the wisdom and moderation of our councils may contribute to fo good an end. Let this country treat me as it will, I fball always remember with fatisfaction the happiness I have enjoyed in it as more than a balance for the injuries I have received from it. I am confcious that I have always meant to act the part of a good citizen; whether my fervices have been acceptable or not; and, however I may be difpofed of, I fhall always be a fincere friend and well-wisher to my native country" (pp. viii. ix.) Is not this a change of fentiment from thofe expreffed in the Doctor's laft publication, reviewed p. 351? The reft of the preface is taken up with a defence of himfelf against Mr. Burke's charge, that he has declared hoftility to the Conflitution of this country," and the republication of his letter to the Morning Chronicle, reprinted in our p. 304. The text he has chofen is Pf. xlvi. 1.; whence he takes occafion to obferve, "In this fituation, as creatures before their Creator, we have nothing to do with what are called politicks. We nei ther praife nor blame thofe who have the conduct of public affairs for bringing us into this fituation, or even confider whether they have brought us into this fituation or not. We have at this time nothing to do with the justice or injuftice, according to the rules of human judgement, of the war in which we are engaged, or of any measures of adminiftration. For, we are now to confider primary and not fecondary caufes. We may, with our governors, call the war in which we are engaged just and neceffary; or, with many others, unjuft and unneceffary; for, with respect to things of this nature, men will judge differently, according to the different views they have of things. But, with refpect to God, whofe providence we now acknowledge, we must fuppofe every thing to be right; that, if calamity await us, it was proper, in the general plan of things, that it fhould be fal us, and therefore that we muft fubmit to it as under the righteous government of God, having recourfe to fuch methods as are neceffary to regain his favour, by making ourfelves the proper objects of it, that, whatever it be that has been made the inftrument of our afAction, it may be removed" (p. 3). Has not the Doctor here changed his fentiments for, if whatever is is right, was it not right that all his fufferings GENT. MAG, September, 1793. fhould have befallen him, and unreafonable to complain of or refent them, which is arraigning and affronting Providence, efpecially as he fays, pref. p. iv. "we all know that, think or at as we please, the Almighty will be directed by his own wisdom, and not by ours?" He fill takes care to keep alive exertions to redrefs ourselves (p. 23). He proceeds to offer a vindication of war, as calculated to produce many good effects, and no unfuitable means to be employed by the benevolent Ruler of the Univerfe, though generally implying the greatest guilt in men. Many pofitive benefits have been indirectly derived from it. The exercife of the ingenuity of man, in devising the means of offence and defence in war, led the way to the difcovery of the qualities of metals, improvements in mechanicks and other things, highly ufeful in times of peace; difcoveries which it is probable that nothing but fo ftrong a stimulus as refults from a state of war could have excited man to make. A ftate of exertion, fuch as war makes neceffary, is always a fate of great animation. Conquefts have promoted civilization, carried learning and learned men where they would never have gone voluntarily, and thus fpread science and improvements of various kinds. Even perfecution has fpread true religion. War is a difcipline we ftand in need of till the world has paffed its prefent ftate of childhood and youth. The prefent war has this peculiar to it - that it is a war refpe&ting the principles of government; and, whatever be the iffue, with respect to victories or defeats, it will lead to the melioration of the condition of men as members of civil fociety. It is fometimes called a war of religion, it being thought that, in the new government of France, there is to be no proper eftablishment of any form of religion whatever. This, the Doctor thinks, can only mean that Chriftianity will be feparated from political religion. Thefe great events, he thinks, are approaching: the fall of Antichrift (probably the Papal power), that of the Turkish empire, and the return of the Jews to their own country, Judea. Yet all our refignation to Providence is not to lead us to fhew a tame and blind acquiefcence in all political mea fures, hor prevent our endeavouring to do ourselves juftice whenever we conceive that we have received an injury, and the redrefs of it is in our power; but but by leading us to look, in the first place, to the primary caufe of our fufferings, our attention will be more calm, and our endeavours better directed with refpect to the fecondary caufe of them; and we shall be better