wood-seats, bearing date 1530; so there are to that party by whom it was considered as a in Crowcombe, Somersetshire, and Bourne, sort of idol worship. Another injunction to Cambridgeshire, both 1534; and in Milverton, which they objected, was that for standing up at Somersetshire (though very poor), 1540. That the saying of the Gloria Patri. By having high these seats were in some instances appropriated, enclosed seats, they were screened from the obis plain from the fact of initials being sometimes servation of those officers whose duty it was to marked on them; as in Stogumber, and also in report if any one disobeyed the behests of the Hurstpierpoint, Sussex. law. The need for pews, thus commenced in the early days of the reformed church, was continued during the Stuart reigns, and it accordingly appears that pews were much multiplied during that period. About 1608, galleries were introduced into churches. In that year, St. Mary the Greater, at Cambridge, was scaffolded, that is, galleried. In 1610, a gallery was erect ed at the west end of the collegiate church of Wolverhampton, by the Merchant Tailors' Comrights, which join on to the piers; the upper part, as in most early instances, is banistered, and contains four panels, two bearing shields, and two inscribed with texts from Holy Scripture. We now come to the Reformation, when the change of the forms of worship almost necessarily implied a change in the arrangements for the congregation. The daily prayers, instead of being read at the altar, were now repeated by the minister in "a little tabernacle of wainscot provided for the purpose;" otherwise a reading desk. We soon after find allusions in our popular literature to pews, or pues, as the word was then spelt. Thus, Shakspeare has the follow-pany. It rests on two arabesquely-carved uping line in Richard III., "And makes her pue-fellow with others moan." Of a character in Decker's "Westward Hoe," it is said, that "being one day in church, sle So well established were pews in 1611, that made moan to her pue-fellow." Bishop Andrews we find, from the following ludicrous entry, they uses the expression in one of his sermons (1596); were even then baized. In the accounts of St. and in a supplication of the poor Commons ad- Margaret's, London, is an item of sixpence, dressed to Henry VIII., in 1546, on the subject "paid to Goodwyfe Wells, for salt to destroy of the Bibles lately put up in every church, it is the fleas in the church-warden's pew." In the complained, that "for where your highness gave book of another London parish, a few years later, commandment that thei should se that there it is recorded that "Mr. Doctor has his pew were in every parish church within your high- trymed with green saie." From another record ness's realm one Bible at the least set at liberty; (1620), we learn that the sexes were separated so that every man might freely come to it, and in different pews, for a certain Mr. Loveday was read therein such things as should be for his reported for sitting in the same pew with his consolation, many of this wicked generation, as wife, "which being held to be highly indecent," well preests as other their faithful adherents, he was ordered to appear, but failing to do so, would pluck it other into the quyre, other into Mr. Chancellor was made acquainted with his some pue, where poor men durst not presume to obstinacy. The matter was finally compromised come." by Mr. Doctor's giving him a seat in his pew; the comfortable luxury of " green saie" no doubt compensating uxurious Mr. Loveday for the loss of his wife's company. The march of comfort and decoration proceeded rapidly, as may be seen from a passage in a sermon preached by the witty Bishop Corbett of Norwich two years afterwards (1622). "Stately pews," he says, "are now become tabernacles, with rings and curtains to them. There wants nothing but beds to hear the word of God on: we have casements, locks and keys, and cushions, I had almost said bolsters and pillows, and for these we love the church. I will not guess what is done within them; who sits, stands, or lies asleep at prayers, communion, &c.; but this I dare say, they are either to hide some vice, or to proclaim one; to hide disorder, or to proclaim pride."* The reasons for heightening the sides of pews ceased with the power of Charles I., and from the civil war they gradually declined, until they reached their present comparatively moderate elevation. That pews existed immediately after the Reformation, thus clearly appears; but a question remains as to the nature of the seats which were so called. Etymologically, a pew is any thing which gives support, or a seat of any kind. Was the sense of the term thus general in 1546, or ⚫ did it refer to those particular enclosed or boxlike seats which are now recognised in England as pews? It seems to us that, either now, or at least immediately after, the term had come to be restricted to such enclosed seats. And history makes us aware of reasons for such enclosures coming then into demand. The forms prescribed for worship were then rigid dictates of the law, against which many persons of puritanical tendencies were disposed, as far as they safely could, to rebel. The order, still to be found