The glorious present majesty of Heaven
Irradiated thy chosen holy fane!

Fallen from thy God, the heathen's barbarous hand
Despoils thy temple, and thine altar stains;
Reft of her children mourns the parent land,
And in her dwellings death-like silence reigns.
Rise, sacred tree! a monument to tell

How Vanity and Folly lead to Wo;
Under what wrath unfaithful Israel fell,

What mighty arm laid Babel's triumphs low.
Rise, sacred tree! on Thames's gorgeous shore,
To warn the people and to guard the throne;
Teach them their pure religion to adore,

And foreign faiths, and rites, and pomps disown!
Teach them that their forefathers' noble race,
With virtue, liberty, and truth combined,

And honest zeal, and piety, and grace,

The throne and altar's strength have intertwined:
The lofty glories of the land and main,

The stream of industry, and trade's proud course,

The majesty of empire to sustain,

God's blessing on sound faith is Britain's force.
Me, when thy shade and Thames's meads and flowers
Invite to soothe the cares of waning age,

May memory bring to me my long past hours

To calm my soul, and troubled thoughts assuage!
Come, parent Eton! turn the stream of time

Back to thy sacred fountain crowned with bays!
Recall my brightest, sweetest days of prime!
When all was hope, and triumph, joy, and praise.
Guided by thee I raised my youthful sight

To the steep solid heights of lasting fame,
And hailed the beams of clear ethereal light
That brighten round the Greek and Roman name.
O blest instruction! friend to generous youth!
Source of all good! you taught me to entwine
The muse's laurel with eternal truth,

And wake her lyre to strains of faith divine.
Firm, incorrupt, as in life's dawning morn,

Nor swayed by novelty, nor public breath,

Teach me false censure and false fame to scorn,

And guide my steps through honour's paths to death.
And thou, time-honoured fabric, stand! A tower
Impregnable, a bulwark of the state!
Untouched by visionary folly's power,

Above the vain, and ignorant, and great !
The mighty race with cultured minds adorn
And piety, and faith; congenial pair!

And spread thy gifts through ages yet unborn,

Thy country's pride, and Heaven's parental care!

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We are sorry to be compelled to postpone the insertion of" Thoughts on the Trinity" until next month.

The Letter" On Morning and Evening Hymns" in our next.

"The Cities of Old" shall appear in our next.

Printed by W, E. Painter, 342, Strand, London.

ATTACKS UPON THE CLERGY.

We have observed with feelings of astonishment and indignation the attacks which have been lately made on certain most respectable individuals among the clergy, on account of their attendance at dinners of a Conservative character. The wicked and malignant nature of these attacks must be evident to all right-thinking and well-disposed persons. It would appear to be the wish of a certain party in this country, first of all, to deprive the clergy of the endowments, the possessions, and the privileges which they enjoy as ministers of the Church of England, and having done this, to take away from them all the rights which they hold in common with their fellow subjects. In short, if we are to judge from the sentiments expressed by certain Whig and Radical writers, the clergy are to perform the duties of their sacred office without receiving any share of that decent and almost scanty maintenance which has been set apart for their use by the benevolence of some of our pious ancestors. In the performance of these duties they watch them with the most eager observation, with the most malevolent scrutiny, solicitous and even anxious to detect any casual omission, any unintentional negligence; and if they are lucky enough (we can give it no other name, for they really appear to experience a morbid pleasure in such instances) to discover any unguarded conduct, any unforeseen lapse, which in the case of any other persons would have been regarded as errors of the most trivial description, scarcely worthy of notice, and to be considered as the consequence of an excess of employment, and of an overtasked mind, they speak of it almost as if it were a crime; they endeavour to stir up and rouse into action the worst feelings of the public against the individuals who have unfortunately com

G

mitted the error in question, and assume this solitary circumstance of negligence in one person, as a ground for making the most false and unfounded charges against the whole Church. They would take away from the clergy, if they were able, the sacred character with which they are invested as the ministers of the Church of Christ; deriving their divine commission, in an uninterrupted line, from the founder of our holy religion, and, not content with this, they would afterwards strip them of their privileges as British subjects! And what, it may well be asked, is the motive of such singular conduct, of such unprovoked and wanton aggression, on individuals who are constantly and unceasingly rendering such inestimable benefits to their country? The reason is obvious. It is because the pious doctrines and the good works of the clergy are a living and perpetual reproach to the evil-disposed. It is because, in accordance with the precepts of that blessed gospel whose authorized ministers they are, they preach submission to the throne, obedience to the laws, and a respect for the rights and property of all, and thus raise up and maintain, wherever their doctrines are heard and their lessons are followed, a firm and effectual barrier against the designs of the incendiary, the revolutionist, and the less open, but not less dangerous, schemes of those crafty and unprincipled politicians, who advocate what they call progressive reform, but which is in reality nothing else than a gradual but certain breaking down of all the most valuable safeguards of the constitution, an unfailing destruction of every thing which has hitherto imparted a distinctive character to English manners, English customs, and English society.

