pro ratione voluntas may eventually be carried. We confess we are somewhat surprized that the upper house, who are ordinarily such vigilant and even jealous guardians of the rights of property and patronage, should have passed over this matter so lightly. If our great hereditary patrons should find their ecclesiastical nominees arbitrarily rejected, and the pecuniary value of their patronage reduced in the market, it will not be for want of the danger having been pointed out. Our bishops at present enjoy (or rather possess, for to a good man there can be no enjoyment in arbitrary power) a discretionary authority allowed to no other order of men in this free country, and which is utterly inconsistent with the liberties of the clergy, or the good government of the church. We shall never cease to protest, whether in the case of curates or incumbents, against this unwise and injurious system; a system which tends to convert every episcopal palace into an Inquisition or Star-Chamber, and which renders every clergyman liable to fall the victim of a secret whisper or unauthenticated slander. We do not envy our venerable prelates their power: it ought to be great, and in the wholesome exercise of it they ought to be strongly protected, and even their errors leniently regarded. But, again and again we would say, let them be constrained to state the crime, and to

name the accuser, and to produce the evidence. It is too much to presume, of any order of men, that they never will be warped, or prejudiced, or misinformed. Even where they act rightly in the exercise of their discretion, the henefit of the example is lost to the clergy and the public, for want of their reasons being assigned; and if they act wrongly, the sufferer must pine in hopeless submission, having no right to demand what is his offence or who are his accusers. We hope that some member of the episcopal bench will be found sufficiently intrepid and impartial to call the attention of the legislature to the present system, and to procure a "selfdenying ordinance," to restrict the prelacy in their official conduct to those rules of evidence and decision which apply to other bodies, as far, at least, as the case will properly admit. The public is becoming interested in the question; and some modifications, both as it respects curates and incumbents, are likely to be urgently proposed. We therefore humbly entreat the episcopal bench to reconsider these subjects, and to do for themselves what ruder hands may otherwise eventually do for them. We are convinced that, in the present state of things especially, they cannot generally wish to retain powers which only tend to render themselves and their function unpopular, without benefiting either religion or the church.

ARTHUR YOUNG, Esq On the 12th of April last, at the house of the Board of Agriculture, in Sackville-street, died ARTHUR YOUNG, Esq. F. R.S. of Bradfield Hall, in Suffolk, in the 79th year of his age. He had been Secretary to the Board of Agriculture, from its first formation in 1793 -was an honorary member of almost all the Agricultural Societies, and also of most of the philosophical and literary societies of his own country, and of all the chief agricultural and economical societies in Europe, and of some in the United States. His Christian name he derived from Arthur Onslow, Esq. to whom his father Dr. Young, prebendary of Canterbury, and a beneficed clergyman, was chaplain.

Mr.

Arthur Young married in 1765, and has left behind him a son and a daughter; the former a clergyman, who at the time of his father's death was residing in the Crimea on an estate giveu him by

the emperor of Russia, as a reward for agricultural services in that country.

Mr. A. Young from his earliest manhood was warmly attached to agricul ture; and before he was thirty, he had published several works, with a view to its improvement, particularly his Northern, Southern, and Eastern Tours, through England; the first in five volumes octavo, and all of them containing much useful information. These tours soon attracted the notice of the late Catherine of Russia, and by her express order were translated into the Russian language, Her imperial majesty, at the same time, sent several young Russians to the author to learn the system of English agriculture under his superintendence. Prince Potemkin afterwards sent over two young men for the same purpose; and the example was subsequently followed by the Marquis de Fayette.

Mr. Young, during his whole life, was an attentive observer of passing events;

struction, produced by the want of sight, could scarcely have been borne with patience, except for the influence of religion; and never were its triumphs more strikingly displayed. Not only was he patient, he was eminently grate ful; and whenever the occasion admitted of it, he would break out into the warmest effusions of thankfulness. Especially he was used to express his gratitude to that God who had so patiently borne with his long course of neglect and forgetfulness, and had nevertheless shewn such mercy to him. His gratitude to his Saviour, to whose grace he constantly looked as the sole ground of his acceptance with God, was great and warm, and was often expressed in affectionate and vehement effusious. The ground of his hope as a Christian, according to the good old custom, he declared at the outset of his last will.

Mr. Young inherited a moderate patrimony; and, as a landlord and a country gentleman, he was eminently kind to his poorer neighbours. In the circle round his own family residence, the peasantry looked up to Mr. Young as to a friend and a father. A very large proportion of his fortune was devoted to the relief of the distressed; and to enable him to give away more, he lived without ostentation, and with simplicity and moderation, though with hospitality; for no man had a warmer heart towards his friends than Mr. Young. But from the time of his becoming religious, the spiritual and immortal concerns of his fellow-creatures became, of course, the chief objects of his attention. Besides maintaining a large school, every Sunday a considerable number of his poor neighbours were

admitted into his hall to partake in his family religious exercises. After a sermon had been read to the assembly, he would address them, as he also did the children in the schools, with a warmth and an earnestness of affection that could scarcely be surpassed, and which could not but make a powerful impression on aH who heard him. Mr. Young's religion had from the very first corrected his natural vehemence of character; but it was in his later years, and, above all, in his last illness, that the effects of this blessed principle were chiefly conspicuous. The vigorous uninterrupted health which he had enjoyed, during almost his whole life, rendered it more difficult to bear the infirmities of his declining years. Before the last attack, of which he died, he was in the habit of uttering solemn admonitions, such as " Prepare to meet thy God, Oh my soul! by holiness of heart, of lip, and of life," with many others of a similar kind; and these admonitory warnings were particularly addressed to those to whom he thought they might be useful. The disease of which he died was extremely painful; but in the most excruciating bodily agony, his patience and resignation were still manifested. Not one repining word escaped him. He was chiefly occupied in pious ejaculations. With these were mixed prayers, that it might please God to release him from his sufferings. In short, Mr. Young throughout his whole life was an extraordinary man, of superior talents, of indefatigable exertion, and of great usefulness: one of the best of citizens, he became at last a warm and earnest Christian.

