She lean'd; and, when he did his sins recal,
She kiss'd him fondly, and forgave him all,
Then smiled, and bowed her faded face to weep,
And, wearied out, sank down like one asleep;
Then rose again like one awoke from pain,
And gazed on him, and me-and wept again;
Then on her bosom laid her wasted hand,
Sighing a language brutes might understand.

Yet hopes were fed, though but the mask of pain, And she recovered, and got out again.

She seem'd so well, they e'en began to name
The wedding day........

*

I bore the pall up to her last long home;
And heard the old clerk's melancholy stave,
Who sung the psalm bare-headed by her grave.

Thus died poor Sally on her wedding-day-
An April bud that could not see the May.
I often stand to gaze upon the stone,
Whene'er I journey to the church alone,
Where gold-wing'd cherubs hold a flowery wreath
Over a prayer-book open underneath;
Upon whose leaves was writ at her request,
In golden letters," Here the weary rest.”
Last Sabbath day but one, I loitered there,
Before the bells had chimed the hour of prayer:
Stopping, as pity seemly did demand,

I wrapp'd my apron-corner round my hand,
And pull'd the nettles that had overgrown
The verse, and rambled half way up the stone;
And then at eve, when ye were at the door,
Whisp'ring with sweethearts your love-secrets o'er,
I took my glasses to amuse myself,

And reach'd the Bible down from off the shelf,
To read the text, and look the Psalms among,
To find the one that at her grave was sung.
The place had long been doubled down before,
And much I wish that ye would read it o'er.
Your father read it to me many a time,

When ye were young and on our laps would climb.-
Nay, keep your work-'tis not worth while to leave;
I'll sit and hear it on to-morrow eve;

For even if the night would time allow,

My heart's too sad,—I cannot bear it now.

'I've talk'd till I have almost tired my tongue;
Folks say, old women's tales are always long:
So here I'll end; and, like it as you may,
I wish you better luck than Sally Grey.-

She ceas'd her tale, and snuff'd the candle wick,
Lifting it up from burning in the stick;

Then laid her knitting down, and shook her head,
And stoop'd to stir the fire, and talk of bed.'

Art. IV. A Summary of the Laws peculiarly affecting Protestant Dissenters. With an Appendix, containing Acts of Parliament, Trust Deeds, and Legal Forms. By Joseph Beldam, of the Middle Temple, Barrister at Law. pp. 196. Price 7s. London,

1827.

W E regret exceedingly that there should have been an

attempt made to mix up the subject of the Test and Corporation Acts with the question of Catholic Emancipation. The claims of Protestant Dissenters and the demands of the Catholics have nothing in common. They differ as widely, in their very nature, as the claim of a creditor and the demand of workmen who strike for higher wages; and the grounds upon which they have been severally resisted, are totally distinct. The Dissenter has been civilly put off till to-morrow: the Catholic has been told to go about his business, for he is owed nothing. Now it might be very generous for the creditor, under such circumstances, to make common cause with the unsuccessful and discontented suitor, and say, I will ask for 'my debt and your demand at the same time;' but he may depend upon it that he would only get frowned at by the one party, as meddling with what does not belong to him, and be secretly laughed at by the other for his good-humoured officiousness. Nay, he would stand the chance of being thought selfish in his generosity, as if he only made use of the other's demand to get his own debt paid.

Protestant Dissenters cannot, however, be accused of having of late dunned the Legislature for this long-standing debt. On the contrary, they have been so very quiet, that, were it not for the annual Indemnity Act, we should expect the Minister to reply-The Dissenters-I know nothing about them; I thought they were extinct long ago. In Lord Sidmouth's time, indeed, they raised a dust in the House by their petitions; but since then, the voice of a Dissenter has scarcely 'been heard within the walls of St. Stephen's Chapel, except that of a Unitarian gentleman, who hates the Methodists as 'cordially as I do.' We can imagine how exceedingly provoked a prime minister must be, when his hands are so full of important matters of state, to be spoken to about any thing so insignificant as the claims of the Dissenters. We have no VOL. XXVII. N.S. 2 Z

doubt that, if given to swearing, he would not refrain from it in reply to such an application.

The Dissenters, however, have been, through no fault of their own, mixed up with the Irish Catholics. Lord Liverpool, if we recollect right, suggested in a place that must not be mentioned, that, if penal disabilities were done away with regard to the Roman Catholics, no pretence could be made for continuing the restrictions on Protestant Dissenters. This he meant to operate as a decisive reason against Catholic Emancipationwith the bishops. As to the existence of any solid reason or pretence for excluding the Dissenters, his Lordship gave no opinion; his argument almost implied that he knew of none. It is as much as if he had said, We refuse the Irish their civil rights through fear of the Pope; but, if we grant them what they ask for, how can we pretend to be afraid of the Dissenters, who are the Pope's mortal enemies? It may be that we shall stand in need of them to balance the boat.

