Art. 11. An Historical Account of the Laws enacted against the Catholics, both in England and Ireland; of the Amelioration which they have undergone during the present Reign, and of their existent State. To which is added, A short Account of the Laws for the Punishment of Heresy in general; a brief Review of the Merits of the Catholic Question, and copious Notes, tending principally to illustrate the Views and Conduct of the Church of England, the Presbyterians, and Sectarians, with regard to Toleration, when in the Enjoyment of Power. By John Baldwin Brown, Esq., of the Inner Temple. 8vo. pp. 366. and Notes, pp. 180. 148. Boards. Underwood and Blacks. 1813.

We regret that we were unable to introduce this well digested and dispassionate publication to the notice of our readers, while the late measure for extending religious liberty was in agitation. When the bigots were making every effort to perpetuate the infancy of that liberty, and the thraldom of the sects, numerous advocates were not wanting who rendered abundant justice to the cause of society, and who vindicated the rights of conscience; and among these honourable and virtuous champions, the writer before us claims no mean rank, since learning, judgment, temper, and industry, equally unite in recommending this respectable volume. No party is here spared, but each sect receives the censure which it has incurred, and praise is bestowed only on the advocates of truth and liberty. In the author's manner of treating his subject, justice appears clearly to be the foundation of the measure; while union, strength, and harmony are its obvious and invaluable fruits.

When the matter comes again to be agitated, we shall hope that this volume may have a wide circulation. He who will carefully peruse it will make himself master of the subject, and have no diffculty in determining how to act in this very important concern. Justice to individuals, the strength of the nation, and the peace of society, point the same way. Persecution extinguishes the love of country, produces heart-burnings and divisions, obliges the oppressed to look to foreign aid, and has frequently occasioned the dissolution of states. Why should we expect to be more fortunate than those whose follies and delinquencies we copy?

Art. 12. The Debates upon the Bills for abolishing the Punishment of Death, for stealing to the Amount of Forty Shillings in a Dwelling House; for stealing to the Amount of Five Shillings privately in a Shop; and for stealing on navigable Rivers. By Basil Montague, Esq. 8vo. PP. 179. 5s. Longman and

Co. 1811.

We have already paid our tribute to the efforts made by Sir Samuel Romilly to purify our criminal code, and fix it on just and true principles. His isolated acts for this purpose are represented as part of a plan for new-modelling the whole code, and we sincerely hope that the charge is well founded, for it is so far from being to us a subject of alarm that it gives us the most genuine pleasure. The debates here detailed contain all the leading ideas relative to the subject, though they present themselves in a desultory and unconnected manner: but we value this tract less for its actual matter than for its

tendency

tendency to keep alive the recollection of a subject which we trust will never be suffered to rest, till the criminal code is at last placed on a par with the other branches of our legislation.

Art. 13. The Opinions of different Authors upon the Punishment of Death. Selected by Basil Montague, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn. Vol. II. 8vo. pp. 401. 128. Bds. Longman and Co. 1812. How highly we approve these labours of Mr. Montague, we have more than once taken occasion to state *. On the subject which is considered in the volume before us, our instincts speak a decisive language; while our reason, if we calmly and dispassionately consult it, presents us with conclusions altogether different. If we obey authority, or listen to argument, we shall find nothing to bear us out in the sentiment which is generally regarded as the dictate of nature on this subject, but which is, in reality, the suggestion of resentment from which men do not allow themselves sufficiently to cool.

At present, we only invite the reader to exercise his mind on this topic; which, at all events, can do no harm. As on all other questions of criminal jurisprudence, so we would say on this, that severity is not the most effectual mode of deterring : but, were we to allow that Death is in itself a proportionate and fit punishment, it would be incumbent on us to examine whether we are competent to inflict it; whether the Almighty has not reserved to himself such visitations; and whether the security of society may not be as well and even better maintained without such revolting expedients. From these investigations, it is true, we look for fruits, but we indulge not the hope of gathering them at an early day. It is well known that a neighbour, far behind us ip culture, has beheld this doctrine reduced into practice: but that neighbour, it must be remembered, lived under an arbitrary sovereign; while in this country we must await the progress of conviction. It is as promoting and accelerating this high object, that we applaud the efforts before us: but, while we cheerfully do this, we can bestow no commendation on the doleful preface which introduces the present volume. When the object is to discuss the great subject which is treated in these pages, to us it appears ill-judged to attempt to work on our feelings, and to unman us. When we sit down to this important inquiry, our faculties should be in the utmost vigour, reason should have fair play, and be permitted fairly to draw its conclusions. If we are told dismal tales, we suspect that they are designed to impose on us; and we commence the discussion with minds affected by suspicion. If we take not away the life of the murderer and traitor, we are influenced not by pity and humanity, but by the dry calculations and the strict inferences of reason. Into the consideration of this topic, therefore, we see no occasion to press sentiment: if reason will not effect what we desire, we may be assured that we ought not to succeed.

