Ah! once the life-blood, pure and warm, The lovely Foreigner fhould helpless die, The profits that may arife from the fale of this publication will be appropriated to the ufe of the fociety to which the ode is addreffed. ART. 28. Obfervations concerning the Medical Virtues of Wine. In a Letter to Dr. Buchan; by a Gerileman of the Faculty. To which is added, an Account of fome remarkable Cures performed by the Tokay de Elpagna; with other Matters which are new and well worth the At tention of the Public. 8vo. 1s. Stuart and Stevenfon, Martlet-Court, Bow-Street, Covent Garden, 1786. The writer of this letter difcourfes very judiciously himself, and quotes the authority of fundry respectable and eminent phyficians, in order to evince the falutary effects of wine on the human body; its influence as a preserver of health, and in the cure of difeafes. He then proceeds to give an account of a great variety of cures performed, particularly by the Tokay de Efpagna; from which it would appear, that this wine poffeffes all the medical virtues which have at any time been attributed to the best wines.-The author is of opinion, that, would phyficians prefcribe wine to their patients, in proper quantities, and take care that they fhould have it pure, generous, and good, they would find it fuperior to all the other articles of the materia medica put together As the analysis of nature is more perfect than that of art, fimples, when equally efficacious, are preferable to compounds. DIVINITY. ART. 29. A Letter to the Clergy of the Dioceft of Chefter concerning Sunday Schools. By Beilby, Lord Bishop of that Diocefe. 8vo. 1s. Payne. London, 1786. After fhewing the neceffity of taking fome fteps to correct the morals of the lower clafs of people, Bishop Porteus fhews us the efficacy of Sunday fchools for that purpofe, and warmly recommends them on the following confiderations, viz. the great facility of efta-blifhing and fupporting them, the expence of inftructing twenty children not rifing annually to five pounds; the very imall degree of learning propofed to be taught in them, which will neither indifpofe nor difqualify the learners for the moft laborious employments; the habits of industry thefe fchools will occafion, as the children are taken taken off from their employs but one day in the week; and the habits of piety and devotion they will encourage, it being part of the plan that the children fhould, with their teachers, conftantly attend divine fervice, morning and evening; and it being found, that, as parents are eager to have their children admitted to these schools, if the committee, or truftees, would make a point of enjoining such pa rents to attend themselves, as the price of their children's admiffion, and as the means of fetting them a good example in their own conduct, it might be a bleffed means of increafing a religious principle in the people in general, and work out a reformation of manners where it is most wanted. Annexed to this letter is a plan for the establishment and conduct of these schools, calculated for those who may be inclined to fet them on foot. ART. 30. Sermons, by J. N. Puddicombe, M. A. Fellow of Dulwich College; late of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. 8vo. 5s. Payne and Son. London, 1786. Fourteen discourses on the following texts: Luke ix. 41, 42. 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22, 23. Luke ii. 14: Pfalm cxxxix. 9, 10. Song of Solomon ii. 10,11,12. Rev. ii. 10. Rev. vii 17. Acts xxiv. 25. Job xiv. 2. Rev. x. 1. Rev. xii. 1. Rev.xx.11,12. More calculated to display the preacher's oratorical abilities, than to edify his hearers. They are pretty flowery compofitions, but declamatory, and interfper ed occafionally with paffages from Milton, Young, &c. As a fpecimen of the language, take the following apoftrophe as a paraphrafe on the text of the fecond fermon, viz. "If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermoft parts of the fea, even there fhall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand fhall hold me " O Thou! in whom we live, and move, and have our being! Firft, effential caufe of all things! Thou great, invigorating foul of nature! That thou art ever prefent-ever vifible we acknowledge with an enthufiaftic joy; yet blended and chastised with that reverence which the thought of thy omnipotence neceffarily infpires. Wherever we turn, we behold thy bounty and wisdom fully difplayed.