being now brought up to plead without a moment's previous notice or knowing with what he was charged. He was told that he might imparle to the next term, i. e. might put off his pleading till then. He replied that he wanted no such time; if he were furnished with a copy of the information he should be prepared to plead the next morning. The Attorney General said he had no right to a copy, and Lord Ellenborough said that the time of the Court must not be occupied in vain discussions, the prisoner must plead guilty or not guilty; perhaps he might hereafter be allowed if he chose to retract his plea, and in the mean time his attorney might obtain a copy of the information at the proper office. Mr. Hone said he had no attorney and persisted in his demand of a copy. The Court, Lord Ellenborough said, had no power to give it; they had no funds out of which to pay for it: upon which Mr. Hone assured their Lordships that he had no funds either. Lord Ellenborough said, if a copy of the information were given to him, by the same rule every person charged with a crime might claim a copy of the indictment, a claim never before preferred, and certainly never before allowed. Whilst the informations were reading, Mr. Hone, who was unwell, asked permission to sit, to which Lord Ellenborough answered, No. After the reading of the informations, Mr. Hone renewed his application for copies, alledging that funds were found to pay his Majesty's Attorney General for filing these informations, and he should think that he against whom they were filed might be supplied with copies out of the same funds. The request was again put aside as being unprecedented, and the Defendant was committed till the first day of next Term, that is we believe Trinity Term, which commences Friday June the 6th. At the same time, Lord Ellenborough stated that he would be liberated in the interim, on putting in sufficient bail, which he explained to mean that for the first libel the Defendant must be bound himself in £200, and two sureties in £100 each, the same for the second, and in the third, himself in £100 and two sureties in £50 each. Mr. Hone requested now to have copies of the warrants on which he was apprehended, but Mr. Justice Bayley said, the Court had no power to grant them. In his Register which continues to be published, Mr. Hone pledges himself to refute the charge of Blasphemy. Melancholy Case of Mary Ryan. On Friday morning, May 2nd, was executed in the Old Bailey, for highway robbery, Patrick Ryun, known also by the name of Paddy Brown. He had some time ago planned his escape from Newgate, and nothing was wanting to the success of his plan but a rope, which his wife was detected in carrying into prison twined round her body. The scheme was thus defeated, and the wife was detained in Newgate to take her trial for aiding in it. By a most unhappy coincidence, the wife was tried for this offence on the very day that the husband suffered. She was of course found guilty, but the jury, agonized (as they expressed themselves) at her condition,a widow, just become such, by so awful an event, with a babe at her breast,recommended her in the most urgent manner to the mercy of the Court. She was sentenced to one month's imprisonment. In a flood of tears she begged the Court would suffer her " to go to the wake of her husband and see the last of him." This the Court replied it was not in their power to grant. Here the matter did not end. On Wednesday, May the 7th, Sir James Mackintosh brought the case of Mary Ryan before the House of Commons. In a speech of great eloquence he characterized the proceedings against her by every indignant epithet: he could not trust himself, he said, to comment upon the conduct of those who in such circumstances pushed forward the prosecution. Amidst general cheers, he concluded with moving for papers on the subject. Mr. H. Addington reported that Mary Ryan had been pardoned on the recommendation of Lord Sid: mouth, and Lord Castlereagh pressed Sir James to withdraw his motion, as it would seem to imply a censure on the administration of justice. But Sip James Mackintosh refused to withdraw the motion; the pardon did not extenuate the aggravated nature of the case. The prosecution was carried on at the instance of the city; why had not measures been taken to prevent its coming on? why were witnesses called? He would persevere in his motion that the House by adopting it might make a public declaration of their opinion, and hold up this fatal, this horrible transaction as a warning to all magistrates in future.