a year. My offer for an establishment between Dublin and Cork, a distance of one hundred and twenty Irish miles, was upon an esti mate of one thousand four hundred pounds per annum. At the rate of the English Telegraph it would have cost six thousand six hundred pounds a sum for which, with a very small addition, I would have established Telegraphs at every important station upon the coast. I do not mean to assert that government ever made me a positive promise, but if any doubt can remain whether government gave me encouragement to proceed, let us reflect upon the character and conduct of Mr. Pelham.--Would he have suffered my reconnoitring Tes legraph to be taken to England, where, as it resembled in miniature my other machines, it would subject them to imitation; or would he have permitted Mr. Lovell Edgeworth to have gone to London, on purpose to have it presented to the Duke of York, if he had not intended that my plan should be adopted in this kingdom? Mr. Pelham in his letter to Colonel Brownrigg expressly mentioned, that my son went for no other purpose to England; and to me he expressed in distinct terms, that if the English administration should not concur in the scheme of communicating intelligence from London to Dublin, “it would still be in the power of government here, to do what they pleased in the business."-I could scarcely after what passed suppose, that what they pleased was nothing.-For it must be observed, that no attempt was made to accommodate the business in any manner to my feelings. I had offered to establish a communication from the coast to Dublin at my own expence,-of this offer no notice was taken: I had already, as was known to government, expended £.500 as much more would have erected a temporary esta. blishment (for perhaps a year) to Cork; and by this trifling complaisance, the utility of my invention might have been fairly tried, and the most prudential government upon earth could not accuse itself of extravagance in being partner with a private gentleman in an experiment, which had with inferior apparatus, and at four times the expence, been tried and approved of in France and England.' Mr. E. more than insinuates that his plan was too economical to answer as a jobb; and that his proposal was rejected, partly at least, on that account. Of the merit of the invention we shall have occa sion to say more hereafter, as an account of his machine is to appear in the Transactions of the Irish Academy. Art. 48. A Word or two in Vindication of the University of Oxford, and of Magdalen College in particular, from the posthumous Aspersions of Mr. Gibbon. 4to. 1s. 6d. Rivingtons. In a former review of this subject, we have mentioned our disap probation of the preposterous attack of Mr. Gibbon, in the fifteenth year of his age, on the discipline of Magdalen College and the character of the university of Oxford. As the fame of the sagacious historian of Rome is known to many readers who are strangers to academical customs and manners, and who may be induced to trust too much to the hardy yet general assertions of a favourite author, the writer of this tract has endeavoured to obviate such groundless prejudices by a plain statement of facts. In defence of the university at at large, he enumerates the various lectures that are duly read there by the respective Professors, and adds a list of the private lectures which the under-graduates of all descriptions are obliged to attend; unless, like Mr. G. they are desirous of evading them by frequent omissions, and idle and boyish excuses. That Mr. Gibbon should lay the blame of his own inattentions and truant conduct on the calm disposition of his tutor, and his want of proficiency in learning and good manners on the want of useful regulations in the university, can be explained only by those parts of his character, from which humility and ingenuousness were too often excluded by consummate arrogance and vanity, and which increased with his years and his reputation. The boy, who, when 15 years old, idle in the extreme by his own confession, yet pretends to form an opinion and to hazard a censure on the want of discretion of his governors, and of discipline in his college, from which he was expelled for his deficiency and irregularity, seems an object of ridicule rather than of serious animadversion; and, as we are satisfied with this defence of the university, we are willing, in compliment to the extraordinary talents of Mr. Gibbon, to forget his wanton and puerile effort of malignity; forbearing to apply, from his favourite author, to this passage of his posthumous publication, the detestable charge of the "Odium in longum jaciens." Art. 49. Letters of Madame du Montier; collected by Madame le Prince le Beaumont. Translated from the French by Miss New sewed. Hookham and Car man. 12mo. 3 Vols. Ios. 6d. penter. 