Star. — London, England, 1823-09-09 00:00:00

fight arm Wed with ng to be a state of of the „au. approach pitulation )bergs, all the Faith, to publish. re ; some- ;some. )0 men, is : the army over the sappointe,l been very rut to treat pot. some displeasure Cadiz in a ie blockade 1, and that suffered to cnforce the w ar were m Corunna. posi;ion :a though his 1.?; and this, the submis- )n of arms, e hostilities. positions of :times shcw ted by Con. is Badajoz. provinces of lication with Led by these that Lopez nd threatens n then.sel;es Is have been 1 the French, s to General nen to Estre- Hare in Cata- and it may avince, where : force in the ir strong for na is in a for ch is now also provinces and he Ebro, from the kingdom ing. Tire in le contest, in Sebastian has er only; San which is fu ll. There are and wounded forwarded to arre have pro• It the Cortes, eggio is going ison, but as he isposal he can -ders narrowly s capital, espe- French army , as on the 15th 66,160 9,200 75,360 be 9140. ve given a Let iilanthropist of !s made against the Presbytery. , even by those the means of Et town for the his NIAJESTY. iibraltar on the re. • on, with a view re. Farce of Mg Or he first tir►►e this >1(1 pal t of Dick more delectable House to josPire to excel. Every ual eager to ex• r his admiration his view. The and that in the humcurs of the encored. Mr, tracted and de. :; and RAYNAItt tisfaction. T he ghest order, NAVAL INTELLIGENCE. Fatmotrro, Sim 7.—Wind E.—Arrived the Ceres, &ma, from Longvound. Sailed the Policy, BROCK, for the South Seas. Pmaourn, Sarr. 7.—Wind E.—Arrived the Britannia and Wilhelm, from Oantzic. Off the port, the Manly, Sums, from St. V.::ernt . .. :-,.lantaticl, for Liverpool. PORT:': 'I tli. :-ecri. 3.— Wind F.a•terly.—Arrived the Bengal Merchant, from the Downs for Bengal ; and Eleanora schooner, from Dantadc. Dam., Sam B.—Wind N.E.—Remains, his Majesty's ship Itastrimes. Passed through, several coasters and colliers. LP/meow., Sam 7. Wind E. The Havannah packet, F.Asrox, bound to Havannah, ran on shore yesterday, on the North Bank, and received considerable damage, but was got off last night's tide, and brought into the Brunswick dock ; she made very little water, and the cargo is considered to be safe. 'the William Penn, HAMILTON, bound to Philadelphia, grounded yesterday on the Flats, but got off and proceeded, apparently s..it'iout damage. A brig and a schooner, outward-bound, are on shore. Anittezzo—At Demerara, the Shannon, Kendall ; and Bel mont, Ferguson, front Liverpool; Pilot. Payton, from Bristol ; Jane, Ilossack, from Belfast; and Kingston, Sinipbon, front Newfoundland. At Boston, Rambler, Mearns; Montgomery, \Vestal ; Eliza Burgess, ; Nile, Hutchins; and Samoset, Bartlett, from Liverpool. At Africa, Molly, Brown, from Li verpool. At [Jew York, Colombia, Rogers ; and Cortes, De Cost; Debby and Eliza, —; Hector, Sillender ; La Hogue, Parker, from Bristol; Rosina, Lithgaw, from the Clyde; Ho rizon, Clark, from Cork; Virginia, Reeve, from Marseilles; Amphion, —, from Havre ; and Brandt, —, from Ro chelle. At Quebec, Sceptre, Brunswick, Susannah, and Peggy, from London ; Nelson, from Plymouth ; Haddock and Friends, from Hull; Hunter, from Exeter; Lord Stewart, and Argo, from Sunderland ; and Amphion, from Dublin. At Gibraltar, Steady, Summers, from the Havannah ; Esther,—, from Ba hia; Mary, Oliveira, from Pernambuco; Felicanie, Brown, from New Orleans; Aurora, Capella, from Porto Rico; As pasia, —; and Neptune, Solare, from Buenos Ayres ; Cathe rine Rogers, from New York ; Pearl ; from Boston; Feconda, from Cuba; and Reydoclear, and Ceres, Bowman, from Cork. CRONIES LIE DOWN. In the summer of I; 9S, many of the Dublin Yeo manry Corps wele suspected of treasonable disposi tions, and none more strongly than the " Lawyers' Artillery ;" the members of which were not, however, exclusively of " the profession." Awaie that his corps had gotten a bad name, for which there was at the same time no apparent reason, as every soldier tinder his command displayed a sufficiently loyal and enormous queue (to disguise their assumption of the Republican crop, the United liishmen, in the Spring of 1795, assumed " false tails"); yet was the Cap tain Commandant (a sly old fox—the late Mr. Cald beck, an eminent barrister and K.C.) not the man to be imposed upon by appearances, and he hit upon an extraordinary expedient to ascertain to what extent disaffection had extended itself in the " Lawyers' Artillery," with a view to " reform it altogether." On a certain day, when the corps was on parade, he Commandant ordered them to draw up in a single line--then to " stand at ease." Soddenly, stooping immediately in front of his men, he pretended to pick up something from the ground, then raised at arm's length a false tail, cry in , 4 out, with a loud voice and severe aspect, " who bas lost t! e tail ?" Simultaneously, as if ordered to perform some movement of the manual exercise, every man in the corps, with one solitary exception, raised his right hand w ith a rapid motion to the back of his held. The whimsical ordeal had completely succeeded. The corps was marched by its Captain to the Royal Barrack, where, surrounded by two regiments of infantry, they were disarmed and di vested of their accoutrements ; and the " Lawyers' Artillery" ceased to be. POLICE OF THE MET noPor.ts.