Page images
PDF
EPUB

in future cause parishes to pay more attention to the education and morals of this unhappy class of children.

A work has been advertised on Prophecy and the Millennium "with lithographic engravings, by Martin, representing the divisions of the Holy Land and various buildings to be erected when the Jews are restored;" with " a map of the countries to be possessed by the restored tribes;"" the personal reign of Christ; the time and manner of his coming; the very spot where he shall alight, the place where he shall fix his throne," &c. &c. We can only express our astonishment that any person who professes veneration for the word of God should witness without pain and grief such vain and presumptuous sportings with its sacred con

tents.

FRANCE.

Some researches have been made by M. Benoiston de Chateauneuf, in relation to the influence of certain occupations in causing pulmonary consumption. His attention was directed to the subject, from witnessing the number of deaths, from that disease, in the commune of Meuse, where the business of manufacturing gun flints is extensively carried on. By examining the registers, he came to the conclusion that human life has been shortened five years in this commune, which he attributes to the inhalation of the particles which escape from the gunflints, in the process of giving to them their proper form, causing a very great number of those employed in their manufacture to be affected with disease of the lungs. He was led to extend his investigations to the individuals of other occupations, who are exposed to a similar cause of disease. He procured a list of persons admitted for pulmonary complaints into three of the principal hospitals of Paris, during a period of five years, from 1821 to 1826. Among mechanics who, like bakers, coal-men, cotton-spinners, &c., breathe an atmosphere loaded with a fine vegetable dust, he found the average amount of consumption was a little more than twenty-two individuals in the thousand. The mortality, from consumption, was the least among cottonspinners and carders, being about eighteen to the thousand, and the greatest being among coal-men, about forty-one to the thousand. Among those who breathe an atmosphere charged with mineral dust, such as stone-cutters, &c., the average number of deaths from diseases of the lungs, was nearly thirty persons in a thousand. Among labourers engaged in hewing stone, the mortality, from this cause, is least, being eighteen in a thousand while it is the greatest among plasterers, exceeding thirty in a thousand. Among those who breathe an atmosphere loaded with fine particles of animal matter, such as wool and hair carders, brush

makers, feather men, &c., the average number of deaths, from diseases of the lungs, was 5.44 per cent., or upwards of 54 persons in a thousand. The smallest mortality, from these complaints, was among the carders; the greatest among those who work in feathers. The general conclusion of M. Benoiston is, that among persons whose occupations oblige them to breathe an atmosphere charged with dust, 24 persons of every thousand of such individuals received into the hospitals, will be found to be labouring under consumption.

The French translators of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, despairing of doing justice to the author's singular verses, have generally suppressed them; and a new translation has lately been published without them; but M. Bost has supplied the deficiency by a new metrical version published separately, with appropriate music for singing.

The French law now allows of hawkers carrying books about without restrictions. This will greatly assist the circulation of Bibles and religious tracts, which had been much impeded under the late go

vernment.

POLAND.

Much sympathy is due in behalf of our Protestant Polish brethren, suffering under the combined affliction of war and pestilence. There are two Protestant churches in Warsaw; one of the Reformed Evangelical confession, and one of the Lutheran. The members of the former are about twelve or fourteen hundred in number. They have two pastors; the senior of whom superintends the Reformed churches in the provinces, in number about twelve or fifteen. Many converted Jews attend his church, and Roman Catholics are often seen in it. The Lutherans are about twelve or fifteen thousand in number: they have one church and three pastors.

SPAIN.

Mr. Washington Irving thus describes the modern aspect of Palos, a place memorable in the life of Columbus and the history of the world :-" I cannot express to you what were my feelings on treading the shore which had once been animated by the bustle of departure, and whose sands had been printed by the last footstep of Columbus. The solemn and sublime nature of the event that had followed, together with the fate and fortunes of those concerned in it, filled the mind with vague yet melancholy ideas. It was like viewing the silent and empty stage of some great drama when all the actors had departed. The very aspect of the landscape, so tranquilly beautiful, had an effect upon me; and as I paced the deserted shore by the side of a descendant of one of the discoverers, I felt my heart swelling with emotions and my eyes filling with tears. What surprised me was to

find no semblance of a sea-port; there was neither wharf nor landing-place. It is at present a mere village of the poorest kind, and lies nearly a quarter of a mile from the river, in a hollow among hills. It contains a few hundred inhabitants, who subsist principally by labouring in the fields and vineyards. Its race of merchants and mariners are extinct. The people are totally ignorant, and it is probable the greater part of them scarce know even the name of America. Such is the place from whence sallied forth the enterprise for the discovery of the western world." UNITED STATES.

