On the Formation of the Festival of the Rose at Réchicourt-le-Château. 269 preached, thundered, and ended by accusing to the government the abettors of the disorder which ravaged the flock entrusted to him. To an enlightened zeal, to courage resulting from a pure conscience, Marquis united both talents and fortune, which he sanctified by his manner of employing them.Nothing was left undone to bring back his parishioners to a sense of duty, But one of the means which appeared to him most likely to promote this end, was annually to bestow on virtue a triumphal pomp, the expectation, and afterwards the remembrance of which might powerfully excite their hearts. The establishment of the Festival of the Rose, which for so many ages rendered Salency the asylum of purity of manners, served as a model to Saint-Sauveur, Mezidon, La Trinité, Saint-Agnan, Surêne, Romainville, &c., although, whilst crowning merit, many of these institutions were not able to banish from amongst them the most ancient of the diseases of the human mind, pride. Marquis sought the counsels and the aid of experience; he endeavoured to give to his establishment a character suited to its situation, and to render the triumph of virtue precisely that of Christian humility; to expend the money destined for this festival in preparations for it and in charity, in order to prevent any encouragement being offered to avarice; and, to interest all the families in this institution, an assemblage of both sexes were to be present at this ceremony, and it was resolved that religion especially, without which morality is destitute of support, should sanction this festival. Each head of a family was, on the day annually appointed, to designate the three most deserving girls, from amongst whom the curate, as the founder, reserved to himself, as well as to his successors, the privilege of naming the successful candidate. The two others (her competitors) occupied the most honourable places on each side of her. A solemn procession conducts this young woman through the village, immediately followed by the authors of her days,-a just reward for the good education they have bestowed on her. They omit not to pass by the parental roof, the door of which had been the preceding evening ornamented with a garland; and it is in the midst of the sacred acts of religion that virtue receives its crown. Such is a short account of the plan of this festival, to which the curate Marquis appropriated a pecuniary fund, the yearly payment of which was to defray the necessary expenses. It was patronized in 1778 by the Bishop of Metz, and the year following by the parliament of the same town. The editor of this article, who has been a spectator of similar festivals in different parts of France, declares, that he has no where met with this ceremony performed in so affecting a manner as at Réchicourt-le-Château, and no where has it produced more desirable results: it effected so rapid a change there, that the neighbouring parishes felt the happy influence of the empire which good example must ever possess. All the arguments which are opposed to these festivals, are refuted by the experience of the good which this latter has produced, and by the continued good conduct of those young persons who have been crowned, who are models of propriety. Marquis dying in 1781, the festival which he had established was maintained with dignity, and even perfected by his successor. But the most cruel persecution of which the Church Calendars have preserved the records, having shut up the temples which were not demolished, and seized the funds appropriated to the expenses of these institutions, did away with, or suspended, the Festivals of the Rose. However, the religious zeal which has perpetuated that at Salency and revived that at Surêne, has also re-established, within some years, that at Réchicourtle-Château, where, notwithstanding the poverty of the funds, it is supported by the activity of a virtuous emulation. Marquis has published the two following works: Le Prix de la Rose de Salency aux Yeux de la Religion, avec le veritable Esprit de celle de Réchicourt-le-Château, instituée sur le Modèle de la première: in 8vo, Metz, 1780. Idée de la Vertu Chrétienne tirée de l'Ecriture, et suivie de Conférences sur la Fête de la Rose, exécutée à Réchicourt, en 1779 et 1780 in 8vo, Dieuze, 1781. It is just to transmit with honour to posterity the memory of this worthy curate, who has done so much for the cause of religion and virtue, and whose name is justly revered in the country where he exercised his ministry. SINCE Clapton, SIR, May 1, 1821. INCE I sent you the remarks, (p. 220,) I have recollected that "S. Hill, Archdeacon of Wells," (p. 223, col. 2,) is the person mentioned in your XIIth Vol. p. 467, as the author of a virulent attack on Bishop Burnet in 1695. I have also observed, that the various answers to the Rights are reviewed by Le Clerc in Bib. Chois. Tom. XXI. P. 193, col. 2. "One Mr. Secker." The future "Primate of all England," for whom was reserved the extraordinary distinction of christening, marrying