tendency of its genuine doctrines, to promote the general welfare of mankind, appears among the most prominent that can be brought in its support.

The motives, too, by which the 'moral principles of the Christian Religion are enforced, are stronger than any that can be deduced from the light of Nature, in proportion to the full assurance that system of Divine Truth affords of an eternal reward to the obedient. Hence the effect produced by them is likely to be more extensively beneficial, as on the other hand, we know by fatal and daily experience, a disregard to them is productive of an equally proportionate mischief, both to society at large, and to the individuals of which it is composed. On these grounds, therefore, it is surely a matter of no small importance, that we should justly appreciate the privilege bestowed upon us by the light of Revelation.

But if to all these considerations, we add that of the especial blessings conferred on us as frail and offending creatures by the Mediatorial scheme, the reconciliation with God through Christ, the promised assisting power of the Holy Spirit, the various means of grace, as well as the animating prospect of future blessedness which the Gospel dispensation holds forth, how loudly do they call upon us to give diligence to secure to ourselves an interest in the divine favour so manifestly extended towards us, by a grateful acceptance of the Truth as it is in Jesus Christ.

Some further considerations may be communicated for a future paper, relative to the remaining part of the subject.

MASON CHAMBERLIN.

Mr. URBAN, Melksham, July 30. F, as has been long perpetuated from age to age, the opinion of the ingratitude and neglect which the publick are too apt to show towards their real benefactors, may, in part, occasionally be said to be founded in the disappointed views, the overweening vanity, or the discontent of authors or of projectors; it must yet be said, that it has not been alleged without foundation.

That the reward of merit comes not very frequently, until its subject or its possessor has become insensible to its charms he almost esteem

ed an aphorisin for its truth: History will supply innumerable instances in which it is exemplified, and although it may be said, that in the natural course of human affairs, a contemporary generation is not always a competent judge of the extent of benefit which an individual has conferred upon it, and that it is for posterity to feel and to decide upon, at once the advantages which society has received from him (under whatever shape they come), and the proportion of his own merit ;- -whoever examines its pages will be fully sensible that industry and talent, although rightly applied, are not always the sure road to favour.

The ephemeral applause of courtly patronage, or of popular favouritism, is on the contrary acquired, and sometimes sustained by other arts, than those of real sterling merit,-merit which in every age must ever be apparent to the discriminating eye of good sense, which, after criticism has done its worst, will still shine in unsullied excellence.

In the annals of our own Literature, how frequent have been the instances of writers in whom the highest talents were centered, and who were sometimes distinguished by elevation of thinking and eminent virtues, whose whole' lives seemed nevertheless one perpetual struggle with the frowns of adverse fortune; -which fortune, although partly the result of other and deeper causes, was doubtless much perpetuated through the unworthy slights of those who ought to have supported and encouraged the growth of genius, and aided the maturing of those talents which were so highly calculated to reflect honour on their country.

How often has it been complained, that the cold and undeserved apathy of those whom a sense of duty, no less than a generous wish to patronize talent of an exalted rank and character, have thrown a gloom over the dispositions and the fortunes of individuals, born to adorn and reflect splendour,-crushed anticipated prospects, and given to souls originally favourable to the interests of virtue, a bias destructive of their moral excellence and usefulness! But if numerous instances of the cruel indifference of the publick towards the exigencies of certain sons of Genius,

who

who were nevertheless born to reflect lustre and dignity on the Literature of their respective æras, stand upon record in the literary annals of our country, if neglect towards those who appropriated their talents and the results of long years of industry and application, to please, instruct, and raise the intellectual taste of their countrymen,-if the names of Milton, Otway, Butler, Dryden, and Johnson, with numerous others, proclaim the occasional truth of what has so frequently furnished a subject of complaint, a national stigma will still be said to designate the age that refuses a just tribute to the memory of an individual (if such tribute has not been already paid), although he enjoyed during his life a competent share of esteem and attention. It is not then a contemporary age alone, upon whom it always devolves to proclaim, by a proper estimate in the eyes of the world, its adequate sense, of transcendant services.

