own ingenuity, disinterestedness, and perseverance, which are all, as far as we can learn, unquestionable, but to the credulity of fools, who like to hear a new thing, and to the cunning of artful men, who patronize every scheme which is in opposition to the Church and the State. The first public meeting to which Mr. Owen submitted his plan, was held towards the conclusion of the year 1817. The result was a total failure of the hopes and expecta. tions of his followers; and the meeting was rendered remarkable by Mr. Owen's declaration of his infidelity. In a very open and honest manner he told his hearers, that he did not believe in Christianity; yet he professed, at the same time, to be friendly to its teachers, and admitted that it was wanted, as a guide and a restraint, by the great majority of his fellow-creatures. This upright behaviour is highly creditable to Mr. Owen, and his admirers should have imitated this part of his example: we shall shortly show that they have done no such thing.

The second public meeting at which Mr. Owen appeared went off with greater eclat. It was held in July, 1819, under the immediate auspices of the late Duke of Kent: and a committee was appointed to carry the plan into effect. Among many respectable men of whom that committee consisted, there are to be found the names of Drs. Rudge and Collyer, his Royal Highness's Chaplains, and of Mr. Alderman Wood, his Royal Highness's Lottery Contractor. They recommended a subscription of one hundred thou - sand pounds; and announced their intention to meet again when twenty thousand should be contributed. As nothing more has been heard of the committee or the subscription, it may be presumed that the proposal experienced the fate which it merited.

It would be unfair to say that this meeting led to nothing;

it led, in fact, to the introduction of the subject in the House of Commons by Sir William De Crespigny. The worthy Baronet, however, was barely able to procure a seconder of his motion respecting Mr. Owen's plau, and the subject was dismissed to the tomb of the Capulets without either division or debate. No one could have imagined that so com. plete a failure would have been the signal for more vigorous efforts : but the zeal of Mr. Owen was superior to defeat; and the circumstances which attended the discussion of the question in the House of Commons, on the 26th of last June, are sufficient to give encouragement to his sanguine mind. For, in the first place, the debate arose in con. sequence of the approbation publicly expressed in Scotland of the establishments at New Lanark; and eight gentlemen, several of them persons of considerable weight in the House of Commons, declared their determination to vote for an enquiry upon the subject. The motion was negatived without a division; and the future discussions of the same question which may be expected to arise will terminate in a similar manner. Yet, still Mr. Owen stands on much higher ground than that which he occupied two years ago; and persons who refused to study the plans of an enthusiastic schemer, may be excused for enquiring into the merits of his sys. tem, now that it has been publicly panegyrised by Mr. Buxton and Mr. Brougham. In short, the delusion may be reasonably expected to spread. Had the public mind been sound, or cautious, it never would have listened to a second speech from Mr. Owen. He is now in the actual possession of some valuable converts, and they will serve as decoy ducks to the simple

* Mr. Maxwell, Mr. Dawson, Sir W. De Crespigny, Mr. Buxton, Mr. Hudson Gurney, Mr. William Smith, Lord A. Hamilton, and Mr. Brougham."

disgraceful trifling and equivoca. tion. And if any confidence were to be placed in the newspaper report of a debate in the House of Commons, Mr. Maxwell would be exposed to serious blame. For the Morning Chronicle makes him exclaim, "Should they wait until Mr. Owen's organs of belief are fashioned by hypocrisy into the affected dimensions of their own, before they permitted him," &c. &c. And again, "Should they force the la. bourer to pay the profits of retail on what he might himself produce, or procrastinate a system of education which not only inculcated morality, but enforced its practice, because its author had theological speculations which they did not comprehend, although in the full practice of the decalogue ?" These questions may be calculated to exculpate Mr. Owen, but it is at the expence of the interrogator and his hearers. For Mr. Maxwell's argument rests upon the affected dimensions of his own organs of belief,' and upon his inability to comprehend Mr. Owen's theological speculations. The latter excuse may be admitted, for of all the scepticism that our age can boast, none is more perplexing than that which is professed at Lanark. But when the honourable member talks of the dimensions of his belief, he urges a plea which we cannot answer, because we canuot understand it, and bids fair to rival Mr. Owen's incomprehensible theology. Unless Mr. Maxwell meant to say that the members of the House of Commons are no better Christians than Mr. Owen, it is difficult to conceive that he had any meaning at all. If this be the real solution of his riddle, he was guilty of a gross breach of privilege, and Mr. Bennett should have sent him to the Tower.

