our enlightened peasantry and la houring classes, ever appeared be fore the public. In consequence of reading that paper, the following pages are humbly submitted to the religious public of Scotland, who are so well acquainted with every acknowledged superiority in our people."

sants, whose principles are formed on the Bible, and whose noble elevation of conduct declares, amidst all the toils and trials of their lot, that they are living under the influence of genuine godliness.

The interest which the perusal of this note excited in our minds, induced us to lose no time in making ourselves acquainted with the contents of the volume, that we might ascertain whether it was worthy of its subject, and of the circumstances to which it owes its origin. We pretend not to be free of national predilections; nor do we deem it at all necessary to be wholly divested of these, in order to form an impartial judgment of the merits of a production that is purely national. He who knows. the standard of true excellence is not in danger of overlooking what is defective, though it should appear in a work to the subject of which he is partial. So it was with us. Acquainted with the manner and habits of our peasantry, we were prepared to estimate the accuracy of the delineations here given of them, and to determine whether they are in part or in whole a true picture of the original. We did not look for any thing new or surprising, but for a concise representation of what has been, in some degree, familiar to us from our infancy, of Scotchmen dressed in their proper garb, speaking their vernacular language, thinking, and feeling, and acting in a style becoming the manly sense, the hightoned integrity, the dignified simplicity, of the national character. Such were our ideas of true Scottish excellence; and we leave it to the readers of this volume to judge whether they are not realized in the character of Robert Johnstone-the specimen given of those of our pea

The object of the volume is evidently to show the evil tendency of. radicalism, to expose its absurd and ruinous principles, to point out its pernicious effects on the characters and lives of its deluded votaries, and to make it appear that genuine patriotism, and true virtue, are to be found only with those whose loyalty is derived from the gospel, and whose hearts are under the influence of that faith and holiness which characterize every sincere, believer. This object is accomplished not by formal lectures on morals or divinity; but by scenes drawn from real life. The description is, in many instances, highly picturesque and lively. We think the author particularly happy in the view given of the extreme wretchedness of the infidel radical's mind. when in peril of shipwreck, and when, without hope, and without God, in. the world, he began to feel his guilt and his responsibility, and in so near a prospect of death and eternity, to dread his merited punishment. Equally just and vivid is the picture of consternation presented by the radicals of Glasgow, when, panic-struck, they fled into.' their skulking places, and attempted to elude the search of their pursuers.

We have repeatedly expressed our abhorrence at radicalism, in whatever form it appears. We are satisfied that it is essentially op posed in its character and tendency to the principles of true liberty, as well as of virtue and piety. The spirit which it breathes is the spirit of error and delusion. Wickedness is its essence, whatever be the garb it assumes. This being our con viction, we cordially recommend

this little volume as one which, in our opinion, is well calculated to counteract the tendency of radical principles, and to guard the ignorant and simple against those artful representations which would rob them of all that is worth possessing either here or hereafter. We recommend it especially to those whose views of loyalty are contrary to the Scriptures, who talk as if evangelical piety were subversive of all order and government, and who lend all their patronage to the upholding of a system which is rotten at its bone, and which, whatever they may think of it, is one fertile source of that very radicalism against which they so hardly declaim. We give it as our decided opinion, that to rear and maintain an enlightened, a virtuous, a pious, a sound, loyal, and patriotic peasantry, we must imbue them with the spirit that animated the venerable hero of this work. On

Anna Ross, a story for Children. By the Author of Decision, Profession is not Principle, Father Clement, &c. Oliphant. Edinburgh.

