..... possessions, including those of Demerara, amoanted, by the last statements, to 552,400, and the slave inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope and the Mauritius, to 120,694. Total 673,094. Public Libraries in France. In Paris the Royal Library has above 700,000 printed volumes, and 70,000 MSS. The library of Monsieur, 150,000 printed volumes, and 5,000 MSS. The Library of St. Genevieve 110,000 printed volumes, and 2,000 MSS. The Mazarine libarary 92,000 printed volumes, and 3,000 MSS. The library of the city of Paris, 20,000 volumes. All these are daily open to the public. In the departments there are 25 public libraries, with above 1,700,000 volumes, of which Aix has 72,670, Marseillies 31,500, Toulouse 30,000, Bordeaux 105,000, Tours 30,000, Lyons 106,000, Versailles 40,000, and Amiens 40,000. In the Royal library at Paris there are several uncollated MSS. of the Scrip tures. Continental Liberality.-The Protestant King of the Netherlands has granted an increase of salary to 111 Catholic clergymen in the kingdom, who are distinguished for their piety and good conduct. His Majesty has also granted various sums, amounting in the whole to nearly 50,000 florins, for the repair and erection of Catholic churches in different parts of the kingdom. Literary Notices. Just Published. Sermons, by the Rev. John Bruce. 1 vol. 8vo. 10s. 6d. boards. The Juvenile Cabinet of Travels and Narratives. By the Rev. John Campbell. With nearly one hundred engravings on wood. 1 vol. 18mo. 4s. boards. The Life of the Rev. John Braithwaite, Wesleyan Methodist Preacher, late of MountPleasant, near Whitehaven, Cumberland. By Robert Dickinson, late Managing Partner of Seaton iron-works. In 1 vol. 12mo. 6s. bds. The Works of James Arminius, D.D. formerly Professor of Divinity in the University of Leyden. Translated from the Latin. To which are added, Brandt's Life of the Author, with considerable augmentations. By James Nichols. Vol. 1st. 8vo. with a fine Portrait, 16s. boards. The Duty and Advantage of Early Rising, as it is favourable to health, business, and devotion; including valuable extracts from the writings of the Rev. John Wesley, A. M.; Rev. Philip Doddridge, D.D.; Rev. William Paley, D. D.; Right Rev. George Horne, D.D. Lord Bishop of Norwich; Dr. Gregory; Miss Taylor, and others. With an elegant and appropriate engraving. 18mo. Second edition. 2s. 6d. . The Evangelical Rambler, complete in 3 vols. 12mo. 10s. 6d. boards. Hymns, by John Bowring, author of " Matins and Vespers." 18mo. 3s. boards. Solitary Musings. By Ann Webster. 12mo. boards. Two married servants have just produced a volume, as respectable in a literary sense, as in its superior, universal, and peculiar utility. It is called "The Complete Servant;" and it explains, with precision, the various duties of all classes of male and female servants. The Club, a series of papers originally printed in the Manchester Iris. 12mo. boards. Legends of the North, or The Feudal Christmas, a Poem. By Mrs. Henry Rolls. 8vo. 98. 6d. boards. A Statement of Facts, with Correspondence, relative to the late Measures of the Managers of the Congregation of Protestant Dissenters, assembling in Carter-lane, Doctor's Commons. By John Happus, M. A. 18. Selections from the Works of Bishop Hall. Printed uniformly with the Selections from the Expositor of Dr. Doddridge, and the Works of Archbishop Leighton. Anti-Apocryphal Observations upon the King's College Letter to Lord Teignmouth, of July, 1825, in favour of printing the Apocrypha: In a Letter addressed to the Noble President of the British and Foreign Bible Society. By John Wickliffe. 1s. In the Press. Sermons, preached on several occasions, in the island of Barbadoes. By W. J. Shrewsbury, late Wesleyan Methodist Missionary in that island. In I vol. 8vo. 5s. 6d. boards. The author of the "Modern Athens" bas in the press, a volume entitled Attic Fragments. Twelve Sermons, by the Rev. George Hodson, M. A. minister of Christ Church, Birmingham, and chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. Now publishing in Numbers or Parts, Bagster's Bible, for the pulpit, study, and family clear type. use. In 1 quarto vol. printed with large and In the course of September will be published, the Speeches of the Right Hon. George Canning, on various public occasions, in Liverpool. With an elegant Portrait. Dr. Birkbeck is adding to his public services, by undertaking to edite a great and magnificent work, displaying the Useful Arts and Manufactures of Great Britain, similar to Les Arts et Metiers," of France. It will be strictly confined to the Manufacturing Arts, and each branch will be so fully illustrated, that the Engravings alone will employ fifty artists daring the three or four years of its progressive publication. The pious of every denomination will rejoice to hear, that the cause of practical reliThe Evangelical Minstrel; Poems on Mis-gion is about to receive an important support, by sionary and other subjects. By Joshua Marsden. 