ought to do, they examined into what they had done when they felt happiest and nearest to God: such are not the means prescribed by Heaven. They should have asked themselves, 'What does God command us in his word? It is not by our feelings that He will guide us, but by His commandments. . . To act according to one's own sensations, one's interior illumination, is the walk of the mystic. If the officers assembled at Windsor did not then fall into fanaticism, they were at least in a path that might lead to it; and some of them fell into it afterwards." Pp. 105, 106.

The contrast is very striking between Cromwell's acts towards Ireland and Scotland. To the one he came after eight years of most cruel persecution of the Protestants, "an armed soldier," says Carlyle, "terrible as death, relentless as doom; doing God's judgments on the enemies of God."

"Cromwell's feelings as he marched against Scotland, were different from those which had led him to Ireland. To him the people were brethren brethren who had gone astray when they invited over the licentious Charles II. That country was afterwards to feel, by twentyeight years of horrible persecution, that the Protector was not deceived. Oliver determined to do all in his power to restore Scotland to herself.” P. 174.

Hence his solicitude to avoid bloodshed, his readiness to investigate, his patience under personal remarks made against himself in the pulpit, even when he was present in the church. Hence his proclamation of mercy and offers of aid to the wounded after battle. His motives were entirely Christian, and while he neither compromised his bravery as a general, nor his duty to those by whom he was appointed to office, he showed in every act whose cause he espoused, and who was his Lord and Captain.

"Since we came to Scotland, it hath been our desire and longing to avoid blood in this business; by reason that God hath a people here fearing his name, though deceived, and to this end have we offered much love unto such," &c. P. 179.

The Christian soldier felt that it was civil war indeed when brother went to war with brother. He held those whom he was commissioned to subdue in high esteem for their principles' sake.

We have enlarged on the character of Cromwell in domestic and in military life, so as to leave little space for treating of his character as a statesman. When we consider the times in which he lived, the despotic powers of monarchs, and the subjugation of people, we see clearly that the mind of the Protector had shot far ahead of the common mind of the nation. His views of liberty, both political and religious, were unintelligible to many of those who considered his conduct. They were necessarily misinterpreted.

In no previous age had trade been so much emancipated from the fetters which had been imposed under the mistaken expectation of rendering to it support. In no previous age had commerce so largely extended, so that, dislocated by internal dissension though they were, the united kingdoms extended their foreign relations, and grew continually both in energy and success. In religion a sincere antagonist of the dominion of Popery, Oliver was a Protestant Christian without joining himself to any party. While some were insidiously and stealthily paving the way for subjection to the dominion of the Vatican, and a few Independents would gladly have entirely severed the church from the state, he excluded no Christians from his fraternal regards, however much they might vary from the forms to which he was attached. So unintelligible was this largeness of sentiment to observers, that M. Villemain makes this singular remark on his character, as quoted by Dr Merle:

"Cromwell's neutrality for forms of worship, compared with the ferIvour which he always affected, would of itself be enough to convict him of hypocrisy. In that fanatical age, faith was never distinct from intolerance; and if Cromwell had been sincere, he would have chosen the sect he preferred to follow.' In this manner has Oliver been judged! Even his virtues have been distorted to prove him vicious." P. 258.

His manly protection of the Protestants of the Alpine valleys is familiarly known to all,-so much so, that it only excites shame and sorrow to contrast the attitude of England then with her inert endurance of oppression now. In 1656, the persecuted at Nismes were delivered at once, by means of a remonstrance direct from Cromwell to the king of France. While reading of it afresh in the "Vindication," the idea of the South Sea Islands passed painfully before us, and scarcely had it so passed, when the following passage met our view.

"Had Cromwell's spirit animated the English government in our days, the iniquity of Otaheite would never have been committed, and we should not have seen the priest-party in France inveighing on the one hand, against the three northern powers for annihilating the independence of Cracow, and on the other, making war upon a people who have never known a master, and who, as regards moral power, and political and religious life, are certainly far superior to the Cracowian citizens.

"Öliver carried into practice in the seventeenth century, that famous motto which was the glory of one of the greatest Englishmen of the nineteenth-Civil and religious liberty in all the world. Practice in our opinion is much better than theory; but the example set by the Protector, which had no precedent, has unfortunately met with no imitation. The French Protestants were abandoned both at the peace of Ryswick, in 1697, and again at that of Utrecht, in 1713, although hun

dreds of Huguenots were perishing in dungeons, or groaning on board the galleys. If Cromwell's spirit had continued to govern England, the revocation of the edict of Nantes would never have taken place." (If this be so, how much has England to answer for!) "May we be permitted to pay a feeble tribute of esteem to the great man who was the protector of our ancestors, and who would have been the vindicator of Protestant France, if he had lived, or if he had survived in successors worthy of him." Pp. 304, 305.

Cromwell employed his power to protect religious liberty in all Europe; and when his political influence was inefficacious, he at least reached the persecuted to sustain them by his sympathy. Collections were made at his instance, for the persecuted in Bohemia, and in Poland, and Silesia, in all which countries Popery was beating down principle by force.

Cromwell conceived the idea of a great institution in favour of the evangelical faith. He proposed to unite all the various members of the Protestant body, and by this means place them in a condition to resist Rome. He divided the Protestant world, out of England, into four provinces, with a council of seven members and four secretaries, who were to inquire into the state of religion everywhere, to the intent that England might suitably direct her encouragement, her protection, and support. Even the Popish historian Villemain says, "it was undoubtedly a noble and a mighty thought, to claim for himself the protection of all the dissedent sects, and to regulate in a fixed and durable manner, the support which England had granted them on more than one occasion." P. 308.

