war, will be less likely to resist demands even of this nature. But the choice of such a season for the loud, and, an Englishman would say, the presumptuous assertion of claims like these, intimates little but the ungenerous illiberality of temporary artifice; and we shall see whether Great: Britain, the sole remaining assertor of the independence of Europe, has yet felt the necessity of listening and yielding to the insisting haughtiness of foreign American negotiation.

( no

"Great Britain, it is true, degraded by the imbecile policy which she has so often practised of late, has been contemptuously laughed at, as walking with infirm steps, in leading strings;' exhibited as possessing regular system of maritime law, and defamed as being regulated in her: maritime proceedings by occasional and fluctuating rules, adapted to, and prescribed by the circumstances of the moment. These upbraiding sar-. casms may have been merited. England has, indeed, in a great degree, submitted to the worst of all mischiefs, a commercial war and a mili tary peace, a state of things but just now seen in the world,' and which cannot last long, without endangering the commerce, the strength, and the independence of Britain. Yet I will not suppose that she is reduced to the miserable necessity of submitting to the dictation of the States of America, or of submitting to a Plenipotentiary who is commanded to insist, not directed to negotiate.

"I use this language because circumstances require it. The States of America have plainly told us, that their Legislature is capable of measures, repugnant to all the principles of civilized legislation, and little less hostile than an absolute declaration of war. By a late Bill, which passed the Lower House of Congress, not only is the person who shall impress any seaman said to be of the United States, declared a pirate, under all the penalties of piracy; but a pecuniary reward is offered to any such seaman to encourage him by shooting, or otherwise to kill and destroy any and every person who shall attempt to impress him;' not only is it declared, that if any seaman so impressed shall suffer death, or other corporal punishment, by the authority of the Power into whose service he shall be impressed, it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, to cause the most rigorous and exact retaliation on any subject of that Government,' but an Act of Sequestration is pronounced in favour of such seamen, of the property of any of the subjects of that Power; and an essential article of a Treaty, binding on two parties, is arbitrarily and violently cancelled by one of them.

"The Bill is confessedly pointed against Great Britain, and evidently formed on principles which have never been admitted by the Legislature of the least civilized nation that has existed. On the principle of retaliation, it suspends a severe punishment over the head of every Briton resident in the American States; it goes to cancel the legitimate claims of the British creditor, and thereby to annihilate Commercial credit; it menaces not only the guilty but the innocent; it encourages murder by a national bribe; and it impeaches and denies the authority of treaties, by showing that one nation may, in time of peace, and merely to extend a punishment, already outrageously severe for the offence, reject a solemn and important compact to which two nations had deliberately declared their assent.

“And who are these seamen, for whose liberty the States of America

have indulged this ridiculous extravagance of legislation? Are they really the natives of her soil, her own citizens and artizans, born and bred under her laws, and attached to her institutions? On the contrary, they are the fishermen of British settlements, whom her bounties have seduced from the Coasts of Nova Scotia, or New Brunswick; they are the seamen of Great Britain, who have fled on board her vessels from the service of their Country; they are the subjects of the British Crown, whom she has been enabled by her easy admission into the ports of the British Empire, to allure by prospects of gain and settlement, never to be fulfilled; they are the crowd of emigrants from Ireland and Scotland, whom, having first deceived by artful details of American felicity, she continues annually to carry off to supply the deficiency of her drudges and slaves. On this horde, thus seduced from their own land to toil in various ways, or navigate her vessels, care is taken to confer what are termed Bills of Naturalization; and from that moment, it is said, they cease to be Britons, and become foreign Americans. The subject of the British Empire is thus magically transformed into a "Citizen of the United States; and, for the preservation of this new and curious citizen ship, men are to be encouraged by bribes to assassination, property is to be sequestered, commercial credit vitally attacked, and the solemn com. pact of treaties overthrown! A proceeding more hostile and severe than ever was adopted against a declared enemy or rebel.

