Dr. Chalmers continues his lectures in the Hanover Square Rooms
; producing a great effectAby the vigour of his language and the earnest- correspondent of the 3forning Chronicle re- line of bis manner.
marks— "With all the disadvantage of reading from the manuscript before him, Dr. Chalmers exerts a power over his audience which we have seldom seen equalled, serer surpassed. Like some mighty magician, he keeps them spellbound, 11C IOUs of the entire command which he sway's, but unable to escape from it ; :ma hither and thither, at the will of the intellectual conjurer, excited into passion, tamed to sobriety, until he is pleased to relinquish his hold and to bid away the charm. Referring to his Friday's lecture, directed against " the economists in religion,' the same eloquent writer says- 4' The moral effect produced on the audience rose to the true sublime when the lecturer advanced to assert the independence of the Church of Scotland. fle himself was obviously on fire with his own hurrying thoughts ; and when be maintained that the Church to which he belonged, by her constitution, could own no head but the Lord Jesus Christ—that in things ecclesiastical no power en earth durst interfere with her—that she was the unfettered mistress of her own doings ;' and when, in the inimitable words of Lord Chatham, he ap- plied to the Scottish Church what that prince of orators asserted of the poor man's home in England—' It may be is straw-built shed ; the storm may beat upon it, every wind of heaven may blow around it ; but the King cannot, the King dare not enter it,'—the breathless admiration with which the audience had listened, was followed by a burst of rapturous and long-continued applause." "We marvel much, whether it occurred to those who were fascinated by the stirring eloquence of the lecturer, after they had recovered from the spell, to ask if his statements were true? One ought to be alive to the fact that Dr. Chalmers is an imaginative, not a judicious or an accurate man ; and who knows not that the imagination is often the ignis fatuus not only to the under- standing, but to the moral sense? It is impossible to read or hear Dr. Chal- men without being satisfied how frequently he is himself and how frequently he would make others, the victims of his imagination. He asserts what he fancies and wishes. The independence of the Church of Scotland! it is the merest vagary. Even if we -vere entirely ignorant of the facts of the case, (which we are not-) and were drawing only from general theoretical knowledge of the subject, we should not hesitate to pronounce that such a thing is utterly incumistent with all sound and statesman. like ideas of a religious establishment. If there're an axiom its civil policy clear and indisputable, it is this, that our Esta- blished Church is part and parcel of the law of the land,' and being so, is sub- ject to that authority which the law, in all its departments. own.. The terms of the compact between the Church and the State, says Bishop Warburton—'the terms, on the part of the State, are itsgranting to the Church a public endow- tondos her ministers, &e. ; and on the part of the Church, her resigning up her independence, and making the Magistrate her supr, head.' A religion up- held at the expense of the nation, and yet independent of the Government, is a pare fallacy in legislation. Such a thing may, by a certain process of tact:why- s'& abstraction, be conceived of, but it can exist nowhere except in the brain. With all deference to the reverend lecturer, this is a matter not of theology, but of legislative policy ; and we cannot concede it. The actual head of every religion 'which is maintained at the public cost, is the Government ; commanding or influencing in thing. ecclesiastical, as certainly, though not soustensibly, it may be, as in things pecuniary. It would he cruel to hinder Dr. Chalmers from talking about what is obviously so grateful to his heart, ecclesiastical inde- pendence; but sure we are, it must be mere talk ; and his Church, like our own Establishment, neither does nor can possess such a things We assert positively that it is all a dream of a devout but misinformed and misguided The Doctor's main object is to demonstrate the error of those per- sons to whom he attributes the doctrine of "free trade in religion"— " The discussion was conducted with ability; but considering that for the last twenty years the Doctor has been occupied in casting up the same idea in- masterly, now in one form and now in another, we must confess that we had hardly appetite for so stale a dish. Who that knows any thing of Dr. Chalmers sloes not know his love, almost passion, for reiteration ? And in nothing has this passion been so marvellously indulged as in reference to his celebrated argument in favour of religious establishments. In his Christian and Civil Economy, in speeches, in sermons, it has been brought forward, and with every variety of form and of association. After all, we felt convinced that the lec• Curer was fighting with a man of straw. His notion of free trade in religion is that of religion being entirely supported by those to whom it is published, without the slightest pecuniary assistance torn any other quarter. This is a notion which neither is nor ever was maintained by a single individual. Tur- got and the French Economists, and Adam Smith in our own country, resisted the idea of a monopoly in religion, on the same principles on which they depre. rated monopolies in general : they objected to enslaving any one class of reli- gionists on the same principles on which they objected to conferring a bounty on any article of commerce. But they never meant to maintain that the precise and exact institutes of a free trade in commerce were minutely applicable to the support and extension of religion. With them, it was more a passing illustration, than a theory to which they would have stood in all its conse- quences. It seemed to us, therefore, that the reverend lecturer had conjured lap a system for the mere purpose of overturning it ; and that if he succeeded, It was in refuting what nobody held, and that he had gained just nothing, in support of an ecclesiastical establishment."
