for the abolition of the Slave Trade carried in effect the abolition itself. He had done in so few months what his distinguisht rival, wielding all the powers of parliament and of the empire for more than twenty years, had ceas'd even to attempt long before his death. He had carried to a highly promising degree of progress, a negotiation for peace, commenc'd from personal respect to an unaffected instance of his habitual benevolence, and abhorrence of treachery and cruelty; a negotiation of peace in the spirit of peace and candour, and which, consulting the honour and interests of all parties, had a probability, after such experience of war by all, of being slighted by none. I can not, therefore, ever admit that Mr Fox had not done, in his short and precarious power, much, indeed, of what he had promis'd out of power. And from his character and conduct, and from his letter of the 18th of Feb. 1806, with which he honour'd me, I am convinc'd that he was desirous to have done more; that he would have been ever vigilant to do more; that he never would have lost sight of the question of Parliamentary Reform; that he never would have neglected an opportunity to ameliorate the state of Ireland; both for her own sake and for the honour and the essential interests of this island; that he never would have abandon'd the cause of religious freedom in behalf of Roman Catholics, and of all descriptions of dissentients; that he would have earnestly persever'd in the investigation of public abuses (to the vigour with which that investigation proceeded during his short administration we owe apparently the present discoveries and their great result); in the strenuous endeavour to check the lavish expenditure of the public money; that he would have zealously adopted, as he had once before done, the wise and benevolent design of the revision and melioration of our Penal Laws. But I am not less convinc'd that in many, indeed in most of these objects, he would have been defeated; and that while the representation is unreformed, he could not have overcome defects inherent in the system.' An Appendix contains the resolutions of several public meetings, in favour of a reform in the Commons House of Parliament. Art. 36. Brief Treatise on the Privileges of the House of Commons. By W. Burdon. 8vo. pp. 114. 2s. 6d. Longman and Co. 1810. Though we cannot, in many instances, agree with either the conclusions or the arguments of this writer, who appears to us to have taken too narrow a view of the great question of privilege, we applaud the bold and manly spirit with which his positions are advanced, the freedom and impartiality which characterize his mode of conducting the discussion, and the large stores of information which he has contrived to draw together within a narrow compass. His plain dealing wil indeed by some be deemed excessive, for he accuses Mr. Hatsell and Sir F. Burdett, in a breath, of mistaking and misrepresenting the precedent established in Thorp's case; wonders that the former should have omitted various precedents of importance; charges the latter with misrepresenting Trewynnard's affair, with unfair inferences, and and with being afraid to tell the whole truth, where it seemed to make against his position; freely criticises the report of the Committee of Privileges; and deems the opinion of Prynne of more weight than the determination of fifty judges, who, nine out of ten, always lean to the side of power and prerogative. Mr. Burdon is an ardent opponent of the privilege lately exercised by the House of Commons, and has certainly composed, if not a convincing, at least a very entertaining and instructive pamphlet on that question. Art. 37. A Letter addressed by Lieutenant-Colonel John Grey to a Member of the House of Commons, on the Subject of the Liability of the Pay of the Officers of the Army and Navy to the Tax on Property. 8vo. pp. 40. Carpenter. Colonel Grey begins his letter by an extract from an act of the first of William and Mary, granting an aid of a shilling in the pound, which is obligatory on all classes except such military officers who are or shall be in muster or pay in their majesties army or navy; and, fortified by this precedent, he declares (page 14.) his intention of appealing to a jury on the legality of the charge of property-tax on the pay of officers in active service. We cannot commend the style of this epistle, which, instead of a plain statement, seems occasionally to aim (page 28.) at a rhetorical declamation that is unsuited to the subject: but we sympathize very sincerely with the hardship of the case. Our officers are among the class of subjects who have suffered most severely from the rapid enhancement of prices during the present age; and they have, as is well known, received no adequate increase of pay. We were much affected on reading (page 31.) that the author has a brother, still a navy-lieutenant, whose commission was dated twenty nine years ago; and who has lately been forced to