miracles, necessary to that calling. He said also that the Church of Rome is a true church, though corrupt; and the ministers, made by the Pope and that clergy, are true ministers [consistent High Church doctrine, as I take it]: that the Church of Rome was calumniated, and not so bad as reported: that they had excellent things among them; and that our Martyrs of the Church of England had no need in those days to insist so much on these points [of the true church, call, ordination, &c.] as they did: but that many of them might have saved their lives by just condescension-with more to that Anti-protestant purpose. To which I answered, That it was apparent which way they were driving: but now God had been pleased to throw a block in their way, which would stop their career :-the news of the accession of King Geo. I. having come a little before this. Id. p. 461.

Thomas Story was own brother to the Dean of Limerick; with whom he kept a brotherly correspondence. So that if there be any such power as is here pretended to, derived from the apostles by imposition of hands (or otherwise) though it should not extend to the working of miracles, but only to a certain measure of influence or command over the spirits of others, this Friend was perhaps as likely to have received a bye portion of it as any one then living. Yet we see, by the remarks constantly occurring in his Journal, that he attributed nothing of that power in the Spirit he himself was manifestly endued with, for preaching the Gospel, to any outward means or medium. To miracles he appears to have made no pretension: nor does it appear (though he makes frequent reference to the state of his own spirit and the spirits of others) that he resorted at any time to any Magical confederacy, or Magnetical operation, whatever; to carry any point for himself, or make his preaching on any particular occasion effectual ; or even to correspond with his absent brother, or any other friend.

ART. VII.-FABLES, &C., IN PROSE AND VERSE-CONTINUED,

The Bear at the Beehives.

The Bees, a frugal folk, bestow
On use their pains, neglecting show :
No building schemes perplex their wit;
They take a house and furnish it;
Then work-nor cease for luxury's calls,
Till plenty reigns within the walls.
'Tis true, their landlord makes distraint
Most heavy for his annual rent;
And they, no more than we, 'I guess,'
With all their saving arts possess
The means, to keep a colony
From privileged consumers free ;

Since though, ere winter's famine come,
The drones to banishment they doom,
Next spring, the wonted stock is bred
Of gentry living to be fed.

Like those-hush, Muse! forbear to rail,
Wave comments, and let's hear the tale.
Well then-things in a prosperous state,
A neighbouring warlike potentate,
Who throve by working others' ruin,
(In history, Bear; in fable, Bruin,)
With hasty strides drew near the nation,
His thoughts intent on confiscation.
Yet used he not the forms of law,
Nor sent douanier-save his paw,
Which rais'd, at one rude buffet, laid
In dust the city and its trade.

Now to the spoil-but ere he taste,
To war the wing'd militia haste:
At trumpets' sound, with poison'd spears,
They meet his eyes, invade his ears,
And fill his lips with vengeful pain;
Smear'd with the remedy in vain!

Short was the contest: brutal force
By its own struggles fared the worse,
And foil'd by numbers, from his feast,
Deep growling, fled the blinded beast.
And such must be, to him who reigns
O'er prostrate crowds, by terror's pains;
Whose will exulting in its might,
Nor stays for law, nor asks for right
To sate th' ambitious appetite;

Nor rests in what to war belongs,

But swells th' amount with private wrongs;
Such, and more terrible, the treat

Of power supreme, and regal seat,

When, nations rous'd, resentment brings

The torment of a thousand stings.

This piece was written under the full ascendancy of the Empire of Bonaparte in Europe, and probably on occasion of the confiscations at Hamburgh, &c. The author has changed only the last line but one, led by the final issue of that reign. It stood before :

When, conscience rous'd, remembrance brings

The torment of a thousand stings.'

Communications may be addressed, rosT PAID, "For the Editor of the Yorkshireman,” at the Printer's, Pontefract; at Longman and Co's, London; John Baines and Co's, Leeds; and W. Alexander's, York

CHARLES ELCOCK, PRINTER, PONTEFRACT.

THE

YORKSHIREMAN,

A

RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY JOURNAL

No. XXXVIII.

BY A FRIEND.

PRO PATRIA.

FOURTH DAY, 29th FIRST Mo. 1834. PRICE 4d.

ART. I.-Usury and the taking of Interest for money considered, as regards a Christian Conduct.

A communication has been addressed to the Editor on this subject, to which, although coming in a form not the most fair or acceptable anonymous and without a reference-he is disposed to make some reply. The matter, as stated in the letter before him, may have obtained place in the minds of others besides the writer, and have been the means of confusing their thoughts, if not of embarrassing their practice. It shall be treated as other questions have been treated (the Editor trusts) in this work, on Christian principles as laid down for us in the New Testament.

6

The first part of the letter states the "opinion" of the writer to be, "that as Christianity is a more benevolent system of Religion than Judaism, and as the Founder, the Lord Jesus Christ said, Lend, hoping for nothing again,' in that command requiring the loan of money when there was no prospect of even the principal again, it was clear that Interest or Usury was Unchristian." "The quibble "adds the writer" on the difference between the words Interest and Usury I need not to point out, (much less answer) to you, as you are not liable to permit Acts of Parliament to interpret Scripture for you.”

