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bers of the Bible Society; at least of such of them as may have been prevented from joining the old society. We doubt if any one, who is able to afford the subseription, would refuse to subscribe *. Next to this, we recommend to the Bart

lett's Buildings' Society still further to lower the price of their PrayerBooks, already, indeed, to their honour, exceedingly low, and to enCourage the transfer of demands for Bibles from themselves to the Bible Society. And last of all we recommend, to that truly excellent and useful society, a cordial friendship, if not a warm co-operation, with the British and Foreign Bible Society. The more we consider the question, the more palpably we consider it to be now the interest of the church society to throw off as much of its burden as it can upon the shoulders of the general one. It would then pursue more unshackled its own operations for the good of that church which it especially serves. "Two are better than one," is a motto eminently suitable in principle to those two societies: and if we might apply a quotation once used by a great and lamented statesman, in recommending a poli* We shall probably recur to this subject before we close the present number.

tical union equally cried down at the time, we should say:

Non ego nec Teucris Italos parere jubebo; Nec mihi regna peto; paribus se legibus ambie

Invicta gentes, eterna in fœdera mittant.

the present review we have conOur readers will perceive, that in fined ourselves entirely to the discussion of the main principle at issue between us and Dr. Marsh. We

have reserved ourselves on many collateral questions, as well as on for a future occasion; and this we the personalities of his pamphlet, have done with the less scruple, because the public are already in possession of a reply to Dr. Marsh from the pen of Dr. Clarke; and because, at the moment that we write, two other replies of no mean promise are announced; the one by the Right Hon. N. Vansittart, and the other by the Rev. Mr. Dealtry. These will, probably, have met the public eye before our own remarks have seen the light; and they will, doubtless, not only have discussed, with far greater ability and effect, the single point to which our reasonings have been directed, but they will have left little to be achieved by other writers on the remaining branches of the subject.

LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL INTELLIGENCE,

&c. &c.

GREAT BRITAIN. In the press: Economical History of the Hebrides and Highlands of Scotland, by the Rev. Dr. Walker, Professor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh; and Essays on the Prophecies, by the Rev. T. Robinson, of Leicester.

Preparing for publication: Christian Ethics, by the Rev. Thomas Wintle;-and (by subscription) a new 8vo. Edition, in 9 vols, of the Works of Dr. Watts.

The following gentlemen of Cambridge were admitted to ordination, by the Bishop of London, on the 23d of February last, viz. Priests: Rev. H. Townley, B. A. Trinity; Rev. W. Armstrong, B. A. St. John's; Rev.

G. C. Gorham, B. A. Queen's:-Deacons : Mr. Grace, B. A. Pembroke Hall; Mr Tryon, B. A. St. John's.

The Cambridge University scholarship has been obtained by Mr. Scholefield, of Trinity. The chancellor's medals have been adjudged to Mr. Gosset, B. A. of Trinity, and to Mr. Neale, B. A. of St. John's. Mr. Owen, of St. John's, and Mr. Price, of Trinity, have been elected scholars upon Dr. Bell's foundation.

It is proposed to establish a direct navigable communication between London and Bristol, and thence to South Wales and Ireland, through the Kennet and Avon navigation.

A Botanic Garden has been formed at

Hull, about a mile from the town, under the care of Mr. Don, nephew to the Director of the Cambridge Garden.

The income of the consolidated fund, in 1811, was 42,286,152.; the charge upon it, 35,296,3134; and the surplus, 6,989,8391. :

in 1812, the income was 40,917,8351, the charge 36,801,9934, and the surplus 4,115,841. The amount of the war taxes,. including the property tax in 1811, was 23,027,444; in 1812, 22,393,0531.

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

THERE lies before us, at the present moment, so large a mass of Religious Intelligence, and that of a highly interesting description, that we hardly know what part first to select, or how to keep pace with the reasonable expectations of our readers to be informed of the events which are passing in the religious world. We should have been glad on this, as on many former occasions, to have enlarged the stipulated size of our work, in order to meet the pressure of the moment; but the occurrence of the Easter Holidays, at the close of the month, renders this expedient difficult, if not impracticable. This must be our apology to our readers, and we trust they will deem it a satisfactory one, for postponing many articles of intelligence which justly claim an early notice, or for briefly adverting to others, to which, in different circumstances, we should have felt it our duty to afford a larger space. It is impossible for any reader of our work not to be struck with the rapidly increasing extent and importance of that kind of intelligence which may be denominated Religious; although few of them can have the same opportunity with ourselves to judge of this increase. When we began our labours, our materials of this description were extremely scanty with difficulty did we glean a sufficiency of information to justify the regular appropriation of a part of our work as a record of religious events. The difficulty we now feel is so to compress our materials as not to interfere too much with our other profess ed objects, and yet meet the laudable demands of public curiosity. This one circumstance supersedes the necessity of any induction of particulars to prove the progress which religion is making in the world. May it be our endeavour, and that of our readers, to accelerate it, if possible, a thousand ⚫ fold! God forbid that any of us should be found, in THAT DAY, to have been instrumental in retarding it!

