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Intelligence.-Southern Unitarian Fund.

Various interesting topics were touched on by several speakers. Amongst others the proposed edition of Dr. Priestley's Works by Mr. Rutt, to which several new subscribers were obtained. In his speech, on his health being given, the Chairman entered into the inquiry how far Religious Liberty had prevailed of late, and produced some interesting proofs (which we shall lay before our readers next month in another part of the work) of the Rights of Conscience being better than ever known and respected amongst the nations of Europe.

The Spring Quarterly Meeting of the ministers generally denominated Presbyterian, in the district of Manchester, was held on Good Friday, the 12th instant, at Dukinfield. Mr. Brettell introduced the service, and Mr. Elliot preached from 1 Tim. v. 22. the last clause: "Keep thyself pure." Though the day was very unfavourable, a considerable number of friends from a distance attended the meeting, especially from Stockport and Hyde. After the service, twelve ministers and between thirty and forty laygentlemen dined together, and passed the afternoon in a manner suitable to the occasion.

Though the Reporter does not undertake the task of giving a detailed account of the sentiments and speeches at each meeting, yet it is conceived, that such a brief notice as the present, with the addition of any interesting particulars when they happen to occur, must be pleasing and edifying to the friends of rational religion and primitive Christianity in other parts. By this mode of communication, when they are precluded from others, may the zealous friends of truth provoke one another to virtuous and unremitting activity in the sacred work of reformation.

Manchester, April 16, 1816.

J.

Southern Unitarian Fund. The first General Meeting of the subscribers to the Southern Unitarian Fund was held on Wednesday, 17th of April, at the General Baptist Chapel in Portsmouth. In the morning the devotional exercises were conducted by the Rev. J. Fullagar, and the Rev. J. Lyons. The sermon was preached by the Rev. W. J. Fox, from John iv. 22, Ye worship ye know not what; but we know what we worship. After strongly contrasting the mystery and absurdity of Trinitarian worship with the simplicity and intelligibility of that which is addressed to the One God, the Father; the preacher applied his subject to the principles and objects of the institution, whose members were now for the first time assembled together. The Southern Fund Society is formed on the broad basis of Unitarianism, disregarding all minor differences, and aiming simply at the promotion and encouragement of a pure and scriptural worship."

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This end is pursued by establishing lectures in different places, and defraying the expenses of ministers by whose labours they are supported; assisting necessitous congregations by loans or donations; and inducing individuals who have become converts to Unitarianism to form themselves into religious societies. After the service the report of the Committee was read, by which it appeared that the short period which had elapsed since the commencement of their exertions, in September last, had been distinguished by the most encouraging success. To one congregation in the district very acceptable pecuniary aid has been advanced; and another, in a depressed state, has been cheered by an arrangement for the frequent visits of neighbouring preachers. A fortnightly lecture at Portsea has been numerously and respectably attended. A similar one at Gosport, where at first much opposition was experienced, has been attended with the happiest results, as several families have already united for the regular support of Unitarian worship. The effect of preaching has been aided by the judicious distribution of books furnished by the Southern Unitarian Society. The thanks of the Society were voted to Messrs. Brent, Fox, Fullagar, Lyons, Read, Saint, and Treleaven, for their services in these lectures.

About thirty gentlemen afterwards dined together at the Fountain Inn, where the Chair was ably filled by James Carter, Esq. Several new subscribers were announced; and the company was highly gratified by the able and animated discussion of topics connected with the institution by several gentlemen 'present. The Rev. J. Lyons, in particular, on the Chairman's proposing as a toast, "Success to the London Unitarian Fund," gave a pleasing account of various instances of its usefulness which had fallen under his own observation, and adverted to his own change of sentiments in a manner which deeply interested the feelings of all who heard him.

In the evening an impressive discourse was delivered by Mr. Lyons, from John viii. 31, 32, on the importance of religious truth, the difficulties to be encountered in its pursuit, and the characteristics by which it is distinguished. The friends of the Southern Fund, the first provincial society of the kind, separated with feelings of unmingled pleasure at the good already effected by their efforts, and its probable extension from the increase of their resources; and with ardent wishes that similar proceedings may speedily be adopted by their Unitarian brethren throughout the kingdom.

Letter from Dr. Thomson, respecting the
Chapel at Thorne.

