The National Register. — London, England, 1817-07-21 00:00:00

REVIEW OF LITERA'T'URE. The Basis of National Welfare: considered in Refer ence chiefly to Me Prosperity of Britain, and Safety of Me Church of England. By the Rev. RICHARD YATES, B.D. F.S.A. IN our further attention to this important work, we cannot but accord with the Rev. Author's zeal in repre senting the constitutional necessity of the parochial administration of Religion, under the established sys tem of toleration, and the great danger inherent in a neglected superabundant parochial population, where too little care has been taken to provide sufficient places for public worship, to accommodate extensive and po pulous districts. In speaking of what lie terms the Chapel System, he says— . " The same inconsistency of the law which has permitted the chapel system to gain such ground in the metropolis, ab solutely prohibits (according to its present interpretation) the ministers of chapels from performing all the pastoral offices, under the penalty of ecclesiastical censure and punish ment. The cure of souls, and the pastoral offices thereunto appended, are in many over sown pat - kite.; still committed to one individual, in the same manner as when they did not -contain one twentieth, and iu some inatances a fiftieth, part of their pft s gut inhabitants. Such a charge is of course only a nominal one. Fur an individual to perform its duties is au evident, positive, and physical impossibility. " But though the congregations attending chapels are thins deprived of the parochial advantages of the established .church, they pay to the proprietors of the buildings a consi derahle annual tax, dissimilar, deitinet from, and additional to, the payments saaetioned and anthorized by th e laws. " Those who live under such eiremnstances, whenever they are led to think at all upon the anbjret, naturally think that a parish church, a parish priest, and episcopal motto iity, are .ei•y useless things ;—they have been long habitu• ated to live without them, and are therefore so fat• prepared to join in any effints is remove and overthrow that establish ment, winch, according to their reasoning, gives them no protection, and affords them no benefit. " From these considerations it therefore seems evident that,—if the present prevailing negligence and disuse of pub lie worship oe suffered to increase ;—if no additional facili ties he gisen by the Le.isliture to its correctii n ; —if the - friends guardians ur the church confine their attention and exertions more ;to the cliscu•sioa of doctrinal difierences. than to ti n • removal of those habits, which evenly disregarn all the doers nes of Scriptette, and all thoughts or an existence bevontl the grave• the opinion be once smith tett to gain geomid, that it is possible, by any NTH!, it mode of instruction, to sanely the WANT Or public parochial worship-:—es en if Oa opinion be disavowed in words, hut tacitly ullowed, or rather by the practice of supporting chapels in iiii fereeee to parish churches; and of directing the public zeal and attention exclusively, or even chiefly, to education in schools; while it appears to be taken for granted, that our aecestors have made such sufficient provision for the public services of the church, that no additional care or chargo nu our part i 6 requisite; notwithstanding that neither the chil. dren in the 5ch001..., nor their parents out of them, receive ans benefs from the impressive soicininties of mitotic worship In ch, parish church; ac•cotn &Jinni in most instances of populous parishes nut bring provided for a fiftieth part of the poor: if the,e circumstances be permitted to continue, the consequences .n.xessarily to be apprehended arc, that those who never enter the parish church, and are wholly unknown to the parish minister; those who receive no benetit,—no consol•etion,—front the established church, will not only feel no respect and attachment to it ; but will also soon prom (A to coesider it as a useless, and then as an op pressive but-then." And one of the serious consequences of this matter, the circulation of licentious principles, is thus stated, apparently from the Author's own obsservation— " One instance may be adduced, and which I can state as the result of a personal and minute enquiry : it indicates the extent of circulation given to papers and pamphlets injurious to morals, and of an ihfamous, loose, and irreligious chavar. ter. There arc many printers and publishers of such works : one of whom employs from ten to twenty persons (men and women) to traverse the town and country with packages: to find their way into the kitchens and stables of the higher 'classes ; and into the