and crowning the same royal personage, (George III.,) was, according to his biographer, Bishop Porteus, the son of a Protestant Dissenter, a pious, virtuous and sensible man, who, having a small paternal fortune, followed no profession." He resided "at a small village called Sibthorp, in the vale of Belvoir, Notts," where Secker was born in 1693. "He received his education at several private schools and academies in the country, being obliged by various accidents to change his masters frequently. Notwithstanding this evident disadvantage, at the age of nineteen he had not only made a considerable progress in Greek and Latin, and read the best and most difficult writers in both languages, but had acquired a knowledge of French, Hebrew, Chaldee and Syriac, had learned Geography, Logic, Algebra, Geometry, Conic Sections, and gone through a course of lectures on Jewish Antiquities, and other points preparatory to the critical study of the Bible. At the same time, in one or other of those seminaries, he had the good fortune to meet, and to form an acquaintance with, several persons of great abilities. Amongst the rest, in the academy of Mr. Jones, kept first at Gloucester, then at Tewkesbury, he laid the foundation of a strict friendship with Mr. Joseph Butler, afterwards Bishop of Durham." (Review of Secker's Life, 1797, p. 2.) This passage discovers the attainments of Mr. Fox's early associate at the commencement of their acquaint ance. It may serve also to describe the cursory manner of a Churchman, reared amidst the "stately piles of old munificence," when constrained to mention the unendowed institutions for intellectual improvement, supported and enjoyed by Separatists. Amidst the confusion of "private schools and academies," and the “evident disadvantage" of "being obliged to change his masters frequently," who would discover that "the academy of Mr. Jones" was distinguished amongst the rest"? Yet in that academy Secker must have found the opportunities for making those valuable attainments" at the age of nineteen," which, without any university education, except being entered, in 1721, in his 28th year, for "about a twelvemonth" at Oxford, merely for the sake of taking a degree, or, according to a ludicrous description, as a term-trotter, enabled him to reflect so much honour, as a theologian, upon the Church of England. The prelate, it is to be feared, had seldom, if ever, conversed with his chaplains, of whom Dr. Porteus was chiefly in his confidence, on his obligations in early life to an education in a Dissenting academy. But, sometimes, litera scripta manet. There exists a curious record on this subject by Secker himself. It is one with which a biographer, writing not to compli ment or aggrandize a church, but to instruct and entertain the world, while he did justice to those who had contributed to form the character which he described, would have been eager to adorn his narrative. Dr. Gibbons, the biographer of Watts, annexed to the Memoirs of his friend, in 1780, "Select Letters of his Correspondents," printed from the originals. The first of these letters is from Secker. It is dated "Gloucester, Nov. 18, 1711,” and thus commences: "Before I give you an account of the state of our academy, and those other things you desired me, please to accept of my hearty thanks for that service you have done me, both in advising me to prosecute my studies in such an extraordinary place of education, and in procuring me admittance into it. I wish my improvements may be answerable to the advantages I enjoy; but, however that may happen, your kindness has fixed me in a place where I may be very happy, and spend my time to good purpose, and where, if I do not, the fault will be all my own." (Mem. of Watts, p. 346.) Secker describes Mr. Jones (p. 347) as a man of real piety, great learning, and an agreeable temper; one who is very diligent in instructing all under his care, very well qualified to give instructions, and whose well-managed familiarity will always make him respected." He afterwards says, (p. 351,)"We pass our time very agreeably betwixt study and conversation with our tutor, who is always ready to discourse freely of any thing that is useful, and allows us either then or at lecture all imaginable liberty of making objections against his opinion, and prosecuting them as far as we can. In this and every thing else he shews himself so much a gentleman, and manifests so great an affection and tenderness for his pupils, as cannot but command respect and love." The students," sixteen in number," were "obliged to rise at 5 of the clock every morning," (whence, probably, Secher acquired his habit through life of rising "at six the whole year round,") and "to speak Latin always, except when amongst the family." Secker's " bedfellow, Mr. Scott," he describes as 66 one of unfeigned religion, and a diligent searcher after truth." This was "Dr. Daniel Scott, with whom" Dr. Gibbons "was intimately acquainted.