SIR,
Halifax, April 20, 1816.
The appeal of our brethren at Thorne

248 Intelligence.-Dr. Thomson's Letter respecting the Chapel at Thorne.

to the Unitarian public, (in your Number for February, p. 120.) requesting assistance in the building of their chapel, seconded as it has been by the recommendation of Mr. Wright, of Wisbeach, (p. 156) will, I trust, be kindly considered and promptly and liberally answered.

Your correspondent Zelotes (p. 134,) has made, in my opinion, some very sensible and just remarks, as to certain preliminaries which ought to be satisfactorily answered, before any appeal, similar to the one from Thorne, ought to be entertained by the Unitarian body. These preliminaries are briefly as follows:-1. That the Committee of the Unitarian Fund, or some other prominent and responsible body should certify that the case is a proper one for Unitarian liberality. 2. That in the event of a general subscription, it should be provided in the trust deed of the chapel, that on the discontinuance of public worship on Unitarian principles, the chapel shall come into the hands and be the property of some Unitarian body. 3. That the ground upon which the chapel stands and the burialground should be freehold. 4. That a burial-ground should be provided. Though these remarks of Zelotes are general, as I ⚫ entirely concur in their justness, I shall briefly apply them to the case of our Unirian brethren at Thorne. 1. It appears to nie that the testimony of neighbouring ministers, and of other friends, who from their local knowledge have better and surer means of information than the committee of the Unitarian Fund can, from the distant residence of its members, possibly have, is in all cases to be preferred; and ought, henceforth, to be considered as indispensable. In a case submitted to the public (M. Repos. Vol. x. p. 313,) this mode was adopted. In the Thorne case, the testimony of Mr. Wright, and of several ministers and friends in the county of York, as borne in the subscription list (p. 182,) will be considered as satisfactory. We have a similar certificate from the Committee of the Unitarian Fund, in their grant of 201. to the Thorne Chapel. 2. Our brethren at Thorne are desirous of the advice of friends respecting the provisions of their trust deed, that what may be built by Unitarian liberality, should in the event of discontinuance of worship on Unitarian principles, revert to that body; and they will he obliged to any friend to furnish them with a clause providing for the same. 3. The tenure of the ground at Thorne is freehold. In this our brethren at Thorne have been very fortunate, as all the old enclosed land in the neighbourhood is copyhold; but they have purchased for their chapel and burial-ground an allotment of common land lately sold under an enclosure act, the powers of which convey the land as freehold of inheritance in fee simple.

4. The ground purchased is 10 yards by

20. The area of the chapel is 10 yards by 11. The remainder of the ground will be left for a burial-ground, and I am informed that if necessary, more ground adjoining this can be obtained. That it is desirable, in the first instance, to enlarge the burialground, few, I think, will doubt, and I hope the liberality of the subscription will enable our brethren at Thorne to do so.

I have thus, in order, adverted to the judicious remarks of Zelotes as applicable to the case at Thorne, and I hope what I have stated will so satisfy his mind that I shall see his name upon the subscription list. I take the liberty of adding a few particulars, on the authority of one of the brethren at Thorne, which I hope may tend to strengthen their appeal, and interest distant friends to assist them in the building of their chapel. The dimensions of the chapel have been already stated; our friends calculate that it will hold from three hundred to three hundred and fifty hearers. In this they appear to me to much over estimate its capability; but it is so planned as to admit of a gallery if necessary, large enough to hold from one hundred and fifty to two hundred people. At present the Unitarians in Thorne and its neighbourhood are estimated at from forty to fitty. "But," my informant adds," we have generally about ninety or one hundred hearers. It is beyond all doubt that the hearers will greatly increase when the chapel is opened." their assembling for worship on the Lord's Day, the devotional part is conducted by an aged and venerable man, Francis Moate, who is the only member of the society with whom I am personally acquainted; two other members, by turns, read sermous. The society meets occasionally for religious conversation and prayer; "we generally have two or three such meetings in every month:" and it has been in agitation to hold these meetings regularly; an intention which it is to be hoped will be carried into effect. The chapel is expected to be finished by the first of June, and will be opened as soon afterwards as may suit the convenience of distant friends.

