youngest at the breast. The third was left about three years before she applied to me, with two children under ten years of age, and an adopted child, for the support of which she had nothing, the father and mother having died some time before. All these cases appear at first sight formidable, and seemingly fit for the exercise of unbounded charity, both public and private; but, with the exception of the second case, (which, by the by, was one of a very interesting nature,) none of them received, nor did they require, the hand of ill-timed charity to assist them. It would occupy too much of your valuable time, however, to enter upon the particulars of any of the cases, or explain how they were treated; but let it suffice to add, that, had liberal means been afforded, in those cases, to supply their apparent wants, their husbands would never have been found out, and they and their children would have been, at this moment, in more abject poverty than at their first application." "I thought it incumbent on me to say so much in defence of a system, of the advantages resulting from which, both to the moral and religious character of a people, I have had now so ample an opportunity of judging."

The remainder of the pamphlet is divided into two parts; the first, more especially addressed to the present and future conductors of the separate management of St. John's; the second, submitted, with much deference and regard, both to the city rulers, and to the clergy and elders of the other parishes. In addressing the former, the Doctor makes the following ingenuous and eloquent appeal:

"If there has been any jugglery in our undertaking, let my friends, whom I now leave, and many of whom I have grieved by my departure, let them step forward, and

unmask it to the derision of the public. If there has been any conspiracy for the purpose of deluding the imagination of the citizens into the belief of an erroneous, though favourite theory; let the conspirators, now that their chief hath abandoned them, reveal the secret. . . . I found the delusion strengthening every year, that our success was due, not at all to the system, but to some marvellous or magical power in the operator who conducted it. The best service, in these circumstances, that can be rendered to the truth is, for the operator to resign it into other hands; and now that the enterprise has been delivered of that false and bewil dering glare which his presence had thrown around it, he has not another wish regarding it, than simply, that its enemies shall forbear their violence, and that its friends shall not abandon it."

The Doctor does not disguise his conviction, "that, apart from the support of education, and of institutions for disease, public charity, in any form, is an evil; and that the Scottish method is only to be tolerated because of its insignificance, and the rooted establishment which it hath gotten in all our parishes:" Yea, that a parish might be maintained in far greater comfort, and in a more soundly economic condition, without it altogether."

It

We are sorry to be obliged to dissent from Dr. Chalmers on any point relating to the subject of pauperism; but in the sentiment here expressed we cannot accord. appears to us a species of theoretical refinement that can never be realized in practice. The incidental bad consequences of which he complains, not without reason, are not justly chargeable, we humbly apprehend, upon the parochial system itself, which was, indeed, coeval with the Christian church, and,

in effect, authorized and recommended by the Apostles, but are owing to some error or defect in the mode of its administration, and especially to the character of legality which has unhappily been attached to it. Even private charity, injudiciously and indiscreetly administered, will be found, in proportion, to produce similar mischief. Accordingly, the Doctor himself afterwards subjoins: To realize the best condition of a parish, we do not hold it necessary, however, that the collection shall be done away; but we do hold it most desirable, that it be stript altogether of its legal character, and that the Kirk-Session have the gratuitous and uncontrolled administration of it. Thus delivered, we think that it may be the instrument of many and great services to philanthropy, though never brought to bear on the relief of mere indigence at all."

We must here again enter our dissent. With all due deference, we can see no harm that could result from making the congregational fund, so delivered and divested, to bear occasionally on the relief of mere indigence, provided this were done with proper judgment and discretion. We may conceive cases of indigence, occasioned by unavoidable misfortune, by the helplessness of age, or by other causes, and who have no friends to assist or support them. To devolve the relief of all cases of this description that may occur in a parish upon

"their wealthier neigh bours," the number of whom may happen to be comparatively small, would be imposing a disproportionate tax upon a few charitable individuals, and subjecting those who

have the care of the poor to a constant round of private begging and solicitation. We would have the weekly offerings at church to be viewed as the spontaneous gifts of pious benevolence, cast into the common fund, from a conviction, on the part of the individual do nors, that relief will thence be dis pensed to all the deserving poor, more surely and efficaciously than if each were to bestow his humble pittance with his own hand upon some needy selected object; and we would have the relief granted from such fund, especially in every case of mere indigence, to be communicated as gratuitously as private charity; and, withal, in so discreet and delicate, so secret and sympathetic a manner, as at once to benefit industrious poverty, and give no encouragement to idleness and vice. And, after all that can be done in this way, there will still remain sufficient scope for the exercise of private beneficence.

The Doctor concludes with expressing his confidence," that in proportion as the parochial system is more tried and more understood, there will come to be a more friendly coalescence in its favour, on the part of all the public men of Glasgow. There is much of a common feeling," says he, " and common principle, that ought to harmonize us many reconciling principles, on which I despair not, at length, of full reciprocity of sentiment. fully share with them in their antipathy to all wanton and senseless innovation. I share with them in their reverence for antiquity; and our only difference is, that while some plead for the way and custom of their fathers, I should like to fetch my authority from a remoter

I

comes a member of some juvenile literary society, and finds himself qualified to question, condemn, or to approve, the proceedings of those whose dicta a few years before he regarded as infallible; and if the question as to "Whether women should be qualified to become critics in learning, or adepts in science?" happened to be brought under review, perhaps, even then, you come to the same conclusion with myself: that to their equalling, if not surpassing, man, in every department of human knowledge, no obstacle presents itself, except that, in the acquirement of some, even of the preliminary steps, they must surrender all those better qualities of their nature which fit them so well to be his guardians in infancy-his comfort and guide in maturer years -and often, very often, the inspirer of his best hopes in the hour of death.

