XXXIII. The CONSTITUTION of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Civil and Ecclesiastical. By FRANCIS PLOWDEN, Esq. Barrister at Law, with a portrait of the Author, by King. Svo. boards. pp. 562. Ridgway. take σnvowosos in the sense of a' tent'maker;' but the same objections which I have made to the other applications of the word may be made likewise to this. And if Aquilas, who was of the same trade with St. Paul, was a tent-maker, it must seem extraordinary that a man, who was a native of Pontus, in the neighbourhood of which country there were nations who lived in tents, should parts, the former illustrating the Tparts, come to Corinth and Ephesus, where tents were not wanted. "But the preceding difficulties are entirely removed by the following passage in Julius Pollux, from which it appears that nos has properly a very different meaning from either of those already mentioned. This learned writer says in his Onomasticon, lib. VII. § 189. that oxnYOTOL95, in the language of the old comedy, was equivalent to unxavoroos. Now nxavolos signifies a maker of mechanical instruments;' consequent ly St. Paul and Aquilas were neither saddlers nor tent-makers. And this profession suited extremely well their mode of life; for whoever possesses ability in the art, can earn, in a few hours every day, as much as is necessary for his support; and can easily travel from place to place, because the apparatus is easily transported. It is, therefore, extraordi. nary that no commentator has hi therto taken onvooing, Acts xviii. 3. in this sense; and still more extraordinary that Julius Pollux has been actually quoted for a very different purpose, namely, to caution the reader against ascribing to σκηνοποιός, Acts xviii. 3. the sense which is given it in the Onomasticon of Julius Pollux. Such commentators must surely have never reflected on the advantages which attend this sense, and the difficulties which attend the others." p. 184—186. * To; de Max avons a GUNVOTO185 παλαια κομμένα ανόμαζε. Though Julius Pollux says that axvodo; was thus used in the old comedy, and does not quote any living authors, yet it must be observed that the words used in comedy are the words of common conversation, though not always used by authors. HIS work is divided into two civil constitution, is subdivided into eleven chapters, and the latter relating to the ecclesiastical, contains ten chap ters. Part I. OF THE CIVIL CONSTITU- Chap. I. commences with a view of the magnitude and importance of the subject, and states, that the object of the work is simply to delineate the constitution of this country, gives a panegyric on its excellence, and a description of its true basis, concluding with a plan of the work. In this chapter we notice the following remarks: To the true lovers of our constitution nothing should be more acceptable than the possession of a faithful likeness of it, taken at some critical period of its existence which may survive the changes and blemishes of disease and wounds, and retain the native beauty of its form in despite of nature, time, and violence. Enthusiasm, however laudable in those who enjoy this blessing, ought not to shut out reason, or close our eyes to the inseparable attribute of mortality, which attends every hu. man institution. The learned Mon tesquieu says, that whoever reads the admirable treatise of Tacitus on the manners of the Germans, will find that it is from them the English have borrowed the idea of their political government. This beautiful system. was invented first in the woods. He then predicts, with a degree of assurance, which an Englishman reluctthat as all human antly admits, things have an end, the state we are speaking of will lose its liberty; it will perish. Have not Rome, Carthage, and Sparta, perished? It will perish when the legislative 'power shall be more corrupted than the executive.' To defeat, or at *Spirit of Laws, s. xi. c. 6. least to ward off as long as possible, the prediction of this great man, is my wish and view in marking this publication." p. 4. 2. Our author considers the Rights of Man fairly acted upon to be the true basis of the British Constitution. His ideas on this subject are clearly explained in the course of the work; and here he observes, "It is not because revolutionary France has thrown Europe into a feriment, nor because Mr. Paine has libelled the government of this country, that we are to renounce our possession of any constitution at all, or raise its superstructure upon any other than the very basis upon which it really stands. "In the prosecution of my researches I shall follow the order which the subject naturally prescribes. I shall consider man first in the state of pure nature; then in that of society; and lastly, in the state of the British Constitution." p. 5. Chap. II. on the state of nature, shews the necessity of previous considerations into the state of nature, with the true view of that state, and source of modern errors with regard to it.