expected affiftance from above. They believed that God, whom they were commanded to love with all their heart and all their foul, would animate their zeal in his fervice, and finally reward their well meant endeavours. So far the gospel was preached to them all, and it was preached in the commandments themselves, of which, when the explication was extended, as it ever must have been with the rational and thinking part of mankind, beyond the prohibition of flagrant offences, and the injunction of a few very obvious dutics, it would by neceffity be carried to every concern of man.

"The reader will recollect what was hinted before in obferving, that the moral fenfe, or the quick perception of right and wrong, does by no means difcern immediately what fhould be done under difficult circumstances.

"In profpects furnished by nature and art, the bodily eye is delighted with beauty, and disgufted by deformity; but let the fame eye minutely examine how the removal of this tree, the diverfion of that ftream, or any other minute change would improve or injure the whole, a nicety of discrimination is requifite, which few poffefs but by attention, fludy, and experience, by reference to fimilar fituations and circumstances. If this comparison be at all applicable, let not the ftudent in ethicks defpife the ftudy of cafuiftry.-Every particular cafe will ftrengthen his general love of virtue and honour."

Riches and Poverty.

"Paley, book iii. c. 1. If you thould fee a flock of pi'geons in a field of corn, and if inftead of each picking where and what it liked, taking just as much as it wanted, and no 'more, you fhall fee ninety-nine of them gathering all they had into a heap, referving nothing for themselves but the chaff and refufe, keeping this heap for one, and that perhaps the worst and weakett pigeon of the flock, fitting round, and looking on all the winter, whilft this one was devouring, throwing about and wafting it, and if a pigeon more hardy or hungry than the reft, touched a grain of the hoard, all the others inftantly flying upon it, and tearing it to pieces; if you 'fhould fee this, you would fee nothing more than what is every day practifed and established among men. Among men you fee the ninety and nine toiling and fcraping toge ther a heap of fuperfluities for one, getting nothing for them

Q 2

'felves

"felves all the while, but a little of the coarseft of the provifion, which their own labour produces; and this too often'times the feebleft and worst of the whole fet, a child, a wo6 Iman, a madman, or a, fool, looking quietly on while they 'fee the fruits of all their labour spent or fpoiled, and if one of 'them take or touch a particle of it, the others join against ' him and hang him for the theft.'

"The comparison is a dangerous one-it makes an impreffion which the subsequent difcuffion of the rights of man in civil fociety will not easily remove from any mind. It contains the fubftance of that which all factious and feditious men have urged to an ignorant and deluded multitude, in ordeṛ that they might draw them from their allegiance, and increase their hatred of honours, wealth, and power.

"If poverty have a natural tendency to render mankind querulous, we should neither directly or indirectly add to the evil. Better were it to relate the old fable of the Belly and the Limbs, than introduce this representation of the pigeons. It is not the fact that the labourer is content with the coarfer food, much less can he be said, literally or figuratively, to leave for himself the chaff and refufe. He eats the fame bread with the rich, and, generally fpeaking, the fame beef, mutton, and veal, and cheese and butter, and, in places where this is not uniformly the cafe, and where he may be occafionally debar, red from fome kinds of food, he often comes forth ftrong and healthy under the fubfiftence which his industry can procure. The greatest misfortune is, that many employments, from their very nature, are prejudicial to health; and then it is not the want of food, but of wholesome air and exercife which is to be deplored. It should alfo be confidered, that property defcends from generation to generation, that fome ancestor of this hundredth happy mortal was, and often at no great diftance of time, one of the ninety and nine. In short, there is an equality among the pigeons which the nature of human fociety will not admit of, and being unadmiffible, the oftener it is brought under contemplation, the greater sanction is given to murmuring and difcontent."

Thefe reflections, on objections to the service of the eftablishment, are thofe of a temperate and well-informed mind:

If fome flight alterations in the leffons, and in the ma'trimonial fervice, if a rubric explanatory of the real tendency of the Athanafian creed, and a lefs frequent repetition of the Lord's prayer, might prove fatisfactory, perhaps our fuperiors would not be inflexible to these moderate conceffions. 'But what reafon is there to think that these will be fufficient? 'Several experiments have been formally made without fuc'cefs, in order to reconcile difcordant parties; and to endan'ger the adherence of our friends by a fruitless attempt to comprehend our enemies, would neither be prudent nor ' juft.'

