and practical philanthropists; and, accordingly, much earnest effort has been devoted to the establishment and support of institutions calculated in various ways to promote the objects above mentioned.

"Very much, however, yet remains to be accomplished. In particular, no provision has been made by any of the institutions now alluded to, for meeting the wants of the Sunday,that day of rest, on which, more than on any other, the mind possesses opportunity and inclination to occupy itself with the highest and noblest objects of thought. It would appear to be assumed, that mental recreation and improvement on the one hand, and religion on the other, are so incongruous and mutually repellent, that to attempt combining them in one system of arrangements were unseemly, if not impracticable. The grounds of this assumption are not easily intelligible. It seems a more legitimate, as it is certainly a more pleasing concheerful heart' is an acceptable sacrifice,' viction, that a and that the invisible things of God,' so far from being obscured, are more clearly seen,' when understood from the things that are made.'

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"The Institution in Beaumont Square is planned and conducted in accordance with this conviction. In addition to the arrangements of the week (which embrace the usual objects of Philosophical and Mechanics' Institutions), lectures are delivered on Sunday mornings, introduced by sacred music, and by some of the forms with which Divine Service is usually associated in this country. These lectures consist of moral exhortations, and of such religious and philosophical inquiries as the minister deems best fitted to interest and improve his hearers; the general object and tendency of the whole being to inspire the love of virtue, and to supply motive for the discharge of duty.

"The Sunday Evening Lecture is usually devoted to the examination of some branch of physical science, considered in connection with the moral and religious lessons which it suggests. The subject affords inexhaustible variety; and the numerous and attentive audiences which these lectures have already attracted, prove that Natural Theology is capable of inspiring an interest not less profound, and perhaps more enduring, than religious topics which aim more directly at excitement.

"The facts and laws of moral and physical nature constitute, therefore, the main basis of the lessons inculcated in the Chapel of the Institution in Beaumont Square. All further information that may be desired on this point, is furnished in the most frank and ample manner in the Manual' composed

and compiled by the Founder, which is used in the Sunday Morning Service. It will there be seen, that, while none of the peculiar tenets of religious sects and parties are adopted as a creed, moral truth and wisdom are cordially welcomed, from whatever quarter they may spring. It is not thought desirable to exclude altogether the notice of theological controversies, and of the revolutions in opinion with which they have been connected. The history of religion forms so conspicuous a feature in the general history of the human mind, that it would indicate a culpable indifference or timidity entirely to pass over, in a continued course of moral instruction, the many valuable and important lessons derivable from it. It is obvious that subjects of this kind, on which considerable difference of opinion prevails among inquiring minds, require the exercise of much candour on the part of hearers. The lecturer, if he speak with that entire sincerity and freedom, without which public instruction loses its force and efficacy, must occasionally give utterance to thoughts resulting from his own individual studies and reflections, and for which he alone is responsible. It is hoped, however, that a source of common agreement will never be wanting in the exercise and cultivation of that spirit of free inquiry, toleration, and charity, in which all may unreservedly unite.

"The munificence of the Founder, and the generous aid of his son and successor, render this Institution independent of popularity, or extraneous support; and it is the intention of those who are entrusted with its management to persevere steadily in their course, disregarding prejudices which they believe to be but temporary and partial, and confiding in the ultimate ascendancy of those benevolent and enlightened principles on which the establishment is based. At the same time, they cannot but feel earnestly desirous of that popular support which, while it indicates the adaptation of the Institution to popular wants, will enable them to extend its efficiency yet further; and it is with much satisfaction that they contemplate the result of the first year of its existence, in the numerous and respectable body of subscribers that have availed themselves of its advantages. The support and countenance of additional friends, and especially of the influential inhabitants of the populous vicinity in which the Beaumont Square Institution is situated, will furnish them with the means of increasing its interest, and enlarging its usefulness; and to the attention of all such, this Institution is recommended, as a means by which they may powerfully contribute to the mental enjoyment and improvement of themselves, their families, and their fellow-creatures."

Mr Harwood, in the pamphlet of which the title is prefixed to this article, speaks chiefly of the Sunday Services and Lectures," partly," says he, "because these constitute the most peculiar and distinctive feature of our Institution, and also because it is of these alone that the nature of my connexion with you enables me to speak with full personal knowledge." He quotes, from the Advertisement prefixed by Mr Beaumont to his "Sunday Manual," the following statement of the general purpose of the meetings on that day :-" To afford Christians of every sect, and the religiously disposed of all persuasions, the satisfaction of assembling together for divine worship, and of having their minds refreshed and invigorated by expositions of the principles which naturally produce peace and happiness, free from the supernatural creeds upon which mankind are divided and exasperated, the chapel in Beaumont Square has been opened and endowed." We learn from Mr Harwood, that, in pursuance of this plan, lectures were delivered in the chapel during the successive Sundays of the preceding year, by Mr Thomas Wood, on the following subjects: -Ancient Philosophy; Integrity; Primitive Christianity; Paul's Defence of himself before Agrippa; the Corruptions of Christianity; the Relative Duties of the Rich and Poor; Mahomet and Mahometanism; Popery; the Irascible Emotions; the Protestant Reformation; and the Spirit of the Age: and, by Mr Harwood himself, on the True Principle of Mental Tolerance; Reason and Revelation; the Spirit of Antagonism and Negation; Six Lectures on German Anti-supernaturalism; Four Lectures on Life, considered under its various aspects of Success and Failure; Two Lectures on the Moral Importance of Little Things; Two Lectures on Self-help; the New Year; Two Lectures on Falsehood, as generated and upheld by Social Usages and Institutions; the Love and Pursuit of Truth; the Christening of the Prince of Wales; Two Lectures on the Life and Character of Priestley, and his Work as a Theological Reformer; the Spirit of Exclusion and Monopoly; the Childlike Character; the Relation of Theological Opinion to Religious Faith; the Spirit of Hebrew Poetry; Four Lectures on the History of the Hebrews, considered under its leading Epochs-the Patriarchal Age, the Heroic Age, the Age of National Development, and the Age of Calamity and Hope; the Relations of the Hebrew History and Poetry to Christianity; Two Lectures on Cheerfulness; and one on the Bible, its Use and Value as a Source of Moral Instruction, and its Relations to Natural Religion. In the Sunday evenings were delivered, during the winter months, Six Lectures on the Philosophy and Moral Uses of History; Thirteen Lectures

