on that of rigour. It is not our province, nor can we prefume, to judge the judges of the land: but we must confefs that we could not perufe Mr. Adam's fpeech, with all that attention which we beftowed on it, without ftrongly entertaining the doubts which it was the drift of his argument to raife, concerning the legality of the judgments paffed on Meff. Muir and Palmer; without wishing that it had been poffible to have them made the fubjects of difcuffion in a court of appeal; nor without feeling aftonishment and concern that the difcretion of the Scotch Judges should be of fo different a species from that which directs the adminiftration of criminal justice in Sh. England.

Art. 53. A Gazetteer of the Netherlands. Containing a full Account of all the Cities, Towns, &c. in the Seventeen Provinces, and the Bishoprick of Liege; with the relative Distance of the Cities, &c. from each other and from Paris; and the Distances of each Village from the nearest City or Town in their respective Provinces. Embellished with two new Maps, coloured; one of the Seven United Provinces; the other of the Catholic Netherlands. Izmo. 4s. Boards. Robinsons. 1794.

. The Netherlands being now an object of general attention, the public is here properly provided with two good maps, and an alphabetical lift of the cities, towns, and villages, of this country. The work is rendered entertaining by the editor's having annexed to each place of any note fome hiftorical or topographical particulars. Much care feems to have been taken to lay down diftinctly the various distances and bearings of different places. The maps are neat, and the work feems to us to be well executed, and to be a very useful manual to accompany the daily perusal of the public papers. Art. 54. An entire and complete Hiftory, political and personal, Boroughs of Great Britain; together with the Cinque Ports. fecond Edition, corrected and improved. In two Volumes. Crosby. 1794: PP.920. 14s. Boards. Of the, first edition of this ufeful work, a brief account was given in our eleventh volume, New Series, p. 99, to which we refer our readers, as they will there find fome mention of the nature and plan of the publication.—In addition to what was then faid, we beg leave to give the following anecdote, as it reflects fo much credit on the party principally concerned.

of the

8vo.

The

On the death of the late Lord Holmes, a very powerful attempt was made by Sir William Oglander, and fome other neighbouring gentlemen, to deprive his lordship's nephew and fucceffor, the prefent Rev. Mr. Troughear Holmes, of his influence over this corporation The number of that body was at that time twenty-three, there being one vacancy amongst the aldermen, occafioned by the recent death Eleven of them continued firm to the interest of of Lord Holmes. the nephew, and the fame number was equally eager to transfer that intereft to Sir William Oglander and the Worfley family. A Mr. Taylor of this town, one of the burgeffes, withheld his declaration;

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and as his vote would decide the balance of future influence, it was imagined that he only fufpended it for the purpofe of private advantage. Agreeably to that idea, he was eagerly fought by the of each party. agents The first who applied is faid to have made him an offer of 2000l. Mr. Taylor had actually made up his mind to have voted with his party: but the moment his integrity and independence were attacked, he reverfed his determination, and refolved to give his fuffrage on the oppofite fide. That party, however, like their opponents, being ignorant of the favour defigned them, and of the accident to which they owed it, affailed him with a more advantageous offer. He informed them that he had but juft formed the refolution, in confequence of a fimilar infult from their adverfaries, of giving them his fupport; but fince he had difcovered that they were both aiming at power by the fame means, he was determined to vote for neither of them: and to put himself out of the power of further temptation, he refolved to refign his gown as a burgess of the corporation; which he accordingly did the next day.'

We could have wished that the prefent edition had been printed with greater attention to correctness; the typographical errors in it being very numerous.

S.R. Art. 55. A Treatise on Wet Docks, Quays, and Warehouses, for the Port of London: With Hints refpecting Trade. 8vo. Is. Johnfon. The author of this pamphlet obferves that London poffeffes only the fame legal quays now which it did in the time of Charles II. though it requires the affiftance of many more, owing to the great extenfion of its commerce.-The advantages which Liverpool, Hull, and Bristol derive from their docks are enumerated, and it is remarked that London, though the first city for commerce, and having within itfelf the most powerful internal means of fupporting docks on the most extenfive plans, has been the last, except in the cafe of two fpirited individuals, to try the experiment.' Mr. Perry's dock at Blackwall, and Mr. Wells's dock at Greenland Dock, are here meant ; the former occupying about twelve acres of ground, and the latter about eight acres, and each able to contain many fhips. In the remainder of the pamphlet, various ufeful hints for removing this deficiency, with refpect to the port of London, are fuggefted with candour and precifion.

