The Sun. — London, England, 1822-03-28 00:00:00

THE LONDON JOURNALS. IXTRACTS• FROM THE DAILY MORNING PAPERS, March 28, 1822. [MOR HONG POST.] An important - notification was made last night ;,-Tly,his Majesty's , Ministers, in the House of Corn ,Trions, an: ; the presentation of a petition from the Grand Jury of Essex, complaining of the evils arising from the length of the interval between Abe — Summer and Lent Assizes. The petition was,presented by Sir Eliab Harvey, one of the llembers for that county, and supported by "Mr. Western, the other Representative of Essex. Me latter Gentleman, besides corroborating the hardihips stated by his Hon. Colleague, rather venturously propounded a scheme of his own for rectifying the existing. grievairces. He would have a sweeping measure at once adopted, by 'which an addition of three should be made • V . • to the present number of Judges, and a ,Criminal Commission issued at the period of each Quarter Sessions, occurring in the inter val- between the two assizes. There were also various ramifications of his plan submitted to .the House ; but Mr. Peel's important announce ment of the determination of his Majesty's Mi nisters on this subject, renders it unnecessary for us to dwell upon the obviously well meant sug gestions of Mr. Western. It is with unfeigned pleasure, and most perfect confidence as to the result, that we particularly direct public atten tion to the speech of the Right Honourable Se cretary of State for the Home Department. In it will be found a notable instance of that paren "' tal and incessant vigilance with which the pre sent Administration attend to the real interests t cif,the public, and of their—we will not say readiness only, but anxious desire, to intro duce- all beneficial reforms into the State, consistent with the safety of those venerable institutions/ which are naturally held sacred -by 'us. Every true friend of the Consti tution will perceive with heartfelt satisfac tion,,that in devising an adequate means of meet - ing the evil referred to by the Grand Jury of rssex, the principle of assimilating such new measures as may be deemed indispensable, to the - old and approved practice of the State, has never been for a moment out of view—there is no other . safe and salutary mode of legislating, we may -say in any nation; but we have the additional motive for uniformly holding fast by precedent when the experience of ages demonstrates and sanctifies the excellence of the system under . which we have the happiness to live. The ob servations of Mr. Peel, the Attorney-General, 'and finally of the Marquis of Londonderry last ..tag-ht, all bear upon this invaluable—we may add . this truly national principle ; for a close ad herence thereto, under all circumstances, we owe our proud pre-eminence among the nations of the s world. [BRITISH .PRESS.] .•-• Sir Francis Burdett postponed until Tuesday - "rteii•his promised motion which stood for yester day-..eyeDing,_•for an Address to the Crown re specting the - liberatian of Mr. Hunt, in conse quence, as lie stated, of communications he had received from various Members that they had not as yet read. the Report of the Commissioners ,on Ilchester Gaol. Au opinion prevails that the Ministers have taken the case of this unfortunate Gentleman into their consideration, and are dis -posed of their own free will to extend the mercy • of the Crown to- hiui without the interference of the .House of Commons. Such a circumstance would, we are convinced, be very grateful to the' _,public. The crime imputed to Mr. Hunt arose • out of circumstances over which he hail no con troul, for it was never supposed that he had used arJ,unusual means to assemble a crowd, or had advised the forming of those terrific atra.ys of 'wen which had frightened the ManchasterMa gistratet and yeomanry. Mr. Hunt's guilt, in tr . *, consisted in his personal influence, which had the effect of drawing so many people together; and although the Magistrates on witnessing so Alarming a multitude might have been apprehen sive for the safety of the town of Manchester, arid have been legally justified in dispersing the .C . T,O4vd, it thence by no means followed that those► 4vho brought the crowd together were guilty of ..so.githat a violation of the law as was implied by the. severity of the sentence under which Mr. Hunt has suffered. The sentence was one of un .