Sir Samuel Romilly.
SIR,

I transcribe for your use part of Sir Samuel Romilly's Speech to the Electors of Bristol, April 2, 1812; persuaded that you will admire the frankness of it, and the spirit of freedom which it breathes.

Sir Samuel is answering objec tions which had been made to him as candidate for the representation of Bristol in Parliament.

There is another matter, which perhaps does not deserve to be mentioned; and yet I should be glad to say a few words upon it. It has been published in this city that I am a foreigner, and that if you elect me you will send a foreigner to represent you in a British Parliament. Gentlemen, I was born and educated and

manner which he believed was most acceptable to him. He determined to free himself from this bondage; he abandoned his proPerly, he tore himself from his connections, and quitting the country and its tyrant, sought an asylum in this land of liberty, where he had to support himself only by his own exertions. He cated his sons to useful trades, embarked himself in trade, he eduand he was contented at his death to leave them, instead of his original patrimony, no other inheri he had given them, the example tance than the habits of industry, of his own virtuous life, an hereditary detestation of tyranny and injustice, and an ardent zeal in the

cause of civil and religious freedom. Among other reasons I am an Englishman. Gentlemen, have to bless his memory is,—that this is my origin; I trust 1 need

not blush to own it.*"

This is manly, the admirable simplicity of a truly great mind.

nent lawyer and statesman, disIs it true, then, that this emi

owned the Dissenters, on a late occasion, in the House of Commons? It is most unlikely.

have passed my whole life in Eng. land, with the exception of a short interval which was spent in visit. ing foreign countries. My father too was born and educated in England, and spent his whole lite in it. My grandfather, it is true, was not an Englishman by birth, but he was an Englishman by choice. He was born the heir to a considerable landed estate at The affair, as given in the pubMontpelier in the South of France. His ancestors had early imbibed prints, was that a certain gen. and adopted the principles and tleman from Sussex charged Sir doctrines of the reformed religion, Samuel with being retained by the and he had been educated himself Dissenters as their advocate in in that religious faith. He had that House. This personality it the misfortune to live soon after was natural for him to repel with the time when the Edict of Nantes, indignation. There is something the great Toleration Act of the strange however in his reply to his accuser: "He had never been Protestants of France, was re. voked by Lewis the Fourteenth, within the walls of a Dissenting place of worship!" and he found himself exposed to all the vexations and persecutions of a bigotted and tyrannical government, for worshipping God in the

* See "An Account of the Entry of Sir Samuel Romilly into Bristol, &c." 12mo, pp. 14, 15. kontol eidy 3:

This mode of defence seems to ous advocates" of Sir Samuel's concede to the Sussex member cause*. that there is something disreputa- I know the imperfectness and ble in a connexion with the Dis- frequent inaccuracy of the reports senters. Accordingly, Mr. Wil- of Parliamentary debates, and liam Smith is reported to have therefore indulge the hope that been aroused to declare that he Sir Samuel Romilly has been frequented none but Dissenting misrepresented. To an enemy I worship.

BRISTOLIENSIS,

would not repeat the misrepresenThe more consistent and gener- tation, for I admire his character, ous answer to the member from and am devoted to the cause which Sussex, would surely have been, he sustains: but I have thought that his charge was unworthy of a it might be of service, by this representative of the People, so statement in your liberal work, to many of whom are Dissenters; give his friends an opportunity of that if the Dissenters were less nu- explaining the only part of his merous, virtuous, intelligent and conduct as a senator, that has important than they really are, it given uneasiness to one brought up would become a member of the in the school of nonconformity and Commons' House to take up their of liberty, cause, as far as it was the cause of justice and liberty; that for himself, instead of feeling it to be a reproach, he should ever esteem it an honour, to have the good opinion of a body of men, who have been, in all periods, the warmest friends of the priciples of freedom and of the House of Brunswick; and that the respect of the Dissenters, if indeed he had been so happy as to gain it, was the more flattering to him, as it was entirely disinterested on their part, and grounded wholly on his Parliamentary conduct, he not being of their religious, profession.

Dr. Aikin's General Biographical
Dictionary.

