Canada soon after, and was ordained a Priest in the Cathedral at Quebec, on Nov. 7th, 1819, the disqualifying act of which he complains, and of which he was utterly ignorant, (viz. 59 Geo. III. cap. 60, § 3,) bearing date 2d July, 1819. Before I went abroad (says Mr. W.) in 1819, I did every thing that a Clergyman could be expected to do to prevent the loss of his privileges; and since my return, I have left only one thing undone in my attempts to recover them, but have hitherto failed. Having learned from authority, that the only mode in order to their recovery, must of necessity be preceded by the resignation of my mission in Canada; this step, though with reluctance and regret, I feel myself, for various reasons, induced to adopt. I have found the interdict, which prevents me from assisting even a sick Clergyman, a friend, or it may be a cidevant fellow-student, operate to my disadvantage in various ways; it has caused me to appear in a questionable light,-it has given rise to continual inquiries, and has wearied me with incessant explanations, which, after all, are unintelligible to many, and unheard of by many more. I have been told, indeed, that I might, at least, officiate merely as a deacon, and I have been blamed by some for not doing so; but I have, notwithstanding, thought it right to decline to make that virtual retrocession, or in any way to become myself a party to the disparagement of the full orders which I have rightly and canonically received. And strange it seems, that, though born an Englishman,-and though of an English university,-and though a deacon of the Church of England,—and though a missionary of the Church of England,-I have, since my return, officiated only twice, and each time in the Episcopal Church of Scotland; for in that quarter only of the United Kingdom, is the validity of my priest's orders fully, that is, practically as well as theoretically, acknowledged.-P. 45. The author argues against this excluding act with great force, especially as it affects men regularly educated; and though with a strong personal feeling of restrictions useless and unmerited, with all the moderation which becomes a minister of the Gospel, and a devoted son of the Church of England. These and other restrictions weaken our cause. The Roman Catholic and Presbyterian Clergy (for I do not adduce the example of all the sectaries) are brothers everywhere, and feel that they have the unreserved interchange and fellowship of privileges. But if the most distinguished Bishop of the United States is in England,-if he is detained there a year or more, he cannot once perform the humblest public office in the service of his God. It is an unwise and hurtful policy to mark out and sever the Church as a LEGAL ESTABLISHMENT at home, in such a way as to prejudice her connexion and intercourse with other parts of the SAME SPIRITUAL SOCIETY. Those who have remarked the energy and the vantage ground, which unity, artificial and factitious though it be, provides for the upholding of a system of error in the Church of Rome, and who are not above availing themselves of the maxim, "fas est ex hoste doceri," must regret, that, among reformed Episcopal Churches, the bonds of inter-communion are not stronger than they are; being firmly persuaded that such a fellowship in spiritual things, would minister a vast accession of strength to the cause of Protestant Episcopacy, to the Protestant cause, and to the interests of Christianity at large. Oh, that our Jerusalem, the reformed Apostolic Church throughout the world, were built more like a city that is at unity in itself! Of such a city, so built, the Church of England might well claim to be the citadel, and might have her claim allowed. The Church of England, from her prominent situation and influence in the world, might, together with the perfect integrity and safety-nay, with the augmented security of her temporal privileges, as a national Establishment,-might enjoy the high and venerable distinction of being the centre of union to the other churches. But this can never be the case, while even her own natural branches are, in a manner, severed from her. Some other Episcopal Church may at length arise, to win and wear this crown.-Pp. 33, 34. Mr. Wood considers the statute of which he complains as peculiarly unjust, (see p. 20,) in that it was made retrospective. This I think was not the intention of the legislature, and I think the statute has not been acted upon in this sense; but the most respectable lawyers maintain that this is the sense of the act, and that it includes all who at any period before or after the 2d of July, 1819, have been ordained by Colonial Bishops. My sole object being to direct your attention to Mr. Wood's pamphlet, I will not dwell upon it longer. I have, from my infant years, been most sincerely attached to the Church of England, and this attachment has, in fact, grown with my growth. But I am perfectly persuaded that the several statutes, which, in the last and present century, have altered the fundamental law of the Church, and which have excluded from clerical communion in England the most respectable men, though rightly and canonically ordained in Episcopal Churches, -as regularly constituted as the Church of England herself, and most of them deriving their mission from her,—instead of being beneficial, have been, and continue to be, most injurious to her best interests, and to the influence which she is entitled to hold, and which, but for those restrictions, she would hold with universal consent, in the Christian world. More restrictions operate, and operate most fatally, against those men precisely