hear),-who was actually baptized by their friend Mr. Roby (laughter and cheers).

"Mr. J. Conder-And educated by our friend Mr. Pridie (laughter).

"Mr. Hadfield-And Dr. Kay Shuttleworth was the man who, when Poulett Thompson's health was drank, turned his glass and would not drink the toast, because Mr. Thompson was not radical enough for him (laughter and cheers)."

Ulster Unitarian Society.

The anniversary of this Society was held on Monday, December 13, at the meeting-house of the First Presbyterian congregation, Belfast. Two able sermons were preached on the previous day by the Rev. W. James, of Bristol. The chair was taken by W. J. C. Allen, Esq., J. P. Many animated addresses were delivered; but we must confine ourselves to the report, which was read by Rev. J. S. Porter. The income was about £140, and the expenditure £120, leaving a balance in the Treasurer's hands of £20. The report stated that a large number of tracts had been supplied to various applicants, for gratuitous circulation among the people; that an application from Banbridge, for ministerial assistance, had been complied with; that the worshiping society formed there had been recognized as a Christian congregation, and taken into connection by the Rev. the Presbytery of Antrim, by whom it was expected supplies would be sent to it from time to time, as might be required, until its members might be in a condition to

invite a minister to undertake the pastoral office among them. The report recommended the discontinuing of The Irish Unitarian Magazine, on the ground that a large portion of the income of the Society, which might be better employed, was required for its support, as it had been found practically impossible, after repeated efforts, to gather, within any reasonable time, such an amount of returns as would guarantee the Society against serious loss. The report concluded by expressing the gratitude which the Society felt towards the Reverend ministers who had visited them from England on this and on former occasions.

AMERICA.

Autumnal Convention at Salem. It was mutually gratifying to the brethren, both of Salem and from abroad,

says the Christian Register, to find present, at the place and within the hour appointed for the organization of the Convention, so large a number, both clergymen and laymen. And it was manifest in a moment that they had come together for no purposes of strife or carrying a point; for no selfish or separate ends; for no sectarian or antisectarian collisions; but in the spirit of fraternal love and Christian co-operation and desire to do more, and to know how to do it in the best way, to promote the kingdom of Christ in the world. The proceedings of the Convention occupied three days.

At the religious services on the third day, above twelve hundred assembled. of Brooklyn, N. Y., who, after a few The sermon was by Rev. Mr. Farley, introductory remarks, announced his text, 1 Cor. x. 15, "I speak as unto wise men; judge ye what I say;"and the subject which he selected for discourse was the expediency of denominational action. It was surely a most important question, he remarked, By what

means shall we diffuse our faith? for its progress must depend upon our means action as a natural mode of action. All of action. He regarded denominational the branches of the church from the earliest times have practised it, and no body of Christians have dispensed with it. The preacher then proceeded to ference to the letter that appeared in discuss the subject with particular rethe Register of Oct. 9, dissuasive of denominational action, and he examined in order its various positions. We are he remarked. It is idle to say we hold and always have been a distinct body, nations. We have all the marks and not a place among the various denomisigns of a separate organization. But the argument of the letter went to the length of the utter disbanding and dispersion of our religious body, and its not really exist, in order to drive us representations were of things that did from the broad principle of general

associated action to utter individualism. Mr. F. earnestly and decidedly affirmed that the facts were not as set forth in the argument in question; that espeberal Christianity from 1815 to 1825, it cially in regard to the progress of liwas during this very period it was able to lift up its head, and manfully uttered its great protests, and did good battle for the truth. Dr. Channing, whose language at an ordination in Boston in 1828 had been quoted, "I am no organ of a sect," did in that very year, and

one week after that very ordination, deliver in his hearing a speech at the American Unitarian Association, in which in so many express words he identified himself with the Unitarian body as a particular class of Christians, and urged on them great firmness and plainness in declaring their conviction of its truths. There was no inconsistency in thus denying that he was the organ of a sect, and still urging these truths as a member of a denomination; and he cheerfully took on him the name of Unitarian. I yield, said the preacher, to no one in reverence for Channing. It was one of his chief glories to shew how to belong to a sect, and not be a sectarian; how unite with a sect, and not separate himself from the great Universal Church.

The following were the resolutions passed:

1. Resolved, That assembling in this place, distinguished for more than two centuries by the principle of Congregational Independence, we deem this a proper occasion for re-affirming our respect for that principle, our conviction of its happy bearing upon whatever is best in our New-England institutions and character; and that we would seriously urge upon our churches the importance of quickening the religious life of the individual parish by every means that shall promote its freedom and order, its zeal and influence.