If the writer of this communication supposes he has carried his point with the Editor by the assumption here made, that Interest and Usury are one and the same thing, he may be at once informed that he is grossly mistaken: But what does he think of his own term, "requiring "? Interest however is a certain rate of payment for the

use of money, fixed by Law or custom; so that a man, who is about to borrow, knows certainly on what terins he may obtain the accommodation. Usury is a payment for the like accommodation, fixed at the will of the Lender; and liable on this account to become a source of the greatest abuses, attended with a proportionate share of ill-will betwixt the parties.

It was clearly Usury, and not Interest as now taken, that was forbidden the Jews, except as regarded their enemies; whom, if they were not to be prevented from killing or plundering and making slaves of, no more from oppressing in this way: See the Texts on the subject.

But usury did certainly obtain among that people, with respect to each other; Jer. xv. 10. I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury, yet every one of them doth curse me':—the reason being, plainly, that he reproved them for their injustice and covetousness, more freely than their evil natures would bear. Neh. v, Isa. xxiv, 2.

7:

Our Lord, in Matt. xxv. 14-30 in the parable of the talents, brings in the Landlord saying to his dependent, with whom he had left a talent for use, Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers; and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury'-Gr. sun toko, strictly meaning, with its product—a product which law or custom might even then have fixed for the fair dealer, the keeper of the table of exchange in public. See John ii. 15.

There is no evidence, here, of our Lord's disapprobation of the taking of a certain fixed rate for the use of money, any more than in the parable of the wicked husbandmen, of the taking of the fruit of the vineyard for the use of the soil. And whereas he says in Luke vi. 34, 35. And if ye lend to those of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye, for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again: but love ye your enemies and do good and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and the evil : '—we are to understand the expression as conveying a rule, not of ordinary dealing, but of kindness to others, upon occasion presenting. The command, 'Give to him that asketh of thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away.' Matt. v. 42. supposes the like, of occasion given for the exercise of the benevolent affections—not the ordinary course of dealing among men: since it would require only the knowledge of a man's principle in this case, by wicked neighbours, to ruin him speedily: which could not be intended by our Lord.

The great and comprehensive precept Matt. vii, 12, meets this case fully, as regards the present state of Civil Society. Money is now as truly a possession, on which a man may live, as is land itself; and it would be as reasonable to expect the use of my land for nothing, as of my money. Rent is fixed by custom within some sort of limits; so that an exacting landlord (who does not as he would be done by) fares as ill with the bulk of mankind as the Usurer himself. The man who gives the Legal rate for the use of money then does as he would be done unto-and so DOES HE WHO TAKES IT. We must not, because

DERIVATIONS AND MEANINGS OF WORDS.

211

we have the doctrine of benevolence, and of kindness even to the unthankful, so plainly laid down in instances instead of general precepts make our blessed Lord a Judge and a divider (Luke xii, 14) on civil affairs, in his day, instead of an Instructer in the Righteousness which is of faith. The spirit of the command is certainly met by every man who deals fairly, and does as he would be done by, whether in the matter of Rent or Interest. He who exacts of another, or overreaches him in dealing, shall be judged according to his deed: and he who (the occasion presenting) does more than merely justly, and confers a kindness hoping for no return, does his duty as a child of God, and shall be owned of his heavenly Father in the better world to come!

It can scarce be needful, now, to say to the latter clause of the writer's argument, which has reference to the Funds, more than this— that borrowing and lending in this way falls under the same Gospel rule as in the other-the Public being the debtor in place of the individual. And if any choose to advert to the possibility of their becoming in this way accessory to the carrying on of War, such persons are at full liberty, in this country, to decline dealing in these securities. But with such as can hate and persecute, and bear down (not enemies but) their neighbours (for filthy lucre's sake) on the ground of a religious belief and practice differing from their own as eatablished by Law, it can surely never be a serious question whether they shall lend money to Cæsar (the upholder of their form) to defend them against their enemies! I shall have somewhat to say about the Funds hereafter. Ed.

ART. II.-Derivations and Meanings of Words. Continued.

Let us take a few of these that have relation to trade and business. On my first visit to Edinburgh, being in the shop of a friend, he had occasion to use the word busy, which he pronounced buzzy.' Thought I, here is the derivation of the word busy! It is the sound of the hive, when the bees are at work: and I remember our writers of the time of Addison used to employ the substantive buzz (now pretty much disused) to express the activity of men's minds, both in trade and politics.

Trade is derived by Johnson from tratta, Ital. I should have thought a scholar would have found in it some likeness to trade, Lat. the Imperative of trado, I deliver or give over to another: which might be the original beginning of an Order. However there is yet a more simple etymology of trade. We may insist, in English, that it is the tread (resort) to a shop, a term derived from the observation of the neighbours on the floor covered with footmarks, or the worn steps and sill of the doorway. And the like would soon come to be applicable to a port also; though people come to it by sea. The Latin 'trado (trans-do) need not stand in the way of this-though it is plain that the roots differ. The word traffic, used formerly, as Johnson observes, for foreign commerce (and the same with trafique, Fr. and traffico,