The National Register.
London, England, 1813-10-10 00:00:00

THE PLA6UE

The prevalence of an infectious fever at Gibraltar is unhappily sta-
ted in letter% thence and from Cadia to the 19th ult. containing the fol-
lowing official par►iculars :
" Oo the 6th two Jew petters were taken ill, and died fifty hours
afterwards.
•' On the Bth, a soldier of the garrison threw himself from a window
of the barracks in a delirium. one of the symptotus of the lever.
" The state set the !Mc aud deed is as follows :
Date. 111. Dcad. .
September 9 6 • • • . • • • • • • 3
10 1, 4 •
11 4o 3
" 12 30 4
13 32 2
14 33 4
1.3 .10 3
114 43 3
17 43 3
18 JO 4

•••••• am•••

33 deaths.

• On the lath Rept. four servotits in the family of Major Moore of
the Velegans. were taken ill, which left no doubt in the minds of
medical men that the diorder was contagiows or epidemical.
" A Proclamation was pubtished declaring the garrison in a state
of infection, and directing that no more clean Bills of health should
be granted.
" Tiir inhabitants immediately caught the alarm, and about 4,000
of them quitted the garrison. Ail the poorer classes have been or.
det ed to the neutral ground.
44 The windmill to the south bas been converted into a Lazaretto,
aild all persons %% re removed to it immediately they were infected.
The town has in en divided into 4274istrictm, anal the south into seven
sale di% isions, with a Committee to superintend each, and to make
daily re tarts to the Board of Health."
The Captain of the Serapia store-ship states, that the medical
men were in sanguine Lopes that the disorder would soon be en.
tirely exterminate:l.
We learn with satisfaction, by a letter from a most respectable
quarter, (WO as late as the 17th nit. from Leghorn, that the plague
has wholly disappeared in Valette, and that its ravages were much
d;minished in the villages tor the island of Malta. The information
was brought to Leghorn .by a vessel Which had arrived from Malta
on the 15th of last month.

Dr. Rowley was consecrated Bishop of London on Sun-
day last, in presence of the Queew and Pt inCCSSPF, at Lambeth.
A solemn service was perffiruied on Thursday morning in
the Catholic chapel, King-street, in honour of the late Cen.
Moreau. The chapel was hung with black, and filled with
a very large assen,blage of gelato,' Dersohs —The Russian
Ambassador and suite; the first Minister of Louis XVIIL
Count DTscares,and all the Noblemen belonging to Monsieur
and the Prince of Conde. Madetnoil.eile Minya(' was there
attendiAl by ter Governess ; she about 8 years old. A mori:
the company present were also the Duchess of Devonshire,
the Countess of Besborough, the Bat one,As De Stael, Lord
Melbourne. the thin Mrs. C. Lath. Mr. F. Fos•e , &c.

A Specil General Court of ProprieterA r.f East India
Ptock. was he'd ‘Vedne,day, when Peer Moore, i.sq. M. P.
submitted his motion for increasing the salaries the
Chairman and Denuty Chairman of the Court of Directors,
50A!. to !boo!. per annum; and th..t of the Diree,ors
from 3001. to 11.001. per annum. A del ate of great leowh
took place. which ended io the aprointtnent of a S. lest
Commiteo of 21 Proprieters, to consider and report on the
f): ped;encv of making the nroposed augnientati
rapt. Layne', of the 99d grenadiers, the brave :end hu.
mane french Officer who nobly snatched from t',e brolk of
destruction, at the imminent harard of Ins own lif., 1W)
Eottlil/4h Officers, at the siege of St. Sel-aoan's, was restored
to libe•ty almost a, soon as he reached the depot a 4
gavenny, and has received his passports to return
France.

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Otte 19tt

No 9.

Each strell'ng Levitt., here, a Priest will be ;
Each house mast have its different Deity !—WEtiLEY'S BIBLE.

REVEREND MR. TOJVNLEY,
MILLENNIAL MINISTER.

Ati unknown friend congratulated the present writer on I
the pi ospect of his criticisms being likely to "stimulate some
to emulation in their high calling, and banish from the
pulpits of otheis fooleries or eccentricities which debased
them." Pulpit pupoism is not, however, quite so readily
renounced. 'Fhe►e are some preachers whom the remarks
of the pulpit critic seem to have somewhat stimulated to
emulation in their high calling; but it is pretty clear, on
the other hand, that his strictures have not banished from the
pulpits of certain divines those fooleries which debase them-
set ses, and tend to degrade their function itself in the esti-
traie of the world.
Preachers are seen sometimes disposed `o arrogate to
themselves that importance which attaches- exclusively to '
their ministry. Elevated by their office above the common
lot of man, they pride themselves too much in " the foolishness
of preaching," not always humbled by reflecting, that " the
Aospel is put into eartlicrivessels" only that " the VN c ellency
. of the power may qppear to be of God, and not of men,"
• who arc but unworthy instruments in the great work of sal-
vation, and less than the very least of the apostles. All the
glorious results of preaching arc ascribable entirely to grace.
Conversion is, as Dr. Gill defines it, a resurrection, to be
effected only by him who is emphatically distinguished as
• the resurrection and the life,' and requiring, from first to
last, the working of omnipotence.
Now the Rev. .I‘lr. TowN LEY too evidently belongs to the
class of preachers who appear to plume themselves on the
circumstance of their "high calling ;" and who, therefore,
are liable to be considered as pulpit fops by religious and wise

