1. The experience of three years has demonstrated the mischievous tendency of Sunday-drilling. The evidence which has been already adduced, places this point beyond the reach of doubt, and renders it a most imperious duty to oppose by every lawful means the farther continuance of so great an evil. Every man who is possessed of any influence, whether immediate or remote, with any member of the legislature is bound, as we conceive, to employ it in procuring an interdiction of the practice. 2. The practice of Sunday-drilling is a direct breach of the divine command; an awful departure from the principles of our established religion. On this particular, though the most important of all, it seems unnecessary to enlarge. The proposition will scarcely be disputed. And the consequence of a wilful and deliberate contempt of the divine authority is sufficiently obvi ous. 3. The practice in question stands directly opposed to the spirit, and even to the letter of the laws which have for their object" the better observance of the Lord's day;" and must render abortive all the Laudable attempts which have been made by the Society for the suppression of Vice, and by others, to enforce those laws. 4. The due observance of the Sabbath is one of the principal barriers against the inroads of irreligion and licentiousness*. Gisborne, A. M." printed for Cadell and Davies. We quote these in preference to others which we have seen, because, bearing the authentication of so respectable a name, they will carry with them greater weight than if they were produced on the authority of an anonymous journalIst. Mr. Gisborne's pamphlet is every way "worthy of the consideration not only of our readers, but of the public at large, and particularly of the members of the legisla ture. Mr. Cooper's pamphlet on Sundaydrilling, reviewed by us in 1803, has been published with a new preface. We can only add to the favourable account which we then gave of it, that its value and importance are in no small degree enhanced by the circumstances which have led to the present discussion. "Destroy the Sabbath," observes Mr. Gisborne in the tract already mentioned, "and you destroy religion. Destroy religion and you destroy morals, property, ranks, parliaments, and thrones. In combating the tremendous power upraised by the revolutions of France, will you enter the track by which revolutionary France bas advanced through anarchy to slavery? If this be broken down, these evils will not fail to extend themselves. But it is farther to be considered, that the effects of the system which we are opposing, though they will to a certain degree be immediately visible, will not wholly untold themselves at once, but be gradually progressive through a long course of years. We have therefore before us a most alarming prospect of the moral evils which will be felt not only in this, but in future generations, should the systematic violation of the Sabbath be sanctioned by law, or even permitted, in one of our most important national institutions. Be Various other evils might be pointed out as likely to arise from this practice; such as the disgust and dissatisfaction which it must occasion in the minds of many; the discord which it will tend to produce at a moment when union is par ticularly to be desired, &c. :-but we must bring this long discussion to a close. fore we do so however, it may be proper just to notice the only argument by, which we have heard any one attempt to justify the continuance of Sunday-drilling. The plea of necessity is now no longer resorted to: and if it were, it would be too absurd to merit any notice. While 26 days in the year are deemed sufficient for the purpose of training both the volunteers and the compulsory levy, it would be utterly ridiculous to plead necessity in extenuation of Sunday-drilling. The plea of economy has likewise been abandoned. The men are to be paid for drilling on Sundays. The only reason that has been given for continuing the practice is, that the men, by drilling on Sundays, will be a shilling richer Surely this is not a reason which can be tothan they otherwise would have been. lerated for a moment. Men are to be induced by the motive of gain to violate the Sabbath; although the whole current of our legislative acts on this subject have hitherto been directed to counteract this motive. If such an argument as this shall induce parliament to sanction Sundaydrilling, may it not be fairly extended by ployment? If the gain of a shilling a day individuals to every case of profitable emwill justify a man in attending drill on a Sunday; how much stronger will be the justification of every mechanic in the king'dom, to say nothing of farmers and tradesthen, and of every vender of spiritous li To abrogate the Sabbath, was one of the first steps in her progress. Imitate her conduct, and you approach ber calamities." quors, who shall employ that day in the ordinary occupatios of his trade? The consequences to which such an argument leads are monstrous in the extreme; and we trust that hey will be averted by the timely interference, by all legal means, of every individual, in parliament or out of parliament, who feels for the best interests of his country, and of posterity; for