it has experienced from the only part of the community, whofe good opinion we are anxious to acquire, have thought it prudent to affume the mask of moderation, were exhibited in the copious extracts which we made from the pamphlet before us in our last number. We shall now proceed to give fome farther fpecimens of the fame kind, and also avail ourselves of the opportunity here afforded us for difplaying the principles of the Monthly Reviewers, and the object of their labours, in a true light. Our good friend, PETER PORCUPINE, is thus refcued from the fury of thefe critical harpies,

"In the Critical Review upon that celebrated work, Thoughts on the Emigration of Dr. Priestley,' the critique is throughout replete with the most illiberal animadverfions, grounded, the Reviewers fay, upon the abuse, bestowed by Mr. Cobbett upon (their friend) the Doctor; now the fact is, Mr. C. in his pamphlet only bestowed a gentle flagellation upon one of the most abufive writers that ever difgraced the annals of literature, who received no more than his ftrict due in the measure he had fo frequently meted out to others, for the Doctor even made a merit of feafoning his controversial writings with perfonal abuse; and was not afhamed to make fuch men as Beattie, Ofwald,+ and Balguy,‡-Objects of his effrontery and virulence, men as far fuperior to the Doctor's little fophiftic meanness as their integrity was to his abominable maxims of expediency.But if it had not been fo, ought the Judges in a Court of Literature to have difgraced themfelves through the fervour of their party zeal, to a level with any contemptible fcurrilous fcribbler? The truth

*"If arrogance and infolence be an indication of pride, Dr. Beattie, has no fmall fhare of it, though it may hitherto have efcaped his own fearch. Modest Dr. P's examination of Reid, Beattie, &c. P. 26."

+"As to Dr. Ofwald, whom I have treated with the leaft ceremony, the difguft, his writings gave me was fo great, that I could not poffibly Thew him more refpect. Indeed I think him in general not entitled to a grave anfwer, and accordingly have, for the most part contented myfelf with exhibiting his fentiments without replying to them at all. Modest Dr. P's Examination of Reid, Beattie, &c. P. 26.”

"What must people think to fee thofe who are appointed to in ftruct them in the principles of religion and morality, folemnly fubfcribing to articles of faith which they are known to difbelieve and abhor; and who, among the clergy that read and think at all, are fuppofed to believe one third of the thirty-nine articles of the church of England? Inave fo good an opinion of Dr. Balguy's GOOD SENSE, notwithstanding the futility of this performance, as to think it is a thousand to one but that he himself is an unbeliever in many of them. Priestley on Firft Principles, P.214.

is this, Mr. C. in the pamphlet before us, appears to be a genuine chriftian, a zealous patriot, a true philanthropist, and an able man, Their partiality to the Doctor's principles is, in this inftance, obvious. I fupport my affertion by an appeal to their own difgraceful language. We have probably bestowed more attention upon this pamphlet than it may be thought to deferve. It is certain that, in point of fourrility, falfehood, impudent and unfounded affertion, the author puts all competition at defiance,

None but himself could be his parallel.'

And a pamphlet which no good man could read without complete difguit, might have been difmiffed with the brevity of contempt.'

"This, depend upon it, is all because Mr. Cobbett is a vigorous oppofer of the grand confpiracy; and, as far as can be determined from his writings, a truly, good, and honeft man:* So much, however, for the candour and impartiality of this Review: we come now to its veracity, It is ftill, however, neceffary to add, (continue the Reviewers,) that although it is faid to be printed at Philadelphia, there are eircumstances which induce us to believe that that country has not the difgrace of producing its author. From internal evidence, from the occafional affected turgidity, yet general vulgarity and petulance of the ftyle, from the total difregard to decency and liberality, from the redundance of unqualified affertions, and the unblushing logic that deduces pofitive conclufions from known falfehoods, we do not hesitate to afcribe it to the pricking of that ftiletto, which has more than once been employed to confute men's principles by ftabbing their characters.'

