BARCELONETTA, the name of a new town adjacent to Barcelona. It is situated to the south east of the city, between the sea-gate and the light -house on the mole, and was built about the middle of the eighteenth.century. It is a complete square, with twenty-fonr regular streets, each five feet broad. Fifteen of these are direct•and pa ralrel, and are intersected at equal distances by nine streets. The houses, which arc built of brick, are till one story high, and of the same height and width in front. The uniformity .of the streets are a little -varied by two squares. The inhabitants arc chiefly .soldiers, sailors, and people connected with the navy. Population 13,000- (or) BARCLAY,•RonEnT, of Ury, generally known by the title of the APOLOGIST, was the eldest on of Colonel David Barclay, and descended through a 'long line of ancestry from Theobald De Berkely, 'who lived in the time of David I. He was born on the 28th December 164.8, at Gordonston, in Moray shire, the seat of his maternal grandfather. After 'being educated in the best schools in Scotland, he .was sent to Paris, and placed under the tuition of his uncle, who .was rector of the Scots college. He gave early presages of great genius, and acquired much pro ficiency in all the learned sciences and elegant accom plishments of the times. -He soon became conspicuous in the college ; and was particularly noticed for his -vivacity and acuteness in the public disputatious of •that seminary, where he gained many prizes. His uncle admired his talents, and offered to leave all his fortune to him, which was very considerable, if he -would remain in France ; but his mother, on her death bed, had strongly enjoined his removal from the col lege, lest he should imbibe the errors of popery. In -obedience to parental authority, he returned home in 1664•, and thus lost his uncle's fortune and favour to gratify his father's conscientious compliance with the prejudiced, but pious notions of his mother. Though destitute of wealth, lie possessed what was more va luable ; for his mind was deeply fraught with the riches of learning and literature.
Soon after his return to Scotland, he joined the society called Quakers, and became their greatest or nameat and ablest advocate. Previous, however, to his embracing the opinions of that sect, he visited ' his friends of all religious persuasions to canvass their doctrines, that he might adopt a system of faith cor responding to the truths of the gospel, and by con viction,alone, as we are informed, he was guided in his choice.
In the year 1670, he was married to Christian Mo lison, Of the family of Lachintully, the grand daugh ter of the celebrated Colonel Molison, who so much signalised himself in the defence of Candia against the Turks. And about this time, he first appeared as an author, by a work, entitled, Truth cleared of Calumnies, which is an answer to A Dialogue between a Quaker and a stable Christian, written by William Mitchell a preacher,and printed at Aberdeen. A keen controversy then subsisted between the clergy of Aberdeen and the Quakers, relative to the doctrines of the latter, which warmly interesting Barclay, call ed forth his talents as a polemical writer ; and in the same year he published a postscript in the form of questions. Mitchell replied to Truth cleared of Ca lumnies, and our author again answered him, in a work entitled, William Mitchell ?unmasked, which, was published in 167'2. In this controversy, Robert Barclay discovers his variety of learning, and that he was well acquainted with ecclesiastical history ; but above all, he shows, with how much judgment and dexterity he could apply his knowledge in support of his religious opinions.
In 1673, he published A Catechism and Confession qf Faith, which is an exposition of the doctrines and principles of the Quakers, supported by an appeal to Scripture testimony. His next publication is the Theses 7eologiew, which were addressed " to the clergy of what sort soever," and contains fifteen propositions, on which he gives his sentiments, and explains them in conformity to the principles of his sect. He vindicated the Theses from the strictures of Nicholas Arnold, professor in the university of Franequer in Friesland, by a Latin treatise printed at Amsterdam in 1675. In the same year he published an account of a disputation between the students of divinity of the university of Aberdeen and the Qua kers, in which he bore a conspicuous part ; but it seems to have 'terminated without satisfaction to either party. The students also published an account of this conference in a pamphlet entitled, Quaker-isn: Canvassed, which occasioned a reply, entitled, Qua kerism in two parts, both printed in 1676.