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ART. IX.-1. The Church and the World. Essays on Questions of the Day in 1868. By various Writers. Edited by the Rev. ORBY SHIPLEY, M.A. London: Longmans. 1868. 2. An Address on the Connexion of Church and State, delivered at Sion College on February 15, 1868. By ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY, D.D., Dean of Westminster. London: Macmillan. 1868.

3. Essays on Church Policy. Edited by the Rev. W. L. CLAY, M.A., Incumbent of Rainhill, Lancashire. London: Macmillan. 1868.

ADVICE is a very cheap commodity in the opinion of those to whom it is offered, and very valuable in the opinion of those who offer it. We shall probably share both opinions in the course of this paper, the purport of which is to criticise the advice of others and to offer advice of our own. When the wise man said, 'In the multitude of counsellors there is safety,' he made a statement which experience does not invariably justify, if the stress of the sentence rest upon the word 'multitude.' But he, doubtless, made 'counsellors' the emphatic word; and inasmuch as this word involves the ideas of wisdom and of competency to give counsel, there is no difficulty in believing that the more of such persons there can be had, the better. In these days, however, there is that in the condition of things which gives prominence to the expression 'multitude.' There is no lack of counsellors at every emergency and upon every question; but the inconsistency of their advice, and the worthlessness of most of it, incline one to think that, if there be any safety in the multitude, it must be the safety of disregarding what the multitude says. It is so hopeless to follow all the counsellors, that the safest thing appears to be not to follow any.

The Church of England at this time offers just such a case, around which advisers eagerly crowd. She is going through a sea of troubles, and there is a storm in the wind as violent as any she has ever weathered. She already seems to be on its verge, and many declare that it will not be long before she is in the thick of it. Every one feels that good navigation (we speak of course from the mere human and temporal side) is of the greatest importance. The enemies of the Church exclaim, half exultingly, that she needs all the skill she can command, and

more. Her friends grow increasingly anxious, and amongst a few there are signs of a panic. The wisest of them are not free from doubts of the result. Amongst all there is a stir, a going to and fro, a desire to bear a hand and make things snug and taut and trim. Moreover, there are the counsellors; and they a multitude. Their numbers are almost overwhelming; would that we could say their wisdom was impressive! Let us not, however, anticipate. It cannot be expected that, when advice is so abundantly given, and when the advisers are prompted more by an excited eagerness to say something in the juncture than by a well-ascertained fitness to say anything, there should be unmixed wisdom in all that is said. Of the sort of advice that is offered, our readers have had samples submitted to them from time to time. The first two series of The Church and the World received ample attention at our hands; and now we have a third series, under the same editorship, to introduce. But along with them we must group other counsellors, who look at affairs from a very different standpoint, and yet claim to be considered true friends of the Church, who come forward in the day of her necessity with the best advice they can offer. And yet another company is looming in the future; hurrying up to the councilboard from a quarter altogether different; a sturdy band of Evangelicals, whose disquisitions upon Principles at Stake' have not yet advanced further within the range of public notice than a bare announcement of their approach in Mr. Murray's advertisement-sheet. We hope to be able to give a good account of these last at some future day. At present we have plenty to occupy us in reviewing the publications which stand at the head of this article.

6

As we take up this third volume of The Church and the World' we cannot help expressing a sort of admiration for the magnificent career which Mr. Orby Shipley is pursuing, as an editor of Church essays. This volume of 1868 is stouter by a hundred pages than either of its predecessors of 1866 and 1867, and they were the bulkiest bundles of essays that had been turned out by any group of writers. Surely the force of' essay-writing 'can no further go' than this portly octavo of 662 well-packed pages. And next, as to its contents. It is perhaps not speaking to its discredit to say that the book is unequal within its own compass, and not up to the level of the First Series. Certainly this is so. Yet, if it had been the first attempt, it would not have been a failure. There are useful papers in the volume strong enough to carry the weak ones into a larger share of attention than they would have found for themselves. Indeed, the amount of notice which these bulky productions command is very remarkable. They are not cheap, or, in any extended sense, amusing. They

smack of the strongest possible flavour of, what is absurdly called, 'Ritualism,' and in truth can only be fully acceptable to out-andout Ritualists. Yet we do not suppose that either the editor or the publishers would have embarked this third venture if the former two had not turned out successful in a commercial sense. On the contrary, the advertising fly-leaf of this volume announces a third edition of the First Series and a second edition of the Second. This fact may not be taken as an absolute gauge of the influence of the opinions which the volumes propound, but it at least shows that those opinions have obtained a handsome share of attention.

