NEW ZEALAND*.

NEW ZEALAND consists mainly of two large islands, the middle island and the north island, separated by Cook's Straits. There are numerous small islands around their shores. They lie about 1,200 miles to the east of the continent of Australia. The middle island is about 500 miles long, and from 100 to 120 broad. North island, which is the smaller, is about 400 miles long, and from 5 to 30 broad. These islands were discovered by Tasman, in 1642, and were afterwards visited by captain Cook, whose charts of the coasts are used to the present day. New Zealand is about 16,000 miles from Great Britain. The emigrant ship sometimes makes the passage in about 100 days: but the average passage may be calculated at more than four months. From Sydney vessels reach these islands in 10 or 12 days. The church missionaries formed their first station in New Zealand in 1814; their efforts have been greatly blessed. The natives have attained to a considerable degree of civilization, and not a few have been converted to Christianity. Happy England! thou hast been privileged to convey the glorious tidings of salvation to the furthest isles of the sea. May thy laborious missionaries be enabled, by the grace of God, to enlighten the darkness of all heathen lands; and may thy industrious emigrants extend the blessings of their native country to the utmost limits of the habitable globe.

The present New Zealand company was established in May 1839. Their first step was to offer 1,100 sections, or 111,100 acres of land for sale, before they had even formed any connection with the island; acting entirely upon the conviction of being able to purchase land for the purposes of colonization. Such confidence did the public place in this seemingly aerial scheme, that within six weeks from the time the proposals were issued, all the sections were disposed of, and the company received, as the purchase-mouey, the sum of 99,9907. By its terms of purchase, the company engages to lay out 75 per cent. in defraying the cost of emigration to its settlements. It offers a free passage (including provisions and medical attendance during the voyage) to labourers, shepherds, various descriptions of mechanics, and others. On the arrival of the emigrants in the colony, they will be received by an officer, who will supply their immediate wants, assist them in reaching the place of their destination, be ready to advise them in case of difficulty, and at all times give them employment in the service of the company, if from any cause they should be unable to obtain it elsewhere. The emigrants will, however, be at perfect liberty to engage themselves to any one willing to employ them, and will make their own bargain for wages.

In 1840, wages and provisions were as follows:Labourers, 30s. to 40s. a week; carpenters, 60s. to 70s.; sawyers, 60s. to 80s.; Windsor chairs, in the white, were 51. 5s. per doz., only one chair-maker in the colony; flour, 20s. a cwt.; beef, 1s. a lb.; pork, 6d. a lb.; beer, 8s. a gallon; butter, 1s. 8d. a lb.; tea, 58.; sugar, 6d. ; and iron, 1s. 6d. a lb. Clothing of every description is very high; therefore the emigrant is recommended to take a good stock with him. Every adult emigrant is allowed to take half a ton weight, or 20 cubic feet of baggage.

The capabilities of this colony are not surpassed by those of any other country in the world. There is

From the " Midland Monitor." What we wish to see, in the establishment of new colonies, is the honour of God regarded before worldly advantage. Let our rulers, let all colonization societies remember that the foundations of stable empire must be laid in righteousness. Provision ought even to be made at once for the spiritual instruction of colonists and care should be taken that it expand with their increase. Would the rebellion in Canada, nay, would the revolt of the United States have occurred, had this principle been diligently acted on? We trow not?-Er.

every prospect of its becoming, in a few years, the finest commercial and agricultural country in the southern seas.

The climate is delightfully temperate, and very congenial to the constitutions of Englishmen. Mr. Watkins, in his examination before the committee of the house of lords, on being asked if the vicissitudes appeared great, as compared with European climates, said-" Not anything like our climate. The frost was there at one time, a very gentle frost indeed; the ice was not entirely over a small pool of water. They told me they saw ice sometimes in the bay the thickness of a shilling; but I did not see any near that thickness. I have slept out frequently in the bush. The fern grows in great abundance. I found myself very comfortable and warm in my great coat on a bed of fern, rather than sleeping in the houses, which are very unfit for English people."

In speaking of the farms of the missionaries, captain Fitzroy, in his evidence before the house of lords, says" They are very fertile indeed. The wheat I saw there grown on the islands was as fine-looking wheat as I ever saw; and the missionaries told me it was considered better than the wheat grown in Australia, near Sydney."

In " Chambers's Information for the People" it is stated, that "the very circumstance of New Zealand being suited for the cultivation of grain, renders it unfit for ever becoming an extensive grazing country, at least for the growth of the fine wools of Australia."

