ter. But do they not see, that in this idea of immortality is involved the exercise of abitrary power, an act of almightiness by which the course of evil which might in this world be given up, must be to all eternity pursued by the immortalized heathen! The power of choice is destroyed. The freedom of the will is all torn away; and God comes to the poor, trembling, guilty creature, as though Christ, when on earth, had stopped before some miserable drunkard and said, "Be thou eternally a drunkard!" Christ, the express image of the invisible God, did no such thing. Every exercise of irresistible power was an act of mercy, as when he touched the eyes of the blind man, and on his visual orbs streamed the light and shone the beauty of heaven.

Hence I am led to adopt the third proposition, -That no act of irresistible power will fix the eternal continuance of good or evil, but that the same law of improvement and happiness which operates in this life, will operate hereafter. I believe in in the Sovereignty of God and the freedom of the human will for eternity as well as time; and to me reason teaches nothing plainer, than that the law of improvement is the best token of the benevolence of God. If I saw in the Scriptures any evidence that the earthly passions go with us to eternity,-inevitably continuing the acts of sin,-that man could hereafter sow to the flesh,—that he could indulge fleshly lusts that war against the soul, I should believe that evidence, and should anticipate something such a world as this. But to me the Scriptures are plainly against this.

Man in the immortal

world is as exalted and as different a being in contrast with himself here, as the winged gem floating on the summer air in the garden, is more beautiful than the repulsive worm,-though if we would look close enough, there is great beauty to be seen in the caterpillar. In the butterfly, only the beauty is magnified; and it floats along on its gossamer and rainbow wings, like a thought of a good man's heart made visible to attract us to heaven. That which is sown in dishonor, shall be raised in glory; and to me, immortality opens a higher place of improvement, where the chains of earth shall no more impede the swift progress of the spirit. In other words, I BELIEVE THAT OPPORTUNITIES OF IM

PROVEMENT WILL NEVER BE DENIED TO ANY

HUMAN SOUL. God will force no man to be a sinner. Man will be seen a penitent though a great way off from holiness. He shall never find the gate barred and bolted, the bridge up,

and the heaven of piety an unapproachable thing.

Has Revelation any thing against this? None pretend to bring the spirit of the Bible, the general tenor of the Scriptures, to bear on this point, but rest all their power in a brief text here and there, considered in a disjointed manner. But in support of our idea, we bring from Revelation the character of God, the spirit of all his laws and government, a Father's interest in his children, the rational nature of punishment, the promise of the destruction of sin, the assurance of the superabounding reign of grace, the universal extent of the Savior's mission, the truth that God made men for his glory, and while in sin they come short of his glory, and the magnificent truth, that Christ will be efficient in the work of an universal Savior, and God will be all in all! From Reason we bring the fact, that evil is not the final state of any thing in nature. All around us evil works only for restoration. The earthquake and the storm, the wind and the tide, and every elemental force in the vast domain of matter, but opens a safety valve in the tremendous enginery of nature's mechanism, to promote equilibrium --the balance of forces-the safety of this rolling globe and firmamental uni

Old Time is gray,-and yet their swift and awful light

With its electric speed, ne'er to this orbit

came ;

Behold the myriad worlds! Each onward swifter rolls,

Each freighted with bright, glorified, immortal souls.

They near the central THRONE. A bright and mystic tower

Of half-veiled blazonry, amid a boundless sun Of glory, speaks the awful centre of God's power, The dread Shekinah of the HOLY ONE. There, in that wondrous sphere of light and mystery

Now comes each shouting world to hold glad jubilee.

O God, enough!-Salvation's banners I behold Around the central Throne, in glory now unfurled ;

The first two are by far the largest and most important, Alderney containing only one parish, and Sark being little else than a rock. Of the first two mentioned, Jersey is the most important both in agriculture and in a commercial point of view; and it is of this island in particular that I am about to write.

