Until judgment is given by a superior Court in favour of the exemption, diversities of opinion among Magistrates must always be expected. The opinion of Sir N. C. Tindal has never yet been printed, though the substance of it has been more than once stated in the pages of your Magazine. (Vide W. M. Mag., 1829, p. 480; and 1830, p. 482.) Having been several times applied to for a sight of it, I have obtained a copy of it, and also of the "case' on which it was given, with permission to publish them in your pages. I trust the publication may be serviceable to many of our brethren in different parts of the country; at all events, it will point out to them the precise state of the law, and the grounds upon which their claim may be safely and properly argued. For the opinion itself, and for the kind permission to give it publicity, we are indebted to the Committee of 66 The Protestant Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty," and especially to their respected Secretary, John Wilks, Esq. It is only an act of bare justice to add, that the kind and friendly sentiments so long entertained by that body towards the Wesleyan Methodists, have led them on several occasions to render us most important service in the vindication of our civil rights; and, in a letter, which accompanied the subjoined documents, Mr. Wilks assures me he shall always be happy to render us such assistance against persecution in any form, or in resisting the infringement of our lawful claims, as his experience may enable him to afford." Your readers, I am persuaded, will duly appreciate these feelings; and will entertain a just sense, both of the liberal conduct of the Committee on past occasions, and of the courtesy with which they have acted in the present in stance. There are one or two minor questions raised under the thirty-second section of the General Turnpike Act, on which I will take leave to add a word here. The first relates to the exemption of Local Preachers. 66 But they surely come under the denomination person or persons," as much as any others; and are as truly going to, or returning from, their usual place of worship, when attending their appointments on the Plan, as the Itinerant Preachers are. The second relates to exemption on week-days. Some persons have supposed, that the exemption extends to the Clergy of all religious denominations, on every day of the week. But a glance at the Act serves to show that this opinion is unfounded. The established Clergy are clearly exempt, at all times, when on parochial duty within their parishes; and these limitations prove that the Legislature did not contemplate the exemption of either non-parochial or unestablished Clergy on ordinary days. But on days on which divine service is by authority ordered to be cele brated, persons going to their usual place of worship are clearly free. The days on which the exemption is granted (besides Sundays) appear to me to divide themselves into three classes: 1. The holy days of the Church, such as Christmas-day and Good Friday. 2. The fixed State holy days: January 30th, May 29th, November 5th, and the accession-day; but as to this latter class, there is some doubt. 3. The occasional State holy days; such as the fast-day and thanksgiving-day respectively, appointed in 1832-3, on occasion of the prevalence and cessation of cholera in this country. GEORGE OSBORN. Stoke-Newington, March 13th, 1841. "The Copy of a Case submitted by Protestant Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty to Sir N. C. Tindal, now Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, when Solicitor-General, on the Exemption of Wesleyan Ministers from Turnpike Tolls on Sundays; and of his Opinion thereon. CASE. By the 32d section of the Gene ral Turnpike Act, 3 Geo. IV., c. 126, (left herewith,) no tolls are to be demanded or taken "of or from any person or persons going to or returning from his, her, or their proper parochial church or chapel, or of or from any person or persons going to or returning from his, her, or their usual place of religious worship, tolerated by law, on Sundays; or on any day on which divine service is, by authority, ordered to be celebrated." These words were substituted for the words before inserted in Turnpike Acts, being, that no toll should be taken from persons residing in any township or parish in which the roads lay going to, or returning from, their proper parochial church, chapel, or other place of religious worship, on Sundays," and which the Court of King's Bench, in Lewis v. Hammond (2 Barn. and Ald., 206,) had held to be restricted to an exemption in the parish in which the persons resided; as the word "parochial" extended over the whole clause; and that therefore a Dissenter was not entitled to exemption in going to or returning from his proper place of religious worship situate out of the parish in which he dwelt. This substitution was made by the direction of Government, as the decision was contrary to several eminent opinions, and Nisi Prius determinations of Judges; and as it was oppressive to Dissenters and Methodists, whose places of religious worship were frequently out of the parish wherein they dwelt. To prevent abuse, the exemption was, however, limited to an attendance at a usual place of religious worship; and on that point the following case, brought before Magistrates, and on which a decision is sought, has occurred. The case is that of a Wesleyan-Methodist Minister, residing at Bury, in Suffolk. According to the rules of that body, they