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of a prevalent disbelief in the sacrament of baptism in this country; the somewhat invidious comparison between the piety of the Protestants and Roman Catholics - the number and quality of conversions made by Bishop Cheverus in this country his triumphant public disputations in defence of his faith, etc. It is not strange the author, writing at a distance from us, should have adopted and given these impressions.

17. The Life of George Washington. By JARED SPARKS. Boston: 1839. Ferdinand Andrews. 8vo. pp. 562.

THE admirable biography which constitutes the first of Mr. Spark's twelve volumes of "The Life and Writings of WASHINGTON," is now published as above, in a separate and beautiful form, worthy of the Boston press, of the author, and his immortal theme. It contains the various illustrations dispersed through the larger work, and is enriched with several new and precious portrait sketches. We have looked a second time through this faithful and interesting narrative, with deep satisfaction. It has freshened our conviction, that never was a period so accurately chronicled, never men so truly and impartially portrayed, as the times and heroes of our revolution. Each line of the volume is matter of authentic and significant history, and we feel that we may trust ourselves in it, without fear of bias from prepossession or prejudice. Great as are his country's obligations towards our just and indefatigable historian, he has a still larger- an increasing claim compounding against posterity, whom he has furnished with a text book of enlightened patriotism, for all future ages, and this must be, next to the pleasure of this labour, the highest reward.

18. A Dictionary of the Church, containing an Exposition of Terms, Phrases, and Subjects, connected with the external Order, Sacraments, Worship, and Usages of the Frotestant Episcopal Church, with an especial reference to the Church in the United States. By the Rev. WILLIAM STAUNTON. New York: 1839. L. Sherman.

12mo. pp. 474.

It

WE have heard of such a thing as "putting the best foot foremost.' The interesting and useful little companion now at our elbow, has made our acquaintance after a very different sort. promises less than it performs, and performs at the outset much less creditably, usefully, and accurately, than through the rest of its

career.

In truth, whosoever should judge of the "Dictionary of the Church," by the perusal only of its title, and the first six articles,

would get a very inaccurate, and we fear, a rather unfavorable notion of its contents. The preface, if he should so far eschew the practice of readers in general as to look at it, might indeed induce him to go farther, by its modest statement of the author's sufficient reasons for his undertaking, and its rather inviting exposition of the promise of the title. Once led on, if a churchman, he must be a sorry one- if no churchman, very deficient in the organ of curiosity, were not his interest increased, and his expectation in like proportion, as he turned leaf after leaf.

It is plain that Mr. Staunton has written and compiled in some haste. He has conceived a good plan, and at once struck off the work. Happy man that he is, he has fallen upon a want in the world of books, and, as well he might, he has been fain, even to the degree of haste, to fill it up. We are in no disposition to complain at the traces of this haste, discernible in many parts of his production. There is time enough to mend them in the future editions to which it is destined, and there are sufficiently clear indications of disposition and ability to do it. In the meanwhile, the thousands in every part of our country who are eager to learn just what Mr. Staunton means to teach them, and what not one in the thousand knows where else to go to learn, will have here their money's worth, and a great deal more, of information about the peculiar constitution, claims, tenets, usages, forms, and language, of one of the most notice-worthy religious communities around them.

The excellence of this book, consists in no slight degree in what it is not. It is not a theological dictionary of definitions and references, scrambling over the whole ground of doctrinal discussion and religious controversy. It is not a dictionary of the bible, to explain words and things, history, topography, zoology, etymology, philology, and biography. [By the by, of this last, we think there is a touch or two, here and there, more than was needful. Mr. Staunton's readers hardly stand in want of the scriptural history of Peter and John, and James and Andrew, etc. even ever so much condensed.] It is not an encyclopædia of religious knowledge, pretending to do every thing, and doing nothing well; caricaturing churches, sects, and doctrines, of which it knows little and understands less, or else placing side by side the statements and counter-statements of jarring denominations, with no clue to lead the embarrassed reader out of the dingy labyrinths of discordances.

Yet it is as free from the narrowness and rigidity of a system, as from the dryness of an index. It is, indeed, a non-descript, and we like it therefor all the better. Uneven in style, and not a little irregular in method, it has much of the ease and life of conversation, with some of its windings and disparities. Now warm, now cool; here discursive, and there brief; now argumentative, and anon sedately didactic, or simply narrative. Mr. Staunton has something for the reader in any mood, and variety for all.

Such a book is emphatically a book for the people, and, above all, for our people. It was meant for them, and it suits them. Its very faults adapt it to its purpose, and we would not give it unity, uniformity, and concinnity, if we could.

