was before them." So, after a few days, they repaired to their future home, in the cottage of the bridegroom's father It was about the same time this year I saw the youthful mother carry her first-born to church for baptisin, though a little paler than when she stood in the same spot a bride; yet she looked all the more interesting. Once more she was in the same white dress; and I marked the blush of modest pride that flushed her cheek, as she sought and caught her father's eye, while the name of her mother was pronounced over her child. The responsive tear trembled in my own eye, as I marked hers filling, and my heart echoed the prayer that no doubt swelled in the young and happy parents' hearts. Not many weeks afterwards, when the cheerful festivities of Christmas were just approaching, after many days of stormy unsettled weather, a calm lovely morning invited my favorite Agnes to visit her own father's house for the few short hours of daylight which this season affords. Every object was reflected in the calm bright mirror of the placid ocean, and the air was balmy as on a day in June. She took her child in her arms, and left her husband with his father and brother engaged on some little work of husbandry on their small farm. She called to him cheerfully as she passed at a little distance, to come for her before the evening darkened, and he returned an affectionate assent. Alas, for the young hearts severed then for ever! Very shortly after Agnes's departure, some of their neighbors proposed to go to the fishing, and two lads from a little distance arriving, with their tackle and bait, without waiting for their own usual boat-fellows, as the forenoon was advancing, the father and two sons I have mentioned set off, in company with another boat, to the fishing ground, six miles off the north point of the land. They had nearly reached the spot, when a sudden storm arose. The tide was at the full, and the force of the north Atlantic rushed in with the speed of a whirlwind on the poor devoted crews. One of the boats was well-manned, and reached the land in safety; but in the little bark wherein was Agnes's husband, he and his brother were the only efficient men-their aged father, and the two lads above alluded to, composing all the crew. They were never heard of; the deep and turbid sea, doubtless, overwhelmed them; and till the day when the "sea shall give up her dead," how they met their fate can never be known. We shall draw a veil over the sorrows of the heart-stricken survivors of the catastrophe-the aged and desolate woman bereft of her husband and both her sons; a destitute widow and large family of one of them; a youthful bride of one of the younger men; a despairing mother of the other, who has, in him, lost her only surviving stay, having two years ago, by a precisely similar catastrophe, had to mourn for husband, son, and son-in-law; and last, though not least, the poor Agnes, on whose little story I have been dwelling with melancholy interest. What were her feelings when the fierce and sudden storm arose, sweeping over the waste of waters she was gazing on? She believed her busband safe on shore! First came to her ear reports that Who were in them? boats were gone to sea. Poor Agnes; with what feelings shall I look on her pale expressive countenar ce, now clad in the weeds of heartfelt sorrow. She remains in the dwelling of her father, of which she was the pride and joy, and where she is now not the less tenderly cherished, because of her irreparable misfortune. "This very curious piece of workmanship of the 16th century, which formed one of the finest gems of the collection at Strawberry-hill, and which was purchased at the sale there last summer by Mr. Farrer of Wardour Street, for a large sum, has just been bought by her Majesty at the price, it is said, of 200 guineas. It was about to be sold to a foreign collector, who is in possession of the celebrated iron ring of the unfortunate husband of Mary Queen of Scots, when the good taste of her Majesty rescued it, and it is now amongst the royal jewels of Eng land, as formerly it was amongst the royal jew els of Scotland. It is the identical jewel worn by Lord Darnley. It was made by order of Lady Margaret Douglas, his mother, in memory of her husband, Matthew Stuart, Earl of Lennox and Regent of Scotland, who was murdered by the party who opposed him in religion. The jewel, which is of exquisite workmanship, is of fine gold, in the form of a heart, about two inches long and nearly two inches in breadth. On the surface, which opens in front, there is a coronet, in which are three small rubies and an emerald. Under the coronet there is a sapphire in the shape of a heart, with wings of ruby, emerald, and sapphire. The coronet is supported by Victory and Patience. There are also two figures on the jewel, representing Faith and Hope. The robes of all these figures, which are very elaborate, are of ruby and sapphire enamelling. There is the following legend: "Sal obtein Victorie in yair Pretence, Quha hopis stil constantly with Patience. The coronet and little heart may be both opened up from below; within the coronet are three letters in cipher, "M. L. S.," with a crown of laurel over them. On the reverse of the coronet within are two hearts joined and pierced by two arrows, bound by a wreath with a legend, "Quhat we Resolve." When the little heart is opened, a skull and two bones are seen, and two hands holding a label, from which hangs a horn | intended for the accommodation of a part of the with the rest of the legend, "Death sal dessolve.' people attending worship; and perhaps it was On the other side of the jewel is the sun shining on a heliotropium, or sunflower, beautifully