We may then observe, that, if some of the people opposed the making of turnpike-roads, it is to others that we are indebted for the pains, and labour, and expense employed in this great national convenience; and on the legislature we may bestow our thanks for not opposing the efforts of the people. The people, cut our canals, excavate our docks, enrich our country by merchandise and manufactures, fight our battles, decide our causes, and, in spite of the insinuations of this author and his authority, dean Tucker, it may be asserted, that a people who is so strenuous in counsel, in action, in industry, does not deserve to be treated with contempt.

The strength and opulence of the empire are inferred from its ability to bear the taxes; and it is triumphantly asked, On whom are they burdensome; since the upper orders, the merchant, the farmer, the manufacturer, do not feel the weight, and the poor pay no taxes at all? The next generation will, we fear, answer this question too feelingly. Our grandfathers were industrious in raising fortunes for their children; but these were moderate fortunes. Now great fortunes, we admit, are made-but by a few alone; for the taxes consume that which in other times would have been laid up as a provision for the children of the rest. The whole argument also on the exemption of the poor from the effect of taxes is fallacious; and the increase in the poor's rates, accompanying every increase in taxation, is an evident proof that the poor suffer in common with every other rank in the burdens and distresses of the country. There is an unfeelingness in the manner of describing the effects of the increased postage of letters; since it is observed that the post-tax is so much cheaper than any other mode of conveyance, that it cannot be made a matter of complaint.' It should be recollected, however, that the convenience of receiving news from relations and friends is as gratifying to the poor as the rich; and it is much to be lamented that the distresses of the state should deprive any class of subjects of the advantages derived from good roads and the improved state of society. But our author shows more manifestly his disposition in his remark on the tax upon newspapers. If the igno rant populace will buy newspapers and commence politicians, they are not to be pitied, for they ought to pay for their folly.' To bring the English on a level with the Spanish populace, might to some persons be highly gratifying; but we shall not hesitate to affirm, that, if for the last hundred years the French populace had read newspapers, and been as great politicians as their neighbours in England, Europe would not have been a witness to the horrors which accompanied the late revolution. An ignorant is more unmanageable than a well-informed populace; and a free press is an object of terror only to the ignorant, the corrupt, and the unprincipled.

The increase in our navigation, revenues, and commerce, during war, is properly introduced as a strong proof of the comparative prosperity of this country; and it is to be hoped, that, though the cause be removed which prevented the interference of Europe in several branches of our commerce, new sources may be discovered, advantageous to all parties. The increase of foreign tonnage, during the war, was greater than that of this country; and the quantity of tonnage employed is a very great point with a nation which aims at maritime superiority. In concurring entirely with our author in his opinion on bounties, we cannot do better than to transcribe his own words; and the question will, most probably, when the nation is a little relieved from its present difficulties, occupy the attention of the legislature.

Let us sift the nature of those bounties. They are in truth a tax taken out of the pockets of the nation, for the express and strange purpose of enabling them to buy corn dearer; that is, of raising the price of sustenance; that is, of restraining population; that is, of increasing, in a manifold manner, the price of labour, and thereby loading and checking the progress and consumption of manufactures. Such is the internal nature of those bounties, or the consequence of them within the kingdom. What is it without? The operation of our bounties is not less deadly without. By rendering corn cheaper abroad it reduces the price of sustenance abroad, and consequently the price of foreign manufactures; whereas it raises the price of sustenance at home, and consequently the price of home manufactures. And hence it naturally follows, that it not only lessens and tends to destroy, by the operation of this double advantage against us, all competition on our part in foreign markets, but may gradually and surely, however slowly, enable other nations to undersell us in our own market.

These laws should be abolished, and the corn trade left to itself; if it be a good one it will support itself, if it be a bad one it cannot be abandoned too soon, and it were wise to employ our capital in a better.' P. 137.

