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peculiarly distinguished in several instances by a recurrence to sound principles of legislation, both of a moral and political kind. We mentioned with much satisfaction in our last Number the concession of some highly important principles on the subject of Slavery; the recognition of which we trust will lead to important results, and we have no doubt will eventually be followed by the entire extinction of that opprobrious state of society throughout the British dominions.The abolition of public Lotteries after the present year, which has been announced by the chancellor of the exchequer, is another triumph of sound moral principle over fiscal policy, or rather mistaken views of policy; for we cannot admit that what is wrong in principle is ever in the end really for the interest of the public. We hail the deference thus paid to moral principle, in a case which had hitherto been viewed, by too many of our statesinen, only as a matter of financial regulation; and we rejoice in it, not so much for its own sake-though we would not overlook the flagrant evils attending the lottery-as for the beneficial influence of such a precedent, in its application to various other subjects in which the morals of the people are concerned, and above all as tending to place the measures of a Christian government on the only basis on which we may scripturally look for and implore the blessing of the Almighty. The debates on the Marriage bill have also been strongly marked by an admission of important principles, which for many years had been sacrificed to short sighted views of expediency. We defer giving the provisions of the bill now before parliament; as many of its features have been modified, and may yet be further altered during its successive stages. We shall present an outline of the act when it passes. The point to which we chiefly allude at present is the nullity or voidability clause. To remedy the evils arising from imimprudent marriages the act of George II. made all marriages of minors by license, without consent of parents and guardians, absolutely void, and the children illegitimate. This provision was a flagrant violation of the laws of God respecting marriage, for the sake of a very questionable advantage; and, as might be expected, it produced many and aggravated evils. This provision had incurred such just

and general censure that there was no attempt made to re-enact it. At the sanie time, the duty of protecting minors from improper matrimonial connexions was strongly felt; and a clause was, in consequence, admitted into the bill introduced by the archbishop of Canterbury, to render the marriages. of minors without consent voidable, though not void, at any period within a year from their celebration. An earnest debate ensued on this clause, which was finally, and we think most wisely and properly, rejected. We believe, indeed, that marriages, in which there exists between the parties' a very marked discrepancy of years or education, or even of birth and fortune, are seldom favourable to happiness; but we do not think that a legislature is warranted in unsettling a most solemn and religious contract in order to exclude this evil. Preventive measures, if not over-rigid, are doubtless wise and expedient; but we are persuaded that Divine Providence intended to commit the detail of these matters to the natural friends and guardians of youth, and not to national legislatures. Where parents educate their children morally, prudently, and religiously, with a just restraint over their passions, and a sense of propriety and duty, there will be little need for legislative enactments; and where this vigilance is wanting, a parent has no right to ask that the laws of God shall be superseded, and a most solemn religious contract broken, to suit his wishes. The artificial distinctions of life are generally strong enough of themselves to prevent very frequent infringements of their conventional institutes; and whatever evil may happen to follow their infraction, ought to be borne by the parties, and not obviated, or attempted to be obviated, by separating those whom, however inexpediently united,the laws of God would declare to be firmly joined together. The intended forfeiture of the property acquired by an exceptionable marriage stands on far other grounds. It is a civil punishment for a civil delinquency; but the sacred and religious bond of marriage is not to be sported with for any such secular considerations.

We may next mention the proceedings which have taken place in parliament respecting the Criminal Laws, as another marked advance towards the admission of sound principles in a most important branch of legislation.

We do not indeed think that the pledge held out last session on this subject has been by any means redeemed by the introduction of Mr. Peel's bills; but still his admissions, far more than the intended enactments, are important. It is also consoling to reflect, that while the legislature is gradually, however slowly, retracing its steps, by repealing former exceptionable enact ments, we are not likely in future to have constant additions, as in former days, to the number of our Draconic statutes. Sir James Mackintosh proposed taking away the punishment of death for larcenies in shops, dwellinghouses, and on navigable rivers; for horse-stealing, sheep-stealing, forgery, returning from transportation, breaking down the banks of rivers, and some other offences. He wished also to repeal the "Black Act;" to abolish the forfeiture of property in the case of suicides; and to provide that judges should not pass sentence of death in any case in which it was not intended to be inflicted. The extent to which government has felt it right to go at present is much more limited; Mr. Peel's bills doing nothing more than repealing those penalties which had, in point of fact, become merely nominal. We are glad to find, however, that Mr. Peel has provided for the abolition of the unwise and painful mockery of pronouncing sentence of death where it is not intended to be carried into effect. We trust that every new session will witness other ameliorations of our criminal code, till it become what policy and Christianity alike demand that it should be. A bill is in progress through parliament to make Game a saleable article. The dealers are to be licensed, and are to purchase their game only of persons qualified in virtue of landed property, excluding even leaseholders of 150l. per annum, who are otherwise qualified. This restriction will frus