On

The society at Thorne is in a great measure insulated from other societies, who hold the same religious sentiments. This circumstance will not fail to be duly appreciated by distant friends, and is indeed one of the strongest points of the appeal. Every one must have read with the highest satisfaction the very handsome list of congregational subscriptions for the Oldham chapel (Vol. xi. p. 121,) from various Unitarian societies in Lancashire and Cheshire. But Thorne is very differently situated to what Oldham is. It has no near and powerful neighbours; nor are the Unitarian Societies in the counties of York and Lincoln either so numerous, so large, or so affluent as those of Lancashire and Cheshire. I do not mean to insinuate the most distant

State of Public Affairs.

doubt but that the societies in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire will do all in their power to assist their brethren at Thorne, but when they have done their utmost there will still be much for distant friends to do. I add the distance of Thorne from several other Unitarian Societies; but some of these are not in a condition to give any help to their neighbour. Thorne is distant from the following places (about) the number of miles specified; from Selby, 15; Doncaster, 10; York, 30; Lincoln, 40; Hull, 40; Rotheram, 22; Sheffield, 28; Wakefield, 25; Leeds, 30; Gainsborough, 20; Halifax, 45; Elland, 45; Bradford,

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249.

conclave at Bartlett's Buildings (present, the most Rev. the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Right Rev. the Bishop of London the Very Rev. the Dean of and the plain Rev., the Anti-biblist Norris, and other illustrious Church and State Divines) by a majority of three only; the number for the affirmative of the question being thirty-seven; for the negative thirty"Who shall decide when Doctors so disagree?" Yet it has been thought by some profane clerks, that this portentous issue arises out of one of the most palpable interpolations that ever maintained its usurped station in a record, against the strongest internal evidence of its non-authenticity. Alas, what great events from little causes spring!

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(From a Correspondent.) Examiner, (Sunday Newspaper.) April

21, 1816.

NOTICES.

MRS. CAPPE has in the press a second edition of Mr. Cappe's Sermons on Devotional Subjects, which has been long out of print. It will be accompanied by the Memoir, &c. as first published in 1805. The volume is expected to be completed in June.

MR. COGAN, of Walthamstow, having resigned the pastoral charge of the Unitarian congregation in that place, proposes to present his friends, at their request, with Two Volumes of his Sermons. Those that have read Mr. Cogan's single sermons will look forward to this publication with much interest.

MR. MEADLEY, author of the Memoirs of Algernon Sydney and Dr. Paley, is collecting materials for a Life of John Hampden. Any gentleman possessing original letters or other documents, tending to il lustrate this important subject, will oblige him much by either communicating them, or informing him where they may be found,

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cation now used for the poor in this kingdom. Some schools had been established at Paris, but the clergy soon found, that they would be detrimental to their views, and they have succeeded at last in bringing them to suit their purpose. In fact, they have done no more than what the clergy of England have attempted but without success in this country. With us the Lancasterian schools had scarcely been established, and the public at large was in general convinced of the benefit of instructing the younger minds in the grand principles of Christianity rather than in the partial views of a petty sect, when the clergy of that established by law, a very small and insignificant sect when compared with the great body of Christians diffused throughout the world, excited a clamour against them, and in opposition set up their new establishment, which they had the presumption to stamp with the name of National schools, and in which instruction was to be given agreeable to their peculiar dogHowever, in this country their sectarian principles did not avail so far as to destroy the schools on a more enlarged plan. The children of England, who are not of the sect established by law, have an opportunity of going to schools, where they will not be taught like parrots to repeat by rote a set of assertions, formed by men just emerged out of popery, and which will not bear the test of scriptural examina

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tion.

It is not so in France. The question is there settled otherwise by an ordonnance of the king, who has decreed that in all the schools, the Catholic, Astolic and Roman religion shall be taught, and no other. Consequently the children in that country must repeat like parrots a certain set of notions, very different from those in which the children of our schools are instructed. They will be taught that the pope is the head of the church, that they must fall down before a consecrated wafer, and worship a triune god that there is only one true religion, and that theirs is that true one. How far the scheme will succeed time will shew. The education they receive in the schools will meet with some opposition at home; for in consequence of the Revolution the attach ment to the pope and to the clergy has very much diminished, and many of the notions of the schools will be dis

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cussed with freedom out of them. At any rate the children will learn to read, and the effect be may very different from what the cabinet expects, It seems scarcely possible, that popery should regain its ancient influence: but irreligion has had for so long a time its sway in France, that it may be replaced by superstition.

