ARTICLE I.

THE Spirit and Union of the Natural, Moral, and Divine Law. Volume the First. 3s. Dodley.

This first volume is intended to lead youth by degrees to technical terms, otherwife abftrufe and unintelligible, and to prepare them for the future volumes, which it is laid will fhew the spirit and union of the natural, moral, and divine laws, and the union of the feveral opinions concerning them, from the grounds of religion and revelation, and by the eternal law of thinking, or inconteftible reafon. The author hath a peculiar way of thinking on fome points, and differs from most of the philofophers before him.

Every reafoner may fee, that Hobbes's grounds of war are wrong; because in the primitive state, where there was only father and child, or even a little family, there could naturally be nothing but fubordination, love, peace, and concord, though not upon Montefquieu's grounds, I mean timidity; for among equal beings appears no timidity, nor fear at all, but intrepidity and courage. His demonftration from the favage proves quite the contrary, fince they are not timid, but when they find themselves among artificial men, (temoin le fauvage que fut trouvé dans les forêts d'Hanover, que Pon vit en Angleterre fous le regne de George I.) and there is no timidity in beings belonging to one fpecies, to be feen in nature, even now among animals, unless from fome extraordinary power of one, or fome individuals, which was the beginning of corruption. The fame holds good with respect to innate ideas; moft of Locke's demonftrations, that there are none, are inconteftible; but Dr. Beattie, through his laudable love of virtue and religion, was afraid, that this doctrine of no innate ideas might introduce the greatest confufion and uncertainty, and fet every thing in doubt, as Hume did, and forgot, that notwithstanding there are no innate ideas, yet there are certain inconteftible laws, agreeable to the spirit of virtue and religion, to be drawn from the confiderations of nature by our fenfations, which ferve the place of innate ideas."

We subjoin the following extracts as fpecimens of the author's reafoning and ftyle,

"In nature is no fhame at all; one part of the body has the fame right to be seen as another, being all equally the work of nature. Children never have fhame till they are taught it, and led to think that it is innate, as well as other customs, which change, by time and practice, into nature,"

"In nature there is no mine and thine: every thing is given to mankind in general. You have only right to fay, those things are mine, which nature hath fixed on yourself, which you have brought with you into the world, and which, if taken from you, never can do the fame fervice to another, as a limb, a finger, or any other part of the body. Thefe each man is entitled to fay are my own; but things, which are in the world about you, no man can claim by nature more right to than another. The world is the great treasury of nature, opened to all men without diftinction; and he who would feize upon any thing in this treasury to himself alone, and fay, this is mine, may be confidered as a very robber of the community."

"I would confider the world as threefold, or under three ftates and conditions, the original, the properly physical or purely natural world, the corrupted, and moral.

"In the first ftate there could be nothing partial, no mine or thine; but all was general, mutual, and equal, every thing in good order, right, decent, becoming, and mankind happy in the fecond began diforder and difference, felfishness, property, violence, every thing evil, and man became unhappy: the third is the prefent world, a state of restraint and recovery only, not of entire reftoration and perfect return, a thing to be endeavoured and wished for, but impoffible to be completed, and by fome vainly boasted of. I call this ftate moral, becaufe in it are inftituted certain laws, duties and morality, that is, manners or focial behaviour, the best fubftitute that could be given to reconduct wandering man, to keep the world in order, and, as much as poffible, reftore regularity: hence the diftinétions of mine and thine, good and bad, right and wrong, shame and decency, reward and punifhment, ranks and fociety.'

The following paffage is admirable. — «The

"The atheift would laugh at one who would fuppofe, that a watch, or any other mechanical inftrument, is from eternity, or hap pened from chance, by reason that he cannot affign any other, or the true caufe of it, and he would admire the contrivance, tho' he might not be able to difcover the reason of the feveral wheels, and how their different motions concur to promote one end; at the fame time, inconfiftent with every principle of reafon, he is for denying a fupreme power, because he cannot know directly his being, what he is, though by his work he may be aflured, that he is, and that the contrary fuppofition leads him into an abfurdity.

"The atheist is his own accufer; for when he fays, that all things came by chance, be muft grant, that his own acuteness, ingenuity and arguments in fupport of his fyftem, came by chance, and that therefore, fince no effect can be better than its caufe, atheifm is a folly.