"If the Ainerican States had been injured, as they assert, they had to adopt either of two measures-negotiation or war. The British Government has not been so much accustomed to refuse redress, as to deter the States of America from demanding it; or, if redress were not to be obtained by amicable adjustment, it was to be sought for from the just alternative of war. But, no!--The spirit of the trader is infused into American legislation. Violence is exercised, in the sole manner in which it was thought it might be exercised with impunity; and ignominious laws are menaced, which however they might avenge the exaggerated or imaginary evil of which the American States complain, would be consi. dered as the disgrace, the scandal, or the burlesque of legislation. It would, however, be unjust to suppose, that the savage disposition an nounced in the Bill alluded to, is general. To the overbearing few only can be attributed a spirit worse than fanatic; yet they have contrived to degrade the character of their country, and the disgrace will remain as long as the memory of it exists.

Not a vessel arrives from America that does not bring new accounts of some actual, or intended proceeding in that country, hostile to the in terests of Great Britain. The period, therefore, has arrived, when the British Legislature can no longer temporize, and when no alternative is left between becoming firmness, and the imbecility of submission. We are not always, I hope, to be the party to offer the sacrifice, and to be burdened with the disgrace and with the cost. We are not perpetually to view with indifference that spirit of encroachment, that indiscriminate thirst of gain, that sordid jealousy which, from having already obtained so much, have only become frantic to obtain more, and which, having been fostered and cherished by our acquiescence, seem to rely on our weakness for the last renunciation of maritime right. Continued concession on one side, can only stimulate continued encroachment on the other; and

the

the sole return which political submission has to expect, is aggression, insult, and contempt."

The Country, in our opinion, is highly indebted to his Lordship for the great pains which he has bestowed on this interesting topic; which he has discussed with a manly spirit of independence, with a deep knowledge of his subject, and with ability to place it in the most striking point of view.

The Condition and Duties of a Tolerated Church; a Sermon, preached in Bishop Strachan's Chapel, Dundee, on Sunday the 9th February, 1806; at the Consecration of the Right Rev. Daniel Sandford, D. D. to the Office of a Bishop in the Scotch Episcopal Church. By the Rev. James Walker, A. M. late of St. John's College, Cambridge. 8vo. Pr. 67. Cheyne, Edinburgh; and Rivingtons, London. 1806.

THIS Sermon, as the title-page bears, was preached in the Episcopal Chapel, Dundee, at the Consecration of the Right Rev. Daniel Sandford, D. D. a countryman of our own, whose learning, unaffected piety and zeal, tempered with prudence, we know to be such as would do honour to the highest station in any church. The author takes an opportunity of paying a very handsome tribute of esteem to his friend, the Rev. Dr. Gleig, at Stirling, to whom the sermon is dedicated. At the mention of this gentleman's name we observe, with surprize and regret, that no substantial mark of public approbation has yet been conferred on so able and useful a writer, whose pen has long and uniformly been employed in the defence and support of the dearest interests of man-his happiness here, and his hopes hereafter. But neglect, or ingratitude, on the part of the public, happily discourage neither genius nor virtue; they are shoals in the track of honour, like rocks in the midst of the ocean.

On the present occasion it is impossible to pass unnoticed the Clergy of the Established Church of Scotland, of many of whom it is equally impossible not to speak with respect, as men of liberal and enlightened minds. Through the medium of their writings, we perceive, in many individuals of that Church, such elegance of talents, and genuine liberality of sentiment, as would do honour to any soeiety. At the same time it cannot be denied or concealed, that throughout the discourse now under review, are scattered many, not obscure insinuations, which, notwithstanding all the boasted acquirements in the literature and science of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, make us more than suspect that "there is still something rotten in the state of Denmark." On this subject we present our readers with the following passage from the Preface.

"It seems as if it were impossible for us so to conduct ourselves, as to avoid the censure of the world. The union of Episcopalians in this country, which led to the consecration of Bishop Sandford, and the dignity (entirely spiritual as it is) to which he has been promoted, appeared to me calculated to destroy all the prejudices which had been so idly raised, and so industriously circulated against the Scotch Episcopal Church. The solemn adoption of the Thirty-nine Articles, as well as of the Liturgy of the United Church of England and Ireland; the union with us of men of the highest respectability, and the promotion of one of these to the office of a Bishop among us, seemed for ever to preclude, among candid and liberal men, the possibility of misconception, or of misrepresenta. tion, either of our principles or of our practice.

