showing the Excellencies, Temptations, Graces, and Duties of the Christian Husbandman. By Richard Steele, A. M. Fifth Edition. Edinburgh. Brown.

12mo. 3s. 6d. This is a new edition of a well-known and very excellent work, by one of the Nonconformist ministers. It is marked by the characteristic quaintness of the period, and carries the allegorizing principle too far; but there is an excellent spirit in the work, and a large portion of truly valuable practical instruction. It is an excellent vestry library book.

THE CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTOR; Containing a brief but comprehensive View of the Evidences, Doctrines, Duties, External Economy, and Prospects of the Christian Religion, in the Form of Question and Answer. By G. Croft. London. 12mo. 3s. 6d. We ought to have noticed this little volume before. It is fitted to be very useful to the higher forms of Sunday School scholars, and, in many respects, to the teachers themselves. The arrangement is, on the whole, good, and the answers generally both scriptural and distinct.

THE SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL: A Practical Exposition and Improvement of the Twenty-third Psalm. By J. Thornton, of Billericay. London. W. Baynes. 12mo. 1s. 6d.

PAGWICKE: or the Beginning of Hope. Edinburgh. Waugh and Innes. 12mo. 2s. 6d.

OTAHEITE: or a Narrative of the Progress of the Gospel in the South Sea Islands. Edinburgh. Waugh and Innes.

18mo. 1s.

THE SHIPWRECK of the Apostle Paul. London. Hamilton. 18mo. 4d.

FORCIBLE REASONS for receiving the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures; compiled for the Use of Young Persons.

London. Hatchard. 18mo.

All these small but useful publications we recommend to the notice of our young friends, or of those who distribute books among the young. All our excellent friend Thornton's publications are worthy of his sound practical judgment. The Shepherd of Israel will be found not unworthy of the character which he has long and honourably sustained. It, we should remark, is adapted to instruct the old, as well as to please the young.

DISCOURSES ON A FUTURE EXISTENCE, tending to establish the Doctrine of a Recognition of each other.

By the late Rev. R. Sheppherd, D.D. Archdeacon of Bedford. Weston. 8vo. -The doctrine contended for in these discourses we believe to be in strict accordance with Scripture, as it will ever be dear to the best feelings of the human heart. It is treated in a superior manner by the deceased author, whose son has re-published the discourses, "with the hope and intention of affording consolation to those drooping under affliction's heaviest bolt." We trust they may, in some measure, answer this purpose,

A BRIEF DESCRIPTIVE HISTORY OF HOLLAND, in Letters from Grandfather to Marianne, during an Excursion in the Summer of 1819. 12mo. 2s. 6d. Wightman and Cramp.-Without any pretensions to research, the author of this little volume has presented his young readers with much novel and useful information respecting the customs and country of our Dutch neighbours, which will doubtless tend to endear our beautiful country and its untold privileges to every reflecting mind. We can cordially recommend it as containing information enough to have made, in the hands of a professed author of travels, a handsome octavo.

PASTORAL BEREAVEMENT Improved: A Funeral Oration, delivered at the Interment of the late Rev. Peter Samuel Charrier, at High Street Chapel, Lancaster, April 3, 1826, by W. M. Walker ; and a Funeral Sermon, preached, on the following Lord's Day, to the bereaved Church and Congregation, in Bethesda Chapel, Liverpool, by W. Roby. London. Westley and Davies.-The sudden and unexpected death of Mr. Charrier we noticed in our April number. We are glad to see the present memorials of so excellent and useful a man. We recommend them very cordially; but, as they contain no account of the deceased, we hope some of our friends will furnish us with a biographical article, when these respectable testimonies to his worth will be appropriately introduced.

APOCRYPHAL CONTROVERSY. STATEMENTS OF DISSENTIENT MEMBERS of the Committee of the Edinburgh Bible Society, in reference to its Separation from the British and Foreign Bible Society, and Publication of its Second Statement. Edinburgh. Brown. 8vo. LETTERS IN DEFENCE OF THE BRI

addressed to a Friend in the Country. Letter First, on the Fundamental Law of the Society. Letter Second. Edinburgh. Wilson. 8vo.