"The fceptic, who will neither deny nor affirm, but fays he is in doubt, and cares not whence things came, or where they go, is a kind of extraneous exiftence, inferior, if poffible, even to the atheift; for he has neither argument, plan nor fyftem, but hangs himself up between atheism and deism, a thing in fufpence, that moves just as every blaft of wind impels it.

"The deift then only, who admits principles, is fit to be argued with, and would be a more rational opponent than either the atheift or sceptic, were his practice conformable to his theory, and his actions confiftent with the notions of God and his attributes."

The editor obferves, that uncommon pains were taken at the beginning of the last feffion of the laft parliament, and during the whole course of it, to afperfe the characters, and decry the measures of those who were fuppofed to be friends to America; in order to weaken the effect of their oppofition to the acts of rigour then preparing against the colonies. This (peech contains a full refutation of the charges against that party with which Mr. Burke has all along acted. In doing this, he has taken a review of the effects of all the fchemes, which have been fucceffively adopted in the government of the plantations. The subject is interesting; the matters of information various and important; and the publication at this time, the editor hopes, will not be thought unfea fonable,

Many interefting particulars are here brought forth to public view, which administration moft certainly with had been concealed particularly the following.

But will you repeal the act, fays the

honourable gentleman, (Mr. Cornwall) at this time, when America is in open refiftance to your authority, and that you have juft revived your fyftem of taxation? He thinks he has driven us into a corner. But thus pent up, I am content to meet him; becaufe I enter the lifts fupported by my old authority, his new friends, the minifters themselves. The honourable gentleman remembers, that about five years ago as great diflurbances as the prefent prevailed in America on account of the new taxes. The minifters reprefented these disturbances as treafonable; and this Houfe thought proper, on that reprefentation, to make a famous addrefs for a revival, and for a new application of a ftatute of Henry Vill. We befought the king, in that well-confidered addrefs, to enquire into treafons, and to bring the fuppofed traitors from America to Great Britain for trial. His majefty was pleafed graciously to promife a compliance with our requeft. All the attempts from this fide of the Houte to refift these violences, and to bring about a repeal, were treated with the utmoft fcorn. An apprehenfion of the very confequences now feated by the honourable gentleman, was then given as a reafon for fhutting the door against all hope of fuch an alteration. And fo ftrong was the fpirit for fupporting the new taxes, that the feffion concluded with the following remarkable declaration. After ftating the vigorous measures which had been purfued, the fpeech from the throne proceeds You have affured me of your firm fupport in the profecution of them. Nothing, in my opinion, could be more likely to enable the well-difpofed among my fubjects in that part of the world, effectually to difcourage and defeat the defigns of the factious and feditious, than the hearty concurrence of every branch of the legislature, in maintaining the execution of the laws in every part of my dominions.'

"After this no man dreamt, that a repeal under this miniftry could poffibly take place, The honourable gentleman knows as well as I, that the idea was utterly exploded by those who fway the Houfe. This fpeech was made on the ninth day of May, 1769. Five days after this fpeech, that is, on the 13th of the fame month, the public circular letter, a part of which I am going to read to you, was writen by Lord Hillsborough, fecretary of ftate for the colonies. After reciting the fubftance of the king's fpeech, he goes on thus —I can take upon me to affure you, notwithstanding infinuations to the contrary, from men with factious and feditious vierus, that his majefty's prefent adminifiration barve at no time entertained a defign to propose to parliament to lay any further taxes upon America, for the purpose of RAISING A REVENUE; and that it is at present their intention to propofe, the next feffion of parliament, to take off the duties upon glass, Ę 2

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ought ever to carry with it; that you are obeyed folely from refpe&t to the bayonet ; and that this House, the ground and pillar of freedom, is itself held up only by the underpinning and clumfy buttreffes of arbitrary power?