-Opinions of Locke and Montesquieu. Commencement of social order according to the former. Rights of man in the state of nature retained in the state of society, and rights of the community. On these topics the author argues : "In the state of pure nature, the most perfect equality of mankind must necessarily exist, because it represents man in an abstract point of view, that essentially precludes all those circumstances, which in the state of society, form various grounds of distinction, superiority, and preeminence, amongst individuals. The fundamental idea of man, in this state of nature, must have been that of equality in his fellow-creatures; and, as a rational being, he must have been impressed with a conscious idea of bis superiority over all irrational objects; and, by inference, he must have inclined rather to a similar precedency over his fellow-creatures, than a submission to them; for the effects of weakness, apprehension, and fear, which some philosophers have attributed to man in the state of nature, must have arisen from the internal sense of mortality, and the principle of self-preservation, not from an original or innate tendency to subjection to any created object. The idea of superiority was prior in man to that of dependence. The latter could never have occurred to him, till he had found out his wants, till he had felt his insufficiency to supply them. Independence then was es sential to the state of nature, and hence is deduced the original right of option, to whom each one shall chuse to surrender his independence by voluntary submission. "In this theoretical transition of man from the state of nature to the state of society, such natural rights, as the individual actually retains independently of the society are said to be retained by him as a part of those rights which he is supposed to have possessed in the state of nature. Such are the free and uncontrouled power of directing all his animal motions; such the uninterrupted intercourse of the soul with its Creator, such the unrestrained freedom of his own thoughts; for so long as an individual occasions no harm, and offers no offence to his neighbour by the exercise of any of these rights, the society cannot controul him in the exercise of them. But in this transition the natural rights were considered to be so irrevocably transferred from the individual to the community, that it no longer remained at his option to reclaim what had become unalienably vested in the body at large." p. 9, 10, Prosecuting this subject, the Author contends, that the exercise of the natural rights of man is impossible, describes an Englishman's ideas of liberty, and the object of man in entering into society, which he concludes with observing, that "man's natural rights are the foundation of all his civil rights." (To be continued) ORIGINAL CRITICISM AND CORRESPONDENCE. MR. EDITOR, HA TO THE EDITOR. WAVING been many years accustomed to look over the Gentleman's Magazine, and to consider it, upon the whole, as a respectable publication, judge how much I must have been surprised to read such lines as the following, at the back of the Title Page, in what is called, an "Ode that may suit the New Year, 1802." "Bellona's red chariot and smoking hot steeds Are drawn by, and a something like peace now succeeds; And John Bull, grown half frantic, roars out loud for lights. He thinks well of the French-I wish them at the deuce. (Signed) I shall not attempt to criticise the poetical merit of these lines, which, as well as the rest of the rhimes, would disgrace any London bellman; nor will I remark on their profaneness, which is sufficiently obvious; but this I must say, the spirit that can thus cooly and heartily wish the massacre and damnation of thirty millions of souls, must not be that of man, but of DEMOCRITUS, Junior. a fiend, and of a fiend too of the deepest malignity. I cannot but hope Mr. Urban did not see these lines before he printed them, and that he will cancel the polluted leaf that holds them, or I must conclude he has forfeited all the urbanity of his name. I am, Sir, yours, &c. W. T. SIR, TO THE EDITOR OF THE MONTHLY EPITOME. OBSERVE that in your Prospectus, 19 you allow authors, who conceive themselves to have been ill used by their Reviewers, to make an appeal to the public in your department of correspondence. The desirableness of such a mode of appeal is equally obvious with its liability to abuse. Authors are too frequently of the genus irritabile, and may sometimes think themselves injured, when nobody else thinks so. You will probably not always find it easy to distinguish necessary appeals against the secret tribunal of a reviewer from such as are frivolous and vexatious. Perhaps the rule of conduct which will be most convenient to yourself, most comfortable to your readers, and most creditable to the appellants themselves, will be to reject invariably every complaint which exceeds the limits of civility and good temper. If, in what I am about to addres to you, I shall fall into the evil I am cautioning others against (which is no uncommon case) I hope you will prevent me from exposing to the public so gross an inconsistency, by suppressing this communication. It would be the more inexcusable in my circumstances, as they are not attended with equal provocation to that which some writers have had to endure. Indeed I have rather to remonstrate than to complain; and that, not on account of treatment which I have experienced from Re tiewers, but of misrepresentations which some of them have made of a subject that fell under my discussion; otherwise I should, not think it proper to trouble you with remarks relative to a single sermon, of which a second edition was published last year. I advert to that which treats of the religious character and circumstances of the late William Cowper, Esq. It has been noticed in most, if not all, of the numerous reviews, and reviewing magazines, with which the public is