re 
¥ 
§ iM. : 
e 
A 
ate] «Account of a Cobalt Mine in Cheshives 
Suppose the Act of Uniformity re- 
pealed.—A dike of Grafton might then 
present the benefices of which he has the 
advowson to his Unitarian chaplains. A 
lord Petre might bestow similar prefers 
ment on eminent catholics—on a Geddes, 
ora Milner. If the Jew-banker Gold- 
~ smid acquired with his estate a vacant 
resentation, he might allow the tythe of 
is parish toa rabbi. Mr. Wilberforce 
could confer livings on his evangelists; 
and lord Sheffield on a disciple of Gibbon, 
God keeps many religious, said the Go- 
thic king Theoduric, why shuuld not we? 
The effects of this change could not but 
be advantageous, Every sect, inasmuch 
as it had converted to its persuasion the 
Property of the country, would acquire a 
_ share of the advowsons, and station itself 
in the national church. A co-establish- 
Ment of all religions would be accom- 
plished, in which each would have an ex- 
tent of influence equitably proportioned 
to the weaith of its votaries. A consider- 
able comprehension of dissenters. would 
~ ammediately result; and with the wish and 
power to acquire the use and property of 
the established temples,an altered feeling, 
the harbinger of constitutional loyalty, 
would pervade all the ancient separatists. 
"he danger which the Greek empire for- 
merly, and which our-own country lately, 
incurred,of findiag among its schismatics a 
rnicious foreign faction, would cease 
‘with the intolerance of the magistrate, 
which both there and here occasioned that 
incalculable evil. The chieftains, not only 
of the embodied,, but of the literary, 
*sects, finding the ecclesiastic order open 
 tothem unconditionally, and without any 
subscribed definitions of opinion, would 
more generally embrace it: and all classes 
‘of publi instructors, the men of letters 
and science, tne poets and artists, might 
be conveniently patronized out of the 
“revenues of the hierarchy. Thus, all sects, 
popular and philosophic, would acquire 
“a common interest in the preservation of 
such a church, and would joinina cho- 
tus of Esto perpetua! 
_ The patronage of the sovereign would 
_Temain as at present in.point of amount; 
but as the number of claimants on public 
sgrounds would, be increased, more of | 
“that patronage would be given ta merit, 
and less to favouritism. The right of 
presenting prebends to laymen already 
_resides in the Crown—Cainden having 
heen rewarded for his literary exertions 
by queen Elizabeth with a” prebendal 
stall. A repeal of the Act of Uniformity 
would, in fact, extend this right of lay 
1 
T. 
patronage indefinitely: and surely the pa« 
triotic statesman, instead of making a new 
pension for every new exertion, ought to 
hold it better to divert into an useful 
channel some of those preferments which 
are become superfluous to the encourage= 
ment of theological literature, and which 
only operate as bounties for advocating 
the cause of ecclesiastic monopoly and 
intolerance. Without burdening afresla 
the people, the means would thus exist of 
recompensing their real illustrators and 
benefactors: the mighty machine, erected 
by the efforts of a barbaric superstition, 
would retain its energies unimpaired, but 
be employed in diffusing the lessons of 
civilization, and in remunerating the toils 
of unbiassed learning and creative genius. 
ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
S I believe no description of Aldey~ 
ley Edge in Cheshire, and tha 
Cobalt Mine lately discovered there, 
has yet been published, pernaps the in- 
closed account may be acceptable to 
your readers, . 
Alderley Edge is an eminence situ- 
ated about five miles west from Maccles- 
ficld, from which place the road rises by 
an almost imperceptible. ascent through 
narrow sandy lanes; the sand chiefly of 
a reddish-brown colour: so very gradual 
is the rise, that when you approach the 
western side declivity, which is muck 
steeper, you are astonished with the vast 
extent of country which at once opens 
upon the sight. ‘The whole plain of the 
county of Cheshire, with a part of Lan- 
cashire, stretching from the feet of the 
Derbyshire and. Yorkshire hills to the 
sea; the pastures, woods, and villages, 
the towns of Stockport and Manchester, 
the distant smoke of the city of Chester, 
with the blue mountains of Wales onthe 
horizon, form part of the features of the 
scene. Oa the eastern side rise the 
Derbyshire and Yorkshire hills, which 
are part of the central range that passes 
through these counties. The whole 
prospect comprises a scene of extensive 
and varied magnificence, which can 
scarcely be equalied in the kingdom. 
After a month’s residence 2mongst the 
mines. and naked mountains of the 
High Peak, a sudden view of so much 
fertility and grandeur was peculiarly ex. 
hilarating and delightful. “ ‘The hill on 
which I stood'is low, compared with most 
of our secondary bills: but being de 
tached from’ the eéntral range, and ad- 
vauced several miles towards the plains 
of 
‘ ‘ 
