and it was delightful to witness the spirit of friendly feeling and harmony that generally prevailed. The number of lay gentlemen present from the Sheffield congregation was a living testimony to the truth of Dr. Philipps's remark, "That Unitarianism in Sheffield was a flourishing plant." We lament that our limits do not allow us to give the speeches more in detail. London University. On Monday, April 30, at Three o'clock in the afternoon, the ceremony of laying the first stone of this great work took place on the ground purchased by the Council at the upper end of Gower Street. It was performed by the Duke of Sussex with the usual Masonic observances, in the presence of a very large and elegant assemblage of spectators. The Dukes of Norfolk and Leinster, Dr. Lushington, Mr. Brougham, Mr. John Smith, and many other mem bers of the Council, assisted. Dr. Lushington and his Royal Highness both shortly addressed the company. Coins of the present currency were deposited in the stone, which bore the following Latin inscription, recording the date of the commencement of the undertaking, its objects, and the names of the Council : Deo Opt. Max. Qvod Felix Favstvm que sit In the evening a dinner was given at the Freemasons' Tavern to the Members of the Council and the friends of the Institution, who assembled to the number of nearly 500. The galleries were filled with ladies, who appeared to take great interest in the scene, animated as it was by music and singing, and frequent bursts of enthusiastic applause during the toasts and speeches. The Duke of Sussex presided. Among the usual preliminary toasts, the healths of the King and the Lord High Admiral excited more than the customary plaudits, recent political matters being evidently in the minds of the company. In proposing the health of the Duke of Sussex, the Duke of Norfolk observed, that, to the illustrious titles derived from his ancestors, his Royal Highness added the still more illustrious titles of Protector of every Charity, the enlightened Patron of the Arts, and the friend of Civil and Religious Liberty. The toast was received with immense cheer Celsissimys Princeps Avgvstvs Fredericvs ing. Omnivm Bonarvm Artivm Patronvs Praeses apvd Anglos Svmmvs Many sva locavit Prid. Kal. Maii. Opvs Div mvltrin que desideratvm Vrbi Patriae commodissimvm Tandem aliqvando inchoatvm est Anno Salvtis Hvmanae MDCCCXXVII. Anno Lvcis Nostrae MMMMMDCCCXXVII. Nomina Clarissimorvm Virorvm Qui svnt e Concilio Henricvs Dvx Norfolciae Henricvs Marchio de Lansdown The Duke of SUSSEX returned thanks. He was glad of every thing which recalled to his recollection the principles which had placed his family upon the throne. He was greatly interested in the establishment of the University, and would always give his best exertions to aid it. This Institution would in no way interfere with Oxford and Cambridge, and ought to be regarded as a help to those universities in the common business of education. Their discipline and regulations prevented their adopting the changes required by the progress of improvement, and the expense of instruction with them had greatly increased within the last thirty years. Now the object of the London University would be to embrace all improvements in the science, and greatly reduce the expense, of education. But he did not suppose it possible that it could injure the old establishments. His Royal Highness concluded by proposing, "Prosperity to the University of London," which was drunk with three times three, amid deafening shouts of applause. prehended the lecture, and if he had made himself understood. A third hour was to be employed at least three days each week, if not six, in discussions, to which such pupils should have access as chose to push their studies, and they Mr. BROUGHAM, in returning thanks, should attend the levees of the Profesadverted to the time (about two years sors, who would have the power of disago) when the project was first brought pensing the highest titles and honours forward in the City of London, the cra- which a sovereign could confer on a dle of civil and religious liberty in this subject-he meant the power of helping country; of liberty which had been nur- the pupils in their labours, and directing ared and watered by the precious blood the higher studies of those who felt disof its noblest citizens. On that day he posed to examine into the operations of had risen to perform a duty, under very nature. He thought it needful to say different circumstances from the present one word on another subject; he had -under the cold sneers of some, and been unjustly accused of having spoken the more open taunts and gibes of with disrespect, and of being inimical to others, accompanied by the faint hopes the two venerable Universities in which of many friends, and the ardent good learning and science had long been carewishes of others; while the project was fully preserved, and from which they heard with deep execrations by the ene- had been not many years ago spread mies of human improvement, and of over the land, where truth and faith had light and liberty, which gave life and been treasured up-he meant Oxford and prosperity to this empire. But now Cambridge-whence, at no distant date, those clouds and mists were dispelled the lights of science and the grace of they had lived to see the walls of the letters had emanated. The Learned University rising amidst the plaudits of Gentleman vehemently repelled the surrounding thousands. The fabric they charge, and instanced the great men had erected would be an eternal pillar, who had been reared at the two Unihanding down their names to the grati-versities-the great Newton, the distade of posterity. He decried no man's Occupation-he contemned no man's vocation; but he could not help contrasting that day's work with others of passing interest, narrow and confined. They were not gratifying any vain or selfish desires, but administering to the happiness and liberties of mankind. The great thing which then remained to be done was to take great care in choosing the teachers. On