--To reafon's purer eye thou fhineft forth in the meanest object that creation prefents; in the inanimate and senseless part of the material world, as well as in the living and active. Direct we our eyes to what is beautiful and alluring in the variegated profpect round us? thou art there all perfection, benevolence, and love. Or contemplate we the rude and tremendous, with which the fofter charms of nature are fo majestically blended? there too thou appearest in a form which produces on the mind the moft fedate and folemn impreffions. We trace thy footsteps alike on the lofty hill, and in the deep defcending valley; in the gloomy wood, and in the expanded plain. Infpired with facred tranfport, we fee thee fmiling, as it were, in the flowers and verdure which clothe the meadews in fuch fimple elegance and charming variety. The fanning breezes breezes diffufe the odoriferous exhalations of the fields around, and the whole air is fragrance; but all this richness of perfume is thy breath alone. When the birds, fweetly warbling their artlefs notes on every bough, fill the groves with mufic, thy voice is in the melody. Amidit the brightness of the rifing morning thou art feen, unutterably glorious, inimitably fair! And when fill evening approaches, and the grey twilight gently fhadows all things, in the milder landscape we behold thee, though arrayed in lefs fplendour, yet not lefs adorable and lovely. We hear thee in the whispering gale of fpring, and in the tempeftuous blaft of winter,' &c. St. Paul, whofe example we should follow, preached not fo. His reafoning was plain, nervous, and demonftrative; his arguments ftrong and powerful; every word he uttered pierced" to the divid ing alunder of the joints and marrow;" and every fentence was conviction to the finner: but the preachers of modern times study the oratory of the theatre more than of the pulpit; and affect more the dramatist than the apostle. This volume is dedicated to the Rev. Dr. Prettyman, prebendary of Westminster; and is patronized by near two hundred fubfcribers, ART. 31. Sunday Schoals recommended, in a Sermon preached at the Parish Church of St. Alphage, Canterbury, on Sunday, December 18, 1785. By George Horne, D. D. Dean of Canterbury, and Prefident of Magdalen College, Oxford: With an Appendix concerning the Method of forming and conducting an Etablishment of this Kind. Published for the Benefit of a Sunday School. 4to. 1s. Robinson. This is a plain fenfible difcourfe on pfalm xxxiv. 11. "Come ye, my children, hearken unto me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord;" recommending Sunday schools for the inftruction of the poor; fhewing the advantages of them to fociety; and anfwering all the objections that can be brought against them. The first inflitution of this kind was commenced by Mr. Raikes of Gloucefter, at his own expence, and it has been followed in many parishes; fo that there are not at this time lefs than one hundred thouLand children, from seven years of age to fourteen, attending these fchools in different places. They are called together an hour before the morning fervice, taught to read, inftructed in the principles of religious and the focial duties, and attended by their teachers to church; and in the afternoon they are called again at two, attend the evening fervice, and spend two hours afterwards in the fame laudable employ.. The expence attending fuch a school has hitherto been but one thilling a week to each teacher, man or woman, and a few books given to the children. It is evident to every períon of understanding, that were fuch schools univerfal through the kingdom, that is, established in every parish (and as there is a public affociation forming for this purpofe, and fubfcriptions collecting, there is little doubt but that, in a few years, it will be the cafe); we fay whenever this happens it must be evident that fociety will wear a new face, and we shall have less occafion to recur to the penal laws than at present. In the Appendix, we have an account of the fuccefs of two or three of thefe fchools, the expences attending them, their difcipline, and the lefons there taught. 1 For For the ENGLISH REVIEW. NATIONAL AFFAIR S. For MAY, 1786. TH GREAT BRITAIN. HE curiofity of the public, concerning Mr. Pitt's mode of ap plying the finking fund to the reduction of the national debt, has now been fully gratified. Commiffioners are appointed for buy ing stock from the PUBLIC for the PUBLIC: and, among thefe commiffioners, we meet with the name of the SPEAKER of the House of Commons. Thefe things afford great variety of matter for reflection. In the first place. it has been questioned, and on very plaufible ground, whether the measure of impofing taxes for the payment of the national debt be founded in political widom. The refources and wealth of nations, where no fad reverse of fortune happerts, like those of individual families, as well as their expences, have a natural progreffion and improvement: and, if the public burden be increased, the public ftrength is increafed alfo. The exceffive impofition of taxes has a manifeft tendency to conftrain and cramp, or to break, or to drive into exile, that