cafes to fhow we have not yet fufficient proof of the fuperiority of vaccine over variolous inoculation, totally to abandon the latter, which from the great improvements lately introduced into the mode of conducting it, is become as innocent as the cow-pox is fuppofed to be, and more certain in its prophylactic power than the cow-pox can, at prefent, be proved to be. The author is particularly difpleafed with the patrons of vaccination for mifreprefenting the danger of the fmall-pox, and has laboured to show, that the mortality from that difeafe is not nearly fo great as it is reprefented. But though he is zealous in defending the fuperior advantage of variolous over vaccine inoculation, yet he carefully avoids ufing offenfive language. He would not, it is probable, be averse to compromifing the matter, and if the vaccinators would leave off infulting the variolators, in the provoking manner they are too much accustomed to, and fuffer families to adopt the one difeafe, or the other, at their difcretion, they would, we believe, hear no more of his objections to their practice. For our parts, who are naturally lovers of peace, knowing that conquerors rarely get any real advantage by their victories, we fincerely recommend a truce, at the leaft; between them, and that they fhould ceafe to blacken each other in the unchriftian manner they have lately employed. They will find that the question, whether the cow-pox is a fecurity against the infection of the small-pox, the principal subject of their contention, will ultimately be decided in a manner that can admit of no controverfy; as well as the other queftion, whether any new disease may be introduced into the conftitution by the cow. pox. For as, in addition to half a million of perfons who have already paffed through the difcafe, feveral thousands are vaccinated every year, fhould it prove defective as a fecurity, or injurious by contaminating the juices, the victims to it muft in a very few more years be fo numerous, as no longer to be conccaled; and the cow-pox will, in that cafe, be as much, and as generally fhunned and detefted, as it is at prefent followed and commended.

ART. 19. A fort Detail of fome Circumftances connected with Vaccine Inoculation, which lately occurred in this Neighbourhood; with a few relative Remarks. By R. Dunning, Surgeon. 12mo. 42 PP. Price Is. 6d. Murray. 1805.

Mr. Dunning, who has ever been a zealous champion in favour of the cow-pox, has now to relate the hiftory of a cafe of fmallpox occurring in one of his patients two years after the had gone through the cow-pox. The fmall pox was of a very favourable kind, but diftinct enough to be clearly afcertained. That fuch a circumftance fhould occur excites in him no furprise, and occafions no alteration in his fentiments as to the prophylactic power of the cow-pox. We ought not to expect more from it, than from the fmallpox, which he has feen occur twice in the fame fubject. The fame cafe is related by Mr. Goldfon, but with a very different commen

tary.

tary. For our part, we think a few folitary cafes of this kind, out of the vaft multitude in which the patients have been kept fafe from the infection of the fmall-pox by vaccination, ought not to excite alarm, nor to difcredit the practice.

BIOGRAPHY.

ART. 20. Memoirs of C. M. Talleyrand de Perigord, one of Bonaparte's principal Secretaries of State, his Grand Chamberlain, and Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, Ex-Bishop of Autun, ·Ex-Abbé of Celles and of St. Dennis, &c. containing the Par ticulars of his private and public Life, in his Intrigues in Bon doirs, as well as in Cabinets. By the Author of the Revolutionary Plutarch. 2 Vols. 12mo. Izs. Murray. 1805. The life of a revolutionary Frenchman contains always many things too atrocious to find general belief in England. This is certainly the cafe with the prefent life of Talleyrand, the chief objections to which, that we have heard alledged, have arifen from this fource: Yet the author regularly quotes his authorities, which may doubtlefs be appreciated by thofe who are converfant in the French publications of that period. Some very curious letters of Talleyrand, particularly during his miffion to England, with Chauvelin, are taken from a work entitled, "La Correfpondence d'infames Emignés," which is in feveral volumes. The picture given of the English patriots, as they called themfelves, of that time, that is the members of correfponding focieties, &c. is, we doubt not, very accurate. Of fifty the most popular patriots, the oracles of newspapers, the toafts of taverns, and the heroes of clubs, who have waited on me, or whom I have met elfewhere, there was not one who did not begin his converfation with re lating his disinterestedrefs, praifing his great zeal, and extolling his great fervices in the cause of liberty, but who did not alfo faith by announcing his great loffes, and demanding great fums of money. From what I comprehend of the reports of my fubaltern agents, the fpirit of avarice and corruption is very general ainong the inferior claffes of the English patriots; either because they really are beggars, and for want of another, have made liberty their trade, or on account of their innate and national thirft for gain, even in the nobleft undertaking, or for the most generous achievements." Vol. I. p. 256.

