to be given to the tower, a difficulty which the present editor of the romance has not cleared up by saying it is derived from the name of his hero. The real solution probably is, that in the reign of Henry VIII. some room in this tower was fitted up with tapestry representing this curious legend. The beautiful little prose romance of King Flore and the fair Joan, edited by M. Francisque Michel, is written with much naïveté in a very rustic dialect. Its plot resembles that of the Roman de la Violette, which we noticed in January, 1835. The father of Joan was a knight who lived on the borders of Flanders and Hainault. He married her to his favourite esquier, whom he knighted on the occasion, and gave with her a rich dowry. The squier, whose name was Robin, proceeded to fulfil a vow which he had made to go in pilgrimage to St. James of Compostello before he consummated his marriage; and one of the knights at the court of his father in-law made him a wager that before his return he would obtain the favours of his wife. The false knight bribed the old woman who attended on the lady, but no persuasions could prevail, and news had already come that Robin was on his way back; when the knight, fearful of losing his wager, was secretly introduced by the old woman into the house when Joan was naked in a bath. He seized upon her, and, while carrying her to the bed with the purpose of obtaining what she denied by force, he observed a mole on her thigh. Unable to effect his purpose, he retired with disgrace; but by describing to her husband the mole which he had seen, he persuaded the latter that the wager was gained. Robin, in disgust, leaves his wife and home, and goes secretly to Paris. The faithful Joan follows him, and in disguise lives long with him as his page; till they return, Robin challenges and defeats the false knight, recovers his wife, and lives happily with her to his death; after which, as a reward for her many virtues, she is married to the rich King Flore. This little volume is a beautiful addition to the various forms in which appeared this popular story, until at last it was embodied in the Cymbeline of Shakspeare, and therefore it is one of those books which should be in every Shakspeare collection. The last book which we shall notice at present, is a tract by Jubinal relating to a valuable MS. of Romances and Fabliaux which had been long missing from the library at Berne, but which has been recently discovered at Paris, and finally restored to its ancient repository. The first part of this tract is a reprint of a letter to a periodical, giving the history of the MS., with the circumstances connected with its discovery and restoration. This is followed by five poems on the different trades of the Middle Ages, taken from the Berne MS. The several trades that are celebrated in these poems, which are curious illustrations of the manners and costume of the thirteenth century, are the Changers, the Shoemakers, the Clothiers, the Butchers, and the Rope-makers. An extract from the second of these poems, will shew us how great a point it was with the gallants of those days to be bien chaussés. "Ne chevaucher ne porroit Nus prodom s'il nuz piez estoit, "Neither could a respectable person Ride out, if he were bare-foot, For I have seen, as it seems to me, There is not one of those who see him For this is known to great and small, The last article of M. Jubinal's tract is a table of the contents of the Berne MS., with the two first lines of each piece. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. Remains of the late Rev. Richard Hur rell Froude, A.M. 2 vols. We have been more than usually interested in these volumes, and very grateful to the editor for having in so judicious and affectionate a manner performed his act of duty to his friend's memory, and given us so true and lively a picture of his profound piety, his brilliant talents, and his accurate and varied knowledge. The author of the volumes was the eldest son of the the Venerable R. H. Froude, Archdeacon of Totnes, and was born and died in the parsonage house of Dartington, Devon. He was born in 1803; was at Otley free school, in the family of the Rev. George Coleridge; went to Eton in 1816; resided at Oriel as a commoner in 1821; took a high degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1824; was elected Fellow of his college in 1826; in 1827 took his M.A. degree; the same year he held the office of tutor till 1830; and he was ordained in 1828. The disorder which terminated his life showed itself in 1831. He therefore passed the winter of 1832 in Italy, and the shores of the Mediterranean; and the two next winters in the West Indies. He died of consumption on the 28th Feb. 1836, when he was nearly thirty-three years old. The two present volumes are formed from papers left behind by the author, but never prepared for publication. The editor justly remarks, that if an apology is requisite for the magnitude of the collection, it will be found in the truth and extreme importance of the views to the development of which the whole is meant to be subservient; and also in the instruction derivable from a full exhibition of the author's character as a witness to those views. The editor, after having expressed the natural reluctance which all persons of delicacy must feel in having the familiar thoughts and habits of those with whom they are connected unreservedly exhibited before the