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Register of Ecclesiastical Documents.

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"From the first moment that your Majesty undertook the charge of public affairs, the Providence of God has beamed upon you with a bright effulgence. By the wisdom of your Majesty's counsels and the vigour of your arms, your Majesty was enabled, by the blessing of Almighty God, to frustrate the formidable attempts of a gigantic power, which, grasping at universal empire, threatened to destroy the independence of Europe; and that same Providence, we trust, will still continue to encompass your Majesty as with a shield, and over all your glory to create a defence.

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of health, and every comfort which this world can afford-and that at length your Majesty may inherit a kingdom which cannot be moved, and a crown of glory which fadeth not away, are our most sincere and fervent prayers.

" (Signed)

"DAVID LAMONT, Moderator."

the following most gracious answer :To this Address his Majesty returned

"I thank you for these expressions of loyal attachment, in the sincerity of which I place implicit confidence. It is with the utmost satisfaction that I avail myself of this opportunity of confirming in person the assurances I have given through inviolate those rights and privileges to my representative, that I will maintain which the Church of Scotland is entitled by the most solemn compacts. In your continued exertions to promote true religion, and to inculcate loyalty and obedience to the laws, you may rely on my constant support and protection. I cordially unite with you in grateful acknowledgments to Almighty God, for his signal protection of my people in the time of general peril and calamity, and in an assistance, I may be enabled to protect earnest prayer that, through his divine their liberties, and to advance their prosperity and happiness."

"As a portion of your Majesty's subjects, we express our warmest gratitude for the honour your Majesty has done to our country by most graciously conde scending to visit it; and we trust that, when your Majesty returns from your Scottish dominions, you will be enabled to say that, in this part of the United Kingdom, you have seen a people who ADDRESS OF THE SCOTTISH EPISCOPAL love their God, their country and their King.

"As the constituted representatives of the Church of Scotland, we present your Majesty our heartfelt thanks for the many signal favours which your Majesty has been pleased to confer upon us; and, as the best return which we can make for your Majesty's goodness, we beg leave to assure your Majesty, that it shall be our study, in our respective districts, to discharge with fidelity and zeal the duty committed to our trust, and to encourage loyalty and submission to the laws, as equally indispensable to both public and private prosperity.

"We will labour to impress upon the people committed to our care a high sense of the invaluable blessings of our glorious and happy constitution. We will teach them to fear God, to honour their King, and to connect the principles of religion with a dutiful obedience to the laws of their country.

"That your Majesty may long sway the regal sceptre over a great, a free, a loyal, a happy and a united people-that your Majesty may long enjoy the blessing

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CLERGY.

[This Address was presented by a Deputation consisting of BISHOPS Gleig, Jolly, Sandford, Torry, Skinner, Lowe; -Presbyters-Rev. Mr. Alison, Mr. Walker, Dr. Russell, Mr. Horsley, Mr. The Cruickshanks, Mr. Morehead. Address was read by Mr. Horsley.] "To the King's most excellent Majesty.

May it please your Majesty,-We, your Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the Bishops and Clergy of the Scottish Episcopal Church, beg leave humbly to approach your Royal presence with expressions of our most heartfelt attachment and loyalty to your Majesty's sacred person and government.

"So many years have passed away since Scotland was honoured by the presence of its Sovereign, that to behold your Majesty in the palace of the long line of our ancient Monarchs-your Majesty's Royal ancestors-is, to us, as it must be to every true Scotsman, a matter of pride and exultation; and in this house, more especially, do we feel our

selves prompted by these emotions, to declare, that within the wide compass of your Majesty's dominions are no where to be found hearts more loyal than those which beat in the breasts of the Scottish Episcopalians.

"The devoted attachment uniformly displayed by the members of our Church to him whom they have considered as their legitimate Sovereign, is so well known to your Majesty, that it would be waste of time to repeat it here; and is, indeed, amply vouched by the lowly station which we, her Bishops, now hold in civil society. Your Majesty likewise knows that our religious principles and forms of worship are the same with those of the Church of England, from which, indeed, we twice derived our Episcopacy, when it had been lost at home; and whilst we are sincerely grateful for the toleration of these principles and the free exercise of the rights of our worship, we feel that it is to your Majesty's gracious consideration, and that of your Royal Father, that our gratitude is in a peculiar manner due.

"We would not occupy too much of your Majesty's time by protestations of our loyalty but we must beg leave solemnly to declare in your Royal presence, that, viewing in your Majesty's sacred person the lineal descendant of the Royal Family of Scotland, and the legitimate possessor of the British Throne, we feel to your Majesty that devoted attachment which our principles assure us is due to our rightful Sovereign; and that, should evil days ever come upon your Majesty's Royal House, (which may God of his infinite mercy avert !) the House of Brunswick will find that the Scottish Episcopalians are ready to endure for it as much as they have suffered for the House of Stuart, and with heart and hand to convince the world, that in their breasts a firm attachment to the religion of their fathers is inseparably connected with unshaken loyalty to their King.

