On Cambridge he is particularly severe. We shall leave it to some able member of that learned body, to convince the world of the erroneous, statement of this author:

Should we inquire whether the religious instruction afforded at School is continued at College, and the deficiencies of the former supplied by the latter; we shall too often receive a most painful answer. In this (as in most respects) Colleges vary; but in some, and those not the smallest or least noted, I fear it will be found, that from the day the Students enter, to that on which they quit the University, they are not required, or even recommended, to read a single book, either on the doctrines, or the duties of Christianity. Its evidences are perhaps laid before them; but having proved its truth, instead of explaining its tenets, and enforcing its precepts, shewing its nature, its importance, and its proper application as the rule of life; the Teachers suffer it to remain unknown; while the whole time of the young men is engrossed by the unauthorized assertions of the Moralist, the visionary speculations of the Metaphysician, and the barren demonstrations of Mathematics. If at Cambridge a Student were to burn his Bible, and banish from his mind every idea of Religion, he would not be thereby impeded in the public examinations, or obstructed in taking his Degree: subscription to the articles might formerly have staggered him, but Dr. Paley has taken care to obviate all such objections. Does not this disease call aloud for a remedy, and is ft not 'igh time that the study of Christianity should have some attention paid to it, and that a certain proficiency in it should be required, in order to the attainment of Academical honours?"

Our readers will probably be convinced, by the manly spirit and temper in which this pamphlet is written, that the author is far from being prompted by animosity against an individual, or by party zeal, in what he has stated. Whether the defects which he has indicated, either in Dr. Vincent's Defence or in the regulations of our Schools and Universities, really exist or not, it is not to be doubted that this writer believes them to be as he has stated them; and that he has no other object in pointing them out, than that of guarding the public against the spirit of a Controversialist in the one case, and of suggesting to them, in the other, the expediency of some better provision to defend and maintain the Citadel of our faith.

We have not heard who this Layman is, nor whether that denomination be real or assumed: but no Minister of our Church can display more zeal in its support, nor manifest himself a more orthodox believer. Several of his assertions are open to controversy, and some of his expressions obnoxious to censure: but we are not disposed to become parties in this dispute, nor to wander from the direct question in our report

of it.

Other pamphlets on this subject will be found in the succeeding page.

MONTHLY

Mans

T

MONTHLY CATALOGUE,

For AUGUST, 1802.

EDUCATION.

Art. 18. Hints for a Plan of General National Education, and a Le
gislative Revision of the present System, &c. By David Morrice.
8vo. IS. Rivingtons.

AN

N establishment of the kind here recommended is, in Mr. Morrice's opinion, a great desideratum in this country; and he wishes the legislature to institute an inquiry into the defects of our public

schools.

REVEALED RELIGION, (he says) the grand principle and basis of all right education, being not only too little interwoven into the system of our schools and academies, but, what is of far greater importance, into that of our HIGHER SEATS of learning, also, which in reality draw their chief sources of instruction from Pagan writers, and from the records of republican Rome.'

Mr. M. then proceeds to consider the sort of education necessary
to the three several classes of the Sons of the Nobility and Gentry, the
Middling Classes, and the Poor, and how the defects and errors in the
present system may be best remédied.'

On each of these heads he offers several remarks, and some which
we much approve; although we cannot agree with him in wishing to
have our schools put on the Spartan plan; and to have a Greek or Latin
version of Thomson's Seasons, or Pope's Messiah, substituted for
what he calls the republican models of Greece and Rome.
Art. 19. An attempted Reply to the Master of Westminster School*
or, Reflections suggested by his Defence of Public Education.
By David Morrice. 8vo. Is. Symonds.

Man

This reply, if it may be so called, consists rather in assertions of the author respecting the defects of public education in general, than of any direct attack on the learned author of the Defence of Westminster School: but it contains some observations which are wellfounded, and deserve attention. Mr. Morrice seems to have had more particularly in view the state of Academies in this country; and in defence of them Dr. Vincent has not undertaken to wield the pen. D: Art. 20. The Family Budget, or Game of Knowlege. A Box, and a small Volume. Sold by Ridgway, &c.