—Such has been the preventive effect of the establishment of the.patrol, that there was not a single night charge at Bow-street Office either on Saturday or 'Monday morning. Yesterday morning, a man, dressed very fashion ably, called at the residence of Lady Lindsay, in Leicester-square, and inquired of the. maid-servant it her Ladyship was within? On being told she was not, he said he would go up stairs into her apart ments, and leave a note for her. The servant in cautiously permitted him so to do, and shortly after he went away. When her Ladyship came home, she found that her purse had been stolen from a small depository, containing gold and ,bank-notes to the amount of £l4O, by this supposed Gentleman. DI3OOYERY SIIIPS.—A look-out vessel, with provi. sions, it is understood, will shortly be dispatched to Lancaster Sound, in search, of Captain PARRY. It is said that those Northern Seas remain clear of ice until the winter is somewhat advanced : if this be the case, it may not yet be too late to make the search; and perhaps some of the whalers lately returned from Davis's Straits, which are particularly fitted for, and used in the navigation of those seas, would be best calculated for the enterprise. Our readers know th a t several of the Bonapartean Officer, who went off to Spain from this country, had returned from Corunna before the submission of General MORILLO; We now can state the important fact, that a number of these Officers set off two days ago, on their return to Spain, on board the Royal George steam-packet. Their destination is Cadiz, or any other pat of Spain occupied by the Consti tutional troops. The packet proceeded from the River to Portsmouth, and thence to Jersey, which has lately been the rendezvous of the French refugee officers. --Sunday Monitor. NEGRO SLA VERY.—Extract of a letter, dated Nevis, July 18:—" I am happy to say that the legislature of this island have anticipated the wishes of the Mi nisters, in adopting most of the regulations recom mended for the amelioration of the condition of the r egroes, and have every disposition to concede the ss hole, as soon as practicable. No change in the con• duct of the slave population has yet been manifest in is i:land, in consequence of the late discussions in Parliament; and 1 am fully of opinion they will never consider anything that may be done for them Alb a boon, that has for its foundation the suppression .4)f their Sunday market, or compelling them to marry. bltlch, very much. ought to be done in the way of lii,tructiou, berme these points are enforced. I can s, cal( dispassionately am the subject, because during "eighteen years I have been in the West Indies, I have nes er owned a slave: all my servants have been hired. The doing away the cart-whip, and changing the name a the driver to that of Captain. has been merely a subject of laughter to most of the gangs, at the e%- per,se of the driver, whom they consider degraded. 'll,ere never was a subject more misunderstood by the people of England than that of slavery in dle ttt • *_,• NEW LANARK ESTABLISHMENT. [IL OWEN AND THE PRESBYTERY OF LANARK AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF SCOTLAND. TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR. SI R—.l am highly gratified that a fit opportunity at length presents itself of adverting to the prejudices which, for several years past, have been accumulat ing in the mind of the Rev. Mr. Menzie4, of Old La nark, respecting the establishment at New Lanark ; and of disabusing the Public of the numerous reports which, in consequence of those prejudices, he has deemed it his duty, since the year 1816, to circulate with great industry, far and near. It is known to all reflecting men to be a law of our nature, that when the mind, at an advanced period of life, is filled with prejudices, the judgment be comes obscured, and often worse than useless. This law of our common nature at once discloses the ori gin of the Letter which, fortunately for the cause of truth and for the improvement of society, Mr. Men zies has given to the Public. He is not to be blamed for it: he is greatly to be pitied on account of his own feelings : at the same time he is, however unknow ingly, the instrument by which much service will be done to the world. He has no doubt been