ART. IV. Fun Phyfiophilus's Specimen of the Natural Hiftory of the various orders of Monks. After the Manner of the Linnæan Order. Tranflated from the Latin printed at Augsburg. 2s. 6d. fewed. Johnfon. T HIS publication confifts of about eighty pages, of which not more than thirty is expended in the work itself, the reft is confumed in prefaces, Appendix, &c. &c. The tranflator's preface contains many juft, though common place cenfures on what he deems unneceffary adjuncts of the Roman Catholic Religion, viz. Monkery, the Pope's infallibility; the celibacy of the Clergy; the Inquifition, bolidays; prayers in an unknown tongue; oral confeffion; the doctrines of difpenfation, human mediation, works of fupererogation; and the affertion that this is the ONLY mode of falvation. We fincerely believe, that there are few thinking perfons even among the Roman Catholics themfelves, who will at this day contend very warmly for thefe branches of their religion. The great question is, how to get handfomely quit of them, without throwing the whole fabric of the church into confufion. Perhaps time, and ripening reafon are the only remedies, and, like fome of our old ftatutes, they may grow obfelete before they are repealed. The extirpation of monkery in particular, which feems to be the prime object of this publication, is a confummation devoutly to be wifhed; and we apprehend there are few catholic princes or ftatefmen, who do not look with a longing eye on the immenfe revenues which are wafted in nourishing idleness, and luxury, bigotry and ignorance; but the terrors of the bowl and the dagger; the fate of Henry and of others, who have attempted fuch innovations, seem rather to protect the revenues of the cloiftered churchmen, than any refpect for religion. The most confummate ftatefman of our times, the late Marquis of Pombal, devized perhaps the only fecure expedient for liberating mankind from fuch an ufelefs incumberance. His fcheme was to admit neither monk nor nun to become profeffed, without a fpecial licence from the king, by occafionally refufing which, he reduced feveral convents during the period of his miniftry, and feized upon their poffeffions for the ufe of the ftate. This falutary plan we fear is defeated by the bigotry of his fucceffors; but we doubt not will be adopted by alt thofe, who would rather reduce the fortrefs by fap than by ftorm. The performance under our prefent confideration is faid to be the production of Baron B of Vienna, who is fufficiently known in England by the fine collection in natural hiftory, which he fold to the Earl of Bute. There Phyfiophilus's Specimen of the Natural Hiftory of Monks: 95 is, however, more merit in the defign than in the execution. The Baron has certainly miftaken his forte. In the hands of fuch a writer as Swift, the fubject would have afforded fcope for infinite humour; but as it is, inftead of witty allufions, of animated defcription, and pointed ridicule, we have only dry detail, and a tedious catalogue of minute particularities in the drefs and appearance of the different orders. The Author drops the figurative style, which he fhould have perfifted in, when he affected to defcribe them as a fpecies of infects; and we must add that he is fometimes indelicate without being entertaining. The tyle of the tranflator is not very correct, of which we fhall fubjoin one or two inftances, not for the fake of cenfure, but merely becaufe it is our defire to fee as few corruptions as poffible introduced into our language. Preface, page 9. Parents by this means lofing a spur to induftry in providing for fuch, and the younger children themfelves lofing their fphere for being induftrious.". Ib. P. 15. "If the Aftronomer should mount his gueft a little higher,' &c. mounting we know is very commonly used for getting on horfeback, but we do not remember to fee it even in ludicrous compofition, in the fenfe in which our Author employs it. ART. V. An Address to the Right Honourable Lords Commiffioners of THE To HE Author of this addrefs afcribes the difaffected ftate of our navy to the hafty and undue promotion of the fons of great families to the important offices of lieutenants and poft-captains and to the palpable neglect that is often fhewn to humble but well attefted merit. He feems to be well acquainted with the fentiments of British tars and in confequence of this knowledge, he affirms that no very young commander will ever be chearfully obeyed. Among a variety of interefting particulars in this publication, humanity points out the following to the Commiffioners of the Admiralty, and indeed to all who may be able, in, 1 in any way, to operate towards the removal of fo great grievances. The extreme cruelty in haraffing our feamen about, from fhip to fhip, during the late war; who, after arriving from long, and diftreffing voyages, were compelled to depart immediately, on more cruel and deftructive fervices, with the mortification of not being enabled to fee their families, nor even to receive any part of their wages, were proceedings extremely diftreffing to feainen, and have contributed to their hatred, and difguft of the naval fervice-——————I could name inftances of feamen, who in the course of 'three, or four years fervitude, had wages to receive for ten or twelve fhips, which, from their total ignorance of the tedious forms of office, knew no more how to apply for their pay, than a parcel of negrocs. PEACE being now established, they who have wages due for various fhips, are obliged to appear, at the refpective fea ports, where the hips to which they belonged were paid off, in order to procure their pay; and under thefe cruel circumftances, it often happens, that a feaman, paid off at Chatham, in the Sandwich, is obliged to go to Plymouth, to receive his pay for the Standard; and then to Portfmouth, for the Perfeverance; and then to London for the pay of fome broken-up fhip in America; and after the poor fellow hath undergone this tirefome round of application, from one port to another, probably at the end of his journey, he will not find himself worth a guinea.