"4. That it was the highest species of worship is apparent in the manner of the act. The shoes were removed; the robes were laid aside; and greater solemnity was given to the act than I have seen in the adoration of the Host. It is remarkable, too, that there was then no host on the altar: it was in the sepulchre in the Pauline chapel. And when afterwards the Pope and Cardinals brought in the host, and paid adoration to it, in the same place where they had adored the wood of the cross, they did not remove their shoes or lay aside their robes, but adored it with far less of solemnity than they had already shown to the wood of the cross (p. 373-375).

On the subject of indulgences Mr. Seymour has accurately exhibited the doctrine of the Romish Church, by quotations from authoritative and documentary publications, which show how easily these may be gained. One or two instances shall be given. By climbing on his knees the twenty-eight steps of the holy stairs, which are said to have been ascended more than once by our Divine Redeemer, the devotee may secure an indulgence of two hundred and fifty-two years-that is, nine years for every step. By kissing the two crosses in the Coliseum (a service which may be accomplished in the space of one minute), indulgences may be secured for six hundred days. This, however, is nothing to what an able-bodied man may accomplish, in a comparatively short space of time. A learned American traveller, who resided a considerable time at Rome, informs us that

"At sun-rise he might kiss [one of the two] crosses in the Coliseum, and obtain two hundred days' indulgence in a moment. He might hurry to the church of St. Pudens and St. Pudentiana, and during a half-hour's mass secure to himself three thousand years' indulgence, and the remission of a third part of his sins. Returning by the way of Ara Coeli he can recite the litanies of the most blessed Virgin on the altar of her, who by Papal authority is called the Refuge of Sinners, and he has two hundred days more of indulgence, which he may either keep himself or give to one of his dead friends. If he has three pauls" (thirty cents, or fifteen-pence sterling) "in his pocket, he may exercise his charity towards that friend still further, by having a mass said expressly for his soul by one of the monks or any other priest, and thus deliver it at once from the torments of purgatory. Crossing thence to the Mamertine prison, he may gain twelve hundred years in indulgence, or on a Sunday or festival morning ten thousand four hundred years, and the remission of another third part of his sins. Here, also, if he has another thirty cents to spare, he can pay for another mass, and liberate another friend from purgatory. Thus he may, before breakfast, every day of his life obtain, for himself at least more than 4,300 years' indulgence, and the remission of twothirds of his sins; and for the expence of sixty cents" (half-a-crown) "he may liberate two souls from purgatory"-(Rev. Dr. Jarvis's “ No Union with Rome," p. 39. Hartford, Connecticut, 1843).

Mr. Seymour was deeply interested in the relics of the saints, which are preserved in the different churches at Rome. This may be accounted for by the innate reverence which exists in the human heart for the remains of a much-loved friend. "Association is a powerful law of our nature; and if we could be sure that we possessed any such memorial of our Redeemer, or of his apostles, or of any of the martyrs who shed their blood rather than depart from the stedfast confession of his name, we should certainly prize them in proportion to the fervour of our affections. But what evidence have we of such possessions? The only reverence, paid by devout men to the remains of the early martyrs, consisted in carrying them to their burial, and making great lamentation over them (Acts viii. 2). The anniversary of their deaths was celebrated at their graves, and at a later period churches were built there. But there is no proof of the disinterment of their bones, or the collection of relics, until the close of the fourth century. At that time so uncertain was the evidence of their identity, that recourse was had to the demonstrations of miraculous power. As a dead man had been revived by the bones of Elisha (2 Kings xiii. 21), the sacred history suggested a precedent for similar wonders. But even in the days of Augustine the venders of false relics had begun their frauds; for he speaks of many hypocrites, under the garb of monks, strolling through the provinces, uncommissioned and wandering everywhere under various pretexts; some selling members of martyrs, IF indeed they be of martyrs; others extolling their fringes and phylacteries; others. seeking their relations."*

Mr. Seymour has transcribed the catalogues of the relics preserved in the churches of Santa Croce della Gerusalemme and of St. Praxede, and he has given interesting descriptions of the exhibitions of relics, at which the Pope was present; and the conclusion to which he comes is, that the outward form of reverence, worship, or adoration paid to the relics is, in every the minutest particular, identically the same as that paid to the host, or consecrated wafer-god.

The great mine from which the relics are extracted is the catacombs of Rome, in which the heathen Romans for ages buried the poorer classes and their slaves. In succeeding ages they became the asylum of the persecuted Christians, thousands of whom there slept the sleep of death, and left their remains until the morning of the resurrection. According to the Roman

* Dr. Jarvis's "Reply to Milner's End of Religious Controversy," p. 229. New York, 1847.

*

Guide-book, ecclesiastical writers say that fourteen popes and about one hundred and seventy thousand martyrs are buried there. A pretty good stock in trade this! And when it is remembered that so many fictitious saints, so many saints, Paralipomenon (Chronicle), and Veronica (Lat. Vera Icon.), have been fabricated, there can be no lack of subjects. And if there were, it is an easy matter to furnish each saint with two or three heads a-piece. "I went," says an intelligent and learned traveller," into a church in Turin, where the head of St. John the Baptist is venerated. This was in 1828; and in 1830 I went into a church in Rome, where also the undoubted head of St. John the Baptist received equal veneration. Are you sure, signor,' said I to my conductor, that you have the real head of St. John the Baptist?' 'Sicuro!' said he, with the look and accent of surprise that there could be such a question asked. But I was told at Turin,' I rejoined, that they had the head of St. John the Baptist there. Nothing daunted, he replied, That may well be, sir, for it is in the power of God to create two heads."