Budget, which we have always understood to signify a Bag, is here
applied to a Box; which is divided into seven compartments, the
centre being called the Pool, and the six which surround it being in-
scribed Arithmetic, Grammar, History, Mythology, Vegetables, Music.
Cards containing Questions and Answers relative to these subjects
are dealt out, and the Game is played like that of Pope Joan.

Mrs. Partridge, the widow of an officer who fell in the West
Indies, is the inventor of this Game; and her design is to smooth

*See p. 424. of this Review.

the

the path of wisdom by blending amusement: with instruction, and to fix on the memory, by a kind of recreation, the lessons which are usually received from the preceptor. If the cards be judiciously composed, which is the case with the present set, the play recommended with them may be of use in families and schools. With the box is given a small volume called an Appendix, containing Directions for playing the Game, and the Lessons which some of the Card Pieces require the holder to repeat, or to forfeit..

New sets of cards are also prepared, by which this game, intended as a tablet of memory, may be prosecuted to any extent, These are furnished in numbers by the author's bookseller,

POLITICS.

Art. 21. Considerations on the Debt on the Civil List. By the Right Hon. George Rose, M. P. 8vo. Is. 6d. Hatchard. 1802. These considerations present a clear view of a subject on which much misconception has prevailed. Mr. Rose gives a history of the Civil List, by which it is shewn that his Majesty made a bad bargain at his ac cession; and he particularly explains the items exhibited in the account submitted to Parliament. The Debt of the Civil List, from 1786 to 1802, lately discharged by a vote of the House of Commons, was 1,283,000l. On the statement of particulars designed to shew how this debt arose, Mr. Rose makes such remarks as, we think, ought to be submitted to the reader :

This, on the first view, appears to be a very large sum, by which the estimate, made in 1786, of the Civil List expences, was exceeded in sixteen years, equal to about 80,000l. per annum; but it will be seen, by looking at the statement of the expence in each year, laid before the Committee, and printed at the end of this Pamphlet, that the exceedings were inconsiderable during the first seven years while we were at peace; they increased afterwards largely, under heads (with the exception of tradesmens' bills) connected principally with the War, or with the internal state of the country. It is not necessary to enumerate the particulars again: it will be sufficient to remind our readers, that they arose chiefly in the Department of the Secretaries of State; messengers' bills, from expences incurred by Ministers at Foreign Courts (except the augmentation of their salaries), including presents to Foreign Ministers here on signing Conventions, &c.; and from the charge incurred for Law Proceedings and Police Establishments. These, with the Tradesmens' Bills, above alluded to, will account for nearly the whole excess; and when the increased price of almost every article included in these bills is adverted to, it must be a matter of considerable surprize, that the exceedings were not much greater, for the reason already suggested in the observation on that head.

If any one has imagined, that the debt incurred on the Civil List has arisen, in the remotest possible degree, from any expences of his Majesty, that could have been avoided, he will see how entirely he has been mistaken; and that, instead of a want of due attention to economy, it is manifest, that his Majesty's personal arrangement, and strict injunctions to his servants, could alone have kept down the exRev. AUG. 1802.

Ff

pences

Mo..y.

pences of his household; without which, they must have borne a much larger proportion to those of individuals than they do; for it may safely be stated, that there is hardly a private gentleman in the kingdom, whose expences of living have not increased, within the period alluded to, in a much greater degree than those of his Majesty. In the fixed allowances to the Royal Family, there is but a trifling excess; they have varied only as circumstances rendered that variation indispensibly necessary. On the head of Fensions, respecting which a jealousy would most naturally be entertained, there was an actual saving to a considerable amount of those indeed that were granted, it would be seen, on a close investigation, how few were likely to have been given from pure favour: and all the gifts of Royal bounty, in the sixteen years, were under 30,000l.-not one shilling of which was for any concealed purpose, as the names of the parties who received the same, and the services, are entered in the book which was before the Committee, composed of gentlemen of different political connec tions; and no suggestion was heard of the most trifling sum having been bestowed improperly.'

Hence it appears that the exceedings in the Civil List Department are to be enumerated among the expences of the war.-We cannot subscribe to Mr. Rose's subsequent assertion, that the Minister is with. out the means of influence, except it be by an inconsiderable patron. age in the disposal of livings.

