"So we parted. I found our witnesses had all flown. Wilks had taken them to wait at the Grand Jury room-door, for he had put his indictments into the hands of the Clerk of Assize the moment he got to Cambridge, on the Tuesday, and obtained a promise that they should be presented first if his witnesses were ready to attend and follow them

up.

"On going to the Shire Hall, I was met by Mr. Hollick, who told me that an arbitration was acceded to by Andrew Fuller's party; but the witnesses on both sides were now in attendance, and so the matter went on.

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[The general Case and the Result are described in the Abstract of the Report of the Unitarian Fund, drawn up by myself, and published in Monthly Repository for August, 1809.]

"On the Market Hill I saw Andrew Fuller, whom I had not seen since I met him in Edinburgh, in the year (I think) 1800. I accosted him. He began to be high, but by firmness I brought him down. We had much conversation about the proposed arbitration. He had the effrontery to take credit to himself and party for not prosecuting Gisburne for blasphemy! Mr. Nutter invited me to dine with Andrew at his house, to which I consented. I plied him with theological conversation, and obtained some curious concessions from him as to his written charges against the Unitarians and his verbal charges against myself. All in tolerable temper. Whilst with him, Wilks brought me notice of the glorious termination of the affair, which chagrined Andrew beyond expression.

"The rest of the day was taken up in the development and exposure of the prevarications of the party.

"We met Gisburne and his friends at the great room in the evening, who were of course overjoyed. They drank Wilks and Liberty;' and John Emons recollected a line of an old song about Marquis Granby, which he applied to the victorious attorney, who, like the hero, chanced to want hair, viz.,

'We'll crown his bald head like a Cæsar.'

"16.-This morning met Andrew again and again; walked with him, his arm locked in mine, about the town; and after the termination of the affair, about noon, we parted on good terms.

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Saturday, 18 (Wicken).—I spent the afternoon at the Hall, Squire Rayner's, where I accidentally met John Aspland (of Soham), schoolmaster, with whom I had a long desultory religious chat. The old gentleman stood up zealously for the religion established by law.

"Sunday, March 19.-Morning, Wicken, to a good congregation; afternoon, Soham, in Gisburne's temporary place. A great crowd. A hundred persons, at least, from Wicken. Andrew Fuller at the old place at the same time.

"Evening, Wicken, Right to the Tree of Life. A crowded congregation, some from Fordham, and even from Isleham.

"April 23.-To-day, laid up again with the Cambridgeshire ague.

t

April 30.-After service, the congregation chose thirteen trustees for the new place of worship.

"May 14.-To-day, the Gravel-Pit charity sermons were preached

by Mr. Houghton (late of Norwich), now come to Prince's Street, Westminster. I preached for him. Congregation very thin. It must spoil a preacher to have to do with such a handful of hearers. I think, if I were with such a people, I should revive them, or they would kill me. There is but one service at Prince's Street; the afternoon discontinued since Mr. Jervis left (for Leeds). This is also the case at Dr. Lindsay's, Monkwell Street, and Mr. Coates's, St. Thomas's, Borough. The palsy has taken one side of us; may be the left; but the right cannot be considered secure.

"May 28.-I deferred giving the concluding lecture to young persons on account of a meeting of the congregation to consult on the Trustdeeds of the new meeting-house. Immediately on coming home, I was seized with an ague fit and obliged to go to bed. Mr. Platts, of Boston, was at Mr. Christie's, but he had no sermon with him. I therefore gave him a MS. of the late Mr. Turner's, of Wakefield, sent to Monthly Repository, and he read a discourse on Jonah iv. 1- Admonition to be drawn from good men's failings.' It was singular enough, this was Mr. Houghton's text and subject a fortnight before. "June 11.-Dudley. Charity sermon.

The singing fine.

The collection above £50.

"June 13.-Warwick Tract Society. I attended the service at the New Meeting, Birmingham. Mr. Corrie preached a very good but somewhat metaphysical sermon. The Society afterwards dined together. I gave a detailed account of the prosecution of Gisburne. The story brought in several subscriptions.

"June 15.-By coach to Nottingham, and spent the evening with Mr. Tayler.

"June 16.-By coach to Lincoln. Fell in, on the road to Newark, with a young Calvinist Baptist parson, just hot from Bristol, who abused and vilified Mr. Belsham, but whom I brought to confession. I forced him to give me his name, which was J

"June 18 (Horncastle). This morning I went to the parish church and heard a sermon preparatory to Confirmation: the Vicar, Mr. Madeley, afterwards expressed his sorrow that he should have been so unfortunate in his subject. In the evening I went to the Methodist meeting. My preaching at Horncastle was talked of, but prejudice had been there before me, and even Mrs. W. gave out that her nephew denied the foundation, i. e. I suppose, the atonement.

"19, Monday.-George Weir took me a long ride, both of us on horseback, to Tower on Moor, Tattershall and Coningsby, where I called upon my old fellow-student, William Thomas.

"22, Boston.-Association-day. (Vide M. Repos. Vol. IV. p. 406.) "July 9, 1809.-Gravel-Pit.-Well pleased to be at home again. One's own people the best people to preach to.