enamelled, the moon and stars are also represented. There are a salamander in the flames, a pelican feeding her young with her blood, a shepherd, a traveller, a dog, and a bird, and a phenix, all emblematical, with a legend "My stait to them I may compaer For you quha is of Bontes rare.' When the whole heart is opened, on the reverse are seen two men in Roman armor fighting; an executioner holding a woman by the hair with a cuttle axe, as about to decapitate her; two frightful jaws, out of which issue three spectres in flames. The figure of time is seen draw ing a naked figure, supposed to be Truth, from a well; and a female on a throne, with a fire in which many crosses are burning. There are three legends, 'Ze seem al my Plesur. Tym gaves al leir,' and 'Gar tell my Relaes.' The whole is exquisitely worked. and is one of the most extraordinary remains of the art of the age." so; although there is also some ground for supposing that it was, in a great measure, a mere peculiarity of architecture, some churches having the same kind of bench on the outside. It may be remarked, that its running round the whole interior, except the east end, is no disproof of its having been designed for the congregation, as might be supposed from the laity having latterly been forbidden to enter the chancel, for such a rule does not appear to have existed in the Anglo-Saxon church: at least such is the natural inference from the 44th constitution of King Edgar, published in a. D. 960: " And we ordain that no woman shall approach the altar while the mass is being celebrated." This, of course, implies that at any other time a woman might do so. Judging from Anglo-Saxon illuminations, the people generally sat on low, rude, three-legged stools, placed dispersedly over the church. But a writer in the British Critic* very justly observes, that sitting on the ground or standing were then much more common postures than now. "In a manuscript," says he, "in the HarIt cannot escape the notice of many of our leian Library in the British Museum, dated readers, that there is a serious blunder in resA. D. 1319, is represented Archbishop Arundel pect of chronology in this account. The earl preaching to the people from a pulpit, raised of Lennox was killed four or five years subse-about two feet from the ground, his cross-bearer quently to his son Lord Darnley, so that, if this standing by his side, and his hearers all sitting jewel was made on the occasion of his death, it on the ground. A copy is given in Strutt s 'Annever could have belonged to the unhappy youth tiquities.' In the 'Pictorial History of England,' whose alliance to Queen Mary forms so dismal after a short account of the rise of the mendicant a chapter in our history. We take leave to re-orders, there is a drawing without date, but promark, that the history of the jewel seems to re-bably belonging to the fifteenth century, of a quire further elucidation.-Edinburgh Journal. PEWS. friar preaching from a movable pulpit. In this instance, the scene is probably not in a church, and the ground appears to be covered with branches of trees or plants; but still the posture represented goes to confirm the supposition of that being customary in churches." The usual covering for the floors of churches, and, indeed, of private houses in those times, was rushes. From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. ONE of the religious controversies of the day, Wooden seats appear to have been introduced the merits of which we have not the slightest soon after the Norman Conquest. In Bishop inclination to discuss, has been the means of Grostête's injunctions (1240), it is ordered that bringing to light some curious records regard-the patron may be indulged with a stall in the ing the early history of church seats; a matter on which considerable obscurity has hitherto rested. We propose to cull a few of these notices from the various publications in which they appear. The writers on this subject have divided it into two epochs-that before and that after the Reformation-the moot point being when pews, properly so called, were first introduced and generally used; but without discussing mere words, we shall commence by showing how worshippers were accommodated in early times, taking up the etymology of the term pew in our chronological progress. In Anglo-Saxon churches, and in some of early Norman date, there was a stone bench running round the whole of the interior, except the east end; an arrangement sometimes continued even in decorated churches, as in Exeter Cathedral, and in late Tudor, as in North Petherton, Somersetshire, and in King's College chapel. This might be presumed to have been choir. And in the twelfth chapter of a synod at Exeter, holden by Bishop Quivil in the year 1287, we read as follows:-"We have also heard that the parishioners of divers places do oftentimes wrangle about their seats in church, two or more claiming the same seat; whence arises great scandal to the church, and the divine offices are sore let and hindered: wherefore we decree, that none shall henceforth call any seat in the church his own, save noblemen and patrons; but he who shall first enter shall take his place where he will." Thus, it appears that the seeds of the modern system were sown in the church as early as the thirteenth century, for "noblemen and patrons" were allowed to have seats of their own. The next innovation presents itself as we advance nearer the Reformation. Wooden seats begin in some instances to have cross-bars by way of doors. In Bishop's Hull are some very fine and completely open [* No. 64, p. 499. 