-psu4 4everity, and it has been most Cruelly exe cuted For this the Ministers are in no respect _cepsurable ; the terms of the judgment we must .',Pi s .Ourne did rAt proceed from their instruc tions, and for the discipline of the gaol of ~ki4oterl and the unnecessary hardships there : ivied ,upon the prisoners, the Magistrates :of Somerset are alone accountable. Mr. Hunt seems to have been chiefly made an object of • their personal animosity, and it would redound -highly to the magnanimity and good feeling of the-Ministers of the Crown if they were to re-. lease this - unhappy Gentleman from the grasp of his oppressors. He has been now nearly two ,years in prison —a period sufficiently long to sa tisfy the extent of his legal offence. CIIRONIcLE.] Dr. Lushington presented last night a Petition frona..john Barkley, the boy lately tried at the Oidnailey, for selling a blasphemous work, by a Jnry.which had already returned a verdict of guilty.against another individual for selling the very same• work. Though there might be no legal :objectiOn to this mode of proceeding, a Judge-certainly had it in his power. to allow:the defendant the benefit of a fresh Jury ; and it has always,we believe, been usual to give way to an application to that effect. Of the proceed ings at these trialsswe expressed our opinion at the time, and we are, confident -the impression Ihey made on us is very ,general throughout the country. Those who think it .a inatterof no con sequence how a conviction for certain offences is obtained, 4'lll be ready no doubt'to bestow their approbation on the manner in which these trials were conducted. It may be quite enough for the to kilo w that the charge is blasphemy, to deny T the. person against wham it is brought, even the 4reans of defence. The Solicitor-General seemed really to go nearly as far as this, and to think thatall'trial in 'the • case cif - Batkley was quite superfluous. Thank God, these sentiments are yet, in a great measure, strangers to the breasts of Englishmen. We say nothing as to the pu nishment allotted in all or any of these cases.— It would be difficult, perhaps, to satisfy the 'Solicitor-General now, that any degree of pu nishment is disproportionate for such an offence. " Lord Chief Justice Hale," he tells us,"w ho could pot be considered a cruel Judge, had, in such a case, not only sentenced the defendant to fine, imprisonment, and hard labour, but to give his own security, and to find the security of others for his good behaviour for life." If the Honourable Member for Norwich had happened to live in that merciful Judge's days, when Unitarianism was blasphemy, according to the Solicitor-General he might have esteemed himself happy in escap ing with imprisonment, aggravated by hard la bour. But we would point out a more congenial case, tried also under most merciful Judges, since the glorious Revolution, namely, that of a youth, also under IS, named Aikman, actually hanged for Unitarianism (then blasphemy), to the great edification of the orthodox. This, to be sure, took place on the North of the Tweed ; but we have no doubt the Bridge-street Gang would be glad to see this wholesome rigour intro duced among ourselves. The policy of all these prosecutions is very questionable. They argue a doubt in the minds of those who have recourse to them of the efficacy of the argu ments in favour of religion, and lead many weak persons to believe that persecution is re sorted to as a last resource. It is certain that more efficacious means cannot be resorted to for extending the circulation of works, than to bring them to notice by prosecutions. No se verity of punishment can prevent the .circulation of such works, when they ate thus brought into request. And the misfortune is, that the avidity is directed by inflaming curiosity in this foolish manner altogether towards irreligious works. We have no hesitation, therefore, in saying, that if ever religion suffer any thing in this country, we shall owe it entirely to the Bridge-street and similar Societies. The presumption that thoSe who feel the firmest conviction of the solidity of the grounds of their faith (especially Protestants, who assume that all men are capable of judging in these matters), will be the last to resort to the penalties of the law as a means of giving effect to them. • ETII E TIM ES.] Mr. Canning, it will be seen, has at length received his expected appointment as Governor- General of India. Thitherward his eyes pro bably were turned while executing the office of President of the Board of Control. Some inti mations were given at the last Court of Pro prietors of opposition to the appointment, pro bably springing out of the general circumstances of Mr. Canning's political life, which have not been such as might have been wished. That opposition, however, would no doubt have been easily overpowered : but the man wouid have remained still the same in public estimation ; it not being in the power now of any class of political men, however numerous, to raise a fallen brother by their applause, on account of the suspicion under which all labour. (What a scene is disclosed by the return published yes terday of the Ambassadors and their salaries; and above all—the Swiss Nuncio!) Mr. Can ning might seem to have been nursed on Fortune's lap. His, therefore, is the usual fate of a spoiled child : his temper has been ruined by early in dulgence, and the too easy acquisition of his wishes ; so that if the, end