of the question in debate. The ftyle is nervous and fpirited, and the fentiments are fuch as equally partake of confcientious ftrictnefs and chriftian liberality.

ART. 38. A Sermon preached at Sion Chapel, Whitechapel, to God's ancient People, the Fires. On Sunday Afternon, August 28, 1796. With the Prayers and Hymns, before and after the Sermon. By William Cooper. 8vo. 15. 6d. Jordan. 1796.

More zeal is fhown in this difcourfe than good writing or found judgment.

ART. 39. Sacred Hiftory, in familiar Dialogues, for the Inftruction of Children and Youth. With an Appendix; containing the Hiftory of the Jews, from the Time of Nehemiah, to the Destruction of Jerufalem by the Romans, under Titus Vefpafian. In fixteen Letters. By a Lady. With a recommendatory Preface, by the Rev. John Ryland. 4 Vols. 8vo. 10s. Boards. Gardiner, &c. 1796.

Mr. Ryland, the recommender of this work, fays, "I think my refpected friend has difcovered a pious and laudable zeal for the benefit of the youth of both fexes, in forming familiar dialogues upon all the principal hiftories of the Old and New Teftament. And, after perufing the principal part of her manufcript, I own myself greatly pleafed with the execution of her plan, as uniting much entertainment with the molt profitable and evangelical improvement of the fcripture hiftories. In the latter refpeét efpecially, if not in both, it exceeds any attempt of the kind that I have feen." Pref. p. xvi.

After perufing the whole work, we concur in this judgment; with fome abatement from the concluding fentence, as being a little too panegyrical. The parties in thefe dialogues (or rather lectures) are a pious and affectionate aunt, and three well-difpofed children. The queftions put, and the remarks made, by the latter, are fimple and natural; and the answers and reflexions by the aunt are judiciously adapted to the comprehenfion of young people. The author afpires to be useful, rather than learned or original. A tendency towards enthufiafm, is fometimes difcoverable; but fo rarely, that we need not hefitate to recommend the work as well calculated for general ufe. The style is plain and correct; and an useful little map is prefixed to each volume.

ART. 40. The Caufes of the Contempt of the Clergy confidered, in a Sermon intended to have been preached at a Vifitation. Izmo. 16 pp. 6d. Dilly. 1796.

This is a very fenfible and well-written difcourfe; but it is a maxim in philofophy that, before we attempt to account for any phæ nomenon, we should affure ourselves that the fact is fuch as the enquiry fuppofes. This fubject has flept fince the time of John Eachard, and we do not perceive that there is any particular reafon for reviving it at prefent. Where religion herfelf is refpected, it feems to us that the clergy is fo. The advice here given is found and excellent, but

the

the principal drift of the difccurfe is to awaken attention to the cafe of the affiitant clergy, or curates. A late act has proved, that they are not forgo ten by the legislature, and we heartily hope, that the fale of this fermon may tend to the relief of the individuals for whofe benefit we understand it is published.

POLITICS.

ART. 41. A Letter to the Right Honourable William Pitt, Chancellor of the Exchequer, &c. on the Conduct of the Bank Directors; with curfory Obfervations on Mr. Morgan's Pamphlet, refpecting the expence of the War, and the State of the National Debt. 8vo. pp. 38. 15. Stockdale. 1796.

This writer cenfures the conduct of the Directors of the Bank, for having greatly reftricted their discounts at a late period: this he confiders as illiberal, and prejudicial to the mercantile interest and to the ftate; it was defended at the time, upon the ground that the bank had recently experienced an immenfe drain of fpecie; this is here treated as a fubterfuge, and it is evident that the whole merit or demerit of the measure, depends upon this fingle point: and if circumuiances in the laft and prefent year can be affigned, unprecedented in former wars, and caufing an unprecedented demand for money in the bank, the operation of which might not be attended to, until their ef fects became confiderable; the conduct of the directors is fully vindicated; and we think that fuch circumstances took place.

The amount of the national fpecie may be taken as fixed during a war: hence all increafe of its currency, if any take place, muft then be in paper, which therefore must exceed its ordinary proportion to cafh; a preffing demand for the latter will be generated, and the difcounts applied for at the bank, will be increafed in a greater proportion than the paper. Now France and Holland having been ftruck out of the number of mercantile nations, in the year 1795 our exports were greatly augmented, and the currency required to carry them on, was augmented in the fame proportion, and by an addition to the circulating paper only.

