A SERMON ON THE DEATH OF JOSEPH BUTTERWORTH, Esq. late M. P. for Dover. Preached at Great Queen Street Chapel, on Sunday, July 9, 1826. By Richard Watson. 8vo. pp. 33. Kershaw. -This interesting sermon is rather a biographical portraiture, or a funeral oration, than a discourse on the text, (Gal. i. 24,) which the preacher selected for the occasion. It is, however, characterised by that accurate discrimination, and impassioned fervour, which usually mark the discourses of Mr. Watson. After an eloquent and impressive introduction, containing some remarks on the text; the entire sermon is confined to an exhibition of the private and public character of the worthy and benevolent individual, whose death all classes of the Christian world must sincerely deplore. Mr. W. commences his eulogy, by referring to the evidence of Mr. Butterworth's "conversion to the true knowledge and faith of our Lord Jesus Christ," as the basis of all his personal and social worth. Of his religion, he observes, that "it was devotional"- -"social" and "truly Catholic." To his "zeal and benevolence," he then refers, as marked traits of his personal character, and enters more particularly into the consideration of his public life. We cannot follow Mr. W. into all his detail of the political conduct, and Parliamentary principles of his friend; nor on one topic especially, are we prepared to record our approbation in terms so unqualified as those adopted by the reverend panegyrist. But we are nevertheless firmly persuaded, that Christian principles and motives had a preponderating influence in forming the public character of Mr. B., and that his ultimate objects, in all his Parliamentary connexions, were such as regarded the honour and interests of his country, and the promotion of truth and happiness through the world. We wish that more of fact and incident could have been supplied, as illustrative of the character of the Christian and the philanthropist; for these were the highest distinctions possessed by the subject of the oration before us; and while we devoutly regret his removal, we sincerely recommend this valuable memorial of his character and his worth.

A TREATISE ON THE DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY. By Robert Wilson, A. M. 8vo. 6s. 6d.-12mo. 3s.

66

MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THE REV. ANDREW FULLER, Pastor of the Church at Kettering, &c. By J. W. Morris. New Edition, corrected and enlarged. 8vo. pp. 375. Wightman and Cramp, 1826. Price 7s. 6d. It gives us great satisfaction to announce a new and corrected edition" of this valuable work. On former occasions, we have recorded our opinion of the high character and distinguished excellence of the late Andrew Fuller. The memoir before us is in many respects different from the interesting volume, published by the late venerable Dr. Ryland. The materials for biographical detail, in the possession of Mr. Morris, were less minute and ample than those entrusted to the Doctor; but he has made better use of them, and has presented a portraiture of the intelÎectual and ministerial character of Mr. Fuller, so marked by versimilitude, and so admirably graphic in its expression, that it starts like life from the canvass, and gives every impartial beholder, the decisive impression of its fidelity. To the theological student in particular, we recommend the volume before us, as one that presents an admirable account of the leading publications of one of the most acute and powerful writers of the present age.

PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION. The Amulet; or, Christian and Literary Remembrancer, for the year 1827. It will be published early in the month of

November next, and will be embellished

by twelve beautiful and interesting engravings of the very highest character, from paintings by many of the most eminent Artists of the age, including Howard, R. A., Stothard, R. A., Wright, Stephanoff, Corbould, Westall, R. A., Farrer, &c. &c. The Literary portion of the Work, consisting of nearly a hundred original Tales, Essays, Descriptions, and Poems, has been contributed by above fifty of our most popular living Authors-among others, by Mr. Montgomery, Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Opie, B. Barton, Miss Edgeworth, Miss Mitford, Rev. Dr. Walsh,

Mrs. Hofland, Miss Landon, the Author of "May you like it," Rev. T. Dale, Josiah Conder, Mr. Jerdan, Rev. W. S Gilly, John Anster, LL.D., &c. &c.--A new type has been cast especially for the publication, and every exertion has been used to make the volume worthy of the advanced state of literature and the arts.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM ITALY.