of his career be che quered by disappointment, the change will be the more keenly felt. We are sorry to mingle a taunt with what may probably be a leave taking : but he was never one of those who was inclined to spare a fallen enemy. The Brazils are in more senses than one " all in his way." First, they are on the road .out to India. Secondly, there is no Court at present, no Sovereign there : so that if the Right Ho nourable Gentlelnan should pop in and execute an important diplomatic mission there, to the no King and no Court, at an expence of fourteen thousand pounds to the country, that also would be " in his way :" the thing is so exactly to his mind. " Why," it may be said, " the House of Commons approved of the Lisbon job !" Yes, and a former House of Commons voted a one pound note and a shilling to be equal to a guinea, when every member of it knew in his heart and conscience that a guinea was equal to a one pound note and seven shillings, and that the coin could not be purchased for less. NEW TIMES.] This day a Common Hall will be held, when the same individuals who, in the Common Coun cil, so audaciously violated the privileges of the House of Commons, will, no doubt, endeavour to obtain the sanction of the Livery to their un constitutional proceedings. We trust that they swill be disappointed. The Livery, we hope, will not take up the quarrel of a few individuals of the Common Council, who feel offended at the plain blunt manner in IV hid! Sir William Curtis has spoken of their conduct. Sir William is not the only individual who has publicly ex pressed au opinion that the Commo❑ Council has of late years disgraced itself by several of its proceedings. The same sentiment was ex pressed without hesitation by Mr. Oldham at the inaugural dinner of the present Sheri ffs : and it is, indeed, too self-evident to be disputed by any candid man. Of coure, when we speak of the Common Council, as having disgraced itself, we refer only to the majorities by which the ob noxious measures were carried ; and eve❑ of those majorities a large portion were merely led away by an ill-judged confidence in two or three factious and turbulent individuals. The mass are no doubt loyal, and have been unconsciously instigated to the commission of insults toward the House of Commons and the Sovereign himself. Whatever grounds of disagreement there may be between Sir W. Curtis and the Common Council, these do not,and cannot,touch the Livery; and it is merely making a cat'3-paw of the latter body, to engage them on the side of the Common Coun 61. We have said the late proceedings of the Com Mon Council were Inticonititntional ; for the Constitution does nat :allow of the =freedom of speech in Parliament being. restrained by the act of any other body in •the State. •We are far from saying, that incidental remarks in the way of argument on the reported debates, within the fair limits of free discussion, can or ought to be restrained. But there is a wide difference between these and the formal act of a public body. If the latter be allowed on one side, it must on the other. If Sir W. Curtis be cited before the Common Council, and publicly cen sured by them for what he has said in Parlia ment, Mr. Alderman Wood may be cited before the King in Council, and subjected to the like public censure for a similar cause. The Consti tution is equally adverse to both these proceed ings ; and we say the Constitution ought to be maintained. It is by suffering such gradual at tacks as these on our constitutional principles that the whole fabric of the State becomes weakened, and all our liberties are rendered insecure. The Common Council hang braved Parliament with impunity, will be thought to have established a precedent for so doing ; and the House of Com mons will see its privileges successively trampled upon by all the Corporations in the kingdom. The consequences of such a state of things it is not difficult to anticipate. [MORNING HERALD.] We yesterday received Paris Journals. Tran- . quillity appears generally prevalent both in the capital and the departments. The supposed disturbances in the department of Isere con sisted merely of the cry of Vice l'.Empereur, by two persons during the operation of swear ing in . recruits. Of General Berton there is no account. All that may be inferred is, that he had not been yet apprehended. About a hundred of his accomplices, only a few of whom had actually joined his standard, are about to undergo their trial. Nothing im portant has passed in the Chamber of Deputies. The amendment of the Peers, which adds the epithet " Constitutional" to " the King's au -I.thority",iu-the law on the - Press, has passed by a - great Majority. — The most important political occurrence in France is the determination of the Ministry to resort to an election. Only a fifth, we believe, can be elected at one time, accord- In. - to the laws of France. It is an experi ment of