"Be chafed for ever through the wood, And horror chill'd each nerve and bone. Brought ftorm and tempeft on its wing. Clofe, close behind, he marks the throng; With bloody fangs, and eager cry, In frantic fear he fcours along. "Still, ftill fhall last the dreadful chase, POLITICS. Thoughts on Parliamentary Reform, and on Reform in general: in which the Nature of the British Conftitution, the Government, its component Parts, and Establishments, c. are freely but briefly confidered. By an ExMember of the prefent Parliament. 8vo. Pr. 48. Is. Jordan. 1801. OTH the title of this book (which is quaint), and the dedication of it to the Duke of Norfolk, (which is unappropriate,) led us to expect fomething BOTH Z 4 fomething of a different nature from what we have found in it. The author writes quaintly, both in manner and style; as his chapter on Likes and Diflikes, which we fhall extract, will fufficiently fhew; but, with all his oddities, he has a great many old English notions and opinions, in the propriety of which we moft cordially acquiefce. Indeed, excepting his economical propofitions, to which we object, because we cannot think that a period of exceffive dearness is precifely the fit period for the curtailment of falaries, though it may be a very fit period for the increafe of them, we find very little in his tract which we difapprove. His fentiments, respecting ariftocratical dignity, commercial advancement, parliamentary qualifications, and imprisonment for debt, are entitled to the serious confideration of every man, who has the good of his country feriously at heart; they do credit as well to the understanding as to the feelings of the author; and we heartily wish that the numbers of those who thought and felt as he thinks and feels, were very confiderably augmented. "LIKES AND DISLIKES." "First, then, I like monarchy above all forms of government; I like the English the best of all monarchical forms; and I like the English Monarch better than any I have ever read or heard of-God bless him! But I dislike that the expences of Government fhould have no reference to the public burden; I diflike profufion in national establishments, when there is a general neceffity for economy in private expenditure; and I equally diflike fhabby reform. I diflike deftroying fmall places, and diftreffing poor families but I thould like, when all are fuffering, that large finecures, large falaries, where there is but little to do, and overgrown emoluments, should ceafe, or at least be regulated, "I like, above all things, the aristocratic part of the British Conftitution; I like it as an incentive and as a reward to virtuous actions; Flike it as a political and as a moral inftitution, but I dislike its rapid increase; I dislike that the leaft infringement fhould be made on this feudal, dignified, and valuable establishment; I diflike to see its avenues opening to borough influence and to commerce; and I diflike to fee the old families living fo little with their tenantry. I like the reprefentative fyftem, as the conftitution wills it to be; I like that the body of the people fhould fend to the National Council, freely and uncorruptedly, fuch of their neighbours (having ftrong local connections and a great national stake) as may appear to them moft worthy the truft; but I diflike to fee the Houfe of Commons filled with merchants and tradefmen. I diflike to fee corporations returning on ufurped privilege; and I diflike to fee perfons fitting in Parliament for places they have never been near, and by purchafes made without ever leaving their 'comptinghouses. "I like (generally speaking) the fairness, the juftice, and the equality, of the laws; I like, beyond expreffion, the inflexible honour and integrity of the judges, their wifdom, their attention, their humanity; but I diflike that the expences of law fhould be fuch, that no person of small fortune can feek juftice, without his ruin being as certain as his fuccefs. "I like to fee property protected, but I diflike to see the unfortunate oppreffed. like credit, as a national concern, very well, but I like liberty better; I like that property should be anfwerable for property, but I diflike that, for a credit voluntarily given, the debtor should be confined for life, "In all these points I fhould like a Reform; but I fhould like that Reform to originate with the Executive Power, and to be effected by the wif dom of the Legislative. I fhould diflike to fee it ever effected in any other way, and I should like the exifting Government to be always so strong, as to destroy every idea of oppofing it by force. "I fhould like to throw out any hint that wisdom and power may turn to ufe; and I conclude this chapter of Likes and Diflikes with obferving, that I like butter very much, but in this time of fcarcity (or at least dearnefs) of corn, I dislike to fee many thousand acres of land in my neighbourhood, which would produce fix quarters of wheat per acre, furnishing little or nothing towards the neceffaries of life. "For particular reafons I like to affume the fignature of REVIEWERS REVIEWED, Euripidis Hecuba, &c. Wilkie. London. 