which he received ample supplies of books. Having read them with much diligence, they were diffused among his neighbours. Though alone in his religious sentiments, he never concealed them, but conversed freely and kindly with all who would listen to the subject. He invariably conducted Unitarian worship in the bush, attended by his own family and visitors, many of whom would choose the sabbath for their visit, to enjoy the advantages of his instructive religious services. The health of his lady being in a precarious state, and his children requiring scholastic advantages, he resolved to return to England. As soon as his intention was known, an affectionate address was presented to him, signed by all the officials and settlers, thanking him for the great improvements he had been the means of introducing, and expressing an earnest hope that Providence would enable him to return to the colony. On his arrival in England, he corresponded with many of our ministers to seek a residence where he might have the advantage of Unitarian worship, and fixed on Colyton. Here his lady and himself took a lively interest in the congregation, and especially in the sabbathschool, which they attended as teachers with regularity and with great benefit to the poor children, whose minds and morals they assiduously laboured to cultivate and improve. They have been cut off in the midst of strength and usefulness, and at a time when their children most needed parental counsel and direction. Though now placed under different religious influences, may they never forget the fondly-cherished principles of their parents, which gave dignity to their lives, and hope and solace to their dying moments! Great and untiring were their efforts to implant in the minds of their loved ones the pure and holy truths of religion, esteeming these as better than gold, and believing and acting up to the belief, that whatever would help them to be wise and virtuous, would help them to be useful, honourable and happy. May the children treasure up the instructions and counsels of their departed parents, that, by striving to fulfil all their desires, they may be fitted to meet and welcome them around the throne of God! Their remains were entombed, by their special desire, in one grave, in the burialground attached to George's meeting, Colyton. On the subsequent Sunday to their decease, the Rev. James Taplin paid a suitable tribute of respect to their memory from Rev. xiv. 13, "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord." Sept. 22, at his residence in Broad Street, Ludlow, aged 70, JOHN HUTCHINGS, Esq., a magistrate of that borough, formerly of Shrewsbury. Sept. 23, at Gee Cross, Cheshire, Mrs. HASSELL, in her 81st year. Sept. 25, at Woburn Buildings, Upper Woburn Place, London, ARTHUR KINDER, Esq., in his 73rd year. Sept. 25, at Bessel's Green, ALICE JANE, daughter of Mr. John Ellis MACE, of Tenterden, aged ten months. Sept. 25, aged 74, at her residence, Manchester Road, Bury, Mrs. READ, relict of the late John Read, Esq. Sept. 26, THOMAS CLARKSON, Esq., of Playford Hall, in the county of Suffolk, in the 87th year of his age. Oct. 1, much and deservedly regretted, at her residence, Deptford, SARAH AMEROSIA, relict of the late Rev. William MOON. To dwell on her virtues would be a pleasing task, but it would be at variance with the unostentatious character in which they were displayed; they are, therefore, left in the retirement which she loved; by those who knew her best they will never be forgotten. She bore the severe sufferings of a protracted illness with the same meek and quiet spirit that had adorned her life-with the resignation and the hope of a true Christian. T. B. W. B. Oct. 2, at Wicken, in the county of Cambridge, in his 92nd year, Mr. WILLIAM ASPLAND. Oct. 7, at the house of his father, Grays, Essex, in the 31st year of his age, the Rev. HENRY ASHTON MEESON, M. D. He was educated for the medical profession, but, under the impulse of strong religious feeling, he entered the ministry, and for upwards of two years was settled over the congregation assembling in High Street, Warwick. Illness compelled him to retire from that situation some months ago, and from that time till his death he was the subject of painful and protracted suffering. His character was a very superior one. To know him was to love and honour him. To share his society was to be instructed by the varied information he possessed, and strengthened by the high principle he displayed. As his simple truthfulness and sterling worth unfolded themselves to view, his very in firmities seemed but to endear his friends to him the more. Few men present so remarkable a combination of purity and sense as he did. He was as innocent as a child, but was no less distinguished by the manliness of his intellect. He was no dull, common-place thinker or moral ist. He had warm, enthusiastic sympa thies with all truth and goodness; noble thoughts and sublime hopes made a temple of his breast; and the spiritual faculties which he had taught to submit to the discipline of reason and virtue, were as fitted to command as they were to obey. What would perhaps be first noticed by those who became acquainted with him, was the extent of scientific information he possessed. To say that he was well versed in the sciences immediately connected with his original profession, would be but to say a part of the truth. With those sciences he was strikingly familiar, and his knowledge of some of them was profound. He was no smatterer-a smatterer on any subject to which he turned his attention, he could not be. What he professed to know, he knew thoroughly; and his profession, whether by word or deed, was so much beneath his actual acquirement, that a stranger was apt to form an estimate of his qualifications which was afterwards found to be far exceeded by the reality of the case. He had the talent not only of a learner, but of a discoverer in science. His name has been mentioned, and will continue to be mentioned with honour, in the latter character; and had God seen fit to spare his life, there is little doubt but that fame would have rejoiced over him as one of her favourite sons. While residing at Warwick, he employed himself very frequently in the delivery of scientific lectures in that and the neighbour ing towns. His lectures were, we believe, invariably gratuitous; and he has left behind