a

the prospect of gaining a convert. We would here take our leave of Mr. Benson, but we feel it incumbent on us to reply to a queftion which he evidently puts from a conviction that it cannot be answered. “Why (says he) should the Methodists be compelled to declare themselves Diflenters, which would infallibly be the case were the LegiNature to take the steps recommended in the report ?”. We answer, that the Legislature does not make but finds them such. Most of them are avowedly so; others covertly; and fome perhaps inconfcioufy: even that purer part of them in the Welleian connection, to which Mr. Benson boaits that he belongs, are Dissenters by his own confellion. And where is the hardship of calling persons by their proper names? Or where is the honesty of professing with our lips what our deeds disclaim ? Mr. B. indeed attempts to palliate their separation from the church by confining the instances of it to " a few places where the parishes are extenfive, and to some others where the

; church ministers are notoriously wicked, or inculcate doctrines which THEY (the Methodists) judge to be of dangerous tendency.” The first of these assertions is untrue; the second plea is inadmissible; because they have no autbority to judge in these matters. And it is not merely the circumstance of preaching in church hours (though this we allow is an aggravated act of disobedience) but it is the preaching at any time in a place not under episcopal jurisdiction ; it is their ir

1 regular allumption of the clerical functions; it is their uniform and undifsembled contempt of church discipline which clearly conftitute them Difienters. We would recommend to Mr. Benson's perufal the opinion of a Reviewer who cannot be suspeéted of partiality to the Church of England, and who will hardly be accused of severity towards any who differ from her persuasion.

“ If they approve the doctrines, they certainly object to the discipline and government of the Church ; and therefore they ought no more to arro. gate to themselves the title of churchmen than moit of the Protestant Dirsenters, who are exactly in the same predicament. The clergy have certainly some plea for remonstrating against the conduct of that class of Methodiffs which Mr. Benson undertakes to defend. Their very system of discipline is adverse to that of the established Church; they choose their own preachers; they appoint lay men to the ministerial functions; and they will submit to no episcopal controul. They are, therefore, in fact, Disenters; and when they speak of the establishment as their Church, they must either be inancere, or they do not consider what they say ; which last we believe to be the true statement. Since, however, the matter is now publickly agitated, let the Methodists be taught to regard themselves as Disenters, if not on points of do&rine, yet on points of difcipline; and let them not talk, as Mr. B. does, of their being compelled, in case the suggestions of the reporters are adopted by parliament to separate from the church.' Mr. Benson's threats are a proof that he has no idea of ecclefiaftical subordination.” Morthly Reviews for Jan. 1801.

Mr. Benson will perceive that we are not the only critics who conlider chę Methodists as Diflenters. The Monthly Reviewer,

indeed,

P. 90.

indeed, appears anxious to claim them as such and to enlarge his favourite ranks. We would earnestly, on the contrary, intreat these her undutiful children to return to the bosom of that parent church, whose authoricy they have unthinkingly renounced. They possess (we admit in many instances) great and laudable zeal for the doctrines of divine revelation; and why not for the positive ordinances of divine institution God expects from his pe ple as great regard to those positive laws which he commands us to obey, as to those positive doctrines which he enjins us to believe; nor is it less our duty to conform to that ecclefiaftical polity which was ordained for the government of the Church as a visible fociety on earth, than we are concerned to preferve the purity of that faith which distinguishes us as Christ's disciples.

Adonia : A defultery Story. 4 Vols. 12mo. Black and Parry. Lon

don. 1801.

dity, under the name of novels and criticisin, been already girded with her quiver to hunt it down, the long paifage which we Mall select as a specimen of, and excuse for, the publication would have induced her to unloose the fibula which held her arrows together, and the must have laid by every one of them.

Though, since I began these memoirs (at the age of fifteen) I have added little or nothing to my stock of book-learning; I do not mean to affrout you, my patient reader, by supposing that you have not already difcovered that stock to be fufficiently scanty, without requiring that I thould be the herald of my own thame; though I am sensible that my story might have been better contrived, my characters more natural and varied, my language more correct above all, that the political confab between the Marchioness and my friend Johanna, night at least have been disguised in a newer dress; I am contented in my nineteenth to abandon all struggle for literary eminence to which I once aspired, and to resume, without lois of time, and send into the world, with ail its imperfections on its head, a novel, which only a few months ago I threw by me as hopeleis of completion. My motive for this intrusion on the public is not a perfonal one, or I might perhaps blusa to avow that “I write for fortune, and not for fame:" bui, if ny book should bave the good fortune to experience a reception equally favourable with the middle class of the other novels of the day, and thence enable me to assist in relieving the neccflities of a very near and dear friend (planged in unexpected misfortune, and yet too de'icate to accept the common modes of succour as likely to inconvenience those the loves) i thall not regret having sacrificed, to obtain such a recompense, the feelings which otherwise would have deterred me from exposing myself to the inputation of vanity or the reproofs of criticisin.”