St. Januarius's Day--a grand Procession-the Miracle of liquifying his Blood--a Phrenological Observation on the Monks --the Festa of the Madonna del Arco, &c. &c.

Naples, May 25, 1826.

I went to the church of Santa Chiara (Saint Clair), on St. Gennaro's, or Saint Januarius's day, to see the liquifying of the saint's blood, which the people say is a standing miracle, expressly performed to maintain in its full vigour the faith of the inhabitants of Naples. The sides of the church were crowded by the populace when I arrived; but the centre was kept clear by soldiers, who made way for me, as a foreigner, to pass up near the altar, where seats were arranged for the strangers, and where I found most of the travelling English, as well as French, Russians, and Italians from the provinces. The image of the saint, within the silver head of which is the real skull, was brought from the cathedral in the morning, and was placed at one side of the altar. On the left hand, separated from the rest of the people, were arranged about 100 old women, descendants from the family of the saint, or from his nurse. These are privileged people, and claim a great share in the ceremony. After sitting some time, the music, from a temporary orchestra, began playing very sweetly, and there appeared at the door the commencement of the procession. All the monks, from all the different monasteries of Naples, bearing their different banners, passed with slow and solemn step up the centre of the church, bowing one and all as they approached the image. Then came other images of saints, male and female, to the amount of forty, borne on men's shoulders; every one in its turn stopping before their chief and patron at the altar. A priest stood on the steps to do homage to each of these worthy silver-wigged personages, and while he shook incense under their noses, the old women hailed them with screams of welcome, making a discord in the church, which could only be permitted to St. Gennaro's relatives. Then followed nobles and state officers, and all the dis tinguished personages of the court and the city, in their dresses of state, and last of all, at the end of a procession, which occupied at least an hour, came the thing, which was the heart, and soul, and spirit of the whole matter-the thing by which, and on account of which, all the puppets had been put in motion--the

blood of the saint. It was carried under a splendid canopy, and surrounded by every circumstance that could make it imposing. I wish Mr. C. could have been there; it would have done his heart good to have seen his enlightened friends, gentle and simple churchmen, noblemen and plebeians, all falling down on their knees in humble adoration, as this precious relic was paraded before their eyes; a present Deity could hardly have produced a greater sen sation. At length it reached the altar, and was placed, by the hands of the Cardinal Archbishop, opposite to the image of the saint. Some persons, and amongst them some English, of which number I contrived to be, were admitted within the altar, and formed a crowd close round the precious object of all this ceremony. The vial was taken out of the splendidly decorated vase, and shown to the people; it contained some brown matter, that looked like congealed oil, and after sundry turnings before the light, and sundry kissings of the devout, accompanied by the loud and piercing screams of the before-mentioned old who called in no very elegant or gentle terms on their saintly relative to keep his promise, and, who impatient of delay, at length raised their voices to a shriek, that seemed to rend asunder the church itself, the stuff began to spread, and as the Archbishop turned it round, it ran in two distinct streams on the side of the glass; at this moment the ringing of a little bell announced to the people that the miracle was accomplished. The old women gave the key note, and sounds of joy and gladness filled the airevery face beamed with delight, and the people went away to their homes, praising their patron saint, and rejoicing in this fresh assurance of his continued protection.

women,

As a mere matter of ceremony and picturesque parade, this was a very amusing scene, quite as splendid as any of the Pope's puppet-shews at the theatre of St. Peter's, and even better and more agreeably arranged. The churchmen of Naples understand something of picturesque effect; it took place near the twenty-fourth hour, just as the sun was setting, after a fine spring day. The partial darkness which began to come over the church, gave to the lights, which the processioners bore, all their value, and the solemn step of the bare-footed monks, left us time to observe the expression of their countenances, as they passed before us in the twilight gloom. I made one phrenological observation, which accords so much with my theory of monkhood, that I could not help

remarking it to a friend. The organ of self-estimation was monstrously prominent, and in some instances, (especially. amongst the begging and more austere orders,) it was discoverable to an excess that I have never seen in any other class of men. I happened to be present at a very favourable exhibition. The people had got hold of some prophecy, which threatened destruction to the city of Naples this year, and they hung in consequence with an increased interest on this miracle. Had the stuff shown any reluctance in running, they would all have been in despair; but it melted particularly soon, and this auspicious indication gave rise to the most extravagant joy.

