THE DRAMA. ART. XVII. Management: A Comedy in Five Ats, as performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent-Garden. By Frederick Reynolds. The Second Edition. 2s. Longman and Rees. London. 1800. THIS HIS play resembles the other pieces of Mr. Reynolds in bustle, incident, and vivacity. It has no great novelty of character; but, fuch as it is, is fo given as, we doubt not, to have afforded much mirth to the audience in the representation. Indeed the come dies of the present day are not calculated for the clofet; they require ART. XVIII. The Wife Man of the Eaft. A Play in Five As. 1 25. Ro THE advertisement prefixed to this play informs us that it is an alteration of Kotzbue's comedy called," the Writing Desk." What merit the original may poffefs we are not able, from our own knowledge, to declare; but if it have no more interest than we found in the alteration" it is, indeed, the most dull and unentertaining of his productions. There is nothing of novelty or originality in the plot; the feigned deccafe of a bufband, a father, and a lover, to d prove the affection of the wife, the duty of a fon, and the attachment of a miftrefs, has more than once been feen on the English stage. The characters are, in general, tamely delineated; and the early intimation which the audience receives of the real character of Avu Thouna diminishes, in our opinion, much of that agreeable furprise which a better managed difcovery is apt to produce. The integrity of Metland, the gentleness of Ellen, and the thoughtless levity of young Claransforth, mixed at the fame time with much generofity of difpofition, are not ill-pourtrayed; but we certainly did not feel for them the fame lively intereft which fome of Mrs. Inchbald's own characters have excited. ART. XIX. Family Diftrefs, or, Self-Immolation. A Play in Three Acts. Faithfully tranflated from the German. By Henry THIS is another production of Kotzbue, literally given by a German. Whatever allowances we may be inclined to make for his partiality to his countryman, we, as Englishmen, cannot acknowledge the truth of the following paffage: "It is (meaning the genius of Kotzbue, we prefume,) Shakspeare without his quibbles, his negligences, his incongruities, his violation of the most indifpenfible dramatic probabilities, yet ftill rich in all thofe energies of genius which have fo expreffively difplayed the ingenuous ardor and fimplicity of youthful love and hope, the fecret remorfes of guilt, the meltings of tender, agonized affection, the wild conflicts of defpair," &c. &c. &c. Meaning we conceive, that Kotzbue poffeffes all the excellence of Shakspeare, without any of his faults. It is not our bufinefs to enter at large into the comparative merits of these two writers, neither, indeed, is it neceffary ;-the laurels of Shakspeare are in no danger from Mr. Neuman's pen; but we do not augur favourably of the difcrimination of a tranflator, who, in the very out-fet, exhibits fuch an inftance of over-weening par tiality for his author. Kotzbue has merit of an extraordinary kind we allow; but it must also be allowed, that he may poffefs it, and yet be far inferior to Shakspeare. Indeed, we conceive the genius of these two dramatists to be of a very different caft. Shakspeare was grand, animated, fublime, by nature; and whenever he is delineating the fofter paffions of the heart, or the more frivolous traits of the human character, he evidently defcends from the native dignity of his mind it is the pencil of Reynolds employed on a butterfly. Kotzbue, on the contrary, feems more equal to the defcription of domestic life, to the interefting, yet tender, conflicts of love and duty, of paffion and principle. Yet, it must be confeffed, he is not an impartial advocate; for we do not recollect an înftance where love is not triumphant over every opponent. Such, indeed, from the difpofition of his mind, as described by himself in the memoirs of his own life,* might naturally be expected. This play is a proof of our affertion; it * This work fhall be reviewed in our next Number. has has its foundation folely on domeftic difficulties, and the afflictions neceffarily produced by them. The fcene is laid in London. The tale is fhort. A merchant fuddenly reduced from plenty and affluence to a state of the most exquifite diftrefs. The effect of contending paffions is given in an animated and affecting manner; and the reader feels himself involuntarily obliged to fympathize with the fufferers, in oppofition to his conviction, that fuch a circumftance could not have happened in the capital of this country. We do not feel it neceffary to enter minutely into the different characters of this piece; let it fuffice to say, that it is, to ufe a favourite expreffion of our English Rofcius, concocted with Kotzbue's usual ability; and that it is not defaced with any of that offenfive ingredient which has poisoned fome of his most affecting productions. The tranflation, we doubt not, is correctly given. DIVINITY. ART. XX. The Rife and Diffolution of the Infide! Societies in this Metropolis: Including the Origin of Modern Deifm and Atheism the Genius and Conduct of thofe Affociations; their Lecture-Rooms, Field-Meetings, and Deputations from the Publication of Paine's 'Age of Reafon' till the prefent Period. With general Confiderations on the Influence of Infidelity upon Society; anfwering the various Objections of Deifts and Atheifts; and a Poftfcript upon the prefent State of Democratical Politics; Remarks upon Profeffor Robifon's late Work, &c. &c. By William Hamilton Reid. Pr. 117. Hatchard. 1800. 8vo. E are told that one forcible motive for digesting this narra WE tive was the notice taken by the Bishop of London, in his Lordship's excellent charge to his Clergy,* of the existence of certain Infidel Societies; and Mr. Reid, with a candour that does honour to his feelings and to his understanding, proves, in the most unequivocal manner, his competency to the talk, by the following ingenuous confession: "The author of this undertaking, having been involved in the dangerous delufion he now explodes, may reasonably be admitted a competent witness of the events which he relates; as may alfo the prefumption, that he has demonftrated the impracticability of the Infidel scheme, not merely from fpeculation, to which former writers have been confined, but from facts deduced from real life and actual experience. "Like our predeceffors, we are then no longer under the neceflity of arguing without a living precedent; on the contrary, we have feen the principles of Infidelity transferred from books to men; from See Anti-Jacobin Review, Vol. IV. p. 283. dead dead characters to living fubjects; not among a few isolated or spe culative individuals, but in numerous and compact bodies. "What was formerly a difpute, is thus brought upon a new ground; and from the heteregeneous compofition of this upftart body, the queftion Whether a Society of Atheists can fubfift ?’ it is prefumed, may now be decided in the negative.” 6 Mr. R. declares his readiness, if called upon, to prove any thing which he has ftated. We are not apt to be credulous, but we have no fcruple to declare that no doubt remains on our mind of the authenticity of the facts here recited. The fubject is most important and demands the closest investigation. The more remote causes of the growth of infidelity, which fhould certainly have formed the fubject of a preliminary chapter, the author reserves for a postscript; and dates his observations from the appearance of the Age of Reafon, and its adoption by the London Correfponding Society. "If the facts I am about to adduce were not well warranted, pofterity would not believe, that in confequence of the publication of a rhaplody against the doctrines of Chriftianity, hazarded by a theoretical politician in 1794, and under favour of the French revolution, a very confiderable number of our countrymen adopted his notions; and became equally as violent for the extermination of the Chriftian religion, as for the remedy of those civil abuses, for which alone their fociety was at first established! "Without experience of the fact, who would believe that while the infatuated difciples of the new philofophy were declaiming against their clergy, for mingling politics with religion, they themfelves, employed miffionaries to add deism to the democracy of their converts! Or, who would credit that every religious obligation, in civilized fociety, was refifted as prieftcraft, by the fame perfons who were the loudest in their demands, for what they chofe to disguise with the name of a reform !" The Age of Reason, however, it appears, was not adopted, without confiderable oppofition from the General Committee of the Society, but as zeal fuperfeded judgement in their difcuffions upon the fubject, the epithets of d-m--d fool, and d-m--d Chriftian, ultimately prevailed; and a bookfeller was foon perfuaded, by the heads of the party, to undertake a cheap edition of the Age of Reafon, for its inore ready diffemination through the divifions, at that time rapidly increafing in number every week: but after Williams, the bookfeller juft alluded to, was imprisoned for this publication, his family received much less affiftance from the fociety than from mere ftrangers." "In the hour of its admiration, this rhapfody was ridiculously termed the New Holy Bible; a circumftance which fully evinced the intentions of Mr. Paine's partizans: in fine, the attachment of the party was carried fo far, that the bare circumftance of having the Age of Reason in a house was deemed a collateral proof of the civifm of the poffeffor." What must be the feelings of Mr. ERSKINE when he hears, that the fame Society which circulated with fuch affiduity and zeal his Own own pamphlet on the war, circulated alfo the impious production of Paine, which he fo ftrongly and fo ably characterized in his profeffional capacity. The intolerance of this fect of Democratic Infidels, in other words, Jacobins, is evinced by the profcription of two of their members, bookfellers, for refufing to fell Volney's Ruins and Paine's Age of Reason. The minds of the Society are faid to have been previously prepared for the reception of the fenfelefs but mischievous doctrines of these writers, "by the more learned and elaborate productions of Mirabaud's Syftem of Nature, and Volney's Ruins of Empires: the latter, in point of ftyle, is looked upon as the Hervey of the Deifts; the former, as the Newton of the Atheists; and, as the Syftem of Nature was tranflated by a perfor confined in Newgate as a patriot, its fale was pufhed, from the joint motive of ferving the author, and the caufe in which the London Correfponding Society were engaged." (p. 6.) Mr. Reid has fallen into the common error of reprefenting Mirabeau (whofe name, by the bye, he has mis-spelled) as the author of "The Syftem of Nature," not one line of which was written by him. That infamous book was composed by Diderot and Damilaville, as we had occafion to obferve in the Appendix to our Fourth Volume, P. 563. The author gives an account of the means adopted for the diffufion of the principles of Infidelity; the chief of which was the publication of cheap editions of mischievous tracts. Among the number are mentioned, Northcote's Life of David (which was intended to be followed by a biographical sketch of all the leading characters in the Old and New Testament" as the most certain means of bringing the Chriftian religion into contempt"); the Works of Peter Annet, and the Rights and Duties of Citizenship, chiefly compiled from Voltaire. The books propofed to follow these were the Beauties of Deifm; A Moral Dictionary ;- Julian againft Chriftianity, and Le Bon Sens, ou Idées Naturelles opposés aux Idées furnaturelles; a work which represents religion as the fource of human ignorance, and of human calamity! "Next to fongs, in which the clergy were a standing subject of abuse; in conjunction with pipes and tobacco, the tables of the club-rooms were frequently ftrewed with penny, two-penny, and three-penny publications, as it were fo many fwivels against eftablifhed opinions; while, to enable the members to furnish themfelves with the heavy artillery of Voltaire, Godwin, &c. readingclubs were formed. But ftill, fo it happened, that thofe who despised the labour of reading, took their creeds implicitly, from the extemporaneous effufions of others, whofe talents were comparatively above their own. And yet these people were invariably in the habit of ridiculing Chriftians, in concert with the orators, for being blindly led by priests. "After thefe notions of infidelity were in a manner established in the divifions, it is natural to fuppofe, that in choosing their delegates, thofe perfons were preferred who were doubly recommended by their religion, and their politics; in fact, this was so prevalent, that in the recommendation of any perfon to an office among them, |