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Gleanings-Literary Notices.

Burning of the Protestant Dissenters' Charity Schools Bartholomew Close.-On Monday, 3d May, about half past Twelve o'clock at noon, a fire broke out in the premises adjoining the School, which spread so suddenly and rapidly, that the School Room, and the apartments occupied by the master and mistress, were in a few minutes laid in ashes, together with the fittings-up of the School, the books, and a considerable quantity of the children's clothing. The loss, it is feared, from the necessity of obtaining other premises, in which considerable expense must be incurred to fit them for schools, with residences for the master and mistress, can scarcely be less than £850. This School was formed in 1717 among its founders and supporters, are to be found the venerable names of the Rev. Samuel Wilcox, Daniel Neale, Thomas Bradberry, and Dr. Watts; it has continued emphatically a Protestant Dissenters' School from the day of its foundation to the present hour. In consequence of this calamity, a temporary place for the children's instruction has been kindly granted to the managers by the Committee of the Rev. Dr. Bennett's Sunday, School, and they are now taught in the late MeetingHouse in Monkwell Street. The managers are also in treaty for premises in Jewin Crescent, on which to form School Rooms, and residences for the master and mistress, lately occupied by a Society calling themselves "Free-thinking Christians." They therefore trust, under Providence, that from the increased energies of the patrons of the School, the support of the Christian public at large, with the sympathies of the dissenting communities of every denomination, this School shall still continue to hold the station it has occupied for 113 years, and to afford to the chil dren of the poor the elements of human learning, and the principles of religious knowledge. With these objects in view, the case is now submitted to the consideration of the Religious Public, soliciting such aid as sympathy in an event so calamitous may excite, and the importance of the objects contemplated may demand. THOMAS LAWRENCE, Hon. Sec. Recommended by the Rev. R. Winter, D.D.; Rev. J. Bennett, D.D,; Rev. S. Humphries, D.D.; Rev. A. Tidman; Rev. J. Dean; Rev. J. P. Dobson. Rev. J. Clayton, Jun.; Rev. J. Arundel; Rev. W. S. Palmer; Rev. Thos. Wood; Rev. S. Moase; Rev. J. Price: Rev. J. Blackburn; Rev. J. Pyer; Rev. R. H. Shepherd; Rev. G. Pritchard.

Donations and Subscriptions will be very gratefully received by Mr. John Moginie, Treasurer, 16, Smithfield Bars; Mr. S. Bagster, 15, Paternoster Row; Mr. Thomas Lawrence, 64, Goswell Street; also by any Gentleman of the Committee, and the Master of the School.-May 25, 1830.

Cattle Imported.-The cattle imported into Liverpool from Ireland during the past year :-Cows, 60,735; sheep, 145,221; pigs, 168,788.

Criminals.-No less than 99,000 offenders are said to have been committed, within the year, to different prisons in England and Wales, the expeuse of which establishments exceeds half a million.

Expediting Devotion.-Among the Kalmuck Tartars small wooden windmill-wings are placed at the entrance of their huts, which are termed praying-machines the owner of the hut pays the priest for writing upon these machines certain prayers that may be turned round by the wind, and he be freed from the trouble of repeating them himself. The priests of these people have likewise a very commodious method of expediting their prayers. When they have a number of petitions to offer up for their flocks, they make use of a cylindrical wooden box, into which they put the written prayers, and, having placed it perpendicularly on a stick, they sit down beside it and pull it backwards and forwards with a string, gravely smoking their pipes while performing the ceremony. According to their doctrine, to render prayer efficacious, it is only requisite that it should consist of moving petitions; and, whether the motion be operated by the lips, a cylinder, or a windmill, is indifferent.

Literary Notices.

Just Published.

A Funeral Discourse on the Death of the Rev. Wm. Orme, by the Rev. Joseph Fletcher, A.M.; with an address delivered at the interment by Dr. Winter.

