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of his predeceffor Lord Westmorland, which every man who underftands good writing must allow to be admirably drawn, though it may not be prudent in any man to fay that it bears a resemblance to the original. Let our readers judge for themselves:

You come, the fucceffor of a Viceroy, whofe name may ferve as a date in the margin of Irish hiftory, but will never once be noticed in its page. Public, without being known; little heard of, though often feen; he fat at the council board a liflefs automaton, or galloped through the city, the terror of old women, and the envy of fchool-boys. When made Mafter of the Horfe, he has fulfilled his destiny, and arrived at that point of animal perfection, for which alone nature and education had defigned him. Yet, my Lord, you will perhaps experience with one or two of your predeceffors, that the best qualifications for a continuance in the Lieutenancy of Ireland, are those of a negative kind. A foft fponginefs of character that will eafily acquire any hue, or any ftain; a tabula rafa of intellect; a fpirit invulnerable to infult; that (for example) after vain endeavours to difunite and difcourage the Catholics of Ireland, could condescend to truck and chaffer, for the official tranfmiffion of their address; and then fubmit to be paffed by with a contemptuous neglect, equally degrading to the honour of the man, and the dignity of the ftation :fuch are the qualities beft fuited to complete the luftrum of an Irish Lord Lieutenancy.'

The Doctor's first piece of advice to Lord Fitzwilliam is to turn his attention to the education of Ireland, and, in forming a fyftem for that purpose, to keep as wide as poffible from the fyftem propofed by Mr. Orde; which made it indifpenfible that the inftructors should be of the established religion, and that the rifing generation fhould be brought up in the fame, though at least three-fifths of the inhabitants were Catholics, and their religion was at that time tolerated by law. That Dr. Drennan's liberality on this and other topics refpecting religious worship may be the better understood, it is fit that our readers fhould know that he is a Proteftant diffenter, and that he announces himself as fuch to his Excellency. He recommends it ftrenuously to Lord F. to take public education out of the hands of the clergy of every denomination, who have hitherto given a clerical bias to the principles of their pupils, and the air of a craft to learning. The clergy, he admits, were very properly vefted at one time with the monopoly of education, becaufe they poffeffed a monopoly of learning: but learning is not now confined to them, neither should the charge of education. He would have Catholic and Prefbyterian colleges built in Ireland, but not endowed; as endowments, he fays, have a tendency to produce negligence and degeneracy: the univerfity of Dublin he gives up as incapable, from its inftitution, of ever being made a national feminary. He thus fpeaks of it:

In short, our common alma mater was turned into a hireling nurse, and the rewards of genius into a job. This was, my Lord, a relique of a mode of government, equally tyrannical and pufillanimous, which wifhed to facrifice two of the religious perfuafions in Ireland, for the aggrandizement of the third; but the benevolence of genius, fuch as I am willing to believe your Excellency poffeffes, would

would rather aim at making these very varieties the fource of national improvement, and by a fort of divine procefs, convert into a common benefit, what has been deemed the origin of national evil.'

The Irish charter fchools have often been the fubject of panegyric in England, and vaft fums have from time to time been collected here for their fupport: had the humane contributors to what they confidered a most charitable inftitution been as well acquainted with the nature of it, as our readers will be after the perufal of the following extract, we prefume that they would have fhuddered at what they then deemed an act of the greatest beneficence. We give this extract as a fpecimen of the liberality of a man, who thus pleads the cause of a set of people whofe religion is different from his own:

My Lord, I do request you will take the trouble of reading the account of this inveterately illiberal inftitution in any common Almanack, and every line will, I think, carry its own reprobation to an ingenuous mind. "The children," as it is regulated in this unnatural fyftem," are all placed in fchools remote from their former abodes;" or in other words, they are torn from all the sweet affocia tions that attend the interefting idea of home. This is indeed a charity which thrives on the extinction of all other charities of life; and the feelings of nature must be eradicated, before they can become nurfelings of the ftate. They are banished from their vicinage to a remote quarter of the kingdom, where all traces and ties of kindred are loft and cut off; all habitudes of the heart fmothered in the cradle; and when fent into the world, they know not the spot which gave them birth, the mother that bore them, nor the blood which flows in their veins. I think of the fpeech of Logan, the Indian chief, when all his kindred were murdered by the English: "There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature." It is a cold, a chearlefs, and forlorn feeling of this nature, which must freeze the young blood, and placing the mind in a state of fullen infulation, makes its re action upon fociety rather dangerous than beneficial. The ties of kindred operate as a fort of external confcience upon the conduct of men, deterring them from the commiffion of great crimes, for fear of the difgrace which would be reflected upon their relatives, There is a family pride, a domeftic honour, among the very poorest and lowest of the community, that guards, and fanctions, and is a fort of God for the little household. Even the highest have fuch workings of nature, and Lady Macbeth exclaims-Had he not refembled my father when he flept, I had done't." The imagined countenance of her father was the only confcience left, and came between her and murder. But charter-fchool policy makes a fort of maffacre of all thofe domeftic moralities which operate upon character and conduct, without being able, in the prefent ftate of Ireland, to put a higher and nobler principle of action in their place; and thus, I fear, this fame policy has bred up many victims for the laws, while they only thought of making profelytes to a religion.'

