Assembly is a question will soon be echoed through the land. Is it to make laws for the church? No; its authority is only ministerial. But suppose it were to legislate Synods, according to the proposed measure, can make laws as well as assemblies, if they can judge and execute better. Every argument in favour of the expedient is as good for the entire abolition of the Assembly, as for the proposed measure. Is the object to supervise the proceedings of Synods? Synods are as capable of terminating all other supervision, as that of appeals and complaints. Consequently you do not bind me to respect the Assembly in consideration of any ability, or necessity implied in this.

Is it to give the whole church knowledge of her religious state? Each synod is certainly competent to publish its own report, and send it to all the other synods.

Is it to superintend theological seminaries? May not this be done by synods quite as well as by the Assembly; since a theological professor, who may be unjustly censured by a presbytery, or synod, cannot appeal to the Assembly? No, my dear sir, I have not more confidence in a synod than I have in the General Assembly; therefore I would not terminate the most important business of a church court in a synod.

Is the object to preserve purity of doctrine, and the peace of the whole church? Why prohibit an appeal for those very objects? Why prevent the influence and authority of the whole church from bearing upon these vital interests? Expediency is the reason given. But we ought to look well, before we sacrifice principle to an expedient. Will the church be satisfied, I think not. Nothing should ever be done to weaken the attachment of the church to her Assembly-nothing to promote sectional feelings and interests.

My third objection is, that its object cannot be attained-and the expedient will only serve to perplex VoL. V.-Ch. Adv.

the Assembly, and increase dissatisfaction in the church.

Every case, in which a synod is not perfectly unanimous, will come up by protest. If every document in the case, both of testimony and records, from all the courts below, be not spread on the minutes, it must be ordered up, which will occasion one year's delay. If the whole volumes of documents are registered in the synod book, they must be read, the whole case investigated, opposed by the minority protesting, and defended by the majority. Such course will inevitably occasion more loss of time, and more perplexity, than appeals and complaints regularly brought up-and it is no difficult problem to solve, whether the parties, or the church, will be better satisfied.

To make the measure effective, you must shut out the possibility of getting the case before the Assembly. Cast as many difficulties in the way as you will, the litigious appellant and the aggrieved judicatory are not prevented the approach. You cannot make the way so difficult that they will not occupy it, to your greater annoyance. Possibility of access is enough to set aside the contemplated effect of the expedient.

But suppose it should stop the cases from coming before the Assembly, it would not remedy the evils which I have named. Those evils do not arise out of appeals and complaints-of course stopping them will neither remove, nor essentially diminish, the difficulties. All that the measure can promise, is to lessen the time of the Assembly's sessionsand even that I do not believe it can accomplish. Yours, truly, &c. Feb. 22. 1827.

TRAVELS IN EUROPE FOR HEALTH IN 1820. BY AN AMERICAN CLERGYMAN OF THE SYNOD OF PIMLADELPHIA.

(Continued from p. 69.) London, Aug. 29th, 1820. My Dear Friend,-It was not my

U

intention to say a word to you concerning the noted objects of curiosity which London offers to the attention of strangers-as the Tower, the Monument, St. Paul's, &c. &c., which have been so abundantly described by others, whose leisure for observation, and powers of description, so far surpass what has fallen to my lot. But I cannot resist the impulse I feel, to tell you something of that consecrated place, Westminster Abbey; a place consecrated to the ashes and memorials of the "mighty dead;" surpassing in interest every other place of the kind which is, or perhaps has been, on the face of our globe. The building itself-once a Roman Catholick church, before the Reformation-without reference to its contents, is a great curiosity. It would be esteemed an immense edifice, did not the vastness and magnificence of St. Paul's Cathedral cast it so far into the back ground. Its exterior indicates great age, and so much has it suffered by the dilapidations of time, that a renovation has become absolutely necessary. And it is at this time undergoing repair that will, when executed, make it appear quite new. As far as this repair has progressed, an exact copy of its ancient figure and ornament is preserved. On entering, one cannot help a feeling of awe, as if approaching the presence of those, whom learning, nobility, or great achievements, had elevated to a kind of semi-deity. A guide, for the compensation of an English shilling, takes you from object to object, and hurries over a brief explanation of all he shows you. But his hurry ing from object to object, impatient to get through his task, soon made me impatient of his haste; so that I often chose to forego his explanation, and linger behind the group that followed him, that I might view particular objects with more leisure. It is indeed a place to moralize on faded greatness. Here you see wax figures, bearing, it is said, a correct likeness of many of the ancient kings and queens of England, and

