ship, not absolutely necessary for its immediate management, were, thoroughly wetted, and so rolled up, that they were as hard and as little inflammable as so many solid cylinders.

The firing recommenced with the ships to leeward of the centre, and continued till about three. At day-break, the Guillaume Tell, and the Genereux, the two rear ships of the enemy, were the only French ships of the line, which had their colours flying; they cut their cables in the forenoon, not having been engaged, and stood out to sea, and two frigates with them. The Zealous pursued; but as there was no other ship in a condition to support Captain Hood, he was recalled. It was generally believed by the Officers, that if Nelson had not been wounded, not one of these ships could have escaped; the four certainly could not, if the Culloden had got into action; and if the frigates belonging to the squadron had been present, not one of the enemy's fleet would have left Aboukir Bay. These four vessels, however, were all that escaped; and the victory was the most complete and glorious in the annals of naval history. "Victory," said Nelson, 66 is not a name strong enough for such a scene;"-he called it a conquest. Of thirteen sail of the line, nine were taken, and two burnt; of the four frigates, one was sunk; another, the Artemise, was burnt in a villanous manner by her Captain, M. Estandlet, who having fired a broadside at the Theseus, struck his colours, then set fire to the ship, and escaped with most of his crew to shore. The British loss, in killed and wounded, amounted to 895. Westcott was the only Captain who fell: 3105 of the French, including the wounded, were sent on shore by cartel, and 5225 perished.

Thus ended this eventful battle, which exalted the name of Nelson to a level at least with that of the celebrated conquerer, whose surprising success, at the head of the French armies, had then begun to draw the attention of the civilized world. Bonaparte had stained his laurels by the unprecedented baseness of his private conduct; he had not scrupled to turn Turk, and all his public proclamations were disgraced by the absurd phrases of Mahometan superstition: Nelson, on' the other hand, had no occasion of showing that he was an Englishman and a Christian; the first words of his despatches on this memorable occasion prove his gratitude to that Providence which had protected him:-"Almighty God has blessed his Majesty's Arms."

ON BENEFIT CLUBS.

(From the Rev. C. Jerram's Observations on the Poor Laws.) NEARLY allied to Saving Banks, in principle and intention, are Benefit Clubs; I wish I could add also, that they resemble them in utility; but in this respect, as they are usually conducted, I am constrained to say, that I think they are of very doubtful character; and in many cases, I have reason to know, that they have done much more harm than good. The object they profess to have in view is most unexcep

tionable; but the means by which they aim at its accomplishment are both inadequate and pernicious. The abstract statement, that a body of industrious labourers and mechanics are associated for the purpose of forming a fund, by weekly contributions, to support each other in times of sickness and old age, conveys the idea of an institution pe culiarly Christian and excellent; but when we go into the detail of the manner in which such societies are conducted, we find much to object against, and but little to commend. The calculations, upon which the contributions are to be made answerable for the demand upon them, in all the cases with which I am acquainted, are most erroneous. They do not proceed on any, established average of the contingencies for which they profess to provide, and they must therefore be exceedingly uncertain in the extent of benefit they will yield. And when it is considered how these clubs are formed, it would be extraordinary indeed if any thing like science were found in their constitution. A few uneducated individuals, headed by a publican, who knows that, whatever be the event to the members of the new institution, it will turn out to be a "benefit" to himself, meet together at the public-house, and agree that it would be a good thing to have a club; they are immediately furnished with the articles of some similar institution, and they either adopt them, without any inquiry as to their merits, or propose such alterations as will render them more inviting to their neighbours, and more profitable to their friend who first suggested the plan. In a short time, they are joined by a number of others, some considerably advanced beyond the proper age for equally sharing in the supply and demand, and the business commences. It is to be transacted at the public-house; monthly meetings are deemed necessary for paying their contributions and transacting their concerns; every member must spend three-pence whether present or absent, for the use of the house; and there must be an annual feast, when the whole body shall assemble, make a public parade, adorned with ribbons and white wands, with colours flying, and attended by a band of musicians. Now it is easy to see that in the whole management any thing is provided for rather than the real wants of the poor members. I have made minute inquiries into the state of one of these Benefit Clubs, which I believe may be considered as a fair sample of the rest, at least of all with which I have any acquaintance. It has existed thirteen years, and has had, on the average, one hundred and ten members. The expenses of their monthly meetings at three-pence each, and their annual feasts, together with their loss of wages, at two shillings a day, on their anniversaries, and incidental expenditures, amount, in these thirteen years, to nine hundred and sixty-one pounds six shillings. The money they have paid to sick members and for deaths, amounts to four hundred and ninety-four pounds fourteen shillings and sixpence; and their present fund, including interest of money in the Stocks, is three hundred and twenty pounds, making the whole sum of eight hundred and fourteen pounds fourteen shillings and sixpence; that is, they have expended nearly one thousand pounds in securing little more than eight hundred! But

