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    and frorti facts . History is nothing more than a record o ^ facts , and facts recorded constitute history . Has the desire of making the title-page sonorous betrayed the good Bishop into a puerile tautology ? Or does he mean by " facts" recent events , which time has not yet elevated to the rank of history * If , as we apprehend , this be his meaning , the word is still tisfed improperly , for no such facts are stated , excepting indeed the events immediately connected with French regicide and atheism *

    which transpired long enough ago to be at length consigned to the charge of history * and which cannot now be considered as present and portentous evils without ludicrous affectation . The Right Reverend author contemplates the beneficent operation of Christianity , in the first place , in our domestic relations . It has improved the state of marriage , by destroying

    the two great banes of connubial happiness among the ancient Pagans—polygamy and divorce . It has not $ however , accord- * Ing to the Bishop , established an equality between the sexes * It has provided ^ in the same manner , for the security and comfort of the weaker part , and for the sovereignty of the stronger * The parental relations are benefited by the Christian religion * Children are no longer exposed on account of sickness and

    deformity , or treated with undue rigour . The Jihal relations are not touched on ; nor are the just and humane laws , prevailing in countries professedly Christian , of primogeniture I The nature of domestic service is meliorated by the influence of the Christian religion . This division of the subject is introduced by an observation which , if it means any thing , would lead us to suppose that the Bishop holds the notion of the Pharisees ^ thai men in a low condition are born sinners .

    C But in no part of domestic society are the happy effects of Christianity so visible as in the lowest , though not least useful , branch of it * that of servants ; agreeably to the blessed spirit of that religion , which lends its aid most willingly where it is most necessary , in raising the lowly ,, in healing the broken spirit , and cherishing the contrite ; heart /'

    The condition of slaves among the Pagans was deplorably wretched . Christianity did not abolish a state of slavery , but its precepts tended to improve it , and gradually prepared the way for that happy event which , to the immortal honour of Christianity , took place in the twelfth and thirteen ill centuries—* the utter extinction of the Pagan system of slavery in Europe . " Villenage was a comparatively mild system of servitude , and even that " gave way by degrees to the mild genius of the

    Gospel . " The Bishop naturally notices here the slave-trade carried oa by this Christian country , which , without considering it for a moment as an objection to his argument , he ex- ; presses a hope of seeing abolished . He recommends it to the

    Untitled Article

    374 tiishtrp Pvrteus ' s Pamphlet .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1806, page 374, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1726/page/38/