also appeal to the exquisite and admi- for such as would not submit to a com- Lower Classes;" and "Mr. Owen's pro posed Villages for the Poor shewn to be highly favourable to Christianity." soever a nation may be, yet a few dividing And, again, at the conclusion of his delightful work: "Thus have I described to you, as particularly as I could, the constitution of that commonwealth, which I do not only think the best in the world, but indeed the only commonwealth that truly deserves that name. In all other places it is visible, that while people talk of a commonwealth every man only seeks his own wealth; but there, where no man has any property, all men zealously pursue the good of the public: and, indeed, it is no wonder to see men act so differently; for, in other commonwealths, every man knows that, unless he provides for himself, how flourishing soever the commonwealth may be, he must die of hunger, so that he sees the necessity of preferring his own concerns to the public, but in Utopia, where every man has a right to every thing, they all know that if care is taken to keep the public stores full, no private man can want any thing; for among them there is no unequal distribution, so that no man is poor, none in necessity, and though no man has any thing, yet they are all rich; for what can make a man so rich as to lead a serene and cheerful life, free from anxieties; neither apprehending want himself, nor vexed with the endless complaints of his wife? He is not afraid of the misery of his children, nor is he contriving how to raise a portion for his daughters; but is secure in this, that both he and wife, his children and grandchildren, to as many generations as he can fancy, will all live both plentifully and happily; since, among them, there is no less care taken of those who were once engaged in labour, but grow, after wards, unable to follow it, than there is elsewhere, of those that continue still employed. I would gladly hear any man compare the justice that is among them with that of all other nations; among whom may I perish if I see any thing that looks either like justice or equity: for what justice is there in this, that a nobleman, a goldsmith, a banker, or any other man, that either does nothing at all, or, at best, is employed in things that are of no use to the public, should live in great luxury and splendour upon what is so ill acquired; and a mean man, a carter, a smith, or a ploughman, that works harder even than the beasts themselves, and is employed in labours so necessary that no commonwealth could hold out a year without them, can only earn so poor a livelihood, and must lead so miserable a life, that the condition of the beasts is much better than theirs? For as the beasts do not work so constantly, so they feed almost as well and with more pleasure; and have no anxiety about what is to come, whilst these men are depressed by a barren and fruitless employment, and tormented with the apprehensions of want in their old age, since that which they get by their daily labour does but maintain them at present, and is consumed as fast as it comes in; there is no overplus left to lay up for old age. "Is not that government both unjust and ungrateful that is so prodigal of its favour to those that are called gentlemen or goldsmiths, or such others that are idle or live either by flattery or by contriving the arts of vain pleasure; and, on the other hand, takes no care of those of a meaner sort, such as ploughmen, colliers, and smiths, without whom it could not subsist? But after the public has reaped all the advantage of their service, and they come to be oppressed with age, sickness, and want, all their labours and the good they have done is forgotten; and all the recompence given them is, that they are left to die in great misery. "Therefore, I must say, that, as I hope for mercy, I can have no other notion of all the other governments that I see or know, than that they are a conspiracy of the rich who, on pretence of managing the public, only pursue their private ends, and devise all the ways and arts they can find out; first, that they may, without danger, preserve all that they have so ill acquired, and then, that they may engage the poor to toil and labour for them at as low rates as possible, and oppress them as much as they please; and, if they can but prevail to get these contrivances established by the show of public authority, which is considered as the representative of the whole people, then they are accounted laws: yet these wicked men, after they have by a most insatiable covetousness, divided that among themselves with which all the rest might have been well supplied, are far from that happiness that is enjoyed among the Utopians: for the use as well as the desire of money being extinguished, much anxiety and great occasions of mischief is cut off with it; and who does not see that the frauds, thefts, robberies, quarrels, tumults, contentions, seditions, murders, treacheries, and witchcrafts, which are, indeed, rather punished than restrained by the severities of the law, would all fall off, if money were not any more valued by the world. Men's fears, solicitudes, cares, labours, and watchings, would all perish in the same moment with the value of money; even poverty itself, for the relief of which money seems most necessary, would fall. are "I do not doubt but rich men sensible of this, and that they well know how much a greater happiness it is to want nothing necessary than to abound in many superfluities; and to be rescued out of so much misery than to abound with so much wealth: and I cannot think but the sense of every man's interest added to the authority of Christ's commands, who, as he was infinitely wise, knew what was best, and was not less good in discovering it to us, would have drawn all the world over to the laws of the Utopians, if pride, that plague of human nature, that source of so much misery, did not hinder it; for this vice does not measure happiness so much by its own conveniencies as by the miseries of others, and would not be satisfied with being thought a goddess, if none were left that were miserable, over whom she might insult. Pride thinks its own happiness shines the brighter, by comparing it with the misfortunes of other persons; that by displaying its own wealth they may feel their poverty the more sensibly."