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scholars of the Institute, the distinctive traits of those three poets; afterwards passing in review Italy, France, Spain, England, Germany, and lastly, Holland, he offered a rapid yet admirable sketch of the dramatic literature of each of those countries. The ap plause which followed this effort of genius was sincere and universal.

With a talent so uncommon and so deserving of admiration, M. de Clercq has manners the most artless and gentle, and a mind imbued with noble and religious feelings.

The writer of this article, who has sometimes had the gratification of hearing M. de Clercq, appeals for

FOREIGN.

FRANCE.

the truth of his statement, to the testimony of all who have enjoyed the same advantage,-to Messrs. Wisélius, Kinker, Bilderdyk, Pollens, &c. It is a great triumph for Holland, whose language is so little known, and so ill appreciated by strangers, to produce not only poets of the first rank, but also an Improvisatore of such extraordinary merit.*

* We publish this article in the words of its author, a Dutchman eminent for his literary acquirements.

INTELLIGENCE.

The election of a Foreign Associate of the French Institute, in the room of the late Dr. Jenner, took place on Monday the 24th ult. The following gentlemen were proposed :-Dr. WoL LASTON, Dr. YOUNG, M. OLBERS, M. Sæmering, M. Von Buch, Mr. LAMBTON, Mr. BROWN, Mr. DALTON and Mr. OŒSTED. The number of members who voted was 44; and the ballot was as follows, Dr. WOLLASTON, 38; OLBERS, 5; VON BUCH, 1. -It is highly honourable to the English nation, that out of nine persons proposed to the Institute, of all the learned and distinguished men of the civilized world, five should be English

men.

PORTUGAL.

The Government of Portugal has advertised for the best digest of a civil code for that kingdom, in the place of the old system. The reward for the most approved system is 30,000 crusades of gold, or about £10,000; to be paid in several years. The successful candidates are to be rewarded according to their merits. The competition is open to persons of all countries.

AUSTRIA.

ONE of the most distinguished poets of Italy, PICARIO, has been sentenced,

at the age of 28, to fifteen years' solitary imprisonment in the fortress of Spitzberg. His crime is that of being a Carbona.

RUSSIA.

Extract of a Letter from Bailatzeck, in the Ukraine, dated Jan. 16, 1823: -“I had seen but a very imperfect account of the *** before I received your letter. The Morning Chronicle was, I believe, the only paper that gave a full history of it, (as some of the papers say,) and that is one of the newspapers, the entry of which into this country is forbidden. The same restrictions have prevented my seeing the works of Lord Byron, which you mention. I should like to have seen the whole of what he says of Southey, and especially how The Edinburgh Review will treat him; but this I shall not be able to do, as The Edinburgh Review is also forbidden. The affair of the Bishop is a very unfortunate matter for the clergy of England, which is so great an aid to the Government; in other countries, as this, where the clergy have no influence whatever on the public, being of the lowest origin, and living like common peasants in cabins, their daughters tilling the ground and tending hogs and cattle, such an affair would have been of but little import, as the Government does not want the aid of any other power. The Christian religion, too, is so interwoven in the English Government, that the secession of

any of the subjects from it would be a serious evil; here all religions are absolutely tolerated, and of so little import is a difference in this respect in any subjects, that so late as the reign of Catherine some villages in the South changed from Christians to Jews.-There were no priests there, and the people feeling a want of some religion listened to the Jews, who were amongst them, and became converted, and this took place in perfect quietness .. The Government has ordered no young person shall study in the Universities of those countries where such principles are disseminated."

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INDIA.

Religious Battle during the Mo-
hurrum.

Secundrabad, Sept. 23, 1822. A very unpleasant occurrence has taken place in this city during the present Mohurrum festival. The particulars which I have been able to obtain are as follows:-About a week ago, a dispute arose on some religious point, (said to be whether Mahoinet was or was not to return to this world,) which dispute was referred by both parties to one of the head Imaums, who decided that he was not to return: on which one of those who expected the return of Mahomet, immediately struck his creese into the Imaum's throat, which killed him. On the 20th inst. the two parties came to the outside of the city and fought a pitched battle, which continued a considerable time, when an officer of rank, in the Nizam's service, named Neeaz Buhadoor, was dispatched to put a stop to the affray; but he had scarcely time to interfere when one of the combatants (I believe a Patan) struck off his head.

The affair having, in consequence of this assault on the person of his Highness's officer, become important, orders were immediately dispatched to Bolarum, for the brigade of Nizam's infantry to march for the city, which was accordingly done early on the morning of the 21st. The troops under Col. Doveton's command are encamped at the French Gardens, and every thing appears quiet. Among the combatants were about 300 hun

dred Patans, who fought on one side of the question, and destroyed upwards of two of their opponents for one of themselves. Betwixt 300 and 400 are supposed to have been killed and wounded. The death of Neeaz Buhadoor is much regretted, I understand, by the European part of the community who knew him: no doubt, steps will be taken to discover the author of his death. The Patans are said to have taken refuge in Col. Doveton's camp, being afraid to return to the city.

