Mr. Wright.I was summoned for a particular purpose, which I have attended to, and am not bound to attend to any other business. Mr. Statham.-Sir, this is an information upon which you will now be taken into custody. You are charged with blasphemy. He then read an information on the evidence of James Scott (the identical person Mr. Wright had just stated his intention to prosecute for disorderly conduct)-which, being duly sworn to, charged Mr. Wright with having expressed and conveyed to his hearers the idea, “that a belief in the doctrine of the holy Trinity was absurd and ridiculous-that it was folly to believe in what was called the atonement of the death of Jesus Christ, as it was impious to suppose that a good being would take an innocent victim to atone for the sins of the wicked-that as the idea of the soul surviving the body was an absurd and ridiculous mental delusion, that the idea of a future state was equally so." Mr. Statham then informed Mr. Wright that his proceedings had been watched; that the mayor had sent persons for the purpose to the Long Room, every evening, since he had advertised his meetings in the Liverpool Mercury of the 28th March; and that it was at the mayor's instance that the informer on this charge (Scott) had now attended to give evidence. Mr. Wright. Why, Sir, the sentiments I delivered I had a legal right to deliver by act of parliament, and the last charge is an entire falsehood, and contrary to all my sentiments. Mr. Statham. That you must shew in another place. You must give bail for your appearance at the next Assizes, at Lancaster; yourself in £200, and two sureties in £100 each. (Mr. Wright was then placed in custody of the constables, and put to the bar as a prisoner.) Mr. Wright.-But, Sir, I must know under what law I am charged with which were before not permitted?-To this no answer was given. Mr. Wright. But if I be arrested, and held to bail, contrary to the provisions of an act of parliament, can I not claim indemnity? Mr. Statham. You can adopt what steps you think proper. Two respectable friends of Mr. W. who happened theu to be in the court merely as spectators, offered themselves as the required bail. One of them (Mr. F. B. Wright), in describing his residence, stated, that it was near Anne's Church. The mayor and Mr. Statham instantly asked was it not Saint Anne's Church? Mr. F. B. W. said he had spoken of it in the usual way, and had casually omitted the word saint. He did not know of such a saint in Scripture, nor did he believe such an omission was criminal. Mr. Statham said, "Sir, I suspect you purposely omitted the word." Mr. F. B. W. here claimed the protection of the court. Mr. Wright.-I have now, Mr. Mayor, offered my bail, and of course claim my liberation. Mr. Statham.-You must give twen ty-four hours notice of your bail, and inquiries must be made into its sufficiency. Bail is not a matter of course. You may be kept in custody a week, Sir, for aught you know. Mr. Wright-I am certain, Sir, that if a short time were allowed, so that this business could be made known out of doors, I should have bail offered which the mayor must know would be sufficient. Here another friend of Mr. Wright stepped forward and said, “ Mr. Mayor, if only a few minutes be allowed before you leave the Hall, I am sure I can produce for Mr. Wright the most respectable bail to any amount." Time was allowed. Mr. Wright was removed in custody to the jury room, having objected to be sent down amongst persons charged with crime; and, in about fifteen minutes, Mr. Wright's friend returned with two gentlemen, whose surety was not a moment objected to. Mr. Statham asked them if they were acquainted with the nature of the charges against Mr. Wright; He then read the information. One of the gentlemen remarked, that with Mr. Wright's reli. gious creed he was not acquainted, but on his integrity he would venture his property. The other observed, that he agreed in the sentiments imputed to Mr. Wright, with the exception of the last, which he did not believe Mr. W. ever espoused. Mr. Wright was then liberated, and his departure from the Hall was only impeded by a number of other friends, eagerly pressing in to offer themselves as his bail. Remarks. On the above extraordinary case, which is already familiar to the public, we have little to say, at present: it will we understand be brought before the higher tribunals. The case divides itself into two parts; the first relating to unlicensed worship, the second to blasphemy. In the account given above, it is stated that the first complaint was adjourned a week, in order to allow Mr. Wright time to procitre a copy of the certificate of register of the place of meeting. The cause came before the magistrates on the 19th instant. The point was now established by a living witness, that the place was duly registered in the Bishop's Court at Chester about twenty years ago. But no books are kept in the