fpirit of industry and enterprize on which the national profperity is ultimately founded. Inftead of raifing, by the chilling hand of taxation, an annual furplus of one million fterling, it may be made a fubject of speculation, whether the remiffion of the moft oppreffive taxes, to that amount, would not be a more political, as well as a more pleafing expedient. When a gentleman's eftate is in danger of being deferted by its tenantry, it is dangerous to rack their rents: and, even if there is no danger of desertion, it is not always good economy in a landholder to fcrew out of his tenants the very utmoft that is poffible; because, if his eftate be improvable, it is better that a little money be left in the hands of the induftrious farmer, to enable him to go the full length of the higheft cultivation. The estate being once highly improved and populous, it is an eafy matter for the proprietor to draw advan tages from thefe circumftances. The reafoning implied in this cafe, between the landholder and the tenant, may be applied with additional force to the relation between government and her fubjects: for government has abfolute power over the people, which the landholder has not over his tenants. 名言 Secondly. It is a question, whether an annual furplus of one mil lion fterling might not be employed to greater national advantage in wife encouragement to all manner of useful exertion, and, which is every thing, population; than in certain approaches, for they they would be but approaches, towards a reduction of the public debt. To divide, appropriate, and colonize the foreft and wafte lands; to encourage the fisheries, and, in general, all manner of industry, by increafing the public revenue, would reduce the debt in the eafieft, and fureft, and safeft, and fweeteft manner. But, perhaps, if we were to inflituté a comparison between the fimple remiffion of the hardest taxes, and the granting of bounties, or other kinds of encouragement to industry, it would be found that falutary laws alone, with the remiffion of odious and oppreffive burthens, would be more beneficial to the ftate than the application of a million fterling, every year, in the various forms of encouragement to exertion. For, experience has proved that public fums, allotted for the encouragement of industry, have very rarely, if ever, produced the beneficial effects defigned, and, with plaufible appearance of reafon, expected. Men have ingenuity enough, in a corrupt and cunning age, to convert the public money, intrufted into their hands for the purpose of encouraging merit and exertion, inte a fpecies of private property; for fuch in reality it is, when diftri buted among relations, dependants, and partizans, for the purpose of fupporting perfonal influence and authority. What mighty effects have been produced by the appropriation of the forfeited eftates in Scotland to public purposes? Salaries to commiffioners, and to an oppreffive and fhameful race of men called factors, to land-meafurers, to any man who could make intereft to be employed in any whim or project, however fanciful and abfurd, exhausted an annual income, which fupported men that threatened a revolution in the civil government of Great Britain. Douceurs to factors, and submiffions of various kinds to the commiffioners, eafily procured advantageous leafes, and lucrative employments, under various names; and thus the public revenue was loft to the public. To continue the allufion to the landholder and tenant; if a gentleman wishes tò give encouragement to the hands of an active but rack-rented tenantry; that he should remit directly a part of his exactions, than to hire a fet of ftewards and factors to diftribute prizes among them.-Be fides all this, the expence of collecting the million fterling, by remitting it at once in a judicious manner, would be faved to the public, as well as the expence of maintaining commiffioners for diftributing it back again, in the form of premiums among the people. Again, as commiffioners, appointed to apply public fums to public purpofes, are very apt to convert them to private defigns, on their part; fo, thofe perfons who are allured by public rewards to employ their skill, industry, or capital, in any particular business, find means fometimes, as in the cafe of the bounties on the Scotch herring fisheries, to obtain the reward without ferving the end for which it was appointed.-Upon the whole, it feems queftionable, whether the very best thing the minifter could do for alleviating the public burthen would not be, to make wife laws, to remit the million iterling proposed as a finking fund, and to leave the people, as much as poffible, alone. It may be faid, that we cannot go on to borrow money, in cafe of a war, without a finking fund. To this it may be answered, that it is |