have, in large towns, a principal chapel, and in the adjacent townships, or villages, regular chapels, forming together a Circuit; over which the Minister resident in the town presides. For every half year a Circuit-paper is prepared and printed; and therein the Superintendent Minister is appointed to preach monthly, or otherwise, at the several chapels within the Circuit; and during the half-year, he preaches several times at each, but not uniformly or exclusively at any one. One of these chapels in the Bury Circuit is at Bradfield; and in going from Bury, where he resides, to Bradfield to preach, toll was demanded, and refused, because he was going to preach at a place of religious worship, and which he considered as one of his usual places of worship; since it was one of the places at which he was bound periodically to officiate, and where he therefore usually, though not exclusively, went. It is presumed that, while the Act meant to guard against abuse, and inserted the word "usual," it did not mean strictly to confine the exemption of a person or family to one place of worship, and that only; but that every person attending two places of religious worship regularly, though periodically, and though he go to one place regularly in the morning, and another regularly in the evening; and especially, if he subscribe to both the places; or still more, if the person be the Minister preaching regularly every Sunday in each place, or periodically in all the places in his known, fixed Circuit, may fairly contend, that such places are his usual places of religious worship, according to the strict letter, as well at the liberal spirit, of the Act. But, as doubts are entertained by Magistrates, and the tolls are enforced by Collectors, your OPINION IS REQUESTED, Whether, under the Act, a person may not have more than one usual place of religious worship; and, whether the Wesleyan Minister at Bury, in going to, and returning from, Bradfield, where he preaches periodically, though he preaches also, and perhaps more frequently, at other places, be not exempted from toll? OPINION. I think the case fell within the meaning of the clause, exempting the persons therein described from the payment of toll. If the Wesleyan Minister attends the chapel according to the usage prescribed and observed by the Rules of the particular persuasion to which he POPERY PRACTICALLY CONSIDERED. THE following statement is extracted from the recently-published volume of "Letters from the Earl of Dudley to the Bishop of Llandaff" (Dr. Coplestone). Lord Dudley (then the Hon. Mr. Ward) was one of the friends and associates of the late Mr. Canning; and, like him, was a very decided advocate of what was called "Catholic emancipation." His judgment, therefore, was not biassed by any political prejudices. He spent some time on the Continent immediately after the restoration of the Bourbons to the throne of France, and appears to have been a careful observer of men and manners. He is by no means the only writer who has expressed opinions like those furnished by the following extract. Such statements possess a painful importance, both as exhibiting the practical character of Popery, and showing the indissoluble connexion of moral with religious corruption. -EDIT. I THINK Madame de Stäel is right in saying, that the Italians in general have a strong sense of religion; but she has not (so far as I recollect) told us how base a religion it is. Our Protestant Divines, who sometimes spoke roughly in the heat of a controversy, have hardly exaggerated its demerits. Far from promoting good morals, (I speak of the Catholic religion, not as it is explained by Bossuet, but as it is believed by the common people in Italy,) it only serves to injure them by lulling the natural feelings of conscience. They believe, indeed, in God and in a future state; but then they also believe quite as firm ly that, by means of a certain num- But tury it was done by showing how little wise men would believe, so in the new school it is accomplished by showing how much they can believe. Therefore M. Chateaubriand's book is not only Christian, but, for the most part, eminently Catholic; though I am told he has fallen into some heresies from not quite understanding, beforehand, what it was that he had undertaken to believe. M. Schlegel, too, (I forget which of the brothers,) seeing that no glory was to be gained in the Lutheran Church, magnanimously swallowed the whole Romish creed at a single gulp,-cum totius Germanie stupore,-which was just what he wanted. But, to return to the Italians. Superstition is certainly on the decline here; but it is never succeeded by true religion,—always by infidelity. THE AURORA BOREALIS. (To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.) I LATELY met with an American publication, containing an account of a very splendid Aurora Borealis, beheld over an extensive tract of the northern transatlantic continent in the year 1837. (November 14th.) Part of the account I have copied for your pages, as thinking it might prove an agreeable and a useful subject of reflection, and assist in giving your readers a pleasing variety. Such narrations furnish impressive instances of that great law which prevails throughout that part of universal nature with which we are enabled to become acquainted, the adaptation to the entire constitution of man of all things that now surround him. Man is so created as to be capable of what may be termed, in general phrase, "a sense of the beautiful;" and of objects to excite and gratify the faculty, or sense, (or whatever it may be called,) all nature is full. The Aurora furnishes an instance which is the more remarkable, as we know not whence the coruscations proceed, nor by what they are caused. If we suppose their source to be the electric fluid, passing north or south to preserve a perfect equilibrium, the passage might have been performed in complete invisibility, so far as mere usefulness is concerned. Indeed, even yet, the phenomena have afforded no distinct clue to the cause. But the always-benevolent Creator, full of graciousness and benignity, makes this passage of a peculiar fluid (sup posing it so to be) the occasion of a display of what is at once most beautiful and most sublime.