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We have no time to consider the details into which the author enters to demonstrate Bonaparte to be the "man of sin." Our patience is exhausted; and the stock is not likely to be replenished by our credulity. We cannot think so ill of Mr. Hioan as to suppose that he wrote this book to ridicule the prophecies, as well as those who pretend to explain them; but if he had actually endea voured to do this, he could hardly have done it more effectually than in the present performance.

ART. 11. Scripture made easy in familiar Answers to the catechetical questions of a learned Divine. For the Use of Schools, by Mrs. Eves, Clifford Place, Herefordshire. Knot and Loyd, Birmingham. 1808.

MRS. EVES is, we have no doubt, a diligent and well meaning school-mistress; and, though we do not approve some of her theological tenets, we hope that her endeavours to promote scriptural knowledge will be attended with success.

POLITICS:

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ART. 12.-On the Causes of our late Military and Political Disasters, with some Hints for preventing their Recurrence. 8vo. 2s. Triphook. 1808.

WE read this essay on its original appearance, in some numbers of that excellent newspaper, the Times; but, on the first perusal, it by no means struck us as the product of a vigorous and comprehensive mind. A second perusal has rather strengthened than obliterated our first impressions. The intellectual ability of the author, who ever he may be, never rises above the line of mediocrity. The object of his endeavours is to prove, that the salvation of the country, can be effected only by a responsible administration, composed of an efficient prime minister, and of subordinate members, unanimous among themselves, and equally responsible to their country for all their public acts." The author does not seem to affix any very definite idea to the words responsible and responsibility, which he recommends as the panacea of the national calamities. In his zeal for a responsible administration, he forgets to tell us to whom it is to be responsible. For responsibility supposes a power of calling to account, and if guilty, of punishing the responsible delinquent. But in the present state of the British constitution, to whom are the efficient prime minister, and his subordinates in office to be responsible? The author will perhaps say, to parliament. But has not the prime minister, whoever he may be, whether efficient or inefficient, a constant majority in parliament? How then can any minister be truly said to be responsible to a parliament, the majority of whom are the obsequious instruments of his will? To say that a prime minister is re sponsible to a parliament, over the 'mass of which he can exercise an irresistible controul, is only to say that a responsible prime minister, is responsible to himself, which is to say, that he is placed above all responsibility. Before

this author talked so much of a responsible administration, he should first have devised the means of rendering it not nominally, but really responsible, by such a reform in the house of Commons, as would prevent the minister of the day, whatever may be his igno❤ rance, his imbecility, or his profligacy, from being supported by a blind and submissive majority. Instead of talking of the qualifi cations of an efficient prime minister, the author should have descanted on the use of an efficient, that is, an upright, and disinterested house of commons. Such a house of commons would be a sufficient protection to the people against a weak and vicious minister; but even the most able and upright minister could render little essential service to his country, while one of his principal studies, in order to keep his seat, must be to satisfy the cravings of a venal parliament. The efficient prime minister, whom this author would recommend, and whom his pamphlet seems designed to panegyrize, as the de, that is to save the country, is the Marquis Wellesley. That the marquis would make an efficient minister, we have little doubt; but the term efficient may be used in a bad sense as well as a good; and though we by no means doubt the abilities of the marquis, yet we do not think that the despotic power which he exercised in India, and the habits of Asiatic splendor and magnificence in which he indulged, have rendered him very admirably qualified for the situation of a prime minister in a free country.

ART. 13.-The Substance of a Speech, which ought to have been spoken in certain Assembly upon the Motion made by the Right Hon. Henry Grattan on the 25th of May, 1808, that the Petition from the Romant Catholics of Ireland should be referred to a Committee of the whole Houses with supplementary Notes on the Idolatry of the Romish Church; the Proceedings in Parliament respecting the Royal Popish College at Maynooth,and the reported Speech of the Right Reverend the Bishop of Norwich, in the House of Lords, in the year 1808, in support of the Petition of the Irish Roman Catholics. s. 8vo. John Joseph Stockdale. 1809.

THIS speech is not enlivened with a sufficiency of wit or argument to counteract the influence of its narcotic powers, which inclined us very forcibly to somnolency during the perusal; and which, if it had been spoken in the senate with a gravity suited to the dullness of the composition, would have set the benches of St. Stephen's in a -snore. The inuendoes which the author throws out in one of his notes, which are of a piece with his text, on the Bishop of Norwich, are perfectly contemptible.

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ART. 14.-An Inquiry into the Causes which oppose the Conversion of the Hindus of India to Christianity, and render the Attempt to accomplish it extremely hazardous to the Interests of the East India Company, and the Nation, and to the personal Safety of Englishmen in India, par ticularly the Civil Servants of the Company. Addressed to the Holders of East India Stock; and dedicated to the President of the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India. By a Proprietor of East India Stock. 8vo. Cadell. 1809.