"August 7, Monday.-Dined to-day by invitation with Mr. Vidler's congregation of Parliament Court, at Canonbury House, Islington. About sixty persons present. The meeting, upon the whole, pleasant. I proposed Mr. Vidler and the Congregation of Parliament Court,' and also read a part of Mr. Wright's letter from Scotland of the date July 26th, with remarks; gave likewise To the Ashes of Michael Servetus,' and expatiated on the character of the deified murderer, John Calvin, and told the story of Symkiss, the shoemaker here, who was refused by

a magistrate of Worship Street a parish apprentice because of his Unitarianism.

"August 8, Tuesday.-This evening I attended a lecture of the celebrated Joseph Lancaster's, on Popular Education, at a large room formerly belonging to the Paul's Head in Cateaton Street. Began at six o'clock and lasted till near nine.

"Lancaster is a philosopher without learning, or what is called knowledge. He has anatomized the human heart, and can find something in every youth's affections of which to lay hold. He has no pretensions to eloquence, but he has a great body of interesting facts, which are much better. His system is a blessing to the country, and will prove such, it is to be hoped, to the world.

"Forty of his poor scholars were in the room, and went through a part of the Lancaster exercise. The appearance of one of them, a monitor, of the name of Norris, interested the whole company, a lad of a fine countenance, of great firmness and assurance of manner, and a warm friend apparently of Lancaster's. The room, which will hold 300 persons, was nearly filled.

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August 20.-Met the Building Committee in the vestry upon the plan of new meeting. Mr. Edmund Aikin* has been chosen architect. The plan exhibited to-day is for a building to seat 500 persons, an oblong square, with an octagonal roof; the galleries to be in that shape, and to go round the meeting, or to occupy five out of the eight sections. "August 29.-At eight o'clock in the evening I met a party of the poor of the Gravel-Pit congregation, who are desirous of establishing a Benefit Society, at Mr. Bainbridge's. We discussed the plan of the Society, and also about the New-meeting singing, &c., and sang several hymns. These humble persons were very cheerful, and apparently pleased at my meeting them. I have great hopes of a new era at GravelPit from this circumstance.t

"September 2.-Anna brought home the charity sermon which I had drawn up at the request of David Eaton. It appears that the clergyman who had ordered the discourse for a brother clergyman in the country, after having looked at it (though he took it home), returned it, saying, He wanted a sermon for an hospital, and this was all about Job.'t

Mr. Edmund Aikin was the youngest son of Dr. John Aikin. He gave his services gratuitously. His intended liberality, however, proved, as it generally does in such cases, very costly to the society. To exercise a watchful and stringent economy in respect to an architect who gives his plans and labour, is ungracious and impracticable. The result is commonly unsatisfactory to both parties. Neat and comfortable as the interior of the New Gravel-Pit chapel is, it is both externally and internally deficient in proper ecclesiastical style. At no period was ecclesiastical architecture in England at a lower ebb than at the beginning of the present century.

†This sentiment often appears in the diary and journal. Thus, "I should rejoice to see more of the poor among us, hearing what we consider the gospel preached." Many poor present-felt animated by this circumstance."

The subject of the sermon was, Job a Father to the Poor. Mr. Eaton, at a subsequent period to this, became a well-known agent for supplying clergymen, wanting the ability or the industry to compose, with manuscript or pseudomanuscript sermons. He lithographed a series of sermons, chiefly his own, which had as much merit as sermons destined for the general use of the clergy could safely possess. They are discreetly and decorously dull.

Sept. 17.-In the afternoon had as a hearer Mr. Houghton, of Prince's Street, who came with Mr. Spurrel's family. I engaged myself to sup, with Mr. H., at Mr. Spurrel's. When we arrived at Shore Place, it occurred to us that we might hear a slice at least of an orthodox sermon, so we went to the Baptist meeting-house, and heard an experimental discourse from John ii. 4; the preacher, as we afterwards learned, He ran on with text after text, interlarded with a little savoury exclamation and interrogation. We had a pleasant evening at Mr. Spurrel's. Mr. Houghton's infantine simplicity makes him a truly interesting companion. It is eccentricity without wit, without any thing dazzling or brilliant, but it is amiable eccentricity. You give him credit for much talent, and I believe he possesses it.

"Sept. 24.-There was a call of the whole congregation after service. At the request of several I attended. The plan of Mr. Aikin was submitted to the auditory and approved, and it was resolved to begin to build immediately. The unanimity was disturbed only by who protested against the proceedings of the congregation, because they would not agree to declare the place ANTI-TRINITARIAN * in the Trustdeeds.