2. Resolved, That congratulating ourselves upon the large measure of fraternal co-operation that we have enjoyed one with the other, upon the ground of a liberal faith, and determined to continue that co-operation, we cordially rejoice in the increasing manifestation of a congenial spirit in various Christian quarters, earnestly desire a true catholicity of communion,

and upon the broad basis of the gospel fervently hope to give and receive a Christian fellowship that shall be as cheering as it is enlarged.

3. Resolved, That we deem Christianity as essentially diffusive in its spirit, and that whilst we rejoice to unite with our fellow-christians of every name in common labours of piety and charity, we are called to do an especial work in our own peculiar field, and are in duty bound to strive to extend the principles that we hold dear, especially by circulating the writings of our gifted fathers, such as Channing and Ware, and by sustaining more generously than hitherto the Association that has been continued with such usefulness amongst

us.

4. Resolved, That whilst we value Christianity for the peculiar authority and sanctions of its revelations, we regard these in connection with all its doctrines and institutions as the means of cherishing practical religion and establishing the kingdom of God among men; and that the great indifference with which so large a portion of the Christian world treat the great social vices and oppressions of our time, moves us to bear our testimony more earnestly than ever in behalf of the piety and humanity of the Gospel, and against the spirit of warfare, slavery, intemperance, general excess and discord.

5. Resolved, That we regard the prevalent pursuit of wealth and prominence of materialist influences with solicitude, but not with despair; and that in this our nineteenth century we deem it to be peculiarly the mission of Christians to lift the minds of the people above the thraldom of second causes to the worship of the Great First Cause, alike by an enlarged spiritual faith and an earnest practical devotion.

BEV. ROBERT SMETHURST, OF MONTON. Of this estimable and lamented gentleman we are at length enabled to give a brief obituary notice, founded on a memoir, printed but not published, by his kinsman and friend, the venerable Thomas Broadhurst, of Bath.

Robert, the son of John and Ann Smethurst, was born at the village of Blackley, near Manchester, on the 29th of July, 1777, a year long remembered in that village as that in which an alarming earthquake occurred on Sunday, Sept. 14. His parents were members of the ancient Presbyterian congregation, which then enjoyed the able services of the Rev. John Pope. He held, with his pastorship at Blackley, the endowed school in the neighbouring village of Stand. In this school Robert Smethurst was entered a pupil when ten years of age, and continued there till Mr. Pope's removal, in July, 1791, to Hackney College, where he undertook the Professorship of Belles Lettres and Classical Literature. The Rev. Thos. Broadhurst succeeded Mr. Pope at Blackley chapel, and opened a school at Mauchester, to which young Smethurst resorted till 1794. There he had as a companion Jabez Bunting, now D.D., and the ruling head of the Wesleyan Methodists. At the commencement of the session 1794-95, Robert Smethurst was entered a pupil at Manchester New College, an institution then in the ninth year of its existence, and enjoying the superintendence of Rev. Thos. Barnes, D.D., the very popular minister of CrossStreet chapel. Previous to 1792, Dr. Barnes had been successively assisted in the College by Rev. Ralph Harrison and Mr. Lewis Loyd, as classical tutor; but during Mr. Smethurst's studies this office was held by Mr. Charles Saunders, B.A., of Queen's College, Cambridge. The tutor in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy was Mr., afterwards the celebrated Dr. Dalton.

Amongst Mr. Smethurst's fellow-students at Manchester were Dr. S. Hibbert Ware, well known by various antiquarian works of considerable repute, Dr. Edward Percival, and Mr. J. Ashton Yates, Member in a recent Parliament for the county

* Dr. Bunting had not merely a Presbyterian instructor, but a Presbyterian patron, Dr. Percival, in whose service he was engaged, and who generously facililated Bunting's plans for improvement

and advancement.