There are, if we count aright, six hundred and ninety-five articles and eighty-six references, under as many words, to subjects elsewhere treated. The articles vary in length, from eight pages to a single line; in character, from a dissertation on baptism or Sunday Schools, to the explanation of an obsolete word in the Homilies, or a technical term in the calendar. With some we are exceedingly pleased. Some give views on which there are differences of opinion among churchmen, and on which we sometimes differ from the writer, but without harshness, or impropriety of tone. A few, in our judgment, (mostly relative to peculiarities of the Romish Church,) are redundant - many would admit of condensation, without changing the plan or character of the work. Many more require additions, and some would be the better for a reference or two. A little ambitious language here and there, (and, withal, in the heat of argument, it may be full as strong as was necessary,) (e. g. p. 29,) would bear pruning. That convenient little time-andlabour-saving particle, "&c." shows itself too often, and might, with advantage, give place, occasionally, to an enumeration of the particulars which it represents. The phrase "American Church" is now and then used, to signify our church; a term so high-sounding and general, might as well, perhaps, to prevent mistakes, and for other reasons, be laid aside. On the other hand, our neighbors who commune with Rome, are, in a few instances, designated by the incongruous and self-contradictory epithet Roman Catholic. Mr. Staunton is too well read in church history and church law not to know that the adherents to the Council of Trent and the creed of Pius IV. have placed themselves in schism. Why then allow them (and that, too, under the head "Catholic Church") a title to which they have no right, and which they abuse to the purpose of exclusive claims, as preposterous as they are appalling?

But we must have done with fault-finding, in which we indulge the more freely, because the book and author are so well able to bear it. If sound learning, without pedantry, a frank avowal, and staunch maintenance of principle, without bigotry, and a clear consistent statement of views too often vilified because they are misunderstood, and undervalued because they are not comprehended; if to have made the standards of his church more valuable to those who receive them, and more accessible to those who are ignorant concerning them, and to have furnished their history and a commentary, without the tediousness of the one or the dulness of the other; if to have embodied in a few pages, and sometimes lines, the spirit of the works of Hooker, Barrow, Comber, Bingham, and Palmer; if to have mingled, without confusion, antiquarian lore and modern

observation, theoretical discussion and practical directions, historical research and apologetic arguments; if these entitle an author to praise, then is it richly deserved at our hands by Mr. Staunton. Let the reader buy the book for himself, and another for his neighbor, and, after reading and consultation, give a different verdict if he can!

19. My Niece; or, The Stranger's Grave. New York: 1839. Edward Walker. pp. 279.

A deeply afflicting story of guilt, and sorrow, and death-well written, and impressing strongly the salutary admonition to beware of the first beginnings of sin. It is published in a very handsome style, and is a book to be commended for its literary merit, and still more for its moral tendency.

20. Introductory Lecture, delivered at the opening of the Albany Medical College, January 2, 1839. By DAVID MEREDITH REESE, A. M., M. D. Albany: 1839. 8vo. pp. 44.

THE Occasion which gave origin to the present discourse, is one of no inconsiderable importance. The organization and establishment, by charter, of another medical school for the state of NewYork, is a subject which, in its several relations, is well calculated to awaken many and somewhat unpleasant associations in the minds of those who have been attentive to the history of our medical institutions. That room exists for the establishment of additional means for the advancement of this department of liberal studies, can hardly admit of doubt; the capital, at Albany, is well calculated for the experiment, and embraces, within itself, many circumstances favorable to the undertaking. Dr. Reese, whose late work under the ludicrous title of Humbugs, awakened some curiosity by his intrepid exposition of many popular delusions, exhibits, in the present performance, a like spirit of independent thinking, and urges, with earnestness, the claims of the new college to public countenance and support. Ardently is it to be hoped that the experiment may have a fair chance of enlisting the support of a community, whose happiness is so largely dependent on the diffusion of sound practice in the healing art; and the best means to facilitate so desirable an object, is a becoming pecuniary provision by legislative bounty.

ART. XIII.-QUARTERLY CHRONICLE.

POLITICAL EVENTS.-Winter is the season which, in our country, commonly affords the richest harvest for the political chronicler; the national and most of the state legislatures being in session, it is the time for the discussion of all questions affecting our foreign rela tions and our general welfare at home; and many of these are often of great moment. We have, therefore, carefully watched the proceedings of all these bodies during their recent sessions, but we find them unusually sterile in matters of interest. Congress came together at the stated time, the President's Message, taking the usual survey of the affairs of the nation, was communicated and read their ordinary business proceedings were entered upontheir daily sittings were continued for three months, at the end of which, the members received their pay, and their time having expired, they adjourned. This is the substance of its history. The abolition question, which for several past years has been a great consumer of time, was early settled, on constitutional principles, by Mr. Atherton's resolutions, and was afterwards rarely called up the sub-treasury scheme, the favorite measure of the administration, which had been again strongly recommended by the President in his opening message, and was brought forward by Mr. Wright in a new shape, was not adopted the bill to reduce and graduate the price of the public lands, after having been carried in the senate by a vote of twenty-seven in favor to twenty-two against, was lost in the house by a small majority-thirty-two acts, of a public nature, were passed, mostly on subjects of ordinary legislation; of three connected with the encouragement of industry and protection of public morals, one was an addition to an act to promote the progress of the useful arts, one to abolish imprisonment for debt in certain cases, and the other to prohibit the giving or accepting, within the District of Columbia, of a challenge to fight a duel, and for the punishment thereof. The subject of highest interest that occupied the attention of the national legislature, was the defalcations of officers having charge of the public moneys-particularly of the late collector of New York. A committee of investigation was appointed by the House of Representatives, and the result of their examination proves the most culpable negligence, to speak of it in the mildest language, on the part of the functionaries appointed to watch over the national treasury, and it proves deep-dyed corruption and fraud somewhere. Towards the close of the session, another subject of a very different nature, but of no less interest, de

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