Again, it always requires a part, and a large part of the national currency, in every year, to carry on the trade in corn, cattle, and provifions of every kind: the value of the corn alone produced in England was, about 1774, annually 41 millions; if the corn becomes double in price, the quantity of currency which will be required by the merchant, the retailer, and the confumer, must be greatly increafed, if not doubled: the increafed circulation on this head muft likewife be fupplied by paper, the increase whereof, from thefe two fources, muft have been trongly felt by the bank, in an increased demand to discount bills; it might alfo have come on gradually, and involved that company in confiderable difficulties, before it was adverted to.

This author's next fubject is, an examination of Mr. Morgan's comparative statement of the debt contracted in the first four years of the Jaft and prefent war; he rightly objects against the three firft years

of

of the former being brought into the comparifon at all. Britain, he argues, was then engaged only in fuppreffing an infurrection in a dif. tant province, which required nothing of the exertions called forth, when one great kingdom is contending against another, if our efforts had been adequate to the occafion; but they were inadequate to a great degree*. He therefore compares the expence of the four years after France became engaged in that war, with the fame period of the prefent, which procefs will produce a refult nearer the truth; nor will it be attended with any confiderable error on the other fide. Both thefe writers have neglected to bring forward the confi deration of the unfunded debt of the American war. The money received by loans at the end of the war, was 57 millions*: but the unfunded debt actually contracted was 30,867,000l. to the money borrowed, 20 millions, in the first four years, Mr. Morgan fhould have added 10,734,cool. the proportionate part thereof, to give the expence for that term, which though fo imperfectly felected, fhould have been stated at 30, not 20 millions. The money borrowed in the last four years of that war, was, according to our author's first table, 44 millions; but in the fame time, an unfunded debt of nearly 23.640,cool. was generated; and the charge of the term was 68,140,000l. By the fecond table of this work, it appears that a charge of 56,100,000l. has been already funded during this war: if therefore the unfunded debt be less than twelve millions, the prefent war against France has been carried on at a lefs expence than was incurred in the last years of the late war; the annual loans appear greater, because our charges are not kept behind a veil; but from the regulations adapted to bring forward the unfunded debt periodically, it is to be fuppofed that it does not amount to twelve millions. This author adverts afterwards to the decrement of the value of money fince the year 1779; a confideration which will counterbalance any thing which may be brought forward, relating to the years felected for this comparison.

It follows alfo from the fecond and third tables, that even in the first four years of the American war, the ftate was obliged to allow an intereft of 51. os. 10d. upon an advance of 20 millions only, but during the prefent, an advance of 56 millions has been obtained for 41. 128. 2d. per cent. nearly per cent. cheaper than a loan of 12 millions was bargained for at the beginning of the laft peace. It is to be obferved, from the intereft of thefe initial periods of two wars, that 8s. 8d. in the pound, of the finking funds of one per cent, attending every loan, has been (relatively speaking) gratuitously obtained during the last.

This writer diffents from Mr. Morgan's opinion, on the fuperiority of a four per cent. to a three per cent. ftock. We cannot fully enter into this difputed point; but we avow our preference of the three per cents. as a flock to fund upon. He however has made, in his 26th page, a most important conceffion to Mr. Morgan; and we think wrongly; for he admits the affumption on which that writer founds

Price's State of Public Debt, 1783.

his comparison, that when the three per cents. are at 70l. in peace, the four per cents. will be at 841. We have obtained the ufe of fome, MSS. tables, of the cotemporary neat prices of thefe ftocks in peace; the average of each for three years, ending in 1788, was 73.68l. and 93001. refpectively, they were taken from the higheft and lowett prices of every month of the three years: from this and other elements, duly interpreted, it appears, by the aid of another of thele tables, that the price of the three per cents. in peace being 70l. that of the higher fund fhall be 891. (89 og 11.) per cent. The averages, confidered alone, give good confirmation of this; and there is an error therefore of 51. per cent. in the cotemporary price of the latter ftock, as affigned by Mr: Morgan; money therefore in the four per cents. inftead of being in proved at 4. 158. 3d. or 9s. 6d. per cent. more than in the confos, will be in fact improved only at the rate of 41. 9s. 1od. or the fuperiority of the firit to the fecond flock, will be barely 4s. id. per cent; his calculation, taking it at more than double that amount, must therefore fall. This is an error in the data only. What this writer has faid in the 27th and 28th pages, might have been converted into an argument against the legitimacy of the plan of this comparison. This part of the pamphlet likewife contains many good mifcella❤ neous obfervations on the pofitions of Mr. Morgan.

