it is among the leaft exceptionable, in point of language, of the dif courfes that have been compofed for the late faft.

The Judgments of God in the Earth, are Calls for us to learn Righte oufnefs. A Sermon preached at St. George's Church, Botolph-Lane, London, on Friday 28th Feb. 1794; being the Day appointed by Proclamation for a general Faft and Humiliation before Almighty God. By William Reid, M. A. Published by defire of the Congregation. 8vo. 15. Rivingtons.

Mr. Reid, as a clergyman, is, we truft, a man of honour, and therefore we cannot question his affertion; otherwife we should really have doubted whether a congregation could any where have been found fo grofsly ignorant as to defire the publication of fuch a compofition as that before us. A compofition more deftitute of novelty, information, fenfe, and grammar, we have rarely feen: a very few specimens will therefore fuffice. Speaking of the call of this day, by our righteous fovereign,' Mr. Reid adds: To look upon this call with indifference, would be pleading for justice, and not for mercy.' With fubmiffion to Mr. Reid, we apprehend it would rather be not pleading at all. A little farther, he remarks of the former condition of France, that- Trade brought in jources of wealth;' a sentence which to our ears founds fomething like a bull, fince we apprehend that trade itself was the fource of wealth, and wealth the produce of trade. That country (he proceeds to obferve) now bears no rank among the kingdoms of the earth;' which to us is rather unintelligible, unless he means that France is no longer a kingdom, but a republic; but how far this circumftance may affect the rank of a country, we are at fome lofs to understand. Its fleets (our fagacious author adds) are on an ebbing Jhore.'

Who (exclaims Mr. Reid) but those who want to overturn all government and religion, can fay they expect perfection in this world?' If this is Mr. Reid's idea of perfection, we can only fay it is not ours. Our author difcovers, however, at length, as the only apology for thefe fame Frenchmen, that they are all mad, and like all individual madmen, they are not contented with the blood of their beft friends, but they muft STAB their very felves with their favourite inftrument of murder: a very curious ufe for the guillotine in every fenfe! He, however, gives us but very poor hopes of the prefent war, when he aflures us that they refemble the demoniac in the gospel, whom no man could bind!'-This fingular differtation is wound up with the eloquent exclamation: But is it really poffible in nature for a people to have run fo mad!?

6

Among the crimes of the French, we are a little furprized to hear idolatry and witchcraft' enumerated.-He aflures his auditors that thefe evils they must needs feel for many years;' and defires the good people of Botolph-lane to take this along with them,' that if they keep company with the feditious, they will make them their

tool,

tool, and then defert them to take care of themselves.' The follow ing is a curious fact, and evinces Mr. Reid's profound knowledge of theology-But God planted two trees in the Garden of Eden, for him to look upon,-the tree of life, to teach him the immortality which Jefus Chrift has now established by his gospel, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, to teach him obedience with the rewards of it.'

A phrafe which conftantly occurs in this fermon, it may be ne. ceffary to caution our readers againft, as ungrammatical, fince, though we do not remember to have feen it before in print, it fometimes occurs in converfation, viz. this country of ours.' The poffetfive pronoun being a mere adjective, ought never to be used in this manner in the genitive cafe: Mr. Reid, indeed, has improved upon the folecifin, and, in the true ftyle of fovereign authority, he fpeaks ofthefe kingdoms of ours.'

In this fermon, we have alfo difcovered a fuperabundance of orthographical errors; Mr. Reid can best inform us, whether or not they were all errors of the prefs.

MISCELLANEOUS.

A Letter to a Gentleman of the Philanthropic Society; on the Liberty of the Prefs. By Percival Stockdale. 8vo. 6d. Jordan. 1794. This Letter, which is nervous and well written, in other refpects, does not give any express detail of the events that led to its publication. As far, however, as we have been able to inform ourselves on the fubject, we think Mr. Stockdale highly juftified in this appeal to the public.