The Second Edition of "Lectures on the Recipro cal Obligations of Life; or a practical exposition of Domestic, Ecclesiastical, Patriotic, and Mercantile Duties. By the Rev. John Morison.

The Dying Hours of a Yonng Villager; a true Narrative.

A Collection of Hymns. By William Urwick.

688

No. XV. of the National Portrait Gallery: - Dr. Young; the Bishop of Chichester; and Earl Spencer. Part IV. Devonshire and Cornwall Illustrated. The Remembrance of Christ's Love a Stimulus to Missionary Exertions, a Sermon, by the Rev. James Sherman, 8vo.

Third Edition of "The Traveller's Prayer," by A. Clarke, LL.D.

The Hundred-Weight Fraction-Book, containing 125 Tables, exhibiting the precise Value of each respective Weight, from 11b. to 3q. 271b. By John Gayner, lately a Warehouse Clerk to the CoalbrookDale Company

Four splendid and accurate Views of the Frigates Shannon and Chesapeake; during the Action, 1st of June, 1813, by Mr, Haghe, under the inspection of Capt. R. H. King, R. N.

The First Volume of "Sharpe's Library of the Belles Lettres."

The Pocket French Grammatical and Critical Dictionary. By G. Surenne, F.A.S.E. Author of a French Grammar, a New French Manual, and of several other Popular Works.

Robert Montgomery and his Reviewers. By Edward Clarkson.

Exodus, or the Curse of Egypt, &c. By T. B. J. Universal Mechanism consistent with Creation, Nature, and Revelation. By G, M. Bell.

The Anthology, an annual Reward Book for Midsummer & Christmas. By the Rev. J. D. Parry, M.A. A Comprehensive Grammar of Sacred Geography and History. By W. Pinnock.

Delectus Grammaticus, or Progressive Lessons in Latin Construing and Parsing. By Alex. Webster.

The Holy Bible, according to the established Version, with the exception of the substitution of the ori ginal Hebrew Names, in place of the English words Lord and God. Part II.

The Family Baptist, a Treatise on Christian Bap tism. By George Newbury.

A Sketch of the History of the Indian Press during the last Ten Years. By Sandford Arnot.

A Letter to the Moderator of the Presbytery of London, concerning the Sinless Humanity of Christ, By the Rev. J. Millar.

The Essay on the Signs of Conversion and Unconversion in Ministers of the Church, &c. By the Rev. Samuel Charles Wilks, M.A.

Dialogues on Popery. By Jacob Stanley. Sermons by the Rev. Henry Moore, with a Brief Memoir of his Life.

In the Press.

The Journal of a Tour, made by Senor Juan de Vega, the Spanish Minstrel of 1828 and 1829, through Great Britain and Ireland: a Character performed by an English Gentleman.

The Nature and Properties of the Sugar Cane; with practical directions for improving its Culture, and for the manufacture of its various products. By G. R. Porter.

British Zion's Watch-Tower, in the Sardian Night, being Four Sermons on Psalm lxxxii. 5. By the Rev. Henry Cole, A.M.

By an Officer of the Line, Author of "Sketches Scenes, and Narratives," a Poem entitled "Visions of Solitude."

The Second Edition of a Volume of Sermons, by the Rev. Charles Taylor.

Theological Meditations; by a Sea Officer; to be comprised in one volume, demy 12mo.

Sir Isaac Newton and the Modern Socinian foiled in their Attempt to prove a corruption in the Text of 1 Timothy iii. 16. By E. Henderson, Professor of Divinity and the Oriental Languages at Highbury College.

Preparing for Publication.

An Exposition of the Doctrine of Original Sin, by a Layman.

By the Author of "May you like it," a new Edition of his "Fireside Book, or, the Account of a Christmas spent at Old Court."

Part V. of the Rev. John Morison's Exposition of the Book of Psalms.

By the Rev. J. Topham, M.A. F.R.S.L. A Small Collection of Prayers, in Easy Language, for Every Day in the Week.

