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fame fubjects: but, perhaps, that is faying no great deal in their
favour. At all events, the general good temper with which this
Answer is written merits approbation.

Pear.

Art. 55.
< You need not be told," fays this gentleman to his correfpondent,
⚫ that every man in this country reflects as he reads.' We are fome-
times accused of the horrid fin of holding latitudinarian or liberal
principles: but this is too free to make any part of our creed. It
fufely cannot be a doctrine of the true catholic faith, At any rate,
whether it be fo or not, the present author would do well to per-
fuade as many as he can to abjure it: for if every one do keep
this faith whole and undefiled, without doubt he himself fhall perish
Do
everlaftingly.

A Letter to Mr. Paine on his late Publication. 8vo. pp. 31.
Stockdale. 1792.
15.

Art. 56. Crowns and Sceptres, ufelefs Baubles. A Political Dia-
logue. By Signor Pafquinello. 8vo. pp. 59. 1s. 6d. Brewman.

1792.

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The title of this fhrewd performance is, confeffedly, (p. 51.) a take-in,' a little authorship,'-' a manœuvre,' but, the author trufts, not a cenfurable one :' his aim being merely to attract, by an innocent ftroke of policy, the notice of those who are diffatisfied, they know not why: in hopes that fome may benefit by what is here faid, and content themselves with living under the eafiest government to be met with.'

After this expofition of the title-page, it feems almoft needless to add, that the author of this pamphlet is an enemy both to the French revolution, and to the abettors of its principles on this fide of the water. His mode of difcuffing the question is in the Socratic form a dialogue between Mr. Growler, a violent advocate for political reformation and democracy, and Mr. Honeftus, a warm ariftocratic. The latter gains an eafy and complete victory over poor Growler, who is but a man of straw, fet up merely to be knocked down. Sig. Pafquinello, however, manifefts confiderable ability as a writer, and wields the political quarter-ftaff with dexterity.

Art. 57. The Queftion confidered, how far the prefent flourishing State of the Nation is to be afcribed to the Conduct of the Minifter. 8vo. Is. 6d. Ridgway. 1792.

The

For the prefent flourishing ftate of the nation, this writer gives the minifter little credit; and in nurfing his darling child Revenue, he thinks him entitled to a very fcanty portion of praife. prosperous state of the country, (he afferts,) is chiefly afcribeable, not only to our being at peace with all the world, but to the want of peace in all the world befides.' Affured of this, he obferves that

the maintenance of peace fhould have been the invariable and unremitting concern of adminiftration. Preferve peace, fhould have been the grace to their meals, the toast to their glasses, and the prayer of their folitude.'

preHow far this writer's low eftimate of our obligations to the fuits feat minifter is juft, we shall not turn afide from our literary pur

fuits minutely to inquire: but, confident that the nation can gain. nothing by war, we hope Mr. Pitt will fo far in future fhew himfelf the true friend of the public, as to make the preservation of peace the great object of his administration. Without this, all fchemes to liquidate, or even to diminish, the public debt, must prove abortive. This writer thus concludes:

• PEACE, not PITT; trade, not tax; commerce, not revenue; tranquillity, not negotiation; improvement, not regulation; are the only real caufes that have brought this country to its prefent unexpected and unparalleled ftate of profperity.'

Mooy Art. 58. Thoughts on the Manifefto of the French to all States and Nations. By the Rev. Richard Worthington, Clergyman of the Church. 8vo. PP. 49. IS. Debrett. 1792.

This manifefto is, indeed, as Mr. Worthington fays, an occurrence in the political world unparalleled in any age or nation. It deferves all the applause which he beftows on it. The pacific and truly Chriftian fentiments, which it breathes, cannot be too highly extolled, nor too widely diffeminated. We are happy to fecond his benevolent efforts to recommend it to public notice.

Art.

"Peace is our dear delight, not Fleury's more." Pear.

59. The Speech of Henry Grattan, Efq; on the Address to his Majefty at the Opening of the Irish Parliament 1792. With an Appendix, containing the public Papers and Refolutions of the United Irish, the Committee of Delegates for the Roman Catholics, &c. 8vo. Is. 6d. Ridgway.

Mr. Grattan's fpeech is a bold Philippic against influence, or what he calls the trade of parliament; and if what he afferts be true, There's fomething rotten in the ftate of Denmark.

The Appendix contains the Declaration, Refolutions, and Circular Letters, of the SOCIETY OF UNITED IRISHMEN, for an equal Reprefentation of all the People in Parliament; and of the Catholic Society of Dublin.