some importance on the part of the Ministry—as it subjects the question of their possessing or not possessing the public con fidence to the only criterion. Each party augurs advantage to itself from the trial. It ap pears, from the statement of one of the Journals, that there 'are 86 outgoing Deputies, of whom 36 are Liberals." The Liberal Journals ex pect that the new returns of their party will considerably exceed that number. The fo reign articles are not of later date than some that had already reached us. It seems the German Journals maintain that Ali Pacha was still among the quick several days- after his supposed decapitation. It is asserted, how ever, by the Journal des Debals, in the most positive manner, that he was made a pri-" soner \ on the Ist, and decapitated on the sth, of February. It appears by accounts of . the 19th of February, from Zante, that the military affairs of the Greeks are about to assume new vigour and activity. Men's minds had been for four monthi kept in suspense by the discussions relative to the form and name which the new organization of Greece should bear. There is at length an understanding as to the basis of dis cussion; and the Greek Chiefs have re-com menced active warfare. Already had Pallascos, the successor of Odysseus in the post of Ther mopyl, obtained a fresh victory over 12,000 Turks, who attempted to force a passage into Livadia. On the other hah'd, Colocotrone, one of the four chiefs of the Peloponnesus, had ad vanced with 8,000 men into Acarnania—and Demetrius Ypsilanti, with 1,000 men taken from the Peloponnesus, Attica ; and Boetia, was in full march upon Thessaly. These details are given by the Courier Francois, a journal somewhat dis posed to exaggerate the successes and chances of the Greeks. ITORRID MURDER, AND HIGHWAY ROBBERY, INWHITECHAPEL.—The neighbourhood of W h ite chapel has for the last few days been thrown into the greatest ferment and agitation, in conse quence of a barbarous murder committed there, on the person of a highly respectable middle aged gentleman.—The individual to whom we now allude, as having fallen a sacrifice to some direful assassins, as yet unknown, is Mr. GEORGE HARE, late an extensive hosier, in High-street, Whitechapel, and brother to the Doctor of that name at Hackney. The deceased, it appears, on Friday night last, was on his way home, after spending the evening with some friends, at a tavern, in Nightingale-lane, East Smithfield, when In passing up Well-street, he was attacked just at the private door of the Royalty Theatre, (which was then closed, in consequence of its being Friday in Lent,) by three ruffians, who after knocking him down, kicked him about the head and body in a most frightful manner, and in their brutal treatment, broke his left leg, so that the bone protruded through the skin. The villains having thus disabled him, rifled his pockets of a quantity of silver and other articles, but in their murderous bustle, six sovereigns which were in his fob escaped their notice, they being dis turbed, it is presumed, before they could make a more diligent search. On the watchman's coming on duty about nine o'clock, he found the unfor tunate gentleman stretched in the kennel quite speechless, and insensible. He was conveyed to the London Hospital, where he expired. A Co roner's Inquest sat yesterday, and adjourned from want of evidence. _ _ A blind man, a fiddler, of the name of James Morgan, has been committed to Carmarthen gaol for, trial, charged with the wilful murder of one of his neighbours, Jacob Williams. Saturday night, and during the v'hole of yes terday, the wind blew with much violence from the west, accompanied, at intervals, with heavy showers of rain and snow. All the hills in the neighbourhood are covered with snow.—( Edin burgh Courant, March 25.) LAW INTgLLIGENCt. COURT OF CHANCERY, MARC/I 23. LAWRENCE'S LECTURES ON PHYSIOLOGY, ZOOLOGY, AND THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN. [We gave the substance and result of the following Law Proceedings on the day when they occurred, but as our legal friends, and we are gratified in saying that they are very nu merous, are desirous of having a more copious account of the case, we comply with their wishes, particularly as it is by no means uninteresting to the general Reader. 