shops, mainehictories, public-houses, and all the resorts of the numerous servants, artizans, meclue sties, and labourers, the greater part of whom in all the large parishes are left totally destitute of the care of We national religion ; wholly without any participation in the instructions of a parish minister, or in the benefits of the established church. Bow successfully these sheep without a shepherd wee sought alter by the destructive zeal of the enemy, may appe it tiota Ike fact, that each of these emissaries of vice maintain themselves by a profit of from ten to forty shinnies each per week, after their employers have teceived an ample gain upon the printing and publishing : each of these venders - aof - Good Books (as they term themselves on their catalogues and packages) bring a sum seldom less than five pounds in •r.•ady money, or a sufficient seenrity for a like ruin, and re ateives books to that amount at the wholesale price; living upon the retail and ready manes profit, and when all are soled returning with the capital fur a fresh supply. A circulation almost beyond credibility is thus given to the silent and insi dious vehicles of licentionsnvss, disaffection, and every de. eeription of vice : and, if even, v.hen the good seed is sown, the enemy intermixes his tares, how abundant must he the farmed' of evil when the uncultivated soil is left entirely t • him." " It is, therefore, net only a patriotic and Christian ditty, but it is also a most urgent claim of . If-preservation, —that the learned and the wealthy should devote a liberal portion or their time, their attention, and their substance, to extend to the pour and ignorant the instruction intended fur them by the piety and wisdom of the British cohstitution, in the paw -chial ministrations of the established church: proxiding fir them parish churches, and parish ministers,—torming each sr icor:hitt' district upon such an extent of population, that the appointed ;Shepherd may beabic, as well as willing, to give ♦r.t. his Flock We benefusuf religions hope and religions fear ; -teaching than to know and to feel the necessary and evident" .advantages of grateful piety and contented industry,—leading • them to statue the inestimable blessings of scriptural know ledge,—and awakening in them an increasing regard to the troths of the gospel; by regularly beartng God's holy word, sod joining km the prayers and prams of our admirable and THE NATIONAL REGISTER. instructive liturgy; and, by Ibis participation of personal and individual benefit, seem ing tlicie attachment to the Church, and obedience to the tiovernment ; which, they %s ill thus be made sensible by experience ' ate of co much value and importance to their l weseut welfare and future happi ness." The liberal and candid Author then proceeds to a general view of the national habits in all these cases, and !thews, that legislative, literary, and clerical attention, has not been sufficiently directed to this cause. He proceeds to a statement of the Par liamentary documents on the population, and capacity of the churches, his researches for which have been favoured by the highest authority. The necessity of legislative aid is most apparent ; and the outline of a Bill is snggested, on the basis of the 10th of Anne, and he concludes with a copious extract from public authorities given to his plan. We cannot but congratulate the Author on the suc cessful and able manner in which he has urged his cause, and on the effect of it, which has, in one very extensive neighbouring parish, already taken place— , we mean the parish of St. Mary-le-bonne ; which, from having been once merely pasture, is now covered with a population of 62,000 souls. A large church has very recently been completed, eight chapels of ease have been erected and served, and a Bill has passed the House of Commons to vest the advowson in the Crown, for the purpose of dividing it into four distinct parishes after the demise of the present aged incumbent. Dr. Heslop; and we cannot but add our fervent hope that the Rev. Author may be fbund worthy to participate in one of the divisions, as a reward for his very conscien- tious exertions.—The large free church, to be erected in the fields at Stepney, is another instance of the be nefit to the community, which has been derived from a candid investigation of the same case, :n which the Rector of that parish most laudably appears at the head of the list of the subscribers; and we understand that the same plan is to be adopted in several of the coun ties where there is the same necessity. FRANCE. BY LADY MORGAN. This lady (better known perhaps as Miss Owenson) has just favoured the country avith a bully quarto intitled France. It is chiefly remarkable for its pane gyrics and anecdotes of Buonaparte and his government, set off with studied abuse of the ancient institutions of that country, and of every thing anti-revolutionary.