one general faith, and upreared the standard of resistance in Ireland. If England can yet be saved, and sincerely I wish she may, it must be by a far different policy; by an annihilation of religious distinctions, and by such a reform in parbament as would lessen the influence of those who create wars for their own profit. Let her act kindly and honestly towards the United States, and she will bind to her firmer than by ribs of steel, a nation more capable of serving or distressing her, than all the world besides. But this conduct must be instantly adopted, or it will be too late; every hour our domestic manufactures are progressing, and it is not improbable but Mr. Jackson's late conduct, may induce Congress to afford them that encouragement which has loudly been called for by a large proportion of the nation, This is the more probable, as Mr. Gallatin has prepared a report on that subject, which must surprise the world, by the new and extraordinary facts it discloses.

Now that the pen is in my hand, sir, I will remark, that the observations of an annual reviewer, distinguished for the correctness of his judgment on most subjects, are often extremely erroneous when applied to the United States. As I have not the volumes of the Annual Review at hand, I shall content myself with observing on one train of thought, which seems to haunt its editor. Mr. Aikin dwells perpetually on the dissolution of our general government, and the separation of the States, as an event not barely probable, but unavoidable. And this opinion he derives from the impossibility of legislating by uniform law for the hardy freeman of the east, the voluptuous slave-holder of the south, and the daring subjugator of the western wilderness; he tells us, that the same laws can never apply to a black servile population, and a free and enlightened yeomanry. These are truths I shall not attempt to controvert, but happily for the United States they do not apply to them. They are divided into seventeen free separate and independant suvereignties or states, to say nothing of the territories. Each state is governed by its own laws, enacted by legislators, freely, equally, and frequently, chosen by the people of the state for that purpose. The result is, that the laws of the south ern differ essentially from those of the eastern, and each are essentially variant from those of the western, states. One

state has nothing to do with the laws and regulations of another; it minds its own concerns, and leaves it for their neighbours to manage their's. The general government cannot interfere with the local concerns of the states; it has no power even to order a canal to be dug, or a bridge to be built, in any state or states, without the assent of the sove reign authorities. Its business is simply to regulate the exterior concerns of the United States. I hope this explanation will quiet the learned reviewer's appre hensions for the continuance of our government and union; if not, other hoops are at our command, by which we may bind our political barrel. He will admit, I have no doubt, that that govern ment is likely to be the strongest and most durable which most concentrates the affections of the governed, and connects its own interest with their welfare and happiness; and to effect this great end, as the charter of the United States bank will expire March S, 1811, Mr. Gallatin has already submitted a report on that subject to the Congress of the United States, who will necessarily act upon it in the approaching session; he advises to increase the capital of the bank, so as to admit the different states to become subscribers to it in their sove. reign capacity, to a limited amount; thus they will become interested in the continuance of our federal constitution, as well as their respective citizens, for whose subscriptions there will be abahdant room. Again, when happier times permit, other applications of public money than those which prudence now demands, will be made, there can be no doubt; then the United States will procure permission from the states to intersect and bind together the different sections of our country, by good roads and navigable canals. The money necessary to these public objects, will most pro bably be advanced by the United States, the Individual States, and the citizens thereof, who will each receive such interest on the money respectively_advanced, as the tolls will produce. From this prolific source of abundance and happiness, the States and the citizens will again find their interests closely con nected with the general government; and, in my opinion, very little disposition will exist to tear asunder those bonds which preserve the nation from civil dis sensions and foreign aggressions. Per haps the reverse of Mr. Aikin's fear is the most rational, A government so rivetted

in

in the affections, and so closely connected with the interests, of its citizens as our's is, may in time induce an overweening confidence in its conduct destructive of civil rights. For history fully proves the necessity of a watchful jealousy of the governors, on the part of the governed, as the only security against the accumulations of power. The respectability of the Annual Review has induced these remarks, which I trust its editor will receive as intended, and consider this as an attempt, to rectify his judgment on a subject, with which he does not appear so well informed as he is on most others.