Court; documents are simply put upon a file, and take their chance of preservation in the present instance nothing remained and therefore no copy could be had. On the testimony of the witness referred to, however, the magistrates seemed disposed to allow the legality of the meeting and to dismiss the complaint, when the town-clerk (who has earned for himself a lasting name) put in an exception and demanded that the defendant should be convicted on one of the three informations, on the fol lowing extraordinary ground, viz. that the Act of the King, commonly called The New Toleration Act, requires a Protestant Dissenting Place of Worship to be registered anew every time it is occupied by a new congregation! If the town-clerk be right, the majority of our congregations are unprotected by the law. But we are persu. ded that the construction of the Liverpool lawyer will be set aside the moment it is stated to a higher court. It behoves the DEPUTIES and the PROTESTANT SOCIETY to look after this matter; for right or wrong the magistrates at Liverpool were ruled by their legal adviser, and CONVICTED MR. WRIGHT in the penalty of twenty shillings and five shillings costs. Mr. Wright immediately gave notice of Appeal against this conviction at the Quarter Sessions, which will have been held before this meets the reader's eye. The result will be hereafter announced. The prosecution for blasphemy is still more serious, and intimately concerns the Unitarians as a body. This stands over to the Lancaster Assizes. Here too the town-clerk of Liverpool (who. discovers in every thing the same ori, ginality) takes new ground. He rests the charge of blasphemy on the common law. It remains to be seen what his legal opinion is worth: but if he be right, the TRINITY BILL, in which Unitarians have so much rejoiced, is no protection to them: it only exempts them from the operation of certain statutes, but leaves them exposed to the common law, if that be, as the town-clerk advises, against them. What authorities this luminary of the law relies on we know not. Lord Ellenborough has indeed said, after Blackstone, that " Christianity is the law of the land," and if we were to ask his Lordship what Christianity is, he would undoubtedly refer us to the Common Prayer Book, containing the Thirty Nine Articles and the Athanasian Creed: but we much question whether his Lordship would abide in any particular instance by his own dictum." Still there is enough in the case to arouse the attention of the Unitarians, and we have the pleasure of informing the publie that the Committee of the UNITARIN FUND are not inattentive to it. The charge against Mr. Wright of denying a future state is plainly a mistake, arising probably from the ignorance of the informer, who has confounded a separate, intermediate, with a future state. To shew this, Mr. Wright has published the Sermon, with attestations to its being a true copy; it is in fact a Sermon of his brother's, Mr. Richard Wright, the Unitarian Fund Missionary, and was published in 1811, as No. 14 of Mr. R. Wright's " Evangelical Discourses." In delivering it, Mr. John Wright made some additions, which are marked in the copy now printed by crotchets. There is an explanatory Preface" and some excellent " Preliminary Remarks" to the publication, which may be had, Price One Shilling, of D. Eaton, High-Holborn, and which we recommend to all who feel an in terest in the affair.The Printer, is Mr. F. B. Wright, of Liverpool, another brother of Mr. Richard Wright's, the Missionary: he is the person who so grievously offended the town-clerk by his want of piety towards Saint Anne. Services at Parliament Court on Mr. ON Wednesday, April the 2nd, Mr. W. J. Fox, late of Chichester, entered on the pastoral office of the congregation in Parliament Court, ArtilleryLane, Bishopsgate-Street. A religious service was held on the occasion to recognize and improve an event so promising to the future prosperity of the society and the interests of pure Christianity. as Our readers are already sufficiently acquainted with the loss recently sustained by this congregation in the lamented death of Mr. W. Vidler; and it gives us great pleasure to have so soon to record its re-settlement with such a valuable successor they have in their present minister. It was the wish of the parties concerued on this occasion to avoid every thing which under the usual name of ordination, conveys an idea of some spiritual authority in religious teachers, to impart a distinct character, with ecclesiastical powers, to their brethren:-a notion at complete variance with the religious equality established by Christ amongst his disciples, and which has in all ages been the fruitful source of priestly domination, and innumerable impo Lord Holland has brought this matter into the House of Lords, in a conversation on Lord Sidmouth's Circular, to which his Lordship attributes the proceedings at Liverpool. As might have been