Some of the details given by Mr. Wright of the Tory tactics, and of the mode in which that party succeeded in stirring up the worst passions against the Dissenters of England, can happily now be read with a smile. They teach us, however, a lesson of gratitude; for they mark the amazing progress of English civilization. The man who should now attempt to pursue the same kind of warfare, would be treated as an incendiary or a lunatic. We will make one or two extracts illustrative of our remark.

Tory Revilings of Dissenters in 1790.

"The question of religious toleration was that on which the Tory party first began to agitate the people, and they succeeded in exciting the prejudices of the mob, and even of the middle classes, to an extraordinary degree. It was little short of a new Sacheverell crusade; for there were 'No-dissenter' meetings in all parts of the country, and in some places 'No-dissenter' mobs. Besides pamphlets of a more serious character, they were ridiculed and burlesqued in satirical songs and poems, many of which incited the populace to insult and abuse them. A lawyer of Birmingham, well known by the name of Councillor Morfit (as we find written by a contemporary hand, in a copy in the possession of Mr. Burke), composed a parody on the national anthem, which soon became extensively popular, and was printed sometimes with a large caricatured representation of the chief Dissenters brooding over sedition. It was entitled "Old Mother Church.'

We quote two stanzas from these doggrel verses to shew the kind of stimulants that maddened the populace of Birmingham, and prepared the way for the infamous riots of 1791.

"Sedition is their creed;

Feign'd sheep, but wolves indeed,

How can we trust?
Gunpowder Priestley would
Deluge the throne with blood,
And lay the great and good
Low in the dust.

"History, thy page unfold,
Did not their sires of old
Murder their King?

And they would overthrow
King, lords and bishops too,
And while they gave the blow
Loyally sing.'

Mr. Wright proceeds to commend the speech of Mr. Burke against the Repeal of the Test Act, and has the imprudence to endorse that orator's assertion, "that tolerant feelings were a thing unknown amongst the party which was crying loudest for toleration." He has much to unlearn before he will be qualified to write history.

Tory Caricatures of Dissenters.

"Among the caricatures produced by this excitement, and designed to keep it up, is a large print by Sayer, published on the 16th of February (about a fortnight before Fox's motion in the House of Commons), and entitled, "The Repeal of the Test Act, a Vision.' The three leading Dissenters occupy a lofty pulpit, and beat the drum ecclesiastic' in the chapel of sedition. Priestley, to the left, with outstretched arms, is breathing forth flames of Arianism,' 'Socinianism,' 'Deism' and 'Atheism.' Price, in the middle, is closing his discourse with a solemn prayer: 'And now let us fervently pray for the abolition of all unlimited and limited monarchy, for the annihilation of all ecclesiastical revenues and endowments, for the extinction of all orders of nobility and all rank and subordination in civil society, and that anarchy and disorder may, by our pious endeavours, prevail throughout the universe. See my sermon on the anniversary of the Revolution.' The Doctor holds in his hand a paper inscribed, "The prayers of the congregation are desired for the success of the patriotic members of the National Assembly now sitting in France.' Dr. (Mr.) Lindsey, who occupies the other side of the pulpit, is tearing to pieces a tablet inscribed with the Thirty

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nine Articles. Among the congregation we see Fox (shouting 'Hear, hear, hear!'), Margaret Nicholson (the would-be regicide), Dr. Rees, Dr. Kippis, Lord Stanhope (who is tearing to pieces the Acts of Parliament for the Uniformity of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments'), and several others, some of whom are busy clearing away rubbish, including mitres, communion-cups, Bibles, and other similar articles. Through the window we perceive that people are at work pulling down church steeples, and an angel is flying away with the cross.'

Another caricature, which Mr. Wright styles "admirable,” and of which he gives an exact copy, was published by Gillray, Dec. 3, 1790. It represents Burke's long nose, surmounted by spectacles, with the Crown on the right hand and the Cross on the left, and by the Reflections on the French Revolutions above, penetrating into the secret study of Dr. Price, who is described by Mr. Wright as " surrounded by all the evidences of sedition against Church and State." This "admirable" caricature is entitled, "Smelling out a Rat, or the Atheistical Revolutionist disturbed in his Midnight Calculations."

