of the world, and rendering myself unworthy of these, which I felt I enjoyed, in some measure, in consequence of a false estimation of my character."-Pp.

9-11.

Having treated the supposition of himself having taken the advice of the Archdeacon in his theological dif

ficulties, and having come to the conclusion that no honest Christian minister could have advised religious duplicity, he puts, in a note, the following case:

"Instead of a layman coming to you, as Ordinary, for spiritual advice, suppose a minister under your pastoral care should have applied to you, and stated that, as he could find no such God as God the Holy Ghost mentioned in the Bible, he could not conscientiously continue his ministration in the Church-would you have advised him to consult the Articles, the Creeds, or the Homilies, or to stick to the Bible and follow the dictates of his conscience?

"This is not altogether an imaginary statement. The Rev. Mr. Baring, a member of one of the most wealthy private families in the kingdom, has lately resigned his living in the Church on this very account. He has made many converts to his opinions, who, except rejecting the divinity and personality of the Holy Ghost, retain, I believe, the other doctrines of the Established Church. The same spirit of free inquiry may perhaps lead him and others to the conclusion, that God the Father is alone God; and that the Mediator between God and man cannot in any sense be God himself; or that the God and Father of Jesus Christ caunot be Jesus Christ himself. If we are to dispense with the plain rules of grammar, of arithmetic, and of common sense, in explaining the Holy Scriptures, they will become a mere dead letter."Pp. 15, 16.

This well-instructed layman asserts the supremacy of the Scriptures. He says (p. 69) that Jesus Christ is by his doctrine" the same yesterday, today and for ever," but that " among men, Jesus Christ is continually changing." For proof of this, he refers to the Peterborough Questions, which, he adds, have been called "cobwebs for catching Calvinists," but which might, he thinks, be more properly denominated " patent machines for the manufacture of hypocrites, by wholesale, upon a new and improved principle."

The Appendix contains, besides Capt. Thrush's Letter before-mentioned, a reprint of the following pamphlet: "Remarks on the Athanasian Creed; on a Sermon preached at the Parish Church of Deal, Oct. 15, 1752; and on a Pamphlet, lately published, with the title, "Some Short