on Human Physiology, considered with reference to Natural Theology; and Four Lectures on the Destination of Man.

In lecturing on these topics, desultory and disjointed as they appear, an essential unity of spirit and definiteness of aim was preserved. A more methodical kind of teaching, says Mr Harwood, would be necessary, "if instruction, in the low and limited sense of the word-the mere communication of knowledge as knowledge-were the sole or chief aim which we have in view. But this is not by any means our sole or chief aim. The object of these Sunday lectures (more especially of the Morning ones) is not merely, nor mainly, the communication of literary and theological knowledge, but the forming ourselves to those habits of clear, wise, large, and vigorous thinking on moral subjects, and manful dealing with the moral realities of life, which our Founder has designated by the familiar phrase Practical Religion and Morality.' In one word, our aim is to learn and teach Moral Truth; truth of moral sentiment and conduct; that truth which is written on the heart, and illustrated in the life of man; whose ultimate standard is to be sought in the most enduring and universal characteristics -what we call the spirit of humanity; and which all literatures, politics, religions, and philosophies embody and express, here a little and there a little.'

With respect to theological tenets he says: "We have no creed in this Philosophical Institution; strangely would our style and title be stultified if we had one. Let me add, that our position here is not, mainly and chiefly, one of antagonism towards the creeds and forms of opinion now existing in this country. Antagonism there is, no doubt, more or less, in our position. Still this is not the principle and purpose of our institution. It is not specifically the work which we have to do. It is never any thing more than an incidental result of that intellectual and spiritual freedom-that liberty of prophesying, which, in truth, is the rock we build on, or (to use a fitter metaphor) the air we breathe. Our antagonism is only incidental. The purpose and spirit of this institution, as of its Founder, is not repulsion, but attraction; not exclusion, but comprehension; not denial, but affirmation; not doubting, but believing. We are not afraid, indeed, of scepticism; we do not denounce and abhor it; we think a reasonable, considerate scepticism a good and healthy thing, so far as it goes; but we do not depend on scepticism to keep us alive and awake; we do not make it our Whole Duty of Man."

We trust that the Beaumont Institution will be so conducted, as permanently to uphold its title to the character claimed

for it by the Trustees-that of "an important boon to the eastern parts of the metropolis." It offers at a moderate cost the privilege of using, (1.) A news-room, in which the principal morning and evening papers are provided, and filed; (2.) A reading-room, in which several periodicals are taken in and filed; (3.) A library for reference; (4.) A library for circulation; (5.) A museum of Natural History, in the departments of Geology, Mineralogy, and Conchology; (6.) A musical class for the practice of choral and glee singing; (7.) Classes for other modes of improvement or recreation, when a sufficient number of members desire them; (8.) Concerts and lectures frequently on the evenings of the week; and, lastly, the Sunday lectures, of which we have already spoken.

The funds of the Endowment, together with the sums laid out upon the building by the Founder and his son Mr J. A. Beaumont, amount to about L.19,000.

III. The Phrenological Theory of the Treatment of Criminals Defended, in a Letter to John Forbes, Esq., M.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., &c., Editor of the British and Foreign Medical Review. By M. B. SAMPSON. Highley, London. 1843. 8vo., Pp. 20.

This able Letter has been called for by the strictures on the author's work on Criminal Jurisprudence, which appeared in the thirty-first Number of the British and Foreign Medical Review. Several writers on the plea of insanity in criminal cases are there grouped together, and disposed of in one article. We noticed these strictures in our last Number, and characterised them as "much too severe and indiscriminating," and "seemingly dictated more by a strong prejudice, than by a calm and impartial examination of Mr Sampson's views." In making use of the expression "too severe," we did not mean that the views merited any degree of severity. As phrenologists, we are led to concur in the leading views of Mr Sampson, as inevitably deducible from the principles of our science the physiology of the brain. We know that the British and Foreign Medical Review has acknowledged the truth of Phrenology; but, in a corps of contributors, there must be different degrees of knowledge of the subject, and different degrees of qualification for applying its principles; and we are not surprised that, in a journal not exclusively phrenological, an article may sometimes be admitted which would not pass the ordeal of our own editorship.

Mr Sampson's views are, above all others, such as the re