this remark, fhe is a better housewife than a politician. If the rich will have hams to waste in this ridiculous manner, fo much the better for their country: one hog furnishes but two hams; and if this call for hams encourages the breed, there is all the rest of the carcase for the market and the falting-trough. As Mrs. P. takes a wide range, we fhall follow her to a circumftance, which, fhe believes, has occurred only to herself; and this is the great waste of land in cutting canals for inland navigation; though the admits that the keeping of many horfes is faved by this mode of conveying goods *. If thefe canals fave the keeping of as many horfes as the ground which they occupy would feed, the objection to them is fo far removed: but others, with more plaufibility, have objected to them, as enhancing the price of neceffaries in low country places, by facilitating the carriage of them to other markets:-but cheapnefs, in fuch places, is no evidence of profperity; and if the eafinefs of conveying away their produce raises prices to an average, its tendency must be to ftimulate cultivation, and to rouze the torpid natives to activity:-nothing profpers under a general stagnation. We cordially join with this zealous matron in all her extenfive wishes to promote the welfare of the community; and we approve many of her hints for cultivating and planting waste and barren lands, for which, we understand, that diftinguished gardener Miller is her guide and authority: we should thus gain much more land than is loft in roads and canals. The danger in thefe fpeculations is by taking partial views; by miftaking the fymptoms of a diforder for the caufes; and by fixing the attention on the most obvious and grievous, when all ought to combine in the investigation. N. THEOLOGY and POLEMICS. Art. 66. A fhort and plain Expofition of the Old Teftament, with devotional and practical Reflections, for the Ufe of Families. By the late Rev. Job Orton, S. T. P. Published from the Author's MSS. by Robert Gentleman. Vols. V. and VI. 8vo. 12s. Boards. Longman. Mr. Gentleman has now brought this work to a conclufion. Thefe last two volumes are executed in the fame manner as the preceding, of which we have already given a general account t. Little more feems neceffary to be now added. The expofitory part of this performance will probably be, to fome readers, the leaft fatisfactory. We conceive that, for the fake of brevity, which was a leading object,) the editor must have confiderably abridged what the author had prepared for his congregation; which, not being by him intended for the prefs, is not to be fuppofed what it would have been had he himself prepared it for the public eye. The reflections, at the end of the chapters, conftitute the most valuable part of the publication. Thele appear to be entire, tranfcribed from the author's fhort-hand, excepting a few fmall corrections, which * Page 17. + See Rev. vols. lxxix. and lxxxi. and New Series, vol. iii. REV. AUG. 1792. K k muft must be univerfally confidered as allowable and neceffary. They are natural, plain, practical, and highly characteristic of the author. Thefe, we are well affured, he himself wifhed, in fome form or other, to be made public. At the clofe of the book of Daniel, is a fermon on chap. ix. 24-27, concerning the Seventy weeks, which contains a clear and ufeful interpretation of that illuftrious prophecy of the Meffiah. We obferve, in the editor's advertisement, prefixed to the lak volume, an apology for the omiffion of his Memoirs of the Author, which had been promifed in the propofals. Materials for thefe, it feems, have been collected by a clergyman of the church of England, and put into the hands of Dr. Kippis, who had purposed to give fome account of Mr. Orton, under the article of Dr. Doddridge, in the Biographia Britannica. When this appears, Mr. Gentleman informs his fubfcribers, (of whom he has a very refpectable lift,) that he will furnish them with a copy of it, at a small expence, so printed as to be bound up with this work at any future time. We shall be happy foon to announce it to the public, and hope to find it as true a portrait of Mr. Orton's character, as the engraver has given of his perfon, in the laft volume of this work. S.Palmer. Art. 67. Thoughts on the Neceffity and Means of a Reform of the Church of England. By a Friend to Religion and his Country. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Johnfon. 