The gaieties of this station still continue. There is either a ball or play each month. We had a ball last, and there is to be a play on the 1st proximo, which, from the ability of the corps dramatique, is expected to afford much satisfaction. A masonic lodge has been opened here, which from the respectability and number of its members, it is supposed will become one of the most flourishing in India.-Calcutta Journal.

Disturbance in the neighbourhood of Hyderabad. (Extract from a private letter, dated Hyderabad, 23rd Sept. 1822.) There has been a terrible disturbance in the neighbourhood of this city: the Pathan population of Chincul Goorah, a suburb, murdered a Hafiz, in consequence of some disputed point of faith, and the whole armed population of the city to the number of 50,000 turned out to take revenge. The inhabitants of Chincul Goorah, to the number of 1,500, armed to a man, (and even their children stood their ground,) sallied out, took two guns and a standard, and then stood at bay. Some hundreds of Juwan-murds have been cut up, and the plain was strewed with strapping carcases, disfigured by ghastly wounds. The Bolaurum troops, on the day following the fight, drew up on the height, commanding the village, to preserve the peace; and yesterday, without firing a shot, the matter came to an amicable adjustment, under the excellent arrangement of Mr. Metcalfe. The part the Bolaurum troops have taken is very gratifying; no violence has been used: we have stood neutral, and the Pathans have quietly withdrawn from the Nizam's territory, under British guarantee. — Madras Gazette.

DOMESTIC.
Christian Tract Society.

THE Anniversary Meeting was holden, (as mentioned in p. 249,) on April 24th, at the Old London Tavern. The Treasurer presented his report, which stated that he was in advance £22. 12s. 9d.

The Secretary then read the Committee's Report, which described the last year as having been one of unusual expenditure, as, to keep up the series, they had been obliged to reprint no less than nineteen of the Tracts. They had consequently felt considerable pecuniary embarrassment, and had at one time resolved on making another appeal for aid to the friends of the institution. But the fear that a second appeal so soon after that made in 1821, and so promptly and generously met by the Subscribers and Friends at the anniversary meeting, anight prove injurious, deterred them from having recourse to such a means of relief. They submitted to the meeting the reasonableness as well as the necessity of a new scale of prices being agreed on, because purchasers of quantities of any one Tract obtained them at a cheaper rate than the Subscribers who took for their allotments one or two copies of the entire series, as they then paid the full retail price for each Tract: aud Subscribers who took for their annual allotment, or purchased, 25 copies of any of the Tracts, had them at a price which in very few cases covered the expense actually incurred for paper, printing, stitching, &c. &c. The allowance to Subscribers purchasing not less than 25 copies was stated to have hitherto been 46 per cent., and to Non-subscribers from 33 to 38 per cent., the scale of prices having necessarily been so drawn up as to admit of this variation. When the series was short, the Society could afford to print larger impressions of each of the Tracts than it now could, and consequently at considerably less expense; but now that the series had become very long, the Committee could not venture to print more than 2000 each of those Numbers which required reprinting-and of these there must be several every year, and in some years from ten to twelve of them. The stock on hand, it was stated, must always be from 45,000 to 50,000. The Committee proposed that purchasers of quantities should still be allowed a liberal per centage; but urged the certainty of the Society being involved in increasing pecuniary difficulty if it continued to make so large an allowance as it had hitherto done. The necessity of having recourse to the measure suggested was readily acknowledged by the meeting, and the

drawing out of a new scale of prices was referred to the Committee. (For this, see the wrappers of the Repository aud Reformer for the present mouth.)

Two new Tracts have been printed during the last year, viz. Mrs. M. Hughes's second part of The Family Dialogues; and The Conduct of the Elder Brother, on Account of the Father's Treatment of the Lost Son, by the Rev. R. Wright. The latter Tract concludes Mr. Wright's series on the interesting parable of the Prodigal Son. Of each of these Tracts 2000 copies were printed-and of the nineteen reprints 39,500, making a total of 43,500 copies printed since the last anniversary. The Society was stated to have printed altogether 360,500; to have circulated 298,856, and to have on hand 61,644. From this large stock the Subscribers had to be supplied with their allotments for the current year.

