I 16 017

I 10 O I 26

Col. and Capt.

0 13 00 10

Kettle Drummers 0 4 0

500 600

ANSWER to Queftion XIII. in the MAG.
for JUNE, p. 311.

How far the Importation of Iron from A-
merica ought to be prohibited?
Ature has furnish'd Old England
Nwith Iron Ore, and Iron Stone,

much more plentifully than any other
known Part of the Globe; and alfo va. A
rious Kinds of Fewel, for the smelting or
melting of those Ores and Stones, and re
ducing them to Iron and Steel, thro' all
its Gradations, into thofe useful Metals,
which, in their Nature, will be as fervi
ceable to the Publick as any Iron or
Steel imported from Abroad; and if I B
might not feem to ftretch the Point too
far, I would fay better Iron, &c. and con-
quently more ufeful. I prefume, that if
thofe Gentlemen who are now employ'd
in making Iron in America, had acquaint

E

Relations, or to divert themselves with the rural Games and athletick Exercises.

This Cuftom is of great Antiquity, most of our Country Parishes having from Festival, call'd in fome Counties a Feaft, Time immemorial kept their Anniversary

in others a Wake.

It is not only of a

publick, but religious Nature, being pro perly a Feaft of Dedication, originally inftituted in remembrance of fomething feparated, offer'd, and appropriated to the immediate Honour and Service of the Deity. Nature and common Reason may have taught Men in all Ages and Coun tries the Decency and Usefulness, and even Neceffity, of dedicating Altars, Groves, Hills, Houfes, Temples, and Churches, to the peculiar Ufe of divine Worship. By the Light of Nature (aflifted perhaps by the Direction of the divine Spirit) the Patriarchs learn'd to dedicate Altars to of Nature the Egyptians, Gracians and the Service of God. By the fame Light Romans, were mov'd to raile coftly and elegant Edifices, of various Orders of Architecture, to the Honour and Service of Jupiter, Minerva, Vulcan, Diana, Nepand Goddeffes. Thefe Edifices, commonly tune, Fortune, and the rest of their Gods called Temples, were appropriated and hallow'd with fome folemn Ceremony, and Festivals were ufually instituted and kept in Commemoration of it.

ed themselves with the Produce of this Kingdom, they would certainly have car-C ried on Iron Works here, much rather than have tranfported themfelves with their Effects into a distant Clime; it being demonftrable, that those Metals may be produced here as cheap as in any other Part of the World; and by proper Application, we of this Kingdom might be Exporters of 'em in fufficient Quantities D to fupply all other Countries where we trade. This would keep a confiderable Sum of ready Money at Home, which Thus the Greek Hiftorian relates, that goes yearly out to Sweden and other Places for the purchafing of Iron, which is the ancient Egyptians obferv'd feveral commonly paid before they deliver our Festivals in many Towns in Honour of Merchants their Iron, well knowing that of them the fame Sort of Cuftom. Their their Gods, and that the Grecians learn'd we cannot at prefent carry on our Manufactures in Iron without 'em. It is plain, menfe Number, and the Roman CalenBooks of Antiquities have recorded an im the American Metal in not fo valuable as dar is ftuff'd with their Names; in both the English, neither will it make fo good Iron; and this is occafion'd from the Ore which States, tho' fome might be of a or Stone being not fo good in its Nature Civil Nature, yet generally they were as ours. Thefe Obfervations being imPart of the National Religion. After the partially confider'd, I leave it to thofe F. Example of Heathens, the Hebrews also. who are Well-wishers of Old England to thought it reasonable and expedient to judge, whether the Importation of Amebuild Tabernacles, Synagogues, and Relirican Iron ought to be encourag'd, and gious Houfes, and to confecrate them with folemn Festivals. the making of it here neglected and difThe Temple of regarded. ANGLICANUS. Solomon, a most beautiful and coftly Structure, was dedicated to divine Ufe in Autumn, by a moft folemn Rite of ConfeG cration, and perhaps the most expensive that ever was. The Temple of Zorobabel, built afterwards on the fame Tract of Ground, where the other had stood, was alfo confecrated in the Beginning of the Spring with the like pompous Demonftrations of Joy, and as many fump. tuous and magnificent Sacrifices, as the Circumftances of the Jews, upon their Return from the Babylonian Capt

PARISH FEASTS:

OR,

COUNTRY WAKES.
AM now in the Country, and at that

I AM in which Parila
Feafts abound. I hear of one every
Sunday kept in fome Village or other of
the Neighbourhood, and fee great Num- H
bers of both Sexes in their Holiday Cloaths,
conftantly flocking thither, to partake of
the Entertainment of their Friends and

ty, would admir. But then, indeed, no Annual Celebration of any Feaft was thought neceffary to perpetuate the Memory of either of thofe Confecrations.