After claiming for Cromwell, that he deserved more than any other sovereign of England the glorious title of DEFender of the FAITH, the author flows on in some pages of surpassing beauty and truth. We regret that only one paragraph can find a place.

"The ancient religious life of the Reformers was lost; it had been replaced by an attachment to forms. Men carefully inquired whether there was or was not apostolical succession; they examined whether the prayers, the sacraments, and the worship were in conformity with the canons, and with the liturgy; they placed their hands everywhere to try all things-everywhere except on their own heart, to feel if it still beat. They were earnestly occupied with conformities, but they forgot onethat which renders man conformable to Jesus Christ. faith of which Oliver constituted himself the defender, cannot perish. It may be covered and hidden,—at one time by the arid sands of infidelity, and at another by the tumultuous waves of human passion, or by the images, surplices, and relics of superstition,-but it always revives, lifts up its head, and re-appears. The revelations of God are for all times, and they have in all ages, the same eternal truth, the same eternal beauty.

This

They are like those rocks in the midst of the ocean which the flood tide covers, and which seem swallowed up for ever, but which always raise their tops again above the water. In vain does one generation imagine it has hidden the everlasting rock of God's truth; it will become visible in the next. There is a constant alternation, a constant struggle between light and darkness; but the light prevails at last-and even should there come an age which fancies it has for ever buried God's truthshould any volcanic eruption of society overwhelm it with the ashes of another Vesuvius-Pompeii, after seventeen centuries, has again restored to the light of day its houses and its tombs, its palaces and its temples, its circus and its amphitheatres. Can it be thought that the truth and the life which God has given in his Gospel, will be less perennial than the frail tenements of man? There are perhaps now subterranean fires threatening the truth of God. A daring pantheistic and socialist philosophy imagines that it has done with the crucified One. And should it even so far succeed as to throw a little dust and lava on the eternal doctrine, the Lord of heaven will blow upon it, and the dust shall be scattered and the lava melted." Pp. 310, 311.

This experienced historian is evidently casting his watchful eye over England, at present concerned and alarmed to observe her temporizing policy with regard to Popery. He repeatedly gives forth a warning note, which comes like a voice from the ancient persecuted Protestants, in return for past protection and sympathy.

"The statesmen of England," says he, "did not then give way to fatal delusions. The Protector had eyes to see, and ears to hear," p. 335.

"While the Protestant principle gives a nation life, liberty, and order, the Romanist principle, on the contrary, brings to it slavery, disorder, and death. The Romish Church would fain take the state under its guardianship, and insinuates itself every where in order to direct it. Hence there arise at every moment conflicts and disputes. The State complains that the Church infringes on its rights; and the Church that the state encroaches on religion; and as the State and the Church have each their partisans, this may lead to a civil war. Such struggles are not rare in the countries subjected to Roman Catholicism, and of this in our days, France, Spain, and other Popish kingdoms present frequent examples. When I see the British government proposing the formation of a political connection with the Pope, I fancy I behold those kings of the ancient nations whom the Roman arms subdued, humbly stretching out their enfeebled hands to Rome, that she may rivet on them the manacles of the conqueror." P. 373.

Solemn warning voice! may England hear it, and know the day of her visitation.

ART. IV.-1. Chemistry as Exemplifying the Wisdom and Beneficence of God. By GEORGE FOWNES, Ph. D. London. 2. The Christian Philosopher. By THOMAS DIck, LL.D. Two vols. A new edition. Glasgow: W. Collins.

Our present object is not to illustrate or to criticize, not to eulogize or condemn, either of the above volumes. The theology of the former is bare and vague enough, though its facts are full of interest. The latter is a far-known and well-appreciated work, and upon the whole most excellent, though containing here and there some statements with which we might perhaps be disposed to express some disagreement.

But we have another object in view, and one which leads us entirely away from the illustrations with which these works abound. Our design is to attempt something of our own, in the same line. Instead of quoting from either of these works any of the valuable facts which they embody, we shall give our readers the benefit of something original. Chemists will be able to follow our analysis; and non-chemists will at least be able to understand and appreciate our results.

During a visit to the south of Scotland in the autumn of last year, we were much astonished at the large quantity of ash made by the coal employed for domestic purposes, and as few examinations of the ashes of coal have been made, we thought our observation presented a favourable opportunity for instituting an analytical investigation of the ashes in question. The results of our examination are described in the following details. We first notice the method employed in the analysis, which presented several difficulties, and then give the numerical results.

The ash was digested in dilute sulphuric acid, afterwards boiled and the whole carefully filtered.

a. The insoluble matter remaining on the filter was fused with carbonate of soda, and the fused mass treated in the cold with muriatic acid and water. The insoluble silica was separated by filtration and washed with cold water. To the filtrate containing the titanic acid, ammonia was added, and the titanic acid collected on a filter. This method does not completely separate the silica, but the quantity remaining with the titanic acid does not amount to 1 per cent.

A current of sulphuretted hydrogen was passed through the original filtrate and washings, and the precipitated sulphuret of cadmium filtered. After being washed, the precipitate was dissolved in nitro-muriatic acid, boiled with carbonate soda, and the cadmium estimated as oxide.

b. The filtrate from the sulphuret of cadmium was saturated with