thought to have inquired about any such thing; but having this Act by me, and seeing that several of his assertions fell under it directly, I did seriously, out of design to remove him from my people, make complaint of him to the justices at their month's meeting, and Mr. Stanley and Col. Hen. Bradshaw, upon our depositions in the case, granted out a warrant for his apprehension; and after a time it was executed, and Harrison was committed to the prison at Chester, where he was to suffer six months' imprisonment. Some of my people moved me to have withdrawn prosecution; but I did it out of conscience for their soul's safety, and so did resolve to proceed. It was at such a time, when such men had so many abettors, and ministers were so slighted, that some more wise men pitied my undertaking, and thought I made a great adventure in such an offer. I foresaw not the danger, and never felt any; but I looked on duty, and God stood by me. Harrison was not destitute of friends and abettors, of whom Newcome names "one Minshull a pragmatical fellow,” -"the deputy governor of Chester one Smith, and Mr. Sclater a gallant spark, a fanatic preacher, and several of the high-flown blades;" besides whom, among the magistrates, Mr. Gerard of Crewe was "downright" in his favour, and Colonel Croxton wavering. At the assizes Mr. Minshull attempted to procure Harrison's release by habeas corpus, but the judges remitted him to the sessions; and in the end the justices sent him back to prison, where he endured his confinement of six months, and it "proved a means of our utter riddance of him out of our parts." An amusing difficulty is recorded in connection with a request made that Mr. Newcome would preach at Manchester. "That great people" deserved, he felt, his best efforts, and he carried with him two of his choicest sermons. One was more likely to promote edification, he thought, than the other, but unfortunately two ladies were to be among his auditors, who came from Chester, and might have heard him deliver that rousing sermon there. He chose it however, and, as the ladies took no notice, we are led to infer that it was not so exciting as he thought. On another occasion when a fast was observed in the churches, and he and a brother minister were to preach, Mr. Newcome prepared his discourse, as he thought, from a text unlikely to be selected by the other; when behold, on their arrival at church, and on the brother minister giving out his text, it proved to be the very one chosen for his own discourse : My distraction was great. There was a kind of competition between him and me, and I had rather have been cut out by any man than he. A vast congregation there was; and I believe several, upon repeating the words, were in as great fear and trouble for me as I had been before. However, the hand of the Lord was mightily upon me, and then I could discern out matter and method to differ, and I had room enough besides him. The result of Mr. Newcome's seven years' service at Gawsworth, being a great reputation as a consistent, sensible, and moderate divine, it became an object with the people of Manchester to obtain the benefit of such a minister on occasion of the sudden death of their own pastor. Other churches also sought him, but Manchester prevailed :— Presbyterianism had been established in Lancashire by a special ordinance, October 1646, and although persecuted under Cromwell, still, in Manchester, the convictions of the great majority of respectable inhabitants insured to the sect protection, if not power. It is evident, from the names of Mosley and Byrom to the invitation to Newcome, and perhaps from those of Syddall and Coppock, that the Episcopalians joined in claiming the services of one of such known moderation. The promoters of the classical mode of government had frequent hints from passing events that theirs was not destined to be the National Church, and hence they either invited, or listened willingly to, overtures of accommodation from Inde pendents, or Episcopalians. (Mr. Heywood's Introduction, p. xix.) Here he was minister of the collegiate church, with the promise of 607. per annum from the tithes, and 347. per annum from the rents and profits of the rectory of Rochdale. From various circumstances this stipend never came in with any regularity-voluntary contributions making up his income. Five years afterwards it was reduced to 247., and then it ceased altogether for a time. Under the date of the 1st. Jan. 1657-8, we find the following evidence of the shifting principles of the times. Mr. Newcome's predecessor Mr. Hollinworth had been accustomed to preach on New Year's Day : I was willing to have done it; but Mr. Heyricke [the Warden] took me off. But it was not well taken [by the congregation], and I resolved it should not be so done again; and so I did preach every New Year's day after as long as I had my liberty to preach in Manchester. The first year when I would have preached, this was said to obstruct it, Since all holy-days were put down, why should that be kept? The last, I preached, this was objected, That it was one of the principal festivals, and unless I would preach about the circumcision of our Saviour, it was not convenient I should preach. So much alteration there was