1797. The merit of this translation is such as will entitle Miss N. to con siderable praise; though there are a few inadvertencies that we could wish to see rectified, such as Denis instead of Dionysius of Syracuse, &c. With respect to the work itself, we can safely recommend it to public notice, as combining in an eminent degree amusement with morality, and piety with rational entertainment. The author being a Roman catholic, the religious sentiments are occasionally deeply tinctured with sectarianism; on which account it may perhaps be disapproved by protestant zealots, and those who hold purity of faith to be preferable to excellence of morals. FAST SERMONS, March 8, 1797, continued. See Rev. for May. Art. 50. The Distempers and Decay of the World, and Repentance the only Remedy. Preached at Tavistock-chapel, Long-acre, and at St. Andrew, Holborn. By the Rev. Walter Harper. 4to. Rivingtons, &c. IS. The author of the present Discourse, like the generality of preachers on similar occasions, considers the common calamities of the times as the judgments of God on the earth for the wickedness of its inhabitants; from which he deduces the necessity of national repentance and amendment, as the caly means of salvation. There is a degree of ingenuity in his exposition of the text, Isaiah xxiv. 4. ; whence he infers that it seems to be natural that the WORLD, like the human BODY, should languish and fade away; and that cll things under under the sun generate and nourish something by which they them selves are ruined. How many plants, and trees, and fruits, and flowers do we see breed that worm which destroys them. Just so,' adds he, it is in the animal creation, and the finest and most exquisite part of it, the body of man: however "fearfully and wonderfully made," yet it every day contracts matter of weakness and disease, which terminates at last in its ruin and dissolution. So it is in the GREAT BODY OF THE WORLD; its own distempers are the causes of its ruin, its own diseases of its dissolution.' If we would ask what are the diseases and distempers of the WORLD, he answers by citations from the Scriptures: but for these we refer to the Discourse at large. Art. 51. National Sins the Cause of National Sufferings. Delivered* bý Robert Miln, A. M. 8vo. Is. Printed at Carlisle, and sold by Johnson, London. Mr. Miln, too, like Mr. Harper, [see the foregoing sermon,] and in common with most of our preachers of Fast-day Discourses, gives a copious display of the Divine judgments that are at present' sent abroad into the world, for the punishment of our sins. Among these awful dispensations, WAR is placed foremost in the fatal groupe; and in enumerating the cruel operations of this dreadful infliction, he gives a fearful but just detail of what is most detestable in human nature. Happy, indeed, for mankind would it be, if the ministers of the Christian religion, who are or ought to be ministers of PEACE, could prevail on their hearers to turn their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks! In the latter part of this Discourse, the preacher expatiates on the irreligious disposition of the age. This he considers as one of the most crying of our national sins; and he discusses the subject with ability, in a manner becoming a sincere defender of the Christian cause, against the attacks of infidel and atheistic writers, Art. 52. Before the Honorable House of Commons, at St. Marga ret's, Westminster. By the Rev. Thomas Powys, D.D. Canon of Windsor, and Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty. 4to. Is, Stockdale. IS. In this elegant composition, the preacher, in course, according to the order of the day," takes proper notice of the sins of the nation, and the enormities of the French; nor does he neglect to advert, with due respect, to the wise counsels of our rulers. P. 16. SINGLE SERMON S. Art. 53. The Use of the Law.-Preached at Kensington-chapel, August 28, 1796. By John Neale Lake, D. D. Published by Request. 8vo. 6d. Chapman, &c. Not the Law of the Land, but the Law of the Lord,' is the subject of this Discourse ;-in the discussion of which, the preacher has made good use of his intimate acquaintance with the sacred writings. The title-page does not express where. For For the character of Dr. Lake's valuable translation of Abbé Maury's Principles of Eloquence, ske M. R. October 1793, p. 147. Art. 54. Consolatory Views of Christianity: preached in the Chapel in Prince's-street, Westminster, on November 27, 1796, on Occasion of the Death of Mrs. Elizabeth Kippis, who departed this Life on the 17th of the same Month, in the 72d Year of her Age. By Thomas Jervis. 