of Carlow. He began, some time before the close of his studies, occasionally to preach in the smaller congregations around Manchester. His first pulpit duty was in the old chapel at Dukinfield, and it must have been in the autumn of 1795, as he mentioned the circumstance to the present minister of Dukinfield as having taken place fifty years previously. He left the College in June, 1798, but in the previous May had formed a pastoral connection with the Presbyterian congregation of Monton, which had recently been deprived by death of Mr. Knowles, their previous pastor. In the same year he received the appointment of master of the Stand school, an office which he filled during twentyfour years. This appointment compelled him to reside at Stand, which is distant six miles from Monton. Mr. Smethurst possessed great muscular vigour, and during a considerable portion of his life was accustomed to walk to and fro between his residence and his chapel, the road lying through a pleasing and rural country, and the exercise contributing to the preservation of his health. By his personal activity he overcame some of the inconveniences of residing at a distance from his flock; and was ever ready, in obedience to a sense of duty and to his natural kindness of heart, to go over to Monton when the sickness of any of his friends, or other pastoral duty, called him there. "In all his ministerial services, indeed, he manifested an unaffected and serious sense of religion, with a deeply thoughtful and devotional demeanour, suited to the high importance and gravity of his office. The subjects of his public discourses were generally plain and practical texts of scripture, which were treated by him in a simple and unvarnished style, seldom containing any very abstruse and learned criticisms, or much farfetched doctrinal and controversial matter. But Mr. Smethurst did not shrink from the avowal of his religious sentiments, which were decidedly Unitarian, whenever the occasion required, or the subject on which he treated, led to it. And he was fully competent, from the Biblical information and literary knowledge which he possessed, as well as from his solid good sense and sound judgment, to maintain what he regarded to be the true sense and meaning of the original language of sacred scripture."

In 1820, he married Anne, the daughter of Mr. James Clegg. By this alliance he was placed for the remainder of his

life in easy circumstances. In December, 1822, he resigned his school, but continued to reside at Stand, where he had a commodious and pleasant residence called Green Hill, and where he was in the midst of a circle of warmly attached friends. He devoted a portion of his increased leisure to assisting in the conduct of our public institutions. To the affairs of his Alma Mater, both after its removal to York and subsequently on its return to Manchester, he paid great attention, generally serving on the Committee, and frequently attending the annual examinations. For several years his name followed that of his neighbour and intimate friend, the late Robert Philips, Esq., of the Park, at the head of all the Manchester subscribers to the College, the position being decided by the number of years during which the subscription had been paid, Mr. Philips's dating as far back as 1791, and Mr. Smethurst's as 1804. In committee Mr. Smethurst was distinguished by his good sense, patience and knowledge of the world. He also rendered important service to the Widows' Fund established amongst the ministers of Lancashire and Cheshire, and served on its committee not less than forty years. Shortly before his death, when the office of Vice-president became vacant through the death of his old friend, Rev. W. Johns, the ministers shewed their estimation of his character and their gratitude for his past services by conferring upon him, by an unanimous vote, the honorary office.* He also was for many years the managing trustee of the Buxton chapel, and paid an annual visit to that place at the close of the season to settle the affairs of the trust. The list of duties of this kind which Mr. Smethurst undertook, and all of which he performed with judgment and exactness, might be greatly multiplied. No man was more valued than Mr. Smethurst as a prudent and sagacious counsellor, and there were few weeks in which his opinion was not asked by some neighbour, rich or poor (and to both his help was always equally ready), by some friend, and especially by some brother minister. Those who sought his advice always felt that they could rely upon his sincerity, his prudence and, above all, his kindness. In confidential intercourses of

None of the ministers who were present at the last meeting of the Widows' Fund, held at Preston, will ever forget the strikingly just and beautiful tribute paid to Mr. Smethurst's memory by his successor, the Rev. J. G. Robberds, on taking the chair as Vice-president.

this kind, he did not hesitate, when necessary, to probe a secret fault and to censure what he thought wrong; but his kindness always in the end healed the wound he made. His life was made up of a series of little, yet, in their aggregate amount, most important, acts of kindness. It was diversified by no striking events, nor was it rendered remarkable by his talents. But he was totally free from all pretension to qualities which he did not possess. His married life was happy, but, alas! was soon interrupted. In January, 1826, Mrs. Smethurst, while on a visit to her friends at Liverpool, was suddenly attacked by a mortal disease. She was buried in the ground belonging to the ancient chapel of Toxteth, near Liverpool. A funeral sermon was preached on the occasion at Renshaw-street chapel (it was afterwards printed), by Rev. William Hincks. Mr. Smethurst himself was spared for more than twenty years after the loss of his wife, and enjoyed good health during most of that time; but towards the end of the year 1845, he was visited with severe illness, which lasted full three months. He recovered sufficiently to go to Harrowgate and to visit his flock at Monton, but his health was never re-established. He was enabled to preach once more at Monton, on the second Sunday in September, 1846, and contemplated paying his usual visit to Buxton, but a relapse took place, from which he never recovered, and he died on Oct. 15th, 1846, aged 69.