When such are the object and humility of the author, had it been ranked only "s with the inid lle claís of the other novels of the day,". we should have passed over it with compaliionate filence or conteniptuous neglect; but this writer who can fo well appreciate his or perhaps her own demerits, and yet can display so much reading, fo much

obfervation,

66

observation, fo much mind, ought not to " be contented in the nineteenth year to abandon all struggle for literary eminence.”

My language might have been more correct ;' it certainly might have been more equal. At the commencement of the work (begun at fifteen indeed) it is affectedly rough and encumbered like the rumblings of Johnfon-many double epithets make the sentences halt, and confuse instead of strengthen the idea-such as “ corresponding mental endowments:" here the possessive adjective would have been better as a substantive in the polfeflive case, and “ of that partial evanescent kind”—there wants the conjunctive and between partial and evanescent “ too keenly-exercised sensibi-' lity"_“ softly-interesting aspect.". By placing the substantive before the adverb and the epithet, the language would have flowed easier; these are trifling errors, but they are fathionable errors of the day, and when fanotioned by superior writers, will branch out into various blemishes which, in, their 'event, might destroy the construction of our prose, as much as the affected De la Cruscas have already done the language of verse.

My characters might have been more natural and varied.” It is humility to think so-all the characters have some strong trait to mark and distinguish them; they are as varied as they can be fince they are all placed in elegant life.

A character of the Marchioness D’Estreaux is given with neat discrimination

“ How unjustly used I to judge this admirable woman, would be say to herself? Because I saw her unmoved and self-collected, under the pressure of cxigencies which would have discouraged common minds, I cenfuired her as stoical or masculine; and because she bore no part in the tri ing diftreiles and weak murmurings excited by those frequent and unimportant afflictions on which other women are forward to display their sensibility, I considered her inacceflible to all the softer emotions. Haughty and reserved in her general carriage as a weakness of that pride, which I now find springs less from hereditary pretensions than a conscious clevation of mind, which naturally impels her to keep aloof from ivfignificant fociety, and the influence of interesting objects. This woman, whom I have seen liftening unmoved to a tale of fictitious diftress, which convulsed the bofom of every other auditor ; whom I have seen sinile contemptuously op the most extravagant expressions of self-created woe, can sympathise in every throb of real anguilh ; can devote her whole time and thoughts to consóle the mental ami&tion, and alloy the bodiiy futherings of a friendless orphan, whole "tears would flow, unheeded by the rest of the world, and from whom she can expect no other return than powerless gratitude and unavailing love.”

“ The progress of fashionable admiration, and the fate of beauty unfortified againit flattery,” are charmingly described in the second volume; but the quotations are already so long, and numbers press fo equally for notice, that we must recommend the work itself for entire perusal.

“ My story might have been better contrived”-it is published as a defultory story; it certainly might have been more artificial, and, to use a modern term, “ conglomerated;" but it is interesting, it is probable,

it is sufficient, to make the fentiments, the observations, and the elegant advice flow from it with such a natural ease as to render them pleasurable as well as improving.

In this novel which " asks not for fame but forbearance-which hopes not to inform but to amuse without injuring,” the reader will find “nothing to contaminate,” but much, very much, to enjoy,

The writer modestly says, "the work is far from perfection, and I laid it by in disgust. If the public do it that justice which its merit demands, we doubt not of seeing hereafter some work of this author's nearer perfection, and more worthy still of criticism. It is interspersed with some picturesque and delicate poetry.

The author feeling a reverepce for the Deity makes the heroine fay, " It is an offensive and distorted adulation that would dare to unite a mortal's with that hallowed name;" yet falls into a ludere cum facris, by making the same heroine ask her lover, in precise words, “ to give a reason for the hope that is in him.” Surely, in the hurry of writing, the mind did not recollect from whence such a quotation was taken.

DIVINITY.

