froy the very grounds of confidence. In ordinary bargains, it is allowed that, to make them binding, a valuable confideration' in money or otherwife muft be given for every article interchanged but, in war, when one fide has a decided fuperiority, the victor will certainly exact conceffions as the price of peace, and infift on those conceffions to which the conquered party would never confent, if not compelled to yield by force. Must such conceffions, then, be confidered as void? do they cease to be binding because they were extorted by force? On this principle, the French may lay claim to Canada, and Mr. Gerrald is bound to adjudge it to them as a right. On this principle, England' may ftill affert her fovereignty over the British colonies of North: America; and Mr. Gerrald, if he be confiftent, muft admit her claim for, when France ceded Canada to us, and when Great Britain acknowleged the independence of thofe colonies, each kingdom acted at the time under the influence of force, which dictated the two treaties of Paris of 1763 and 1783; and if these treaties be deficient in that principle which alone can make them facred or binding, (viz. the free and unbiaffed will of the parties ftanding on equal ground,) then the British government in Canada is a grofs ufurpation, founded on a treaty in its nature not binding; and the republican government of the United States is a permanent infurrection and rebellion against Great Britain, not fanctioned but aggravated by a treaty imposed on this country by force, and confequently null and of no effect. Other men, who wifhed to get rid of treaties, without a violation of public faith, would look for arguments à pofteriori: but Mr. Gerrald, who lays claim to the character of a moral philofopher, cuts the business fhort by inferring the invalidity of treaties à priori.

If the court of England did not oppofe the opening of the Scheldt in 1785, it was because we did not think it neceffary to go to war for the purpose of doing what France appeared refolved to do without any recourfe to England.

Mr. Gerrald, in afferting the neceffity of a parliamentary reform, reprobates the interference of peers and minifters in the election of members of the Houfe of Commons. In almoft every word that he fays on this head, we agree cordially with him; and we with, as heartily as he does, to fee the complete removal of this abuse. We unite with him alfo when he fays that the people have a right to meet and deliberate on public affairs but we differ in this, that we would have them (except in extraordinary cafes, such as the two in which conventions did actually fit in this country,) affemble for the purpose of laying their complaints before the legislature; whereas Mr. Gerrald would have them to take the exercife of the fovereignty

into their own hands, and not merely lord it over, but abfolutely extinguifh, the parliament.

For Mr. Gerrald's plan of his convention, we must refer to his pamphlet: the curious reader will turn to p. 111-114.

That we have taken so much notice of this work is in itfelf a proof that we confider it as of great importance; its general purity and energy of diction, and its forcible appeal to the pafLions, prove Mr. Gerrald to be a powerful mafter of eloquence. This fingle production is of itself fufficient to give celebrity to his name as an author. Would that we could fay it was his only literary offspring; we then might have thought as highly of his fincerity in the caufe of liberty, as of his fhining abilities: but what are we to think of a man who is by turns the champion of liberty and the advocate for flavery? who one day calls on the people of England not to be guilty of the facrilege of obAtructing the advancement of freedom in France; and, on another, exhorts them as ftrongly to fteel their hearts against the appeals of those who wish to abolish flavery in the West Indies. Mr. Gerrald has written on both fides of the question.-This pamphlet fhews what he can fay for liberty.-The productions of his talents, when they were lent to the fupporters of flavery in the Weft Indies, prove that he does not think flavery, and its perpetuation from father to fon, indefenfible. We would with to know on which of the two occafions he speaks his genuine fentiments; for we cannot fuppofe that he expreffes them on both; becaufe we cannot think that he confiders flavery and liberty as having geographical fituations affigned to them, and that while one should glow within the torrid, the other should shiver within the frigid, zone.

Many paffages are contained in this pamphlet which we wish to extract, but for which we cannot find room; there is one in particular, refpecting the administration of justice in this country, which we warmly recommend to the ferious attention of the truly patriotic reader: fee p. 79-80. Sh.....n.

MONTHLY

CATALOGUE,

For FEBRUARY, 1794.

THEOLOGY.

Art. 19. Two Afize Sermons. By R. Valpy, D. D. F. A. S. Publifhed at the Requeft of the High Sheriff and Grand Jury of the County of Berks. With Notes Hiftorical and Political, and an Appendix. 8vo. pp. 151. 35. Richardfons. THESE affize-fermons bear ftrong marks of brilliant talents and found erudition. The fubject of the first difcourfe is the progrefs of morality, religion, and laws, in the different periods of the world.

