rational part of the christian ministry find they have enough to do at home to combat with passions unfavourable to human hap piness, and to make men act up to their professions. But if a tinker is a devout man, he infallibly sets off for the East. Let any man read the Anabaptist missions;-can he do so, without deeming such men pernicious and extravagant in their own country; and without feeling that they are benefiting us much more by their absence, than the Hindoos by their advice?

It is somewhat strange, in a duty which is stated by one party. to be so clear and so indispensable, that no man of moderation and good sense can be found to perform it. And if no other instruments remain but visionary enthusiasts, some doubt may be. honestly raised whether it is not better to drop the scheme entirely. Shortly stated, then, our argument is this. We see not the slightest prospect of success; we see much danger in making the attempt and we doubt if the conversion of the Hindoos would ever be more than nominal. If it is a duty of general benevolence to convert the Heathen, it is less duty to convert the Hindoos than any other people, because they are already highly. civilized, and because you must infallibly subject them to infamy and present degradation. The instruments employed for these. purposes, are calculated to bring ridicule and disgrace upon the gospel; and in the discretion of those at home, whom we consider as their patrons, we have not the smallest reliance; but on the contrary, we are convinced they would behold the loss of our Indian empire, not with the humility of men convinced of erroneous views and projects, but with the pride, the exultation, and the alacrity of martyrs.

Of the books which have handled this subject on either side, we have little to say. Major Scott Waring's book is the best against the Missions; but he wants arrangement and prudence. The late resident writes well; but is miserably fanatical towards the conclusion. Mr Cunningham has been diligent in looking into books upon the subject; and, though an evangelical gentleman, is not uncharitable to those who differ from him in opinion. There is a passage in the publication of his Reverend Brother Mr Owen, which, had we been less accustomed than we have been of late to this kind of writing, would appear to be quite in-. credible.

I have not pointed out the comparative indifference, upon Mr. Twining's principles, between one religion and another, to the welfare of a people; nor the impoffibility, on thofe principles, of India being Chriftianized by any human means, fo long as it fhall remain under the dominion of the Company; nor the alternative to which Providence is by confequence reduced, of either giving up that country to everlasting supersti

tion, or of working Jome miracle in order to accomplish its converfion.* Owen's Addrefs, p. 28.

This is really beyond any thing we ever remember to have read. The Hoy, the Cock-fight, and the religious Newspaper, are pure reason, when compared to it.-The idea of reducing Providence to an alternative!! and, by a motion at the India Houfe, carried by ballot! We would not infinuate, in the moft diftant manner, that Mr Owen is not a gentlemen of the moft fincere piety; but the misfortune is, all extra fuperfine perfons accuftom themfelves to a familiar phrafeology upon the moft facred fubjects, which is quite fhocking to the common and inferior orders of Chriftians.→→ Providence reduced to an alternative!!!!! Let it be remembered, this phrafe comes from a member of a religious party who are loud in their complaints of being confounded with enthufiafts and fanatics.

We cannot conclude without the most pointed reprobation of the low mischief of the Chriftian Obferver; a.publication which appears to have no other method of difcuffing a queftion fairly open to difcuffion, than that of accufing their antagonists of infidelity. No art can be more unmanly, or, if its confequences are foreseen, more wicked.-If this publication had been the work of a single individual, we might have paffed it over in filent difguft; but as it is looked upon as the organ of a great political religious party in this country, we think it right to notice the very unworthy manner in which they are attempting to extend their influence. For ourselves, if there were a fair profpect of carrying the gospel into regions where it was before unknown,-if fuch a project did not expofe the beft poffeffions of the country to extreme danger,and if it was in the hands of men who were discreet, as well as devout, we should confider it to be a scheme of true piety, benevolence and wifdom: but the baseness and malignity of fanaticifm fhall never prevent us from attacking its arrogance, its ignorance, and its activity. For what vice can be more tremendous than that which, while it wears the outward appearance of religion, destroys the happiness of man, and difhonours the name of God?

ART. X. The History of the House of Austria, from the Founda tion of the Monarchy by Rodolph of Hapsburgh, to the Death of Leopold II. By William Coxe, Archdeacon of Wilts. 2 Vol. in 3. London, 1807.

THERE are few who can be ignorant of the persevering industry with which Mr Coxe has illustrated our English annala of the last century. His memoirs of Sir Robert and of Lord Walpole,

M 3

Walpole, however deficient they may justly be deemed in the higher excellences of history, are incomparably more vas luable, from the authentic documents which they contain, than any similar compositions relating to that period. It has been, as is well known, the good fortune of Mr Coxe to have ob tained access to many of the principal repositories of historical evidence in this country: treasures which it is not easy to unlock, without considerable patience and steadiness. It is this which has given him that superiority to which we alluded, above his fellow-labourers in the vineyard; and this advantage he appears in no small degree to have preserved, as to part, at least, of the present publication. Of his printed authorities, a great proportion are works never translated from the German, and consequently shut up from the great majority of British students; or Latin treatises, too scarce to be readily met with in any of our public libraries. Of a not less valuable class of materials, unpublished manuscripts, Mr Coxe gives the following

account.

The manufcript authorities commence with the acceffion of Charles VI.; and as a bare catalogue would fill feveral pages, I fhall only men tion the principal.

I have had the fingular good fortune to obtain access to the papers of most of the British minifters at the court of Vienna, from 1714 to 1792. These are,

I. The letters of General Stanhope, Lord Cobham, General Cadogan, and Sir Luke Schaub, who were fent to Vienna to negociate the barrier treaty-in the Walpole papers.

