6 will scarcely attempt to drive them to despair. But we are not accustomed to pay much attention to traders, when stating their own losses; though we agree entirely with the writer, that, if the corporation of London raise an immense sum by the orphans' duty, it is but reasonable that the ship-owners interested in the coal-trade, who pay it, should know in what manner and to what purposes it is applied.' Whenever this account is refused or evaded, it must be suspected that all is not right.' The chief object of the letter is to draw this account from the chamberlain by a vote of the house of commons: and as all money-concerns cannot be made too public, we shall be glad to hear that the house has listened to this reasonable proposal. ART. 43. The operations of war are now carried on upon such an extensive scale, that a defect in any of its branches may be in the highest degree injurious to the service. Hence the education of an officer is. not a thing, as it was formerly esteemed, entirely to be neglected; nor is every ignorant idler or truant apprentice sufficiently qualified, if he have strength of arm to carry a pair of colours. So sensible is government, and particularly the distinguished character who presides at the head of the military department, of the necessity of instruction to those in command, that a military academy is formed, with mathematical professors, to carry a corps of officers through a complete course of intellectual discipline, and to qualify a number of lads, in succession, to be candidates to occupy every vacancy. In such an institution, and indeed in the library of every regiment, this book deserves a place. It will be found useful to those who are not in the immediate department of which it treats; and to a British commissary it may be considered as a complete body of instructions. In one sense, it has been happy for the English nation that a very great proficiency in this art has not been so requisite as in the Austrian, the French, and the new Prussian services; and we could wish that neither British pay nor British blood might ever again be expended on the continent: but as such a wish is evidently not to be attained, a commissary-staff should always be prepared with a fit knowledge of their duties in time of peace, that, on taking the field, they may not require the experience of innumerable disasters to instruct them in their office. Every part of their duty is laid down in this work in a clear intelligible manner; tables are given, taken from those employed in actual service; royal commissions, and ministerial instructions to commissaries, are copied out; and the plates on the forming of ovens, with the description of its parts, should be studied by every officer of a marching regiment. The work is dedicated, by permission, to the duke of York; and, under his auspices, we cannot doubt that it will be widely circulated in the British army. ART. 44.-Truths, respecting Mrs. Hannah More's Meeting-Houses, and the Conduct of her Followers; addressed to the Curate of Blagdon; by Edward Spencer. 8vo. 25. Robinsons. 1802. I have ever regarded the institution of Sunday-schools, under any shape, with a very jealous eye; it appears to be an innovation. (and all innovations may be dangerous) in the literary as well as religious systems of the country, that requires as yet a good deal more experience than we are at present in possession of, to prove whether they will eventually, under the best of management, be serviceable or not it remains yet to be seen, whether the indiscriminate dissemination of abstruse dogmas, among the whole of the lower orders of the people, may not in the end tend to make them dissatisfied with their necessary station in society; at least in this country many are the instances of that nature which can be mentioned, and some with such aggravated circumstances of horror, that the schools have ceased to be patronised by many respectable people who were other< wise well disposed towards them.' P. 65. The above puts us in mind of the argument used against accepting the first proffer of peace from Bonaparte; it was necessary to wait for the evidence of facts, and a new series of victories, before his authority could be acknowledged. The bugbear of innovation is ridiculously introduced, and the whole pamphlet is written in a style of acrimony beyond what the occasion can justify. It is really disgusting to read the affidavits, protests, and counter-protests, to which poor Hannah More has given rise; and we could wish, that, where the church of England is concerned, proper care were taken by the bishop of the diocese that the Sunday-schools should be under the care of the regular clergy. With respect to other sects, we wish success also to their Sunday-schools, being persuaded that the young cannot be too early instructed in the truths of Christianity. Each sect, however, should becomingly keep within its own line; and the established church should assuredly protect itself against those who, under a very specious name, are introducing into its bosom the enemies of its establishment. Of the methodistical tendency of some schools founded in the west of England, strong evidence is produced in this pamphlet. ART. 45-Letters on the present State of the Jewish Poor in the Metropolis; with Propositions for ameliorating their Condition, by improving the Morals of the Youth of both Sexes, and by rendering their Labour useful and productive in a greater Degree to themselves and to the Nation. 8vo. Is. Richardsons. 1802. Our readers will be pleased to hear that there is a plan in agitation for the support of the Jewish poor, and the education of their youth. Every one who visits their abodes near the great synagogue must be sensible of their present neglected state, and the depravity necessarily resulting from it. The chief feature in this plan is to obtain from legislative authority the power of assessing the members of every synagogue to the general support of the poor, and of appointing a committee for the management of their concerns. If the scheme should succeed, and a house of industry be formed in consequence thereof, we cannot doubt that the young may be brought up to be serviceable to themselves and the community. There are some trades, those of watch-making and shoe-making for example, to which their peculiar tenets form no obstacles: and in every trade where the individual may work by himself, and by the piece, the Jew is competent to succeed nearly as well as the Christian. We must not, however, forget that a Jew is still a Jew. It cannot be said of this people that they know no other country, and can only be interested in the prosperity of this their native land.' Neither the Jew nor the Christian can be possessed with the amor patria in the manner that it is felt by those who have not the hopes of the temporal establishment in Palestine of the one, or an eternal abode in the heavens of the other.