whether our delight does not spring from a secret sympathy with that ambition of superiority, that indignant pride, and that implacable resentment, which are the predominant passions exhibited in this celebrated poem. If we are exalted into rapture in the reading of Milton, we should strictly question ourselves, whether it is not more from the proud adventurous opposition of Satan, and his rebel host, than from a view of the character and perfections of the Almighty, manifested in his condescending grace to man, and in the execution of his righteous vengeance upon his enemies. Or (to descend from this height) if we are enchanted with the dramas of Shakspear, (one of the great idols of the time,) we should examine, whether it is not rather in consequence of the sympathy we find with the vitiated spirit and manners of the world, than of the pleasure we derive from any just views of nature and human life that may occur in the works of this extraordinary genius. It may be said, indeed, that our delight may arise from the talents displayed by an author, separate from the morality of his performance; but the truth is, that, to a truly virtuous mind, misapplied or prostituted talents can only be an object of grief or indignation."

Such are what we deem some of the errors in this work? but it also frequently abounds with beautiful passages, some of which we willingly point out :"It would seem difficult to imagine a character more entirely sunk, and devoid of all respectability, than that of an old worn-out sportsman, the vigour of whose days has been wasted in mere animal exertions, and whose memory is stored with nothing better than the history of hares and foxes, of rustic adventures | and perilous escapes, and who dreams away the evening of life, like the hound sleeping upon his hearth, in retracing the vain images of his wild and sportive

excursions."

With the following just reflections, Mr. Bates concludes his section on the pleasures of a devotional

retirement:

Observations upon the Present State of the Finances of Great Britain; suggested by Mr. Morgan's Supple ment to his Comparative View, and by Mr. Adding ton's Financial Measures. By Thomas Peregrine Courtenay, 8vo. pp. 95. Budd, 1803.

This pamphlet deserves more attention than the generality of the publications to which that name belongs, both on account of its subject, and the ability with which it is treated. The author is by no means an inferior artist in that species of stile, which we would denominate the Pitt stile, from its similarity to the mode of expression adopted by that celebrated gentleman, both in speaking, and writing. To this praise too of the stile of Mr. Courtenay, must be added that of an acquaintance, greater than most men possess, with the public accounts of this country.

The object of the pamphlet appears to be two-fold, to defend the financial measures of Mr. Pitt, and to prove the absurdity of some of those of Mr. Addington.

One of the most formidable antagonists of the financial reputation of Mr. Pitt has been Mr. Morgan, who in the year 1801, published a work, entitled, "A comparative view of the public finances, from the beginning to the close of the late administration." In this the author set to view the vast expenditure of the late war, and the additions made by it to the national debt. He endeavoured to prove that these additions had been made in an extravagant and prodigal manner. He attempted to shew that the provision made by Mr. Pitt to support the charge thus occasioned, was incompetent. He pretended to point out erroneousness in certain estimates of that minister. He produced reasons from which he thought it might be inferred that the revenues of the state would prove inadequate to its ordinary expences. And from all this he prognosticated the approaching ruin of the country.

"There are few situations among those that come under the description of a devotional retirement, which seem, on the whole, to be more eligible than that of a pious clergyman, called to minister to a plain and serious people, in some sequestered part of the country; and whose time is divided between his closet, his church, and his parochial visits. This succession of duties must render each of them the more pleasing and useful; the devotions of the closet will be a happy preparation for public worship; which, in its turn, will make way for more personal counsels and admonitions in his private interviews; and these will supply A number of champions, as it was natural to sup him with fresh matter for his own prayers and meditations, pose, sprung forth to defend this admired political and direct him in his addresses from the pulpit. Such a leader. Mr. Courtenay, here tells us that he was of course of piety, private and public, amongst a people sepa- this number, as the author of an anonymous pamrated from the bustle and fashions of the world, and phlet, entitled Remarks on Mr. Morgan's Comparative seriously disposed to receive instruction, as it could not fail to produce the happiest effects, must, to a good man who View. A second edition of Mr. Morgan's book has is so engaged, be a source of unspeakable satisfaction. If lately been published, with a supplement, continuing it is pleasing to the farmer, for his grounds continually to his view of the public accounts, through the years improve under his care, while some are taken from the 1801 and 1802, but not making any corrections in waste, and converted into good arable and pasture, and the any of the opinions or conclusions stated in the forrest ameliorated and made more productive; it must be still mer edition. An attempt, however, to load with admore pleasing to the moral cultivator, to see the fruit of his ditional weight the charges against Mr. Pitt, by the labours in the conversion of sinners, and the edification of events of these two years, has appeared to Mr. Courthe righteous; to see the human field whiten to the harvest, tenay to demand anew the employment of his pen in and grow meeter for the heavenly garner; while he himself fully partakes in the general progress. And, lastly, if to Mr. Morgan ascribes the greater this concordance of private devotion with external duties part of the public burdens, which have been accumu and their happy fruits, there is added the comfort of domes-lated during the administration of Mr. Addington, to tic life, little is wanting to fill up that measure of human the consequences of Mr. Pitt's administration. On felicity so elegantly described by the author of The Seasons: this Mr. Courtenay makes a few palliating remarks;

