hanced by the wealth which the industry and enterprise of the Armenians bring to the impoverished and lazy Turks. They are, therefore, appointed to all those situations which the Turks themselves are incapable of filling. They are the Masters of the Mint, and conduct the whole process of coining money; they are the "Saraffs," or bankers, who supply government and individuals with cash in all their embarrassments; they are the conductors of the very few manufac tures which exist in the empire; and they are the merchants who carry on the whole internal trade of Asia. They enjoy, however, a perilous protection: the very favour they are shewn is a snare for their destruction; for every man that acquires wealth by its means, knows that he holds his life only as long as the circumstance is unknown.

It is singular that the Armenians have never shewn the slightest sympathy or common feeling with their Christian brethren the Greeks. No Armenian has ever yet been found to join their cause, nor to assist it in any way, either by money or influence. Resembling Quakers, however, in many of their habits, they are, like them, a quiet, passive, sober people, and greatly averse to war. Besides this, there unfortunately exist some religious differences between them and the Greeks, which embitter their mutual feelings. The Greeks despise them for their timidity; and, arrogating to themselves exclusively the name of " Christians," they seem to exclude the Armenians from Christian community.

f The Armenians, though fond of religious books, have little taste for, or acquaintance with, general literature. They purchase with great avidity all the Bibles furnished by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Their patriarch sanctioned and encouraged a new edition of the New Testament, which the Rev. Mr. Leeves, the agent of the Bible Society, has had printed at an Armenian press at Constantinople; and I was encouraged to have a translation made into their language, of some of the Homilies of our Church, on account of the Homily Society in London, which I left in progress. They had early a printing-office attached to the Patriarchate, and another more recently established by a private company at Korou Chesme, in the neighbourhood of Constantinople. They have also a third which was set up at the convent of St. Lazare, in Venice, from whence has issued a number of books in their language. Their publications are, however, almost exclusively confined to books on religious subjects. I obtained a list of all the books printed at the patriarchal press, from the year 1697, the year of its establishment, to the end of the year 1823. It conveys a better idea of the literary taste and progress of the Armenians, than any other document could do. In a space of a hundred and twenty-five years, only fifty-two books were printed, but of each of these several editions. Fortyseven of them were commentaries on the Bible, sermons, books of prayer, lives of saints, hymns, and psalters, and a panegyric upon the angels. The five not on sacred subjects, were, "An Armenian Grammar," a " History of Etchmeasin," a "Treatise on Good Beha19biacon ito 2 R2 Why da

viour," a " Tract on Precious Stones," and a " Romance of the City of Brass."' pp. 55-60.

The Armenian language is read, like those of Europe, from left to right; but this is supposed to be a mode of writing adopted subsequently to their intercourse with Europeans, as no such writing is found on the coins or other ancient monu'ments of the country.' Its use is very limited. Dr. Walsh says, that he has met with many Armenians who could both read and write the Turkish and the Italian, but were unable to translate their own books. He intimates a sinister, foreboding respecting their rivals the Greeks, which, we devoutly trust, will prove to be only the fears of a friend, not the predictions of an augur.

We can make room for only one more extract, and it must be Mr. Stebbing's beautiful poem entitled,

THE CHANGE.

My spirit was sad when evening fell
Around my infant home;

There was a voice that seemed to tell
Of griefs that were to come-
Of friends whose parting word should be
A long and last farewell to me-
Of change, forgetfulness, and woe,
Blighting what hearts were left to glow,
'I stood where years before I stood-
Before that early home;

The winter's whelming torrent-flood
Had flung not there its foam;

Nor there had war with crimson hand
Hurled in his wrath the flaming brand;
Nor pestilence nor famine raved,
Nor tyranny the land enslaved.

• But there the hand of time had wrought
That perishing change on all,

Which leaves but for the brooding thought
The ruin ere the fall;

Making the heart's deep pulse to be

A warning of eternity,

And love for things of earth to seem

The wasted music of a dream.

The flowers had perished not, but grew
Less floridly and bright;

They had not that same living hue,
That odorous breath of light,

Which was around them when each stem
Bloomed for the hand that planted them,

And every thing beside was gay,

And full of young sweet health as they.

And there were all the things the eye ni
Had registered within the breast,
Wearing the same reality,

But not the charm of old possessed;
And where another's eye had seen
But little change in what had been,
To me, time seemed with quicker tread
His desolating hand to spread.

My heart had borne the blight and storm,
The toil of many years;

But there was round the darkest form

That woe or peril wears,

No gloom so deep as that which pressed
Heavily on the aching breast,

When hope its long-sought home surveyed,
And found each home-loved thing decayed.
• 'Tis not the retrospective glance
Adown the stream of years,

That makes us scorn the dizzy dance
Of earthly hopes and fears;

It is the change of things we love

For their sakes who are now above

The change of things whose forms are wrought.

Into that linked chain of thought.'

