tholic Church, and if we appropriate this expression to the Church of Rome, as protesters against the doctrine of that church, we avow ourselves to be heretics. Till very lately, Papist was their legal designation. We believe Lord Redesdale's bill is the first instance of their being called Roman Catholics in a solemn act of the legislature. We do not, however, wish to revive any odious distinction; but do not let us call them xar' ox Catholis. Essay VI. Vol. I. on Ecclesiastical Emoluments, has so much merit, that we wish our limits would permit us to make larger extracts from it. We shall lay before our readers what Mr. Bigland says on the schemes so much in favour with some of our modern writers on agriculture, for the abolition of tithes : "Ecclesiastical History, it must be allowed, affords several instances of the seizure of the revenues of the church in different countries; but those ar. bitrary proceedings are somewhat difficult to justify by any solid reasoning, or on any principles of equity, which we should think it safe to apply to any other cases of possession. The system adopted in some countries of seizing the lands of the church, and fixing the ecclesiastical stipends in money, is ruinous to the interests of the Christian clergy, and tends to the degradation of the clerical character, by causing the ministers of the altar to be considered as a sort of servants of the public. It also renders the church more burdensome to the lower orders of the people, of whom, every individual, in proportion to his consumption, fur. nishes his contribution to the national treasury, out of which, those salaries must be paid, than it is found where lands are assigned for the clergy, and where it is consequently productive of no greater inconve nience to the people at large that an estate is in the hands of a Bishop or an Archbishop, than if it were in the hands of a Marquis or a Duke. The conversion of ecclesiastical revenues into pecuniary stipends, is also, in other respects, pregnant with certain bad consequences, of which, although it be impossible to calculate the full extent, we may, from preceding cir. cumstances, form a probable conjecture. No one is ignorant of the pro digious influx of money, and the consequent diminution of its value, which has, within the last three centuries, taken place. This is a cir. cumstance which has had a fatal operation on a number of public institu. tions, to the support of which, a fixed stipend in money had been assigned. This is verified in every part of Europe, and particularly in Great Britain, where a number of charitable institutions, which were once of great importance and benefit to the public, are now dwindled down into insignificancy, and some of them considered so little worth attention as to be entirely lost, or converted to purposes totally different from those for which they were first intended."' The seventh Essay of Vol. I. treats on Education, in which we differ toto cælo from the author, who deprecates the public education of our great schools. This is one of his observations on the subject: "A public education is generally supposed to be accompanied by some considerable advantages, of which a private tuition is necessarily desti NO. XCV, VOL. XXIV. tute. tute. It is, in the first place, esteemed conducive to the acquisition of that easy confidence which is so generally applauded, and is unquestionably of great use in life. If the supposition, that this quality is attainable in a public and unattainable in a private education, could be proved justifiable, it would powerfully contribute to cast the balance in favour of the former. This bold and easy assurance, if not carried beyond the bounds of moderation and decency, has, in every transaction of life, a decided advantage over that bashful timidity which totally disqualifies a person from making any figure in public. It is not, however, to be acquired in a seminary of turbulent boys, among whom noise and impudence exclude reason and reflection, and are the principal ingredients in their social intercourse, but by a gradual and well-timed, introduction into company, where various kinds of conversation contribute to amusement and instruction, and where the youthful mind may not only imbibe a variety, of knowledge, and learn to form just ideas of a number of things appertaining to life, but also acquire a decency of behaviour, and a propriety and elegance of expression, not to be learnt in a tumultuous rabble of petulant children. It has, indeed, been frequently observed, that those who have been educated in public schools are generally as bashful and timid in any other company than that of their playmates, as those whose education has been more private, which shews that various conversation with the world can alone inspire a well-grounded and becoming assurance in discourse and behaviour, which is something very different from the troublesome and noisy petulance of ignorant self-sufficiency." Our experience has convinced us, that a manly confidence among equals, and the diffidence in the company of men and women, which is so amiable in youth, and which is the promise of future excellence in the man, is the usual consequence of a public school; and that the troublesome and noisy petulance of ignorant self-sufficiency is generally the fruit