Jan. 1.

*****HILE the term Jacobin is, perhaps, too indifcriminately applied to every opponent of Adminiftration, it is much to be feared that the plots and defigns of the real Jacobins are too little attended to. If history is confulted, it will be found that moft of the violent revolutions in modern times have begun with the Eftablifhed Church; fo it was in the reign of our unfortunate Charles I.; fo it was in the beginning of the French Revolution; and I have not a fingle doubt upon my mind, but that the prefent unprecedented and cruel perfecution of the Eftablished Clergy may be traced to the fame diabolical motive; a perfecution in which, under the colour of fuits for non-refidence, clergymen, exemplary in their attention to their parishes, and to the difcharge of their duty in every refpect, in many of the cafes actually refident, have been treated as criminals, and been almoft ruined by the very fevere penalties exacted from them.

Perhaps our rulers in Church and State are yet to be informed, that thefe perfecutions are carried on by the very fame infamous junto of Jacobins and Atheists, who were fome time ago expelled from a cel

1801.

lar notorious for fedition in the vi cinity of one of the inns of court. Perhaps they are yet to be inform ed, that circular letters have been fent round to all the principal Dif fenters, and all who are deemed difaffected to the Conftitution, foliciting fubfcriptions to aid them in the glorious caufe of rooting out the Eftablished Clergy. Thefe are facts, Sir, however, which can be proved, and the letters themfelves can be produced in evidence,

With refpect to the bufinefs of refidence itfelf, allow me to fay, Sir, that it is groffly mistaken. The act on which thefe perfecutions are founded was a Popish act, and has no reference whatever to the prefent conftitution of the Church. It was made profeffedly to prevent the revenues of the Church being pent at Rome; while the churches were left without any refident minifter, to be cafually fupplied by preaching friars.. It can have no reference to a church where every parifh muft have a refident minifter duly li cenfed by the bishop; and in that cafe I beg, Sir, to know whether it is of any importance whether this minifter be called rector, vicar, or curate, except that, in nine cafes out of ten, the latter is the more acceptable man? But, Sir, I must go farther; I affirm that it is phyfically impoffible that every in

Walton, near Liverpool.

J HOLT. cumbent

cumbent fhould be refident according to the terms of the act of Henry VIII. I will even add, that, out of ten thousand, I do not believe there are two hundred non-refidents without good and fufficient caufe. Look at the late profecutions, and fee if there has been above one real delinquent. The Clergy who are abfent are either laborioufly enga ged elsewhere in the difcharge of their functions, or, in what is not lefs meritorious, in the care of public feminaries of education; or they are, fo on account of age and infirmities. In fhort, Sir, the act as it now ftands is an act for the oppreffion of the fuperior, and for the Starvation of the inferior Clergy; for the ruin of a moft meritorious body of men, from whom only a fucceffion of worthy paftors can be kept up, the ftipendary

curates.

But, granting the evil of non-re

fidence actually to exist, who ought to be the proper judges of the offence, the parishioners themfelves, or an infamous qui tam informer? I affirm, Sir, that no man has á right to intrude himself between a clergyman and his parishioners. If the majority of a veftry deterinine that the non-refidence of an incumbent is an evil or an abufe, let him be profecuted-with all my heart; but no other man has a right to judge for a whole congregation; it is an ufurpation on the one hand, and a tyranny on the other.

It is aftonishing, fuppofing our rulers in Church and State infenfible to the dangers of the Church, that the Clergy do not meet and claim for themselves the protection of the Legislature. The act in queftion ought no more to difgrace our Statute-books than that which makes it felony without benefit of clergy to be feen one month in company with gypfies. The Clergy, if they would exert themfelves, would not be deftitute of friends. It is even more the intereft of the lay patrons than theirs; for, if things continue in the prefent ftate,

an advowson is not worth one farthing.

I have heard, Sir, of remedies in agitation which favour much of quackery. I hope the refpectable heads of our Church will beware of INNOVATION, a name ever fatal to an establishment. If they begin, they will find architects of ruin who will readily lend a helping band. The late curates' act, I affirm, provides amply for every neceflity of the Church. Let them, therefore, if they value its exift ence, not join in the oppreffion of the Clergy, but confine themselves to the fimple repeal.

A TRUE CHURCHMAN.

Mr. URBAN, Clofe of Sarum,

New Year's-day.

Now, now tis time to banith care;
But not too costly feafts,
With thankful hearts prepare:"

Creech's Horace, Book I. Ode 37.

PERMIT me, by your means, to

congratulate our numerous friends upon the return of this happy, this aufpicious feafon. Welcome: Christmas thou ever hallowed feftival, thou fource of delight to every fincere Chriftian, to every free-born Briton! The dark gloom of winter brightens at thy approach; fimoothed is the wrink led brow of care; each peafant forgets his toil; the enraptured fchoolboy haftens to his beloved home; and every object wears the face of joy! It will be the happier talk of others, to explain the nature of this folemnity in a religious fenfe; the more humble province of an occafional effay is to view it in a very ufeful, though lefs ferious light, and to ftamp a juft value on the focial benefits of this inftitution an inftitution moft admirably contrived to keep us in cheerfulness and goodhumour; to cement the ties of friendship among relations; and to breathe a fpirit of harmony and love throughout the Chriftian world.

