selves, according to their ability, in spreading the gospel in this country." I rejoice to find that the Committee of that Fund "have pledged themselves to bring Mr. Adam's application for assistance before their brethren in this country." I flatter myself the Unitarian body will not suffer led to in vain, and from their number, consequence, wealth and liberality, an ample fund will be promptly created for carrying on this great work with success. But, independently of the zeal and exertions of the Committee, I think a direct public appeal may be made to advantage, through the medium of the Monthly Repository and other chan. nels, and congregations and individuals invited, without any further delay, to furnish contributions. Being fully convinced that the most happy and important results will follow our unit ed endeavours, I very cheerfully inclose you Ten Pounds to be applied exclusively to the promotion of the Unitarian cause in India, and shall be glad to become an annual contributor whenever a plan is properly organized for carrying on this great work.

J. P.

GLEANINGS; OR, SELECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS MADE IN A COURSE OF GENERAL READING.

No. CCCCIII.

Anecdote of Dr. Ironsides. Dr. IRONSIDES was one of the High Churchmen in the time of Charles I., who wrote against the morality of the Sabbath: a zealous Independent, of about the same period, has preserved the following tale relating to him,

"It is storied of Dr. Ironsides, that, riding on the Lord's-Day with a gen

Seven Questions of the Sabbath. Oxon. 1637, 4to. On the Restoration, he was raised to the See of Bristol. He died there, Sept. 19, 1671. Wood. Athen. Oxon. 4to. III. 940,

being, suppose,' said the Doctor,

to hear some sermon this afternoon.' Yes, we are,' said they. You cannot stay at home with your neighbours, to divert yourselves!" 'No, we cannot and will not.' Pray,' said he, 'how many Commandments are there?? One that knew him stepped up and said Eight.' 'I told you,' said the Doctor to the gentleman, how wise these zealous Precisians are.' 'Nay,' said the plain, honest man, I know there were Ten Commandments; but the Papists blotted out the Second, Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, &c.; and one Dr. Ironsides blotted out the Fourth, Remem ber the Sabbath Day to keep it holy: and between the Papists and him, they left but Eight.' You may easily ima gine how the Doctor looked; and how merry the gentleman was, that he was so caught in trying ignorant, zealous Precisians.'-Vindicia Anti-Baxteri ance. 12mo. 1696, pp. 21, 22.

No. CCCCIV.

Virtuous Earl of Pembroke.

When Queen Anne ascended the throne, the Earl of Pembroke resigned his post of Lord High Admiral of England, to make way for her consort, Prince George of Denmark, From this circumstance, he was of fered a large pension, to which he replied, "That however convenient it might be for his private interest, yet with his principles, and, therefore, the accepting of it was inconsistent

since he could not have the honour of serving his country in person, he would endeavour to do it by his example."

but

(Continued from p. 167.) OT the least interesting portion NOT of these "Memoirs" is that which relates to Mr. and Mrs. Lindsey, with whose private life Mrs. Cappe was intimately acquainted. A great part of what she here communicates was given by herself to our readers (Mon. Repos. III. 637, and VII. 109); but some further particulars are added. On this subject the writer has felt warmly, and expressed her feelings with considerable energy; much as she admired Mr. Lindsey, she could not overrate his moral worth. It has been coldly remarked, by a living orthodox divine, that he did no more than his duty in quitting a church whose doctrines he had ceased to believe. True, but though every virtue is a duty, some virtues are of high praise, and the highest praise of all belongs to that integrity which, for the sake of a pure conscience and for the glory of God, welcomes the prospect of poverty and degradation in society. Mr. Lindsey, indeed, was not suffered to remain in obscurity or to endure want; but when he made his magnanimous sacrifice of his ecclesiastical rank and emoluments, he went out into the world "not knowing

whither he went."

intention now carried into effect of inoculating, at their own expense, for the small-pox, then very fatal, all the poor decided proof. children of Catterick and its vicinity, is a This undertaking was begun by Mrs. L. during the absence of her excellent husband on the business of the petition, to whom, in zeal for unwearied usefulness, in ability to accomplish it, and in utter disregard of money, whether for its own sake or as the means of procuring any selfish indulgence, she was not inferior."-Pp. 150, 151.