Lastly, Mr. Brougham "wished to correct a mistake into which some honourable gentlemen had fallen, with respect to Mr. Owen's Plan. He did not know what Mr. REMEMBRANCER, No. 37.

Owen's religious opinions were, but he could assure the House, that if any fault was to be found with the system pursued at Lanark, it was on the score of too much religion."

With these precious specimens of fairness before our eyes, can it be doubted that Mr. Owen would have been proclaimed as a pattern of primitive piety, if he had been prudent. enough to put on the outward appearance of a Christian? He had nothing to do but to hold his tongue, and witnesses would have stepped forwa and sworn to his orthodoxy. But he refused to give this silent support to falsehood, he disdained the advantages to be derived from equivocation, and he is entitled to the respect and consideration which are not withheld from honest errors.

Yet the sincerity with which an opinion has been formed, and the openness with which it is avowed, are very insufficient apologies for the mischief which it occasions. And what but mischief can the Christian anticipate from Mr. Owen's plan. Take his own statement of it, (the fairest we are likely to obtain) and consider to what it amounts? Simply to this-that Christianity is a very good thing for the ignorant— but that as soon as a man grows wise he may do well enough without it. Mr. Owen does not tell his workmen or his children that they should put their Bibles in the fire; on the contrary, he recommends it to their diligent perusal. But they will gradually learn that he himself disbelieves it; and if he makes them as comfortable and contented as he expects to do, they cannot fail to disbelieve it likewise. What will be the natural course of their thoughts when they reflect upon the blessings which they enjoy? We owe every thing, they will say, to Mr. Owen, who is so much wiser and so much better than the generality of mankind, that he discovered a secret which was unknown to all the rest of the world, and spared neither expence, labour, or time, Ꭰ

us.

is

to communicate its advantages to
Surely so able and so excellent
a man has derived his knowledge
and his benevolence from the Bible.
The answer unfortunately must be,
no. The Bible, they will say,
the instructor of those who never
took any trouble whatsoever about
us; who never knew, and never
cared how they might make us
happy; who would have kept us
to the present hour in misery and
vice. The Bible has likewise been
our instructor, in the days of igno-
rance and infancy; and still con-
tinues to teach weak women and
helpless children. But Mr. Owen
throws it aside; he differs from us
and from other men, by choosing a
different guide, and he advances
more securely and more rapidly on
his road. His, therefore, is the
real religion, and ours is the coun-
terfeit. Ours is milk for delicate
babes-but his is the strong meat
for full grown men. Ours is the

faith that cannot ameliorate the
world-his has been tried upon our
own proper persons, and we know
that it succeeds.

Such is the mode of reasoning which a New Lanark man must adopt. His methodist preacher may occasionally alarm him by his threats, or throw him into extacies by his enthusiastic promises, and this, we presume, is what was meant by Mr. Brougham, when he assured the House of Commons that there was too much religion at New Lanark. There was too much vehemence, too much ranting, too much fanaticism; which is exactly what we should have expected from the principles advocated by Mr. Owen. But are these Christianity? Are these solid bulwarks against the inroads of scepticism? Mr. Owen, who thinks Christianity a fable, may possibly say yes. But if a Christian hesitates at giving an opposite answer, he is shamefully ignorant of the faith which he professes. The canting and violence which Mr. Brougham deprecates, are the symp

toms and forerunners of infidelity; and instead of proving that Mr. Owen cannot injure Christianity, they prove that he has seriously injured it already.