ART. 42. A Collection of State Papers, relative to the War against France, now carrying on by Great Britain and the Jeveral other European Powers; containing Copies of Treaties, Conventions, Decrees, Rports, Proclamations, Manifeftoes, Declarations, Memorials, Remonfrances, official Letters, parliamentary Reports, London Gazette Accounts of the War, c. Many of which were never before published in England. Vol. II. 8vo. 652 pp. 1cs. 6d. Debrett. 1795. The history of a war in which fo many interefts are involved, and fo many parties are engaged, is neceffarily difficult to trace in its details. The value, therefore, of the official papers, by which the tranfactions are diftinétly preferved in their principle and their iffue, muft under fuch circumflances be peculiarly felt. The prefent is a copious and diverfified collection, and certainly abounds in memorials of confiderable moment to European hiftory. Whether they are in all refpects faithful and authentic, we can neither take upon ourselves to contro ert nor affirm. The objections made to the former volume, refpecting the fuppofed treaty of Pavia, and the letters of Marat, are noticed in the preface. Similar objections might perhaps lie against fome parts of the prefent volume; but the public will poffibly think the collection deferving their tha ks, though all its contents fhould not appear to have obtained a diplomatic fanction.

ART. 43.

The Doctrine of Equality of Rank and Condition examined and jupported on the Authority of the New Teftament, and on the Principles of Reafin and Benevolence. 8vo. 62 pp. 18. 6d. Johnfon.

1795.

Mr. Pilkington fairly avows what moft levellers diffemble, or explain away. He maintains, that the doctrine of equality was incul

cated

eated by Chrift and his apoftles, (p. 27) that it is a fin to be rich (p. 13; that this doctrine is perfectly agreeable to the principles of reafon and-benevolence, and is right both in principle and in practice, p. 29. and of this term, equality, he does not give any ambiguous," or forced and falfe conftruction; but he explains it as meaning an equality, not only of rank, but of condition, or circumstances, a poffeffion of equal worldly fubftance, an' exact divifion of property, or the outward bleffings of life, (p. 48) and an equal divifion amongst mankind of the occupations of labour, By the grois perversion of a few paffages in the New Teftament, and by coarie invectives againft riches and rich men, fome countenance is fought to this mifchievous and fenfclefs doctrine. Happily, the remarkable mediocrity of talents, which is here difplayed in fupport of it, may be expected to render Mr. Pilkington's attempt as harmlefs in effect, whatever it might be in intention, as the prattle of an infant.

ART. 44. The Shaver's new Sermon for the Faft Day; refpe&ifully inferibed to the reverend and laborious Clergy of the Church of England, by their humble Servant, Pafquin Shaveblock; Efq. Shaver extraordinary. 8vo. 32 pp. 6d. Parfons. 1795.

The preacher is certainly no bigot to what is called orthodoxy. We muft agree with the critics cited in his firft leaf, that the fhaver is killed in fun, but we cannot forbear to add, that he is also deteftably blafphemous.

ART. 45. Church and King, a thanksgiving Sermon for the 29th of May, written in Defence of our happy Conftitution in Church and State, with forcible Arguments against the Toleration of Heretics and Schifmatics. By Pafquin Shaveblack, Ejq. Shaver extraordinary. 8vo. 58 pp. IS. Parfons. 1795.

Another pamphlet by the fame author, in the fame fpirit. In the learned preacher's difcourfe, we find mention made of Congreve, Jonfon, and Farquhar, and the following entertaining relation taken from a very early edition of Joe Miller, is retailed in the author's notes with no other inaccuracy, than an account that it happened at a Late examination for holy orders: "A certain prelate afked one of the candidates, if he knew any thing of a mediator?—Yes, my lord, I believe there is one.-Who is it?-The Archbishop of Canterbury, my lord." Perhaps Mr. Shaveblock is of opinion, that any old joke may ferve to enliven a fermon. Both thefe, though called fermons, are political pamphlets.

ART. 46. A new Year's Gift to all Workmen and Apprentices. From Rowland Hunt, Efq. 8vo. 17 pp. 6d. or 21s. per hundred. Stockdale. 1796.

A lively and juft exhibition of the miferies which have lately befallen the French, in all ranks and conditions of life, contrafted with the happiness and profperity of Britons. At p. 2, 1. 7, instead of " a pauper," the preceding paragraph feems to require that we should read

a great man,

A new