expected from the nephew of Mr. Fox, Lord Holland has expressed strong surprise at the affair. The Bishop of Chester is reported to have apologized for the magistrates and town-clerk, by saying that Mr. Wright was charged on the testimony of "a respectable Liverpool merchant," with denying a future state. His Lordship has been doubtless misinformed, if not with regard to the informer, yet certainly with regard to the ground of his information: and it is not a little curious that Dr. Law, Bishop of Chester, son of Dr. Edmund Law, Bishop of Carlisle, should have been the person to repeat the charge of blasphemy against a Dissenting Teacher, on the ground of his having taught the doctrine of the total mortality of man and of his sole dependence on a resurrection for immortality; a doctrine which the Bishop of Chester's Father was distinguished for maintaining, which he as-sitions on the credulity and consciences serted not as a loose conjecture, but as the result of long and learned investigations, and which he continued to defend in the successive editions of his admirable work, Considerations on the Theory of Religion, the last edition of which, published not long before the venerable author's death, is completely Unitarian. On the whole, there is nothing in this affair to terrify the Unitarians, the Dissenters and the friends of religious liberty generally; but much to set them to think upon the spirit of the times and the tendency of the late measures of his Majesty's ministers. Their will is obvious; their power has limits. Let the friends of freedom, the Dissenters and especially the Unitarians be cautious and temperate, and await the issue. The interval may be trying, but it will be purifying: and if any lesson may be learned from history, we may rest assured that the end will be satisfactory: England has always triumphed over bad laws and evil counsellors. of mankind. The ministers engaged on this occcasion were Mr. T. Rees, T. Madge, of Norwich, J. Gilchrist, Dr. Lindsay, R. Aspland, and Dr.. Rees. After suitable devotional exercises, Dr. Lindsay delivered an interesting discourse on the origin of Christian assemblies for worship, their primitive constitution, and the character of their teachers. In his usual style of manly eloquence, the preacher, shewed the difference between a priesthood created by superstition and pledged to the support of unintelligible creeds or unmeaning ceremonies; and the pastor of a primitive church or congregation, their instructor but not their master, their friend, their counsellor, and their guide; the object of their free choice, having no dominion over their faith, but being a helper of their joy. He asserted the perfect independency of all Christian congregations originally, and their right to choose their own officers, and transact without control, all their social concerns; and con gratulated the church and their new pastor on this auspicious union. A member of the society (Mr. Anderton) then briefly mentioned the steps by which they were led to invite Mr. Fox to reside among them, and undertake the pastoral office. Mr. Fox in a short but animated address signified his acceptance of the invita tion, declining to make any confession of faith excepting that he was a Christian, and desired to be extensively useful as a Christian minister: which desire was the great motive to his removal from his late situation, to so public and important a station in the metropolis. Unfettered and unlimited freedom of inquiry he claimed for himself and would cheer fully concede to all his brethren. Mr. Aspland delivered an able and judicious discourse from Matt. xviii. 15-20, in which sound criticism and an impartial appeal to parallel Scriptures, were employed to shew that the passage rightly understood yields no support to narrow, illiberal, and tyrannous systems of ecclesiastical polity; conveys no power to churches or churchmen to institute odious inquisitions after supposed heresy, or to enforce any kind of religious uniformity but that the whole, like every other part of the injunctions of Christ Jesus, breathes the spirit of Christian liberty and love. It was earnestly wished by many who were present that this and Dr. Lindsay's discourse should be published, both appearing to them eminently calculated for great usefulness. The venerable Dr. Rees (father of the Dissenting body in London), concluded the public services of the day, with some very affectionate expressions of his good will to the cause at Parliament Court-his high regard for the memory of their late pastor and the pleasure he experienced in anticipating the success and usefulness of their present respectable minister: commending them to the blessing of Almighty God in fervent decided agreement with the late Mr. Vidler on the final restoration of the wicked to holiness and happiness. The congregation was very numerous, and every part of the engagements appeared to excite deep and