Intelligence.-Warwickshire Unitarian Tract Society. lations, on thy accession to the British throne; and, with feelings of gratitude to Him who ruleth in the kingdoms of men, for that state of peace in which the sceptre of this great kingdom has been delivered into thy hands We pray that He may cause this blessing to continue. May He influence thy heart to seek his divine counsel in all thy steps: and grant thee his holy aid to perform the various great and important duties of thy high station; so that being enabled to rule in righteousness, thou mayest, in the end, eschauge thy earthly crown for an incorruptible crown of glory. Sigued at the Yearly Meeting of the aforesaid Society, held in Dublin, the 6th day of the 5th Month, in the year of our Lord 1820. JOHN CONRAN, Clerk. [Transmitted by Earl Talbot, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to Viscount Sidmouth, and by him presented to the King.] Address of the Friends in Ireland to THY dutiful and loyal subjects, the Society of Friends in Ireland, commonly called Quakers, at their last Yearly Meeting held in this city, anticipating thy visit to this country, authorized us to address thee on their behalf on this memo rable occasion. We should not do justice to our feelings did we not assure the King that our Society participates in the general joy caused by his presence. Although religiously restrained from demonstrating those feelings by public marks of 123 rejoicing, nevertheless we respectfully offer to the King a sincere and cordial welcome, and congratulate him upon his safe arrival upon our shores. We desire that thy visit may not only tend to thy own satisfaction and the joy of thy people, but that an event so auspicious may promote the improvement of Ireland and of her inhabitants, and thus render an important and lasting advantage to the empire. We wish to avail ourselves of the present occasion to renew the declaration of our love and our allegiance to thee our King under thy illustrious House. We, as a religious Society, have received many privileges; we are therefore bound, both by duty and by gratitude, to fidelity to thy Royal Person and Government. We are thankful to the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe, that peace generally prevails; we pray that this blessing may continue, and spread wider and wider; and we desire for thee, O King, that thou mayest be enabled, under the influence of that grace which visits the hearts of all men, to live in righteousness, and be an instrument in the Divine hand to promote that state wherein all nations may join in the holy anthem, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to all men.” To the Society of Friends. It is highly satisfactory to me to receive your congratulations on my arrival in this part of my kingdom, and your assurance of attachment to my Person and Government. The loyalty of your principles and your regular and peaceable conduct entitle you You to my good opinion and esteem. may rely upon any constant protection, and upon the continuance of those privileges which you now so justly possess. INTELLIGENCE. sound criticism. The preacher explained, in a very rational and satisfactory manner, many passages in the New Testament, which are usually brought to prove the omnipresence of Christ. It was the unanimous request of all present, that the sermon should be published, a request which we yet hope will be complied with. In the evening, the Rev. J. H. Bransby, of Dudley, preached from 1 Tim. ii. 5: "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." The preacher ably demonstrated the absurdity of the commonly received opinion of two natures in Christ, shewing this to be merely the device of orthodox theologians to extricate themselves from the difficulties of their system. The sermon concluded with seasonable practical remarks. The services of the day were very acceptable to an attentive and respectable audience. The ministers and a numerous party of friends dined together. Some additional subscribers were obtained, and the day was spent with much cordiality and pleasure. THE following account is drawn up by Mr. Astbury, the late minister of the late Unitarian Chapel at Kingsley, near Kelsal, in the County of Chester. Mr. Astbury is a pious and sensible man. He has for many years been sincerely attached to the opinions of the Unitarians, which he has endeavoured to promote in his humble sphere, with much personal inconvenience, and with a very trifling emolument. Being unused to composition, he has requested me to revise his account of a disgraceful transaction, which he denominates religious swindling, at Kingsley. I have made only a few verbal alterations. W. BAKEWELL. I have gone to Kingsley, as minister, for 25 years, out of which time I have been 16 years stated minister. I was chosen by the trustees, and the united voice of the people. Since then the trustees are dead, and things have remained in a varied state. On the 9th of Sept. 1821, a sermon was delivered on the death of the Queen; at which time, a man came into the chapel in disguise, pretending to be a home missionary of liberal sentiments, and delivered papers to the same effect, and requested liberty to preach, which I granted. As he said that he was going to stop awhile in the country, he wished to preach at night, which I refused. He left the country awhile, and returned, and got into the favour of the High Church party, who applied, to