Diffalution of Northampton Academy. —Obfervations on the Irifh. 13 
a large portion of their property expofed 
to fequeftration and plunder, in countries 
where their own government can’ afford 
them no protection. Are not fuch fuf- 
ferers equally entitled to national in- 
demnity from the wanton invafion of 
their property in foreign countries by 
French commiffioners, or new revolutions, 
as they would be if their property was 
deftroyed by an invafion in the bofom of 
their own country ? 
From the unprecedented fituation of 
mott of thofe countries—fuch as Holland, 
Italy, Spain, and others, in which the 
manufacturers have confiderable property 
owing them--and the uncertainty whether, 
before a general peace is attained, other 
chanszes may not take place to {weep molt 
of it away, it muft be admitted, that they 
are already fuftaining more than their por- 
tion of the prefent calamities, befides be- 
ing opprefled with prefent inconvenience 
from the want of remittances, and exnofed 
to the dittreis attending the great uncer- 
tainty whether their property will ever be 
recovered. 
The wifdom of the legiflature, the 
juftice and humanity of the nation, feem 
properly appealed to and interefted in 
eranting an indemnification to fo uterul 
a cla{s and induftrious a part of the com- 
munity as the manufacturers for. thefe’ 
foreign markets, who, under the fufpen- 
fion of their trade, are gradually fuffer- 
ing in their circumftances; and, ii not 
exempted from the weight of their accu- 
mulating calamities, mutt, after all their 
pat induftry and: prefent frugality, be 
hopelefsly ruined, and with them their 
rifing families. Y¥.Z. 
| Fune 1, 1798. 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIRS)... « 
1 ees the courfe of aft month, 
an event-took place which is of the 
greateit importance te the diffenting in- 
tereft. I allude to the fudden diffolution 
of the academy at Northampton, infti- 
tuted for the purpofe of educating young 
men for the minftry amongf protefant 
diffenters. Suéh.a remarkable circum- 
ftance happening at a time like the pre- 
fent, mutt furely be occafioned by fome 
very potent reafons: but, as I learn, from 
the ftrictett inquiry, that the young men 
educated in that feminary have in general 
been ufeful and acceptable chriftian mi- 
nifters, in thofe places where they have 
been fituated; that no degree of im- 
morality is cuargeable to the character 
of any who were ftudents at the time of 
the diffolution; that the funds left for 
the fupport of the inftitution by its ge- 
nerous founders, “are in the moft flourifh- 
ing ftate, I am entirely at a lofs to form 
any rational conjecture, why the reverend . 
gentlemen who compofe the board of 
truft, fhould adopt fuch a very extraor~ 
dinary expedient. 
Probably they may confider themfelves 
as not obliged to be accountable to any, 
for their conduct in this affair; but it 
certainly becomes them, as chriftians, as 
diffenting minifters, to do juftice at leaft 
to the characters of thofe whom they have 
thus abandoned; and alfo to vindicate 
themfelves from being guilty of ‘the: hei- 
nous crime of perfecution, tor con{cience 
fake, by a fair and honeft avowal of thofe 
motives which influenced them to purfue 
fuch a courfe of condué. 
Should the gentlemen alluded to, re- 
fufe to fatisty the diffenting body im this 
particular, I fhall trouble you, Mr. 
Editor, at fome future period, with a 
few obfervations on the fubject, ‘The in- 
fertion of this, in your valuable Maga- 
zine, will much oblige your’s, &c. i 
Fuly 9, 1798. A DissENTER, 
ee 
For the Monthly Magazine... 
OBSERVATIONS on the IR1IsH NATION. 
By-the late Bifhop Lowry. 
. (Extrated from an unpublifbed Sermon of Bifhap 
Lowth’s, preached for the Benefit of the Irifh 
Charity Schools, 1773-) 
NHAT the native Irith, fo clofely 
connected with England, fhould 
have continued for fo many centuries, and 
fhould, in fome degree, ftill continue, in 
fuch a ftate of darknefs and barbarifms 
might feem incredible and inexplicable, 
were not the fact evident, and did not 
hiftory point out to us the caufes of it. 
he fate of that nation has been fome- 
what fingular, and the difadvantages, un- 
der which it has laboured, in a manner 
peculiar to itfelf. No time can be atligned 
within the period of certain hiftory, in 
which Ireland had any favourable oppor 
tunity of making thofe imprevements, 
which its natural capacity admitted, or 
its happy fituation even pointed out. As 
it efcaped the dominion of the Romans, 
fo was it likewife deprived of the benefits 
which this: government generally intro- 
duced.; order, laws, civility, cultivation: 
and being feparated from other nations in 
a remote corner of the then known world, 
and untkilled in navigation, it had little 
Ba inclination, 
