Union of the Evangelical Churches of France. 141

French dissent, has ceased of itself to be of any obvious importance, it is otherwise with the impulse it has originated towards a union of the hitherto separate bodies. The immediate result has been that a federal alliance has been effected among certain Evangelical Churches in France, and this alliance may lead to a brighter future of the Christian Church in France. There is reason for the expectation that, besides the good which the new alliance may effect directly and in its own sphere, it may be beneficial indirectly, by exciting a sacred rivalry among the truly religious members of the Established Church.*

The alliance between the various churches was effected in an Assembly of deputies from them, held at Paris from the 20th August to the 1st September 1849. From a statement before us, we find that thirteen churches, or more properly congregations, were then already constituted, that eighteen more were in progress of formation, and that seven besides, though they sent no deputies to the Assembly, wrote to manifest their adherence and sympathy. A constitution was drawn up as the foundation of their federal union. Every church is to preserve a complete independence as to its worship, its discipline, and the form of its interior government. To form a part of the alliance it has to fulfil the following conditions,-1st, To express such a desire. 2dly, To adhere to the Confession of Faith which was placed at the head of the Constitution. 3dly, To be constituted on the principle of an individual profession of faith, with the assurance of discipline being exercised in its bosom. 4thly, To interdict itself from admission to the Lord's Supper associated with catechetical instruction or a fixed age.† 5thly, To provide for its expenses by voluntary contributions, and to receive no assistance from the State. 6thly, To be in a completely independent situation. 7thly, To have nothing in its particular constitution contrary to the general and federal one. 8thly, To be admitted by the Synod of the Union.

Such is the commencement of this experiment, of a new kind, among the Protestant communions of France. One of two things will probably be its result. Either the union will soon be broken up, in which case the discord will be greater than before; or, if it is maintained, the Union of the Evangelical Churches of France--such is the name taken by the federation-will present a Congregationalist and not a Presbyterian character. It is not, however, for us

* In a letter from a correspondent, in the London Record of 11th October 1849, this subject is well treated.

The Record, upon this point, has a mistake, which precisely reverses the meaning of the article. The letter of the correspondent seems to us to have been written in French, and the error probably arises from a misconception of the translator.

to anticipate the future, especially at a time when events are thickening which seem to presage great and important changes in the Church of Christ at large.

The Constitution of the Reformed Evangelical Church of Paris, now before us, confirms our anticipation, however, that the character of the Union of the Evangelical Churches of France will be essentially Congregational.

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The incipient abandonment of the ancient Presbyterianism is apologized for in the preface. Into any details of the Constitution our space forbids us to enter. We content ourselves with remarking, first, that it establishes only elders and deacons, the ministers of the word ranking in the number of the former, and being specially charged, as doctors, with teaching and preaching." This establishment of a special ministry of elders and deacons is declared, however, not to be meant "to shackle the exercise of the gifts which may be manifested among the members at large, care, nevertheless, being had 'that everything be done in order,' according to the counsel of the Apostle."—(Article 17.) Secondly, that the Presbytery composed of all the elders of the congregation, or Church, is the executive power. lastly, that the General Assembly, composed of all male members above twenty-one years of age, is the governing power. In particular, it elects the deacons, elders, and ministers, and chooses the delegates to the Synod of the Union of the Evangelical Churches. Membership is constituted by a declaration made before two members of the Presbytery, and a member of the Church named by them, of an intention to unite with the Church, and of adherence to its profession of faith.

And

We have only to add, that, throughout this Article, we have intentionally confined ourselves chiefly to the duty of contributing some historical or statistical information concerning that section of Protestantism of which France is the seat. We have abstained for the present from any independent discussion of the profound general principles which are suggested by some of the facts we have narrated. Not a few of the facts, especially those relating to the discussion in the Assembly on Confessions of Faith, and also the present relations of Presbyterianism and Congregationalism in France, are of growing interest to the Christian Church throughout the world, in an age in which modern philosophy and modern democracy are influencing creeds and constitutions.

Autobiography of Leigh Hunt.

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ART. VI.—The Autobiography of LEIGH HUNT, with Reminiscences of his Friends and Contemporaries. 3 vols. London,

1850.

Ir can make no difference when or by whom a pleasant book is written, and volumes of autobiography are always pleasant. Of all books, the pleasantest, perhaps, is the volume that contains the Essays of Montaigne-the book which most charms us out of ourselves. With Montaigne the sympathy is not entire, as we are not allowed to forget any, the minutest incident of his position. It is not our sympathy with the highest order of minds,—that in which we identify ourselves with them, in which their objects become ours, and in which both they and we are almost forgotten as individuals. Something of this sympathy is commanded by Byron and Alfieri, and it does not require the passionate nature, or the burning ambition of either mind, to have our own identity altogether lost in theirs. These are the books that have an irresistible charm for the young, and their heroes or authors are the madmen who make others mad. There is something in the romance, in the actual adventure of such lives; but the charm is not in this. Take the case exhibited in the remarkable poem in which Byron relates his life under the similitude of a dream :

"The boy was sprung to manhood. In the wilds
Of fiery climes he made himself a home,

And his soul drank their sunbeams. He was girt
With strange and dusky aspects; he was not
Himself like what he had been; on the sea

And on the shore he was a wanderer.

There was a mass of many images

Crowded like waves around him-but he was
A part of all."