And were this positive evidence taken out of the scale, there still remains enough in the writings of Mr. Owen, to silence every one who vindicates him against the charge of irreligion. charge of irreligion. For to go no farther than his last work, The Report of the County to Lanark, we are ready to give up every objection that has been advanced, and even to take a share in the first section that shall be colonized, if we do not shew from that short pamphlet, that its writer assumes the falsehood of Christianity as the basis of his whole theory.

At page 13, we are told that "The system in which man has been hitherto trained, as far as our knowledge of history extends, has kept him in utter ignorance of himself and of his fellows, and hence the best and most valuable powers of the human race could not be available for their own, well being and happiness." And in the following page it is said that the desired "advance in civilization and improvement can be effect-ed solely through the science of the influence of circumstances over human nature, and the knowledge of the means by which those circumstances may be easily controuled." This is the great discovery to which Mr. Owen lays claim; and without stopping to shew that it is an old friend with a new face, let us attend to the conclusions which are drawn from his premises. "Through this science, new mental powers will be created, which will place all those circumstances that determine the misery or happiness of men, under the immediate controul and direction of the present population of the world, and entirely supersede all necessity for the present truly irrational system of individual rewards and punishments; a system

which has ever been opposed to the most obvious dictates of common sense, and of humanity, and which will be no longer permitted than while men continue unenlightened and barbarous. The first rays of real knowledge will shew to the meanest capacity, that all the tendencies of this system are to degrade men below the ordinary state of animals, and to render them more miserable and irrational. The science of the influence of circumstances over human nature will dispel this ignorance, and shew how much more easily men may be trained by other means to become, without exception, active, kind, and intelligent, devoid of those unpleasant irrational feelings which for ages have tormented the whole human race. ........And fearful as men may now be to allow themselves to hope that the accumulated evils of ages are not permanent in their nature, probably many now live who will see the science introduced, that in their days will rapidly diminish, and in the days of their children will entirely remove these evils." P. 32.

We have not room to animadvert upon the absurdity of this passage; but its anti-Christian tendency is obvious and indisputable. If, as Mr. Owen assures us at page 41, "the notion that infants, children, and men, are agents governed by a will formed by themselves, and fashioned after their own choice, is one of the most general sources of error and of evil in the world," if "all children are to be considered as beings whose dispositions, habits, and sentiments, are to be formed for them, and these can be well formed only by excluding all notions of reward, punishment, and emulation;" if "when their characters are not such as they ought to be, the error proceeds from their instructors, and the other circumstances that surround them;" p. 43. then it must follow that guilt, in

nocence, pardon, and penitence, heaven and hell, are the clumsy fictions of a "barbarous" age, and that the book which tells us of them does not come from God. The system of individual rewards and punishments is taught from one end of the Bible to the other. The responsibility of man to his Creator is its plainest and most pervading doctrine; and to deny that this doctrine is just or proper, is to deny the truth of revelation. Mr. Owen's system is neither more nor less than a new fangled scheme of necessity; and though we are as. sured by Drs. Rudge and Collyer, that his house is a house of daily prayer, the only prayer which he can consistently offer, must be a prayer for good circumstances. Upon them he asserts that every man depends. By them he is positive that every character is fashioned. On them he distinctly says that the murderer and the thief are authorized to cast the burden of their crimes.

Such are the medicines with which he undertakes to cure the world. Its disease he traces up to individual rewards and punishments, aud denounces them as opposed to common sense and humanity, and as degrading mankind below the level of brutes. The denunciation evidently extends to the threats and promises of the Bible; and, therefore, it is only by banishing the Bible that Mr. Owen hopes to make us happy. Either this must be his meaning, or he ought to have restricted his violent declarations to the rewards and punishments of this life only. No limitation of the sort is to be found. He repeats the same assertion in many different forms, but its substance continues the same. His theory extends to things human and divine, and its wickedness and absurdity are alike extreme.

(To be continued.)