Not only have the claims of the Dissenters been invidiously and injuriously mixed up with the Catholic Question; but they have been taunted, and almost insulted, by honourable gentlemen, for not being unanimous, on a subject on which no other body or party in the nation is unanimous, for not being consistent, on a subject on which neither the friends nor the opponents of the measure are themselves consistent,-for remaining for the most part-some bustling bigots and alarmists excepted-quiet and neutral, when, in our humble judgement, it became them to be so. Being thus challenged and called upon, they have at length come forward, but in divided force, (owing to subsequent political changes,) temperately to reassert their undeniable claim to the free enjoyment of the common rights of citizenship.

Mr. Burke said in the House, the last time the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts was agitated, (March 2, 1790,) that he never could bear abstract principles; he detested them 'when a boy, and he liked them no better now he had silver hairs. Abstract principles were what his clumsy apprehension could not grasp; he must have a principle embodied in some manner or other, and the conduct held upon it ascertained, before he could pretend to judge of its propriety and advantage in practice. But, of all abstract principles, ab'stract principles of natural right—which the Dissenters rested on as their strong hold-were the most idle, because the most ' useless and the most dangerous to resort to*.' This affected

*Burke's Speeches. Vol. III. p. 475.

dislike of abstract principles must have sounded very strange, proceeding as it did from the Author of the Theory of the Sublime and Beautiful. But Mr. Burke knew where he was standing, and he spoke advisedly. Abstract principles may have made a little way since then; but the very large class in the upper ranks who worship the memory of this great man, are much of his way of thinking. From Lord Eldon downwards, the majority of our peers and senators detest abstract principles, and are afraid of them for the same reason that Mr. Burke assigned, they do not understand them. Now, although we do not sympathize either in this fear or in this dislike, nor have modesty enough to plead guilty to the same incapacity, we do agree with this eloquent antagonist of abstract principles in the present case, so far as to think, that it is almost idle, because quite useless, for Dissenters to have recourse to them. It seems to us extremely absurd, to go up to Parliament with a petition framed in the shape of a moral lecture upon any question; especially when we know how much easier it is to carry a point, than to obtain consent to a proposition. How many persons would sooner liberally relieve a beggar, than hear his tale! But what treatment might he expect, if, instead of a tale of grievance, he commenced a homily on the duty of almsgiving! Dissenters weaken their cause by having recourse to abstract pleas, intangible, and, how certain soever in their own nature, yet practically controvertible. Besides, these abstract principles are not only such as the clumsy apprehension' of Mr. Burke's disciples cannot grasp; they are positively odious to our legislators; and a majority in the House of Commons would, we verily believe, more readily concede the claims of Dissenters, than admit the general principles upon which these claims have sometimes been made to rest.

No man acts, no body of men ever acted, upon abstract principles, because, while they afford a rule, they supply no motive. A right line forms no principle of action. A wise man will be anxious never to offend against abstract principles, never to deviate from the right line; but his reason for walking or running, rather than for standing still, cannot be drawn from the existence of the right line, but from But we are ourselves something at the further end of it. falling unawares under Mr. Burke's condemnation, and we proceed at once, therefore, to matter of fact.

Once upon a time, there was a king of England, who was in the pay of a Popish king of France, had a papist for his brother and heir, and a very rascally set of favourites and creatures about him as his ministers. These men were strongly

suspected of having two objects much at heart; the one was, to overturn the Protestant religion, and the other, to destroy the constitutional liberties of Englishmen. In those days, Popery and slavery meant the same thing, or, at least, always went together; and the patriotic party in the House of Commons, sensible, and not without ample reason, that the security of their civil rights depended upon the exclusion of the Duke of York's party, brought in a bill, which is stated in the preamble to be, an Act for preventing of dangers which may happen from Popish recusants,' and which had for its object, to disable all Papists from holding any employment or place at court. This Act, commonly called the TEST ACT, requires all persons in public trust to receive the sacrament in a parish church, and to carry an attested certificate of the same into Chancery or the County Sessions, and there to make a declaration renouncing transubstantiation in full and positive words. This measure was of course extremely obnoxious to the Court, and great pains were taken to prevent its passing. And when, during the debate in the House of Commons, it was observed, that the Bill had been drawn in such a manner as to comprehend the Protestant Dissenters, the court-party endeavoured to avail themselves of that circumstance in order to defeat the bill. • By this means,' says Bishop Burnet, they hoped to have set them and the Church party into new heats; for now • all were united against Popery. Love, who served for the city of London, and was himself a Dissenter, saw what ill effects any such quarrel might have; so he moved, that an effectual security might be found against Popery, and that nothing might interpose till that was done. When that was over, then they would try to deserve some favour; but at present, they were willing to lie under the severity of the laws, ⚫ rather than clog a more necessary work with their concerns. The chief friends of the sects agreed to this. So a vote passed to bring in a bill in favour of Protestant Dissenters, though there was not time enough, nor unanimity enough, to finish one this session, For it went no further than a second reading, but was dropped in the Committee.'*

This last statement is not quite correct. The bill, which went much further than relieving Dissenters from the consequences of the Test Act, passed the Commons, but was sent down by the Lords with some amendments: while these amendments were being debated, the parliament was suddenly prorogued through the resentment of the Court, and the intended favour to the Dissenters was prevented. And when afterwards, in the

* Burnet's Own Times. B. iii. 1673.