t

GOD;-when these things are fo, furely we are called on, as if a voice from heaven had warned us, to arm ourfelves against these abominations; these are evidently the provocations and preparatives to those last heavy judgments, which the wrath of God vifits upon abandoned and reprobate nations; and these are the very characters whereby thofe countries, that have been fwept with the befom of defolation, have been ruinoufly diftinguished in the period immediately preceding their extinction." P. 44.

In the peroration of this animated difcourfe, the neceffity of adding good example, to the other means of procuring fuccefs to the affociation, is thus vigorously and juftly infifted upon.

Upon the whole, my brethren, great have been your efforts in the glorious caufe you have undertaken-and not inconfiderable has been your fuccefs-but to crown thefe efforts, and to complete the fuccefs, there is one thing indifpenfible-1 mean EXAMPLE-this is, I may fay, the very foul of your inftitution; this alone it is, that can give life and efficacy to your refolves-without this, all your regulations become dead letter; and your Affociation, funk into merited contempt, and put afide as an impertinent intruder, will only ferve to furnish matter of derifion and triumph to the enemies of our religion; whilft to the friends of virtue, it must raise infuperable obstructions to any future attempt of a fimilar nature. Much then does it behove you, my brethren, to beware that your practice war not with your profeffions. Remember that you are as a city that is fet upon a hill, and cannot be hid"-remember, that you have voluntarily placed yourselves on that eminence-that you have challenged public obfervation, and taught the world to look to your lives and conduct for a proof of the excellence of that religion, by which you profefs to be influenced-remember then, that every inftance of your perfonal mifconduct is a wound to Chriftianity-and that, by evincing the inefficacy of the gofpel, upon the morals of its moft oftenfible advocates, you turn traitor to its Divine Author-and, like the perfidious dif ciple, deliver up the Lord of Life into the hands of his murderers." P. 64.

May the pulpits of Great Britain and of Ireland frequently refound with fuch exhortations!

ART. VII. A Short Account of the late Mr. Reuben Burrow's Menfurement of a Degree of Longitude, and another of Lati tude, near the Tropic in Bengal, in the Years 1790. 1791. by Ifaac Dalby. 4to. 21 pp. Is. Elmfly. 1796.

THE Eaft-India Company, in confequence of the trigonome

trical furvey which was begun in England, under the direction of the late General Roy, in 1787, being induced to make

a fimilar

a fimilar furvey of the Coromandel coaft, or of fome other tract of land in Bengal, ordered the neceifary inftruments in London; fuch as a theodolite, chains, &c. But the late Mr. Burrow, then mathematical mafter of the Company's corps of engineers, being animated with zeal for the fervice, and finding that the inftruments were not likely to be tranfmitted. speedily, began, by way of preliminary operation, to measure a degree of longitude, and another degree of latitude, with fuch inftruments as he could procure in that part of the world, which were a theodolite, a fextant, a brafs fcale by Ramsden, a fifty feet steel chain of Ramfden's new construction, an astronomical quadrant of one foot radius, with two fets of divifions on the limb, by Ramfden, feveral glafs rods ground to a particular length, long rods made of bamboos, foine ten and twenty feet rods, and fome ftands for the rods.

This measurement was made in the years 1793, 1791; and foon after, namely, in May, 1792, Mr. Burrow died at Caragola, without leaving any finished account of his operations. His papers fell into the hands of Mr. Dalby, who collected from them the particulars which form the prefent imperfect

account.

Mr. Dalby, after a careful examination of the above-mentioned papers, and after a due allowance, which he judged neceflary to make for the expansion of the measuring rods, &c. finds reafon to conclude, that the length of a degree of longitude in lat. 23° 28' is equal to 335937 feet, or 55989 fathoms; and that the length of a degree of latitude between Abadanga and Poal, whofe middle is in lat. 23° 18' is equal to 362742 feet, or 60457 fathoms.

To this Mr. D. fubjoins fome judicious remarks, principally relative to the figure of the earth. He compares the measurements made by different perfons on the meridian in various latitudes, with the length of the degrees which have been computed on the fuppofition of the earth's figure being a fpheroid; and, likewife, with the lengths of the degrees calcu lated on the fuppofition of the earth being an ellipfoid; from which comparison he is led

to think it extremely probable, that the meridians are not elliptical in low latitudes; but that the earth (as M. Bouguer fuppofed) is flatter in a north and fouth direction, or more of a globular form in those parts, than an ellipfoid. And, were we certain how far M. de la Caille's degree at the Cape of Good Hope (lat. 33° 18' S. Mem. Acad. 1751) is erroneous (it being longer than the measured degree in lat. 45° Ñ.) it might ferve to fhew if the variation from an ellipfoid is greater, or extends farther on the fouth fide of the equator, than on the north."

In the last part of this work, Mr. D. gives the folutions of two problems, useful in the investigation of the figure of the earth, viz.

"Prob. I. Having the degree of longitude, and also that on the meridian in a given latitude, to find the earth's diameters, fuppofing it an ellipfoid" and,

"Prob. II. Having the degrees of longitude in two given latitudes, to find the earth's axes, fuppofing it an ellipfoid."

ART. VIII. A Letter to his Grace the Duke of Portland, being a Defence of the Conduct of his Majefty's Minifters, in fending an Ambafador to treat with the French Directory, against the Attack made upon that Measure, by the Right Hon. Edmund Burke; and an Endeavour to prove, that the permanent Eftablishment of the French Republic, is compatible with the Safety of the Religious and Political Syftems of Europe. By James Workman, Efq. of the Middle Temple. 8vo. 116 pp. 2s. 6d. Owen. 1797.