We regret to notice several typographical inaccuracies. A stanza in the first page is ruined by the substitution of caves for coves.

Farewell the wild coves of thy desolate shore,

Where the cliffs but re-echo the Triton's dread roar;
But there the free bark the proud Pasha defies,
And the Mainote exults o'er his Mussulman prize.’

Taken as a whole, this elegant miscellany does great credit to the taste and spirit of the Editor. The embellishments are decidedly superior to those in the former volume, and are very beautifully executed.

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Art. VII. 1. Sermons, delivered, chiefly, in the Chapel of the East India College. By the Rev. Charles Webb Le Bas, A.M. Professor of Mathematics, in the E. I. College, Hertfordshire, Rector of St. Paul, Shadwell, &c. 8vo. pp. 416. Price 10s. 6d. Lon-; don. 1822. bm .qh 2. Seventeen Sermons, by the Rev. Hugh McNeile, A.M. Rector ofi Albury, Surrey, Chaplain to H. E. the Lord Lieut. of Ireland, and to H. G. the Archbishop of Dublin. 8vo. pp. 440. Price 12s London. 1825.

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3. Parochial Sermons, by the Rev. W. Wilson, D:D. Rector of Church Oakley, Hants, &c. 8vo. pp. 404. Oxford. 1826.11nt THE resurrection of pulpit eloquence within consecrated walls is a marked feature of the present times, and its consequences are already perceptible in the new moral impulse which has been communicated in many circles by this powerful organ. The church that neglects to avail itself of this means of influence, or that does not cherish and cultivate a genuine pulpit oratory, is as blind to its own interests as it is forgetful of its duty. Yet, till within comparatively a recent period, no preaching was to be heard within the Church of England that deserved the name. Any thing approaching to eloquence was tacitly proscribed and effectually discountenanced as partaking of the character of enthusiasm. This prejudice has not ceased to operate. It affords too convenient a protection for incapacity and indolence to be abandoned without reluctance, There is something in talent, in eloquence more especially, which savours of a republican independence, a democratic energy, hostile to the repose of privileged mediocrity, and subversive of the claims derived from precedence, routine, interest, and prescriptive right. Preaching is an appeal to the people, though it be in the character of an instructor. It requires a species of competency, for which our cient seats of learning have neglected to provide. On these and other accounts, it has been regarded as unworthy the patronage of the powers of Church and State. Now and then, such a one as Horsley could break through the fashion of dullness; and in his hands, that most tame and inane thing, as it had become, the sermon, resumed, in some measure, its force and dignity. But such instances were rare and few; and the contrast, in respect to any display of mind, between the English bar and senate and the English Church, has been, and still continues to a great extent, most singular and striking. -What is to induce a man who depends for no portion of his income, consideration, or respectability upon any intellectual effort, who may even offend those whose good opinion he

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values, by any insurrection of talent against customary forms and usage, who knows that his advancement will be impeded, rather than promoted by the semblance of fervour and zeal,what is to induce him to waste his oil upon preparation for the pulpit, and to throw his serious efforts into a composition that is to perish with the utterance? We admit that other and purer motives ought to guide and animate the Preacher/but he may be very conscientious, and yet, may content himself with a very indolent discharge of his duty. We admit, too, that the conversion of the sinner and the regeneration of the heart, are not to be accomplished by the efficiency of human eloquence or man's wisdom. But preaching is, as Hooker terms it, the blessed ordinance of God,' the most powerful instrument ever devised for ruling, and instructing, and softening the minds of men. It may be abused and misdirected, but the interests of society cannot be promoted by its being reduced to a nullity through the trammels of a false taste, and a dull, heartless formality. We rejoice, then, unfeignedly, that there are appearances of its assuming new life and energy in the pulpits of the Establishment, even though it should prove disadvantageous-and it will be their own fault if it does-to the cause of the Dissenters. That the multitudes who attend the parish church should be effectively taught, is a consideration that might serve to reconcile us even to a slight diminu tion of the numbers who attend upon what we may deem the more evangelical ministry. But this diminution will not take place, except as Dissenters suffer themselves to fall behind in the genuine qualifications of the Christian pastor and instructor.

From among a number of volumes, with the multiplication of which we find it impossible to keep pace, we have selected these three, as seeming to claim, though on different grounds, distinct notice. The first of the three has been for some time before the public, but as it had escaped our notice, it will probably be new to most of our readers. It belongs to a class of pulpit compositions, with which we are assuredly not overstocked, sermons excellently, though not exclusively, adapted to the higher classes. These were for the most part addressed to the young men in the East India College; and though not originally designed for publication, have evidently been com posed, as the Author states, under a deep and constant sense of the solemn responsibility attached to the office of training men to fulfil a momentous destination in this life, and to 'stand before the presence of their God in that which is to come. The Sermons are fraught with the most important instruction, conveyed in a style uniformly chaste, perspicuous, and unaffected, and not unfrequently rising into a most im