"That your Majesty may long reign over a happy and united people, to maintain that peace and prosperity which the wisdom of your Majesty's counsels and the vigour of your arms have, by the Providence of God, achieved for them, is the earnest prayer of

"Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects."

ADDRESS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDIN

BURGH.

"Most Gracious Sovereign,-We, the Principal and Professors of the University of Edinburgh, humbly approach your Majesty's throne; and, warmed with the strongest feelings of national pride and gratitude, and loyal affection, we offer to your Majesty our most cordial congratulations on your auspicious arrival in the capital of your ancient kingdom of Scotland, and in the palace of your illustrious ancestors. We hail your august presence as a distinguishing and most gratifying proof of the Royal condescension and kindness to our country: and, participating in the ardent exultation excited by the high and happy event in all classes of our fellow citizens, we offer to your Majesty the homage of our most profound respect and most devoted attachment. We are deeply impressed by those benevolent purposes of public good, for which your Majesty has desired to witness the condition and character of your people in this quarter of your empire, and we feel from the impression a new and animating incentive to the faithful and zealous discharge of all our professional duties. To that fidelity and zeal, we now therefore entreat your Majesty's permission to pledge ourselves gratefully, sincerely and solemnly. ́

"Deign, then, indulgently to rely on our assurance that, in our different academical departments, we will continue to employ our most strenuous exertions for promoting that intellectual, moral and religious instruction, which being the most solid basis of a nation's prosperity, happiness and honour, it is the dearest wish of your Majesty's heart, and the most unceasing object of your reign, to extend and to perpetuate throughout all your dominions."

"That the Almighty King of Kings may bless your Majesty with a long reign of glory, and that He may bestow on you, in heaven, an unfading crown, are our most fervent prayers.

“GEO. H. BAIRD, Principal."

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INTELLIGENCE.

DOMESTIC.

RELIGIOUS.

Sheffield Meeting of Ministers.

AGREEABLY to the notice which was given through the medium of the last Repository, (pp. 579, 580,) a Meeting of Ministers residing in the neighbourhood of Sheffield was held in the Unitarian Chapel in that town, on the 26th of September. Dr. Philipps was the preacher; having been unanimously requested at the Meeting in June, to officiate on this occasion. His subject was taken from Philipp. ii. 15, 16. The discourse was intended to unite the "Concio ad Populum" with the "Concio ad Clerum." It does not become the writer of this article to say more, than that the preacher received the thanks, most cordially expressed, both of his brethren in the ministry and of the congregation. The ministers and the congregation (in a considerable number) dined together after the service, and the day was spent in a manner which was adapted to promote the mutual harmony and improvement both of ministers and people. The Rev. Mr. Hawkes, of Lincoln, and the Rev. Mr. Williams, of Mansfield, were present on the occasion; together with Offley Shore, Esq., an enlightened and zealous friend of truth, and of civil and religious li berty. The plan for village preaching, alluded to in the last Repository, was again brought forward and discussed; and will probably be carried into effect in a short time. A regular religious service will be established at Dronfield, in Derby shire, as soon as a suitable room can be provided, and the neighbouring ministers have engaged to conduct it. The proposal for a Lord's-Day Evening Lecture at Sheffield, to be carried on in the same way, which was made at the Meeting in June last, has been confirmed by a congregational assembly, and will commence on the first Sabbath in the month. Sheffield, Oct. 12, 1822.

N. P.

Somerset and Dorset Unitarian

Association.

THE Half-Yearly Meeting of this Association was held at Yeovil, on Tuesday, October 1. The Rev. Wm. Wilson, of Crewkherne, preached in the morning, from Philipp. i. 27; and the Rev. G. B. Wawne, of Bridport, in the evening, on the Character of the Bereans. At the

Meeting held after the morning service, thirty new members were added to the Society. This accession has been made for the express purpose of rendering the funds adequate to the distribution of cheap Unitarian tracts among the less informed members of congregations connected with the Association, and likewise among the members of reputed orthodox churches. With a view to the accom plishment of this design, it was resolved, "that the Subscribers resident in Bridport, together with the Secretary, be constituted a Committee, and empowered to appropriate the surplus funds in the purchase of Tracts, of which an allotment shall be made annually to each subscriber, for general distribution." "The Unitarian's Appeal," and the "Answer to the Question, Why do you go to the Unitarian Chapel ?"" have been selected by the Committee.

The next Meeting will be held at Bridgewater, on Tuesday in Easter Week, 1823. The Rev. Mr. Hughes, of Yeovil, is appointed to preach.

G. B. WAWNE, Secretary.

Eleventh Annual Meeting of the ProTM testant Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty.