-Lord Castlereagh now said that on a question of so serious a nature he should give the motion his support rather than cause any difference of opinion in the House. This unanimity is most honourable to the House of Commons, and effaces from the nation, if not from the city, the foul stain of this barbarity. In higher life and in other circumstances, especially in other times, Mary Ryan would have been celebrated as a heroine. What did Lady Nithsdale, Mrs. Walkinshaw and Madame Lavalette more than this poor woman at tempted? They succeeded, she failed; but her failure awakens our sympathy for her condition. She followed the promptings of nature, and the House of Commons, not fettered by positive laws, have uttered the voice of nature in her favour. NOTICES. THE Annual Meeting of the Eastern Unitarian Society will be held at Framlingham, on Wednesday and Thursday the 25th and 26th of June. THE next Anniversary of the Kent and Sussex Unitarian Christian Association, will be holden at Tenterden, on Wednesday, June 25th next, when a Sermon will be delivered by Mr. Thomas Rees. THE Annual Meeting of the South Wales Unitarian Society to be held this year at Carmarthen, has been postponed, owing to local and incidental circumstances, from the regular time (the Thursday next after the 21st of June) to Thursday the 10th of July. There will be service on the preceding evening at six. MR. T. N. TALFOURD, of the Middle Temple, is preparing for publication a Practical Treatise on the Laws of Toleration and Religious Liberty as they affect every class of Dissenters from the Church of England, intended to form a compendium of the civil, political and religious rights of all his Majesty's subjects, as they are, at present, affected by the profession of religious opinions; with an Appendix containing the most important statutes on the subject of Toleration, and forms of proceedings by indictment and before magistrates for infractions of the acts protecting worship, and other offences relating to religionin one volume octavo. THE REV. JOHN EVANS has in the press, An Excursion to Windsor, interspersed with Historical and Biographical Anecdotes for the Improvement of the Rising Generation-to which will be annexed, 4 Journal of a Trip to Paris, by Way of Brussels and Waterloo, by John Evans, Jun. IN the press, and speedily will be published, in one volume octavo, An Essay on Capacity and Genius; endeavouring to prove that there is no original mental superiority between the most illiterate and the most learned of mankind; and that no genius, whether individual or national, is innate, but solely produced by and dependent on circumstances. Also an Enquiry into the Nature of Ghosts, and other Appearances supposed to be Supernatural. MR. NICHOLAS will publish in the course of this month, in 2 vols. 8vo. The Journal of a Voyage to New Zealand, in company with the Rev. Samuel Marsden, with an Account of the State of that Country and its Productions, the Character of its Inhabitants, their Manners, &c. OBITUARY. 1817, Jan. 31, at Melbourn, in Cambridgeshire, in the 77th year of his age, Mr. THOMAS BARRON, who had been nearly sixty years a preacher in the General Baptist connexion. He was a man of a most excellent disposition and exemplary character, and respected by all parties of Christians in that part of the country where he had always lived. He laboured in his Master's work until the last, and was a good minister of Jesus Christ. For several years he preached and supplied the place of pastor to the General Baptist Churches at Melbourn, Fulbourn and Saf fron-Walden, until the settlement of Mr. is the only object of religious worship. Stephen Philpot, at the last-mentioned place, in the year 1791. His ministry of late years hath been very successful at Melbourn. A tribute of just respect was paid to the memory of so very worthy and respectable a Christian brother, by a sermon being preached on occasion of his death, in his own meeting-house, by Mr. George Compton, from Nehemiah vii. 2," He was a faithful man, and feared God above many;" By the Rev. Mr. Carver, Independent minister, at his meeting in Melbourn, from Matt. xxv. 21, "Well done thou good and faithful servant," &c. And likewise at Saffron-Walden by Mr. Stephen Philpot, from Genesis xv. 25, "And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age." Of him it may indeed be said as our Lord said of Nathanael-Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. The General Baptist Church at Melbourn is destitute of a minister. Walden, March 12, 1817. S. P. On the 25th April expired easily, and almost imperceptibly, at his apartments in Jesus College, Cambridge, the Reverend ROBERT TYRWHITT, formerly Fellow of this College. His father was Residentiary of St. Paul's, and grandfather, on the mother's side of the celebrated Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London. With these and other connexions he had every reason to expect high preferment in the church, but his conscience forbad him to make use of such advantages, and he resigned bis fellowship, and all his expectations from the Church, on the deliberate conviction of his mind, that one God only-who is emphatically styled in Scripture the Father--and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, On the resignation of his fellowship be was reduced to a fery narrow income, on which he lived cheerfully and contentedly; but, by the death of his brother, Clerk to the House of Commons, he came into possession of a property which enabled him ta to act up to the dictates of a generous heart. It will be incredible to the generality of readers how little he spent upon himself, and how much upon others. In every