PRESENTED TO THE LIBRARY
BY
.Presby ter ian.. College *.
•IG>1
-.5
3?. * oa.\m
M-QILL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
ACC. NO. 292 102 334
;
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svi/z/Zz'
/^Les ce/e^U
THE
INVESTIGATOR;
OR,
JULY AND OCTOBER, 1822 .
Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever
things are of good report.
EDITED BY
THE REV. WILLIAM BENGO’ COLLYER, D.D.
LL.D. F.A.S.
THE REV. THOMAS RAFFLES, LL.D.
(of LIVERPOOL,)
AND
JAMES BALDWIN BROWN, ESQ. LL.D.
LONDON:
Printed at the Caxton Press, by Henry Fisher .
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS AND GEORGE UNDERWOOD, 32 , FLEET-STREET ;
OGLE, DUNCAN, AND CO., AND SHERWOOD AND CO., PATERNOS¬
TER-ROW; BLACK, KINGSBURY, PARBURY, AND ALLEN, LEADEN-
HALL-STREET ; F. WESTLEY, STATIONERS' COURT ; B. I. HOLDSWORTH,
st. Paul's church-yard; waugh and innes, Edinburgh; wood,
MARLBOROUGH-STREET, DUBLIN ; AND MANNING, CHAPEL-LANE,
BELFAST.
✓
1822.
*
■
. .
,
PREFACE.
- + -
The Editors cannot present another Volume of their
Work to the Public, without returning their thanks for
increased support, and respectfully soliciting its extension.
In the present day their object is peculiarly important, and
will, they flatter themselves, commend itself to the cordial
support of every friend to the connection which ought to
be maintained betw een sound Literature and pure Religion.
The Fac-similes of Autographs of eminent men, introduced
within the last year into this work—the Portrait presented
to their readers with the present number—and the extension
of their American correspondence, will, they trust, prove
the sincerity of their professions, that no efforts wTll be
wanting on their parts to render their Journal worthy of
the public support, which they earnestly solicit.
CONTENTS TO NUMBER IX.
BIOGRAPHY. page
Memoir of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton, formerly of
Boston, N. E. - 1
ESSAYS, &c.
Translation of the Cinghalese Book, called Rajewaliye,
(Rajavali) a History of Ceylon, compiled from the
Historiographic Records of the Kingdom. Part III.
Communicated by Sir Alexander Johnstone, Knt.
late Chief Justice of that Island -
Illustrations of various Passages of Scripture, selected from
different Authors -------
Letter from the Rev. George Cornelius Gorham, in
Vindication of Dean Milner, formerly President of
Queen’s College, Cambridge.
On the different Methods in which the Talents and Opportu¬
nities of all Christians ought to be employed -
On the Character of Machiavel -
Thoughts on English Poetry .
ORIGINAL LETTERS FROM EMINENT PERSONS.
William Penn to Ralph Fretwell -
Five Letters from the Rev. John Berridge to the Rev.
Mr. Woodgate, with a short Notice of the Writer
The Rev. John Wesley to Mr. Gillespie “
REVIEW.
Drew, on the Being, Attributes, and Providence of God -
Augustus; or, the Ambitious Student -
21
31
33
44
55
61
72
73
79
80
102
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Sermons, by the late Rev. J. P. Hewlett, M.A. - - 112
A plain Discourse on Confirmation, by the same - - ib.
Lorenzo; or the Tale of Redemption - - - - 118
Education for the Bar—Memoirs and Remains of W. F.
Durant - - - - _ . _ -123
American literature and Intelligence
POETRY.
The Prophecy of Tagus; from the Spanish of Luis de Leon,
by J. H. Wiffen, Esq. -
To the Nightingale, written at College -
Extract from an unpublished Drama _
176
179
ib.
Philosophical and Literary Intelligence
List of New Publications -
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence -
Obituary
James Perry, Esq. -
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence -
Summary of Missionary Proceedings
Political Retrospect -
- 182
- 191
- 202
- 211
- ib.
- 213
- 22.5
- 233
Errata. Page 197, line 20, for “prototype,” read “model ”
Page 142, line 41, for “ it,” read “ them.”
CONTENTS TO NUMBER X.
BIOGRAPHY. page
Memoir of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton, formerly of
Boston, N. E. - - - - - -' - 239
ESSAYS, &c.
An Essay on the Agriculture of the Israelites - 259
Address on the Institution of the Agricultural Society of
Sumatra. By the President, the Hon. Sir T. Stamford
Raffles, Lieut.-Gov. &c. - 272
Substance of a Report on the Condition of the Native Popu¬
lation of Bencoolen, and its immediate subordinates
on the West Coast of Sumatra. Communicated by
the Hon. Sir T. S. Raffles - 276
On Testamentary Bequests ------ 304
Monumental Inscriptions to the Memory of Great and Good
Men,—II. III.—Archbishop Parker,— Dr. John
Owen, with translations - 312
REVIEW.
Licentious Productions in High Life
Works of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams.
Don Juan, Cantos II.—V.
Sardanapalus, and The Two Foscari, Tragedies,
and Cain, a Mystery. By Lord Byron.
Uriel, a Poetical Epistle to Lord Byron.
Remonstrance, addressed to Mr. Murray, on
the publication of Cain, a Mystery.
Queen Mab. By Percy Byssiif. Shelley
315
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Lectures on the Reciprocal Obligations of Life. By the
Rev. J. Mprison. - " 372
Account of the Steam Engine. By C. F. Partington - 380
American Literature and Intelligence
383
POETRY.
The Hudson River -
Philosophical and Literary Intelligence - - - 425
List of New Publications - 434
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence - - - - 441
Obituary - - - - - - ■ - -451
Benjamin Hawes, Esq. - - - - - ib.
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence - 453
Summary of Missionary Proceedings - - - - 472
Political Retrospect -.- 480
THE INVESTIGATOR.
JULY , 1822 .
■ ■*“ •-
Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton, formerly of
Rost on, in New England.
\Ve have long waited for an opportunity of commencing
with a suitable article, the Bibliographical department of
our Work, many valuable materials for which have been in
our hands since the commencement of our undertaking,
though they have hitherto given place to original com¬
munications of more immediate interest.
We flatter ourselves, however, that the following reprint
of a memoir of a faithful labourer in the vineyard of the
Lord, who has long since entered upon his rest, will not
be unacceptable to our readers, though presented to them
in the quaint, and now antiquated garb in which it first
made its appearance, more than an hundred and fifty years
ago. The book is extremely scarce; we, ourselves, having
been indebted for a copy of it, to the kindness of a valu¬
able correspondent, deeply read in the literature of those
interesting, but much neglected times. The title of the
pamphlet is as follows :—
Abel being Dead yet Speaketh; or, the Life and Death of that
deservedly Famous Man of God, Mr. John Cotton, late
Teacher of theChurch of Christ,at Boston,in New-England.
By John Norton, Teacher of the same Church. Heb. 13.
/. “ Remember them which have the rule over you, who have
spoken unto you the word of God; whose faith follow, con¬
sidering the end of their conversation.” London, Printed by
Tho. Newcomb for Lodowick Lloyd, and are to be sold at
his Shop next the Castle-Tavern in Cornhill. 1658.
It is the priviledg of the blessed who lived in heaven,
whilst they lived on earth, that they may live on earth]
whilst they live in heaven. And ’tis a part of the portion
of the saints, that (together with the benefit of the living)
they may enjoy both the life and death of those, who both
lived and dyed in the faith. Life and Death are yours. By
faith Abel being dead many thousand years since, yet
speaketh,* and will speak whil’st time shall be no more.
* 1 Cor. 3. 22. Hebf. 11. 4.
VOL. v.— NO. 9.
£
2
Memoirs of the Lif e oj the Lev. John Cotton.
That the living speak, is no wonder: but that the dead speak,
is more then miraculous. This, though it be enough to
draw forth attention from the sons of men; who is not af¬
fected with miracles? yet being influenced with a Divine and
special benediction; for the memorial of the just is blessed :
To suppress an instrument of so much good with silence, were
not only unthankfulness to the dead, but an injury to the
generation present, and to many an one that is to come. To
preserve the memory of the blessed with the spices and sweet
odors of their excellencies and weldoing, recorded to pos¬
terity, is a super- JEgyptian embalming, and a service which
many reasons perswade unto. This we do as men ; glad to
rescue and solicitous to preserve any excellency in the sons
of mortality, that may outlive death; desire of continuance
in being, is in itself inseparable from being. Dumb pic¬
tures of deserving men answer not ingenuous minds capable
to retain the memorial of vertue, the real effigies of their
spirits. Besides unhappy emulation, happily expiring with
the life of the emulated: We greedily own and enjoy such
worthies, when they are not, whom envy in a great degree
bereaved us of, whilst they were. This we do as friends;
hence the Smyrnean poet of old, he is a true friend, who
continueth the memory of his deceased friend.* And this
is done, not only in love to them, but also in love to our¬
selves, thereby easing in part our loss, and saving so much
of our own lives. He may the better be heard, who reckoned
his friend the one half of himself: when Moses intimates a
friend to be as our own soul; whilst Calvin lives, Beza’s life
is sweet; when Calvin dyes, death is the more acceptable
unto Beza. + This we do as Christians: The deeds of those
worthies was the subject matter of the speech of the saints;
these all obtained a good report.^ A considerable part of
the scripture is a divine testimony of what the faithful have
done and suffered, recorded unto succeeding generations,
not only as a memorial of them, but as so many practical
demonstrations of the faithfulness of God : as so many full
and glorious triumphs over the world, sin, and Satan, ob¬
tained by persons in like temptations, and subject to like
passions with ourselves. A quickening motive unto such
who have understanding of the times, not to pretermit those
testimonies, the signal presence of God in whom, manifests
*-£7 ret «-
fiiXkoi, beset with examples, as so many objects of better
emulation: If he slacken his pace, his compeers will leave
him behind; and though he quicken it, there are still those
which are before. Notwithstanding Ihemistocles excelleth,
yet the trophies of Miltiades suffer him not to sleep. Cato
that Heluo, that devourer of books, is at Athens. Ability
and opportunity are now met together; unto both which
industry actuated with a desire to know, being joined, be¬
speaks a person of high expectation. The unwearied pains
of ambitious and unquiet wits, are amongst the amazements
of ages. Asia and Egypt can hold the seven wonders; but
the books, works, and motions of ambitious mindes, the
whole world cannot contain. It was an illicit aspiring after
knowledge, which helped to put forth Eve’s hand unto the
forbidden fruit: the less marvel if irregenerate and elevated
wits, have placed their summum bonum in knowledge, in-
defatigably pursuing it as a kind of deity, as a thing numi¬
nous, yea, as a kind of mortal-immortality. Diogenes, De¬
mocritus, and other philosophers, accounting large estates to
be an impediment to their proficiencie in knowledge, dis¬
possessed themselves of rich inheritances, that they might
be the fitter students; preferring an opportunity of study
before a large patrimony. Junius, yet ignorant of Christ,
can want his country, necessaries, and many comforts; but
he must excell. Through desire a man having separated
himself,seeketh and intermedleth with allwisdom,Prov.l8.1.
The elder Plhnus lost his life in venturing too neer to search
the cause of the irruption of the hill Vetruvius. Tis true,
knowledge excelleth other created excellencies, as much
as light excelleth darkness : yet it agreeth with them in this,
that neither can exempt the subject thereof from eternal
misery. Whilst we seek knowledge with a selfish interest,
we serve the decree ; and self being destroyed according to
the decree, we hence become more able to serve the com-
9
Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton.
mand. The treasure which man irregenerate travelleth for,
as intending it for themselves, man regenerate expends for
God.
As he was a lover ot labor, so he was communicative, a
diligent tutor, and full of students committed to his care.
He was a didactical man, both able, and apt to teach. Abi¬
lity to instruct youth, argueth a wise-man. To guide man,
Nazianzen accounted the art of arts.* To be willing to*
teach, argueth a good man; good is communicative. Such
was his academical dexterity, that he could impart (as Sca-
liger speaks) the felicities of wit to his hearers, so accomo¬
dating and insinuating the matter in hand, as his pupils
might both perceive their profiting, and taste the sweetness
of that wherein they profited. Thus by schoole-stratagems,
he won the hearts of his scholars both to himself, and^ to a
desire of learning; they were as Socrates and Alcibiades ,f or
rather as the prophets, and the sons of the prophets: his
pupils were honorers, and lovers of him; he was a tutor,
friend and father unto them.
The manner of his conversion take in his own words (as
neer as can be remembred) thus. During his residence in
the university, God began to work upon him under the
ministery of Mr. Perkins of blessed memory. But the mo¬
tions and stirrings of his heart which then were, he sup¬
pressed; thinking that if he should trouble himself with
matters of religion, according to the light he had received,
it would be an hindrance to him in his studies, which then
he had addicted himself unto. Therefore he was willing to
silence those suggestions and callings he had from the Spirit
inwardly, and did wittingly defer the prosecution of that
work until afterwards. At length, walking in the field, and
hearing the bell toll for Mr. Perkins who then lay dying, he
was secretly glad in his heart, that he should now be rid of
him who had (as he said) laid siege to and beleaguer’d his
heart. This became a cause of much affliction to him, God
keeping it upon his spirit, with the aggravation of it, and
making it an effectual meanes of convincing and humbling
him in the sight and sense of the natural enmity that is in
mans nature against God. Afterwards, hearing doctor Sibbs,
(then Mr. Sibbs) preaching a sermon about regeneration,
where he first shewed what regeneration was not, when
opening the state of a civil man, he saw his own condition
* T ' 6 X V W rt^viov, 4 lirirrifjiii hriTtifiun' avQpunrov aytiv.
t Mellific. Historic, par. 1. in Historia Alcibiadis.
10
Memoirs of the Life oj the Rev. John Colton.
fully discovered, which through mercy did drive him to a
stand, as plainly seeing himself to have no true grace, all
his false hopes and grounds now failing him: and so he lay
a long time in an uncomfortable despairing way; and of all
things, this was his heaviest burthen, that he had wittingly
withstood the meanes and offers of grace and mercy which
he found had been tendred to him 5 till it pleased God to let
in some word of faith into his heart, to cause him to look
unto Christ for healing, which word (if memory faileth not)
was dispensed unto him by doctor Sibbs; which begat in him
a singular and constant love of doctor Sibbs, of whom he
was also answerably beloved.
That which first made him famous in Cambridge, was his
funeral oration for doctor Some, master of Peter-house; so
accurately performed, in respect of invention, elegancy, pu¬
rity of style, ornaments of rhetorick, elocution, and orato-
rious beauty of the whole, as that he was thenceforth looked
at as another Xenophon, or Musa Attica throughout the Uni¬
versity. Some space of time intervening, he was called to
preach at St. Maries, where he preached an University-Ser¬
mon, with high applause of academical wits, so that the
fame of his learning grew greater and greater. Afterwards
being called to preach in the same place, as one oration of
Pericles left the hearer with an appetite of another; so the
memory of his former accurate exercises, filled the colledges,
especially the young students, with a fresh expectation of
such elegancies of learning, that the curious and Corinthian
wits, who prefer the Muses before Moses, who taste Plato
more then Paul, and relish the orator of Athens far above the
preacher of the cross, (like Quintilians numerous auditory,
sufficient to tempt the abilities of the speaker) flock to the
sermon with an Athenian itch after some new thing, as to
the ornaments of rhetorick and abstruser notions of philoso¬
phy. But his spirit now savoring of the cross of Christ
more then of humane literature, and being taught of God to
distinguish between the word of wisdom, and the wisdom of
words; his speech and preaching was not with the enticing
words of mans wisdom, but in the demonstration of the
spirit and of power. The disappointed expectation of the
auditory soon appeared in their countenances; and the dis¬
couragement of their non-acceptance returned him unto his
chamber not without some sadder thoughts of heart. Where
he had not been long alone, but lo, doctor Preston (then
master Preston) knocks at his door, and coming in, acquaints
him with his spiritual condition, and how it had pleased God
11
Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton.
to speak effectually unto his heart by that sermon: after
which, doctor Preston ever highly prized him, and both
fully and strongly closed with him. Which real seal of God
unto his ministry comforted his soul, far above what the
present less-acceptance of the auditory had dejected him,
or their former acceptance encouraged him. This brings to
mind that celebrated story of the conversion of the Heathen
Philosopher at A ice, which God wrought by the means of
an ancient and pious confessor, plainly declaring unto him
the doctrine of faith, after that many Christian Philosophers
had by philosophical disputations laboured in vain. Christ
evidently held forth, is divine eloquence, the eloquence of
eloquence. God will not have it said of Christ, as Alexander
said of Achilles, that he was beholden to the pen of him that
published his acts. Tis Christ that is preached, not the
tongue of the preacher, to whom is due all praise. Such
instances conclude, that Paul is more learned then Plato.
We must distinguish between ineptness of speech, carnal
rhetorick, and eloquent gospel-simplicity; between igno¬
rance, ostentation, and learning. The preacher sought to find
out acceptable words, and words of truth.
His Concio ad Clerum, when he proceeded bachelor of di¬
vinity (after he had been at Boston about half a year) was
very much admired and commended. His text was Mat. 5 . 13 .
Vos estis sal terra: quod si sal infatuatus fuerit, quo salietur?
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savour,
wherewith shall it be salted? In handling of which, both the
weight of the matter, elegancie of phrase, rhetorical streins,
grave, sweet, and spiritual pronuntiation, rendred him yet
more famous. The like did his answering of the Divinity-
Act in the schools, having a very acute opponent.Mr. William
Chappell, to dispute with him. So that in Cambridge the
name of Mr. Cotton was much set by.
Unto this earthen vessel thus filled with heavenly treasure,
Boston in Lincolnshire made their address, saying. Come and
help us! And in that candlestick the Father of spirits placeth
this burning and shining light. To whom he removed from
Cambridge about the 28 th year of his age. At the first he
met with some obstructions from the diocesan, then bishop
Barloe, who told him that he was a young man, and unfit to
be set over such a divided people. Mr. Cotton being inge¬
nuous, and undervaluing himself, thought so too, and pur¬
posed to return to the college again: but some of his Boston
friends understanding that one Simon Biby was to be spoken
with, who was neer to the bishop, they presently charmed
12 Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton.
him and so the business proceeded without further trouble,
and Mr. Cotton was admitted into the place after their man¬
ner in those days. . , . k
Two things are here not unworthy of observation, (which
he would sometimes speak of to his friends:) First, that in
the beginning of his ministery, he was exercised with some
inward°troubles which much dejected him. No sooner had
Christ received his mission into his publick ministery, but
he is led into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil.
Wise Heman suffered the horrors of God, and was laid in
the lowest pit. The doctor of the Gentiles stood in need of
being buffeted by Satan. The tempter is in Christs hand,
and an instrumental winnower of the disciples. His fiery
darts throuoh the influence of him who succors those that
are tempted, cleanse as well as smart; and this cleansing
efficacie remains when the smart is over. From the experi¬
ence of this archer, are the choise shepherds in Israel. Good
spirits are much better’d by their conflicts with the worst of
spirits: spiritual preachers are often trained up in the school
of temptation: so true is that theological maxim; meditation,
prayer, and temptation make a divine* This dispensation of
the all-wise God he afterwards found not only to be benefi¬
cial to him, in preparing his heart for his work, but also that
it became an effectual means of his more peaceable and com¬
fortable settlement in that place, where the people were
divided amongst themselves, by reason of a potent man in
the town, who adhered to another Cambridge- man, whom he
desired to bring in. But when they saw Mr. Cotton wholly
taken up with his own exercises of spirit, they were free from
all suspition of his being pragmatical, or addicted to siding
with this or that party, and so began to close more fully
with him. And secondly. Whereas there was an Arminian
party in that town, some of whom were witty, and troubled
others with disputes about those points, by God’s blessing
upon his labours in holding forth positively such truths as
undermined the foundations of Arminianism, those disputes
ceased, and in time Arminianism was no more pleaded for.
So God disposeth of the hearts of hearers, as that generally
they are all open and loving to their preachers in their first
times: trials are often reserved until afterwards. Epipha-
nius calleth the first year of Christ’s ministery, the acceptable
year. The disciples in their first mission want nothing, and
return all safe; but after his death they met with other en-
♦ Tria faciunt tlieologum, raeditatio, oratio, tentatio.
Memoirs oj the Life of the Rev. John Cotton.
tertainment, and come short home. Young Peter girdeth
himself and walks whither he will; but Old Peter is girded
by another, and carried whither he Yvould not.
For three or four years he lived and preached among
them without opposition; they accounted themselves happ?
(as well they might) in the enjoyment of him, both the town
and country thereabout being much bettered and reformed
by his labours. After, not being able to bear the ceremonies
imposed, his non-conformity occasioned his trouble in the
court ol Lincoln , from whence he was advised to appeal to
a higher court: And imploying Mr. Leveret (who afterwards
vvas one of the ruling-elders of the church of Boston in New-
Lngland) to deal in that business, and he being a plain man
as Jacob was, yet piously subtile to get such a spiritual
blessing, so far insinuated himself into one of the proctors
of that high-court, that Mr. Cotton was treated by them as
it he were a conformable man, and so was restored unto Bos-
ton (Likewise by the same meanes it was, that a gentleman
of Boston, called Mr. Bennet, used occasionally afterwards
to bring him in again:) After this time he was blessed with
a successful ministry, unto the end of twenty years. In
which space he on the Lorcl’s-day, in the afternoons, went
over the whole body of divinity in a cathechistical way thrice
and gave the heads of his discourse, to those that were
young schollais, and others in the town, to answer his
questions in publick in that great congregation; and after
their answers he opened those heads of divinity, and finally
applyed & 11 to the edification of his people, and to such
strangers as came to hear him. In the mornino- on the
Lord’s-day he preached over the first six chapters of the
gospel of John; the whole book of Ecclesiastes, the prophesie
of Zechariah, and many other scriptures, and when the
Lord’s-supper was administred (which was usually every
moneth,) he preached upon 1 Cor. 11 . and 2 Chron. 30 . per
and some other scriptures concerning that subject
On his lecture days, he preached thorough the whole first
and second Epistles of John, the whole book of So/omon’s
oong, the parables of our Saviour set forth in Matthew's Gos¬
pel to the end of chapter 16 . comparing them with Mark
and Luke: He took much pains in private, and read to
sundry young scholars, that were in his House, and some
that come out of Germany, and had his house full of audi¬
tors. Afterwards, seeing some inconvenience in the peo*
pies flocking to hi, house, besides his ordinary lecture on
the 5 day of the week, he preached thrice more in publick
-14
Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton.
/
on the week days. On the fourth and fifth days early in
the morning, and on the last day at three of the clock in the
afternoon. Only these three last lectures were performed
by him but some few years before he had another famous
colleague. He was frequent in duties of humiliation, and
thanksgiving. Sometimes five or six hours in prayer, and
opening of the word, so undefatigable in the Lord’s work,
so willing to spend and to be spent. He answered many
letters that were sent far and near, wherein were handled
many difficult cases of conscience, and many doubts cleered
to great satisfaction.
He was a man exceedingly loved and admired of the best,
and reverenced of the worst of his hearers. He was in great
favour with doctor Williams, the then bishop of Lincoln,
who much esteemed him for his learning, and (according to
report) when he was lord keeper of the great seal, went to
king Janies, and speaking of Mr. Cotton's great learning and
worth, the king was willing, notwithstanding his non-con¬
formity, to give way that he should have his liberty without
interruption in his ministry, which was the more notable
considering how that kings spirit was carried out against
such men. Also, the Earl of Dorcester being at Old-Boston,
and hearing Mr. Cotton preaching concerning (if memory
fail not) civil-government, he was so affected with the wis¬
dom of his words and spirit, that he did ever after highly
account of him, and put himself forth what he could in the
time of Mr. Cotton's troubles to deliver him out of them, that
his Boston might enjoy him as formerly; but he found spi¬
ritual wickednesses in high places too strongly opposite to
his desires.
About this time he married his second wife, Mris. Sarah
Story, then a widow. He was blessed above many in his
marriages, both his wives being pious matrons, grave, sober,
faithful, like Euodias and Syntyche, fellow-laborers with him
in the gospel: by the first he had no children; the last God
made a fruitful vine unto him. His first-born she brought
forth far off upon the sea: he that left Europe childless,
arived a joyfull father in America. God who promiseth to
be with his servants when they passe through the waters,
having caused him to embrace a son by the way; in memo¬
rial whereof he called his name Seaborn, to keep alive (said
he) in mee, and to teach him if he live, a remembrance of
sea-mercies, from the hand of a gracious God. He is yet
living, and now entred into the work of the ministry. A son
of many prayers, and of great expectation.
15
Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton.
The time being now come, wherein God purposed to su¬
peradd unto what had formerly been, a practical and more
notable testimony against the intermixing of humane inven¬
tions with institutions divine, and to the gospel church-wor¬
ship and pohtie in their purity, he in his All-wise providence
transplants many of his faithfull servants into this vast wil-
einess, as a place in respect of it’s remoteness so much the
ntter for the fuller inquiry after, and free exercise of all his
holy ordinances, and together therewith for the holding forth
a pregnant demonstration of the consistency of civil-otvern-
ment with a congregational-way. God giveth Moses the
pattern of the tabernacle in the wilderness. Ezekiel seeth
the formes of the house in exile. John receiveth his reve¬
lation in Patmos. Jotham upon mount Gerizim is bold to
utter his apologue: and David can more safely expostulate
with Saul, when he is gotten to the top of the hill a far off,
a great space between them. The Parthians having learned’
the art of shooting backwards,* made their retreat more
terrible then their onset to their adversaries. The event
soon shewed the wisdom of God herein, the people in a short
time clearly understanding that truth in the practice, which
by dispute they could not in a long time attain unto. In
order hereunto, the God of the spirits of all flesh, stirreth up
many of his faithful ones to leave that pleasant land, their
estates, their kindred, their fathers houses, and sail over the
Atlantic-Ocean unto this vast Jeshimon. Amongst w'hom
this choice-servant of God, with may others graciously fitted
for such a work, are sent over to set up the worship of Christ
in this desart. A service, of which the Apologetical bre¬
thren (may we be permitted to transcribe their apprehension
thereof) speak thus. “ Last of all we had the recent and
" later example of the ways and practices (and those im-
“ proved to a better edition, and greater refinement bv all
" the forementioned helpes) of those multitudes of godly
“ men of our own nation, almost to the number of another
“ nation, and among them some as holy and judicious di-
“ vines as this kingdom hath bred; whose sincerity in their
“ way hath been testified before all the world, and will be
‘‘ t0 all generations to come, by the greatest undertaken-
(but that of our father Abraham out of his own
“ country, and his seed after him) a transplanting
“ themselves many thousand miles distance, and that
by Sea, into a wilderness, meerly to worship God
* Terga conversi metuenda Parthi. Seueca.
16
Memoirs of the Life oj the Rev. John Cotton.
“ more purely, whither to allure them there could he no
“ other invitement.”
Exilium causa ipsa jubet mihi dulce videri,
Et desiderium dulce levat patriae.*
Bereaved Exiles ought not to repine,
When as the cause presents an Anodine.
The persons spoken of in this transcript, in the recital
thereof distinguish between the act and the agents. 1 his
testimony whilst they crave leave to present unto the reader
in way of defence for their undertaking, so far as to be of
God; they are ashamed of themselves the agents, as most
unworthy. They here read their duty, what they ought to
be; and are not insensible of the goads of the wise, provok¬
ing them to be according to their duty: in the mean while
confessing and lamenting their too manifest unanswerable
. walking unto their profession, and their brethrens ex¬
pectation.
The cause of his departure was this: The corruption of
the times being such, as would not endure his officiating
any longer in his station without sin; and the envy of his
maligners having procured letters-missive to convent him
before the high-commission, which a debauched inhabitant
of that town (who not long after died of the plague) under¬
took to deliver to him, according as he had already done to
some others: Mr. Cotton having intelligence thereof, and
well knowing that nothing but scorns and imprisonment
were to be expected; conformably to the advice of many able
heads and upright hearts (amongst whom that holy man
Mr. Dod of blessed memory had a singular influence) he kept
himself close for a time in and about London, as Luther
sometimes at Wittenberg, and Far reus afterwards at Anvilla.
Neither w r as that season of his recess unprofitable: but as
Jerom retired to his den at Bethlehem was an oracle unto
many in his time, so addresses during that interim were made
unto him privately by divers persons of worth and piety, who
received from him satisfaction unto their consciences in
cases of greatest concernment. His flight was not like that
of Pliny's mice, that forsake a house foreseeing the ruine of
it; or of mercenaries, who flie from duty in time of danger :
but Providence Divine shutting up the door of service in
England, and on the other hand opening it in Neiv-Engfand,
* Beza Eleg. 2.
17
Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton.
he was guided, both by the word and eye of the Lord. And
as David yielded upon the perswasion of his men, to absent
himself from danger, so he suffered himself to be perswaded
by his friends to withdraw from the lust of his persecutors,
for the preservation of so precious a light in Israel; after the
example of Jacob, Moses, the prophets which Obadiah hid
in the caves. Polycarp, Athanasius, yea and Christ himself;
When they persecute you in one city, fie unto another. Cyprian
implieth, that a tempestive flight is a kinde of confessiori
of our faith; it being an open profession, that our faith is
dearer to us then all that we flie from, for the defence there¬
of. It was not a flight from duty, but from evident, and
regularly evitable danger; not from the evil of persecution,
but from the evil of obstruction unto serviceableness. It was
not a flight from duty, but unto duty; not from the profes¬
sion of the truth, but unto a more opportune place for the
profession of it.
Thus, this infant and small commonwealth being now
capacitated, both in respect of civil and church estate, to
walk with God according to the prescript of his word, it
was the good hand of the Lord unto his servants w ho had
afflicted their souls to seek of him a right way for themselves,
their little ones, and their substance, to send unto them
(amongst many others) this man of understanding, that
might be unto them as eyes in this wilderness. His manner
of entrance unto them was with much blessing. For at his
first coming, he found them not without some troubles,
about setling the matters of the church and common¬
wealth.
When Mr. Cotton (being requested) preaching before the
general court out of Haggai 2. 4. ) et now be strong, O Ze-
rubbabel, saith the Lord, be strong, O Joshua son ot Josedek
the High-Priest, and be strong all ye people of the land, saith
the Lord, and work; for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts:
as Menenius Agrippa sometimes by his oration healed that
then-threatning breach between the fathers and the people
of Rome;* so through the Lord’s working mightily by this
Sermon, all obstructions were presently removed, and the
spirits of all sorts, as one man, were excited unanimously
and vigorously in the w r ork of the Lord from that day. In
order whereunto the court considering; that, that people of
God, all the members of which republick were church-mem¬
bers, were to be governed conformably to the law of God,
* Liv. Hist or, lib. 2. cap. 32,
c
VOL. V.-NO. 9.
18
Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton.
desired Mr. Cotton to draw an abstract of the judicial laws
delivered from God by Moses, so far forth as they were of
moral ( i. e. of perpetual and universal) equity. Which he
did, advising them to persist in their purpose of establish¬
ing a Theocraty (i . e. God’s government) over God’s people.
It was an usual thing henceforth, for the magistrate to con¬
sult with the ministers in hard cases, especially in matters
of the Lord: yet so, as notwithstanding occasional conjunc¬
tion, religious care was had of avoiding confusion of coun¬
sels: Moses and Aaron rejoiced, and kissed one another in
the mount of God. After which time, how useful he was
to England, to N. E. to magistrates, to ministers, to people,
in publick and private, by preaching, counsel, and resolving
difficult questions, all know that knew him, and consequently
saw the grace of God so evidently manifested in him. In the
course of his ministery in Neiv-Boston, by way of exposition,
he went through the Old-Testament unto Isa. 30. the whole
New-Testament once through, and the second time unto the
middle of Ileb. 11. Upon Lord’s days and lecture-days, he
preached through the Acts of the Apostles, Haggai, Zechary,
Ezra, the Revelation, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, the second and
third epistles of John, the epistle of Titus, both the epistles
of Timothy, the epistle to the Romans, with other scriptures:
the presence of the Lord being mighty with him, and crown¬
ing his labours to the conversion of many souls, and the
edification of thousands. Besides these labours foremen-
tioned, he hath many pieces in print, which being well
known, need the less to be here enumerated.
His youth was unstained, whence he was so much the
more capable of being an excellent instrument in the church
in his after-age. Many do that evil whilst they are young,
which makes them unable (at least comparatively) to do so
much good when they are old. He must have a good report
of them that are without,* lest he fall into the reproach and
snare of the devil. Satan catcheth at the scandals of such
who are in the ministery, as fittest materials to make snares
unto the prejudice both of the gospel, and of souls. Augus¬
tus, to whom God in this respect shewed peculiar mercy,
upon his (ordinarily) uparallel’d repentance, telleth us, A
good life is requisite in respect of ourselves, but a good
name is requisite in respect of others.f The gratefulnese of
the most excellent liquor unto the stomach, depends in part
upon the quality of the vessel. We may be good men, if we
* 1 Timothy 3. 7.
f Aug. de bono viduitat. c. 22 .
19
Memoirs of the hife of the Rev. John Cotton.
have a good conscience; but we are not like to do much
good, if we have not a good name. Our religion, our report,
and our eye, must not be plaid withal. It is a smart admo¬
nition mentioned by Stimulus in his classical epistles, when
upon such an one reading out of Tally's Offices, who himself
was not of an unblemished life, his hearer objects, Docet
offcium, non facit offcium; he teacheth duty, but he doth not
do his duty. A divine freedom did open Samuel's mouth to
testifie against the sins of the people, whilst they were com¬
pelled to testifie unto the innocencie of Samuel. To be long
at sea, and not meet with one storm, is unusual: to livelong,
and to lead a godly life all-along without offence, is not a
little wonder, and a special favor both to ourselves and
others.* He was a general scholar, studious to know all
things, the want whereof might in one of his profession be
denominated ignorance; and piously ignorant of those things,
the nescience whereof made him more learned.^ One man
is not born to all things. No calling (besides divine requi¬
sites) calleth for more abilities, or a larger measure of humane
knowledge then the ministery; deservedly therefore is his
praise great in all the churches, that he not only gave him¬
self thereunto, but exceeded many that had done virtuously
therein. The greater part of the Encuclopaideia he excelled
in. Those arts which the university requireth such a profi¬
ciency from her graduates in, he both digested and refined
by his more accurate knowledge of them. He was a good
Hebrician, in Greek a critick, and could with great facility
both speak and write Latine in a pure and elegant Ciceronian
stile, a good historian, no stranger to the fathers, councils,
or school-men: abundantly exercised in commentators of
all sorts. His library was great, his reading and learning
answerable, himself a living and better library. Though he
was a constant student, yet he had not all his learning out of
his books. He was a man of much communion with God, and
acquaintance with his own heart, observing the daily pas¬
sages of his life. He had a deep sight into the mystery of
God’s grace, and man’s corruption, and large apprehensions
of these things. It was wont to be said, Bonus textuarius
est bonus Theologus: A good text-man is a good divine; if
you look upon him in that notion, he was an expositor (with¬
out offence be it spoken) not inferior to any of this more
* Miraculi instar vita' iter, si longum, sine oflensione percurrere.
Marian. 1. 1. de morte et immortal, cap. t>.
f Non necessaria disoendo, necessaria ignoramus. Sen.
20
Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton.
sublimated age; that great motto so much wondred at, Ijdbore
et Constantia, labor and constancy, containing nothing
more then the duty which God hath laid upon every man.
Learning (saith Hierome)* is not to be purchased with silver,
it is the companion of sweat and painfulness; of abstemious¬
ness, not of fulness; of continency, not of wantonness : the
earth continueth barren or worse, except industry be its
midwife. The hen, which brings not forth without unces-
sant sitting night and day,i* is an apt embleme of students.
The wiser naturalists who have been serious in improveing,
and Christians that have been conscientious to improve or
redeem their time, for the more effectual obtaining of their
end, have distributed the day into certain proportions, set¬
ting each apart to his predesigned use: Hence the ancient
Grecians appointed the first six hours unto their respect¬
ive contemplative functions, the rest (say they) call upon
us to take care of our health and life.
Sex horse tantbm rebus tribuuntur agendis;
Vivere post illas litera Z monet.
Melancthon sometime commended this distribution of the
day unto a great man; that the four and twenty hours being
divided into three parts, eight be spent in study, eight in
our bed, the rest as our bodily welfare calls upon us : others
give ten hours in the day unto our studies, if strength per¬
mits, approving of more according to this division. His
diligence was in the third degree most intense, and most
exact.J His measure was a glasse of four hours, three of
which he would sometime say, was a schollar’s day, and after
that rate he spent not a few of his days; he was always an
early riser, and in his latter years not eating any supper; he
made up the avocations of that day by retiring that time,
and the rest of the evening to his study. With Solon, as he
grew old, so was he continually a learner: and with Quinti¬
lian he terminated his life and his reading both together.
The constant work of his ministry was great, if not too great
for one man. A candle may spend too fast: and the improve¬
ment of the light whilst it is yet burning admits of degrees;
besides his preaching in season and out of season, he was
daily pressed, if not oppressed, with the care and service of
* Hierom. Apolog. contra Ruffinum.
f Nocte dieque incubando.
I Summus diligentia? gradus est vehementissima, et exactissima
dihgentia.
21
Cing/mlese History of Ceylon.
the churches; attendance to personal cases, and manifold
other imployments inevitably put upon him, both from
abroad and at home, whence the time remaining (which is
not a little to be lamented) was insufficient to attend doc¬
trinal, and especial polemical scripts, such as the cause of
the truth, occurents of providence, and his peculiar engage¬
ments called for. He was free to give his judgment when
desired, but declined arbitration and umpirage in civil dif¬
ferences between man and man, as heterogeneus both to his
office and spirit. His course, like that of celestical bodies,
was always in motion, but still careful to keep within his
proper sphere. Calvin was not more sollicitous not to be
found idle ; no man more vigilant to contain himself within
his measure. It was religion to him, both to run, and to run
lawfully within the white lines and boundaries of his agonis-
tical race. He was doing, and so doing.
[To be continued .]
Translation of the Chinghalese Book called Rajeicaliye ( Raja -
vali). A History of Ceylon, compiled from the Historio¬
graphic Records of the Kingdom .
(Communicated by Sir Alexander Johnston, Knt. late Chief Justice of that Island.)
[PART III.
From the first Extermination of the Religion of the Malabars
in Ceylon, to the fifth Irruption of that people upon the
Island.]
His (Gemunu Rajah’s) younger brother, Tissa Cumara,
was the next that succeeded to the throne; he assumed the
name of Sedaetissa Raja. He caused to be built the tem¬
ple called Digawna Sree Wihawra, the dawgob called
Moolkino; Gala Wehere, and caused to be made eighteen
lakes, and after a reign of thirty-seven years, went to Tosit-
ta Pura, which signifies the city of God, or Gods. His son,
called Tulna Rajah, was the next that mounted the throne;
he only reigned one year and eight months. While a daw-
gob was erecting by his orders, he was murdered by Siminy
Tissa, wdio became king, and reigned thirty-nine years.
After his death, Walagamba Rajah succeeded to the throne ;
when he had reigned five months, seven Malabar chiefs, with
seven thousand men from Soly Rata, made a descent on
22
Cinghalese History of Ceylon.
Ceylon, drove Walagamba from the throne, and one of the
Malabars, taking the king’s wife, went away with her.
Another of them seized the cup or patra of Buddha, and
likewise went away. The other five Malabar chiefs remain¬
ed, and succeeding one another in the government, reigned
as kings for the space of thirty years. About the expiration
of which time, the king Walagamba, who had been living
amongst the rocks in the wilderness, returned from his soli¬
tude, raised an army, and attacked the city of Anuradha
Pura, destroyed the Malabars, again ascended the throne,
and caused the houses of stone, or caves of the rock, which
he had seen in the wilderness, to be made more commodious,
and reigned as king for twelve years.
The next king was Maha Deliga Tissa Rajah ; he enter¬
tained five hundred Raha toonancies, caused the books con¬
cerning the religion of Buddha to be collected and deposited
in one place, and reigned as king for the space of fifty
years.
The next king was the son of the late king Walagamba
Rajah, his name Choranga; he rased to the ground eighteen
temples. And now hear the story of the king that reigned
in Damba, and in the city called Sawgal Nuwara, which king
was wicked, and coveted the wife of a Brahman, and in order
to accomplish his end, and obtain his desires, put the Brah¬
man to death, though innocent of any fault. He told his
servants to accuse the Brahman of some fault, whether guilty
or not, and thereupon certain of the people, while the Brah¬
man was coming from market, drove out a cow belonging
to the king’s palace, and left it on the road, which the
Brahman was to pass, and then hid themselves, and lay in
wait. The Brahman came on, and the cow walked on in
front of him, and thereupon the layers in wait rushed out and
seized the Brahman, and accused him of having stolen the
cow belonging to the king’s palace; and taking him and the
cow together, delivered him to the king, and the king put
him to death. The Brahman’s wife came to hear (Tf the
matter, and that the king wanted to have her ; and there¬
upon the woman exclaimed, “ If I be a chaste woman, let
the king’s reign come to noughtand having scraped ashes
together with her feet, she took three times her two hands
full, and cast the same towards heaven, and three times beat
on the soles of her feet, and going into her house, and shut¬
ting her door, gave herself over to death. God was so much
offended with this that the king had done, that he visited the
whole kingdom with a drought, which lasted for twelve years.
23
Cinghalese History of Ceylon.
And now it came to pass, in the time of this sacrilegious king,
who destroyed the temples, that God visited Ceylon with a
famine, which, like the famine of the Brahmani in Damba
Dewa, lasted for the space of twelve years. Know also,
that the sera called Saka Warosha took is date from the fate
of the said Brahmani; the people afterward killed the said
king- Choranga, whose reign had lasted twelve years.
Buddha had now been dead for the space of seven hun¬
dred and three years. The next king was the son of the
late king, Maha Deliga Tissa Rajah ; he assumed the name
of Cuda Tissa Rajah, and reigned three years. This king
was poisoned by his queen for the sake of the adigar called
Soorakit, who, after the king’s death, reigned as king for
one year, and then he was likewise poisoned by the minister
called Prohita Bamuna*, who, in like manner, reigned as
king for one year. Prohita Bamuna was also poisoned by
the queen, who afterwards reigned for the space of four
months. She was put to death by the son of her first hus¬
band, Cuda Rajah; he assumed the name of MacalaTissa
Rajah, and after the queen’s death he reigned twenty-two
years. His son, called Batia Rajah, was the next king, and
having gone one day to the temple of Ruwanwella, he
heard the Rahatoonancies preaching in the inside; he then
made a vow not to remove therefrom without obtaining his
desire, and accordingly he sat down, and remained there
without eating any thing. While thus waiting at the daw-
gob, the place where the god Sakra was began to grow
warm, and thereon he looked to see what was the matter,
and accordingly afforded the king an opportunity of enter¬
ing into the dawgob, and having obtained his heart’s desire,
and gratified his curiosity, he made flower gardens, and
with the flowers of the said gardens caused the said daw-
gob to be covered from time to time. And this king, after
a reign of eighteen years, died, and went to heaven.
His younger brother, called Maha Deliga Rajah, was the
next king; he caused to be built the dawgob of Sargiria,
which was called Ahbooloo Dawgob ; he marched from the
place called Calando to the said place upon white cloth ; he
relinquished the taxes due to the crown throughout the whole
island—planted on each side of the city of Anuradha Pura
flower gardens, four leagues in length ; and the flowers that
grew in the said gardens were Sihinidha, Balidha, Dunukeya,
Wetakey, Dasamau(that is jessamine), Sapu, Naic, and Pa-
nau; and many a time did he offer the flowers of the said
* Purohita Brabtnaua, the king's family priest.
24 (Singhalese Jliston / of Ceylon .
gardens to the davvgoh of Ruwamvella. He caused ninety-
nine thoneys to be built round the shore of Ceylon upon the
sea, on which he caused cloths to be displayed in various
forms; and he stationed twenty-four thousand priests, whom
he supplied each with a dainty breakfast, and also a good
evening meal, and caused lights of cow’s butter to be burn¬
ed in the thoneys at night: and thus abounding in good
works, the said king reigned for the space of twenty years.
His son, who was called Adagemunu Rajah, was the next
king. He caused to be proclaimed, by beat of tom-tom,
throughout the island, that nothing having life should be
killed, and was gentle in giving his orders, and prevented the
commission of sin, and thereby laid up a store of good works,
and having reigned the space of nine years, died, and went
to heaven. His son, who was called Sinnam Rajah, was the
next king, and he reigned three years. In this king’s reign,
the king of the country called Soly Rata, with an army of
Malabars, made a descent on Ceylon, and taking twelve
thousand families captive, took them away to his own
country.
The son of Sinnam Rajah, who was called Rajabau Cu-
mara, was the next king. He was accustomed in the night
time to walk about the city, and as he was taking his walk
one night, he heard a widow woman crying and lamenting
for her children, who had been taken away captive by the
king of Soly Rata; whereupon the king said within himself,
that an evil was in the city, and putting a mark upon the
door, went home to his palace. In the morning the king
called his adigars, and observed to them, that there was a
weeping in the city, and demanded to know the cause there¬
of. The adigars replied, that nothing but joy was in the
city, and that all was in proper order like the feast chamber
of the god Soora Rajah (or Sakra). The king became
angry with the adigars, and sent for the woman whose door
had been marked, and asked her the cause of her weeping
more particularly ; and thereupon the woman answered, that
when the king of Soly Rata had made a descent upon the
island he had carried away captive twelve thousand fami¬
lies, and among the rest her two. sons. The king thereupon
expressed marks of anger and rage against his own father,
in whose time the said thing happened, and immediately
resolved to make war on Soly Rata. He marched accord-
ingly to Jattuapatam, with determination to bring again the
people who had been taken away captive. He proceeded to
Soly Nmvara, having to attend him the giant Nielaw'. The
25
Cinghalese History of Ceylon.
king of Soly was struck with terror; the king of Ceylon
mounted the throne; and as for the giant Nielaw, he
killed the elephants of the city, by dashing one against
another. The ministers of the king of Soly went and gave
their master information of the devastation which was
making in the country. The king of Soly thereupon asked
the king of Ceylon, if he had come to ruin his country.
The king of Ceylon answered, that he had brought no
army to destroy the country, but only a little boy with
him, and thereupon ordered the giant Nielaw to be
brought, and accordingly he came, and stood before him.
The king Soly Rata then asked the king of Ceylon how
he could come without an army, and the king of Ceylon
thereupon answered, “ I have come in order to take back to
their own country the twelve thousand families which thy
father brought away from Ceylon in the time of my father.”
The king of Soly thereupon replied, “ We, whose king
formerly vanquished the Asuras,” (a sort of gods) “ cannot
think of giving thee back thy people which were brought
away captive.” The king of Ceylon thereupon became
angry, and said that he would smite the city, and leave the
same in ashes, and demanded that the king should instantly,
instead of twelve thousand families which had been brought
from Ceylon, return to him tw T enty-four thousand; and
thereupon taking up a handful of sand, squeezed it, so that
drops of water fell therefrom, and also taking his iron rod,
he gave it a twist, so that water fell from it also. The king
of Soly was thereupon struck with great terror, and granted
his demand of twenty-four thousand families. The king of
Ceylon also, upon that occasion, brought aw-ay the foot-
ornaments of Patini Devvi, and also the arms of the four
gods, and also the Patra Dhatu of Buddha, which had been
taken away in the time of the king, and admonishing the
king never to be guilty of carrying away such spoil any
more, departed for Ceylon. On his arrival, he restored all
those who had been carried away captive to their ancient
possessions, and the rest he desired to reside in the coun¬
try then called Kuru Rata (that is, the country for taking
elephants) and since that the said country bears the name
of the Alut Kurcorle to this day ; and this king, after a reign
of twenty-four years died, and went to Dewa Loka (or heaven.)
His son, who w r as called Bhatia Tissa Rajah, was the next
king. He caused the dawgob called Palupala Daw'gob, to
be built at the root of a tree called Kiry Palugaha, and
made offerings to the same, and reigned as king for the
26
Cinghalese History of Ceylon.
space of twenty-four years. His younger brother, who was
called Cudana Rajah, was the next king, and he reigned
twenty-two years. His son, who was called Wawa Tissa
Rajah, was the next king, and he reigned twenty-two years.
His son, who was called Ambagey Rajah, was the next
king, and he reigned for two years. The son of the late
king, Wawa Tissa Rajah, who was called Sutou Rajah, was
the next king, and he likewise reigned for two years. His
son, who was called Wija Lindu llajah, was the next king,
and he reigned for six years.
Sanga Tissa Rajah, who was of the blood royal called
Lemini Wangsa, was the next king, and he reigned for four
years. After him Sri Sanga Bo Rajah became king, and
while he was governing in a proper manner there came a
famine upon the land, and there was no rain, but through
the king’s virtue there came rain. At this time there lived
a man in the province called Roonoo Rata, called DalaRak-
sha, who was a cannibal, and on whose account the country
was in a state of distraction. The king vowed that he
would not stir without seeing the man, and through the vir¬
tue of the king the said cannibal came of his own accord to
the king, and thereupon the king asked him, what was the
reason of his molesting his subjects? The cannibal pro¬
mised to do so no more if the king would give him only
one village to feast upon, but was refused; he asked the
half thereof, and was refused ; and some tell, he asked to
have only one man more, and the king told him that he
should not have one, but told him to take himself, if he
pleased, and thereupon the cannibal answered, “ Although
there were a hundred like me, they could not take and eat
so good a king as thou art.” The king was pleased with
the saying, and since he had refused to sacrifice human
creatures to his ferocity, promised to make him an allow¬
ance in rice, and had the pleasure of seeing the cannibal’s
disposition changed to mildness.
While the king was thus governing according to wisdom,
his brother, who was called Leenini Golu Ambau Rajah!
came to pay him a visit, and took the kingdom from him!
The king disguised himself as a priest, and came and re¬
sided in secret at the place where the dawgob of Attana
Gala is now built, to the south-east of the temple of Calany.
Golu Ambau Rajah caused proclamation to be made through¬
out his whole dominions, by the beat of tom-tom, that
whosoever would bring the head of the king his brother,
should receive a great reward. Many people cut off' other
27
Cinghalese History of Ceylon.
people’s heads, and carried them to the said Golu Ambau
Rajah, pretending that they had found his brother, and cut
off his head, but he was not to be imposed upon by a coun¬
terfeit head. A poor woman, however, one day made ready
a little rice, and some of the small fishes called Nitoly, but
in the Cinghalese, Hawl messau, and giving the same to her
husband, said unto him, “ Husband, if thou shouldst bring
the head of the king Sri Sanga Bo Rajah, we should be
made richand accordingly sent him away to bring
the same. The said poor man entered into the jungle,
and wandered till he came to Attana Gala, and there he
found out a flat stone and the place of the king’s residence,
and went to talk to the king, but in the mean time did not
know that it was the king. The king asked from whence he
came, and he told him that he was in search of the king Sri
Sango Bo Rajah, for sake of whose head many people
had been put to death. The king was sorry to hear the
news, and resolved that the poor man should obtain the
reward, and thereupon said unto him, “ Come, let us eat
that rice which thou hast brought.” The basket with the
rice was opened, and the two sat down to eat. The rice was
divided into two shares; and thereupon the king thought
within himself, “ If ever I am to be a Buddha let these fish
swim in the water, and let this rice made of the grain called
mawee growand thereupon throwing the said fish, which
were not only dead and boiled, but also pounded in a mor¬
tar into one consistency, into a pellucid pool, they began to
swim in the water, and in the mean time the boiled rice
began to grow, and thereby he knew that he would one day
become Buddha; and so having eaten his rice, he told the
poor man that he was the king, and to cut off his head,
upon which the poor man became terrified, and ran away.
The king called out to him to stop and take his head, saying,
“ If any man dispute thy word, and say that thou hast not
brought the head of Sri Sanga Bo Rajah, do thou take san¬
dal wood and sweet smelling liquid, and offer the same to the
head, after laying the head on a chair covered with white
cloth, and then, by the power of the gods, my head itself
will bear witness;” and thereupon he himself, tying the end
of a cloth to a tree, and the other end about his neck, twisted
off his head, and gave it to the poor man. The poor man
took and presented the head to Golu Ambau Rajah, who,
however, said that it was a counterfeit head, but the poor
man having done as he had been directed, the head sprang
up three times through the power of the gods, and said, “ I
■■
28
Cingha/ese History of Ceylon.
am the head of Sri Sanga Bo Rajah,” and thereupon the
king gave to the poor man a great reward, and reigned as
king for twenty-two years. The king Golu Ambau Rajah,
in his life-time, visited Attana Gala, where his brother’s
body lay, and built a house round the dawgob, and made
large offerings, and dying, went to the world called Paralow.
His son, who was called Calakin Deta Tissa Rajah, was
the next king. He apprehended and put to death the eight
persons. Gala Wessa, which his father had never been able to
do—made four stories to LowaMahaPawya, which his father
had not been able to finish—raised a steeple on the same, and
made large offerings for the same—dug six lakes—made the
dawgob of Pelan Sri Gala, of Montaroo, and of Elugol; and
making large offerings, reigned as king for ten years.
His younger brother, who was called Mahasen Rajah, was
the next king. He causing the devils to work, made the
late lake called Minnerv Wewa, dammed up the river called
Cara Ganga, which used to run to the said place Minnery;
at a signal given him by the gods, dammed up the brook
called Tala Wattuya, and with the water of the same culti¬
vated twenty thousand fields, and prepared the same for
sowing. As there w r as a want of dhatu or bones, &c. of
Buddha, he told the priests to make figures of gold; and,
moreover, he caused to be made the lake of Muagamua, the
lake of Suralacaora, the lake of Didora, the lake of Maha
Minia, the lake of Poknawa, the lake of Poos Coomboora,
the lake of Patcalumalua, the lake of Sulugumalua, the lake
of Calawana, the lake ofKimboolwat, the lake of Wadunnawa,
the lake of Surualarantia, the lake of Minihiria, altogether
seventeen lakes; and all this service he caused to be per¬
formed by the devils; and as there was no dhatu of Buddha,
and as he knew by hearing that the girdle of Buddha was in
heaven, he looked up to heaven, and the gods seeing that he
gave himself so much trouble, consented to let down the
wonderful girdle of Buddha. The king stretched out his
hand to receive the girdle, and thereupon the gods pulled it
higher up, and the king stretching himself to get hold of it,
the gods pulled it up higher still, and the king still eager
to lay hold of the girdle, stretched himself still more to
get hold of the same, but still the same was drawn up
out of his reach. The king, after all his anxiety being
so much disappointed, began to grow angry, and taking his
sword, sprang up eighty cubits towards heaven, and cut a
piece of the girdle, which piece he kept, but the rest thereof
the gods pulled again up to heaven. The king made great
29
Cinghalesc History of Ceylon.
offerings to this piece of Buddha’s girdle; he also made a
noble dawgob for it forty cubits in height; and having reigned
as king for the space of twenty-four years, he died, and went
to heaven. And thus from the king Wijaya Rajah to the
king Mahasen Rajah, there were sixty-three kings, all of un¬
tainted royal blood; and at this time Buddha had been dead
eight hundred and forty-four years, nine months, and twenty-
five days; but know this, that with Mahasen Rajah ended
the unadulterated royal blood.
The kings who followed were descended of parents, one of
whom was of the SuriaWansa, # or descended from the sun,
and the other of the Sri Bodee Wansa, descended from the
bringer of the Bo-tree, or of the Delada Wansa, descended
from the bringer of the Dhatu, and thus of mixed blood;
and on that account, and because there were no longer to
be found the Rahatoonancies who could fly to heaven when
they pleased, and because the god Sakra Dewa-indra left off
to regard Ceylon, and because piety had disappeared, and
because the city of Anuradha Pura was left in ruins, and
because the fertility of the land was decreased, the kings
who followed were no longer of such consequence as before.
The king called Kirti Sri Mewan Rajah was the next king
after the said Mahasen who ascended the throne, and he was
of the said adulterated blood. In the ninth year of his reign,
the kino; called Guwaseenam Rajah was king of the country
called Calingu Rata, and this king of Calingu Rata had in
his possession the tooth of Buddha, called Dakumi Delada
Samy, and the king worshipped and made offerings to the
same. But now the king of the city called Sawat Nuwara
declared war against the said king of Calingu Rata, in order
to make himself master of the said tooth. The king of Ca¬
lingu Rata thereupon called his daughter, whose name was
Ranewalenam Cumara, and her husband called Dantanam
Cumaraya, and addressed himself to them, saying, “The
king of "Ceylon, Kirti Sri Mawan Rajah is my good friend;
I am now going forth to battle; if it happen that I lose the
day, I will hoist a red flag, and do you thereupon, without
allowing Delada Samy (the tooth) to be taken by the enemy,
disguise yourselves as pilgrims, and carry the same to Cey¬
lon, and deliver it there to the king, my friend. The king
of Calingu Rata accordingly went forth to meet his foe, and
when he found that the battle was going against him, he
hoisted a red flag, and having so done, fell by the hand of
* Svrya Vansa. S. lineage of the sun.
30
Singhalese History of Ceylon,
the enemy. In the mean time, his daughter and son-in-law,
having seen the signal of defeat, dressed themselves as pil¬
grims, and taking with them Delada Sarny, fled to the sea¬
shore, and taking ship at Tutocoreen, came to Ceylon, and
delivered Delada Sarny to the king Kirti Sri Mewan Rajah,
and the king provided the said prince and princess with a
residence at the place called Keeragam, in the Beligal Corle,
and heaped upon them many favours. The king likewise
made a house for Delada Sarny, and without intermission,
made offerings to the same of both flowers and light. He
reigned as king for the space of twenty-eight years.
His younger brother, who was called Deweny Paetissa Ra¬
jah, was the next king. He made a carandua or case for
Delada Sarny, which he sprinkled with sweet-smelling water
and sandal, and made figures of Buddha with his own hand.
He also caused dawgobs to be erected, and was a benefactor
to the world during a reign of ten years. His son, called
Bujos Rajah, was the next king. He provided books and
preachers from village to village, and caused preaching to
be held at appointed seasons. He raised the Maha Waihara
of Anuradha Pura twenty-five cubits high, offering flowers
of jessamine to it. He also painted the walls and roofs of
Lowau Maha Paya blue; there he caused seven hundred
priests to assemble every day, to be supplied with victuals.
He also bestowed villages upon the priests, of which they
reaped the yearly revenue. He also caused to be raised the
Waihara of Morapaw Piri, and abounded in good works
with a view of becoming a Buddha, and having reigned eight
years, w 7 ent to heaven.
His son, Oepa Tissa Maha Rajah, was the next king. He
caused to be built the dawgob of Palaw Wagu, enclosed the
lake called Nepauwewa, and reigned as king for forty-two
years. His son, who was called Manam Rajah, was the
next king. He reigned for twenty years. In the course of
this king s reign, the two persons called Bandagatnam Wata-
wah and Temnaha Sin, caused to be brought from Damba
Dewa to Ceylon the books containing the two hundred thou¬
sand two hundred and fifty orders of Buddha, and the books
containing the three lack thousand, and one hundred thou¬
sand seven hundred and fifty sayings of Buddha, which were
written in the Paulu language, and caused the same to be
published.
The illegitimate son of the late king, who was called Sin-
nam Rajah, as it were, governed by night, while the legiti¬
mate son of the king, called Sawkyanam, governed by day,
31
Illustrations of Passages of Scripture.
They reigned together for the space of one year. The next
king was called Weissha Caral Loraw. He went one day to
pay his homage to Delada Wahansey, and when he wanted
to return again to his house called for his elephant, but
seeing that it was not immediately brought, asked what was
the reason, and his ministers told him to wait a little, and
that the elephant would be brought directly ; but thereupon
the king became angry, and seeing the figure of an elephant
built of stones, &c. asked if the said figure would not take
him on his back ? Thereupon the said figure came towards
the king, and took him on his back, and went into the city,
and carried the king to his palace. The said king reigned for
six years, and then seven Malabar chiefs, from Soly Rata,
having made a descent with seven thousand men, put the
said king to death, and assumed the government, and, suc¬
ceeding one another therein, governed the country for
twenty-seven years.
Illustrations of various Passages of Scripture, selected from
different Authors.
VI. Genesis, xiii. 9.
“ Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray
“ thee, from me: if thou ivilt take the left hand, then I will go
“ to the right; or if thou depart to the light hand, then l ivill
“ go to the left.”
Some have wondered how Abraham, and the other Patri¬
archs, in the ages of antiquity, were permitted at pleasure to
take up their residence with numerous flocks in countries
where they were strangers, and without making any com¬
pensation to the native inhabitants: but the same practice
is customary in the interior of South Africa. Kraals of
Bushmen come and take up their residence in the Coranna
country as long as they please, without being considered
intruders; and the Corannas do the same in the Bushman
country, or in any of the other countries. In this way there
is a mixture both of blood and of languages among the
inhabitants of these regions.
[Campbell's Travels in Africa, page 236.]
VII. Exodus, xxviii. 9—11.
“ And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them
“ the names of the children of Israel; six of their names on
" one stone, and the other six names oj the rest on the other
“ stone, according to their birth. With the work oj an engraver
32
Illustrations of Passages of Scripture.
“ in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave
Dutch, but of y e< Indians Manainnek, running
by y e - western bancks of Philadelphia; bateing one fall, not
three foot high, is boatable w tu flats 200 miles, then there
are 5 branches, or fountains feeding 5 branches, one of w ch
is alike boatable a days Journy, 'where unlaiding, in a days
time a wagon (for y° ground is pretty even) may goe to ano¬
ther river, almost as big as y e Skulkill, which is boatable
to y e Susqhanagh in one day thus speaks Jacob Young,
lately w th me, 8c several Indians But this I can say of
my own Knowledge, y 1 for 50 miles up Skulkill falls, gene¬
rally, one acre is worth two on delaware, 8c often more.
73
for Learning or Piety.
This much as to outward things, the affaires of truth are
well among us, the Lord’s power, very signal w th his peo¬
ple, w ch is y e Crown of ail, our improvem* 8 every way
& y e prospect of things I referr to y e bearer T. Gosling
whom f love as a discreet & true man. w ch w th y e en¬
deared Salutations of love unfeined, ends this from
For my esteem d
Friend Ralph
Freetwell, Mer‘
Barbados.
IX. FROM THE REV. JOHN BERRIDGE TO MR. WOOOGATE.
[The Rev. John Berridge, a few of whose letters we are
enabled to lay before our readers, was born at Kingston, in
Northamptonshire, March 1st, 1716. His father, who was
a wealthy farmer and grazier, designed him for business;
but his mind was early directed to the ministry. To this
his parents were for a while decidedly opposed, but finding
his predilection for study would totally unfit him for
business, they at length yielded to his wishes; and after
previous preparation he was entered of Clare Hall, Cam¬
bridge, Oct. 28, 1734, in the 19th year of his age. Here lie
pursued his studies with great avidity, and in 1749 accepted
the curacy of Stapleford, near Cambridge, (n the year
74
Original Letters from Persons eminent
1755 he was admitted to the vicarage of Everton in Bedford¬
shire, where he continued to reside to the end of his life.
He was a man of ardent piety, exemplary diligence, unaf¬
fected humility, and extraordinary benevolence ; and ap¬
pears very much to have resembled the celebrated Bernard
Gilpin in his primitive hospitality. His purse was always
at the service of the needy : his tables were served with a
cold collation for his numerous hearers who came from far
on Sabbath day, and his field and stable were open for their
horses. Houses and barns were rented, lay preachers main¬
tained, and his own travelling expenses defrayed, by him¬
self. The income of his vicarage, his fellowship, and of his
patrimonial fortune, were appropriated to support his libe¬
rality, and even his family plate was converted into clothes
for his itinerant preachers. He was well acquainted with
the Rev. Messrs. Whitefield and Wesley, and was for
many years a regular supply at the Tabernacle, London.
He was very laborious both in his own parish and itinerat¬
ing labours, chiefly in the counties of Bedford, Cambridge,
Essex, Hertford, and Huntingdon. When abroad he w'ould
preach upon an average ten or twelve times a week, and ride
100 miles. He was a man of considerable eccentricity and
ingenuity, as these letters will shew, but of unblemished
reputation : he died January 22d, 1793, in the 77th year of
his age : he published The Christian World Unmasked , and
a volume of Hymns, called Sion's Songs.]
DEAR SIR
Everton. Apr. 20. 1773.
Thro a Croud of Visitors, a weak Body, and weaker
Spirits, I had neither Leisure nor Inclination to write in
London: but being now returned into the Country, I must
take up my Pen, else you may think me defective in bro¬
therly Respect. From the little Conversation I had with
You, I found my Heart united unto You, and feel a Bro¬
ther’s Kindness for You. Gowns, Bands, and academical
learning weigh but little with Me: what I look for in a
Preacher, is the Spirit’s Baptism, and a spiritual Ordina¬
tion. Where these are found, I care not whether the
Preacher comes in a Leather Jacket or a Cassock. If he
brings a Christ in his Heart, he will warm his Audience,
and prove his divine Commission. But Sir, I find it no easy
Matter to walk with Christ, and keep up close Communion
with Him; and a sad Work it is to mount a Pulpit without
a Sense of Jesu’s Presence. It is not mere Thinking upon
75
for Learning or Piety.
a Subject, that Will make a good Christian Orator. If we
would pray & preach well in a Pulpit, we must pray much
out of it. The Closest Walkers prove the closest'& the
warmest Preachers. A Man may have much to say, but
"’ill speak to little Purpose, unless Christ is with him:
and we must not think that Jesus Christ will follow us into
a Pulpit, unless we follow him out of it, and follow with a
Gospel broken Heart. I always ask the dear Redeemer’s
Presence, when I stand up to preach, but often preach
without it, because I did not seek it heartily before 1 came
to preach.You are placed much alone, and have but little
Help from your Brethren; but this need not grieve you.
When Help is truly wanted, Jesus Christ will surely send
it: How can he well do otherwise? And when he sends
no Help, whatever we may think, it is not wanted. Let
this reconcile you to your Situation; and be assured, tho
alone, with the Presence of your Master, you will find Help
enough. W e are often contriving Help for the Master,
when we should be only praying to Him for his Help.
Give my hearty Love to all among you that seek & fol¬
low Jesus Christ: Grace & Peace be multiply’d upon you
all. The Lord be with your Spirit, and with the Spirit of
your affectionate Brother & Fellow Servant
To
M r - Woodpate
Near the Market
Chatham
Kent
X. FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.
Tabernacle
Mar. 10. 1774.
Dear Sir
I rec d your very kind Letter, and remember the Promise
I made; but alas, I am no more able to fulfill my Promise
to You, than my Obligations to God. I am a Cripple in
Body, a Cripple in Soul; and since I came to London, am
grown more crippled still, by Reason of a violent Cold,
which has stiffend my Limbs & frozen my Faculties. My
Tenement is old & crazy; and its walls bulge out pretty
much, as you know ; and a small Tempest makes my House
shake £c totter. Besides, I leave London the 29 th of this
Month, which is not far off, and the Trustees would scarce
76 Original Letters from Persons eminent
be willing now to have me absent on a Sabbath, if my
Health would permit. Go on, dear Sir, and work diligently
in the Vineyard, while it is day; the Night is coming, when
none can work. Health in Body is the next Blessing to an
healthy Soul; consecrate both to the Lord, from whom you
receive both. You labour for a good Master, and your
Labours will soon be over: they are sweetened here with
kind Refreshments, and with eternal Rest hereafter. Yes¬
terday the Lord called Home a dear Gospel Minister, the
rev d M r Talbot of Reading, and he will fetch all his Labour¬
ers Home by & by. Be watchful 8c press forwards : Jesus
has got your Crown in his Hand, and will shortly place it
on your Head; and in the mean Time, he cries out, be
faithful, Richard, unto Death. Present my kind Love to
your Society ; the Lord water them abundantly with Bless¬
ings. Grace & Peace be with Yourself, 8c with your Con¬
sort, and with your much affectionate Servant in the best of
Bonds,
To John Berridge.
M r - Rich* 1 - Woodgate
near the great Meeting
House, at
Chatham
XI. FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.
Everton, Apr. 21: 1776.
Dear Sir *
Thro a Multitude of Visiters, and a scanty Pittance of
animal Spirits, I have neither Leisure nor Strength to write
Letters in London, and therefore at my Return to Everton,
I send an annual Letter to many Friends, as a small Token
of my unfeigned Respect for them. Here below we are
often meeting and parting, but above we shall meet to part
no more. And, Oh, what a Meeting! when this noisy
World and the roaring Lyon will be far removed, and the
Body of Sin be wholly broken down ; when the Soul will be
all Peace, all Love, all Joy, and become all Eye to gaze on
Jesus, and from his Sweetness 8c his Fulness drink eternal
Pleasure in. No fretful Look, nor envious Eye, nor jarring
Note is there ; for every Vessel is quite full, and every Harp
is well in Tune, and every string rebounds with purest
Thankfulness. But we must remember. Brother, that daily
Tribulation comes before this blessed Meeting : bitter
Herbs 8c bitter Draughts are needful Food or Physick for a
sickly Stomach. And such is our Condition in the present
State, that all Kinds of Weather prove pernicious. Sun-
77
for Learning or Piety.
shine produces Vermin, Calms occasion Sleepiness, and
Tempests breed Tumors. So, we make daily W ork for the
Physician, & stand in Need of all his Drugs and Surgery,
of sweating, bleeding, cupping, puking, purging, and all
little enough to cleanse the Blood & Stomach, so apt we are
to breed ill Humors. One Gallipot or more is sent me in
each Day, and tho I have been taking Physick largly many
Years, I am ready yet to sicken when I take a Bolus. El¬
derly Christians are apt to grow lazy and - wise 8c
foolish, and thus we bring many Stripes on our Back.
More secret Prayer & Watchfulness would prevents Deal
of Physick. Salute your Spouse in my Name, and present
my hearty Salutations to the Church of Xt around you.
Grace 8c Peace be with you all, and with your affectionate
Servant
To John Berridge.
Mf- Ricli d -Woodgate,
a Preacher at
bv London Chatham
XII. FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.
Everton. Sep r 16.1775.
Dear Sir,
I rec d your Letter of the 7 th , which requires a deliberate
Answer, not an hasty one; and a more judicious Head,
than I am possessed of. The Scripture commands us to abide
in that \ ocation wherein we are called; and I have not
known many succeed, who have left their Calling, and
taken Ordination, either among the Clergy or Dissenters,
yet some have succeeded, and therefore I dare not make a
general Rule universal. The unanimous Call of M r Hugh’s
Congregation, and the late Abridgment of your Privileges
in the Dock-yard, together with the raising up of a young
Man to supply your evangelical Place, seem to point out
your Way to M r Hugh’s Congregation. I dare not say
more, than seem to point out. Make the Matter clear to
yourself by Prayer Sc Waiting, Sc the Lord direct your
Path. However, I should think it advisable, not to quit the
Dock-yard, till you are really ordained, and set down in the
Congregation. Kind Respects to M rs - Woodgate, 8c to all
xtian Friends. Grace Sc Peace Sc the Spirit’s Guidance be
with You, Sc with your affectionate Servant
John Berridge.
To
M r - Rich d -Woodgate, a
Preacher,
at Chatham
78
Original Letters from Persons eminent
XIII. FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.
Everton. Apr. 14: 1776.
Dear Brother
At my Return to Everton, I usually send an anniversary
Letter to some Friends in London ; but the sitting down to
write, brings such Disorder into my Stomach, and such
Numbness into my Arm, that I am glad when that Labour
of Love is over. A little Matter wearies me now, and
weakness steals upon Me imperceptibly; which makes me
feel the Need of a stronger Staff, I mean, a stronger Hold
on Christ Jesus. Sometimes I am grieved that I cannot
labour as I have done; but when I consider, it is God, who
shortens our Strength in our Journey, and requires no more
Strength than he gives, that Grief dieth away, and a small
Breeze of Gratitude springs up in my Heart, that I am not
wholly laid aside. Oh, dear Sir, we are engaged in a glo¬
rious yet arduous Work: the Lord make us faithful, that no
Blood may be laid to our Charge. But what can make us
sufficient for the Work, except All-sufficient Grace? And
for this Grace let us daily and fervently pray. Much
Thought on a Sermon beforehand, may make it pleasing,
but will not make it profitable, except it smell of much
Prayer, as w’ell as tast of Meditation. Our Pulpit Exercise
will savour of our daily Walk. If the Walk be close, the
Sermon will be close: If the Head be much anointed with
Oyl, it will drop from the Lip ; and the Tongue will tell
what Communion we keep. So that ministerial Usefulness
does not depend on Genius or Learning, but on the Unction
from above, which may be had for asking, and had in Abun¬
dance for asking abundantly. I am glad your Leisure
Hours are engaged in visiting your Flock, and in visiting the
Poor as well as the Rich; this will not only endear you to
the Flock, but deliver you from idle Visitors at Home.
Yet take Care, that your Visits be short, else they will
drindle into unprofitable Talk, and in Stead of quickning,
will flatten both You & your Company. Half an Hour
spent in a short Exhortation, an Hymn, and a. Prayer, will
leave no Room for News or Politicks. Kind respects to
M rs - Woodgate : Grace &. Peace be with You both, 8c with
your affect. Serv*-
The rev d - M r * Woodgate,
to be left at
The Tabernacle, near
Moorfields,
London
John Berridge.
Fao Simile of the Seal.
for Learning or Piety.
79
XIV. FROMTHE REV.JOHN WES LE Y,A.M. TO MR. GILLESPIE.
(From the Original in the possession of James Baldwin Brown, Esq. LL.D.)
London, Nov. 9, 1753.
I have never done so much for any of our Preachers
(except my Brother) as for William Prior. And one of my
reasons for it was. That scarce any of our Preachers had
used me so ill. Therefore I was resolvd to be more abun¬
dant in Kindness toward him, if haplv I might overcome
Evil with Good. I am much in hopes, I shall (by applying
to a Great Man in town) set him & his Family quite above
want. His greatest Temptation will then be removed, &
I trust, he will serve God with all his Strength.
I will order a little Box of Books to Portsmouth, whence
you may be farther supplied at Newport. But take care to
keep a clear Account of what are sold; otherwise the Stew¬
ards will send no more. If C. Williams sees good, you
might preach sometimes at the Common. Mr. Larwood
intended to call there in his Return from Bristol; but the
Illness of his Horse prevented. I hope he will be able to
come in a little time. If he can spare Sister Aspernall to
visit her sister at Portsmouth for a few days, her Conversa¬
tion will do more good than all our Preaching has yet
done.
Be mild; be patient toward all men. See that none re¬
turn railing for railing. Be much in Private Prayer. Live
in Peace, & the God of Peace shall be with you. I am,
with Love to all the Brethren,
s ■
To
At M r Seamans
In Newport
M r Gillespie
Isle of Wight
80
REVIEW.
An Attempt to Demonstrate, from Reason and Revelation, the
necessary Existence, essential Perfections, and superintending
Providence, of an Eternal Being, who is the Creator, the
Supporter, and the Governor, of all things. By Samuel
Drew. 2vols.8vo. St. Austle, 1820. Blanshard, Baynes
and Son, Paternoster-row; and Dowding, Newgate-street.
pp. 367, 383.
The author before us was an unsuccessful competitor for
the Burnet prize; and though we think that he has done
wisely in submitting his essay to the public, the high ap¬
probation which we are disposed to bestow upon it, must
not be construed even into an approximation to an im¬
peachment, or questioning of the propriety of the decision,
which has left Mr. Drew without any farther recompense
for his labours, than the sale and public approbation of his
work, will, we trust, abundantly afford him. Palmam qui
meruit ferat, is, on the contrary, the motto which we apply
both to Principal Brown and Mr. Sumner, the first and
second prizemen on the occasion; and notwithstanding the
carpings and cavillings of certain of our brethren, for which
we could easily account, we apply it relatively, as well as
respectively; denying the position which they have invidi¬
ously laboured to establish, that the first should here have
been second, and the second first. Had Mr. Drew, how¬
ever, bestowed more time upon his composition, w r e question
whether the Principal of Marischal, or the Tutor of Eton,
might not have yielded their well-earned honours to the
extraordinary self-taught metaphysician, of whom we may,
we are satisfied, say, without offence,—and those who know
his history will see the correctness of the allusion,—
‘ Sutor ultra crepidam felictbr ausus.'
The work to which we would now direct the attention of
our readers, is divided into four parts. In order to form a
notion of the vast penetration, and profound capacity, of the
author, we need only read the table of contents; but an
attentive perusal of the work itself will reward the intelli¬
gent reader with an expansion of his ideas, to an extent
not usually derivable from books on similarly abstract sub¬
jects. A new direction will be given to his meditations ;
and, pleased with a strength of thought, and variety of
Drew, on the Being, Attributes, SfProvidence of God. 81
topics altogether new, it cannot fail, we should think, to
rouse his energies, stimulate his efforts, and awaken his
ardour in the pursuit of knowledge. The first part sets out
with the argument a priori, to prove the necessary existence
of one, and of only one uncreated, underived, and self-
existent Being. Philosophers in general suppose its de¬
monstration a posteriori the plainest, and therefore set out
upon that plan ; but our author’s mind, original and in¬
tuitive, found no inconvenience in entering upon the most
difficult mode of arguing first. What costs other men many
efforts, often seems, indeed, scarcely to cost him a single
thought.
The topics of his argument are all of them either inte¬
resting, new, or handled in a new method. Entity and non¬
entity; motion, space, number, and duration; body, dark¬
ness, and the like, are the materials which he uses with
as much facility as the mechanic does his tools, to adorn
and to embellish a subject in itself abstract, subtle, and
illusory. But the pen, which his native and energetic genius
guides with bold and masterly strokes, makes all plain, lu¬
minous and perspicuous, even to ordinary capacities. An
illustration of this will be found in his" very satisfactory
and pleasing mode of treating of entity and nonentity.
“ Perhaps all men who reason will readily allow, that between
entity and nonentity there can be no medium: for the instant in
which we attempt to form in our minds any conception of a mid¬
dle object, that instant we introduce the idea of entity into our
thoughts, even while we are endeavouring to exclude it. Entity
and nonentity must, therefore, in the most enlarged and absolute
signification of the terms, include, or else exclude, existence, in all
its modes and relations. For, as the former will include existence,
in all its possible varieties, so the latter, being purely negative,
must be exclusively confined to absolute nonexistence. Every
thing, therefore, that either exists, or does not exist; every thing
of which we can, or cannot, form any rational idea; must, by
existing, or not existing, be either an entity or a nonentity. Now,
as entity is positive, we exercise our belief of it so early as reason
begins to dawn; but nonentity being negative, our idea of it
seems to be acquired in the progress of reasoning. But the ideas
themselves are positive and negative, in the strictest acceptation of
the terms.” [p. 6.]
Our author proceeds, in the same acute, original, and
masterly manner, to prove that ‘ the material world cannot
exist in an absolute nonentity.’ We say, this section is
original and masterly, because, as far as we know, the argu-
vol. v .—no 9. * o
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Review.
ment has never before been stated in its present clear and
convincing form. It is then proved, that motion cannot
exist in an absolute nonentity, and we might safely ap¬
peal to the readers of the work, whether any of the
philosophers who have defined the laws of motion, ever
discussed those laws, in their bearing on the present propo¬
sition, in the manner in which Mr. Drew has stated them.
This alone would prove his claim to originality.
The subject of space is touched with an equal ability;
the thoughts are all the author’s own, and he presents this
proposition in various lights to the reader, arguing with a
degree of penetration, which justly claims for his work a
very high place among the treatises on abstract science.
We will suffer him, however, to speak for himself.
“ Space, it has been argued, is nothing more than an abstract idea;
and this inference is drawn from a previous conclusion, that space
is not a substance, nor a mode of one. If space be supposed to be
nothing more than an abstract idea, I would ask, Is this idea which
we have of space derived from any thing really existing, or not?
If it be derived from something actually existing, then the positive
existence of space is admitted. If it be not, then the world, with
all its inhabitants, together with all the solar system, must exist
and move in an abstract idea, which is derived from nothing that
has any real existence. If this should be admitted, the notions of
Berkeley must cease to appear extravagant.—If space—which has
the power of forcing itself upon our minds as an existing reality,
with an evidence that is irresistible—were nothing more than an
abstract idea, the foundations of human knowledge would be
shaken, and most of our evidences and grounds of certainty would
be banished from the world. For, if those clear ideas which we
have of the reality of space, have actually arisen from the simple
negation of existence, we can have no assurance, either from our
senses or ideas, that we are encircled with any thing more than a
complication of nonentities. These conclusions are too absurd to
be admitted.” [pp. 15, 16.]
Neither Newton nor Clarke have, as we conceive, argued
more clearly or correctly on this subject. Our author’s
views of number are acute, and yet accurate, though or gi-
nal. Every view he takes of this intricate subject is lumin¬
ous, and his own; nor do we find it so philosophically
handled in any of the treatises published by arithmeticians.
Stated in his own way, his definitions and deductions
carry the reader along with him, both convinced and
pleased.
He affirms that the universe mav move; and in discuss-
Drew, on the Being, Attributes , & Providence of God. 83
ing this proposition rises, we think, in sublimity above vulgar
capacities. His own views are, in as far as we can apply
that term to a human intellect in its present state of deve-
lopement, unlimited. His rapid glance flies from past to
future, from time to eternity; and his gaze is, as it were,
through immensity. We would particularly entreat the
reader s attention to pages 38 and 39 of the first volume
of the work, in the full expectation, that he will be
highly gratified by his mode of proving the proposition,
that “ Body, by being introduced cannot destroy space
and if he read on to the end of page 48 he will be w'ell
rewarded for his trouble, and increasingly satisfied of the
sagacity, penetration, and powders of mind, of this extraordi¬
nary man. His notions on darkness, page 41—46, will
also, we are satisfied, be admitted by all to be new r , striking,
and instructive.
But when our author comes to the second chapter of his
work, which he intitles, “ Space, being an infinite perfec¬
tion, proves the existence of an Infinite Substance,” we dis¬
cover the argument a priori brought to bear upon the
subject with striking conclusion and force. The reader
will be highly pleased with the acuteness and subtiltv
with which this chapter is managed. Sections II. and III.
especially are constructed with great skill, and discover the
vast extent of the writer’s capacity; every word, every sen¬
tence, is as it ought to be; and the mind of the reader is
pleasingly conducted to subjects deep in themselves, and
before unexplored, with a readiness and ease which at the
same time imparts delight and information. In Section IV.
“ On space as an infinite perfection, affording a proof
of an infinite substance,” our author draws his conclusions
with an accuracy and conviction with w hich the reader will
be abundantly satisfied. Section V. proving that space
can have no positive existence which is not included in the
substance of which it is a perfection, is neat, correct, and
conclusive, and leads by a short way to inferences the most
important; it comprehends, indeed, in a very narrow space,
more sound argument than many volumes. Section VI.
brings this chapter to a conclusion; and in that conclusion
sums up the argument with an energy and strength which
may safely defy contradiction. The reader is conducted by
arguments so plain, powerful, and convincing, that at every
sentence he feels himself going along with the author in
heart and sentiment, to the discovery of that Infinite Sub¬
stance of which space is a perfection, and which he finds to
84
Review.
be immaterial, infinite, immutable, eternal, omnipresent, inde¬
pendent, and necessarily existent.
Chapter III. takes up the subject upon new grounds, and
traces the being of God from the abstract idea of duration.
The analogy between space and duration is well handled,
and the proof that duration is a natural perfection is among
the finest efforts of the work. Without dwelling minutely
upon every thing that demands approbation, we refer our
readers more particularly to Section V. p. 77, which ably
maintains the proposition, that duration being an eternal
perfection, necessarily implies some eternal substance.
The remaining sections of this chapter are equally well
executed, equally interesting, equally entertaining.
Chapter IV. intitled “Eternal existence being possible, an
eternal Being must be possible;—and, if an eternal Being be
possible, he must really exist,” exhibits all the talents of the
author; the arguments are refined and subtle, yet stated
in a clear and perspicuous manner. We do not hesitate to
say, that, excepting the scriptures, some of its sections
supply the best cure of infidelity, which an age abounding
in antidotes to this moral disease has provided.
In Chapter V. the author approaches nearer to the argu¬
ments which have been advanced by preceding writers on
the subject; yet still he preserves his own originality, and
peculiarity of thinking. In this chapter his thoughts be¬
come more philosophical; and matter, motion, gravitation,
and figure, enter into the discussion. These the author
handles in a manner entirely new, but at the same time dig¬
nified and comprehensive. To shew his originality in
treating those subjects which have passed through the
hands of the greatest men that have ever lived, we shall
present the reader w ith one section of this portion of his
work.
“ That form or figure, in the abstract, is inseparable from mat¬
ter, is too evident to require proof, or to admit of denial. Figure,
in some manner or other, must, therefore, coexist with matter,
amidst all the varied mutations which it is capable of undergoing.
It always bounds the extremities of its surface, and marks the
limits of its existence; and is as applicable to a particle of light as
to the orb of Saturn. But, if matter were infinite, it could not
possibly have any extremities; because that which is infinite must
be unbounded ; and therefore, both extremities and figure must be
alike inapplicable to it. But, since no matter can exist without
figure, and since nothing that is infinite can possibly have figure, it
is demonstrable, that matter cannot be an infinite substance. But,
Drew, on the Being, A ttributes, Sf Providence of God. 85
although figure, or form, or shape,--for, in this view, I attach the
same idea to the three words,—is essential to matter in the abstract,
and is, therefore, inseparable from it; it is demonstrable, that no
form or figure exists necessarily. Every modification, which mat¬
ter undergoes, demonstrates this truth. * One form may disappear,
and give place to another,—a second may give place to a third,—a
third to a fourth, and so on, through all the innumerable varia¬
tions which matter can sustain. But, what form soever it may
assume, it is evident, that this newly assumed form is not more
necessary than that which preceded ‘it, or than that which shall
succeed. Now, if no one given form can exist necessarily, it fol¬
lows, that not all the forms which matter can assume, if taken col¬
lectively, can necessarily exist. If any two given forms of matter
be not necessarily existent, a third form, by being added, cannot
impart this new property to its associates. In the same manner we
may proceed onward, from three to three thousand, or three mil¬
lions ; but the whole can make no nearer approaches to necessary
existence, than any single figure in the aggregate. The whole
must necessarily be without that quality, of which all the parts are
utterly destitute. Necessary existence can no more arise from
perishable forms, or be applicable to them, than an actual infinity
can be constituted by a combination of finites, or than that can be
eternal, which has had a cause. It, then, some figure be essential
to matter, and all figure be mutable and perishable, it clearly fol¬
lows, that matter itself cannot be either infinite or eternal. It may
perhaps, be objected, that, as matter is capable of an infinite divisi¬
bility, it must also be capable of an infinite variety of forms; and, '
consequently , though no particular form can be said to exist neces¬
sarily, yet, as form must coexist with all the divisions or modifica¬
tions of matter, it may acquire, from variety, what it loses in per¬
manency. To such an objection, the following reply may, perhaps
be deemed satisfactory. 1 1 '
If the variety of forms, which matter, from its endless divisibi¬
lity, is capable of undergoing, be infinite, it must either have
already undergone this infinite variety, or it must not. If it have
then an infinity is exhausted, and no new form can remain; but
this is contradicted by fact. And, if an infinity be not exhausted
then the number of forms, which matter has already undergone
cannot be infinite; because an indefinite portion still remains. Now
it is unquestionable, that, whatever forms may be still in future re¬
serve, not one among them can exist necessarily, because whatis fu¬
ture only is notactually existing, and nothingcan exist necessarily that
does not exist always. Hence, then, it is evident, that, as matter
has not yet been infinitely divided, and as an infinity of forms has
not yet existed; so nothing, which is future only, can make that to
be either infinite or eternal, which is not so already. Infinity must
be uncreated. As, therefore, form is not infinite in its past nura-
bers, nor necessarily existent in its nature, it cannot possibly be
eternal; and, consequently, matter—of which it is an essential
8a
Review.
property—must be finite also; although we grant it to be capable
of an endless divisibility.” [pp. 187—191.]
So high does our author soar in the remaining parts of this
chapter, that on daring wings he takes flight through the
moving luminaries of heaven, and in their aspects and
revolutions traces their Creator and their God. lhe reader
will require to summon up all his mental energies to
follow him through the unknown regions of the sky.
Chapter VI. having for its title “ Some Being must
exist, from w'hom all contingencies are necessarily excluded,
and whose nature must necessarily include all possible
perfections,” is handled in the way of propositions, and so
linked together, that no part of it can be transcribed with¬
out the whole. The propositions amount to the number of
twenty-eight, and they speak both for the author and for
themselves. The reader will find his advantages in perusing
them a second time.
In Chapter VII. we think the argument d priori is
handled as delicately, dexterously, and effectually as ever
we have seen, either in ancient or modern ratiocination.
The thoughts are profound, the conclusions new, the in¬
ferences just, laconic, and pointed. He who reads it with
understanding will find in it a glow of expression, a weight
of sentiment, and a dignity of thought, not to be sur¬
passed in any production of a similar kind. The next chap¬
ter concludes the first part of the work. In this we think
the unity of the Deity is supported, defended, and proved,
by arguments the most undeniable and cogent. This im¬
portant doctrine of revelation is proved indeed from the
light of nature in a way superior to common capacities,
though at the same time it is perspicuous, simple, and ele¬
gant. We know not how to give the preference to any of
the last three sections, which are equally excellent, though,
if our limits permitted, we would quote the last as closing
this part of the work with the finishing strokes of an able
writer.
We now come to the second part of our author’s per¬
formance, in which he adopts the argument a posteriori,
though we think that it would have been more philosophical
to have placed that argument first. In this we differ from
Mr. Drew. But it is a difference only of arrangement, not
of sentiment; for we think that the subject is handled in a
manner worthy of his talents, and deservedly high reputa¬
tion, as a metaphysical writer. In the second section of this
Drew, on the Being, Attributes, 8f Providence of God. 87
chapter, which is the ninth of the book, the author infers
the temporary existence and limitation of matter, from the
idea of motion. The conclusion is short and convincing:
“ But, when l reflect on the possibility of motion,—con¬
template the space which is around me, that it is partially
destitute of solid matter,—and survey the motion which
actually exists, I am sensibly convinced, that matter is not
infinite in its extent; and, therefore, I conclude, that it
cannot be eternal.'’ This argument is plain, simple, easy
to be comprehended, and yet quite conclusive. The rest
of this chapter is equally perspicuous and pertinent, and on
a level w r ith common capacities.
In Chapter X. the subject is followed out with a steady
eye upon the conclusion, and the idea introduced by the
dropping of a pebble, keeps up the thread of the argument
in the mind of the reader in a pleasing and agreeable man¬
ner. We believe, however, that the arguments which run
through the whole of the first section of this chapter have
been, and are still, controverted by several philosophers
both on the Continent and in our own island, who boldly
assert, that motion is essential to matter. Our author
obviates the reasoning of these philosophers in the second
section, and pursues his argument in his usual masterly
manner to the end of this chapter. We give the few fol¬
lowing sentences as a specimen:
“ Since, therefore, primitive motion can neither exist abstracted¬
ly, nor be essential to matter, nor have arisen either from matter or
from any modification of it, nor be eternal, nor have been propa¬
gated through an infinite series, nor have imparted existence to
itself; motion demands some active—some powerful—some inde¬
pendent—some eternal cause; and, like matter,—of which it is an
affection,—it directs our views to some Being, who is infinitely
superior to all those subordinate agents with which we are con¬
versant. Now, as this mighty Agent or Being, who is the cause
of motion, is also the Creator of matter, it is demonstrable, that he
must be immaterial; for, if matter were created by a material being,
matter must have existed before it was created,—which is an evident
absurdity. Matter is, certainly, a substance; and the creation of
a substance is, unquestionably, an action. Primitive action im¬
plies existence; and this existence necessarily presupposes a sub¬
stance. Nothing, therefore, could be capable of creating matter,
and of giving birth to original motion, but an immaterial substance.
Hence, then, it finally follows, that the Being , who created mat¬
ter , and gave primitive birth to motion , must be an immaterial
substance, that is active, powerful , independent, necessarily existent,
and eternal.” [pp. ‘271, 27*2.]
88
lie view.
1
From the arguments founded on simple matter and mo¬
tion, our author turns to animal phenomena, in order to
demonstrate the existence of some Being, who must possess
wisdom, as w'ell as power. The reasoning on this topic
takes up the whole of Chapter XI. From reasoning on the
animal constitution, economy, and functions, we are brought
to the following conclusion:
“ That these various phenomena, of which I have just imper¬
fectly sketched the outline, are in actual existence, it will be as
vain to deny, as it will be useless to prove. The facts stand on
the evidence of their own existence; and no argument whatever
can increase their certainty, or render them more conspicuous.
