the body-spirit of each sect of students into his account of their occupations. But it were ungrateful to require perfection, where so much has been performed: it is flattering to Europe that the celebrity of

her authors should so speedily cross the Atlantic; it is honourable to America that her curiosity should be so alert and so comprehensive. Mr. Miller has deserved well of both worlds.

ART. VII.—Essays on varions Subjects. By J. BIGLAND. Author of Reflections on the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ :-Letters on the Study and Use of ancient and modern History;—and of Leiters on the modern History and political Aspect of Europa 2 vols. 8vo.

mutual toleration and universal charityeducation-popular superstitions, omens, ghosts, and apparitions, scenery, &c.—in the estimation of character, and their modification by circumstances the know◄ ledge of mankind.

Our limits will not permit us to accompany the author in his investigation of each of these topics; we shall therefore advert to a few of the most remarkable.

CONTRARY to the usual practice of writers, who are commonly studious to apologize for the defect, and enhance the merit of their performances, by representing the difficulties under which they have laboured, and the discouragements to which they are exposed, Mr. Bigland's remarks admit the facility of the species of composition in which he has been engaged, and its claims to a favourable reception from the public, from the novelty The second essay, on the absurdities of and variety which it always admits, and moral writers, well exposes the folly of the exercise and the entertainment which some declaimers (pardonable perhaps in it furnishes to the mind, by suggesting to- the poet, but inexcusable in the moralist pics of thought, unattended by wearisome or philosopher) who descant at their investigation, and which may be pursued ease, and with the utmost tranquillior laid aside at pleasure. Much of these ty on the pleasure and advantages of remarks is undoubtedly true. Yet in this, poverty. Yet in this, poverty. Poverty, under a proper reas in many other cases, some seeming ad- gulation of the principles and feelings, vantages or facilities are balanced by op- is certainly a state from which content is posite inconveniencies and obligations. not excluded, but to talk of its peculiar Want of profundity must be compensated privileges and blessings, is an insult to the by variety and liveliness of thought, and feelings of the sufferer, and to the com polish of diction: light materials must mon sense of mankind. receive their value from the elegance of the texture into which they are formed. The essayist, in short, must listen to the caution which Horace gives to the writer of comedy:

"Creditur, ex medio quia res arcessit, ha-
bore

Sudoris nimium; sed habet Comedia tanto
Plus oneris, quanto veniæ minus.”

These remarks, however, have been only incidentally suggested by the observations of Mr. Bigland's preface, and have no peculiar application to his own performances, which certainly possess intrinsic merit, and will afford entertainment and instruction to a numerous class of readers.

The subjects treated in the first volume, are-the universal pursuit of happiness the absurdities of moral writers-the consolations of religion in temporal difficulties-national establishments in religion universal liberty of conscience-ecclesiastical emoluments-the causes of the diversities of religious opinions, and the inducement which is thence afforded to

The subject of the third essay, on the consolations afforded by religion in adversity, admits perhaps of little originality. The views which it presents are just and pious, such as the understanding admits, while it is difficult, however desirable, to impress them on the heart.

The fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh essays, are devoted to topics of considerable importance, both in a theological, moral, and political point of view, the propriety of national establishments of religion, with the connected subjects of liberty of conscience, and mutual charity and indulgence amidst diversities of sentiment which are unavoidable. It will here be sufficient to state the opinions maintained by the author. The field is wide; and the full investigation of it scarcely falls within the province of an essayist.

The position on which the argument is made to rest, is the essential importance of religion to the preservation of social order, from which the author deduces the propriety of its superintendence by the civil magistrate, the appointed guardian of national interests. Bayle has contested

the former of these propositions, and without relinquishing any of his reverence for the religious principle, as important to the personal character of the individual, it may perhaps be admitted by the sincere advocate of christianity, that too much stress has been laid on this view of the subject. The degree of virtue which is requisite for the preservation of public order, is in fact very moderate, and such as the habits of social intercourse in a civilized country, and the salutary execu tion of good temporal laws are commonly sufficient to produce. We believe that among the Chinese, with all the absurdities of their pagan theology, theft and murder are as rare as in the communities of Europe, and if they cheat, with little scruple, the strangers who come among them, they are not perhaps much more guilty than the Europeans who make the slavery of the unprotected African a subject of traffic, and riot on the produce of his tears and groans. The importance of religion to the individual character, is a subject of perfectly different consideration; and it is also evident that the universal prevalence of christian virtue, if such a state is to be hoped for, would produce a modification of society as far superior to the present, as a principle of active charity is nobler and more beneficial than a rigid rule of justice, which furnishes no higher reference than to the decisions of human and positive law.

tional instruction. If however the people are sufficiently enlightened to estimate the importance of education, its objects will perhaps be better attained by their volun tary exertions, than by any system subject to the controul of government, and exposed to those inconveniencies and defects, which are usually incident to the minute departments of great public plans. The subjects of the six following essays are nearly connected, relating to va rious modes of popular superstition, astrology, omens, apparitions, and the supposed arts of sorcery. It may perhaps be doubted whether a person can now be found, of education sufficient to feel any inducement to the perusal of these pages, who will need to be fortified by their arguments against the influence of the superstitions which they condemn. Yet as some of our recent popular writers have not presumed to treat with absolute unbelief, the doctrine of apparitions, it may not be useless to combat their argu ments, however contemptible in the ey❤ of reason.