Hampton, Sept. 1, 1812.
SIR,

I perceive by your pages (493, 494) that a new General Bwgraphical Dictionary is publishing. Al low.me to ask, whether Dr. Aikin's be abandoned? This is, without exception, the best written and most liberal General Biography which I ever consulted and your correspondent's account of the new work satisfies me that it is Of this cast, though put in a likely to continue the best in these better form, I should bave expect. respects. It will be mortifying to ed Sir Samuel Romilly's vindica- me and, I know, to many others, tion of himself to have been; es- should it be left in its present impecially as it appears from the perfect state. speeches of the Rev. Dr. Estlin, the Rev. Mr. Rowe and the Rev. T. S. Brittan, Dissenting clergy- to subscribe to the first volumes of men at Bristol, on the occasion before referred to, that the Dissenters in that city are strenu

Indeed, I must protest against the unfairness of prevailing on one

* See the pamphlet before quoted, pp.25-27.

an expensive work, which is then gine what reply could be given;

dropped. It may not answer, it is true, but the publishers and editor should satisfy themselves as to that matter before they begin the undertaking. In the present instance, the truly respectable name of the Editor was both an inducement with me to become a subscriber, and a pledge that I should not be decoyed into the middle of the work, and there be left with it, on my hands, as waste paper.

I do hope that the General Biography will be resumed, not only from regard to those that have staked their money on the credit of the Editor, but also from respect to the interests of literature: for these literary bankruptcies shake men's faith in writers and publishers, and may hereafter hinder the appearance of all impor. tant, which are commonly very expensive, works.

ROBERT BROOKE.

Deity of the Holy Spirit.

August 20th, 1812.

SIR, Your correspondent from Liverpool, [p. 435.] in answering my query, [p. 149.] respecting the total absence of any petition to the Holy Spirit, amongst the numerous prayers which were devoutly offered by the holy Jesus, during his ministry on earth, doubts whether I was "really ignorant what reply Trinitarians would make;" or whether, supposing no one should think it worth while to return an an. swer, I "expected to claim a victory, as though it was unanswerable." These doubts I will satisfy, by ●wning that I was at a loss to ima

but in investigations of this nature, the idea of a victory has never entered into my mind; both of us, I trust have one sole object in view, the discovery of truth; and if either should perceive it in the arguments of the other, I hope he will not submit unwillingly to receive it as from a conqueror, but joyfully hail it as the most precious gift of a friend and benefactor.

The ground which H. M. takes in the first instance, is indeed such as I could by no means anticipate; he denies the universal appropriateness of the Lord's prayer, and asserts that it was exclusively intended for the use of Christians, during the few months that would intervene, between the time when it was given, and the complete illumination of the apostles, by the descent of the Holy Spirit going the full length of condemning its present use, as ill suited to, and im. proper for the disciples of Christ!

I will confess, Mr. Editor, that I felt as much hurt as astonished, by this strange assertion! If there are, as I think every one must feel, some passages in the Holy volume more sacred to his imagination, more dear and precious to his feeling than the rest, this incompara ble prayer must surely stand among the foremost of them! How often has it called forth our affectionate adoration of the Supreme Being! taught us to revere his name! to long ardently for the approach and extension of his blessed kingdom! to bow with absolute submission to his will! and from our hearts to forgive our of. fending fellow-creatures! To seek his powerful help in all tempta. tions! to look to him alone as our rock of defence! and humbly ac

knowledging that all which we till they had received a portion

of that illumination, which had been given without measure to their master, after his baptism by John. But after the resurrection of Christ, when the apostles had been fully informed of all things