-

I would be here understood to have in view not so much the due appreciation of their writings and description of talent in the minds of men, as the offering those becoming honours to their memory, which their high benefits conferred upon their countrymen, and mankind have demanded. A monument correspondent to their name and rank, to perpetuate at once their own fame, and the proper feelings of a grateful Na

tion.

Amongst national desiderata of this kind which still remain, may be ranked a monument to the memory of the immortal LocKE.

It ought, however, in justice, perhaps, on the other hand, to be premised, that a general disregard of the claims of departed worth, or a gene ral deficiency of public spirit in these particulars, has been by no means a striking characteristic of the English. Aware that an insinuation of this general and sweeping nature would be unjust and ungenerous, the writer of the present remarks would rather be solicitous to render, in those instances where it is due, adequate praise to the munificence which has raised such honourable trophies to the names of those who had formerly been productive of benefit, or of honourable distinction, to that country which gave them birth.

When we enter the precincts of that venerable pile, whose numerous and cloistered recesses are consecrated to the hallowed memory of those who have been deemed worthy to occupy a niche in its Gothic ailes, the first impression which strikes the mind is, the liberality and zeal which have reared the adequate tribute of respect to high genius or to moral worth. We feel that we belong to a people who are capable of estimating great services; and while the eye wanders along the fretted walls and solemn arcades, and sees the mausoleums of the Patriot, the Hero, the Philanthropist, the Man of Letters, the Philosopher, and the Statesman,—the heart exults at once in the long line of worthies which have adorned this country, and the zeal which, with a proper feeling, would thus pay them the last meed of admiration and acknowledgment that an enlightened age can show.

Upon a closer investigation, however, we peruse the records of certain personages, which, eulogized as they are in high strains of panegyrick, somewhat excite our surprize;—while we look in vain for the vestiges of others, to whom in the enthusiasm of gratitude we allot in imagination a prominent place.

Of these, some it may be presumed, although entitled to the best thanks that their country can bestow, from their service in raising her intellectual or adorning her moral character, in the eyes aud estimation of foreigners, have been denied this mark of honourable distinction,-through the petty influences of party jealousy, and various other associated opinions concerning character and merit, which divide the age-which immediately succeeds their own.-Time glides away; another age succeeds, which, perhaps, the ardour of grati tude and acknowledgment, which, while it is fresh and active, prompts to public memorials, loses its im pulse, and what our fathers have omitted to do, is still neglected.

in

Others, for whose writings or for whose character we entertain the liveliest sense of admiration, we look for in vain amidst this grand repository of the illustrious dead;-their genius, and their department of laBours (although most concor in a cold acknowledgment of their high

rank),

rank), still have not in them enough of general interest, to animate and incite to public testimonials of their worth, or of the estimation in which they are held by their surviving countrymen.

Amongst this class, perhaps, stands Mr. Locke, the subject of a monument to whose memory has chiefly occasioned the present remarks. Such a monument, allow me, Mr. Urban, to repeat, has long been a national desideratum. That upwards of a century has elapsed without the appea rance of any public testimonials of the high rank and eminence in which he has ever stood, as well in the other countries of Europe as his own, is only a proof of the too frequent indifference of those who ought to promote and patronize whatever tends to perpetuate the dignity and character of their nation; even when their own personal feelings are not powerfully appealed to, or when the department of intellectual science in which he shone has not exactly coincided with the views or the tastes of those who are nevertheless emulous in the support of Literature and Science.

Yet where, in the Philosopher, or in those of the Publick, is there to be found a character in whom national esteem ought in a higher degree to unite? As a Writer, and as a Patriot, it has long ceased to be a question with his intelligent readers; he stands eminently entitled to the highest esteem.