It feems, in confequence of the fociety's printer having received, and nearly completed, the printing of a pamphlet, whofe political doctrines were not exactly in harmony with the opinions of a few who take the lead in the committee, two or three gentlemen, neither familiar with the customs of printing, nor perfons fubject to any periodical election, were appointed to license the prefs in future, and to fuffer nothing they did not like, to be undertaken by their workmen. Thefe gentlemen, not content, as it appears, with their abfolute controul over the politics of their prefs, have thought proper in the inftance of Mr. Stockdale, to pronounce a vero on a topic of a far different nature, and, we apprehend, if they continue to act with this increafing delicacy and caution, they may, and probably will, fhut up their prefs altogether. Either, indeed, they are to be confidered as tradefimen, or they are not.--If the former, how impertinent would it be in a printer to infift on fubmitting every MS. prefented to him to print, to the infpection of a set of judges ? and what judges of literary productions-Bankers and merchants!

But we leave to the author the talk of remarking at length on the indecency of their interference, and fhall conclude this article with

a paf

paffage from Mr. Stockdale's Letter, which applies to the only ar gument they can venture to advance on the subject, and which may be comprised in the fingle word caution.

If, fays our author, from motives of finance; if, to fecure a fufficient fund for your fociety, you have adopted the unmanly rule of not giving offence (and a moft unmanly rule it is, when it is either prescribed, or obeyed, in it's utmost lat tude) this plea will not bear a fuperficial examination.-I am very far from thinking that our civil, and political privileges, are as fecure, and as much respected, as many weak men imagine, and many selfish hyprocrites pretend that they are ;-but of this I am certain; that our countrymen are fo habituated to pay a kind of civil worship to the liberty of the prefs, as to the palladium of every thing that is dear to them, that your prefs, as it's pecuniary terms are very reasonable, would have had all the encouragement that your charitable views could bave propofed, if it had been on a fair, English foundation; and I am thoroughly perfuaded, that by far the greater number of our fellow-citizens, in all the ranks of life, would wifh to fee a prefs unemployed, which was under any narrow limitations that our jurif prudence had not impofed on it. Many hyprocrites, indeed; and not a few of them, holy, will undoubtedly give you a douceur, in the shape of a charitable donation, to maintain those rigid and defpotic rules which will prevent (as far as the power of your fociety extends) the exposure of their pride, and avarice, to the light of open day; and in all their deformity. The brightest talents, and a fpirit of independence, are, in general, united. If men of these endowments have the misfortune to enter your printing-office, they will foon defert it ;-you may be fure of lofing your honourable literary friends; inftead of them, it is true, your types may be employed by an ignoble herd of fycophants, and flaves; of priefts, who write for a mitre; and of state-fcribblers, who write for a penfion.

Your confcious, and, therefore, cautious, and jealous friends, in elevated stations, could not, with a fhadow of reafon, be offended with you for the true freedom of your prefs; because they must know, that what was rejected at your office, might, with eafe, be printed at another. But little tyrants never reafon; if they did, they would ceafe to be tyrannical.'

The Religion of Nature, a fhort Difcourfe, delivered before the National Affembly at Paris, by M. le Curé of

on his re

figning the Priesthood. With a short Address to the Jurymen of Great Britain, by Bob Short. Suo. 3d. Debrett. 1793.

A pleasant fiction, which appeared in the Morning Chronicle of the 29th of November, and is afcribed to the pen of an eminent female writer. It is reprinted for a benevolent purpose, to which we cannot but wifh fuccefs.

Slavery

Slavery and Famine Punishments for Sedition, or, an Account of the Miferies and Starvation at Botany Bay. By George Thomson, who failed in the Royal Admiral, May, 1792. With fome preliminary Remarks. By George Dyer, B. A. late of Emanuel College, Cambridge; Author of the Complaints of the Poor. Svo. 25. Ridg

way. 1794.

