blished church as dry sticks, he says, and regenerating whole nations and but let me bring to their notice a kingdoms. few words to be found in Ezekiel xvii.

24. thus, All the trees of the forest shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, have exated the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and caused the dry tree to flourish."

In the next place, speaking of Mr. Frey's account of his own conversion, be observes, "this was effected, not by argument, but by his breaking the res. He wrote and sealed a letter on the Jewish sabbath. His conscience then smote him, that he was no longer a Jew! What could be do then? The only thing he could do was to become a Christian." Mr. Witherby thinks that, "upon these principles, it would be perfectly consistent in the London Society to set apart a fund to give a premium to Jews to eat food forbidden to them, or to commit any sin prohibited by their law, as it would thus atford them an opportunity to say you cannot now have any further hope as a Jew, the best thing thereyou can do is to turn Christian." Lastly, where Mr. Witherby alludes to the Society's intention to raise a fund for affording loans to Jews who may marry Christian women, he says, "Is it to be endured, that the delicacy of the female sex is to be thus wounded, by bribing the Jews to pay their devoirs to them? They want to rob us of our daughters, to bait the trap whereby they are endeavouring to catch the Jews."

fore

From Mr. W.'s postscript, and a copy of a letter which he received from the late Dr. Horsely, Bishop of St. Asaph, it appears he has paid great attention to the prophecies of the Old and New Testaments relative to the Jews. Upon this subject we may beat hereafter. By the way, it appears that Mr. W. like most of the modern commentators, has fallen into the error of the old Millenarians and Fifth Monarchy Men, who expect a visible or personal coming of Christ in glory, instead of a superior manifestation of the spirit and power of his gospel in the members of his body politic, which Bishop Hurd tensa coming

Instead, therefore, of supposing this coming will at once embrace the conversion of the whole world, or all the nations of the earth, with the heathen, who we are told, Rom. ii. 14. have a law unto themselves, accusing or excusing them, the scripture most unthe period after the Grand Apostacy, doubtedly confines this judgment to and to the purification and regeneration of the Christian world alone and exclusively; not excepting the children of Israel, who at that happy period of the restoration or creation of all things new, are no longer to be treated as a distinct or proscribed people. The New Sanhedrin, &c. supposes the Accordingly the author of promised restoration of that people to consist, primarily, in having the full enjoyment of their civil and religious liberties legally secured to them, and in being in every sense placed upon an equal footing with Catholics or Protestants, each bearing the same burdens, and each enjoying the same privileges.

C. G.

WOMAN: A Poem. By EATON
STANNARD BARRETT, Esq. 1 vol.

12mo. 1810.

WE

E wish we could congratulate Mr. Barrett upon his Woman, but really she appears to us so very insipid, dull, and unmeaning, that we are in no danger of breaking the tenth commandment. We have seldom, indeed, met with a lady exteriorly or namented so well, and inwardly so barren. But it is an old adage-Fronti nulla fides. Mr. Barrett the author, Mr. Bulmer the printer, and Mr. Hilton the artist, have contrived to make a woman, and, by the obstetric aid of Mr. Murray, she has been delivered to the world: but we may venture to apply the words of Shakspeare to her:

Women are as roses, whose fair flower Being once displayed, dotheade that very hour.

We know not, indeed, how Mr. B. in his power and providence;' and came to fancy himself a poet. Even that Bishop Butler, in his Analogy, his first four lines are enough to conhas shewn to be capable of reforming demn him:

“Young, and enamour'd of a youthful
theme,

I sing the sex opprest by man supreme;
Opprest by bards who first its heart revile,,,

Would Mr. Barret be able to find any connexion between the first and second line?-Just as much, we apprehend, as we do in his.

In the same page the accusative me is made the nominative to the verb to flow, which is an unpardouable error: and the following line is meant as a translation, or imitation, we know not which, of the Virum volitare per ora of Virgi',

46

Then sleek the dittied sonnet on its smile."
To sleek a dittied sonnet on the smile
of a woman, is something so obscurely
sublime, that, though we do not un-
derstand it, we by no means intend to
say that it is not to be understood.
An author of true genius should not
be too intelligible, because familiarity
breeds contempt; and when we are
thoroughly acquainted with his mean-
ing, it is very likely we may not
value it. But if we have to stop, and
think, and read, and think and read
again, and after all leave off just where
we began, it is more than probable
that we shall be impressed with a very
high notion of the writer's superiority
and of our own inferiority: for, as
Dr. Johnson once replied to a gentle-
man who said he did not understand
him, “Sir, I am not to give you ar-
guments and understanding too;" so
an author may justly say to his reader,
I am not to give you a book, and a bead
to comprehend it into the bargain: In twisted roses prank its amber hair,
and, in such a case, a writer has the un-
doubted privilege of assuming it as a
truth, that he is superior to his reader
when he is not comprehensible. But
to return to our author.