retire from active service by bad health, without any other provision than his scanty half-pay! MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 38. Ferdinand and Ordella, a Russian Story; with authentic Priscilla Parlante was introduced to our readers as the writer of a peculiar kind of work, in our last vol. p. 218.; and an advertisement of the present new production of her pen announces it to be the performance of the Honourable Mrs. Cavendish Bradshaw, who had chosen the appellation of P P. as her nom de guerre. It commences with a long and rather fatiguing dissertation, consisting chiefly of a critique on "Celebs in Search of a Wife;" in which the author encroaches on our province, without maintaining our positions, since she refuses to Calebs the negative merit of doing no harm,' while she grants it to the works of Sterne and of Monk Lewis ! - Although Mrs. C. Bradshaw thinks that Caelebs is too severe, she also would attempt reformation: but we cannot exactly divine what would be either its measure or its manner. She wishes entirely to prohibit novels in the younger circle of readers,' and then to allow the the novelist still greater latitude for the recreation of persons whose religious and moral principles may be supposed soundly established;" in which case he may be permitted to sketch his subjects with a bolder line of excentricity, to colour his scenery with more expressive tints of glowing sensibility, and to dispose his drapery in all the alluring folds of a luxuriant fancy' Now it is our opinion that readers, whose moral and religious principles are soundly estab lished,' cannot find recreation' in the perusal of licentious publications; and that is neatly what we understand from the above description, when reduced to its lowest terms, and connected with the characters of the books which are mentioned. — Mrs. B. is also unsparing in her censure of Barouche-drivers, and Play-house immoralities, without allowing that any amendment is necessary in the first principles whence these excesses spring; and without being aware that, if the exuberance of vice and folly be repressed in one of its exhibitions, it will, unless radically reformed, break out in another shape. This lady appears to possess more imagination than judgment. The former quality has enabled her to enrich her work with many scenes of real interest, but the latter would perhaps have deterred her from putting a "Slip-slop" pronunciation of English words in the mouth of a Russian Dame; and from making Ferdinand's enemies drop such frequent and opportune packets of confessions and death-warrants. She has great command of language and powers of fancy; and though we cannot coincide in all her speculative opinions, we have been pleased and amused with the volumes before us. How far her anecdotes of the Russian Court' may be received as authentic, we do not undertake to pronounce. Art 39. The Title of a Reflective Tale' has not been unduly assumed for this little work, in which much good and pious reasoning is engrafted on an interesting narrative. The prison-scene is both improving and affecting; and the anecdotes relative to the French Revolution have an appearance of truth. We can safely recommend this volume as one of which the perusal may be attended with pleasure and advantage. Art. 40. An Address to the Public, upon the dangerous Tendency of the Londen Female Penitentiary; with Hints relative to the best Means of lessening the Sum of Prostitution. By William Hale. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Conder. Art. 41. Prostitutes reclaimed, and Penitents protected; being an Answer to some. Objections made against the Principle and Tendency of the London Female Penitentiary; with Observations on Licenced Brothel Houses, and on the Means of discouraging Prostitution. By William Blair, Esq. Surgeon of the Lock Hospital and Asylum, the London Female Penitentiary, &c. 8vo. 25. Seeley. Art. Art. 42. The Remonstrant; being a Letter to Mr. William Hale; in reply to his Address to the Public, &c. 8vo. IS. Conder. By G. Hodson. Art. 43. A Reply to the Pamphlets lately published in Defence of the London Female Penitentiary; with further Remarks on the dangerous Tendency of that Institution. By William Hale. 2s. 6d. Art 44. Conder. 8vo. Strictures on Mr. Hale's Reply to the Pamphlets lately published in Defence of the London Female Penitentiary. By G. Hodson. To which is added a Letter to the Author, on the Inadequacy of the Poor Laws, for employing, protecting, and reclaiming unfortunate Females destitute of Work, in answer to Mr. Hale's Reply. By Mr. Blair, Surgeon of the Lock Hospital, &c. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Williams and Co. Art. 45 General Redemption the only proper Basis of General Benevolence; a Letter addressed to Robert Hawker, D. D. Vicar of Charles, Plymouth. Suggested by his Defence of the London Female Penitentiary, recently established in the Vicinity of Islington. By John Evans, A. M. &c. 8vo. 18. 