clergyman should have been selected; but this not being judged best, and there being assuredly no reason why a converted Jew should be again appointed, the choice of Mr. Gobat was singularly happy. He is an excellent oriental scholar (he was the Baron de Sacy's prime pupil); he is intimately versed in the manners and customs of the East, and in the history and opinions of the various African and Asiatic churches; he is a man of great simplicity of character, yet withal shrewd and penetrating; a man of business, and well qualified to guide and govern; and though educated and ordained in the Lutheran church, he is cordially attached to the Anglican communion, into the ministry of which he had already entered; and, above all, his talents and acquirements are devoted to the love of his Saviour, and a zealous desire to promote his cause and glory, and to make known to Jews and Mohammedans, and the decayed and corrupted churches of nominal Christians, his grace and salvation. In the appointment of such a man we do rejoice, and will rejoice; and the absurd charge of his being a Nestorian, only shews that those who urge it must be sadly perplexed to bring against him some tangible objection. We earnestly pray that God will guide his steps, and bless him, and make him a blessing. The Lord Chancellor's Bill for the regulation of charitable trusts has justly excited very extensive opposition. To detail the various provisions of the Bill, and its probable consequences, would require many pages, and most of our readers have, or will have, the whole question before them in all its bearings. The property affected by the Bill exceeds a million and a half yearly. There are 50,000 trustees, and half a million of acres of land, worth forty-five millions of money, in guardianship for purposes of charity. But this is only a portion of the property embraced in the Bill; for all voluntary charitable associations—and among others the Missionary Societies-will fall under its provisions. There is undoubtedly need of some judicious measure for preventing the abuse of charitable trusts; but this vast Bill of centralization-which gives the Commissioners despotic power over the smaller charities, and undue influence over all,-is so onerous, unjust, and inexpedient, that we cannot believe it will be allowed to proceed. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. Your Reader for twenty Years. J. T. W.; E.; I. S; J. S.; An Admirer of the Christian Observer; C. O.; M. J. M.; K. P.; Philalethes; A. M.; A. B.; Egrotus; and X., are under consideration. We continue to receive inquiries respecting the proposed Evangelical Alliance, and we have an accumulation of materials concerning it; but we have not alluded to the subject in our present Number, being unwilling to press it with undue pertinacity or seeming unkindness. The Great Aggregate Birmingham Meeting on the 31st of March, which was to have made the whole matter plain, has only increased the difficulties; and the leaders have shrouded their deliberations upon that occasion in the deepest mystery. The Congregational Magazines are beginning very freely to express their opinions upon the subject. Thus the Eclectic Review agrees with the Biblical Review, and both of them with the Patriot and the Christian Witness, that, for various reasons, the scheme cannot work well. One of those reasous is, that members of Established Churches and Dissenters cannot cordially or practically co-operate in carrying it out. In speaking of the Congregational Magazines the following explanation is requisite to prevent mistakes. The old Congregational Magazine, originally conducted by Mr. Orme, and afterwards by Mr. Blackburn, (who announced his retirement at the close of last year, with his name), and through which the Congregational Union of England and Wales formerly circulated its intelligence, was a publication very different in character and spirit to the Christian Witness, and the Christian's Penny Magazine, edited by Dr. (Jethro) Campbell, "under the sanction of the Congregational Union." The Congregational Magazine has been re-modelled, and retains that epithet only in its second title; its first being, "The Biblical Review ;" and it contains many able papers upon questions of sacred literature. In speaking, in our Evangelical Alliance papers, of Congregational Magazines, under "the sanction of the Congregational Union," we have not meant to include the “Biblical Review," which till this month had never touched upon the question. THE POPE'S PASTORAL LETTER TO THE SCOTTISH BISHOPS. [EVERYTHING is a falsehood that is meant to deceive; and nothing is a falsehood that is not so meant. Whether a tale, an allegory, or an ironical fiction, it is not a falsehood, unless it affects to be truth. We took this obvious distinction upon occasion of two publications issued in the year 1836; the one entitled "Pastoral Epistle from the Pope to some members of the University of Oxford;" the other a similar pontifical document, professing to be addressed to the Irish Roman Catholic Bishops. The names of the authors were not affixed to these pamphlets; but the former was written by the late Dr. Dickenson, who was promoted to the Episcopate, as Bishop of Meath, in 1841, and died in 1842; and the latter by the Rev. J. H. Todd, of Trinity College, Dublin. Dr. Dickenson's production was clearly ironical. No person supposed that the Bishop of Rome had really addressed a Pastoral Epistle to the writers of the Tracts for the Times; and the design of the effusion was to shew that the authors of those Tracts were promoting the cause of Romanism, while united in name to the Anglican communion; ministering in its offices, and eating its bread. But Mr. Todd's publication was, to say the least, less happy. It wore no semblance of irony; for there was nothing incredible in the circumstance of the Pope's communicating his opinion to the Irish Romanist Bishops respecting the scheme of National Education; and this Letter purported to be an address secretly and confidentially issued by him to them for their guidance, a copy of which had fallen into the hands of the enemy; it was declared to be a translation, a genuine document, from the original Latin; and in order to keep up the mystification, it was interlarded with Latin phrases where the pretended original was obscure or remarkable. So adroitly was the document concocted, that Dr. Pidduck, into whose hands an early copy fell, sent it, not doubting that it was genuine, to Mr. M'Ghee, who quoted it at Exeter Hall, as without question an authentic Epistle, and highly important, as shewing the machinations between the Pope and the Irish Romanist prelates; and had it not been for this public notification, which instantly brought out the fact of its being a fabrication, it might have circulated to this hour as a veracious document ;-many persons at least would not have been convinced of its non-authenticity. CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 102. 