This circumstance of Government establishing opinions, in which children should be educated, and the contradiction there is between the opinions maintained on the different sides of the British Channel, ought to be a warning to us, who profess our attachment to scriptural religion only, how we inculcate upon our children, any thing, for which we have not the decisive warrant of scripture. Besides it is incumbent on us to be careful not to teach our children, as is the custom with the sectaries of Rome and England, to repeat things like parrots by rote. If we ask a child a question, the answer should not be put into its mouth, but it should be derived from its own reflec

tion; and a very few trials will prove to every parent or teacher, how much easier and better this is than the common mode by catechisms, in which each sect teaches its particular notions; and consequently as these notions contradict each other, some of the children must imbibe falsehood instead of truth. Let the parable of our Saviour, the poor man that fell among thieves, be read by a child, and appropriate questions be asked from it. Its reason will be exercised by the answers, and its mind opened: and so it will be by all the plain passages of scripture, which indeed are the only ones, in which children should be instructed. The more difficult passages, on which in fact the sectaries ground their va rious opinions, ought to be reserved for a more distant period: and a child, brought up in the rational manner we have suggested, will be capable at manhood of discerning the futility of the greater part of the doctrines, on which the sectaries lay so much stress, as well as the falsehood of some doctrines, in which the majority of professing Christians are united.

The farther views of the French cabinet are seen in the suppression of the National Institute and the Polytechnic School. The latter was admirably adapted for the instruction of the people in all the arts of civil life; but

State of Public Affairs.

it seems that the pupils were not so attached to the reigning family as was desired. Whether the Government will adopt any thing in its stead, time will shew: but it is not likely that there will be the same encouragement held out to proficiency in the arts as under the former system.

A change is also likely to take place in the ecclesiastical system. The Concordat is to undergo a revision, and it is confidently asserted that the order of Jesuits is to be re-established. This order had at one time the education of youth chiefly in its hands, and in this line it displayed great talents; but they were counterbalanced with such gross defects, that their re-establishment may be considered not only as an evil to the kingdom of France but to Europe in general. It would be a great advantage to this kingdom, if education in our universities and public schools were less confined than it is at present to the clergy. The monastic institution in the Universities particularly requires revision; but it is not likely that any change will be effected for some time in this respect.

But the eyes of the public are turned to the trial of our countrymen, which will have probably taken place before this is published. The preparatory steps are already made known, and afford a good specimen of the ideas entertained by the French on justice. Their great object is to make the accused criminate himself, and if they do not gain this point, they extort from him a variety of circumstances, which may be converted to his injury. Their whole plan seems to be to destroy innocence; and wretched is the state of the poor man guiltless of crime, who is brought before their tribunal. Our countrymen have answered their interrogatories with the spirit of Englishmen, and the publication of the trial may do much good to France; teaching that wretched country in what a miserable state is their criminal jurisprudence. The accusation is the favouring of the escape of a state criminal, and with this they wish to blend a plot against government. Nothing can appear more absurd to an Englishman than some of the interrogatories, in which they do not hesitate to take for granted the guilt of the accused: but we shall reserve our further remarks till the fate of our insulted countrymen is determined.

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As Europe is, or is said to be, delivered, a new object has arisen for the employment of the deliverers, which may lead to some new schemes of warfare. The Barbary powers have been harassing the coasts of Italy, and, it is said, have succeeded in carrying off a Neapolitan Princess, betrothed to the Duke of Berri, in her way from Palermo to Naples. Our chivalrous knight, Sir Sydney Smith, has been endeavouring to excite the Christian powers to unite in a crusade against the Mahometans in Africa. The mode of warfare of the latter is certainly less defensible than that of the Christians, for they make slaves of the male prisoners, and enclose the females in their harems. But as to the grounds of their wars they are perhaps superior. They do not insult the Almighty with infainous appeals to justice, humanity and religion, in which, in the tergiversation of the Christian treaties, it is evident that all cannot be right, and that there must among some of the powers reign a contempt of religion and virtue entirely derogatory to the character they assume. It is a melancholy thing to reflect, that at one time the African shores of the Mediterranean acknowledged the authority of the gospel. At present the name of Christian is there held in abhorrence and it is not by war that it will be restored to its former honours. Those shores were infected with the sectarian principles of Augustine long before the Mahometan invasion, and at the time of the Saracen successes had mixed with the religion of Christ the worship of images and a triune God. The faith is now changed; their places of worship are freed from images, and worship is addressed only to the Supreme Being: but they have set up Mahomet in opposition to our Saviour, and the Coran instead of the Gospel. But during the last twentyfive years they have not shed so much blood as the Christians.

Our own country has since our last had one ground for consolation. The property tax was vainly attempted to be continued, in spite of the assurances, that it was a war tax, and to cease with the war. The opposition made throughout the country by petitions from all parts was very great, yet the conflict was expected to terminate in a different manner. The ministry to the last were pertinacious in their en

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