REV. ROBERT LITTLE. IN August last, the Rev. ROBERT LITTLE, a man no less respected for his virtues in private life thau esteemed for his talents and his usefulness as a Christian preacher. He began his ministerial career as a Calvinist, and was for some time the pastor of a congregation in Mr. Haldane's connexion at Dundee. He afterwards officiated to a Sandemanian congregation at Birmingham. During his stay at this place he relinquished his Trinitarian sentiments and became an Unitarian. After this change in his opinions he preached occasionally at the Unitarian lectures in the metropolis, and subsequently succeeded Mr. Heineken, as the minister of the Unitarian congregation at Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire. Family consideratious induced him to remove to America. Having fixed his residence at Washington, he succeeded in raising an Unitarian congregation in that city, which was honoured with the countenance of Mr. Adams, the President of the United States, and other members of the Government and the Legislature. We copy from the United States' Gazette the following character of Mr. Little that originally appeared in the Washington National Intelligencer.

"A mail from Harrisburg has brought the mournful tidings of the death of the Rev. Robert Little, pastor of the Unitarian church of this city. He left us on the first day of the present month on a journey of recreation and health with his family. He was in usual good health at the time of his departure, except a little exhausted with the severe labours of his calling. His professional duties were uncommonly severe, preaching every Sunday twice, and attending to many other matters of industry through the week. The immediate cause of his death is said to have been au exposure to the oppressive heat of the sun for several days, on this journey to the place of his death; and added to which, he preached on Sunday last at Harrisburg, not more than forty-eight hours before his premature departure from this world. Mr. Little was a native of England, and had been a preacher in that country before his arrival in this city, which was about eight years since. For more than seven years past he had been building up a

flock in this place; not by zealous or overstrained efforts, but by those slow and sure degrees which give permanency to labour, and success to perseverance. He was of a high order of mind, uniting great simplicity with great energy; literary and scientific, he brought no ordinary stores of learning to support his creed, and to adorn his professional productions; a sincere searcher after truth, he reasoned with the fearlessness and warmth of an apostle; full in the belief of his own course of thinking, he treated the opinions of others with great candour and tenderness, and never attempted to remove an honest prejudice, unless he could supply a refreshing truth to fill its place. He discussed every topic with freedom, boldness and decision, as one who had come to a conclusion satisfactory to himself; but carried himself with all meekness and humility to his God and Father. He found among his admirers and friends some of all creedsfrom those of the Church of Rome to the followers of Whitefield and Wesley; and if they could not acknowledge all his religious sentiments to be just, they were ready to bear testimony to the sincerity of his faith and the purity of his cha

racter.

"Such was his fame as a preacher, that every Sunday might be seen among his congregation many of highly cultivated intellects, who ou entering his church door made a mental protest against his tenets, but joined in the general admiration of his talents, and the splendour of his productions. His acquirements were extensive as a scholar, and he supported his reasonings with ample stores of theological learning. His eloquence was without cant, or trick, or affectation; plain, sensible, strong and attracive. He sometimes alarmed the timid by the stateliness and vigour of his march in support of his favourite theories of duty and religion; but in the very fervour of his zeal he discovered the spirit of subdued affections amidst the exalted properties of a commanding intellect. Never were a people more attached to their teacher and spiritual guide, than the parishioners of Mr. Little were to him. In the literary and scientific portion of society, his loss will long be felt in this sity. He was the most

Oct. 28, in the 86th year of her age, at her house in Brunswick Square, (Bristol,) Mrs. Fooт. She was daughter of the Rev. William Foot, formerly minister of a Dissenting congregation, and master of an eminent classical school in this city; an able and excellent man, who still lives with peculiar freshness in the grateful memory of many of our most distinguished fellow-citizens, once his pupils. She was sister to the benevolent widow of the late Alderman John Merlott, who by their joint munificence became so emphatically " blind." These were natural and gladly eyes to the acknowledged sources of respect and regard towards the deceased; but it was to her own frank and kind disposition, her own strong good sense and highly improved mind, and to her own social and cheerful piety, that she was indebted for her power of attaching new friends, and of drawing still closer those numerous and hereditary ties which the long and eventful course of more than half a century had never relaxed. The poor and the distressed will remember her for her own kind acts; and the memory and the regret will have been rendered the more enduring by the habitual discrimination which directed her benevolence. Retaining her faculties and cheerfulness unimpaired to the last hour, she died in that peace and hope which a temper and conduct governed by a strict regard to Christian principles may justly inspire.-Bristol Paper.

