against Sir John Moore? With regard to provisions, the author makes the extraordinary assertion that the army was never really in want of them; and he contends against the position that they could not be procured, on the ground that the French pursuers were not under this privation as if he did not know the great pre-eminence of their Commissariat, nor that they could as enemies enforce those supplies which the British as friends could only request, and were refused. Respecting the abandonment of the artillery if the route to Vigo had been taken, as alleged by Brig. Clinton, the British officer' says: Here 1 should be wanting in truth, if I did not broadly state this important and extraordinary fact. When the Commander in Chief ordered the leading columns to march to Santiago, and from thence upon Vigo, it was his intention that the artillery should march direct upon Corunna, while the infantry re-embarked at Vigo: so that we here find, notwithstanding General Clinton's assertion, with regard to the determination not to abandon the artillery, even under more pressing circumstances, that the General in Chief had decided to separate it entirely from the army." To this statement, as a matter of fact, we cannot reply: but if the first determination were wrong, as it is most severely described to be, shall the General be censured for having seen his error, and corrected it ? It is here asserted that the fleet anchored in the Bay of Corunna in the afternoon of the 14th of January; the following day was par ticularly favourable for our purpose, and yet no steps were taken even for re-embarking horses and baggage, until the morning of the 16th so that more than thirty hours elapsed before any active measures were taken for the removal of the army. In Mr. Moore's Narrative, however, p. 208, we are expressly told that on the 14th and 15th "the sick, artillery, dismounted cavalry, and horses, were incessantly embarking." We think that the author of this pamphlet should not have concealed his name; and that, except perhaps for this reason, it required some notice from B. Gen. Clinton. Art. 28. The Young Naval Hero; or Hints to Parents and Guar dians, on the Subject of educating and preparing Young Gentlemen for His Majesty's Navy. 8vo. 29. 6d. Egerton. From the dedication of these hints, we learn that they are the production of Captain Frederick Watkins, of the navy and the fank and experience of this gentleman confer on them an à priori recommendation, which will be confirmed by the internal evidence of their good sense and propriety. In addition to the suggestions and infor mation, which will prove very useful to all parents and guardians who may design to send their sons or wards to sea, some advice to the young midshipman is subjoined, which it will be highly for his ad vantage to consult and to follow. RELIGIOUS. RELIGIOUS. Art. 29. Sermons for the Use of Families; selected by James Hews Bransby. 12mo. 2 Vols. Ios. 6d. Boards, Longman and Co.. We cannot more properly convey an idea of these volumes to our readers than in the language of the editor: This publication is designed to supply Unitarian Christians with serious impressive discourses, unexceptionable to them in point of religious doctrine, and calculated to assist in forming and strengthening habits of enlightened devotion and active virtue. Of the sermons which compose these volumes, twelve are selected from works already before the public, and four are now first printed from original manuscripts. These are assigned to their respective authors in the table of contents. The other fourteen are the productions of different dissenting ministers.' The discourses are generally plain, sensible, and impressive, but perhaps not always sufficiently plain for the end proposed. They may, we think, be suitably read in other families than those who chuse to denominate themselves Unitarians, since they contain not much that might be regarded as peculiar to that distinction. While the importance of Divine aid is implied, both for the natural and the spiritual life, the writers perplex themselves somewhat unnecessarily in confining the terms, Spirit and Holy spirit, to those miraculous gifts and powers, which were diffused in the first ages of Christianity. Art. 30. The Goodness of God acknowledged in Recovery from Sickness; Two Discourses, by the late Rev. William Turner of Wakefield. Izmo. IS. Longman and Co. By permission of the family, Mr. Bransby made these two sermons a part of the two volumes of select discourses which are above noticed, but they are here edited separately for more general use. They are devotional and practical, and may be read with advantage in health or in sickness. Art. 31. Two Letters to "A Barrister," containing Strictures on his Work in three Parts intitled "Hints to the Public and the Legislature, on the Nature and Effects of Evangelical Preaching." By a Looker on. 8vo. 28. Black and Co. We may be allowed to object