Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

Twenty-one sermons constitute this volume which are wholly employed on subjects of real and practical moment. The preacher ap pears to understand the nature of Christianity too well to perplex his audience by unintelligible or unmeaning niceties, and frivolous distinctions. He knows that its great purport is to recover men to righteousness, piety, and virtue, and to establish and improve them in its spirit and practice. Such therefore is the intention of the volume, and so important an end it is likely to effect, if perused with sober thought and attention. The style is plain and impressive; oc casionally, perhaps, too much laboured, and in some instances rather deficient. The hymns which are added would no doubt prove beneficial, when sung after the discourses to which they are appropriate, as fitted farther to impress on the memory and the heart those truths which had been just before inculcated; and to a service of a like kind they may contribute, when perused after the discourse to which each is distinctly allotted...

Art. 44. Discourses to Academic Youth: by Edward Pearson, B. D.,
Rector of Rempstone, Nottinghamshire; and late Tutor of Sidney-
Sussex College, Cambridge. 8vo. PP. 275. 35. sewed. Lee
and Hurst. 1798.

These sermons were preached before the University of Cambridge. The author's design is excellent ; to guard young men against those dangers, with respect to moral practice, and religious prin ciples, to which an academic life is more peculiarly exposed:' with a similar intention they are now made public, for more general benefit. The first five refer to moral practice, the last eight to religious. principles.We have in other instances expressed (as it appeared to us) a just approbation of Mr. Pearson's publications; and we feel the same sentiments respecting the present. The sermons are sensible, rational, and calculated to advance the purpose intended, if perused with that attention which they require. We do not say that the writer's sentiments in every instance completely harmonize with ours, but that is not necessary.

In one of the notes, he pleads for the established mode of worship, and recommends to the student the works of some authors, whence, he apprehends, they may obtain a just sense of the im portance of uniformity in worship. The list is concluded by Dau beny's Guide to the Church; to which is added; It will, of course, be understood, that, by my general recommendation of these works, I do not profess my approbation of every particular contained in them. To whatever denomination of Christians, however, his judg ment may most incline, Mr. P.'s warm sentiments of liberality and benevolence are avowed and unequivocal. Such, indeed, is the principle which runs through the whole volume. We see (says he) the necessity, if we would be the true disciples of Jesus Christ, of following him in that part of his character, by which no other founder of a religion has been distinguished, the going about doing good.'

M. Rev. vol. lxxvi. p. 455.vol. xvii. p. 97.

Miscri

Hi.

Hi.

1. MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 45. Debates of the House of Lords, on the Evidence delivered in the Trial of Warren Hastings, Esq. Proceedings of the East India Company in consequence of his Acquittal; and Testimo nials of the British and Native Inhabitants of India, relative to his :Character and Conduct whilst he was Governor-General of Fort William in Bengal. 4to. pp. 823. Debrett. 1797.

Of the materials which constitute this volume, the preface alone is recommended by novelty; if that may be called new which appeared so long ago as 1797. Mr. Hastings, in his usual impressive style, thus states his motives for the compilation:

The virtues of candor and benevolence are gentle and unobtrusive, and, although the portion of the far greater part of mankind, rarely operate to the benefit of those who are the public objects of them. The severity of censure is an active principle, and when under the guidance of malice or prejudice, though but the breath of an individual give it utterance, it will sometimes overpower, or at least outlast, the still voice of applauding thousands. Something like this he has already experienced; and to guard against the future effects of such a cause, it was natural for him to wish to place, either in the hands of the public, or in such other as would insure it a conveyance to posterity, some memorial, which might serve at the same time for a protection to his future fame, and a justification of his acquittal: for, exalted as that court is by which it was pronounced, its justice day be, and has been arraigned.'The expedient which appeared to Mr. Hastings the least obnoxious to any improper constructions was, to adopt such authentic publications as had already made their appearance for other purposes, though directly tending to the end proposed; and of such the following articles consist, with the addition of a few others of the same kind, which, have since, and but very lately, been produced.'