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 ob. is 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 We now come to the Reformation, when the the early days of the reformed church, was conchange of the forms of worship almost necessa- tinued during the Stuart reigns, and it accordingrily implied a change in the arrangements for ly appears that pews were much multiplied the congregation. The daily prayers, instead during that period. About 1608, galleries were of being read at the altar, were now repeated by introduced into churches. In that year, St. Mathe minister in "a little tabernacle of wainscot ry the Greater, at Cambridge, was scaffolded, provided for the purpose;" otherwise a reading that is, galleried. In 1610, a gallery was erect desk. We soon after find allusions in our popu- ed at the west end of the collegiate church of lar literature to pews, or pues, as the word was Wolverhampton, by the Merchant Tailors' Comthen spelt. Thus, Shakspeare has the follow-pany. It rests on two arabesquely-carved uping line in Richard III., rights, 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. “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 made moan to her pue-fellow." Bishop Andrews uses the expression in one of his sermons (1596); and in a supplication of the poor Commons addressed to Henry VIII., in 1546, on the subject of the Bibles lately put up in every church, it is complained, that "for where your highness gave commandment that thei should se that there were in every parish church within your highness's realm one Bible at the least set at liberty; so that every man might freely come to it, and read therein such things as should be for his consolation, many of this wicked generation, as well preests as other their faithful adherents, would pluck it other into the quyre, other into some pue, where poor men durst not presume to come." So well established were pews in 1611, that we find, from the following ludicrous entry, they were even then baized. In the accounts of St. Margaret's, London, is an item of sixpence, "paid to Goodwyfe Wells, for salt to destroy the fleas in the church-warden's pew." In the book of another London parish, a few years later, it is recorded that "Mr. Doctor has his pew trymed with green saie." From another record (1620), we learn that the sexes were separated in different pews, for a certain Mr. Loveday was reported for sitting in the same pew with his wife, "which being held to be highly indecent," he was ordered to appear, but failing to do so, Mr. Chancellor was made acquainted with his obstinacy. The matter was finally compromised by Mr. Doctor's giving him a seat in his pew; That pews existed immediately after the Re- the comfortable luxury of "green saie" no doubt formation, thus clearly appears; but a question compensating uxurious Mr. Loveday for the loss remains as to the nature of the seats which were of his wife's company. The march of comfort so called. Etymologically, a pew is any thing and decoration proceeded rapidly, as may be which gives support, or a seat of any kind. Was seen from a passage in a sermon preached by the sense of the term thus general in 1546, or the witty Bishop Corbett of Norwich two years did it refer to those particular enclosed or box- afterwards (1622). "Stately pews," he says, like seats which are now recognised in England" are now become tabernacles, with rings and 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. curtains to them. There wants nothing but It is generally understood, though we can 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 seat- Letters may be franked or not; and lettres ing of churches which now exists in Scotland, charges, or particularly recommended, may be 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 Boubytery records of Perth under 1645, that a dis-logne. Letters franked from England to France pute then arose between the magistrates and will pay five-pence per single letter, weighing kirk-session of that town, "anent the unorderly half an ounce. (This, in addition to the tariff of extraction of a seat forth of the kirk." In the Boulogne mentioned above, will make tenpence rural districts of Scotland, the seats of the estab- postage between England and Paris.) lished 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. 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. 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 POSTAGE CONVENTION BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND. Monday's Moniteur publishes the Postage Convention between France and England, sign-power, the transmission of correspondence by ed 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 *History of the Rebellions in Scotland from 1633 to 1660. Constable's Miscellany. VOL. II. No. III. 23 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 postage will be levied in the usual manner."-Colonial Gazette. 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. 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 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 gles of a triangle are no longer equal to 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 sup pose 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 des piseth 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 expositions 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 individual, had we known of any such as widely used and as generally understood. The Oxford party, it is true, vehemently protest against being designated by any name, whether derived from an individual or not, which would imply that they constituted a particular school or sect, on the ground that their doctrines are not those of a school or sect, but of the "Catholic Church!" But in this we cannot humor them; they are in our judgment decidedly a "Sect," and nothing more. |