dressed in the identical clothes they wore, before the grave had devoured them. And to be sure, the grotesque fashion of dress, and cumber of ornament, leaves no ground to regret that fashion, in its fickleness, has deviated far from what it was in the days of Elizabeth. With no small excitement I gazed on the figure of this princess; a little old woman, whose withered countenance and weasoned arms and hands, form an astonishing contrast to the ideas of masculine greatness I had been accustomed to form of her, from reading her history. A figure of Lord Nelson, dressed also in the clothes he wore, attracted my attention, still more than that of any of the crowned heads of ancient times. Very few monarchs in British history will continue to receive from Englishmen, half the devotion that will be offered to the memory of this naval hero. While looking upon his figure, decorated with the insignia of those honours which his grateful country has bestowed upon him, I could not help thinking-what has become of his immortal soul! What has been its reception, passing from the triumph of victory, to the tribunal of judgment, where the highest grade of military merit makes no compensation for a destitution of faith, and the absence of the love of God from the heart! If biography speak truth in his case, how hopeless, on Christian principle, must be the fate of his lordship. Who would not enter the eternal world in the capacity of the least of the regenerated ones, rather than in that of the hero of Trafalgar? "Let me die the death of the righteous;" and let me keep constantly in view, as an effectual damper to the ambition which sacrifices the hopes of the Christian to worldly grandeur, that tremendous day, "when many that are last shall be first, and the first last."

My curiosity in viewing the contents of this wonderful church, dedicated much less to the worship of Deity than to the homage of the great and noble of past ages, has

been robbed of more than half its gratification, by the preparations for the coronation of his present majesty, which fill the greater part of it. You have no doubt been informed, that this ceremony was to have taken place some time ago. It has been postponed until after the trial of the queen, which is just now taking place. The object of the old monarch (old in years, but especially in constitution, though a young king) is, to obtain a divorce; and thus escape the sad mortification of having his hated wife crowned along with him. In the middle of the church a long platform is erected, of rough boards, and at each side, seats of the same, rise one behind another, like a gallery, to the sides of the house. Thus the spectators, whose privilege it will be, on this august occasion, to Occupy them-covered as they will then be with the finest carpetingwill have full opportunity to see the whole spectacle. The coronation chairs are really a curiosity. They are simple rush-bottomed arm chairs, of the very rudest construction, without polish, stained a red colour with some kind of paint. They must have been formed at the time when arm-chairs were first getting into use among kings, and when plebeians had only three-legged stools. As relicks of antiquity, which indicate the progress of the arts, they are very precious articles. I have had the honour of sitting in one of them, and presume the advantages I have derived therefrom, may equal what most of my predecessors have enjoyed, when their accounts of gain and loss have been fairly balanced.

The trial of Queen Charlotte is the one object which at this moment seems to engross all London, and I suppose I may say all England; and that to a degree entirely beyond what I would have supposed any thing of the kind could have effect ed. It fills every newspaper I see, and is the leading topick of conversation in every company. It has raised such a ferment in the minds of the populace, as requires the

strong arm of military force to restrain from breaking out into violent outrage. It is indeed a bitter sarcasm on monarchical government, and a stigma on the good sense of the nation, that a whole people should be thrown into such a ferment, by the disgraceful squabbles of one man with his wife; both of whom, it is acknowledged on all hands, rank with the very lowest in the community, in point of moral respectability. It is enough to make every American hug his republicanism, and rejoice for his country; where I fondly hope the monarchy of publick opinion would, before long, compel such august personages as have created this disturbance, to find their level, very far below the high stations they occupy here.

The trial had been suspended for a while, until a fresh cargo of witnesses should be imported from Italy; and these having arrived, it has been again resumed, with increased interest. The apartment where the House of Lords meet, before whom the trial is pending, is small, and the regulation is, that every peer has the privilege of introducing two friends, and no more. Of course, as there are so many whose claims take precedence of mine, with this honourable body, I have had no admittance. Indeed it has been with some effort I obtained a stand within sufficient distance to see the house, at the time of adjournment, and to witness the occurrences of that occasion. To keep off the crowd, double rows of post and rail fence are run quite across the street, both above and below Parliament house, so as to enclose a large vacant space in front. Between the ranges of this fence, on both sides, a file of infantry with fixed bayonets are stationed. And within the enclosed portion of street, in front of the house, a strong corps of reserve are posted. Accompanied by a mercantile friend, I repaired to the place nearly an hour before 4 P. M., which we were told was the usual hour of adjournment. P

such was the gorge of human beings in the street, for a great distance, that we did not think it safe to venture among them, farther than to be just in sight of the house. Here we found an opportunity of stationing ourselves on an elevated step, with our backs to the wall, which enabled us to see over the heads of the crowd. It was not long until the whole street above us, became equally crowded with the distance intervening between us and the Parliament house. Such an immense mass of human beings collected into one place, I never saw before. It served to give a person an idea of the vast population of London; but surely it is little credit to their good sense and sober habits, that an occasion so trivial, should call them together in such quantity. The sole object was see the queen, and do homage to her as she passed. We had waited nearly three hours, until my patience was completely exhausted, when the huzzaing and hubbub near the house, gave notice that her majesty had made her appearance. With no small effort, the military, with the point of the bayonet, cleared a passage for her up the street, past where we stood. Her carriage showed great splendour. It was drawn by six horses, which with the postillions, three in number, glittered in gold lace. The falling top was down, so as to allow the gazing multitude a full view of her person. She sat alone, on the hind seat, while a maid of honour sat facing her on the seat before. She was dressed in plain mourning, as the whole nation is, for old George the Third. Her appearance was that of a rather lusty, good looking woman, verging towards fifty, without any thing remarkable about her. Loud, repeated "huzzas for the queen," thundered along the street as she passed up, while white handkerchiefs and flags waved from the crowded windows and balconies, on each side. Her countenance expressed complacent smiles; but surely her heart must

have been wrung with inward bitterness.

