802 Intelligence.-Unitarian Chapel, Thorne, Yorkshire, &c. Mr. Robert Lees, ditto, ditto, Rev. Josiah Ashton, ditto, ditto, additional, Miss B. Lees, ditto, ditto, ditto, Rev. William Whitelegg, Manchester, Annual Subscription, Rev. Thomas Madge, Norwich, ditto, 2 2 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 110 220 Rev. W. J. Bakewell, Chester, ditto, 10 Mrs. Markham, Shawhill, near 0 20 0 0 Halifax, second benefaction 20 0 Thomas Berry Rowe, Esq. Brentford, benefaction, 25 0 A friend to the Rev. Charles Wellbeloved, Mrs. Jones, Greenhill, near 0 0 50 0.0 for Divine worship. After an introduc. tory address on the occasion, by the Rev. D. Davis, Mr. Aubrey read Matth. xx. and conducted the devotional part of the service, and preached from Rev. xviii. 4. A discourse in Welsh, on 1 Kings, viii. 18, was delivered by the Rev. T. Davies, of Coedycymmar, who concluded with prayer. The ability, candour, and charitable spirit evinced in the sermons, and the very impressive manner with which they were delivered, commanded profound attention from a numerous and most rẻspectable audience. Although the day was very unfavourable, a great many attended from Swansea and its vicinity, and other parts, and contributed very liberally to the collection, which exceeded twenty pounds. From the Cork Advertiser.-The fol lowing carious dialogue took place in 50 0 0 Skibbereen Chapel, between a Mr. O'Dris 200 0 0 col and the Rev. Michael Collins.-The priest was preaching a sermon, when he was addressed by Mr. O'Driscol; great animosities`subsist between the parties in consequence of the question about the Veto : "While I was speaking, a voice from the opposite gallery said something about the Pope; it was Mr. O'Driscol's. It struck me that he said the Pope had sanc. tioned the Veto. I denied the fact, and begged not to be interrupted." Mr. O'D. "I will interrupt you, as often as you allude to me or to my friends." Mr. C. "I have disclaimed personal allusions.” Mr. O'D. "You are deluding the blind multitude; the poor creatures; a thousand millions have declared for the Veto." Mr. C. "A thousand millions! puh!" Mr. 0 O'D. "Here is Lord Trimbleston's petition; Ó read it." Mr. C. "Sir, I shall use my own discretion, and choose my own topics; do not interrupt me. I am here in the 0 discharge of my lawful duties; no man has a legal right to obstruct me. If any man disapproves of what I say, let him with5 5 0 draw; but let him not interrupt me." Mr. O'D. "You have no right to introduce politics here." Mr. C. "You are a magistrate?" Mr. O'D. "Yes." Mr. C. "If I say any thing illegal, prosecute me according to law." Mr. O'D." If I saw you acting against the law, I would wink at it." Mr. C. "I don't want your winking, nor would I trust to it; but now I warn you, that in thus persisting to interrupt me, you are acting against law, and breaking the peace. The Catholic clergy have been charged with a design to subvert the constitution." Mr. O'D. "I did not charge them with that, I said, that in meddling with politics, they must have other intentions." Mr. C. "This is not a political question; I have not discussed it 1 10 N. B. The Chapel will be opened on the 28th of June. There will be two services, one at 12 at noon and the other at 7 in the evening. There will be a collection after each service in aid of the expences of the building. An economical dinner will be provided at the Royal Oak Inn, at 2 o'clock. Opening of the New Chapel at Neath Intelligence. Prince Regent's Notice of French Protestants. as such. I have treated it as it regards religion; I have a right to treat it in that view." Mr. O'D. “You have no right to talk politics." Mr. C. "Sir, I must tell you that you are very presumptuous," Mr. O'D. "I am not presumptuous; in any other place I would say something else." Mr. C. "I would tell you so here, or elsewhere. Strange doctrines have been introduced by persons retaining the name of Catholics, and renouncing the principles of that religion. It has been said that Lords Fingal and Trimbleston are as competent judges of ecclesiastical subjects as the Bishops or the Pope. Accord ing to the principles of the Catholic Church, no individual has a right to interpret the Scriptures, save in the sense of that church, nor to act or decide in matters of religious concern otherwise than according to ecclesiastical laws and discipline. This is the doctrine of the church; any individual denying this doctrine ceases to be a Catholic." Mr. O'D. "I differ with you; it is no such thing." Mr. C. "Sir, I have taken some pains to acquire a competent knowledge of the religion, which, as a pastor, I am bound to teach; I have taken more pains in that way than you have, and I believe I am not overrating my slender powers by saying, that I am as capable of acquiring knowledge as you are. You will therefore allow me to state those principles. If you dissent from the tenets of the Catholic church, you have a right to separate from her communion. But you have no right to impugn those tenets in the face of a Catholic congregation, and to the obstruction of their pastor." Here the dialogue ceased. MISCELLANEOUS. Prince Regent's Notice of French Protestants.