society on a national scale, and stand forth an impregnable barrier against Romanizing on the one hand, and Infidelity on the other, which is making at the present time decided though concealed approaches under the disguise of secular education.

As we have before stated, we are most undoubtedly of opinion that both the income and operations of the National Society ought to have been, and might have been, on a much more extensive scale than they ever have been. We are of opinion, that, had they been so, and especially had the terms of union which, notwithstanding the objections on this score so stoutly urged against the management clauses it has been found necessary to make compulsory, been of a more comprehensive character, we should have been spared many of the difficulties and dangers by which we are now encompassed. At the same time we are free to confess that, under present circumstances, we do not look upon the late decision of the National Society as likely to exercise much direct influence upon the progress of education. The time is past when the efforts of any voluntary society can be of any great direct importance. The mass of ignorance is too vast and too rapidly increasing to admit of any great impression being made upon it by voluntary efforts. Nothing short of the strong arm and well-filled purse of Government, or the expedient to which the attention of many persons is at present seriously directed-an educational rate-is likely, after so long neglect, to prove an effectual remedy for such an overgrown evil. Viewed, therefore, in its direct bearing upon education, the decision of June the 4th is comparatively of small importance; but, regarded in the light of a solemn and decided expression of the feeling and opinion of the Church on the subject to which it refers, it is of the utmost possible consequence, and must be hailed by every faithful son of the Church with the greatest satisfaction and joy. It is a direct repudiation of the truly Roman principle that the Church consists of the clergy alone. It is a direct assertion of the claims of the laity to be associated with the clergy in every good work. It is a solemn rejection of the dangerous theory that the ecclesiastical should dominate over the civil power-a solemn recognition of the benefit to be derived from their both acting cordially together. It is a grateful acknowledgment of the mighty impulse which Government has, within the last few years, given to the hitherto sluggish advancement of religious, moral, and intellectual training; of the security wisely provided, by a due admixture of the lay element in school trusts, against either the unsound teaching or the carelessness of the parochial clergy. It is a challenge to those, who wish to have it thought otherwise, to appeal, if they dare, to Parliament in order to as

certain the real sense of the country. It is the holding forth the olive-branch by the ecclesiastical to the civil power, instead of assuming, if not an attitude of actual defiance, at least a very cold and repulsive posture. We have heard it said by members of the Committee of the National Society-indeed, the assertion forms part of the last paper issued by the committee. in place of the resolution which was abandoned-that the difference which has for some time existed on the subject of the management clauses "has caused no interruption to the friendly relations between the Society and Committee of Council on Education." This reminds us of a case we once heard of, in a country parish in the north of England, of a married couple who lived for some time together in the same house, slept in the same bed, but never spoke to each other: the only intercourse which ever passed between them being the bringing home by the husband and the receipt by the wife of the weekly earnings. The "friendly relations" which have for some time past existed between the Committee of Council and the Committee of the National Society are, in our opinion, somewhat of the same negative description. They live, so to speak, in the same house; they sleep in the same bed; the one gives and the other gladly receives whatever is given: there is no positive rupture; but, at the same time, there is no cordial co-operation; and, in both cases, the children are the greatest sufferers. Whether or not there has of late been "interruption to the friendly relations" between the two powers, co-operation of a much more active description is that which the necessity of the case demands, and in favour of which the verdict of a large majority of the National Society was pronounced on June the

4th.

It is impossible to say what effect that verdict may produce upon a body so constituted as the Committee of the National Society. It may need to be reiterated in the shape of a memorial numerously and influentially signed, or by any other means which will avail to give it force and bring it home. It may require to be repeated at the next annual meeting in a louder tone and by still larger numbers. It would be far more graceful certainly, more conciliatory, and a great deal more beneficial, were the Committee of the National Society at once, and without giving occasion to further agitation, to shape their course for the future more in accordance with the tenor of that decision, expressing as it clearly does the wishes and feelings of the country at large. As attached members of the Church of England-whose heart's desire and prayer is that she may by the mercy of God be long spared as a faithful witness of scriptural truth at home and a light to lighten the Gentiles

abroad-we earnestly entreat the Committee of the National Society to pause ere they set this decision at defiance-we earnestly entreat them, however constituted by law, in reality to act as the representatives of the society whose business they manage, and to cause the society to be in reality the representative of the Church. We call upon the archbishops and bishops especially to act with all Christian firmness and decision in this most important matter-not to consider themselves as mere sinecure members of the committee, leaving the real management to an active but ill-advised few; but rather to bear in mind that, as they cannot escape their share of responsibility for all that is done, so it is to their own interest as well as to that of the public that all be done carefully and wisely. We call upon them-it is in sorrow we are constrained to do so, as the best proofs of the real tendency of the exclusive spirit and equivocal practices which we deprecate-to bear in mind that not a few of those who at the two last annual meetings of the National Society threw all the weight of their rank, influence, and eloquence, into Mr. Denison's scale, have since this time last year, by going "out from us," given sad but startling proofs that, even when within the walls of the Central-school, they were advocating "Church principles" falsely so called, they were not really " of us."