The ancient name of this island was Cesarea, Jer, Ger, or Gear, being a corruption or contraction of Cesar, and signifying isle, so that the true meaning of Jersey, being interpreted, is Cesar's island. This and the sister isles were subject to France for the space of four hundred sixty-five years, and formed a part of the dukedom of Normandy; since then they have been an appendage of the British dominions. The ancient Norman language is still the language of the islands, but as many English words have been introduced, and as the pronunciation in some instances varies from the more modern

gold,

"patois" or brogue. I have often been amused in my travels in France, at the perplexity of Frenchmen to determine to what nation a Jerseyman belonged. His accent, idiom, and form of expression, though using many unknown words, were nearly French, while his looks, manners and habits were decidedly English, so that he was set down as a nondescript, and perhaps thought us belonging to no country at all.

To return to the etymology of the word. Tradition informs us that Jersey was first inhabited by Julius Cesar, who, passing through Coutances on the coast of Normandy, heard mention made of a small uninhabited island, which had no name, and which was separated from the main land by a very narrow arm of the sea. He determined to visit it, and embarking in a boat made of willow woven in the fashion of a basket and covered with skin, he arrived in safety, and gave the island his own name. He also placed twelve gentlemen of his subjects there, to commence a colony and equally to divide the island among themselves. This is probably the origin of the twelve parishes in which the island is now divided. Near the castle of Mount Orgueil, (of which I shall speak more by and by) there is an old fort, which has communication with the castle by a small door, and from immemorial tradition unto the present time, has been called Cesar's fort. In the same way in the Manor of Rozel in the north of the island, there is an entrenchment also named after Cesar, and in one part of the grounds may be seen the remains of an ancient camp constructed after the

fashion of the Romans. In corroboration of its early history, it may here be mentioned, that a number of Roman coins have been found, five of which have been preserved, namely, a large bronze medal of the Emperor Commodus, found in the parish of St. Owen; three of Probus and Postumus, struck when the empire was poor and on its decline, found in the parish of St. Martin, and another found in the temple of the Druids in the mountain of St. Helien.

It was under the reign of Louis the Pious, the son of Charlemagne, about the year 537, that the Normans, or Northmen, whose very name spread terror in the land, and at the same time showed from what part of the world they came, began to make piratical descents upon the western coast of France, burning and destroying every thing in their progress, pouring out human blood like water, and their boldness increasing with their numbers, they landed in different places, and committed acts of the greatest violence. Wherever these barbarians went, they left the marks of rapine and cruelty. By means of their little light boats, they ascended the rivers and penetrated into the interior of France, spreading around them such desolation and ruin as no other history records. They were Pagans, and blindly attached to their idolatry, a worship of a gross and sensual character, which united with their natural ferocity, impelled them to commit diabolical cruelties on all Christians, especially those connected with churches, monasteries and religious institutions. The fiery zeal imparted by their impious and brutal religion, rendered them cruel and sanguinary, and more particularly so to those who were bold to confess a better faith and worship. In short, such was the terror they inspired throughout France entire, that in the old Litany of the Roman church, (which is retained to the present day in the prayer-book of the Episcopal church) after the words "from lightning and tempest, from plague, pestilence and famine," they added and "from the fury of the Normans, good Lord deliver us."

No places from the position which they occupied on the coast of France, could be more exposed to their incursions than the Channel Islands; for as they lay directly in their track, they of necessity passed them both going and coming from their predatory excursions on the continent, and as Jersey had for some time previous been converted from Christianity, they left signal instances of their cruelty and impiety. The following transaction is on record.

There resided in the island a devout man eminent for his piety and noted for the austerity of his life. His name was Helerius, in French Helier, and he had retired from the temptations and cares of life to a hermitage on a rock where now stands a fort called Elizabeth Castle. This devout man was murdered by these barbarians under circumstances which conferred on him the reputation of a martyr, because he died confessing his faith in Jesus Christ, and refusing to embrace the gross idolatry of his murderers. This circumstance gave notoriety to the island, and it became still better known afterwards, when a Norman lord or seigneur, a descendant of those who had put this devout man to death, founded in memory of his martyrdom an abbey and called it after his name, the abbey of St. Helier. This is also the origin of the name of the town of St. Helier, the capital of the island.