No. 222.]

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

MOST

[OST of your readers, I have no doubt, will feel interested in whatever relates to so eminent a man, and so great an ornament of the church of Christ, as the late Dean of Carlisle. Having had an opportunity of conferring with him at large, on several very important subjects in theology, and having at the time taken notes of what passed in conversation, I am enabled to furnish you with some additional relics of that great man. Should you deem them proper to appear in your publication, as a kind of supplement to the general account of him which you have already inserted, they are entirely at your service. The observations of my departed friend, which I now submit to you, respect the following subjects.

First, The Baptismal Controversy.

Second, The Holy Trinity. Third, The General Confession of our Church.

I shall proceed with them in the order in which they stand.

First, The Baptismal Controversy.

The Dean of Carlisle's opinion on this subject was noticed in your last Number. It may here be added, that he gave it as his deliberate judgment, that the following passage in the Catechism was quite conclusive against the main statements of Dr. Mant.

"What is required of persons to be baptized?

"Repentance, whereby they forsake sin; and faith, whereby they CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 222.

stedfastly believe the promises of God made to them in that sacrament.

"Why then are infants baptized, when by reason of their tender age they cannot perform them?

"Because they promise them both by their sureties; which promise, when they come to age, themselves are bound to perform."

The Dean remarked, there was here clearly an hypothesis, a pledge, a charitable assumption of repentance and faith on the part of the infant: on this assumption the language of the office proceeded; and on its being realized, when the child should be of due age, the blessings of the sacrament itself were suspended.

On the language of our church, in her baptismal offices, we have the following weighty remarks, ascribed to "a learned friend," in Mr. J. Scott's last work, in reply to Dr. Laurence, but which there can now be no indelicacy in avowing to have been from the pen of the late Dean of Carlisle.

"I conceive that in believing adults the substance of regeneration has actually taken place before baptism; but as the new-birth is said to be both of water and of the Spirit, it may be too much to say that it is complete without waterthat is, without baptism. And this would be true, even if baptism were observed merely because it is an ordinance of Christ. But, besides this, the Holy Spirit blesses the due performance of the ordinance, and increases grace in it.

"At first, the business of baptism was necessarily with adults,

ЗА

for the most part. Of course there were repentance and faith, at least, supposed to exist; and then baptism closed the initiation; and, being as it were the seal, it came to be called Regeneration, because without it the initiation could not be complete.

Originally regeneration implied repentance, faith, and baptism: when transferred to infants the name was continued, though two of the ingredients were dropped, or necessarily excluded."

Dr. Milner was much grieved at the dogmatical manner in which the controversy had been handled, and at the hardy assertions made, that there could be no doubt on the meaning of the Church of England with regard to it. The fact was, he said, that the doctrine of the grace of the sacrament had always been a question of great difficulty, and more especially in this very matter of infant baptism, where controversialists now affirmed there was none at all. The Dean had, at one time, nearly determined to write upon the subject, and was actually beginning to collect the chief publications which had appeared. But his increasing infirmity of health probably prevented the execution of this, as well as of many other excellent designs. He, however, on several occasions, expressed his sentiments to me very strongly on the general question. He thought that those who opposed Dr. Mant's statements had not spoken out with sufficient distinctness; for to him it appeared most grievous, that a minister of our Protestant church should thus be permitted, for the first time, to broach, as the Dean conceived, popish sentiments on so vital a point, and to do this in a manner the most positive, and without any charitableness of construction for those who differed from him in opinion. He was decidedly of opinion, that whatever difficulties might exist in ascertaining the exact benefits accompanying bap

tism, we ought boldly and unshrinkingly to designate, by the term regeneration, the inward change and conversion of the heart to God, by whatever means it might be effected, and to address those as unregenerate who were evidently without any spiritual life. This, he apprehended, had been uniformly the language of all our greatest divines from the time of the Reformation. The Dean rejoiced in the important changes which were introduced into Dr. Mant's tract on this subject, by the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge; for by these (although he considered that the tract remained still in many respects very objectionable), in point of argument, the chief matter in dispute was conceded. In short, the Dean regarded the whole discussion as of VITAL IMPORT- ́ ANCE and as in effect involving the grand distinctions between cold and languid formality, and really spiritual religion.

In adducing the above brief but weighty testimony of my venerable friend on this question, permit me to add, that in my opinion the more the two observations of the Dean, which begin this statement, are weighed, the more solid and conclusive will they be found. They seem to comprize in a few words the nucleus of the controversy. If in connexion with these observations, we take a calm review of the Twenty-fifth and Twentyseventh Articles, little more will be necessary, in order to arrive at a sound practical determination respecting the real views of the church. But, besides this, let it not be forgotten, that the doctrine, thus gathered from a fair consideration of the whole of the formularies of our church, is confirmed, beyond all contradiction, by the uniform language of that Sacred Book on which our church is built, and to which the ultimate appeal on this and on every theological question must be made.

Perhaps in the conduct of this