various expedients were adopted; amongst others a test or subscription of assent and consent to the doctrine and worship of the Church of England. On hearing this, one of the candidates, at whom, perhaps, on account of his interest, this precaution was pointed, instantly withdrew, and addressed a letter "To the Master, Warden and Court of Assistants of the Worshipful Company," a copy of which is now before us in print, and which speaks such a noble feeling of honour and Christian integrity, that we cannot refrain from making an extract:

"I have been made acquainted with a Resolution, which, although not officially promulgated, is yet universally understood to have been recently adopted by your Court, excluding from the existing competition for the office of your clerk and solicitor, all persons who in their religious professions are not members of the Church of England.

"It would not become me, under present circumstances, to inquire what connexion there can possibly exist between particular modes of Christian faith, and the professional duties of the office referred to; much less does it belong to me to question the propriety of such a rule of election. It is sufficient for me to know that such an exclusive qualification is insisted on, and that my conscientious persuasion disqualifies me from continuing a candidate. I am very averse from any thing which might be deemed an ostentatious or unnecessary profession of my religious tenets; but I consider it due to truth and consistency of character, to avow, on the present occasion, that those which I profess, derived from my ancestors and confirmed by personal conviction, place me beyond the pale of qualification. And I feel assured that I should not be considered by others, any more than by myself, a deserving object of your choice, if I could hesitate one moment, in taking the determination I have now come to.

"The reception I experienced on my canvas, induces me to flatter myself, that, but for this peculiar exclusion, I should have been justified in entertaining the most confident expectation of success; and I trust I may be permitted to say, without the imputation of offence, it is no small consolation to me to find that I am excluded from being a Candidate, not rejected at the Election; and that my exclusion is produced, not by personal objection, but by the mere difference of religious persuasion, acknowleged to be equally conscientious in each party."

Although disappointed in an object of

professional ambition to which he had a fair claim, the writer appears to us to derive more honour from this manly and Christian avowal than he could have derived from any office whatever.

It has been questioned whether the Company had a legal right to adopt their resolution; but allowing this, we may be permitted to say, that it was not liberal to the Dissenters who are on the Court and in the Company, it was not considerate towards the candidates, and it is surely unworthy of a public body in the metropolis in this era of light and liberty. If the object be more than an electionmanoeuvre, if it be intended to shut out Dissenters altogether, the Court must go yet farther, and decree that any of their officers becoming Dissenters shall be ipso facto excluded. Are they prepared for this act of persecution ?-While the door to public employment is thus closed against Dissenters, the Dissenters themselves have for the last half century been opening trusts and emoluments, of which they had the disposal, to Churchmen; and the consequence has been in certain hospitals and charities that we could name, that the members of the Establishment have by degrees obtained the ascendancy, and wholly excluded the Dissenters. Thus have this latter class of persons been doubly injured. Let them, then, take the matter into consideration, and henceforth act, not indeed with illiberality, (for even by way of retaliation that is always bad,) but with a due care of the interests of their own denomination and of the claims of their posterity upon institutions founded or endowed, with a view to their benefit or influence, by benefactors who either were of their own persuasion, or considered that their charities would be best administered by such as were.

Cambridge, Jan. 4.-R. WOODHOUSE, Esq. M. A., F. R. S., Fellow of Caius College, and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, was yesterday unanimously elected Plumiau Professor of Experimental Philosophy, in the room of the late Archdeacon Vince. The Rev. J. LONSDALE, M. A., Tutor of King's College, is elected Christian Advocate, in the room of the Rev. T. Rennell. The Rev. C. BENSON, M. A., Fellow of Magdalene College, is continued Hulsean Lecturer for the present year. The Hulsean Prize for the year 1821 was, on Monday last, adjudged to W. TROLLOPE, B. A., of Pembroke Hall: subject, "The expedients to which the Gentile philosophers resorted, in opposing the progress of the Gospel, described and applied in illustration

of the truth of the Christian religion." The subject of the Hulsean Prize Dissertation, for the present year, is, "The argument for the genuineness of the sacred volume as generally received by Christians."

Vaccination. The Report of the National Vaccine Establishment is just published, signed by Sir Henry Halford, and other eminent medical men. The subscribers say, that the result of another year's experience is "an increase of their confidence in the benefits of it." They rejoice that the practice of vaccine inoculation is growing. Many cases have been reported to them of small-pox in patients previously vaccinated; but, they add, "the disorder has always run a safe course, being uniformly exempt from the secondary fever, in which the patient dies most commonly when he dies of small-pox." They express their unqualified reprobation of the conduct of those medical practitioners, who, knowing well that vaccination scarcely occasions the slightest indisposition, that it spreads no contagion, that in a very large proportion of cases it affords an entire security against small-pox, and in almost every instance is a protection against danger from that disease, are yet hardy enough to persevere in recommending the insertion of a poison, of which they cannot pretend to anticipate either the measure or the issue." In conclusion, they report that the number of persons who have died of smallpox this year within the bills of mortality, is only 508, not more than twothirds of the number who fell a sacrifice to that disease the year before.