public eye, makes a reserve when the singularity of the case appears to justify it. He says, "Let him suppose a person in the GENT. MAG. VOL. X. prime of manhood, devoting himself ardently and soberly to the promotion of the one great cause, writing, thinking, speaking of it for years, as exclusively as the needs and infirmities of human life would allow; but dying before he could bring to perfection any of the plans which had suggested themselves to him for its advancement. Let it be certainly known to his friends that he was firmly resolved never to shrink from any thing not morally wrong which he had good grounds to believe would really forward that cause; him if he saw his friends in any way postand that it was real pain and disquiet to poning it to his supposed feelings and interests. Suppose further, that having been for weeks and months in the full consciousness of what was soon likely to befall him, he departs leaving such papers as make up the present collection in the hands of those next to him in blood, without any express direction as to the dis posal of them; and that they, taking known chiefly to rely, unanimously and decidedly judged publication most desirable for that end, which was the guide of his life, and which they too esteemed paramount to all others. Imagine the papers appearing to them so valuable, that they feel as if they had no right to withhold such aid from the cause to which he was pledged; would it, or would it not be their duty, as faithful trustees, in such case to overcome their own scruples? The case of a person sacrificing himself altogether to one great object, is not of every day occurrence. It is not like the too frequent instances of papers being ransacked and brought to light, because the writer was a little more distinguished or accounted a little wiser and better than his neighbours. It cannot be fairly drawn into a precedent, except in circumstances equally uncommon." counsel with the friends on whom he was It was impossible that the editor could pass over unnoticed the probable expression of a feeling, that many of the sentiments and expressions encouraged a dangerous tendency to Romanism; and he has successfully met it, from the author's own repeated declarations. author would probably take of his own "The view," he says, "which the position is this: that he was a minister not of any human Establishment, but of H the one Holy Catholic Church, which, among other places, is allowed by her Divine Master to manifest herself locally in England, and has in former times been endowed by the piety of her members. That the State has but secured by law those endowments which it could not seize without sacrilege, and in return for this supposed boon, has encumbered the rightful possession of them by various conditions calculated to bring the church into bondage; that her ministers, in consequence, are not bound to throw themselves into the spirit of such enactments; rather are bound to keep themselves from the snare and guilt of them, and to observe only such a literal acquiescence as is all that the law requires in any case, all that an external oppressor has a right to ask. Their loyalty is already engaged to the Church Catholic, and they cannot enter into the drift and intentions of her oppressors without betraying her. For example, they cannot do more than submit to the statute of premunire; they cannot defend or concur in the present suspension in every form of the Church's synodal powers and of her power of excommunication; nor can they sympathize in the provision which hinder their celebrating five out of the seven daily services, which are their patrimony equally with the Romanists. Again, doubtless the spirit in which the present Establishment was framed, would require an affectionate admiring remembrance of Luther and others, for whom there is no evidence that the author of these volumes ever entertained any reverence." This extract will put the reader in possession of the great object of the author's wishes and hopes, and the constant employment of his thoughts and writings-the restoration of the British Church. And when we look around at the desolate and decayed aspect she now presents, despoiled of her ancient patrimony, shorn of her ancient privileges, and deprived of her ancient power; when we view the effect this has produced on the habits and feelings of the people; the low opinion they form of her station and her rights; the cool apathy and indifference of the laity who still adhere to her forms and ordinances; the insulting language of the sectaries towards her; the manner in which this church, so weakened and disfigured, has been placed, with all her sacred offices, her mysterious gifts, her holy claims, at the feet of a semi-laic commission; when we find the very persons who, by virtue of this tenure of office, have a disposal of her emoluments, and should be the jealous guardians of her rights, taking praise to themselves because they are not hostile to her; when in fact we see the evil produced throughout the body of the people by the disuse of church discipline, and the loss of her spiritual authority; when we contemplate the wretchedly cold, lifeless, hopeless indifference and carnal-mindedness with which the services, as they are called, of the church are partaken of by the people; the dishonouring of the sacraments; the exaltation of the sermon, and the rage after Gospel-preachers; we