the outraged claims of decency and morality; and for the insulted honour of the divine law. PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS. We have already adverted to the new military system proposed by Mr. Windham. With respect to the regular army, he proposed as his first object to make the situation of a soldier estimable and desirable, by enlisting him only for a limited time, say seven years; at the end of which he might retire with the privileges now given to militia men. In case of his re-enlisting for a second term of seven years, his pay should be increased by sixpence a week, and if he retired, it should be with a pension. In case, however, of his serving for a third term of seven years, a shilling a week should be added to his pay, and at the expiration of the term he might go off with an allowance from Chelsea of at least ninepence or a shilling a day. He also proposed an increase of allowance to officers' widows. With respect to the existing army he meant to make no other change than to increase the pay and the Che'sea allowance, according to the length of their service. As to the militia, it was his intention to abolish the ballot, and to keep its number at 40,000 men, by means of a small bounty. The volunteer corps he proposed should be put on the allowance of August, 1803, instead of that of June. This we understand to be, that pay for twentysix days drill only is henceforth to be allowed them. The pay for permanent duty and for drill serjeants, and the marching guineas, are also to be discontinued; all which will be a saying of near £900,000. He further proposed that in future, no regular officer, above the rank of a lieutenant, should hereafter be commanded by a volunteer officer, whatever his rank might be. As a substitute for the volunteers who might withdraw, and as in itself a more efficient means of defence, he proposed to train the mass of the population to arms, and particularly to firing rapidly and accurately; a sixth part in its turn for 26 days in a year. If this were done, the ranks of the regular army might always be recruited with ease, while we should have a large body of irreguJar troops to harass the enemy. Such are the outlines of Mr. Windham's plan. We do not mean to enter particularly into the details of it; but we cannot help entertaining a serious doubt as to the policy of allowing the soldiers of the regular army a right to claim their discharge during the coutinuance of a war. It likewise appears to us, that the proposed measures of defence are inadequate to the present emergency. We should be calling forth the whole strength of the country, and putting it into a state of efficiency. Instead of that, the volunteers by being in some measure degraded, will probably be greatly reduced in number, while the substitution which is projected must for a considerable time be wholly unavailing. Lord Henry Petty opened his budget in a very masterly manner on the 28th Feb. The unredeemed debt on the 1st of Feb. 1806, was £517,280,000, and the redeemed, £123,436,000. The unfunded debt amounted to 23 millions. The permanent taxes were 32 millions and a half. The charge for England this year was £43,630,000. and for Ireland, £5,297,000. The ways and means for England were, Malt and personal Estates.........2,750,000 Grants for captures... Lottery...... ...1,000,000 ..320,000 Surplus consolidated fund..... ...3,500,000 War taxes.......... .18,000,000 Loan.... 18,000,000 £43,630,000 British subjects, for the supply of the colonies of foreign nations, or of those conquered by his Majesty's arms during the present war, which, we trust, will pass into a law. Lord Howick (Mr. Grey) has moved an increase of pay to the officers and seamen of the royal navy. The bill for making provision for stipendiary curates, has been rejected by the House of Commons. From some expressions which fell from Mr. Fox in the House, we are disposed to think that the interchange of dispatches between this country and France which has been so frequent of late, refers only to the exchange of prisoners. NAVAL INTELLIGENCE. IN consequence of the embargo laid on all Prussian vessels, great numbers have been detained in port, and many more have been brought in by our cruizers. The blockade of the rivers Ems, Weser, Elbe, and Trave has been official y notified; and vessels belonging to persons residing in these rivers are ordered to be detained. Two French squadrons have appeared on the coast of Africa, by one of which the Favourite sloop of war, and several slave ships, have been captured. On the 4th of February, an American ship fell in, in lat. 15. 22. S. long. 13. 25. W. with a French squadron of seven sail of the line and one frigate; one of them com. manded by Jerome Bonaparte. The offi cers stated that they sailed from Brest on the 14th of December, consisting then of eighteen sail of the line. Five of them have since been accounted for by Admiral Duckworth. It is reported that four more had found their way to La Guira Bay, in the island of Cuba, and that Admiral Duckworth had sailed from Jamaica in quest of them. OBITUARY. On the 8th Inst. RICHARD PATCH was executed at the new Gao!, Horsemonger Lane, having been found guilty of the murder of Mr. Isaac Blight. The circumstances of unprecedented atrocity which attended the perpetration of this murder are too notorious to require from us any specification of them. We doubt not, however, that it will be a satisfaction to our readers to receive some more authentic account of the last hours of this unfortunate man, than has yet been submitted to the public. This we are enabled to do by means of the following communication, with which the Rev. Mr. Mann, the Clergyman who attended him, has obligingly favoured us. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THE general interest which has been exeited in the public mind by the execution of the unfortunate Patch; the very incorrect and erroneous accounts which I have seen in the newspapers, respecting the temper and conduct which he is said to have manifested in his last moments; the numerous and very pressing applications which have been made to me for information on these particulars; the satisfaction which a circumstantial and official statement of the whole transaction, as far as it came under my immediate observation, may afford many persons both in the metropolis and in various other parts of the kingdom, and, above all, the hope that some abler pen than mine will improve the subject, have induced me to alter a resolution which I had originally formed, and to offer for your insertion the following brief narrative of facts. I had only two private interviews with him antecedent to his trial; for these I was indebted to the adjournment of the Court from Kingston to the County Gaol. It is very seldom that a criminal can bevisited with any good effect, till his fate is deter. mined. It is not to be expected that he will make any confessions. His mind, if not dissipated and hardened, which is too frequently the case, is so occupied in preparing means of defence, and so deceived by the hopes of escaping justice, that he is little disposed to listen to the admonitions of a spiritual friend. I believe this to have been the case with Patch. The circumstance which I have just mentioned afforded me, however, an opportunity, which I did not neglect, of conversing with him after the bill had been found against him, and before his trial; and it is but just to say that, whatever might have been the previous state of his mind, to me there never appeared in him any thing bordering on levity. He not only behaved with civility and propriety, but seemed thankful for my visit, and desirous that it should be repeated. I place the greater stress upon this, because in my public sermons and exhortations, at which he was always present, I had spoken so plainly and pointedly, that it was impossible for him not to perceive that I was addressing myself immediately and directly to him; measure in the adoption of which I thought myself fully justified, and which some experience had taught me to prefer to any other. I observed as little ceremony in my private conversations with him as I had done in my public discourses. In order, however, that I might not defeat my own purpose, and to render my visit as acceptable as would consist with the fidelity and responsibility of my character and office, I first told him that I did not mean, directly, or indirectly, to extort from him any confession of his guilt; but that, regarding him in his present situation as a person apprehended by the justice of his country, and under the strongest circumstances of suspiciou, it was my duty to inform him of the general opinion, that he was guilty-and that he would suffer. I repeated this on my second visit ; and on both occasions made it the ground of a serious exhortation to prepare for an event, which it was almost universally believed would happen, and " which," I added, "it is my own firm persuasion, will take place." He appeared very little affected by this declaration; at the same time I could plainly perceive that he had lost that confidence of his acquittal, which he was said to have previously possessed. With the loss of this confidence, I should have been happy to have seen a proper concern for the awful consequences, as connected with his own eternal happiness or misery. It was subsequent to his trial, that the change in his mind became visible. And it is in this, more than any other particular, that I feel myself impelled to do justice even to a wretched criminal; by contradicting what I have seen propagated, and what I believe to have been the too general opinion :-that he was obstinate and sullen ;—that he discovered no symptoms of penitence ;-that, on the morning of his execution, he exclaimed, "Is there no mercy for an innocent man? &c."