— We do not pretend to say where Lady Morgan "fished up" her anecdotes ; but this we can assert, that persons who lived in and about the Thuilevies, during the greater part of Buonaparte's elevation, and who were well acquainted with most of Isis Ministers, have de clared that they never heard of the greater past of what is to be found in this book, and we believe them. This good woman, it is evident, had betaken herself' to the French Capital with the fixed resolve of admiring and applauding every thing she might.hear or see of the god of her idolatry ; wherever she went he was her theme ; nothing had any interest with her that was not con nected with the Grand Napoleon or his exploits ; every idle tale, no matter whence the source, whether a farmer's wife by the way side, or a porter of the faux bong St. Antoine, finds a nich in this precious volume, till sheatlengthbecomesso infittuated, or stupifiedrathcr, in his .adminitian that she absolutely relates many things-with a view to the eulogium of him and his go vernment, which never could have been told her with any other view than to throw ridicule and contempt upon the circumstances to which they have relation.— We confess, we know bt.t of one other English writer who can contest with Lady Morgan the el. to Boo naparte's gratitude, we mean his St Helena Chronicler, Mr. Warden. But with what ineflitble contempt, and derision, must the rest of Europe, and numbers of the French themselves, peruse such pnaluetions as these from the pens of English writers! they have 'how ever, their reward; and it is their deserved pun ishment to be marked by the virtuous and the ,good, in every .country, as the admirers of a foreigner, who waded to the throne of his benefactor and king through the the blood of a nation, with whom, he had no one common feeling; who annually tore away the youth of the fairest portion of Europe, to be decimated by the sword, in unavailing struggles •to fill up the measure of his own ambition, and to prop his usurrd authority ; who deserted in tiro hour of adversity, one army to perish on the burning sands of Africa, and the fragments of another to freeze in the dreary regions of the north ; of a man, in fine, who possessed no one virtue, either moral or political, to redeem the mass of - wickedness, cruelty, duplicity, and Lad &hit, which made up his character. We cannot h surprised at the gr( wing •restrictions every where laid upon the importation of English publications intd the Continent-, our press is daily pouring forth eulogiums in all shapes, and under all co lours on revolutionary France, and upon the most attro cious and bloody actors of 1 . cr:bloodiest days; again bold-/ ing up their deeds as the models of imitation for the re generation of mankind ; again .teaching •the ignorant, and encouraging the wicked to deride all that is sacred, to view .the existing laws as -the instruments of op-• JULYI. pression, to despise and hate those to whem their ad. ministration is confided ; and thus labouling to Inalu of no avail, all Ova is valuable to man, and all that we have been twenty-five years resolutely struggling to maintain pure and inviolate. We shall probably enter in some of our sueeedinz numbers, more fully into an examination of Lady Mor gan's work. BREAD. The Act of 55 Gco. 111. c. 99 which repealed the Assize in London and within ten miles of the boya/ Exchange, and by its title was intended to prevent the adulteration of meal, flour, and bread, and to regulate the weight of bread, does, in its second section, autho rise any person to make, and sell any bread made of flour or meal wheat, barley, rye, oats, buck-wheat, indian corn, peas, beans, rice, and every other kind of grain whatso ever,and potatoes, or any of them, and with any common salt, pure water, eggs, milk, yeast, baum, leaven, and po tatoe yeast, and mixed in such proportions as the makers and sellers shall think fit. But by the third section they are not to use allum, or any mixture in lieu of allum, or any unwholesome ingredient, under a penalty of 51. and all loaves of any other grain than wheat are to be marked M. Some of the bakers under this authority are mixing potatoe flour with the line wheat flour, whenever the price of potatoes will admit of their reducing ten pound to one pound 'of them, at a less expence than one pound of wheat flour—but the language of the clause, if care fully read, seems to confine the mixture to the salt, water, eggs, &e. in the proportion which the