hear that the advantage supposed to have been obtained by the allies, at Austerlitz, proves to have been a defeat, and that an armistice between France and Austria has been the consequence. To what issue this event may lead, I will not prognosticate. God grant that we may all prepare for the hour of trial, which may come upon us. Under these circumstances, I cannot better fulfil the object of this paper, than by offering the following quotation, from an author who appears to have felt both as a patriot and as a Christian, on the subject of the general course of European politics. "To form an adequate idea of the duties of this crisis, (says this writer, addressing himself chiefly to our Volunteers) it will be necessary to raise your minds to a level with your station, to extend your views to a distant futurity, and to consequences the most certain, though most remote. By a series of criminal enterprizes, by the successes of guilty ambition, the liberties of Europe have been gradually extinguished: the subjugation of Holland, Switzerland, and the free towns of Germany, has completed that catastrophe; and we are the only people in the eastern hemisphere, who are in possession of equal laws and a free constitution." "If liberty, after being extinguished on the Continent, is suffered to expire here, whence is it ever to emerge in the midst of that thick night that will invest it? It remains with you then, to decide, whether that freedom, at whose voice the kingdoms of Europe awoke from the sleep of ages, to run a career of virtuous emulation in every thing great and good; the freedom which dispelled the mists of superstition, and invited the nations to behold their God; whose magic touch kindled the rays of genius, the enthusiasm of poetry, and the flame of eloquence; the freedom which * Hall. poured into our lap opulence and arts, and embellished life with innumerable institutions and improvements, till it became a theatre of wonders; it is for you to decide whether this freedom shall yet survive or be covered with a funeral pall, and wrapped in eternal gloom. It is not necessary to await your determination; in the solicitude you feel, to approve yourselves worthy of such a trust, every apprehension of danger must vanish, and you are impatient to mingle in the battle of the civilized world. Go then ye defenders of your country, accompanied with every auspicious omen, advance with alacrity into the field: Religion is too much interested in your success, not to lend her aid. While you are engaged in the field, many will repair to the closet, many to the sanctuary; the faithful of every name will employ that prayer which has power with God; the feeble hands which are unequal to any other weapon, will grasp the sword of the spirit; and from myriads of humble contrite hearts, the voice of intercession, supplication, and weeping, will mingle in its ascent to Heaven with the shouts of battle and the shock of arms." I am, &c. BRITANNICUS. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. In a company into which I lately stepped with a friend, the conversation passed from subject to subject with such quick transitions, and the speakers, though the greater proportion was not of the female sex, were in general so voluble, that I had not the opportunity of taking any material share in the discourse. Silence, however, prepared me for subsequent recollec tion; and has enabled me to communicate to you some of the re marks which were made by others. "It was particularly kind in that tradesman, who is not thought very full of money, to lend his neighbour the hundred pounds, in order to 'help him out of his difficulty." "Yes, yes, very kind, no doubt. But there may be motives for kindness. The lender is a prudent man, and knows his own situation. One good turn deserves another. You understand me." "Perfectly. A word to the wise." "I am very glad," said another person, that we had a majority last week, at the Board of Gover'nors; and thus secured to the Infirmary the additional services of a third physician." "And the young man," replied a gentleman with a shrewd look, "is very glad also. He expects that his gratuitous attendance on the Hospital, will draw many a fee from the pockets of its supporters into his own." Here I ventured to observe, that physicians in the Metropolis, already overloaded with private business, are known to continue their attendance on charitable Institutions. "They are ashamed of giving it up," answered the former speaker. "And they gratify their pride by the appearance of liberality." A new subject immediately arose. "Did the Rector or his Curate preach yesterday morning?" "The Rector, certainly, though it was not his turn. He had the 'Baronet's family with him on a visit: and you might be confident beforehand, that he would not let slip an occasion of displaying his oratory 'before them." "You were not at church, I apprehend," said I to the person who made this remark; "for "Well, Sir," hastily interrupted the other," and what if I was not? I might have very good reasons for not being there: and very good reasons I had. I was dressed too late; ́and besides, the morning was damp, and I am lately recovered from a cold, and so is one of my horses. There is nothing so unfair and abominable as to impute bad motives to people" "I assure you, my good Sir, that I had not the slightest intention of imputing any wrong motive to you. I merely designed to observe, that if you had happened to be at church, you would have known that the Curate was the preacher." "It was most likely," he replied, "that he would be sent into the pulpit. The Doctor was too haughty to let his great friends think, that he would preach out of