The Normans continued to exercise their cruelties and commit ravages for the space of seventy-five years, but after Rollo and his Normans had acquired peaceable possession of Normandy and of the Channel islands, Charles the Simple, king of France, who was too feeble to resist them and much less able to dislodge them, ceded to them one part of his kingdom, in order that he might preserve the rest. Then it was that this savage people intermarried with the inhabitants, became civilized and embraced Christianity.

The island of Jersey enjoyed a long tranquili ty under the government of the dukes who succeeded Rollo up to the time of William the Conqueror. To the Norman chief Rollo, France the archbishop of Rome was sent with propositions of peace. "Great captain," said he, "will you all your life-time make war with France? What would become of you if death should suddenly cut you off? Do you think yourself a God? Are you not a mortal man? Consider what you are, and what you are to become, and by whom you are to be judged." Afterwards he proposed terms of accommodation, which were, that that beautiful extent of country which was a part of Normandy, and which coasted the British Channel for two hundred miles, and was wide in proportion, should be ceded to Rollo and his successors, to be held in-feoff of the crown of France, with the title and dignity of dnke, and still further, if Rollo would embrace Christianity, to which step the archbishop should exhort him by all possible arguments, the king should give him in marriage his daughter Gilla, more strongly to cement the peace and friendship of the respec

tive parties.-These proposals were accepted, and a treaty eoncluded at an interview between the two princes. Rollo was baptized, and his authority joined to his example, soon induced those who accompanied him to undergo the same ceremony. Rollo caused his companions, soldiers, and all his army to be baptized and instructed in the Christian religion. In every thing he showed himself to be a great prince,but above all was he conspicuous for his love of right, a rare virtue indeed in that barbarous age, and for the important and exact manner in which he administered justice. The provinces which were ceded to him, had for a long time been the theatre of rapine and disorder, but he soon brought them under an admirable discipline by the institution of wise laws, and by the care he took in seeing that they were duly executed.

I must not here pass unnoticed one of the customs introduced under the administration of Rollo, as well for its singularity as for the respect it obtains from the inhabitants up to the present day. It is not important here to inquire whether it dates its origin from a particular ordinance instituted by Rollo himself, or whether it arose from the great veneration in which his name was held, on account of his love of justice, but it is very certain that from his time there was a custom that if any one sought to appropriate to himself that to which he had no legal claim, or attempted to invade the right of a neighbor, or to commit any other act of violence, or oppression, which called for a speedy remedy, the aggrieved party had only to call upon the name of the duke, crying out with a loud voice, "Haro, haro, haro, help me my prince, I am wronged," and the aggressor was obliged, and to this day is obliged, under pain of answering the consequences, to proceed no farther. Nothing could have been introduced more timely than this practice, and it was no doubt instituted to repress the arbitrary conduct of the pow-. erful against the feeble, who too often avail themselves of their wealth to weary out by long and expensive processes those who ask speedy justice against their oppressors. I remember an instance myself, of what is called "the cry of haro," during one of my visits to the island. A road had been laid out which an individual thought encroached rather more than it ought upon his land. As the workmen were about to enter on his boundary, he came and knelt down in the road and raised "the cry of haro," and the laborers desisted ftom their work till the law should decide their right to proceed. It was a

singular sight for a stranger like myself from England to witness the scene, and see men at the magic "cry of haro," "throw down the shovel and the hoe."

A remarkable instance of the power of this custom about 170 years after the death of Rollo, at the funeral of William the Conqueror, is still on record; when an individual objected to his body being committed to the earth. It seems that the Conqueror had purposed to build the great abbey of St. Stephen at Caen in Normandy, where he wished his body to be interred, and to effect this, it was necessary to pull down a number of houses, and among them was one of a proprietor who had received no compensation for the destruction of his property. The son of this proprietor seeing that a grave was dug in the very spot where the house of his father had stood, came boldly before the whole assembled multitude and forbid them in the name of Rollo, burying the body in that spot, and thus addressed the assembly: "He who has oppressed kingdoms by the power of his arms, is also my oppressor, and has kept me in perpetual fear of death; but since I have survived him who has done me this wrong, I shall not cry quits, now that he is dead. The land in which you are about to bury him, belongs to me, and I affirm that no one can justly bury a body on the property of another. If after his death, force and violence are used to deprive me of my own, I appeal to Rollo, the founder and father of our nation. Though it is true that he is long since dead, it is equally true that he lives in our laws, and to those laws I look for protection, and I know of no authority above them."