Town where the Idol flood to whofe Hos nour they were made, but alfo on the very fame Night all overthe Kingdom."!

After the Jews, the Chriftians began That which the whole Nation very early to follow this good Custom of was commanded by Authority to celebrate A confecrating Churches and Oratories with for eight Days together every Year at Je much Solemnity of religious Rites and rufalem, and which they retain'd to the Prayers, and to refine upon the grofs Beginning of Christianity, tho' but of hu Practice of thofe who had gone before man Inftitution, was call'd the Feast of them, that the fupreme Deity might be Dedication; and is supposed to have re worship'd in the most compleat Beauty of ceived its Original, above three hundred Holiness. As the Heathens of old dedi Years after the building of the Second B cated their Temples, and committed Temple, from the General Judas Macca- themselves to the immediate Service and baus, that brave and valiant Defender of Protection of those Gods and Goddeffes the Religion and Liberty of his native whom they lik'd beft, calling one the Country. For, upon his triumphant Re- Temple of Jupiter, another the Temple turn from the Victory over the Heathen of Minerva, another the Temple of Vul Tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes, (who had can: And as the Jews had dedicated defil'd the Temple, by letting up in it the their Temples, Sanctuaries, Synagogues, Idol of Jupiter, and compell'd the People Cor Profeuch, to God, under the fpecial to conform to Idolatry) he confecrated an Title of the God of Ifrael: So the Chris Altar to the true God, and order'd this ftians confecrated their Churches and Cha Feaft to be continually observ'd in a grate pels for the fole Service and Honour of ful Remembrance, botli of this Confecra- the Name of their Master. But as thefe tion, and the happy Victory and Deliver Corruptions we call Popery, in worshipance that had been the Occafion of it. ping Angels and Saints, began to prevail ; This was kept in the Winter Seafon, and, D they did not only begin to build Churches to fhew the Innocence and Lawfulness very faft every where, with unequall'd of fuch Affemblies, our great Lord and Zeal, Expence, and Magnificence, but Mafter himself was prefent at it, as we alfo dedicated them to the peculiar Sermay apprehend by his walking at that vice of fuch Angels, Apostles, Saints and Time in a Portico or Cloifter, commonly Martyrs, whofe Protection and Mediation, call'd the Porch of Solomon. under God, they moft of all defir'd. From them the Churches took their Names, E one being call'd St Michael's, another St Mary's, another St Clement's, another St Peters, another St Paul's. I fay nothing of St Barnabas, because the Antiquaries have obferv'd, that few or none are any where found honour'd with his Name; except one at Rome.

Jofephus obferves, that, from that Time down to this, the Jews continually obferv'd that Feaft, calling it by a Name, which may properly enough be render'd

Illumination; one of the most remarkable Ceremonies of which was, the light ing of Candles or Lamps every Evening, and fetting them up at the Doors of their Houfes as Tokens of Joy, and as Emblems and Reprefentations of their Reli gion and Liberty reftor'd to them. From whence we learn, by the way, that Illuminations, us'd to this Day all over Exrope, perhaps all over the World, are a very ancient Sign of Rejoicing. They are as old, not only as the Time of this Story, which was about a hundred and fifty Years before Chrift, but also as old at leaft as Herodotus, who liv'd about three hundred and thirty Years fooner, and and takes Notice of the very fame Cufrom. For he informs us in his fecond Book, that, upon Festivals, and Days of Rejoicing, Illuminations were used by the ancient Egyptians, not only in the

t Book of Maccabes, and Jofephus. baras Light. Hebrew Antiquities,

F

&

G

As alfo the Heathens ufually celebrated Annual Feftivals, in Honour and Memory of their Gods, Goddeffes, and Heroes, feforting together at their Temples and Tombs 5 and as the Jews conftantly kept their An niversary Feaft of Dedication in Remem brance of Judas their Deliverer: So it hath been an ancient Custom among the Chriftians of this Ifland to keep a Feaft every Year upon a certain Week or Day, in Remembrance of the finishing the Building of their Parish Church, and of the firft folemn dedicating of it to the Service of God, and committing of it to the Care of fome guardian Saint or AnHgel. At this Time they were to exprefs their Thanks to their Maker for the En-. joyment of fo great a Bleffing, as a Place for divine Worthip, and to do Honour to

that.