"To flow thro' mortal mouths in verse
approv'd."

Among many felicities of diction, we have the following:- "Nestled pairs," and "unguilty green,” p. 12; soft timidities," p. 30; "violence of nail," p. 38, vulgarly called scratching; "awful ires," p. 61, (twice); Eve occidental," p. 63; meids of shamrock quaff unmudded urns," p.64; "rills of living tinct incarnadine," ib.

We are told by him, in the same page, that to woman England

"Owes every virtue that preserves it free. For what save virtue shields us? Hence

66

Mr. Barrett shall have no reason to complain, for we will now extract one or two passages, which are his best.

"See the young mother on her lap admire Her little image asking fine attire;

And bless the smiles she fancies past com-
pare;

The pratile perfect to herself alone,
The father's eye, the dimple like her own;
Press the small hand that to her bosom steals,
And half its well-remember'd snow reveals.
See with what joy she plies her anxious art!
Kiss but her babe you win her instant heart.
Sweer dotage not unwise. But soon succeed
More sober transport, more endearing deed."

The following speech of a deluded and seduced female to her former companions, is respectable, though strangely debased by puerilities:—

"Now the prone sun his orb on ocean

'Not now the gifts ye once indulgent gave, 'Not now the verse and flow'ry wreath I

crave;

Not now to lead your rural feats along, 'Queen of the dance and despot of the song; One shed is all, ob, just one wretched shed,

To lay my weary limbs, and aching head.

Then will I bless you, then inure for you, My toiling frame to snows and suns and dew;

'Then, while ye laugh and dance, will I,

forlorn,

'Beside my murder'd mother sit and mourn.'

None

She paus'd, expecting answer. replied. And have ye children? have ye hearts?

she cried.

Save me now, Mothers, as from future

harms

'Ye hope to save the babies in your arms! See, to you, Maids, I bend on abject knee; Youths, ev'n to you, who bent before to

me.

O, by our past delights, our happy plays,
Ey dear remem
embrance of departed days;
By pity's self, your cruel Parents move;
By youth, by friendship; ah! by those
yo love!

'All silent? what! no hope, no pardon
near?

No tender mercy? what! not ev'n a tear?
Yes, ever erring, I belev'd in vain,
Love constant, youth indulgent, age hu-

ma:fe.

Unless the subject of a poem come home,' as Bacon expresses it, to men's business and bosoms,' imagery, sentiment, and elegant language are expended upon it in vain." This is a learned position, which the author learnedly illustrates by instancing Pope's Essay on Man, as a proof of its truth: and then claims superiority of subject for himself. Mr.Barrett seemed resolved that the critics should have face, or his woman; for he says, that nothing to do either with him, his preshe is intended "not for the freethinker and the philosopher," but "the libertine, the pedant, and the ciown." To one of these classes we expect, of course, to be referred by Mr. Barrett.

After all, we think that he will have that patience and resignation to which an ample opportunity of testifying he lays claim in the following sentence of his preface:-"If then this volume, instead of adorning the libraries of the fair, shall be condemned to the meaner office of compressing their ringlets, I shall bow to my destiny without a murmur." He may console himself, however, that his lucubrations will still be in the heads of that sex he has so vainly endeavoured to exalt by his poetry.

An APPEAL to the MEMBERS of the LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY against a Resolution, dated March 20, 1810. With Remarks on certain Proceedings relative to the Otaheitan and Jewish Missions.By JOSEPH Fox. 1810.

MR. J. Fox, it appears from this

publication, had been secretary to the Missionary Society, till, in consequence of his non-acquiescence in

some of their strange measures, the hopes of Bicknell and his companions directors found incumbent on for several years. These poor lay them to hold no further communica- brothers abroad, in their letters to the tion with him." These gentlemen, jolly friars at home, urged, in the it is remarked, "had so far succeed- strongest terms, a religious attention ed with a'respectable part of society, to their very peculiar and trying situa whom they had denominated the re- tion. They received for reply, that ligious public, as to have acquired their implicit confidence and almost sovereign rule over their purses and

their consciences."

Upon the state of the Missionaries sent to Otaheite, Mr. Fox descants very largely. From the case of Mr. H. Bicknell, lately returned from Otaheite, it appears that these unhappy men may consider themselves entrapped and seduced by the more wealthy adventurers, who are here wallowing in the riches they have accumulated from the ignorant and credulous.

"When the Missionaries first went out, those who-were married men were accompanied by their wives; and it was understood, that, if the mission should become settled, the directors should take an opportunity to seek for a few females who might be willing to devote themselves to the same object, and by the first opportunity to send them out, that the single brethren might obtain suitable wives, and. be rendered as comfortable as possible in their labours of civilization, and voluntary banishment from their own country."

