lumn is a solitary pillar of enormous height, raised to support nothing *! and only inspiring the apprehensive

be too far advanced, for the design to be altered or, which is as likely to have been the case, this objection did not appear to be otherwise so forbeholder with wonder how it supports midable to him, as I confess it does to itself. In which view, it is skill misyour present Correspondent. applied to produce an absurdity, that the sooner we get safely rid of, the better; for, if it be left to accident, or natural decay, the catastrophe must be of a lamentable descriptions

The very idea of a spindle of such daring altitude, without the advantage of a spire in tapering to a central point, trembling by the passage of heavy carriages at its foot, is painful, and on that account alone renders the design of a pillar objectionable. The incessant reiteration of these shocks, however slight, must tend to loosen the connexion of the materials, aud; accelerate decay; which gives alarm ing weight to the objection.

Were this hazardous stretch of ma sonical ingenuity taken down to its square pedestal or base, and that pedestal, containing all the inscriptions and sculpture, crowned with a dome, or a well-proportioned pyramid, surmounted with a burst of flame + from the top of it, suitably gilt, such an appropriate monument might answer all desirable purposes, and insure the safety of the neighbourhood, without subjecting the minds of spectators to unwelcome emotions.

As these cursory remarks possess no? claim to regard as the dictates of a professional pen, they ought perhaps to have been expressed with rather more diffidence; but the diffidence? that prompted the writer, may have been too confidently urged in describe

That this pillas has already stood considerably above a century, may be thought to justify the principles of its construction; but, if we compare its great height with its small body, and the diminutive base allowed for its support, we cannot deem its purpose fulfilled, as a secure memorial of a past disaster. Its safety rests too mach on the soundness of the mate rials in every part all the way up; while its perpendicularity will render repair, in some cases, almost impracing his own feelings on the subject... ticable: partial decays may prove fatal before they are discovered, or before they can be remedied; and and earthquake, a storm of lightning, or even of wind, may furnish a new mo nument with a new era to date from. Such disasters, which it is at all times peculiarly exposed to, might prove fatal to the crowded buildings and inhabitants beneath, against which, the only security is by counteracting the temerity of the builder in raising a memorial too high for its own duration to be relied on: and this ought to be done while it is safe for workmen to attempt it.

In raising a structure of the nature here alluded to, compact solidity was the first indispensable requisite; and while a pyramid was the best figure for attaining it, had there been space enough for the base of it-a pillar, however it suited the ill-chosen situa

tion in this respect, was as obviously
the very worst.
What is a pillar? a.
slender detached support of a super
incumbent building, contrived to take
up as little room below as possible,
receiving stability in the supports its
gives, and generally used in associa
Lion. But Sir Christopher Wren's co-

It is therefore now closed, especially,
Mr. Urban, on your account and the
writer assures you, he will find no
drawback from his satisfaction, in
being convinced of the futility of his
apprehensions.
J. N.

Mr. URBAN, Middle Temple, July 9.
SHOULD be much obliged to any

particulars to those I now send you,concerning a very learned Divine, the Rev. George-Henry Rooke, of Trinity College, Cambridge; B. A. 1724; M. A. 1725; afterwards Fellow of Chri-t's College; B. D. 173.. He was an associate with the knot of learned men who wrote the "Athenian Letters " and in consequence enjoyed the friendship of the Sons of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, particularly of the Hou.

Philip Yorke, afterwards second Earl a Starling over the porch of the Vicaof Hardwicke, and of the Hon. Charles rage of Rothley, instructed to arti Yorke; and by their interest he ob- culate, frequently and very loudly, tained, Nov. 30, 1744, on Bp. Maw-"Remember Melancthon." son's translation from St. Asaph to Chichester, the Rectory of Hadstock, in Essex. He was elected Master of

Christ's College, April 12, 1744. 1745, he took the degree of D. D.; and was Vice-chancellor for that year. In 1747 he was presented (by the Marchioness Grey and the Hon. Philip Yorke) to the Rectory of Great Horkesley, in Essex. He obtained a Prebendal Stall in the several Cathedrals of Lincoln, Gloucester, and Bristol, died Feb. 7, 1754; and was buried at Hadstock, where he has a monument, a copy of the inscription on which would be esteemed a favour. Are there any hopes, Mr. Urban, of speedily seeing Mr. M'Aulay's longexpected "Life of Melancthon?" I wish I had the opportunity of placing

Mr. URBAN,

Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

CARADOC.

