apprehend to be the highest and most important interefts of their country, and of their Chriftian brethren, -with regard both to this world, and to a better.

Art. 53. The Watchman's Report and Advice. Preached at Old Gravel-lane. By N. Hill. 8vo. IS. Johnson,

Conceived much in the unornamented but truly pious strain of the good old fermons which used to edify our grandfathers, and which ought not to be despised by their grandchildren. There was a mixture of energy with fimplicity in the pulpit compofitions of Richard Baxter's time, which we greatly prefer to the dainty whipt-fillabub of thofe polished divines "Who fcorn to mention hell to ears polite."

Mr. Hill dilates on the protracted baneful effects of the war, and the fruitless formality of our folemn appointments. He fees, as yet, no fign of true repentance and amendment among us, notwithstanding the frequent returns of our periodical faft-days: but he does not content himself with the mere arraignment of fin in the abftract; he comes to close quarters with his hearers, and readers; and partiçularizes the more prominent characteristic vices of the age: That prevailing want of principle; omiffion of great and effential [religious] duties; careleffnefs and negligence with which duties not wholly laid afide are discharged;-that Pride, Earthly-mindednefs, Senfuality, Diffipation and love of Pleasure, which, O Britain! are now thy dif grace and danger.'

Towards the winding up of the difcourfe, Mr. Hill modeftly offers a few hints to our fpiritual guides, with respect to the nature of their office and duty;' and in his concluding paragraph, he thus takes leave of his audience,-after having again and again reminded them of the neceffity of an effectual reformation of life and manners, without which all formal pretences to national humiliation are but a folemn mockery: What an idle, fenfelefs boaft is love of country, and attachment to the British conflitution, in thofe who are devoted to pleafure, or live in a state of open or fecret rebellion against the great Lord of heaven and earth! They are the enemies from whom Britain has most to fear. Their fins are pregnant with every national evil. They distract our councils, fow the feeds of inteftine divifion,-undermine the conftitution, shake the pillars of the ftate, and put every thing to dreadful hazard.' The pious author enlarges a little on this very ferious idea, but we have given a fufficient fpecimen.

Art. 54. Before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, in the Abbey Church of Westminster. By Henry Reginald, Lord Bishop of

Bristol. 4to. 1s. 6d. Robson.

This is a very rational and well-written difcourse, adapted with propriety to the occafion, and to the audience before which it was delivered. Its contents are judiciously calculated to afford general inftruction and improvement; without the intervention of a fentiment, or even of a word, that can reasonably give offence to any of our various fectaries, or denominations of Chriftians whatever.

Art. 55. War the Stumbling-block of a Chriftian; or, the Abjurdity of defending Religion by the Sword. By the Rev. J. H. Williams,

LL.B.

LL. B. Vicar of Wellsbourn, Warwickshire. 8vo. IS. Robinfons.

The title of this difcourfe fufficiently indicates its caft and complexion. As a CHRISTIAN, Mr. W. is certainly right in his abhorrence of war; as a Citizen, the multitude (especially in their prefent inflamed state of mind,) will be apt to gainsay him.

In the 14th volume of our New Series, p. 355, we gave an account of two faft fermons by this powerful preacher. The character of the prefent difcourfe is very fimilar. It has,' fays he, in the performance before us, been openly declared, both by Chriftian orators in their fenate, and by Chriftian prelates in their pulpits, that the WAR in which the nation has been fo unhappily engaged, has, for one of its principal objects, the DEFENCE OF RELIGION. It is with the bafhfulness of fingularity furmounted by the boldness of conviction, that I fhall venture to propofe fome plain and fcriptural arguments to oppose a doctrine which is a ftumbling-block to the Chriftian mind; which tends to corrupt the religious opinions of mankind; which, to my understanding, directly oppofes the whole fcope and tenor of the gofpel; which is engendered in fallacy, nurtured by Prejudice, and productive of nothing but blind fanaticifm or Pharifaic infolence

In fupport of his pacific principles, Mr. W. writes with animation and force; and we must acknowlege that his reasoning, aided by the refiftlefs weight of the facred writings, has made a greater impreffion on our minds, than has always been the case when we have rifen from the perusal of discourses of the fame kind.-The author may not be rewarded with a bishoprick, but he may obtain what is of still greater

value.

Art, 56. Preached at the Parish Churches of Burgh, Thurlton, and Thorpe, in the County of Norfolk ;-and diftributed among the Parifhioners by the officiating Minifter. 8vo. Yarmouth printed. Well adapted to the apprehenfions of thofe perfons who ufually make up the bulk of a country congregation; people of plain, uncultivated understandings, of general good intention, and honeft though fometimes mistaken meaning. The principles here maintained are those which are common to every zealous minifter of our established church. We hope that the pious author is mistaken in his idea of thofe of our brother proteftants and fellow Chriftians, at whom he glances when he speaks of Our fecret and internal enemies;-who preclude themselves from the benefit of our church liturgy;-they forget that they are tolerated, and they want to rule,' &c. &c.Such a general ftigma cannot but give offence to fuch of our fectaries as may be confcious that they do not deferve it.

