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were suspended. But this pacification proved of short continuance, for the Bishop of Meath having delivered a sermon on the same occasion, and in the same pulpit, in 1800, and which was printed at the request of the Society, thought proper to subjoin a note, in which he repeats Dr. Rennell's accusation, with some severe additions of his own against public schools.

This was enough to rouse any man; and that Dr. Vincent felt himself hurt at the repetition of such charges is not to be wondered at. He applied to the Society for leave to insert in their parcels, a justificatory paper, by way of repelling the evil impression which the Bishop's note might make upon the minds of its readers. This request the Society did not think proper to grant, as not chusing to take any part in the controversy. The doctor, then, as his last resource, appealed to the public in one of the most masterly apologies that ever appeared in print. It is true he speaks in a high tone, and, perhaps, in some respects he is too keen upon the Bishop and Dr. Rennell. But it must be admitted, that the former went greatly out of his way, and that in an unfair manner, to meddle with a point on which he had little information; and the latter, with a strange degree of inconsistency, censured the very seminaries. for that which, on another occasion, he had defended them, namely, what he calls "a pagan education."*

This is a curious circumstance; and as it was not mentioned by Dr. Vincent in his admirable tract, we shall here adduce it. Dr. Rennell, in a note to his sermon before the Society, in 1799, expressed

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Neither of these excellent divines, however, have made any sort of reply to Dr. Vincent, though certainly something might have been expected from them, either to confirm their assertions, or in the

expressed himself thus: "There is scarcely any internal danger which we fear, but what is to be ascribed to a Pagan education, under Christian establishments in a Christian country.." Now the same Dr. Rennell, in a note to another sermon, preached before the University of Cambridge commencement Sunday, 1798, says, "Under these principles I know of no subject so pregnant in important consequences, as a consideration of the extremes of weakness and strength exhibited by the ancient Greek philosophers. These circumstances, if duly weighed, will point out to the wisdom of this University, the extreme importance of combining the study of the ancient Greek philosophy with our theological researches. The foundations of the evidences of revelation will be greatly strengthened, by observing, with accuracy, the light the Pagans actually obtained, and in discovering the insurmountable boundary which interrupted their further progress. I have ever considered the works of Plato, Aristotle, and the moral writings of Cicero and Plutarch, as an avenue and portico to Christianity. I am convinced, from some experience, that minds embued with the precepts of these men, strengthened with their wisdom, and elevated with their dignity, will be strongly predisposed, both from a review of their excellencies and defects, to close in with the evidences of that gospel, which brought life and immortality to light. The minds of our young men so formed, would be inaccessible to the silly and ignorant sophisms of Voltaire, Rousseau, Condorcet, d'Alembert, and Volney."

How these two passages can be fairly reconciled, must be left to the casuistical genius of the author of them. Plain readers will be apt to think, that the latter is a full and decisive refutation of the former, and that it constitutes an elaborate defence of PAGAN EDUCATION!

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way of retractation. Other writers, however, have entered into the dispute, and that with a forwardness which indicates more zeal than judgment. It might have been expected that some other heads of schools would have entered their cavcat also against the charges brought against them, but it seems that they rested satisfied with what has been so ably urged by' Dr. Vincent in his Defence of Public Education.

Since the agitation of this question, the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge have properly passed a resolution, that, for the future, nothing shall' be appended to any sermon preached before them but what has previously met with their sanction. This measure, however, was not carried without violent opposition.

On the day appointed for a general thanksgiving on account of the peace, Dr. Vincent preached a most cloquent and energetic discourse before the House of Commons, at St. Margaret's, which discourse is since published.

As a pulpit orator, the Doctor is distinguished by great animation, a clear and sonorous articulation, and a graceful dignity of manner. His sermons are the compositions of a mind richly embued with divine and human learning, elegant in their language, yet sufficiently levelled to the plainest understandings.

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THE EARL OF MACARTNEY.

GEORGE Earl of Macartney, the representative of an ancient branch of a family once possessed of independent princely power in Ireland, has been ennobled in reward for eminent political services to his sovereign and his country, and has passed with honour through a greater variety of high diplomatic and vice-regal employments, than have been confided to almost any contemporary statesman of this or any neighbouring nation.

The great Irish family of Macarthy More was one of the most zealous to resist, in early times, the invasions and conquefts of the English. As the inhabitants of the north-weft parts of Scotland and those of the north of Ireland were originally one people, whose primitive connexions were preserved by frequency of intercourse, affinity, and alliance; it was natural for them to co-operate against the English, their common enemies, at the time when these strove to add Scotland as well as Ireland to the dominions of the English crown. Robert Bruce found occasional refuge in Ireland at those times when there remained scarcely a spot of Scottish ground where he might clude the vigilance of the English, or withstand their power. And the Bruces, after Scotland was, by their persevering and intrepid valour, ultimately freed from English oppreffion, readily went, at the invitation of the native Irish, on an expedition to drive the English also out of that ifle, which was, as yet,

but half subdued. Scotsmen and Irishmen fought together, in these circumstances, under the banners of the Bruces. Some of the brave Maccarthys were among the most faithful companions of the atchievements and misfortunes of Edward Bruce in Ireland. A branch of the Maccarthys, assuming the more correct appellation of Macarthurs, was already established in Argyleshire, where it still continues to flourish. And Edward Bruce gave lands in Galloway, of which he was lord, to another brave man of the same great Irifh family and name.

That sirname which among the Irish and the Highland Scots speaking the Celtic language, was Maccarthy or Macarthur, became, among the inhabitants of Lower Galloway speaking the AngloSaxon, Macartane or Macartney. The lands granted to Edward Bruce's followers took the name of their proprietor, which they still retain. The family was, in the process of the three following centuries, diffused, in several respectable branches, through both the stewartry of Kirkcudbright and the shire of Wigton. By the vicinity of Galloway, the most western district of Scotland, to Ireland, there have been alternately, many settlements of families from Galloway in Ireland, and of families from the north-east parts of Ireland in Galloway. At that time, particularly when James the sixth strove to establish episcopacy in Scotland; at the æra when Ireland was reconquered and filled with new colonists by the Cromwells; and at the great period, also, of the Revolution; many persons, emigrants from Galloway, became the founders

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