During the past year the Committee have found chanuels for sending sets of the Tracts to several public bodies at Paris, and to a Lady who wanted them because most of the cheap publications there circulated among the poor were of a mystical nature; to the libraries of the Spanish and Portuguese Cortes; to Tripoli, his Excellency Al Cherif Hassuna D'Ghies, the Ambassador from that kingdom, kindly engaging to translate some of them for the improvement of his countrymen; and to M. Bowyer, the President of Hayti, who is also very desirous of improving the mental and moral habits of the interesting people over whom he presides. Port-au-Prince having been nearly destoyed by fire just at the time the vessel which carried out the Tracts arrived, the Committee did not know whether the President had received them; but the Society was gratified with the intelligence which arrived on the day of its meeting, contained in the Government Diary, that the Portuguese Cortes had had the Tracts formally presented by a member of its own body, and a resolution was passed by that maguanimons assembly, that the present was gratefully accepted, and that the Tracts should be entrusted to the care of the Committee of Public Instruction, that such of them might be translated as were judged likely to benefit the public. A set had also been forwarded to William Roberts at Madras, and to the Rev. William Adam, of Calcutta, with an expression of the Committee's hope, that the enlightened Rammohun Roy might deem some of them worthy of being translated into the languages of Hindoostan, and as calculated to second his benevolent effects to spread among his countrymen a knowledge of the pure morals and universal philanthropy inculcated by the Christian reli

gion. The Committee had also embraced an opportunity of sending out to India 50 sets of the Tracts under the care of John Cumming, Esq., late of Exeter, who is going to settle at Calcutta, and who has kindly undertaken to use his best efforts to get a depôt established in that city, and to promote the circulation of the Tracts. On the whole, the Committee felt authorized in congratulating the subscribers, that a wider field had been opened during the past than during any preceding year since the establishment of the Society, for making known their very instructive publications. But, in making the before-mentioned grants while the Society's finances were at so low an ebb, they hoped for, and, we are happy to add, readily obtained the sanction of the meeting.

The property of the Society was reported to be as follows: Due from Booksellers, Country Societies, &c. on sale or return Estimated value of the Stock on hand

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tional services were conducted by Dr. Evans, of Islington, and Mr. Briggs, of Bessel's Green, Kent; and Mr. Chapman, of Chatham, preached from 1 Tim. i. 11, According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, &c.

The

At the meeting for business, the Rev. R. Wright, of Trowbridge, (the preacher elect,) presided as chairman. The letters from some of the churches contained an account of an increase of members, but others described their state as being similar to what it was at the last anniversary. The removal of Mr. Chapman to Chatham, appeared to be felt as a heavy loss by the church at Billingshurst, which is now destitute of a minister; but the services of Mr. Briggs, late of Selby, have proved highly acceptable to the church at Bessel's Green, where, and in the neighbouring villages, there seems a prospect of his labours being successful. most interesting letter was one from £86 7 5 Nantwich, describing the progress from Trinitarianism to Unitarianism, on the Arian hypothesis, of Mr. John Cooper, the minister, and his congregation, and their open avowal of reputed heterodoxy. The letter expressed a wish that their church might be received into union with the Assembly, with which they could now conscientiously unite, and from which they hoped immediately to receive advice. The writer mentioned several villages in the neighbourhood of Nantwich, which would form an important missionary circuit, and in which there appeared a favourable disposition to receive the UniMr. Cooper's church was proposed to be received into union with the Assembly at its next anniversary, as was also that under the pastoral care of Mr. Wright, at Trowbridge. (Mr. Cooper's letter will, it is believed, appear in the Christian Reformer for the present month.)

370 3 1

456 10

22 12

33 0

6

9

0

13 16 6

3 3 2

72 12 5

Balance of the Society's £383 18 1 tarian doctrine.
Property

The following gentlemen were chosen into office for the year ensuing ;

Treasurer.-JAMES ESDAILE, Esq. Committee.-Messrs. J. Bowring, J. Fernie, Frend, Hart, and S. Hart, Jun., Holt, Leach, Parkes, Dr. T. Rees, Messrs. R. Taylor and W. Wood.

Auditors.-C. Richmond, S. Bayley, and J. Todhunter, Esqrs.

Collector.-Mr. C. Fox, 33, Threadneedle Street.

The Secretary declined being re-appointed to office, for the reasons assigned at the last Anniversary; but, for the convenience of the Subscribers, consented to act till they had been supplied with their

annual allotments.

The Subscribers and their Friends afterwards dined together, the Rev. R. Aspland in the Chair.

General Baptist Assembly.
THIS Annual Meeting was holden, as
usual, at Worship Street, London, on
Whit-Tuesday, May 20th. The devo

The case of the Cranbrook church, inserted in the last month's Repository, (p. 248,) and the remaining heavy debt (upwards of £900) on the chapel at Dover, were laid before the meeting, and recommended by it to the kind consideration of all the churches in union with the Assembly: and the writer begs leave to solicit the attention of the Committees of Fellowship Funds among Unitarians generally to both these interesting

cases.