In another caricature of the same artist, entitled, "The Hopes of the Party," the Queen and William Pitt are represented as hanging beneath two neighbouring lamp-posts. In another part of the same print, the execution of the King on the block is depicted. He is held down by Sheridan, while Fox, masked, acts as executioner. Priestley is the fourth in the group, and stands, with uplifted hands, either curiously inspecting the "Martyrdom," or calling the King to repentance. This caricature was published in July, 1791, probably a few days before the Birmingham riots.

Gillray, with no feeling of remorse at the mischief which he had helped to kindle, in the following year introduced Priestley into a third caricature. It is entitled, "Patriots amusing themselves with a French Cockade and Motto." Fox is, for practice, firing a blunderbuss; Sheridan is loading a pistol; Priestley stands by with two pamphlets in his hand-one "on the Glory of Revolutions," the other "on the Folly of Religion and Order," and says to Sheridan, 66 Well! this "Here's plenty of wadding for to ram down the charge with, to give it force, and to make a loud report." Sheridan is represented as saying, new game is delightful! O heavens! if I could but once pop the post!

"Then you and me,

Dear brother P.,
Would sing with glee
Full merrily

Ca ira, ça ira, ça ira!"

The post, which is the mark, is a figure of King George, surmounted with his hunting-cap.

These pictorial libels were, it is said, received with great interest at Windsor and Kew; their authors doubtless had their reward from the Minister, who, on the strength of the fears and prejudices which they had roused, took measures for curbing what this historian calls "the licence of the press" (II. 220).

In another caricature, Gillray introduced Priestley and Fox as guardian angels at the bed-head of Thomas Paine, who is represented as lying on a bed of straw, dreaming of judges' wigs, and of all sorts of horrors, fears and punishments. Other prints are mentioned by our historian in which Priestley figures. We will specify only one of them, which has at least some humour in it. It is entitled, "Dumourier Dining in State at St. James's." It represents Fox, Sheridan and Priestley as waiters in attendance on the Republican general. The first brings him the head of Pitt in a dish; Sheridan brings him a crown in pastry; and Priestley serves up the mitre in a tart.

The Congregational Year-Book for 1848. London-Jackson and Walford.

THIS volume of religious statistics grows in size and merit. Though swollen to a volume of 270 pages of neat, but closely-printed matter, it is still published at a very low price. The various documents it contains do honour to

the general zeal of the Independent body and to the abilities of several of their leading men. A large portion of this work is filled with reports of the proceedings of the Congregational Union. The Chairman during the year was Rev. Thomas Binney, an appointment certainly honourable to the great body of the Independents; for Mr. Binney is an independent thinker and a free speaker, and on the Education question belongs to a very small, but highly intelligent minority of his denomination. We could willingly fill several of our pages with extracts from his opening Address, which is a very startling document, and which suggests many topics of thought to other religious denominations besides his own. His brusque style of enunciating an unpalatable truth must startle the dull and the narrow-minded of his hearers; and where is the assembly without men of this class? For instance, "We have not the means of supporting learning that cannot earn its living by its lungs; and we have not, or grant not, that thorough liberty that tolerates great diversities of opinion." (P. 11). On the latter point Mr. Binney is evidently desirous of a change in his party. He frankly tells them that differences do and must exist, and that the only safe and Christian way of behaving towards even erring brethren, is to "deal gently with them," and to "treat them kindly," and he ventures to foretell that in that case "they will come round and get right." We of course do not altogether share Mr. Binney's confidence that even gentle treatment will always bring men back to what his party regards as orthodoxy. Every day, we believe, will prove more and more the difficulty (which he himself most candidly admits, p. 12) of bringing into harmony the two principles of holding the importance of a definite, settled creed, and the equal importance of the exercise of free and unrestrained inquiry.

From the Annual Report we make an extract which ought to interest the lovers of religious freedom in every sect.

"A member of your Committee has collected, at no small cost of labour and money, a complete series of the entire works of that noble founder and ornament of our body, John Robinson. *** Moreover, the early history of our churches, the fine characters of some of their first founders, and the stirring events amidst which they had their origin, might supply themes for works in which imagination and truth would bear equal part.'

