of age; if I was forced, I could not help it, and leave behind me above fifty thousand pagodas in houses within the White and Black Town, which income had been dedicated to acts of charity. I had, moreover, above twenty thousand pagodas value in my warehouses; yet, however, if I was constrained to leave all, I could not avoid it. On this I was answered, that it was true I was old, and ought not go. Cojée Sultan was then sent for, and told what was required of him; to which he made his excuses also. Cojée Joannes de Cojamar and Cojee Miguele de Gregorio came next, and were acquainted they must absolutely go with the other persons above named to Pondicherry. On this I came away; and afterwards, on seeing Mr. La Bordonnay, I asked him why any of us were required to go as hostages, we were merchants, and had nothing to do with it. He said, it did not concern him, but Governor Morse, who had put two Armenians into the capitulation: he might however name two others. We went next to our Governor, and found him and his counsellors highly displeased with us; which obliged us to say it was well, the persons appointed would prepare themselves to go to Pondicherry. [To be continued.]

When Dr. Francis Hare was only a Presbyter of the Church of England," he published that fiae piece of satire and irony, under which Mr. Butler has taken refuge in his first Letter, Section IV.; where this gentleman says, "I must observe that some eminent Protestants so far agree with the Roman Catholic Church on this head, as to think that the indiscriminate perusal of the Scripture by the Laity is attended with bad consequences, and should therefore have some limitation. For proof of this, GENT. MAG. September, 1814.

I PARTICULARLY refer you to the Treatise of Dr. Hare, a late Bishop of Chichester, On the Difficulties which attend the Study of the Scriptures in a way of Private Judgment.'

Mr. B. should have added, that the Doctor wrote this pamphlet " in order to show, that since such a study of the Scriptures is men's indispensable duty, it concerns all Christian societies to remove (as much as possible) those Discouragements." It is very very amusing to see how dexterously an experienced Catholic Lawyer can enlist a Protestant Bishop into his service; but, having thought it expedient (as soon as I bad leisure) to consult Dr. Hare with my own optics, knowing that other "eminent Protestants" had been rather too boldly dragged forward as witnesses in this cause, I was not a little astonished to find the Bishop (then a Priest only) warmly defending our grand Protes tant principle, and not that of the Roman Church!!

Archdeacon Blackburne, p. 9 of the Confessional, 3d edit. 1770, in a note, alludes to this Prelate as having "here ridiculed systematic attachments in a much admired irony; which owed all its beauty and force to the princip'e of Chillingworth," viz. that of appealing to the Bible only. See also p. 52, vol. V. of General Biography by Dr. Aikin, &c. 4to. 1804; and Gent. Mag. for Sept. 1779.

When I compared the actual title of Dr. Hare's book with that given by Mr. Butler, I was almost inclined to suspect that an essential part of the title-page was purposely omitted, in order to keep out of view the Doctor's ultimate design; viz. to

remove discouragements" in the perusal and private interpretation of the Scriptures. For, the work is thus entitled: "The Difficulties and Discouragements which attend the study of the Scriptures in a way of private judgment; in order to show, that since such a study of the Scriptures is men's indispensable duty, it concerns all Christian Societies to remove (as much as possible) those Dis couragements." Edition 3rd, 1714. The Author's Biographer, alluding to that satirical pamphlet, says, "this is one of the best pieces of irony in the English language. Its design, however, was at first misunderstood

by

by some grave and serious Divines; aud it was complained of in the Convocation, as calculated to deter persons from the study of the Sacred Writ ing." Indeed, Mr. Whiston tells us, it proved rather an hindrance to Dr. Hare's preferment;" since the apparent design of it was conceived to be quite opposite to what was really intended.

Now, in fact, the author has here raked together all the strongest and most plausible arguments of Roman Catholicks, to support Tradition and prevent the exercise of private judg ment in the use of the Bible: and he even shews that on those principles the study of the Scriptures" can do Bo good;" it being a much safer as well as a more compendious way to make a man orthodox, to study the Tradition of the Church." This, you know, Sir, is the scheme of Roman Catholic Priests. It was therefore Consistently declared by Pope PAUL V. to Father Fulgentio, If any man keep close to the Scripture, he will quite ruin the Catholic Faith;" and also by Archbishop Fenelon, "The Bible should be given to those ONLY who, receiving it from the hands of the Church, seek for nothing in it but the sense of the Church.”

