We have occupied so much space with those letters of St Augustine which treat of more important questions, that we cannot do more than allude to others which deal with matters of every-day life, although they contain much that throws light upon the writer's character. With the cares of a bishopric upon his shoulders, taking a leading part in all the great ecclesiastical controversies of his age, he nevertheless finds time to resolve the somewhat trivial cases of conscience which Publicola lays before him, who desires to know "definitely and positively" if it is lawful for a Christian to employ barbarians to protect his crops who had sworn fidelity by their false gods. in presence of the decurion? if one Christian might kill another to save his life, or even put a wall of defence against an enemy round his property? These and many other questions Augustine patiently endeavours to resolve to the satisfaction of his scrupulous correspondent. To the question of Januarius regarding the days on which men ought to fast, which were different in different countries, he gives the wise counsel:

"In regard to all variable observances which may be met anywhere, one is at liberty to comply with them or not as he chooses; and there is no better rule for the wise and serious Christian in this matter than to conform to the practice which he finds prevailing in the church to which it may be his lot to come. For such a custom, if it is clearly not contrary to the faith nor to sound morality, is to be held as a thing indifferent, and ought to be observed for the sake of fellowship with those among whom we live."

We have confined ourselves in this article to the portion of St Augustine's life which is covered by the first volume of his 'Letters." Much more might be said, and we have purposely abstained from touching on the great Pelagian controversy and the closing years of Augustine's life. But if we have succeeded in shewing that his "Letters" shed an authentic and interesting light upon the character and history of the great Bishop of Hippo, our object will have been attained. No one who realises the position which Augustine holds in the Christian Church can fail to be interested in any personal traits which at this distance of time can be recalled. The chief teacher of the schoolmen, and the inspirer of the mystics of the Middle Ages, the Father whom Luther loved to quote, and whom Pascal termed the "Prince of the Church Fathers," honoured alike. by the modern Protestant and the modern Catholic, his empire

Presbyterianism in British North America.

521 is wider than that of any Christian writer since the days of the Apostles. It is sometimes a trying experience to witness the private life, or read the private correspondence, of those who were the heroes of our imagination, but no such process of disenchantment awaits the reader of Augustine's correspondence. Here we have womanly tenderness, infinite consideration for others, deep spirituality of mind, joined with manly sense, and no small powers of dealing with the affairs of this world. When we mark this combination of the highest intellectual gifts with the fairest graces of human character, we can only explain it on the principle that Augustine at all times gave heed to his own maxim: "Christiana disciplina est prima humilitas, secunda humilitas, tertia humilitas.”

JOHN GIBB.

ART. VI.-Presbyterianism in British North America.

Census of Canada. 1870-71. Vol. I. Ottawa. 1873.

Memoir of the Rev. James M'Gregor, D.D. By the Rev. G. PATERSON. Philadelphia: Joseph M. Wilson. 1859.

Life and Times of the Rev. Robert Burns, D.D. By the Rev. R. F. BURNS, Montreal. Toronto James Campbell & Son. 1871.

Acts and Proceedings of the General Assemblies of the Canada Presbyterian Church. 1870, 71, 72.

The Climate, Productions, and Resources of Canada. By J. BEAUFORT HURLBERT, M.A., LL.D. Montreal: John Lovell. 1872.

то understand aright the position and mission of Presbyte

rianism in British North America, it must be borne in mind that originally, by right of discovery and conquest, the country belonged to France. In the year 1535, while Luther was translating the Book, and Loyola organising the SOCIETY, which are at present in Canada, as elsewhere, in conflict, Jacques Cartier, entering the St Lawrence on the festival of that saint, took nominal possession of the land in the name of France. It was not, however, till nearly a century after Cartier erected the cross bearing a-top the lily, that Champlain (1608) took actual possession by fortifying Quebec:

"That fortress cliff that keeps of Canada the key.” |

1 It is thus Champlain writes of the spot which has since become of such importance: "Trouvant un lieu, le plus estroit de la riviere que les habi

From that Acropolis France ruled the continent for oue hundred and fifty years, sending out its religion and commerce -the cross and the lily always together-eastward to Acadia, westward to Lake Superior, and down the Mississippi to Florida and Louisiana. Then (1759) there met on the plains of Abraham the two great military powers of Europe, "Wolfe fell victorious," and the Gibraltar of the American Mediterranean, and with it, La Nouvelle France, passed into the hands of Britain.'

After more than a century of British rule, which, on the whole, "left the Colonists," as Burke advised, nothing to envy in comparing their position with the neighbouring Republic, four of the British American Provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Lower Canada, Upper Canada) joined in a federal union, now known as the Dominion of Canada. To these have since been added the province of British Columbia on the Pacific, the province of Manitoba, and the great Saskatchewan Valley. Prince Edward Island is now negotiating with the Dominion Government about union, to be followed in this course ere long, it is to be hoped, by Newfoundland, when at length the Dominion of Canada will be synonymous with British North America.

