ety in Oxford-The Introductory Pray er by the Rev. Mr Lane of Sturbridge; Sermon by Rev. Mr. Whip. ple of Charlton, from Matt. v. 16; Installing Prayer by Rev. Mr. Mills of Sutton; the Charge by Rev. Mr. Goffe of Milbury; the Right Hand of Fellowship by Rev. Mr. Pond of Ward; and Concluding Prayer by Rev. Mr. Williams of Dudley.

IN Cape Elizabeth, Maine, Rev. William Gregg.

Nov. 27, 1815, by the Presbytery of Geneva, the Rev. Ebenezer Fitch D. D. late president of Williamstown College, pastor of the Congregation of W. Bloomfield, N. Y. On the 17th of Jan. 1816, the same presbytery installed Rev Comfort Williams, pastor of the Congregation of Gates, in the village of Rochester, N. Y. On the 31st a committee of the presbytery of Geneva installed Rev. William Clark, pastor of the congregation at Wolcott.

In Huntington, Conn. 16th of Feb. Rev. David Ely D. D. aged 66, and in the 43d of his ministry.

In Barrington, Rev. Samuel Watson, aged 43, for 18 years pastor of the Congregational Church in that ell. aged 63. a minister of the Society town.-In Philadelphia, Arthur Howof Friends-In Monteville, Conn. Hon. William Hillhouse, aged 88. He was in the Conn Legislature more than 50 years in succession-In Seabrook, N. H. Comfort Collins, aged one hundred and five years and three months, She was for many years a minister in the Society of Friends.-In Rehoboth, Hon. Stephen Bullock, aged 80.-In Charlestown, Mr. Giles Alexander, aged 65.

My Father and my Friend; He knows the sorrows I endure And will deliverance send.

Though he afflicts to try his saints,
Corrects when they have need;
Yet he displays a father's heart,
He pities while they bleed.

I own thy rod is just,

Make me to know thy promised grace,

In thee is all my trust.

Then will I speak before the world
Thy wonderous love proclaim,
I'll urge transgressors to reform,
And saints to praise thy name.

Mr. David Reed,

Mr. Joseph Allen,

do.

do.

Mr. Jonatban P. Dabney, do, Mr. Samuel Gilman, do.

R.

Mr. Thomas Prentiss, Cambridge.

Mr. Hiram Weston, Duxbury.

Mr. Samuel Clarke, Cambridge.
Mr. Henry Ware, jun.

Mr. Rufus Hurlbut,

do.

do.

No. IV.

In the preceding Number, the history of our ancestors was brought down to the time of William the Conqueror. His reign was little adapted to the improvement of society, either in knowledge or virtue. He was indeed professedly a Christian, but if his character and conduct have not been misrepresented by historians, he might with more propriety have been called a savage tyrant, than a Christian prince.

His rapacity, injustice, and cruelty provoked revolts, tumults and insurrections; and these were quelled by violence, murder and desolation. The former landholders were stripped of their property, to gratify the Norman invaders, and the country was filled with crimes and woes. "Contumely seems have been added to oppression, and the natives were universally reduced to such a state of meanness, that the English name became a term of reproach." Bigland.

to

During his reign, the project of the Crusades for the recovery of Jerusalem became popular in Europe. An enthusiasm for what was termed the holy war, was so general and so violent, that from the history of those times, it might be suspected, that the people of Europe had been cursed with a general insanity. Never perhaps in any other instance since the flood, was a raving enthusiasm so general, so lasting, or so fatal. All orders of men deeming the Crusades the only road to heaven, enlisted themselves under these sacred banners, and were impatient to open the way with their sword to the holy city."

It is indeed stated, that in the reign of William Rufus the people of England were less infected with the general frenzy than the neighboring nations. The reasons assigned are these, that the Normans were afraid to leave their conquests in England, and the king was too selfish to encourage the holy war.

Henry I. succeeded Rufus, A.D. 1100. In his reign, "to kill a stag, was as criminal as to kill a man.-Stealing was first made

capital in his reign.-False coining was severely punished by Henry. Nearly fifty criminals of this kind were at one time hanged or mutilated.—The deadly feuds, and the liberty of private revenge were still continu ed, and were not yet wholly illegal." Hist Eng. vol. i. p. 362. King Stephen began to reign 1135. "This event," says Bigland, "involved the kingdom in a civil war, which continued almost the whole of his reign. It would require a volume to enter into a detail of those commotions, which during the calamitous period of thirteen years rendered England a scene of carnage and devastaSieges and battles, intrigues and cabals, treachery and violence, the violation of oaths, and the tergiversations of bishops and barons, constitute the history of this anarchical reign." Vol. i. p. 149.

