Brief Memoir of Mrs. Jones, of Man

chester, by Mrs. Cuppe. Important as I may deem it to the living, that a character so admirable as that of the late Mrs. Jones should be long remembered by them for their benefit, I should bardly have adventured upon writing her memoir, conscious of being incompetent to do justice to the subject, had I not been desired to make the attempt by her excellent husband, whose sorrow for her loss will end enly with his life; who well knew her worth, and whose great consolation it now is, that for a long series of years he was most happy, to the utmost of his power, in constantly promoting and in enabling her to execute those extensive plans of benevolence and charity to which her life was devoted.

MRS. JONES was the eldest daughter of the Rev Joseph Bourne, minister of a congregation of Protestant Dissenters at Hindley, in Lancashire, whose life was published, together with that of his highly-respected father, by the late Dr. Toulmin, in the year 1808, and who died in the year 1765, leaving a widow and six children. Mrs. Jones spent the following three years under the care of her grandmother, Mrs. Bourne, at Birmingham, of whom she always spoke with affection and gratitude for the benefits she received from her excellent religious and moral instruction, and which probably first formed in her mind those just principles of rational and fervent piety for which she was afterwards distinguished, and which were still further cultivated and confirmed by her great intimacy with the Rev. Philip Holland, of Bolton, who, together with Mrs. Holland, took great pains to render permanent those just and important affections, She was married in June 1785, to Samuel Jones, Esq. of Green Hill, near Manchester, a gentleman whose views and principles harmonized perfectly with her own. But though placed by this connexion in circumstances of great affluence, she was not ambitious of being distinguished by any spe cies of vain display, or of engaging in a round of fashionable dissipation, where she might perhaps have figured with some eclat. It was not her desire to attract admiration, but, on the contrary, to make it her daily study how most effectually to shew her gratitude, for the advantages she possessed, to the great Giver of all good, by supplying the wants and alleviating the distresses to the utmost of her power, of every member of his large family with whom she was connected, or to whom her kindness could possibly extend, and this in the wisest and most judicious manner. Not one of her early friends or former associates did she ever forget or neglect, always considering

how best to promote their interes's without taking them out of that station in which Providence had placed them. I bad not the privilege of her acquaintance till the year 1805, when, being instrumental in bringing forward the effusions of an unlettered muse in this city,* Mrs. Jones was so deeply interested in her story, that she wrote to make her the offer of becoming mistress of a school for forty girls, near her own house, conducted at her sole expense, and which she herself daily visited; and ever since that time I have had the happiness of cultivating and enjoying an intimate and confidential friendship.

She suffered for the last two years under a very painful and distressing disease, which, on the 27th of last month, put a period to her valuable life. I had an excellent letter from her, written on the 17th, in quite her own characteristic mannerscarcely adverting to her own sufferings, although she was fully aware of what must speedily be the termination, but full of the tenderest anxiety for a most amiable young relative, whose every hope of happiness in this world appeared to have been completely destroyed but a very few days preceding, by the sudden and unexpected death of one most deservedly dear to her, and to whom she was very soon to have been united.-It was the leading feature of my friend's mind, to withdraw herself as it were from every selfish solicitude in the unwearied endeayour to alleviate, and, if possible, to remove the anxieties and the distresses of others; thereby fully evincing, that in practice as well as in theory, she was the genuine disciple of Him, who, when about to endure all the indignities and agonies of the cross, exhorted the sorrowing daughters of Jerusalem not to weep for him, but for themselves, and for their children.

Nor was this admirable state of mind shewn only on great occasions; it was equally apparent in the more ordinary transactions, and in the minuter circumstauces of life, in what may be denominated the amiable, rather than the exalted instances of virtue.

Of her extensive charities to the poor and afflicted, in clothes, in victuals, in medicines, in books, and in every other mode of assisting or instructing them, it is impossible to obtain, much less to write a particular account; the tears and lamentations of a whole district for her loss, bear testimony!

My friend Mrs. Jones was a firm, conscientious and decided Unitarian. May

Poems by Charlotte Richardson, by subscription, of which a second edition was published in 1809.

your numerous readers, Mr. Editor, whose creed may barmonize with hers, be equally eminent for the genuine piety, the unassuming temper, the devotedness of their lives to the faithful fulfilment of every personal, relative, and social duty which so singularly adorned her character.