him a large circle of admirers who knew him only as one devoted to the cause of popular instruction. Disinterested intention very strongly characterized every work in which he engaged. It was an entire superiority to all merely secular motives which led him, in opposition to his early associations, to become a poor Nonconformist preacher; and that superiority was most unaffectedly displayed in every thing relating to the conduct of his ministry. The sound, strong sense he possessed was never more favourably exhibited than in the manner in which he formed his theological opinions. His education had not given him the habit of critical investigation, nor had he much natural taste for those dialectical exercises which the present state of Christian doctrine so abundantly calls forth. But he always seized, as if by intuition, upon the essential principle-the intellectual or moral necessity-of the case in hand; and to that he held with the grasp of a giant. He passed by sophistry as though it were not, and concerned himself only with what was too plain to be confuted, and too important to be withstood. His preaching possessed a peculiar charm. He always appeared to speak directly from the heart. His sincerity of purpose and earnestness of manner kept up the interest in what he said, so that the eye was seldom taken off from him until the last word fell upon the ear. No one who listened to it will ever forget the effective delivery of a sermon, afterwards published, which he preached before the Warwickshire Unitarian Society. It was impossible for him to compose a feeble or an inferior discourse. His mind worked clearly and strongly, or it would not work at all. His sun hath gone down while yet it was day. With stores of thought and knowledge laid up for future years-with wide prospects of usefulness and honour lying before him-with firm resolves and ardent hopes in full operation, he has been cut off-the treasure unemployed, the promise unfulfilled, the determination rendered abortive, and the expectation for ever disappointed. The fruit has dropped, unripe, from the tree-the workman has not been permitted to finish his taskthe soldier has fallen when the battle had but commenced. In one sense it is so, but in another it is not so. The halftask was the task assigned to him by a wise and gracious God. Though broken off, the duty which was intended to be performed was performed-well and suecessfully performed. The servant, as he resigns his charge into the hands of his Master, may say, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." r. Oct. 7, at 20, Upper Gower Street, London, aged 20, ROBERT HAWKES, youngest son of the late Rev. George A. CASE, of Shrewsbury. Oct. 15, in his 70th year, and the fiftieth year of his ministry at Monton, the Rev. ROBERT SMETHURST, of Green Hill, Stand, near Manchester. [Of this estimable and benevolent man we hope to be supplied hereafter with a memoir.] THE characteristic of the Administration of Sir Robert Peel was the furtherance of financial and economical reform. Under this head extraordinary improvements were effected, and we mean to throw no discredit upon the late Administration when we say, that to this department its efforts at improvement were nearly confined. Indeed, there is scarcely a measure of general or social amendment-excepting, indeed, the Dissenters' Chapels Bill, and certainly also the measure for the establishment of the Irish Colleges-which owes its existence to the Ministry of Sir Robert Peel. This, however, we repeat, is not said disparagingly. The late Administration unquestionably conferred very great benefits upon the country. That these benefits ran very much in one direction, arose partly, no doubt, from the personal character of the Prime Minister and his peculiar aptitude for particular subjects, but partly also, we apprehend, from the disposition of the nation at large, which at this particular time called, under the guidance of Mr. Cobden, for the practical application of those principles as to the nature and causes of the Wealth of Nations which from the days of Adam Smith have been making sure, although slow, progress. Nor do we hold it to be a disadvantage, in some respects at least, that the attention of a Ministry and of a nation should be given for a time somewhat exclusively to one particular portion of its affairs. Concentrated thought and undivided attention are desirable, if not necessary, where comprehensive systems are to be arranged, involving a vast variety of interests, and where errors or mistakes may affect the happiness of tens of thousands during generations yet to come. Better and sounder reforms will be effected, we believe, by occasional changes upon a general plan (always provided that this principle be not carried too far), than by constant minor amendments, though we neither undervalue nor discourage the latter. The Reform Act of 1831 was better than the transfer of the franchise from East Retford to Birmingham. The Municipal Reform Act of 1835 was better than the detached Police Acts of individual towns. The unqualified abolition of Negro Slavery was better than the Act for the restriction of Negro flogging. But to quit this digression. The principles of financial reform established by Sir Robert Peel will, there is little doubt, be faithfully and assiduously carried forward by his successors. But will it be by this alone that the Ministry of Lord John Russell will hereafter be distinguished? We think not. Such is not the disposition either of the Ministry or of the nation. Improved sanitary regulations, improvement in the treatment of criminals, and improvement in education, are the subjects which the present First Minister of the Crown has declared to be in his view the prominent objects of interest. He has, indeed, here sketched out a noble field of usefulness; and believing that the country will be found ready and willing to second his endeavours, we look with interest and pleasure to the changes which we hope that a few years of well-directed exertion may produce in the welfare and improvement of the great mass of our population. In connection with one, though not the most important, of the subjects to which we have referred, some interesting particulars have recently come before us in reference to the Model Prison at Parkhurst, in the Isle of Wight. This institution owes its establishment to Lord