2 T Between these two cases there was a wide distinction. Mr. Todd's letter we considered unjustifiable; Dr. Dickenson's was a fair weapon, and proved most effective. Dr. Pusey felt himself constrained to reply to it in an elaborate paper, which was prefixed to the third volume of the Tracts for the Times; but his answer only made bad worse. The object of Dr. Dickenson was to shew, under the guise of a Letter from the Pope, that the Tracts for the Times were doing the Pope's work, and leading perverts to Rome; and time has verified his prediction. So well did he effect his object, that the writers were fain to follow some of his ironical suggestions, of which the following was one. "We have always urged (missionaries in benighted lands) not to expose their doctrines too openly to the public view; to be satisfied in the first instance, that much ignorance should remain, and only to press truth gradually, as the minds of men seemed prepared for its reception. These precautions we would urge upon your attention, because we perceive, from many portions of your Tracts, that those around you have some misgivings that you are attached to what they call Popery. Do not awaken any such suspicions by avoidable imprudence. Rather be satisfied with a slow progress, than run the risk of injuring the work in which you are engaged. Let it be yours to sow the seed, and those who shall be raised up after you will water the plant. Knowing, for instance, the feeling which exists among your heretical countrymen, we cannot but think it imprudent, that you should have used language so open as that which you have adopted, when you speak of duly ordained ministers as intrusted with the keys of heaven and hell, and with the awful and mysterious gift of making the bread and wine Christ's body and blood.' -Tract X. p. 4." The Tracts on the alleged stealthy revision of the Prayer-book, Reserve in communicating Christian Knowledge, and others, seemed actually modelled upon Dr. Dickenson's anticipatory recommendations. We also pointed out at the time various remarkable alterations in the Tracts; and with a just complaint that we might appear to be calumniators, seeing that various passages which we had honestly quoted from our edition, which was of early date, were omitted or modified without acknowledgment in subsequent editions. For instance, in Tract X., taking our old edition of 1836 and one of 1839: 1836. "Then you will honor us with a purer honor than you do now, namely, as those who are intrusted with the keys of heaven and hell, as the heralds of mercy, as the denouncers of woe to wicked men, as intrusted with the awful and mysterious gift of making the bread and wine Christ's body and blood; as far greater than the most powerful and the wealthiest of men, in our unseen strength and heavenly riches." 1839. "Then you will honor us with a purer honor than many men do now, namely, as those (if I may say so) who are intrusted with the keys of heaven and hell, as the heralds of mercy, as the denouncers of woe to wicked men, as intrusted with the awful and mysteri ous privilege of dispensing Christ's body and blood, as far greater than the most powerful and the wealthiest of men, in our unseen strength and our heavenly riches." The writers of the Tracts for the Times were very anxious not to be accounted as abetting Popery, while, as facts have proved, they were preparing a broadguage and proclivious railway to Rome. Dr. Pusey, in the paper prefixed to Volume III., was very indignant at this charge. In reply to the writer of the Pastoral Letter, who, he said, had sacrificed truth, he quoted the Tracts as declaring that "Popery must be destroyed; it cannot be reformed;" but alas! for his argument, all these doughty sayings were at length acknowledged by Mr. Newman to have been rash and wicked; he admitted that he was not speaking his own words, but only following the divines of his church; he had given way "to an impetuous temper, and a hope of approving himself to persons' respects, and to a wish to repel the charge of Romanism." Thus what we and various other writers predicted in plain declarations, and Dr. Dickenson in warning irony, was fulfilled to the very letter. We have run off to these statements in introducing to our readers the following "Pastoral Letter from the Pope to the Scottish Bishops." We hope it does not fall under the censure which we thought applicable to that of Mr. Todd; and we are sure that, though in fictitious guise, it exhibits truth, and speaks the words of serious warning. The most cannot indeed be made of the fiction; for as the passages quoted from the Scottish authorities refer to very solemn subjects, it would be painful and wrong to comment upon them satirically. They are therefore presented in a naked form, and without any ludicrous association; the only irony being that the Pope is made to appeal to them ;—as well he might. The spirit of bigotry in which those who stickle for the perpetuation and extension of what may by emphasis be called Gadderarism-for it is not strictly Laudism; Laud never ventured so far on the road to Rome; it rather resembles the system of the extreme section of the English Nonjurors, as