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never had any property they could call their own, on a sudden elevation, to

Forget the dunghills where they grew,

"And think themselves the Lord knows who,

affords sad proof of their possessing,minds too weak to bear a state of affluence.'

It is the calamity of this country at present to have too many of this unhappy race. It is a race that has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished: and every thinking man, we believe, will be inclined to say of it, as TILLOTSON said of the Athanasian creed, I wish we were well rid of it.' We heartily wish this statement of Mr. Flower's an extensive circulation. It is of great importance in itself, and highly interesting to the religious community. It illustrates in the most palpable manner, and by the most striking example the genius of methodism; it shews that this foul corruption of Christianity, either withers or vi tiates all the best affections of the heart, that it nips the growth of every virtue, and promotes that of every vice; that for all that is dignified, respectable, kind, and amiable in the mind and heart of man, it encourages the most despicable meanness, the most unblushing falsehood, the most systematic hypocrisy, the most rapacious selfishness, and the most unrelenting hate. This is the constant operation of methodism, these are its tendencies; this is its genius; and never was this truth more clearly eluci dated and more forcibly established than in the present performance. The conduct of the reverend methodists, whose portraits start from the canvass in the statement of Mr. Flower, is only a specimen of the virtue that is to be found in the righteous fraternity. Ex uno disce omnes!

We think that Mr. Flower's counsel were very remiss in not laying the whole of his case before the jury, and in withholding many facts relative to the godly set of the Claytons, which would have proved that Mr. Flower had been the constant object of their good-will for more than twenty-years. Had the atrocious conspiracy of cruelty and falsehood been more fully developed, the plaintiff would doubtless have received larger damages, the iniquity, of his enemies would have appeared in its true light, and the circumstances of the trial would not have been represented so imperfectly and so unfavourably in the newspapers..

ART. VIII. Ned Bently; a Novel, 3 Vols. By J. Amphlet.
Longman. 1808.

NED Bently is one of those extraordinary personages who rise into notice, into wealth, and into a gentleman of no common accomplishments, in spite of the frowns of fortune, and the malice of the world. In fact, this novel is a very close imitation of Cumberland's Henry, without its wit and sprightliness, and of Moore's Edward, without the good sense and elegance of that composition.

Ned Bently is at first discovered by a family who are travelling in a deep snow. He runs after the carriage, begs an alms, which he receives, and departs with thanks. This family, which consists of a Mr. and Mrs. Mordant, and their two little girls, are on their way to Stoney Stratford, and from thence proceeding to the mansion, called Chankely House. The next morning, however, Mr. M. not rising very early, Mrs. M. and her little daughters take a walk before breakfast, and on proceeding down a lane, where four roads meet, they perceived the little ragged boy whom they had seen begging alms the evening before, seated on a little mound, which he had carefully cleared from the snow, and eating a cake. Mrs. M. on questioning him, finds that he is an orphan, who has run away from the work-house, because the master knocked him about so ;' that he was without a home, and depended for support on what he could do for a poor man, whom he called Thomas. He said that Thomas brought him scraps to eat, and that he slept with the hackney, in the stable. The artless manner in which this account of himself was given, greatly interested the good. Mrs. M.; but she feels more sensibly touched by his forlorn situation, when, in asking him after. his mother, he tells her that she cut her throat, and that she was buried under the green mound on which he sat. Mrs. M. and her children, with the little ragged boy, proceed to the barn, and find Thomas, who gives the same account, in a lamentable manner, and pities the poor unfortunate mother's fate. Mrs. Mordant therefore determines to take Ned with her, procures him clothes, &c.; and, as her husband is represented as being not a little surly, she is perplexed how to introduce the subject; but that gentleman grumbling most opportunely, on the inattention of servants, and saying that boys were more tractable than men, Mrs. M. upon this hint,' ventured upon her story. The boy is called in, and his simple and sensible answers, with his fine.

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open countenance, conclude the business, and he proceeds behind the chaise in his new occupation as footman. In the dusk of the evening, as the carriage was proceeding up hill, Ned gets down to walk, in order to warm himself, when meeting some boys, who annoy him with snow balls, he is detained by drubbing one of them, till the carriage is nearly out of sight. After much exertion, and many a hard struggle to recover it, he is benighted, and loses his way in the snow. After straying about, and following the dog who belonged to his master, he discovers a cottage, but not making any body hear, he gets in at the window, and warms himself by the few embers that remain glowing on the hearth. Not finding any body below, he creeps up stairs, and perceives two beds in a room, in one of which he finds a corpse laid out, in the other two children asleep. He again descends, makes up the fire, allays his hunger from the cupboard, and falls asleep on the hearth. In the morning he learns from the children that their mother was dead, and their father gone out. The snow, which continued to fall, was even with the windows, and he found himself penned up as by the hand of fate. As there was plenty of provision and firing, he amuses the children, and makes them as comfortable as good nature and his forlorn circumstances will admit. In this situation he remains three days, the snow continuing, and barricading the door and windows. On the fourth day a thaw commences, when the last wood was put on the fire, and nearly burnt out, and the rushlight extinguished. The faithful partner of his distresses, the dog Fido, gave signs by barking, of the approach of human beings, and soon after, the father of the family appears. After proper acknowledgments, he takes his depar ture, with Fido for his guide, and journeying on till evening, finds himself, by the help of Fido's intelligence, at his master's door. Great joy and gladness are expressed at his arrival, and as he proves a good lad, Mrs. Mordant and her daughters instruct him to write and read, in which our author tells us that he proved an apt scholar. The next exploit of this very wonderful hero, is saving his master's life. from the hand of one of his servants, which he performs in so extraordinary a manner, that we must leave it for the perusal of those readers who love the improbable and the marvellous.