A

4 Sermon preached at Hendon, in the County of Middlesex, on Sundays, the

14th and 21st of December, 1800, after his Majesty's Proclamation, recommending Economy and Frugality in the Use of every Species of Grdin, had been read. By Charles Barton, B. D. Fellow of Corpus Chrifti College, Oxford, and Curate of Hendon. 8vo. Pp. 16. Ri. vingtons. London. .

seasonable and useful discourse on the late unproductive harvest. The

Rev. Preacher, (from Psalm cvii, 34-"A fruitful land maketh he bar. Ten, for the wickedness of them, that dwell therein'') calls the serious atten. tion of his audience to the religious improvement of these eventful times, and the present alarming state of the country. He juftly ascribes the deficiency in the last year's crops, so far as natural causes contributed to the calamity, to an unfavourable feed-time, followed by extreme heat, in a very early part

of the summer ; by which a considerable proportion of grain was not sown in proper time, and some not at all; while much, that was sown, being ripened before it had attained a juft maturity, failed of the usual produce. "Mr. BARTON successfully contends against the erroneous notion, whether origi. nating in ignorance, prejudice, or wickedness, that the deficiency is wholly artificial, and to be traced to the avarice of individuals, as its source. That some abuses do exist, he thinks, cannot be denied, but as a concurrent, not a leading, cause of the distress ;' and that the very existence of these abuses is the effect of scarcity. Mr. B. in unison with the paternal spirit of the Proclamation, points out importation and economy, as the only remedies in our power : and happy are we to bear public testimony, that, while government have been indefatigable in their exertions to procure large supplies of foreign grain, a general and very confiderable retrenchment has already taken place in every rank of the community; if not to the removal of the calamity, yet, certainly, to an alleviation of its pressure, and, perhaps, to the prevention of actual famine.

Mr. B. addresses himself, with great propriety, alike to rich and poor ; calling upon all, in their respective stations, to co-operate, with the wisdom of the Legislature, in giving full effect to the benevolent design of the Royal Proclamation. His admonition to domestic fervants (who feel less than any other order in society the preffure of the times, and who have in their own hands the

power of preventing, in a considerable degree, a waste of the neceffary articles of life) is just and pertinent. In conclufion, he very earnestly exhorts all to look beyond second causes to the one Great First Cause, the Almighty Creator and Ruler of the Universe ; to acknowledge his judgments; to see the fins of the nation in its punishment; and, by timely and effectual reforma

; tion, to avert, if possible, the divine displeasure.

The discourse does equal honour to the head and heart of the author ; and his parishioners, in soliciting him to publish it, have rendered it capable of be. coming more extensively beneficial. Their conduct forms a plealing contrast to that of another country parish, in which, as we have been credibly informed, the clergyman was interrupted in reading the Proclamation on both the Sundaye, on which it was ordered to be read, and, at length, obliged wholly to relinquish the attempt. Of the fact we entertain no doubt ; and we regret, that we cannot expose, as it deserves, so disgraceful an act, by naming the parish.

The present Scarcity, its Causes, and its Cure, together with the Duties to

which it call: all Ranks and Descriptions of people; considered in a Ser. mon preached in St. John's Church, Manchester, on Sunday, the 21st Day of December, 1800; being one of the Days appointed for reading his Majesty's Proclamation on the Subject. By J. Clowes, M. A. Rector of the said Church, Manchester. Published at the Request of the Congregation. 8vo. Pp. 29. 1801. M. CLOWES (taking his text from Amos, Ch. iv. ver. 6.) divides his subject into three principal heads ; viz. (1.) The primary cause of the present scarcity ; (2.) The most probable means of relief; and (3.), The duties arising from thence. Under the first head, he ascribes the awful calamity to the displeasure of Almighty God, whether inflicted, by the instrumentality of unfavourable seasons, human wickedness, or any other subordinate cause, employed for the correction of a guilty nation. In the second division of his discourse, he earnekly exhorts to that individual and general reformation, which affords the alone well-grounded hope of regaining the divine blessing : and, in the third, and laft, place, he recommends to the rich, economy and benevolence ; to the poor, patience and resignation; and, to all orders in the community, an improvement of this national visitation, by felf-examination, penitence, and prayer.

This discourle is evidently the production of a pious mind, and composed under a serious fenfe of the manifold evils that spring from resting in fecond causes, and leaving the one Great First Cause wholly out of the queftion. A spirit of piety, creditable to the writer's heart, pervades the discourse, which is, at once, plain and impressive.