State of Public Affairs. good earnest into the consideration of a constitution, fitted for their present wants. The deliberation of their diets have always been noted for their slowness; and the variety of interests to be consulted will probably make their present a work of great dimculty. The King of Wurtemburgh, one of Buonaparte's kings, still keeps at variance with his subjects. Their dissentions tend however to promote a spirit of inquiry among the neighbouring states; and it is evident that they will no longer be governed in their former despotic man ner. Their nobility must consent to consider themselves men, and their distinctious, which have long been held in contempt, will no longer serve to separate them from the great body of their countrymen. Prussia has not yet obtained a constitution, but the courage of their Landwehr will in due time procure it. The legislature of the Netherlands is employed on a very important object, namely, to reconcile together the interests of commerce, manufactures and finance. As the greater part of this nation was at one time commercial in a very high degree, it may be supposed to be well acquainted with every circumstance relative to trade; and thence we may derive lessons by which this country may be much benefited. Here we have an interest, lately much talked of, namely, the agricultural interest, and its policy has been seen in that very injudicious measure, the Corn Bill. With a view to bolster up its own interest, the landholders forgot their real situation, namely, that their wealth and importance depend on the flourishing state of our commerce and manufactures, and that cheapness of provisions is essential to their success. A landholder from a false view of his own interest looks to the dearness of provisions as his summum bonum; thence he conceives that his rents will be increased, and that he will enjoy increasing prosperity but his view of the subject is fallacious: all the advantages of commerce and manufactures ultimately tend to the profit of the land owner; his lands are better tilled, and are thence capable of producing him a greater rent. If he is content to derive this advantage in the proper manner, then all parties flourish; but if he looks to his own aggrandizement merely, he injures himself and all parties. Without commerce and manufactures the land will fall to what it was a few centuries back, to ten or twelve years purchase, the roads will be unfrequented, the canals dry: every thing will stagnate. A few landholders may consume in sullen luxury the produce of their estates on their own backs and bellies and those of needy dependents, but all spur to industry and improvement will be lost. Besides, the term agricultural in 563 terest is very much misunderstood with us. In conversing with the people, who are fond of using this term, it is easily discovered that they mean only the interest of the land owners, not of the cultivators of the land: but the latter are the true agriculturists, and the land owner stands to them exactly in the same situation, as what is called the monied does to the mercantile interest. The report, which is now in circulation, proceeding from the board of agriculture, must be read therefore with great caution. It is under the direction not of agriculturists, but of land owners; and the latter are little calculated to understand the complicated interests of such a kingdom as ours. A land owner talks of ruin when his rents are lowered, not recollecting that during the late war those rents had been raised out of all proportion to the profits of the other classes of society; and if he has derived for many years a very great advantage over his countrymen, it does not become him to grumble when the change of the times reduces him nearer to his pristine situation. How many are there in this class of life, who, by prudently applying the inordinate profits of the late years, have so increased their estates, that, if they were now let at the rate they went at before the war, still from the accumulation of land their yearly income will be increased doubly, trebly and more. But we shall be curious to see in what manner the great question is settled by the legislature of the Netherlands. We may persist, if the land owners please, for they are the legislators of this country, in pursuing their misunderstood interest. We may keep up the price of bread, but it must be recollected that other nations are not bound by our decisions. The road to commerce and manufactures is open to them, and they will not fail to avail themselves of it. Providence has supplied checks to imprudent and inordinate desires. We have been highly favoured. If we give up the advantages which industry will procure us, we shall only afford to the world another example, that riches make to themselves wings and fly away. Commerce and manufactures dwell only in those countries, where they are duly protected and held in honour, The Americans are making claims on the Court of Naples for property which had been seized under the late regime, and it is said that they will be content, by way of compensation, with some island, which will afford them a secure harbour for their ships and a good depot for their commodities. This may occasion a new era in the commerce of the Mediterranean. We have the island of Malta, which is highly beneficial to us, and the Americans will look to similar advantages from a port of the same, nature. In what manner this matter is considered by the Court of Naples and the other European powers time will