prepared, either to fuffer with refignation, or to a&t with vigour, as occafion may require (pp. 23, 24). Here is the old difficulty revived, how to reconcile God's agency with man's free-will. If it be right to acquiefce under the former, the riots at London, Birmingham, or Paris, cannot be remedied; and, if whatever is is right, the Doctor in vain argues, in his preface, p. xi. that "all good is relative, and, therefore, what is the best for EngJifhmen. with their peculiar habits and prejudices, may not be the beft for all nations. And the fyftem, that anfweis its purpose fo well as that it shall not be worth while to rifk any material change or revolution, may yet be capable of much improvement." What is this but reafoning in a circle, and fhifting the ground as often as fuits? If politicks are improper fubjects for a faft-fermon, or day of humiliation, why did his friend Price ftuff bis faft and revolution-feranons with fo much impertinence on that fubject If we are not to deprecate the calamities of war, at leaft let us deplore the luxury, immorality, and abufe of national profperity, which the bankrupt cies, fo repeatedly following one another, fo feelingly and ioudly proclaim. 195. An Effay on the true Principles of Executive Power in great States. Tranflated from the French of M. Neckar. 2 vols. THIS work was written before the diffolution of monarchy in France, and is chiefly intended to expofe the defects of a Constitution which no longer exifts. He condemns the proceedings of the French Republick; and expreffes a high regard for the unfortunate Monarch, whom, according to Mr. Young's ideas (fee p. 345), he was the unintentional means of bringing to the block. Though he profeties to treat only of the principles of the executive power in great ates, he extends his view through the whole fyftem of civil government. His fundamental pofition is, that the formation of the executive power conftitutes the effential, and perhaps the fole, difficulty of every fyftem of government; and he confides the errors of the Na tional Affembly, refpecting the executive powers as the fource of all the evils and troubles of France. He thinks they fhould have confulted the model of the English Conftitution; and, in drawing a parallel between the organization of the executive and legislative powers in England, and the elements of which thofe powers were conftituted by the National Assembly, he maintains the fuperior advantage of the plan which requires two houfes of legiflation. He pleads for the neceffity of requiring a confiderable share of landed property as the qualification for reprefentatives; prefers the King of England's share in the legiflation to the French King's circumfcribed veto, and the method of regulating the calling and duration of parliament in England to the French plan of conftituting the affembly, and continuing the meetings of the legiflative body after interruption. He includes the judiciary power, the high national court, the prerogative of mercy, the formation of miniftry, the diftribution of offices and favours, the forms obferved towards the monarch, the right of peace and war, interior administration, and military force, in his ftudied panegyrick on the English Conftitution; to which he oppoles that which, at the time of his writing, fubfifted in France. The fecond volume compares the late Conflitution of France with that of the United States of America, particularly with respect to the fubject of executive power; and exhibits, in various points of view, its errors and defects. He makes the following obfervations on the influence which the French Re volution, among other confequences, is likely to have on language and tafle: "Gentleness and fuavity of manners, the infeparable companions of indulgence and lenity, have other affinities not less remarkable; and, composed of various ingredients, are more intimately connected than we are apt to imagine with forms of language. We owe to the most fine and delicate impreffions a portion of our fentiments, and even of our ideas. Often, while the mind is occupied in reafoning, we are carried away captive by the imagination. Placed at the exterior of our spiritual nature, and having the first communication with our fenfes, it takes us fo at unawares, it exercifes over us fo rapid an authority, that fcarcely have we time to defend ourselves. Thus, when the language of a nation, when its habitual expreffions become ftern and auftere, the character of the people will partake of the fame favage nature; and, as the lyre of Orpheus animated the rocks, and rendered them fenfible, the language of the times, by a contrary effect, hardens our hearts and petrifies our feelings. Any one would fuppofe whole centuries had clapíed elapfed between the polished age of France and the prefent period; and I find a confiderable analogy in the fashionable eloquence to the fashionable politicks. It has neither measure nor harmony; it fets no bounds to its liberty; it pays no attention to decorum; it aims at energy in the wrong place; its en thufiafm is artificial; its boldness the dictate of the head and not of the heart; it is agitated without action; emphatical without dignity; didactic without perfpicuity; monotonous without unity; it is extravagant in all its parts, and lifeless and unmeaning as a whole. 