Since, then, these astonishing realities are in existence, must they
not necessarily have some cause? If neither matter, nor motion,
considered in itself, can be eternal, or exist without some indepen¬
dent cause, it must be a species of madness to assert, that these
singular modifications of both—admitting that an animal exhibits
nothing more—can exist without one. To assert, that one animal
has produced another ad infinitum, is rather to increase the difficulty
than to remove it. The same reasonings, which have been employed in
the preceding chapter, to prove, that the propagation of motion,
without a first cause or mover, will terminate in absurdities, will
apply, in the present case, with equal force. No animal could
have been produced, without a primary producer. If there be no
first cause, there can be no second cause,—no third,—no fourth,—
and, in short, no successive cause whatever; and, consequently,
no effect. The same reasonings, which will preclude a first cause,
will preclude all successive ones, and finally lead to a conclusion,
which is falsified by fact. No chain, that is formed of successive
links, can have a necessary existence; because, as every link is
contingent, the whole—which is the same with all its parts—must
be contingent also; and, consequently, the whole cannot possibly
be eternal.” [pp. 277—279.]
To ascend to the first cause of animal motion, which must
possess underived power and wisdom, is the great effort of
our author in the fourth and fifth sections of this chapter,
and we think the subject is unfolded in a very clear and
perspicuous manner, nor do we doubt, but that the reader
will be much pleased with this portion of the work, which
we particularly recommend to his perusal.
In Chapter XII. the author powerfully urges the most
direct, conclusive, and convincing argument a posteriori,
for the establishment of his grand position. The human
mind being the greatest of all effects exhibited to our in¬
vestigation, naturally leads to the great first cause with ir-
Drew, on the Being, Attributes, # Providence of God. 89
resistible force, particularly as the source of moral perfec¬
tion. We think we perceive, that the author, in pursuit of
this part of his subject, has differed very materially, either
by accident or design, from the ablest metaphysicians and
moral philosophers of the present day. This is very per¬
ceptible in the second section of the present chapter.
Modern writers upon the mind would call the operations
mentioned by the author in this section, ‘feelings of rela¬
tion ,' or * active powers' or ‘ reasoning * implying both intel¬
lectual and active powers. Mr. Drew, however, dis¬
tinguishes or defines the human mind ‘by the powers of
understanding and will:' we know’ this is an ancient division
applied to the mind, but we fear it is defective. It is so, at
least, in the view of the latest writers on the subject, and
some of them are men whose opinions are well worthy of
attention. But the mode of division appears to be a matter
of indifference to the self-cultivated intellect of our acute
author, who follows his subject with a steady pursuit, never
losing sight of the main point, until he draws his very satis¬
factory and convincing conclusion in Section VII. in the
following striking language:
“ We know, that the substance of matter is not necessarily
existent; and, therefore, it must have had a beginning and a cause.
This cause must be a substance; because nothing besides could
have created a substance. This Cause, or Being, must be immate¬
rial ; because, if the cause of matter were not so, matter must have
existed antecedently to its own existence. To create a substance is
an action; this Being must, therefore, possess energy. Much
design and arrangement are visible in brute animals, and in men;
in the structure of their bodies, and in their bodily organs, as well
as in their adaptations to the various stations which they hold in
life; this Being must, therefore, be Avise. The cause of human in¬
telligence must be intelligent; because no effect can be more excel¬
lent than its cause. Human intelligence must inhere in an immate¬
rial substance ; and an immaterial intelligent substance is a spirit.
The cause of this substance must, therefore, be a spiritual substance.
This primitive, immaterial, energetic, wise, powerful, intelligent,
spiritual substance, who is the primary cause of every thing that
has a cause, must himself be without a cause ; and, therefore, he
must be independent and eternal. This great and glorious fountain
of being is God.” [pp. 304, 305.]
Chapter XIII. consists, we believe, of what the author
calls mixed arguments : the first section grasps the whole in
one great outline view. The laws of gravitation, which regu¬
late the motions, do most certainly proclaim the power, and the
90
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goodness of their author. This grand argument proves both
the being and the unity of the great first cause. The argu¬
ments advanced in the second and third sections, shewing,
that the phenomena on the surface of the earth, and in the
aqueous parts of the globe, prove that the cause of all is in¬
telligent, wise, and good, must be considered as running
into those of the first, and thus forming a great and con¬
sistent whole. The reasoning adopted in the fourth section,
to prove the same great truth, from the natural, intellectual,
and moral powers of man, is of a kind different from that
in the foregoing, though we are decidedly of opinion, that
had the author brought forward the law which regulates
the action of moral beings in the same manner in which he
does the law of gravitation, the chapter would have been
more complete; for the arguments founded upon the moral
law, taking it in the abstract, are at least equally conclusive
wfith those of gravitation, to prove the being and perfections
of God. Should another edition of the work appear, we
hope Mr. Drew will turn his attention to this hint.
The arguments of the next chapter may also be consi¬
dered as mixed. Indeed they appear to partake more of the
a priori, than of the a posteriori reasoning. The author in¬
titles it a ‘ Summary of the arguments urged in the preced¬
ing chapters, tending to ascertain the nature of the first
cause of all finite beings and excellencies.’ This title may
account for the mixed mode of argument adopted, as it is
most likely that the author had, in framing it, his eye on all
the preceding chapters of the work. There is something
very pleasing in the way in which he handles this part of
his task, forming, as he does, a chain of various links, and run¬
ning them into one another w’ith great dexterity. The very
terms of the contents are almost sufficient to convey the
author’s meaning, they are so natural, easy, and intui¬
tively evident.
In Chapter XV. our author appears to be at home in his
reasoning throughout. The examples, which he adduces in
illustration of his argument, are powerful and convincing,
but not so level to the capacity of general readers, as others*
which might have been referred to. The examples in Sec¬
tions I. and II. proving, that there is a radical distinction
in natural and intellectual things, would have been equally
intelligible or even more so, had he said, that the oak
has a nature different from the ash, though they both grow
in the same forest; the apple-tree has a nature different
from the pear-tree, though they both grow in the same
Drew, on the Being, Attributes, and Providence of God. 91
garden; that grains of wheat have a nature different from
grains of barley, though they both grow in the same field.
The position might have been farther illustrated, by exam¬
ples drawn from the brute creation: the ox has a nature dis¬
tinct from the horse; the ass a nature different from the
sheep; and so of the whole distinct tribes of animal nature.
In each and all of these, the mind perceives radical distinc¬
tions, which can be attributed to nothing, but the great first
cause. Intellectual distinctions are more numerous and
evident in the regions of mathematics, geometry, algebra,
and metaphysics, than elsewhere. But the distinctions ad¬
duced in Section III. on distinctions in moral things, are
more evident and clear than the others, because we act upon
them every day, and often many times a day. Truth and
falsehood, right and wrong, gratitude and ingratitude, are
among the fundamental principles of morals, and understood
by all men. The truths treated of in Section IV. are those,
which metaphysicians call intuitive, and require only to be
proposed, to be understood by men in general. But our
author has handled them in a way peculiar to himself, and
likely to prove very satisfactory to others.
In Chapter V. Mr. Drew treats of the necessary existence
of the Divine Being; in this he is right: indeed there is no
necessity, absolutely as such, but that of the Divine exist¬
ence. That the Divine Being exists necessarily, is an ar¬
gument a priori, with all philosophers who have treated of
the existence of that Almighty Being. All other necessity
besides the Divine existence, is only hypothetical: had
the disputants in the controversy of liberty and necessity
adverted to this, their warfare would have immediately end¬
ed. We must observe, that our author appears, in the last
paragraph of this section, to have taken for granted, that the
existence of the Divine Being is a self-evident truth. If we
understand him fairly on this plan, we think it contains
the first slip in his reasoning found in the work. The sixth
and seventh sections of this chapter are handled with Mr.
Drew’s usual skill and address. We see him in every
sentence, supporting the same tone of simple eloquence, and
style of convincing argumentation. The eighth section con¬
cludes the subject of this chapter with a very fine effect: we
shall present our readers with the last paragraph :
“ But when, from knowledge and wisdom, which are partial and
contingent, we lift our thoughts to the uncreated and eternal God,
we find him possessed of numerous perfections, to the extent of
which no bounds can be set; because they embrace all realities,
92 Review.
and all possibilities. Among these natural perfections, it has been
argued,* that we must include his intelligence and wisdom. Now,
since this intelligence and this wisdom must be commensurate with
his existence,—must be every where, because his existence is every
where,—and be essential to his nature, because these perfections
could no more have been derived from any prior source, than they
can be contingent; it follows,that his intelligence and wisdom must
be universal. And, consequently, from that nature, to which uni¬
versal intelligence and absolutely perfect wisdom are essential, all
ignorance and folly, with all their effects and consequences, must
necessarily be excluded/’ [pp. 17. 18.]
Chapter XVI. brings the efforts of the author in the se¬
cond part of his work to a close. In entering upon a review
of the subject of this chapter, we would question, whether
a view of human redemption be altogether in character with
the scope and design of this part of the work; whether it
does not relate more to revelation than the light of nature,
which is the immediate subject of the essay, both before
and after this chapter, to the end of the third part? We do
not propose our query in the way of critical censure, but,
submit to our author and our readers the dilemma. We ad¬
mit, nay, more, we delight in the important truths of this
chapter, and in the way they are handled; but still our
doubts upon the propriety of their introduction in this part
of the work remain unaltered.
Section I. of this chapter argues that ‘ God, possessing
infinite wisdom, cannot act in opposition to its nature, as the
nature of the Divine wisdom must be inherent in the Divine
nature itselfbut, surely it would have been more logical
to have represented the Divine nature as directing the Divine
wisdom, than the Divine wisdom as directing the Divine
nature; for we believe, that it is the absolute rectitude of
the Divine nature that directs the operations of each and
of all the Divine perfections and attributes. In the follow¬
ing section, the author seems indeed to agree with us in this
view of the subject, surrounded as it is by difficulties to a
finite capacity; whilst we, as pefectly agree with the truth
of the proposition in Section III. that Godfreely willed what¬
ever he has done; and what he has done, must, on the whole, be
the best, both in the time and manner. The arguments of this
section defy contradiction.
The subject of Section IV. claims equal approbation. The
Divine nature being absolute in perfection and immutability,
* See chap. vii.
Drew, on the Being, Attributes , and Providence of God. 93
must be the standard of all the Divine words and works,
the standard of all moral perfections, and of all the Divine
procedure with moral agents. And while this blessed nature is
just, it is also benevolent; hence the equity and sovereignty
of the Divine moral government, in all proceedings, both in
providence and redemption. In the fifth and sixth sections,
our author exhibits the equity and the soverignty of God
in plain and evident demonstration. That the scheme of
redemption was, and is, the best that could be devised and
adopted, even by God himself, is certainly a true and almost
a self-evident proposition. The reasoning in these sections
is both conclusive to the logician, and comfortable to the
Christian. We shall say nothing more on this chapter, or
on this part of the subject; but recommend our readers to a
patient and an impartial perusal of the whole, in which, we
doubt not, but he wall think with us, that his time has
been w r ell spent.
In perusing the third part of this work, w T e find the subject
becomes more subtle, intricate, and abstruse, than in those
which precede. Here, however, w 7 e pre-eminently trace the
skilful hand of the author, conducting us through labyrinths
and windings, both devious and difficult. The omniscience,
omnipotence, and omnipresence of God, and the absolute
dependence of every creature, are the topics of Chapter XVII.
The dependence of every created being, from the least to
the greatest, upon that cause which brought it into being,
is a truth self-evident as it is important. And thus every
object which w r e perceive, when properly contemplated,
brings God immediately to the view 7 of the mind, in these
three attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipre¬
sence:—wdiat an instructive lesson then, does every object in
creation teach us? In this chapter, these views are ampli¬
fied and varied, with a degree of penetration and accuracy
that is both pleasing and edifying. The author sets before
us, the immediate superintendence of God, sustaining every
thing he has made; and the omniscience of God knowing
every volition of free agents with perfect certainty. In this
view, matter and mind appear to be alike the objects of
that providence which presides over all. Matter and mind,
in their simple existence, and in their laws and operations,
are alike subject to the upholding, and governing provi¬
dence of God.—How 7 amazing the thought! We present
our readers with the last paragraph of Section VIII. as a
moral lesson, wffiich it is of importance that they, and we,
should learn thoroughly :
Review.
J4
“ On examining the world in which we live, we cannot but con¬
clude, that, among the creatures by which it is inhabited, man
holds the highest rank: and, therefore, if any one of those beings
can be an object of providence, man presents the fairest claim.
But, if man be under the control and government of providence,
those of his concerns must be so, which are, to him, of the greatest
moment; and nothing can be thought to be of equal importance
with his moral actions. These actions lead to consequences, which
eternity only can unravel; they lay the foundation of his future
happiness or misery; and reach to the great end for which God
called him into existence. It is, therefore, evident, that, whether
events which are important, or apparently insignificant, come under
its care, man, and all his moral actions, together with their effects
and consequences, must belong to the providential government of
God.”* [pp. 78.]
In studying providence, we discover more of human igno¬
rance, than in any other subject, except redemption.
Thereasoning inChapters XVIII. and XIX. is clear, plain,
and instructive, managed with our author’s usual acumen,
and unfolding the subjects in a very pleasing manner. We
think, however, that, the sentiments contained in Section V.
of Chapter XIX. inti tied, “The best possible system seems
to be one, that will admit the possibility of progressive im¬
provement,” might be so twisted, as to favour infidelity in
many instances, or lead to the doctrine of the metempsychosis
of the universe, and the transmigration of worlds; though
we believe these are far from our author’s sentiments. We
entirely agree with him ‘ that creation, though including all
possible perfections, must have fallen infinitely short of in¬
finite perfection;’ and would entreat the infidels of the pre¬
sent day to peruse the seventh section of this chapter; and if
they do, we are almost confident, it will prove an antidote
to their free thinking.
The subject of Chapter XX. is very important and interest¬
ing. We think, however, that, the author would have illus¬
trated the subject with more perspicuity and success, had
he taken a view of those perfections of God, which stand
related to the system of moral government; and in the
following chapter considered that man, as the subject of
government. As they stand, however, vve admire, the ability
displayed in these chapters; and only make these suggestions
as hints to the author, should he publish a second edition
of this valuable work.
In Chapter XXI. the subject becomes still more serious and
* See Clarke on Natural and Revealed Religion, p. 20.
Drew, on the Being, Attributes, and Providence of God. 95
interesting, the theory of moral evil is momentous, and re¬
quires such a genius as that of Mr. Drew, to do it justice.
We cannot help thinking, however, that it would have been
well, if a definition of moral evil had been introduced into
this chapter. Without the possibility of moral evil, how
should we account for a moral governor, a moral system,
and moral agents? We must either exclude the idea of
creation and providence altogether, or admit the possibility
of moral evil, whether that evil be permitted to appear and
operate in the creation, or not. We think, also, that a defi¬
nition of liberty would have cast much light upon this
mysterious and intricate subject; for the more clearly and
more precisely terms are defined, the more easily are the
propositions of which they form a part, understood.
With respect to some of the sentiments advanced in the
fourth section of this chapter, in which that long contested
question, “ Whether God could have prevented the abuse of
liberty, without destroying human freedom ?” is discussed, we
hesitate; and would ask our author, W'hether the angels who
stood, did not enjoy perfect liberty, and do not enjoy it still ?
Whether our Lord did not exercise perfect liberty in every
thought, word, and deed? Whether believers do not enjoy
perfect liberty in embracing the gospel, and in their moral
conduct afterwards? Whether the spirits of just men made
perfect in heaven, do not enjoy and exercise perfect liberty?
And whether God could nothave preserved our first parents in
their happy state, in the full and perfect exercise of their
moral liberty? We presume the affirmative of all these
questions is true: and true without destroying moral free¬
dom : and, farther, with due reverence for the hallowed
ground on which we are treading, venture an opinion, that it
was possible for God to have prevented the fall of man even
to the present day, and yet the possibility of the abuse of
liberty might still have remained. We admit, that the sen¬
timents in the sixth section of this chapter militate in a
considerable degree against those which we have just
advanced; but we think they do not overturn our positions.
We cordially approve the following sentence : ‘ Moral evil,
and all its effects and consequences, commence in moral crea¬
tures ; and not one of these evils can be traced up to God
but in the succeeding part of this chapter, our author does
not appear to have acquitted himself with his usual discri¬
minating acuteness of argument. He does not advert to the
distinction between the possibility of the existence of moral
evil, and theactual existence of it; though, in our apprehen-
96
Review.
sion, there is a very clear distinction between these two: by the
first hypothesis, the world might have existed without the
actual introduction of moral evil, till the present day; yet
still it might possibly have fallen, or was still liable to fall
into moral evil. On the second, moral evil really has existed,
and does exist since the fall. To this distinction we would
direct the attention of the author of this essay, and we
flatter ourselves that he will perceive the force of our
objection.
We confess ourselves much pleased, with the ninth of “ the
consequences, which would follow, if moral evil had been ren¬
dered impossible,” though we have not room to quote it; and
as fully do we agree with our author, on the seventh section of
this chapter, in a firm belief, that, it is not possible “ for all
questions of difficulty to be solved, or for all objections to
be answered.”—Mr. Drew seems also to agree perfectly
with the sentiments which we have elsewhere advanced on
the subject of the eighth section, in which he shortly but
successfully maintains, that, “ it was perfectly consistent
with the divine justice and holiness, to permit the possi¬
bility of moral evil.”
The subject of Chapter XXII. is momentous and import¬
ant in every point in which it can be viewed. It bears for
its title the following sentence: “As the permission of
moral evil, in the creature, does not militate against the per¬
fections of God ; so none of those effects and consequences,
which flow from this permission, will impeach the divine
purity.” We think, however, that the author derives more
assistance from revelation, than the stage of the argument
fully warrants. Had he consulted Gisborne’s natural theo¬
logy, we are convinced that he would have argued the sub¬
ject differently; though we must at the same time say, that
Mr. Drew has defended the ground he has taken with very
great ability; and, whilst we suspect that the abuse of
liberty is rather the act or operation of some principle, from
which moral evil springs, than moral evil itself; yet, we must
add, that we are highly pleased with the sentiments con¬
tained in Section III. of this chapter.
The views of the original threatening, and the infliction of
the consequent deluge, are admirable; and claim the parti¬
cular attention of every reader, though we perceive one
oversight running through this and the following chapter
particularly; namely, that to prevent the abuse of liberty
is to destroy it. The reader will apprehend our meaning by
attending to the following quotation:—“From these, and
Drew, on the Being, Attributes, and Providence of God. 97
similar considerations, it appears, that the actual abuse of
liberty could not be prevented, while the possibility of its
being abused remained; and that the possibility of its abuse
could not be separated from liberty itself. And, therefore, as
liberty—without which, no virtuous action can exist—must
be destroyed, or the possible abuse of it tolerated, it is not
to be supposed, that Infinite Wisdom would admit the
greater evil, in order to prevent the less.” [vol. II. p. 147.]
Now, we would just ask, whether God cannot over-rule
liberty in such a way as to prevent its abuse, in perfect con¬
sistency with its full and perfect exercise? vie think he
does so in the conversion of every man, who is a partaker of
his saving grace; and we think, he does so again in every
good act which this man performs; and, that he will do so
in all the services of the glorified state of the same man
through all future eternity.
We agree perfectly with our author in his sentiments
concerning the present and future state of the brute creation;
though many of our pious forefathers supposed, that the
brutes would be raised at the great day, to receive a com¬
pensation for their sufferings in connection with man; yet,
we think, the sentiment is childish and without proof. Sup¬
pose all the animals, that have been, are, and shall be to the
end of the world, raised at the great day, there would not
be room enough on the surface of the globe for each
to stand upon! How absurd then the idea of their resur¬
rection? On this subjet, note Bin the appendix deserves
notice.
We now take leave of the intricate subjects o {' moral evil,
and liberty, and proceed to the sublime views of God’s moral
government, as treated in the twenty-third chapter. The
advantages arising to those advanced in years, from the
helplessness of infancy, is a subject worthy the pen of an¬
gels. Such are the attractions which God has communi¬
cated to helpless infancy, that no human being is capable of
resisting them altogether. Even the very young of animals
have preposessions, whilst the agreeable emotions which arise
in the human heart, upon the discharge of acts of benevo¬
lence towards infancy, more than compensate any incon-
veniency which may arise in discharging them ; much of
the goodness of God appears here. The advantages, arising
from diseases and bodily pains, when viewed as coming
from the hand of the righteous moral governor, are many:
the wisdom and goodness of God, which may be perceived
in such dispensations, are clear and evident. We think, that in,
vol. v. — no. 9. h
98
Review.
this section, the author has acquitted himself ably as a
preacher, as well as an author. We shall present our rea¬
ders with the last paragraph, as a moral lesson, which ought
to be frequently perused;
“ On connecting pleasure and pain with moral subjects, there can
be little doubt, that, in the primitive state of man, virtue and plea¬
sure were as inseparable, as vice, in its effects and consequences,
is now inseparable from pain. But, since sin has polluted our na¬
ture, and depraved our moral feelings, these connections appear to
be broken. Vice and pleasure seem to have formed an alliance;
and, by their deceitfulness, they would fain persuade us, that pain
is necessarily associated with virtue. A review of our different
sensations, when taken in connection with their respective causes
and consequences, will, however, dispel the charm. For, so far
as we are acquainted with the moral causes of pain, we perceive
them to be contrary to the nature of virtue; and, consequently,
pain, by the manner of its operation, becomes rather a preacher of
righteousness, than any just occasion of complaint against God.
A practical attention, therefore, to those lessons which it imparts,
although it cannot wholly exempt us from suffering,—because our
bodies are subject to dissolution, of which this is but the harbin¬
ger,—will teach us to avoid moral evil, while here, that we may
escape the miseries which it ensures in eternity. Now, that must
be good for us, which has any tendency to promote our final hap¬
piness, whether, in itself, it be pleasing or disagreeable; and, as
pain has this tendency, it must be of this description. We may,
therefore, learn, that many things, which are exceedingly unplea¬
sant, may be highly advantageous; and that it is in their being
disagreeable, that their advantage lies.” [pp. 201.]
In Section VI. the author has handled the disadvantages
of prosperity, and the advantages of adversity with great
effect. The very first paragraph is a sermon, sliort, yet very
powerful; and we cannot refrain from again justifying our
praise by a brief quotation.
“ We know, that temporal prosperity is so far an object of uni¬
versal desire, that it is frequently made the criterion of felicity.
Prosperity, operating upon an undepraved heart, or upon one that
is renewed by divine grace, naturally excites gratitude towards its
author, and leads to homage and adoration. But that man must
be ignorant of human nature, who does not know, that where de¬
pravity prevails, and even where Divine grace has not obtained a
complete ascendancy over all the appetites and passions, prospe¬
rity has a natural tendency to produce an opposite effect. Poverty
may have slain its thousands; but riches has slain its tens of thou¬
sands. It tends to foment pride,—to generate ambition,—to in¬
troduce luxury, to hide our own weakness from ourselves,—to
Drew, on the Being, Attributes, and Providence of God> 99
excite sensual desires, as well as to furnish the means of gratifying
them,—to implant covetousness in the heart,—to create an undue
attachment to this world,—and to introduce a fatal forgetfulness of
another. All men desire prosperity and wealth; but, alas! how few
are able to bear them!” [p. 207.]
The examples adduced in the remaining part of this sec¬
tion are full of admonitions and instructions—which if
attended to as they deserve, will prove a great benefit to
many. The remaining sections, which treat of natural evil,
and death, are amongst the very best views we have seen,
of these very interesting, if hackneyed subjects; though
they are so closely reasoned, that any quotation would break
the chain; and therefore, as well as for want of room, we
can only bespeak the reader’s serious attention to them.
The very serious and solemn subject of Section XI. has
left upon our minds an unwillingness to attempt a review
of it. The very title can scarce be read without trembling:
‘Eternal punishments are consistent with the wisdom, justice,
and goodness of God.’ We recommend the perusal of this
section to the Socinians and Universalists of the present
day; and cannot but think, that, if they gave it a fair and
an impartial perusal, they would at once embrace our au¬
thor’s tenets on this very important point.—We beg leave to
quote the last paragraph, and to refer to the note C for the
benefit of the Universalists only.
“ We have already ascertained, that punishments must be ad¬
ministered in eternity. Now, if we conceive them to have limits,
we must, according to our present ideas of measured duration, con¬
ceive time to exist in eternity. And we cannot conceive, how this
can be possible, unless time survive its own destruction; nor can
we conceive, how time can survive its own destruction, without
involving a contradiction. But, since a contradiction cannot be
admitted, it seems to follow, as a necessary consequence, from our
present principles of reasoning, that the punishments of eternity
cannot be limited; and, if unlimited, they must continue for ever.
It, therefore, appears, that endless misery is a necessary conse¬
quence of the abuse of that liberty, which wisdom and goodness
bestowed. And we can conceive, without difficulty, that it is not
less consistent with these sacred perfections of God, to inflict eter¬
nal punishment on the wicked, than to bestow eternal felicity on
the righteous; or, than it was to create moral agents, endued until
the tremendous power of moral choice.* [p. 227.]
We have now advanced to the concluding chapter of the
argument, proving a divine providence, or the divine moral
* See Appendix, Note C.
100
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government; clearing the divine character from all impeach¬
ment, from the wrong elections of moral agents, and from
the consequences which follow them. This is well done ;
and nothing, indeed, can be plainer, than, that the standard of
moral rectitude must necessarily be immutable. Were any
error, or moral evil, attachable to God, there could be neither
moral government, nor divine rectitude, nor virtue, in the
universe.
The single consideration of what is due to a creature,
what is the operation of absolute justice towards it, must at
once unveil its comparative imperfection; and, this justice,
uninfluenced by sovereign interposition, will clearly shew,
that indefectible stability in goodness is peculiar to the first
cause; and, that evil, of whatever kind, is peculiar to a crea¬
ture. As evil has no conceivable existence without a sub¬
ject; so, where there was no antecedent standard of perfection,
there could be no evil. That infinite perfection should be
liable to evil of any kind, involves a contradiction: for it
supposes, that, the only standard and measure by w r hich evil
is estimated is liable to become evil itself; while at the same
time, without that standard, for any thing to become evil,
would be absolutely impossible : thence, it irrefragably fol¬
lows, that only a being derived, created, or dependent, a
being comparatively imperfect and defective, as contrasted
with one infinitely perfect, on whom it depends, can possibly
be evil. Now, this is true, whether we consider it in refer¬
ence to individuals, societies, or the world at large.
Section IV. of this chapter solves some difficulties with
very considerable ease and ability. The contrasts exhi¬
bited in the two last paragraphs, between the misfortunes
of the righteous, and the prosperity of the wicked, are well
executed, and deserve particular notice. We think also that
Section V. on the necessity of good and evil being blended
in a probationary state, contains matter full of edification, and
ought to be perused by every reader with reference to him¬
self, The contents of the last section, assigning “ reasons
why all rewards and punishments are not instantaneous,"
are no less important and interesting. We shall conclude
our review of it with the words of the last paragraph :
44 In thus surveying the conduct of God towards his rational,
though fallen creatures, we behold both his justice and his mercy;
his justice in punishing the incorrigible, and his mercy in pardon¬
ing the penitent;—and in both we behold his goodness. It
therefore follows, that, although he has the command of all pos¬
sible means, none, to which he can resort, can be unjust; because
/
Drew, on the Being, Attributes, Sf Providence of God. 101
he can adopt none that are contrary to his own perfections. And,
consequently, all the dispensations of nature, of providence, and of
grace, must perfectly coincide with his nature ; although we have
not powers sufficiently acute and comprehensive, to trace them on
all occasions.” [p. 256.]
The whole of the arguments advanced by the author in
his view of Providence are of what he calls the mixed
kind, by which we understand, partly taken from the light
of nature, and partly from revelation; and they have this
advantage, that they shew there is no discordance, or dis¬
crepancy between them; encourage the study of both ; and
lead the Christian to his God, both by creation, providence,
and revelation.
In Part the Fourth we are presented with proofs of the
being, perfections, and providence of God, from revelation.
These are comprehended in Chapter XXV. The subject of
this chapter consists of topics so general and universally
admitted, among all denominations of Christians, that no¬
thing is necessary to be said, but to recommend the perusal
of it; and we do not hesitate to say, that no part of it will
be called in question by any Christian reader; and ven¬
ture to add, that many such readers will find their faith in
God much comforted, strengthened, and confirmed, by the
perusal.
Chapter XXVI. is intitled ‘ Propositions founded on the
preceding chapters, and inferences drawn from them, which
are most necessary for, and useful to, mankind.’ It forms
a chain of forty-six propositions, so linked together that they
run naturally into one another, and hang together so firmly,
that to destroy one, would be to destroy all. These proposi¬
tions may be called the aphorisms of the light of nature and
revelation. They are comprehensive, clear, short, per¬
tinent; and correspond in every respect to the intention of
the author. We confess we have seldom, if ever, seen so
much truth comprehended in so small a compass; and we
are of opinion, that these propositions will be generally
useful, whilst we hazard the hint, that if the reader would
commit them to memory, he w r ould not lose his labour; for
upon every reflection, any one of them would afford him
much pleasure and profit. Upon the whole, we confidently
recommend these two volumes to the notice of the public,
and congratulate society in general upon receiving such a
boon. We hope the work will be admitted into the divi¬
nity halls of the United Kingdom, as a class-book for young
divines; and confidently add, that the classes of moral
102
Review.
philosophy will find it to their advantage to bestow some
time in perusing it.—In the mean while, we conclude our
review by saying, that if the readers find as much entertain¬
ment, and we hope we may add, edification, in the perusal
of the work, as we have done, they will not fail to give it a
second reading, which it at once deserves and requires.
Augustus; or the Ambitious Student. 8vo. Lond. 1820.
Baldwin, pp. 356.
To trace the history and progress of the human mind has
hitherto been the province of the philosopher and the meta¬
physician, who have defined, and subtilized, and refined
upon the subject, until they have but too often involved
themselves and their readers in a labyrinth of inextricable
confusion. If it has been thus with the operations of the
mind in general, still more unfortunate has been the deve-
lopement, or attempted developement, of the effect of an
ardent devotion to literary pursuits, upon the disposition,
character, and feelings of the devotee. The biographers of
men of genius have, in too many cases, had little or nothing
of hopes or of fears, of joys or of sorrows, of pursuits or of
disappointments, of tone, of character, or feeling, in com¬
mon with the subjects of their memoirs. They have told
us when and where they lived and died, and how they
looked, and what they wrote. They have studiously raked
together all the stories in circulation, of their eccentricities,
their follies, and their vices; but seldom is it that they have
attempted to trace these to their source, and still less fre¬
quently that the attempt has been crowned with success.
We admit that genius is often eccentric; but it is not ne¬
cessarily so, at least to any thing like the extent which the
lives of its possessors have frequently displayed. In
many instances, especially amongst the lower species of
this elevated class,—borderers on mere common talent,—in¬
habitants, perhaps, of a land debatable, this eccentricity is
geherally affected; whilst in spirits of a higher mould it is as
generally induced toy circumstances often fortuitous, seldom
essentially connected with the possession of exalted talents,
or their devotion to literary pursuits. At the same time,
however, we mean not to contend that there is not usual¬
ly a something particular in the train of thinking, of feel¬
ing, and of acting, habitual to men of genius, which the
World around may set down for eccentricities, when in fact
103
Augustus ; or the Ambitious Student.
the deviation from that line of conduct which ought to be
pursued by a rational being, is entirely on their own side.
But to render this apparent, the principles on which men of
superior minds are wont to act, the habits in which they
are trained,—the feelings they most fondly cherish,—the
vexations to which they are exposed,—the pleasures they
enjoy, should be delineated by one who has either felt and
acted as he describes, or at least been most intimately con¬
versant with the scenes, the principles, and the feelings
which mark the order of beings whose character he would
pourtray. Such an one we hoped to find in the author of
the work before us, and to a certain extent our hopes have
not been disappointed. He is evidently a man of genius,
though not of the highest order; yet are there in his compo¬
sition many traces of the common features of the family,
in some of whose difficulties and crosses, had he not told us
himself, we should have suspected that he had participated,
we hope but to triumph over them, and to participate in its
pleasures, with as little of alloy as falls to the lot of huma¬
nity in this, perhaps, the most sensitive of its varieties.
There is in his very preface a strong indication of his
thinking and acting for himself, in lieu of following in the
beaten path of men of every-day acquirements,—a concious-
ness of his own strength, mingled with an anxiety for the
estimation in which his first essay may be held ; which we
conceive to be some of the characteristics of genius.
“ The diffidence of the author of the present work,” he there
tells us, “ is great, from causes which are only fully known to
himself. Thrown into the wide world while yet an infant, to
struggle honourably through his difficulties, unprotected, cheerless,
and alone, animated by a remembrance only of the past, to labour
in the restoration of what misfortune had early deprived him, he
appeared, considering the bent of his mind, to be naturally led to
regard the public as his patron. He had been made to feel
the severity of the world too deeply to await with confidence
the approaches of patronage and friendship; and he felt there¬
fore animated by those cheering words of Goldsmith, that the
public will ever be found to be the best patron to the literary
character. The good which the author has drawn from his
studies, as it has been his only happiness, has naturally inspired
him with a fervid zeal for knowledge; but whether his zeal
for the good of others, which he presumes to be evinced in the
present production, will be equally successful, can alone be de¬
termined by generous and impartial criticism. He can only aver,
in extenuation of his literary faults, that, deeply impressed with the
respect due to a British public, he has rigorously contracted his
104
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work within the narrowest limits necessary for his literary plan ;
and, in the unassisted progress of his mind, has laboured to render
his book as useful as possible, and, perhaps, with too little regard
to the more agreeable modes of writing. The great purposes of
his work, however, to afford encouragement to the youthful mind
to pursue the most honourable career of ambition—to look gene¬
rously and nobly upon the world—to render its studies and its
sufferings instrumental to its happiness, he feels convinced, will
ensure him the support of all who are engaged in the same philan¬
thropic cause, and who can look with generosity upon the more
immature offerings of an unsupported candidate.” [preface, pp.
iii—v.]
We have extracted this passage, because, to our appre¬
hension, it is well calculated to bespeak the favour of the
public on behalf of an author, who seems to be actuated
by principles and by motives very different to those but too
generally prevalent with the writers of this book-making
generation. How he has executed his purpose, we will en¬
deavour to inform our readers as briefly as we can. The
hero of the piece is the second of three sons of a German
merchant, who had retired from business upon a competent
fortune, the fruits of his own industry, with a very exalted
opinion of those who had risen in life by their own merit
and application, though his was merit and application of a
peculiar sort, or rather directed into a peculiar channel.
The lessons which his own experience and observation had
taught him,of the incalculable advantages,to those who would
get forward in the world, of perseverance, and a laudable
ambition, not too lofty to spurn at any thing that could fur¬
ther their advancement, nor yet too low to be easily depress¬
ed by disappointment and temporary defeats, were sedu¬
lously inculcated on the minds of his children.
“ And, although many wise individuals had undertaken to prove
the dangers of ambition, and its total opposition to the ordinary
character of happiness; yet he had never been able to comprehend
any other felicity, than that which arises from the view of an in¬
creasing reputation. Of vigorous habits and an enterprising
temper, he had always looked contemptuously upon indolent habits
of life ; and always considered him to be an unworthy citizen, who
did not contribute to the prosperity of his country.” [p. 3.]
As far as the latter sentiment is concerned, we cannot
but approve the views and conduct of the old merchant:
and as he had sufficient of this world’s goods to leave to
each of his sous a small independency, we quarrel not with
Augustus; or the Ambitious Student . 105
his favourite maxim, “ to suffer every choice of life to be
entirely unbiassed, studious only of elevating the minds of
his sons, and of fully impressing upon them the necessity of
perseverance, after a deliberate selection.” Where, however,
these advantages of fortune are not enjoyed, this experiment
is somewhat dangerous; as the youth who has no path of
life recommended to him by the experience and situation
of his parents, runs some slight risque of making no choice
at all, or at the best but an imprudent one. At the same
time, this is, perhaps, a lesser evil than the too prevalent one
of destining a son from infancy, either for the profession or
calling of his father, or for any other; and nolens vo/ens ,—with
the requisite ability for it, or without it,—contrary also,it may
be, to a strong predeliction for, and perhaps with a peculiar
adaptation to some other path, compelling him to pursue it,
by exerting the whole weight of parental authority, to force
the bent of his inclinations towards a destiny which he
never could have chosen for himself, and in all probability
never can approve. Strive, we say, where circumstances
render it advisable to give a particular direction to a
youth’s pursuits, to accomplish your object by indirect
means ; for direct ones too earnestly and too obviously pur¬
sued, generally, if not uniformly, defeat their own purpose.
Beware also, how, either in his education or otherwise, you
expose him to the chance of making for himself a selection
which prudence cannot approve ; but if he does evince a
clear and unconquerable preference for any particular pro¬
fession or pursuit, and gives a fair promise of possessing the
talents wdiich it requires, point out to him with affection,
with fidelity, and clearness, all its disadvantages, and the
advantages of the course you would prefer; and if these
move him not from his purpose, strain every nerve to for¬
ward him in the path of his election, for that has the fairest
prospect of becoming ultimately the path of success. For
want of attending to this obvious policy, we have often
seen, on the one hand, men vainly toiling at a profession for
which their predilection, if predilection it may be called,
was originally but slight, but that it was injudiciously,
though unintentionally cherished by their friends, or the
associations they thoughtlessly were permitted to form;
whilst, on the other, we have known many a valuable year,
many an hundred pounds, as foolishly thrown away, in train¬
ing up others in a path in which they never meant to tread,
the moment their emancipation from tutelage permitted
them to follow the fixed purpose of their mind, to which the
106
Review.
energy of their preference, and the obstacles they had sur¬
mounted, were the promising, if not the sure harbingers of
success.
Of the brothers in this tale, for so we suppose it must be
termed, though it really has far higher pretensions, the
eldest, elegant in his address, of an easy submissive disposi¬
tion, averse to learning, yet sedulously cultivating the
lighter and more attractive arts, all that would adorn his
person, give grace to his manners, and teach him the most
profitable lesson of worldly wisdom that can be taught,
how to please,—becomes the companion to a nobleman’s
son, through whose influence he hoped to rise at court.
Impetuous, firm, vivacious; restless in his disposition; ath¬
letic; submitting to the restraints of society, but submitting
to them evidently as restraints, and irksome ones—the
camp was the field in which the youngest was to try his
fortune. Their selection pleased the father, and flattered
his ambitious hopes; but Augustus neither pleased nor
flattered him, for he could not be induced to select at all.
Of the elements of his character we will suffer the author to
give his outline.
“ The second son, Augustus, differed not only from his brothers,
but all his associates; he seldom entered into company, rarely
ventured to express his opinions, and was strongly attached to
domestic pleasures. His manners, his habits, and his temper,
were all interpreted as characteristic of an ambition too placid for
enterprise, and too reserved to become happy in the active world.
The views of his brothers, as they grew up, attained a decided
character; their remarks and manners displayed them to every
observing mind: but Augustus had evinced no other inclination
but to be studious, no other desire but to be tranquil. His father
had repeatedly questioned him with respect to his wishes; he
shewed the importance of an early choice, and the natural anxiety
of his family to see him finally settled in the world. Augustus
made no other reply than that he would reflect upon the subject;
but reflection seemed very little to create or strengthen his resolu¬
tions. The father, angry at his backwardness, severely censured
his apparent listlessness of mind, contrasting it with that laudable
ambition evinced by his brothers, and which would advance them
to honour and esteem, while he would remain neglected, and in
that contempt which deservedly attends a sluggard.” [pp. 11, 12.]
Such sluggards, we believe and know there are, even in
the class of studious men, who read hard but to pass away
their time, and make no good use of what they do read.
Their virtue, if they have any, is at least of a negative de-
Augustus; or, the Ambitious Student. 107
scription;—they wish not to do harm, and, though they can,
they will not do good. Had the hero of this piece been of
such a stamp, we should quietly have left him to his fate,
conceiving that the family of the Ardelio’s have not
assumed any essentially distinct features, in our days, from
those of Phaedrus; in England than at Rome; and that to the
whole species, in all its varieties, the character of the indivi¬
dual will attach; “ mult urn agendo, nihil agens.” Full,however,
of high and generous purposes, imbibed from the frequent
perusal of the purest works of antiquity—the records of
heroic deeds, the memorials of the great and good of every
country and of every age,—he ardently panted, in the day¬
dreams of his youth, for power and for influence; not for the
adulation which they attract, but that he might become the
benefactor of mankind; cherishing, fondly cherishing, with
all the enthusiasm of genius,—all the cloudless anticipations
of a youthful imagination,—these ennobling views; and
strengthening them by the converse of a tutor, who had
drawn his ideas of life from the same brilliant but deceptive
guides; with a fortune sufficient to support a respectable
character in life, he was sent by his father to a physician in
one of the electoral courts, a man of prudence, who was to
prepare, and in due season introduce him to the world, in
the most eligible situation that might offer. Whilst resid¬
ing with him, our hero meets with many characters, whose
history and whose conduct, in various ways, which we have
not room to particularize, have an imperceptible and slow,
but sure operation in softening the rainbow colourings which
fancy had given to the world, and shewing it to him as it is
in fact, and not as depictured in the glowing page of the
poet; or as the philosopher would make it, could he invigo¬
rate and embody the lofty principles and refined specula¬
tions of his study. He meets with one man, whom the
ingratitude of friends—of those whom he had fostered and
cherished—had driven into all the gloom and chillness of a
settled misanthropy. He is introduced to another, who had
risen by his merit and integrity, from obscurity to eminence
as a magistrate; but whilst treated by him with parental
kindness, and fortified in every virtuous resolution, and
every generous purpose, he finds the world around him busy
in detracting from the merits of a character, which they
ought to have venerated and esteemed. At his house he
meets with a young man of congenial sentiments, and en¬
gaged in similar pursuits, with whom he contracts an inti¬
macy, which on his part has all the enthusiasm of the first
108
Review.
attachment of such a mind, so ill prepared to sustain with
equanimity the attempered joys and sorows of real and
active life. The friend, however, seems not to partake, or
partakes but transiently, of the generous, but, as the world
thinks, unnatural transport. He has other friends ; and to
them, without fairly subjecting himself to the charge of
faithlessness to his new connection, he could remove with
a calmness, that excited the wonder, and roused in some
slight measure the indignation, of his enthusiastic friend. At
the court of the elector, he found that merit alone could sel¬
dom rise, and few could or would discover his. At the
house of his friend, the judge, he meets however, with a
lady of high intellectual attainments, mingled dignity and
sweetness of manners; beautiful, and highly accomplished
of course, and with whom, although she was the only daugh¬
ter of a nobleman of high rank and influence at court, as
proud and ambitious, as he was elevated and powerful, it is
equally of course, according to the usages of novelists, in
the preparation and management of heroines, that our hero
should at first sight fall desperately in love. But still his love
is the affection of a man of genius, of acute sensibility, but of
great strength of mind and energy of character, infusing into
his hopes, his wishes,and his pursuits, a definitiveness which
they hitherto had had no object, or none sufficiently powerful
arid individualized, to impart. He had panted long for dis¬
tinction, but had taken no steps to obtain it, satisfying him¬
self with laying in a large stock of information, to which,
what the world calls chance, rather than his own exertions,
might afterwards give its direction and its use. Now, how¬
ever, he wished to be distinguished by one object, and there¬
fore retired to the country to compose a poem—for poetry,
we know, is the offspring of genius and of love—distinguished
by the high tone of its morality, by its public spirit, and its
evident tendency to improve, while it delighted. Here, as
poets should be, and as poets are, he is delighted with the
stillness, and the thousand nameless charms of retirement,,
and a country life; but even in this delightful cup, he finds
a portion of the mingled bitterness of life. He lodges at
the house of an officer, whose services to his country have
been repaid with contumely and wrong. Smarting under a
sense of injuries, for which the malice of his enemies prevents
his obtaining redress, he flies to dissipation for relief—the
comfort of his family is destroyed—habits of inebriation
produce insanity—his property is wasted—he falls a victim
to his intemperance, and the daughters, who in his prospe-
Augustus; or, the Ambitious Student. 109
rity had been the pride of his life, and had soothed the
earlier days of his misfortunes/are left orphans, unprotected
and in want. His poem, when finished, is presented to, and
graciously received by Olympia, for such is the name of his
inspiring muse, to whom it is dedicated, under an express
f >romise to keep his name a profound secret—as he had
earnt at court, one lesson at the least of the world’s thrift,
that to be known and even admired as a poet, is seldom the
way to rise in any of the lucrative or honourable walks of
life. The lady takes, however, another and more effectual
mode of acknowledging the favour conferred upon her, by
procuring him, through her father’s influence, the honourable
post of secretary to an embassy to the imperial court, whi¬
ne proceeds in the minister’s suite, full, of course, of dreams
of glory and of love. But on such dreams, the ambassador is
not precisely the man propitiously to shine :~a finished diplo¬
matist, an accomplished courtier, a self-interested politician,
he uses the talents of his secretary, as long as it suits his
ow r n purposes to do so; and in spite of the coldness and jea¬
lousy of the sprigs of nobility in his suite, honours him with
particular attention, until,in an evil hour, the young man, put
off his guard (he was not formed indeed often to put it on)
by the apparent kindness and frankness of his superior’s
manner, was led, by a love of argument, and a still stronger
devotedness to the principles of virtue and of truth, to ques¬
tion some of the ambassador’s political axioms, and to defend
his own views, w T ith a w'armth, which lost him his favour, and
speedily procured his recal. On his arrival at the electoral
court, disgraced in the eyes of the w r orld, and momentarily
humbled, even in his own esteem, he learns that Olympia,
whom he had presumed to hope might one day be his, was
about to be united to the son of a neighbouring prince, whose
worthlessness rendered her a sacrifice to the ambition of her
father. Hopeless love, and disappointed ambition, led him
to form a resolve, as moderate and rational as any which we
recollect to have met w r ith, under similarly provoking cir¬
cumstances, in the w hole course of our lighter reading. Con¬
vinced that the court w T as not an atmosphere for him to
breathe, he determines to return home to the bosom of his
family, anticipating, with his w'onted delight in the pictures
of his creative fancy, the rapture w 7 ith which he should be
received—the tenderness which would console him, under
the shock of sudden and unmerited misfortune. The gate
of his father w T as however closed against him; and, instead
of the parental embrace, he received a letter, reproaching
110
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him witli folly, and contrasting his fate with that of his
elder brother, who was now living in affluence and honour at
a neighbouring court. To him he repairs;but, disgusted at
the coldness of his reception, quits his house in anger, and
retires to a small estate which he purchases with his fortune,
improved rather than impoverished by the prudence with
which he had regulated his expenditure. In this house he re¬
ceives a literary man, whom he accidentally met with as a lec¬
turer on poetry at Vienna, and whose principles so delighted,
whilst his misfortunes, though but the too common ones of
men of letters, interested him in his behalf, that previous to his
disgrace, he had invited him to reside with him at the elec¬
toral court, which he was prevented from doing, by the double
misfortune of his own removal, and of the poor old philo¬
sopher’s temporary imprisonment in the capital of the empire,
for having, in his lectures, delivered sentiments too favourable
to liberty, and inculcated them on the mind of his young
friend, greatly to the displeasure of the imperial court, and
of the electoral ambassador, to whose suite Augustus was
attached. There is much good painting in this character,
and sage are the lessons of wisdom and experience, which
he reads to his benefactor and his friend, though we can
make but a single extract from them.
“ In regarding the invariable character of the general mind, it is
easy to perceive the necessity of exercising those arts, which, I am
aware, all that are sensible of the true dignity of virtue, look down
upon with indignation; it is, however, this happy forbearance, this
wise condescension of mind, which has advanced civilization to its
present state. The route to perfection, on all occasions, is long
and winding even to individuals; the cumbrous march of nations is
necessarily slower. Those who have with an intuitive glance com¬
prehended the whole system of existing error, and all the true interests
of mankind, have risen like yourself, and imagined that the disco¬
very, when told, would be adopted, or, at least, applauded. Their
efforts have, however, withered like the immature bloom of natural
productions; but minds of a less vigorous grasp, comprehending
only the local institutions of evil, and labouring to impregnate them
with the mild principle of gradual decay, have been the chief bene¬
factors ot mankind; men of uniform virtue, without the enthusiasm
of genius, constant to their benevolent intentions, and patient in the
endurance of contradiction. \our ambition has been too great to
be successful; your virtue too pure ever usefully to second its at¬
tempts. You have continued too long in the closet of abstraction
to arrive to any considerable honours or influence, the common re¬
wards of qualities such as the open world alone can generate, such
Ill
Augustus; or, the Ambitious Student.
as groveling deference can alone bring to perfection. Had vou
mingled more freely with the world—had you known how, by
timely deference, to advance your own interest without lessening
your own inward dignity by servility, you might have rendered those
your friends who have now hunted you into obscurity; you might
have advanced to power, and realized some portion of the good
which you have always intended.” [pp. 274 — 276 .]
To the friendly attempts made by this faithful friend, to
induce him again to embark on the tempestuous sea of pub¬
lic life, taught by experience how to avoid the errors into
which his love of ideal excellence had led him, Augustus
opposed a firm resistance, determined to spend the remain¬
der of his days in the calm of a lettered retirement. This
comparative solitude is first sweetened by the arrival of the
friend, to whom he had been early and warmly attached, and
whose history forms an interesting episode, illustrative of
the mischievous effects of solitary and abstruse study, and
the indulgence of a restless habit of roving from place to
place, upon the mind and character. But a still higher
charm is soon imparted to it, in the nameless enjoyments of
domestic life; our ambitious student uniting himself to a
lady, to whom, as the kind benefactress of a deserving
object, he was accidentally introduced, during the existence
of his hopeless and aspiring passion for Olympia, compared
with whose acquirements and attractions hers were of too
unimposing a character to awaken in such a mind other
love than" that which is the offspring of reflection and
esteem; slow in its growth, but often more durable in its
existence, and productive in its fruits of happiness and
peace. These Augustus experienced in a happy measure,
whilst he is represented as cultivating with his tw r o friends,
the various branches of useful literature with eminent
success, honoured by his countrymen, and happy in him¬
self; his exalted views of ideal excellence beneficially
operating on his well regulated pursuit of that which is
attainable, even as the world is constituted around us.
The fate of his family we scarce can glance at. His father’s
selfish ambition, for it was but the aggrandisement of him¬
self in his children which he sought, degenerates into ava¬
rice and the meanest parsimony; but he is well nigh ruined,
and quite brokenhearted, by the artifices of his son Charles,
the villain of the piece, thriving by pursuing the crooked
policy, and hollow blandishments of the world. The young¬
est strives in vain to stop this ruinous career; but, involved in
debt,he flies to theWest Indies to avoid disgrace; and returns,
112
Review.
after some years, ruined in health, to die in the arms ol
Augustus, for w hom he discovers some traces of brotherly
affection.
Such is the tale, which is rendered the vehicle of convey¬
ing much useful instruction and admonition to young per¬
sons of a studious habit, or an ambitious turn of mind. It
may teach the enthusiast, who has taken his notion of the
world exclusively from books, that he has much to learn,
and to unlearn, ere he can get forward in that world, or
even mingle, advantageously to himself, with those who have
the greatest influence in it. It will shew, that ambition to be
successful, should possess those requisites for success
which are not to be acquired in the study, but by mingling
in the busy scenes of life, and studying the characters of
men as they appear in action there. The comforts of domes¬
tic life; the advantages of female society, in rubbiug off the
rust, and correcting the abstract notions of the mere scholar;
are also advantageously exhibited, and will not be neglected
by those who are really wise, beyond being so in their own
conceit. On the whole, we ourselves have been much
pleased with the tale; the characters of which are well
drawn, though the incidents are, perhaps, so placed in that
middle region, between the witcheries of romance, and the
probabilities of real life, as to be deprived of much of the at¬
traction of either extreme. The style too is evidently that
of a person much more accustomed to think than to write;
yet, with nothing harsh or repulsive about it, the removal of
a few- verbal repetitions, the result of inexperience in literary
labours, would render it pleasing, if not attractive.
Sermons adapted for Parochial and Domestic Use. By the late
Rev. J. P. Hewlett, M. A. Chaplain of Magdalen and New
Colleges, and Curate of St. Aldates, Oxford, pp. 432.
London. 1821. Simpkin and Marshall.
A plain discourse on Confirmation , addressed to young persons
in humble life. By the same Author. lSrno. pp. 14.
Oxford. 1821. Hinton.
How ever much we might have been disposed to inves¬
tigate the merits of these sermons with the eagle eye of
criticism, the facts stated in the advertisement prefixed to
the volume, would completely have disarmed us. Their
author has passed beyond the reach of human censure and
Hewlett’s Sermons for Parochial and Domestic Use. 113
applause, and we cannot but feel how worthless our opinion
of his labours must appear, could he be made acquainted
with it, to one who has already heard the Well done, good and
faithful servant, of his approving Lord, and entered on the
actual enjoyment of his eternal recompense. But these
sermons “have been, under the divine blessing, instrumental
in turning many from the error of their ways unto the living
God, and of encouraging sincere Christians to persevere
amidst the difficulties and the trials which attend their
course.” They have, therefore, been honoured with tokens
of approbation, which must infinitely surpass, in the esteem
of every correct and pious mind, the highest enconium that
could be uttered from the tribunal of earthly criticism.
That they are not perfect compositions,—that they may
have many defects as literary productions, is allowed, and
accounted for by the circumstance, that “ they were com¬
posed during the short intervals of leisure from the nume¬
rous pastoral and ministerial duties in which the writer was
almost incessantly engaged, and without the remotest idea
of their ever being offered to the notice of the public in
their present form.” But whatever deficiencies they may
present to the eye of a critical reader, or the man of taste,
these sermons have been useful —have been honoured as
instruments in the hand of the Holy Spirit, of producing
effects on the present characters and immortal destinies of
men, such as many sermons distinguished by profound
learning and classic elegance have failed to accomplish,—
because not impregnated with those principles of evange¬
lical truth and holiness which are the life and soul of these
compositions, as they ought to be of all addresses from the
pulpit. Sermons, in our opinion, cannot be too plain in
their style—too distinct and unequivocal in their statements
of truth and duty—too simple and familiar in their illustra¬
tions—or too ardent and affectionate in their expostulations
and appeals. Preachers may give their hearers credit for
knowing and feeling much more than they really do, and
may be intent upon leading them forward to high attain¬
ments in the abstruserand more difficult parts of the Chris¬
tian system, while they are shooting over the heads of by
far the greater part of their congregation, who have need to
be taught what are the first principles of the oracles of God.
We have a fine specimen of that full and lucid statement
of the truth, and that affectionate appeal to the conscience
which we so much admire and recommend, in the first ser-
tol. v.—so. 9. j
114
Review.
mon of this interesting volume. The subject is “ consider¬
ation and prayer.”
u Ah! it is a vain, trifling, worthless world that we live in! and
yet how does it press upon our time, and thoughts, and affections,
and plead for attention, as if its cares, and riches, and pleasures,
hnd pursuits, alone deserved our regard, and the things of another
world were not worth a thought; and how are silly mortals hurried
along with the delusion! else, why those pleas for disregard of
God and religion which we so frequently hear; “ I have no time to
be religious, no time for prayer, no time to read the Bible, or
attend public worship; I have so many engagements that must be
attended to, I have food and raiment to seek, a family to provide
for.” Oh! let me beseech you, be not led away with pleas like
these; they will never, never be allowed as any excuse for your in-
consideration, your inattention to religion, when you come another
day to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. It is right, very
right, that all these things should be attended to: the word of God
commands you to labour diligently, and not to be slothful in busi¬
ness ; and religion neither requires nor allows you to neglect them;
but the concern of another world must be minded too, must have
the first and chief place in your time, thoughts, and affections; or
else, though you may be rich and gay, and respected in this world,
for a few short years, (perhaps less,) you must at last appear before
God in everlasting poverty, misery, and contempt. However
highly you may now think of the things of this world, be assured,
when death and judgment shall open your eyes, you will behold
them as altogether nothing, and lighter than vanity; and the
things of God and religion, , which you now despise or lightly
esteem, will appear the only things worthy the care and pursuit of
an immortal soul. Oh ! then, be persuaded now for a moment to
consider these things in the same point of view in which you must
very shortly contemplate them; and let them have their proper in¬
fluence on your hearts and lives. The Lord our God is one Lord;
infinite, supreme, and eternal in his dominion; we are his creatures,
made by his power, and dependent upon his bounty; hence he de¬
mands the love of our hearts, and the labour of our hands. This is
the first grand truth of revelation, and of the Christian ministry.
The second is, we are apostate creatures, rebels agaiust God, re¬
fusing the obedience we owe him, daily violating his laws, and in
habitual enmity against his perfections and government; in conse¬
quence of our apostasy from God we are ruined miserable creatures,
exposed to the just weight of his vengeance, under the dominion of
sin and Satan, under sentence of everlasting condemnation, without
either the ability to effect, or the inclination to attempt, our rescue.
Wretched state! but we have a message of mercy to deliver unto
you; “ God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlast¬
ing life.” Here then is the news of salvation for ruined man; a
Hewlett’s Sermons for Parochial and Domestic Use. 115
ray of immortality and everlasting life, dawning from the blessed
Gospel. But how is this salvation to be obtained? The same
scripture that reveals it, reveals also the way in which any of the
sinful race of man may become possessed of it, and the evidences
and effects it produces. God’s everlasting love to ruined man, was
the origin of salvation; Christ’s incarnation, obedience, sufferings,
and death, are the meritorious cause. The application of it (by
which we become actual partakers of the benefit,) is by the gracious
Spirit’s holy influences on our hearts, working in us those disposi¬
tions which are necessary to our receiving the truth. These are,
deep sorrow for sin, hatred against it, and a determined forsaking of
it; together with a humble believing dependence on the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Saviour, as he is freely offered in the Gospel; a
hearty acceptance of him as our Saviour; and willingness to be
saved* by him in his own way, a way of humility, self-denial, faith,
and holiness. Add to these great truths of revelation, (the being
and dominion of God, the state of man as a sinner before him, and
the method of salvation by Jesus Christ,) a fourth, which gives im¬
portance and energy to all the rest, viz. That God Almighty “ has
appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained;” even the God-Man Christ
Jesus. That same Jesus who took on him our mortal flesh, and
lived and bled to take away our guilt, and rose triumphant from
the grave, and ascended to the highest throne in glory, shall thence
return on the clouds of heaven, “ with the voice of the archangel
and the trump of God,” attended by myriads of angels, and shall
call every individual of the human race from the darkest recesses
of earth and sea, to assemble round his dread tribunal, and hear
from his unerring lips, the sentence that shall irrevocably fix their
doom in unutterable bliss or agonizing torments; a sentence
founded on the character sustained on earth, according to the deeds
done in the body, whether they were good or evil. These, my
brethren, are the leading topics of our ministry; to one or other of
these grand truths all our addresses have a direct or remote refer¬
ence ; now say, are they, or are they not, worthy of your serious
consideration? Consider, are these matters true? Try if you can
prove that they are false, that you may no longer be harassed with
any uncertainty about them, but may eat and drink, (since to-mor¬
row you die,) and enjoy your mirth and wine, undisturbed by one
intruding: su^srestion—“ What if there should be an hereafter ? what
if for all these things God should bring thee into judgment?”
But I can scarcely suppose there is one in the presence of God
disposed to deny these truths; then consider whether they are
important; consider what salvation is; consider what is the conse¬
quence of dying in a state of enmity with God; what it is to have
an omnipotent arm inflicting everlasting vengeance; consider how
tenfold will be the guilt and condemnation of those who have heard
the news of mercy oply to 4e?P‘se and reject, to crucify the Son of
116
Review.
God afresh, and pour contempt upon the Spirit of grace; consider
how you can stand before God in judgment, or whether there i 3
any possible way of escaping from it; consider what will be the
consequence of being acquitted or condemned; think whether it is
worth while to sell your souls and everlasting bliss, for worldly
gains or sinful pleasures. Consider, again, whether what you hear
is scriptural. We are far, very far from wishing you to take it for
granted that all we say must be true; it is our earnest desire to
speak according to the oracles of God ; and it is your duty (a duty
which we most earnestly and affectionately entreat you will fulfil)
to search the Scriptures daily whether these things are so. Con¬
sider whether they are as certain, as interesting, and as important
as we represent them to be; and if so, whether you receive and act
upon them accordingly; whether, seeing the Lord is your maker
and constant benefactor, you are endeavouring to fulfil the duties
you owe him, of love, gratitude, and obedience. Allowing your¬
selves to be sinners against God, have you ever been humbled and
alarmed on this account? have you ever cried out, with feeling anxiety,
“ Oh, wretched man that that I am! who shall deliver me°? What
shall I do to be saved ?” has the news of salvation been sweet, and
the Saviour precious in your esteem, as he is to all them that be¬
lieve ? Expecting the Lord Jesus to come again and judge the
world, is it your chief concern that you may be then found of him
in peace, without spot and blameless, and stand accepted, not
haying your own righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ
which is by faith ? Thus it is the duty of every hearer of the gos¬
pel to consider and apply what he hears.” [pp. 3—8.]
With such a sample of Mr. Hewlett’s manner, we need
only mention a few of the subjects, in order to give our
readers a general idea of the character of the volume;
Christ, the object of supreme regard,—the Saviour’s lega¬
cy,—Christ crucified,—Nature and advantages of acquaint¬
ance with God—the important inquiry,—the consistent
Christian,—the refuge in trouble,—the Christian pilgri-
mage, call to early piety,—consolation under spiritual
darkness,—pious youth commended to the blessino- of
God,—the pastor’s valedictory address.
As an instance of the author’s deeply pious and affection¬
ate manner, we quote the introduction to the last sermon in
the volume. It was delivered on the first Sabbath in the
year 1819, and proved the last New Year’s address his
people were to hear from their pastor’s lips,—the text is,
" The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.”
“ This is the apostolical benediction which closes the book o
God. The words that immediately precede it employed our medi-
Hewlett’s Sermons for Parochial and Domestic Use. 117
tations on the last Sabbath. We anticipated the Saviour’s pro¬
mised return, and described the dispositions necessary to our
meeting him with composure, confidence, and joy. And now,
brethren, on this day that commences the sabbaths of another
year—this Sabbath that opens the fifteenth year of my ministerial
labours among you; anxious for the success of the past, and un¬
certain as to the continuance of the future; not knowing whether
your minister may be spared to preach, or you to hear at his
mouth the words of eternal life; what language can more suitably
express the new year’s wish of ministerial affection on your behalf,
than that with which the inspired apostle closes the canon of divine
revelation ? Brethren, from my heart and soul I wish you a happy
new year! but I dare not wish it you in the enjoyment of life,
health, wealth, honour, or domestic happiness; for man is blind,
and, asking for temporal good, would often ask amiss: these
things if, and as the Lord will. Your times are in his hand, and
may you ever be well satisfied to leave them there. But without
any limitation or restriction, I wish and pray that through this new
year, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ may be with you all; for
this will sanctify and sweeten all; then all will be right and well,
whether life or death, sickness or health, comfort or affliction,
honour or contempt, poverty or abundance. This will prepare you
for all, enable you to do your duty under all, and at last bring you
out of all into everlasting glory. Therefore receive your pastor’s
affectionate wish and ardent prayer, “ The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you all. Amen.” [pp. 417, 418.]
We cordially recommend these sermons as evangelical,
judicious,—simple and perspicuous in their style,—and
well calculated for village reading, and the purposes of
domestic instruction. We should have been gratified, if, in
addition to the portrait, a brief account of the excellent
author had been prefixed to the volume. We should like
to know something of a life that was so laboriously devoted
to the glory of God, and honoured to be so eminently
useful.
The little tract on Confirmation is calculated to be of ser¬
vice to those who receive that rite, especially to remove
from their minds any false and superstitious notions of its
supposed spiritual virtue.
“ Never forget,” says Mr. Hewlett, “ that if you are made
new creatures and Christians, you were made so by the
blessed God himself; you were not born in that state,
your baptism did not make you so, &c.” We perfectly
coincide with this sentiment, but at the same time are at a
loss how to reconcile it with the following answer to the
question in the catechism of the Established Church,*'Who
118
Review.
gave you that name ?”—Answer, “My godfathers and god¬
mothers in my baptism, wherein I was made a member of
Christ , a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of
heaven .” J
Lorenzo; or. The Tale of Redemption. By J.Roby. Third
Edition, 8vo. pp. 90. London, 1821. Westley.
Unforeseen circumstances, unnecessary to lay before
our readers, have hitherto prevented our notice of this poem,
until a third edition, rather unceremoniously, stared us in
the face; reminding us somewhat peremptorily of our duty,
and giving at the same time, rather a broad hint at our re¬
missness, unavoidable as it was, in not sooner bringing
forward, for the gratification of our friends, a work w hich
ought to be know n and read, and of which, we should feel
happy if another edition were the consequence, and a very
welcome apology to the author for our seeming neo-lect._
In other words, we hope our late notice will serve to direct
the public attention again to his poem, and prevent its w ell-
wrought pages from sinking to the tomb of all the Capulets.
Indeed it would be a bitter reproach to the literary
world, if, whilst the luxurious effusions of our more favoured
poets, or the troublesome suffusions of our Cockney bardlings
are each occupying a place in the records of the day, and
in the thoughts and creations of cotemporary intellect • a
poem of far superior interest, whose imports bear on ever¬
lasting things, should slip unnoticed from the gaze of a
capricious world, or should be checked in its growth by
the rank luxurance of weeds, poisonous and unseemly, which,
alas, flourish but too proudly in our literary domains.
Far be it from us, to recommend any given quantity of syl¬
lables made up into lines of recurring uniformity, merely on
account of the importance of the subject, or the religious
sentiments they contain; on the contrary, we would most
strenuously discourage the youth of the present era of
widely diffused knowledge, from all attempts, however well-
meaning, which only serve to bring true piety into contempt
and injure the cause they wish to promote. ^ *
In this poem, we confess ourselves to have been as highly
pleased with the execution, as with the object and design
The tale is simple, and exceedingly well told. The cha¬
racters are well grouped; the circumstances and situations
interesting; and the incidents pleasingly develbped
119
Lorenzo ; or, the Tale of Redemption,
The first portion which fastened more particularly on our
attention, was the following “ Song” as it is called, though
Elegy we would suggest as a more appropriate term, to the
memory of a youth, who acts a conspicuous part in the
events which the poem unfolds.—We hope our readers will
pardon us for giving it entire, as any abridgment would be
doing great injustice to the author.
Hark! on that sigh a soul hath risen to rest,
Sweet was the smile that bid it burst to life;
A heaven-bom beam illum’d his dying breast,
And gently still’d its last convulsive strife
Calm was the setting of that summer sun,
And round its throne still glory bursts on high;
Tho’ sunk awhile, not yet its race is run,
It decks another, and a brighter sky;
Still round those lips a smile celestial plays,
Sweet presage of the soul’s unchanging lot;
Each weeping friend awhile may sadly gaze
Till grief amid the memory be forgot.' '
A holy triumph sits around his brow,
Calm seems that cheek, as if’twere bliss to die t
But where is fled the soul’s expression now.
Where the deep lustre of that liquid eye ?
Tis clos’d on earth, to joy, or pain, or woe.
Yet not for aye it sleeps in death’s dark night*
Again ’twill in seraphic rapture glow,
Again ’twill rise, and kindle into light!
Attend, ye sons of wealth, and pomp, and power.
Gaze on that form, and mark its heavenly mien.
Your gayest looks in pleasure’s brightest hour,
Ne’er wore one feature of that bliss serene:
Your pleasure is but as the light’ning’s glare
Thro’ jarring clouds of elemental woe,
A transient gleam athwart the dusky air.
That wraps in deeper gloom the world below!
’Twas his, the settled sunshine of the soul,
That ever cheer’d the scene so mild and fair,
O’er that clear sky perchance a cloud might roll,
But still the sun of life and light was there:
His glorious deeds no future tongue may tell.
And history’s page may ne’er record his name;
What though no loud achievement e’er shall swell
The brazen trumpet of unhallow’d fame,
120
Review.
A higher bliss he sought, nor sought in vain
The lowly path which holy men have trod;
Thro’ this wild wilderness of woe and pain,
Heaven his unchang’d support; his refuge God!
Death came not clad in form of fear, or pain,
But gently rose his mission to fulfil,
Soft as the shadow stealing o’er the plain,
Or as the night-breeze dying on the hill!
That evening cloud hath ever swept away
The insect, fluttering on its purple wing,
Which rose to life with momiug’s fairest ray,
And wildly wanton’d in the breath of spring,
That chilling blast hath dimm’d the flow’ret’s bloom
Which spread its opening beauties to the skies;
It withering sinks for ever to the tomb,
From earth’s cold bosom ne’er that flower may rise.
But yon fair form of disembodied light
Hath but exchang’d a prison for a throne,
And soon from heaven will take its joyous flight
To claim the sleeping body for its own!
The third Canto, containing the “ Dream/’ will give pe-
haps the best example of our author’s powers. We take the
following (although very brief) as a specimen :—
“ High rais’d, was seen a shadowy semblance there
Of heaven’s dread King; a human form he wore;
No starry thrones his dignities declare,
A gory cross the royal victim bore:
“ A form of royalty adorn’d his brow,
’Twas not the thick-gemm’d crown by cunning wrought.
His honours to earth’s pomp he scorn’d to owe,
A thorny diadem his foes had brought;
“ His out-stretch’d hand, no regal wand might grace
But bleeding, torn, rude nails those hands divide ;
No ’vengeful weapon went before his face,
A warrior’s spear had pierc’d his wounded side !
“ ‘He dies!’—a shout rose fearful from beneath,
’Twas not from friends those hoarse unholy cries,
’Twas like the triumph from the field of death,
When o’er the vanquish’d foe rude victory flies;
“ Dark grew the scene, and thickly coming forms,
In countless hosts obscur’d the shining air,
121
Lorenzo; or, the Tale of Redemption.
It seem’d as tho’ that burning- sky had storms,
And brooding tempests hung in ambush there.
“ On, on they came, a throng of greedy foes,
Like locusts thickening thro’ the darken’d sky,
In form majestic still their leader rose,
Tho’ fallen far from his high dignity;—
“ A mighty wreck, that told its former pride
Ere from the heaving billow it was cast,
A ruin wild, mid desolation wide,
Now shatter’d, shook, with every restless blast.
“ Once from the host of morning stars he sang
His joyous hymn of gratitude and love.
Amongst that glowing choir his anthem rang,
Highest, and happiest, thro’ the realms above;
“ For loftier honours that proud seraph strove,
He sought to shun just homage to his Lord,
To claim the rapturous theme of bliss above,
That hallow’d name by lieav’n and earth ador’d,
“ Thro’ shining ranks the treacherous poison flew,
And countless armies hail’d him as their own,
When to the heaven of heavens the rebels drew,
Where Godhead fills supreme his radiant throne;
“ Th’ Almighty spake, and terror shook his foes,
Swift from his face rude storms in vengeance sweep,
He blew, and fiery floods o’erwhelming rose—
They sank for ever in that mighty deep.
“ Foremost of that innumerable host,
Prone from his height the arch-apostate fell;
In deeper woe than they, eternal toss’d—
Tho’ higher once, he found a lower hell!”
The opening of the fourth Canto is calm and refreshing,
after the bustle and deep interest of the preceding stanzas,
and to it we would specially direct the attention of our
readers, as we would also to the beautiful account
of the Fall and Redemption of our race, to both which
passages we regret that it is impossible for us to give a place
in our pages; though we hope our readers will repair the
omission, by placing the entire poem on their shelves.
There are two or three occasional poems at the end, from
which we take the following specimen:—
122
Review.
HOPE.
There is a beam upon the hill,
There is a light, that lingers still
On ocean’s breast;
There is a blush of rosy light
Steals o’er the diadem of night,
Far in the west.
A starry gem now sparkles there,
Piercing the robe of misty air
That wraps the earth.
And breaks thro’ day’s departing gleam,
A trembling and unborrow’d beam
Of heav’nly birth.
So when life’s changing hour hath pass’d,
And death’s cold shades are gathering fast
Around thy head,
A ray of heaven will pierce the gloom,
And glimmer on thy closing tomb,
When day is fled !
Tho’ setting now yon smiling ray,
And softly falls around thy way
Eve’s parting glow;
It tells of days to come, as bright
As that which now hath turn’d its flight
To skies below;
And tho’ that night is dark and drear,
And clouds are hovering o’er thee there
Of doubt and sorrow,
So sure as darkness dims thy skies,
Will on thy gladden’d vision rise
Another morrow!
Then why this dread foreboding fear^
If death’s cold hand, or sorrow’s tear
Pass o’er thy cheek.
Darkness will but endure thro’ night,
And joy returns, when morning light
That gloom shall break.
We have been so much occupied in culling the flowers
from this little parterre, that we have not had either inclina¬
tion or opportunity to notice the few weeds which here and
there disfigure its surface. It is now too late; we have ex¬
ceeded our limits too far to notice them more particularly,
and we must conclude by reminding Mr, Roby, that if he
Memoirs and Remains of S. F. Durant. 123
comes before us again, which from his success in the present
instance, we make no doubt will happen, and we care not how
speedily, we shall devote more room to what he may
term a microscopical view, both of his beauties and defects,
as each may present itself; and, perhaps, by this means
render more equal justice to the author, and to our readers,
than we have been able to do in this brief sketch,—one of
those compositions with our creditors, which we are hasten¬
ing to pay, where books have unavoidably laid upon our
tables long after their merits and demerits ought to have
been noticed in our pages.
Memoirs and Select Remains of an only Son, who died November
27th, 1821, in his nineteenth year; while a Student in the
University of Glasgow. By Thomas Durant, Poole, Dor¬
set. 2vols. 12mo. Poole, 1822. Longman, pp. 238, 284.
The close of a long w'ar, and the prospect (we hope we
may say the well-founded prospect) of a lengthened peace,
have necessarily throw n into the learned professions a num¬
ber of young men, who would otherwise have “ sought
reputation in the cannon’s mouth.” Of these, the greater
proportion,perhaps, have turned their attention to the Bar;
and as there is reason to apprehend that many parents will
hereafter make the same election for children, to w hom their
partiality may allot a brilliant course, or their pride assign
a w T retched one, we cannot, perhaps, better improve the
premature removal of a candidate pre-eminently qualified
for the attainment of its highest honours, than by con¬
necting with our notice of this most interesting youth, a
contrast of the splendid allurements, and the scarcely sur¬
mountable difficulties, of his destined path.
That young men ofaspiring dispositions should be attracted
by the honours of this profession, we marvel not; nor that
parents should have an eye upon its emoluments. For
many years the Bar has been at least a by-road to the
highest offices in the state. The talents and the daring of
its members have often wrested the post, at once of honour
and of danger in the cabinet, from patrician blood, and
political influence. Pitt, Addington, Perceval, Vansittart,
to say nothing of Bathurst, Croker, Grant, and a host of
inferior members of the administration, w’ere lawyers before
they were financiers; and, with but one exception of great
professional success, from briefless barristers, had the good
124
Education for the Bar.
fortune to be metamorphosed into chancellors of the exche¬
quer, and some of them into prime ministers of the country.
If we look to the peerage, we shall find that it has been
equally indebted for its augmentation to the gown, as to
the sword, perhaps more so; and there have been ennobled
lawyers, whose descendants need not to retire into the
shade, when the pride of ancestry shall recount the exploits
of a Marlborough or aWellington, in the field ; or of a Nelson
on Britain’s own element, the deep. # Such men were Cla¬
rendon, Somers, Hardwicke, Camden, Mansfield, Thurlow;
the ablest of our judges, or some of the most enlightened of
our statesmen. Humanly speaking, they have generally
been the architects of their own fortune; and have owed to
merit and to labour what many of their contemporaries,
whom they have outstripped in the race of fortune and of
fame, obtained by wealth, connections, influence, patronage;
or inherited from their fathers with their estates. All this
we admit is encouraging, exhilarating, alluring ; but is it
not also delusive ? We read and hear of several distinguish¬
ed individuals who have risen from the ordinary, & some
even from the lower walks of life, to the highest dignities
* We give the following as a hasty,, but tolerably accurate list of
our existent military and naval, contrasted with our legal, peerages.
It pretends not to be complete ; but is in the lawyer’s phrase cy pres
as to evince, when it is considered that two professions are mar¬
shalled against one, that the assertion in the text is not unfounded.
wibllAKI AMU NAVAL.
Dukes —Norfolk, Somerset, Marlborough, Rutland, Portland, New¬
castle, Northumberland, Wellington, Buckingham.
Marquises —Northampton, Hastings.
Earls— Derby, Pembroke, Suffolk, Denbigh, Lindsey, Sandwich,
Essex Berkeley, Plymouth, Rochford, Albemarle, Dartmouth, Stan¬
hope, Effingham, De la Warr, St. Vincent, Cadogan, Craven, Clive
Nelson, Grey. ’
Fwcou«ts—Hereford, Courtenay, Hood, Duncan, Anson, Lake.
Keith, Gardiner, Torrington.
Barons —De Clifford, Dacre, Stourton, Arundel of Wardour Bv-
ron, Ducie, Hawk, Amherst, Rodney, Howard de Walden, Dor¬
chester, Howe, Abercrombie, Hutchinson, Barham, Gambier. Lvne-
doch, Combermere, Hill, Beresford, Stewart, Harris.
LEGAL.
Dukes —Manchester, Dorset.
Marquises— Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter, Camden.
, j ai Jf Bridgewater, Nottingham, Shaftesbury, Coventry, Avles-
ford, Cowper.Macclesfield, Harcourt, Guildford, Hardwicke, Claren¬
don, Mansfield, Talbot, Rosslyn, Onslow, Harrowby, Eldon.
Viscounts —Trevor, Melville, Sidmouth.
}^v ° nS ~° Kln . g ’ ® inevor * Walsingham, Ashburton, Grant-
ley, Kenyon Thurlow, Auckland, Fitzgibbon. Alvanley, Redesdale,
Ellenborough, Erskine, Ponsonby, Manners, Colchester, Stowell.
125
Memoirs and Remains of S. F. Durant.
and emoluments of the law; and the fond parent naturally,
and perhaps even allowably, asks himself, if the children of
a Northumbrian coalfitter, educated on the foundation of a
grammar-school, fill the very highest stations in the two
different walks of this lucrative and honourable profession ;
if one of its most exalted and responsible posts has been
held by the son of a hair-dresser ; why may not my sons, to
whom I can give greater advantages, rise as high, and in¬
crease the fortune, and ennoble the name, I shall leave
them? In such a calculation, they forget, however, how
many blanks there are in this lottery to a prize: and that,
though the purchase of a chance of drawing blank after
blank, is inevitably the consumption of a decent mainte¬
nance for life, the Twenty Thousands fall but to the lot of
few, -whilst the minor capitals are gained at so dear a rate
that they are seldom worth the having.
Let it not, however, from these remarks be imagined that
we are disposed to underrate the chances of success, or to
magnify the difficulties of candidates for distinction at the
Bar. We wish only to give a fair representation of each,
that from a comparison, founded on somewhat more know¬
ledge of the subject than has been possessed by many who
have written upon it, those who are interested in the matter
may be enabled to exercise a sound judgment, before they
take a step sooner repented of than it can be remedied; and
in doing so we are willing to give the fair side of the ques¬
tion the precedence.
That the bar is an honourable profession, cannot be doubt¬
ed. It has been esteemed so in all ages and all countries.
The greatest orators that ever lived were members of it.
Demosthenes and Cicero, the two great masters of elo¬
quence, were forensic advocates ; and if the world has never
yet seen their equals, our own times have given few, if any,
specimens of oratory to excel the speeches delivered by
Erskine at the English, and by Curran at the Irish bar.
In our own country we have already shewn that it has led
to the highest rank, and exalted the humblest names.
It is independent. In the church, who knows not that
where merit forces its way to one bishopric, or valuable
living, rank, parliamentary interest, wealth, connections,
(the very last appointments to the Irish Sees to wit,) gain a
hundred. Even in the army, these have commanding in¬
fluence ; and there also the man who has bled again and
again in his country’s cause, often wears his barren laurels
on a veteran brow, under the command of some sprig of
126 Education for the Bar.
nobility, or wealthy stripling, young enough to be his grand¬
son, but who by purchase or by favour has obtained the rank,
which, if merit only had been consulted, would justly have
been his. Medical practitioners owe more perhaps to their
talents and exertions than those to whom we have just re¬
ferred ; but even with them, how much can be recommen¬
dation of persons of influence, in the world of fashion, do
for a blockhead and a charlatan, whilst, for want of pa¬
tronage and the magic of a name, the cleverest man may
pass the meridian of his days in obscurity, and never indeed
emerge from its dense and chilling atmosphere. From all
this, or nearly from it all, the Bar is happily exempt. We
have honourable and reverend prelates by the dozen ; deans,
prebendaries, and other ecclesiastical dignitaries, by the
score; and rich incumbents without number; but amongst
the judges of the land we have not one : nor has more than
a solitary instance occurred of the member of a noble
family being seated on the woolsack or the bench during
the times in which we have lived. At the Bar, indeed, there
have been, and still are, several, though w r e recollect but
one, or at the furthest two, who gained either fame or for¬
tune there. Many of these are to be found on the list of
commissioners of bankrupts, or in the enjoyment of some
other of the good things which government has to distri¬
bute amongst the members of the profession; but they are
seldom heard of in our courts. Few, if any, of its honours
are now to be purchased ; and if they were, they would for
the most part be without emoluments, if the purchaser,
with an Indian lac of money had an English lack of brains.
Strong and powerful connections may push a man forward if
he has talents, but they can do nothing for him if he has
not; or if they attempt it, will do worse. We have known
more than one promising young man seriously injured—the
prospects of some, indeed, we have seen irretrievably ruin¬
ed, by the injudicious haste of zealous, but mistaken
friends, to thrust them into business which they have
wanted experience to conduct with credit to themselves, or
advantage to their clients: and if this has been the case
where there were talents which w'anted but time to mature,
and a regular accession of practice advantageously to dis¬
play them, complete must have been the disappointment,
—utter the discomfiture,w here the first great and long-looked
for exhibition, was but an exhibition of ignorance and in¬
sufficiency, unbroken by one ray of promise, or gleam of
intellect, to cheer the gloom of despair, by the most distant
127
Memoirs and Remains of S. F. Durant .
hope for the future. We have now, in imagination, before us,
or rather in our recollection, an unfortunate barrister, who,
by the solicitations of friends, procured the conduct of a de¬
fence in a government prosecution of some importance.
He had got up his speech with great care, and given very
intelligible hints to every body he knew, that they might
expect a rare specimen of oratory at its delivery; and this was
the only part of his promises which he fulfilled, for, from its
foundation to that hour, Westminster Hall had never wit¬
nessed such an one, and in all probability never will do
again. Its absurdity and extravagance beggars all descrip¬
tion ; we therefore shall attempt none, but satisfy ourselves
with describing in a much humbler style the catastrophe,
when, after having brought his philippic to a sudden close,
amidst the laughter of a crowded court, including judge, jury,
barristers, crier, bailiffs, all indeed but the unfortunate
client, to whom such sport was death—the discomfited ora¬
tor indignantly retired to his native mountains, there, like
the fancied prototype of his eloquence, to declaim, without
distraction of his lofty thoughts, to the foaming billows of
the ocean. At this occupation w r e must leave him, as no
intelligence has reached his quondam companions of his
nervous declamation having calmed them to repose, and
proceed with our remarks. To the independence of the Bar
there is doubtless one drawback. All, or nearly all, its
honours are at the disposal of ministers, who seldom
give any thing away without a quid pro quo. Hence are its
members proverbial for political apostasy, familiarly termed
ratting. The principal legal appointments have for many
years been bestowed by a Tory administration upon con¬
verted Whigs, or, in piain English, upon men who have
sacrificed their principles for their places ; and so notori¬
ously has this been the case, that a very staunch supporter
of government in parliament, and out of it, who but lately
obtained a silk gown and a Welsh judgeship, remarked, with
no less truth than force, that it was a much better specula¬
tion to oppose the ministry until you are worth buying of}',
than on principle to afford them your best support. In
*ruth, with a few, and but a very few, splendid exceptions,
we have a very low opinion of the political integrity of the
Bar, and habitually suspect the most flaming and vociferous
of their patriots, as waiting but the offer of their price.
With such golden baits as it is in the power of ministers to
hold out, and in their power alone, happy indeed do we
consider that barrister whose political opinions are (without
128
Education for the Bar.
a bias) upon the right side, though we fear, that he
will be much less rapidly promoted, than he who has talents
and opportunity to support, and pliancy to desert the
wrong one.
Next to being honourable and independent, we may place
amongst the allowably alluring attractions of this profes¬
sion, that it is in the highest degree gentlemanly. Even
the army is not more strict, if as strict, in maintaining
amongst its members a discipline that shall repress every
approximation to what is dishonourable and mean. No
paltry tricks, or improper condescensions to obtain practice,
are tolerated; on the contrary, they can only be adopted to
the ruin of those who have so little respect for their profes¬
sion or themselves, as to stoop to them. The etiquette of
that profession, a lex non scripta, admirally adapted, to use
the true legal phrase, “ from time whereof the memory of
man runneth not to the contrary” to ensure its respectability,
like the law r s of the Medes and Persians, admits not, with
impunity, of the slightest infringement; and he who will¬
ingly and contumaciously violates it, does so at the certain
peril of the destruction of all the prospects in life that are
connected with his continuance at the Bar; for there he
cannot continue with any chance of success, if once his
brethren, who as a body act in perfect unison where their
honour is concerned, for ungentlemanly and unprofessional
conduct have cut him off from their society, and put in
execution against him the ullimum supplicium to which they
resort, (and an effectual one it is,) a refusal to hold a brief
with him.
It were, perhaps, rather a subdivision of the last head of
our remarks, than a head of itself, to add, that in its practice
the profession is a liberal one. Here are no bills to be
delivered; no disputing their items—no haggling about
prices, or underselling competitors. The fees which a bar¬
rister receives are so completely considered as gratuities,
that, like those of a physician, they cannot be recovered in
our courts. Having, too, his own reputation, and with his
reputation his professional advancement at stake, he is re¬
moved above the mere sordid influence of money; and habi¬
tually exerts himself as zealously for the solitary guinea of
the prisoner, as the special retainer* of the opulent client.
* A special retainer is the fee paid to a barrister, on being engaged
in a cause on a different sessions or circuit to that which he regularly
attends. In the tormer case it can never be less than thirty guineas,
in the latter, it must at the least be three hundred,
129
Memoirs and Remains of S. F. Durant.
Bound to render his best assistance wherever it is- demand¬
ed, he cannot bargain for his services, or choose the side that
pays the best; but, compelled to take the first that may re¬
tain him, his remuneration is left to the ability, or the gene-
rosity, of those for whom he appears; and, by an invariable
rule of the profession, it can never, save by prospective
computation, be measured either by his labour or his suc¬
cess. The cause once over, his fee cannot be altered—labo¬
riously or unexpectedly as it may have been won, he cannot
accept more than he already had received, with the possi¬
bility of its being compromised or lost. Without reward
too, he is bound to undertake the case of any man who,
suing in forma pauperis, or being, in other words, too poor
to give a fee, wishes for his assistance, and prays the court
to assign him as a counsel. In some cases of nigh treason
this has often happened, to the consumption of a large por¬
tion of a barrister’s time, and at the expense of much labour
and anxiety, in the discharge of an arduous and unpleasant
duty. The Bar too are effectually removed from those un¬
pleasant feelings but too often engendered and indulged in
other walks of life, and even amongst some of the liberal
professions, from a collision of interests; far amongst them
no mean jealousies of each other’s success are indulged, or,
if indulged, as rarely is the case, can never exhibit them¬
selves for any continuance but to the annoyance of the exhi¬
bitor. Whatever personal aversions or coldness may exist
out of court, there is no display of it in the conduct of
business, when those who entertain it are either associated
with, or opposed to each other in the management of a cause.
“ My learned friend,” may sometimes be a hollow expres¬
sion, and is often an unmeaning one; but it has always the
semblance at least of a courtesy, which, felt or feigned,
contributes greatly to rub off the asperities, that might
naturally be expected from the zealous supporters of oppo¬
site interests, whom personal dislike has not predisposed to
much conciliation.
Its society and associations are agreeable and attractive. The
rank of a barrister is sufficiently high to admit him into
the best company; but in none will he meet with more plea¬
sant society, (ladies of course being put out of the compa¬
rison,) than that, in which he will spend a great portion of
his time, in the hall of his inn of court, or round the com¬
mon table of his circuit, or his sessions, where few but his
brethren assemble. They are all men of education, well
informed on most subjects—gentlemanly almost without
vol. v.— no. 9. K
130
Education for the Bar.
exception in their manners; with as little qualification, kind
and courteous to each other; and anxious, from an esprit de
eorps which no where has a more powerful influence, to
render as agreeable as possible the weeks and months
which they necessarily pass together in a sort of a semi-
domesticated state.
Lastly, we recur to a point, to which, we suspect, that
most aspiring candidates for the honours of the Bar, and all
parents who consider themselves prudent, direct their first
regards:—the profession may be extremely lucrative. We
have good reason to believe, that, here and there, a leader
has made from fifteen to twenty thousand pounds a year,
and that the income of several of them has not been less
than ten. Nor is it to be denied, that there are many
barristers, whose annual professional receipts might be
classed between five thousand pounds and two ; though
more perhaps would rank between two and one. The offi¬
cial practice of the Attorney General, is not, perhaps, over¬
stated at eight thousand pounds a year, nor that of the
Solicitor at three; whilst of the income of the Chancellor, or
the accumulations of his fortune, all the produce of the law,
who would venture on a guess ? We at least could live like
princes upon the tythe.
Honourable, independent, liberal, gentlemanly; highly
agreeable in its society, and lucrative withal—what more, it
maybe asked, would you desire? a question to which we
return this brief answer, a reasonable prospect of the attain-
mentof a moderate share of these advantages, by one in twenty
engaged in the pursuit of them. Where emolument is either
no object, or but a secondary one, and may without incon¬
venience be dispensed with, we would not say any thing in
the way of dissuasion from the pursuit. On the contrary
where a gentleman can leave his son a moderate in¬
dependency, requiring no addition for his support, in the style
in which he has been accustomed to live, we would say, by
all means send him to the Bar, that he may have some pur¬
suit to follow if he pleases, and some one body of the com¬
munity with which he will be connected. It is not often in¬
deed, that a rich student of the law is an assiduous one; or,
that a barrister who can do without the toil of his profession’
follows it laboriously for its honours. But, success in this
case, though desirable, is not essential; where it is, the fol¬
lowing considerations, on the other side of the question,
should be maturely weighed, before a failure of its attain¬
ment is hazarded.
131
Memoirs and Remains of S. F. Durant.
The profession, then, is expensive: not only is a large sum
. sunk in laying the foundation of a good education, and in
the five years at the least of its more immediate preparatory
studies; but still larger sums must be expended, durino- the
many years that, in nearly every case, must elapse, before
its receipts equal its disbursements. Circuits and Sessions
are not travelled for nothing; and those which eventually
map he the most productive, are from the first entrance upon
them, certainly the most expensive. Add to this, chamber
rents, ahvays high; a library unavoidably large, and composed
of books unusually high-priced, in comparison with others,
and continually increasing; the salary and maintenance of a
clerk; and your own support in the style of a gentleman, ne¬
cessarily led, at least occasionally, into expensive associa¬
tions ; and it may be pretty safely asserted, that no young
man can prudently enter on the hazards of his professional
career as a barrister, (unless indeed, his connections are un¬
usually strong, and his own capabilities of availing himself
of them more than commonly promising,) with less than
five hundred a year at his command.
The qualifications for eminent success in it, are not of an
ordinary description. No profession requires so general
an acquaintance with men and things. All the concerns and
occupations of life afford matter of discussion in our courts;
and a barrister in full practice must have to discuss them
there. He should therefore not only be a good mathemati¬
cian, as many of them are, but a ready commercial account¬
ant, as few even of the senior wranglers amongst them
have been ; for into the most intricate mercantile questions
he will often have to examine, and cannot make himself un¬
derstood by a wdtness or a jury, on a subject of which he
is utterly ignorant himself. There w T as indeed much good
sense in the observation of one of our judges, who, whilst
at the Bar, had the first practice of his day, that if he had
a son to train up for the profession, he w r ould send him for
a year or tw T o into a merchant’s counting house. With the
terms of art in every trade and profession he will find it to
his advantage to be familiar, as of trades and manufactures
he cannot know more than will be of use to him. To the
proper conducting of some cases, even a certain degree of
medical knowledge, and its vocabulary, is essential; as, in
murders, man-slaughters, and some other crimes not neces¬
sary to be specified, the life of the prisoner w’hom he may be
called upon to prosecute or defend, will mainly depend upon
the evidence of practitioners in that profession, who never
132
Education for the Bar.
speak in a witness box, but in technicalities, and often upon
points on which very nice shades of distinction may turn
the verdict of a jury. On those points, such for instance,
as the operation and appearances occasioned by poisons,
sudden rupture of blood-vessels, apoplexy, &c. several of
our judges and advocates have exhibited considerable skill;
and we have had reason to know, that one at least of the
former has very deeply studied them, that he might more
faithfully discharge the duties of his high and responsible
station; an example, which all those who are concerned in
the administration of justice in our courts of criminal juris¬
prudence, would do well to follow. To this encyclopaedia
acquaintance with the arts and sciences should be added,
an accurate and ready discrimination of character, to direct
him in his examination and cross-examination of witnesses,
on which, more frequently than on any thing else, the issue
of a cause, and the success of an advocate, mainly depends.