to the propriety of the signature of this writer, with as much reason as he quarrels with the title of the Barrister's publication; for he is not a mere Looker-on, but a Soldier in the ranks, and fights with as much acrimony as any individual in the whole battalion. He charges the opposers of the Evangelical dogmas with 'perverse ingenuity,' and would affix on the Barrister no desirable share of culpability, in addition to dogmatical assurance. We forgive the displeasure which we have excited in his breast: but we must ask him whether these epithets should proceed from the pea of an impartial and calm Looker-on ? When this letter-writer confesses that the Evangelical Preachers, by a high coloured exposition of their favourite tenets, furnish a shadow of 6 of plausibility to invidions representations, he in a great measure abandons the cause which he undertakes to defend; since in this high colouring lies the whole subject of the controversy. Let them lower their terms, and bring their exposition within the bounds of definable meaning, and the warfare with them will cease. We have cautiously abstained from taxing the Methodists with immorality; we believe that, as a body, they are not open to the charge; and we have merely adverted to the natural tendency of the doctrine of moral substitution or transfer, and to the high colouring' which they often employ in recommending it. The point ought to be decided without the auxiliaries of mutual reviling. Are the expressions in scripture, on which this doctrine is supposed to rest, to be taken literally or figuratively? If literally, the question is at once settled in favour of the Evangelical Preachers: but if this literal acceptation involves an absolute impossibility, we would ask whether the texts which speak of ransom, bearing sin, &c. must not be explained in a qualified sense? We are as much Lookers-on as this letterwriter can be, and have no wish that is adverse to evangelical truth. i By the tone of confident superiority which this gentleman assumes over the Barrister, in the second letter, by the charge of dogmatical assurance,' and by the hint that he is not artis ratiocinandi magister peritissimus, we were inclined to suppose that this writer had actually found the Barrister tripping, and was about to win a most complete triumph over him: but we could scarcely avoid laughing when the Looker-on came to exhibit that thundering logic by which his adversary was to be prostrated to the dust. This magister peritissimus of the dialectic art adduces the stale and childish argument for belief without knowlege, that we are forced to believe many things without knowing any thing of their causation. If, however, he examines this matter, he will find the whole evidence against him. We believe, for instance, the union of the soul with the body, because we know that such an union really subsists: but of the mode or manner of that union we know nothing, and therefore believe nothing. We know again that by an act of volition we can move our limbe, and therefore have no doubt about the fact but in what way the mind operates on the brain, so as to direct this motion of the limbs, we are ignorant, and this mode is consequently beyond the range of faith. The same may be asserted of all those instances which this author adduces. Even the belief of a Deity is in this very predicament. Nature and Revelation point out the necessity of his existence, and this necessity we believe: but the mode and manner of the divine subsistence we have no means of apprehending; and therefore the mode of his existence is not, and never in this world can be, a definite article of faith. : This distinction is necessary to an accurate comprehension of the subject. We defy this writer or any other person to adduce a single fact, either in nature or revelation, to prove the contrary. The apostle Peter (2 Peter i. 5.) clearly intimates the connection between Knowlege and Faith. Of effects, our knowlege is extensive and our belief in course equally so but of causes we are much in the dark and faith is by our total ignorance rendered utterly im possible. Instead Instead of reprobating the logic of other men, we advise this writer to review his own mode of reasoning; and then he will not require to be told by us that his pamphlet contains very little which seriously merits a reply. MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 32. The Jubilee; or John Bull in his Dotage. A grand na tional Pantomime; as it was to have been acted by His Majesty's Subjects, on the 25th of October, 18c9. 8vo. 28. Sherwood and Co. It is impossible to read with gravity this ludicrous mélange, this dramatic chaos; and John Bull is not so much in his dotage, but that he will be able to relish the broad farce of this whimsical piece. "The laugh is widely extended; our political characters and political blunders are exhibited in a farcical kind of magic lanthorn; and the very parties caricatured must smile at their own figures on the wall. Our good Monarch is represented in the character of King Lear, looking up to the skies, and saying, "Here am I, ye gods! a poor old man, Colonel W-d-e, habited as a Piedmontese show-man, introduces his galantie-show: Now you shall see Johnny Bull turned into a milch cow, with an udder as big as the cupola of St. Peter's!