Every parish priest is therefore an integral part of God's visible church on earth; hence arises the evangelical character of the priesthood; hence the respect which it claims of society; and hence all the obligations of personal duty and example. IV.

The parish priest is bound by the nature of his functions, and the object of his office, to reside among the souls whom it is his duty to instruct by his precept and conduct, and whom it should be his constant labour to prepare for the immortality announced in the gospel. V.

He is the moral guardian of his flock, and consequently bound to preserve them in unity, in mutual love, and in good offices towards one another. Ile MONTHLY MAG, No, 207,

should be their impartial umpire in matters of dispute, should allay their violent and selfish passions, and preserve the social affections among kindred. Hle ought, however, never to become a party in disputes; but to avoid being treated as a meddler, should evince a common affection for the disputants, exhorting the implacable by the doctrines of Christ, and honoring mutual forgiveness, in the same manner as on the repent. ance of sinners rejoicings are made in Heaven.

VI.

MEMOIR OF

CAIUS PLINIUS SECUNDUS*
THE ELDER.

BY DUNCAN FORBES, M. D. "Avunculus meus, idemque per adoptionem pater, bistorias, & quidem religiosissime scripsit."-C. Plinii Epist. lib. v. epist. viij."

[Some time ago, I announced to the public, through the medium of your Magazine, that 1 was engaged on a translation of Pliny's Natural History, to be accompanied with critical and scientific notes and illustrations; and, more lately, I availed myself of the same channel of literary communications, to inform those who may be disposed to lend me their countenance in the execution of this arduous enterprise, that I had issued proposals for publishing by subscription, the first volume of my translation, contain ing "A Life of the Author; a preliminary Dissertation on the Rise and Progress of Natural History, from its Infancy to its present State of comparative Maturity; a Translation of the First Four Books of Pliny's Natural History, illustrated by critical and scientific Notes; and a large Appendix, comprehending biographical notices of all the Authors, both Greek and Roman, quoted by Pliny in the curious and interesting Table of Contents of his History, contained in the First Book, and to whose writings he confesses himself indebted for all the information relative to the kingdoms of Nature, with which his pwn observations and experience had not supplied him, digested in an alphabetical arrangement."

I have yet again to request you to afford me an opportunity of turning the attention of the literary and philosophical world to an undertaking, confessedly attended with great, but certainly not with insurmountable, difficulties; and which, if successfully accomplished, would unquestionably prove a great acquisition to the stock of English literature. With this view, I send you, for insertion in your very excellent and widely-extended Miscellany, the following brief outline of a Biographical Memoir of Pliny, interspersed with a few

Fuit illi," says Harduin, " prænomen Caius, nomen Plinius, cognomen Secundus; Plinius ex patre, Secundus ex matre; quamdrem Pomponius Secundus vates affinis ei fuit, natus similiter ex Pomponio patre, et matre Secunda, Plinii Secundi matertera." Caius was his first name, his second name was Pliny, and his last or surname was Secundus. He was called Pliny from his father, Secundus from his mother; wherefore Pomponius Secundus, the poet, was his near relation, being the son of Pomponius and Secunda, the aunt of Plinius Secundus.

short critical strictures on his great and incomparable work.]

HIS illustrious ancient philosopher

was a physician as well as a naturalist; he was descended of a noble family, and born at Verona;* he flourished under the reigns of Vespasian and Titus, both" of whom cultivated his acquaintance, and. honored him with their intimacy and friendship. He was not only an accom plished scholar, but a gallant soldier, and an enlightened politician, equally conspicuous in the camp and in the cabinet. "Before day-break," observes his nephew, "he used to wait on Vespasian, who likewise chose that season to transact business: when he had finished the affairs which that emperor committed to his charge, he returned home again to his studies."+ Although his life was comparatively short, and although he was con stantly occupied with the duties of his im portant and multifarious public situations, he was a very voluminous writer; and, when we consider that he was incessantly engaged in some active service of the state, we must be astonished at the industry which enabled him to compose so many volumes on such diversified and difficult subjects.

