THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
No. 404. | 
JANUARY 1, 1825. 
[Price 2s. 
TOPIC OF THE MONTH. 
: HAT its Tue Toric or Tue 
Monrn? or rather, what has 
been? for the month, the December 
month, is sliding fast away ; and before 
these lucubrations meet the public eye, 
it will be gone, and, with it, gone the 
year! They will be gone—the fraction 
and the integer of that brief span, ad- 
measured in the periodic calendar, will 
have mingled with the retrospective tide 
of those have been “ to-morrows, and 
to-morrows , and to-morrows,” which, 
as our great dramatic moralist expresses 
it, “ creeps in this petty space from 
day to day,” lighting us “ the way to 
dusty death.” 
But, for our moon-span. record—what 
is the Topic ?. Has it one?—for it is 
not every month that furnishes atopic, to 
which the discriminative, the compre- 
hensive, the identifying article can pro- 
perly be affixed. There is not always 
one, among the brood of marvels, which, 
“ Like Aaron’s serpent, swallows up the 
pests?” 
It is a wonder of morethan ordinary birth 
which lives through one-third of the de- 
signated period, At the beginning, we 
should have said ‘it was the decision of 
the Judges upon the subject of Police 
Reports; though the priority might, 
perhaps, with fearful reasoning, have 
been disputed by the apprehension of 
consequences in Ireland, from the con- 
flicting rashness of theological contro- 
versy—intemperately urged, and as in- 
temperately~- encountered. But both 
these topics have passed, for awhile, 
away: they have not diced, however ;, 
they only sleep: they must awake 
again, and public attention must awaken 
to them. It may not be long before we 
are called upon to blow the trumpet in 
that direction ; but it shall be that 
which summons to the tribunal of in- 
vestigation and judgment; not that 
which urges to the field of conflict, 
These are both vital questions : the one. 
involving the rights of conscience, and 
the hopes of peace and civilization, in a 
moiety of the realm; the other affecting 
some of the dearest liberties and secu- 
rities of the whole. There will be no 
lack of matter for the elucidation of 
Montaty Mac. No, 404. 
either of these topics, when the day of 
opportune discussion shall arrive. In 
the mean time our admonition is, to 
those who have leisure for meditation 
or means of research,—look well to the 
facts, and their consequences, of past 
experience; and beware of bigotted 
animosities, of secret inquisitions, and 
of lions’ mouths, 
The forces upon conscience in the 
marriage ritual, and the anomaly of 
making the temporary profession of a 
specific creed the only medium of re- 
demption from concubinage and bas- 
tardy, in a country which comprizes all 
creeds, and talks of toleration, has per- 
haps been the predominant topic with a 
portion of the community, and may 
come again into more ‘general discus- 
sion: but enough of this, for the pre- 
sent, will probably be found in other 
departments of this miscellany; and, 
perhaps, among our correspondents, the 
topic is not likely to slumber. . _ 
_ The circumstances and disclosures of 
a-recent trial constitute apparently the 
prevailing topic of the day; and:may do 
so- till itis drowned in.the wassail cup, 
amid the festivities of the season, Jollity, 
and good cheer, with all to whom the 
MEANS ‘are not denied, must then, for 
awhile, be the object and the theme; 
and as George Alexander Stephens, of 
merry memory, expresses it, 
“ The only matter we shall mind, 
Is he who drinks or drinks not.’ 
Upon the topic alluded to, however, 
it were easy to be tempted to expatiate : 
it is not easy to avoid pondering upon 
it, and with some depth of feeling ; and 
there is much, perhaps, that ought to be 
said. . But the. ground ..is. delicate ; for 
it is personal ground, and net readily to 
be trod without verging towards the 
domain that belongs to the tittle-tattle 
of scandal. Much will be said, from a va- 
riety of motives, that it were better should 
die in silence. ‘The pages of the M. M., 
however, must not be stained with 
apologies for such transactions as have 
been revealed in this investigation, Nor 
must we trample on the fallen. Sex and 
beauty, however betrayed to degrada- 
tion, have still some hold upon a manly 
sympathy ; and a daughter’s attachment 
3Q to 
