systems, and lavish a flood of tenderness on each individual of their teeming population.

Keep all this in view, and you cannot fail to perceive how the principle, so finely and so copiously illustrated in this chapter, may be brought to meet the infidelity we have thus long been employed in combating. It was nature-and the experience of every bosom will affirm it-it was nature in the shepherd to leave the ninety and nine of his flock forgotten and alone in the wilderness, and betaking himself to the mountains, to give all his labour and all his concern to the pursuit of one solitary wanderer. It was nature; and we are told in the passage before us, that it is such a portion of nature as belongs not merely to men, but to angels. When the woman, with her mind in a state of listlessness as to the nine pieces of silver that were in secure custody, turned the whole force of her anxiety to the one piece which she had lost, and for which she had to light a candle, and to sweep the house, and to search diligently until she found it, it was nature in her to rejoice more over that piece than over all the rest of them, and to tell it abroad among friends and neighbours, that they might rejoice along with her; ay, and sadly effaced as humanity is in all her original lineaments, this is a part of our nature the very movements of which are experienced in heaven, 'where there is more joy over one sinner that repenteth, than over ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance.' For anything I know, the every planet that rolls in the immensity around me may be a land of righteousness, and be a member of the household of God, and have her secure dwelling-place within that ample limit which embraces His great and universal family. But I know at least of one wanderer; and how woefully she has strayed from peace and from purity; and how in dreary alienation from Him who made her, she has bewildered herself amongst those many devious tracts which have carried her afar from the path of immortality; and how sadly tarnished all those beauties and felicities are, which promised, on that morning of her existence

ment of what constitutes an abuse may, and probably will, differ from that of many who require alterations in the law and institutions of this country. I may sometimes doubt whether that is abuse which is so designated. I may sometimes doubt whether the evil of the remedy is not greater than that of the disease. If I entertain that opinion, I will avow it, in spite of its temporary unpopularity; but I shall approach the consideration of an alleged abuse with a firm belief that, if the allegation be true, a government gains ten times more strength by correcting an admitted evil than they could by maintaining it, if it were possible to maintain it. I have interfered much too long with the proper object of this convivial meeting, and will bring my interruption to a close. [Loud cries of 'No, no; go on, go on,' here issued from every part of the room. The right honourable baronet then proceeded.]

Notwithstanding all the ominous predictions of our inability to carry on the Government, I own to you that I do entertain the greatest confidence that those predictions will not be verified, and that the representatives of the country will not refuse to give to the King's ministers a FAIR TRIAL. A few weeks only can elapse before the experiment will be made. I am not alarmed at the lists that are published, dividing the members of Parliament into 'Conservatives' and 'Reformers.' I cannot but think that many of those who are classed as reformers entertain opinions not far different from my own; and every hour that passes will, I doubt not, increase the disposition to take a calmer view of the principles upon which we propose to act. If the public and the representatives of this country are convinced that we are desirous of maintaining our national institutions, and of improving them, with a view to their maintenance, I do not believe that they will lend themselves to any factious opposition to the king's Government. The people of England are anxious, I believe, to preserve, in their full integrity, the prerogatives of their ancient monarchy. They are anxious to maintain the free and inde

pendent action of every branch of the legislature; they are anxious to maintain the Church and its connection with the State, less for any civil or secular object than because they believe the maintenance of the Established Church to be the best security for the maintenance of that faith which they profess, and the surest bulwark against infidelity on the one hand, and fanaticism on the other. They will support the Church on high grounds of religious feeling and principle, in which even many, who do not conform to all the doctrines of the Church, may cordially and zealously concur. This object I, for one, am determined to maintain. But it is quite consistent with that object to relieve any real grievance, and to remove any civil disadvantage under which those who do not concur in the doctrines of the Established Church may labour. My opinion is that with that course, coupled with a sincere desire to promote rational and well-matured improvement, the people of England will be content: nay more, that of that course they will cordially approve.

As for myself, whatever may be the result, I regard it without any feelings of anxiety or apprehension; I have no object of personal ambition to gratify, and, whatever else I may lose, I cannot lose the consolation of having acted on a sense of public duty at a period of great difficulty. If I succeed, I shall have the satisfaction of thinking that I have succeeded against great obstacles and amid the most confident predictions of failure. I BELIEVE THAT I SHALL SUCCEED. I have that confidence in a good cause,-I have that confidence in the success of good intentions,-that I believe that a majority of the representatives of England will be satisfied with the measures which I shall propose, and that they will lend their support and co-operation in carrying them into effect. But, gentlemen, if I am mistaken; if, after having exerted myself to the utmost in that great cause in which I am engaged; if, having nothing to upbraid myself with, I shall nevertheless fail,-then, I do assure you, so far as my personal feelings are concerned, I shall relinquish the powers, emoluments, and

distinctions of office with any feelings rather than those of mortification and regret. I shall find ample compensation for the loss of office; I shall return to pursuits quite as congenial to my taste and feelings as the cares and labours of office; I shall feel the full force of the sentiments which are applied by the poet to the hardy natives of the Alpine regions:

'As the loud torrent and the whirlwind's roar,

But bind him to his native mountains more!'

so shall I feel that the angry contentions and collisions of political life will but bind me the more to this place, not, indeed, the place of my nativity, but dearer to me than the place of my nativity-by every early recollection and association, and by the formation of those first friendships, which have remained uninterrupted to this hour. I shall return hither to do what good I can in a more limited sphere, and with humbler powers of action to encourage local improvement, to enjoy the opportunities of friendly intercourse, and to unite with you in promoting good fellowship, and a spirit of conciliation and mutual good-will in that society, to the bosom of which I shall return.

R

EDWARD IRVING.

EV. EDWARD IRVING was born August 15, 1792, at Annan, in Scotland, where his father was a tanner. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, and took the degree of M.A. He assisted during 1811 in a mathematical school at Haddington, and at Kirkcaldy he became rector of an academy. In 1815 he was licensed as a preacher. He acted as assistant to Dr. Chalmers in Glasgow for three years, when he received a unanimous call to a Presbyterian Chapel in Cross Street, Hatton Garden. An empty church was speedily filled, and the rank, fashion, and talent of the time were all represented in his crowded audiences. The chapel, which, at his arrival, did not count more than fifty hearers, had, at the end of three months, 1500 applicants for sittings. A new church was built in Regent Square, capable of accommodating at least 2000 persons. A charge of heresy was brought against Irving at a meeting of the Presbytery of London, November 20, 1830. Among other religious extravagances which he had introduced, was that of speaking in unknown tongues, which had originated among some females in Glasgow, and which had been transferred to his own church. The finding of the Presbytery being against him, the trustees of the church in Regent Square deposed him in 1832. He was deposed from the ministry by the Presbytery of Annan in 1833. Irving caught cold on a journey to Scotland, which developed into consumption, and he died on the evening of Sunday, December 6, 1834, and