fice; whereby the augmentation will be foon reabforbed, and we thall begin the fecond peace with an increafed debt, and with the original fund of a million only. This is brought forward as a critique upon the first finking fund bill of the laft peace but Sir F. B. muft have paffed this cenfure upon it without reading it, either at length, or in a tolerable abftract: or he must have paid no attention to what he read. For by that bill the augmented product in war or peace is vefted in commiffioners, who were to employ it either in purchasing up ftock; whereby it would increafe in war, by the intereft of the capitals yearly difcharged; or it might be advanced by them to the loan of each year: and in that case they were to receive, on account of the truft, the fame annuities, or other benefits, that the new public creditors obtained for equal advances. By each of thefe provifions, it would increase in war with an accelerated rapidity: the latter, in fome points of view, having advantages even beyond the former. By this act, funding upon its augmentation during a preceding peace, and thus annihilating it, was rendered totally impotlible; by the provifions of a fecond bill, long previous to the laft republication of this tract, the increase of the fund was rendered extremely more accelerated than by the firft. This writer's calculation of the fum paid off in a period containing one term of war, and one of peace, involves likewife a great error: he ftates the duration of the latter at 20 years; its average length during the laft century is 10 years only. In the duration of war he is nearer the truth (84 years) as he affumes 8 years for the term.

Nothing engages us to be fo particular on the errors in thefe tracts, as the account in their title-pages, of the number of editions they have feparately gone through. We thence conclude that they are more diffufed, and the more neceffary to be encountered. The fame reafon, and that only, engages us not to pafs by what Sir F. B. has faid in the last of these tracts on the abolition of tithe.

He flates the right of the clergy to tithe, as founded on prefcription*. Predial tithes, the object on which he treats, are due of common right, that is, by "common law, in its stricter fignification." He further lays it down, that, "by ftatute law, prefcription may be pleaded against the claims of the churcht; but feeming to be apprehenfive that this may be denied, he

* Pp. 225-231.

+ P. 280. This is true of lands belonging to the greater abbey's only; but finding the term without that reftriction, though so placed as to imply it, Sir F. B. gratuitoufly makes it univerfal,

goes

goes to another argument, to which he trufts as his anchor of hope, that though naturally a prescription, or a thing prefcriptible, fhould be laid as a prefeription, yet when it cannot be fo laid by law, there it (the prefcrip'ion) may be laid by way of custom; not that the nature of the thing is thereby changed, it ftill remains a prefcription, fui generis, though it be allowed to be pleaded by way of cultom for neceflity's fake*." That is, that the fame practice which cannot be pleaded in bar of tithe, under its proper name; will be effectually fo pleaded, if you change that proper name for another, of a different fignification in law. This we extract from Sir F. B.'s intended appeal to the Lords, against a decifion of the Exchequer, on a judgment given against him on agiftment tithe. The point he wishes to establish by cuftom is the following: if land, time out of mind, have paid tithe of one or more fpecies, but not of all; as, for inftance, of wheat, or of barley only, and of no other product; it fhall be discharged of all the reft by the custom. We can inform him that no fuch cuftom is legal, of whatever antiquity, becaufe, a custom to be legal, must have a reafonable commencement; and customs where any thing is fuppofed to be furrendered on one fide, without any apparent valuable confideration, have been repeatedly decided not to poffefs that effential property of a legal cuftom, that it fhould be reasonable; and it is evident, from the nature of fuch a cuftom, that it must have been founded either in force, fraud, or covin.

With great intemperance of language, this writer cenfures the clergy for rapacity in their demand of tithes; taxing, at the fame time, the court with "feeding a vulture with the vitals of the ftate," by its decree against him. The iniquity of the claim to agiftment tihe, the matter in conteft, he reprefents to be fo evident, that it is with the utmost difficulty to be fuppofed, that any claimant can fatisfy himself of its juftice. Yet at other times he admits it at least to be fpecious, by declaiming against very strong prejudices, operating upon confcientious minds, in favour of the church. We have here also, a new argument against this fpecies of tithe, and all others which ftand in the fame predicament: of which we fhall fimply give an abstract. Tithe of every fpecies, which the clergy have never yet poffeffed, has, generally speaking, remained vested in the crown, and, therefore, is not to be claimed by the laity, By what title then, he proceeds to inquire, have we held thefe tithes from the crown? By grant? Perhaps we might;

་

* Pp. 281, 282.

but

64

but I do not fay fo. Perhaps by ufurpation, or by fufferance of the crown; but this makes no difference with respect to our prefent tithe."-" Now the crown can no more plead the nullum tempus against us." Hence he infers that thefe claims of the clergy are actually treafonable; and, he continues, we fhall find ourselves called upon by other duties (than those of felf-defence) by gratitude to him that gave, as well as by love of the conftitution, to repel an attack, to ward a blow, where the crown itself is in the line of direction. Not wittingly, perhaps, I will not yet fay wittingly in that direction, but all men will fay fo, and will be juftified in what they fay, after this explanation and the caution it conveys, if they do not forthwith defit from their purpofe; if they do not, from that which is now imparted, abjure their lawless their disloyal claim. For perfeverance, from this time forward, will change its complexion; the plea of pursuing a doubtful right, with a fair intention, will hold no longer; but this will hold, as the only conftruction which can be put on fuch proceedings, that they take for their aim the life of the State".

