. R. HERBERT JENKINS was an assiduous and useful assistant to the President of it, particularly in communicating, as a gentleman who Ma native of Maidstone, in Kent, was his fellow-student reports, im where his father was minister of the Independent Congregation. He received the rudiments of classical learn ing under the Rev. John Wiche, the Baptist Minister in the same town:* but his proficiency was greatly as sisted by the attention and pains bestowed on his improvement by his father, whom he had the infelicity to lose early in life. But, stimulated by his own thirst after knowledge, he prepared himself, by assiduous application and study, pursued under unfavourable circumstances, to support the character of a private tutor to youth in families of the higher rank. A vigorous and capacious mind, united with a quick and lively imagination, aided his acquisition of a large share of information upon almost every sub ject; which was fully known to those only who dwelt under the same roof with him. His system of instruction was rendered very complete and valuable, we have learnt, by an improvement of almost every circumstance and occurrence of the passing day, upon which some useful information might be grafted; and it was often remarked, that he had a peculiar happiness in his method of conveying his ideas to others. He spent some years, before he entered on theological studies, in the capacity of a tutor in several families; particularly in that of Sir George Staunton, whom he accompanied into Ireland; and by whom he was invited to attend his son in the embassy to China. This alluring offer he declined, particularly from an apprehension that an acceptance of it might draw him off -from his views and purposes of settling, as a dissenting minister. During this period of his life, as he had bestowed peculiar attention on the study of elocution, he was engaged to read lectures on that subject, at the new College in Hackney. Relinquishing these useful employ ments, he commenced a student in divinity, in the academy under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Addington, at Mile End, near London. From his entrance into this seminary, he was * See a Memoir of Mr. Wiche in the Protestant Dissenter's Magazine for 1797, Vol. iv. p. 121. portant information on the structure of the English language, and on topics connected with it. Here a close intimacy commenced between Mr.. Jenkins and Dr. Addington, which lasted as long as the latter lived. When he appeared in the public character of the preacher, he became first, a colleague with the venerable Mr. Hampton, at Banbury, Oxfordshire, in 1792. From whence he removed to Stourbridge, in Worcestershire, July, 1796. He resigned his pastoral connexions there in 1808, and settled at Hinckley. He had not resided much more than two years in that town when it pleased Providence to visit him with a long and severe illness. His life was in imminent danger; and though his days were not immediately cut off, he never recovered his former vigour and health; and found it necessary to withdraw from the stated services of the pastoral office, at least in a large congregation, and where his appearance in the pulpit on both parts of the day was required. That severe illness he bore with pious resignation and Christian fortitude; though he devoutly acquiesced in the will of heaven, he deeply felt the affliction of being obliged to relinquish the public functions of the Christian ministry, even in part. In the duties of his public character he evidently took a high pleasure. In the performance of them he was ambitious to excel and to be thought to excel, and had, it may be regretted, too lively a feeling of the reception his services met with. A solicitude, as to the justness and propriety of his elocution, originating probably from the nature of his early studies, was thought by some to have given too studied an appearance to his delivery, so as to be unfavourable to the effect of discourses well-suited, by the subject, sentiments and spirit of them, to excite attention and impress the heart: so difficult is it for frail man, even in the pursuit of excellence, to avoid faults: so difficult is it, where we aim to merit praise, to escape blame. In estimating human attainments and human characters, much allowance ought to be made for unknown but very supposable impres sions in early life, for difference of constitutions, for latent seeds of disease, for peculiarities in the animal system, acting with an imperceptible influence on the temper and manners, and for unknown circumstances that give a peculiar colour to the character. Though men may not take these things into the account in the opinion which they form of others, our heavenly Father, it is a consolatory thought, "knoweth our frame." The worthy person, whose history we are giving, to return from this digression, united with the gifts of the Christian minister a love of literature, a taste for the belles lettres, and the manners of the gentleman. His spirit and principles, as a professor of Christianity and a Protestant Dissenter, like those of a consistent friend to religious inquiry, were liberal and catholic. His