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Dr. Hare's aim was to shew, that the study of the Bible ought not on any terms whatever to be limited or restrained; that it had been too much deserted already,among Protestants; that a most diligent examination of the Scriptures should especially be the Clergyman's chief business; but that all men of sincerely honest minds may do so, without hazard or inconvenience: "If (says he in conclusion) we would be true to the fundamientai principles of the Reformation, as Protestants, that the Scriptures are the only rule of Faith; let us use our best endeavours to femove the great obstacles that lie against the study of them; let us do what we can, that learned men may have full liberty to study the Scriptures, freely and impartially good encouragement given them to go through the labour and difficulties of such a study, not slightly and superficially, but with such application and diligence as the nature of the thing requires; and have leave to speak their sense with all manner of safety."

He goes on to press the necessity

of treating those diligent searchers with due respect; to entertain their opinions with candour;' to protect them against injury in their persons or character, and against want in their maintenance: and, adds he, “Let them be ever so much in the wrong, I can apprehend no danger from it to the Church." Till such positive encouragement is afforded, the Doctor thinks men are receiving the interpretation of the Scriptures on trust, or at second-hand only;“ and while we take the sense of the Scriptures in this manner upon content, and see not with our own eyes, we insensibly relapse into Popery, and give up the only ground on which we can justify our separation from the Church of Rome. "Twas a right to study and judge of the Scriptures for themselves, that our first Reformers asserted with so good effect; and their successors can defend their adherence to them on no other principle."

So far from restraining or limiting Biblical readers, he exhorts us to heartily promote a very free and impartial perusal of the Bible: "Let us lay aside that malignant, arbitrary, persecuting, Popish spirit; let us put no fetters on men's understandings, nor any other bounds to their inquiries but what God and truth have set: let us, if we would not give up the Protestant principle, that the Scriptures are plain and clear in the necessary articles, declare nothing to be necessary but what is clearly revealed in them." As for those who differ from the author, and are desirous of restricting men in the use of the Bible, or who think the study of it should be discouraged, he hopes they will deem it "no injury to be thought to defend their opinion upon such reasons as have here been brought for it." But he solemnly warns them, "lest they come into the condemnation of those who love darkness rather than light; and, for their punishment, be finally adjudged to it."

Having now, Mr. Urban, cleared Ep. Hare from the misrepresentations of Charles Butler, esq. (which I was unprepared to do in my former communication), I shall only stop to point out another erroneous statement of his, though not so capital and essential, respecting Dr. Herbert Mursh; which your Readers will perceive in the fol

lowing words: "I request your attention," says he, "in the last place, to that numerous portion of the Protestant subscribers to the Bible Societies, which contends that the Bibles distributed should be accompanied with the Common Prayer Book, as a safeguard,' to use the expression of Dr. Herbert Marsh, whose learning places him at the head. of those gentlemen.” Mr. Butler does not know that "those gentlemen," with Dr. Marsh at their head, have at present declined uniting with the numerous Protestant subscribers, in support of the Bible Society and its branches: but, while I state this circumstance, it by no means will follow that therefore Dr. M. and his admirers approve of the mischievous restrictions imposed by Roman Catholicks of all nations, in regard to the Bible. However, I shall now leave these learned Divines, &c. to vindicate themselves from the imputation here insinuated against their Protestantism; and go on to Mr. Butler's next subject, page 27, § V. Gent. Mag. for January last.

In his 5th section he attempts to repel a charge made by "several Protestants," (though he does not say by whom), " that it is contrary to the general principles of the Catholic religion to publish the Bible in a vulgar tongue without Notes." This is called an unjust charge," and a "strange opinion."--Now, Sir, if this be the opinion of a few English Protestants, I think they may well be forgiven; because I find it is held by several Roman Catholicks, and those men of education, who ought to be acquainted with the real facts: I find it to be a sentiment rather countenanced, if not expressly inaintained, by some clergymen in Mr. Butler's own church, who ought to know better than Lay-Protestants. If Mr. Butler will turn to the late "Correspondence" between me and the Right Rev. Dr. Poynter, his present Vicar Apostolic; and if he also turn to the printed" Conversation" between the Rev. Peter Gandolphy and myself; Mr. B. will clearly discover, that the same "strange opinion" exists even in their enlightened and Catholic minds! To save him trouble, I will point out the pages in my "Correspondence" where he may see the proof of this remark, as

it applies to Bishop Poynter and Mr. Gandolphy; viz. pp. 12, 13, 14, 15, 24, 25, 28, 30: Mr. Butler should likewise re-peruse my copy of the "Resolutions of a General Meeting of Protestant Friends to the Circulation of the Scriptures among Roman Catholicks," p. 26, &c. ; whence he will learn, that the said notion entertained by them on this subject was wholly founded upon the declarations and conduct of "leading members of the Roman Catholick Church."