say, considering such things, we want no apology for the expression of the very strong feelings we meet with in our author's writings, seeing, that if we go not with him to the full extent of his opinions, and that not so much differing from him as to their soundness or correctness, as by reason of their being hopeless to accomplish under present circumstances,—we are yet convinced of the rectitude of his judgment, and of the absolute necessity of many of the changes and restorations he so fondly advocates. present, however, the appointment of political bishops, and the institution of political parsons to the Crown livings, and the new tithe-bill, and the church-rate question, are all tending the contrary way. We know what end what we called liberal men come to; and it will not be difficult to foretel the end of a liberal church. At As a specimen of the extent to which this pseudo-charity has reached, even among the watchmen of Israel, we heard a late-instituted bishop declare that his pride should be to adhere to the steps of his predecessor; and yet we know that this predecessor had declared over and over again that he would live and die in the opinions of Hoadly! * * Lord Grey's gratuitous insolence to the bishops in the House ought never to be forgotten; it was a speech of wonderful presumption and folly. What did he mean? what could he? We recollect who it was in Scripture who "put his house in order The first volume of this work contains, the Private Journal of the Author-Letters to Friends - and Occasional Thoughts. The journal shows the deep attention which he paid to the regulation of his thoughts and actions in accordance with the precepts of Christianity; his attention to the religious duties of prayer and fasting; his dissatisfaction with the state of his temper and conduct: while a considerable degree of eccentricity and singular thoughts and confessions, more or less, pervade the whole journal. We must give a short specimen of the Occasional Thoughts, in which many subjects connected with religious faith are discussed with great clearness and power of reasoning, but are too long to transcribe. "Feb. 19. He remarked in a sermon yesterday that, in the same sense as the Jews were nationally elected into God's household before other nations, and likewise some Heathen nations before others, without any other apparent or assigned reason than the good pleasure of God, we all have been individually elected, insomuch as no reason can be assigned for our having been born in a Christian country rather than a Heathen, except the good pleasure of God. In this sense, and in this alone, can the Calling' and 'Election' of individuals be called arbitrary. Whether in the other sense we are elect, depends on what we ourselves are, whether we are leaning on the arm of God, outstretched to help all to whom it has been revealed, on condition that they will lean on it. It is God that worketh in us to will and do of his good pleasure, but not so as to leave us nothing to do ourselves; while it is he that will, we have the power not to will. "June. "Axogia, about Absolution, Anathemas, &c. When our Lord breathed upon the Apostles, he said to them, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.' What are we to understand was the nature of the power com municated unto them? Was the validity of their sentence to depend upon the truth of its grounds?-It is not easy to conceive the contrary: by it, supposing them to be correct, we believe that their effects would follow them independent of any authoritative assurance. So that a scoffer might say, What does the sentence of the Church come to? for you do not seem to assert its validity except in cases where you would allow the sentence of any one else to be equally valid : its authority does not ensure its execution, unless without authority it would have been equally executed. It seems to me altogether a very puzzling difficulty: an excommunicated person is either worse off, or not worse off than he was before. If he is not, how can it be looked upon as an evil and a punishment?-it degenerates simply into a matter of expediency." So far the author, from which we must remark that if the remission or retaining of sins by the Apostles were accompanied by any acts of power, such as readmission into the Church, or excommunication, the effect of that power might be very different, from the simple conviction that pardon or punishment would hereafter follow, according to the religious dispensation of God with Man and the declarations of Scripture. But if no act of power further than the announcement, authoritatively declared, of the spiritual state of the person follow; then it might be considered as a gift bestowed on the Apostles to corroborate their faith, and convince them of the high powers bestowed on them; and also as a proof of the power Christ had bequeathed to his Church here on earth. In both cases a distinct and important object is gained. We end our brief extracts from these Occasional Thoughts, with the concluding passage : "The array of talent' which has marshalled itself on the side of the Romanists as regards their political claims, is pointed out to us as a two-fold argument for and went and hanged himself." Such we suppose was the sting of the facetic Greyiana; but perhaps there was sitting on the bench at that time a Bishop who heard the advice given to set his house in order, who might have answered, if