among congregations, its connexion should be as extended as possible, so as to enable it to have recourse to its members for further aid, in case any extraordinary emergency should require it. Unitarian Fund Anniversary. This interesting meeting was held on Thursday, in the Whitsun-week, May 25th, the day being unavoidably changed from Wednesday, the usual day of the meeting. Divine service was carried on, according to custom, at the Chapel, in Parliament Court, Artillery Lane, Bishopsgate Street. It was introduced by the Rev. S. Fawcett, of Yeovil, with reading the Scriptures (Isaiah xl. and Acts ii.) and prayer. The Rev. J. Kentish, of Birmingham, offered up the general prayer. The Sermon was delivered by the Rev. Russell Scott, of Portsmouth, from Luke xiv. 23; it consisted of a manly argument and bold protest against secular compulsion in matters of religion, and in favour of complete and universal religious liberty. The Rev. J. Gisburne, of Trowbridge, read the Hymns.At the meeting of the Society for business, which was held immediately after the religious service in the chapel, and which a large proportion of the congregation attended, the Rev. John Kentish was called to the Chair. The Report of the Treasurer was unusually gratifying, and that of the Committee contained much pleasing intelligence. It was resolved to request Mr. Scott to print his excellent Sermon. After much discussion, a proposal was adopted to extend the plan of the Society, so as to make it comprehend Foreign as well as British objects; and with a view to this extension, the Committee was enlarged, and three new members chosen on the ground of their qualifications for the Foreign Department. The Rev. Wm. Hincks, of Exeter, was announced as the preacher elect. The Subscribers and their friends, upwards (we believe) of 300 in number, afterwards dined together at the London Tavern. Wm. Smith, Esq., M. P., had been engaged for the Chair, but in his much-regretted absence, on account of Parliamentary duties, the Stewards invited to it the Rev. R. Aspland. The usual liberal sentiments were brought before the Meeting. The speakers were Mr. Frend, the Rev. R. Scott, Mr. Rutt, Mr. Christie, (the Treasurer,) the Rev. John Yates, (of Liverpool,) and the Rev. John Kentish, Mr. Young, the Rev. R. Wright, the Rev. W. J. Fox (the Secretary) and Mr. Talfourd. The spirit of the Meeting was attested by a long list of subscriptions. Many gentlemen were present from the country. The day was VOL. XV. 2 T throughout harmonious and pleasant, and it may be truly said that the Society received from its proceedings a considerable accession of reputation, which is strength.-One feature of the Meeting at the London Tavern was new. Under the excellent management of the Stewards, the orchestra at one end of the ball-room and a capacious temporary gallery at the other, were filled with ladies, about 70 in number; who were exceedingly gratified by witnessing the proceedings, and the more so, as, by desire of the Chairman, previous to their introduction, no allusion was made to their presence. An unexpected contribution from the ladies aided the collection of the day. The advanced day of the month on which the Meeting was held, constrains us to defer other particulars to the next Number. THE Anniversary Meeting of the Christian Tract Society was holden on Thursday, May 4th, (THOMAS HARDY, Esq. in the Chair,) of which the particulars are unavoidably postponed till the next Number. Literary Instruction for the Blind.—Anc ingenious mechanical invention has lately been completed which offers a new and inexhaustible source of information to those who are afflicted by the privation of sight. It is called a Duplex Typograph, and enables the blind to receive and communicate ideas by means of letters, upon a principle adapted to the sense of feeling. Thus, then, has science disco vered a new road to minds from which she has hitherto been almost excluded. The apparatus is compact and portable, and the system so simple and intelligible, that it may be acquired by the blind in a very short space of time, and its application is instantly comprehended by others. The inventor is Mr. J. Purkis, brother of a well-known musical character, who, by the aid of a skilful occulist, obtained the blessings of sight at the age of thirty, after having been blind from the time of his birth. Judicial Evidence of Unbelievers.