sively taught; and no teachers are admitted who profess a different creed. According to the information here given, even the government of Russia seems more willing than that of France to admit liberal principles into its institutions for general education.

RELIGIOUS.

Art. 9. Letters addressed to -, Esq.: respecting the Union of the Regular Clergy with Dissenters in the Dis tribution of the Bible. By the Reverend John Ward of Mickleover. 8vo. pp. 138. 38. sewed. Rivingtons. 1817. Mr. Ward writes in so desultory and indefinite a manner, that it is difficult to make out what he really means: but, in the midst of a farrago of remarks which far surpass our comprehension, we sometimes meet with a sensible observation. For instance, we can fully agree with him that it would be wise, and reasonable and Christian-like, and even politic too, in our episcopal governors, to consult upon the propriety of the admission of but one (creed) for the service of the day.' P. 120. One creed, made up of polemical ingredients, might be more than enough: but to require a congregation, in the same forenoon, to believe three contradictory formularies seems to imply that the powers of faith are too great to sink under any weight.

Art. 10.

The Principles of the Christian Religion, addressed to her Daughter; and on Theology. By Mrs. Lucy Hutchinson, Author of the "Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, Governor of Nottingham Castle and Town," &c. 8vo. pp. 350. Ios. 6d. Boards. Longman and Co. 1817.

Mrs. Hutchinson's memoirs of Colonel H. proved her to have been a highly amiable and enlightened woman. Her diffidence in speaking of herself, and her desire on all occasions to display the talents and the virtues, the courage and the patriotism, of her husband in the strongest light, while she herself is retired in the shade, all conspire to throw that kind of charm over her character which renders it more peculiarly attractive. Her merits as an historian, also, are of no ordinary kind, for her narrative is distinct and animated, and furnishes a most lively picture of the times. We cannot, however, bestow so much praise on her religious as on her historical composition. Her theological opinions were intimately allied with those which are, at present, termed Calvinistical; and this Calvinistic doctrine, though softened down by the naturally gentle spirit and benevolent temper of Mrs. Hutchinson, is still very deficient in that comprehensive charity which does not limit the favour of God to any particular opinions, but teaches that, in every sect, he who worketh righteousness is an object of the divine regard. Though Mrs. H. was a woman of great good sense, yet, when she comes to expound the Calvinistic creed, her language, like that of other professors of it, is very bewildering and indefinite. We will give a specimen of her theological system,

The Gospel, in its original, signifies a glad message; and it is the most blessed message that man could hear, glad tidings of

salvation

salvation to poor condemned sinners; condemned for a debt and forfeit they could never pay, nor make satisfaction for; not only condemned but already arrested and captived in the chains of Satan, and cast out of the favour of God, in daily expectation of the full execution of his fierce wrath, and severe justice against sin, who is most holy, and cannot behold iniquity with the least indulgence to it, and who is a consuming fire, that will burn up all the wicked as stubble in the day of his wrath; for these poor sinners, already, as it were, dead in the apprehension of death and horror of their own guilty consciences, to hear that a sufficient surety had offered himself, and was accepted to pay and cancel all their debt, to die in their stead, and to rescue them from the power of death, and not only so, but to restore them into the grace and favour of God, so that they shall never lose it again, and to marry these poor miserable captives to the eternal Son of God, and give them an interest in all his grace, glory, and blessedness. O what joyful tidings is this! how should all hearts be affected with it!' (Pp. 51, 52.)

2

The following are some of Mrs. Hutchinson's notions concerning what is called original sin, which is the chief corner-stone of the Calvinistic theology: This first sin of Adam, as he was the root of all mankind, not only was imputed to all his posterity, he standing as a public person in whom all men sinned, being then in his loins and became liable to the curse of God due to sin, but it also infected every child of his, issuing by ordinary generation, and is that original sin, from whence all actual transgressions flow; the corrupted fountain of all evil, by which the image of God was defaced in all men, and they became the children of darkness and slaves of Satan, being through the just wrath of God given into his power.' (P. 34.)

8

Such confused and perverted notions of religion are sufficient to eclipse the brightest and stagger the plainest understanding. The simple doctrines of Christianity can no longer be recognised when converted into the jargon of Calvinism; and, in proportion as the first are in unison with the most elevated sentiments of virtue and of piety, the last cannot find an ingress into the mind without giving an obliquity to its moral notions, and inverting the character of the Divine attributes.