"If this dignity, which is to ftand in the place of just policy and common fenfe, had been confulted, there was a time for preferving it, and for reconciling it with any conceffion. If in the feffion of 1768, that feffion of idle terror and empty menaces, you had, as you were often preffed to do, repealed these taxes, then your strong operations would have come juftified and enforced, in case your conceffions had been returned by outrages. But prepofterously you began with violence; and before terrors could have any effect, either good or bad, your minifters immediately begged pardon, and promifed that repeal to the obftinate Americans, which they had refused in an easy, good-natured, complying British parliament. The affemblies which had been publicly and avowedly diffolved for their contumacy, are called together to receive your fubmiffion. Your minifterial directors bluftered like tragic tyrants here, and then went mumping with a fore leg in America, canting, and whining, and complaining of faction which reprefented them as friends to revenue in the colonies. I hope nobody in this Houfe will hereafter have the impudence to defend American taxes in the name of miniftry. The moment they do, with this letter of attorney in my hand, I will tell them, in the authorised terms, they are wretches, "with factious and feditious views; enemies to the peace and profperity of the mother country and the colonies," and fubverters of the mutual affection and confidence on which the glory and fafety of the British empire depend."

"After this letter the question is no more on propriety or dignity. They are gone already. The faith of your fovereign is pledged for the political principle. The general declaration in the letter goes to the whole of it. You must therefore either abandon the scheme of taxing, or you must fend the minifters tarred and feathered to America, who inconfiderately dared to hold out the royal faith for a renunciation of ali tages for revenue. Them you must punith, or this faith you muft preferve. The entire prefervation of this faith is of more confequence than the duties on red lead, or white lead, or on broken glass, or atlas ordinary, or demi-fine, or blue-royal, or baftard, or forl's-cap, which you have given up, or the three-pence on tea which you retained. The letter went ftampt with the public authority of this kingdom. The inAructions for the colony government go under no other fan&tion; and America cannot believe, and will not obey you, if you do not

preferve this channel of communication facred. You are now punishing the colonies for acting on diftinctions, held out by that very miniftry which is here fhining in riches, in favour, and in power; and urging the punishment of the very offence, to which they had themselves been the tempters."

III. A Letter to Dr. Samuel Johnson, occafioned by bis late political Publication; with an Appendix, containing fome Obfervations on a Pamphlet lately published by Dr. Shebbeare. Is. 6d. Towers.

These two penfioned doctors are here well chaftifed, after being tried, and condemned by their own pens. Shebbeare was not worthy fo much notice as is here taken of him; but it is remarkable, that the penfioned advocates for the court fhould all agree in this reign to degrade the character of King William and Queen Mary, to traduce the Revolution, the most illustrious patriots, and the proteftant diffenters. Dr. Johnson's penfion feems to have converted him from a moralift into a rancourous party writer. This coloffus of literature, inftead of being in the fervice of the republic of letters, is become a shilling pamphlet writer for the ministry. He, who the laft reign continually poured forth his complaints of the oppreffion of excife, of Spies, fpecial juries, a penfioned band, bireling fenators, and a thought fs age lulled to fervitude, and inveighed against the iniquity of even the highest powers, fees nothing but happiness in the prefent reign.

Our author's words on this point are ad bominem. "As this country was fo much oppreffed, and laboured under fuch a variety of evils, in the reign of George the Second, it may amufe a fpeculative man to enquire, by what means fo happy a revolution in public affairs has been effectuated in the reign of George the Third. Are our taxes leffened ? No.

Is the nation freed from excife? No. Are the rights of the fubject more religiously preferved? No. Is juftice more impartially adminiftered in our courts of law? No. Are special juries lefs frequent? No. Has the commerce of the nation been encreased, and its interefts better attended to? No. Are our parliaments more incorrupt, and lefs under the influence of the court? No. What is it then that has fo wonderfully changed the face of public affairs, as entirely to reconcile the author of the Rambler to the government? The whole may be answered in one fhort fentence. The grievances of the kingdom are removed; the nation is no more in a groaning or a finking state - for Dr. Samuel Jebnfon bas a penfion.”

IV. A fourth Letter to the Rev. Mr. Pickard on genuine Proteftantifm; being a full Reply to the Rev. Mr. Toulmin's Defence of the Diffenters new Mode of Subfcription. 15. Dilly

We

We had the pleasure of reviewing two of this gentleman's treatifes laft year, on the fame important fubject. This is equally 1pirited, but there are men infenfible to both arguments and ftripes. Mr. Fell refutes the favourite diftinction lately adopted by fome diffenting minifters, between fubmiffion to human power, and the acknowledgment of its authority, and proves that in the prefent controversy it hath no validity.