-In 1741, he published a new Version of St. Matthew's Gospel, with Critical Notes, and an Examination of Dr. Mills's various Readings. He published also in the year 1745, an Appendix to H. Stephens's Greek Lexicon, in two volumes. He dedicated them to Dr. Secker and Dr. Butler." The other students named, are "the two Mr. Jones's, Mr. Francis, Mr. Watkins, Mr. Sheldon" and "Mr. Griffiths." Secker says of the elder Mr. Jones," that he would "in all probability make a great scholar." This was, I apprehend, Jeremiah Jones, author of the Canon, who, in 1719, dedicated to Mr. Samuel Jones," with the respectful gratitude of a much-indebted pupil, his "Vindication of the former Part of St. Matthew's Gospel from Mr. Whiston's Charge of Dislocations." Secker, when he wrote this letter, must have been in his second academical year, at least, as I judge from the following passage (p. 349): "I began to learn Hebrew as soon as I came hither, and find myself able now to construe, and give some grammatical account of about twenty verses in the easier parts of the Bible, after less than an hour's preparation. We read every day two verses a-piece in the Hebrew Bible, which we turn into Greek (no one knowing which his verses shall be, though at first it was otherwise). And this, with Logic, is our morning's work." He had before said of Logic, "I was utterly unacquainted with it when I came to this place." He describes the course as occupying "about four years;" he might, therefore, have left the academy near the time of Mr. Fox's arrival in London. To this letter, which I have had occasion to quote so largely, Dr. Gibbons annexed the following note (p. 352): "This very sensible letter was written by Mr., afterwards Archbishop, Secker at the early age of eighteen. It does honour to himself, at the same time it pays such distinguished and deserved respect to his learned, vigilant and amiable tutor, the Rev. Mr. Samuel Jones. Had Dr. Porteus and Dr. Stinton, the authors of the Archbishop's Memoirs prefixed to his Works, [in 1769,] been acquainted with Mr. Jones's eminent merits, they certainly would not have passed him over so slightly as one Mr. Jones, who kept an academy at Gloucester. But they will undoubtedly give him his just honours in all subsequent editions." This confident expectation was worthy of a guileless Christian such as I knew Watts's biographer to be, one not restrained by prejudice or policy from paying " honour to whom honour" is due. It was, however, hastily indulged in the present instance. "Mr. Jones" was in future substituted for "one Mr. Jones;" and this appears to have been all the use made of this letter, of which it is scarcely possible to suppose that Bishop Porteus could be uninformed, especially so late as 1797, when publishing his "fifth edition, corrected." Besides notices in Reviews, I well remember to have made a reference to Secker's letter in a short communication to the Gentleman's Magazine, in 1784 (LIV. 84). Of Mr. Samuel Jones, Dr. Kippis appears, from a hint in his article Butler, to have designed 66 a short account under the article of Dr. Samuel Chandler." This design was not executed; probably for want of sufficient information. Ibid. Secker was not only" intended for a Dissenting Minister," but he appears to have preached, once at least, among the Dissenters. Archdeacon Blackburn says, (Hist. View, ed. 2, (1772,) pp. 242, 243,)" When Dr. Secker became Archbishop of Canterbury, his friends and dependents thought it necessary to represent that his connexions with the Dissenters had been extremely loose and unconfined. -There were, however, some persons living not many years ago, who pretended to remember that one Mr. S- -r preached a probation sermon to a Dissenting congregation somewhere (Bolsover) in Derbyshire." In connexion with this circumstance, Wakefield has the following paragraph: The late Mr. Williams, of Nottingham, a Dissenting Minister, and my intimate acquaintance, was told by Mr. Statham, who was likewise a Dissenting Minister at Nottingham, that Secker, in conversation with Mr. Robert Dawson (from whom Mr. Statham received this circumstance) and some other Dissenting Ministers, (about the time, I presume, of Secker's preaching among the sectaries at Bolsover, in Derbyshire,) had expressed himself in terms strongly declaratory of his ambitious turn of mind. Aye, says Dawson, nothing will do for you, Secker, but conformity.'No,' replied Secker, like another Hazael, with indignant earnestness, CONFORM I NEVER CAN.'" (Memoirs, I. 171, 172.) Ibid. Secker "did not like" the Dissenters' "principles and practices in a great many things." Thus Bishop Porteus says, (p. 7,) "that he was greatly dissatisfied with the divisions and disturbances which at that particular period prevailed amongst the Dissenters." Ibid. Secker " was strong in Dr. Clarke's scheme about the Trinity," and "under great difliculty about subscribing the Articles." Bishop Porteus describes him (p. 4) as "not being at that time able to decide on some abstruse speculative doctrines, nor to determine absolutely what communion he should embrace." Archdeacon Blackburn says, (Hist. View, p. 243,) that "his Grace's preferring the medical