NATURAL HISTORY, GEOLOGY, HORTICULTURE, &c.

Art. 11. The Science of Horticulture, including a practical System for the Management of Fruit Trees, arranged on demonstrative physiological Principles; illustrated by Sketches in Twelve Plates; with a Commentary on the Works of Bradley, Hitt, Miller, Forsyth, Knight, Kirwan, Sir Humphry Davy, and Mrs. Ibbotson. By Joseph Hayward, Gent. 8vo. 12s. Boards. Longman and Co. 1818.

If that part of the title, which announces this book as a practical system of horticulture founded on demonstrative physiological principles, be true, either Joseph Hayward, Gent., or Messrs. Longman and Co., will derive a large sum of money from the sale

of it; and it unquestionably does contain many useful hints, which may promote this desirable event. The author tells us that, about twenty years since, Hitt's treatise being put into his hands, he attempted to train a number of young trees according to his method, but very soon found it a difficulty bordering on impossi bility to produce the effect described by him: yet a due attention to nature enabled him to proceed with considerable success; and to Hitt he acknowleges himself indebted for his first principles relative to the general management of fruit-trees. The difficulty of acquiring such knowlege from books, he adds, has been deplored by Bradley, Miller, Hitt, Forsyth, Mr. Knight, and in the Encyclopædia Britannica; and a reference to those authors will shew how trifling has been the improvement in horticulture. He then, after more general comments, examines the nature of the roots of trees; saying that Mr. Knight and Mrs. Ibbotson, in their attempts to apply their theories to practice, have not been successful, but have overlooked those simple laws which lead to the grand object of horticulture; and that Hitt appears to have had a clearer conception of the flow of the sap in trees than any other author. He dwells largely on the root, and thinks (we believe, justly) that the use of the tap-root is not to fix the tree firmly in the ground, or to keep it straight, observing that the Elm is seldom if ever found with a tap-root. This, however, is true only with respect to trees raised from layers; for we have seen hundreds of seedling elms with as strong a tap-root as any oak, beech, or ash. In fruit-trees he advises it to be shortened, because experience proves a tap-root to be prejudicial to fructification..

Relative to the food of plants, Mr. Hayward remarks that no author has established a theory which accords with actual observe ation: but that the elementary principles of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, and earth, will enable us to trace effects, ascer tain causes, and to draw conclusions that will be found applicable to every existing case, or positive result.' This is a bold sentence, and we wish that we could conscientiously apply to the writer of it," Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas. He next recommends that, whatever food we give to fruit-trees, it should be in a soluble state, and then details the opinions of his predecessors relative to soils and composts.

On the rise and circulation of the sap, after having observed that the explanation of Mr. Knight must operate as a bar to correct knowlege, and an obstacle to perfect practice, the author gives the following fact:

Mr. William Whitmarsh, of Wilton, in Wiltshire, having a green Bergamot pear-tree which seldom produced any fruit, removed the bark three-fourths of the circumference, which was about 27 inches, and the width of half an inch. A neighbour for a joke removed the remaining bark, so that a circle of half an inch was completed round the trunk; the tree in consequence was expected to die, but it lived, produced fruit, and is now alive, though the operation was performed five or six years since.'

He

He next mentions the opinions of other authors on the office and use of leaves, and criticizes those of Messrs. Knight, Maher, and Salisbury, relative to the influence of gravitation on the motion of the sap; for, though he allows that bending down and fixing in a pendulous position young strong branches of an apple tree makes them fruitful,' it will not do this for any length of time; and that it will be necessary to cut out the old pendulous branches periodically, and bring young shoots down in their places. We believe that Messrs. Knight, Maher, and Salisbury never either thought or said that bending down a branch would make it bear fruit for ever, but that in due time its place must be supplied by another, exactly in the way which Mr. Hayward proposes.

The succeeding observations are on pruning, extracted chiefly from other authors, plates being added to explain the methods of Hitt, Knight, Forsyth, and Mr. Hayward; and the chapter is finished with a remark that, though Mr. Knight might correctly estimate the value of luxuriant branches, he has not pointed out the means of directing their growth in such places where they are wanted.'

