sense in which the term unsubdued will apply to the minds of well-priacipled Dissenters; they are unsubdued by the proffered honours which a splendid religious establishment holds out to her sons; and which many grasp at, giving their consciences and integrity in exchange. This is not the sense, however, in which the "Country Rector" uses the words, because he associates it with the impure and opiniative, which epithets do not apply to the general body of Dissenters, neither do they apply to those individuals who have a Society in London, formed according to your intelligent Correspondent, to promote the "holy business of Dissent;" for the individuals who support this Society, formed for the protection of the rights and interests of Dissenters, are men of the firmest integrity, and most unsullied purity.

That there are restless individuals in the country who would dissent from every thing good, is readily admitted; such persons are to be found among all parties; but these are not fair specimens of the class of religionists, who are termed Dissenters, or those Conformists who have in their own extenuation, justifiable reasons for withdrawment from the Established Church. They may err in opinion, but they are not unsound in principle.

It is easy enough for Country Rectors to say, "the Temple of the Lord are we," and to condemn those who join not their body as heretics and schismatics; but in return they may be charged with lording it over the consciences of their fellow creatures, and of imposing a yoke upon the disciples of Jesus, unauthorized by that revered Teacher. If this be the case with our Country Rectors, and with those who act with them; those who dissent, and not those who couform, will in all probability be the greatest favourites of the Most High.

It is not my inclination to asperse Churchmen; in our Establishment are many very excellent characters: I wish your "Country Rector" had observed the same rule, and exemplified the same spirit; and while he

be some integrity among those who approved not of an Establishment.

Instead of giving some trumpery anecdote as a specimen of the maxims of Dissenters, why did he not, before he published it, ascertain how far it coincides with the reasons for dissent, which have been ably stated by Towgood and others. Was it ignorance of that work, or because he considered it as being dangerous, on account of the solidity of its general arguments, that it was passed over? From that work, the "Country Rector" may learn, as may some other of your Correspondents, that Dissenters withdraw from the Establishment because they consider all religious establishments antichristian; and because they think that to yield to authority in religious matters, to any creature, be he Monarch, Pope, or Inquisitor, is contrary to the allegiance they owe to Christ. They may be wrong in this opinion; yet if they are found to forego the honours and emoluments attendant on mitres and rectories, their integrity should not be questioned.

Besides these persons, and the general reason for dissent, there are others who have a particular ground arising from the views they take of Christian doctrine. I am not here entering into the question, whether the Trinitarian or Unitarian Faith be the most correct; nor shall i agitate the question, to whom, whether to Priestley or Horsley, victory belonged: but if there are any who side with the former theological warrior, such persons cannot conform to the "Country Rector's" establishment, without sacrificing their consciences, and becoming impure in their minds.

These observations, Mr. Urban, are not intended to provoke a controversy; they are offered solely in justification of a very respectable and religious body; and to guard your Readers against improper conclusions; and, impressing on your "Country Rector" the advice of a wise man, "UNDERSTAND FIRST; and then rebuke." J. F.

Mr. URBAN,

June 18. having placed

of the Clerical Order, from any observations which had been cast upon them, had allowed that there might

man, without the opportunity of availing myself of visiting the nume

rous

rous Churches of the Metropolis, until the past winter; I embraced it, and attended Divine Service in up wards of 60 Churches, as well as in the course of my life, all the Cathedrals in England, except Hereford; may 1 permit myself to say it was not then mere idle curiosity, because I attended my duty also. Extreme neatness I have uniformly found in all the Churches of the Metropolis, and clean obliging women always as pew-openers, who constantly placed me in a seat. I must, however, add, that making every allowance for weather, or being out of town, I did not find congregations so numerous as I expected, from the well-known moral character of my fellow citizens; and, as if the Evening Service was to become useless (where there are no Evening Lectures), the Afternoon Service was but thinly attended; and, painful to observe, we, as masters of houses and heads of families, have most assuredly a pointed duty to perform; we have an example to set (when made Freemen what was our oath ?) and it is, I am persuaded, the only means of preventing those great mischiefs that are to be dreaded by a licentious Press and idle habits, that the Sabbath ought strictly to be attended to. The Sabbath is Heaven's best gift, if properly appre ciated. The officiating Minister at his post, the Church Officers at theirs, the Organist at his, and the Charity Children in their gallery, and empty pews, in a neat clean handsome Church, affords nothing enlivening or animating. The City Churches are numerous, and the Parishes small; our ancestors had higher notions when society was formed, than we moderns with all our improvements. Terraces, circuses, crescents, palaces, and fine named streets, crowd their extended buildings over a vast extent of ground; but Churches do not form a part amongst such increased habitations; the cause is, it is left to specution now to build the vast increase, and no public characters have for a long season led the way to the highly becoming addition of Churches for public worship; and when I have traversed the North-West addition to our Metropolis, I have been astonished at such respectable habitations being so crowded with equally respect

