abounds; probably, they are but typographic errors. As to the four only wrong in the Reviewers' referred to in p. 366, we cannot devise what the doctor could intend: Mr. Pope has observed, that true no-meaning puzzles more than wit;' and in writing this article we have often found it so. Dr. Montucci has added, as we presume, another reference by way of correction; yet there is nothing, in either page pointed out, that applies in the least to the point. The doctor's account of his Chinese treasures, and his curious comment upon them, are much too ridiculous to deserve a remark.

As to the rivalship and enmity which Dr. Hager's publication hath excited, every authority to which Dr. Montucci referred, if we except the suffrage of the Reviewer in the Gentleman's Magazine [See the two critiques there given on Dr. Hager's book], hath absolutely decided against him. Dr. MONTUCCI, though OCCASIONAL CHINESE TRANSCRIBER TO HIS MAJESTY, AND TO THE HONOURABLE EAST-INDIA COMPANY, long as he hath projected his Dictionary, could gain the protection of neither; whilst Dr. Hager, a stranger in the country, on giving out his proposals, obtained the patronage of the India House, and a handsome subscription for his work, Having, by way of Prospectus, published his Elements of the Chinese, the merits of this essay attracted the attention of France; and after undergoing the scrutiny of the best judges at Paris, the government of that country, for the purpose of completing his plan, invited him thither, and conferred upon him an appointment, honourable alike both to the minister and himself. We could tell who, whilst this business was transacting, spared no pains to supplant him; and for that purpose advanced his own pretensions with all due parade. We could also tell WHOSE pretensions were appreciated in proportion to their merit, and were treated in consequence as they deserved.

ART. XV.-A Defence of Public Education, addressed to the most reverend the Lord Bishop of Meath, by William Vincent, D.D. In Answer to a Charge annexed to his Lordship's Discourse preached at St. Paul's, on the Anniversary Meeting of the Charity Children, and published by the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge. 8vo. Is. 6d. Cadell and Davies.

1802.

IN a sermon preached before the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, Dr. Rennell, in his usual manner, inveighed most bitterly against public schools; and in a note, suspended to his discourse printed by that society, inserted the following words:

CRIT. REV. Vol. 34. Feb. 1802.

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Vincent's Defence of Public Education.

We cannot but lament that in very few of our best endowed seminaries, the study of Christianity has that portion of time and regard allotted to it which the welfare of society, the progress of delusive and ruinous errors, and the true interest of sound learning itself, seems at the present time peculiarly to call for. In some of them, and those not of small celebrity or importance, all consideration of the revealed will of God is passed over with a resolute, systematic, and contemptuous neglect, which is not exceeded in that which the French call their National Institute.' P..32.

Dr. Vincent, who is a member of the society, felt himself hurt by such a general accusation; but by the interference of some common friends, and an exception on the part of Dr. Rennell in favour of Westminster-school, articles of peace were entered into by the reverend polemics. At the last anniversary meeting of the society, the customary sermon was preached by the bishop of Meath, who, following up the charge against public schools, thus once more sounded the trumpet of defiance. • I had proposed,' he observes, 'to say a few words on

-the sad degeneracy of our public schools, in this most important part of education, and their systematic neglect of that religious instruction which, in the earlier parts of the reformation, and even to a much later date, was so carefully provided for the higher and wealthier classes of the British youth; but I found the subject anticipated by Dr. Rennell, in his sermon on this anniversary, and I could add nothing to what that zealous and eloquent preacher had there urged, to call the public attention to this portentous evil."

P. IO.

This has renewed the inflammation heretofore only palliated in Dr. Vincent's mind; and it has vented itself in a severe castigation of Dr. Rennell, by no means greater, however, than by his intemperate language he deserved.

Dr. Vincent is evidently irritated to a very high degree, or he could not have supposed his antagonist so ignorant of a Westminster education. Dr. Rennell was bred at Eton, and has lived at Winchester; but he knows no more of Westminster than Tom Paine does of the Bible-just enough to misrepresent and condemn, but nothing to qualify him for a judge of what is good and excellent.' Is there any thing so very mysterious, then, at Westminster, that one must spend seven years in the long room to understand the general routine of a scholar's life? We were not educated at Westminster; yet, from our intercourse in the university with Eton, Winchester, and Westminster scholars, few events worthy of note have of late occurred in any of those schools which we have not been well acquainted with: their plans of education have been perfectly familiar to us; and what has been familiar to us may also have been familiar to Dr.

Rennell.

But what right,' inquires our author, had Dr. Rennell to assume the office of censor? If the charge had been well -grounded-and we shall not scruple to assert that it was not-the right would have been unquestionable, and the public would also have been much indebted to him for sounding the alarm. This sort of reply is too common among controversialists.-What right had Luther, an unknown Benedictine, to attack the errors of the church of Rome? If in any society we were to wait till those in eminence begin a reform, the prospect of improvement would be distant indeed. Such persons must be roused by repeated and irresistible attacks, and must be incited to action by marks of public indignation. If, after much inquiry, Dr. Rennell had grounds for the charges he has preferred, we should have justified the strongest language he could have employed in such a service. If we do not do our duty,' says the author, we are amenable; but not before the tribunal of Dr. Rennell.' But to what other tribunal does the author here refer? If the accusation urged against public schools were just, from what quarter could it issue better than from the pulpit, filled on an occasion like the present-from a doctor in divinity, a preacher of celebrity-from a prelate who succeeded him-and from the press, under the sanction of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge?