He then complains, almoft equally, of the English ministers, and of the oppofition members, for their coldness, reserve, and distance.

The author of this, and other fimilar works, is, we understand, a refpectable emigrant, who attefts many of the circumstanc s which he relates, on his own knowledge. See our account of the Revolutionary Plutarch, Brit. Crit. vol. xxiii. 259, and xxiv. 332.

Ꮓ

BRIT, CRIT, VOL, XXVII, MARCH, 1806,

ART,

DIVINITY.

ART. 21. The Reality of the Powder Plot vindicated from fome recent Mifreprefentations. A Sermon preached before the Univerfity of Oxford at St. Mary's, on Tuesday, Nov. 5. 1805. By Ralph Churton, M. A. Archdeacon of St. David's, Rector of Middleton Cheney, and late Fellow of Brazen Nofe College. 4to. 29 pp. 1s. 6d. Rivingtons and White. 1806.

One of the moft acute advocates for Popery of modern times, Dr. Milner, who wrote the Hiftory of Winchefter, having attempted, as this writer fays, "to diftort what he could not deny, robbing the atrocious machination (of the Powder-Plot) of half its horror, and God our deliverer of half his praife;" it is the object of the prefent difcourfe to reeftablish the authenticity. of the common account, and fpecify fome of the providential circumstances, which attended the discovery of the plot. "It has been the conftant belief of Catholics," fays Dr. Milner, "that the Secretary Cecil fecretly excited and directed that most infernal confpiracy called the Gunpowder Plot." To this Mr. Churton replies, that, "if they do fo believe, it is not only without, but against all evidence." He then goes into a part of that evidence, and fhows the futility of thofe allegations of former writers, which tended to throw any part of the blame on Cecil. He dwells, with propriety, on the narrative called "Gunpowder Treafon," originally printed in 1605, and faid by Speed to have been written by the Earl of Northampton, then Lord Privy Seal: which in 1679 was reprinted by Bp. Barlow, who had enquired ft affiduously into the queftion, and prefixed a very valuable. Preface. A narrative fo authenticated, written originally "while the examinations were going on, by one whofe office required his continual attendance in court," publifhed only a few weeks after, and confirmed by the ftricteft fubfequent enquiries, is not furely to be invalidated by the furmifes of two or three obfcure writers; and the interefted opinion of Roman Catholics. It is fomething that they are now heartily afhamed of a plot, the favage atrocity and barbarity of which might have made it incredible, had not the maffacre of St. Bartholomew's day, and other fimilar ebullitions of their pious zeal actually taken place, and been approved and fanctioned by their infallible Head. But it is not fo to be got rid of, and this Sermon will remain among the important teftimonies to the fhameful truth.

The teftimony againft Dr. Milner's hiftory, which concludes the laft note to this Sermon, demands attention. "I have certainly not read," fays the author, "the whole of the History of. Winchester, nor of the Letter to a Prebendary; but, as far as my examination has gone (and it has not been confined folely to the fubject of the Powder Plot) I da aver that, notwithstanding

the

the fpecious fhew of notes and quotations, there is fcarcely a fingle fact advanced by Dr. Milner that is not unfairly stated, unfupported, or untrue.”

ART. 22.

An Affectionate Addrefs to the Parishioners of Blackburne, on the Inftitution and Obfervance of the Sabbath: published for the Benefit of the Sunday Schools in Blackburne. By Thomas Starkie, M. A. Vicar of Blackburne, and late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. 8vo. 23 pp. IS. Blackburne, printed. 1805.

A plain, clear, and fenfible addrefs, the motives for printing which are thus expreffed in a fhort advertisement to the reader.