"Thursday, Sept. 28.-This morning I was present at the laying out of the ground for our New Gravel-Pit meeting, along with Mr. Munn, the auctioneer, Mr. Aikin, the architect, Mr. Seabrook, the contractor, and Mr. Ashpitel, the surveyor of the estate. My hopes from the burial-ground increase as the building advances, and I must strive to prevail upon the Building Committee to increase it by the purchase of another lot or two of land in addition to the three already secured. This was the first day workmen were employed upon the ground. "Monday, Oct. 16.-Laying the foundation-stone of New Gravel-Pit meeting, Hackney. We had a fine mild day for our purpose. About four o'clock the Committee and others met at the vestry of the Old meeting, whence we proceeded to the site of the new one. A large company was there assembled. In the back of the place in the centre of the eastern side, the stone was raised up by a temporary pulley. I first ordered it to be let down that the inscription might be read. It being sufficiently perused, the stone was again raised. I now took the trowel and spread the mortar on the foundation of brick; then we lowered the stone and I squared it, which being done, from the platform, on a spot near to which the pulpit is to stand and facing the east, I deli

The Gravel-Pit congregation acted on this occasion in strict accordance with the principles and usage of their Presbyterian ancestors. Thirty-four years afterwards, when the Dissenters' Chapels Bill was before the House of Lords, the congregation pleaded this fact as a strong reason for the passing of the Bill, alleging that the society had ever continued faithful to the English Presbyterian principle of liberty of conscience; that the whole cost of the chapel and burialground was raised by themselves, without a single known contribution from any person holding what are called orthodox opinions; that, adhering to the principle of non-subscription to human articles of faith, in preparing their Trust-deed they resolved to insert no creed as binding their posterity, but left the meeting-house and its appurtenances to the operation of the English Presbyterian principle of the right of private judgment, both to individuals and congregations. The petition, which received much attention, was presented to the House of Lords, Thursday, May 2, by the Marquis of Lansdowne.

vered an Oration.* A good many of our 'orthodox' neighbours were present, and had an opportunity of hearing Unitarianism stated without being misrepresented. Mr. Palmert was in the field, and was very

This Oration was subsequently published. It contains the inscription on the foundation-stone:

"SACRED TO THE ONE GOD, THE FATHER.

This Stone is laid as the Foundation of a Building for the Use of the Congregation
of Unitarian Christians assembling in the Gravel-Pit Meeting-house in this Vicinity,
Monday, October 16, Anno Domini 1809.
ROBERT ASPLAND, Minister.

EBENEZER JOHNSTON, Treasurer.

EDMUND AIKIN, Architect.

The Oration was a brief statement of and apology for the principles and opinions of the Gravel-Pit congregation. It was well calculated to excite the curiosity of strangers to their faith, as the two passages now quoted may serve to shew:

"Your religious principles, my brethren, in furtherance of which you associate as a church and design to rear an edifice on this ground, are at once distinguished by their simplicity and their agreement with the Scriptures. Your belief is, with very few exceptions, and those comparatively unimportant, expressed in that unquestionably ancient, but certainly not apostolic, symbol of faith, called the Apostles' Creed, the simplest and best composition of the kind, next to the confession of the Messiahship of Jesus in the New Testament, which was ever framed. You hold, professedly and as a body, no articles of faith which are not, and have not been always, held by the universal church; the difference between you and other denominations of Christians being, that whilst you confine yourselves to the few plain truths which the gospel makes essential to salvation, they have, under pretence of tradition or of deduction and explanation, added to them a mass of propositions, historical and metaphysical, at which, according to a Prelate of the English National Church, reason stands aghast, and faith itself is half confounded.' In matters of revelation, you esteem it a duty to adhere strictly to the law and the testimony; and it is the peculiar privilege and distinction of your system of opinions that it may be wholly and fully set forth in the words of sacred writ;-a circumstance which ought, methinks, to bespeak the patience and candour of such as deem us most erroneous, if not to excite a suspicion that there must be something human in a creed which is not expressly and literally derived from the Word of God."-Pp. 9, 10. "I cannot conceal that we have as a congregation something wherein to boast. It is not that we are considerable in number; it is not that we are respectable according to the standard by which society measures respectability; it is not that heretofore our pastoral chair has been filled by men of unrivalled eminence; it is not that we are of long standing in the Christian world; but it is this glorious peculiarity, which I pray to God we may never forfeit, that we allow unbridled liberty of conscience! History tells us of a Grecian robber who, having taken travellers, measured them by his bed, and if too long cut them shorter, and if too short stretched them longer;-a fit type for the invaders of Christ's jurisdiction, the violators of Christian liberty, the framers and imposers of human creeds and articles of faith, engines to rack and torture the free-born mind. O my soul, is the exclamation of us all, come not thou into their secret; and unto their assembly, mine honour be not thou united. Delivered from the house of bondage ourselves, we abhor the thought of enslaving others. We hold no creed but the New Testament, every man's interpretation of which is to himself the true standard of orthodoxy. Our communion is open to all that are sound in character. We think that virtue is of more importance than speculative belief, and that the worst heresy is a wicked life."-Pp. 15, 16.

†This was the venerable Rev. Samuel Palmer, the successor to the pulpit of Hunt and Barker and Matthew Henry and Bates at Hackney, and the Editor of The Nonconformists' Memorial. He was upwards of fifty years pastor of the Independent congregation at Hackney from 1762 to 1813. His orthodoxy"