The hiftory of the French Revolution is written, we think, with correctnefs, and, on the whole, with candour. The hiftorian very judiciously cenfures the atrocious robbery committed on the Clergy by the first Affembly, and dates from that circumftance, all the calamities of France. The reflections of our author on this fubject are, we think, too interesting to be overlooked. "In digefting the refolutions of the 4th of Auguft, the conftruction which was applied by the democratic members to one of the articles, occafioned confiderable debates. They wished to confider tithes as a feudal tax levied upon land; and this conftruction was strenuously refifted by the clerical members. The Abbé Sieyes, in a debate which took place on this fubject on the 16th of Auguft, evinced, with much legal knowledge and logical precision, that tithes were not a tax impofed agreeably to the feudal fyftem, but a fimple rent-charge laid upon their ellates by the originai proprietors, for the maintenance of religion among their tenants and vaffals; that the actual proprietors had purchased their eftates, fubject to this rent charge; and that, by transferring it from the hands of the clergy to thofe of the landed proprietors, only the ariftocratic intereft would derive any benefit.— The Abbé concluded a moft able speech, by the memorable sentence: "If you wish to be free, begin by being juft." "It can only be ascribed to that unfortunate fpirit of religious unbelief, which the pernicious writings of Voltaire and other Atheists had inculcated in France, that the unanfwerable reafoning of the Abbé Sieyes fhould have produced fo little effect. The clergy, who forefaw in what manner the queftion would be decided, determined, like Cæfar, to fall with grace; and on the following day, fpontaneously defired to place the whole of their tithes under the difcretion of the National Affembly, claiming only for themselves an allowance adequate to the dignity and decency of public worship, and the relief of the poor. "So effential is religion to the fupport and welfare of every fociety, that almost the whole of thofe dreadful calamities of which France has become the confpicuous theatre, may be afcribed to that fatal and ruinous infidelity which all the fuperior orders had imbibed. If there is no religion, experience, not lefs than theory, affures us, there will be no morals in a nation. If the motive to purity and integrity is taken away, the practice muft neceffarily degenerate. The first great error committed by the French Revolutionifts was this abfurd and wanton facrifice to their irreligious prejudices: and this was the first measure that raifed against them a hoft of foreign and domef tic enemies; this was the first infult upon juftice that fullied the fairnefs of their proceedings, and alarmed and irritated mankind. So entirely indeed does an irreligious spirit deprave and derange the human mind, that even the exalted talents of Mirabeau were in this inftance the dupes of his prejudices: and if he did, as is affirmed, affert, that to effect a revolution they muft begin by uncatholicifing France, we can only refer it to that dark cloud which ever obfcures the understanding of infidels, that he did not fee that the attempt would be the moft moft fatal to the caufe of liberty. The example of France, in this inftance, will operate as an inftruction to other states; and though we Thould blush to appear as the advocates of any thing which is contrary to the principles of liberty, either civil or religious, yet we cannot help adopting the fentiment of a late writer," That the most dangerous of libels are thofe against God; and that whoever attempts to deprive civil fociety of the useful reftraints, and of the folid confola tions of a future ftate, deferves exemplary punishment." P. 456. The author has alfo paid a very particular attention to the affairs of India, and has made clear fome facts of which we entertained before but a confused idea: The debates and proceedings on the Teft Act and the Slave-Trade, are also correctly reported. The following is the account here given of the introduction of the latter business to the notice of the public: "Perhaps there is no mark fo unequivocal of the progrefs of mankind in civilization and intellectual excellence, as the extenfion of their cares and attentions beyond the narrow circle of felf-intereft, and directing them to the reform of thofe fyftems of oppreffion, which the ignorance, inattention, and inhumanity of mankind have fuffered to receive the fanction of time, and the authority of law. One of the most important proofs of the influence of knowledge and literature exhibited by the prefent age, was the general attention which, about the period we are now recording, was excited to the cruelty and injuftice of the African flave-trade. This nefarious traffic had been carried on during the courfe of more than two fucceffive centuries, and had received, more than once, if not the pofitive, at least the vir