his Christian humility would have permitted, that he, during his possession of Durham, had given away in charity about the very same enormous sum (200,0007.) which has been calculated to be the worth of the places, pensions, civil and military offices which Lord Grey distributed among his relations and friends, &c. Now, whose house was in best repair? And those opprobrious words were spoken when such persons as the present Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of Landaff, Exeter, Chester, and the late Bishop of Durham, were on the Bench. abandoning our position. The intelligence of their supporters is urged as an authority to which we should in common modesty defer; our inability to do without them as a reason why we should court their services on their terms. I do not mean to admit the power of either separately; but what I assert is, that both together, they are utterly untenable. When the authority of these persons is used, their friendship is assumed, while their threatened desertion supposes them disaffected. As to the first point, it is here presumed that they are quoted against us, not to shake our principles, but our mistaken way of supporting them. The weight, then, which we should attribute to their advice must depend on their attachment to our principles. We must know what they intend to support, before we can rely on them as supporters. Next, it would be no very consistent display of attachment to abandon the principles themselves, to punish the deluded obstinacy of their unenlightened adherents. No folly which we can show will alter the character of the ends we have in view; and he who will not desert them, cannot desert us. I shall assume, then, that whatever may be the inexpediency of our present line of conduct, no part of that inexpediency arises from the chance of detaching from our cause any true friend, however enlightened. They who support the Romanists, to advance the interests of the Church, will not adhere to them, in spite of its interests; nor suffer it to sustain unnecessary injury because they cannot benefit it their own way. On these grounds, then, it seems to me quite evident that those whose services must be bought by concession, can have no authority as advisers. It may be true that all the talent of the country' hold the safety of the Established Church second to their theories of political convenience; and to such talent we may submit as conquered enemies, but we can never coalesce with it as allies." His opinion on church matters may be gathered from many such short passages and hints as the following: P. 250.-" All the Methodists in these parts are cocking up their ears at the news of his approach. May he escape becoming a Gospel minister. I have read the lives of Peacock and Wickliffe in Strype; but must read much more about them and their times before I understand them. At present I admire Peacock and dislike Wickliffe. A great deterioration seems to have taken place in the spirit of the Church after Edward the Third's death. I have been very idle lately, but have ... taken up Strype now and then, and have not increased my admiration of the Reformers. One must not speak lightly of a martyr; so I do not allow my feelings to pass the verge of scepticism; but I really do feel sceptical, whether Latimer was not something in the Bulteel linewhether the catholicism of their formulæ was not a concession to the feelings of the nation, with whom puritanism had not yet become popular, and who could scarcely bear the alterations which had been made; and whether the progress of things in Edward the Sixth's minority may not be considered as the jobbing of a faction. I will do myself the justice to say, that those doubts give me pain, and that I hope more reading will in some degree dispel them. As far as I am gone, I think better than I was prepared of Gardiner and Bonner; certainly, the 90s of the Reformation is to me a terra incognita, and I do not think that it has been explained by any one that I have heard talk about it." Again, "I have been looking into Strype's Memorials and Burnet a good deal without finding much to like in the Reformers, but I do not see clearly the motives of the different parties. The sincerity of the leading men on both sides seems so equivocal that I can hardly see what attached them to their respective positions. I have observed one thing, and only one, in favour of my guessedat theory, that is, that Cranmer had a quarrel with Gardiner about admitting poor people's children to a foundation school at Canterbury; the latter insisting on their exclusion. Certainly, this was a change in the tone of the high church party since William of Wykeham's time. The only anais on which I can put my hand, as having resulted from my travels, is that the whole Christian system all over Europe-' tendit visibiliter ad non esse.' The same process which is going on in England and France is taking its course everywhere else, and the clergy in those Catholic countries seem as completely to have lost their influence, and to submit as tamely to the State, as ever we can do in England." But we must change the subject. In a letter from Rome he makes an observation on the use of coloured stone in architecture, which we ourselves had strongly felt when we first entered St. Paul's with the recollection of St. Peter's fresh in our mind. "Before I came here I had no idea of the effect of coloured stone in archi |