In the mean while, although errors may be pointed out in Dr. Chalmers's opinions, and objections taken to his manner of supporting them, it is undoubted that he is producing a considerable sensation, and encouraging and exciting the Church and Tory party.
_ A warrant has been issued by the Magistrates of Henry Street police-office, Dublin, against Sir Francis Stanhope, on a charge of being concerned in the rubbery of the casket of diamonds helungii,g to the Dutchess of Leinster, which have since been restored. Sir Francis is brother of the Dutchess, and holds the office of Usher to the Knights of St. l'atrick.— Globe.
The indisposition of the aged Earl of Essex, who married Miss Stephkens about a fortnight ago, is announced in the papers of the Wee. The !Taira! World mentions a most extraordinary pianoforte-player, of the name of Deshler, who has recently arrived at Paris from Italy, and whom the editor denominates " the double of Thalberg." His per- formance has created quite a sensation ; and it is said that he executes such wonders with his left hand as were never dreamt of before, in short, that he is a combination of steam and railroad on the instrument. He is expected to pay London a visit early next month.
A singular proceeding at law has been commenced at Berlin against Prince William, by a man who kept a panorama of Kaliseb at the camp of Tel ton last year. The soldiers were standing considerable numbers at the door of this show, when the Prince was going in to see it ; and his Royal Highness good-naturedly said to the proprietor, " Let these soldiers in, I will pay for them ;" giving him at the same time four fredericks of gold. The man alleges that he understood this to apply to the whole of the troops, whom he consequently allowed to enter ; and has brought a demand against the Prince of 2,000 thalers, having refused his Royal Highness's offer of 20 fredericks as an indemnification for the mistake. The case is not yet decided.-- It has been reported for some days past, that King Ernest intends to be present at the coronation of his august niece the Queen of Eng- land. Whether, besides the question of the Hanoverian constitution, which will be discussed in the family council that will probably assemble, another question, concerning the marriage of our Crown Prince with a near relation, will be taken into consideration, is uncertain.—Letter
from Hanover in the Times.
A secret, which has long excited the public curiosity, has just been divulged. The late Joseph Grassi, Professor of Painting at the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Dresden, had in his apartment beside his bed- room, a room, the door of which was always covered with hangings, and into which, since his return in 1804 from his last tour in Italy, no one has been allowed to enter, not even his children. He always car- ried the key of it about his person ; put it tinder his pillow when he went to bed ; and by way of precaution, he caused the door of this mysterious chamber to be built up in 1831 In his will, M. Grassi, ordered that this chamber should not be opened for three months after his death, and bequeathed all its contents to Duke Augustus, of Gotha ; stating that if he had not communicated to any one what it contained, it was to give an agreeable surprise to this Prince, who had been his benefactor. This room has only just been opened by the executors of M. Grassi, who found in it seventeen pictures of the most famous ancient painters. The Duke took possession of them, and placed them in one of the saloons of the Royal Academy at Dresden, where they will be publicly exhibited for three months. They will then be sent to Gotha, and placed in the Ducal 'Museum of that town. Among them are a Titian, a Carlo Dolci, a Salvator Rosa, a Correggio,
Galignani.
The steam navigation, of which Constantinople has become the central point in Turkey, is constantly increasing. The Austrian Da- nube Stearn Company now take the lead, and are erecting extensive factories at Therapies, where their numerous vessels may be refitted and repaired. They have recently established it branch steam-vessel between this port and Sulonica. 'f he steamers on the Trebizond sta- tion are slaw making immense profits, as each voyage they have been fully loaded with merchandise, and have carried also about 300 pas- sengers each. The Sultan has refused to ratisfy a promise which bad been given for a firman to permit tin English steam-vessel to carry Frank passengers up and down the Bosphorus. The Porte is build- ing two steam-vessels, but when they will he completed, it is impossible to say.—Letter in the Post.
The Algonquin packet, arrived at Philadelphia, had forty days of heavy westerly gales, which obliged her to run too far South. She brought from Liverpool a cargo valued at 300,000 dollars, not a package of which was injured. She sprung a leak, and the leak was two or three feet under water. Captain Turley's sagacity and ability in saving the vessel and lives of the passengers were conspicuous on this occasion. He prepared wood in battens and pieces of canvas, and nailed them over the breach; to do which, he had to swing a matt over the bow with a line round his waist ; and us the ship rose on the sea, he was enabled to give two or three blows with the hummer. No one could remain over more than five minutes at a time, for with every plunge she made the was buried in the sea. Captain Turley, his mate, and carpenter, took their turn in being dropped over.—Neev York Evening Star.
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