Art. 22. Thoughts on the Internal Situation of Great Britain in the Month of May 1802. By a Magistrate. 8vo. Is. 6d. Spilsbury.

Moy

Our discernment is not sufficiently acute to perceive the appropri ateness of these thoughts to the situation of Great Britain in the month of May, any more than to its situation in June, or any other month in the year; since they consist of general and loose reflec tions on subjects, of late, frequently discussed. They are announced as introductory to a work of more importance, on the topics of political economy so slightly treated in these pages.

RELIGIOUS.

Art. 23. Two Sermons preached at Dominica, 11th and 13th of April 1800, and officially noticed by his Majesty's Privy Council in that Island. To which is added, an Appendix, containing Minutes of Three Trials which occurred at Roseau in the Spring of the preceding Year: Together with Remarks on the Issue of those Trials; as well as on the Slave Trade, &c. By the Rev. C. Peters, A. M. Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, and late Rector of St. George's and Roseau, in Dominica. 8vo. 35. Hatchard.

The zeal of a Christian, even when pleading the cause of the op pressed, should be tempered with prudence and moderation. It should be a "zeal according to knowledge." Incautiously to rouse the indignation of the injured party is often to add strength to the tyrant's arm, and to furnish a new plea for his oppression. Such was the result of these two sermons, which were preached by Mr. Peters at Roseau in the Island of Dominica, in behalf of the unhappy slaves.

His zeal broke out into intemperate language; and, whatever might be the effect on the slaves, it incensed the proprietors, and, in consequence of their remonstrance, Mr. P. has retired from his pastoral office. We are sorry that we cannot bestow on the sermons that unqualified approbation' which the author expects. The Appendix, and the general Remarks on the Slave-trade, are much better intitled to commendation. The one is affecting from the picture which it draws of the sufferings of the slaves; the other abounds in sensible, humane, and valuable reflections.

We truly sympathize with Mr. Peters, in pitying and wishing to end the slavery of our African brethren: but, if we had been ap pointed to preach in their presence, we should have followed up our exhortations to lenity in the owners with the soothing voice of religious consolation to the slaves; and we would have exhorted them, even in bondage, to remember their Christian freedom, and to look forwards to a period in which " they that sow in tears shall reap in joy."

}

Art. 24. Divine Authority of the Bible; or, Revelation and Reason opposed to Sophistry and Ridicule: Being a Refutation of Paine's Age of Reason, Part First and Second. By Robert Thomson. 12mo. 2s. Higham, Matthews, &c.

Mr. Paine having treated Revelation and its advocates with little ceremony, he cannot expect much politeness in return. The present champion for the divine authority of the Bible recollects the proverb, Answer a Fool according to his Folly, and often gives coarseness for coarseness. Paine is likened to a goose, is said to be an antient fixture in the school of Deism, and to have chosen the place of blacksmith to the deistical regiment; and his "Age of Reason" is pronounced to be the very frenzy of atheism.' Though, however, he is to be reprobated for the indecent manner in which he attacks the Scriptures, we do not approve of the Christian who adopts the same mode in their defence. His cause does not require and cannot be graced by a warfare so conducted.-Speaking of the work before us, Mr. T. says, I flatter myself I shall be able to prove that Paine, far from knowing any thing of the controversy, in which he has the temerity to venture as an author, has never once examined the subject, has never once read the Bible to this day.' This may be undertaking rather too much. The first part of Mr. T.'s Refutation, which is all that is now published, examines Paine's Creed-the Necessity of Revelation in general-the Authenticity of the Pentateuch-the supposed Cruelty of God in the Scriptures-Vindication of the Character of Moses the remaining Books of the O. T.-Paine's Letter to Mr. Erskine-the N. T., particularly the Genealogies of Matthew and Luke-and the Canon of Scripture.

This effort of a Layman may perhaps be treated by Mr. Paine with more attention than similar exertions made by Priests. Mr. T. is equally zealous with himself, though on the opposite side; and in their hatred of Priests they are perfectly agreed.

Man

Mo..y.