shew. Spain has promulgated its successes in the new world, but we may be allowed to doubt whether they will be permanent. It will take time before the natives are assisted by arms and ammunition, and a sufficient number of French military can make head against the discipline of European troops; but the experiment will shortly be tried, and no one except a Spaniard can contemplate the independence of the Spanish colonies in any other light than as a gain to the world at large. An English ship has been carried it is said into Spain, which had a cargo from Buenos Ayres. This may occasion a correspondence between the two courts, and settle the question relative to the true situation of the inhabitants on the Southern banks of La Plata. A considerable sensation has been experienced by the publication and general circulation of a report of the House of Commons relative to the police of this country, and many extraordinary facts have been produced on the licensing of public houses. The matter will probably engage the attention of parliament at its next session, for when a grievance is universally felt and very generally understood and complained of, a change in the system is not far distant. This is a great advantage of our country, that by the free circulation of opinions, every matter is brought under general inspection. A temporary alarm has been excited on the subject of the silver coinage, but it soon subsided. Its defects have been long known, and in due time a new coinage will sweep before it the miserable pieces which are now in circulation. It is to be hoped that the nation will learn from the experience of the past, and never suffer their coin to fall again into so miserable a state. The time must come when a bad coinage must give place to a good one; but in the change many will be the sufferers. How much better would it not be to prevent the recurrence of such an evil, by never permitting a piece of coin to pass, which has not upon its face the legal stamp. CORRESPONDENCE. We are requested by the Treasurer of the Unitarian Fund to say that in the published list of Subscribers, the name of Mrs. Severn, of Broughton, Notts, has been by mistake omitted; and that the notification of any other errors in the list, will be esteemed a favour. In our next Number we shall be able to give a Memoir of the late Mr. William Matthews, of Bath. We have received a variety of interesting communications from America, of which we shall make an early use. A Correspondent, familiar with Spanish literature, has furnished us with a curious account of an Auto de Fé, compiled from official documents. "Recent Case of Bigotry in Private Life."-The reader probably recollects a letter under this title in the Monthly Repository for June, p. 320. The persons who suppose that they are referred to by our Correspondent, J. W. have shewn a very laudable anxiety to clear themselves of the suspicion of bigotry; but we are sorry to say that their defence leaves the principal part of the charge in its full force. The only part of their correspondence with us which is to the point is the following paragraph, which we print as we received it: "but it is due to the public weal that we shoud [should] answer the imputation of crime :-One branch of our family has for these fourteen years past attended a chapel a present inmate in our service has long been and now is a regular attendant at a chapel. The facts are now before the public: we anticipate the result.” We are enjoined, indeed, to publish the whole of the letter from which this extract is made, and in spite of the manner in which the injunction is laid upon us, we should have inserted it if, with the exception of the part already copied, it were not wholly irrelevant and scarcely intelligible; not to mention that it contains insinuations of a dark and serious nature. A plain fact is plainly stated by J. W. and that fact is not disproved but confirmed by the correspondence. We have said thus much to shew that we have not been inattentive to the subject, though we might have fairly stood excused for passing by a correspondent who concludes a letter with the threat" that if there is any reply or further notice of this transaction," the persons referred to "will seek redress in another form. A Correspondent wishes us to insert the following notice: "If the person who in the July Repository subscribed himself J. H. will please to inquire at the shop of Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, in Paternoster Row, he will find a small parcel directed for Mr. J. H. containing some small sets of sermons, such as he is desirous of seeing." ERRATUM. XI. 403. 2d. col. 3d, line from the bottom, for sacerdotam, read sacerdotum, Memoir of Mr. William Mathews. N the Obituary of the Monthly Magazine for May last, p. 393, I brief account is given of Mr. Mathews, "for many years the much distinguished and enlightened Secretary of the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society;" with an intimation from a Correspondent" that their next volume will contain a correct memoir of his life and useful labours." His publications in the volumes of the transactions of the Society, are said to "manifest his various useful attainments," and that in the station of Secretary," he contributed in no small degree, to raise that excellent institution to the pre eminence it has attained." The an nounced memoir will, it may be presumed, relate principally to these commendable efforts. Yet as he was well known to many of its members, and justly esteemed by