Henry II. was successor to Stephen, and began to reign 4154. In his reign "it was a custom in London for great nu.nbers to the amount of one hundred or more, the sons and relations of considerable citizens, to form themselves into a licentious confederacy, to break into rich houses and plunder them-to rob and murder the passengers, and to commit with impunity all sorts of disorder. By these crimes it had become so dangerous to walk the streets by night, that the citizens durst no more venture abroad after sun-set, than if they had been exposed to the excur. sions of a public enemy." p. 487.

In 1189, Richard I. commenced his reign, and a horrible mas sacre of the Jews immediately

ensued. This scene of murder began in Loudon, and the example was followed in other parts of the kingdom. In York five hundred Jews fled to a castle for safety; but finding themselves unable to defend the place, they first killed their wives and children, then set fire to the buildings and perished in the flames, rather than to fall into the hands of their merciless persecutors.The gentry, who were indebted to the Jews, ran to the cathedral where the bonds were kept, and made a solemn boufire of the papers before the altar.

Richard valued himself as a Christian warrior-he had the Crusade delirium, and conducted an expedition to the holy land. But the state of morals in England during his reign, was deplorable indeed. In 1196, the disorders in London were dreadful. "There seemed to be formed so regular a conspiracy among the numerous malefactors, as threatened the city with destruction." "Murders were daily committed in the streets, houses were broken open and pillaged in day light;" and so numerous were the disturbers of the peace, and so powerful the combination, that the magistrates were afraid or unable to execute the laws.

King John began to reign 1199. "The charater of this prince is nothing but a complication of vices equally mean and odiousruinous to himself and destructive to his people." His fully and wickedness involved the nation in a civil war, and spread desolation and misery through the country.

Henry III. ascended the throne 1216. The character of the rulers and the clergy, as late as 1253, may be gathered from a few facts. Henry was in want of money, and that he might be sure of obtaining it from the parliament, he made "the vow of a Crusade," and then "demand. ed assistance in that pions enterprize." He also made promises to redress some grievances, of which the clergy had complained. But as he had not been careful to keep his past promises, "they required that he should ratify the Great Charter in a manner still more authentic and solemn, than any which he had hitherto employed."

"All the prelates and abbots were assembled: they held burning tapers in their hands; the Great Charter was read before them; they denounced the sentence of excommunication against every one who should thenceforth violate that fundamental law; they threw their tapers on the ground, and exclaimed-May the soul of every one who incurs this sentence, so stink and corrupt in hell." The king bore a part in this ceremony, and subjoined "So help me God; I will keep all these articles inviolate, as I am a man, as I am a Christian, as I am a knight, and as I am a king crowned and anointed."

But, as might reasonably have been expected, this profane and impious oath was soon violated. What could be better evidence of a barbarous age or a barbarous state of society, than that the elergy were capable of being concerned in such horrid impreca

tions?

In the reign of Henry, the surviving Jews were still oppressed and persecuted At different

periods, an absurd accusation had been brought against that people-that they had crucified a child in derision of the sufferings of Christ. This story was revived in England, and made the pretext for hanging eighteen Jews-whose money was probably wanted.

In 1249, two merchants came to the king, and complained that they had bee spolled of their goods by certain robbers, whom they knew, because they saw their faces every day in his court; that like practices prevailed all over England, and travellers were continually robbed, bound, wounded and murdered;-that these crimes escaped with impunity, because the ministers of justice themselves were in a conspiracy with the robbers -The king ordered a jury to try the robbers; and though the jury were men of property, they were found to be in a confederacy with the felons, and acquitted them. Henry, in a rage, caused the jury to be imprisoned, and ordered another to be summoned, which gave a verdict gainst the criminals. Many of the king's household were found to be in the confederacy.

Edward I began to reign A. D. 1272. "The various kinds of male factors. the murderers, robbers, incendiaries, ravishers and plunderers, had become so numerous, that the ordinary ministers of justice were afraid to execute the laws against them. The king found it necessary to provide an extraordinary remedy