MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 287 



The Church and Dissent considered in their Practical Influence. 

 By EDWARD OSLER. 12mo. pp. 266. Smith and Elder. 



THE time has arrived when a change in the ecclesiastical arrangements of the 

 country is absolutely required. We are not advocates of the dissenters who 

 wish to pull down the church of England and replace on its ruins the many- 

 headed hydra of sectarianism ; nor on the contrary would we venture to 

 defend every part of our church-institutions from the strictures of our dis- 

 senting brethren. Peace and amity may still be maintained, and that too 

 without lowering the condition and station of the establishment. But we see 

 little good sense in denying that evil is to be found in it, and a total want 

 both of good-sense and charity in decrying every thing that does not fall in 

 with our own views. Mr. Osier has, we doubt not, been influenced by right 

 motives in sitting down to write the volume before us ; and it would have 

 been well if he had been more temperate in the execution. Neither party 

 can gain any thing by an undiscriminating abuse of their opponents. 



Church Review and Scotch Ecclesiastical Magazine. No. III. & IV. 

 Eraser, Edinburgh. Smith and Elder, London. 



THIS periodical which seems to be the organ of the national church of Scot- 

 land is conducted with much ability. The numbers before us are fully equal 

 if not superior to their predecessors. Two papers are of particular interest : 

 one on the study of Hebrew literature in Scotland, a subject of the first im- 

 portance to the educated clergy of any Christian church; the other on the 

 connection of geology with the Mosaic record, a subject surrounded with 

 many difficulties, and a question of some importance. 



If the Scottish Church Review continues to be conducted with the good 

 sense and sound discretion apparent in the numbers before us, it cannot fail 

 of winning the support of our religious brethren north of the Tweed. 



Science of Etiquette. Glasgow. J. Reid. 



IN a world where every person acted on honest motives and was wholly 

 guided by truth and sincerity etiquette would be justly despised. In the 

 present state of things, in which evil so much preponderates over good, the 

 observance of its rules is absolutely necessary to the peace of men moving in 

 society ; and this book consequently, as containing a code of conventional 

 politeness, is worthy of attention. The writer is evidently a gentleman and 

 a person of some talent; and the little that we see of him in this very little 

 volume induces us to hope that his next literary effort will be of a more 

 exalted nature. 



Lardner's Cyclopaedia. Mackintosh's History of England continued. 

 Vols. IV., V., VI. Longman. 



THE work which was so sadly terminated by the death of the illustrious 

 author has been resumed by a gentleman whose talents seem fully equal to a 

 task made the more difficult from having been begun by such a man as Mackin- 

 tosh. The continuator has evidently not contented himself with taking facts 

 for granted without research ; for his work bears evident marks of severe and 

 original investigation. His political principles are of a liberal character, but 

 not so strong as to bias his fair judgment of the merits of historical person- 

 ages ; and his style of treating the subjects that successively invite his atten- 

 tion shows that he is perfectly at home and can handle them with the touch 

 of a master. 



We should feel much pleasure in canvassing more particularly the merits 

 of some political questions discussed in these volumes ; but we must refrain. 