The profits of the Magazines published by the Union amounted, in 1847, to £1568. We observe with interest that it is proposed to devote a portion of the income derived from this source to the assistance of ministers, in insuring their lives for deferred annuities for the support and solace of their declining years. Most creditable is it to the Independent body that their Board of Education has raised, since 1843, for the promotion of popular education, between £120,000 and £130,000. We greatly regret, of course, that this important section of Dissenters has chosen to make its educational movement exclusively denominational. The following sentence gives one of the reasons (and the statement is sufficiently candid) which induced the Board of Education not to act with the Baptists and Friends:

"Some of the Baptists, and some of the Society of Friends, wished to unite with us; and the desire of many was, that a way might be opened by which it could be done; but it was found that the price of such union was too costly. Our Baptist friends were represented as wishing to co-operate in the matter of education with Unitarians, on what has commonly been considered an equal platform; but it was not thought to be fair nor just to profess merely to read the Bible, and at the same time to expound it in teaching orthodox doctrines; and it was also found that, if the members of the Society of Friends were incorporated, they could not sanction our practice of family worship in the Normal School; on the other hand, we could not conscientiously abandon it; and hence, on these and other grounds, our movement is denominational."-Pp. 29, 30.

We hope the sentence which we have italicised may fall under the notice of Mr. Dunn, the well-known Secretary of the British and Foreign School Society, whose casuistry might raise the envy of a disciple of Loyola.

At pp. 36, 37, is a letter from the Free Synod of Cincinnati to the Congre gational Union, who have separated themselves from the two branches of the Presbyterian church on the Slavery question, the Synod refusing to admit to communion any person holding slaves, or advocating the rightfulness of slaveholding.

At the autumnal assembly of the Union, considerable attention was given to the subject of the improvement of Sunday-schools, and those interested in this subject will do well to read the report (pp. 61-79) presented by Rev. Samuel Martin, of Westminster. There are also reports on the subject of the working classes, and the confessed difficulty of alluring them within the pale of congregational churches.

During the thirteen months preceding December 1, 1848, 83 ordinations and acceptances of charges are reported. Highbury, Lancashire and Glasgow Colleges contributed severally the highest number of ministers. During the same period, 108 ministers have removed from the settlements they previously had. The Independent ministers now living in England (their names are given, pp. 173–199) amount to about 1540. Of these, 6 only exercise any trade, 134 are in the occupation of a pastoral charge, and 123 are designated with academic or literary titles. During the year, 23 new Independent chapels have been opened, and 4 enlarged. The cost of 11 of the new chapels is stated, and their average cost is £2638; but this high average is occasioned by the opening of Dr. Halley's splendid church at Manchester, at a cost of £11,000. Putting this aside, the average cost would not exceed £1800. The localities are assigned of 127 Independent chapels in London and its suburbs. The Independent body possess 13 Colleges now educating 186 students, about 14 each. Highbury, Brecon, Lancashire and Spring-hill Colleges alone exceed the average.. Of 12 of these institutions a general financial statement is given, from which it appears that the nett income is £14,892, being an average of £1241 to each College. The expenditure of 11 of these Colleges during the past year, has been £16,963, against an income of £14,242,-9 out of the 11 having exceeded their income. The obituary list contains the names of 43 ministers deceased during the year; and when the names are read of Rev. Benjamin Brook, of Birmingham; Rev. Daniel Gunn, of Christchurch; Dr. Hamilton, of Leeds; Dr. Payne, of Plymouth; Dr. D. Russell, of Dundee, it will be seen that the loss of distinguished men has been great. The average age attained by 41 of these deceased ministers was nearly 62 years. A series of brief biographical notices is given. At p. 257, is some account of the Three (Two) Denominations. Except the incorrect designation, there is nothing unfair in the statement of facts that follows. From the Notes which close this valuable Year-Book we learn that about 120 congregational ministers have, during the past year, received grants from the Regium Donum. On the subject of their Colleges, the editors state that the project of uniting some at least of the Metropolitan Colleges is agreed upon.

