SIR, TO THE EDITOR. ANCTIONED by a motto which adorns moft Courts of Juftice, viz. "Audi alteram Partem," there requires no apology for intruding the prefent fubject on your notice. Cbferving in your Number of last month a letter under the fignature of " MOSES GREENSOD" (by the bye a very applicable name) in which he affects to be wonderfully furprised at his wife's not being able to pu chafe a prayer book at a circulating library, I must confefs myself fomewhat aftonished at the illiberality of the writer, in endeavouring to attach a ftigma, wholly unmerited, on one of the most respectable, and at the fame time defirable, inftitutions in the metropolis.-The reply of the Shopman" that they "never kept fuch books" was per fectly correct, and I will venture to affert, there is not a circulating library in London that does k ep fuch books-in the first place, circulating libraries have nothing to do with felling of books; and fecondly, it is to be hoped, that notwithstanding Mr. Mofes Greenfod's "fight" at the "fad change in the times," all families are in poffeffion of at least a prayer book, if not a bible, without applying to a circulating library for the perufal of a book which every body is fuppofed to know by rote. 66 In order to quiet Mrs. Greenfod's apprehenfions as to the "fal change in the times," permit me to obferve that the very house at which the fo" involuntarily threw her eyes upwards," is poffeffed, for the diffufion of religion and morality, of a collection of books in divinity that would form a very complete library of itself; and whenever Mr. Greenfod can fpare an hour from "measuring a yard of tape" it will be found also that the fame house can furnith him with the WHOLE DUTY OF MAN, wherein he will learn that CANDOR TOWARDS OUR NEIGHBOUR is firongly urged among the falutary doctrines which it enforces. A particular stress appears to have been laid upon the manner in which the apfwer by the " Shopman was conveyed-perhaps this lady, piqued at the trouble in applying to feveral fhops in vain, to meet with a type fuited to her infirmities, converted the features of civility into the outlines of contempt, and the language of com, plaifance into the tone of derifion. I thould be forry to rate Mr. Greenfod among that order of beings who Traduce by cuftom, as mot dogs do bark; I would, however, advife him in future to inveftigate before he PHILALETHES. I cannot difmifs this letter without expreffing the fatisfaction I have frequently derived in contemplating your unvaried exertions in the caufe of religion.-May thofe exertions be perpetuated; may you fill continue to promulgate thofe doctrines which aid the caufe of Chriftianity, by promoting a fpirit of virtuous emulation, and inculcating the precepts of morality in the minds of your countrymen. In your onus Citizen Rip Nov Reper, IN your critique on " Citizen Ripaud's Report of the Commiffion 66 1800, we think that he has treated Norden with too much severity, and, indeed, with injuftice." In reading, lately, "Obfervations on divers Paffages of Scripture," published in 1764 anonymously, but fince known to be written by Harmer, I found (P. 444.) a reference to "Norden's. Travels in Egypt," published by Templeman, 1757, P. 150, Vol. II. in which a Mahometan Prophecy feems to bear fome refemblance to that of Fleming, which has been lately brought forward to public notice. "The Caeheff faid-" I know already what fort of people you are; I have confulted my cup, and have found out by it, that you are those, of whom one of our prophets has faid that there would come Franks in difguife, who, by little prefents, and by foothing and infinuating behaviour, would pafs every where, examine the state of the country, go afterwards to make a report of it, and bring at last a great number of other Franks, who would conquer the country, and exterminate all.” If this fhould be applicable to Meffrs. Savary, Volney, and Co. perhaps Citizen Ripaud may have had his reafons for not being partial to Norden. CHURCH MUSIC. TO THE EDITOR. SIR, the organists of our churches and chapels generally perform their duty, I trouble you with a few lines to fuggeft a regulation which might be attended, I think, with ufeful confequences; I mean, that fet pieces of Church Music should be printed by authority of Parlia ment. Were this the cafe, the organ might aflift to lift our minds up to God, instead of bringing to them the recollection of dances and ballads. I am, Sir, your humble fervant, Feb. 14, 1801. D. The thought of the two Tears in Mr. REYNOLDS'S COMEDY reminds us of two MS. Stanzas which are not less elegant. UPID in fport a dart had thrown, CUPID Which hit by chance his mother's breast; He heard her figh in piteous moan; He caught her weeping and diftrefs'd. She dropt a tear upon his hand He dropt one too, by pity guided- HISTORY. 