to Brundusium, and Cicero's Journey into Cilicia; On the Triumphs and Triumphal shows and ceremonies of the Romans; and on the design of the Sixth Book of the Æneiad. The volume closes with a Vindication of the 15 and 16 chapters of his History against Mr. Davies-the only person among the numerous impugners of that work, to whom Mr. Gibbon condescended to reply.

The noble Editor presents us, in the 5th volume, with a very copious selection from his friend's Journal, common place Book, Memoranda &c. In these we are introduced to Gibbon in his study; and cannot but acknowledge how much we are gratified by the view of the curious and singular marks of literary industry which they exhibit. To such minuteness is this journal carried, as to note the number of lines written or pages read daily. It is continued with great regularity from April 1761, to July 1764—that is, from the 24th to the 27th year of the author's age; and however unimportant such considerations may appear to self-important scholars, they cannot fail of exciting in the breasts of some students, encreased diligence and zeal in their allotted pursuits. A great portion of the journal is written in French; and as we have before spoken of our author's attainments in that language, we shall extract what will serve both as a specimen of his French style when least labored, and a statement of his reasons for composing in that language.

"1763 Fevrier. Après avoir quitté l'Angleterre, il est assez naturel que j'en quitte la langue. Les idées ont produit les mots; et j'aurois souvent autant de peine à rendre en Anglois les usages du Continent, que j'aurois eu de difficulté à bien exprimer en Francois les mœurs Angloises, et les petits évenements de notre milice. Plutot que de recourir à des pèriphrases ennuyeuses, ou à des traductions imparfaites, et vaut mieux 'employer tout uniment la langue du pays.

Mais il faut renoncer à ce journal suivi et detaillé, dont l'idee avait flatté mon esprit, mais dont l'execution auroit trop gêne ma paresse, pour me permettre de le continuer. Je l'avois discontinué pendant quelque jours; il etoit si facile de reparer cette petite negligence! ces jours devinrent insensiblement des semaines. L'ouvrage m'effrayoit en s'augmentant. Je perdois en vains regrets le temps qui étoit encore en mon pouvoir. Aujourd'hui qu'il me faudroit écrire l'histoire de six mois, la raisonne m' ordonne de n'y plus songer." "Mais cette meme raison ne veut point que je néglige entiérement la partie, peut-être la plus curieuse de ma vie. Je vais rassembler plutôt selon l'ordre des matières, que sous celui du temps, les idées nouvelles que j'ai acquises pendant mon sejour à Paris. Elles se distribuent naturellment sous quatre chefs: 1er. Les choses qui me sont personelles, mon economie, mes liasons, et mes amis. 2. L'etat de la littérature en France, les gens de lettres, les académiciens, et le theatre. 3. Des observations detachées, militaires, politiques et morales. 4. Les bâtiments et les ouvrages de l'art.-Je laisserai cependant subsister quelques pages de mon journal,

écrites dans le temps même; enterprise vaine; je l'abandonnai l'instant apres l'avoir commencé."

We here close our observations upon a work which, if examined with the minuteness which it perhaps merits, would afford materials for a whole journal much larger than this. The Editor has certainly done ample justice to the memory of his eloquent friend; there are indeed instances in which his partiality might have been spared. The reputation of Mr. Gibbon as a moralist, has suffered much and justly from the exposures which have been made of the indecencies that disgrace his great history, and we could have wished that the discussion at page of the 5th volume had been omitted. We recommend this work to the public; but in doing so we must observe, that though in it the critic and the scholar will see much to commend, the Christian moralist will find something to blame, and a great deal of which to doubt. On the minds of the young and unwary, the writer's smooth but insidious apologies for his own doubts, his errors, and his final acquiescence in the dreary doctrines of infidelity, are calculated to make a deep and dangerous impression. Scepticism when embodied with civil history is sufficiently mischievous; but it is still more so when ingeniously interwoven in the light and airy texture of biographical memoir.

ART. III.-The Church in Danger, &c. By RICHARD Yates, B.D. and F.S.A.

(Concluded from Vol. 1. p. 810.) OUR readers will recollect that, in our observations on the former part of this work, we gave it as our opinion, that something ought to be done without delay, for the amelioration of the state of the national Church. Mr. Yates had proved the necessity of taking some immediate step, and had pointed out the means the most likely to prove effectual.-We now resume our observations on that part of the work in which he goes on to shew, that the danger to the establishment can proceed from no other cause than that which he has assigned; and that no measures but those which he has proposed, or some similar to them, can be adequate to its removal.

He will not allow, that the Associations formed for the distribution of the Bible, are the principal cause or among the principal causes of the assumed danger, and we readily agree

with him, that "repressing the exertions of those Societies "cannot possibly preserve the Church from the danger that im"pends over it through the neglected ignorance, the unawed "profligacy, the gross intemperance, and the habitual impiety "of several hundred thousands, who are considered to be its "members, and ought to be its supporters and protectors.-So "far otherwise, that those who can be prevailed on to read the "Bible must certainly be less dangerous and less inveterate ene"mies than those in whom all the evil propensities of Human "Nature are suffered to retain their full influence, fostered and "strengthened by habitual and vicious indulgence; who are left in total ignorance of a God and a future state, and who "equally disregard all laws human or divine." p. 92, 93.