supplied; and I know not that in more than one instance I have, on my own account, any ground of complaint:-even the ANTI-JACOBIN Reviewer, to whom I now refer, though he has not attacked my sermon with the spear of Ithuriel, may be said to have used that of Telephus; for if he calls it enthusiastic, he allows it to be pious: if silly, sensible; and, if vulgar, yet elevated. Nay, he has done less injury to me than to himself by so paradoxical a description; for though he has made very copious extracts from the sermon, he has distinguished no part of it to which the disgraceful division of his epithets applied. In terms of which the profaneness has drawn public animadversion from another hand *, he censured me for omitting to specify the academy where I received my theological instructions, and the congregation over which I was ordained. I then thought, and I still think, myself of too little consequence to trouble the public with such points of information. The religious character of Mr. Cowper, the influence which the doctrinal sentiments he professed had upon his mind, and that which genuine piety produces upon the affections in general, are of far greater importance. On these topics, therefore, permit me to avail myself of your publication, in remonstrating against some remarks, both of the Anti-Jacobin Reviewer, and of a more respectable hand, the British Critic. Having described the terror and distress which Mr. C. felt, upon an awful occasion, previous to his profession of religion, I added, "While in this state, he was visited by the late reverend Martin Madan, his first cousin. By explaining from the *See a note in the Rev. R. Hill's Apo logy for Sunday Schools, 117 Scriptures the doctrine of original sin, Mr. Madan convinced him that all mankind were on the same level with himself before God. The atonement and righteousness of Christ being set forth to him, Mr. Cowper discovered therein the remedy which his case required."-What can you think, Sir, of a critic, who, in animadverting upon this passage, avows his disposition to wish Mr. Madan at the devil? This phraseology, in which it is doubtful whether piety or elegance is most conspicuous, is that of the Anti-Jacobin Reviewer. In a very recent publication, writrelates, that his accomplished broten by the late W. Cowper, Esq. he ther, the Reverend John Cowper, expressed himself on his death-bed, relative to the circumstance just mentioned, in a very different manner. don," said he to his brother, "aud "When I came to visit you in Loafound you in that deep distress, I would have given the universe to have administered some comfort to you. You may remember that I tried every method of doing it. When I found that all my attempts were vain, I' was shocked to the greatest degree. I began to consider your sufferings as bility to alleviate them as a judgment a judgment upon you, and my inacame, he succeeded in a moment. upon myself. When Mr. Madan surprise ine now-he had the key to This surprised me; but it does not phi, p. 31. Such was the language your heart, which I had not." "Adeland eminent in literature, when upon of a man, respectable in character, the verge of eternity. Might it not be useful for Reviewers sometimes to anticipate a death-bed? Though they ment of persons with whose characare now concealed from the resentters they sport, they should be aware that God is not to be mocked. The Anti-Jacobin Magazine was professedly introduced for the support of religion and loyalty; but scurrility and proand the more so in proportion to its faneness are disgraceful to any cause, excellence. To the BRITISH CRITIC I am, as a writer, indebted for considerable indulgence. He gives me credit for having carefully endeavoured to guard against an abuse of Mr. Cowper's remarkable history; but he suggests that I have left untouched the root of evil, by allowing my readers to re pressions, however, lead me to appre hend, that he considers religion only as a principle of action; without regard to its influence upon our affections, as they relate to God, our fellow creatures, or ourselves. I will add no more, except a few words upon a subject of inferior importance. The CRITICAL Reviewer of my Sermon stated that it was preached at the place of worship where Mr. Cowper had been used to attend. I imagine this mistake arose from the religious intercourse which subsisted between him and a great part of the congregation to whom I addressed the Discourse. Mr. C. however, statedly attended the parish Church at Olney, while be continued to join in public worship. A large proportion of the church people at Olney having been present when I preached, and many of the dissenting hearers having been equally acquainted with Mr. C. I addressed them as persons who could unite their testimony with mine to the excellence of his character. 1 am, Sir, Yours, &c. gard the movements of their affec- SAM. GREATHEED. TO THE EDITOR. I know not how far the following ob- A. Z. O person in the habit of seeing ignorant of the great number of tracts lately put in circulation relative to Dissenters; and the perpetual murmurs of certain Churchmen relative to the abuse, as they call it, of the Toleration Act. At length some have fairly spoken out, and the Author of a certain "Letter to the Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England" (printed for Corbett and Morgan) plainly tells us, that as things are, the Act of Toleration "is become the disgrace of our statule books, and |