his turn because they were there." "How lucky it was," said a gentleman on the other side of the room, "that young Mr. F. when he was thrown from his horse, should meet with his accident so near to the house of Mr. L. He was immediately conveyed thither, and nursed as if he had been at home." "Perhaps," rejoined a lady, nodding with a significant air, "it was something like being at home." "I do not comprehend your meaning, Madam." "It may be so, Sir. You have not lived so many years in the world as I have." "But I comprehend it," said another lady in a moderated voice. "The young man is heir apparent to three thousand a year. Mrs. L. has two marriageable daughters, and it was hoped that one or other of the misses might make herself agreeable to him during the restoration of his broken arm," "I will venture to say," added her neighbour, "that many broad hints were given to the surgeon, that he should admonish his patient to be very cautious not to move too soon." "So Mr. N. is to be ranked a Peer at last!" "You are very right in saying at last. He has been labouring for this peerage during the last twenty years." "I scarcely should think so: for he told me this morning, that an offer of a peerage, wholly unsolicited, had just been made to him; and that he had without hesitation declined it." "His high spirit then was more gratified by refusing the proposal, than it would have been by accepting it." "He thought, I conclude," said the person who introduced this topic, "that it was a grander thing to be first country-gentleman in his county than the lowest of the Lords." "Sir William is not one of those Members of Parliament who vote through thick and thin with their party. On the late great question, he divided against the minister." "Yes: he is one of those on whom no dependence can be placed. When his friends are pressed, he fails them." "No doubt he had asked something, and was refused." "The fact is, that he commonly votes with Government, that he may get what he can: but joins now and then with opposition, that he may maintain a shew of independence." "The support which the Premier has given to this bill, is thought, I hear, very creditable to him." "The bill he detests; but he has cunningly secured to himself the popularity of countenancing it in the House of Commons, and knows that he can throw it out in the Upper House." Have you read the last number of the Christian Observer? I see that the Editors keep up the old tone of moderation." "Moderation! They understand their trade. They wish all parties to buy their book; and therefore praise each to please each, and censure each to please the other." "For my part, I think that they have no clear or fixed opinions of any kind." "It is indeed very plain, that they are either knaves or fools." "I am perfectly certain that they are both." "Is this," said I to my friend as soon as we had left the company; "Is this the charity which believeth all things?" "Yes," replied he; "which believeth all things that are to men's prejudice." A. B. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I PERCEIVE by your insertion of a paper on the limitations to the right of reproof, that you are not unwilling to lay before your readers such conversations as may be supposed to illustrate topics of a moral nature: I hope, therefore, that the following communication may be acceptable to you. "I am very sorry," said one of a mixed company," that those young men were involved in so disgraceful a broil." "Oh, very natural," replied another: " nothing but a little wine and frolic. Young men are but young men. We must not be rigid and severe. No sin is so great as want of charity." "Is it true," interposed a third person, beginning a new subject, "that Mr.O.M. has married the rich Miss P. with all her visible deformity, and all her known ill-temper?" "Strictly true-why do you ask?" returned a fourth. "Is Mr. O. M." rejoined the former speaker, "a friend of yours?" "Not at all, I have scarcely seen him; and never was introduced to him." "Then I may venture to observe, that I fear it was the gilding of the pill which made him willing to take it." "Perhaps he liked her. is no answering for tastes." There "We might have given him credit for liking her, if he had been more private and reserved in his contumelious speeches respecting her." "No doubt then he marries her for the benefit of his family." "Yet he spent the fortune of his former wife on the turf and at the gaming-table: and he not only gives up his time to the same occupations, but avows an undiminished attachment to them." Opera? And has not she a daughter lately come out ?” "Certainly," replied the other, "He may have his reasons. We are not to judge others. He will" she has just taken the box, and certainly take care not to injure has taken it for the purpose of himself: and he has a right to have helping her to get a match for her his amusements." daughter. And she has done very wisely. A mother must always want to get her daughters off her hands: and an opera-box is a charming snug place for making acquaintance." "I have heard it much lamented," said a person who hitherto had been silent," that Mr. H. should be so remarkable for the luxury of his table, and the general parade of his household." "He lives in that way," answered another new speaker, "that he may gain influence among the countrygentlemen for the purpose of doing good." "But he is so noted for personal finery, and for fondness for the indulgencies of the table." "He is able to pay for finery: and when he has good things set before him, I do not see why he is not to enjoy them." "Sir Richard, I understand, has at length completely ruined himself by his expensiveness." "It