august ceremonial, on the 29th of April last, naturally offers the first selection: "The great fundamental laws enacted by the wisdom of our ancestors"-"The defence and support of the Protestant Church," &c. &c. are therein solemnly recognised; from thence, skipping through some hundreds of pages (which my ingenious friend Mr. Reeves, and his partner Mr. Strahan, would not object to, were they multiplied to as many thousands), replete with equally constitutional effusions, from counties, corporations, and general assemblies, verified by sheriffs, præses, and moderators, that eminently loyal record of the Edinburgh Seceders, superior, perhaps, to all in energy, gives new circulation to the glass, and the "Seceders and the Sixteen," become a bumper toast, sagaciously backed with the trite, observation, "In vino veritas"-though, as Dr. Johnson has observed, it offers no recommendation but to the man who has the habit of lying when he is sober."

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The Edinburgh Seceders and the sixteen having received the honours of the sitting" and glass, the pages of the Gazette are still triumphantly turned over, till Mr. Dean Legge steps forward with his canons of the chapel of Windsor. I fancy him now before me-his collar encircled with garter blue, with the pendant George, and vigilant as the centinels who surround the castle, presenting an highly-finished portrait "of the dangers to the Ecclesiastical Establishment, which have been so seasonably provided against, and so effectually repelled!" Indeed, there is little doubt but that the loyal Dean would even willingly have braved the same dangers, in the breach lately made in the Episcopal Bench, by the promotion of Bishop Pelham, and there have united his powerful efforts, with the truly zealous Dean," that vital Sparke of heavenly flame," who so recently, by his eloquence on the hustings at Bristol, may be said to have prepared those greetings bestowed

on

on one of its representatives, though so little to his own

taste.

With such auxiliaries to the imagination, you may suppose, Mr. Editor, that Mr. President, and my friend the Delegate, are under no difficulty in keeping up a brisk circulation-assenting often to the principles, I resist, however, the application-and to their polemic artillery of Gazette Toasts, I take the advantage of throwing in, en recochet, as the engineers term it, a bumper to "the abolition of the slave trade," with, the healths of "those who, in the struggles of party, did not lose sight of the great interests of humanity;" and this, I have the gratification to find, is generally received with no mean applause by the younger members of our common room. Indeed, I have known it call forth some excellent sentiments, with a rattle of the table, that once overthrew a decanter of port on the file of Gazettes, part of which flowed into the breeches of the Delegate, and had nearly effaced a good part of the Bishop of D-m's last Charge to his Clergy, which then lay on the table: the injury to the latter, indeed, was the less felt by the society, from the providence of the Bursar, who had availed himself of the Bishop's hint, at the foot of his page, and purchased a dozen for four shillings, instead of expending sixpence for a single copy.

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On this subject of Academic Toasts I will only add, that the bouleversement of the bottle, and the irritability of the Delegate, combined with the applause given to the last sentiment, revived the latent fires of a veny old friend at my elbow, who, I thought, had temporized more than was consistent with his known principles. But rising from his chair, my friend challenged a bumper to "all those Electors of the United Kingdom who had the sagacity to perceive that the flatterers of a Court are not always the firmest friends of the Crown" which was drank with considerable effect; and I ven

tured to close the day with" May Great Britain be never again disgraced by an Administration which ralls in the aid of religious bigotry, and the support of political corruption." Mr. President thereupon descended his cap from its peg, and I took myself to my rooms, arm in arm with my friend, big with the gratulations of conscious victory.

Such, Mr. Editor, is the portrait of a College Common Room, which you will observe also is a miniature of your greater lown assemblies. I hand it to you, not from personal vanity, but to record in your extensively circulating paper, the truly constitutional sentiment of my worthy friend, which, I trust, will be re-echoed through every county, city, and borough in the kingdom, whenever His Majesty's Ministers shall prevail with the Crown "to recur to the sense of the people."

