terial calling; and declareth them infamous. And likewise ordaineth the said pretended bishops to be excommunicated, and declared to be of those whom Christ commandeth to be holden by all and every one of the faithful as Ethnicks and Publicans."

After some other business the moderator, Mr. Henderson, dissolved the rebel assembly; and concluded a long speech with these words of fearful import :-"We have now cast down the walls of Jericho; let him that rebuildeth them beware of the curse of Hiel the Bethalite," who laid the foundation in the death of his eldest son, and set up its gates in the death of his youngest son.

Of this Assembly the late Bishop Russell very justly observes that this esclesiastical revolution was brought to pass almost solely by lay influence; that the chief motives whence it originated were envy and fear on the part of the temporal lords, who saw the bishops raised to offices of trust and emolument; and who dreaded that the king would yet confer upon their sees the estates of which they had been violently dispossessed during the troubles of the reformation; that as the majority of the ministers were still in favour of a limited episcopacy, it was resolved by the nobles and covenanting barons to thrust laymen into Presbyteries, in order that persons devoted to their interest might be returned to the Assembly; that fraud and force were employed to deter the constituent members from being present; that to deprive the prelates of their votes, they were loaded in an unlawful manner with the most atrocious imputations, which no regular attempt was ever made to prove; and finally, that all the acts changing the constitution of the Church were passed after the Assembly had been dissolved by the royal commissioner, and forbidden to meet again under pain of

treason.

T. S.

REMINISCENCES OF CHRIST'S HOSPITAL.

Ir may be that some of our readers, casting their eyes over this page, and catching the title of this chapter, may find themselves linked by no weak tie to the writer of it, and be his brother blues. If this be the case-if there be any who

have, in common with him, a fond memory of that noble institution to which he owes so much-an old blue greets them well. Friendships may in later years be formedsincere and lasting ones, too: but for a true, a bosom friend, give us the man whose acquaintance we can date back to the days of early boyhood; our school companion, whose studies and play were the same with our own, whom we knew, and who knew us, when our hearts were still young and fresh, and our characters as nature had formed them, untainted as yet by the calculating coldness and selfishness of the world. Let men talk as they will, there is no doubt but that the friends of our early school-days are friends indeed, and he loses much who neglects to keep up their acquaintance. And if this be true generally, we do not think that we are wrong in saying that old Christ's Hospital friendships are especially valuable. The peculiar nature of the school itself, the quaintness of its dress, the singularity, to a certain extent, of the whole of its economy-all these things, acting upon the mind during the years of boyhood, and thereby more or less influencing the character too, form, as it were, so many sympathetic chords of feeling in after life, and are the solid basis of many an enduring friendship. Some say our school-days are our happiest; that, perhaps, admits of doubt: but at any rate, those who were our constant companions at the time when "hope was young," and life seemed brightest, must be, and ought to be, remembered with some affection; and to us, at least, there is a masonry in the term "brother blue," that long years cannot efface.

Although, of course, we were much too young at the time (we entered Christ's Hospital at seven and a half years of age) to remember all that happened on the day of our first donning the blue coat, there was one incident that made an impression on our mind that we are never likely to forget. We ourselves, as most boys are, were much pleased with our new dress, and could not understand the tears of our mother, who accompanied us to Hertford, at the sight of her son in the clothes of the Hospital. They did not fit either, as she would have them fit; so we were put to bed at an inn in the town, nearly facing the school-gates, while our coat was hemmed up to shorten it a little, and our bands taken in at the back to bring them to something like

the size of our neck. The idea of her boy, in dressing whom nicely she had always had so much pride, in such a guise, was too much for her; and we remember well how fast her tears fell as she stitched away to bring the clothes into shape. Doubtless, many other mothers have felt the same, and would gladly see some other less marked and peculiar dress substituted for the present one; and there is, we believe, a strong party among the governors and others connected with the school, who are endeavouring to bring about a change in this particular. Still they should remember that in such an establishment there must be an uniform of some kind; and whatever dress they proposed in exchange, it were very difficult, or rather impossible, to find one that could carry with it such character as that which has been worn for the last 300 years, is known all over the country, and has won its way to respectability. A blue-coat boy is known everywhere; every one knows the school to which he belongs; and every one respects it, and therefore him too; and it would take a number of generations before any new uniform could gain for itself the consideration that the present one enjoys. Whether or not it could be so modified, without altering its character, as to suit better the comfort and convenience of the boys at the different seasons of the year, is another matter; but any radical change of the dresss would tend, to a great extent, to a change of the character of the school too. We are by no means alone in our opinion; and many an old Christ's Hospital boy would feel much any material innovation in the old-fashioned but respected costume.