The following remarks from the Sydney Herald newspaper, were written by a person who had visited New Zealand on seven different occasions :—

"New Zealand is fitted by nature to become the garden of New South Wales; the fertility of the soil, the excellence of the climate, and, above all, the regularity of the seasons, eminently combine to fit it for an agricultural country. But it is only as an agricultural settlement that New Zealand can flourish; as a pastoral country it can never compete with New South Wales. The experiment has again and again been tried, and the result has invariably been the same. The climate is too moist for sheep pastures; and the fine wool, for which New South Wales is so remarkable, speedily deteriorates in quality on the transportation of the sheep to New Zealand. The new colony, consequently, can never come into any hurtful competition with New South Wales; on the contrary, the settlement of the former must be highly conducive to the advancement of the latter."

From the above information, we must conclude that the advantages of this colony are unquestionably very great. The terms of the New Zealand company are on the most liberal and enlightened scale, and admirably calculated to promote the prosperity of the emigrant, and to develop the vast resources of those fertile islands.

The colony is at present only in its infancy. We hope soon, however, to obtain information of a more practical character to lay before our readers. Some thousands of emigrants, both large capitalists, labourers, and mechanics of various descriptions, have left this country during the last year to try their fortunes in these far distant lands, which must soon present a scene of industry and improvement calculated to astonish the natives, and to attract the general attention of the civilized world.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE*.

IF the science of our ancestors had not been directed and animated by pure taste, high feeling, and strong religious enthusiasm, they would not have handed down to us a series of monuments, extending nearly over the whole of Europe, which will be viewed with admiration for ages. It was a noble idea to dedicate to the service of the infinite Creator a temple apparently indefinite in its extent, through which the eye might range without discerning the limit or measure; and the skill with which this idea was worked out meets with no parallel in the best days of classical

art.

It is not merely by its height that a Gothic cathedral strikes the beholder. In all its dimensions it appears, in consequence of its arrangement, to admit of no bound. If we look at its external length, we can hardly tell where and how it terminates. Beyond the vast nave appears the square of the intersection;

then the choir, with the bold sweep of its apex, rising from an aisle of greater extent, amidst a forest of pinnacles with their expansive buttresses; beyond these, again, is often a multitude of chapels branching out in every direction. And its breadth is similarly extended. On the continent a great number of aisles and side-chapels are added. In England, where we seldom see more than one aisle on each side of the nave, the transepts are of greater length-which may be noticed especially at Lincoln and York-while the addition of chapter-house, cloisters, and monastic buildings, seems to preclude the appearance of any definite boundary in that direction. The scale of the edifice is really vast; and, from the multiplicity, variety, and distribution of parts, it appears incalculably greater.

On this account a regular front, marking the extreme length of any building, seems to be unsuitable to the Gothic style. Suppose a church, with the nave and choir of exactly the same length, and perfectly corresponding with each other, the tower and intersection being in the centre; however rich or excellent such a building may be in its details, or even in its general proportions, would it not be pronounced at once contrary to the spirit of Gothic architecture? I cannot help thinking that the carelessness, to which are owing some of the irregularities we meet with in many of our most perfect fronts, would not have been indulged had not the architect felt that too strict attention to symmetrical arrangement was a fault. Ꭺ regular front denotes measurement; which the irregular length of a building does not. I cannot regret that the fronts of Antwerp and Strasburgh have never been completed by the erection of corresponding steeples; one spire would have measured the other, and much of the effect of beight would have been lost. Still we must remember that a west front is a mere portal; and does not, as the façade of a mansion, express the full extent of the edifice; and therefore,

From "Remarks on Church Architecture," by rev. J. L. Petit. 8vo, 2 vols. Burns, 1841. This is a valuable work, replete with sketchy, but perfectly intelligible, illustrations. We cordially recommend it to our readers' notice. But it is a great pity that there is no list of the wood-cuts, no index, no table of contents. How much the forgetting of these apparently trifling matters detracts from the usefulness of a book. -ED.

