DOMESTIC.

Unitarians and their Literature.

It is, we fear, a just charge against the Unitarians of England, that they render a tardy and very inadequate support to their own religious literature. They ought to regard the support of those of their own body who devote their time and talents to the promotion of truth and Christian literature, as a sacred duty. It is one of the many penalties of their nonconformity to the popular creed which Unitarian authors have to pay, that their books, however excellent, are proscribed and shunned by the mass of religious readers. Of this some striking facts have recently come within our own knowledge. Here and there a learned and eminent man steps out of the ranks of the orthodox party and offers a helping hand to a heterodox brother. But the rule of exclusion is not broken by the exception. Why is it that such sterling works as Mr. Kenrick's "Essay on Primæval History," and Mr. J. J. Tayler's "Retrospect of the Religious Life of England," still linger in their first edition, though one has been published three and the other four years? If Unitarians alone had done their duty, a second edition of both would before this have been required.

We are led to the subject by our anxiety for the success of two appeals now in the course of being made to the public, the proper answer to which, if made at all, must be made by the Unitarian body. Of the first of these, Dr. Beard's proposed "Library of Christian Literature," we have before spoken. How rich it is in promise to the Christian scholar is proved by the fact, that the names of Dr. Pye Smith and Dr. Vaughan are enrolled in the list of its supporters. After having been some months before the public, the proposals for publication have been seconded by a list of subscribers by no means adequate to the merits of the work, and, we regret to add, not sufficient to ensure its completion. Undeterred by lukewarmness, the editor is going on with his accustomed earnestness with his preparations, and announces as nearly ready the first publication of his series, which will be entitled "Scripture illustrated from

recent Discoveries in the Geography of Palestine.'

Of another highly important work, now ready for the press, and only awaiting the call for its publication by a sufficient body of subscribers to protect its author from actual loss, the announcement is for the first time made in our Advertising sheet this month. The "Sketches of the Lives and Writings of distinguished Antitrinitarians," by the Rev. Robert Wallace, is a work greatly needed. The materials for it lie scattered through several hundred English and Foreign books, some of them extremely rare. The biographical and historical sketches which Mr. Wallace has prepared will contain matter of very deep interest. Few men are so well qualified as he is, by exact scholarship, patience in research, a calm temperament, soundness of judgment, and a lucid style, for writing ecclesiastical history. It will be remembered by our readers that to our early volumes Mr. Wallace contributed a most interesting series of papers, entitled," Historical Sketch of the Trinitarian Controversy from the Accession of William III. to the Passing of the Blasphemy Act." Those papers were, we believe, extracts from the work which Mr. Wallace now proposes for publication. Should he not be encouraged to publish his "Antitrinitarian Biography," the loss to religious historical literature will be deplorable, and the present generation of Unitarians will not be free from reproach. We feel a very deep interest in this matter, and venture to make an appeal to the Unitarian ministers of England to give a helping hand. If they will generally take the matter up, and shew to the more wealthy members of their congregations how much now depends on their timely assistance, the success of both undertakings will be ensured.

Cathedral Abuses.

The result of the attack which the Dean of Bristol lately made on the Cathedral service there (see C. R. for last month) remains to be told.

The Minor Canons, indignant at having an incompetent brother thrust into their body, and still more offended at the impudent attempt to follow up this

breach of the statutes by another, and thus to destroy the very character of the Cathedral service, appealed to the Bishop as visitor. One of them (the Rev. James Carter) refused to obey the order of the Chapter, and continued to chant the service as usual. The Chapter hereupon met again and rescinded their former order, which the Dean forthwith re-issued in his own

name.

The appeal was heard before the Bishop (Monk) on the 27th Feb., when the cause of the Minor Canons was very ably advocated by Dr. Badeley, who contended that the Dean had no power to alter the statutes of the Cathedral, by which he had sworn to govern it; that any such violation of them was not only a criminal offence, but that it rendered him liable to the forfeiture of his property in that church. He then shewed that the recent appointment and the order which followed were in direct violation of the statutes and of immemorial custom, and prayed the Bishop to annul the Dean's order, which, he contended, was in itself worthless.

The Dean's reply was as foolish as it was impudent, and amounted in fact to an exaltation of his opinion above the statutes.

The Bishop, who was assisted by Dr. Phillimore as assessor, gave his judgment on the following Thursday,

1st, declaring the mandate of the Dean to be "null and void, and of no validity whatever."

2nd, ordering the monition served on the Rev. James Carter (which commanded him to read the service) "to be annulled and rescinded."

3rd, ordering "the Dean and Chapter to uphold and maintain the celebration of the choral services in the Cathedral Church of Bristol according to accustomed usage and practice."

