The Doctor proceeds in his petitions to the throne of grace:—

we go forth to battle we go forth in the use of those means which "thou in thy mercy hast prescribed." What" these means" are, our expeditions abundantly demonstrate. Fire ships, bombs, Congreve rockets, and Shrapnell shot (the latter as described in your last Review, the most murderous instrument ever invented) are the means which we are informed "God in his mercy "has prescribed" for the destruction of mankind!

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Happy would it be for the interests of religion and humanity were our banners, and their bearers and consecrators to be "drenched" like Dr. C. and his military congregation, in water only were their courage by such frequent drenchings" to be cooled a little it would do them no harm; but unhappily the scenes displayed off Copenhagen, Flushing, and at Talavera, too awfully proclaim that our colours, and our soldiery are often drenched in blood!

Notwithstanding the many consecration prayers I have read, I cannot help being of opinion that they are all somewhat defective; and I therefore cannot but recommend a prayer as concise as it is comprehensive, drawn up by an excellent divine of the church of England, and most admirably suited for such occasions. Although the readers of your former numbers are in possession of it, yet for the benefit of others, and more particularly for the benefit of Dr. Coulthurst, and the Halifax

to more heads and hearts of thine own redeemed creatures, than the poor skill of man is able of itself "to do!"*

The public have been informed, that some of our officers, following the example of our clergy, have. discovered the happy art of uniting the spirit of christianity with the spirit of war:-' -That Lord Gambier in particular, like the renowned Russian General Suwarrow, of bloody memory, pray's most fervently before he commences his work of slaughter and devastation. His lordship in his dispatches giving an account of that success which will indeed immortalize his name, I mean the bombarding and burning of Copenhagen, at a period when Denmark had committed no offence against this country, most devoutly boasts of the assistance vouchsafed him on that occasion by the Almighty.-His prayers were doubtless similar to that I have quoted: and as it is the most suitable form which can well be conceived for a modern fighting christian, it is to be hoped it will shortly be published by authority "for the use of his Majesty's forces “by sea and land," to be used likewise "in all churches and chapels” of the established church in time of war, and more especially at all consecrations of colours, or dedications of the banners of war to the God of Peace, and to the Prince of Peace!

AN OLD FASHIONED CHRISTIAN

July 30.

1

near Morpeth, recommending a regard for the public good as peculiarly deserving the attention of the people of England at the present period. I am persuaded Sir, that no man feels a more pure and generous aspiration for the welfare of his fellow citizens, than my worthy friend the writer of that letter; notwithstanding I know, that he considers that end likely to be promoted by means which I certainly do not. It is I conceive, consistent with divine justice and goodness, that man should feel, from his own experience, sufficient proof to convince him, that war is, in its very nature and effects, repugnant to his welfare and happiness; and of all wars, the present has, I presume, been proved by experience to be, in an eminent degree, hostile to the public good of this country. Here I apprehend we differ materially; but on the subject of the letter above adverted to, I am happy to concur in sentiment with the respectable writer, and to say, that it is in my opinion become a duty incumbent on every man, and indeed on every woman of cultivated, or even plain common understanding, to take an interest in the public weal, now so greatly endangered; and particularly to investigate the merits of certain political questions now in agitation, on which so materially depend the happiness of their own private families, and that of their country.

It might indeed be expected that such objects should at all times occupy in a peculiar degree the attention of a free people; that is, in case they estimated their freedom as they ought to do, beyond all other earthly blessings: but alas! when a nation is in a state of intoxicating prosperity, as the British nation till of late years has been, aggrandising itself yearly and individually in wealth and commerce, these objects are generally neglected; and hence it is that opulence has been considered so dangerous to the constitu

tion of free states, that many able lawgivers have formed institutions to check and guard against it with us, on the contrary, every possible encouragement has been given that could facilitate the combined inundation of wealth, luxury and political corruption.

Another great impediment to this laudable inquiry into objects of public utility proceeds from the very parties themselves, who profit by those very abuses which the interest of society requires to be investigated and redressed. These harpies, fattening on public plunder, set up in concert so tremendous a cry, when ever they perceive any one likely to deprive them of their prey, that he must be a man of extraordinary intrepidity who will dare to proceed in the attempt: his ears are immedi ately assailed with epithets the most formidable: instead of being considered, as in reality he is, deserving the peoples' thanks for his endeavours to rescue them from a confederated gang of peculators, he is called a fomenter of discontent, a sower of sedition, a dissaffected man, a democrat, jacobin or downright rebel; and his zeal for the interests of the third branch of our constitution is considered as little less than a mask to cover his treason against the first; as if it were impossible for any man to be the friend of the people without becoming thereby the enemy of the throne. This artifice of covering crimes of the greatest atrocity against the public with the mantle of royalty, has been practised by wicked ministers in all ages; but it is not the only one by which the people of this country have been deterred from prosecuting any projects for the general good; a general distrust is excited, and indeed not without foundation, that all patrio tic professions for the public advan tage, are but hypocritical expedients to supplant those who happen to be in power at the time being. In

fact it has been common for such persons. when in authority, impudently to avow their own corruption, and to laugh at the patriotism assumed pro tempore by those in opposition indeed such has been the practice of the ins and the outs, that is, of those whose fingers were in or out of the public purse, that the pilfering itch or propensity was obvious in both; both were evidently directed by the same principle of general plunder-by the grand, fundamental maxim of modern politics, Every man has his price. the nation, like a poor, suffering patient, impressed with the autho rity of this rule, resigned itself of course to the blood sucking operation, as an affair of necessity; and became naturally indifferent which were the leeches that exhausted its precious, but devoted blood. however an honest man did at any

