ment, and a public whipping once a quarter, may be sufficient punishment in this case."

The political articles in the Journal, as in other provincial papers of the time, are all extracts from the London Evening Post, and some of them are great curiosities in their way-perfect riddles, which could not, as they were perhaps never meant to be solved. Here is a specimen in 1750—“Our correspondent at Paris assures us that something of very great importance is upon the carpet there, and that, notwithstanding the greatest secrecy is observed at Court, yet some of the members have intimated that it will not be long before a great event will happen, extremely acceptable to the nation but of what nature is entirely left to conjecture!"

Strange notions seem to have prevailed on the subjects of political economy. We find a fierce argument against the transportation of corn to starving France, thus put forward. "Whether, as Providence has thought fit to afflict the French with so dreadful a scourge, the running counter to this benevolent dispensation with regard to this island, may not turn that blessing into a curse upon ourselves?"

In 1752 we have the first report from the infirmary. It appears that for the year ending August '43, the number of patients admitted was 21; cured, 9; dismissed, 10; dead, 2. We sup

pose there were not eight doctors. In '45-'46 the house was filled with sick and wounded soldiers.

So early as the beginning of 1749 we find a society of honest farmers in Aberdeen and Banffshires, established for the purpose of taking into consideration the proper methods for improving difficult soils.

The first Whale Fishing Company signed their contract of copartnery on 27th June 1751, the subscribed capital being then nearly £7000.

Boy hurt by falling from the joggs in Castle Street (Pety Vault)-Woman had her eye severely injured by the creels of a man riding on horseback -William Wast accommodated with a neat suit of irons, etc. etc.

E

THE PAPISTS.

CHAPTER I.

“O my soul, come not thou into their secret ; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united."--GEN. xlix. 6.

WE intend to address a few words to those Protestants who are in the habit of frequenting the Papist chapel for the seemingly laudable purpose of hearing the errors of Unitarianism exposed. We cannot but regard the conduct of such individuals as inconsistent. Is it wise in them to run the risk of spiritual contamination of one kind, as a preventive against spiritual contagion of another description? If they scout the doctrines of Unitarians as being contrary to their creed, why lend their countenance to the worship of the Papists, which is as much at variance with the principles of their faith? Would they, to avoid the chance of being scorched by the flames of a conflagration, which they need not approach, rashly expose themselves, in a crazy boat, to the dangers of the wintry wave? Would they, as an antidote against a poisoned cup,

which they might at will pass from their lips, needlessly court the deadly sting of the rattlesnake? What monstrous absurdity! what heaven-tempting folly! What have they to do with Papists or Unitarians? Have they not the Bible as an infallible rule of faith? The Papists are anxious to make proselytes. They are industrious, artful, persevering, insatiable, and alas! too often successful in this trade of spiritual kidnapping! We deem it the more necessary to warn Protestants against the wiles of the Papists, since, in the harangues delivered in St. Peter's on Sunday evening, due care is taken to sink the more startling dogmas of the Church of Rome. When a simple Protestant hears the divinity of the Son so earnestly advocated from a Papist pulpit, he is disposed to think that the doctrines of the Romish Church are perhaps, after all, not so very absurd as he has been accustomed to regard them. He begins to fancy that there is not so very wide a difference between the creeds of Protestant and Papist as he had been taught to believe that there was. This is the first step towards the unsettlement of his faith. This is the great, the primary point, at which the Papists aim. They wish to impress on the minds of Protestants that the discrepancy between the Papist and Protestant creeds is but slight-mere distinction without difference. They thus endeavour to smooth the passage from the one to the other. But Protestants

will never know thoroughly what Papist doctrine is, until they are once fairly entrapped into an adoption of the Papist creed. When once within the mysterious inquisitional walls of the Confessional, then, and then only, will they know the wide gulf which separates the creed which they have adopted from that which they have renounced. If the Papists affect to honour the Son by maintaining his divinity against the Unitarians, they dishonour him in many other ways. They may declaim against Unitarianism as they will; we think it far more consistent to deny the divinity of the Son altogether, than to support it on one hand, in form, but to belie it on the other, in effect. It is not our intention at present to enter into any lengthened discussion of the doctrines of the Papists. Let any Protestant of common sense only look into their Book of Vespers, or their "New Testament," and say, whether he does not there find the formal avowal of principles the most glaringly contrary to reason, and to the word of God. It is no very easy matter for Protestants to get hold of these books; they are generally carefully smuggled out of sight, as if the owners of them were conscious of the contraband nature of their contents. In these institutes of superstition, these travesties of the genuine word, Protestants will find the broad declaration of doctrines which strike at the very roots of the Gospel. Those who wish to enter the lists of con