the same cause.

yet hardly attempts to deny it. But the charge which those in the late war, which last appear to be consihe shews most eagerness to repell, is that Mr. Pitt derably the lowest. But Mr. Courtenay should releft a funded debt of vast amount, without any ade-member that if the country was improved as much quate provision, an omission which his successor was obliged to supply by adding more than two millions to the permanent taxes of the kingdom.

from the termination of the American war, to the termination of the late war, as Mr. Pitt and his friends represented it to be, the interest of money ought to have been greatly lowered since the time of the American war.

Mr. Morgan gave it as his opinion that several of Mr. Pitt's taxes would prove deficient on the return of peace. Mr. Courtenay's triumph over this opinion, as far as experience can yet be appealed to, is complete; not only the general revenue, but the branches particularized by Mr. Morgan, rising in produce.

Mr. Pitt greatly over-estimated, even according to Mr. Courtenay, the surplus of the consolidated fund, for 1801. In justification of this action, Mr. Courtenay says, that to over-estimate the consolidated fund in time of war is of very little consequence, but it is an extremely bad thing in time of peace. His reasons are, that in time of war, people are making loans at any rate, and exchequer bills are always kept in circulation; but these things ought not to have place in sion are the order of the day in time of war; and you can huddle in errors of this kind among the rest; but this does not prove that errors of any kind are less pernicious in time of war than peace.

This charge respects the 87 millions of debt, contracted on the credit of the income tax, which was intended to be continued till that debt should be paid off. We must confess that Mr. Morgan's opinions here appear to us to stand unshaken by the batteries of Mr. Courtenay. That gentleman launches out into a praise of the income tax, on account of the depressed state of public credit when it was imposed, and the improvement which took place after its imposition. All this may be very conclusive in favour of its imposition, and its continuance during a war which occasioned so much alarm that people were willing to submit to any thing. But if that tax could not be continued beyond the war; and if Mr. Pitt imposed a burden upon it which required its continuance beyond the war; all that part of such burden which remained unremoved, when the war was finished, was left without an adequate support. Mr. Pitt fully confes-time of peace; that is to say, borrowing and confused, that it could not be continued beyond the war, when he gave his hearty support to its repeal. Therefore when he calculated upon its continuance beyond the war, and contracted, upon the credit of it, a debt of 87 millions, beyond what it paid during the war, After this vindication of Mr. Pitt's financial meahe was deceived in his estimates, and left a debt of sures, our author proceeds to the attack of Mr. Adhis making, of $7 millions, to be provided for by dington's budget of December last. And first he his successors. Whether blame or not be due on this praises vehemently Lord Grenville, and his attack upaccount to Mr. Pitt, is another question; but the fact on the same budget in the House of Lords, on the is indisputable. He did leave 87 millions of funded 13th of May. He then finds fault with the reducdebt without an adequate provision. Nor is it possi-tion of expenditure which the minister promised. But ble to deny that this must have added greatly to the difficulties of his successors.