Wherever the nave and choir are of nearly the same length, as we often see in English cathedrals, the architects have generally taken care to mark the difference very decidedly by some means or other; either by western towers which are not answered by any eastern ones; or by an additional pair of transepts to the choir, in Lincoln, Beverley, Worcester, Rochester, and Canterbury; or by a difference in height or ornament; or by an apex. In short, every appearance of an extended front bearing any proportion to the length of the cathedral, seems to have been most studiously avoided.

as

The same system of composition which gives the cathedral its air of unbounded extent, has not failed of giving also to smaller churches a grandeur and dignity beyond what might be expected from their actual size. These, it is true, consist of fewer parts, which may be somewhat differently disposed, and much less enriched with ornament; yet still they preserve the gables, aisles, buttresses, pinnacles, and spires externally, and the arch and pillar internally, which give the same aspiring form upwards, and the same appearance of expansion below. I do not mean to say that either in large or small buildings every line and member ought to be so designed as palpably to tend to the development of this one principle, lest the architect fall into pedantry and mannerism; and here it is that a nice discrimination is required, that he may avoid obtruding upon the spectator the rules by which he has been guided.

I am well disposed to admit the claim of Germany to the praise of having done more than any other nation towards the establishment of the Gothic style in its excellence; but I am not prepared to approve of the arguments by which Dr. Möller, in his "Memorials of German Buildings," enforces this claim, namely, by condemning, as contrary to the principles of the style, the low gables and flat towers found in other countries, especially in England; and contending that the high-pitched roofs and tapering steeples which characterise German architecture, cannot be dispensed with in a perfect Gothic edifice. That they are exceedingly well adapted to it, every one will allow; but, at the same time, we must remember that a feature, however characteristic in itself, may be so repeated and multiplied as to fatigue instead of gratifying the eye. The elevation of the west front of Cologne cathedral, according to the prints which are published as giving the original design, seems to admit of scarcely any other feature besides the spire and the acute gable; which latter appears in the form of a canopy over every arch. I confess this constant repetition, though no actual fault can be detected either in the details or proportions, has almost led me to doubt whether the design be genuine. The architects of that day, keeping in mind, as they did, the principles to which their structures were indebted for their beauty, did not think it necessary to force them into notice by a constant effort.

If extension upwards were the only object in view, then perhaps no finish would be admissible but the spire; but, as we have observed, apparent extent in every direction was the aim of the builder; and the low, flat, massive tower, giving by its breadth and evident weight a proof of the vastness and strength of the building which supports it, may sometimes conduce to this effect better than the same tower crowned

with a spire, whose comparative height would throw the rest of the structure into insignificance. I cannot conceive any arrangement that would add to the majestic appearance of York minster; the enormous mass of the central tower, in all its simplicity of outline and composition, is to the full as impressive as the loftiest and richest continental steeples.

From what has been said, it is clear no part or dimension of a Gothic building should appear contracted; and therefore none should be enlarged at the expense of another. Hence the principle of indefinite expansion, as it may be called, requires very nice proportion; and, though it may seem to be a paradox, does in fact enforce a most accurate measurement as regards every part of the edifice. Herein is shown the consummate skill of the Gothic architect, that, while he has been carefully studying every minute relation and proportion, he has impressed the spectator with an idea that all rule and measure has been thrown aside.

If a cathedral is lofty, its loftiness must not lead us to suppose that it is deficient in length or breadth, otherwise a large space will appear contracted. We have already noticed some of the French cathedrals as having too much height for their length: the impression produced is not so much that of gigantic height as of inadequate length-so apt is the defect to strike the eye sooner than the beauty. The cathedrals of Dijon, Auxerre, Amiens, and Abbeville, would all be improved by the addition of three or four com

partments to the nave. As regards width, the lofty clerestories are well balanced by an increased number of aisles. But, in truth, the dimension of height, much as it is insisted upon by almost every writer on Gothic architecture, is that which will most bear limitation, and which the architect can best afford to sacrifice in behalf of the others. For a low building has at least the appearance of strength, which is an indispensable point; and a very little contrivance will give it that aspiring form which we look for.

The Cabinet.

property of his trust: it begins in great self diffidence; but, secondly, it goes on in an active diligence. The young one hath its last retreat indeed under the dam's wing, yet the little wing it hath of its own it employs to bring it thither. The eagle in Moses's song, as I noted before, not only bears its eaglets on her own wings, but stirs up her nest too, and provokes them first to do their uttermost. Though David resolved well-I will not trust in my bow-yet he used it sure. It was not Goliath's sword that could save him, yet gladly he girt himself with it when the high priest reached it him. There is no king, saith he, that can be saved by the multitude of an host; yet he refused not the volunteers that came to list themselves under him. He fled from Saul with all diligence into the cave, though he had still a refuge beyond it. Though he set up his rest under God's wings, yet 0 (saith he) that I had the wings of a dove too, that I might fly away to my rest.-Archbishop Sancroft, Sermon preached on Fast-day, Nov. 13, 1678.