6d. Sherwood and Co. 6 The objections urged by Mr. Hale, against the newly established London Female Penitentiary, are that its effects will be to increase the sum of prostitution, and that its principe is unsupported by the word of God. Mr Blair, who gives his professional assistance to the Institution gratuitously, and Mr. Hodson, undertake to combat the positions of Mr. Hale, together with the arguments which he employs in their support. They maintain that the principle on which the Female Penitentiary is instituted is highly landable; that, in its effect, it is a school of virtue; and that its object is strictly conformable to the spirit and letter of the Gospel. Mr. Hodson explains the probationary course through which the applicant passes, previously to full admission to the benefits of the charity, in order to confute Mr. Hale's broad assertion that Penitentiaries open wide their doors to the most abandoned prostitutes.' He contends, against the author of the Address, that there is no reason for supposing that these unhappy females are determined in their crimes by any motives resulting from the existence of such charities; and that the probationary ward of the Penitentiary is as likely a means of reformation as Mr. Hale's solitary cell in a prison. In reply to that part of the charge which relates to the supposed bad effects on the morals of the public, by placing the reci imed prostitutes in the bosom of decent society, viz. by introducing them as servants in regular families, Mr. Hodson remarks that none are sent from the Penitentiary to these situations whose repentance is dubious and that, by the religious instruction which they have received, and by the habits which they have acquired, they will be more likely to amend than to injure the morals of those who are in the class of servitude. The probability of their relapsing, however, must be allowed*.-To re-but the charge that the principle of these institutions is unsupported by the word of God, Mr. Hale is referred to the parable of the Prodigal Son, &c.; and in opposition to his ideas of work-houses as Reformatories, Mr. Hodson styles them seminaries of vice. Not convinced by the reasoning of his two opponents, Mr. Hale makes a furious rejoinder, in which he complains that misrepresentation and falsehood have been employed against him instead of argument. He reiterates his original charge respecting the immoral' tendency of the Institution, which he regards as an Asylum suited to ladies with the hardest name, but not to "seduced females;" and he vehemently protests against the plan of the Penitentiary, in dispos ing of the repenting prostitutes as servants in regular families. He suspects hypocrisy on their entrance, and calculates on the chance of the return of vicious propensities after their dismissal. Wishing to prevent rather than to be accessary to prostitution, even after the fact, Mr. Hale calls on the respectable inhabitants in every parish to perform their public duty; and not, by paying a fine, to exonerate themselves from the performance of parochical offices, on the careful discharge of which the morals of the lower orders greatly depend, The vigilance of gentlemen in their respective districts may, he thinks, but Penitentiaries cannot, in the very nature of things, greatly thin the ranks of prostitution. In short, he complains that, in attempting thus to root out this evil, we begin at the wrong end; and that the advocates for the Institution at Pentonville, in the ardor of their defence, have indiscreetly asserted that there is no law against prostitution, nor punishment annexed to it in the word of God; positions which, if true, must induce the rising generation to think very lightly of this crime. In the Strictures by Messrs. Hodson and Blair, we find Mr. Hale in his turn very warmly assailed with the charge of falsehood, of specious reasoning, and of using foul and injurious language against the abettors of the Penitentiary, which rises in estimation on the one hand in proportion to the vehemence with which it is depreciated on the other hand. It is unnecessary for us, however, farther to detail the progress of this controversy, the merits of which lie in a very narrow compass. Mr. Hale and his antagonist are all partly right and partly wrong. The former is right in thinking that the prevention of prostitution is preferable to attempts at a partial cure when the evil has reached an alarming height; he is also justified in his apprehensions respecting the consequences of admitting "reclaimed prostitutes," as they are called, into respectable families, since the calculation against their relapsing into vice is only as 2 to 1: but he is not, perhaps, sufficiently authorized in asserting that, for every individual According to an inquiry made at the Magdalen, two-thirds of the number admitted were permanently reclaimed. Hence the chance in favour of the future good conduct of a reclaimed prostitute is only as 2 to I. who |