The

The depravity and ferocity of antient manners are fhewn from an appeal to facts, which is well fupported by authorities; and a ftriking contraft with the pure and benevolent fpirit of chriftianity is exhibited. The actual effects of the religion of Chrift on the state of manners at the time of its firft promulgation are defcribed; the fubfequent diforders and enormities, which difgraced the chriftian church, are fhewn to have been owing to the neglect or abufe of christianity; and the peculiar advantages, both civil and religious, at prefent enjoyed in this country, are adduced as a proof that, under the mild influence of the gospel, we are going on towards perfection." The author ftrongly expreffes his difapprobation of all compulfory methods of restraining or promulgating opinions; and laudably contends that the Church of England builds her prefent tenets on the everlafting rock of gofpel charity. He applauds our prefent government for the juftice which has lately been done to the principles and conduct of the Roman Catholics in Ireland; and, with a degree of confiftency and liberality which, at all times, is entitled to praise, he adds the following remarks refpecting the diffenters:

The conduct of the diffenters, in the late critical conjunctures, proves that they are awakened to a fenfe of the bleffings of the British Conftitution, that they have as much ceafed to be what they were in the time of Charles I. as the catholics have abjured the tenets, which they were encouraged to enforce during the reign of James II. Hence we may entertain the pleafing hope, that the time is not far diftant, "when it will be found no lefs confiftent with individual fecurity, than with general policy, to free them from political reftraint; to remove from them the natural caufes of republican tendencies, by a communication of advantages refulting from conftitutional monarchy; and to induce them to melt their heterogeneous principles into one common mafs of exertion to maintain public order, to fecure internal peace, and to increase national profperity.'

O fi fic omnia dixiffet!-It is with concern that we find, in a pamphlet which contains fo much good fenfe, and fo many liberal reflec tions, an echo of the vulgar cry against philofophical plans of reformation.-Not contented with paling a deferved encomium on the British government, and with maintaining, as he does on very rational grounds, in his fecond fermon, the duty of fubmission to magiftrates as difpenfers of the laws; Dr. Valpy difcourages political innovations, on the plea that, as long as human nature is liable to err, reformation will be labor actus in orbem,' and apologizes for one of the groffest abufes of government, by maintaining the neceffity of adhering to that fyftem of corrupt influence which strengthens the exifting adminiftration by fine-cure places and penfions.-How, we afk, is all this confiftent with the doctrine of the first discourse," let us go on to perfection"?

The learned author has enriched thefe fermons by a confiderable number of pertinent notes and illuftrations; and has added to them an Appendix, confifting of three parts. In No. I. he confiders the caufes which will prevent the establishment of a Republic in France determining in the negative, from hiftorical Examples. In No H. he reafons On Systems of Reform, and concludes, with all the other

other opponents of the question, that this is an improper time. In No. III. he difcuffes the late alarming effects of party fpirit in this country; candidly ftating, and juftly lamenting, effects fo deftructive of public confidence and private security.'

E. Art. 20. Sermons on various Subjects, intended to promote Chriftian Knowledge and Human Happiness. By the Rev. Luke Booker, LL. D. Minifter of St. Edmund's, Dudley. 8vo. pp. 302. 6s. Boards. Rivingtons.

Thefe difcourfes are modeftly prefented to the public rather as the fpontaneous overflowings of the heart, than as the laboured productions of the head; and it is chiefly in this view that they are entitled to attention. The author, with whofe poetical abilities the public are already acquainted,-as a preacher, rather afpires at the praife of forcibly impreffing important fentiments on the mind of the hearer, than at that of amufing him with abstract fpeculation. He poffeffes a talent for defcription, and a familiar and pathetic caft of language, very well fuited to that kind of preaching which is, in his judgment, most useful.