tual, fanction of the Legislature of Great Britain, without a fingle fufpicion apparently arifing concerning the unlawfulness of the principle, or the inhumanity of the practice. One of the first writers who appears to have noticed the fubject, was the celebrated Bishop Warburton, who in a fermon preached before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in 1766, inveighed againft the traffic, with all that energy and vehemence by which his compofitions are fo much diftinguifhed. The celebrated Mr. Wefley alfo having been, in the courfe of his travels in America, a frequent fpectator of the miferies of the degraded Africans, much about the fame period published an excellent little pamphlet, entitled Thoughts on Slavery." Mr. Granville Sharpe, whofe name will ever retain a diftinguished place in the annals of virtue and humanity, was the next advocate for the negroes; and he was followed, in the years 1785. 1786, and 1787, by the Rev. Mr. Ramfay, who had long been refident in the Weft Indies, and by a number of able writers, who expofed equally the injattice, the impolicy, and the national difgrace of continuing to licence a commerce fo injurious to human nature, and fo oppofite to religion. " Among the frennous advocates for humanity on this occafion, appeared the prefent pious and amiable Bishop of London: Mr. Wil BRIT. CRIT. VOL. IV. AUG. 1794. berforce, berforce, alfo, one of the most upright and able of the independent Members of Parliament, became interested in the fubject; and in the beginning of this year, he, and feveral refpectable Members of both Houfes, warmly engaged in a plan to effect the abolition of the trade. While these measures were purfuing with refpect to the agitation of the fubject in Parliament, a fociety was inftituted in London, at the head of which Mr. Granville Sharpe was defervedly placed, and fubfcriptions were folicited for the purpose of obtaining information, and for fupporting the progrefs of a bill through the Houfes of Parliament for the abolition. Similar focieties were inftituted in other places, and petitions were prefented to the Houfe of Commons, in the courfe of the feffion, against the flave-trade, from the Universities of Cambridge, Glasgow, and Aberdeen; from the fociety of Quakers; from the counties of Huntingdon, Leicester, Middlefex, Northampton, Stafford, Cambridge, and Hereford; and from the cities of Norwich and Bristol, and the town of Birmingham. "Encouraged by the general fpirit of liberality and justice which appeared to pervade the whole nation, Mr. Wilberforce, early in the feffion, informed that Houfe, that he had in contemplation fpeedily to bring the flave-trade under their confideration; and Mr. Fox, at the fame time, took occafion to obferve, that he had formed a determination fome time fince to the fame effect, but was happy to find the bufinefs in fuch able hands. The indifpofition of Mr. Wilberforce, however, protracted the difcuffion till the 9th of May, when Mr. Pitt, in the name of his friend, proposed a refolution founded on the petitions, the purport of which was to declare, that early in the next feffion they would proceed to the investigation of the flave-trade. He mentioned two opinions as prevalent upon the fubject:-the moft general, he believed, was, that the trade fhould be totally abolished but others confidered it as only requiring fome regulations. He faid the Houfe was not yet ripe for the difcuffion; but added that the inquiry which had been inftituted in the Privy Council, would, when it was completed, be laid before Parliament, and would enable them to proceed to a decifion equally the dictate of humanity, policy, and juftice. "Mr. Fox, in a manly and forcible fpeech alluded to the declaration which he had formerly made, of his intention relative to the flave-trade. He alluded alfo to what the Minister had intimated concerning a Committee of the Privy Council. There was no information, he faid, which could not have been obtained with more advantage by an enquiry directly inftituted by that Houfe. He reprobated all delay on a point of fo much importance to fuffering millions. The fubject was not new; moft men had now formed their opinions either for or against it. For himself, he did not hesitate to declare, that, in his opinion, the flave-trade ought not to be regulated, but deftroyed; and it was one confolation for the delay that might enfue, that he was convinced, the more the fubject was confidered, the more general his opinion would become. "The fentiments of Mr. Fox were ftill further enforced by Mr. Burke, Sir W. Dolben, and Mr. Martin; and Mr. Pitt's refolution wsa unanimously voted. Though Though the Univerfity of Oxford had not as yet petitioned againft the flave-trade, they had inftructed their reprefentatives, of whom Sir W. Dolben was one, to affift in promoting the abolition; and it is but juffice to add, from the well-known humanity of the Hon. Baronet, that no inftructions from his conftituents could be more