to be the future ftate of America, with practical obfervations, merits particular attention.

The fober men in America are fully fenfible of the neceffity of a moderate conduct, and are striving to regain the power which in fome States they have been forcibly driven from, and in others have indifcreetly parted with. Some of them have had the wisdom to bend to the violence of the ftorm, and by a temporary fubmiffion are now regaining poffeffion of Government. Others, whofe impatience was most prevalent, and who retired from the adminiftration in difguft, find much greater difficulties to encounter. The American affairs thus fituated, have been the means of an opinion ftrongly urged, that till this is effected, and the congrefs is invefted with an authority upon which a reliance can be placed by foreign powers, no treaty of commerce fhould be made. This evil can only be removed in this country, by the knowledge we have of our mutual interefts, and lending our affiftance to compofe thofe diforders, by an acquiefcence in all that concerns our common advantages. For it is by no means a certainty that congrefs will ever recover a permanent authority over all the states. The neceffity of a fovereign power may produce a temporary one to compofe the prefent differences, and to fettle their debts. But to continue the union of this extenfive country, is a matter of great doubt. It is most probable, that the divifions of the States which have been mentioned in the remarks upon the trade, will take place, and that there will be three great republics, according to the fimilitude of their manners, cuftoins, and commerce. The New England States will make one. Nature, has united them in the ftrongest manner. New York, the Jerfeys, Pennfylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia will form another, the richest and most powerful. This country will command the greatest internal navigations, flowing through the Hudfon and Delaware Rivers, and the great Bay of Chefapeak, communicating by feveral portages, with the waters of the Ohio, and, by that means, with the whole interior country over the mountains; the moft fertile lands, and the best climate of all America; and to the inhabitants of which," Britifh fhips will be the carriers of the manufactures of Great Britain, and the exports of an abundant produce in return. The third Government in America will be the Carolinas and Georgia, nations of planters, great confumers of manufactures, and full of luxurious products, of which we shall alfo be the carriers. All our confular establishments ought to be made upon this fuppofition, as

the most natural and moft conducive to our interests.'

There is a paffage in this publication which illuftrates in a very striking manner, what we have fo often occafion to remark, how much the will influences the judgment, and how eafily we believe what we wish to be true.

'Till we can force Nature to make a free and open navigation, and to foften the climate, we shall not derive any advantage from Canada or Nova Scotia, in any degree equal to the hopes that are held out to us. And yet this circumftance is made by the noble Author, to have different effects, according to the fubject which is

treated

treated of: When Ruffia is to be made the substitute for America, in the difpofal of our manufactures, the fhutting up the Baltic by fix months ice, is reprefented as preventive of her having flips or failors of her own; but when Canada and Nova Scotia are to be made the fubftitutes of the States of America, the fame interruption in their navigation, and the country fix months covered with fnow, does not hinder their becoming nurseries for ships and fea

men.

The matters in difpute between Lord Sheffield and this author, who is a man of sense and information, deferve fetious confideration.

ART. XI. A Concife Hiftory of the Kingdoms of Ifrael and Judah, connected with the Hiftory or Chief Events of the Neighbouring States and fucceeding Empires to the Time of Chrift, and the Efiablishment of the Gospel difpenfation: Interfperfed with Moral Reflections, Chronological References, and Occafional Remarks, concerning the Fulfillment of the Prophecies: particularly adapted to the Comprehenfion, and for the Improvement of Young Minds. By Ann Murry, Author of Mentoria. In two Vo lumes. 12mo. 6s. Dilly. 1783.

THE

HE confideration which induced the fair author to undertake the work the now offers to the public, is a proof not only of piety, but of a juft and even profound turn of thinking. "The evidences," fays fhe, "for the holy fcriptures, are fo forcible, that their influence could not be withstood, if their connection, operation, and effects, were duly regarded: yet in many parts they are fo interwoven with circumftances, allufions and events, not fo pleafing to young minds, that the whole are neglected, and rendered ineffectual, becaufe a part requires to be stript of thofe exuberances which make the purfuit objectionable”. This fatal inattention to the pofitive proofs of the fulfillment of divine promifes, and prophetic denunciations, relaxes the vital principles of revealed religion, and faps the foundation of moral virtue. This inattention the therefore confiders as one great caufe of the corruption of manners and of that national depravity, which at this period so uniyerfally prevails.

The fulfillment of the prophecies, is, undoubtedly, the livelieft proof of the chriftian faith. The internal evidence of the doctrines of chriftianity is not of itself fufficient to repel the objections of unbelievers, or to confirm the cordial affent of its votaries. It bears indeed the image or likenefs of God. It is fuitable to the ideas which natural reafon forms of the divine nature. Yet ftill its authority muft reft, not upon the conjectures of human judment, but

on

on divine teftimony. Jefus Chrift appealed to the miracles which he wrought by the power, for that is the meaning of the expreffion, in the name of his Father. These were his credentials as an ambaffador from Heaven. In later times of the chriftian church, as well as in the early, the most convincing proofs have never been wanting of the truth of the christian faith! proofs which ftrike the mind with the force of miracles. Every day exhibits some event which ferves at once to illuftrate and fulfill the prophecies: the whole feries of which viewed in connection imprefs the candid and attentive mind with a strong and fteady faith. The miracles that were performed in the firft age of chriftianity, are handed down to us only on the authority of hiftory, and cannot have the fame weight as if they were addreffed to our fenfes. But the whole chain of events predicted in the facred fcriptures, and the last link, above all of that chain, we mean the present state of the world, makes up for that disadvantage: and, on the whole, the evidence for the truth of chriftianity, was never greater at any period than it is now. The chriftian, notwithstanding the contagion of fcepticism, has not more difficulties to encounter in maintaining the conftancy of his faith, than were experienced even in the days of the apostles.

