clergyman must either live under what is now deemed the perpetual mor445 tification of being excluded from many of the amusements of his neighbours and friends, or be content to share in them at the expence of some violation of the decencies of his clerical character, and some diminution of its respectability. To avoid so disagreeable a dilemma, the obvious expedient is to avoid the profession: and as it is too much the fashion to allow boys to chuse their own occupation in the world, can it be a subject of wonder that so many parents are disappointed, and that so few of their sons prefer the duties of the church. 5. The last, though not the least efficacious cause that I shall assign, for the diminution of the numbers of the clergy, is the small emoluments of the church, in comparison with those of the other liberal professions. It will be observed, perhaps, that this cause must always have operated with nearly the same force, and cannot, therefore, have had any peculiar influence in our own times. But this is by no means the true state of the case. The profits of trade, and the emoluments of all the professions, have for many years past increased in a much greater proportion than the revenues of the church have been augmented. the chances of success are greater, and the reward of talents at once more In every other profession certain and more ample; and as these are days of calculation, and especially calculation of profit, we cannot be surprized that neither parents nor their sons are partial to the employments of our national church. All the causes that I have mentioned might be made to appear of still greater weight, were they stated more at large, and their reciprocal co. operation more fully explained; but I fear I have already trespassed toọ far upon your valuable pages, and shall therefore only add, that I do not, with your Correspondent Senex, apprehend any great danger to the Church or State from the present diminution in the numbers of the clergy; because, I think, that as soon as this diminution shall be generally felt, and preferment be more easily obtained, their number will again increase. But, at the same time, I do not expect they will soon amount to the num. bers that we have seen; because I am afraid that the causes which have operated to their diminution will not soon be corrected, nor easily removed. I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, December 13, 1806. OXONIENSIS. THE NUNS AT NEW.HALL. TO THE EDITOR OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN REVIEW. HOWEVER the Correspondent, who writes in your last on the subject of New-hall, may be well informed as to the history of this aneient house, he is totally a stranger to that of its present inhabitants. Presuming upon the candour you profess, that you will have no objection to set your readers right, I send you the following particulars, which I knowu to be true. The Ladies who at present reside there, are not foreigners, as he represents them, but natives of England--they are the community of Liege, and took refuge here from the pillage and persecution of the French in 1794. With their own property they have purchased Newhall and its appendages; they receive for education the children of Catho. lic parents, which used to be sent to them, or to other convents upon the Continent, and not Protestants to make proselytes, as your zealous Cor. respondent apprehends. The whole amount of the terrible evils about which which he is so anxious, is then as follows:-That the small revenues of these poor Ladies, and the money paid for the board of their pupils, which used to be spent abroad, is now expended here. They are natives of this kingdom, and not aliens.:-they are subsisting upon their own property, and not upon public charity :-they receive for education the children of Catholic parents, and not Protestants, to make proselytes:-they molest no one; let us at least endeavour to allow them to enjoy their retirement in peace, as well as security. I am, Sir, yours, &c. A. M. S. N. B.-We have always expressed our wish that these unhappy refugees should be allowed to enjoy their retirement in peace, as well as security;" but in return for that peace and security which they could not obtain in any other country, we did expect, and we shall continue to expect, that they will not violate the laws of that which has afforded them an asylum in the hour of distress. We charged them with having suffered English Ladies to take the vil; their defender has studiously avoided all reference to this fact; and, until it shall be contradicted from authority, we must believe it to be true; and, impressed with that belief, we shall continue to censure their conduct, whenever we shall have occasion to refer to it. We will put a plain question to A. M. S. Has not a Miss Sy taken the veil at New-hall? and are there not other novices there intended to take the veil ? We will not take our leave of these poor Ladies, without expressing our sincere pleasure at learning, that they have been able to purchase, with their own money, the rich domain of the late Lord Waltham; nor without giving them a friendly caution to refer to the Statute Book before they again boast of their wealth.