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'Practical View,' as have been objected to by Mr. Daubeny, in his late Publication, entitled, A Guide to the Church. Also, some Remarks on Mr. Daubeny's Conduct in bringing a false Quotation from a Pamphlet, entitled, Five Letters to the Rev. Mr. Fletcher, written by Sir Richard Hill in the Year 1771.' Richard Hill, Bart, M. P. 8vo. pp. 269. 5s. Boards. Cadell jun. and Davies. 1798.

By Sir

Brotherly love can certainly need no apology, whatever some may think with regard to the articles of the church: but the author's meaning is plain; and, although we do not agree with him in sentiment, we peruse his writings with a kind of prejudice in his favour, because we consider him as a benevolent, worthy, and ingenious man. He professes himself a friend to liberty and the right of private judgment, and he appears to rejoice that the spirit of bigotry and intole rance has been laid low, while that of peace and universal good-will has risen in its stead. Zealous for the doctrine of the established church, and favourable to its discipline and forms, he yet regards the latter as not essential, and so far pleads in behalf of those who dissent from it. I must (says he) ever esteem the doctrines of our church, to be of much greater consequence than her walls. A short extract from the preface may afford the reader a proper view of Sir Richard's design and manner:

I shall readily obtain credit, when I say, that in the following letters, I have paid no court to the fashionable system of divinity, which now passes so currently for truth, and even for the doctrine of the church of England. To give offence, I would never wish; yet to steer about, halve, and trim in a matter of the most essential consequence, for fear offence should be taken, would be still more my abhorrence.”—

On the present occasion, Mr. Daubeny and I meet on fair ground, and the church of England is the field of our controversy. To this church Mr. Daubeny professes to guide his readers. I, as well as he, professes myself to be a steady member of the church of England: but I positively deny that salvation is confined within her pale, and that her external constitution and polity ought to be the pattern to all other churches, though I am as much a friend to conformity, unity, and concord, and as much averse to what the Scripture deems schism, as Mr. Daubeny himself can be.

Mr. D. also expresses his high approbation of the doctrines of the church of England. Here again I meet him with open arms: but in comparing his creed with that of the church herself, and bringing it to the test of our articles, homilies, and liturgy, here a mighty difference appears between us, and either he or I must be a dissenter and schismatic indeed: but to which of us the charges belong must be left to the candour of the reader.'

Sir Richard laments that what he terms fashionable preaching does not accord with his ideas; yet he may console himself by the thought that fashion varies, and that fashionable men vary with it, and that therefore the mode which he prefers may again prevail: indeed he intimates something like an expectation that this will be the case. He has however proved, beyond dispute, that Mr.

Daubeny's

Daubeny's sentiments do not comport with the articles of our estabJishment; and he appears also to have the advantage over Mr. D. respecting the pretended quotation from a former publication by the Baronet, who ingeniously discovers that it was taken from the life of Mr. Lackington the bookseller.

'We should farther observe that, while Sir Richard Hill is a strenuous advocate for the doctrine of election, in the calvinistic sense of the word, he wavers on the horrible subject of reprobation, or at least is desirous of expressing it by the milder term of preterition. He is devoted to what has long been called old divinity. High praise is due to our first reformers from popery, for they had true merit: yet it is wonderful that it should not have occurred to this respectable writer that they were not inspired, nor infallible; that, emerging as they did from the regions of darkness, they were not entirely emancipated from prejudice, bigotry, or ignorance. Great were their atchievements! yet they left much to be accomplished by their successors. Sir Richard often professes his charity and liberality of sentiment; and we trust that it extends to those whose opinions are very different from his own, and is by no means restrained by certain points which he characterises as essential and fundamental.

After this brief notice, we must take our leave, without attending to several other particulars; and we would conclude by inserting a short maxin from the writings of a divine in the English church, who was eminent in the last century : "Give me a religion that is grounded on right reason, and divine authority; such as when it does attain its effect, the world is the better for it."

Art. 40. The Rights of Protestants asserted; and Clerical Incroach ment detected. In allusion to several recent Publications in Defence of an exclusive Priesthood, Establishments, and Tithes, by Daubeny, Church, and others. But more particularly in Reply to a Pamphlet lately published by George Markham, Vicar of Carlton, entitled "More Truth for the Seekers."