in the canons of the English church, that "whenever, in any lesson, sermon, or otherwise, the name of Jesus shall be in the church pronounced, due reverence be made of all persons, young and old, with lowness of courtesy and uncovering of the heads of the men-kind, as thereunto doth necessarily belong, and heretofore hath been accustomed," was particularly obnoxious The etymology of the word is traced by Ducange (Glossary, s. v. iii. 332) to the Latin podium, which meant, in the Latin of the middle ages, any thing on which we lean. From it the old French word puy, the modern appui (support), and the English pue, or pew, are derived. It is generally understood, though we can *Swift has illustrated the sleeping accommodation offered in pews by the following lines: A bedstead of the antique mode, ment will send on the seventh day, weather permitting. By the eighth article, the post-boats will continue their services without interruption, even in the time of war, until one of the Governments shall have signified its wish that the service should cease. In ports where regular government steamers do not exist, private vessels and steamers may be employed to carry bags. For this purpose a post-box shall be put up on board the packet for the reception of letters. present no certain authority on the subject, that fixed church seats scarcely existed in Scotland before the reign of Charles I. People were in the habit of bringing seats with them to sit upon in Church. It is stated that, at the riot in the High Church of Edinburgh, in 1637, on the occasion of introducing a liturgy, the chief agents in the tumult were servant women, "who were in the custom of bringing movable seats to Church, and keeping them for their masters and mistresses." ""* Humbler people brought little clasp stools for their accommodation, and it was such an article that the famous Jenny Geddes There is nothing new in the regulation of the threw on that occasion at the dean's head-the Levant correspondence, which continues to be first weapon, and a formidable one it was, en-transmitted three times a month. ployed in the civil war. The more formal seating of churches which now exists in Scotland, may be presumed to have gradually sprung up in the course of the few years during which that war lasted, a time remarkable beyond all that went before it for attendance on religious ordinances, and the space of time devoted to them, it being by no means unusual in those days to Letters from France to England, franked, will spend six hours at once in church. Very few pay in France by the amount levied on French notices of the church accommodation of this time letters by the law of 1827. The letters from are to be found; but it appears from the Pres- Paris, however, will pay but the tariff of Bou bytery records of Perth under 1645, that a dis-logne. Letters franked from England to France pute then arose between the magistrates and kirk-session of that town, "anent the unorderly extraction of a seat forth of the kirk." In the rural districts of Scotland, the seats of the established churches are generally divided amongst the land proprietors for the use of themselves and their tenantry; bnt in some of the large towns they are let by the magistracy, and are a source of considerable revenue. The propriety of having a large part of the area of every church appropriated by affluent persons, who perhaps make little use of the privilege, has lately been questioned by a party of the English clergy; and an effort is now making to have pews everywhere abolished. The bishops of London and Hereford have declared for this object in their respective charges to their clergy. POSTAGE CONVENTION BETWEEN Monday's Moniteur publishes the Postage Convention between France and England, signed April 3, 1843. The first titre, or chapter, establishes towns of the two countries, from which letters for one another are to be despatched. The French towns are-Paris, Calais, Boulogne, Dieppe, Havre, Cherbourg, Granville, St. Malo, in the Channel. The English towns are-London, Dover, Brighton, Southampton, Jersey, and Guernsey. For the Mediterranean, the French post bureaux of transmission are-Paris, Marseilles, the office at Alexandria, Smyrna, the Dardanelles, and Constantinople. The English are-Alexandria, Gibraltar, and Malta. The principal transmission of letters between the countries takes place between Dover and Calais, six days a week; the French Govern Letters may be franked or not; and lettres charges, or particularly recommended, may be sent in both countries. The English Post-office is to pay to the French two francs for every thirty grammes of letters not franked; and in the same case the French Post-office will pay the English a shilling an ounce. will pay five-pence per single letter, weighing half an ounce. (This, in addition to the tariff of Boulogne mentioned above, will make tenpence postage between England and Paris.) There are especial charges for letters exchanged with St. Malo, Cherbourg, and Granville. Journals of either country are to be delivered at the port of the country to which they are addressed exempt from duty. Pamphlets may be sent by post from one country to another, paying in France as usual; in England one penny