We take the liberty of offering a friendly hint to this lady, and to other poetical writers. It is, to select their stories from subjects which do not depend upon the simple catastrophe, but are accompanied with various interesting incident. The result of such a choice inevitably insures the Author. The mind is utterly absorbed in the event, and the poetry is disregarded, because it is not possible to equal, or rather to rise up to in language the grand overpowering sensation. Besides there appears to us an error of judgment in such selection. The spectator at an execu. tion, or standing by a death-bed, sympathizes with every emotion of the sufferer, but a picture of these events excites no such interest; only a feeble gloomy impression. 44. The Theory of Elocution, exhibited in connexion with a new and philosophical Account of the nature of instituted Language. By B. H. Smart, Professor of Elocution and Public Reader of Shakspeare. Svo. pp. 149. Richardson, &c. MR. SMART is a Professor of the Art of Reading, and we most cordially wish him, as apparently an able man, who has well studied his subject, the utmost possible number of pupils. But friends as we are to simplicity, we do not think that they are likely to be increased, by annexing to the study of Elocution, a waggon load of unintelligible and uninteresting metaphysical jargon about the nature of instituted language, and a wheelbarrow burden of technical musical scores. Mr. Smart, p. 77, says, "The mechanical tones [of a school-boy] gave the learner some trouble, but were he obliged to read according to the meaning, he must make himself acquainted with it." This remark is judicious; and we think that the comprehension of the passage and proper disposition of the accents is every thing practicable, which can be required by the teacher, if he means to have numerous pupils. There is a rage in the present day among the Professors of Elocution, to aunex the utmost possible quantity of artificial machinery, but things in common use can never be kept in order, but by simplicity of construction. We do not hire masters to know what they are able to do, no more than we pay a French cook to see what dishes he is able to make, but to be instructed ourselves, and have a luxurious dinner. Let the pupils read sentences, and the master mark the accents. Prac tice and oral instruction will soon complete the rest. Do players study technical arts of reading? Cannot people take snuff without having a musical box? or read well without wasting time in useless drudgery? 45. Rosamond, Memory's Musings, and other Poems. By Wilham Procter. 8vo. pp. 145. Hookham. MR. PROCTER, like many other young poets, took it into his head to fall in love with a girl, who afterwards preferred another, as girls frequently do, till they reach a certain age, when they do not venture to speculate any longer. Mr. Procter very judiciously ob. serves, of one of these pratling, spin sters: No-pity dwells not in the heart which cold caprice despoileth. No-sorrow saddeus not the cheek on all alike that smileth." No philosopher could have given a more just definition of the horrible unfeelingness of a capricious temper, not directed by good sense and judgment, a fault, we fear, too common from educational inattention to mind and principle, and through which the lives of husbands, relatives, and servants, are perpetually teazed with annoying petty miseries; for who can know how to conform themselves to persons who have no fixed metre of thinking or conduct. We think it a lucky thing, that this girl cut him, because he appears to be an amiable man, and a man of taste and sentiments, who sins in poetry, like various idle young men, with very fair pretensions to indulge in such a flattering mode of humouring females, who, by no means deserve it, at least not his capricious pet : but falling in love, and falling in battle, are common incidents with gallant young men: and, as Fielding says, a challenge to love and to fight is always to be accepted, let the consequences end how they may. We should prefer wives all soul and no self; and should certainly pay due attention to prudence, steady character, and an assurance, that a woman loved us, before we commenced particular attentions. 46. Vindication 46. Vindication of our authorised Trans- Henry John Todd, MA. F.A.S. &c. EVERY man who is capable may He As to ourselves, we are no friends to biblical millinery and mantuamaking. It is to be remembered that even the most bigoted Dissenters have hitherto used, without seruple, the authorised Translation. Now it is an idea of the present projecting age, that every man is at liberty to form both his religious and moral principles by his own construction of the Bible; and thus we are gravely told that Legislative codes (and such is Christianity) may be optionally infringed by private interpretation. The Bishops naturally and rationally dread innovations, as generative of new schisms; and any thing which can indirectly be construed to bring the authority of the Bible into question seconds the doctrines of Paine and Carlile. If a man steps forth, like another Goliath, he requires a brazen forehead, impenetrable to the stones of Davids of all sorts; and he must expect at least to retire from the battle, as many have descended from the pillory, covered, not with glory, but dirt.