64 I quit this comparison to make another obfervation upon our new-fangled language; an obfervation which may be thought to belong only to grammarians, but which really indicates a modification of our moral character. Every day we coin new verbs, alt gether barbarous, and fubftitute them in the ftead of fubftantives. Thus we fay, influen cer, utilifer, exceptionner, préconifer, fanatifer, patriotifer, pétitioner, vetoter, harmonier, &c. This remark may be thought refined; but it indicates that we no longer feel the neceifity of a fweet and measured diction; for, it is not by verbs, whofe fenfe is always pofitive, but by the union of adjectives to fubftantives, that ideas acquire comparifon, gradation, and - progrefs. "I fhall be asked, how the new French Conftitution can, not influence our language, but have upon it an infenfible influence? I anfwer, that exaggerated fentiments and a certain tone of speaking have a very intimate connexion; that this tone of fpeaking is connected with the defire of captivating popular favour; that this tone of fpeaking is connected with the multiplication of our ephemeron fcribblers and journalists; that this tone of speaking is connected with the growth of oratorical vanity that infects all forts of men: in fine, that this tone of fpeaking has a very intimate reference to the real fituation of the people. "Tafte is no longer neceffary, when deference of every fort is banished, when all diftinétions are trampled upon, all ideas and principles confounded; when there is but one thought exifting through a whole country, and when, by an abfurd enthufiaim, that thought is fuppofed to have univerfal application and all-fufficiency. "Tafte is no longer neceffary, when the people are become the fole mafter, and when the groffeft incenfe does not fail to gratify this new-made god. "In fine, tafte is no longer neceffary, and every day muft pervert it more, when every one is fimitten with the defire of writing and fpeaking, and, in the midst of this univerfal rivalship, each endeavours to furpafs his neighbour in a rugged force of expreffion and a favage ftrikingness of imagery." author thinks, the National Affembly In pointing out the conduct which, our ought to have obferved, he gives a fer of practical maxims, in the room of the the retical principles which were made the bafis of the Conftitution. As thefe may ferve, in fome meafure, to exhibit M. Neckar's political principles, we fhall copy them: "It is, in my opinion, impracticable, in a great ftate, to fecure the liberty of the fubject confiftently with the omiflion of any of the following articles: "1. That the reprefentatives of the nation fhall have the exclufive right of making laws, fubject to the fanétion of the prince; comprehending under the ter n laws all that relates to the felection and regulation of taxes. "2. That the reprefentatives of the nation fhall have the exclufive right of fixing the amount of the public expenditure; there being evidently included in that right the amount of the military establishment. 3. That all articles of receipt and expenditure shall be accounted for to certain commiffioners appointed by the ieprefentatives of the nation. 66 4. That the taxes fhall be annually renewed by the reprefentative authority, excepting thofe taxes which are given as fecurity for the payment of the interest of the public debt. "5. That all arbitrary privilege, and power of difpenfing with the laws, be profcribed; and that every citizen fhall have a right to bring his actions, civil or criminal, against every public officer of whofe conduct he thinks he has reafon to complain. "6. That the military power shall not be brought into activity, within the kingdom, but by the previous requifition of the civil officers. 7. That the mutiny bill, or the law for authorifing the difopline, and, of confequence, that gives existence to the army, fhall be annually renewed. 48. That the prefs fhall be free, as far as is compatible with the interefts of morality and public tranquillity. "o. That the taxes fhall be equally laid, and that no citizen thall labour under difqualification to the exercife of any public office. "Tafte is no longer neceffary, when the empire of opinion is under the guidance of impattioned writers and corrupt intractors, of those new shepherds who defire not to lead their flocks to the flowery valleys and the verdant meadows, but to precipitate them from torrents and precipices, imbuing 66 11. That the throne be hereditary; a them with the fpirit of demons, and hurrying ondition indifpenfible to prevent faction and them, along with incantations and enchant-preferve political tranquillity, ments. 