for two ounces; sixpence from two to three ounces; eightpence from three to four ounces; and twopence per ounce more up to sixteen ounces, beyond which weight the English Post-office will not receive them. The following is Article 86, which relates to a point so much disputed, and which has involved English journals in some expense: "Art. 86. In order to insure reciprocally the integrality of the produce of the correspondence of both countries, the French and English Governments will prevent, by every means in their power, the transmission of correspondence by other channels than the post. Nevertheless, it is understood, that couriers sent by commercial houses or others, to carry accidentally a single letter, or one or more newspapers, may freely traverse the respective territories of both states, these couriers presenting the letter or the Gazettes at the first bureau of post, where the age will be levied in the usual manner."-Colonial Gazette. post SERVIA.-Paris, May 2.-The affairs of Servia are arranged. The Divan has conceded all the demands of Russia-Prince Georgewitsch is to abdicate, his councillors and Kiamil to quit Servia, and a new election to take place, probably in favor of Prince Milosch. An attempt was made at Milan to assassinate the Viceroy, which failed.-Exam. THE OXFORD TRACTARIAN SCHOOL. From the Edinburgh Review. ART. VIII.-1. Tracts for the Times. By 5 vols. 8vo. 1833-40. of controversy. Their principles, logical and ethical, are so totally different from our own, that we feel it as impossible to argue with them as with beings of a different species. There may be worlds, say some philosophers, where truth and falsehood change natures-where the three an 2. Church Principles considered in their Results. By W. E. Gladstone, Esq.,gles of a triangle are no longer equal to M.P. 8vo. London: 1840. 3. Ancient Christianity, and the Doctrines of the Orford Tracts. By the Author of Spiritual Despotism. Vols. I. and II. London. 4. The Divine Rule of Faith and Practice; or, a Defence of the Catholic Doctrine, that Holy Scripture has been, since the times of the Apostles, the sole Divine Rule of Faith and Practice in the Church, against the Dangerous Errors of the Authors of the "Tracts for the Times," and the Romanists. By William Goode, M. A., of Trinity College, Cambridge. 2 vols. 8vo. Lon don. 5. The Kingdom of Christ delineated; in Two Essays, on our Lord's own Account of his Person and of the Nature of his Kingdom, and on the Constitution, Powers, and Ministry of a Christian Church, as appointed by Himself. By Richard Whately, D. D., Archbishop of Dublin. 8vo. London: 1841. 6. Oxford Divinity compared with that of the Romish and Anglican Churches, with a Special View of the Doctrine of Justification by Faith. By the Right Rev. C. P. M'Ilvaine, D. D., Bishop of Ohio. Svo. London: 1841. 7. The Church of the Fathers. 12mo. Lon don: 1842. 8. The Voice of the Anglican Church, being the declared Opinions of her Bishops on the Doctrines of the Oxford Tract Writers. 12mo. London: 1843. 9. Anglo-Catholicism not Apostolical; being an Inquiry into the Scriptural Authority of the Leading Doctrines advocated in "The Tracts for the Times." By W. Lindsay Alexander, M. A. 8vo. Edinburgh: 1843. Ir may sound paradoxical, but it is nevertheless true, that with the disciples of the Oxford Tract School* we have no manner We have employed the term Puseyism, simply as the ordinary name by which a certain system of doctrines has come to be popularly designated, and by which it is therefore most readily recognised. It is not intended to imply that the reverend gentleman from whose name the term has been derived, would subscribe to every statement or opinion contained in the works of the school to which he belongs; but his own writings leave us no doubt, that in all the more important he cordially concurs. Still, we two right angles, and where a crime of unusual turpitude may inspire absolute envy. We are far from saying that the gentlemen above mentioned are qualified to be inhabitants of such a world; but we repeat that we have just as little dispute with them as if they were. With men who can be guilty of so grotesque a petitio principii as to suppose that to those who question the arrogant and exclusive claims of the Episcopal Clergy, and who "ask by what authority they speak," it can be any answer to cite the words, "He that despiseth you despiseth me," and "whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted,"*-with men who think that no "serious" person can treat lightly their doctrine of Apostolical succession, and that if there be, it is to some purpose to quote the text, "Esau, a profane person, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright,"t-with men who can so wrest the meaning of common terms as to represent the change effected in the eucharistic elements by the words of consecration, to be as much a miracle as that performed at the marriage feast at Cana,t-with men who are so enamored of the veriest dreams and whimsies of the Fathers, as to bespeak all reverence for that fancy of Justin and others, that the "ass and the colt" for which Christ sent his disciples, are to be interpreted severally of the "Jewish and the Gentile believers," and also to