The feast of Pentecost is again come. I went out to see the festa of the Madonna del Arco: it was not so numerously attended this year, on account of the penance having been commenced for the observances of the Anno Santo, or Jubilee; but there were sufficient number of devotees to make the sight most distressing. There was one woman, who kept her tongue so steady to the ground that she seemed almost choked when she got up to the altar, and it was a long while before she could utter her requests, but when she did regain her speech, she made amends for her long silence. She held by the railing that surrounds the Madonna, and invoked her aid with shrill and piercing shrieks, that continued for a quarter of an hour, and chilled the blood to hear them. One family brought up a poor deformed child, and by their way of presenting him to the Madonna, they seemed to have the most confident hope that a miracle would be worked in his favour. No miracle was, however, effected. How the faith of these poor people is kept up in the wonderworking power of this Madonna, I cannot conceive. There were two fat wellfed priests sitting in the church, encouraging the exertions of the penitents, and receiving their tribute, which was presented in various shapes. One source of profit is a regular shop for the sale of prints of the Virgin, in the very centre of the church. These prints the people make into a sort of standard, which they decorate with bows and flowers, and carry home in triumph. The processions of the families returning home, when their penitence is over, dressed and decorated with, Bacchanalian ornaments, is really a very pretty sight. I have made several sketches of it, and enriched my collection with many excellent subjects for pictures. The Neapolitans, with all their faults, are so remarkably good natured, and so ready to be pleased, that their festas are the prettiest things imaginable; their little gaieties are entered into with heart and spirit, and the whole scene gets an animation very difNEW SERIES, No. 21.

ferent from the sullen contests and coarse riots of an English fair.

To make you well understand the nature of the miracle, which I described in the beginning of this letter, I should tell you the tradition respecting the blood in the bottle. When old Saint Januarius was beheaded, his nurse, who got mingled in the crowd, and approached very near the place of execution, gathered up some of the blood of the saint, which she most sacredly preserved. From the moment she became possessed of this precious treasure, her house was distinguished from all other houses at Patzzuoli, the town where he was beheaded, and it soon spread abroad that she was under the immediate protection of some superior power. The people of Benevento, who had the body of the saint, hearing the wonderful stories that were told at Patzzuoli, were determined to put the thing to the proof, and they had the head of the saint conveyed there; supposing, (I do not know why,) that if the old woman's bottle really contained the saint's blood, some sympathy would be manifested when they were brought together. The event turned out as they expected: as soon as the head approached the bottle, the blood, which was before dry, began to bubble up with a lively joy, as much as to say, "how d'ye do?" A treasure like

this was not to be allowed to remain in the cottage of an old woman. The city of Naples took possession of it, and to this precious possession the town owes its preservation from the destructive fires of Vesuvius. While alive, on one tremendous eruption of the mountain, the saint stopped, by his personal presence, a flood of burning lava, that was making its way to Naples, for which cause he was chosen patron of the city, and on which account prayers much longer and much more fervent are addressed to him than to any other saint in the calendar. You will perceive by this story, in what consists the cream of the joke, and why all the pro- ́ cessions that I described to you take place before the bubbling miracle can be performed. The image of the saint has the real skull within it, and it is not till the blood is brought in contact with this skull, that the wonderful sympathy is displayed, which gives life to the inhabitants of Naples, and perpetually renewed assurance of saintly countenance and protection.

I have devoted more space than it may seem to deserve, to this precious piece of church juggle; but I do think it of consequence, that these things should be known. What are we to think of a church, that has recourse to such expedients to keep up its power over the minds of the people? And how cautious ought we to be of allowing any increase of power to a 3 S

body that lives,. moves, and has its being in a lie.