Thefe papers are drawn up with great spirit and liberality, and record ideas important to the cause of freedom. Mooy. Art. 60. Fragments of the History of John Bull. By Sir Humphry Polefworth, Bart. Small 8vo. pp. 65. 2s. 6d. Hookham. 1792. John Bull here quarrels with his daughter Mary, who, at breakfaft, flung the tea-pot at his head: he went to law with her, and loft his caufe. Lewis Baboon's affairs going to rack, the management of them is undertaken by his fervants, with a mob of chimney-fweepers and lamp-lighters. It is altogether a flimfy attempt, being given in imperfect and unconnected fcraps, which faved abun. dance of contrivance. The humour, two or three paffages excepted, will not remind us of Swift to the credit of his imitator. Art. 61. Corruption exposed: being Remarks on the Trial of Geo. Rofe, Efq. one of the Secretaries of the Treasury. Svo. Johnson. 1792.

N.

15.

Art. 62.
A Refutation of factious Calumnies on the Character of
Geo. Rofe, Efq. Secretary to the Treasury, &c. in a Publication

con

concerning an Action brought against him in June 1791, by Mr. Smith, refpecting a late Westminster Election. To which are prefixed Obfervations on the general Conduct of Ministry. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Bell. 1792.

The first of these pamphlets is a fevere invective, the fecond a lavish panegyric, on the conduct of Mr. Rofe and his coadjutors in office; in whom the writer of the first can find no good quality, and the fecond will admit no imperfection. Non noftrum eft inter vos tantas componere lites.

MISCELLANEOUS.

T.

Art. 63. Gibbon's Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Em-
Reviewed. By the Rev.
pire in Vols. IV. V. and VI. 4to.
John Whitaker, B. D. Rector of Ruan-Lanyhorne, Cornwall.
8vo. Pp. 258. 4s. Boards. Murray. 1791.

As we have never prefumed to call our brother Reviewers before our board, we cannot, with propriety, take farther notice of this volume, than to announce it as a republication. The author's reafons for reprinting his critique are thus ftated in an advertisement prefixed to the work:

I am no reviewer by profeffion. I became one in this inftance, from a defire of ferving the cause of religion.-A little time afterwards, I was advised by a nobleman of the first rank in respectability, and nearly the first in reality, to republish them in the prefent form. I propofed the plan to my bookfeller the proprietor of the Review, and he demurred upon it. He found however afterwards, that the remarks were called for when the Reviews were no longer to be had. He now urged me himself, therefore, to an immediate republication of them. I refolved to revife them for the purpose, and waited for an hour of leifure to do fo. That hour was long in coming. The republication has thus been delayed to the present moment. And I now prefix my name to the whole, in order to ferve the fame caufe for which the whole was originally written. Religion (to use the allufion, which I once heard from a witty man of genius) I hope, I fhall always confider as the San&tum Punctum,' and learning only as the Glory' furrounding it.'

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E.

Art. 64. Poetical Effays on the following fubjects, viz. The principal Errors and Corruptions of Men. The Excellency of Reafon and of Virtue. The Freedom and other Powers of the Human Mind. The Spiritual Nature of the Soul. The Foundation and Reality of Human Knowledge, and of Human Happinefs. With a Preliminary Effay, in Profe: containing a Summary of the Author's principal Tenets, and of those which he condemns: with Notes Explanatory, &c. 8vo. pp. 194. 38. fewed. Debrett. 1791.

Although this writer has exhibited his ideas both in profe and verfe, we cannot honeftly fay that we have received much illumiIn his profe effay, (which occupies more nation from his work. than the half of the volume,) after a confiderable parade of poftulates, axioms, and corollaries, we find little that can deferve the name of demonftration, or that may be called clofe and legitimate reasoning. REV. JUNE 1792.

R

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reasoning. The author contradicts many opinions of Locke, Hart ley, Priestley, and other modern philofophers, particularly the doctrines of Affociation, of Neceffity, of Materialifm, and of Ideas: but his method of difcourfing on these subjects seems too vague and defultory to amount to what men of learning will deem a fatisfactory refutation of the tenets of these writers. On the topic of neceffity, in particular, this author declaims with vehemence: but he at laft checks his indignation, by indulging a hope, that the very strange things, which the advocates for neceffity frequently utter, are the effect of a partial infanity, a derangement of mind quoad hoc.-We take an abrupt leave of this profe effay, from an utter defpair of being able to elicit from it, in the way of abftract, any clear train of thought.