Pliny the Younger, the nephew of our learned naturalist, in his epistle to Mæcen. has left us the following account of his uncle's works.

"I am extremely pleased," observes he to his correspondent," that you read my uncle's works so diligently as to wish to have a complete collection of them, and, for that purpose, desire me to send you an account of all the treatises which he composed; I will point them out to you in the order in which they were written; for, however immaterial that may seem, it is a sort of information not at all unacceptable to men of letters."§

The

Harduin, the very learned commentator and editor of Pliny's History, contends that he was born at Rome; but Verona is generally regarded as his native city.

"Ante lucem ibat ad Vespasianum im. peratorem; nam ille quoque noctibus uteba tur: inde ad delegatum sibi officium. Reversus domum, quod reliquum erat temporis, studiis reddebat."-Caii Plin. Epist. lib. iii. epist. v. Ibid. loci.

Pergratum est mihi, quod tam dilia genter libros avunculi mei lectitas, ut habere omnes velis, quærasque qui sint omnes. Fungar indicis partibus, atque etiam quo sint ordine scripti, notum tibi faciam," &c.

"The first book which he published was a Treatise concerning the Art of using a Javelin on Horse-back. This treatise was written while he commanded a squadron of horse, and is executed with great accuracy and judgment. "The Life of Pomponius Secundus, in two volumes. Pomponius had a great affection for my uncle, who thought he owed this tribute to his memory.*

"The History of the Wars in Germany, in twenty books; in which he has given us a narrative of all the battles fought between A dream which he had, while he served in Germany, suggested to him the design of this work. He imagined that Drusus Nero (who had extended his conquests very far into that country, and there lost his life), appeared to him in his sleep and conjured him not to suffer his memory to be buried in oblivion.

the Romans and that nation.

"He has left us likewise a Treatise on Eloquence, originally comprised in three vo fumes; but their size required them to be divided into six. In this work he takes the orator from his cradle, and leads him on until he has carried him up to the highest point of perfection in his art.

"In the latter part of Nero's reign, when the tyranny of the times made it dangerous to engage in studies of a more free and elevated spirit, he published a critical treatise, in eight books, concerning Ambiguities in Expression; or Words of equivocal Meaning.

"He completed the history which Aufidius Bassus left unfinished, and added to it 30 books. "And lastly, he has left thirty-seven books upon the subject of Natural History. This is a work of great compass and learning, and almost as full of variety as Nature her

self.'

thor in this great work is far more extensive than that pursued by Aristotle, and was indeed probably too unlimited to be grasped even by his comprehensive intel

lect.

Desirous of embracing every thing within the scope of his work, his attempt appears to have been to take a measurement of nature, and he seems to have found her too confined for the extent of his genius. His Natural History comprehends, independent of the history of animals, plants, and minerals, the his tory of the heavens and of the earth, of medicines, of commerce, and of na vigation; a history of the rise and progress of the literal and mechanical arts; of the origin of customs; in short of all natural sciences, and of all human arts.

In no department of his work, indeed, are his accuracy and diligence more pe culiarly remarkable, than that where he is engaged in investigating the antiquity of the facts and arts of which he gives an account; the periods at which they were discovered; and the respective merits and names of their inventors. When occupied with disquisitions of this pature, Pliny appears to be truly in his element; and he has prosecuted them with no common success. In confirmation of these remarks, the classical reader may be referred to the fifty-seventh chapter of the seventh book of the Natural His

tory, which exhibits a fine specimen of his patient spirit of research, and of his masterly talent for investigation. In this chapter he dives into the remotest æras of antiquity, and records the inven tion of letters; of bricks and tiles; of building houses with the saw, rule, and plummet; of the lath, augre, glue, &c.; of brass; the discovery of gold, and other metals; of the use of shields, swords, bows and arrows, boots, and other instru ments of war; of the pipe, harp, and other musical instruments; of the building of ships, and navigation; and many other useful arts. The names of all those who conferred these important benefits

It