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These absurdities are related, not as practised in some uncivilized and distant regions, but in Rome itself: and it is not the Romanism of the dark ages, but of the nineteenth century. The rulers of the Church must know better, and we cannot understand the sophistry by which men who are honest can reconcile it to their consciences to tolerate-nay, even to forward-such deceptions: yet this was done by the present Pope, who walked in procession, carrying in his hand a head which was said to be that of St. Andrew!

The extent to which this article has reached forbids us to do more than enumerate the subjects of Mr. Seymour's chapters on the inscriptions in churches, and on the uses of holy water, of pictures, and images. In conclusion, he considers Romanism as an eclectic religion, which derives its saints and images from classic mythology; its priesthood, ceremonies, and symbols, from Judaism; and its asceticism, celibacy, and monachism, from orientalism. We can safely recommend his volume to our readers, as being replete with authentic details, conveyed in a candid and Christian spirit, and which fills up an important chasm in the numerous descriptions of Rome which have been published.

*

Nibby, "Itinerario di Roma," tom. ii. p. 535. 1827.

+ Rev. Dr. Jarvis's "Reply to Milner's End of Religious Controversy," pp. 229-230.

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ATR. V.-A Narrative of the Expedition sent by her Majesty's Government to the River Niger, in 1841, under the Command of Captain H. D. Trotter, R.N. By Captain WILLIAM ALLEN, R.N., and T. R. H. THOMSON, M.D., Surgeon, R.N. Published with the Sanction of the Colonial Office and the Admiralty. Two Volumes. London: Bentley. 1848.

THERE is no truth of Scripture which presses more strongly on the conviction of the Christian-and the more advanced the Christian the deeper will be the impression-than that, "when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants." As with individuals so with nations and it is, therefore, with feelings rather of humility than boastfulness that we venture to point to what England has done in the cause of religion, and, by consequence, in that of humanity. We have not done allnay, we have not done even much, but we have done something; and that in "an honest and true heart," and we have not been without our reward. Our charity as a nation, if it have begun at home, has not stopped there. Wherever we have heard of misery, or oppression, or darkness abroad, we have endeavoured to alleviate it and neither British gold nor British blood has been wanting in the cause-nay, both have been lavishly, if not always wisely, poured forth. Scarcely more than a pretext has been wanting for the large libation of either. Many of our national attempts at the amelioration of the condition of those to whom we have no other tie than that of our common humanity, have partaken of the character of a crusade, nay, in some instances of Quixotism; but a chivalric feeling has characterised and, because it was unselfish, consecrated them all. We speak not of our Indian conquests, because, although the light of our religion and the amenity of our laws have followed in the wake of our victories, the spirit of trade and the selfishness of gain have so alloyed our achievements that they are, in a scriptural sense, but as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." But when we turn to our missionary labours-to the lavish liberality which has supplied the means, and the self-devotion which has braved "the hazard"-when we regard our endeavours, but partially successful though they be, to extinguish the slave-trade-the treasure of the nation and the blood of gallant men which have been expended in the cause-we cannot but acknowledge a feeling of thankfulness to him who has put it into our hearts to will and to do these things, to the honour and glory of his holy

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name, and to the promotion of the happiness of the great family of man: and, as we have already remarked, we have our reward, which we recognise in the protection of a nation, that, however unworthy of his favour, has been the honoured instrument of good in his hands. And surely, at no period of our history, could a grateful sense of this protection press itself more strongly on the national heart than at the present, when we have peace at home, while civil war-the fiercest of all wars -is raging around us. And here we are forcibly reminded of a passage in the most eloqnent and truthful book which has shed the halo of its golden light on modern literature-a book written with equal earnestness for the glory of God as for the enlightenment of man.* We allude especially to the second volume, from which we quote:—

"And deep though the causes of thankfulness must be to every people at peace with others and at unity in itself, there are causes of fear also of fear greater than of sword or sedition-that dependence on God may be forgotten, because the bread is given and the water sure that gratitude to him may cease because his constancy of protection has taken the semblance of a natural law-that heavenly hope may grow faint amidst the full fruition of the world-that selfishness may take place of undemanded devotion, compassion be lost in vainglory, and love in dissimulation-that enervation may succeed to strength, apathy to patience, and the noise of jesting words and foulness of dark thoughts to the earnest purity of the girded loins and the burning lamp. About the river of human life there is a wintry wind through a heavenly sunshine: the iris colours its agitation-the frost fixes upon its repose. Let us beware that our rest become not the rest of stones, which, so long as they are torrent-tossed and thunder-stricken, maintain their majesty; but, when the stream is silent and the storm passed, suffer the grass to cover them and the lichen to feed on them, and are ploughed down into dust."

We hasten to atone to such few of our readers who may deem our quotation a digression by recurring to the matter immediately in hand and we cannot more appropriately introduce the volumes before us than by an extract which will at once show the character and results of the expedition immediately preceding that which the present work records. It forms part of a chapter devoted to a summary of the various attempts at the exploration of the Niger:

"This mercantile expedition-which Captain, then Lieutenant W. Allen, accompanied by order of the Admiralty, for the purpose of surveying the river-was composed of one small brig, to be stationed at the mouth of the river, to receive the expected cargo of ivory; and

*"Modern Painters." By a Graduate of Oxford."