temper and manners in the social relations of life were affectionate and generous. "To serve a friend and to relieve distress," it has been observed by one who knew him well, “were to him the most delightful offices:" and he had a very lively sense of the respect and friendship shewn to him by others; and, though a warmth and hastiness of temper, truth will concede was a principal failing in his natural disposition, candour will hear with pleasure, that he was known to have laboured very hard to regulate and subdue it. His domestic character will live in the memory and in the mournful regrets of his widow, his children and his pupils. On being laid aside from the stated and usual services of the pulpit, he removed to Leicester, and engaged in a plan of education. He had, during his residence at Stourbridge, con.. ducted, with great reputation, a seminary for young gentlemen. For the education of youth he was, by disposition and acquirements, particularly qualified. He was now induced to change the objects of his literary labours, by directing them to the cultivation of the female mind, in conjunction with Mrs. Jenkins, a lady well-qualified herself to form the youthful intellect and manners of the sex. His laudable efforts in this use ful and important department were, alas! soon terminated, by a sudden dismission from this scene of activity and trial. He was, indeed, prepared for the awful close of life. He had anticipated it. He had wished for it: he had no fear of death, and met it, in the few moments of recollection, which, after awakening from sleep, preceded it, with composure of mind and resignation, Oct. 23, 1814, aged 53. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; who sweetly fall asleep in Jesus: they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." Feb 2, 1815. A FRIEND. P.S. On occasion of Mr. Jenkins' ordination at Banbury, in 1793, the late Rev. Samuel Palmer delivered a very appropriate, judicious, and impressive discourse, from Cantic. i. 6. under the title of a charge, “On the Necessity of keeping our own vineyards;" which, in the course of the next year was repeated at an association, and published at the request of several ministers. From the apology for undertaking that part in the services of the day, and with which the discourse opens, it appears that Mr. Jenkins had stood, in a former connexion with Mr. Palmer; perhaps, as an assistant in his seminary. During Mr. Jenkins' residence at Banbury he entered into the matrimonial relationship with a young lady of a respectable family, in the congregation. At that time the parish church was rebuilding, and the members of the Establishment met for religious worship at suitable times, in the Meeting-House of the Protestant Dissenters, under the sanction of an act of parliament, which was passed to legalize marriages and other parochial services performed in it, till the parish church was opened again. Under these peculiar circumstances, Mr. Jenkins was married by the parochial clergyman in a pew in his own meeting-house. The Funeral Sermon, for Mr. Jenkins, was preached by the Rev. Dr. Toulmin, of Birmingham, from Rev. xiv. 7. The everlasting gospel. A poem by Mr. Jenkins was inserted ix. 572. EXTRACTS FROM NEW PUBLICATIONS. State of France. [From "Notes on a Journey through France, from Dieppe through Paris and Lyons to the Pyrennees, and back through Thoulouse, 1814. By Morris Birkbeck. 8vo.] THE HE approach to Rouen is noble: every object denotes prosperity and comfort. Since I entered the country I have been looking in all directions for the ruins of France; for the horrible effects of the Revolution, of which so much is said on our side of the water: but instead of a ruined country I see fields highly cultivated, and towns full of inhabitants. No houses tumbling down, or empty; no ragged, wretched-looking people. I have inquired, and every body assures me that agriculture has been improving rapidly for the last twentyfive years; that the riches and comforts of the cultivators of the soil have been doubled during that period; and that vast improvement has taken place in the condition and character of the common people. In the early part of the revolution, more was done in promoting the instruction of the lower orders than the sinister policy of the late Emperor was able to destroy: and, though much remains to be desired on this point, enough has been effected to shew that a well-educated commonalty would not be wanting in industry or subordination. On my first landing I was struck with the respectable appearance of the labouring class; I see the same marks of comfort and plenty every where as I proceed. I ask for the wretched peasantry, of whom I have heard and read so much; but I am always referred to the Revolution: it seems they vanished, then. July 16.-Corn market, Rouen : -A retail business chiefly. Wheat about 34s. per quarter, coarse and light; oats good, 13s. 6d. per quarter; vetches for pigeons and fowls, 24s. per quarter; oil cake 4d. for 6 lb. 12 oz. English weight. Formerly there were, in Rouen, forty convents. These buildings are mostly now the property of individuals, and are applied to a variety of useful purposes: a few remain unsold, as public warehouses, barracks, &c. That of the Benedictines, a noble Gypsum, in large quantities, is brought down the Seine from the neighbourhood of Paris. It is used in the interior of buildings; and for manure on clover, after the first crop. July 17.