Barrow and Butler; among the laity to Bacon and Sandys, and Clarendon, and Burke. His catechism he has taken from Baxter; and for this, we think, a very satisfactory reason has been alleged; a just preference over that by Dean Nowell. We shall extract what the author says of Baxter.

"Baxter, it is confessed, often was heady and perverse, and lived for a great many years, and died a nonconforming minister. But it is true also, that being such, he was likewise a duly ordained presbyter of the Church of England. Such an one, too, as that, after the darkest season of his stormy and turbid career, when he had by no means attained to that comparatively sober and subdued character which he afterwards became, (in which late period of his life the volume in question was composed)—such a one, I say, he was accounted, even at that dark season, and at a very critical moment of our history, in the very acmé of the Restoration of the Church and Monarchy, at the accession of Charles the Second, that he was licensed to be a preacher by the then Bishop of London, Dr. Sheldon, soon after promoted to the see of Canterbury; and such a one, again, as that, at the same period, he was invited to become a bishop of the Church of England, and so invited by no other than the then prime minister, the great Lord Chancellor Clarendon, acting no doubt under the sanction of the king, and with the knowledge and consent of those eminent prelates, in advice and consultation with whom there is abundant evidence to show that Clarendon guided himself in church matters at this important æra. Baxter, they knew, had officiated ministerially in the army that was in rebellion against its sovereign. But these great and good men, themselves tutored in the school of affliction, had learned that all must have much to forget and forgive, after the confusion and manifold uncontrollable circumstances of a civil war, when the use of the Book of Common Prayer had been forbidden by intolerable penalties, and all the foundations of the world were out of course. Lastly, if Baxter lived and died a nonconformist minister, still all the while, as a layman, he was a conformist. After the Restoration, when the Liturgy had been revived, he never scrupled to attend the services of the Church of England; and to frequent her preaching, and to receive the holy communion at her altars, and at hers only. So far, therefore, something may be urged in our excuse, from considerations of this nature."

The editor then gives reasons for his assertion, that Watts's Catechism is both unevangelical and Calvinistic. Some notes, useful and learned, are added, and an excellent Index. We must say that we consider the selection which Dr. Wordsworth has made to be most worthy of his judgment and learning, and such as approves itself to all persons conversant with the great body of English Divinity. We are highly proud of the names of the illustrious writers whose works he uses, and are glad to see their venerable authority still upheld and looked on with the reverence due to their sound learning, their great powers of reasoning, their masculine and authentic eloquence, their pure faith, their unfeigned piety. In an age of shallow knowledge, of much pretension, and of opinions among churchmen, most materially differing from those held by those great lights and beacons of the Church, we fortunately have their works, the offsprings of their mighty minds, still as bulwarks against the insidious progress of open violence, of doctrines that find the pride of the heart, without enlightening the understanding or improving the heart of

man.

It is almost needless to say that the selection of works in these volumes is formed with great judgment and discretion. The first commences with some sermons by Barrow, followed by tracts by J. Taylor and Hooker. We have then the full and excellent Catechism by Baxter, and to that are appropriately added Bishop Butler's Discourses on Virtue, Compassion, &c. The second volume is occupied on the great topics of the Christian Doctrine, almost entirely taken from the profound and eloquent disquisitions of Barrow. The third volume tains the Principles of Society and Civil and Ecclesiastical Government; in which we have the names of Burke and Clarendon, besides those of Chillingworth, South, Barrow, and Sanderson. The first tract on the Origin and Nature of Government and Law, by Bishop Sanderson, is of great value. The last and fourth volume contains the noble and masterly Apology of Bishop Jewell, Casaubon's famous Preface on the Necessity of the Reforma

con

tion, and other disquisitions by Barrow and Sanderson. It will be seen that there are here assembled the very best, soundest, and most approved works of our great divines; we might say, the very heart of our body of Divinity. Certainly, this collection exceeds those that have preceded it in the arrangement and unity of its plan; the want of which we always thought disadvantageous to the success of Bishop Watson's Theological Tracts. We think it would have been better had the editor added to it a compendious list of the theological works most useful to the class of readers to whom he has addressed his book; and the study of which might follow upon that of his. It would have been useful to those who wished to follow out any one branch of inquiry, further than they are enabled to do in the pages of a work which only pretends to give specimens of various disquisitions. In parting we cannot help observing, that the editor's own style, in his preface, appears to us peculiarly quaint and formal; and, as we should think, designedly formed after the style and manner of Mr. Wordsworth the poet. This we consider to be lamented, when manly simplicity and unaffected clearness were peculiarly demanded. We cannot say that the Porch has an unity of character with the Temple : but the sentiments and motives of the writer are worthy of all praise.

The History and Antiquities of the County of Northampton. By George Baker. Part IV. being the first of Vol. II. fol. pp. 260.

THIS portion of Mr. Baker's labours comprises the whole of the two Hundreds of Norton and Cleley, the former containing nine parishes and the latter thirteen. It also includes the religious houses of Canons Ashby, Luffield, Wedon, and Sewardsley, the Honour of Grafton (with the biographies of the Widviles and Fitzroys), and the Forest of Whittlebury; and it is on the whole a very interesting portion of Mr. Baker's always excellent work.

With regard to the Forest we must observe, that the numerous and multi

farious items of information connected with it have been arranged with Mr. Baker's usual tact and lucid system; and that we have here a more satisfactory picture of the economy of one of the old Royal Forests (all Forests were royal, for if granted to a subject they became only Chaces), that, as far as we are aware, is hitherto in print.

