On the 13th ult. at Rome, on his travels through Italy, after a short illness, greatly regretted by his family and friends, WIL LIAM WHITTRED, Esq., barrister at-law, of Lincoln's-Inn, and only son of Thomas Whittred, Esq., of Newnham, near Cambridge. He was a gentleman of ability in his profession, and much endeared to an extensive circle of acquaintance by his social qualities, urbanity of manner, and goodness of heart. He is entitled to the grateful remembrance of his townsmen, of Cambridge, for his late spirited efforts to break through the corrupt corporation influence. For some few years past, he had devoted much of his time and attention to the cultivation of his estate of Spinney Abbey, in the parish of Wicken, in his native county; where the grandfather of the celebrated Dr. Isaac Barrow lived and acted for forty years in the commission of the peace, and where Henry Cromwell, second son of the Protector, took up his abode, as a retreat from the world, after the Restoration.

ar

March 19, at Perth, aged 62, Mr. WALTER MILLER, of that place, merchant; a man, not a little remarkable for the incidents of his life, but still more so for the singular energy of his mind and character. He was one of the most zealous and distinguished of the partizans of reform in Scotland, in the early part of the war, against Republican France, and was arrested at the same period with Muir, Gerald, Fysche Palmer and others; but the prudence and moderation of his previous conduct, exempted him from the rigorous penalty inflicted on these gentlemen. Although assiduous in the harassing details of his business, and conspicuously attentive to his family duties, he also cultivated literature with uncommon dour and success. His early education had been very limited; and his after occupations were not only in utter discordance with study, but also precluded in a great measure the leisure and retirement which, with others, is an essential requisite of literary improvement; but the natural strength and vigour of his mind supplied the place of all those props and aids which weaker intellects require; and enabled him to attain to a degree of sound and discerning intelligence which is seldom reached. His views of things were clear and comprehensive; and his speculations, on every subject to which he directed his attention, were profound and original; he contemplated his objects from a point of view peculiarly his own; and although

this might not in some instances have been the most happily chosen, and his lights in others might have been comparatively imperfect, yet his powers of vision were eminently strong, his perceptions clear and accurate, and his deductions from them precise and forcible. He was the author of several political essays, which, with the events and circumstances which called them forth, have now lost their interest; but his work, entitled "Physical and Metaphysical Inquiries," will remain a lasting monument of his genius and power of mind. This production, though from peculiar circumstances it may be little known, is highly estimated by those who are capable of appreciating it, for the novelty and originality of the author's views, and for the acuteness and strength of argument with which the subjects treated of, are followed ont; and although they may not agree with him in the general results he endeavoured to deduce from his speculations aud inquiries, and in the prineiples he founded on them, yet they will acknowledge themselves gratified and instructed by the clearness and profundity of his views and reasonings, and by the extended range and power of thought evinced by him. It was his intention to have continned and enlarged these inquiries; and it is to be regretted, that his declining health for many years past, and the increased difficulties of his other occupations, prevented their completion. As a man, his conduct and feelings were regulated by the most rigid moral principle; his integrity was never questioned or impeached; and by those who knew him intimately, his memory will long be che rished and revered.

M.

March 28, at his father's house at Brentford, in his 25th year, Mr. SILVANUS RONALDS, late Chymical Operator to the Apothecaries' Company.

29, Mr. JAMES RAIT, who for more than forty years was a preacher and advocate of the glorious doctrine of Universal salvation to the fallen race of man; an exemplary instance of disinterestedness in giving his rare talents gratis, in many places, and of late years to an admiring congregation, assembling at

*For an account of this work, an 8vo. volume, published in 1806, see Mon. Repos. II. 156 and 274; and also 361 and 465.

the Philadelphian Chapel, Windmill Street, Dear Finsbury Square. An acute observer of the different tenets taught by religious professors, he was never known to be severe against any, his main object being to shew the intrinsic value of truth, when contrasted with error, under whatsoever disguise it might appear: and to this end he had acquired a knowledge of the languages in which the Sacred Scriptures were first published to mankind. Without possessing the advantage of a college education, without passing the ordeal of examination by legal authority, yet he was ever ready to enter the lists of inquiry with the most learned of the age in which be lived his knowledge of these languages enabled him to trace the true signification of various parts of Sacred Scripture to their source, and thereby he often discovered that the translators had not given the best interpretation, which might have been given, to the primitive sense of the passage, the want of which knowledge stands as a hindrance to the union of mankind in one common faith. The congregation, who have long enjoyed the satisfaction of his pastoral teaching, have to lament that but little is left upon record of his writings; the readiness with which he was at all times gifted to proclaim the unceasing mercies of heaven, and the avocations of life which occupied his mind, alike diverted his attention from that point. In the hearts of his hearers is inscribed, in characters not easily to be effaced, the remembrance of his glowing zeal for the good of mankind, and for the honour of his sovereign Lord; these are now the consolations they have left to support them under that privation which the hand of Providence has visited upon them. His remains were interred in Tyndal's Burying Ground, City Road, on Tuesday the 6th of April, in presence of many of his late hearers, who testified their loss in tears of unfeigned sorrow.