234 MELANG HISTORY. SUMMARY OF POLITICS. ELANCHOLY and painful as the task of recording paffing events has frequently been, fince the first commencement of our labours; full fraught, as the times unquestionably are, with occurrences of importance, almoft unprecedented, to the prefent wellbeing and future existence of mankind; yet, compared with the cir cumftances of the moment, in this kingdom, they lofe much of their relative confequence, and our concern for the calamities with which Europe in general is afflicted, is almoft loft in the difmal apprehenfions which the peculiar fituation of our own country is calculated to excite. Sceptical and incredulous, indeed, muft he be who can with hoid his belief from the manifeft interpofition of the Deity to produce this ftrange, this unlooked-for, this unnatural ftate of things; a flate of things, which baffles all the vain fpeculations of human forefight, and fets at nought all the confident predictions of human wif. dom. The ability to connect cause with effect, in the ordinary oc currences of common life, is alone requifite to discover fin and punishment, in these most awful inflictions of Divine Providence. To what other fource, indeed, were it poffible to trace that wayward. nefs of mind, which, on the one hand, has engendered the difpofition to treat friendship as enmity, and to embrace enmity as kindness and, on the other, has operated, like a temporary blindness obscuring the most acute and the most found judgment, perverting the most fplendid, and the moft folid abilities, and counteracting the most virtuous and moft honourable principles, and fo ftimulating the most upright and beft-intentioned patriots to the commiffion of an act of political fuicide? Thus we behold ourfelves, at once, threatened with a hoftile combination of all the naval, and nearly all the military, force of Europe, a combination alike without example and without excufe, unprincipled in its motive and criminal in its object; and with a dreadful fchifm in our own councils. ; Our high opinion of Mr. PITT, the estimation in which we hold his talents and integrity, the gratitude which we feel towards him, for his eminent public fervices, and particularly for his fuccefsful efforts to ftem the torrent of Jacobinifm at home, and his laudable, though ineffectual, exertions to arrest its progrefs abroad, have been too ftrongly, and too repeatedly, avowed by us, to admit of a doubt at the prefent moment. For EARL SPENCER, Mr. WINDHAM and the other noblemen and gentlemen, who have participated in his labours and fupported him in his principles, we feel the fame fenti. ments of esteem and gratitude. The feeble affiftance which we have been enabled to afford them, in extending the propagation of those principles, has been given, with incerity and zeal, from a high and pre dominant fense of duty to our country, It is that fame sense of duty which now leads us to deplore, moft deeply, the refignation of their refpective offices and the confequent lofs of their fervices in the cabi. net, and, at the fame time, to deprecate, moft ftrongly, the adoption of thofe meafures, the rejection of which, by their Sovereign, occafioned that refignation, The first of these measures was the res peal peal of all the penal ftam es, that ftill remain in force against the Roman Catholics, which would place them on the fame footing as the members of the established church; the fecond was the repeal of the teit and corporation acts; which would, indeed, be a neceffary confequence of the firft, as it would fcarcely be poffible, after opening the doors of power and of parliament to the Roman Catholics, to fhat them against other Diffenters, of whatever denomination. Our reders cannot have forgotten the repeated declarations, which we have had occafion to make, of our fentiments on these two grand queftions. We have long confidered them, attentively and deeply, and the refult of that confideration has been a firm conviction in our minds, that the almoft unavoidable confequence of their adoption, would be the abfolute fubversion of the conftituted order of things in Church and State. It is not, then, in times like thefe, which put men's principles to the test, that we are difposed to shrink from the duty, which impels every honeft man to proportion his efforts to the exigences of the moment; all our feeble powers fhall be exerted in refiftance of measures which, to us, appear pregnant with the moft deftructive effects to that conititution which we stand fo folemnly pledged to fupport. We fhall not here enter into any enquiry refpecting the nature of the pledge which has been faid to have been exacted by the friends of the Union in Ireland, as the condition of their fupport, and the anxiety to redeem which was the alledged caufe of the refignation of Mr. Pitt. We fhall, no doubt, have frequent opportunities, in the difcharge of our duty as Critics, of fully difcuffing that fubject. In the mean time, it is fufficient for us to know, and we ftate the fact with confidence, in order to remove