The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-10-10 00:00:00

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the midst of all this, we seem going backward rather than
' forward. There must be some cause secretly operating to
counteract the effect of their public ministry, or this could
not be. It concerns us deeply to inquire what this cause
may be.
It was once said in the last reign, by those who were in
the secrets of Government, that there was a power behind
the Throne greater than the Throne itself. The remark
may be well applied to develops the subject before us.
There is
,A POWER BEHIND THE ESTABLISHMENT, which
has for this last half century been increasing in statute and
in strength, that will be cre long—if it is not so already—
GREATER THAN THE ESTABLISHMENT 11SEL1. Should
the swarm of self-arpointed teachers, who are multiplying
themselves on all sides, and who profess to be the great
rulers of what they are pleased to call the religious public
—should they finally succeed—as there is every prospect
that they will—in drawing aside the great body of the
lower classes from our churches, in which the moral and
practical duties of a Christian life are best taught, then
will the debasement of our national character be complete.
It is cur intention to canvass this matter thoroughly. We
cannot do this at one sitting. The deep importance of the
subject demands that we should return to it again and
agaio, and we shall do so. We will lay bare this tree of
the knowledge of evil to the root. Its fibres are spreading
every where under ground, and are loosening by degrees
the whole foundation of moral society.
We purpose to devote our observations at present to the
BITHEL Usion. It is bad enough that fanaticism should
find its way into the common ranks of life ; the great and
important changes which this is producing is alarming
enough ; but when the navy—we shall speak of the army
another 'day—when the nary are to be worked upon—and
our sailors to have every sentiment fitted to their sphere of
duty extinguished, as standing in the way of " their ie-
demption us lost sinners"--if in their sphere of service they
are to be taught " the unrighteousness of thvir calling,"
if—and this will most assuredly come to pass—if, In time
of war they should be brought to abandon the salvation of
their country, as of no moment compared with " the sal.
ration of their immortal surds—" if they are hereafter " to
fight their good fight" exclusively under the Bernet.
FLAG—and if, in the excesses of all this wild and unguided
zeal, they are to find patrons high in naval rank—
patronesses in exalted stations—preachers in every tner-

chant ship—and missionaries in every man-of-war !—What,
in the name of common sense, is to be the fruits of all
this ? why, that religious discord will spread itself by de-
grees throughout the whole of the service; those seamen
who cling to the bluff honesty of their old English habits,
and the native manliness of their own British feelings, will
divide themselves from the psalm-singing fanatics of the
Bs T fiEr. Union, whom they know, stripped of their outside
show of piety, to be no better than themselves; the latter, in
their turn, will herd together, and instead of the kindly feel-
ings which they once held out towards the others, as brother
sailors, they will shrink from them as from the unregene-
rate, with whom they can hold no fellowship. Already
the consequences have begun to show themselves, and are
beginning to be very seriously felt. The ADMIRALTY are
at length alive to the danger that is approaching, and are
not a little embarrassed how to deal with it. Our mer-
chant owners likewise look with alarm at the perilous
progress of this fanaticism. The seamen belonging to this
Union have, in many instances, refused to work on Sun-
days. The notion that this is " sinful," and forbidden by
" the word of life," is spreading among them very gene-
rally. There are efficers among the Bethel Saints who
preach this doctrine among them, and who account the
converts to it as among those who, "through divine mercy,
have been brought into the Church of Jesus Christ." Every
Tract is loud in the praise of this system of pious revolt.
Every number of the Sailors' Magazine—the profits of
which, we learn from the blue cover, go to the support of
these marine missionaries—abounds with accounts of the
progress which " the cause of the Lord !" is making in this
way. The public in general are not aware of what is
going on among this active body of sectarians. They
move, for all purposes of aecrevy, in a world of their own,
while they are, at the same time, not only undermining the
Establishment, but introducing a most fatal revolution•in
the manners and opinions of that class of society over whom
they chiefly seek to gain dominion. The scripture phrases
under cover of which they circulate their destructive prin-
ciples, throw the reader off his guard. Let us suppose a
RADICAL, for instance, to circulate a tract among our sea-
men, in which he addressed them dius:—