"In a parish which is fo extenfive and populous, that a finall part only of its inhabitants can be benefited by a difcourfe from the pulpit, or by perfonal conference with their parochial minifter, the prefs becomes the only channel through which he can convey inftruction to his parishioners at large. To a perfuafion that this method of inftruction, under the circumftances above-mentioned, is in fome meafure a duty which a minifter owes to his parishioners, the following addrefs must be imputed. The fubject of it being of the very firft importance to man and Christianity, requires no apology."

The addrefs is not in the form of a fermon, and, therefore, has no text, but is in truth an excellent difcourfe on the Sabbath. The author gives the hiftory of its appointment, the fanctification of it by our Saviour, the change of the day by his apoftles, the civil and religious advantages it produces, the evils which would enfue on the neglect or abolition of it, the good effects of the focial worship then celebrated; and, finally, the nature and extent of the reft to be obferved upon it. The following note on Sunday fchools, for the judicious diftinétions it lays down, deferves to bo transcribed.

"There are perfons who have religious fcruples about teaching Sunday fchools, from a notion that fach employment is the fame or fimilar to that in which they are daily engaged. Such wellmeaning perfons feem not to confider, that the talk of teaching the poor, is not only an act of very great charity, but, in one fenfe, of neceffity allo; for if the poor are not inftructed on the Lord's day, the greater part of them must remain without any inftruction at all. This objection indeed feems to have fome weight, where writing and arithmetic form a part of instruction in Sunday fchools. The advantages to be derived from thefe branches of education, being entirely of a temporal and worldly nature, appear to be foreign to the defign of thefe fchools, which is to communicate to the poor the bleffings of the Gofpel, by qualifying them to read and understand it, and to imprefs on their tender minds the great truths and duties of Chriftianity, by the precepts and examples of their teachers, and by their own pers Sonal attendance on the public worship of the Sabbath." P. 21.

This

This address deferves to be circulated beyond the district for which it was written. At the end, is a very useful and well. felected lift of tracts, difperfed by the Society for promoting Chriftian Knowledge, with their prices fingle and per hundred, to facilitate the diftribution of them.

ART. 23. An Aufwer to fome Pleas in favour of Idolatry and Indulgences in the Romish Church. Addreffed to the Friends of the Proteftant Faith. By the Rev. R. B. Nickolls, LL. B. Rector of Stoney Stratton, Leicestershire, and Dean of Middleham, in Yorkshire. 8vo. 36 pp. IS. Hatchard.

1805.

There are a few ftriking facts which, in the judgment of reafon and unperverted faith, condemn the Church of Rome as idolatrous and corrupt, which proteftants ought always to keep in mind. They are diligently kept out of fight by the modern friends to that Church, and fome laymen within its pale are perhaps perfuaded that they are reformed or given up; but the unchangeable nature of their fyftem is occafionally confeffed by the priests, and cannot poffibly be doubted, by reflecting proteftants, fo long as the infallibility either of popes or councils, or of both together, is defended. How can the decrees or decifions of infallible authorities, be altered or amended?

Mr. Nickolls has put together, in a manner very useful to un learned proteftants, fome of the most convincing particulars, which prove that idolatry and that corruption. The tract is not controverfial, but memorial; and though it is faid, in the author's poftfcript, to have been drawn up before a late decifion of parliament, it is no further connected with that particular queftion, than Sir Richard Steele's "Account of the Roman Catholic Religion throughout the World," Bishop T. Barlow's "Difcourfe concerning the Laws, ecclefiaftical and civil, made against Heretics, and approved by the Church of Rome," and various other books and tracts which are, or ought to be, at all times in. the hands of all English Proteftants.

ART. 24.

MISCELLANIES.

A Letter to a Friend, Occafioned by the Death of the Right Honourable William Pitt. 8vo. 24 pp. 15. Hatchard.

1806.

The talents and the virtues of the illuftrious ftatefman whom we have loft, though mentioned with refpect in this letter, do not form the chief topic of its pious and well-intentioned author. His object is to place in a ftriking point of view thofe awful confiderations which arife from the melancholy event. He fuppofes, with the greateft probability," that the immortal fpirit, when

separated