ART. 15. The Seventh Day a Day of rest for the Labouring Cattle. A Discourse preached in the Parish Churches of Staple and Bickenhall in the County of Somerset, by the Rev. Charles Toggood. 8vo. 1s. Vidler. A LECTURE' on the Sin of Cruelty towards the Brute Creation, was instituted in the year 1799, by the Rev. Henry Brindley, of Lacock, in the county of Wilts, and during the first four years preached at Bath. Since that time it has been preached at different places; at Bristol, and in the neighbourhood of that city; at Frome, and an adjoining parish; it has been preached several times in the cathedral church of Exeter, at Crediton, and other parishes in the county of Devon. It has been generally delivered on the Sunday before Shrove Tuesday; but the benevolent institutor has not confined himself to an annual lecture, for. he has generally had two discourses preached every year; and the compliment which he pays those clergymen who are so obliging as to undertake the office is three guineas a lecture. We should also add, that the worthy founder does not limit his benevolent exertions to a particular district or diocese, but would gladly extend them to any town, where a lecture. on the subject might be expected to do good. In what year Mr. Toogood was invited to deliver this Lecture, the title-page does not inform us. This, however, is of little consequence, for the sermon does credit both to his head and heart. The arguments adduced are indeed not new, but being drawn up with precision, and enforced with considerable energy, they will, we trust, tend to produce that effect, which was designed by the humanity of the founder. ART, 16.-Plain and useful Selections from the Books of the Old and New Testaments, according to the most approved Modern Translations. By Theophilus Browne, A. M. late Fellow and Tutor of St. Peter's College, Cambridge. Large 8vo. 15s. Vidler and Johnson. 1805. IN the introduction to this work the author takes great pains to inform us, that his object is to promote a more general diffusion of scripture knowledge; this object, however, must necessarily be defeated by the price of the book. For who shall purchase a large octavo containing only a small portion of the scriptures, for fifteen shillings, when the whole Bible may be had for nearly one sixth of the money? We will say nothing of the many deviations, of which we highly disapprove, from the established version; yet we cannot but think that Mr. Theophilus Browne has shewn very little judgment in his omission of the Jewish ceremonies and ritual observances, the histories of wars and wicked rulers, descriptions of buildings, the severe reproofs and threatenings denounced against the perverse and apostate Jews, and prophecies of inferior moment, extending indeed to small distance only from the time of their being uttered, and which have been long since accomplished.' These are historical facts, from the perusal of which few readers of the Bible wish to be exempted. ART. 17.-The Lord Jesus Christ's Sermon on the Mount, with a Course of Questions and Answers explaining that valuable Portion of Scripture, and intended chiefly for the Instruction of Young Persons. By the Rev. John Eyton. 8vo. 1s. Hatchard. 1806. THE pious author of this catechism, divides the Sermon on the Mount into nine sections, which are afterwards explained by two hundred and seventy-four questions and answers, in an easy and familiar manner. An oversight of narrow' for broad' occurs at p. 34. ART. 18.-The Overflowings of Ungodliness, a Sermon on the 8vo. MR. WARNER, among other reasons assigned for the publication of this Sermon, affirms that, as the subject was offensive to a few of his hearers, who quitted the church during the delivery of the discourse, he is fearful that the same hastiness which occasioned this very novel mode of expressing disapprobation, may also produce a mistaken representation of its language and tendency, and he feels anxious therefore to present the Sermon to an impartial public, that a candid estimate may be formed of the degree of disgust it was calculated to excite, and of the propriety of adopting the above method of manifesting it. We, however, have experienced much pleasure from the perusal of this animated discourse, in which the author delivers his sentiments on subjects of great importance, with a freedom equally remote from rude censure and unbecoming acrimony. We with him enter our public protest against all accommodation, in preaching the word of God, to the prejudices and follies, the passions and vices of the hearer; and it is manifest, that to those who in defiance of decency abruptly quitted the church during the delivery of the Sermon, the old proverb of the cap fits' may be justly applied. ART. 19. A great Work described and recommended, in a Sermon preached on Wednesday, May 15th, 1805, at the Rev. Mr. Thorp's Meeting-house, in New-court, Carey-street, London, before the Members of the Sunday School Union. By Jabez Bunting. Published by Request. 8vo. 6d. Lomas. 1805. WHOEVER seriously reflects on the depravity of the morals of the English poor, will entertain no doubts of the propriety and utility of Sunday schools. The Sunday School Union' consists of teachers, and others, actively engaged in Protestant Sunday Schools; their religious sentiments and connections are various. Some are members of the established church; others belong to the several denominations of dissenters. Of this latter class Mr Bunting is a member, and with a moderation not very characteristic of his fraternity, recommends this great work' to sectaries of every denomination; Let there be in necessary things unity, in every thing charity; and then there need not be in every thing uniformity. The text is from Nehemiah, vi. 3. I am doing a great work.' POLITICS, ART. 20.-The Dangers and Advantages of the present State of Europe, impartially considered. By Frederick Gentz, Knight of the Order of the Polar Star, &c. and Author of A Vindication of Europe and Great Britain from Misrepresentation and Aspersion. 8vo. 18. Stockdale. 