and weather beaten, were they in our climate, but they enjoy here a purer atmostphere, and the smoke of coal fires is unknown. The painting is renewed about once a year, which serves to preserve the wood for a long time.. "The churches, or meeting houses as they are more generally called, are in the smaller towns also of wood, and with the addition of a steeple and a gilt weathercock, resemble very much the other buildings. In the large towns they are of brick or stone, but retain in almost all cases the green Venetian blinds upon the windows. "The streets are wide and generally run off, at right angles to each other, from a large open square covered with green turf, in the centre of the town; the churches, town-house, and an inn or two, not unfrequently front this green. Gravel walks skirt many of the streets, and occasionally rows of limes, or poplars. The agreeable succession of gardens, grass plots, trees, foot walks, and buildings, gives an air of rural quietness to the town; and the open space which frequently intervenes between one house and another, prevents much of the danger which would otherwise arise from fire. Every thing betokens an unusual share of homely simplicity and comfort, and the absence at once of great riches and of great poverty. "New Haven possesses most of the distinctive peculiarities which I have now noticed, but combines with them much of the compactness, durability, and bustle, which we usually consider inseparable from a town. The churches and a great many of the dwelling houses are of brick, a few even of stone, and two or three of the streets are very closely built. The numerous buildings also of Yale College, all of brick, and constructed with regularity and neatness, complete its claims to superiority. The population of New Haven is about 7000." P. 93. We could wish that Mr. Duncan, had confined himself to such descriptions as these. Unfortunately he presumes upon success in one undertaking, and ventures upon another for which he has no call. He gives us, for instance, a long, and not an uninteresting account, of Yale College; compares it with that ne plus ultra, of Academies, Glasgow College, and assures us that, though Yale will not produce "many wranglers in Mathematics to surpass those of Cambridge, or giants in Greek Literature, to wrest the palm from those of Oxford," yet, that it "will probably, send forth a greater proportion of men whose minds are steadily trained to order and activity, and stored with those elements of knowledge which. are available, in almost every situation." We have not the least wish to depreciate, Yale or Harvard, or even the College of Glasgow. We believe that the American seminaries are as good as the circumstances of the country will permit: that their defects are understood and acknowledged by their managers, and will be remedied as speedily as possible. While such is the state of affairs in America, a young man from Glasgow, pays a visit, to the United States, and solemnly pronounces their Academies, superior to the English Universites; with whose pupils, he has never associated; with whose discipline he is entirely unacquainted; and in whose studies and effects he is just as much at home, as one of our Oxford tutors would be in the regulation of a printer's office, which is Mr. Duncan's domestic business; or getting orders in the book line, which was his Transatlantic occupation! We do not quarrel with Mr. Duncan for national predilections. Such feelings are generally praiseworthy and always excuseable. But they do not justify him in pronouncing a positive opinion upon a subject of which he is entirely ignorant. Whatever he may have been told by the Northern literati, respecting the superiority of their Schools and Universities; is he simple enough to suppose that they believe one word of what they say, while they send their sons to England, whenever they can afford it? Upon the religious sentiments of Mr. Duncan, we must speak in stronger terms. Christianity seems to occupy a considerable portion of his thoughts, and we doubt not, that he is sincere in his profession of it. But his ignorance and bigotry are such, that his very types must blush for him.-To what he calls Evangelical religion, he is a devoted fearless knight, but the utter destruction of Bishops and organs, must have occupied a prominent place in his baptismal vow. Of the infidels, who abound in America, Mr. Duncan speaks little, and tenderly; of the Socinians, whose numbers are regretted by him, he on the whole, takes little notice; but upon the Episcopalians, whether English, Canadian, or American, he vents the full blackness of his ink:-Witness the following passage in the accounts of Quebec and New York. "To the aspect of the Protestant religion in Montreal and Quebec, I have during both visits paid considerable attention, and I am sorry to be under the necessity of giving a very unfavourable report of it. There are in Quebec, as in Montreal, four places of worship, an Episcopalian, a Scotish, a Methodist, and an Independent; in Montreal in place of the Independent, there is a Burgher congregation. "In the Episcopalian churches the doctrine which was preached, so far as I could judge, was decidedly subversive of the distinguishing principles of the gospel declaration, By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.'' Vol. II. P. 217. "A year or two ago there was a Bible Society established in Quebec, but its existence was of short duration. The Lord Bishop' was, it is said, of that class of Episcopalians who contemplate with alarm the circulation of the Bible, without the qualifying ministrations of the book of Common Prayer; and his pastoral authority having in some shape or other sanctioned, or being supposed to sanction, its reprobation, the institution soon expired. To the same ecclesiastical dignitary is attributed the failure of an attempt to establish Lancasterian schools. The measure was in contemplation, and my informant assured me that there was every reason to have expected the co-operation, or at least the permission, of the Romish Bishop; but the Protestant one having refused his patronage, it was followed by a corresponding disapproval from his brother prelate." Vol. II. P. 221." "Of the Episcopal clergymen whom I have occasionally heard in New York, there is one whose piety and earnestness 1 cannot but esteem." Vol. II. P. 356. "The prevalent