(Continued from p. 583.)

THIS class of complaints (continued Mr. WILKS) included a series of evils which would create an unchristian indignation in his mind, if unallayed by pity or contempt. At Barnstaple, a poor tailor employed by the parish was, ouly for his Methodism, deprived of that employ. At Chart, in Kent, where the nephew of the Archbishop of Canterbury was the Rector, poor persons were mulcted in their allowances from the parish, because they sent their children to other than the National Schools; and when a widow, chary of her independence, and in principle a Dissenter, would send her infant daughter to a dame school, and pay her weekly threepence for her learning-the sum of threepence was deducted from her parish pay, because, forsooth, if for the education of her child she could make such payment, that sum could not be needful to supply her wants! In another place, a clerical magistrate refused to order relief to a sickly, suffering female, because a Dissenting meeting-house was the sad place where the visitings of her disease had been most alarming, though she had tottered there slow and trembling,

to gain the only comfort which poverty and disease allowed her to enjoy. At Ashorne, too, amid the sylvan plains of Warwickshire, he had known another instance of this worst abuse of power. [Here Mr. WILKS related the story of the denial of a share in a parish benefaction to a Baptist, of the name of KNIGHT. The dialogue between Mrs. K. and the clergyman of the parish, as related by Mr. W., produced quite a dramatic effect.] At Hampton, he had found the same vexatious dæmon amidst parks and bowers. There he met a labourer, whose form was bowed beneath heavy burdens, and whose hands. were become horny with his toil. At the age of sixty this poor man had learnt to read his Bible, to cheer the evenings of each day, and the approaching night of life. Accidentally, he learnt that the wife had asked the parochial minister to include her name in the list of women on whom the Duke of Clarence, whose palace was in that vicinity, bestowed some yearly alms. For two successive years she had applied -twice she was refused. She was poor, was old, was honest, had been the mo ther of fourteen children, all brought up without parochial aid, only by rare economy and indefatigable labours. Why was she refused? She was guilty of the crime of preferring the Baptist meeting to the parish church-and her Methodism was all her guilt!

He held a

Could he be deceived? printed book that precluded apologetic hopes. It was a printed pamphlet from the parish of Broadwater, published in April last. In that parish was Worthing, where Dissenters as well as Churchmen went to gaze upon the ocean, and to obtaiu relief from a plethora of wealth. In that pamphlet the Committee and parish officers announce, that "no relief will be given to persons whose children do not regularly attend the National Schools," and thus they class all the conscientious and Dissenting poor with the extravagant and profligate with the drunkard and the poacher, from whom also, and more righteously, they threaten to withhold relief. In this case he would trust that exposure would produce redress, and that his influential Sussex friends would procure the correction of an ordinance disgraceful to liberal minds.

To Riots and illegal interruptions of Public Worship he would next allude. These needed punishment for their repression. In cities and the chapels of wealthy congregations they were not known. He did not, however, wish to aggravate these matters. They resulted often from inebriety or ignorance, rather thau a malicious spirit and predetermin

ed hostile minds ;-partly encouraged too by a church establishment, and by the obloquy which affected all Dissenters, from the continuance of penal statutes, and their exclusion from the bench of magistracy and other public situations which their fortunes and knowledge fit them to adorn. Of these affrays many were repressed by private effort and local associations. But at Urchfont, in Wilts, a man was disorderly-sang aloudwould fight-was prosecuted, convicted and forgiven: and the Committee contributed five guineas to the charge. Chipperfield, in Hertfordshire, was the scene of another riot. Stones were thrown at the windows and the doors, and the people insulted and disturbed. The case had been recommended to the attention of the Committee by Dr. COLLYER, who, though mild as embodied meekness, was firm for right. The magistrates had been tardy to interfere, but perseverance overcame that tardiness, and the offenders awaited trial for their offence. At Woodford Bridge, where The London Itinerant Society have long endeavoured to improve one of the many desert spots that environ London, WILLIAM WITHAM was ap prehended for misconduct. He was com mmitted to Chelmsford gaol, and expressing contrition, and paying a trifle to the poor, was finally released. But expenses to the Committee resulted from the prosecutors having entered into recognizances to prosecute, which preclude a prompt forgiveness of defendants, and which prosecutors should avoid. At Bow Common and at Peterchurch, in Herefordshire, where a female was shot through the hand, and Cricklade, where the Home Missionary Society prosecute their excellent, muchneeded labours, and in other places, such proceedings, varying in their outrage and atrocity, occurred. At Ickford, near Thame, not only the rooms opened for worship by a Christian philanthropist, were rendered offensive by putrid matter, the lights extinguished by birds, and the social meetings interrupted by disgustful noise; but that case was rendered remarkable by the shameful obstructions opposed to redress by clerical justices, to whom he must so often and unwillingly allude. At Saffron Walden too, vigils, not superstitious or unseemly, held on the last night of the departed year by some good and wealthy females of the Wesleian denomination, were disturbed by rude wassailers. Their rank and legal knowledge should have taught them other conduct, and prevented a disturbance of the grateful praises and fervent prayers of the thankful and devout at that midnight hour. But the hour of reckoning came. In broad noon-day the offenders

Intelligence.-Trial of Mrs. Wright for Blasphemy.

had to apologize for their intrusions, and in distinctest language to express regret. Through a statement of many clerical aggressions on liberal conduct and dissenting rights he would next proceed.