To the numerous and respectable friends of Mr. Hastings, this vo lume must prove an acceptable present, and for them chiefly it is intended. Subsequent and more alarming occurrences on the same scene have called the public attention from the events of his administration but his name still lives in the recollection of the natives of India; and while his virtues are applauded by many, his talents con tinue the admiration of all. Had he been at liberty to have formed his plans without the perpetual counteraction of his colleagues; had he attended more to the improvement, and less to the aggrandisement, of the country committed to his charge; and had his means been uniformly as unexceptionable as his ends; his government would: have challenged a high degree of comparative approbation. That it does so now is the opinion of most; and we hope that few will be found who will venture still to attach criminality to a character thus investigated, thus judged, and thus acquitted. S Ham

Art. 46. Journal of a Tour through the North of England and Parts of Scotland, with Remarks on the present State of the Established Church of Scotland, and the different Secessions therefrom. Together with Reflections on some Party-Distinctions in England.Designed

Designed to promote Brotherly Love and Forbearance among
Christians of all Denominations. Also some Remarks on the
Propriety of what is called Lay and Itinerant Preaching. By
Rowland Hill, A. M. late of St. John's College, Cambridge, and
Minister of Surry Chapel. 8vo. 2s. 6d, stitched. Chapman, &c.
1799.

This is a curious performance. The pious yet lively author gives an account of the circumstances which attended his preaching, at the many places where he stopped for that purpose, in the course of his late peregrination; and while we perused his details, we were continually reminded of the style of the journals of his famous predecessors, Whitfield and Wesley. Mr. Hill seems to possess a considerable portion of the HONESTY of the first of those great founders of Methodism, together with the acuteness and ingenuity of the se cond. We have, indeed, been much informed as well as amused by the perusal of this very peculiar production.

[ocr errors]

Art. 47. A Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses, and on the Moral Duties of Man towards the Brute Creation. * By John' Lawrence. Vol. II. 8vo. pp. 587. 8s. Boards. Longman. In this additional volume *, Mr. Lawrencé treats particularly of the management of horses, under the heads of the economy of the stable, purchase and sale, veterinary medicine, &c. He writes with spirit, good sense, and humanity; and we can recommend his work to the notice of our readers. The following note may be useful to such of them as may wish to try the new method of shoeing, prescribed by the Veterinary College:

Certain of my own particular friends having complained, that they could not by any means induce their blacksmiths to change their old erroneous method, I advised them to send with their horses the following written notice:

"Mr. A. B. desires his horses may be always shod, and their feet treated, as follows: Nothing to be cut from the soal, binders, or frog, but loose rotten scales. No shoes to be fitted on red-hot. Shoes to be made of good iron, with a flat surface for the horse to stand on; web not so wide as formerly, and weakest at heel, that the frog may rest on the ground. No more opening of heels, on any pretence."

Fer. Art. 48. A Discourse delivered by Thomas Paine, at the Society of the Theophilanthropists, at Paris, 1798. 8vo. 4d. Rickman.

A refutation of atheism is the object of this short discourse; which, if it contains nothing very new nor brilliant, has the merit of being, for the mest part, unobjectionable. Many writers before this extraordinary polemic, have deduced the Being and Attributes of God from the works of the visible creation, and have erected on this rock the eternal foundations of Natural Religion. We have various pub'lications of this kind in our language; which have been of singular use in resisting the torrent of infidelity. Among us, therefore, the necessity of Mr. P.'s discourse is superseded by more elaborate performances. In France, however, where the boldest attempts have

* For an account of the first, see M. Rev. vol. xxiii. N. S. p. 321.
REV. SEPT. 1799.
I
been

[ocr errors]

been made to establish infidelity, in the most extensive sense of the word, on philosophical principles, and to divest the human mind of the salutary and comfortable influence of religion, this discourse (as far as it goes) may be of some use; especially with the rising genevation; since it is concise, and written with great plainness. Our readers will not be displeased with the following extract, which contains a complete refutation of the atheistical hypothesis:

6

Let us examine this subject; it is worth examining; for if we follow it through all its cases, the result will be, that the existence of a superior cause, or that which man calls God, will be discoverable by philosophical principles.

In the first place, admitting matter to have properties, as we see it has, the question still remains, how came matter by those properties? To this they will answer, that matter possessed those properties eternally. This is not solution, but assertion; and to deny it is equally as impossible of proof as to assert it. It is then necessary to go further, and therefore I say,-if there exist a circumstance that is not a property of matter, and without which the universe, or to speak in a limited degree, the solar system, composed of planetsand a sun, could not exist a moment; all the arguments of Atheism, drawn from properties of matter, and applied to account for the uni verse, will be overthrown, and the existence of a superior cause, or that which man calls God, becomes discoverable, as is before said, by natural philosophy.

