Scripture between spiritual and scientific, between moral and historical truth. It is easy for hostile minds to conjure up hypothetical difficulties, but religion was given for the practical use of man, and no doctrine necessary to salvation, no precept conducive to holiness, will ever be jeopardised by this palpable distinction. Admitting, nevertheless, that wherever we draw the line of demarcation, there will be some doubt as to a few comparatively unimportant positions on the border territories, is not this, we may ask, the necessary condition of all our moral and religious knowledge? Is there not abundant difference of opinion on religious truth, even among those who agree in the universal infallibility of Scripture? The same restless discontent at any shadow of uncertainty which leads men to demand scientific and historical infallibility leads them also to require an infallible interpreter of Scripture. Hence they have set up the Pope as the living voice of God. But even this is insufficient; for a Papal bull is not authoritative without the fulfilment of many complicated conditions, so that no private Romanist can be sure whether any particular bull is valid or not. Thus nothing could satisfy this craving for religious certainty but a perpetual oracle, whose answers should be daily issued and visibly printed in the sky. Such is not the method by which the will of God is made known to man. 'We walk by faith, not by sight;' 'Having not seen, we love:' these are the mottoes of Christian experience. Doubt transmuted into trust is an essential element in the perfection of the soul.

In this, as in other points, to demand absolute certainty must conduct us to absolute scepticism. A Pyrrhonian suspension of belief is the only position tenable by the understanding which demands a creed without a difficulty. Though on the single point of historical infallibility Mr. Rogers has, we venture to think, lost sight of this cardinal truth, yet no one has ever stated it more forcibly or applied it more ably than he. Witness the

following passage:

'At last, after much discussion in this and preceding ages, the world, I think and hope, is beginning to comprehend that it is not sufficient to discredit Christianity, or indeed any other system, to propound plausible or even insoluble objections; since it is a sort of weapon by which Atheism, Pantheism, and the half-score systems of Deism may be alike easily foiled. And if there is any theory of religion which is not in the same predicament as Christianity, nay, which is not exposed to yet greater

assertions for granted. They are at the least as fallible as he supposes those of the apostles to be. For example, in the present case it is not true that scientific research has led philosophers to disbelieve the descent of mankind from a single stock; it has, on the contrary, established the extreme probability of such a descent. objections,

objections, I shall be glad to be informed of it; I can only say, it is a perfect novelty to me. Certainly it is not any of the theories of Deism, the varieties of which have sprung out of the very eagerness with which the advocates of each have sought to evade the difficulties which press the abettors of every other.

Encompassed on all sides by impassable barriers, in whatever direction we speculate-and in none by loftier or more solid walls of rock than in metaphysical or moral philosophy-we are not called upon to answer every objection which may be made to our tenets, for that is impossible, whatever the hypothesis that may be adopted: the only real question is, on which side the greatest weight of positive evidence is found, and the least weight of opposing objections.

To any such objections-the substantial points of the evidence remaining the Christian feels himself entitled to say, "Stand by; I cannot stop for you." In relation to many of them he may boldly say, when called to solve them, "I cannot; time may solve them, as I see it has solved many; and these, like those, may then be transferred to the other side of the account; but even now they do not materially affect the columns which give the total." And, in my judgment, it is in many cases not only wise to say this, but the only honest course. Much mischief has often been done by pretending to give a solution, which neither he who gives, nor he who demands it, feels to be sufficient.'—Defence, p. 178.

We may add that to all such objections the Christian possesses an anti-syllogism, in the indisputable proposition that Christianity does turn bad men into good, and is the only approximate cure hitherto discovered for the moral pestilence which desolates humanity. If tempted to leave his Master, because of any such stumbling-blocks in his path, the disciple has still the same reason as of old to exclaim'Lord, to whom shall we go?' other refuge is open to the doubting soul. No other teaching calms the wounded conscience. No other ray of light falls from the clouded heavens to pierce the veil which hides us from the Father of our spirits.

6

No

In conclusion we will venture to express our hope that, in another edition, the Defence' of the Eclipse of Faith' may be made in some respects more worthy of its predecessor. Its author informs us that it was written in great haste, and it bears the marks of this throughout. Not that it lacks either vigorous argument or keen sarcasm. On the contrary, it is in these respects perhaps even more powerful than the former work; but it bears traces of having been struck off at a single heat, with a conversational carelessness of style, and a colloquial use of derisive epithets, which occasionally overleaps the bounds of good taste. It has too much the air of chuckling over a prostrate foe. We earnestly trust that these blemishes will be removed in a future edition, for at present they are likely to create a prejudice

against

against the substance of a most valuable book by the offence that may be taken at the form.* In all the higher departments of the argument Mr. Newman writhes in the grasp of his antagonist as helplessly as a pigmy in the gripe of a giant, and for that very reason everything like contortion and grimace should be left by the victorious to the vanquished combatant.

Finally, let us thank Mr. Rogers for the addition he has made to the philosophical literature of England, and to the defensive armoury of Christendom; and still more for his promise to deal with Pantheism as he has already dealt with Deism. We trust that he may be spared to redeem this pledge in the amplest manner, and also to recast his present work by omitting those ephemeral topics which might hinder its permanent appreciation. If he lives to accomplish our expectations, we feel little doubt that his name will share with those of Butler and of Pascal in the gratitude and veneration of posterity.

ART. VII.-Papers relative to the Obstruction of Public Business. By Arthur Symonds, Esq. Printed for Private Circulation. London, 1853.