There is not much to interest any general reader in what we can recollect of our life during the eighteen months we spent at Hertford. We remember how sorry we were that we had to go there at all; but the rule had just been made that all should go to the junior school first, and then be in turn drafted up to town accordingly as they arrived at the top of the school, or became too old to remain any longer in this, as it were, preparatory institution.

We had not been long there, however, before a very grave offence was committed, and the public punishment inflicted was accompanied with public disgrace of such a nature that it is difficult to conceive anything much more

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likely to leave a lasting impression or have a lasting effect upon a new boy's" mind. The head-master's orchard had been robbed, and the robbery was brought home to two or three boys. They were made to stand in the middle of the hall during breakfast-time, with their coats turned inside out. They wore their coats, too, in this way, for several days afterwards, and as they are lined with yellow, this rendered them very conspicuous objects wherever they went. After breakfast, one of the beadles brought up the rods, and the offenders were publicly flogged; a speech being made on the occasion either by the master or the steward, that no one might be ignorant of the nature of the crime. One of the

culprits had, in the course of his examination on the subject, been guilty also of falsehood: and 'we recollect some time afterwards, in conversation with him, asking him how he could dare to tell a lie about it-how he could dare to say that he had not robbed the orchard when he had done so, and that, too, when he knew that he must be found out. "Ah," he said, "I did not tell a lie; but you don't understand it. They asked me whether I had stolen any of Mr. 's fruit, and I answered Nos;" (for No, Sir, we suppose) "and, you know, nos is the latin for we, and we (our) is the French for Yes!" Rather sharp for a lad of ten or eleven years of age, and full of promise for riper years! If we remember right, some three years later, this same boy ran away from the school in London; he was, however, caught, and after being again publicly flogged in a manner similar to that above described, was expelled the hospital.

If any old Christ's Hospital boy reads this, he will not fail to recollect the wonderful superstition that prevailed among the boys at Hertford. It used to be the custom for nearly the whole "chamber to lie awake for hours at night, and either to read aloud, or to tell stories. The "Arabian Nights" and other fairy tales were great favourites, but old histories of murders and robberies were the best liked; and there was hardly a corner of the school but was the scene of something horrible. There was a large cellar, for instance, under the writing-school; and in this they believed that there was a vast pool of blood that had been there for no one knows how many generations, and would remain there for ever. And at one time we distinctly remember that it was

currently reported and believed in the school that some boy had cut his finger, and with his blood written a letter to the devil, and placed it under his pillow; and that at twelve or one o'clock at night, the light in the sleeping-room had begun to burn blue, and the paper was taken away. We do not think that there was anything ever so horrible or impossible but these children would have believed it.

(To be continued.)

THE CHURCH, ITS VISIBILITY, ORDERS, AUTHORITY, AND CONTINUANCE.-As there was a distinct order of men under the Mosaic dispensation to execute the office of the priesthood; Moses, having his immediate commission from God himself, was commanded to consecrate Aaron and his sons for the priest's office: so there was from the beginning a distinct order of persons under the gospel ministration, for the Apostles fixed a settled ministry, ordaining elders in every church. And as the Apostles ordained certain persons to the pastoral office, so they gave them power of ordaining others, whereby due care was taken, from the beginning of Christianity, for a supply of persons in the ministry for the future, by ordination or laying on of hands and prayer as the necessity of the church should require; and this solemn ordination was performed, notwithstanding the immediate appointment of the Holy Ghost, whereby it appears, first, that an outward visible calling and ordination of ministry is necessary; and, secondly, that the bishops and pastors of the church, however restrained or limited in respect of the manner of exercising their ministerial function by human governors, do yet derive their authority, not from the people or the civil magistrates, but from Christ and His Apostles. This will appear more fully, if we further consider the first beginning or incorporating of the Christian church, which was by a Divine commission to the Apostles, authorising them to teach and convince men, and then to admit them into the Christian society or church by baptism, and to settle them as an ecclesiastical body or society, which society the Apostles call the body of Christ, as being united to Him the Head, by whose authority it was at first established; so, again, ye are God's household-ye are God's building, &c., incorporated and built up by the Apostles, who received their authority and power therein from Christ.-Collyer's Sacred Interpreter.