I go now to shew that such a circumstance exists, and what it is. The universe is composed of matter, and, as a system, is sustained hy motion. Motion is not a property of matter, and without this motion the solar system could not exist. Were motion a property of matter, that undiscovered and undiscoverable thing, called perpetual motion, would establish itself. It is because motion is not a property af matter, that perpetual motion is an impossibility in the hand of every being, but that of the Creator of motion. When the pretenders to Atheism can produce perpetual motion, and not till then, they may expect to be credited.'

Art. 49. Observations on the Statute of the 31st Geo. II. Chap. 29% concerning the Assize of Bread'; with occasional References to the 3d Geo. III. Chap. 11. the 13th Geo. III. Chap. 62. and to the late Statute for regulating the Assize of Bread in the City of London. By the Rev. Luke Heslop, Archdeacon of Bucks. Svo. as. 6d. Shepperson and Reynolds.

The object of these observations is thus stated by Mr. Heslop:

During the lase dearness of bread, the poor in the country com-plained that the profits of the bakers were too great; the bakers shewed the magistrates who interposed their authority, that they sold their bread considerably under the price in the table of the statute provided for its regulation. In the City of London also the Magistrates, being convinced that the price of bread set by the statute from the price of wheat was too dear, formed a table in 1792 for setting an assize from the price of flour, by which table the price of bread was reduced, and no opposition, as I am informed, made to 5 the

Mo-y

the regulation. It was therefore admitted by the trade both in London and in the country, that the price of bread set by the table in the statute was too dear; but how much it was too dear, or what were the profits of the persons who manufactured flour, (whether mealmen or bakers,) was necessary to be known. For the statute does not mention what quantity of wheat is allowed for four peck loaves, or for the sack of flour from which it directs that twenty peck loaves shall be made. It was therefore necessary to investigate the quantity allowed, and also what quantity is a sufficient allowance.'

:

By the present investigation, the following important facts are ascertained that six bushels of wheat will produce something more than a sack of flour: that the price of a sack of flour is nevertheless, equal to the price of 71⁄2 bushels of wheat; and that the mealınan aç cordingly is paid 1 bushel, or rather more, for manufacturing six. bushels. Hence it follows that the dearer wheat is, the more the ex pence of manufacturing it into flour is increased; the mealman's profit rising in proportion as the poor are distressed.

The opinion of Mr. Pownall (published by him in a pamphlet, is 2773, shortly after having introduced the bill for making standard wheaten bread,) was, that 21 per cent. on one return was a fair and just profit, considering the number of returns that are made in a year. According to recent information, the mealman makes sometimes 12, and scarcely ever less than eight returns, in the year. Mr. H. however is willing to admit 5 per cent. on each return; which, considering the value of the apparatus, and the expences in manufacturing flour, may not be too great an allowance. By many experiments, and by information from persons in the trade, it appears that a sack of flour will make 21 peck loaves; though, according to the statute, and in the assize tables, the price of the peck loaf is settled on the supposition that it contains one-twentieth part of a sack.

As simple and clear principles on which we might set the assize of bread, Mr. Heslop proposes that, To the price of 6 bushels of wheat be added 5 per cent. which should be the price of the sack of flour: to which ade 11s. 8d. the allowance for baking 20 peck loaves according to the London table, and this sum divided by 20 should determine the price of the peck loaf It might perhaps be still nearer the truth, if, to the price of the sack of flour found as above, 12s. 3d. were added, and the sum divided by 21.

There is scarcely a more necessary duty of police than that of re gulating the price of bread, according to the real cost of materials and labour. The principal difficulty (which certainly ought to be surmounted) appears to be, the establishing on equitable principles the price of manufacturing wheat into flour.

The want of correct information seems to have occasioned the defects in the statutes hithertof made concerning the Assize of Bread. This information is supplied by the public-spirited labours of Mr. Heslop.

Particulars respecting the different qualities of flour, and many other circumstances connected with the subject, are likewise explained in this useful publication.

[blocks in formation]

Capt.B...y.

« ForrigeFortsæt »