-EDITOR. TO THE EDITOR OF THE ANTI-JACOBIN REVIEW. SIR, CONVINCED that your work will become a monument, on which the grateful eye of posterity will often revert with admiration, as one of the happy means which not only supported the glorious, and, it would seem, inimitable Constitution of your Country in Church and State, but contributed to preserve the whole Christian World from utter ruin, the following facts are submitted, if worthy of a place in your interesting Repository. The circumstances, as stated in evidence in the Court of King's Bench, on the 4th of last July, at the trial of an English Catholic Bishop, Dr. John Milner, the Rev. Mr. Wheeler, a Mr. Gadd, or Gabb, and his daughter, are taken nearly verbatim from the report of that curious trial, published in the Times newspaper, and which has since been rendered authentic by a letter from Mr. Wheeler, exculpating his Bishop, but leaving the charges against himself unanswered, and even undenied, of course acknowledged true before the public. The parties are all worthy Members of the Popish Church! his titular Grace, Dr. Milner, is the Catholic Bishop of the Inland District; Mr. Wheeler is a Parish Priest, and Father Confessor officiating in London; Mr. Taylor and all the others are his humble followers. Should the facts developed at this trial tend more effectually to expose that iniquitous and abominable rite of the Popish Church, auricular confession, and to confirm those opinions uniformly maintained in the Anti-Jacobin Review, of the actual state of Popish superstition in this Country, it will be highly agreeable to, Sir, your constant friend and servant, Russell-square, 1806. VERITAS. "The "The indictment was laid by Mr. Taylor, a surveyor in Islington, against his bishop, Dr. Milner, his father confessor, Mr. Wheeler, and his apothecary, Mr. Gadd or Gabb, and Miss Anne G. his daughter, who reside in the neighbourhood of Russell square, for conspiring to prevent his marriage with a Miss Pike, of Wolverhampton. This lady, it appeared, was under the pious care of the titular bishop, Milner, who intro duced Mr. Taylor to her as his intimate friend, and who also negotiated the marriage contracts. Of this bishop's subsequent conduct, his chicanery with Mr. Taylor, and his horrid oaths and violent passions, things very natural no doubt and common to his worthy adherents in St. Giles's, it is unnecessary to speak. The conduct of father Wheeler is more generally important. The wife of Mr. Taylor being in a declining state, priest Wheeler, who had long been the father confessor to the prosecutor's family, introduced Mr. Gadd or Gabb, as apothecary, who also introduced his eldest daughter Maria G. under the pretext of attending Mrs. Taylor, but in fact with a view of becoming her successor. At the time of Mr. Taylor's becoming a widower, his father confessor was constantly whis pering the praises of Miss Maria, whose amiable qualities rendered her an admirable wife for any gentleman deserving of so much virtue and beauty. This project failed, and another attempt was made to introduce Miss Anne, whom the priest no less extolled, but with equally bad success, as Mr. Taylor found himself not bound in law, justice, honour or conscience, to marry Miss Anne G.' The priest's efforts, however, did not relax here: he still persisted in desiring to know the cause, and to urge obedience to his advice, till he discovered Mr. Taylor's connexion with Miss Pike, which he was equally active in opposing. For this purpose, it was necessary to secrete many of the letters which the apothecary's daughters had written to Miss Taylor, the daughter of the prosecutor. In order to get possession of this correspondence, when Miss Taylor was making her confession to priest Wheeler, HE REFUSED TO GRANT HER ABSOLUTION UNLESS SHE DELIVERED TO HIM ALL THE LETTERS! The young lady, with more firmness than could be expected, resisted the demand; but on consultation with her father, Hɛ advised her to accede to it. A bill in Chancery was afterwards filed against this pius and upright father con-fessor and his friends; and during the proceedings in equity, the Lord Chancellor ordered the letters to be delivered up to Mr. Taylor. In one of those letters the following extraordinary declaration, addressed to Miss Taylor by Miss Anne G. was read: "Though I have been on my knees to your father, I have never been able to make him marry me, or promise that he ever will marry me." On