them as a worthy, upright and actively benevolent man, and a warm friend to the great cause of civil and religious liberty, it may also advert to these features of his mind. My object is to give your readers some just ideas of my friend as a religious character. WILLIAM MATHEWS was born at Milton, near Burford, in Oxfordshire, November 1, 1747. His father, Mr. John Mathews, was a man of strict piety, and much esteemed as a minister in the Society of Friends. He was, of a benevolent disposition, and seems to have possessed something of the same spirit of freedom in his religious inquiries, by which his son William was so much distinguished. Some of the publications of the Rev. Theophilus Lindsey fell into his hands, and were not only perused by him, but approved and recommended to at least one of his children, as a plain assertion and Scriptural defence of the Christian doctrine of the Unity of God. He paid close attention to business and was careful to procure for a numerous family of children, as good an education as his circumstances and the village where he lived afforded. He also from an earnest wish to promote their welfare, encouraged their attendance of such meetings for worship and discipline, as lay within a convenient distance. The principles and economy of the Society became the early objects of his son William's serious consideration, who soon discovered an inclination and capacity for learning; and when about fourteen years of age, he was sent to London, where he remained in an exemplary Friend's family several years, and during that time became still farther improved in learning, and deeply impressed with the love of virtue and religion.* In consequence of a severe illness he returned home, and soon after became a tutor in a Mr. Huntley's school, at Burford, where he remained some years, and acquitted himself much to the satisfaction of his employer. In the year 1768, he opened a boarding-school at Coggeshall, in Essex, in a large house which was soon quite filled. He was assiduous and successful in the education of his pupils, and their moral improvement lay very near to his heart. He often addressed them in pathetic and affectionate language, in order to establish in their minds religious and moral principles for their future benefit: and some of his pupils who are yet living still retain a lively and grateful remembrance of those labours of love. His school was continued with increasing reputation and success about eight years. In the same year in which he removed to Coggeshall, he married Miss Mary Huntley, of Burford, a member of the Society of Friends, and sister to the Mr. Huntley before mentioned; and while he resided here formed an intimate acquaintance with several persons of superior intellect, and particularly with the late Mr. Edmund Rack, then of Bardfield, in Essex, but who removed to Bath about the year 1775, and Mr. Mathews soon after; the close confinement of his school proving injurious to his health. Both of them lived at Bath the remainder of their lives. Another of Mr. Mathews's most intimate friends at this time was the late Mr. Portsmouth, of Basingstoke, in Hampshire, " a man of great respectability as a practitioner in medicine, as a scholar, and as a gospel minister anong Friends." He was much older than Mr. Mathews, and had, like Mr. Letchworth, "suffered much pain of mind from what he had observed of the narrow and intolerant spirit," which prevailed among the ruling disciplinarians in the Society. In the hope it might do something "towards the removal of so great an evil," this worthy man wrote "An Essay on the Simplicity of Truth," and the Use and Extent of Discipline in the Church of Christ, particularly addressed to the People called Quakers," and confided the perusal of his MS. to Mr. Mathews, desiring his opinion as to the propriety of its publication. Mr. Mathews not only approved publishing the tract, but undertook to superintend the press at Bath on the author's behalf, and with his free consent annexed a P. S. to it, on Tithes, and the practice of disowning those members of the Society of Friends who paid them. This temperate work was no sooner published, under the signature of "Catholicus," than it caused much inquiry in the Society after the author. Mr. Mathews was of course suspected, " and though I was," says he, "not restrained by fear, from avowing the facts as they stood, I thought it unnecessary to do so, and hoped the attempt to diffuse liberality of sentiment, might be somewhat increased by preserving the secret. But my growing dissatis faction with some articles in the dis cipline of Friends, induced me shortly after to take such steps in my own person, as led to the conclusion, that if I was not the author, I was com pletely of his school; and as the event Soon proved, was no longer to be tolerated as a member of the Society." be How justly the disownment of Mr. Mathews, which took place in 1783, was attributed by him to the ruling individuals in the district of his resi dence, and how much he was previously esteemed as a minister, may inferred from the following anecdote. "I was not hasty," says he," in the discontinuance of my public ministry at Bath, where I reside, even after a minute of rejection from membership had been recorded in the monthly meeting book; both because I found the spring of love frequently flow in my mind towards my little audience, and because the far greater part of them had signed and sent me a writ ten testimony of their regard for me in that character, with hopes that