Robert Owen, of New Lanark. Second Edition. 8vo. pp. 1846s. Boards. Longman and Co. 1816. Art. 33. An Address delivered to the Inhabitants of New Lanark, on the first of January, 1816, at the Opening of the Institution established for the "Formation of Character." By Robert Owen. Second Edition. 8vo. pp. 48. 2s. 6d. Longman and Co. If The author of these essays has lately filled a conspicuous place in the public eye; and, after having raised much undue expectation, he has fallen below that station in the scale of reformers which, on a full consideration of his schemes, we are disposed to allot to him. our readers will refer to our notice of his first publication, (M. R. vol. lxxii. p. 313.) they will find that, while we regretted the want of particular and definite illustration in his arguments, we were confident that the example which he has afforded, in the management of the large manufacturing establishment so long committed to his care, would not be without its eventual advantage. His late appeals to the public, through the medium of the news-papers and the tracts now before us, all tend to confirm this opinion; and to make us lament that a person, by no means devoid of sound practical rules, or incapable of arriving at useful deductions, has bewildered himself and his readers in a labyrinth of vague assertion and general exhortation. Mr. Owen's plan should have been to publish a journal of his progressive advance in the improvement of the inhabitants of New Lanark, with a variety of notes and comments on the means of adapting his several regulations to other communities of the same kind; and all this should have been given in a plain, practical form; leaving it to the political economist or the legislator to make the application general for the relief of the poor at large. Reformers should always keep in mind how necessary an element time is to the accomplishment of their projects; and that the mode of effecting real good is to be contented to proceed step by step, aware that established habits, opinions, and prejudices, will not give way but in a very gradual manner. The great objection to that innovator par excellence, Joseph II. of Austria, was not so much a misconception of his objects as a miscalculation of the time necessary to mature them. The larger of the works now before us consists of four essays, of which the first two are reprints, and were noticed in our article already quoted. The third and fourth are new, and contain an application of the principles of the former essays both to private manufacturing establishments and to government in a general sense. The same animadversions apply to each treatise; the author aims at taking in too much; and at expatiating on the human mind in a large and philosophic sense, instead of confining his views to a short statement of what he had personally done, and an equally short application of his rules to other institutions. The Address to the inhabitants of New Lanark is in the same indistinct and dif`fuse style; and the consequence is that few persons will have patience to read and still fewer to study the mysterious doctrines of Mr. Owen. Fortunately, however, he has given them to the. public at a season abundantly favourable to the consideration of such propositions; and the fruit of his labours will not be lost if the subject be taken up by men of clearer heads and more moderate expectations. The objects should be to aim at the adoption of one or two points of improvement at a time, such as have already taken place since Mr.O. published his tract (M. R. vol. lxxix. p. 223.) on the hardship of the excessive labours of children in manufactories or mills of machinery; a tract which, in point of style, was in a great degree exempt from the objections now urged; and which succeeded accordingly in fixing the attention of several members of the legislature. Art. 34. Reasons for a farther Amendment of the Act 54 Geo. III. c. 156., being an Act to amend the Copy-right Act of Queen Anne. By Sir Egerton Brydges, Bart. M. P. 8vo. pp. 47. Nichols. 1817. It will be recollected that, after a long contest both in our courts of justice and in the House of Commons, an act was passed on the subject of Copy-right in 1814, by which the question was decided in favour of the public libraries;-booksellers being obliged to deliver after that date eleven copies of every new book to these repositories of science. This, however, was and still is a matter of complaint with many persons, and with none more than Sir E. Brydges; who took at the time an active part against the bill, and now assures the public that its operation has been not only oppressive to booksellers but injurious to the nation at large. By a list appended to his pamphlet, it appears that the average value of books claimed under the act by the eleven great libraries is 5000l.; a charge which, it is observed, falls very hard on all works of limited circulation, the extra expence in an edition of 250 copies being between four and five per cent., and more than double when the impression (as sometimes happens) is limited to a hundred. We were always adverse to this grant of copies to the public libraries, and considered it as an infringement of the natural right of every individual to the retention of his own property: but, the case being hopeless, and the Universities all powerful from the number of alumni which they count in either house of parliament, we should be disposed to waive all farther discussion on the subject, and decline even to urge the qualified relief claimed by Sir E. B. in p.23.: confining future reclamations to the grand object of the extension of copy-right,-a subject not only of great moment to authors, but replete with important consequences to the public at large. Nothing would tend more than this extension to induce booksellers to discourage the present fashion of writing for momentary effect; or incline and enable them more to stimulate authors to labour until they had given their works a standard value, and could bring before the public that which was calculated equally for the present generation and for posterity. Sir E. B. takes occasion to introduce into his pamphlet the arguments of Carte, the well known historian, to that effect; and we are somewhat disappointed that he did not confine his chief arguments to this, which is by far, the greater and more interesting part of the question. SINGLE SERMON S. Art. 35. Art. 36. Mawman. Is. 6d. Adverting to the uncommon melancholy which weighed down the heart of Jeremiah when he uttered the lamentation expressed in chap. viii. 14, 15. 