was attacked by the yellow fever, and he died within so short a period after the decease of Lady Horatia as not to have heard of that event. I cannot help pausing here, in order to notice the afflictions which often overtake those who are the objects of general envy, and fill the highest ranks in life. "Man," says the Scripture, (and the saying is applicable to high and low)" is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards." "He walketh in a vain shadow and disquieteth himself in vain, he heapeth up riches and cannot tell who shall gather them."-" Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live and is full of misery. He cometh up and is cut down like a flower. He fleeth as it were a shadow."-" In the midst of life we are in death."

The attachment which subsisted between Lord Hugh Seymour and his Lady was peculiarly strong; as was also the affection of both the parents towards their children. Lord Hugh terms Lady Horatia in his will," the most beloved wife that ever existed." He observes that he had looked to her as the source of all his hope," and he concludes with "assuring his dear wife that his last breath would waft to heaven his prayers for her happiness, and for that of their dear, dear children, whom (said he) we love equally, and whom I leave to her protection under God's grace, and to the continuance of her love, which I wish to be such as I bear to her."

But I proceed with my narrative. Lord Hugh Seymour appointed Lady Horatia to be the sole guardian to all his children in case of her remaining unmarried; and in the event of her marrying again, he directed that the Earl of Euston, his brother in law, and Lord Henry Seymour, one of his own brothers, should be joint guardians with her Ladyship. It appears, however, that Mrs. Fitzherbert, having contracted a great affection for Miss M. Seymour during the child's visit, was anxious after the death of both the

parents to retain the charge over her. Lord Euston and Lord Henry Seymour were not satisfied with this arrangement. They made applica tion to Lord Chancellor Eldon, who nominated them guardians, and disallowed the claim of the other party, Mrs. Fitzherbert. The child, who was now at their disposal, was likely to be placed by them under the care of one of the sisters of Lady Horatia, the Countess of Waldegrave.

An appeal from this decision was made to the House of Lords, and the Marquis of Hertford, whose professed purpose it was to leave the child under the charge of Mrs. Fitzherbert, was introduced as a party claiming the guardianship, and he was appointed guardian by a very large majority of Peers; the present Chancellor, Lord Erskine, recommending this decision.

The introduction of this new par ty has, as I understand, been considered by lawyers as somewhat novel. But whether the admission of it was, or was not, irregular; and whether, if it were irregular, it may, or may not, lead to dangerous consequences, I presume not to decide, I shall only remark, that the publicity of all the transactions of our courts, and the freedom with which an inquisitive and enlightened bar is accustomed to canvass their decisions, constitute the great safeguard of our liberties, and that I gladly, therefore, leave to the lawyers the agitation of this question.

The general arguments in this interesting cause appear from sundry papers printed on the occasion of the trial to have been nearly as follows. On the one hand it was said, that Mrs. Fitzherbert was much attached to the child, and the child to Mrs. Fitzherbert; that the health of the infant was tender, and that the separation might even endanger her life; and that the Prince of Wales moreover had undertaken to give to her a fortune of £.10,000 on her coming of age, on the condition of her remaining with Mrs. Fitzherbert. His Royal Highness

in the principles of the church of England. The testimony of the Bishop of Winchester is resorted to on this subject. His Lordship states that he had, in consequence of an application of Mrs. Fitzherbert, recommended the Rev. Mr. Croft, of Portland Chapel, as the religious instructor of Miss Seymour; that Mr. Croft had assured his Lordship that his employment was attended with great satisfaction and success; that the young lady had made great proficiency in the catechism of the church of England, had read several books of instruction in the prineiples of that church, and promised, as far as a child of her age could promise, to be a firm and steady member of the church."

I shall now take the liberty of offering a few observations.