This bold discourse, pronounced in the presence of the son of the deceased monarch, who was no other than Prince Henry, afterwards Henry the First, had its effect. The "cry of haro" was respected. The man was satisfied, his price paid, and the body of the king interred.

All writers on the laws of Normandy have noticed and largely commented on this singular anomaly in the civil code.

From the time of Rollo to the reign of William the Conqueror, there were six dukes of Normandy, including Rollo himself, and they were the governors and sovereigns of the isles. Though it was not till the reign of Henry the First, that Jersey was united to the crown of England, and became part and parcel of the kingdom, yet it was subject from the time of William the Conqueror in 1067, so that in point of precedence as respects antiquity, the inhabit

ants of Jersey take seniority before either Ireland or Wales, as subjects of England. The conquest introduced a great change in the laws, customs, and even the language in England, as almost invariably attends such political changes, nevertheless Jersey and her sister isles, were not subject to this inconvenienee. The reason is plain. They were, if I may so express it, on the side of the conquerors instead of the conquered. They had for a long time previous been governed by Norman laws, and therefore the conquest of another country by a Norman duke, could not introduce any change among them; they remained as they were, and as in a great measure they remain at the present day. The only change was that they had a king instead of a duke, at the head of the government, or to speak still more correctly, they had king and duke in the same person.

In the reign of Henry the First of England, these islands were declared inalienable appendages to the British crown, and as such they have remained to the present day. Frequent attempts have been made by the French under different sovereigns to get possession of them, but they have been invariably repulsed.

It is not my purpose in this sketch to enter into a narrative on that topic. In the churches several monuments are erected to the memory of those who lost their lives in defence of their country from the arms of France. In patriotism Jersey has done its duty.

C. F. LE FEVRE.

[To be continued.]

Like garlands white, the waves have nursed,
To vanish when that form has passed.

They toil no more! their eyes they raise
To view the vision bright,
And tremble even as they gaze

Upon so strange a sight;
"Is it a spirit," pale they say,
"That makes the surging sea its way?"

"Be not afraid," sweet tones reply,
And they no longer fear;
"Be of good cheer for it is I !"

'Tis Jesus drawing near.

He gains the ship; they near the land;
They tread upon the welcome strand.

CHRIST WALKING ON THE SEA.

A SHIP is on the troubled sea,
And adverse winds are high,
While those within it toil, nor keep
The wished for haven nigh;

Yet strive they still, with hearts that brave
The strength of wind, the force of wave.

Lo! o'er the billow comes a form

With face serenely fair,

Whose look could quell the wildest storm,

That e'er might revel there; With step as calm, as though each tread Press'd down some vestal flow'ret's head.

Yet all the flowers that near it meet,
Are formed of snowy spray,
That wreathing, clusters 'neath its feet,
Like garlands in the way;

WHAT BIGOTRY DOES NOW.

AN amiable and cultivated woman, in the circle of our friends, passed to the society of immortals more than a year since, and we refrained from making any note of her death, lest we might say something too severe of some of her kindred. Looking over some letters recently, we met with a reference to her, which we now give, to show what death-dealing work Bigotry can do. This lady was a true wife and good mother, contented to live in the humblest style to sustain her husband in the frank and honest avowal of his faith in the completeness of the redemption of the world in Christ. She was a woman of much culture of mind and grace of manner. Her conversation was exceedingly engaging, and she won very rapidly on the esteem of even the stranger. Her husband was an honest, hard working man, with no habits of extravagance, and we should not have resisted a call for a loan in the time to which the following extract alludes. But the power of Bigotry