respecting the sale of the Monthly Repository, has not passed unnoticed among us. It is greatly to be regretted, that almost the only periodical work which is open to the free and impartial discussion of religions subjects, and which is the only public channel of mutual communication and almost the only bond of union among Unitarians, should want support, while other Magazines, which are notoriously devoted to the support of a system and a party, are in an unprecedented degree flourishing. Some pains will be taken here to procure additional purchasers for the Repository; and we trust that the general body of Unitarians will attend to the case, and not suffer so useful a work to languish for want of encouragement. It is at the request of the members of the Swansea Fellowship Fund I make this communication. The only design of it is to excite attention to the Fellowship Scheme. We trust you will approve of it, and by giving it a place in the Repository, and inviting other similar communications, by degrees effect the union of the whole body of Unitarians in a method so easy, and at the same time so effectual, of raising the necessary funds for supporting their growing interest. R. AWBREY. 1 1 0 20 Mr. Robert Darbishire, Folds, ditto John Wood, Esq. Liverpool Rev. J. W. Morris, Dean-Row, William Mann, Esq. Rochdale 20 220 220 2 2 £71 0 GEO. WM. WOOD, Treasurer. Manchester, November 1, 1817. THE Unitarians at Stainforth have very great pleasure in being able to state, that several donations to their chapel have lately been received; but that it has been deemed proper not to publish them at present. When the subscriptions shall be considered as closed, a complete list will be printed and attached to the Monthly Repository. J. G. Stainforth, Dec. 15, 1817. 1 0 A Friend, Barrington, Somerset 50 Inn 0 220 P. S. Farther subscriptions to the Stainforth Chapel will be thankfully received by Rev. R. Aspland; Mr. C. J. Y. Benson, Gray's Inn Square, London; Dr. Thomson, Leeds; Rev. P. Wright, Shef3 field; and Rev. John Gaskill, Thorne. 87 2 3 98 9 ena SIR, Glasgow, 16th Dec. 1817. It is with pleasure, that I am bled to announce the foregoing contributions towards defraying the burthensome debt upon Union Chapel, Glasgow, in addition to the hundred pounds which the liberality of a few consistent friends to Christianity enabled me to bring back with me, from my visit to England last summer. I need not caution your readers, lest they suppose that the contributions recorded page 635, Vol. XII. for which the society are duly grateful, deduct any thing from the existing debt as announced in the Repository for last June; since these were received in the year 1812, but owing to some informality were not then publicly announced. I rely upon my knowledge of the liberality which characterizes the English Unitarians, and upon the need which the Glasgow Unitarians have of their support, when I express my expectation that they will receive still farther assistance because there still remains a considerable amount, consisting of a part of the sum which, ever since the building of the Chapel, has by the indulgence, and contrary to the interest of an individual, remained a book debt;-and also of several sums originally lent by a few in the society, who have generously relinquished, even beyond their ability, a considerable portion of their loans. It is a fact, Sir, which should be announced to many of your readers, that there are Unitarians in this neighbourhood who can associate with Unitarians when in town, who will not join our party, nor give us any countenance, because, forsooth, we belong not to the "same class of society!" with yourselves. The very same reason in the primitive age would have prevented such persons from giving their countenance to the "sect every where spoken against;' among whom there were "not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble." I refer to this well-authenticated fact with the sole view of exciting the emulation of English Unitarians of worldly ability to lend a helping hand to their brethren in North Britain, struggling with difficulties from which they have power to relieve them. Never were the words of Scripture which we heard last summer so forcibly employed by Mr. Fox, more truly applicable than to the case under consideration, "Come over to Macedonia and help us;" come hither, ye friends of religious truth, when it may be convenient to yon, in person; we shall be glad to receive your countenance and support, while we are worshiping our Maker, "after the way which they call heresy.' But in the meantime come hither by your pecuniary aid, which will make your presence after wards more satisfactory to yourselves. Say not, as some have said, "that Glasgow is a great way off; for that liberality can scarcely be Christian liberality, which, over so insignificant a river as the Tweed, "is hardly able to force a passage." Nor say, that "we first incur expenses and then solicit the generosity of our brethren to enable us to discharge them." For this objection would I fear apply but equally well to most of the cases on which your liberality has been exercised; and all impartial judges will be of opinion that few of these are superior if equal in importance to one which has for its object the progress of Unitarianism in Glasgow. Nor intimate that in the year 1812, the society were "too sanguine," and built “too large a chapel!" for it appears to me that one containing about six hundred sittings, could scarcely be too large to accommodate the probable number of Unitarians that would issue from a population of more than 12000 souls, in the midst of whom, science, and the arts, and literature flourish; and the want of places of wor ship