remark more just than that of Mr Hallam, that the greater part of the literature of the middle ages may be considered as artillery levelled against the clergy. Of the second great fact-the hopelessness of any effective internal reform-history leaves us in as little doubt. The heart itself was the chief seat of disease; reformation must have commenced where corruption was most inveterate: nor, until certain great principles should be reclaimed, and the Bible and its truths restored-a result necessarily fatal to a system which was founded on their perversion, and which was safe only in their suppression-could any reformation be either radical or permanent. It would be as nugatory as that which was sometimes directed against subordinate parts of the system-Monachism for instance. Again and again did reformation strive to purify that institute, and as often, after running through the same cycle of precisely similar changes, did it fall into the same corruptions. Each new Order commenced with the profession, often with the reality, of voluntary poverty and superior austerity, and ended, as supposed sanctity brought wealth and power, in all the concatenated vices of the system. The reason is obvious; its principles were vicious, and hence the rapidity and uniformity of the decline-one of the most remarkable and instructive phenomena of ecclesiastical history. That which is crooked cannot be made straight;' and if man will attempt even a style of supposed virtue for which God never constituted him, he will meet with the same recompense as attends every other violation of the divine laws. 6 For similar reasons, nothing but the recovery of principles fatal to the Papal System could be expected to effect the Reformation; and these the champions of that system could not be expected to busy themselves about. An usurper will hardly abdicate his own throne-however wrongfully gained. Any reform which had merely touched externals, and left the essence of the system what it was, would have been useless; the Church would soon have fallen back, like the purified forms of monasticism, into its ancient corruptions. Nor was it amongst the least proofs of the sagacity of Luther, that he so early perceived, and so systematically contended, that a reformation of doctrine the restoration of evangelic truth-was essential to every other reform.-But in fact, even the most moderate reforms, owing to the corruption of Rome itself, and its interest in their maintenance, were all but hopeless. Often did the Papal Court admit its own delinquencies, and as often evade their correction. The Papal concessions on this point, were a perpetual source of triumph to Luther and the Reformers. Even when a Pope really sought some amendments, he found it impossible to resist the influences around him. Adrian, the successor of the refined and luxurious Leo, gave infinite disgust by the severity of his manners, and his sincere desire to see some sort of reformation; and his long catalogue of abuses which he wished to be corrected, delivered in at the diet of Nuremburg, (and inconsistently accompanied with loud calls for the violent suppression of the Reformation,) was never forgiven by his own adherents. "The Church,' said he, stands in need of a reformation, but we must 'take one step at a time.' Luther sarcastically remarked-'The Pope advises that a few centuries should be permitted to intervene between the first and second step.' 6 Hence we may see the comparative futility of the small timeserving expedients of Erasmus. His satire, bitter as it was, was not directed against the heart of the system-he waged war only with the Friars. Not that we undervalue his labour: as a pioneer he was invaluable. Nor, if we except Luther, Melanethon, and Zwingle, do we know any man who really effected so much for the cause of the Reformation. The labours of Luther and himself terminated in one result; the streams, however different, flowed at last in one channel Ubi Rhodanus ingens amne prærapido fluit Such are our deliberate views of the character, labours, and triumphs of Luther. We have been the more copious in our account of them, that we may do what in us lies to honour his memory, at a period when there is a large party of degenerate Protestants, who, not content with denying the unspeakable benefits which he conferred upon mankind, have not hesitated to speak of him with contempt and contumely, and in some cases to question the honesty of his motives and the sincerity of his religion! * 'Some of the Oxford men,' says Dr Arnold, now commonly ' revile Luther as a bold bad man; how surely they would have reviled Paul.'-Life and Correspondence. Vol. ii. p. 250. ART. IV. The Bokhara Victims. By CAPTAIN Grover, Unattached, F.R.S. 8vo. London: 1845. THE HERE is not, we presume, an intelligent person in this country who has not felt a deep interest in the fate of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly. These two distinguished officers, while employed on friendly missions in central Asia, were seized, imprisoned, and treated with the greatest barbarity by the sovereign of Bokhara. Various and conflicting rumours kept up for some time a feeling of painful suspense, till at length all hope seemed to be extinguished by what appeared to be authentic intelligence, that they had both been slaughtered by order of the ruler, to advance whose interests had been one of their primary objects in proceeding to his court. -Most of our readers are no doubt also aware that Captain Grover-altogether disbelieving the evidence which had satisfied the British envoy in Persia, and her Majesty's ministers in England, that Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly had been put to death in Bokhara-maintained that they were probably still alive. Having been permitted to examine all the documents in the Foreign Office which could aid him in arriving at a right conclusion on the question, and finding his previous opinion rather strengthened than weakened by this examination, he set to work with great activity and energy to devise and provide the means of rescuing them from bondage. He made his opinions known through the press, appealed to the public for assistance, and called a meeting in London to