who, by every principle and prejudice, are most devoted to the constitution of the Church of England. Such men, though natives of England, though graduates in her universities, and in the highest estimation there for their learning and good conduct, are absolutely and for ever excluded from their native Church, if they are ordained by a Scotch Bishop, or by a Colonial Bishop beyond the limits of his jurisdiction. While such is the condition of genuine churchmen, in the best sense of the word, who might be an ornament and a defence to the Church, I have known repeated instances, within the last twenty years, and some of a very recent date, of Presbyterians admitted into the Church by private influence; who, a few weeks before, were absolutely hostile to, and ignorant of, her constitution, and who have been induced to change by mere interest or convenience. One of these, a few years ago-a preacher in a country parish in Scotland,-went to London, a candidate for a Presbyterian Chapel, in which he failed. In a very few weeks, through some special influence, he was admitted into orders, and soon after, through the same influence, had a very good living conferred on him. A Presbyterian schoolmaster, past the meridian of life, while he was a Professor in the Presbyterian Institution at Belfast, was admitted into orders, and is now actually a Company's chaplain in India. Now, without any personal reflection expressed or insinuated against those individuals, or others similarly situated, I maintain that such things ought not so to be. They are most injurious to the Church, and to those men who are regularly educated for the Church and were there a statute to prevent absolutely all such irregularities, it could give just offence to no man, and least of all to the established Church of Scotland, which, by a positive law, excludes from her ministry all men of another communion, however regularly educated, until they have conformed for a series of years, and, in addition to this conformity, until they have gone through the course of professional study required in their colleges. I rather think that the period of this probation extends to six years. If this be a judicious law and practice on the part of the Church of Scotland, and I think they are,-the sooner the Church of England adopts them, and acts upon them absolutely, the better. While the Church of England, by her excluding statutes, insulates herself from her sister Churches, and thereby weakens herself and lessens her influence; and while she thus, by an opposite error, admits men into her pale who cannot, even in the best circumstances, have the principles and the practical feelings, which are her best ornament and safeguard, under God,-the Church of Scotland is making encroachments, and is making them successfully, both abroad and at home, which seems not, to my utter astonishment, to excite the notice which they certainly merit. The Church of Scotland, as a legal establishment, is entitled to respect, and, within her own limits, to the support of all good subjects, even of those who dissent from her. But her legal limits are Scotland and the islands attached to it in the colonies she had no legal claim to any thing beyond toleration. Yet in India she has obtained a legal establishment, and efforts are evidently making, and seem in progress, to obtain the same advantage in all our other colonies, which cannot be granted without manifest injury to the Church of England. Clergy of the Church of Scotland in the Canadas have claimed a portion of the Clergy reserves in those provinces: and, from what has recently occurred in Parliament, they are likely to have their claims allowed. In Appendix No. IV. p. 47, &c. Mr. Wood proves distinctly, I think, that such claims are unjust, and that it would be most unwise to grant them. If pecuniary aid is granted to those men, it should come from some other source than that which was appropriated to the Episcopal Clergy. But, for God's sake, Churchmen of England, look to yourselves and to your brethren abroad, before the power of helping yourselves and them be snatched from Your constant reader, July 12, 1828. you. The A SINCERE CHURCHMAN. ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURAL FACTS AND CUSTOMS, THE ARK. Gen. vi. 15.-" The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. THE exact measure of the Hebrew cubit has long been a question of doubt; we shall therefore consider it equal to the now correctly ascertained length of the Egyptian cubit, namely 20.68875, or call it for the sake of brevity 20 inches, the difference, practically speaking, between the several calculations being immaterial, in the following dimensions of the Ark; the large ship built by Ptolemy Philopater; the Pennsylvania, the largest ship of war on record, now building at Philadelphia; and the Columbus, that huge pile, which a few years ago visited this country with a cargo of timber from Quebec. The Ark.. Pennsylvania Length. Width. Height. Tonnage. 