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quent struggles between conviction and inclination, and who is aware how real and formidable a barrier is often presented to the reception of the Gospel, in its simplicity and purity, where the creations of fancy, the refinements of sentiment, and the dignity of intellect have been long and exclusively idolized.

A YOUNG INQUIRER.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. It appears that you have mistaken the late Sir James Stonhouse's views respecting a clergyman's obligation to read the Swearing Act on the days appointed for that purpose by the legislature; and your error perhaps may have arisen from an ambiguous expression in my letter to you on the subject, in your Number for May 1820. I trust therefore your usual candour will allow me to rectify your mistake, and to explain myself, if I have been the occasion of it. You have remarked (vol. xix. p. 860), that Sir James Stonhouse has furnished a mode of evading the law altogether;" and in your last Number (page 672), you have spoken of Sir James Stonhouse's celebrated receipt for evading the requisition in the case of the Act against profane Swearing." This representation the facts of the case will not justify. Allow me to say, that the worthy and reverend Baronet always shewed the greatest attachment to church and state, and to the regular ob servance of forms and order; and that he neither provided the receipt for the evasion of the law nor re commended it. He always required his curate to read an abridgment of the Act, and recommended me to do the same, agreeably to the advice given in his Hints to a Curate. This he considered sufficient in foro conscientia, and as complying with the spirit of the law. His telling me that I needed not fear the penalty of the law, as it was a mere nullity, was not to furnish me with a reason why I should

omit to read the Act, or even why an abridgment only of it should be read, but the mere incidental statement of a fact; though I readily admit, from the connexion in which the words stand, that you may naturally have understood them in the former sense. Sir James Stonhouse was very ready with interesting and appropriate anecdotes on almost all subjects and occasions. But from the anecdote related by him at the time referred to, and from the conclusion connected with it, that a clergyman is not liable to any penalty for omitting to read the Act in question, the inference was never drawn by me, nor ought to be by another, that Sir James gave a reason for the evasion of the law, or that he meant to approve of such evasion. In fact, be not only recommended but enjoined me to read the Act, or an abridgment of it, at every stated period. The latter mode he preferred, not be cause the penalty might be evaded, for that might equally be effected by a total omission, but because, in his judgment, it was sufficient to fulfil the spirit, and to answer every valuable end of the intention, of the Act.

The principal reason of my former communication to you on this subject was, to prevent clergymen from being illegally fined; as it had previously appeared in the public papers, that several had been obs liged to pay the penalty of five pounds, on the prosecution of some common and unprincipled informe ers. For surely no one can approve of a magistrate's levying a penalty under circumstances in which the law will not bear him out. Would it not, however, be a very unfair and illegitimate inference, to assert that the omission of reading the Act was approved or justified by me, merely because, through your valuable and extensively circulated work, I have made public (what does not appear previously to have been generally known) the clergyman's indemnity on the subject? Whe

ther, however, the Act against profane Swearing, in the whole or in part, be now generally read or not, I cannot positively determine; but as far as my observation or inqui ries for several years past, in four different dioceses, have enabled me to judge, I am induced to believe

that it is not.

It is a fact, sir, that according to the literal requisition of the law, a clergyman is under the obligation of reading between the 29th of Sep. tember and the 29th of December, in this year, the Marriage Act three times, the Act against profane Swear ing twice, and the King's Proclama tion against Vice and Profaneness twice. These seven readings in four teen Sundays, will occupy, if intelligibly and distinctly delivered, at least on an average seven half hours. What then is a clergyman to do? That he is to abridge or hurry over the service of the church, I suppose will not be admitted by any who entertain just sentiments respecting the worship of God. Is he then to lengthen the two hours' morning service by the addition of another half hour? Or is he to omit his sermon, or to shorten his usual discourse of half an hour or forty minutes, to twelve or fifteen minutes? Or is he to read the documents in question so rapidly as to shew a contempt for them, or to render them unintelligible? Or is he to be condemned if, according to Sir James Stonehouse's advice, he judges that he can fulfil the spirit of the law in foro conscientia, by abridging and delivering the substance of the acts free from the repetitions and technicalities of legal language? Or, finally, may he read these documents after the sermon, leaving it to the option of individuals in the congregation, whether or not they will remain to bear them ?In every point of view, a conscientious clergyman is surrounded with difficulties and embarrassments, and the attention of the people is abstracted from the essentials of religion, and the spiritual service of the Sabbath, to the

consideration of an Act of Parliament, which, however important in itself, is not calculated to afford any essential benefit by its recitation in a congregation assembled together for the worship of God. The gene rality of persons would undoubtedly obtain more information on the provisions of the new Marriage Act, by a viva voce conversation of five minutes with a clergyman, than they would be likely to procure by its recitation six times in the church. On the whole, therefore, I cannot doubt that your readers in general will approve of your views, Mr.Editor, and think it "very desirable that some of the members of our houses of parliament should exert vigilant attention, to prevent the introduction of clauses of this nature into the bills brought before the legislature."