In our common law courts, this indeed is all but exclu¬
sively the forte that must conduct to the first and most
lucrative practice; as without it, no man will be extensively
employed as a leader, though his junior business may be
very good. Patience, a most useful virtue every where, is
peculiarly so at the bar; for without it, no one can surmount
the drudgery of hunting cases, and drawing pleadings, of all
occupations, to which the mind of a man of genius can be
chained, (the dullest parts of the mathematics not excepted,)
the driest of the dry. “ Have the goodness to draw me a
special demurrer to this plea,” said an attorney to one of
the late ornaments of the English bar, more celebrated
for his commanding eloquence, than his legal acumen.
“ A special demurrer to one of-’s pleas!” said the
facetious barrister. “ I had much rather draw a light cart
up Hampstead hill, if you will allow me.” Few men, how¬
ever, dare venture on such jokes or such refusals; and, nolens
volens, they must, if required, ring the changes upon the same
thing through pleadings which may fill, as in one case we
recollect an indictment only to have done, five-and-thirty
yards of parchment, statute measure. Judgment and discre¬
tion are also essential requisites to permanent success; as, for
want of it,many a showy ,pert,and superficial advocate has hung
more clients, and lost more causes, than his pragmatical and
mere ad captandum talents will ever win or save. These,
with a certain class of practitioners, may take for a while,
and business may flow in unexpectedly fast; but the bar¬
rister who relies upon them for advancement, will find himself
133
Memoirs and Remains of S. F. Durant.
woefully mistaken in the end; and his fate will be infinitely
worse than that of those, who never get into practice,—that
of losing it faster than it was attained.
An advocate in large practice for a continuance, without
really deserving to be so, is indeed, as rare an occurrence as
we meet with in a world, where things the most unaccount¬
able do sometimes astonish us. And even with all these
qualifications, rarely falling, it must be seen, to the lot of
one highly gifted man, a crowning requisite may be wanting
still, and that- is natural readiness ,—for acquired it cannot be,
as may be the case in time with that confidence (miscalled
impudence, by a slanderous world, as exhibited at the bar,)—
without which an advocate can never rise.
These two combined, will give a man of comparatively
moderate abilities and attainments, a decided superiority
over others, in these respects infinitely his superior, without
them. These, we apprehend, are matters to which the
youthful aspirant for forensic honours does not often direct
his attention, nor do the more experienced abettors of his
wishes give them all the attention they demand. The lad
writes, perhaps, a few florid themes at school, or distin¬
guishes himself by superiority, in what is dubbed elocution
in those public exhibitions there, which in nine instances
out of ten are productive, we cannot but think, of more
harm than good—his fond parents immediately pronounce
him a genius, and a flattering schoolmaster persuades them
that it would be smothering splendid talents not to send him
to the Bar. If he should have some oratorical capabilities
of a superior order, his fortune is supposed to be made the
moment he puts on his gown and wig, and makes his ap¬
pearance in the courts—but they, good easy folks, too little
think, the while, how long it will be ere he may have an op¬
portunity of opening his lips there, but in a capacity infinitely
beneath his mighty powers; or if he be nothing but a speaker,
how few are the occasions, in w r hich the eloquence of an
advocate can be called forth ;—and a merely eloquent man
will cut but a sorry figure in arguing a special case upon a
dry point of law, or shewing cause against a rule upon a
nice point of practice. A faculty of extemporaneous speak¬
ing, and of speaking powerfully and gracefully, is, we admit,
amongst the requisites of a successful barrister, but time is
ill bestowed upon its exclusive cultivation, as many a
plodding lawyer of hesitating speech, has been in large
practice at the bar, and elevated himself by the solidity of
his talents to the bench, whilst the animated spouters,
134
Education for the Bar.
ruined by. the thunder of applause, with which their extra¬
vaganzas were formerly received at debating societies, have
been left, we had almost said, to starve.
The profession is most laborious , and must be unremittingly
pursued. A jaded post-horse at an election, or tired hack
in London streets upon a rainy Sunday, is the most appro¬
priate comparison, that occurs to us, of the exertions of a
leading barrister in full practice. In term time, at the sit¬
tings, on the circuit, and even at sessions, until he is raised
above attending them, his post from nine, sometimes from
eight in the morning till six at night, is a crowded and a heated
court;—his occupation there, the conducting in succession
as they are called on, causes “de omnibus rebus ”— “ et quibus-
dam a/iis,” it may properly be added, which an Irishman
would describe, as being “ about just nothing at all,” and a
sober English judge and jury, will tell him are without any
thing in them. “ From grave to gay, from pleasant to severe,”
it is more habitually his duty to rove than the poets: and un¬
happily, these changes are so sudden, that his humour or tem¬
per can never be consulted in the case; for a trumpery
assault, which he has to laugh out of court, may immedi¬
ately succeed an aggravated crim. con. where all his eloquence
and pathos will be called forth, to obtain the heaviest
damages against the base seducer of the wife of his bo¬
som friend. Actions for goods sold and delivered—seduc¬
tion—tythes—libels on the religion or government—bills of
exchange—false imprisonment—special bonds—malicious
prosecutions— qui iam penalties for shooting a hare—and
breaches of promise of marriage, well nigh breaking some
fair damsel’s heart—follow each other in such rapid and
irregular succession, that on a mind undisciplined to this
dissociation and confusion of ideas, as brief is changed
for brief at the crier’s call of the number of the cause, the
apprehension will intrude itself, that chaos was come again.
Yet, without the choice of time or of part—for whether he
is to assert the right, or do his best to justify the wrong, is
all a lottery, and on the different hearings of the 6ame case, he
may sometimes be “shifting his side, as a lawyer knows
how,”—he must proceed onward with his task, sometimes
interrupted in the midst of his acutest and most -important
cross-examinations, to battle the nice and dry objections of
his antagonist, on the admissibility of evidence; or arrested
in the full tide of succesful eloquence, by the harsh and dis¬
sonant shouts of the javelin men, “ Mr.-is wanted in
the other court. From that court, or the one he is sum-
Memoirs and Remains of S. F. Durant . 135
moned from, if lie should not be detained, as he often may,
especially towards the close of an assize, until a late hour,
or even until midnight, by a tedious cause, he retires to a
hasty dinner at the circuit table, oftener to a hastier one at
his lodgings; and will generally be engaged from that time
to ten o’clock, in consultations with his junior counsel and
attorneys, leaving him no time to read his briefs for the next
day, but that which he snatches from the hours which most
men are devoting to recreation or repose. This is the
laborious routine of his life for the greater part of the year;
separated from his family and his home, where he is more a
lodger than the host. Formerly he had some cessation
during the long vacation—but what with increase of busi¬
ness upon the circuits and sessions, and sittings before, as
well as after term, in town, this holiday is long but in name,
as it would scarcely afford time for a wedding journey, or
the most rapid continental tour. The absence of a rising
barrister from his circuit, is injurious to his interests in no
ordinary degree; and even those w T ho only hope to rise, must
be constantly at their post, though for years they should
only shew that they are there ready to avail themselves of
any of that reversionary interest, which the diligent some¬
times unexpectedly obtain. “ Keep your chambers,” said
an old stager in the conveyancing department of the pro¬
fession, to one of his pupils just entering upon business for
himself, “and your chambers will keep you.” This will not
always be the case upon the circuit, or in the courts, though
those who through every discouragement are the most con¬
stant in attendance there, have naturally the fairest prospect
of eventually rendering their attendance productive.
Finally, there is a fearful preponderance against the chances
of success, in the pursuit of the profession. Were we skilled
in Newmarket lore, or the learning of De Moivre, we should
state the odds at twenty to one against a barrister’s obtain¬
ing a maintenance by his profession in a dozen years, and
a hundred to one against his making a fortune in it during
life. It has already been incidentally stated, that he can do
nothing to push himself forward, as he may in other walks
of life; but, waiting patiently for an opportunity of display¬
ing the talents he may possess, he will often see men less
qualified for business obtain it before him, though he may
perhaps eventually outstrip them far in the race of fortune
and of fame.
The rule of seniority, long established, and inflexibly ad¬
hered to at the Bar, is unquestionably a serious check upon
136
Education for the Bar.
the early rise, even of the ablest men. Few solicitors would
venture to employ a man, of but four or five years standing
in any important cause alone, or to give him the assistance
but of his juniors—and if an advocate of but a year, or even
a day’s seniority, should be associated with him, on that
senior will the conduct of the cause devolve, leaving him
but to read the pleadings from his brief; examine witnesses
in his turn, nor even then, if his leader choose to take them
out of his hands; (a thing, by the way, which some leaders
are very apt, without necessity, to do,) and to second the
legal objections, which that leader may make, or be called
upon to answer; for on points of law alone can the juniors
on either side be heard. For some years after his call, there¬
fore, it is next to impossible for a barrister to distinguish
himself, and but rare are the instances in which, from
strong available connections and influence, he speedily gets
into large practice in that secondary business, for which
many, very many of his contemporaries will be as fully
qualified as himself, though they may not have any thing
like the talents for its more important duties, which he may
want but the opportunity to display. If he possess the latter
in an eminent degree, and has some few friends, willing and
able to advance his interests, when the proper time for doing
so shall arrive, there can be no question, that if health and
strength be continued, the way to eventual success in his
profession is clear before him; and that, though late perhaps
in life, distinction and riches will be his. But if, with every
mental requisite for that success, he has no opportunity of
making his possession of them known, he may travel year
after year, a briefless barrister, upon a circuit where he is
known, except to his brethren, but by name, exposed to the
mortification of junior after junior, inferior in pretensions
and solid attainments as they may be, passing by him in
the race, of which he is scarcely more than a spectator; until,
disappointed and disgusted at a fate, which he ought to have
anticipated, he turns country gentleman; procures, if he has
interest, some legal appointment in the colonies; takes refuge
in the church; or, if he has connections in other parts,
quietly settles down for life, a provincial advocate, abandon¬
ing, for a competency for himself and family, or it may be
somewhat more, all the honours of his profession to more
ambitious or more patiently enduring men.
W hich of these classes, the extraordinarily gifted young
man, the publication of whose remains has given rise to
this dissertation, would have occupied; had his life been
Memoirs and Remains of S. F. Durant. 137
spared, it is difficult, indeed impossible, to predicate; but of
this we entertain no doubt, that had his oratorical talents
equalled his taste for composition—his bodily strength cor¬
responded with the vigour of his mind, (points on which, the
want of a personal acquaintance with him, which we in vain
regret, prevents our saying any thing,) in patience, industry,
acuteness, prudence, discrimination, he was so peculiarly
qualified for success, that if he had not attained a high rank
in his profession, the fault would not have been in him, but
in that want of opportunity to display his talents, which
has thrown into the shade many a lawyer who possessed them
in a scarcely less eminent degree.
William Friend Durant, the interesting subject of these
interesting volumes, was born on the 7th of January, 1803,
where, we are not told, but we presume, at Poole, in Dorset¬
shire, in which town his parental biographer has long been
the settled pastor of a highly respectable Independent church.
His mother (formerly a INIiss Friend, of Newbury,) was a
woman highly gifted with the accomplishments of her sex,
and possessed also of a vigour of mind and decision of cha¬
racter not always connected with them. From the earliest
moment at which education could commence, she devoted
herself to the training up her child in the way in which she
wished him to go, with a devotedness and perseverance,
but the counter-part of the resolutions of her husband, whose
fitness for so important an office no reader of these pages
can for a moment doubt. Steadiness in pursuing a plan
deliberately formed—a resolute determination to act in
perfect unison in its execution, or at least never to let their
charge perceive that there was the slighest difference of
opinion between them, with respet to it—never frightening
him into obedience, deceiving him or suffering him to be
deceived,—on no account permitting him to carry apointby
importunity, or allowing themselves to be conquered by his
obstinacy,—these were some of the prominent features of a
system of early education, the steady pursuit of which,
under the blessing of God, formed one of the loveliest cha¬
racters that we recollect to have met with in the whole
range of modern biography.
By such parents, as it was his happiness to possess, we may
easily conceive, that the formation of his religious character
would be considered an object of the first importance. At
an early age, they accordingly pointed out to him such
proofs of the existence of a God, and evidences of a divine
revelation, as his mental powers, unfolding themselves with
138
Education for the Bar.
unusual rapidity, and no ordinary growth, could receive. His
sabbaths were made always delightful to him.
“His exercises,” says his father, “at the close of the public
services, were of peculiar importance to him ; and they produced an
effect equally salutary on his understanding and his heart. From
the age of five, his mother was wont, on the Sabbath evening, to
take him, alone, upon her knee, to cause him to repeat what he
could remember of the sermons which he had heard; and to pray
over what he had recollected. He then said that hymn from Dr.
Watts, “ Lord, how delightful ’t is to see,” &c. The prospect of
this evening engagement insured his attention at the place of wor¬
ship; and the success with which he would, when so young,
recapitulate almost every leading sentiment he had heard, gratified
both his dear teacher and himself. These exercises he continued
almost till his beloved mother’s death; and never shall I forget the
manner in which, when a great boy of nearly fifteen, he would sit
upon her knee and repeat his hymn, while his arm was round her
neck, and his head leaning on her bosom, precisely as they had
been when the practice commenced in his childhood. Often have
I entered their room at the close of these exercises; with rapture
embraced them both, and enjoyed, in our ardent, holy, mutual
affection, all but Heaven. At these, above most other moments, we
felt ourselves truly united, and, as forming part of “ the whole
family of heaven and earth.’ Religion alone could so sublimate
our domestic bliss. And William ever looked back on these scenes
as the sweetest and most profitable hours of his life.” [Vol. i. p. 8,9.]
Happy would it be for children, and for parents, did more
of our religious professors pay this strict attention to their
children on the sabbath, so as to prevent them, on the one
hand, from misspending its sacred hours, and on the other,
from associating with it, from infancy, ideas of gloom, weari¬
ness, and restraint a cause to which, we believe, that much
of carelessness as to sacred duties in after life is to be at¬
tributed. He was also occasionally, especially on his birth¬
day, the sole companion of his parents, in their retirement
for special supplications and thanksgivings at the throne of
grace, chiefly upon his account; and was early taught to Picturesque Travels in Asia, Africa and America; containing a
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A Sure Guide to the Principles of the French Language. By M.
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An Itinerary of the Province of the Rhone, made during the year
1819. By John Hughes, A.M. of Oriel College, Oxford. 8vo. 12s.
A Narrative of a Journey, undertaken in the years 1819,1820, and
1821, through France, Italy, Savoy, Switzerland, parts of Germany
bordering on the Rhone, Holland, and the Netherlands. By James
Holman. 13s.
Sketches of^the Character, Manners, and Present State of the
Highlanders of Scotland. By Col. David Stewart. 2Vols. 8vo. £1.8s.
Promenade from Dieppe to the Mountains of Jutland. By Charles
Nodier. 5s. 6d.
Journal of an Expedition 1400 miles up the Oronoco, and 300 up
the Arauca. By J. H. Robinson, 8vo. 15s.
202
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence.
Memorials of a Tour on the Continent, 1820. By H. Words¬
worth, Esq. 18mo. 6s. Gd.
Journal of a Visit to some parts of Ethiopia. By George Wad-
dington, Esq. and Rev. B. Hanbury. 40s.
The Travels of Theodore Ducas, in various Countries of Europe, at
the Revival of Letters and Arts. Part I. Italy edited by Charles
Mills. Esq. 2 Vols. 8vo. £1. 4s.
Travels in Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land. By the late Rev.
E. D. Clarke, LL.D. 8 Vols. 8vo. £7. 4s.
A Journal of Travels into the Arkansa Territory, during the year
1819; with occasional Observations on the Manners of the Abori¬
gines. By Thomas Nuttall, F.L.S. 8vo. 10s. 6d.
RELIGIOUS AND PHILANTHROPIC
INTELLIGENCE.
Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge in the Highlands, S'C .—
Thursday, April 11, the 49th Anniversary Festival of the London
Corresponding Board of this Society was celebrated at the Albion,
Aldersgate-street; his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, Pre¬
sident, in the chair; when about £300 was collected.
Religious Booh and Tract Society, Ireland. —On Monday, April
15th, the Annual Meeting of this Society was held in the Lecture
Room of the Dublin Institution, Sackville-street; the Right Hon.
Viscount Lorton in the chair. From the Report of the proceedings
of the Society, during the past year, we learn that the sales of the
Depositary in that period amounted to 3298 books, and 338,949
tracts ; and that 26,897 tracts had been issued gratuitously to
Gaols, Hospitals, &c. making a total of 365,846; that the receipts
of the Society have amounted to £3,943, and its expenditure to
£3,807. 19s. 3d. A considerable number of tracts have been pub¬
lished.
Sunday School Society for Ireland. —The Right Hon. the Earl of
Roden presided at the Annual Meeting of this Society, which was
held on Wednesday, April 17th, at the Lecture Room of the Dublin
Institution. From the Report, it appears that the number of schools
which the Society has assisted, amounts to 1558, containing 156,255
scholars, being an increase during the past year of 205 schools and
20,655 scholars. The income of the Society during the past year has
been £3193. 6s. 6d.—£360 was contributed by Associations in
England, and £298 from Scotland. A bequest of £840 was left to
the Society by Sir Gilbert King, and another of £200 by Mrs.
O’Donnell. The Society has also received a liberal donation of
10,000 Testaments from the British and Foreign Bible Society. They
have issued during the same period 1022 Bibles, 17,574 Testaments,
47,842 Spelling-books, a number of Alphabets, &c. During the year
the total expenditure has been £2947. 17s. 7d.
Hibernian Bible Society. —The Annual Meeting of this Society was
held at the Rotunda, Dublin, on Thursday, April the 18tli, the Arch¬
bishop of Tuam in the Chair; the Report stated, as usual, the pro¬
gress of the Society, which exceeded the precedent of all former
years. Avoiding fractions, the receipts were £5679, being £1745
203
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence .
more than the preceding- year; and the expenditure £5573. The
issues were 8701 Bibles, and 11,964 Testaments. Since the forma¬
tion of the Society, the amount of both has been 295,695.
Hibernian Church Missionary Society. —On Friday, Api’il 19, was
held at the same place, the Annual Meeting of this Society; his
Grace the Archbishop of Tuam in the Chair. The Report stated,
that the receipts of the last year amounted to £2579, of which more
than £2000 wore transmitted to the Parent Institution in London.
Wesleyan-Methodist Missionary Society. —The Three Annual Ser¬
mons before this Society wore preached on the 25th and 26th of
April, by the Rev. John James, of Halifax, the Rev. Dr. Adam
Clarke, and the Rev. Henry Moore, in the Chapels at Spitalfields,
Great Queen-street, and City Road. Sermons were also preached
in aid of the Missions, on Sunday, April 28th, in all the Chapels of
the Wesleyan Methodists in the London Circuits. The Sunday col¬
lections, in almost every Chapel, exceeded those of the last year,
although, in most cases, Branch-Societies exist in connection with
these Chapels, each of which had previously held its own Annual
Meeting, and had remitted, together with subscriptions and dona¬
tions, the public collection then made. The w hole of the collections
and donations, received in connection w ith this Anniversary, amount
to upwards of Twelve Hundred Pounds, being an increase of Two
Hundred Pounds above those of the last year.—On Monday, April
29, the Annual Meeting for business w as held at the City Road
Chapel ; Joseph Butterwortli, Esq. M.P. in the chair. The Report
took a rapid review of the Missions supported by the Society in
France, Gibraltar, Ceylon and Continental India, New South
Wales, New Zealand, Western and Southern Africa, the West
Indies, British North America, &c.; from all of which the accounts
are generally very satisfactory. The number of Missionaries now
employed, including several Native Assistant Preachers, but ex¬
clusive of mere Cathecliists and Schoolmasters, was stated to be
149; who occupy 105 stations. The number sent out during the last
year was eleven, of whom five are married. The number of Members
in the Foreign Missionary Stations, was, when the last year’s returns
w ere made up, 28,699; and the returns of the current year, as far as
they have yet been received, indicate a very considerable increase,
especially in some of the Islands of the West Indies. The receipts of
the year ending Dec. 31,1821, were £26,883. 0s. Id. The expenditure
was £30 925. 2s. Id.; to which must be added the balance due to
the Treasurers, Dec. 31, 1820, viz. £3,526. 3s. lOd.; so that when
the last accounts was made up, the Treasurers were in advance for
the Society to the large amount of £7,568. 5s. lOd. This balance,
however, we understand, has since been somewhat reduced.
Church Missionary Society. —On Monday Evening, April 29, the
Annual Sermon for the benefit of this Institution, was preached Irom
John iv. 34—6, at St. Bride’s Church, Fleet-street, by the Rev.
Marmaduke Thompson, M.A. Chaplain of the Hon. East-India Com¬
pany on the Madras Establishment; and the following day, at noon,
was held, at Freemasons’ Hall, the Twenty-second Anniversary of
the Institution; the Right Hon. Admiral Lord Gambier in the chair.
The Report detailed, at great length, the missionary operations of
the Society during the past year, in the various countries to which
its missionaries had been sent. Many letters from different friends
to the Society, were quoted, giving highly satisfactory accounts of
204
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence.
the rapid progress which the light of the Gospel was making in every
quarter it had reached. The statement as to the funds of the Society
was extremely gratifying; the receipts of the current year amounting
to about £33,000; and the expenses to nearly the same. A Mis¬
sionary House at Calcutta, similar to that at Madras, has been esta¬
blished under the auspices of the Right Rev. Bishop ; and education
is advancing with steady steps throughout the East. The accounts
from Ceylon, the West Indies, the British settlements in North Ame¬
rica, &c. are highly satisfactory. In Sierra Leone, the Gospel is
working almost incredible changes; and many of the poor slaves may,
without a figure of speech, be said to have become new creatures.
Schools, (numerously attended) prayer-meetings, and even a Bible
Society, have been established in that improving land, which, not many
years ago, was totally buried in mental darkness. The accounts
from the Protestant churches of continental Europe, present a
beautiful picture of missionary zeal and energy: indeed from the
Pyrenees to the mountains of Norway—from the German Ocean to the
shores of the Euxine, the same ardour and activity in this best of
causes are eminently conspicuous.—The collection at the Church was
£221. 19s: 7d. and at the Meeting £167. 7s. 5d.
British and Foreign Bible Society .—Wednesday, May 1, the Anni¬
versary Meeting of this excellent Institution was held at the Free¬
mason's Tavern; Lord Teignmouth in the chair. The Report con¬
tained a number of most cheering facts relative to the prosperity of
the Institution, from which it appeared that the Auxiliary Societies
have increased both in numbers and in the amount of the subscrip¬
tions ; that the friends of similar institutions in various parts of the
world have been prosecuting the same cause with increased energy
and success; and many instances were mentioned, in which their
exertions have produced a very striking moral and religious benefit.
The income of the Society during the past year exceeded that of any
former year, and amounted to the astonishing sum of upwards of One
hundred and three thousand pounds. The expenditure during the
same period, in translating, printing, and circulating the Scripfures
in a variety of European, Asiatic, and some African and American
languages, as also in assisting the benevolent labours of kindred in¬
stitutions, exceeds £90,000. So great, however, are the demands
and such the confidence of the Committee on the continued genero¬
sity of the Christian public, that the engagements of the Society were
calculated at no less a sum than £50,000.
Prayer Book and Homily Society.— The Tenth Annual Meeting of
this Society was held on Thursday, May 2, at Stationers’ Hall "the
Right Hon. Lord Calthorpe in the chair. From the Report it an-
peared, that the Society had issued considerably more Prayer Books
and Homilies during the last year than in the preceding, (the increase
m the issue of the latter amounting to 30.000.') and that its M11CP woo
jwsmons over tne greater part of the Continent , where they are thank-
205
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence.
fully received, and in some cases highly appreciated. The Morning
and Evening Prayers, the Psalter, and the first Homily, have been
translated into Chinese, and distributed in various places, not ac¬
tually in China, but where those who understand the Chinese lan¬
guage reside. In China itself, the Court decides how and what the
people shall worship ; but in the Chinese Colonies no such opposition
is encountered. A Chinese servant resident in this country was pre¬
sented with a Prayer Book, which had been translated into the
Chinese language by Dr. Morrison, whose name was perfectly fami¬
liar to him; for upon hearing it, and seeing the book, he exclaimed,
“ Good man! good book!” This poor heathen had, previous to his
receiving the Prayer Book, been in the habit of burning a piece of
paper as an act of worship. —On the shores of the Mediterranean, the
calls for religious information are loud and numerous. In Italy,
many prejudices against our English Creed have been removed
through the reading of the Prayer Book alone. The version of the
Liturgy into pure Biblical Hebrew is recommended for the use of
the Jews. Homilies in the Manx language have already been scat¬
tered among the people of the Isle of Man.
London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews. —On
Friday, May 3, the Fourteenth Anniversary of the above Society was
held at the Egyptian Hall, Mansion House. The Right Hon. the
Lord Mayor, having taken die chair, briefly opened the business of
the Meeting by a short, but appropriate address. The Rev. Basil
Wooddthen introduced to his Lordship and the Company the Jewish
Children, who sang the beautiful anthem, “ Hosanna to the Son of
David,” with great solemnity and effect. The Lord Mayor then
resigned the chair to Sir Thos. Baring, the President of the Society.
The Schools at present contain 38 boys and 44 girls : the number ad¬
mitted during the last year is seven boys and three girls ; and the
number apprenticed, four boys and six girls ; five boys have been re¬
moved by their friends, one of whom has been re-admitted. A con¬
verted Jew, father of some of the above children, was baptized at the
Episcopal chapel in December last.—Two new r tracts have been
added to the list of the Society; the sale of the Jewish Expositor
has considerably increased; and the Committee are preparing edi¬
tions of the Prophets in Biblical and in German Hebrew. The open¬
ing of a Seminary for Missionaries to the Jews was mentioned in
the last Report; eight have been received, of whom two are now
employed upon the Continent, and two more are to proceed thither
shortly. In Holland, the object of the Society is steadily pur sued by
Mr. Thelwall, who is the Society’s agent there ; and at Amsterdam a
school has been formed for the poorer Jewish Children. Mr. M‘
Caul, his companion, proceeded to Warsaw, where he has been
since joined by Mr. Becker, another Christian Missionary. Many of
the Jews (who are there very numerous) entered into conversation
with them, and thankfully received the tracts, and some New Testa¬
ments, in Hebrews At Frankfort, the Society’s Missionary, Mr.
Marc, continues stedfast and active, nor are his labours without
encouraging success, some whole families having been baptized. In
Denmark, at Hamburgh, at Gibraltar, Malta, and even on the coast
of Barbary, the labours of the Society have not been without the best
effects*
London Hibernian Society .—On Saturday, May 4th, the Annual
Meeting* of the above Society was held at Freemasons Hall; his
206
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence.
Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester in the chair. The Report
stated, that the number of the Society’s Schools in Ireland had in¬
creased in the last year from 534 to 575, and the number of scholars
was 53,233; 35 of the Schools were under the superintendence of
Catholic Priests, from which it would be seen how entirely the So¬
ciety was divested of sectarianism. The Society had received
1000 Bibles and 10,000 Testaments from the British and Foreign
Bible Society, and had distributed upwards of 80,000 Bibles and
Testaments. The progress of the Society had been slow but sure,
and extends now to 23 counties out of 32, and they looked with con¬
fidence to complete success, as the cause was not that of a party, but
truly Catholic. The income of the last year was £5562, and its ex¬
penditure £6863, which left a deficiency of £800, which could only
be made up by drawing on their capital.—The Meeting closed with a
liberal collection at the doors.
Port of London Society. —Monday, May 6, the Members and Friends
of this Society assembled at the City of London Tavern, to celebrate
their Fourth Anniversary; the Right Hon. Lord Gambier in the chair.
The Report informed the Meeting that “ at most of the out-ports of
the United Kingdom, Seamen have now chapels devoted to their use.
Preaching on board of private vessels has also greatly increased;
and in various ways the moral and spiritual welfare of this interesting
class of men has been promoted.” A letter was quoted, reciting the
like measures adopted in the United States of America, particularly
at Boston. The unwearied exertions of “ the British and Foreign
Seamen’s Friend Society,” in establishing Devotional Meetings of
Seamen under the Bethel Union Flag was then honourably mention¬
ed ; and a small Society of the same nature was reported as esta¬
blished at Gibraltar. The Floating Chapel continues to be well at¬
tended, and an annual service has been established on the 4th of
June, in honour of his late Majesty. The Treasurer read an abstract
of the accounts, which, amongst other things, stated the gratifying
fact, that £136. 17s. 7d. had been obtained by monthly collections
from the sailors and others who went to hear the sermons deli¬
vered in the Floating Chapel.
Sunday-School Union .—The Annual Meeting of this Society was
held on Tuesday Morning, May 7, at the City of London Tavern ;
Joseph Butterwortli, Esq. M.P. in the chair. The Company assem¬
bled to breakfast between five and six o’clock in the morning, and the
chair was taken at half-past six. About 1000 persons were present.
The Report stated, that the total of Sunday scholars in London and
its vicinity was 52,549 children, and 478 adults, taught by 4870
gratuitous teachers, being an increase of 3687 scholars in the past
year. Several New Sunday School Unions have been formed during
the last year. In three counties in Wales there is a total of Sunday
scholars, including children and adults, amounting to one-fifth of
the population. The Report exhibited a total of upwards of 600,000
Sunday scholars in Great Britain and Ireland, in addition to which
there were many places from which no returns had been communi¬
cated. The Report then alluded to the spread of education generally
throughout the world, and especially by means of Sunday Schools;
9000 scholars were stated to be in the New-York Sunday-School
Union, and 24,000 connected with that of Philadelphia.
Naval and Military Bible Society .—The Annual Meeting of this
most interesting Society was held on Tuesday, May 7, in the King’s
207
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence.
Concert Room; Lord Gambier in the chair. The Report commenced
by detailing the exertions and progress of the Society in the Army
and Navy, where much good has been effected. It next noticed the
support it had received from various Auxiliaries, particularly that
at Portsmouth; and that it had been farther aided by a liberal
donation of £300 from Edinburgh. The receipts and expenditure
of the last year amounted to about £2050; but there was a debt
owing of £1332. This balance against the Society prevented the
Committee from their usual gratuitous distribution of the Scriptures ;
8621 copies, however, had been circulated, and the results were
truly gratifying. The demands for them were very great. In the
West Indies a Bible had been put up for sale, and a sergeant in one
of the regiments had bid £1 for it; but a superior officer increased
the bidding, and purchased the book. The officers of the regiment
afterwards procured another copy, and presented it to the sergeant.
The Report concluded by a call from the Committee on the benevo¬
lence of the public, to assist them in their important undertaking.
Continental Society. —Tuesday, May 7, the Anniversary Meeting of
the Friends and Supporters of this Institution was held at Freema¬
sons’Tavern ; Sir T. Baring, Bart. M.P. in the chair. It appeared
from the Report, that, during the last three months, 307 New Testa¬
ments, 25 Bibles, 355 Gospels and the Epistles, and above 3000
Tracts, had been circulated upon the Continent; that the various
agents employed by the Society had been received on their visits to
the Continent with kindness, and that the Society was rising in esti¬
mation daily. There had been instances where 30 sous had been
paid for the New Testament.
Irish Evangelical Society. —This Society held their Annual Meeting
on Tuesday Evening, May 7, at the City of London Tavern; Mr.
Walker, the treasurer, in the chair. The Report, which commenced
with a view of the unhappy state of Ireland in respect of religion,
goverment, and social life, enumerated the 15 stations of the Society,
and stated the reception, labours, and success of its agents. Two
natives have been encouraged to preach the gospel in their own
language. Sunday and week-day Schools, Bible and Tract Associa¬
tions, Dorcas and benevolent societies of various descriptions, have
been established in every practicable situation. At the Society’s
Academy, in Dublin, four students, having finished their course, have
engaged in the work of Evangelists, and their places have been sup¬
plied by four others, filling up the number of eight students in the
Academy. From the statement of the Society’s finances, it ap¬
peared that there was only a balance of £13. 5s. lOd. in hand, a
sum insufficient to liquidate the expenses already incurred. The net
receipts of the Society were considerably increased during the past
year ; but its expenditure increased in nearly the same proportion.
London Missionary Society. —The Anniversary of this Society com¬
menced, Wednesday, May 8, with a series of devotional services at
Surrey Chapel, the Tabernacle, Tottenliam-Court Chapel, and Black-
friar’s Church, where Sermons were delivered by the Rev. Dr. Han¬
na, of Belfast, Messrs. East, of Birmingham, Wilkins, of Abingdon,
and J. A. Stephenson, M.A. Rector of Lympsham. Previous to
these, however, the Rev. Caesar Malan, of Geneva, preached a Mis¬
sionary Sermon, in French, at the Poultry Chapel: and subsequently.
Sacramental services were held at Zion, Silver-street, Tonbridge,
and Orange-street Chapels. Two Sermons Averc also preached, in
208
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence.
Welsh, at Gate-street Chapel. The following is a correct statement
of the the sums collected for the Institution, at the various Chapels :
Surrey Chapel (Sermon). £357 8 3
Tabernacle. 202 6 0
Surrey Chapel (Public Meeting). 392 15 6
Tottenham-Court Chapel. 153 15 0
St. Ann’s Church, Blackfriars. 191 4 0
Sion Chapel, (Communion). 100 19 0
Orange-street Chapel, (Ditto). 83 0 0
Silver-street Chapel, ( Ditto). 58 7 G
Tonbridge Chapel, (Ditto). 42 11 G
Poultry Chapel, French Service. 23 10 0
Gate-street Chapel, Welsh Service. 10 8 G
Albion Chapel (Morning Lecture). 16 0 0
Total.£1632 6 G
The Annual Meeting for business was held at Surrey Chapel, on
Thursday morning, May 9th ; Win. Alers Hankey, Esq. in the chair.
The Report included the following stations: (1.) The South Sea
Islands, the inhabitants of which have renounced their idols, and em¬
braced Christianity; G000 at least have learned to read the Scrip¬
tures, and Auxiliary Missionary Societies have been formed, whose
contributions, in cocoa-nut oil, after all deductions of expense, have
amounted to more than £900. (2.) Ultra Ganges. At Canton, Drs.
Morrison and Milne, having completed the translation of the Scrip¬
tures into the Chinese, are actively employed in circulating them.
At Malacca, the Society has four Missionaries, eight Schools, and a
large printing establishment for tracts in the Malay and Chinese
languages. At Pulo Penang, three Missionaries and eight Schools.
At Batavia, one Missionary, a Chapel, and two Chinese Schools.
At Amboyna, the gospel is preached in Dutch and Malay to large
congregations; a press is established; and Native Teachers are
trained in the Mission House. (3.) East Indies. At Calcutta, the
Society has four Missionaries and two Assistants; a large Chapel;
a printing establishment; an Auxiliary Society; and a Monthly Ma¬
gazine. At Madras, there are two Chapels, seventeen Schools, four
Missionaries, one Native School, and eleven Native. Teachers. The
Society has also Schools and Teachers at Chinsurali, Benares, Viza-
gapatam, Bellary, Belgaum, and Bangalore. (4.) South Travancore*
At Nagercoil, the Society has 32 Native Schools and a printing press.
Between 3000 and 4000 of the natives haverenounced idolatry, and put
themselves under instruction. A new Mission has been commenced
at Quilon. A printing press is established at Surat; and the New
Testament, with part of the Old, is translated into the Guzerat
language. (5.) Russia. At St. Petersburgh, a flourishing English
congregation, a Missionary and a Charity School. In Siberia, three
Missionaries, and two Gospels translated into the Mongolian language.
At Sarepta, a Mission to the Calmucs. At Zante and Malta, a Mis¬
sion to the Greeks, intended to awaken religious inquiries. (6.) South
Africa. Here the Society has 15 stations, from Cape Town to New
Lattakoo, where have been built a Chapel, Mission and Store houses.
At Cape Town, Dr. Philip resides as agent of the Society. At the
Paarl, about 2000 are under instruction. At Bethelsdorp, there are
about 200 Church members, and half as many at Theopolis ; but there
are 600 or 700 hearers, and 240 in the Schools. At Griqua Town, oift
209
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence.
of a population of 5000 about 300 attend the preaching, and there is a
school on the British System. (7.) In the African Islands of Mau¬
ritius, Madagascar, and Joanna, the Society has stations—at Mada¬
gascar, three Missionaries and four artisans. (8.) Iu the West Indies,
at Demerara, Le Resouvenir, and Berbice, are both Missionaries and
Schools, in which are taught nearly 2000 children. The Missionary
Seminary at Gosport, under Dr. Bogue, last year sent out six Mis¬
sionaries to India, and has others prepared to follow. The Treasurer
then gave a statement of accounts, by which it appeared that, not¬
withstanding their increase of income, the expenditure has increased
still faster, that of the year past amounting to £40,000, and exceed¬
ing the income by £10,500. This has obliged the Society to sell out
of the funds £11,000 stock within the last three years. To remedy
this evil, there are but two u r ays—to increase the number of sub¬
scribers, and, for those who can afford it, to increase also the
amount of their subscriptions.
Royal Universal Dispensary for Children. —Tuesday, Feb. 12, the
Governors and Friends of the Institution held their Anniversary*
Festival, at the City of London Tavern; the Lord Mayor in the
chair. From the list of Subscribers, and the amount of the subscrip¬
tions, it appeared, that the funds of the Charity were in a state of
great improvement.
Society for Educating the Poor in Ireland .—The Annual General
Meeting of this Society was held Feb. 22, at the Model School, in
Kildare-street, Dublin; George Knox, Esq. V.P. in the chair. The
Report of the Committee stated, that, notwithstanding all impedi¬
ments, the cause of education is still advancing; that during the last
year 272 Schools had been assisted by the Society, (which is 27 more
than in 1821;) of these, 30 received grants towards building School-
houses, 93 for fitting up and furnishing School-rooms already built,
and 122 have been supplied with books or stationery. Of the
Schools, 132 are new ones, containing 10,183 scholars. The whole
number under instruction, iu 513 Schools connected with this Socie¬
ty, probably exceeds 40,000. They add, that among the Schools
assisted last year, are ten gaol schools, which promise to be of great
utility. Beside supporting schools, the Society print cheap books
and tracts of a religious and moral tendency; of these, 556,522 have
been already circulated, many of which have been given for the
formation of lending-libraries. In adverting to the pecuniary con¬
cerns of the Society, it is stated that the Committee of 1820 had been
compelled to borrow £1000, to carry on the Institution, but that
during the last year they had received from the Legislature the
liberal grant of £10,000 British.
Seamen's Hospital .—The first Anniversary of this Charity was com¬
memorated on Tuesday, March 7, at the London Tavern, by above 100
gentlemen of high respectability. In consequence of the unavoidable
absence of Lord Melville, Lord Exmouth presided. The Treasurer’s
statement held forth a very flattering prospect; the subscriptions
amounted to upwards of £700.
Society for the Relief of Asthmas, fyc .—On Thursday, March 7, was
celebrated the Anniversary Dinner of the Society for the Relief of
Persons labouring under Asthma and Complaints of the Lungs ; the
Lord Mayor in the chair. A considerable sum was collected for this
excellent Charity.
Svrrey Dispensary .—On Thursday, March 7, the Friends and
VOL. V. - NO. 9 . P
210
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence.
Supporters of this Institution met at the London Tavern, Bishops-
gate-street; Florence Young, Esq. in the chair. The Report stated,
that since the origin of the Institution, in 1777, to the present year,
the number of patients admitted were 131,980, out ot which only
4586 had died ; and during the last year 4195 were admitted, of whom
78 only had died.
St. Giles's Irish Free Schools. —Tuesday, March 12, the Annual
Meeting of the friends and benefactors of these Schools, and a public
examination of the children instructed therein, took place at the
Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen-street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields ; his
Grace the Duke of Bedford, Patron, in the Chair. In the Report, the
operation and effects of the Charity, from its formation, in 1813, were
very fully exemplified. Since the formation of this Establishment, four
others, precisely on the same principles, have been instituted in the
neighbourhood of St. Giles’s, by which no less than 3500 children
have been admitted and instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic,
and in religious principles. At the conclusion of last year’s accounts,
a balance of £71. 5s. lOd. was over-drawn, for which the Institution
was indebted to the Treasurer. The Children then passed in order
round the room, after which they were drawn up near the platform,
and underwent an examination. The Boys repeated several passages
of Scripture from memory; and several questions in arithmetic were
put to them, by their master, Mr. Finnegan, which were answered
in a manner that highly delighted the auditory.
Jews’ Hospital. —On Thursday, March 14, the Friends and Sup¬
porters of this Institution assembled at the London Tavern, Bishops-
gate-street, for the purpose of celebrating their Anniversary Festival;
his R. H. the Duke of Sussex in the Chair, supported by Earl Pomfret,
S. Whitbread, Esq. M.P. and other persons of eminence. The Re¬
port stated, that only 28 individuals could be provided for at the
origin of the Institution, in 1807, but now 80 were protected by it;
and it was in a most flourishing condition. A handsome collection
was made.
St. Patrick’s Schools. —The festival of St. Patrick falling this year
on a Sunday, it was celebrated, by anticipation, on Saturday, March
16, at the City of London Tavern, by the friends of St. Patrick’s Cha¬
rity, being their 37th anniversary; the Marquis of Lansdowme in the
chair, supported on his right by the Duke of Wellington, the Canadian
Chiefs, and Lord Darnley, and on his left by the Marquis of London¬
derry and Mr. Canning. After the usual toasts, about 150 of the
children were introduced, and walked through the room, whilst the
band played “ Saint Patrick’s Day in the Morning.” The subscrip¬
tions amounted to £1665, including £300 from the Marchioness of
Londonderry, being the produce of the Memoirs of Lady Suffolk,
written by the Marchioness.
Irish School Society, Dublin. —The Anniversary of this Society was
held on Monday the 18th of March, at the Lecture Room of the Dublin
Institution ; Lord Viscount Pow r erscourt in the Chair. The Report
was highly gratifying. A considerable increase has taken place in
the number of Schools for teaching to read the Irish language. They
now amount to 48 Sunday and Daily Schools, containing 2178 scho¬
lars, of whom 888 are adults. The number of Schools last year was
only 22. An Irish School has been established in the County Gaol
of Galway; and the like is recommended in other prisons. About
3000 copies of the Scriptures have been circulated in the Irish lan-
Obituary. 211
Euage; and it appears that there are two millions of the popula¬
tion acquainted only with that tongue.
Asylum for Deaf and Dumb Children —Wednesday March 20, the
Anniversary Dinner of this laudable Institution was held at the Lon¬
don Tavern; the Duke of Gloucester in the Chair. The Report stated,
that 500 persons had been instructed to speak, read, and write, and
likewise in the use of arithmetic, since the establishment of the Institu¬
tion; and that 200 were now enjoying the benefits of the Charity. Out
of 20 families, consisting of 157 children, that had applied to the In¬
stitution, there were no less than 79 deaf and dumb, most of whom
were relieved.
London Auxiliary Irish School Society. —Monday, March 25, a Gene¬
ral Meeting w r as held at the Freemasons’ Tavern, when an Auxiliary
Society in London, in aid of the Society established in Ireland, for
promoting the Education of the Native Irish, through the medium of
their own language, was formed. The Bishop of Gloucester (one of
the \ ice-Patrons) took the Chair, and a liberal subscription was en¬
tered into.
Marine Society. —Thursday, March 28, the Friends and Supporters
of this Institution held their Anniversary Festival at the City of Lon¬
don Tavern, Bisliopsgate-street. In the absence of the Duke of
Clarence, Lord Viscount Exmouth took the Chair. The Report stated,
that from the year 1769 to December 1821, 21,885 boys were fitted
out, and sent on board the King’s ships; 5113 were also apprenticed
to the merchant service, and to the Hon. East-India Company; 518
boys were discharged from the King’s service and again fitted out
for sea; and 403 were placed to various trades. The total number of
boys provided for since the commencement of the establishment, in
1756, amounts to 33,063; and 39,360 landmen, volunteers, have been
clothed as seamen, and employed in his Majesty’s service ; making
a total of men and boys, 72,423 ; 444 boys were on board on the 31st
of December, 1820; and on the 31st of December, 1821, 128 remained
on board.
OBITUARY.
James Perry, Esq. —December 4, at Brighton, James Perry, Esq.
(or more properly Perie, for so his father wrote his name,) for 33 years
Editor and P roprietor of the Morning Chronicle. Mr. Perry was a native
of Aberdeen, w here he was born on the 31st of October, 1756. He w'as
first sent to the school at the chapel ofGurioch,kept by Mr. Farquhar,
father to Sir Walter Farquhar the celebrated Physician, and thence
removed to the Grammar school at Aberdeen; and, being intended for
the Scottish Bar, he completed his education in the Marischal College of
that city. But some unsuccessful speculations of his father, who was a
builder, obliged him to relinquish his original destination ; and after
several vicissitudes, amongst which, was the vocation of a strolling
player, performing second-rate characters, (in which his brogue was
an insuperable bar to his excelling,) and dancing hornpipes, as inter¬
ludes between the performances, he obtained a situation as clerk to
Mr. Dinwiddie, a manufacturer at Manchester. Coming to London, iu
1777, with strong recommendations from the principal houses iu the
212
Obituary.
town in which he had lived for two years, but failing to obtain a situ¬
ation by their means, what is generally termed an ac C1 dental circum¬
stance threw him upon the profession of a journalist. Bern,, with nit
employment, Mr. Perry amused himself by writing essays and scraps
of poetry for the General Advertiser, an opposition newspaper then
recently established, which he dropped into the letter-box at the
printing office ; whence they always found their way to the public.
Calling one day at the shop of Messrs. Richardson and Urquhart
Booksellers, to whom he had letters of introduction, he found 1 1
latter busily engaged in reading, apparently with much enjoyment,
an article in the General Advertiser. After the paper was laid down,
Mr. Perry asked the usual question, whether any situation likely to
suit him had been heard of, and received the usual negative. IV i.
Urquhart accompanied his answer, however, by holding out the paper
he had been reading, saying, as he did so—“If you could write such
articles as this, I could give you immediate employment. 1 he re¬
ference happened to be made to a humorous essay, written by Mr.
Perry himself, as he immediately told Mr. Urquhart, at the same time
living him another article, in the same hand writing, which he had
proposed to drop into the letter-box. Great satisfaction was ex¬
pressed at this discovery; the gentleman to whom it was made,
informing Mr. Perry that he was one of the principal proprietors ot
the paper, for which just such a person was wanted; and as there
was to be a meeting of the managers that evening, he promised to
propose him as a writer. This was accordingly done; and the next day
he was engaged at a salary of a guinea per week, with an additional
half guinea for assistance to the London Evening Post, then printed
by the same person. In the execution of this engagement, A l.l erry
was most assiduous and laborious, and during the memorable trials
of Admirals Keppel and Palliser, he for six weeks together, by his
individual efforts as a reporter, sent up daily from Portsmouth eight
columns of the proceedings, which raised the sale of the> paper to
several thousands per day. At this time he wrote and published se¬
veral political pamphlets and poems. In 1782, he formed the plan of
the European Magazine, and became its first editor ; though lie held
that situation but 12 months, having then been chosen by the pro¬
prietors, editor of the Gazetteer, into which, by the employment of
additional reporters, he introduced a most material improvement m
the publication. After continuing to edite this paper, and Debrett s
Parliamentary Debates, for some years, in a very superior manner, he
became joint proprietor with his friend Mr. Gray (who died soon after¬
wards ) of the Morning Chronicle, one of the most respectable jour¬
nals in London, in the Whig interest, of which indeed it was long the
organ. Whatever difference of opinion may prevail as to his po¬
litical sentiments, and we pretend not to vindicate them, the integrity
of his motives was never questioned. Men of all parties, and of the
highest rank and talent, contributed to his journal; for it was a well-
known remark, that Perry might be trusted with any tiling.
He deserves also great credit for his political consistency, from
which he had many temptations to deviate. Having been one of the
leading speakers “at the public Forums in their best days, Mr. Pitt,
(who, when a young man, frequented them, though he never spoke
there,) had an opportunity of witnessing his talents in debate, espe¬
cially in reply; and on coming into office, he made a proposal to bring
him into Parliament, which would probably have opened his way to a
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 213
splendid fortune. This, however, he declined, from his warm attach¬
ment to the principles of Mr. Fox, whose eloquence and liberality of
sentiment had made so powerful an impression upon his mind, on
his first entrance into the gallery of the House of Commons, that it
never afterwards could be erased. A similar offer from the Earl of
Shelburne, met with a similar refusal. Twice only, during his long
career as a newspaper editor, principally in opposition, was Mr.
Perry prosecuted by the Attorney General; and on both occasions he
w r as acquitted. His first escape was owing to the eloquence of Lord
Erskine as his advocate, and the strenuous stand of one of the jury.
On the second trial he defended himself so skilfully, that even Lord
Ellenborough summed up in his favour, though the libel, for which
he was tried, was upon the King. The house of Lords, however, once
committed both him and his printer to Newgate, for a paragraph,
which they pronounced a breach of their undefined and undefinable
privileges.
He embarked in a speculation of Mr. Booth’s, for Poly graphic
paintings, which did not answer ; and sunk considerable property in
some mills at Merton, by w hich he was much harassed for a consi¬
derable period. The Morning Chronicle proved, however, an inex¬
haustible mine of wealth in all his difficulties, netting for many years
from six to eight thousand pounds per annum, which enabled its pro¬
prietor to live in a style of the first respectability, and to keep the
best company, for which his mind and manners eminently qualified
him. In prosperity, Mr. Perry did not forget his poorer relatives ;
entirely supporting his mother, w ho died at Richmond a few years
since; and furnishing the principal maintenance of a sister, who mar¬
ried the learned but dissipated Porson. He was a great admirer of
Black-letter books, his collection of which has recently been sold
for a very large sum of money, having long been esteemed one of the
most valuable and curious in the metropolis. In liis private life, he
was too much a man of the world, to entitle him to commendation in
our pages. For some time previous to his death, his declining health
had prevented his taking any active part in the conduct of his
paper; and for the last four months of his life he had resided at a dis¬
tance from London, principally at Brighton, w here his death happened
in his 66th year. His remains were interred in his family vault, in
Wimbledon Church ; his funeral being conducted, according to the
directions of his will, in the most private manner.
PROVINCIAL AND MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.
Deaths. — Oct. 31,1821. At Shiraz, in Persia, aged 35, Claudius John
Rich, Esq. “ Author of the Memoir on Ancient Babylon.” He was
formerly of Bristol, but latterly resident of the East-India Company
at Bagdad, to which situation he was raised before he had completed
the 17th year of his age, in consequence of his great literary attain¬
ments, and distinguished merits. His ardent genius and intense ap¬
plication enabled him to make an almost unexampled proficiency in
the Hebrew, Greek, Persic, Arabic, and Turkish languages, as w ell
214 Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
as in several modern tongues. Independent, however, of his ex¬
traordinary attainments as a scholar, his loss will he severely felt, as
an active and devoted agent of the Bible Society, in promoting the
the circulation of the Scriptures in Persia, and other parts of the
East. His death was occasioned by the cholera morlus , which in
the short space of five days, swept oil', in the city of Shiraz alone,
where he had arrived on liis way to Bombay, sixteen thousand per¬
sons.— Nov.16. During his voyage to New South Wales, Helenus Scott,
M.D. lately in the service of the Honourable East-India Company,
and first member of the Medical Board at Bombay. He was a native
of Dundee, a contemporary of Drs. Ferriar and Rollo, with whom he
lived on terms of great intimacy, and a correspondent of Sir Joseph
Banks. Dr. Scott was the author of several papers on medical sub¬
jects ; but more particularly known,by introducing the extensive and
very successful exhibition,both externally and internally, of the nitric
and nitro-muriatic acids and other analogous agents, in syphilitic,
hepatic, and other maladies, in India.— Dec. 7, Of a dropsy, Pomare,
KingofOtaheite. His remains were deposited on the 11th in anew stone
tomb, at the upper end of the large chapel he had erected for Chris¬
tian worship in that island. A Regency, consisting of the principal
chiefs, has been formed, the heir to the Crown being only two years
of age. The Queen, w ho is a sensible w oman, and a Sunday-School
Teacher, is one of the number. She is daughter of a principal Chief
of one of the neighbouring islands.— Feb. 9, 1822. In the Albany,
Piccadilly, John William Stanger, Esq. Rear Admiral of the White.—
12, Mr. Henry Baldwyn, of Newgate-street, Bookseller, author of
several articles in the Retrospective Review, on the Drama and Early
Poetry, 25.—17. G. Storey, Esq. presiding Magistrate at Shadwell
Police Office.— March, Rev. J. H. Powell, V. of Eccleshall, Stafford,
and Dunchurch, Warwick.—Rev. W. V. Ireson, Lecturer of St. Cle¬
ment’s, Eastclieap, and upwards of 40 years Master of the Brewer’s
Grammar School.—At Baltimore, Hon. W. Pinckney, Senator in the
American Congress, from the State of Maryland. In the decease of
this eminent jurist, eloquent advucate, and enlightened statesman,
America has sustained a loss w hich will be universally felt and de¬
plored. He was buried in the Capitol at Washington, both houses of
Congress attending his funeral.—At Rome, Rev. Stephen George
Ram, R. of Ringmere, Devon.—In Dartmouth-street, Rear Admiral
Abraham Guyot, 75.—4. In Mile-end Road, aged 64, Donald Stew¬
art, Esq. who during his life had travelled on foot over a large portion
of Europe, Asia, and America.—The American Prophet, Joseph
Decker, who preached and baptized, some months ago, in the vicinity
of the King’s Bench prison. He embarked, a fortnight before his death,
with one of his disciples, for France, with the view of journeying to
Jerusalem. They had proceeded about a hundred miles in France
without any knowledge of the French language, and wandered they
knew not where, when the unfortunate prophet w^as taken ill of the
small-pox, and expired after lingering a week. His body was refused,
in the first instance, Christian burial; but his friend having explained’
through an interpreter, who the deceased was, and the object they
both had in view, the corpse was interred with great pomp and cere¬
mony. Decker wore a surtout with a leather girdle, and went with¬
out shoes or hat. His beard was red and long, he was six feet high
and from the singularity of his appearance, attracted much notice’
and excited much pious feeling. His wearied companion has re-
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence . 215
turned home, not much disposed to go on another pilgrimage.—10.
At Merchant Taylors’ School, the Rev. Thomas Cherry, B.D. Vicar of
Sellinge, Kent, and for 24 years head master of that celebrated school,
which situation he resigned in 1819, and was succeeded by his son-
in-law the Rev. James William Bellamy, B.D. the present head
master. On this occasion he had the gratification of receiving from
his scholars a handsome silver urn, with an appropriate inscription.
He was interred in the chapel at Poplar, 75.—21, In Tilney-street,
Sir H. C. Englefield, Bart, well known to the scientific world, by his
various communications to our Philosophical and Literary Journals,
70.—24. At his chambers in the Middle Temple, aged 43, James Bos¬
well, Esq. M.A. Barrister at Law, and Commissioner of Bankrupts.
He was the second son of the friend and biographer of Johnson, some of
whose talents he seems to have inherited, and brother to Sir Alexander
Boswell, killed in the late duel. Mr.Malone selected him as his literary
executor, entrusting to his care the publication of an enlarged and
amended edition of his Sliakspeare, for w hich he had long been collect¬
ing materials, since most judiciously arranged by his executor, who
added many valuable notes of his own, together with a vindication of Mr.
Malone’s reputation,as a critic, against the attacks that had been made
upon it, and a memoir of his life, originally printed by Mr. Bosw ell for
private distribution. He was interred in the yard of theTemple church.
—30. At his house in Bloomsbury-square, Sir John Sylvester, Bart.
D. C. L. F. R. S. F. A. S. Recorder of London. He w r as found dead
in his bed at an early hour on Saturday morning, by his valet. Sir
John had dined with his Royal Highness the Duke of York and several
Aldermen, in the Stable-yard, St. James’s, and was then observed
not to be in his customary health and spirits. He arrived in his car¬
riage at home on Friday night, at twelve o’clock, and was put to bed
immediately. He did not appear then to be materially indisposed ;
but had lately been subject to sudden attacks in the chest; 76.
Having been twice married without issue, the baronetcy descends, by
patent, granted Feb. 11, 1822, to his heir male, Captain Sir Philip
Carteret Sylvester, R.N. C. B.—31. Samuel Yate Benyon, Esq. one
of his Majesty’s Counsel, Attorney-General of the Chester Great
Sessions, Recorder of Chester, King’s Serjeant of the Duchy, and
Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster .—April 5.
John Langley, Esq. Resident Magistrate of the Thames Police, and
Recorder of Rochester.—12. In Portland Place, Sir Nathaniel
Conant, Knight, the first suggester of the London and Middlesex
Police Establishment, and for eighteen years one of its magistrates.
In 1813, he was placed at the head of the office in Bow-street, but
resigned his situation in 1820, on account of ill health.—14. Of a
decline, at Brompton, Rev. Charles Gerard, Curate of Allhallows,
and Lecturer of St. Faith’s, London, aged 42.—18. In Newman-
street, in his 78th year, Mr. Samuel Varley, a man of extraordinary
talents, very extensive acquirements, and sound judgment. Born in
humble life, in a village in Yorkshire, he there distinguished himself
by his scieutifie pursuits, and was actually driven thence by the
vulgar, under the opprobious character of a conjuror. In London, he
became a public lecturer on Natural and Experimental Philosophy,
in which capacity the clearness and simplicity of his demonstrations
gained him the attention of many, who have since moved in the
highest walks of science. For some years he was the scientific asso¬
ciate of the late Earl Stanhope, and superintended the construction
216 '
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
of most of liis mechanical inventions.—29. At the College of Anns,
in the 92<1 year of his age, Sir Isaac Heard, Knight, Garter Principal
King of Arms, and for more than 62 years a Member of the College.
He had officiated at the interment of six generations of the House of
Brunswick .—May 6. In Hill-street, Berkeley-square, the Hon. and
Most Rev. William Stuart, Archbishop of Armagh, and Primateof all
Ireland. His Grace's death was occasioned by an unfortunate mis¬
take, in a quantity of laudanum having been administered to him by
his wife, in lieu of a phial of medicine, which the porter had brought
in at the same time with the embrocation of laudanum for himself.
The latter he sent to his mistress in a hurry, instead of the draught.
Medical assistance was immediately obtained, but it was unavailing.
His Grace was the fifth, youngest, and last surviving son of John
Earl of Bute, Governor and Prime Minister to the late King, by
Mary, only daughter of Edward Wortley Montague, Esq. and the
celebrated Lady Mary, his wife. He was raised to the episcopal
bench in 1793, and translated from the see of St. David's to the
Primacy of Ireland in 1800. He has left behind him, by his disconso¬
late widow, one of the daughters of Thomas Penn, Esq. of Stoke
Pogies, Bucks, co-proprietor of Pennsylvania, two sons and two
daughters. Of his character we know little, but that he was so
zealous for the church, at the head of which he was placed, that in
October last he withdrew from the Bible Society, because he could
not unite with Dissenters in distributing the pure Word of God with¬
out note or comment. He contrived, however, to leave behind him
property to the amount of £260,000, in the diocese of Canterbury
alone, whilst the people of his own diocese had not bread to eat, but
by hundreds and thousands w ere perishing for want. So did not the
Bishops of the Bible, and of the best ages of the Church. It is but
justice, however, to his memory, to state, that within the last year of
his life he contributed from his own funds £520 for the express pur¬
pose of lowering the price of Bibles to the poor of his Diocese,
besides his annual subscription of £100 to the Association in aid of
the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.—7. After a long
illness, followed by a stroke of apoplexy, Augustus, reigning Duke
of Saxe Gotha. He is succeeded by his brother Prince Frederic.
—10. At Paris, Abbe Sicard, Member of the French Academy, and
the celebrated Director of the Royal Institute for Deaf and'Dumb
persons, aged 80.—26. In Great George-street, Euston-square,
Robert Barry, Esq. of the Inner Temple, Barrister at Law, aged 56.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. Reginald Heber, Preacher at
Lincoln’s Inn.—Rev. W. Vaux, A. M. Chaplain, and Rev. J. Lons¬
dale, Domestic Chaplain, to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
New Church.—' Tuesday, May 7, St. Pancras New Church, the
erection of which has cost £70,000, was consecrated by the Lord
Bishop ot LandalV, with the usual forms and ceremonies. The Ser¬
mon w as preached by the Rev. Dr. Moore; Dr. Burroughs read the ser¬
vice ; the Bishop ot London assisted in the prayers, and pronounced
the blessing. A collection w as made for the National Schools. It
is supposed that there were 10,000 persons within the Church.
BERKSHIRE.
Deaths.—Feb. 23. In the Cloisters, Windsor, Rev. George Heath,
D. D. Canon of Windsor, and Fellow of Eton College. Dr. Heath’s
truly select and sumptuous classical library, consisting of 4809
217
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
articles, was sold by auction by Mr. Jeffery, in May 1810, and produced
£9000. The most marked bibliomaniac frenzy characterized the sale:
a copy of the Editio Principes of Homer, though by no means a first-
rate one, brought £92, and all the Aldine classics produced such an
electricity of sensation, that buyers stuck at nothing to procure them.
Besides the sale catalogue; printed for Jeffery, another catalogue of
this collection was printed by Mr. Constable, of Edinburgh, with the
prices and purchasers’ names.—27. At Hawthorn Hill, Whitshed
Keene, Esq. who sat in Parliament for almost the unprecedented
space of half a century. He was father of the House of Commons
for some years previous to his retirement at the general election in
1818. In 1780, he was Surveyor General of the Board of Works; and
in 1782, one of the Lords of the Admiralty .—June 3. At Englefield
Green, Viscount Bulkeley.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Hon. and Rev. R. Bagot, a Prebendary
of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor.—Rev. G. Ernest Howman, Sun¬
ning, V.—Rev. Hugh Pearson, D.D. St. Helen’s, Abingdon, V. and
Radley and Drayton Chapels.—Rev. Mr. Plumptre, senior assistant
Master in the Lower School, and Rev. T. Briggs, Fellow of King’s
College, Fellows of Eton College.
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.
Ecclesiastical Preferment. —Rev. Mr. Betliell, Burnham, V.
Miscellaneous Intelligence .—We record with much pleasure the
following noble sentiments of the present Duke (late Marquis) of
Buckingham. After a dinner, lately given at Stowe, to no less than
130 of his Grace’s tenantry, he told them that he had directed his
steward, at the next Lady-day audit, to make a reduction on that
audit of 20 per cent, on their rents; “ and I farther pledge myself,”
said the Duke, “ that it is my intention, on Midsummer-day next, to
institute a minute inquiry into the situation of all my estates, of
every individual farm and farmer, and then I shall make a final
arrangement of rent according to the times, whether they shall be
better or worse. I trust that tins will enable you to live in content¬
ment on your farms. I mean that you should do so. It will be for
the benefit of us both. We must stand or fall together.”—The Duke’s
health having been drunk with great enthusiasm, he said, in return¬
ing thanks: “ What is most satisfactory to me is, that this good un¬
derstanding exists between me and a body of tenantry holding their
farms at will. I know there are fanciful itinerant agriculturists, who
go about the country speaking exclusively in favour of long leases,
as beneficial to tenants, and deny that tenants at will are equally
benefited. I have not a tenant on lease upon my estates in this
country; and yet I could shew those gentlemen, were they in this
room, a young man, whose family have been tenants at will to my
family, upon the same land, upwards of a hundred years. A tenancy
at will shews an honourable confidence in both parties. Up to the
present time, I have no arrears of rent among my tenants of that
description ; but I know that those gentlemen, w ho have granted long
leases, cannot say the same of their rents. Every tenant of mine
knows that he shall remain in his farm as long as he can live on it.
He has the full benefit of his improvements, if he remains upon
it; and if he is obliged to leave it, he appoints one referee and I
another, and an equivalent for w'hat he loses by leaving his farm
before his improvements are fairly worn out, is thrown back to him in
218
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
his rent. What can the admirers of long leases want more?” On
taking leave, the Duke said: “ I hope weshall meet again in happier
and better times; they cannot be bad for jou and better for me. j
cannot live in this house, if you do not live in your farm-houses.
The poor, who depend on you, cannot live in their cottages, if you
cannot live in your farms. The beauty of the Constitution of this
country is, that we are all linked together in one chain; if one link
breaks, the whole is disunited. I will live as long as I can in this
house: and I declare, that, let the times be what they will, I will nut
go abroad and spend your money there"
CAMBRIDGESHIRE.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. E. Hebgame, Whittlesford, V.
—Rev. G. Palmer, Harlton, R.—Rev. W. G. Judgson, St. Michael’s,
Cambridge, P. C.
University Intelligence. —On Wednesday, May 29, the Members of
the Senate assembled to elect a Professor of Mineralogy, in the
room of the late Dr. E. D. Clarke ; when J. S. Henslow, Esq. M.A. and
the Rev. Francis Lunn, M.A. of St. John’s College, were nominated
by the Heads of Houses. Before the scrutiny commenced, a protest
w as presented by tw o Members of the Senate against the mode of
election by nomination, and the Rev. T. Jephson, B.D. of St. John’s
College, was proposed as a third candidate. A large majority of the
Members of the Senate are understood to have tendered their votes
for his election. At the termination of the poll, the votes so tendered
were not read over by the Proctor, and Mr. Henslow was declared
duly elected. We understand that a great number of the Members
of the Senate have resolved to institute proceedings in one of the
higher courts, for the purpose of obtaining a decision on this im¬
portant question.—A grace has unanimously passed the Senate,
“ to present copies of all such books, yet remaining in hand, as have
been printed at the expense of the University, to the College, called
Bishop’s College, lately founded at Calcutta.”—Rev. John Lodge is
appointed Librarian to the University.
CHESHIRE.
Deaths—May. At Nantwich, Rev. Robert Smith, aged 73.—At
Chester, Mr. John Hudson, Governor of the County Gaol; an office
which he filled for many years with the greatest integrity and
humanity.
CORNWALL.
Death.—March. At Penryn, Rev. J. B. Wildbore, aged 80.
CUMBERLAND.
Deaths. April 29. Rev. W^m. Curwen, R. of Harrington.— May
At Highfield Moor, Mrs. M. Carr, aged 101.—Rev. J. S. Jackson, V.
of Holme Caltram.
Ecclesiastical Preferment.— Rev. Robert Collinson, Holme Cal¬
tram, V;
DERBYSHIRE.
I ?T th iT M u arc A 20 \ R . ev - G - Bossley, M.A. V. of Chesterfield,
which office he filled during the last forty years, and discharged the
several important duties of a Christian Minister with zeal and
ability. His loss is universally deplored, and will long continue to
be telt by his attached parishioners ; aged 68.
Ecclesiastical Preferment.— Rev. T. Hill, Chesterfield, V.
I
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
219
DEVONSHIRE.
/
Deaths. — April. A. Kelly, Esq. of Kelly, Barrister at Law, and a
partner in the Portsmouth Bank.— May. At South Molton, Rev. J.
Haxtable, Master of the Free Grammar School.
3Iiscellaneous Intelligence. --The Bishop of Exeter, by his admonitory
charge to the Clergy of Iris extensive diocese, at his late visitation,
has been the means of causing Resident Curates to be appointed to
all the parishes possessed by Pluralists, with full stipends, according
to the Act of Parliament.—A man, named James Carter, who ex¬
posed a gaming table in the street at Collumpton fair, and tempted
persons to play with dice, was lately convicted in the penalty
of two hundred pounds; and, for default of payment, has been com¬
mitted to the county gaol for six months.
DORSETSHIRE.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. M. Irving, Sturminster-Marshall,
V.—Rev. Henry Brereton, Haslebury, R.
ESSEX.
Deaths.—March 21. At Epping Vicarage, Rev. Edward Conyers,
V. of Epping and of TV althamstow.— April. Rev. W. Wilson, B.D.
26 years R. of Moreton:—17. At Ardleigh, Rev. Mr. Lugar, aged 67.
—May 13. At Chigwell Wells, Mr. James Basire, engraver to the
Royai and Antiquarian Societies.—21. At Dedham, Rev. John
Jewett Stevens, B. A. second Master of the Royal Grammar School,
Norwich.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. J. Thomas, Great Burstead, V.
—Rev. W. B. Whitfield, Great Lawford, R.
GLOUCESTERSHIRE.
Deaths. — April. Rev. John Burton Watkin, V. of Marshfield.—At
Bristol, Rev. J. J. Bird.—11. At Cheltenham, aged 66, Ralph Dodd,
Esq. well known as an architect, a civil engineer, and as the pro¬
jector of several bridges, and other important works. He w r as so
reduced in his circumstances, that when his medical attendants re¬
commended a visit to Cheltenham, to recruit his health, which had
been severely injured by the bursting of the Sovereign steam-vessel,
at Gloucester, he was obliged to perform his journey on foot; when,
finding himself fatigued by his exertions, he deferred sending for
medical advice until the morning, when a mortification had taken
place in his bowels, which terminated his existence at ten o’clock in
the evening. The pittance found upon him after his decease was
only £2. 5s. Amongst his publications were : “ An Account of the
principal Canals in the known World, with Reflections on the utility
of Canals,” Svo. 1795; “Reports, with Plans and Sections, on the
proposed dry Tunnel from Gravesend to Tilbury; also, on a Canal
from Gravesend to Stroud,” 4to. 1798; “ Letters on the Improvement
of the Port of London, demonstrating its Practicability without Wet
Docks,” 1799; “ Observations on Water,” 8vo. 1805.
New Church. —Thursday, April 25, the Hon. and Rt. Rev. the Bp.
of Gloucester consecrated a third church in the Forest of Dean, capa¬
ble of holding 1000 persons. On this occasion his Lordship, with
much affection and dignity, addressed his auditory in an impressive
discourse from Psalm cxxxi. 8—10. The congregation were atten¬
tive, and shewed their attachment to the object by contributing at the
doors nearly £30 towards the expense of the building, which is a neat
220
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
and substantial structure, in the Gothic style, and situated in the
midst of an immense forest.
Miscellaneous Intelligence. —A stratum of coal has been found on
Tidenham Chase, bordering on the Forest of Dean, which is likely to
afl'ord an abundant supply to that district.
HAMPSHIRE.
Deaths. — March. At Southampton, Gen. Richardson, 81.—27. At
Winchester, Rev. Carew Gauntlett, nephew of the Warden of New
College.— May 12, at Northwood Rectory, Rev. T. Dalton, B. D.
Rector of Carisbrook and Northwood, Isle of Wight, 88.
Ecclesiastical Preferment. —Rev. J. Leggett, East Testid, R.
HEREFORDSHIRE.
Deaths. — Feb. 1. At Longworth, Robert Phillips, Esq. Barrister at
Law, Recorder of Hereford, and formerly Representative in Parlia¬
ment for that city.
Ecclesiastical Preferment. —Rev. C. S. Luxmoore, Bromyard, V.
HERTFORDSHIRE.
Death.—May 12. Charles Baron, Esq. of Hitchin, 100.
HUNTINGDONSHIRE.
Death. —At the Rectory-liouse, Hamerton, Rev. R. Pyne, many
years R. of that parish.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. James H. Monk, B. D. Regius
Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge, Dean of Peter¬
borough.—Rev. R. S. Barton, Alconbury cum Weston, V.—Rev. F.
Jefferson, Ellington, V.
KENT.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Hon. and Rev. Hugh Percy, a Preben¬
dary of Canterbury, Archdeaconry of that diocese.—Rev. J. Croft, R.
ofSaltwood, a Prebendary of Canterbury.—Rev. John Page, B. D.
Gillingham, V.—Rev. N. Simons, Ickliam, V.
LANCASHIRE.
Neiv Church.-—April 23. The foundation stone of one of the new
churches, erecting by the National Commissioners, was laid at Til-
desley Banks. It is to be built, from the designs of Mr. Smirke,
on the side of a hill, commanding a view of seven counties, and its
spire, of 150 feet in height, will be conspicuously visible to the sur¬
rounding parts of Cheshire and Lancashire.
LINCOLNSHIRE.
Death.—March. Rev. Charles Wakeham, Prebendary of Lichfield
and Coventry, and R. of Wickenby.
Ecclesiastical Preferments.—Rev. Howell W. Powell, Heapham, R.
—Rev. B. Benson, Heckington, V.—Rev. C. Collier, Riby, V._Rev.
W. Yeadon, Waddington, R.
MIDDLESEX.
Death.—April Rev. John Williams, Yicar of East Testead, Hants.
Mr. \V. called at Mr. Adey’s, a grocer, at Turnham Green, to wait for
the stage to Testead, when he entered into conversation with Mr A
on a variety of philanthropic topics, in which lie felt much interested":
such as, the abolition of the Slave Trade ; the Peace Society; the
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
221
new systems of education of the poor, &c. and expressed his hope,
that, by these means, knowledge would universally prevail. When
he had uttered this, his last wish, he fell back, and instantly expired.
Mr. Williams was Afternoon Lecturer at Chiswick Church for nearly
20 years, and was universally respected for his piety, evangelical
principles, and benevolent conduct. But, though an impressive and
faithful preacher, he was never popular, owing to an asthmatic com¬
plaint under which he laboured. He was attentive to visiting the sick,
and enforced a strict observation of the Sabbath.
MONMOUTHSHIRE.
Miscellaneous Intelligence. —A lead mine is discovered on Gallows
Hill, about a quarter of a mile S. W. of Chepstow. The miners are
now working in the coal and lead works.
NORFOLK.
Deaths. —j Feb. 8. At Hillington, near Lynn, in the 77th year of his
age, and 40th of his incumbency, Rev. W. Atkinson, R.— March. At
Matlask, Mrs. Leeder, aged 100.—30. After a short, but severe illness.
Rev. G. Boldero, of Martin Rainham.— April. At Oulton, Rev. Mr.
Colebon.—8. Rev. Anthony Barwic, V. of Neatishead and Horning,
which livings w ere presented to him by Bishop Yonge in 1767.— May
8. Rev. Edward P. Edwards, son of the Rev. Edward Edwards, R.
of St. Edmund’s, Lynn.—14. At Lynn, Mrs. Anne Miller, aged 106.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. H. C. de Crespiguy, Neatishead,
Y.—Rev. T. Skrimshire, South Creak, Y.—Rev. W. Upjohn, Byn-
liam, V.—Rev. Robert Hales, Hillington, R.—Rev. J. Deacon, St.
Etheldred, Norwich, Cur.
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
Deaths. — March 2. Rev. E. Hunt, R. of Benefield and Stoke Doyle.
— April 1. At Baybroke Rectory, N. B. Harrison, Esq. B. A. son of
the Rev. Dr. Harrison, and a student of Christ Church, Oxford.—
May 19. At Daventry, Rev. W. Fallowfield, A.M.
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.
Ecclesiastical Preferment. —Rev. J. Footit, Barnb} 7 in Willows, V.
OXFORDSHIRE.
Death. — April 17. At Weston on the Green, Rev. James Yolden,
V. of that parish, and R. of Bucknell.
Ecclesiastical Prefeiments.—Rev. R. Greaves, Deddington, V.—
Rev. J. Clebury, Piddington, P.C.
University Intelligence. —The venerable Charles Goddard, D.D.
Archdeacon and Prebendary of Lincoln, is to be Bamptou Lecturer
for the ensuing year.
SOMERSETSHIRE.
Deaths. — March. At Compton Martin, Mrs. Candy, aged 103.—
April 9. In Sion-place, Bath, aged 66, Caleb H. Parry, M.D. F.R.S.
&c. father of Capt. Parry, now commanding the Northern Expedi¬
tion of Discovery. Dr. Parry was well known to the medical world,
by a valuable treatise on Angina Pectoris , the Pulse, Hydrophobia,
and Tetanus; and by his “ Elements of Pathology,” published in 1816 ;
in which year a sudden attack of the palsy annihilated at once his
faculties and his usefulness. Dr. Parry also published “ A Treatise
on Wool,” in which he demonstrated, from actual experiment, the
absurdity of the long prevalent opinion, that the excellence of the
222
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
Merino wool was to be attributed to the climate of Spain, having
himself brought it in England to a degree of perfection somewhat
superior to the original Spanish breed.—17. At Bath, Rev. Edmund
Butcher, late of Sidmouth, Devon, author of “ Sermons, to which are
subjoined suitable Hymns,” 2 Vols. 8vo. 1798, 1809; “ Moral Tales,
12mo. 1801; “An Excursion from Sidmouth to Chester, in 1803,” 2
Vols. 12mo. 1805; “A Sermon before the Supporters of the Uni¬
tarian Fund, June 9, 1815,” 12uio.— May 7. At Bath, Rev. W.
Haverfield, aged 73.
Philanthropic Intelligence. —The new Visiting Magistrates ap¬
pointed for Ilchester Gaol, at the Wells Sessions, are Gen. Bathurst,
of Wookey, (son of the Bishop of Norwich,) and W. Henning, Esq.
the late Sherilf, who has not been a visitor of the gaol for the last ten
years. On their lirst visit, the day after Sir F. Burdett left Mr.
Hunt, they gave orders for the high walls which surrounded his and
the adjoining wards, to be immediately lowered, and the door which
was closed, to he left open , for the free admission of the sun and air.
By the promptness and activity of Mr. Hardy, the governor, this
long-protracted nuisance is already removed, and the walls are lowered
one half; so that they are now only ten instead of twenty feet high.
The sun and air have since penetrated these gloomy recesses, from
whence both had been excluded, by the notable contrivances of the
late gaolor, for the last twelve years. At the above Sessions, a
Committee of Magistrates was appointed to visit all the prisons in
the county, with a view to the adoption of such alterations in their
management and discipline as may appear desirable.
SUFFOLK.
Deaths. — April. Rev. Mr. Tiflen, Curate of Fakenham.—At Wor¬
tham, Rev. G. Betts, LL.B. Prebendary of Lichfield, and R. of West
Winch and Overstrand, Norfolk.—Mr. Giles Pettitt, of Kertling, who
had lived on one farm for the long period of 82 years; indeed, “the
farm that he held on his honour’s estate, was the same which his fore¬
fathers till’d” as far back as 1550.—At Ipswich, Mrs. Sarah Prime,
aged 101. She was followed to the grave by her son, in his 71st
year.—17. At Claydon, Rev. Charles Mein Haynes, LL.B 56 years
Vicar of Damerham, Wilts. At his particular request, his remains
were conveyed to his native village of Elmset, in this county, and
interred in the church-yard of that parish, under a tree which lie had
specified, having always strongly decried the indecency of interment
in churches, truly observing, that the church was intended for the
living, and its yard for the dead.
Ecclesiastical Preferment .—Rev. J. G. Whaley, Witnesham, R.
SURREY.
Deaths—March 1 . At Kew Green, James Montagu, Esq. aged
101.—4. At his residence, Albury, near Guildford, Rev. W. Polhill,
many years Rector of that parish, aged 85.
New Church. —On Tuesday, April 23d, the Lord Bishop of Win¬
chester laid the first stone of a New Church at Camberwell, in great
pomp and ceremony, attended with music, firing of guns, &c. A
number of the Clergy, Parish Officers, &c. moved in procession from
the Grove House, and back again.
SUSSEX.
Death.—.March 16. In Heather’s Buildings, Chichester, Mr. Harry
223
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence .
Smith, well known by the appellation of “ the ’Squire/' He was a
complete sportsman of the old school, skilful in the use of the cross
and long; bows, and at all athletic exercises; an adept at the single
stick and quarter staff, which last he would, until lately, turn with
astonishing activity. In 1779, he gave a most convincing proof of his
prowess in the last named exercise, when a sergeant in Elliott’s
Light Horse, reputed one of the best swordsmen of the day, match¬
ed his sword against the’Squire’s staff, to draw the first blood; at the
expiration of four minutes, the ’Squire gave his adversary the end of his
staff on his forehead, which laid him flat on his back, and gained the
victory. The staff, which is seven feet ten inches in length, is now
preserved, and has thirteen cuts of the sword on it.
Ecclesiastical Preferment. —Rev. H. Plimley, Chancellor of the
Diocese of Chichester.
Philanthropic Intelligence. —It gives us much satisfaction to find,
that refuge caves are formed, and forming, about the tall cliffs near
Beachy Head, in cases of wrecks, for seamen in their distress and
danger to have recourse to. These caves are formed by excavating
the rock above the reach of the tide, with steps, similarly effected, to
approach them. Tw o of these caves, to the West of Berlingap, are
finished, and various others are in process. Had such a thoughtful
measure been carried into execution years back, it is impossible to say
how many valuable lives would have been preserved by it.
WARWICKSHIRE.
Deaths. — March. Aged 111, Joseph Mills, of Hobert’s-green, in the
parish of Tamworth. He was a labouring man, and had been resi¬
dent in the parish of Tamworth 80 years.—13. At the Rectory-house,
Sutton Colefield, Rev. John Riland, A.M. 52 years Rector of that
place, aged 86.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. T. C. Adam, Foleshill, V.—Rev.
Francis Ellis, Long Compton, Y.
WESTMORELAND.
Death. — April. At Hollyhall Bowness, George Hutchins Bellasis,
Esq. eldest son of the late Major-General John Bellasis, commander
of the forces at Bombay, by Anna Maria, daughter of the Rev. John
Hutchins, author of the History of Dorsetshire. He published, in
1815, “Six Views in St. Helena.”
W’ORCESTERSHIRE.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. C. B. Sumner, a Canon of Wor¬
cester Cathedral.—Rev. J. Jones, Cradley,V.
YORKSHIRE.
Deaths. — March 8. At his seat, Burtonhall, in theN. R. Rev. Christo¬
pher Wyvill, father to the member for York, and long known as a
zealous advocate of Parliamentary Reform and Catholic Emancipa¬
tion, 82.—28. Mrs. Waterhouse, of Hill-end, near Barnsley, 103.—
April. At Askliam, Rev. G. Harrison.
Ecclesiastical Preferment. —Rev. J. Jackson, East Cow ton, V.
Philanthrophic Intelligence. —Robert Turner, Esq. of Sheffield, many
years Tow'n-collector, has bequeathed £1000 to the Boys’ and Girls’
Charity Schools there.
WALES.
Deaths. — March. At Peterstone Court, Brecon, J. H. Pow ell, Esq.
224
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
a Bencher of the Inner Temple.—John Morri3, of Neddfrded, Mont¬
gomery, a person of extraordinary dimensions, weighing 13 cwt. m
his coffin—30. David Thomas, alias Davydd ddh o Eryri, the cele¬
brated Welch bard. He was found dead in the river Cogin, near
Bachy yr Rhiffir, in the parish of Llanddiniolen.
SCOTLAND.
Death.—March 6. At Dumfries, the Rev. Jas. Kirkpatrick, 77.
IRELAND.
Deaths.—March. At Drogheda, Rev. R. Warren, of Tuam and Cong.
—At Maglierafelt, aged each 73, James Badger, and Anne, his wife.
They were born on the same day, baptized at the same time, married
to each other, taken ill and died together, and were buried in the
same grave.—AtLongmore, Rev.Mr. M‘Namara.—At Downpatrick,
Rev. T. Waring.—At Galway, Rev. Mr. Langan.—At Kilkenny, Rev.
P. Helsham.—At Drogheda, Lieut. Grey, who had lately lost his wife,
and it appears that he died of grief for the loss; refusing all suste¬
nance for 21 days previous to his death.— April 4. At Houth Castle,
in his 70th year, William St. Lawrence, Earl of Houth. He is suc¬
ceeded in his title, by his eldest son, William Viscount St. Law rence,
now Earl of Houth.— May 6. In Rutland-square, Dublin, his Grace
the Rt. Hon. and Most Rev. Charles Brodrick, Archbishop of Ca¬
shel, Primate of Munster, Bishop of Emly, kc. His Grace w r as
the fourth son of George, third Viscount Middleton, by Albina,
sister of Thomas Townsiiend, first Viscount Sydney. He was con¬
secrated Bishop of Clonfert in 1795, of Kilmore in i?9G, and in 1801
was promoted to the Arcliiepiscopal chair of Cashel, in which he ren¬
dered great service to the church and to his country, by strictly enfor¬
cing the residence of his clergy, and bestowing vacant preferments on
deserving objects, without regard to interest or connection. He has
left, by Mary, daughter of Dr. Woodward, Bishop of Cloyne, tw r o sons
and four daughters. It is worthy of remark, that he died on the
same day with the Archbishop of Armagh.
Philanthropic Intelligence.—School in Carrichfergus County Gaol .—
The following is an extract of a letter from Dr. Allen, the benevolent
founder of this school, to “ The Society for promoting the Education
of the Poor of Ireland." “ The schools seem to have had a wonderful
effect on the conduct of the prisoners ; and, I hope, an equally good
one in other respects. The improvement too of the scholars is very
great. I send specimens of writing, which I hope the Society will
approve of; and I can assert in truth, that there is equal improve¬
ment making in other branches of education. The writing is by men
who never made a letter till they began in the Gaol School. There
are many too who can read intelligibly, who began their letters there.
The gentleman who preceded me as Physician and Inspector, I am
told, several times narrowly escaped being murdered; and had ac¬
tually to go into the gaol with a guard of soldiers. I began the
school immediately on succeeding him, and have always a sulficient
guard, amongst the prisoners themselves, to protect me against any
injury. I have observed that even so much as my pocket handker¬
chief was not stolen from me.
225
SUMMARY OF MISSIONARY PROCEEDINGS.
Our Summary for the present quarter will be short, because of
most of the Societies we have given an ample notice in the abstract
ot their annual reports, contained in our Religious and Philanthropic
Intelligence.
The venerable Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
is not included there, because we are not aware of the period at
which its annual meeting is held ; but we are happy, in this place, to
lay before our readers the following encouraging view of its opera¬
tions.
From the Annual Report of this Society, it appears that the
amount of books issued last year is as follows:
Bibles (exclusive of Dr. Mant’s). 32,199
New Testaments and Psalters. 45,682
Common Prayer Books . 85,301
Other bound books. 75*550
Tracts half bound. 827*044
Tracts and papers gratuitously. 176,315
1,242,091
Several fresh books have been added to the Society’s publications.'
Tracts in Greek by St. Athanasius, Chrysostom, Basil, Gregory, and
Nazienzen, have been printed for distribution in the Ionian Isles.
Supplies of books have been granted to the settlers in South Africa,
to the Chatham Garrison, and the King’s Bench Prison. The Special
Committee for counteracting blasphemous and infidel publications
have printed upwards of a million of tracts, of which about 900,000
have been circulated, at an expense of £4000, and the same course
of operations has been kept up for another year.
The Society’s receipts for the year amounted to - £51,822 3 3
Expenses . . .. 50,421 18 8
The number of Members has increased to 14,530; and of Diocesan
Committees, at home and abroad, to 225.
The total number of Children, reported as receiving assistance in
their education from the Society, is 181,946;—16,230 of whom are in
the Metropolis. The actual number, however, is much larger; the
Diocesan and other returns being very imperfect. Of the foreign
proceedings of the Society, we are not in possession of very recent
intelligence ; but cannot avoid expressing a wish that it would add
to its polemical Greek tracts, some of those powerful appeals to the
consciences and hearts of men, with which the writings of the Fathers
of the Church abound, and which are particularly adapted to the pre¬
sent state of their countrymen.
The Moravian Mission holds no annual meeting; and as the
Synodal Committee directing its proceedings is located at Hernliutt,
in Germany, we do not receive the most prompt intelligence of its
success. Its pecuniary difficulties are, we hope, however, decreasing,
as the last year’s contribution of the London Association in, aid of
its funds, exceeded, by eight hundred pounds, that of the preceding
year, and nearly trebled its first contribution four years ago. In¬
cluding the adult females of the Missions, 170 labourers are now em¬
ployed by this unassuming Society, which includes in its congrega-
VOL, V.—NO. 9, Q
226
Summary of Missionary Proceedings.
tions 30,000 converts. The Lord add daily to their number of such
as shall be saved! .
The fruits of faith have already appeared in some ot the poor
Esquimaux of Labrador, who have made a contribution of seal blub¬
ber, producing thirty tons of oil, to the funds of the Bible Society,
that, in their "own language, more heathens might be presented with
that book “ so far more precious than any thing else in this world.”
So sensible are these people, whose feelings and ideas are in general
somewhat blunt, of the benefits they have received in the gospel, and
so anxious that others should partake them also.
The Baptist Missiongoes on prospering, and, we doubtnot,to pros¬
per, in the East. In the Molunga place of worship, at Calcutta, where
the service is conducted in Bengalee, a more lively attention than
usual has been evinced by the natives. That at Moonshee Bazar,
originally erected at the expense of a pious female servant, is about,
at her request, to be removed to a more convenient spot, she herself
cheerfully engaging to contribute to the expense incurred. The two
other native chapels are pretty well attended. The good effects of
education are very visible here. One of the Missionaries of the So¬
ciety lately asked his Pundit, who had visited every school con¬
nected with the Society, to examine its progress, “ whether he had
witnessed any effects of the instruction now afforded to children.”
He replied, ‘Yes, Sir: the effects are astonishing, both among the
Children and the Parents. A few months ago, before your books
were introduced, if I had asked a boy at school what w r as the matter
during the late eclipse, he would have replied, that the giant Rahoo
was eating the moon; and w r ould have joined in the beating of drums,
&c. to frighten him, that he might let go his grasp. But now they all
know better: they see such an event without alarm, know it to be
produced by the shadow r of the earth, and despise the foolish ideas
and customs w'hicli they formerly entertained and practised. A few
months ago, had a snake bitten a person, he would have done nothing
but immediately call for a Priest to repeat a muntra’ or incantation,
‘over him; and if the snake was poisonous, die in the repetition,—but
now, as soon as he is bitten, he puts no faith in muntras, but directly
ties a bandage over the wound, and gets a hot iron applied, to bum
out the poison ; and if he gets it done quickly, there is great hope of
his recovery, even though the snake were poisonous/ ‘ The other
day/ he continued, ‘ one of the Hurkarahs’ or letter-carriers, 1 while
all the servants were sitting together in my house, expressed his in¬
tention of swinging; as he had made a vow r , when he was ill, that if
Siva would preserve his life, he w r ould perform this act of holiness to
his praise. All the assembly, instead of receiving this declaration of
his piety with approbation, and encouraging him to put it into execu¬
tion, as they would have done some little time ago, now, with one ac¬
cord, blamed him for his folly, and made him desist from his intention!’ ”
To the disgrace of our government, the brethren of the mission still
have to complain of the burning of Hindoo widows, which (can it be
believed of Christian rulers ?) is always done under the authority of a
magistrate’s warrant. An act of the British legislature, of but a single
page, might in a moment put a stop to the practice ; though we blush
for our country, when we add,—yet does not ? Spite, however, of this
shameful indifference to the spread of the gospel, on the part of the
European government, idolatry is slowly yet evidently on the decline
in Bengal. The temples built by former Rajahs are quietly suffered
Summary of Missionary Proceedings. 227
bj the present one to go to decay, whilst the allowance for their
maintenance has dwindled from 25,000 rupees to a few hundreds.
At Dinagepour, the Mission has a church of sixty converts, seven¬
teen ot "whom were recently baptized; and fourteen candidates are
speedily expected to be added, by that initiatory rite, to the visible
church, in tms heathen land. The schools at Seampure are prosper-
^th e college and two houses for professors are roofed in.
A Brahman has just been baptized there. In Java, a few of the
Malaj s seem to awakened to a spirit of inquiry after the God who is
preached in these villages by the indefatigable heralds of the cross,
though in few instances are any very visible effects produced. Since
the restoration of the island to the Dutch, the active agents of this
most useful Mission have indeed been subjected to such restrictions
in their labours, that, after the failure of an application to the Kin” - of
the Netherlands by a deputation of the Committee of the Society
Mr. Robinson has been withdrawn from Batavia, to join, at the invi-
tation of Sir Stamford Raffles, the Mission on Sumatra. Received
with his wonted kindness by that liberal and enlightened governor
he has commenced preaching in Malay, with success, at the seat of
government, which Mr. Evans has left for Padang, and Mr. Burton
is about to leave for Nias, a most important post, as we shewed in
our last; as are, indeed, more places upon the island; than Missionaries
have yet been sent to supply, though we hope they will not long be
left destitute; for the Mahomedan priests are very active in making
converts, whom their teaching renders ten-fold more the children of
Satan than before. The schools, on the whole, are still increasing
and one for girls is about to be opened at Fort Marlborough, in the
house of a Malay lady, about eighty years of age, the verandah of
the Missionaries being objected to as so distant"(though not in fact
ten minutes’ walk,) that their bigger girls might be stolen, a thin®* of
winch they are much afraid, as daughters are valuable property, sale¬
able as wives. The number of schools forming andformed on this island,
has excited considerable alarm, and some opposition, principally
from the Melims, or chief Mahometan priests; but the strongest party,
with the governor of course at its head, is for the schools, and their
opponents are pretty quiet now. In the West, as in the Eastern In¬
dies, the Mission of the Society prospers, for in Jamaica, in five years
a thousand negroes have been added to the church on earth, seve¬
ral of whom have, in a triumphant death, given good evidence of their
being translated to the church of the first-born, written in heaven
The new chapel at Kingston was opened on the 27ih of January*
upwards of two thousand hearers being within the building, and five
hundred upon benches without. The service induced some gentlemen
unknown to the Missionaries, not only to vindicate, but to advocate*
their cause, and earnestly to solicit support for an institution “ so
likely to be advantageous to the public welfare.”