1799. "SEVEN." Letters from a Father to his Son, on various Topics, relative to Literature and the Conduct of Life, written in the Years 1798 and 1799. By J. Aikin, M. D. 8vo. 2 Vols. Johnfon. London. OBSERVED, in my laft letter, that it entered of course into the original plan of the Monthly, Critical, and Analytical Reviews, that the works of Church-of-England men fhould be cried down below,their merits, while the publications of Diffenters were as much exalted above their merits. The truth of this affertion, as it applies to the Critical Review, may be abundantly proved, by comparing their two critiques in their last Number*, upon the Euripidis Hecuba of Profeffor Porfon, and Dr. Aikin's Letters from a Father to his Son. In the former, a pedantic measurer of fyllables, (who cavils for the ninth part of a hair,) under the convenient cloak of apparent admiration, attacks a learned Profeffor in a manner, which, to ufe his own words, is farcaftical, indeed illiberal, to an extent which cannot fail to excite aftonishment. I will not add, when affociated with fuch extraordinary endowments of learning and fagacity; for a mind which, like this writer's, can dwell with hypercritical feverity upon minutiæ, is incapable of the more majestic efforts of profound erudition. When viewed by the fide of the Profeffor, what is he but a mouse which capers round the foot of a lion; or at best but a fatellite of inferior fplendor, which waits upon a planet of the firft magnitude? His criticisms remind us of the attempt of Warburton to improve Shakespear, and of Bentley to illuftrate Milton, of whom we might fay in the words of the antient critic, who is himself, the great fublime, he draws, Tivo aτvXsara. To add another bue unto the rainbow, all thefe critics might have known, has been long fince determined, to be an endeavour at ridiculous excefs: and yet fuch are the prefumption and vanity of criticism, that it plays the pedagogue with authors of every fize; and whenever it has excogitated an alteration, which is in its own eye fubtile and recondite, it does not fail to thrust its idle quackery down the public throat as an indubitable specific. One of the motives for fuch conduct in the prefent inftance was, that Mr. Porfon, however learned, is of the Church of England, and a profeffor in one of her univerfities. For November, 1800, 1 Dr. Dr. Aikin, on the contrary, has qualifications of a very different kind. He is a Prefbyterian; and if I may venture to judge by his dialect, (for I have heard him converfe,) he is alfo a Scotchman. God forbid, that for thefe reafons only, I fhould entertain the flighteft prejudice against him. I have indeed an high opinion of his ingenuity; and I refpect him as a man of information, to whom the rifing generation is much indebted. But when he is fo roundly applauded by the Critical Reviewers for the purity of his compofition, I cannot help fufpecting that he is rather countenanced for the puritanity of his fentiment. The Doctor would have us teach our children, that it is not neceffary that all people should agree, and go to the fame place, and worship God the fame way. Do you not fee (fays he) that people differ in a hundred other things? Do they all drefs alike, and eat and drink alike, and keep the fame bours, and ufe the fame diverfions? They bave a right to wor Jhip God as they pleafe. It is their own bujinefs, and concerns none but themfelves. God has directed the mind and Spirit with which he is to be worshipped, but not the particular form and manner. That is left for every one to choose, according as fuits bis temper and opinions. All fects like their own way beft, and why bould they leave it for the choice of another? Religion is one of the things in which MANKIND WERE MADE TO DIFFER*. This is the very effence of nonconformity, and of republicanism, and infubordination in religion. It is the very foul of that vice which St. Paul condemns, when he fays there Should be no SCHISM in the body. It is directly oppofite to the practice of thofe good primitive times, when the MULTITUDE of them that believed were of ONE heart, and of ONE foul, and ASSEMBLED TOGETHER†. To implant fuch notions in the hearts of children, is to prepare the way for difcord without end. In fuch a state of society it would be impoffible for true religion to exift; and the whole Chriftian world would be like a fwarm of those falpe, of the Mediterranean and Red Sea, which Dr. Shaw thus ingeniously defcribes in his Naturalift's Mifcellany: "Natat hæc fpecies nullo certo tramite, agmine quaquaverfum confufo, fine ullo duce aut confilio; quam ob caufam conjicio Dominum Forfkal, qui forfan primus eam defcripfit, DEMOCRATICAM nominaffe." Your readers who with for a tranflation of the paffage, Mr. Editor, will find it in