-No such disposition appeared in him; no such words were ever uttered by him. If, prior to his conviction, I had observed an indifference approaching to insensibility, now his heart seemed broken within him. While I was with him, he wept almost incessantly; listened with the most serious attention to every thing I said; lamented, in general terms, the sins and crimes of his former life; joined in prayer with apparent great devotion; and several times was on the point of fainting away through distress of mind. To all this I have to oppose what must appear a very great inconsistency. By noentreaties could I prevail on him to confees the particular crime for which he was to suffer; by no arguments could I convince him that such confession, being the only restitution, or satisfaction, in his power to make, was a duty which he owed to the family whom he had injured, to the jury who had found him guilty, and to the surrounding world. He would reply, "I have confessed all my sins to God; he knew them all before I confessed them; but I have laid them all before him; I have concealed nothing. I forgive all my enemies, and all my prosecutors; and I hope that God, for Christ's sake will forgive me." This was the language he invariably used, when urged to that particular confession which would have been so satisfactory to me and to the public at large. I repeated my arguments, and multiplied others in abundauce, after the performance of the last service in the chapel; but with the same effect. He was evidently overwhelmed with distress on my renewing the subject; and it grieved me much to be, as I conceived, under the painful necessity of disturbing and embittering his few remaining moments. He was then pi nioned, and in his last hour. He pressed my hand between both his, calling me his dear and best friend, and expressing himself in the tenderest and most affectionate terms respecting my attentions to him. He thanked me both for my public services in the chapel, and for my private discourses and prayers with him; and blessed God that he had ever known me, and that he had been brought to that prison. "Since you have been with me this morning," said he, "I have been happier than I ever was in my whole life-I am willing to sufferI am ready to go-The Lord have mercy on my soul, for Jesus Christ's sake." How far, or whether at all, these appearances are to be considered as the signs of a real and gracious repentance, is beyond any judgment of mine to determine. I only state facts. I am accustomed to such scenes. I draw no conclusions from them*. It is proper to mention that, in all my intercourse with him, I spoke to him as a person respecting whose guilt I did not entertain the smallest doubt; nor did he, in * The penitent thief confessed his guilt and the justice of his condemnation. "We indeed" suffer "justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds."-" And Joshua said unto Acham, my son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him, and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me." EDITOR, any form whatever, deny the fact; any confession; were we acquainted with them, though they could not have been such as would justify his conduct, they would lessen our surprise. Exclusive of this one inconsistency, which I allow to be very essential, I should have been disposed to say of Patch, that he was one of the most penitent criminals I ever attended. I shall be glad if this short, but faithful, account shall draw from your correspondents some remarks, which may be both generally profitable to others, and particularly useful to myself, in the future discharge of a painful but important duty. St. Savior's, April 21, 1806. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. W. MANN. IF AN ENQUIRER will peruse with care the pages of the Christian Observer, he will easily discover what are the different opinions which have been held on the doctrine of justification. TWX; S. T.; AN ANTISFCULAR PHILOSOPHER; and F will be inserted. C. W.; R. S. T.; D. B.; MINIMUS; JACOBUS; KjurTwv;' and H. T. are under con sideration. AMICUS; A GENTILE; EVANDER; and THEOPHILUS are received. We agree with a CHURCHMAN that the Church of England can with no propriety be called Arminian: but surely it does not follow as a corollary from this, that she is Calvinistic. We make no doubt that C. O. T. is correct in his statement. But we have no recollection whatever of the paper to which he alludes; nor should we now know where to lay our hands on it. We shall be glad to receive the paper alluded to by R. H. S. Mr. Justice Harding's Speech has never, as far as we can recollect, been sent to us. Dr. H. must have seen that our review is a select one, a circumstance which would of itself sufficiently account for the omission of any particular work. Besides this we had already expressed our opinion respecting the points in dispute. As for the pamphlet which he supposes may have operated to his prejudice, we assure him that it never made the slightest impression on our minds. We regret that ANILES should have any cause to complain of our inattention. We certainly received his Epitaph. We have been desired to state that the Second Annual Meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society will be held at the New London Tavern, in Cheapside, on Wednesday, the 7th of May next, at 11 o'clock. POSTSCRIPT. The last accounts from the Continent strengthen the apprehensions that have been entertained of a renewal of the war. The French armies are accumulating in Germany, and in consequence of what has occurred in Dalmatia, it is declared that Braunau has been reoccupied, and that the Austrian prisoners or their marth home have been stopped. The greatest exertions are making at the same time to recruit the Austrian armies. The Russians are said to be advancing. |