of an early introduction of boys into society, where they fancy they are acquiring a notion of things when they are only capable of learning words. The tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth Essays of the first volume, are entirely devoted to the subject of superstition; a labour which, at the present day, might surely have been spared, as incredulity rather than credulity, at least in all but the -material world, is the character of the times. Surely we now have too much reason to say with the Roman satirist : "Esse aliquas manes & subterranea regna, Nec pueri credunt nisi qui rondum ære lavantur. We sincerely commend that laudable care which we believe to be now universal among parents and instructors, to keep all superstitious stories from the ears of infancy; but when such stories happen to be read or related, Mr. Addison, in his admirable Spectator, on the subject, affords the best antidote to the poison; but he never goes the length of saying, with all the children's story books now published, that no such events ever did or ever could possibly happen; a founda tion tion on which much of the scepticism with regard to revealed religion, which is but too prevalent, has been raised. The tenth Essay of the second volume is a comparison between a city (read town) and a country life; to the latter of which the author seems to have a decided aversion. Part of the observations by which this Essay is accompanied, is a complete specimen of the trite. Mr. B. says: "Different persons have different opinions on this subject: Some prefer the city, others the country. In many this preference arises from inclination or from habit; in others, it proceeds from considerations of interest or conveniency, from the suitableness of either situation to their employments and their prospects. From whatever motives the choice is made, it is reasonable to suppose that each individual considers them as sufficiently powerful to fix his determination. Indeed, the greatest part of mankind are placed in their respective situations by the operation of external circumstances, rather than by a voluntary choice." This a little reminds us of what Sir Wilful Witwou'd says to his mistress in the comedy: "There are some can't relish the town, and others can't away with the country; 'tis like you may be one of those." The disadvantages of a country life are exemplified by the account of the disappointment of a French boy and girl, who did not find their ro mantic notions of rural simplicity realized in an English village, and did not find the society of farmers and labourers (who would certainly laugh at them for their foreign pronunciation), so pleasant as the flattering attention of a polite circle at Paris. It is true, the author has given his French family a qualification that no French family ever possessed: he says, "they all spoke the language so well, that it was not easy to discover them to be foreigners;" which is rendered more improbable by what he has just before said, viz. that "under the most eminent masters in Paris, they had made a tolerable proficiency in the English language." The idea of the progress of the construction of speech is inge nious: "If one were called upon to exhibit a conjecture on the gradual formation of language, it would not be unreasonable to imagine that the substantive was the part of speech first used. The view of different objects would immediately induce men to give them names, in order to distinguish one kind from another; and the necessity of expressing action, or suffering, whether corporeal or mental, would, in the next place give birth to the verb. It would soon be perceived that objects of the same kind were distinguished by different degrees of size, beauty, strength, &c. and this consideration would induce the observers to invent the words called adjectives, in order to denote those discriminating qualities. The different modifications of thought and action would, in like manner, suggest the necessity of adopting some method of expressing those distinctions, and this would naturally give rise to the adverb, which performs the same auxiliary office to the verb as the adjective does to the noun. The preposition would probably come next in order, as it would soon be found C 2 necessary } necessary to distinguish and express the various relations of time, place, &c. which things have to one another; and the mind could not long have exercised its thinking powers, before the tedious repetitions of the name of the same thing would suggest the substitution of pronouns. It is reasonable to suppose that language had been some time established, and that the human mind, by progressive improvement, had discovered the utility of just and elegant connexion and distinction, in expressing its ideas and reflections before the use of the article and the conjunction was introduced. The interjection is no more than the simple expression of some affection of the mind, and is unconnected with the texture of language, as it is, in a great measure, independent of the exercise of the intellectual powers." In this scale, however, the interjection should certainly have been placed first. The concluding Essay, on the manner in which near and remote expectation operate on the mind, is full of just and serious reflection. We select the