And, it must be admitted, the opinions are not watered down to weak stomachs. They are strong enough to bite the most seasoned palate. The writers are bold gentlemen. They, professing themselves loyal members of the English Church,many of them priests of the same,-avow such opinions in such language as to make an Evangelical's flesh creep; but, on the other side, to tickle into inextinguishable laughter the Ultramontanists of the Dublin Review. Our readers are probably aware of the paper in that periodical to which we advert. We hope the Rock, the Record, and the Church Association will accept that article as evidence contradictory of their insinuations that the Ritualists are in league with the Pope. In order to give a general idea of the strong meat' that is provided in this volume, we may refer to the last paragraph of the Preface, in which it is announced that Manuals of devotion, by way of Invocation of Saints, and also of Prayers for the Dead, are in preparation; and it adds that these books will be such as can be loyally' used by members of the Anglican Church. We suppose that the former of these Manuals will have a few introductory remarks, explanatory of Article XXII. of the Thirty-nine Articles, for the satisfaction of those 'loyal' Churchmen who may feel somewhat doubtful as to whether the Article means what it says: also, a kindly consideration for 'loyal' Churchmen who are apt to be squeamish, will, we hope, induce the editor of the said Manual to allay any misgivings that may arise in their minds from the fact that the Anglican Church has carefully excised, from those portions of ancient liturgies which are incorporated in her own service-books, every allusion whatsoever to the practice of Invocation. In short, to put the matter plainly, we should, in these days, be very thankful indeed to the editor of this Manual, or anybody else, for explaining what loyalty means, and also for stating whether it be an extant or an obsolete quality; moreover, if extant, we should be glad to know whether it is of a piece with the loyalty of the Roundheads to Charles I. who always approached his Majesty with protestations of loyalty, and finished up their devotion by cutting off his Majesty's head.

And now something by way of a more particular notice of the book. Dr. Littledale leads off with an article upon the First Report of the Ritual Commission. It exhibits all the characteristics of the writer; clever point, bitter invective, varied illustration, general absence of Christian charity, and general presence of bad taste. The bishops, we need hardly say, are abused and ridiculed with the insolence and acrimony with which the readers of the Church Times are familiar. It must, however, be owned that he sometimes puts in the knife, and gives it a cruel turn too, where there is good reason for its use. If that sort of thing must be done, Dr. Littledale is the man to do it yet some persons may think that even the advantage of Dr. Littledale's trenchant sarcasm may be purchased too dearly by the Ritualist party at the cost of its character for Christian courtesy; and it may be doubted by some, whether to have destroyed the Record's monopoly of religious abuse and theological bad language be altogether a gain to the Church cause, although the competition be initiated by the unrivalled talent for those accomplishments which Dr. Littledale is known to possess.

The sixteen other articles admit of being clustered together, and in this way we shall deal with them. Nos. 2, 5, and 7 touch social questions, and that on their evil side. The Defects in the Moral Training of Girls' (the title of the first of these essays), though written by a Mother,' and consequently by one naturally better able to form an opinion than ourselves, yet, we venture to hope, is too highly coloured for a picture of general society in this respect. Nevertheless, it is a paper full of sound sense and wholesome advice. It puts the finger of intelligent censure upon what is really a social evil, and one which, as much as any other cause, tends to produce what is technically called the 'social evil.' It may be pretty safely assumed that the bad bringing-up of a young woman will show itself most surely and most promptly in the way she treats her servants when she becomes a housewife. The frivolity, vanity, and selfishness which were fostered by the worldly training of her maidenhood will bring forth their proper fruits in the arbitrary and pettish behaviour of her married life. The truth is, there are quite as many bad mistresses as bad servants; and the faithlessness of the latter is oftentimes the direct result of the selfishness of the former. The caprice and bad temper of the mistress make the maid careless and fickle. The servant is frequently treated, not as a fellow-creature, still less as a fellowChristian, but rather as a labour-machine set to perform a certain amount of work in a certain time for a certain payment. The idea that there is any moral duty which a mistress owes to

her servant, never enters the empty head of your fine lady of the period. If anything go wrong, instead of taking pains to find out how far it was the result of ignorance which the mistress can remedy by instruction, how far of carelessness which a gentle caution might correct for the future, how far of wilfulness and evil disposition which, on the first occasion at least, should be met with kindly admonition and advice,—instead, in short, of treating her servant with the forbearance and consideration due from one Christian to another, this modern sort of mistress, straightway and in a fit of ill-temper, gives the offender warning. Hence it is that one hears of houses in which there are as many changes of servants as of months in the year; and from such houses incalculable social mischief flows. For servants thus treated lose conscientiousness, become low-minded in their views of servitude, insincere, restless, fond of change,-in a word, demoralized. But this sort of mistress neglects her duty towards her servant, not only by hasty dismissal, but also by indifference to her moral and religious welfare while in her household. The servant's personal interests are coldly disregarded. She is in the house, but not of the family. The unfeeling rule, 'no followers allowed,' drives her to the dangerous deception of a clandestine courtship; and as for religion, it seems to be assumed that she has no religion: for turning her adrift in the street on a Sunday evening, under the pretence of allowing her to go to church, without being able, and in fact without caring, to ascertain whether she go there or not, is a cruel sham, which cannot for a moment be maintained as representing any real interest in the woman's welfare. And this pernicious practice has contributed largely to another evil. Inasmuch as multitudes of maid-servants are only let out on a Sunday evening, many town clergy, the strength of whose untutored zeal is in due proportion to the weakness of their Church principles, have broken through catholic custom, set at defiance the most obvious and grave objections, and established evening communions. Many loose practices have been, and are, permitted in the worship of the Anglican Church, but the whole of them put together do not amount to so serious a mischief as this unwarrantable and inexcusable innovation. Yet an apology (for we never yet heard of any clergyman who practised evening Eucharists attempt to do more than apologize, and that in very quavering terms, for his offence) is set up in respect of maid-servants who are not allowed to go to church at any other time. Did it never occur to these well-meaning but rather obstinate men, that it was their duty to protest against and endeavour to break down the hateful selfishness of employers, which flings their dependants into the streets, to be caught up by vice as easily as by religion for any