All the selections in this volume are appropriate, while some of them are derived from the first pens, and are consummate displays

* See our account of his former volume, &c.

of

of ingenuity and reasoning. The following is a list of the authors from whom they are taken: Roscoe, Pastoret, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Beccaria, Mably, Filangieri, Bentham, Coke, Burgh, Pistorius, Raleigh, Brown, Howard, Hume, Currie, Wrangham, Moore, the Tuscan Law, Dr. Forde, Meredith, Philopatris Varvicensis (Parr).

From the monopoly of praise bestowed by the editor on Lord Bacon, we might think that he had never heard of Galileo and Gassendi; and that he was a stranger to the admirable preface to the Encyclopedie, which, for practical use, has superseded the De Augmentis Scientiarum and the Novum Organum. Vol. III. of these Opinions has just been advertised.

POETRY.

Art. 14. Jokeby, a Burlesque on Rokeby; a Poem in Six Cantos. By an Amateur of Fashion. To which are added occasional Notes by our most popular Characters. Crown 8vo. 58. Boards.

Tegg. 1813.

All that is stupid in conceit, vulgar in expression, and dirty in sentiment, combines to degrade this little volume.

truism of the poet, that

"Gentle dullness ever loves a joke,"

The notorious

only half accounts for the origin of such a burlesque. The joke must be perfect in obscenity, and excessive in worthlessness, that can satisfy the writer of Jokeby.' We shall not disgust our readers with any quotations: but we assure them that almost every page would justify our reproof.

Art. 15. Autumnal Reflections, a Poem in blank Verse, with a few other Pieces. 8vo. Is. 6d. Gale and Curtis. 1813.

This picture of the declining year is poetically and impressively delineated but the subject has been so hackneyed, both by the poet and the moralist, that it is difficult to introduce any new object into the landscape, or to draw from it any new reflection. In the following passage, which is no unfair specimen, the author sketches the discriminating features of the four seasons:

Swift fly the Seasons round! scarce had the Spring
Danced on the plain, in virgin garb array'd
Of tenderest green, and bound with flowerets pale
Her beauteous brow, or round the welkin flung
Her first faint purple flush-like that sweet hour
When first the virgin's cheek the vermeil blush
Of youth assumes, and hovering graces play
Around her lovely form, when Summer came,
Mature in finish'd grace; of darker stain

The flowers that gem'd her crown; her ample robe
Luxuriant floated in the spicy gale.

She bade the grove a deeper dye assume; -
The full-blown rose expand; the juicy corn
Raise high its dark-green blade; -- with arid hue
Imbrown'd the mead;- - and tinged the ripening ear
With golden glow, or shade of silky brown.

Then

Then Autumn mild, with matron-step, advanced
Slow o'er the bearded plain; a purple bough,
With swelling clusters hung, her left hand graced;
Her right, the gather'd sheaf; low-drooping, waved
The ripe and yellow ears; September's moon
Shed its soft radiance on her sun-burnt cheek,
And, while at distance rose the reaper's song,
Loose flow'd her auburn locks, her dark eye smiled.
But, while I gazed, a melancholy charm
Over her features stole; the golden grain,

The nectar'd branch, she dropp'd; lo! now she roves,
A widow'd mourner, through the stubble-fields,
And culls a garland sad, of yellow leaves,
And berries red, her thoughtful brow to bind;
Weeping her honours lost, her children slain :
And soon shall Winter, with unsparing hand,
The last sad relics of her race destroy,

And reign, the tyrant of the vanquish'd year.'

