that the unity of the Church, for which our Saviour prayed so earnestly, is the one subject which has engrossed this amiable writer's mind for many years. Can he possibly labour in a better cause, or in one more acceptable to God, or better calculated to forward the advance of God's truth? It is one which, whether he succeeds in it or not, will and must bring him grace from God, and if he singly and sincerely follow that grace, will end in peace, and in the gratification of his dearest hopes. We do not say that they will be gratified in the way that he hopes and expects,-for union on equal terms between the "One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church" and the Anglican Establishment is simply a thing impossible, but by forcing upon his mind the conviction that unity, as a matter of fact, is nowhere to be found on earth except in that Church which is called the " Catholic" Church, even by Her enemies. But we are in danger of forgetting that we are not reviewing Mr. Appleyard's former works; our business is with his "Welsh Sketches."

And first, we must remark, that this book seems to us somewhat fragmentary; somehow or other it does not wear the appearance of a whole; it seems part of some larger work. It begins with the earliest vestiges of antiquity; it carries us on, and leaves us-nowhere. After pursuing the thread of Welsh ecclesiastical history through eleven centuries, it suddenly breaks off in the middle of the twelfth; and why our author should do so we cannot tell. If he had carried us through what-not Mr. Appleyard-but Protestants in general call the "Dark Ages," and landed us fairly on bright and pure Protestant Reformation ground, we should have understood him. As it is, we are sorely puzzled. We can only hope that he has put forth the present volume with the deliberate intention of completing at some future time what seems to us now to be an imperfect work. Again, we may remark, that Mr. Appleyard's new work presents rather a contrast to his former productions in a certain way. We do not mean to disparage his "Welsh Sketches," when we say, that they seem to us rather an admirable collection of ecclesiastical antiquities, and of interesting facts bearing upon them, than an argumentive work exhibiting unity of design. In anything which comes from Mr. Appleyard, we naturally look, not for mere facts, however interesting, but for deductions drawn from facts, and for arguments based

upon the wide induction of particular instances, which he always has at command. And in this, as it appears to us, his little volume is remarkably deficient, as compared with his previous works. What we mean is this. Mr. Appleyard's great end and object in all his writings hitherto has been the re-union of Christendom; and we do not see how this particular work bears upon the subject, or subserves the great end which is always, we doubt not, even now, before his eyes. In fact, particularly in the last chapter, he seems to be advocating for the Welsh sees certain rights and privileges independent of Canterbury, and to imply that the process by which the See of Canterbury was able to assert and to gain metropolitan rights over the Church in Wales, was in some measure analogous to the gradual system of encroachment and tyranny to which Mr. Palmer and the Oxford school of Anglican divines are so fond of attributing the Patriarchal rights which the See of St. Peter exercised over Canterbury from the earliest times, as a Metropolitan See subordinate to itself. And Mr. Á. will at once acknowledge, that the latent principle upon which he defends Giraldus and St. David's See against the claims of Canterbury, when pushed to its ultimate lengths, resolves itself into the theory of national independent Churches,-a position from which we felt sure that he would start back with horror, until we read his remarks in p. 92, which we quote below. Having said thus much, we are bound to acknowledge our obligations to Mr. Appleyard for his admirable sketch of Bardism and of the religion of the Druids. We have read it with the greatest interest, and we confess that it has opened to us fields of thought hitherto unknown to us. He traces out in successive order, with great accuracy, the result of deep research and extensive acquaintance with his subject, -the foundation of Episcopal Sees throughout Wales; first at Llandaff, to which he assigns a date as early as 182, and afterwards at Carleon, about the middle of the fifth century,-a See which was afterwards transferred to St. David's, then called Menevia. He assigns the middle of the sixth century as the date of the foundation of Bangor, and the latter part of the same century as the date of St. Asaph. The legend connected with the foundation of this last See is charmingly told in p. 120, and contrasts most delightfully with the legal and official way in which the State Bishoprics, Ripon and Manchester for example,

are now-a-days erected by Act of Parliament. We cannot forbear quoting from Mr. A. a few lines touching an ancient bishop of St. David's, which will show how far habits of asceticism were practised by episcopal dignitaries in days long since gone by: "Morgeneu, (A.D. 980--1000,) was the first Bishop of St. David's who ate flesh; his death by the hands of Danish pirates was a judgment upon the sinful indulgence. I say this...... upon the best authority, that of the gross-feeding Bishop himself. He appeared to a certain Bishop in Ireland on the night of his death, showing his wounds, and saying: 'Because I ate meat, I am made meat.'