John Russell, who when holding, between the years 1835 and 1838, the office of Secretary for the Home Department, formed and carried into effect the design of at once exhibiting a model of the most approved forms of prison discipline, and of endeavouring to improve the character of that convict population which, when removed from our shores, is destined to mingle hereafter in new communities on the other side of the globe. The Prison at Parkhurst is appropriated exclusively to the reception of juvenile prisoners (not exceeding the age of fourteen or fifteen at the time of their admission) who have been sentenced to transportation, a sentence which, under our present laws, may be said generally to involve, when inflicted at this early age, a conviction for repeated acts of felony, involving evidence of a life of habitual crime. In fact, the inmates of Parkhurst are the worst of that class of whom the distinguished statesman to whom Parkhurst owes its origin recently spoke in nearly the following terms: In times of the greatest civilization, and where the greatest civilization is supposed to prevail, yet while that very civilization is progressing, it does, somehow or other, leave behind it in its progress persons among the poorer classes of society who receive less instruction, have less information, and oftentimes live in a more miserable and degraded state of existence, than was the case with any portion of the community centuries ago, when civilization was not so forward."* The words derive additional force and interest from a knowledge of the endeavours which the noble speaker had made, as far as his means and opportunities had extended, to remedy one portion of the evils to which the foregoing statement has reference, whilst an examination of these endeavours, as exhibited at Parkhurst Prison, leads to the gratifying inference that in the more commanding position which he now occupies, and, what is far more important, with the better state of public feeling which we believe is now prevalent, the present Prime Minister of England is not likely to confine himself merely to words. Parkhurst Prison, therefore, may be looked at with interest in the first place, undoubtedly, with reference to the intrinsically great objects which it seeks to accomplish, but also as an exposition of the views and principles of the individual who has recently been raised to the first place among the English people. Parkhurst Prison, as we have said, is appropriated exclusively to the reception of juvenile convicts whose character, generally speaking, is such as to preclude the hope that any slight or moderate punishment would restore them to the rank of good and useful citizens in this country, when exposed, at the termination of an ordinary imprisonment, * Speech of Lord John Russell at the Sheriffs' dinner, October, 1846. to the influence of old associates and old temptations. To transfer such criminals to a distant land where, with comparatively few opportunities for mischief, they might earn an honest livelihood, has been the purpose of our penal policy. But the attendant evils of transferring the very refuse of our own population, tainted by the worst extremes of vice and crime, to hold an important place in the foundation of new communities, are too obvious to require notice from us. To diminish this evil to the utmost practicable extent, to prepare the convict population for their future destination by every available means of reformation, is the object of the institution at Parkhurst. The establishment includes from 600 to 700 boys (all, it must be repeated, under sentence of transportation for felony, and usually for repeated acts of felony), every one of whom, after spending at Parkhurst a period of at least three years, is ultimately sent abroad, imprisonment at Parkhurst being never adopted as a commutation of the heavier sentence. The course adopted during the intervening period, with a view to reformation and instruction, is somewhat as follows. After spending two or three months, on their first entrance, in a system of separate training, the time of the boys is thus distributed. Three days in the week are devoted to school instruction, with proper opportunities for exercise, and three days to labour on the adjoining farm, or to learning some trade, of which several are carried on within the Prison; and the labour of the boys is so distributed at different periods, that each acquires, before his departure, both familiarity with agricultural labour and some knowledge of the simpler parts of one of the more useful and necessary trades, thus receiving the sort of general knowledge obviously most desirable for a colonist in distant and uncultivated lands. A chaplain is maintained for religious instruction, and very much is done as to moral training by the efficient instruction of a well-qualified schoolmaster and his assistants. Such is the general course of instruction, the whole being subject to very strict regulation and the maintenance of a rigid military discipline. breaches of the Prison regulations, the usual punishment in the case of light offences is the substitution of a sharp military drill for more agreeable modes of taking exercise; but of course in an establishment composed of such materials, solitary confinement is not unfrequently necessary, nor is corporal punishment unknown. The incitements of emulation, however, seem to be much resorted to as a substitute for the fear of special punishment. If such be the general system pursued at Parkhurst, where, it may be asked, is the punishment? Such, at least, is the question which at once presented itself to ourselves. The answer given, and we are inclined to believe with truth, is, that the punishment consists in a system of uniformity and constraint, in the absence of variety and of independent action, which is felt to be exceedingly irksome. In estimating this effect, the previous habits of the individual must be taken into account. The life of a thief, whatever it may be in other respects, is a life of interest and adventure. It is the very opposite of any thing like steady application to labour or the precise and regular discharge of monotonous duties enforced with rigid exactness and military precision. With the previous mode of life of its inmates, the whole system at Parkhurst is completely at variance. The breaking down their existing |