Art. 57. At the Parish Church of Afhborne, Derbyshire. By the Rev. W. Leigh, LL.B. Rector of Little Plumstead, and Affiftant Minister of Afhborne. 8vo. 15. Robfon, &c.

Mr. Leigh takes a very proper view of the exifting circumstances of the times, the war, and its ill fuccefs; and judiciously applies them to the folemn occafion of the day. He alfo, with good effect, introduces the fubject of prophecy, antient and modern, with a due

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cenfure

cenfure of the recent and ftrange pretenfions of the latter. In a word, this discourse does ample credit to the abilities of the preacher. Art. 58. The Example of our Enemies a Lefon of national Abafement and Reformation to ourselves,-at Yeovil, by George Beaver, B. D. Rector of Trent, in the County of Somerfet; and West Stratford, cum Frome Billet, Dorfet. 4to. IS. Baldwin.

We meet with fo many indications of narrowness of mind, and of bigotry of fentiment, in our faft-day fermons, that when we turn over the pages of a difcourfe that is free from imperfections of that disgraceful kind, we are ready to exclaim, "Well done! thou that haft done no ill!"-In Mr. B.'s difcourfe, we fee nothing reprehenfible; on the contrary, there is ample room for commendation; particularly where the preacher cautions his hearers against depending on a formal deprecating of God's wrath, &c.' and takes notice of the apparently little effect of those periodical folemnities, which feem to be too generally regarded as an eafy method of entering into a compofition with the Almighty for the fins of a whole nation, &c.'

Art. 59. The Times, &c. preparatory to the Public Faft.-By W. Gilbank, M. A. Rector of St. Ethelburga, London. 4to. 15. Robfon, &c.

Mr. Gilbank's faft fermon is to be chiefly regarded as a zealous philippic against the French; the honeft preacher, however, does not forget his own countrymen, but tells them, as the vulgar phrafe goes, a little of their own."

Fafts,' fays he, have been proclaimed with all the devotion that could fanctify the occafion: the people have been called to meet in folemn affembly, to humble themselves before God, and to acknowlege their errors: but has there afterward been seen any fign of true repentance? Is there any where lefs anxiety fhewn in the purfuit of wealth? Is the intemperate thirst after diftinction and preeminence at all abated? Is expenfive or criminal pleasures become lefs an object than before? Have the obligations of conjugal fidelity been better obferved? Has the extravagant rage for diffipation at all fubfided? Has there in any clafs of people appeared a greater regard for religion, or a ftricter attendance on religious worship? In short, have we much reason to suppose that we are not, by our multiplied tranfgreffions of commiffion and omiffion, almost as much the objects of Divine vengeance as our neighbours?'

Every reader, who is in any tolerable degree a competent obferver of the figns of the times," will be ready, without much hefitation, to give a proper anfwer to the foregoing home-put questions.

Art. 60. at Henley on Thames. By the Rev. Edward Barry, M. D. 4to. is. Parfons, &c.

There is a peculiarity of caft in this difcourfe, (fomewhat difficult to describe,) in which the preacher carefully avoids the common ftyle of declamation refpecting the war, and the wickedness of the French; confining himself chiefly to fuch notice as he thinks proper to take of our national and private iniquities. There are many good things in his remarks and admonitions; though, as we must be free to add, we have met with nothing equal, in point of excellence, to the 3d, 4th,

gth, and 6th verfes of the lviii. chapter of Ifaiah, with which Mr. Barry's discourse is very properly introduced by way of text.

• SIR,

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the EDITOR of the MONTHLY REVIEW. Framlingham, April 8, 1795IN your Review (February, p. 191.) of the Marquis de Cafaux on the Effects of Taxes, you quote him as affirming that, towards the clofe of the laft century, viz. from 1688 to 1697, wheat was fome few pence more than 50s. a quarter; and adducing it, (with the amount of the whole produce of England and the price of labour in that period, compared with the price of corn and produce of the land from 1744 to 1780,) as an irrefragable proof of the benefit of taxes, and that the united enjoyments of the land owners and labourers have actually increafed very confiderably in the latter period.

'Had his affirmation fet forth a real fact, the inference drawn from it would not, in my apprehenfion, neceffarily follow; for the high or low price of wheat at any given period may be entirely owing to the feafon and confequent ftate of the crop, the farmer being better able in a plentiful year to fell his grain for a small price, than after fuch a harvest as the last for more than double the fame fum, when the average quantity of wheat, (at least in these parts,) appears to have fallen much below four coombs per acre.