in the strain of the times in a few years. The following passage at the close of the same month is not less characteristic of an unsettled state of sentiment in the matter of personal de meanour : I was about this time much used to go to Zachary Taylor's at an evening, to play at shuffle board. I was oft checked for this, lest I was too much concerned in it; as after, about going to Mr. Minshull's in an evening. And I thought this a rational resolution in the case,-Not to go forth for this recreation unless I had been close at serious business all day; not to go forth to this too, if I had been diverted from business other ways. And for mirth, which I was afraid of taking too great a latitude in,-I thought it was my duty to let some savoury thing fall, where I had spoken merrily; or to count myself truly in debt, for as much serious discourse, for every jest I had told. On the Restoration Newcome was no longer permitted to occupy his pulpit at the collegiate church, but there he quietly attended, and, he hoped, "met with something that did him good." In 1665, when the Five Miles Act was passed, he slipped beyond the boundary, yet being not entirely silenced. He preached at several places; he made excursions on horseback; visited London with his daughter; and patiently bided his time. He did not wait in vain. The King's declaration of indulgence (March 16th, 1671) enabled him to get a licence and preach freely in a barn. Yet in the wantonness of power fresh restrictions came, and Newcome delivered his message alternately in house and field and barn for several years to come. The landing of King William, or at least the Toleration Act of 1689, removed all fear of legal persecution ; but there was still room for much church dissension; and it was, he says, amid some curses and reproaches that the foundation of his new chapel in Cross Street was laid. He opened it with prayer and a sermon, June 24th, 1694; but, by the time this earthly minister was well nigh worn out, and House of God was finished, the aged ready for his mansion above. preached occasionally, his last discourse being delivered, June 13th, 1695, and he died the following September, aged 68. He Newcome composed three journals. The first, which recorded his private actions, and inmost thoughts, being designed solely for his own use, was commenced at Cambridge in 1646, and carried on to his death in 1695. The second was termed "The Abstract," a selection from the former, intended for the use of his children. Besides these, the painstaking divine kept a third journal, as a record of passing events of a more public nature, but which has not been preserved. Of the actual diary the only portion now known to be extant extends over two years, from 1661 to 1663, and forms the volume which was printed for the Chetham Society in the year 1849. The Abstract was continued by its author to the year 1693, and completed to the period of his death, during his last illness, by the hand of his son. This manuscript, as well as the former, was in the possession of his descendant the late Rev. Thomas Newcome, Rector of Shenley, co. Hertford, and was placed by that gentleman at the disposal of the Chetham Society. The welcome which greeted the former volume induced the Society to contemplate the publication of the second manuscript, and the difficulty which attended its voluminous proportions has been surmounted by "abridging the moral reflections, which, however excellent, are somewhat monotonous, and presuming upon the reader's knowledge of the history of most of the names that occur in the narrative." The first part of this scheme (the abridgment) we think was judicious: the latter is, perhaps, an apology for the application of less editorial labour than has been bestowed upon most of the Chetham Society's works. However, it is suggested that the parties mentioned are generally to be found in the former volume, or in the Memoir of Adam Martindale, another work of the Society; and both of the Newcome books are provided with complete indexes. But we should be unjust towards Mr. Heywood, did we not remark that "The Diary" has the advantage of an excellent introduction from his pen, containing the salient points of Newcome's history and character, derived from "The Abstract." The Abstract itself, now called the Autobiography, is prefaced by a memoir on the Newcome family, written by the late Rev. Thomas Newcome, of Shenley, in a goodhumoured and amusing strain, but the liveliness of which, we must add, has apparently blinded Dr. Parkinson to the admission of several small inaccuracies. More particularly, the writer betrays a very imperfect acquaintance with his ancestor's Diary when he states his ignorance of the fate of Daniel the second son of Henry, for, as Mr. Heywood has remarked (Introduction, p. xxxiv.), "the Abstract, from 1665 to 1670, is chiefly, we regret to say, occupied with family details, relating to Daniel Newcome's misadventures as a London apprentice." Daniel was twice married; but we find no traces of his having had a son James, whose death is regarded by the Rector of Shenley as having accelerated that of the aged Puritan.