THE THEEE KINGDOMS.

THE Religious Agitation has continued during the month with little abatement, but the pretensions of his
Holiness at Rome have not shared so largely in it as those of some smaller popes here in England.
Mr. Bennett has been turned out of St. Barnabas by the Bishop of London. Not, however, for denying the
supremacy of the Crown in spiritual affairs or discipline; not for asserting the Church's infallibility and
supremacy; not for calling the Protestant Establishment a statesman's tool; not for the identification, in
short, in all material respects, of the teaching of the church of St. Barnabas with that of the Church of
Rome: but for a certain indiscreet excess in gestures, postures, ceremonies, forms, and intonations, which
seemed to the Bishop to be "carrying things too far." There is nothing in the decision pronounced against
this refractory teacher by his diocesan, which in any manner touches the questions most gravely in issue
between the Protestant Church and her Romanising ministers. If other than the mere forms are to be
grappled with, it must be by a mode of censure far other than Doctor Blomfield's. Happily, however, it is
the substance of the thing called Tractarianism, and not its mere "limbs and flourishes," against which the
people generally are now eager and aroused; and a beginning of the work most needful to be transacted at
the present time has been already made. A lay society has been formed in Plymouth, to promote and
bring about a reformation of the Church services, a better administration of ecclesiastical revenues, and
improvement of the discipline of the Church. Such societies should be formed everywhere; and their
invariable bases should be a reassertion of the right of private judgment, and a claim of increased power for
the laity in matters ecclesiastical.

These are the views and efforts which will alone save us, as Protestants, from the mischiefs incident
more or less to all religious agitation; and without which there is even yet a danger that the present
excitement may leave us exposed to a worse intolerance than that against which it has protested. In
regard to Roman Catholicism itself, whatever legislation may be found expedient or necessary, it will be
assuredly not less so to keep in mind the just distinction between what may fairly warrant interference, and
what cannot without danger be meddled with. That distinction is, not to prohibit the spiritual authority
of the Pope in any extent of unrestricted communication that may be called for by full toleration of the
profession and exercise of the Roman Catholic religion in England; but at the same time so to legislate, that
this papal authority shall be kept really and strictly spiritual, that its mandates shall not be suffered to
run co-ordinate in civil matters, such as that of education, with those of the head of the state, and that all
its missives which in any manner trench on the temporal province shall be rendered subject to the temporal
laws.

Sir Edward Sugden has decisively pronounced that the Papal brief of September exposes its promulgators
to legal penalties, though he has failed to explain what they are; but be they small or great, it is a dififereut
kind of protection that true Protestants in England now sorely need. They pray for sound education; and
against all "high" priests who would oppose it, whether English or Roman. It may be true that Pio Nono
impertinently claims spiritual headship in England, and that his emissaries convene synods of Thurles
practically to enforce his claim; but it is not less true that Henry of Exeter insolently refuses to address
the Queen as the "earthly head of the Church in this kingdom," and defies and obstructs her Privy Council
in their exertions for popular education. The legislation that reaches not both these evils, will leave
the most deeply-felt practical grievance untouched. Now or never, guarantees must be obtained for
educational as well as religious freedom. Now must be commenced, if ever, that good work, of which a
thorough reform of both universities will go far to the glorious completion.

Mr. Sewell, well knowing this, has made a feint to draw off the University Commission of Inquiry from
Oxford by proposing to turn Oxford itself into a travelling Commission of Instruction. He is not for letting
Manchester go to college, but for carrying college to Manchester. He won't have any one come to Oxford
to reform its abuses, but he'll consent to carry Oxford anywhere, abuses and all. His scheme is to set up
Oxford lecture-rooms all over the country, subject to the control of the far-famed Hebdomadal Board; and,
opening these lecture-rooms to people of all sorts of opinions, to reward dutiful attendance thereupon
by degrees from travelling examiners. Of which mission the expected advantage evidently is, that it may
in time reclaim the barbarous from their objections to Oxford systems and teachers, while it leaves the
hallowed place itself quite unpolluted by the heathen, and keeps sacred the mysteries of Isis to Mr. Sewell
and his friends. But the bait has not caught; and Mr. Sewell has taken nothing by his motion but the
disadvantage of having let slip the not unimportant admission that "the university possesses a large
amount of available resources and machinery with which the present state of education conferred by it is
by no means commensurate." It is to be hoped that the Ministerial Commission will not relax in its
exertions till it bring these means and ends into better correspoudence.

Even amidst the religious hubbub have been heard some faint Protectionist cries. Messrs. Spooner and
Newdegate have protested at Sutton Colfield against sinking to the condition of the foreigner, to which
chawbacon, pondering between his seven shillings a-week and the union next door, cries out Anan!