baker may think fit. When this Act was in agitation the bakers attended, and fully explained that the articles here enu merated were wholesome, and fit to be mingled with the wheaten flour, and some portion of them have ever .since been mingled more or less; but then the value being of course less than if the whole loaf was as firm erly composed of tine wheaten flour, that loaf ought to be reduced proportionally in price as it is by those who are not deemed the regular bakers. This difference ought to be accounted fim, or the regular 'rakers ought publicly to avow that their loaves are wholly com posed of the finest wheaten - flour. The adulteration is limited to the general explanation of " allum or any other unwholesome mixture, ingredient, or thing what soever"—So that it•is left to the Magistrate's discretion .and knowledge, to decide what is unwholesome.—The bread now on sale is of much finer quality than it was at first, but the system seems to require from Bakers I lull some intelligent explanation that would .satisfy the public mind on this subjeat. - The cheap bakers hase•reduced the loaf to 14d. and promise it for Is. We Lope the public will give all due encourage ment to this class of tiadesmen; taking rare, of course, that no ft and is committed in the weight. Nt-w that the Lord Mayer has lost all rontroul over the assize of bread, the indi viduals alluded to are doubly entitled to patronage: without their spirit of competi►ion, the Loaf 4voulel still be lad. `The accounts from Mark Jane, and the country generally, afford every reason to hope, that it the public get fair play, the loaf vs ill .be at 1.1. long before Chritsmas. M heat was offered on MonUay at Mark-lane 115 s. per quarter under the prices of the preceding Monday. but it found no buyers. Flour also declined in pi ice ans. per sack. The fact is, the great dealers have overstocked themselves, and those who have not, vs ill not buy more than their daily consumption, • dprices descend still lower, as we trust they will, and assume a steady price. It now appears, that many farmers are rushing into nutirset with grain which has been three years stacked. Enormous quantities of American dour, which wore imported into Liverpool on spet'lli:ol4,ll, arc also finding their way op to the Metropolis, by the Canals,-having been sagaciously kept bark, in the true spirit of monopoly, until the pier is re dneed one half. The regraiers of this desciiptimi of pro duce deserve no pity. Amid all these appearances or .re nn•uing peace and plenty, w hat Lave the brewers to say for themselves harlot lowering the price of Alt aud.pm ter ? TORNADO AT Dealt .—Accounts from Derby state, that the milditomrhood of that town nee, on Friday se/might, about MO WeiOa, Visited by a tornado. It advatieed from the south-west. and first came in contact with the carta near the depot, about three qui:trims of a mile from Derb.y, %%la re it was most violent. It there tote -op a hoc ash tit aby the roots, severalJarge branches of which acre carried to a con siderable distance ; and in its , progress it It ek up a quantity of new bay from tire -grounds of E. S. Sitwell, Esti. (not 104 llcm half a ton) which was carried to an immense height, dis per.ed to a wide -extent, and cannot along with the•clotids. The storm happily passed over -o iiliont doing .insy Minty to he town. It WaS accompanied by very heavy rain, which liromtlit down portions of the hay, some of tvhich was very closely Mat ted together, but Ilse great( r pats w.,:s borne along with the clouds till quite out of sight. The vents of All Sainte Church were observed to torn rOnll.l at intervals dining the storm, and although the air must have been so greatly agi tated in the upper regions, it pet fectly calm below. The storm took a nortfictly.direction. ;intros slam as it had passed away the aky become elear,And the air IrMArkuhly hot: soots often% awls the clouds collected again with rain ter the re mainder of the.day. The .quantity collected in Swats wick's rain page was one inch and a half. IMPIIOVEMINTS IN 11Ik SAVOY.—The meditated itnpreve meats in the Savoy at the back of the Strand, and on 111 weytern side ()I' N'aterloo Bridge, IA ill he eat tieit into elket without delay. The occupiers of the toot ds, and oilier outhouses on the premise:4,l.6%e recctttd notice to quit hi flirt c mom ht.. The Moe A )1(.11(.1.1mi bile h. use e. Ife be tAkrii slows lor die part, obe e f wide uinl the passa2c trona the Stiand•dovbst hr: S“soyjrti.oss is.ulro tube lakt II down, so that the ( hutch is the only vestuge that m il retuain of the ancient Palaces of Lancso•tt , t a n d Salty, the seene•of souse of the stunt Satetestiug evcuts to Enahig Ws' tot,.