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of the young, the relief of the indigent, and the support and solace of the afflicted, and the aged; for the promotion of Christian knowledge, the distribution of the Holy Scriptures at home and abroad, and the propagation of the Gospel in every part of the world.

Which of all these venerable and beneficial institutions, let me repeat, would you be willing to change? Which of them is not in its measure and degree essential to our welfare both as a community and as individuals? By the subversion or material alteration of which of them should we not be serious losers? Let our past experience, as a nation, reply to this question. Is it not a fact, which cannot be disputed, that, under the blessing of Him by whose gracious Providence our various privileges and advantages have been bestowed and preserved, the British empire has enjoyed a larger measure of prosperity than has fallen to the lot of any other country, and has been raised to the summit of earthly greatness and glory? Was it not during a period of unexampled difficulty and danger, the support and the bulwark of the civilized world? And are not many of our most important institutions the objects of admiration and imitation to the nations around us?

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But there are imperfections, it is said, and even abuses, in some of these; and we have for some time past been labouring under many national difficulties and burdens. Admitting this to be true, what necessarily follows from such an acknowledgement? That it is our duty to listen to the clamour of the violent and the factious, and to involve every thing in confusion and ruin, under the pretence of applying a remedy? This would be an act of folly similar to that of attempting to cure a distemper by destroying the patient. With respect to our national difficulties and distresses, they are confessedly, for the most part, the result of that long-protracted contest in which we were so unavoidably engaged; and admit not of speedier and more complete relief than patience and dependence on the Divine blessing, aided by the expedients which may be adopted by the united wisdom of the legislature will, we trust, in due time afford. As to any alleged defects and imperfections in our national institutions, if these be considered as constituting a sufficient reason for desiring a change in the institutions themselves, it is one which must ever prevail. And should every change which is demanded be obtained, let no one imagine that complaints will not equally be made against any existing state of things whatsoever. This observation is by no means intended to discourage any legitimate and temperate efforts to ameliorate our national condition; but to expose the visionary schemes and fallacious promises of those who, in the language of Solomon, are "given to change." Neither their characters nor their proceedings are such as to entitle them to confidence. The love of novelty is commonly associated with ignorance and presumption, and renders those who indulge it unsafe and dangerous guides; while their contempt of religious principle, and of established authorities, the bitter and reproachful terms in which their opinions are generally expressed, and their appeal to the worst passions of the people, prove, that the object at which they

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aim is not to promote the public welfare, but their own advantage,-not to correct what is amiss, and to improve what is defective, to deface and to overturn every thing, and to erect a delusive, impious, and impracticable system, upon the ruins of all that is ancient and established, dignified and useful, divine and holy, in the land. It is easy to perceive how contrary dispositions and conduct such as these are to the principles and precepts of the Gospel; and, accordingly, we cannot be surprised, that the popular contenders for that reform, which is, in fact, only another word for revolution, should also be the friends and apostles of infidelity; that those who are labouring to introduce discontent, disorder, and rebellion, into the state, should be equally anxious to vilify and misrepresent, to discredit and discard, that Divine religion, which is its firmest guardian and support. The history of our own country, in the reign of King Charles the First, and the more recent example of the French Revolution, are amply sufficient to illustrate the danger of a spirit of innovation, whether in church or state.

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There cannot be a doubt in the mind of any candid and judicious observer, that our greatest danger, at the present moment, arises from a manifest and increasing tendency of popular licentiousness and tumult. That freedom of speech and of the press, which, under the regulation of decency and moderation, forms one of the most important bulwarks of our national welfare, has confessedly exceeded all reason➡ “ able bounds; and threatens to overwhelm us with a torrent of revolu tionary impiety, violence, and disorder. Who can deny that these are evils which have of late alarmingly increased, and which require both the arm of lawful authority, and the united and vigorous efforts of the wise and good to restrain and suppress them? It is surely one thing to discuss the measures of administration with calmness and impartiality, and quite another to revile the person of the sovereign, and to misrepresent the motives and the conduct of his government. It is one thing to detect errors and abuses, and to endeavour, by all peaceable and lawful means, to correct the one, and to reform the other; and a very different thing to aim at the subversion of all authority and order, religion, government, and law. Who, then, does not perceive, that the real enemies of liberty are the very men who are clamouring to promote it; and that, in order to repress their factious violence, it may be necessary still farther to check and abridge the constitutional privileges which we now enjoy?

What, however, is the remedy for that spirit of discontent and disaffection, of turbulence and clamour, which now so lamentably prevails; and by what means may we hope to secure the continued enjoyment of our unrivalled constitution? That remedy and those means are to be found, not in the diffusion of a spirit of party, much less of factious violence and clamour, but in the prevalence of sound religion and morality; in the increase of that righteousness which alone exalteth a nation; in the cultivation of the principles of that sacred volume, which has, as we have seen, united in inseparable connexion and harmony our duty to God and man; which, in one and the

same sentence, exhorts us to "fear the Lord and the King," and not to listen to those who are "given to change." It is, indeed, impossible that any one who imbibes the genuine spirit of the Gospel should be a violent political partisan, much less a seditions or rebellious subject. The principles which he has been taught gradually check and subdue that disposition to disobedience of every kind which is unhappily inherent in human nature, and render him habitually submissive to authority, moderate in his estimate of what is due to himself, candid and equitable in the judgment which he forms of the conduct of others; not fiercely and pertinaciously insisting upon every supposed right; but yielding much of what he might strictly require, for the sake of preserving the peace and good order of society, and referring all circumstances and events to the guidance and disposal of an all-wise and gracious Providence.