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

THE annual general meeting of this Society will be held at the Free-Mason's Hall, Queen

Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, on Wednesday the 6th day of May next, when a Report of the Proceedings of the Committee, during the past year, may be expected, far exceeding in interest any even of its own most interesting reports. But we need not now anticipate any of those particulars which we shall shortly have the pleasure of more circumstantially and more accurately recording.

In the preceding part of this number it will be seen that we have taken a large share in the controversy which Dr. Marsh has thought proper to revive, respecting the Bible Society. In doing so, we have endeavoured to redeem the pledge which we gave in our last number: how far we have succeeded must be left to the judgment of our readers. We would only request, that, if on a perusal of our review of Dr. Marsh's pamphlet, they should retain an impression of the weakness or insufficiency of our reasoning, they would attribute this, not to the cause itself, but to our incompetency to do it justice. The cause, we are confident, is capable of the most triumphant vindication, and advocates fully equal to that vindication will doubtless be found. Indeed, such advocates have already come forward; and, if we are capable of forming any judgment of the relative force of arguments, the refutation of Dr. Marsh is complete. The pamphlets of the Right Hon. N. Vansittart and the Rev. W. Dealtry, which have this day reach- ̧ ed us, and to which we hope to have another opportunity of adverting, seem to us to have left nothing farther to be desired on this head. What new ground of opposition may be taken by Dr. Marsh; what new objections he may raise; or by what new mistatements and sophistries, the old objections inay be bolstered up through the pages of another pamphlet, we will not pretend to say; but, certainly, we consider the cause as decided against him; and all we wish for is, that such of our readers as still entertain a doubt on this point, would read for themselves what Mr. Vansittart and Mr. Dealtry have written. The pamphlets of both these gentlemen are published by Hatchard.

The publication of Dr. Marsh's pamphlet, however we may regret it on other accounts, has been attended with this unforeseen advantage, that it appears to have suggested, to many zealous friends of the Establishment, the propriety of forming a distinct Society for the express and exclusive purpose of circulating the Liturgy, Articles, and Homilies of the Church of England, without note or comment; and measures, we understand, will speedily be taken for carrying this suggestion into effect,

BLACKHEATH AUXILIARY BIBLE SUCIETY.

We have been favoured, by a highly valued correspondent, with the particulars of the meeting, on the 22d of February last, which produced the establishment of the Blackheath Auxiliary Bible Society; and we regret that our limits will not permit us, at least in this month's number, to avail ourselves, to the extent that we could have wished, of his obliging communication. The proceedings of that day, together with a report of the speeches which were delivered at the meeting, will, we are happy to say, be published, in a separate pamphlet, in the course of a few days; and we can assure our readers that in those speeches they will find much to inform their minds and to interest their feelings, and we might add, if the consideration were not too trivial for the occasion, to gratify their taste.

The meeting was numerously and most respectably attended; and the chair was filled by Mr. Angerstein, a gentleman long distinguished for his zeal and activity in the promotion of every benevolent and patriotic undertaking. The usual resolutions were moved and unanimously adopted. The Earl of Dartmouth was appointed President; the Hon, and very Rev. the Dean of Windsor, the Right Hon. N. Vansittart, M. P. General Tarrington of the Royal Artillery, MajorGen. Burn of the Royal Marines, John J. Angerstein, Esq. and the Rev. George Lock, Vice-Presidents; Richard Best, Esq. Treasurer; and the Rev. Theophilus Lane, Prebendary of Hereford, Dr. Parker of the Royal Artillery Hospital, Woolwich, and Mr. J. Shewell of Deptford, Secretaries. The subscriptions and donations, already received, amount to 6501.; but even this sum, as our corresponden: justly and feelingly remarks, "will go but a little way towards supplying the wants of the many thousands of ignorant creatures in this neighbourhood."

