dismember France; and if you did not succeed, it was the fault of the republic, not yours.

Well, sir, that is not what we complain of.. We know very well the extent of your malignity, and your efforts to obtain effect to it. We are only dissatisfied with you for having brought us into the war at all, and for compelling us to fight against people who were only fighting for their liberty a thing which we once loved very much ourselves; and, after all your fine engagements and promises, to leave us so much weaker, and France so much stronger than before: for the upshot of the business is this-we have doubled our debt, and France has doubled her dominion. In one war you added more to the national debt than all the wars and all the ministers that ever preceded you have done, from the beginning of time to the present day.' P. 65.

We cannot leave our good-humoured satyrist without making another extract, which we hope will induce many of our readers to purchase his work.

Sir, you will not think, from any thing I have said in the course of this letter, that I mean to flatter either you or your collegues, or your successors or opponents, or the country itself I am not only · without expectation of benefit from any quarter whatever, but almost |· aloof from society itself; and in blotting so many pages as I have done, I have only given vent to some notions that have been fermenting in my mind for these nine long years, and diverted my at tention for a few hours from other afflictions. However, I have certainly said good enough of you to entitle me to some portion of your acknowledgments., All that I require is your order to the literary, reviewers attached to administration (for in your retreat you have still influence enough to be obeyed) that they speak with due reverence of this work; otherwise I well know that I have no chance of quarter either from the British Critic or the Anti-Jacobin Review, whose very title announces hostility to such discussions as I have en-, gaged in; and if they consign me to the pastry-cook, how am I to subsist? My labour, being but of little value, I calculate at nothing; but now that printing-paper has, under your glorious administration, become almost as valuable as that which is manufactured at the bank, it would ruin me if my letter were to remain unsold: I therefore entreat that you will not only read it yourself, but that you will recommend it to the perusal of others, under the assurance that one tenth of all my literary profits shall be fairly paid to your incometax.' P. 88.

ART. 20.-Letters of the Dead; or, Epistles from the Statesmen of former Days to those of the present Hour. 8vo. 15. Stockdale. 1802.

An inflated bombastic panegyric of Mr. Pitt-an unhappy imitation of Mr. Burke in his own unhappiest moments. It is truly ludicrous to hear it asserted, that to the fortitude of Mr. Pitt and his little phalanx of co-patriots, not only Britain, but the whole civilised world, is indebted for the check to anarchy.' That anarchy received strength from their opposition;-and it is unfortunate for the writer that it ceased at the time when these co-patriots' ceased to possess power.

CRIT. REV. Vol. 34. March, 1802.

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ART. 21.-The Boa Constrictor: an Illustration from the Natural of what has appeared in the Political World; suggested in consequence of a Recollection of Events which was provoke by a late French semiofficial Publication in the Moniteur: concluding with some Considerations respecting Negotiation. By the Author of the Theory of Chess. 8vo. Is. Hatchard. 1801.

France is compared to the boa constrictor, the monstrous serpent that is accustomed to swallow down stags and tigers, after it has, by winding round them, broken their bones and made them fit for deglutition. The image is in itself not very agreeable; nor is there any merit in the composition to encourage a reader to inquire farther into its contents.

ART. 22. The Impolicy of returning Bankers to Parliament in the ensuing general Election; including Strictures on the Productions under the Signature of Common Sense, &c. &c. Dedicated to his Grace the Duke of Bedford. By a Friend to the Poor, the Commerce, and the "Constitution of England. 8vo. Is. Jordan. 1802.

This impolicy is said to arise from the interest which the bankers have in supporting the present destructive paper system, which, no one can doubt, is fraught with the most injurious consequences to the king, the constitution, and the country. The moment that the bank was permitted to stop payment, and to issue notes without control, a deluge of fictitious paper covered the land, which necessarily produced monopoly, scarcity, and poverty. These facts are clearly proved in the pamphlet before us: but the writer ought to have made himself better acquainted with the controversy on Mr. Boyd's pamphlet, and to have stated the result of the discussion which arose from it. We cannot doubt that fictitious paper must be removed before the country can be restored to its former salutary state; but we do not see that the disqualification of bankers from a seat in parliament is the proper remedy. Their numbers or influence is not sufficiently great to render them of such importance. The lower classes, who suffer from the paper system, should resolve to vote only for that candidate who pledges himself to resist the fictitious paper system, and to compel every person to perform his promise on paper, to pay, or to suffer the penalty inflicted by law against swindlers and debtors.