1806. MR. GENTZ's work on the political state of Europe deservedly gained him the reputation of one of the first political writers of the present day. That reputation does not seem to be increased by the present pamphlet, the intention of which, as he announces at its commencement, is to prove, that upon a fair comparison and just balance of the real losses sustained by the allied cause, from the result of the late campaign, with the advantages it had just acquired by the changes wrought in the general system of politics, the present situation of Europe is, without question, preferable to that in which it was placed from the peace of Luneville, till the month of September, 1805.' It may be conceded to Mr. Gentz, that, of the four great powers upon whom the salvation of Europe must still depend, England, Russia, and Prussia, have suffered no material losses, or such at least as are more than counterbalanced by the salutary lessons they may derive from that best of monitors, experience; and that they are in no respect less competent to the dreadful struggle which they may soon have occasion to maintain, than they were previously to the late disasters on the continent. But when he attempts to prove that the Austrian monarchy is still unimpaired in spite of her recent calamities, and that the condition in which she has been left by the peace of Presburg, is not more alarming than that in which she has stood since 1801, we wish that he may not display more sophistry than argument. It is contended that the treaty of Luneville had dug a grave * for the Austrian monarchy, which continually threatened to devour her. It would be needless to give an abstract of the arguments adduced by the author to substantiate this point, as every one knows the situation in which Austria 'stood in relation to France and to the rest of Europe, after that treaty. Such a state of things,' says Mr. Gentz, must necessarily lead to a speedy fall: and if Austria did not find either within herself, or in some great political com bination, the courage and the means of upsetting it altogether, from that moment her sentence of death was irrevocably past. Such was the situation of the Austrian monarchy when it took up arms against France; and such, with scarcely any difference, is its situation at present. The fact is that Austria, reduced to the state in which she was left by the treaty of Luneville, could no more exist before than after the result of her late reverses. These reverses have, it is true, added somewhat to the dangers by which she was before beset; but what matters a degree more or less of danger to him, who already, whithersoever he turned his eyes, could only discover the approach of death?' Presuming that Austria could neither then, nor now, rely upon a defensive war, and that her salvation rested wholly upon the success of some grand aggressive operation, by which she might affect directly the strength of her enemy, the writer maintains that her military position is not essentially altered; that even in a defensive point of view, the acquisition of Saltzbourg is no inconsiderable indemnification for the loss of the Tyrol; and that her political or federative position is so much improved, that if we compare what she has gained in this respect, with what she has lost in regard to her military position, what she has gained would preponderate. We cannot but suspect that, the cabinet of Prussia being no longer able to shut its eyes against the dangers with which it is surrounded; seeing at once the impossibility of longer averting those dangers by duplicity or negotiation, and her inability to resist by her. single energies the torrent which is ready to overwhelm her; the pen of Mr. Gentz has been employed, in the hope that the imposing authority of his name may have weight with the cabinets of Europe, and excite them to advance with confidence in their resources, to a new coalition; to which alone the house of Brandenburgh can now look for safety. Mr. Gentz blames and lainents the cold and cautious policy which, as they are now convinced, has too long actuated the ministers of Frederic. However, gratifying it might be, to see the perfidious or interested policy of Prussia reap the punishment it so well deserves, we are ready to allow that considerations of private antipathy or private interest must now be laid aside, and that the cause of Prussia would be the cause of the world. We shall subjoin Mr. Gentz's assurance of the part which Prussia had actually resolved on taking in the late contest, had not the fatal battle of Austerlitz precipitated the allied powers into peace. The fact is singular; but it will be believed with caution. Prussia herself (it is no longer possible to shut our eyes to that fact, in spite of the fatal issue of this grand confederacy), even Prussia had abjured her distressing neutrality, and was most cordially preparing to co-operate with the efforts of the confederato courts. It already bespoke a revolution, but little expected in his political system, to see the king of Prussia induced to offer up the most ardent vows for the success of their arms and their views; but what indisputably proved the secret change which had taken place in his mode of thinking and feeling, and carried him much further, was the extreme facility with which the emperor of Russia had prevailed upon him to embark in the common enterprize by a most solemn treaty. By a strange concurrence of fatal circumstances, seconded perhaps by the perfidy of the instruments that were employed in the execution of the diplomatic part of the treaty, this engagement proved abortive, It is not to be wondered at, if the public, who are always ill-informed upon such matters, or if some persons who know better, but who listen only to their malice and their resentment, endeavour at present to excite suspicions respecting the reality or the sincerity of that memorable negotiation. It is, however, a thing beyond the reach of all doubt-1 fact that can never be rescued from the page of history-that if the confederate armies could but have made head to Bonaparte until the 20th of December, war would have been declared by Prussia against France, and an army of one hundred thousand men would have advanced into Bohemia, while another of equal force would have marched from the Mayn to the Danube.' Again: 'When I assert that the advantages of our present situation preponderate, and powerfully preponderate over the real losses we have sustained, I make the assertion in the conviction, that this happy concert still exists, and in the supposition that it will continue. to exist. And, indeed, it appears to me a thing so difficult to presume, that with the experience they have now before them, those powers who had composed the confederacy, will plunge headlong again into their former errors, and into a degree of infatuation now a thousand times more inconceivable than ever it was before, that one is in a manner compelled to believe that they will remain united. One may even venture a step farther, and boldly assert, that at the crisis in which we are now placed, those powers are no longer at liberty to run counter to their interests, and that the confederacy must continue to exist from the nature and force of things, if it ceases to be. supported by the will and wisdom of men. If we reflect upon the position of each of the four powers, whose united efforts should stop the progress of the universal deluge that is coming upon us, we must soon perceive, that notwithstanding some occasional anomalies in their movements, their political system is from this moment irresistibly linked with the supreme necessity of an indissoluble cohesion.' ART. 21.--The true Origin of the present War between France and England, with Observations on the Expediency and Advantages of an immediate Peace. 8vo. pp. 51. 1805. THIS is a very odd pamphlet it is dated hom Leipzig, July |