to advert, and which entitle this great man to the grateful recollection of his country*. The history of Mr. Pitt's administration forms a distinct and most important chapter in the history of the universe. Let it never be forgotten, that to him, as the instrument in the hands of Divine Providence, we are indebted for the preservation of our socia' happiness; of that invaluable constitution which our gallant forefathers bequeathed to us, as the noblest monument of genius, freedon, and humanity; and of those religious institutions which serve as waymarks to a still nobler inheritance. This be effected in the face of whatever could shake the stoutest heart. Through those tremendous storms which the French revolution had raised, and which might have appalled the most courageous mind, his superior genius safely piloted the vessel of the state. If he had not possessed a mind sufficiently capacious to appreciate the extent of our danger, and sufficiently vigorous to withstand the desolating progress of revolutionary principles, the fabric of our policy must have crumbled into ruins, beneath the blows that were both openly and secretly levelled against it, by men of bold, enthusiastic, and ferocious spirits. Great Britain has lost in William Pitt the ablest champion of her constitution. It becomes us also to remember the firm and unshaken resistance, made by this great statesman, to the secret machinations, and infuriated violence of the French anarchists; the courage with which he braved their rage, even when we were abandoned by our allies; the splendid eloquence with which he denounced their crimes, and animated his country to persevere in the awful struggle;—services which justly entitle him to the gratitude of the civilized world. The first ten years of Mr. Pitt's administration was a period of peace; and also of prosperity, unexampled in the annals of this or of any other country. By his wise and enlightened policy, under Providence, was Great Britain raised from the dust, from that state of imbecility, degradation, and dejection which followed the American war, and advanced to a state of power and opulence far beyond any hope which could have been previously framed. It was then she acquired that strength and consistency, and developed those resources which have since enabled her to occupy the first place * in much of what follows, we avail ourselves of an able delineation of Mr. Pitt's character which appeared in a York paper conducted by Mr. Redhead Yorke. CHRIST. OBSERVER, No. 49. among the nations of the earth. The succeeding period of his administration was distinguished by scenes of turbulence, and public disorder. The superiority however of his genius was still manifest. Internal factions were dismayed and silenced by him, while the foreign enemy was kept in alarm for his own safety. It was not merely that he electrified admiring senates, or withered, as with the force of lightning, the nerves of his opponents. His countrymen at large looked to him as an oracle, and felt their hopes revive as he spoke. They resigned themselves to his direction, and rushed on, with confidence, in the path which he pointed out to them. At his call, even when out of office, we have seen half à million of freemen rush to arms, and array themselves in defence of their country. The force of eloquence never wrought greater prodigies amongst any people. Indeed, of the fascinations of Mr. Pitt's eloquence, it is impossible for any one who has not heard him to form an adequate conception. Its effect, on some occasions, more resembled that of the electric fluid than any thing else with which it can be compared; while, on all occasions, it flowed from him with a clearness, copiousness, strength, and majesty, which left every tival orator at an immense distance. We cannot resist the temptation we feel to lay before our readers one proof of the justice of the high praise which we have bestowed on the eloquence of Mr. Pitt, His speech on the Slave Trade is, perhaps, one of the noblest effusions of unpremeditated oratory which any age or any country has witnessed. It is a model not merely of close reasoning, but of forcible expostulation and of the most persuasive eloquence. We can only now find room for a single extract, which we insert, both as containing a loud call on the nation to repair its injustice towards Africa, and as an invaluable relic of departed greatness. "Think of EIGHTY THOUSAND persons carried away out of their country by we know not what means! For crimes imputed! For light or inconsiderable faults! For debt perhaps! For the crime of witchcraft! Or a thousand other weak and scandalous pretexts! Besides all the fraud and kidnapping, the villanies and perfidy, by which the Slave Trade is supplied. Re'flect on these eighty thousand persons thus annually taken off! There is something in the horror of it, that surpasses all the bounds of imagination. Admitting that there exists in Africa something like to Courts of Justice; yet what an office of K humiliation and meanness is it in us, to take upon ourselves to carry into execution the partial, the cruel, iniquitous sentences of such courts, as if we also were strangers to all religion, and to the first principles of justice. But that country, it is said, has been in some degree civilized, and civilized by us. It is said they have gained some knowledge of the principles of justice. What, Sir, have they gained principles of justice from us? Is their civilization brought about, by us!!!