Two LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE REV. G. C. GORHAM, on some points of his Statement on the Apocryphal Books, and on some of the alleged Doctrines of the Romish Church. By Leander Van Ess, D.D. With a REPLY, by George Cornelius Gorham, B.A. London. Seeley. 8vo.

The last Annual Meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society has, we trust, set the Apocryphal question in the Bible Society for ever to rest. The exclusion of the Apocrypha is now declared to be the law of the Society, and the determination of its Committee. We hear of none who are dissatisfied, but the authors and defenders of the Second Edinburgh Statement, who have issued, but not published, a Third Statement. The controversy is not likely to terminate in Sotland soon; but

we have little doubt as to its final issue. At present we merely give the titles of the pamphlets which have appeared since our last article was published, reserving to ourselves the power of adverting to the subject again, should it be necessary. In the mean time, however, we recommend to our readers the able pamphlet by Mr. Gorham, in which some most important discussion will be found on certain points, between the Romanists and Protestants, which this controversy has brought into view.

We understand that the Letters in Defence of the British and Foreign Bible Society have been attributed to the writer of the article on the Apocryphal controversy which appeared in our April number. Without expressing, at present, any opinion on those letters, we beg to correct this mistake. The author of those letters is entirely unknown to us, and has no connection with the conducting of our work.

PROTESTANT SOCIETY FOR THE PRO

TECTION OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. THE Fifteenth Anniversary of this important Society was held on Saturday, May 13, at the City of London Tavern. The great room was filled to excess, at an carly hour, by a most respectable assemblage of ministers and gentlemen, many of whom came expressly from different parts of the country. Some noblemen and gen, tlemen attended from France and Germany, North and South America, and other distant countries, as well Catholic as Protestant, with some liberal clergymen of the Established Church, who, though of different nations, and different religious sentiments, were anxious to evince their general love of religious freedom,

About cleven o'clock ROBERT STEVEN, Esq., the Treasurer, took the chair. He stated the object for which they were assembled; congratulated the Meeting on the exalted individual, the Marquis of Lansdowne, who had promised to preside, and whose arrival he hoped would soon be announced; and concluded by requesting T. Pellatt, Esq., one of their Secretaries, to read the Minutes of the Committee during the past year.

Mr. PELLATT commenced such Report of their proceedings, when, in a few minutes, the Marquis of Lansdowne entered the room, accompanied by Lord Dacre.

The appearance of their Lordships, and of John Wilks, Esq., the other Secretary to the Society, was greeted with loud and continued cheering.

Dr. BROWN Soon proposed that the remaining portion of the Minutes should be omitted, and that Mr. Wilks should be requested to begin his usual address.

Mr. JOHN WILKS then rose, and was received by the meeting with enthusiastic cheering, which continued for a considerable time. The greetings having at length subsided, he commenced an address that continued for more than three hours, and which was remarkable for its eloquence and force. There was no suspension of interest and pleasure, and the frequent plaudits of the assembly evinced the vast gratification received. Our limits will not permit us to introduce the whole of the admirable speech. An accurate outline may be given; the expression, colouring, and effect it would be vain to attempt. When applause was hushed, he said, "I feel on this occasion unusually opprest. I resemble a being long absent, but returning to his native vale. To the heart its scenes were ever sacred. had navigated the calm lake and tempestbeaten sea; he had abode amid the glaciers of Chamouny, and toiled to the summit of Mont Blanc; but everywhere and ever, whether at moonlight he trod the Roman Forum, or sighed at sunset amid