The London Missionary Society, like its sister institutions is
making progress, though slowly, in the East. At Chinsurah, a school
tor girls is established in the government house, and though, from its
unfavourable situation, it is attended but by few scholars, their
being able to read and write a little, and to commit to memory the
whole of Mr. Pearson’s catechism, is justly considered an extraordi¬
nary acquisition for a Bengalee female, so degraded is the sex in the
East. A new school-room is about to be opened, in a populous neigh¬
bourhood, after the holidays, connected with the licentious Doorga-
228 Summary of Missionary Proceedings.
Poojah, or festival of Doorga, are over ^^J^f^he'erlat
chapels are numerous, though too generally indifferent to the great
truths which they there hear proclaimed. At Belgaum, the exer
lions of an association, recently formed for the promotion of evange¬
lical religion, have, in the distribution of the Scriptures, been blessed
to the awakening of an evident concern for their immortal interests,
in the minds of two Brahmins, and of some other natives, who have
put away their idols, and are now serious and anxious inquirers after
the X as il is in Jesus. A wide held of usefulness sterns to be
opening here, requiring the labour of more than one Missionary,
active as he is in the discharge of his important duties. The open¬
ing of a Hindoo temple at Bangalore, lately presented a very curious
spectacle; for whilst the heathen priest within was burniI jg ince ™ e
to his idol, the Christian Missionary, by permission ot the people,
was standing in the porch, reading to the auditory, deeply attentive
to what he said, the living oracles of God. At Surat, the pa¬
ries are diligently employed in printing Tracts in the Gujeratte
tono-ue, together with elementary books for the native schools, which
are slowly on the increase there. Mr. Fyne is also about to print
in that language, a small volume of discourses, on the leading d c-
trines of the Gospel. The Brahmins here seem to be making in¬
quiries after this new way, and some ot them to be favourably dis¬
posed to its reception. From the West Indies, we have no recent
intelligence, except from Berbice, where a new school-room is erect¬
ing, towards which the governor and the fiscal have both been con¬
tributors, as has also been the case with several respectable plan¬
ters. In Russia, things wear an encouraging aspect, as the school,
established by the emperor at St. Petersburgh, under the direction
of Mr Knill, is in a flourishing state, and much concern is awakened
amongst the inhabitants, especially those of German origin, relative
to eternal things. The latter work lias been chiefly eflected by the
instrumentality of a Roman Catholic priest, “ a zealous and heaven y
minded man/’ to use Mr. Knill’s own liberal expressions, who
preaches in German frequently, and from house to house, and holds
a Missionary Prayer Meeting in his own house on the first Monday
of the month. He also distributes copies of the sacred scriptures,
&c.” The Governor of Siberia has expressed his satisfaction with
the conduct of the Missionaries, to whose love, zeal, and promptitude,
he declared himself an edified eye-witness, fully persuaded of the
purity of their intentions, and particularly interested in their welfare.
Prince Ratafle, and the Missionaries and artisans who accompanied
him have, we are rejoiced to learn, arrived in safety at Poit Louis,
as has Dr. Philip at the Cape, after a three montlis’ tour into the
interior of Africa. We are sorry to find that he was much indis¬
posed when he reached home; but are happy to hear, that, when
the last accounts left him, he was convalescent.
The Church Missionary Society lias formed a ninth Mission
to the North-west Indians on the Red River, with great pros¬
pects of usefulness amongst the numerous tribes, to which access may
thence be attained. M. Jowett has returned to Malta, in company
with some of the Missionaries of the Society destined for India. The
new commercial arrangements between the Foulah country, and the
colony of Sierra Leone, seem to promise the opening a door of
success to the active agents of this Society in Western Africa, a
field peculiarly their own, and on which they can produce many
229
Summon/ of Missionary Proceedings.
triumphant instances of the blessing of Heaven upon their unwearied
exertions in the saving conversion of sinners from the errors of their
way to the only living and true God.
To the new Methodist Mission chapel at Jaffna in Ceylon, 3000
rix-dollars have been subscribed by the inhabitants; and at that sta¬
tion, and all over the island, increasing interest seems to be excited
amongst the heathen by the labours of the Missionaries, and increas¬
ing alarm among their priests. The Brahmins themselves begin to
express some fear that Christianity will one day overthrow their
system, and even to predict the time when it will be overthrown;
w hence they bend all their pow r er and sagacity against it, mocking,
abusing, and publicly disputing with its teachers, as occasion offers—
a conduct much more promising to their conversion to the gospel, than
was their former indifference to it, and to its heralds. The number
of these is increasing, by the addition of young men on the island,
as local preachers, in Portuguese and Tamul, by whose aid, about
sixty public services in a month are held in the Jaffna circuit only,
in the school-rooms, rest-houses,bazars, wherever, in short, a company
can be assembled together. At Hobarts town, in Van Diemen’s land,
a religious society has been formed by some pious persons removed
thither from New South Wales. So novel a circumstance as preach¬
ing and praying in a public assembly, in a country, some of whose
European inhabitants had not heard divine service for twenty years,
excited very riotous proceedings in the populace; but the threat of
appealing for protection to the Lieutenant-Governor, who has evinced
a disposition very favourable to Missionary exertions, soon allayed
the ferment. A Missionary has indeed been left there, who was on
his way for New South W'ales, all classes of the people being desir¬
ous of a minister amongst them. The field is wide, as the natives are
very ignorant and uncivilized, but seem not to have many prejudices
to subdue their notions of religion, being, like those of their fellow
savages in other parts of the world, extremely simple and obscure,—
confined principally to the worship of a good spirit, who rules the
day, and the propitiation of an evil one, to whom they attribute the
empire of the night. The Mission to New South Wales is in a state
of prosperity, encouraged by the Governor, and slowly making con¬
verts among the settlers and the natives. Mr. and Mrs. Leigh are
proceeding thence to New Zealand, where they intend to fix their set¬
tlement, at Mercury Bay, a spot recommended by Mr. Marsden, for
the commencement of their labours, and also by its being under the
government of Shungee, the chief formerly in London, a number of
w hose friends and under-chiefs reside there. Other Missionaries were
expected at Sydney in time to proceed with them to this place of
their destination, in Southern Africa, a new chapel is building at
Salem, the most promising of the Albany settlements, where the Mis¬
sionary is much patronized by the local authorities, and esteemed by
the people. In Western Africa, this Society acts as a very useful
auxiliary to the Church Mission, with whose labourers its agents live
as brethren. Considerable good seems to have been effected by the
Wesleyan Missionaries here, especially amongst the recaptured
slaves, trophies of British humanity now% as, beneath British preach¬
ing, we hope they will soon become trophies of redeeming grace.
The Missionaries at St. Mary’s have made a settlement at Manda-
naree, a native town in the territories of the King of Combo, by
whom they are encouraged and protected, though the Mahometan
230
Summary of Missionary Proceedings.
part of the people did every tiling in tlieir power to prevent their
establishment, and will, no doubt, do all they can to render their con¬
tinuance uncomfortable. The King, however, who seems very justly
to expect very considerable advantages from the settlement of white
men amongst his people, has resolutely declared, that it is at their
peril that any of them molest the Missionaries. From the West
Indies the intelligence recently received, is for the greater part most
encouraging. In Antigua, this is especially the case. The converts
lately received on trial are no less than seven hundred in number, and
three thousand children are now in the schools upon the island. In
Grenada the work proceeds but slowly, and through much discourage¬
ment. What indeed can be expected from heathen Negroes, when
well-educated Christians set them so miserable an example, that,
whilst on a Sabbath morning the church at Grenville contained but
six whites, eight mulattoes, and six or seven blacks, five of whom
were members of the Methodist Mission church ; not fewer than two
or three thousand crowded the Sabbath market, held at the same
time, at the very foot of the church steps. On the children some im¬
pression seems, however, to be making; and of the rising generation,
even of Grenada, we have hopes, though small indeed would be those
we entertained of the adults, did we not feel assured that all things
are possible with God. The little neighbouring isle of Rhonde exhibits
more encouraging prospects there, in a little negro flock of simple, sin¬
cere, and stedfast followers of the Lord. The Society does not in¬
crease in numbers, though we are happy to find that it does in the
graces of the Christian profession. In Demerara, the congregations
are A ery large, serious, devout, and attenth r e; though in the Society
at George ToAvn somewhat of a laxity of discipline has crept in, and
must be removed when a neAV Missionary is appointed, the island
being iioav supplied from Barbadoes. There, amidst several dis¬
couragements in the country part of the island, the congregations at
BridgetOAvn are largely upon the increase, and generally serious
and attentive, several of the most respectable inhabitants attending
at least the evening service. The schools present also one of the
most promising and pleasing features in the Mission, the children
rapidly increasing in numbers, improvement, and good behaviour. In
Jamaica, a groAving attention is very manifest, both on public and pri¬
vate ordinances, and the congregations have increased considerably
both in numbers and serious attention. A prospect of a very im¬
portant opening in the interior of Trinidad having presented itself,
Ave are happy to find that the governor and commandant of the dis¬
trict (that of Sava Granda) have given every encouragement to the
establishment of a Mission there, and prospectively to a second
amongst a number of disbanded African soldiers in another direc¬
tion ; whilst a large planter has made an offer of land on his estate,
for a Mission settlement, that his adults and slave children may be
instructed in the Christian faith. Thus openings for tAvo new Mis¬
sionaries have been made in an island, whose colonial government
but lately prohibited the Missionary exertions of this Society of
every kind. In the Bahamas also, several members have been added
to the Society, and are walking Avorthy their vocation. This suc¬
cess is, however, principally confined to the white population, as
amongst the blacks comparatively little has been done, or is doing,
here ; few even of the small number who attend the preaching of
the Avord, appearing to be under any serious concern for their eter-
231
Summary of Missionary Proceedings.
nal interests. This representation does not, however, apply to
Turkisland, where the whites frequent divine worship by handfuls,
the blacks are in crowds, and both are serious and attentive. Se¬
veral of the latter appear to be sincere in their religious profession,
and exemplary in their conduct. At this important, though long-
neglected station, a chapel is about to be erected, for which a con¬
siderable sum has been gathered on the spot. At Newfoundland, the
societies and schools are increasing and nourishing ; and in the wig¬
wams of the surrounding Indians, the true God is worshipped in
simplicity, but in truth.
The Edinburgh Missionary Society has, in the course of the
last year, received, in subscriptions and donations, £6678. 9s. Id.
whilst its expenditure amounted to £6313. 18s. 9d. By this im¬
proved state of the funds, the result of various deputations into
England and Scotland, (in the former of which countries nearly a
thousand pounds was collected,) the Society has been enabled to
discharge part of a debt of £1500 contracted in former years. A
Missionary Seminary has also been established, in which six young
men are training upas heralds of the Cross, in Tartary, Caucasus and
Persia, the regions to which this Society has specially directed its
attention.
The General Baptist Missionary Society, formed in 1817, has
sent out their first two Missionaries. Their destination is some part of
India as yet without Christian teachers, and the Assam country is
particularly recommended, though they have a discretionary power,
after taking the advice of the Serampore Particular Baptist Mis¬
sionaries, in company with one of whom (Mr. Ward) they sailed, to
fix in preference in the Punjab country, in the neighbourhood of
Aurungabad, or in one of the Eastern islands as yet unoccupied.
Another Missionary is engaged in preparatory studies, and an addi¬
tional student has offered himself, but his services have been reluc¬
tantly declined, until an increase of funds shall warrant this infant
Society in accepting him.
Most cordially do we rejoice at the pleasing prospects of the
Missionary Society or Basle, four of whose Missionaries, (two of
them destined for India and two for Sierra Leone,) have been for
some time in this country, in order to perfect themselves in the Eng¬
lish language, and in the national system of education, whose bene¬
fits they purpose carrying with them to foreign lands. These devoted
servants of their heavenly Master were ordained to their great work
in the Cathedral Church of Stutgard, in the presence of the Royal
Family of Wiirtemburg, (of which country three of them are natives,)
and of a congregation of more than 4000 persons. We derive great
satisfaction from the open and avowed patronage bestowed upon
this institution by the King of Wiirtemburg, who four times sent for
Mr. Blumhardt to his palace, for the express purpose of inquiring
into the nature and proceedings of the Society, which he emphatically
pronounced a Work of God, and in a letter, signed by his own hand,
assured its friends of his taking every opportunity of evincing his
heartfelt concern for its success. Missions to the heathen are, in¬
deed, a work of the Lord, and we rejoice to live in days when
Kings are becoming its nursing fathers, and Queens its nursing mo¬
thers. The King of Prussia, in consequence of a statement of the
operations of two of his subjects in Madras, addressed to him by the
Rev. Mr. Rheniei, of that place, and in consideration of the number
232
Summary of Missionary Proceedings.
of useful Missionaries who have been prepared for their important
task in the Berlin seminary, has also signified his intention of
becoming a regular subscriber to that Missionary establishment.
Three other Basle Missionaries are now in England, two of the four
above mentioned having lately embarked for Calcutta.
Turning from Europe to America, we state with pleasure that the
American Colonization Society have obtained a grant of land in
in the Batta country, and will there, we doubt not, form an important
central station for the exertions of American and European Mis¬
sionaries in the surrounding districts. They were accompanied in
their visits to the King by the native teachers attached to the Church
of England Missionary Society, who brought back with them to
Sierra Leone the son of the Bassah King, who would scarcely have
been entrusted to them, had not the professions of favouring the Mis¬
sionaries, which he had made, been sincere.
We are happy also in having to record the successful labours of
the American Board of Foreign Missions, who, though they have
been deprived of the labours of Mr. Newell, one of their most active
agents in India, and the husband of Mrs. Harriet Newell, whose
name is in all the churches, have made considerable progress in
this great work. In the neighbourhood of Bombay, one of the Mis¬
sionaries has preached during a tour taken for the purpose, to many of
the natives, who uniformly heard him, and received the tracts with
gladness. Messrs. Fish and Parsons, the two Missionaries of
this Society to Palestine, have executed their commission with
great zeal. They visited five out of the seven apostolic churches of
Asia, distributing Testaments and tracts whenever opportunity
offered, in their way. These were gladly received by the professors
and students of the College of Havaili, since destroyed by the
Turks ; and by the priests of the Greek churches at Havaili, Tatarkucy
Cassebar, Magnisia, and by the Bishop of Elaia, who resides at
Havaili. The four apostolic churches of Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis
and Philadelphia, needed equal assistance, and received it. Scarcely
any of them had more than a copy or two of the word of God dis¬
tributed by former agents of Bible or Missionary Societies • and
Sardis contained not a single Christian family, so awfully has the
denunciation been fulfilled against her, who had but a name to live
while she was dead. Separating after their return from this visit
which they were prevented by ill health from extending to the’
other churches, Mr. Parsons went on to the Holy City, whilst his
colleague remained in Smyrna, distributing Bibles, Testaments
and tracts, in the modern Greek, in that place and its vicinity • a
work of great importance, when it is considered that for many years
the priests have daily been reading the services of the church and
the masters teaching the schools, in ancient Greek, of which ’they
confessedly scarce understand a word. The books which they could
read were most welcome to all classes and ranks; even the priests of
the Greek church gladly pmchasing copies of the New Testament
for their churches In Mr. Parson’s journey to Jerusalem, touching
at the island of Rhodes, the bishop thankfully received a present of
tracts for distribution, as did also the Archimandrite and President
of the monastery, the latter earnestly imploring blessings on the
heads of those through whose benevolence the favour was conferred.
At the small island ol Castello Rosso, the people eagerly begrgred for
tracts as he passed along the street; and he sold ten Testaments, five
233
Political Retrospect.
of them to pilgrims on their way to Mecca. The Greek Bishop of
Paphos, a city whose 365 churches are dwindled down to four,
highly approved of the tracts brought him, and engaged to distribute’
them, as did also the Bishop of Larnica, who warmly expressed his
gratitude for the present. The same course was pursued by the
president of the monastery, at Jaffa,—the Joppa of the scriptures.
At Jerusalem Mr. Parsons sold two Greek Testaments, and one Per¬
sian, one Italian, and one Armenian. The Russian Consul at Jaffa
expressed to him an opinion, in whose correctness, were it acted
upon, we should rejoice,—that a printing press might, without difficulty,
be established at Jerusalem. The gospel was first preached there at
the express command of its Divine founder; and delighted would
every Christian be, if from Jerusalem, the city of the great King, the
word of life should again be dispersed through regions now lyin°- in
the shadow of darkness, though thence emanated to all nations^the
gospel’s great and glorious light. During Mr. Parsons’s visit to
Jerusalem, Mr. Fish took a tour to Ephesus, where he found the
candlestick indeed removed out of its place, for now no human
being lives where once stood Ephesus ; and Aarsuluck, which may be
considered as Ephesus under another name, though not precisely on
the spot of ground, contains but a few miserable Turkish huts. The
fellow labourers afterwards joined company, but it was only for
a while ; as Mr. Parsons, who had been for some time in a declining
state of health, breathed his last at Alexandria on the 10th of
February. He rests from his labours, and his works do follow him.
POLITICAL RETROSPECT.
THEAgricultural Distressesof the country has formed the prominent
feature of Parliamentary discussion since our last; but, for their
relief little has been done, little we are satisfied can be done, by any
legislative enactments. Closing the ports to foreign grain until the
home price shall have reached 80 shillings a quarter, and then admit¬
ting it but on a duty of 12 shillings, whilst that price shall not exceed
70s. is a retrospective proceeding, which the goodness of God, in
sending us another promising season, will, we hope, long render in¬
operative. With all the measures proposed for their assistance, the Agri¬
culturists have indeed been so dissatisfied, that a county Member,
in his place, declared, that “ as Ministers had deserted the Agricultu¬
ralists, the Agriculturalists had no alternative but to desert Ministers.”
On the question of retrenchment, we rejoice that they have deserted
them, and that through that desertion the useless office of a joint
postmaster-general has been abolished, or at least,—for that is the
most important point,—that its salary has been saved to the country.
It would, however, be a gross act of injustice not to notice in terms of
high commendation, the liberal conduct of his Majesty, in voluntarily
directing a reduction of ten per cent, in those departments of the
civil list which chiefly respect his personal comfort, and also in the
salaries of certain officers paid from it, amounting together to
£55,000 per annum.—Some parts of the country have been disturbed
by riotous proceedings of a local nature; in Suffolk and Norfolk to
234 Political Retrospect.
destroy farming machinery; in Wales, to advance the wages of
miners; and in Hull, to resist the reduction of those of seamen: but
they have been happily subdued by the aid of the military, without
bloodshed in the contest, though two or three of the misguided men
have since, by a public execution, been made a dreadful, but neces¬
sary example to their associates in crime.
We hail with joy the presentation of petitions from almost every
part of the country, praying for a revision of our Criminal Code.
Surely our legislators will not be deaf for ever to the voice of mercy !
That they will not, we are disposed to argue, from Sir James Mackin¬
tosh having, by a majority of sixteen, obtained a pledge from the
House of Commons to take the subject into consideration at an early
period of the next Session.
Ireland is in a wretched state : famine in some of its most popu¬
lous districts, having added its horrors to calamities, standing in no
need of aggravation. For this pressing want, relief has, however,
been provided with a promptitude, that does the highest honour to
English benevolence. Subscriptions have every where been opened,
and liberally filled ; and fifty thousand pounds have been placed by
parliament, with the cordial approbation of all parties, at the disposal
of the Lord Lieutenant, to be expended in the employment of the
labouring poor in the suffering districts, in making roads through
those hitherto impervious tracts of mountain and bog, which have for
centuries served as the nursery and retreat of insurrection and out¬
rage. This is a measure as politic as it is humane. The prompti¬
tude with which the provisions of the Irish Insurrection act have
been carried into execution, has greatly contributed to quell the
alarming spirit of revolt, but too widely diffused through that un¬
happy country, which will, we would yet hope, escape the horrors of
a rebellion. We would, however, earnestly entreat our legislators to
lose no time in redressing the wrongs of her wretched population. Mr.
Goulbourn has, we see, launched, in the House of Commons, a scheme
of the Irish government for lessening the evils of the ty thing system ; a
measure rendered doubly necessary by the imprudent and hard-hearted
attempts of some avaricious proctors to introduce the tything of po¬
tatoes: into parts of the country hitherto free from that vexation we
are not yet in possession of its details. The Insurrection act is to be
continued; and an armed police is established throughout the country,
or rather power is given to the Lord Lieutenant to establish it
wherever he may think fit to do so. These are strong precautionary
measures; but if more is not done than Parliament seems disposed to
do, for permanently ameliorating the condition of the people for
whom they are legislating (to use a vulgar expression) but from hand
to mouth, they will have disappointed the expectations of the nation,
and, but too probably, ruined the country they pretend, and but
pretend, to save. We rejoice, however, to find, that some noblemen,
and commoners of large property, are taking measures to prove that
they do more than pretend to benefit their wretched country, to which,
in the hour of her greatest distress, they have returned to occupy
their posts as resident landlords. More we trust will hasten to follow
their example. It is with great pleasure also, that we notice the
exertions ot the venerable and excellent Archbishop of Tuam, who is
traversing his diocese, relieving and consoling disease and famine,
and determined to share in the dangers and sufferings of his country¬
men, which surpass, to use his Grace’s own expression, “ all power
235
Political Retrospect.
of description, and of which no picture could be drawn which would
not be a faint and feeble representation of their present wants.” The
patron of every benevolent institution, the friend of every object in
distress, this primitive bishop, who devotes his large ecclesiastical
revenue (and where it is thus spent, no revenue can well he too
large) in doing good, ought to succeed to the primacy on the late
vacancy, instead of one whose chief, if not his sole recommenda¬
tion, is his family connection, and who may probably imitate the ex¬
ample of his predecessor, in leaving near half a million in his coffers,
whilst thousands of his flock were perishing for want of food.
In France, the zealous exertions of the Missionaries to revive all
the superstition and bigotry of the Catholic faith, have led to tumul¬
tuary proceedings in Paris and the Provinces, sufficient to evince
that the day for such a work is gone by, we hope, for ever. In an
electioneering tumult, of rather a serious nature, at Lyons the Mar-
sellois hymn was sung, and shouts of “ Vive Napoleon II.” were raised ;
indications these of a revolutionary spirit, which would seem but to
want a proper leader to bring them into action. Here and there
overt acts of rebellion have been committed, and though they exhibit
some proofs of a common plan, it is evidently one crude, indigested,
and very partially supported. As was the case in England after the death
of Cromwell, and the restoration of the second Charles, compared
with whom Louis XVIII. is an angel of light, the stability of the pre¬
sent order of things in France seems, indeed, principally to rest upon
the want of a popular chief of the malcontents. It is not, however,
to be dissembled, that the incendiary conflagrations in some provinces,
and the seizure of arms in others, are very awkward proofs of the
spirit and temper of the people, and would excite our alarm, did not
very similar proceedings rivet our attention nearer home. This state
of things is unpleasant, but is yet perhaps productive of some advan¬
tages, as it prevents the Ultras from attempting to re-establish the
reign of bigotry, for whose return some of them are yet living in
hope—never, we trust, to be realized. That its realization is not, at
-'ll events, nigh at hand, is proved by theprevalence of thatspirit of to¬
leration, for which France is indebted to Buonaparte; as, in deference
to it, on a representation of the Consistory of the Reformed Church,
that the temple for that worship was not sufficiently large for the
Protestant Population of Lyons and its vicinity, the King, upon the
demand of the Prefect, has granted 3000 francs to build galleries, in
which 700 or 800 persons can be accommodated.
Spain is still far from quiet, and several of the lower order would
seem to wish for the restoration of the old regime with all its un¬
shackled power, in lieu of a constitutional monarchy, which they are
too ignorant to understand and appreciate as they ought; and in some
districts, armed bodies of insurgents are maintaining a brigandary
but unsuccessful warfare with the government troops.
Turning to Portugal, we regret to find, that Rio Janeiro has
again been the seat of insurrectionary movements, the precise object
and bearing of which we profess not to understand. On the arrival
of the orders of the King and Cortes, for the return of the Prince Re¬
gent to Lisbon, the people are said to have expressed the utmost
unwillingness to part with him ; in consequence ot which, bis Royal
Highness promised to lay their request for his continuance before his
Royal Father, and to await his answer. The military commandant,
however, insisted on the fulfilment of his orders, and drew up the
236 Political Retrospect.
troops, 1500 in number, to enforce them. The inhabitants, on the con¬
trary, collected to the amount of 6000 or 7000, including native troops,
under the sanction of the Prince. This overawed the General, who
surrendered, on condition of withdrawing his troops about a league
distant, whence they were to sail for Europe so soon as transports
could be got ready; thus order was restored, and the shedding of
blood prevented. The government at home is evidently apprehen¬
sive that the Brazils, like the other South American provinces, will
soon throw off the yoke of the mother country, if reinforcements are
not sent out to keep the people in subjection. Five thousand troops
are accordingly about to sail from Lisbon for Bahia though it is re¬
ported that the Transatlantic deputies, have with one accord protested
against the armament, as little, if any thing short of a declaration of
war, by the King against his colonial subjects.
In Naples again all is not quiet yet. Some serious disturbances
have taken place in the province of Basilicata, where armed rioters
released their companions from prison, and threatened to kill th
magistrates, and lire upon the military. The districts where these
outrages occurred, have, by a proclamation of the King, been placed
under martial law.
The rapid spread of liberal opinions through most of the States
of Europe, has, we rejoice to find, been indirectly productive of this
good effect on Austria, that its bigoted and despotic Government
has appointed two Protestant Professors of Theology in the Univer¬
sity of Vienna, that by this means students may be prevented from
flocking to foreign seminaries, where their patriotism might be en¬
dangered, or principles instilled not very accordant with the political
institutions of their own country. In the Italian states of the Impe¬
rial House, the Carbonari seem to be still secretly at work, have
assassinated one of their apostate associates, and threaten the same
fate to those who shall withdraw themselves from their society. The
Director of Police at Modena has also fallen under the stilettos
of assassins, employed, no doubt, by those whose professed object
should prevent such horrible measures for its attainment.
Though the question of war and peace between Russia and Turkey
is still a doubtful one, we are inclined to believe that the peace of
Europe will not be disturbed by the Greek insurrection, to which we
have ever wished success. Something at all events will have been
gained by it, as the proud and bigoted Mussulman has been taught
to shew some respect to the religion of the Cross. This has been
evinced by an order issued by the Porte, directing the Tersana-
Kiajani, who during the absence of the Capitan Pacha superintends
the administration of police in the capital, to take under his special
protection the religious festivals of the Greeks during Easter, and
making him responsible that neither the Greeks nor the Armenians
should receive any disturbance or molestation during the solemnity.
The consequence was, that not only in the Greek and Armenian
churches, all the religious ceremonies, professions, and observances,
were conducted with the most perfect peace and order, but the festi¬
vities which followed were enjoyed by the Greeks in their old style,
and in the most uninterrupted tranquillity. Their Patriarch has also
been graciously received at the palace of the Grand Sultan, who has
made another considerable donation towards the repair of the Cathe¬
dral Church, damaged by the outrages of the Turkish mob. Though
Wallachia and Moldavia have been evacuated, the war seems
237
Political Retrospect.
to rage between the Greeks and Turks in other parts with all
the ferociousness which from its commencement has distinguished
their sanguinary contest. Scio, classical Scio, is reduced to ashes,
and the ruthless and barbarian Ottomans have plundered and destroy¬
ed every thing in its neighbourhood.
It is not often that we have occasion to direct the attention of our
readers farther East than to Turkey; but China is at this moment
an object of some attention, from the suspension of our trade with its
natives. This seems to have been occasioned by some improper
proceedings on the part of the crew of one of our ships demanding
certainly some concessions and reparation, though of a very differ¬
ent nature to those required in delivering up the offenders, or some
one in their stead, that they may be put to death, in atonement for
the blood of a Chinese or two accidentally killed. The formal and ridi¬
culously punctilious proceedings of the Court of Pekin may render
an adjustment of the differences with our traders extremely tedious ;
but we doubt not, that notwithstanding all the pompous vapourings of
Jaow-K/wang, Viceroy of Canton, the payment of a good round sum
by the East-India Company, will speedily prevent our being deprived
of the luxury of tea, long elevated by habit almost into one of the
necessaries of life.
America, like the rest of the world, is not without its perplexi¬
ties, distresses, and discontents ; and, free as is its boasted system of
representation, parliamentary reform of some kind would seem to be
needed there as well as in England ; for, after a Session of 156 days,
costing the country, in the travelling expenses and allowance of its
legislators, 321,4S4 dollars, about £72,000, grievous complaints are
made by the opposition journalists, of the numberless propositions,
much talking, and many reports, of Congress, whilst little or nothing
was done there to advance the interests, or promote the prosperity
of the country.
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THE INVESTIGATOR.
OCTOBER , 18-22.
Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton, formerly of
Boston, in Neiv England.
[Concluded from Vol. V. p. 21.]
Pliny accounted those happy men, who either did
things worthy to be written, or wrote things worthy to be
read.* Christians account those teachers blessed, and
blessings, who teach both by their light, and life, in sin¬
cerity. Those which best knew his goins out and comings
in, cannot but give a large testimony to his piety. A saint
(above many of the saints) manifestly declared in the con¬
sciences of the godly amongst whom he walked, to be the
epistle of Christ, known and read of all men. In his house
he walked with a perfect heart: he was an example to the
flock, clothed with love and humility amongst his brethren.
One of a thousand in respect to his worth ; but (as it is re¬
ported of Dr. Whitaker,) as one of the multitude in respect
of his facile and companion-like behaviour. Both ability
and modesty in such a degree, are not ordinarily to be
found in the same man : others with much affection beheld
the beauty of his face, whilst himself was one who knew not
that his face shined. He was a father, friend, and brother
to his fellow-elders, and a shining light before men.
As the being of man, so the well-being of humane affairs
depends not a little upon domestick government, whence
are the seminaries and first societies of mankinde. He well
knew a bishop ought not to be defective in so momentous a
duty, incumbent upon all heads of families : he must be one
that ruleth well his own house.f In conscience w ; hereof, he
himself rising betimes in the morning, as soon as he was
ready, called his family together (which was also his prac¬
tice in the evening) to the solemn worship of God; read¬
ing, and expounding, and occasionally applying the Scrip¬
ture unto them, always beginning and ending with prayer.
In case of sin committed by child or servant, he would call
them aside privately (the matter so requiring), lay the Scrip¬
ture before them, causing them to read that which bare
* Equidem beatos puto, quibus Deorum munere datum est aut facere
seribenda, aut scribere legenda. C. Pii. Tacit, vol. 1.
f Bene non regis, si bene non regeris. Bern, epist. 189,
vol. y, — \ T o. 10. R
*240 Memoirs of the Lije oj the Rev. John Cotton.
witness against such offence ; seldom or never correcting
in anger, that the dispensation of godly discipline might
not be impured, or become less effectual, through the inter¬
mixing of humane passion.
He began the Sabbath at evening; therefore then per¬
formed family duty after supper, being larger then ordinary
in exposition, after which he catechised his children and
servants, and then returned into his study. The morning
following, family-worship being ended, he retired into his
study, until the bell called him away. Upon his return from
meeting, he returned again into his study (the place of his
labour and prayer) unto his private devotion ; where (hav¬
ing a small repast carried him up for his dinner) he con¬
tinued till the tolling of the bell. The publick service being-
over, he withdrew for a space to his prementioned oratory
for his sacred addresses unto God, as in the forenoon; then
came down, repeated the sermon in the family, prayed, after
supper sung a psalm, and towards bed-time betaking himself
again to his study, he closed the day with prayer. Thus he
spent the Sabbath continually.
In his study, he neither sate down unto nor arose from
his meditations without prayer; whilst his eyes were upon
his book, his expectation was from God. He had learned to
study, because he had learned to pray: An able student, a
gospel-student, because unable to study without Jesus Christ.
The barrenness of his meditation at some times, yea, though
his endeavour were most intense upon a good matter, con¬
vinced him whence it was, that his heart musing upon the
same subject at another time, his tongue became as the pen .
of a ready writer. As he was not (comparatively) wanting
in parts, learning, or industry, so was he more careful not
to trust in them, but to fix his dependence totally upon God.
Herein not unlike unto Bradford, of whom we read, that he
studied kneeling. Another Synesius, who was wont to divide
his life between prayer, and his book.* Like unto Paul, not
sufficient of himself to think any thing as of himself, and
professing all his sufficiencie to be of God. But we will give
our selves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.
Men of labour, and men of prayer.
As any weighty cause presented it self either in the church,
commonwealth, or family, he would set days apart to seek
the face of God in secret; such were the bowels of this spi¬
ritual father, the horsemen and chariots of this Israel. He
* rbv fiiov tv\>i kui Syn. ep. 57.
Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton. 241
might say with Paul, he was in fastings often. His conver¬
sation upon earth, w f as a trading in heaven; a demonstra¬
tion of the praises of him who had called him : a practical
and exemplary ministery of grace unto the hearer and be¬
holder : a temperature of that holiness, sweetness, and love,
which continually gained upon the hearts of many specta¬
tors. The habitual gracious scope of his heart in bis whole
ministery, is not illegible in that usual subscription of his
at the end of all his sermons, Tibi, Domine, unto thy honor,
O Lord!*
As disputation is well called the sieve of truth,f so in his
polemical labors he was a seeker thereof in love, his scope
was the glory of God, unity of the churches, and the edifi¬
cation of men, not the ostentation of wit. It was his holy
ambition not to seem to be learned, but indeed to be better¬
ed : a sincere seeker of light, not of victory. Witness his
brotherly acceptance of Dr. Twisse his examination of Mr.
Cotton’s treatise of predestination; from whom he acknow 7 -
ledgedthat he received light thereby, and was ready to attest
the great abilities of the Doctor, that star (if any of this age)
of the first magnitude. ’Tis true, Mr. Cotton’s mind was
then exercised concerning the point of reprobation : touch¬
ing the point of election, ’tis sufficiently known he was not
only orthodox, but also clear. As there were of old that
pretended the predestinarian heresie to have had its rise
from Austin ; and Grevinchovius of late, blushed not to say
of the famous Dr. Ames, that Arminianorum malleus, Ame-
sius Pelagianizat, Ames Pelagianizeth. So the wonder is
less, if this sound and judicious divine hath not escaped the
imputation of Arminianism from some, notwithstanding the
redundant testimony of his doctrine, and generally of all
that knew him, to the contrary; yea, that occasionally he
hath been heard to say by testimony yet alive, and above
exception; that he looked at Arminianism as another gos¬
pel, and directly contrary to the tenor of the covenant of
grace. What Melancthon (our ordinary parallel) sometimes
said of himself to Eccius, may here be truly applied to him:
Mr. Cotton in his disputations sought not his glory, but
* We here omit two Poems, entitled, “A thankful Acknowledg¬
ment of God’s Providence,” and “Another Poem made by Mr. Cot¬
ton (as it seemeth) upon his removal from Boston to this Wilderness,”
and we do it because, as a versifier, if we may judge from these spe¬
cimens, it may truly be said of Mr. Cotton, that
“ Sternhold himself he out-Sternholded.” Edit.
f Cribrum veritatis.
242 Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton.
God’s truth * So able an opponent was rare; so candid an
opponent more rare. He that fell into his hands was likely
to fall soft enough ordinarily (except through his own de¬
fault) not likely to lose any thing besides his error.
A man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine. He had a hap¬
py a quick, comprehensive, and benign understanding, as
having received the manifestation of the Spirit, for the ser¬
vice and profit of others. To discover the mind of God, and
therewith the sentence of judgment, in matters too hard for
inferior judges, was no small part both of the worth and use¬
fulness of him that was to minister before the Lord. The
Queen of Shiba proved Solomon with hard questions. There
is scarce any gift that more approximates the receiver unto
that which the learned call a divine, then an ability in some
measure to send away religious casuists, as the wise-man did
that renowned questionist, which communed with him of
all that was in her heart, ‘ And Solomon told her all her ques¬
tions ; there was not anything hid from the king that he told
her not.’ It seemed good unto the Father of lights to make
this happy instrument, not only to excell his brethren, but
jn many respects, upon this account to excell himself, a
grace so far acknowledged in him, as that all sorts, both the
magistrate and private persons, learned and unlearned, exer¬
cised with their respective cases of conscience, waited
under God in special manner upon his lips for knowledge,
and sought the law at his mouth. Hear to this purpose the
testimony of Mr. Davenport, that eminent and reverend
man of God, the faithful pastor of the church at New-
Haven, (a witness above many) in his own words, as fol-
loweth:
“ His forced flight from Boston to London for his safety,
“ from pursuit of the pursevants sent to apprehend him, I
" well remember; and admire the special providence of
** God towards myself and some others in it, amongst whom
«* safe retirement and hiding places were provided for him,
“ in and about London. For some of us agreed together to
“ improve that opportunity for a conference with him, about
“ the grounds of his judgment and practice, whereby the
** Church was in danger to be deprived of him, and of the
“ benefit of his precious gifts, hoping that God might blesse
** the same, for the communicating of further light, either
** to him or to us. Two points were the principal subject
“ of our discourse. 1. Touching the limitation of church-
t Mi Doctor, non qu«ro meam gloriam in hoc negotio, sed veri-
tatem.
Memoirs of the Life of the llev. John Cotton. 243
“ power, to matters commanded, not to things different.
“ 2. Touching the office of bishops, whether the scrip-
“ ture-bishops be appointed to rule a diocesse, or aparticu-
'* lar congregation. The discussing of these caused much
“ debate between us, about the meaning and extent of the
“ second commandment, both in the negative and the affir-
“ mative part of it, and a diligent examination of what had
“ been printed in defence of conformity to the ceremonies
“ imposed, viz. Mr. Wheatlies arguments in his Care-cloth,
" Mr. Byfeld’son 1 Pet. 2. 13. and others, with such arguments
** as were either produced, or invented, and urged by any
" of our selves : unto all which he answered with great evi-
** dence of Scripture light, composedness of mind, mildness
“ of spirit, constant adhering to his principles, and keep-
“ ing them unshaken, and himself from varying from them
" by any thing spoken ad oppositum. When I observed, that
“ all this he did not in speech only,butalso in sundry writ-
“ ings (the copies whereof I have) without the help of any
“ book but the Scriptures, wherein he was mighty; and yet
matters that required variety of reading, whether for con-
“ firmation of the truth, or confutation of the contrary, fell
*' frequently into discourse inter partes ; I admired God’s
“ presence with him, and assistance of him, quickening his
et apprehension and invention, strengthening his memory,
4 composing his mind, and governing his spirit far beyond
“ what I had taken notice of any man before him. The
" reason of our desire to confer with him rather then any
“ other touching these weighty points, was our former
“ knowledge of his approved godliness, excellent learn-
“ ing, sound judgment, eminent gravity, candor, and sweet
" temper of spirit, whereby he could placidly bear those
“ that differed from him in their apprehensions. All which
“ and much more we found, and glorified God, in him, and
“ for him.”
So equal a contention between learning and meekness is
seldom visible in any one person. Of Moses we thus read.
Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men that
were upon the face of the earth. The consciences of those
that knew r him appealed to, he will be acknowledged
amongst the meekest of the earth in his days. I am forced
here to make a pause : so conspicuous was this grace in
him, that multitudes beheld it, not without making extra¬
ordinary mention thereof. ’Tis true, he had an advantage
above many in his natural constitution, and its influence from
his education, heightned intellectuals, and moralities, was
1 -
244 Memoirs of the Li fe of the Rev. John Cotton.
not inconsiderable, but that which gave the being of meek¬
ness, which sanctified and perfected all, was the grace of
Christ He was of an acute apprehension, therefore easily
sensible of; but so little in hi! own spirit, that he wa^not
easily provoked by an injury. Sensibleness
done to 1 God by sin, or of what the offender had done unt j
himself by sinning, left such impressions upon him, as that
his taking noticeV any injury done unto himself, was not
usually taken notice of. He had well learned that lesson
of Gregory, It is better oftentimes to flie from an injury by
silencef then to overcome it by replying.* It was G rynaus
manner to revenge wrongs with Christian taciturnity. le-
lancthon overcomes Luther's anger, and his own grief, with
mildness, patience, and prayer. The non-resistance and
softness of the wooll breaks the force of the cannon, and so
saveth both the bullet and it self. If inferiors expostulated
unnecessarily with him, he would patiently hear them, and
give them a brotherly account, pacifying their minds with
a gentle, grave, and respective answer. Take one instance
of that kind instead of many, unto one of his hearers then
sick of singularities, and less able to bear sound doctrine,
following him home after his public labors in the assembly,
and instead of better encouragement, telling him that his
ministry was become either dark, or flat; he gently answei-
ed. Both, brother! without further opening his mouth in his
defence, choosing rather to own the imputation, then to ex¬
postulate with the imputer. .
Disputations are great trials of the. spirits of intelligent
men. Hooper vad Ridley were patient martyrs, yet somewhat
impatient disputers. The synod held at Cambridge, as mat¬
ters were then circumstanced, was unto this good man an
hour of temptation, above what ordinarily had befallen him
in his pilgrimage; yet such was his eminent behaviour
throughout, as argued in the conscience of the spectators sin¬
gular patience, and left him a mirror for the temperament,
mildness, and government of his spirit. Pious meekness fits
for church-society. It was he, than whom was not a meeker
man upon earth, who continued Israel in cliurch-commu-
nion, and continued in communion with Israel, notwith¬
standing their manners in the wilderness, lo institute, and
preserve instrumentally church-communion, gospel-fellow¬
ship, society, and puritv, in the exercises that accompany
* Gloriosus cst injuriam tacendo fugcre, quam. icspondendo
superare.
Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton. 245
the removal of (as it were) a nation out of a nation, change
of ecclesiastical government, with the many temptations of
this desart, called for another Moses: neither the spirit of
separation nor pollution can attain it. To hold communion
with men that are sinners, without having communion with
their sin, is the only sociable spirit. To extend communion
w'here the rule commands, and to deny communion where
the rule forbids, qualifieth us to live with God and man.
They that are strong, ought to bear the infirmities of the
weak. Pillars must be bearers, else the building falls. The
infirmities of the w T eak brethren, are the trials and burdens
of those which are strong. It fareth ill with the little one,
when the frowardness of the child exceeds the patience of
the nurse. Those things in nature which cannot suffer, can¬
not mixe. Timber that will not endure cutting, is unfit for
jointing. The sword that is good metal will bow to the
hilts, and yet come strait again. No metal more solid then
gold, no metal more yielding under the hammer. The same
heaven hath the name of firmament for its stability, and of
the expanse for its being stretch’d out like a curtain, and
compassing about the residue of the creation. The sinews
which are the members of most strength, are also members
flexible every way, for the better motion of the wdiole body.
Denial of regular communion, is injurious to the body.
Rigor is schismatical, indulgence is defiling; both are scan¬
dalous and destructive. Piety and meekness preserve the
unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Eccius sometimes
acknowledged unto Melancthon that his mildness, and Pon-
tanus his good language, had been very beneficial to the
Protestant cause. Yet though he w T as so gentle, meek, and
flexible, that men might perswade him above what could be
usually expected from men of his w r orth ; in the things of God
he w 7 as stedfast and unmoveable. Moses, the meekest of men,
in the cause of God, would not yield in the least: Our cattel
also shall go with us, there shall not an hoof be left behind.
Paul, who pleaseth all men in all things, in a matter funda¬
mental giveth not place, no not for an hour. Charity so
endureth all things, as that the church of Ephesus is com¬
mended because she cannot suffer those that do evil. Me-
lancthon's milde nature, when spiritualized and quickned by
grace, drew forth the commendation of an enemy ; but being
left unto it self, gave occasion to his friend to complain.
And here, saith Mr. Brightman, (relating to the springing
and spreading gangrene of consubstantiation,) I find thee
246' Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton.
wanting, O holy Philip!* Luther at times is too angry;
Melancthon sometimes is too remiss. The anger of the old-
man is a sin ; the anger of the new-man is a duty. Jacob
curseth the anger of the patriarchs ; God blesseth the zeal of
Phineas. The sanctuary cannot want the tire which is from
heaven, neither may it be touched with the fire which is from
hell. Gentleness of disposition, when actuated by Christ,
makes us so much the more acceptable and profitable unto
man; but if the Spirit withdraweth his assistance, we fall
short of reaching God’s ends, and the seasonable suppres¬
sion of exorbitancie. In w'hich respect, if this good man
had always had that voice sounding in his heart, wdiich one
wished that mild Lantgrave of Hessen might have heard
from the smith’s forge, ( Duresce , duresce, utinam fy Lantgra-
vius durescat!) haply there are that think some disorders,
disturbances, and irregularities, might have been prevented
by God’s blessing.
But ordinarily, and in matters of greatest weight, the Lord
was with him. Though his forbearance was both observable
and very imitable in the things that concerned himself, yet
he could not forbear them whom he knew to be evil. An
experience whereof w r e saw concerning some heterodox
spirits, who by their specious discourses of free-grace, and
subdolous concealings of their principles, so far deceived
him into a better opinion of them then there was cause, as
that notwithstanding they fathered their errors upon him
in general, and abused his doctrine to the countenancing of
their denial of inherent grace in particular ; yet he was slow
to believe these things of them, and slower to bear w itness
against them. But so soon as the truth herein appeared to
him, hear his own words taken out of his letter written to
Mr. Davenport. “ The truth is (saith he) the body of the
“ island is bent to backsliding into error and delusions : The
“ Lord pity and pardon them, and me also, who have been
“ so slow r to see their windings, and subtile contrivances,
“ and insinuations in all their transactions, whilst they pro-
“ pagated their opinions under my expressions, diverted to
“ their constructions.” Yea, such was his ingenuity and
piety, as that his soul was not satisfied without often break¬
ing forth into affectionate bewailing of his infirmity herein,
in the publick assembly, sometimes in his prayer, sometimes
in his sermon, and that with tears.
* Quinctiam tuam fidem & diligentiam, sancte Philippe, dcsidero.
—.Brightman iu A poo. cap. 3.
Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton. 247
He was a man of an ingenuous and pious candor, rejoicing
(as opportunity served) to take notice of, and testifie unto
the gifts of God in his brethren, thereby drawing the hearts
of them to him, and of others to them, both to their encou¬
ragement, and the edification of many. He did not think
himself a loser by putting honor upon his fellow-elders, but
was willing they should communicate with him in the esteem
and love of the people. He was not only a son of peace, en¬
joying the continual feast of a good conscience with serenity
and tranquillity of affections at home; but also a peace¬
maker, qualified by the graces forementioned to be a choice
instrument in the hand of the Prince of peace, amongst the
churches. Where, if any differences arose, he was ready
(being called thereunto) to afford his help for the composing
of them; and had a singular faculty and ability therein, by
that excellent wisdom, and moderation of spirit, which God
in Christ had given him, whose blessing also did ordinarily
crown his endeavours with good success.
He was one, the reality of whose profession gave cause
unto many to blesse the Author of Christian religion, for
the kindness of the Lord, shewed unto all sorts by him :
his portion in the things of this life, exempted him from
being an object of envy in that behalf. But yet behold
quantum ex quantillo, so much communicated out of so
little, we may not here be altogether silent, concerning the
grace of God bestowed upon him, whereby to his power,
yea above his power, he was beneficent unto others, but
especially to those of the houshold of faith. The gospel
opened his heart, his lips, and the doors of his house. A
bishop then must be given to hospitality, apt to teach : as
w r e have seen him didactical, so you shall find him hospital.
He well remembered, that there is that scattereth, and yet
increaseth, and there is that withholdeth more then is meet,
but it tendeth to poverty : The liberal soul shall be made fat.
Among others, his fellow-laborers in the ministry were en¬
tertained wfith peculiar contentment. To reminde all in¬
stances, would take up time; by some of many, take his
spirit in the rest. So it was : a minister (to spare his
name) which had gotten into the fellowship of that eminent
man, Mr. Arthur Hildersham, and many other godly preach¬
ers, being acquainted with their secrets, betrayed him into
the prelate’s hands; who coming to Boston, and meeting
with Mr. Cotton, this Gains had not the heart to speak to
him, nor to invite him unto his house; which he said, he
never did to his knowledg unto any stranger before, much
‘248 Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. John Cotton.
less to any of his own order. It was the modesty of others,
not from any deficiencie in him, why the proverb occa¬
sioned by that Corinthian, was not applicable also unto
his dwelling: There is always some body at Cydon's house;
Semper aliquis in Cydonis aomo. Some years since there
was brought unto Boston a report of the necessity of the
poor saints at Sigatcea, a little church (whereof the reverend
Mr. White then was, and yet is their faithful pastor) which
suffered much extremity by reason of the persecution of
their then prevailing adversaries, forcing them from Bar-
mudas into the desart-continent. The sound of whose dis¬
tress was no sooner heard of, but you might have heard the
sounding of his bowels, with many others, applying them¬
selves unto a speedy collection, and transporting it to them
on purpose, for their seasonable relief; w r hen after the ex¬
ample of the churches in Galatia, Macedonia, Corinth, and
Rome, sending their liberalities unto Jerusalem in the days
of the famine foretold by Agabus, the same grace abounding
in the churches of these parts, they supplied them to the
value of about seven hundred pounds; two hundred pounds
whereof were gathered in the church of Boston, no man in
the contribution exceeding, and but one equalling the
bounty of their then teacher. It is here remarkable, that
this collection arrived there the very day (or thereabouts)
after those poor people were brought to a personal division
of that little meal then remaining in the barrel, and not see¬
ing, according to man, but that after the eating thereof
they must die a lingering death for want of food ; and the
same day that their pastor preached to them (it being the
Lord’s day) out of Psal. 23. 1 . The Lord is my shepherd, £
shall not want. At such a time the good hand of the Lord
brought this succor to them from afar. To give quickly,
doubleth, but to give to the saints in a time of need, tre-
bleth the gift.
Whilst he was in England, his eminent piety, success of
his labors, interest in the hearts of both superiors, inferiors,
and equals, drew much envy upon him; and his non-con¬
formity added thereunto, delivered him in a great degree
unto the will of his adversaries; whose hour and the power
of darkness being come, spared not to shoot at him, and
grieve him; not giving over until they had bereaved him of
much of his livelihood, his liberty, country, and therewith of
the svveet society of lovers, friends, and many ways endeared
acquaintance, much more precious to him then life it self.
Yet the measure of the afflictions of Christ in this kind.
Memoirs o f the Life of the Re v. John Cotton. 249
appointed to be suffered by him in the flesh, was not fulfilled.
But lo, in the time of his exile, some brethren, (we do not
say they w’erenot of us, being willing to hope better things,)
provoked by the censure of authority, though justly, and
not without tears inflicted upon them, single out him as a
chief object of their displeasure; who though above other
men declining irregular and unnecessary interesting of him¬
self in the actions of the magistrate, and (while opportunity
lasted) endeavouring their healing, yet must now be requited
evil for good, and that by some of them, who were former¬
ly companions with him in the tribulations of this Patmos.
Respecters of him had taken sweet counsel together, and
walked in the house of God as friends. Hence is he with pen
and tongue blasphemed by them, for whom he formerly in-
treated, and for whom he both then and afterwards wept
and put on sackcloth. Such buffetings of Satan, though
sharp, are medicinal at times to the excellent upon earth,
who by reason of the body of death indwelling, must be
kept weak, that they may be made strong. Since this
time also some reverend, learned, and godly men (haply in
zeal against the Congregational-way) sharpened their style
against him. Which if it be the truth, as we believe it is,
their speaking so much ad hominem , especially to such a
man, whose love to any good men much exceeded their dis¬
pleasure to him, argueth too much of mau. Howsoever, he
was then a sufferer for the truth. In which respect the pious
and ingenuous spirit of learned Mr. Rutherford , though in
pursuance of the truth he disputes ad idem, and with strength,
which is his praise and acceptable, yet he professedly car-
rieth it as to a brother, not to an adversary. There is an
excess in too much salt, and not a little to be complained of
in personal and causeless aspersions from good men. That
smarts, these defile; that makes less comfortable, these tend
to make us unprofitable. Roses are not without their
pricks. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at
him, and were displeased with him; but his bowe abode in
strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the
hands of the mighty God of Jacob. From thence is the shep¬
herd, and the stone of Israel. An honest-minded man (saith
Xenophon) gets by enmity; and Plutarch writes a treatise
concerning benefiting by our enemies,* adorning his dis¬
course with that of Jason of Thessa/t/, whose enemy stabbing
him, and intending his death, only opened an ulcer other¬
wise incurable, and so saved his life. If men without God
* Plutarch de capienda cx hostibus utilitate libellus.
250 Memoirs oj the Life of the Rev. John Cotton.
in the world having only star-light, and scarce so much as
seeing men walk like trees, only feeling after the Lord, have
thus spoken ; we see the greater encouragement why Chris¬
tians, who are made light by the Father of light, and know
Him that is love, may (through grace) not only speak bet¬
ter, but also practise accordingly. Job can turn the book
written against him by his adversaries, into a crown. Joseph,
feeling the benefit of the patriarchs’ unkindness, is the more
readily disposed to forgive that wrong, whereby he finds
himself made a great gainer. He was a good accomptant,
who esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater riches then
the treasures of Egypt. Paul takes pleasure in reproaches
for Christ’s sake. The best and most peaceable spirits can¬
not hope to fulfill their course in a pacifique sea. The way
of the most excellent lieth through evil report and good re¬
port, through honor and dishonor. To avoid the fouler part
of the passage, is not in the power of man : to walk clean
through it, to do well, and approve himself as a minister of
Christ in suffering ill, is all that can be expected from a man
of God. Erasmus acknowledging some men to do well in
some things, will have Hierom to excell in all.* It was a
great encomium which the German Phenix sometimes gave
to Luther: I (saith he, speaking of himself) am a logician,
Pemeranus is a grammarian, Justus Jonas is an orator; but
Luther is all. Let it suffice to be said of Mr. Cotton,
that he was a famous light in his generation, a glory to
both Englands; and such an one, in whom was so much of
what is desireable in man, as is rarely to be seen in one
person.
As concerning any tenet wherein he may seem singular,
remember, he was a man, and therefore to be heard and
read with judgment, and haply sometimes with favour.
Hierom makes a difference between reading the writings of
the apostles, and the tractates of other authors :f They
(saith he) always spake the truth; these, as men, in some
things erre. Let him but receive with some proportion to
the measure that gave, and he will be found no debtor
upon that account: no man did more placidly bear a dis¬
sentient. The Jews unto their own question. Why Asa and
* In hoc uno
the storm, and comforteth his fellow-sufferers that Julians
persecution is but a little cloud, and will quickly be over
That motto, somewhat altered by them of Geneva, is in tins
sense as true, and as truly alterable concerning eve™ con-
fessor ; After darkness ice look jor light A; \V Aether it be an
astonishment of heart, or the dictate of the Spirit, Luther
leaveth the cause of religion howsoever unto Christ; 1 (saith
he) am not much troubled : yea, I hope as concerning the
event, above what I hoped. God is able to raise up the
dead- God is able to preserve bis cause, though falling; to
raise it up again, though falne; to promote when standing;
if we be not worthy, let it be done by others.* Jacob fore¬
telling the predetermined and afflicting vicissitudes con¬
cerning the tribes of Israel, comforts himself in a safe issue
of all,°as to religion, and the sincere professors thereof,
thus : I have wailed for thy salvation, O God! Salvation is a
full remedy: and then is opportunity for the salvation of
Gocl when the church’s tribulation is such, as, that out ot
it, none but God can save. . .
The fixing of a beleever’s eye aright, hath a vivihcal and
marvellous influence upon his heart. Christ beholding the
joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising
the shame. A Christian runneth cheerfully and undefiledly,
over the foulest part of the race set before him, looking
unto Jesus. The council looking on Stephen saw his face as
it had been the face of an angel: the reason is, Stephen
looked stedfastly into heaven, and seeth the Son of man
standing at the right hand of God. The best of the servants
of God have lived in the -worst times. Noah was not so un¬
happy that he lived in an unrighteous generation, as he was
happy in being righteous in that generation. Though^the
captivity took up so much of Daniels life, yet when he shall
stand in his lot at the end of days, it shall be no griefe of
heart unto him, that he was both to spend and end his days
in Babi/lon. It will be as well with those at that day who
fulfilled their course upon earth, prophesying in sackcloth,
as with those who are reserved to live in the glorious times
* Nubecula est, cito praeteribit. + Post teaebras lux.
+ Stupor ne sit anSpiritus viderit Christus non valde turbatus sum,
&c.—Mel. Adam, in vita Lutheri.
259
An Essay on the Agriculture of the Israelites.
of the gospel. It is not material in what age we live ; but
that w r e live as w r e ought, in that age wherein we live.
Moriar ego morte justorum, et sit finis metis sicut illius.
Collected out of the writings and information of the
Reverend Mr. John Davenport, Pastor of the Church at
New-Haven; the Reverend Mr. Samuel Whiting, Pastor of
the Church at Linne ; the pious Widow of the Deceased,
and others.
And compiled by his unworthy Successor,
Qui----
A longe sequitur vestigia semper adorans.
Boston, Novemh. 6, 1657.
An Essay on the Agriculture of the Israelites.
PART IV.
Their sheep descended from one common pair,—observations on the
objection of Mr. Lawrence , and others, to the scriptural testimony
on the subject,—their flocks—their breed — milk.
“ Be thou diligent to know' the state of thy flocks, and look well
to thy herds.” Prov. xxvii. 23.
In considering the live-stock of the Israelites,a difficulty,
or rather an unpleasant circumstance, for there seems
to be no difficulty in the business, meets us at the outset—
that of having to controvert the opinions of some of the
ablest naturalists as to the origin of the various breeds;
but, with the Bible in our hand, we must not be awed even
by the names of BufFon, Blumenbach, Lawrence, or Bingley.
It is not to be wondered at, indeed, that those who derive
the origination of mankind, from a savage race, living in
woods, and feeding upon acorns, should have recourse to
the argali or mouflon as the progenitor of the sheep, and
the bison of the ox. The Heathens, indeed, (the Romans,
for instance,) who knew 7 not the real history of man, and had
known instances of his existing in such a state, might be
excused for such a conclusion 5 but that a Christian should
prefer the authority of Ovid, to the testimony of Moses, deriv¬
ed from the very Creator of man and beast, is a depravation
260 An Essay on the Agriculture of the Israelites.
of judgment almost equal to what is witnessed in the crea¬
tures in those respective states.
Mr. Lawrence, in his “ Lectures on Physiology, Zoology,
and the Natural History of Man,” will not allow that the
Mosaic account of the creation is of authority to determine
whether the varieties of mankind are all derived from one
common progenitor; yet, by his examination and reason¬
ings, he comes to the conclusion that they are all of the
same species ; no bad presumption, indeed, in favour of the
Mosaic account, no bad testimony to its truth, as Mr. L.
himself seems to admit it, in some measure, to be. (p. 254.)*
In respect to animals, he says,
“ The state of domestication, or the artificial mode of
* Mr. Lawrence is not the first who has started the idea that there
were more than one pair of the human race originally created. This
was done, as long ago as the year 1800, by Mr. King, in the second
part of his Morsels of Criticism, (section vi.) ; but with his usual diffi¬
dence, humility, piety, and learning. Mr. Lawrence’s reasoning, how¬
ever, is too long to give,even an abstract of it, here. To his objections
raised from Scripture itself, it may be proper to devote a few words.
He says, (p. *248, note.) “We are told, indeed, that ‘Adam called his
wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.’ But, in
the first chapter of Genesis, we learn that God created male and
female ; and this seems to have been previously to the formation of
Eve, which did not take place until after the Garden of Eden had
been prepared.” To this it may be replied, that the second chapter
of Genesis is not an account of what took place after the sixth day of
the creation, (except in what it savs of the seventh day); but a more
particular detail of some things which look place on the sixth day,
the creation of Adam, namely, God’s placing Adam in the Garden of
Eden, his bringing the animals to him, there being male and female
of them, but no help-meet for him, and God’s making one for him.
Mr. Lawrence says, “ Again we learn in the fifth chapter of Gene¬
sis, that ‘In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God
made he him; male and female created he them; and blessed them,
and called their name Adam, in the day that they were created.’”
But the term Adam , or red earth, is not used here, I apprehend, to
signify a number of pairs, or a race, created at the same time ; but the
whole human species descended from him, and at that time virtually
contained in his loins. (See Hebrews vii. 5,10.)
Mr. Lawrence continues, “We find also that Cain, after slaying his
brother, was married, although no daughters of Eve are mentioned
before this time. ‘Cain went out from the presence of the Lord,
and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew
his wife, and she conceived, and bare Enoch.’ Indeed it is said,
(ch. v. 4.) that ‘ the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth,
were eight hundred years, and he begat sons and daughters.’ This,
it should seem, took place after the birth of Seth, and consequently
long after Cain had his wife ; for Seth was not born till after the
death of Abel. If Cain had sisters prior to that period, from amongst
whom he might have taken a wife, Moses has not noticed them.”
261
Au Essay un the Agriculture of the Israelites.
life, which they lead under the influence of man, is the
most powerful cause of varieties in the animal kingdom.
Wild animals, using always the same kind of food, being
exposed to the action of the climate without artificial pro¬
tection, choose, each of them, according to its nature, their
This is very true; but it seems to me more reasonable to suppose, by
implication, that Adam and Eve had other children, of whose birth
no particular mention is made, than that there were more pairs
created at first, and of whom Eve therefore was not the mother,
though it is particularly said of her, that “ she was the mother of
all living.”
Mr.Lawrence again says, “ The representations of all animals being
brought before Adam in the first instance,” (Gen. ii. 19, 20.) “ and
subsequently of their being all collected in the ark,” (Gen. vi. 19, 20.)
“ if we are to understand them as applied to the living inhabitants of
the whole world, are zoologically impossible. The collection of
living beings in oue central point, and their gradual diffusion over
the whole globe, may not be greatly inconsistent with what we know
of our own species, and of the few more common quadrupeds, which
accompany us in our various migrations, and are able to sustain
with us great varieties of climate, food, situation, and all external in¬
fluences. But when we extend our survey to the rest of the mam¬
malia, we find at all points abundant proofs of animals being con¬
fined to particular situations, and being so completely adapted by
their structure and functions, by their whole organization, economy,
and habits, to the local peculiarities of temperature, soil, food, 8cc.
that they cannot subsist where these are no longer found. In the
proportion as our knowledge of species becomes more exact, the
proofs of this locality are rendered stronger, and the examples of
admirable conformity, between the organic capabilities of animals
and the circumstances of the regions which they inhabit, are multi¬
plied and strengthened, 8cc.” (p. 249, 250.) If all the difficulties
connected with the facts just recited, and with the numerous anala-
gous ones which every department of natural history could furnish,
were removed, insurmountable obstacles would still be found to this
hypothesis of the whole globe having received its supply of animals
from one quarter. How could all living beings have been assembled
in one climate, w hen many, as the white fox ( isatis ), the polar bear,
the walons, the manati, can exist only in the cold of the polar regions,
while to others the warmth of the tropics is essential ? IIow r could
all have been supplied with food in one spot, since many live entirely
on vegetables produced only in certain districts? How could many
have passed from the point of assemblage to their actual abode,
over mountains, through deserts, and eveu across the seas? How
could the polar bear, to whom the ice of the frozen regions is neces¬
sary, have traversed the torrid zone? If we are to believe that the
original creation comprehended only a male and female of each
species, or that one pair only was rescued from an universal deluge,
the contradictions are again increased. The carnivorous animals
must have soon perished with hunger, or have annihilated most of
the other species.” (p. 253, 254.)
Here are some facts and questions, w hich certainly contain some
difficulties, but none w hich are greater than that of not admitting the
262 An Essci// on the Agriculture of the Israelites.
zone and country. Instead of migrating and extending,
like man, they continue in those places which are the most
friendly to their constitutions. Hence, their nature under¬
goes no change ; their figure, colour, size, proportions, and
properties, are unaltered; and, consequently, there is no
truth of the Mosaic account, and the authenticity of the sacred
scriptures, after considering the testimony in favour of them. If
the Scriptures be not authentic, they deserve no notice. I must,
therefore, first examine into their claims; and, having once establish¬
ed them, they are deserving of all regard, and whatever difficulties
may arise, I may see and acknowledge them to be such, but I can¬
not allow them to invalidate the divine testimony. Moses, by the
inspiration of God, says that God, at the first formed one man and
one woman, from whom all the rest of mankind are descended. No
difference, therefore, of form, or colour, or intellect, among the dif¬
ferent varieties at present existing, will lead me to believe the con¬
trary. Moses says, that all the animals were brought by the Creator
to Adam. The circumstance, that many of these are not now to be
found, and would not exist in the climate in which he was placed,
certainly forms a difficult;/, but not a sufficient one to make me doubt
the testimony of one inspired by God. The creation of the world,
when all was miracle, was a period of which we can form no compe¬
tent notion now. The climates might be different, the nature of the
animals different too. So, likewise, at the flood, all again was
miracle. He who created man and beast could collect the animals
from the remotest place, and lead them to Noah, as he had before
done to Adam. He could suspend their savage and carnivorous
natures, as he did afterwards by the ravens, in the case of Elijah,
and by the lions, in the case of Daniel. We are expressly told, that
there shall come a time, when “ the wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the
young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead
them. And the cow and the bear shall feed ; their young ones shall
lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And
the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned
child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt
nor destroy in all my holy mountain : for the earth shall be full of
the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah xi.
6—9.) He who has created all things, and has them at his com¬
mand, can effect this at any time, and can conduct them over desal ts
and over mountains, and even over seas, by miraculous or by second
causes, as he sees fit. Some further solutions of these difficulties
may be seen in Stackhouse’s History of the Bible, in Catcott’s
Treatise on the Deluge, and Wood’s Mosaic Account of the Creation.
Though this note is already extended to a very great length, yet I
cannot forbear adding to it an extract from the 15th of Mr. New ton’s
Letters, published under the signatures of Oinicron and Vigil,
which is most admirable, and pertinent to this subject. The title of
the Letter is, A Plan of a compendious Christian Library, which is to
consist of only four, but those very comprehensive volumes. The
first is the Bible, the second the Book of Creation; upon this he
says. “ The lines of this book, though very beautiful and expressive
in themselves, are not immediately legible by fallen pi an. The
263
An Essay on the Agriculture of the Israelites.
difficulty in determining their species. Nothing can form
a stronger contrast to this uniformity of specific character
than the numerous and marked varieties in those kinds
which have been reduced by man. To trace back our
domestic animals to their wild originals is in all cases diffi¬
cult, in some impossible: long slavery has so degraded
their nature, that the primitive animal may be said to be
lost, and adegenerated being, running into endless varieties,
is substituted in its place. The wild original of the sheep,
is even yet uncertain. Buffon conceived that he disco¬
vered it in the mouflon or argali (ovis ammon ): and Pallas,
who had an opportunity of studying the latter animal, adds
the weight of his highly respectable authority to the
opinion ot the French naturalist. Yet Blumenbach re¬
works of creation ruay be compared to a fair character in cipher, of
which the Bible is the key; and without this key they cannot be un¬
derstood. This book was always open to the heathens; but they
could not x'ead it, nor discern the proofs of his eternal pow er and
godhead which it affords. “ They became vain in their own imagi¬
nations, and worshipped the creature more than the Creator.” The
case is much the same at this day with many reputed wise, whose
hearts are not subject to the authority of the Bible. The study of
the works of God, independent of his word, though dignified with the
name of philosophy, is no better than an elaborate trifling and waste
of time. It is to be feared none are more remote from the true
knowledge of God, than many of those who value themselves most
upon their supposed knowledge of his creatures. They may speak
in general terms of his wisdom ; but they live without him in the
world; and their philosophy cannot teach them either to love or
serve, to fear or trust him. They who know God in his word, may
find both pleasure and profit in tracing his wisdom in his w r orks, if
their inquiries are kept within due bounds, and in a proper subser¬
vience to things of greater importance ; but they are comparatively
few r who have leisure, capacity, or opportunity, for these inquiries.
But the book of creation is designed for the instruction of all believ¬
ers. If they are not qualified to be astronomers or anatomists, }et
trom a view of the heavens, the work of God’s fingers, the moon and
stars which he hath created, they learn to conceive of his condescen¬
sion, pow'er, and faithfulness. Though they are unacquainted with
the theorj r of light and colours, they can see in the rainbow a token
of God’s covenant-love. Perhaps they have no idea of the magni¬
tude or distance of the sun; but it reminds them of Jesus the sun of
righteousness, the source of light and life to their souls. The Lord
has established a wonderful analogy between the natural and the
spiritual world. This is a secret only known to them that fear him;
but they contemplate it with pleasure; and almost every object they
see, when they are in a right frame of mind, either leads their
thoughts to Jesus, or tends to illustrate some scriptural truth or pro¬
mise. This is the best method of studying the book of Nature; and
for this purpose it is always open and plain to those who love the
Bible, so that he who runs may read.”
264 An Essay on the Agriculture of the Israelites.
gards the argali as a distinct species. Should vve allow the
latter to be the parent of our sheep, and consequently
admit that the differences are explicable by degeneration,
no difficulty can any longer exist about the unity of the
human species. An incomplete horn of the argali, in the
Academical Museum at Gottingen, weighs nine pounds.*
“ Let us compare,” says Buffon, “ our pitiful sheep with
the mouflon, from which they derive their origin. The
raouflon is a large animal. He is fleet as a stag, armed
with horns and thick hoots, covered with coarse hair, and
dreads neither the inclemency of the sky, nor the voracity
of the wolf. He not only escapes from his enemies by the
swiftness of his course, and scaling, with truly wonderful
leaps, the most frightful precipices ; but he resists them by
the strength of his body, and the solidity of the arms with
which his head and feet are fortified. How different from
our sheep, which subsist with difficulty in flocks, who are
unable to defend themselves by their numbers, who cannot
endure the cold of our winters without shelter, and who
would all perish if man withdrew his protection! So com¬
pletely are the frame and capabilities of this animal de¬
graded by his association with us, that it is no longer able
to subsist in a wild state, if turned loose, as the goat, pig,
and cattle are. In the warm climates of Asia and Africa,
the mouflon, w r ho is the common parent of all the races of
this species, appears to be less degenerated than in any
other region. Though reduced to a domestic state, he has
preserved his stature and his hair; but the size of his horns
is diminished. Of all domestic sheep, those of Senegal
and India are the largest, and their nature has suffered
least degradation. The sheep of Barbary, Egypt, Arabia,
Persia, Tartary, &c. have undergone greater changes. In
relation to man, they are improved in some articles, and
vitiated in others ; but with regard to nature, improvement
and degeneration are the same thing ; for they both imply
an alteration of original constitution. Their coarse hair is
changed into fine w r ool. Their tail, loaded with a mass of
fat, and sometimes reaching the weight of forty pounds,
has acquired a magnitude so incommodious, that the ani¬
mals trail it with pain. While swollen w'ith superfluous
matter, and adorned with a beautiful fleece, their strength,
agility, magnitude, and arms, are diminished. These long¬
tailed sheep are half the size only of the mouflon. They
can neither fly from danger, nor resist the enemy. To
* Blumenbach, Hundbuch des Naturgeschic/itc , p.iii, note.
An Essoi / on the Agriculture of the Israelites. 265
preserve and multiply the species, they require the constant
care and support of man. The degeneration of the original
species is still greater in our climates. Of all the qualities
of the mouflon, our ewes and rams have retained nothing
but a small portion of vivacity, which yields to the crook
of the shepherd. Timidity, weakness, resignation, and
stupidity, are the only melancholy remains of their de¬
graded nature.”*—(Lawrence, pp. 510—12.)
This account of the mouflon, and the varying opinions of
Buffbn and Pallas, sufficiently convince me, independently
of the Mosaic history, that our sheep is not derived from
the mouflon. I should rather suppose that the mouflon
was the sheep grown wild and degenerated from it; for I
can no more see why a sheep in a state of domestication
should be said to be degenerated, than that man in a state
of society and civilization should be said to be degenerated
from the savages who subsist by hunting and warfare. Mr.
Lawrence has shewn (p.226.) that man was formed for so¬
ciety, and is, in that state, in his state of nature, his most
perfect state ; and why should it not be so with domesti¬
cated animals ? Nor do I see that it can be justly said, that
they are in a state of degradation and slavery. Domestic
animals, well used, probably enjoy a much greater portion
of happiness than in a wild state*. They are provided regu¬
larly with food, shelter, and protection from violence by man
and beast. W e make use of them, it is true, and at last
kill them. But they must die, and better that it should be
in full health, than from accident, disease, or old age. They
have no moral responsibility, no fear ol death and of a f uture
state of punishment; and the blow which deprives them of
life is momentary, and infinitely less distressing than from
the chase by man or beast, and being worried and torn to
pieces.
There appears, therefore, much less difficulty in taking
our rudiments of natural history from the Bible. In the
fourth chapter of Genesis (v.2.jwe are told, that “Abel
was a keeper of sheep,” and offered them in sacrifice; and
his death is placed at about the hundred and thirtieth year
after the creation ; but he had probably then followed the^
shepherd’s life for some years. In the third chapter of
Genesis (v. 21.) we are told, that “ unto Adam also, ano to
his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed
them.” These coats or clothes of shins, it is supposed by
* Button by Wood, vol. iv. p. 7. See likewise Goldsmith’s Anima¬
ted Nature, (Ed. York, 1804.) vol. ii.p.56, 58, 50.61.
266 An Essay on the Agriculture of the Israelites.
some of the best commentators, were made from the skins
of animals offered in sacrifice, which was ordained by God
immediately upon the fall, and the expulsion of our first
parents from paradise, as a type of the great sacrifice, which
was, in the fulness of time, to be made for the sins of Adam
and his posterity, by the immaculate “ Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world.” (Rev. xiii. 8.) If so, Adam had
probably his fock and his herd from the earliest of his
sojourn upon earth; which, while there was only Adam
and his wife, and then a few children, ere hunting and
cruelty to animals had begun, lived around them more in a
state of friendly society than of servitude.* When Noah
entered into the ark, and the animals, by divine direction,
came to him, we find that there was a distinction of them
into clean and unclean; (Gen. vii. 2.) probably the same as
that which was afterwards appointed, in Lev. xi. and Deut.
xiv. This distinction also had very likely been ordained
on Adam’s expulsion from paradise. Even in the Garden
of Eden it is probable that the animals were to have been
subservient to the use of Adam in some way, though we are
not told, nor can well conjecture, what.
Bishop Horne, in his very interesting sermon on The
Garden of Eden, speaking of the situation of Adam there,
says, “We are not certain with regard to the time allowed
him to make his observations upon the different objects
with which he found himself surrounded; but it should
seem, either that sufficient time was allowed him for that end,
or that he was enabled, in some extraordinary manner, to per¬
vade their essences, and discover their properties. For we
are informed, that God brought the creatures to him, that
he might impose upon them suitable names ; a work which,
in the opinion of Plato/f must be ascribed to God himself.
* I am happy to find these ideas supported by the Christian
Minstrel of The World, before the Flood.
“ Yet long on Eden’s fair and fertile plain,
A righteous nation dwelt, that knew not Cain;
There fruits and flowers, in genial light and dew,
Luxuriant vines, and golden harvests, grew r ;
By fresh’ning waters flocks and cattle stray’d,
While youth and childhood w atch’d them from the shade ;
Age at his fig-tree rested from his toil,
And manly vigour till’d th’ unfailing soil;
Green sprang the turf, hy holy footsteps trod,
Round the pure altars of the living God.”
Canto I.
t Tc. 285
would be tedious to enumerate all the independent native
authorities that exist under the Company’s sway ; suffice it
to mention, that the districts in the immediate neighbour¬
hood of Bencoolen are under three distinct chiefs, and that
in general every river is under a separate and independent
head. The people are dispersed through the country in
small dusuns, or villages, consisting of from 10 to 40 fami¬
lies. In each village of any size is a Proattin, a Pamangkoo
or deputy, and the Orang Tuah, or Elders. The Proattin is
elected by the inhabitants of the village, but his authority
is very trifling. He receives no contributions or payments
from the people, and the sole advantage he derives from his
office is a share of the fines which may happen to be im¬
posed, and of the duties on pepper during the time of the
Company’s monopoly. There is no community of agricul¬
tural labour in the village, nor are any trades separately
exercised. Every man, from the Proattin to the lowest indivi¬
dual, raises his own rice by his own labour and that of his
family. Little cultivation is to be seen round the villages.
In the labouring time, the whole population is dispersed in
the w oods, which they cut down and burn. When a suffi¬
cient space is thus partially cleared, the rice is sown, with¬
out any previous preparation of the soil; and the attention
of the people is then directed to keeping away the elephants,
hogs, and other wild animals. They erect temporary huts,
or eyries, elevated on posts, for the purpose of watching
their fields, and for security against the tigers, which annually
carry off numbers of the people. The clearing begins in
June, and the harvest is generally reaped in March, after
which they give themselves up to idleness.
The chiefs of districts are called Pangerans and Kalippas,
and possess also a very limited authority. Every thing is
administered according to what is considered the Adat, or
Custom, of the country, of w hich there are no written re¬
cords, but which is generally settled by the united opinion
of the Chiefs and Proattins. There can scarcely be said to
be any regular administration of justice, unless where the
weight of the Company’s influence is thrown into the scale.
The decisions among the natives themselves have more
resemblance to arbitrations; the matter in question is dis¬
cussed at great length, and they endeavour to arrive at some
conclusion which shall in part satisfy both parties. As the
people have abundance of leisure, they are extremely fond
of these Becharas, or consultations; all are ambitious of ex¬
celling in the species of eloquence adapted to these repub-
286
Condition of Society among the
lican assemblies, and they never determine ot) v any business
or affair, however trifling, without recourse to this species
of council. This practice tends to nurse a litigious and
contentious spirit, which proves the curse and bane of their
whole society. It will presently be seen how their customs
afford abundant food for this disposition, and how con¬
stantly it involves them in disputes and differences.
In such a state of things, we perceive abundant obstacles
to improvement. Whenever men are scattered over an ex¬
tensive country, with little communication with or depend¬
ence on each other, little advance will be made in civiliza¬
tion. It is only where men are crowded together, when
they are assembled in large towns or in populous and well-
cultivated districts, that we can hope for any degree of per¬
fection in civil institutions. We almost invariably i find the
most populous countries make the most rapid advances in
improvement. What then can be expected from a people
thinly scattered over such a country as that under consider¬
ation, dispersed through extensive forests and jungles, in
which they find a subsistence by the rudest means, and
whose rule they can scarcely be said to divide with the
tigers and wild beasts. Accordingly, their laws and cus¬
toms will be found only applicable to a very simple and
barbarous state of society, in which there is little property,
little difference of wealth or rank, among the components.
Capital punishments are almost unknown, the power of the
Magistrate being probably unequal to it, and pecuniary
compensation is in almost all cases substituted. With the
principle of criminal justice they seem to be unacquainted,
crimes being considered and punished as civil injuries. It
will appear rather singular that the most complicated part
of their code should be what relates to marriage-contracts
and debts. In the former, the principle adopted is that the
daughters form part of the father’s property, and that he is
in consequence entitled to receive their value on parting
with them. This value, or the sum payable to the family of
the woman called the Jujur, has become fixed by custom at
different rates in different districts. It is not easy to discover
when that standard was fixed, but if it was originally framed
on an estimate of the ability of the majority of the people,
or, in other words, if it ever was a true expression of the
market price of the commodity, it argues a greater degree
of wealth than is at present to be found among them ; as
now it so far exceeds the usual means of the men, that there
is not perhaps to be found an instance in which a great
287
Native Population of Bencoo/en.
part of the price does not remain as a debt. Our informa¬
tion does not yet enable us to state whether the price has
been increased or not, and as this is a point of considerable
interest, we reserve for our detailed report the further ob¬
servations to which it gives rise. These debts are heredi¬
tary. and it is nothing uncommon to find a man suing for his
grandmother’s Jujur. As these transactions are °seldom
committed to writing, but confided to witnesses, it may be
readily conceived what an endless source of litigation is
here opened. Every man may be said to be born ^o it, as
a great part of the nominal wealth of a family often con¬
sists in such claims and debts, and the vain hope of realiz¬
ing them often operates to check industry.
Another curious part of their civil code is that which re¬
lates to the recovery of debts. Here the principle is not
an unfair one, that a man unable to pay what he owes, must
give his labour to the creditor, and become what is called
mengiring. In a country where there is little inequality of
condition, or division of employments, and where the chief
occupation is rearing a certain quantity of agricultural pro¬
duce, this, under proper regulation, is perhaps sufficiently
applicable to their situation. Unfortunately, however, the
advantages of it have been by custom thrown all to the side
of the creditor. Ihe first misapplication of the principle
appears to have proceeded from the want of precise ideas of
the value of labour. The creditor seems not to have con¬
ceived, that in receiving the personal services of his debtor,
he was receiving an equivalent for money, but took them
in lieu of the interest of the debt, and as a means of infor-
„cing payment, while the original amount continued undimi¬
nished by any length of service on the part of the debtor.
Nothing couid free him from this state of servitude and
bondage, but the payment of the original sum, the means
of which were obviously taken away by the forfeiture of his
services. This species of slavery, for it can be regarded in
no other light, becomes thus perpetuated ; and to this first
and capital error most of the evils of the system are to be
attributed. There are other regulations, which in the detail
increase the hardship of the law; such as, the privilege
which is allowed the creditor of refusing to receive any sum
less than the total amount, in part payment of the debt,—by
which the difficulty of clearing it off is materially increased..
At the time when this custom was originally instituted, it
might not perhaps have been productive of 'much inconve¬
nience, as the general poverty of the people would prevent
vol. v.— no. 10. u
288
Condition of Society among the
any considerable abuse of it, but from the moment that a
portion of capital was introduced into the country, that an
attention to the cultivation of articles of commerce tended
to raise the value of labour, it would be discovered that ca¬
pital might be employed in the purchase of this species of
slaves more advantageously, in fact, than in what may be
called real or absolute slaves. An illustration of this
will be found in the great number of mengiring debtors
in the neighbourhood of Bencoolen, compared with the few
that are met with in the remoter districts, where capital has
not been introduced ; and here we cannot help noticing the
consequent prejudicial effects which are of daily occurrence
in all our transactions with the natives, and which have
added to the general impression which has been entertained
of the incurable indolence of the people. Of the coolies
and workmen whom we daily hire at Bencoolen, scarcely
an individual is a free agent, but the mengiring of another,
who receives the benefit of his wages, and affords him no¬
thing more than a bare subsistence. The price of labour is
thus kept up at an exorbitant rate, for the benefit of a few
capitalists, without any advantage whatever to the labourer,
who having no interest in exerting himself, avoids it as
much as possible, and of course remains in that state of
indolence and torpor which is so much a subject of general
complaint.
We might here enter upon the subject of absolute or real
slavery, as it is found to exist on this coast, and to which
you have so particularly directed our attention, were we not
anxious to make this part of our report more complete by a
fuller consideration of the state of those countries whence
the supplies of slaves have principally been obtained, which
are Pulo Neas, and the districts inhabited by the Battas,
both situated to the northward, and beyond the reach of
our immediate inquiry. The condition of actual slavery is
fully recognized by the native usages and customs, and by
the regulations of all the courts at which the European
authorities have presided. The entertainment, until very
lately, by Government, of a gang of Africa nslaves of about
two hundred and fifty in number, is sufficient evidence of
its recognition ; and the effects of slavery, as far as it has ex¬
tended, have, to the best of our observation, been the same
as have always attended it wherever sanctioned by European
authority. It may be satisfactory, however, to observe, that
the number of these unfortunate people within the Com¬
pany’s limits is not considerable, and that by following up
289
Native Population of Bencoolen.
the spirit of the measures already adopted in prohibiting
importation, the emancipation of those belonging to the
Company, and the general discouragement and abhorrence
which you, Sir, have personally shewn to the practice, its
eventual abolition at no distant period may be confidently
expected. The Company has certainly not been a hard
taskmaster to its slaves, and this circumstance may have
given rise to an opinion, that the condition of the Cofffees
alluded to, was rather enviable than otherwise. That they
had no care, is true,—and that their labour w r as compara¬
tively light, may be admitted,—but that they were happy, we
are not disposed to allow, unless a state of indolence, pro¬
miscuous intercourse, and drunkenness be supposed to en¬
title them to be so considered.
In the sketch it is our purpose at present to offer, it is
not necessary to go into the minuter details of this part of
our subject, and we proceed to consider the nature and
effects of the influence which has been exerted on society
by their connection with Europeans. That influence has
been so pow erful, and has existed so long, as to have become
interwoven in its very texture, and it becomes impossible
to give a just picture of the state of the native population
without attention to it. It is to be viewed in two lights, as
it has affected and disposed of the resources of the country,
and as it has altered or modified the native character, cus¬
toms, and institutions.
The sole object of the Company’s establishment on this
coast has been the pepper trade, of which they have exer¬
cised the exclusive monopoly. The earliest engagements
with the Sumatran chiefs w r ere directed to this end. They
agreed to oblige their people to cultivate pepper, and to
deliver it exclusively to the Company at a fixed rate,
who in return gave them salaries under the name of Customs
upon Pepper. Residents were appointed to the principal
stations, to receive the pepper, and insure the regular provi¬
sion of the investment. As the rate fixed for pepper was
very low', a labour which afforded scarcely a subsistence, and
which held out no competition or hope of gain, would of
course be evaded whenever possible. Coercive measures
became every day more necessary to keep up the supply,
and the residents w'ere soon obliged to exercise their
power in favour of the Company’s interests. They no longer
looked to the chiefs as responsible for the stipulated de¬
liveries, but received it directly from the cultivators, and
took the control of these people into their own hands. In
290 Condition of Society among the
proof of this, we have only to look into the regulations
made for the pepper planters, all tending to uphold and
promote the Company’s interests with reference to that
article. Of some of these regulations, the ultimate effects on
the people and society have been most important, and merit
particular attention. The first we shall notice is that which
prohibits any pepper planter from being taken as a mengir-
ing on account of debts. Its intent is obvious, to prevent
the loss or neglect of the pepper gardens by the services of
the planter being at any time forfeited to another. To the
planters it appeared a privilege or immunity, and, as such,
acted as an inducement to cultivate pepper on account of
the Company on any terms. They found a further conve¬
nience in the advances they received on account of their
gardens, which were to be gradually liquidated out of the
pepper delivered. As the cultivation of pepper was com¬
pulsory on all, it is obvious, that being in arrears to the
Company imposed no new obligation, while it gave them a
complete exemption from the consequences of all other
debts. To be in the situation of the Company’s mengiring or
slave, therefore, suited the immediate interests of the people;
and of this we cannot give a better illustration than a case
which occurred lately, in the Pangeran’s court of Bencoolen,
where a man from the interior pleaded his non-liability to
a long-standing debt of ten dollars to the head of his
village, because he had subsequently received an advance
of twenty dollars from the Company. This advance had
been made on account of the free gardens; he had not the
slightest idea of ever paying the Company, but prayed he
might continue to be considered their mengiring or debtor,
although he had the option of being released from it. It
may thus be accounted for why, on the late abolition of the
free-garden establishment at Bencoolen, there appeared so
little anxiety on the part of the people to be relieved from
their outstanding debts. Nor was this all; whoever was
thus indebted to the Company, and become its mengiring,
was thereby placed directly under its power, and subject to
no other. This however amounted to a virtual release from
all civil government, on the condition of cultivating a cer¬
tain number of pepper vines, as the civil administration still
continued nominally in the hands of the native chiefs. The
natural connection between them and their people was thus
broken, without substituting any thing in its room. The
power of the chiefs was diminished,"and the people pur¬
chased these privileges with the sacrifice of their indepen-
291
Native Population of Bencoolen.
dence, as the means by which they acquired them was that
of becoming a species of slave to the Company, and forego¬
ing for ever the hope of deriving the full advantage of their
industry. A state of comparative indigence was made to
appear the interest of the majority of the people, and indo¬
lence and all its evils followed in the train. Of this system
it was unfortunate that the evils, though certain, were re¬
mote, while the apparent advantages were specious and im¬
mediate. The people not only did not complain, but would
have been averse to any change; for after being used to look
to the Company for subsistence in return for the least pos¬
sible portion of compulsory labour, they would have consi¬
dered the discontinuance of those payments, and the return
of the impulses and restraints of well-organized society, as
a real hardship.
Another regulation, which, even if it was agreeable to the
ancient usages of the people, has certainly been coun¬
tenanced and extended by British influence from similar
motives, is that by which no man was permitted for any
cause of discontent or otherwise to leave the district of the
chief he belonged to, for that of another. Even when he
was allowed to change his dusun or village, it was only to
another under the same chief. The object of this in main¬
taining the pepper plantations is too obvious to require
explanation; but its policy even on that ground may be
questioned. The true interests of the Company would pro¬
bably have been better consulted by endeavouring to con¬
centrate the population under its immediate protection,
than by keeping them dispersed, as this regulation tended
to do. Its effects in a general view are still less doubtful,
as it placed an obstacle to one of the first steps to improve¬
ments, that of bringing the people close together, and re¬
claiming them from the narrow and unsocial habits they
acquire in their present state of dispersion.
' The results of the whole have been most important: the
chiefs, debarred from all schemes of ambition or legitimate
object of enterprise, have sunk into mere pensioners of the
Company; and the people, at the same time that they have
made no advances to improvement or independence, dis¬
regard more and more their fallen authority. The natural
course of improvement has been stopped, and not only have
the people been prevented from advancing one step beyond
the point of barbarism, at which we found them, but, as
must naturally result from the privation of object and stimu-
292
Condition of Society among the
t
lus, they have retrograded into a state of indigence, apathy,
and immorality.
To all the evils of the general system as adopted by the
Company, have been added many minor ones arising out
of the private interests of individuals. The residents,
who were the Company’s agents for the supply of pepper,
were also merchants on their own account in every other
article; and with the ample powers they possessed from
their situations, it could not be expected that they would
omit to avail themselves of them. It is obvious, that in a
state of things so vague and undefined as what we have
described, where usage took the place of law, and power
and expediency often the place of both, great scope would
be afforded for the exertion of influence by those in posses¬
sion of authority, and that the character and tendency of
this influence would mainly depend on the personal cha¬
racter of those who held it. Mr. Marsden informs us, in
his History of Sumatra, that the influence so exercised had
in his time been beneficial; and a greater eulogium could
not perhaps be passed on those employed, than that under
such a system, and with such temptations, their power and
influence should have been uprightly and usefully exerted.
We cannot, however, entirely pass over in silence some facts
which have been brought to our notice, not so much as
abuses, as privileges and advantages of these situations,
which have lost the character of abuses in the prescription
of custom. Of this nature is the practice of purchasing
the services of mengiring debtors. When a man was brought
into court, and a decree given against him, or a fine im¬
posed which he was unable to pay, it was usual for the
resident to advance the amount, and, obliging the person to
find security for the repayment, to take him as a mengiring.
The resident paid the amount, not in money, but in goods of
which he had the monopoly, at a rate seldom less than one
hundred per cent, on the prime cost, and further made an
addition to the debt, in consideration of the risk of non¬
recovery. It thus sometimes happened, that for the nomi¬
nal sum of ten dollars paid in goods worth five, a resident
appropriated to himself the whole services of a man and his
family for an indefinite time, and ultimately obtained the
repayment of the original sum with an addition on account
of risk. The debts or fines of pepper planters were gene¬
rally paid in the same way, on the security of the pepper
deliverable. Another custom established at the out resi-
293
Native Population of Bencoolen
deucies was, the compulsory supply from the district of
certain articles for the resident’s use, at fixed rates below
the market prices. These, however, are points of minor im¬
portance, nor is it necessary to remark on the monopoly of
all articles of import, as opium, salt, cloths, &c. by the resi¬
dent, in which, and not in money, it was usual to make
almost all the disbursements on account of pepper. They
all naturally flow’, and may be easily inferred, from the gene¬
ral tendency of the whole system.
It will now be necessary to notice the alterations and
modifications which the former system has undergone since
1801, when the original establishment of Fort Marlborough
was reduced, and it became a dependency onBengal. The evils
that had resulted have been acknowledged and pointed out
by each successive resident, but the attempt to overturn the
system from its base, seems to have appeared too arduous
and dangerous, and partial corrective measures were alone
adopted^ many of which completely failed in their object.
Among these measures, there was none perhaps which
struck so deep a blow at the commercial interests of Ben¬
coolen, as the seizure by the commissioner Mr. Ewer, of
nearly the whole of the native trading vessels, on the plea
of their being connected with an enemy’s port. The private
trade of Bencoolen, anterior to this period, was, as is well
known, carried on by the Governor and Council, and the
servants of the Company, almost entirely on the Company’s
capital, and to an extent which rendered the port respect¬
able, and certainly contributed to the improvement of the
settlement. This trade consisted in the importation of
opium, piece-goods, and other articles from Western India,
of which a small portion was sold on the spot, but the prin¬
cipal part was for export to the Java market. The restrict¬
ive policy of the Dutch government, and the corruption of
their servants, had given rise to an extensive contraband
trade, of which a large portion, particularly in the two arti¬
cles mentioned, was carried on through the medium of Ben¬
coolen. The native traders, above alluded to, conveyed the
opium and piece-goods to the different parts of Java, and
brought specie in return, which was remitted to Bengal at
a most favourable rate of exchange in Company’s bills.
