vernments trenched upon the liberties of the subject, they had ground to believe that the clergy sympathized with their overbearing rulers, and encouraged them in all their despotic measures; and in the late tremendous struggle between a nation determined to assert its rights, and an aristocracy resolute in withholding them, the clergy, with a few exceptions, have thrown their influence into the scale of corruption, and ranged themselves against the people. Even to the present hour, the ministers of the Establishment gave their votes and their influence in favour of men whom the common people almost universally consider as the enemies of their rights and liberties.

!

In regard to religious matters, they have not failed to remark the indifference which, with some bright exceptions, the Establishment has manifested, and the supercilious refusal of many of its ministers to co-operate with ministers and members of other denominations, for the advancement of objects of a benevolent and religious nature: they remember the disfavour which they at first showed to Sabbath schools, -the refusal of many of them to join with Christians of Dissenting communions in the Bible Society, the coldness and dislike with which the Establishment regarded missonary exertions, till after standing all the day idle for very shame, they at last felt compelled to enter upon the work at the eleventh hour, and then in how feeble a way A facetious minister of the Church used to say, that the Church of Scotland's Mission put him in mind of a clocking hen wi' ae bird;" while the poor and small body of Baptists have their missionaries widely spread among the heathen. I need not again refer to the state and conduct of the Church in the Highlands and destitute districts, nor to the undue superiority which the churchmen assume over other denominations of Christians. And when they see, coupled with this, the wealthy members of chapels of ease petitioning Parliament for State endowments, that they may throw their own burden on others, their alienation from the Church is confirmed, and their opposition strengthened.' pp. 47, 48.

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In no point of view does the conduct of the Anti-Voluntaries appear so dishonourable, so irreconcileably at variance with candour or Christian integrity, as in the delusive statements put forth with regard to the want of Church accommodation. The palpable unfairness of these statements is demonstrated in the second of these pamphlets by a series of statistical tables, which entirely demolish the pretence upon which the application for new churches is grounded. For instance, in sixteen of the places referred to in the Circular of the Assembly's Committee, it is shewn, that instead of the alleged deficiency of church room, stated at 159,444, there is a real surplus of 35,653, according to the principle of calculation laid down by Dr. Cleland! The table attached to the Circular

'keeps entirely out of view, the accommodation provided by Dissenters of different denominations, and takes up the extravagant position, that whatever may be their religious opinions, accommodation connected with the Establishment, sufficient for the whole population,

ought to be provided out of the public funds. In consequence of this omission, and by overrating the quantity of church accommodation required, the deficiency is made to appear enormous; for it will be seen from the remarks and table, afterwards given, that in the places which have been selected, while the Establishment has only provided, in both Churches and Chapels of Ease, 113,026; Dissenters, acting on the voluntary system, have provided 141,770 sittings; and it is also of importance to remark, that of the above 141,770 sittings, upwards of 130,000 are provided by evangelical Dissenters, who, it will not be denied, teach the great doctrines of the Gospel at least as purely and diligently as the clergy of the Establishment. Unless, therefore, in soliciting aid from government, the object is entirely sectarian, and with a view to proselyting from the ranks of Dissenters, this large supply cannot be disregarded.'

But that the object is sectarian there can be no doubt; for the existence of the Church accommodation provided by Dissenters is the provocative to the exertions now making to furnish cheaper seats in the Churches of the Establishment, and thus to bribe the attendance of the poorer classes. But will Parliament suffer itself to be imposed upon by such fraudulent statements, or lend itself to this desperate effort to recover lost ground from the Dissenters at the public expense! We cannot believe it.

Art. IX.-Memoirs of John Frederic Oberlin. Fifth Edition, 18mo. (with Portrait and Vignette.) London, 1835.

WE are pleased to see a fifth edition of this delightful piece of biography; and in this attractive and elegant shape, it will form a very engaging present, fit to range among the Amethysts and Amulets and Keepsakes of the Boudoir or Library-table; or, what were better still, to displace some volume of less intrinsic value. The Memoirs of Neff would form an excellent companion volume.

ART. X. LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

In a few days will be published, Ministerial Solicitude and Fidelity, a Farewell Sermon addressed to the Congregation of Holland Chapel, North Brixton, June 21st, 1835. With a brief History of the Author's connexion with that Place of Worship. By John Styles, D.D.

Shortly will be published, in two vols. small 8vo, Greece and the Levant; or Diary of a Summer's Excursion in 1834. With Epistolary Supplements. By the Rev. Richard Burgess, B.D., of St. John's College, Cambridge, Author of "The Topography and Antiquities of Rome."

In the press, in one small Volume, foolscap octavo, Roman-British Coins; or, Coins of the Romans, struck in and relating to the Province of Britain. Popularly illustrated and explained. By J. Y. Akerman, F.S.A., author of "A descriptive Catalogue of rare and unedited Roman Coins." This work will contain an accurate description every Roman Coin having relation to Britain, and also an account of those, which were minted in this country during the dominion of the Romans. It will be illustrated by numerous plates on steel and wood.

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Also, in 4to, the first part of a Series of 143 Plates of Roman Coins and Medals, comprising all the important varieties of the Consular or Family Series, and those of the Empire, from Pompey the Great, down to Trajan Decius. Including many of those struck in the Colonies and Imperial Greek Cities, embracing a period of 475 years. With Introductory Observations. By the late Rev. John Glen King, D.D., F.R.S. F.S.A. &c. &c.

ART. XI. WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED.

THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

FOR AUGUST, 1835..

Art. I.-1. Journal of a Residence and Tour in the United States of North America, from April 1833, to October 1834.

By E. S. Abdy, Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. In three Volumes. large 12mo. pp. 1248. London, 1835.

2. Penitentiaries (United States). Report of William Crawford, Esq., on the Penitentiaries of the United States, addressed to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 11 August, 1834. folio, pp. 229.

MR

R. ABDY left England for America, in company with Mr. Crawford, who had been sent out by our Government to inspect the prisons of the United States. His own attention was naturally directed to the subject of Prison Discipline, and he inspected all the principal Penitentiaries. On this account, we have placed together our Traveller's Journal and the Official Report of Mr. Crawford.

The most interesting light in which America can be viewed, is that of a grand experiment in political economy. The young Republic entered upon her career amid all the lights of the latter part of the eighteenth century; she has been left undisturbed by foreign danger or external pressure in organizing her institutions; she has neither been incumbered by the relics of feudalism, nor embarrassed with a redundant population; there has been a clear field for working out the plans of her legislators and philosophers: nothing, therefore, can be more deserving of attention than the results so far as hitherto developed. England has a peculiar interest in them, because the American Government is, with all its dissimilarity, the genuine production of British constitutional principles: it is, in fact, little more than a modification of the British Colonial system, with an Elective Governor General in

VOL. XIV.-N.S.

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