-More, p. 203. D. R. "I am therefore clearly of opinion, that the marriage in question not only may but ought to be solemnized; and that the minister refusing to perform the ceremony may be compelled to do so; Clergymen compellable to marry Un- and I therefore recommend that no further opposition be made to him. "Signed, baptized Persons. A WRITER in The Christian Ob server for January, has communicated the following Case and Opinion on this subject, observing, that he is "informed that the present and the late Bishop of the largest diocese in England both consider a clergyman right in refusing to marry unbaptized persons." We invite the opinions of our correspondents who are in the profession of the law upon this question, which involves the dearest rights of no inconsiderable portion of the Dissenters. "To Dr. J., Doctors' Commons. "Banns of marriage between J. H. and M. W. were published in the parish church of K. on three several Sundays. The vicar being called upon to solemnize the marriage, refused the request upon its having been stated to him, that one of the parties, namely J. H., had never received the rite of baptism from any person whatsoever. "Your opinion is requested, whether marriage may be solemnized, and whether the minister may be compelled to marry, without the rite of baptism being previously administered; and, if not, whether it will be necessary to republish the banns after baptism. "J. T. H." "To Rev. J. T. H. "Whatever may have been required by the ancient Rubrick, it is now perfectly clear, that it is not incumbent upon the new-married couple to receive the Sacrament, though it be recommended as convenient to be done; and therefore the reasoning which was applicable to the law as it then stood, is not to be applied to it in its existing state. The Marriage Act, it is true, requires that the true Christian and Surname should be used in the publication of banns; and perhaps, strictly speaking, there is no true Christian name but that which is received in baptism. It has, however, been held, that for the purposes of that Act, a Christian, as well as a Surname, may be acquired by repute; and that a person, whose name was Abraham Langley, was well married by, and after the publication of banns in, the name of George Smith. Vide the King v. the Inhabitants of Billinghurst (3 Maule and Selwyn, p. 250). H. J. "Doctors' Commons, 5 Dec. 1820." The late Rev. John Hornbrook's Letter on Clerical Subscription. SIR, THE 66 Birmingham, February 2, 1821. HE following statement, by a distressed clergyman," was the effusion of a heart that knew" its own bitterness:" it discloses the character of the individual from whom it proceeded, and shews that the pressure of clerical subscription has been more severely and extensively felt than persons living in the busy world may have imagined. I am enabled to inform you, on the authority of the writer himself, that this correspondent of Mr. Urban was the late Rev. John Hornbrook, who died, some years ago, at or near Plymouth. He was designed originally for the law: his turn of mind, however, induced him to take orders; and he officiated, for a considerable time, first as curate of Moretonhampstead, in Devonshire, and afterwards, in the same capacity, at Tamerton, in that county. From his diocesan, Bishop Ross, whom he made acquainted with his scruples in respect of reading the Athanasian Creed, he received the most satisfactory assurances of sympathy and candour. But Conformity was a burden too heavy to be endured by a man like Mr. Hornbrook. Many years before his death, he quitted the ministry and communion of the Established Church, and joined himself to a society of Unitarian Christians. He sometimes preached to the congregation at Plymouth, of which he had now become a member. The strain of his sermons was exceedingly plain and useful; and nothing but the tremulousness of his voice and frame prevented him from being heard with unabated pleasure. Notices and letters of Bishop Ross will be found in Nichols' Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century. Mr. Hornbrook was a man of genuine piety, benevolence and tenderness of spirit. He was also one of the most modest of human beings, never assuming airs of superiority on account of his having formerly been enrolled among the clergy of the Church of England, but grieved and humbled that he had continued in that body so long. I have frequently heard him speak with tears on the subject of the annexed letter. With the best theological writers of his age and country he was extremely conversant: among these, Sykes was particularly his favourite; and I must express my obligations to Mr. Hornbrook's memory for his having first put into my hands that author's Scripture Doctrine of the Redemption of Man by Jesus Christ." Many interesting thoughts and recollections are awakened by the review of my intercourse with my venerable friend. As often as I have read the communication which I now transcribe for your pages, I have found it impossible to suppress the exclamation, "Offences must needs come: but alas for those by whom they come!" JOHN KENTISH. "MR. URBAN, † "As your valuable magazine is held in high esteem, and much read, your inserting the following case in your next, will much oblige, "Your very humble servant, "A Distressed Clergyman. "Having had great objections, for many years, to the subscription at present required of the clergy, by law, to the Thirty-nine Articles, &c., I took a resolution never to subscribe more, on any account whatever: and I have, accordingly, more than once declined applying to my friends, when they have had it in their power to provide for me; in consequence of which, I still remain in the situation in which I set out, when I first entered into orders; namely, in that of a country curate. It may likewise be proper to mention here, that I also joined with those of the clergy who lately petitioned Parliament for relief in this matter of subscription. "By means of a small income which I have besides my curacy, which last brings me in about forty pounds per annum, I am enabled to give a little assistance to some near relations, who straits, and, which I should have menwould otherwise be reduced to great tioned before, to maintain a small family of my own, which it would not be in my power to do was it not for the small income of my cure. This, therefore, has prevented me hitherto from resigning my office in the Church, as I am satisfied I should otherwise have done before this time. For my wading through the different parts of the Liturgy in the manner standing my objections to them are much I have done for some time past, notwithMr. Jebb, must be allowed by every serithe same with those of Mr. Lindsey and ous man to be a task sufficiently hard and irksome. "But here it will be asked, 'If your case be really so distressing as you have represented it, why do you not apply yourself to some other employment, in order to procure a subsistence in a manner that might be more agreeable?' To which I answer, that though I have frequently taken the matter into consideration, yet, having now been engaged in the ministerial office between twenty and thirty years, and confined myself entirely to the studies proper to a clergyman, I have not been able to think of any business to which I can turn myself; it being rather too late for a man of fifty to apply himself to new studies. And should it be said, You may open a place of worship somewhere upon Unitarian principles, as Mr. Lindsey has done,' I ask, where is it likely I should find a congregation to join with me? Could Mr. Jebb* have found such a one, I dare say he would not have turned himself to the study of physic. Besides, having been always accustomed to a plain country congregation, and always preached to them in a plain manner, suited to their capacities, it would now be difficult for me to render myself in any manner agreeable to a town congregation. "Having thus laid my case, in a few words, before the public, if any of your numerous readers should have it in their power, and will be so kind as to point out any method of relief, it will be doing an act of charity to a person in real distress." In p. 16 of the Gentleman's Magazine for 1778, the foregoing letter was See, however, Mr. Belsham's Memoirs of Lindsey, pp. 94, 134, 135. J. K. treated with an unfeeling taunt; but in p. 77 of the same volume, it is mentioned in those terms of candour, liberality and respect which it so justly merited. SIR, J. K. Glasgow, OWE it to yourself and your readers I ventured to make of some account of the Life and Writings of the late venerable and learned Mr. Joseph Bretland [Mon. Repos. XIV. 494]. I have never relinquished this idea since I first formed it, although, soon after my communication to the Repository, I was led to alter the mode of publishing the materials I had collected. That I have not hitherto accomplished my intention, is owing to a variety of circumstances unnecessary to be here detailed. In the simple and interesting narrative of the executor, prefixed to the two volumes of Discourses recently published, we are presented with such particulars of the late Mr. B. as the life of a recluse student might be supposed to furnish. My own plan differs considerably from this, and is intended to include an examination of the opinions contained in Mr. Bretland's papers in the Theological Repository, &c. I wish also to be able to subjoin some account of Mr. Bretland's literary and theological connexions, and of the progress of liberal theology in his time, and within his circle of influence. Yet I dare not encourage the hope that I shall interest more than the younger and less-informed Unitarian, I feel, however, that I shall discharge a duty which my high veneration for the deceased prompted me, perhaps prematurely, to undertake, and shall be amply rewarded for my pains if the narrative should excite or confirm in any breast that love for moral and theological truth, and that upright, patient, candid spirit in the search after it, for which Mr. Bretland was so conspicuous. The small publication which I contemplate will be enriched by some very interesting letters, never before published, of the Unitarian worthies, Priestley, Lindsey, Toulmin, &c. I am sorry that I have been able to procure 30 few of Mr. Bretland's own letters. My thanks are, however, due in particular to Mr. Joseph Priestley, to whom I applied for leave to consult the correspondence between his illustrious father and Mr. Bretland; but, after inquiring for me on the other side of the Atlantic, he concludes that the loss of this is only one of the numerous injuries which the public has sustained from the Birmingham Riots in 1791. I beg leave respectfully to solicit the advice and communications of such of my older friends as may be able to promote my design, the promptness of which will expedite the publication. B. MARDON. Portsmouth, your Corre12-14 but the animadversions of The Inquirer, in refering to the Sermon I had the honour to deliver before the Supporters and Friends of the London Unitarian Fund Society in May last, says, "Though the preacher does not expressly mention the Inquirer's Four Letters to the Rev. Mr. Fox, he has obviously alluded to them, by censuring the application there made of the case of Elymas" (Bar-Jesus). So far was I from alluding to these Four Letters of the Inquirer, that I am at this moment perfectly ignorant of their contents, not having read a single sentence of either of them, nor had I heard that the case of Bar-Jesus was referred to in them till after the Sermon was published. The greater part of the second paragraph applies to Mr. Fox, and was doubtless intended as, at least, a shotwind for him, and to him I leave it. In the third paragraph the Inquirer remarks, "Surely this was a crime by no means peculiar to Elymas, neither are we justified in imputing this crime to Elymas, unless Mr. Scott can shew that he had witnessed any miracle till that which deprived him of sight." The * Elymas is not the name of this person, but describes his profession as a magian. |