Eton.-A Library for the first hundred Eton boys has been established at that College. His Majesty has expressed his approbation of this, and presented a superb copy of the Delphin and Variorum Classics to the institution.

The Rev. T. C. HOLLAND will resign the charge of the Unitarian congregation at Edinburgh in a few months. He announces to us his intention of undertaking the pastoral care of some congregation in South Britain. A vacancy will, of course, be created at Edinburgh.

Mr. WORDSWORTH has two new poetical works in the press. The first that will appear is entitled "Memorials of a Tour on the Continent;" and the other "Ecclesiastical Sketches," in 3 Parts. Part 1. From the Introduction of Christianity into Britain to the Consummation of the Papal Dominion. Part 2. To the close of the Troubles in the Reign of

Charles I. Part 3. From the Restoration to the Present Times.

In compliance with the request of the friends of the deceased, the Sermons of the late Rev. CALEB EVANS, will be sent to the press as soon as it can be ascertained what number of copies may be wanted. To this small Volume (price five shillings) will be prefixed a Portrait, and the Memoir of Dr. Southwood Smith, inserted in our last number (pp. 5560). An Appendix will contain the Deceased's" Week's Ramble into the Highlands of Scotland."

Mr. OVERTON has in the press an Inquiry into the Truth and Use of the Book of Enoch, as it respects his prophecies, visions, and account of fallen angels, such Book being at length found in the Ethiopic Canon, and put into English by Dr. Laurence.

The new PARLIAMENT has been chiefly occupied with the consideration of Agricultural Distress. Various and contradictory opinions have been hazarded by our legislators on the subject. Some attribute the difficulties of the farmers to the bounty of Providence, or, as the Marquis of Londonderry says, "the causes of nature," and represent plenty as the great curse of the country: this is surely quite a new doctrine, and, if true, requires a great part of the Bible and of our Prayer-Books to be newmodelled. Others say, agreeably to the opinions of our fathers and of almost all mankind in all ages, that the pressure of taxation is the evil under which the nation groans; while the ministers and their partisans and some independent men who are theorists, seem to hold that taxation is a blessing! A Committee is appointed to discuss the matter and report upon it, but he must know little of the constitution of Parliament who expects much from a Committee of the House of Commons, where the Prime Minister has a secure majority.

It is our intention to take notice from time to time of such Parliamentary proceedings as bear upon the great question of religious liberty and ecclesiastical re form and in this connexion, we have to record a curious motion of Mr. HUME'S, the indefatigable friend of reform, by means of economy and retrenchment; it is, for a Return of Half-Pay Officers in the Church. How many and whom this return will include, we know not; but we suspect that it will comprehend more ecclesiastics than are dreamed of, and rumour says that there will be found in the list a certain bishop! On the motion being made, Mr. CALCRAFT

asked, What would be the answer if these half-pay clergymen were called upon to serve again ?

FOREIGN.

Memorial of Mr. Locke.-We find the following in the New Monthly Magazine for January," Histor. Reg." p. 20. It is not stated where the intelligence is picked up; probably from some French Journal. We confess that we regard the story with suspicion.

"Montpellier-A workman employed in removing the foundation of an old house near this city, found a glass bottle hermetically sealed; it was found to contain, in an excellent state of preservation, the following Latin inscription on vellum :

"Mortalis ! In thesauros incidisti! Hic in Christo FIDES, rebus in humanis MODUS patent. Ampulla nec vacua, nec vilis, quæ animo hilaritatem, corpori salutem, affert. 'Ex hac imbibe, et haustum, vino vel Falerno vel Chio, gratiorem hauries. Scripsit Johannes Locke, Anglus, A. D. 1675.

The following is a translation: "Mortal! Thou hast found a treasure! Here are placed before you FAITH in Christ and MODERATION in things terrestrial. The bottle is neither empty nor of little worth, which affords cheerfulness to the mind and health to the body. Quaff of this, and thou shalt imbide what is more precious than the juice of Falernum or Chios. So wrote John Locke, Englishman, in the year of our Lord, 1675."