fome very falfe impreffions which have been made on the public mind by a different statement, that the KING never gave his cabinet minifters the fmalleft reafon to believe that the measures in question would have his fanction and fupport;-on the contrary, nearly three years ago, his MAJESTY declared his firm refolution never to give his content to acts, which consent his fense and his confcience told him would involve a violation of his coronation oath. To this must be imputed the memorable recal of EARL FITZWILLIAMS; and to this must be afcribed his firmness in rejecting the propofitions, and refifting the perfuafions, of his late Minifters. It is indeed, to us a matter of extreme furprize, that, under fuch circumftances, thofe Ministers fhould have ventured to give a pledge in the first instance, and afterwards, for the purpose of redeeming it, to introduce the fubject of it into his Majefty's Speech. The reception which fuch a propofition experienced was fuch as furely they had good reafon to expect; and his Majefty's explanation, when they foretold the confequences which would refult from his refufal, FIAT JUSTITIA, RUAT CŒLUM! was fuch as, moft undoubtedly, we should have expected from a previous knowledge of his fentiments and his character. His MAJESTY'S conduct, and it is important to have it clearly understood, has been steady, uniform, confiftent, and decifive; and he has, in all refpects, proved himself truly worthy of the honourable title which he enjoys, Of the united Church of England and Ireland on earth fupreme head, An An attempt has been made by a refpectable catholic, Mr. Butler, (a gentleman who has, we believe, acted, more than once, as agent for the Catholics,) the fallacy of which we have expofed in the critical department of this number, to perfuade the public that the coronation oath can be no poffible bar to the king's acquiefcence in the meafurs propofed; but, thank heaven! Mr, BUTLER is not the keeper of his Majefty's confcience, whoever may be the keeper of his own; and unless he have the ability to prove, (not merely to affert) that the established church of thefe realms would not be endangered by the adoption of fuch measures, all his arguments will be nugatory. We have never been deemed adverse to the Roman Catholics; we have, indeed, been accused, by the Methodists, of being favourably inclined to their principles; but the truth is, as our readers will easily believe, that we are decidedly adverse to fome of the fundamental articles of their faith, and very favourably difpofed towards themfelves. We with them, therefore, to enjoy all the advantages of toleration, in its fullest extent, and to grant them every indulgence which is compatible with the fafety of the establishment; but, when an attempt is made to remove the line of diftinction between toleration and encouragement; when, not contented with demanding as a right that which they have hitherto received as an indulgence, they afpire to grasp the reins of government, and to acquire that confequence and power, which lead, by a flow but certain progrefs, to afcendancy and command, duty and inclination combine in oppofition to an endeavour, hte fuccets of which would, we are convinced, prove the ruin of that establishment. In the fifth volume of our work (Pr. 67, 68) we assigned some strong reasons in support of our opinions on this important topic; but, instead, of refering our readers to the passage, we shall briefly recapitulate them. DOCTOR TROY, the Romish Archbishop of Dublin, and, of course, a man of weight and authority with persons of his own persuasion, and, be it observed, deriving his power immediately from the Pope, published, in the year 1793, a pastoral letter, the object of which was to demonstrate the nature of the Papal supremacy, and to shew, that all Roman Catholics were bound to pay implicit obedience to the authority of general councils. The following is an extract from that letter. It is a fundamental article of the Roman Catholic faith, that the Pope or Bishop of Rome is successor to St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, in that See; he enjoys by divine right a spiritual and ecclesiastical primacy, not only of honour and rank, but of real jurisdiction and authority, in the universal church. Roman Catholics conceive this point as clearly established in the scriptures, and by the constant tradition of the Fathers in every age, as it is by the -express decisions of their general councils, which they consider as infallible authority in points of doctrine. It being thus clearly proved, by competent authority, which has never yet been questioned or impeached, though the letter has been published more than seven years, that the Roman Catholics, are bound to abide by the decisions of General Councils, we shall now give an extract from the fourth Council of Lateran, which was holden in 1215, and is still in force, because its decrees have never been |