-As ili founded is another sentiment in this work; 6 Under whatever sect, therefore, a man chances to be born, hé ought always to adhere to its form of worship; nor can he attain a better ultimatum by changing it, seeing that the final object of all is the same.' P. 14. According to this sentiment, the world could never be improved. But we shall not scruple to assert, that, when the individual is convinced in his own mind that the religion in which he was born and bred up is contrary to truth, it is his bounden duty to abjure his errors. ART. 46.-Facts, explanatory of the instrumental Cause of the present high Prices of Provisions; formerly communicated in a Letter to George Cherry, Esq. then one of the Commissioners for victualling the Navy with Observations thereon. By Thomas Butcher. 8vo. Is. 6d. Scott. 1801. The facts stated in this pamphlet are of so serious and important a nature, that we can scarcely venture to hint at them without horror. If they can be substantiated, the agents of government, referred to in this work, will meet with the deserved execrations of the country. The writer states himself to have been thirty years employed in the offices where of late such mismanagement is said to have prevailed; and is ready to prove every fact here advanced upon oath at the bar of the house of commons, or in any court of judicature in the kingdom. To this test he ought to be put; and this necessity. will appear from the following relation. 6 In the year 1796, the board made a private contract with a certain corn-factor to deliver them fifty thousand quarters of foreign wheat; when a part thereof was received at Deptford, I caused several quantities to be put upon the kilns there, as usual, to manufacture into fine flour; when it brought forth such innumerable quantities of maggots and other vermin, that I caused a measure to be filled with them, and sent to the superintendant, desiring to know, if the flour and biscuit produced from such filthy rubbish was to be served out as food fit for the use of man? I received no answer. I appealed to others about the office. The only answers (answer) I could obtain, was, that the board had purchased the wheat, and of course it must be received. The horrid biscuit made from this great quantity of filthy rubbish had nearly, in the early part of the following year, proved ruinous to the nation, as it materially aided the revolting seamen in pretences for persevering in many of their unreasonable demands.' P. 31. We can have no doubt that open contracts are to be preferred; for in the private contract there is always a suspicion that some members of the board share with the contractor in his profits, if they be enormous. Other facts also are stated, which, if true, point out an excess of mismanagement that we could hardly have suspected, even under the heedlessness and extravagance of the late administration. Whether any good would result from parliamentary investigation, we know not; but the higher officers of the executive government are interested in an inquiry which so materially affects the character and conduct of their agents. ART. 47.—Interesting Anecdotes of the heroic Conduct of Women, during the French Revolution. Translated from the French of M. du Broca. Embellished with an elegant Frontispiece. 8vo. 5s. Boards. Symonds. 1802. The voice of nature was not stifled in the horrors of the French revolution; and amidst the atrocities that have been committed by that ferocious people, several traits of heroism shone forth; and instances of benevolence, tenderness, affection, and generosity, were Occasionally exhibited, which well deserve to be recorded. If any one can bear the shock which he must feel from the recital of the wickedest and most cruel actions perpetrated in the days of terror, he will be highly gratified by contrasting them with examples here offered of the greatest virtue and fortitude: and as his admiration of the heroines celebrated in this volume must augment, so must his detestation of the wretches who were glutting themselves with the murder of innocence and beauty be increased; and he will reflect, not without horror, on that train of circumstances which could lead human beings to cast away every feeling that does honour to mankind. ART. 48.-The Spirit of the public Journals for 1800. Being an impartial Selection of the most exquisite Essays and Feux d'Esprit, principally Prose, that appear in the Newspapers and other Publications. With explanatory Notes. 8vo. 65. Boards. Ridgway. 1801. This entertaining publication continues to furnish us with the best articles that have appeared in the newspapers, both in verse and prose. THE CRITICAL REVIEW. AUGUST, 1802. ART. I.-Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. For the Year 1802. Part I. 4to. IIS. sewed. Nicol. THE contents of this volume scarcely furnish any subject of general remark. It is, on the whole, a respectable one; and though perhaps the topics it contains, on the first view, may not appear peculiarly interesting, yet we shall find that it adds as much to the stock of sciences as it does to its bulk. I. The Croonian Lecture. On the Power of the Eve to adjust itself to different Distances, when deprived of the Crystalline Lens. By Everard Home, Esq. F.R.S.' In the 14th volume of our New Arrangement, p. 256, we noticed an opinion of Mr. Hunter, brought forward by Mr. Home, that there was no power adequate to a change in the shape of the eye sufficient to account for distinct vision at diffe rent distances. He supposed, therefore, that the cornea might be muscular, and that the change might be effected by its con. traction. We expressed our wishes that this opinion might be brought to the test of experiment; and, in the present article, our wishes are gratified; yet not in so clear and decisive a way as we can still hope they may be. Our readers may recollect, that, since the year 1794, when Mr. Home's observations were published, Dr. Young has offered a different, and, as we at the time suspected, a more probable cause of the alteration of the eye, so as to adapt the sight to different distances; but the present paper contains not only a strong fact in support of the author's former opinion, but some observations and experiments with the photometer, the instrument on which Dr. Young depended in support of his own. The fact is, that a man, in whom the operation succeeded very well, was able to adapt the eye to different distances after the lens was removed. In the observations with the optometer the conclusions did not appear so clear and decisive as represented in Dr. Young's paper; and a man, from whose eye the crystalline humour had been extracted, was able to see very distinctly, at different distances, with this instrument, unaccomCRIT. REV. Vol. 35. August, 1902. 2 C |