for the strong-armed, sound-hearted sons of labour, to think that their cottages are the scenes of such pious aspirations and commendable sentiments; and we feel confident that a people thus looking for help and succour from the Almighty will not be disappointed."

The Leisure Hour.-PART 45.-October. London: 56 Paternoster-Row. This is truly a journal of instruction and recreation, whether for the family circle, or for private reading. We cordially recommend this periodical to public favour, as containing excellent wholesome reading. This is much wanted at the present time, and the good must come as regularly, and be in certain respects as entertaining as the bad. No doubt, by one tract, or one volume, an individual may be weaned over to good desires, and have his taste improved, but it is idle to regard one volume or several as in se a substitute for many volumes of what is pernicious. The two things must be placed in permanent competition with each other, and the good principle be made antagonistic to its co-ordinate opposite. In this way a beneficial salutary literature will become useful to the masses,—we do not say exclusively, but as matter of arrangement and of abstract propriety.

An Appeal in behalf of Native Education in India, in connexion with the School and Mission of the General Assembly in India. By JAMES BRYCE, D.D., late Senior Minister of St Andrew's Church, Calcutta. Edinburgh: Paton & Ritchie.

FROM his position in the Church, his acquaintance with India, and the deep interest he has, from the beginning of the scheme, taken in the prosperity of our Christian and educational establishments in India,-no man is more entitled than Dr Bryce to a candid and respectful hearing on the subject. The present brochure consists of a corrected report of the Rev Dr's speech in last General Assembly, and of a very interesting introduction to the speech, both of which combined afford a luminous and clear exposition of the author's views in regard to the propriety of accepting the "Grants in aid" offered by the Indian Government to all educational institutions within the territory which is subject to their jurisdiction. The propriety of doing so was brought by Dr Bryce under the notice of the Foreign Mission Committee, and anxiously considered by the Members of the Acting Committee. Several overtures on the subject were laid on the table of the General Assembly; but though the views of Dr Bryce and others are not without force and weight, a majority of the Foreign Mission Committee declined to sanction them, and, as the discussion took place at a thin meeting of the Assembly, the Rev. Dr's recommendation was overruled. A threat of resignation was held out by the respected Convener, and strong language of reprobation was used by more than one of the defenders of the course pursued by the Foreign Mission Committee. Nevertheless, Dr Bryce's able publication is well worth the attention of the ministers and members of the Church of Scotland.

Russia during Thirty-three Years Residence. By a German Nobleman. Edinburgh: Constable & Co.

THIS is a new volume of Constable's Miscellany of Foreign Literature, and it will be largely consulted. Its contents are varied and interesting, and describe faithfully society as it exists in the Czar's dominions. We were hardly prepared for such universal peculation and dishonesty as characterize Government officials from the lowest to the highest. At the present time this volume has a peculiar interest and deserves to be widely circulated.

ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

MACPHAIL'S

EDINBURGH ECCLESIASTICAL JOURNAL.

No. CXVIII.

NOVEMBER 1855.

BUCKINGHAM'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

MANKIND, in general, have, we think, an antipathy to autobiographies; -we mean of course to reading them,-for to write them we are all too prone. Man is such a selfish animal, that he cannot, it seems, be well trusted to tell his own story; and there are, we believe, but few examples of autobiographies eminently interesting and useful. Yet it was no less authority than Horace Walpole, who made the observation, that there are no man's memoirs but would prove interesting, if he would only tell the real truth. But this small condition, seemingly so simple, constitutes the grand difficulty,-this is the very thing autobiographers will not, or perhaps the greater part cannot do. How few are there, who, though competent enough to write a narrative consisting chiefly of personal adventures and incidents, are able, also to unravel the tangled thread of every-day life,-to trace the play of passions, feelings, and interests, which have caused themselves at least to act the part they have done, and how far less a number who, possessed of this nice discriminating power, have the firmness and the courage to exercise it. We know that the first great master of this species of composition was often unable to divest himself of the partiality for what was attractive, over what was true, and that whilst professing to write only for posterity, he was studiously inserting in the "Confessions," what would tell most effectively among certain of his contemporaries. Since his time we have had confessions in abundance; literary exposures, so to speak, of the most indecent kind ;-ladies and guardsmen all anxious to unfold their tale, and of the greater part of them it is no severity to say, that they had far better have kept their own secrets. We do not mean exactly to place Mr Buckingham's book under this latter class, but on the other hand, it assuredly does not come within that species of composition at which we have hinted above, and to which the name of autobiography