-Yes, we give them enough of our intercourse to convey to them the means, and to initiate them in the study, of mutual destruction, We give them just enough of the forms of justice to enable them to add the pretext of legal trials to their other modes of perpetrating the most atrocious iniquity. We give them just enough of European improvements, to enable them more effectually to turn Africa into a ravaged wilderness. Some evidences say, that the Africans are addicted to the practice of gambling; that they even sell their wives and children, and ultimately themselves. Are these then the legitimate sources of slavery? Shall we pretend that we can thus acquire an honest right to exact the labour of these people? Can we pretend that we have a right to carry away to distant regions, men of whom we know nothing by authentic inquiry, and of whom there is every reasonable presumption to think, that those who sell them to us, have no right to do so? But the evil does not stop here. Do you think nothing of the ruin and the miseries in which so many other individuals, still remaining in Africa, are involved in consequence of carrying off so many myriads of people? Do you think nothing of their families which are left behind? Of the connections which are broken? Of the friendships, attachments, and relationships that are burst asunder? Do you think nothing of the miseries in consequence, that are felt from generation to generation? Of the privation of that happiness which might be communicated to them by the introduction of civilization, and of mental and moral improvement? A happiness which you with-hold from them so long as you permit the Slave Trade to continue. What do you yet know of the internal state of Africa? You have caried on a Trade to that quarter of the globe from this civilized and enlightened country; but such a trade, that instead of diffusing either knowledge or wealth, it has been the check to every laudable pursuit. Instead of any fair intercourse of commodities; instead of conveying to them from this highly fa voured land, any means of improvement, you carry with you that noxious plant by which every thing is withered and blasted; under whose shade nothing that is useful or profitable to Africa will ever flourish or take root. Africa is known to you as yet only in its skirts. Yet even there you are able to infuse a poison that spreads its contagious effects from one end of it to the other, which penetrates to its very centre, corrupting every part to which it reaches. You there subvert the whole order of nature; you aggravate every natural barbarity, and furnish to every man living on that Continent, motives for committing, under the name and pretext of Commerce, acts of perpetual violence and perfidy against his neighbour. "Thus, Sir, has the perversion of British commerce carried misery instead of happiness to one whole quarter of the globe. False to the very principles of trade, misguided in our policy, and unmindful of our duty, what astonishing-I had almost said, what irreparable mischief, have we brought upon that Continent!I would apply this thought to the present question-How shall we ever repair this mischief? How shall we hope to obtain, if it be possible, forgiveness from Heaven for those enor mous evils we have committed, if we refuse to make use of those means which the mercy of Providence hath still reserved to us for wiping away the guilt and shame with which we are now covered? If we refuse even this degree of compensation; if knowing the miseries we have caused, we refuse even now to put a stop to them, how greatly aggravated will be the guilt of Great Britain! And what a blot will the history of these transactions for ever be in the annals of this country! Shall we then DErendering this justice to Africa? Shall we LAY to repair these injuries, and to begin not count the days and hours that are suffer ed to intervene and to delay the accomplishment of such a work? Reflect what an immense object is before you--view, and to have a prospect, under the what an object for a nation to have in favour of Providence, of being now permitted to attain! I am sure that the im mediate Abolition of the Slave Trade is the first, the principal, the most indispensable act of policy, of duty, and of justice, that and which we are bound to pursue by the the Legislature of this country has to take, most solemu obligations." Died on the first of December last, at the Episcopal Palace in the city of Kilkenny, Ireland, in the 77th year of his age, the Right Reverend HUGH HAMILTON, D. D. F. R. S. and M. R. I. A. Lord Bishop of Ossory. He was born on the 26th of March 1729, entered Trinity College Dublin in the year 1742, obtained a fellowship in 1751, and was elected professor of natural philo sophy in 1759. He was appointed Dean of Armagh in 1768, consecrated Bishop of Clonfert in 1796, and translated to Ossory in 1798. His writings in several branches of science justly rank him among the brightest ornaments of the University of which he was a member-His philosophical works, in particular, discover a most acute and penetrating genius, and a mind capable of the deepest research; and his argument to demonstrate "A Priori," the existence and attributes of God, is an illustrious proof of the intense, and successful application of his talents, to refute the pernicious sophistry of infidel philosophers. As a minister of the gospel, he was a steady supporter of the great doctrines, contained in the articles, homilies, and liturgy of the Church of England; and in the several important offices which he filled in his profession, he evinced a pious zeal for the glory of God, and the salvation of souls. The unassuming meekness of his disposition, easiness of access, and unaffected urbanity of deportment, endeared him particularly to his clergy, and concili ated the esteem of all who knew him.—The various charitable institutions of a public nature in the city where he resided, found in him a most active and liberal friend, and the deep and general sorrow occasioned by his death, among the numerous poor of a populous and extensive district with which he was surrounded, bore the most expressive testimony to his unceasing private beneficence. After a life spent in the exemplary discharge of public and private duties, he beheld the approach of death with truly Christian resignation; and in his last hours, when all worldly honours were eclipsed by the nearer prospect of a crown of glory, looking with unshaken confidence and lively faith to the Saviour of sinners, he was enabled to rejoice in the Lord, and to joy in the God of his salvation. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. THE Communication of R. Y. and the Rev. B. WOODD, shall meet with due attention. The best ecclesiastical writer we conceive to be Hooker. We would advise the reader of Ecclesiastical History to begin with Milner. P. T.; R. C.; and A STADHAMITE have been received. The account of the Hon. Francis Newport was published many years ago by the pious Lady GLENORCHY, who gave it to the world under a belief of its truth. N. T. is very welcome to adopt the measure which he proposes. The paper by A SINCERE FRIEND OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND on Mr. Daubeny's defence of his omission of a Not, and the Hymn by Q-Y. D. R. in our next. TRISTIS is under consideration. W. B. has come too late. ERRATUM. PRESENT NUMBER. Page 14, running title, for Mythological read Theological. POSTSCRIPT. The following communication arrived too late to be inserted in its proper place. DISTRESSES IN GERMANY. THE Committee appointed to receive subscriptions, and to apportion relief to our suffering brethren in Germany, have published a further report of their proceedings. Fear, they say, had been entertained, lest in the distracted state of the Continent, their bounty should fall into improper hands. Such precautions, however, had been taken as to leave very little room for apprehension on this point in the minds of the committee. By letters received from different parts of Germany, some striking extracts from which are given in the re port, it appears that the first remittances It EVEN FOR THE GREATEST CRIMES. IT IS WITH THE MOST PERFECT HAVE SUFFERED SO MUCH, NOR SUNK SO -Yet still, perhaps, a man of genius and The aid rendered to his Majesty's Hanoverian subjects by the Committee is gratefully acknowledged, in a letter from the first Counsellor of his Majesty's Consistory in that Electorate. When his Majesty was made acquainted. with the designs and proceedings of the Committee, he received the account with very visible emotion, and was pleased to express his most gracious approbation of both. The Rev. Mr. La Trole has represented the distress which prevails in Upper Lusatia, Bohemia, and the adjacent parts, to be very great, and as likely to rise still higher The United before the next harvest. "In the electorate of Wertemburg, the districts that have most suffered are those of Heidenheim, Koenigsbrunn, and Blaubeuren. As it was impossible so speedily to provide such a vast quantity of provisions as was demanded, every thing that could be found was taken away without scruple, so that the poor inhabitants had nothing left for themselves. Hud the armies kept their position near Ulm but a few days longer, whole districts must-have emigrated, or have been starved to death. The soldiers were not satisfied with taking all the provisions they could find, but also appropriated to themselves many other things. The tender voice of humanity seemed entirely suppressed. One whole village in our neighbourhood was entirely plundered without any act of hostility having taken place, or any offence been given, but that the inhabitants did not possess what the French soldiers required them to furnish. From the Clergyman they took literally every thing but his shirt. He, among the rest, shall partake of the benefaction from England. Several other villeges met with a similar fate. Numbers of horses, which they put into requisition, as they said for a few hours, were driven on for thirty and forty hours without feeding them. Many servants and wag-thren, commonly called Moravians, to disgoners who attempted to escape, were shot; those that did effect their escape, were obliged to leave their waggons and horses behind, which the French seized, and then sold for a trifle. NO IDEA CAN BE FORMED OF THE EXCESSES THAT WERE COMMITTED EVEN IN OUR COUNTRY. In Moreau's army last THING ΤΟ Brethren at Herrnhuth have exerted themselves to alleviate its pressure; but the scarcity has now begun to be felt even in their settlements. Many people, he adds, have died in consequence of the unwholesomeness of the articles they were obliged to substitute for bread. The Committee have resolved, in consequence of this communication, to employ the United Bre tribute a portion of relief in the abovementioned district, where, from their vicinity to the late scenes of conflict and devastation, a very great degree of misery is likely to prevail. We are truly concerned to state, that accounts have this day (30th January) been received of the death of the Marquis CORNWALLIS in Bengal. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. wards married to Frederick Prince of the cha THE following sketch of thRRING TON, Baron of Exton, is taken from Harrington's Nuga Antiquæ. The Editor of that work states it to have been evidently compiled from "The Churches Lamentation for the Loss of the Godly," a sermon delivered at the funeral of this pious young nobleman, by Richard Stock, Pastor of Allhallows, Bread-street, London, and printed in 1614, a sermon which has now the rarity of a Manuscript. JOHN Lord HARRINGTON, was born in 1591. He was the eldest son of the Lord and Lady Harrington to whose care and tuition King James committed the education of his daughter Elizabeth*, who was after A letter in the Talbot papers from Sir Thomas Chaloner to the Earl of Shrewsbury, October 18, 1603, says, "The Lady Elizabeth is given in custody to the Lord Harrington, who hath undertaken to defray her charges for £.1800 yearly," see Lodge's Illustrations of British History, iii. 204. The blessed fruits of the care of Lord Harrington in the education of the Princess Elizabeth, (she was grandmother of George the First) were very conspicuous in her after life. I am unwilling to withhold from your readers a trait of the piety of this unfortunate Princess, which appears in the same volume from which I have taken the account of the young Lord Harrington. A copy of verses composed by her, and addressed to Lord Harrington her preceptor, is there inserted. The whole is too long to be transcribed at present, and the poetry is of a kind which does not entitle it to any peculiar distinction. But the sentiments throughout are noble and elevated: in a word, they are truly Christian. Permit me to subjoin a specimen of them. Speaking of the happiness of heaven, the pious Princess thus proceeds: CHRIST OBSERVer, No. 50, Lady Harrington were persons eminent for prudence and piety, who carefully educated this their son both in religion and learning; and he, thankful for the care and honour received from them, returned honour to them again with advantage, being no less honourable to them than they were to him. Elector Palatine. Both Lord and He was of an excellent wit, firm O my soul of heavenly birth, L |