this subject the Couneil had come to a fixed resolution, in which the whole body had cordially concurred-each of the twenty-four individuals of which the Council consisted, kad solemnly pledged himself never to allow such a phrase as a candidate for votes to be mentioned in his presence. They had resolved to give the places to the worthiest, aud to prefer the person, though least recommended, to the person best recommended, if his merits were only so much superior as the dust in the balance. Instead of teaching four, or five, or six months ouly in the year, it was their intention that the courses of lectures should last nine months. In stead of the Lecturer giving a single lecture of an hour each day, it was proposed that each Professor should lecture an hour each day, and he should, during another hour, examine the pupils suc cessively, to ascertaiu if they had com tinguished Wodehouse, Babbage, Copplestone, Wheatley, &c. To its older claims on our esteem, he said, Oxford now added the claims of having of late obtained a victory over itself: it had, in a great degree, almost adopted the lights and spirit of the age. The Duke of SUSSEX, after a high compliment to the Marquis of Lansdown as an University man, as well as for his political principles, gave-" the health of the Duke of Gloucester, and prosperity to Cambridge," and the "health of Lord Grenville, and prosperity to Oxford." The Marquis of LANSDOWN expressed his great respect for the two venerable and illustrious Institutions alluded to, and at the same time his warm wishes in favour of the new University, which he was convinced, so far from being a rival to the others, would contribute to the progress of science, and be a great means of promoting morality and religion. Several other toasts followed; among them, "Prosperity to the City of Westminster," for which Mr. Hobhouse returned thanks, and in the course of his address paid very high compliments to Mr. Brougham, without whom, he asked, where would the University of London have been? The health of Mr. Brougham was afterwards drunk, as "Chairman of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge" and that gentleman, in returning thanks, observed how completely their persevering efforts had silenced the poor jokers who had jeered at their attempts, and even that small portion of the Pulpit which had opposed the spread of knowledge. He eulogized the exertions of the illustrious Liberator of South America in the cause of education; and, assuring the company that their voice would be heard across the Atlantic, proposed "the health of the Liberator Bolivar, and success to the diffusion of knowledge in South America." NOTICES. THE Annual Meeting of the Southern Unitarian Society will be held at Chichester, on Thursday the 5th of July. The Rev. J. G. Robberds, of Manchester, is expected to preach on the occasion. THE Annual Meeting of the Eastern Unitarian Society will be held at Halesworth, in Suffolk, on Wednesday the 4th and Thursday the 5th of July. The Rev. Michael Maurice is expected to preach on the occasion. By the kind consent of the friends of Yarmouth, the meeting is this year transferred from that place, in consequence of the late opening of a chapel for Unitarian worship at Halesworth; a circumstance which will, no doubt, add considerably to the usual interest of the meeting. THE Annual Meeting of the Kent and Sussex Unitarian Association will be held at Canterbury, on Wednesday the 4th of July, when the Rev. Robert Aspland is expected to preach. A religious service, on occasion of the settlement of the Rev. B. Mardon, as Unitarian Minister at Maidstone, will be held there on the 6th July, when the Rev. L. Holden, of Tenterden, and the Rev. Robert Aspland, of Hackney, are expected to be engaged. We regret to learn that Dr. Carpenter, on account of continued indisposition, has resigned his office as one of the ministers of Lewin's Mead, Bristol. LITERARY NOTICES. Mr. Elijah Galloway has announced a History of the Steam Engine, from its earliest invention to the present time, illustrated by numerous Engravings from original Drawings. A work for young persons, under the title of Philosophy in Sport made Science in Earnest, will shortly be published in three volumes 12mo. Mr. Dunlop is preparing a third volume of his History of Roman Litera ture. An anonymous work, which promises to be of some utility to young readers, has been announced by the title of Classical Manual, or Mythological, Historical, and Geographical Commentary on Pope's Homer and Dryden's Eneid of Virgil. It will contain a copious Index, rendering it available as a Dictionary or Book of general Reference on various subjects. Mr. W. T. Lowndes proposes to publish by subscription a Bibliographical work, which he calls the Book-Collector's Manual, or a Guide to the Knowledge of Rare, Curious and Useful Books, either Printed in or relating to Great Britain and Ireland, from the invention of Printing to the present time, with Bibliographical and Critical Notices. Dr. Samuel Walter Burgess is printing select pieces in prose and verse, under the title of Sacred Hours. Mr. J. C. Beltrami will shortly publish a Pilgrimage from Italy to North Ame rica, including a Narrative of his Discovery of the Sources of the Mississippi, in two volumes octavo. The Rev. Henry Chissold is preparing for publication an Account of the Death of Men who have been eminent for their attainments in Theology and General Literature. Among the recent literary announcements is mentioned a Theological Ency clopædia, embracing, it is said, every topic connected with Biblical Criticism aud Theology. Mr. Godwin is printing the third volume of his History of the Common. wealth of England. We understand that the Manuscript Herbal of Jean Jacques Rousseau, the French Philosopher, in eight volumes Plants with their descriptions, in the quarto, which contains 800 sorts of hand-writing of that eminent Botanist, is now for sale in London, and may be seen at Mr. Rolandi's Foreign Library, 20, Berner's Street, Oxford Street. A VALUABLE correspondent, in