"Now I honeftly declare I have my reafons for believing this whole paragraph a defigned falfehood, fabricated for the fole purpose of emitting party rancour and ftudied abufe, with the uncharitable defign of prejudicing, and that in the most unfair manner, the public mind against this incomparable pamphlet; and they are, first, that I believe the courage of the Critical Reviewers, and the gains which this review produces, (fo fond are the people of purchafing the most deleterious poifon from quacks of all defcriptions,) to be fuch, that I am fully convinced, they durft not have hazarded fuch an attack upon fuch a man, if they had not been tempted to run the rifque from the fallacious hope that they were fafe in point of distance from the keen ftrokes of his vigorous pen.

"And in the fecond place it is obfervable, that an artifice, fimilarly mean, is made ufe of to difcredit the ftriking confeilion of Mr. Watt, made with eternity full in view.-It is, however, pleasant to think that low cunning is not unfrequently defeated by the meannefs of its

That Mr. Cobbett really is, what this writer from his publications fuppofes him to be, we can vouch, from authority that cannot be queftioned.-REVIEWER.

Own

own artifices; and it is highly probable that an abused public will, ere long, know as well to determine the degree of credit due to the af fertions of this Review, as they have already been taught to do to thofe nefarious, diurnal, and weekly journals, which have long been as certainly doing the drudgery of the confpirators, as they have been diftributed by them throughout the kingdom in an unusual fecret

way.

It is, indeed, comfortable to a contemplative mind, friendly to the human race, accustomed to dwell long and often upon its own family forrows, as well as the miferies of the wretched emigrants, to obferve the eyes of the nation at length completely open to the dan gers with which it was menaced; and to notice the tide of opinion, too long diverted by faction from its natural course, setting in fo ftrongly against the confpirators, that England our native country, amidst not only the wreck of Empires, but Social Order itself, promifes fair, furrounded alas! by ruins, to continue the land of, RE. LIGION, LIBERTY, COMMERCE, and AFFLUENCE.

MONTHLY REVIEW.

"We advert now to the MONTHLY REVIEW-in which the cri tique upon the Confiderations on the Proclamation of Governors, &c. (which appears to have been the production of one of the illu minati abroad) runs thus: We wish the Auftrian and Pruffian troops could read thefe confiderations, many of them might thereby have their eyes opened to the iniquitous defigns of their arbitrary Leaders, and might be induced to lay down their arms. Then much blood might be faved, the fhedding of which, however calmly it may be confidered by Kings and Princes, muft deeply afflict the feeling mind of every good man, and fincere christian, even if the cause of liberty fhould ultimately prevail, and much more if the cause of flavery fhould be triumphant.+

"The latter fentiments in this quotation, and the drefs in which they appear are fo exactly analogous to thofe found in a Faft Sermon which I had before occafion to examine, that I hesitate not in attributing them to the fame, hand, and this leads me to recollect an af fertion which I frequently heard fome time ago that the two Fathers of the unfaithful were mean enough to practice a low mode of deception upon a generous but unwary public, by reviewing each others works for the vile purpose of giving them an unmerited celebrity; but I had no conception before I entered upon this examination, that this was a general fyftematic plan acted upon by all the

**«The reader will clearly find in the above extract, LIBERTY and KINGS placed in direct oppofition to each other-is any thing further neceffary to prove the Monthly Review decidedly REPUBLICAN?" + Monthly Review, Vol. IX. P. 99.

Re

Reviewers, in this abominable scheme, with the most diabolic of all defigns. I am now, however, convinced, that it is not impoffible for thefe honourable men even fometimes to review their own dear precious morfels, to gratify their predominant vanity, and give a deadly influence to the poifon they collected at W— -ton and H-ÿ', with the benevolent purpose of treating us with such a dish of liberty as is ferved up for their constituents by the prefent rulers of France.

6

for a

"With regard to the farther connections of this Review with the confpirators, the artful manner in which it endeavours to laugh the people out of their well-grounded fears of the confpiracy, is very much to our purpose. In their critique upon the Correspondence of the Revolution Society in London, with the National Affembly, &c. they begin, What impudent rogues thefe members of the Revolu tion Society must be! after being convicted by Mr. Burke, of having engaged in a confpiracy with the enemies of their country, purpofe nothing fhort of fubverting the whole conftitution of GreatBritain; they have the effrontery not only to avow, but juftify, their wicked plot, and to publish their correfpondence in the face of day!From this correfpondence it appears that the members of a vile faction at home, have combined with a faction no less vile abroad; and that they have mutually bound themfelves, by the moft folemn promifes and declarations, to expofe, by every argument in their power, and to use their utmost influence in difcountenancing all tyranny, corruption, bribery, intolerance, war, and bloodshed, in their refpective countries; from which it is manifeft, if they fucceed in their daring attempts, that three very ancient and notable crafts, viz. that of the Politician, that of the Prieft, and that of the Warrior, are in no fmall degree of being fet at naught-Such is the evil brought to light, &c. &c.'