We are extremely happy again to meet with the author of Decision, and to find her inculcating the great truths of the gospel in the same masterly strain in the volume before us, as she has done in those preceding it. Its object, we are told in the introduction to the work, is "to assist religious parents in impressing the important truth on the minds of their children, that this life is only a portion of time,

VOL. XXIII. NO. V.

short and rapid in its progress, in which the one thing needful' is to prepare for the eternity that shall follow." The author takes occasion to remark the aptness of parents, while at the same time they instruct their children in all the doctrines and duties of Christianity, to allow at times the concerns of life to shade in insignificance those of eternity, and to consider it as a matter of friendship that their children should forego, for the sake of religion, any advantage esteemed by the world. This she supposes the cause why so many children grow up in an entire knowledge of their spiritual duties, but fail in the regular, conscientious, and lasting discharge of these. "And were,” she adds, "religious parents more single-hearted in obeying the precept, Train up a child in the way he should go,' they might more confidently trust to the fulfilment of the promise, and when he is old he will not depart therefrom.""

That these remarks are just is what many a conscience bears testimony to. And with the able au thor, we are fully of opinion that to this source is to be traced much of the irreligion of the present day. How anxiously do we see parents schooling their children into all the punctilios of polite manners, and instructing them with the minutest care in every branch of knowledge which is supposed to constitute a liberal education, who yet content themselves with devoting a very small portion of their time indeed to those awful truths on which depends their everlasting destiny! And when children perceive their parents entering with lively concern into every scheme of worldly aggrandizement, and manifesting a comparative indifference about their eternal interests, what conclusion can they draw, but that the concerns of eternity are of secondary

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importance to those of time? And O! are there not many children who have drawn such a conclusion from the conduct of their parents, and have fully acted up to it, who are now the determined votaries of this world's pleasures, and are travelling on to eternity as unconcerned about its awful realities, as if they were the phantoms of their own creation?

To remedy this glaring evil is what the author of the present volume proposes to herself. And she has made a most interesting story the vehicle of her instructions. When the story, indeed, is stated in its naked simplicity, it is extremely artless and somewhat fantastic. It is simply this. Anna Ross, the heroine of the tale, was the only daughter of pious parents. Her father, an officer in the army, was killed at the battle of Waterloo. Her mother, who at that time lived in Edinburgh, having heard of his being amongst the number of the wounded, kindly undertook a voyage to him, for the purpose of alleviating his distress by the assiduity of her attentions. But just as they arrived at the spot where they were informed he lay-they met his funeral! The fatigue which the mother had necessarily undergone during her voyage, and the wound which this melancholy and unexpected sight inflicted on her feelings, concurred in bringing about her death.

Anna being now left an orphan, returned to Scotland, where, by the will of her parent, she was to reside for six months with each of two uncles, and then to decide with which of them she would choose personally to take up her abode. One of them, a squire, was a man devoid of all religious principlethe other, a minister, was a man of devoted piety, and of the sternest consistency of moral character. An

na being a girl of a pious turn of mind, preferred the simple and unaccommodating manners, together with the strict religious discipline of the clergyman and his family, to the giddy revelry, starched politeness, and looseness of religious opinion and practice of the squire and his family, and accordingly chose to remain with the former in preference to the latter.

This story, artless and unaffecting though it may appear when thus stated, the ingenious author has contrived to invest with the greatest possible interest, and to throw around it such a charm as will altogether captivate the youthful mind. Partial, however, though we are to the work, we cannot but object to the abruptness of the conclusion. We are far from expecting her return to her uncle Murray's was to terminate our acquaintance with the pious and amiable Anna. We expected to have been allowed to follow her through many blissful scenes of future life-to have seen her continuing steadfast in the path of Christian duty-and above all, to have seen her triumphing in the faith of the gospel, over the terrors of the last enemy-to have heard her exclaiming in the emphatic language of the Psalmist, "O death where is thy sting; O grave where is thy victory!" But this the imagination of the reader is left to supply. We cannot, however, avoid viewing it as a desideratum in the tale, and as robbing it of not a little of its worth and interest.

The work is written in a style simple, yet elegant-equally free from laboured beauty, and slovenly coarseness of expression.

We earnestly recommend it to parents and guardians, especially to such as have been accustomed to allow the concerns of life to preponderate over those of eternity, in their instruction of those committed to