10. That the minifters and public agents of government thall be reíponsible. 46 12. "12. That the executive power shall be given full and entire to the prince, together with every means neceffary for its exercise, and for the fecuring public order; a provifion abfolutely necessary to prevent the legiflative body from engroffing to itfelf a defpotifin not lefs dangerous than defpotifm in any other hands. "To thefe provifions it would be neceffary to add the most inviolable respect for the rights of property, did not this refpect conftitute one of the elements of univerfal morality, under whatever form of government men may be united. "The twelve articles I have enumerated muft appear, to every enlightened mind, as the fundamental bans of the civil and politieal liberties of a nation. They ought, therefore, to have a diftinct place affigned them in the conftitutional charter, and not to be con founded with thofe numerous regulations fubject to continual difcuffion and alteration." The work concludes with the following animated apoftrophe to Reafon : "O Reason, heaven-born Reafon, image of the Supreme Intelligence which created the world, never will I forfake thy altars; but, to continue faithful to thee, will difdain alike the hatred of fome, the ingratitude of others, and the injuftice of all! O Reason, whofe empire is fo congenial and so pleasing to fouls of feeling and hearts of true elevation; Reason, celeftial Reafon, our guide and fupport in the labyrinth of life, alas ! whither wilt thou fly in this feafon of difcord and maddening fury? The oppreffors will have nothing to fay to thee; and thou art rejected by the oppreffed. Come then, fince the world abandons thee, to inhabit the retreat of the Sage; dwell there, protected by his vigilance, and honoured by the expref-, five filence of his worship. One day thou wilt appear again, attired in all thy antient glory, while Impofition and Deceit shall vanifh into nothing. At that period, perhaps, 1 fhall be no more; yet permit the shade of thy departed advocate to attend upon thy triumph; and, in the mean time, fuffer my name, tarnished as it is with calumny, to preferve its place, humbly infcribed at the foot of thy ftatue!" 196. Letter to the Earl of Leicester, on the recent Discovery of the Roman Cloaca, or Sewer, at Leicester; with fome Thoughts on Jewry-wall. By J. Throlby. Leicester, 1793. 8vo. THIS induftrious antiquary, whofe Antiquities, Select Views, &c. in Leicefterthire, we have had occafion to notice and commend (vol. LIX. p. 927, LXI. 157, LXII. 359), offers, in this little tract, his conjectures on the ruin at Leicester, which has exercifed the conjectures of antiquaries for abov nd a century, under the name of the Jewry wall, or Janus temple. From the last appellation he takes occafion to infinuate that it might be the Janua wall, or wall little unfortunate; for Janua was never near the city-gate. His etymology is a applied to a city-gate, but a houfe-door; and as little to the purpose as Fani for thoroughfares. Be this, however, as it may, the great fewer of the old city was laid open near it laft February, and found to contain a variety of fragments of pottery, of coarfer manufactory than thofe found in Lombard-street (Archaologia, VIII. 116). Mr. T. is under a fecond mistake about a cenfer, or thuribulum of baked earth; which we concejve to have been most commonly of metal. In short, there is nothing peculiar in thefe pot herds; and the coin with VRBS ROMA and the wolf is not of the Augufline age, but of the Lower Empire. All that tradition has invented of the fewer is only what it tells of every fouterrain; and, if it were a fewer, it was worthy of the people who made the Cloaca magna in their own capitol, and not made prior to the time of the Romans inhabiting this country (P 28). If the Jewry wall was only a gate, how comes it that the wall in which it was inferted did not extend either way? Near this fpot were found fragments of pillars; and in the fite of the Grey friers Roman pavements and pottery, the latter charged with hunting fcenery. 197. Verfes on the beneficial Effects of Inscula tion, which obtained one of the Chancellor's Prizes at the University of Oxford in the Year 1772. By the Rev. William Lipscomb, M. A. late of Corpus Chrifti College, Oxford, and Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Earl of Darlington. Now reprinted, by the Author's Permiffion, at the Request of the Houfe-Committee of Governors of the Smallpox and Inoculating Hofpital, for the Benefit of that Charity, and gratuitously recited at their Anniversary Fejlival, at the London Tavern, on Monday, February 25, 1793, by Mr. John Palmer, of the King's Theatre, Hay-market. WE are happy in the opportunity of commending this beautiful copy of verfes, and its application to fo benevo lent a purpofe. Mr. L's verfes on the "Love of our Country, 1772," we praifed in vol. LXII. p. 658. In the pretent he beautifully paints the progrefs of the fiend under whofe perfon he reprefents the fmall-pox, beginning in Arabia, paffing through Perla into Eu. rope, and in Britain checked by the art of of Inoculation, introduced from Turkey by Lady Wortley Montague. We cannot make extracts from fo fhort a piece, 'from the perufal of which we are unwilling to detain the publick. 