desirous of giving the truth, and the whole truth, in the official statement which he has put forth ; and yet it so hap pens that, from the beginning to the en.i, it contains nothing but error and misrepresentation—to be ac counted for only by the extent to which his prejudices have led his feelings and judgment astray. It is evident that Mr. Menzies has communicated his prejudices to the Presbytery of Lanark, and that the Presbytery of Lanark have transmitted them to the General Assembly of Scotland: the result is, that a statement has been concocted, which it must be melancholy to their friends to hear explained. I have been publicly accused of excluding . the Bible from the schools at the Institution for the forma tion of character at New Lanark, where little or no attention is said to be paid to religious instruction; and of practising delusion and deception on the Public, re specting the moral state of that village, the females of which are accused of being less chaste than others. It so happens, that these charges are all directly contrary to fact. I have been long conscious of the tyranny to which the human mind has everywhere been subjected, and of the evil thus produced. It is, therefore, a principle of which I have always been extremely tenacious, that all my fellow•creatures should enjoy full liberty of conscience; and I have been equally scrupulous in not infringing, in my own practice, upon the conscience of any one. The inhabit ants of New Lanark being almost all Calvinists, I concluded that they would wish their children to be brought up in this creed. I therefore, from the time this establishment came under my direction, twenty four years ago, have allowed the Scriptures and the Catechism of the Church of Scotland to be regularly read and taught in the schools. I have done so solely in obedience to the general principle I have just stated ; and I never, for one moment, had the most distant intention of withdrawing either. If the inhabitants of the village had been Roman Catholics, the Scripturvs, on the same principle, should have been excluded; or, if Jews, the New Testament should not have been introduced; or, if they had been Mahomedaps, the Koran should have been taught: for I hold it not only to be unjust, but downright despotism and tyranny, to force upon a people anything contrary to their consciences, or to withhold from them what they conscientiously be lie've to be essential to their religious welfare. Never for a moment did I suppose that any Mi. ulster, or body of religious men in this country, could imagine that 'they had any right to interfere with a private school, which was in no way whatever under their jurisdiction, and not even supported by one Calvinist; nor have they any right: I tell them now, that they have no mote authority to interfere with the New Lanark schools than with the arrangements of my private hou,e; nor have they any to meddle with the conscience of any one, whether Christian, Jew, Turk or Infidel, as they may term him. Any of our fellow-subjects in India have as much right, were they here, to establish schools for the instruction - of their children in the Hindoo mysteries, as the General Assembly of Scotland possess to establish schools to instruct children in the mysteries of Calvinism; and, were it otherwise, I for one would leave a country where such religious despotism prevailed. But Mr. Menzies, whatever might be his desire, never ventured to make any such representation to me, as he states in his letter, respecting the alleged prohibition of the Scriptures in our schools; nor did any member of the Presbytery ever mention the sub ject to me. These Gentlemen well knew they had no right to do it. All that ever passed between Mr. Menzies and myself, on this subject, happened one day when he was coming into the village, and I was returning from it. On meeting him, after the usual salutations and inquiries, he said, " I hear in Lanark, Mr. Oa en, that you do not allow the Scriptures to be used in your schools. Is it true?" The question appeared to sae so very absurd (for I had not then heard that such an idea had been entertained by any one), that I replied, with some emphasis, " Mr. Men zies, I recommend one general rule to you in these matters, which is, that you never give any credit to a report in Old Lanark, respecting the proceedings at New Lanark, for not one in twenty of them is true ;" and we immediately separated. Now this is all that ever passed between Mr. Menzies, or the Presbytery of Lanark, and myself, on the subject of withdraw ing the Scriptures. The mistake which was so eagerly seized upon by the enemies of the system which I advocate, was a very simple one. I wished to improve the minds of the children in the schools, by giving them a general knowledge of Natural History, Geography, and Ancient and Mo dern History; and I had made some preparations for this purpose, and given some general instructions to the masters on these subjects, just before I set out on a journey, on which I was likely to be absent some months. On the morning of my departure, I looked into the schools, as is my usual practice, to say good bye to the children, with. whom I spend as much time as possible when 1 am at home, believing, as I do, that the right education of the rising generation is the most important duty that society can perform.