it might continue. But my knowledge of the consequences to them, of expo sing, determined me to conceal their names. Many of them are now dead [in 1802] or removed to other situations. The constitutional irregu larity of continuing my public appearances [as a minister] was a sufficient inducement to me soon to desist: and it was not long before I found myself most disposed to discontinue also a regular attendance of Friends' meetings." A Nearly twenty years after, Mr. M. described his feelings towards the Society, and his attachment to the simplicity of their peculiar form of public worship, in the following terms. It is then no matter for sur prise that he continued an occasional attendant on their meetings for wor ship for the remainder of his life. man educated, habituated, and principled as I was, is very untit to find satisfaction in the communion of any other religious Society; and I have hitherto found more content in remaining a solitary retired character, than in resuming religions attendances among those whom (though I very affectionately regard them) I cannot have full unity with as a body. Mere external appearances of fellowship produce but little satisfaction ON Memoir of Mr. William Mathews. either side. And there are situations in which I might find more freedom than where I now reside, in associating for the purpose of public worship, under the form peculiar to our Friends and to which I am strongly attached on account of its simplicity, and the solemnity of its design." In 1786, Mr. Mathews published "The Miscellaneous Companions." The first volume consists of "a short Tour of Observation and Sentiment through a part of South Wales." But even this part of his work, evinces his benevolent and virtuous disposition. Most of his remarks on the incidents of the journey, or on the objects that attracted his attention, are calculated to guard against some moral evil, or to promote some practical good. Thus, in passing through Bristol, at a time when the merchants of that city were deeply engaged in the African slave-trade, before the public mind was awakened to its enormity; more than twenty years before the act passed for its abolition; and previous to the first efforts of the philanthropic Clarkson in this great cause of humanity;-Mr. Mathews, after some interesting remarks on the arts of ship-building and navigation, observes, "The evidences of superior skill and elegance, in the construction of shipping which so strongly mark the present days, however flattering to the pride of modern ingenuity, and however ornamental to our trading cities, like many other boasted improvements and embellishments, are far from being evidences of superior virtue and where virtue and moral usefulness are wanting, in the ingenuity of contrivance, or the applications and uses of art, much is wanting to charm the mind of a dispassionate and virtuous man. Thus, while we survey with astonishment and delight, those productions of mechanic genius, which we have been treating of; and consider their adaption to carry on an intercourse with foreign and remote countries, which, under virtuous regulations, might be at once pleasant and beneficial; who but must lament their subserviency also to slavery and distress! Who, without horror, can behold the clean, gilded, and ornamented vessel, riding at her anchors, and reflect that her hold has been made the dungeon, and the grave, of 567 many a poor innocent and mournful African, violently dragged on board from his native fields and every tender connexion! Who, without blushing for his country, and for human infamy, can survey the splendid engine of rapacious power without shuddering to the heart, at the thought of the pangs, the sorrows, and the suffocations which have existed beneath its gaudy ensigns! Who, that is worthy the name of man, but must deplore that the best principles of nature and all that is benevolent in the human heart should be so wantonly violated! That any calling himself a Christian, should commence the tyrant, and become the murderer, of distant unoffending fellow-creatures, whom he never saw, merely to have a chance of augmenting wealth, which, when gotten, must prove a shame, if not a curse to his generation!" In the course of this journey Mr. Mathews availed himself of a Indicrous misapplication of a common word, by a genteel young man of good natural talents and disposition, who rode with him several miles, to give his readers some useful “ thoughts on education." From these I shall select a passage or two before I quit this volume. "The division of empires and provinces," says he, "the general principles of the laws of nations-the rise, progress and importance of discoveries in arts and sciences, as well as the general' history of mankind these, or at least the elements of these should undoubtedly form parts of a liberal education. These, inculcated with view to store the mind with important subjects for future reflection, will have the most enlarging and beneficial tendency, especially as they may powerfully come in aid of a frequent and serious contemplation of the great Governor of all things, and of all events; which in proportion as the heavens are higher than the earth, is the supreme good of a right education, and the sacred pre-eminence of all knowledge. a "With respect to religion, without an inward experience of the power of which no man can be happy, the simple and unchangeable doctrines of the New Testament can never be too strongly enforced. This observation holds true with regard to youth of |