The completion of the prophecies in the progrefs and declenfion of the Jewish people and ftate, ftrongly confirms and recommends the chriftian faith. In order to trace and to prove this progrefs and declenfion, the author connects the annals of profane nations with facred hiftory. As her intention was not to write a hiftory of the bible, but to difcufs thofe historical and prophetic parts, which, in the general course of education are too much overlooked, her hiftory begins at the period of the monarchical form of government being established in Ifrael; as from that æra, the events became more particularly complicated and interefting. But, in order to afcertain the wife defignation, and bleffed effects of the different difpenfations of divine grace vouchfafed to mankind, fhe thinks it proper to connect events from the earliest records of revelation.

In this part of her work, fhe fhews a perfect acquaintance with facred hiftory and chronology, and directs the attention of her readers to a great variety of particulars, which ferve to difplay the wife and gracious economy of divine grace, and to nourish in the mind fentiments of piety, and refignation to the will of providence. In the first volume fhe gives a plain and well arranged narrative of the Ifraelitifh monarchy from the election of Saul to the Babylonith captivity. In the fecond, the connects the principal

events

events of facred and profane history from that æra to the advent of the Meffiah.

For the benefit of her young readers, the author hath paid particular attention to the geographical part of her work, and by well executed maps, prefixed to her volumes, they mày trace the different operations of princes, and the revolutions of ftates.

This performance is a plain introduction to the study of antient hiftory facred and profane. The former makes the principal figure in the general picture: and religious and moral fentiments, not philofophical or political inferences, are the objects which direct the author's walk over the field fhe has chofen to illuftrate. In respect to ftyle, we meet in a few inftances with grammatical inaccuracies; in others with a poetical fwell which fuits not the tone of hiftory."princes and their hofts" (for armies,) is too turgid for the fimplicity of a preface. "When the bubble of human greatness burfts, the baseless fabric is annihilated, and leaves not a wreck behind," refers the imagination of the reader to Shakespeare, and is one of those taffels that dangle so often at the compofitions of women, or very young writers. We could with that these blemishes were corrected in the future editions of this work, which would render it the most proper we know of, to be put into the hands of youth; efpecially young ladies.

ART. XII. The Epiftolary Correspondence, Vifitation Charges, Speeches, and Mifcellanies, of the Right Reverend Francis Atterbury, D. D. Lord Bishop of Ruchefter. With Historical Notes, Volume the Third. Svo. 6s. J. Nichols.

Na former number of our work we delineated the character of Dr. Atterbury as a writer, and, having particularly observed that a certain clegance of tafte and dignity of manner characterifes every production of his pen however familiar or humble the fubject, it only remains for us to declare that, in our judgment, the prefent publication neither difgraces the genius of the author, nor is unworthy of the pains of the accurate editor of the two former volumes of this collection.

The pieces contained in this volume may be divided into hiftorical, critical, and mifcellaneous. A large portion of the hiftorical pieces relates to the houfes of convocation, and the little contentions among clergymen, many of whofe names are already forgotten. To the philofopher, however, who delights in obferving the conduct of focieties and of men, and tracing the origin, the progrefs, and the iffue of

the

the paffions of focieties and of individuals, even such fragments as tend to illuftrate the history of the houses of convocation will not appear wholly uninterefting. The English antiquarian, too, will no doubt find in these many objects of curiofity: and the anecdotes of celebrated characters that are interfperfed throughout the whole, form an agreeable entertainment to every reader.

In the first letter of this collection, which was written by Dr. Atterbury to Lord Inverness*, he ftates the light in which that celebrated prelate viewed, particular theories in religious matters, and difplays a wonderful faculty of conveying cenfure with feverity, with delicacy, and with the moft perfect freedom.

Alluding to Lord Inverness's abjuration of proteftantism, Dr. Atterbury tells him what the world fays of his conduct. My Lord, they who fpeak of it moft foftly, and with greatest regard to your Lordship, fay, that it is a coup de defefpoir; and that your Lordship perceiving the prejudices of the K's Proteftant fubjects to run high against you, fo that you would never be fuffered to be about his perfon and in the fecret of his affairs with their confent, was refolved to try what could be done by changing fides, and whether you might not at long run be able to gain by one party what you had loft by another. They reprefent you as thinking the K's restoration not foon likely to happen; and therefore as refolved, fince you were obliged to live in exile in Roman Catholic countries, to make the best of your circumftances, and recommend yourself, as much as you could, to the natives; that fo, if his caufe fhould prove defperate for a time, you might find your way back again into his fervice, when it would be no longer reckoned prejudicial to his affairs. And they quote fome words, which they fay fell from your Lordship, to this purpose: "That, fince you "faw nothing was likely to be done for the K. you thought it high "time to take care of your foul." I hope in God they bely you, fince it gives us, who are at a distance from the fecret of affairs, but a very difcouraging profpect of the K's restoration, of the probability or improbability of which you, my Lord, must be allowed a more competent judge. And withal, fuch a faying carries in it fomething more difhonourable to your Lordship, fince it implies, that, had the restoration been near and probable, you would not have troubled your head about matters of religion, but fuffered your foul to fhift for itfelf. They who thus interpret your last step proceed further, and fay, that you intended by that means, if you could not find your way again into the general and open management of the K's affairs, at least to have that part of them attached to you which related to foreign princes, courts, to whom what you had done must have rendered you grateful; and thus, while your

* Lord Inverness, a great confidant of the Pretender's. He was married to a fifter of the Earl of Dunbar, the Pretender's prime minifter, and of Lord Mansfield. Note. By the Reviewer. ENG. REV. Vol. III. Feb. 1784.

H

brother