his discussions are amusing; and his opinion of our missionary-. projects in the East is the result of a learned and profound examination of the subject. The history of the Jesuits, moreover, is an instructive lesson.

A more correct view of the nature of the Gospel, as it respects political institutions, was never more neatly expressed than in the following sentence: True Christianity, though it interferes not, by any direct method, with civil ordinances and subjection, is, in its influence, favourable to liberty.' Not less excellent are the Lecturer's strictures on the unhallowed methods adopted by that power which has been most adverse to christian liberty, viz. the court of Rome*, and his remarks on the dawning light which preceded the Reformation:

Where the principles of liberty are understood, the throne of the patriot monarch is the only throne which is secure. But when reason has been subjected to the tyranny of long prescription, and religious bigotry, no sudden exertion is competent to restore its freedom. The twilight must first glimmer, and the day dawn through ages of gradual illumination, ere the perfect light of truth can rise to dispel the terrors of darkness. Bacon studied. and Wickliffe taught, with out any immediate result corresponding to the merit of their exertions. Other ages were to elapse before the practicability of deliverance could exist, before that flame of reformation could be kindled at the pile of Latimer and Ridley, of which, as they predicted, so we confide that it shall never be extinguished.

With the corruptions of the Romish church it must be unnecessary to compare, expressly, the unviolated religion of Jesus Christ. The contrast is too obvious to require a minute exemplification. No insult to the spirit of true Christianity can easily be imagined, of which, in the manifold abuses of the papacy, some striking instance is not to be discovered. Christ gave himself a ransom for mankind. Pardons have been lavished by the Roman pontiff on all who would arm to glut his vengeance t; and sold to all who would contribute to satiate his rapacity. Christ submitted himself to share the sorrows,

and

Though Mr. P. vehemently reprobates the Papal tyranny, he wisely considers the progress of knowlege as having operated on that system, and concludes that, as its bigotry has been diminished, its persecutions have probably ceased.

+ Hist. des Albigeois, p. 95.'

C + "A notable instance of this hath appeared lately, when in the year 1709, the privateers of Bristol took the galleon, in which they found five hundred bales of these bulls, and sixteen reams were in a bale; so that they reckoned the whole came to 3,840,000. These bulls are imposed on the people, and sold, the lowest at three ryals, a little more than 20d. but to some at fifty pieces of eight, about 111. of our money; and this to be valued, according to the ability of the purchaser, once in two years. All are obliged to buy them against

Lent.

and participate in the infirmities of mankind; that he might comfort our weakness, and show by the most lively example that he was sen sible to all our wants. When the order of the inquisition was instituted by Innocent III. he selected such persons to fill its offices as we're most remarkable for the austerities of personal discipline. He concluded that the fanatic excesses of mortification, to which they had habituated themselves, would deaden their sensibility for others*: and they, in truth, who inflicted on their own flesh unnatural and superstitious penances, were, probably, of all men, most hardened against humanity; least likely to be mollified by tears or disturbed by pity in authorizing the use of torture, or regulating its seve rity.

Without attempting, therefore, to enlarge on this uncontested distinction between the moral purity of genuine Christianity and of Papal corruptions, it is to be observed that their difference in real wisdom is not less remarkable; since it is probably to this difference that the imperfect progress of our religion in the world is chiefly to be referred.'

By the philosophic mind and scholar-like attainments dis played in these discourses, Mr. Penrose has fully shewn himself worthy of the office to which he was appointed; and the University of Oxford will probably regard this volume as not inferior to that to which it humbly aims at being supplemental. When, however, we advert to the force of the argument which this writer has managed, we could wish that he would not remain satisfied with the praise of the learned, but that he would prepare an abstract of these lectures, in a more popular and unostentations form, for common use,

Lent. Besides the account given of this in the Cruising Voyage, I have a particular attestation of it by Captain Dampier. He was not concerned in casting up the number of them; but he says that there was such a vast quantity of them, that they careened their ship with them." Burnet, iii. Introd. p. 20. cited Jortin's Life of Erasmus, i. 108. 8vo.'

* Hist. de l'Inquisition, p. 119, 8vo. Col. "Ecoutons le Docteur Gonzale de Illescas, dans la premiere partie de son Histoire Pontificale et Catholique, pag. 117. "Si alors (dans les premiers siècles de l'Eglise), on ne bruloit pas les hérétiques opiniâtres, c'est qu'outre qu'ils étoient fort puissans, le pape n'avoit pas les forces ni l'appui des princes séculiers. Présentement, la foi étant établie et reçue, et le souverain pontife ayant acquis beaucoup de pouvoir, il est juste que l'on procede contre eux par les plus cruels supplices." La Croze, Hist. du Christianisme d'Ethiopic, pp. 304, 305.'

ART

ART. VI. Observations on the Influence of Soil and Climate upon Wool; from which is deduced, a certain and easy Method of improving the Quality of English clothing Wools, and preserv ing the Health of Sheep; with Hints for the Management of Sheep after Shearing; an Inquiry into the Structure, Growth, and Formation of Wool and Hair; and Remarks on the Means by which the Spanish Breed of Sheep may be made to preserve the best Qualities of its Fleece unchanged by different Climates. By Robert Bakewell. With occasional Notes and Remarks, by the Right Honourable Lord Somerville. 8vo. pp. 157• 6s. 6d. Boards. Harding. 1808.

AGAINST Encyclopedias and Dictionaries of Commerce, this

author prefers a serious complaint respecting the accounts which they offer of the article wool; and which, he says, are only calculated to excite the smile of the merchant or the manufacturer. If he alludes to Dictionaries of a modern date, he should have specified the particular errors and omissions; or if to works of long standing, he ought to have recollected that, till very lately, the subjects of wool and of wool-bearing animals have been very superficially known. We take it for granted that the various dissertations on sheep and their fleeces, which have appeared here and on the continent, will not be overlooked by future Encyclopedists; and that the hints of the wool-grower and wool-stapler, which have recently issued from the press, will claim due attention from these scientific Bees.