-On Monday, April 29, the address and petition of the city of London with respect to the French Protestants was presented to his Royal Highness, who returned the following auswer : "The just sense entertained by his Majesty's subjects of the value and importance of religious toleration is necessarily calenlated to excite in their minds strong feelings of uneasiness and regret, at any appearance of the want of it in other nations of the world. "In such feelings, when called for and justified by the occasion, I shall ever participate, and whilst I lament the circumstances which led to your address, I derive great satisfaction from the persuasion, that they are in no degree to be attributed to an indisposition on the part of the Government of France, to afford to the freedom of religious worship, the benefit of its promised protection and support." The rector of Framlingham, in Suffolk, soon after the battle, wrote to the Duke of Wellington, stating, that in his opinion, the non-commissioned officers of the Bri tish army, had by their valorous conduct on that day entitled themselves to some distinct marks of their country's approbation, and therefore he felt disposed for one, to offer his humble tribute to their merit. In order that this might be properly ap plied, he requested the favour of his Grace to point out to him the non-commissioned officer, whose heroic conduct, from the representations which his Grace had received, appeared the most prominent, to whom he, the rector, meant to convey in perpetuity, a freehold farm, value 101. per annum. The Duke set the enquiry immediately on foot, through all the commanding officers of the line, and, in consequence, learnt that a serjeant of the Coldstream, and a corporal of the 1st regiment of Gnards, had so distinguished themselves, that it was felt difficult to point out the most meritorious; but that there had been displayed by the serjeant an exploit arising out of fraternal affection, which he felt it a duty on this occasion to represent, viz:That near the close of the dreadful conflict, this distinguished serjeant impatiently solicited the officer commanding his company, for permission to retire from the ranks for a few minutes; the latter expressed some surprise at this request, the other said, "Your honour need not doubt of my immediate return." Permission being given him, he flew to an adjoining barn, to which the enemy in their retreat had set fire, and from thence bore on his shoulders his wounded brother, who he knew lay helpless in the midst of the flames. Having deposited him safely for the moment, under a hedge, he returned to his post in time to share in the victorious pursuit of the routed enemy; we need scarcely add, that the superior merit of this gallant non-commissioned officer was thus established. Battle of Waterloo, 8th. ed. p. 84. NOTICES. The Annual Meeting of the Members of the Unitarian Tract Society established in Birmingham, for Warwickshire and the neighbouring counties, will be holden at Oldbury, in Shropshire, on Wednesday, June 19, 1816. The Rev. John Small, of Coseley, has engaged to preach on the occasion. The Devon aud Cornwall Unitarian Association and Tract Society will be held at Moreton Hampstead, on the first Wednesday in July next, when Mr. Worsley, of Plymouth, is appointed to preach, and it is hoped Mr. Butcher, of Sidmouth, will conduct the devotional part of the service.. We are informed, that the minister at Lynn and his friends having declined receiving the members of the North-eastern Unitarian Association, to hold their annual meeting in that town, according to a former notice, that association will be held at Wisbeach, on Thursday, June the Twenty-seventh. There will also be a public service on Wednesday evening, June 26. Manchester College, York. The annual examination of students will take place as usual at the close of the session, in the College Library, York, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, The the 25th, 26th and 27th of June. York annual meeting of trustees will be held at Etridge's Hotel, on the evening of Wednesday, the 26th, when all applications for the admission of divinity students on the foundation will be taken into consideration and decided upon. The friends of the institution will dine together at Etridge's Hotel, at the close of the second and third days' examination. As a considerable accession of new stndents is expected next session, it is par ticularly requested, that gentlemen intending to enter as lay students will make application as early as possible, in order that the necessary accommodation may be provided for them. THOMAS HENRY ROBINSON, J. G. ROBBERDS, Manchester, May 11, 1816. Secretaries. MONTHLY RETROSPECT OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS; OR, The Christian's Survey of the Political World. THE situation of the Protestants in France has long been a subject of great uneasiness to the friends of true religion. The bloodshed in Nismes and its district excited the commiseration of every British heart that was not led away by the base calumny that Protestantism was only another word for Jacobinism. Under this latter word it is well known that the speaker means to convey an idea of all the horrors perpetrated in the violent stages of the French revolution. Strange, however, it is, that crimes attended with such infamy should not deter others from the imitation of so horrible a conduct; yet future ages may perhaps class Jacobinism and Bourbonism together, as the parents of enormities at which humanity shudders. The efforts made by various bodies in England to place this subject in its proper colours before the public are well known. A subscription was raised and information was procured which might satisfy the most incredulous. Still it was the interest of certain persons to stifle the discussion, and discourage the benevolence of England, and, to a certain degree, their measures succeeded. It was contended that the whole was a political feud, that religious opinions had nothing to do with it, that our government could not possibly interfere, or if it did, that its interference, would be only disadvantageous to the suffering party. Above all, it was contended that the Bourbons could not be at all to blame in this matter as they were perfectly friendly to religious freedom. A debate in the House of Commons has enabled every person to form an accurate judgment on all these points; and we are much indebted to Sir Samuel Romilly for taking up the question, for stating facts as they really occurred and for making those comments on the celebrated letter of the Duke of Wellington which it really deserved. Lord Castlereagh took, as might be imagined, the