He remarks, too, that

By circulating Unitarian tracts, we penetrate, as it were within the entrenchments of orthodoxy." 23.

The subject of this discourse is so interesting and appropriate as to claim the attention of all the professors and friends of Christianity: and the judicious manner in which it is treated, by Mr. Jevons and the excellent spirit which pervades his observations, fur ther entitle him to our gratitude.

ART. VI.-Vice Triumphant, the Remedy Proposed Easy and Effectual: With the Statement of a New Hy pothesis to Explain Accountableness. By Samuel Spurrell. London, Sold by Hunter. PP. 83.

THIS

1817. 12mo.

THIS little work consists of two parts, in the former of which a new hypothesis is submitted to explain accountableness; while the latter is a practical essay, built upon the preliminary theory, and designed to arouse the feelings, and to direct the youthful mind to the easiest and most effectual means of resistance to vicious incitements. The author seems to assume that vice is triumphant, or has a "general prevalence." But we doubt whether he intends to say more than that it exists in a very great and alarming degree and we give him ample credit for the zeal of his efforts and the benevolence of his motives.

We lay before our readers, in his own words, an analysis of his hypothesis: 38, 39.

"Man is placed in circumstances in which he becomes accountable for his actions. Obedience to the will of his Maker is the requirement; a competent mean is afforded whereby to ascertain it, in the invaluable gift of reason, capable of being improved or not by himself; and it is for it's improvement or neglect that he becomes responsible-all subsequent moral results depending upon it. Or, if any doubt could for a moment be entertained on the subject, the example of the idiot, so born, and the melancholy derangement of intellect in after-life, incident to a few, prove it to a demonstration. In the former case, having at no time had

the capacity of improving the gift of reason, responsibility never applied; and in the latter, unhappily, it no longer continued to do so. If the reasoning power be cultivated and improved to the utmost, vine commands follows as a consequence; a willing and easy obedience to the Diif neglected altogether, or in part, man is alike unable and unwilling to execute them. Present comfort and future happiness are the reward of obedience; disquietude here, and misery hereafter, the punishment of disobedience."

These remarks prove that no accountableness can exist where the in

valuable gift of reason is withholden: they do not shew however that accountableness is independent on the state of the will. Mr. Spurrell's new hypothesis reminds us of those writers on ethics who resolve moral obligation into a just perception of the qualities of actions. But we ought to distinguish between the foundation of virtue, considered as the command of the Universal Lawgiver, and the nature of the capacity for virtue in an individual agent. A course of conduct which is not voluntary, can be no proper object of praise or blame, reward or punishment.

We are of opinion that our author should have taken hubit into the account in his ethical definitions and arguments. Yet, although we think his theory in some points defective, and in others less clear and satisfactory than might have been wished, we greatly admire his concluding address to the young, a few sentences of which

we extract:

"Remember, that on your active exertions and judicious decision now, every valuable expectation either here or hereafter eventually depends. *. If as years roll on, the period at length arrive, when passion having at last exhausted itself in your weakened frame, a better principle and practice should bear sway: the greatest benefit to be then experienced, could at the utmost amount to no more, than to stay for a while the fell ravages of bodily disease ***. Sooner, far sooner, shall virtue cease to be virtue, and vice to be vice, than their inevitable consequences will be found to have been dispensed with. As easy were it to deprive the honey of it's sweetness, and the salt of it's savour."

DOMESTIC.

RELIGIOUS.

MR. JOHN WRIGHT. (From Liverpool Mercury, Apr. 25.) On Saturday last, Mr. John Wright, attended by his professional friends, Mr. Venables and Mr. H. Dennison, appeared at the Town Hall, on the subject of the registering of the Long Room, the further hearing of which had been postponed to that day. Mr. Wright had been at Chester, and on inquiry at the Registrar's Office, he found, to his surprise, that the registry had been kept in loose papers on a file, and that no books had been kept nor any regular entries made so far back as the time he wished to refer to.