attach much weight to that of Origen, who rather expounds them of the "old and the new Testaments," with men who can treat with gravity the various patristic exposi tions of the "five barley loaves," which some suppose to indicate the "five senses," and others the "five books of Moses,"§ should have preferred a name not derived from an * Tracts, Vol. i. No. 17, p. 6. Br. Crit. Vol. xxvii. pp. 259, 360. It is not to them, then, that we address ourselves; but to the thousands of our readers who may have neither time nor inclination to peruse the voluminous works of their School. For their sakes we shall attempt something like a systematic exposition, once for all, of its principal doctrines, and they can then decide whether or not it is their duty to accept them. with men who can lay down the general either great knaves or great fools:" but in principle, that we are to "maintain before the exercise of that charity which hopeth we have proved," "that we must believe all things, we will not assume the former; in order to judge," "that this seeming par- and in the exercise of that charity which adox is the secret of happiness," "and believeth all things, we will not assume the that never to have been troubled with a latter. We regard them simply as an undoubt about the truth of what has been explained phenomenon; we stare at them as taught us, is the happiest state of mind,"* at a new comet, devoutly hoping at the same these writers at the same time declaring time that they may be found to move in a that the immense majority of mankind are highly hyperbolical trajectory, and that, brought up in this same quiet reception of having swept across our system, they will the most fatal delusions-with men who vanish and return no more. can believe that the true doctrine of Christian baptism will prove a preservative against forming either a Neptunian or Vulcanian theory of geology; and that the vertebral column and its lateral processes" were designed to afford a type and adumbration of the crosst-with men who think the words τοῦτο ποιεῖτε εἰς τὴν ἐμὴν ἀνάμvnow are the most natural words for our Lord to have used, if he meant to say "Sa- It is now about ten years since the foundcrifice this in remembrance of me"-with ers of this School set about achieving their men who can believe that St. Anthony's great miracle of putting the "dial" of the nonsensical conflicts with devils may not world "ten degrees backward." Their first unworthily be compared with the tempta- proceedings were comparatively moderate. tions of our Lord in the wilderness, and They had arrived at the conclusion that the that the grotesque portents with which his Church of England had become more "life" abounds may be attributed to diabol-"Protestant than the Reformation;" that ical agency§-with men who can write or she had somehow swung loose from her defend such a Tract as Number Ninety, and moorings, and had insensibly drifted with at once swear to the Articles and explain the tide to a point very different from that them away-with men who think that there at which the pilots of the Reformation had is no reason to believe that "the private anchored her; that the spirit of the English student of Scripture would ordinarily gain Church resides rather in the Liturgy and a knowledge of the Gospel from it ;" and Rubric than in the Articles, and that the who "confess a satisfaction in the infliction former ought to interpret the latter; that of penalties for the expression of new doc- certain "great and precious truths" had trines or a change of communion"-with nigh gone out of date, and that certain high men who can affirm and believe such things, "gifts" and prerogatives of the Church had and many others equally strange, we repeat come to be cheaply rated. They further we can have personally as little controversy thought that these "precious truths" reas with those inhabitants of Saturn, who, quired to be restored, and these high "gifts" according to Voltaire's lively little tale, to be vindicated. have seventy-two senses, and have discov- To diffuse their views they commenced ered in matter no less than three hundred that remarkable series of publications well essential properties. The powers of spec-known by the name of the "Oxford Tracts;" ulation of these gentlemen are either so at an early stage of which appeared Mr. much above our own, or so much below them their notions of right and wrong so transcendently ridiculous, or so transcendently sublime that there can be nothing in common between us. Thousands, we know, are ready to resolve the mystery of their conduct by saying, "Surely these men are Newman's Via Media, or middle road to heaven, between Romanism and Protestantism. This Via Media appeared to many nothing more or less than the "old Roman road" uncovered and made passable. What was thus early suspected was in due time made manifest. No matter how comparathese writers; it was soon seen that their tively moderate the first pretensions of system of doctrine and ritual was fast assuming a form not essentially different from that of undisguised Romanism. Flushed with success, and forgetting all caution, they rapidly developed, partly in the Tracts | sweet confectionary; their impatience could and partly in