The comparison of our navy with that of France is an undoubted proof of our superiority; yet it should be always kept in mind that Carthage was mistress of the sea at a time when the Romans had not a galley; and if an Englishman, in writing to his countrymen, may be applauded for the boldness of his figure, that the navy of Great-Britain has proved the broad shield of the universe,' foreigners will be tempted to ask, what defence it was to our allies, to Holland, to Italy, to Austria, to the empire, and to any other part of the universe, but its own limited shores? We would with pleasure follow our author, if we had space sufficient, in his encomiums on British valour, on our ability to resist the French, if attacked, and other points in which a difference of opinion cannot be entertained by

people of experience and reflexion. But our readers will find some difficulty in believing that another unerring proof of the progress of this nation is contained in the state of the coinage.' At a time when a banker makes it a great point of civility to part with a guinea, and coin has been dissevered by a violent act of authority from its representative, this is an unfortunate proof of prosperity. To what purpose is it to tell us that upward of sixty-two millions of pounds have been coined in the present reign, unless to excite our regret at its disappearance? The boldest man dreads to think upon the subject, and, having seen the effects of other governments countenancing the paper system, cannot but be alarmed at the little prospect there is of the usual circulating medium ever being restored to its ancient channel. Such thoughts, however, do not trouble our author; and being fully determined that almost every thing is right, it is a pity to disturb him in his reveries; and should they end in the cultivation of the waste lands, he will not have employed his leisure hours without benefit to his country.

ART. IX. Introduction to the New Testament. By John David Michaëlis, &c. (Continued from p. 11 of the present Volume.)

IN the first article of this volume we endeavoured to gratify our readers by presenting them with an analysis of the work before us, interspersing such extracts as appeared more peculiarly interesting. Having gone through the accounts of the Gospels and their authors, we now proceed to the subsequent discussions.- Chapter the eighth has for its subject THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, which, as belonging to the historical writings of the New Testament, are treated immediately after the Gospels, agreeably to the order in which the book is placed in our common editions of the Greek Testament; though, in both ancient manuscripts and versions, it often follows the Epistles of St. Paul, as being necessary to their elucidation. The first sentence of this book, showing it to be not only the work of St. Luke, but also a continuation of his Gospel, induces Michaëlis to consider what light the history of this evangelist may afford towards determining the time when The Acts of the Apostles were written. This he fixes to the year 63, assigning such reasons for that decision as appear to be valid. These are followed by observations, to authenticate the history, taken from his having been an eye-witness to most of the facts it contains, and his competence, as a physician, to form a proper judgement of the miraculous cures. The object which St. Luke had in view, in writing this history, is next considered; and, after a masterly induction of particulars, is inferred to have been of a two-fold nature; namely,

1. To relate in what manner the gifts of the Holy Spirit were communicated on the day of Pentecost, and the subsequent miracles performed by the apostles, by which the truth of Christianity was confirmed. An authentic account of this matter was absolutely necessary, because Christ had so often assured his disciples, that they should receive the Holy Spirit. Unbelievers therefore, whether Jews or Heathens, might have made objections to our religion, if it had not been shown, that Christ's declaration was really fulfilled.

2. To deliver such accounts, as proved the claim of the Gen tiles to admission into the church of Christ, a claim disputed by the Jews, especially at the time when St. Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles. And it was this very circumstance, which excited the hatred of the Jews against St. Paul, and occasioned his imprisonment. In Rome, with which St. Luke closes his history. Hence we see the reason, why he relates, ch. viii. the conversion of the Samaritans," and ch. x. xi. the story of Cornelius, whom St. Peter (to whose authority the adversaries of St. Paul had appealed in favour of circumcision) baptized, though he was not of the circumcision. Hence also St. Luke relates the determination of the first council in Jerusalem relative to the Levitical law and for the same reason he is more diffuse in his account of St. Paul's conversion, and St. Paul's preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, than on any other subject. It is true that the whole relation, which St. Luke has given, ch. xii. has no connexion with the conversion of the Gentiles: but during the period, to which that chapter relates, St. Paul himself was present at Jerusalem, and it is probably for that reason, that St. Luke has introduced it.' Vol. iii. Parti. P. 330.

To this the author subjoins another opinion, that it was per haps St. Luke's plan to record only those facts which he had either seen himself, or heard froin eye-witnesses.