-As our Correspondent, S. C., (pp. 271,272,) has made some observations upon this subject, we insert from the Times newspaper the report of the conversation to which he refers. JACOB MAGENNIS and GEORGE JAMES BRUCE were tried at Chester, April 8th, before Chief-Justice WARREN and Justice MARSHALL, for shooting at WILLIAM BIRCH, the constable, at Stockport, on the 23rd of July last, with intent to kill him. Both were found guilty, and Magennis has been executed: he confessed his own guilt, but asserted Bruce's innocence. He died penitent, or rather triumphant, maintaining that he had undergone a sudden conversion from Infidelity to the assurance of faith!The conversation which we extract arose out of the examination of PEARSON, a witness for the Crown, by Mr. JONES, the counsel for the defendants: "Pray, Sir, what religion are you of? -I profess no religion; I am not in any society. Are you of any religion, society or persuasion ? CHIEF JUSTICE.—I cannot see the utility of that question. Mr. JONES.-I beg pardon, My Lord, this is the very essence of my case; it is a duty which I owe to my clients, and I will not relinquish it. Are you of any religion, society or persuasion ? Mr. Sergeant CROSS.-The witness is not obliged to answer that question. Mr. Justice MARSHALL.-You may ask if he believes in that God to whom he has appealed. Mr. JONES.-I have an anxious duty to perform, and your Lordships may give ure credit for it. Mr. Sergeant CROSS.-The question is not a proper question. Mr. JONES.-Those men are on their trials for their lives, and will have an answer to my question. Are you of any religion or persuasion? -I believe there is a God, and a just one, who will punish those who commit had deeds. Mr. Sergeant CROSS.-That is all that can be inquired into. Mr. JONES.-Will you allow me, Mr. Sergeant Cross, to examine the witness? Mr. Sergeant CROSS.-I will not permit any man to ask a witness a question which it is not competent to him to ask. CHIEF JUSTICE.-The witness has said that he believes in a God. Mr. JONES.-I have not followed the question one point since he made that answer, but Mr. Sergeant Cross shall not interrupt me." At Brunswick Chapel, Liverpool, two learned Heathens, high priests of the BUDHUL religion, from the island of CEYLON, were baptized according to the ritual of the Established Church, by Dr. ADAM CLARKE, before a large congregation. penal code, on which the Hon. H. G. BENNET delivered his sentiments with regard to the decapitation of the unhappy persons lately executed for High Treason. He felt, he said, the utmost anxiety that his honourable and learned friend should persevere in his present undertaking of reforming the criminal code. He trusted, however, that his honourable and learned friend would not depart from the example of an illustrious and lamented person (Sir S. Romilly), in recommending the abolition of the present mode of punishment in high treason. To him it appeared that recent occurrences most clearly shewed the propriety of some change in this respect. A shock to humanity-a thrilling sensation of horrorcould be of no advantage or service to any government, however important the occasion, or signal the example. In stances of this kind tended to throw disgrace on the national character,-to injure us materially in the comparative scale of civilization. The power of quartering and mutilating the bodies of convicted traitors was, in his opinion, a power which the crown would lose nothing in surrendering. He had attended closely, and received much instruction with reference to this subject, and was persuaded that a violation of natural feelings was a very injudicious mode of convincing human reason. By these observations he was only giving expression to the general feeling and sentiment of the country. It was, in his view, to the credit of the people that they had manifested the acuteness of sensation which had been shewn on a late occasion. There never was an execution which left behind it feelings of a more painful nature than the late melancholy execution at the Old Bailey. The last act of that dreadful ceremony, the appearance of a disguised individual as an assistant, had not a little increased the universal horror. A judicial vengeance of this kind went to inflict a wound on relatives, and to cause distress to those who must be presumed innocent. He could not, therefore, but express a fervent hope that his honourable and learned friend would connect with