THIS temperate and sensible pamphlet is bighly deserving the at tention of those who think that the conversion of the Hindûs to

Christianity is a safe or practicable enterprize. The author gives a clear and satisfactory statement of the difficulties which impede the attempt, and which seem to be insuperable, while the missionaries can employ only human means. We leave it to themselves to estimate the probability of miraculous assistance. Those, who are so zealous for sending missionaries among the Hindus, do not seem to remember that their religion is incorporated with their jurisprudence; and that their religious opinions could not be eradicated, without a total subversion of the social and political ties, by which they have been held together, for the space of at least 3000 years. Their civil distinctions themselves are a branch, which springs from the trunk of their religious institutions. The distinction of casts is the basis of their political existence; but it is, at the same time, identified with their theological creed. Opinions, as far as they are mere abstractions of the mind, might, on a rational confutation, be relinquished with almost as much facility by the Hindû as the European; but opinions, connected with social and political habitudes, obligations, rank and privileges, will not be readily abandoned. There are certain tenets which the most zealous religionists of this country might, without much force of argument or persuasion, be induced to forego, but with which they would not part, except with their lives, if their retention were incorporated with the possession of honours and emoluments, with the indulgences of appetite, the forms of precedence, or the varied gratifications of sensuality and pride. Would it be an easy matter to induce the nobles, the senate, the bishops, the clergy, the judges,&c. &c. to give up the rank which they hold in society, and to sink into the level of the plebeian mass? But yet this is what our wise missionaries require of the Hindus, when they exhort them to renounce their theological rites and opinions, which form a prominent part of their social and political existence. The division of the people into casts is not dear to the Hindûs merely as a religious institution, but as the pledge and the titledeed of their civil rights. Their civil law is an essential part of their religious code. The missionaries, therefore, who are attempt. ing to abolish the last, are virtually endeavouring to destroy the first. Nothing can exceed the folly and indeed injustice of such an attempt. The Brahmins might with as much plausibility send a deputation from India, not only to reasonus out of our christianity, but to incite us to co-operate with them in subverting the whole fabric of the British constitution. The missionaries, whom we have sent to India, are not merely theological, but political innovators. Their object is to annihilate not only the religious but the civil polity of the Hindûs; for they are both united. Both constitute only one antient establishment; and both must stand or fall together. Hence the effrontery and impudence of the missionaries are placed in a more glaring light. Their attempt, if it succeeded, would revolutionise all India, but if it do not succeed, it must, if unfortunately persisted in, be fatal to the British interests in that quarter of the world.

POETRY.

ART. 15.—Poems and Translations from the minor Greek Poets and others; written chiefly between the Ages of ten and sixteen. By a Lady, Dedicated by permission to her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales. 12mo.Long

man.

THE pieces which compose this collection are said to have been written between the age of eleven and sixteen, in the hours of leisure allowed by a domestic education. But the translations or imitations of the minor Greek poets, which form a large part of the present work, are said to have been the production of a still earlier period. The volume opens with 46 select odes of Anacreon, which were translated or imitated between ten and thirteen years of age. Few persons exhibit such early proficiency of classical erudition. The defects which occur in these translations, may be readily pardoned; but the taste and literature which they display, deserve ample praise. We will select one of the translations from Anacreon, as a specimen of the work; and we shall add a wish, which is not likely to be realized, that the study of the Greek and Latin authors constituted, as in the days of Elizabeth, a part of the education of females in the superior ranks of life.

Ode 5.

THE ROSE,

Bring, bring the rose from Cupid's shrine,
Its tender foliage bathed in wine,

With liberal clusters wreathe ;
Now fill the bowl, let mirth abound,
The rose shall clasp our temples round
And richer incense breathe.

'O Rose! luxuriant queen of flow'rs,
O Rose! delight of heavenly bow'rs,
Unrivalled care of spring!
With thee the Paphian god entwines,
His golden tresses ere he joins
The graces' frolic ring.

Mine too adorn, and, while I sing,
Yon ample-bosom'd virgin bring,
With rosy garlands crown'd:

Then Bacchus, round thy glowing fane,
I too will lead the jocund train

I too will lightly bound!"

Anr. 16.-The Church Yard and other Poems. By George Woodley. 6s.

Tipper. 1808.

MR. WOODLEY, after describing the approach of evening, and

the church, which he compares to divine truth, pursues his reflections on the reality of a future state, the wisdom of meditating on death, and the seriousness of dying, &c. He then muses over the several graves, and gives little histories of their cold and silent inhabitants. Amongst these the description of the rich worldling, is the most conspicuous. We will give a few lines by way of specia

men.

'Here lies what once was called the rich Antonio.
"Twas his to revel in uncounted hoards;

And each revolving year, with lib'ral hand
Show'red grateful increase to his former store.
With high-raised heaps his coffers overflowed!
Yet, (such the curse that marks the sordid heart!)
He ever pined for more! increasing wealth
But brought increasing wants.

As he who lies
Beneath the burning fever's ceaseless drought,
Finds in his remedy his chief disease,

And, ever drinking, ever cries, I thirst!' &c.

At the tomb of a young woman, the author tells this little simple tale.

Where yon white stone its modest brows uprears
As emblematic of the purity,

It bears in record,-lies a spotless maid.
The flow'ret blossomed; and afforded hope,
Of greater honour ; but, maternal bloom.
It never knew! Ere half its sweets were shed,
The ruthless hand had torn it from the ground,
And mock'd the eye that joy'd to view its charms!
Yet 'is not lost; the morning shall arise
When this fair flow'ret shall again be seen, 1
Transplanted to a more congenial soil,

And glowing with an everlasting bloom,"

He then expatiates on the grave of an infant; who, as he tells us, was snatched in mercy from its doating parents. This story bears a very strong resemblance to the death of the infant, in Parnell's Hermit; where the angel accounts for the destruction of the child, by telling the hermit that the parents forgot their God in their love for the babe. The author next descants on the grave of a poor pious Christian; on an unfortunate young woman; and makes some reflections on sduction. He then describes the duellist, and many others, in the same style as those we have extracted. We have afterwards some meditations on a skull, which the author apostrophizes as a beauty, a counsellor, a philosopher. He deplores the vanity of human science, unaccompanied by that which is divine; pourtrays the medley of the grave, &c. &c. and

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