from fhowing equal ardour and activity of mind in the hours of ftudy. From fchool he was removed to the University of Glafgow at the age of fourteen, and during the fummer vacations employed himfelf in communicating inftruction to his younger brothers at home. At College a very close intimacy feems to have been formed between him and Profeffor Anderfon; though at a later period, we have reason to believe that it would not have been easy to find two philoTophers whofe opinions were at greater variance on fome of the most important topics which can occupy the mind of man. In the year 1782, when his ftudies at the Univerfity were completed, Mr. Finlaylon was entrusted with the education of two fons of Sir William Murray, of Ochtertyre, Baronet,by whom his merit was foon difcovered and powerfully patronized. In 1785 he received a licence to preach, which, in the Church of Scotland, confers on a layman a title to direct the public worthip of a congregation, but to administer neither of the facraments. According to his biographer, the manner of Mr. Finlayfon in the pulpit had to the undifcerning the appearance of coldnefs; but we are fure that his ftyle, if his fermons were generally fuch as those before us, was as animated as the ftyle of fermons fhould be. Almoft immediately after he became a preacher he was offered the living of Dunkeld, but declined it on being informed by Sir William Murray that an arrangement was propofed for procuring to him the profefforfhip of Logic in the Univerfity of Edinburgh, an office to which the talents of the young preacher were peculiarly adapted. Difficulties, however, occurred in the fettling of this ar rangement; and though he was appointed, at a fortnight's warning, to read lectures in logic in the term or feffion (as it is called in Scotland) of 1786 and 1787, he was fo far from being certain of obtaining the profefforfhip that he accepted of the living of Borthwick, to which he was ordained early in 1787. This being at no great distance from Edinburgh, he refided during the remainder of the college feffion in that city, ably fupplying the place of the abfent profeffor of logic; but in fummer he repaired to his parifh, of which, inftead of neglecting, he increafed the paitoral duties. In this flate he continued for three years, when, on the refigna. tion of the abfent profeffor, he obtained the fole poffeffion of that chair which he had fo ably filled for another, and offered, from a fenfe of duty, to refign the living of Borthwick. His refignation was not accepted, but in the year - 1790 he was tranflated from Borthwick to one of the churches in Edinburgh; in 1793 to the church of which Dr. Robertion, the juflly celebrated hiflorian, had been the pastor; and in 1799 to that church of which Dr. Blair was then one of the minifters, and which it feems to be the peculiar ambibition of Clergymen of talents to fill. We have reason to believe, as feems to be here infinuated, that Mr. Finlay fon never degraded himfelf by meanly foliciting preferment or courting the patronage of the great; for his manners were fuch as rendered him incapable of playing the fycophant, would his principles have admitted him to attempt it; and though he took a very decided part in the politics of the age-both civil and ecclefiaftical-that part was the refult of conviction. Soon after his becoming the colleague of Dr. Blair, he was, by the Univerfity of Edinburgh, created D. D.; and in 180% he was chofen Moderator or Prolocutor of the General Affembly of the Church of Scotland, an office, which, though of temporary duration, is confidered, we believe, as conferring a kind of dignity for life on him who has had the honour to fill it. In the beginning of 1805 his health began to fail, and though from that period it was occafionally better and worfe, it never was rellored, till January 1803, when a paralytic firoke deprived him of fenfation on that fide where his fufferings had been moft acute; and on the 28th of the fame month he breathed his laft, in a bed furrounded by weeping friends. His charafier, to which fome of us were no ftrangers, is thus drawn by his biographer, we believe, in perfect conformity with truth, though not always without fome degree of obfcurity. "The character of Dr. Finlayfon was plain and fimple, and open to the moft carelefs infpection. With a juft confidence in kifelf, which he never affected to difguife, he had no vanity to create thofe intricate concealments and unfounded- pretenfions, which require fuperior fagacity to penetrate. His paflions were naturally keen; and of any conduct that was equivocal or bafe he never minced his reprchenfion, for even his failings lent (leaned) to virtue's fide. He had few of the arts of a politician, and none of a courtier. His perfect fincerity, and unconfcioufnefs of any hoftile feeling, which required to be fuppreffed, gave him to his political opponents an appearance of bluntnefs; but to his friends. his manner was precifely the fame. When they applied to him for advice, as they uniformly did in every difficulty, if he thought they had acted amifs, he told them fo with explicitnefs and brevity, difdaining all thofe prefatory foftenings and qualifying ap proaches that are employed by men of addrefs, to oil the knife before they cut; and avowing the utmolt contempt of that fqueamish fqueamish fenfibility which requires to be fwaddled and dandled into a fenfe of duty. Such was the perfuafion, however, of the excellence of his counfel, and the purity of his intentions, that notwithstanding this primitive plain fs of manner, even his po litical rivals, on points of bufinefs unconnected with party, are faid to have reforted occafionally to his judgment. In converfa.. tion he preferved the fame artiefs fincerity, and was perhaps too ftrict (habitual) a reafoner to be very lively or amufing as the companion of a relaxing hour. He was fo quick to perceive any loofenefs of argument, or confufion of ideas, that he fometimes damped the volatile by their detection; and put to reft, by fome fhort Socratic question, a converfation that would have fraggled into that fanciful and erratic variety which is fo generally relished. In the more ferions offices of friendship, his merits were fingularly perfect; for his kindness as well as his advice, his purfe as well as his perfonal exertions, were ever at the command of thofe whom he esteemed. To young men of merit he was an active and perfevering patron; and to fuch