The fourteenth is a very sensible essay on the estimation of characters, and their modification by circumstances. The following reflections on the character of Becket are just, though not altogether

new:

II. and his inflexible opponent, archbishop "The characters and conduct of Henry Becket, so far as relates to their celebrated Too little seems also to be conceded to contest, have not, perhaps, been clearly rethe power and evidence of religion when presented by historians, nor justly estimated it is supposed to be incapable of maintain- by many of their readers, The conduct of ing its existence among men, unless sup- the archbishop is always exhibited as a comported by extraneous aid. But we are plete specimen of over-bearing haughtiness forgetting the limits which we had pre- tations, that celebrated prelate cannot, inand unparalleled obstinacy. Of these impu scrived to ourselves. Returning there- deed, be exculpated by the voice of impar fore from this digression, we proceed to tial judgment. The cause he undertook, state, that with the character of a temper- however grounded on canonical institutions ate advocate for national establishments and established customs, was in the eye of of religion, Mr. Bigland unites that of an reason and morality unjust; but considerable 1. enlightened and zealous supporter of uni- allowances are to be made for the times in versal liberty of conscience, who will which he lived. That was an age in which yield not only justice and freedom from the church was in the zenith of its power, and civil molestation, but charity and friend-high church notions prevailed in their fullest ship, to those diversities of speculative opinion, which are inmutably connected with the operation of thought, and exercise of enquiry.

The eighth and ninth essays relate to the subject of education. In the former, the advantages and disadvantages of pub lic and private education are balanced against each other, and the scale supposed to preponderate in favour of the latter. The succeeding essay is employed in delineating and recommending a plan of na

altation of the ecclesiastical above the seenamplification and greatest extent. The exjar authority was the favourite maxim of the clergy, and the principal object in the view of the dignitaries of the church. Ambition was Becket's ruling passion, superiority and fame the objects of his pursuit. He had inlisted under the banners of the church, and was determined to support the interests, least confirm the authority and influence of maintain the prerogatives, and increase, or at the party he had espoused. This he did with an inflexible courage and a persevering resolution, which, in such a cause were, in that

age, calculated to procure him distinction and celebrity. The honours with which he was received on the continent, are demonstrations of the high esteem in which his undaunted fortitude was held. His sentiments and ideas naturally elevated, seem to have been somewhat influenced by the bigotry of the times, but his views were grand and extensive. He occupied the second station in the kingdom, and could not bear the control even of royalty. His ambition prompted him to render the regal power subservient to his own authority. Martyrdom was in those ages thought the highest honour, and he was less desirous of avoiding the sufferings than of obtaining the glory. In his whole history, setting prejudice aside, we discover the great man, although we cannot avoid lamenting the perversion of such splendid talents to such pernicious purposes. A dauntless courage, an inflexible perseverance, elevated ideas, and a determined resolution joined to a bound less ambition, constituted his character; and his mind was evidently formed by nature for every thing that was great. The circumstances of the times unfortunately gave to his great abilities a wrong direction; and he rushed upon his fate, after having employed a turbulent life in disturbing the tranquillity of the kingdom as well as of the church."

It is no unpleasant or uninstructive employment, after having studied the history of such a man as Becket in a protestant author, to turn to a catholic martyrology, and observe the different colouring which is given to the same actions, and with what equal zeal and confidence the same man,

who is stigmatized by his enemies as a rebel and a traitor, is by his friends vene rated as a saint, and admired as a hero.

of the world, likewise furnishes many just The succeeding essay on the knowledge and valuable reflections.

The subjects treated in the second volume are the following: on friendship, on company, solitude, and retirement; on industry and genius; on the passion for posthumous fame; on the right ordering of the mind; on religious melancholy; on the formation and combination of ideas; on the advantages of a well-cultivated mind; on exercise; on a city and country life; on emigration and colonization; un the advantages resulting from the use of letters; on the construction of language and the diversity of style; on the frequent absurdity of human prayers; ou optimism; on the manner in which near and remote expectations operate on the mind.

The essay on a city and country life is illustrated by the introduction of a tale, a mode of composition in which, we think, Mr. Bigland does not appear so advantageously as in his character of an essayist.