In Oxfordshire, he found a clergyman, brother to a noble Earl, self-degraded, serving a notice from a landlady to a cottage, to quit her home; because she would not close the doors against the Dissenting minister, whose visits he forbade. Refusuls to bury also had been renewed. In two cases the Committee had interfered successfully; in one case they could not interfere; and in the remaining two, the results of their interference were yet un known. At Hartland, in North Devon, the Rev. Mr. CHANTER had refused to bury the infant of a labourer. He had acknowledged to the Wesleian preacher and the father, his error and compunction. The happiest effects had recompensed the interference:- haughtiness had become good-will, gall was converted into the bland milk of kindness, and the poor and parish, delighted by his new civility to the Dissenting minister, offered their praises and their prayers for the distant and unknown instruments of this benign but mysterious change. At Abergavilly, in Wales, also, the Rev. Mr. MORGAN had made a similar refusal. There, his lady had been unwisely prominent. She could not endure that "Mr. Morgan should be a servant to bury children baptized by every body." "Pride goeth be fore destruction-the haughty spirit effects a fall." This lady learnt that the law was the master of her master, and had to read and digest with what appetite she might, an acknowledgment that the service ought not to have been neglected, and a promise that it should here after be performed.

In Hampshire, and at Westbourne, that success against the refusal of the Rev. G. TATTERSHALL could not be obtained. The parents of the departed infant were conscientious Baptists; therefore the clergyman might lawfully withhold the rites of sepulture.

The remaining cases were at Cuckfield, Sussex, and at Colerne, in the county of Wilts. The first evinced the infectious influence of power; as, there a youthful clergyman of liberal education and gentlemanly manners had allowed himself, at the instigation of a rector's widow and interested parish-clerk, to out-herod Herod in the assertion of a right to refuse admittance of a corpse to the church, and to curtail the service which the rubric had enjoined. The latter was marked by circumstances of such great aggression, (and which were well detailed,) that prosecution must result, if concession did

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not intervene. In neither case was the decision of the clergyman received; and the Committee remained desirous to extend the olive branch of peace, but not afraid, at the command of justice, though slow and unwilling, to unsheath the sword of defensive war. In both cases great evils had educed yet greater good. The firmness of Mr. REEVE, at Cuckfield, who carried his child to Ryegate for interment, rather than sanction a public wrong, deserved public honour. Wiltshire, the son of Mr. JAY, and an excellent friend at Bath, had displayed calmness, decision and disdain of trouble, worthy of their father and instructor, and of the noblest cause; whilst every good Churchman and the observant vil lagers blushed or joyed at these measures and defeats, and many withdrew, fearful, from a church, which those measures were adopted to uphold.

In

But a refusal of marriage as well as of interment had occurred. Llandygwning, in Caernarvonshire, witnessed the half comic and half tragic deed. The Rev. JOHN HUGHES was the clergyman, and THOMAS EVANS and CATHARINE JONES the bridegroom and the bride. The bridegroom was a Baptist, and was deemed by the minister so thoroughly unchristian, that marriage with him no female could properly contract. He therefore insisted that, before the Sacrament of Marriage was bestowed, the Sacrament of Baptism should be applied. The blushing maiden looked the entreaties she might not utter. The disappointed bridegroom was more loudly urgent. The friends, the parents and fair damsels, all full of hope and innocent festivity, were astounded and appalled. It was as a blighting wind deadening the blossoming of bliss. Who would have been that blighter, that had a manly or a Christian heart? The curate was inflexible. Rhadamanthus had not more iron nerves. Smiles, blushes, tears, remonstrances, all were vain. He must have lived a batchelor: : an old batchelor he deserved to die! As to the poor bridegroom, why at last he yielded. But did ever a martyr have such temptations?

[We regret that we must defer to the next Number the conclusion of Mr. Wilks's speech, together with some of the Resolutious of the Society, and Lord John Russell's admirable address.]

LEGAL.

Trial of Mrs. Wright.

On Monday, July 8, 1822, came on in the Court of King's Bench, at Guildhall, before the Lord Chief Justice (Abbot) and a special Jury, the trial of SUSANNAH WRIGHT, for publishing in RICHARD CAR

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