---Visited a small farmer a few miles from Rouen. Labourers' wages 10d. per day, and board; 20d. per day without board. As all provisions, every article of expenditure, may be taken at something under half the English price, by doubling their wages, we may find the proportion they bear to our's. Great numbers of turkeys are kept here, and fowls of all descriptions. Poultry is an important object of French farming: it is a question whether there is more weight of mutton consumed than of poultry. The daughters of this farmer were both notable and polite : and the ploughman and boy were eating an omelet with silver forks.. On a sheep-walk above Deville, a man was collecting fresh sheep dung, which he sold at three farthings per ib. It is used in dyeing cotton red. I note this trifle because it may be worth knowing; but especially as an instance of the danger of observing superficially. I thought that he must of course be a wretched pauper, who was collecting sheep dung to sell as manure: this excited my curiosity, which was agreeably relieved by the above information. At a very poor inn in a remote village, where we stopped on our morning's ride, the landlady kept a child's school, and her daughter was weaving cotton check; her sister kept a little shop, and was reading a translation of Young's Night Thoughts. This was more than we should have expected in a village alehouse in England, : A dirty fellow, with a good voice, and a fiddle with three strings, alternately chanting and preaching to the crowd in one of the market places at Rouen, attracted my attention. The morale was the collection of three sous each from his hearers, for a sacred charm being much amused and somewhat edified, I purchased a packet. It contained two papers of prayers and saintly histories; a small crucifix, and a very small bit of the real cross. When I displayed my treasure at the hotel, our landlady's son, a boy of about thirteen, who spoke a little broken English, cries out, on seeing the crucifix, "Dat is God,"-- "Dat is God." Sunday is but slightly observed in this part of France, (fifty miles south of Paris,) at any season; very slightly indeed in harvest. Some go to church for about an hour; but, before and after, no great marks of Sabbath are perceptible. This is to be regretted a day of rest is at least an excellent political regulation: good for man and beast. It is, however, pleasant to perceive how little hold the church has upon the minds of the people. Surely it can never recover its influence. The churches here are modest structures; not so imposing as those of Normandy; and I fancy they have less influence on the imagination of the inhabitants. Roanne. Sunday. Religion seems to be monopolized by the women, if we may judge by the attendance at church. Twenty women to one man is about the proportion. At the Petits Minims here, to-day, there might be 800 persons present to hear the serion; 40 of them men! Aug. 14. (St. Urban.) In every part of France women employ themselves in offices which are deemed with us unsuitable to the sex. Here there is no sexual distinction of employment: the women undertake any task they are able to perform, without much notion of fitness or unfitness. This applies to all classes. The lady of one of the principal clothiers at Louviers, conducted us over the works; gave us patterns of the best cloths; ordered the machinery to be set in motion for our gratification, and was evidently in the habit of attending to the whole detail of the business. Just so, near Rouen, the wife of the largest farmer in that quarter, conducted me to the barns and stables; shewed me the various implements and explained their use: took me into the fields, and described the mode of husbandry, which she perfectly understood; expatiated on the excellence of their fallows; pointed out the best sheep in the flock, and gave me a detail of their management in buying their wether lambs and fattening their wethers. This was on a farm of about 400 acres. In every shop and warehouse you see similar activity in the females. At the royal porcelain manufactory at Sevres, a woman was called to receive payment for the articles we purchased. In the Halle de Bled, at Paris, women, in their little counting-houses, are performing the office of factors, in the sale of grain and flour. In every department they occupy an important station, from one extremity of the country to the other. In many cases, where women are employed in the more laborious occupations, the real cause is directly opposite to the apparent. You see them in the south, threshing, with the men, under a burning sun;---it is a family party threshing out the crop of their own freehold a woman is holding plough ;---the plough, the horses, the land is her's; or, as we have it) her husband's; who is probably sowing the wheat which she is turning in. You are shocked on seeing a fine