CATHARINE CAPPE.

York, Dec. 17, 1817.

Nov. 8, 1817, at Stourport, after an illness of twelve days, MR. WILLIAM ROBERTS, aged 5. He was a native of High Ercal, near Shrewsbury, but spent the chief part of his life in Kidderminster. He has left a daughter to lament his death. He was a very worthy man, a sincere friend, and ever ready to serve his fellow-men to the utmost of his ability. In all his transactions and engagements he was very exact, so that the utmost dependence might be placed on his word. No man was more free from malevolence, envy, covetousness and the selfish passions by which many are actuated His mind was particularly formed for encountering the vicissitudes of human life. With the lot which Providence assigned him he was always content. He was a member of the New Meeting,* Kidderminster, from its commencement to his death; but in consequence of sometimes living at a distance, and his great liberality of sentiment, he often attended at other places of worship, of a very different persuasion from that to which he was more particularly attached. He thought much practical good was to be learnt from all denominations, and he used to say, when he went to hear the more orthodox, that what he found agreeable to truth he would take and omit the rest. As he claimed the liberty of forming his own opinions, so he allowed the same to others in its fullest latitude. His spirit was truly Christian, and worthy of an enlightened Dissenter. In his religious duties, from which he derived the greatest pleasure, he was most punctual and exact. He never neglected public worship when his health and circumstances would permit, and he often attended other occasional services. He was a sincere lover of the Scriptures, a portion of which he read daily, usually with Orton's or Doddridge's commentary. In the course of his life he had perused the Old and New Testament many times. Having lived free from vice, in all good conscience before God and man, and in babitual preparation for death and eternity, his latter end, as might be expected, was tranquil and happy and full of immortality.

V. V.

December 21st, in the 72nd year of his age, the Rev. ROBERT SIMPSON, D. D.

At first Arian, now Unitarian.

theological tutor of Hoxton Academy. He was a native of Kinrosshire, in Scotland, and came to England to perfect his knowledge of a trade to which he had served an apprenticeship. Soon after his coming southwards, he became a student in the Dissenting Academy at Heckmondwike, in Yorkshire; on leaving which he settled as a minister, first at Barnsley in the same county, from whence he removed to Hastingden, Lancashire, and then to Bolton, where he resided till he came to Hoxton, to fill the office of theological tutor, which he occupied from the year 1791 to nearly the period of his dissolution. He was less distinguished for his knowledge and attainments than for his consistent and systematic theology, which was in every particular Calvinistic. Amongst his connexions, his students and his family, he was respected and esteemed for his vigorous understanding, his plainness and faithfulness, his disregard of self and the integrity and purity of his life and manners, and his habitual piety, which appeared in his private, no less than his public language and conduct. Funeral sermons were preached for him in various places, and particularly by Messrs. G. Clayton, Leifchild and Cloutt; from which last we have taken these few particulars.

December 28th, CHARLES BURNEY, D. D. He was seized on Christmas-day with an apoplectic fit, just as he was preparing for the service of the day, in his parish church of St. Paul's, Deptford, Kent. He had just completed his sixtieth year, being born on the 23rd of December, 1757. His remains were deposited in his family vault in his own church, on the Saturday following his death. The principal inhabitants of the parish attended his funeral, and having met afterwards in the Vestry-room, agreed to erect in the church, at their own expense, a monument to his memory. He was one of the best Greek scholars of the age, and his classical school was for many years, as it still continues to be, under the superintendance of his son and successor, one of the most distinguished in the kingdom.

The loss of so eminent and useful a man cannot fail to be sincerely deplored, for, having created a noble income by his industry and learning, he disbursed it with the most princely liberality, in giving largely to most of the public subscriptions, but chiefly in contributing to whatever tended to promote literature and science. Amongst a multitude of instances may be mentioned, that his veneration for Dr. Bentley induced him to print a splendid edition of his letters, under the title of Bentleii Epistole, which he enriched by his own erudite annotations, and distributed every copy of the work gratuitously. He purchased the famous Townley Homer,

for which MS. he paid 650 guineas, and refused a thousand, that, it is said, were offered by the University of Oxford for the precious relic, so anxious was he to complete his Greek MSS. by an addition which readers them almost invaluable: indeed his library is altogether one of the mast magnificent private collections in Earope. This now passes into the posession of his son, the Rev. Charles Parr Barney, of Greenwich, and we cannot belp expressing a hope that he will not allow it to be dispersed or, rather, that he will not suffer the rare things in it to be purchased for the purpose of enriching foreign libraries. They are so truly valuable, that it would be a precious acquisition for the Bodleian Library, or the Museum.