Having taken the liberty to mention the Bishop of D's charge among the late imports at Parker's, I think it expedient, for the information of some of your readers, who rarely dip into polemic divinity, that I should observe that this Charge is levelled against the Roman Catholics, who are charged with "practices and usages derogatory from the honour of God the Father," particularly with "image worship;" and that,

to cover that idolatrous practice, in their catechisms the second commandment is wholly suf pressed"—that this mutilation of God's word is in direct violation of the injunction of Moses," &c. &c. &c.-To indulge my own disposition to research, rather than to question the theological accuracy of so eminent a Prelate, I commissioned a friend to send me the primary Catholie Catechisms, as well as that of the Council of Trent, in all which I found inserted, in the plainest terms, that very commandment which is stated to have been suppressed; and moreover, with this addition in what is called "The First Catechism". What is forbidden by this Commandment PA. To worship false

gods

gods or idols, or to give any thing else that honour which belongs to God."In the Douay Catechism, as well as the Greater Catechism of the Council of Trent this is still more pointedly enforced. In fact, in the

Catholic Catechisms, nothing is omitted which is con tained in that of the Church of England; but for elucidation on this subject, and especially at this crisis, I would recommend a reference to the Answer to the Bishop's Charge, published by Keating, which in candour ought to keep pace with the circulation of the Charge itself. I would also recommend the perusal of another Episcopal Charge, an extract of which I had the gratification recently of perusing in the Chronicle, that of Bishop Bathurst, the mild disciple of the mildest Master!

To the orations of Mr. Deputy-I beg his pardon Mr. Alderman Birch, it is less necessary now to advert: they have had their day, and the Colonel has reaped his laurels-the dubbing sword may elevate him to still higher honours, and who has a more decided claim to them?-in the forum, a Tully; in the field, a Turenne-disclaiming, however, all allusion to the vessels or utensils of his calling.

If from the ward of Cornhill, or the purlieus of St. Stephen, your readers should chance to bend their steps to the more sacred walls of St. John of Jerusalem, here too they might hear the clangorous tocsin sounded, to rouse the Knights-Templars to arms, and lead on the Crusade!-but I touch upon a tender subject, and I respect those great seminaries too much to sport with them. From the Isis to the Thames, my warmest votive aspirations are ever wafted for their prosperity! May they long sustain the character they so justly hold, of nurturing the noblest science, in affording security to the best inheritance of Britons !-But to the pulpit, a few parting words-the very words of the Bishop of Oxford in his speech on the impeachment of Dr. Sacheverell:

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Sacheverell: "These practisings of clergymen in state matters, are of. that dangerous tendency and conséquence, that if there be not some effectual stop put to these practisings; these practisings will in time put an effectual end to our Constitution."

And now, Mr. Editor, I will for the present take my leave of you, in the full maintenance of the opinions I have long held, that His Majesty's late Ministers had -the strongest claims to the gratitude of their fellow-citizens; and firmly regretting, as I do, with the Reviewers* of Lord Howick's Speech, this painful truth, "that the most patriotic exertions of the most patriotic Ministry, will often be paralysed by the withering blast of some malignant star, before they can meet the wishes of the people." I may say also with Sydney (chap. iii. s. 40), that "I think that all the best men did join in the work that was then to be done;" and though it failed, I fully agree with an highly respected friend, who has had great experience, and who sometimes gratifies me with the communication of his sentiments, "that when truth and prejudice happen to be of opposite sides, the best ally of the former is repeated, continual, and public discussion.'

2. Iremain, Mr. Editor, your very obedient Servant, Oxford, June 21, 1807.

COLL. SOC.

SIR,

THE POPE A HARMLESS BEING.

[rom the Times, June 24.]

SO, universal a clamour having lately been raised against that great and mighty chieftain the Pope, and his mischievous power, I shall be obliged to you to insert the following

*Crit. Review, May 1807.

ANECDOTE.