"At any period of our history, as a Church merely connived at, or positively tolerated, a little calm and candid inquiry would have placed our religious principles and practice beyond the reach of those cavils, to which they have so often been subjected. But if, in our former condition, misconceptions might be looked for, they are almost unaccountable now, when our condition is better known, and when the slightest inquiry will prove to the most fastidious, that our our principles are perfectly harmless, even if they should be esteemed erroneous; and that our practice, both as Christians, as men, and as British subjects, will bear the strictest examination."

Our Scottish neighbours have always been famed for a sharkish appetite for emolument and distinction; and on this ground we can, perhaps, account for the jealousy and envy, the sneers and sarcasins of two of their most eminent divines, whom it has fallen to our share to notice and chastise for their uncivil attacks upon the Established Church of England. We cannot, however, on similar, or indeed upon any grounds, account for the illiberality, with which it appears, from this sermon, that the Clergy of the Episcopal Church in Scotland are yet treated by some members of the Establishment. Those Clergy are not in a condition to excite either jealousy or envy; and, from the circumstance of their being Episcopalians, they are less likely than any other Dissenters to disturb the peace of the Established. Church. On this topic we shall not at present enlarge, further than only to observe, that Mr. Walker defends and maintains the principles and practice of the Church to which he belongs, with a firmness and dignity, and at the same time with a truly Christian moderation, every way becoming the religion which he professes.

The text is Titus ii. 15. "Let no man despise thee;" and in the discourse composed from these words, the writer evinces a considerable degree of critical acumen in biblical learning, a thorough acquaintance with the nature and constitution of the Christian Church, and a most accurate knowledge of human nature and the human heart.On these, and other subjects, we shall allow the able and eloquent preacher to speak for himself; confident that our readers will not only excuse, but even thank us for the extracts which we are about to lay before them. Mr. Walker, be it premised, is in no danger of in

curring

curring the woe denounced in the Gospel; for even his amiable and unoffending moderation will not shield him from attacks from various and opposite quarters-from modern libellists, and true Churchmen from Christian observers, and from chemico-metaphysico-rational Divines.

The following extract contains, in our opinion, truths of very great importance, which, it is to be feared, are not very generally acknowledged or felt, but to which, for that reason, we wish to give circulation.

"Such appear to us to be the legitimate deductions to be drawn from the instructions and facts recorded in Scripture; and, by referring to the practice and testimony of the primitive Church, we find that they thus understood the Scriptures and the institutions of the Apostles: nor does it appear that any other opinions ever obtained in any quarter of the Christian world, for fifteen hundred years. It is true, indeed, and it is most deeply to be lamented, that those spiritual powers were, in many instances, grossly abused to the disgrace of religion; and in many, to the ruin of civil government. It is true that they formed the pretexts and the steps by which was erected the most odious system of temporal tyranny which ever afflicted mankind. But the abuse of a principle will never furnish a legitimate argument against the just use of it. Yet it is certain that the system of re-action, which has so often operated fatally in human affairs, has had very unhappy consequences also in this. The Reformation was an event of inestimable value to the human race. But with much good it brought also along with it much evil. It excited various and violent passions, and gave rise to divisions and animosities in the Church of Christ, which have raged with more or less destructive violence ever since. In England, this great event was conducted with distinguished moderation. The leaders in this work of God rejected with firmness the errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome; but they did not absurdly think that they had to form a new Church, or found a new religion. No-they did not walk by metaphysical reasoning, nor by the doubtful principles and glimmering light of moral science. They read the Scriptures, and inquired into the history of the primitive Church, and whatever they found agreeable to these authorities, they firmly retained. Their laudable, enlightened, and moderate conduct, was approved at the time, as it has been since, by all who were capable of judging; and even the most illustrious of the foreign reformers, who had acted very differently, as they pleaded, from necessity, added in the amplest form their testimony of approbation. Against the principles of Episcopal Government, thus reformed, the plea of necessity was urged by some, and that of conscience by others. By referring to the period, it is easy, even for an unconcerned spectator, to discover on which side existed moderation, and reason, and authority; and on which, passion, and prejudice, and violence."

The Christian observers are eager to have it believed that they are cordially attached to Episcopacy; but to them, and to their worthy Calvinistic coadjutors, the true Churchmen, we now offer a morsel which will undoubtedly cause them to make wry faces, and will afford

to