pleasest; my conscience knoweth no other master: doth thine? C. No: but my conscience tells me that there ought to be spiritual governors in the church. Q. Governors are masters; and the conscience cannot be mastered. C. What, not directed? Q. If by direction thou meanest instruction, this hath no relation to government. And all men that can instruct, ought to instruct. C. What, without a call? Q. To be able, is a sufficient call; and no call sufficient without ability. C. But who shall judge of that call? Q. He who hath it, and they to whom he ministereth. C. The common people are rare judges! Q. The commonest man is a good judge, whether he be edified by his preacher or not. C. Perhaps they are both enthusiasts. Q. They may be pious christians for all that: if their affections, be good toward God, they will certainly be saved. C. Nay, I don't wonder at your charity for enthusiasts: it is but natural. Q. I have charity for all men, as every true christian hath, even for thee. Art thou an enthusiast? C. No: I am a member of the church of Christ. Q. Shew it by thy charity. Thou hast neither charity nor understanding, if thou wouldest exclude sall enthusiasts from Christ's church. C. They exclude themselves. Q. Thy censure is passionate and cruel. No man chooseth to be an enthusiast, nor knows that he is. Wouldest thou damn him for învincible weakness ? C. What shall I do with him,. if he will not be reclaimed. Q. That is part of his weakness, and thou hast nothing to do with him. What wouldest thou have to do, where thou canst do nothing? Those who have conscience, know that it is not to be commanded nor plied, C. A whipping-post has sometimes worked great cures that way. Q. Upon hypocrites. Dost thou reckon conscience an evil?, and would a whipping-post cure thee of thine? C. You are an unmannerly fellow. Q. Would that were the worst! could say of thee! C. Sir, what can you say of me? Q. What I will not say. I do not like thy example so well as to follow it; nor will fulfil the character that thou givest of me. I will only assure thee, that thou art not qualified to rebuke unmannerly language; and that for myself, I would rather want breeding than charity. C. I perceive my censure of your brethren, the enthusiasts, touches you.s Q. With compassion for thee, who art the greatest enthusiast I ever met with. C. Hey day! Mr. Pert; what, is your head turned ? Q. I am going to shew thee that thine is for reasoning hath no manner of effect upon thee; and thou reckonest every man who is out of thy favour, to be moreover out of the favour of God. All which is manifest enthusiasm, and the worst part of enthusiasm, the enthusiasm of monks and dervises, of bigots and persecutors of all sides and sorts. C. Thou art a very merry, fellow. Q. I am not inerry: thou makest me melancholy to see such an antichristian spirit in thee. C. Are you really in earnest when you charge me with enthusiasm? Q Thou chargest thyself, by declaring for persecution; a crime a gainst the very essence of christianity. If thou art not an enthusiast, thou art worse. C. Why, I tell you, I am an enemy to enthusiasts. Q. In that very thing thou art secution. C. To punish disobedience to our spiritual governors, is, forsooth, per secution! All Q. I thought I had already shewn thee the vanity of thy language about spiritual governors, which words contradict each other. None but God can govern the spirit of man. government amongst men is human government, which meddleth only with the peace and property of society: when it would controul the consciences of men, it invadeth the jurisdiction, and usurps the prerogative of the Almighty, and is guilty of persecution. C. But don't you disturb the peace of the church, which is part of the government?. Q. We ourselves are part of the church of Christ, and give no disturbance to the rest; and if thy pride be disturbed at our christian liberty, the Scripture condemneth thee. We cannot, as we are christians, sacrifice our conscience to any man's ambition. Can a peaceable compliance with private conscience disturb any man who hath the spirit of Christ? The business of religion is to find a way to heaven: art thou disturbed because I choose that which appears the shortest, and which to me is the only comfortable way? C. But if you be in a wrong way, and I would compel you into the right way; I do you no injury, but real service. Q. Friend, hast thou ever been there? And have not I the same written directions from the inspired men of God as thou hast, about the length and difficulty of the road ? Let me ask thee a questio est thou be compelled to ny me in my journey he C. No, faith, for two able reasons. First, yo going thither. The question of peace my opinion treated in parl a mere party question, an which the late ministers w lengths to harrass their it becomes the duty of e who can divest himself of ings, and private interest, t to place the great quest tional safety, fully, fairly tinctly before his country they may be enabled to for partial judgment of their and not be misled by any mours for peace, which m sed by a few selfish manu that grumble to maintain f the workmen who have maintained them, and ena to live in splendour and lu The first thing to bự c affords, and deprive ourselves of some foreign luxuries for the sake of our ultimate preservation; though I by no means agree with the anti-commercial system of Mr. Cobbett, as a permament source of either great ness or comfort. The dominion of the sea till the balance of power is restored on the continent must be our sheet anchor, or rock of defence, our firmest support; nor must we ever think of sending a man or a guinea to the continent, till a different who possess it as the vassals of Bonaparte. And I much doubt whether at any period our naval strength ought to be relaxed or diminished, though it should be exercised with subject, is this Does Bonaparte certainly and positively consider the destruction of this country as essenfial to the consummation of his greatness, or will he, satisfied with his continental power, suffer us to enjoy our commercial prosperity and maritime superiority, unenvied and undisturbed? It is impossible to ask him the question and expect an answer: we must therefore decide from his conduct, his speeches, and his character; and all these confirm the idea that nothing short of our ulti-spirit is seen to animate the powers mate subjugation either by peace or by war, will satisfy his boundless ambition. There is no medium in this; we must not attempt to adopt the beautiful metaphysical speculation so idly brought forward by Lord Stanhope, (who is one of the few impartial men in either house) of an equality of rights among nations; this is not a time to talk of equality, while one man at the head of a powerful nation wishes to be all in