These essays are, on the whole, marked by a philosophical and unprejudiced spirit of investigation on all subjects, and more especially by just observations on human life and manners, neither trite and trivial on the one hand, nor, one the other, ro mantic and paradoxical. The style is com monly easy and elegant.

ART. VIII.-Free Disquisitions on the Sentiments and Conduct requisite in a British Prince in Order to merit the favourable Opinion of the Public. By JOHN ANDREWS, L. L. D 8vo. pp. 178.

NONE is so difficult to characterize as the more gentleman, who presents himself at the right time, pays his compliments to every one as is their due, talks with the ladies and the men with equal ease, pleasure, and propriety, and obtains, at retiring, that general smile of complacence, which seemed to prophesy the lamentations of regret, and only stifled the yawn of indifference. It is so with books. None is so difficult to characterize as a regular volume of disquisitions, which at the time when a British prince is beginning to take influence over public affairs, converses, with respectful propriety, about his obvious duties of behaviour in a manner unaffected, fluent, polished, easy, and elegant and yet without any mark ed impression of eloquence, energy, or purpose. Do, gentlemen-writers, give us faults to find; we enjoy a pretext for

causticity; and always secretly retain 1 higher esteem for the stimulant and unusual, than for the quotidian accuracy of regular unexceptional composition.

A liberal frankness pervades this vo lume: there is merit in thus talking to a prince.

"If subjects acting constitutionally have been able to resist monarchs, these in their turn, by standing on the same ground, will certainly defeat all unjust opposition.

"But let an English monarch be persuaded, that unless his views are manifestly patricic, he will, like such of his predecessors as have attempted to infringe the rights of their people, meet with a sufficiency of mortifications to tentions are in their nature so perceptible, convince him, that duplicity and sinister in that no pretences will cover them from sight.

"The public in this country are hawk-eyed in whatever concerns their liberties. The sentiments inculcated on Englishmen from

their infancy, the latitude and boldness of mind acquired by the free maxims that influence their education, the freedom of the press and of universal conversation, are such barriers, as no other nation could ever boast against the inimical designs of their rulers.

The English perceive at once the drift of every measure proposed by their governors. History represents them as cheerfully submitting to those burthens which the necessity of times and circumstances imposed upon them, but spurning with indignation demands not requisite, or made upon them in the wantonness of authority.

"We are struck with astonishment at a people who, in the support of their honour, in every just cause that required and invited their exertions, could unreluctantly sacrifice such enormous sunns, that it almost exceeds comprehension how means could be found to raise them.

"But our wonder encreases when we recollect that there was a time when this same people could refuse twenty shillings to an adininistration, the conduct of which they disapproved.

England is the only country where such an inflexibility of patriotism was ever found. Immortal Hampden! With what regret we behold a noble historian representing the death of such a man as a national deliverance! How could Charles mistake the character of a people who laid before him such a specimen of their spirit!

"This spirit seems the traditional inheritance of Englishmen. It follows them inseparably wherever their name and power extend: they transport it with them to the furthest parts of the earth: after asserting it repeatedly in their own country, they main tained it with no less obstinacy in that fatal contest which deprived England of America. "How dangerous to contend with a spirit which in its unhappy excesses has produced so many masters! Let us however revere it as the parent, under auspicious guidance, of the noblest exertions. Equity and humanity are its natural attributes: it is no less atteiitive to the preservation of the local rights of subjected nations, than to the establishment of freedom at home: it extends its justice and compassion equally to the oppressed Indian, and the African slave. What honest and prudent prince would attempt the subversion of this invincible spirit, and of the principles on which it is founded, both so long and profoundly rooted in the mind of so enlightened and brave a nation?

"It is chiefly among a people of this decription, that a monarch will meet with men of abilities to second his laudable measures, and of resolution to refuse their concurrence in any other. Such only are the men whom he can safely deem worthy of employment. He should bear it continually in his mind, that the voice of the nation is decidedly against men of talents without the clearest probity, as being but a snare to those who

trust them, and that integrity is the main standard by which to abide in the choice of a statesman. It is an ingredient that will brighten the most resplendent capacity, and give weight to the most moderate. In England especially, from the native candour and ingenuous disposition that mark our character, middling talents, with an upright heart, are in the usual transactions of society, held in as high repute and confidence as the most shining capacity."

