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for signature; inflammatory resolutions community for the legal suppression of and declarations were widely diffused, the works in question was clearly extill at length it became no secret, pressed; and we have no hesitation in that nothing less than a complete re- declaring our opinion, whatever may volution, both in church and state, have been the result of the late trials, would satisfy not a few of the deluded that the law-officers of the crown would populace. have been deemed guilty of neglecting their duty, had they failed to bring before an English court and jury, the infamous productions which have given rise to the present remarks. The only just ground of censure is, that such publications were permitted so long and so firmly to entrench themselves behind authority and precedent, that a jury, whatever might be the real guilt of any particular individual concerned, could not but feel some difficulty in visiting on a single offender, and on the first occasion of trial, a crime which in so many other instances had been committed with impunity.

We shall not retrace the march of these unlawful machinatiors, or the desultory efforts of individual malcontents, up to the time when the transactions in Spa-fields, and afterwards at Manchester, suddenly opened the eyes of every lover of his country to their magnitude and portentous consequences. From this period, the most vigorous measures were pursued to suppress the evil; and the legislature itself, justly alarmed by the increasing numbers and infatuation of the disaffected, found it necessary to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, and to exert every means in their power for preserving our internal peace.

These strong measures, with the healing hand of time, and still more those blessings of Divine Providence, a favourable harvest, and returning prosperity in our trade and commerce, have already effected much towards restoring the tranquillity of the country: as a proof of which, ministers have ventured to release a number of the persons confined under the discretionary powers given them by parliament. Of the numerous individuals found guilty of high treason, at the late trials at Derby, three only, Jeremiah Brandreth, Wm. Turner, and Isaac Ludlam, have suffered the capital penalty adjudged by the laws of their country to their treasonable proceedings. Eleven of the other convicts are to be transported for life, and the remainder for limited periods. The conspiracy appears now to have lost every thing like active and efficient or ganization.

Among the various means employed to excite all this disaffection, we are now called upon to remind our readers of one of the most popular and mis. chievous; namely, seditious and profane parodies upon the justly venerated formularies of the Established Church. It was easily seen, that affection for these is usually connected with a spirit favourable to the existing order of things, and that in proportion as the veneration for them was destroyed, facilities would arise for effecting the designs of the discontented. The wish, therefore, of every moral and loyal member of the

This remark applies very closely to the late trials of Mr. Hone, against whom the Attorney-General exhibited three informations, for parodies on the Com mon Prayer generally, and on the Litany and Catechism of the Church, and the Athanasian Creed in particular. The trials came on successively on the 18th, the 19th, and the 20th instant, before the Court of King's Bench; and on each of these days Hone acted as his own advocate, with an ability worthy of a better cause. He avowed the fact of publication, and rested his defence upon the ground that the parodies, however exceptionable in other respects, were neither seditious nor profane. In pursuance of his argument, he contrived to bring forward from numerous, and, we are sorry to say, some of them in other respects reputable authors, a mass of indecency and impiety, which we trust has sufficed to nauseate the public with such lawless and unhallowed productions. Some of the personal allusions made by the defendant, however painful to the parties concerned, will, we trust, tend to correct in future that trifling with sacred things and sacred names which has occasionally occurred even in places where decency, to say nothing of religion, required a very different mode of conduct. On each of the three trials, the court was fully of opinion that the parodies came fully under the legal description in the information; but the jury, assuming their unquestioned right in the case of libel to judge of the whole question of law as well as fact, brought in a ver

dict of Not Guilty. On what grounds their decision was formed, of course, has not transpired. They might be of opinion, that as Hone was not the first or the only publisher of these or similar parodies; and as it appeared in evidence that he had suppressed the work shortly after its publication, as soon indeed as it had been noticed in parliament; and as it was possible, under all the circumstances of the case, that his incentive might have been poverty, mixed up with strong political feeling, rather than any distinct purpose of bringing religion into contempt; and still more, as he had already suffered a confinement, which may have appeared in some measure to punish his offence, that it was their duty to acquit him : apd we can conceive that in such a case, a jury might lean to the side of acquittal, without by any means intending to lay it down as their opinion that such parodies, abstractedly considered, are not illegal and grossly libellons. If, however, the latter inference could be drawn from this verdict, which we do not apprehend, then indeed it would open wide the very flood-gates of sedition and blasphemy, and we should be at a loss even to imagine where the evil might end. It is true a jury has nothing to do with the consequences that may follow from their verdict, and have only to adjudge, as doubtless they did to the best of their

conviction, the case immediately be fore them. We therefore by no means intend to impeach the correctness of their decision, when we say that it has filled us with some alarms and apprehensions, from the apparent sanction which it may seem to bestow upon publications of the most injurious and impious nature. Christianity is publicly recognized as part of the law of the land; and the regulations and formularies of the Established Church are placed under the same guardianship. We should be much distressed, therefore, to find that the acquittal of Hone had given new courage to those who were already but too active: and we trust that our law officers will only be the more vigilant, in consequence of what has happened, to bring to trial every similar outrage, were it only, if the existing laws shall prove too feeble to repress them, thatnew laws may be framed for that purpose.