He

the ruins of some Grecian temple, that native valley was present to his mind. Amid her sylvan charms, painted by imagination, with a vivid pencil, two venerable trees, beneath which he had reclined conversed, and thought, were ever prominent and dear. Half way up the hill there grew the majestic and wide. spreading beach; and in the centre of the green stood the giant oak, under whose antique arms the aged had grown grey, and the boy had been blessed. On his return, the blue sky unveiled her loveliness; gladdening was the splendour of the summer sun; the noble were not absent; there were a thousand flowers and shrubs, fair, blooming, and fragrant, as the multitude that now surround me; but as he gazed, he paused and trembled he knew not the scene. The spoiler had been there. No longer flourished the beechtree or the oak; the beech had been uprooted by tempest-the old oak was broken and dishonoured in the dust. So I return. Those whom we have been accustomed to behold, who were our ornament and pride, are seen no more! Here often had been present Townsend, silvery, though majestic as the beech. He, whose words were eloquence and grace! he had been uprooted! Here too appeared our venerable. Bogue !-he who ever stood unbending as the oak! whose roots stuck deeper, and whose branches were extended, as the storm assailed! On this spot he stood before us;-still I seem to view him with his noble high-arched brow, his hoary locks, and manly form, pouring forth his intellectual treasures, and breathing the aspirations of a heart devoted to liberty and truth. He too is broken, and in the dust, though not dishonoured. "Well then may

feel op

prest!--We do not sufficiently estimate the living, and too soon forget the dead. Great were the Christian virtues of the philanthropic Townsend, and long shall his memory be dear! And never by us. shall Bogue be unrevered!-he appeared to form the link connecting the present generation with our revered forefathersthe Puritans and Nonconformists, whose history he wrote. Immortal men! to whom the Reformation owed its establishment, and even their proud contemners owe the palaces in which they dwell, and all the best blessings of our land! How do I now wish that on my memory, as on my heart, was inscribed every word he uttered, and every sentiment he taught; and that I could tell to others how he proved the inseparable connection between civil and religious liberty and how he told us that there could neither be true piety nor national greatness where freedom was unknown! But though opprest, we dare not to despair rather, like the wildest tribes

and noblest spirits, we will often visit the tombs of the departed, and there renew Our VOW never to desert the cause they cherished, but transmit to future ages the sacred flame of freedom unextinguished and unlessened, beaming more widely and more bright!

On these occasions I have been accustomed to refer to cases mentioned at a previous meeting, but then undecided: but I will now advert only to one case, which last year made a deep impression on the assembly and on all Protestant Dissenters. It was a refusal to celebrate the marriage ceremony between David Davids and Mary Jenkins at the parish of Llangain in Wales. There the clergyman, instead of being the father in the family of his parishioners, sympathising in their sorrows, and joying in their joys, and willingly uniting in holy matrimony, beings whom love had made one in heart, had acted as the evil sprites who delight in clouding pleasure and withering the plants of hope. Stern and persecuting, he had refused to perform the service of the church, unless the female would forego her faith, and would consent to be introduced into what he called the Christian Church, by the baptismal right to be administered by him. In her, principle triumphed over desire; and the virtue of a Christian over the beatings of a maiden heart; amid a multitude of friends who had come to bring their greetings and their presents, she refused to sacrifice her conscience to the harsh demand; her friends retired, sad and disappointed, yet glorying in her firmness to her faith. The mother to whom a daughter's wedding-day brings such pleasant recollections and such bliss, was first to smile amid her tears, and to approve the vestal spirit that declined compliance with a requisition that the law did not allow and humanity condemned. I will not detail the circumstances, but only remind you that the hoary father of the young woman, with the independence which honours the mountaineer and ancient Briton, ventured to express, in no measured tones, his disappointment and disgust. For that conduct the clergyman prosecuted him in the Bishop's Court at Carmarthen, for brawling on the occasion. The Committee pledged themselves to have this clergyman taught his duty by law, and that the shield of this Society should be spread over the peasant's head. The whole year has passed without a decision in either of these cases. And what can better prove the need of such an institution, than the present case. The clergyman violates the law. To intimidate the persons he has wronged, he institutes proceedings against them in a local ecclesiastical court, having a clergyman for its judge. The result of such proceedings, before such a tribunal, insti

tuted for such an object, and by such a complainant, who can doubt? The Society have therefore removed the suit into the Arches Court of Canterbury, in this metropolis, where an enlightened judge will preside, and justice will result. But for the Society, however this poor man, who though strong in right, is weak in fortune, would not only have no redress, but would be humbled or undone by the very wrongdoer of whose wrong doing he complains. In such cases the importance of the Society seems most manifest; it opposes a mound to the torrent of oppression; it stoops to sustain the feeble in a righteous cause; while it bends not to the lofty, it assures the humble of defence, and forbids presumption to the proud. Happy am I to state that the law's delay, and the oppressor's wrong have not, however, prevented the union of these peasant lovers, and I doubt not but they remember the Society in their morning orisons and evening prayer.