Dr. Burney is the second luminary, in that bright constellation of learning formed by Porson, Parr and himself, that has now disappeared from our view. His family have all been conspicuous; his father, the Historian of Music, and friend of Johnson, was one of the most elegant writers of that age; his brother, Capt. Burney of the Navy, who accompanied Cook in his two last, long, enterprising, and perilous voyages, is one of the first geographers that this country possesses, a fact well supported by his voluminous and elaborate History of Voyages of Discovery; and Mad. D'Arblay, his sister, has equally distinguished herself by her well known writings.

Dr. Burney was a Fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies, Chaplain to his Majesty, Rector of Deptford, and of Hooe, in Kent, and also Prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral.

December 28th, at Framlingham, MRS. Tous, wife of the Rev. S. S. Toms, of that place. Her age was great, she having been born in the year 1739-40, a year memorable for the hard winter. Infirmities had for some time been growing upon her, more however to her own sensible conviction than to that of her dearest friend: but her firmness of mind and long settled habit of order and diligence in business carried her on usefully, to her own comfort and that of her household, until Thursday, Dec. 25th, when she enjoyed her dinner and seemed as well as usual, but was soon after seized with her mortal illness. She languished till the Lord's day morning, and then sweetly fell asleep in Jesus; and God will bring her with him in the great day, for truly she was a righteous and good woman; she feared the Lord from her youth, and had ever rested satisfied with the simplest and most rational views of religion and Christianity. The funeral took place Jan 4, the Rev. Mr. Perry, of Ipswich, officiating.

1818, Jan. 17, aged 20, after an illness of nearly three weeks, CHARLES KIRKPATRICK, youngest son of the late John Kirkpatrick, Esq. of Mount Pleasant, in the Isle of Wight. This interesting young man died in London, where he was preparing himself most actively and reputably for commercial life. His remains were interred in Bunhill Fields, in the family vault of Mr. Joseph Travers.

Suicide of Dr. Black.

ALL our readers, says The Dublin Evening Post, are acquainted with the name of Dr. Black; all know that as a light of our Presbyterian church, he was one of the most eminent in the north of Ireland, and that as a political character he has filled no inconsiderable space in the history of Ireland. The following particulars we have derived from a letter, dated Londonderry, December 4:-"The Reverend Dr. Black, who, you know, was a leading member of the General Synod of Ulster, Guardian and Treasurer. of the Widows' Fund, Treasurer and Distributor of the Regium Donum, &c. walked out of his house about midday, as usual with him, and transacted business, without any visible change in his deportment, except that he appeared somewhat more thoughtful and downcast. About a quarter before four o'clock he walked to the wooden bridge, and after he passed through the toll-gate, and had proceeded about half way across the bridge, he took off his outside coat and hat, which he gave to a boy who was near him, and immediately threw himself over the side railing into the river Foyle. The boy gave a shriek, and raised an alarm, but there being no person near at hand, it was some time before any one could even attempt to render assistance. The body was seen twice at the top of the water, and those who had the best opportunity of viewing it say, he struggled against swimming, and endeavoured to plunge downwards. The entire population assembled in less than twenty-minutes, but the body had then totally disappeared. The dead-grapples, &c. were immediately set to work, but to no purpose; indeed, the dusk of the evening, and now the darkness of the night, prevents all hope of the body being discovered, at least till tomorrow. The cries of his family would grieve any one. The whole city is at this moment as if panic-struck. The Doctor preached a most excellent sermon in the Meeting-House here last Sunday. No one can tell, and few venture to give an opinion, as to the cause of this melancholy business. He wallowed in worldly riches, and appeared perfectly happy in his domestic affairs."

hare done in other places. Of each of these in their order.

