the most serious interest on behalf of both the sexes, and with a reverence and anxiety for the cause of real love and lasting attachments, equally foreign from profligacy and superstition.

66

THE MISERABLE METHODISTS."

"THE Duke of WELLINGTON presented a petition from a Congregation at Lewes, Sussex, praying their Lordships not to pass the Bill for repealing the Test and Corporation Acts. The Petitioners stated, the Noble Duke said, and in that statement he concurred, the great advantages that arose from toleration. The Petitioners also expressed great apprehensions -in which he hoped they would be deceived-that if the Act passed into a law, they might suffer considerably.

"Lord KING understood that the Petitioners were Dissenters; and if they were, they were very strange Dissenters-they were the miserable Wesleyan Methodists, the most intolerant of sects, who would have tolera-tion for themselves, but would not tolerate any other persons.

"The Earl of FALMOUTH did not know why so respectable a body of people should be called in that House miserable Methodists."-Examiner.

Lord KING gave a very good reason why they should be called "Miserable Methodists," granting even that there were no other, The Methodists may be divided into two classes, both miserable; one because they are unhealthy, unhappy men, trying to look for a comfort in the next world, which they cannot find in this; the other, because they are a parcel of shallow, hard people, just the reverse of the former, with no imaginations, who secure themselves a place in heaven, just as they would in the Buckingham stage. The former try in vain to be happy; they are too sensitive and good-hearted for their own opinions; and are haunted with a sense of those who are to be left out of Paradise. Of this description was poor Cowper; whose fine understanding was no more fitted to put up with their absurdities, than his frightened and shattered frame was to enable him to throw them off. The other methodists care not who is left out of heaven, so that they are in; they turn it all to the "6 glory of God," whom they make so illustrious for everything inhuman and unjust, that as a philosopher has said, their religion ought to be called Dæmonism, not Christianity. It would be frightfuller than it is, if it were not exceedingly foolish : for in truth, there is no Dæmonism on earth, much less in heaven;

which with a little help from the physician or "the schoolmaster," they would be ashamed of. We attend here to no distinctions of Wesleyan and Whitfieldian Methodists. Temperament makes the real difference. There are frightened Methodists, and hard, unimaginative Methodists. This is the proper distinction. The former are miserable in the ordinary sense of the word; the latter, according to the poet, may be accounted still more miserable :They, so perfect is their misery,'

Not once perceive their foul disfigurement,

But boast themselves more lovely than before.

The Chronicle,' speaking of the Earl of Falmouth's uneasiness at hearing the Methodists called miserable, and his vindication of them as a respectable body of people, says it does not augur well for them. "We fear," says the Chronicle,'" for a sect, when it is called respectable by Lords. It used to be said, in the country, of a youth when he had done growing, that he had got a knock on the head. During the growth of sects, the rule is to hate them; they become respectable when they become stationary, or are on the decline."

There are three things which may be said to have grown up together, and which make a formidable alliteration; Misery, Methodism, and Manufactures. If you wish to see Methodism in all its ingloriousness, go into the lace-making districts. It is there in all its triumph over the poor, the sedentary, and the frightened. However, another M. has come up, still more formidable, which is Machinery. This, after a great deal of trouble, will force its way with its giant arms, and insist upon fairer play being shewn to labour and the right of leisure; and meanwhile the Press is increasing with it; the two giants, the mechanical and the intellectual, have united their forces; and nothing will stand before them. At this moment, hundreds of iron mouths are at work, pouring forth "knowledge enormous." This it is that makes Methodism on the decline; for the Methodist, like any other bigot, dares argue only so far. Knowledge argues as far as

it can; and the Methodist is left behind. "Two-penny trash" is putting out a world of shilling, eighteen-penny, aye, and sixshilling trash. What is the Methodist's Magazine' once every four weeks, or the lumbering heap of falsehoods and common-places, called the Quarterly,' every three months, to the little weekly and almost every-day papers, that play like spirits about the heads of the community, and keep them fresh and joyous for the rejection of nonsense? Mr Limbird's Mirror' alone, merely by circulating a variety of knowledge, throws light upon thousands of human minds, and prepares them to repel with scorn the dark absurdities and frightful shapes, with which bigotry and corruption would hold them bound.*

It

The Examiner speaks of "a pious brig." We happened once to find ourselves on board one of those vessels of sanctification. was a Margate hoy, which sailed "by the grace of God." At night-time, walking about to keep ourselves warm, we hit against something on deck, and stooped to examine it. 'It was a woman! The Methodists (for theirs was the hoy) had secured all the beds below; and not one of them could be induced to give up corner to the female.

his

snug

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LORD HOLLAND AND THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.

