rulers of the Church. Circumcision was in like manner permitted to these early converts; but they were rebuked when they wished to burthen the consciences of their fellow Christians with the observance of this and other rites of the Mosaic law.

Your remarks in Sect. 71, on 1 Cor. xvi. 2, where you represent the Apostle's recommendation to his converts of laying by a portion of their wealth in store for their indigent brethren, as an exhortation to settle their accounts, as it were with book and ledger, need no answer. But even if such business had been required of them, your very next paragraph would afford one; for I fairly acknowledge myself unable to see in the text quoted, or in any other text of Scripture a proof that Christians are obliged to keep the first day of the week as a Jewish Sabbath.

I must now bring this letter to a conclusion, having proved, 1 hope, satisfactorily, 1. That God's ordinance concerning the sanctification of the seventh day did exist from the very creation of the world. 2. That the additional observances attached to this ordinance constituted it a Sabbath, sign and covenant to the Jews, which was to last until the repeal of their ceremonial and political law took place. 3. That when that repeal did take place by the manifestation of the Messiah, the original ordinance of God still remained; that it was acknowledged by Christ and his Apostles, sanctioned by the Holy Spirit of God, and kept as a sacred festival through all the successive ages of the Church. With the decrees which may have been promulgated concerning it in later ages I have nothing to do, but to obey them when they are legally instituted, and not contrary to the word of God. Concerning the manner of keeping holy the seventh day, I leave this to every man's own reason and conscience, merely remarking, that, if we go back to its origin, we shall find that a rest from the ordinary business of life appears to lie at the very foundation of the institution. Our best guide in all such matters will be the practice of the Apostolic ages, as far as it can be collected. Lastly, I conceive that a day spent in the worship of God, in meditation on his word, in reading his law, and in appropriate conversation with our friends and neighbors, though it may not be enlivened with cricket and football, is any thing but a gloomy, puritanical, pharisaical employment; and when Sunday is described by ancient writers as a day of rejoicing, and a festival, they, like David and other pious characters, do not consider its festivity as consisting in secular amusements, much less in riotous or intemperate pleasures.

I am, Sir,

Your very obedient Servant,
T. S. HUGHES.

CAMBRIDGE,
June 13, 1826.

A

LETTER

TO THE

EARL OF LIVERPOOL,

ON THE CAUSE

OF

OUR PRESENT EMBARRASMENT AND DISTRESS,

AND THE REMEDY.

BY C. C. WESTERN, Esq. M. P.

LONDON:-1826,

NOTICE BY THE AUTHOR

TO THE PUBLIC.

Ir may naturally be asked by the public, and particularly by my more immediate Constituents, why I have not stated in Parliament the opinions I have given on the important questions examined in the following sheets, and offered to the House the remedial measures therein proposed? Unquestionably it would have been my duty to do so; but, unfortunately, my health is at present totally unequal to such an exertion. Indeed the fatigue and anxiety I have experienced in composing this Letter, is more than, at this moment of writing it, I am well able to bear. I hope I shall not be supposed presumtuous in thus venturing to pronounce on the causes of our distress and the remedy to be applied. I do not pretend to have more discernment than others, or to have myself made any particular discovery: I have availed myself of all the information which has been furnished to the public by means of the ability, science, and practical experience of others, and I have thence formed the conclusion stated in this Letter. It is indeed no recent opinion of mine on the source of our misfortunes; I have recorded it in successive sessions on the journals of the House of Commons; and by the elaborate resolutions placed thereon, as well as by various publications, I have at least shown an anxious and laborious attention to the subject: my opinion is, if possible, still further confirmed by our recent misfortunes, and in that opinion I cannot but think the public very generally begin to participate.

I abstain from all remarks on the currency measures of this session, because I wish to direct the public attention to an investigation of the source of our misfortunes, instead of discussing the palliatives that have been attempted; all of which have been, in my opinion, not only futile, but injurious; manifestly so as respects the country circulation, and most unpardonably hasty and unjust towards the Country Bankers: if I am right, they will see in the following sheets the solution of their difficulties and their failures. I am sure, if they follow up the inquiry, and carefully examine the question as it has been treated by other authors, far more ably and fully than by myself, they will come to the same conclusion that I have done.

ΤΟ

THE RIGHT HONORABLE

THE EARL OF LIVERPOOL,

&c. &c.

MY LORD,

THE various difficulties the country has experienced in the course of the last ten or twelve years, are so unprecedented during a period of profound and general peace, and altogether in their nature so extraordinary,—the causes stated by your Lordship and your colleagues to have produced them, so insufficient and unsatisfactory, that the public mind is more than ever directed to an investigation of the real sources of phenomena so alarming, and productive of consequences so fatal. I pretend not to any superior discernment, still less to have made myself any particular discoveries; but availing myself of information derived from persons whose judgment, knowlege, and experience, are much superior to my own, and combining therewith a constant and earnest attention to circumstances, I have long since formed an unhesitating opinion, in common, I believe, with many other persons whose authority ought to have weight with your Lordship, that all our embarrasments are attributable to one cause-that cause removable-and the dreadful pressure of which being taken off, the country would immediately become prosperous and happy. In venturing to state this opinion, I address myself directly to you, my Lord, because you hold the highest and most responsible situation of any man in the kingdom: I ask you to reflect on the different periods of distress that have occurred since the peace, and to consider whether any or all the alleged causes have been sufficient to account for those unexampled miseries we have encountered; and if not, whether it is not your duty more fully to