R.

[Mr. Rait was a man of a catholic spirit, and set the interests of truth above those of a party. Though he differed in many points from the Unitarians, he was led by his love of justice to expose a malignant falsehood, which was told with a view to blacken them by a person of the name of Sharp, in the pulpit of Zion Chapel. See the Christian Reformer, IV. 92-94, and also 140-143, where there are three letters of Mr. Rait's to the reverend gentleman, and one of his, which is a singular and ludicrous specimen of the airs and the arts assumed by his fraternity,

Superciliosum, incurvicervicum pec
Quique ab aliis habitu et
sentiunt,

VOL. XIV.

Tristesque vultu vendunt sanctimonias : Censuram sibi quandam, et tyrannidem occupant,

Pavidamque plebem territant minaciis.
ED.]

Lately, at Paris, aged 65, the Chevalier MILLIN, long known and respected as the Editor of the Magazin Encyclopédique, and celebrated as the author of many learned works on archæology and French antiquities. In this line, he was one of the most illustrious men of the Revolution; and, since the forced Restoration of the Bourbons, he lived in comparative retire

ment.

The celebrated DANIEL ENCONTRE, President of the Protestant Faculty of Theology at Montauban, terminated his laborious and useful career at Montpellier, on the 16th September, in the 56th year of his age. This great loss, which the friends of religion most deeply deplore, and which has filled the Protestant Church with mourning, has occasioned a vacancy in the faculty which it will be difficult to supply. The modest and unambitious character of this extraordinary man, prevented him from establishing himself at Paris, where his fine genius and his vast attainments would necessarily have placed him in the first rank among the scientific and learned men who honour the Institute of France; but those who have appreciated his talents and acquirements will nevertheless pay a just and honourable tribute to his memory. Distinguished by a firm and enlightened attachment to the doctrines of the gospel, by a fervent piety and exemplary deportment, he could not fail to maintain an ascendancy over his students, and within the sphere of his exertions; while his noble disinterestedness and his amiable temper conciliated universal confidence and esteem. He was the first to calenlate the probability of his approaching dissolution; and having set his house in order, he determined to proceed to Montpellier, at the commencebe united with those of a beloved and only ment of the vacation, that his ashes might daughter, whom he had suddenly lost at nion, his friend, and the assistant of his of 18. She had been his compalabours, and he never fully recovered the shock which his gentle nature received by this afflictive bereavement. It required nine days to perform this last and distressing journey from Montauban to Monttions from his excellent wife, and his only pellier, and in spite of the tenderest attenson, such was his extreme exhaustion, that they feared each night would be his last; Boy bis unabated calmness and confidence

the

age

their spirits. The God whom faithfully and zealously served,

condescended to meet his last wish, and permitted him to arrive at Montpellier, to close his eyes among his particular friends, and in the bosom of his family. Above all, the consolations of the gospel supported his soul, and gave a beauty and dignity to a death most sincerely and profoundly lamented. His friend M. Lissignol, one of the pastors of Montpellier, delivered an impressive discourse over his grave. Dr. Encontre has left only one son, but he is in every respect worthy of such a parent; and only the day after his father's death, he received notice of his appointment as Professor of Greek in the Faculty from which his father had been removed.

The Spaniard who travelled in the Mahometan countries, under the name of ALI BEY, died lately, not far from Damascus, whilst on a journey with a caravan to Mecca, in the character of a pilgrim. His effects, including his manuscripts, were seized by the Pacha, by virtue of his title to inherit the property of pilgrims dying within his jurisdiction.

REV. CHRISTOPher Burchardt, a Swiss clergyman. A letter from Dr. Naudi, in Malta, has been received by the Bible Society, mentioning the death of this valuable

and useful man. After his persevering travels for the distribution of the Holy Scriptures in Egypt, Palestine and Syria, he had scarcely arrived at Aleppo, when a fatal fever, then raging in the neighbourhood, put an end to his most valuable life. He left Malta in a Greek vessel, with six large cases of Bibles and Testaments in various languages, without any of those fears which had deterred others, and courageously distributed them in Alexandria, where he openly conversed with peasants, strangers and merchants, and where so many seamen applied to him, that he said, "the Greek Testaments he had dispersed would only be like so many drops thrown into the sea; so great was the demand for the word of God. He thence departed for Grand Cairo, where Jews, Turks, Syrians, Copts, Christians and Pagans, visited him; and where he could have dispersed a far greater number of copies, if he had possessed them. From Cairo he went to Jerusalem, where he visited all the convents and public places, and furnished them every where with the word of God. Learing Jerusalem, going by Syria, and visiting the places on his road, he came to the great commercial city of Aleppo, in the neighbourhood of which the fever attacked him and closed his life and labours.