BICH. I i
Evangelical foppery is the worst kind of clerical irn-
pertinence. Other pulpit coxcombs may excite the pity
only of serious minas, because, bad at the best, they cannot
we!:, injure the cause which they are incompetent to serve ;
but the wretched fooleries of gospel preachers have an in
ni : ely worse ellict, and must always occasion both sorrow
and disgust to thoughtfully pious persons. It is painful to 'I
hear the gospel indifferently preached ; but to hear it affect-
edly preached, is intolerable.
The Rey. Mr. Townley, does not, indeed, in all points
resemble the clerical coxcomb so exquisitely pourtrayed by
Cowper ;—he has no powdered locks to adjust, nor does lw,
his service done, attempt to recognize, with his glass, " the
slow retie in;; fair,' as, like Lot's wife, they cast one parting
;lance behind them. Ilis foppery is of another kind.
Confidence in his own powers, however, this preacher
does not want ;- and lie also seeLrb tolerably well satisfied with
Otis acquirements and his personability. ilence he overdoes
his eat t. Very few preachers excel in the divine duty of
re,iding the set iptures, which, being observed by the present
preacher, has probably induced him to endeavour at excel-
lence in this pat ticulat, by spouting,instead of reading, from
the bible. Ile declaims, and enacts the pages of inspiratVon.
With his known assiduity as to style, his language is neither
ehoi::e nor copious, but sometimes incorrect, and his ino,t
elaborate sentences are frequently terminated with an anti-
climax. Ilk ah's and oh's, although intended to be solemnly
affecting, miss theiwaiin ; and, like most clav, traps iu speech,

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while they render the speaker rldiculOusrsufprise but to dis-
please the generality of those who attend to him. All that it
christian teacher can hope for, by such miserable shifts, is to
startle the nervous and beguile the simple part of his female
auditors, who, whispering to one another, are apt 'to wonder

and look wise. •
Palpably as these improprieties must strike every impartial
man, they do t►ot comprise all the defects ofMr.Townley's
mode a preaching. Ile has no discrimination as to voice.
NV holler be prays, or reads, or speaks, his tones are equally
high, laboured, harrassing. and ranting. Medium he ahhors.
Ills gestures correspond to the nature of his voice, his action
being misplaced, and uncalled for, and unintermitted.
His discourses arc divided without reference had respect irg
time. Before the preacher has discussed two thirds of his
-proposed heads, therefore, he finds the time usually allossrd
for the whole has nearly expired, which compels him to the
awkwardness of apologizing in the first instance, and finally
obliges him to dismiss the congregation when he is co►►scious
of not having by any means concluded his subject. It is tine
disagrenb!e consequence of this error, that the hearer is re-
minded, within every five minutes, of the preacher's fau:t,
by being told, from his own mouth, of the unfo►tunate fact
of his having exhausted his time, and thus finding himself at
once reduced to the neces,ity of hastening abruptly to an
end. ' The error is itsc!f bad enough, but the consequence is
still worse.
Occasionally this preacher labours to ft ighten, though he
mostly affects to t►►neh, his congregation. But he soon re,
pews of his wra.b. Supposing that his eloquence has ac-
tually done its worst, alarMed and terrified the consciences
he assures the trembling soul, without delay, that he real!,
did not mean to overwhelm it with horror, and entreats th 4
imaginary sufferer to understand that the wound was inflicted
only for his benefit here and hereafter ! Such is this phy-
sician of sick sous. Whatever end his prescriptions may
work, the patient is soothed into acquiescencos and made
confident of his convalescence.
It would sound rather harsh to assert that the Rev. Mr.
Tom nley possesses no one qualification for the propaga.inn
of evangelicism, seeing him to he one of those " her-41di
who have recently been evangelically eulogized for " putting
their lip to tt►e gospel trumpet but it may with ti nth k
affirmed, concerning this preacher, that his qualifications arc,
at the best, of a secondary kind. and that his affectedness and
self-importance are such as greatly to subtract from the
good which otherwise be might do. ONESIMUS.

THE LATE lIARVEST.—A Prayer of Thanksgiving to
Almighty God for the great blessing 'which, in his mercy
and goodnes, he has vouchsafed to this nation, in our
abundant crop and favourable Harvest:. to be used at morning
.Ind evening Service, after the General Thanksgiving,,
throughout the Cities of London and Westminster, and
elsewhere within the Bills of Mortality, on Svoaday,, the IGth
day of October, 1813, and on Gift following Sunday ; and in
all Churches and Chapels in England and Wales, on the two
subsequent Sundays :---
" 0 God our heavenly Father, who of thy bountiful goodness
' towards us has caused the earth to give ba4 to the labour of man
the fruits of his industry, with an abundant increase ; accept, we
i beseech Thee, the prOses anal thanksgivin4 oral joyful people : and
i of 'llly great mercy, 0 find, teach us to abound, that we forget not,
by re:ison of our many frailties, the source from which the
ailandance Howell. Tian* 'last lookcd down upon us with tender-
ness, and compa-sion ; Thou bast listened to our supplications, bind
i
supplied our wants ; di.puse us evermore to elevate our hearts and
ririuds unto 'nu e lii pious and crateful remembrance of this Thy
bles-ing, an,l of all other thy manifold mercies, through JCLI34
Christ our Lord.----41inem," .