vol. vii, opposite to plate 236. Such is the religion which Dr. Aikin would have us inftil into our children. His juvenile politics are equally curious. He would have young people taught to weep at a victory ; and while they humanely bewail the costs of a war, he wishes them to confider battle as a trade, and never to think that the profeffion of arms, which binds a man to be the fervile inftrument of cruelty and injuftice, can be an bonourable calling§. At another placell, Papa teaches Charley, that an army of thirty thousand men is a band of thirty thousand murderers, and that a CONQUEROR, bow brilliant foever his talents may be, (alas for Howe, Duncan, St. Vincent, and Nelfon !) is a pest of the human race, upon whom admiration ought no longer to be lavished. On another occafion, the fage inftructor apprizes his pupils of the inutility of gentlemen. All this, Mr. Editor, is perfectibility of fentiment, at which, I confefs, I am not arrived; but the fublime heights of which have been happily attained by Dr. Aikin, and the highly gifted illuminati of the Painian, Godzininian, and Wolftonecraftian schools. *Evenings at Home, Vol. IV, p. 121. Evenings at Home, Vol. IV, p. 51. Vol. I. p. 152. Ibid. Vol. V, p. 99. . + See Acts, iv. 31, 32. § Ibid, Vol. V. 58, 63. || Ibid, In the volume which the Doctor now iffues into the world, he informs us, that a TITLE, a badge, a dress, and various other LITTLE THINGS, are apt to fwell into importance in our imaginations. He alfo tells us, that he regards it as a matter of fact, that in all cafes where POWERS and PRIVILEGES have been granted for public ends, there exists in ONE SET of men, a fyftematic plan of extending their limits to the utmoft, of converting them into fources of private emolument, and, in confequence, of excluding as many as pos fible from the participation, by ARBITRARY TESTS and qualifications; while iu ANOTHER SET there exifts an UNIFORM OPPOSITION to thefe USURPATIONS and ABUSES, founded on the principles of univerfal equity, and the general interests of the community. The former is the party of CORRUPTION, the latter of reformation, the former that of WRONGS, the latter of rights; the former that of LIBERTY, the latter of flavery.* I am much mistaken, Mr. Editor, if the Doctor does not mean to depict, in this pair of portraits, the Church of England in alliance with the State on the one hand, and the Diffenters on the other. The Critical Reviewer, without question, viewed the paffage in the fame light, and hence originated his eagerness to transcribe it into his Review, as well as to preface the whole letter by that grofs falfhood, that it evinced the decifive Spirit of INTEGRITY, regulated by the LIBERALITY OF CANDOUR. Integrity, liberality, and candour, are all put to the bluth when an author writes in this fweeping manner and I cannot help retorting upon Dr. Aikin in his own words, upon this occafion, however galling their feverity. When you find a man not deficient in knowledge and inquiry, who by studied fophiftry endeavours to perplex: who throws aut malignant infinuations against the views and principles of his opponents; who, moreover, has a manifest interest in the fide he has taken-" Hic niger eft," He is bad at heart. I will not, however, fo far infult the Doctor with his own words, as to add what he has added (in the Spirit of integrity, and liberality of candour) that a perfon of the above description is a noxious animal, to be founned or CRUSHED, as circumftances may dictate. I am of the Church of England, which fpeaks more Cbriftian things; and if a poor intruding beetle, or giddy butterfly, comes into my study and interrupts me, it is not my custom to demolish it, but to raise the fafh and put it out of the window. Dr. Aikin feems to have no very correct idea of the temper of the Church of England; nor does he, with any fairness, state the real nature of her situation with respect to the Diffenters. As he has not done the latter, I fhall venture to do it for him, that your readers, at least, Mr. Editor, may not be in danger of imputing to the Legislature the impofition of ARBITRARY TESTS, and QUALIFICATIONS. The Doctor loves a fable, and fo do I: and as he is an ingenious fabricator of fables himself I will borrow a ftory of him. The dramatis perfonce I fhall beg leave firft, to arrange after my own mind. The honeft dog, Keeper, fhall be the Church of England, and the Fox and Wolf thall reprefent Diffenters of every defcription. Now for my Tale. The Dog and his Relations. "Keeper was a farmer's maftiff, honeft, brave, and vigilant. One day as he was ranging at fome diftance from home, he espied a Wolf and Fox * Here is a strange blunder in antithefis, made by Dr. A. or his critic. He certainly did not mean to say, that the party of corruption and wrongs is the party of liberty; nor, vice verfa, that the party of reformation and rights, is the party of flavery. Nevertheless it may be true in part. fitting |