DOMESTIC.
RELIGIOUS.
Manchester Quarterly Meeting of
Presbyterian Ministers.

On the 9th inst, was held at Stand, near this town, the Quarterly Meeting of Minis ters, denominated Presbyterian, a little out of the regular course, on occasion of opening the new Unitarian Chapel in that place, which the congregation have erected with laudable zeal and liberality at their own expense. The Rev. John Smethurst introduced the service, and the Rev. J. G. Robberds preached the sermon from 2 Cor. ii. 17. The meeting must have been highly gratifying to the members of the Congregation, as well as to the numerous friends who attended from a distance.

The Chapel is a neat and substantial building, capable of conveniently seating abont four hundred hearers. It was quite filled on the occasion. The ministers and their friends, after the service, dined together at an inn in the neighbourhood, to the number of nearly fifty, and spent the afternoon in a manner highly gratifying to their feelings, and, it is hoped, improv. ing to their Christian zeal and efforts. The health of Mr. Dean and the members of his congregation, and thanks to the

two gentlemen who officiated in the morning, were proposed in such a manner as clearly evinced the high sense which the Meeting entertained of their claims to their approbation and thanks. In the interval of pulling down the old chapel and building the new one, divine service was performed once every Lord's day in the Stand free-school, by the kind permission of the Rev. R. Smethurst; and it was stated, as an act of Christian liberality worthy to be recorded, and indicative of the increasing candour of the age, that the use of the New Jerusalem Chapel, in the neighbourhood, was spontaneously offered to our friends until their own should be finished. Of this offer, though circumstances rendered the acceptance unnecessary, yet they retain a due sense of the Christian spirit and unsolicited kindness of their brethren of the New Jerusalem Church.

The grateful and useful impressions made this day on the minds of many who attended will not soon be obliterated. May our Unitarian brethren ever feel the full force of every motive still further to advocate and promote the cause of Christian truth and morality.

Manchester, April 12, 1819. W. J.

Southern Unitarian Fund Society

Anniversary.

On Wednesday the 7th of April, the Southern Unitarian Fund Society held its Fourth Annual Meeting at Portsmouth. The morning service was introduced by the Rev. William Stevens, of Newport, in the Isle of Wight; the Rev. William Hughes, of Youngwoods, in the Isle of Wight, delivered the prayer; and the Rev. Abraham Bennett, of Poole, preached on "Love to Christ upon Unitarian Principles," from 1 Thess. v. 28. A very respectable congregation attended this service, at the General Baptist Chapel. In the evening, Mr. Bennett conducted the devotional part of the service; and the Rev. John Fullagar; of Chichester, preached on "Protestant Aberrations from Christian Simplicity," from John viii. 40-" This did not Abraham,' to a full audience, at the Unitarian Chapel, in the High Street.

The

A large company dined together at the Fountain Inn; among whom were several gentlemen who frequently attend the Evening Lectures of the High-Street Chapel, though not professed Unitarians. numbers who attend on these occasions, have gradually increased. At the last anniversary the numbers exceeded the year preceding; and this year they have as much exceeded the last: a manifest proof of the attention which has been excited, and of the interest which is taken in the cause of Unitarianism, in these towns. Another, and a strong proof is, the full and increasing attendance on the fortnightly lectures at Portsea; which are supported by this society. Mr. Bennett also preached the Thursday evening lecture, to a large and attentive congregation, on "The Silence of the Scriptures on what are termed Orthodox Doctrines, especially in those Discourses and Conversations of our Lord and his Apostles, which directly led to their being mentioned, had they been known." On Friday evening, (the 9th,) Mr. Hughes closed the lectures for the season with the concluding discourse of a series, which he has, in the course of the winter, been delivering on the Athanasian Creed, and in which he contrasted the mild and benevolent spirit which prevailed during the time the church was Unitarian, with the very different effect produced by the Athanasian heresy. Though the discourse occupied one hour and twenty minutes, the attention of an overflowing audience was rivetted to the last moment. And yet this kind of preaching, the popular mode of promulgating Unitarianism, adopted by the fortnightly lecturers at Portsea, is said to be productive of no good: it were much to be wished that some of those friends who think it expedient to withhold Unitarian doctrines from that class of society, to whom the gospel was first

preached by its Founder, had attended the three evening services of the last week, and they would have seen more than half of numerous congregations, consisting of persons of this description. Among them we find a genuine spirit of inquiry, a real wish to become acquainted with Unitarian doctrines, and a strong desire to read Unitarian books; for which purpose they are, month after month, entering themselves as members of the respective congregational libraries. Some of our much-valued friends, who class themselves with what are termed the "Old Unitarians," have asked, "Where is the good effect you have produced?" imagining, like Nathanael of old, that no good thing can come out of Nazareth. The society, following the example of Philip, invites them to 66 come and see.

