fiance all the usual means of restraint. Some powerful, practicable corrective is evidently wanted; and it is worth the while of those who are in possession of power and influence to inquire, whether that which Mr. Yates has pointed out be not of that description. If a period should arrive, when the populace shall have begun not only to disregard, but to deride the restraints both of religion and morality, what a deluge of crimes will burst în upon us! It is high time for the Legislature to consider, whether it is prepared with means adequate to the stemming of such a torrent. It cannot hereafter plead the want of information on the subject as an excuse for not applying a suitable remedy.

But is not our establishment in Church and State equally in danger from the immorality of the rich, and from that of the poor? We do not positively know. Immorality is very dangerous to society, in what class and under what form soever it appear. But the effects arising from the misconduct of the rich are widely different from those produced by the misconduct of the poor. The immoralities of the great affect the state chiefly by means of the corruption which their example produces. The rich are under no temptation to commit many of the crimes by which the safety of individuals, and the public tranquillity, are frequently endangered. They have no interest in disturbing the existing order of things; in introducing innovations into either the legislature or the laws. On the contrary,

a change in the established system would tend to abridge their enjoyments, and to weaken the tenure by which they hold their means of enjoyment. Here and there a man may be found among them weak or wicked enough to think of building his greatness on his country's ruin; but such a man must find many abettors in the lower classes, or his machinations will be futile and unavailing. But with an abandoned licentious populace the case is different. They have nothing to lose by a reverse of fortune but their lives, of which they are usually prodigal enough; and if they succeed they have every thing to gain. When once a man-especially a poor man, has lost his character, and with it that esteem of himself upon which it was founded, he also loses all his affection for that state of things, and that government, which countenance and protect men only while they lead quiet, inoffensive, honest lives. "The world is "not his friend nor the world's law."

To what order in society do those chiefly belong whose lives are the most frequently forfeited to the laws, or those whom our places of confinement are not large enough to hold, or

those of whom it is so often necessary to rid the land by transportation? By whom are those robberies and murders committed, which seem to elevate to a disgraceful pre-eminence in wickedness the present period-by whom but by those for whom the legislature has neglected to provide the benefits of religious instruction? To the class of the neglected poor they obviously belong-as also do those 800 youthful depredators whose case is particularly noticed by Mr. Yates. An investigation into the condition of the poor, in several of the populous parishes in the metropolis, has been the means of ascertaining that," besides an incredible number of idle, vagabond, unin"structed children, there are at the present time in three or "four of those districts not less than EIGHT HUNDRED, be"tween the ages of nine and fourteen, in regular training as "thieves, to assist their parents in plundering the community: "fifteen of these unfortunate premature criminals are (at the "time of writing these words) in the prison of Newgate, and "three of them under sentence of death."

p. 85.

There is a circumstance too which at a time like this is fraught with too much peril to be overlooked. Many of the inferior classes, owing to the pressure of the times, are unemployed, and in distress, and consequently exposed to feel the full force of those temptations which the friends of anarchy and irreligion will not fail to throw in their way: and the number of them is increased by a multitude of disbanded soldiers and seamen, who have to seek for employment which really is not to be found in a sufficient measure. And have no symptoms of violence shown themselves great enough to awaken public apprehension ?—A fearful danger overhangs us; and it would surely be much wiser to meet it, than to wait till the calamity approach. We grant that these observations seem to apply rather to the State than to the Church: but it should be recollected that, though it has been disputed whether the downfal of the Church would involve the downfal of the state, it has never been doubted that the destruction of our civil constitution would prove that of our religious establishment.

The remedy of present grievances, and the antidote to future evils, plainly are, to provide religious instruction for those persons from whom danger can be apprehended. No one, who has perused the preceding ample extracts from Mr. Yates's Letter, can doubt the fact, that no sufficient provision for that purpose has yet been made. An immense majority of the poor cannot go to Church were they so inclined. They are unwel come guests in our Churches as well as our Chapels. Into

our Chapels indeed, it is wholly impossible, while the present system is acted upon, that they should gain admission. In all populous places continual encroachments are made on those parts of the building which were formerly appropriated to the poor, in order that those who are looked upon as intitled to a larger share of respect and consideration, may be accommodated with pews. In some Churches, not more than one-third the original space is continued to them: and in others as well as Chapels of ease, where (though the ancient parochial system is generally adhered to) the seats are let, this abuse is carried to a most reprehensible extent. In them the system of exclusion is pursued almost as rigorously as in the Chapels which owe their existence to private speculation. We have seen persons, who (though in tolerable circumstances) could not afford the high rental of a pew, overlooked in the most galling manner by the officers of the Church, and exposed to the most mortifying inconveniences. Let us now consider for a moment what is the probable consequence of thus forcing a great multitude to desert the service of the Church, and to desert it too with a feeling of indignation towards the society which authorizes and permits such exclusion. They must either seek from sectarists that religious instruction which the Church denies them; or habitually spend in disreputable places, that time which ought to be devoted to pious purposes.

