has successfully defended the liberties of the people, against the despotism of one century, and the fanaticism of another. And she has reaped her reward. She has retained the affections of the common people; a cultivated society has not been alienated from her worship. Even to the mere man of the world she is still an Alma Mater. Nor can the most inveterate dissenter regard, without something of veneration, the noble edifices dedicated to her service, nor hear, without a sense of pride, the names of the national benefactors, who fashion'd for the sense These lofty pillars, spread that branching roof It Such a fame must not be lightly sacrificed. will be an evil day for the Church when the eloquent vindication of Coleridge ceases to be appropriate "We can say, that our Church, apostolical in its faith, primitive in its ceremonies, unequalled in its liturgical forms; that our Church, which has kindled and displayed more bright and burning lights of genius and learning, than all other Protestant churches since the Reformation, was (with the single exception of the times of Laud and Sheldon) least intolerant, when all Christians. unhappily deemed a species of intolerance their religious duty; that bishops of our Church were among the first that contended against this error; and finally, that since the Reformation, when tolerance became a fashion, the Church of England, in a tolerating age, has shewn herself eminently tolerant, and far more so, both in spirit and in fact, than many of her most bitter opponents, who profess to deem toleration itself an insult on the rights of mankind! As to myself, who not only know the Church-establishment to be tolerant, but who see in it the greatest, if not the sole safe bulwark of toleration, I feel no necessity of defending or palliating oppressions under the two Charleses, in order to exclaim with a full and fervent heart, 'Esto perpetua!'" Lo! with the chivalry of Christendom PHILIP VAN ARTEVELDE. EXAMPLE is better than precept; and so, before quitting finally the subject of toleration, it may not be unwise to dwell for a little upon the career of one of its most illustrious teachers-the "Father William" of the Dutch Commonwealth. Mr. Mill's Liberty is a fine and incisive piece of logic; but the life of William of Orange pleads even more attractively, eloquently, and effectively for freedom. When, in 1556, Charles V. laid aside his crown, Europe was still throbbing with the pangs of the Reformation. That momentous spiritual revolt was only half accomplished, and the combatants, with their hands resting on their halfsheathed swords, awaited the signal which was to renew the strife. France was divided; Germany was divided; in England, while Henry had declared that the Pope had no power or authority within his realm, Mary continued to burn the heretics who denied the supremacy of Rome. But the south of Europe was still loyal to the Papacy. The fervid Italian and Spanish blood had not been warmed by "the fire of Almighty God." The new King of Castile and Arragon buckled on his armour, and proclaimed himself the champion of the Catholic faith.* By a fatal mischance, to the malignant bigot who now occupied the throne that Charles had renounced, the richest cities and fairest provinces of northern Europe belonged. A hardy race had taken possession of the shifting sandbanks and treacherous morasses- -fit only, as it seemed, for the wild duck or the plover-which skirt the continent where the Meuse, the Scheldt, and the Rhine, mingle with the salt waters of the German Ocean, and had converted them into flowering meadows and fruitful pastures. Upon a half-submerged corner of Europe, lying below the level of the sea, subject to constant inundation, and protected from complete destruction only by the unsleeping energy and vigilance of its people, a great merchant commonwealth had arisen, which outrivalled and outlived the maritime republics of Italy. Amid these lagoons and shallows, the * In Mr. Motley's History of The Rise of the Dutch Republic, a great theme is treated with remarkable pictorial power, and truly dramatic insight. The revolt of the Netherlands is indeed a stirring drama, of which Orange is the hero. Than that of "Father William"-the sagacious soldier, the far-seeing statesman, the pure patriot, the tolerant reformer-history has in charge few brighter or better-beloved names; and Mr. Motley has approved himself a most competent and genial biographer. traffic of the world in the sixteenth century was conducted. The fisheries of Holland were the most prolific then known; the cattle fattened on the plains of Flanders were the best in Europe. There were two hundred and eight walled cities within the provinces, and every city swarmed like a beehive. Antwerp had become what Venice had ceased to be the commercial capital of Christendom-and every day in the year five hundred vessels entered and quitted its famous port. An army of one hundred thousand mechanics abode in Ghent. For many years Dort had been the exclusive market-place for English wool; and the merchandise of the Mediterranean, and the drugs. and spices of the East, were stored in the warehouses of Bruges. The people who dwelt in these cities were wealthy, industrious, and ingenious. They loved liberty with vehement devotion, and their municipal institutions, the local laws and usages which they jealously, and often truculently, vindicated, had preserved a measure of practical freedom to these prosperous republics, of which the most accomplished tyranny never entirely deprived them. The ordinary amusements of the people were characteristic of a lively and ingenious race. Smiths and weavers represented the scenes of Scripture, or the allegories of poetry; smiths and weavers organized those "Guilds of Rhetoric," which, sometimes as the popular moralist, sometimes as the popular satirist, the John Bunyan or Charivari of the age, exerted no inconsiderable influence upon the contemporary politics. thoughtful man can contemplate the great festivals, No |