Shortly after the queen, the lords followed, some in carriages, and some on horseback, making their way through the crowd at a very slow gait. The friends of her majesty were greeted with loud cheers; while groans, hisses, and insulting grimace, were plentifully bestowed upon her enemies. I was not a little amused, to observe the perfect sang froid with which it was all received on the part of their lordships. They moved along, without indicating by any change of feature, that they so much as noticed what was taking place around them. The king, since the commencement of the trial, has kept close at his palace at Windsor, about twenty miles distant from London. It is generally believed he would not be safe from insult, and perhaps something worse, from the enraged mob, should he make his appearance in the city. Such is the interest taken in this trial, and such the avidity of the publick mind to know its progress, that to gratify it, the printers, by an astonishing effort, have the testimony of every day published in the evening papers of the same. The mass of testimony already taken, filed as I have seen it in some of the papers, is sufficient to make a large octavo volume. It is an amount of brothel abomination, utterly surpassing any thing I have ever seen in print. The sober part of the community lament exceedingly, as well they may, its exposure to the publick eye, on account of the corrupting effect it is calculated to have. If only a moiety of it is true, her majesty must be a character of uncommon baseness. Yet it appears as if the popular favour towards her rose, in proportion as the testimony against her increased, both in quantity and malignity. The populace regard her as a persecuted woman. The whole testimony against her being that of foreigners, is considered a mass of hired perjury; of course its abun

dance and blackness is proof, in their estimation, not of her guilt, but. of the malignity of her persecutors. Besides, it is alleged with acknowledged truth, that she cannot be worse, in the particular criminality with which she is charged, than her royal consort. And the publick mind revolts at the depravity and cruelty on his part, in pursuing her for crimes not worse than his own, and crimes into the strong temptation to which he compelled her, by casting her off, so soon after having married her. The uniform favour, too, extended to her, to the very time of his derangement, on the part of the old king, is a powerful support to her cause. The very high estimation in which the memory of old George the Third is held among all classes, altogether surprises me. From no quarter have I heard any thing but the voice of eulogy. Among the religious community, it appears to be a unanimous sentiment, that he is a saint in heaven. The good old king is his usual appellation.

The publick mind is at this time in a violent ferment. Political parties run very high; and the licentiousness of the press quite surprises me. It appears to equal any thing that ever existed on our side of the Atlantick. I have seen a pamphlet publication, entitled "A Peep at the Peers," in which the high titles, hereditary distinctions, and large salaries from government of many in the House of Lords, are handled with all the roughness of which democracy is capable. Did I not know the rude shocks which the British government has resisted, I should be ready to apprehend things here to be fast verging to a crisis, that might result in revolution. The discontent in the publick mind is certainly very great. But the most discouraging item in the whole aspect of affairs is, the hold which infi

delity has on the community-very far, I think, beyond what exists in the United States. I have observed, inscribed in large letters, over the door of a printing office, in a publick

street," The Office of the Republican and Deist." The conspirators lately executed for an attempt to massacre the ministers, were notoriously of this description. After their condemnation, some of them expressed great contrition, and gladly received the visits of such clergy as called on them. Thesselwood, their chief, remained obdurate to the last. On the scaffold, it is said, he remarked to one of his associates, "we shall soon know the grand secret;" alluding either to the being of a God or the truth of revelation.

To-morrow I expect to bid adieu to London,-certainly with some regret, to leave so soon a place where there is so much to be seen and heard. But I suppose it would be still more so, after a month's sojourn. I have been informed that the medicinal waters of Cheltenham are very much of the same kind with those of Bagnieres, from which I derived so much benefit, and that the place itself is very inviting; and health being my paramount object, I have concluded to spend some time there on my way to Liverpool, from which I count upon sailing by the beginning of October.

Sincerely, yours, &c.

FOR THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. TRANSATLANTICK RECOLLECTIONS.

No. IX.*

"Forsan et hæc olim meminisse juvabit."

It is well known that the Province

of Ulster is the strong hold of Presbyterianism in Ireland. This is easily accounted for, from the fact of its propinquity to the coast of Scotland, from which country the forefathers of the present race emigrated. Belfast, the capital of this province, a place of some notoriety, is beautifully situated on Carrickfergus Bay.

published before the last-an accident This number ought to have been prevented it. We therefore still affix to it No. IX.-EDIT.