profession, Divinity, Law, Physic, Navy, Army, are many to lament his loss, and to remember the kindness of a most liberal benefactor. His benevolence was not confined to any sect or party. He looked upon all as children of one common. Parent, and himself as a steward merely under Providence, for what remained to him after the, gratification of his natural wants and very moderate desires. Notwithstanding his separation from the Church he lived in College highly respected by that Society, and by the most distinguished Members of the University. For the last eight or ten years he was confined by the gout chiefly to his rooms, and he had not slept out of College for twenty or thirty years. He was particularly well acquainted with the statutes of the University, was associated with Jebb in his plan for the improvement of education, was a friend of the late Bishops Law and Watson; and a more strenuous advocate for liberty, civil and religious, as distinguished from anarchy and misrule, never existed. He published two sermous, preached before the University of Cambridge, the one on the Baptismal Form, the other on the Creation of all Things by 'Jesus Christ; and whoever reads them will lagient that the author has not explained his sentiments more fully on many other parts of Scripture. His nephew, Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, is now the head of the family of this name. April 27, BENJAMIN TRAVERS, Esq. aged 65 years. Few characters have been more strongly marked than that of the man whose departure from this world is here announced. Ardour of mind combined with warmth of feeling, independence of thought which disdained to yield to authority, decision in forming resolutions, followed by equal promptitude in action, were its most prominent and conspicuous features; and these must have forced themselves on the observation of all who knew him. But it possessed other qualities which, as is the case with most men, could be remarked only by his intimates and friends. Among these one of the most striking was an insatiable thirst after knowledge, which the labours, and anxieties of a busy commercial life were misfortunes, such as will not unusually remark there are living witnesses who attribute the origin of their worldly prosperity and comfort to his unsolicited and disinterested exertions. Among the subjects which engaged his inquisitive mind, religion always occupied a primary place, and on this subject he strictly and truly thought for himself, and his reflections led him to entertain the most reverential and at the same time the most encouraging views of the Divine Being, which were highly cousulatory to him is the time of affliction, and on which he reposed with a cheerful and steady confidence for this life and for the next,. MONTHLY RETROSPECT of PUBLIC AFFAIRS; OR, The Christian's Survey of the Political World. THE question of the reform in Parliament, supported by a greater number of petitions than have ever been presented on any one occasion to the Lower House, was introduced into it by Sir F. Burdett, in a cool, temperate and most invaluable speech. It contained the usual arguments in favour of this necessary return to the constitutional government of the kingdom, giring an historical summary of the question, and some admirable remarks on the different forms of government, as they prevail in the world. These are well known to be divided by writers under three heads, each of which has its respective admirers: but there has never been found any one to panegyrize an oligarchy, such as is supposed to exist in England. The reason is this, that in the other forms the individuals who possess power, are influenced by honour or shame in many of their proceedings; but in the case of a varying oligarchy, where its members are not clearly and decisively pointed out, and which acts by substitutes, the most odious measures may be earried into execution, and both sovereign and people brought into a debasing subjection, injurious to both their interests. This it is contended, is the growing.. state of the House of Commons, brought into this situation by various circumistances. And in a petition to the...House of Commons, the relation of a great num ber of members to an existing oligarchy is stated with great confidence, and the statement has never been contradicted.. Now, if the fact is really so, the cousequences of it can be easily developed. For it is essential to the nature of a House of Commons, that each individual member should be able to speak his free and independent sentiments on any measure; and. if be acts under the control of another person, the great advantages of a representative body are lost. Such a House of Commons may bear the form of a repre sentation of the people; but, whatever may be the benefits of an institution of this kind, they are in danger of being lost or perverted by the prevailing influence which guides their proceedings, The fact therefore deserves a serious investigation. If they are true, whatever arguments are used in favour of the representative system, are inapplicable to House of Commons so constituted, and the demoralizing effects of such