With regard to Hone himself, he has expressed his intention never more to publish either these or any other works of a similar description, and "to exhort all his fellow-citizens to abstain from parodying the litany, or the service of the Church of England;" and yet we understand that he is preparing for publication an account of his trial, in which the parodies will be reprinted at full length.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

PHILO-CHRISTOS has been received.

AN ENQUIRER; AMICUS; SINCERITY; E. H. H.; "Lines on the Bible;" J. E. A VICAR; *S*.; and A LAY MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, are under consideration.

C. C.; A SERIOUS ENQUIRER; JUVERNA; and INGENUUS, will appear.

We can assure A COUNTRY CURATE that there are no inquiries which we feel more difficulty in answering than Cases of Conscience, the solution of which,, must, in almost every instance, depend upon local and personal circumstances. We cannot, however, conceive why he may not with quite as safe a conscience suffer the children of his parish to practise sacred harmony, as part of their Sunday-school employment, as permit them to read and spell, which are cer tainly not more closely connected with public worship than the other.

We cannot insert the remarks of EDINENSIS in the form which he proposes, bot shall endeavour to avail ourselves of them in another shape.

We are much obliged to O. T. for his information, and are sorry we had not known before the circumstances which he has communicated

ERRATUM.

Present Number, p. 767, line 19, after all, read that.

TO THE

CHRISTIAN OBSERVER,

VOLUME THE SIXTEENTH,

FOR 1817.

RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATION.

EXTRACTS FROM UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF THE LATE REV. JOHN NEWTON.

"MA

(Concluded from p. 764.) TAY I write to you again after so long a silence? I hope I may, for I feel I must. I have seriously purposed writing for some time past; and I believe I should have addressed a letter to you at P. in the course of this

month, had not Mr. L called last week, and told me that I might write by your brother, who expected to meet you soon in Silesia. Your husband, and my friend, it seems is removed from this poor world: I call him my friend, for though the interval of our personal acquaintance was short, I recollect pleasing tokens of his friendship, both at that time and since: the Lord grant that we may all meet at last in that land where friendship and happiness will be complete. And may God himself be a husband to you, and a father to your children.

"What a changing world do we live in! But the unseen state to which we are hasting is unchangable. Then we shall be at home: we shall pass from waking dreams and shadows to realities. Your removal into Germany will bring you considerably nearer to us: but if CHRIST. OBSERV. App.

we cannot meet face to face, the different distances of Russia, or Silesia, or even Bedford, are little more than ideal. Whether any future turns in providence may lead you again to England, espe cially in my time, I know not. I hope, however, to meet with you at last before the throne of God. In the mean while, wherever you live, I shall think of you with af fection, and shall find a pleasure in the persuasion that I am not for gotten by you. The earth is the Lord's; and in our widest separations we are but as in different rooms of the same great house, and equally under the eye of the same Great Shepherd, who affords the same proofs of his power and care to all who put their trust in him,

"Dear Miss P▬▬ B▬▬, my dear E-, Mr. L――, and many others with whom we have had sweet fellowship, are gone before us. The longer we live, the more we shall resemble the trees which drop their leaves in swift succession as the winter approaches. May we be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises, and all shall be well at last.

Our sweet E-, at the age of fourteen years and eight months, met her summons with the faith and comfort of a martyr. The 5 Q

Lord was very gracious to her and to us, in the circumstances of her dismission; and though to this day I can seldom write or speak of her without dropping a tear, I never seriously regretted her departure for a single moment.

"As a minister, I am happy in an affectionate people: many of them are eminently religious, and we walk in peace. The Lord does not withhold his presence from our ordinances. My service is my pleasure, and I am bound to, say, the lines are fallen to me in a pleasant place.' But I still am a poor, weak, inconsistent creature in myself, and have cause for wonder and praise, that God has not as yet taken his word of truth out of my mouth, and forbidden me to make mention of his name any more.

"I shall hope in some good day to receive a letter from you. We long to hear of your welfare. You have a right to delay writing as long as I have done; but I hope you will not. When my friends are called away, I frequently regret that I did not visit them, or write to them oftener while they were within my reach; but my connexions and en gagements are so multiplied and diversified, that I know not which way to turn, nor how or when to secure a day, or indeed an hour with certainty, to do what my inclination would prompt me to perform. I have not behaved worse to you than to many others whom I truly love; and if you will encourage me again, I will try to behave better to you in future.