profession to the evange lical, has more than once been ascribed to scruples, wherein modes and forms were not the only things considered." P. 194, col. 1. Secker "turned his thoughts to physic." Bishop Porteus says, (p. 5,) that "about the end of the year 1716, he applied himself to the study of physic; and after gaining all the insight into it he could, by reading the usual preparatory books, and attending the best lectures during that and the following winter in London, in order to improve himself still more, in January 1718-19, he went to Paris." He there became acquainted with Father Montfaucon, and Winslow, the anatomist, "whose lectures he attended, as he did those of the Materia Medica, Chymistry and Botany, at the King's Gardens. The operations of surgery he saw at the Hotel Dieu." Ibid. Secker went "to Leyden, where he soon took his degree, and returned to Oxford." He appears not to have been at Oxford till his return from Leyden. During his residence at Paris, from Jan. 1719 to August 1720, he constantly corresponded with Mr., afterwards Bishop, Butler, who was now preacher at the Rolls. Mr. Butler prevailed on Mr. Edward Talbot, son of Bishop Talbot, to " engage his father to provide" for Secker" in case he chose to take orders in the Church of England." Very opportunely, "his former difficulties, both with regard to conformity and some other doubtful points, had gradually lessened." He therefore "quitted France" in "August 1720," as before-mentioned. "It being judged necessary that he should have a degree at Oxford," to "help him in obtaining" it, he was advised to "take the degree of Doctor in Physic at Leyden," though he had now entirely abandoned the medical profession. This degree " he took March 7, 1721," giving" as part of his exercise a dissertation de Medicinâ Staticâ,thought by the gentlemen of that profession a sensible and learned performance." He immediately returned to England, and “entered himself a Gentleman Commoner of Exeter College, in Oxford. About a twelvemonth after, he obtained the degree of A. B.; in December 1772 was ordained deacon by Bishop Talbot, priest not long after, and preached his first sermon in St. James's Church, March 28, 1723." Thus Secker, by subscription ex animo, and the required assent and consent, found himself at last in the right track, determining henceforth, like Sir Thomas Browne, (Rel. Med.,) "to keep the road, and follow the great wheel of the Church." Ibid. Mr. Fox cannot easily explain to his own satisfaction how his friend Secker could "have stooped to such preferments, as he once despised upon the terms they were to be had." But the ecclesiastical aspirant felt, no doubt, what Wakefield describes, (Memoirs, I. 173,) "the marvellous efficacy of preferment, and the prospect of preferment, in rectifying the intellect, and enlightening the eyes of the understanding." the Christian Temper," who died in Ibid. col. 2. Mr. James Read." Ibid. col. 2. "Coronation of George the First." This ceremony was performed, Oct. 20, 1714. It must, however, be acknowledged, to the praise of Secker, that he performed with exemplary attention the theological duties assigned to the stations he occupied, while he munificently employed their large revenues in the P. 195. col. 1. "One Lorimer." promotion of useful and benevolent designs. His MSS. in the library at His name appears second upon the Lambeth, of which Newcome ac- List of Ministers who, in 1719, were knowledges very frequent use, bear" for subscribing." "for subscribing." (Mon. Repos, ample testimony to his talents and XIV. 17.) diligence as a biblical student; and it remains, I apprehend, an historical fact, that the Dissenting academy of "one Mr. Jones" had the honour of furnishing to the Church of England her last preaching Archbishop of Canterbury. The Primates of all England" who have succeeded Secker, appear to have been satisfied to "dwell in decencies." Scholars and polite gentlemen, if not flexible courtiers, the theological labours of these cessors of the apostles" may, perhaps, be not unfairly comprised in this enumeration by Wakefield (Mem. II. 430): "A visitation in five years at least! 66 suc A minster-sermon, and a clergy-feast! And, on high Sabbath, give the Peace P. 194, col. 1. "Mr. Evans." Dr. VOL. XVI. 2 N Ibid." Grand Eclipse," described as "a total celipse of the sun about nine in the morning (April 22, 1715). The darkness was so great for three minutes thirteen seconds, that the stars appeared, and the birds and other animals seemed to be in great consterna tion." Salmon's Chronol. Hist. 1747, II. p. 47. Ibid. 'Great fire in Thames Street," Jan. 13, 1715. It "burnt down above one hundred and twenty houses-and above fifty persons pérished in the flames, or by other accidents." (Chro nol. Hist. p. 45.) 66 Ibid. Mr. Fox "saw all the rebel lords and gentlemen-brought through Holborn." They were pinioned at Barnett, and so led through the city, as well the seven peers as the rest.' Chronol. Hist. p. 56.) This triumph of the "amiable and illustrious House" over a disarmed enemy, was exhibited 22 |