It is granted, that the Established Church can suffer no injury from the most extended use of the Bible: it is also granted that it can suffer but little from the practice of distributing the Bible without the Prayer Book, unless the prayer book come to be more neglected and more disused in consequence of such distribution. But are not the neglect and disuse of the Prayer Book much more likely to be brought about, by excluding the poor, who are already in possession of it, from that place in which it is chiefly designed to be used; than by omitting to give it to those who have it not? It is of no use to give either the Prayer Book, or the Bible, to those who cannot or will not read and meditate; and it would seem, that, to procure for the Poor the advantage of hearing both read publicly at Church, is the best possible method of exciting and keeping alive in them, a regard and reverence for the books, and an inclination to read and study them in private. We feel assured, that, if the poor could be well accommodated in the House of God, we should have no cause to complain of the Prayer Book being neglected or disused among them, or to dread the progress of any description of Societies whatever.

Mr. Yates next maintains, that the increase of Methodism and Sectarian disunion, which is supposed by many zealous and able Churchmen to be the cause of the present state of the Church, (whatever that state be) ought to be considered as a CONSEQUENCE rather than a CAUSE of it; since it appears that, around the "Metropolis, a very large proportion of the nominal Members of "the Church are totally excluded from Parochial Instruction, and "know nothing of our excellent Liturgy." It is not to be denied, that the success of the Methodists, and of some other Sectaries, is to be ascribed, not so much to their own zeal and diligence (which are in themselves highly commendable), or to the

supineness and negligence of the Established Clergy (which are highly blameable); as to certain defects and errors in the laws, the intrusion of which it was not in the power of the Clergy, but only of the Legislature, to prevent. Let any one peruse the following passage, and then say whether or not there exists a necessity for the immediate interposition of the legislature.

"The Law of the Land, as it is supposed to stand at present, prohibits, except under certain difficult regulations, the building and opening of any places of public worship for the use of the Liturgy of the Church of England. But structures for every other mode of worship may be erected and opened, by any person so inclined, upon the easy condition of obtaining a licence from the Magistrates, granted by the law, upon a very inconsiderable pecuniary payment.

"To complain of the increase of Sectaries and Methodists cannot therefore answer any good purpose, while we have no churches to receive them, even if they wished to join our Congregations: and while the law permits them, if they continue to dissent, to build as many Chapels as they please; but if they conform to the Liturgy, the privilege of providing themselves with the means of public worship is immediately denied, although the establishment, in its present state, does not itself afford that essential supply.

"It is not at all wonderful, therefore, that in districts where numerous sheep are shut out from the possibility of receiving instruction in the fold of the regular shepherd, some of them should seek refuge and refreshment from the care and zeal of self-appointed pastors." p. 96, 97.

We are surprised, that the attention of the Legislature has not long since been directed to defects in the law so notorious and so mischievous. Instances of their operation in different parts of the country, as well as in the metropolis, to the prejudice of the Church, are almost without number. Of those which Mr. Yates has selected, one is so very remarkable, and throws so much light upon the cause of Danger, that we shall beg our readers' attention to it.

"Brighton is also one of those modern towns, for the increasing population of which the law makes no provision. The want of edifices for the public worship of the members of the Church of England in this town has long been felt. A chapel was recently erected by some gentlemen for the celebration of divine service, according to the Liturgy of the Church of England. After much literary discussion with the Vicar of the parish and the Bishop of the diocese, the vicar thought it his duty to enforce the Law, as it is conceived at present to stand, and to shut up 'the Chapel. This was subsequently confirmed by the judgment of Sir John Nicholl.-The chapel has since been advertised for sale, and sold: and may be opened without further expence or trouble, by the Methodists or any sectarian form of worship upon the easy terms of taking a licence from the Magistrates." p. 98.

With commendable indignation, he reprobates the conduct of those defenders of our Church, whose eager and extravagant

crimination of those who differ from them, serves only "to "injure the cause of the Gospel, by lacerating and inflaming the "wound of separation." As he observes, "our greatest dan"ger cannot, in the present age, arise from any doctrinal " errors of religion;- but from a total abandonment of the "whole Christian Dispensation,—an utter disregard and de"reliction of all religious principles."

Those friends of the Established Church, who have apprehended danger to its prosperity from Bible Societies and Sectarian Schools, have proposed, as a means of averting that danger, "to extend the influence and augment the powers of the Society "for Promoting Christian Knowledge; and by the formation "of another institution to promote the establishment of Na"tional Schools, to instruct the children of the poor, in large "numbers, by the new methods of education in connexion "with, and upon the principles of the Established Church." But Mr. Yates affirms, that these Institutions, however laudable and beneficial in themselves, cannot possibly remedy the grand evil of which he complains. He argues, that the beneficial influence of both can be much felt only in those parishes where the smallness of the population admits of their exertions being seconded and animated by the personal superintendance and efforts of the Parish Priest.

"In such parishes, Bibles and Prayer Books given to the poor, may be expected to produce the beneficial effects intended, both to the indivi❤ duals and to the state; they are taken to Church, and there used and profited by, and consequently read with more advantage in private..... He illustrates this, in speaking of the National Society, by comparing the number of children educated in country parishes, where the parochial Clergy take the charge, with the proportion in some of the populous and wealthy parishes of the metropolis where the clergy cannot interfere. As an instance from the country, the Deanery of Hedingham may be selected: this district in Essex, not thickly populated, educates in 31 Parishes 2,279 children, being an average of Seventy-three to a parish. In the most considerable Metropolis Parishes, the Parochial Schools, at present under the care of the Church of England, educate a number not more than equal in some to three children, in some two, and in two of the most populous and richest parishes in England, only ONE CHILd to a PARISH, if the population were divided in the same proportion as the GENERAL AVERAGE OF THE COUNTRY PARISHES." pp. 109, 111.

Those who have witnessed the annual assemblage of the Charity Children of the Metropolis in St. Paul's Cathedral, and whose feelings have borne testimony to the munificent spirit which seems, on every occasion, to animate, in a peculiar manner, the breasts of that portion of our countrymen, will be surprised when they are thus told, that the inhabitants of London