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Pepys, &c., but they have been pointed out by a previous critic. That which we have spoken of is somewhat more serious, as it gives a colour to a very large portion of the work. Finding so much to admire in these volumes, we should have been glad to award to them the praise of historical accuracy. If the labour of antiquarian research was uncongenial to the writer's tastes and habits, it would have been better to have avoided the use of a name around which many historical associations cling.

AN INDIAN BURIAL-PLACE.

THE villages of the Natchez, planted in the midst of the most fertile climes of the south-west, rose near the banks of the Missisippi. Each was distinguished by a receptacle for the dead. In the sacred building, of an oval shape, having a circumference of one hundred feet, a simple hut, without a window, and with a low and narrow opening on the side for the only door, were garnered up the choicest fetiches of the tribe, of which some were moulded from clay and baked in the sun. There, too, were gathered the bones of the dead; there an undying fire was kept burning by appointed guardians, as if to warm, and light, and cheer the departed. On the palisades around this edifice, which has been called a temple, the ghastly trophies of victories were arranged. Once, when, during a storm, such as in those regions sometimes blends the elements, rocks the forest, and bows the hearts of the bravest, the sacred edifice caught fire from the lightning, seven or eight mothers won the applause of the terrorstricken tribes by casting their babes into the flames to appease the unknown power of evil.-Bancroft's History of America, III. 358, 359.

STERNE AS A PREACHER.

ON turning our eyes from Blair, there is something almost ridiculous in the struggling seriousness of Sterne. Shrewd, animated, not rarely pathetic, he more frequently appears to be tottering on the verge of laughter, and almost in the paroxysm of hurling his wig in the face of the congregation. Religious life in his hands became a sentimental journey. He drew characters with liveliness and discrimination, and amazed the observer with a Shandean sketch in the train of the apostles.-Willmott's Bishop Taylor, p. 305.

WARBURTON.

A ZEALOUS disciple of the ancient doctors, and having Hooker and Chillingworth bound up in small volumes that they might be the companions of his walks; endowed with a rare energy of frame, that enabled him to drive a plough over the stoniest field of antiquity; fond of paradoxies, yet so constructing them that they seemed to emit fire from their gloom; laying no claim to the delicacies of composition, but often kindling into language that Hooker himself might have uttered.-Willmott's Bishop Taylor, pp. 301, 302.

MEMOIR OF THE LATE REV. ROBERT ASPLAND.

CHAPTER XVIII.

IN the spring of 1812, Mr. Aspland was invited by the managers of the Society for the Relief of the Necessitous Widows and Fatherless Chil dren of Protestant Dissenting Ministers, to preach the annual sermon in behalf of their charity. He felt happy in complying with their request, both on account of his cordial approbation of the Society, and because as a Protestant Dissenting Minister he felt a natural pride in having his name added to the long and honourable list of ministers who had in successive years advocated its interests. The Widows' Fund was established in 1733, chiefly by the zealous exertions of Dr. Samuel Chandler, who used his not small influence with the opulent Dissenters of his day in obtaining a capital fund and annual subscriptions sufficient to establish the Society on a safe and permanent footing. It was, like most of the institutions originated by the English Presbyterians, catholic in its spirit, extending its benefits to the families of such ministers of the Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist denominations as at their death stood accepted and approved as such by the body of ministers of the denomination to which they respectively belonged, and who died so poor as not to leave their widows and children a sufficient subsistence. Its management was entrusted to twenty-seven laymen. The annual sermon is preached alternately in a chapel belonging to each of the Three Denominations. At the institution of the charity, the annual allowance to the widows of English ministers was five pounds, but the managers were enabled in the years 1765, 1767, 1776, 1785, 1800, 1805, 1809 and 1811, to make a series of additions to the allowance till it amounted to fifteen pounds.* To the widows of Welsh ministers the allowances were on a smaller scale. The Widows' Fund is one of the very few remaining institutions amongst the Protestant Dissenters in which the Three Denominations continue to act with unbroken harmony. The list of the preachers is a curious historical document, and is here inserted, beginning with Dr. Chandler, the founder of the Society.

Minister of the

1735. Dr. Samuel Chandlerf.... Presbyterian. ...... Old Jewry.

1736. Dr. Samuel Wright† 1737. Dr. Henry Miles 1738. Rev. Wilson.

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Presbyterian. ....Carter Lane.
Presbyterian. .Tooting.

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Independent.
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Presbyterian. .St. Thomas's.
.Independent ..... Bury Street.

.Presbyterian .....Leather Lane.

It is much to be regretted that, since 1817, the allowance has been dimi. nished, in consequence of the declining state of the funds. For many years the annuities were reduced to ten pounds; since 1841, they have advanced to twelve pounds. The present Treasurer of the Society is Stephen Olding, Esq., Clement's Lane, Lombard Street.

† This mark is put to indicate that the sermon was printed.