Ned proceeds with his daily labours, but he improves so rapidly in his studies, that, at the age of seventeen, he is such an adept, as to be able to lend some instruction to his teachers. He is an excellent grammarian, and very au-fait in argument; he is, besides, a very excellent judge in draw.

ing, and the fine arts. When he arrives at this happy age of seventeen, he is taken from his servile capacity, and placed in the family more as a son and a friend, than what he had been. In this situation he is all excellence also; and as his gratitude is unbounded, so are his tender feelings increased towards the eldest daughter, Miss Helen Mordant, and Miss Helen's towards Mr. Ned. However, after a time, Mr. Mordant's ears are assailed by stories, to the prejudice of Ned, by those kind of people who cannot bear to see a fellow creature do well in the world; and envy and malice are so busy, that Mr. Ned is sent away from the house to seek his fortune as he may. He goes with the blessings of the female part of the family, and the friend.. ship of a Mr. Pelham, a neighbour of Mr. Mordant, who had taken a great interest in his welfare. This person, however, he does not see before he leaves Chankely-house. Ned travels from one place to another, and in a village meets with a Frenchman, who is also a traveller. Our hero, being perfectly accomplished, addresses him in his own language, and they agree to travel together, when the heat of the day was over. In the evening they are overtaken by a thunder storm, and benighted. After much fatigue, they are kindly received into a gentleman's house, where the old Frenchman is put to bed, and Ned is introduced to the fa mily party, amongst whom he discovers the assassin of his former master, making love to the gentleman's daughter, under the character of an American captain, Mr. Ned soon lets him understand that he is known, and compels him to decamp.

The Frenchiman,whose name is De Laurent, is seized with a fever, and dies, leaving two letters in the care of Ned, one to Theodore Anderton at Liverpool, and another to lord Berrington. To Liverpool therefore our hero sets off. On his arrival at one of the inns, he is much pleased with a young naval officer, whom he sees embark next morning; and when too late he finds him to be the Theodore Anderton for whom the letter is designed. This he entrusts to a sailor and hastens to lord Berrington's with the other. My lord is so struck with Ned's figure and face, that he not only receives him politely, but offers him his patronage and protec tion. When Ned returns, he mingles with others in a coffee room, where the members are arguing on different subjects; his sagacity discovers that they are what are called freethinkers. He offends an officer, and a duel is the consequence; the officer is wounded though not mortally, but he Vows deadly hatred to Ned, who soon after disappears in a way, that no one can find out. An advertisement is put in

the paper, and a reward offered for his discovery. Lord Berrington is indefatigable in his search,and at the same time the Mordant family, with Mr. Pelham arrive at Liverpool, with a view of coasting to Wales; Mr. Mordant is convinced of his injustice to Ned, and anxious for his discovery. From a letter, which after a time, Ned sends to lord Berrington, he gives an account of his being entrapped by an Irishman, and a Dutch sailor, to take a row with them on the water; he soon found that their intention was to put him on board a tender, lying at a little distance, however he contrives to force the oars from them, so that they drive away at the mercy of the waves, till they are picked up by a frigate, on board of which Ned distinguishes himself in a very gallant and wonderful manner.

The family of the Mordants, and lord Berrington with whom an intimacy is formed, remove to Brighton, at which place, Ned makes his appearance, and has the good fortune to rescue his beloved Helen from losing her life from the house taking fire, and in a situation in which she was almost past hopes of any relief. He is of course received by the family, with all the warmth of friendship, and of gratitude. Whilst sitting in his apartment, he is visited by the rustic Thomas Peart, who was the friend of his childhood, when Mrs. Mordant found him and took him under her protection; and from him he learns that the woman who was buried in the crossways was not his mother, but that Mr. Pelham had found out who he was. This Mr. Pelham is unfortunately taken ill on the road, in his way to that place, and dies. However, Mr. Mordant says that Mr. Pelham in his dying moments, had informed him by letter, that in a village near Southampton, and at the house of a Mr. Fenton, Ned would find a parent. Ned hastens there and learns that he is the son of a gentleman who was shipwrecked off Portsmouth; that he himself was rescued by a young woman who was walking on the shore, that the child having some costly chains of pearl and gold, and various valuables about it, the woman in order to secure the property returned to her native village with the child, whom she confessed to be her own. She sold part of the valuables and kept those she, thought might lead to a discovery. The parish officers, finding a difficulty in making her swear the child, sent it to the workhouse; and shortly after, the woman was murdered by a man, on whom she threatened to father the child, and she is left in such a situation as excited a suspicion, that she had laid violent hands on herself. Mr. Fenton added that Ned's mother was living under his roof, but in a state of derangement.

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