With refpect to the poetical effays, the fubjects of which are expreffed in the title, we cannot give a better apology for not entering on a minute examination of their poetical and philofophical merit, than by the following fhort extract, relative to the doctrine of neceflity:

Such is our wife men's creed !
Who reason, nature, all good fenfe abuse,
And bring for ev'ry deed a full excufe;
For ev'ry curled at which man can frame,
Such as our nature trembles but to name!

These are all neceffary, all decreed

By him who made us, tho' a parent bleed;
F'en when fome wifemen all their pow'rs employ
Our univerfal parent to deftroy,

Thro' hate and fear infult in ev'ry word,

And ridicule his effence as abfurd!

Thus all foul guilt, mad folly, monftrous lies,

Are charged on him who rules the earth and skies
And man's rudeft log e'er made by heav'n
Quite motionlefs if not by vi'lence driv'n;
Like wrecks which ev'ry wind and wave impel:
Such wisdom, fure, is too abfurd for hell!
Such groundless errors all but men must fee
Who quit the truth for blind philofophy.'

The author promifes to profecute his fpeculations in fome future effays, in which he encourages his readers to expect that other comfortable things may with the blefling of heaven be fhewn him, not in a dubious and dark manner, but in a clear light.' Of what nature these comfortable things' may be, and how clearly they will be fhewn, time may discover.

E. Art. 65. Theological, Philofophical, and Moral Effays. By the Rev. Edward Barry, M. D. 8vo. PP. 320. 5s.

Symonds.

Boards.

The fubjects of this volume are, Celibacy, Wedlock, Education, Pride, Duelling, Self-murder, Lying, Detraction, Duplicity, Avarice, Generofity, Temperance, Excefs, Profperity, Adverfity, Juftice, Mercy, Death, Judgment: together with a letter on the brutal practice of boxing: this letter has been before pab

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lished and reviewed, and is addreffed to the King, Lords, and Commons. On these several subjects, the reader will find a num ber of pertinent and useful reflections. If, at any time, he fhould remark fomething peculiar in the author's manner or expreffion, he will be more than repaid by juft reasoning, and folid truth, intermixed with hiftorical illuftrations. Hi...s. Art. 66. Free Masonry for the Ladies; or the Grand Secret Dilcovered. 12mo. PP. 50. IS. Thiffelton.

A ridiculous farrago, calculated to impose on curiofity and credulity.

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THEOLOGY and POLEMICS.

N.

Art. 67. A Charge intended to have been delivered to the Clergy of Norwich, at the Primary Vifitation of George [Horne], Lord Bishop of that Diocese. 4to. pp. 40. IS. Robinfons. 1791. In this charge (which, on account of the Bishop's infirm state of health, was not delivered,) the author laments the decay of good doctrines, and the diffemination of evil opinions, and calls on his clergy to adopt every measure, which prudence and piety fuggeft, for the prefervation of the common faith. He particularly laments the general disbelief of the doctrine of the Trinity, and imputes it, in á great measure, to an abufe of abftract reasoning, by prefuming on an analogy, which does not exift, between mathematical truth and all other truth.

We have seen it argued, ferioufly in appearance, that three cannot be one in divinity, because it is not fo in arithmetic. But we are here to diftinguish: the mathematical fciences give us rules by which all quantities are to be measured; but when those rules are applied by analogy to the qualities of things, they must fail us, and the experiment is always hazardous. The fpecific difference between gold and lead, with the respective value of each, is an object of mathematical confideration; but the difference between good and evil is not; for thefe latter are to be compared and estimated as qualities. God in his nature and his perfections can never be confidered under any idea we have of quantity. We know him and defcribe him by his attributes; all of which are qualities; original in Him, and infinite in themselves. It must therefore be extremely dangerous to speak of God, and borrow our ideas from terms applied to quantity of any kind.

It may be hazardous to affign the caufes of error upon fpeculation; but facts will fpeak for themselves. It is well known that most of our enlightened reafoners, who take the highest liberties with the Faith of a Trinity in Unity, have been bred in those fchools where the fciences which are converfant about quantities claim a fuperior, if not an exclufive excellence. In their place they are excellent, and give abfolute certainty; but in religion, being out of their place, they muft of courfe turn into vain deceit. Let us therefore most humbly with it to be well confidered by those whom it may concern, that mathematicians, merely as fuch, have in religion no pre-eminence above other men; that mathematical analogies are not transferrable to morality, theology, politics; nor

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