8vo. IS. Robinsons. Many worthy men, we do not doubt, have been embarrassed by the ouston of dictating to the preacher the text of a funeral sermon. No difficulty, however, could arise from this circumstance in the present case: for the good lady whose death occasioned this sermon, though she chose to follow an unmeaning practice, which has been common among dissenters, had the discretion to make choice of a text which, with a little accommodation, would lead to pertinent, useful, and consolatory reflections;-and such the preacher has drawn from it, in a manner which reflects equal credit on his understanding and his feelings. Without calling in the aid of superstition, fanaticism, or mystery, Mr. Jervis has made a pathetic appeal to the heart, in favour of a virtuous life, from the Christian doctrine of a future state, as expressed in the words, "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of God." Mrs. Kippis was the worthy relict of that excellent man the late Dr. Kippis, well known in the literary world, and highly esteemed by his personal acquaintance. Art. 55. Ministers of the Gospel Witnesses for Christ. Preached before the Reverend John Carver, B. LL. Archdeacon of Surrey, at his Visitation held in the Parish Church of St. Saviour's Southwark, October 5th, 1796. By W. Winkworth, Chaplain of St. Saviour's, &c. 8vo. Is. Dilly. We find nothing either in the style or sentiments of this sermon, which can entitle it to the particular notice of a literary Reporter. It is a plain unadorned discourse; and in respect both to religion and to politics, it is thoroughly orthodox. Art. 56. The Nature and Importance of Resignation: occasioned by the Christian Triumph displayed in the peaceful Departure of Mrs. Sizer, of Woodbridge, Suffolk; who died February 1st, 1797, in the 27th Year of her Age. By Samuel Lowell. 8vo. 9d. Knott. The sentiments of this Discourse are very happily suited to the event [the great event which we all await!] that occasioned it; and they are expressed in language free from affectation, and well fitted to excite those pious feelings with which the writer's mind appears to have been strongly impressed. Many readers will not like it the worse for having a slight tincture of orthodoxy. CORRESPONDENCE. In reply to the inquiry of a Country Gentleman, "who was the Agricola mentioned in your last Appendix, p. 547 ?" we shall extract a passage from Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. p.168: II 66 In "In 1538 John Agricola, a native of Eisleben, took accasion to declare against the law, maintaining that it was neither fit to be proposed to the people as a rule of manners, nor to be used in the church as a mean of instruction; and that the gospel alone was to be inculcated and explained both in the churches and in the schools of learn. ing. The followers of Agricola were called Antinomians, i. c. ene mies of the law." The letter signed Anonymous is received. We believe that we know who was the author of the pamphlet to which it relates, and we respect the character of the gentleman to whom we allude:—but no farther observations seem to be required by the letter of our correspondent. We are obliged to O. W. M. for his information, but it relates to a circumstance of too little importance, of too invidious a nature, and now too much withdrawn from the attention and memory of our readers, to render us desirous of communicating it. We are not able to give a satisfactory answer to either of the queries contained in the P. S. to this correspondent's letter. Indagator, who inquired concerning a work intitled Noctes Nottinghamica, (see Correspondence Rev. May, p. 120.) is informed that a copy of that publication is preserved in the British Museum, where he may satisfy his curiosity by consulting it. A considerable number of the impression of the first sheet in this Review were worked off, before it was discovered that, by the mistake of an amanuensis, the quotation from Seneca in p. 28. was erroneously given; and, in the remainder, by correcting from memory, the passage is not thoroughly restored. Our readers are requested to obliterate the lines, and to insert the following: * "Venient annis sæcula seris, Nec sit terris ultima Thule." Medea, Act. II. Sc. ult. *The conclusion of our account of Dr, Bisset's Sketch of Democracy, and the continuation of the review of Sir Frederick Morton Eden on the State of the Poor, will appear in our next Number. In the last Appendix, p. 576. 1. 25. for 2 read 31, and for 11, read 11.-P. 582. 1. 3. from bottom, for ingenuitque,' read ingemuitque. In the Contents, Art. Residence in France, for 246. read 276. |