18., Mr. Bree alleges the example of the prophet as justifying similar grief on the part of his auditory under similar affliction; and as requiring them to reflect on the national consequences which may result from an event ' replete with sorrow to the feeling and patriotic mind.' He then proceeds to draw the character of the deceased Princess in terms of the highest eulogy; deplores her loss as a chastisement from the All-wise, "because we have sinned against the Lord;' rebukes with manly freedom the vices of the age; and intimates the miseries which he should unfold, if, with the prophet of Judea, he could withdraw the veil that conceals from mortal eye the history of times unborn.' He concludes an impressive and eloquent discourse with urging the moral lessons which the extraordinary dispensation here lamented so obviously excites and enforces. We could not but remark Mr. Bree's expressions when he says (p. 15.) that the Princess Charlotte was from study and conviction a firm believer in the Christian code; and from all those systems of belief which were offered to her examination, she selected, as the rule of her faith and conduct, the one which forms the established creed of the government under which we live." Surely a greater degree of examination, but especially a greater degree of choice, is here ascribed to her Royal Highness than she can be supposed to have exercised. Art. Art. 37. Preached in the Parish Church of Chiswick, Middlesex, 19th Nov. 1817, being the Day of Interment of H. R. H. the Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales and Saxe Cobourg. By the Rev. T. F. Bowerbank, M. A. Vicar. 8vo. 1s. Rivingtons. From Amos, viii. 9, 10., which Mr. Bowerbank justly calls a text singularly applicable to the occasion of his discourse, he, also, like Mr. Bree and others, views the death of the Princess Charlotte not only as a national loss but as a national chastisement. He insists on this head in terms perhaps almost too specific and precise; reminding his hearers that, in his sermon on the peace, he had observed to them that, as certainly as God Almighty had been pleased to place us,' during the long continental storm, in a situation above that of every other nation, so surely would he mark the return we should make for his goodness; and then alleging that national repentance and national reformation' have not followed, he seems to regard the lamentable event in question as the judgment on our hard-heartedness in this instance. however, it be questionable whether we should thus ascribe a particular dispensation of Providence to an especial cause of his displeasure, we may securely and wisely adopt this preacher's able and pious exhortations to amendment, both as a people and as individuals, arising out of the example and the fate of the virtuous and dignified deceased. 6 If, Art. 38. Preached at the Old Jewry Chapel, in Jewin Street, on Occasion of the much lamented Death of the Princess Charlotte Augusta, 19th Nov., being the Day of her Interment. By Abraham Rees, D.D. F.R.S. F.L.S. Soc. Amer. Soc. &c. &c. Editor of the Cyclopædia. 8vo. pp. 30. Longman and Co. This venerable preacher discourses also from Jeremiah, (see Art. 36.) but takes the ixth chap. verse 23. for his text. The words of that verse are ably and fully illustrated, in shewing the transitory and fallible nature of the wisdom, the power, and the riches of man; explaining the circumstances of the Jewish nation, under which the prohibition to glory in those qualities and possessions was uttered; and urging the reasons for the prohibition as motives for enforcing it. The topic is treated for the most part generally, as it might have been at any time: but it is closed with a direct reference to the cause of the sermon; and with high commendation on the late Princess, as far as, according to Dr. R.'s observation, his very partial and imperfect acquaintance' with her character enabled him to appreciate it. The whole composition manifests the wisdom and calmness of age, the piety of the Christian minister, and the loyalty of a free British subject. Art. 39. Preached 19th Nov. 1817, the Day of the Interment of her late R. H. the Princess Charlotte of Wales, before the Unitarian Church, Hackney. By Robert Aspland. 8vo. is. Hunter. Resorting, like so many of his brethren, to the antient prophets on this occasion, Mr. Aspland adopts the words of Isaiah, xl. 6—8., for the text of this discourse. In the commencement, he dilates on the solemn warning that "all flesh is grass, and all the goodli ness ness thereof is as the flower of the field," and then he instances the striking exemplification of this truth in the case which at present called forth his official admonitions. He joins in the universal commendation of the character of the Princess, as well as in mourning the deprivation of that prospect of national happiness which was anticipated in her reign; and he freely and truly asserts the proof which the general attachment to her Royal Highness, and the perhaps unparalleled national grief for her death, strikingly afford of the disposition of the English people to love their princes, when any promise of excellence tends to nourish such a sentiment. The sermon has not the air of an elaborate composition, but it is in parts expressed with felicity, and is altogether not derogatory to Mr. Aspland's established reputation. Art. 40. Preached in the Parish Church of Walthamstow, Essex. By the Rev. G. Hughes, M.A. Curate. 8vo. 1s, Longman and Co. Though it is not so described in the title-page, this is also a sermon on the death of the Princess Charlotte. From 2 Sam. i. 27 4 Mr. Hughes calls on us to observe "how are the mighty fallen," and treads in the steps of so many other preachers in displaying her example, lamenting her fate, and improving the lesson which is thus mournfully taught. A number of obvious generalities of reflection are then introduced, expressed with neatness and feeling. CORRESPONDENCE. Dr. Crombie's work in reply to Mr. Gilchrist is intended for notice in our next Review, and has been prevented only by accident from appearing in this Number. As far as our memory informs us, the tract mentioned by F. H. has not reached our hands. The publication of Philanthropos is at present, with many others, under consideration. The APPENDIX to this Volume of the M. R. will be published on the first of February, with the Number for January. The GENERAL INDEX to Eighty-one Volumes of the New Series of the MONTHLY REVIEW is proceeding through the press. |