trate much of the intended benefit of the bill as respects poaching; and we are persuaded that it would have been better for the landowner himself that game should at once have been made the property of the person on whose grounds it is nurtured, as he might make his bargain with his tenant accordingly, and both would have an interest in preserving the game. The bill has also some very arbitrary clauses. It is however so far an approach to a better system, that it opens a lawful market for an article, which, while unlawful, caused innumerable breaches of law on the part of the buyer as well as the seller. Poaching may continue, or even increase, under any change in the law, unless, with the new facilities for disposing of game, an interest is given to occupiers of land in preventing it; but still, in an article which it is known the public will have per fas uut nefas, it is a sound principle to open a door through which the market may be supplied without crime. There is, at all events, less temptation left to resort to smugglers, instead of the fair trader.

Some further commercialmeasures are under the consideration of parliament, founded on a recurrence to just principles; particularly one for suffering the interest of money, like other commodities, to find its own level; and another, lowering our import duties in favour of the produce of such countries as shall be willing to make a reciprocal concession to us. Should it be said that subjects like these are not within the province of a Christian Observer, we reply, that we rejoice, as Christians, to witness whatever leads to good will and useful intercourse between man and man, and, above all, whatever tends to diffuse those principles of friendly neighbourhood, and of equitable reciprocity, which, as Christians, we are bound to cultivate.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

1. I.; MINA; S. W.; A YOUNG INQUIRER; A. A.; and CLERICUS CORNUBIENSIS ; have been received, and are under consideration.

ERRATUM.

Page 351, col. 1, line 5 from bottom, for Hartfield, read Hartford.

CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.

No. 259.]

JULY, 1823. [No.7. Vol. XXIII

RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. THE HERE are some persons whose habit it is regularly to pass over, as too unimportant to deserve their regard, the prefaces of the books which fall in their way. As I am not of this number, I venture to say, that such readers are guilty, in this practice, of a wrong, both to the authors and to themselves ;-to the authors, who have often something of moment in relation to their works to communicate in the outset, or who, at all events, would not write a preface, if they did not wish it to be read; and to themselves, because not seldom there are some circumstances and considerations, the only appropriate situation of which, in a book, is the preface, but which are still material to the object, the intelligibility, and even the interest of the work. For myself, I can say, that frequently I have been furnished with a gratification amply to recompense my observance of my rule; and you must allow me, Mr. Editor, to remark, that among the prefaces which I never pass over without attention, and a somewhat serious attention too, are those which, from year to year, are contained in the Appendix to the Christian Observer: and my object, in these prefatory remarks, is to introduce an expression of pleasure in reference to the observations at the conclusion of the preface to your volume for last year.

I dwelt with delight kindred to your own on the rapid march of Christian benevolence, on the extension of the labours of religious zeal, and the auspicious prospects CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 259.

which appear on all sides to have been for a considerable period increasingly opening upon the world. It is not easy to trace the labours of the various societies in our metropolis, in our country at large, and throughout the world, without very sanguine hopes that these are some of the instruments and messengers employed by our gracious Lord, to advance towards its long-desired crisis the universal extension of that blessed dispensation, whose motto and whose spirit are, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards man." I also accompanied you in the regrets naturally awakened in every Christian bosom by the symptoms of our frail mortality, which, in so many instances, have betrayed themselves, not in the principles or the institutions to which you allude-for in these there is, I trust, an imperishable vitality-but in the indefatigable agents by whom those principles have been evolved, and those societies chiefly sustained Weariness, not in well-doing, but in the exhaustion caused by the toil; sickness, which wastes the best compacted frame; and death, who will not be deluded of his victims, however busily or laudably they may be engaged, have all assaulted, and must continue to assault, the labourers in every Christian work.

Men who have devoted the spring time of life to the furtherance of the cause of God, and have been permitted to outlive the summer, bearing the burden and heat of the day, have necessarily been overtaken by the decays of autumn, although not before their harvest has been ripe 3 H

for the celestial garner. It is an instance of great mercy in the heavenly husbandman to spare us such men so long: but in mercy to themselves, at last they are resumed, "God having provided some better thing for them."

In such visitations as these, it is natural for those who have laboured with them, be it but one hour or the whole twelve, and not less natural for those who have been the recipients of the religious benefits which they were the honoured instruments of diffusing, to cast around an anxious inquiry, Who shall advance to the vacated posts in these "noble armies" of zealous Christians? Whom have they left behind to whom their mantle may have fallen, that they may with it smite the waves which oppose the progress of the cause of God?

