panions, who, by relinquishing the solid comforts of an agreeable fireside at home, become, in the long run, so many unhappy dupes to their own delusions, their insensibility, and their ingratitude. Of all the people in the world the English keep themselves the most cleanly. Their nerves are so delicate, that people of both sexes are easily affected by imaginations, inasmuch, that before the practice of inoculation for the smallpox took place, it was thought improper to mention that loathsome disease by its true name in any polite company. This oversensibility is one of the sources of those oddities, which so strongly characterize the English nation. An apprehension of being a beggar, often kills them in the midst of plenty and prosperity. They magnify the slightest appearances into realities, and bring the most distant dangers, immediately home to themselves, and yet, when real danger approaches, no people face it with greater resolution, or constancy of mind. A groundless paragraph in a newspaper has been known to affect the stocks, and consequently public credit, to a considerable degree, and their credulity goes so far, that England may be termed the paradise of quacks and empires, in all arts and professions. In short, the English feel as if every evil really existed, in mind, body, and estate, which they form in their imaginations. At particular intervals, they are sensible of this absurdity, and run into a contrary extreme, striving to banish it by dissipation, riot, intemperance, and diversions. They are fond, for the same reason, of clubs, and convivial associations, and when these are kept within the bounds of temperance and moderation, they prove the best cures for those mental evils, which are so peculiar to the English, that foreigners have pronounced them to be national.

RELIGION.

Eusebius, and other ancient writers, positively assert that Christianity was first preached in South Britain by the apostles and their disciples. John Wickliffe, an Englishman, educated at Oxford, in the reign of Edward III., had the honour of being the first person in Europe, who publicly called in question, and boldly refuted those doctrines, which had passed for certain during so many ages; and that the established religion in England, which took place under Henry VIII., is reformed from the errors of popery, and approaches nearer to the primitive Christianity, being equally removed from superstition and indelicacy in its worship, and as void of bigotry, as of licentiousness in its practice. The constitution of the church is episcopal, and is governed by bishops, whose benefices were converted by the Norman Conqueror into temporal baronies, in right of which, every bishop has a seat and vote in the House of Peers. The benefices of the inferior clergy, are now freehold, but in many places their tithes are impropriated in favour of the laity. The economy of the Church of England has been accused for the inequality of its livings; some of them,

especially in Wales, being too small to maintain a clergyman, especially if he has a family, with any tolerable decency; but this, perhaps, is unavoidable, and probably never can be entirely remedied, though the Crown, as well as private persons, has done great things towards the augmentation of poor livings.

The dignitaries of the Church of England, such as deans, prebends, and the like, have generally large incomes; some of them exceeding in value those of bishoprics, for which reason the revenues of a rich deanery, or other living, are often annexed to a poor bishopric. At some periods, the clergy of the Church of England, as to temporal matters, were in a most flourishing situation, because the value of their tithes increased with the improvement of lands, which of late have been amazing in England. The Sovereigns of England, ever since the reign of Henry VIII., have been called in public writs, the supreme heads of the church; but this title conveys no spiritual meaning, as it only denotes the regal power to prevent any ecclesiastical differences, or in other words, to substitute the King in place of the Pope, before the Reformation, with regard to temporalities, and the internal economy of the church. The Kings of England never intermeddle in ecclesiastical disputes, and are contented to give a sanction to the legal rights of the clergy. The Church of England, under the description of the monarchial power over it, is governed by two archbishops, and twenty-four bishops, besides the bishop of Sodor and Man, who not being possessed of an English barony, does not sit in the House of Peers. The two archbishops, are those of Canterbury, and York, who are both dignified with the address of "Your Grace." The former, is the first peer of the realm, as well as metropolitan of the English Church. He takes precedence, next to the Royal Family, of all dukes and officers of state. The archbishop of York takes place of all dukes, not of the blood royal, and of all officers of state, the Lord Chancellor excepted.

DEANS AND PREBENDS OF CATHEDRALS.

It is difficult to assign their utility in the church, farther than to add to the pomp of worship, and to make provision for clergymen of eminence and merit.

The Church of England is, beyond any other church, tolerant in its principles. Moderation is its governing character, and it excludes no sect of Christians from the exercise of their respective religious worship. Without entering upon the motives of its reformation, under Henry VIII., it is certain, that episcopal government, excepting under the time of usurpation, has ever since prevailed in England. The wisdom of acknowledging the King the head of the church, is conspicuous in discouraging all religious persecution and intolerancy, and if religious sectaries have multiplied in England, it is from the same principle that civil licentiousness has prevailed; we mean a tenderness in matters that can affect either conscience or liberty. The bias which the

ters.

clergy had towards popery in the reign of Henry VIII., and his son, and even so late as that of Elizabeth, occasioned an interposition of the civil power, for a farther reformation. Thence arose the Puritans, so called from their affecting a singular purity of life and manners. Many of them were worthy pious men, and some of them good patriots; their descendants are the modern Presbyterians, who retain the same character and have true principles of civil and religious liberty, only with some difference as to church discipline, and the modes of worship. Their doctrine, like the Church of Scotland, was originally derived from the Geneva plan, instituted by Calvin, and tended to an abolition of episcopacy, and to vesting the government of the church in a parity of PresbyThe Presbyterians, however, are now considered as being dissenters. The Baptists form another sect of dissenters. These do not believe that infants are proper objects of baptism, and in the baptism of adults, they practice immersion into water. Blended with these are the Independents, but it is hard to say, what are the particular tenets of those sects, so much have they deviated from their original principles, and so greatly do their professors differ from each other. The moderate clergy of the Church of England, treat the Presbyterians with affection and friendship; and though the hierarchy of the church, and the character of the bishops, are capital points in their religion, they consider their differences with the Presbyterians, and even with the Baptists, as not being very material to salvation, nor indeed do many of the Established Church think that they are strictly and conscientiously bound to believe the doctrinal parts of the Thirtynine Articles, which they are obliged to subscribe before they can enter into holy orders. Some of them have of late contended in writings, that all subscriptions to religious systems are repugnant to the spirit of Christianity, and to reformation.