He bore his long sickness with great patience, and exhibited considerable cheerfulness in the midst of its privations. He beheld the approach of death without dismay, and, according to the testimony of a friend, his last hours were characterized by his accustomed kindness, sweetness and serenity. In accordance with the very general and earnest wish of his attached flock, the remains of Mr. Smethurst were buried in the chapel-yard at Monton, near to the grave of the Rev. Jeremiah Aldred, an early, if not the first, minister of the place. The funeral service was conducted by Rev. J. G. Robberds. The chapel was filled by a numerous attendance of friends, including all the congregation, Mr. Mark Philips, M.P., Mr. R. N. Philips, Mr. Wood, of Bury, very many of the ministers of Lancashire and Cheshire, &c. On the following Sunday afternoon, Mr. Robberds preached to a large and deeply-interested congregation, the funeral sermon from Job xix. 25, I know that my Redeemer liveth.' Thus did the preacher remind the sorrowing flock of some of the pecu

ceased pastor:

"One of them was his great and constant kindliness of disposition. He seemed so glad when he could be of any service. He was so hearty in the enjoy ment of other people's gladness, and in contributing to it as much as he could. I have often myself felt, and I dare say many of my hearers have felt the same, that a visit to him or a visit from him was just like so much bright and pleasant sunshine. He put me in good spirits, if I was not so before. He increased my cheerfulness, if I was already cheerful. Now this is exactly the sort of person to make us love him while living, and to think of him with affectionate regret when he is no more. And many must there be here present who did on this account love him, and who have that feeling very deeply in now thinking of him. Yet with all our sorrow for having lost him, we retain a great pleasure in thinking and talking of him; and many a time, I doubt not, will his friends, when meeting together where they have been accustomed to have his cheerful presence amongst them, think of him and talk of him-one calling to mind one instance of his kindness and pleasantness, and another, another. And this kindliness of spirit, this thoughtfulness for others, and wish to do what he could for them, remained with him to the last.

"But his cheerfulness was probably very closely connected with another quality which also characterized him, and which, indeed, I have principally had in view in the main subject to which I have drawn your attention-I mean, the firmness of his faith in the good and merciful providence of his Heavenly Father. You have many of you, probably, often heard him speak here on the character of God, and the reasons which we have for trusting in Him. But I wish you could all have heard the simple but most expressive utterance of his own trust which I heard from him, when his lips could hardly utter any thing else distinctly. I alluded to this the other day in my address at his interment. I may now tell you a little more in detail what it was which so much impressed me. In the state of great weakness to which he was reduced, and which had occasioned a little wandering of the mind, he was unable to assure himself where he was, and in feeble accents he desired me to tell him. I said to him, 'You are in your own house, and under the care of your Heavenly Father.' In a moment, as though I had touched the very spring of his whole soul,

and, with a tone of the deepest sincerity, he answered, with reference to my concluding words, 'Of that I am fully persuaded, let me be where I may.' Those few and simple words had in them, to my mind and heart, the condensed essence of many sermons. They made me feel how powerful was the faith which they expressed, to sustain and cheer the soul amidst whatever might be the feebleness of mind as well as body."

Mr. Smethurst was succeeded at Monton by Rev. T. E. Poynting, late of Manchester New College, who had for some time previously acted as the assistant minister.

We will only add, that the Monton congregation have recorded their sense of the worth of their late pastor, by erecting to his memory a handsome marble tablet, on which is cut the following inscription:

THIS TABLET

Is erected by a Grateful Congregation
To the Memory of

THE REV. ROBERT SMETHURST, Who for nearly 50 Years devoted himself to their service,

His kindliness of disposition and warmth of heart endeared him to a wide circle of friends;

His prudence and uprightness commended him to various offices of trust;

And to those who were under his Christian

charge

He approved himself the judicious Adviser, The cheerful Associate, the sympathizing

Pastor,

And the faithful Preacher of Christ's
Holy Gospel.

Born July 29th, 1777. He entered on his Ministry
At the invitation of this Society, May, 1798,
And resigned it with his life,
October 15th, 1846.

Oct. 3, at Weston House, Warwickshire, aged 82, Sir GEORGE PHILIPS, Bart., a Deputy Lieutenant and Magistrate in Warwickshire and Lancashire, and formerly M. P. for South Warwickshire. He was born March 24, 1766, the second son of Thos. Philips, Esq., of Sedgley, Lancashire. He was for many years connected with some large manufacturing concerns near Manchester. He sat in Parliament, first for Ilchester and next for Wootton Bassett. He received his Baronetcy Feb. 21, 1828. After the passing of the Reform Act, he sat in one Parliament for South Warwickshire, carrying his election above Mr. Shirley by only thirteen votes. He married, October 16, 1788, Sarah Ann, eldest daughter of Nathaniel Philips, Esq., of Hollinghurst.

Oct. 27, at Edgbaston, Mr.JOHN RYLAND, in his 75th year. He was nearly the last of the generation that intimately connected the