Lane, &c. 1798.

8vo. 8d.

It seems now to be Mr. Markham's turn to suffer persecution but as Hob says in the farce, "Turn and turn about's the fair thing."-Whether the contest be yet closed, we cannot say: but, imagining that our readers are satisfied with regard to this tithe controversy, [and certain that we are,] we shall not enlarge on the present occasion.

Art. 41.

The Universal Restoration; exhibited in a Series of Extracts from Winchester, White, Sicgvolk, Dr. Chauncy, Bishop Newton, and Petit-pierre; some of the most remarkable Authors, who have written in Defence of that interesting Subject. Svo. 2s. 6d. Boards. Lee and Hurst.

The chief part of this volume is appropriated to five dialogues written by Mr. Winchester; who remarks that more persons refuse to believe in revelation, because it is commonly thought to contain the doctrine of endless misery, than from any other cause; and num

* We are glad, however, that it is only literary persecution.

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bers have embraced it immediately, on being fairly convinced that it was not necessary to understand it in that light.'-In another place he says, some have believed it, yea wrote (have written) on it secretly, for many years, and yet to the day of their death have not openly avowed it, because it is not popular." This eonclusion is not, perhaps, perfectly candid; since it is easily apprehended that the motives to caution may be benevolent and virtuous. It must be acknowleged that the arguments here offered, though not delivered in the most captivating style, are very powerful: but woe to him who rashly concludes and acts, without regarding the whole that is to be said on the point.

The late eminent Dr. Newton is here introduced among other writers; and extracts are selected from the sixth volume of his posthumous works. These and other parts of this compilation merit an attentive perusal :-but the appearance of the book has nothing attractive;bad print, bad paper, bad style, and numerous errata; with additional errors (we apprehend) in the very list which is given of errata.

Art. 42. A Letter to the Church of England, pointing out some pos pular Errors of bad Consequence; by an old Friend and Servant of the Church. 8vo. 1s. Hatchard. 1798.

This pamphlet has the merit of good paper, good print, good style, energy of language, &c.-but what shall we say, on the whole, of the performance?-High-churchman, a name for such a length of time generally discarded as implying ignorance, bigotry, &c.—is with this writer the only good churchman;-and at the same time that he rejects human authority, he insists on its exercise in the church of England! We once were inclined to think that, under the concealment of art, we were perusing the product of a Jesuit's pen, and that the professed design of favouring the church of England was far excceded ; and there are expressions or sentiments, occasionally occur. ring, which might favour such a suspicion :-but we venture not to pronounce.

POETRY and DRAMATIC.

Art. 43. Sentimental Poems, on the most remarkable Events of the French Revolution. Dedicated to his Serene Highness the Prince of Condé. By a Foreign Officer, and translated by an English Nobleman. Under the Patronage of their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. Large 8vo. pp. 120. Flattery, in French and English: elegantly printed, and orna mented with neat engravings. The book is, indeed, very HANDSOME! Art. 44. The Noble Lie; a Drama, in One Act; being a Continuation of the Play of Misanthropy and Repentance, or THE STRANGER: now acting with the greatest Applause at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Translated from the German of Kotzebue, by Maria Geisweiler. 8vo. 18. Sold at No. 54, Pall Mall, &c. 1799.

See our account of two translations of the Stranger, Review June 1798, p. 188.

REV. MAY, 1799.

H

This

This small piece is not unworthy of the Muse of Vienna. It affords a pleasing picture of rural simplicity and domestic happiness; exemplified in the felicity of a virtuous and amiable married couple, -people' of condition, retired to enjoy the tranquillity and innocence of a rural situation in Switzerland; and this picture furnishes the moral of the drama. The translatress seems to merit encouragement. We understand that this is her first literary attempt. The German, we suppose, is her native tongue, as she professes to have a thorough knowlege of it but we find very few defects in her English ;none, indeed, that are very material.

Art. 45. The Epiphany: a Seatonian Prize Poem. By William Bolland, M. A. of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Rivingtons. 1799•

4to.