1792. By feveral expreffions in this pamphlet, it appears to be the production of a Member of the establishment: but the roughness with which the clergy are treated may, on the other hand, be thought to indicate its author to be fome violent feparatift. To the clergy, the abounding of vice is attributed, and the church is defcribed as an Augean ftable, which requires for its cleanfing the Herculean arm of reformation. The choice of perfons defined to the clerical office, the mode of their introduction to livings, the ufual methods of rifing to the higheft dignities in the church, the unequal distri bution of its revenues, the mode of paying the clergy, and the almoft total want of difcipline among them, are boldly reprobated by this author. After condemning the things that are, he proceeds to fhew us how he apprehends things fhould be. Two plans of reform are offered to the confideration of the public. The first chiefly refpects the lopping off redundancies, and equalizing the remain ing revenues of the church, fo that no clergyman fhould have less than 100l. per annum, with a houfe and garden, and no one more than 500l. per annum, except the bishops, who are to be allowed from 1000l. to 2000l. and the two archbishops 30col. annually. The other plan of reform propofed, is, that no one fyftem of opinions nor mode of worship be eftablished, nor made the favourite of the state. With this latter idea, the author informs us, he was fhocked when it was first proposed: but, after attentive confideration, he is convinced of its equity and fuperior advantages. Much may be faid for it by gentlemen of pure fpeculation: but we are of opinion, that many changes must take place in this island, before fuch a thorough reform can be made. The The author writes with a good intention, and has uttered feveral home truths: but, in fome of his facts, he is not quite accurate. When he fays that our prefent Metropolitan was the fon of a butcher, he is mistaken. His uncle was a butcher at Gloucester, but his father was a farmer, or grazier, as we have been credibly informed. When the biographer writes his life, thefe circumftances will be related, not as things which degrade, (for no circumftances of birth can degrade a great mind,) but as having contributed to difplay his virtues, and, of courfe, to exalt his character: "Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow; Moo-y. Art. 68. Vindicie Landavenfes: or, Strictures on the Bishop of Landaff's late Charge, in a Letter to his Lordship. 4to. Is. 6d. Cadell, &c. 1792. The author of these strictures manifests a moft candid and liberal mind; and though we are not convinced by his arguments, we have been highly pleased with the Chriftian temper with which he propofes them. He endeavours to justify the teft and corporation acts by comparing the state to a club, which latter, he obferves, has its rules: but the question is not, whether a club or a ftate fhould or fhould not have laws and regulations, but whether it be politic to frame more restrictive laws than the object avowed in the focial compact, whether of a club or a nation, requires? If an agricultural fociety were to be formed, would it be wife to make it the first rule of admiffion, that every member profeffes his belief in the fexual fyftem of Linné, or in the doctrine of phlogifton? fince a man may be a good farmer, without a knowlege of either. In like manner, an individual may be a good member of the state, and able to do his king good fervice as a citizen; though he cannot believe all the Thirty-nine Articles; and the queftion here is, Ought the government to exclude men from the duties and privileges of good citizens, on account of points of belief which cannot affect their good citizenship? We should willingly reafon more at length with this amiable writer, would our limits permit. He concludes his ftrictures with this truly Christian exhortation: Let us banish anger and evilSpeaking, and ftudy peace with all men; affured, that one breach of the law of love is of more importance in the fight of God than a thousand fpeculative errors which disturb not the quiet of others, or a thousand fpeculative truths, which have no influence on our felves.' Mooy. Art. 69. Sermons, by Thomas Mutter, D. D. Minister of the Thefe difcourfes, as we learn from the editor's advertisement, were compofed without any view to publication, and appear nearly in the fame ftate in which they were delivered. A few of them are on moral topics, which are treated in a plain and useful Kk 2 way; ་ fion; with an Addrefs to Mr. Wilberforce. By Homo. 8vo. PP. 33. IS. Printed at Newark; and fold by Gardner, &c. in London. 1792. Thefe are confefledly the hafty undigested thoughts of an old man of nearly fourscore; who pleads, in extenuation of their having no accuracy, no correctness,' the expediency of their appearing before the day when Mr. Wilberforce was to introduce his bill into the House of Commons! Alas, he might have husbanded his reflections to amufe himself and a few of his neighbours over their pipes, without the leaft public injury. His favings, in paper and print, would have fupplied ale and tobacco for two or three months. N. Art. 24. Reafons for not figning the Petition; or, The Abolition Scheme taken into cool and candid Confideration. By a private difinterested Perfon, independent and unconnected with any Sect or Party. 8vo. pp. 48. 