As a Metaphysician, acute, intelligent, and profound, he occupies a station in the very first class ;-vigi lant, prompt, and sagacious in the detection of truth, he advances no postulate, and draws no corollary, which will not undergo the test of rigid and severe argument, and generally of demonstration. Indefatigable in his pursuit of truth, and inflexible in its maintenance, he did not shrink from an avowal of those doctrines, or of those discoveries, which the most subtle and discriminating research into the real character and operations of the human mind afforded. His understanding, framed by nature and by habit to originate its own inquiries, and form its own judgments, advanced theories upon the surest evidence, and deduced fair and legitimate truths from well-established

facts, upon which he safely grounded those principles, from which be advanced to new light and new discoveries. The tendency of all his inquiries into the nature and phænomena of mind, has been to open its perception to further discovery, and to place this intricate but highly-important science,-in which his labours may be termed a signal epoch, and in which the dawn of metaphysical light soon expanded to the expulsion of sophistry and error,-upon a permanent and unshaken basis.

Upon the services which Mr. Locke has rendered to the science of Jurisprudence, those who have most studied his Treatises on Government will be best aware. If, over the elevated and patriotic shade of Sidney, the ingenuous heart stoops with reverence and acknowledgment,-if the tear of commiseration and regret must ever flow whilst perusing the writings and reflecting on the fate of such a man, the ardour and dauntless freedom of Locke, in explaining what he conceived to be the cause of his country and mankind, is almost equally entitled to our sympathies. Tenacious in the support of the native freedom of his country, he grounded his arguments of liberty as a divine and inalienable right, upon the firm but temperate deductions of the uses, ends, and designs of all human government, and in his cool and dignified resolution to withstand tyranny and corruption in its various shapes and appearances, has merited the high respect of all, in whom integrity, combined with an ability to appreciate talent, maintains a place.

In the minor and occasional writings of Locke, although the vigour of thought, and the scope and elevation of idea which is so abundantly manifested on other occasions, are not, from the nature of his subjects, requisite, he is every where intelligent, perspicuous, and distinguished by good sense. Actuated as it would sufficiently appear by a sole wish to elucidate truth, and to benefit mankind, he laboured strenuously to remove prejudices, to set things in their clear, proper, and rational light, and to implant in the minds of those for whom he wrote, a noble and correct manner of thinking.

In the public functions in which his talents were exercised, he discharged

the

T

Upon entering the corner of Westminster Abbey appropriated more peculiarly to the Classicks, the feelings are gratified by seeing many

whose brilliant talents well entitle

them to such a place. While Dry; den and Addison meet the eye, and occupy a prominent station,—a re flection will arise that, notwithstanding the high part which these illustrious Writers bore in the Literature of their age, their services in Poetry and the Belles Lettres were inferior, perhaps, to those of Mr. Locke in Philosophy-and shall we see, under the noble dome of a Cathedral which reflects credit upon the talents of its Architect, and on the splendour of the British Metropolis, the names of a JOHNSON, a HOWARD, and a JONES, unassociated by that of a Sage whose claims on the perpetual remembrance of his country, are not inferior to either of them?" With what indignation and painful reflections," on the other hand, to use the language of a Biographer, "must we behold the remains of that great and good man lying under a mean mouldering tomb-stone, in an obscure country churchyard, by the side of a forlorn wood!"

I would avail myself, Mr. Urban, of this opportunity to inquire, through the medium of your widely-circulated Miscellany, why the projected Monument in St. Paul's Cathedral to the memory of John Locke-a. Proposal of which appeared some eleven years back in your Magazine*, was not proceeded with? Was public spirit, the love of philosophy, and

* See vol. LXXVIII. 382. 511; LXXIX. 451; LXXX. i. 230. EDIT.

IF I do not encroach too much

upon your valuable pages by of fering subjects of a comparativelymean interest, I shall beg a niche for logy of Halifax. the following paper on the Etymo

contention among Antiquaries, and This has long proved a source of admitted of divers interpretations; while it is rested on the invention of a foolish fable by some, we find it gladly passed over by others, as a matter where reason is inadmissible, and on which explanation is thrown away. It is, moreover, one good proof, from a large number, of the extreme fondness of the older writers for hiding under the ambiguity of a tale what they'did not understand, or took no trouble to comprehend.

The authors who have treated on this subject are Camden, Thoresby, Watson, and Dr. Whitaker.