The demand for opium in Java at this period did not
amount to less than a thousand chests a year, and the usual
payments for piece-goods in the same time seldom fell short
of a million of dollars. In this, by the means above stated^
294 Condition of Society among the
Bencoolen participated according to the extent of its capi¬
tal, independently of the immediate resources of Sumatra,
and the sale of the Company’s outward bound investment.
By the seizure, however, of the native boats on the plea
above mentioned, confidence was destroyed, and the effect
produced was so great that no part of that trade has since
been recovered : subsequent events, the rise of Prince of
Wales’ Island, the entrepot formed on the island of Bali,
and the final subjugation of Java by the British arms, have
operated to prevent its recurring to its former channel.
The expensive expeditions fitted out, and the liberal dis¬
bursements in every department during Mr. Ewer’s adminis¬
tration, in some measure compensated for the immediate
loss that was sustained ; and as he himself, we believe, lat¬
terly engaged in extensive speculations, a considerable
commerce still centered in Bencoolen. But from the period
of the arrival of Mr. Parr, when a more strictly economical
and pure system of administration was enforced, and the
support of the Company’s capital, and the influence of the
chief authority, was withdrawn, this commerce sunk into an
insignificance, from which it has never emerged. It has
since consisted in the importation of about thirty or forty
chests of opium, and a small quantity of piece-goods, which,
with the imports on account of the Company, has not ex¬
ceeded two or three lacs of dollars per annum : such as it
is, the private trade has continued chiefly in the hands of
the Company’s servants, but, with the exception of a recent
and unfortunate instance, it does not appear that the Com¬
pany’s funds have been made available to their speculations:
some advantage has still been enjoyed in the favourable
rate of exchange granted by the Company for bills on Ben¬
gal, in consequence of the receipt of inferior coins into the
treasury, and however just in principle, and necessary to
the public interests, the recent arrangements on this subject
may be, they will naturally affect the profits of the trader
by a further reduction in the rate of his remittance. The
port having thus lost all its artificial advantages, must
henceforth depend on its own native resources.
We have already stated, that from the year 1801, a
change was conceived to be necessary in the internal ma¬
nagement of the country, particularly with reference to the
pepper monopoly. The first and most important innovation
on the old system which has attracted our attention, is the
establishment of what are called the free gardens. Previ-
Native Population of Bencoolen, Sfc. 295
ously to this period, the inhabitants of the districts imme¬
diately inland of Bencoolen, had not been compelled to
cultivate pepper, and it was represented to Mr. Ewer, that
by making advances to individuals, and offering a higher
price for the article, it might soon be cultivated in them on
a system of voluntary contract. Several lacs of dollars
were accordingly disbursed for this object, and the system
ultimately extended to the out-residencies, where it was ex¬
pected that it would, in a few years, supersede the former
objectionable mode. It is generally believed, that of the
advances directed to be made in the interior of Bencoolen
a portion only reached the hands of the actual cultivators,
and that principally in goods ; but the amount thus dis¬
bursed certainly contributed to add temporarily to the
comforts of the people, who, regardless of the nature of the
service in which they thus enlisted themselves, immediately
expended it in the purchase of wives, and in the dissipation
of a Bimbang. To ensure the concurrence and support of the
chiefs, a commission upon the estimated produce at the
end of a certain number of years was allowed them, and for
some time, while an efficient establishment was maintained,
and the obligation was recent, the cultivation made some
progress. On the results of the plan, we need only observe,
that it entirely failed in its object; the pepper calculated on
was never received, and the advances were never recovered.
An expensive establishment for the superintendence of the
gardens, and the recovery of these balances, was long main¬
tained with little or no return ; and in the out-residencies,
the higher price granted for pepper said to be from the free
gardens, seems only to have been an inducement to fraud
and deception. The principle, however, on which these
gardens have been maintained, requires explanation. In
consequence of the advances made by the Company, the
people receiving them became mengiring debtors, and as
such the Government claimed an unlimited right to their
services. The only means which the people possessed of
paying their debts was by the delivery of pepper, its culti¬
vation was therefore enforced by the authority of Govern¬
ment, and they were thus reduced to a state of servitude
even more dependent than in the out-residencies. This
compulsion induced many to emigrate, death carried off
more, and in the course of fiteen years the number of those
who originally received advances was reduced to a very
few. The native custom, however, which makes the debt
of one member of a family binding upon the whole, and
296
Condition of Society among the
even upon the village, was resorted to, and made the bur¬
den fall more unjustly and oppressively upon nearly the
whole population.
All idea of recovering the out-standing balances, or of
persevering in a system so opposite in character to its deno¬
mination of free, has now, we believe, been abandoned ; but
we cannot dismiss the subject without adverting to the
fallacy of the principle on which it proceeded, by which we
think it must have been obvious, that the advantages could
only have been secured by resorting to the same compul¬
sory measures as were adopted under that which it was
intended to supersede. The prospect of obtaining an im¬
mediate supply of money was sufficient to stimulate the
avarice of the people, but it appears extremely questionable,
whether the desire to cultivate pepper on any terms, how¬
ever advantageous, originated with them, or was not rather
a scheme of the commissioner’s, into which they were inad¬
vertently allured. Had the commissioner reflected on the
mode in which the balances were to be recovered in event
of failure, we think he could hardly have expected that he
was really emancipating the people, or introducing what
could, with any degree of propriety, be called a free
system.
It is farther necessary that we should advert to the orders
of the Court of Directors in 1801, for withdrawing the out-
residencies, a measure which was never carried into effect;
but in place of which, a system of contracts was introduced.
The orders of the Court required, that the establishments
of the out-residencies should be discontinued, but that the
pepper should still be received for the Company. This
article was produced exclusively in the out-residencies,
and without some establishment it was impossible to depend
on its collection. The commissioner therefore seems to
have compromised the difficulty by entering into contracts
with the different residents for the supply of the pepper of
their districts at a high rate, in some instances, we believe,
as high as 17 dollars per cwt. which was to cover all expen¬
ses of the establishment, the residents being left to keep up
what they thought proper, without interference on the part
of Government. By this singular expedient, the orders of
the Court were literally obeyed, the establishments being
i educed, but while the expense of those establishments
was transferred to the price of the pepper, it is not easy to
see what saving was effected. But the evil did not stop
here; the independence thus conferred on the contractors.
297
Native Population of Bencoolen, fyc.
of course weakened the control of the superior authority at
Bencoolen, which w r as never very strong, while the districts
were in a manner abandoned to the absolute sway of these re¬
presentatives of the Company, as they still considered them¬
selves. That the supply of pepper under this system was
abundant, is not surprising, when we consider how much it was
the interest of the contractor that it should be so, and what
were the means which he possessed of securing his interests
in this respect. The whole population of the district was
placed at his unlimited control • he was the sole trader in
it, and by the existing engagements with the people, they
were bound to deliver to him, at three dollars per cwt. as
much pepper as they could cultivate, which he again deli¬
vered to Government at seventeen. Nor was this all, for
pepper was at this time purchaseable in the general market
at six and seven dollars per pecul; and it was no uncommon
thing for whole cargoes to be purchased at the northern
ports, and at Pinang, at that rate, and delivered at Ben¬
coolen at the contract price.
The rates of these contracts were subsequently reduced
on the death of the parties, and as circumstances permitted,
until during the administration of the late resident, as we
have been informed, they were in general brought so low as
to be a losing concern, and recourse was again had to the
old system of resident agents, to collect the pepper on
account of the Company. We are not aw'are that the agents
thus established were placed on a different footing in any
respect from what the former residents had been, except
that they enjoyed much higher salaries; they possessed
the same privileges and the same advantages in trade, and
their denomination was, we believe, merely changed in order
to give them a lower rank than the chief authority at Ben¬
coolen, himself called Resident. Mr. Ewer’s measure of
declaring the internal trade of the country free, was at once
rendered null by his own system of contracts, and no fur¬
ther steps appear ever to have been taken to this effect.
W e shall conclude this review of the changes effected since
1801, by stating, that the quantity of pepper, since the
abolition of the contracts, has gradually decreased, until
the whole districts collectively do not furnish half a cargo
in the year. This diminution may be considered to be the
natural result of the system that had been pursued for
upwards of a hundred years, and the effect has probably
been accelerated by an over-strain of their means during
the period of the contract system. Other more immediately
298 Condition of Society among the
apparent causes contributed to the effect; we shall only
mention two.
The first is, the greater difficulty which attends the deli¬
very of the pepper on account of the greater remoteness of
the gardens from the villages and depots. A pepper garden
is calculated to last but a limited number of years, and a
new one is generally commenced upon newly cleared land.
It is obvious, therefore, that the gardens which a century
ago were situated in the immediate neighbourhood of the
villages and rivers, must now be removed to a considerable
distance into the interior of the country ^ by which, inde¬
pendently of the greater difficulty of superintending them,
the expense of transportation is proportionably increased.
It may even be questioned, whether the sum paid for the
pepper was an adequate compensation for the latter, and
we have proof that in many instances, the people, though
forced to keep up their gardens, did not think the price a
sufficient inducement to collect their produce. The follow¬
ing extract of a letter from the late resident of Laye, which
you have communicated to us, is in support of this asser¬
tion, and is illustrative of the state of the gardens previous
to the late change of system:—“ On every survey, from one
“ hundred and fifty to two hundred planters are pronounced
“ faulty in consequence of neglect of their pepper gardens,
“ and the greatest number of these are confined until their
** gardens are reported to be in a proper state. On a return
“ to their dusun they seldom take any notice of their gar-
“ dens till orders for another survey are issued, when some
** from fear comply with the order for weeding, &c. but the
u greater part neglect it; the gardens consequently become
“ so choked with weeds as to be nearly destroyed; and
“ after two or three repetitions of this kind, are so impover-
“ ished as to require renewing even before they have
“ arrived at an age to produce fruit. There are upon an
“ average nearly two-thirds of the gardens in this state,
“ and which at the aforementioned period require renewal $
“ but the proprietors, to avoid confinement, generally have
u them clean on the survey taking place; thus not more
“ than one-third of the vines ever produce pepper. The
" cause of this neglect and indifference on the part of the
“ planters, is the idea they entertain of not receiving an
** adequate remuneration for the labour required in the cul-
“ tivation ; and I have known instances, and heard of many
“ more, that even when gardens have arrived at an age for
“ producing fruit, the proprietors of them would not be at
299
Native Population of Bencoolen, fyc.
“ the trouble of collecting it, from the additional inconve-
“ nience they would subject themselves to in bringing the
“ produce to the scales.”
The second point relates to the disturbed state of the
southern districts, from the incursions and disagreements
with the people of Passummah. We have already stated,
that it is from these people that the districts of Manna
principally derive their population, whence it may be infer¬
red that a frequent intercourse subsisted between them,
and we have reason to believe that the differences which
arose, and which at length were conceived to assume so
serious an aspect, had their origin in outstanding debts,
and old family feuds. While the old system was enforced
in its full extent, -the inhabitants of the Company’s districts
were protected from all demands of this kind, but when the
personal interests of the contractors, and the economy of
the subsequent arrangements, left them without efficient
protection, they were of course open to molestation; re¬
prisals ensued, and the want of due attention to the interests
of the Passummahs in the decisions of the courts under the
Company’s authority, left them no alternative butto obtain by
force and stratagem, what perhaps they would have been
found entitled to in justice, at least as far as related to
debts. It would be difficult, without entering into a more
detailed account of the usages of the people of this coast
than our present limits admit, to convey an adequate idea
to a person uninformed upon them, of the manner in which
the ensuing warfare (as it was called) was carried on.
Suffice it to say, that it was rather by individuals than by
the mass of the people ; one dispute gave rise to another,
and the law of retaliation prolonged it ad infinitum. A
regular account was kept on both sides, of each individual
killed; and when peace was agreed on, the balance was
struck, the losing party paying the bangun or compensation
money on the surplus heads.
We are informed, we know not how correctly, that a
balance of this kind was struck when the Lieut.-Governor
recently proceeded to Passummah, and that an end was
then put to their long-continued disputes, and peace and
amity restored, on what appears to be alasting basis, by the
payment of compensation for a man and a half, which ap¬
peared in account current against the Company, and the
admission of two Passummahs to a seat in that court where
the subjects of their country were to be tried.
Under this view of the subject, we think it is to be re-
300
Condition of Society among the
gretted that it was ever thought necessary to have recourse
to such measures as burning villages, and laying waste
tracts of cultivated country by fire, measures hardly justi¬
fiable under any circumstances, and much less against a
people so intimately connected with us, and on whom it is
of so much importance to make the most favourable impres¬
sion. We have observed on the records, orders given to
the resident of Manna to lay in wait till the ripening of the
harvest, and then to burn the corn, which the chief authority
declares he has, by experiment, ascertained will burn in
that state equally with lallang. Proceedings of this devas¬
tating and exterminating character, so contrary to our
practice elsewhere, could not fail to exasperate a people,
whom it was clear we were not prepared ter conquer by force
of arms, and whose revenge would of course be proportioned
to the injury sustained.
As connected with the forced cultivation of pepper, we
ought to notice the unsuccessful attempt made by Mr.
Parr to introduce the cultivation of coffee on account of
the Company. It is well known that it was extremely
obnoxious to the people, and has generally been considered
as one of the causes which led to his unfortunate death.
The true causes of this melancholy event, perhaps, lie
deeper than in the enforcement of a single order, and there
are circumstances connected with it, so peculiarly illustra¬
tive of the character of the people, that we think a clear
exposition of them at the present period, when the feel¬
ings it at first excited have in a great measure subsided,
would probably be interesting and valuable. We have not
considered it to fall within our province; but as we con¬
ceive the measures which followed upon it have had the
effect of weakening, rather than strengthening, as might
have been expected, the influence of government, we thfnk
it necessary to notice the circumstance, as connected with
the present state of society. There seems no doubt that
the whole of the chiefs of the country were perfectly aware
of the attempt to be made on Mr. Parr’s life. Meetings
weie held, and oaths administered to this effect, and every
inhabitant of the town was apprised of the danger. The
country was in a state of revolt, and the circumstances
undei which the assassination took place, would have justi¬
fied and seemed to call for more decisive measures than
were used. The consequence of not adopting them, has
been to confirm the impression, that the English authority
on this coast, however supreme in detail, is politically infe-
Native Population of Bencoolen , Sfc. 301
rior to that of the chiefs, and held on their sufferance alone.
Perhaps in no part of India have the people so little know¬
ledge of the extent of our real power and resources as here ;
the full authority of Government is almost unknown ; the
most important, as well as the most trifling measures, can
only be carried by personal influence and agreement, and the
consequences that result are but too obvious.
We turn with pleasure to a more agreeable and interest¬
ing subject, the introduction and establishment of the nut¬
meg and clove cultivation. The island of Sumatra is
indebted to the Company for this benefit, and for the means
it has afforded of putting a stop for ever to the imposition
which has for centuries been practised on the world by the
monopoly of these articles at the Moluccas. The establish¬
ment of this cultivation, and the export it affords, have
given an interest and value to the port of Bencoolen, which
nothing else perhaps could have conferred on it. It has
been left to individual capital and enterprise, and neither
has been wanting to place it on a respectable footing, and
to secure it from failure. It now in fact constitutes almost
the only valuable and permanent property in the place. It
is principally in the hands of Europeans; but natives, Ben¬
galees, and Chinese, participate to a considerable extent.
It is now time to bring to a close this Report, which has
already extended beyond the limits originally contemplated.
It has been our intention to confine it to the object of con¬
veying our first impressions, and of affording a general
view of the whole subject. Detailed inquiries are in pro¬
gress in the different districts; and the result of these, with
our opinions on the points to which our attention has been
more particularly directed, will form the subject of a more
extended and supplementary report. At present we shall
not venture to offer any suggestions on the improvement of
the existing system, but shall confine ourselves to an enu¬
meration of the changes which have been effected under the
present administration, and the evidence which they afford
of the practicability of pursuing further measures of the
same tendency. These are, we believe, principally the
following ; the abandonment of the forced cultivation of
pepper, and withdrawing the out-residencies ; the emanci
pation of the Company’s slaves, and the modification of
the principle of mengiring debtors as far as Europeans are
concerned ; the establishment of a regular police, and the
reform of the courts of justice; the lowering of the Jujur
in certain districts, &c.
302 Condition of Society among the
These important changes having been effected in the
course of a few months, and a twelvemonth having subse¬
quently elapsed without any of the alarming consequences
which were apprehended as the inevitable result of anv
innovation, we are warranted in believing that the same
personal energy and perseverance which have been so far
successful, are competent to accomplish whatever further
objects may be contemplated in prosecution of the plan of
general amelioration and improvement. Of the effects of
the alterations already introduced, it is not strictly within
our province to report; many of them are obvious, and
have already contributed to a considerable change for the
better; others have a more silent, but not less certain
operation ; and we have no hesitation in stating our opinion,
that, considering the formidable obstacles to be overcome,
and the prejudices to be removed, more has been done than
could have been contemplated in so short a period. In
thus expressing ourselves, we are fully aware of the im¬
portance of duly weighing the peculiar character of the
people, in pursuing to their full accomplishment the mea¬
sures already commenced. So much appears to us to
depend on the person under whose superintendence they
are prosecuted, and so much necessity still exists for suiting
them to the particular emergencies which may occur, and
to unforeseen circumstances, that we should feel very diffi¬
dent of success under any management less able and
determined than that by which they have already been
conducted.
We shall conclude with some observations on the general
character of the people. The preceding statements will
already have given an idea of’t, and it will be found to
exhibit several peculiarities, and to have been in no small
degree influenced by local circumstances. We have adverted
to the physical aspect of the country, its remoteness from
the general track of commerce, and the inhospitable nature
of its coasts. These disadvantages of situation contributed
to exclude them from a free communication with other
more civilized nations, while the inequality of the surface
prevented their assembling into large communities. Before
the arrival of the British, they were subject to the king of
Bantam, and were governed by jejenangs or lieutenants
deputed from that court. About the time of our appear¬
ance, the power of Bantam was sinking into decay, and
finding the government of a distant province attended with
no adequate advantage, they formally abandoned it, and
among the Native Population of Bencoolen, &c. 303
conferred an absolute independence on the people, without
appointing* any head or ruler. The people, thus suddenly
left to themselves, remained under an infinite number of
petty chiefs, and before any of those had time to acquire
power, or to extend their sway, the Company established
their influence, and perpetuated this state of division.
The people had previously been converted to Mahome-
danism, but its tenets do not appear to have been ever
thoroughly understood, and it w as considerably modified
and softened to suit their previous ideas and customs.
This religion has been introduced into the Eastern Islands
in a different manner from most other parts of the w r orld,
and never by force of arms; which may in some measure
account for the modified and milder form under which it
there appears, and the absence of the usual bigotry of the
true Mussulman. This exemption from religious prejudices
is a remarkable feature of their character. Of Mahomme-
danism, as a civil code, they seem to know nothing; at
least it has not been allowed to supersede their original
institutions. These breathe a higher sentiment of freedom
than those of the prophet of Islam; and the actual inde¬
pendence which we have seen that they early possessed,
and the circumstance of their never having been subjected
to the full pressure of a strong government, will account for
the spirit of republicanism and contentiousness which ap¬
pears among them. Their chiefs having never been much
raised above their own condition, could inspire but little
awe, and though they bowed to their decisions in concert
with the elders and respectable men of their villages, it was
more from a sense of propriety and justice than of fear.
They never forgot that they had rights, nor ever feared to
assert them. This sentiment, though not extinguished, has
been weakened since the establishment of courts under the
Company’s authority. The compulsory cultivation of pep¬
per, the habit which all ranks have acquired of looking to
the Company for support and subsistence, and the poverty
and depression produced by the general system of mono¬
poly and restriction, have infused a spirit of avarice, of all
others the most debasing, and the most adverse to the
developement of high qualities. This makes them have
recourse to the courts whenever they have a prospect of
pecuniary advantage, and to this perhaps may be ascribed
their more seldom seeking revenge in cases of murder,
when they can obtain in the courts the bangun or compen¬
sation. To this spirit of avarice too, combined with their
vol. v.— no. 10. x
304
On Testamentary Bequests.
indolence and want of occupation, may be traced the pro¬
pensity to gambling and cock-fighting which prevails so
much among them. Though these vices, the state of
poverty and servitude in which they have been kept, the
privation of stimulus, their general ignorance, and the little
idea they have of regular and efficient government, have
lowered their character, and debased the original sterling
metal, there still appears to remain a portion of that spirit
of freedom and impatience under what may appear to them
injustice, which must never be overlooked, and which may,
under proper management and direction, be made the
source of future improvement. They are accustomed to exer¬
cise their reasoning powers upon every subject, and though
the course of their ideas be peculiar, they are open to con¬
viction. They are not deficient in quickness of apprehen¬
sion, but are slow in resolution, and cautious in action.
Their passions appear to be much under control, and both
sexes are remarkable for decorum.
There is nothing, perhaps, more difficult than to draw a
true and accurate character of a people, nor shall we pre¬
tend to do so ; but we think the observations we have
offered, will justify the opinion we have expressed, that
under prudent and judicious management, there exist
qualities and powers which may be expanded and direct¬
ed, and a foundation on which a better order of things may
be established.
On Testamentary Bequests.
There appears to be a great defect in legislation, that
so little control exists over the disposition of property by
will. Testamentary Bequests, however they may have been
dictated, by folly, vanity, caprice, superstitious feeling, or the
vindictive passions, are still held to be sacred ; and, on any
question arising in our different courts, on the construc¬
tion of a will, the object is not to inquire into the justice and
propriety of the case, but, what was the intention of the tes¬
tator; and, if idiocy or insanity cannot be sustained, the most
flagrant injustice, and the most consummate folly, receive
a legal sanction.
Property being a deposit, for the correct application of
which during life a moral obligation exists, it w r ould seem.
305
On Testamentary Bequests.
that in its distribution after death the same principle should
govern its disposal. By the law of nature, and the obliga¬
tions of religion, a man’s first care is his natural relations.
But, how often do we witness, in the dotage of age, the
alienation of property from natural descendants, by the
artifices of domestic servants, and the sycophancy of pre¬
tended friends: and although injustice, or caprice, is appa¬
rent in every line of the will, yet, unless undue influence*
can be proved, which is frequently very difficult, the will is
established. Again, there are immoral restraints enjoined
with testamentary bequests, to which the law interposes no
remedy. Property is left on the condition of a marriage
between parties where no attachment exists, and with whom,
from dissimilarity of tastes and dispositions, no true affec¬
tion can ever grow'. An income is bequeathed to a widow',
with the obligation that she shall not marry again. This
case is highly aggravated, when it is found that the fortune
brought by the wife, or property left by her relations, was
the prosperous gale, w 7 hich lifted the husband from the
shallows of adversity, and bore him on to respectability,—
to influence,—and to w'ealth. So, in the sacrifice, unhap¬
pily too frequently made, of virgin beauty to doting age, the
law allows the miserly dotard to withhold from the genera¬
tion he has left, the possession of a treasure he is no longer
capable of enjoying, and to deny to a young and amiable
woman, all the sweets of conjugal affection, and the endear¬
ments of maternal love, but on the condition of renouncing
her subsistence.
In the present day, when juster views of moral obligation
are inculcated, and more liberal sentiments prevail, which
withhold a man, during his life-time, from bestowing his
property on mercenary domestics,—from lavishing on pub¬
lic charities the support and expectation of his family,—and
would lead him to hesitate, if not to shudder, at presenting
a young woman with a sum of money, with the injunction
that she should never marry; the same principles, w r e might
expect, would guide his pen, and restrain him, in the last
disposition of his property, from devising acts equally
injurious to his posterity, and repugnant to morality. It is
not attempted to be controverted, that a man may not, if he
sees sufficient reason, devise his property to an estimable
friend rather than to a profligate son; or limit it, in cases of
* No influence short of that coercion which the law terms duress ,
will set aside a will made by a man, who, however influenced by per¬
suasion, is not under restraint.—E djt.
306
On Testamentary Bequests.
imbecility in a child, or dissoluteness in a wife: but it is
contended, that where there are evident traces of weakness,
caprice, superstitious folly, or vindictive feeling, the law, as
a mighty mother, with maternal feeling, should step in, and
claim for the rightful heir that property which folly or bigotry
would alienate.
In the darker ages, when death-bed injunctions were viewed
as almost oracular, and dictates then given were most reli¬
giously followed, from the superstitious fear of being visited
by the perturbed spirits of the departed, in case of dis¬
obedience, we cannot so much wonder that such implicit
reverence should be paid to, and strict observance follow,
the testimentary dispositions of property; but, at present,
when these idle fears have passed away, executors need fear
no alarm; and were they empowered to call in the powerful
interposition of the law, to control the absurdities and
rectify the injustice of testators, we should not have to
lament the accumulation of funds to improvident charities,
at the sacrifice of the parental duties,—the enrichment of
base dependants, to the neglect of the natural ties of
consanguinity;—and many a deep curse would be spared
on memories, which, if not recalled with cherished feelings
of respect, might be suffered to rest in oblivion.
There is another order of Testamentary Bequests which
assume a character of much higher importance, as operating
most injuriously on the wealth of the state. Those we have
been considering are unjust to individuals, as sequestrating
property from the rightful heirs, and as violating those
ties of kindred which nature deems sacred : but in addition
to this, these inflict an injury on the community at large—
I mean Testamentary Bequests in perpetuity, and demised
for specific purposes. Property belongs to the existing genera¬
tion; and I assume it as a principle, that no man has a right
to control property after his death:—under the limitations
we have already considered, a man has unquestionably the
right to demise his property at death; but, that he should
have the power to tie it up for ever, and control its expendi¬
ture, is monstrous and absurd. It is much to be wondered
at, that the law of England should still recognize such a
principle. In cases not actually immoral, there is scarcely
any absurdity a man may devise, but the law, having dili¬
gently inquired if such were really his intention, gives it
its/af. Were a man to leave the interest of £10,000 in the
funds for ever, to furnish a pageant on Lord Mayor’s day,
and appoint the corporation of London the trustees, I ques-
307
On Testametitary Bequests.
tion not but it would be confirmed ;* and thus £10,000 of
the national wealth would be withheld from a healthy cir¬
culation, to give an idle spectacle to children and apprentice
boys. The legislature very early and wisely interposed to
check the rapacity of priests, and the exorbitant demands
of mother church, in the alienation of landed property to
their uses for ever. In the confirmation of Magna Charta
by Henry III. in the year 1225, religious houses are with¬
held from holding and appropriating to themselves lands in
mortmain : and the mortmain act, which took place in the
reign of George II.d* after stating, “that the improvident
“ alienation and disposition, by languishing and dying per-
“ sons, of lands, tenements, and hereditaments, to charitable
“ uses, to the disherison of the lawful heir, was prejudicial
“ to the common utility, and a public mischief, it enacts,
“ that all such devises shall be void.” But this restricts
the alienation of landed property alone; and to charitable
uses only. A man may still devise the soil he has enjoyed
during his life, to be held in perpetuity after his death, for
any purposes his folly or vanity may suggest.^ In devises of
funded property, the same principle of posthumous control
is admitted. The national debt is likely to be as permanent
as the soil. Tv o dreamer of visions could ever dream of its
being paid off; and the convulsion which may extinguish
the one, will shake the landmarks of the other. The lock¬
ing up of so much capital, may therefore be viewed as
highly detrimental to the state. Ten thousand pounds tied
up for charitable, or other uses, throw's into circulation one
twentieth part; the rest is a dead inert mass. Ten thousand
pounds let loose in agriculture, manufactures, or commerce,
is a river flowing through the country with golden sands.
The opposite direction, which convulsions in the state, or
the circumstances of the times, have given to Testamentary
Bequests,—the abuses of most, and the absurdities of
many,—might teach us, that the existing generation are the
best proprietaries, and the best dispensers, of property.
* Certainly it would, if lie were sane when he made the bequest.— Edit.
f Technically speaking, the ix Geo. II. c. 36. is not the mortmain
act, but one of a long series, extending the provisions of the original
Statute of Mortmain, Edw.I. st.2. which was itself an extension and
explanation of ix Hen. III. st. l.c.36. and of Magna Charta, c.36.— Ed.
X Were a man to bequeath his estate with the injunction, that not
a deer in the park should be slain for fifty years, nor a tree felled for
a hundred, there is no question but it would be registered, and rati¬
fied, and the interdict most religiously observed, however the country
might be distressed for wood or venison.
The alienation which has taken place in funds bequeathed
by the piety, or bigotry, of our ancestors, for religious pur¬
poses, might check this inextinguishable propensity to do,
as we think, so much good after we are dead; and of at¬
tempting to perpetuate doctrines, incontestably true—be¬
cause we believe them. What has become of the immense
Mary,—and to enshrine the whole community of saints (—
gone to supplant the religion they were designed to uphold,
—to turn the Virgin Mary out of doors, and leave the saints
not a place to lay their heads in.
The dissipation and abuse of funds left for charitable
uses, might be urged as an argument against posthumous
charity. In the late investigation by Mr. Brougham, in a
committee of the House of Commons, into the application
of the funds of charitable foundations, what abuses and
misapplication have in many instances been detected ! And
where they have not been shamefully dissipated in anni¬
versary, and committee dinners, and civic jollity, by muni¬
cipal or corporate bodies, with whom the direction is very
frequently left, yet, from the expenses of management, the
fees of surveyors, the plunder of bailiffs, and the dilapida¬
tions of tenants, but a scanty proportion has remained for
the charitable purposes for which the property was originally
devised.
In the foundation of Dulwich College by Edward Alleyne
in the year 1617, by deed of gift, and confirmed by his will,
the income of his immense estates, producing nearly £20,000
yearly, is still managed and appropriated, in conformity to the
directions of the founder. It supports a school for the
maintenance and education of a number of poor children,
and maintains twelve aged people, denominated Brothers
and Sisters; but the heads of the college, consisting of a
master, warden, and four fellows, hold their situations in
this splendid establishment, and share its funds, only on the
309
On Testamentary Bequests.
all this tender solicitude for the guidance and direction of
posterity ? When a man’s dust is resting with the clods
of the valley, and his spirit can neither impart its counsel,
nor partake our labours, what claim has he to interpose ?*
Are the institutions of society, the habits of mankind, and
mind itself, of so fixed and unvarying a character, that the
law of to-day is to bind them for ever? When will the shackle,
which the death-bed devotee imposes, have its rivet broken?
Is the miser and the bigot to sav to the enlightened gene¬
rations which may succeed, “ These were my opinions, and
they shall be yours; this was once my property, and you
shall occupy as I direct, and expend as I ordain.” The
folly of such devises is only surpassed by the folly of ob¬
serving them.
It will be said, that the munificent endowments by will,
by our ancestors, have laid the foundation of some of the
most splendid, most useful, and beneficent establishments
in the country. In the millions of acres, and millions of
pounds, bequeathed to public institutions and to charity, it
would be very strange if some good were not done; but it
would still be a question, whether, if the whole of that pro¬
perty now tied up to charitable purposes, and other uses,
were in the hands of the community at large, the cause of
religion, or learning, or humanity, would suffer. This much,
at least, we may safely affirm, that much lavish expenditure
would then be saved, and many an idle office spared ; and
charity, if not so splendid, would be more pure and more
effective. When funds are fixed and permanent, and where
the trusteeship is merely formal, and imparts no interest,
circumspection is asleep, and economy an intruder: if the
income is princely, it is too frequently expended with
princely inconsideration. Could the funds of many of our
old establishments be submitted to rigorous investigation,
it would be found that one part is dissipated in the collec¬
tion, another consumed in sinecure offices, and the remainder
allotted to the dreamy discharge of duty. Many of our old
establishments are like old trees, which have survived the
time of healthy bearing and fruitful produce, and now stand
loaded with excrescences, and their nutriment exhausted by
parasitical plants.
When men are their own almoners, the funds of charities
are sacred deposits—are vigilantly guarded, and faithfully
* Having long ceased from the generation of the living, and when
his dust is scattered by the four winds of heaven, are golden harvests
to wave, and the earth yield her increase, under his control?
310
On Testamentary Bequests.
administered. The spirit of charity, which impels a man
during life to devote a part of his substance to the cause of
religion or humanity, is a living and an active principle, that
pursues its object with ardour, and suffers not the cause to
be weakened or frustrated by improvident expenditure, or
negligent application. It is his own offering, and he guards
it with the sanctity of a sacrifice. In exemplification of
this, we might point to the magnificent establishment of the
Bible Society, which, with an income of nearly <£90,000
yearly, dependent on voluntary contributions, goes on from
year to year with increasing splendour and usefulness,
with an establishment expending only a few hundred pounds
a year in its management. The same may be said of the
Missionary Society, and many others, where the funds are
administered by the parties who raise them.
Had the princely estates and immense funds which the
piety or bigotry of our ancestors wrested from the natural
heirs to purposes of learning or charity, descended in a na¬
tural order, many a splendid establishment, which we now
deem the glory of our country, would have been wanting ;
but the far greater glory would have remained—the less
need of them. Many a poor scholar might trace his elee¬
mosynary education to his own paternal acres; and the
inmate of an hospital has not unfrequently received suc¬
cour from funds, which, but for the bigotry or vanity
of his progenitors, would have been his own, and have
enabled him to succour others. Had not one acre been
left, nor one pound demised, to be tied up to charitable pur¬
poses, the first had been better cultivated, the other more
productively employed, and the country much richer.
In the present day, of the increased and increasing in¬
fluence of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which breathes in
every page a spirit of philanthropy and benevolence, little
apprehension need be entertained of the cause of religion,
of charity, and of moral culture, being suffered to decline :
that spirit is abroad and expanding in every direction;
and deeply is it to be deplored that so many millions should
have been withheld from its active zeal and powerful ener¬
gies. Had the whole of the revenues, now tied up by our
ancestors, been diffused through the community, little doubt
would exist but that religion, pure and undefiled, would
still flourish; learning, unshackled by the monastic restraint
of celibacy, would still be cultivated; and benevolence, ex¬
tensive as the miseries and wants of man, would still be
found. And while it is contended that all the wealth of the
311
Epitaph of Archbishop Parker.
nation, and the application of that wealth, belongs to the
generation in existence; so it is to them also that the alle¬
viation of human misery, the propagation of truth, and the
education and moral culture of the community, belong; and
the bequest which meditates to do that for us which we
ought to do ourselves—represses our energies—weakens
our responsibility—and limits our duties.
L.
Monumental Inscriptions to the Memory of Great and Good
Men.
II. MATTHEW PARKER, THE SECOND PROTESTANT
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY,
IN THE CHAPEL OF LAMBETH PALACE.
[The Remains of Archbishop Parker were deposited in
this chapel, at his own request, under an altar tomb which
he had erected for himself, near the communion table.
Upon it was the following inscription, written by Doctor
Walter Haddon, the celebrated civilian, who had been made,
by the Archbishop, judge of his Prerogative Court of Can¬
terbury.]
Sobrius et prudens, studiis excultus et usu,
Integer, et veree religionis amans,
Matthceus vixerit Parkerus, foverat ilium.
Atila virum juvenem,fovit et aula senem.
Ordine res gessit, recti defensor et eequi:
Vixerat ille Deo, mortus ille Deo est.
TRANSLATION.
Temperate, pure, prudent, studious from his youth,
The accomplish’d lover of religious truth,
Sage Parker lived—theCourt which had engaged,
And, young, advanced him, cherished him when aged.
Firm for the right, all order was his pride,
And as to God he lived, to God he died.
W.
[When, during the Commonwealth, Lambeth house was
purchased by Scott and Hardy, two of the Parliamentary
officers, the former, to whose lot this part of the palace fell,
removed the Archbishop’s tomb, and turned the chapel into
a dancing room. The leaden coffin was sold to a plumber,
312
Epitaph of Archbishop Parker.
and the Archbishop’s corpse was thrown into a hole in one
of the out-houses. After the Restoration, it was discovered
there, and re-interred in the chapel under a marble slab, hav¬
ing this brief inscription:]
Corpus Matthoci Archiepiscopi tandem hie quiescit.
TRANSLATION.
The body of Archbishop Matthew at length rests here.
[Archbishop Sancroft placed the old monument in the
corner in the vestibule of the chapel, and caused the follow¬
ing inscription, said to have been written by himself, to be
affixed to it.]
Matthcei Archiepiscopi coenotaphium, corpus enim , (ne nescias,
lector,) in adyto hujus sacelli olim rite conditum , a sectariis per-
duellibus, anno MDCXLVIII, effracto sacrilege! hoc ipso tumulo,
clogio sepulchrali impib rejixo, direptis nefarie exuviis plumbeis,
spoliatum, violatum, eliminatum; etiam sub sterquilinio (proh scelus !)
abstrusum: rege demum (plaudente ceelo et terra) redeunte, ex decreto
Baronum Anglice sedulo queesitum, et sacello postliminio redditum,
in ejus quasi medio tandem quiescit. Et quiescat utinam, non nisi
tuba ultima solicitandum. Qui denuo desecraverit, sacer esto.
TRANSLATION.
The Cenotaph of Archbishop Matthew. For his body (lest, rea¬
der, thou shouldest be ignorant of the fact) originally interred near
the altar of this chapel,—his tomb having been sacrilegiously broken
open, his sepulchral eulogy impiously effaced, and his leaden coffin
wickedly broken to pieces, by hostile sectaries, in the year 1648 —
was despoiled, defiled, torn from its grave, and (oh wickedness!)
tossed upon a dunghill!
At the King’s restoration, (an event at which heaven and earth
rejoiced,) by a resolution of the Barons of England, it was carefully
sought for, and, being recovered, was replaced in this chapel, nearly
in the centre of which it now reposes. And there may it rest un¬
disturbed until the last trumpet shall sound !
Let him who again shall desecrate it be accursed !
Epitaph of Dr. John Owen .
313
III. JOHN OWEN, D.D. DEAN OF CHRISTCHURCH, AND
FOR SOME TIME VICE-CHANCELLOR OF THE UNI¬
VERSITY OF OXFORD.
IN THE BURIAL GROUND, BUNHILL FIELDS.*'
JOHANNES OWEN, S.T.P.
Agro Oxoniensi Oriundns;
Patre insigni Theologo, Theologus Ipse 1 Insignior;
Et Seculi hujus Insignissimis annumerandus:
Communibus Humaniorum Literarum Suppetiis,
Mensura parum Communi Instructus;
Omnibus, quasi bene Ordinata Ancillarum Serie,
Ab illojussis Slice- Famulari Theologice ;
Theologies Polemices, Practices, et quam vocant, Casuum
(Hamm enim Omnium quee magis Sua 3 habenda erat, ambigutuce 4 )
In ilia, viribus plusquam Herculeis, Serpentibus tribus,
Arminis 5 , Socino, Cano Venenosa Strinxit Guttura:
In ista, Suo prior, ad Verbi Amussim, Expertus pectore,
Universam Sp. Scti, (Economiam Aliis tradidit:
Et anissis 6 Cceteris, Coluit Ipse Sensitque,
Beatam, quam Scripsit, cum Deo Communionem:
In terris 7 Viator Comprehensori in Ccelis proximus:
In Casuum Theologice*, Singulis Oraculi institutum habitus;
Quibus 9 Opus erat, 8f Copia, Consulendi:
Scriba ad Regnum Coelorum usque quoque Institutus ;
Mult is privatos infra 10 parietes, d Suggesto Pluribus,
A prelo Omnibus ad eundem Scopum Collineantibus
Pura Doctrines Evangelicce Lampas Presluxit;
Et sensim, non Pine 11 aliorum, Suoque Sensu,
Sic prcelucendo Periit.
Assiduis Infrmitatibus Obsiti,
* This inscription is stated, in Palmer’s Nonconformist’s Memorial
(I. 205) to have been originally very inaccurately engraved upon the
stone. It has recently been re-inscribed, but we regret to say, with
little correction of its gross blunders. It is here correctly printed
from the stone, but we have added, by way of various readings, the
result of a collation of it with the several copies of the original in¬
scription, inserted the works referred to in the Notes.
1 Omitted in the “Inscriptions upon the Tombs inBunhillFields.”8vo.Lond.l717.
2 Such jussis Famulari. lb.
3 Sua. omitted. Ib.
4 Ambigitur. Ib. Palmer’s Non. Mem. Orme’s Life of Owen.
5 Arminio. Ib. Ib. Ib.
6 Amissis. Inscript. Bunhill Fields, missis. Palmer. Orme.
7 Interiis. Inscript. B. F.
8 Theologia. Palmer. Orme.
9 Quibos. Palmer.
10 Inter. Inscript. B. F.
11 Sine. Ib. Palmer. Orme.
314
Epitaph of Dr. John Owen.
Morbis Creberrimis 12 Impetiti,
Durisque Laboribus petissimum 13 Attriti , Corporcs 1 ' 1
Fabrics, (donee ita Quassata 15 , Spectabilis) Ruinas,
Deo ultra Serviendo inhabiles , Sancta Anima,
Deo vltrd Fincndi Cupida, Deseruit;
Die, a Tcrrenis Potestatibus 16 , Plurimis facto Fatali ;
llli, a Ccelcsti Nurnine, Felici reddito;
Mcnsis Scilicet Augusti XXIV. 0 Anno a Partu Virgineo 17
MDCLXXXIII 0 JEtat. LXVII.
TRANSLATION.
JOHN OWEN, D.D.
Born in the county of Oxford;
The son of an eminent divine, but a more eminent divine himself;
Worthy, indeed, to be numbered with the most illustrious of his age:
Furnished, to an extent but seldom attained,
with all the advantages of polite literature and solid learning,
Like a well-ordered train of domestics,
These were led at command,
to the furtherance of his favourite pursuit of Theology,
Polemical, Practical, and (as it is termed) Casuistical.
In each of these branches he so excelled, that it is doubtful which
of them was his more peculiar province.
In the one, with powers more than Herculean,
He crushed the three envenomed monsters
of Arminian, Socinian, and Popish errors.
In the other; having, according to the unerring rule of Scripture,
first experienced in his own breast,
The sacred energy of the Holy Spirit,
He communicated to others the whole economy
of Redeeming Grace.
Constantly also did he cherish, and largely experience in himself,
That blissful communion with his God,
, which in his writings he has admirably described.
Whilst a sojourner upon Earth, he all but apprehended
the joys of heaven.
In cases of conscience, on which he was much accustomed and
well qualified to advise,
His resolutions had often the force of oracular truth.
A scribe in every way instructed unto the Kingdom of heaven,
12 Creberrimus. Orme.
13 Potissimum. Inscript. B. F. Palmer. Orme.
14 Corporis. Ib. Ib. Ib.
15 Quassatce. Ib. Ib. Ib.
16 Protestatibus. Orme.
IT Pastu Virgino. Inscript. B. F.
Review.—Licentious Productions in high Life. 315
In conversation—to many,
In the pulpit—to more,
From the press—to all,
who were pressing forward to the same heavenly city,
He held up the pure lamp of evangelical truth.
At length—not unobserved by others,
nor unadmonished by his own inward feelings,
Still enlightening to the last,
He gradually died away.
For, depressed by constant infirmities,
Emaciated by excruciating diseases,
And, above all, worn down by labours unremitted,
The wreck of a body, until thus shattered,
Fair and comely to behold,
Being disqualified for the further service of the Most High,
Was deserted by a soul, purified, and panting for the full fruition
of its God,
On the 24th of August, in the year of human Redemption 1683,
and the 67th of his age :—
A day, rendered fatal to many
By the powers of this world,
Blissful to him
In the presence of his God.
REVIEW.
1. The Works of the Right Honourable Sir Chas. Hanbury
Williams, K. B. Ambassador to the Courts of Russia,
Saxony, §c. From the originals in the possession of his
Grandson the Right Hon. the Earl of Essex : with Notes
by Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford. 3 vols. Post 8vo.
pp. 280, 279, 222. London, 1822. Jeffery and Son.
2. Don Juan. 4to. London, 1819. No bookseller’s name.
Printed by Thomas Davison, Whitefriars. pp. 227.
3. Don Juan; Canto III. IV. and V. Foolscap 8vo. pp.
218. London, 1821. No bookseller’s name. Printed by
Thomas Davidson, Whitefriars.
4. Sardanapalus, a Tragedy. The Tico Foscari, a Tragedy.
Cain, a Mustery. By Lord Byron. 8vo. pp. 441. Lond.
1821. Murray.
5. Uriel ; a Poetical Address to the Right Honourable Lord
Byron, written on the Continent: with Notes, containing
Strictures on the Spirit of Infidelity maintained in his
316 Review.—Licentious Productions in high Life:
Works. An Examination into his Assertion, that “ If Cain
is blasphemous , Paradise Lost is blasphemous,” and several
other Poems. 8vo. pp. 138. London, 1822. Hatchard.
6. Queen Mab. By Percy By she Shelley. 8vo. pp. 182.
London, 1821. W. Clarke, 201, Strand.
7. A Remonstrance, addressed to Mr. John Murray, respect¬
ing a recent publication. 8vo. pp. 20. London, 1822.
Rivingtons.
Decided, perhaps even enthusiastic, in our attachment
to the liberty of the press, we are yet most determined
enemies to its licentiousness. When, therefore, about the
commencement of our work, prosecution was instituted after
prosecution against obscure booksellers and itinerant poli¬
ticians, for speeches and publications tending to ridicule
and bring into disrepute the Bible and the established reli¬
gion of the country, we joined not with many, from whom we
had expected better things, in the clamour raised against
those by whom such proceedings were instituted. On the
contrary, when the Attorney-General appeared in his proper
character as prosecutor on behalf of the public, and not as
the mere tool of a political faction, clothing its own petty
wrongs in the specious and imposing garb of insulted reli¬
gion, and outrage to all public decency,—most sincerely did
we wish him, most cordially did we rejoice in, his success.
When that office devolved upon, or rather when it was
assumed by, the Society for the Suppression of Vice, we felt
also, in a measure somewhat diminished, perhaps, from causes
hereafter to be explained, a warm interest in their proceed¬
ings. But when this system of a combination of private
individuals for carrying on public prosecutions extended
itself, and amis-be-dubbed Constitutional Association arose,
whose real object was to support a particular set of men and
measures, by prosecuting all who should give too great
license to their tongues or their pens in condemning them,
whilst full impunity was allowed to those in like manner
offending, for their support,—we were amongst the earliest to
take alarm at, the most fearless to expose, an innovation
destructive of the very institutions it professed religiously to
guard. The race of that society was happily short,'as it was
inglorious. Defeated again and again by beings too con¬
temptible to have attacked, even with the full ordinary
vigour of the law,—too clearly guilty if so attacked to have
had a solitary unpaid voice lifted up in their defence,—its
agents and itself have descended to an oblivion in which.
Lord Byron—Sir C. H. Williams—Percy B. Shelley. 317
as far as we are concerned, their acts and deeds may for ever
rest in undisturbed repose. Resembling, as it more nearly
did in its life, as in its death, the bat than the phoenix, we
fear no untoward resuscitation of its ashes. This, however,
by the way, and but as a requiescat. Turn we now to the
elder society which we have named, and against whose pro¬
ceedings we have some charges to advance, more, we protest,
in sorrow than in anger.
Occupied as the time of the Attorney and Solicitor-Gene¬
ral necessarily must be, in a country like this, with the dis¬
charge of their strictly official duties, it were idle to expect
from them a more vigilant superintendence of the public
press than the suppression, by ex-officio informations, of pub¬
lications directly attacking the constitution and religion
of the country. Even these have of late years increased
with almost unprecedented rapidity, and have become,
amongst booksellers and news-venders of no character, or of
a notoriously bad one, a regular means of livelihood, and a
distinct branch of trade. In the meanwhile, however, a more
general spirit of licentiousness, immorality, and irreligion,
has pervaded our literature ; and books of travels, plays,
poems, and memoirs, have alike afforded dangerous, because
unsuspected channels for its diffusion. To detect and to
expose these, is the unwelcome and the invidious task of the
reviewer, who considers the direction of the public taste but
a subordinate duty to the guardianship of the public morals ;
and from that duty, whatever our contemporaries have done,
we have never shrunk. Ours is not, however, the power to
punish, except by bringing public execration upon heads too
bronzed with impudence, hearts too depraved by vice to
feel, or care for censure that touches not the person or the
purse. Hardened in iniquity, proud of their infidelity,
glorying in their shame, the Byrons, the Shelleys, the Mor¬
gans—to say nothing of the Hones, the Carliles, the Cob-
betts, the Woolers, and the Benbows, of our day—are, we
must be free to admit, beyond the reach of our censorship or
control; and to the strong arm of the law, we should therefore
in a very few words commend many of their productions, had
we not respect to those whom they were meant, and are but
too well adapted, to contaminate. For their sakes we wade
through pages and volumes of obscenity and pollution,
revolting alike to our principles as Christians, and our feel¬
ings but as men. For the authors of those pages and
volumes we are labouring too, in directing to them and to
their productions the attention of those who have the power
318 Review.—Licentious Productions in high Life :
to punish, superadded to the will, which no courting of a po¬
pularity, as ephemeral as it is ill-founded, shall tempt us to
disavow. It is for bringing to punishment such open and de¬
termined violators of the moralities and decencies of life,—
wretches who would convert our schools into brothels, make
seducers of our sons, profligates of our daughters, debau¬
chees of all,—that societies may lawfully and advantageously
be formed. Their object is not one on which men are divided
in sentiment, according as their political opinions inay be
those of Whig or Tory, of men in or men out of power, or of
neither; but it should be a common cause with all who hold
that the basis of public prosperity is public virtue ; that for
a people to be happy, they must be moral and religious.
They become in fact companies for mutual insurance against
the entrance into the families of every subscriber, and of
those with whom, in the intercourse of life, they associate,
of principles destructive of their peace, and imbittering and
infusing their poison into every domestic enjoyment. On
principles of self-preservation, they are clearly justifiable :
and they may also be defended on the ground of public
economy, for the state is not so rich as to afford from its
treasures the sums necessary for prosecuting offenders
against public decency and morality, in those numerous
instances in which the great body of the people are but indi¬
rectly affected. These therefore may well be left in a great
measure to the zeal of individuals collecting themselves
into a body, for the detection and suppression of the gross
indecencies and immoralities, from which they themselves
might otherwise be sufferers in their families, and their
neighbourhoods, of which they will become more effectual
guardians than the most vigilant public officer could ever
be. Butwhere such societies proceed upon a broad, and even
approximate to a national scale, it is essential to their well¬
being, and their beneficial operation, that they should have a
strong hold upon the popular opinion, or at the least that
their proceedings be not repugnant to it; and this can never
be the case where they are not strictly impartial. The
poor and the obscure, to speak plainly, must not be prose¬
cuted, and the rich and the titled be suffered to go free. In
many, very many instances, we know that the Society for
the Suppression of Vice has proceeded successfully against
the keepers of E O tables in back lanes and alleys of the
metropolis, and of little goes at its adjacent fairs ; but has
it ever ventured to attack the gambling-houses in St. James’s-
street, where thousands and tens of thousands are won and
Lord Byron—Sir C. Ii. Williams—Percy B. Shelley. 319
lost in a night by swindlers (miscalling themselves gentle¬
men, and ready to cut your throat or blow out your brains
it you question their right to the title,) in regimentals, and
honourable and right honourable black-legs, part of the
hereditary nobility and legislature of the land, whose ways
and means depend on the cutting and shuffling of packed
cards, or the throw of loaded dice? Butchers, bakers,
green-grocers, and other shopkeepers, have been punished,
and properly punished we admit, by its instrumentality,
tor keeping open shop on a Sunday; but has it, we
must ask, kept as narrow a watch upon the proceedings of
the houses we have just alluded to on the Sabbath, or even
remonstrated against the routs, musical parties, conversa¬
ziones and other hubbubs, of the nobility and gentry upon
that day of sacred rest? They have again, in numerous
instances, brought to condign and well-merited punishment
itinerant ballad singers, pedlars, hawkers, printers and print-
sellers, scarcely a degree above them in property or respect¬
ability, for introducing, by means of songs, snuff-boxes, and
prints, the grossest obscenity into our schools, and, through
the medium of race-courses, fairs, and boxing matches
(nuisances enough in themselves, without these additional
provocatives to licentiousness,) amongst the great mass of
our population ; but why, in the name of justice, have pub¬
lications as vicious in their tendency been permitted to
pass unnoticed, because they have had a lord or a lordW
tor their author, and in the shape of asterisks and inuendos
have artfully insinuated the poison, which in the other case
was so plainly labelled, that no one could be injured by it
without having himself to blame for its effects?—To these
queries it will be difficult to return a satisfactorv answer.
We quarrel not with the proceedings of the Society as far as
the steps taken for furthering the very laudable object of its in-
stitution are concerned; those things, on the contrary, we say
that it should have done, but not have left the others undone
Lest, nowever, ignorance should be pleaded, (thoueh the
outrages upon decency and decorum to which we refer have
not been done in a corner, but are as notorious as that the
sun shines at noon-day,) we shall now leave the Society
tTlhl^nW^o iul^ ting Us at 1 tenti ° n for a while from
the little nooks of the Mews, to the more destructive, because
more palatable, moral poison, placed on the ample shelves —
exposed in the gothic-fronted windows for saleon massy
VOL. V. -No. 10. Y - J
320 Review.— Licentious Productions in high Life:
and well-furnished tables for perusal—by ladies and by
gentlemen frequenting the splendid saloons, and well car¬
peted reading rooms of Bond-street, Pall-Mall, and A
marie-street, within a stone’s throw even of the accustomed
haunts of their vigilant, active, and successful agents. From
the low and ragged miscreants, sinning but too often tor the
want of bread ; from little Waddington the bill-sticker ; the
whole generation of the Carliles; tinkers, tailors, appren¬
tices, errand-boys, and even men without a name ; retailing-
sedition in sixpenny pamphlets, and blasphemy by the pen¬
nyworth, we trust that the Society will not be displeased
that we point them to higher game—the once unique, but
now fashionable imprint of “ London, John Muiray, Alber-
marle-street“ Edward Jeffrey and Son, Pall-Mall; and
the hot-pressed and large-margined quartos, and neat dap¬
per-like duodecimos, which, in deference we presume to the
aristocratical prejudices of their noble author, cut a
avowed acquaintance with the bookseller and his shop, and
but to avoid the heavy penalties of a very wholesome, though
plebeian act of parliament, simply inform us upon their title-
pages, that they were “ Printed by Thomas Davison, White-
Friars.” The scoffings of Paine, the rantings of Wooler,
the brutal vulgarisms of Cobbett; Black Dwarfs, John Bulls,
Beacons, Sentinels; obscure, obscene, and anonymous libel¬
lers ; in short, of every thing that is great and good, of
whatever sort, size, or description they may be, ought in¬
deed, in common courtesy, to give place to attacks upon
religion and morality—to outrages of all decency and deco¬
rum_to provocatives to lasciviousness, ushered into the
world at least under the ostensible sanction of the honour-
ablesand right honourables of the land—peers of parliament,
hereditary guardians of the laws, religion, liberties, and
morals of the people ; such as are, the Earl of Essex, Lord
Byron, and Lord Holland.
The names of the first and the last of these three noblemen
are here introduced with the greatest regret and unfeigned
reluctance, (for hitherto we have had no reason to think
otherwise than highly of their characters, at least, in public
life,) and but in the impartial discharge of an unwelcome,
yet imperative dutynot as the authors of any objectionable
publications; but, if any faith is to be given to the declara¬
tions in the title-page and preface of the first article in this
review,—and fain would we persuade ourselves there cannot
be,— as the means of introducing to the public some of the
most licentious productions by which its taste and its decorum
Lord Byron—Sir C. II. Williams—Percy B. Shelley. 321
have been insulted and violated, since the profligate days of
the second Charles, and of the lascivious muse of the impious
and abandoned Earl of Rochester, a brand snatched, we
would fain hope, from the everlasting burning at the last
moment of the eleventh hour, though not until he had
scattered, far and wide, sparks of unhallowed and consuming
fire, whose mischievous effects, repentance, even more deep
and unequivocal than was his, never can efface.
In order to ascertain to whom the blame of a publication
to which we have in these strong terms given its true cha¬
racter, attaches, we request the attention of our readers to
the title-pages of the volumes, similar in all respects—save
the necessary change of the number, to that which we have
accurately transcribed at the head of this article, verbatim,
from the first. Those title-pages, necessarily and obviously
import, that the whole of the works of which the three
volumes consist, have been published from originals, in the
possession of the Earl of Essex, with notes by Horace Wal¬
pole, Earl of Orford. That they were so published by
Messrs. Edward Jeffrey and Son, of Pall Mall, after being
printed by Mr. T. C. Hansard, of Peterborough Court,
Fleet-street, is evident from those title-pages, and the im¬
print duly placed, according to the last new fashion—for
there is a fashion in printing title-pages, as in every thino-
^lse at the back of them. These tradesmen therefore, in
obedience, in the one instance to the law of the land, pro¬
tected from violation by very heavy penalties, and following
in the other an established practice of the trade, never
departed from, but for purposes too base to be acknow¬
ledged, have openly avowed themselves answerable for
whatever libellous, irreligious, obscene, or improper matter
that work may contain, by which they have made, or expect,
in the way of trade and business, to make, a gain. They
cannot plead ignorance of their contents; nor will they, we
should imagine, be much surprised if an ex officio information
of the Attorney General, or a prosecution at the instance of
the Society for the Suppression of Vice,—to either of which
salutary courses of legal discipline we indifferently com¬
mend them, and more especially the publishers,—should
effectually teach them to avoid for the future a mode of
adding to their ample fortunes so discreditable, in the last
degree, to men occupying in society the ostensibly respect¬
able station which they fill. We, however, must go forward
from the calculations, the liabilities, and the punishment of
322 Review.—Licentious Productions in high Life.
the tradesmen, to the conduct, and the moral, if not the legal
responsibility, of the noblemen whose names are ™ ha PP ^
associated with this disgraceful speculation. We ha
already mentioned two, but the second page of the booh
introduces us to a third, whose association with it, we even
more deeply regret, than that of the head of the house of
Capel to whose ancestors the cause of liberty owes much
or of the nephew of Charles James Fox, to whose individual
exertions combined with those of the present possessor of
the family title, it is perhaps mdebted morej—and as we
name Lord John Russell, not only the descendant but the
biographer of the most cherished martyr at her shrine, we
Re assured that our readers will participate in our concern
As his name does not, however, occur but in a dedication of
the work to him by the elder of the publishers, Edwaid
Jeffrey “in grateful remembrance of numerous tavouis
received from his noble family/’ we shall reserve our ob¬
servations upon his lordship, until we have g lve n J u
upon the weightier charges to which h.s two noble fnends
h Tp^: d from m theEditor (and on who and what he may
be, a word or two by and bye,) introduces the volumes as
the production of a man so well known, as to render • a pre¬
face; in the usual style of prefaces,” not only ‘ unnecessary
but “ even impertinent.” Eulogiums upon “the simplicity of
his character, and the character of his writings, the spai k
ling sources of his own lively mind,” the “ lively acuteness
of his talents, the elegancy of his manners, and an incessant
gaiety of heart,” most advantageously exhibited in a social
privacy into which only wit and good humour were admitted,
introduce or intersperse a short memoir of an author, to whom,
on the shewing of his enraptured Editor, no faults were im¬
putable but a few “ flights of poetical intemperance—which
flowed from his pen, in a stream apparently of careless
gaiety,” not only “ to the censure of public men and mea¬
sures, but frequently to attack with equal seventy the
faults and foibles of domestic conduct. There is indeed,
an account of his having been “ entrapped at Hamburgh
by a wretched female, who prevailed upon him to give her
a security for two thousand pounds and a promise of mar¬
riage, his lady being still living; but as we are assured that
he'was then “ clearly in a state of insanity, we shall make
no comment on the transaction, but that we hope he was so ;
and should have been happy to have been furnished with
Lord Byron—Sir C. H. Williams—Percy B. Shelley. 323
the same excuse for some of the productions of his muse
madp h h° Se a ,| reeable a " d hai ’mless character his editor has
made himself responsible.
that responsibility others must full deeply share, if
li h odWe be any h * he followin g very clear and intel-
Editor's preface”. commen “ m »t and close of that
Something is due to the memory of this accomplished person
and much indeed from the Editor of the following P sheets, to the’
tl^m e w pers * 0 i? s th u? agh whose g ener osity he is enabled to lay
lem before the public. It is in this place only, that those duties
can be properly discharged.” [Vol. I. vi.] ^ 16S
marr!aijs t ”T? to *' 7v ° f ‘ he ” obI 1 heir ° f the f<™er of these
, (*• that of Francis, the elder of the two co-heiresscs
°Jf. lr ^ hade ® t0 William Anne Holies Capel, fourth Earl of Essex
of h.s family) “the present Earl of Essex, and of the Rio-ht Hon
Henry Vassall, Lord Holland, that the Editor is now tabled to
pZ«s e o e fSrCharfrsV he u PUb w^l A ?rea ‘ mass of lhe original
papers ot Sir Charles Hanbury Williams fell, by inheritance into
the possession of the noble Earl, who, with that liberality which at¬
tends on every act of his life, has permitted the Editor to select
i om them the poetical pieces which appear in these Volumes From
llndZlTl ! tera ? re l 1C t S - remainin £ m the hands of Lord Hol-
J l l ne f j en . ds i» ip and confidence which subsisted be¬
tween Sn Charles and the Right Hon. Henry Fox, his Lordship has
been pleased to allow him to enrich his book with the curious
historical epistles on the state of Poland, and many other original
letters; and to add also a multiplicity of Notes, from the pen Sail
o ers the raost capable of illustrating the localities of Sir Charles
Hanbury Williams—the pen of Horace Walpole. To those noble
persons the Editor presumes thus to offer his most humble and
grateful acknowledgments for this addition to the innumerable
fo^ouThi m^tlb/S their L ° rdships have beea P»e«e d
What estimation their Lordships ought to put upon this
grateful acknowledgment, they will perhaps bebette? able to
determine—our readers at the least may pretty accurately
determine for them, when we have adjusted their respective
shares m a co-partnership, which, whatever may have been
the light in which they originally viewed it, they would
now, we doubt, not give any thing to dissolve *
tbiV nd S'? ^ m y i L ° rd ° f Essex ‘ Either th e Editor of
this work has told the grossest falsehoods of his Lordship
for which it were scarcely possible to make reparation, or
he is answeiable to the public for whatever indelicacy, im-
324 Revieto.—Licentious Productions in high Life:
piety, licentiousness, or pollution, any and every line of its
poetry contains. “ The poetical pieces which appear in
these volumes,” are the plain, clear, intelligible words of the
preface;—and if that preface lies, we must leave his Lord-
ship to settle with its author for its exaggerations and inac¬
curacies, simply adding, that for his own sake, the sake of
his family, and of the peerage to which we have been
accustomed to consider him an ornament, the larger the
deduction that can be made, the better shall we be pleased,
though at present we are not warranted in admitting any.
From a book, bearing on the title-page the imprimatur- of his
Lordship—a nobleman of high rank—of established public
character—the most honourable connections—himself a
married man, though not the father of a family—who could
have expected any thing but what the correctest taste, the
most scrupulous modesty—delicacy as refined as it can be
in a female breast, where neither prudery, affectation, nor
fastidiousness have found an entrance to deform its native
loveliness—might with the most unhesitating confidence
have perused ? Any thing of a contrary nature would
hardly indeed have been expected, in the miscellaneous
works of a courtier of the reign of George the Second, the
representative of that sovereign at some of the principal
courts of Europe, and the intimate friend of the greatest
statesmen of his day. Elegantly printed, therefore, as they
are for cabinet volumes; adorned w ith portraits of grave
politicians; and illustrated by the notes of a nobleman cele¬
brated for his knowledge, or pretended knowledge, of the
intrigues of factions, and for recording the party tittle-tattle
of his day, they would naturally find their way to the toilettes
and boudoirs of ladies—or be carelessly thrown upon the
table of the breakfast or the drawing-room, as an entertain¬
ing collection of those vers de societe, with which the
fashionable lounger, or the languid beauty, might, without
danger or fatigue, kill time, or dissipate ennui. Books like
these are not likely to be perused regularly;—it may there¬
fore happen, that a modest and innocent, though perhaps a
lively and a fashionable girl, might unsuspectingly open
at once upon a production, the gross vulgarity of whose
licentiousness and obscenity would disgust even the cour¬
tezan, whom vice had not yet sunk so low as to efface
every vestige of delicacy so natural an element of the cha¬
racter of her sex. But that w r e may do no injustice to the
work, or, as its author has long since appeared at another
apd more solemn bar than ours, to its Editor and his noble
Lord Byron—Sir C. H. Williams—Percy B. Shelley. 325
colleagues, we will follow the direction of the old proverb
commencez par le commencement.” The poems then, con¬
sist of a collection of satirical effusions, levelled against the
opponents of the Walpole administration, and especially
against Pulteney, Earl of Bath, their noble and successful
leader. 1 hese things, however unexceptionably they might
have been executed in point of morality and decency, would
not, we confess, have been to our taste, as we cannot dis¬
cover the a.dvantage or propriety of raking up from oblivion
the invectives and the scurrility poured forth as election
?2i U1 C \° r A “ t J le heats ? f P art y> a S ainst such men as the
celebrated statesman whom we have just named, the Duke
° r fi the lllu , St "° US Chatham - They had their day,
and like the fire-work, from which they take their very ap¬
propriate name, should be suffered to expire with the harm¬
less pop that exploded them. *< A Grub upon Bub,’’ in
which we are told ^ '
the king would not dub
u So low-born a scrub,
is not a character of Lord Melcombe, by which—busy
meddling coxcomb as he was, with more in him of the
sycophant than the statesman—posterity can be informed
or edified; yet these lampoons are full of such low, general
and unmeaning abuse of greater and much better men. Nor
is that abuse confined to them; but for no other reason than
because they were the sisters, daughters, relations, or friends
of the political opponents of Sir Robert Walpole, ladies of
high rank wives, mothers of families, and even unmarried
women just entering into life, are represented, often in the
plainest, most vulgar, and disgusting terms, as demireps or
wantons, where, in many cases there was not, we will under-
take to say, any foundation for the charge, and if there was
the cool-blooded satirist, who for such a purpose could
make it public, deserved to have his head broken, or at least
to receive a good horse-whipping for his pains. What they
deserve who without even the poor excuse of political hos¬
tility, collision of interest, or personal antipathy,—fifty vear*
after these ladies have ceased to be,—can P for mere purposes
ot gam, rake up every idle or scandalous story of their lives
that can “ draw their frailties from their dread abode ” we
leave to the sons and grandsons of the peeresses and persons
of rank, thus wantonly ridiculed or traduced, to determine.
Ihe law of England has wisely provided a remedy for slan¬
derers ol the deceased, seldom indeed resorted to, yet not
326 Revieiv.—Licentious Productions in high Life:
so seldom as to have become a dead letter in the proceed¬
ings of our courts.
We pass on, however, to weightier matters ; for these taken
by themselves would not have procured for the work before
us a place in our Index expurgatorius, in which, from the
necessary selectness of our plan, none but flagrant offenders
can be held up to the contempt and execration they deserve.
These it is impossible to pour out too copiously upon the
volumes now under consideration, for in the second will be
found, under the harmless title of “AnOde to Lord Lincoln,”
a piece of as low disgusting obscenity as was ever framed—
more so than has been printed and sold in the face of day,
in a country priding itself, as does England, upon the mo¬
rality of its laws, and the decorum of its manners, for a
century at least. The man who wrote it, though a branch
of an ancient and respectable family—though decorated
with the star and ribbon of an honourable order of knight¬
hood—though he was one of the counsellors of his sovereign,
and his representative in imperial courts,—though he might
be an eminent statesman, an acute diplomatist, be admired
for his wit, and held up as a model for his courtesy,—could
not, in the only legitimate meaning of that misapplied term,
be a gentleman:—whilst they who have deliberately and ad¬
visedly given to it renewed publicity, if publicity it ever
had before, in a shape well calculated to procure its intro¬
duction into family circles, and its perusal by modest and
unsuspecting females,—whatever may be their rank or pub¬
lic character,—after they had been pelted for an hour or two
in the pillory, or undergone a severe flagellation at the cart’s
tail, would yet have a part of their merited punishment in
reserve. These terms are strong, we are aware, but they
are just and richly merited; nor should we be disposed to
soften them down very much, were we to characterize “Tar-
water, a ballad : ascribed to the Right Honourable Philip
Earl of Chesterfield a w'orthy patron of so gross a produc¬
tion ; some passages in “ Short Verses in imitation of long
verses: in an Epistle to William Pitt, Esq.” a man libellously
connected with such ribaldry ; and an Epigram on Lord An¬
son and his Lady. The whole of the volumes are also plen¬
tifully interlarded with such profane imitations of, or allusi¬
ons to, the scriptures, as
“ Poole, as you know, my washpot is,
“ O’er Wells I cast my shoe.” [Vol. ii. p. 21.]
Nor is it possible to turnover a dozen pages withoutmeetmg
Lord Byron—Sir C. H. Williams—Percy B. Shelley. 327
with oaths, blasphemous ejaculations, indecent and indeli¬
cate expressions, so coarse, impious, and disgusting, as not
only long since to have been banished from the conversation
of gentlemen, and still more habitually kept from shocking
female eyes and ears, but, even in the lower walks of life, to
have been confined to Billingsgate, Wapping, and the pur¬
lieus of St. Giles’s, ashamed as any decentish company of
draymen or chimney-sweepers would now be of using tnem
over their gin or their porter pots. Yet for all that, as far as
the poetical part of the volumes is concerned, and this is
the principal one, the title-pages of Edward Jeffrey and Son
make the Earl of Essex responsible at the bar of the public.
We, however, cannot,—will not, believe so gross an imputa¬
tion upon the character of an English nobleman; but merely
point his lordship’s attention to the pieces we have selected,
that he may boldly, directly, and unequivocally, contradict
the libellous assertion—that he communicated them to the
bookseller, in order to their being published. We would
fain persuade ourselves, indeed, that the Editor has raked
these pieces up from some obsolete private-press or manu¬
script collection of pudicit'ue, and engrafted them on a com¬
plete collection of the works of their licentious author, to
which his noble grandson has only contributed, from the
family papers, those pieces which are unobjectionable; (of
which there certainly are several,) or objectionable, on prin¬
ciples of strict morality, in a comparatively trifling mea¬
sure ; and of such there are many more. This surely must
have been the case ; and if it be, what language of vitupera¬
tion can be too strong for the conduct, which has given to the
whole the sanction of his lordship’s name?—what measures
too prompt, or decisive, can that injured nobleman adopt,
to counteract the mischief which he has been villanously
made the unconscious instrument of effecting? He owes it
to himself, he owes it to his family, his rank, his friends,
and to his country, distinctly and immediately to state
what share in this transaction a misplaced confidence has
induced him to take. He may,—if he had any thing to do
with the objectionable parts of the work,—we hope he has,
incautiously entrusted to the publisher manuscripts of his
ancestor, of the contents of which he was not fully aware;
but now, that he must be so to his confusion, he is bound to
insist on their suppression, and this we trust he will do
without delay, though many copies we fear have passed be¬
yond his power of recalling them.
Turn we now to the Right Honourable Richard Vassal
Fox, Lord Holland, happily for himself, less prominently
connected with this work, by having the grateful acknow¬
ledgments of its Editor confined to the preface, instead of
being emblazoned on its title-page. On the shewing of Mr.
Jeffreys, or his Editor, if they be not one and the same per¬
son, his lordship stands accountable to the public for the notes
of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, with which this edition
of the works of his father’s active partisan is embellished.
How they came into his possession, we know not, but
it is evident that they must have been annexed to a pretty
complete collection of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams’s poeti¬
cal productions, as there is scarce one which has not the
benefit, if benefit it can be called, of the tittle-tattle illumi¬
nations of this political Lord Fanny and old-womanish lite¬
rary gossip. Unhappily too for Lord Holland, these notes
are appended to the very worst and most disgraceful pieces
in the volumes ; for though the ode upon Tar-water is free
from them, and does not need them, that still more vulgar
and licentious one, addressed to the Earl of Lincoln, lest it
should lose any part of its effect, has a short but sufficiently
piquant commentary, by Lord Orford, blackening the repu¬
tation of a lady of high rank, and distinguished talents, not
even distantly alluded to in the text. The other pieces
referred to have received the finishing stroke of his lord¬
ship’s pen, in the shape of notes, full of personalities and
scandal, whilst some very indecent and vulgar addresses to
Mrs. Woffington, with whom Sir Charles, though a married
man, carried on an intrigue, little to the credit of either
party, have, to use the phrase of the Editor of this precious
compilation, “ their localities illustrated” by the same right
honourable tattler. For Lord Holland’s sake,—for as to the
character or memory of Lord Orford, of Strawberry-hill
notoriety, we care not a straw, as nothing could give us a
more contemptible opinion of him than we have long enter¬
tained,—we rejoice that this is not the case with some blas¬
phemous poetical parodies on the scriptures and the liturgy,
inserted in the third volume, and which, if we mistake not,
were of the number of those but too successfully quoted by
Hone, when (through the gross and culpable neglect of the
then law-officers of the crown, in mis-stating, on the face of
the indictment, the obvious tendency and intent of his
libels,) he was acquitted by the verdict of three juries, for
doing that which had often been done with impunity by
party writers of higher rank and name. Seldom, if ever, did
we witness such an awful and disgusting instance of profane
Lord Byron—Sir C. H. Williams—Percy B. Shelley. 329
wit, or rather attempted wit, as is to be found in the parody
here referred to, on the Te Deum Laudamus , especially in
the last verse, moulded on the Gloria Patri, in which it is
difficult to say whether impiety or obscenity preponderates.
For this honour, we observe again, that neither Lord Essex
nor Lord Holland are accountable, and we rejoice that they
are not. Happy w r ould it be for the latter noble lord, were
he equally free from blame on account of those wanton and
unfeeling attacks upon the reputation of the dead, and upon
female reputation especially, to which w T e have already
alluded, constituting, as they do, the greater part of Lord
Orford’s annotations, and certainly giving them whatever of
mischievous interest they possess. We have there, very
plainly, intelligibly, and often not very decently described,
for the edification, we presume, of the rising generation,
especially of daughters, the intrigues of the gay and fashion¬
able world fifty or a hundred years ago, from those of the
mistresses of monarchs and princes, the seraglio of a right
reverend archbishop, and the infidelities of peeresses, to
the amours of actresses, and even courtesans by profession—
and all this upon the mere ipse dixit of a wholesale dealer in
scandal, convicted as a liar, in retailing every slander he
could heap together of his cotemporaries, his neighbours,
and his friends, with a delight in mischief more charac-
terestic of a jackal or a monkey than a man. Yet for all
this Lord Holland is answ r erable, or the grateful Editor of
these works of the chosen friend of his grandfather lies, (we
neither feel a disposition nor see an occasion to be nice upon
the matter,) as his incomparable illustrator of localities has
often done before him, and continues to do in his writings,
long after his pen and tongue have been silenced in the
grave. Lord Holland is, however, a man of sense, and we
may safely leave it to himself to determine, whether this
accountability does not assume a still deeper dye, as the
man who furnishes notes for the illustration of impious, ob¬
scene, and otherwise objectionable productions, knowing
they were to be published, (though with respect to the pieces
we have referred to, we cannot believe that his lordship did
know it, and hope ere long to be assured that he did not,)
is responsible for all the mischief done by those productions
themselves, as fully as if with the notes he had furnished the
text also. To the “Curious Historical Epistles on the State
of Poland,” avowedly contributed by his Lordship, we have
nothing to object, but that they are more curious than use¬
ful. This, how ever, is a matter of taste, and not of morals,
330 Review.—Licentious Productions in high Life:
but some of the other epistles in the volumes involve both
questions, as is especially the case with a letter from Dres¬
den to a private friend, “ less enlivened by anecdote/’ says
his editor, “ as well as less disfigured by indecencies, than
many of his compositions from Germany.” If this charac¬
ter of it be true, we rejoice that none of those compositions
have met our eye, and we hope they never will, this speci¬
men being more than enough for any one, who thinks that
tales of incest, and reports of ribaldry from female lips, are
quite scandalous and indelicate enough. Whether his friend
was the first Fox, Lord Ilchester, we know not, but should
be happy to find our suspicions, that it was without foun¬
dation, and still more gratified to learn, that this was not one
of the letters furnished by its head, from the papers of that
noble house. Without such an addition to the front of his
offending. Lord Holland will, we are satisfied, perceive that
he has quite enough to answer for, and we flatter ourselves
that he will lose no time in taking the measures we have
already recommended to his friend Lord Essex, for doing
what little can be done in reparation of their wrong.
To the third man of noble blood connected with this
transaction, we revert, with deep regret that the name
of Russel, the noblest of the whole, should have been in any
measure connected with such polluted things—though we
rejoice to say, that his connection with them appears to have
been involuntary, and therefore can attach no blame to him,
if he takes prompt and effectual measures to rid himself of
the association, which either warranted or emboldened the
inferior party in it, to dedicate to his Lordship “in grateful
remembrance of numerous favours received from his noble
family, these highly objectionable productions. We have
aut lonty however to state, that Lord John Russel never saw
these works, or knew of their being dedicated to him, until
after they appeared in print; and that the moment some of
the public papers pointed out their immoral tendency
he desired Mr. Edward Jeffrey, whose name is openly and
unblushingly subscribed to the dedication, to cancel it in
every copy remaining in his hands, though we fear that this
direction has not been complied with. A communication
somewhat to this purpose was, we believe, also made by the
secretary to his noble father, to the Editor of that loyally
libellous paper, John Bull, the first to point out the scurrility
and obscenity of these volumes, for no other reason, we are
persuaded, than because they emanated from Whigs: but, as
might be expected from such a quarter, it was treated with
Lord Byron—Sir C. H. Williams—Percy B. Shelley. 331
ridicule and contempt. Now, far be it from us, either to
wish Lord John Russel to disgrace himself, by becoming,
even in the way of refutation of the grossest calumnies, a
correspondent of that most profligate of the public journals,
or to diminish the respect in which Mr. Wiffen (the gentle¬
man alluded to, and in whose case a long and intimate know¬
ledge of his private worth, enhances our esteem for his
talents,) should deservedly be held—but we cannot help
hinting, that other papers are open to his Lordship, and that
in their pages there ought immediately to appear a distinct
and unequivocal denial of any knowledge, on his part, of this
transaction, and as decided a reprobation of the unwarrant¬
able liberty taken with his name, and of the work to which
it has surreptitiously been prefixed—and this should be
signed, not by his father’s secretary, but by himself. How
far his Lordship or his noble family may think proper here¬
after to bestow their favours upon a licentious bookseller,who
has so shamefully abused them, it is not, of course, our pro¬
vince to determine ; but, in such a case, we should not hesi¬
tate a moment in our course. On this point, we would
recommend to his Lordship s imitation the spirited and
dignified conduct of the late Lord Cornwallis, who, on find-
ins: that the lying and sycophantic History of the Irish
Rebellion, written by Sir Christopher Musgrave, and dedi¬
cated by permission to his Excellency, was any thing but
what it professed to be,—a true and impartial account of the
transactions it recorded,—peremptorily insisted on the dedi¬
cation leaves in every copy bein [Constitution of Maryland.
“ in all criminal prosecutions, every man bath aright to be inform¬
ed of the accusation against him, and to confront the accusers and
witnesses with other testimony, and shall not be compelled to give
evidence against himself. .
“ No freeman shall be put to answer any criminal charge, but by
indictment, presentment, or impeachment.
“ That no freeman shall be convicted of any crime, but by the
unanimous verdict of a jury of good and lawful men, in open court,
as heretofore used. % .
“ Excessive bail should not be required, nor excessive fines im¬
posed, nor cruel or unusual punishment inflicted.”
[Constitution of North-Carohna.
u Within five years after the adoption of this constitution, the body
of our laws, civil and criminal, shall be revised, digested, and ar¬
ranged under proper heads, and promulgated in such manner as
the legislature may direct; and no person shall be debarred from
advocating or defending his cause before any court or tribunal,
eithe r by himself or counsellor, or both.”
[i Constitution of Georgia.
“ In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall have a right to be
heard, by himself or counsel; of demanding the nature and cause of
the accusation against him ; of meeting the witnesses face to face;
of having compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favour;
and in prosecution by indictment or information, a speedy public
trial by an impartial jury of the vicinage ; nor shall he be compelled
to give evidence against himself. .
“ All prisoners shall be bailable by sufficient securities, unless for
capital offences, where the proof is evident or presumption great;
and the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended,
unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may
require it. [ Constitution of Louisiana.
« in all criminal prosecutions, the accused hath a right to be heard
bv himself and counsel; to demand the nature and cause of the accu¬
sation against him ; to meet the witnesses face to face; to have
compulsory process for obtaining witnesses m his favour; and in
prosecutions by indictment or information, a speedy public trial by
an impartial jury of the vicinage; that he cannot be compelled to
give evidence against himself, nor can he be deprived of his life,
390
American Literature and Intelligence.
dency, defects and reform of the Penitentiary System in this coun¬
try, a brief sketch of its rise and progress may not be unproductive
of benefit.
“ To William Penn, a name venerable and distinguished in the
history of the New World, and one which will ever be associated
with the recollection of ardent and successful efforts to improve
liberty, or property, unless by the judgment of his peers, or the law
of the land.
“ No person shall, for any indictable offence, be proceeded against
criminally by information, except in cases arising in the land or naval
forces, or the militia when in actual service, in time of war or public
danger, by leave of the court, for oppression or misdemeanour in office.
No person shall, for the same offence, be twice put in jeopardy of his
life or limbs, nor shall any man’s property be taken or applied to
public use without the consent of his representatives, and without
just compensation being previously made to him."
[Constitution of Kentucky.
“ No person arrested or confined in gaol shall be treated with un¬
necessary rigour, or be put to answer any criminal charge, but by
presentment, indictment, or impeachment.
“ In all criminal prosecutions, the accused hath a right to be heard
by himself and counsel, to demand the nature and cause of the accu¬
sation against him, and to have a copy thereof; to meet the witnesses
face to face; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in
his favour; and in prosecutions by indictment or presentment, a
speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the county or district in
which the oflence shall have been committed, and shall not be com¬
pelled to give evidence against himself—nor shall he be twice put in
jeopardy for the same offence." [Constitution of Ohio.
“ No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseized of his
freehold, liberties, or privileges, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any
manner destroyed, or deprived of his life, liberty, or property, but by
the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land.
“ In all criminal prosecutions, the accused hath a right to be heard
by himself and. his counsel, to demand the nature and cause of the
accusation against him, and to have a copy thereof; to meet the wit¬
nesses face to face; to have compulsory process for obtaining wit¬
nesses in his favour .; and, in prosecutions by indictment or present¬
ment., a speedy public trial, by an impartial jury of the county or dis¬
trict in which the crime shall have been committed ; and shall not be
compelled to give evidence against himself.
“ No person shall, for the same ollence, be twice put in jeopardy
of his life or limbs. [Constitution of Tennessee.
“ I Q all criminal prosecutions, the accused hath a right to be heard
by liimselt and counsel; to demand the nature and cause of the accu¬
sation; to be confronted by the witnesses against him to have com¬
pulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favour, and, in all
prosecutions by indictment or information, a speedy public trial, by
an impartial jury of the county ; that he cannot be compelled to give
evidence against himself, nor can he be deprived of his life, liberty,
or property, but by due course of law ”
[Constitution of Mississippi •
American Literature and Intelligence. 391
the condition of mankind, may be traced the first steps towards
that reformation in penal jurisprudence to which we have alluded.
The British government appears to have been anxious to extend
her penal laws, or at least the spirit of them, to her North-American
Colonies. In the Royal Charter, granted to the founder of Penn¬
sylvania, by Charles II. it is directed that the laws of the colony,
in relation to felonies, should bear a similitude to those of the
mother country; and even the future Provincial Legislatures were
constrained to conform to the British system in their future enact¬
ments. But William Penn was a man of firm purpose, of strong
mental powers, and of an original cast of mind. He thought with
freedom on every subject, and his acts comported with his con¬
clusions. He set at defiance the arbitrary injunctions in the Royal
Charter relating to the punishment of crimes. First he abolished
forfeitures in cases of suicide, and the deodands which followed
the perpetration of murder. He then formed an independent
Criminal Code, in which capital punishment for robbery, burglary,
arson, rape, forgery, and levying war against the governor, was
abolished, and alone retained in cases of homicide. Imprisonment,
with hard labour, and in some instances the infliction of corporeal
punishment, were substituted. In trials for murder, where the
jury returned a verdict of guilty, the record of conviction was sent
up to the Executive for supervision. This Code, worthy of one of
the greatest legislators of theNew World or the Old, was transmitted
to England, and rejected by Queen Anne and her council. But the
Colonial government, conducted with a noble resolution, still
retained it in defiance of royal displeasure, until 1718, with the
most salutary effects. . Under the reign of George I. after much
trouble and confusion in the colony, the mild system of William
Penn was surrendered, under many aggravating circumstances, in
which the hand of oppression is too visibly seen. A new Criminal
Code was given to Pennsylvania, which, with subsequent additions,
“ In all criminal prosecutions, tlae accused hath a right to be heard
by himself and counsel; to demand the nature and cause of the accu¬
sation against him, and to have a copy thereof; to meet the witnesses
face to face ; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in
his favour; and, in prosecutions by indictment or presentment, a
speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the county or district in
which the offence shall have been committed, and shall not be com¬
pelled to give evidence against himself, nor shall be twice put in
jeopardy for the same offence.” [Constitution of Indiana.
“ In all criminal prosecutions, the accused hath a right to be heard
by himself and counsel; to demand the nature and cause of the accu¬
sation against him ; to meet the witnesses face to face; to have com¬
pulsory process to compel the attendance of witnesses in his favour ;
and, in prosecutions by indictment or information, a speedy public
trial by an impartial jury of the vicinage; and that he shall not be
compelled to give evidence against himself.”
[Constitut ion of Illinoit.
392 American Literature and Intelligence.
rendered sixteen species of crime punishable with death; also ex¬
tending capital punishment to all cases of felony on second convic¬
tion, excepting larceny. No further change ensued, until the
Revolution. That august event burst the fetters of colonial law.
In the constitution of Pennsylvania, framed in 1776, the Legisla¬
ture is ordered “ to reform the penal laws—to make punishments
less sanguinary, and, in some cases, more proportionate to the
offence.” In 1786, a new Criminal Code was created, and capital
punishment was retained in four of the highest felonies—treason,
murder, rape, and arson. But what derogated altogether from its
merits, was the infliction of severe corporeal punishment, by whip¬
ping in public, and by compulsion to hard labour with the head
shaved, and with other external indignities. The tendency of this
system was obvious. It roused the strongest feeling of public
aversion, and elicited the censures of such men as Benjamin
Franklin, Benjamin Rush, and William Bradford. These per¬
sonages will be ranked, to the close of time, among the ornaments
of our species, and among the benefactors of our race. Caleb
Lowndes, of the society of Friends, whose biography is the history
of benevolence, displayed in its most simple and effective chai'acter,
aided with unreserved ardour in the attempts at reformation. In
1790, a change took place in the penal laws of that state. The
State Prison at Philadelphia was erected. Here commenced the
Penitentiary System in the United States, which has now been in
existence about thirty years. As we shall mention the peculiar
construction of the Penitentiaries in this country, in their proper
order and in a succinct manner, nothing need be said here in rela¬
tion to the internal arrangement and police of the one now men¬
tioned. We are now shewing the rise, and not the defects of the
system.
“ In 1794, the example of Philadelphia awakened the philanthropy
of several citizens of the city and state of New-York. Previous to
this period, no views on the subject of the Penitentiary System
were entertained in this section of the Union. During the year
here mentioned, General Schuyler and Thomas Eddy, without any
other business, visited the Philadelphia prison, for the purpose of
forming a more accurate knowledge of its tendency, its structure,
and its internal arrangements. The view made a favourable im¬
pression on their minds; and on their return to New-York, General
Schuyler, who was one of the most liberal-minded, enterprising,
and illustrious founders of this Commonwealth, and who -was then
in the senate of this state, immediately drafted a law for the erec¬
tion of a Penitentiary in the city of New-York. This bill ‘ for
making alterations in the criminal law of this state, and the erect¬
ing of State Prisons,’ was brought forward, and ably and success¬
fully sustained by Ambrose Spencer, the present Chief Justice of
the state of New-York, and finally became a law on the 26th of
March, 1796. By this law, two State Prisons were directed to be
393
American Literature and Intelligence.
established—one at New-York, and one at Albany. The idea of
a Penitentiary at Albany, was afterwards abandoned, and the
whole appropriation expended in New-York under a commission.
With the passage of the law here alluded to, an important amelio¬
ration took place in our criminal code. Previous to the year 1796,
there were no less than sixteen species of crime, punishable with
death, in this state. Corporeal punishment was resorted to, and in
many cases, where felonies were not capital, they became so, on
their second commission. By the law of 1796, providing for the
erection of the New-York Penitentiary, capital punishments were
abolished in fourteen cases, for imprisonment during life, or for a
shorter period, and only retained for treason and homicide. This
reform has since been advanced still further; but some laudable
attempts have failed of success. In 1804, eight years after the
erection of the New-York Penitentiary, Thomas Eddy framed a
law ‘ for erecting a Prison for solitary confinement in the city of
New-York.’ This was to contain sixty cells of the dimensions of
7 feet by 8, where all convicts for petit larceny, and other minor
offences, were to be confined for a short period in solitude, without
labour, and on a low diet. Had this plan succeeded, it was con¬
templated to divide the state into districts, and to erect a similar
prison in each section. By an alteration in the above bill, the
erection of the prison w r as left to the discretion of the Corporation
of the city of New-York; who approved of the system, but never
executed the law. Good effects were however produced by its
passage. A copy of it was transmitted to Mr. Colquhoun, the
author of the Police of London, the Police of the River Thames,
and other celebrated works, accompanied by a letter to the same
distinguished person, from Thomas Eddy. These were handed to
Lord Sidmouth, then Secretary of the Home Department, who
decidedly approved of the principles which it adopted; and in a few
years afterwards, prisons were constructed in England upontheplan
which it embraced. On this subject more will be said in the sequel.
The State Prison in Richmond in the Commonwealth of Virginia,
was erected in the year 1800. Convicts for homicide in the second
degree, manslaughter, rape, grand and petit larceny, burglary,
robbery, forgery, and other inferior crimes, are doomed to this
Penitentiary. The State Prison in Charlestown, in the Common¬
wealth of Massachusetts, was erected in 1804 with a correspondent
change in the penal code of the state. The State Prison at Balti¬
more, in the State of Maryland, was erected in 1811. The State
Prison at Windsor in the State of Vermont, was erected in the year
1808. The State Prison at Concord, in the State of New-Hamp-
shire, was finished about 1812, and the one at Cincinnati, in the
State of Ohio, was established in 1816. There are also Peniten¬
tiaries in New-Jersey, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The Peniten¬
tiary in the State of Connecticut, differs from all others m the
United States, and was not entirely the effect of the system com-
394 American Literature and Intelligence.
menced in Pennsylvania. We have not, therefore regarded its
priority in point of age. About a century ago, a company of Ger¬
man miners opened what was called the Copper, or Simsbury mines.
The excavation created by procuring the ore is about 70 feet in its
greatest depth, and about one hundred feet in length, varying
from ten to fifty feet in width, and from five to fourteen feet in
length. About the year 1778, the state made use of this cavern
as a prison for felons. In 1790, it was rendered a State Prison
for convicts, by the Legislature. The necessary walls, buildings,
and workshops, were erected during the same year. No female
prisoners are ever sent here, and a female convict is indeed a rare
spectacle in this state; they are sent to the country work-house, if
ever arraigned and convicted. Burglary, arson, horse-stealing,
rape, and forgery, are the crimes punished by sentence to this
place. Previous to the period when this prison was prepared,
these offences were punished by death, cropping the ears, branding
on the forehead, whipping in public, or the pillory. It may there¬
fore be said to have produced a change in the criminal code of
Connecticut, which has received the long and constant sanction of
public approbation up to this day.
“ These we believe include all the Penitentiaries that have been
erected in the United States, with the exception of one at Pitts¬
burgh in the State of Pennsylvania, and one at Auburn in the
State of New-York, which we shall notice in the sequel.
“We have now given a sketch of the rise and progress of the
Penitentiary System of the United States. It was first introduced,
and has since been cherished, for the important purpose of pre¬
venting crimes and offences, and for reforming convicts. The
grand question which now arises, is, Has the system answered the
expectations of its founders and advocates? To this inquiry but
one answer can be given : It has not. Two other inquiries, then,
naturally arise: First, Why has the Penitentiary System failed of
producing its expected ends? Secondly, Can it be so modi¬
fied and improved, as to produce the results expected by its
founders ?
“ We shall contend that the Penitentiary System is a practical
System, and that its present defects are separable from it, and can
be eradicated. We must still cherish the firm and unshaken con¬
viction, that it is not beyond the bounds of human effort to devise a
system of punishment, that will combine in its tendency, the pre¬
vention of crimes, and the reform of convicts. We do not believe
that civilization has yet effected all the moral changes and improve¬
ments, that can be wrought in the constitution of human society,
or that laws and government have been carried to the utmost limits
of perfection. Nor do we admit, that even in the Penitentiary
System, there has been that total failure which some have been
pleased to assert, although, from the perversion of its principles, it -
has disappointed the hopes of its early friends.
395
American Literature and Intelligence.
“ The divisions of this Report will naturally fall under the fol¬
lowing heads:
“ I. What are the defects of the Penitentiary System of the United
States, and why has it failed to answer the objects of its estab¬
lishment ?