it is now discovered, that the funds will not be sufficient to meet the ' demands that are soon likely to be made upon them. Several aged men, who were to receive annuities for life from it, will soon be entitled to their weekly allowance (for they were not very careful, at the time of the institution, at what ages the members were admitted; the object was to get members ;) and when this takes place, the united contributions of the club, and their present stock, will be unequal to the accumulated burden of their annuitants and sick members. This event is anticipated; and therefore, that each may have his share in the prey, they have lately made and carried a motion, to make it a "dividing club ;" so that the whole stock, with the exception of one pound left in the box for each member, is to be divided amongst them, and this process is to be repeated every seven years!

I should have thought it improper to introduce an instance like this, if I had reason to believe that it is solitary or even uncommmon; but I know that it is a fair specimen of all the clubs in this neighbourhood, and, I believe, of the greater part of similar societies in England. There may not have been many that have come to the determination of dividing their funds; but, in other respects, they nearly resemble each other; and this last improvement in the club alluded to, was copied from several others, and seems likely soon to be pretty generally adopted.

But this is not the worst part of the account. These institutions have been converted into nurseries for drunkenness. Sober young men, who would have scarcely ever entered a public-house, by joining these societies, become habituated to these haunts of vice. They are laid under a sort of penalty, if they do not attend once a month; for in this case, they must pay three-pence for others to spend. Hence, as many individuals live at a distance, and are unable to attend the monthly meetings, their forfeits furnish those who do attend with an additional supply of drink, and on many occasions, but especially on quarter nights, the greatest excess takes place, and the public-house is often not cleared of company, till the Saturday's conviviality has encroached on the sacred hours of the Sabbath.

If we follow these societies from their monthly to their quarterly, and from thence to their annual festivity, we shall observe a regular climax of intemperance, till we come to a perfect Saturnalia: for the bustle and confusion, and noise, and excess of this day, defy description. They commence by paying their homage at the temple of the Most High, and conclude by celebrating the orgies of Bacchus. The recurrence of these days is, to every considerate man, painful in the extreme. He connects with them the moral depravation of many a virtuous youth, the seduction of many an unsuspecting female, and the origin of a train of evils, which no benefit, which it is possible to derive from such clubs, can ever compensate. In short, I have no hesitation in saying, that, as generally conducted, they are a pest to society. They create the evil they profess to provide against, and render the relief necessary which their funds are intended to supply. Whilst they hold out but little advantage to the individuals who compose them, and make them purchase that advantage at more than

double its value, they tend to injure their moral character, and load them with evils which scarcely admit of remedy. The parishes where they are formed reap little or no benefit from them; for in the first place they are compelled to allow nearly as much of the parish funds to these persons in sickness as to others, as the condition of their continuing members; and in the next place, they cause many to become paupers, who probably never would have been such, but for the habits they acquired at their meetings.

In this catalogue of evils, arising out of these institutions, I have made no mention of what, nevertheless, is deserving of the most serious consideration; that they may be, and it is to be feared often have been, converted into the means of disseminating the most dangerous political sentiments, of exciting the well-disposed to discontent at their condition, and disloyalty to their rulers, and of poisoning the mind by infidel principles. They afford too favourable an opportunity to the active enemies of both God and man, to suppose that they are never taken advantage of to undermine the peace of individuals, and the very foundations of society.