The news from abroad is not characterized by variety. The UNITED STATES of America are rapidly reducing their debt, and at the same time increasing the means of national defence and improving their civil institutions. A proclamation has been addressed to the citizens of the United States by the Greek Senate at Kalamata, claiming their sympathy and aid as freemen on behalf of a people struggling for liberty against barbarous and sanguinary oppressors. The cause of the GREEKS is in abeyance. The greater part of the Morea and of the islands seems to be in their possession. Their capital, the seat of their senate and government, is Kalamata (just named) in Messenia. Here they have established a printing-office, from which the Acts of the Senate and the Bulletins of the armies are regularly issued, and from which also proceeds a new Journal, called The Hellenic Trumpet, edited by Theoclitos, a learned ecclesiastic. Their leaders judge rightly, that a free press is a formidable

weapon against imposture and tyranny. The tragical end of the Persian prince, Mahomet Ali Mirza, a powerful enemy of the Turks, who was found dead in his tent, is said to have damped (though we trust but for a moment) the enthusiasm of the Greeks. The negociations between TURKEY and RUSSIA are not as yet brought to a conclusion. Some students at Constantinople, training up as teachers of Islamism, lately made a stir on occasion of the banishment of one of their Professors for alleged seditious expressions, which recalled the government to moderation: a proof that even here, under the throne of ignorance, there is felt the impulse of that popular feeling which agitates the rest of Europe.— The leaden sceptre of AUSTRIA presses upon the heart of beautiful Italy. The despot knows his enemies by instinct rather than wisdom, and we hear of the suppression of schools in LombardySPAIN and PORTUGAL are consolidating their free governments: the Priesthood in these lauds of promise are declining daily in numbers and influence. A cloud is over FRANCE, portending, as some think, an explosion at no distant period. Superstition has shewn itself in a disgusting form in the conversion of the two daughters and the niece of Mr. Loveday, an English gentleman, to Popery: the actors in this gloomy farce were a Parisian school-mistress, certain priests and prelates, and, it is said, a prince of the blood in a mask. The event will, we trust, operate as a warning to our countrymen who send their children to France for education, some of whom have not scrupled to place their daughters for that purpose in religious houses. The new Royalist Ministry have succeeded in carrying through the Chambers a law with regard to the press, of a more despotic character than any measure brought forward in Europe for the last half-century. The discussions amongst the Deputies were exceedingly stormy: a considerable body of the patriots withdrew before the passing of the law, that they might not seem by their presence to give the colour of legislation to so fatal a violation of the Charter of Liberties. By this law it is a crime to question " the Divinity of Christ :" the French are not theologians, and the phrase may loosely mean the denial of the Christian religion; but the ambiguous wording of the law may be strained by bigots to the oppression of the liberal Protestants. How well was the present reigning family in France described by their late Rival, as having, in their exile and their experience during the Revolution, "learned nothing and forgotten nothing" !

No. CXCV.]

[Vol. XVII.

best constituted

church in the world," she has never shrunk from the fullest investigation of her tenets, and has constantly been distinguished by the most unparalleled forbearance towards those who dissent from her doctrines and discipline. But without resorting to other sources of history, the records of our statutebook, which cannot be gainsayed by a church founded on Acts of Parliament, disclose her character in a somewhat less consistent and amiable point of view. The secret motives in which her separation from the Church of Rome originated, when compared with those which gave rise to Protestantism in other countries, were not peculiarly laudable for their purity, whether we trace them to the caprice and infidelity, or to the grasping avarice, of a sensual and arbitrary tyrant. How far the first public act of her separate existence displayed an enlightened preference to truth and simplicity in doctrine, or the most charitable spirit towards her opponents, is recorded in the statute passed in the 31st year of Henry's reign, for abolishing of Diversity of Opinions in certain Articles concerning Christian Religion," by which, transubstantiation, the denial of the cup to the laity, private masses, auricular confession, and others of the most scandalous corruptions of Christianity, were consecrated as leading articles or doctrines of "the whole Church and Congregation of England," and the extreme penalty of death was denounced against all oppugners of the edict.*

mediately under him, of this whole Church and Congregation of England, intending the conservation of the same church and congregation in a true, sincere and uniform doctrine of Christ's religion; calling also to his blessed and, most gracious remembrance, as well the great and quiet assurance, prosperous increase and other innumerable commodities which have ever insued concord and unitie in opinions, as also the manifold have heretofore, in many places and reperils, dangers and inconveniences which gions, grown, sprung and arisen of the diversities of minds and opinions, especially of matters of Christian religion; and therefore desiring, that such an unity should be charitably established in all things concerning the same, as might chiefly be to the honour of Almighty God, and, consequently, redound to the Commonwealth, had caused his Parlia of the Archbishops, &c. to be assembled. ment, and also a synod and convocation

deration were six, relating to transubstanThe articles proponed for their consitiation, communion in both kinds, celibacy of the priests, voluntary profession of celibacy, private masses and auricular confession. The King's most Royal Majesty, most prudently pondering and consider ing, that, by occasion of variable and sundry opinions and judgments of the said articles, great discord and variance had arisen, as well amongst the clergy of his vulgar people, his loving subjects of the realm, as amongst a great number of the same, and being in a full hope and trust, that a full and perfect resolution of the said articles should make a perfect concord and unity generally amongst all his loving and obedient subjects, of his most excellent goodness, not only commanded that the said articles should deliberately and advisedly, by his said Archbishops, &c., be debated, and their opinions to be understood, but also most graciously vouchsafed, in his own princely person, to descend unto his High Court of Parliament and counsel, and there, like a prince