It is well known that the fate of the Clerical Petition, in 1773, decided Mr. Lindsey's mind. He was in London attending its presentation, and the memorable debate to which it gave rise.

"One characteristic anecdote of Mr. Lindsey I must here mention, merely for the purpose of shewing that he excelled

as much in the smaller as in the greater and more exalted virtues. After the fate of the petition was decided, anxious as he was to return, oppressed by disappointment and harassed by fatigue, he yet took the trouble, on the morning of his leaving town, of going to the Tower to purchase a quantity of new half-pence, to be given to the poor children as rewards for taking their medicines."—Pp.

151, 152.

Amongst Mr. Lindsey's friends was Mr. Mason, the poet; and this gentleman used all his influence to prevent the conscientious divine from

plunging himself into worldly difficul ties by a step which probably appeared to him the fanaticism of virtue.

"One of the first persons, I believe, to whom Mr. Lindsey fully communicated his intention of resigning his living, was his former college friend, the late Rev. Wm. Mason, who was at that time precentor in the Cathedral of York, and so justly celebrated for his fine poetical talents. It happened in the following manner: Sir Marmaduke Wyvill, a friend of Mr. L.'s, being High Sheriff, he was requested to preach the assize sermon in the Minster, in July, 1773; and, being invited to lodge in the house of Mr. M., their former intimacy induced Mr. L. to impart to him the resolution he had made.

Mr. Mason was electrified with astonishment and grief. He really loved his old college friend, thought justly of the soundness of his head, and very highly appreciated the goodness of his heart; he was himself a very worthy, respectable character, but, having devoted his time more to the study of belles lettres than of the Scriptures, mixing much in the world, and viewing the subject through the false medium of its mistaken principles, he could not feel the necessity nor comprehend the duty of making such a sacrifice. Strict integrity, he was ready to admit, in all the transactions of social or commercial life, was an indispensable duty; it had ever been the rule of his own conduct; in respect to these, no mental reserve, however slight, ought on any account to be allowed; but to extend this to the usage of mere forms, by which no one was injured, and which might be considered as being simply official, was, in his mind, to the last degree visionary and absurd. He was indefatigable, therefore, in his endeavours to dissuade his friend from persevering in his resolution: he stated to him the deprivations he must suffer; the difficulties he would have to encounter; the obloquy to which he would subject himself; and, at length, when he found him immoveable ou every consideration that respected his own sufferings, he changed the mode of attack, and asked him if he had a right to subject Mrs. L. to so many inconveniences and hardships? Here he found that his friend was not invulnerable; his final resolution, indeed, being the calm and deliberate result of many an anxious hour, he could not shake, but he could pour into the appointed cup a tenfold portion of bitterness. I was at Catterick when Mr. L. returned thither, and never can I forget his altered looks and depressed countenance :-his very recollection seemed to be impaired, as he answered our anxious inquiries about his health, as he feebly ascended the few steps leading from the garden to the entrance: how is all this,' he said, can one indispensable duty ever really be incompatible with another?'-We did every thing in our power to sooth and calm his mind; and in a very few days he was enabled to recover his usual serenity.

This was in truth his hour of darkness,'

but it happily soon passed away."-Pp.

156-158,

Mrs. Cappe has recorded, with due praise, the noble conduct of Lord Huntingdon, whose family had patronized Mr. Lindsey, towards the Christian confessor :

"I must not omit to mention here

the liberality and friendship of the late Earl of Huntingdon upon this occasion. It is, I believe, well known that, revolted probably by the superstition and enthusiasm which mixed with the genuine piety of his otherwise excellent and exemplary mother, he had run into the opposite extreme, and had become a decided unbeliever. It is probable that he considered the foreign appendages unhappily interwoven in the Established Creed, as a part of the religion of the gospel. What became of the universe,' he was wont exultingly to inquire of Mr. Lindsey, 'when its great Creator hung lifeless upon a tree in Judea ?' I am not concerned, my Lord, to answer that question, the foundation on which it rests hot forming any part of my creed.'-' But the belief of it forms a part of the creed of that church in which you weekly officiate as a minister,' was the heart-piercing reply. To the honour, however, of Lord Huntingdon, when he heard of Mr. Lindsey's determination to leave the Church, he wrote him a very handsome letter, saying, that how indifferent soever he might be respecting subjects of mere theology, he greatly honoured the integrity which could lead to such a sacrifice; aud he offered Mr. L. to appoint him his Librarian, with a handsome salary, and an apartment entirely to himself, where his time for literary pursuits should be completely at his own disposal.”—Pp. 161, 162.

