he reads on promiscuously, as if the choir and all the congregation were also reading with him, and not intoning, the effect is, we think, rather more monstrous. This most ridiculous state of things is still maintained, and is understood to be much prized by the Benchers, as being the feature of their service-which it is. The bar is inured to it; those who are familiar with the cathedral service laugh at it; and the choir has grown indifferent to it.

There was another "feature," which, however, we have lately missed. After the prayers in the pulpit, before and after the sermon, the choir was not allowed to chant the " amen;" but an awful and deep sound, emitting the two syllables, was heard from some latent performer, commonly supposed to be a dead bencher in the vaults below, who held strictly evangelical views when in the flesh, and who was thus allowed to raise his voice against the surpliced wickedness of the new system. This spirit is now laid by an order, we presume, from the present master, with the approbation of the “choir committee;" for the particular "amen" is now sung, the organist helping the choir to the note, which otherwise they would not be likely to hit.

The first occasion of re-opening the church was a great day" for the Temple, as the late Daniel O'Connell would have said. The brilliant and new decorated church was to be seen in full use. High-raised was the expectation of the members; swelling was the pride of the architectural and restoration committee. There were assembled the whole staff of head-porters and under-porters, and other officials, whereof the Temples have a multitude. To each of these attendants on the ceremony was allotted a certain piece of important duty as beadle or usher-the upper beadle of the Inner Temple being duly dressed in the livery of the Inn, which resembles that of a yellow-hammer; while he of the Middle Temple was decked after the fashion of a red-robin. The throng approached the doors. The Benchers were obsequiously bowed into their compartments; their ladies conducted to theirs. The Barristers were shewn to their benches; their ladies handed to theirs. The Students were admitted to their seats, and the general public kept outside in "the round," craning their

necks, and fidgeting on their forms, in hopes of being preferred by good-luck or interest to better quarters. Vain hope! The members filled the nave and aisles, supported by the friends of the Benchers, to whom is accorded, or by whom is assumed, the right of giving a certain number of orders of admission. These eminent persons were canvassed for orders in a manner most annoying to many, but delightful to the few who revelled in the joys of such patronage. This excitement continued for some time. It was pleasing to see the interest which some of the old gentlemen took in the proceedings of the Sabbath-day. Some were in a flutter of joy and self-importance; others exhibited that subdued appearance of conscious authority which was particularly impressive on the minds of the officials; others displayed entire subjugation to these uniformed individuals, and religiously stuffed their faces into their best hats before they stared at the bright ceiling, nodded to their neighbours, or placidly smiled on the excited throng.

A provincial solicitor of our acquaintance, great in his own borough and district, and who could hardly believe that any church any where would be shut against him, repaired with his wife and daughter to the Temple, ignorant of the strict rules by which strangers were excluded. He was suddenly stopped by "Where are you a-going to, sir?" Our portly friend replied, "To church." "Ain't a member," retorted the yellow-hammer, stopping his path. This was too much for the worthy town clerk, and Secretary to the Local Christian Tract and Church Catechism Defence Associations. "What? I not a member of the Church of England?"quoth he. "My friend, I am. Let me pass; I wish to join in the service of God." "'Ave you got a Bencher's horder, then? for no one can't do that in the Temple nohow as hasn't a

'One Sunday, some more than usually startling bonnets and unwontedly brilliant complexions dazzled the congregation. Their appearance was explained afterwards maliciously, or in a hilarious moment candidly, by one of depraved wit, or with peculiar means of knowing the fact. A gay Bencher, it was said, who was away from home one Saturday evening, was besought by a party of young ladies, to whose society he was much devoted, that he would give them a box at the Opera, and he had compromised with them by orders for the Temple Church.

Bencher's horder." He had not so wiser and sadder, the whole party had to withdraw to a less popular entertainment.

The laws of nature, and the principles of acoustics, were alike attempted to be reversed at times by order of the Bench. One amiable Queen's counsel was heard to volunteer a promise to the musical young lady he was "introducing" to the service, that Mr. Blank, “our capital bass singer," should perform that morning the soprano air in the Messiah, "I know that my Redeemer liveth;" and, happily for the choir-master, the worthy Bencher was under the impression that his behest had been regarded, when "Where shall wisdom be found" (Boyce), was nevertheless performed. On another occasion, it is said, a great advocate for the "sublime choral service," who, however, disliked the vibrating roar of the heavy pedal pipes,1 desired that next Sunday all the bass notes should be omitted, as his wife was coming, and her nerves were delicate. On the occasion of the late Duke of Wellington honouring the church with his attendance, the exhilarating and brilliant chant of Mornington in E was hastily called for, to which, accordingly, the penitential psalms of the day were duly sung; and at the conclusion of the sermon, when the Duke, with the Marquis of Anglesea, was slowly wending his way out of the church, the brilliant idea struck a well-known, and rather officious member of one of the honourable societies, that it would be a fitting compliment to have "See the conquering hero comes" played as a voluntary, and he was much chagrined that this graceful, opportune, and very original piece of flattery was not forthwith paid.