-Now the Prussian suck, bygar! Now the Austrian suck! Now the Neapolitan suck! Now the Sardinian suck! Now the Portuguese suck! Now the Russian suck! Now the Swede suck! And now, parbleu, they suck her dry, while her own Calves are looking on, in wonder!-All as natural as the life! A brave galantie show A very pretty fancy, tout nouveau ! The author would perhaps say of the morality of this age as Juvenal said of his days, Quando uberior vitiorum copia! Art. 33. A comparative View of the Plans of Education, as detailed in the Publications of Dr. Bell and Mr. Lancaster. The second Edition, with Remarks on Dr, Bell's "Madras School," and Hints to the Managers and Committees of Charity and Sunday Schools, on the Practicability of extending such Institutions upon Mr. Lancaster's Plan. By Joseph Fox. 8vo. pp. 72. s. 6d. Darton and Co. 1809. The plans both of Dr. Bell and Mr. Lancaster being evident improvements on the usual system of education, the discussion of their respective merits, while it ascertains the portion of commendation due to each, will help to diffuse a knowlege of their importance. For this reason, we were pleased to receive the comparative statement now before us, which fully ascertains the share of invention that belongs to each gentleman. In consequence of some attempts to keep Mr. Lancaster in the back ground, Mr. Fox urges his paramount claims in opposition to Dr. Bell, who is charged with a jealous silence respecting the truly comprehensive plan of education actually carried into effect by Mr. L. The difference between the first and the last editions of Dr. B.'s pamphlet is duly noticed; and in order to exclude him from the merit of having projected a plan of national education, calculated to include all the poor, Mr. Fox animadverts on the restricted views of that clergyman: who pronounced "schemes for the universal diffusion of knowlege to be Utopian," and intimated that by education the minds of those who are doomed to the drudgery of daily labour would be raised above their condition." This unlucky remark, from the pen of a man who had been employed in extending the benefits of tuition to the miserable half casts of India, and had taken merit to himself for having facilitated their instruction, meets with no quarter from Mr. Fox; who asks Dr. Bell whether poor Britons are not as much intitled to the benefits of knowlege, as the out-cast refuse of Asiatic population; or whether South Britons are more likely to have their heads turned by a little education than the natives of North Britain ? Dr. Bell is certainly deserving of much praise for the hints which he has given, in his account of the Madras School: but, in regard to a complete plan of national education, he must concede the palm to Mr. Lancaster, who has done more perhaps than any other individual to spread knowlege with facility and economy among the multitude. The improvements in education,' says Mr. Fox, which Mr. Lancaster claims as his invention, are:-- 1. That by his system of order and rewards, together with the division of the school into classes, and the assistance of the monitors, ONE MASTER IS ABLE TO CONDUCT A SCHOOL OF ONE THOUSAND CHILDREN. Page 23. 2. That by printing a spelling-book, or any other lessons for reading, in a large type, upon one side of the paper, and pasting the sheets thus printed, on a pasteboard, they may, when suspended to a nail against the wall, be read by any number of children; a method whereby ONE BOOK WILL SERVE FOR A WHOLE SCHOOL, instead of each child having a book of its own. Page 55. 3.That by the introduction of writing upon slates, and one boy spelling to his whole class any certain word, the boys in the class will instantly write it, going on in this manner for an hour or more; so that boys may write and spell one hundred words in the course of a morn ing. A METHOD WHEREBY FIVE HUNDRED BOYS MAY SPELL AND WRITE THE SAME WORD AT THE SAME INSTANT OF TIME. Page 49. 4. An entire new method of instruction in arithmetic, wholly superseding the former method of setting sums in ciphering books, or using books, as Walkinghame's, or Dilworth's Assistant for the four first rules. A plan, whereby ANY CHILD WHO CAN READ, MAY TEACH ARITHMETIC with the utmost certainty. Page 62. These are inventions concerning which not a syllable is to be found in Dr. Bell's Experiment made at the Male Asylum, Madras. 5. Another most important circumstance is, that the expence of education is reduced to almost a comparative nothing. Schools for three hundred children may be supported at the expence of seven shillings |
