as to cause an inundation, by which a great number of farms were flooded and destroyed, and several hundred persons drowned. This great bar was after some time broken down and carried away by the weight of the accumulated waters. The disappearance of the river must have been occasioned by its falling into some subterraneous gulf, which it filled till the pressure upward became irresistible.

On traversing the territory from Drontheim to Röraas, a space of 113 miles, Mr. L. remarks, 'I do not believe we have met one single chaise, or more than one man on horseback, or more than five persons on the road. What a villanous country, might a Christian statesman truly mutter to himself, for 'finance, peculation, and ambition.'

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Röraas is a town of two or three thousand people on the confines of Lapland.

At a distance its appearance is miserable, the roofs being covered with birch bark, and turf, instead of tiles or slates, and the wooden walls not being painted. On looking among the neighbouring declivities, to descry the town, we have a difficulty of ascertaining that we see it. We perceive only a great number of little sloping plots of ground, with heaps of stones: these pieces of ground are the roofs, and these piles of stones are the chimnies. The environs are dreary and desolate, having been despoiled of their natural clothing, the forests of birch.' p. 79.

The place is famous for its copper mines, yielding, as our Author believes, the best metal of that kind; and it is inhabited chiefly by the families of the miners, a class of people exceeded in wretchedness of appearance, he says, only by fishermen. And certainly his picture of their personal economy will not be likely to excite the envy of any one, unless perhaps the idea should occur, that such a surface and garb, could they be suddenly acquired, would be a disguise that might defy the hunting inquisition of the messengers of justice. A curious description is given of the manner in which the miners sustain their waking and sleeping existence, when above the ground, crowded by hundreds in a sort of wretched barracks, where each man has a bare plank for the alternate uses of a dinner table and a bed. This is their lodgement during the part of the week that they are held in requisition for the mine, that is, from Monday to Thursday. If thus far they made but an humble and disgusting exhibition. they grew upon our Author's sens s and imagination to something almost formidable, when they had him down in their nether regions; where the long descent, the begrimed imps waving torches, the voices which seemed to sound lugubrious and sepulchral,' the explosions, and the thundering echoes, suggested to him, he

says, the idea of Erebus, and perhaps with a more vivid impression than he had ever received from classical description. He confesses he was not sorry to find himself restored to the world of day-light. He very properly avails himself of the remainder of the gravity forced upon him in this gloomy sojourn, and moralizes till it is expended, upon the topic of the balance and equality in the condition of mankind, with respect to the degree of happiness. He affirms that, in spite of appearances, the general adjustment is such as to place all classes exactly on a level; and for a specific illustration, draws out the items of the balance between a cultivated rover, himself for instance, and these squalid miners; of whom he doubts whether one could be found willing to exchange conditions with him, were it possible. It is in this section that he takes occasion to notice a remarkable circumstance of exemption or deprivation in the civil economy of the country, relative to the artificial inequalities of society; there has been no nobility for many ages. The order was extirpated, he says, by the ancient monarchy of the country, and it has been the policy of the Danish government never to create it anew.

The party drove gayly on, and in due time were met by some very expressive and animated signs of their approach to the civilized world; for what could be a stronger intimation of that delectable vicinity than the alarm of war? The news of the bombardment of Copenhagen flew through the country; the travellers were arrested as Englishmen, and conveyed to Christiania, and afterwards to Kongsberg, the Norwegian Verdun, as Mr. L. not unaptly names it; though it must be acknowledged that the prisoners had considerably less to complain of than their fellow-countrymen held in durance at that less remote fortress. They were treated with all the politeness and indulgence compatible with a state of custody, and a little tragic ululation introduced here and there can be taken only as a diversity in the Author's mode of amusing himself. They enjoyed nearly as much as they pleased of the most cultivated society in the country, could pursue their studies in whatever time was left for solitude, and, after about ten weeks, were set at liberty, and made off for Sweden. This little untoward adventure is, to the reader, an entertaining part of the story; and as to the heroes of it, they carried upon them no marks of the galling of fetters, no furrowed traces of grief and despair, during their rapid scamper through Gottenburgh, Orebro, Stockholm, Upsal, and Gottenburgh again, on their way to this country.

In the latter sections and in the Appendix, there is a variety of brief information concerning the history, religion, politics, and natural productions of Norway. Mr. L. goes back so far

as the fabulous period extending from the invasion of Odin, some time before the beginning of the Christian era, to the eighth century of that era. He represents that the imperfect amalgamation of the Asiatic invaders with the original population of these northern regions, is still apparent in the mutual antipathy between the Laplanders and Finlanders, the descendants of the original inhabitants, and the Norwegians, the descendants of the Asiatic intruders. He puts in chronological rows many rusty names of barbarous royalty, dug up from the tumuli of Scandinavian annals. He celebrates the formidable naval power by which, in the ninth and the tenth centuries, after the union of the petty principalities of Norway into one monarchy under Harold Haarfager, the Danes and Norwegians carried piracy and invasion to almost all the coasts of Europe. And in the thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries he finds them obeying the great law of mutability to which the states of the world have hitherto been subjected, and losing their maritime and commercial predominance.