THE USE OF THE LAW.-Ye shall note that the

holy scripture is divided into two parts, that is to say, the law and the promises, the knowledge whereof is right necessary for the obtaining of true and perfect contrition. Ye know that a man's face shall be long defiled, spotted, and deformed, before he shall perceive it, except it be either told him of others, or else that he himself seeth it evidently in some mirror or glass. Semblably, the soul of a Christian man shall be spotted with sin a great space before he perceiveth it and be truly contrite and sorry for it, except it be either told him of others by declaring the law of God to him, or else he himself looketh in the glass of truth, which is the law of God, and by that means perceiveth his own deformity, misery, and wretchedness. For "by the law cometh the knowledge of sin." "The commandment is a lantern, and the law is a light and way of the life," saith Solomon. David also saith, "O Lord, thy word is a lantern to my feet, and a light to my pathways." So that the next way to have the knowledge of our sins, whereby we should be moved to be contrite and sorrowful in our hearts for our wickednesses and offences, and to stand in fear of God's righteousness, is ever to have the law of God before our eyes. "I have hidden thy speeches in my heart," saith David, "that I may not mer) Potation for Lent. offend_thee." -Becon chaplain to archbishop Cran

Poetry.

"THERE IS SORROW ON THE SEA."-JEREMIAH xlix. 23.

(For the Church of England Magazine.) "THERE is sorrow on the sea" when the loving, cherish'd boy

His widow'd mother's solace, and his fair young sister's joy

Gazes on their lessening forms, which he may behold

no more,

And with strangers goes to toil on a distant, unknown shore.

"There is sorrow on the sea" when the young and gentle bride,

For new friends and foreign home, quits her tender parents' side;

Sweet sisters and companions blend fond wishes with

their tears,

of absent years.

"There is sorrow on the sea" when the widow leaves the shore

Of her late so joyous home, the wide sea to cross

once more:

"The desire of her meek eyes by a stroke has been removed"

Like Naomi she returns, but without a Ruth beloved. "There is sorrow on the sea" when the transport-ship sets sail,

And some among her convicts all too late their sin bewail;

They who think, with breaking hearts, of the shame and bitter pain

Bequeathed by them to loved ones they shall ne'er behold again.

The

that he would let him drink of it. The slave willingly, and doubtless at some personal risk, complied. captive monarch assured his humble benefactor that, when he regained his liberty, his good deed should not pass unrequited; and he kept his word: he procured the slave's manumission, made him comptroller of his estates, recommended him in his dying testament to his heirs, Agrippa and Bernice; and history, while it hands down the name of this benevolent slave, assures us that Thaumastus reached a good old age, in that station of trust, emolument, and respectability to which he had been worthily promoted. The moral of this little tale Josephus could not or would not draw; it may, however, be deduced by the simplest follower of Christ. If a man, to use the mildest terms, by no means remarkable for virtue, obeyed with such good faith the dictates of a grateful heart, and so recompensed the gift of a single draugh of water, what may not be expected from the solemn

beats high,

And the riven vessel sinks, and no friendly bark is nigh;

And when the spreading smoke-wreath dread proclaims the ship on fire,

From shore, from ship, no rescue-the crew's last hopes expire.

"There is sorrow on the sea," for that man, fall'n man, is there;

And earth, and sea, and creatures must awhile his sorrow share :

But a blissful kingdom comes, in which sin shall cease to be,

With "death and sorrow, tears and pain"-and there

is " no more sea."

sian story, for which we are indebted to the moral taste of Elian. It happened, on a certain day, that Artaxerxes Mnemon was making a journey, attended by his court: as the king passed along, his unexpected appearance greatly distressed a Persian traveller, Sincetes by name. This man, at a distance from home, was wholly unprovided with the means of presenting any one of those gifts which the law required all subjects to offer to the Persian monarchs on their royal progress, and with which he saw the surrounding multitude eagerly advancing. Respect for the laws, and, still more, reverence for his sovereign, filled him with anxiety; but he did not long pause or hesitate: he ran, at his utmost speed, to the adjoining river Cyrus, scooped up some water with his hands, approached the king, and thus addressed him-" King Artaxerxes, reign for ever! That thou mayest not pass by ungifted, I pay my duty with such materials, and in such a manner, as my case admits;

all things new”—

A heaven and earth all glory, far too bright for mortal view;

your majesty deign to approach my dwelling, I hope to offer the best and richest gift in my possession." Artaxerxes, filled with delight, addressed his subject in the following manner-"I accept your gift with