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properly applies. Neither does this work in our opinion at all realise the expectations raised by the preface, which is of rather a pretending kind. Here is a specimen:-" These pages will contain a full, frank, and impartial detail of the principal events of my life, in all its varied vicissitudes of extreme want and abundant wealth; of original obscurity and subsequent popularity; of perilous adventures by sea and land, over a range of some of the most interesting countries of the globe; of enterprises and speculations, successes and failures; of projects still regarded as Utopian, and of others happily realised; of personal intercourse with some of the very lowest classes of mankind; and of interviews, banquets, and entertainments, in the palaces of kings, princes, and potentates. The work will also be interspersed with delineations of the characters of a host of public men, in our own and other countries, with whom, in the long course of half a century, it has been my lot to become acquainted; by an exposition of some of the secret springs of conduct (we are bound in charity to say that this is very harmless) in striking contrast with the public motives avowed by many of the most prominent actions in the great drama of life, in states, senates, and cabinets." And in another part he tells us that his book is calculated to teach, that there is "no depth of misfortune from which the victim may not hope to emerge by labour, economy," &c.; in short by his guidance. Now the simple matter of fact is this, that this is a light, pleasantly written, readable enough book, but with scarcely any pretension whatever to the higher species of autobiography, and falling lamentably short, in most particulars, of the promises of the title page. Mr Buckingham is especially deficient in power of sketching character, and it is almost marvellous how he can have lived so many years among his fellow-creatures, and taken part in the scenes and adventures he describes, and yet have escaped getting a better insight into the characters of men. We do not speak just now of his "Characteristic Sketches of Public Men,"-which are in general mere incidents or anecdotes,-but if the marked deficiency in the accounts of all that passed between his fellows and himself,-of how, in the many scenes of an eventful life, he acted upon other's characters, or was in turn influenced by them,-what different tempers he had to deal with, and what were the effects upon his own,-what maxims he found confirmed by experience, or what he learned to form from it-in short, all that practical knowledge of character and life, which is acquired by dealings with man, and which is told by none so well as those who have acquired it in the world's school. In all this Mr Buckingham is markedly deficient, and he who, seduced by the title page, opens the book in the expectation of finding something to aid him in life's daily struggle, and instruct him in the ways and weaknesses of men, will come away very little wiser. He will find pleasing description and amusing adventure, but as for anything that will assist him in the rough intercourse of life, almost any second-rate novel will be more useful, and a page of Sydney Smith is worth the whole of it. Though in the preface Mr Buckingham promises us a faithful account of his successes and failures, he scarce lets us at all into the secrets of the former, and does not let us know how he amassed so much as to enable him to undertake the matter of specu

lation; for with his horror of smuggling and smugglers, and all tricks of trade, we cannot suppose that he enriched himself by any secret or unworthy means. With all admiration then for his scrupulous integrity, we have yet a natural curiosity to know how he managed to get so well on in the world, and this is the very thing he ought to tell us. Mr Buckingham's literary talent lies in describing incidents and adventure, and in this the chief attraction of his book consists. In whatever is connected with the sea he is especially at home, and there is a truth and vigour about his naval descriptions, which makes them always refreshing. Here he never tires or wearies you, which is more than can always be said of him when ashore. Here, however, is an amusing account of naval extravagance during the latter part of the 18th, and beginning of the 19th century. "The transport of delight into which. men are thrown when they first come on shore, after months and years of solitary confinement at sea, speedily communicates itself to those by whom they are surrounded, and the recitals of their perilous adventures, whether of battles or shipwrecks, makes them heroes, in the estimation especially of females and young persons. At this period the streets of Plymouth dock were daily crowded with officers and seamen on shore on liberty, after receiving pay and prize-money to an extent beyond their power to spend in a short time, without some unusual modes of extravagance, as the idea of hoarding or laying by for a future day, was never entertained apparently by either officers or men. By both, carriages of all descriptions were in request at enormous prices; and cases were described in which young midshipmen, having perhaps £200 to spend in a week, would have one carriage for themselves, another for their gold laced cocked hats, and another for their hangers or dirks. The seamen would sometimes have three or four coaches to remain on the stand, and in groups of three or four on the roofs of each, dance hornpipes and reels to a violin player seated on the box; and when the dance was over, drive a furious race against each other for ten or twenty guineas a side, till the horses became exhausted. One of the most remarkable cases of their extravagance that I remember, was that of a cook of a line of battle ship, who had returned to England after an absence of seven years on the West India and South American stations. It was then the custom to withhold all pay and prize money from officers and men while the ships were abroad; so that the long arrears of both due in their case, with the gains arising from the cook's privilege of "slush money" as it is called, that is, the sale or supply to the ship's purser of all the "grease" made in cooking operations, which is used for many purposes at sea, and for the value of which credit was given in the ship's accounts, -exceeded £3,000, and all this was dissipated in less than three weeks! The cook was a negro, but a fine man of his race, and proud of his person. As a warrant officer, he was entitled to wear the naval uniform, and having taken an extensive suite of rooms in one of the principal hotels, he was fitted out by the most fashionable tailor, with two or three rich suits of broadcloth, kerseymere, satin linings, and gold. His hair was dressed every morning, and well powdered, and he had a carriage and four for his daily exercise. He took the stage box at the theatre every