II. The papers of St Saphorin, a native of Switzerland, who was British agent at Vienna from 1720 to 1728-in the Walpole, Townf hend, Hardwicke, and Waldegrave papers.

III. The defpatches of Lord Waldegrave, during his embaffy, from 1728 to 1730-in the Waldegrave papers.

IV. The diplomatic correfpondence of Sir Thomas Robinson, afterwards Lord Grantham, during his long refidence at Vienna, from 1730 to 1748; as well as at the congrefs of Aix-la-Chapelle, where he was plenipotentiary-in the Grantham papers.

V. The defpatches of Mr Keith, during his refidence as British minifter at Vienna, from 1747 to 1758.

VI. But the documents of all others the most important, and without which I could not have completed the latter part of the hiftory, are contained in the papers of his fon Sir Robert Murray Keith, which commence in 1772, terminate at the clofe of 1791, and comprise the latter part of the reign of Maria Teresa and thofe of Jofeph and Leopold.

For the use of these two invaluable collections, I am indebted to Mrs Murray Keith, the only furviving fifter of Sir Robert Keith, by the intervention of my noble friend the Earl of Hardwicke, whofe

hardly

uninterrupted kindness I cannot acknowledge in terms fufficiently grateful.

VII. Befides thefe documents procured at Vienna, I have had recourfe to the extenfive correfpondence of the minifters at home, or ambaffadors in foreign courts, contained in the Oxford, Walpole, Townshend, Hardwicke, Hoare, Harrington, and other collections, which are enumerated in the prefaces to the memoirs of Sir Robert and Lord Walpole.

VIII. Other papers of recent date, delicacy precludes me from particularizing.'

He then talks in rather a magnificent tone of his oral information, the sources of which, like other great men, he refuses to specify; but, after mysteriously hinting at intelligence derived from numerous persons in high stations, both at home and abroad, throws down his gauntlet of defiance in the following

terms.

Those who are converfant with the fecret hiftory and diplomatic correspondence of the times, will be convinced of the authenticity and extent of my information; and the reader, to whom I cannot disclose all my authorities, will, I truft, give me that credit for integrity and good faith which I have hitherto maintained.

There is something diverting enough in this self-important language, which displays itself in several parts of Mr Coxe's preface, and leads the reader to expect a much worse book than he will find. It has chanced, likewise, that, as men pique themselves most upon those accomplishments which the world does not discover, the information which persons in high stations both at home and abroad have communicated to Mr Coxe, has proved either too sacred to be imparted to the public, or so trifling as not to be distinguished from ordinary intelligence; since there is hardly a fact which Mr Coxe has actually made known to us upon verbal testimony.

The same boastful strain predominates in the following paragraph.

Commerce may enrich, the arts may civilize, fcience may illuminate a people; but these bleffings can only owe their fafety and ftability to military force. War, therefore, to the regret of every milder virM 4

tue,

• We must make one exception. It is afferted, vol. III. p. 603, that the American plenipotentiaries at Paris in 1782, figned the feparate preliminaries with Lord St Helens, in confequence of a difcovery made to them, that Vergennes was organizing a plan to fow fuch diffenfion among the United States, as would have almost reduced the country to its original wildnefs and barbarifm.' No authority is given for this important fact, which may have been derived from the eminent perfon to whom it would beft be known.

tue, muft form the principal fubject of hiftory. For this reafon, I have paid peculiar attention to military tranfactions; and truft I have treated this fubject in a different manner from preceding writers. From the examination of military details, I have been enabled to place many points of hiftory, and many characters, in a new and perfpicuous light; and I have shown to the English reader the importance of an efficient military force, pointed out the manner in which it has been employed with effect, and difplayed the intent, the value, and the neceffity of continental alliances.

We will not say how far Mr Coxe's professional habits may be supposed to fit him for placing military details in the most perspicuous light; because, in this age of war and patriotism, we have met with military dilettanti in coats of every hue: but we can assure the reader, that after perusing these three volumes, we can discover nothing that justifies Mr Coxe's assumption of merit upon this head; and that, so far as we can perceive, the battles of the great Frederic might have been related as well by the clergyman of any country town, even before he had consecrated the colours for the volunteers, and dined at the ordinary with the inspecting officer. As little is it the truth, that he has displayed the value of continental alliances; when, on the contrary, the best written and most detailed part of the work relates to a war, that of the Austrian sussession, in which our continental schemes were peculiarly ill-concerted, unprosperous and unavailing.

It has been the distinguishing praise of several eminent writers whom the eighteenth century produced, that they rescued the historic page from insignificant details, and fixed our attention upon those leading and comprehensive views, which render the knowledge of past times an exercise of reason, and a school of philosophy. The usefulness indeed of history may be considered under a double aspect; as it unfolds the causes and results of political changes; and as it points out the moral character of nations in different stages of society. So far as it relates to ages far distant from the present, the latter is commonly its most vaJuable function. We cannot always learn satisfactotily; and ic imports us but little to learn, what were the character and motives of action of a prince who lived five hundred years ago; to what dexterity he owed his success, or by what imprudence he was baffled but, it can never be uninteresting to trace the features of human nature, at any period, and to estimate the weight of any considerable portion of our species in the scale of prosperity or of refinement. From such investigations Mr Coxe has shrunk altogether. Perhaps he has deemed more lightly of their importance but, in our judgment, this is a great and unpardon

able