able inhabitants, without Churches making a necessary appendage; so again to the Eastward of the Metropolis we find places of 10 to 20,000 souls with one Church. Ought these things to be in a Christian country,in the capital of that country,-in a country ranking so high amongst the Nations? We hear of a Church or two springing up with as many galleries as a Theatre, and as much de coration as an heathen temple. "The roofs with storied tablature appear'd, [rear'd." Or columns of Corinthian mould was (As Homer sung); but the case with us, with our numerous population, and our want of Churches, requires a different plan,-nealness, correctness, cheapness; let the gilded capital of the Corinthian pillar give way to the plain Tuscan,-let the treble row of theatric galleries give way to neat Churches, calculated for their congregations to hear and worship, without this disagreeable addition, to speak to hearers, to men of feeling.

round the Metropolis at least, to beThe fact is, we want 20 Churches gin with; and by not giving way to fanciful designs, but keeping steadfastly to pure utility, neat appearance, and correct style, 20,000. may pay for them, and that 20,000. collected in a day by Sermons in all the Churches, on a day that ought to be held with reverence by Christians,— a day, when the meek and lowly Saviour rose sublime, and became a

Conqueror for our sakes! if the day this great purpose, and the lips of every Metropolitan Preacher took as

of his Ascension then was fixed for

a text that most affectionate farewell IN REMEN

command-" DO THIS

BRANCE

OF ME;" if every housekeeper attended to hear this admirable sentence commented on, one pound a house in the Metropolis, and business. If it were possible to acone hour's collection, would do the complish this, and surely it is possible," the recording Angel" would transmit the sentence and the duty performed to the Heavenly Choir, and they would burst forth "Glory to God in the Highest, on earth peace, good will towards men.”

A MERCHANT TAYLOR.

125. The Antidote; or Nouvelles à la Main; recommended to the serious attention of the Right Hon. W. C. Plunket, and other Advocates of unrestricted Civil and Religious Liberty. Third Edition. By Sir Harcourt Lees, Bart. M.A. &c. 8vo. pp. 70. 126. L'Abeja; or a Bee amongst the Evangelicals; containing some just observations on a rumoured intended measure for evangelizing the Papists of Ireland: and the direct consequences likely to emanate from the plan, with respect to the Roman Catholic Priests. By the Author of the Antidote. 8vo. pp. 20.

A

DIVINE Charity and Purity acting in union with the sublime holiness and exalted reason of Christianity, seems to form the real Clerical Character: and such a character is Fielding's Dr. Harrison, copied by Goldsmith for his Vicar of Wakefield. If even a suspicion of worldly motive attaches to it, the charm is lost; and therefore we do not class in this high order ambitious and caballing Enthusiasts. In point of fact, they are mere men of business, who manufacture Christianity, and puff accordingly, to sell it.

Sir Harcourt Lees is a strenuous advocate for preserving the integrity of our Established Church against the efforts of Catholicks and Evangelicals. With respect to the former, we are satisfied that they profess principles (by their very religion) incompatible with sound state-policy, rational piety, toleration, and the morality of the people. As to the Evangelicals, we know from History that Fanaticism never did, nor ever will, produce any other result than Folly and Mis. chief. It has spread dirt and ignorance among the Hottentots at the Cape, and Jumpers and Dancers, and Fainters in America; and among us is daily sapping the proverbial good sense of the Nation. We all know what a pompous parade was made of evangelizing, some years ago, the crews of our ships of war.

Let us

hear Sir Harcourt Lecs on this subject. L'Abeja, p. 6.

"The Evangelicals, with much fanatical satisfaction, inform us in p. 12 of GENT. MAG, Suppl. XC. Part I.

