and infinuations exhibited against them by Dr. Prieftley. They have chofen Mr. Burn for their advocate on the present occa→ fion; and the Reply now before us is entitled to attention, from its having been drawn up and published, as we learn from the Introduction, with the general concurrence and approbation of the clergy of Birmingham.'

Mr. Burn meets Dr. P. with boldness, and evinces confiderable ability and adroitness as a writer. While he affures us that the clergy of Birmingham felt for Dr. Priestley in his fufferings, he does not omit to remind us that their present bufinefs with him is not in the character of an injured man, but in that of an accufer. How far he is juftified in the charges which he exhibits against the clergy and other inhabitants of Birmingham, Mr. Burn invites the public to examine. He particularly notices the feveral articles of impeachment; and we hope, for the fake of truth and juftice, that every reader of the "Appeal" will become a reader of this Reply. We have omitted articles which have long waited for infertion, that the attack and the vindication may appear as nearly together as poffible.

According to this pamphlet, Dr. Priestley has been inaccurate in feveral particulars; and, of courfe, his reasonings on falfe facts must be deemed irrelevant. Mr. Burn does not altogether deny the circumftance mentioned by Dr. Priestley, refpecting the refufal of the clergy to walk or ride with Diffenting minifters at funerals. He allows this to be true of fome of the clergy of Birmingham: but he obferves, that this conduct arofe from their perfonal obje&tion to Dr. P. whofe oppofition to the church they deemed fo indecent, that fome of them thought they could not with propriety act officially with him; Mr. Curtis, he fays, had no objection to Mr. Scholefield, yet, if he did it with him, he would not have been able to have drawn the line. Prefuming on the truth of this statement, the removal of Dr. Priestley from Birmingham must contribute to unite the clergy and the Diffenting minifters, at least over the grave. When the former are employed in depofiting the remains of a Nonconformist in the duft, we do not fee the propriety of their attempting to draw any line of difcrimination between one Diffenting minifter and another. We are always forry when the teachers of religion appear to fall out by the way. All refentment fhould difappear at the fight of that place, where the wicked and difputatious ceafe from troubling.

If Mr. Burn feems rather to retire from the defence of Mr. Madan's fermon, he is firm in his vindication of the clergy; and he avers that the paffage in Dr. Priestley's first letter to the inhabitants of B. in which the difcourfes of

the

the clergy are accufed of inflaming the populace to violence, ' was as great an outrage upon character, as the conduct of the rioters had been on property.'

On the fubject of the famous hand-bill, our author takes, what is called in parliamentary language, high ground; and as to the mode of their refifting the repeal of the corporation and test acts, Mr. B. reminds the Doctor, that they were taught to adopt it by the very example of the Diffenters. This is the truth fome of the Diffenters threatened; and when minorities threaten, they are generally defeated.

It appears by the pamphlet now under our notice, that Mr. Ruffell, and not Mr. Dadley the master of the hotel, was the perfon who prevented the dinner being put off, as was recommended. Mr. Dadley's folemn depofition, to prove this, is opposed to Mr. Ruffell's ftatement. It alfo appears, that the addrefs to the mob, which has been fo much difcuffed, and which began," Friends, and fellow churchmen," was intended as a quieting fop for Cerberus, and was prepared and thrown to the many-headed monfter, with the concurrence and at the express defire of the Diffenters. The name of Mr. Taylor is mentioned on the occafion.

With a view of vindicating the inhabitants of Birmingham from being the caufe of the riots, feveral inftances of prudent exertion are mentioned, and thefe inftances merit being recorded: but we fear that it will be replied, exceptio confirmat regulam. Highly to be commended are thofe individuals who acted in the manner defcribed by Mr. B. (p. 51.); yet it does not neceffarily follow that this was the general conduct of the mafter manufacturers: for if all the workmen had been kept in their fhops by rewards, by looks, or by threats, whence ould come the rioters?

We wish not, however, to be prolix on the subject of riots and rioters, More particulars are here difcuffed than we have space or time to notice. The conduct of the clergy, after the riot, appears to do them honour. We say appears; for, while facts thus meet facts in battle array, we know not what to believe.

There are feveral paffages in this Reply which are open to animadverfion: but, having faid the needful, we shall make no remarks on the spirit and temper with which these counterfacts are recorded: leaving this office to Dr. Priestley in his Rejoinder; which, no doubt, will foon appear.

Mo-y.

ART.

ART. XXI. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects. By Mary Wollstonecraft. 8vo. PP. 452. 6s. Boards. Johnfon. 1792.

PHILOSOPHY, which, for fo many ages, has amufed the indolent reclufe with fubtle and fruitlefs fpeculations, has, at length, ftepped forth into the public walks of men, and offers them her friendly aid in correcting thofe errors which have hitherto retarded their progrefs toward perfection, and in establishing those principles and rules of action, by which they may be gradually conducted to the fummit of human felicity. Inveloped as mankind at present are with the mifts of prejudice, and encumbered on every fide with inftitutions and customs, which prevent the free expanfion of their intellectual and moral powers, it is the intereft of private individuals, and the duty of those who are entrusted with the care of the public welfare, whereever, or in whatever character, this divine Inftructress appears, to give her an honourable reception, and an attentive hearing. Among the most enlightened people of antiquity, Wifdom, as well as Beauty, was deified under a female form; and in modern language it is ftill ufual to give Philofophy and Wisdom a female perfonification. What is this but a tacit conceffion in favour of the female part of the fpecies, that they are no less capable of inftructing than of pleafing?-and how jealous foever we may be of our right to the proud pre-eminence which we have affumed, the women of the prefent age are daily giving us indubitable proofs that mind is of no fex, and that, with the foftering aid of education, the world, as well as the nursery, may be benefited by their inftructions.