Thus

If

time dare to intrude with a view of

rescuing his country from so deplorable a state, the whole fraternity of placemen, and place-hunters took the alarm, and either endeavoured by kind advice to make him renounce the ridiculous and disloyal design, or assailed him by calumny and falsehood. It is a part of political leechcraft to keep up an opinion that the people are by nature capricious and ungrateful; and therefore, that their censure or applause ought to be regarded with equal indifference by every man of common sense. Soame Jenyns, who was a sinecure seeker for many years, discovers a good deal of this leechcraft in his writings. To render popularity as ridiculous as possible, he compares a person ascending to fame on the wings of popular applause," to a cat mounted

to the clouds, tied to the tail of a paper kite, where she kicks and

sprawls about for a little time, but soon the wind shifts, or the cord

breaks, and down she tumbles!" Another part of this craft is to represent a blind devotion to the

VOL. VI.

Now, Mr. Editor, cannot you conceive that there is many a man

who would wish to contribute to the

good of his fellow citizens, but who would not like to be considered as a fool, or a traitor; or compared to

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a cat mounted at the tail of a

paper kite ;" and yet Sir, if a man act upon such principles in public, if he would even avow them in private society, he must expect to enof all those important persons in counter the sneers and the ridicule power, or who are connected with and benefitted by it, or who expect and aspire to it; a chain of connection that extends almost ad infinitum.

Let us not wonder then that there is so little true patriotism in the country: but I am convinced notwithstanding, that there is no country where there is so much real benevolence, so ardent a desire to promote the good of others as there is in England; but this desire is chilled, and prevented from producing any political advantage by the corruption in the government; and by the influence of those, whose rank ena

bles them to give the ton to the pub

lic sentiment.

seem indifferent to the fate of their sinking, their pillaged, their almost ruined country. The general good and happiness of the whole empire hardly attracts a thought, whilst life itself is risked to save some wretch from self-destruction whose existence is a burden to him; or to pursue some desperate highwayman who has levied some petty contribution upon a traveller, whilst the country at large is robbed by wholesale.

It is Sir, not only painful, but humiliating to an extreme degree, to trace the progressive influence of corruption in this country: like other fashions it has been set by the higher orders, and has descended even to the lowest. Such has been its prevalence, that persons who in domestic life adhered to the principles of justice and benevolence, who scorned to defraud any one, or exact in any case that which was not strictly their due, and who contributed with laudable satisfaction to the comforts and happiness of others, have nevertheless, from shame or fear, been deterred from carrying into public life, the same honesty and philanthropy which they practiced in private.-They have been afraid to stand up as exceptions to the rule that supposes every man susceptible of being bribed ;- --or in short of being a rogue: they have been ashamed to countenance reform, because that is held by the setters of political fashions to be jacobinical and disaffected. Surely, Sir, nothing can prove a greater degree of national depravity than this vicious and criminal complaisance, by which some men, really honest in private life, abet the direct contrary quality in public; by which they become in reality the factors of peculation, and though not robbers themselves, arc, as one of Falstaff's light-fingered gang expresses it, "content to do the profession some grace" by giving it their countenance.

These servile imitators of political

fashions discard not only their sense, but their interest. They call the patriot a fool! but they themselves are guilty not of imputed, but of real folly, of folly of the grossest description-with true asinine stupidity they are content to become beasts of burden to those very persons who have taught them to abjure all public integrity;-they are content to divide with these public marauders by profession, their goods and chattels, and even their landed estates: but the peculators are not content even with this, they insist on bringing in likewise their friends and their families to a participation of the spoil; and these sapient politicians are contented to admit them, and to see men, women and children billeted upon them from generation to generation. In the midst of these extortions, they have however, the consolation to call the patriot a fool, for endeavouring to rescue the property of the middling classes, and the industry of the poor, from these devouring locusts: this no doubt is a strong mark of his folly; as well as the circumstance of his taking care to preserve that, which some have considered as the most precious of all things, his own self-approbation; which I will be bound to say no man can have, however just he may be, who patronises the injustice of others.

Such are the causes which, in my opinion, have hitherto prevented in this country any extraordinary exertions in behalf of the public good; but these impediments are at present, I am happy to say, in a state of decline, and most ultimately yield to truth; which needs only freedom of enquiry to enable it to obtain a complete triumph over all those delusions so hostile to the peace and happiness of man. Attempts have indeed been made to fetter the freedom of the press, but they have not succeeded; and the public mind has in spite of those attempts, made