his chief objection, ushered in with wonderful pomp, is to the estimate of the surplus of the consolidated Mr. Morgan and Mr. Courtenay differ in their ac- fund. His first mighty cause of discontent is, because count of the charges of the public debt about half a the minister estimated the fourth quarter of the year million; Mr. Morgan including in his statement the which was still to run, according to the produce of interest and management of the stock transferred to the three quarters, which were passed; though this to the commissioners for the reduction of the national an ordinary man would appear no bad rule. But his debt on account of land tax redeemed; Mr. Courte-grand charge is that of an error with regard to the nay contending that it ought not to be so included. Here the latter is right; and Mr. Morgan's opinion that credit is taken for the revenue which arose from this tax, because the annual two millions, voted to the crown upon the credit of it, are made good from other sources of revenue, is incorrect. The praises which Mr. C. bestows upon the sale of the land tax, as a financial measure, are merited. It certainly raised the price of stock; and the interest of the debt, redeemed by the purchase money, was greater than the produce of that part of the tax which was sold. Government ceased to receive annually that part of the land tax which was sold; but it ceased at the || same time to pay annually the interest of the debt which was redeemed with the money got by the sale; and that interest was the largest sum. The nation, therefore was a gainer to the amount of the difference. Our author vindicates Mr. Pitt from the charge of raising money on exorbitant terms, by producing an average estimate of the terms of the loans in the American war, and a similar estimate of the terms of

bounties on corn. However, we cannot possibly, for our part, see the reason why he should forbid the sum which had been brought from the supplies of the year to replace the monies paid out of the customs for bounties on corn, to be included in the surplus of the consolidated fund, any more than the reason why he should refuse to let a sum for the bounties not yet repaid by parliament be so included. Till he make these points a little more clear, we shall look upon Mr. Addington, and Mr. Morgan's statements as right, and Mr. Courtenay's as wrong. At any rate, the difference in Mr. Courtenay's estimate, is only £1,800,000, not nearly equal to the acknowledged crror of Mr. Pitt in 1801. But, says Mr. C. the estimate of Mr. Pitt was for a year in which loans were making, and exchequer bills in circulation; therefore Mr. Pitt's estimate was admirable, and Mr. Addington's, abominable. Excellent partisan !

Next comes the budget of the 13th of June; and the only part of it to which our author urges any particular objection, are the ways and means for the

support of the war. The new taxes will not, he says, by any means, produce the sum at which they are estimated. What he urges as reasons of this opinion are too vague to deserve any particular attention. But a professed panegyrist of Mr. Pitt, ought to remember that if there is any doubt of the productiveness of the new taxes, it arises altogether, from the degree in which every source of revenue was drained by the expence of last war.

He is very angry that Mr. Addington's income tax is not called an income tax; and vindicates, with great warmth, Mr. Pitt, from any insidious design by his proposed amendment respecting the stockholders. After this he mentions his displeasure at several things in the pamphlet of the "Near Observer."

He derides the idea of the Minister, that this war can be carried on at 26 millions a year, when he con siders, that the 5 last years of the late war cost at an average 33 millions. This is possibly not a conclusive reason. He thinks the taxes will fall short of the estimate at least one-fourth; and that instead of an annual loan of only six millions, as the minister stated, one of at least 12 millions will be necessary for the service of the war.

general principles, we readily allow her a considerable degree of astuteness, and of genius. The original letters are printed with a translation. One fault we have to find, is with the length of the preface, and with some expressions not altogether correct: such for instance, as the mighty canvas of the Recolutionthe transfusion of his conscience into the bosom of friendship.

The following interesting letter on the education of the Dauphin; with Miss Williams' comment, will enable our readers to judge for themselves. (Translation,)

Letter of LEWIS the XVIth to the ABBE

Paris, March 11, 1791.

"You ask me, Sir, for such instructions as may be fitted to direct the education of the Dauphin, at that tender age when the passions are yet dormant, but when reason furnishes the child with the disposition and the means of improvement.

for

"These instructions appear to me the more necessary, as there are but few works extant, proper to serve as guides preceptors, and to train up a child with usefulness. I send you a series of reflections which have been suggested to me by the study of good writers, and which I have endeavoured to simplify as much as possible. I have performed this task with the zeal dictated by a father's tenderand the feelings of a man deeply penetrated with the duties which belong to that rank which my son is called to fill by his birth.