500 With respect to the height of the above, no accurate conclusion can be drawn, as it is impossible to know by what rule or with reference to what circumstances the numbers are given. We have put sixty-five feet as the probable length of a perpendicular line dropped from the taffrail (or extreme projecting point of elevation on the stern) to the ground. Supposing such a vessel vessel as the Pennsylvania to be resting on her keel on a level surface,-if our readers will take the trouble to make diagrams of each according to the above dimensions, they will at once be struck with the inaptitude of the two first for any other than calm unruffled seas: in fact, it is quite clear that if the Ark, without sail to steady or men to work her unwieldy hull, had once taken to rolling or pitching, she must have inevitably strained every timber, and broken her back in an hour. How far she was miraculously preserved is not now the question; but there is curious internal evidence that she was never endangered by tempests or high swells, arising from the supposed point from whence she first floated, to that on which, according to tradition, she finally took the ground. According to the scriptural account she kept the sea 150 days, and during that time only drifted at the rate of about eight miles a day, in nearly a western course. Snellius, who has furnished us with the above dimensions of Ptolemy's ship, gives also an account of a large ship, built by order of Archimedes, for Hiero, king of Syracuse: his description is taken from Athenæus, who extracted it from Moschion. This vast mountain of wood required 300 workmen to build her, and had her hold, or room within board, so divided into partitions, that here were good lodging rooms, parlours, places for study and learning, walks, gardens, fish ponds, baths, stables for horses, a temple of Venus, &c. This ship was encompassed round with an iron vallus: whether this means a hoop to strengthen the ship, or a kind of rail, by way of ornament, is not easy to determine. She had also eight towers, two in the forecastle, two in the stern, and two on each side. On her deck was a wall with forts, and upon this wall, in the towers, and the tops of her masts, were engines of battery and for other warlike uses placed; one of which would throw a stone of 300lbs. weight, and a dart of 18 feet in length, to a distance of 600 feet; and yet this wonderful ship, Snellius thinks, was exceeded in some measure by those with which the Romans used to transport the obelisks from Alexandria to Ostia. See also Pliny, lib. xxxvi. cap. 9. THE DATE-TREE. In a note to Captain Beechey's lately published Travels in the Cyrenaica, the following extract is given from a portion of the This ship of Ptolemy Philopatus had forty banks of cars. (Plut. Demetrio Athenæus. lib. v.) It contained 4000 rowers, 400 sailors employed in other purposes, and nearly 3000 soldiers. VOL. X. NO. VIII. 3 x Arabian naturalist Kazwini's account of the date-tree, as translated in De Sacy's Cwestomathie Arabe, Tome III. On referring to the latter work, we find it said, that "the same method is employed on other trees with equal success.” And as we know that the customs of the eastern nations are very often such as have prevailed amongst kindred people, and been handed down from remote ages, it may not be deemed exceedingly improbable, that a similar device, for warning their fruit-trees of the danger of continuing unproductive, may have prevailed in Palestine; and that the Baptist, in speaking of the axe, as already laid unto the root of the trees; and our Lord, in the parable of the fig-tree (Luke xiii.), may have intended to make their hearers apply to themselves a lesson deducible from their own usages. 66 When a date-tree is found to produce no fruit, the owner goes up to it, with an axe in his hand, accompanied by a friend, to whom he says, "I mean to cut down this barren tree."-" Do not so," says the other, "for it will bear fruit this year abundantly."-" No," replies the first, "it will produce nothing;" and straightway he gives the tree two or three blows. Pray hold," says the other, catching him by the arm; "look, it is a handsome tree. Have patience with it yet this year, and, if it satisfy you not then, do as you will with it." After this, adds my author (for Kazwini is quoting another writer's treatise on agriculture), the date-tree fails not to produce an abundant crop of fruit. The same method is employed on other trees, with equal success. Captain Beechey has made the resemblance between this passage and the parable more close, by using the word Mediator, which, however, does not occur in the original. LAW REVIEW. An Essay on the Power of Rectors and IT has been the fate of our legal polity to remain, as to many of its important parts, a sealed volume to those who are most interested in preserving it sound in principle and pure in administration. But we venture to anticipate a time when this general ignorance of law will have ceased to exist, or at least when the principles of those rules by which our civil conduct is directed, shall have been drawn from that cloud of obscurity which at present envelopes them, and the rules themselves made accessible at least to all who desire to become acquainted with them. There has sprung up of late among men of education a spirit of inquiry, which is directed to the origin and present utility of several branches of our legal system; and we do not expect to see this laudable spirit die away without having effected some permanent good, either by restoring the provisions of our ancestors to their original purity, and vindicating their wisdom from the aspersions of posterity, or by boldly removing those institutions that are found unsuited to the present frame and temper of society, and replacing them by others more congenial and better adapted to its wants and wishes. For although we are the sworn opposers of that ruthless band of modern experimentalists, who would rashly demolish the venerable fabric which time has approved to be founded in wisdom, we nevertheless feel a firm assurance that under the directing influence of wise and good men-of those who possess the knowledge and the will to serve and benefit their country-alterations may be made in different branches of our laws, which |