A CUP OF COLD WATER." And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in nowise lose his reward" (Matt. x. 42). Respecting the gift of a cup of cold water, the rabbins had a similar saying-" He that gives food to one that studies in the law, God will bless him in this world, and give him a portion in the world to come." Mr. Weston mentions, that the dervises (Mahometan monks) offer cold water to the traveller in the deserts no trifling present in those parched and torrid wastes of sand. And Koecher, in his Analecta, cites Beausobre for a precept and promise of Zoroaster, or one of his followers, similar to that of our Lord. There are two interesting historical anecdotes which finely illustrate the fact, that a cup of cold water only, given from genuine motives of humanity, or presented as a token of unfeigned respect, shall by no means lose its reward. The first is from Josephus. Herod Agrippa, during his imprisonment in the dungeons of Tiberius, was one day in an agony of thirst; and, seeing a young slave pass by, carrying a vessel of water, implored

ings; first, because water is in itself the most excellent of all things; and then because this water bears the name Cyrus." The story proceeds, that Artaxerxes commanded his attendants to receive the water in a golden cup; sent to Sincetes a robe of honour, a golden cup, and a thousand darics; and commissioned the messenger to say, The king commands thee from this cup to recreate thine own soul, as thou didst recreate his, nor didst suffer him to pass ungifted and unhonoured, but honouredst him as place and time permitted. And he wills that, drawing it with this cup, thou shouldst drink water out of this river." Thus has history recorded the name, the act, and the reward of him who bestowed a simple handful of water. The names of proud satraps, and the catalogues of their costly donations, meantime have sunk into silence and oblivion. Does not this remind one of another gift, and a memorial unspeakably more blessed?-" Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her."-Bp. Jebb's Sacred Literature.

London: Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Towa end Country.

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CHRISTIAN STEDFASTNESS. BY THE REV. JOHN AYRE, M.A., Minister of St. John's Chapel, Downshire Hill, Hampstead.

THERE are perhaps few who have not, at some time or other, made some faint beginnings in the Christian course. If they have had no longing for the joys of the divine presence, they have at least trembled when they have heard some ambassador of Christ reason of righteousness, temperance, and future judgment, or when some near approach of death has warned them to set their house in order. A transient conviction has passed their minds that it would be well to flee from the wrath to come; and they have resolved to search the scriptures, and to seek the Lord in prayer, and to separate themselves from the world, and to resist the assaults of Satan, and to be ready to engage in the practice of good works. But, when the novelty of their new profession has worn off, or when the sneers of their former associates have taught them be ashamed of it, or when the pressing danger which first alarmed them has passed away, they relapse, gradually it may be, but surely, into their former state of irreligious carelessness; and the emotions which have disquieted their hearts leave no more trace than the storm which tosses for a time the waters of a lake, but which ere long ceases, and then you see its surface as smooth and unruffled as if it had always lain calmly sleeping in the summer's sun. Our Saviour has strikingly depicted the nature of these brief impressions in his parable of the sower. He teaches us that they may be apparently more energetic than a real work of grace; for

VOL. XII.-NO. CCCXL.

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the seed which fell among stony places sprung up, he says, very quickly, and flourished till the heat was on it, and then it withered. Its early promise was then blighted, and of no real value: it brought forth no fruit unto perfection.

Religious impressions so transient are not only useless in themselves, but they have a tendency to check and blight any future fruitfulness. The scripture is full of the danger of turning back after we have once put our hand to the plough. And the danger arises not only from the direct judgment of God, who may very reasonably be expected to punish those that thus trifle with his love, but also from the indirect retribution which such conduct has a natural tendency to bring upon the mind by disabling it from spiritual feeling. For it is always more difficult to renew than to make an impression: the chords of the heart seem loosened, and cannot be drawn up to their former tension; and thus the most affecting truths of the gospel are listened to coldly, and with difficulty received. We see this strikingly illustrated in respect to the human body. A small quantity of wine will intoxicate him who is unaccustomed to strong liquors, but by habit he will be able to swallow draught after draught with impunity. Medicine, again, will at first produce its effect in small doses; but these, we all know, must be afterwards increased, or else they are given in vain. Now it is just so with the mind. It becomes by degrees less susceptible of feelings of repentance, faith, and love: the conscience is callous, the affections seared. Certainly God can always, by the mighty power of his Spirit, soften the heart, even though it had

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