"Now upon this supposition, says he, we shall be enabled to carry on the war for ten years, by two simple, thoughness, strong operations: first, by making perpetual the new war taxes, or any others, so as to add six millions to the permanent revenue;-and, secondly, by doubling the income tax, making it ten per cent. as in the last war—and also making perpetual half of this. The other half may continue to be carried to the supplies of the year, thus leaving a necessity of raising nine millions of the twelve required, by way of loan.

The interest of ten such loans, with the ordinary provision for their redemption, taken together at seven per cent. will amount to £6,300,000; but in addition to this, we must provide for the deficiencies which will be occasioned in the war taxes, as they shall be gradually made perpetual. These will amount to nearly £35,000,000 and the annual charge to £2,450,000. The total permanent expence to be provided for, will thus be £8,750,000; for which we shall have the six millions, for which I have taken credit, and the five per cent. upon income.

One of the most curious particulars in the pamphlet, is an intimation, that we may, if it be necessary, intrench upon the sinking fund, for the purpose of carrying on the war. Few reflecting men doubt, that matters will come to this, if not in the present war, at least in one not very distant. But this is the first recommendation of the measure which we have seen in print. It is curious that this should come from a friend of Mr. Pitt.

But he takes care to blame very sufficiently, Mr. Cobbet, for mentioning a measure, which is exactly the second in order to his own, we mean intrenching upon the payment of the interest of the national debt. M.

The Political and Conndential Correspondence of Lewis
the Sixteenth; with Observations on each Letter. By
Helen Maria Williams, in Three Volumes, 8vo.
Robinsons.

These valuable historical documents are edited by a female who delights to expatiate amidst the wilderness of politics, and though we are not partial to her

"You have to form the heart, and perfect the moral and physical faculties of a child.

66

Example, seasonable advice, praise bestowed with address, and reproof tempered by mildness, will awaken in the heart of your young pupil a tender sensibility, the dread of doing wrong, the desire of acting well, a laudable emulation, and the wish of pleasing his preeeptor.

"Few books, but those well chosen, elementary works, clear, concise, and methodical, agreeable occupation, which, without burdening the memory, excites curiosity, inspires a taste for study, and the love of labour, will soon form the mind of a well organized, docile, and studious child.

66

Extracts often repeated, walks, and rural labours, the toils and pleasures of which the preceptor should partake, and which may be limited to the cultivation of a small garden; a few sports with children of his own age in the presence of the master; such are the infallible means of preserving the child's health, of saving him from the languor of idleness, and of strengthening his constitution.

"You ought to fix the hours of your studies, your walks, and your manual occupations, so as to render them commodious to yourself, and useful to the child.

"I will set apart some moments to instruct my son in geography: the first elements of history will be unfolded to him; and we will lay before his young mind the annals of antient and modern nations.

"I should not be displeased that my son made himself acquainted with some mechanical art, in the moments of leisure or recreation. I am well aware that people blame me, and make it the subject of pleasantry, that I handle the tools of the smith, whilst I wield the sceptre of kings. One of our super This taste I inherit from my ancestors. latively-sage philosophers has made an apology for me in his writings; and this perhaps is all I found good in his Emile, all at least that appeared to me worthy of being excused.

"Let the principles of the different branches of knowledge be engraven on my son's memory: I despise superfi cial minds; they are ignorant, presumptuous, and more liable to error than other men.

But on these dogmas the world has long since decided; and Lewis the XVIth himself was in this point an

MISS WILLIAMS'S OBSERVATIONS ON THE LETTER OF LEWIS THE XVIth. TO THE ABBE ***. "Various have been the treatises on education writ-involuntary sceptic. ten for the use of those who are destined to govern. "Laws," he observes in the same letter," are the Conscious that on the virtues, and more especially on pillars of the throne: if the laws be violated, the the instruction of the great, depend the happiness or people think themselves absolved from their allegiance. misery of nations, and judging with the poet how The history of civil wars teaches us that it is almost rarely a king, born on the throne, is worthy of filling || always governors who have been the causes of the it, generous minds have been anxious to instil into effusion of human blood." If resistance to power be the breast of princes such maxims as might render justified by kings, and the foundation of royal authomore light to the governed, the quantity of evil they rity be the opinion or will of the people, the altar were legally destined to bear. In ordinary times, the which demands implicit submission to its decrees, and education of princes is fashioned by the custom of abhors all laical intrusion, must be less an ally than courts, and partakes of the nature of the government || an incumbrance to the state. they are born to regulate: it is in times of civil discord, that the people gain some chances in their favour, by teaching such as command, that those also have some rights who obey.