The feverity of the fentences paffed on Meffis. Muir, Palmer, &c. has lately been the fubject of ferious animadverfion. The opinion of Englishmen living under a mild fyftem of laws cannot on fuch a fubject be favourable. To prove that thefe fentences may probably exceed the expectations of the bittereft enemies to Meffrs. Muir and Palmer, Mr. Dyer has collected from various authorities, and particularly the Journal of George Thomfon, fuch an account of Botany Bay as, in his opinion, juftifies the title of his pamphlet. Some remarks are added on the feverity of fentences inflicted for flight offences, which merit attention. To proportion punishments to crimes, is the effence of justice.

A Plan of Education, for a limited Number of Young Gentlemen, humbly fubmitted to the Confideration of thofe Parents, who regard the Health, Comfort, and Virtue of their Children, as Points effentially to be attended to in the Course of their Education. By a Cler15. 6d. Robinsons. 1794. gyman. δυο. A boarding-fchool puff!

A Reply to a Pamphlet, intitled Refutation of Charges, &c. respecting Frauds committed in the Collection of the Salt Duties. By William Vanderftegen, Efq. So. 15. Robinfons. 1794

The motives and object of this Reply are pretty clearly, and, we think, candidly ftated, in the concluding paffages, where the author fays,

I have thus, in the preceding pages, endeavoured to prevent the mifconftructions, to obviate the contradictions, and to correct the miftakes of the author of the pamphlet, which he prefumes to call by the title of Refutation. My profeffed intention, in this Reply, was, to prevent his confufing a question, great, both as to its juftice and importance; in this I truft I have fucceeded. As to his confuting it, that is a point I willingly leave to the judgment and determination of the world. I entered upon the investigation of it from the confideration that it was a duty I owed to my country, and in this I have no other with than that of being put to the proof of every iota of what I have brought in charge; but if this fhould not be the cafe, I can now fay, with the greatest fruth, liberavi animam meam. Once more I declare that I have no fort of enmity against any man, but I cannot, I think, discharge my own confcience, unless I endeavour to bring iniquity to conviction, whoever the offending parties may be, or whatever may be the combination of influence against me.'

CRITICAL REVIEW.

For JUNE, 1794.

The Holy Bible, or the Books accounted facred by Jews and Chriftians; otherwife called the Books of the Old and New Covenants: faithfully tranflated from corrected Texts of the Originals. With various Readings, explanatory Notes, and critical Remarks. By the Rev. Alexander Geddes, LL. D. Vol. I. Royal 4to. 1. 11s. 6d. Faulder. 1792.

IN

our Review for January 1787, p. 45, we had the plea fure of announcing the Profpectus of this very arduous undertaking, then recently published. The commendation we, at that time, bestowed upon the plan, and the fuccefs we have, fince anticipated in the execution, intitle both the author and the public to our reafons why a notice of this eft volume hath been hitherto deferred.

As then it was the avowed defign of Dr. Geddes that the Critical Remarks belonging to each volume should accompany in publication the volume itfelf-though in the firft inftance he hath been induced to withhold them, for the fake of Dr. Holmes' collations of the MSS. of the Septuagint, and other important works-we conceived it would be more juft to the author, and fatisfactory to the public, if, inftead of reviewing the verfion, detached from its grounds, we waited till both could be taken together. But finding, however, after fo long a delay, that Dr. Holmes' collations have not yet ap peared, nor are, indeed, foon to be expected; and alfo that Dr. Geddes hath revived, in two late publications, an attention to his work, we confider ourselves called upon to relinquith our purpofe; and now, therefore, advert to the vo lume as published.

After a fhort infcription to LORD PETRE, under whofe peculiar patronage this tranflation was undertaken, and is ftill carried on, the volume opens with a particular Preface, which begins with obferving, that

The Pentateuch, or, as they are commonly called, The Five Books of Mofes, are not only the foremost in rank, but also the first in importance, of all the Hebrew fcriptures. They are the great C. R. N. ARR. (XI.) June, 1794.

K