The early records of the Presbyterian Church in America have been recently discovered in Pennsylvania, among the papers of a descendant of one of the first Presbyterian ministers. The Presbytery of Philadelphia, the first in the United States, was organized in 1704; and in twelve years numbered twenty-seven congregations. So anti-sectarian were its founders, that until the year 1729, there was no formal bond of union, except the Bible, and the sentiments respecting its plan of salvation as generally received by the Protestant Reformed churches. At length, finding some inconvenience for want of a recognized code of articles, they, after much deliberation, agreed on the following resolution: "Although the synod do not claim or pretend to any authority of imposing our faith upon other men's consciences, but do profess our just dissatisfaction and abhorrence of such impositions, and do utterly disclaim all legislative power and authority in the church; being willing to receive one another as Christ has received us to the glory of God, and admit to fellowship in sacred ordinances all such as we have grounds to believe Christ will at last admit to the kingdom of heaven; yet we are undoubtedly obliged to take care that the faith once delivered to the saints be kept pure and uncorrupt among us, and so handed down to our posterity; and do therefore agree that all the ministers of this synod, or that shall hereafter be admitted into this synod, shall declare their agreement in and approval of the Westminster Confession of Faith, with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, as being, in all the essential and necessary articles, good forms of sound words and systems of Christian doctrine; and do also adopt the said Confession and Catechisms as the confession of our faith." Some scruples arising respecting particular passages, they added the following qualification: "Excepting only some clauses in the xxth and xxiid chapters, concerning which clauses, the synod do unanimously declare, that they do not receive those articles in any such sense as to suppose the civil magistrate hath a CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 358.

controuling power over synods, with respect to the exercise of their ministerial authority, or power to persecute any for their religion, or in any sense contrary to the Protestant succession to the throne of Great Britain." "The synod observing that unanimity, peace, and unity, which appeared in all their consultations and determinations relating to the affair of the Confession, did unanimously agree in giving thanks to God in solemn prayer and praises." A motion being made to know the synod's judgment about the Directory, they declared that they judged it to be agreeable in substance to the word of God.

Gibbs the pirate, lately executed in America, repeatedly stated that he was concerned in the robbery of more than forty vessels, and in the destruction of more than twenty, with their entire crew. Many of those destroyed had passengers on board; so that it is calculated that he has been an agent in the murder of nearly four hundred human beings.

The synod of Genesee, having been called to aid by their advice presbyteries and churches under their supervision, labouring under difficulties on the subject of freemasonry, state, that it is the judgment of this synod, that sufficient reasons exist, even exclusive of the revelations of seceding masons, why all the ministers and members of their churches should dissolve their connexion with the institution of freemasonry, and signify the same to their Christian brethren. Its character as a secret confederacy, which withholds its proceedings from the correcting and purifying influence of public cognizance, they consider, renders it peculiarly liable to be employed as an instrument of evil by designing men, and reasonably subjects its principles to be held chargeable for the overt wickedness which may emanate from its members.

The conductors of the Philadelphia Episcopal Recorder observe: "We do not know when our feelings have been more excited, than while reading the remarks in the Christian Observer' on receiving the first information of the death of Bishop Hobart; or when our heart has mounted upward with a more hearty assent than when we came to the concluding sentence, 'O if our brethren in the West will listen to us in the East, let them avoid as a canker the party spirit and ungodly contending which have so often rent infant churches, and strive together in purity and peace for the faith of the Gospel.' We have not avoided them; and this may be one reason why the Holy Spirit is so slow to excite in us those renewed affections, that chastened zeal, and that fervent devotion to the interests of Christ's body, which ought ever to characterize its members. O that the record 4 N

of the past were blotted out in heaven, and that our future history as a church may deserve the commendation bestowed by the Lord himself upon Thyatira, 'I know thy work, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience and thy works, and the last to be more than the first.""Our Translatlantic friend's confession and prayer are unhappily as appropriate to our own church as to his. May both take the warning before it be too late.