He describes the political state of Norway, as it has existed during the last century, and as it existed at the time of the printing of this book, that has hardly yet lost the transitory scent of books fresh from the press; but which state is now a matter of almost forgotten history. The government, it seems, was perfectly despotic, and was rendered so in acquiescence with the wishes of the people a century and a half ago. And all the better, says our Author, has the case been with them since the matter was so settled. He says, that notwithstanding this remarkable act of voluntary loyalty, there is a spirit in them that makes it little less than a compulsory policy on the monarch to behave handsomely to them.

The ecclesiastical constitution is Lutheran and episcopal. The clergy are described as diligent and respected; and the false philosophy and the infidelity of the more southern states of Europe have hardly penetrated, at least have not manifested themselves, among the disciples of the Norwegian pastors.

There is nothing in Mr. Lamotte's book to provoke critical hostility. He is a lively, good-humoured relater of incidents and adventures, not pretending to the spirit either of ambitious enterprise or deep philosophy. He is successful in attempting to place before us the obvious features of a scene which is not yet rendered so familiar to us as to make us impatient of slight superficial sketches.

Besides an elegant map, the volume contains fifteen views, chiefly of very picturesque scenery, rather small, but beautifully etched by G. Cooke.

Art. III. The Evidence and Authority of the Christian Revelation. By the Rev. Thomas Chalmers, Minister of Kilmany. Small 8vo. pp. viii. 266. Price 7s. 6d. bds. Longman and Co. 1814.

TO urge a just claim on public attention to new discussions

of a subject already elucidated by every variety of talent, required at least an unusual degree of acuteness in remark, and felicity of composition. As there is no topic in which the interests of man are more vitally implicated, so there is none perhaps which has called into exertion the powers of the human mind to a greater extent, than that of the Evidence and Authority of the Christian Revelation.' Having originally, by the justness of its claims, forced its way in opposition to the passions and interests of mankind; having triumphed over the hostility of imperial power, and the despotic influence of ancient superstition; Christianity, patronised by temporal governments, adorned with the pomp, and guarded by the power of hierarchical establishments, at length obtained the right of prescription, was received without investigation, and for ages professed without conviction.

But the Christianity of popes and emperors, was not the Christianity of apostles and martyrs. The institutions of God had been corrupted, to serve the pride and ambition of man. When, therefore, the human intellect awoke from the slumbers of a long and dreary night, instead of finding itself conducted by the holy light of heaven, it discovered that it had been misled by a deceptive glare from the torch of superstition. Ceremonies and fables of man's device being blended with the pure mysteries and sacred truths of religion, derived support from its authority, and veneration from its sanctity. Truth was indeed united with the error, but was so concealed by the prominence of the false, that in the mind of the superficial observer, they became identified. When freedom of inquiry succeeded the servility of implicit faith, it was soon discovered that much which had been received as resting on the authority of God, had no better origin than the selfish policy of man. Indignant at the thought of being enslaved by names and titles, of being deceived by the tricks of pontiffs and priests, but unhappily not distinguishing between the pure and the corrupt, men began not only to doubt the claims of revealed religion, but to impugn it as a public offence against the rights and happiness of mankind. In avoiding the error of those who received every thing sanctioned by the Church as true, it was easy to fall into that of rejecting every thing as false. Every thing previously esteemed sacred, became the jest of the witty and the contempt of the profligate. Persons even of better principles and of stronger minds, could not secure themselves from the influence of prejudice or of fear. Since the doctrines of faith seemed all to rest on the same authority, and

since many could not be true, why might not all be false? This was not less hoped by the bad, than it was feared by the good, and hence originated an almost universal inquiry into the evidence and authority of the Christian faith.'

The investigation was commenced with activity, and carried on with vigour, but the issue was not long doubtful. Wholly regardless of the decrees of councils and the mandates of popes, it was soon found that the history of Jesus Christ was a faithful history, and his doctrine worthy of all acceptation. Infidelity and scepticism, driven out of the field, dispersed themselves into companies, and occasionally skirmished from their hidingplaces. Instead, however, of accomplishing their purpose, their efforts served only to call forth fresh aid in defence of the cause they opposed. The industry of research and acumen of criticism, employed on this subject, are without parallel; and the number and variety of proofs on which the hopes of the Christian may rest, have accumulated almost beyond conception. The facts on which the argument depends, have long, been familiar; and it might naturally have been inferred that new efforts would but tend to weaken its force. Mr. Chalmers, however, has shewn that the subject was not yet exhausted; that observations new and interesting might still be adduced with considerable effect.

Whatever impression we felt on learning that an essay on this subject, contained in the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, was announced for separate publication, we now fully coincide in opinion with the advisers of that measure, and consider this little work as a valuable acquisition to the cause of truth and piety. Could we suppose that sceptics of the present day would come to an investigation of the claims of Christianity, with the same integrity of understanding which they would bring to a subject of literary speculation, we might hope that enough is presented in this Treatise, to leave infidelity not only without excuse, but without an advocate. The case of unbelievers now, and more especially in this country, we consider as exceedingly different from that of the unbelievers among whom infidelity took its rise and obtained the widest diffusion. In Roman Catholic countries, where belief is totally independent of evidence, and where evidence would frequently fail, it is not surprising that revealed religion should be discredited. Where superstition is predominant, it expected only a sufficient degree of independence to demand proof of what we are expected to credit, and of penetration to discover that that proof does not exist, in order to reject it; but when it is a religion descended from heaven, and accredited by many independent and unimpeachable witnesses, that solicits acceptance, if we then refuse assent, the event must be attributed,