I am, sir, your's &c.

Olney, Bucks.

G. H.

* We have readily admitted G. H.'s explanatory letter. Nothing certainly was further from our intention than to inculpate the late Sir James Stonhouse, whose "attachment to church and state,and to the regular observance of forms and order," we as cordially acknowledge as our correspondent. His life was truly exemplary, and his publications are highly useful. Our remarks related solely to his statement above referred to, and not to his intention in making it. His object, it appears, was simply to shelter a clergyman from the punitive consequences of not having literally complied with the statute; but the statement has been very widely construed so as to encourage a wilful and systematic violation of the law, in the expectation of impunity by means of a mere technical objection. With this inference we are at variance in all its parts; for first, even allowing, for the sake of argument, that a Christian is justified in wilfully and habitually violating a law not enjoining any thing sinful, still, if informed against, and found guilty, we doubt whether he

can conscienciously urge a mere quibble to escape the penalty to which he is justly liable, and to which he ought, we think, peaceably to submit. We further thought, and still think, that the inference is as unsound in law as it is exceptionable in casuistry. The statute is not, as G. H. supposes, a "mere nullity;" nor are clergymen mulcted under it "illegally fined;" for, with every deference to Sir J. Stonhouse as well as to our correspondent, we submit that the magistrates are authorized to receive the amount of the penalty, and to appropriate it in the same way as the other fines in the same Act are to be appropriated; and that, had they done so in the case mentioned by Dr. Stonhouse, they would without doubt have been indemnified by the higher judicial authorities. Indeed, in the present enlightened state of the magistracy, we question whether a bench of justices would be weak enough to be terrified by the demand for a receipt into a relinquishment of a legal fine, notwithstanding the solitary instance above referred to. A similar notion (which was the occasion of our alluding to the subject) has, it seems, been taken up in some quarters, respecting the provision for reading the Marriage Act; which, it has been alleged, may be evaded, because no particular penalty happens to be prescribed; and our object was merely to state, that both opinions are not only legally unsound, but, as we think, morally exceptionable. Still we strongly feel the inconveniences mentioned byG. H., and sincerely lament that acts should from time to time be passed, calculated, though unintentionally, to interfere with the spiritual character of Divine worship: we have, however, no hesitation in saying, that, if there be no other alternative, a clergyman had much better even omit his sermon than break the laws of his country. At the same time, we do not contend that there is no alternative; or that general desuetude, and the tacit con

sent of all parties, may not be a valid argument for omitting the reading of certain forms required by laws, which, in point of fact (like a long list of commercial enactments some time since repealed en masse), have become obsolete. The clergy may perhaps, and indeed must, be allowed to use some discretion on these subjects; as, for instance, in the case of certain of the canons which custom has superseded; and many of them may possibly feel satisfied in their conscience, that general desuetude, not to mention public inconvenience, forms as valid a reason for omitting to read the Swearing Act as for not using the "Bidding Prayer" before their sermons, as enjoined by canon 55, or not wearing "priests' cloaks in their journeys," or "cassocks in public," as commanded in canon 74. But let this be as it may, for the general position we contend, that Christians are bound to keep the laws, "not only for wrath but for conscience sake," and are not justified in the breach of them, in the mere hope of impunity by means of a legal quibble. And even in the case of requisitions as little expedient in the general estimation as those immediately in question, we bave known not a few pious and judicious clergymen, who have contended that the reading of the laws against profaneness, &c., is a great public benefit, and, if followed up by a short sermon on the subject, so as to enforce the enactments of a Christian legislature by the mandates of the King of kings," is " calculated to make a deep and salutary impression on a congregation. The general feeling of the clergy, as gathered from their practice, is certainly not thus favourable to the useful effect of these so frequently recurring provisions; and this being the case, would it not be advisable for them at once to petition Parliament, or for the bishops to bring in a bill to settle the question, rather than that their minds should continue thus painfully agitated by these moral and legal difficulties?

1822.]

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

The Life of the Rev. Thomas Scott, he received from one family arose

&c. &c.

(Concluded from p. 656.) WE come now to the period of Mr. Scott's acceptance of the living of Aston Sandford; an event which finally removed him from the tumult and bustle of London, to the retire ment of a country life.

On the death of Mr. Madan, who had alone borne the title of Chaplain at the Lock, Mr. De Coetlogon and Mr. Scott were appointed joint chaplains, instead of evening and morning preachers. Mr. Scott was, on some accounts, into which it is unnecessary to enter, dissatisfied with this arrangement: and the living of Aston Sandford, which was in the gift of a friend, being offered to him, he readily accepted it. About this period, it was resolved at the Lock that there should be only one chaplain: party-spirit seems, as usual, to have been busily at work on the occasion: to save

appearances, both the chaplains were consequently discharged, and on the 25th March, 1800, Mr. Scott was re-elected.

This new engagement, however, did not decide him for a continued residence in London. On the contrary, after due consideration, he determined to resign the situation as soon as it could be transferred into the hands of an approved suc

cessor.