The

On the subject of the exemption of Dissenters from Sunday tolls, some applications have been received. At Harniston, near Lincoln, a toll was demanded at Lincoln bar, from the wife of Mr. Thorold, a Wesleyan Methodist, as she passed alone to the Methodist chapel, which was "her usual place of religious worship." advice of the Society was requested whether she was liable, or could not also claim the same exemption which to her husband would not have been denied. In that case the Committee displayed true Christian gallantry. They regard their female friends with true respect, and were gladly upholders of their rights, and they desire that they should also worship God as their consciences approve, and that no obstructions should oppose their inclinations but such as reason, religion, and pure affections may create. They replied with pleasure, that the same exemption which the husband might have claimed in passing to his place of worship, his wife also in passing to the place which she preferred, might equally enjoy. From Mr. Leonard, of Bristol, and the Rev. Mr. Roberts, of Holywell, in Flintshire, letters have also been received. In the former case, no relief could be awarded, but in the latter case, I believe the letters addressed by this Society will ensure redress. The introduction of the decisive clause of exemption into the General Turnpike Act, whereby the rights of Dissenters have been protected, and which after many efforts this Society obtained, has insured for Dissenters a liberation from a burthen which many individuals greatly felt, and which extorted from many country congregations a very large amount.

On the question of Poor Rates, I also find less disposition to trouble and oppress. From Bristol, from Buckfastleigh, and

from Purton, in Wiltshire, applications have been made as to the rating of chapels, and advice and relief have been bestowed. The Rev. Mr. Chappel, of Yaxley, in Huntingdonshire, wrote to the Society to state, that a chapel lately erected at Stilton had been rated to the poor's, rate. His application for assistance and advice arrived too late, as a session had intervened, and the law forbade them to appeal. In all such cases, I repeat, that no redress can be obtained against assessments illegal in nature or excessive in amount, but by appeal; and the appeal must be made to the next Quarter Session after the allowance of a rate; for if a Session be allowed to intervene, no objections, however just or numerous, avail, and redress against such rate cannot be obtained.

At North Crawley, in Buckinghamshire, a notice of appeal has been given against a rate by some individual, and the nonassessment of the dissenting meeting-housewas among the objections he alleged. The Rev. Mr. Bull, of Newport Pagnell, well known, and well respected wherever he is known, wrote upon the subject; notice was given that we would protect the congregation. That very notice was sufficient; we were soon apprized that such objectionwould be waived, and "nominis umbra," by the very shadow of our name, we were relieved from all trouble and expense. At Chertsey, in Surrey, also, rates were demanded, but the interposition of the Society procured the abandonment of the demand, and we were encouraged by success. On this subject I renew my statements, that unless a profit forming a beneficial occupation arises to the minister or trustees, after the payment of all requisite expense, from any place of religious worship, no charge for poor's rates can legally be made, and if made, cannot be sustained. In all such cases, where chapels have been improperly assessed to the rates, the parties should watch the making of the rate, should attend the vestry, and object, and if that effort should not avail, but the rate be made, then they should demand a copy of the entry, being the assessment of the chapel, give regular notice of appeal to the very next Sessions; that notice must announce all grounds of objection to the rate; and when the Session arrives, unless great prejudice be entertained, and church influence prevail, the assessment will be disallowed, and a good triumph may be

won.

On the subject of rates for building new churches, several applications have been made; nor do they excite surprise. As Dissenters, we do not complain that we have to erect and to repair the edifices, whether perfect or humble, which we dedicate to religious adoration. We do not complain that we have to support the ministers we prefer, and who amply repay