'We insert the first Report this day, and shall give the second to-morrow.] LAWRENCE v. SMITH. Mr. WETHERELL, on Thursday, moved to dissolve the injunction which had been granted in this case, to restrain the defendant from printing, publishing, and disposing of a book under the above title. He stated, that Mr. Lawrence was a professor of surgery, and lecturer to the Royal College of Sur geons ; the defendant was a respectable bookseller in the Strand. The injunction was granted on the ground of piracy. The lectures in contention were delivered by the plaintiff; at the College of Surgeons, and he afterwards printed them ; the defendant had put them together, and published them in one volume, and this was the piracy complained of. What he (the Learned Counsel) had to contend for was, that the plaintiff had no copyright in the work, for it was a publication denying Christianity and Revelation, which was contrary to public po licy and morality. lie would not have his Lordship take it on his ipse dixit that they were so, but those lectures had under gone criticism by persons in the habit of performing that duty ; they were reprobated by the writers of the Edinburgh Medi cal Review, the Quarterly Review, by the Lecturer on Chris tianity in the University of Oxford, and by the Reverend Mr. Whitfield, of Bath, as being irreligious, and of such a tendency that public policy ought not to tolerate them.— The object of the publication was to send out to the world the doctrine, that when man dies, his soul dies with him ; denying the immortality of the soul. He would admit that the lectures were most ably and eloquently written, which only tended to give the poison they contained greater influence over weak minds. It was impossible that he could express his opinion of the mischievous tendency of the lectures better than it was expressed in the Edinburgh Medical Review—that they could not believe that the plaintiff would have attempted to have brought his pupils into a state of total darkness ; for what was the doctrine of the plaintiff?—that a man had no mare soul than an oyster, or any other fish or insect. The Learned Counsel then quoted several passages from the lectures, to prove that the death of the soul was announced in them in as strong terms as it could be pronounced : it was no accidental doubt that was expressed in them, but it was a positive assertion, and read at the Royal College of Surgeons. He not only denied that the race of man sprung from Adam and Eve, but went so far as to say there was no truth in the deluge. Having tailed his Lordship's attention to the passages, it would be for him to decide whether the plaintiff could have a copyright in such a work, to send its poison out to the world. It was scarcely necessary for him to allude to the place in which the lectures were delivered—it was a place licensed by Royal charter; but he would contend, if such lectures were allowed to be delivered there, that the char ter would be as bad as the plaintiff 's copyright : he, however, understood that the plaintiff was no longer lecturer there. He had nothing, certainly, to do with the place where the lectures were delivered; but lie would deal with him in his character of an author, and be would dilate on, the poison disseminating from him as a lecturer to a school, the pupils of which were af terwards to become practitioners of surgery. Looking at it as the work of an author, it did not require criticism to shew its evil tendency, for it was clear as the sun at noon day. The Learned Counsel was proceeding with his argument, when he was interrupted by The .LORD CHANCELLOR, who stated that he should stop there for the present, as he was obliged to attend elsewhere. Mr. WETHERELL this day resumed his argument. He had but little further to add to what he had said on Thursday. The article in The Quarterly Review called the work in question an open avowal of the doctrine of materialism. It was also repro bated for the pernicious tendency of its principles by The Edin burgh Medical Review, which said that it was calculated to lead the minds of his pupils into darkness worse than the dark ness of the valley of death : and by the Vicar of Kensington, who was the Christian Lecturer in Cambridge. The book, he contended, had the same object as the doctrine of the French Imperialists, namely, to establish the belief that death was an eternal sleep, and that therefore we were not hereafter to be ac countable for our actions in this life. The Learned Courisel concluded with expressing his regret that such great learning, I taste, and talent, as this work evinced, should be combined with such dangerous principles ; which, being calculated to subvert the doctrines of our religion, deprived the work of all claim to protection on the score of copyright : he therefore sub mitted that the injunction ought to be dissolved. Mr. RosE followed on the same side, and referred to Dr. Priestly's case, where it was determined that, although a work might contain much valuable information, yet, if it was directed against the institutions of the country, the law would afford it no support. He also referred to the case of Mr. Southey's book, and the work of Lord Byron the other day, in which the Court, to use the language of the poet, refused to " set its seal on Cain," and sent him forth a wanderer through the world.