" SOLDIERS and SAILORS ! what gratitude do you owe
to the Church or its teachers ? Are you not just as
much neglected as if you were born without any pre-
tence to the happiness of a future life? Do they not
show, by their utter neglect of your eternal interests,
that they consider you as the refuse of creation, and
as not admitted into the rank of accountable beings ?
Do they not treat you as if the notion that generally pre-
vails were true—that you were merely made to fight, and
to fall, the victims of human ambition, or infernal rage
and fury? You defend our shores, you fight our battles,
and how, in return, are you treated ? We a ill tell you how
you are treated. You are considered ns creatures made to
be slaughtered, in order that the rest may live in safety,
in comfort, and in prosperity: and therefore it is that we
read of the decks and fields being covered with the bodies
of thousands of our slain countrymen, as a mere matter of
course, and carelessly turn to some other piece of news. Thus
treated, and thus despised, we would fain ask you, Are
you not justified in seeking a &Leo turtom ? ought you
not to recover yourselves, to stand erect, Ind to assume
your just and legitimate rank in the scale of being? You
ought; and the God of battles will aid your cause, and
give strength to your arm. We arc preparing the way be-
fore you. Ile that said, I will overturn, overturn, over-
turn, until He shall come whose right it is,' has graciously
cast up these stumbling blocks, and removed these ob-
structions out of the way in some measure, so that the
Redeemer's Heralds are going forth, like the voice of one
crying in the wilderness., ' Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.' "
If a Bill-sticker, in aidition to his labours in the service
of Hunt's roasted corn and Warren's blacking, were to
paste up such a placard as this, we suspect he would soon
find his way to the Home Department. Let us now com-
pare the above with the following extract from the Sailors'
Magazine, which the Bethel Union disperse among our
soldiers and seamen, with an industry that never steeps:—
" THE ARNY AND NAVY—Very few nations have attempted
to carry the gold neirsof Salvation by a crucified nEDEEMEII toils(
SOLDIERS and SAILORS who defended their shores, and fought
their battles. It Is not in the nature of war to study the good of
mankind. The Gospel alone proclaims ' Peace on earth, and
good will to man.' The notion bait too generally prevailed that
the troops and the crews of nations were simply tuado to dignify,
to tight, and to augment, the glory of a cowry, by bring
slaughtered in the field of battle, and dying amidst blood and
groans, the triclinia of human ambition or infernal rage and Airy.
That &Wore and Soldiers had immortal scuds, or that they were
aceonntabk creatures to a higher Power than reigns on earth, and
rnpontiOle for ' every deed done in the body, whether good or

evil,' never entered into the minds, of Lien in general. As to the
defence of the country, we hove considered them as creatures made
to be slaughtered, in order that we might lire in safety. in cwn-
ftwt, and in prosperity, and we hare read therefore rf tha decks and
fields being covered with the bodies ofthousands of our slain country
men, as a mere matter of course, and carelessly turned to same
other piece cf news.
" Happily for this kingdom, the general progress of religion is
influencing all classes of society, and producing a just arrangement
of ideas on the subject of Christianity, and the most valuable ex-
ertions to promote its holy and blessed truths.

' "In this happy and glorious career it was not to be supposed
that our ARMY and NAY Y would be wholly posed by. Difficulties
peculiar to each department have certainly presented themaelves
with an aspect so formidable, as to dismay many sanguine minds;
I but He that said, ' I will overturn, overture, overturn, until He
shall come whose right it is,' has graciously cast up that
stumbling blocks, and removed these obstructions out of the way in
some measure, so that the REDEEMER'S HERALDS are going
forth, like the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ' Prepare
ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.' "—Sailors' Ma..
goaine, for February, 1824.
iVe leave the reader to compare these two proclamations.
The essence of both is the same ; their tendency is the
same; and their revolutionary consequences will be the
lame. The Bethel RELIGIONISTS and the RADICAL S move,
apparently, on opposite parallels, but their steps will bring
both of them at last to exactly the same point. The one
may pretend to be working in the vineyard, but they are
sowing the same seed, and both will grow up together to
the same harvest.

Our sailors and .rot iers are taken out of a class of society
that do not make very nice distinctions about the nature of
feeedurn. Their conceptions upon this, as upon other sub-
jects, are straightforward. What sort of freedom different
from that which they at present possess is meant to be
given to those who enlist under the Bethel
.flag, it is not
easy to say. At all events, these spiritual Leaders of our
army and navy assume a bold tone. Their followers must
certainly conceive from such declarations as the following,
that a stern discipline and strict subordination, is not to be
their lot longer than can be helped. Tile style is so mys-
tified as not to be very intelligible, but it is likely enough
they will translate it according to the old version :
" The campaigns of your Society succeed each other without ces-
sation or intermission; its laurels, and laurels it cats boast, ars
gained in every reason, and may be increased under all circam.
stances. We MUST NOT LaY DOWN OUR ARMS WHILST ONE
ENEMY REMAINS TO BE CONQUERED, or one prisoner to be
released. We contend for kfieed.un of the noblest nature and the
highest quality—the freedom which only the Son of Alan ^an
give. Your Society cannot lodge their colours or sheath the sword
of the Spirit, until every Soldier become a Soldier of Jesus
Christ, until every Sailor be reconciled to Him who made the
sea also; nay, still more, until every airtight in both servicat
be brought into captivity to the law of Christ.' "—lbid.