confonant to his feelings. As there was a strong probability that the refolution which the House had juft adopted, might stimulate the flave dealers to particular exertions, which might by a temporary gain, compenfate in fome measure, for the uncertainty that might hang over their future commerce, a bill was introduced by Sir William Dolben for the temporary regulation of the trade, as far as refpected the tranfportation of the negroes. By this bill, the number of flaves was proportioned to the tonnage, and fome other regulations were enforced relative to the affording them proper medical affiftance, and the venti lation of the veffels. "If a proof had been wanting to evince that the flave-trade is entirely calculated to deprave the moral fenfe, and to render callous the feelings of all who are engaged in it, that proof would have been amply furnished by the oppofition which a bill fo reafonable in its principle, and fo excellent in its object, had to encounter. It was fcarcely moved for, before petitions were prefented from the merchants of London and Liverpool against the bill, and they were indulged in the hearing of counfel and witneffes at the bar of the Houfe. The measure, however, for which they fupplicated, only ferved to involve them deeper in difgrace, and to ruin their caufe. A ferns of facts more shocking to humanity never was revealed to public view, than thofe which were furnished by their own evidences. It was proved, that five feet fix inches in length, and fixteen inches in breadth, was the whole space allotted to a human being, in the clofe hold of a fhip, in the fultry climates of the torrid zone. The lower deck of the fhip was always covered with human bodies; and the fpace between the floor of that deck and the roof, which was only five feet eight inches, was divided with a platform, alfo covered with bodies. In this dreadful fituation, five perfons out of every hundred perished on the lowest computation, in a voyage of fix weeks; but in a voyage to the fouthern parts of Africa, the mortality was double. "Thefe facts were heard with a juft abhorrence, both by the Minister and the majority of the Members, and Sir William Dolben's bill paffed through the Commons with increafed rapidity from the cir cumftanee. In the Houfe of Lords, the Chancellor Thurlow, diftinguished himself by a pertinacious oppofition. But what effect ought to refult from any oppofition, which placed the lofs of profit to the merchants in competition with the lives of men? The bill was fuffered to pafs into a law: and no circumftance could better prove, how little adapted commercial men are to decide upon any general principles of moral or political truth, fince it is a decided fact, that the profits of the flave merchants have been nearly double fince the paffing of that act, from the immenfe diminution in the mortality of the flaves. They now find that their views were in this in tance, ftance, as they are in moft, narrow and confined, and that they were incapable of calculating upon an extenfive fcale, or of enlarging their views to the comprehenfion of a diftant object." P. 369. The characters, in general, evince confiderable knowledge of human nature, but to thefe, as well as to fome other parts of the work, our obfervation refpecting the fplenetic and farcaftic turn of the author, will apply. In his political principles the author is moderate, and he very properly characterizes the modern reformers as" vifionary, violent, and exorbitant in their demands." On the whole, we may add, that this is a useful and refpectable publication; the ftyle, in many parts, is brilliant, and it is not any where offenfive. BRITISH CATALOGUE. POETRY. ART. 16. The Prefent State of the Manners, Arts, and Politics of France and Italy; in a Series of Poetical Fpiftles from Paris, Rome, and Naples, in 1792 and 1793. Addressed to Robert Jephson, Esq. By J. Courtney, M. P. The Second Edition, revifed and augmented. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Robinsons. 1794. That flanderous book which Hamlet fpoke of to Polonius, certainly uttered fome things that deferved to be most potently believed. The plentiful lack of wit which that author irreverently attributed to a certain age is fully exemplified in this tract, which, to a title that promises much, fubjoins Epiftles that perform nothing. They do not delineate manners, arts, and politics in France or Italy, and they moft certainly are not poetical. The letters are ten in number, interfperfed with ballads, &c. The measure attempted is that of the Bath Guide, but ah! as unlike, as the author to Hercules. The very firft letter begins with a palpable mistake: "Eafy verfe from my pen fo fpontaneously flows, When to Jephfon I write, that I can't write in profe." Were ever verfes more remote from eafe?-The human tongue almoft refuses to pronounce them. If worfe can be found, they muft be fought in the fame collection, Letter III. "Affociation's dear charms with new beauties arise, Thefe |