“ II. In what manner can the defects be remedied, and how can
the System be rendered effectual ?
“ III. If the Penitentiary System is to be abandoned in the United
States, to what substitute shall we resort?
“ The Committee confidently hope that the investigation of these
problems will result in a firm conviction that it is our duty to
adhere to the Penitentiary System in the United States, and to
look to it, under new improvements, as a national blessing,
when compared with any other system of criminal law that can
succeed it.
“ I. The present defects of the Penitentiary System may be
included in this enumeration :
“ 1. Errors in the construction of our prisons.
“ 2. Want of classification among the convicts.
“3. Want of room.
“ 4. The too frequent intervention of pardons.
“ 5. Want of a school for juvenile offenders, and of a system of
moral and religious instruction.
“ 6. The too frequent change of Superintendants and Governors.
“ 7. Want of proper diet.
“ 8. Too much regard to revenue.
“ 1. The errors in the construction of our State Prisons, have
more than once been perceived and pointed out, by those who have
cherished a deep interest in the improvement and perfection of the
Penal Codes of this country. The place of confinement of the
Philadelphia Prison occupies a lot of 400 feet by 200 feet, on
which is erected a large stone building, 184 feet long on the north
side, two stories high, divided into rooms of equal dimensions of
20 by 18 feet. The New-York Prison is 204 feet long, a wing
projecting from each end, and from these wings two other smaller
wings. The whole fabric is of the Doric order, and contains
54 rooms, 12 feet by 18, for prisoners, sufficient for the accommo¬
dation of 8 persons each. The Massachusetts Penitentiary consists
of a principal building, 66 feet long and 28 feet wide, containing
five stories and two wings, each 67 feet long and 44 wide, making
in the whole a building of 200 feet. The rooms of the two upper
stories are 17 feet by 11, and the cells of the two lower stories are
11 feet by 8. The cells in the ground story are assigned to convicts
for solitary confinement, and for violating the internal police of the
prison. It is unnecessary to describe the internal and external
structure of all the Penitentiaries in the United States. The descrip¬
tion of the oldest already mentioned may be taken as data. The
396
American Literature and Intelligence.
Virginia, Maryland, New-Hampshire, Vermont, and Ohio Prisons,
do not so deviate from them in any particular, as to redeem the
system from the errors which have been enumerated, and which
we shall illustrate. The rooms are all too large, and none of the
prisons constructed on a plan to prevent the constant intercourse of
criminals, or to divide and keep them in distinct and proper
classes. Here is one of the fundamental errors, that has de¬
feated the grand object of the Penitentiary System in the United
States. This is the greatest of all the defects that time and expe¬
rience have revealed, in the lapse of thirty years. It accommodates
the internal police of our prisons to the ruling propensities of
human nature, and gives indulgence to the leading passions and
inclinations of man. It baffles the adoption of all other rules and
principles of discipline and organization ; and we might as well
attempt to raise a superstructure without a foundation, as to make
efforts for the perfection of a Criminal Code, while its first requisite
is wholly wanting.
“ The erroneous construction of our Penitentiaries, has not,
until recently, attracted that deep attention throughout the country,
which it deserves. For several years every thing relating to the
system was viewed as a matter of experiment, and so far as it was
adopted, it proved so much superior in its moral consequences, to
the old sanguinary codes of the colonies, that the gain was deemed
matter of congratulation, although the grand end was not attained.
Besides, the number of convicts was much smaller than it is at
present, the superintendants were frequently changed, the chain of
observation was broken; and if the sagacity of observation detected
defects, they were not so presented to the Legislatures of the
different sections of the Union, as to awaken their apprehensions.
Hence one state after another, each having distinct municipal laws,
and distinct constitutions of government, went on, imitating Penn¬
sylvania and New-York, in the erection of prisons, and adopted
the errors and vices of the system, without an anticipation of disas¬
trous consequences. The last prison on the old plan was erected
at Cincinnati, in the state of Ohio, in 1816.
“ God has planted in the bosom of man those passions and emo¬
tions that constrain him to assimilate his condition to that of his
species, and to cultivate those relations, that produce reciprocity of
feeling.* Abstractedly speaking, his nature is social; but when
* Two thousand years have not rveakened the force of the beautiful
idea expressed by Aristotle, when he said, that from the circum¬
stance of man’s being endowed with the pow'ers of speech, he could
prove his ruling propensity for social existence. Grotius has repeated
it in the following remarks: Homini vero perfect* aetatis, cum circa
similia similiter agere norit cum societatis appetitu excellente, cujus
peculiare solus inter animantes instrumentumhabet sermonem, inesse
etiam facultatem sciendi agendique, secundum generalia praecepta,
par est intelligi, cui quae conveniunt ea jam sunt non omnium quidem
animantium sed human* naturae congrueutia.
American Literature and Intelligence . 397
born and cherished in the bosom of civilization, and when his
faculties are called forth, and his leading propensities gratified, by
constant intercourse, and where the pleasures of society become
essential to his comfort and his happiness, the heaviest curse that
can fall upon him, is, complete and unceasing solitude. His for¬
titude may endure and triumph over the infliction of corporal
sufferings ; his want of shame may set at defiance the scorn of the
world, as he undergoes the ignominy of public disgrace ; his des¬
peration may enable him to look coldly and fearlessly on capital
punishment; but that condition that cuts him off from the world
and all its endearments and attractions; that judgment of law that
proves the grave of every social blessing and allurement, and leaves
the mind to prey upon itself, and mixes bitterness and reproach
with every remembrance ; that doom which places before the eye,
one long, dark, and unchanging scene of seclusion that can never
be broken by the human voice, lighted up by a smile of joy, nor
meliorated by a tear of sympathy, is more appalling, in the train of
reflection, than all the terrors of dissolution. If exile from our native
country, although it may place us in the midst of the most refined
and polished society in foreign countries, and carry with it, as it
frequently does, the consolation derived from noble struggles and
elevated devotion to a pure cause, frequently breaks the proudest
spirit and shakes the firmest resolution, and is viewed as an act of
outlawry from the enjoyments of our existence ; what must be that
exile from all human kind that is the result of vice, profligacy,
and crimes; that carries with it the torture of self-condemnation
and the reprehension of the world; that cannot be soothed by the
enthusiasm of principle, nor mitigated by the distant applause of
posterity ? The evening sun sets but to rise on the same dark
scene of mental suffering : the mind is driven to rely upon its own
resources: the pleasures of inventive genius are withdrawn, and
the poignancy of deep and settled repentance is uninterrupted.
This is not theory, that no practice has sanctioned. It is founded
on the deepest principles of our nature, all round the globe, where
civilization has cast the lines and boundaries of her empire. And
indeed it may perhaps be said with truth, that the social attractions
act stronger on depraved and desperate persons, than on those of
a correct and virtuous character. What pleasures can pertain to
persons destitute of all moral obligations, but the indulgence of
those passions that can alone be gratified by a communion with
others ? Who plunders the property of another, who seeks gain
by violating the penal laws, to enjoy the fruits of aggression in
solitude ? Mark the murderer, the pirate, the burglar, the thief,
and the swindler—whither do they repair with the acquisition of
their crimes ? They go to the bosom of that abandoned circle,
which is composed of wretches like themselves. They derive a
countenance and support from those, who, like themselves, have
ceased to regard moral ties, and who adhere to no common bond
398 American Literature and Intelligence.
but that which holds together a combination, erected against the
peace, the rights, and the security of the community. It is in the
refuge afforded by such associations, that reflection is precluded,
and conscience vanquished. It is in such asylums of infamy, that
the most depraved can find vindicators. In the ebullitions of a
convulsive joy at the success and triumphs of guilt, or in the cool
and deliberate councils for the prosecution of fresh depredations,
we may expect the annihilation of every wholesome and honourable
restraint, and the banishment of contrition and remorse. Let us,
for instance, take ten or twenty abandoned felons, and give
them their choice either to go into complete solitude, and be com¬
fortably clothed and fed, and live in total idleness, or to be placed
in the society of one hundred honest mechanics with whom they
should live and labour and be comfortable, or be placed in the
society of two or three hundred criminals, like themselves, destitute
of honesty, and destitute of shame: can any rational person doubt
the alternative which would be embraced ? Solitude would pre¬
sent nothing but horror; the company of industrious and upright
men, would be disgusting; but the association with knaves and
villains, would be a place holding out the most pleasing anticipa¬
tions.
“ With these prefatory remarks, and with the principles of con¬
duct and thinking which we have pointed out, fully in mind, let us
take a view of the internal state of our Penitentiaries.
“ Are our Penitentiaries places which are dreaded by convicts ?
Is the anticipation of being immured within their walls, generally
productive of terror? The observation and experience of years
convince us to the contrary. Our Penitentiaries are communities
by themselves. They contain so many societies of men of the
same feelings, of similar principles, and like dispositions, erected
by force of statute. They are so many commonwealths, insulated
from the rest of mankind. Look at the Penitentiaries of Penn¬
sylvania, New-York, Massachusetts, and the other states; what
is the spectacle which they present? Several hundred convicts
are mingled together, without regard to age, atrocity of guilt, or
prospect of reform. All the characteristics of social intercourse are
presented. There is neither shame nor repentance. All have
been placed there by the arm of justice, for violating the laws of
the land, and there is but little ground for contrast or reproach.
The members of these little communities are comfortably clothed,
comfortably fed, condemned to moderate labour, and easy tasks,
permitted to have their hours of ease and recreation, indulged in
talking over their exploits in the paths of guilt, suffered to form
new schemes for future execution, and to wear away their term of
service, under circumstances calculated to deprive it of every
salutary effect. This state of things is truly appalling, and we
cannot draw a picture in more vivid colours, than the one which is
presented, of the oldest State Prison in the Union,by the report on
American Literature and Intelligence.
399
the Penitentiary System in the State of Pennsylvania, on the 27th
of January, 1821.* ‘ It seems, says the Report, ‘ to be generally
admitted, that the mode at present in the Penitentiary, does not
reform the prisoner. It was intended to be a school of reforma¬
tion, but it is now a school of vice. It cannot be otherwise, where
so many depraved beings are crowded together, without the means
of classification, or of adequate employment. There were in con¬
finement on the first instant, four hundred and ninety-four men,
and forty women, convicts. A community of interest and design
is excited among them, and, instead of reformation, ruin is the
general result.’ We must then draw the conclusion, that the con¬
struction of our Penitentiaries is wholly defective, and calculated
to defeat the object of the system. Large numbers of convicts are
promiscuously crowded together: a sentence to the State Prison is
not viewed with that terror that tends to prevent crimes; the
allurements and pleasures of social intercourse are kept up; the
ignominy of punishment is forgotten; and with many hundred
criminals, the State Prison is viewed (like the transportation to
Botany Bay, by felons in Great Britain) as a welcome asylum/
“ The next error which we shall notice, as pertaining to our
Penitentiaries, is the entire want of classification, if we except the
division of convicts into sexes. Men and women are kept sepa¬
rately, and here the rule of discrimination stops. This is indeed
the natural consequence of the evil manner in which our prisons
are constructed; yet defective as they are in this respect, it would
be practicable, in many cases, to prosecute some more distinction
among felons than appears at the present time. "VI e know of no
prison in the United States, where the convicts are divided into
classes, and kept in classes, with a reference to their own good.f
When once placed within the precincts of the Penitentiary, the
grade of the offence, the age, the disposition, the indications of
repentance, or the proof of their hardihood, are all forgotten, and
they comprise one great aggregate of offenders. The prevailing
object is to make their labour as productive as possible, and to
this object every consideration seems subservient.}: Here the
* To the truth of this remark we can bear ample testimony, having,
in the course of six years’ attendance on our courts ot criminal
jurisprudence, witnessed at least fifty solicitations from criminals,
sentenced to one or two years’ hard labour in the house of correction,
to be transported for seven.— Edit. .
t There are many such in England, and their number is happily
increasing.— Edit. , ,
J With us, labour is too little thought of, though we are happy to
observe a growing interest in our Legislators and Magistrates to
this important subject. In many prisons, manufactures ot \aiious
kinds are established ; in others, treading mills are now introducing,
at which prisoners are compelled to work hard, though for no useful
purpose, save the very important one of preventing them fiom emg
idle.—E dit.
vol. v.— no. 10.
2d
400
American Literature and Intelligence.
most obdurate and experienced offender, who has grown grey in
the perpetration of crimes, and who has become familiar with the
walls and discipline of prisons, who, with equal thoughtlessness
and hardihood, contemns the laws of God and man, is seen the
daily, and in many prisons, the nightly companion of the unfortu¬
nate youth, who, from neglect of parental regard and watchfulness,
the want of timely education, and the inculcations of correct early
habits, has committed a single offence of a minor grade, and has
been sentenced for the shortest term the law allows. Offenders
for manslaughter, burglary, larceny, counterfeiting, and swindling,
the felon of sixty, and the felon of fifteen,—he who has shed
man’s blood, or put the midnight torch to his neighbour’s dwelling,
and threatened the existences of a whole family, and he who has
passed a counterfeit bank-note of five dollars, are doomed to a
condition, where they are placed together upon equality, and
become daily associates. Can we rationally talk of the reform of
convicts under such circumstances? What is man? The crea¬
ture of habit. We assert not the doctrine, that all men are natu¬
rally possessed with an equal love of virtue, and an equal abhor¬
rence of vice; but we do assert, that habits of thought, and habits
of action, create settled rules of conduct that are grounded on
moral excellence—fortify the character against all temptation,—
and that they may also destroy the last trait of honesty, truth, and
rectitude, and render character the blackest type of human guilt.
How many crimes, how many misfortunes, how many sacrifices of
worth and promise, have been produced by indiscreet and vicious
associations, that existed before men have violated the law, and
fallen under the sentence, of a criminal tribunal; and yet by means
of our Penitentiaries, we establish, in the execution of our laws, the
most desperate, profligate, and dangerous association, that can
well be established by human invention, and expect that such a
policy will prevent the perpetration of crimes, present a salutary
example, and restore those who compose them, reclaimed and
regenerated, to the bosom of society! A State Prison must neces¬
sarily be filled with every description of offenders, from him who is
the least obnoxious to the laws, to him who is the most flagrant
aggressor. Felons, according to the ordinary principles of our
nature, will assimilate in moral character by intercourse; and the
standard which will be approached and adopted, will not be the
lowest, but the highest degree of turpitude. The hardened convict
will maintain his abandoned principles, and the novice in guilt will
become his pupil and his convert. The greater offender will not
go to the lesser; the tendency is the reverse. It requires no reflec¬
tion to perceive, that without classification, our Penitentiaries,
instead of preventing crimes, and reforming convicts, directly
promote crimes, and augment the moral baseness of convicts.
They are so many schools of vice—they are so many seminaries to
impart lessons and maxims, calculated to banish legal restraints,
■ 5 *
401
American Literature and Intelligence.
moral considerations, pride of character, and self-regard. It is
notorious that, in all public prisons, their tenants soon adopt cer¬
tain principles of government and conduct among themselves,
and that they soon assume the form and semblance of a distinct
and independent community. They have their watchwords, their
technical terms, their peculiar language, and their causes and
objects of emulation. Can we see any thing in this view, but con¬
sequences the most serious and alarming? Who fill our Peniten¬
tiaries? Take those of Richmond, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New-
York, and Boston—and we shall find their tenants composed of
renegadoes from England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Italy, and
other parts of the continent of Europe, united to convicts who are
natives of the United States. Many of them were finished adepts
before they reached our shores, and united to such of our own
citizens as are equally well skilled in the perpetration of crimes,
they form a combination every way calculated to extirpate the last
principle of honesty in the human breast. With this congregation
of robbers, burglars, thieves, counterfeiters, and swindlers, of every
description, we shut up all classes of minor offenders, and they
mingle together, for months and years, without distinction. Many
of them are of respectable parentage, and have been decently, and
sometimes well educated; their hold on the respect of the world is
not entirely broken, the feelings of repentance and self-respect are
not extinguished ;—and they have not withdrawn their eyes from
the paths that lead to reform, and to restoration. Many of them
possess dispositions that are easily swayed, and sensibilities that
are easily excited by reason and truth, and, under proper discipline,
could be reclaimed and reformed. But can we rationally look for
such results, when they are turned into a Penitentiary, with hun¬
dreds of criminals, who are daily rendered more wicked by example
and precept? As to those State Prisons which have been erected
in the interior of our country, they too have their desperate and
hardened tenants, whose evil communications are palpably seen in
the most baleful consequences. Let us ask any sagacious observer
of human nature, unacquainted with the internal police of our
Penitentiaries, to suggest a school where the commitment of the
most pernicious crimes could be taught with the most effect; could
he select a place more fertile, in the most pernicious results, than
the indiscriminate society of knaves and villains of all ages and
degrees of guilt, with strong and furious passions, hardy constitu¬
tions, and °sound health, comfortably clothed, sumptuously fed,
and left to the performance of trifling duties ? Your Committee are
not indulging in speculation. They say that our Penitentiaries are
destitute of the classification of convicts, of any regard to the de¬
gree of individual guilt, and any regard to age—and without any
regard to reclamation. We say that an indiscriminate intercourse
exists among the convicts, and that the different shades of guilt and
atrocity arc blended together. We say that both by day and by
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American Literalure and Intelligence.
nio-ht, with few or no exceptions, they communicate with each
other;_that the most pernicious principles may be inculcated, the
worst of passions inflamed, the most profligate maxims be rendered
familiar—and all shame, honesty, and self-respect, be destroyed.
We appeal to any Penitentiary in the United States, to shew us the
moral misapplication of this description. If there are exceptions,
they are in some of the new Penitentiaries, where the prisoners are
few, and the evils' here spoken of, not yet palpably developed.
The State Prison in Ohio, erected five years ago, already severely
experiences the truth of what we here lay down. Such has been
the information derived by the Chairman of the Committee, in a
personal conversation with one of the most distinguished and
public-spirited men of that State.
“ We shall here adduce some proofs to illustrate the assertions
in which we have indulged. We could produce more than will be
referred to, were it essential and requisite. We shall begin with
Pennsylvania, and quote the Report to the Senate of that State,
before referred to. ‘ There were in confinement,’ says that well-
written and lucid document, ‘on the first of January, 1821, four
hundred and twenty-four men and forty women convicts. For
want of room to separate them, the young associate with the old
offenders : the petty thief becomes the pupil of the highway robber;
the beardless boy listens wuth delight to the well-told tale of
daring exploits, and hair-breadth escapes, of hoary-headed villany,
and from the experience of age derives instruction, which fits him
to be a pest and terror to society. Community of interest and
design is excited among them, and instead of reformation, ruin is
the general result.”
“ ‘This is a short, but melancholy picture; it is but faintly
drawn, but it is sufficiently strong to excite attention in every bene¬
volent mind. The grand juries of our district have, for years
past, presented to the public a similar portrait of our once boasted
Penitentiary, and the late Executive has very judiciously directed
the attention of the Legislature of the State to the subject.’
“ We shall next refer to the Statistical View of the operation of
the Penal Code of Pennsylvania, prepared and published by the
Society for alleviating the miseries of public prisons. ‘ So many,’
says this publication, ‘ are crowded together in so small a space,
and so much intermixed, the comparatively innocent with the
guilty; the young offender, and often the disobedient servant or
apprentice, with the most experienced and hardened culprit; that
the institution already begins to assume the character of a European
Prison, and a seminary for every vice, in which the unfortunate
being who commits the first offence, knowing none of the arts of
methodized villany, can scarcely avoid deeper contamination, and is
thus led to extreme depravity: with these, from the insufficiency of
room to form separate accommodations, he must be associated in
his confinement.’ We shall next cite the words of Mr. Hopkinson,
American Literature and Intelligence. 403
whose celebrity as a lawyer and a statesman, give him a passport
to the acquaintance of the American people. ‘ So far,’ says he,
* from reformation having been the effect of the system as here¬
tofore practised, one of its worst evils is, that by throwing a crowd
of criminals together, necessarily of different degrees of depravity,
they become equally wicked and corrupt, and skilled in the various
contrivances to commit crimes, and elude justice. It is a college
for the education of men to prey upon society. A novice, who, if
kept from company worse than himself, might have been reclaimed
from his first attempts, is here associated with old, hardened, and
skilful offenders; he hears, with envy and admiration, the stories
of their prowess and dexterity: his ambition is roused, his know¬
ledge extended, by these recitals, and every idea of repentance is
scorned, every emotion of virtue extinguished. Instances of this
sort are numerous, both in the United States and in England. I
consider this herding of criminals together as a vital defect in the
Penitentiary System.’
“ A letter, full of sound sense, from Bishop White, president of
the Philadelphia Society for alleviating the miseries of public
prisons, whose persevering and benevolent efforts are well known,
goes to prove the facts above stated.
“ As we pass from the Philadelphia to the New-York Peniten¬
tiary, we find nothing but the strongest evidence to prove the total
want of any judicious classification of prisoners. Our State Prison
has been crowded for years. Convicts of all ages and all degrees
of turpitude, have been placed together, and all the evil and fatal
consequences of vicious communications have been exhibited. It
was built to accommodate three hundred persons, and more than
seven hundred have been confined in it at once—many of them
foreigners from all the ends of the earth. Your Committee need
appeal to no documents, to shew the total want of a proper division
of convicts in our Penitentiary. The defect is well known to the
whole community, and is as obvious to the eye as the prison itself.
Culprits come out far more depraved and desperate than they
were when they received the sentence. The young are advanced
in the paths of guilt; the old, confirmed in their baseness; morals,
instead of being improved, are broken down; conscience, instead
of being restored to a tone of reproof, is blunted and banished.
No statement of ours can be too strong on this point. The fact
stands complete and conclusive.
“ The State Prison in Massachusetts forms no exception to the
general want of classification. Unfortunately, the circulars ad¬
dressed to several of the first men in Massachusetts, by your
Committee, have not been answered or noticed in a single instance;
we must therefore rely on that information which has been den\ed
from other sources. We feel authorized to assert, that there has
ever been a neglect of that division and sepaiation of convicts,
that discrimination between old and young offenders, and that
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prevention of evil communication, which constitutes the grand
defect under consideration. We are, however, recently informed,
that it is at present less to be apprehended in this case than
formerly.
“ Perhaps no Penitentiary in the United States has been ma¬
naged with more wisdom, care, and uniformity, than the one in
Virginia. Samuel P. Parsons, of the society of Friends, who has
long been the superintendant, and who, if any man has capacity
and zeal to perfect the system, possesses them in an eminent
degree, and who has spared no effort to accomplish the original
end of the institution, informs us, that the want of classification of
convicts is one of the evils which have caused the partial disap¬
pointment of its friends and patrons. There is too much inter¬
course among the prisoners, too many sleep together, and the con¬
tagion of vice is apparent.
“ The State Prison of New-Hampshire has been erected but for
a few years. The number of felons is not great, and yet the want
of a division into classes is already perceptible. Gov. Plumer,
the late distinguished chief magistrate of the State, on whose
sound and judicious opinion the Committee place great reliance,
and to which they shall again refer, observes, that “ effectual
measures should be adopted, to separate, in the Penitentiary, old
offenders from the young and inexperienced, otherwise the latter,
instead of being reformed, will become adepts in crimes; and when
the term of their confinement expires, they will return to society,
more wicked and abandoned than when they left it.” Judge
Woodberry, of the New-Hampshire Supreme Court, remarks:
“ The prisoners, according to the enormity of their crimes, should
be classed, and marked with some distinctive badge. They
should, during the day, be kept more quiet, and secluded from
either society or conversation, and during the night wholly sepa¬
rated from each other.”
“ The letter from the Hon. Daniel Clussman, one of the most
distinguished lawyers in Vermont, and in New-England, and a
careful and sound legislator, observes, when speaking of the Peni¬
tentiary in that state : ‘ The prisoners are only exposed to corrup¬
tion ; a young man who has been detected and punished for the
first crime he has committed, and who has no settled habits of
vice, is confined with old and hardened offenders, and those
will have an influence on the young mind. He will, in a measure,
look up to them.’
“ The Penitentiary in Maryland, and the one in Ohio, erected
about six years ago, go on with an exhibition of the same radi al
defects; and although the State Prison in Connecticut is different
from any other in the United States, yet Governor Wolcott remarks,
in his very interesting communication, which we shall more fully
notice, ‘ that it has been a defect in the establishment, that the
means of discrimination between convicts of different degrees of
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enormity, do not sufficiently exist.’ On this alarming error in the
Penitentiary System, we trust that enough has been said in this
place. Its existence, and its tendency, require no further illustra¬
tion here.
“ The want of room is another defect, that applies to several of
the State Prisons, and is, in some measure, the result of their con¬
struction. In Philadelphia, New-York, Baltimore, and Charleston,
it would have destroyed the ability to classify convicts, had it been
a part of the penitentiary police to have resorted to this policy.
It has produced another evil next to the one last mentioned, if not
still more fatal—the exercise of the pardoning power. In no state
has this defect been so alarming and disastrous as in our own.
The Judges of our Supreme Court have actually recommended
convicts to pardon, and the Governor of the State has, in innume¬
rable instances, granted pardons to make room for new criminals.
Want of a place to secure new offenders, rendered this baneful
state of things absolutely necessary, if the laws were administered
at all.* In Pennsylvania, the most serious difficulties have arisen
from the want of more extensive accommodation, and in Massachu¬
setts, previous to the erection of the State of Main, and its separa¬
tion from the parent State, and an alteration of the Criminal Code,
that places voung offenders in the county prisons, great disadvan¬
tages arose from the same cause. In New \orkand Pennsylvania,
these evils will be diminished hereafter, by the erection of new
prisons, although they here deserve much consideration among the
causes that have produced the practical failure of the State Prison
system.
“ We now come to a defect, that has been one of the radical
causes of disappointment in our Penitentiary system, and one
whose existence will ever defeat the most perfect Criminal Code
that human wisdom can frame. W e refer to the frequent exercise
of the pardoning power. This evil, although most deeply felt in
all the States, has been attended with the most fatal results when¬
ever the Penitentiary system has been tried on a large scale. It
has been found, to' the last degree, pernicious in Pennsylvania,
New-York, and Massachusetts. Unless more caution is hereafter
exercised with regard to the suspension of justice, we may as well
close and abandon our Penitentiaries, so far as prevention of crimes
is concerned. In every department of law, there are certain funda¬
mental maxims, that truth, experience, and universal assent,
render sacred and unquestionable. Thus all jurists and legislators
adopt the principle, that the certainty of punishment is the pre¬
vention of crimes. This was a favourite feature in the wntifigs of
Beccaria. It was laid down by Sir Samuel Romilly, one of the
greatest lawyers which England ever had, that could punishment
be reduced to absolute certainty, a very slight penalty would
* Report of Committee to New-York Senate, March 7,1817.
406
American Literature and Intelligence.
prevent every crime that was the result of premeditation. And we
might well ask, if any offence, of consequence, was ever committed
where there was not a full conviction, in the mind of the perpetra¬
tor, that he should escape the grasp of justice ? The felon does
not weigh the gain of his deed, with the punishment which the law
denounces against him, and strike the balance; but he connects
together the acquisition, and the belief of eluding justice. Would
any man rob the mail of the United States, if he knew that death
was his certain doom! Would any man pass a five-dollar bank
note, if he knew that five years’ imprisonment would be his destiny ?
No one can rationally pretend it. What then is the effect of grant¬
ing frequent pardons? Does it not go directly to diminish the
certainty of punishments? A pardon disarms the law, and is
a destruction of punishment. If pardons are often granted, what
is their consequence on the mind of public offenders ? Not only
do they calculate on the general belief of escape, but they reflect,
if even that confidence should be ill-placed, they will be fit subjects
of executive clemency; and thus is combined in their thoughts the
double prospect of going unpunished. This, therefore, holds out
a direct encouragement to the desperate and evil-minded, and
contravenes that vital requisite of every Criminal Code, on which
the Marquis Beccaria, and every succeeding writer, has laid so
much stress. Besides, if the pardons are granted without due
discrimination, there is extreme and barefaced injustice in the
policy; and it is a sound maxim in jurisprudence, as well as in
morals, that he who attempts to punish another for offending
against justice, should himself be just. This is the way to render
justice a mockery, and weaken the respect of the community for
the laws. Four or five hundred convicts are confined in a Peniten¬
tiary ; some for robbery, burglary, and swindling, and some for
passing a five-dollar note, or stealing a garment. The robber, the
burglar, and the swindler, are pardoned; and he who passes the
note, or takes the garment, is kept in for months and years.
What must be the reflection of convicts on such an administration
of justice ? This is no speculation: the most notorious felons
have again and again been pardoned from our Penitentiaries,
while the young and inexperienced culprits, for committing crimes
of comparative petty magnitude, are kept in for years. Is this the
way to render our prisons places of reform and amendment ? Is
this the way to render law and justice sacred in the eye of criminals ?
One of the great objects of punishment, is said, by many writers, to
be example, and the restraining consequences to flow from it.
Example, to be effectual, should be uniform. It should not be
severe and desolating in one case, and wholly destitute of force in
another. What beneficial effect can we expect from this source,
when it is doubtful who will, and who will not suffer after sen¬
tence? when it is questionable, whether the most flagrant or
most excusable offender will endure the heaviest punishment ?
407
American Literature and Intelligence.
Reasoning is unnecessary to illustrate the ruinous consequences of
this abuse of executive justice. It strikes at the root, and con¬
travenes the ends, of all Criminal Codes.
“ This evil has not been felt in all the States. Its consequences
have been most apparent in the states where Penitentiaries were
early resorted to; and, what is more to be regretted, want of room
for the confinement of convicts, and not a regard for the constraining
appeals of clemency, has been the moving cause which has led to
its existence. The state of New-York has unfortunately furnished
the most striking and melancholy proofs of the correctness of our
remarks, of any state in the confederacy. We shall here refer to a
report of certain commissioners, appointed to examine into the State
Prison, relative to its expenditures. This document remarks, that
‘ the Judges of the Supreme Court have been obliged to recom¬
mend for pardon, and the Executive to exercise his constitutional
power of pardoning, merely for the purpose of making room for the
reception of new offenders. The sentence of the law must, in the
first instance, be complied with; the convict must be received in
the prison, and put to labour; but before his term of service has
half expired, it has been found indispensable to get rid of him, in
order to make room for others under similar sentences. The con¬
sequence has been, that while, on the one hand, those whose dis¬
positions and habits have prepared them for the perpetration of
crime, have been encouraged to go on and commit their depreda¬
tions in the hope of at least partial, if not absolute impunity, (for
that portion of the community, no doubt, perfectly understand the
subject, and know well the calculation they may make upon it)—on
the other, the institution has been subjected to the disadvantage of
continual change: by the time one set of workmen have been
taught to labour, and have been qualified to make some return for
the expense they have occasioned, they are discharged from con¬
finement, and a new set substituted in their place. And thus all
the inconvenience and expense of preparing them for usefulness is
constantly borne, and all the advantages expected to result from it
almost as uniformly relinquished. On referring to the reports tor
the five years which have been mentioned, it is found that within
that period, seven hundred and forty convicts have been pardoned,
and only seventy-seven discharged by the expiration of their sen¬
tences. And the number of pardons within the year just ended, is
stated by the inspectors to have been even greater, and more dispro¬
portionate to the number of other discharges, than in any former year.
Nor will the force of this fact be in any degree impaired, by a con¬
sideration of the moral effects of these pardons upon the convicts
themselves. Of all those who have, within the above period, been
committed for second and third offences, about two-thirds have
been discharged from their former sentences by pardon. And of
twenty-three, the whole number convicted of second and third
offences in the year last reported, (1815,) twenty had been pre-
408
American Literature and Intelligence.
viously pardoned, and only three discharged by the ordinary
course of law.”
“ Since this report was made, some mitigation of the evil has
existed, in consequence of the advantages afforded by the Auburn
Penitentiary. But still the evil is among us. Great numbers are
annually pardoned out of the State Prison in the city of New-York,
on the grounds stated in the report alluded to, and sometimes we
fear from a mistaken policy of displaying principles of humanity. It
is to be regretted, that many of our most influential citizens are
constantly found joining in recommendations for pardons to the
Executive, without reflection on the impropriety of defeating the
purpose of the laws ; and it is more regretted, that jurors, after
they have convicted a felon under the obligations and solemnities
of an oath, turn round and join a petition that renders their own
verdict a nullity, and the forms of justice a fruitless ceremony.
Whoever attends the criminal courts of this State, and more parti¬
cularly the Court of General Sessions of the city and county of
New-York, may perceive the palpable tendency of a frequent
exercise of the pardoning power. Criminals are constantly ar¬
raigned, tried, and convicted, who a few months, and oftentimes a
few days before, were dismissed from prison by a pardon from the
governor. We shall here present the views and sentiments of one
of our statesmen on this point, who has spoken in words more
forcible than any we can adopt, and whose remarks are entitled to
peculiar respect, from his sound experience as a lawyer. We refer
to the speech of Ogden Edwards, Esq. in the late Convention of
this State. When speaking of the effect of granting pardons, he
said, ‘ that by the indiscreet use of the pardoning power, the
administration of justice had become relaxed ; that if not checked,
we should soon have to erect State Prisons in perhaps every
county in the State. The exercise of the power of pardoning is
pleasant, it is humane, it is agreeable to the best feelings of the
human heart; but sad experience has taught, that the interests of
the community require, that the civil arm should be brought to bear
with power upon malefactors. It was a remark of an eminent
Judge, now gone down to the grave, that mercy to the criminal
was cruelty to the State. If you exercise this pardoning power to
the extent that has been done, what will be the consequences ?
The rest of society will be exposed to the depredations of villains.
The laws should be exercised with a strong and resolute hand.
Our Penal Code is mild ; and the manner of punishment is meted
out to all in the proportion they deserve. If a reasonable doubt
exists, the felon is acquitted. But should he be convicted, there
is still a discretion reposed in the court for his benefit. Why has
the pardoning power been so fully and frequently exercised ? Why
are our prison doors so often thrown open, and villains let loose
to prowl upon society ? It is because our Executive has been too
much influenced by feelings of humanity. The governor must
409
American Literature and Intelligence.
nerve himself against their solicitations, and act with a conscious¬
ness that he must account to the people for the manner in which he
uses this pardoning power. Even in Great Britain, a pardon never
passes the great seal, without containing a recital of the causes for
which it is extended. But in this State they are granted without a
single reason for it. And after the inhabitants of a country have
exercised their vigilance in detecting the felon; after the jurors
have convicted, and judges sentenced him ; the interposing hand of
the Executive rescues him from punishment. Unless we abolish
this system, we may as well open the prison doors at once. They
enter novices in iniquity, and remain long enough to become pro¬
fessors of all its arts. This is the practical operation of the sys¬
tem, and unless we nerve ourselves against it, sooner or later the
rights of the people of this State will be held by a moral precarious
tenure. This sickly sympathy is wearing aw T ay the foundation of
our laws. Placed here as one of the guardians of the rights and
privileges of the people, I wish to have such a provision inserted
in the Constitution, as shall prove an effectual check upon vice.’
“ The tendency of too frequently exercising the pardoning
power, has been found equally pernicious in the State of Pennsyl¬
vania, as far as practice has developed the principle. The same
remark applies, in a diminished degree, to other states. This
grand defect will be further illustrated by the words of the late
Governor of New-Hampshire. They are full of sound sense and
correct observation. ‘ The power of granting pardons,’ he re¬
marks, ‘ should be seldom exercised. The certainty of punish-
menthas a great, if not a most powerful influence upon the wicked,
in restraining them from the commission of crimes. The govern¬
ment should therefore avoid every thing that has a necessary
tendency to impair the force of that certainty. A hardened, subtle
offender, dead to moral feelings, calculates upon the many chances
he has to escape punishment. His hopes are strong that he shall
not be suspected; that if suspected, he shall be able to avoid
arrest; that if arrested, proof will not be obtained to convict him;
and if convicted, that he shall be pardoned. That spirit of bene¬
volence, which often prompts public officers to pardon the guilty,
does honour to the heart, but it impairs the security of society.
During the four years I was governor of this state, I pardoned but
two of the convicts who were confined in the State Prison, although
the applications for the first two or three years were numerous, and
supported by the recommendations of many respectable characters.
I did not consider myself at liberty to question the propriety of
the opinion of the court who rendered the judgment. I believed
they were the only tribunal competent to pronounce upon the inno¬
cence or guilt of the accused ; and that their own decision ought to be
conclusive _
* The cases mentioned justified the pardon—one was insane, and
the other in the last stage oflife, without hope of recovery.
410
American Literature and Intelligence.
“ Mr. Raymond, of Baltimore, indulges in the following obser¬
vations, when speaking of the pardoning power in the State of
Maryland. He says, that ‘ some of the facilities of escaping
punishment might be easily remedied, and with this view, I would
deprive the governor of the power of pardoning, and granting a nolle
prosequi. I consider the power to be attended with the most mis¬
chievous consequences, and should be taken away entirely. In the
first place, this must be a most unpleasant power for an honest and
humane man to exercise. In the next place, there can be no hope,
in the present state of society, that it will be exercised with rigour
and impartiality. Those who have strong friends will obtain a
nolle prosequi, or a pardon, be their crimes small or great. Those
who have not friends, will never obtain either the one or the other.
But these are by no means the worst consequences of this power.
It is the anchor of hope to the accused, and the convict; and there
is very little likelihood of penitence or reformation so long as there
is hope of escaping punishment. A single spark of hope will support
a mind which, without it, would sink into contrition and repentance.
It should, therefore, be a principal object to extinguish every ray of
hope of escape in the mind of the accused criminal, and of the
felon.’
“ Mr. Parsons, in his letter on the Penitentiary System of Virgi¬
nia, considers the granting of pardons one cause of its failure to
answer the required end ; and the North American Review, whose
investigations on all subjects do honour to the American nation,
remarks, when speaking of the Massachusetts Penitentiary, that
‘ out of fourteen hundred and seventy-one convicts, who have been
sent to the Massachusetts State Prison, during a period of sixteen
years, two hundred and forty-two have been pardoned, and twenty
of them have been afterwards committed again.’ How many of
these same pardoned convicts have been committed to prison in
other states than Massachusetts we are not informed, and we can¬
not here forbear to express a most decided repugnance to the prac¬
tice that has prevailed in this and in other states, of pardoning
criminals, on condition of their leaving the state in which they have
offended. It is immoral, unjust, and disgraceful. It is opening
your prison doors, and sending forth so many outlaws to mar the
peace and plunder the property of citizens in neighbouring sections
of the Union.
“ The Committee trust that they have indulged in a sufficient
latitude of remark on this defect. Its tendency to prevent the end
of every Criminal Code is palpable. This truth has been seen and
felt in other countries besides our own. Beccaria, Sir Samuel
Romilly, and Mr. Colquhoun, have reprehended it on the other
side of the water, and Sir James Mackintosh, in a debate some
three years ago, in the British House of Commons, on some of
the Penal Laws of Great Britain, stated to that body, * that one
pardon contributed more to excite the hope of escape, than twenty
411
American Literature and Intelligence.
executions to produce the fear of punishment; and that an able
and ingenious writer, who, as a magistrate, was peculiarly compe¬
tent to judge, forcibly argued that pardons contributed to the in¬
crease of crime/
“ The next error which the Committee would notice, is the fre¬
quent change of superintendants, governors, directors, and managers,
in several, if not in all, of the Penitentiaries in the United States.
No system of laws can prove salutary and effectual, when its admi¬
nistration is grossly defective. More especially a system intended
to reform the most depraved and desperate portion of mankind, and
one which is designed to extinguish the worst of passions, and
destroy the most vicious habits, should be uniform and unchanging
in its operations. This has not been the case in the immediate
administration of the Penitentiary system. Unfortunately, party
politics have pervaded the different states of the Union, and all
places of power and trust have turned on their constant fluctua¬
tions. Not even our State Prisons have been spared. The men
who have been entrusted with their supervision have been displaced
again and again, and others been called in to supply their places.
Removals and appointments have been governed by party feelings,
and made on party grounds, to give strength and consequence to
this or that political sect. Whathas been the result? As soon as
one set of supervisors, or governors, have become accustomed to
the duties of their station; as soon as they have been able to take
that comprehensive view of a system, that detects errors and sug¬
gests remedies, their powers have been vacated, and their functions
transferred to others. These, in their turn, have been swept aside,
to gratify the wishes of new applicants. In this state of things, the
most pernicious results have been found. Ihe government ot our
Penitentiaries has been often changed, old laws have been relaxed,
and new internal regulations have been established. Rash experi¬
ments have been made. Nor is this all; we fear that the selection
of individuals to superintend our Penitentiaries has not always been
the most judicious. Party favouritism has had its dominion in
this respect. In Pennsylvania and New-\ork, political changes
have been more frequent than in Massachusetts, Virginia, Mary¬
land, and other states where Penitentiaries have been established.
Had the selection of governors and superintendants, in the two
states first mentioned, been judicious, and been made with a regard
to the peculiar relation that must exist between several hundred
human beings guilty of crimes, and placed in custody for punish¬
ment, example, and reform; had men been selected for their
public zeal, their benevolence, and their capacity to devote time and
reflection to their duty; and, more than this, had men who have
been oftentimes appointed, been preserved steadily in their stations
until their experience and observation had taught them wisdom
and judgment, many of the evils now enumerated might have been
prevented. As the system has been administered, two more disad-
412
American Literature and Intelligence.
vantages, kindred to the others, have here arisen. In the first
place, there being no assurance of permanency in the enjoyment of
these stations, good men have been constrained to decline them ;
and in the second place, where they have accepted them, the pre¬
carious tenure with which they were held, destroyed that ambition,
and extinguished that hope of reform, that would otherwise have
been cherished. The Committee consider that the cause of failure
in the system here spoken of, is so apparent in its consequences,
and so foreign in its nature to the system itself, that it requires
nothing more in this place than the brief notice which we have con¬
ferred upon it.
“ The want of a school for juvenile offenders has been another,
and a stable evil, as has also been the want of a proper system of
moral and religious instruction. The first desideratum has long
been palpable, more especially in those Penitentiaries that are
situated in our large cities, or in their vicinity. As population
clusters, the civil relations of life multiply, moral habits become
less strict, education is less diffused, and a portion of the youthful
part of the community are more neglected; temptations to vice are
stronger and more numerous, and young convicts bear a greater
ratio to old ones, than in the interior. Hence the Criminal Courts
of the cities and larger towns, frequently sentence boys from four¬
teen to eighteen years of age, to a long term of service in our State
Prisons. Whoever has entered these abodes, has seen youth of
various ages, from fourteen to twenty years old, wearing away a
portion of the brightest and most precious period of their existence
among felons of the most abandoned description, without the means
of improving. It is impossible that they should not come forth
prepared for evil deeds. The worst examples are constantly before
their eyes. Morality is ridiculed: honesty is despised, and vice is
set off with every attraction that hardened guilt can suggest.
Religious service, we believe, is generally performed in our state
prisons once a week. This does not seem adequate to produce the
effects to be desired. We think that the chaplains of our Peniten¬
tiaries should often visit the criminals, and afford that instruction,
and give those mild and conciliating counsels, that conspire to
awaken and restore the mind to its lost tone of moral energy.
“ We shall conclude this division of the Report by noticing one
more defect attendant on the administration of the Penitentiary
system, although no way intrinsic, or inherent in its constitution.
We refer to the great regard which has been paid, in the different
states, to the revenue to be derived from the labours of convicts
in the State Prisons, without paying due respect to the fact, that
the end of the system itself might be defeated by such policy. It
is very natural, and it is very necessary, that the States should pay
a strict attention to their financial resources, and think of debt
and credit. Still it is a source of regret, to see narrow fiscal views
bear so strongly on the public mind, as not only to defeat a great
r
413
American Literature and Intelligence.
O
moral purpose, but even to increase expenditures which it is
intended to diminish.
“ Two considerations strike the mind on this point: first, the
object of the Penitentiary system; and secondly, the great increase
of the necessary expense attending it, in consequence of its failure
to produce expected results. What then was the object of this
system in the United States? It has already been mentioned; it
was the suppression of crime and offences, and the reform of con¬
victs. What should be the first thought of those who have the
charge of its administration? Not its annual income, not the
amount of revenue that can be derived yearly, not the most lucra¬
tive end to which the toils and labours of the convicts can be
devoted; but the government, discipline, and internal arrangement
which will be most conducive to the great object of the system. If
mingling young and old criminals in the same apartment; if
crowding convicts together, by night or by day; if tolerating a
state of things that permits a constant intercourse among culprits,
and affords those social recreations, and those effusions of spirit,
that extinguish a sense of shame, and cross the salutary tendency
of punishment, promote the saving of expenditure, they defeat the
purpose of the system to which they are intended to be subservient,
and render vain and useless, to a great extent, the labours of the
Legislature, and the integrity and firmness of the jurist and the
magistrate. In the second place, the attempts at economy now
resorted to, by those who have the management and control of
our Penitentiary establishments, are abortive since the fact is
clearly evident, that instead of preventing, when viewed in their
full operation, they augment expense. The most effectual method
of lessening disbursements, would be the diminution of crimes and
offences by the due execution of the laws; and so far as their
execution fails to promote this diminution, so far the public are
laid under pecuniary liabilities, that might be avoided. If the con¬
struction and internal regulations of our Penitentiaries were judi¬
cious, there would be less commitments for crimes, and, of course,
less expense in the yearly management of our Penitentiaries. In
truth, revenue, as connected with the system of which we are
treating, should never enter into the views of our different state
governments, as a primary object. It should never clash, nor, in
any manner, come in competition with the most secure and compe¬
tent means of preventing crimes, and of changing the characters of
vicious men, who fall under the sentence of the law. And yet one
of the grand complaints against the Penitentiary system is, that it
will not support itself. The States are brought annually in debt,
and the people are compelled to lose, instead of gaining wealth
by its existence. It presents a singular phenomenon in political
economy, where a Criminal Code is a source of public revenue.
Heretofore it has been supposed, in every rational state of society,
that there would be a depraved, indolent, and desperate portion of
414 American Literature and Intelligence.
the community, who in any event would prove a tax to the rest of
the people. If suffered to roam at large, they would prey upon
the peace, violate the security, and plunder the property of their
fellow-citizens. If confined to hard labour, they might still com¬
pel the commonwealth to contribute out of its annual resources to
their support. But after all, is not the commonwealth the gainer
by their confinement, even if the State Prison that holds them
does not pay its way? For what would convicts do, were they in
the full enjoyment of their personal freedom? They would com¬
mit constant depredations on the community, and live in indolence
and profligacy, on the avails of their guilty deeds. We must
compare what little they would earn by honest labour for their
support, if left at large, with what they earn for their main¬
tenance when confined in the Penitentiary—not forgetting, at
the same time, what society would lose by their thefts, swindlings,
counterfeitings, passing of forged notes, and other offences, and
then strike the balance. In this view of the subject, no very
alarming disparity would appear. But this is not all. When
abandoned men are suffered to be abroad in the world, with all their
evil propensities in full vigour, they spread around them a moral
contamination. They withdraw others from the paths of peaceful
industry, and diminish the productive energies of the country.
“ Several of our Penitentiaries support themselves;* others, it
is probable, would also, could there be stability in the tenure of the
offices and trusts which are connected with them. The Commit¬
tee would certainly inculcate a prudent regard for frugality; but
let not an ill-timed parsimony defeat moral ends, vitally identified
with the tranquillity and safety of society; and not only this,
but even go to defeat its own immediate object, by the conse¬
quences to which it must lead. The state of the country is becom¬
ing more favourable to the debt and credit of our Penitentiaries.
We are placing more reliance, than heretofore, on our internal
resources, and more dependence on our domestic manufactures,
especially on those of the coarser kinds; and we may find the
labours of convicts attended with a more certain remuneration.
But whether this prove the case or not, we should either renounce
the Penitentiary system altogether, and resort to some other method
to punish and prevent crimes, or pursue such a course of policy in
its government as will render it the most effective in its bearings
and operations. This has not been done when profit has been the
moving spring of action.
. * This may be the case in a comparatively new country like Ame¬
rica, but it never can be in England, where lucrative means of em¬
ployment cannot be found for criminals, without injury to the honest
and industrious labourer and manufacturer. It was the matured
opinion of the illustrious Howard, that an object so unattainable
should never be attempted; and to the justice of that opinion we
cordially subscribe.— Edit.
415
American Literature and Intelligence.
“ We have mentioned the want of proper diet, as a defect worthy
of notice. Convicts who are consigned to hard labour should be
supplied with food that is coarse, •wholesome, and nourishing, and
they should have it in sufficient quantities to meet the requisitions
of nature. But here we should stop. Every thing calculated to
inflame the passions, and sharpen the evil propensities of men,—
everything of a stimulating nature,—every thing calculated to ren¬
der a Penitentiary attractive and pleasant, as a place of gratification
to the appetite,—should be strictly avoided. The use of ardent
spirits and exhilarating liquors and fluids, in any shape, excepting
as a medicine, should be rigidly precluded. This has not hereto¬
fore been done in many of the State Prisons. A certain portion of
spirituous liquor has been dealt out daily to each convict; and their
food has been far better and more luxurious than that of two-thirds
of the honest mechanics in the community.* The Committee do
not say that this has been the case in every State ; but it has been
the case in their own, and in others. If we are to render public
prisons, places where the desperate and depraved in the land find
comfort and indulgence,—if they prefer to move and breathe in
their walls, to being in the possession of personal liberty,—if when
they leave their gates, they cast back a lingering look on the daily
gratifications which they enjoyed,—the terror of punishment is gone,
and the dread of law is destroyed.
“ These are the views of the Committee, as to the defects which
have produced a failure of the Penitentiary System in the United
States. Others,perhaps, of a collateral nature, might be enume¬
rated ; but the leading evils have been fully designated, arranged,
and amplified. We will concede, that the system has not answered
the expectations of its advocates; but a concession, on the other
hand, is equally demanded, that it has not had a fair trial, or that, if
it has had a rational test, proof has been afforded that it can be ren¬
dered more effectual than any other mode of punishment. In
Pennsylvania, for a number of years, while there was a judicious
selection of inspectors, while there was uniformity in the internal
regulations of the system, and while there was sufficient room for
convicts, its operation was found peculiarly salutary, and the hopes
and confidence of men gathered round it. In the state of New-
York, we ean also say with confidence, that for several years, while
the managers were men of public spirit, and of sufficient leisure to
attend to the careful and uniform management of our State Prison,
* In the former respect, our discipline is much better than that of
America ; the sale, or introduction, of spirituous liquors into prisons
having long since been interdicted, under a severe penalty, by
statute. In the latter, to use a homely phrase, we have often thought,
that, of late years, our prisoners also have been better fed than
taught. Their food should be sufficient, but coarse, and if rendered
rather unpalatable than otherwise, we know not that any harm would
be done.—E dit.
VOL. V.-NO. iO. 2 E
416
American Literature ami Intelligence.
it was productive of many public blessings that have since dis¬
appeared, from the existence of neglect, and from various abuses
that have been pointed out in our general summary. And even
admitting all that the opponents of the system assert, one question
should be always candidly borne in mind: suppose that the Peni¬
tentiary System had never been established in the United States,
what would have been our condition ? It is believed by the Com¬
mittee, that it would have been far more intolerable than the pre¬
sent state of our criminal laws, ft will be perceived that the system
has led to a change in the Criminal Codes of every State in the
Union, as far as it has been adopted. They have been funda¬
mentally reformed, and sanguinary and ignominious punishments
renounced. Death, cropping the ears, burning the hand, exposure
in the pillory, the public infliction of stripes, and confinement
without labour in the county jails for a term of years, have been
abandoned, and confinement to hard labour substituted. And
after all, there are no data to authorize the conclusion, that crimes
have been more numerous or atrocious than they would have been
under the old laws. Reformation was rarely, if ever, produced by
their administration, and many criminals have been driven to
desperation by marks of disgrace; whereas several instances can
be pointed out, where convicts have been reclaimed and reformed
in our State Prisons, and been sent forth with a character for
industry, sobriety, and honesty. It is not practicable to institute
any thing like a fair and conclusive comparison between the opera¬
tion of our present Criminal Codes, and the severe and cruel laws
which they have superseded. Population has increased, arid the
history of nations shews us, that crimes and population do not always
bear the same proportion to each other. The density of the latter
has a material influence. Two hundred thousand people residing
in the space of two miles square, will shew' a much more formidable
criminal calendar, than the same number scattered over a whole
country, or a whole state. Vices are produced by the intercourse
of the profligate; and bad passions mingle together, influence each
other, and break forth in deeds of guilt and desperation. Inequa¬
lities in the condition of individuals become more apparent; pro¬
perty is less equally distributed; poverty is more perceptible, and
want and misery more common. New relations in society are
created, new law's are required, new'offences arise, daily transactions
are multiplied, and the avenues to temptations are rendered more
numerous. Hence, it would not be judging by a fair standaid, to
take the records of criminal courts thirty years ago, and the records
of the same kind of tribunals at the present day, and after making
allowance for the excess of population at the present, over the
former period, institute the contrast, and draw a general deduc¬
tion. But let the Penitentiary System be abolished for a short
time, and let the laws that were formerly in force, be again called
into being, and administered for two years to come, and we should
417
Poetry.
then be able to derive some data on which our conviction could rest.
It we may judge of the operation of Penal Codes in other countries,
and in other ages, where they have been severe and bloody—where
life has been held cheap, and corporal inflictions necessary, we
shall find nothing to induce the renunciation of our present laws.
And, indeed, detective as the Penitentiary System has been in its
administration, and disappointed as ardent and sanguine minds
have been in its result, we shall yet endeavour to shew, that no
substitute, which the feelings, the sentiments, and the habits of the
American people would tolerate, can be embraced with effects and
consequences more salutary than those which have appeared under
it. We see crimes and offences multiply: we forget the changing
state ot society ; we forget the increase of population ;—we forget
the new restraints that are naturally demanded, and the fresh
temptations that are created ; we forget what might be the tendency
of different laws, and attribute the whole evil to the Penitentiary
System. Reason and reflection will correct this error in judgment,
and lead us to different views.”
[To be continued .]
POETRY.
[The following Poem, written some years ago, contains a represen¬
tation of the impressions first received, on a sail up the fine river of
which it professes to give some description. It occurred to the
writer, as a tourist, that, leaving the more weighty and instructive
range of observation to the intelligent traveller, the characteristic
traits of scenery, and the sentiments they naturally inspire, might
fall within the province of the Poet.
The reflections to be found in the poetry (if it deserves that name)
are applicable to the passing events and feelings of the day. In
travelling through most countries, our thoughts may be enlivened by
a retrospect of the past; but from the absence in a great measure of
historical recollections in America, our views are directed principally
to the future : and this indeed we find a source of observation pecu-
liarly interesting. How much benefit may the well-informed traveller
confer on such a country! and let us hope that Englishmen, instead
of seeking for occasions of animadversion, in the noble spirit of the
times, will be actuated only by a generous desire of adding to the
stock of useful information, and contributing to make so large a
portion of mankind as virtuous and happy as the condition of our
nature will admit. The cultivation of such sentiments seems as
consistent with our best interests, as it will be honourable to our
national character; and such examples the author can venture to
predict, from a long acquaintance with the State of New-York, con¬
firmed by some recent and able publications, will be met bv the most
amiable reciprocity of feeling in that distinguished part of the United
States.]
418
Poetry.
THE HUDSON RIVER.
Clothed with unsullied azure, as the mom
Brings gently from the south th’ accustom’d breeze,
With all its craft the Hudson’s shore at once
Grows animated ; and the loaded sloops
Which, near their docks, awaited its approach,
Now turn their painted prows,—successively
Their mainsails rise, and thro’ the spacious stream
In slow procession whiten to the north.*
Borne from the city’s atmosphere impure,
Strong-scented wharfs, and ever-toiling crowds,
Commercial murm’ring on their sultry sides,
How ev’ry sense rejoices in the change!
What bright ethereal gladness sparkles round
The fluctuating bows! How taste the lungs
The chaste elastic rural air, wafting
Their odours from the fields on either shore! f
Inspir’d at such a moment by the smiles
Of beauty, taste, and feeling,f by my side,
In loveliest combination, let me trace,
In strains unfetter’d by severer rhythm,
The Hudson’s quarried ‘ course, thro’ hills
And shelving steeps romantic.’ On its shores,
Where less adorn’d the landscape boasts not yet,
As in maternal Albion’s verdant isle,
Successive spots, selected by the eye
Of taste, with obelisks or temples graced;
Abodes of ease ’midst various growth of wood,
And interjacent pasture or domains,
By structures grey, ennobled and sustain’d
Thro’ length of years by the superfluous care
Of dignified abundance ; yet the charm
Of genuine Nature may inspire the song,
With all her finely-varied elements
Of hills and woods, and intermingled rocks.
Where first we coast the shore, its rural scenes
Successively engage our eyes ; the green,I
Suburban pastures, margin fring’d with sedge
* With the wind and tide favouring, it is customary to see large
fleets depart from New-York up the Hudson River. At present, a
steam-vessel of 200 tons burden, which has been called a floating
palace by an English tourist, departs daily on her voyage to Albany.
f The excursion was made in company w ith an American family of
New-York, on a visit to a friend’s seat on the banks of the river.
I Except in the vicinity of the city, the country of New-York in
general, as compared with England, wears rather a brown appear¬
ance.
419
Poetry .
And sloping hills half cultivated, seats
Emerging from the woods upon the heights,
And russet meadows irrigated oft
By rancid brine * Due northward we glide on,
Beside the changeful scene, intent as much
As pleasing converse may admit, on all
Its pictures passing in review. To groves
And meads a bolder scenery succeeds—
Upon the right, Fort Washington, to fame
Historic consecrated, overlooks
The sylvan Heights of Haerie yn ;+ on our left
Grey towering strata of embattled rocks
O’er wooded steeps in precipices hang,
As if some shock of elemental war
Had rent their indurated mass of stone
To give the Hudson passage, and afar
High-storied to the Tapp’an coast extends
The line of hoary cliffs, impending o’er
The sails diminutive, that silent pass
Beneath their shadowy grandeur. The fervour
' Of the dazzling vault, at noontide now
Compels us, tho’ reluctant, to descend,
And vent within the cooler sphere below
Our admiration of these works, but more
Of their exalted Author, who in all
The wonderful and intricate design
Of his contrivance for our humble use,
Has blended so much grace ; and to a waste
Of matter, void of use, imparted forms,
Which animate its mass, and in the soul
Awaken lofty thoughts. In harmony
Of sentiment, and conversation grave.
Or sometimes gay, thus pass the halcyon hours;
Alas! how fleeting; and in all this long
And weary pilgrimage how rarely known!
A livelier breeze, now rippling at the stern
Of our reclining mansion, gently moves
Its pendent curtains. The refreshing air,
From much discourse on books, or friends disperst.
Or shortly to be seen, invites our steps
To view between the limpid elements
The distant scenes, and coast diminished, where
An inland oceanj far expands, and capes
* Salt meadows covered by the tide waters.
t The position taken by General Washington after the battle of
Long Island.
I The river, about 30 miles from New-York, is several miles wide,
and called Tappan Sea,
420
Poetry.
Hesperian jutting on the azure deep,
Confront a length of slope, with cultur’d fields
And orchards far expanded on the East.
Now whitening o’er the misty bay, the South
Auspicious freshens, till the bright-orb’d sun
A milder majesty assumes, and sheds
Its waning lustre on the passing waves.
Impatient fancy wings us on our course,
(For howsoever blest the present, Hope,
Frail reckoner, the coming hour arrays
In tempting hues, and whispers bliss unknown;)
From right to left our swollen topsail reels
Above the roaring surge. By Croton’s stream,
And promontory’s sylvan length, we pass,
Tracing a line of foam along the coast,
Till in our front the growing highlands rise
In grand perspective, filling up the bay,
Tho’ hazy yet in distance. Northward still,
As tow’rds their desart base we move, the gulf,
Receding eastward indicates our course
Between such lofty mountains as frown o’er
Old Cambria’s northern shore, or seaward where
The venerable Caledonia’s alpine bounds
Yield to the passage of the beauteous Clyde.
But while on the majestic mountains, fixed
With admiration, dwells our view, the sun
Upon their summits sinks, his fulgid orb
Immerst within a crimson mist. The breeze,
That, like the radiant morning of this life,
So fairly promis’d, whisp’ring lulls, then sleeps
Upon the tide,—and soon it has become
One mirror’s face, where the vermilion sky
Shews all its new-born twinkling stars, and round
The peaceful shores the solemn wastes, and trees
Inverted on the margin’s edge. Beyond
The mount of Stony Point, with summit scar’d
By deep entrenchments, which commemorate
The rage of w r ar, our anchor’d vessel rests
With mainsail drooping on her deck; and now
The moon unveil'd behind the dewy shades
Of night, a morn rekindles o’er the woods
And silver-crested capes. Upon the scene.
And all the changes of this passing world,
How pleasing then to meditate and trace
The wonders of futurity! The eyes,
But lately closed, of him, who, ranging first
This region’s wild, to the majestic stream
Imparted his adventurous name, and borne
421
Poetry.
Within its soaring mountains, saw one still
And solemn desart in primeval garb
Hang round his lonely bark. Upon the shores
What necromantic change has culture wrought!
Eight solar years in revolution since
Have scarcely smiled upon the virgin glebe,
Ere plenty, sprung from European strength,
And tutor’d industry, adorns the waste.
The vales are furrow’d, population climbs
The mountain’s rugged sides. The frequent church
Or court-house rises on the hills, while stores
And docks its base enliven.—Fancy still,
Anticipating time, his future works
Delights to paint, where distant years shall see
The smoky marts of Hudson’s opulence;
And navied wharfs, unsculptur’d rocks, which then
May line with colonnades of lucid quartz,
And feldspar’s polish’d tints, the peopled streets
Of cities yet unborn, or raise the spire,
Or swell the sacred temple’s dome rotund;
Nor these illusive phantasies, or vain
Poetic dreams :—the great foundation’s laid—
Maternal freedom warms the genial soil
And nerves the arm of labour ; pure, benign,
Invigorating, as th’ autumnal west,
When his cerulean breath from Hudson’s woods
Their yellow foliage scatters o’er his waves.
But let Columbia , with exalted views,
Fox her succeeding millions greatly plan
Foundations of prosperity, more pure
Than antiquated policy would prompt.
The golden opportunity invites:
Thro’ Europe’s bleeding and disturb’d domain,
The drill of whisker’d musqueteers, and trump
Of murd’rous war at length has ceased. The storm
Deforming long her States has purified
Their moral atmosphere, instilling thoughts
Of government more just than lust of wealth.
Or arts, or transient glory, could devise;
And rousing from a long lethargic sleep
Our sorrowing nature, recognizes now,
With acclamations full and strong,
The voice of her Creator. Pervading too
This favour’d land, with hallow’d influence,
Thro’ vales, o’er hills half shorn of native wood.
And farms, with fences yet unfinish’d, far
From the Atlantic to the western wild.
In rich abundance widely has been strewn
422
Poetry.
The seed* of everlasting life. JYfay time.
In the succeeding harvest, crown a morn
Of so much promise! May the virgin soil,
Luxuriant in her richest depths, preserve,
Concoct, mature, and into lasting day
Bring forth, a teeming crop of righteousness !
Ere yet the sun has purified the hills
From nightly vapours, we proceed once more
With unfurl’d mainsail as the tide invites ;
And glancing round the Promontory’s edge,
Amidst the ringlets of its eddying strength.
Behold the prospect of an alpine scene
Magnificently wild, more truly grand
At each succeeding change. Gigantic, vast
O’ershadowing mountains soar, invested thick
Their rocky waists, and to their summits far
A wilderness unbounded to the eye,
Profuse and pathless unessayed by toil.
Diminutive beneath, the Hudson deep,
Cover’d by rocks, and silent, penetrates
The solitudinous and woodland scene,
His linear course disorder’d, winding thro'
Uncertain, struggling for a passage. Far
Within the lofty desart we descry
The fortress of West Point, where travelers long
On Arnold's fate descant. Its roofless wall
With width embattled harmonizes well.
Amidst the sumptuous forest scene, with traits
Of menacing and shatter’d rocks : but tho’
By rule and shapely art proportion’d all
Man’s fabrics, how minute beside the vast
And awful exhibitions of that Pow’r
He long has set at nought, tho’ feeling now
Its high pre-eminence, as paramount
To all his vain and feeble energies,
In moral strength as physical. All day
With gentle western air, between new scenes
Of such surpassing grandeur, we glide on,
As some relief from too impressive sights
At times perusing the descriptive bard
Of Albion’s Seasons,—Nature’s genuine child.
But oft we pause to notice as we pass
The scenes contrasted on each shore ; here steep
In clifts and perpendicular it hangs
Sublime, abrupt, defaced with massive crags
That blacken o’er the tide; there low at first.
♦“The Bible.’'
423
And rising from the naked granite banks,
A sunny length of wood, outstretch’d from hill
To hill, far undulating thro’ the yoke
Of distaut mountains, o’er their summits spreads.
With slow transition by degrees we gain
A livelier horizon in the North;
And toward the open plains emerging thro’
The Highlands streight approach New Windsor s docks,
And Newburgh thriving near the shadowy scene
Of mountains. On the strand the vessels pile,
And timber-texture echoes to the stroke
Of plying toil. The animated scenes
Of man’s industrious labours and pursuits
Recall us from majestic nature’s grand
Imposing structures, to habitual thoughts
On life’s vocations. Soon another sun
Has wing’d its ardent passage o’er our heads
Into the void of time; and sober eve
Succeeding to its blaze, invites us where
The shore embay’d, recedes towards the east.
Again to drop our anchor for the still,
Impending night.* At once our floating stage
Is stationary; and its cracking spars
And cordage for the dawn prepared, our crew.
Descending to their pitchy cells, incline
To early rest. Whilst o’er the yellow fields
(Whence the bland fragrance we inhale afar,)
The soaring night-hawks glance, and vespers shrill
From throats irinumerous rise ; the glimm’ring west
Reflected from the tranquil stream, displays
Its graceful tapestry, like the pure abode
Of happy spirits, from the union freed
Of this enthralling flesh, in love, and mild
Ethereal harmony, at rest. One scene
Less bright succeeds another, and at length
The fair illusion, like th’ extinguish’d spark
Of life, is superseded by the reign
Of awful darkness, till th’ omniscient Mind,
That all this fair creation from the womb
Of night and chaos usher’d first to light,
Restores it to our waking senses, pure,
And breathing incense. As the day now dawns,
Our way resuming with the silent lapse
Of the ascending tide, we float still north
Towards a rising coast of menacing
* It is usual for vessels sailing up the liver to anchor at night,
unless the wind is fair.
424
Poetry.
And fractur’d cliffs, which far denote the bounds
Of the still linear Hudson’s course. Ere yet
Those eyes are open’d, whose inspiring gaze
Give double force to the magnificence
Of Nature’s charms, displaying in themselves
Creative grace unrivall’d, while the tide
Again impedes us, with an earlier friend
I seek the shore at hand, and where he plies
His line amongst the tenants of the deep,
With barb tenacious, o’er the glitt’ring sands,
In dreams of pleasing meditation lost,
I wander, while profoundly o’er our heads
The breeze yet slumbers in the azure vault.
Beneath these skies, with feelings such as life’s
Fair morn inspires, how often have I mus’d,
O venerable Hudson, on thy shores!
Absorb’d in the pursuit, as greatest good,
Of moral wealth or intellectual,
With frail possessions of the world of sense
For this untenantable house of clay.
Tho’ with a Saviour’s love imprest, yet less
Intent upon that light which teaches first
To mourn in fallen man his worldly bent,
And heart of stone, till kindled in his breast
The spark of life eternal, at the lamp
Of faith his soul regenerated seeks
The region pure of universal peace,
Where pride, ambition, avarice, deceit,
Injustice, cannot enter; for the love
Of all enthron’d will quench the love of self,
And lay its rabid passions at our feet.
At length towards the splendid south, o’er half
The surface of the seeming lake, the breeze
Is seen—and soon we move between the rocks
On either shore, and steeps profusely cloth’d
With wood impending o’er the stream. And sdon
An elevated city* on our right
Tow’rs o’er the Hudson’s high romantic coast,
While by its landing, in a prosp’rous course
We stretch still northward. Here the naked shore,
Exhibiting its tiers and piles of rock
In hoary ruins ; there, in covert dense
Of various underwood conceal’d, and graced
With mantling foliage to the water’s edge.
h * ^Poughkeepsie. The Legislature occasionally held its sittings
f
Philosophical and Literary Intelligence.
425
Tlius Rhinbeck 'midst a sylvan scene we pass.
And glancing by its sedge behold a range
Of insulated mountains in the West,*
High tow’ring o’er JEsopus ’ cultur’d plain.
Ere long in front of this majestic screen
Upon our right we view the mansion fair
That welcomes our approach; and quitting now
The breezy channel, range beneath the shade
Of Clermont's\ graceful woods, and shrubberies
Sweet with exotic fragrance, till releas’d
From our unsteady vehicle we tread
The hospitable threshold of our friends.
Recalling here the many pleasing hours
Serenely past within a cheerful sphere
Of frank and liberal hospitality,
The grateful muse invokes that happy time
When mutual ties of sanction, more rever’d
Than federative compacts, shall unite
Once more Columbia with her parent isle.
Communicating in our kindred tongue
The joyful tidings of eternal peace;
Thro’ either hemisphere already far
And wide th’ angelic]; Bearer of the Word
Has wing’d his course. O ! hailing as we do,
Where its regenerating light is felt,
This happy dawn of the long-promis’d day
Of our redemption, may we, like brethren, now
Evince, by charity and mutual love,
That our professions are not empty words;
And tho’ divided in our temporal
And worldly state, that we’re united still
Beneath a King, whose reign shall have no end.
PHILOSOPHICAL AND LITERARY
INTELLIGENCE.
Indian Antidote to Poison .—A short time since Mr. Chaubert, the
proprietor of the exhibition of the Wild Indian Chief, in New Bond-
street, met with a serious accident, for while examining one of the
* The Katskill, or Blue Mountains. .
+ The seat of Mrs. Livingston, widow of the Chief Justice, and
mother of the Chancellor of the State, under whose patronage the
steam-boat was first introduced.
] Rev. xiv. 6
426
Philosophical and Literary Intelligence.
poisoned arrows belonging to the Indian, he accidentally let the
arrow touch his chin, upon which it left a light scratch. In the
hurry of the moment he paid no attention to the circumstance, but
in a very short time the whole of his chin, and the side of his face,
turned black, and was very much swollen. These symptoms began
rather to alarm him, and he sent for three medical gentlemen, who
used their utmost skill to extract the poison, but their efforts proved
ineffectual. The Indian stood by with the utmost sangfroid, witness¬
ing the ill success of the medical applications; after which he coolly
walked away, and returning with a root used in his country to extract
poison, applied some to his master’s face; to which it afforded imme¬
diate relief, as the swelling went down, and the discoloration ceased.
Had not this remedy been applied, mortification w ould, in all proba¬
bility, have taken place in a short time. Mr. Chaubert soon recovered,
and since the accident has very properly caused the points of the
arrow to be divested of their poison.
New Medical Society .—A new Society has been formed, under the
name of “The Society of Practical Medicine of London,” to act in
concert with the Institution of the same name in Paris. Their trans¬
actions are to be published quarterly.
Hydrophobia .—A series ot experiments have recentl}' been made
at the Veterinary School at Paris, relative to the cure of this dread¬
ful malady. The object in view was to confirm the efficacy of a spe¬
cific imported from Italy, which it is reported will not only act as a
presei\ative immediately after the bite, but as a cure also when the
fatal symptoms have appeared. The result of these experiments is
not yet ascertained.
New Febrifuge. A plant has been brought to Bourdeaux, known in
Asia by the name of Cherayita. It is very bitter, and much valued
as a febrifuge, having been prescribed in Europe for the gout and
weakness of the digestive organs. No botanical description of this
plant has yet been given ; but it has been considered in the Asiatic
Researches as a species of gentian, and is there denominated
6 rentiana Cherayita ,
Antidotes against Poisons —Mr. Drapier has found that the fruit of
the Feuillea Cordifolia, is a powerful antidote against vegetable
poisons; and Dr. Chisholm recommends the juice of the sugar-cane
as the best antidote against arsenic.
Remarkable Picture .—An artist of the name of Francia has brousrht
to this country from St Omer’s, a very extraordinary altar-piece of
the fifteenth century, which lie obtained from the ruined abbey of
St. Bertm, in that city. The painter is John Hemmiulroeth, of Bruges •
the subject, the Life ofBertin. The execution equals the highest
finis 1 of the Flemish school at any period, and boasts of passages
not inferior o the Italian of a century later. A still more curious
fact is, that the original idea of Holbein’s Dance of Death is distinctly
and strikingly contained in this picture. y
Caraora.—This celebrated sculptor has just finished an admirable
group of Mars and Venus, designed for the King of England.
Painted Glass. Mr. Buckler has received a commission from the
Dean and Chapter of Hereford, to execute the east window of their
cathedral in painted glass. The subject is to be the Last Supper
from a picture by West, in the possession of his Majesty The
«CMd the e s?zc of life 8 * dime " 5i0 " S ’
427
Philosophical and Literary Intelligence.
Academy of Arts, in Ireland .—The artists of Ireland have been
incorporated into a society like the Royal Academy. A council of
fourteen has been chosen, and ten associates are to be elected next
year from Irish exliibiters.
IFest’s Picture of Christ Healing the Sick. —Mr. Heath’s engraving
from West’s grand picture of Christ’s Healing the Sick, purchased
by the British Institution in 1811, for 3000 guineas, is at length
finished. Mr. Heath had 1800 guineas for his task, which was to
have been completed in four years, but it has occupied him no less
than eleven.
Steam Carriage. —Mr. Griffith, of Brompton, a gentleman known
by his travels in Asia Minor, has, in connection with a professor of
mechanics on the continent, invented a carriage capable of transport¬
ing merchandise, and also passengers, upon common roads, without
the aid of horses. This carriage is now building at the manufactory
of Messrs. Bramah, and its appearance in action may be expected
to take place in the course of the autumn. The power to be applied
in this machine is equal to that of six horses, and the carriage alto¬
gether will be twenty-eight feet in length, running upon three inch
wheels, and equal to the conveyance of three and a half tons, with a
velocity of from three to seven miles per hour, varied at pleasure.
The saving in carriage of goods will be fifty per cent., and for pas¬
sengers, inside fares will be taken at outside prices. The usual
objections are said to be removed; such as, the ascent of hills, secur¬
ing a supply of fuel and water; and the danger of explosion is to be
prevented, not only by the safety valve, but by the distribution of
the steam into tubes, so as to render any possible explosion wholly
unimportant. Every carriage w ill be provided with a director of the
fore-w'heels sitting in front, and with a director of the steam appara¬
tus sitting in the rear, and the body of the vehicle will be situated
between the fore-wheels and the machinery.
Preservation of Flowers.—A few grains of salt dropped into the
water in w'hich flowers are kept preserves them greatly from fading,
keeping them in bloom double the period that pure water will.
Spinning and Weaving .—In the year 1745, Mary Powlis, of East
Dereham, in Norfolk, spun a pound of wool into a thread of 48,400
yards in length, wanting only 80 yards of 84 English miles ; a cir¬
cumstance which was considered so great a curiosity at the time, as
to obtain for itself a situation upon the records of the Royal Society.
Since that period, Miss Ives, of Norwich, spun a pound of wool
(combed) into a thread of 168,000 yards; which wonderful success
in the art of spinning wool, induced her to try her exquisite talent
upon cotton, wdien, out of a pound of that material, she produced a
thread that measured the astonishing length of 203,000 yards, equal
to 115J- English miles and 160 yards. The last-mentioned thread,
woven into cloth, would, (allowing 200 inches of it in warp and weft
to a square inch of the manufactured article,) give the fair artisan
nearly 28* yards, of yard-wide cloth, out of her pound of cotton !—
25Hb. of 4 cotton, spun in that manner, would reach round the
Equator. „ , , . . , ,
Fire Shield.— Mr. Buckley, of New-York, has invented, and ob¬
tained a patent for a Fire Shield, intended to protect firemen whilst
employed in extinguishing fires, but more particularly designed also
to prevent fire from spreading. It is made of a metallic substance,
thin, light, and impervious to heat; of a length and breadth sufficient
428 Philosophical and Literary Intelligence.
to cover the whole person, and it may he used in several different
positions. When used in the street, it is firmly fixed on a small
platform with wheels, and a short elevation from the ground. The
fireman taking his stand upon this platform, and behind the shield,
is drawn by ropes near the current of heat and (lames, and, with the
iron pipe or leader in his hand, elevates the water where it is most
wanted. In this w ay a line of shields may be formed in close order,
in front of a powerful heat, behind which the firemen may stand with
safety, and play upon the houses with water-pipes.
Hoads— A surveyor of highways, feeling for the distress of the
farmers, has lately adopted the following judicious plan for employ¬
ing poor labourers, and lessening expense. As the travelling of the
gravel cart in a wet season does more harm than good, the expedient
is adopted of substituting three labourers for one day's team duty:
The first step adopted, is to order every person to scour out his
ditches by the road side, when the width of the road is set out by the
surveyor, and it is w ater-tabled by the labourers making cuts from it
to the ditches. It is then scraped clean, all the high places are
picked, and the stones are broken and thrown into the hollows.
When a certain quantity of the road thus prepared is ready, and
is become a little dry, a cast-iron roller, w r hich every parish ought to
have, is drawn over it by three labourers, as a day and a half’s team-
duty, w’hicli completely consolidates the whole, a mile being easily
done in a road of twentj’ feet wide, three times over. In wet seasons
the plan is becoming general. Three labourers can complete one
hundred yards a day, so as to make a good road; for the badness of
roads generally arises much less from the want of materials than
from their misapplication.
A ew C hart of the Mediterranean .— Capt. Gautier has completed his
hydrographic labours. His chart of the Mediterranean has already
been published by the Minister of Marine, and that of the Black Sea
is nearly ready for publication. The officer w r as assisted in his labours
by the officers of the Chevrette, and they completed, after very consi¬
derable exertion, the coasts of the Mediterranean, the isles of the
Archipelago, and the Black Sea ; all points of which, essential to be
laid dow n, have been exactly determined. A number of errors in
existing charts have been discovered, some of them of great magni¬
tude. The summits of some of the Greek mountains were «i«n
^ or life-beacon, their silver medal and ten guineas. This
life-beacon has been erected upon the sand near the port of Lvnn
where, after repeated attempts, Mr. H. succeeded in fixing a main-
rmct \\7 1 in o tnr> ___ _ i * i • . - «"*
their present height, the action of ^he^tea^n^nes of Eng^nS
Philosophical and Literary Intelligence .
429
which are at most managed by 36,000 men, would be sufficient to
produce this effect in 18 hours. If it were required to know how
long a time they would take to cut the stones, and move them from
the quarries to the pyramid, a very few days would suffice. The
volume of the great pyramid is 4,000,000 cubic metres, its weight is
about 10,400,000 tons, or kelogrammes. The centre of gravity of the
pyramid is elevated 49 metres from the base, and taking 11 metres as
the main depth of the quarries, the total height of its elevation is 60
metres, which multiplied by 10,400,000 tons, gives 624,000,000 tons,
raised one metre. Thus as the total of the steam-engines in England
represents a power of 320,000 horses, those engines moved for
24 hours, would raise 862,800,000 tons one metre high, and conse¬
quently 647,100,000 tons in 18 hours, which surpasses the produce of
the labour spent in raising the materials of the great pyramid.
Cornish Mines. —It is calculated that the silver lead mines, now at
w’ork in Cornwall, and others about to commence, will, in a few years,
raise sufficient silver for the use of the kingdom. At Sir Christopher
Hawkins' mine in that county, a plate of silver has been extracted
which weighed nearly 400lbs. This mine produces two, and some¬
times three such pieces a month.
Voyage of Discovery in Australasia .— Accounts hav e been received
at Plymouth by the ship Dick, lately arrived from India, from his
Majesty’s brig Bathurst, Capt. King, employed in examining the un¬
explored coast of Australasia, dated off Goulburn Island, on the north
coast of New Holland, the 6th July, in the last year, the ship Dick and
brig St. Antonio then in company, which the Bathurst had piloted
from Port Jackson on their way to India, through a most intricate
and dangerous navigation, in which the latter lost two anchors. At
the date of the letter, they had been out six weeks from Port Jackson,
three weeks whereof they had been sailing among coral reefs of
frightful appearance, and were obliged to anchor every night
wherever they could find shelter, not daring to proceed after sunset,
having had many narrow escapes even in the day-light, but were, at
the period before-mentioned, entirely clear of that dreadful coast.
They lost their two anchors and cables under Caring-cross Island,
at 11. p. M. on the 30th June, and nothing but the tide, which fortu¬
nately set to windward, kept them clear of the dangers which sur¬
rounded them on every side; the weather being so exceedingly bad
at the time, their escape was considered a miracle. Mr. Percival
Baskerville, of Plymouth, a midshipman of the Bathurst, was sent
on shore with a party on the easternmost island of Flinder’s Group,
for the purpose of picking up any part of the wreck of the ship
Frederick, which had been lost there, w hen they were encountered
by a large party of the natives, who set up a horrible shout,
which proved the signal to engage, and they commenced by throwing
a shower of spears with great agility, by which two of the party were
wounded. The Bathurst’s people, being unarmed, could make no
other resistance than by defending themselves w’ith stones, while a
part of them w r ere immediately despatched in the boat in order to
procure fire-arms from the ship : the natives, seeing the transaction,
took the opportunity, while the boat was absent, to attack those left
on shore more violently, and Mr. Baskerville and his little party
were surrounded and made prisoners. No attempt, however, was
made to take their lives after the capture, and on the return of the
boat, through artifice, they again joined their comrades, but shortly
430
Philosophical and Literary Intelligence.
afterwards the natives came down in greater numbers, and again
attacked the party, who being now armed, gave them a volley that
occasioned them to scamper oil - in all directions, leaving two on the
ground wounded, but they soon after got up and escaped, and no
others appeared while the Bathurst remained there.
Extraordinary Voyage of tiro Natives of the St. Lawrence Island.——
M. Kotzebue, in his “ Voyage of Discovery, &c.” recently published,
gives an interesting account of an extraordinary voyage performed
by Kadu, an islander found at Aur, one of the group of the St. Law¬
rence Islands, near the southern entrance of Behring’s Straits:—
Kadu w as born in the island of Ulle, belonging to the Carolinas,
which must lie at least 1,500 English miles to the west from here,
and is known only by name on the chart, because Father Cantara, in
1733, was sent from the Ladrones, as Missionary to the Carolinas.
Kadu left Ulle with Edock, and two other savages, in a boat contrived
for sailing, with the intention of fishing at a distant island: a violent
storm drove these unfortunate men quite out of their course; they
drifted about the sea for eight months, and at last landed, in the most
pitiable situation, on the island of Aur. The most remarkable part
of this voyage is, that it was accomplished against the N. E. monsoon,
and must be particularly interesting to those who have been hitherto
of opinion that the population of the South Sea Islands commenced
from west to east. According to Kadu’s account, they had their sail
spread during their whole voyage, when the wind permitted, and
they plied against the N. E. monsoon, thinking they were under the
lee of their island: this may account for their at last coming to
Aur. They kept their reckoning by the moon, making a knot in a
cord, destined for the purpose, at every new moon. As the sea
produced abundance of fish, and they were perfectly acquainted with
the art of fishing, they suffered less from hunger than thirst; for
though they did not neglect during every rain to collect a small
stock, they were often totally destitute of fresh water. Kadu, who
was the best diver, frequently went down to the bottom of the sea,
where it is well known that the water is not so salt, with a cocoa nut*
with only a small opening; but even if this satisfied the want of the’
moment, it probably contributed to weaken them. When they per¬
ceived the island of Aur, the sight of the land did not rejoice them
because every feeling had died w ithin them. Their sails had long been
destroyed,their canoe the sport of the winds and the w aves, and they
patiently expected death, when the inhabitants of Aur sent several
canoes to their assistance, and carried them senseless on shore.
South Sea Islands .— Capt. Thomas Manby, who was presented to
his Majesty at a late levee, is preparing for publication, a new chart
and description of the South Seas ; a work which will prove, that the
islands of the Pacific Ocean are all peopled from the same stock, and
that the same hieroglyphical characters are known from one extre¬
mity of that sea to the other. Whilst Capt. Manby was at Otaheite,
the king and queen of that island invested him with the highest
honours they could bestow : the insignia tattooed on him, consisting
of a circle or garter below the knee of the left leg, with a star nearly
resembling a Maltese cross. This, with many other devices neatly
tattooed, related a remarkable adventure ; and on Captain Manby’s
visiting the Sandwich isles, near three thousand miles distant every
hieroglyphical character tattooed upon him was most accurately
deciphered by an old priest belonging to king Toraahamaka, at
431
Philosophical a/id Literary Intelligence.
Owlijhee, who related every circumstance with wonderful exactness,
to the great amusement of the king and all his family, who made the
Captain many valuable presents, and shewed him the most marked
attention whilst he remained on the island. At the other islands the
same translation was uniformly given, and created the greatest mirth
wherever the story was read; and such even was the amusement it
afforded, that the islanders often watched for the Captain bathing,
which produced some ludicrous events.
Extraordinary Shipwreck .—The American South-seaman Essex,
of 250 tons, G. Pollard, master, from Nantucket, being on the 19th
of November, 1820, in lat. 47 deg. S. long. 118 W. w r as struck by a
w hale of the largest class, w ith such force, under the cat-head, that
the sea rushed in at the cabin windows : every man on deck was
knocked down, and the bow being completely stove in, the vessel
filled, and then w ent on her beam ends. By cutting away the masts,
however, she righted ; the upper deck was then scuttled, and some
water and bread were procured for the boats, in which the captain and
crew', in expectation of falling in with some vessel, remained three
days by the w reck, but were compelled at length to abandon it. On
the 20th of December they made Ducies Island, at which place the
boats remained a w eek; but the island affording scarcely any nou¬
rishment, they resolved on venturing for the Continent, leaving three
men behind. The tw r o boats, soon after leaving the island, parted.
One of them, containing only three men, was picked up by an Ameri¬
can whaler, about 60 days after the w reck. The other, in which was
the captain, was fallen in with by another whaler 90 days from the
time of their leaving the island. Only ten of her crew then survived,
and their account of their sufferings w r as dreadful in the extreme.
Eight times lots had been drawn, and eight human beings had been
sacrificed, to afford sustenance to those that remained ; and on the day
the ship encountered them, the captain and the boy had also drawn
lots, and it had then been determined that the poor boy should die :
providentially, how ever, the whaler hove in sight, and took them in ;
and they were restored to existence. Captain Raine, of the Surrey,
having learnt this melancholy tale at Valparaiso, whence he w'as to
sail for New South Wales, resolved to make Ducies Island in his
way, to rescue the three men left there, if still in existence. On
nearing the island, a gun was discharged, and shortly after the three
poor men were seen to issue from the woods. The boats were imme¬
diately lowered, and with considerable difficulty, owing to a heavy
surf, they w ere got on board.
New Southern Land .—Vessels from the lauds situated to the south
of Cape Horn have arrived in different parts with cargoes of seal
skins. The regions visited by the New-York navigators lie in about
the lat. of 62 deg. where vegetable life is so rare, that a little grass
in a few favoured places, and some moss on the rocks, are all the
forms of it that exist. This dreary climate exhibits during the wintei
season perpetual snow' and ice ; not a tree, nor even a shrub, appears.
The minerals brought home by Mr. B. Astor are partly primitive
and partly volcanic. The samples produced by Dr. Mitchell are:
1, quartz; 2, amethysts, in crystals; 3, porphyry, in small masses;
4, rough onyx, in pebbles; 5, lumps of coarse flint; 6, elegant
zeolite, like that of the Feroe group in the North Atlantic ocean;
7, pumice stone; 8, pyrites, surcharged w'ith sulphur. The manu¬
script chart made by Mr. Hampden Stewart, is an instructive addi-
vol. v.— no. 10. 2 f
432
Philosophical and Literary Intelligence.
tion to geography, and ought to be incorporated in the charts of the
globe. Geologists will learn with surprise, that the high grounds and
summits of the rocks, in several of the spots that have been visited,
are strewed with skeletons of whales, and relics of other marine ani¬
mals; leading to a belief, that the whole of the materials have been
hove up by the operation of volcanic fire from the depths of the
ocean. Further disclosures of the natural constitution of this curious
region are expected with impatience from future adventurers, as
there appears to be a wide field for new and original observations.
It is also hoped that we shall soon receive a more full and satisfac¬
tory account of the Terra Australis, or continent of the southern
hemisphere, occupying the vast space between the tracts already
surveyed and the Pole.
New Islands in the South Sea .—Captain Billinghausen, sent out by
the Russian Government on a voyage of discovery to the South Sea,
reports, that he has discovered three islands covered with snow, in
south latitude 56 degrees, on one of which smoke was seen issuing
from a volcano.
New Channels for Commerce , Src. in Africa .—The Sierra Leone
papers contain an interesting account of the mission of Mr. O’Beirne
from the governor of that colony to some of the native chiefs in the
interior, and especially to the chief of Teembo, whose territories
afford the most direct communication between Sierra Leone and the
Niger. While Mr. O’Beirne was at Teembo, he met there a deputa¬
tion from a chieftain whose dominions were still nearer the Niger,
and who wished to establish a friendly intercourse with our rising
colony. On Wednesday the 14th March, the grand palaver was
held before the assembled chiefs of Foutah-Jallon. Mr. O’Beirne
explained the objects of his mission; the most immediate and im¬
portant of which was, to engage the Foulah people to trade with the
colony of Sierra Leone, by the direct road to Port-Logo. Almamy
Abdool declared, that the wishes of the Governor of Sierra Leone,
on this head, met his own wishes ; that he had long been ardently
desirous for a more direct and more frequent intercourse with the
colony, and that he earnestly embraced the opportunity now pre¬
sented to him, of forming a regular trade by the path of Port-Logo.
The subordinate chiefs expressed their ready and cordial assent,
and there was not a single dissatisfied voice in the assembly ;
although it is well known that on such occasions the most perfect
freedom of opinion and of speech is enjoyed by all. In consequence
of this determination, messengers were sent out on all sides, to inform
the people of the country, that the path of Port-Logo was open for
their trade ; and notice was given to those who might wish to take
advantage of the favourable opportunity afforded by Mr. O’Bierne’s
return, to be ready to proceed with him in a few days. Cattle,
horses, and gold, in small parcels, are the principal materials of the
export trade of the Foulahs. A deputation has since arrived at
Sierra Leone from Almamy Abdal Kader, king of the Toulaha, at the
head of which was a prince, and a Mahometan priest and his wife.
This singular man came all the way from Egypt to the Mandingo
nation, with important information of the geography of Oriental
Africa; he had passed through Tombuctoo, and was of opinion
that the Niger and the Nile were the same river.
N. S. Wales .—The following is an extract of a letter from C. Throsby,
Esq. dated Glenfield, New South Wales, Feb. 1821: “I have been much
Philosophical and Literary Intelligence.
433
occupied the last six months giving instructions to the superinten¬
dent of a new line of road to the country I discovered beyond the
BJue Mountains, one month of which was employed on an excursion
with his Excellency the Governor, who expressed his admiration of
the country, and his high approbation of my personal exertions. I
shall make one more trip to the interior for about three weeks, after
which I shall bid adieu to discovery, as my health, from the great
pri\ ations I have undergone, demands it; but I am anxious to
ascertain the termination of a river which I discovered during the
time I was out with the Governor, at one of his depots, from whence
I made a further excursion, accompanied by one white man and a
native, for four days ; during my absence he was much alarmed for
mj' safetj’, as at setting out I had only a few biscuits, not intending
to be absent more than one day. The country and banks of the river
abound with slate and fine limestone, therefore should it (which I
have little doubt of) communicate with the sea, it will be of the
utmost importance to this Colony.”—The Tuscan has since brought
letters and papers from Port Jackson, to September the 7th ; by which
we learn that the indefatigable exertions of Mr. Throsby, who thus
ascertained the route to the fine country beyond the Blue Mountains,
have again been crowned with the most gratifying success. In a
letter of the 5th of September, to a gentleman in town, he says—
“ \ ou will see I am in a fair way of verifying my prediction, that ere
long a route would be continued as far to the southward on our con¬
tinent as Twofold Bay. The lake now discovered is full 140 miles
S. S. W. of Sydney, to which an open carriage road will be clear in a
month. The country is beautiful, and fully equal to my most san¬
guine expectations, for all the necessary purposes of colonization.
Picture to yourself large extensive downs, not plains, some as large
as from fifty to sixty thousand acres, without a tree, every where
covered with fine grass for sheep or cattle, and well watered, partly
by rippling streams, partly by chains of ponds, in all directions.