It will be well if, at the end of their projected cam-
paigns, we are not brought into captivity of another and a
very different kind. What the explosion of the human
passions will one day effect under all these UNIONS, spi-
ritual and temporal, that are every day starting up, is
more than the wisest of us can prophecy. It is an event
from which we have everything to fear: it threatens the
worst consequences to the moral welfare of the country.
As far as the army and the navy are concerned, we shall
strip these active emissaries of their religious garb, and
expose them in their true shape. There is no better way
of counteracting the spread of this wretched fanatic's:n than
by the putting the bulk of the people upon their guard
against it.

CITY, SATURDAY EVENING.

Although this was nearly a dies non, as to business, on
the Stock Exchanges, still the prices indicated renewed
confidence. Consols remained steady all clay, for the next
account at 884 f, and for the November account there were
buyers at 884. Exchequer Bills were 21 3 premium.
The Foreign Market also indicated great firmness, as the
following prices will prove: Colombian Bonds were 754 3 ;
Mexican Scrip 9 8/ discount ; Brazilian ditto 81 4 dis-
count ; Old Spanish Bonds I 7„ I ; and Greek Scrip 934
discount. Danish Scrip was also held much lighter to-day ;
being 6i 6 discount.
In the Share Market the quotations were quite nominal.
Her Highness the Duchess Dowager of Saxe-Cbourg,
accompanied by the Prince and Princess of Leiningen,
after staying a few days in Brussels, have proceeded on
their return to Germany.
We have received the Brussels papers of Thursday.
They do not contain a single paragraph of news.
Not a day passes but the trussels Journals give an ac-
count of some tire; never were calamities of that kind mote
frequent in that city.
A letter dated Valenciennes, ()tuber 3, states that the
triple line of Custom-house Officers on that part of .the
northern frontier adjoining the Netherlands, in obedience
to the instructions from the Minister, is more vigilant than
ever. The smuggling of goods is become, if not impossible,
at least very difficult. The dogs, which hate rendered
such services to the Belgian smugglers, are every where
marked as dangerous animal., since several of them have
been shot, and ambuscades have been placed on the several
points by which these intelligent animals entered the
French territory with their loads, the danger of these
zealous servants becomes daily greater. Among the strictest
prohNited articles are certain works printed at Brussels
and lithographic caricatures published in that city. Some
of these caricatures, which are ill enough executed, have,
however, found their way hither, and are privately shown.
The prohibition, or at least the instruction of the importa-
tion of foreign manufactures, gives great satisfaction to our
manufacturers in Picardy, Artois, and French Flanders,
whose establishments arc daily increasing.
COIIIIIIELCE or SWITZERLAND.—The Federal Directory
has informed the Governments of Communes, which are
particularly interested in the commercial relations with the
Grand Duchy of Baden, that the steps ordered by the
Diet to obtain a suspension of the new tarif of the Grand
Duchy has proved unsuccessful, and that consequently
the cantons which have already ordered various reprisals,
might take such measures as they judge best. Accord-
ingly the Government of Zurich has decreed that the wines
of the Grand Duchy shall pay the same duties as those of
France. It is said that Thurgovia and Schaffhausen have
adopted the same resolution. The measures are equiva-
lent on both sides to a prohibition—the vintage is at hand,
and each country will keep its own wine.
A letter from 'Naples, dated Sept. 20, says, that the King,
accompanied by the Queen, and all the Royal Family, has
honoured with a visit Don Giovanni Danero, Captain Ge-
neral of the Neapolitan Marine, aged a hundred and one
years, on the birth-day of that ancient servant. This un-
expected honour, accorded to one of his Majesty's most
faithful subjects, has had a most pleasing effect on the peo-
ple of that capital.—Journal des Debate.
A steam boat has been lately constructed in New Eng-
land, on improved principles, by an ingeneious mechanic,
named Babcock. On the first trial she performed a dis-
tance of thirty miles in three hours and a ball; and in that
time °crammed but about one foot of wood. The machi-
chinery occupies very little room; the quantity of water
required for generating the steam is less than half a pint
at an injection, and not more than a barrel was used in
the passage. The experiment is considered as entirely
successful.

The Chevalier d'lsidore de Montenegeo, Consul Gene-
ral of Spain, in this port, has had the following article
inverted in the Genoa Gazette:—As various journals have
taken pleasure in painting in the blackest colours the state
of Spain, at the time of the scandalous attempt of the Ex-
Ger.c-al llessieres, stating that the Spaniards were on the
eve of a civil war, and that the greater part of the pro-
vinces were disposed to insurrection, the Consul General
of hip Catholic Majesty, at Genoa, has the pleasure to be
able officially to announce, that those accounts are false,
and that the tranquillity of the Peninsula has not been
disturbed for an instant.