other side of the question; but in spite of all his sophisms he corroborated these facts in such a manner, that it can be no longer a doubt that murders and massacres to an incredible amount were perpetrated at Nismes and its neighbourhood, and that the murderers were suffered to escape with impunity, though the government is strong enough to repress inferior crimes without difficulty. We will not repeat here all the horrors committed by the Bourbonites upon this occasion. We trust that the speeches of Sir Samuel Romilly, Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Brougham will be faithfully reported in a separate publication with such notes as may tend still more to excite an horror of religions persecution. Notwithstanding the solicitude of the French government that our papers should not have a free circulation in France, we have no doubt that the debate will find its way into that country; and at any rate the other nations of Europe will feel for the unhappy State of Public Affairs." sufferers in France, and hold in abhorrence that anti-christian spirit which leads a man to injure, insult and murder his neighbour on account of his religious opinions. Above all the reflection on what has happened in France ought to make us grateful to Providence for the comparative ease which we enjoy in this country. Though our opinions differ so widely from those of the sects established by law in this island, and we who bow to no authority but that of Christ in matters of religion, are so small a body compared with those who blend with the precepts of our Saviour rules derived from human tradition and the laws or fashion of the country, yet how happy is our state compared with that of the early Christians under the Roman emperors. We are not called upon as they were to sacrifice our lives in support of our faith, and the danger we have to apprehend is not from persecution, but the indifference which such a state of ease is apt to create. The fascinations of the world may be as dangerous as its hatred, and if we do not impress upon our children the importance of our religious faith, it may be undermined by the seductions of interest. The Israelites did not all at once fall down before Baal; yet when his worship was supported by the court, by fashion, by interest, the worshippers of the trus d gradually diminished till there were left only seven thousand men who had not bowed the knee to the idol. In fact, nothing can preserve us and our children but the full conviction that as our Saviour has said, "to know the Father as the only true God, and to acknowledge the Christ sent by him is eternal life," and that to leave our Saviour on account of fashion or interest, or the palpable deceit of innocent compliance with a false worship, is a dereliction of duty disgraceful to ourselves and attended with most dangerous consequences. We cannot serve God and Mammon. We cannot adore one God in our hearts and with our lips offer up prayers to three Gods. Let those who pretend to be Unitarians and yet frequent Trinitarian worship consider this. A subject of a temporal nature was introduced into the House, and though it did not lead to immediate amendment, yet at a future tire the change recommended will probably be adopted. The word usury conveys an odious impression which is encouraged by the absurd epithets annexed to it in our laws. The use of money is supposed to be essentially different from that of any other commodity, and the divine and the landholder have united their forces together to establish the prejudice. The former grounds his opinion upon some passages in scripture perverted from their real meaning, the latter from selfish motives wished to secure to himself advantages above the rest of the community to which least of all men is he entitled. The consequence of this false policy is, that the landholder cannot at present obtain a loan of money but at a much greater rate of interest than the state of the money market requires. As the law stands, five per cent is the utmost annual sum that can be received for a loan" of money, but as the holders of money can make more of it than by lending at this rate, a borrower is put to his shifts to obtain a loan. The law is avoided in this manner. The borrower grants an annuity to the lender during the life of the longest of three lives named by him, redeemable on a notice specified by the deed. This annuity amounts in general to ten per cent, though sometimes the money may be got at nine, and thus in another name the borrower pays from nine to ten per cent for that sum which he might obtain, if it were not for the law, at six or seven per cent. The borrower also pays all the law expences on the transaction, which are considerable. The absurdity of the law is evident from its not distinguishing between the different securities on which money is lent. Thus, if five per cent is a fair price for money secured on land, a greater rate is certainly to be required if it is lent merely on simple bond. Many have been the merchants and tradesmen ruined by this law, for a loan at a certain time would have preserved them, though they paid for it at the rate of ten or fifteen per cent, and the injury done to the landed and commercial interests by it may be estimated at many millions annually. In support of this law it is argued by administration that their loans would not be so cheaply made as they are at present. But it is not considered that the trifling gain upon their loans bears no proportion to the injury occasioned to the community by the losses which it sustains. The landholder also thinks it a preventative to spendthrifts whose estates might be swallowed up by their improvident bargains, as if it were of consequence to the state what became of such wretches, and the interest of a few individual families is not to be put in competition with the general good of the country. The real fact is, that the landholders in this as in some other