INTELLIGENCE. DOMESTIC. RELIGIOUS. Moral Philosophy, in the University of Edinburgh. This appointment was vehemently resisted, and has occasioned Re-opening of the Presbyterian Meet- great dissatisfaction in Scotland. ing-House, Evesham. On the 10th instant was re-opened the Presbyterian Meeting-House at Evesham, Worcestershire, after being shut up for two months, in order to add a gallery, and to alter and improve the whole of the interior. The minister, Mr. Davis, preached on the occasion to a full congregation, on the Nature and Importance of Public Worship. The expense of the alterations and improvements was very considerable, as the seats are made to rise gradually on an inclined floor, (which is a great advantage,) but justice and gratitude require it to be recorded, that the whole was generously paid by one individual. May such liberality become more common ! The Rev. Paul Cardale preached his seven sermons, published under the title of "The Gospel Sanctuary," upon the first opening of the place in 1740. December 14, 1820. Pastoral Jubilee.-A beautiful piece of sculpture has been erected in St. John's Church, Manchester, to commemorate the 50th year of the incumbency, [not surely the "incumbrancy," as the Monthly Magazine reports!] of the Rev. JOHN CLOWES, M. A., the present Rector. It consists of a tablet of white marble, containing ten figures in basso relievo, admirably executed by Mr. Flaxman, and is placed over the Rector's seat. The venerable Rector is represented in the act of instructing a most interesting groupe of children, who are accompanied by their parents and grandsire, to signify the three generations who have attended Mr. Clowes' ministry. Behind the rector stands a guardian angel, bearing a palmbranch, expressive of the Divine protection. Such a memorial as this, is, perhaps, without a parallel. Mr. Clowes is the principal writer, of the present day, on behalf of the doctrines of Swedenborgh. Mr. PILLANS, Rector of the High School, has been appointed Professor of Humanity in the University of Edinburgh. The Magistrates and Council of Edinburgh, (that is, a majority of them,) on the 19th of July, appointed JOHN WILSON, Esq., advocate, to be Professor of Law Proceedings. CASE OF MR. TWIGHT. SUFFOLK COUNTY SESSIONS. Held at Bury St. Edmunds, October 23, before T. S. Gooch, Esq., and a Bench of Magistrates. Considerable interest was excited at these sessions, by the trial of Mr. Francis Twight, a farmer, for repeating in open church, at Whepstead, in this county, (after the blessing implored for the King,) and God bless the Queen too." For this exclamation he was summoned by the reverend vicar of the parish, Mr. Image, before the magistrates, and convicted in the penalty of £20, which refusing to pay, he was ordered to be committed to prison until the ensuing sessions, or find bail; the latter, however, he declined, though pressed so to do, not only by the most respectable inha bitants of the parish, who offered to become bail, but by the magistrates themselves. A jury, after several challenges, were sworn: the clerk then read over the indictment, containing no less thau eight counts, which charged that the defendant Twight, on the 17th of September last, in the parish church of Whepstead," willingly, and of purpose, maliciously and contemptuously did interrupt and disturb the congregation there assembled." When the defendant was asked in common form whether he pleaded guilty or not guilty, no little consternation pervaded the court and auditors, to hear him reply "guilty." Mr. Cooper, one of his counsel, immediately arose, and said that the defendant certainly laboured under a misapprehension, and Twight added, he said the words, but pleaded guilty to them as "no crime." Mr. Storks then addressed the jury :"After a very anxious attention to this case, and a firm persuasion in my own mind, from the finding of the grand jury, as to its result, I yield myself reluctantly to the wishes of my client, who has felt it his duty not to have permitted in his church, that which would not have been permitted in another-an attempt to disturb a Christian congregation. He has felt for the infatuation of the defendant, and is satisfied with the punishment of the defendant, who has thought proper to lay (lie) in gaol ever since the 27th of September last, which he trusts will be an example to him and to all others. I say," continued the learned gentleman, "that my client, impelled by this Christian spirit of charity, wishes to put an end to this case, and to leave it at this stage of the proceedings, by not producing any evidence. If my learned friends choose to accept this offer, I shall set myself down; but if it be not accepted, I shall discharge my duty as a zealous advocate in prosecuting this case, and I have no doubt as to its result." A pause here ensued. No answer was made by defendant's counsel, when the chairman said, as no evidence is brought forward, the jury must find an acquittal, and they instantly returned a verdict of Not guilty. The chairman observed, "You ought to be very much obliged," when Twight said loudly, "I do not feel so at all," or "I do not thank you for it" (we could not exactly catch the expression). General applause, upon hearing the verdict, immediately ensued, when the chairman, with great warmth, desired the constables to take the offenders into custody, and if they did not do their duty he would do his by apprehending the first man guilty of such behaviour. A correspondent of The Huntingdon Gazette observes, that the friends of Twight are sorry the case was not proceeded in, as they firmly relied on a triumphal acquittal; for it was with great difficulty the grand jury could find a bill. The result has given great satisfaction to every friend of civil and religious liberty in this neighbourhood; for the charitable conduct of this reverend divine, in instituting these proceedings, is universally condemned by all parties. A subscription is set on foot, confining it to the sum of 1s. each, to defray the expenses of the trial, and the subscriptions low in freely. The defendant only laughed at the proffered mercy, and he intends instituting proceedings against the reverend vicar. FOREIGN. FRANCE. The Two Religions.