— Just as I was coming away, one of the masters, Mr Mendell, who is very religiously inclined, said, " If we give these lessons in Geography and History to the children, thtre will be little tune to read die Scrip- / • ~~ tares, and to teach the Catechism." The latter was then taught on Saturdays. • I instantly replied, as I was leaving him, " Then let the Catechism be taught on the Sabbath, in the Sunday schools." The Sunday schools are held three times each Sabbath, when the Scriptures are read, and the Catechism taught. I heard nothing more on this subject until I met Mr. Menzies, as I have mentioned, many months after wards. It seems the master, with whom alone I had the conversation, supposed that the Scriptures, as well as the Catechism, were to be read on Sundays only, but even this mistake of Mr. Meudell's was rectified by Mr. Clegg, as soon as he was informed of it, a few days afterwards, and many months before I heard a word about the matter. It is probable I should not have heard that such a mistake had ever occurred, if the supporters of the old errors of the world had not thought that it was possible they might make some thing of it, to the disadvantage of the New Lanark establishment : but this attempt, like those which have preceded it, will only tend to render the new system better known throughout society, and aid in spreading 'a knowledge of its superior principles and practice. Mr. Menzies does not come into the schools, except upon these formal visits of the Committee of Presby tery, when agreeably to their arrangements. they only inquire what unintelligible mysteries the children are taught, and never ask what real knowltdge they have acquired. Mr. Menzies is now far more ignorant of the real state of these schools, which are within a mile of his house, than a great portion of the intelli , gent part of the population of Europe and America. In consequence of this ignorance, combined with his prejudices, he is wholly incompetent to give a rational opinion respecting them. Now, as to the delusion and deception which these Reverend Gentlemen allege that I have practised upon the Public respecting the moral state of the in , habitants of New Lanark : it is very possible I may be prepossessed in favour of these people, although I do whatever is in my power to overcome, in my own mind, prejudices of every description, and in all cases endeavour to draw my conclusions from facts alone. Thus striving against a strong natural bias of our nature, I do aver, however, that I have not seen, in any part of the world in which I have been, an equal population of working people so uni formly industrious, sober, honest, steady, and well conducted in all respects, as the inhabitants of New Lanark have been for many years past; and I speak not lightly upon these points. The population of New Lanark is now double what it was twenty-four years ago ; and before that period the Justice of Peace Court was regularly occupied during a great part of every sitting in taking cognizance of the petty squab bles and malpractices of the villagers; and this business continued to increase up to the day when my partners and myself first purchased the Establishment. Now, it is a subject of surprise to the Magistrates if a single case comes before them from New Lanark, while, from the rest of the neighbourhood, they have as much business as ever. There is also a regular daily regis ter kept, of the conduct of every one who is employed in the mills; this account extends to four degrees of comparison, viz. excellent, good, indifferent, or bad, as applicable both to their moral and working cha racter: and it gives me pleasure to state, that, for many years past, more than nineteen out of twenty have deserved the first character, or excellent ; that more than nineteen out of twenty of the remainder have merited the second character, or good ; that the third character is seldom given to any one for more than one day; and that the fourth character, or bad, is scarcely to be found for a single day in the columns of any department. The appearance of this popu lation, as they go to and return from their work, is quite sufficient to convince any intelligent observer that the inhabitants of New Lanark are very superior, in their condition and general