"It appears also from this letter, that the king, in the early part of his reign, had wandered into the mazes of modern philosophy, and had entertained opinions as heretical with respect to religion, as he now seems disposed to admit with respect to politics. He here cautions the preceptor to beware of those erroneous principles, which are the offspring of novelty, of the spirit of the age, and of infidelity. This caution is commendable: but the application,

"But, although exhortations of this kind have been frequent on the part of subjects, it is seldom that the world has been favoured with such manuals of instruction by kings. Lewis the XVIth, having undergone one of those salutary lessons, in which the people mingle as tutors, was qualified to become so him-made by the king, is perhaps as erroneous as the prinself; and we find, in his precepts to the preceptor of his son, many wise observations, which do him honour as a man, mingled with others less laudable, which appertain to his profession as a prince.

"The physical, moral, intellectual, and even chanical qualities, which he recommends as proper to instil into his son, are in general just. Those who blamed him for mis-spending his own time in hammering the anvil or turning a screw, might still less readily excuse him for teaching his son the art of a mechanic: yet this fastidiousness is perhaps too refined. Had it not been an hereditary taste, which is a sufficient answer to gainsayers, it was at least a profession acquired. He has the example of J. J. Rousseau also to plead for this favourite part of education, which, it is observed, is the only good thing the king found in this whimsical writer. It is certainly a wise thing, in an age of revolutions, to instruct the great in the knowledge of the useful and liberal arts. Had Denys of Syracuse been as ignorant as he was princely, he might have been the servant, instead of the master, of a school at Corinth.

for

ciples he condemns. Between the submission which shrinks from the enquiry, and the presumption which decides without proof, there is a middle term, avowed both by religion and true philosophy. It is not the me-investigation of the evidences for the-being or attri butes of God, the mode of homage due to him, the true constitution of a Christian church, or the nature and extent of the divine law, which is irreligious: religion invites this examination, nor fears even the attacks of false philosophy. These attacks may have been occasionally rude, and irreverent: but our ene mies are sometimes our helpers; and religion, disencumbered of its abuses, rises only more glorious from the contest. This error belongs, however, to the system; and the king may be pardoned mistakes in judgement, into which men more enlightened, and as piously disposed as himself, have fallen. But while we note these blemishes in his letter, the offspring of a well-disposed mind, let us honour his those excellent qualities which belong to other parts of his character. We have had occasion to notice more than once, in the course of this correspondence, the habitual horror of the king at the idea of shedding human blood: this salutary abhorrence he is strenuous to impress on his son. Knowing how difficult it is for those who possess power not to abuse it, he forewarns the preceptor that his pupil will be one day but too strongly tempted to imitate such of his ancestors as were distinguished only by their warlike exploits. It is not the biography of heroes, whom he represents as dangerous meteors laying waste the earth, which Lewis XVIth conjures him to select for the studies of his son; but the lives of princes who have protected commerce, enlarged the sphere of knowledge, who have amended mankind by their example, enriched them by projects of general usefulness, and secured to them the blessings of peace.

"Still more praise-worthy and important is the counsel which Lewis the XVIth gives with respect to the inculcating religious opinions on the mind of his

son.

He had himself strong devotional feelings unhappily it was devotion built on ignorance; and, as the strongest affections, when ill-directed, prove most injurious, he fell the victim of his errors. He had so far misunderstood the nature of religion, as to suppose it a term synonimous with power. "Prove to him," says Lewis, that the authority of kings comes from God." The preceptor would have been strangely puzzled to have made out this demonstration. "His exhortations against infidelity, falsely called philosophy, are also good in the abstract: but we may doubt the solidity of his axiom, that the altar is the rampart of religious kings. The altar, we have been assured, is sometimes the ally of despotism, and claims, like the authority of kings, divine original.

memory

"Upon the whole, if there be some of those maxims which bear the stamp of professional preje dice, the greater number, and such as the king is