very respectful terms. The sentiments which they inculcate are judicions, pious, and benevolent; the remarks which occur in them are frequently highly instructive and interesting, and the language in which they are delivered is always neatlandreasy, and often animated and energétic. ****

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The volume of " Discourses preached on several Occasions, by John Erskine, D. D. &c." is another publication which does honour to the talents and to the piety sof the respectable author. It will not entitle him, indeed, to an excalted station among those popular -orators whose compositions are distinguished by their superior correctness and elegance, but it will secure to him a respectable place in the class of judicious, serious, and instractive, divines. Some of these discourses relate to the qualifications necessary for Christian teach ets, the duties of the pastoral office, and other collateral subjects, and 5 may be perused with profit both by the clergy and the laity. Others * contain tree, but candid, strictures non abuses in the constitution and practice of the northern ecclesiastical establishment, of which the au-, thor is a member. The remaining discourses, which compose the vo-Jume before us, are on, miscellaneous subjects, and contaio many valuable observations and useful interesting remarks.

ciously confined himself to such as are of a practical and useful tendency; and his manner of treating these is pious, affectionate, and impressive. Occasionally his remarks and reflections possess more novelty and animation than we perceive in the common collections of this description. Subjoined to the sermons is a number of hymns, suited to the respective subjects discussed.

From among the numerous single sermons and charges of the year 1799, we can only select a very few for par ticular notice, which come recommended either by the peculiarity of the occasions on which they were delivered, the excellence of their matter, or the celebrity of their authors. In this number is " a Sermon preached before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 1799, by Shute, Lord Bishop of Durham. This excellent discourse we insert with the higher degree of pleasure in our Catalogue, because, unlike the greater part of Fast Sermons which have been published for some years past, it is not composed of political declamation, or adapted to kindle or maintain either a spirit of na tional pride or of implacable resentment, but is, in sentiment and language, judiciously and piously suited to a day of public humiliation and repentance. From Luke, xii. 1-5, the worthy prelate takes accasion to enforce the doctrine, "that Almighty God, in the dispensation of corrective evil which he is pleased to carry on in this world, punishes some in order to afford a warning to others; that, if those others do not take warning by the example, they shall assuredly fall by the same hands; incur, not per

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to be upon the watch against the adversaries of our holy faith; and by the excellence and value of the greater part of the means which he points out, for effectually counter acting their hostile attempts. What he says, in particular, on the subject of the most prevalent impediments to revelation, on that of private exhortations for the purpose of removing the doubts of persons staggered in their religious principles, and on the high importance of setting before their flocks patterns of good and exemplary conduct, is deserving of the most serious consideration of the clerical order.

The "Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Chichester, at the primary Visitation of that Diocese, in the Year 1798, by John, Lord Bishop of Chichester," contains excellent pastoral advice and admonition, relative to the necessary qualifications for, and the proper discharge of, the peculiar duties of the clerical office. When adverting to the former, the bishop, with great propriety, recommends to his brethren a particular attention to the study of the Scriptures in their original languages, together with that of the laws, manners, doctrines, traditions, and history, of the Jews, and of the Christian ecclesiastical history from the apostolic times to the present. While enforcing on them the peculiar duties of their ministerial appointment, his lordship dwells, with earnestness, on two topics of unspeakable import-ance in respect to the influence and usefulness of the clergy; parochial residence, and catechetical lectures. In the censures which he passes on e the negligence and disobedience to y the canons of the church, which some clergymen discover with re-1spect to these and some other points of conduct and character, to which

In the department of Philosophy and Ethics, distinctly con sidered, we do not recollect 'any publication which demands insertion in our annual list, excepting Ancient Metaphysics," vol. VI. This volume, which is entirely theological, is the last publication which lord Monboddo lived to finish, and contains his demonstration of the being and attributes of God. Our readers have been made fully acquainted with the general character of our author's metaphysical labours, in the accounts which we have at different times laid before them, to which we have given 2 reference in our Register for the year 1797. The multifarious' matter in the volume before us, which is intended to establish the argument à priori, on the principles of the ancient philosophy, and with a perfect contempt of that of the moderns, who have not derived “ their learning from Egypt, the parent country of all arts and sciences ;" the peculiar and well known strain of the author's reasoning, and the equally well known singularity of his speculations, will sufficiently justify us in barely announcing the appearance of the present volume. Out of proper respect, however, to the author's memory, we must add, that the theological notions reffect honour on his piety and on his philanthropy.

The

The "Discourse on the Law of Nature and Nations, &c.iby James Mackintosh, Esq. although partly of an ethical nature, relates chiefly to the science of jurisprudence, and has therefore been reserved, by us for the list of treatises under the head of Government, Law, and Po litical Economy. It is introduce tory to a course of lectures deliver ed in Lincoln's Inn Hall, during the present year, in pursuance of an order of the honourable society of that inn, from which a nume rous attendance received very high gratification. It contains an outline of the plan designed to be filled up in those lectures; and whether considered in point of matter, or composition, is highly honourable to the learning, talents, and fine taste, of the author. Our outline of that outline must necessarily be inadequate to convey to our readers any proper idea of its merits: but it will enable them to form some judgment of the rich variety of entertainment which Mr. Mackintosh provided for his auditors, in tracing the connexion that subsists be tween the most abstract and ele mentary maxims of moral philosophy, and the most complicated controversies of civil or public law." After some preliminary observa tions he enters into a brief history of the progress and present state of the science which he has undertaken to illustrate, and enumerates, and characterises the ablest writers

the subject paying to Grotius, who, by the advice of lord Bacon and Peiresc, first reduced the law of nations, to a system, an eloquent aud animated tribute of applause. In the next place our author details the plan of his lectures, which is divided into six parts. In the first he proposes to give a simple and intelligible account of the powers

and operations of the human mina In the second, he intends to rest of the duties of private men towards each other, considered apart stron the sanction of positive lawsma The third part is to be employed in considering man under the important relations of subjects and sovereign, or, in other words, of citizen and magistrate; under which will be investigated the forms and peculiarities of the most celebrated governe ments of ancient and modern times, concluding with those of the English constitution. The fourth di vision of the author's subject is to consist of a discussion of the general principles of civil and criminal law, and a comparison of the codes of Rome and of England. In the fifth part, Mr. Mackintosh proposes to treat of the laws of nations, strictly and properly so called; and in the sixth, of the diplomatic and conventional laws of Europe, exemplified in treaties, compacts, &c. with a view of their principles and of their consequences. We have been the more diffuse in our notice of this introductory discourse, on account of the importance and magnitude of the author's undertaking; and the promise which the work before us, and the author's well known abilities, afford, of a vast fond of instruction and entertainment, which, we hope, will not be confined to the attendants at Lincoln's-Inn Hall.

"The Politician's Creed, con Poli litical Extracts, being an Answer to these Questions, What is the best: Form of Government? What is the best Administration of Governmen? by a Lover of Social Order," volta II, is the continuation ofla works announced by ug in our Registers: for the years1794, and 4795.9 its is now generally orderstood; thatǝ the ingenious Dib Thornton, welta

known