IN

our number of last March (vol. xciv. p. 461) we expressed the regret which, in common with all friends to the judicial system of this country and to the constitution of parliament, we felt at the impediments thrown in the way of the measures sanctioned by the House of Lords during the session before the last for the digesting of the criminal law. It is truly painful to find that the last session has shown how their Lordships have been met by new difficulties and from other quarters. The Report of their Select Committee, recommending that for the present only the digesting of the statute law should be persevered in, indicates pretty plainly what we have reason to know, that the members mainly yielded to the apprehensions of endless discussions being raised by the Commons, rendering hopeless the passing a Bill of many hundreds of clauses, however fully considered by those most capable of satisfactorily dealing with

* As a specimen of our meaning, we may mention the frequent occurrence of such epithets (used derisively) as pleasant,' 'worthy,' 'queer,' &c. Also such expressions as gobble up,' artful dodge,' 'I see a thing or two,' the missionaries (worthy souls); and more especially the application of such terms as 'chucked,' bakes, boils, and fries,' and crunches like a lion,' to describe the acts of the Deity. These blemishes might all be removed by drawing the pen through a dozen lines. We would suggest also that it would be desirable to incorporate the 'Defence' and the Eclipse into a single volume.

the

the subject. This leads us to say a few words on the capacity which the lower House has lately shown of performing its legislative functions. In a word, we are led to cast our eye back upon its labours during the last session in the great department, wholly unconnected with party or with politics, of improvement of the law. Our well-known opinions touching the changes effected twenty-two years ago in the representative system may be supposed to bias our opinion upon the question; but we can venture to assert that we only speak the sentiments of the stoutest friends of the Reform Bill when we assert that those things which have fulfilled our predictions have also brought no little disappointment to their hopes, although we do not suppose that they will admit them to be the unavoidable consequences of their favourite measure.

We must begin by stating that they are extremely ill informed who complain of nothing having been done during the session to carry forward the great work of law amendment. Mr. Adderly's Act, introducing a most salutary principle into the administration of our Criminal Law, the reformatory course, long and powerfully supported also by the learned Recorder of Birmingham, Mr. Commissioner Hill, was fortunately passed, but with a provision requiring previous imprisonment, much condemned in the Lords, and which we will venture to affirm no one more lamented than the able and excellent author of the Bill. But still more important is the Common Law Procedure Act, a great, an invaluable improvement. Beside making most important changes in the law of evidence, of arbitration, of jury procedure, it arms the courts of common law with large equitable jurisdiction, to the incalculable abridgment of litigation and relief of the suitors, and it remedies some of the evils most complained of in the whole administration of justice in those courts. But this Act was as nearly as possible being prevented from passing, and postponed to another session with two or three great measures universally called for and fully prepared by the House of Lords; and it passed, so to speak, almost by a miracle and almost alone:* it suffered too very unfortunate mutilations, and nearly as unhappy additions, wholly in consequence of the manner in which the business of the Commons was conducted throughout the session. On the particulars of this it is necessary that we should dwell in some detail.

The Bill prepared by the Commissioners, corrected by the Lords, fully discussed in their Select Committee by all the Law

It is not, perhaps, strictly accurate to represent this as a single Act, for it had incorporated Lord Brougham's Arbitration Bill, and his Bills on Evidence and Procedure, so far as the Commissioners agreed with them.

Lords,

Lords, and reported with material additions, comprising indeed other Bills referred to the same Committee, passed through all its stages without a dissentient voice, except upon three of its provisions, and was sent to the Commons two months before the end of the session; but hardly any progress was made in passing it through that House until on the very eve of the prorogation. At that period every one knows how absolute the power is of any half-dozen members who may band themselves together for the purpose of defeating a measure. Lord Lyndhurst and Lord Denman had both experienced this ten years ago, when certain representatives being resolved to throw out a Bill which affected some local, perhaps we might say personal, interests, remained night after night dividing and counting out, and, that they might get rid of the obnoxious measure, all the business which stood behind it was obstructed, in consequence of which the Lord Chancellor's Bill for establishing county courts, and the Lord Chief Justice's for effecting the greatest improvement of modern times in the law of evidence, that of taking away the objection of interest, were both lost for the session, and these most salutary changes postponed for a year. Fortunately, the opposition, to the credit of the Conservative party, did not last session use their power of throwing out the Procedure Act in this manner, although they objected to one or two of its provisions. But others, of no mark in the House and of no weight in the party, pertinaciously opposed some parts of the measure, and it escaped unexpectedly.

But it was maimed in a most essential provision, that of Jury Trial, although the great majority of the Commons were favourable to that enactment, and although they had passed it a few weeks before for Scotland, and with considerably greater change of the existing law. Availing themselves of the approach of prorogation, a few members succeeded in throwing out the provision by which the Lords and their Select Committee had proposed that, if ten of a jury agree, and only two of the twelve jurors hold out, the verdict of the ten should be taken, instead of the whole proceeding being frustrated, and another trial becoming necessary. The Scotch Bill which had already gone through the House without opposition enabled the court to take the verdict, not of ten, but of nine jurors. Nay, that bill, receiving the assent of the Lords, is now the law of Scotland, while in England the old and most barbarous law remains, at least in theory, by which the jurors may be carted to the borders of the county if they cannot agree, and by which it continually 2 I happens

VOL. XCV. NO. CXC.