The "Episcopal Education Society" has established a self-supporting school on the banks of the Delaware, for the instruction of young men who wish to study for the sacred ministry but have not resources to meet the ordinary expenses of a college education. They are to study six hours in the school, and work four on the farm; a system which the committee think will not only be a measure of economy, but be of great service to the health of the young men, and prevent that large proportion of sickliness and premature death which is said to prevail in the American colleges. There are several academical institutions, we believe, in the United States upon this principle.

Our readers may affix to the obituary of Dr. Mason of New-York the following anecdote, which his friends adduce as characteristic of his acute feeling and deep humility under a somewhat lofty aspect. Being accustomed to visit some small congregations in the country, he was returning to New-York through the highlands, from one of these excursions; and having stopped for a little refreshment, near the narrows, was furnished with bread and milk, which he ate with an iron spoon. On his return he smilingly mentioned the circumstance; and his remark about the iron spoon soon reached the ears of his kind hostess, who replied with grief, "that she was sorry Dr. Mason had made himself merry at her expense; for if she had possessed a silver spoon, he should certainly have used it: as it was, she furnished him with the best she had."

This being related to him, his feelings were so deeply wounded, that he mounted his horse and rode more than fify miles, to apologize for his heedless speech, and ask the old lady's pardon.

Among the observations made in the United States on the great eclipse of the sun last February, in places where it was annular, it was noticed that in the prismatic spectrum the space occupied by the red rays was much less, and that by the violet much greater than usual. The planet Venus was visible for an hour, and Jupiter for a shorter time. Birds went to their roosts, and cattle to their stalls. A thermometer standing at 71 degrees in the sun is stated to have fallen to 42; and powerful lens, which burned cloth instantly by the solar rays, produced no effect upon it during the middle of the eclipse. During the present century the moon's shade will pass over the Atlantic States only three times.

On comparing the returns of the late census of the United States with that of 1820, it appears that the increase of the population during the last ten years, is about 3, 223,000, and the rate of increase about 33 per cent. The rate of increase between 1790 and 1800 was about 35 per cent. ; between 1800 and 1810, 34; between 1810 and 1820, 33. It is not, however, stated what portion is owing to immigration.

We copy the following hospitable notice from the New-York religious journals: " Clergymen visiting the city during the approaching religious anniversaries are requested to call at the American Tract Society's house, that their Christian brethren may have the opportunity of furnishing them with accommodations during the anniversaries. The invitation is cordially given, with an assurance from the undersigned that it will be esteemed a privilege by our Christian friends, especially at this season of unusual religious solemnity, to entertain the ministers of Christ in their families."

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

We had prepared various articles of Religious Intelligence, which we are obliged to postpone; and among them some recent notices respecting the French Protestant Church, and some affecting details of the destruction of the Moravian settlements in Barbadoes by the late hurricane. Other missionary establishments have also suffered greatly in this wide-wasting desolation. Some afflicting particulars respecting the Moravian settlements will be found on our Cover,

to which, for the present, we must refer our readers. By the mercy of God no lives were lost among the missionary families; but their loss of property amounts to more than 4000., and they are destitute of funds either to supply the loss or to carry on their valuable missionary labours. They have no human resource in this exigency, but the sympathy and liberal benevolence of their Christian brethren; and these, we are persuaded, will not be found unequal to the occasion.

VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

We remarked in our last Number, that we thought it would be the wisdom of the House of Lords to entertain the Reform Bill; and we see nothing in what has passed during the last month to lead us to alter that opinion; certainly nothing that induces us to think that it was wise to reject it, without even an attempt to improve it in a committee. It would at least have been more grateful to the nation, if a measure urged by the Throne, anxiously matured by government and the unprecedented labours of the House of Commons, by a large majority of whom, as well as of their constituents, it was warmly espoused, as absolutely necessary to the public weal, should have been calmly examined in detail, and not cast out in the mass as utterly unworthy of consideration. Had this course been pur sued, had the House of Lords cut down the bill to its own standard of reform, or proposed another in its place; though the effort, we feel convinced, would not in the end have succeeded, or the public have been satisfied with a less efficient measure than the present; yet there would have been no pretext for popular irritation, or for those revolutionary invectives which have assailed the House of Lords, and may be the means before long of bringing on some extraordinary and unconstitutional propositions which otherwise had never been dreamt of, especially as regards the bench of bishops, whose votes happened by accident to turn the scale against the consideration of the

measure.

The original propriety of bringing in the bill, and the propriety of the House of Lords accepting it, under all the circumstances in which it came before them, are totally distinct questions. For ourselves we have not scrupled to express our opinion upon both these points. With regard to the former, as Christians, as lovers of justice, and friends to our country, we have nothing to do with party politics; and our only way therefore of viewing the matter was upon what seemed to us the plain principles of right and wrong and thus arguing it, we could not refuse to see that our present system of national representation had become incommensurate to its professed object; that many old places had decayed, and new ones arisen; that private nomination and party interests had avowedly come to exercise that influence in the national representation which wisely and constitutionally belonged to the great mass of national wealth, respectability, and intelligence; that a large body of the people were constantly dissatisfied; that they had no confidence in their representatives or rulers, nor were likely to have till the whole machine was re-adjusted to its true level; that the bonds of national sympathy, which ought to unite all classes of

feudal

the people, were well nigh broken; that
bribery, corruption, and perjury, were as
notorious as the sun at noon day; that
the votes for members were in few and
partial hands, and no small portion of
them in hands the most improper to hold
them, the very dregs of society, men open
to venalityin its grossest and cheapest form,
down to the beer-barrel and gin-cask;
that the great majority of the respectable,
substantial, loyal, peaceable, moral, re-
ligious, and intelligent part of the public,
the leading householders of our parishes
and the persons looked up to in their
neighbourhoods as the moral strength of
the country, were almost wholly unrepre-
sented, and had little to do with parlia-
mentary elections, except to lament their
sins and excesses; that under this system
the House of Commons was not the body
it ought to be; that its votes were little
more than a trial of party strength, so
that scarcely any question was allowed to
stand upon its real merits, but was decid-
ed by the preponderance of rival inter-
ests; as, for example, corn against manu-
factures; the landowner's rent against
free trade, private church-patronage,
against new church-building;
game laws, against common sense, and
common justice and humanity; and inte-
rested West-Indian votes against the de-
mand of the moral, religious, enlightened
and humane part of the nation, for the
abolition of colonial slavery;-that un-
der this system nothing was safe; that
even the Church of England and its re-
venues, which it was pretended mainly
rested upon this partial, hollow basis, and
not upon the blessing of God or public
favour, and the obligations of justice and
religion, was itself likely to fall the mo-
ment the predominant interest should
for any cause desire to subvert it; that
while these abuses lasted, it was admitted
that no government could afford to be
honest, but must succumb to the interest-
ed views of a small body of influential
persons, and make all the public appoint-
ments of church and state a barter for
votes in parliament, and augment honours
and sinecures to assist the same object.
We might say more, but such were some
of the reasons which led us to consider
parliamentary reform necessary; and the
late bill appeared to us, upon the whole,
likely to effect the desired end, both in
the excision of what was decayed and the
addition of what was required: and to
bind together the great mass of the moral-
ity, intelligence, and property of the land;
and thus present an unbroken front,
equally against interested oligarchy and the
spirit of radicalism and revolution which
threatened to overwhelm all orders of the
state. It only requires that we should
look back to the alarming condition of the
country this time last year, to see that
something very efficient was necessary to

View of Public Affairs-Reform.

640
prevent the most dreadful state of anarchy
and rebellion into which we appeared to
be fast sinking.