Mr. Bakewell stands a fair chance of being quoted with Luccock, Parry, Anderson, Schultz, Fink, Lasteyrie, &c.; and we trust that the remarks which he has offered on the causes of the deterioration of wool, and on the means of promoting and preserving fineness of staple, will gain due consideration from the owners of flocks. So far he seems to have acted ingenuously with the public, that, notwithstanding the confidence with which he offers his own opinion, he has subjoined the notes of Lord Somerville, which not always abet it, but are calculated to make us hesitate respecting its general adoption. We are informed by Mr. B. that a little attention to the wool from various districts, soon discovered that the soils most favourable to the production of the soft quality were, first, the argillaceous; next, the siliceous; and it was well known that calcareous soils, whether limestone or chalk, produce wools of a contrary quality, remarkable for their harshness to the touch.' Lord S., however, in his note subjoined to this passage, though he admits the effect assigned to chalk, does not subscribe to the observation as applicable to

limestone,

limestone, but maintains that the doctrine militates against the whole of our practice in the western counties.

Again, Mr. B. asserts that the quality of the soil imparts an indelible colour to the wool; that

In parts of Gloucestershire, the fleece acquires a deep orange colour from the soil; in Hertfordshire and Warwickshire, and in every district having a red coloured soil, the wool is inclined to a brownish red. The fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire communicate a dark blueish tint to the wool. Wools on chalk soils are distinguished by their whiteness; and in every district the action of the soil is evinced by communicating its own colour to the fleece, either by insinuating its particles into the fibre, or chemically uniting with its surface.'

Lord Somerville's note, however, will prevent the reader from receiving the above assertions without qualification. His Lordship adds:

It is painful to offer in illustration of this subject, one's own practice; but least an effect which is sometimes produced, should be deemed certain and invariable, it behoves me to state, that I have repeated proofs of the reverse, in the instance of my own Merino ram hogs, which were bred on a red loamy sand and a limestone subsoil; the wool being shorn after the yolk was well up, scoured of the purest white, which colour, being manufactured into white kerseymere, after frequent washing, it preserves to this day. But the author's observation may be, and probably is, correct with respect to fleeces more coarse and open in the pile.-S.'

The chemical action of lime and of calcareous earths on wool is thus explained:

It will invariably be found, whenever lime or calcareous earths come in contact with wool, they deprive it of its soft quality by their action on the surface of the fibre. A demonstrative proof of this effect is offered, in the process of separating the wool from the skins by the fell-monger. The pelts are steeped some days in lime and water; the softest wools, when thus exposed to the action of lime, lose their distinguishing excellence, and acquire all the harshness of wools grown on limestone soils. The hard wools have this quality increased by the same operation; hence the value of skin-wool is considerably less than that of fleece wool equally fine. This fact alone is decisive, and proves, that the hardness of wools in limestone districts is occasioned by the external action of the soil, and not by the food of sheep. Nor will it be difficult to ascertain, in what manner the lime acts upon the wool: it absorbs the natural grease or yolk of the fleece, and forms with it an imperfect soap, which is miscible with water, and easily washed away by the rain. The wool, thus deprived of the unctuous cover intended to keep it soft and pliable,

* Why should it be painful?

is exposed to the air and rain, and the staple is laid bare to the caustig operation of calcareous earth.'

As the means of preserving the soft quality of wool in every situation, and of counteracting the effects of soil and climate, the author recommends the use of an ointment, composed of butter, oil, or lard, and tar, or bees-wax, as a covering to the fleece; and he states the benefits which have resulted from this unctuous application in the northern countries, where the wool-growers grease their sheep, both to preserve them from wet and cold and to improve the wool. After having specified various instances to this purpose, Mr. B. lays it down as a maxim, that an improved method of greasing fine-wooled sheep should be adopted in every part of the kingdom.' This greasing he recommends to be applied immediately after shearing; rubbing the back and sides of the sheep with the unguent.

On climate and pasture, Mr. B. places more stress than many of his cotemporaries; and here also he is partly contradicted by his noble annotator, especially with regard to the Merino breed, whose fleeces were not deteriorated by being depastured in very rich marsh land; yet so reasonable does his proposition appear, that we shall insert it:

I will venture to assert, that in proportion to the regularity of the temperature in which sheep are kept. and to the regular supply of nourishment they receive, will the hair or fibre of the wool preserve a regular, even degree of fineness.'

The remainder of the paragraph must not be omitted:

• From an observation of the wools of Africa, I am convinced that the arid soil destroys their softness, and the parching heats produce great irregularity in the fineness of the hair. In Portugal, where the same attention is not given to sheep as in Spain, and they are more exposed to the summer heats, the wool is less regularly fine, and more intermixed with coarse silvery hairs. A cool moderate temperature is more favourable to the production of fine wool than excessive heat and were the sheep of Spain, like those of England, unprotected against the effects of climate, I should have no hesitation in saying, that the situation of that country would be in some respects worse than that of our own island, and more unfriendly to the growth of a fine even staple. But to the other qualities, the soundness and softness of the fibre, our frequent rains are very prejudicial, unless the sheep be sheltered and defended from their effects. This only proves, that greater attention is required to external causes acting upon the fleece than has hitherto been thought necessary in England. With due precautions to counteract these causes when prejudicial, I have no doubt fine wool will continue to be grown in Britain, equal in every good quality to the Spanish or Saxony fleeces. The prejudices of the manufacturers on this subject, must yield to repeated proofs;

and