Come forward then, all ye whom Providence hath bleffed with ample, or even with competent for

tunes,

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tunes, and fhew us by your example, that your hearts overflow with gratitude towards the Giver of them! Let benevolence be the guide and ornament of your lives, and let the laborious (and at this time the diftreffed) poor feel the hand of your bounty. No feafon can be more proper than this, to exert your liberality, and to teftify that, although English hofpitality and religious obfervances may perhaps, in this our day of modern refinement and modern philofophy, be growing out of fafhion; and the former may be fomewhat damped by the alteration and the exigence of the times; fhe is not yet at the eve of her departure. Let us be merry, but let us be wife; a great deal of focial good-humour may be confiftent with fobriety, decency, and even with economy itself. The hofpitable board, the fprightly fong and dance, the fober rubber, the mirthful paftimes, and all the enlivening fallies of wit, may be fo conducted as not to offend against the laws of God, or even againft the moft rigid moral duties.

In devotion, as in every thing elfe, we fucceed moft happily when the more ferious duties and the innocent amufements of life, like day and night, fucceed each other.

We cannot always infure happinefs to the new year, but we may be allowed to wish for it; and it is poffible that a few gentle hints, if well attended to, may bid fair to promote it. Take them therefore as they rife, and make the beft ufe of them.

In religious duties be ever in good earneft; enjoy the bleflings of Providence to the utmoft, and be thankful. Bear up against the prefent national calamities, and under the crofs accidents of life, with becoming fortitude. Be fair and open in all your dealings; be courteous and affable to every hunian being; affect not fuperficial greatness; live within the bounds of your come,

And now, my worthy friends, ny bolt is fhot: but I cannot take leave of you without ftopping for a moment, bell-man like, juft to with you a happy new year; and may the happiness of the new year continue to the laft moment of our lives! Let us with refignation and hope look forward to better times; trufting.. that our Legiflature (when they can do it with fafety, honour, and propriety,) will obtain us Peace, and that Heaven will in due time give, us Plenty. Of this, indeed, we already have a happy prefage, from the late favourable feafon for fowing, the great and unufual quantity of corn fown, and the prefent propitious appearance of the forthcoming crops.

The prefent fyftem of economy and temporary privation, which we have prudently adopted, will at any rate tend to augment our future plenty; whether the prefent idea of fcarcity be real, or whether it be fallacious, as I have pretty good grounds to fufpect. Be this, however, as it may, let the rich be fragal, and let the poor be thankful that every thing is doing for their relief, and that their prefent fuf-> ferings are not aggravated by the rigours of a fevere winter; and, finally, let us hope, that, under every circumftance, peace, unanimity, happinefs, and goodwill, may prevail in this our happy ifle, as long as Christmas, and the adorable Object of its inftitution, fhall be acknowledged and remembered amongft us! BENEVOLUS.

LXX. p. 718.) is fo obli

ging,

ging, that it roufes my flumbering pen, which, lefs active than my perception of natural objects, keeps not pace with my obfervations; but I hope T. C. will fupply the naturalift's place in your Magazine, that various circumftances have compelled me to defert; as your valuable work fhould comprife records of natural hiftory, as well as of political, antiquarian, and other fubjects.

Refpecting the barrennefs of the bawthorn laft fummer, I inform T. C. that in four different Southern counties that I vifited in the courfe of last year, I obferved the fame circumftance as he did, and that without any furprize, as, from the very extraordinary profufe and productive blow of the year 1799, I expected that there would be but a weak and partial one in 1800 for I have always remarked, that when trees of any particular kind produce extra-abundantly one year, they always prove deficient the next; and T. C. will probably fee this remark verified next fümmer in refpect to plumbs, cherries, currants, and goofeberries, which, he may recollect, were particularly plentiful laft feafon; and, on the other hand, I imagine we fhall have abundance of apples and nuts next autumn, as they run fhort the laft. I never faw a more beautiful difplay than was on the hawthorns during the fine fortnight in June, 1799, when every buih appeared as if covered with pieces of white or of pink callico; for, in the county I happened to be in at that time, large bushes of pink hawthorn grew fpontaneously in the hedges, like the white. This is a variety that has its bloffoms of a damask-rofe hue from their firft opening, and which is propagated in the nurferies by grafting; though I have not the least doubt but its haws would produce the fame fort again, as it is an original diftin&t variety, proceeding from nature without the aid of art. The flowers on many ftems of the common white-flow

ering hawthorn, change to pink when declining; but thofe of the true pink thorn poffefs their rofeat colour throughout the whole time of their duration; and therefore I recommend it to every lover of a garden, to plant a tree of this fpecies in fight of his parlour window, and allow it space to fhow itself in. The beauty of many a good thrub is loft, by its being crowded into a promifcuous fhrubbery in fome neglected or diftant part of a garden; for people are more apt to form fhrubberies for the fake of hiding dilagreeable objects, than with a view to the enjoyment of the beauties of the thrubs; and for this reafon they buy more fhrubs than they need, and plant them fo thick, that many of them can neither have air, rain, or fun, to make them grow; nor room to expand their boughs or fhew their bloffoms. But this practice is fashionable, and therefore must be correct; fo I will return to my original fubject, and mention an affertion that is worth inveftigating, viz. that hogs will greedily devour haws, and fatten on them. The haws that followed the fine blow I have alluded to, were fo numerous, bright, and large, that the public prints advised that they fhould be applied to that ufe; but I had not myfelf either the opportunity of trying the experiment, cr of knowing whether it was tried. That fame year, the cockfpur and the evergreen thorns alfo flowered profufely, and were likewife both nearly barren in 1800. As to confidering a plenitude of haws as a prognoftication of a fevere winter, I think it would be giving undue credit to an old fuppofition, that was probably adopted before botanifts had difcovered, that the bloffoms of the year in fucceffion are, on moft trees, formed in embryo during the time of the bloffoms of the year prefent being in perfection; which fact is vifible to the moft carelefs obferver, in the inftance of the whitebean, or cratagus aria, (which abounds in the

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