a former number, enriched your pages with some most interesting observations on points arising out of the recent discoveries in Egyptian Hieroglyphics. His remarks assume an acquaintance on the part of your readers with the general nature of those discoveries, and he also refers to the sources of information on the subject; but perhaps you will not think a small space ill employed by an attempt to transfer to your pages a short summary of the history and progress of the late inquiries, in which of course you will understand me as aiming only at a very humble office, compared with that of your former correspondent. The Monuments of Egyptian art seem built for eternity; but, till lately, they spoke to us only in the permanence and magnitude of their outward forms. The obscurity and ignorance in which the remains of ancient literature engraved upon them all, have been for ages involved, appeared doomed never to be removed. But even this part of the labour of the artist is likely at last not to have been in vain. The revelation of his object, in an age which perpetuates its discoveries even on more durable materials than the rock, will give it a new immortality, now that the book which he left before the eye of the curious is doomed, after the revolution, not of centuries, but of milleniums, to be read and understood, as asserting and vindicating the title of the Egyptians to be considered the patrons and cultivators of the arts when the rest of the world was plunged in hopeless barbarism. That the monuments of the ancient dynasties of the kings of Egypt, of her Pharaohs, or even her Ptolemies, should now be in a state of preservation, enabling the antiquarian to trace the characters of their inscriptions, is sufficiently wonderful; but no one expected, after the fruitless research of so many ages, to see the day when they would be deciphered and understood, and when the spectator would readily develope the records of time extending beyond the conception of the most sanguine observer. It is perhaps wrong to despair of receiving new sources of information on any topics of historical inquiry. Within a short time the ancient history of Eusebius has been restored, to enlighten us on many points of antiquarian controversy; and now a few ingenious inquirers have hit, as it were by VOL. I, 21 CORRESPONDENCE. Mr. Rowe's Letter of the 10th of May has been received; but the Condutors, wishing to put an end to the personalities which it must tend unnecessarily to continue, decline the insertion of it. They avail themselves of this opportunity to remark, on their own behalf, that they were induced to admit Mr. Rowe's former communication by an anxiety to evince at the outset of their undertaking that their pages were open to the adversaries of Unitarianism as well as to its friends. They confess, however, that they admitted it with reluctance, because they thought that a writer of Mr. Belsham's profound and varied erudition, great talents, venerable age, and high and exemplary moral worth, might have commanded from his theological opponent more of the urbanity of the gentleman and the scholar, and more of the suavity and gentleness of the Christian. The appending of the author's name, on which Mr. Rowe lays much stress, is, in their judgment, of little importance, unless it have the effect of restraining the spirit and the language of religious controversy within their legitimate boundaries. They will, with pleasure, insert the paper on Dr. Marsh's note on Michaelis, if they are permitted to omit a few of the introductory sentences, and an offensive personality, which have no necessary connexion with the writer's argument. There is nothing in D.'s communication that can induce the Conductors to depart from their declared determination not to continue controversies begun in the former series. He will see that, by a very slight exertion of literary skill, his object may be fully attained without putting his observations in a controversial form; and they think his paper would be improved by being remodelled. The communication from Penzance will appear in an early Number. The proposed additions to it will be very acceptable. A Correspondent, in reference to a remark in a Review article, page 362, states, that Dr. Mead, before his death, no longer deprecated the publication of the translation of his work, but "approved and respected" that made by Dr. Slack, as appears from the title and page xviii of the publication in 1755. Philalethes is respectfully informed that the Conductors have demurred to insert his papers from an apprehension that the subject would not interest a sufficient number of the readers of the Monthly Repository to justify their allotting to them the necessary space. Mr. Harrison, who writes from "No. 3, Penton Place, Walworth," wishes to learn the fate of a scheme which, he says, was in contemplation "twelve or eighteen months ago," for building an Unitarian Chapel in Walworth. The Conductors are not aware that any such plan was ever publicly announced. It is understood, that on the expiration of the leaze of St. Thomas's Chapel, and the refusal of the proprietors to relet it, the Trustees of the Westminster Chapel were prevailed upon to apply their funds to the erection of one in Stamford Street, Blackfriars' Road, for the accommodation of the Unitarians residing in the districts which Mr. Harrison énumerates. Some Notices and Advertisements arrived too late to appear in the last Number. Such documents ought to be in the Printer's hands a week before the day of publication. Since the preceding sheet was printed, the United Committee on the Corporation and Test Acts met, and resolved by a majority not to press a motion for the Repeal of the Sacramental Test in the present Sessions. ERRATA. Page 234, line 35, for Theodicie, read "Theodicée." 313, note, line 2, for Vol II., read "V. 2." 314, note, line 16, for Latronne, read "Letronne." 318, line 8, for data, read" dates." 337, line 30, for "Sir Thomas Morland," read Sir Samuel Morland. 376, col. 1, line 2, for Cherint, read "Chemist." |