I know indeed, that there are some exceptions to the character I have here given of the generality of benefit clubs. Where they have been under the management of men of education, influence, and principle, they have been made subservient to the most beneficial purposes. They have set out on a correct calculation of the just proportion between the supply and the return, the contribution and' the benefit; they have been careful not to connect them with the interests of the publican, they have regularly superintended them, and guarded against the approach of evil, and have thus secured the whole good they are calculated to afford, without any serious countervailing evil. In such hands they are really "benefit clubs," and every good man would wish to see them multiplied. I should, therefore, strongly recommend, as one of the most effectual means of rendering the poor independent of parochial relief, such institutions; and the only reason which has induced me to make this exposure of clubs, as they are now commonly conducted, "serpent a for a blessing, and thus lend their countenance what is really a prolific source of the most serious evils.

for à fccurses, that the public may not mistake a

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ON CIVIL OBEDIENCE.

"

[The following valuable observations on the Duty of Civil Obedience are extracted from a Discourse delivered at Brighton on the 5th of November last, by the Rev. Hugh Pearson, of St. John's College, Oxford.

We have great pleasure in laying before our Readers, the sentiments of our much-valued friend on a subject of such deep importance at this time, for we know that he adorns the doctrine he teaches by his own example.

Mr. Pearson's name is familiar to those who take an interest in the great work of propogating the Gospel among the heathen. This great duty has seldom found a more powerful advocate than he proved himself VOL. I.

4 M

in his Prize Essay on that subject, which was beautifully exemplified in his subsequent memoirs of Dr. Claudius Buchanan, whose Christian Researches in Asia first opened to his Countrymen at home those benevolent views which are now rapidly extending on that long neglected region.-L.]

PLAUSIBLE pretences for innovation, under the specious name of reform, have never been wanting in any age or country. "He that goeth about," says the learned and judicious Hooker, "to persuade a multitude that they are not so well governed as they ought to be, shall never want attentive and favourable hearers; because they know the manifold defects whereunto every kind of regimen is subject; but the secret hinderances and difficulties which, in public proceedings, are innumerable and inevitable, they have not ordinarily the judgment to consider." It may, perhaps, be thought, that, though Solomon might justly charge his son, and every one of his subjects, to bear him true allegiance, and to beware of listening to any factious disturbers of his government, it may not, so well become others to urge so strong a prohibition with respect to the institutions of their country. I cannot, however, but think, that if ever the religious teachers of any nation were entitled to adopt the admonition in question, they are those of our own. What is there, I would ask, in the constitution of this country, either in church or state, which any wise and considerate person would wish, I do not say, to improve, but to change and overturn?

Reared by the accumulated wisdom, and defended and supported by the affection, the courage, and the zeal of successive ages, it may be justly said to combine more political and religious advantages, and to be alloyed by fewer imperfections, than any other which has hitherto existed in the world. We behold in the British constitution the strength and grandeur of monarchy, established in an ancient and illustrious family, celebrated for the mild, gracious, and patriotic character of its princes, tempered by the dignified and extensive influence of a powerful aristocracy, and of a numerous and independent representation of the people. We witness the frequent and long-continued assembly of these three estates in parliament, where every subject connected with the welfare of the country is proposed and investigated with the utmost possible freedom of inquiry and debate; while every parliamentary discussion is permitted to be recorded, and circulated throughout the kingdom by the public journals. We behold an administration of justice, by laws which equally protect and control the high and the low, the rich and the poor, and under the direction of judges whose wisdom and ability are equalled only by their perfect integrity and independence. Our national establishments are completed and crowned by a church apostolical in its origin and constitution, sound and scriptural in its doctrines, tolerant and charitable in its treatment of those who differ from it, spiritual and elevated in its piety, practical and holy in its influence upon the life and conduct of its genuine members. Connected with this admirable constitution in church and state are almost innumerable institutions for the education