Let us not, amidst temporary difficulties and partial imperfections and privations, be unmindful of the various civil and religious blessings which the providence of God has bestowed upon us, and which, if faithfully improved, will continue to render us a great and happy. people. Let us cherish them with affection, and guard them with vigilance and resolution. But while we are anxious to correct, by lawful and temperate means, any abuses which may prevail amongst us, let us steadily and determinately resist all violent and illegal attempts to undermine or overturn our established constitution in church and state; and discourage, to the utmost of our power, all those publications which, whether more or less openly, are engaged in calumniating and vilifying our Rulers, and in deceiving and misleading the people.

ADDRESS TO THE STATE AND CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
(From Wordsworth's Excursion.)

HAIL to the Crown by Freedom shaped-to gird
An English Sovereign's brow! and to the Throne
Whereon he sits! Whose deep foundations lie
In veneration and the People's love;
Whose steps are equity, whose seat is law.
-Hail to the State of England! And conjoin
With this a salutation as devout,

Made to the spiritual fabric of her Church;
Founded in truth; by blood of martyrdom
Cemented; by the hands of wisdom reared
In beauty of holiness, with ordered pomp,
Decent, and unreproved. The voice that greets
The majesty of both, shall pray for both;
That, mutually protected and sustained,
They may endure as long as sea surrounds
This favoured land, or sunshine warms her soil.
-And O, ye swelling hills, and spacious plains!
Besprent from shore to shore with steeple-towers,
And spires whose "silent finger points to Heaven;"

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Nor wanting, at wide intervals, the bulk
Of ancient minster, lifted above the cloud
Of the dense air, which town or city breeds
To intercept the sun's glad beams may ne'er
That true succession fail of English hearts,
That can perceive, not less than heretofore
Our ancestors did feelingly perceive,
What in those holy structures ye possess
Of ornamental interest, and the charm
Of pious sentiment diffused afar,
And human charity, and social love.
-Thus never shall the indignities of time
Approach their reverend graces, unopposed;
Nor shall the Elements be free to hurt
Their fair proportions; nor the blinder rage
Of bigot zeal madly to overturn;

And, if the desolating hand of war
Spare them, they shall continue to bestow
Upon the thronged abodes of busy men
(Depraved, and ever prone to fill their minds
Exclusively with transitory things)

An air and mien of dignified pursuit ;
Of sweet civility-on rustic wilds.

The Poet, fostering for his native land
Such hope, entreats that servants may abound
Of those pure Altars worthy; Ministers
Detached from pleasure, to the love of gain
Superior, insusceptible of pride,

And by ambition's longings undisturbed;
Men, whose delight is where their duty leads
Or fixes them; whose least distinguished day
Shines with some portion of that heavenly lustre
Which makes the Sabbath lovely in the sight
Of blessed Angels, pitying human cares.

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And, as on earth it is the doom of Truth To be perpetually attacked by foes Open or covert, be that priesthood still, For her defence, replenished with a band Of strenuous champions, in scholastic arts Thoroughly disciplined; nor (if in course Of the revolving World's disturbances Cause should recur, which righteous Heaven avert! ¿llowoma To meet such trial) from their spiritual sirescibesabuz Degenerate; who, constrained to wield the sword yel Of disputation, shrunk not, though assailed g With hostile din, and combating in sight Of angry umpires, partial and unjust; And did, thereafter, bathe their hands in fire," So to declare the conscience satisfied;

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But, blessing God and praising him, bequeathed,

With their last breath, from out the smouldering flame,

The faith which they by diligence had earned,

And through illuminating grace received,

For their dear countrymen, and all mankind.
O high example, constancy divine!

The Fireside Companion;

NO. XII.

THE POLAR EXPEDITION.

[We have been on board the Hecla and Griper, at Deptford, on their return from the Polar Expedition; we have handled the preserved specimens of Birds and other animals, and we have been greeted by the strange howl of the Arctic Dogs, who wandered about their decks. Moreover, we have eaten and drunk, and conversed with the enterprising Captain Parry and his Officers, and have received many entertaining anecdotes of their Voyage; but we have foreborne to publish them, from a delicacy to the forthcoming Narrative of the Commander. As however another Journalist, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, has been enabled to gratify the public curiosity with a summary account of their proceedings, we do not hesitate to extend the circulation of his authentic account, although we do not feel ourselves at liberty to add any intelligence of our own.-L.]

THE expedition, under the command of Captain Ross, although very important and interesting, from the numerous nautical observations it made in Baffin's Bay, still did not satisfy the expectations of men of science, and the public, in regard to the North-west Passage. In order to determine this important geographical problem, an expedition was fitted out last year, consisting of two strong vessels, the Hecla and Griper, which were placed under the command of Lieutenant Parry. This gentleman, whose talents and feelings are worthy of the best and most glorious days of nautical enterprise and discovery, was accompanied by a chosen band of intrepid and experienced officers, and the vessels were manned by crews full of zeal and enthusiasm, and in the highest and most perfect state of discipline.

They left England on the 11th of May, 1819, and reached Cape Farewell, the most southern part of West Greenland, on the 14th of the succeeding June. On the 20th of June, the ships were in lat. 64 deg. north; on the 26th June, they were beset in the ice, and, after having endeavoured, but in vain, to urge their way, during a painful detention of four days, were, at last, glad to get back again. Having reached lat. 74 deg. north, they determined to force a passage through the barrier of ice, which they found to be eighty miles broad. Having succeeded in this, they reached Possession Bay on the 31st July; and, on the 1st August, entered in safety Sir James Lancaster's Sound, where they found the same open sea which has been described in the accounts of the former expedition. They advanced to long. 89 deg. west, meeting with but little obstruction from the ice; and in long. 90 deg. west, discovered two considerable islands, named Prince

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