ART. 23.-Lines on the Conflagration of Moscow. By the Rev. C. COLTON, A. M. Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and Author of "Hypocrisy," a political Poem, with Notes and Anecdotes. London, Taylor and Hessey, 1816-8vo. pp. 10. BUT for the extreme brevity of this production, we should have been inclined to have given it a place in that part of our Review where its merits would have been more particularized. The effusions upon the great event to which it refers have been numerous, but seldom as successful as the good intentions of the authors deserved, and the capabili ties of the subject would war ant. Mr. Colton, however, has described the scene, and drawn the obvious moral in a few nervous and well-constructed lines. It must be acknowleged, that in 1816, the novelty of the topic is a little gone by, but the act itself will never be forgotten; and the obvious aim of the author of this poem was, to write some. thing upon it which should not be indebted for admiration to the notoriety or even grandeur of the subject; the postponement of the publication is a further evidence of this purpose. Although it is not usual in this department, we cannot conclude without extracting a short specimen. "Blaze on, ye gilded domes, and turrets high, 66 By subborn constancy of soul, a rock That firmly meets but to return the shock; By all that pow'r inflicts, or slav'ry bears-- We are happy to find that Mr. Colton has another work in the press, which we shall notice on its appear ance. POLITICAL ECONOMY. ART. 24. An Historical Narrative of the Restoration of By M. DE Loudon, J. We have before had frequent occasion to notice the productions of this indefatigable writer, from whom, in a very short interval, we have the Embassy to Warsaw, the Congress of Vienna, and the Memoirs on the Spanish Revolution. He appears, not in the simple garb of an historian unconnected with his subject, but he is himself a bustling agent in the scene, and writes of events quorum pars magna fuit. The catastrophe is thus described in the concluding pages : "The Emperor Alexander having named M. Pozzo di Borgo to reside near the provisional government during the time that he should be absent, to combat Napoleon, who was encamped six leagues from Paris, the provisional government named me to accompany him, with the same title. Happily, these arrangements were superfluous. Two days after, the government, wishing, doubtless, to give me a proof of the attention which it had paid to the part I had taken in what had just passed, named me commissary to the grand united chanceries of the Legion of Honour and of the Order of the Reunion, the chiefs of which were absent. From that time I ceased to attend to general business, and merely intervened one single time, to solicit from the provisional government the liberty of the priests of Belgium, who had been for many years in exile or in prison. "The following days gave new strength to the restoration, and confirmed it; the armies followed the general movement of France; the interior did not offer the shadow of dissent. The Princes, who were the precursors of the King, met on their way only acclamations, tears of joy, and happiness; the King entered Paris as a father into the bosom of his family. The foreigners respected the monuments of France, and did not draw from its treasures; they honoured the warriors whom they had long feared. Peace spread her balm and her benefits such were for some time the fruits of this restoration, which at that time was an object of admiration and delight to Europe, and the remembrance of which must always make those, who took part in it with zeal, self-denial, and regard to the good of France, find in that alone their happiness and their recompence." (p. 71-72.) CRIT. REV. VOL. IV. Sept. 1816. 2 T This work was composed some months after the restoration, and it was intended that it should have been published in Paris, on the 31st of March, 1815, the anniversary of the restoration; but the return of Napoleon prevented its appearance. As far as we can judge of the recital, the facts which he narrates, are to be depended upon, excepting those for which he had the best materials, as being himself one of the principal parties concerned. ART. 25.-Friend of Peace: containing a Special Interview between the President of the United States, and Omar, an Officer dismissed for Duelling; Six Letters from Omar to the President, with a Review of the Power assumed by Rulers over the Laws of God and the Lives of Men, in making War, &c. &c. By Philo Pacificus. London, J. Low, 1816.-pp. 40. WE have before taken notice in our publication for June, of a pamphlet intituled "A Solemn Review of the Custom of War," by the same author, and we then made some remark on the instrumentality of Sir Richard Phillips. The present consists of a dialogue between a fictious person under the name of Omar, and the President of the United States, chiefly on the subject of duelling, in order to discourage this barbarous practice, and several letters are added on the same topic, and generally on the unchristian spirit, and mischievous tendency of war. Somewhat of the character of this publication may be collected from the fol lowing extract taken from what are called "Omar's Solitary Reflections." "There is such a perfect contrast between the maxims of the gos pel and the maxims of war, that I feel amazed and confounded when I reflect, that for ages the great body of the clergy have justified the most sanguinary custom that ever existed among men.How would the compassionate Saviour have appeared at the