There are many plains, of different sizes, and the hills and broken
country around are thickly clad with excellent timber. It is, in fact,
a most desirable country, and before next Christmas I confidently
anticipate we shall prove that the snow and rain which fall on the
mountains and high country seen to the S. W. have an outlet to the
sea. The lake is called by the natives Warrewaa, and is stated by
them to empty its waters in a southerly direction, w here we perceive
an opening in the high land on its west margin, by a river they call
Murrum-hid-gee. The lake runs from N. to S. about 30 miles, and
extends in breadth from tw r o to ten miles, its margin abounding in
the most picturesque bays and points.” Many respectable settlers
had lately arrived, and w-e see in the Gazette of the 4th of Septem¬
ber, that 210 grants of land w'ere then awaiting delivery at the Secre¬
tary’s office. Some idea may be formed of the extent of society in
New Holland, from 120 gentlemen having dined at the Governor’s
table on the 4th of June. The colony is so full of all kinds of mer¬
chandise, that the commodities of India are much low r er than in this
country, and European articles of domestic consumption at little
advance on the English prices. Government having sent out duly
qualified pastors, chapels are now erecting at Sydney and Windsor,
for the performance of the Catholic rites of worship.
Visit to the Scenery of Ossian’s Poems. —Mr. Campbell, the Celtic
antiquary, has lately visited Ireland, and the Highlands of Scotland,
434
List of New Publications.
for the purpose of completing a map of the topography of Ossian.
He has since published an edition of the poems of that bard, with
geographical notes, illustrative of the scenery and other local proofs
of the authenticity of the father of British poets.
Travelling in Greece .—The benevolent exertions and hazards of the
Monks of St. Bernard, who inhabit the higher regions of the Alps,
are well known. A somewhat similar institution exists among the
defiles of Mount Olympus. It is maintained by five villages, the
inhabitants of which pay no kind of taxes, but are bound to give their
assistance to all travellers who cross the mountains, and to serve
them as guides. They discharge this honourable task with the
greatest alacrity and good management, and, like the benevolent
Monks of St. Bernard, employ the sagacity of dogs to discover tra¬
vellers who may have been so unfortunate as to be buried beneath
the snow.
Discoveries in Africa .—We understand that researches in Africa,
of a very interesting nature, are about to be published by Mr. Wal-
dech, a German, who has recently arrived in England from India,
having previously travelled through Africa, from Egypt to the Cape
of Good Hope. It appears, that at the foot of the Mountains of the
Moon, he found an inscribed pillar, erected by a Roman consul,
about the period of the reign of Vespasian. He found a level on the
top of these mountains nearly 400 miles broad, on which he disco¬
vered a temple of the highest antiquity, and in fine preservation, and
still used for religious purposes by the inhabitants. South of the
level, he passed a descent of 52 days’ journey, and, w-hen advanced
about nine days, he found the skeleton of a man, with a telescope
slung on his shoulder, marked with the name of Harris; and also a
chronometer, made by Marchant. There were also two other skele¬
tons ; and it w r as supposed the owners perished for want of water.
Out of four European companions who accompanied Mr. Waldech,
only one of them survived the hardships of the journey.
LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.
AGRICULTURE.
The Farmer’s Calendar. By Arthur Young. A new Edition, re¬
vised and enlarged. By John Middleton, Esq. 12mo. 12s.
ANTIQUITIES AND TOPOGRAPHY.
The History of Stamford in the County of Lincoln ; with St. Mar¬
tin’s, Stamford Baron, and Great and Little Wothorpe, in the
County of Northampton. 8vo. £1. 5s. Royal 4to. £2. 12s. 6d.
Architectural Antiquities of Normandy. By John Sell Cottman,
Esq. and Dawson Turner, Esq. 2 Vols. fol. £12. 12s. L.P. £21.
Daniel’s Picturesque Voyage round Great Britain. Vol.vi. £7. 10s.
A View of the Present State of the Scilly Isles. By the Rev. Geo.
Woodley. 8vo. 12s.
The History and Antiquities of Hengrave in Suflolk. By John
Gage, Esq. of Lincoln’s Inn. Royal 4to. £3. 13s. 6d.
List of New Publications.
Magna Britannia. By the Rev. Daniel Lysons and Samuel Lysons,
Esq. Yol. VI. Devonshire, 4to. £5. 15s. 6d. Royal 4to. £9. 9s.
Account of the Principal Pleasure Tours in England and Wales ;
illustrated by Maps and Views. 12mo. 10s. 6d.
A History of the County of York. By the Rev. Thomas Dunham
Whitaker, LL.D. Part ix. Fol. £2. 2s.
Essays on Ancient Greece. By H. D. Hill, D.D. 12mo. 7s.
BIOGRAPHY.
The Life of the Rev. Thomas Scott, Rector of Aston Sandford,
Bucks, including a narrative drawn up by himself, and copious ex¬
tracts from his letters. By John Scott. 8vo. 14s.
The Life of the Right Hon. WillielmaViscountess Glenorchy, contain¬
ing extracts from her diary and correspondence. By T. S. Jones,
D.D. 8vo. 10s. 6d.
Memoirs of the Life of Artemi ofWagarschapat,near mount Ararat
in Armenia, from the original Armenian. Written by himself. 8vo.
10s. 6d.
The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Samuel Denmore Hay¬
ward, denominated the modern Macklieatli. By Pierce Egan. 12mo. 6s.
Memoirs of Benvenuto Cellini; a Florentine Artist, written by him¬
self. Translated by Thomas Roscoe, Esq. 2Vols. 8vo.
Memoirs of the late Rev. A. Stewart, D.D. of Edinburgh. 8vo.
10s. 6d.
CLASSICS.
The Hippolytus and Alcestis of Euripides, literally translated into
English Prose. With notes from the text of Monk. 8vo. 4s.
Quintius Curtius’s History of Alexander the Great. Translated by
Peter Pratt. 2Vols. £1. 10s.
Annotations on Livy. By J. Walker. 8vo. 12s.
EDUCATION.
An Introduction to English Grammar and Composition, in 4 Parts.
By D.J. Cary. 5s.
The Universal Traveller, compiled from the Standard Modern Tra¬
vels. By Samuel Prior, 100 Wood Engravings. 10s. 6d.
An Epitome of Chemistry; wherein the Principles of that Science
are illustrated in 100 instructive Experiments. By Rev. J. Topham,
A.M. 12mo. 3s. 6d. .
Collectanea Latinae, or SelectExtracts from such Latin Authors as
are usually read in Schools before \irgil and Horace, with Notes and
a Vocabulary. By T. Quin.
A Greek Grammar for the Use of Schools, abridged from the Greek
Grammar of Augustus Mathise. By C. J. Bloomfield, D.D. 12mo.
Aristarchus; or, the Principles of Composition, with rules for
attaining to purity and elegance of expression. By Philip Williams.
The School-Fellows, a Tale. By Miss Sandham. Foolscap 8vo.
^Select Passages from the Bible, arranged under distinct heads for
the Use of Schools and Families. Alexander Adam, Teacher, Edin¬
burgh. 12mo. 4s. _ ,
Domestic Education. By W. J. Hort. -- * ols. £o. 13s.
436
List of New Publications.
FINE ARTS.
Memoir on Crystallo Ceramice,or Glass Incrustations. By Apsley
Pellatt, Jun. 4to. 5s.
Bridges’s coloured representations of the Customs and Manners of
France and Italy, with a descriptive account of the Plates. By the
late Dr. Polidori.
The Flemish, Dutch, and German Schools of Painting. By Rev.
S. James. 8vo. 12s.
Practical Hints on Composition in Painting, illustrated by exam¬
ples from the great Masters of the Italian, Flemish, and Dutch Schools.
By John Barnett. 4to. 12s.
Six Views of Bolton Abbey, drawn from nature, by C. Cope, and
on Stone, by A. Aglio. 8s.
Instructions for Civil and Military Surveyors in Plain Drawing. By
W. Sohorn, Lieut. 9tii Infantry. 4to. £1. 10s.
Young Artist’s Assistant; or, Elements of the Fine Arts. By Wil¬
liam Enfield, M.A. 12mo. 4s. 6d.
GEOGRAPHY AND ASTRONOMY.
A Celestial Atlas. By Alexander Jamieson, A.M. £1. 11s. 6d.
Elements of Astronomy. By John Brinkley, D.D. F.R.S. &c.
8vo. 12s.
A Complete Atlas of the English Counties. By Thomas Dix and
William Darton. £8. 8s.
Patterson’s Roads of England and Wales, re-modelled, augmented,
and improved. By Edward Mogg. 8vo. 16s.
The Edinburgh Gazetteer. 6 Vols. 8vo. £5. 8s.
history.
The New Annual Register, for 1821. 8vo. £1. Is.
Rivington’s Annual Register, for 1810. 8vo. £1.
Chronological Notes of Scottish Affairs, from 1680 to 1701, chiefly
taken from the diary of Lord Fountainhall. 4to. £1. 16s.
Dodsley’s Annual Register, for 1820. 8vo. £1. 12s.
The History of the British Empire, from the Accession ofCharles I.
to the Restoration. By George Brodie, Esq. Advocate. 4 Vols. 8vo.
£2. 12s. 6d.
A Summary of Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History, Ancient and
Modern. By the Rev. T. S. Collins, M.A. 2 Vols. 8vo. £1. Is.
LAW.
The Trial of Peter Heamen and Francis Gaatiez or Gaatier, before
the High Court of Admiralty at Edinburgh, Nov. 20, 1821, for Piracy
and Murder. Edited by Alexander Stuart, Clerk to the Trial.
Howell’s Collection of State Trials, Vol. XXX. being Vol. IX. of
the Continuation. Royal 8vo. £1. 11s. 6d.
A Full Report of the Trial of James Stuart, Esq. younger, of Dun-
earn, before the High Court of Justiciary, June 10, 1822. Reported
by a Member of the Court. 8vo.
An Enquiry into the Present State of the Statute and Criminal
Law of England. By John Miller, Esq. of Lincoln’s Inn. 8vo. 9s. 6d.
Report of the Trial, Leslie v. Blackwood. 3s.
MATHEMATICS.
The Rudiments of Practical Perspective. ByPeterNicholson.8vo.14s.
437
List of New Publications .
A System of Mechanics, for the use of the Students at the Univer¬
sity of Dublin. By the Rev. J. R. Robinson. 8vo. 13s.
The Elements of the Theory of Central Forces. By the Rev. D.
Lardner. 8vo. 8s.
MEDICINE.
A Journal of Popular Medicine, explaining the nature, causes, and
prevention of Diseases, &c. By Charles Thomas Headen, Surgeon
to the Chelsea and Brompton Dispensary. 2Vols. 8vo. 18s.
Analytical Physiology. By S. Wood, M.D. 8vo. 10s. 6d.
The Study of Medicine. By John Mason Good, M.D. 4 Vols.
8vo. £3. 4s.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Sir William Jones’s Discourses. 2 Yols. 24mo. 5s. 6d.
May you like it. By a country Curate. 12mo. 6s.
Introduction to Heraldry in 52 cards. 8s.
Sir Andrew Wylie of that Ilk. By the author of Annals of the
Parish. 3 Vols. 12mo. £1. Is.
A Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies.
By Granville Penn, Esq. 8vo. 12s.
The Use of the Blow-pipe in Chemical Analysis, and in the Exami¬
nation of Minerals. By J. J. Berelius. 8vo. 12s.
The Cambridge University Calendar, for 1822. 12mo. 6s.
Chinese Novels, translated from the original, to which are added,
Proverbs and Moral Maxims. By John Francis Davis, F.R.S.
Table Talk; or, Original Essays. By William Hazlett. Vol. II.
8vo. 14s.
Essays on Subjects of Importance in Metaphysics, Morals, and
Religion. By the late Isaac Hawkins Browne, Esq. 8vo. 15s.
An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Steam Engine. By
Charles Frederic Partington. 8vo. 18s.
A Practical Esay on the Strength of Cast Iron. By Thomas Tred-
gold. 8vo. 12s.
Essays. By Father Fitz-Eustace, a Mendicant Friar. Small 8vo.
7s. 6d. ,
A Search of Truth in the Science of the Human Mind. By the
Rev. Frederic Beasley, D.D. Part I. 8vo. 14s.
Letters on Prejudice. 2 Yols. 8vo. £1. Is.
The Historical Romances of the author of Waverley, containing
the Abbot, Monastery, Ivanhoe, and Kennilworth. 6 Vols. 8vo.
£3. 12s.
No Enthusiasm, a Tale of the Present Times. 2 Vols. Post 8vo. 12s.
The Remains of Henry Kirke White. By Robert Southey. Vol. III.
3 V0 . 9s.
The Family Cyclopedia; in 2 Parts. By James Jennings.
The Modern Art of Fencing, agreeably to the practice of the most
eminent Masters in Europe. By the Sieur Guzman Rolando. 18mo.
The Steam Boat. By the Author of Annals of the Parish, &c.
Dangerous Errors; a Tale. 12mo. 6s. •
Quarles’s Spare Hours; or, Four Centuries of Meditations. 2 V ols
Royal 16mo. 9s. . .
A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns, containing
Bard, and of the characters he immortalized, with
of Poetry, original and selected. Small 8vo. 8s.
Anecdotes of the
numerous pieces
438
List of New Publications.
NATURAL HISTORY.
An Appendix to the Midland Flora. By Thomas Purton. 8vo.
with 52 coloured Plates. £1. 10s.
The Natural History of Sherborne. By the late Rev. Gilbert White,
M.A.; to which are added the Naturalist’s Calendar, &c. 2Vols.
8vo. 16s.
The Florist’s Manual, or Hints for the Construction of a gay Flower
Garden. Foolscap 8vo. 5s. Gd.
Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales. By the Rev.W. D.
Conybeare and William Phillips. Part I. with a Map and Sections.
8vo. 16s. Fine Paper, 20s.
The Philosophy of Zoology. By John Fleming, D.D. 2 Vols.
8vo. 10s.
Geological Essays, comprising a view of the order of the Strata, &c,
in the district of the river Avon. By J. SuttclifTe, A.M. Bvo. 4s.
An Introduction to the Study of Fossil Organic Remains, espe¬
cially of those found in the British Strata, &c. By James Parkinson,
12s.
Ilortus Anglicus, or the Modern English Garden, &c. By the Au¬
thor of “ British Botany.” 2 Yols. 12mo. 16s.
The Different Modes of Cultivating the Pine Apple, from its first
introduction into Europe to the late improvements of T. A. Knight,
Esq. Bvo. 9s.
Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society. Vol. IV.
Part I. 10s. 6d.
Bivalve Shells of the British Islands. By W, Turton,M.D. 4to. £2.
PHILANTHROPY.
An Account of a Plan for conducting of a Penny Savings’ Bank,
for Children, with the addition of a Sinking Fund for Families; in¬
cluding directions and patterns for cutting out every sort of wearing
apparel. 5s.
Description of a Tread Mill, for the employment of Prisoners.
8vo. 3s.
The Influence of Protestant Missionary Establishments in deve¬
loping the Physical and Moral Condition of Man, &c. By Thomas
Myers, of the Royal Academy, Woolwich. 3s.
Speech of the Rev. Dr. Chalmers, on the 24th May, 1822, before
the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, explanatory of the
measures which have been successfully pursued in St. John’s Parish
Glasgow, for the extinction of compulsory Pauperism. 8vo. 2s. ’
PHILOLOGY.
The Persian Moonsliee. By the late Francis Gladwin, Esq.
Abridged by W. C. Smith, Esq.
POETRY.
Selim ; a Turkish Tale, in 3 Cantos. By G. Fitzgerald
Sir Heraud of Milan; a Tale. Royal 8vo. 6s. °
Poetical Works of the Rev. George Crabbe. 5 Yols. 8vo. £3.
Small 8vo. £2. 8s.
Memorials of a Tour upon the Continent. By William Words¬
worth. Svo. 6s. 6d.
The Poetry contained in the Novels, Tales, and Romances of the
Author of Waverley. Foolscap 8vo. 9s.
439
List of New Publications.
Halidon Hill, a Dramatic Sketch from Scottish History. By Sir
Walter Scott, Bart. 8vo. 6s.
Songs of Zion, being Imitation of Psalms. By James Mongomery.
12mo. 5s.
The Grave of the Last Saxon; or the Legend of the Curfew, a Poem.
By the Rev. W. L. Bowles. 8vo. 6s.
The Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus, translated into English
Verse. By W. Gilford, Esq. with Notes, Illustrations, and the Latin
Text. 8vo. 10s. 6d.
The Poetical Works of James Hogg. 4 Vols. foolscap 8vo. £1. 10s.
The Mohawks; a Satirical Poem, with Notes. 8vo. 7s. 6d.
Sacred Lyrics. By James Edmeston. Vol. III.
Nonsense Verses; with an Introduction and Notes. By James
Harley. 12mo. 4s. 6d.
Epigrams and other Short Poems, on various subjects, serious and
comic. By Edw r ard Trapp Pilgrim, Esq.
Cimmor; or, the Bugle Horn, a Tragedy, with other Dramatic
Dialogues and Miscellaneous Poems. By Elijah Barwell Impey.
Faithful and Forsaken. A Dramatic Sketch.
POLITICS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Letters to Count Toreno, on the proposed Penal Code. By Jeremy
Bentliam. 5s.
Ostensible Causes of the Present State of Ireland. By Wesley
Doyle, Esq. Is. 6d.
Review of the Banking System of England. 8vo. 7s. 6d.
Address to the Land-Owners of ihe United Empire. By C. C.
Western, Esq. M.P. 2s.
Thoughts on the Poor Laws; with a Plan for reducing the Poor's
Rates preparatory to their Abolition. By S. Brooks. 8vo. Is. 6d.
Observations, addressed to his Excellency the Marquis Wellesley,
K.G., &c. 8cc. on the State of Ireland. By the Earl of Blessington.
8vo. 5s.
The Speeches of Sir Samuel Romilly in the House of Commons,
with a Memoir of his Life. By William Peter, Esq. 2 Vols. 8vo. 26s.
An Answer to a Sixth Edition of a Pamphlet, supposed official, on
the State of the Nation, accompanied with a third chapter, being a
Treatise on Agricultural Distress, &c. &c.
The PresentjState of England, in regard to Agriculture, Trade, and
Finance. By Joseph Lowe, Esq. 8vo. 12s.
THEOLOGY.
Prayers, for the Use of Families and Individuals. By the Rev.
Edmund Butcher. 8vo. 8s.
Sermons, on the Public Means of Grace, the Fasts and Festivals,
&c. By the late Rt. Rev. Theodore Dehon, D.D. Bishop of South
Carolina. 2 Vols. 8vo. £1. Is.
Sermons, on the Christian Faith and Character. By Rev. John
Bird Sumner, A.M. 5s. 6d.
Testimonies of the Truth of Natural and Revealed Religion; ex¬
tracted from the works of distinguished Laymen. By the Rev. James
Brewster. 12mo. 5s. 6d.
Sermons on the Christian Character, with occasional Discourses.
By the Rev. Charles James Hoare, A.M. 10s. 6d.
Sermons. By the Rev. J. W 7 . Cunningham, Vicar of Harrow.
8vo. 10s. 6d.
List of New Publications.
The History and Conversion of a Jewish Boy. 12mo. 4s. 6d.
The Seasons contemplated in the Spirit of the Gospel. Six Ser¬
mons. By the Rev. Thomas Gillispie, Minister of Cutts. 12mo.
4s. 6d.
Plain Sermons, on the Relative Duties of the Poor. By Arthur B.
Evans, Jun. M.A. 12mo. 4s.
Biblical Fragments. By Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck. Vol. II.
Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
Christian Fellowship; or the Church Member’s Guide. By the Rev.
J. A. James. 12mo.
The Seaman’s Prayer Book; being a Form of Prayer, selected
chiefly from the Liturgy, adapted to the Worship of God at Sea.
18mo. 2s. 6d.
Six Village Sermons, on Relative Duties. By the Rev. Edward
Berens, M.A. Is. 6d.
Lectures on the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity. By Edward Andrews
LL.D. Part II. 8vo. 7s.
The Epistles of Paul the Apostle, translated, with an Exposition
and Notes. By the Rev. T. Belsham. 4 Vols. 8vo. £2. 12s. 6d.
The Collects prefixed to the Epistles and Gospels, in tiie Church
of England and Ireland, catechetically explained. By the Rev. J.
RadclifTe, M.A. 12mo. 5s.
Observations on the Metrical Version of the Psalms made by
Sternhold,Hopkins, and others, with a view to illustrate the authority
with which this collection was at first admitted. Bv the Rev J H
Todd,M.A % 8vo. 4s. y
Sermons on Subjects Doctrinal and Practical. By the Rev H G
White, A.M. 2 Vols. 8vo. 24s.
Discourses, Explanatory and Practical, on the Epistle of St. Jude.
By W. Muir, D.D. 8vo. 7s. 6d.
The orks of the Rev. John Gambold, with an Introductory Es¬
say. By Thomas Erskine, Esq. Advocate. 12mo. 4s.
Practica 1 and Familiar Sermons. By the Rev. E. Cooper.
Vol. IV. 6s. r
On the Moral Benefits of Death to Mankind. By D. Eaton Is
A Country Parson’s Second Offering to his Mother Church in
Nine Pastoral Sermons. 12mo. 3s.
Scripture Principles, Precepts, and Precedents, in Favour of the
Baptism of Infants. By D. Isaac. 12mo. 4s. 6d.
VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.
Travels in North Europe, selected from Modern Writers. By the
Rev. W. Bingley, M.A. 12mo. 6s. 6d. J
Journal of a Tour and Residence in Switzerland. By L. Simond.
2 V ols. £1. 4s.
Ported"Vjj. U e0r $? f 4 f , 6d Dia ’ Pmia ' &C - By Sir Eober * Ker
£2. 8s. H °‘ y L “ d - By ‘ he la ‘ e J ° hn lewis
An Inquiry concerning the State of the Ancient Palibothra,Part IV
containing a Tour from Bhaugalpoor to Mandar, thence to Curruck-
poor and a Circuit of the Hills, with an Account of the Site of the An¬
cient City of Jey Nuggur, and some remarks on the Jeyne worship •
made during the months of December and January, 1818—19. By
William Franklin. 4to. 15s. y
I
441
RELIGIOUS AND PHILANTHROPIC
INTELLIGENCE.
Society for the Building and Enlargement of Churches. The Fourtli
Anniversary of this Society was held on Monday, May 20; the Arch¬
bishop of Canterbury in the chair. From the Report it appeared,
that in the course of the last year sixty-eight applications had been
received, fifty-four grants made, to the amount of £13,551, and room
provided for 16,891 persons; 12,764, about three-touiths of.the
whole being free sittings. Since the formation of the Society
60 000 additional sittings have been provided, of which near 50,000
are free and unappropriated. The contributions to the Society', from
its origin, have been in donations £60,873. 6s. 10d., and in annual
subscriptions £630. 14s. During the last year two donations of
£500 each were sent anonymously. , . .
Cheshunt College .—On Thursday, June 13, the Thirtieth Anniver¬
sary of the opening of the late Countess of Huntingdon s College,
(now at Cheshunt, Herts,) was held in the College Chapel. Four of
the students read selections from the Scriptures and.from the Liturgy
of the Church of England. Mr. William Lucy and Mr. Eben. Morley
(two of the senior students) delivered orations, the latter on ‘ divine
illumination,’ and the former on ‘ the image of God.’ The Rev. Dr.
Collyer preached from Rev. xix. 10. ‘The testimony of Jesus is the
Spirit of prophecy.’ A large party of the friends of the Institution
afterwards dined together, when a Report of the state of the College
was read. Besides the Collection at the Chapel, several liberal
donations were presented in the course of the day; new subscribers
were announced, and some of the old ones doubled the amount of
their annual subscriptions. . . e ,, .
Baptist Home Missionary Society .—The Annual Meeting of tins
Institution was held on Tuesday evening, June 18, at the City of
London Tavern ; Edward Phillips, Esq. High Shenft of M lltslnre, m
the chair. The Report stated, that the Society now employed twelve
Missionaries, who are entirely devoted to the work, under the direc¬
tion of the Committee, besides assisting upwards of eighty stated
ministers and occasional preachers of the gospel, situated in twenty-
six counties in England, and seven in Wales. Each of these labour¬
ers regularly preaches at from two to ten different stations ; and they
have altogether upwards of an hundred Sunday schools ^
care. The receipts of the last year amounted to nearly £J30,
upwards of £200 more than those of any former y^ear. Still tiie
stated income of the institution does not amount to one half its
expenditure the larger proportion must therefore be provided by
occasional donations and public collections, which are not obtained
without considerable labour and expense. , \nniver-
Ttrmtist Mission —On Wednesday morning, June 19, the Annivei
sary of this Society commenced by a sermon, delivered iu the Metiio-
dilt Chapel Great Queen-street, by the Rev. W. Jay, of Bath. In
the evening the Rev. Micah Thomas, of Abergavenny, preached at
Sion Chapel. At a prayer meeting, held for
imploring a divine blessing upon the society and its founders,
442 Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence.
following morning, at Eagle-street meeting house, the venerable Dr.
Ryland, of Bristol, delivered a very suitable address, from Acts xxi.
28. ‘ Men of Israel, help.’ The public meeting was soon afterwards
held in Great Queen-street Chapel, Benjamin Shaw, Esq. the
treasurer, in the chair; who, in his speech with which he opened the
meeting, very happily adverted to the pleasing instance of Chris¬
tian liberality, afforded by the fact of an Independent minister
having preached in a Wesleyan chapel, for a Baptist Society. The
Report contained an interesting account of the present state of the
missions on the Continent of India, in Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, the
West Indies, &c. together with a statement of the measures adopted
at home for promoting the interest of the society. From the state¬
ment of accounts, it appeared that the receipts of the society in the
year just closed, had been greater than in any preceding year,
except the last, in which extraordinary donations and collections
had been made to the amount of £2000. The amount received in
the past year was about £11,600, exceeding the expenditure by
£1000; but as the treasurer had immediately to make a large
remittance to India, and was under acceptance for bills drawn from
thence, he concluded his statement of accounts by informing the
meeting, that the amount of debt due from the society might still be
stated at £4000.
Rotherham Independent College. —On Tuesday, June 25, was held
the Annual Examination of the Students of this Institution; Dr.
Boothroyd was called to the chair. The junior Hebrew Class read
in the twelfth chapter of Deuteronomy, and analyzed such words as
any member of the Committee pleased to point out. The senior
Hebraeans read in the book of Psalms, and went through two, which
the Chairman selected at the moment; they read also in the book of
Proverbs. The Chaldee and Syriac Classes were examined in the
second chapter of Daniel, and in the seventh chapter of John, in the
Peshito Syriac version. The junior Greek Class read in the first
chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and parsed several verses.
Another Class was examined in the Oration of Lysias against Era¬
tosthenes, and in the Septuagint version of the book of Proverbs.
The seniors read in the Oration of .Eschines against Ctesiphon.
In Latin, the juniors were examined in the Second Ode of the first
book of Horace. They produced and read several English transla¬
tions of these Odes. Another Class translated part of the first book
of Tacitus’s History. The afternoon was occupied with examining the
Students in Theology. The Mathematical Examination in the even¬
ing was precluded by a meeting of the General Committee of the
Institution.—On the following day, Wednesday 26, the Annual
Meeting of the Subscribers was held, Joseph Read, Esq. in the chair
Mr ; ® ens ° n read t0 the meetin S a Greek Theme ; and Mr. Matthews
and Mr. Barton delivered Latin Themes. The Report of the Com¬
mittee announced, that there had been nineteen students in the
Institution at the commencement of the session; that six would
finish their studies at the present Midsummer—of these five are
going to stations of usefulness, and one intends finishing his educa¬
tion at the University of Edinburgh.—In the Evening, at the Chapel
three students delivered English Themes;—Mr. Woodwork ‘ On
the certainty and near approach of the Millennium;’ Mr. Johnson
On the means of hastening that state of the Church ; Mr. Benson’
On the effusion of the Spirit to give efficacy to those means ’ Mr’
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence.
443
Scales, of Leeds, delivered an appropriate address to the students,
which closed the services of the day—The Report of the Treasurer
announced that he was more than £400 in advance; while the
expenses of the current year are unprovided for—a circumstance
which must distress all the friends of the Institution.
Homerton Academy .—On the morning of June 26th, the Annual
Sermon before the friends of this Institution was preached at Broad-
street by the Rev. John Innes, of Camberwell. In the evening two
of the Students delivered orations; Mr. Jacobson, ‘On False
Notions of Charity in Religious Matters/ and Mr. Morell ‘ On Preju¬
dices with regard to Religion.’ On the following day was the pub¬
lic examination of the students, the Rev. W. Ward, of Stow-market,
in the chair. The examination in the department of Languages had
taken place on a preceding day by Mr. Ward and Mr. Innes, in the
most close and rigorous manner, none of the classes having any
previous knowledge of the passages which they would be called upon
to explain, parse, or scan, except so far as that they would be in the
authors read throughout the past year. The conductors of this
strict examination in the Latin and Greek Classics, and in the
Hebrew Bible, expressed themselves highly gratified with its results.
On the public day, the students were interrogated on several branches
of science, and particularly in theology ; and the ministers and other
o-entlemen present were pleased to express their ^satisfaction. The
Chairman delivered an affectionate and instructive chaxge to the
students, and the meeting was concluded, as it had been opened,
with prayer. Shortly after, the first stone of the new Academy was
laid by the venerable Treasurer, Joseph Stonard, Esq. who delivered
an appropriate speech on the occasion; after which a hymn w r as
sun"-, and a very suitable and interesting address was delivered by
the'Rev. Dr. Winter, in wiiich he gave a sketch of the history of the
Academy and its tutors from the commencement; and, in conclusion,
solemn prayer was offered by the Divinity tutor for a blessing on this
undertaking, and on all the interests of our country and the universal
church of God. Mr. Innes and Dr. Winter have complied with the
request made known to them, for the publication of the sermon and
address
Hoxton Academy .-On Tuesday, July 2, the Annual Examination
of the Students was held before several ministers and friends of the
Institution The Rev. Dr. Manuel was in the chair for the Classical
and Oriental department, and the Rev. Mr. Macfarlane for the Belles
Lettres Philosophical and Theological department. The students
of the first year read in Latin portions of Cicero’s Orations, and in
Greek ^Rsop’s Fables, from the Collectanea Minora. They were
examined also in subjects connected with the Belles Lettres. Those
of the second year read in Latin some of the Odes of Horace, and in
Greek a part of Lucian’s Dialogues. They were also examined on
various subjects connected with Intellectual Philosophy and m part
of the third book of Euclid’s Elements. The whole of this class
produced Essays on different branches of the Philosophy of the
Mind, some of which were read. Those of the third year were
examined in Tacitus and Demosthenes. Some of them read Essajs
^ important topics of Biblical Criticism. In Hebrew they were
examined in the prophecies of Isaiah. In Divinity they gave a ful
account of the lectures they had received on
Sin. Those of the fourth year read part of the CLdipus Coloneus oi
444
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence.
Sophocles, and the Chaldee of the hook of Daniel. They also
underwent an examination on the Lectures which had been delivered
on the doctrine of Divine Intluence. Both in this and the third
class the students answered various questions proposed to them by
the examiners on the subjects of their lectures and essays. An
attestation to the satisfactory attainments and proficiency of the
students was signed by the chairman and several other ministers.
—On Wednesday evening three of the students delivered short dis¬
courses at the Chapel adjoining the Academy: Mr. Dawson, ‘ On
Compassion for the Souls of Men ;’ Mr. Tippets, ‘ On the Practical
Tendency of the Doctrine of the Atonement;’ and Mr. Sibree, ‘ On the
Day of Pentecost.’—On Thursday evening the General Meeting of
the Subscribers to the Institution was held at the City of London
Tavern, Thomas Wilson, Esq. in the chair. From the Report of the
Committee it appears, that during the past year seven of the students
have entered on stations of usefulness. Mr. J. Roberts is settled at
Melton Mowbray; Mr. W. Gear at Market Harborough; Mr. J.
Pain at Horncastle, Lincolnshire; Mr. W. Evans at Wymondham,
Norfolk; Mr. John Woolridge at Northumberland-street, Bristol;
Mr. J. Anderson, at Market Raisin, Lincolnshire ; and Mr. T. Maccon-
nell at Romford. By the statement of the accounts it appears that
the treasurer is £144 in advance.
Royal Humane Society. —The Anniversary Festival of this laudable
Institution was held on Wednesday, April 10, at the City of London
Tavern, Bishopsgate-street, the Duke of Northumberland in the
chair. In the course of the evening, the individuals who have
been restored through the medium of the Society’s plans, were intro¬
duced into the room, which they paraded to slow music, and the
solemnity of the scene produced a most powerful impression. The
Secretary’s Report stated, that within the period of forty-eight
years, the Society had paid 20,500 claimants, for cases where lives
have been preserved. Since its establishment, 5000 individuals
including the saved and restored, have been rescued through its
agency, in the metropolis, from premature death. It has been
suggested that a medal should be presented, and worn by watermen
whose exertions have saved the lives of individuals. In the course
of last year, the number of cases which came under the considera¬
tion of the Society amounted to 149, of which 134 were successful
and 15 unsuccessful. Among the 149, were 20 attempted suicides
of females, and 3 of males, and two fell victims to self-destruction
i he number of successful cases were 5154; and the number of
claimants rewarded, added to the total of former years, 20 535' the
above enumeration is merely confined to London and its vici’nitv.
In instancingthe effects of the Society in the year 1820-1, it was stated
that forty persons fell through the ice in the Serpentine River, and
Canal m St. James s Park, but were saved through the Society’s
means.—A most interesting ceremony took place in the course of the
evening in the presentation of a medal by the Duke of Northum-
berland to a Mrs. Blamire, through whose exertions the life of an
individual was saved. Dec. 30, 1821, during very tempestuous wea¬
ther, a boat belonging to the Industry, tender to his Majesty’s ship
Severn, was coming on shore with 14 men onboard ; at eight o’clock
sea W Mrs ee R and . ever / man was consigned to the raging
window an 1 ?!' *3? K C u ?? X1 u US ? Aching the boat from her cottage
window, and she beheld the circumstance. She hastened to the
445
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence.
beach to afford relief, but the boat and crew were sunk ; the body of
an old man was dragged from the water: she ordered him to be re¬
moved to her own cottage, and after following the instructions of
the Society, and paying the most unceasing attention to the man, he
was restored, although apparently dead when taken out of the water.
She was received with the most rapturous applause. A subscription
to a large amount was made by the company.
Philanthropic Society, Mile End .—The Anniversary Dinner and
Meeting of this Institution was held, Thursday, April 11, at the City
of London Tavern. This Society, which was established in 180.3, has
for its laudable object, the discharge of persons confined for small
debts; and the temporary relief of the necessitous manufacturing
and labouring poor in London and its environs. At half-past five the
chair was taken, in the unavoidable absence of the Duke of Sussex,
by N. Charrington, Esq. In the course of the evening the Treasurer
read a long list of subscriptions, and commented on the growing
prosperity of the Institution. During the last year, 1699 persons
were relieved from different parishes:—discharged from prisons
for small debts, 60 ; relieved in distress 1639, at an expense of
£753. 5s. 4d. The total number of persons discharged from prison
since the establishment of the Society in March, 1803, amounts to
1513; and in addition, 24,299 have been relieved, who, with their
families, make an aggregate of 93,886 persons.
Caledonian Asylum .—The Fifth Anniversary Festival of this excellent
Institution, was held on Saturday evening, April 13, in Freemasons'
Hall. The Society has for its object the supporting and educating
the children of soldiers, sailors, and mariners, natives of Scotland,
who have been disabled or have died in the service of their country,
and of indigent Scotch parents resident in London, not entitled to paro¬
chial relief. At seven o’clock Sir Chas. Grant took the chair, and
was supported by the Right Hon. Lord Stowell, Major-Gen. Sir
W. G. Keir, and a number of other distinguished personages, toge¬
ther with a most respectable company, many of whom were clad in
the martial Highland costume, which had a peculiarly splendid
effect. Thirty boys, clothed in the Highland dress by the Society,
entered the hall, and went through various evolutions. Their ap¬
pearance elicited much applause.
Economical Society—On Saturday, April 13, the Anniversary Din¬
ner of the Co-operative and Economical Society, founded on Mr.
Owen’s plans took place at Guildford-street East, Gray’s-Inn-Lane,
and was respectably attended. The dinner was furnished in a style
of elegant economy, and consisted of good substantial fare. After
dinner Mr. Owen read his principles upon which the Institution was
founded, gave an account of the advantages and progress of the
Society, and enlarged upon those evils which it was intended to re¬
move, and those blessings it was calculated to diffuse. Fiom the
principles wliich he depictured, it appeared that the Society was a
government in miniature, consisting of a community of families,
and producing a community of interests. The Society, contemplates
a reform in the present system of education, an amelioration of the
condition of man as an individual, and a promotion of his happiness
as a social being. »
London Orphan Asylum .—Wednesday evening, April 17, the Anni¬
versary Festival of this Institution was held at the City of London
Tavern, his Royal Highness the Duke of York in the chair. In the
44 G
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence.
course of the evening:, 1.30 boys and girls educated by the Society
paraded the room, and exhibited a very healthy and clean
appearance. The Report stated, that since the preceding Anniver¬
sary twelve children had left the Asylum, their education being com¬
plete ; and 35 had been received under their protection, leaving the
number now in the establishment 132. It also appeared, that the
monies received on account of the Building Fund (it being intended
by the Society to have a more commodious establishment) amount
to nearly £8000, but they do not intend commencing the building
until the fund increases to £10,000. At the last election, 91 persons
were on the list, but only 14 could be admitted, it is therefore the
intention of the Board to erect a building for 300 children. The sub¬
scriptions of the evening were very handsome, and we trust will
soon enable the Committee to realize all their benevolent inten¬
tions.
Magdalen Hospital. —The 64th Anniversary of this Hospital was
held on Thursday, April 12, when, after an appropriate sermon by
the Lord Bishop of Llandaff, from Rom. xii. 15, the Governors and
other Friends to this most useful, but unobtrusive charity, dined at
the London Tavern, the Hon. Mr. Percy in the chair, supported by
Mr. Justice Park, and Mr. Justice Richardson. The collection at
the chapel amounted to £64. 3s., and at the dinner to £352. 7s. 6d.
London Hospital. —The Annual Sermon for the benefit of this
Charity, was preached on Friday, April 19, at the chapel in the
Hospital, by the Bishop of Exeter. After having inspected the Hos¬
pital, the Governors and Friends of the Institution repaired to the
London Tavern, where they partook of an elegant dinner provided
lor the occasion, his Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester in the
chair. A handsome collection was made.
Artists’ General Benevolent Institution. —This Society held its
eighth Anniversary Dinner, on Friday evening, May 3, at Free¬
masons’ Tavern. The Earl of Liverpool, in the absence of the Duke
of York, presided. At the close of the evening, his Lordship
announced, that the collection in the room amounted to £500.
London Female Penitentiary. —The Annual Meeting of this most
benevolent Society was held on Monday, May 6, in the great room of
the Crown and Anchor Tavern, Strand, W. Wilberforce, Esq M P
m the chair. From the Report of the last year’s proceedings it
appears, that during that period 149 applications had been made to
the Society. Fourteen young women had been placed in situations
39 restored to their friends, 21 discharged or left on their own
account, one had passed to her parish, and one died. Several
affecting anecdotes were related of some of the applicants. Letters
had been received from those who were placed in service, expressing
their gratitude, and requesting permission to become subscribers
There are now 100 inmates in the Asylum. The Report next detailed
the operations of the Society established at Brighton on the 15th of
April, under the auspices of his Majesty, which had effected great
good m that town. The subscriptions raised during the last year
amounted to £4075. 19s. and the expenditure to £123 less, but
mere still remained a balance against the Society of £500. The
Rep ° rt 9 k 0n £ ( lu(led calling for additional pecuniary assistance, to
enable the Committee to support the many cases which come before
Artists’ Benevolent Fund .—Tuesday evening, May the 7th, the
447
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence.
Anniversary of this Institution, for relieving the Widows and Or¬
phans of Distressed Artists, was celebrated at Freemasons’ Tavern,
the Earl of Blesington in the chair. The Report of the Society pre¬
sented a most flourishing account of the state of the Institution; in
the last year several instances of relief to widows and orphans
were mentioned. A liberal subscription was made.
African Institution. —Friday, May 10, the Sixteenth Anniversary
Meeting of this Institution was held at the Freemasons’ Tavern,
Great Queen-street, Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields; his Royal Highness the
Duke of Gloucester in the chair. The Report commenced by stating,
that a lamentable increase had taken place in the Slave Trade since
the last Annual Meeting. The whole of Western Africa, from the
river Senegal to Benguela, had during that period sw r armed with
slave vessels; and an active and increasing slave trade had also been
carried on, on the eastern shores of that continent, particularly
from the island of Zanzebar. It had been ascertained that the chief
seat of this traffic was in the river Bonny, and at Calabar, and that
190 slave ships had entered the former river, and 162 the latter, for
the purpose of purchasing slaves.
British and Foreign School Society. —The Seventeenth Anniversary
of this excellent Society was held on Thursday, May 16, at Free¬
masons’ Hall, H.R.H. the Duke of Sussex in the chair. The Report,
began with stating, that if the attention of the Committee were con¬
fined to the pecuniary concerns of the Society, their task w'ould be
extremely painful, as the expenses of the Society far exceeded its
income, and amounted to more than double the sum of its annual
subscriptions: the Committee, however, turned with much pleasure
to the progress of the Society in the w r ork of education. The Cen¬
tral School in the Borough-road contains 500 boys and 300 girls ; and
21,396 children have been educated at this school from its commence¬
ment. During the last year, thirty masters were prepared to propa¬
gate the system; and eight missionaries studied the plan, in order to
introduce it into their schools among the heathen. The youths
brought from Madagascar, who had been ten months under instruc¬
tion, had made a progress beyond what could have been expected ;
fair specimens of their writing were handed round the room, and ex¬
cited much admiration. Spelling and Scripture lessons are now
prepared in French, Italian, Spanish,Russian, and Portuguese. Auxi¬
liary Societies are spreading through different parts of the kingdom.
Literary Fund. —The Anniversary of this excellent Institution w r as
celebrated at the Freemasons’ Tavern, on Tuesday, May 22. H.R.H.
the Duke of York in the chair, being supported on the right by the
Duke of Somerset, and on the left by the French Ambassador. Dr.
Yates delivered a very interesting Report of the proceedings of the
Committee; but, as he justly remarked, the delicacy necessary to be
observed in the distribution of their funds was such as precluded the
Committee from making a full and public report of the benefits
achieved by their generosity. He however recited several cases
which met with strong sympathy, and the whole was received with
general approbation. He farther stated, that he had received a
donation of £1000, from And. Strahan, Esq. and two half-yearly
donations, of 100 guineas each, from his Majesty.
Royal Metropolitan Infirmary for Sick Children. —Thursday, May
30, the first Anniversary of this Institution, which is patronized by
his Majesty, and consecrated to the memory of the Princess Charlotte,
VOL. v.—NO. 10 . 2 G
448
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence.
was celebrated at Freemasons’ Tavern, Dr. M‘Leod in the ehair.
From the Report of the Royal Metropolitan Infirmary, it appeared,
that since the commencement of the Institution, the total number of
patients admitted at various stations, amounted to 8475. Of these,
only 3440 appeared to have been vaccinated, 1884 having had the
small pox, and consequently 3145 remained totally unprotected; a
proportion of children which cannot be contemplated without much
anxiety, and which would render the fatality of that disease very
great, should it unfortunately become epidemic. The Medical Offi¬
cers endeavoured to remedy this evil; but they regretted to say, that
few parents availed themselves of the oilers to vaccinate their children.
Of those who had been afllicted with small pox, 1360 had it in its
natural form, and 524 had been wilfully subjected to it by inocula¬
tion; giving evidence that there are still members of the medical
profession, who employ themselves in creating those maladies which
the exertions of their brethren and the legislature are directed to
suppress. From the Treasurer’s Report, it appeared that the funds
were not flourishing in proportion to the excellence of the Institution;
but a firm conviction is entertained that the public will come forward
with the most spirited support, when its effects are more generally
known. J
British and Foreign Philanthropic Society. —Saturday, May 31, the
first General Meeting of this Society, established for the purpose of
affording permanent relief to the labouring classes, was held at the
Freemasons’ Hall, Adm. Lord Torrington in the chair. The Report
was read by the Earl of Blesington, and stated, that the plan proposed
originated in a design to imitate the benevolent Institution of New
Lanark, which had been many years under the judicious manage¬
ment of Mr. Owen, who had very obligingly communicated the whole
of his arrangements. The Committee had, therefore, adopted a plan
somewhat similar, but not including the whole of that gentleman’s
former propositions. Lord B. then stated a series of propositions
or resolutions for the adoption of the meeting, the purport of which
was, that—1. This plan oilers a safe and profitable mode of investing
capital.—2. That it presents a practicable method of eventually ex-
tinguishing the poor s rates.—3. That in the proposed communities
the producer and consumer will be alike benefitedand 4 That the
moral and religious principles and habits here cultivated, will afford
uie best security against the evils of vice and poverty. One of the
Secretaries then read the amount of subscriptions, among which w ere
three of £5000 each, from Col. Hunter of Dalzell, J. Morrison Esq.
1 ^ S< L °* DeTon; and severa I more of £1200 and
£1000; but the highest was £10,000 from R. Owen, Esq. There
had been also £15,000 subscribed in Edinburgh, Manchester and
Birmingham. r
Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline, ^e.— The General
Meeting of this important Society w as held on Monday, June 2 at
Freemasons Hall, His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester,
Patron, in the chair. The Report largely developed the objects of
the Society and delineated its progress in Russia, Prussia, France
Spain, Portugal, and America, even as far as Mexico. It justly
eulogized the labours of Mrs. Fry, and the Ladies’ Committee; and
stated the formation of similar Committees in several parts of Great
Britain, and in various cities on the Continent, particularly in Rus¬
sia. It then noticed the attention paid to the reform of juvenile
Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence . 449
offenders, and the formation of a temporary refuge for them, implor¬
ing pecuniary aid for its support.
National School Society /.—Wednesday, June 5, the Annual Meeting
of the Subscribers to the National Society for the Education of the
Poor in the principles of the Established Church, on the System of
Dr. Bell, was held at the Central School-House, Baldwin’s Gardens,
Gray’s I nn-Lane. There were present the Archbishops ofCanterbury
and York, the Bishops of London, Salisbury, Chester, Worcester,
Exeter, and Llaudaff, Lords Calthorp and Kenyon, Sir Jas.Langham,
Mr. Wilberforce, and many other distinguished philanthropists. The
Archbishop of Canterbury took the chair. The Rev. Dr. Walmsley,
the Honorary Secretary of the Society, read the Report of the Com¬
mittee for the last year ; by which it appeared that 82 new schools
had been formed on the National Plan, in different parts of the king¬
dom, in the last year, whilst 13 schools had been discontinued;
that the total number of schools was 1790;'and also that an increase
of upwards of 12,000 had taken place in the last year, in the number
of children educated in the different schools, the total number being
upwards of 250,000. The Society had in the course of the year given
assistance to 39 schools, by grants of money, amounting to £3425.
The total receipts of the Society for the year amounted to £3634,
and their funded property to £3600. The Report being read, the
Archbishop of Canterbury addressed the Meeting in support of the
Society, concluding his speech with tho broad assertion—that the
education of the people of this country belonged by law, and of right ,
to the Parochial Clergy.
Society for the Encouragement of Industry. —On Wednesday, June
5, a Public Meeting of “ the Provisional Committee for Encourage¬
ment of Industry, and Reduction of Poor’s Rates,” was held at the
King’s Head Tavern, Poultry, Thomas Wright, Esq. in the chair.
The gentlemen who attended the meeting, took a view of tire very
distressed state of the, country, from a want of employment amongst
the labouring classes. Resolutions were proposed and carried, that
Petitions should be presented to both Houses of Parliament, pray¬
ing that small portions of laud should be allotted to the labouring
cottagers, as a probable means of lessening the burden of the poor’s
rates, which are now calculated at nearly ten millions annually.
Western Dispensary. —Wednesday evening, June 5, the Anniver¬
sary Festival of this Institution was held at the Crown and Anchor
Tavern in the Strand; Colonel Elliot in tbe Chair. The Report stated,
that in the last year 2554 patients have been admitted into the In¬
stitution, 2240 have been cured and relieved, 23 discharged, 63 have
died, and there remained under cure on the 3lst of December, 1821,
228 patients ; 758 of the above were attended at their own residences.
From the commencement of the Charity in 1789,53,604 patients have
been admitted.
Friendly Female Society. —On Friday,,June 7, a Meeting of this
Society was held at Stationers’ Hall, when, it is reckoned, not less
than 600 Ladies were present, and 30 of the Aged Widows, pensio¬
ners of the Society. Seven were elected Pensioners in the first class:
in the other class there was no vacancy. Twenty were chosen as
inmates of the Asylum now building for their reception, and expected
to be completed in the course of the summer.
Society for the Relief of Aged and Infirm Protestant Dissenting
Ministers.— Tuesday, June 11, a Meeting of this Society took place at
450
Religious and Philosophical Intelligence.
the King’s Head Tavern, Poultry, James Gibson, Esq. in the chair.
From the Report, it appeared that the persons relieved were Minis¬
ters of the Presbyterian, Independent, and Baptist denominations,
in England and Wales, who, having been settled pastors of congre¬
gations, had resigned their olHce in consequence of age and infirmities.
The history of the applicants presented a picture of no ordinary de¬
gree of calamity ; some of them, who had been engaged in the w ork
of the ministry for 40 years, and had large families, w ere dependent
for support on a stipend of a few pounds. Some conversation took
place upon the necessity of making vigorous exertions to increase
the funds of the Society, and to secure a more extended patronage.
Refuge for the Destitute. —On Thursday, July 25, a General Court
of the Governors of this extensive and useful Institution was held at
the City of London Tavern ; Edward Foster, Esq. the treasurer, in
the chair. It is well known to be the object of this benevolent
Society, to provide a place of Refuge for persons discharged from
prisons or the hulks; for criminal or deserted females; and for
others, who, though willing to work, arc, from loss of character,
often unable to procure an honest maintenance. To many such
unhappy persons an asylum has been afforded, work has been found
for them, and, on conducting themselves well, situations suitable to
their respective abilities have been provided. The Report stated,
that 289 persons had been under the protection of the Committee, in
the various branches of the Institution, during the last six months;
and that of these, 1401iad been provided for, by sending them to sea ;
by placing them under the care of their relatives or friends; by
apprenticing them out to respectable trades; or by providing for
them suitable situations. It enumerated many cases of persons, of
both sexes, who have been recommended as servants and appren¬
tices, who conduct themselves in a most exemplary and creditable
manner. The Committee conceive it indeed to be one of the most
favourable testimonials that can be adduced in behalf of the Institu¬
tion, that its objects are in succession readily received into respect¬
able families. It seems to be usual, especially at the Female
Establishment, to hold an annual Festival, to which all the young
women who have received the benefits of the Institution, and have
been restored to virtuous society, arc invited. This entertainment
was held in the beginning of the month, when thirty-six young women
visited the Refuge, the whole of whom acknowledged that asylum
as the sole instrument of their present well-being, and of their future
expectations. The whole of them were known to be living in honest
and industrious habits ; and as a proof of their gratitude for benefits
received, they made a subscription among themselves upon the
occasion, and presented to the treasurer the sum of £10. 5s. An
interesting account was also given of the benefits conferred on
many of the other sex, some of whom have been taught useful trades,
and placed out in the world, wherein they are now earning an honest
subsistence; and several have been sent into foreign countries ; to
the West Indies, to the Cape of Good Hope, to Algoa Bay, and to
Van Diemen’s Land: concerning the whole of whom, a very favour¬
able account was read. In reviewing the general result of their
endeavours to carry into effect the salutary provisions of the Institu¬
tion, the Committee congratulated the Genera! Court upon its suc¬
cess. They still, however, lamented a deficiency of pecuniary
resources; appealing to an humane and discerning public, for that
Obituary. 451
generous aid, which may enable them—if not to open wider the path
of restoration to the penitent criminal—to save them at least from the
mortification of contracting the present compass of their efforts.—
The Committee, &c: of this Institution have presented a memorial to
Mr. Peel, the Home Secretary of State, representing its public
utility—the patronage hitherto afforded it by Government—and
soliciting the aid of £5000 (clear of deductions) to enable them to
carry on the objects of the Institution upon an enlarged scale, during
the present year. This memorial Mr. Peel transmitted to the Lords
of the Treasury with his own recommendation in its favour.
Christian Charity .—Income for the last year of some of the Princi¬
pal Societies.
£. s. d.
Wesleyan Society. 26,883 0 1
Church Missionary Society. 32,975 9 7
British and Foreign Bible Society. 103,S02 17 1
Prayer Book and Homily Society. 2,056 15 8
Missions of United Brethren. 7,192 18 5
Society for the Conversion of Jews. 11,220 2 11
Hibernian Society. 5,372 5 6
Sunday School Union. 1,762 4 5
Naval and Military Bible Society. 2,040 4 2
London Missionary Society. 29,437 0 O
Religious Tract Society. 9,261 3 9
African Institution. 1,124 2 0
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.. 50,822 3 0
Baptist Mission in India, &c. 11,600 0 0
Baptist Home Mission. 930 0 0
OBITUARY.
Benjamin Hawes, Esq.—Jan. 10. Suddenly, being struck with a
fit while on his usual walk, three miles from Worthing, in the 80th year
of his age, Benjamin Hawes, Esq. youngest brother of Dr. William
Hawes^ the benevolent founder of the Royal Humane Society. His
birth-place was Islington ; and after receiving a suitable education
under Mr. John Shield, a well-known and much respected school¬
master of his day, he was put to business, in which, at a proper age,
he engaged on his own account, as an indigo-merchant, in Thames-
street, where, by great skill, unremitted assiduity, and unsullied
integrity, he acquired an ample fortune, with which he retired from
trade, and passed his latter years at Worthing, where his loss will
long be felt in no ordinary degree, even by many who, whilst he
lived, did not know that he was their benefactor. The strongly cha¬
racteristic feature of his mind was, an ardent desire to relieve, as
much as in him lay, the distresses of his fellow-creatures, without tak¬
ing to himself the merit of doing so. After he retired from business,
he^ lived very abstemiously, making it his constant study to bestow
the wealth with which Providence had blessed him, so as not only to
communicate good to all around him, but, if possible, to conceal the
liaud by which it was bestowed. In his own immediate neighbour-
452
Obituary.
hood, the latter object could be effected but with difficulty, and there
at least, his charity, which often amounted to munificence, could not
always escape detection ; but whenever it was practicable, his bene¬
factions were anonymous, seeming even ingenious in devising means
of doing good by stealth, and he literally “ blush’d to find it fame."
In many instances he made considerable transfers of stock to meri¬
torious individuals struggling with adversity, who were never in¬
formed whilst he lived of the source whence they were so oppor¬
tunely assisted in time of need. With the same shrinking modesty
he became an anonymous contributor to many public institutions for
the alleviation of pain and suffering, the instruction of the ignorant,
and the reformation of the depraved. Naturally attached for nearly
half a century to an Institution, of which his brother was the princi¬
pal founder, his very liberal annual donation was regularly con¬
tributed, under the anonymous designation of “ A Life Governor
in 1774."
But the object which chiefly interested his philanthropic feelings
through life, was the abolition of the Slave Trade. To promote this
highly important measure of national humanity, he, through many
different channels, anonymously contributed large sums. Nay, so
indignant was lie at the treaties which, at the close of the late war
tolerated that abominable traffic, that in a letter which he had’
sketched to Mr. Wilberforce, (whether he ever sent it, we know not)
lie offered to sacrifice several thousand pounds a year, if that sum
could insure the adoption of means to compel all the European
powers to put an end to the Slave Trade. Even in this noble con¬
ception of a mind, powerfully alive to all the sufferings of suffering
humanity, ostentation had no part, as he stipulated for the absolute
concealment of his name, and only identified himself in the letter
as the individual who, between the years 1780 and 1790, had enclosed
to the treasurer of the Society for abolishing this inhuman traffic
five Exchequer Bills, and who about the year 1810 had transmitted’
an India Bond to the secretary of the African Institution.
Of the private life of a man, thus estimable for the benefits w hich
in his seclusion lie rendered to the public, taking that term in the
w idest extent of its application to the whole brotherhood of man
not many particulars have reached us, but they are in perfect har¬
mony with the benevolent tenor of his life. Habitually an early riser
for lie usually quitted his bed at four o’clock in winter as well as
summer, and sometimes even before that hour, one of his great
delights w r as to w atch the unfolding glories of the rising sun. ’Con¬
sidering also exercise in the open air to be essentially conducive to
health, by a prudent arrangement of his time, even when en^a^ed
in an extensive business, he generally contrived to walk on'"an
average about twenty miles a day; and this practice he continued at
\\ orthing to the very afternoon that terminated his mortal existence.
1 hough lie sedulously avoided company, as inconsistent with his
retired habits, he well knew what was going on in the busy world
for he regularly had the new spapers from the libraries as soon as
they were brought by the postman, and long before they were called
for by any other person. His dress was alw ays neat, but so plain
that it might be mistaken for that of a Quaker ; of which religious
body, though never one of its members, (like the philanthropic
Howard, whom in many points of character he strikingly resembled }
he was a great admirer, particularly of the devout and solemn silence
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 453
pervading their meetings for religious worship, at which he was an
occasional attendant. His religious faith was however that of a
Protestant Dissenter, of Calvinistic sentiments in doctrine, and
those of the Independents as to church discipline ; and having lor
many years diligently made the Holy Scriptures his study, he was
from principle and conviction a firm believer in the great and im¬
portant doctrines inculcated by the inspired writings. Those doc¬
trines habitually regulated his actions and his feelings ; but so far
was their operation from all sectarian or party prejudice, that he
embraced, in the wide circle of his Christian beneficence, his fellow-
creatures of every religious persuasion, as well as every species and
variety of suffering. Of this, no better or more convincing proof
could be afforded than the following list of benefactions of one
thousand pounds, 3i percent, stock, each, to twenty-four benevolent
Societies, connected with different religious bodies, and formed for
the relief of different varieties of the ills which flesh is heir to.—
The Royal Humane Society, Refuge for the Destitute, Society for
the Relief of Foreigners in Distress, Philanthropic Society, St.
Luke’s Hospital, The Magdalen, The Asylum, School for the Indi¬
gent Blind, Society for the Relief of Persons confined for Small
Debts, Hospital for the Jews, City of London Truss Society, Gene¬
ral Penitentiary; London Hibernian Society, British and Foreign
Bible Society, Religious Tract Society, London Missionary Society;
Quakers’ Poor House, Fund for the Relief of Methodist Preachers,
and those formed also for similar purposes amongst the Presbyte-
lians. Independents, Baptists, Roman Catholics, and Quakers. ^
These liberal donations, apportioned as they are in the true spirit
of Christian benevolence, are not however to take effect until after
the death of a near and dear relative, a daughter of Ins eldest brother,
who for many years had devoted herself to the promotion of his
health and comfort; and for whom therefore lie very properly made
a liberal provision in his will. He had no children but numerous
relatives, amongst whom he distributed, by will, the bulk, of his
nmole fortune, with strict attention to their respective claims upon
Ins resard; nor is there one of them who has not reason to remember
hV Hi^vemahis'were interred on Sunday the 20th of January, in the
church of St. Magnus, London-bridge, attended by several of Ins near
relations, and some of his intimate friends, unto the house appointed
for all tire living.
PROVINCIAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
INTELLIGENCE.
Alienist 26 1821. At Dhurwar, in the East Indies, Mr. oli V‘00*,
a Surgeon in the Establishment, and Statistical Reporter to Govern
a our^eon m R its, no less remarkable, it is said, for the
ntilitv and interest of the information they contain, than for the ele-
utility and 1 , . are written, will appear in the third volume of
“The Transactions ofthe Bombay Literary Society." now in the press.
454 Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
Sept. 20. In Spanish Town, Jamaica, Mary Godsall, a negro woman
120 .—Nov. At Saxe Greta, Andreas Romberg, the celebrated com¬
poser and violin player.—At Malta, Sir James Ounsley, Bart. 24._
ri AtBombay, P. C. Baird, M.D., superintending surgeon in the Hon.
.bast India Company’s service, on the Bombay establishment, 49._
10. At Ispahan, in Persia, of a bilious fever, with which lie was
seized at Menjab, near that city, whilst on his journey to Teheran
Andrew Jukes, Esq. M.D., a surgeon on the Bombay establishment’
holding the appointment of political agent at Kishim, and employed
on a special mission to the court of Persia, for which lie was well
qualified, from his skill in the Persian and Arabic languages, the
former of which he spoke with an elegance and a fluency but seldom
attained by an European. He accompanied Mr. Minesfy to Teheran
in lo04, attended the Persian Ambassador Mahommed Nabee Khan
to Calcutta in 1805, and more recently served with the embassies of
bn Haiford Jones and Sir John Malcom. In 1809 he was deputed
on a mission to the Imam of Muscat, preparatory to the expedition
against the Josamee pirates which he very satisfactorily executed
as he did also the mission with which he was charged at the time of
his death, to the government of Schirauz, for the confirmation of
which he was proceeding to the Persian capital, when his life and
labours where suddenly terminated.—19. On his journey to Ban¬
galore whither he was proceeding for the benefit of his health Sir
Samuel Toller, Knt., Advocate-General of Madras. He was author
ilfn treat i S c ° n S? e 41 Law of Execut °rs and Administrators,” 8vo.
1800; and of another on the “ Law of Tithes,” 8vo. 1808; both of them
ol deservedly high reputation in his profession.—21. At St. Thomas’s
Mount, near Madras, Major-General Aiskell, of the Hon. East India
Company s servme.-^c. G. Mr. Chamberlain, the laborious and
excellent Missionary of the Baptist Missionary Society. He was on
a voyage on board the Princess Charlotte, from Calcutta to the
Cape, the only probable expedient for the recovery of his health ; but
the effort was more than lus exhausted frame could sustain, and he
mYttcrT fn W ff? ty i dayS . aft ? r . ,U n embarkation - His remains were com¬
mitted to the deep in lat. 9. 30. N. Ion. 85. E.—24. At Tonhill in
Jamaica, aged 124, Anne Rochester, a w oman of colour. She en¬
joyed her health until the week before her death, leaving behind her
,w° nS a, | d /m? dau & Ilters > fifty-eight grand-children, sixty-ei-ht
S®; 1 ? M * reo ’ and two great-great grand children.-28. At
Meerut, Major-Gen. F. E. Hardyman, G.C.B. Colonel of the 17fh
°- f Foot, and Commander of the second division of the
\r d 1,1 Een £ ak —^ an ‘ 21 • At Soampore, in the East Indies
nf a tW E w War ? Roa » ,lscd S e >°f the 26th Native Infantry, commander
of the Ramghur Battalion, and political agent to the Governor
General. He was the son of the Rev. R. H. Roughsedge, one of the
Reccors of Liverpool.— Feb. At Grimsby, in Upper Canada of
T?nv h w a «f hC iad bC ?’, the respected minister for five years
Rev. Vv. Sampson, eldest son of the Rev. Dr. Sampson of Peter’
of Ms S mn e whiht S deathwas oc . casione d by the accidental discharge
ot Ins gain whilst pigeon-shooting. — 4. In Welbeck street w;n;JL
Ad»m Arthur R A
Mr Coi'i Us MftUmwhoIenf t I Esq. banker.'
J> i r> , ., ts ,ett tlie '-hole of Ins immense property the nersnmlitv
actress ) who "todi2’°°°’ 1°^ wlfo > (^erlyMiss MeHonthl
actiess,) who, in disposing of the property according to the wish of
455
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
her late husband, has settled £10,000 per ann. upon two of her daugh¬
ters, the Countess of Guildford and the Marchioness of Bute; giving
also £10,000 to two of the children of the latter. Lady Burdett, the
3d daughter, will have a large sum, but how much is not yet known.—
March 1. At North Providence, United States, J. Taylor, Esq. in the
101st year of his age.—9. At Chambcrsburgh, Pennsylvania, N. C.,
Airs. C. Carla, aged 109 years and 9 months. She lived to see the
fifth generation of her family.—11. At Trinidad, George Knox, Esq.
barrister-at-law.—19. At Corfu, Sir Spridiron Foresti, for many
years the British minister in the Ionian Islands.—26. Dr. Alexander
Menzies, deputy-inspector of hospitals at Barbadoes .—April 7. At
Bas-le-Duc, the widow Hacquin, aged 55, who lived upon the interest
of her property in the Sinking Fund: she died in the most deplorable
and astonishing manner. We presume that this death is a new
example of the phenomenon called spontaneous human combustion.
This woman, who w r as corpulent, was, according to report, in the
habit of using spirituous liquors imprudently. A vase standing near
her, fdlcd with burning coals, determined the inflammation of her
body. She was burnt to a cinder inwardly. The extremities were
not affected. The room and her clothing also escaped the fire.
There are on record instances of internal combustion, but they are
few r , and the majority of these w ere occasioned by an excessive use
of ardent spirits.— May. At Vienna, Baron Puffendorf, 80.—11. At
Westminster, aged 56, Air. Peter Finnerty, many years an active
reporter of the Morning Chronicle, and no less active a demagogue in
his day. The son of a tradesman at Loughrea, in Galway, he was
brought up as a printer iu Dublin, and in 1798 succeeded the cele¬
brated Arthur O’Connor as printer of “ The Pressbut the con¬
ductors of that paper being prosecuted for its violence, he removed
to London to seek a livelihood as a parliamentary reporter. Having
been acquainted with Sir Home Popham, he sailed w ith him in the
Walcheren expedition, for the alleged purpose of writing its history ;
but being prevented from carrying his purpose into effect, after the
lapse of a few weeks, he returned to England, where, on being tried
for a libel, he was soon afterwards sentenced to a long imprisonment
in Lincoln gaol. Of his treatment there, and the trial on which he
was sentenced, he published an account in 1816, and was also the
avowed editor of a “ Report of the Speeches of Sir F. Burdett, at
the late Election,” 8vo. 1804.—16. At Paris, the Duke de Richlieu ;
the last of a family long celebrated in the history of France, but a
very different man to any of his race, for he had neither vices,
w it, talents, nor fortune, for most of which they were distinguished ;
but lie had many private virtues, which fell not to their lot. He was
stripped of his family possessions by the French Revolution, early in
which he emigrated to Russia, where his name procured him coun¬
tenance and protection from the Empress Catharine, in whose army
he served for some time. At length he was made Governor of
Odessa, where he gained the confidence and friendship of the Em¬
peror Alexander, to whom he was greatly attached, and to whose
influence he was, doubtless, in a great measure indebted for being
placed at the head of the French ministry on the restoration of the
Bourbons, as nature had certainly never intended him for a minister,
especially in times like these. Always regarded by the constitu¬
tionalists, or liberates, as an agent of Russia, rather than the inde¬
pendent minister of his native country, to which indeed his debt of
4 56
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
gratitude was comparatively but small; when, in 1818, that party
gained a victory over the royalists, he was dismissed from his situa¬
tion, but by degrees resumed a power and influence which, without
the support he had from without, lie had not resources in himself
either to regain or keep:—17. Aged 50, Augustus, reigning Duke of
Saxe-Gotha. This Prince was not only a distinguished patron of
learning, but himself of the number of royal and noble authors,
having published at Gotha, in 1805, “ The Hyllinion, or I too was
Arcadia.” It is said also, that amongst his manuscripts there are
nearly finished two large works of the novel kind. He dedicated
almost every morning to his extensive literary correspondence, and
to composition. In the latter he generally dictated to an amanuen¬
sis, often to his chief librarian, Counsellor Jacobs. The travels of
T)r. Seetzen, undertaken under his patronage, the residence of
numerous artists in Italy at his expense, and the liberal encourage¬
ment which he afforded to others, satisfactorily evinced his attach¬
ment to the arts. He has left behind him a valuable collection of
works of art of all descriptions, and a curious museum of stones
found in animals. His Chinese cabinet, the most complete perhaps
in Europe, the collection made by Seetzen in his tours, and his own
valuable private library, he has bequeathed for the public use.—
28. In Printing-house-square, aged 48, James Brownley, Esq. for
many years parliamentary reporter to the Times Newspaper, from
whose proprietors he had latterly received a very liberal support in
the way of a weekly pension. He was a leading member of “ the
Brilliants,” “ Eccentrics,” and other debating clubs, where he
became acquainted with the late Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and
other celebrated characters, who, like himself, were more convivial
than prudent, witty than wise.—29. At his house in Bolton-Row,
Edward Jerningham, Esq. youngest son of the late Sir William Jer-
ningham, Bart., nephew of the poet of the same name, and brother
to the present Sir William Jerningham, Bart., a claimant of the
Stafford peerage. The family from which he descended is of high
antiquity, being one of the few remaining of the English gentry
prior to the Norman conquest, and numbering amongst its members
Edward Duke of Buckingham, the unfortunate victim of regal
tyranny in the reign of Henry the Eighth, and Viscount Stafford, the
last lamented and unavailing sacrifice to popular and bigoted vio¬
lence, in the reign of Charles the Second. A descendant of a family
long distinguished for a steady and conscientious adherence to the
Church of Rome, Mr. Jerningham departed not from the faith of
his ancestors, but was remarkable, on the contrary, for a strenuous,
though not an intolerant, adherence to it. He filled for several years
the office of Secretary to the British Catholic Board, whose duties he
discharged with singular zeal and ability. He received his educa¬
tion in France, and in 1802 was called to the Bar by the Hon.
Society of Lincoln s Inn. His remains were removed, with great
funeral pomp, to the family vault at Costessy, in Norfolk, where they
were interred. The procession was attended beyond the limits of
the metropolis by the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Surrey, Viscount
Dillon, Lords Stourton and Trimblestown, and several other noble-
1 H 6 I 1 and gentlemen, relatives or friends of the deceased .—June 1
The Abbe Haiiy, the celebrated mineralogist.—15. Rt. Hon. Horatio
Walpole, Eail of Orford, Baron Walpole of Wolterton, Norfolk
and Baron Walpole of Walpole, M.A. High Steward of Lynn!
457
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
His Lordship was son of Horatio, second Lord Walpole, (in whose
person the earldom of Orford was revived, after the death of
Horatio the fourth and celebrated Earl,) by Lady Rachel Cavendish,
daughter of William third Duke of Devonshire, and was born June
24, 1752. He succeeded his father on the 24th February, 1809. On
July 7, 1781, he married his cousin Sophia, daughter of Charles
Churchill, Esq. by Maria, natural daughter of Sir Robert Walpole,
afterwards Earl of Orford, by whom (who died in 1797) he had issue
Horatio, Lord Walpole, now Earl of Orford, three other sons and
eight daughters. His Lordship married, secondly, in 1806, the widow
ot the Rev. Edward Ckamberlayne, who died in the following year
without issue.—17. In Manchestei-square, the Most Hon. Francis
Ingram Seymour Conway, Marquis and Earl of Hertford, Earl of
Yarmouth, Viscount Beauchamp of Hache, Baron Conway of Rag-
ley and of Killultagh, in the county of Antrim, K.G. F.S.A;, late
Lord High Chamberlain of the King’s Household, and Lord Lieu¬
tenant of Warwickshire and Antrim. His Lordship was eldest son
of Francis, the first Marquis, by Isabella Fitzroy, daughter of the
late Duke of Grafton, and was born in February, 1743. He was
educated at Eton, and removed thence to Oxford, where he took the
degree of M.A. in 1763. While Lord Beauchamp, his Lordship took
an active part in the House of Commons. On the 1st of February,
1768, he married Alicia Elizabeth, youngest daughter and co-heir of
Herbert, last Viscount Windsor, and by her, who died in 1772,
had one daughter, who died an infant. He married, secondly,
May 18, 1766, Isabella Anne Ingram, daughter and co-heir of Charles
the last Viscount Irvine of Scotland, in compliance with whose will,
his Lordship and the Marchioness, on December 18, 1807, obtain¬
ed the King’s license and authority to take the surname of Ingram
before the present surname of Seymour, to write it before all titles
of honour, and to bear the arms of Ingram quarterly with those of
Seymour and Conway. His Lordship succeeded his father as Mar¬
quis of Hertford in 1794, and is himself succeeded in that title, and
also in his great wealth, of which the entailed estates alone are
little short of ninety thousand pounds per annum, by William Earl
of Yarmouth, his only son, by his second wife, who survives him.
—19. Mrs. Grosvenor, relict of the late Richard Earl Grosvenor, Esq.
of Charborough Park, Dorsetshire. The circumstance of this lady’s
death are very remarkable. She had attended to give evidence
before a magistrate, against a man of the name of Taylor, charged
with a violent outrage, as she was taking an airing in her carnage,
he having insisted on getting up behind to ride, and actually pulling
down the servant standing there. Being a very powerful man, he w as
not secured without extreme difficulty. On his examination, he re¬
quested to speak w ith Mrs. Grosvenor, with whom he pleaded so ur¬
gently on behalf of his wife and children, that the lady was so greatly-
affected as to be seized w ith a fit, succeeded by convulsions so strong,
as that, before medical aid arrived, she expired.—22. At his
house in Montague-Place, Russel-square, aged 70, John Oldham
Oldham, Esq. for many years senior trustee of the chapels, &c. in
the connection of the late Countess of Huntingdon, in the superin¬
tendence of which he took an active concern. Of his warm attach¬
ment to this religious interest, he some years since gave a most sub¬
stantial proof, by the purchase of a valuable freehold estate, which
he vested in Trustees, for the purpose of its becoming the seat of a
458 Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
new chapel school-house, &c. after the expiration of a lease under
which the present buildings in Spa-Fields are held. The college at
Cheshunt, which in a great measure owed its existence to his zeal
and liberality, largely participated also in his bounty, and was a con¬
stant object of his superintending care. In its Trustees he vested,
many years ago, the living of Great Missendcn. Hacks, where he for¬
merly resided, the advowson of which he purchased, to perpetuate a
gospel ministry in the parish. He also recently erected a commo¬
dious school-room there, on a piece of land situated at a convenient
distance Irom the church, and has made it an appendage to the
living. By his will he has bequeathed £1000 3-per-cent. Consols to
the London Missionary Society, £1000 ditto to the British and
Foreign Bible Society, £3000 to Institutions in Lady Huntingdon’s
Connection, £500 each, to the Baptist, Moravian, and Missionary
Societies, with many other smaller bequests for religious purposes.
He has also left to several ministers, and others, liberal tokens of his
regard, and, with a degree, of consideration well worthy of imitation,
has directed them to be paid clear of the legacy duty. He is said to
have died worth £400,000.— July, AtWeisbadcn, Mons.Natale Corn
Professor of Music, 57.-2. John Reid, M.D. of Greville-street,
Brunswick-square, late Senior Physician to the Finsbury Dispensary!
He was a native of Leicester, and originally intended for the ministry
amongst the Protestant Dissenters, but an early predilection to medi¬
cine trustrated that intention, and, under the encouragement of Dr.
Pulteney, he pursued his favourite studies at Edinburgh with great
credit and success. He afterwards settled in London, w'hcrc he was
well known as a popular lecturer on medicine. He was the author
also of “ A Treatise on the Origin, Progress, and Treatment of Con¬
sumption, 8vo. 1806;” a work in which he maintained some singular
notions in connection with the Bunonian system, of which he was
one of the last adherents, though even he had abandoned it long before
lie died. He published, too, an account of the savage youth found in
the w-oods of Avignon.—13. In Percy-strcet, after tw o days’ illness
John Edw. Freakc, M.D. 39.-24. At Ghent, Rev. Edward Dwyer, late
of Stanmore, Middlesex, and Senior Fellow of Pembroke College
Oxford.—25. Thomas Hinton Burley Oldfield, Author of the Repre¬
sentative History of Great Britain.— August, Dr. Kelly, of Cambridge.
He suddenly dropped down at the Auction Mart, Bartholomew-lane
and instantly expired. The Doctor had gone there with his daughter'
lor the puiyose of shewing her the building, having ordered his din¬
ner at the White Horse, Fetter-lane, and had taken his place in the
Union Cambridge Coach, to return home nextmorning.—John Inglis
Esq. of Mark-Lane, an eminent merchant, and one of the directors of
the East India Company. He shot himself in a lit of insanity.—1. In
Silvester-row, Hackney, Mr. W. Butler, an eminent writing-master
and author of several valuable publications for schools, 74.—3. Wil¬
liam Chamberlaine, Surgeon, of Aylesbury-street, Clerkenwell for
many years secretary to the Society for the relief of the Widows and
Orphans of Medical Men, of w hich he was one of the founders, and
autlior of some medical pamphlets. He was first cousin to the late
Lt. Hon. R. B. Sheridan.—15. At his house in Hertford-street, Rev.
Thomas Coombe, D.D. a Prebendary of Canterbury, and R. of the
united parishes of St. Michael, Queen Hythe, and Trinity the Less,
i»?? * « Co ? mb ®was a native of America, and formerly chap¬
lain to the Marquis of Rockingham. He was afterwards preacher at
459
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
Curzon-Street, Chapel, May Fair, and Chaplain to the King. He
published “A Sermon preached at St. Stephen’s, Walbrook, for the
Benefit of the Children belonging to the St. Ethclburga Society,” 1771.
“ The Peasant of Auburn, a Poem,” (in imitation of Goldsmith’s
Deserted Village,) 4to. 1783, and “The Influence of Christianity on
the Condition of the World, a Sermon preached at Trinity Chapel,
Conduit-street, Dec. 13, 1789.”—21. In Albany-street, Hon. Wni.
Erskine, Lord Kinneder.
New Chapel.—June 4. The new Meeting-house for the use of the
Salter’s-hall congregation, situate in Oxford Court, Cannon-street,
was opened with sermons by the Rev. Dr. llogue, Winter, and Rev.
W. Jay.
Ordinations.—March 13. Rev. J. Hargreaves, late of Ogden, Lan¬
cashire, over the Baptist Church in Little Wild-street.— June 14. At
Sion Chapel, Rev. T. Anderson, formerly a student in Cheshunt Col¬
lege, to the work of the ministry in the connection of the late Countess
of Huntingdon.—2G. At Eagle-street Meeting-house, Rev. Daniel
Davies, late of Merthyr Tydvil, over the Welch Baptist Church at
Broad Wall, Stamford-street, Blackfriar’s-road.
BEDFORDSHIRE.
Deaths. — April 12. Suddenly, Rev. John Anthony, Independent
Minister at Bedford.— June 5. Rev. Martin Mayle, for many years
pastor of the Baptist Church, Blcnham.
Ordination. — JtmeG. Rev. John Holloway, late a student at Bristol
Academy, over the Baptist Church at Cardington, Cotton-end.
BERKS.
Deaths.—June 3. At Englefield Green, aged 69, the Right Hon.
Thomas James Warren Bulkclcy, seventh Viscount Bulkeley, of
Cashel, in the county of Tipperary, and created also, in 1784, Lord
Bulkeley, Baron of Beaumaris, in the Peerage of Great Britain. His
Lordship was also Lord Lieutenant of the county of Caernarvon,
Chamberlain and Chancellor of North Wales, Hereditary Constable
of Beaumaris Castle, and D.C.L. He was born on the 10th of Dec.
1752, and being a posthumous son, immediately succeeded to the
title of his father. On the 16th of April, 1777, he married Elizabeth
Harriet, only daughter and sole heir of Sir George Warren, K.B. in
support of whose descent from the Earls of Warren and Surrey, Wat¬
son’s history was composed. On this occasion the Viscount assumed
by royal sign-manual, the name and arms of Warren in addition to
those of Bulkeley. His lordship was carried off quite unexpectedly ;
previous to his sudden attack, he had complained in the morning of
a sore throat, but nothing serious was apprehended: until within a
short period of his death ; he had intended, indeed, coming to town to
join a select party of his friends at his house in Stanhope-street, May-
Fair. His remains were interred at the family seat, at Baron-hill, near
Beaumaris. Leaving no issue, the English and Irish titles are both
extinct.— Tuh), At his seat, Calcot-Park, near Reading, Rev.William
Bevil, M.A.; 'R. of Exford, Somerset, and Chaplain to the Duke of
Manchester:—Rev.Richard Thorne, Curate of Amersham.—24. Rev.
Edward Townsend, 35 years V. of Bray, and 38 years R. ot Henley-
upon-Thames.— Any. 15. AtFcrn-hill, Sir Thco. J. Metcalfe, Bai t,39,-
BUCK1NGHAMSHIRE.
Deaths.—May, At Great Brick Hill, Rev. A Davies, late Lecturer
4C0
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
of Linsdale, 68.— Aug. 10. At Lathbury-liousc, near Newport Pagnell,
l,y i,i s own hand, Mansel Dawkin Mansel, Esq. High-Sherifl ol the
county in 1800, and Commissioner of the Emigrant office in 1806.
Croat embarassment in his circumstances led to the commission of
the fatal deed, which was followed on Aug. 25, by the death of Eliza¬
beth his wife, daughter of the late John Brown, Esq. of Bedford Row,
Solicitor. This Lady was entirely ignorant of the desperate state of
| icr husband’s affairs, and died of a broken heart from the horrid
manner of their development.
Ecclesiastical Preferment.— Rev. J. Hall, Great Bedwm, V.
CAMBRIDGESHIRE.
Death.— May 29. At Cambridge, Rev. C. Muston, 51.
Ecclesiastical Preferment.— Rev. G. Gaskin, D.l). a Prebendal stall
in Ely Cathedral.
University Intelligence.— The Dean and Theological Faculty of the
University of Halle have conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity
and Sacred Literature upon the Rev. Samuel Lee, Professor of Ara¬
bic in this University. .
Miscellaneous Intelligence. —It is said that a person of the name of
Stafford Cooke, residing at Walsoken in this county, is entitled to
the dignity of the Peerage as Lord Stafford, he being the lineal heir
of Henry Stafford, son of Edward Duke of Buckingham, upon whom
the barony was conferred by act of Parliament.
CHESHIRE.
Deaths.—May 18. At Chester, Rev. Elliot Jones, late one of the
Methodist Missionaries in Hayti.— June, At Chester, Rev. James
Ireland, Head Master of the Grammar School in that city, one of
the Minor Canons of Chester, and R. of Thurlaston.
Miscellaneous Intelligence.— The Bishop of Chester has obtained a
grant to raise every benefice in his diocese under £50, to that
amount.
CORNWALL.
Deaths. — May, At Lavethan, General Morshead.—18. At Illogan
parsonage, Rev. Livingston Booth, A.M. 67. The respect and es¬
teem which the zealous discharge of his duties had procured him
during his valuable life, were fully testified in expressions of the
deepest regret for his loss, from upwards of 1000 persons of all ranks,
who, on the mournful occasion of his funeral, attended, to pay the
last tribute of respect to his memory.— June, Rev. T. Penevarne,
40 years P. C. of St. Germains.— July, At Falmouth, Charles Nicho¬
ls, Esq. Barrister at Law, 27.
CUMBERLAND.
Death. — June, At Bolton Rectory, Rev. Robert Watts, R.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. H. Lowther, Bolton, R.—Rev.
J. M. Colson, Jun. Peatling, R.
DERBYSHIRE.
Death. — June, At Elvaston, Mrs. E. Smedley, 100.
Ordination. — May 29. Rev. J. Raine, late a student in Rotherham
academy, over the independent church at Bolsover.
DEVONSHIRE.
Deaths.—March 3. At Tavistock, Mr. James Truscott, a Methodist
461
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
Local Preacher 55 years.— May 23. At Plymouth, Wm. Woolcombe,
M.D. a gentleman of very ancient family in Devonshire. He M as the
author of “Remarks on the Frequency and Fatality of different Dis¬
eases/’ 8vo. 1808.—20. Rev. Henry Mugg, of Chudleigh, 76.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. J. Cumins, A.B. Hockworthy, V.
—Rev. W. G. Hill, Trentishoe, R.—Rev. G. Tucker, Musbury, R.
New Chapels. — Jan. 30. A new chapel was opened at North Mol ton,
the central spot of the labours of Mr. Gray, agent of the Home Mis¬
sionary Society. Preachers, Rev. Messrs. Gardiner of Barnstaple-
Poole, a Home Missionary, and Bromley of Appledore.— May 13. A
neat Chapel M'as opened at Bow, a village in the neighbourhood of
Crediton, where the labours of Mr. Pool, an agent of the Home Mis¬
sionary Society, tended to the erection of this edifice.
Ordination.—May 29. Rev. Thomas Horton, late a student at Bris¬
tol, over the Baptist Church, Morice-square, Plymouth-Dock.
DORSETSHIRE.
Deaths. — May, At Ryme Intrinseca, Rev. John Jones, for 47 years
V. of Worth Maltravers, and for 29 years R. of Ryme.— Any. I. Rev.
James Mayo, M.A. 35 years Master of the Free Grammar School,
Wemborne, Minister and Y. of Averbury, Wilts, 67.
DURHAM.
Deaths. — May 27. At Sunderland, Henry Fearon, M.D. 42.— July
14. At Seaton Carew, aged 65, Rev. Thomas Le Mesurier, B.D. R.
of Houglitou-le-Skerne. He was a native of Guernsey, and educated
at Winchester school, whence he removed to New College, Oxford,
where he obtained a fellowship, which he vacated on being promoted
to the living of Newton Longueville, in Buckinghamshire. He M as a
staunch supporter of the claims of the Established Church, and as
strenuous an opponent of those of the Roman Catholics; qualities
which procured him, the latter more especially, the patronage of the
Bishop of Durham, M’ho, in 1812, conferred upon him the valuable
rectory of Houghton, near Darlington. Mr. Le Mesurier was a fre¬
quent correspondent of the Gentleman’s, and the Orthodox Church¬
man’s Magazines, and besides his contributions to those works,
was the author of “ A Serious Examination of the Catholic Claims,”
8vo: 1805; “Postscript to a Serious Examination,” Bvo. 1805;
“A Sequel to the Serious Examination,” Svo. 1807; “A Reply
to certain Observations of the Right Rev. Dr. Milner on the Sequel
to the Serious Examination,” 8vo. 1807; “ A Sermon preached
at the Visitation of the Archdeacon of Bucks,” 8vo. 1806; “The
nature and guilt of Schism, considered with a particular Reference
to the Reformation, in eight Sermons, preached at Bampton’s Lec¬
ture,” 8vo. 1808; “Supplement to the Reply to Dr. Milner’s
Observations,” 8vo. 1809; “The Doctrines of Predestination and
Assurance examined, in a Sermon preached before the Bishop of
Lincoln,” 8vo. 1809 ; “ The Doctrine of the Eucharist considered, as
maintained by the Church of Rome and the Church of England,” 8vo.
1810; “ On the Authority of the Church and of the Holy Scriptures,
an Address to the Roman Catholics,” 8vo. 1810; “ A Counter-
Address to the Protestants of Great Britain, in Answer to the Ad¬
dress of Charles Butler, Esq.” 8vo. 1813; “ An Assize Sermon at
Durham,” Svo. 1814; “ The Invocation of the Virgin Mary and of
the Saints, shewn to be superstitious and idolatrous, a Sermou
preached before the Archdeacon of Durham,” 8vo. 1815.
462
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
Ecclesiastical Preferment. —Rev. Bulkclcy Bandinel, librarian ol
the Bodleian, Haughton-le-Skernc, R.
ESSEX.
Deaths—June. At Great Burstead, John Kirkbam, a labouring
raa n, 103.—26. Rev. Charles Wood, R. of Tendering.— July. Rev.
Edward Willan, 43 years V; of Great Claxton, 31.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. G. Heming, Thundcrsley, R.
Rev. J. H. Hogarth, LL.B. Streflbrd, R.; patron, J. Hogarth, Esq;
of Dorking.—Rev. H. D. Pcpys, B.D. Moreton, R.—Rev; W. Pnteh-
ard, Great Yeldham, R.—Rev. J. H. Randolph, M.A. Folbury, R.
Ordinations.—March 20. Rev. G. D. Mudie, late of Hamburgh,
over the Independent Chureh at Rochford .—June 13. Rev. fe. Car¬
lisle, late a student in Hackney Academy, over the Independent
Church at Little Waltham.—Rev. G. M. Churchill, over the Indepen¬
dent Church on Mersca Island.
GLOUCESTERSHIRE.
Deaths.—Dec. 1. At Clifton, Lieut.-Gen. John Lee.— March. Rev.
George Garlick, minister of the Independent Church at Painswick.
—Mail. Rev. J. Hippcsley, for 57 years R. of Stowe in the Wold,
87 .—8. At Gloucester, Rev. Payler Matthew Proctor, M.A. V. ot
Newland, and Incumbent of Christ Church in the Forest of Dean.
The parish of Newland, to which Mr. Proctor was presented in 1803
by the Bishop of LlandalF, lying adjacent to the Forest of Dean,
which, though containing 22,000 acres, and inhabited chiefly by poor
colliers and miners, is extra-parochial, and had therefore no claim
upon the services of a clergyman, its inhabitants were consequently
grossly ignorant. Newland was long considered the parish of the
Forest, so far as baptisms, marriages, and burials, were concerned.
Its Vicar was therefore frequently called upon to visit the sick, in
the discharge of which voluntary duty Mr. Proctor obtained a know¬
ledge of the moral and religious views of the inhabitants ; in conse¬
quence of which, within a year after his appointment to the living,
he entered with zeal on the important work of moralizing that part
of the Forest at least which was adjacent to him, and by the aid of
public subscriptions, which he actively collected for the purpose,
lie was enabled, in June 1812, to lay the foundation stone of a build¬
ing, to be appropriated for six days in a week to the education of chil¬
dren, and to divine worship on the Sabbath. This edifice w as con¬
secrated July 17,1816, by the Bishop of Gloucester, having the name
of Christ Church Chapel then given to it. Mr. Proctor was very
properly appointed its first incumbent, and down to the period of his
death discharged the duties of his office in so exemplary a manner as
to excite the grateful and affectionate attachment of all classes of
the neighbourhood. His funeral took place at Newland, on Monday
the 13th of May, at which all ranks of the vicinity w r ere present, to
pay the last tribute of respect to his memory. The families residing
on that side the Forest thronged the church and church-yard, wliilst
the children of the Forest-school, which that good man had been the
active instrument, in the hands of Providence, of founding’, were
ranged around his grave. As his ashes w r ere committed to that
house appointed for all the living, few eyes were free from tears, and
the loud sobs of the assembled multitude, computed at 2000 persons,
were heard on every .side. The church, though large and capacious,
w r as thronged in every part, and the church-yard was full of mourners
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence. 463
ers not in name only, but in sincerity. His parishioners at New-
land have proposed to erect a monument to his memory in their
church, as a tribute of their respect and esteem; but the chapel in
the Forest will be a lasting memorial of his zeal. Its trustees have
evinced their respect for its founder, by electing as the successor to
his apostolic labours, the Rev. Mr. Crossman, whom he recommended
to their choice on his death-bed, as his last request .—June 5. Rev.
Peter Guning, D.D. 42 years R. of Poynton, and 37 years R. of
Farmborough, Somersetshire, 78.— July. At Bristol, Mrs. Anne
Dyer, 101.
Ecclesiastical Preferment. —Rev. George Sherer, Marshfield, V.
New Chapels, §-c. — Feb. 24. A Baptist Church was formed at North-
leach, into which the gospel has been introduced by the treasurer of
the Home Missionary Society .—June 18. A new Independent Meet¬
ing-house was opened at Forest Green, near Nails worth.
HAMPSHIRE.
Deaths. — April. At North Warnborough, Mrs. Dugget, 100 .—May
22. At Blashford-liouse, near Ringwood, Rev. Christopher Taylor,
D.D. 80.— June. At Ashley Hill, near Lymington, Rev. W. Hooper,
B.D., R. of More Monkton, Yorkshire, and P. C. of Milton, in the
New Forest.
Ecclesiastical Preferments.—Rex. J. Brooks, Carisbrook, Y. Isle of
Wight, with the chapels of Newport and Nortliwood annexed.—
Rev. D. Eaton, Crux Eaton, R.
Ordinations—March 27. Rev. M. Caston, from Gosport Academy,
over the Independent church and congregation at Node Hill, New¬
port, I. W .—April 11. Rev. C. T. Mileham, late of Highgate, over
the second Baptist church at Portsea.
HEREFORDSHIRE.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Hon. and Rev. Mr. Blackwood, Arch -
deaconry of Ross.—Rev. Albert Jones, ^ icar-Choral of Herefoid
Cathedral. .
Ordination.— June 13. Rev. H. Mort, late a student in Hoxton
Academy, over the Independent Church at Bromyard.
HERTFORDSHIRE.
Deaths.— May 19. Rev. George Edward Cox, 25 years R. of Hinx-
worth.— Aug. 2. At Mundsley, the Rev. Philip Godfrey, B.D. R. of
Ayot, St. Lawrence, and many years one of the magistrates ot the
COX Ordination.—June 20. Rev. John Greenwood, over the Indepen¬
dent Church and congregation assembling in the old Meeting-house,
Royston.
HUNTINGDONSHIRE.
Deaths.— April 8. At Ramsay, Mr. Henry Martin, a local-preacher
in the Methodist connection, 43 .—May 19. At Brampton, Rev.
Thomas Tattershall, for 44 years a preacher in the Methodist con-
^EccUsinsticnl Preferment.—Key. T. Silver, D.C.L. Great Staugh-
tOI Ordination. — June 11. Rev. Robert Halley late a stodent iu the
Academy at Homerton, over the Independent Church at St. Neot s.
VOL. v.—NO. 10. 2 h
464
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
KENT.