The crowding mass of images would be nothing but for the one image seen among all, and felt as a part of the dreamer's own being. A strong power, of the same kind with that of Byron's biography-we mean his works-letters, and poems-for what are they but his biography-is in Rousseau ; less in the parts professedly biographical than in the rest, for Rousseau's autobiography exhibits much that is revoltingly odious, mean, malignant, much that, in spite of his insanity, which accounts for a good deal, it is not very easy to believe, even on his own authority, stating his acts, and anatomizing his motives. The

his sight for life, so as to oblige him from that time to wear spectacles. At length, after being carried through every street in Philadelphia, the two captives were deposited, in the evening, in a prison in Market Street. What became of Dr. Kearsley, I cannot say. My father, by means of a large sum of money given to the sentinel who had charge of him, was enabled to escape at midnight. He went immediately on board a ship in the Delaware, that belonged to my grandfather, and was bound for the West Indies. She dropped down the river that same night; and my father went first to Barbadoes, and afterwards to England, where he settled.”—Vol. i. pp. 7-12.

Hunt's mother followed to England in a few months. She was surprised to find her husband an ordained clergyman, and a favourite preacher of charity sermons. Lowth, the Bishop of London, who had ordained him, was displeased at seeing his name for ever in advertisements. His going into the Church as a means of life, arose from his thinking meanly of the stage, for to this he first thought of directing his ambition. In the pulpit, and at the reading-desk, his manner was more theatrical than suited the sobriety of English taste. Thomas Sheridan was so pleased with it, that he went into the vestry one Sunday, and complimented him on having profited so well from reading his "Treatise on Reading the Liturgy." "My father was obliged to tell him he had never seen it."

The preacher, if not dissolute, was fond of society, and of wine. He published sermons," in which there is little but eloquence of diction and graceful morality." He rented a fashionable chapel, but did not pay the rent. Friends assisted, but the assistance did not suffice. The then Duke of Chandos took a fancy to his preaching, and employed him as a private tutor to his nephew. He appears to have scattered his children with one friend or another, and to have resided for some years with the Duke's family. We are not sure whether they became again reunited before the period to which the son's narrative next brings us; but the first room of which Leigh Hunt retains any recollection is a prison, which had become his father's residence. West the painter came to the rescue.

"Mr. West (which was doubly kind in a man by nature cautious and timid) again and again took the liberty of representing my father's circumstances to the King. It is well known that this artist enjoyed the confidence of his Majesty in no ordinary degree. The King would converse half a day at a time with him while he was painting. His Majesty said, he would speak to the bishops; and again, on a second application, he said, my father should be provided for. My father himself also presented a petition; but all that was ever done for him, was putting his name on the Loyalist Pension List for a hundred a year; a sum which he thought not only extremely inadequate

Hunt's Father-Tarring and Feathering.

145

"My father went to college at Philadelphia, and became the scapegrace who smuggled in the wine, and became the brunt of the tutors. He took the degree of Master of Arts, both at Philadelphia and New York. When he spoke the farewell oration on leaving college, two young ladies fell in love with him, one of whom he afterwards married. He was fair and handsome, with delicate features, a small aquiline nose, and blue eyes. To a graceful address he joined a remarkably fine voice, which he modulated with great effect. It was in reading with this voice the poets and other classics of England that he completed the conquest of my mother's heart. He used to spend his evenings in this manner with her and her family—a noble way of courtship; and my grandmother became so hearty in his cause that she succeeded in carrying it against her husband, who wished his daughter to marry a wealthy neighbour.

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My father was intended, I believe, to carry on the race of clergymen, as he afterwards did; but he went, in the first instance, into the law. The Americans united the practice of attorney and barrister. My father studied the law under articles to one of the chief persons in the profession; and afterwards practised with distinction himself. At this period (by which time all my brothers, now living, were born) the Revolution broke out; and he entered with so much zeal into the cause of the British Government, that, besides pleading for loyalists with great fervour at the bar, he wrote pamphlets equally full of party warmth, which drew on him the popular odium. His fortunes then came to a crisis in America. Early one morning, a great concourse of people appeared before his house. He came out ; or was brought. They put him into a cart prepared for the purpose, (conceive the anxiety of his wife !) and, after parading him about the streets, were joined by a party of the revolutionary soldiers with drum and fife. The multitude then went with him to the house of Dr. Kearsley, a staunch Tory, who shut up the windows, and endeavoured to prevent their getting in, The Doctor had his hand pierced by a bayonet, as it entered between the shutters behind which he had planted himself. He was dragged out, and put into the cart, all over blood; but he lost none of his intrepidity, for he answered their reproaches and outrage with vehement reprehensions; and, by way of retaliation on the Rogue's March,' struck up 'God save the King.' My father gave way as little as the Doctor. He would say nothing that was dictated to him, nor renounce a single opinion; but, on the other hand, he maintained a tranquil air, and endeavoured to persuade his companion not to add to their irritation. This was to no purpose. Dr. Kearsley continued infuriate, and more than once fainted from loss of blood and the violence of his feelings. The two loyalists narrowly escaped tarring and feathering. A tub of tar, which had been set in a conspicuous place in one of the streets for that purpose, was overturned by an officer intimate with our family. My father, however, did not entirely escape from personal injury. One of the stones thrown by the mob gave him such a severe blow on the head, as not only laid him swooning in the cart, but dimmed

VOL. XIV. NO. XXVII.

K