a great benefactor to these children, and to some of their families. One very great advantage of Sunday schools is, that they afford every minister an opportunity of giving to the children of the poor instructions in the plain and important principles of religion; of bringing them to church, where they are under his eye, and under the eyes of their. benefactors, who may take proper notice of their good or bad behaviour. My children are very narrowly watched; and no instance of improper behaviour is passed over without a solemn and severe rebuke. If they are disorderly, they partake of no benefaction intended for good children; and if this treatment will not reclaim them, they are expelled. When I find any of them guilty of lying, the whole school is called together, and I read to them a little book, called An Exercise against Lying, concluding with the prayer at the end. Such are the regulations that have been observed in my schools; which gentlemen may adopt or vary, according to their particular local circumstances. It is very evident to multitudes by facts (which are better than a thousand arguments,) that this institution has been attended with many beneficial effects. I have heard of persons, no friends to religion, who have supported these schools, and they are, in my opinion, no bad politicians; for our lives and fortunes will not be less safe because our servants, and the lower people in general, have been instructed in a religion that commands them, under the severest penalty, to hurt nobody by word or deed. I suppose every magistrate, when a young offender is brought before him for theft, &c. gives him some good advice. Would not good advice given him by his minister, before he became hardened, be more likely to prove effectual? If ever a reformation be brought about in this kingdom, it will be by the labours and diligence of the parochial clergy, each in his parish. If our law-makers would endeavour, by these schools, and by setting a better example themselves, to reform men, they would shew more wisdom, than by any mode of punishment they can inflict on them for being wicked. I sincerely wish, that, by the blessing of God, this institution of Mr. Raikes (a name that every clergyman, especially those of his own city and neighbourhood, should highly reverence) may universally prevail, and produce the best effects.

1786, May.

LII. Dr. Timothy Neve to the Rev. Littleton Brown, at Bishop's Castle, Shropshire.

DEAR SIR,

Peterboro', July 23, 1741.

MR. PENNINGTON, the registrar of this diocese, called upon me the other day, and gave me the pleasure of hearing that you were well, and were so obliging as to inquire after my health, and to send me your compliments; for which, as a brother virtuoso and antiquary, I take the liberty of writing to you, and should be glad of the favour of your learned correspondence. Since I came to settle in this place, I have instituted a Society of gentlemen, most of University education, who meet every Wednesday evening, whereof the dean is president, and myself secretary. We are near 20 regular members, and about 100 honorary. Each member is obliged, upon his admission, to present us with some book to the value of a guinea, by which we have raised already a considerable library. Earl Fitzwilliam, one of our representatives in parliament, and lately elected a member, proposes to give us Rymer's Foedera, which will greatly add to the number as well as value of our collection. We have also a pretty large specimen of curiosities, natural and artificial, such as shells, minerals, petrifactions, prints, medals, &c. &c. &c. which now and then amuse us a little, and give us the appearance of meeting to do something else than to smoke a pipe and drink a bottle. What we stand most in need of, is a correspondence with gentlemen in distant parts of the kingdom, or the world; but as yet we are too inconsiderable to have an intercourse of that sort settled amongst us. Gentlemen that are able to undertake it, choose rather to throw in theirs to the great stock of the Royal Society, of which I perceive you are a member. But we should be glad only of a few of your gleanings, who have a fund sufficient to oblige us both. Dr. Mortimer, my brother secretary, now and then favours me with a letter; in return, I transmit to him an extract of our minutes, whenever any thing occurs to us worthy of his notice.

I will trouble you with a short specimen of our Transactions, from Jan. this present year:

Jan. 7, 1740-1. Communicated a letter from the Rev. Mr. Saul, rector of Harleston, in Lincolnshire, concerning the nature and production of fossils, with a specimen of 20

different sorts lately found in those parts. That the earth is prolific, and hath a vegetative principle continually working in it that there is no caput mortuum, no idle, unactive, unformable matter in nature, as in chemistry; but every clod of earth, turned up by the spade, is either already formed into some distinct species of clay, sand, loam, &c. or in a tendency towards it: and that, as there are various kinds of submarine plants, so all the several kinds of ore, metals, minerals, marbles, and other regular fossils, or stony concretions, are so many different sorts of subterraneous plants, &c. &c. &c.

Jan. 14. Account of the magnetical power of a bar of iron, according to its long-continued position from perpendicular, for fifteen years, to horizontal, for as many months only.

Account by Maurice Johnson, jun. Esq. of a Roman mint in the city of Lincoln.

Jan. 28. Curious drawings of an ancient book of anatomy by one Gemini, an Englishman, dedicated to King Edward VI. 1552.

Feb. 4. Form of prohibiting of books for the Index Expurgatorius in the Consistory of Rome.