"Many a worthy perfon has submitted to an unjust feizure of his goods, without ever being once fuppofed to acknowledge the oppreffor's right. But this distinction can have no force at all in things merely religious, or in what relates to the reafon and confciences of men. Because our bodies, goods, or eftates, may all fall into the magiftrate's power, contrary to our own inclination, and without any fault in us; but the mind and judgment can never fall into his power. Nor can a fubmiffion, in this cafe, be even profeffed, without our own confent, or without a crime in us. For it is not poffible in the nature of things, that any one fhould controul or influence our reafon and confciences, without our own approbation, or contrary to our real judgment and perfuafion. In this respect, we never can be in the magiftrate's power: no, not even in appearance, without our own voluntary act. Here then, the distinction between a fubmiffion to the magiftrate's demands, and the acknowledgment of his right utterly fails. Because in this cafe, there can be no other fubmiffion than what is voluntary, than what is an acknowledgement of right: and, therefore, a difavowal of that abfolute liberty, in the affairs of religion, which, it is justly obferved by many of your friends, belongs to us, as reasonable creatures."

"

and

He, in his turn, offers a few cafes to fhew that in this question, fubmiffion and acknowledgment are to be understood as going together. We think our author hath here deviated from his ufual accuracy fhrewdnefs. His cafes are Hampden refufing to pay fhip-money, the American colonifts oppofing the tea-duty laid on by the British parliament, the Houfe of Commons litigating James's difpenfing power, and throwing out a money bill if meddled with by the House of Lords. As Mr. Fell had acknowledged, that men might fubmit to part with effects and temporal rights by the magiftrate's violence, without being once fuppofed to acknowledge his right, but could not in religious concerns -- thefe cafes having nothing of religion in them, will therefore be faid to be foreign to the fubject for which they were adduced. Probably, he intended to fhew by them, that even in temporals the moft judicious perfons have confidered a tame acquiefcence in an unjust demand or ufurpation, would be an acknow

ledgment of the right - how much more then in facris? Our author hath clearly difplayed, that the fcripture precepts and examples, which have been generally produced by the advocates of a religious fubfcription, eftablished by human laws as a condition of preaching, free from penalties, inftead of being in their favour, are the very reverse.

V. A Blow at the Root of all priefly Claims: proving from Scripture, that every Layman has a Right not only to preach in Public, but also to adminifter the Ordinances of Baptifm and the Lord's Supper ; and that thoje, to whom thefe Offices are now committed, derive all their Authority from the People, and not from Ordination either by a Bijbap or Prefbyters, &c. 1s. Johnfon.

The author's intention is good to break the yoke of fpiritual tyranny, and overturn the kingdom of prieftcraft. But the time is not yet come. Good fenfe and piety are difplayed in this tract, but not much elegance orienergy.

VI. A Sermon upon the Turf, by a Saint from the Tabernacle, preached_at_the_laft "Newmarket Meeting. 9d. Bew.

Saint Rowland Hill is here humourously taken off; but we with the fermonizer had omitted canonical, and used only apocryphal feripture. The text is Pfalm xlv. 5. « Good luck have thou with thine honour, ride on." Liturgy Verfion.

VII. An Efay on the Harmony of Language, intended principally to illuftrate that of the English Language. 4s. Robfon.

We apprehend that good spelling is as defirable in our language as euphony. Our author conftantly ufes red for read; rime and riming, for rhyme, rhyming, &c. He hath other peculiarities; but fome of his observations contribute to advance our ideas, of the harmony of our native tongue. The moft remarkable difference between the Englifh and Scottish pronunciation, is faid to be, that "English pronunciation frequently unites a fhort quantity with its strong acute: Scottish pronunciation, in giving its ftrong grave to the fame fyllables, almost always lengthens the vowel, and makes the fyllable long. The Scots ftrong accent is a grave, and they conftantly acute the last fyllable of every word." The accentuation therefore, refpecting the construction of verfe, is faid by our author, in both pronunciations to be effentially the fame.

VIII. An Addrefs to the People of England, Scotland, and Ireland, on the prefent impertant Crifis of Affairs. By Catherine Macaulay. 6d. Dilly.

We recommend this nervous, judicious addrefs