Several of the persons whom they sent out, being young men, could not but be fully sensible of the nature and extent of the temptations they would be exposed to from the Otaheitan women. It was therefore most truly expedient that these young men should be assured that no opportunity would be omitted to send out female missionaries, who might become their wives. The directors knew that they conld not take wives from amongst women, who, being totally ignorant of the gospel, had no correct ideas of the duties of the marriage state, and that they could not consent to live in a situation surrounded by constant temptation, and willingly condemn themselves to the most painful state of celibacy.

they must not be inpatient, and in due time they should not be disappointed." Thus their patience was continued, but hope deferred maketh the heart sick: they received no intelligence from the directors for several years, and when at last they did hear from them, finding that no steps had been taken to send the females. it was resolved that Bicknell should take his departure by the first opportunity for England.

At this time he was reduced almost to a state of nakedness: he had not a shoe on his foot for eight years, and his clothing was in the most tattered condition. So strong, however, is the desire that nature has implanted in the human frame, that even these pious preachers, it seems, still thought of propagating other babes, as well as babes of grace.

Bicknell applied to the Missionary Society for money, but was told that, as he had already received 207. he must be satisfied. It seems he then stated that he had been under the necessity of selling a small house he possessed in Somersetshire for 901. in order to pay the expenses of his subsistence, or else he must have worked at day labour to have supported himself; and he added, that the whole amount of the sum which he had received from the Missionary Society, for the purpose of purchasing every article of clothing and necessaries to take with him, and to be his stock at Otaheite, was only 30l.

the missionaries were abroad, some It would further appear, that whilst underhanded management was used to prevent their letters arriving to their friends in England! Mr Bicknell found that, on his return, his re lations in England had not heard of him for several years, although he had let no opportunity slip of writing by every ship which touched at Otaheite; and, for safe conveyance, his letters These expectations buoyed up the always went in a packet directed for

the Missionary Society. In conse- analogy with those of the degraded and quence of his family not having re- dispersed council of the Vatican." So ceived any letter from him, they be- far their former secretary. This cirlieved him dead: under this impres- cumstance, among others, has tended sion his father had made his will, and to justify what has often been manileft the share of property (which fest to common experience, that is to would have devolved upon his absent say, as a late writer has ob>c.ved,— son) amongst his other sons and "The very name of the (methodist) daughters. But what is very curious, sect carries with it an impression of after his arrival in England, letters, meanness and hypocrisy. Scarce an which were written six or seven years individual that has had any dealings before, were forwarded according to with those belonging to it, but has their address! This methodistical good cause to remember it from some mixture of despotism and duplicity, circumstance of low deception or of however, is not singular in men, who, shufflag fraud. Its very members it seems, set up a claim to one of the trust each other with caution and repoor Otaheitans brought over into luctance. The more wealthy among this country as "their legitimate pro- them are drained and dried by the perty!" Even these lambs, it for- leeches that perpetually fasten upon ther appears, have their lions when them. The leaders, ignorant and bioccasion suits to try them, which has constrained the writer of the narrative from whence this is taken, "his eyes being at length opened,' to declare, "that among several persons who bear the Christian (the methodistic) name, he saw in them nothing like meekness, patience, or brotherly love; but, on the contrary, they appeared to me to be actuated by an intemperate domineering spirit, and disposed, by every means of interdict or detraction, to crush a man who had the nobleness of mind to think for himself.":

This writer now sees, in concert with several other rational persons, "that a certain spirit of party has been uniformly and steadily pursued by some of these (Calvinistic) leaders, very analogous to that which actuated those who said, 'Go to, let us build a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto Heaven, and let us make us a nume. They have set up their name (the religious public, &c.) like unto that of the great Diana of Ephesus; and those who have appeared indisposed to fall down and worship it, they have represented as leagued with infidels and profane, and have declared them unworthy to hold communication with. Their directors have assumed a power in constituting themselves à DISSENTING ECCLESIASTICAL COURT! from whence Hey might issue their bulls in strict

gotted, (I speak of them collectively) present us with no counter qualities that can conciliate respect. They have all the craft of works without their courtesy, and all the subtlety of jesuits without their learning."

S

t

might have added, ese method Like the jesuits too, this waiter, are great traders; and as some of order long ruled the kingdom of 'araguay, so these methodists, by meas of missionaries abroad and fund home, are endeavouring to estabi h their colonies in Africa and the South Seas. To these their trade at home as united theological booksellers, their proprietorship of chapels, churchlivings, &c. are mere flea bites. Well may the writer, betore alluded to, exclaim, "The money changers have returned to the temple ;" and observe that it is no doubt a great desideratum to these pious booksellers "to be able to ciiculate their peculiar doctrines at a profit of twelve per cent!" and he thinks they might at least have kept THEOLOGY unmixed with dividends, funds and transfers. But not so, the British and Foreign Bible So ciety is another branch of profit and patronage, another source of cre'it and influence, carried on under the specious cover of doing good to others.

W. II. R.