A part of your last is on the subject of friendship. I believe, yea, I am sure, there is such a thing: but true friendship can only subsist between those who are united to God by true religion. Worldly friendships, though they may endure a while, are always brittle as glass, liable to be broken by a slight blow; and, like glass, when broken they are irreparable. Nors is Christian friendship absolutely secure. It is a beautiful plant, but

liable to wither and decay, unless watered by a Divine blessing, which can only be expected so far and so long as it is maintained (in a due subordination to what we owe to our Supreme Friend; for he will not endure a rival in our hearts. Mutability is essential to a creature; and fickleness and inconstancy enter deeply into the nature of fallen creatures. I have lived with my nearest earthly friend more than thirty-seven years, and still our affection is preserved. Of all my temporal mercies, none ought to affect me more sensibly than this; for my ingratitude to God, my best Friend, has often deserved to be punished in this way. I have a few other friends who are not weary of me yet. But though I could make out a long list of per sons whom I love, and who are kind to me, the peculiar intimaey and peculiar circumstances which are required to constitute friendship, in my sense of the word, can hardly be found in many persons. To have a few select friends, the good will of a large acquaintance, and benevolence to all, even to strangers and enemies for the Lord's sake, is, I believe, the happy pris vilege of some persons, and more cannot be expected here. Hereafter our love will expand, and take in all (perhaps equally) who are ca pable of receiving it."

1

"After so long a suspension of our correspondence, a letter from you was doubly welcome to us y especially as it gave me the great pleasure of finding your heart still alive in the love and the ways of our Lord. He is the Sun of the soul, whether we live in London, P or Hernhuth. But how many things do we meet with, from within and from without, which have a tendency to blind the eyes of our mind! I congratulate you that,' in all the changes you have passed through since you left us at Olney, His unchangeable mercy has pre served you. Aby Madam loweresite

not for his power and grace, which have supported us, we should have sunk, and made shipwreck of faith long before now, But He has delivered, he does deliver, and he gives us good encouragement to hope, that he will deliver us even unto the end. We are still travelling through a wilderness, and we know not what we may yet meet with before our pilgrimage is finished: but every step lessens our distance from our heavenly home.

Mrs. Newton has had very indifferent health this winter, and is still but poorly. The close of the last year, and the beginning of this, was a time of great trial with us. But our gracious Saviour has promised, that all things shall work together for good to them that love him. Not only their comforts, but their crosses, are mercies: they are sent by the same hand; they are designed to promote the same end; and I doubt not but hereafter we shall clearly see, that we have no less cause to praise him for the bitter than for the sweet. Blessed be his Name for a good hope, that the hour is coming when the bitter will be no longer needful.

"O what humility, dependence, gratitude, and devotedness of heart become a redeemed sinner! There is little worth thinking, talking, or writing about, but what has a near connexion with Jesus Christ crucified; who he is, what he has done and suffered, where he is, what he is now doing, and what we may be able to do while we are here to shew forth the praises of Him who has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light! Other subjects, in comparison of this, however important in the view of the men of this world, are trivial as the sports of children. Blessed be God for his unspeakable Gift!

*I often recal to mind the conversations we had, at different times, in my study at Olney. I suppose it is now about fourteen years since we first received you

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"For myself, I am still healthy, and am not disabled from performing my public service as a minister; and I bless the Lord that I am not weary of it. Still it is my pleasing employment. I can so far, from my heart, magnify my office, that I think I would not exchange it for any rank or wealth this world could afford. To be a minister of the Gospel appears to me more honourable, more desirable, than to be prime minister of an empire. I am likewise well pleased with my situation. I was so at Olney; but this affords a larger sphere of probable usefulness, and more exten sive pleasing connexions. Were it not for the law of the flesh, which warreth against the law of my mind, and for what I suffer, by sympathy, with my dear Mrs. Newton in her illness, I should have hardly any thing worthy to be called a trial.

"Should the Lord, in his provi dence, lead you to England while I am living, I promise myself much pleasure in seeing you again. Dis tance and absence have not abated our regard for you. Our times and ways are in good hands. If we are permitted to meet upon earth, I trust it will be to mutual comfort and benefit. If not, it will be still bet ter to meet in heaven. In the mean time, we may often meet in spirit. at the Throne of Grace, to which in all places we are equally near. May the Lord bless you more and more, you and your children! ¶ » should be glad to see them all. I hope you and they will not be forgotten by me; and I request your 4 remembrance in prayer for me and mine. Jako i kad »ài 3.

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