This, in part, may ferve as a fpecimen of the ftyle of thefe pamphlets: we fhall give another, as containing a really acute argument for taxing funded income; and which, though it by no means can turn the balance of evidence in favour of that measure, is, we think, the best paffage in the three tracts.

"This further end will alfo be anfwered, that it will fave harm lefs [fecure] for ever the conftitution of this country; for when all fhall be made to feel an equal intereft in its prefervation, from what quarter can danger arife to an approved eftablishment? The nation will then have a brazen wall againft all innovators; it will become, as it were, confolidated into one body, actuated by one and the fame foul, ready at all times, and refolute throughout, to maintain the peace and good order of society."

Bad reafoning admits of arrangement, perfpicuity, and legitimate form: and when we find it fo joined, our attention is not confined to refute the error of the principle; we also mark our regret, that fo much cultivation and discipline of mind is thrown away. We cannot thus qualify the cenfures which we must pass on the reasonings in thefe tracts. Yet

* The crown, by this expreffion, is made to place itself in the line of the blow, it fhould be faid that the blow is not wittingly made in this treasonable direction.

+ Pp. 247,248.

the

the writer every where fhows the most unlimited confidence in the effect of the information he has here given to the public. From the first of our extracts it appears that he thinks it fo demonftrative, that it will give a direction abfolutely new to the public opinion: and, that if the clergy fhall not fail in with it, they will become guilty of the "crimen læfæ majeftatis.” We have feldom feen fuch violations of a decorum, due always to the public which is addreffed, to that refpectable order of men which is opposed, and always rigidly to be exacted from individuals of that fphere of life, in which this writer moves, as are to be found in fome parts of thefe publications. We hall give one prominent inftance, to thow that we do not condemn but on full evidence. The law courts have deter tithe of agiftment to be due of common right, or common Jaw. Concerning the clergy who have, under this fanction, advanced a claim to it, he thus exprefles himself. "Neither could it enter into the honeft imagination of human beings, much lefs of chriftians, to conceive, that at any period of time, the profellors of fanctity would do a deed in the face of day, fo profligate and fhameless." His flyle, though it has great faults in particular places, poffeffes vigour and fluency. Among its faults may be reckoned fome vulgar expreffions, which we did not expect to fee from the pen of a titled writer of this, the following is an example. But do not come over us with your jure divino's, and your other nonfenfical plea of coinmon right. We are not now to be gulled with fuch pretences." But this low fall he expiates, fometimes, by flights as extraordinary, "I'd garter round this ifland with a fleet: I'd ftation fhips from pole to pole: to pay for this; I'd live upon the thing I hate the moft, an onion by the day for years to come." This latter paffage has another glaring fault: it runs into a kind of halting blank verfe; not an uncommon vice of style, in those profe writers who affect cadence and harmony, without a correct ear and tafte.

P. 242. It has been obferved, that Sir F. B. had recently loft a caufe of this kind, in the Exchequer; which he intends to carry by appeal into the House of Lords. The appeal with notes, and an interpolated paffage, occupies tixty-one pages. He endeavoured to procure the extra-judicial affiftance of a county petition to parliament, on the principle of the appeal, when high sheriff of Northumberland, but failed.

ART.

ART. IV. Sermons on several evangelical and practical Subjects, By the late Rev. and learned Samuel Morton Savage, D. D. To which are prefixed Memoirs of the Life of the Author, Svo. 342 pp. 55. Johnfon. 1796.

THE

HE author of thefe difcourfes, as appears from the memoirs prefixed, was a man of no ordinary estimation among the Diffenters. His character, as well from the teftimonies of others as from the authority of his biographer, was that of an ufeful fcholar and an exemplary chriftian; and the office he fuftained for many years, as divinity-profeffor, in a confiderable feminary of Diffenting establishment, evinces the rank he held in his own particular community.

As a writer of Sermons, Dr. Savage is entitled to that species of praife, which an upright intention to promote religion and morals will ever deferve. His difcourfes are adorned by few of thofe ornaments which captivate the generality of readers; but folid fenfe, and unaffected piety, will be confidered by readers of difcernment, as qualities of a more ufeful and commendable character. How far the fe features prevail in the fermons before us, a fhort extract will enable the public to judge. We felect, without any particular regard to preference, the following paffage from Sermon VII. on the Peace of Chrift, and that of the World compared.

"5thly, Worldly peace and comfort is very precarious and fhortlived; whereas, the peace of Christ is ftable and eternal. The world gives and takes its bleflings; but the peace of Chrift is that good part that shall never be taken from us. All our prudence and industry are ineffectual to guard against the variety of means, by which we may be ftripped of our worldly comforts, or deprived of our enjoyment of them. And if both were continued through life, death, that must make an end of them, is so near, and the tenure of life is fo uncertain, that the perfon who confiders this, and at the fame time looks forward to his eternal ftate, can but look upon all the happiness to be had in the world as tranfitory and uncertain, light and momentary. What folid, fubftantial, and latting enjoyment can the world afford us, when the fashion thereof paffeth away, and is continually changing? How great is their folly that truft in uncertain riches, that make themselves wings, and fly away, as an eagle towards heaven, or that are foon loft beyond recovery, and which are called the mammon of unrighteoufnefs or faifehood; because they fo conftantly deceive people's expectations from them; and, if obtained by unrighteous meafures, do but bring them into fnares and forrows? What a precarious thing is that comfort which depends upon popular applaufe and the favour of men, who are as variable as the wind, and purfue thofe with inveterate hatred to day, whom they careffed and admired yesterday?

Or