S.R. Art. 56. On the Punishment of Murder by Death. By B. Rufh, M. D. Philadelphia. 8vo. 6d. Johnson. 1793. Dr. Rufh is an advocate for the entire abolition of capital punishment, even in the cafes of murder. His defign is not fo much to establish his opinion by rational arguments, as to anfwer the objections which might arife against it from feveral paffages in fcripture Some of his explanations of texts, we think, are forced. The doctrine would, perhaps, be beft reconciled with feripture by maintaining that, whatever might be done under former difpenfations, the discontinuance of the punishment of death is most confonant to the humane fpirit of the religion taught by him who came, not to deftroy men's lives, but to fave them." The pamphlet was first published in Pennsylvania.

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Art. 57. An Addrefs to the Inhabitants of the Colonies established in New South Wales, and Norfolk Island. By the Rev. Richard Johnfon, A. B. Chaplain to the Colonies. Izmo. Is. fewed. Matthews.

1794.

This earnest and compaffionate address forbids all criticism, were we difpofed to employ it. Its benevolent purpose, with the fervour and fincerity which it indicates, leads us to with it fuccefs, while they engage our efteem for the author. We transcribe the following advertifement affixed to the pamphlet: As Mr. Johnfon has ordered a great number of the Addreffes to be fent to New South Wales to be given among the fettlers and convicts; it is the wish of Mr. Martin and Mr. Folter, who are his agents, to defray the expence of the whole impreffion, that the profit arifing from the fale of the remainder may be placed to Mr. Johnfon's account.-Donations for this purpose will be received by either of his agents.'

Art. 58. The Traveller's Companion from Holyhead to London. Small 8vo. pp. 154. 3s. Boards. Longman.

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Although this little book be not without its defects, yet for current reading it will meet with good acceptance.-The author's general plaudit of monks and friars, in the account of Coventry, is one of thofe partial reprefentations which tend to mislead those who are in fearch of inftruction. It had been strange if fo large a body had been productive of no kind of fervice: but the benefit is fmail indeed, when compared with the enormous evils which accumulate on mankind from ignorance, fuperftition, bigotry, prieftcraft, fraud, and tyranny. If there be thofe who can eftimate these evils as bleffings, to fuch we leave it to applaud the times of popery and flavery. We approve much of the earneftnefs with which this traveller recommends plantations, agriculture, and the cultivation of wafte lands, with which this ifland, notwithstanding all its improvements, largely abounds. Some of his remarks on different fubjects are of a diverting kind, while they afford an ufeful hint: Notwithstanding, (fays he,) I have, in my journey, been frequently furprifed at alterations in the appearance of things and places; yet, I must confefs, that in my apprehenfion, there is nothing that has fuffered a greater change, in its price and appearance, than a bottle of wine; which now, being generally in the proportion of two quarts filling three bottles, is, when decanted under the fcrupulous nicety of the waiter, reduced to a fober quantity indeed. Surely magistrates might be juftified in regulating the fizes of bottles, as of pewter meafures!'-His account of the arts and fraud of miners is worthy of notice, though too long for us to extract.---In a defcription of the caftle of Carnarvon, fpeaking of its elegant turrets, it is added, one of these towers is an arched window, in the form of a recess, fupported by very neat pillars;'-we notice this, because it leads to fome explication of the word oriel-for this recefs, as Mr. Pennant has obferved, was, in ancient times, an elegant part of architecture called the oriel, and appears from a poem of the very age in which this was built, to have been the toilet of the ladies, and probably might have been that of Queen Elinor."

RFV. AUG. 1794.

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This writer poffibly infers too much from an order given in the reign of Edward I. that clean fraw should be put into the king's bedchamber every week.' It seems to have been customary, when carpets were little known, to ftrew the rooms neatly with ftraw or rufhes of different kinds; or, if his majefty flept on ftraw, we may conclude that a bed of feathers, or of other foft materials, was laid on it. Hi.