is his misfortune; but people must be very censorious if they blame him greatly. He came to his estate at twenty-two. He has neither wife nor child. He has been no man's enemy but his own; and never did any harm in his life.” "I am afraid that the same cannot be said of his younger brother." "Why to be sure he is dissolute, as the phrase runs among your stricter people. But he is a fine dashing liberal fellow; and has as good a heart as ever existed." "It is most infamous," exclaimed a lady, looking very red, "that because my friend Mrs. M. has three daughters come out, and has for the first time had a box at the Opera this winter, it should be said, that she has taken the box for the purpose of introducing her girls more easily to the notice of young men of fashion." "Pray," whispered a lady at my right hand to her neighbour, "has not this red-looking woman just taken for the first time a box at the How shocking was the profaneness of that sea-captain, whom we met yesterday at dinner." It is unquestionably disagreeable to be obliged to use such language. But it is necessary on shipboard, in order to ensure obedience; and the Captain cannot be expected to lose the habit when ashore." "So poor Major M. did not live an hour after he had received General B.'s ball. He died just as they had conveyed him home from Hyde Park." "How much it is to be lamented that he would fight!" "Why, was he one of those squeamish people who think duels wrong?" be He certainly thought duels wrong: for he has left a paper hind him unequivocally stating that conviction, and acknowledging every duellist to be a murderer by laws human and divine." "But he did not give the challenge; he received it. Surely that is a sufficient excuse! Was he to stand to be pointed at and spit upon? Your morose moralists may condemn him. But God is more merciful, and does not require impossibilities." "What do you think, Sir, of all this charity which we have been witnessing?" said I to a grave gentleman, who quitted the scene of discourse at the same time when I against testimony, and experience, charge on them the sophisms in and reason, and scripture.' favour of infidelity, which foolish or. Y. Z. perverse men may think deducible from such disclosures? Whether: other censures which I have seen. cast upon Dr. Heylin, may be merited either wholly or in part, I know not. But the article which you have inserted, however designed to discredit him, reflects honour, so far as it goes, on his feelings of the duties incumbent on an historian*. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. My attention has lately been recalled to an article in your number for July last. It is there said, p. 413, that " Echard, in his History of England, states some curious facts, with respect to Dr. Peter Heylin's History of the Reformation, with which," your correspondent sarcastically adds, "it may be useful for those who regard that writer as an oracle to be acquainted." SIR, P. Q. THOUGH I entirely and warmly aphas in view in her letter, published prove of the object which Narcissa in your number for May, 1805, yet I must say, that I was somewhat shocked at a young woman being faults of her aunt. so forward in talking about the When I see a female signature in your Miscellany, I expect to find practical truths arranged in that which gives such charms to the letgarb of tenderness and delicacy, ters and conversation of the softer sex. We all, Sir, have felt the value of these endearing qualities in a female monitor. How often have they bent the stubborn will, calmed the turbulence of passion, and attracted us to the ways of Now what are these averred facts? To the Editor of the Christian Observer. That King James the Second became a convert to popery, in consequence of reading Dr. Heylin's narrative of the wickedness of Henry the Eighth, the ambition of the Duke of Somerset, the policy of Queen Elizabeth, and the avarice of those who had seized the lands of the church: and that the Duchess of York declared, in a paper written not long before her death, that her conversion to popery was owing to her perusal of the same work. Is there any thing then in these facts, the complete accuracy of Echard's statement being assumed, which militates against the credit and character of Dr. Heylin? Is it contended, that he represents Henry, and Somerset, and Elizabeth, and the occupiers of church-lands, in colours more dark than belonged to them? Such an imputation appears Hot to be in the slightest degree implied. Washethen to falsify the truth of history, in order to cover the faults of the patrons of the reformation? Is he responsible for the absurd conclusions, which James and the Duchess of York might draw from a simple and faithful recital of those faults? If the Scriptures impartially record the sins even of the most excellent among men; if St. Paul avows that various preachers of a true gospel, preached Christ from motives of contention and malignity: do we blame the inspired writers? do we consist in' pointing out the wickedness of *Heylin's fault, we apprehend, does not Henry, the ambition of Somerset, the policy of Elizabeth, and the avarice which led to the seizure of the church-lands; but, in so constructing his view of the reformation, as that these objects should occupy a very disproportionate space, compared with others which are calculated to call forth our admiration and gratitude. A history of the primitive church, which should dwell chiefly on the contentions that prevailed in it, while it passed hastily and coldly over the piety, zeal, and love, by which it was peculiarly distinguished, might utter no untruth, but yet would be a partial and unfair history. EDITOR. |