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If the evidence contained in my Correspondence" does not convince Mr. B. that English Protestants are in no greater error than his own Clergy, I would appeal to the uniform practice of Roman Catholicks in this country with regard to the circulation of Bibles without Notes. I ask this learned gentleman, First, Whether any copy of the Old or New Testament in English was ever printed by Roman Catholicks, either in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, without Notes 2 I am not acquainted with any such edition. Secondly, I ask him, Whether the cheap stereotype impression, formerly begun to be executed by Mr. Wilson, under the direction of the Catholic Board held at Lord Shrewsbury's, is not printed with a considerable number of Notes? Dr. Milner, the renowned anti-veto Bishop, has already criticised those Notes, as being too lenient and mederate to serve the good old cause of the Romish Church: but, I shall have occasion hereafter to give a curious history of this stereotype impression, if it should ever see the light! In the next place, I ask Mr. Butler if he does not know, that the great point for which Protestants have recently contended with his orthodox friends, the Bible Committee at the Earl of Shrewsbury's, was the printing of a Roman Catholic version of the New Testament without Notes; and that the Committee not only refused to unite with us in such a project, but printed one (i. e. began at least to do so) with Notes, as being more consonant to the practice of their Church?

Now, Mr. Urban, if all this does not shew something like a very strong attachment to their Annotations, I shall fail to produce conviction: but, as it concerns my own opinion, I be

lieve

lieve that Roman Catholic Bishops are empowered (or not prohibited) by the rules of the Index Expurga. torius, if they chuse, to authorise the Bible in a vulgar tongue, either with Notes or without; and I certainly do know that in France, several good men (branded as Heretics and Jansenists) printed translations from the Hebrew and Greek without Notes, to the great annoyance of their more orthodox adversaries. The same was done, surreptitiously, in Germany, Flanders, Spain, and Italy; but, to counteract these unsafe publications, a few Bishops sanctioned other versions, made from the Latin Vulgate, either with brief Notes, or having only some of the Church prayers, &c. annexed to the volume. If I were to develope the history of many such popular translations into the modern tongues, Mr. Butler would have no great reason to commend his Church, either for her pure love to the Bible, or for her generosity in allowing its free use. No, Sir, I could shew, that some translators have been terrified and expatriated, others imprisoned and calumniated; some have had their versions burned, and others their bodies, with circumstances of diabolical malignity against the Scriptures! It is painful to take a retrospect of these horrible transactions ; and I would not now allude to them, if attempts had not been openly made of late to gloss over such enormities, and even to draw out a case quite of an opposite nature. The truth is, and Romish priests fully admit this fact, that wherever the common people have had Bibles to read freely, without the perverse Notes of Churchmen, Popery has suffered loss; and in proportion as the sacred text has been permitted to interpret itself, the Canons and Decretals of Rome have always sunk in estimation.

Let any honest and simple-hearted Roman Catholick bring the new creed of Pope Pius to the side of his unvarnished Bible; and by the light of the one, he will soon see the defects or redundancies of the other, We, therefore, cannot expect a thorough-bred priest to set his people on reading the Bible without Annota tions; and, if you shew me an instance to the contrary, I will shew you a priest whom the Pope has deLineated as a double-minded and sus

an "

picious character, if not an incorrigible heretic. Should Mr. Butler refer me to the Continent, and espe cially to France, I shall refer him to countries and times wherein the pastors were under the controul of Holy Tribunal," called the "Inquisition," and where the Pontiff had the civil power in check by means of his emissaries: perhaps too, I might refer him, even in France, to the struggles made by the Sorbonne and the busy Jesuits, to wrest the naked Scriptures from the Laity.