But the affirmation is, I believe, falfe and groundless, and the argument drawn from it in favour of taxes, and horrid war, altogether inconclufive. I beg leave to confront with it the statement of the price of wheat in that period given by that accurate obferver, Mr. Samuel Say of Westminster, in a letter to Dr. Short of Sheffield, accompanying a copy of his journal of the weather, which commenced with the year 3695. The letter is dated Feb. 1741.

Mr. Say writes," I think I can remember that the feafons were kindly to the fruits of the earth, the latter end of the reign of K. James, and the beginning of K. William's. I fee under the hand of a perfon on whofe relation I can depend, that wheat fold for 2s. the bufhel only, by the quarter, at Yarmouth market in the year 1688." [Mr. Say had in his poffeffion the books and papers of his uncle, Mr. N. Carter, a confiderable merchant in that place.] "The fpring was very mild and forward the year 1690, and wheat only 2s. 6d. the bushel that year, and other proportions agreeable. From 1691 to the end of 92, I boarded at Norwich for 111. per ann. in a good family; and, if Í mistake not, the fol lowing winter of 169} was very severe;-" which is in general a prelude to a favourable wheat harvest.

I leave it to the Marquis, and others, to reconcile his affertion, that wheat was fomewhat more than 50s. per quarter from 1688 to 1697, with Mr. Say's statement of the fact, that it was only from 16s. to 20s. in 1688 and 90, and that he had reafon to think it to have been plentiful and cheap the four following years, at least in 91 and 92, when he boarded in a good family in the city of Norwich for 11l. per annum.

Not taxes, but the earth's fruitfulness, kept wheat at fo low a price during thefe years, and a fucceffion of unfavourable weather in 1695 and the following years raifed it to a much higher pitch in 1698 than ftated by the Marquis, viz. 725. to 80s. per. quarter; but though, from the wetness of the autumn in 1698, there was but half a crop fown, yet in 1699, from the heat and feasonableness of the fummer, wheat fell to a reasonable price, and continued fo for feveral years. • From

• From this account, it feems juft to conclude that the Marquis's statement of the price of wheat, at the first period mentioned, mult be materially erroneous, and that the great increase of it in 1698 was entirely owing to a remarkable badnefs of the feafon. In the other period, the variation in price in different years was nearly as great, according to the feafons, and not as influenced by the taxes. His arguments in favour of them may be fpecious, but they are too contrary to the common sense and feelings of mankind to prove convincing.

• SIR,

'S. S. TOMS.'

To the EDITOR of the MONTHLY REVIEW.

HAVING feen in your Correfpondence of laft month that Mr. T. G. in juftification of his having omitted my name, as the original author, in his tranflation of the Tour to the Pennine Alps and Defcription of Nice, acquaints you that he purchased thefe works of me, four years ago, I must request you, in order to clear this matter to the public, to infert in your next publication, that when T.G. applied to me for the purchase of the plates belonging to thofe books, he affured me that they were merely to be coloured and framed for exportation; and as T. G. did not introduce himself to me as either author or book. feller, on thefe conditions only I parted with them.

The prefent being a true ftate of the cafe, I defy T. G. to prove, that he ever purchased of me the copy right, although it is certain, that at the time I parted with the plates, I made him a prefent of a few of the remaining copies, looking on them as ufelefs; intending, as the introduction to my description of Nice (which he has likewife omitted) formed the public, to enlarge that defcription with a fequel of obfervations, &c. on that country at a future period, and which I have now perfectly completed in my prefent book on the Maritime Alps, &c. and which I flatter myfelf will foon appear before the public.

My cause of complaint does not however entirely originate from the tranflation of thofe works; but from their having been done without my confent or knowledge; and the fuppreffion of my name, which laft omiffion I have moft forcibly felt, from the idea of its being particularly unjust, those books having met with the most flattering indulgence from men of tafte and science in this country.

South Molton-street,

April 9,1795.

'I am, Sir,

Your moft obedient humble fervant,
ALBANIS BEAUMONT."

We have received a long letter from Mr. Anftice, in which he mentions certain practical obfervations, and cites fome authorities, that furnish, he prefumes, an argument or an apology for his reviving the famous controverfy about the eftimation of mechanical force. The principles which we explained on the occafion of examining his late pamphlet were fufficient, we thought, to fatisfy every reasonable doubt which might be entertained on that head: but the novelty of fome of the doctrines then advanced, and the conciseness at which we commonly aim, have perhaps prevented several of our readers from fully comprehending our views. We fhall therefore refume the fubject, and beftow a few reflections on the material paffages

of Mr. Anftice's letter.

See Review, vol. xv. p. 465.