a system cannot fail of increasing to an extent, which may alarm every well-wisher to his country. These demoralizing effects attach to the oligarchist and his substitute. The oue will grow more and more insensible to the real good of his country: for every man is most alive to his own personal interests, and these may be enveloped in the furthering of measures adverse to, or preventing those, which are beneficial to the country. The mind of the substitute will naturally grow debased and servile by the daily subjection of his voice and opinions to the decision of his patron; and thus the two parties corrupting and corrupted will gradually grow more and more callous to the feelings of honour and patriotism. That this is the natural and necessary effect of the oligarchical system no one can deay. How far it exists in this country is another question. It may be some time, supposing it to exist, before all its baneful consequences can be developed but as sure as the dry rot if not prevented in time, will destroy every beam of timber in a building to which it can have access, so sure is it, that the corruption necessarily produced by an oligarchical system, will increase, till it has destroyed every particle of manly spirit, and left to the constitution the frame only without the sub stance. The arguments, if they can be called by that name, which were brought forward against Sir F. Burdett, were very feeble. They rested chiefly on the danger of change, the horror of innovation, and the flourishing state of the empire under its present system. On the danger of change it may be observed, that the persons, who are against change, should be for the motion at least in some degree; as the nature of the present system is to change more and more the actual state of the government. They, who dread in novation, should be the more on their guard against the innovations of time, and the present system is innovation; for it is only within these few years that the purchase and sale of boroughs could be talked of openly, and wherever such a transaction took place, it was carried on under every species of concealment that could be imagined. And as to the flourishing state of the country, if such a thing could be mentioned at present, this was owing not to the corruption, which is said to have taken place, but to the energies of the country, which that corruption had not as yet subdued. It is a long time before the tail effects of a system are developed. What was done in the reign of George the First by a House of Commons perpetuating by its own vote its existence for four years, might at the time have had a plausible argument in its favour: but the lengthened duration of parliament necessarily and gradually made the members of the House of Commous a very different set of men, from what they would have been, if they had been returned every three years to their constituents for their approbation. In the same manner the system of purchase and sale of seats of parliament, when once established to a considerable extent, occasions a change in the persons, who by these means obtain their seats: and it cannot be denied that there is more chance for integrity and ability, when the conduct of a member is to undergo a scrutiny, than when his situation depends merely on the length of his purse. But time reconciles man to the greatest absurdities, and they are defended often with the greater pertinacity, the more glaring they are in the eyes of those by whom they are exposed. Otherwise bow can we account for the fatal errors of idolatry, the bigotted attachment to the Papal See, the infant God of Thibet, or the Caaba of Mecca. In this question of reform we are not therefore to be surprised, if one should venture to declare, that he would as soon part with the representation of Yorkshire as that of Old Sarum; i, e. of the most populous county of England, as that of a place which has no inhabitants: in short, that the accidental purchaser of a spot could choose two representatives, as useful to the kingdom as a populous county. This is bringing the question of representation to an issue indeed; and it comes to the question, whether in a succession of purchasers it is likely that their substitutes would equally attend to the interests of the kingdom, as those nominated by the people, who would know by experience the characters of the persons they sent to parliament. But in this question a paradox has been seen. One of the members for Yorkshire declared himself against reform. Now this may seem passing strange that a person, who is reported to have spent about a hundred thousand pounds to attain the diguity of representing Yorkshire, should like to be placed on the same level with a man, who has been sent to the House on the nomination of a person, who has acquired the right of sending two members of parliament for ever for a much less sum. This paradox however is not difficult of explanation, for Yorkshire itself does not differ so much from a borough as is imagined. The expence of contesting the county upon the present system is so great, that the choice of representatives is confined to very few |