It may perhaps be said, with regard to the alleged ground for those attacks upon the clergy, to which we alluded at the beginning of this article, that there are persons, by no means ill-disposed towards the church, who yet entertain an opinion that the clergy should not interfere in politics. Now although perhaps the intention of some of these persons may be good, yet nothing can be more easy than to prove that their opinion is altogether unfounded. In whatever light we view the question, the result will still indeed be the same. Situated as the clergyman is in this country, enabled to contract those domestic ties which connect him with the world, possessing ecclesiastical property, and very frequently private property as well, he is necessarily, from the nature of his position in society, brought into frequent contact with those around him, on temporal as well as spiritual subjects. He must take a part in the vestry meeting of his parish in order to protect the interests of the church of which he is a minister. He is almost, as it were, compelled to occupy offices of trust and authority connected with the local administration of the county in which he resides, which would otherwise, from the number of absentee proprietors, frequently be left vacant, or else filled by persons totally unfitted for them. And are not great benefits derived to the community at large from the occupation of such offices by the clergy? Who are so well adapted, as well from that liberal education which is indispensable to their profession, and still more from the softening and chastening influence of those holy precepts which

it is their sacred duty to preach, to execute those offices in a right and proper manner, to temper justice with mercy, and to invest the sternness of the magisterial character with the mild and subduing influence of the gospel of peace? But in addition to these employments, there are others more strictly political, in which the clergyman is obliged to bear a part. Whatever may be his inclination, however adverse he may be to mix in the bustle and excitement of an election, or of a popular meeting, such are the circumstances of the times, that he is compelled to give his vote at the one, and to lend the weight belonging to his station and character to the other. In better and more quiet times, when the altar and the throne were unassailed, such acts would have been entirely voluntary, and to have attended or to have staid away, would have equally perhaps depended upon himself; but in a difficult and perilous period like that in which we live. when blasphemy, revolution, and treason are stalking through the land, the case is far different. What was a matter of choice before, becomes one of imperative necessity now. Upon the vigorous exertions of the good and the true of all classes, whether clerical or lay, depend the safety and stability of the Church and the monarchy. To defend these whose interests are inseparably bound up together, the clergyman is drawn forth from the privacy and repose of his pastoral home, that he may give his suffrage at the hustings or in the town-hall; and he may not, he dare not, absent himself. Upon the suffrages of himself and his brethren, nay, perhaps, upon his single voice, may depend the return of a member of the legislature, whose single vote it is not improbable may turn the scale in a question affecting the gravest interests of the empire. Who then shall presume to blame him for such conduct? Who shall dare to arraign him at the bar of public opinion, for fulfilling the duties imposed upon him by education, social station and property, and still more by those circumstances of awful peril in which the monarchy, whose faithful and obedient subject he is, and the Holy Church of Christ, whose ordained minister he is, are now involved? And is it those who have compelled him by their conduct to take an active share in the affairs of his country, who shall now call him to account for so doing; is it those who have roused and stimulated the public mind with their schemes of change and confusion; who have assailed the Church and the throne, who have taken every opportunity of degrading religion in the person of her ministers, and who have used their utmost energies in endeavouring to abridge them of their endowments and privileges-is it they who shall attack the clergy for using the only means of defence which are left to them? Shall those who, by their insidious schemes and artifice, have placed the clergy in what they absurdly and unjustly term a false position, presume to blame them for the situation in which they stand? Such hypocrisy as this is disgusting. Their real motives are too apparent to escape the notice of the most superficial observer. They quarrel with the clergy for taking part in secular matters, and yet, if they had their will, they would deprive them of those endowments and privileges which enable them to

support their sacred character, [and would thus be the means of involving them still more in secular affairs. But their devices are seen through, their designs are penetrated, by the Church and her

members.

The motive which actuates them is not, as some of them would fain make us believe, an anxiety for the welfare of the Church, but a desire to overturn an institution which checks and controls them in the prosecution of their unhallowed schemes, and an eager wish to obtain a share in the plunder of her possessions. We may perhaps be charged with speaking too plainly; we care not-it is the duty of every one, in these critical times, to speak plainly in defence of the truth. We wish that our humble example might be imitated, and that every member of the Church would speak out boldly and plainly, when he hears the Church or her ministers assailed either in public or private meetings. It would be better both for the Church and for the country, of which she forms the greatest blessing, if such were the case. We will conclude with a parting admonition -would that it could be impressed deeply and firmly upon every mind!-A falsehood uncontradicted, assumes in time the semblance of truth.

ON THE TRINITY.-PART I.

IN these days, when so much diligence, earnestness, and zeal are employed by infidels in the propagation of their deformed and souldestroying doctrines, there should also be a similar desire upon the part of all true Christians, who love the Lord Jesus, to counteract their labours by spreading abroad the knowledge of the Lord, and exhibiting in all its beauty and harmony the truth as it is to be "found in Jesus." Infidelity, by its preachers, missionaries, and tracts, is striving to throw over the minds of the vast population of this mighty empire the blighting influence of its unhallowed tenets, and laying the axe to the root of that belief in God and his word, which sheds its beams upon the dark wilderness of life, and lights up with unearthly brilliancy the gloomy chambers of the grave. It seems strange that men can be found, who cavil at the mysteries of our faith, and boldly tell us that there is no Supreme Being, therefore we are not responsible in a future state. They laugh to scorn the Deity of the Redeemer, and the Personality of the Holy Ghost. And it is to be feared that they have drawn too many after them; and thus made them partakers in their own sin and wickedness. In every age, the best antidote to error has always been to compare it with truth: and the contrast has been so forcible and vivid, that many have been the conversions of the wandering to the true and peaceful fold. And I doubt not that the simple, yet beautiful and sublime doctrines of Christianity, plainly and faithfully brought before the unbeliever, will cause him to behold the Supreme Being, of whom he is yet ignorant, in all his majesty and glory. It is, moreover, our duty not only to bring back the strayed, but