The religious functionaries or ministers of this town, both churchmen and dissenters, are allowed to be in general very assiduous in the discharge of their clerical and ministerial duties; and were they at the same time less subject to prejudice, bigotry, and intolerance, and more disposed to believe what their Lord and Master has declared, that _they who are not against us are for us_, they would certainly deserve great commendation. But they and their flocks are, _for the most part_, so deficient in the articles of christian charity, forbearance, and liberality, that they may be said to dishonour the very cause they have espoused, and the service in which they are embarked. The more orthodox and evangelical they pretend to be, the more uncharitable and intolerant they are generally found. Their evil spirit of intolerance and infallibility seems to carry them so far as hardly to allow those who stand without the pale of their respective communions to be worthy of even the name of christians. Sometimes they have been heard to pronounce such as they fancied to be heterodox, as presuming to _teach men to be christians without believing any one principle of that institution_; as if God had endowed them with the infallible knowledge of christian truth, and constituted them judges of the very state and destinies of their fellow professors. It was a saying in the primitive times, “See how these christians love one another;” but here it might rather be said, “See how these christian parties and sects envy, vilify, and hate one another.” In short, they may be said to possess so large a portion of that unworthy spirit of jealousy and rivalry as would disgrace even the meanest tradesmen, or the very lowest orders of shopkeepers and mechanics: and what is still worse, they seem quite incapable of blushing for their absurd and unchristian conduct. There are however some honourable exceptions to this representation, though they seem to be very few. But we will now close this section, and here conclude the regular series of this history. SUPPLEMENTARY SECTION; (_containing divers recollections_, _corrections_, _and miscellaneous matters_:)—_defects in the plans and modes of public worship_, _or the usual proceedings in our religious assemblies—our gentry and tradesmen capriciously and absurdly distinguished—shrimp trade—water-works—brief account of certain public buildings previously omitted—additional hints relating to our grammar-school_, _our libraries_, _and present population_.