among whom, has been computed by Dr. Chalmers to be so great, that he recommends the erection of twenty new churches. I may have written, Sir, with more boldness on this subject, than would be becoming in one of the Glasgow Society; but as I still consider myself as an English Unitarian, though separated by so great a distance from my relations and my early friends, perhaps some may be found who will pardon me this wrong. I am, Sir, with best respects to yourself, and to all your able coadjutors in the cause of pure religion, and with best wishes for the increasing reputation of your useful Miscellany, as a means of advancing the same great end, BENJAMIN MARDON. [It is submitted to the consideration of those gentlemen who have the management of the liberal contributions towards the proposed Greenock chapel, whether, as that design seems to be for the present abandoned, the monics might not be properly transferred to the use of the brethren at Glasgow and Edinburgh? SIR, LITERARY. ED.] Clapton, Jan. 28, 1818. I BEG leave, among your Intelligence, Works, that the Third Volume, containing to inform the Subscribers to Dr. Priestley's the Examination, Introductory Essays, Disquisitions, &c., is now ready for delivery at Mr. Eaton's; and that a fourth volume, including the Free Discussion, the remainder of the Metaphysical Works, and the Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever, will be ready for delivery, at the same place, on Friday, the 27th February next. J. T. RUTT. MONTHLY RETROSPECT of PUBLIC AFFAIRS; OR, The Christian's Survey of the Political World. SEVERAL occurrences have taken place since our last report of a very important nature, such as indicate in a streng manner the feelings of the country on the situation which it has been placed by the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and the apprehended danger from attempts to destroy the liberty of the Press. A very extordinary proceeding in the courts of justice was attended with as extraordinary a result. A poor man had been taken up on an ex officio information from the AttorneyGeneral early in the last year, confined for me time in the King's Bench prison, and liberated with the prospect, though doubtfal, of being brought to trial. In consequence of his confinement in prison he had made applications to the court for release, which no other attention was paid than to order his return to it; and it is probable that the appearance of the poor man in court, who was at that time suffering much under illaess, had given the Attorney-Geseral no idea of the powers, which he afterwards displayed, but on the contrary, led him to expect an easy victory over so weak an aatagonist. After the lapse of a considerable time, the poor man was summoned to appear to answer the charges of libel, for three publications, being parodies on part of the Liturgy or Common Prayer Book, sanctioned by act of parliament. The parts thus parodied were the Catechism, the Litany, and the Creed, vulgarly called the Creed of St Athanasius, a creed which is represented by a Correspondent in a former volume of this work, to have been composed in the fifth or sixth century, as a jes d'esprit, by an unbeliever in those days, to turn into ridicule the doctrines, about which the pretended Christians were quarelling so much with each other. Before the trials, a person who had pubished these parodies, had been brought up for judgment in the Court of King's Bench, and been condemned to a fine and imprisonment; and thus the opinion of the court was manifest, before the poor man, the original publisher of the parodies, was brought to trial. In this state of things the trials commenced. The Attorney-General laid down the heinousness of the offence in parodying sacred things, and had no doubt that the jury would see the subject in the same light he did. He was not a little astonished, however, at the quantity of books with which the table of the court was covered by the defendant, nor had he the least idea of the defence to be made. The defendant pleaded his own cause, and in such a manner as no counsellor could have done it for him. He entered boldly, fully and firmly into an examination of the charge, stated plainly what his parodies were, namely, political squibs, of the same nature as those used by the Right Hon. George Canning, and for a similar purpose, and without the least intention of bringing any part of the Common Prayer Book into contempt. In the course of his defence he introduced parodies of all kinds, from the time of Luther to the present day, shewing that there was not the least idea of ridiculing the thing parodied, as it was used only as a vehicle to strike more forcibly the imagination. To give a detail of the defence would exceed the limits allotted to this Survey, but it is understood, that the defendant will publish his trials with all the parodies and engravings from the prints and caricatures, which were exhibited on, this occasion. A lively interest was excited by his remarks on the parodies written by Mr. Canning, whose conduct to. wards his adversaries is so well known to the public, and the bitterness of whose sarcasms has been scarcely exceeded by any political writer in any age of the world. Each trial occupied a whole day; the court was crowded, and at the close of it some thousands of people were collected in Guildhall to hear the result. The judge on each day solemnly declared it to be his opinion, that the publication on trial was a libel,. and the jury upon oath more solemnly controverted that opinion, by declaring the defendant to be not guilty. This verdict was received with unbounded applause by the audience; the shouts were re-echoed by the multitudes in Guildhall; the