† Daniel himself from first to last was a scapegrace; falling into numerous perils from his rashness, and unmanageably violent and obstinate. The circumstances of his dying illness are beautifully related by the old man, whose heart still fondly yearns after him, and who, after many a sorrowful entry respecting his unhappy son's disgraces, winds up the whole thus; "And now we have done with Dan. All that is left is to remember him a little; but it is pain and grief to me." It is therefore clear that the Rector of Shenley was incorrect in stating that "the three sons of the Puritan were all regularly ordained, as their grandfather and forefathers were, and all held preferment after the restoration of the Church and kingdom." This however was the truth as to the two surviving sons,-Henry, who became Rector of Tattenhall in Cheshire and Middleton in Lancashire; and Peter, who became Vicar of Aldenham in Hertfordshire and of Hackney in Middlesex. In the preceding generation it is true that there were three brothers "ministers of the Gospel," as Henry himself and two of his brothers are reported as preaching on one day in three several churches in Manchester, greatly to the delight of their hearers. The Newcomes have, indeed, been a remarkable line of "beneficed clerks," extending from our Reformation to the present time. "Few," observes the Rector of Shenley, "have flourished out of holy orders or of the scholastic profession. None have been attorneys, barristers, or judges, and none have left landed estates worth mentioning. But one lived and died a coun *These are obvious: page v. Bladon for Bladen Capel; page x. note, "Childwich, Bury, near St. Alban's," for Childwick-Bury, and "Reformation" for Revolution; p. xvi. "Curate of Hook in Hampshire" (there is no such parish), which we believe should be Basingstoke; ibid. East Willow for Wellow, and Badcombe for Batcombe; p. xix. Freemantles for Freemantle; p. xx. Earl of Stanley, we presume Derby; and p. xxi. "suffrein" for the French Admiral Suffrein. "James Newcome died 25th January, 1695, in the nineteenth year of his age," as appears by an item in Henry Newcome's epitaph. Mr. Heywood (p. xxxix.) erroneously regarded him as a son of Henry. He was doubtless the grandson mentioned in p. 283, but whether Daniel was his father or no does not appear. We may state (as it is not noticed in the books before us) that there is a pedigree of Newcome in Clutterbuck's History of Hertfordshire, vol. i. p. 485. It extends from Stephen Newcome, temp. Eliz. the grandfather of the Diarist, to the late Rev. Thomas Newcome (who died Sept. 1, 1851), and his children. The name of his brother, the Archdeacon of Merioneth (who is still living), is noticed, but his children are not inserted; and this pedigree is not so complete as to contain the collateral branches at Caldecot, Wymington, and Horbury, to which some slight references are made in the Rev. Thomas Newcome's memoir. one try apothecary; and one became a soldier, and Marlborough left him in the trenches of Lisle, 1707. One or two went to sea, and were heard of no more . . . . Three schoolmasters made fortunes: one clerk became Archbishop of Armagh,* Bishop of St. Asaph, one Dean of Gloucester, and one Dean of Rochester, in the eighteenth century: and one is Archdeacon of Merioneth in the nineteenth century. Thirty or more have been rectors, vicars, &c. I have, or had, two sons, three nephews, three sons-in-law-all, as yet, curates only, but good pastors on stinted pastures.' Our account of the Newcome Diaries, though extended beyond our intention, gives but a faint idea of the simple, sincere whole. It is rich in genuine traits of character, where weakness alternates with strength, grave thoughts with trifling incidents, and questions of conscience, such as might well demand the best leisure of instructed spirits, with petty matters of scruple such as should have been dismissed by one thought of Him, who long before rebuked all small sanctimonious views of duty in his dealing with the Pharisee. A JOURNEY FROM LONDON TO PARIS IN THE YEAR 1736. SIR ALEXANDER DICK, Bart. of Prestonfield, near Edinburgh, the writer of the Journal of which we propose to lay the substance before our readers in this and some subsequent portions, was a man of much weight and estimation in the scientific world of Edinburgh during the last century. In early life he bore his paternal name of Cunningham, being the third son of Sir William Cunningham, of Caprington, Bart. His mother was Janet, only child and heiress of Sir James Dick, of Prestonfield. He was born at Prestonfield on the 23rd Oct. 1703. Having studied for some time at the University of Edinburgh, he repaired to Leyden, where he became a pupil of the illustrious Boerhaave, and took the degree of M.D. on the 31st Aug. 1725, when his inaugural dissertation was De Epilepsia. On the 23rd Jan. 1727 he received a diploma of the same degree from the University of St. Andrew's. He then settled as a physician in the Scotish metropolis; and on the 7th Nov. following he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. In 1736-7 he made an extensive continental tour, of which the first portion is now laid before the reader. His companion was Allan Ramsay the painter, son of the celebrated Scotish poet. During his travels Dr. Cunningham assiduously prosecuted his medical