"The visible and tremendous effects [to use the strong language of Mr. Yates] of such powerful demoralizing causes have been in our times (and are likely to continue to be) so severely felt that the mind shrinks from the contemplation of such a concentrated mass of exclusion, separation, and necessary disaffection to the Established Church.-Shut out, in fact, from the pale of the Church, from all participation in its benefits, these numbers are necessarily driven to join the ranks of injurious opposition, either in Dissent, and Sectarian enthusiasm ;-or in the infinitely more dangerous opposition of Infidelity, Atheism, and ignorant depravity. Such a mine of Heathenism, and consequent profligacy and danger, under the very meridian (as it is supposed) of Christian illumination, and accumulated around the very centre and heart of British Prosperity, Liberty, and Civilization, cannot be contemplated without terror by any real and rational friend of our Established Government in Church and State: and is surely sufficient to awaken the anxious attention of every true patriot, every enlightened statesman, every sincere advocate of suffering humanity, and every intelligent and faithful Christian." p. 51 to 52.

Nor are the mischiefs, arising from the want of accommodation in religious edifices in some populous neighbourhoods, felt only by the poor. Many, even of those who can and would gladly pay the price of a seat, after repeated applications to the proper persons, are told that next half year they may, or may

not be accommodated. Among our Christian countrymen who are not of the Church, no want of structures for religious purposes is discoverable. They have accommodation for all who want it. Their ancient buildings are enlarged, or new ones erected, as if by a species of magic, without any apparent difficulty, whenever occasion calls for them-often long before it does.

Let us now hear Mr. Yates's epitome of the means of rectifying these abuses, and of "cleansing the fountains of this baneful stream of vice." For this purpose he recommends the restoration of "the wise and judicious parochial organiza«tion established by our ancestors, and necessary to produce the beneficial effects of the national Church.”

"It is the division of the population into such moderate and appropriate parishes, that the numbers allotted to one minister may be reasonably commensurate to the powers of individual superintendance: it is such divisions of the population, cach supplied with a Parish Church, a Parish Priest, a Parish School, and the usual and established succession of Parish Officers, that will give to our excellent Liturgy, to its Catechism, and to its Parochial Services, their full efficacy and their full effects on the minds and conduct of the general population.

"This it is that will call into existence and maintain in force those religious and moral impressions, and those religious and moral habits, which it is the end and purpose of a national religion to produce; which can alone insure to it the love, veneration, and attachment, that are absolutely necessary to its stability; and which (I doubt not) your Lordship is fully convinced are more powerful and energetic agents, than all the other instruments and means of government united. They are therefore most worthy of the first and deepest attention of those to whom the safety of the State is intrusted."

[To be concluded in our next.]

ART. IV. A Narrative of the Events which have taken place in France, from the landing of Napoleon Bonaparte, on the first of March, 1815, till the restoration of Louis XVIII. with an account of the present State of Society and public Opinion. By HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS. London. Murray, 1815. price 9s. 6d. pp. 390.

OUR expectations had been highly raised by the promise of a work on a subject of such universal interest, from the pen of a writer so eminently qualified by every circumstance of talent, experience, and local information, to do justice to the theme, and they have been amply realised. We do not fail to recollect, that there was a time when Helen Maria Williams indulged

in all the fair, deceptive theories of republican virtue, disinterested fraternity, and a government resting solely on the po lished shafts of reason and philosophy.. The experiment of building a republic from the shattered ruins of a corrupt and absolute monarchy, was tried on the most vigorous and enlarged plan. We have seen the result, and are now probably all convinced, that the severe virtues of republicans, their selfdenial, patience, moderation, and ready submission to partial evil for the sake of general good, are only to be found in early states, which the arts of luxury have begun to polish, not to corrupt; and that although monarchies, under whatever name, always succeed to republics sooner or later, a durable republic can never succeed to a great monarchy. Neither the land of despotic France, nor of Imperial Rome, when once overgrown with the rank weeds of oppression, bribery and perfidy, and moistened with the blood of tyrants or of slaves, could ever become the soil to which the tree of liberty was indigenous.

The work under our consideration is arranged in the form of letters; and the first which relates the progress of conviction in the mind of the writer, being of a more familiar and didactic nature than the rest, which are devoted to narrative and description, shows how much Miss Williams excels in that mode of composition.

We confess, that having entertained the belief that few persons of sound taste, after the romantic period of sixteen, held in much veneration those variations on Ossian which we owe to Macpherson's lyre, we were rather surprised at being gravely told by Miss Williams that one of the motives of her former admiration of Napoleon, was her having been assured that he was "an enthusiastic admirer of Ossian; and when I found that he united to a noble simplicity of character, and a generous disdain of applause, a veneration for. Ossian, this circumstance filled up the measure of my admiration. I did not then know that Bonaparte valued Ossian only for his description of battles, like the surgeon who praised Homer only for his skill in anatomy." p. 9. Among a number of traits which excite our abhorrence and even contempt of the principal actor on the stage of Europe, whose disgraceful exit we have lately witnessed, we think it but just to point out the following anecdote, which certainly does great credit to his temper and good sense: at least, it shows that he had the wisdom to "assume a virtue, if he had it not."

"The Elbean band, which had hitherto since its landing been wandering among the mountains of the Var, and the departments of the lower Alps,