It is in this view particularly that your appeal to the "sons and daughters of sainted sires"-the members of a new generation, whose parents have ceased, or are soon to cease, from their earthly labours in the rest of heaven-is highly important. It may not be unseasonable, and, with the Divine blessing, not unprofitable, to dwell a little on the considerations which flow from this affecting subject; and, in order that my observations may assume something of arrangement, I shall offer a few reflections on the duty which, in an especial manner, devolves on the individuals to whom these remarks apply; first, to devote themselves to God, and then to dedicate their most zealous efforts to the promotion of his kingdom and glory

among men.

With regard to the first of these points, it is indubitably clear that religion is a personal concern. If Christian piety be good for any thing or any body, it must be good for a man's own self. We hear, indeed, at times of persons going to their church merely for the sake of example: but where can be the utility of setting before others an example which, if copied, is copied per

haps only for the purpose of exhibiting the same model of formality in return? The value of a holy and consistent example is not to be undervalued; and no member of our beloved communion will think the less of it, but rather the more, if that example is found sanctioning in a spiritual manner, and with a peaceful regularity, an attendance on all the ordinances which our Established Church provides; but if a man's re ligion carry him little beyond the regularity which is dictated by custom, and the orthodoxy of even evangelical sentiments, it will leave him far behind what our infinite Creator requires, when he says, "My son, give me thine heart." Perhaps the habitual recollection of this simple text of Scripture, and an investigation of our state with reference to the demand which it makes upon us, is one of the safest tests to which we can bring our religious profession.

In connexion with that interesting class of individuals to whose notice this paper (written it may be by one of their number) is especially addressed, namely the children of religious persons known to the world in scenes of benevolence and piety, the importance of the statements under consideration appears greatly increased. Trained from their earliest infancy in the ways of God, accustomed from the first dawn of reason to the holy light of the Gospel, it might be hoped that those ways would always appear to them the "most excellent," and that light the purest and the best. It is a subject of thankfulness, that this does happen with quite a sufficient frequency to verify the assurance that a child trained up in the way he should go, will not, when he advances in life, depart from it; but the subtlety of the human heart entrenches itself in such numerous delusions, that a real knowledge of our character is not attained without much humility, and prayer, and enlightened penetration. We are too often willing to take our estimate

of it by any measures but those which may possibly expose us to the humbling disclosure of our aggravated sinfulness. We flatter ourselves, perhaps, with our relationship to parents whose name and memory are dear to the church of Christ: we trace with self-gratulation our descent from a religious ancestry: the members of our own family are truly Christian: we may have ourselves a reputation for religion; and may even be the bosom friends of the most spiritually minded followers of a crucified Saviour; but not any one, or even all, of these circumstances, would be conclusive as to our personal piety. The first great question returns, "Has the demand of God for our own heart been complied with?"-There are many intimations in the sacred Scriptures which shew the necessity of this cautious self-scrutinizing spirit; and when we hear that "one of a city and two of a family shall be brought to Zion," the evident implication that some will be left, should instantly prompt the self-suspecting inquiry," Lord, is it I?" What though we may belong to a family where the love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of many of its members; what though our departed parents felt it, and, in the ardent flame which it kindled, ascended as in the chariot of Elijah to heaven; what though some of those who have grown up with us from the tenderness of infancy, in the bonds of fraternal and sisterly affection, may experience its sacred glow; all this will to us be nothing, if we ourselves are not like minded. The very thought that it is possible that all may not be such, should stimulate each individual to ask, "Have I just reason to think that if my Lord and Saviour were to descend into our little circle, and to go from heart to heart with the question which he once put to his most zealous disciple, Lovest thou me?' I could without hesitation adopt the reply of that disciple, and appeal to his perfect and undeceivable ac

quaintance with the human soul for evidence of the fact; Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee?"" This is undoubtedly a close and serious way of viewing the matter, and may perhaps be thought better adapted for the application of a sermon than for the present paper: but I trust my clerical readers will not be offended if I have obtruded for a moment on their office; and that my lay brethren will not think the less seriously of these considerations on account of their coming from one of their own order, and their not appearing in the too much slighted shape of an address from the pulpit. The inquiry suggested, come in what shape it may, is infinitely important. "Can I trace the indications of a true Christian in my temper, my tastes, my dispositions, my pursuits; in my conduct as respects my business, in my family, in my social and public intercourse?" Every other test is inade quate. We may know every term in the Christian vocabulary; for, with a religious education, this information is soon acquired; but mere knowledge does not constitute us Christians. We may boast of an intimacy with the most exemplary servants of God; our early habits may even have induced a disinclination for an opposite cast of connection: but still all this is but an equivocal testimony. We might have lived in earlier times, and have known the Saviour himself in the flesh; but even that would have been of no avail for our salvation. In the Great Day à claim of admittance to the heavenly glory will be presented by this very class of characters, and will be disallowed. "We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets." But He knew them not. Thus privileges of a very high degree may have been enjoyed; and even duties of an arduous kind have been performed (and this points more closely to the subject of the present paper): "In thy name have

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