12mo. 3s. 6d. boards. A Manual of Classical Bibliography. By Joseph William Moss, B. A. of MagdalenHail, Oxford. 2 vols. 8vo. £1. 10s. boards the appearance of the four volumes of Sermons by the late Dr. Doddridge, which he directed to be published, in his will, but which have hitherto remained in the custody of the family. LONDON: PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BY H. FISHER, SON, AND CO. THE Emperial Magazine; OR, COMPENDIUM OF RELIGIOUS, MORAL, & PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE, OCT.] "READING IS THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM OF INTELLECTUAL COMMERCE." 1825. AN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE (With an Engraving.) the Bishop, and after commanding him to be seated and covered, repeated the heads of the sermon, and then said, "I took myself to be especially touched by your speech, as well in regard of the abilities which God hath given me, as in regard of the example which from me he will require; for, as in the kingdom I am next under God, so must I most nearly approach him in goodness and mercy; for as our miseries stand most in need from him, so are we the greatest debtors; debtors to all that are miserable, and shall be the greatest accomptants of our dispensations therein. And therefore, my Lord, as you have given me, I thank you, this general exhortation, so direct me, I entreat you, by what particular actions I may best discharge my duty this way." THE English Reformation, though productive of inestimable blessings, was sadly stained by sacrilege. The Eighth Henry, when he seized the abbey-lands, instead of appropriating those monuments of ancient piety to the purposes of charity and religion, threw them, as spoils, among his hungry courtiers; and these men, having once tasted the sweets of plunder, grew more and more ravenous, till nothing would satisfy their greedy | desires. On the death of the king, they had but too many opportunities, during the minority of his excellent successor, of fattening upon the remains of primitive benevolence, to the exclusion of the poor and needy, for whose henefit those possessions were originally given and endowed. Had the young monarch lived, there is reason to believe that a stop would have been put to this rapacity; and that such of the ecclesiastical and monastic property as had escaped the maw of avarice, would have been still devoted to purposes of public good. Unhappily for the nation, this excel-written to the Lord Mayor, and other lent prince was cut off by a consumption at the age of sixteen, on the 6th of July, in the year 1552; and the last act of his eventful and most exemplary life, sufficiently marked the value of his character, and the incalculable loss the interests of religion and humanity suffered by his death. The Bishop, astonished at this tenderness of heart in so young a person, was for some time unable to speak: at length, with tears, he observed, that as he little expected such a question, he was not prepared with a proper answer; but that, with permission, he would consult the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City on the subject. The king approved of the suggestion, and instantly caused a letter to be heads of the corporation, requiring them to consult speedily on the best means of relieving the poor. The mandate was no sooner received than obeyed; and the court, in prosecuting the inquiry, considered that there were three sorts of poor; such as were so by natural infirmity or folly, as chilDuring his illness, Dr. Nicholas dren, impotent persons, and madmen Ridley, bishop of London, and soon or idiots; such as were so by accident, afterwards a martyr, preached before as the sick or maimed; and such as, him, and took occasion, in his sermon, by their idleness and evil courses, to dwell pretty much upon works of plunged themselves into poverty. The charity, and the obligation persons result of this report was, that the in high stations were under, to be pre-king ordered the church and convent eminent in works of benevolence, of Grey or Mendicant Friars near This discourse affected the young Newgate, with the revenues belonging king very sensibly; so that imme- thereto, to be set apart as a house for diately after the service he sent for the reception of orphans and poor 82.