ART. 23. The Sound and Baltic, considered in a political, military, and commercial View: intended to illustrate the relative Connexions and maritime Strength of the Northern Powers. To which are added, Observations upon Egypt, and the Trade of India, as connected with the Baltic, or East Sea. Translated from a German Pamphlet, published "at Berlin in April last. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Debrett. 1801.

Great-Britain has, in the last conflict with France, lost much of her reputation—not indeed for want of bravery in her marine or skill in the management of her ships, or resources to subsidise foreign troopsbut she is accused of an aggrandising spirit, and an endeavour to turn every event on the continent to her own profit, without the least regard to the rights of foreign powers. This ill humour of our neighbours towards us is manifested in a variety of publications, and particularly those that issue from the German presses; and no opportunity is lost in the pamphlet before us of throwing out insinuations to our disadvantage. No one indeed can vindicate the conduct of the

late ministers on the capitulation of Kleber in Egypt; the folly of it could be equaled only by its injustice; and it cannot be more reprobated abroad than it is at home: yet a whole nation ought not to lie under a severe stigma for the conduct of a few who may betray the confidence reposed in them. Egypt, says this writer, was

-again preserved to France, because the English were too eager to aggrandise themselves, and too regardless of justice to take advantage of a moment which may never again occur. Their conduct at taking possession of the Neapolitan forts is a similar proof of the manner in which the English think and act, and of the principles of justice and equity by which they are governed.' P. 4.

Our conduct at Malta towards Russia is equally reprobated; and we are accused of a breach of promise towards the late emperor, by which the atrocity of his consequent proceedings is in a great measure said to be justified.

The conduct of England towards these Russian allies is marked with a degree of treachery that forms an epoch in the history of the military law of nations. She refused to exchange them as her auxiliaries, although employed and taken prisoners in an expedition planned solely for her advantage. Such is the mercantile spirit of the cabinet of St. James's, which regards no ties but those kuit by: self-interest.' P. 15.

We are represented as Jacobins on the sea, and our conquests on that element are depreciated by our arrogance.

Thus did the English imagine they might presume to dictate maritime laws, because they had it in their power to enforce them, and to benefit themselves by their adoption. The Danish frigate Freya was treated as an enemy, notwithstanding her neutral flag; and a Swedish vessel was compelled to assist in cutting two Spanish ships out of the harbour of Barcelona. Prussian ships also were seized; and the consequence was, that Prussian troops took possession of Cuxhaven.

Oppressive as was the general monopoly of commerce, which circumstances had thrown into the hands of England (for by it she compelled all Europe to pay a contribution towards the war), the arbitrary and absolute manner in which she insulted every acknowledged maritime right presented to our view consequences still more dangerous. The conduct of England towards Denmark, when the Freya was taken, can never be forgotten. An embassador was sent to Copenhagen, rather to demand than to give satisfaction; and Denmark, not then strengthened by the quadruple alliance, was obliged to submit to an insult by which justice was trodden under foot, and which little minds alone could have triumphed in offerings?

P. 16. The convention of the northern powers is vindicated, and the whole drift of our author is seen in the following passage.

The far greater proportion of the states of Europe had long been disgusted with England, whose influence alone appeared to prolong hostilities among the contending powers, by means of her intrigues, and the profusion with which she lavished her subsidies; nor could they behold with indifference the new regulations by which she sought to confirm the dominion she had usurped upon the sca.

They became sensible that the tyranny she had hitherto exercised on the ocean was the means of compelling the rest of Europe to contribute to a war which was universally unpopular; and they felt, that if apprehensiona were entertained of the extension of the power of the French republic by land, the acts of violence which the English committed by sea were still more to be dreaded.' P. 32.

Whilst attempts are made to diminish even our just and well-earned fame, that of Bonaparte and the French is raised to the highest degree, and their faults are either passed over in silence or very much exte-. nuated. To this extraordinary change in the sentiments of the continental powers a historian will pay great attention; and the cause, of the French ascendency will afford, it is to be hoped, a striking lesson to the present and future cabinets. The reflexions in this work, mortifying as they are to our pride, are evidently made by one of some influence in the political world.