The Methodists are a sect of a late institution, and their founder is generally looked upon to be Mr. George Whitfield, a divine of the Church of England; but it is difficult to describe the tenets of this numerous sect. All we know is, that they pretend to great fervour and devotion; that their founder, who died lately, thought that the form of ecclesiastical worship, and prayers, whether taken from the Common Prayer Book, or poured forth extempore, was a matter of indifference, and he according made use of both forms. His followers are rigid observers of the Thirty-nine Articles, and many of them profess themselves to be Calvinists. But even this fact is split among themselves, some of them acknowledging Mr. Whitfield, and others Mr. Wesley, for their leader; and to mention a variety of subordinate sects (some of whom are from Scotland) who have their separate followers, both at London, and in the country of England. We observe, that there seems at present to be among those sectaries and dissenters a vast relaxation of ecclesiastical discipline, which is chiefly owing to disunion among

themselves, and in some measure to the principle of freethinking, the professors of which are Presbyterians or Independents, and consider all systems of religious governments, and tests of faith, as so many fetters of reason and conscience.

The Quakers form a numerous sect of dissenters in England, and perhaps, if their professed principles were to undergo a very strict examination, they would appear to be freethinking, though they pretend to be guided by internal revelation, dictated by the Spirit of God. That revelation, and that spirit, however, are just what they please to make them, and if they mean anything, it is an abstraction from all sensual ideas, in treating of the Christian religion, and its mysteries, for the attempt to allegorize all the facts in the Gospel. They disclaim all religious creeds, made use of by other Christians, and all the modes of worship practised in other churches. They disregard the authority of the clergy, and refuse to pay tithes unless they are compelled by law. They neither use baptism, nor partake of the Lord's Supper. They affect a peculiar plainness of dress, both as to the form and the colours of their clothes, and they publicly declaim against resistance and the legality of going to war on any account. With regard to the resurrection of the body, and the doctrines of rewards and punishments hereafter and many other capital points of Christianity, they have not yet explained themselves authentically. Were all the other peculiarities of this sect to be described, a reader not acquainted with it, would be apt to think it impossible, that it should associate with other Christians. Nothing, however, is more certain, than that the Quakers are most excellent members of the community. The strictness of their morality makes amends for the oddities of their principles, and the simplicity of their living for the wildness of their opinions. Their economy is admirable, for though none of them pretend to any coercive power, yet their censures are submitted to us implicitly, as if they were Romish bigots under an inquisition. The highest punishment is a kind of excommunication, which we will not pretend to describe, but which is taken off upon repentance and amendment, and the party is re-admitted into all the privileges of the body. Their government is truly republican, and admirably well adapted to their principles. They have an annual meeting, which is generally held at London, in the month of May, and this is resorted to by deputies from all parts of Great Britain, Ireland, Holland, Germany, and the British plantations. In this meeting is examined the proceedings of their other meetings, which are monthly and quarterly. Indecencies of every kind are censured, contributions are received, accounts examined, and discourses, exhortations, and sermons are delivered suitable to the exigency of the times, and their prevailing vices and immoralities. The good sense for which this sect is remarkable, renders their leaders more respectable than those which royalty or power appoint over other communities. This, with the

mildness of their behaviour, sobriety, and great industry, have raised them high in the esteem of the legislature, which has even indulged them, by admitting of their affirmation, instead of an oath, in the courts of justice.

We shall not here enter into their political history, or in what manner one of their number, William Penn, formed that admirable establishment of their order, which still subsists in Pennsylvania. It is sufficient to observe, that it was found by experience, during the two last wars with France, that their principles were incompatible with either civil or military government; and consequently, that unless their enemies had been Quakers likewise, they must have been masters of their country. This created great trouble with the mother country, and it unfortunately happened, that the Quakers were as tenacious of their property as of their principles. Necessity and danger, however, at last compelled them to contribute, for their own defence, by their purses, though we do not find that they did it in their persons; from all which it appears, that it would be impracticable to form Quakers into a civil government of any kind.

The ignorance of Fox and the first leaders of this sect, led the Quakers into a thousand extravagancies, by agitations and convulsions of the body, which they termed the working of the Spirit. Barclay, Keith, and some other metaphysical heads, defended Thee, though they dropped the singularities of the profession. This softened the ridicule of the public, and Barclay's successors have omitted, in their behaviour and appearance, many of those unmeaning singularities. The Quakers, it is true, in general, still retain the appellation of Friend, instead of Sir, and make use of Thou and Thee in discourse; neither are they very ready to pull off their hats, by way of civility and respect. They know, however, how to accommodate themselves to the usages of life, upon particular emergencies, and the singularities of a Quaker of address are now but just discernible, and give no offence to politeness, unless they are affected.

The regularity of their meetings is surprising, and the admonitions which they give to their brethren, by circular letters, from their yearly meetings, are worthy of imitation by the most civilized government. The payment of tithes is a kind of a standing grievance, because it is renewed every year. They are, however, steady in their opposition to it. They who pay them voluntarily are always censured. The book relating to their religion, which they print, must be licensed by a committee before they are dispersed.

Many families in England, still profess the Roman Catholic religion, and its exercise is under very mild and gentle restrictions. Though the penal laws against Papists in England appear at first to be severe, yet they are executed with so much lenity, that a Roman Catholic feels himself under few hardships. Legal evasions