The society regrets the loss of some of its distant members this year; but it announces with great satisfaction the accession of some new members in Portsmouth, and who are neither Dissenters nor Uni. tarians; but only occasional attendants on Unitarian worship. It laments, also, that it does not possess the pecuniary means of extending its exertions to the neighbouring towns and villages. It looks forward with hope, that at some future time it may be enabled to accomplish this most desirable object.

The Universalists having been under the necessity of disposing of their chapel, in the suburbs of Portsea, is a serious loss to the society, as one of the fortnightly lectures was delivered there, and generally to full audiences. Mr. Neave, the present proprietor and minister, when application was made to him for permission to continue the lectures in that chapel, politely declined; adding, that as he considered our views of Christianity to be destructive, he could not in conscience permit us to promulgate them within its walls. Mr. Kingsford, the minister and proprietor of the General Baptist Chapel, in an adjoining street, could not allow the society the use of his chapel, on account of the feelings which even the proposal would excite among his hearers. Application was also made to Mr. Anderson, the sole proprietor and minister of Messiah Chapel, in the same neighbourhood, and who rejects the deity of the Holy Ghost; but be would not even listen to the proposal. Another chapel was applied for, which had been in the occupation of Mr. Neave, but is now rented by a secession from the Wesleian Methodists: the leader of these seceders, in reply to the application, said, that he had consulted with his friends, and was sorry he could not prevail on them to admit us to a joint use of the chapel with them.

Portsmouth, April 16, 1819.

Sy.

Gainsborough Unitarian Association. THE third Half-yearly Meeting was held at Thorne, March the 25th. The attendance of ministers and others from a distance was respectable, and the congregations more numerous than has been known since the opening of the chapel in 1816. Mr. Piper, of Norton, preached in the morning, from 1 Cor. xvi. 9, “A great and effectual door is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries." In an ingenions and elegant discourse, the preacher drew a parallel between the circumstances of Paul preaching at Ephesus, and those of modern Unitarians, contending, like him, for the Unity of God, the spirituality of his worship, and the benevolence of his character, in opposition to the worldly interests of those whom they endeavour to enlighten and reform. At the meeting for business it was announced, that 120 persons had become members of the association; and it was resolved, that the next meeting be held at Hull, and that Mr. Hutton be requested to preach. Thirty-two gentlemen dined together, and amongst the usual sentiments given from the chair, the success of our Unitarian brethren in the neighbour hood of Madras was not forgotten Mr. Little, of Gainsborough, preached in the evening from John xvii. 21, &c. on Christian Union, shewing the manner in which Christians might be one in the worship of God, the profession of the gospel, and the adop tion of active means for promoting the cause of truth, and reprobating with indignation the imposition of creeds to produce unity of faith.

The undersigned being Protestant Dissenters, present to yon the following Protest against the Marriage Ceremony as at present performed, and to which, ac-. cording to the laws of England, they are compelle to subscribe.

They disclaim all intention of acting disrespectfully, either to the Legislature or to its Civil Officer, before whom they stand; they lament that they are placed in a situation sɔ unuatural as that even forbearance towards what they esteem an

established error would be a formal recantation of opinions which they received on conviction, and which they can only renounce on similar grounds. Against the Marriage Ceremony they most solemnly protest,

Because it makes marriage a religious instead of a civil act:

Because parts of the ceremony are highly indelicate, and must, to every correctly-constituted mind, be extremely

offensive :

Because the man is required to worship the woman, though the Founder of Christianity has declared, that God is the only object for the Christian to worship:

Because it requires the recognition of the doctrine of the Trinity, than which nothing can be more oppressive to those who disbelieve conscientiously, and after patient investigation, that doctrine, conceiving that the whole of revelation fully sanctions their joining the Apostle Paul in declaring that, "to us there is but One God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus:"

Because as Christians and Protestant Dissenters, it is impossible that they can sanction the interference of any human institution with matters which concern their faith and consciences :

Because as knowing nothing of a priesthood in Christianity, the submission to a ceremony performed by a person in "holy orders, or pretended holy orders," is painful and humiliating to their feelings:

Because as warm and firm believers in the truth of Christianity, they disbelieve and abominate the doctrine of the Trinity, in the name of which the Marriage Ceremony is performed: and

Because as servants of Jesus, they wor ship the One living and true God, his God and their God, his Father and their Father.

Signed, HENRY B. FEARON, JOHANNA THOMPSON, Members of the Church of God, meeting at the Crescent, Jewin Street, London. March 12, 1819.

The parts of the ceremony omitted by the minister upon this occasion, were the chief of the introduction, which is peculiarly indelicate:

The placing the ring on the Bible: