rity and no mifemployment of that day. But I know of no abfolute diftrefs prevented or relieved by teaching poor children to write and account on that day; and with extreme concern I fee habits recommended by it, which will not fail to make them ealy, when hereafter they profane it by pursuing their worldly callings. I fee a manifeft injury done to religion by fo irreverent a practice; for, if on that day, the ordinances of God be neglected, it is to be feared that all his other commandments will be forgotten through the week. And there is a day approaching when the mifemployment of the Sabbath will be rigidly fcrutinized, and when other accounts than thofe of worldly gain and lofs must be eternally fettled. I appeal therefore to all the fincere profeffors of Chriftianity; can it be a fit time, when its adverfaries are labouring to extirpate it from among us, to teach the lower orders of fociety to difregard the first divine ordinance of keeping the Sabbath-day holy, which is almost the only barrier left to ftop the torrent of infidelity? When a nation once Christian has abolished Christianity, and its atheistical principles have been propagated here, can it be a time for us, who profess the pureft religion to degrade it by acts of unneceffary profaneness, and entail the mischiefs of impiety upon the rifing generation? Can it be a time to weaken the bonds of religious obedience, which are the ftrongest check upon popular profligacy and turbulence; or by worldly avocation on the day of holy reft, withdraw the minds of the poor from thofe confolatory profpects which best sustain them in a life of difficulty and labour. July 4th, 1800. V. WHEN Dublin, 26th August, 1800. THEN an action was lately brought against the printer of Dr. Dnigenan's book, written in support of the British Conftitution, and of the Proteftant faith, the profecutor, who had written most vehemently in fupport of the Catholic religion, brought into Ireland, to be produced as an evidence on the depending trial, a man named Godwin, by trade a philofopher, who had written various tracts against revealed religion; who was learned in all the learning of the French Republicans, and delighted in the whoredoms of the Gentiles; who, therefore, was deemed a proper man to be produced in favour of Popery; which, if it be not gentilif is no religion at all. This philofopher was configned by the affiliated focieties to a certain Barrister. The Jury who tried the cause, being all Chriftians, it was not deemed prudent to produce the teftimony of the philofopher; query, how fhould he be fworn, who denies revealed religion The philofopher, for fome time, like the unclean fpirit, walked in dry places; from Mr. Curran's to Mr. Grattan's; from Ely-place to Tynnyhinch; at length he vanished and was no more feen till a ftrange adventure brought him again into notice. Amongst Amongst the multitude of fools and madmen, who inhabit this land of Hibernia, there is a lawyer, poffibly crazed from too much learning, for certainly he has read much, and remembers all he has read; his derangement has always had a benevolent bias, always an anxious defire to amend the State; he never aims at less than the falvation of a foul or of a kingdom; and to accomplish either, he invokes the aid of Heaven or of Hell. Somebody had told him, or he had taken it into his head, that a Society of Illuminati had just arrived at Dublin, from Hamburgh; that they had fpread themselves through the counties of Kildare, Carlow, &c. and that they were doing much mischief. The Lawyer is a very large, athletic, powerful man; he feized upon an unfortunate emigrant Bithop, whom he compelled on pain of dilaceration to dub him a Bishop alfo. Thus armed from Heaven, he fought afliftance from below, and having hired three noble knaves as footmen; he, in right of his epifcopal authority, denominated them, Belzebub, Martin, and Ignatius. Having duly inftructed these ruffians, he mounted them on three excellent horfes, threw himself into a coach and four, and proceeded on his journey towards Kildare, in order to attack the illuminati. Miferable Godwin, wretched C. . . . ., little did you think as you fat in the Nineteen-mile Houfe near Kilcullen, laying your heads, and rubbing your horns together, amicably moteing whether he who celebrated the concupifcence of Mary, or he who punished the incontinence of was the wifer man; whether begetting children upon his wife's niece, or preventing the abtrufion of Children begot, was the greater act of wisdom;-when a voice loud and deep, exclaimed, follow me Martin, follow me Ignatious, follow me Belzebub; the door opened, the Lawyer and his imps entered; the miferable Catifs ftand appalled. Ha! Ha! have I found you he exclaimed; you fhall not fpread your peftilent doctrines here; feize him Belzebub, feize them Martin, seize them Ignatius. The trembling Philofopher fell upon his knees; he declared he had been more wronged than any man in the world; that, however neceffary it was to his intereft, amongst his affociates and difciples, to appear an Infidel, he was really a Believer at Heart. Repeat the Creed, faid the Lawyer; the Philofopher had forgotten it. Aye, and your Baptifm likewife, faid the Lawyer, but I thall re-baptize you immediately. Here we find it neceffary, in order to manifeft our own learning, and to puzzle the forefight of our readers, to fay that the Lawyer adminiftered Baptifm in a manner never imagined by any nation. We could ftate the Egyptian, the Hebrew, the Greek, and the Roman ceremonies of initiation; we know the practice of Free Masons, even to the hot poker; we know with what fluid the Hottentots afperge their profelytes; and, with what folid, the Deli Lama regales his devotees; but neither the Greek, the Roman, the African, the Egyptian, the Hebrew, nor the Tartar, ever imagined a liquid or a fubftance wherewith to fmear their people, equal to the copious flow of the Lawyer's faliva. We have faid that that he is a large man, but of a large man, he has the largest tongue and mouth in the world; this mouth he opened wide, and having collected a large quantity of fpittle, he compelled the Philofopher to open his mouth alfo, and discharged it with a propulfive power, which fent it beyond the epiglotis; then, with his two thumbs, wet with the fame fluid, he drew upon the face of the philofopher, certain necromantic figures, and difmiffed him, with a promife of confirmation provided he did not relapse. SIR, TO THE EDITOR.. Always read your Review with pleasure. Its object is the best and the most dignified, to which man can direct his labours: the preservation of peace and order in fociety; and of piety and of morals, in the individuals that compose it. Yet I notice with furprize an article in your Review for the laft month; in which you pafs a flippant and infidious obfervation, without the cenfure, which its falfity and its blafphemy alike deferve. The page, I allude to, is contained in an extract from "Townfon's Philofophy of Mineralogy," and is to be found in page 158. He obferves, from fome varieties in the conformation, difpofition, and arrangement, in the ftrata of our earth, that our globe, or rather its furface," is not the fimultaneous formation of the Almighty fiat, &c. &c." It is true, you have printed this paffage in italics. But furely, Sir, it called for an expreffed, not merely an implied, difapprobation! There are many curfory readers, (particularly the readers of those Critics, who are the panegyrifts of Geddes) who would fuppofe the paffage thus marked for their approval. You have treated the fame author, in a fubfequent article (fee P. 186) with becoming feverity. But, as here you have fhewn him a careless, or a misplaced lenity, permit me to expose the magical abfurdity, as well as the infidious impiety of the pailage. He afferts, what nobody denies, that there are many irregularities in the fuperficial appearance of the earth; (for he allows p. 157, that we know nothing beneath its furface;) and this, fays he, announces that our globe, is not the fimultaneous formation of the Almighty fiat! That is to fay, the "fucceffive formation and fubfequent changes" of the furface, afford an argument against the Mofaic account of the formation of the whole! But Mofes gives an account of fome, and those not trifling, changes of its furface. This the writer knew: and therefore adds, " or rather its furface." But why was our globe" introduced, if the inference was not juftified by the premises? To fuch artifices do the corrupters of the public opinion condefcend. But let them be told that fuch attempts are not rendered leis wicked, though lefs mifchievous, by their impotency. APPIUS CLAUDIUS. Upon I Upon the recent Developement of the QUAKER CHARACTER. SIR, TO THE EDITOR, can fcarcely believe the annals of history can furnish an instance of any nation labouring under fo complete a deception, as to the character of a part of it, as that of the English at large, for the laft forty years, in respect to the people called Quakers! The author of the Letters of Father Angeloni, it is true, made fome laudable attempts in unmasking this wary feet, but to little purpose, as the adulatory character, given them by Voltaire and other writers, had its fhare in allaying fufpicions, which would otherwise have been realized by a more general obfervation; befides, to make ufe of a scripture phrafe, the measure of their iniquities was not then filled. The fact is, that the wealth of this fect, accumulating for fo many years paft, and their fcrupulous retention of a fimple and dove-like exterior, had fo ftrongly rivetted the chains of public prejudice in their favour, that if other circumstances had not co-operated with