By Charles Lamb, Author of Essays by Elia, a volume of Poems entitled Album Verses.

Geographia Antiqua or School Treatise on Ancient Geography, adapted to Schools and Private Families, and also to Undergraduates at Colleges. By Mr. Guy, University of Oxford.

By Mr. Barclay, a Work on the effects of the late Colonial Policy of Great Britain, addressed to the Right Hon. Sir George Murray, principal Secretary of State for the Colonial Departments.

LONDON: PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BY II, FISHER, SON, AND CO.

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THE

Emperial Magazine;

OR, COMPENDIUM OF

RELIGIOUS, MORAL, & PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE.

AUGUST.]

"PERIODICAL LITERATURE IS THE GERM OF NATIONAL LEARNING."

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IF, after the lapse of six years, the philanthropist had no ground for anticipating the mitigation or termination of slavery, through the medium of colonial legislation; if the cause of African freedom, through the apathy of public men, and interested clamour, appeared to retrograde rather than advance; and if he have at times been disposed to place this desired consummation upon the forlorn hope, it is cheering at length to perceive a brighter prospect dawning in the political horizon.

As many of the different branches of physical science have a close affinity to, and dependence on, each other; so, various departments of legislation, depending on a common principle, mutually contribute to the promotion and establishment of each other. In this view, we think, the relief of the Catholics, and the abolition of slavery, have a much more intimate connexion than some persons may imagine. Civil and religious liberty has an immediate dependence on personal freedom, without which it cannot be correctly said to exist. Hence, we are not at all surprised, that in public life, with very few exceptions, the advocates of political slavery at home, and personal slavery abroad, were the same men. at the majorities and minorities on the great questions of the abolition of the slave trade, and of Catholic emancipation, and allowing for the difference of three-andtwenty years, we find nearly the same individuals opposed to both, and vice

versa.

Look

On the side of freedom and tolerance, we see ranged the Burkes, Pitts, Foxes, Grenvilles, Greys, Grattans, Wilberforces, Wellesleys, and Cannings; and, on the other side, the Liverpools, Eldens, Sidmouths, Westmorelands, Newcastles, Gascoynes, Mannings, and Chandoses of the day. The West India and Orange parties, as natural allies, and engaged in the same 140.-VOL. XII.

[1830.

cause, mutually supported each other, in a triumph of the few, over the common rights of humanity. Protestant ascendancy, and colonial bondage, were to be maintained, in opposition to civil and religious freedom, and the social happiness of mankind. But we trust, that as the day of Ireland's oligarchy is up, so that of the slave-holders is nearly so too.

We trust the able tactician, now at the head of the government, will act vigorously for the benefit of the country at large, unfettered by the prejudices of interested party advisers, and that, through him, our national councils will be emancipated from the thraldom in which they have been held during the two preceding reigns. In the course of that period, we have had only one man (Mr. Pitt) long at the head of the government, who could be at all pronounced capable of wielding the destinies of this great empire; and he kept his place solely by a compromise of principles which he had declared to be all-important, at the dictation of his

master.

So fatal an effect had the system of tutelage under which he was educated, upon the late monarch, that such men as Chatham, Fox, and Grenville, could not retain their offices but for a very limited time, without sacrificing their paramount duty to their country, on some of the greatest questions of society, to the prejudices of the royal mind. Our public affairs were consequently left to the guidance of the mere tools of office, who were altogether incapable of originating any great measure for the good of the public, determined in their opposition to any attempts of the kind, and who had no idea of justice but expediency. The opponents of slave, as of Catholic emancipation, will concede nothing but by compulsion,--they are as true to the cause of oppression and injustice, as the needle to the pole; and in each, under the pretence of serving the national interests; resolved,

"Et propter vitam, vivendi perdere causas." The advocates of slavery were not only very consistent, in vehemently contending for civil and religious exclusion, as founded on a common principle; but they were

2 x

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Influence of Catholic on Slave Emancipation.

aware that the settlement of the Catholic question, by divesting the attention of the legislature of a most perplexing and agitating subject, which almost annually consumed much of its time, by producing a greater unanimity amongst public men, dividing the enemies of freedom, and producing from a new quarter a vast accession to the cause, would remove a most powerful barrier to any efficient reforms in the state, and hasten the doom of their oppressive monopoly.