Deaths.—Aprils. At Gillingham, Rev. Hounstone RadclilTe, Arch¬
deacon and Prebendary of Canterbury, R. of Ickham, V. of Gilling¬
ham, and Sub-Dean of Wells.— July 28. At Bisely, in his 100th
year, Win. Henshaw, Esq. . _
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. C. R. Gleig, Ivey Church, K.
Rev. John Lonsdale, chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury,
Mersham, R.
Ordination.—April 23. Rev. J. D. Blakeman over the Baptist
Church Mile Town, Sheerness.
LANCASHIRE.
Deaths.—March. At Ormskirk, Rev. W. Naylor, classical master
of the public Grammar-school of that town for nearly 60 years, and
so regular and uniform in bis attendance to his duties, that his oldest
scholars could not recollect his having been absent a single day, 88.
—At Astley, Rev. Robert Barker, A.M. R. of St. Anne's.—At Ever-
ton, Rev. J. Turner, 81.— April 10. Mr. Daniel Lees, of Bankside,
Oldham. His prosperous career in the accumulation of wealth
affords a striking proof of the rapid commercial prosperity by which
that rude and barren part of the country has been enriched within
half a century. His elevation may be traced from the humble occu¬
pation of a weaver at the loom, to the possession of property valued
at near £200,000 —June 12. At Preston, William St. Clare, M.D. one
of the Deputy-Lieutenants for Lancashire, and Lieut.-Col. of the
Amounderness Local Militia.— July 9. At Spekelands, near Liver¬
pool, Thomas Earle, Esq. for many years an active Justice of the
Peace, and Deputy-Lieutenant of the county.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. J. W. Whitaker, M.A. domestic
chaplain at Lambeth Palace, Blackburn, V.; on the presentation of
the Archbishop of Canterbury.—Rev. George Ludford Harvey, B.A.
domestic chaplain to the Duke of York, Dilworth, V.; patrons, the
Haberdasher’s Company.—Rev. J. M. France, Stayley-Bridge,
perpetual incumbency.—Rev. W. Tindal, head master of the Gram¬
mar-school Wolverhampton, Holme, P. C.
Ordination. — Mar. 8. Rev. T. D. Carnson, late a student in the
Blackburn Academy, over the Congregational Church in Fishergate,
Preston.
LEICESTERSHIRE.
Death.—June 2. Rev. Samuel George Noble, A.B. for 32 years R.
of Froulesworth, 55.
Ecclesiastical \Preferments. —Rev. J. M. Colson, jun. Peatling,
R.—Rev. T. S. Noble, Froulesworth, R.
Ordination. —Rev. Samuel Barrons, over the Independent Church
at Market Bosworth.
LINCOLNSHIRE.
Deaths. — Fel. 1. At Louth, Mr. John Booth, for 35 years a Metho¬
dist local-preacher, 75.— May ’ll. At Thurlby Hall, near Lincoln,
Sir Gonville Bromhead, Bart, a Lieutenant-General in the army.
He was born Sept. 30, 1758, and received the name of Gonville in
honour of his ancestor, the founder of Caines College, Cambridge,
as whose representative he was duly recognized in that institution.
He is succeeded in his title and estates by his eldest son, now Sir
Provincial and Miscellanea,ts 467
Edward Thomas Bromhead, Bart, a Barrister-at-La 1 J1 _
of the Courts-Leet for the city of Lincoln.— June. At Bi. ipnt , i •
L. Mills, 80.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. G. Beckett, Prebend of Carring
ton; and Gainsborough, V.—Rev. S. Briscall, St. Mary, South Kel-
say, with St. Nicholas annexed, R.R.—Rev. W. S. Wliitelock, Ged-
ney, V.—Rev. T. Calvert, B.D. Norrisian Professor, Holme, R. with
Holme in Spalding Moor, Y. annexed.—Rev. C.N. L’Oste, M.A.
Claxby Pluckacre, R.—Rev. J. H. Monck, Fiskerton, R.
New Chapels.—March 28. A new Chapel, iu the Independent con¬
nection, was opened at Horncastle. Preachers, Messrs. Water-
house, Byron, and Gilbert.
Ordination.—May 10. Rev. John Paine, late a student in Hoxton
Academy, over the Independent Church at Horncastle.
MIDDLESEX.
Deaths.—June 30. At Hampstead, Rev. J. Hodgson, R. of Ber¬
wick, Wilts.— July 6. Rev. Colston Carr, LL.B. Y. of Ealing, and
curate of Old Brentford, 82.— Aug. 18. At Paddington, Grome
Spence, Esq. late Maritime Surveyor to the Admiralty, 65.—At Chis¬
wick, Rev. Robert Lowth, A.M. only surviving son and child of the
late Bishop of London, Rector of Hinton, Hants, and one of the
Prebendaries of St. Paul’s Cathedral, 61.
Ecclesiastical Preferment. —Rev. Edward Polehampton, M.A. Fel¬
low of King’s College, Cambridge, Greenford Magna, R.
New Chapels.—April 30. The new Chapel at Higligate, for the use
of the congregation under the pastoral care of the Rev. John Thomas,
was opened for divine worship. Preachers, Rev. Rowland Hill, Dr.
Collyer, and J. Hyatt.— June 5. A small Chapel, lately fitted up at
the expense of the Middlesex and Herts Union of Congregational
Ministers and Churches at East Barnet, was opened for public wor¬
ship. Preachers, Rev. Drs. Winter and Harris.
Ordination.—May 28. Rev. G. G. Scraggs, A.M. as first pastor of
the Independent Church and congregation assembling at Union
Chapel, Bow-Lane, Poplar.
MONMOUTHSHIRE.
Death. — July. Rev. John Evans, V. of Newport, 70.
NORFOLK.
Deaths. — May. AtWesenham, Rev. Charles Campbell, for40years
V. of All Saints and St. Peter’s, Wesenham.—25. At Yarmouth,
very suddenly, of an aneurism in the heart, Thomas Girdlestone,
M.D. for 30 years an eminent physician in that town. Besides a
number of papers inserted in different medical journals, and some
professional publications, Dr. Girdlestone was the author of a
Translation of Anacreon, and a work on the author of Junius’s Let¬
ters.— July. Mr. John White, late of Nottingham, father of the cele¬
brated Kirke White.— Aug. 5. At Lopham Rectory, Rev. Richard
Littlehales, for 40 years R. of Southcum, North Lopham.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. G. Campbell, Beacliamwell, with
Shingham annexed, R.R. and Weasanham, All Saints and Weasan-
ham, St. Peter’s, V.V.—Rev. Arthur Loftus, Hilhoughton, with
Rainham, St. Martin, R.—Rev. J. Cubitt, Overstand, R.—Rev.
James Neville White, Great Plumstead, P.C.
464
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
-Mai/26. An new Independent Chapel was opened at
_ . ), for the increasing congregation of the Rev. J. Fisher.
Deathstion.—June 6. Rev. John Williams, over the Baptist Church
iSast Dereham.
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
Deaths.—June 7. At Sudborough, near Thrapston, Sir Thomas
Hewett, Bart. Rector of that parish for 36 years, 66.— July 2. Rev.
Charles Henry Tuffnell, V. of All Saints’, Northampton, 54.—3. Rev.
Charles Proby, R. of Stanwick, and a Prebendary of Lincoln.
Ecclesiastical Preferments.— Rev. H. Champion de Crespigny,
Stoke Doyle, R.—Rev. T. Lovell, St. Sepulchre’s, Northampton, V.
Rev. John Miller, Binefield, R.
Ordinations. — April 30. Rev. Joseph Brooks over the Baptist
Church, WestHaddon.— May 22. Rev. Thomas Miller, late pastor of
the Church, at Oakham, over the newly formed Baptist Church at
Woodford, near Thrapston.
NORTHUMBERLAND.
Death. — March. At Blaydon, Mr. J. Morrison, 104.
Ecclesiastical Preferment. —Rev. G. Dixwell Grimes, Emeldon, V.
New Chapel. — Dec. 20. A neat Chapel, capable of containing 250
people, built by the Presbyterian congregation of the Rev. T. Craig,
was opened for public worship at Lowick. Preachers, Rev. Messrs.
Lundie of Kelso, and Hunter of Swinton.
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.
Deaths.—June 22. Rev. John Green, for many years minister of an
Independent congregation in St. Mary’s-Gate, Nottingham.
Ecclesiastical Preferment .—Rev. Henry Gordon, Bilsthorp, R.
OXFORDSHIRE.
Deaths. — May. Rev. James Hamer, A.M. Fellow, senior Bursar
and Librarian of C. C. College.— June. At Steeple Aston, Rev.
Robert Lambe Kening, 59.—At Thame, Mr. Christopher Arnott. He
was so large a man, that his coffin was 6 feet in length, 2 feet 9 in. in
width, and 2 feet 1 in. in depth.— Auy. 3. At his lodgings in the
High-street, Oxford, Sir Christopher Pegge, M.D. F.R.S. F.L.S.
Regius Professor of Physic in the University. He was the only son
of Samuel Pegge, Esq. author of the well-known “Anecdotes of the
English Language,” and grandson of the celebrated antiquary Dr.
Samuel Pegge.
Ecclesiastical Preferments .—Rev. A. Nicol, A.M. Regius Professor
of Hebrew, a Canon of Christ Church.—Rev. T. Chevallier, Lecturer
of Great St. Andrew’s, Oxford.
University Intelligence .—Sir Sidney Smith has presented to the
Bodleian Library a fac-simile of an ancient Greek inscription on a
gold plate, found in the ruins of the ancient city of Canopus, and
also a book printed onboard a ship of the line in the Mediterranean.—
Rev. R. Nicoll, A.M. of Baliol College, is appointed RegiusProfessor
of Hebrew in the room of the new Archbishop of Cashel.—Rev. T.
Lee, D.D. President of Trinity College, is nominated one of the
Delegates of the Clarendon Press, in the room of the late Dr. Hodg¬
son, who has also been succeeded as one of the delegates of estates
by the Rev. Peter Elmsley, M.A. of Christ Church, and by the Rev.
Edward Copleston, D.D. Provost of Oriel, as perpetual delegate of
467
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
privileges.—At a convocation, held March 22, the sum of 50 guineas
was contributed from the University chest, in aid of a subscription
for the purchase of models of the principal remains of ancient archi¬
tecture of Greece and Italy.—John Kidd, M.D. late student of Christ
Church, Aldrichian Professor of Chemistry, and Lee’s Lecturer of
Anatomy, has been appointed Regius Professor of Medicine.—Rev.
Philip Bliss, D.C.L. is appointed one of the under Librarians of the
Bodleian.
SHROPSHIRE.
Deaths. — March. At Iron Bridge, Rev. Benjamin Ware.—3. At
Shrewsbury, Rev. Benjamin Edwards, R. of Fradesley.— Max/. At
Bockbury, Rev. John Dehane, A.M.— June 1C. At Shrewsbury,
L’Abbe Le Maitre, officiating minister of the Roman Catholic Chapel,
and a teacher of the French language in that town, 65.— July. Rev.
Michael Pye Stephens, R. of Willey and Shenstone.—2G. At Coton
Hall, Alveley, Rev. John Hayes Petit, P.C. of Shareshill, Stafford¬
shire.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. Richard Corfield, Upton Parva,
R.—Rev. F. de Veil Williams, Abdon, R.
SOMERSETSHIRE.
Deaths. — May. Rev. Richard Newham, for 31 years V. of Uminster,
and for 30 years R. of Chaffcombe, 63.—At Stratton on Fosse, Rev.
J. Leonard, R.— June 6. At Bath, where he was supplying the pulpit
of the Rev. W. Jay, after a very short illness, Rev. Samuel Newton,
36 years Pastor of the Independent Church at Witham, Essex.—
11. Rev. Isaac Tozer, Pastor of the Independent Church at Frome,
and formerly of that at Tooting, Surrey.—20. At Wells, Rev. Thomas
Abraham Salmon, B.D. Prebendary of Wells, R. of Rodney Stoke,
and Chaplain to Earl Cowper. Mr. Salmon published “Hebraicae
GrammaticeSjOr aHebrewGrammar with vowel Points,”8vo.1796. “Vi-
tarum Plutarchi Epitome,” 8vo. 1797. “ Extracts from Mr. Card’sWill,
relative to his charity at Chedder.”— July. Rev. Richard Darch, R.
of Milverton.—Rev. J. M. Males, V. of isle Abbots and Muchiluey,
and for upwards of 30 years master of the Grammar School at the
former place.—At Frome, Alfred Cecil Buckland, Esq. author of
“ Letters on Early Rising.” He was brought up to the law, a pro¬
fession to w hich his great talents promised to render him an orna¬
ment.—6. In Seymour-street, Bath, J. Lee, M.D. F.R.S.
New Chapel. — April 30. A new place of worship in the Independent
connection, was opened at Storegersey. Preachers, Rev. Messrs.
Luke of Taunton, and Goulding of Poundisford Park.
STAFFORDSHIRE.
Death.—Dec. 1. At Wolverhampton, Mr. R. Paddy, drawing mas¬
ter at the Free Grammar School of that place, and of the Catholic
Seminary, Sedgley park. Mr. Paddy published several views of
ancient buildings: a large S. E. view of the Church of St. Peter, Wol¬
verhampton: a view of Dudley castle, with a short description in
English and French, and views of the Abbeys of Lilnshall, Haughmond,
See. in Shropshire, with short descriptions of each, 71 .—March. At
Walsall, Rev. J. J. Duce, V. of Alstonefield.— May. At Eccleshall
Vicarage, Rev. J. H. Powell, V. and V. of Dunchurch, Warwick¬
shire.
468
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence .
SUFFOLK.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. W. H. Deane, Hentlesham, R.—
Rev. W. Edge. Nedginy, R. on his own petition.—Rev. T. Chevallier,
M.A. Fellow and Tutor of Catharine Hall, Cambridge, Lecturer of
Great St. Andrew’s, Ipswich.
SURREY.
Deaths. — Feb. 14. At Croydon, Mr. John Kitehin, a Methodist
local-preacher.—21. At Banstead, Rev. Henry Taylor, L.L.B. R. of
Spridlington, Lincoln.— July 10. At Guildford, Rev. Thomas Russell,
M. A. R. of West Clandon. In 1777, he published a History of his
native town of Guildford, in a small 18mo. volume. An enlarged
edition was printed in 1801.— Auy. 14. At his house near Croydon,
aged 84, Mr. James Dickson, of Covent-garden, F.L.S. and Vice Pre¬
sident of the Horticultural Society of London.
Ecclesiastical Preferment. —Rev. S. Bennett, Walton-on-the-Hill, R.
New Chapels. — Dec. 11. A new Baptist Chapel was opened for
public worship at Brocham green, near Dorking. Preachers, Rev. F.
Moore, of Vauxhall, and J. Bailey, of London.— Auy. 6. A neat
Chapel was opened at Pains, (or Pend’s) hill, in the parish of Limps-
tield, under the patronage of the Surrey Missionary Society. Prea¬
chers, Rev. Messrs. Jackson, of Stockwell, Innes, of Camberwell, and
May, of Croydon.
Ordination.—May 7. Rev. Robert Upton, over the Baptist Church,
at Gray’s-walk, Lambeth.
SUSSEX.
Deaths. — June. At Worthing, Rev. S. E. Bayley, late of Brompton
Hunts, and for many years officiating minister at St. Mary’s Hunting¬
don.— July, Rev. Edward Tredcroft, R. of Pudborough.—29. At Hast¬
ings, Rev. Francis Tattershall, V. of Ledsliam, York, 25.
Ecclesiastical Preferment. —Rev. Edward Robert Butcher, Chapel
Royal, Perpetual Incumbency, Brighton.
New Chapel .—The first stone of a new' Chapel in Seaford, was laid
by the Rev. G. Evans of London, who was the principal instrument
of introducing the gospel there.
WARWICKSHIRE.
Death. — July, At Leamington, Rev. Edward Trotman, V. of Ratlcy
and Radway, and P. C. of Chesterton, 61.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Rev. W. Riland Bedford, Sutton Cold¬
field, R.—Rev. S. W. Perkins, Stockton, R.—Rev. Bowen Thickins,
Temple Grafton, P. C.
New Chapel. — June 26. A new Baptist Chapel w r as opened at Hen¬
ley, in Arden. Preachers, Rev. Messrs. Birt, James, and Morgan,
all of Birmingham.
WESTMORELAND.
Deaths.—April20 . At Belle Isle, near Ambleside, on his way to
Cheltenham, Rev. W. Curwen, of Harrington, second son of J. C.
Curwen, Esq. M.P.— May. At Appleby/Rev. John Waller, Head
Master of the Free School in that Tow n, and R. of the united parishes
of Southarnstead Abbots, and Southampstead Bannister, Berks.
Ecclesiastical Preferment.— Rev. William Thompson, A.M. of
Queen’s College, Oxford, Head Master of Appleby Grammar School,
Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence.
469
WILTSHIRE.
Death. — March. At Mere, Rev. Rowland W. Howell, son of Rev.
R. Howell.
Ecclesiastical Preferment. —Rev. J. Hall, Great Bedwin, R.
New Chapel. — May 22. The foundation stone of a New Chapel, for
the use of the Rev. W. Coombs and his congregation, was laid at
Bradford.
WORCESTERSHIRE.
Death. — May. At the Parsonage house, Elmly, Rev. George Hewett,
B.A. R. 32.
YORKSHIRE.
Deaths. — March, At an advanced age, John Addie,Esq. of Twisle-
ton in Ingleton Fells. This gentleman was a singular character, and
retained in his manners an extraordinary degree of the simplicity of
primitive times. He was regularly to be seen at fairs and markets,
attired in a coarse blue coat, a long-pocketed waistcoat, a Wansley-
dale wig, huge galligaskins, and shoes of most antique make. This
whimsical appearance acquired for him the not inappropriate appel¬
lation of Lord Oddie.— April 26. Rev. John Penketh Buree, LL.B.
P. C. of Silkstone, W. R.—30. Rev. Robert Knowles, V. of Gisburn
in Craven, he was found dead in Stockbeck, near Craven.— May 10.
At West Witton, Warsley-dale,N.R. Rev. Jeffrey Wood, P. C.— June,
Rev. John Norton, V. of Kittlewell, Yorkshire, and P. C. of Boyton,
Cornwall.—26. At Hull, Rev. J. Hawksley, formerly pastor of the In¬
dependent Church, assembling in Aldermanbury Postern, London,
36.— July 22. At Hislington, near York, Gen. James Coates, one of
the oldest generals in the service.—29. Rev. James Griswood, Minis¬
ter of the Unitarian Baptist Chapel, in New-Dock-Street, Hull, 69.
New Chapels. — April 8. A new Baptist Chapel was opened at Cha-
pel-Feld, Bately, near Dewsbury. Preachers, Rev. Messrs. Mann, of
Shipley, Jackson, of Hebden-bridge, and Dr. Steadman, of Brad¬
ford.— June 27. A neat and commodious Chapel was opened at Keld,
near Reeth. Preachers, Rev. Messrs. Ramphler of Fulneck, Mason
of Featham, and G. Gollop of Darlington.
WALES.
Deaths. — April. At Pembroke, Anne Watkins, 103.—At Welsh¬
pool, Rev. E. Jones.— May, Rev. Robert Peter, V. of Pellayne, and
R. of Sully, Glamorgan, 79.— June5. Suddenly of an inflammation on
the lungs, Rev. George Lewis, D.D. Theological Tutor of the Inde¬
pendent Academy at New-Town, Montgomeryshire, 63.—21. Rev.
Thomas Lloyd, curate of Llanrwst, Denbighshire.— July Rev. Patrick
Howell, Minister of the Presbyterian Meeting, Swansea.
New Chapels. — April 25. A new Chapel called Mount Pisgah, was
opened in Gower, Glamorganshire, forming the 6th place of worship
in that peninsula, for which its long neglected inhabitants are in¬
debted to the zeal and liberality of Lady Barham. Preachers, on this
occasion. Rev. Messrs.Thorp, of Bristol; Peters, of Carmarthen; and
Davis, of Bath.— May 15, A neat and commodious place of worship,
called the Tabernacle, was opened at Tenby, well known as a water¬
ing-place in Pembrokeshire. Preachers, Rev. Messrs. Lloyd, of
Henelan ; Peter, of Carmarthen ; Jones, of Treleach; Warr, of Ha¬
verfordwest; Thomas, of Teirscross ; and Warlow, of Milford.— June
19 and 20. A new Independent Meeting-House, now called Philadel-
470 Provincial and Miscellaneous Intelligence>
phia, but formerly Tuliierion, M as opened near Llansturn, Glamor¬
ganshire. Preachers, Rev. Messrs. Owens, of Swansea; Jones, of
Bridgend; Morris, of Tredegar; Moses, ofNewInn; Evans, ofGodre-
y-rhos; and Howel, of Baran.
Ordinations—Jan. 24. Rev. T. Jones, late a Student in the North
Wales Academy, over the church and congregation assembling at
Ebenezer Chapel, Newport, Pembrokeshire.— April 3. Rev. John
Thomas Jones, late a Student at Abergavenny, over the Particular
Baptist Church at Hay, Breconshire.—8. Rev. H. Owens of Swansea,
over the church and congregation at Cwmbychan, Glamorganshire.
—24. Rev. J. Barfett, late a Student in the Western Academy, Ax-
minster, over the Independent Church in Castle-Street, Swansea.—
May 22. Rev. D. Jenkins, over the Independent Church at Brycha-
goed, South Wales.
Miscellaneous Intelligence.— A College for the education of those
Students for the ministry of the Established Church, whose friends
are not in aJlluence, is about to be erected at Lanpeter in Cardi¬
ganshire. The sum of £15,000. 3-per-cents, is already collected, of
which his Majesty graciously contributed £1000. sterling. The Bishop
of St. David’s has long been actively engaged in promoting this lau¬
dable object,
SCOTLAND.
Deaths.— 1821 . Nov. 12. At the Manse of Ruthven, Rev. George
Donaldson, minister of that parish forty-one years, 78.— Dec. At
Whitehill New Deer, Rev. John Bunyan, minister of the United
Associate congregation.—22. At Tulliallan Manse, Rev. David Sim-
son, 82.— Feb. 2. At Burntisland, Rev. James Wemyss.-—4. At
Wemyss Castle, General Wemyss, of Wemyss.—15. At Bedford, in
the parish of Madderley, Rev. James AndreM r , of Redford, 67.—17.
At Edinburgh, Rev. John Thomson, D.D. minister of the New r Grey-
Friar’s church, 79.— March 26. At Aucliertoil, near Balmuto in Fife-
shire, from a pistol shot received in a duel with James Stuart, Esq.
of Dunearne, Sir Alexander Boswell, of Auchinleck, Bart, eldest
son of the biographer of Johnson. The cause of this duel was a poli¬
tical song, which appeared in the Glasgow Sentinel of the 26th of
December last, reflecting upon Mr. Stuart; which, from the manu¬
script having been put into his hands by Mr. Borthw'ick, a former
proprietor of the paper, that gentleman ascertained to have been
written by Sir Alexander, with whom he had previously lived in
habits of intimacy.— May 3. At Eddlestone Manse, Re v.Dr.PatrickRo-
bertson, minister of Eddlestone, in the 74th year of his age, and the
40th of his ministry.—14. At Aberdeen, Rev. Charles Me. Hardy,
minister of Craithie and Braemar, in his 76th year of his age, and
53d of his ministry.— June. At Aberdeen, James Brechin, 102. He
enjoyed good health and the use of his faculties until within a week
of his decease.—At Glasgow, Sarah Me. Intosh, 106. Her husband,
who was in the interest of the Pretender, fled to Ireland soon after
the battle of Culloden. His wife returned to her native country
about two years ago. She lost her sight some time since, but retained
her mental faculties to the last. She had an excellent recollection
of the events of her youth, and it was the chief solace of her latter
days to talk of the Pretender, and to detail the devotion, the bravery,
the sufferings, and hair-breadth escapes, of her clansmen and ac¬
quaintance during the troublesome period of the Rebellion. She had
471
Provincial and Miscellatieous Intelligence.
12 children, 42 grandchildren, and 36 great grandchildren.—At
Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Rev. James Milne, 79.—At Portohello, Sir
John Macgreggor Murry, Bart, of Lenwick Castle, Perthshire.— 7 .
In New-street, Edinburgh, Rev. William Dun, minister of the Canon-
gate Chapel.
Ecclesiastical Preferment. —Rev. J. Sinclair, St. Paul’s Episcopal
Chapel, Carruther’s-Close, Edinburgh,
New Chapel. — Jan. 20 . A large and commodious Chapel at Peter¬
head, lately occupied by the Anti-Burghers, was re-opened for pub¬
lic worship in the Independent connection, when three discourses
were preached by the Rev. J. Robertson, of Crichie Old Dean.
IRELAND.
Deaths.—April 8. Aged 126, Mr. Thadey Doorley a respectable
farmer, residing near the hill of Allen, county of Kildare. He retained
his faculties to the last moment, and was able to take any sort of
field amusement within the last 6 months of his life. He was married
about 19 years ago, at the age of 107, to a woman of 31.— May, Rev.
Joseph Sandys, R. ofFeddoun, county of Limerick, and author of “ A
Sermon on the Importance of an Early Acquaintance with the Scrip¬
tures,” 8vo. 1812.—Rev. Thomas Craw ford, master of the endowed
School at Lismore.—24. In Cork, the Right Hon. John de Courcy.
26th Lord Kingsale, Baron Courcy of Courcy, and Baron of Ring-
more. His Lordship succeeded his father John, the 26th Baron,
March 3, 1776; married Oct. 31, 1763, Susan, daughter of Conway
Blennerliassett, of Castle-Comvay, county of Kerry, Esq. and by her
(who died, Dec. 13,1809,) had issue, five sons and five daughters, six of
whom survive him. His Lordship is succeeded by his second, but
eldest surviving son, the Hon. and Rev. Thomas de Courcy, now 27th
Lord Kingsale.^— July, Rev. T. Radcliffe, R. of Ardmore, county of
Antrim.—On St.Patrick’s-liill,Cork,John MelvinBarry,M.D. author of
“An account of the Nature and Effects of Cow-pox,"Cork, 8vo. 1800.—
Rev. John Lowry, R. of Donoghmore, Queen’s county.— A ug. 11. Sud¬
denly by falling from his horse in a fit of apoplexy, whilst riding in
the Phoenix-Park, Dublin, Lieut. Gen. Sir Samuel Auchnmty, G.C.B*
Commander in Chief of the Forces in Ireland, and Colonel of the 78th
Regt. of Foot. This gallant officer twice received the thanks of both
houses of parliament, the first time for the capture by assault of
Montevideo; the second, for the reduction of Java, on both which
occasions he commanded the British troops.
Ecclesiastical Preferments. —Right Rev. Lord John George De-la-
Poer Beresford, Archbishop of Dublin. Archbishopric of Armagh, and
Primacy of all Ireland.—Right Rev. Dr. Magee, Bishop of Raphoe,
Archbishopric of Dublin.—Rev.Richard Law-rence, D.C.L. Regius Pro¬
fessor of Hebrew at Oxford, Archbishopric of Cashel.—Very Rev.
Archdeacon Bisset, Bishopric of Raphoe.
Ordination. — Dec. 20 . Rev. Mr. Killings, to the work of the Ministry,
in Zion Chapel, Mallow.
472
SUMMARY OF MISSIONARY PROCEEDINGS.
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts has despatched an agent to Cape Town, where he found the
national system of education greatly degenerated in the Free School.
This however, he had the satisfaction to restore, and to witness a
great increase in the scholars and their improvement. . At the village
of Wynsbery, eight miles distant, where several Christian families
were destitute of public worship, a chapel is erected, in which the
new missionary officiates, and where he intends to establish a school.
The college of the society at Calcutta will be opened at the close of
the present year, with every prospect of brilliant success. Ten theo¬
logical, and ten lay scholarships have been founded for native and
European youths; and to make the grounds of the college more com¬
plete, a liberal individual, Charles Theophilus Metcalf, Esq. has
transferred to it a piece of ground adjoining to that originally granted
by government. .
In such a country as the East Indies, the chief scene of their la¬
bours, we cannot expect but that the Baptist Missionaries must
meet with much disappointment, mingled with their success. . On the
Doogapore station, they have been for two years casting their bread
upon the waters, and are but just beginning to find a small portion
of it after many days. One convert only has as yet been added there
to the church of the living God; but he is promising. Inquiry has
however been excited in others, especially a Hindoo of some property,
who has been induced, by one of the Tracts of the London Missionary
Society, to pay a visit to the station of the brethren, to learn more of
the way of salvation. At the public services of the missionaries by
the way-side, the Bramins frequently attend to revile and dispute ;
signs not very favourable in their first impression, but from which we
expect in time much better things. A more sure word of prophecy
induces us to look with confidence to the fulfilment, though it linger
long, of the prediction of their shasters,—that the menofno cast, whom
they will not listen to but to insult, are destined to destroy the casts
and customs of other people. This is all the intelligence which has
recently arrived from the East, but from its West India Mission, the
Society has received still more encouraging intelligence. At Kingston
in Jamaica, seventy-two persons were lately baptized at once, and
the Lord’s Supper was administered to upwards of sixteen hundred.
The new chapel is still well attended, and several Europeans and
others afford good reason to hope, that they have there been brought
to a serious concern for their eternal interests. The ship which con¬
veyed the missionaries to the new and important station at Hondu¬
ras bay, has safely arrived at its destination, and intelligence is
anxiously expected thence.
The London, like the Baptist Missionary Society, is making
progress amongst the negroes of our West India Islands. At the
station of Le Resouveiur in Demerara, 390 persons (272 of them
adults) were baptized in the course of the last year, in which 35
members were added to the church; the total number of which, at
the beginning of the present year, was 147, and 83 others were then
candidates for baptism. Public worship is well attended, and about
£100 was collected for its support from the white inhabitants of the
neighbourhood, and from the congregation, in the course of the
\
Summary of Missionary Proceedings. 473
eight months previous to the last account.—In South Africa the zeal
of the Missionaries is still rewarded with correspondent success.
Mi\ \\ illiams, originally sent out by this Society, but labouring some
time before his removal among the Caffrees, at the expense of the
colonial government, collected together a number of those wild
tribes, reduced under his instruction to habits of order and civiliza¬
tion. Since his time their number has considerably increased under
the care of his successors, and distant hordes are expressing a wish
to be partakers of the same benefits. The head of one of the kraals,
lately departed in the faith, having, in all his wanderings, uniformly
erected a hut for the worship of the only true God; to whose minis¬
tering servants, in this wild and dreary land, he directed his people
on his death, to repair, as to their best earthly friend. With his
dying injunction they have cheerfully complied, and are now amongst
the most orderly members of the sttlement.—The important mis¬
sion in the South Sea Islands seem to have sustained a severe loss
in the death of king Pomare, as the agents of the Society, to whom
he was long so friendly, are apprehensive of commotions among the
chieftains during the long minority of his infant son, whose mother,
the queen, wishes to reside with the Missionaries. The inhabitants
of Tabite are advancing rapidly in civilization, evincing such an
increased attachment to European dress, that cloths and calicoes
have become as it were the circulating medium of the island. The
deputation sent out by the Society to inspect the state and prospects
of the missions in this quarter, arrived safely at Tahite on the 21st
of September, and immediately entered with alacrity on that impor¬
tant work, and their reports on the altered state of this lately savage
race more than confirms the most flattering accounts which from time
to time have reached our shores. They saw Pomare at Eimeo
shortly before his death, and were most kindly received by him. The
artisans who accompanied them are about to commence their cotton
manufactory, which will, we hope, succeed. The chiefs are building
their boats in the European form, and with European tools, many of
them are cultivating tobacco and sugar, and nearly all manufacturing
cocoa-oil. A road, the first attempted in the country, is making on
a large scale round the island of Tahite, constructing, and to be
completed by persons punished for violations of the new laws; a
mode of employing convicts from which we ourselves might learn a
useful lesson. At Huaheine, the noble place of worship, a consi¬
derable part of which is neatly pewed, when visited by the deputa¬
tion, was crowded with attentive hearers, of whom the chiefs, and
great part of the principal people, were dressed from head to foot
in the English fashion. The deputation was most kindly received
there by the king, the queen, and chiefs. Further particulars have
also arrived of the extraordinary conversion of the island of Ruru-
tu, the leading features of which were given in a former summary,
as largely as our limits will permit. Their national idols, which they
sent to Raiatea on renouncing idolatry, have been exhibited there,
and received with derision by people but a few years since as gross
idolaters as themselves. Auuru, the Rurutan chief, providentially
driven into Raiatea, to be the honoured instrument of introducing
Christianity into his native land, exhibits a most commendable zeal
in his vocation, taking the greatest pains to teach his countrymen
to read, and going from house to house every night and morning,
performing family prayer for them. From this converted island of
474
Summary of Missionary Proceedings.
the Southern Ocean, the light of the gospel seems destined to
spread to surrounding isles, as u canoe full ot the natives of Rima-
tura, about 40 miles distant, seeing what a wondrous change was
wrought there, renounced idolatry ere they left its shores for their
own, whither they returned with books and tracts for their chief and
friends, whom they promised speedily to bring back, for further
instruction in the same excellent way, to a slight know ledge of which
they themselves providentially were led.—Turning from South to
North, we have great pleasure in noticing the continued patronage
of the Russian government to missionary exertions, permission
having been granted to the zealous agents of this Society at Seling-
wisk, to establish a press there ; the ground upon w hich they have
built their habitations, having also been granted to them on the most
liberal terms. The [Committee of the Russian Bible Society have
also, very much to their credit, adopted measures for supplying this
most important mission with copies, for distribution, of the Mongo¬
lian translation of the gospel.—The intelligence received from the
East within the last three months, is not very important. From the
summary of the South Travancore mission, several boys have already
been sent out into the villages as readers of the scriptures. There
is room however for very many more, and a great want of Bunga¬
low chapels, to both of which objects Christian benevolence would
be well and cheaply directed; the annual maintenance of a reader
being but £10, the entire rent of a chapel £25. At the anniversary
meeting of the Bengal Auxiliary Missionary Society, held in January,
twenty-one boys belonging to the Kiedderpore native school were
examined in Union Chapel, and gave very satisfactory answers to
the questions proposed to them on the lirst principles of Christianity.
The chapel is entirely paid for by contributions on the spot. The
Missionaries of this Society are now engaged in printing several
extracts from the scriptures, in different languages of the East, for
distribution, by the Bishop of Calcutta, in his native schools; an
instance of cordial co-operation between churchman and dissenter,
in the great work of evangelizing the heathen, which it gives us the
greatest satisfaction to record. Near Glnfir Ghaut, two of the
Society’s agents, who had taken a tour in the vicinity of Calcutta,
with a view of introducing the gospel into its neighbouring villages,
were lately benighted, but a Brahmin liospitally received them into
his house, and on learning their errand, himself collected an audi¬
tory for them in the morning, received thankfully some of their
tracts, and invited them to visit him and the place again, refusing to
take the slightest compensation for the accommodation alforded.
Thirty thousand tracts have been issued in the course of the last
year by this auxiliary, some of which have found their way to very
distant parts of India. In the neighbourhood of Chinsurah and
Gokulgunge there are twenty-three schools and 2450 children, these
institutions being approved by the people, and encouraged by the
government, prejudiced as both originally were against them.—From
China w r e learn with pleasure, that that very active and learned mis¬
sionary, Dr. Morrison, from communications which he has had
with Ochotsk, indulges a hope that a way may hereafter be
opened for missionary exertions in Japan. Thoughts are also
entertained of a translation of the scriptures into the languages of
Cochin-China and Siam. We regret to find that the health of his
valuable colleague, Dr. Milne, now labouring at Malacca, is in a
475
Summary of Missionary Proceedings.
precarious state. In Amboyna upwards of 8000 tracts have been
printed at the mission press, but four times as many are wanted in
that Malayan isle alone. The Missionary of the Society there, has
received from the king of one of the Sangir islands a letter, expres¬
sive of great thankfulness for the copies of the Malay Testament,
sent by the British and Foreign Bible Society, admiring, as he states
himself to do, “ this great gift of God from such a distant country.”
Mr. Elliott, so singularly directed to the isle of Joanna, has been
most kindly received there by the king, queen, and royal family,
with one of whom he is domesticated. He represents the natives,
however, as a very idle and superstitious race, bigoted Mahome-
dans, though permitting him, without molestation, to avow his
attachment to the religion of the cross.
The Church Missionary Society has received very gratifying-
details of the progress of the great work in which they are engaged
in the more peculiar field of their labours, Western Africa. Sir Charles
Mac Carthy the excellent governor of Sierra Leone, was every
where received on his return by the population of liberated negroes,
with an enthusiasm highly gratifying to his feelings, and honourable
to his character. They assembled by hundreds and thousands to bid
him welcome, manifesting the utmost anxiety to shake once again
by the hand, him whom they recognized as their common father, in
the simple but touching exclamation of, “Thank God, Daddy come,
God bless him.” And God, we doubt not, will hear the praj r er of
these grateful hearts, and amply reward him for his kindness to this
long injured race. He has visited most of their settlements in the
colony, and at all of them has been received in the same affectionate
and affecting manner. Arriving late at night at Waterloo, after a te¬
dious journey through pathless woods, and wilds, and mango swamps,
occasionally taking the party above the middle, the village on a shout
announcing his approach, was deserted of its inhabitants, who with
torches in their hands went out to meet him, and bore him on their
shoulders to their beloved rector’s house, giving vent for some hours
after to the loudest expressions of their joy. Every where he saw
the most convincing proofs of the rapidly improving condition of a
colony, in which his name will be mentioned with respect and esteem
by ages yet unborn, as it already is named, by many a stranger
alike to his person, and the scene of his benevolent exertions
amongst the swarthy inhabitants of the banks of the distant Niger.
It is satisfactory, however, to the friends of missionary exertions, to
find him bearing his cheerful testimony to the important assistance
which he has derived, in the work of civilization, from the zeal
of the active and intelligent agents of the societies devoted to
the promulgation of the gospel in heathen lands. From the
last annual report of the Missionary Association at Gloucester
town, in aid of the Church Mission, it appears that, in the course
of the year, the liberated Negroes of the colony had contributed
upw'ards of £110 to its funds, forming near two-thirds of its an¬
nual income. The congregations are every where increasing, and
their members, generally speaking, (for in such large numbers there
must be exceptions,) are consistent in their Christian walk and pro¬
fession. At Regent’s Town, to which settlement a body of near 240
fresh negroes was lately added by the capture of a slave ship, the
church is already far too small, and is about to be doubled in its
476
Summary of Missionary Proceedings.
size. Industry is here and elsewhere exhibiting itself as the fruit of
education, very considerable quantities of the surplus produce of the
negro farms being now sold to government. The greatest caution
seems to be taken in receiving adult candidates for Christian baptism,
a point upon which too much caution cannot be exhibited. At Char¬
lotte, another settlement of the society, several very striking instances
of reformation of life and conduct, giving good hopes of a change
of heart, have lately taken place. Very important results are allow¬
ably expected from the recent annexation of all the British posses¬
sions amongst the Fantie and Adanessee people on the Gold coast,
of all indeed between the 20th degree of north and the 20th degree
south latitude to the government of Sierra Leone. Several schools are
already established and flourishing there, and from the Kroo coun¬
try to Appolonia, the inhabitants are anxious to cultivate a close
and increased connection with the English, and the chief men are no
less desirous that their sons should be taught to read and write, or,
as they themselves express it, “ to know book all the same as white
man.” In proof of this, it can only be necessary to state, that two of
them sent their sons with SirGeorgcCollicr to Sierra Leone, to be edu¬
cated, and that he expected soon to bring thither ten or twelve others.
William Tamba the active native teacher of this society, honourably
mentioned on former occasions, has paid a second visit to the Sherbro
country, where amidst many difficulties, not easily to be surmounted,
(the great extent of the practice of polygamy being the chief) an impres¬
sion in favour of Christianity and its institutions is silently gaining
ground. In many places the Sabbath begins to be observed; and we
doubt not, under the divine blessing, but that the settlement of suitable
teachers amongst them will soon lead to the wonted results of a
Christian education.—From New Zealand, we regret to learn that
intelligence not of the most pleasing description has arrived. Soon
after Mr. Kendall reached the island with the chiefs Shunghee and
Whykato, the Missionaries were compelled to witness the most dis¬
tressing scenes of ferocity and blood, and personally to indure many
insults and injuries. Much evil seems to have resulted from the visit of
the former chief to this country, for his warlike passions having
been inflamed by the possession of arms and ammunition, for which he
exchanged at Port Jackson the presents which he received in Eng¬
land, he commenced, without delay, hostilities of the most formidable
nature against other tribes.—In Eastern India, the schools of the
society are prosperous. A new one, for the children of the Saadhs,
is about to be erected at Kowabee, about 40 miles from Delhi, the ex¬
pense of it being defrayed from a charitable fund, placed by some
benevolent individuals at the disposal of the Missionary of the Society.
The people, both of Saadhs and Jhats, evince every disposition to
encourage the undertaking. A native teacher, who has for some time
very acceptably itinerated amongst them, is to be settled at the new
school. In his return from Calcutta to Agra Abdool, Messech, a very
faithful and laborious native teacher, had some interesting conversa¬
tions with some of the followers of the false prophet of Mecca, whose
lying vanities he has abjured, and is we trust becoming an instru¬
ment in the hands of the living God, in inducing others to abjure
them also. Some of those with whom he reasoned on his journey,
have expressed a wish to do so, and gratefully received some Nagree
tracts which he gave them. He seems also to be making some im-
477
Summary of Missionary Proceedings.
pression on the Portuguese Catholic converts at Agra, notwithstand¬
ing the fearful threat of their padre, to excommunicate such of his
flock as held communion with him.
In Ceylon, the Methodist Mission seems to be increasingly pros¬
perous. At Columbo, the Cinglialese and Portuguese congregations
increase both in number and attention, and in both languages prayer
meetings are held every night in the week, in different private
houses, with every prospect of their producing good to a class of
people, to whom it is difficult, if not impossible, to procure access by
any other means. In the course of a single week, 100 copies of the
Cinglialese New Testament were purchased by natives, on a resolu¬
tion of the Bible Society there, to suffer them to be paid for by instal¬
ments, after a plan had been adopted for disposing of them at a
reduced price, instead of distributing them gratuitously. That
price being fixed however at about five shillings sterling, was a sum
too large to be paid by the poor of Ceylon at one time, and conse¬
quently no Testaments were issued, until this expedient enabled
them to give proof of their anxiety to possess the scriptures. There
are great obstacles to surmount before a people can be brought to
attend on public worship, so imbued with the pride of family and of
caste, as to refuse to sit behind those even whom they w ill otherwise
acknowledge to be of superior rank. The press is here actively at
work, the Pentateuch being printed, and ready for circulation. The
other books of the Old Testament are printed as far as Judges, and
translated as far as a part of the second book of Samuel. The Mis¬
sionaries have also printed at their press, Sellon’s Abridgment of the
Bible in Cinglialese, Selections from the Liturgy in Tamul, a Spell¬
ing Book in that language, and an English and Cinghalese Diction¬
ary, the work of one of their number ; and laborious it must have
been, as it contains about 45,000 words. AtKornegallee, a new and
promising station on the island, very pleasing prospects are held out
in the work of education, the villagers around expressing great will¬
ingness to send their children for instruction. The Catholics of the
neighbourhood of Negambo, another station on the island, continue
their opposition to the Missionaries; but though they have proceeded
from words to blows, they have only brought disgrace and punish¬
ment upon themselves, having, for assaulting some of the teachers
of the Methodist schools, been severely fined, and bound over to
keep the peace; one of their number, an inhabitant of some consi¬
deration, having also been sentenced by a magistrate of his own
communion, for the same offence, to confinement to hard labour for
a month. At Chilau, in the same circuit, a chapel is by this time
opened, and a regular school has for some time been established.
This circuit now extends along the coast for six-and-thirty miles, and
about sixty into the interior, including within its range five substan¬
tial chapels, two mission houses, eleven schools, and nine classes,
with preaching continually in four languages. At Point Pedro, the
boys in the school make good progress in their learning, and both
they and several of the adults, who attend the preaching in their
rooms, evince their love of knowledge by the frequency and perti¬
nency of their questions upon what they hear. Degraded as is their
station, several females here also attend the means of grace. At
Matura. a place celebrated even in that heathen land for profligacy,
superstition, and devotedness to the worship of demons, some few
natives are inquiring after the truth, and give pleasing ground for
478
Summary of Missionary Proceedings.
hone that ere long they will cordially embrace it. Throughout this
extensive and important island, we rejoice to find that the utmost
cordiality prevails amongst the Christian missionaries of different
sects and that the civil authorities give encouragement to all.—From
■yygjt Indies not much information has recently arrived, but
what has come to hand is encouraging. The governor of Tortola, on
receiving from the new Missionary of the Society a copy of his
instructions, wrote him a most kind and Christian letter, heartily
wishing him “ all success in his endeavours to call sinners to repent¬
ance.” The congregations are large and attentive, and the schools
well attended. The governor of Tobago has also expressed himself
highly satisfied with the conduct of the Missionary there, and of the
people of his charge; whilst, much to his honour, the rector of the
island lives with the former in habits of brotherly love. At his
house, and that of the President, the Missionary is a welcome
guest He has lately paid a visit to the windward side of the island,
as yet without teachers, though they would be readily admitted
amongst their slaves by the owners ot the estates, on which, where
the Missionaries have laboured, the condition and habits of the
negroes are considerably improved. In Dominica, very large congre¬
gations are collected, where the preaching is in French, composed
chiefly of Catholics, amongst whom we hope that some good will be
effected.—In British America, a wider field presents itself for culti¬
vation than there are labourers to cultivate. This is particularly the
case in Canada, where some townships, containing from 800 to 1000
people each, are left without any ministry or means of grace what¬
ever. In several parts of New Brunswick a like lack of advantages
prevails, many of the inhabitants never hearing a sermon more than
once a year, when the Missionary of the circuit pays them a visit.
Thus, in a fine country under British rule, many large families are
^•rowing up in little better than heathenish darkness ; the Sabbath is
neglected and profaned, and vice every where prevails, though were
a Missionary sent here, a large and attentive congregation could
easily be collected, and a religious society might ere long be formed.
When we read of things like these, we cannot help fearing that it
may be said of Great Britain at another day, “ I have made you a
keeper of vineyards, but your own vineyard have you not kept.”—
The mission among the natives of New South Wales has commenced
under circumstances as encouraging as we could expect, and is
very much favoured by the pious part of the colonists.—In Van
Diemen’s Land a beginning also has been made, from one to two
hundred serious and attentive hearers assembling in a room capable
of containing the larger number, whilst from tw enty to thirty children
attend the school. These are indeed small things, but we know from
very high authority that those are not to be despised.—In South
Africa, the Namequas are making also advances in civilization, and
the surrounding Hottentots of other tribes are expressing a wish to
enjoy the same advantages. At Cape Town, the chapel is nearly
finished, and the school for the slaves is pretty well attended. Both
children and adults have made considerable progress in reading.
The accounts received from the Missionaries of this Society recently
settled in New Zealand, more than confirm the statement we have
made of the disorders prevailing there, in our notice of the proceed¬
ings of the Church Missionaries. Their intention had been to settle
at Mercury river, but Shungee told them they must give up that
479
Summary of Missionary Proceedings.
design, as it was his intention to kill all the people in those parts.
Nor has he been worse than his word;—for the death of one of his
relations by the hands of some of these people, who also were his
relatives, during his absence, he has taken a fearful and truly savage
revenge. In spite of the entreaties of the other chief who had
accompanied him from New South Wales for a reconciliation, he
marched an army of three thousand men into his country, slew
a thousand of its inhabitants, and roasted and ate three hundred
of them, before he and his army left the field of battle. He himself
killed the offending chief, cut off his head, poured the blood into his
hands, and drank it. Since his return home, he has killed more than
twenty slaves, and roasted and ate them in honour of his victory.
He has again taken the field against some other chiefs, at the head
of 3000 men.
The agents of the Scottish Missionary Society have entered
into several conversations on religious subjects with the Tartars in
the neighbourhood of Astrachau, but as yet without much effect.
In a journey from Orenburg to Kasan, one of the Missionaries distri¬
buted several tracts and copies of the New Testament, which were
received gladly even by the Mahomedan priests. Women begged
for books, not only for themselves but their children.
The Netherlands Missionary Society has established an auxi¬
liary at Chinsurah in the East Indies, where divine service is regu¬
larly celebrated in Dutch and English with increasing success. Its
valuable Missionary occasionally preaches also in a triend s house
at Chandernagore, whilst native preaching is continued in Bungalow
chapels, the market-place, and by the way-side.
Turning to America, we first notice the American Board of
Baptist Missions, and its valuable agent, Mrs. Judson, wife of the
Rev. Mr. Judson, who has for nine years been its laborious and useful
missionary in the Burman empire, this lady has lately been in England
for the re-establisment pf her health, and, whilst here, has marked out
for herself a singular plan of usefulness on her return to Rangoon,
which we ardently hope that the liberality of British Christians will
enable her to execute. After encountering many difficulties and
privations during the first six years of their residence in this singu¬
lar country, Mr. Judson has mastered its language, translated a con¬
siderable portion of the New Testament into it, and circulated many
copies of a Serampore impression of his version amongst the natives,
from the midst of whom several genuine converts have been formed
into a Christian church, and conduct themselves in every respect
worthy their profession, whilst many others are making inquiry after
the same excellent way. Female education is there however, as in
other parts of the East, strongly opposed by national prejudice, and
the only mode of attempting it is that suggested by Mrs. Judson, (and
one of our number has heard her personally explain its details and
prove its practicability,) in the purchase, or rather the ransom of
about five-and-twenty female children, who have been sold as slaves
to pay the debts of their fathers, a horrid and unnatural custom,
though not confined to this portion ot the Eastern world, as will be
seenrin another part of our present number. Eight pounds apiece
will accomplish this benevolent object, and the expense ot their sup¬
port will not afterwards exceed £75 per annum, a very moderate sum
certainly, and which after the first four years will be nearly, if not
entirely superseded by the produce of the children s newly acquired
VOL, V.—NO, 10 . 2 I
480 Political Retrospect.
habits of industry. The husband of this excellent woman meanwhile
pursues his arduous course with resolution and success. The
viceroy, now at Rangoon, appears friendly to toleration, and has
already* defeated a base attempt on the part of the priests and officers
of his village, to destroy the most promising of the Christian converts.
Several others seem, notwithstanding the persecution that has been
raised, to be anxiously inquiring for the truth. The prospect, how¬
ever, of a war with Siam is very discouraging to the mission. The
translation of the scriptures is proceeding slowly but surely.
The American Board for Foreign Missions has now establish¬
ments among the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians, at Bombay, in
Ceylon, and the Sandwich Islands, besides the active agents in the
Mediterranean, of whose proceedings we gave an account in our
last. Its receipts, to the close of its twelfth year, amounted to
300,000 dollars, or about £67,500. We are concerned however to
learn, that its agents on the Sandwich Islands have been obliged to
adopt a measure of the last extremity with Doctor Holman, one of
their number, in separating him from their communion, “ for walking
disorderly, slander, rioting, and covetousness.” The mission how¬
ever prospers, notwithstanding this severe affliction. Great pros¬
perity has also attended its foreign mission school, in which thirty
heathen children, sent home by the Missionaries, are educated.
The United Foreign Missionary Society, a Transatlantic
institution, supported principally by Presbyterians in their form of
church government, now maintains Missionaries among the Ossagee,
Tuscarora, and Seneca Indians. Its receipts, during the live first
years of its existence, have been about 33,000 dollars, somewhat
more than £7400.
The Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church
has particularly directed its attention to the Wyandot and Choctaw
Indians, amongst whom it has several converts. Of the black and
coloured population of the United States themselves, no less than
38,000 are members of the Methodist church.
The Episcopal Missionary Society is the last that has been
formed in America, being now only in the third year of its operation.
It owes its existence to our Church Missionary Society, which first
suggested its establishment, and made a grant of £200 in its aid. It
has not at present done more than establish a seminary at New
Haven, for the education of candidates for holy orders, on condition
that those who are trained up there from any charitable fund, shall,
if required by the trustees, officiate as Missionaries under the
direction of the Society, for from one to three years.
POLITICAL RETROSPECT.
Since our last retrospect, a Session of Parliament has closed,
which was long in its duration, and useful to the country in the re¬
trenchments which it effected, though many others may and must be
made in the succeeding one. The financial prospects of England
are certainly improving, though we cannot as yet indulge in the san¬
guine expectation of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that we shall
Political Retrospect.
481
have a surplus revenue of ten millions at a period not more distant
than five years. To other proceedings of the Legislature we advert
with more mingled emotions; for whilst w r e approve of some of
them, others are causes of bitter, though unavailing regret.—
The business of the Bishop of Peterborough has again been brought
before the House of Lords, on the petition of Mr. Grimshaw, whose cu¬
rate has been excluded the diocese of the right reverend prelate, for not
giving a satisfactory answer to his 87 questions upon the Articles of
the Church of England. This new test of orthodoxy, we do not hesi¬
tate to characterize, with Lord Dacre, who presented the petition, as
“ unusual, uncanonical, illiberal, and in opposition to the consti¬
tution.” The Church of England, be it remembered, is, professes to
be, and prides itself upon being, a church by law established —and
that law requires subscription to the articles and liturgy of the
Church, and subscription only, to qualify the clergyman making it,
to preferment in it. If, however, in addition to this, every prelate is
to be at liberty to prepare along catalogue of expository questions, in
order to satisfy himself that candidates for admission into his diocese
put precisely the same interpretation upon every iota of those long
debated and very debateable tests, it will follow that we shall have
an Arminian clergy in one bishopric, a Calvinistic one in another,
and, unless the orthodoxy of some members of the right reverend
bench is strangely belied, an Arian one in a third. From circum¬
stances, to which it is needless to do more than thus distantly advert,
these are no days for Bishops to make experiments with their autho¬
rity, and we would caution Bishop Marsh how—if he wishes to prove
himself a real friend to the establishment of which he is a dignitary,
zealous and learned as any of them we admit—he attempts, in the
nineteenth century, that Lauding it over God’s heritage, the Church,
which had so untoward an effect upon episcopacy in the seven¬
teenth. We cannot quit a subject, to which we fear that we shall
have occasion to revert hereafter, without expressing our surprise,
that when these charges were brought against the parties complained
of, when one noble Lord openly and very truly asserted, that “ if
the power of examination, claimed, had a legal existence, it ought to
be abolished,”—and another peer, holding a high office in the admi¬
nistration, very intelligibly condemned the practice—not one of the
right reverend bench, though it was unusually crowded upon the
occasion, and they were bitterly taunted with their silence, said a
word in defence of their right reverend brother, though they perhaps
more effectually served him by the benefit of their silent votes—too
often, we cannot but say, a dead weight against every liberal proposi¬
tion presented to the House, of which they form an anomalous, but,
upon such occasions, a most effective part.
For relieving the wants of Ireland, suffering at once from pesti¬
lence and famine, English liberality has, by private subscriptions,
and parochial and congregational contributions, raised nearly
£300 000, besides a further parliamentary grant, carried almost by
acclamation, of £100,000. Yet as no step has yet been taken
for the permanent relief of Ireland, on the scale upon w hich she must
be relieved, or as far as all useful purposes to the empire of which
she forms an ill-fated part is concerned, be lost, we scruple not to
call this voluntary aid of a liberal people to a distressed one, a
premium for misgove rnment, renewable every year or two, as long
482
Political Retrospect.
as that wretched system of misgovernraent shall madly be persisted
in. The measure introduced by Mr. Goulbourn for remedying the
evils under which Ireland is groaning, from the oppressive operation
of the tithe system, is one of very partial operation, merely em¬
powering, as it does, incumbents to enter into leases of their tithes for
twenty-one years, not with the occupiers of the soil, but with land¬
lords, or persons having a reversionary interest in it. This may,
and we doubt not will, be productive of some benefit; but it is a
sorry half-measure, indeed, to remove the pressure upon a starving
population, of what has very truly been termed “ the richest and
most useless ecclesiastical establishment in the world." In other
things, the new Irish government is vigilant enough; witness its
thorough alteration of the police of the country, by placing the
appointment of peace-officers throughout the kingdom, in the Lord
Lieutenant, instead of in the Grand Juries, with whom it has hitherto,
and much more constitutionally, been left. Why as vigorous
remedies are not applied to the diseases in her state, created by an
overgrown and radically defective church establishment, we should
be at a loss to imagine, were we not but too well, though too pain¬
fully, satisfied, that against that system of patronage, which has long
been the bane of Ireland, even the bold and masterly genius of a
Wellesley cannot successfully contend? If proofs of this can be
needed, some late and intended promotions will abundantly afford
them. The primacy of Ireland was vacant; one of the archiepiscopal
sees was filled by a prelate, who, though of illustrious birth, w as an
example of diligence and fidelity in discharging the duties of his
olfice to prelates almost in any age of the church. His promotion
to the head of an establishment, standing in need of the weight of
such a name to support its tottering influence, would have done
honour to the government, and have afforded general satisfaction to
the people; but a Beresford was also an archbishop, and wished to
be primate, and primate accordingly he is. It is thought ad¬
visable to give to the Irish peerage another dukedom—and a Be-
rcsforcl is to be promoted to the highest rank which his sovereign
can bestow. In 1819, the archbishopric of Tuam, and the valuable
bishopric of Clogher and Kilmore, were filled by a Beresford —a
Beresford, et iterurn, iterum, iterumque, a Beresford again. Toujours
7in Beresford! we may well exclaim, in looking how the good things
temporal and spiritual of Ireland are disposed of,toujoursun Beresford,
for Beresford is in fact the Monsieur Non;/ tong pas of Irish story;
and why so, but that the Marquis of Waterford (the embryo
Duke of Munster, it is said) the head of that house, has more parlia¬
mentary influence than any peer in Ireland? and therefore he must
be his Grace the Duke,—his brother, his Grace the Primate,—and his
cousin, the right honourable and right reverend the Lord Bishop
of Kilmore—death having (for a while only, we doubt not) left the
family a bishop short of their complement, if complement they can
have, in the Irish hierarchy. In the midst of all this trafficking and
jobbing, we are pleased however to find, that a memorial, signed by
nearly all the Irish noblemen and gentlemen of property then in
London, was presented about two months since to the Earl of
Liverpool and the late Marquess of Londonderry, stating their firm
conviction, that a commutation of tithes in Ireland might be effected
with advantage to all interests. It w as signed with great readiness
Political Retrospect.
483
and unanimity by gentlemen of all political parties, and we hope
it will be attended to. If indeed the tithes of Ireland be not com¬
muted, or put in some w r ay or other on a new footing, the time can¬
not be very far distant, when the clergy there will have but a scanty
portion of tithes left them to commute.
Of the proceedings of the Session of Parliament upon which we
have not already commented, there are few that require particular
notice. The New Marriage Act has thrown old maids and young
ones,—beaux and bachelors,—into great alarm, and not without
occasion, though we cannot dwell upon the minor provisions, of
placarding names of sighing swains and yielding beauties, about to
be made as happy as the bands of matrimony can make them, haul¬
ing young ladies and old ones (if old there can ever be) before surro¬
gates, doctors, proctors, mayors, bailiffs, and justices, to make depo¬
sitions upon that point, on which, of all others, ladies are most wary
and tenacious, their age, and upon the long el cetera of grievances of
which they complain. We do however join the Lord Chancellor,
and the best legal authorities of both Houses, in entering a protest
against its retrospective operation, as ex post facto laws are always
bad in principle: and this is such, and cannot but be productive of
injury to many who acted upon the law as it was, not as it should
be. To make it so for the future, is all a legislature ever should
attempt; it has no right to repair the injuries of the past, at the
expense of those who proceeded, as they had a right to do, upon the
law as it stood. To have prevented any person hereafter from
taking advantage of a deliberate perjury committed in obtaining a
marriage license, either by himself or the person whose heir he
claims to be, was a reform in our marriage laws which justice and
morality alike demanded; but we cannot but think the other sub¬
stantial alterations have been introduced, to serve (to do justice,
equitably and abstractedly speaking, it may also be,) a particular
nobleman, rather than from any wish to benefit the public, w ho are
chiefly affected by minor regulations, hurried through the legisla¬
ture one session, to be repealed, we doubt not, in the next.—The
bill for preventing cruelty to animals, is a measure of more tardy
growth, but one of which we cannot but express our decided appro¬
bation.
Since the termination of the Session, an event has occurred, which
has excited the strongest feelings throughout the country. The
Marquess of Londonderry, the leader of the ministerialists in the
House of Commons, and the most active member of the cabinet,
suddenlv terminated his existence by his own hand. Of himself, or
of his policy, we intend not at present to say more, than that, though
his character in private life w as highly respectable, and even amiable,
it was distinguished by a disregard of the Sabbath, and of religious
institutions, which set but a bad example to the country ; and that
as a statesman he seldom consulted so much what was just, as what
was expedient. The catastrophe which has hurried him from scenes
in which he acted so conspicuous a part, was unquestionably an act
of madness, but of a madness brought on by unremitted applica¬
tion to business, even on those days on which our Cieatoi lias com¬
manded us to rest. Let his example teach others the impolicy, as
well as the impiety, of neglecting so merciful a provision against the
over-action of a frame that has a limit to its powers and its exertions.
484
Political Retrospect.
Language would fail beneath us, were we to attempt to give utterance
to the abhorrence inspired by the conduct of the rabble, in exulting
over the death of such a man in such a way, and even in outraging
all the feelings of humanity, in expressing their brutal triumph at his
grave. And if we cannot express our detestation of their conduct,
how is it possible to execrate, as it deserves, the conduct of some of
the public journals who have applauded it. If they could have sunk
beneath the contempt in which they have long been held by every
liberal mind amongst all parties, this would have sunk them lower
still. This however is not possible; there is a pitch of infamy, at
which the vilest cannot be more vile.
The French Government seems, and, as far as the preservation of
the present regime is concerned, not without reason, to be alarmed at
the convulsions in Spain, whose frontiers arc overlooked by an army
of observation, under the title of a cordon sanitaire, which have been
augmented in proportion as the dangers of the plague has dimi¬
nished ; an evident proof, that the infection dreaded on this side the
Pyrenees is of a political, not a physical nature. Since the revolu¬
tionary movements of July, the ultra-journals of Paris alfect not
indeed to keep up the farce of this shallow pretext, but vapour
about military movements, calling out the conscripts, &c. as though
the government of France was infatuated enough to commence a
crusading war, to force an absolute monarchy upon Spain. If this
be attempted, a sad reverse will, we are persuaded, be speedily
exhibited to the present flourishing state of the French finances,
which peace, and peace only, can restore to any thing like a healthy
action. Under the present ultra-royalist ministers, we are not san¬
guine in expecting much good to be effected ; and we cannot look
indeed at the proceedings of the French chambers and courts, without
a mingled feeling of contempt for them, and of pride in those of
our own country to which they may the most nearly be resembled ;
though we hope the period is very far distant, when our judges will
perform, as is done in France, the office of public accuser, or our
Houses of Parliament be turned into bear-gardens, a term more
appropriate to the French chambers than any our language will
supply.
The discontents which we stated in our last retrospect, to pervade
some of the provinces of Spain, soon broke out in the capital into an
open revolt. On the 2d of July, four battalions of the king’s guards,
quartered in different parts of the city, evidently by mutual consent,
deserted their posts, and repaired to the Prado, whither the king had
retired, under the pretence that his life was in danger, shortly
after closing the session of the Cortes ; on which occasion the popu¬
lace broke out into tumultuous shouts, one party for an absolute,
another for a constitutional king. There, after being joined by the
other battalions on guard at the palace, they massacred several of
their officers, whom they suspected of being too constitutional, and
evidently, though secretly, encouraged by the king and his personal
friends, at an early hour in the morning of the 7th, threw down one
of the city gates, and penetrated the capital, where they were
however defeated by the militia and armed inhabitants, under the
command of General Morillo, (appointed, by the king, colonel of his
guards on the very day of their revolt, in the expectation, there is
every reason to believe, of his acting a very different part,) Ballastc-
Political Retrospect.
485
ros, and Eiego. In a dreadful fire upon them in the market-place,
the}' lost a hundred men, and were compelled to retreat to their com¬
panions in the palace, where, in consequence of a message from a
junta hastily convened by the permanent deputation of the Cortes,
the king, though with some considerable reluctance, ordered the
four battalions who had committed the outrage, to lay down their
arms ; on which they fled, were overtaken, many killed, and
more taken prisoners. On the ensuing morning the remnant sued
for pardon; the auxiliary bishop of Madrid said mass in the balcony
of the great square, in the presence of the national militia and gar¬
rison of Madrid, to whom he gave the benediction, after which
a Te Deum was chanted for this grand constitutional victory, at
which the whole population of Madrid may be said to have been
present. Ferdinand, the Beloved, or the Embroiderer, (by which
name he should now be called, we know not,) shewed himself at one
of the balconies of the palace, and made a profound obeisance to the
people, who by their representatives, the municipality of Madrid,
and other bodies, have told him some home truths, from which if he
does not take warning, it is not to be expected that he can long
remain their king. Complaining of his court, or rather of his domes¬
tic circle, as being composed of permanent conspirators against
liberty, and requiring him to replace bis retired ministers by men
known to be devoted to the constitution, at the head of which they
emphatically admonish him to place himself at last with sinceiity,
and publicly to give particular pledges of his identifying himself
with it j they openly tell him that this is peihaps the last time he
mav have an opportunity of doing so. Such words and such acts
must surely satisfy the weakest and most obstinate man that evei
w ore a crow n, of the jeopardy in which that crown is placed, and
ought to prevent any fresh counter-revolutionary movements similar
to that thus triumphantly terminated for the constitutionalists, who
are said to have arrested the Duke del Infantado, one of the priu-
cipal grandees of Spain, together with 12S others, alleged to have
been his accomplices in a well-planned conspiiacj, ot which he was
the head and the mutinous guards but his willing tools. A similar
insurrectionary mo\ ement of a detachment of artillery at V alencia,
in favour of an absolute monarchy, was sometime previously sup¬
pressed by the militia, soldiery, and citizens, with equal ease and
less bloodshed. The constitutionalists therefore are completely
victorious, and seem at present to be both able and willing to make
the most of their ascendancy. Troops have been stationed in the
neighbourhood of the French cordon; and in return for the friendly
reception given to the Spanish ultra-refugees, the Cortes have
decreed the same pension to those who may fly from Fiance foi
political offences, as they formerly granted to Italian patriots seek¬
ing in Spain an asylum from the ravages of a foreign invader. The
Holy Alliance is anxious, we fear, in this case to interfeie again
with matters that do not concern them. If they do, we hope that
they will do so to their cost; nor can w^e bring ourselves to believe,
that England will ever be a party to their iniquitous attempt to dic¬
tate a form of government to foreign nations. The chief difficulty
of the new government is to raise a revenue ; but this, we trust
that the 6 patriotic feeling of the country will enable them to sur¬
mount. Some of the conspirators have proved secret oideis liom
486 Political Retrospect.
the king for what they did, which the firm and grateful monarch
does not deny; merely telling them, as a consolation for their being
hung for devoting themselves to his service, that they were fools
for their pains, as they ought not to have obeyed orders from him
which were not counter-signed by his ministers.
The Transatlantic dominions of the Spanish monarchy seem to
be rapidly wresting from her iron grasp. Bolivar has entered
Quito in triumph, after defeating nearly the last remnant of the
Royal army in those parts; and the authority of the new Emperor
Iturbide—the Buonaparte of South America in his rise, though we
hope he will not prove so in his progress—is recognized throughout
Mexico. Commissioners are proceeding from the mother country to
her insurgent, or, as it respects most of them, it might more pro¬
perly be said, her independent provinces, to endeavour to ellect a
reconciliation on terms accordant with the happiness and interests
of both, distinctly recognizing, as a leading principle of the compact,
the abandonment by the mother country of all exclusive privileges
in her commerce with the colonies. As was the case with England
before her, in North America, she how r ever must do more than
abandon all her claims upon the South American provinces as
dependencies upon her crown, for they will soon be hers no longer.
As yet, however, the insurrectionary movements have not every
where been successful, as a project to effect the independence of
Potosi has been defeated, and twenty-one of the officers, who were
its principal projectors, have been executed. Iturbide seems also
not to be adopting a line of conduct very likely to secure the perma¬
nency of his old empire new-revived, as one of his imperial majes¬
ty’s decrees has declared the Catholic faith the religion of the State,
and that r.o other will be tolerated. Persecution and intolerance
are how r ever weeds which must be uprooted in these days, even
from the rank luxuriance of a Mexican soil. Disappearing fast
from milder climes, they will not grow, but to be withered beneatli
the beams of a tropical sun.
Portug al, like the other states of the south of Europe, has its
plots and counterplots; one of which, for the deposition of the
king, and the establishment of a new government, or rather the re¬
establishment of the old order of things, has been detected and
prevented from an explosion, which might have been dangerous to
the constitutional government, if it be true, as is suspected, that
many persons of high rank were implicated in it. Its origin, how¬
ever, and even its operations, are hitherto involved in great obscu¬
rity. The Cortes have been chiefly occupied on the important
question of giving independence to the Brazils, a point upon which,
as might well be expected, very warm debates have taken place.
The committee appointed to draw up the Brazilian constitution
have given a decided opinion in favour of the measure, and against
the further practicability of a union between the two kingdoms ;
but upon that opinion the Cortes have not yet decided. The govern¬
ment at home has with great spirit dismissed the Sardinian envoy,
on account of a demur on the part of his court to acknowledge the
validity of the late changes in PortugaWa matter with which
strangers can have no right to interfere.
The war between the Greeks and Turks rages with increased
violence and brutality. The latter have reduced the beautiful island
487
Political Retrospect.
of Scio to a desart—prostrated every building—dug up every gar¬
den—butchered or sent into captivity every one of its inhabitants.
The number of the slain is estimated at 26,000 ; of the captives at
30,000. The latter are entirely women and boys under 12, every male
above that age having been massacred without exception. In some
instances they bled their prisoners to death, that they might glut them¬
selves with seeing them die by degrees, as to put them out of their
misery at once would have been too humane a procedure for such
devils in the shape of men. Against such an enemy the Greeks are
still offering the last resistance that courage and despair combined
can produce. By a new mode of paying troops who rally round
their standard of independence, in allotting to them, as their pay,
the land of their enemies, at an acre, or for service beyond the
Morea, an acre and a half per day, they have considerably re¬
cruited their army, in which 5000 Moreans have recently enrolled
themselves. The brutality with which they have been treated has
engendered equal brutality on their part. After a late victory over
a detachment of Turks near Navarino, all the wounded prisoners
who fell into the hands of the Greeks were, in spite of the remon¬
strances of some foreign officers who had joined their standard,
inhumanly massacred, their heads being carried from the field of
battle in triumph, after the ears had been pierced with a knife.
These heads formed the next morning play-things for the children in
the streets, who, after putting orange-blossoms and flowers in the
mouth, nose, and ears, paraded them about on little pikes. About
1500 of the Sciotes are still defending themselves with extraordi¬
nary bravery in the mountainous districts of their native isle, and
defeated some desperate attacks of the Captain Pacha, the brutal
ravager of their land. By their successful opposition they retarded
his proceedings against Samos, which would otherwise in all proba¬
bility have shared the melancholy fateof Scio. ltissaid tliatanarmyof
not less than 100,000 Ottomans entered the Morea, and as they had
amongst them (shame to our countrymen that it be so!) several
English officers, who have disciplined their troops, a fearful fate was
anticipated for the Greeks, whom their oppressors seem bent on
exterminating from the earth. In this, however, it is to be hoped
that they will not succeed, as the latest accounts from the seat of
war are favourable to the Greeks, the army of the two Pachas thus
entering the Morea, having been completely worsted in a four days’
engagement with their active enemies, who vigorously pursued
them in their retreat, captured their baggage, and took possession of
Patras, w'hich they had been besieging for upwards of two months.
They afterwards took the castle of the Morea, the Turks flying at
their approach, and retreating by sea either (as was supposed) for
Karon or Napoli di Romania. Since then, the Greek fleet, by means
of fire-ships, has completely defeated that of the Turks, and killed
their admiral, the brutal Captain Pacha. They have subsequently-
declared the coast of their enemies in a state of blockade, and we
hope they will keep it so.
With respect to China, the East India Company has settled its
differences with the viceroy on more easy terms than we expected,
for, without conceding any thing, the English ships have been per¬
mitted to take in their ladings, with the loss onlv of their demurrage ;
and his Excellency, the Governor of Kuang-Tung and Kuang-se,
VOL. v.—NO.'lO. 2 K
488
Political Retrospect.
after having been foiled in his attempt to extort a few dollars from
our merchants as the price of peace, has been obliged to satisfy
himself with a vapouring chop, stating, that our man-of-war, which'
murdered the Chinese, has run away. We are pleased to find that
this pacific arrangement has been materially facilitated, if not prin¬
cipally owing to the great skill exhibited by Dr. Morrison, the mis¬
sionary, in the language, laws, and usages of China.
PRINTED BY H. FISHER, CAXTON, LONDON.
INDEX
TO
THE FIFTH VOLUME.
A.
Academies, proceedings of—Roy¬
al, 190; Cheshunt College, 441;
RotherhamlndependentCollege,
442; Homerton, 443; Hoxton,
ib ; Llanpeter College, 470.
Agriculture—of the Israelites, Es¬
say on the, 259; address of Sir
T. S. Raffles to the Agricultural
Society of Sumatra, 272.
American—Literature and Intel¬
ligence, 161; Penitentiary Sys¬
tem, Report on it, 383; Mis¬
sions, 232, 47.
Antiquities—Zodiac of Dendara,
182; Ancient Cave at Kirkdale,
ib.; Egyptian, 182,3, 4; Roman
Eagle, 183; Theban Sarcopha¬
gus, ib.; discovered by M.Tede-
nat in Upper Egypt, ib.; an¬
cient figure of Apollo, 185;
Roman Town on the Hamby,
ib.; Roman Bridge at Gronigen,
ib,; Coins in the Glasgow Mu¬
seum, ib.
Augustus; or the ambitious Stu¬
dent, reviewed, 102; commend¬
ed, 103, 112.
B.
Bar The—Remarks upon educa¬
ting. young men for it, 123; list
of peers who have been barris¬
ters, 124; contrast of its splen¬
did allurements and scarcely
surmountable difficulties, ib.; its
advantages, ib.; an honourable
profession, 125; independent,
ib.; drawback to this in the pa¬
tronage of the Crown, 127;
gentlemanly profession, 128;
a liberal one, ib.; its society
and associations agreeable and
attractive, 129; may be lucra-
VOL. V.—NO. 10 .
tive, 130; its disadvantage, 131:
is expensive, ib.; the qualifica¬
tions for eminent success init are
not of an ordinary description,
ib.; is laborious, and must be
unremittingly pursued, 134;
there is a fearful preponde¬
rance against the chances of
success in its pursuits, 135.
Bencoolen—Report on the condi¬
tion of Society among its native
Population, 276.
Bequests, Testamentary—Essays
on their Impolicy, 304.
Berridge—Rev. John, Original
Letters from him, 73.
Bible Society—Annual Meeting of
the Hibernian, 208; British and
Foreign, 204 ; Naval and Mili¬
tary, 206.
Books—List of new ones, 191,
434.
Buckingham, Duke of, Instance
of his kindness and liberality to
his tenants, 217.
Byron, Lord, Review r of his Don
Juan, 335; his immorality and
impiety severely reprobated,
335, 6, 7, 8, 341, 2, 3, 8, 351, 2,
3, 5; his opinions of women ex¬
posed, 339; review of his Sar-
danapalus, 343; of his Two
Foscari, 345; of his Cain, ib.;
advice to him, 355, 368.
C.
Ceylon—Translation of the Raja-
vali, a Cinghalese history of
that kingdom, 21.
Chapels opened, 459, 461, 3, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9, 471; foundation laid,
468.
Churches consecrated, 216, 9;
foundation laid, 229.
2 L
490
INDEX.
Cotton, Rev. John, memoirs of
his life, 2, 241 ; his birth, 4;
early education, 5; residence at
the University of Cambridge,
6; conversion, 9; funeral ora¬
tion for Dr. Some, 10; gradua¬
tion, 11; settlement at Boston
in Lincolnshire, ib.; conduct in
the University there, 12 ; trou¬
bles on account of his non-con¬
formity, 13; marriagss and fa¬
mily, 14; removal to New Eng¬
land, 15; preaching and settle¬
ment at New Boston, 16; dili¬
gence in his studies there, 20;
in his pastoral duties, 234;
theological disputations, 241 ;
meekness, 243; candour, 247;
kindness, ib.; differences with
some of the New England Mi¬
nisters, 249; illness, 251; last
sermon, 252; preparation for
death, ib.; death and burial,
254; appearance of a comet
just before his removal, 255;
his opinion respecting it, 256.
D.
Deaths of remarkable persons,
222, 4, 462, 6, 9, 470,1; sudden,
220, 455, 7, 8, 9, 460.
Discoveries—a Remedy for Asth¬
ma, 185; circulation of the
blood, known in China before it
was in Europe, ib.; a cure
for the hooping cough, 186; the
use of Iodine in scrofula, ib.;
pearls in Ireland, 188; substi¬
tutes for coffee, 189; new islands
in the South Seas, 190, 432;
Antidotes to Poison, 425, 6;
alleged cure for Hydrophobia,
426; a new Febrifuge, ib.; a
remarkable Picture, ib.; a new
mode of preserving Flowers,
427.
Don Juan—Review of Cantos II.
—V.,334; severely reprobated,
334, 5, 6, 8, 341.
Drew, Mr. Samuel, Review of
his attempts to demonstrate
the existence, &c. of an Eternal
Being, 10; highly commended.
80, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 1,2 ;
his mode of treating entity and
non-entity, 81 ; space, 82; du¬
ration, 84; form, ib. ; unity of
the Deity, 86; motion, 87; ani¬
mal economy, 88; understand¬
ing and will, 89; gravitation,
90; distinctions between natu¬
ral and intellectual things, ib.;
liberty and necessity, 91; the
divine nature, 92 ; providential
government of God, 93; moral
evil, 95; some of his opinions
in connection with this subject,
controverted, ib., 97; future
state of brutes, 97; moral go¬
vernment of God, ib.; pain and
pleasure, 98; prosperity and
adversity, ib.; eternal punish¬
ments, 99; defects of the work,
90, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6.
Durant, Rev. Thomas, Review of
his Memoirs and Remains of
an only Son, 123; highly com¬
mended, 137, 160; his qualifi¬
cation to superintend his son’s
education, 137, 8, 140, 1, 5.
Durant, W. Friend, Review of
his Memoirs and Select Re¬
mains, 123; his birth and early
education, 137, 9; formation of
his religious character, ib.; ear¬
ly display of his endowments,
140; advance in the classics,141;
in history and general know¬
ledge, 142; singular correct¬
ness of his early compositions,
142, 4; specimens and esti¬
mate of his poetical talents,
145, 154, 9; predilection for the
bar, 147; entire submission of
his future path to his father’s
direction, 148; entrance at
Glasgow, 149; first academical
session and profession there,
ib.; his prizes, 150, 5; entrance
on the logical class, 151 ; severe
reprobation of Don Juan, 151;
mathematical studies, 153; me¬
taphysical pursuits, 155; pro¬
gress in natural philosophy, 157;
in political economy, 158; re¬
turn to Glasgow for the last
time, 159; illness and death,
ib.; estimate of his character,
137, 159.
INDEX.
491
E.
t
Ecclesiastical Preferments, 216,
7, 8, 220, 221, 460, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 471.
English Poetry—Thoughts on, 61.
Essays—on the different methods
in which the Talents and Op¬
portunities of all Christians
ought to be employed for the
advancement of the cause of
Christ, 44; ou the Character of
Machiavel, 55; Thoughts on
English Poetry, 61; on the Agri¬
culture of the Israelites, 259 ;
on Testamentary Bequests, 304.
Essex, the Earl of, his connection
with the publication of the
works of Sir Charles Hanbury
Williams, 323.
F.
Fine Arts—Canovas Statue of
Washington, 187; of George IV.
426.—New Society for encourag¬
ing the Fine Arts at Paris, 187;
Museum at Gottingen, 189.—
Monument of Kosciusko, ib. ;
Collection of Old Masters in
the Royal Academy, 190.—
Painted glass window for Here¬
ford Cathedral, 426.—Academy
of Arts in Ireland, 427.—West’s
Picture of Christ, healing the
sick, ib.
G.
Gorham, Rev. George Cornelius,
Vindication of DeanMilner from
the charges brought against him
by the Rev. James Plumptre, 33.
H.
Hawes, Benjamin, Esq. account
of him, 451.
Hewlet, Rev. J. P. Review of his
Sermons for Parochial and Do¬
mestic use, and Plain Discourse
on Confirmation, 112; com¬
mended, 113, 7; example of his
lucid statement of the truth, 113
—of his pious and affectionate
manner, 116; his views of con¬
firmation, 117.
Holland,Lord, his connection with
the publication of the works of
Sir Charles Hanbury Williams,
327.
I.
Illustrations of various passages
of Scripture, 31.
Improvements—in Printing, 187;
OakFurniture, 188; Ventilation,
ib.; consumption of Steam-en¬
gine smoke, 189; Telegraphic
Signals, 190 ; Spinning and
Weaving, 427; Mending Roads,
428; working the Cornish Silver
Mines, 429.
India,—Papers relating to, 21,
272, 6.
Intelligence, American, 161, 383;
Philosophical and Literary, 182,
425; Religious, 202 441 ; Phi¬
lanthropic, 229,444; Provincial,
213, 453 ; Missionary, 226, 472;
Political, 233, 480.
Inventions—for transferringPaint-
ings in Fresco, 187; Instru¬
ment for copying drawings, ib.;
SteamCarriage,427; FireShield,
ib.; Life Beacon, 428.
Johnstone, Sir Alexander, Com¬
munication from him, 21.
Israelites, Essay on their Agricul¬
ture, 259 ; their live stock, ib.;
their herds, 265; Sheep, 268.
L.
Lawrence, Mr. refutation of his
opinions on the Mosaic history
of the Creation, 260.
Legal Intelligence, 219.
Letters, original one from William
Penn, 72; Rev. John Berridge,
73; Rev. John Wesley, 79.
Licentious Productions in High
Life, Review of several, 316;
their prosecution stronglyurged,
317, 321, 333, 360; observations
on the propriety of denying them
the protection of copy-right, 369.
List of New Publications, 191,
434.
492
INDEX.
Literary Intelligence—Statue to
the memory of Burns, 188; En¬
couragement of Science in
Hanover, 190; New Chart of the
Mediterranean, 428; Visit of
Mr. Campbell to the Scenery of
Ossian’s Poems, 433:—Socie¬
ties—NewMechanical Societyat
Edinburgh, 188; Society of Prac¬
tical Medicine of London, 426.
Longevity, instances of, 218, 220,
2, 454, 5, 460, 2, 3, 9, 470, 1.
Lorenzo; a Tale of Redemption.
By J. Roby, Review of it, 118.
M.
Machiavel.—Remarks on his cha¬
racter, 55.
Mason, Rev. Dr. J. M., Address
at the Organization of the Fa¬
culty ofDickinson College, 161;
notice of a pamphlet published
by the Unitarians of New York,
in reply to certain parts of his
Farewell Sermon, 171.
Memoirs of the Life of the Rev.
John Cotton, 1,241.
Milner, Rev. Dean, Vindication of
his character, from the remarks
of the Rev. James Plumptre, 33.
Missionary Intelligence—Society
for Promoting Christian Know¬
ledge, 225; Society for propa¬
gating theGospel, 472; Moravian
Mission, 225; Baptist Mission,
441, 226, 472; London Mission¬
ary Society, 203, 227, 472;
Church Missionary Society, 203,
228,475; Methodist Mission,203,
229, 477; Edinburgh Missionary
Society, 231,479; General Bap¬
tist Missionary Society, 231;
NetherlandsMissionary Society,
479; American Colonization So¬
ciety, 232; Board of Foreign
Missions, 232, 480 ; United Fo¬
reign Missionary Society, 480;
Missionary Society to the Me¬
thodist Episcopal Church, 480;
Episcopal Missionary Society,
ib.
Morison, Rev. John, Review of his
Lectures on the Reciprocal Ob¬
ligations of Life, 372;commend¬
ed, 372, 3, 5, 9; qualification of
his views on unequal matiimo-
nial alliances, 374; his views of
the duties of a minister, 374, 7;
of the prevalence of Antinomian-
ism, ib.; of the esteem in which
Ministers should be held, 377.
Murray, Mr. John, Review of a
Remonstrance addressed to him
on the publication of Cain, 359.
N.
Norton, John, Memoirs of Rev.
John Cotton, 1, 239.
O.
Obi iuary of James Perry, Esq. 211;
Claudius John Rich, Esq. 213;
Helenus Scot, M.D. 214; Po-
mare, King of Otaheite, ib.;
Hon. W. Pinckney, ib.; Joseph
Decker, ib.; Rev. Thos. Cherry,
B.D. 215; James Boswell, Esq.
ib.; Sir John Sylvester, Bart,
ib.; Mr. Samuel Varley, ib.; Dr.
Stuart, Archbishop of Armagh,
216; Rev. George Heath, D.D.
ib. ;\Vhitshed Keene, Esq.M.P.
217; Ralph Dodd, Esq. 209;
Rev. John Williams, 220; Caleb
H. Parry, M.D. 221; Rev. Ed¬
mund Butcher, 222 ; George
Hutchins Bellasis, Esq. 223 ;
Dr. Broderick, Archbishop of
Cashel, 224; Benjamin Hawes,
Esq. 451; Andrew Jukes, M.D.
454; Sir Samuel Toller, ib. ;
Thomas Coutts, Esq. ib.; Peter
Finnerty,455; Duke de Richlieu,
ib.; Augustus, Duke of Saxe-
Gotha, 456: James Brownley,
Esq. ib.; Edward Jerningham,
Esq. ib.; Earl of Orford, ib.;
Marquis of Hertford, 457; John
Oldham Oldham, Esq. ib; John
Reid, M.D. 458; Rev. Thomas
Coombe, D.D. ib. ; Viscount
Bulkeley, 459; Rev. Thomas Le
Mesurier, B.D. 461; Rev. Pay-
Ier Matthew Proctor, A.M. 462;
Thomas Girdlestone, M.D. 465;
SirChristopherPegge,M.D.466;
Rev. Thomas Abraham Salmon,
INDEX.
493
B.D. 467; Alfred Cecil Buck-
land, Esq. ib.; Sir Alexander
Boswell,470; Lord Kingsale,471;
Sir Samuel Auchmuty, ib.
Ordinations, 459,460, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 470.
Original Letters from William
Penn, 72; Rev. John Berridge,
73; Rev. John Wesley, 79.
Owen, Rev. Dr. John, his Epitaph,
313.
P.
Partington, Charles Frederick,
Review of his account of the
Steam Engine, 380; commended
*383, *386.
Parker, Archbishop, his Epitaph,
311.
Penitentiary System of the United
States, Report upon its condi¬
tion, 383.
Penn,William, original letter from
him, 72.
Perry, James, Esq. Account of
him, 211.
Philanthropic-Intelligence, Pro¬
vincial, 217,222,3, 4 ; Christian
Charity, 451 ;—Institutions, Pro¬
ceedings of—Royal Universal
Dispensary for Children, 209;
Society for educating the Poor
in Ireland, ib.; Seamens Hos¬
pital, ib.; Society for the relief
of Asthmas, ib.; Surrey Dispen¬
sary, ib.; St. Giles’s Irish Free
Schools, 210; Jews’ Hospital,
ib.; St. Patrick’s Schools, ib;
Irish School Society Dublin, ib.;
Asylum for Deaf and Dumb
Ch'ildren,211; London Auxiliary
Irish School Society,ib.; Marine
Society, ib.; Royal Humane So¬
ciety, 444; Philanthropic Socie¬
ty, Mile-end, 445; Caledonian
Asylum, ib.; Economical Socie¬
ty, ib.; London Orphan Asylum,
ib.; Magdalen Hospital, ib.;
London Hospital, ib.; Artists’
Benevolent Institution, ib. ;
London Female Penitentiary,
ib.; Artists’BenevolentFund,ib.;
African Institution, 447 ; British
and Foreign School Society, ib.;
Literary Fund, ib.; Royal Me¬
tropolitan Infirmary for Sick
Children, ib.; British and Fo-
reignPhilanthropic Society ,448;
Society for the Improvement of
Prison Discipline, ib.; National
School Society, 449; Society for
the encouragement of Industry,
ib.; Western Dispensary, ib.;
Society for the relief of aged and
infirm Protestant Dissenting
Ministers, ib.; Refuge for the
Destitute, 150.
Philosophical Intelligence, 182.
Plumptre, Rev. James, Answer to
his remarks on the character of
Dean Milner, 33.
Poetry, Remarks on that of Eng¬
land, 61 ;the Prophecy of Tagus,
from theSpanish of LuisdeLeon,
by J. H. Wiffen, Esq. 176; To
the Nightingale, written at Col¬
lege, 179; Extract from an un¬
published Drama, ib.; The Hud¬
son River, 418.
Political Retrospect, 233, 480.
Publications, List of new ones,
191, 434.
R.
Raffles, Sir Thomas Stamford,
Communications from him, 272,
6 .
Religious Institutions, Proceed¬
ings of-Society for propagating
Christian Knowledge in the
Highlands, 202; Religious Book
& Tract Society for I reland,202;
Sunday School for Ireland, ib.;
Hibernian Bible Society, ib.;
British and Foreign Bible So¬
ciety, 204; Prayer Book and
Homily Society, ib. ; London
Society for promoting Christia¬
nity amongst the Jews, 205 ;
London Hibernian Society, ib.;
Port of London Society, 206;
Sunday School Union, ib ; Con¬
tinental Society, 207 ; Irish
Evangelical Society, ib.; Socie¬
ty for building and enlarging
Churches, 441 ; Baptist Home
Missionary Society, ib.
Remonstrance, addressed to Mr.
494
INDEX.
Murray, on the publication of
Cain, reviewed, 346, 356 ; cen¬
sured, ib.
Retrospect of Politics, 233, 480.
Review of Drew’s attempt to
demonstrate the Existence,
Perfections, and Providence of
God, 80; Augustus, or the Am¬
bitious Student, 102; Sermons
by the late Rev. J. P. Hewlett,
112; a plain Discourse on Con¬
firmation, by the same author,
ib.; Lorenzo, a Tale of Re¬
demption, by J. Roby, 118;
Memoirs and Select Remains of
an only Son, by Thomas Du¬
rant, 123; Works of Sir Chas.
Hanbury Williams, 315; Don
Juan, ib.; Sardanapalus, Cain,
&c. by Lord Byron, ib.; Uriel,
a Poetical Address to Lord By¬
ron, ib.; Queen Mab, by Percy
Bysshe Shelley, ib.; a Remon¬
strance, addressed to Mr. Mur¬
ray, ib.; Lectures on the reci¬
procal Obligations of Life, by
the Rev. John Morison, 372;
an Account of the Steam En¬
gine, by C. F. Partington, 380.
Roby, J., Review of his Lorenzo,
a Tale of Redemption, 118;
commended, 118, 121, 2.
Russel, Lord John, his connec¬
tion with the publication of the
works of Sir Charles Hanbury
Williams, 330.
S.
Scripture, Illustrations of, select¬
ed from different authors, 31.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, Review of
his Queen Mab, 368; its athe¬
ism, blasphemy, and immora¬
lity, severely reprobated, 361,
2, 3, 4; his death, 366.
Shipwreck—narrative of an ex¬
traordinary one, 431.
Steam Engines—Estimate of the
power of those used in England,
428; Review of Partington’s
Account of them, 380.
Sumatra—Address of Sir T. S.
Raffles to its Agricultural So¬
ciety, 272; Report on the con¬
dition of Society among the
Native Population of Bencoo-
len and its subordinates, 276.
T.
Talents—on their right use by
Christians, 44.
Testamentary Bequests, Essay on
their impolicy, 304.
Travels—of Mr. O’Beirne inWes-
tern Africa, 432 ; Mr. Thorsby
in New South Wales, ib.; Mr.
Waldech in Africa, 434; Insti¬
tution for assisting travellers on
Mount Olympus, ib.
V.
Vaccination, Annual Report on
its progress, 186; said to be a
cure for the hooping-cough, ib.
University Intelligence, Cam¬
bridge, 218, 460; Oxford, 221,
466.
Voyages of Discovery—Captain
King’s in Australasia, 429;
Capt. Manby’s among the South
Sea Islands, 430 ; to the new
Southern Land, 431; Capt. Bil-
linghausen’s to the South Seas,
432; extraordinary voyage of
two Natives of the St. Lawrence
island, 430.
Uriel, a poetical Epistle to Lord
Byron, reviewed, 347, 8.
W.
Wesley, Rev. John, Original Let¬
ter from him, 79.
Wiffen, J. H., the Prophecy of
Tagus, from the Spanish of
Luis de Leon, 176.
Williams, Sir Charles Hanbury,
Review of his works, 316; their
gross licentiousness severely
reprobated, 321, 4 ; the prose¬
cution of their printer and pub¬
lisher strongly urged, 321, 333;
conduct and character of their
editor, 322, 7, 332; their cha¬
racter, 324, 8, 9.
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Published by Henry Fisher. Cartas, London. 1822.