news rapidly spread through the whole town, and the kingdom at large, kept in anxious suspence during the three days, joined with very few exceptions in a cordial approbation of the verdict. Soon after the trial, a number of gentlemen met together to consider the sufferings of the defendant, and the manly defence he had made. It was agreed that a subscription should be immediately entered into, which was favourably received by the public. In a short time, several noblemen of. the first consequence sent their drafts for a hundred pounds, and a distinguished nobleman, then in bed from a dangerous illness, sent his draft for a hundred guineas, accompanied with a letter, in which he manifested in strong terms his indignation at the prosecution, and his high approba. tion of the conduct of the defendant. This letter, with other similar ones, will, it is presumed, form a part of the volume to be published by the defendant, and increase the interest in the publication. Some circumstances on the trial deserve to be here particularly noticed. In that for the parody on the Athanasian Creed, the defendant produced the doubts of several divines on the propriety of the use of this creed; among them Archbishop Tillotson, who wished the church" well rid of it," Bishop Tomline, the present Bishop of Lincoln, who objects most strongly to the dammatory clauses, and Bishop Law, the late Bishop of Carlisle, the father of the judge on the bench. On the subject of the latter, the defendant made an energetic appeal to the judge, which was manifestly felt by him on the bench. He appealed to him, that his lordship's father did not believe in this creed; and the judge did not contradict the assertion, though he did not venture to deny it. To the readers of this Survey, who have read the excellent work of Bishop Law on the Theory of Religion, and compared together the alterations made in it during the several successive editions of it in his life-time, there cannot be a doubt on the subject. The Attorney-General corrected the general misapprehensions that had gone forward on what is called the Unitarian act, stating distinctly, that though the Unitarians were relieved from the acts of parliament, which, with respect to them, were by the last act repealed, yet they remained as before amenable to the common law for transgressions against the established doctrines. How far this extends no one can tell, till it has become subject of public investigation: yet it may be useful to put Unitarians on their guard, that they may not be brought into difficulties. One obvious method occurs, which is, never to mention the name, by which the attributes of the Supreme Being are designated by various Sectarians; and which is not to be found in Scripture. In maintaining the Unity of God, as it is clearly and explicitly laid down in Scripture, they cannot incur the censures even of the AttorneyGeneral. We worship the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; and if any person or persons are worshiped, to whom the name of God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be applied, we can have no thing to do with such persons. We are to impress it strongly on the minds of all, that there is no other God but the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; and as to those who worship another god, by what evér name he is called, they are to be reminded that it is a matter of comparatively speaking little importance, whether they worship two, or three, or four, or four huu, dred gods. If the political world has been greatly agitated by these trials, the religious world has been affected no less sensibly by an occurrence, that has taken place in the sect established by law. A meeting was holden at Bath, at which the Lord Bishop of Gloucester was president, with a view to establish in that district what is called a Church Missionary Society, or society consisting of members of the established sect, to convey religious instruction to idolatrous nations by means of missionaries. At this meeting the Archdeacon of Bath in his own name, and the names of his bishop and the clergy of his archdeaconry, entered a violent protest against the meeting and the propriety of its proceedings. The meeting, however, went on, and carried their purpose with customary resolutions. The protest of the archdeacon was answered in a very able manner by a clergyman in London in a pamphlet, and also an advertisement in the Times in the same terms, consisting of five columns. The protest was also circulated in a very extensive manner, and the public is thus in possession of all that can be said on the points in dispute. It is not worth our while to enter into this discussion. It involves a question of discipline, on which both sides display considerable ability. But it is a point of great importance in its consequences, which may produce considerable results in the sect established by law. It is well known, that for a long time has existed a sort of schism in this sect, and one party is generally known by the name of the Evangelicals. The clergy of this description are generally most followed in all the towns in which they reside, and this naturally excites a jealousy in those, whose tenets are of a more quiet nature. The Evangelicals affect to hold the articles in the highest respect, and to believe them according to what they deem their true interpretation, which is Calvinistical. A considerable latitude has been for a long time allowed on this subject, by the other clergy, and the stricter discipline of the Evangelicals by no means snits them. At present the Evangelicals are in the minority, but what they want in numbers, they amply make up in zeal. The two parties are now openly at