1. I said that this institution was originally unnecessary: The Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts has been in existence and in usefulness, but, though a Church of England Society, little encouraged, more than a hundred years. It is probable that many of this auditory, in all respects qualified to be members of that Society, never heard of its name. To them I take leave to recommend it, not as a new project, but as an established and orderly system. And certaiuly the zeal and the liberality of members of the Church of England, would be more consistently employed in the support of that, than in the formation of any new Society. 2. I said that I considered some of the Rules and Regulations of this Church Missionary Society, and especially the means which it employs to increase its funds, to be utterly unworthy the name which it would assume; viz, that of a Church of England Society. For example-Is it worthy of the Church of England, is it worthy of the members of the Church of England, to authorize persons to go about, collecting pence and farthings from servants, school-boys and apprentices, in order that the collectors of one shilling per week, or five shillings per month, may be elevated into members of a Church of England Society? And, moreover, be tempted to the additional honour of voting at meetings, of receiving copies of the Annual Report and Sermon, and one number of the Mis sionary Register? This is the statement ia Rule VI. of your Report: but I proceed to other matter.

3. I said that this Society tends to the subversion of ecclesiastical order, and to promote and augment divisions among the members, and especially the Clergy of the Church of England. Can a stronger proof of this assertion be offered than is, at this moment, exhibited before your eyes? Here you have the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Gloucester presiding in the chief city of the diocese of Bath and Wells, over the formation of a Society, which the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells DISCLAIMS. Does the honourable and Right Reverend VicePatron of this Church of England Missionary Society know this fact? If not, by what rule, not of apostolical authority, but of common propriety, does he invade the province of his venerable brother? By what right does he come hither, thrusting his sickle into another man's harvest? Perhaps he thought the husbandmen asleep! I trust that he will find us waking and watchful.-But if his Lordship did know the sentiments of his venerable Diocesan as well as mine (for the Dean of Wells is as much under canonical rule as any other elergyman), I ask, if his Lordship did know the sentiments of his venerable Dio

cesan as well as mine, could he give a more decisive proof of his indifference to the dignity of the high office to which he has been but a few years consecrated, as well as of his contempt of ecclesiastical order?

BUT THIS IS A CHURCH OF ENGLAND SOCIETY!! Where are the majority of the Established Clergy of this city and of the neighbourhood, that they attend not to support a meeting, convened under that assumption? Did they not hear of it? Was it possible for them not to hear of it? Did not the newspapers announce, not only the public meeting of this society, but that, to promote the views of this Institution a Sermon would be preached by the Honourable and Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Gloucester, at the OCTAGON CHAPEL? (I quote the very words of the Advertisement.) I ask again, where are the majority of the Established Clergy of this city and neighbourhood, that they attend not to support this Church of England Society? Perhaps it may be said that the archdeacon influenced their minds. The archdeacon solemnly declares, that he has not communicated, nor authorized any person to communicate, to any one of them his intention to be here.

But I have said, that this Church Missionary Society is plainly supported in conformity to the views of a NEW SECT in the Church; a Sect, of which the adherents distinguish themselves by the names of SERIOUS CHRISTIANS, and EVANGELICAL MINISTERS. I go further. That this society is in any respect calculated to promote the sober, orderly, manly, intelligent and intelligible piety of the Church of England, I do utterly deny. I look at the names of the prime and principal promoters of this project; names, I allow, of the highest respectability on many accounts, but certainly of very little weight in the balance of the Church of England; since some of the parties, to whom those names belong, have not scrupled to communicate with those, who renounce her doctrines and discipline.

But

Do not imagine that I mean to speak with disrespect of CONSCIENTIOUS DISSENTERS. quarrel with no man for his religious creed. I love honesty, though I may think it perverse. I venerate piety, though I may think it erroneous. those respectable Dissenters do-not halt between two opinions; they are not of the church to-day, and of the meeting-house to-morrow; and we know their meaning. But do the ministers of any Dissenting community go about proclaiming the insufficiency, the worldly-mindedness, and the want of gospel-zeal in their own brethren? Does any party of Ministers, in any communion, among them, assume to itself all the piety and all the virtues of the common function; or look down with super, cilious horror on their less assuming bre