head of an army, pronouncing a violent philippic to excite men to revenge and havoc? Or how would he have appeared as a chaplain, praying to his Father to grant success to an army about to engage in the work of vengeance and murder? How opposite this, to the spirit of his command, "Love your enemies;" and to his prayer on the cross "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." "Whoever may have been in the right, or in the wrong, in the theological controversies of the present age, how harmless have been most of the errors which have been combatted, compared with that enormous practical error, which has been common to all the contending parties? I can hardly think of any error, short of absolute atheism, which appears to me more repugnant to the gospel, or more dangerous to the souls of men, than this popular belief, that Chris tians may, in obedience to the gospel, or as followers of Jesus, meet each other in the field of battle, for mutual violence and slaughterand that prior to entering on this dreadful work, they may, on each side, cry to the Father of mercies to grant them success in their attempts to butcher one another. Yet this monstrous, murderous error, like the "camel" of the Pharisees, has been swallowed by almost every sect of Christians; and that too, while each has been careful to strain out" some "gnat," infinitely less dangerous to the lives, and souls of men." (p. 37-38.) The work is plain and simple in the style, is dictated by a good spirit, and perhaps is better suited to the state of knowledge in America, where it first appeared, than had there been more refinement in the language, and more taste and embellishment in the composition. ART. 26.-Address from the Committee of the Association, for the Relief and Benefit of the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor. Circulated by order of the Society. We observe with pleasure, from this paper, that the committee in administring the contributions entrusted to their management, however disproportionate to the extent of the public distresses in the amount, have been productive of a far greater measure of benefit than the most sanguine had originally ventured to anticipate. They also found, without pecuniary assistance, considerable advantage accruing from removing the despondency, and aiding the efforts of benevolent individuals in the distressed districts, who had remained inactive from the diffidence of their own powers; but who when thus encouraged, investigated the circumstances of their afflicted neighbours, and carried into execution the most eligible methods of alleviating the existing calamity. The London Committee, as far as the funds will enable them, express their intention to co-operate with those generous persons in the country, whose means may be inefficient, and who thus assisted and supported, may be induced to alleviate the pressure upon those around them. ART. 27.—A Short Account of the Proceedings of the Society for superseding the necessity of Climbing Boys. London, Baldwin and Co. 1816.-8vo. pp. 24. THE Committee is anxious to diffuse the method of cleansing flues by mechanical means, and of shewing that they may in every case, be safely and effectually substituted for infantine labour, the total abolition of which is the primary object of this society. A copy of a letter is inserted from Mr. Wright, who is stated to be a medical practitioner, in which the pernicious consequences as to the health of the boys employed, are stated under the knowledge he has of the subject professionally. The society has endeavoured to conduce to the valuable purpose of its institution by proposing a premium of 2001. for the best practical machine, with lesser premiums for those of inferior utility and by promoting a bill in Parliament to supply the deficiencies in the existing one, and making more effectual provision for the same purpose. The first is considered to have been already accomplished by the invention of Mr. George Smart, and the last we trust will not be neglected the ensuing session. THEOLOGY. ART. 28.-A Funeral Sermon, preached at Ebenezer Chapel, Chatham, on Sunday Evening, 22d Sept. 1816, by the Rev. JOSEPH SLATTERIE: occasioned by the Melan-choly Catastrophe of Fifteen Lives being momentarily lost under Rochester bridge. London, W. Smith and Co. 1816. 8vo. pp. 43. On the 13th Sept. inst., on the return of a party from an excursion on the Medway, a melancholy accident occurred: the boat, in which fifteen persons were passengers, including an infant, between three and four years of age, upset under Rochester Bridge, and the whole perished. On Monday the 16th, a coroner's inquest was holden, when the following verdict was given:-"Accidentally drowned, occasioned by the negligence of the bridge-warden." It was in these awful circumstances that the present discourse was delivered before a congregation, of which most of the deceased had been members; and it was well calculated to produce that impression which would render this afflicting visitation instructive to the survivors. We presume, that the belief of a particular providence, and of the doctrine, that with the good "sudden death is sudden glory," are, (with some other tenets, grounded on a confident construction of certain passages of Scriptures, of which many serious Christians are diffident), among the adopted opinions of Ebenezer Chapel; but however that may be, the general design of this pious discourse is to shew, that under the darkest and most painful dispensations of the Almighty, we should ever be resigned to his will; and it was most im |