separate works, principles at not brook the long delay required by so tewhich the Protestant world stood aghast. dious a process. They exchanged the gentle In a word, the system closely resembled decoction of laurel leaves for prussic acid; that of Rome; it was, as geometricians say, till, at last, in Number Ninety, which ought a similar figure, only with not so large a by right to be called the "Art of Perjury perimeter. made Easy," they administered so strong a dose, that even the Ostrich-stomach of the Church could no longer endure it. She threw off the nauseous compound with a convulsive effort, and refused to take any further preparations from the laboratory of these modern "Subtles." But though the Oxford Tracts were at length silenced by authorities unwontedly patient of scandal, the poison was too widely diffused to admit of any sudden and instant counteraction. Accordingly, in periodical publications of all sorts and sizesin Reviews, Magazines, and Newspapers, in flimsy Pamphlets and bulky Volumes, in letters, in dialogues, in tales and novels, in poetry, in congenial fiction and perverted history, in every form of typography, and in every species of composition-have the very same, nay, still more outrageous, doctrines been industriously propagated. Of this, too, we shall give full proof. They affirmed, as we shall fully show hereafter, that the Scriptures were not the sole and absolute rule of faith; that tradition was supplemental to it, and that what it unanimously taught was of co-ordinate authority; that a fully developed Christianity must be sought somewhere or other, (nobody knows where,) within the first (nobody knows how many) centuries; they spoke contemptuously of Chillingworth's celebrated maxim, and elevated that of Vincent of Lerins into its place: in defiance of the first principles of the Reformation, they advocated "Reserve" in the communication of religious knowledge, and avowed their preference of the ancient diciplina arcani ;* they spoke in terms of superstitious reverence of the Fathers, and eagerly defended many of their most egregious fooleries ;t they denied most contemptuously "the right of private judgment," and inculcated a blind, unquestioning acquiescence in the assurances of the Priest. As they had advocated principles which would justify nearly all the abuses of Rome, so they learned to speak of the abuses to which those principles had led in a new dialect-val of moss and bog, which quaked most in terms which would have made the hair of Cranmer or of Ridley stand on end. They apologized for her errors, and, as they were bidden, "spoke gently of her fall." They were rewarded (significant omen!) If the Oxford tract writers had strictly with the friendly greetings of the Roman-adhered to what appeared to be their oriists in return; and condescendingly assured ginal intention, as stated in the Via Media, that "they were not far from the kingdom it would have been difficult, at all events, of God." All this will be fully proved for a clerical antagonist to know how to hereafter, if indeed there are now any who deal with them; as they, for similar reasons, stand in need of such proof. would have found it equally difficult to But their zeal somewhat outran discre-know how to deal with him. While the tion. They were not yet quite perfect in Oxford party maintain that the spirit of the the art of poisoning. Instead of administering it in homœopathic doses, in invisible elements, by means of perfumed gloves or to Thus it was seen that the Via Media, instead of being a road running between Protestantism and Romanism, and parallel to both, branched off at a large angle from the former, and, after traversing a short inter fearfully under the traveller's uncertain tread, struck into that "broad," well-beaten, and crowded road which leads to Rome and "destruction" at the same time. * The Oxford Tract writers and their adherents have shown but small practical regard to that principle of unquestioning obedience which forms a prime article of their faith. They suppressed the Nos. 80 and 87, Tracts on "Reserve." Tracts," it is true-an act of obedience, which, + Tract 89, on "Ancient Mysticism," passim. considering that they have since propagated the "It seems impossible," says Dr. Wiseman, same doctrines with undiminished zeal, and even read the works of the Oxford divines, and especially openly defended Number Ninety itself, the Bishop to follow them chronologically, without discovering of Oxford has acknowledged, in a recent charge, a daily approach towards our holy church, both in with a gratitude which looks almost ludicrous. doctrine and affectionate feeling. To They seem to have understood the objection of their suppose them (without an insincerity which they superior to be to the title of the books, not to the have given us no right to charge them with) to doctrines they contained-to the label on the bottle, love the parts of a system and wish for them, while not to the poison in it. Their obedience was of the hey would reject the root and only secure support same kind with that of the dutiful son mentioned in of them-the system itself-is, to my mind, revolt- the Gospel, who said to his father, "I go, sir," but ingly contradictory." went not. |