instances, take an unfair advantage of their situation. They have looked too much to their own supposed interests, and have paid too little attention to what is due to the community at large. A still more important question was brought forward, but the agitation of it is deferred till the next sessions of parliament, and if the promoters of the bill succeed, the consequence to the kingdom. may be in a high degree detrimental. The readers of this report were favourable to the abolition of the slave trade and with just reason, but the abolition of that trade and the emancipation of the blacks in the West Indies are two distinct questions. In the former case the right and propriety of parliament to legislate cannot be doubt ed, for it is a question intelligible by every member of the House. But the emancipation of the blacks or measures tending to it are questions of a very different nature, and involve the knowledge of the relations of several classes of people to each other in our West India islands. The abolition, of slavery throughout the world is a desirable object, but care must be taken not to increase the evil nor to obtain our end by unjustifiable means. Mr. Wilberforce announces his intention to bring in a bill next sessions for registering all the slaves in the West India islands, and this is to be done under technical forms of law very oppressive to proprietors and very expensive to the colonies. Many a good job will be created by them, and salaries here and abroad are to be multiplied. The intended measure has created very great alarm in the colonies, for it strikes at the root of their internal legislation, and excites among the slaves a restlessness which renders the masters apprehensive of similar scenes being acted in their islands as have taken place in St. Domingo. The promoters of the bill out of parliament have not in the mean time been inactive; they have published writings teeming with false and injurious 'accusations of the planters for their conduct towards the slaves, and endeavouring to make them odious to their fellow subjects in England. Under the specious head of humanity to one class of mankind, they are guilty of inhumanity to another class; and laying hold of the interest taken by this country in the abolition of the slave trade, they aim at a new species of legislation which shall put the planters at their mercy, and hasten their object of emancipation. It is necessary that the humane should be put on their guard against these false pretences, and be particularly careful not to be led away on this subject by the appeal made to Christianity; for the language of Scripture is very different from that used on this occasion by the supporters of this intended bill, and our religion was never intended to interfere, rudely between the master and slave, but to introduce such dispositions as would gradually overcome every evil belonging to servitude. Both Houses were occupied in a debate, on what, though trifling at first sight, is of great importance. This was the stationing of the military in various places adjoining to the palace on certain court days. Military parade is the great feature of arbitrary governments, and cannot be permitted in a free state without danger to its constitution. For by being accustomed to see soldiers performing the duty of constables, the people will gradually lose the distinction between those two characters; and thus the military will in time, as was the case in France, usurp all the employments of the civil power, be seen in the corners of every street, and the nation will be enslaved, and no slavery is so bad as that exercised by one part over the other of the fellow subjects! In submitting to the bayonet of a foreign soldier, a tacit respect is paid to the right of conquest; but in crouching under the sabre of ones own countrymen, the mind is degraded, rendered abject and vile, and he is fit only to lord it in his turn on similar degraded beings. This was felt by two noble lords whose progress in the open streets had been resisted by soldiers, and they complained of this outrage in their respective Houses. Both Houses entered into their feelings, and the result was a promise on the part of administration that care should be taken to remedy the evil by placing the whole under the controul of the civil power, and at a following court day the constables were seen in their proper places. But the measure of the greatest consequence has been introduced by Lord Stanhope, which is to digest our laws in such a manner that they may be intelligible to lawyers and people. At present it is well known that the latter have no chance of understanding them, and of the former very few indeed have time, application and abilities to do it. A committee is to be formed of both Houses with proper assistants for the laborious task, which if properly executed will be highly beneficial to the country. Disturbances have appeared in France, but to what extent it is not easy to determine. Grenoble is said to have been taken at one time by the insurgents, whose defeat was attended with exe. cutions of some and high rewards for the apprehensions of other ringleaders. The French press is so completely subjugated, that an insurrection might extend over half of the kingdom without the good people of Paris knowing any thing about it but by private information, or ou its defeat by government. Their parliament has been prorogued and our three countrymen have been tried. Whatever opinion may be entertained of the nature of the misdemeanour for which they were indicted, all parties concurred in applauding their spirited and manly conduct in their defence. The court was crowded by the principal people of both nations, English and French, at Paris, who were admitted only by tickets, and the French had an opportunity of seeing the difference between minds formed under English liberty and French slavery. The sentence was three months' imprison- |