his other projected ameliorations of our criminal jurisprudence, the repeal of what appeared to him to be a barbarous and disgraceful ceremony. In the House of Lords, on Friday, May 12, there was a debate on a petition from a clergyman, the Rev. PIKE JONES, complaining of the conduct of the Bishop of Exeter, in which the Athanasian Creed was introduced and treated with little reverence. The whole debate will be given in the next Number. The friends of the Institution will dine together on Wednesday the 28th and Thursday the 29th June, at Etridge's Hotel, at 5 p. m. Joseph Strutt, Esq., of Derby, President of the College, in the Chair. THOMAS H. ROBINSON, J. G. ROBBERDS, Secretaries. Manchester, May 17, 1820. Applications for the admission of Students on the foundation or otherwise, are requested to be immediately addressed to the Rev. Charles Wellbeloved, Theological Tutor, York; or to one of the Secretaries. The next Session will commence on Thursday the 21st September, 1820. The Annual Meeting of the SoUTHERN UNITARIAN SOCIETY will be held at Chichester, in Sussex, on Tuesday the 11th of July, 1820. The Rev. Dr. Morell, of Brighton, is expected to preach. Service to begin at Twelve o'clock. Eastern Unitarian Society. THE Yearly Meeting of the Eastern Unitarian Society will be held at Norwich, on Wednesday and Thursday the 28th and 29th of June. Mr. W. J. Fox, of London, is expected to preach. EDWARD TAYLOR, Secretary. THE Ninth Anniversary of the KENT and SUSSEX UNITARIAN CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION will be held at Maidstone, on Wednesday the 28th of June; when a Sermon will be preached on the occasion by Dr. Morell, of Brighton. THE General Annual Meeting of the WESTERN UNITARIAN SOCIETY is postponed from the 12th, to Wednesday the 19th of July. On behalf of the Committee, Bristol, May 24, 1820. FOREIGN. FRANCE. It is announced that Count Volney (whose recent death the Chamber of Peers and the French Academy have to deplore) has bequeathed in his will a sum amounting to a perpetual rent of 1,200 francs (507. sterling), as a prize to be adjudged by the Institute to the author of the best treatise on Eastern languages, and especially on the simplification of their characters. His obsequies were solemnized on Friday last, in the burial-ground of Père La Chaise; it was conducted in the most simple manner; two peers of France and two members of the Academy supported the pall, and numerous literary and scientific characters followed in procession. M. Laya, Director of the French Academy, pronounced a funeral eulogy over his grave. SPAIN. The new system seems to consolidate itself daily. One of the Madrid electors writes to us as follows: "The forbearance of the constitutional party has greatly added to their strength. The shocks of private interests are necessarily felt in many of the provinces; but the elections are on the whole going on very favourably. We have no want of men of talent and good principles, and they will generally be fixed on. The influence of the clergy, though greatly diminished, is not destroyed, and it will be preponderant in some departments." The indignation expressed against the Inquisition is by no means on the decline; papers are constantly issuing from the press exposing its horrors. The constitutionalists feel they have strong ground on this subject. Llorente's History of the Inquisition is about to be printed in Spanish, and of Dr. Puigblanch's "Inquisition Unmasked," a second edition will almost immediately appear. ITALY. (Translated extract of a letter.) "Our beautiful Italy sleeps, or rather writhes in silence beneath the Austrian yoke; she is disunited, helpless, unable to arise on her own strength to liberty; some unexpected event may, however, await her, or the influence of a great nation might instantly free us from the unparalleled rapine of the two-headed eagle. Come among us,-you will be astonished and delighted with the numerous friends you will find here, breathing wishes and prayers for the salvation of Italy." DENMARK. A Copenhagen paper announces the death of the celebrated Icelandic poet, JOHN THORLASKEN, who had translated into his native language Milton's Paradise Lost and Klopstock's Messiah. POLAND. WARSAW, March 15.