The speakers who distinguished themselves on this occasion were, besides the three Secretaries of the parent institution, the Right Hon. N. Vansittart, Dr. Gregory of Wool

wich, the Rev. Dr. Collyer, John Dyer, Esq. of the Admiralty, the Rev. Messrs. Lane, Townsend, and Simons, and Dr. Parker. For the reasons we have already given, we are under the necessity of, at least, postponing the extracts which it was our wish to make from these speeches, and of confining ourselves, for the present, to the insertion of the greater part of the address of this new society to the public; an address which is no less remarkable for the force and, at the same time, conciseness of its statements, than for the ingenuity which has given something of the charm of novelty to arguments so much used, and for the spirit of true Christian pathos which at once enlists all the best feelings of our nature on the side of such institutions as the present.

"The Committee of the Blackheath Auxiliary Society trust that the County of Kent, in which the Christian religion was first established among our Saxon ancestors, will not be the last to patronize an institution, which has, in the short space of eight years from its formation, effected so much for the cause of Christianity, and which promises to be the most powerful instrument that has ever been employed by Divine Providence, without the exertion of miraculous agency, to establish the spirit of union and concord among all Christians, and to diffuse the pure light of the Gospel throughout all the nations of the world.

"In the short space of time just mentioned, it has afforded the means, either wholly or in part, of publishing the Scriptures in nearly sixty languages. Its exertions have been extended to Europe, Asia, Africa, and America; and have been received in all with gratitude and admiration. While sovereigns have extended to it their patronage and support, it has every where excited the heartfelt blessings of the needy, the ignorant, and the afflicted.

"In Europe, in Asia, in America, numerous Societies have been formed to further its objects, and extend its utility; and all descriptions of Christians, the Protestant, the Greek, and, in many instances, the Roman Catholic, have united to support an institution, which has for its fundamental law and sole purpose the distribution of the unadulterated Word of their common Lord and Saviour. But that Word is yet known to only a small part of mankind; and we are compelled, as Christians and as Britons, with shame to confess, that millions obey the laws of Britain, and fight under the standard of the Cross, displayed in her banners, to whom the religion of Britain is unknown, and the doctrine of the Cross has

never been preached. To wipe away this shame from the annals of our country, and to make Britain a blessing to the world, even beyond the reach of her dominion, the power of her arms, and the extent of her commerce, is the glorious aim of the Bible Society.

"But even at home we have yet much to do; and as local wants are best supplied by local attention and superintendence, that will best be done by the establishment of Auxiliary Societies, such as the Committee now recommend to this county and neighbour hood. The district comprised by the Blackheath Auxiliary Society is extremely populous, containing certainly not less than one hundred thousand souls. Of these a great number are strangers from various parts of the kingdom, particularly Ireland, and many are foreigners. A great proportion of the strangers, and even of the natives, are lamentably ignorant and uninstructed; and the paucity of churches is such, that even with the aid of all the other places of divine worship, a considerable proportion must be destitute of the ordinary means of religious instruction. The consequences are such as might easily be foreseen,-an extreme depravity of manners, and great danger to the public peace. The frequency of crimes, and the difficulty and embarrassment attending their detection and punishment, have led the inhabitants to consider the interference of the legislature as necessary for

the establishment of a more effectual local police.

"The Committee conceive that these ac knowledged circumstances plead, strongly in favour of an establishment, which cannot but co-operate powerfully with all the other means that may be employed for securing the peace and good order of the neighbourhood, and which tends, in the most effectual and unobjectionable manner, ultimately to supersede their necessity.

"To the Clergy and other Ministers, is affords the opportunity of more accurately knowing, and the means of supplying, the wants of their several flocks;—to the Magistrate, the hope that the painful necessity of curbing excesses by the harsh inflictions of penal law will be removed;-to every Christian, the cheering prospect of having, under the blessing of God, been instrumental in turning many to righteousness; many by whom his personal safety might have been endangered, or his property assailed; many who have risked their lives in employments connected with his business, or in the nobler service of defending his and his country's cause--many, also, whom his eyes will never see, whose names will never reach his ear, but who, in distant nations, and generations yet unborn, shall learn to celebrate their Reedemer's praise; and who, at last, shall swell that countless multitude, who surround the everlasting throne, for ever singing salvation to our God and to the Lamb"

VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

Ix our view of public affairs, we are com- undisguisedly applies to the whole extent of pelled to be extremely brief,

In SPAIN, no new events of any import ance have occurred. Lord Wellington appears to be collecting with great assiduity the means of bringing the siege of Badajoz, when he shall attempt it, to a successful termination. The French seem to be directing their main efforts to the same point. We may expect, therefore, that the campaign will commence in that quarter.

