lately established in Westminster. The diffusion of this or some such mode of instruction, especially in our populous and manufacturing towns, I am strongly inclined to believe, would have a most desirable and beneficial effect upon the character of the coming age. For let our wealth as a nation increase to the utmost extent that both the Indies can supply, or that avarice itself could wish (if it were not an absurdity to speak of the limits of its wishes), yet unless morality and virtue are sufficiently prevalent in the national character to check the torrent of vice, the stability and permanency of the national prosperity must be affected. "History is Philosophy teaching by examples;" and the annals of mankind, as exhibited in the depravity and subsequent fall of states and empires, sufficiently prove, that, in the moral, as well as in the natural world, like causes produce like effects; and that vice, if persevered in, must degrade the character and ruin the constitution, as of an individual so of a nation. I think it does not appear that the legislators of Greece or Rome, or any of the flourishing states of ancient times, paid much attention to the virtuous education of the lowest classes of the people; and yet the tranquillity of government, in modern times at least, must depend very much upon the state of their morals. Nasica seems to have been not only a better prophet, but a better censor, than Cato. By recommending something like a so ciety for the prevention of vice, by means of education, I hope I shall not be understood to have suggested any thing in disapprobation of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, by censure or legal restrictions. The salutary effect of the former mode must have been noticed in many cases within our own know ledge in regard to individuals, families, and larger bodies. I will instance a striking one; and that is in our native county of West morland, where education is perhaps more generally given to youth of all classes than in any other county in the kingdom; and the Bishop of Landaff is well able to estimate the criminal conduct of the inhabitants of this county, when compared with that of others. When have we heard of a capital execution in Westmorland, except about twenty years ago, when two men were executed for a murder perpetrated near Lowther; but they were strangers, and committed the horrid deed in transitu, as they were travelling southward. How different the recurrence of crimes in the neighbouring county of Lancaster! particularly in the southerly part of it, where education is much neglected. Ireland and Scotland afford an instance upon a larger scale. Now with respect to the latter mode, I mean, the suppres sion of vice, we do not find that the censors among the Romans, by the rigorous exercise of their authority, great as it was, effected much in checking the increase of depravity and dissolute morals: indeed, it seemed more calculated to repress the extravagant and reproachful conduct of the rich, than the vices of the poor, and yet, Luxuria incubuit, victumque ulciscitur orbem. The censors of our own times, whether in the capacity of churchwardens, police, justices, or a society for the suppression of vice, are worthy of commendation for all the attention they give to the pre. servation of morals; but the general state of morals loudly declares the want of something more radically efficacious than the schemes of suppression or punishment. "It now remains for me to crave indulgence for obtruding on thy notice a few sentiments, which I am sensible are very inadequate to so very important a subject. "I am, with sincere respect, Nov. 3, 1804." G. H. "To Mr. G. H. the inveterate habits of men, but "Sir-On Saturday last I received your letter, dated 3d of Nov. and the pamphlet which accompanied it, and return you thanks for them both. I have perused them both with attention and satisfaction; for there are in both judicious sentiments, issuing, I am persuaded, from a well-regulated mind. That my sentiments concur with yours on the great point of the education of youth, may be seen from the following extract from a Charge to my clergy, published in 1788. All nations, indeed, of which we have any account, in becoming rich have become profligate a torrent of depraved morality has, in every opulent state, borne down with irresistible violence those mounds and fences by which the wisdom of legislators attempted to protect chastity, sobriety, and virtue. If any check can be given to the corruption of a state increasing in riches, and declining in morals, it must be given, not by laws enacted to alter by education adapted to form the hearts of children to a proper sense of moral and religious excellence.' "I am, Sir, "Your faithful and obliged servant, "K. Landaff." "Calgarth Park, Kendall, June 15, 1805. "Sir-In looking over some papers yesterday, previous to my setting forward for Landaff, I met with your letter of the 3d of November 1804, and found that I had not acknowledged the receipt of it. I beg you to excuse that omission, and to be assured that I wholly concur with you in the charitable and very sensible wishes and sentiments expressed in it. I am carrying with me, to be given to the young persons in my diocese, a second address; and, as I do not mean to publish it, you will perhaps be gratified with seeing how zealous I have been, and am, in impressing on the minds of youth a due sense of religion. "I am, "K. Landaff." REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. The Life of the Rev. Thomas Scott, including a Narrative drawn up by himself, and copious Extracts of [from] his Letters. By JOHN SCOTT, A. M. 8vo. London. 