That Saint of the Parish whofe Name it
bears, Thus, without Question, the o-
riginal Cause and Design of Parish Wakes
or Fealts was, to preferve in Memo
ry the Dedication of the Parish Church. A
And of this rhere might be fome Dif-
ference. For fome might be owing
purely to a Cuftom voluntarily begun and
eftablish'd by the People, but others were
held by publick Command and Authority.
So this very Feaft of Dedication, as well
as other Festivals, we find order'd for- B
merly by a particular † Canon Law or
Constitution made in the Reign of Ed-
ward III. which might only be a Revival
and Reinforcement of an old Canon made'
above 800 Years before. For the Dedi-
cation of Churches, and the Annual Com-,
memoration of fuch Dedications, is of
longer ftanding. We find it mention'd
fo far backward, as in the Reign of Ed-
ward the Confeffor; and not only fo, but
I have fomewhere read, that it was first
order'd in the Pontificate of Felix the
third, about the Year of Chrift 483, or
a little after.

+ Gibfon's Codex, p. 280..

To be concluded in our next. 1 522.

An Hiftorical Character of the Honourable
GEORGE BAILLIE, Efq; (By G. C.
M. D. and F. R. S.)

C

D

At one and the fame time he was a most zealous Patriot, a very able Statesman, and the moft perfect Chriftian, that this, or any Age has produced; Piety, Charity, Juftice and Truth, being the Bafis of all his private Refolves, and public Transactions. He confider'd Mankind as his Family, and each Individual as his Child, and as the Image of his Heavenly Father. He continued fteadily in his own G Church and Principles, when at home, and in his Country; difcouraging Indifference and Wavering in the external, as well as interna! Life of Religion, but without Rigidnefs and Narrownefs of Soul; believing Charity to be one of the Cardinal Virtues, and a guarded Freedom, effential to our unlapfed and recovered Natures. I had the Honoar of an intimate Acquaintance with him for the last thirty Years of bis Life. have ftudied him in all the various Scenes he paffed through; in Pofts of great Honour, in the Troubles of private Life, in Health and in Sickness, in Bufinefs and Retirement; and with great Truth I can affirm, that in all these feve

H

ral Scenes, never knew his Superior in folid Virtue and juft Thinking.

His Courage was undaunted, and his Patience immoveable; his Piety unfeigned, and his Truth exact to the greatest Precision. Having been bred in the School of Affliction, his Compaffion was never denied to thofe 'who were in Diftrefs, even by their own Indiferations. He fpent the last twelve Years of his Life in confant Meditation, Contemplation, and Prayer. It was truly a Life bid with Chrift in God. He paffed through leveral States of Purification and Trial, unknown to common and unexperienced Chriftians.

His Father (a few Hours before his Life must have beon ended by the Hardships of his Confinement) was, for his Love to his Religion and Country, moft barbarously put to Death by the Severity of the then Adminiftration, and the Madncis of the Times; whereby his Eftate was forfeited, and his Son obliged to retire into Helland.

Coming into England with the Pr. of Orange, he narrowly efcap'd perishing at Sea; on which account, all his Life after, he kept a rigorous Fat once every Week, fpending the whole Dayin Meditation, Prayer, and Praifes to his DeBwerer. During all the Times of his great and arduous Employments, he never failed Morning and. Night to rethe a confiderable time to his Clofet, and proftrete himself before his Maker. His Faith and Truft, that the Children of the Righteous fhould never want Bread, was fo firm, that in all his Difficulties and Misfortunes, he never faved any thing for fear of Want (when the Expence was charitable, neceffary, or decent); and in his Profperity he never fquandered away any thing oftentatiously or uselesly.

His private Charities were as great and extenfive, as they were fecret and conftant. In short, in his Rank and Order, under the prefent. Lapfe of human Nature, and the flagrant Corruption of this Age and Nation, he was in every thing a most perfect Example to his Family, to his Friends, and to his Country.

BATH, Aug. 12, 1738.

To Dr. CHTYNE on his Hiftorical Character of
the Honourable GEORGE BAILLI; Ef
LET venal pens in trifling numbers flow,
And undeferved praise on peers beftow;
Thy panegyricks want no help of art,
Spontaneous off 'rings of an honeft heart.
Oh, happy BAILLIE! bleft with length of
Well may thy happiness our entry raife: (Days,
Happy in life, more happy in thy End;
Most happy after death, in fuch a friend,
Thy virtues, and thy worth to recommend.

10° 41' 10" C 4' 15" 10° 36' 55"

34° 5' 40"