— The pernicious principles contained in these Lectures were not the native growth of this country, but were sought for in the doctrines of foreign Professors, and imported here from the Ger man and French schools. The Learned Counsel then read a pas ' sage from the dedication, which he said was the first passage com plained of : the second was in p. 98, where the learned Professor said,that the Mosaic account of the origin of mankind,as contain. ed in the book of Genesis, did not make it quite clear that all the world had been peopled by the descendants of Adam and Eve ; and treated the account of the circumstances of the deluge as a zoological impossibility. Mr. Lawrence (Mr. Rose con tinued) had subtilely condensed into one passage all the venom contained in a whole chapter of Gibbon. He then read an ex tract from page 422, in which Professor Lawrence contended, from the peculiar organization of the brain, that it was the seat of the sentient principle, which necessarily depended upon it for existence ; and that the annihilation of the one, must in evitably involve the annihilation of the other. He also read other passages, in which it was stated that many writers had doubted the inspiration of the Scriptural writers : and contain. ing other observations, the tendency of which, the Learned Counsel argued, was subversive of our faith ; and they were the more dangerous, from the author's scholarlike command of language, and his scientific manner of treating his subject: which, acting upon undisciplined minds, was calculated to sub due and bring them under its control, and thereby work the greater mischief. Mr. SHADIVELL, on behalf of the plaintiff, supported the in junction. He was obliged to his friend, Mr. Wetherell, for the manner in which he laid the question before the Court. He had condemned the work on the ground of its professing the doctrine of materialism. The doctrine of materialism was two fold. One species of materialism limited the existence of man to this world only. That was a doctrine which he (Mr. Shad. well) would be the last person in existence to say one word in defence of. But there was another species of materialism, which says, that the sentient principle of man depends upon the organic structure of the body, and therefore cannot have a separate ex istence ; but does not deny that both may exist hereafter, when the resurrection of the body takes place. That was perfect ly consistent, Mr. Shadwell contended, with the doctrine of the Christian religion, as laid down in the Holy Scriptures ; while, on the - contrary, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, as a distinct and independent principle, was quite foreign from our Church. There was not a single passage in Scrip ture recognizing the existence of the soul in the intermediate period from the death of the body to its resurrection ; while there were many which went to confirm the belief in the total suspension of the sentient principle during that interval. The words of the Apostles' Creed, to judge the quick and the dead," implied this notion, as did those of the Nicene Creed, " both the living and the dead ;" they, however, left it doubt ful ; but the Creed of Athanasius left it wholly unambiguous, for it said, " at whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies, and shall give account for their own works."— Mr. Shadwell then quoted several passages from the New Tes tament in support of his position. In the first book of Jo. sephus' Antiquities, he alludes to the story of Abraham sacri ficing his son Isaac, and saying that " the soul of the son would hover round the father and protect him ;" from which it appeared that he believed in the immortality of the soul ; but St. Paul, in his Epistles, showed that he was wrong. 'Our Sa viour was described as having risen " in body ;" and the bodies of the saints who had been dead to have appeared to many in the Holy City. In the 15th chapter of Corinthians, St. Paul, talking of our Saviour being seen of 500 of the brethren at once, says, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep and again, " of them which are fallen asleep." From which one must infer a state of non-existence before their resurrection. The resurrection of the dead is talked of, but there is not a single passage in Revelation'mentioning a distinct spirit, independent of the body ; and, indeed, the book of Ge. nesis applies the term" soul" to the brutes and fishes. In our English translations that term is not used; the passage is, " And GoD said, let the waters bring . forth the moving crea ture that hath life," &c. ; but in the original Hebrew the word is lyephesh ; and in the Septuagint Pruche, each of which sig. nifles soul; and it was therefore impossible to make out that the soul was separate from the living principle: so that it was perfectly consistent with Scripture to say that the sen. tient principle of man cannot be separated from his body : nor did that deny the doctrine of his accountabi. lity hereafter, when the resurrection of the body took place.