-Had Mr. Bellamy published a simple Paraphrase, he would have probably avoided that volley of missiles which now threatens him. We forbear to say any more on so tender a subject, than to observe that Mr. Told, with much candour, and great ability, has completed the task begun by Mr. Whitaker. GENT. MAG. March, 1820. 47. Homilies for the Young, and more especially for the Children of the National Schools, By the Rev. Harvey Mariott, Rector of Claverton, &c. Cr. Svo. pp. 300. Taylor and Hessey. rious and exemplary Clergyman who MR. MARRIOTT is the meritogained the prize of the Church Union Society in the diocese of St. David's. The Discourses before us are plain, impressive, holy, and admirably accordant with the title. Families candelivering evening lectures to children. not choose a better Sunday book for 48. The Altogether Christian; a Sermon preached in Ebenezer Chapel, Guernsey, Sunday, April 11, 1819, and published at the Request of the Local Missionary Committee for that Island. By John Hawtrey, late Captain in his Majesty's 25th Reg. &c. In Svo. pp. 30. Blanchard. THE profits of this Sermon are devoted to the Missionary Society; and Mr. Hawtrey has here published a very animated general summary of the leading duties and graces of a Christian. The manner is professedly what is called Evangelical; but we find nothing objectionable in the doctrine. 49. Fourteenth Report of the British and WE believe the extension of education to be a direct means of augmenting a taste for knowledge and abstract pleasures, and therefore of eventually diminishing the errors aud the vices of mankind. It is also evident that a vast limitation of this desirable object must inevitably ensue, if religious principles of parti cular kinds were to operate in lieu of such a civilizing quality as instruction. The leading characteristick of barbarism is cruelty; and therefore to withhold education, is to stop the dissemination of humanity and' philanthropy. Under a firm persuasion, that the high and eminent characters who support this laudable Institution, have no other than these motives, we feel great satisfaction in announcing their Report; but, as it appears from page 11, that the "plan of this Institution provides for religious instruction grounded on the Holy Scrip tures 1 tures ulone," we shall tell them what their enemies say. The conspiracy of Sandt, the assassin of Kotzebue, is said to "aim at amalgamating all the different Faiths in Germany into one Religion, which shall recognize no other authority than the Bible, and no duty or moral principle but what is the result of selfconviction; and, in this design, the British and Foreign Bible Society are said to participate." (See Burges's Letter to Coke, p. 283.) For our part, we do not believe that there ever will be a period when men will derive their Religion from the Bible alone; for, if they had any inclination so to do, we believe that the Church of England would long ago have been universal; but the consignment of moral principles to the variable standard of individual opinion or feeling is really dangerous. We seriously think that the charge is unfounded; but we also think that it dictates the necessity of moral instruction being deeply inculcated by the friends of this Institution. Creeds we know that they cannot press; but we are sure that they do not wish to make men wiser, unless they can also nake them better. We deem every institution that does not include the doctrines of our National Church imperfect; but we should be void of candour if we did not think such a blessing not possible to be universally communicated, without ruin to the intention of the Society. We hope that we shall be understood, as not listening to slander, but only using it as a medium of rendering the plan of the Society still more advantageous; for we are not told in the plan, that the "Reading Lessons, tho' extracts from the Holy Scriptures, are especially adapted to the inculcation of the Christian code of morals; to which, in our opinion, no objection should be permitted. 50. Inquiry into the Law relating to the public Assemblies of the People. By a Friend to the Constitution. 8vo. pp. 48. Hatchard. FROM the aurora borealis character of our present times, electrified as they are with the materials of light ning, which materials, we hope, will "peaceably disperse" in a more harmless form, we superstitiously recoil; with the alarms natural to old gen tlemen, as well as old ladies. We hold Jacobin-Clubbism to be the stilletto, and human passions religionized to be the slow poison, by which our two-fold Constitution of Church and State is to be assassinated. We deem the causes (not obvious) of our present situation to be these: 1. Pinkerton, speaking of pedantry, says, "When a man is in the rudiments of any knowledge, how full he is of it, how importantly he talks of it!" The vulgar, by means of a general superficial education, furnished by the modern charities and party newspapers, set up for adepts in the very difficult science of Politicks; which is just as rational as that Robinson Crusoe should have been capable of inventing the air-pump or steain-engine, or even of conducting them. 2. Johnson's position, that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel,” is a remark which may justly be said to apply to most of the ringleaders. 