198. The 7 beology of Plato compared with the Principles of Oriental and Grecian Philofophy. By John Ogilvie, D.D. F.R.S. Edinb. THE great reputation of Plato for his fyftem of philofophy, fuppofed to be the most comprehenfive and connected of any held forth by the wife men of actiquity, has occafioned him to be held up uniformly, by the claffical writers of all nations, to the admiration of mankind. "The theological doctrines, which make a figure by far the moft confpicuous in his multifarious writings, relate principally to either to God, in the characters of creator, parent, and governor, of his creatures, to the univerfe, and to man the inhabitant, who is best known to us as being his workmanship; to evil, as originating in caufes that are confiftent with the divine perfections and providence; and, finally, to the pre-exiftent ftate of man, the immortality of the foul, and the nature of that reward or punishment of which it will finally participate. On points, that rife out of thefe principal fubjects, Plato maintains peculiar opinions, which it will be proper to illuftrate in a fummary of his theology; and the detail will be closed moft naturally by an account of the powerful influence of his arguments on the lives and characters of illuftrious men, particularly in the laft fcene of life, and by obfervations that arife from the fubject." The first fection treats of the doctrines of Plato the antient, and particularly concerning the divine nature, perfections, and providence. Sect. II. contains the Cofmogeny of the antients, the natural character and offices of the perfons of the platina triad, as being interefted in the formation and government of the universe; an idea which the moft antient nations held. Plato diftinguithes between the paternal and filial Godhead, and the Soul or governing fpirit of the world. "The doctrine of the antients in general, as well as of Piato in particular, on the well-known fubj.&t of a triad, is fomewhat different from that of the Gofpe!, to which it has apparent fimilarity. The Godhead, indeed, confifts, according to their united declaration, of three perfons, who have diftin&t employments and departments. But I have endeavoured to evince, beyond.queftion, that the appellation to EN is applied, by our author, immediately to the first Perfon, as excluding equality or competi tion. He is the EOE, properly fo called, as diftinguished from the EOE ΔΗΜΙΟΥΡΓΟΣ, ΟΙ ΨΥΧΗ το κόσμο. The fublime myftery of the Trinity, as it was revealed to the infpired writers, is, unqeftionably, more confonant to the divine nature and perfections than the theory of unenlightened philofophers on a fubject that exceeds comprehenfion. While, therefore, we receive the former with reverence and gratitude, as revealed with the best purpofe, and established by the highest authority, we may perceive what emolument, in contemplating the latter, how nearly the notions which fallible men conceived of this doctrine coincided with the teftimony of writers who were commiffioned to promulgate it to mankind" (p. 65). Se&t. III. treats of the inhabitants of the air and elements, formation and conThis fection flituent principles of man. is really confined to the firft, who are divided into good and bad, and confidered as intermediare agents between God and man; the creation and conftituent principles of man compofe the IVth fection. Anaxagoras, who first introduced mind into the univerfe, is yet faid to have entertained a very falfe and inadequate idea of the human foul, which he confounded with the animal or fenfitive fpirit. Pythagoras held the foul to be immortal: το μεν φρόνιμον αθανατον. "Plato conceived that man was compounded of three parts: NOTE, or mind, the intelligent fpirit; Yux, or the fenfitive foul; and Ewue, or body, the receptacle of both. This divifion, which is evidently that of St. Paul (1 Theff. v. 23), is founded on obfervations on human nature, of which reflection will enable us to comprehend the truth and propriety" (p. 101)." The intelligent foul of man is not derived, according to him, from the parent, but pre-exifled in its animation of a corporeal form in a fate of happiness with beings of a fuperior order it participates of the nature of God, to whom it returns at its feparation from the body, unless it be polluted with crimes, which render its purification indifpenfably neceifary in a flate of tranfimigration, or fuffering through all time (worxolas Tov six, 0]; the punishment of atrocious wickednets terminating in final impenitence in a place prepared for that purpose, Se&. |