In the formation of his pedigrees, Mr. Baker is always indefatigable, perhaps sometimes too minute, if we compare the time they consume with the extent of the work still before him. Indeed, he himself confesses:

"I have frequently spent days, and even nights, in endeavouring to ascertain a single fact, or clear up a doubtful point, which when accomplished would scarcely add a single line to the narrative. In pedigrees these discrepancies and difficulties are continually occurring, and it would be a much easier task to adopt without further examination the authority which is deemed best, than carefully to investigate the comparative evidence in favour of each, and submit every statement and hypothesis to the test of public records, private deeds and wills, parochial registers, and every species of collateral or positive evidence which can be brought to bear on the subject."

:

From an anxious desire for the more rapid continuation of a work by which topography is so highly benefited, we would respectfully entreat our author not to lose sight of that dissatisfaction among his subscribers, and that personal loss, to which he himself acknowledges this fastidiousness subjects him at the same time, we are sure that his care and research will not be undervalued either by the original purchasers of his History, nor by its future owners to the most distant generations. It is to be remembered that his genealogics illustrate the descent not only of the landholders of Northamptonshire from the earliest known periods to the present; but that they comprise among that number a large proportion of the elder baronage, whose descents are investigated with the same research as the rest.

We know it is thought by some persons, that Mr. Baker has devoted his time to unnecessary objects in detailing these pedigrees, unless in cases where the head of the barony was within the county. There is certainly

we are enabled to extract, and we must add that we consider it well worthy of the attention of those architects who are led to design in the Norman style.

We trust that after an interval much shorter than the last we may be enabled to announce that another stage has been performed of Mr. Baker's undertaking; and that, as his collections are already accumulated and digested, he will, with accelerated steps, proceed to give the public the benefit of the invaluable stores he has now amassed, without aiming too assiduously in further efforts after that fulness and perfection which, after all, in

works of this nature, must still leave many minor features unfinished, because they are beyond the means and time of any single historian to accomplish.

La Hogue Bie de Hambie, a Tradition of Jersey; with Historical, Genealogical, and Topographical Notes. By James Bulkeley, Esq. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 300, 331.

THIS is a work evincing considerable fancy, taste, and industry, but at the same time bearing marks of haste and imperfect information. It is evidently produced with an expenditure

greatly exceeding not only what its sale will repay, but what its production, in any point of view, is worth. We might be thought unreasonable were we to remark, that those who have money to spare for literature would employ it far better in the encouragement of the labours of others, employed in fields of utility and originality, than in rearing and adorning with borrowed feathers the bantlings of their own creation: but this we may fairly say, that their offspring, if they must be brought before the world, would reflect far greater credit on the parents, if they were chastened with greater care, and not introduced into society too soon.

The present volumes contain a tale, and perhaps six times its quantity of notes. To the former we would assign a more than ordinary degree of merit : the language is animated and powerful; and in the descriptions, manners, and other accessories, there is an intention at least to be correct. With respect to the notes, they are an extensive and laborious compilation, comprehending a large circle of antiquarian topics, particularly in the early genealogy of Normandy; and they certainly are presented to the English reader in a form more popular and accessible than has been customary. They are, however, derived from the standard authorities (chiefly French), and therefore can afford little or nothing of value to those deeply read in such matters. Mr. Edgar Taylor's edition of Wace, noticed in another part of our present number, is a luminary before which the borrowed light of "La Hogue Bie" must veil its twinkling beams.

It is always the case, when a compiler comes at once to his work without previous study; he refers only to old authorities, to which he is led by their current reputation, but is quite in the dark with regard to more recent discoveries and corrections; so Mr. Bulkeley has discussed the history of the Conqueror's sister Adeliza (vol. ii. p. 154) without reference to Mr. Stapleton's essay, in the 26th volume of the Archæologia; and there are other modern (English) works of which he would have availed himself had he longer studied the subject. He is, besides, not unfrequently wrong in his `names, GENT. MAG. VOL. VII.

translating them either imperfectly: as when he speaks of Halnac (Halnaker) in Sussex (vol. ii. 8); Waldero Count of Huntingdon (157) for Waltheof Earl of Huntingdon ; and several others; or when, which is much worse, they are mistaken altogether, as in p. 149 we are told of Baldwin Count of Bologna, instead of Boulogne, and in p. 132, of the Bishop of Evreux instead of York! Of his ignorance of English genealogies, of a date subsequent to their origins, or supposed origins, in Normandy, we cannot give a greater proof than his stating, p. 226, that of the illustrious branches of the family of "Aubigny"-" the chief are the Dukes of Norfolk and Arundel of Wardour;" a jumble certainly unauthorized and original enough; the latter family never having pretended any male descent from the Earls of Arundel, and even the former, from the various females that have intervened, being as little a "branch" of the family of Albini as the Arundells of Wardour or any other house in the peerage. What is more extraordinary, Mr. Bulkeley does not quote the Baronage of Dugdale; but continually Collins and sometimes Debrett!!!

Nor is his topography more accurate. Wallingford (ii. 202) is in Berkshire, not Buckinghamshire; there is no place named Pierrepoint in Sussex (p. 203), Hurstperpoint must be meant; and the following (i. 279) is a concatenation of error:

"the Priory of St. Michael, in Cornwall, now the seat of the Anglo-Norman St. Aubyns. Note. A borough town 247 miles W. by S. of London, situate almost in face of its mother abbey: the priory is seated on a hill."

We have here the borough of Michell confounded with St. Michael's Mount, which are more than thirty miles apart; the priory" on a hill" (who has not seen views, or at least heard, of St. Michael's Mount, in Cornwall, as well as that in Normandy?) is at the latter; but it is not the seat of the St. Aubyns, but merely their property: we should explain that our author alludes to the Norman St. Michael's in speaking of "its mother abbey," an expression scarcely correct, though it is true that the Cornish house was made dependent on the Norman one.

Before we conclude, we must men4 L