"One of the reviewers, who seems to have spoken the fenfe of the Diffenters at large, afferted upon this very paffage, that many more conceffions would be expected, and there is reafon to believe, that the English Diffenters, many of them at least, renounce fyftem, and are as little inclined to incorporate with the church of Scotland, as with the church of England. If we cannot establish harmony of opinion, we can only have the femblance of harmony in our worship, at which every ingenuous mind recoils with indignation let us not only in our prayers, but in the ordinary conduct of life, avoid wanton and unneceffary irritation; but let us not from affected candour be guilty of an unmanly, a pufillanimous dereliction of thofe principles which are built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apoftles, Jefus Chrift himself being the chief corner ftone."

We have long thought that there fhould be fome refriction on the promulgation of religious opinion; and we are happy to be firengthened in that view, by fuch difpaflionate confiderations as the following:

"Nor may it be amifs to ftate, that empiricifm in theology, in law, and in medicine, owes much of its fuccefs to prefumption united with ignorance. Avarice and ambition may alfo concur in increafing the number of those parts of fociety, who exercise a wanton cruelty upon the fouls, the bodies, or the property of their fellow-creatures. But they who are impofed upon are led away by prefuming to form opinions, when their own habits of life difqualify them totally from duly appreciating the requifite abilities and attainments.

"If we go into the world, it is filled with vulgar errors on almost every fubject. If we listen to the jargon of coffee.

Q 3

honfe

house politicians, to Utopian plans of education; in fhort, if we examine the rafh projects, and the rash sentiments of the bulk of mankind, we shall conclude, that much more is to be feared from licentioufnefs of judgment and prefumption, than from implicit confidence and tame acquiefcence.

"Many of our religious fects furnish deplorable examples of folly and conceit; and they, whofe lips fhould preferve knowledge, have often meanly condefcended to feek for popularity, by a pufillanimous facrifice of fenfe to found. And yet fome amongst the Diffenters, who, in the pride of their hearts, pretend to have no other master than Christ, and scarce own him for their master in all things, are not so abfurd as they otherwife would be, because they either chufe fome particular leader, or they act under the general directions of a large fociety.

"Even the Independants in the last century, though they maintained that every congregation was a feparate church, yet found it neceffary to adopt fome common regulations, to be obferved by the whole body.

"By fuch, and innumerable other inftances, it may be proved, what advantage men gain by entrusting themselves to the guidance of others, and how much they suffer when they rely on their own unaffifted judgment.”

Criminal Pleading.

"Under the duties of the legal profeffion," fays our author, "I have no defign to controvert the substance and tendency of what Mr. Gisborne has advanced. Dr. Johnfon, who was no loose cafuift, vindicated, in my hearing, the practice of advocates in words to the following purport: Sir, there is no harm in pleading for the criminal party. Every one has a right to plead his own cause, and if he have a right to plead himself, he has an equal right to call upon another to plead it 'for him. An advocate is only blameable when he goes into 'court with corrupt and perjured witneffes. It is faid of fir Matthew Hale, that he fet out with a determination to plead no cause which was not just. He found himself mistaken in a particular instance, and afterwards followed the ufual practice."

It has long been our opinion, that those who oppose

Dr.

Dr. Johnfon in this fentiment, oppofe him only through ignorance, misapprehenfion, or bigotry.

So much has been infifted on the permanency of principles applicable to revolutions only, that we will venture to fubmit an oppofition to that argument in the form of a fyllogifin.

In cafes of neceffity men cannot act by established rules. Therefore neceffity is no law.

"The greater part of the clergy are obliged to wait "with patience, and many of them have fcarcely a de"cent annual income, at a time of life, when others "have accumulated a competency." Mr. Croft has given many pages of his work to a vindication of the prefent ftate of the epifcopal revenues, and in this he is moftly fatisfactory but he will not fufpect us of innovation, when we fay, that from his own confeffion, and the reprefentation of every eminent writer on this fubject, we must think, that a more equal diftribution of church-emoluments, or a more equal divifion of churchproperty, cannot take place too foon.

Mr. Croft feems particularly inimical to the unenlightened exertions of methodifm. He cannot defpife more than we do, the fenfelefs rant of many, who call themselves methodifts; and we would certainly condemn, in the most pointed language, the indecencies which they not unfrequently practice. Yet we would afk Mr. Croft, whether a Chriftian minifter fhould or fhould not be animated; and whether thofe of the establishment are fufficiently fo? We are much afraid that certain hints, respecting the heathenish indifference of many divines, are not without provocation.

"Should a creditor," it is afked, "difabled at the "time of his bankruptcy, from a due payment of his "debts, be expected to complete their discharge, if "afterwards enabled to do it?" Some cafuifts contend that he fhould not. Croft thinks in the affirmative, and furely common justice thinks with him.