DR. TOMLINE, BISHOP OF WIN-
CHESTER.

Nov. 15, at Kingston Hall, near Wim. borne, Dorset, the seat of H. Bankes, Esq., M. P., Rev. GEORGE PRETTYMAN

TOMLINE, D. D., Lord Bishop of Winchester, and Prelate of the Order of the Garter. He was nearly 80 years of age. Dr. Tomline was the son of a respectable tradesman at Bury St. Edmund's, and was educated in the Grammar School of that town, whence he removed to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. Here he distinguished himself as a good classical scholar and mathematician. In 1772, he came out as Senior Wrangler, was elected Fellow in 1781, and served the office of Moderator. The late Mr. Pitt being sent to that College, Mr. Prettyman was selected to be his tutor, a circumstance to which he owed his future advancement. When Mr. Pitt was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, he made his tutor his private Secretary, an office for which he is said to have been emi

nently qualified. In 1787, he was raised to the Bishopric of Lincoln, shortly after was made Dean of St. Paul's, and in 1820, was trauslated to the see of Winchester. A few years ago a gentleman of the name of Tomline left him an ample fortune on condition of his taking the name. His Lordship's chief publi

cations were Elements of Christian The

ology, 2 vols., 8vo., which drew forth some able animadversions from Mr. Frend; a Refutation of the Charge of Calvinism against the Church of Enand patron. gland; and the Life of Mr. Pitt, his pupil

England, and was at an early period of his life engaged in trade in that town. By some unforeseen occurrences, he met with severe losses in business, which reduced him to insolvency. He called his creditors together, exhibited the state of his pecuniary affairs, and surrendered to them all his property.

"The world was all before him, where to choose his place of labour, and he fixed upon the United States as the scene of his future exertions, if his creditors gave him a license to depart. So well satisfied were they that his misfortuues arose from no misconduct on his part, and of the previous probity and honour which characterized him, that instead of grauting him that license which he petitioned for, they unanimously signed a general release of all their demands, though the remnant of his property made but a very small dividend.

He

came hither, Providence crowned his well-meant endeavours. He was extremely frugal in his habits, and after a series of years he found he had accumu lated property sufficient to satisfy all his former creditors. There was not a moment's hesitation in his mind. No combating between a consciousness of legal irresponsibility and acquittal on the one

side, and moral obligation on the other. Those principles of strict honour and probity which had guided him through life, came into full operation here. The full amount of his debts was remitted to England, and all of them paid off. His creditors, though knowing for the most part his high sense of honour and strict moral principle, were little prepared for this agreeable exemplification of it, held a meeting, and voted him a large aud valuable silver bowl, on which was briefly inscribed a testimonial of their sense of Mr. Turner's character and conduct. This honourable memorial, which a more ostentatious man would have displayed on his sideboard, he kept constantly concealed; and it is believed that, in this country, not a single individual knew of its existence, until a communication from England informed some of his friends of the fact, and the circumstances which gave rise to it; and when, at an after period, another friend requested to see it, the request was reluctantly complied with; and when something like a compliment was attempted to be paid him, he shrunk from it with apparent surprise, merely saying that he was not conscious of having done more than what was right."

Test and Corporation Acts.

The general associated Committee for prosecuting the claims of Dissenters for relief from their disabilities, have continned since the session of Parliament to keep the object of their institution in view, and have regularly met for the purpose of attending to such measures of preparation as demanded their atten

tion.

has been) if our brethren suffer themselves to be beguiled into acquiescence or patience under a system of degradation. Whatever might be the policy or propriety of abstaining on former occasions, and particularly in the last session, it is obvious, that, if we are in earnest, the time must some time come for agitating the question with energy. Our hopes of success in throwing off our chains must be small indeed, if the possession of power by those whom we esteem our friends is to be a reason for submission. If such is to be the measure meted by our friends, what are we to expect from our enemies? Under their sway we should at least have the opportunity of complaining and protesting.