Our biographer became an inhabitant of York in the year 1782, and became the wife of the late Rev. Newcome Cappe in 1788. Never, perhaps, was a matrimonial connexion entered

into from purer or higher motives, and never was conjugal union more sacred or more happy. The reader must consult the volume for the details of this interesting event, which Mrs. Cappe relates with all the ingenuousness and simplicity of a mind conscious only of Christian sentiments. Mr. Cappe would under any circumstances have been respectfully remembered by the denomination of which he was SO bright an ornament; but it is chiefly owing to Mrs. Cappe's affectionate claim upon the veneration and gratiindustry that he has established a courses, and his learned and original tude of posterity by his eloquent Discritical Dissertations. His Memoirs, by the pen of his widow, is one of the best tributes of conjugal affection which English literature contains.

Neither her temper nor her Chris

tian principles would allow Mrs. Cappe to be an inactive member of society. Her history, from the time of her set tling at York, is the narration of incessant literary and philanthropic labours, her literary pursuits being in fact philanthropic. Two whole chapters (34 and 35) of the Memoirs are taken up with the History of a deserted Young Irishwoman whom she patronized; and the tale, which is interesting of itself, exhibits the writer's character, ever forward to shew sympathy with the oppressed, and bold and unceremonious in rebuke of vice and cruelty. There is a species of feminine delicacy which all good men must approve, but this becomes a weakness that is to be pitied when it shrinks from the more hardy duties of human life. We admire the female, who like Mrs. Cappé, sensible of her own intellectual superiority, and a stranger to all but Christian views, steps forth from the privacy of domestic life at the call of charity, and exposes herself fearlessly to the observation of the world in the performance of acts of unquestionable humanity. All women are not to be blamed for not copying in this respect the example of Mrs. Cappe; but, on the other hand, let not her be tried by a common standard. By a difference of talent, temperament and condition, Providence determines some persons to privacy and others to publicity; and, pursuing conscientiously the path marked out for them by the Disposer of human life, all may obtain, though in very different ways, satisfaction of mind, and entitle themselves equally to the approbation of society, as the earnest of the blessing of Almighty God.

Of the death of her excellent husband Mrs. Cappe writes in language which is alike honourable to them both. On this melancholy occasion, Mrs. Lindsey wrote a truly characte ristic letter of condolence to the widow, of which the following is an extract:

"You are now under the severest trial of your fortitude and resignation that you ever experienced, in the loss of the object of your tenderest and best affections, and who was so truly worthy of them. That he suffered no more, nor longer, is some consolation; that his mind was more sensible than his body,

"All things have for a long time had a tendency to moderate your hopes of any great comfort in his living, or any great length of life; yet, even the absence of that tender, anxious attention and soothing, night and day, to so amiable an object, will leave a painful chasm, which only time and a sense of dutiful submission to the appointment of God will fill up, with the occupations and demands of general benevolence, such as you have been in the habit of exercising.

"I write more to relieve my own mind than to impress yours; we have all a manner of feeling peculiar to ourselves, and have points of consolation and regret to which others must be strangers; but the voice of friendship cannot be silent or uninterested under the events which break the affections and habits of those one loves."-Pp. 310–312.

Many passages, and even entire chapters of the Memoirs, testify Mrs. Cappe's maternal affection to her husband's children by a former marriage; which we take notice of in order to remark, that hers was a case in which public spirit and an honourable desire of literary distinction were found quite consistent with the most regular and faithful observance of the domestic duties.

Mrs. Cappe's life was connected by her warm feelings of Christian charity with all the principal events of her