They have some singular observances here with regard to death. The dead person is carried open on a bier to the church, dressed up in his robes of life, his face painted, and on some occasions, a bunch of flowers in his hand; when it is necessary to bury the body immediately, a wax representation is substituted instead of the real person, but it is made so like death, that all the people seem willingly to deceive themselves into the belief, that it is so. Over this wax image the funeral service is performed, though the body may have been buried some days before. In cases of royal and elevated personages, the empty carriage of the deceased goes to the church, to inquire whether the person has any more need of it-and a formal message is brought by the priest in attendance to the coachman, to say, that he may go home, as his master chuses to remain in the church. In families of middle life, when a person is declared beyond hope, the relations leave him to the priests, and as soon as death takes place, they all quit the house. The body is carried off by strangers in masks to the church, and then to the out-skirts of the town, when it is delivered over to the men, who take it to the Campo Santo.

I understand there are two young Genevese clergymen here, and I am endeavouring to get acquainted with them. By a letter from Rome, which was intended to introduce them, I learn, it is their wish to try at something like religious instruction in this place; but how, and in what way they propose giving it, I am at a loss to conceive. When knavery and credulity divide the sway, and when it is the interest of the governors to rivet, rather then to unloose the fetters that bind human intellect, where shall an inch of ground be found for truth and honesty to take its stand upon. The Catholics are certainly most wise in so entirely shutting out the Bible from the people, and they do it in a most ingenious and effectual way. They publish a book, which may be found on every stall, called a History of the Bible, which satisfies the curiosity of the people on the events of Christianity, and prevents their inquiring farther. If you inquire for the Bible in the shops, this book is put into your hand, so that, like Macbeth's counsellors, "they keep their promises to your ears, and break them to your hopes." This is the soundest of policy. Every book is strictly prohibited that would have a chance of opening the people's eyes; and the newspapers are allowed to say nothing but the common-places of the theatre and the court.

My curiosity was excited the other day,

by a fire in the streets, on which I saw much good and valuable furniture heaped and consumed. The by-standers told me, it was the household furniture of a man who had died of consumption. This is the custom of the place. Should they burn the goods of every one who dies of consumption in England and Scotland, it would bring something into the pockets of the upholsterers.

LETTER OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA TO THE DUCHESS OF ANHALT COETHEN, ON HER CHANGE OF RELIGION.

A letter, written by the King of Prussia to the Duchess of Anhalt Coethen, on her renouncing the Protestant and embracing the Catholic religion, has for some time been a subject of general interest in the North of Germany, and its publication has been looked forward to with much

anxiety by the public. An attempt was made to gratify this desire, by the insertion of an extract in a work entitled, "Wherefore do we call ourselves Protes

tants? by Julius Frey." This extract, which was very incorrect, appeared to have been drawn up from the imperfect recollections of some person who had perused his Prussian Majesty's letter, or a copy of it; and on account of its inaccuracy, it was publicly disavowed. In the meantime Professor Krug, of Leipsic, obtained a genuine transcript of the original royal epistle, which he printed and circulated, and of which we give a translation. The Duchess of Anhalt Coethen, to whom the letter is addressed, is a natural daughter of Frederick William II. by the Countess of Ingerheim; and her apostasy appears to have been the more regretted by the present King, from an apprehension that the relationship of the Duchess to him would give countenance to a suspicion which had existed of his being favourably disposed towards popery. While, however, it is satisfactory to observe so much zeal for the Protestant faith displayed by so powerful a personage as the King of Prussia, it ought not to be forgotten, that in his

dominions Catholics are not excluded from official situations, and that no danger to the state is apprehended from their admissibility to the highest public trusts. The following is the letter in question :

"Berlin,

:

1826.