And first this occurrence may suggest to all parents the importance of taking effectual means of placing their children, in the event of their becoming orphans, in the hands of those to whom they incline to confide them. It is natural for a father to suppose that, if he appoints his widow to be a guardian to his children, that widow, in the event of her own death, may nominate such succeeding guardians as she may chuse. This, however, is unquestionably an erroneous supposition. The law does not permit a widow, though she herself should be a guardian, to name a succeeding guardian to her children. The father alone can nominate. In default of his nomination, the Court of Chancery assumes that office. It moreover appears from Miss Seymour's case, that even though the two parents should have indicated, the one by writing, and the other by a conditional appointment in a will, a disposition in favour of certain guardians, those guardians may not be the persons nominated by that high authority to which the appointment devolves. The eldest of the several next of kin may be preferred by the Chancellor, or by the House of Lords, without any reference to cir

cumstances which the deceased parents might have deemed of transcendent consequence in the decision. In the present instance, a Roman Catholic is made the de facto guardian and instructress of a Protestant infant. On the same ground it may equally happen that various other consideratious, both of a religious and moral nature, may be overbalanced, in the eye of the Chancellor and of the House of Lords, by the circumstance of relationship, of worldly connection and pecuniary interest.

Parents also should learn, from this case of Miss Seymour, not to be too delicate or complimentary upon points of such unspeakable moment. The visit of a child permitted or encouraged, with a view to the gratification of an acquaintance, may lead, as we have here seen, to the complete transfer of that child into the hands of the person with whom she had taken up a temporary resi dence.

But it may perhaps be said, that all objections ought to be considered as done away in the case of Miss Seymour, by the circumstance of Mrs. Fitzherbert's having engaged to educate her as a protestant. Is it then sufficient that a clergyman of the church of England should occasionally visit her, in order to instruct her in the principles of our church? Granting that the foundation is ever so wisely laid, who is to raise the superstructure? A religious education chiefly consists in the application of the all-important doctrines of our religion to the occurrences of common life; in a continual recurrence to the great truths which have been taught; in the comparison of the ordinary motives, the habitual temper and the daily conduct, of the young disciple of Christ, with the motives, temper, and conduct of our Saviour and of his apostles. You are to renounce, says the Rev. Mr. Croft to his pupil, while he instructs her in the Catechism," the pomps and vanities of this wicked world and all the sinful lusts of the flesh,"

But who is more immediately to see to it, that she does renounce them? Who is to be the practical expositor of these terms? Who is to point out to her, when she enters the stage of life, what is that particular pomp which she is to fear, what are those vanities of which she is to beware, and what are those sinful lusts from the least contamination of which she is to shrink? Is it not Mrs. Firz HERBERT?

It has been frequently remarked of late, that the principles of science heretofore taught in our universities have been general, and have not been sufficiently brought to bear on the concerns of human life. Many lectures have been instituted with the view of supplying this defect. The modern mathematician is beginning to learn the connection between the problems of Euclid and the management of a vessel, and the student in mechanics how to enrich his country by turning machinery to manufacturing uses. It would be well if the same common sense were applied to religion, and the science of divinity were contemplated with a clearer reference to practice. In vain is all our fund of theological knowledge; in vain is all the orthodoxy conveyed by our catechism, or inculcated in a weekly lecture from the pulpit, if we are not taught how to steer our vessel,

and how to augment our stock of moral wealth. It matters little whether we are Protestants or Papists, if our religion consists in assenting to the articles of our creed; if deriving our doctrine from one instructor, and our practice from another, we learn to conceive of our Credenda, and of our Facienda, as of successive lessons on separate sciences, taught at their respective seasons by masters independent of each other. A disposition to separate religion from morality constitutes indeed one character of popery. To profess a most devout and implicit faith in the doctrines of the church, and to join with this profession much practical unbelief;to combine a few occasional strictnesses with a general system of indulgence;-to be gay and dissipated during fifty weeks of the year, but extremely sorrowful in Lent;and to set the merit of a most unsuspecting faith against all the licensed follies and irregularities of the life; are faults which belong more parti-. cularly to the catholic church. They form however a part of popery to which some are extremely well affected who retain the name of protestants. Is there not a danger lest in these respects at least, Miss Seymour should be brought up a papist?

A PROTESTANT.

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Indies.

(Continued from our last Number, p. 372.) We have already shewn by an extract from this interesting work, that the author had no inclination to aggravate the enormities of the slave trade, or to withhold from its conductors such extenuations of their crimes as the facts which fell

the contrary, that he was disposed to form hasty conclusions in their favour, and to defend them upon fallacious appearances from some part of the imputations under which they laboured.