Under all the circumstances, therefore, we were disposed to view the Reform Bill with favour, upon its own merits: it appeared to us wise, and liberal, and calculated to prevent the necessity for future agitations of the question, which must have incessantly occurred under partial amendments, and at length propably have ended in ruinous democracy. Our firm conviction is, and it is the conviction of some who still oppose the measure, that if it had been allowed peaceably to pass into a law last spring, when it was first proposed, the public would have been satisfied; national peace would have been restored, legislation would have gone on quietly and temperately; and these benefits would have been gained without those fearful agitations which may yet ensue, or the raising of those revolutionary questions which have now become household words among the populace, and which, unless even yet set at rest while concession has grace, threaten consequences fatal to our national church, our hereditary legislation, and the whole fabric of British society.

Such were our views, as expressed from the first, respecting the original propriety of a measure of large and efficient parliamentary reform: but, even admitting that these considerations were not conclusive, the question as it came before the House of Lords did not of necessity rest upon them. Let it be granted, that it might be originally unwise to bring in this contested bill, and that it had been better to have risked rebellion and revolution than have urged such a measure; yet when the bill had been brought forward; when the great mass of the nation had received it with enthusiasm; when a new House of Common had been returned expressly and triumphantly to support it; when the votes of that House were largely in its favour, and several anxious and weary months had been spent in arguing every particular of its merits and demerits; when the king and the cabinet had pledged themselves not to abandon it; and the public at large, who at first knew little of the matter, had become so well acquainted by twelve months' discussions, with the anomalies of our representation, and the whole system of nomination, boroughmongering, and party representation, till then enveloped in secrecy or veiled with delicacy, that it was impossible they should ever be contented with the old abuses, or wish less, rather than more, than the bill offered; when other grave questions also began to be talked of, the popular answer to which would mainly depend upon the reception or rejection of the Reform Bill; when the church was said to be in danger, and the peerage in danger, and the state itself in danger, from

[OCT.

wide-spread combinations not to pay rates, or tithes, or taxes; and when, wherally impossible that some such measure ther the bill was good or bad, it was mocould be long delayed, while every hour's delay only raised larger demands;-under disapproved of the introduction of the all these circumstances, even those who bill might well pause as to the wisdom advanced a stage of its progress. Happy of rejecting it after it had arrived at so do we think it had been for the country selves, had the majority of the House of at large, and peculiarly happy for themand still more happy had it been for the Lords taken this view of the subject: verend prelates acted upon the same conChurch of England, had our Right Reviction; and this we think they might have done honestly and wisely, under all original disapprobation of the measure. the circumstances, notwithstanding their Their constitutional right to reject the bill is undoubted: but we seriously wisely, especially as the matter related doubt whether they have exercised it wholly to the constitution of the other and proceedings the influence of the peerHouse of Parliament, in whose election though in practice it has become overage is in theory carefully guarded against, whelming. Of the hundred and ninetyminority was one hundred and fifty-eight), nine lords who voted against the bill (the though many had private interests at stake, we cannot doubt that the larger portion were honest in their opposition, viewing the measure as likely to be injurious, not merely to their own order or interests, but to the constitution at large, both in church and state. The great majority of the Right Reverend bench seem to have taken this view of the question; and most unfair has been the popular obloquy which has assailed them, as if they had justice and corruption. sold their consciences to perpetuate inin the remark of the Bishop of London We fully concur honestly, but that whether they had acted in defending them, that they had acted wisely was another question. We think they have acted unwisely, though conintentionally prejudiced the Church of scientiously; and we fear they have unparticular, in a way which may shew itself England, and their own order in it in alarmingly than in popular outcry and at the meeting of parliament far more tumultuous burnings in effigy. We hoped for much good from the New Church Bills (the enactments of which we purpose inserting in our pages), but we fear that the late vote of the bishops, calm and honest as we believe it to have been, terbalance their beneficial effects. will, for a time at least, more than counquestion of tithes, in particular, is likely to come on again and again, in a manner popularity of the church to guide it to that will require all the good conduct and

The

« PreviousContinue »