— 'Mr. Shadwell, lfterreferrinteto - the •littofid sioldirie'iirriace, where he held it to be impossible for human reason to discover these points without the assistance of the inspired writings, spoke of the wisdom of our church in laying &int no doctrine which might not be simply reconciled with what was stated is Scripture, excluding all metaphysical positions, and therefore no where setting forth that the soul was immortal, or had a se- . parate existence from the body. There might be some passages found, which would seem to imply its existence in the inter mediate period, between the death of the natural body, and its resurrection ; but there was not one which asserted it. The Learned Counsel then quoted passages from the works of seve ral eminent divines in support of his argument. Bishop Law said that no man could quote passages from Scripture to prove that the soul existed unconnected with th e b o dy. M r . Taylor asserted, that all natural arguments to prove the exist ence of the soul separate from the body were vain : experience shewed the contrary ; and as to the faculties of a dying man retaining their vigour to the last moment of life, when the body was nearly powerless, it was only because the brain was the last part of the system which was attacked by death. Bishop Butler had endeavoured to give metaphysical reasons for a se parate existence of the soul, from the strength of a dying m a n' s faculties when his body had nearly failed ; but Mr. Pitt declar ed that that doctrine of the learned Bishop raised more difficul ties than it solved. Dr. Bayly's doctrine went still further than that of Mr. Lawrence; for tlie latter confined himself to the for mation of man as a zoological creature. Archdeacon Black burn said that the New Testament always spoke of the-interval between death and the resurrection as a state of sleep. He (Mr. tihadwell) did not believe it was so : but St. Paul, in alluding - to it, constantly used the word " slept." It would be useless to waste the time of the Court in quoting passages from Drs. Wat son and Warburton's works. He had done sufficient to shew that great and eminent men in the church hid entertained, if not avowed, the doctrine which had been denominated the poi son of the present work. It was a work containing MO pages, on physiological and scientific subjects ; the readers of which r were more likely to have their attention attracted by its learn ing and science, than by an abstract point of doctrine contained in an insulated passage. It was not like a work of a light nature, easilyiread, and therefore extensively circulated, like the one which came before his Lordship the other day ; he thought the present question materially affected the liberty of the press. It was by the liberty of the press that this country had grown so great ; he did not speak of it in its licentious sense. This gentleman had not spoken of Scripture with disrespect. He had certainly said that some persons had entertained doubts of the inspiration orits writers ; but he himself spoke in terms of the highest eulogy' of the New Testament. He called it " a religion of peace and love, as unfolded by the Apostles." Ile qualified his denial of , those doctrines which he controverted by saying, that " physio logically speaking," it was impossible to believe them, calling them, at the same time, sublime doctrines, and admitting that they had existed in all places and in all ages, and therefore de pended not on his inferences. He talked of Paschal, who was the best friend of Christianity, as " the profound,'feivent, and pious Paschal." In short, if there were any exceptionable pas sages in the book, there were others which contained their antidote, and the whole work should be taken together. He (Mr. Shhd well) would rather drop down lifeless upon the ground, than attempt for a moment to uphold the doctrine of materialism, as tending to overturn belief in a future state. But the principles in the book before the Court were quite consistent with the no tion of existence in a future world ; and a valuable work of this kind ought not to be condemned, and the author to lose the price of his labour, because there might happen to be a passage or two in it which might as well have been omitted. Mr. WiLnamraat followed on the same side with Mr. Shadwell, and said that the defendant had no claim to the favour of the Court, who had taken to himself the fruits and pro fits of the plaintiff's labour without any moral right whatever' to the work ; but merely because he thought there were a few pas sages in it which disentitled it to the protection of the law. The Learned Gent. then contended that the doctrine contained in the Lectures was perfectly reconcilable with Christianity and argued from a passage in the burial service, in addition to what Mr. Shad well had cited, that a mutual existence of the soul and body was the result after death. In the sentence " the dead shall be raised," &c. the words in the Greek were Oi Nekrol , and not Ten Nekren in the neuter. Dr. Butler had said that that doc trine depended on revelation only, and not on natural principles. i Mr. Lawrence's materialism was confined to this life, and contained no principle contrary to the immortality of the foul hereafter, when the resurrection took place,. and it was coun tenanced by Scripture.