3. Where there is neither rank or property, many ambitious men acquire consequence and station by means of faction. We could name demagogues, who have sat in Parliament, though, party excepted, obscure men, not even men of high judgment, but merely good orators in political common-place. Now, for the success of these personal views, it is necessary to lure the people by projects, and form them into clubs, a matter in free countries easy of execution. Notwithstanding the manifest truth, that only the leaders, if successful, thrive; what is reason, addressed to needy tradesmen, who hope to find customers in the party, or to still poorer classes, attracted by the apparent spoils of revolution? The restraints of Religion, which might teach principle and contentment, are weakened by latitudinary notions of the all-absolving sacrifice of Christ; while mobs, in their usual violent vulgar way, over-awe, as they think, the Legislature; for there can be no doubt but that our seditious meetings are bonú fide Jacobin clubs. Goldsmith's observation is ever to be remembered: "It is not what an Opposition says, but the existence of an Opposition, which is of use to the country." We know a great rogue, who published a furious newspaper, not not that he had any conscientious political sentiment, but because there was a party who would be sure to buy it. We have been told that a certain English Tribune, a very rich and able declaimer against rotten boroughs, is not returned, as he professes, from pure popularity, but from the humbler expedient of pensioning paupers, that they may not forfeit their votes by receiving parish relief. Men of knowledge may not like to be classed with Whige, or Tories, or Republicans; and there certainly is no absolute necessity for a division of the political world, like a Theatre, into boxes of Tories, pits of Whigs, and shilling-galleries of Democrats. We rather think that it ought to be deemed a field day, or review; where it may be allowed to disorderly boys to climb trees, and whoop and hollow; but to thinking men and old dons, to sit in a snug corner out of the mob, without having their loyalty or their patriotism impeached, or being obliged to eat the political gingerbread hawked about by the party journalists. They may wish (reasonably) to form their opinions from history and circumstances. They may think that Clubs, or Public Meetings, intended to over-awe the Legislature, are, if permitted, sure ultimately to produce Despotism. The popular factions of Rome ended in Sylla and Cæsar; of England, in Bradshaw and Cromwell; of France, in Robespierre and Buonaparte. As the subject of this Pamphlet has already received ample discussion in high quarters, our humbler concern is purely literary. We give our unqualified assent to the great merits of this judiciously-constructed Pamphlet; we admire the energetic eloquence of its fine conclusion; and think that it may be very useful in the approaching State Trials, intended, as they wisely are, to destroy the wasps' nests in the North. 51. The Necessity of restoring Annual Parliaments asserted on the Principles of Law, Justice, and good Policy. By Henry Armstrong Mitchell. 8vo. pp. 61. Sherwood and Co. 52. A Letter to Lord John Russell, on the Necessity of Parliamentary Reform, as recommended by Mr. Fox; and on the Expediency of repealing the Corporation and Test Acts. pp. 76. Hunter. BOTH these Pamphlets are founded upon erroneous data. During the Government of Prerogative, Parlia ments were not held annually, triennially, or upon any rule whatever ; and septennial Parliaments commenced in 1716, the year after the Scotch Rebellion, because it was not thought prudent to bring Jacobites into the House by a new election., A Letter of the day says (Rawdon Papers, p. 400),“ our Senators are made such for seven years, which is another blessing to this Nation, now we begin to feel the blessings of our happy Revolution." As the majority of the rich support Government, we do not see what the Opposition Members would gain by shorter periods. We think that their elections would only be more often contested. Mr. Mitchell says, that the freedom from arrest is the chief inducement for persons to strive for seats. We deprecate such mean ideas. The Members of the two Houses are the richest men in the kingdom. We have indeed heard, that a certain titled popular Reform Preacher has been menaced with desertion by his ci-devant parish clerk and sexton, unless he ob. ́ tain for them also admission to the pulpit! and we rejoice at it, because it will teach him that the old rule of malcontents is, to pull down all to their own level, not to raise others t to theirs. As to the second Pamphlet, it is to be observed, that Parliamentary Reform, on