The most prominent feature of the Committee's report was, an account of the inadequacy of their funds for maintaining for another year the two Students now under the care of the Rev. James Gilchrist, at Newington Green; and the writer trusts he need only mention the following facts to insure so important an institution the more liberal support of the

Unitarian public. Mr. Valentine, of Diss, while the Academy was under the superintendance of Dr. Evans, at Islington; and, since that gentleman resigned the office of Tutor, Messrs. Squier, of Edinburgh, Chapman, of Chatham, and Taplin, of Lewes, were all educated under the patronage of the General Baptist Education Society. The readers of the Unitarian Fund Register (No. III.) will learn how zealously three of these young ministers are endeavouring to promote the Unitarian cause, while the respectful testimony borne to the character of Mr. Squier, in the Monthly Repository for March last, (p. 181,) will sufficiently demonstrate the value of his services in the northern capital; and, it is hoped, adequately plead the just claims of this institution on the friends of evangelical truth and righteousness, for countenance and support.*

At the close of the business the minis. ters and their friends dined together at the White Hart Tavern, Bishopsgate Street, Mr. Chapman in the Chair. In the course of the evening, the company was addressed by several gentlemen, among whom were Drs. Evans, T. Rees, Southwood Smith, and Messrs. Fullagar, Wright, &c. &c.

Unitarian Fund Anniversary.

THE Annual Meeting of the Unitarian Fund was held on Wednesday the 21st inst. at the Chapel in Parliament Court. The devotional services were conducted by the Rev. G. Kenrick, Rev. S. C. Fripp, and Rev. J. Fullagar. The Sermon was preached by the Rev. H. Acton, of Walthamstow. The preacher's text 1 Thess. ii. 13, from which he discoursed with much ability on the grounds of faith and the excellence and power of truth. The Sermon, will, we hope, be laid before the public, according to the strongly expressed wish of the company at the dinner. After divine service, the Subscribers proceeded to the business of the Society, Mr. James Young in the Chair. As the Report of the Committee and the Re. solutions will be stitched up with the present number, we need not detail them here. The case of William Roberts excited much discussion, and it was finally resolved, that £100 should be annually devoted to the support of the mission at Madras. As this was probably the last

* Subscriptions or donations would be thankfully received by the Treasurer, John Treacher, Esq., Paternoster Row; the Tutor, Rev. James Gilchrist, Newington Green; or the Secretary, Mr. G. Smallfield, Homerton.

time when the Society would meet in the chapel at Parliament Court, it was unanimously resolved to present £50 towards the erection of Mr. Fox's new Chapel in Finsbury, as an expression of the gratitude of the Society for the support uniformly rendered to their cause by the Parliament Court Congregation.

At the annual dinner at the London Tavern, there were about 280 gentlemen present, Mr. J. T. RUTT in the Chair, who presided with his well-known ability. The Meeting was enlivened by the presence of the Secretary, Mr. Fox, who is so far restored to health as to be able to resume his public and official duties. His speech, on his health being given, was abundant in humour and strikingly eloquent. In the course of the evening several gentlemen addressed the company: Mr. Acton, Mr. Hornby, (the Deputy Treasurer, who acted for the Treasurer, Mr. Christie, unavoidably absent,) Mr. G. Wood, (of Manchester,) Messrs. Hill and Talfourd, (barristers,) Mr. Wright, and others. We lament that we have no minute of any speech but Mr. Wright's, of which the following is, we believe, an accurate report:

"I rise, Sir, to thank you and this Society, for the very kind and too flattering notice you have taken of me. It is not possible for me to find words that will do justice to my own feelings on the present occasion. My connexion with the Unitarian Fund I have regarded, do still regard, and shall ever regard, as one of the happiest circumstances of my life: it has given me opportunity of extending my exertions, in a cause which will ever be dear to me as life itself, to the most distant parts of this island, and of labouring incessantly for the promotion of that glorious cause. I wish to express distinctly the obligations I am under to this Society and its Committees. They gave me, Sir, the whole island for my bishopric; it is true, to this bishopric were not appended a palace and large worldly emoluments; and what has a Missionary of the pure gospel to do with palaces and worldly emoluments? But they gave me in connexion with this bishopric what is far more valuable; they gave me their judicious counsel, their powerful countenance, and able and effective support, in the important work in which I was engaged: and what can an Unitarian Missionary need more? With the weapons furnished by reason and scripture he may go on to demolish the strong holds of error, and spread successfully the Unitarian doctrine among the mass of the people. I cannot forget, Sir, what were my feelings, and what I believe were the feelings of others with whom I had the honour of acting, when this Insti

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