In the old style of moralizing, the life of man is compared to this picture of the year; and the motto from Isaiah, "we all do fade as a leaf," helps to give effect to the whole.

The subjoined compositions are inferior in poetical merit to the Autumnal Reflections.

NOVELS.

Art. 16. A Sequel to Calebs; or the Stanley Letters: containing Observations on Religion and Morals; with Anecdotes founded on Fact. 12mo. 8s. Boards. Jones. 1812.

More religious courtship, and more outré than even the eroticoorthodoxico work to which it professes to be a sequel! Here Cupid with his bow and arrow is made to take the field against infidelity and impiety; and he being known to be a very powerful young person, it may be deemed by the evangelical party a great political stroke to gain over so all-subduing an ally: but it does not seem to have occurred to the contrivers of this new scheme of making short work with the Deists, that Love is full of wiles, and that he will probably teach his votaries, when it is necessary as a counter ruse de guerre, to make religion the mere stalking-horse to matrimony. A good intention pervades the mind of the author of these letters; and his desire to promote the cause of genuine piety and gospel-holiness is much to be commended: but we feel it to be a duty to hint to him our opinion that his scheme is calculated to disgust some young people, and to make hypocrites of others. Let young ladies be trained up with a most sacred reverence for religion, but let them be natural. "Who would credit any miss in her teens, if, after having been introduced to her lover, a handsome young man of fortune, she were to write in the strain which Celia Stanley thus addresses to Dr. Barlow after an interview with Edward Sedley, her admirer?

Although I am provoked with myself for being so much pleased with him, you may depend on my faithful adherence to your rule never to give up my affectious to any man wanting "the goodly pearl

of great price," to purchase which the wise merchantman' went and sold "all that he had.”'

Edward Sedley, finding from Dr. Barlow what is the sort of card which he has to play, is, without loss of time, transformed from an infidel libertine into the very serious character which Celia wished to find in a husband. He is sent into the country by Dr. B. to read Butler's Analogy and Lardner's Credibility; and these heavy books, not very well calculated for the perusal of a gay young man, effect his complete conversion, though in what way we are not told: for Sedley offers no remarks on the metaphysics of Butler, nor on the critical researches of Lardner. Several infidel-characters are introduced, who (like Sedley) are all converted: but their conversion is accomplished with too much ease and rapidity to be credible. By courage, and the use of proper weapons, Satan may no doubt be vanquished: but he rarely surrenders a fortress of which he has gotten possession, at the first summons, without firing a gun. We have classed this publication among novels: but it is entirely of a religious cast; and the letters are strewed with more texts of Scripture than are to be found in some volumes of modern sermons.

Art. 17.

Tales of Fashionable Life.

By Miss Edgeworth Vols. IV. V. and VI. 2d Edition. 12mo. il. Is. Boards. Johnson and Co. 1812.

These volumes have already obtained great popularity, for though Miss Edgeworth never allows her readers to lose sight of the lesson which she gives them, she employs so much wit in its illustration that they are always amused as well as admonished. If, indeed, Miss E. fails any where, we think that she fails chiefly in plot. Her descriptions and characters are full of nature, and insure sympathy: but the story, on which she grafts these admirable delineations, is often improbable, and seems to be an after-thought; so that we are inclined to appeal from it to Miss Edgeworth herself in her happier vein of writing like the condemned Macedonian who referred his cause "to Philip when fasting."

The latter part of the tale called The Absentees' may prove the truth of this remark, since the discoveries and events, which conclude Lord Colambre's residence in England, are such as may be found more easily in ordinary novels than in real life; and it does not well accord with his character to abandon the proposed match with Miss Nugent, merely because he hears that a stigma attaches on her birth. Whenever the scene lies in Ireland, this tale is delightful; it excites great interest for the poorer Irish; and it represents their situation as so deplorable when their landlord is an absentee, that we hope they may obtain some relief from this exhibition of their sufferings.

The story of Vivian affords an excellent lesson to those yielding spirits who dare not be faithful to their own convictions; and that of Emilie de Coulanges contains a French female character inimitably sketched, and has also the merit of exposing a fault "to which the good and generous are liable."

To correct those errors which are compatible with good intentions is a task more useful than that of displaying the effects or punishments

of