correctness—­this age, in the obliquity of its vision, and in the depth of its respect for simple “appearances,” says it is—­then Unitarianism ought to be a very proper article, for its congregations, though comparatively small, are highly seasoned with persons who wear capital clothes, take their time from the best of watches, and have ever so much of what lawyers call “real and personal” property.  Men termed “Monarchians” were the first special professors of Unitarianism.  They made their appearance between the second and third centuries, and, if Tertullian tells the truth, they consisted of “the simple and the unlearned.”  Directly after the Reformation Unitarianism spread considerably on the continent, and Transylvania, which now contains about 56,000 of its followers, became its great stronghold.  Unitarianism got into England about the middle of the 16th century; and many of the Presbyterian divines who were ejected during the century which followed—­in 1662—­gradually became believers in it.  In England the Unitarians have now about 314 chapels and emission stations; in Scotland there are only five congregations recognising Unitarianism; in Ireland about 40; in our colonies there are a few; in the United States of America the body has 256 societies; in France, Germany, Holland, &c., the principles of Unitarianism are pretty extensively believed in.  Some of our greatest thinkers and writers have been Unitarians:  Milton was one, so was John Locke, and so was Newton.  In different ages there have been different classes of Unitarians; in these days there are at least two—­the conservative and the progressive; but in the past the following points were generally believed, and in the present there is no diversity of opinion regarding them, viz., that the Godhead is single and absolute, not triune; that Christ was not God, but a perfect being inspired with divine wisdom; that there is no efficacy in His vicarious atonement, in the sense popularly recognised; and that original sin and eternal damnation are in accordance with neither the Scriptures nor common sense.

The origin of Unitarianism in Preston, as elsewhere, is mixed up with the early strivings and operations of emancipated Nonconformity.  We can find no record of Nonconformists in Preston until the early part of the 18th century.  At that period a chapel was erected at Walton-le-Dale, mainly, if not entirely, by Sir Henry de Hoghton—­fifth baronet, and formerly member of parliament for Preston—­who was one of the principal patrons of Nonconformity in this district.  Very shortly afterwards, and under the same patronage, a Nonconformist congregation was established to Preston—­ meetings having previously been held in private houses—­and the Rev. John Pilkington, great uncle of W. O. Pilkington, Esq., of the Willows, near this town, who is a Unitarian, was the minister of it, as well as of that in Walton.  In 1718, a little building was erected for the Nonconformists of Preston on a piece of land near the bottom and