inquiries, and at the same time greatly increased his previous acquaintance with classical literature and antiquities. After his return home he was induced to settle as a physician in Pembrokeshire, at the suggestion of his friend Mr. Hooke, of that county. He there practised medicine with great reputation and much success during several years, maintaining, however, a constant correspondence with his friends in Scotland, and particularly with Allan Ramsay the poet, whose letters, with some unpublished poems, also addressed to Sir Alexander Dick, are in our possession (by favour of the late esteemed Sir Robert K. Dick Cunningham, Bart. of Prestonfield), and form part of inedited materials which are intended to be employed in a new Biography of the Author of The Gentle Shepherd, in immediate preparation. Upon his brother's death, Dr. Cunningham succeeded to the baronetage, and assumed the name of Dick. He then took up his residence in the family mansion of Prestonfield, which lies at the base of Arthur's Seat, at that time a little more than a mile distant from Edinburgh, but now nearly included in the suburban district of Newington and, whilst he relinquished for his own part the active pursuit of his profession, he was so great a favourite with its members, that they placed him for seven *This Archbishop was the author of the version of the New Testament, taken as the ostensible basis of "the Improved Version," published by the Unitarian Society. successive years at the head of their body. He was first elected President of the College of Physicians of Edinburgh in the year 1756, and after six re-elections, he at length relinquished the chair entirely upon his own resolution," that it was due to the merits of other gentlemen that there should be some rotation." He did not, however, relax his exertions in the service of the College; and he was one of the most liberal contributors to the building of their Hall. As a mark of gratitude for his services the physicians placed his portrait in their library. Sir Alexander Dick was not less useful to other public institutions in Edinburgh. He was a zealous member of the Royal Society, and took an active part in procuring its charter; and, as a manager of the Royal Infirmary, he endeavoured to promote its utility as a medical school, as well as a refuge for the unfortunate. When the seeds of the true rhubarb were brought to Britain by Dr. Mounsey, he bestowed great attention on the culture of the plant, and in its preparation for the market, and he received for his success in this matter the gold medal of the Society of Arts in London. His death occurred at the age of eighty-two, on the 10th Nov. 1785. He had married twice; first, in 1736, Sarah, daughter of Alexander Dick, merchant in Edinburgh, a relative of his mother's family, by whom he left two daughters; and secondly, in 1762, Mary, daughter of David Butler, esq. of Pembrokeshire, by whom he had three sons and three daughters. : A memoir of Sir Alexander Dick, which was published soon after his death in the Edinburgh Medical Commentaries, was reprinted (for private distribution) in 1849 by his descendant, the late Sir Robert K. Dick Cunninghame, Bart. ; and from that source we conclude these introductory remarks with the following estimate of his character: "Whatever object engaged his attention he was steady in the pursuit; and his conduct was always marked by the strictest fairness and integrity. This disposition led him to be constant and warm in his friendship and this conduct procured to him universal love and esteem. But he was not more amiable in public than in private life; for, with all his disposition for activity and exertion, the striking features of his character were mildness and sweetness of temper. He possessed the happy disposi tion of viewing the fair side of every object, which was not only the source of much happiness to himself and his family, but of universal benevolence to mankind. The serenity and cheerfulness which accompanied his conduct through life, were the attendants even of his last moments, for he died in the easiest way, and with a smile upon his countenance." The MS. containing the journal of his tour has this memorandum on its fly-leaf: "Alexander Dick from papers were dictated to Wm. Crauford, his amanuensis, a Edinburgh. 1736, July 24.—Mr. Ramsay and I left London and came to Dover in the coach, with a jolly English parson, crabbed lawyer, a Frenchman who was Lord Vane's superintendant, and a very odd-looking, bearish, hypochondriacal man, going to Aix-la-Chapelle for his health. We admired the verdure and the fine cultivated fields in Kent; the numerous hop-gardens ready to blossom, and cherry-orchards; the people and cattle in good plight; the towns and villages neat and clean; and the A. B. G. market-places filled with abundance of every good eatable thing; the roads pleasant and good; the inns numerous and well-served; the coachmen rather rough and absolute, and more attentive to their horses than the company. Our conversation brightened up as the day advanced, after we had eat and drank together. July 25.-We took the packet-boat at Dover in the evening of the 25th, and lay all night above deck on our passage to Calais, which was very agree |