For proofs of the power possessed by women in modifying the condition of society, we do not need to look back to the days of chivalry. Every man who beholds our domestic circles, and marks with how much care every word to which an unchaste meaning can be attached, must be avoided in the company of female excellence,-who contrasts the pure, and sprightly, and often edifying conversation which takes place between the men in their presence, with the debasing character of that which too generally commences even at tables sur rounded by philosophers, the moment after the mistress of the mansion, according to a brutish custom, is suffered to withdraw,—will cheerfully acknowledge how much the strength, and virtue, and the happiness of a nation depend on the mothers of a people.

Happy would it be for mankind if an equally beneficial guardianship were exercised, by the same persons, over expressions of a not

less baneful nature. It is a fact, however, much to be lamented by every one friendly to the interests of humanity, that while the slightest whisper of the voluptuary is silenced by the frown of indignant virtue, open and profligate attacks are made against the first principles of religion even in the drawingroom, while, for so doing, by a strange perversion of terms, the shameless authors are hailed, by silly auditors, as wits and philosophers.

It is difficult to say how this distinction between crimes has been made.

If we look only for a moment to the moral consequences, the influence of either is ruinous to man; and if, disregarding morality, we try the merits of each by those standards which have been esta→ blished for our guidance in matters relating to courtesy and politeness, we shall find that it is not less ungenerous to offend the ears of a devout man, by unnecessarily denying that this world is a temporary scene, and that there is no certainty of his again meeting the friends he loved in a happier state-than brutal to utter sentiments calculated to sully the purity of female innocence. The equal baseness of the acts is evident. It appears to me, however, to be too little understood by those who could most assist in rectifying it; and therefore, Mr. Editor, I take the liberty of saying, that perhaps the pages of your valuable and much read Instructor could not be more usefully employed than in exposing, and heaping contempt, not only on the persons who make the distinction, but on those also who admit that there is a difference.

It was, therefore, with no small degree of satisfaction, that I read, in the last number of the "Christian Instructor," a letter from "A Student of Philosophy," pointing out some passages of a questionable

nature in a late publication of a very great philosopher. I trust, Sir, that the writer of that letter will never hesitate, whenever he discovers any sentiments of a kind unfriendly to religion, uttered or published by the national instructors of our youth, to proclaim them to the world; and I not less earnestly hope, that he will excuse me for thus coming forward to deny that the passages which he quotes are founded on any thing which the most scrupulous Christian can regard as objectionable.

Your correspondent, Mr. Editor, is surely aware, that, although Mr. Leslie deservedly occupies one of the highest places in public estimation as a mathematician, yet that the very best judges of composition have declared him to be most unhappy whenever he attempts to communicate his sublime conceptions to ordinary capacities through the medium of language. Mr. Leslie is extremely partial to what is called the florid style of writing; and to such an extent has he carried it that even his Elements of Geometry abound in instances where he has managed to throw a cloud of impenetrable obscurity over many of the simplest propositions. The unphilosophic avidity, too, with which he seizes on synonymes and sounding words, has a most mischievous effect in bewildering the intellects of his hearers and readers. The very ample stores of that language, the beauties of which the illustrious Playfair knew so well, and prized so much, have too frequently been exhausted by his distinguished successor; and mankind have, with surprise, beheld Mr. Leslie reduced to the necessity of supplying its wants, by adopting terms from a neighbouring language, almost proverbial, amongst philologists, for its extreme sterility. Such conduct on the part of Mr. Leslie, it is true, may be ascribed

to taste; and this declaration will satisfy most people. It will even content those who felt the same disposition to laugh when they read Mr. Leslie's cavils against the simple but interesting beauties of the Hebrew tongue, that those persons experienced who heard Grecian architecture condemned and reviled by a Dutch burgomaster. It is to the defects in our celebrated Professor's style that I have to direct your correspondent's attention for a solution of his doubts; but, in case he should feel unwilling to allow so much to the perversion of language, I shall take the liberty of showing that the assertion of the eternal existence of solar systems, in their present order and beauty, is completely inconsistent with what we all know Mr. Leslie to be, a prudent man, and a profound philosopher.

A few years only have elapsed since Mr. Leslie was the subject of one of the most interesting discussions which ever took place in the Assembly of our Church. Your readers will undoubtedly recollect, that a vacancy having occurred in the mathematical chair of our university, the patrons, with the full approbation of many of the best friends of mathematical science, were pleased to nominate Mr. Leslie to that important charge. As a scientific man, the merits of Mr. Leslie were universally confessed; but there were some who, it is thought for the purpose of making a diversion in favour of another candidate, attempted to get Mr. Leslie dispossessed on a charge of infidelity. The grounds of this accusation are contained in a sentence to be found in the Essays of a writer well known to be most hostile to religion and morality. The best friends of religion and truth, however, could not perceive the consequences to which this passage was said to lead; they rallied