Towards the planters of the West Indies, he has not exhibited less candour; or rather we may fairly

say, he appears to have had a strong predisposition to think favourably of their conduct as masters, aud to apologize if possible for the slavery of the Colonies; as the following further extract from his epistolary journal may prove:

"But however great the richness, beauty, and fragrance of the estate, its canals, and its walks, still I am sensible that I shall more firmly secure your attachment to it, by mentioning the simple fact that, to slavery, it affords a happy home!

"I know not whether upon any occasion, since my departure from England, I have experienced such true and heart-felt pleasure as in witnessing the high degree of comfort and happiness enjoyed by the slaves of Profit.' Mr. Dougan not only grants them many little indulgences, and studies to make them happy, but he generously fosters them with a father's care; and they, sensible of his tenderness to wards them, look to their revered master as a kind and affectionate parent: and with undivided, unsophisticated, attach ment cheerfully devote to him their labour

and their lives.

"Not satisfied with bestowing upon his slaves mere food and raiment, Mr. Dougan establishes for them a kind of right. He assures to them certain property, endeavours to excite feelings of emulation among them, and to inspire them with a spirit of neatness and order, not commonly known among slaves; and I am happy to add, that the effects of his friendly attentions towards them are strongly manifested in their persons, their dwellings, and their general demeanour.-Perhaps it were not too much to say, that the negro yard at Profit,' forms one of the happiest villages within the wide circle of the globe! The labouring poor of Europe can attain to no state at all adequate to such slavery, for had they equal comforts, still could they never be equally free from care.-The slaves of Mr. Dougan are not only fed, and clothed, and tenderly watched in sickness, without any personal thought, or concern, but each has his appropriate spot of ground and his cottage, in which he feels a right as sacred as if secured to him by all the seals and parchments of the Lord High Chancellor of Eugland and his court. Happy and contented, the slave of Profit' sees all his wants supplied Having never been in a state of freedom, he has no desire for it. Not having known liberty, he feels not the privation of it; nor is it within the powers

of his mind either to conceive or comprehend the sense we attach to the term. Were freedom offered to him he would refuse to accept it, and would only view it and vexations, but offering no commensuas a state fraught with certain difficulties rate good.

Who give me for nyaam

Massa,' he asks, if me free ?—'Who give me clothes! Who send me doctor when me sick?

"With industry a slave has no acquaintance, nor has he any knowledge of the kind of comfort and independence which derive from it. Ambition has not taught him that in freedom he might escape from poverty-nor has he any conception that,

by improving his intellect, he might become of higher importance in the scale of huma nity. Thus circumstanced, to remove him from the quiet and contentment of such a bondage; and to place him amidst the tumults and vicissitudes of freedom, were but to impose upon him the exchange of great comparative happiness, for much of positive misery and distress.

"From what has been said you will per ceive that to do justice to the merit of Mr. Dougan, would require a far more able pen. His humane and liberal conduct does him infinite honour; while the richness of the estate and the happiness of the slaves loudly proclaim his attentive concern. We were pleased with all around us, but to witness so happy a state of slavery gave us peculiar delight. The cottages and little gardens of the negroes exhibited a degree of neatness and of plenty, that might be envied by free born Britons not of the poorest class. The huts of Ireland, Scot land, France, Germany, nay, many even of England itself, bear no comparison with these. In impulsive delight I ran into many of them, surprising the slaves with an unexpected visit, and, verily, I say the peasantry of Europe might envy these dwellings of slavery. They mostly consist of a comfortable sitting room, and a neat well-furnished bed-room. In one I observed a high bedstead, according to the present European fashion, with deep mattrasses, all neatly made up, and covered with a clean white counterpane: the bedposts, drawers, and chairs bearing the high polish of well rubbed mahogany. I felt a desire to pillow my head in this but for the night, it not having fallen to my lot, since I left England, to repose on so in viting a couch. The value of the whole stares being able to say, was tenfold augmented by the contented all this we feel to be our own.'