-VOL. VII. 3 K that thousands of poor members of Christ, which else, for extreme hunger and misery, should have famished and perished, shall be relieved, holpen, and brought up, and shall have cause to bless the aldermen of that time, the common-council, and the whole body of the city; but ESPECIALLY THEE, Ŏ DOBBES! and those chosen men, by whom this honourable work of God was begun and wrought; and that so children; St. Bartholomew's, near Smithfield, to be a hospital for the diseased; and his own palace of Bridewell, to be a place of correction and labour for such as were wilfully idle. He also confirmed and enlarged the grant for the hospital of St. Thomas, in Southwark, which he had previously erected and endowed; and having set his hand to these foundations on the 26th of June, he thanked God, who had prolonged his life till he had finish-long, throughout all ages, as that godly ed this great design. work shall endure; which I pray Almighty God, may be ever, unto the world's end. Amen."* Nor should the zeal of the Lord Mayor, Sir Richard Dobbes, be passed over unnoticed. Bishop Ridley, in his last affecting farewell, bears this feeling and honourable testimony to the Christian spirit of the worthy magistrate and his brethren:-"Thou," | says he, addressing the Mayor, "in thy year, didst win my heart for evermore, for that honourable and most blessed work of God, of the erection and setting up of Christ's holy hospitals, and truly religious houses, which by thee, and through thee, were begun. For thou, like a man of God, when the 'matter was moved, for the relief of Christ's poor members, to be holpen from extreme misery, hunger, and famine; thy heart, I say, was moved with pity, and, as Christ's high honourable officer in that cause, thou calledst together thy brethren, the aldermen of the city, before whom thou brakedst the matter for the poor; thou didst plead their cause; yea, and not only in thine own person thou didst set forth Christ's cause, but, to further the matter, thou broughtest me into the council-chamber of the city, before the aldermen alone, whom thou hadst assembled there together, to hear me speak what I could say, as an advocate, by office and duty, in the poor 'man's cause. The Lord wrought with thee, and gave thee the consent of thy brethren, whereby the matter was brought to the common-council, and so to the whole body of the city; by whom, with an uniform consent, it was committed to be drawn, ordered, and devised, by a certain number of the most witty citizens, and politic, as could be chosen in the whole city; endued also with goodness, and with ready hearts, to set forward such a noble act; and they, like true and faithful ministers, both to their city and to their master, Christ, so ordered, devised, and brought forth the matter, As the royal foundations were placed under the governance of the city, they remained secure during the reign of Mary, and were fully protected in that of Elizabeth. Covered, likewise, by the same powerful civic shield, these charitable institutions escaped spoliation throughout the turbulent changes of the following century; and at the restoration of the monarchy, Christ's Hospital was particularly favoured, in the extension of its establishment by the munificence of the crown. This edifice consists of various irregular parts, and part of the cloister of the old monastery is still standing, as a play-ground. The south front, adjoining to Newgate-street, is the best, being ornamented with Doric pilasters placed on pedestals. The hall, which is now supplanted by a new and more extensive room, was rebuilt after the great fire of London, at the sole charge of Sir John Frederic, alderman of the city, who laid out thereon five thousand pounds. One of its principal ornaments was a very large picture, painted by Verrio, representing James the Second, surrounded by his courtiers, and receiving the president, governors, and children of the hospital. Another still finer picture, in this room, was one of Edward Sixth delivering the charter of the hospital to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, in their civic gowns, kneeling; while the good bishop Ridley stands by the side of the king. In another room is an excellent portrait of Edward, painted by Hans Holbein; and in a stone apartment, for security, are kept the records, deeds, and other muniments of the establishment; among which is the * Life of Bishop Ridley, 4to. p. 640. |