the evidence of those letters the present prosecution was supported; and its failure is perhaps more owing to the prosecutor's simplicity, and fear of his father confessor, than to any want of proof of the existence of the conspiracy. Perhaps, however, the proposed trial for a breach of promise of marriage with Miss Pike, may bring to light some more of those dark schemes of popish priests, and expose to the world their tyrannic power, their alarming influence in the most secret affairs between man and wife, and the true spirit by which they are still actuated in this age, as we are told, of reformed Catholicism in a Protestant country." THE following lines upon the Death of the late Bishop Horsley, have been sent to us from Scotland, and are the production of the Rev. John Skinner, of Long-side in Aberdeenshire, a Clergyman of the Scotch Episcopal Church, now in the 85th year of his age, Ehec Eheu, quid legitur? Flendem est; deflete legentes! Hei mihi quantus erat ! quantum laudabile in illo! Sic visum est Superis: nec nostrum est quærere causas. Anglia mæsta dole tantum tibi lumen ademptum! Dum colitur pietas et amor divinus honesti; LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. A History of the Administration of the late Right Hon. William Pitt, in four volumes octavo, by Mr. John Gifford and Mr. Redhead Yorke, is, we understand, in a state of such forwardness, as to appear early in the ensuing year. This history will, of course, include that of the very critical period in which Mr. Pitt lived, as well as an interesting account of his life and conduct. A new and improved Edition of The Book of Martyrs is in the press. A new Edition of Dr. Reece's Domestic Medical Guide, corrected and considerably enlarged, will appear very soon. CORRESPONDENCE. The future Communications of our respectable Correspondent, Oxoniensis, will be thankfully received; as will those of our old coadjutor at Wn, who is informed that "The Signs of the Times," were reviewed, much at length, on the first appearance of the Poem. "A Yorkshire Freeholder," is received, and his communication will be used in such a way as to give it the greatest effect. Mr. Wm. Lowrie is informed, that the publication, after which he inquires, was reviewed very soon after it was received. The Rev. R. Polwhele's History of Cornwall will be reviewed very The last volume of his History of Devonshire, his Sermons, and his three volumes of Poems, have never been received. soon. Errata in the Latin Epitaph in our last Number.-P. 331, for veredi read viridi; bec read bic: p. 332. Blandes read Blandis; Messus read Missus ; quæque read quæque, Printed by B. M'Millan, Low-Street, Covent-Garden. APPENDIX TO VOLUME XXV. Euvres Philosophiques, Historiques, et Litteraires, de D'Alembert. 8vo. Pr. Vol. I. 404. Vol. II. 478. Vol. III. 430. Vol. IV. 432. A Paris, chez Jean François Bastien. 1805. The Philosophical, Historical, and Literary Works of D'Alembert. N reviewing the works of this enlightened philosopher and metaadmiring as we must the deepness of his research, and wide span of his genius, we must not suffer our admiration to seduce us from the duty, which the imperious call of the office that we have assumed, as critics, imposes on us; nor suffer any brilliancy of imagination, or any depth of science, to divert us from the sober investigation of the relation any work, however splendid, may have with the higher claims of moral and religious truth. The editor of this work, with the true spirit of a Frenchman who thinks la belle passion the first point in every character, first presents us with D'Alembert's portrait of Mademoiselle de l'Espinasse, and his eulogium on her tomb. The character of this lady does not appear so amiable as we could, for the sake of the philosopher, desire; she was very ambitious, and aimed unfairly at the conquest of the Marquis de Mora, a young Spaniard of high birth, and upon the occasion of this rivalship the philosopher D'Alembert becomes a child. We respect too much the feelings of love and friendship, even to wish to see our author without them in his character; but we would rather have found those written documents of his weakness from his own hand, at the end of his volumes than at the beginning, where we ask for the philosopher, and find a reed shaken by the wind. The eulogies on D'Alembert which follow, written by Marmontel and Condorcet, do not help us to a better view of his character. We find him always complaining, always as he calls it, suffering, though in fact he is surrounded by friends, has the patronage of kings, and all the advantages of literature-but he had not Mile. de l'Espinasse.Such events as D'Alembert experienced, would have been called by the more religious and moderate man, from the peculiar favour and protection of Providence. APPENDIX. VOL. XXV. Gg Leaving |