It is to be hoped that this decision will have the effect of teaching Deans and Chapter a salutary lesson, and of putting an end to the disgraceful practice of appointing incompetent persons to Minor Canonries. They have learned to disregard their oaths, but when they are warned from high authority that a violation of their duty puts the possession of their very offices in jeopardy, they will probably think it expedient not to despise such a caution.

It is very much to be regretted that some independent Member of Parliament does not take up the question of Cathedral endowments-their origin,

Services at Mill-hill Chapel, Leeds.

The religious services in this beautiful edifice have continued to be attended by very large and deeply-interested congregations since the opening day.* The place is resorted to by many strangers, and at one of the evening services it was almost inconveniently full. Subsequently to those of Dr. Hutton and Rev. J. H. Thom, all the services have been conducted by the Rev. Charles Wicksteed, whom his attached flock are truly happy to see and hear again in his own pulpit. By the kindness of a correspondent, we are enabled to give a hasty sketch of his recent addresses to his people.

The Sunday mornings in the month of January were occupied with sermons on the aims and duties of a Christian church. The first of this series bore naturally on the union and agreement of the outward circumstances in which the congregation met, with the inward principles in which they still rejoiced. The entrance on the ordinary services of the new temple was contemporaneous with the entrance upon a new year, and the customary retrospects and prospects of the season received more than usual solemnity from this circumstance. A considerable portion of the congregation then remained to consecrate the occasion, and bind their hearts anew together, by joining in the communion of the Lord's Supper.

The second sermon developed the growth and the meaning of the several constituent parts of a public religious service. It was shewn that this was essentially a joint and social office, that it required attention, earnestness and preparation in the hearer as well as in the preacher. The influence of men upon each other, even in the silence of the House of God, and still more in the response of praise, was pointed out, and urged as a motive to constancy and seriousness.

The third sermon was devoted to considering the end and object of Chris

We are glad to learn that Dr. Hutton has yielded to the urgent request of his friends at Leeds, and committed to the press the sermon from the introduction to which we gave copious extracts.

tian Association-namely, the presenting to the Lord a "glorious church," "a peculiar people," "zealous of good works." The impure mixture which so often debased the character of Christian churches, and made of them worldly associations, was exposed and repudiated. The sincere individual effort of each member of it, the consecration of his own life to his Master, was dwelt upon; and the peculiar position of the Unitarian with respect to church organization, was explained; the liberty of thought and action, and the independence of character and mind, which the principles professed by Unitarians tended to form, rendering the common organizations, the spiritual surveillance of other sects, utterly inapplicable to them, and calculated, as they would fear, to interfere with that liberty with which Christ had made them free.

In the fourth lecture were laid down the forms of organization and co-operation which were consistent with principles of spiritual freedom, and which were practicable to and obligatory on every society of Christians. The preacher shewed how a church did not aim at being a proud and prosperous and worldly-happy community, but an association of strong and weak, of instructed and ignorant, of happy and distressed, of rich and poor, and of good and evil, that the former elements might give of their abundance to the latter, and thus the defective be not turned out of the way, but rather healed. The greatest triumph of a Christian society was, not the being without vice and poverty and carelessness and sorrow, but the aiding in the conversion and remedy of these evils. The various forms of good, the institutions and societies expressly connected with the congregation, in some one or more of which each person might take an interest or a part, were then enumerated, and the light in which members of Christian churches should look upon their own machinery and agencies for social religious good, was shewn.

Contemporaneously with these services in the morning, discourses of a more general character were in course of delivery to the congregation and public in the evening. The subjects were as follows: The chief Elements of the Christian Faith and CharacterA Review of the Life of Christ in its Application to Human Lot-On Religious and General Prejudice-On the Active Power of Faith. In the month

of February, the ordinary morning services were renewed, and the evenings were devoted to a course of lectures, 1st, on the Christian Duty and increasing Practicability of International Peace (in preparation for a town's meeting of the inhabitants the next day under the presidency of the Mayor); 2nd, on the General Assembly and Church of the First-born, in proof of the Gates of Heaven being by general confession wider than Creeds in their Straitness admitted; 3rd, on the Position of the Unitarian in the Christian World, and his Defence from the Charge of Schism; 4th, on the Common Basis on which all Theories of Christian Salvation had necessarily to rest.

The Sunday evenings of the month of March have been devoted to expla nations of passages of Scripture-1st, those affecting the Trinitarian Controversy; 2nd, those affecting the doctrine of Christ's Deity; 3rd, those affecting the Old-Testament doctrine of Sacrifice; and 4th, those affecting that of the New. As far as we can learn, this series of services, though attended by large audiences, excites no hostile efforts from the orthodox pulpits in the town, though doubtless the "erroneous way calls forth many private and social expressions of warning and sor

row.

