78 Monthly Review of Literature, 
tants—to sh«l‘er them from oppression —or to 
rescue them from debasement. The meritorious 
exertions of the Moravians are well known; but 
itis at Bethelsdorp and Theopolis in particular 
(institutions of the London Missionary Society) 
that the Hottentot race have, during the last few 
years, made the most surprising adyances;.and 
this, too, while these missions were exposed to the 
incessant persecution, not merely of the proyin- 
cial functionaries, but of the colonial government 
itself. Ifthe native tribes of South Africa are so 
fortunate as ultimately to escape the fate of the 
Aborigines of America and of the West Indies, 
their redemption may be fairly ascribed to the 
Christian Missionaries. 
It is but fair, however, to give a specimen 
of the writer’s versification at the Cape :— 
The Bushman sleeps within his black brow’d den 
In the lone wilderness: around him lie 
His wife and little ones, unfearingly— 
For they are far away from “Christian men.” 
No herds, loud lowing, call him down the glen; 
He fears no foe but famine; and may try 
To wear away the hot noon slumberingly ; 
Then rise to search for roots—and dance again, 
But he shall dance no more! His secret lair, 
Surrounded, ech»esto the thundering gun, 
And the wild shriek of anguish and despair! 
He dies—yet, ere life’s ebbing sands are run, 
Leaves to his sons a curse, should they be friends 
With the proud Christian race—“ for they are 
fiends.” 
Oppression! I have seen thee, face to face, 
And met thy cruel eye and cloudy brow; 
But thy soul-withering glance I fear not now, 
For dread to prouder feelings doth give place 
Of deep abhorrence! Scorning the disgrace 
Of slavish knees, that near thy footstool bow, 
1 also kneel—but with far other yow 
Do hail thee and thy herd of hirelings base: 
I swear, while life-blood warms my throbbing 
veins, 
Still to oppose and thwart with heart and hand 
Thy brutalizing sway—till Afric’s chains 
Are burst, and Freedom rules the rescned land— 
‘Trampling Oppression and his iron rod ; 
Such is the vow I take—So help me, God! 
The History of the Church of Christ, by 
the Rev. I. Scott. Vol. 2. Part I.; 1828. 
—This work was taken up by Mr. Scott, of 
St. Mary’s, Hull, a son of the well-known 
and well-respected Bible Scott, for the pur- 
pose of prosecuting what had been originally 
undertaken by Joseph Milner, of Hull, and 
continued by his brother, Dean Milner; and 
a volume before this, which we noticed on 
its appearance, has already amply proved 
him to be a very competent collaborateur— 
influenced by the same spirit—the same 
industry—the same undeyiating pursuit “of 
what appears to him truth in facts and in 
doctrines. Our readers are aware that the 
history has the name of evangelical fastened 
upon it ; but the prime object of its origina- 
tor was to trace the existence of what is 
termed by him the True Church, through 
the darkest periods of the Catholic and 
Papal dominion, The broad distinction 
[Jury, 
between Catholic and Protestant lies be- 
tween merit and no merit, in a theological 
sense, between reliance for salvation upon 
self, in conjunction with the Saviour and 
the Saints, and reliance upon the Saviour 
alone—the virtue of this last reliance con- 
sisting in its sincerity, and shewn, so far as 
it is shewn at all, by moral obedience. A 
church, professing these Protestant senti- 
ments, under whatever appellations, ‘has al- 
ways existed—and Milner’s object was, as 
we said, to trace its history. 
Mr. Scott’s former volume presented the 
History of the Lutheran Church, to the 
death of its founder, in 1546; and in this, 
the first portion of a second volume, the 
same history is brought down to 1555, the 
period when Charles, deserted, and duped, 
and baffled by his best and strongest ally, 
Maurice of Saxony —and in despair of 
breaking the resolute spirit of the Pro- 
testants in their just struggle for indepen- 
dence of worship—finally gave up the vain 
attempt to force men’s thoughts to run 
evenly in a mould of his own making— 
gave up, what he could no longer withhold, 
free and full toleration to the professors of 
the Augsburg Confession. As collateral, 
but by no means unconnected matters, the 
remainder of the book is occupied with the 
rest of Melancthon’s story to his death, in 
1560—including a review of his principal 
works, the result, obviously, of a careful 
perusal, and not taken, as has been done a 
thousand. times, on trust and in succession; 
and this is followed by a survey of the chief 
points in the progress of the Council of 
_ Trent, from 1545 to 1563. The remain- 
ing portion of the volume is intended to 
comprise the History of the Swiss Refor- 
mation. 
Received implicitly as Dr. Robertson’s 
very graceful narrative every where is, 
Mr. Scott has justly thought it a matter of 
importance to correct his misrepresenta- 
tions. It would be no difficult matter to 
show that Dr. Robertson’s acquaintance 
with the writings of the main agents of the 
Reformation was very slight ; his researches 
embraced little of the elements of history ; 
he tock them up very much in the lump, 
where he found them made up to his hand, 
and into histories; he consulted, for the 
most part, not the original authorities, but 
the reporters of such authorities, who had 
themselves no doubt drawn upon them— 
but then this was taking things at second 
hand, and was nothing but a judgment of 
the judgments of others, who might them- 
selves have been deeply mistaken. Dr. 
Robertson was, besides, more of an histo- 
rian than a theologian; the matter with 
which Luther’s and Melancthon’s nume- 
rous volumes are filled, was, we take it, 
little to his taste, and, of course, his study 
of them would be hasty and imperfect—and 
blunders were thus inevitable. - 
But his blunders are not.confined to mat- 
i, 
i ee 