"The Homerton and Highbury constituencies have agreed on such a junction, and measures are to be taken forthwith to dispose of the respective properties, and to build an united College in the neighbourhood of London. This building is to be exclusively for lectures; the students are to be henceforth boarded in private families. By these arrangements it is hoped that expenses will be diminished, education improved, and the comforts of the students greatly increased."

It would seem that the experience of our Congregational brethren is leading them to adopt plans somewhat different from those to which we Unitarians seem partial. They consolidate their resources; we squander our little strength by division. They, after a long trial, give up the system of a domestic establishment in their intended London College; we, at a great cost, adopt it. Time must shew whether they or we are right.-The editor of the Unitarian Almanack may derive some valuable hints from this truly excellent YearBook for the construction of future numbers of his work.

An Address delivered at the Opening of the Working Men's Institute, on Monday, Oct. 23, 1848. By the Rev. Fred. W. Robertson, M.A., Incumbent of Trinity Chapel, Brighton. Second Edition. London-Hamilton, Adams and Co.

THE clergy of this country have, for the most part, looked coldly on all institutions and schemes of popular instruction which have not grown out, and been exclusively under the control, of their own Church. This has been a great practical blunder. It begot the suspicion (whether justly or not we do not now stop to decide) that ecclesiastics saw in the diffusion of knowledge a power hostile to their interests. The few benevolent and intelligent clergymen who, rising superior to the esprit de corps, have put themselves at the head of Mechanics' and Working Men's Institutes, have, we feel convinced, had no reason to regret their proceeding. Their power as clergymen has been not diminished, but increased, by their catholic exertions for the improvement of their neighbours. The number of such clergymen is, we are glad to perceive, increasing. Wherever they appear, they are entitled to honour; for it is probable they have had first to battle with and overcome in their own minds some class prejudices, and it is still more probable that in performing a great social duty of this kind, they expose themselves to the censure and dislike of some of their own order. There are some circumstances which encourage the expectation that the number of clerical upholders of the schemes of popular mental improvement will increase. When distinguished laymen, occupying a dignified station (Sir Robert Peel and Lord Ashley for instance), whose attachment to the Church is admitted, come forward to advocate popular educational institutions based on catholic principles, it is a signal, which all but the hopelessly blind must see, for all men of every order, who do not wish to fall behind their age, to come forth and aid them.

We welcome Mr. Robertson, the author of the beautiful Address recently delivered before the Brighton Working Men's Institute, as one of the ablest and the most eloquent clerical advocates of popular education that it has ever been our fortune to meet with. His mode of address is singularly happy. It has nothing of the conventional style of the pulpit; it is free, yet always refined, in its loftiest passages; there is always a firm basis of truth and common sense; and there breathes throughout the whole of it a noble and generous sympathy with all of every rank and class desirous of mental and moral cultivation.

The Brighton Institute, though of very recent growth, appears to be of large promise; its library contains a thousand volumes, and its subscribers exceed that number. Mr. Robertson's Address, which has already passed through two editions, was delivered on the occasion of opening the Institute. He thus described the feelings with which he watched the proceedings at a preliminary meeting:

"A few weeks ago I stood in the lower room of this building, anxious to be a witness of the spirit in which you were conducting your undertaking. The speakers that evening, with one or two exceptions, were all working men. I heard, not eloquence, but something far better-straightforward, honest, English, manly common sense. A high moral tone pervaded all that was said. I heard vice decried. I heard lounging, drinking, smoking, all the evils that ruin the health and character of the artizan, sternly condemned. I trust that it did my heart good. And I hesitate not to say that I left that room with feelings enlarged in sympathy. I trod through the dark streets that evening with a more elastic step and a lighter heart; I felt a distincter hope for this country; I felt proud of belonging to a nation whose labouring men could hold such a tone as that. Through all England we see the same thing; increasing moral earnestness, a deeper purpose, a more fixed resolve."-P. 39.

Mr. Robertson thus explains his idea of the position of a minister of the Church of England:

"He stands, generally by birth, always by position, between the higher and lower ranks. He has free access to the mansion of the noble, and welcome to the cottage of the labourer. And if I understand aright the mission of a minister of the Church