The National Register.
London, England, 1816-01-28 00:00:00

VIE NATIONAL -I.E.GISTER,

JAN. 2S.

SUNDAY ADMONITIONS.
To TUE EIUTOR OF 'I,IIE A ATIONAL REGISTER,
Sta—lF your readers would spare me ten minutes of a
Sun flay, :porning, I would beg leave to address to them, cla':ming
indulgence for the title I assume, a few serious observations
which naturally suggest "themselves on an important subject,
and which I will pursue in a popular manner,- uzi,ler the hope
that to those who may trot at the moment avail themselves of
professional admonition, I may suggest some useful observations•
1 am, Sir, with great regard and esteem, your obedient servant'
THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER.

THERE ate two descriptions of men in the world with whom
all discussions of this sort are entitled to peculiar attention.
The one Comprises men of business and pleasure, immeised in
the fleeting concerns of this life, money-Making and thc pur-
suit of woikUy gratifications; the other, men of reading and
reflection, whose dispositions lead them to approve, and often
to practice, the benevolent precepts which their understand-
ings undervalue, the sublimest doctrines of our reii..tioti. They
form to themselves a rational system, which they consider as
at least equivalent to all the purposes of revelation', and piuue
themselves on being free from the trammels of prejudice and
superstition, which, in their fudgatent, have ensnared the un-
detstatnling of the firm believer.
With respect to the first, it will be necessary merely to fix
their attention on the subject, and perhaps the unassuming
clfice of friendly admonition, and a simple exposition of the
grounds on which we may. consisteotly surrender all doubts,
way not be unattended with ta. salutary erect. To such how
forcibly may we rpply the language of the sublime Isaiah—"
wherefore do you labour fn. that which satisfleth not? or spend
money for that which is not bread? Walken diligently unto
me, itui cat tbat which is good, and let your soul light itself
fatness."
(Lut as to men, of cultiv,ated minds and literary attainments,;
as ow feebleatguments might 'ail. to. produce any influence on
their opintops, we can 94yliameni, its t,be. striking language of
the same bolo. monitor, that the. sight of the seers should be
coyered—(oe that seeing they see not, and bearing they do. notunderstand)* ; while, the volnineof !Lay Writ is opened to the
unlearned. Ikit I would bespeak the attention, of such person,s
by a few passages selected, from a writer, whose authority, as one
of the most accomplished mathematicians of his. age, they will
not be disposed to undervalue, and Will) delivers himself with a
)t.ce and energy of language, which, as Cicero says, leaves
it,illgs on 1* rprortey.—" It requires nOg,reat elevation of soul,
says this 94,ipizabLet philosopher, to observe that nothing in
Phis worbl, productive;of true cookent. 'Mt our pleasures
are vain and fugitive, Our troublekiAnunlerable and. perpetual ;
awl tha.t atter all. d ead) . ‘vdlieh'tbrie4,t4s 9s. at, every p 0,4
Wl* u, the sou of a fi.sv years, p9rhaps ,a s, put us into the
lagr.44r.cf4ll4tiOn, of happiness, Misery, o,r anoilnlation. Be-
tween us no barrier is interposed htit life, and the most brittle
thing inu.ature. We have hepea doubt of! the most ahilgliting
itousequence, anti which, to entertain, may well be esteemed a
seal misfortune. Ile then who doubts, and seeks not to be re-
()lye& is equally unhappy. and unjust to himself."--Ile must
confess " who has sent me into thus world, I know not, nor
what tam myself—l am under au astonishing and awful igno-
rance of all these things; I know not what my body is, what
my. senses or my soul; this very part of me which thinks what
speak, which reflects upon every thing else, and upon itself,
yet is as mucha st ranger to its own nature as the dullest think
I carry about me. I -behold there- fi ightful sraces of the
universe wHiih illicit I, am eneompassed, and I find myself
Chained to One little corner of the east extent without un-
del standpug why I am placed on this oi b
iven rather than
any other, and 'why the moments of time g we to
live were assigned at such a point, rather than any other,
9f the whole eternitii before and after. And, from all this, I
gonClude that I ought to pass the days of my life without
cplisiderithi what is. hereafter to. befall tne and that I have,