E

their Report, that they have infected many of the Soldiers in the immediate vicinity of the Vice-Regal residence. Gentlemen, advocates for Religious unrestricted Liberty, ponder well on the consequences likely to result from Military and Armed Enthusiasm, if it should ever take an improper bias. Do you forget the days of Charles I. and Cromwell. If not, I ask you, what is to prevent their return, unless you can prove to me, that similarity in cause can never produce a similarity of effect. Is there no danger, think you, in all this parade of sanctity? Are you ignorant, that in consequence of the influence of a celebrated female Evangelical, who contrived to smuggle a purified itinerant, as chaplain, on board one of our ships of war, that the vessel was near being lost, the crew, instead of attending to their quarters, being all engaged in Psalm-singing with this Marine Evangelical Drill-master, and in consequence of allowing such an Ultra Scriptural interpretation of a seaman's duty, that the Captain has been removed, from a strong suspicion that he was more fit for an organ-loft, than the deck of a British Man of War."

Sir Harcourt Lees is of opinion, that the intemperate zeal of these Religionists will so irritate the Catholicks, that it will produce another Irish massacre of the Protestants. L'Abeja, p. 10.

Government has given a decided opinion, that Education is the best measure, which can be taken in regard to Ireland.

The misfortune is, that Fanaticism is one method by which inferior people rise in the world, through duping the ignorant; as Farriers set up for Quack-doctors. Of course, it is absolutely indispensable to their success, that they should disturb the settled order of things.

When Baldwin was adopted by Thoros, Guibert thus describes the ceremony:

"Thoros caused Baldwin to enter na ked within his shirt, pressed him to his body, and confirmed the whole with a kiss. His wife afterwards did the same."

P. 159.

Under distress for provisions the Saracens newly killed were eaten.

P. 173.

Bohemond thus got rid of spies, which infested him:

"He slew some Turkish prisoners and roasted them alive (six). He then exclaimed, to the astonished by-standers, that his appetite would submit to necessity, and that during the famine he would greedily devour, what at other times would be loathsome and disgusting." p. 175.

"There fell to the share of Bohemond the splendid tent of Kerboga, which, like the one sent by Harun al Raschid to Charlemagne, could, it is said, contain two thousand men, was divided into streets, like a town, and fortified with towers." p. 219.

From the splendid tents, engraved in Grose's Military Antiquities, this appears to be perfectly credible.

"The Crusaders found the sugar-cane near Tripoli. Albert's account of it is curious. It is annually cultivated with great labour. When ripe they pound it, strain off the juice, and keep it in vessels, till the process of coagulation is complete, and hardens in appearance, like salt or snow. They eat it scraped and mixed with bread, or dissolved in water. These remarks are interesting, inasmuch as they are the first on record which any European ever made concerning this plant." p. 240.

In the passage next quoted, we see that touching for the evil was only a part of an antient custom, as to other diseases.

"In the country round Sidon, the soldiers were incommoded by serpents or tarantulas. But the bite was cured, and the poison charmed away, when a chief touched the part affected." p. 240.`

It is an old superstition derived from Egypt. Fosbrooke's Gloucester, p. 123.

In p. 251, we see the reason why the Religious History of our Ancestors so abounds with legends. The people were too barbarous for addresses to reason, or propriety of conduct to have the smallest effect. The Clergy therefore had recourse to pretended supernatural interference, in

order to intimidate them into obedience," and it was not a single imposition, which could make the people question the truth of Visions and Dreams."

The custom of swallowing jewels, and the precious metals, in order to preserve them, is known to have been practised in the East. Some victori. ous Crusaders piled the dead bodies of the Saracens into heaps, and burned them, in hopes of finding some gold and silver among the ashes, p. 260. See too p. 289.

Peculiar properties were assigned

to red hair:

"The King had red hair, but, contrary to the usual case of such persons, he was kind, affable, and compassionate." p. 277.

The following passage is perhaps the best explanation of the whip, found in the hand of Osiris, and other figures, in Egyptian Hieroglyphicks.

"The Ethiopians plunged into the ranks of their enemy with swords, and with scourges of leather, and iron balls." p. 285.

"Fasts were ordained of such superstitious rigour, that children at the breast were not allowed the usual nourishment, and the herds of cattle were driven from their pasturage." p. 283.

Short clothes were considered indecorous, p. 358. Hence, in part, the use of gowns, as robes of office and insignia of station.