The next measure which Dr. D. recommends, as.indifpenfibly neceffary to a national education, is a reform in the commons houfe of parliament. There never can be, (fays he,) any national morality, or what is the fame thing, there never can be fo much individual pro

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bity as to influence and regulate national character, while a borough
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morality pervades the whole country, and perpetuates its idleness,
its poverty, and its corruption.' The crime and mifery of civil fo-
ciety in Ireland he confiders as clearly traceable to the corruptions of
the political conftitution of that country; and thus he makes parlia
mentary reform not only fubfervient to the purity of the adminiftra-
tion of the government, but to the morality of the people.

The last thing which the author recommends to Lord F. is not only not to widen the breach between the different religious perfuafions of Ireland, but to ftudy to conciliate and reconcile them; making them forget their theological diftinctions in the love and good of their country. He reminds the Catholics of the obligations which they have to the Prefbyterians of Ireland, who declared for their emanci pation, when all thofe of another defcription were determined to refift it; obligations which, we will venture to fay, they cannot forget without being guilty of the blackeft ingratitude; and which, from every appearance, they seem refolved not to forget, for they keep alive the remembrance of them by repeated votes of thanks to the Protestant diffenters of the North, as the best friends to the union and happiness of every clafs of the people of Ireland.

Our readers well know that Earl Fitzwilliam's fudden removal from Ireland, fo foon after his having affumed the government there, has rendered the advice of Dr. Drennan inefficient at least in respect to that nobleman.

LAW.

Art. 23. Proceedings at Large, on the Trial of John Horne Tooke, Efg. for High Treafon, at the Seffions Houfe in the Old Bailey, from the 17th to the 22d of Nov. 1794. Taken in Short-hand by J. H. Bianchard. Vol. I. 8vo. 75. Boards. Jordan.

This firft volume of one of the most important and most interesting trials, that ever occurred at the tribunal above mentioned, comprehends the arraignment of the prifoner,-the challenge of the jury, copy of the indictment,-fpeech of the Solicitor-general,-exami nation of witneffes,-papers read in evidence,-speech of Mr. Erfkine, in defence of Mr. Tooke. The other volume will contain the fpeech of Mr. Gibbs, on the fame fide with Mr. Erskine,-reply of the Attorney General,-fummary by the Lord Prefident,-verdict of the jury, and Mr. Tooke's addrefs to the jury.-The fhort-hand writer needs not any certificate from us, with respect to his abilities and attention.

Art. 24. The Speeches at Large of the Hon. Thomas Erskine, in
Defence of Thomas Hardy and John Horne Tooke, Efq. Tried
by Special Commiffion on a Charge of High Treason. 8vo. 3.
Jordan. 1795.

We fuppofe that these excellent pieces of Bar-Eloquence are publifhed feparately from the Trials at large, in order to accommodate thofe readers to whom it may not be convenient to have recourse to them in the more voluminous publications of the whole proceedings: these speeches are, indeed, worthy of perufal, and of prefervation, in whatever form they are offered (entire) to the public.

AGR

Sh.....n.

AGRICULTURE.

Art. 25. An Agricultural Dictionary, confifting of Extracts from the most celebrated Authors and Papers. By John Monk, (late 19th Light Dragoons) of Bears Combe, near King fbridge, Devon. 8vo. 3 Vols. 11. Is. Boards. White, &c. 1794.

A Lieutenant of Dragoons venturing to compile a Dictionary of Agriculture, a fubject the most dangerous for unpractised men to undertake, and in which the prefent compiler pretends not to poffefs an adequate fhare of judgment,-may be deemed an inftance of uncommon literary temerity. Accordingly we have here a very incomplete, although, no doubt, a very well intended performance. As a collection of valuable extracts from works of approved merit, it may certainly have its use. It may occafionally furnifh many perfons with inftructive materials, in their refearches for information; and may ferve to recommend, to notice, many valuable books on agriculture, &c. which are quoted.