-Indeed, fo trifling is the pay of those unthinking men, that I can eafily conceive many hundred of them will never be enabled to obtain their wages, under the prefent regulation, which muft eventually go to the finking fund-Thefe are grievances our feamen felt abundantly more in, and fince, the late war, than in all our former ones, and which have fo alarmingly contributed to excite the better part of them, to a determined refolution, of never voluntarily entering again into his Majesty's fervice.' This ufeful, and interefting little work unites practical with theoretical knowledge, and gives feveral directions and regulations which not only tend to the improvement of those who may be employed in active duty, but which furnith falutary hints to those who guide the grand move ments. ART. VI. Eleventh Report from the Select Committe appointed to take into Confideration the State of the Adminiftration of Justice in the Provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. 8vo. 2s. Debrett. HE committee appointed by the Houfe of Commons, in the courfe of their inquiry into the obedience yielded by the Eaft India Company's fervants to the orders of the Court of Directors could not overlook one of the most effential objects of the act of 1773, to prevent "the taking of gifts and prefents ;" this object forms the fubject of the eleventh t eleventh report, which exceeds every preceding report, in peevishness of style, in prejudice, and virulence against Governor Haftings. The reporters appear not in the character of candid and difpaffionate inquirers into the circumstances or fituation in which Mr. Haftings accepted the money which he afterwards employed in the public fervice; or in the character of difpaffionate judges on the whole of his conduct relating to money tranfactions: but in that of counsel at the bar, eager to fix upon him an imputation of guilt.Undoubtedly, if Mr. Haftings had been fo rapacious a perfon as the Committee alledge, he might have acquired a fortune far fuperior to that of any fubject in Europe. His moderate fortune repels, like a fhield, the envenomed fhafts of his enemies. In this pamphlet the Select Committee have wholly departed from the dignity of their rank and office; nor is their anger veiled, as in the ninth report, by ingenuity and eloquence, but appears in a coarfe and vulgar garb. This is not the production of Mr. Burke, but, probably that of General Richard Smith. ART. VII. Letters on Political Liberty. Addreffed to a Member of the Englith Houfe of Commons on his being chofen into a Committee of an affociating County. The fecond Edition with large Additions. By the Reverend David Williams, 8vo. 2s. 6d. Evans. F thefe letters, which now appear for the second time, the chief purpofe is to controvert the competency of the legislature or the parliament to reform itfelf; and to affirm that there is a referved power in the body of the nation to correct the abufes and to regulate and manage all the fundamental principles of its political constitution. In the profecution of his defign, the Author had to encounter writers of high reputation and weight. For the greatest part of those who have ftood up the advocates of liberty, have acquiefced in the opinion of Baron Montefquieu, that the interference and activity of the great body of the people in an extenfive territory or empire is impracticable. This opinion Mr. Williams is ftrenuous to confute; and it must be allowed, that in this tafk he difcovers acutenefs and ability. Almost all difputes, fays he, might be prevented by clear and honest definitions; and yet moft men diflike the effort of attending to them. I fhall avoid every thing of the kind, not abfolutely neceffary to the purpose of thefe Letters. If writers on government had always made and preferved the diftinction between Civil and Political Liberty, my trouble ENG. REV. Vol. III. Feb. 1784. G would would have been unneceffary; and I fhould have entered on other parts of my fubject. † Thus a Civil Liberty is the refult of laws or regulations, which define the boundaries of men's actions as citizens of the fame community, and leave them free within thofe boundaries. Political Liberty has a reference merely to the grand divifions of the state; the popular, the executive, and the legislative; and confists in their freedom from the incroachments of each other. community has no political liberty, whofe executive power influences or commands the legislature; or where the people have no regular and practicable method of checking and controuling all the branches of government, when they tranfgrefs their proper boundaries. A fociety therefore may enjoy civil liberty. i. e. all interference of individuals with each other may be regulated by laws; while no method may be afcertained to regulate the interference of the feveral branches of government, or the encroachments of any or all of them on the happiness of the whole people. We fhail fee hereafter that England furnishes a reafon for fixing the public attention on this important distinction. At the Revolution, and fince the acceffion of the Hanover Family, its civil liberties have been improved, while political liberty has been almost annihilated: and its conftitution now prefents to the view of the world, one of the most aukward and unmanageable fabrics which has ever been produced by human folly. That political liberty is as effential to a wife and happy conftitution of government, as civil liberty, as the legiflative or executive power, is demonftrable, as that three lines are neceffary to form a triangle, or four to constitute a fquare. All bodies, whether natural or political, have a principle of felf-prefervation refulting from their formation; from the union and harmony of their parts; and without which they cease to exift. The offices of all the members are diftin&t; and they cannot encroach on each other without inconvenience and mifchief. In communities, the legislative power deliberates and ordains; the executive puts the laws in force for the whole body; which muft have a principle of felf-prefervation, not only on account of other communities, but to provide against the erroneous and mifchievous exertions of its own members. Power, without a refifting and balancing power, is like a mufcle without a balancing mufcle, called the antagonist, which always diftorts, and may oc cafion a fatal diforder. A legitlation and magiftracy, without an actual power in the people to preferve their political and civil liberty, are abfurdities; or they are mafques for the features of defpotifm. A well-conftituted ftate must have a body of men to make laws; a perfon or perfons to reprefent the community to foreign nations, and to execute the laws for the prefervation of civil liberty; and a power left in the people (which I call its political li Montefquieu has made a diftinction between civil and political liberty; but not the fame with that in thefe and he has in no cafe adhered to it. berty) |