conduct, to any other working population to be found in any part of the Kingdom. There is no public-house in the village, nor does any religious aninsosity exist among them; —from the youngest to the oldest, they exhibit in their daily practice, a love to Goa and to their neigh bour such as I have nowhere else ever witnessed. A quarrel among the children is a very unusual occur rence; and even the youngest are seldom heard to cry, either in the street or in the schools. But how should Mr. Menzies know anything of these people? He scarcely ever visits them, except at a funeral, a baptism, or a wedding, when he is obliged to attend. lam told he has not regularly visited the villagers, in his official capacity, for more than eight years, arid that he has not examined his parishioners in New Lanark for more than twenty years. I know he has not entered the houses of some of the most constant of his hearers for more than sixteen years. I believe the real truth to be, that he found the inhabitants of New Lanark to improve so rapidly in general good conduct, while he could dis cover no material change in any other part of the parish, that he directed the whole of his ministerial powers to improve the latter, amongst whom, I hope, he has had great success. The fact is, he has derived his information respecting New Lanark, not from personal inspection, but from the reports of any indi viduals whom he could discover to be in any way disaffected to the establishment, and who were al ways sure to experience his countenance and friend ship ; more particularly, a poor young woman, who was for a short time employed in the schools, with a view to give habits of cleanliness and neatness to the little girls, but whose usefulness was almost totally destroyed by an unfortunate propensity to intermed dle with everything ; a propensity arising, as it soon appeared, from a derangement of her faculties on the subject of religion. This she has already so often changed, that Tier mind has become entirely unset tled, and bereft of all charity for those who may dif fer from her present opinions ; as is evident from the letters which her friends, or rather her enemies, have induced her to publish respecting New Lanark. But Mr. Menzies and the Committee of the Pres bytery say : " there is one species of vice very preva lent at New Lanark—illicit intercourse between the sexes, as the Parish Records abundantly testify, which frequently comes under the cognizance of the Pres bytery, but which is •not recognised or checked as such by the principles of Mr. Owen." There is no single report which Mr. Menzies and the Committee of - the Presbytery of Lanark havr been so active in circulating as this. Fortunately; however, the fact is easily ascertained ; for every ille gitimate birth here has been registered for many years past. When this list comes to be examined, with reference to the disproportionate number of --'7'..; youtl - g fernales who are employed in the mills, inci when it is considered how the population was first collected, it must astonish every unprejudiced per son, that under such circumstances any female popu lation of the same extent, could be trained td be so chaste and circumspect in their conduct, as the fez males of New Lanark have been for many years past. The facts are these :—The ntraiber_of children, born in the village of New Lanark, for thd last twelve years is sixty-six; or aVeraging between five and six a-year. The number of unmarried fea males liable to such a misfortune is G3O; conse.i quently the number of illegitimate children born in New Lanark for twelve years past, does not amount in the year to one in a hundred of such young per sons. Of these, the fathers of 23 belong to the vil lage; of nineteen to the town of Old Lanark, and • nineteen are strangers. And this the Committee of the Presbytery calls a prevalent vice at New Lanark: Truly they seem to have had some difficulty in find ing any prevalent vice among them. For my own part, I can say that the conduct of the female por- • tion of our population, as well as that of the inhabit- ants generally, has been such as I never expected to see realised in practice, while they were surrounded by so many unfavourable circumstances as still exist at New Lanark, one of the greatest of which is, its vicinity to Old Lanark, and to Mr. Menzies. To Old Lanark—because it is the usual station for the Volunteer Corps of the County, when on duty. And all know how unfavourable a military station is to female chastity ; and because no rational plan has yet been adopted in practice, for the proper training and employment of the population there. And to Mr. Menzies—because the opinions and sentiments which he holds, and which he conscientiously consia ders it his duty to disseminate, are such as cannot fail to stir up and to foment