FRANCE is manifestly preparing for a war in the north of Europe; while RUSSIA, the power against whom her efforts are likely, in the first instance, to be directed, is wasting her best blood and treasure in disputing with Turkey the possession of some paltry, province. Bonaparte has obviously in view some expedition of a gigantic and overwhelming description. He has declared, that France, (and the name of France he now

his dominion, from the shores of the Baltic to those of the Adriatic), shall become an armed nation. A local force of 600,000 men is to ensure internal tranquillity, and to gaard his frontier on all hands from the introduction of English merchandize. About 200,000 men drawn from the conscripts of former years, whose services had not been called for, are to be added to his regular force. And he plainly intimates, that this force is likely to be employed for a long time, at a great distance from home. His Berlin and Milan decrees he declares to be in full force against the ships of all na tions, who do not cause their flags to be respected by England; in other words, who do not go to war with her all others are to be considered as denationalized. And he holds out to France the prospect of an interminable was with Great Britain. Among

other regulations which he has adopted, is the infliction of summary capital punish ment on every person found guiltyof holding any communication with Heligoland; and yet, strange to tell, he is granting licences to trade direct between England and France.

As far as we are capable of judging, SWEDEN seems disposed to take part against, rather than for, France; but no step which is calculated decisively to mark the character of her policy has yet been taken.

What part the UNITED STATES will take, under the altered circumstances in which they are placed, by the unceremonious and authoritative contradiction which Bonaparte has given to all their arguments on the subject of the recal of the Berlin and Milan decrees, and on which alleged recal they had grounded all their hostile measures against England, we cannot guess. But if Bonaparte had wished to stultify the whole proceedings of the American Government and Congress during the last year, he could not have done it more effectually than he has by the simple declaration, that the Berlin and Milan Decrees are unalterable laws of bis empire, until Great Britain shall repeal all her Orders in Council since May 1806,

inclusive, and shall also abandon what he calls her new principles of maritime law.

On the various subjects of DOMESTIC POlitics agitated in par iament, we cannot enter even in the most succinct manner. Va. tious changes have taken place in administration, and more are expected. Lord Castlereagh has succeeded the Marquis Wellesley as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and Lord Melville has taken the place of Mr. Yorke at the Admiralty Board. The Marquis of Hertford has been appointed Lord Chamberlain; Earl Cholmondely, Lord Steward; the Marquis of Winchester, Groom of the Stole; Earl of Harrington, Captain and Constable of Windsor Castle; and Col. Seymour, Serjeant at Arms: with a great variety of minor appointments in the Prince Regent's household.

A French squadron has escaped from L'Orient, consisting of four or five sail of the line. Nothing is known of their destination.

Two of the seamen condemned as traitors, in consequence of their taking up arms against their country in the Isle of France, have been executed, as an example to our navy and army. The clemency of the Crown has been extended to the rest.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

J. R.'s account will be admitted.

R. H.; J. L.; PHILALETHES; Herbert's Hymn; and the Extract from Mrs. Grant; will find a place.

R. V. G.; A. B.; CLERICUS SCRUTATOR; B.; EDWARD C.; SCRUTATOR OXONIENSIS are under consideration.

As E. W. admits that the castles which he builds in the air are "the result of determination, and not the consequence of inattention," we should advise him to determine to employ the force of his mind on more stable erections.

A Correspondent has objected to the statement on the subject of original sin by Dr. South, inserted in our last number, p. 78, as far too harsh and repulsive. We will not contest that point with him. The object of the extract, we apprehend, is to shew how very unreasonable is the clamour raised against those ministers and members of our Church, in the present day, who hold and preach the doctrine of man's utter depravity and help. lessness, as if the mere assertion of this doctrine proved them not to be true churchmen, Who among them has used stronger language; who among them, indeed, we might ask, has used such strong language as Dr. South has done, in the passage alluded to, in describing the innate corruption of human nature? Would the Bishop of Lincoln repre

sent Dr. South as therefore heterodox?

Our disguised Correspondent, from the neighbourhood of Lamb's Conduit Street, if he speak truth in saying that he writes in love and faithfulness when he uses the language of censure and reproof towards us, must admit that our censure, even of those he may think faultless, may be very consistent with love and faithfulness. If the articles, to which he alludes, be inconsistent with truth, it is in his power to shew their opposition to it. It is easy to bring a sweeping charge; not so easy to substantiate it.

ERRATA.

Last Number, p. 82, col. 1, l. 22, for Mankeim read Manheim.

p. 113, col. 1, last line, for that lamented prelate, read the Syrian bishop. Present Number, p. 150, col. 1, 1. 4, fur 611 read 86.

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