the Anti-Jacobin Review in a recent exposure of their unconftitutional and irreligious tenets, it is not improbable that they would have endeavoured, at laft, to attach infallibility to that impeccability which they would fain perfuade the world belongs to them exclufively. I was led to make these reflections by the conviction of the truth, and pertinency of fome of the remarks in your last Number, upon one of the new Quaker Miffionaries. The Quaker's fondnets for importing Miffionaries from America is unquestionable; for befides Sifter Coggefhal, Hannah Bernard, William Savary, Thomas Scattergood, David Sands, George Dillwyn, &c. are likewife American preachers. It has not been the charge of monopoly, nor, as Mr. Howard fays, Quakers and corn, which has brought this fect into recent notice, but, in my ideas, a monopoly of another kind, viz. a monopoly of character, which now renders it indifpenfibly neceffary to exbibit them to the nation, as they really are; therefore, from Quakers and corn, I advert to Quakers and foup. It has certainly been a prefumption upon John Bull's good opinion, which has emboldened them to obtrude themselves, in various places, as our Almoners. Strange, indeed, that the subscribers, moftly members of the Establishment and other Churches, could not, at least, bear a part in the distribution of their own alms! but it is probable the officiousness of those good men wrought upon the fubfcribers so far as to fuffer them to take the trouble off their hands. The former, no doubt, being aware, that as nothing but the arab and the buttonless bat would be seen at the foup-houses, the credulous people would fuppofe themselves, if not entirely, yet more indebted to the Friends, than any other perfuafion. This is a matter, however, upon which I would lay little ftrefs, because, if admitted to the fulleft extent, it would form but a small trait in their general character; and, be des, it may be owing to their influence and activity in collecting fubfcriptions, that the Clerkenwell foup-fhop has between fix and even hundred pounds ftill in hand, which was subscribed last winter. Inclined to prefer a more ferious charge, I would not appeal to he Quaker body at large; but I would afk the grave and cautious eldeks, those who are in the fecret of their Church government, whether it is not a common boaft with them, especially to thofe whom they would wish to come in by convincement, that they are no Sectarians, viz. that they have all fects among them, even Deifts and Atbeifts?—I would also know whether they have not lately had a female preacher from America, a known Deist and admirer of Thomas Paine? And whether it is not also a fact, that this preacheress always carried her confeffion in her pocket, a part of which was a pofitive denial of the fuper-human conception of Jefus Chrift? A direct, or an explicit, anfwer from one of this fect is scarcely to be expected; I will, however, venture to affirm, in corroboration of what I have now hinted, that more copies of the Age of Reason and the Rights of Man, have been bought up by them, than by any other description of perfons, affuming the name of Chriftians. As, I prefume, I know this Anti-Christian sect, aù fond, I know alfo, that there are two parties among them, viz, one, containing numbers of the people who are advocates for ancient Quakerifm, and the other, the great traders, elders, &c. who are Socinians, Deifts, Atheists, and, I may add, Republicans too, juft as occafion ferves, The latter difpofition among them I infer from their general attachment to the writings and perfon of Thomas Paine, of which I could mention an inftance; one of thefe inoffenfive men, a leader, sonniving at, or perfuading to force and arms, had nearly compromifed the public peace, at leaft, that of his own parish. I shall occupy no more of your time at prefent; but as the modern Quaker character has fo much of the Jew, the Fanatic, the Infidel, and the Jefuit in its compofition, it is poffible I may be compelled to illuftrate it more at large, in purfuance of my original defign, viz. in fome future edition of the argumentative part of the "Rife and Diffolution of the Infidel Societies," in which it was my former intention to prove that this fect, by its approximation to Deism and Atheism, (and efpecially by the recent degeneracy of its moral character) had operated more to the prejudice of the Christian Religion, among the observing part of the public, than any extravagancies of Swedenburgeans, Myftics, Mafons, &c. The developement of the Corporation Spirit of Friends, and a fimplification of their complicated character (for which I have long been collecting materials) I cannot help confidering as a defideratum in literature, and should rejoice to see it, even from the hand of a stranger. I am, Sir, W. HAMILTON REID. APPENDIX, VOL. VII. Literary |