as were indigent his aid was extenfive, though filent as that of the Being whom he endeavoured to imitate. This appeared from the num ber of acknowledgments for fmall funs, which at his death he directed to be destroyed." P. xxxv. Our biographer concludes his account of the life of Dr. Finlayfon with fome obfervations on his knowledge of the conftitution of the Church of which he was a Clergyman, and on his abilities and diligence as a teacher of logic. Of his merits in both thefe refpects the reader will here' find ample evidence; and we could corroborate that evidence by the teftimony of a friend of our own, to whom Dr. Finlay fon was well known, and who is not under that bias of partial friendfhip, from which the biographers of the companions of their youth can hardly be fuppofed to be wholly free. As a Minister of the Church of Scotland, and a profeffor in the Univerfity, Dr. Finlay fon was afliduous, able, and upright; and we have reafon to believe, that he never fuffered the duties of the one profeffion to interfere with thofe of the other. Though he poffeffed not thofe oratorical powers which fit a man for taking the oflenfible lead in a popular affembly, fuch was the foundnefs of his judgment and his knowledge of Scottish ecclefiaftical law, that the greateft fpeakers in the ecclefiaftical courts of his county looked, up to him with deterence. He was a prefbyterian rationally zealous, but he faw no propriety in reviving the dormant controverly between the epilcopal and prefbyterian churches; whilst ne reprobated, in the ftrongeit terins, that language and thofe realonings which are calculated to inspire the mul S 3 titude titude with the belief that all authority ecclefiaftical and civil originates with them! He dreaded fanaticism in the church and faction in the state, and thought, in an age in which "fo many nations had ftumbled in their ways from the ans cient path, to walk in paths by a way not caft up," a minister of Chrift could hardly be worfe employed than in fanning the flame of innovation among the people. In this, as in most other inftances, his judgment was found and his conduct was exemplary; and we truft that the example will not be neglected either by his countrymen in general, or by his brethren in particular. ART. VII. The Speech of James Stephen, Efq. in the Debate in the House of Commons, March 6th, 1809, on Mr. Whitbread's Motion relative to the late Overtures of the American Government: With Jupplementary Remarks on the recent Order in Council. 8vo. 126 pp. 3s. 6d. Butterworth. 1809. WH That HEN we first perufed the able fpeech before us the differences between this country and America appeared likely to be foon adjusted, in which event it would only have been neceffary very briefly to notice its contents. profpect has fince difappeared. We will therefore endeavour (though on fuch a fubject it is no eafy task) to fet forth the leading topics and arguments of the learned fpeaker fomewhat more in detail, and to forward, as much as is in our power, the patriotic object of this publication. Mr. Whitbread, it appears, had concluded a long and able fpeech with a motion to addrefs his Majefty, flating an offer on the part of America to withdraw the Embargo fo fr as it affected Great Britain, on condition of our repealing the Orders in Council as they applied to America, approving the principle of that offer, and praving his Majefty to adopt fuch measures as might tend to re-establish the commercial intercourse between his Majefty's dominions and thofe of the American States. The object of this fpeech is to fhow, that the foregoing motion was founded on erroneous conceptions of the cafe. Acceding to the general principle, that "we ought to adopt á conciliatory conduct towards America," the learned speaker protests against refcinding the Orders in Council on the terms terms propofed by her; becaufe "that would" (in his opi nion) be, in effect, to fubmit to the utter ruin of our commerce, and, by a neceffary confequence, to the lofs of our naval afcendancy." After obferving that the honourable mover of the Address appeared to have forgotten that great body of evidence (on this fubject) which had been, at his own inftance, collected and laid before Parliament, the learned Member undertakes to juftify the prediction," that the Orders in Council would produce effects beneficial to the trade of this country, by redeeming it from great part of the depreffion and ruin to which the enemy, by his unjuft fyftem, had reduced it." To prove this point, he refts on the evidence which had been given, at the bar of the house, as to the effects which had been produced by the Berlin Decree upon our trade, prior to the counteraction of that Decree by the Orders in Council of Nov. 1807; and he obferves, upon the evidence on the part of the petitioners against thofe Orders, that as to this important part of the cafe, it was perfectly filent. Their witneffes gave information as to the trade between America and England, which the Orders in Council by no means opposed, and the direct trade between America and the Continent of Europe, which the Berlin Decree did not prohibit; but as to the trade between this country and the continent (which it was the enemy's object to cut off and ours to protect) no witnefs was able to tell what effects had been produced on it before our retaliation took place. To fupply this defect, witneffes were called in fupport of the Orders in Council, whofe uniform accounts were, that the attack on our commerce was not immediately executed with rigour, and that therefore, after fuftaining fome little annoyance, our trade with the continent, in the fpring of 1807, recovered what it had loft, and continued in a flourishing and improving flate till Auguft. But the enemy, having then impofed his fyftem on almoft every continental power, began in earneft to enforce the blockade of the Britifh iflands, and the confequence was, " a fpeedy and total proftration of our European trade." A part of this evidence, and alfo of that called by the oppofers of the Orders in Council, is cited in detail by the learned fpeaker; and it appears to us fully to fupport the pofition maintained by him, that the ports of the continent were fhut by the Berlin Decree, not by the Orders in Council. He proceeds to prove the fame fac by another material circumftance, namely, the increased rates of infurance on different branches of our trade, which, it appears, had rifen S 4 to |