me for him to preach during the winter. They said, as the distance was seven miles from my house, and I was in years, his preaching in my chapel would be an act of kindness to me. I, however, refused to give up my pulpit to him; but gave him liberty to preach every other Sunday. Some time after he came to me, and said, that the people had agreed that I must resign, but that I was welcome to the small salary. I told him that I would not comply with this. On the 30th Dec. at two o'clock, when Mr. Jones, this self-named home missionary, was preaching, he gave out that there would be service twice during that week, and that there would be a meeting on Saturday to appoint new trustees, I opposed these meetings, and locked up the chapel. On the 5th of January, 1822, I, in company with a few friends, went to the chapel, and found that the door was broken open, and the lock stolen away. I locked the door again, but it was again broken open, and we left the chapel open. On the 6th of this month I preached in it again, but the rabble on the outside made a great disturbance. On the 13th I preached again, from Acts xxiv. 14-16. Two attorneys came, and several others, who paid great attention. When the service was over, we agreed to meet on the Friday following at Frodsham, at the attorney's office. I attended with some friends. I asked them there to state what they had against me, which I had repeatedly done before; but they only replied, that the congrega tion was reduced. I asked them, whether it would be creditable to their town to dimiss an old minister without a fault. They answered, that it would not. They asked me to state some conditions on which I would resign. I brought forward an account of 607. and upwards, which I had collected from our friends for the rebuilding of the chapel; and I stated that I had an undoubted right to have this money back towards building another chapel at our own place, in the township of Delamere. They did not deny my right, but could not comply by reason of the present distresses; but they stated, that they would allow me 21. per annum for my life, and 157. towards building another chapel, out of the money in my hands, which belongs to the Unitarian chapel at Kingsley. They declared, that if I would not comply they would actually pull down the chapel. Our friends at Kingsley unitedly urged me to agree to the conditions; and I signed my resignation. There are a few sincere friends at Kingsley who were borne down by the above-mentioned party. We are informed, that at some distant time, they intend to sell the chapel to raise money for erecting a chapel of ease. I preach at my own house every fortnight, and am better attended than I was at Kingsley; and there is a prospect of raising a congregation. We had it in contemplation Intelligence.-Unitarian Petitions on the Marriage Law. to build a chapel in the parish of Delamere, before we were driven from Kingsley, if we could receive a little assistance. There are three promising young men in the neighbourhood, who have preached for us, and whose active services encourage the hope of much usefulness. I called on the Rev. Mr. Lyons in the spring of last year, and stated our case. He wished me to draw up proposals for the building of a chapel at Delamere. Delamere is one of the most improved places in Cheshire. We conceive that a chapel would be of singular use, and that we might obtain a good Sundayschool. As the materials for building are close at hand, as wages are low, as we have 157. in hand, and as the land would be given, the expense would not exceed 607. We submit this statement to the consideration of the public, if you think it proper to insert it in the Monthly Repository or Christian Reformer, hoping that we may receive aid from some of our Unitarian brethren, and from some of the Fellowship Funds. of Ecclesiastical Preferments. 125 Rev. C. J. BLOMFIELD, D. D., (Rector) St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate,) to be Archdeacon of Colchester. Rev. T. W. Blomberg, M. A., to be Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's Cathedral, vice Dr. Samuel Ryder Weston, deceased. Rev. G. HOLCOMBE, D. D., to be a Prebendary of Westminster, vice Blom. berg. Hon. and Rev. J. E. BOSCAWEN, M. A., to be Canon or Prebendary of Canterbury, vice Holcombe. The King has been pleased to grant to the Rev. J. H. MONK, B. D. and Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge, the Deanery of Peterborough, void by the Death of the Rev. Dr. T. Kipling. A List of the Committee of Deputies appointed to protect the Civil Rights of the three Denominations of Protestant Dissenters, for the Year 1822. William Smith, Esq., M. P., Chairman, Philpot Lane; Joseph Gutteridge, Esq., Deputy Chairman, Camberwell; James Collins, Esq., Treasurer, Spital Square; John Christie, Esq., Hackney Wick; Samuel Favell, Esq., Camberwell; Benjamin Shaw, Esq., London Bridge-foot; Henry Waymouth, Esq., Wandsworth Common; Unitarian Petitions on the Marriage Joseph Stonard, Esq., Stamford Hill; Law. THE Committee of the UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION have reminded the different congregations in connexion with the Society, that it is desirable to be prepared with petitions to both Houses of Parliament on the subject of the Marriage Law as early as possible in the present Session. They state that the petitions may either be sent to the Secretary, Mr. Edgar Taylor, for presentation, or put into the hands of any Member of Parliament whose support a congregation can obtain. Forms of the petition may be obtained of the Association, on application to the Secretary. They are nearly the same as those adopted in the last Session of Parliament, and proceed upon the principle of the Bill, drawn up by Mr. Richmond, and adopted by the Association, and heretofore presented to the House of Commons by Mr. W. Smith. The present state of the Marriage Law is explained, Mon. Repos. XIV. 174-178. The Bill referred to will be found in the same volume, p. 383. And the proceedings in Parliament upon the question are reported, XIV. 383-386, and 446, and XVI. 498, 499. William Titford, Esq., West Street, Wal- Bigotry in a Public Company.