—With respect to his doctrine of man kind having descended from different parents, that opinion w as strengthened, not only by the different complexions of nations, but also by the difference in their features, the formation of their bones, and the substantive parts of the body; an!! he only said that " the Mosaic account did not make it clear, &c. And as to saying that many doubted the inspiration of tie Scriptural writings, he was surely entited to say what were the opinions of others ; but that was not stating that they were his own. On the contrary he spoke of their simple grandeur, and said that " they were not inferior to the ,uninspired writings of the East," from which the inference was, that he looked upon them as inspired. The Mosaic account the deluge, the collection of two of every description of anim als on the earth, he stated to be a zoological impossibility ; but he did not deny the fact, that it took place miraculously- With respect to a passage in 11r. Wetherell's speech, an which he stated that Mr. Lawrence was no longer Lecturer to the College of Surgeons, he should state that lie laid down the office of his own accord, in consequence of his increased practice ; and the Members of the College hail expressed . their regret at his so doing. There lectures were delivered in 181 b and 1817: in 1819 he delivered other lectures, but in the in terval these had been published. The College of Surgeons, therefore, had not only heard them delivered, but had'them. in print before 1819, and what was their opinion then of them? (Mr. Wilbraham here read an affidavit of Mr. Lawrence', by which it appeared that he had received the thanks •pt the College of Surgeons for his luminous lectures deliver ed in 1816, 1817, 1818, and 1819). The Learned Counsel then re sumed his argument, and insisted that the wither of our plane tary system might as well be condemned for impugning the passage in Scripture which ascribed motion to the sun, and affirmed that it stood still on one day, as Professor Lawrence's Lectures, because they asserted the zoological impossibility of one or two facts stated in Scripture. He concluded by express ing his hope that his Lordship wou ld cont i nue the injunction. The LORD CHANCELLOR-31r. Wetherell, I shall hear you in reply on Tuesday; you will lose nothing by the delay, for I shall have an opportunity of reading the book in the mean tint!. A General Meeting of the Noblemen, Gentlemen, Fret holders, &c. of the County of Fife, was held at Cupar, on Fri day week, for the purpose of taking into consideration the propriety of continuing the system some time ago adopted by the county for the suppression of vagrants, and also for con sidering the provisions of a Bill for altering the late Act for the improvement of the Dundee Ferry. On the first mea sure, a Committee was appointed to consider what plans should be adopted to repress vagrancy ; and on the second, the meet ing, after a long discussion, disapproved of the Bill, by a, ma jority of 13 to 4..—( Edinburgh Courant, March 2.5.) SCOTCH SEQUESTRATIONS. MEETINGS, &C. Alex. M‘Leod, merchant, Glasgow, to be examined in the. Sheriff-clerk's office there, 3d and 17th April, at 1. ; Donald M'Eachern and Co. merchants and distillers, Bridge end, island of Islay, to be examined in the Sheriff-clerk's of fice, Inverary, Ist and 15th April, at 12. Matthew Jackson, haberdasher, Paisley, to be examined (bY appointment of the Sheriff of Renfrewshire) sth and 18th April, at 12. William Harley, merchant and builder, Glasgow, to be ex amined in the Sheriff-clerk's office there, 2d and 16th April, at 11. COAL-MARKET, MARCH 27. Ships at Market. Ships sold Price. 42 Newcastle - 326 -31 s Od to 41s OJ Sunderland - 96 -31 s 6d to 41s oa BIRTHS. On the 21st inst. at Paris, the Lady of. Thomas Ashmore, Esq. of a son. On the 22d inst. at Binfield, Berks, the Lady of D. Hender son, Esq. of a daughter. . MARRIED. On Tuesday last, at St. Faith's, Watling-street, Thorna, Butcher, Esq., of Regent-street, Pall-mall, to Martha, seconddaughter of the late Mr. Wm. Warren, of Ivy-lane, Newgate street. On the Bth of September last, at Port of Spain, Trinidad. Stephen James Coppinger, Esq. of Cork, to Louisa, onlY daughter and heiress of Lee Usborne, Esq.' of that Island. DIED. On the 113th inst., at her house, Devonshire-place, Mrs. Helen D'Aubant. _ On . the 14th inst., at Edinburgh; Mr. John Hogg, of tto Bank of Scotland. On the 17th inst., at Kirkcaldy, Scotland, Mr, R. Russell, merchant. Printed and Published, for ,the PROPRIETORS, at the Orrtcr, 112, Strand, by J. B. CARSTAIRS. of