theology of this body is at prsesent decidedly, and avowedly Arminian, and its ecclesiastical spirit is the very highest of high church; the more intolerantly so, perhaps, from its being totally destitute of Government patronage and support, and enjoying no privileges which are not common to the most democratic of the surrounding sects. Among its clergy I have already noticed two distinguished exceptions in regard to doctrine; and although these are all that have fallen within my personal ob servation, I am informed that there are a few others no less decided. These ministers I have reason to believe dissent no less sincerely from the prevalent exclusive spirit in ecclesiastical politics. Its bishops are, without exception, characterized by unswerving adherence to the dominant opinions." Vol. II. P. 362. Holding such principles, it very naturally follows that in their zeal for making converts, it is not so much the extension of the knowledge of the word of God which they have at heart, as the enlargement of our church,' as their writers in all their publications invariably style it." Vol. II. P. 365. On these delectable specimens of evangelical charity, we shall venture to make one or two remarks. The bishop of Quebec, although a bishop, has warned his clergy as earnestly against mere moral preaching, as any "giant" from Glasgow or "wrangler" from Yale. The Lancastrian schools, of course, he does not patronize; but where was Mr. Duncan's candour, or rather his common honesty, and fair dealing, when he omitted taking notice of the Bible Society, and other Institutions which his lordship supports? Lastly, as to their being only one or two episcopalian clergymen in the United States who sincerely preach the gospel, we refer Mr. Duncan to the article in our last number, and defy even his "orderly, active," "well stored," and "available" mind to show that the church of which it treats is exposed to the charge of unevangelicalism. The only excuse the good man can make is, that he has been frightened out of his wits by an organ !—that VOL. XX. DEC. 1823. such is the fact we infer from the following passages. They show the ruling passion of his mind, and we are uncertain whether he most deserves to be pitied, or to be laughed at, "In one of the congregational churches they have recently introduced the organ, as an auxiliary in Psalmody; but a special stipulation has been made by the more aged and less enthusiastic in harmonics, that no voluntary is ever to break in upon the solemnity of worship, or mar its intellectual character; the instrument is allowed to lead and harmonize the voices of the congregation, but to do nothing more." Vol. I. P. 121. "How inconsistent with every right idea of social worship, to see a man after the service was over unscrewing a clarionet, putting the pieces into a leathern bag, and with the utmost indifference and unconcern stuffing the whole into his pocket!" Vol. I. P. 88. The introduction of an organ into a congregational church is worse than the rapid increase and high character of Episcopalians. The squeaking of the joints of an anti-christian clarionet, as it was deliberately taken to pieces, wiped, and put into a bag, is enough to set the teeth on edge throughout the whole University of Glasgow. ART. XII. Don Juan. Cantos XII. XIII. XIV. 12mo. 83 pp. 1s. Hunt. 1823. "IF I be not ashamed of my soldiers," says Falstaff, "I am a soused gurnet." It appears pretty plainly, in spite of all Lord Byron's bravados, that the repeated sousings which he has received from different quarters, and the diminution of his literary fame, as admitted even by himself in the present Cantos, and in former passages of Don Juan, have operated in disgusting him also with his ragged regiment of ex-English associates, and inspired him with the intention of purging and living cleanly." "Wer't not for laughing, we could pity him." He can hardly be ignorant that his hero is sunk from the Don Juan of Moliere, into the "Giovanni in London" of the minor theatres, the humble second to Tom, Jerry, and Logic; and that his works, banished from the polite sanctum of Albemarle-street, are gibetted in effigy in every twopenny book-stall, side by side with grim wood-cuts of Hunt and Thurtell, and the features of our poor old friend Grimaldi (worthy, alas! of better company), grinning at the head of Fairburn's Songster. The facetious association of "Don Juan, three mops, and a pail," in the well-known song of Country Commissions, is now become justified by matter of fact; the circulation of Don Juan being chiefly confined to that" operative class," whose wives and daughters are their own housemaids. Now it is natural enough that Lord Byron, apprized of these facts by some good-natured friend, should feel a strong desire to return, like the prodigal son, "from hovelling with swine and rogues forlorn," to the rose-coloured ottomans and rosewood work-tables from whence his works have been banished; and to court the good graces of the "breadand-butter Misses" who, in spite of the stigmas of Beppo, have grown into accomplished women, and possess an important voice in the direction of public taste. With this view, his first step has been to leave the Liberal to die a natural death, like Herod, of its own inherent loathsomeness; and poor Leigh Hunt to cudgel his brains for vapid reprisals on his old tormentor of the Quarterly. Having thus tossed the monkey from his back, to mow and chatter for bread on its own proper legs, he has moderated his own cynical growl, in the present stanzas, into somewhat less extravagant cadence, though not quite into "the roar of a sucking dove." To drop idle metaphor, Lord Byron is evidently on his good behaviour in the stanzas before us; and though the tone of his feelings exhibits no real change, he is, for a wonder, neither obtrusively indecent, pointedly blasphe mous, nor scurrilously abusive. From the force of habit, indeed, he still rings the changes, of sarcasm on English women, the King, Shakespeare, and the Duke of Wellington, but in a more feeble and civil manner. His professions also are most sedulously reiterated. "For like an aged aunt, or tiresome friend, My muse by exhortation means to inend "LXXXVI. And as my object is morality Canto XII. p. 13. (Whatever people say) I dont know whether I'll leave a single reader's eyelid dry, But harrow up his feelings till they wither, |