The General Body of Protestant Dissenting Ministers have held a meeting to deliberate on the steps which it might be deemed expedient to pursue, and have unanimously resolved to petition Parlia ment for the Repeal of the Sacramental Test.

3 Q

Trial of R. Taylor for Blasphemy.

THE past month has been signalized by another, and one of the most remarkable, trials for Blasphemy-those judicial attempts at patronizing Christianity in its humble character of a " parcel of the law of England." The peculiarity of the display which took place on this prosecution, conducted by the officers of the city of London, against the Reverend Robert Taylor, and the feeling by which the scene has been received by nearly the whole periodical press of England, will, we trust, occasion this to be the last of such exhibitions.

First of all appeared in this performance, in the character of prosecutor, (as Mr. Recorder Knowles assures us,) not Mr. Alderman Atkins, but the late Lord Mayor himself. This gentleman calls

himself a Dissenter, we have understood; he holds his high corporate office, therefore, either by conforming or by the connivance of the law, and has only been marked by the public, in his official career, as the prosecutor of those who believe less than himself, and (if we are to believe Mr. Smith, the street preacher) as the obstructor of those who choose a different course from his, of propagating even his own creed. The funds for the prosecution are supplied by the corporation of London, that same corporation which petitioned last session in favour of religious liberty, avowing itself the enemy of persecution; while not a member of the body has been found willing to raise his voice against a practice which even the Crown and the Bridge-Street Society have abandoned.

The trial was opened by Sir James Scarlett, the new Whig Attorney-General; who drops very easily into the track of his predecessor; extols the press, liberty of conscience, &c.; and has the adroitness to rest his case entirely on the mode of the attack made upon religion. It was, in truth, as proved, as scurrilous, low, and self-destructive an attack as could well be, and the natural and obvious remark that would occur to every one on the subject would be, that it might be very safely left to its own condemnation, and that the only way in which it could be likely to do mischief, would be in its affording a pretence for a revival of the dangerous doctrines of legal persecution, under the pretence of attacking not opinion, but the mode and fashion of expressing it.

The accused, who appeared in full canonicals, delivered an oration, great part of which reads very well. But the affectation of its delivery, the theatrical

demeanor of the orator, and the manifest indecency of the matter, the subject of the charge, took away all appearance of simplicity or sincerity. There is, in truth, so much in all this unfortunate man's movements and actions, which can only be accounted for on grounds which would make him an object of sincere pity, that we cannot too strongly express the folly of those who, by endeavouring to fix upon him a load of crime and malignity, give him the opportunity of appearing in the character of a martyr, and, perhaps, of misleading his own ill-directed mind into the belief that he really

is so.

Lord Tenterden's exhibition, in charging the jury, was in the first style of the old school of blasphemy-hunters. We know what used to be said, but were not prepared to find it could still pass for sense. England he eulogized as a country where people were permitted, by the laws, to entertain what opinions they pleased on these subjects, provided they did not express them. Happy country! His Lordship was not contented to rest on the wily position assumed by the Attorney-General. He chose to stand on the broad ground, that "Christianity is part and parcel of the law of England," and, therefore, not to be impugned; a principle which equally involves in criminality all attacks upon the established opinions, although it may be thought convenient and politic to select for punishment, at present, only those which are expressed with indecorum, and are, therefore, the least to be dreaded.

The Jury found the defendant guilty.

This proceeding (so disgraceful to the characer of the great body by which it is instigated) closed, so far as the corporation is concerned, by its Recorder (himself a judge, and therefore bound to act with some degree of moderation and neutrality, the more so because the salaried servant of the prosecutors) officially presenting the prime mover in these disgraceful operations in terms of the strongest eulogy, for the kind manner in which he had been pleased to protect Christianity, and of bitter invective against the accused, at the very threshold of the court where he has yet to appear to have his case calmly considered for the purpose of punishment.

Newport Chapel, Isle of Wight.