July 10, if any of your Correspondents could SHOULD feel myself much obliged inform me of the names of the old dramas which were destroyed by the cook of Mr. Warburton, Somersetherald, and also of their respective authors. Some of them were unfortunately Massinger's. With regard to these there are a few discrepancies between Mr. Gifford's two lists, and between him and Reed, which perhaps it would be useless to mention, as a corrected edition of each of those works has been published lately, where they are most likely brought to agree

ment.
Yours, &c.

THO. AUBERTON.

Shrewsbury, July 11.

N your vol. LXXXIII. Part II. pp. 302, and 398, 399, was given a faithful account of the Rev. F. Leighton, of Ford, near Shrewsbury. Commemorative of this worthy and highly-respected gentleman has lately been erected, in the New Church of St. Chadd, a handsome marble tablet, with the following inscription:

H. S. E.

FRANCISCUS LEighton,

Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ presbyter,

pervetusta sui nominis in hoc comitatu prosapiâ oriundus:

Vir

quem silere nefas; laudare arduum;

adeo

summas Naturæ dotes, ingenium acre, et venam Poetica uberem, optimarum artium disciplinæ, et multiplici linguarum peritia excoluerat gravitatem sermonis colloquio lepido, sententiarum vim facetiis honestis temperavit :

adeo

pius in Deum, liberalis erga pauperes, amans Regis ac Patriæ,
comis, facilis, idemque constans amicus evasit,
Decessit 70 die Septemb. A. S. MDCCCXIII, annos natus LXVI.
Nemini nisi malo civi infensus.
Consortem habet sepulchri,
quæ fuerat tori,
CLARAM,

Johannis Boynton Adams, de Camblesforth in agro Ebor. arm.
sororem ex semisse 'hæredem,

omnibus, quæ matrem-familias decerent virtutibus exornatam,
demortuam 3o die Octobris MDCCCI, ætatis anno LXVI.
Juxta avitos cineres.contumulantur
ST. LEGER et CAROLINA LEIGHTON,
Ille infra biennium extinctus,

Hæc undecimo vitæ mense vix exacto
fratri addita,

Franciscus Knyvett Leighton
optimis parentibus et liberis

H. M. P. C.

Mr. URBAN,

July 1.

SEND you a view of the West Front of the Abbey Church of the Holy Trinity, at Caen, in Normandy (see Plate I.), founded for Benedictine Nuns, in 1064, two years before the Conquest, by Matilda, the wife of William Duke of Normandy. Her monument still remains there; and an Engraving of it is given in Dr. Ducarel's Norman Antiquities. The annual income of this Abbey,

before the Revolution, was 30,000 livres.

Cicely, the Conqueror's sister, was Abbess here.

This abbey, at the time oftheDomesday Survey, possessed lands at Tarente, in Dorsetshire; at Umberlei, Sudmolton, and Brantone, in Devonshire. Minchin Hampton, in Gloucestershire, was so called, says Tanner*, because the manor was given to the Nuns, or Minchins, of the Holy Trinity at Caen, by William the Conqueror. William Rufus gave them the manor and advowson of Horstede in Norfolk. This abbey, says Mr. Whittington, with that of St. Stephen at Caen, founded by the Conqueror, are the principal examples on the Continent of that peculiar manner of building which was introduced into England by the Norman prelates at the end of the eleventh century."

"The Saxon Churches of England were inferior in elevation, massiveness, and magnitude, to those of the Normans; and the Norman mode differed considerably from that which was adopted in the ne ghbourhood of Paris, and further to the South. The Norman churches

were in some instances larger, but exbibited a greater rudeness of design and elevation. The columns, in particular, were without symmetry, and shewed but little skill in the art of sculpture; while those of the French artists, whose taste bad been improved by the remains of Roman architecture, frequently imitated with success the Corinthian columii, and sometimes the classical proportions. Both styles are wholly deficient in correctness of taste; but the barbarous massiveness of a Norman structure has

more decided air of originality; and its rudeness, when on a large scale, serves greatly to enhance the sublimity of its effect +."

Any particulars of the present state of this venerable pile would particu larly oblige

B. N.

Strictures on a Volume of "Sermons on various subjects," recently pub lished by the Rev. John Eyton, A.M. Vicar of Wellington, and Rector of Eyton, Salop.

THE

HE

[By a Correspondent.] peculiar opinions on certain doctrinal points, which consti tute so prominent a feature in the character of the present work, being the only part of it which calls for animadversion, or for comment; and these (whenever such subjects are al luded to) being inculcated with equal earnestness, and illustrated in a man ner extremely similar, in each of the twelve discourses of which it is com posed; it should seem to be of little moment to which of them our attention shall be particularly directed, or from which our extracts shall be chiefly taken.