In the clafs of philofophers, the author of this treatifewhom we will not offend by ftyling, authorefs-has a right to a diftinguished place. The important bufinefs, here undestaken, is to correct errors, hitherto univerfally embraced, concerning the female character; and to raise woman, from a state of degradation and vaffalage, to her proper place in the scale of existence; where, with the dignity of independence, the may difcharge the duties and enjoy the happiness of a rational Being. The fundamental principle, on which the whole argument of this work is founded, is that, except in affairs of love, fexual diftinétions. ought to be difregarded, and women be confidered in the light of rational creatures; who, in common with men, are placed in this world to unfold their faculties, and whose first object of ambition ought to be to obtain a character as a human Being. It is acknowleged that more attention has lately been paid to the education of women than formerly: but it is at the fame time maintained, that the method, in which they are commonly educated, only tends to enfeeble both the body and the mind,

and

and to render them infignificant objects of defire. In order to correct this error, which is confidered by Mifs Wollstonecraft as a grofs violation of juftice against one half of the fpecies, and as prolific in mifchief to the whole; and after fome general obfervations on the rights and duties of human beings, and on the causes of the prefent imperfect ftate of human fociety; the prevailing opinion of a fexual character is difcuffed, and its influence on female education and manners is, with equal folidity of reafoning, and ftrength of colouring, reprefented at large. From a great variety of juft obfervations and bold reflections on this fubject, we felect the following:

Many are the caufes that, in the prefent corrupt ftate of fociety, contribute to enflave women by cramping their understandings and fharpening their fenfes. One, perhaps, that filently does more mifchief than all the reft, is their disregard of order.

To do every thing in an orderly manner, is a most important precept, which women, who, generally fpeaking, receive only a diforderly kind of education, feldom attend to with that degree of exactnels that men, who from their infancy are broken into method, obferve. This negligent kind of guefs-work, for what other epithet can be used to point out the random exertions of a fort of instinctive common fenfe, never brought to the test of reason? prevents their generalizing matters of fact-fo they do to-day, what they did yesterday, merely because they did it yesterday.

This contempt of the understanding in early life has more baneful confequences than is commonly fuppofed; for the little knowledge which women of ftrong minds attain, is, from various circumstances, of a more defultory kind than the knowledge of men, and it is acquired more by fheer obfervations on real life, than from comparing what has been individually obferved with the refults of experience generalized by fpeculation. Led by their dependent fituztion and domeftic employments more into fociety, what they learn is rather by fnatches; and as learning is with them, in general, only a fecondary thing, they do not purfue any one branch. with that perfevering ardour neceffary to give vigour to the faculties, and clearnels to the judgment. In the prefent ftate of fociety, a little learning is required to fupport the character of a gentleman; and boys are obliged to fubmit to a few years of difcipline. But in the education of women, the cultivation of the understanding is always fubordinate to the acquirement of fome corporeal accomplishment; even while enervated by confinement and falfe notions of modefty, the body is prevented from attaining that grace and beauty which relaxed half-formed limbs never exhibit. Befides, in youth, their faculties are not brought forward by emulation; and having no ferious fcientific study, if they have natural fagacity, it is turned too foon on life and manners. They dwell on effects, and modifications, without tracing them back to caufes; and complicated rules to adjuft behaviour, are a weak fubAitute for fimple principles.

As

As a proof that education gives this appearance of weakness to females, we may inftance the example of military men, who are, like them, fent into the world before their minds have been stored with knowledge or fortified by principles. The confequences are fimilar; foldiers acquire a little fuperficial knowledge, fnatched from the muddy current of converfation, and, from continually mixing with fociety, they gain, what is termed a knowledge of the world; and this acquaintance with manners and cuftoms has frequently been confounded with a knowledge of the human heart. But can the crude fruit of cafual obfervation, never brought to the teft of judgment, formed by comparing fpeculation and experience, deferve fuch a diftinction? Soldiers, as well as women, practise the minor virtues with punctilious politenefs. Where is then the fexual difference, when the education has been the fame? All the difference that I can difcern, arifes from the fuperior advantage of liberty, which enables the former to fee more of life.'

The folly of the prefent mode of female education is well expofed in the contrafted pictures of a woman formed after the fashionable model, and another educated on rational principles, in the trying fituation, when she is left with a large family, without her accustomed guide and protector:

Suppofing a woman, trained up to obedience, be married to a fenfible man, who directs her judgment without making her feel the fervility of her fubjection, to act with as much propriety by this reflected light as can be expected when reafon is taken at fecond hand, yet the cannot enfure the life of her protector; he may die and leave her with a large family.

A double duty devolves on her; to educate them in the character of both father and mother; to form their principles and fecure their property. But, alas! fhe has never thought, much less acted for herself. She has only learned to please men, to depend gracefully on them; yet, encumbered with children, how is the to obtain another protector-a hufband to fupply the place of reason? A rational man, for we are not treading on romantic ground, though he may think her a pleafing docile creature, will not choose to marry a family for love, when the world contains many more pretty creatures. What is then to become of her? She either falls an easy prey to fome mean fortune-hunter, who defrauds her children of their paternal inheritance, and renders her miferable; or becomes the victim of difcontent and blind indulgence. Unable to educate her fons, or imprefs them with refpect; for it is not a play on words to affert, that people are never refpected, though filling an important station, who are not refpectable; the pines under the anguifh of unavailing impotent regret. The ferpent's tooth enters into her very foul, and the vices of licentious youth bring her with forrow, if not with poverty alfo, to the grave.

This is not an overcharged picture; on the contrary, it is a very poffible cafe, and fomething fimilar muft have fallen under every attentive eye.

I have, however, taken it for granted, that he was welldisposed, though experience fhews, that the blind may as cafily be