1822. pp. 673. THIS is one of the most interesting specimens that has fallen into our hands of modern religious biography. The subject of the work was a clergyman of acknowledged piety, and, both as a preacher and a writer, of eminent usefulness in the church of Christ: and he lived in the exercise of his ministry, and in the varied application of his valuable talents, to a period much beyond that which is usually allotted to the active duties of human life. His biographer is his eldest son, himself also a well-known and highly respected clergyman of that church in which his venerable parent so long and so successfully ministered; a son, whose privilege it was to be trained up under his immediate care, to have the benefit of his wholesome instructions, and his truly Christian example, and who has now the happiness to record concerning his venerable father, not merely what others have told him, but what has fallen under his own observation, and what, from an intimate knowledge of his father's principles and character, he can testify with all the feeling, and all the authority, which become the biographer of so distinguished a Christian minister. Under such circumstances we should look for a narrative both interesting and instructive and no reader can just ly complain, in the present instance, that his reasonable expectations have in any degree been disappointed. It has frequently been observed, that the lives of persons, however eminent and valuable in their day, who have lived in comparative retirement, and have had no share in the great movements and changes of this busy world, afford, in general, few materials to "the biographer, and excite little interest in posterity. The remark is not without many exceptions: and if Mr. Scott had never been known during his long and active life, beyond his chapel at the Lock Hospital, or his little living of Aston Sandford, and the circle of his correspondents, such was the character of his mind, and such his exemplary devotion to the high office committed to him, that there would have been no want to his biographer of instructive materials, or, to intelligent and well-principled minds, of interest in his memoirs. But, humble as was the lot of this good man, if contrasted with that of numbers who, amidst the pomp of a world which is passing away, attract for a season the attention of mankind, and then disappear and are forgotten, his name was well known in various parts of the four quarters of the globe; and he had the honour to be intimately concerned in those mighty movements of Christian benevolence, which are already felt from the tropics to the poles, and are progressively and powerfully advancing to change the novel and religious aspect of every region of the earth. The political changes of the world will, by the lapse of ages, be frequently reversed: the present landmarks of nations will be swept away; the great CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 250. monarchies of former days have vanished, to be succeeded by kingdoms which may, before long, submit to a similar fate: but the light of the Gospel, which the venerated subject of these memoirs laboured so earnestly and so successfully to diffuse throughout the world, will never be extinguished. In common with others who spent their lives in the same glorious cause, his Christian zeal and love will be his imperishable record: and if it were possible that, when the great moral and religious renovation for which he so zealously laboured, and wrote, and prayed, shall be effected, his writings should be unknown, and his name forgotten, he will not, on that account, have been less an instrument of good to millions yet unborn, or less influential in his generation, "through the grace given unto him," in extending the kingdom of Christ. For writing the life of a man thus occupied, and thus distinguished, there can be no want of materials: and the author has availed himself, with great judgment, of the various sources of information to which he had access. Among these we notice particularly a memoir drawn up by the late Mr. Scott of his own life; his several publications, especially the pamphlet entitled, "The Force of Truth;" the communications of friends intimately conversant with his character and habits; together with a great mass of letters addressed either to other correspondents, or personally to the writer of these memoirs. the materials are judiciously selected, they are likewise very happily arranged. The course of his life was marked by several distinct intervals, which form the subjects of so many separate chapters: and, from the time when his views of religious truth became sound and scriptural, there is subjoined to each chapter a selection from his correspondence during the period which it included. In this Number we shall accompany the author to 4 P As the time when he was on the point of quitting the chaplaincy of the Lock Hospital, to retire to the living of Aston Sandford; and as we shall, in the next Number probably, take occasion to offer some reflections of our own, at present we shall do little more than furnish an outline, up to the period just mentioned, of the narrative itself, with a few occasional extracts from the work. The written memoir left by Mr. Scott, of his own life, was brought down to the year 1812: it was intended to prevent misinformation, and to supply a few authentic materials in the event of any narrative being published after his death: the proper reflections to be made upon the facts thus recorded, he left to others. It would have been an instance of affectation utterly aworthy of his mind to intimate a doubt whether the public would feel any interest in him, after his labours and his life had closed: he must have known that this interest would exist, and that some account would certainly be required. The charges therefore usually brought against auto-biography are, as to the motive, of no weight in this instance; and he must be a fastidious critic who can discover in the execution of the task any ground of censure: no task can be more plain, or can carry with it stronger internal evidence of honesty of mind and simplicity of intention. The Reverend Thomas Scott was born on the 4th of February (old style),1746-7,atBraytoft in Lincolnshire: he was one of thirteen children, ten of whom lived to maturity. His father is represented as a man of uncommon energy of mind and vigour of intellect, who, under circumstances very unfavourable, surmounted in a considerable degree his almost total want of education. Having gone through the common rudiments of learning, such as a village school supplies, and obtained a slight acquaintance with Latin, the subject of the present narrative was sent at ten years of age to Scorton in the parish of Bolton; his father having determined, in consequence of the death of his eldest son, who was a surgeon on board a ship of war, to bring him up to the medical profession. At Scorton he made considerable proficiency in his learning, attended however by the remarkable circumstance that he never could write themes, and that he looked with astonishment upon great books, being utterly at a loss to conceive how they could ever have been produced; a singular trait in the history of one, who was afterwards to prove so voluminous an author! In September 1762, he was bound apprentice to a surgeon and apothecary at Alford, a village in the neighbourhood of Braytoft. It was his unhappiness to be placed with a master whom he describes as in all respects unprincipled, and probably an infidel. Under such authority and with such an example his own moral character, which he previously represents in no very favourable light, was not likely to be much improved: and at the end of two months he was dismissed by this very master in disgrace. Yet here it was, and by a remark of this unprincipled man, that he was first led to feel any serious conviction of sin against God. "Remonstrating with me," he says, 66 on one instance of my misconduct, he observed, that I ought to recollect it was not only displeasing to him, but wicked in the sight of God. This remark produced a new sensation in my soul, which no subsequent efforts could destroy; and proved, I am fully satisfied, as far as any thing proceeding from man was instrumental to it, the primary cause of my subsequent conversion." How unlikely the means to produce such a change! how little could have been anticipated all the subsequent effects of it! His master having refused to give up his indentures, he could not be placed out with any other member of the profession; and on his return home he was employed to perform, as well as he could, the most laborious and unpleasant parts of the work belonging to his father's occupation, that of a grazier. He continued in this employment for nine years, encountering all kinds of weather and compelled to associate with persons of the lowest station of life and wholly destitute of religious principle. Yet was he not at times without deep convictions of his sinful and guilty state, and without earnest desires, often vehemently expressed, for the mercy of God: and cut off as he now seemed to be from all prospect of accomplishing his object, he still indulged the thought which he had formerly entertained of going to the university, and of taking upon himself the clerical profession. The checks and impediments which he experienced in his studies, under his father's roof, at length dissipated his ideas of promotion in literary pursuits; and after some years of discontent and irritation he became more reconciled to his lot, and concluded that he should at last be provided for as à grazier. His elder brother was already fixed upon a farm; and he therefore seemed with reason to expect that he should himself succeed to the farm of his father. Having discovered, however, that the lease of this farm was left by will to his brother, and that he was merely to be under-tenant to him for some marsh grazing lands of no very inviting aspect and without a house, he determined to extricate himself from his situation; recommenced his studies with vigour; and in a moment of provocation threw off his shepherd's dress, declaring his fixed purpose never to resume it. Recollecting, however, in the moru ing that a large flock of ewes, in yeaning time, had no skilful person to look after them, he so far abated of his resolution as to return and fulfil his shepherd's duties: but his main purpose he determinately pursued; and he went over immediately to Boston to lay his case before a clergyman with whom he had cultivated a slight casual acquaintance. It will readily be believed that the clergyman listened to his tale with not a little surprize: but having examined him in the Greek Testament he readily promised to introduce him the next week to the archdeacon, who was then to hold his visitation. At the time appointed, Mr. Scott, having evinced his sense of filial duty by employing the intermediate days in again assisting his father, repaired once more to Boston, and met with so favourable a reception from the archdeacon, that he was induced to purchase the necessary books, and to apply himself diligently to study and composition. Having soon after procured a title to a small curacy (Martin near Horncastle), after walking for the purpose above fifty miles, and having procured testimonials and the other requisite papers, he repaired to London for ordination within seven weeks from the time of leaving his father. On his arrival he was informed, that as his papers had not come in time, and as other circumstances were unfavourable, he could not be admitted a candidate. In fact, he was suspected of Methodism; though, so far as appears, he might with just as much truth have been suspected of Mohammedanism. The bishop,however, condescendingly granted him an audience; and, on condition of his procuring his father's consent and a letter from some beneficed clergyman in the neighbourhood, intimated that he should probably admit him as a candidate at the next ordination. The conditions were such as almost to reduce him to despair, but there was no remedy: he therefore returned home, a great part of the way on foot; and at length reaching Braytoft, after walking twenty miles in |