Brett, Johnson, and the schismatical and pseudo Bishop Hickes; though even these were surpassed by Bishop Gadderar and the other Scottish Usagers -the spirit of bigotry, we say, in which the sticklers for this anti-Protestant system are endeavouring to perpetuate and extend it; and this, not only in Scotland, but, by means of the Missionary College at Perth, throughout the British Colonies and the whole world; and, as a first step, harrying Anglicanism out of Scotland; ought to be exposed and rebuked; and it is not unfair or invidious to express the deserved reprobation in the fashion of a comment upon its main positions by the Bishop of Rome. As for the passages cited, they are for the most part those collected by the "Committee of Managers and Constituent Members of St. Paul's Chapel, Aberdeen;" but many more are forthcoming, if required. It is distressing, now that the blessed doctrines and the scriptural and invaluable system of Church government of our glorious Protestant Anglican Reformation are being extensively revived and carried out, in the power and life of the Gospel of Christ our Lord; and when even in Scotland, where Episcopacy was bitterly denounced, on account of its being associated in popular opinion with the doctrines of Laud and the broad-swords and gibbets of Dundee, wide and favourable opportunities were occurring for introducing it in the evangelical form of the Anglican rite; and the feuds between the Established Presbyterians and the Free Presbyterians, were causing many pious, moderate, and peaceful men, to inquire for "the old paths"-it is distressing that at such an auspicious moment, a violent, unscriptural, and anti-Protestant code of doctrine and ecclesiastical polity should be urged, to the exclusion of everything else calling itself Episcopalian; and that the people of Scotland should be allowed no alternative between being Presbyterians, and being, in effect, Papists; for we concur with Mr. Newman, Mr. Oakeley, and Mr. Frederick Faber, that there is no foundation-as they once supposed there was-upon which to erect the half-wayhouse projected by the Tractites. That in the end, in the all-wise though inscrutable providence of God, these and all other things will be overruled to the furtherance of Christ's kingdom,—at least will not be allowed finally to triumph against it, we confidently hope and fully believe. In the mean time, our consolation must be that the government of that kingdom is upon the shoulders of Him who is the Mighty Counsellor, and the Everlasting God; and we must be content with the assurance, that however dark the night, light will come in the morning, and that what we know not now we shall know hereafter.] To our Beloved Brethren, commonly known by the title of the BELOVED BRETHREN: I denominate you such, not as intending to honour, or acknowledge, whatever of heresy or error I with pain observe among you; but because all who mean to do what the Church prescribes are dear to my paternal heart; and my desire is, and my endeavour will be, that they shall be reduced to the true obedience of the one and only catholic and apostolical communion. For it has ever been the wise and holy policy of myself and my infallible predecessors not to stave off men with the point of the crozier, when we could draw them into the fold with the crook. Thus I account all persons baptized, or pretending to be baptized, as rightfully under my dominion. The fourth Canon on baptism of the Council of Trent declares, that "Whosoever shall affirm that baptism, when administered by heretics, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, with the intention to do what the Church does, is not true baptism, let him be accursed." This great principle of Catholic unity is well set forth by that illustrious defender of verity, Cardinal Bellarmine, who says, "By the Church is not meant the Roman Church, but that which the administrator considers to be the true Church ; so that when a minister of the Church of Geneva, for instance, baptizes any one, he intends to do what the Church does; that is, the church of Geneva, which he holds to be the true church." Thus then, though you are in fatal error and deadly sin by your estrangement from the true Church, I regard you as demanding my care and correction; seeing that your sponsors, in presenting you for baptism, doubtless intended to do what the Church meant; and though they were guilty of not uniting themselves to the true Roman apostolical communion, out of which is no safety, yet viewing their intention, and also not doubting your own wish to belong to the real Church, of which what you call your member of the Catholic body is but a counterfeit, I call you brethren; and I do not also hesitate to add the epithet Christian, in the sense in which one of my Right Reverend brothers in Ireland so denominated the heretical population of that saintly island; for though you have been disobedient children, children I still account you; not willing, finally, to cast you off, but rather striving to recover you to my wholesome fatherly coercion. If distinctions could be made among those who are all wrong, and all guilty, your community-or as you call it, your church-is entitled to much comparative honour; for you have not, as you justly boast, advanced to the same awful state of alienation from the Roman faith as the heresiarchs of the Anglican rite; much less as the other bodies called Protestant or Reformed. You hold much which we hold, but which the heresiarchs of England have rejected; in an especial manner you have indignantly disclaimed the charge of being Protestants; and who can say whether a few weighty words of affectionate instruction and admonition may not induce you to unite yourselves to the true Church, seeing how nearly you approach to it in many important particulars, in respect to which Anglicans and Protestants are far astray. For brevity, and to avoid ambiguity, I shall sometimes, in the course of my remarks, use such words as Church, Priests, or Bishops, in the sense in which Protestants understand them; but not as concurring in |