religious animosities, and to retard the general introduction of kind, just, and charitable feelings, which otherwise would have beers long since established in this district. In reply to the misrepresentations of the Commit tee of the Presbytery of Lanark, I beg leave to inform them that a more false report of the state of any school was never before published. I am somewhat surprised that men possessing good and charitable principles, could have set their names to a statement which contains the following sentence :-- 4 ‘ The Com mittee state with regret that little or no attention seems to be paid to the religious instruction of the children of this school." If the Committee had made themselves acquainted with the real facts, they must very soon have discovered that the reverse of this state ment was peculiarly true, and that there is not the same number of children to be found in any school within the British Empire, whose daily practice, for . many years past, has evinced so thorough a know ledge of real religion, not the religion of those Gen tlemen certainly, for I should regret extremely if one of them should ever exhibit the same spirit of disin genuousness, and all uncharitabletiess,whizh pervades the report of the Committee of the Lanark Presby tery. I shall now proceed to place the whole subject in its proper light before the world, for it is too im portant to be made a petty question between an indi vidual and the Minister and Presbytery of Lanark, or even the General Assembly of Scotland. The best interests of society are deeply involved in the issue of these proceedings. The Minister of Lanark, the Presbytery of Lanark, and the General Assembly of Scotland, have led the Public to suppose " tha: they had been unsuccessful in resisting Mr.Osven's attempts to exclude the Scrip tures from the schools of New Lanark." The whole of this statement is false; . there is not a word of truth in it, for I never, for a moment, had the most distant idea of withdrawing the Scriptures from the schools; not indeed because I deem them a proper school book, but because the parents of the children have been educated to be Calvinists, and to think it right that their children should read the Scrip tures in school. The Minister and Committee of the Presbytery of Lanark say that I have deceived the world as to the moral state of the village of New Lanark. • This is false. I have never given to the Public such a representation of the general good conduct of these people as their constant, daily, superior behaviour, would justify. They charge the population of New Lanark with being particularly addicted to the vice of illicit in tercourse between the sexes. The statement which I have given proves this to be an unfounded slander on the character of young females, whose conduct, under the circumstances in which they are placed, is most exemplary, and not to be surpassed, if equalled, by any such population in the world. They state " that little or no attention seems to be paid to the religious instruction of the children in the schools." All the inhabitants of NewLanar 14 and all strangers who have taken the trouble to make themselves ac quainted with these schools, know that a more direct falsehood was never penned ; and I am really sur prised that any men could be found to put their names to a statement which so many thousand persons can any day disprove. The Minister and Presbytery of Lanark, and a majority of the members of the General Assembly o f Scotland, might know that there is not a population of the same extent, associating every day as the inha bitants of New Lanark must do to carry on their oc cupations, whose moral and religious character, and good will and kind conduct to each other, can be pa ralleled in any part of the British dominions. And it is this very superiority that has caused the ill-will and angry animadversions of these Reverend Gentlemen; otherwise, they would have found fault with all those manufacturing establishments in Scot land, in which no adequate provision for the educa tion of the children is made by the proprietors, where vice and immorality proceed unchecked, where the Scriptures are never used on a week day, and where the illicit intercourse of the sexes is twenty or thirty fold greater. I would however again express how strongly I feel that these Reverend Gentlemen are not to be blamed, but greatly to be pitied. It is a law of human nature that children may be trained to believe anything; a s witness the Mabosnedan, Chinese, and Pagan chil dren. - Nod, these Gentlemen have been taught from i n fancy .that knowledge and true religion and good conduct can proceed only from 'mysteries, which ...ere forced at that period into their tender minds. I have long been impressed with contrary nOtiont, and .!l rS • _.~ -- .~ 4 ;" 1 . to .