-The Circassian and several tribes of the Caucasus had received from the Bible Society Bibles in their languages; but unhappily they now make them into cartridges. A handsome simple monument, consisting of an obelisk, has been erected in the market-place of Jascow, in honour of the late Kosciusko. CORRESPONDENCE. Communications have been received from Messrs. Cogan; Howe; Silse (Godalming); T. Davis; M. Maurice; Joseph Cornish; J. Fullagar; and T. H. Janson. Also, from S. C.; R. C.; A. C., and A Berean. ERRATA ET CORRIGENDA. Page 220, col. 1, (Note,) line 2, for Bibleothek, read Bibliothek. line 7, for kleidekn i'hre, read kleideten ihre. We are desired to state, that the Reporter of proceedings of the "Southern Unitarian Fund," p. 250, has mis-stated Mr. Bristowe's text; it should have been Daniel iii. 4-6. The correct designation of the new chapel reported to be opened (pp. 249, 250) is, we are requested to add, Woodd Street, Cromer Street, Gray's Inn Road. THE Monthly Repository. No. CLXXIV.] JUNE, 1820. The Nonconformist. No. XIX. F it were possible to fear that the I bright improvement could be extinguished by the folly and the fraud of man; if it were possible to believe that there is something at work stronger than the spirit of truth and liberty, the present state of France would excite all the apprehensions and all the alarms of the wise and the good. The great principles of freedom, gathered together out of the mighty wrecks of the Revolution, seemed to have been fully recognized and established on a lasting foundation; but in a moment of false and fatal security they have been undermined, and civil and religious tyranny are already shouting over their ruins. The reforming spirit had spread through a great part of Christendom, before it was openly proclaimed and honoured by those illustrious advocates whose names are connected with its most splendid early triumphs. In the love of learning, which began to be cultivated in Europe, the Reformation found its mightiest ally. Leo the Xth. scarcely suspected that he was the great patron of those heresies against which he fulminated his loudest anathemas; but we may safely assert, that for one heretic alarmed into recantation by the terrors of his bulls, he made a hundred by his patronage of literature: and while the progress I It is not a part of my plan to go into the historical question, in order to shew how much the interests of pure Christianity have been advanced by the spread of literature; but there are a number of little facts scattered up and down the records of past time on which I should willingly linger: for instance, often think with peculiar pleasure on the tradition of the Italians, that St. Paul was an enthusiastic admirer of Virgil. Down to the fifteenth century the custom was preserved at Mantua of singing a hymn in honour of their great bard on St. Paul's day. They pretend that the apostle wept over the tomb of the poet, VOL. XV. 2 U Vol. XV.] fetters of spiritual bondage of civilization on the one hand broke led on to Protestantism and reform, these in their turn, and as a natural re-action, destroyed the old and barbarous notions which held man in political servitude and slavery, and taught him to stand erect in the energy and strength of civil liberty. These two positions, that the triumphs of Protestanism have been and are greatly dependent on the extension of knowledge and civilization, and that its progress must promote the cause of genuine freedom, are singularly corroborated by the present situation of France.* Since the period when the orthodox and infallible arguments of "sword and gun" had established the principles of "legitimacy," and a hundred and fifty thousand armed nien had philosophically and satisfactorily demonstrated that nations are in reality nothing better than the appendages of royalty, the mere trappings of a coronation robe, or the animals which adorn a magnificent national estate, grazing there by the sufferance of the kingly possessor, something, as giving and exclaimed, “O that I could have converted thee!" Ad Maronis mausoleum * Of late several attempts have been made, in violation of the charter and in contempt of public opinion, to interfere with the rights of conscience in France. The lower tribunals in particular have shewn a great disposition to be intolerant. For instance, they fined the Protestant inhabitants of Nailloux more than 800 francs for refusing to hang out tapestry during the procession of the host. This sentence was confirmed on a second appeal, but ultimately reversed by the Court of Cassation. [Mon. Repos. XIII. 780.] |