-During the sitting of the Chamber of Deputies, on Friday the 22d June, the state of the clergy in France was made the subject of discussion. The estimates for the Established Clergy of the Church of Rome amounts to 22,600,000 francs, (£941,000,) which was granted by the Chamber. The Minister of the Interior then demanded the sum of 60,000 francs (£2,500) for the Protestant Clergy, and further required, that the estimate should be augmented to the sum of 60,000 francs (£2,500) for the repair of Protestant Churches. He stated that "the Protestant religion is organized in fifty departments of France: it is celebrated in 200 churches or places of worship, the greater part of which are in want of repair. There are many places where, for want of churches, the service of religion is celebrated in the open air." This estimate was granted without the slightest opposition. The Protestants of France propose to publish a collection of Portraits, &c., entitled Musée des Protestans Célèbres, &c. "Museum of celebrated Protestants who have appeared from the commencement of the Reformation to the present day." The work will consist of lithographic portraits of the earliest Reformers, and others distinguished by their rank, their talents and their sufferings, with short memoirs of their lives; and it is proposed to extend this collection to about 150 portraits. It will be published at the Protestant Library in the Place du Louvre. Two warriors of the Revolution, Marshals KELLERMAN, Duke of Valmy, and LEFEBVRE, Duke of Dantsic, are lately deceased. Kellerman's heart is to be buried at his own request at Valmy, the scene of the first victory of the French Revolntionists, Sept. 20, 1792, in which he bore command. At his interment in Paris, his brother-in-law, Count Marbois, pronounced a funeral oration, which is said to have drawn tears from every eye. DENMARK. According to letters from Copenhagen received at Hamburgh, the populace of the former city have attempted to renew the disgraceful outrages of last year against the houses and persons of the JEWS; but the prompt intervention of the police instantly restored tranquillity, and defeated the plan of the ill-disposed persons. RUSSIA. "In 1818, a subject of Russia was condemned to death for forging Banknotes, and had his punishment commuted into hard labour for life by the Emperor. While suffering this sentence, he was again guilty of the same crime, condemned again to death, and again had his life spared by Alexander, who ordered him to be kept confined for life in a fortress, under strict guard."-Hambro' paper. The consecration of a place of worship, recently built for the German Protestant Church at Moscow, took place on the 11th of September, 1819. The ceremony was conducted by the pastors Gering and Dommes. CHINA. A Brussels paper of November 6, states that the Chinese government has prohibited the importation of opium into its dominions. The same jealous and persecuting government is also said to have ordered Father AMIOT, the only missionary who was still at Pekin, to quit China; and to have inhumanly strangled at Canton, an old French priest of great age, who had secretly inhabited China for a great number of years. It appears that the herculean labour of translating the BIBLE into the CHINESE LANGUAGE has at length been accomplished through the perseverance and ability of Mr. Milne and Dr. Morrison, to whom, under God, the warmest thanks of the Christian world are most justly due. In a letter, dated Canton, Nov. 25, 1819, Dr. Morrison writes thus to the Committee of the Bible Society: "Thus we possess in Chinese, a complete version of all the canonical books of Sacred Scrip ture. The qualities at which I have aimed in my translations, are fidelity, perspicuity and simplicity; and when the difficulty of the task, the circumstances in which the translation has been placed, and the few helps afforded for a first attempt, are considered, I am sure that every candid man, and the Committee of the Bible Society, will not lay stress on trivial objections. It will be our study to revise the whole, alone and together, and to collate every part with each other, in order to render names of persons and places uniform; and we shall avail ourselves of any criticisms that may reach us from any quarter; and may that gracious Providence that has preserved our lives to complete the Translation, yet spare us to revise and print the whole! The light of revelation will, by the mercy of God, illumine this dark and idolatrous land in the appointed season. The printing of the edition of the New Testament, before decided on, is proceeding gradually at Malacca; and it will be necessary to print the edition of the whole Bible, which I now project, at the same place. May the Divine blessing rest on all the members and friends of the Bible Society!" The Emperor of China has received an "Ode to the Supreme Being," written in Russian by Gabriel Romanowtcht, a Russian poet, which he has caused to be translated into both languages, (the Chinese and the Tartar,) to be written on a piece of rich silk, and suspended in the interior of his palace. The English newspapers of this day (Dec. 26th) announce the Emperor of China's death, on the authority of letters from Petersburgh. EAST INDIES. Consistorial Court at Calcutta.-This Court was announced by public advertisement, dated Sept. 8, 1819, under the title of "The Consistory Court within and for the Archdeaconry of Calcutta, in the Diocese of Calcutta." The Bishop's address on opening the Court is a pleasing proof that ecclesiastical authority cannot become oppressive in Hindostan. A great part of the business incident to the Consistory Courts in England, is granted by His Majesty's Charter of Justice to the Supreme Court of Judicature at Calcutta. The Bishop's Court has to look after the clergy; to see that they use the Liturgy, the whole Liturgy, and nothing but the Liturgy; and to superintend the registry of baptisms. A GENERAL INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND SIGNATURES. The Names and Signatures of Correspondents are distinguished by Small Brighton new Unitarian Chapel, 486 421 Barrister's, A, Letters in Defence of remarks on, Bentham, Jeremy, Esq., on the sup 233 358 655 BREVIS's brief notes on the Bible, 93, Bristol, Bishop of, his letter to his clergy on the manner of adminis- Bristol, vindication of the Lewin's British and Foreign School Society, their address to the Duchess of British Critic on Captain Gifford's Brook's Lives of the Puritans, ex- 253 99 247 58 204 313 312 Brown, Dr. Thomas, obituary of, 295 BROWN, Rev. THEOPHILUS, on the 428 317 91 Best's, Judge, remarks on a passage of a charge of, 532 Bible, brief notes on the, 93, 153, 702 Bible-Christianity, on, 17, 87, 151, 521 Biddle, John, account of his treatment Birmingham Old-Meeting Sunday- Schools, account of the, 294 Blane, Sir Gilbert, on vaccination, Blasphemy, trials for, 625, 684, 687 |