The Annual Meeting to commemorate the re-opening of the Unitarian Chapel, Newport, after its enlargement, took place on Wednesday, the 30th October, when the Rev. John Fullagar, of Chichester, delivered an admirable discourse

from Heb. x. 25, on the duty of the members of a Christian society to cultivate a spirit of affectionate concern in each other's welfare, and on the advantages of co-operation in the cause of truth and holiness. The preacher observed, that the text did not refer exclusively to meetings for religious worship on the Lord's-day, but to other social meetings for various purposes, which were common in the early ages of Christianity, and which, had they been continued, would probably have tended much to preserve the purity of the Christian doctrine. In the evening, nearly eighty members of the congregation drank tea together, and many interesting addresses were delivered. Particular reference was made to an Infant Unitarian cause in the neighbouring town of Brading, where for some time past a regular service has been conducted by one of the members of the Newport congregation, and with considerable prospect of success. The company separated highly pleased with the harmony and Christian feeling which pervaded the meeting, and happy in the prospect of uniting together on a similar occasion in future years, "thus to provoke one another to love and to good works."

IRELAND.

Moneymore Presbyterian Congrega tion and the Drapers' Company.

A MOST extraordinary attempt has been lately made by the Irish agent of the Drapers' Company, backed by a deputation of the court, to interfere with the rights of the Congregation of Moneymore, in the appointment of its minister.

Moneymore is a village on the Irish estates of the Drapers' Company. Some years ago they erected here a large chapel for the Presbyterian congregation. Soon afterwards the old minister, Mr. Moore, retired, and the congrega tion chose, as his successor, the Rev. John Barnett. Mr. Barnett was, it seems, a friend to Catholic emancipation. This, in the estimation of Mr. Miller, the agent of the Drapers' Company, a member of the Established Church, was a deep blemish in his character, and he made it the ground of an attempt to prevent his being ordained by the Tyrone Presbytery. In this, however, he was defeated, and Mr. Barnett was ordained. Disappointed in this measure, he now conjured up another charge; Mr. Barnett was hostile to the Established Church. He had, it was

Ministers.

The Rev. BENJAMIN MARDON, of Maidstone, has accepted the pastorship of the General Baptist Congregation in Worship Street, London, vacant by the death of the late Dr. EVANS.

Upon his settlement, in January next, he will, we are informed, commence a course of evening lectures, the subjects of which will be duly advertised.

The Rev. T. HORSFIELD has accepted an invitation from the congregation at Taunton to be the colleague of Dr. DAVIES.

The Rev. A. MELVILLE has been unanimously chosen pastor of the Unitarian congregation at Ipswich, vacant by the death of Mr. PHILP, Jun.

Mr. PHILP, Sen., has removed from Falmouth to Lincoln, where he succeeds Mr. JONES, who has gone to America.

Mr. TALBOT, who lately finished his education at York, has settled at Tentenden, as the colleague of the Rev. L. HOLDEN.

Mr. CREE, of Preston, has been chosen to succeed the late Mr. WAWNE, at Bridport.

Mr. TAGART has resigned his situation as the pastor of the Octagon congregation, Norwich.

that he believed the Established Church to be a limb of Antichrist. Mr. Miller reported this offensive declaration to a deputation of the Drapers' Company then in Ireland, consisting of Mr. R. Borrodaile, Mr. Stonard, and Mr. Trimby; who, strange to say, on being satisfied of the truth of the charge, gave notice to the congregation that they must dismiss Mr. Barnett or quit the new chapel! adding, that if Mr. Barnett were not dismissed, they should never obtain from the Com pany an inch of land on which to build another chapel!

This gross infringement of the rights of their body was taken up with great spirit by the Tyrone Presbytery, and by the fixed Committee of the Synod. After thoroughly investigating the matter, the latter body agreed unanimously to transmit a memorial and remonstrance on the subject to the Court of Assistants of the Drapers' Company in London. This document was intrusted to the very excellent and able moderator, the Rev. J. S. Reid, who was directed to proceed with it to London forthwith. Mr. Reid immediately acted on his instructions. laid the case before the Court, and after several extraordinary meetings, at which it was warmly discussed, he succeeded in the object of his mission, and ob

He