—A vācancy was recently declared in the office of clerk to the MERCHANT TAYLORS' COMPANY, one of the most opulent of the chartered Companies of the city of London. A great number of gentlemen in the profession of the law, some of them of the highest respectability, started as candidates. To reduce their number, in order to make an election more easy, various expedients were adopted; amongst others a test or subscription of assent and consent to the doctrine and worship of the Church of England. On hearing this, one of the candidates, at whom, perhaps, on account of his interest, this precaution was pointed, instantly withdrew, and addressed a letter "To the Master, Warden and Court of Assistants of the Worshipful Company," a copy of which is now before us in print, and which speaks such a noble feeling of honour and Christian integrity, that we cannot refrain from making an extract: "I have been made acquainted with a Resolution, which, although not officially promulgated, is yet universally understood to have been recently adopted by your Court, excluding from the existing competition for the office of your clerk and solicitor, all persons who in their religious professions are not members of the Church of England. "It would not become me, under present circumstances, to inquire what connexion there can possibly exist between particular modes of Christian faith, and the professional duties of the office referred to; much less does it belong to me to question the propriety of such a rule of election. It is sufficient for me to know that such an exclusive qualification is insisted on, and that my conscientious persuasion disqualifies me from continuing a candidate. I am very averse from any thing which might be deemed an ostentatious or unnecessary profession of my religious tenets; but I consider it due to truth and consistency of character, to avow, on the present occasion, that those which I profess, derived from my ancestors and confirmed by personal conviction, place me beyond the pale of qualification. And I feel assured that I should not be considered by others, any more than by myself, a deserving object of your choice, if I could hesitate one moment, in taking the determination I have now come to. "The reception I experienced on my canvas, induces me to flatter myself, that, but for this peculiar exclusion, I should have been justified in entertaining the most confident expectation of success; and I trust I may be permitted to say, without the imputation of offence, it is no small consolation to me to find that I am excluded from being a Candidate, not rejected at the Election; and that my exclusion is produced, not by personal objection, but by the mere difference of religious persuasion, acknowleged to be equally conscientious in each party." Although disappointed in an object of professional ambition to which he had a fair claim, the writer appears to us to derive more honour from this manly and Christian avowal than he could have derived from any office whatever. It has been questioned whether the Company had a legal right to adopt their resolution; but allowing this, we may be permitted to say, that it was not liberal to the Dissenters who are on the Court and in the Company, it was not consi derate towards the candidates, and it is surely unworthy of a public body in the metropolis in this era of light and liberty. If the object be more than an electionmanoeuvre, if it be intended to shut out Dissenters altogether, the Court must go yet farther, and decree that any of their officers becoming Dissenters shall be ipso facto excluded. Are they prepared for this act of persecution ?-While the door to public employment is thus closed against Dissenters, the Dissenters them→ selves have for the last half century been opening trusts and emoluments, of which they had the disposal, to Churchmen; and the consequence has been in certain hospitals and charities that we could name, that the members of the Establishment have by degrees obtained the ascendancy, and wholly excluded the Dissenters. Thus have this latter class of persons been doubly injured. Let them, then, take the matter into consideration, and henceforth act, not indeed with illiberality, (for even by way of retaliation that is always bad,) but with a due care of the interests of their own denomination and of the claims of their posterity upon institutions founded or endowed, with a view to their benefit or influence, by benefactors who either were of their own persuasion, or considered that their charities would be best administered by such as were. Cambridge, Jan. 4.