concert measures and to raise a subscription. In the mean time, Dr Wolff, the well-known Missionary, who concurred with Captain Grover in believing that the two captive officers were still alive, gallantly volunteered his services to go to Bokhara to ascertain the truth; and, if the intelligence of their murder was unfounded, to effect, if possible, the release of the prisoners. Captain Grover's original intention had been to undertake this mission himself; but Lord Aberdeen having declined to provide him with the credentials from the Queen to the King of Bokhara which he considered necessary to his success and his personal safety, he abandoned the enterprise to Dr Wolff, who had visited Bokhara some years before, as a Missionary. The Reverend Doctor, to his infinite credit, has accomplished this arduous undertaking; and, having escaped the perils of the journey and the fate of those whom he sought to rescue, has returned to England. He has ascertained, as fully as such a fact can well be ascertained, that the original intelligence of the murder of these two meritorious officers is substantially correct; and we perceive that he is about to publish by subscription an account of his journey, in which we conclude the ample evidence he has collected will be fully detailed. It may be enough here to state, that the fact of the murder was admitted by the Ameer of Bokhara himself, who even attempted to justify the proceeding on considerations of state policy. But Captain Grover had been labouring zealously at home while the Doctor was encountering dangers abroad; and the Captain is not a man to hide his light under a bushel. Had he awaited the return of his friend, there might have been some clashing of interest, if not of facts and opinions, between the rival publications. He therefore puts forth, with prudent promptitude, before the arrival of the Reverend Doctor, an account of the proceedings of his own department, which we may call the home, Dr Wolff's being the foreign. With great forbearance, and a strict observance of this division of duties, he gives us little accurate or authentic information that had not before been made public respecting the two unfortunate men, whose history was so full of melancholy interest. This, we presume, he leaves to Dr Wolff. Neither does he enlighten our ignorance on the social condition of the people of Bokhara, or on any thing else connected with the country or its sovereign; though every one must desire to know something more of the people amongst whom such scenes are enacted, and of the man who maintains his authority over them in spite of, or by means of such atrocities. This no doubt he reserved for the separate work he is said to be preparing on the politics of Central Asia. In one important particular, it is true, Captain Grover oversteps the limits of the home department. He engaged in nego-tiations with Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; and we fear the result of this experiment will hardly encourage his lordship to relax the formalities of official intercourse. There was no doubt some irregularity in such a proceeding, but it is not without precedent or apology. As the Duke of Wellington was the whole cabinet when Sir Robert Peel was at Naples, so was Captain Grover when Dr Wolff was at Bokhara. Out of these discussions with the Foreign Office arose, as we venture to presume, this publication. Captain Grover had appealed to the public in favour of the captives at Bokhara. This is an appeal against the British government. Too aspiring to fly his falcon at small game, Lord Aberdeen, Lord Palmerston, Lord John Russell, Sir Robert Peel, Mr Addington, and Mr Hammond, each in his turn becomes the quarry of this Nimrod of diplomacy. He sneers at Colonel Sheil, our envoy in Persia, pities Mr Bloomfield, our minister at St Petersburgh, and ridicules the geographical ignorance of Downing Street. He accuses Lord Aberdeen of insincerity-Lord Palmerston of ignorance--Lord John Russell of we know not exactly what, but something that offered too fair a mark to be resisted. Sir Robert Peel he accuses of blustering and blundering-Mr Addington of having attempted first to frighten and then to cajole him. He accuses the Foreign Office generally of prolixity, obscurity, and inaccuracy in its official communications. He charges her Majesty's ministers, both of the late and of the present government, but more especially the latter, with having tarnished the honour of the nation, and the lustre of the British crown, by shamefully abandoning to their fate, either from gross neglect and indifference, or by designedly sacrificing them to some tortuous policy which he cannot explain, two faithful and devoted servants of the Crown, engaged in the discharge of the public duties entrusted to them. He strenuously defends the King of Bokhara from the attacks of the English press, and justifies that Prince for the slaughter of his guests. And all this he dedicates to THE QUEEN! Captain Grover appears to be one of those men whose natural impulse it is to do good; but who, when they single out for themselves some desirable object to accomplish, devote to it all the energy of minds more ardent than strong, with a zeal that blinds them. By dint of contemplating, almost exclusively, their favourite project, they lose sight of every thing else; and at length persuade themselves that all other considerations of national policy should be made subservient to its success. When they have arrived at this flattering conviction, they are ready to impute incapacity or dishonesty to all who regard their views as visionary, their schemes as impracticable. In their eyes, zeal tempered with judgment is coldness and indifference; the utmost activity of regulated business, supineness and sloth. When we meet with a man in this particular state of mind, if we are satisfied that his views are altogether disinterested, we respect his motives and his earnestness, while we regret the perversion of his judgment. But if his proceedings are conducted with ostentation; if a 'frequent flourish of trumpets' directs public attention to his own sayings and his own doings; if he takes pains to glorify his own labours-people will suspect that the |