"This I conceive to be an artful mode of doing mifchief; it has, however, fo happened, that time has fufficiently developed the defigns of the reformers in France and Ireland; and, confequently, the artifices of the Review, in endeavouring to conceal them in England till the plot was executed, ftand in this inftance completely expofed; nor is their approbation of the grand confpiracy lefs obvious both from the ftyle of their critique and its declarations. We find, indeed, in this Review, many excellent fentiments, as we generally do in the moft diabolical performances, for vice itself is always administered with a mixture of apparent good to make it for a moment lovely. We find likewife great deal of fpecious fophiftry, which the limits prefcribed to our pen allow us not to expofe in the manner we could wifh; we muft, therefore, reft contented with having fuggested at least a few particular modes of examination, by which the UNION may be as affuredly traced through a certain defcription of British Literature, as through the affemblage of United Irith, who have published the difgraceful duplicity of British Senators, in the ftrong language of infurrection and rebellion.

"Of the New Annual Register it is fufficient to intimate that the reader will find the fame opinions in politics approved, and the fame

facts

facts endeavoured to be fubftantiated in hiftory, as he has already found in the UNION REVIEWS; and as he may likewife find in every publication iffuing from the fame contaminated fource. It is, I think, an indubitable fact, (I take Doctor Priestley in part for my authority,) that a hoft of writers has been for years fyitematically ar ranged to fap the foundations of fociety, and undermine christianity, for the exprefs purpofe of overturning the British Conftitution, (many of them educated, as I hinted above, with this intent, fome in novels, fome in plays, fome in poetry of various fhapes and fizes; and that their publications have been deffeminated with a fedulity unparalleled in any other other age of the world: that pocket-books, newspapers, and hand-bills, have been made the vehicles of fedition through the land; nay, that metaphyfics, law, hiftory, religion, and all kinds of literature, have been artfully contaminated with the principles of treafon and rebellion; and from this I think it is evident, that a fcheme exactly fimilar to that defcribed by Robifon as existent in Ger many, by Baruel as extant in France, is vigorously proceeding against our best interests.

"This being the cafe, it is undoubtedly the duty of every literary and religious character, who has no hand in this infidious butinefs, immediately to rally round the conftitutional banners, to make a common caufe in defence of religion and real liberty. If it is a duty to refift every attempt at enflaving the body, it can be no lofs fo to refift that fyftem, the object of which is to enflave the mind: if the con fpirators have clandeftinely endeavoured to monopolize an influence over the bookfellers and literature in general; by means of the Re views, our first step is to attack thefe publications, and remove all prejudices in their favour as foon as poffible from the public mind. If they have introduced thefe periodical works into the public libraries. inftituted for the purpofe, with a view of gradually overturning right principles, let us ufe our endeavours to counteract this intention in the moft effectual way, that every independent man coming out as a writer may once more be affured of a fair and candid hearing; and fince in thefe times religion is evidently made a mask, particularly amongst the diffenters, for the worst of purposes, let the more truly religious reflect, that fince the facility of procuring books has become general, and the practice of reading much more univerfal than it used to be, let the truly religious, I fay, confider that the duty of a chriftian mi nifter no longer confifts only in addreffing his audiences frequently upon the ever important fubjects of the gofpel from the pulpit, for it is af furedly in thefe awful and critical times his abfolute duty, if poffeffed of abilities for the conflict, to attack the infidel in his ftrong holds of literature, with the torch of manly reafon in one hand, and the word of God in the other; he will, thus armed, foon find the ene. my's entrenchments imaginary like the enchanted caftles of old; or tranfitory like the mountains which are compelled by omnipotence to flee before the ftrong faith of a real christian: but if we neglect to adminifter the antidote from the prefs as well as from the roftrum, the poifen, which has already been fo artfully infufed by a nameless va