-R. WoodHOUSE, Esq. M. A., F. R. S., Fellow of Caius College, and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, was yesterday unanimously elected Plumiau Professor of Experimental Philosophy, in the room of the late Archdeacon Vince. The Rev. J. LONSDALE, M. A., Tutor of King's College, is elected Christian Advocate, in the room of the Rev. T. Rennell. The Rev. C. BENSON, M. A., Fellow of Magdalene College, is continued Hulsean Lecturer for the present year. The Hulsean Prize for the year 1821 was, on Monday last, adjudged to W. TROLLOPE, B. A., of Pembroke Hall: subject, "The expedients to which the Gentile philosophers resorted, in opposing the progress of the Gospel, described and applied in illustration Intelligence-Miscellaneous-Literary. of the truth of the Christian religion," The subject of the Hulsean Prize Dissertation, for the present year, is, "The argument for the genuineness of the sacred volume as generally received by Christians." Vaccination. The Report of the National Vaccine Establishment is just published, signed by Sir Henry Halford, and other eminent medical men. The subscribers say, that the result of another year's experience is " an increase of their confidence in the benefits of it." They rejoice that the practice of vaccine inoculation is growing. Many cases have been reported to them of small-pox in patients previously vaccinated; but, they add," the disorder has always run a safe course, being uniformly exempt from the secondary fever, in which the patient dies most commonly when he dies of small-pox." They express their unqualified reproba tion of the conduct of those medical practitioners, who, knowing well that vaccination scarcely occasions the slightest indisposition, that it spreads no con tagion, that in a very large proportion of cases it affords an entire security against small-pox, and in almost every instance is a protection against danger from that disease, are yet hardy enough to perse vere in recommending the insertion of a poison, of which they cannot pretend to anticipate either the measure or the issue." In conclusion, they report that the number of persons who have died of smallpox this year within the bills of mortality, is only 508, not more than twothirds of the number who fell a sacrifice to that disease the year before. Eton-A Library for the first hundred Eton boys has been established at that College. His Majesty has expressed his approbation of this, and presented a superb copy of the Delphin and Variorum Classics to the institution. The Rev. T. C. HOLLAND will resign the charge of the Unitarian congregation at Edinburgh in a few months. He announces to us his intention of undertaking the pastoral care of some congregation in South Britain. A vacancy will, of course, be created at Edinburgh. Mr. WORDSWORTH has two new poetical works in the press. The first that will appear is entitled "Memorials of a Tour on the Continent;" and the other "Ecclesiastical Sketches," in 3 Parts. Part 1. From the Introduction of Christianity into Britain to the Consummation of the Papal Dominion. Part 2. To the close of the Troubles in the Reign of 127 Charles I. Part 3. From the Restoration to the Present Times. In compliance with the request of the friends of the deceased, the Sermons of the late Rev. CALEB EVANS, will be sent to the press as soon as it can be ascertained what number of copies may be wanted. To this small Volume (price five shillings) will be prefixed a Portrait, and the Memoir of Dr. Southwood Smith, inserted in our last number (pp. 5560). An Appendix will contain the Deceased's "Week's Ramble into the Highlands of Scotland." Mr. OVERTON has in the press an Inquiry into the Truth and Use of the Book of Enoch, as it respects his prophecies, visions, and account of fallen angels, such Book being at length found in the Ethiopie Canon, and put into English by Dr. Laurence. The new PARLIAMENT has been chiefly occupied with the consideration of Agricultural Distress. Various and contradictory opinions have been hazarded by our legislators on the subject. Some attribute the difficulties of the farmers to the bounty of Providence, or, as the Marquis of Londonderry says, "the causes of nature," and represent plenty as the great curse of the country: this is surely quite a new doctrine, and, if true, requires a great part of the Bible and of our Prayer-Books to be newmodelled. Others say, agreeably to the opinions of our fathers and of almost all mankind in all ages, that the pressure of taxation is the evil under which the nation groans; while the ministers and their partisans and some independent men who are theorists, seem to hold that taxation is a blessing! A Committee is appointed to discuss the matter and report upon it, but he must know little of the constitution of Parliament who expects much from a Committee of the Minister has a secure majority. House of Commons, where the Prime It is our intention to take notice from time to time of such Parliamentary proceedings as bear upon the great question of religious liberty and ecclesiastical re form: and in this connexion, we have to record a curious motion of Mr. HUME'S, the indefatigable friend of reform, by means of economy and retrenchment; it is, for a Return of Half-Pay Officers in the Church. How many and whom this return will include, we know not; but we suspect that it will comprehend more ecclesiastics than are dreamed of, and rumour says that there will be found in the list a certain bishop! On the motion being made, Mr. CALCRAFT |