following passage for the consideration of our readers: "If it could be proved that all, or the greatest part of those who pay so little attention to the concerns of a future state, had only a wavering belief of its existence, there would be no difficulty in ascribing this supineness to its true cause. But it is evident that this is not the case; for many who seem the most inattentive to eternal things, are very far from being sceptics, and never once entertained a doubt concerning the existence of a future state, where a just remuneration of human conduct shall take place. This inconsistency of conduct, with conviction, plainly in dicates the depravity of human nature.” The reader will find more to applaud than to blame in these volumes; the language is generally correct, but the remarks, though sometimes original, are too often the echo of what has been said a thousand times before, of which we have given a specimen. Strictures upon an Historical Review of the State of Ireland, by Francis Plowden, Esq. or, a Justification of the Conduct of the English Government in that Country, from the Reign of Henry II. to the Union of Great Britain and Ireland. Part the Second. (Continued from Page 17 of Vol. XXII.) POPISH writers, in general, have condemned the conduct, and reviled the memory of Queen Elizabeth, because she completely established the Reformation, though all candid historians of her reign uniformly allow, that the salutary laws and wise institutions adopted during her reign, laid the foundation of England's subsequent greatness and glory. As Mr. Plowden has uttered the most envenomed and unqualified abuse, founded in calumny and falsehood, of her administration in Ireland, we shall proceed to lay before our readers the very able defence of it, by this ingenious writer, to whom the public are much indebted indebted for vindicating the Protestant State, against the opprobrious invectives of its very uncandid and disingenuous opponent. "Were we to form our opinion of the reign of Queen Elizabeth from Mr. Plowden's work, we should be led to suppose, that the conduct of her governments towards the natives of Ireland was even more impoli tic, unjust, and oppressive, than those of her predecessors, which this historical review has represented as so wicked and absurd. But if we turn to those writers who have given an account of this eventful period of Irish history, and whose relations, as they were not written for a party purpose, are entitled to our credit, we shall find, that it was her liege subjects, i. e. the colonists, and not the native Irish, who had just The manifold calamities grounds of complaint against her conduct. which the former suffered during this reign, arose principally from the following circumstances. That Princess was ever too ready to lend a willing ear to the insidious representations of those great dissemblers O'Nial and Tyrone, and their associates; in consequence of which, two of her ablest lieutenants, Sir J. Sydney and Sir J. Perrott, were removed from their governments. The vigour and abilities of these deputies, and their perfect knowledge of the insincerity and secret practices of the Irish chieftains, had rendered their administrations formidable to the disaffected party, who laboured incessantly for their removal, and at length succeeded. Their successors were, in general, men of very inferior capacities, and totally unacquainted with the genius of the people whom they were sent to govern; and the short time which most of them were suffered to remain in that kingdom, prevented them from acquiring the knowledge of the Irish character which is so necessary to their government. Elizabeth, moreover, was never inclined to grant either men or money for the services of Ireland: and, therefore, during the early part of her reign, her deputies were obliged to struggle with great difficulties, and were compelled in many instances to have recourse to measures highly injurious to the future repose of that kingdom, although they might have served the short-sighted objects for which they were adopted. One of the most impolitic of these expedients (the fatal consequence of which was afterwards discovered in Tyrone's rebellion) was the measure of arming and embodying, into a kind of militia, the native Irish, in order to repel the frequent invasions of the Scots; who, during the beginning of this reign, so often landed in the north of Ireland, and made it the scene of their predatory irruptions. This Irish militia, who were all Catholics, hated the English only one degree less than the Scots; and, in consequence, afterwards to a man joined in Tyrone's grand popish re bellion; and were the chief cause that the final reduction of that formi. dable rebel was not effected, without such an expence of blood and treasure. These were some of the causes which contributed to the duration of the convulsions of Ireland during Queen Elizabeth's reign, But the principal cause of those rebellions, the source from whence those waters of bitterness flowed, and have continued to flow, was religious bigotry, which sharpened the ancient animosity of the natives against the English, and gave fresh zeal and enthusiasm to their efforts to shake off the domi. nion of England. "During the feeble Catholic government of Queen Mary, Ireland C 3 had |