One thing at any rate is certain: it is that no effort must be spared by those who formed the majority of June the 4th, and all in every part of the country who agree with them to cause the decision of that day to be practically fruitful in bringing about truly cordial co-operation between the Committee of the National Society and the Committee of Council; as well as in eradicating from all the training institutions in connexion with the society every thing not strictly consistent with the doctrines and services of the reformed Church of England, and the preparation of masters for parochial schools. No effort, we repeat, must be spared to bring about this most important result; though such efforts cannot be made in a too peaceful, orderly, and un-agitating manner. We call the result most important-not that we expect as the consequence any such large addition to the funds of the society as will enable it to extend in any important measure its line of operations-not that we are under the influence of the delusive idea that the advance of education is, to any important extent, necessarily bound up with the prosperity or even existence of the National Society; but rather because we know this society must exist-that it cannot die that it must exist a chartered body with royal and episcopal privilege, a powerful instrumentality for good or evil; even though most falsely reflecting its feelings and opinions

202 still the recognized representative of the Church of England. Such an official representative of the ecclesiastical power cannot long continue in a state of collision, or even want of cordiality, with the civil power, without producing the most disastrous effects without bringing contempt upon the Church, grievously embarrassing the State in its efforts to contend against, and almost driving it to lean towards the enemies, not only of the Church, but of religion itself. With flat denials of the royal supremacy, and ill-concealed attempts to sever Church and State from each other, emanating from high quarters within the Church itself-with a semi-infidel scheme of secular education twice brought forward in the House of Commons and still staring us in the face-surely, such a terrible risk as this is not, unadvisedly, to be encountered. We call most earnestly upon all Churchmen, both clerical and lay-of every shade of theological opinion not Tractarian-no longer, as they have hitherto. done, to play the dangerous game of standing aloof from the National Society; but, by joining its ranks and gaining an influence in its councils, to improve to the utmost the advantages already obtained; to rescue the society entirely from the domination of a party; to make it, as far as possible, truly national in its spirit and practice; and no longer permit it-to the imminent danger not only of the Church but of all true religion-with the mouth of the Church and the hand of the Church to say and do things which the Church abhors. Already advantage has been taken of the discussions between the National Society and Committee of Council to represent, both in the House of Commons and in public meetings, that the present system of public education on a religious basis has come to a "dead lock," and that all hope of maintaining such a system must give place to the proposals of the secular educationists, which, it is pretended, are now demonstrated to present the only practicable solution. Such representations as this we are fain to ascribe, not so much to Mr. Denison's open, and, therefore, less dangerous, but much rather to the ill-concealed, hostility of the Committee of the National Society to the civil power. The archbishops, and with few exceptions the bishops, it is well known, though practically overborne by a small but restless faction, are the advocates of such moderate counsels in the society as would take away all foundation for such pretences. Surely, at such an important crisis, the right reverend prelates will allow no other business to interfere with their regular attendance at the Committee of the National Society, nor any fear of offence to a few to deter them from giving practical effect to that which is well known to be their settled convictions. Surely, the lay members of the Church-for the cause is chiefly theirs-will

The National Society and the Education Question.

unite with the parochial clergy in following up the decided blow given on June the 4th to Tractarianism and Infidelity, by withstanding all attempts to make the "Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church" the organ of a faction rather than the representative of the nation.

Notices of Books.

The Geology and Fossils of the Tertiary and Cretaceous Formations of Sussex. By FREDERICK DIXON, ESQ., F.G.S., Member of the Royal College of Surgeons. London: 1850. Quarto. In the progress of the science of nature, the study and elucidation of facts are of the highest value, as tending to the speedier manifestation of truth, which theories frequently impede. The lamented author of the work before us seems to have borne this constantly in mind. The motto chosen for his title-page is that observation of Bakewell's, that "In the present state of geological knowledge, facts are more wanted than speculations;" and, in the preface, he observes:

"In the following pages I have entered into no speculative enquiry. Geology is not at variance with the sacred truths of Scripture; and it must be borne in mind that every fossil, as well as recent being, is the record of the will of God. Paleontological enquiry points out the wonderful power and wisdom of God at all periods of time, shows that in extinct beings the same law of excellent adaptation of means to ends regulated their structure in subservience to their welfare, as is now manifested in existing creation."

Nothing can be more true than these remarks. But our investigations of organised beings tend to establish the existence of two laws, which it has pleased the Almighty Maker of all things to express in his handiworks. One is the law of final causes just alluded to, the other is the law of types, inferred from the unity of plan displayed in living structures. In every instance of material life, from man, the noblest work of God, to the lowest vegetable cell, both are seen: we trace the one in observing how everything is made for a purpose, and how nothing else would have effected that purpose half so well, and we perceive the other in the uniform workings of the first nisus of organic development, and in everything that has yet been learned of the history of the lives of individuals, species, and genera, their duration, their physiology, and the minutest details of their structure. One is more easily seen and understood than the other; but the time has now arrived when both must be borne in mind: we have light enough for this, and, whatever contrariety we with our limited perceptions may think