The Church-rate Question in Parliament. (From the Wakefield and West-Riding Examiner.)

Some people don't know when to accept a good offer. The Church can never have a better than that which was made on Tuesday last, in the form of Mr. P. Wood's amendment on Mr. Trelawney's resolution on Church

rates.

The resolution was to the effect, "that it is expedient to abolish Churchrates."

The amendment was, "that it is expedient to exempt Dissenters from paying them." The amendment was rejected by 183 against 20; and the original resolution by 119 against 84. These 84 names stand thus pledged to the abolition of Church-rates; and Mr. Bouverie complained that he and several others who had not voted on the first division, were locked out and prevented from voting on the second.

The Church-rate question is not settled, though burked for the present. The best lovers of the Church would have done well to promote Mr. Page Wood's offered settlement of it; and all friends of religion and decency must

desire to have it speedily settled, one way or another.

Nothing can be imagined more mode. rate and conciliatory than Mr. Wood's proposal, to exempt all persons who register themselves as Dissenters, from liability to Church-rates,-exempting them, at the same time, from all right to pews in the Church or administration of its affairs. Surely the Church would be well rid of such adherents. If she still insists on regarding them as Churchmen, she must bear with her undutiful sons; but we think she would be wiser and would consult better for the peace of the rest of her family, if she would grant their wish to be let alone in things spiritual.

We believe the opponents of Churchrates would, generally speaking, be quite satisfied with Mr. Wood's plan. They do not object to an optional rate, but to a compulsory one. They would be satisfied with being let alone, and would on no account wish to hinder Church-people from paying Churchrates. Some few may, indeed, sympathize with Mr. Bright, who objected to the amendment, as putting it out of the power of Dissenters to take part, as citizens, in any future arrangement of Church affairs for the public good. But those who feel thus, need not, and of course would not, register their own exemption. They would continue to pay and protest, to vote against compulsory Church-rates, and to devise plans for the reformation of the Church Establishment.

The Ministers, through the mouth of Lord John Russell, resisted both the resolution and the amendment, as not proposing any substitute for the rate. They declared they would not object to Mr. Trelawney's bringing in a Bill on the subject, as they could then discuss its actual provisions; but a resolution without a Bill, they said, might be pledging the House to something impracticable.

This might be a fair reason against the resolution, but certainly not against Mr. Wood's amendment. That amendment, simply exempting registered Dissenters, would have required no substitute for a rate to be proposed. The rate would be thenceforth laid by Churchmen and paid by Churchmen. What could be more simple? What more evidently just? Mr. Trelawney reminded the House, that they had pledged themselves in 1839, by resolution on John Thorowgood's imprison ment, to provide against similar op

pressions. Mr. Page Wood's resolution, followed by a Bill containing the same words, would effectually redeem this pledge. Surely Lord John Russell does not regret the resolution of 1839, nor doubt the possibility of carrying out its purpose.

But

The friends of the present system of strife and contention rested chiefly upon the argument which Mr. Dennison rode so hard in his late electioneering career; namely, that property has been bought and sold subject to Churchrates, and therefore the rate is a fixed charge upon property, without regard to the future will of the owner. it is notoriously not a fixed charge, and the owner has a voice at least as to its amount. If Lord Denman's law is sound, "that the minority can lay a rate," so is his law sound "that the majority can fix the amount of the rate. So that property has been bought and sold, Mr. Dennison and the rest ought to say, subject to the liability of a rate from a farthing upwards as the majority may decide, or to no rate at all if the Church wardens choose, or if Parliament interfere.

One would think it must be in pure love of quarrels and ill-blood that so easy a settlement of the Church-rate question is refused. The Harry-ofExeter spirit would explain the result of Tuesday's debate, if one could suppose it to possess the 119 senators. They have decreed that Church-rate contests shall continue to disgrace this country; that it is for the good of religion to wage this annual warfare in the vestry, the chancel or the yard of our parish churches; that it has a good moral effect for Churchmen to make their Church odious to Dissenters; that it is beneficial to the Church to invite Dissenters to her councils on matters of finance; that a farthing rate on the population is sweeter than a penny rate on zealous Churchmen!

We

Our own preference is for peace and quietude and good citizenship. wish the true sons of the Church and the lovers of religion may soon have another equally good opportunity of settling this vexed question of Churchrates. Nothing but mischief can come of it till it is settled. And no one need look to the Consolidated Fund as its settlement.

The Chapel at Killinchy. The attention of our readers is re

quested to the "case of great hardship" detailed in our Advertising sheet. After