La Brocquiese mentions an army of Amazons; and among the German Crusaders, was another Camilla, called the Golden-footed Dame, accompanied with a considerable troop of females, arrayed with spear and shield and splendid dress. p. 378.

Eleanor, Queen of Henry II. the presumed assassin of Fair Rosamond, decided in an appeal cause, as Judge of the Provencal Courts of Love, "that true love could not exist between married people." It was indeed a maxim, in the Courts of Love in Provence, that "Le Marriage n'est pas une excuse legitime contre l'amour." p. 394. Does not this partly explain the customary ease of the French in affairs of this kind?

In p. 409 are scenes of the Oriental Court, of the splendour mentioned by Mr. Haggit, and so admirably deline ated in the Arabian Nights. Now we know, that the Courts of the Monarchs of Great Britain and France, prior to the Crusades, were exactly similar to

the

the present House of Lords. The Sovereign is placed upon a raised platform, with the antient ensigns of dignity, a canopy and footstool, and the peers sit in front upon forms. But Henry V. was approached between standing files of warriors in bright armour, of which with more constitutional propriety, but of far inferior dramatic effect, the Gentlemen Pensioners are an imitation. The pageantry of our antient Courts was indeed of a very Old Bailey aspect, and was evidently derived from the Northern Barbarians; and had not the smallest assimilation to the Fairy splendour of the East. It was imitated indeed in its gorgeousness after the Crusades, but in a very heavy stile, nothing of its picturesque effect and accompaniments, which how ever are very successfully blended with Grecian elegances, and the Antique in the present day.

We have next to quote a sentence, in the latter part, from the nomina tive being an abstract substantive, exactly in a stile of Mons. Zhibbon, as the French denominate our Gibboo.

"Shiracouch thinking that the Latins would press upon the centre with all their

force, in the expectation of his being at his usual station, gave orders that it should yield; and he placed himself at the right with the bravest part of his army. The prescience of Shiracouch was soon apparent. The attack was made and succeeded; and the Franks, disappointed that the right wing was not equally penetrable, fell into a brief, but fatal confusion." p. 412.

This is a curious fact, for it shows that Shiracouch had studied and copied the manœuvres of Hannibal at Canne. That illustrious antient, so infamously treated by his country, drew up his army with a convex front, of which the centre was the weakest. It fell back, and when the line became concave, the wings acted upon each flank of the Romans; and a chosen force attacked them simultaneously in the rear. In short, the close columns, which pierced the centre, were surrounded. So much for the popular plan of breaking the centre, which is doubtful, unless it occasions such a substraction of force from the wings to prevent penetration of the suffering centre, as ultimately to reduce the whole line to a

thread, as slight as gossamer. This is the untechnical character of the battles of Salamanca and Viftoria, and of nearly all the battles of Marlborough. He made his attack upon the weakest point, but did not press the centre till he could afford to concentrate a double force to bear upon it: and all danger of being surrounded was out of the qustion. Napoleon, his copyist, knew from his su periority of cavalry, that he could safely make the attempt to break the centre at Waterloo, and that, through the same advantage of cavalry, his enemy could not make an offensive movement; nor can there be a reasonable presumption, but that the army of the Duke of Wellington, if our illustrious General had acted otherwise than he did, must have been either defeated, or crippled. As he is lightly, from envy, maltreated by French vanity, it is sufficient to say, that the squares were no more than the defences of Dessaix against the Mameluke cavalry; and the final attack, en masse, the undeviating practice of Buonaparte, with his Inperial Guard in front, and the others So much for rallied in the rear. breaking the centre, an old story, but one that may be well told, when risk is removed of its ending, like a libel, with damages. We have next to give an account belonging to the Oriental Post-office.

"By the means of carrying-pigeons, he was quickly made acquainted with every transaction in his vast empire." p. 422.

Among the Hieroglyphic figures of Denon, is a pigeon with a letter tied to his neck, and we see no solid reason why, at the great ports of Plymouth and Portsmouth, such a feathered establishment should not accompany that of the Telegraph. Time is of incalculable importance in all affairs of business, and the Telegraph could report, "The Pigeon is arrived." Noah, the first Lord High Admiral ever known, used a similar signal, full as good, as lanterns, rockets, and strips of various coloured cloth. There was a time, when the Prime Ministers of Europe dismounted their horses at the gates of the Sovereign's Palace, and then turned them loose to trot home, which they never failed to do.-The misfortune is, that the plan looks