Most of the practical difcourfes in this volume have a pathetic turn. On theological topics, Dr. B. maintains the orthodox fyftem; and he is particularly zealous in his defence of the divinity of Chrift; a fubject to which he appropriates four fermons. In politics, he is an enemy to innovations; and he protefts against modern theories which are, in his apprehenfion, of a dangerous and deftructive tendency. E. Art. 21. A Defence of the Methodists, in Five Letters. Addreffed to the Rev. Dr. Tatham; containing fundry Remarks on a late Difcourfe preached by that Gentleman at four of the Churches in Oxford, and entitled "A Sermon fuitable to the Times." By

Jofeph Benfon. 12mo. pp. 68. Is. Whitfield. 1793. The general charge here brought against Dr. Tatham is that, in the abovementioned fermon, he made a rude and unjuft attack on the general body of the methodists, which gave occafion to a lawless rabble, compofed of gownfmen, and others of the bafer fort, who affembling at the methodist meeting-houfe, obliged the preacher to leave the pulpit, overthrew the feats in the chapel, and beat and otherwife ill-treated many of the people.' Such outrages committed against peaceable men, who, to fay the leaft, difcover no defigns hoftile to the peace of the ftate, and whofe public religious offices, whether deferving the character of fanatical or not, whether conducted by men of education or by illiterate itinerants, have in fact contributed very effentially toward the reformation of the lower claffes of fociety, cannot be too feverely cenfured;-and if it were certain that Dr. Tatham's fermon was the indirect means of fuch mischief, (for that it was the defigned inftrument we can never fuppofe,) we could only regret that fuch talents as thofe of Dr. Tatham fhould be fo unfortunately mifapplied.

Mr. Benfon, by way of recrimination for the charge of ignorance brought against the methodist teachers, in his turn accufes the heads

*See Rev. N. S. vol. x. p. 238.

of

of the Univerfity of great neglect in providing proper inftruction for young ftudents in divinity; he complains that he himself, when he was at college, was obliged to be, for the most part, felf-taught; not being able to obtain any inftruction from his tutor, farther than Cornelius Nepos and the Greek Teftament, nor having any opportunity to attend public lectures on divinity, except a few read by the Regius Profeffor of Chrifl Church. If there be any general ground for complaint of this kind, fas eft et ab hofte doceri. As to Mr. B.'s other accufations; that the candidates for holy orders are not inftructed that the first qualifications of their profeffion are fupernatural illuminations, and a birth from above; and that, though they take degrees in the schools and in the univerfities, they take no degrees in the school of Chrift, not even the firft, of repentance from dead works, much lefs the fecond, faith toward God; as we do not well comprehend the meaning, we cannot judge of the force, of the complaint. E. Art. 22. A Vifion from the Lord God Almighty, the great and mighty God of the whole Earth, a Vifion that must bring about that great and glorious Day of Peace, when Nation fhall no more lift up Sword against Nation, or learn War any more. 8vo. pp. 32. 6d. Ridgway. 1792.

When interefling events take place in the political world, weak heads are difturbed by reflecting on them; the agitation of mind ge nerates myftical reveries, and there is no anfwering for the effects. If this poor vifionary, who figns himfelf Henry Hardy, has any friends, there seems to be abundant occafion for their kind offices. N. Art. 23. The Evidences of a Plenary Infpiration. A Letter to Mr. Thomas Porter, in Reply to his Defence of Unitarianism*, by Robert Hawker, D. D. &c. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Law, &c.

A reply generally fignifies continuation of a controverfy; in this inftance, however, we find an exception to the general rule. Dr. H.like military combatants, poffibly finding himself unequal to his, adverfary on the old ground, attempts a diverfion by propofing a new fubject of difcuffion: but, in doing this, he has afforded us no opportunity of complimenting him: for nearly the whole of what relates to the fubject of this pamphlet, as expreffed in the title, is avowedly extracted from the writings of Dr. Doddridge.--Dr. H.'s opinion of infpiration is fo confufed, and fo open to objections, that we fear he has not confidered the fubject with due attention. He contends for more than fcripture critics ever thought of defiring; and, as if the tranfcribers, as well as the original authors, of the books of the New Teftament were infpired, he refufes to allow that there are any important differences difcoverable in the various copies of them; when, trange as it must feem to the reader, the note fubjoined points to a 'paffage of great moment in the Trinitarian controverfy (1 John v.) which is to be found in fome copies, and is omitted in others.

Dr. H.'s account of the demoniacs of the N. T.-like his account of Infpiration, rather increases than removes difficulties.--For our Review of Dr. H.'s volume of Sermons, fee Rev. for October 1792, 'p. 237.

See Review, September 1793, p. 116.

Moo-y

Art.