The Sun.
London, England, 1827-10-29 00:00:00

THE REV. ROBERT TAYLOR.

The London Papers have this week contained a long re-
port (extending to eight columns) of the trial of the Rev.
Robert Taylor, on an indictment for having delivered a
blasphemous, discourse before a great number of persons, on
the 16th of Febran?y last, at a place called the Areopagus,
in Loner. We are ificktged, from a regard to the interests
of our Holy43.eligion, and th show the sort of adversary de-
rided Christianity has met with in the person of the Rev.
Robert Taylor, to allude to the past history of this gentle-
man's case, and express our sorrow at his errors. In July,
1818, the Rev. Robert Taylor, a Graduate of the Univer-
sity of Cambridge, sent an advertisement for insertion in our
paper, stating that he had for five years and three months
held the office of Christian Priesthood, and fully performed
all the duties annexed to that office, at Midhurst, in Sus-
sex, bet that he wished to make a public renunciation of
the priestly ,baracter, and the solemn declaration that "the
result of L most diligent investigation of the evidence and
history of CLristiauity, is a firm conviction that its Scrip-
tures are not authentic." We did not publish his commu-
nication, but replied to his request by note of a corre-
spondent, to the effect, that we did not believe his rejection
of Christianity was the effect of a close, patient, and impar-
tial examination of the evidences on which Revelation is
foundea ; for we hold it to be impossible for any man, in
possession of his rational powers, to go into such an inves,-
tigation of the subject, without not only being convinced
of the truth of Revelation, but without, likewise, receiving
a substantial accession to his virtuous and pious principles.
We recommended the Rev. Gentleman, therefore, to re-
turn to the subject, and, in imitation of Dr. John on, when
he meditated the publication of the " Rambler," "pray for
a humble and teachable mind, to the Eternal Spirit, who
can enrich with all utterance, and all knowledge, &c."
The Rev. Gentleman took the advice kindly, it appeared,
for in. October (about three months afterwards) he ad-
dressed us again on the subject, offering his fervent thanks
for our truly Christian generosity, and requesting us to
publish a recantation of the opinions which he had before
expressed, which he said did not lodge in his mind even for
a week, all of which, without exception, he now saw and
felt to be fatally erroneous; and that we should add to the
obligations, by which we had for ever merited his grateful
remembrance, by inserting his present sentiments in our
columns. We did insert his " penitent and conscientious
recantation of his unhappy error" (as he described it),
which he closed in the following words :---
" The Church, of which he was a member, held him in
all his wanderings with bonds of indissoluble affection ; and
on her altar he consecrates the first fruits of the Spirit, in a
firm, and we hope never again to he shaken, faith, in the
Holy, Blessed, and Glorious Trinity. We all stand by
faith, and we trust that in the inscrutable Providence of the
Almighty, this Gentleman may have been designedly cast
down and raised up again in his Christian warfare, in or-
der, by experience, to become a better soldier, and to guard
others with greater effect, against the wiles and subtleties of
the enemies of our salvation."
Such was the Rev. Robert Taylor on the 29th of Oc-
tober, 1318.—0 n the 24th of October, 1827, he is con-
victed of uttering a blasphemous discourse, irreverent
towards the Christian religion, calculated to excite aversion
and disrespect, and hold it up to ridicule, and wantonly to
destroy the tranquillity and repose of millions of his fel-
low-men !_Hampshire Telegraph.

During the period that the Marquis Wellesley
was at the head of the Indian Government, 200 volumes of
standard English books were translated into the Bengalee
tongue, and distributed among the natives, under the direc-
tions of the Noble Marquis. In the school, under the di-
rections of the ReV. Mr. Perowne, a Missionary at Burd-
wan, Bengal, his scholars are engaged in translating an
Epitome of that
Robinson Crusoe. The Pilgrim's Progress has been al-
popular and interesting tale of De Foe's,
ready translated, and is greatly esteemed by those who have
perused it, in the Bengal language.
The Khan of Elizabethpol, in Georgia, being
curious to see whether the countenance of one of his most
beautiful women was rendered more interesting by suffering
than by pleasure, put her to such dreadful tortures that she
its fatal terminatim,
expired in the midst of them
he tried on a second with
;---an experiment which, not-
withstandingthe same result.

ECLIPSES.—On Saturday, Nov. 3, at the
instant the sun sets, the moon will arise, three quarters
eclipsed. Five-and-twenty minutes afterwards, that is at
seventeen minutes past five, an eighth of its disc only will
be visible. The moon will then present the appearance of
a crescent, the horns branching upwards ; afterwards this
planet will gradually regain Its rotundity, and, at fifty-six
minutes past six, the moon will be seen. This eclipse will
be visible in Europe, Asia, and Africa.. As for eclipses of
the sun, which are generally objects of curiosity, tve
shall have some very beautiful, but partial ones in 1893,
1836, and 1842, which will prepare us for the famous
annular eclipse which is to take place on the 9th of Oc-
tober, 1847.

At the Middlesex Sessions, on Saturday,
William Hollingsworth, jun. was convicted of a fraud, in
having written a letter in his father's name to a friend for
the loan of 201., and received the money as for his father,
without his knowledge or authority. Mr. Alley said, that
he was instructed by the father to state, that he had done
all in his power to reform the conduit- of his son, who,
however, baffled every effort to lead him from his evil
habits. He had lately
married two common women of the
town, which rendered all hope of amendment in this coun-
try vain. The Chairmann sentenced the defendant to be
transported for seven years.
Another young man, named
Farcher, was also sentenced to seven years' transportation,
for obtaining, a quantity of nails from an ironmonger under
a similar misrepresentation.