Art. 59. Slavery and Famine, Punishments for Sedition; or, An Account of New South Wales, and of the miferable State of the Convicts; by George Thompson, who failed in the Royal Admiral, May 1792. With fome preliminary Remarks. And a Sketch of the Character of Thomas Fyfche Palmer, B. D. late Senior Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge. By George Dyer, Author of the Complaints of the Poor People of England. 8vo. pp. 70. 2s. Ridgway. 1794

The contents of this mifcellaneous pamphlet are fully stated in the title-page. Mr. Thompson's narrative is fhort, and relates but few particulars; fome, indeed, which are not given at greater length by Captains Hunter and Tench; fhort, however, as it is, we have found it interefting and amufing. Mr. Dyer's preliminary remarks confift chiefly of extracts from the different accounts of Botany Bay already published, with a few obfervations on fome differences fubfifting between them and Thompson's journal. As Mr. Palmer has attracted the public curiofity by the feverity of his fate, we shall present our readers with a paffage refpecting that unfortunate man:

Thomas Fyfche Palmer, B. D. late fenior Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, is of a refpectable and ancient family at Ickwell, in Bedfordshire: was educated at Eton School; was entered at Queen's College, Cambridge, and, after going through the ftudies of the university with credit, was chofen fellow of that college. He was ordained a clergyman of the established church, and from the nature of his connections, as well as the direction of his ftudies, muft have had profpects of confiderable preferment.

At Cambridge, Fyfche Palmer was a regular attendant on the theological lectures of the late celebrated John Jebb, though antecedently to this connection, he had been of the calvinistic perfuafion, intimate with John Berridge and Rowland Hill, two eminent methodist preachers of the established church. From an affiduous and critical tudy of the fcriptures he became an unitarian, and poffeffing a great activity of mind, he then fhewed the fame zeal in propagating the unitarian, as he had before the trinitarian doctrines. He never held any preferment.

Hearing of a fociety of unitarians formed at Montrofe by Thomas Christie, author of an excellent volume of fermons on the unity, Fyfche Palmer was induced to go to Scotland, with a view of joining that fociety. There he became a zealous teacher, formed unitarian focieties at Dundee and Edinburgh, and taught occafionally in feveral villages, particularly in Forfar, and Newborough. He never received any pay the employment of a teacher he thought honourable, and useful; but had long fince laid afide the profeffion and garb of a prieft.

Of

• Of his income derived from his fellowship and private fortune he devoted more than half to benevolent purpofes: he was a great economist, only to enable himself to be a philanthropist.

The regulations of the focieties in which F. Palmer taught were different from thofe in many others. When I was lamenting in his company the lofs which his fociety would fuftain, he replied, "my friends will feel little inconvenience from my abfence; they did not depend wholly on me; they will be capable of inftructing one another."

James Ellis, the young man gone with him to Botany Bay, was formerly his fervant; but proving himself to be a youth of virtuous principles, and good talents, F. Palmer took pains in giving him inftruction; and made him his companion. James Ellis ufed to preach for him occafionally.

F. Palmer is not merely a man of letters: he is a man of exquifite talte in the fine arts, in painting, poetry and mufic, and poffeffes an excellent judgment in architecture, gardening and husbandry. In the caft of his mind there is great originality. He can be as ferious as any man; but he is likewife a mafter of humour. I know no character more upright; few more interefting. There will be shortly published, by a skilful hand, a more ample account of this gentleman, together with his Eflays written in the Theological Repofitory, and a Controverfial Treatife of his, published fome time fince, on the Unity of God.'

Some remarkable cafes of fevere punishment for very flight offences are enumerated at the end, and merit the attention of our legiflators and administrators of law.

SINGLE SERMONS.

S.R. Art. 60. The Influence of Example. Preached at Duke-ftreet Chapel. By the Rev. R. Shepherd, D. D. Archdeacon of Bedford. 4to. 1s. 6d. Nicol. 1793.

A well-intended effort to ftem the torrent of fashionable diffipation. The objects, against which the worthy preacher particularly levels the battery of his eloquence, are, infidelity, the violation of the fabbath, the neglect of public worship, and the difufe of the cuftom of faying grace at meals. In the prefent ftate of opinions and habits, we fear that fome means more convincing and powerful than brief and general declamation must be employed, if any ferious hope of moral and religious reformation may be entertained. E. Art. 61. Preached at Chumleigh, May 7, 1793, at the Vifitation of the Rev. the Archdeacon of Barnstaple. By James Parkin, A. M. Rector of Oakford. 4to. Is. Law.

In this well compofed difcourfe, the author appears to have had two objects in view; firft, to eftablith, by general arguments, the utility of the Chriftian ministry; fecondly, to refute fome charges which have lately been made against the priesthood, both by enemies and by friends to religion. Among the charges brought against the clergy, that by the very refpectable Dr. Wendeborn, in his View of England, in which the English clergy are faid to be too much

* See Review, March, 1791.

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