In order, however, to obviate the charge of partial selection or citation, we shall, in the present instance, con fine our notice solely to such disputable and objectionable passages as occur in the first Sermon.

The text of this is taken from Mat thew, chap. ix. 6. "The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sius. And in this discourse (after having gi ven us, in the language of the Evangelist, the whole history of the trans action to which the text immediately refers) the Author takes occasion to express himself in the following terms:

"The inference which our Lord would

have taught them to draw from the transaction is this; that, since the diseases to which the body is subject are the consequence and penalty of sin, his power that he had power to forgive the latter: to remove the former plainly implied just as my having authority to open his prison-door to some poor insolvent debtor swerable to his creditors, and thereby would prove that I had made myself andischarged the prisoner from all obligation to pay the debt; for, on any other supposition, my conduct would be a gross invasion of the rights of justice." violation of the law, and contemptuous

Now, on this passage, it is obvious for the reflecting and sober-minded Reader to remark, that, if the doctrine here maintained be truly Scriptural, or grounded on the solid basis

of

3.

of rational interpretation, it will evi- the subject, as we find it recorded in dently follow from it, as a legitimate the following quotation from St. and unavoidable conclusion, that, John's Gospel, chap. ix. v. 1, 2, whoever, since the date of our first "As Jesus passed by, he saw a man parents' fatal lapse in Paradise, has in which was blind from his birth; and his any way intentionally contributed to disciples asked him, saying, Master, who the cure, or even to the alleviation of did sin, this man, or his parents, that he men's bodily distempers, without a was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither mental reference to the propitiatory hath this man sinned, nor his parents, sacrifice of Christ, as sanctioning his but that the works of God should be efforts in that respect, is, in the esti- made manifest in him." *mation of sound reason and enlightened piety, justly obnoxious to the heavy charge of wilfully opposing the practical execution of God's righteous judgments against sinners.

Before we yield, however, our entire assent to a doctrine thus involv ing in one general condemnation the whole tribe of medical and surgical professors in the Heathen world (from Machaon downwards), it will be proper

of that eternal principle of natural And, secondly, by an equal reverence justice, which so plainly forbids us to consider it as a thing morally possible, that the all-righteous Judge of the whole earth should ever impute to any one human being so much even sonal criminality, merely for an act as the very smallest measure of perin which such being was in no-wise personally or voluntarily concerned.

however manifest may be, in particu However intimate, therefore, and lar instances, the relation really sub

for us to institute a serious and dispassionate inquiry respecting the soundness of the foundation on which its credibility is made to rest. That every species of infirmity and suffer- sisting between men's mental guilt ing to which the human frame is here exposed, may rationally and truly be

deduced from the fall of Adam, as from its original source, we very rea dily acknowledge. But, when we find (as we do in the preceding quotation)

:

all the various diseases of our bodies represented, not merely as the consequence, but as the penalty of sin; i. e. (as the context necessarily requires us to understand the term last used) of the depraved nature derived to us from our first parents; we feel ourselves fully warranted, not only in mentally questioning the truth of such doc trine, but in instantly and totally rejecting it and that on the following ground: because our understanding, after the most serious reflection on the subject, is thoroughly convinced, that the ordinary maladies of the human body can never justly be considered as having the least connexion with moral guilt, nor can ever be, with any semblance of truth, regard ed in the light of divine punishments inflicted judicially on mankind, solely on account of some radical taint derived intermediately, in an equal degree, to all of us, from the crime of our first progenitors. And to this mental conclusion we are brought, first, by a due deference to the explicit declaration of Divine Wisdom upon

and their corporeal ailments; yet is
there, in the judgment of sober minds,
nothing whatever more irrational or
more unchristian than to infer, in any
given case, from the mere prevalence
lence of spiritual depravity.
of bodily disease, the equal preva-

Considering, therefore, the doctrine asserted in the preceding extract (the nature and the truth of which our Author has laboriously endeavoured to illustrate and confirm in several succeeding pages) as sufficiently confuted by the train of argument above suggested; we shall, in the next place, proceed to comment on the find advanced in the following passoundness of the reasoning which we cited from pages 13-14:

sage,

"Nor does it appear that even God himself could have forgiven sin, without a full and sufficient atonement or satisfaction being made for it. For it is no impeachment of Almighty power to say, that God cannot do that which involves ercise mercy in such a way, as to viuin it moral imperfection; he cannot exlate the claims of truth and justice; and, therefore, unless a plan had been de vised and accomplished, according to which he could be just, and at the same time the justifier of the ungodly; a plan upon which his righteousness could be declared in the very remission of sins; we must have remained under an unchange

able