THEOLOGY, &c.

Mars Art. 26. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocefe of Lincoln, at the Triennial Vifitation of that Diocefe in May and June, 1794By George Pretyman, D. D. F. R. S. Lord Bishop of Lincoln. 4to. 1s. 6d. Cadell and Davies.

There is always fo much propriety in adapting an episcopal charge to the times; and the prefent critical period is fo pregnant with important topics of clerical addrefs; that we fhould have been much furprized if the Bishop of Lincoln had not availed himself of the opportunity, which his triennial vifitation gave him, of communicating to the clergy of his diocefe his fentiments on the aftonishing events which are paffing in the world. In his Lordship's charge we find what we fought, a general furvey of the prefent ftate of fociety:-but we muft own that we have not found in it that pertinency of obfervation, nor that liberality of fentiment, which, from the writer's elevated fituation, known talents, and former expreffions of candour, we were prepared to expect. In an address from an epifcopal chair to a learned body of clergy, we can perceive no peculiar propriety in introducing a fet of elementary propofitions, afferting the neceflity of government and religion to the well being of fociety; and fupporting them by an appeal to the authority of the antients.

Quotations from Ariftotle and Cicero, to prove that it is impoffible for men to continue united without the establishment of fome species of political power; that the coercion of law is neceffary for the protection of the innocent, and for the defence of the weak; and that the comforts of focial life cannot be fecured without the general prevalence of religion; might have better fuited an academical exercise than a prelatical monition. The practice of antient legislators, in endeavouring to strengthen their authority by pretended intercourfes with fome deity, is, to fay the leaft, not very pertinently fet up before an affembly of Christian divines, in terms rather implying approbation than cenfure; and which are therefore liable to be misconftrued into an intimation that religious inftitutions, whether founded in truth or falfehood, ought at all events to be maintained. In adopting the po

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pular

pular rumour, never yet confirmed, that the adminiftrators of government in France have publicly and deliberately faid there is no God, and have avowed principles congenial with this declaration ;-in contruing the murmurs and difcontent, which have arifen in this country, into total difaffection to the conftitution ;-in reprefenting the exertions which have been made towards reform, as endeavours at deftroying every principle of political fubordination, and fubverting all government, order, and religion;-and in throwing political odium on a particular religious fect, by attempting to make out a natural alliance between Socinian and Republican principles, and by afferting that those who degrade the character of the divine Jefus into that of a man may be expected to endeavour to deftroy all fuperiority in their fellow-creatures, and to feek the gratification of their pride in the abolition of all worldly diftinctions; the Right Reverend Prelate appears to us to have fuffered either zeal, or terror, to throw a temporary restraint on the natural candour of his difpofition, and for the moment to degrade him from the dignified character of a fage monitor, into the vulgar ftation of an angry declaimer. The dogmatical manner in which certain tenets of the established church are afferted to be the leading doctrines of the Gofpel; and the acrimony with which thofe, whose researches have not enabled them to discover thefe tenets in the fcriptures, are mentioned as men governed by a captious and reftlefs fpirit, and holding licentious opinions on religion and government; can have little efficacy either in confirming the faithful, or in filencing gainfayers.

In the concluding part of this charge, however, his Lordship refumes the proper character of a Proteftant bishop inftructing his clergy. The grand fecurity of this country against infidelity he very july places in the opportunities, which the lower claffes of the people enjoy for religious inftruction; and he earnestly advifes bis clergy to give their countenance and encouragement to the inftitution of Sunday fchools, as the means beft calculated for diffufing a general knowlege of the feriptures among the inferior claffes of fociety, and for inftilling into their minds juft notions of their religious duties, While the clergy confine their exertions to the communication of knowlege by honeft inftruation, and to the refutation of error by fair argument, they will att within their own proper province; and they will be entitled to that grateful refpect from an enlightened public, which, to a good mind, will always be infinitely more valuable than the fervile homage of an ignorant multitude. E.

Art. 27. Sermons on fome of the principal Doctrines of the Chriflian Religion, with Pratical Inferences and Improvements. By Edward Stilling fleet, M. A. Chaplain to the Earl of Dartmouth, and late Minifter of Weft Bromwich, Stafford hire. 8vo. pp. 431. 5s. Boards. Rivingtons. 1794.

There are two claffes of doctrinal preachers. The first confifts of those who think it neceffary to explain, with precision, the meaning of the doctrines which they advance, and to endeavour to establish them by a clear train of argument; or by fuch a critical difcuffion of the fignification of thofe paffages of fcripture, quoted in their fupport, as may ferve to prove the quotation to be pertinent and the

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