We hear much of the vast opulence of the clergy; and some ra. dicals argue as if a gown were little else than a cloak to cover an enormous income. Mr. Scott certainly was not obnoxious to this charge: so straitened were his circumstances, after he was in possession of his living, that without the generosity of friends he must have been subjected to most serious and painful inconvenience. It deserves to be recorded, that the assistance which

from the kind attention which he had shewn to a poor person under heavy affliction: and he states the fact as a remarkable illustration of the text, He that hath pity on the poor, lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given, will he pay him again.

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"During the whole time," observes › Mr. Scott," that I was at the Lock, and indeed for some years before, the receipts from the chapel were small, compared with what they had formerly been; and, in this way, I was but unsuccessful in my attempts to serve the charity. But, if the vulgar proverb, A penny saved is a penny gained,' be founded in truth, I must take more credit to myself, in respect to the finances, than has been allowed me. Perhaps it would be found, if the case were fully investigated, that as many hundreds were saved annually, in the management of the institution, by those friends whose plans I supported, and aided by measures more appropriately my own, as fell short in the income from the chapel, at its lowest depression. This, at least, is certain, though but little known, that in the dearest times, when bread (the main article of provision in the hospital) was four times the price, and other articles of consumption double the price they had been, more patients were cured, and the charity had more resources, than in the golden days,' when the income of the chapel was three times as great.

"When I was appointed sole chap lain, doleful forebodings were expressed of the ruinous consequences which must follow: but, by a concurrence of circumstances, the single year that I continued in that situation was peculiarly productive both to the Hospital and the Asylum; and I left the united charities much richer at the end of the

term, than they were at its commence

ment.

"I would only add on this subject, that I can rejoice in the testimony of my conscience before God, that I uniformly did my best, often amidst many censures, and against much opposition,

to promote the secular interests of the charities, as far as was consistent with the great object of both them and the chapel-bringing sinners to repentance and salvation; and that I never suffered my own gratification, ease, interest, or credit, to warp me from that line of conduct which I deemed incumbent on me; and that, at least, I was enabled to defeat very many attempts, the success of which, it was afterwards allow ed, would have been highly detrimental,'» pp. 366, 367.

The village of Aston-Sandford, to which he removed in the spring of 1803, is one of the smallest in the kingdom. It consists of the parsonage, which Mr. Scott recently rebuilt, of two farm-houses and a few labourers' cottages; the population being about seventy persons, young and old; without alehouse, shop, or mechanic of any kind: a singular field of labour, it may be thought, for a man of his activity and powers! There was, however, some opportunity for usefulness; and the leisure which he possessed, by his exemption from parochial duties, was employed to valuable purposes.

In addition to his publications during this period, including the collection of his theological works in five volumes octavo, he bere commenced, and for seven years carried forward an undertaking of great importance and utility-the instruction of the persons preparing to go out as missionaries from the Church Missionary Society. This employ ment, in the year 1814, from the declining state of his health, and other causes, he was induced to give up.

"The persons who came under his instruction in this capacity were several of them Englishmen, who have since received ordination ; but the majority were Germans, in general Lutheran clergy, men. All of them went forth as missionaries into the heathen world, and most of them are now usefully employed in that character; though some have died in the service. The sentiments of grateful and affectionate veneration which they, without exception, conceived for their instructor, were publicly

testified by them, as they successively took leave of the society to repair to the stations assigned them; and were more privately expressed in the correspondence, which, as opportunity offered, they afterwards kept up with him.

their studies was highly creditable; in "The progress which they made in some instances remarkable. I remem, ber to have visited Aston, when four of them, who had come to my father with scarcely any knowledge of language beyond their mother tongue, were reading Cicero and Horace, the Greek tra gedians, the Hebrew prophets, and the koran (Arabic), all in the originals." PP. 374, 375.

We cannot but pause for one moment to notice the extraordinary energy of a man, who, at the age of more than threescore years, could begin learning Arabic and Susoo. It is an instance of resolution seldom to be paralleled; and especially when we bear in mind the high motives by which he was actuated: his object was not to acquire literary distinctions, but simply and solely to do good.

Concerning the general effect of bis ministerial labours at Aston, his biographer tells us

"Upon the whole, he found it a more encouraging situation than any other in which he had been placed since he quitted the curacy of Ravenstone. In bad weather indeed the state of the roads was such that a great number of his hearers were unable to reach the church; and, on various accounts, the congregation fluctuated from time to time, especially after the opening of a Baptist meeting in the neighbourhood, to which no small pains were taken to draw all persons who manifested any religious seriousness; and which was, in consequence, a source of considerable obstruction and uneasiness to him. Yet, in general, the church was well attended, and much good was done. Many careless and worldly persons, and not a few who had led even profligate lives, were 'converted from the error of their ways,' and 'brought forth fruits meet for repentance:' and a considerable body of evidently pious and well-instructed Christians was formed around him: though he had to lament, and did

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