"I cannot describe to you the very astounding and painful impression that your letter, confirming the previously circulated report (which I regarded as a fable) of you, and the Duke having become converts to the Catholic religion, has made and indelibly fixed upon me. For who in

this world could ever have anticipated such a thing? Speaking according to the sincere feeling and conviction of my heart, and in compliance with the duty which conscience dictates, I must plainly tell you, that in my judgment a more unfortunate and sinful resolution could not have been adopted than that you have just carried into effect. Had you confided to me, when I was in Paris, the slightest hint of your intention, I should, in the most earnest and solemn manner, have conjured you, by every thing you hold most sacred, to abandon a design, the execution of which tends to place me personally in a very disagreeable situation. For even I (wherefore I know not) have been sus. pected of an inclination to Catholicism; though, on the contrary, I have always had, and must ever retain, an unfavourable opinion of that church, on account of the multitude of her anti-scriptural doctrines. It is now, however, highly probable that this notion respecting me will be revived, and that it will be believed that I was aware of the whole affair, and had an understanding with you in it.

"But how could you preserve so complete a silence on this transaction, espe cially when, in your letter, you thus express yourself respecting me- That person for whom I have ever been accustomed to experience in my heart the united feeling of filial and fraternal love?' Now, can any one believe that a father, or a brother, would, as a matter of course, approve of his daughter or sister becoming a Catholic-that is to say, taking the most momentous step a human being can take, without any previous consultation with, him? Certainly not! Yet you would appear to have acted on this suppositionand why? Because you had reason to expect on my part a prohibition against the awful and dangerous proceeding on which you were resolved. You have, however, accomplished your purpose-you have rashly bounded over the immense chasm which separates the two religionsyou have renounced the faith of your rela tions, the faith in which you were born, nursed, and educated. May God be merciful to you!

"For my own part, I can only, from the bottom of my heart, lament and deplore the gross error, the delusion into which you have fallen. Assuredly, O, most assuredly, you would have been safe from all risk of committing this dreadful act, had you, instead of giving your mind to the polemical writings of either Protestants or Catholics, read with care and attention your Bible, and in particular the New Testament. This is what I have done; for at a period of controversy some years ago I endeavoured to make myself intimately acquainted with the peculiar grounds on which both religions rest, and

for this purpose I applied myself assiduously to the Bible, and sought therein the doctrines taught by Christ and his Apostles. This investigation led me to quite the contrary conclusion to that at which you have arrived; for since then I have been more satisfied in my mind, and more than ever penetrated with the truth of the old evangelic system, as established by the Reformation and Luther, and by contemporaneous, or at least recently posterior systematic writings, in particular the Augsburgh Confession, which, next to the Holy Scriptures, forms the foundation of the Evangelical Creed. This most strictly corresponds with the religion of Jesus Christ, as delivered to us by the Apostles themselves, and by the Fathers of the Church in the first ages of Christianity, before a popedom existed. It was far from the intention of Luther to found a new religion. His only object was to purify the faith from the base alloy and dross which had been introduced into it by popery, and which had accumulated to such an extent, that more value was placed on this impure mass than on the genuine doctrine, which lay buried and almost annihilated under it. I did not hesitate to examine Catholic Missals and Catholic Catechisms, which I not only perused, but studied. Against these I placed the old Evangelical Liturgies and service books of the first half of the 16th century (that is, of the time of the Reformation), compared them with each other, and thus again recognized the perfect accordance of the evangelical doctrines with the religion of Christ, and, on the contrary, the decided departure therefrom of the Catholic doctrines in many cardinal points. Nevertheless, there is much valuable matter in the Catholic missals; but every thing good in them, Luther, or the authors of the Evangelic Liturgies, who laboured in his name, acknowledged and retained. Since then, however, the men of modern theories have ventured to undervalue all this, and to treat the question as insignificant. But the pure evangelic doctrine still remains untouched, and may easily be found by those who do not begrudge the labour of seeking for it; as, in fine, has lately been done, the investigation having given birth to a renovation of the ancient Evangelic Prayer Book, of which, in its details, you probably know as little as you do of the old Liturgies of the time of the Reformation, the Augsburgh Confession, and other writings of the same kind.

This language will perhaps appear rude and unkind to you. It is probable, also, that it is not what you expected; for, according to what you state in your letter, you were confident that I could not in my heart blame your conduct, as what you had done was the result of mature