-" All thy works praise thee." THE splendid display of auroral glories which took place on the 14th of November, 1837, was undoubtedly one of the most extensive and most beautiful on record. The city of New-Haven had been visited, during the day of the 14th of November, with a moderate storm of snow, which began to subside between the hours of five and six in the evening. The heavens continued, however, to be more or less obscured by clouds during the entire evening; on which account the splendours of the Aurora, as they manifested themselves to observers more favourably situated, were here in a great degree concealed. The veil of snow-clouds which, at sunset, and for some time afterward, covered the sky, was nevertheless exceedingly thin; and it was through this, and even through the falling snow itself, that the first visible indications of the presence of an Aurora were discovered. It is impossible to state the exact time at which the action commenced. There is no doubt that it had been going on for a while, before the intensity of the light became sufficient to penetrate the screen. The first evidence of its existence consisted in a strong rosy illumination of the entire arch of the heavens. In a communication prepared by Professor Olmsted, at the time, for the NewHaven Herald, this appearance is described as follows: "The snow of yesterday, which at sunset had covered the earth and all things near it, with a mantle of the purest white, closed, early in the evening, with a most curious and beautiful pageant. About six o'clock, while the sky was yet thick with falling snow, all things suddenly appeared as if dyed in blood. The entire atmosphere, the surface of the earth, the trees, the tops of the houses, and, in short, the whole face of nature, were tinged with the same scarlet hue. The alarm of fire was given, and our vigilant firemen were seen parading the streets in their ghostly uniform, which, assuming the general tint, seemed in excellent keeping with the phenomenon. "The light was most intense in the north-west and north-east. At short intervals it alternately in creased and diminished in brightness, until, at half-past six, only a slight tinge of red remained on the sky. It is presumed that places favoured with a clear sky, enjoyed a splendid exhibition of the Aurora Borealis, the light of which was transmitted to us through the snowy medium and a thin veil of clouds, and was thus diffused like the light of an astral lamp, covered with a red shade of ground glass. That the stratum of clouds was very thin, was inferred from the fact, that before half-past six, a few stars were discernible as when seen through a fog; and such was the appearance of the moon, which rose about the same time." Another observer says:-" The sky was overcast, and snow was falling in small quantities, when, about twelve minutes before six, mean time, the heavens began to assume a fiery appearance. Within ten minutes, the whole clouded hemisphere shone with a brilliant red light. The snow on the ground reflected a fine rosy tint, and greatly enhanced the glory of the scene. The auroral flush overspread all parts of the sky almost instantaneously; yet there is some reason At about a quarter before six, their attention was attracted by a very unusual appearance of the heavens. The sky was wholly overcast, as in New-Haven, at the same hour; but the cloud was not sufficiently dense absolutely to obscure all the stars; of which quite a number were observed from time to time, faintly glimmering through. A few light flakes of snow continued also still to fall. At the time of the first observation, the whole heaven was suffused with a lovely carnation, brightest, apparently, at the commencement in the zenith, but soon afterward rather toward the north-east. This tint, reflected on the snow, clothed all nature with a roseate flush, beautiful beyond description. It gradually faded; but at the end of an hour was still slightly perceptible. The sky then rapidly cleared, and all traces of the Aurora passed away. But at about half-past seven, the north and east being still overcast, and some stratified clouds extending themselves along the horizon around toward the west, a brightness began to appear in the north-west, which, in a very short time, extended itself upward of fortyfive degrees, in a column of diffused light, quite broad at the base, and tapering to a point. This column moved very slowly southward, and at length became divided into two of similar character. But in the mean time, in all the north, and especially in the north-west, numerous streamers began to make their appearance. They became faintly red at the height of about thirty degrees, and the redness of the whole blended itself into one general cloud, while the columns conti |