variance. The Archdeacon's protest may be considered as a declaration of war, and he has received the thanks of his clergy: the answer of the evangelical clergyman is the counter manifesto. The controversy between them will not be easily settled. There will be many skirmishes before they come to a pitched battle. In the mean time, as it will be necessary to designate the parties by appropriate terms, the one may usefully retain the name which they have acquired, and of which they need not be ashamed, that of Evangelicals: the other party may be denominated the Latitudinarians. A tenth part of the time which will be consumed on their respectire differences, would be more than sufficient to point out how far both are from the plain declarations of Scripture. Another subject occasions some little embarrassment to the sect established by law, but, happily for the times we live in, it is more likely to excite a smile than to occasion any of those serious quarrels in which the Sectarians of the third and the beginning of the fourth centuries were involved. The disputes between the eastern and the western factions in those times on the subject of Easter, are well known. They were in great measure assuaged by the politicians, who met together from all quarters at the council of Nice. They devised a very ingenious plan, by which they attempted to do two things, first to perpetuate the celebration of Easter on a Sunday, and secondly to make that Sunday follow the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Their scheme was a very ingenious one, but unfortunately as it depended on numbers, and the numbers on which they founded their calculations were not correct, after a certain length of time the arrears of their calculation necessarily became manifest. This is the case in the present year, in which the first full moon after the vernal equinox falls on a Sunday in the afternoon on the twenty-second of March. By their own rule, therefore, they ought to keep the Easter-day on the twenty-ninth but the calculators not heeding this circumstance, and going upon a false rule, have determined the Easter-day to be on the twenty-second. Consequently the services of the sect established by law will be wrongly performed on Easter-day, and on all the following Sundays throughout the year. The twentysecond of March now stands in all the Almanacks for the Easter-day. This error inevitably arose from the inaccuracy of the tables by which they calculated, and if it is persisted in, more curious errors will arise in a course of time. To us this is a matter of no consequence. We have no services for these days, nor do we require calculations: but to the members of the established sect it will not be pleasing to think, that they are commemorating the resurrection of our Saviour at a time, when the positions of the sun and moon are so different from what they were at the resurrection: for of all things well ascertained in history, this is certain, that our Saviour's resurrection did not take place till after the full moon. Every one must rejoice that there has been a general release of all persons confined in various prisons under the suspension of the Habeas Corpus act. Yet this event has not taken place without some remarkable circumstances. Two persons confined in this manner, refused to accept their proffered liberty as others had done, on a recognizance to appear, when called npon, in the courts of law. They firmly maintained their innocence of the charges imputed to them, demanded the names of their accusers, and threatened a prosecution against them for the injuries they had sustained. They were in consequence remanded to their prison, but in a short time discharged without any recognizance. Many of the persons discharged by recognizance made their appearance in the courts of law, complained much of the hardships they had sustained, and requested that having made their appearance, they might no farther be called upon. This request was not acceded to, but it was generally understood that they would not again be called upon. Their case will probably give rise to a discussion in the approaching sessions of parliament. The parliament of France goes on slowly with its deliberations, which occasion but little interest. They have been chiefly occupied with the liberty of the press, the Concordat, and the establishment of their army. The first has not suffered so much as was expected, though they have continued the censorship on public papers during this year; in other words, they have given to the administration the power of telling what lies they please, and of preventing all others persons from telling the truth. The Concordat produces a great deal of trouble; and they are embarrassed on every side on account of the army. One good motion was made, that the supplies for it should be voted every year; but it met with no encouragement. A new mode has been struck out of gratifying the vanity of Frenchmen. They read their speeches at select coteries, in which fashionable ladies sit in judgment, and then they are printed and circulated. At any rate, one good effect is produced; that this frivolous nation has more solid topics for their meditation, than they were accustomed to in former times; and, if the women become politicians, their men will in time be taught to think. Spain has entered, it is said, into a treaty with Great Britain, in which one thing is certain, namely, the payment of four hundred thousand pounds by us for the discontinuance of the slave trade; the second is uncertain, whether the trade will in consequence be suppressed. The money will be useful to Spain to enable it to enslave its colonies, but the slavery of the whites is ill compensated by the de |