Against this last piece of advice, that "the voice of the nation is decidedly against men of talents without the clearest probity, as being but a snare to those who trust them; and that integrity is the main standard by which to abide in the choice of a statesman," we enter our caveat. Men of probity, without talent, make worse ministers than men of talent without probity. Would the mischiefs of the Addington ministry, which brought on the present war, have been incurred by men of talent? Would the American war have been incurred by a minister of talent? The improbity of lord Melville has been impeached; but his conduct of Indian affairs, while president of the board of controul, finds extensive admiration. Lord Bacon wanted probity; but we owe to him the union with Scotland. Does any one deny to the Frenchman Talleyrand, the character of a skilful minister for foreign affairs, of a man really useful to his country? Hame justly classes the talents among the virtues; high energies of intellect are much rarer than decorous morals; when they happen unfortunately to be disunited, one ought to rate highest the superior powers of utility. Vices do their mischief to our connexions, in our dwelling-place, during our lives; but talents extend their services to a whole country, and to a long posterity. A man's goodness can serve but a few; his wisdom may serve millions.

it also wants precision in the criticism of Another plausible passage is this; but

merit.

"It is a disputable point, which of the two more merits execration, bigotry or ambition. Long and the French reason to curse the memory of their great Lewis, as they once styled him, for expelling the most valuable of his subjects on account of their differing from him in some points of theology. But to this infatuation he added another, that of being a conqueror: thus he united the two most dreadful scourges that can aflict human society.

Bigotry, to use the revolutionary language, is no longer the order of the day: but

the thirst of territorial aggrandisement, and of domineering over conquered nations, is returned in all its fury. Before this can be repressed, much detriment will ensue to those that may for a while be unable to resist its violence. Those that are able to repel it, will probably be sufficiently indemnified for their expences and exertions, by the numbers of useful individuals that will fly from the scenes of plunder and oppression. Here in all likelihood they will chiefly seek refuge, where only, for a length of time, it will effectually be found.

ambition is enumerated among the vices. On the contrary, it is a virtue in a private man, in a sovereign, and in a nation. Individual merit vegetates useless and unknown without ambition. Sovereigns slumber in deedless insignificance without ambition. Nations lose their relative rank without ambition. It is the principle of growth in individuals and corporations: when ambition ends, decay begins. Sume forms of merit, some claims to excellence, must be pursued and evolved to atone and are constantly making their escape; others to replace them. To youth and grace in the individual should succeed strength and acquirement: the sovereign should leave his country as he would an estate, stocked with a more numerous, or a braver, or a wealthier, or a wiser tenantry: the nation, which is not compassing aggrandizerent, is accepting ruin. This truth the writer "He will at the same time be studious to intuitively feels, and in his concluding pamake the most of those advantages that neces-ragraph in fact gives a lesson of ambition, sarily arise from the confusions raging abroad. While justice and humanity prevent him from being accessary to the intestine calamities of any country, he will embrace every lawful opportunity of reaping those benefits from them, which, without being injurious to any party, may prove highly serviceable to his own people"

"When a prince beholds, from this happy seat of peace and security, the tempests that are raging abroad, he will completely learn the causes that produce happiness or misery to a people. He will banish from his presence the votaries of persecution, whether in matters of church or of state; and if necessity compels him to draw the sword of national defence, he will return it to the scabbard, the moment that the honour and interest of the kingdom are out of danger.

Here, at the beginning of the quotation,

The turn of this volume is in one respect ingenious: it chiefly inculcates those virtues which are known to inhabit Carlton-house; and while it professes to be sketching a prince as he should be, it is in fact delineating the prince as he is. The idea of perfect conduct here recommended has not to await the creation of futurity; it is nearly realized already.

ART. IX.-Improvements in Education, as it respects the industrious Classes of the Com munity, containing, among other important Particulars, an Account of the Institution for the Education of one Thousand poor Children, Borough-road, Southwark; and q the new System of Education on which it is conducted. By JOSEPH LANCASTES. 8vo. pp. 211.

WE noticed the first edition of this work in our second volume (p.451.) with due praise. The tract has now swoln to a volume; and, as Mr. Lancaster's institution has attracted so much attention, it is expedient in us to enter into a farther account of improvements which deserve to be generally adopted.

In the year 1798, Joseph Lancaster (who is a member of the very respectable society of quakers) opened a school for the instruction of poor children in reading, writing, arithmetic, and the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, at the low price of fourpence per week. The number of his scholars varied from ninety to a hundred and twenty. When he met with a child whose parents were unable to pay this little pittance for his instruction, he admitted him gratuitously. But these freescholars became numerous; it was evident that many others stood in need of the

same charity, and two of Mr. Lancaster's friends, who were in the habit of paying for the education of poor children, a sisted him in forming a small subscription for this purpose. "The subscription ws quite of the nature of a contract: of every guinea subscribed, fifteen shillings per anum was considered as the price of each child's education; and the remaining six shillings were to be expended in books, rewards, and school expences."

Mr. Lancaster knew of no other modes of tuition than those usually in practice, of which he had a practical knowledge; and at first he retained an assistant. As the subscription enabled him to increase the number of scholars, he made many experiments as to the method of teaching them; some of course proved useless: “in other cases," he says, I have often goe the wrong way to work, and accidentally stumbled on the very object I was in quest