now possess, and all that we still hope for, are his; to ascribe all power, all glory, to the One God, and Father of all! who is above all! and through all! and in us all! Venerated as this most perfect form of words has been by him, and on the day of Pentein every age of the Christian cost had received the promised church, and endeared as it gifts of the spirit, which were to ought to be to every heart, by comfort them for this loss, and its association with early devotion- enable them to carry on the great al feelings, I cannot believe that work to which they were appointany sincere Christian could with. ed; when thus completely quali. out deep regret and indignation, fied, what were the doctrines see it excluded from the worship which they taught? Did they tell of his church. Why it is not to the Jews, that instead of "the be found in the gospels of Mark Lord their God" being "One or John I do not pretend to say, Lord," there were three persons any more than to account for va to be worshipped! one of whom rious other most important and was he whom they had so lately instructive passages, which are put to death upon the cross! and inserted by some of the evange- the other that heavenly inspiration lists and omitted by others: on which God had poured out upon these matters we are left to mere the prophets who had from time conjecture; but to me no part of to time been sent to instruct their our Saviour's teaching more fully nation, and who, so inspired, had proves that he was divinely gifted with one voice declared, that the than this prayer. Lord was One, and "his name One!" If this most astonishing doctrine had been communicated to them, would not their minds have been full of it; and would they not plainly and explicitly have declared it, in all their dis courses? While the fact is, that the whole of their preaching, as recorded in the book of Acts, is strictly Unitarian!!

I am not less shocked with your correspondent's next position, that our Lord "acted as a Jew," and that he is not "in every thing" a model for his followers! To assert this, seems to me to strike at the root of Christianity itself; for it denies that he has set us a perfect example, without which, his blessed work upon earth, would have been left incomplete. It would be intruding too far But I would ask H. M. in what upon your valuable pages to insert word or action of his life did Jesus here a short review, which with act as a Jew? What word or deed regard to this question I have just is recorded of him that is not wor. taken, of that invaluable book; thy of all imitation? His preach. but on a future occasion I may ing too, and his instructions, were perhaps request its insertion; a perfect, though the ignorance and passage however which is cited by Jewish prejudices, even of his H. M. must not be silently passapostles, prevented them in some ed over. “Of Ananias and Sap. instances from understanding them, phira it is said, they lied to the

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Holy Ghost, and that they had indiscriminate use of the word. Elohim, judges, magistrates, and prophets are called Gods."+ Our Lord too says to the Jews, "If they are called Gods to whom the word of the Lord came, and the scripture cannot be broken;" manifestly alluding to those who had received divine communications; and in this limited sense the term was peculiatly applicable to Jesus, who by this expression seems to sanction its being so applied, though with the humility so conspicuous in his perfect character, he declined assuming so high a title to himself. With these corresponds the expression of Paul, "For though there be that are call.

not lied to men, but to God:" which expressions appear to me to mean, that they had attempted to deceive those who they knew were in possession of such miraculous gifts by the immediate favour of God, as rendered it impossible in any thing that concerned their ministry, for them to be deceived: therefore the attempt was as futile and absurd, as it was daringly wicked. I will notice also an expression of Paul in his beautiful oration on taking leave of the el ders of Ephesus, which as it stands in our received translation, may be supposed to favour the doctrine of Christ's divinity. "Feed the church of God, which he hath ed Gods whether in heaven or on purchased with his own blood" earth;" evidently meaning the but the word God rests upon deified men of the heathens, and the authority of no manuscript of the inspired prophets of the Jews, note or value, nor of any version, “as there be Gods many and but the modern copies of the vut. Lords" many!" But with true gate; while Lord is supported by Unitarian zeal he adds," But to ali the most ancient and valuable as there is but One God, the Famanuscripts, whether of the Alex. ther; of whom are all things, and andrine or the Western edition; we in him; and one Lord Jesus by the Coptic, Syriae, and other Christ, by whom are all things, ancient versions, and by citations and we by him.” from the early ecclesiastical writers."* But had it been other. wise, it could have had little weight: "For though by the word God we uniformly mean either the Supreme Being, or one who really possessed, or was sup. posed to possess, the peculiar at tributes of his divinity, the Jews employed their word Elohim much more loosely; as in Exodus, "Behold I have appointed thee a God to Pharoah!" In the same book, xxii. 28, gods and rulers are used synonimously. In Psalm 82, "the Gods" is synonymous with "the mighty," and by the

Improved Version.

With respect to the form of baptism mentioned in Mark's gospel, and by some supposed to fa vour the doctrine of the Trinity, it is remarkable that it is not once recorded to have been used by the apostles, or any person mention. ed in holy writ; therefore cannot be a necessary form; though no Christian can scruple to profess his belief in the Father as his God, in Jesus as the Christ, and in the miraculous powers conveyed by the gift of the Holy Spirit; and I can perceive nothing farther required or implied by the text in question.

+ Dr. Carpenter.