Feb. 11. Old grant of a right of fishery in Whitlesea Mere to the abbot of Peterborough, in the reign of Henry VI. who has this uncommon title, "Henricus Dei gratia rex Angliæ, heres et regens Francia, et dominus Hiberniæ."

Feb. 18. Remonstrance of the sequestered members, 1656, to which above 100 subscribed their names.

Feb. 25. An original letter of Andreas Colvius to Dr. Beal, Dean of Ely, dated Dordrecht, 20 Aug. 1647, concerning tolerating of sects in Holland.

ter.

Mar. 4. Office for installation of knights of the gar

Mar. 11. Alcock, Bishop of Ely, his "Exhortation made to two Relygious Systers in the Tyme of their Consecratyon," &c.

Mar. 18. "Modus fulminandi Sententiam in Ecclesia Romana," and the" Bedes on the Sunday," or bidding prayer, These are all ancient papers belonging to me, and, for want of other matter, communicated occasionally.

Apr. 1. Lord Fitzwilliam proposed.

Apr. 3. Elected.

Apr. 29. A letter from the secretary in London, with the account of what was read and communicated there when he was present.

May 13. List of all the members who have represented

this city in parliament from 1546, the first of Edward VI. to this present time.

May 20. Epitaph upon Lipsius, &c.

May 29. Luctus et gratulatio Acad. Cantab. in Oliveri mortem, et Ricardi inaugurationem.

June 3. Drawing of a fine ancient crystal vase, and of an ancient East-India rice-pot.

June 24. Account of Sir Richard Ellis's library, and some curiosities lately come in there.

July 1. Part of a letter from Baron Clarke of his Majesty's Exchequer, in Edinburgh, concerning the unseasonable colds of the late years, which he conjectures to be owing to the great spots in the surface of the sun, many of which are much larger than the whole globe of our earth, which, must needs take off both from its light and heat. George Lynn, Esq. of Southwick, in this neighbourhood, and my very particular friend and learned acquaintance, in his Ephemeris of the weather for this year, observed that the mean height of the thermometer for the month of last March, was just the same with that of January for fourteen years past, &c.

July 8. Presented to the Society a small Roman lamp, entire, of red earth, lately found at Whitlesea, in the Isle of Ely, five miles from hence. Also a human skull dug up lately in this town, the whole brain whereof is ossified, and concreted into as hard and solid substance as the bone, retaining still its natural curdled form, the sutors, &c. remaining entire.

July 15. Presented a branch of an ash-tree, being an uncommon lusus, which grew in the shape of the left-hand of a man, &c. &c. &c.

By this short specimen you will be able to guess how we idle away two or three hours once a week. Things omitted are only the presents of books, medals, and other odd things, admissions of members, or the like. If you approve of our scheme, give me leave to make use of your name among the honorary members, for which I will give some book in your name to the Society from among several of mine that I can spare; in return for which, the favour of your correspondence will make ample amends. If you come into these parts, I shall rejoice to see you under my roof.

I once had a wife lived with me near 6 years, by whom I had four children, two of which, a son, now of Corpus Christi College, in Oxford, and a daughter at home, only remain. I have lived a widower now almost 13 years. I

shall be glad to hear that you are happy in a married state, and blest with hopeful children. I have lived so long out of that country, that I have scarcely any acquaintance left there; and my near relations are such to whom I choose rather to be helpful at a distance than to be burdensome by visits. Your brother Jerry I was well acquainted with at school; since that I never saw him, nor heard what became of him, only I think not so well as could be wished. Your own personal character, joined to the easiness of your fortune, gives you a great interest and authority in the neighbourhood, as I am well informed, and rejoiced to hear; and therefore beg leave to assure you that I am, with great regard, your most affectionate kinsman, and humble servant, 1786, July. TIM. NEVE.

LIII. Letters from Mr. Howard.

MR. URBAN,

LET me beg you to insert the two following genuine letters from Mr. Howard to the gentlemen who have done themselves so much honour in their endeavours to perpetuate his fair fame by the erecting of a statue. The first of them has never yet appeared in print. The other is copied from the daily papers.

M. G.

LETTER I.

"GENTLEMEN,

Vienna, Dec. 15, 1786.

I SHALL ever think it an honour to have my weak endea、 vours approved by so many respectable persons, who devote their time, and have so generously subscribed towards a fund for relieving prisoners and reforming prisons. But to the erecting a monument, permit me, in the most fixed and unequivocal manner, to declare my repugnancy to such a design, and that the execution of it will be a punishment to me: it is therefore, Gentlemen, my particular and earnest request, that so distinguished a mark of me may for ever be laid aside. With great regard, I am, Gentlemen, your most obedient servant,

JOHN HOWARD,"