18 MAY 1867, Page 21

Whose Are the Fathers? By John Harrison. (Longman.)—They may be

Mr. Harrison's, for all we care. But if Mr. Harrison wished us to wade through his 720 pages, he should have written his introduction in a more inviting style and a more tolerant spirit. It is simply grotesque to preface a huge octavo by saying that if the Church of England is to make a trio with the Romish and Greek Churches, the sooner she adopts the antics, attitudes, apparel, and apostacy of the Churches of Rome and of Greece the better. But so far as we have followed Mr. Harrison, we find him fulfilling the promise of this prefa- tory sentence. Throughout his book he talks of " these Tractarians " and " these Anglicans," with a touch of scorn, which in him is most becoming. To the question why the Tractarians of the present day do

n ot go over to Rome, he answers that they can do the work of Rome more respectably and with better pay where they are. We grant that sarcasm enlivens controversy, but the coarse innuendoes of Mr. Harrison do not hold out any hope of our being cheered on our way through his Catena Patrwn.