IS.

This is the second instance of Mr. Bolland having gained the Seatonian prize. His first successful poem was on the subject of Miracles; a theme far more fertile than the present :-but the sacred subjects suggested by the vice-chancellor, the master of Clare Hall, and the Greek professor for the time being, in the spirit of the pious Founder's Will, (dated Oct. 1738,) having been discussed and illustrated during a period of 60 years, are so far exhausted, that the executors of this Will seem unable to furnish the candidates with new materials for the exercise of their talents, within the limits of the Testator's original intentions.

The Epiphany, (spava,) or appearance of the three wise-men, kings, or Magi, who came to adore and bring presents to the infant Jesus, is mentioned by only one of the four Evangelists, St. Matthew. Indeed the fathers of the church, divines, and other ecclesiastical historians and commentators, are not perfectly agreed about the origin of the feast of the Epiphany. Some assign it to the birth of our Saviour himself,-some to the arrival of the Magi to do him homage, and some to the Star that was seen in the east, by which they were guided to his residence in Bethlehem. Mr. Bolland seems chiefly to adhere to this last opinion: celebrating

That wondrous Star, that, in the eastern sky
Majestic rising, to Judæa's land

Trac'd its illumin'd path to mark the clime,
From whence, as erst by holy Prophet told,
To Israel should a mighty Prince be born,
The King and Saviour of a fallen race.'

Though little either of originality, or of remarkable ingenuity, is discoverable in this short composition, the verses are smooth; and the ideas are as poetical, perhaps, as propriety and religious reverence for the sacred text will allow.

Art. 46. Linet suggested by the Fast, appointed on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 1799. By Charles Lloyd, Author of Edmund Oliver, &c. 4to. 18. Longman.

* Did the custom of eating twelfth-cake, and choosing king and queen, originate in the Magi presenting "gold, frankincense, and myrih?"

The

The heavy artillery of blank verse is here employed against Jacobinism, and what has been called the modern philosophy. Prose, we should have thought, would have better suited the author's purpose. No conviction can be produced by such desultory discussion, nor contentment and joy by such an address, as that which makes the finale of this poem:

Then bow yourselves, my countrymen, and own
That in a world where voluntary slaves

Exist by millions, wretched slaves to vice,-
That in a world where victims to the sword,
Famine, and pestilence, are swept away

As summer insects by an eastern blast,

That in a world like this you're BLEST AND FREE.”

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Art. 47. The Battle of the Nile. A Descriptive Poem. Addressed as a tributary Wreath to Nautic Bravery. By a Gentleman of Earl St. Vincent's Fleet. 8vo. Is. 6d. Debrett.

Our naval victories have furnished an ample field for descriptive poetry; and the late brillant action off the Mouth of the Nile has the advantage of affording many opportunities for classical allusions, of which the author of the poem before us has not failed to avail himself. The versification is in general smooth, and sometimes elevated: but there is frequently great negligence and want of correctness in the rhymes: as in towers, secures. Pour, fire. Skin, entwine, &c. The author shews an ardent zeal for the honour of the Bri tish Navy, and appears to possess considerable knowlege of maritime affairs, as well as of the particular circumstances of the action which he celebrates.On the signal being made by the Earl of St. Vincent for Admiral Nelson's squadron to go in pursuit of the enemy, the author thus describes a ship weighing anchor, and casting to

sea:

Then high in air the colour'd signals fly;
The watchful fleet the waving tokens spy.
Quick runs the ready answer to the main
Nor need they more the order to explain.
"All hands up anchor," loud the boatswains bawl
As round the decks they pipe the triple call:
"All hands up anchor," echoes all around;
And boatswains' mates with silver pipes resound.
Now from his gripe the forked anchor's torn,
And to the bows the pond'rous mass is borne;
A weight unwieldly f, which, in times of old,
Would a whole Grecian fleet securely hold.
Some to the helm repair, while up the shrouds,
With cheerful haste, each hardy sailor crowds,
To climb the yards, and loose the girded sail,
And spread its bosom to the western gale.-

* A blue flag is hoisted at the main.'
The anchor of a first-rate weighs five tons!'

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