young woman loading a dung-cart ;---it belongs to her father, who is manuring his own field, for their common support. In these instances the toil of the woman denotes wealth rather than want; though the latter is the motive to which a superficial observer would refer it. Who can estimate the importance, in a moral and political view, of this state of things? Where the women in the complete exercise of their mental and bodily faculties, are performing their full share of the duties of life. It is the natural, healthy condition of society. Its influence on the female character in France is a proof of it. There is that freedom of action, and reliance on their own powers, in the French women, generally, which, occasionally, we observe with admiration in women of superior talents in England, Paris, Sept. 15---After three days turned-fatigued and contented. Never were people entertained, or provided with occupation, at so cheap a rate as the Parisians. This I had often heard; and the hundred thousand individuals, who found themselves well satisfied with the amusements of this day, proved it. I was struck with a medallion on the base of an urn of great beauty in a saloon at St. Cloud: the figure, apparently the late Emperor, restraining a wild horse, which he has caught by the under jaw, with the inscription "Vaganti tandem imponitur frænum;" meaning, I suppose, French liberty. Though a symbol of Napoleon's tyranny, it is the most beautiful work of art I ever beheld. of repose and social enjoyment with our friends at, we find ourselves again in this vast city. It is an object too great for the study of the passing traveller. However, in the fortnight which we allow ourselves, we shall see a great deal to amuse, and something, I doubt not, to instruct and improve us. I prefer the country character of France to that of the city. In the former, the good fruits of the Revolution are visible at every step: previous to that era, in the country, the most numerous class, the bulk of the population, all but the nobles and the priests, were wretchedly poor, servile and thievish. This class has assumed a new character, improved in proportion to the improvement of its condition. Servility has vanished with their poverty; their thievishness, an effect of the same cause, has also in great measure disappeared. But there is a selfishness and avarice, too prevalent in the general character of the people; which may be natural to their present state of society, from the virtues of industry and economy in excess. I question if a proportionate amelioration has taken place among the Parisians, a sort of insulated nation, who know very little, and seem to care as little, about the rest of France. With a restrained press and education under the direct influence of government, I should think very meanly of French political liberty, under any form of government: I could not long breathe in an atmosphere so dense and polluted. Not a pamphlet is exhibited by the booksellers except on the side of the prevailing politics: nothing of liberal discussion existing, except by contraband. Every paragraph in the public journals is modelled and pared down to suit the temper of the Tuilleries, whatever that temper may be,---to-day just so, it would be adapted to an opposite temper to-morrow. Sunday, Sept. 18 ---Being a day of fête at St. Cloud I joined all Paris in toiling through the heat and dust to visit the favourite abode of Buonaparte. Here we walked through a few rooms and saw a few fountains. The young men and maidens diverted themselves with blind man's buff, and many other games; and we all re As we were taking our refreshment at a restaurateur's in the village of St. Cloud, the Duchess of Angoulême arrived in a state coach with eight horses, and was met, directly opposite to our window, by an open landau and six, which was to convey her to the palace. She changed carriages among an immense crowd, who paid her very little attention. This moved the choler of a flaming royalist of our company, and led to a political discussion, which afforded me fresh reason to observe how surprisingly little is known, by this party in Paris, of the revolution in the French character which has really taken place. They are so dazzled by their own gaudy city, that they think but lightly of the twenty-six millions of independent inhabitants of France who are not in the Parisian circle. Paris is the punctum saliens, the organ of political feeling; elsewhere political feeling is absorbed in the love of tranquillity. The court may seem to be of the same importance as under the ancien regime; when the peasantry were a mere number, and the nobility and the church were the French nation, of which the court was the cen tre. The fact, however, is now far otherwise: it is the indifference and not the insignificance of the people which now gives consequence to the politicians of the Tuilleries. Should that indifference be rouzed, the charm will be broken. Sept. 19.---There was a magnifi cence about Buonaparte which carries' you away in defiance of your sober judgment. To-day I gained a sight of the astonishing colossal elephant, which was to have been elevated on |