IN home news," says the Atlas, "the great event of the past week is the second reading of the Bill for repealing the Test and Corporation Acts, in the House of Lords. It was a marvel peculiar to these latter days, to see Lord Holland, in a measure of such a nature, supported by the King's. First Minister, and the whole Episcopal Bench. The last hope of the Ultra-Churchmen was in "Heaven and the Duke of Wellington." We know not what miracle Heaven may work for them at the twelfth hour; but the Duke of Wellington cannot afford to keep open, as a continual subject of rancorous and useless controversy, a question which the opinion of the Country and of the Church, and the vote of the House of Commons, have combined to seal,"

Lord Holland, “supported by the King's First Minister and the whole Bench of Bishops," upon a religious question, has cer

We have just seen a late number of the "Mirror," after a long interval. Mr Limbird has a right to be impartial, and to make his selections from all quarters; but he should take care how he repeats, as facts, assertions which have no authority but that of the "Quarterly Review;" a work deficient in common honesty.

tainly a right to a new coat of arms. A Bishop on each side would do very well instead of his Foxes; and he might give up, for a new motto, the dumb eloquence of his Faire sans dire to the Noble Duke. What does he think of "Libertas, otia, libri ?" This, with "occupationes," ought to become the motto of the whole world. We happen to have kept our eye upon Lord Holland more than upon any other nobleman, ever since we have had to do with the press; and we never remember an instance, in which a handsome thing was to be done in the House of Lords, that he did not advocate it, nor an unhandsome one, which was not sure of his Protest. So great a thing it is to unite the humanity of a love of letters, with a genial temperament, and a liberal family name.

There are many reasons why the Duke of Wellington is in his present station, and why he acts as he does. It is of use to many people. He is a great cutter of Gordian knots. But they say, that among his recommendations to the royal favour, he has that of being a sincere man, and of saying what he thinks, If this be the case, we wonder at no confidence which the King reposes in him. A sincere man, and reasonable withal, must to a King be a god-send inconceivable. Ever since we heard of the Duke's character to that effect, we have had an inclination to like him, and hope we may find additional reasons for it. In friend or enemy sincerity is a noble thing,—the daylight of humanity. It enables us to see what we have to do or to oppose, and is an argument of natural greatness; if not in the presence of what is great, at least in the absence of what is dark and petty.

LONDON:

Published by HUNT and CLARKE, York street, Covent garden: and sold by all Booksellers and Newsvenders in town and country.-Price 4d.

PRINTED BY C. H. REYNELL, BROAD STREET, GOLDEN SQUARE.

THE COMPANION.

No. XVII. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 1828.

"Something alone yet not alone, to be wished, and only to be found, in a friend."-SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE.

SUBJECTS FOR DISSECTION.

THE difficulty of procuring bodies for the anatomist, whose science is so obviously connected with the interests of humanity, has at length obtained the notice of parliament; and a committee has been appointed to inquire into the means of doing it away. It appears that there are six or seven hundred students of anatomy in London, three parts of whom are obliged to go into other countries to find the means of pursuing their investigations. Mr Warburton said, that "if due facilities of obtaining subjects were afforded, the number of students in this country would not be less than 1,000, and taking the necessary supply of subjects to each student at two, the number required would be 2,000. According to the existing usage, none but the bodies of murderers could be legally obtained for dissection; but it was quite obvious that the supply thus afforded was totally insufficient. The number of bodies for the county of Middlesex in cases of murder, was only in the proportion of five in seven years."

Is it possible that this rate can be true? There is consolation so far, at all events. On the other hand, the necessity for 2,000 dead bodies in hand, is a little startling. Mr Warburton mentioned a circumstance, illustrative of the importance of the human subject to anatomical explanation, from which the House appear to have

VOL. I.

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