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Mr. Aspland chose for his subject, "The Beneficial Influence of Christianity on the Character and Condition of the Female Sex." The sermon contains a comprehensive survey of the condition of women under the several forms of Heathenism, under the laws of Moses, and under the influence of Christianity, and deduces from the survey an argument for the immeasurable superiority and consequent truth of the religion of Christ. It is one of the most elaborate and successful of his occasional sermons. The following passage is one of many that might be advantageously quoted from it:

"It may seem wonderful that in the dark ages, when every vestige of the truth as it is in Jesus, and almost of civilization, was swept away, the esteem in which Christianity holds females should have been retained. But agreeably to the mysterious and adorable plan of Providence, which brings good out of evil, this was one of the accidental benefits of some of those abuses and corruptions of religion which were otherwise so pregnant with mischief. The extravagant value set upon celibacy led to a reverence of female chastity; and the idolatrous respect paid to the Virgin Mary reflected back honour upon her sex. Even the crusades, those wild sallies of religious enthusiasm and martial ardour, contributed to soften the temper and to refine the manners of the European nations. The heroes who had acquired fame under the banner of the Cross, emulous at home of their renown abroad, entered into bonds of chivalry, an eccentric but lofty institution, in which the genius of Christianity was unsuitably enshrined in 'the pomp and circumstance of war;' every member of the order solemnly engaging, on taking up the profession of arms, to be the husband of widows, the father of orphans, the protector of the poor, and the prop of those who had no other support.

"In these instances, the errors of the human heart were overruled by Christianity for the good of society. The salutary precepts of our religion mingled with human weakness and folly, and corrected their baneful tendency, and even in some measure changed their nature. In its decline and fall, Truth preserved its majesty. When its authority was most feeble, it still gave law to superstition, idolatry and war, curbed their licentiousness and fierceness, and controlled them, in violation of their natural tendency, to render service to chastity, courtesy and mercy."-Pp. 23-25.

In connection with this sermon, the following letter is introduced,— the only one found in Mr. Aspland's papers,-from the highly popular and celebrated minister of Salters' Hall.

Rev. Hugh Worthington to Rev. Robert Aspland.

"Northampton Square, April 22, 1812. My dear Sir, I have been repeatedly deceived in my hopes, or should have sent a much earlier reply to your very kind letter. Through the whole of last week I strongly hoped to be able to get over to Hackney and personally wait upon you. Then (having been disappointed by a cold severity of wind, which my weak lungs cannot bear) I thought it probable we might have ten minutes' conversation at the Library: there business was so protracted, that my intention was frustrated. Accept these honest apologies.-Now to business. "I feel the honour done me by you and your friends in the request so handsomely conveyed by your pen, and if it were only to shew that difference of

opinions does not weigh with me in cases of charity, I should wish to come on the morning of the 24th or 31st of May, as you and the managers may settlebut there are two difficulties which hang as a dead weight on the wheels of action : one is, my poor state of health, so liable to interruption; the other, of which, perhaps, you are not aware, that I advocated the cause of your schools several years ago, and no man should receive the honour or be called to the service twice. Consider these things; look out for vigour and novelty, and, according to the rule of Virgil, let the aged horse be unharnessed.'

"But, my dear friend (for such I must call you), I have a petition to present to you, which I entreat you to consider and grant. Your sermon for the Widows' Fund opened an argument so strong, so little and seldom examined, so clearly stated, so cautiously and yet so eloquently enforced, in favour of the Christian religion, that you must publish it. I have spoken of it from the pulpit-I must have it in the parlour-I must send it to my relations. Put me down for a dozen copies, or more if necessary. The entire composition is ready without further revisal, 'paratus ad unguem.'

"Earnestly hoping you will attend to a request in which multitudes secretly concur, I remain, Reverend and dear Sir, your much obliged and affectionate brother, HUGH WORTHINGTON."

Amongst the small congregations who received aid from the Unitarian Fund was a General Baptist society at Wedmore, in Somersetshire. On the death of its pastor, Mr. Moses Naile, in 1806, they found themselves unable to raise a salary of £20 per annum, and had no one in the society able to conduct their public worship. By the mediation of Rev. Daniel Jones, of Trowbridge, a worthy but unlearned man, named Webley, belonging to the Baptist church at the latter place, undertook to preach at Wedmore. The Committee of the Unitarian Fund from time to time voted small sums, both to increase his very scanty salary, and to enable him to devote himself for a few months to study, under the direction of his friend and former pastor, Rev. D. Jones.* Mr. Webley continued to discharge his duties, much to the satisfaction of the Committee, until the latter end of 1811, when Mr. Aspland received from him a communication to the effect that he could no longer receive assistance from or continue his relations to the Unitarian Fund, in consequence of an entire change of opinion respecting the person of Christ. He stated that a careful perusal of the Scriptures, undertaken with a view to settle some doubts which had arisen in his mind, had convinced

In the Report of the Unitarian Fund read to the general meeting, reference was made to Mr. Webley's case. The passage is interesting as shewing some of the influences under which the Unitarian Academy afterwards arose. “It will be recollected that Mr. Webley, now filling an useful station at Wedmore, Somersetshire, received his preparatory instruction for the ministry under the sanction of the Society. The success of the plan in this instance has made it appear desirable to the Committee that it should be again acted upon, on favourable occasions. This is likewise known to be the opinion and wish of many persons of eminence and weight in the Unitarian body. But at the same time the Committee have considered, in viewing particular cases which have been brought before them, that the education of young men for the ministry is not one of the first and most direct objects of the Society, and that in no instance would it be allowable to apply their funds to the purpose of a complete learned education. The utmost, they conceive, that your Committee would be warranted in doing, would be the placing of promising persons, already acceptable preachers, under some popular and zealous minister, for the sake of being inducted into English literature and put in the way of studying to profit, and this only when it can be accomplished with little expense."

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