IN order to defend his. Majefty's Minifters, for their attempts

to negotiate a peace with the French Republic, against the attacks of Mr. Burke, contained in his justly celebrated letters on a regicide peace, Mr. Workman fhould have confined his arguments to the mere queftion of prudence and expediency, inftead of devoting fo many pages to the eftablishment of a fact, which no man, in his fober fenfes, ever thought of denying, namely, that if one nation wants to make peace with another, muft carry on its negotiations for that purpose, with the perfons occupying the country; for to fuppofe that any one could contend that, for the purpose of concluding a peace, we ought to negotiate with individuals, who, however lawful their right, have no power over the country, and with whom, moreover, we have never been at war, is abfurd. How far it was wise and politic, in the British government to open a negotiation with the republic of France, in the relative fiutation and circumstances of the two countries, at the time when fuch negotiations were entered upon, is the true point for difcuffion. Mr. Burke exprefsly fays (p. 126) "there are many things which men do not approve, that they must do to avoid a greater evil. To argue from thence, that they are to act in the fame manner in all cafes, is turning neceffity into a law. Matters of prudence are under the dominion of circumftances, and not of logical analogies." Hence it behoved Mr. W. to show that circumstances

circumftances were fuch as to justify minifters in foliciting. peace from our enemies. This, indeed, at length he attempts to do; though it appears to us, that his efforts are neither marked by confiftency, nor attended with fuccefs.

Mr. Burke having contended, that the premature and gratuitous recognition of a contested title, is both impolitic and unwife; Mr. W. boldly affirms, that "it is not the recognition, but the refufal to make recognition of a ftate that can be attended with danger." This, furely, is a most untenable pofition. If a rebellion take place in a neighbouring state, and the rebels obtain, for a time, poffeffion of the governinent, and, declare war against us, while their oppofers, a powerful party, profess a most friendly difpofition towards us, and struggle to reftore the lawful conftitution of the country, will no danger accrue to us from an immediate acknowledgment of the ufurpers? Putting the difhonour and difgrace of fuch a proceeding entirely out of the queftion (and, be it obferved, that dishonour and difgrace are always productive of danger to a state) will no ground for apprehenfion arife from giving a fanction to rebellion and all its horrid confequences? For our part, we confels, that we can defcry dangers the moft alarming and ferious of any, to which a nation can be expofed, in a conduct fo rafh and imprudent. But Mr. Burke's pofition, it must be remarked, was confined to France and England, in the very peculiar fituations in which they were refpectively placed; whereas, that of his opponent is advanced as a general principle, and of courfe is applicable to all countries, and at all periods. It neceffarily follows, therefore, that our minifters could have incurred no danger, if they had made a peace with the regicides, when weltering in the blood of their murdered monarch, at the commencement of the year 1793; at a time, when our legiflature had adopted none of thofe falutary precautions, which have fince been taken for the protection of our invaluable conftitution. Yet Mr. W. himfelf allows, and he certainly does not risk much by the admiffion, that "to have negotiated with fuch infernal monfters, as Hebert, Marat, Chaumette, and Robespierre, might, poffibly, have been unsafe and dishonourable to his Majefty ;" and, he might have added, destructive to his kingdom.

The arguments of this author become more fpecious and plausible, when he proceeds to defend the conduct of the minifters, on the ground of the change which took place in the government of France, in the autumn of 1795; though, even here, when he stands upon firm ground, he proves himself a feeble advocate. He appears to argue upon a falfe principle, as if the object of the war had really been the restoration of monarchy

monarchy in France, whereas the fact is, that was the means propofed fat one time) for obtaining the object, and not the object itself a fundamental difference, which, in the confideration of this important queftion, fhould never, for a moment, be put out of fight. From a fimilar mifapprehenfion, he reprefents Mr. Burke as having maintained, that the war fhould be continued, in order to punish the government of France, for oppreffing her people." Here he evidently mistakes. the effect for the caufe. Mr. Burke certainly thought, with many others, that the restoration of monarchy in France, was not only effential to the prefervation of the established fyftems of polity, of the harmony, and tranquillity of Europe, but that it would alfo be the means of refcuing the people of France' from a state of mifery and oppreffion, unexampled in the annals of mankind. But, however his feelings might intereft him for the fate of the French nation itself, it was only on the former account that he wifhed for a continuance of the war. If his project had been accomplithed, the punishment of the oppreffors might, indeed, have followed, as one of the effects of the measure; and they certainly would have been punished, by lofing the object of their ambition, and the fource of their: plunder; but fuch punishment was affuredly never admitted, by the comprehenfive mind of Mr. Burke, as an adequate: motive for perfevering in the contest.

We forbear to comment on the flattering picture which Mr. W. has drawn of the regenerated government of France; it is evidently the offspring of a youthful imagination, and has completely been annihilated by the extraordinary events which have occurred at Paris, fince the publication of the work before us. Thofe events were certainly expected by us, to whom they appeared as the neceffary refult of the defects in the new constitution, which is wholly deftitute of the vigour neceffary to reftrain the defperate efforts of the Jacobin faction; the only faction which has hitherto merited the name of a party in France. In his zeal to defend the new fyftem, we were furprifed to find Mr. W. difpofed to palliate, if not to juftify, one of the most abominable acts of defpotifm that has been exercifed fince the revolution; we mean, the forced rc-election of two thirds of the convention, as members of the new councils. This was a direct violation of the fundamental principle of the conftitution, which was stated to be a free and perfect representation; and to it may be chiefly afcribed those recent tranfactions, which have excited the indignation of all Europe. For, if the legislative body had been completely renovated at that time, the power of the Jacobins would have been fo cramped, that they would not