The charge of neglected duty, urged against Dr. Rennell in a parochial institution, is equally futile as to the main point at issue between the reverend adversaries. Dr. Vincent may have catechised charity children with regularity, and Dr. Rennell may never have asked one of them a question; but the regulation of public schools is neither improved nor deteriorated by this circumstance. The charge has been advanced, and a direct answer to such a charge is expected. In such reply Dr. Vincent has so strong a foundation upon which to fix himself, that we cannot but lament the irritation which has led him to introduce so much irrelevant matter.

The pagan education of public schools is inferred from the constant perusal of classical books; but our author justly observes, that no boy is now such an idiot as to be seduced by pagan mythology to pagan worship, and that the morality of the Gospel is in all public schools perpetually contrasted with the defective knowledge of the ancients; while a repetition of daily prayers, and a frequent perusal of the Greek Testament, as well as exercises in the Old, are constituent parts of such institutions. At Westminster, it seems, religious offices of one sort or other are performed not less than ten times a day. The scholars are compelled to translate the Psalms, the Gospels, and to make verses on subjects taken from the Bible. The Catechism, or bishop Williams's Exposition, is regularly repeated on

Monday morning; and Grotius on the Evidences of the Christian Religion completes the course of theology, which is run through by the upper boys in the period of two years. We need not recur to several inferior points: these alone are sufficient to prove that Dr. Vincent has amply vindicated his establishment from the charge of a resolute, systematic, and contemptuous neglect of religion;' and we have no doubt that every master of a public school could bring similar testimonies in its favour. Instead of advancing such an illiberal accusation against the system of public schools, Dr. Rennell would have been better employed in showing the effects of this regular systematic attention to religion in the pupils upon whom it is bestowed; and if he had not possessed frequent opportunities of examining an upper boy as to his progress in religious knowledge, a walk or two in the cloisters of Westminster might at least have afforded him an opportunity of witnessing the courtesy, the urbanity, the gentleness of manners, that result from these religious exercises, and which are so conspicuous in the scholars of that seminary.

Upon the whole, there can be no doubt that every reader of Dr. Vincent's pamphlet will consider it as a call on Dr. Rennell, either to palliate the asperity of his censure, or to advance some proofs on which it may be justified. His accusation will not indeed do much injury to any public school; but he must beware lest the virulence of his language should expose him to similar retorts in future:

Si pergit, quæ volt, dicere; ca, quæ non volt, audiet.'

MONTHLY CATALOGUE.

RELIGION.

A&T. 16.-Annotations on the Four Gospels. Compiled and cbridged for the Use of Students. 2 Fols. 8vo. 14s. Boards. Payne.

THIS work is intended for, and can be useful only to, students; and we are rather surprised that, as it is so interlarded with Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, the compilers did not prefer a learned language, and adapt it to a more extensive circulation. Of the utility of such a work there can be no doubt; but the prescut compilation is far

from answering the expectations we had formed of it from a perusal of the Introduction; though even there we found, on reverting to it, the same defect that pervades the body of the work. The whole of these Annotations might have been made, with very few exceptions, as well fifty years ago as at the present moment. Michaelis's Remarks on the New Testament, and Doddrige's Commentaries, are occasionally indeed referred to; but Whitby, Grotius, Hammond, Beza, Le Clerc, and Lightfoot, are the writers chiefly consulted: and the authors seem either not to have known, or to have refused the assistance to be drawn from, the labours of the late archbishop of Armagh, Griesbach, Campbell, Dodulein, Eichhorn, and many of the more modern, both English and German, critics and commentators. Indeed, in the Introduction, a short list, as it is called, is given of some of the earlier critics since the revival of letters, which commences with Erasmus, A.D. 1516, and terminates with Calmet, 1712;-between which last date and the present times we possess a series of critics and commentators far more useful than all their predecessors together. The plan and execution of this work are calculated rather to lead the way to a more useful publication, than to satisfy the wishes of the scriptural student; and a publication of this kind well executed would find great encouragement, we are persuaded, in both our universities. ART. 17.-A Sermon preached at Knaresborough, Aug. 16, 1801, for the Benefit of the Sunday Schools. By the Rev. Samuel Clapham, M.A. 8vo. 1. Rivingtons. 1801.

A little spice of fulsome panegyric in the dedication to the bishop of the diocese made us enter with some degree of diffidence on the perusal of this discourse; in which, however, we have found much more room for approbation than censure. The subject is a very important one, in which we may say the whole nation is highly interested: it is on the utility and conduct of Sunday-schools, with reference particularly to those of Knaresborough, where we are happy to learn that two hundred children are instructed under these institutions. The first thing suggested in the conduct of them is, that the scholars should walk to and from church in an orderly mannera point in which we cordially unite with the minister; but we were surprised to find the hint, that they should not attempt, as is their present practice, with offensive emulation and outrageous strife, each to get out of the church before another.' This is so idle a practice, and so very different from any thing that we have observed in other places, that a stop ought to be put to it immediately at Knaresbo rough; and the smallest exertion on the part of the minister would effectually answer the purpose. He has nothing more to do than to regulate the place of each child, to give directions that no one quit his seat till the congregation have left the church, and to stand himself in the aisle of the church as they are walking out. They should have a place appropriated to them in the church, should occupy it prior to the commencement of divine service; and we have often seen them laudably engaged, anterior to the arrival of the congregation, in singing hymns or psalms, which, if due care be taken that no one overstrains his voice, and that simple melodies be introduced alone, is highly gratifying to the assembly. We were surprised to find that the