Camden delivers himself thus:

"Among the mountains themselves the Calder afterwards leaves on the left Halifax, a very famous town on the slope of a hill extending from West to East. It has not had this name many ages, being before called Horton, as some of the inha

bitants relate, adding this tale concerning the change of the name. A certain priest, as they call him, had long been in love with a young woman, without success; and finding her virtue proof against ali his solicitations, his love suddenly changing to madness, the villain cut off her head, which being afterwards hung upon a yew tree, was reverenced and visited by the common people, till it began to corrupt, every person pulling off some twigs of the tree.-The tree, stripped of its branches, maintained its reputation for vulgar fancied the little veins spread like sanctity among the credulous, and the

+ See the question answered in our last, p. 386. EDIT.

hair or threads between the bark and body of the yew, were the identical hairs of the maiden. A pilgrimage was established from the neighbourhood hither, and such

a concourse came that the little village of Horton grew to a large town, and took the new name of Haligfax, or Halifax; q. d. Holyhair, fax signifying hair among the English on the other side of Trent, whence also, a noble family in these parts, called Fairfax, from their fair hair."

Gough, in his Additions, censures Camden's hasty manner of taking up this etymology; and gives Wright's explanation, from the face of St. John Baptist, which is the same as Bentley's.

There is no mention of Halifax in Domesday Book, though it occurs in several antient grants and charters immediately following.

I must beg leave respectfully to offer my dissent from Dr. Whitaker's proposition in his republication of " Loidis et Elmete," that Halifax, or Holyway, is "half Saxon and half Norman; for fax in Norman French is an old plural noun denoting highways." The principal weight of my objection rests on the belief I have always enter tained, that it never was a custom in carly ages to give names to towns and places after the manner he has mentioned; and, with the exception of surnames, added from motives of pride and family greatness, to Saxon originals, no examples, I think, are to be adduced in corroboration. Per

haps, 1 may say with equal confidence, that the interpretation of Halifax, as signifying "Holyways," is also erroneous; for, in addition to the improbability of the union of the languages before spoken of, I apprehend it may be shown that the place received its name before the arrival of the Normans, and that consequently it cannot be other than Anglo-Saxon.

I consider Halifax to be compounded of an adjective and a substantive noun in the usual way. The first half, Halig, sanctus, from the verb Haligan, consecrare; and the second, Fac, possessio, from facan, acquirere. The conjunction of the adjective and substantive, in the plural number, will give Haligracar, sanctæ possessiones, a term applied to so much territory as appertained to a religious foundation of Saxon origin once flourishing in this spot.

GENT. MAG. Suppl. LXXXIX, PART II.
C

The same reasoning will hold good, and unravel the meaning of Balafax; the Celtic bal, bala (among the Irish bally), the initial syllables of many places in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, signify a place, town, or situation. The Suiogothic and Icelandic bol, has the same meaning, domicilium, sedes, &c. all from the Mosogothic bau-an, to dwell. Balafax, therefore, would give in like manner Balaracas, possessiones oppidi Bala. Fairfax, which has, until Dr. Whitaker suggested Fairways, been explained to mean Fairhair, from the alleged founder of the family having light-coloured hair, is, as I take it, an evident misconception, and ought to be read Fagareax*, Capilli versicolores, from the verb Fagian, bariare, and reax, Crines; and the proper pronunciation of this compound will easily account for the first part being now read Fair; whilst the singularity of the appearance would be a likely reason for the attachment of so curious an agnomen, corresponding closely with the custom of other nations; as for instance, the Cicero, and Claudius, among the Romans; and the Longepée, Ironsides, and Cœur de Lion, in our own history. The versicolor equus, or piebald horse, by the Saxons termed ragarreda, is a pårallel, and proves the usage to be then extant.

ban, I suggest that Halifax is entirely In conclusion, therefore, Mr. Urand purely Saxon, and has its derivation from a certain track of land be

longing to an antient religious establishment existing at a remote time, upon which the present town has since risen, and continued to us the usurped appellation. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,,

W. R. WHATTON.

Dec. 3.

ANY persons are ready to exclaim against the expences of actions, without considering how much it is in the power of the parties considerably to lessen their, and yet try the real merits of a cause. I particularly allude to the expences of witnesses. In one cause, lately, I am informed the witnesses cost 40007.