account of mortifying minorities, has ever been the cry of party out of place, and never acted upon by it when in place, because it implies Administration in subserviency to Faction, not the constituted Executive authority. The intention is, to make the members delegates, and the ministers tools of mobs, by. which Legislation would be conducted upon partial interests. As to the Test Acts, the repeal of which is founded upon the plausible pretext that every man is entitled to his own creed, we peremptorily affirm that the Epistles of all the Apostles in the New Testament were written for no other purpose than to explode this dogma. They even excommunicated all who seriously differed from them; and and they would and did have an Establishment founded upon articles of faith, and allowed no other. 53. Results of Experience in the Practice of Instruction; or Hints for the Improvement of the Art of Tuition, as it regards the middling and higher Classes of Society, with a View to the general Attainment of an enlarged or encyclopediac Course of liberal Education during the Years usually spent at School, being an Elucidation of the Basis of the System pursued at Stanmore Academy, conduct ed by W. Johnstone, M.A. 8vo. pp. 66. Goodhugh.. MR. JOHNSTONE has published this Pamphlet in explanation of his plans, which (provided his pupils are first made sound classicks) cannot be otherwise than beneficial. 54. Reasons for the immediate Repeal of the Tax on Foreign Wool. By James Bischoff. 8vo. pp. 43. Richardson. IN a preceding Review on this subject we have given our opinions at length on the impolicy of partial Legislation, and of taxing the raw materials of our manufactures. Since then, the tax has passed, probably (according to Mr. Bischoff, p. 23) because Lord Sheffield stated the woollen manufacture exported to amount to only one million; whereas it is seven millions. Mr. Bischoff also argues that the tax, instead of producing 300,000l. per annum, will only bring 57,000l. odd, of which the result will be this: "The revenue will lose more than that sum in other duties; the importation of finer wool will also be considerably decreased by the exclusion of foreign trade, and must occasion considerable loss to the revenue, to which sum must be added the taxes on dying wares, oil, and many other articles, now used in the woollen manufacture. Instead, therefore, of an increase, it will cause a heavy loss to the revenue; more will be lost by the decrease of duties on the exportation of woollen goods, and on the articles used in the manufacture, than can be gained by the tax on wool," P. 29. As the point will no doubt ere long be fully argued in the new House of Commons, we shall only say, that this Pamphlet, written in a proper statistical form, merits the most attentive perusal; and we only decline giving more of its valuable contents on the account which we have stated.. 55. Extracts from a Pamphlet, entitled The Friend of Peace, containing a special Interview between the President of the United States and Omar, an Officer dismissed for Duelling; with Six Letters from Omar to the President, and Omar's solitary Reflections. The whole reported by Philo-Pacificus, Author of "A solemn Review of the Custom of War." Printed in America; and reprinted by J. Lomax, Underbank, Stockport. 8vo. pp. 30. THIS work is a fiction, founded upon Quaker principles, concerning War and Duelling. No man can vindicate either in the abstract; but, while mankind are what they are, the evil of duelling retains the most uncontrollable profession within the bounds of good manners, like medieine formed of a poison, which nevertheless has sometimes, but rarely, a destructive effect. As to war, if men did not resist violence, the good must be slaves, and the bad masters. It has been most respectably observed, that the Quaker principles would oc casion the extirpation of half the human species. No doubt, if mankind were as they ought to be, there would be no such thing as duelling or war, but when will this desirable state of human conduct take place? 56. Memoirs of the late John Tobin, Author of "The Honey Moon," with a Selection from his unpublished Writings. By Miss Benger, Author of "Memoirs of Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton." 8vo. THE Author of the Honey Moon is well entitled to the honourable memorial which this Volume offers of his talents and his virtues. It is impossible to watch the progress of his hopes and fears, or to trace his early and continued disappointments, without strong feelings of sympathy and regret. His fame was dearly pur chased, but it is a fair and unalienable possession: and, as his Biographer justly remarks, he has not merely caught the spirit, but participated in the privileges of our elder writers, while a few even of the early sketches, or unfinished productions, must be acceptable to the cultivated reader. But in the dramas, which form at least two-thirds of this Volume, we have discovered better claims to attention. The play of "The Indians" offers many striking passages. The musical dramas of Yours or Mine" and the "Fisherman," if compressed, would, |