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nothin,; to do but to follow my own inclinatiens. without on*
fear or disquietude." And what more striking answer can be given
to this than by inspired wisdom itself: " That God has set the-
world in our hearts as a perpettral riddle, which our boasted rea-
son .will for ever he unabie to solve.%— l'he primary and lii•s-
-torical evidences cannot fail to have excited our superficial en-
quiries ; but it may be remarked, that the more we spied kW.
exainine them as .Logicians, the more irresistil4y q shell fnol
their dcbth and solidity. 1 spe ik, at present, merely of their
historical weight; hut all those who have sincerely felt the
benign influence of conviction on the mind, are apprized o‘
the peculiarities, by which the doctrines progressively- win .our
atii!ction, and establish our faith. They are sensible, that the
highest assurances we can receive await a certain progress of
sentiment, to which, as we advance by
.continued meditation
and persevering study, every sentence In Holy Writ beet:ties
pregnant with admonition, and the mind i cheered. by the
light from above irradiating,- in a thoti. and ditferent direct Ons;
itir young man, when he does not feel that immediate and po.-
feet cony iction. wlnch be sometimes conceives the transcendent
importance of the subject demands, without suspecting that he
has not pursued it far enough, may, unfortunately, be left des-
titute of that assurance, which is the result of a- matured and
comprehensive view of a moat difficult •question ; and eternal
happiness play be given up, when offered as an easy purchase
tier a few years' enjoyment of an anxious, precarious and, at best,
checqucred existence. Several years of my life leave been de-
voted to the study of evidence, and ov, fob I bglipvc to be
warranted by what I, conceive to be theouly legitimate mode of
reasoning on such subjecta--a,nd I would ask all those who ark
not firm-believers, in. the truth of Revelation, and who are con-
eersant with the mode of examining questions of fact, and tliat.
species of reasoning on which we ground all our determination
in life, to, answer this interrogation : It the whole system of
revealed religion is founded on impostures, consisting, as it
doers, of innumerable detached circumstances proved by the tes-
timony of different persons, at various times and places, is there
a shadow of probability that its adversaries should have been
unable to contradict the principal witnesses, or falsify the nal,-
rativ.,e in some leading particulars, by adducing persons of credit
to relate circumstances equally, within. their knowledge, or by
appealing to admitted and unausweitable faeta ? If we look to
the. Evangelical History we fuid it'embra,ces a considerable
cx-
te of time, and. involves an. inani:e var,ety of circumstances,
as proof connected with and dependent on each other, but
affOrding the widest scope to detect. and confound, if it had
been attempted, a most barefaced and incredible falshood. The
stronge=st incitements, by which human nature is actuated in
pursuit of discovery, have animated its adversaries ; and they
have been furnished with ample means to facilitate detection.
Yet, after the most unparallcded, severity of criticism that
history affords, no one circumstance of any importance has ever
been disproved, nor has the credibility of any one of the principal
witnesses ever been shaken. —What can the legician. or the
man of business reply ? Perhaps he may say : " Granting there
is all this proof, and it is as powesfUl as you rein view, 'Ass
bave we nut dentonstrattoo—an undeniable certainty ; Om-
nipotence has the power to communicate it, 414 on such
a subject, why should a possibility of doubt or cavil he stit*rveli
to remain ?—This argument may be most satisfactorily refuted.
but as the topic, however trite, is interesting in the extreme,
without enlarging the boundary of the present communication,
I shall reserve it tor my next.
• Isaiah, 29 chap. v. 11,12—Nat. 13 chap. v. 13.
t Pascal Thoughts on Re4gion, 64-c. chap. 1.
sl:ceLes. chap. 3, v. It.

The Manufacturers of Manchester have had a meeting ;
which it was reAo;ved, that Lord Clancarty, the British Minister
at the German Diet, should, through the medium of the Car.
vernment, he instiocted to watch over the comilietcial interests,.
of this country, to, endeavour to prevent the imposition o 4
heavy duties on the circulation °tour manufactuies, and to use
the iukipencewhicn he possesses, as the representative of this
country, in. the. Diet, with the various. States, soas to aeCtlie43
great-a pot teiQii of commercial frecdot poasible.

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iittesiewetajOr'

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ACCIDENTS, OFFENCES, &c.
WHAM OF SIR EDWARD CROFTON.
(FURTHER PARTICULARS.]
Sir Edward had but a few days returned to his family seat from
rugland, where he had been fur some months with his Lady (the
sister of the Earl of Galloway) on a visit to his family, after an ab-
sence of nine years. He remained but a few days at Dublin, as
Lady Charlotte was far advanced in her pregnancy, and he must
have arrived at Moate about New Year's Day.—What was the un-
happy combination of circumstances which could have wound up
the mind of a Gentleman circumstanced as he was, to the pitch of
phrenzy which drove him to so desperate a purpose, it is difficult
to conjecture. He was a man of gentle, affable, and cheerful dis-
position ; in the prime of life, elegant and manly in person, the
husband of an amiable and accomplished Lady, and the father of
eight children, whom he loved with the tenderest affection, and
has kft bitterly to deplore his loss. His thte is imputed to the in-
fluence of derangement, and an affair of honour in which he was
lately concerned. His zeal to maintain with firmness and moderta
tion his authority as a Magistrate, in supporting the laws and pro-
tecting the oppressed, had some time since involved him in a dis-
pute with a Major Browne ; but that dispute Sir Edward had re-
solved to terminate by the arbitration of the law, rather than the
desperate alternative of a duel, justly considering that a gentle-
man is not personally responsible to the code of honour, as it is
called, for acts temperately done in the exercise of his bounden
duty as a public Magistrate. By his spirit and exertions, three
persons, the dependents and proteges of Major Browne, were
brought to trial at the last Quarter Sessions of the county of Ros-
common, for a wanton and atrocious assault upon some poor coun-
try people peaceably returning from a fair at Ballinaford, a village
in the neighbourhood; and those persons were sentenced to three
mouths imprisenment. Sir Edward was obliged to go armed for
his defence to the Quarter Sessions. Some attempts were made to
force him to a duel, which lie very properly declined ; which cause,
and an indictment against Major Browne himself, awaited trial at
the next Spring Assizes ; as Sir Edward was determined to set an
example to the Magistrates, and to try the question, whether a Ma-
gistrate, in the proper exercise of his duty, was to rely on the pro-
tection of the law, or be responsible to any defaulter who may
think fit, on the score of gentlemanhood, to set himself above the
law, and deter a Magistrate from taking cognizance of his miscon-
duct, or to takes such other steps as may seem consistent with
strict justice. What, if any, influence the circumstances con-
nected with this affair may have had in the mind of Sir Edward,
in producing the lamentable catastrophe his family has now to de-
plore, it is impossible to pronounce. But in him society has lost
one of the worthiest members, his country an honour and an orna-
ment, and the poor of his country a zealous protector and warm
friend.-it is a circumstance somewhat singular, that the person
whom Sir Edward took with him to Ireland as valet and butler, on
his late return, is the very man who served in the same capacity
the late unfortunate Mr. Whitbread, at the time of his lamented
catastrophe, and was the first to discover the circumstance.