The use or disuse of the Bible is considered by Roman Catholicks to be a matter of discipline: and all exterior forms, ceremonies, and customs, they tell us, may alter; so that what was lawful yesterday, may be unlawful and inexpedient to-morrow! Again, the Church discipline is not alike in all places, nor in the same' place at all times; and therefore, Mr. Butler may possibly make out a case, in some country and at a certain period, which will help him to establish a particular proposition against the views or allegations of Protes tants. Even in matters of faith, a dissimilarity may be now and then traced among the professors of the Roman Church: for, as Dr. Geddes says,

"at certain times, and in certain places, a proposition may be called heretical or nearly heretical, which at other times, or in other places, may be perfectly orthodox :" p. 8. Letter to the Bishop of Centu riæ. Possibly Mr. Butler and his friends" the Protesting Catholick Dissenters," think themselves out of the grasp of their Holy Father's inquisitors; else they might, before now, have been Bellarminites, Parsonites, Knottites, or staunch Milnerians. In such a dilemma, it becomes difficult to decide what is lawful and what unlawful in the Church of Rome, with respect to using the Scriptures without Notes. During the reign of our eighth Henry, Pope Leo and Cardinal Wolsey caused

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a SCANDALOUS ERROR" of the Lutherans to be publicly condemned and preached against in England; viz. "That it is contrary to the will of God to burn Hereticks :" yet, Sir, I am sure that Mr. Butler, and many of his intimate friends at the Board of English Catholicks, will not now defend the fiery principle held by his

Church

Church in Henry's time; but would rather be deemed false brethren and unorthodox, by Bishop Milner's party. But, if this ardent principle were inculcated in a note of the Doway Bible, and that book put into the hands of any submissive son of the Church; would he not say (in the language of the aimable Fenelon), "Nothing besides the sense of the Church is to be received"? Or, might he not say, (in the language of the Catechism of Trent) "the words of the pastors of the Church are to be received as the Word of God"? For "pastors are the living Scriptures," as the Abp. of Cambray declares; and "assisting at the holy sacrifice of the Mass and hearing the public instructions," is called "hearing or reading the Scriptures," in the English Missal of

1763.

Even Mr. Butler himself tells us, Hora Bibl. xxiv. that " "every Roman Catholick receives the Scripture from the Church, under her authority, and with her interpretation." Again he says, "I admit most unequivocally, that it is the acknowledged right of our Church and her pastors to direct when, where, and what notes should accompany the Bible." Consequently, Sir, any of all the ecclesiastical traditions, any of the Canons and Decrees of General Councils, any of the dogmatical notions broached from the head of that indescribable thing, THE CHURCH, may be swallowed by the multitude in a Note to the Bible!!! Upon the whole, then, it scarcely is important to determine, whether or not the Roman Catholick Laity may in general read a Bible without Notes; because they are always required to put the construction on the sacred text which their prelates and pastors do the sense of the Church governors is all in all; and the verbal tuition of the priests during confession will alone guide the lower orders of the Laily. Of course the text can never be reverenced as of more value than the mouth or pen of the interpreter; and the lips of the Clergy are supposed to distil religious knowledge enough for the people.

By their distinction of Lex Scripta & non Scripta, the legible Scriptures and the audible, poor Laymen are taught to distrust their own eyes, and to see through the visual organ of their di

rectors; by which ingenious contrivance, an extinguisher is put effectually over the intellect of all who are willing to be enslaved and blinded. But, SI POPULUS DECIPI vult, DECI

PIATUR.

This section of Mr. Butler's first letter is replete with matter for observation; but, I must end this Address, at present, with the hope that you will allow me next month to make some additional remarks on the same subject. W. B. L.

A

ARCHITECTURAL INNOVATION. No. CLXXXVI. Progress of Architecture in ENGLAND in the Reign of ANNE. (Continued from p. 135.) STATUE of this Royal Female, daughter of James II. of excellent sculpture, is still in being in the area of a series of buildings at Westminster, denominated from this circumstance, Queen-square. The style of the houses evince the early part of her reign, that is, in the faint vestiges of the Wrenean school being yet in practice. The approaches to the square are, from the Park, North, and from Queen-street, South, street, no doubt, coæval with the square as it bears every architectural character consonant with it.

a

Queen's-street; presents two classes of houses. 1st Class. Plan; passage, stairs, and rooms two deep. Elevation; three stories and dormers; in parlour, first and second stories, between each story, plain strings, and general plain block cornice. Doorway, plain architrave with cornice, such having a very deep hollow. Windows shew projecting key-stones; dormer windows pedimented. Interior; plain baluster stairs, plain mantle and jambs, chimney-piece (first departure from the Wrenéan architrave chimney-piece); few mouldings to general cornice, and not any to the wainscot pannelling. 2d Class. Plan; stairs, centrical, rooms two deep right and left.

Elevation; similar to the foregoing, but of increased dimensions: taking one of the door-ways, it has an architrave, Doric pilasters pannelled, and a large cornice of many mouldings. The key-stones to the windows have heads in a variety of fanciful appearances; fools with cap and asses ears; heads bound with ivy, both male and female; others have

caps