15 JULY 1837, Page 17

Tales of the Martyrs is a Protestant Martyrology for the

nursery, written in the style of a novel, and in an unchristian spirit of sectarian intolerance. Professing (honestly choogli, per haps) to be an introduction to the study of Church history, it is in reality an attempt to kindle uncharitable feelings in the mind of the young reader towards the Roman Catholics ; for hatred and horror of the Church of Rome, not the impious folly and cruelty of religious persecution of every kind, is the moral inculcated. In proof of this, we need only mention, that a tale of the murder of a Protestant clergyman in Ireland is introduced, and headed " Martyrdom in the Nineteenth Century ; " and the author, coin- mentin g upon it, says—" The same spirit which actuated the Church of Rome at different periods, dwells in her now." (The Italics are not ours.) Such irrationality can only be acceptable to the bigots of Exeter Hall: it is painful to see their ravings echoed by a conscientious and amiable writer—young, and apparently. a female. The Romanists, in their religious novels, show more skill.