Hitherto, the author's pages have been filled principally with extracts from others: but in those which succeed, and in which he professes to make a deduction and application of the laws of nature, ordained for the support and government of vegetables, much new matter is brought forwards; and by attending to his directions we believe that some useful results will ensue in prac tical gardening. Deeming these worth all the rest of his book, we will recommend them to perusal; advising Mr. Hayward, if he publishes another edition, to write with less pomp, especially when he lays down and explains' what he thinks are 'the laws or principles of nature.' There is an author, also, not here mentioned, whom we counsel him to read again and again, and from whom he may profit in various respects, Lord Bacon.

The next chapter contains comments on the practice of our nurserymen relative to fruit-trees; some of which are just, but others very unjust: for a great many of as perfect trained trees, as art joined to nature can produce, may be seen in the nurseries about London; and such high prices would not be obtained for them, if it were almost impossible, as the author asserts, to find one plant in twenty worth transplanting.' In his instructions for their management in the nursery, however, we perceive much to commend, as well as relative to the soils and borders for them; and, under each particular sort of fruit-tree, various useful hints are given, especially respecting blights, and those diseases from which vegetables, like all other living things, are not exempted.

Art. 12. A short Introduction to the Study of Geology; compris ing a New Theory of the Elevation of the Mountains, and the Stratification of the Earth: in which the Mosaic Account of the Creation and the Deluge is vindicated. By Joseph Sutcliffe, A. M. 8vo. pp. 54. Is. 6d. Cadell and Davies. 1817. We apprehend that the candid and enlightened theologian will Ff 3 scarcely

scarcely thank Mr. Sutcliffe for his well-meant, but crude and inconsiderate, attempt to reconcile the literal language of Genesis with the discoveries and conjectures of modern times. If, however, our grateful acknowlegements for the brevity of his essay can afford him any consolation, they are very cordially at his service; and our geological readers will, we are confident, sufficiently appreciate the novelty of some of the topics with which he has deemed it proper to relieve his more common-place information. Thus,

The theory here given of the elevation of the mountains is copied from a simple occurrence of nature. On seeing one day during winter, a bowl of lard, whose surface was tossed up into ridges of hills, I enquired the cause, and found that the melted fat had been suddenly removed to a current of very cold air in the dairy. The congelation had been so rapid, that the horizontal strata had been broken and elevated to various oblique positions, and many of them made vertical; and some of the vertical had become inclined the opposite way. From the time that I investigated this phenomenon, I abandoned all the old theories of geologists, which suppose continents and mountains to have been elevated by latent heat; because I considered the same law which sported with the strata of the lard as efficient to sport with the strata of the earth.'

Again:

At Scarborough, in Yorkshire, there is a stratum of heterogeneous granite, thickly crowded with eels. They are nearly all coiled, as is the spontaneous act of that fish in the time of danger; and the defect in the hollow of the head demonstrates that they were once alive. A sudden erruption of the sea must have entombed them, with its eroted matter, at a stroke, leaving the mass to be farther stratified by succeeding tides, and crystallized by the ascension of subte aneous fluids.' We must frankly confess, wever, that we cannot very conscientiously felicitate Mr. Sutc fe on such novelties in his vocabulary as raminous, guymes, ovlar, portuberose, chronomecal, and eroted. We may likewise be permitted to express our surprize that a graduate of an University, and the author of a grammar of the English language and guide to composition, should join ramifications with a singular verb, should confound irruption with eruption, write scale for shale, use argilla and silica in the plural, and employ strata and scorice in the singular number. In the frequent suppression of the relative pronoun, he is unfortunately by no means singular: but we trust that he will not be readily imitated in such unscholar-like orthography as massey, tetradron, quartose, Pontopedon, canele, mundus subterraneous, lamillar, particules, tellurim, Kunchel, fibrouse, &c.

Art. 13. Report of a Committee of the Linnean Society of New England, relative to a large Marine Animal, supposed to be a Serpent, seen near Cape Ann, Massachussetts, in August, 1817. Svo. pp. 59. 4s. sewed. Souter. 1818.

The numerous and respectable testimonies, adduced by the Committee of the Linnean Society of New England, have distinctly

established