The West Indians are fully sensible of this; and the letter of one of them in this country, to his friends in the colonies, shews how they tremble for the inauspicious consequences which the extraordinary proceedings of parliament last year, in effecting Catholic emancipation, must have upon the duration of colonial bondage. They feel that a main bulwark of the slave system has thus been thrown down, and that one of the earliest objects of further legislative reform must be the abolition of slavery. Whilst we were divided amongst ourselves about grievances at home, they saw we were not likely to take any decided steps against oppression and injustice abroad; but these having been redressed, they find slavery is put to fearful odds, in having to stand the brunt of the battle against her enemies, and to contend with the spirit of freedom, unshielded by this medium of defence.

And not only do they fear the foes of slavery will be multiplied by the union of the hitherto doubtful with the uncompromising champions of freedom, (just as when the invincibility of Napoleon was refuted, his adversaries accumulated, even from the ranks of his former allies,) but by the late measures, an enemy has been introduced into the field from a new quarter, who, acting on the sympathising principle of Dido, in her address to Æneas,

"Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco," shews himself worthy of the boon he has obtained, by making the first use of his newly acquired political enfranchisement, to redress the far greater wrongs of his African brother, and to emancipate from a personal, and far worse and more cruel bondage, 800,000 of his fellow-subjects in the colonies. Mr. O'Connell's speech at the Cork Anti-slavery meeting, promises to make the advocacy of this question one of his first efforts in parliament, and is a most eloquent pledge of his devotion to the cause, and of its final success.

The emancipation of Ireland has set at liberty some millions of our fellow-citizens,

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to attack the strong holds of negro-slavery, who, while oppressed by wrongs of their own, were comparatively disabled for embarking in the crusade of philanthropy. And when the government shall be urged forward by this combined force of public | opinion, no more doubt can be entertained of their success, than we can doubt that, sixteen months ago, in the face of difficulties infinitely more insurmountable, and an opposition far more formidable than can now be apprehended,— -an emancipation was achieved of ten times the extent and difficulty of that now sought for, in the death-warrant of negro-slavery. The settlement of the Catholic question, then, we trust, has broken the spell-separated the last link of the chain which bound a large proportion of the country to the ultra tory faction. The Dissenters, relieved by the repeal of the Test Acts, would have been grossly inconsistent to oppose the Catholic claims; both they and the Catholics equally so, not to advocate parliamentary reform; and the adherents of the latter, not to support the abolition of slavery.

Ecclesiastical, parliamentary, legal, and colonial reform, all depend on one common principle-justice; and hence it is inconsistent for the man, who upholds any one of these, not to abet all the rest. And, vice versa, personal slavery is an injustice so monstrous, that its advocates are very generally and naturally found to defend every other abuse in the state.

Another ground of encouragement is, the change which has taken place in the tone of the Quarterly Review, which, from being a stanch and virulent advocate of the Colonists, appears to be gradually veering round to the side of abolition; while the able and consistent support of the Edinburgh and Westminster Reviews, two articles from which are republished in the pamphlet above cited, must be of incalculable service in furthering the cause of humanity.

"Let the emancipated Catholics," says the talented writer in the latter journal, "reflect how closely allied have been the principles of the present question and of his own, and well consider the sound policy there would be in driving his enemies from the position they have occupied beyond. All creatures of ill omen-every odious and foul bird, that has threatened any body, or tormented any body-take roost, and harbour in the question of West India slavery, and sit there in readiness to pounce on the first exposed member of liberty at home."-Westminster Review, No. 21, Oct., 1829.

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