general attention. In the afternoon, the ministers and a party of Mr. Fox's friends, with some visitors from other congregations, in all about ninety persons, dined together at the King's Head Taveru, in the Poultry. Several appropriate toasts were given, and some excellent speeches on the cause of religious freedom, and the progress of just and rational sentiments in religion, delivered. A warm eulogium on Sir Samuel Romilly, the enlightened advocate of civil and religious liberty, the friend of the miserable captive, and the enemy of sanguinary laws, was received with loud and distinguished applause. And the whole company seemed to enter fully into the spirit of one of the earliest sentiments proposed to the meeting, a sentiment which should be warmly cherished by every Dissenter, THE CAUSE OF CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ALL OVER THE WORLD! L. Southern Unitarian Fund Society.. THE Southern Unitarian Fund So. ciety held its Second Annual Meeting on Wednesday the 9th instant, at the Unitarian Chapel, in the High-Street, Portsmouth. Though we had lately sustained an irreparable loss, in the removal to Parliament Court of the gentleman, in whose well-directed zeal and activity for the diffusion of Evangelical truth, the society originated, yet the day was, in every respect, consoling. Though we had also to lament our loss, by the removal to distant situations, of those gentlemen who had been able coadjutors in forming and in promoting the views of the society; and though, as the preacher pathetically observed, we had hung our harps upon the willows; yet those who remained had no cause for despair, for the attendance on the morning service was very respectable, and in the evening numerous. Mr. Hughes advocated the cause of the society in his usual perspicuous and energetic man. ner, and in a most appropriate discourse, from 1 John iv. 1, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, &c." The society was only prevented, by the low state of its finances, from urging a request for its being printed. The society's expenses for the last year had unavoidably in trenched on its former donations, by considerably exceeding its receipts. The society has been and is desirous of extending its sphere of usefulness, and of diffusing the pure light of divine truth, to the neighbouring villages; but the paucity of its means will necessarily confine its operations for the present to Portsea, Gosport and Fare ham. The company at dinner was nearly as numerous as on the first anniversary, only two short of the number, notwithstanding several removals; and next year we hope to exceed it. After dinner the health of our late Secretary and Founder was drank with enthusiastic applause. A handsome subscription was paid from a small pennya-week society of Newport, in the Isle of Wight. Four new members from the High-Street congregation were added to our list. to The utility of this institution has been so fully exemplified, in various ways, since its establishment, as entitle it to the encouragement and support of the friends of Scripture truth, and to the imitation of those who are desirous of ameliorating the condition of the poor, by enlightening their minds, by infusing into them a spirit of pure devotion, by training them to a love of God as well as of Christ, and, by religious instruction and moral precept, to improve their habits and reform their lives. Portsmouth, April 11th, 1817. Manchester Quarterly Meeting. THE Quarterly Meeting of Presbyterian Ministers in the District of Manchester, was held at Bury, at the Chapel of the Rev. Mr. Allard, on the 4th inst. The Rev. A. Dean introduced the service, and the Rev. Wm. Jevons preached from John xix. 30,"It is finished." The next meeting will be at Hyde:-Preacher, the Rev. W. Hawkes; Supporter, the Rev. S. Parker. In the course of the afternoon, the Manchester Unitarian Fellowship, lately established, became the topic of conversation and some discussion. VOL. XII. It 2 K is impossible that the same object should be viewed by different persons under the same aspect:-hence, as well as through other causes, inevitably arises difference of opinion. But while the merit or demerit of different measures is discussed with candour and dispassionateness, the result must be beneficial. For a short account of the Fellowship, I must refer your readers to your Number for January of this year. The success which it has experienced in so short a time is very considerable. The number of its members at this time amounts to nearly seventy. If the Unitarian Fellowship should successfully co-operate with the Quarterly Meeting, with the Book and Tract Society, with Mr. Grundy's Lectures, and with the increasing zeal with which this district has been animated, while it will be an object of pride and satisfaction to its friends and supporters, it will be viewed with pleasure by every liberal mind. Manchester, April 12, 1817. W. J. |