Review of Books.

CONFERENCES OF THE REFORMERS AND DIVINES OF THE EARLY ENGLISH CHURCH, on the doctrines of the Oxford Tractarians: held in the province of Canterbury, in the Spring of the year 1841. Edited by a Member of the University of Seeley and Burnside.

"I HATE the Reformers and the Reformation," wrote Mr. Froude, during his experimental trip to the head quarters of Babylon the Great; and this sentiment, whether expressed or not, is at the root of all that is said, all that is done, all that is written by the party to whom he belonged. Good cause have they to hate the Reformers! for, next after the Bible, their writings are the most ruinous to the Tractarians of Oxford, even as their work, the Reformation, was to the interests of the Romish system, to which the aforesaid Tractarians do of right belong.

We have here, under the semblance of a conference, the opinions, deliberately recorded of martyrs, confessors, bishops and presbyters of the Church of England, to the number of some scores; and furnishing the most convincing refutation that man can desire of the various errors and heresies broached by the Tract-writers. Great research in collecting, and much skill in arranging these valuable testimonies, render the book a most acceptable help, not only in examining into the subject, but also in putting others on their guard against the dangerous doctrines that would undermine our faith.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE, from the Geography, Natural History, Manners, and Customs of the East. By the late Professor George Paxton, D.D., of Edinburgh. Third Edition, revised and greatly enlarged by the Rev. Robert Jameson, Minister of Currie, Author of “ Eastern manners illustrative of the Holy Scriptures," &c. Vol. I.-Manners and Customs.-Oliphants.

THIS greatly improved edition of an excellent book cannot but be highly popular. The Illustrations, not pictorial but literary, in this volume, are drawn from the Pastoral life of the Orientals, the state of Agriculture in the East, the houses, cities, walls, and towers of the East, the dress of the Orientals, their meals and entertainments, and the marriage ceremonies of the East. Interesting and entertaining, they at once convey information and throw that light on many allusions of Scripture of which our dissi

milar habits and circumstances would deprive us. We expect much gratification from the succeeding volumes.

LOOK TO JERUSALEM: a scriptural view of the position of the Jews, in the great crisis of the world's history. By the Rev. Alex. Dallas, A.M., Rector of Wonston, Hants. Author of "Pastoral Superintend"“The Cottager's guide to the New Testament ;" Nisbet and Co.

ence;

&c., &c.

We hope there are few remaining among us who need now an exhortation to look to Jerusalem. Indifferent indeed must he be to the glory of God and to the church's welfare, whose eye does not often and anxiously turn in that direction. Mr. Dallas has, however, brought within a very small compass, a great deal of most important evidence and inference, on the glorious subject of Israel's abiding nationality and undoubted restoration. We recommend it as particularly interesting and encouraging.

COMPANION TO LEISURE HOURS. Religious Tract Society.

UNDER this unpretending title we have a volume that in appearance, in embellishment and in the character

of its literary contents may vie with the Juvenile Annuals that are brought forward with a flourish of trumpets. We cannot better characterize it than by quoting the motto of its modest title-page.

How sweet the lettered page in leisure hours,

Where mingle thoughts and scenes, and mental flowers,
To please, instruct, and purify the mind,

With wise and holy things, and love of human kind.

SACRED HYMNS from the German, translated by Frances Elizabeth Cox.-Pickering.

FROM the large and interesting collection of His Excellency the Chevalier Bunsen, whose name is rendered precious to the heart of every one who loves God and desires the welfare of Israel-these hymns are taken. The original German is given on one page, and on the opposite one a translation the most faithful that can be imagined, preserving the metre, and conveying the spirit of its original in verse as free, as bold, and as melodious, as though it were the unfettered breathing of the poetess' own soul. It is rarely that such praise can be justly bestowed: translating is dull work: and translated poetry is in general either a loose paraphrase or a stiff automaton. Miss Cox has done wonders, and her little volume (dedicated by permission to those brothers in the recent glorious work of the Jewish Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Chevalier Bunsen) is really a treasure of originality.

OBSERVATIONS

ON LORD ALVANLEY'S PAMPHLET ON THE STATE OF IRELAND, and proposed measures for restoring tranquillity to that country. By the Earl of Roden. Hatchards.

THIS pamphlet is a portrait of its Author. Noble, manly, straightforward, intelligent and uncompromising. This long-tried champion of Protestantism takes up his subject, strips, dissects and exhibits it, in the most business-like manner possible, leaving the most determined mistaker unable to advance a pretext for seeming to misunderstand him. Lord Alvanley's panacea for the ills of Ireland is to open an amicable communication with the Vatican, to declare that the Bishop of Rome HATH jurisdiction within this realm, to take the Popish priesthood of Ireland into the pay of the English Government, and to place Maynooth under the fostering care of the Jesuits-Yes, reader, literally, and avowedly, of the Jesuits themselves, whom my Lord Alvanley declares upon his personal knowledge to be most amiable, excellent, agreeable, and maligned gentlemen, and exceedingly clever withal. This proposition has, of course, been met by many able opponents: for no man in his right senses can fail to see that it tends to the utter subversion of our national faith-the prostration of our country beneath the hoof of Popery: and no man who desires to avert this, but must be found in opposition to Lord Alvanley. Without any disparagement to others, we must admit that Lord Roden was precisely the man to meet him in what so peculiarly relates to the political, and no less to the