RELIGION.

ART. 24-A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Durham, at the ordinary Visitation of that Diocese, in July, 1801. By Shute, Bishop of Durham. 4to. 1s. 6d. Payne. 1802.

To popery the worthy prelate imputes in a great degree the origin of that revolutionary spirit which has gone so far towards the subversion of the ancient establishments of religion and civil government.' Every consistent protestant will subscribe to this opinion, as far as it relates to religion. The absurdities of the popish church' were long disgusting to the thinking part of the French nation; and the higher classes, having once acquired a contempt for it, never gave themselves the trouble to examine into its truth, upon its original documents, and were not consequently prepared, on the removal of superstition, to introduce a simpler form of worship. The maintenance of opinions unfounded on the authority of the Gospel, and inconsistent with its purity, has given occasion to minds perhaps naturally averse to religion to reject the most valuable evidence of Christianity. This must be the case every where if the Scriptures be discarded for the traditions of men; and hence, with great pro- . priety, the right-reverend prelate selected for the subject of his charge the necessity of cultivating the pure principles of the Gospel, and of studying the means of promoting in ourselves and others. a truly spiritual religion.'

This spiritual religion is defined to be a sincere devotion of the mind to God, an humble resignation to all his dispensations, an universal and unvaried obedience to his will.' The impediments to it are want of faith, ignorance of the Scriptures, the fear of singu-. larity, prejudice, acquiescence in the customs of others well reputed in the world.' Such impediments concern the people chiefly: but their force may perhaps be quadrupled by a want of spiritual instruction and accordant conduct in him who should be their guide to truth, whose example should give activity to their duties and spirituality to their hopes and views.' On this latter point the bishop dwells with becoming earnestness and respect to his hearers; and having thus stated to them what are their chief impediments, he proceeds to lay before them the principal means of cultivating and promoting spiritual religion-of which the first cannot be too often

inculcated on both priest and people; and with this impression on our minds we place it before our readers.

There is no security in religious opinions which are not founded on clear and definite principles. Without such a guide all men are liable to be carried about with every wind of doctrine, with that sleight and subtilty, and cunning craftiness of deceitful sophistry, which the writings of modern infidels have too successfully employed. The young therefore, the unlearned, and the uneducated, which constitute the bulk of your congregations, cannot be too often reminded, what are "the first principles of the oracles of God." They should not only be taught that the foundation of all true reli gion must be laid in the knowledge of God, and of ourselves; and that the grounds of the first of these two branches of religious knowledge can be collected only from the Scriptures and the works of creation; of the second, from the Scriptures, from the world, and from ourselves; but they should be habituated to a familiar acquaintance with those doctrines, which are to be held as subjects of primary importance in each branch.'

P. 14.

Faith is then to be inculcated as the beginning and end of all religion; and having fully imbibed such a doctrine, the mind will be prepared to embrace charity as a comprehensive and efficacious principle. From these general remarks the attention of the younger part of the audience is conducted to certain aids to devotion; and they are particularly, and with great justice, recommended to peruse frequently the ordination service, and to reflect seriously on the solemn question proposed to them on entering upon their office, and the dreadful peril in which they have involved themselves if, instead of consulting the glory of God, and the edification of his church, they have been intent, solely or principally, on their own ease or worldly advantage.' Their zeal is excited by the most pressing motives; and a direction is given which deserves to be studied attentively by every minister of the Gospel.

• Whatever is declared in Scripture, you are bound to preach; whatever is peculiar to Christianity, and essential to salvation, must be constantly laid before your congregations, and enforced upon their minds," whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear;" such principles and such doctrines are indispensable subjects of your instruction and exhortation, whether preached by papist or puritan, conformist or non-conformist; the choice of them is not matter of discretion; for woe to them who preach not the Gospel, the whole Gospel, undiminished and undisguised.' P. 21.

We have been thus ample in our account of this Charge, because our clerical readers who have not an opportunity of perusing the whole will be happy to see as much of it as our limits will permit us to insert; and to them we particularly recommend the following judicious note on the celebrated controversy between faith and works.

I cannot help thinking that some misconception and perversion of the Scripture doctrine of salvation may have arisen from an ambiguity in the words "saved by faith without works," arising from the 2 A 3

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