Mr. Venables wished to have obtained a re-hearing of the evidence by which the informations had been supported on a former day; but this was overruled by the Bench. After mentioning the extreme negligence of the late Registrar at Chester, for the truth of which he appealed to Mr. Statham, he proceeded to the proof of the place having been registered about twenty years ago. Mr. Robert Weston being sworn, deposed, that between the years 1796 and 1798, a certificate of the registry of this room was obtained by the congregation of Methodists of the New Connexion, of which he was, and still is, a member;-this was done by a Mr. Lionel Special (since dead); that he saw the paper called a certificate; and that after this was obtained, he and his followers met for public worship in the said room; that there were four preachers, whom he named, who officiated in rotation; and that after their chapel, called Zion Chapel, was built, they removed from this to the chapel where they continue to worship; that the room was afterwards occupied as a place for religious worship, by a congregation to whom Mr. Fleming officiated as minister; that 'the certificate was given to Mr. F. (Mr. F. is somewhere in Ireland); that the room has since been occupied by the Rev. Dr. Stewart, the Rev. Mr. Ralph, a congregation of Welsh Baptists, and was, for many weeks, during the year 1816, again occupied by the

congregation of Zion Chapel, while their own chapel was undergoing alterations.

. Mr. Venables observed, that a right to road would be established by usage for a much less time, as the law would presume the original right or original grant, although no higher proof could be given-and in this case he contended that the evidence was good, as he could not for a moment think the magistrates of Liverpool had been so remiss and so negligent of their duty, as to suffer such a place to exist for twenty years, without instituting an inquiry into the legality of it. And therefore, he concluded, that the place must have been originally certified.

The Town-clerk, in reply, said, that admitting all that was proved, and he saw no reason to doubt the testimony of Mr. Weston, but admitting this, he was of opinion that it would not serve the present purpose, for the act, as he understood it, required the place to be registered afresh for every new congregation. The Bench then agreed to withdraw two of the informations, and considering that Mr. Wright had erred unwittingly, convicted him in the lowest penalty, viz. 20s. Against this conviction the defendant appealed to the Quarter Sessions, which appeal will be heard to-morrow, Saturday, at 12 o'clock precisely.

(Liverpool Mercury, May 2.)

WE stated in our last, that in consequence of the strong circumstantial evidence produced by Mr. Wright, on the subject of the registration of the Long Room, the magistrates had withdrawn two of the three informations laid against him, and had only convicted him upon the remaining one at the lowest penalty, namely, 20s. Mr. Wright, however, conceiving that his evidence was sufficiently strong to obtain a decision in his favour, appealed against the conviction to the Quarter Sessions. On Saturday morning last, at 10 o'clock, the court (Mr. Alderman Gerard, Chairman,) assembled to hear the appeal, and in a short time the Town Hall was filled with a very respectable audience.

Mr. Lambe appeared as Counsel to

support the conviction, and called Mr. Campbell to prove that the room had been let to Mr. Wright, and Mr. Rees Davies to prove that a meeting for worship had been held in the room at the time stated. The Town-clerk was examined to prove that Mr. Wright, when the conviction took place, produced no certificate of registration. Mr. Ward, the deputy registrar of the Bishop's Court at Chester, deposed that he had searched the records of the court in order to discover if any certificate of registration could be found, but that he had searched in vain. The witness admitted, however, that previously to the time when he entered upon his present office, which was in 1809, the papers relating to this department were kept in a very irregular state, and he did not imagine that more than one-fifth, probably not more than one-tenth of them, were now in existence. This was the case of the prosecution.

Mr. Venables and Mr. Lawrence were Counsel for Mr. Wright, in speaking of whom, the former pronounced a well-merited eulogium upon the excellent character he had ever maintained as a man, as a friend, as a father and as a member of society. He conceived that the evidence he had to produce in favour of the supposition that the room had been registered about twenty years ago, and the fact of the undisturbed possession of the room by various congregations of Dissenters from that time to the present, would be sufficient to annul the conviction. There was no doubt whatever of the registration having been made, and a copy of it might now have been produced had there been any regularity in the Register Office at Chester. But the fact was, that no books had been kept, and they had now been informed by the Deputy Registrar, that probably not a tenth part of the papers filed previous to 1809 had been preserved! Was Mr. Wright, then, to be accountable for the want of care at Chester? He thought not, and as the place had been used so long for public worship, it was strange that Mr. Wright should have been singled out as the subject of these proceedings. But from the circumstance of Rees Davies belonging to the Liverpool Courier Office, and from the publication of an article, which he would not here allude to, on

the subject of Mr. Wright's meetings for worship, he felt no doubt in what place and in what motives the information had originated. Rees Davies had indeed denied being an informer, and declared that he attended the Long Room merely from curiosity. Now he had also stated that he ge nerally attended Mr. Raffles' Chapel, and yet mere curiosity, he would have us to believe, had led him three nights together to Mr. Wright's meetings!

Mr. Robert Weston, on being called and sworn, deposed, that between the years 1796 and 1798, a certificate of the registry of this room, in the Bishop's Court at Chester, was obtained by a congregation of Methodists of the New Connexion, of which community he was, and still is, a member. This certificate was procured by Mr. Parry, who then lived and is still living in Chester, and it was placed in the hands of Mr. Lionel Special, who is since dead. On the authority of this document they used the place as a chapel until the erection of Zion Chapel, and on quitting it handed the certificate to the succeeding occupiers. He believed one Mr. Fleming had the paper, but he was now in Ireland. Several congregations had occupied the room up to the year 1816, when the New Con nexion of Methodists again met in it while their own chapel was undergoing alterations. He was certain of the registration, as it was applied for during the time that the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, and they should not have felt themselves safe without it.

Dr. Stewart, a clergyman of the community of Scotch Burghers, was also called, and proved that he preached in the Long Room, Marble-Street, from November, 1807, to February, 1808, and that several other preachers both preceded and followed him. He had always been under the impression that the room was registered.

Mr. Venables and Mr. Lawrence then contended that as every proof, but the actual document, had been produced, the conviction must be dismissed, as the Act inflicted the penalty on those only who knowingly hold meetings in unregistered places. They cited several cases to prove the operation of the word knowingly. But the Recorder considered the word to apply to the fact of meeting and not to the want of registration; a place might be used

for worship in the absence of the owner, and in this case the word would defend him from penalty, but of the registry it behoved persons holding meetings to be quite certain.

In the progress of the inquiry, and while the appellant's witnesses were under examination, a question arose whether the room in Marble-Street had not, since the time of obtaining the alleged certificate, been used for secular purposes. And Mr. Benjamin Ellis, on the part of the prosecution, was called and deposed, that some three or four years ago, he attended at a debating society in that room, of which Mr. Ryley, the comedian, had the management. He also swore that about seven or eight years ago, a conjuror, the Sieur Rea, occupied the room for the display of his slight-ofhand feats.

The appellant's Counsel said this could not affect the registry of the room. Theatres and barns had frequently been registered for religious meetings.

Mr. Lambe then replied at length to the various arguments advanced by the appellant's Counsel, contending for the propriety of the conviction.

The Court, in giving their decision, said the case resolved itself into two parts. 1st, Whether there had at any time been a registration of this room? and, 2d, Whether, supposing that to have been the case, there had been, by the purposes to which the room was applied, a discontinuance of that registration? On the first of these points it must be admitted, said the Recorder, that the evidence of the fact is very incomplete. Why was not Mr. Parry, by whom it was said that the certificate was obtained, and who, it was admitted, was still living in Chester, called to prove this fact? It was a 'rule of law to require the best evidence that could be produced, and as the onus lay upon the appellant, it was for him to have produced Mr. Parry. On the second point, though the Court could not go the length of saying that it was necessary that every fresh congregation should have a fresh registry of their places of worship, yet as the applications of these certificates generally expressed that the place to be registered was "set apart" for religious worship, it certainly did appear that the continuity was broken by the introduction

of concerns of a secular and profane nature, and this had confessedly been the case in the Long Room in MarbleStreet. Under these circumstances, the Court felt it their duty to confirm the conviction, which was confirmed accordingly.

Mr. Venables then took several legal objections to the form of the conviction, and insisted that it should be quashed, as the information did not appear to be on oath; that no time was stated when the adjudication was made; that the conviction was bad, inasmuch as it did not aver that the information was given within three months; and, particularly, that the evidence given at the hearing of the information on the part of the defendant was not inserted in the conviction, but totally suppressed: but these, among many other objections, were overruled the Court saying, that they appeared on the record, and night be taken advantage of elsewhere, in a future stage of the proceedings,-and the appellant, by his Counsel, intimated his intention to remove the conviction by certiorari into the Court of King's Bench. The discussion lasted three hours and a half.

Manchester College, York.

There will be two vacancies on the foundation of the College at the close of the present Session. Applications for admission, with the requisite testimonials, are requested to be immediately sent to the Secretaries, Thomas Henry Robinson, Esq. Manchester, and the Rev. Jolin Gooch Robberds,

Manchester.

Testimonials must be signed by three Dissenting ministers resident near the candidate, who are required to certify that he will have attained the full age of sixteen at the commencement of his course that on their personal knowledge and examination, his moral character, natural endowments, and classical attainments are such as to qualify him for becoming a student for the Christian ministry; and that the profession is the object of his own voluntary choice. An ability to

read Homer and Horace are considered

as essential to admission.

Manchester, May 1, 1817.