Besides the Duke, other important people were attracted to the church. The late Duke of Cambridge came, and loudly aided, and indeed occasionally led, the solo singers in their airs, and audibly applauded, and expressed to the flattered magnates who respectfully surrounded him, his entire approval of various parts of the prayers and praises to the Almighty. In fact, many of the fashionable world condescended to "assist" at the services. We

These pipes were certainly absurdly disproportioned to the building and instrument.

were lately reminded of this brilliant company of miserable sinners, by the remark of an omnibus-driver on Mr. Spurgeon's congregation, of which he formed one. He boasted, saying, that "All the haristocracy goes to our tabernacle. Vy, last Sunday, I see, close along o' me, the Duchess of St. Albings, and on her near side Baron Bramwell."

For the season the Temple Church, no doubt, often contained a very brilliant congregation. But soon the great attraction wore off-the preaching was dull, and the music mere monotonous repetition; and in the afternoon, at least, many of the middle and lower classes gained access to the church; barristers, for the most part, not being wont to put in a second appearance at church, but rather moving clubwards or westwards, with visiting cards in their pockets. This alteration in the constituent part of the congregation, mainly recruited from the shops, offices, and counting-houses in the neighbourhood, has led many an afternoon preacher, who used to be appointed to fill the pulpit by the Benchers in rotation, into an erroneous style of sermon. Thinking they were addressing a congregation drawn from a learned profession, they were wont to endeavour to adapt their discourses to the supposed intellects of their hearers. Quotations in Latin and Greek were lavished, metaphor was indulged in, metaphysics were broached, theological and philosophical essays of a recondite and controversal description were freely delivered, not without creating vehement suspicion among the visiters of horrible heterodoxy. One Sunday's sermon produced a great sensation in the Temple. It happened that a reverend divine, either suddenly called on to preach, or having inadvertently selected the wrong discourse, delivered himself of one of a missionary character, originally composed for and addressed to a mixed congregation of Hindoos and their white brethren. Having disposed of so much of the sermon as applied to the latter, he proceeded to read a few appropriate phrases to their coloured fellow-sinners, and unfortunately turning, as it seemed, to the occupants of the seats on his "near side," who consisted of a few yellow-visaged and parchmentskinned Benchers, he thus proceeded:-" And now a few words

VOL. VIII. NO. XVI.

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to you, my brethren, of different complexion to the rest of the congregation, and whose knowledge of the principles of our religion is necessarily less perfect than that of others who have had the privilege of being early educated to the truths of Christianity," &c. This pointed and startling appeal gave, it is believed, no manner of satisfaction to those he addressed, and since that time we have rarely heard of a missionary preaching in the Temple. For the most part, however, the "selected" preachers1 (sometimes recruited from rustic parts) were, if not of the edifying description, not uncomplimentary to the rulers and governors among the congregation of the people; and as chancellors, exchancellors, and expectant chancellors, patrons of much preferment, were assumed to be, as indeed they occasionally were, among the audience, it would not be uncharitable to suggest, that the preacher exerted all his oratorical powers to effect the double advantage of securing a living for himself, while, peradventure, he might save the soul of a lawyer. It is recorded that one canny curate frae the North Countrie (who had a near relationan attorney-in one of the assize towns on the Northern Cir-cuit, and who might thus have been introduced to the notice of a disinterested Bencher), took for his text a long passage out of the Second Book of Chronicles, where the description of Solomon's Temple is given-"And he garnished the house with precious stones for beauty: and the gold was gold of Parvaim. He overlaid also the house, the beams, the posts, and the walls thereof with gold, and graved cherubims on the walls. And the weight of the brass in the Temple could not be found out." This afforded an excellent opportunity for drawing parallels between the Temple of Jerusalem and the Temple of London-between the wisdom of Solomon and that of the Benchers; on the whole, a preference was given rather in favour of the latter and their building. "The architecture of the Jews, if measured by cubits, was, it is true, more extensive, but somewhat barbarous; and the wit of Solomon not always so delicate as that of the present day. Was it not, too, a remarkable circumstance, that both Temples 1 This system is now done away with, and one afternoon lecturer is appointed.