1s. 6d. Printed at Leominster; and fold by Evans, in London. These reasons, it seems, were at firft feparately published in three parts, at 6d. each, and claffed under Natural, Moral, and Political Reasons, for not figning the petition. In the preface to the third of thefe parts, the writer fays, If I could have had a little more time, (my thoughts croud in fo faft,) I could have foon fwelled this little treatife to four times the fize: but perhaps I have said too much already.' In this conclufion, we cordially join. This odd kind of a writer, who nevertheless really appears to mean well, and, in his way, ftarts now and then fome home truths, gives up the whole Negroe race to flavery, as the juft doom of the worthiefs defcendants of the accurfed Ham! We wish he would take a ride over to Newark, and smoke a pipe with the preceding old gentleman; they would, between them, fettle this question admirably!N. Art. 25. An Appeal to the Candour and Justice of the People of England, in Behalf of the Weft India Merchants and Planters, founded on plain Facts and incontrovertible Arguments. 8vo. pp. 118. 2s. 6d. Debrett. 1792. This appeal is a republication of the petition of the West India merchants and planters, with an abftract of the fpeeches of Meff. Bailey, Vaughan, Tarleton, Jenkinson, and Dundas, against the motion for the abolition; concerning which nothing need be added.N. Art. 26. Remarks on the New Sugar Bill, and on the National Compacts refpecting the Sugar-Trade and Slave-Trade. 8vo. PP. 99. 19. 6d. Johnfon. 1792. The caufe of the planters is here pleaded against the refiners, in these points where they really do, or are thought to, interfere: but as we are neither planters nor refiners, we will not attempt to afcertain the merits of profeffional mysteries. The author remonstrates against the verfatility of parliament in colonial regulations, and especially in the fudden alarm raifed against the use of Negroe flaves; and as one novelty introduces another, and as, whatever may be the fate of the abolition-bill, he fuppofes the prejudice will not wear out, he recommends the inviting over Chinese fervants to fupply fupply their place, the Chinese national character being confidered as favourable to the fcheme of fubftitution. Men, (he truly obferves,) love to be righteous at the expence of other people, and acting upon each other is held equivalent to acting for themselves.' Something, however, has been faved from fhipwreck in the conteft; calumnies on the colonists have been fomewhat difcredited; the poffibility of obtaining white men to labour in tropical countries is given up; the flavery actually fubfifting in the islands feems allowed to remain untouched; and the Negroes are agreed to be unfit for prefent emancipation. In fhort, the abolition of flavery itfelf in the islands is left to its own fate; and, as the children of the Weft Indians, wherever fent out of the islands for education, will be made afhamed, if not averse, with respect to the poffeffion of flaves, one of two things will happen; either flavery will become fo mild, as only to be fuch in name; or it will be formally abolished, as heretofore in Europe, by the decifion of those who are interested in it; and thus fuffer what Mr. Hume would call an Euthanafia.' On this difficult fubject, it might tend greatly to compofe difturbed minds, if we could, according to a hint started by another writer, abolish the term Negroe Slaves, and call them by fome more focial appellation: as we doat fo much on all new fashions*, even fo flight an alteration, could it be made current, might restore our relish for fugar and tobacco. IRELAND. N. Art. 27. A Letter to the Societies of United Irishmen, of the Town of Belfast, upon the Subject of certain Apprehenfions which have arilen from a proposed Restoration of Catholic Rights. By William Todd Jones, Efq. With the Declaration of the Catholic Society of Dublin, and fome Thoughts on the prefent Politics of Ireland. By Theobald M'Kenna, M. D. 8vo. pp. 189. 3s. 6d. fewed. Robinfons. 1792. This is one of those publications that do honour to the present age, and which, as friends to the happiness of mankind, we announce with pleasure. Mr. Jones, a Proteftant, here offers himself to the notice of the public, as an able and ftrenuous advocate for the long profcribed and perfecuted Catholics of Ireland. He has evidently given the fubject much thought, and the refult is, that he confiders the penal laws against the Catholics as a profligate, mistaken, paffionate, and impolitic farrago of statutes of penalty and difqualification;' and he argues with great earnestnefs for their repeal, contending, that the entire abolition of thefe ftatutes against the Catholics is only wanting to convert Ireland into the most opulent and most happy kingdom in Europe:-but it has been objected against the propofed emancipation of the Irish Catholics, "that, if *That coarie vulgar word breeches has been abolished in favour of fmall cloaths; yet, as the correspondence may appear too close between Small cloaths and petticoats, we anxiously wait the decifion of the polite on this interefting fubje&t! |