This immense country, situated between the 53d and 141st meridians west, and extending from the latitude of Rome to the Arctic Ocean, stands in superficial area (3,500,000 square

tants du pays appellent Quebec, j'bastir et edifier une habitation and defricher des terres et faire quelques jardinage.”

The plains of Abraham, overlooking the St Lawrence and its shipping at a height of over 200 feet, stretch out, untilled, from the ramparts for a long distance, forming in summer one of the finest city parks in the world. A simple obelisk about the middle of the plain, with the inscription, "Here died Wolfe victorious," marks a spot of undying interest, when we consider the youth of the General (32), the number of his troops (8000—3000=5000), the duration of the action-less than half a day--and the result, crippling France till this hour, and giving to Britain the lordship of a Continent, where its language, laws, and religion, with some modifications, are firmly established.

66

As to the origin of this word-Canada--Charlevoix, Viceroy of New France for twenty-one years, says: Quelques uns deriventce mot du mot Iroquois Kannata, que se prononce Canada, et signifie un amas de cabane." That Charlevoix is right is beyond doubt, when we find Joseph Brant, the Indian chief, in his translations of the Gospels, always using this word to express a town or a city. "A city called Nazareth," is in Mohawk: "Ne Kannada gough konwaytsk Nazjareth.”

Canada: Its History and Resources..

523 miles), above the United States (3,390,000), and below Europe (3,650,000). The total habitable area, however, is diminished largely when we deduct the frozen regions north of the 60th parallel, just as the United States suffers diminution, which is too often overlooked, by the arid region west of the 98th meridian, and east of the Rocky Mountains, over which the eye may wander to the horizon without sight of a living thing to relieve the monotony. Canada has the summer of Italyhot, dry, bright, with occasional showers; and the winter of Southern Russia or Northern Germany-bright, dry, cold, with heavy snows. Its productions vary from the tender plants of semi-tropical regions to the hardier ones of the middle and higher temperate zones. Indian corn or maize, which will not ripen in England, and seldom in Paris, is a field crop in the valley of the St Lawrence, and the earlier varieties in the valley of Saskatchewan. The peach, plum, quince, apricot,

and grape, ripen in the southern portions of Ontario. But what is of more consequence, Canada, lying in the latitudes of the summer rains, and of the valuable cereals and grasses, the latitude most favourable for the ox, the sheep, and the horse,

2

2 The first volume (of five) of the census of Canada has just been issued, containing 465 pages, printed alternately in English and French. The system adopted for the enumeration of the people is that known by the appellation of Population de droit, i.e., the people who should have been in a given house on a given night, had all the members of the household been at home. The population on the 2d day of April 1871 was ascertained to be as follows:

occupies the best position for raising men and women, the latitude where man attains the greatest energy of body and mind, and whence have issued the conquering races. Here indeed, without any exaggeration, "lies" (in the words of the late Hon. Mr Seward) "a region grand enough for the seat of a great empire." To be fully warranted to predict of this country a great future, one lacks only a knowledge of its CHRISTIAN CHURCHES.

The standard of France and the Latin cross always arose, as has been remarked, side by side in the western wilds. To the work of missions in the new world, France gave ungrudgingly of its gold and its sons, with this result among others, that the faith which the French so lovingly cherished has in its turn conserved till this day in Canada the French tongue, nationality, unity, and laws, to such a degree, indeed, and to such political issues, that the conquered may be said to have given laws to the conquerors, "taking them captives whose captives they were." The Romish Church entered Canada a broad, deep, weighty stream; the Presbyterian Church, on the other hand, rose to the surface (like springs in its "forests primeval”) almost contemporaneously at some four distinct and distant points.

1. When the cold dreary night of the eighteenth century was deepening in gloom over the Scottish National Church, the Macedonian cry for help came from Nova Scotia across the Atlantic; but it fell unheeded on the ears of the Moderate divines, who thought "missionary societies highly dangerous to the good order of society at large." The first to answer the appeal was the Burgher Synod, which, ten years after the taking of Quebec (1769), sent out David Smith and Daniel Cock to preach the Word and dispense ordinances to those that dwelt solitary in the woods. To the Anti-burgher Synod there came also a touching appeal "beseeching them in the bowels of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for His sake, for the advancement of

"Here sit the descendants of the victors and vanquished in the fight of 1759, with all the difference of language, religion, civil law, and social habits nearly as distinctly marked as they were a century ago; here we sit to-day, seeking amicably to find a remedy for constitutional evils complained of—by the vanquished? No! sir, but complained of by the conquerors. Here sit the representatives of the British population claiming justice, and here sit the representatives of the French population discussing in the French tongue, whether we shall have it." (Applause from French Canadians.)-Speech of Hon. G. Brown on Confederation, 1864.