The style of St. Luke, and his mode of narration, occupy the next section, and are both treated with advantage and preci sion. The section which follows is devoted to the Chronology of the Acts; in reference to which it is observed, that though St. Luke, like ancient writers in general, was but little attentive to dates, yet there are several parts of the Acts of the Apostles in which the ecclesiastical narration is so interwoven with historical facts, as to make the incidents of one determinable from the times of the other. Accordingly, taking it for granted that the Acts of the Apostles commence in the thirty-third year of the Christian era, the professor presents us with the following chronological arrangement, and observations upon it.

;

1. The first epoch, after the commencement of the book, is at ch. xi. 29, 30. for what happened between the first Pentecost after Christ's ascension and this period, is without any marks of chronology. But at ch. xi. 29, 30. we have a date for the famine which took place in the time of Claudius Cæsar, and which induced the disciples at Antioch to send relief to their brethren in Judæa, happened in the fourth year of Claudius's reign, that is, in the year 44 of the Christian, æra.

2. Second epoch. Herod Agrippa dies soon after he had put CRIT. REV. Vol. 35. June, 1802. Ο

to death the apostle St. James: and about that time St. Paul and St. Barnabas return from Jerusalem to Antioch. Ch. xii. 21-25. This is still in the year 44.

3. Third epoch. Ch. xviii. 2. Shortly after the banishment of the Jews from Italy by Claudius Cæsar, St. Paul arrives at Corinth. Commentators affix the date 54 to this event: but it is uncertain, for Suetonius, the only historian who has noticed this banishment of the Jews, mentions it without date. For that reason I place no date in the margin.

4. Fourth epoch. St. Paul comes to Jerusalem, where he is imprisoned by the Jews, not long after the disturbances which were excited by the Egyptian. Ch. xxi. 37-39. This imprisonment of St Paul happened in the year 60, for it was two years before Felix quitted his government of Judea. Ch. xxiii. 26. xxiv. 27.

Fifth epoch. Two years after the commencement of St. Paul's imprisonment, Festus is appointed governor of Judæa. Ch. xxiv. 27.

XXV. I.

From this period the chronology of the Acts of the Apostles is clear. St. Paul is sent prisoner to Rome in the autumn of the same year in which Festus arrived in Judæa: he suffers shipwreck, passes the winter in Malta, and arrives in Rome in the following year, that is, in 63. Ch. xxvi. xxvii. xxviii.

The Acts of the Apostles close with the end of the second year of St. Paul's imprisonment in Rome: consequently, in the year 65. Ch. xxviii. 30.

To the events which happened between the epochs 33 and 44 and between 44 and 60, it is difficult to assign any determinate year: and all that we can positively say of these events, is that they hap pened in those intervals. It is true that chronologers have made the attempt: but none of them have met with success, not even the truly eminent Usher. Unfortunately, the two most important years, that of St. Paul's conversion, and that of the first council in Jerusalem, are the most difficult to be determined: for neither St. Paul's conversion, nor the council in Jerusalem, is combined with any political fact, by means of which the date might be discovered. Usher places St. Paul's conversion in the year 35, others in 38: but we cannot positively assert either the one or the other.

But though we cannot arrive at absolute certainty we can form in some cases a probable conjecture. For instance, St. Stephen hardly suffered martyrdom before Pilate was recalled from the government of Judea, for under Pilate the Jews had not the power of inflicting capital punishments. Now according to Usher, the year, in which Pilate was recalled, was the 36th of the Christian era. St. Stephen's martyrdom therefore probably happened after 36. If this be true, St. Paul's conversion must have happened likewise after 36, and therefore 35 is too early a date. But how long after 36, whether in 38, as some say, I cannot determine. Neither date agrees with the Epistle to the Galatians.

In what manner the chapters iii. iv. v. vi. are to be arranged between 33 and 36, I cannot determine; for what chronologers have said is here conjecture, and not calculation. The same uncertainty prevails in respect to ch. viii. and x.; for we can affirm nothing more, than that the one must be placed before, the other after 36. We are