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The following passage (p. 102) draws out a point which Protestant historians and controversialists are apt to slur over: "Pope Gregory the Great, on sending Augustine into England, consecrated him under the title of Bishop of the English. His commission ran thus, We commit to thee, our brother, all the Bishops of the provinces of Britain, that the unlearned be instructed, the weak be strengthened by persuasion, the perverse be corrected by authority and thou, brother, shalt have in subjection not only those bishops whom thou shalt ordain, nor those only who shall have been ordained by the Archbishop of York, but also all the Clergy of Britain, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. With these credentials St. Augustine crossed the Saxon frontier, and presented himself in Britain." He then goes on to narrate the conference between St. Augustine and the British Bishops, which took place, according to tradition, at St. Augustine's Oak, in Worcestershire. At this conference, as is well known, the British Bishops asserted their independence, and, for a time, refused to adopt the Roman method of observing Easter, and administering the Sacrament of Baptism. We give our readers Mr. A.'s comment on the proceedings of this conference, though we by no means subscribe to the latter portion of it :-"The Pope, Augustine's Sovereign, commanded him to go and bring the British Churches into communion: he went and made the attempt: he could do no less. The British Church stood on her rights; she could have done no less: neither side is to blame." When he wrote this, had Mr. A. forgotten the original connection of King Lucius with Pope Eleutherius? to say nothing of the fact that Claudia and Pudens (mentioned by St. Paul, 2 Tim. iv. 21), confessedly

derived their knowledge of the Christian faith from Rome? and that Aristobulus (mentioned in Rom. xvi. 10), who, according to Mr. A. "was sent (? by whom) as an Apostle to the Britons," and "was the first Bishop in Britain," was a disciple of St. Peter or St. Paul at Rome? (See pp. 93-95.) Was no tie of filial obedience, we may ask, due from the Church in Britain to the See of Rome in the day of St. Augustine, if it was to Rome, and to Rome only, that she owed long before the possession of the Faith? But Mr. Appleyard shall answer for himself:-"Happily I am not required to go into the general question of the British Churches. My subject is a single Church, a National Church, possessing her own national records..... of venerable antiquity." (p. 92.) But really we think that, to take the very lowest ground. it is most necessary for the historian or annalist of the Church in a particular country, not only to view her internally, but to regard also her external relation to other local Churches, and, above all, fairly to investigate the question of descent. And, we may fairly ask, does not the way in which Mr. A. shrinks from discussing the subject, imply that he has at heart some secret doubts as to his ability to make out a real case against the Roman claim of supremacy over the Church of Britain, as urged by the Holy See from St. Augustine's day even to the present time?

V.-Devout Prayers in Honour of the Holy Name of Mary, composed of five Psalms and five Antiphons, of which the initial letters in Latin, form together the holy name of Mary. London, Dublin, and Derby: Richardson and Son,

The plan of this devotion is fully explained in the title ; it may be considered, indeed, as a sort of" office" to our Blessed Lady, very short and simple. The preface is an earnest exhortation to devotion for her, proceeding apparently from the well-known pious owner of Grace Dieu Manor.

VI. A Devout Exercise as a Preparation for Death, as used by the Religious of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, and recommended to be made frequently, especially at the beginning of Lent. London, Dublin, and Derby: Richardson and Son. Excellent prayers, and highly to be recommended, especially the visit and devotions to the Sacred Heart, which are full of fervour.

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INDEX TO VOLUME THIRTY-THREE.