all. We must act upon the state of things as they are, and not as they ought to be; and not when we find that most men and most nations are selfish and knavish, treat them as if they were disinterested, benevolent, and honest. All compromises are bad things, and when great questions are agitated, it is both safe and manly to search them to the bottom. If ever there, was a question which involved the safety and existence of the nation as an independent state, it is that of peace or war at this moment; and when the issue of the contest is of so important a nature, it is mean, base, and impolitic, to seek for refuge in any thing but our, own strength. This is, no doubt, a dreadful decision; but the times require it; and we must brace our selves up to meet them: we must explore and bring forth our internal, resources, which are potent and nu merous; and in the present suspen-, sion of foreign commerce; we must trust to all that our own country as little inconvenience to other na- " Feb. 8. W. BURDON. TO GEORGE CANNING, ESQ. I thank your honour a thousand times over, for what you said in the parliament house against morality. There was Nimble Dick and 1 in the Gallery, as heard you-and we both said, you was the finest gentleman in the country; and when you talked of Old Morality, we knew you meant Justice Bond; and when you put out your hand to speak against the gentlemen, as was against filching, Dick said, you'd a fine finger for a pocket. I always thought, as you said, honesty was a flam-and if your honour would accept of a tiifle as Dick and I got out of a par son's fob while your honour was speaking, it's much at your honour's service. Feb. 8. BILL SOAMES. REVIEW OF BOOKS. Considerations on the Causes, Objects, and Consequences of the present war, and on the expediency, or the Danger of Peace with France. By W. Roscoe, Esq. 2s. 6d. 4th. Ed. We are happy to find that the author of this pamphlet, although he was, owing to the machinations of of the slave dealers, and the no popery men, rejected at the last election for Liverpool, is employing his talents not only for the entertainment of the literary world, but for the more general benefit of his countrymen. The present tract is replete with facts and resonings of the utmost importance. The author in the preface calls upon his countrymen, motive that can by every actuate good men, and good subjects, to attend, at this momentous crisis to their own real interests; to dissipate those exaggerated apprehensions which seem likely to plunge us into the very evils which they dread; to awaken the people to a just sense of the importance of the great cause of political morality, to remind them that the faults of government are the faults of the people, the honour of the nation their honour, and the disgrace of the nation their disgrace; and to induce them to feel, that the conscience of a nation is in the bosom of every honest man." ། war because the government with which we had to treat, was unable to maintain the accustomed relations of peace and amity, was too absurd to be of long continuance, and was therefore shortly succeeded by a determination to carry on the war till we had obtained indem nity for the past, and security for the future. Indemnity for the past! It is not in the power of our enemies to give it. What can indemnity this country for the millions it has expended, and the blood it has shed? Security for the future is indeed at all times to be kept in view; but whether this is more likely to be attained by our persevering in the war, or negociating for peace, it is the object of the following pages to shew." The author then proceeds to detail the causes which led to the pre-. sent war, from which he draws the following most just conclusion: "Thus the breach of the treaty of Amiens, incited chiefly by the cry of the war party in England, and which was ventured upon for no assignable object, except the possession of the Island of Malta, occasioned in the course of a few months, the greatest disaster, which the established order of things in Eu-. rope has, in modern times, experien-, ced, and led the way to those important changes, the extent of which are not yet fully disclosed." The endeavours of Mr. Pitt to embroil all Europe in the war we had so madly renewed, afford a melancholy display of depravity and folly. When Bonaparte assumed the imperial title, he, in a letter addressed to the British Sovereign, professed himself ready to enter upon a discussion with Great Britain for a pacification. His proposal was rejected on the pretext that Great Britain must first consult her allies! It appears to have been Mr. Pitt's determination to stir up a new coali tion against France, and all the means which bribery and hypocrisy could effect were used for that purpose. The British ambassador at Petersburgh urged to that court "the expediency of losing no time in beginning war, and the British ambassador at Vienna instructed the Austrian Sovereign to heighten or lower his language as he might be prepared with the means of making good his pretensions. The deception, however, as it was very properly called, could not be carried on beyond the month of August." The fatal consequences of this wretched coalition are well known. With the battle of Austerlitz the confederation against France terminated, and shortly after terminated the life of its author, who had so long been the scourge of his country and of Europe. The character of this detested statesman is well drawn by our author, and we should regret that our narrow limits prevented us from presenting it to our readers, were we not persuaded they will seriously peruse the work in which it is contained. Mr. Roscoe then proceeds to the particulars of the last negociation with France, which led to the unfortunate termination,That terms equally honourable and advantageous for this country, all circumstances considered, were rejected, on account of Russia, whose claims were declared by Lord Lauderdale, the British ambassador, to be " an object MORE INTERESTING, IF POSSIBLE to England, than those "points, which might be considered as peculiarly connected with her own "interests !" From the history of this negocia tion our author very justly concludes "That as the non-compliance by Franco with these demands on the part of Russia was the only reason for continuing the war, there exist ♦ These are the words of the British Ambassador, Vide Sir. A. Paget's lottar to Lord Mulgrave, Aug. 29, 1804, not, at this moment, when those reasons are effectually removed by the avowed hostility of Russia to Great Britain, either any just ground of offence against France for her conduct in this transaction, or any difference of interest between the two countries which can now be alleged as a motive for continuing the war." After referring to the fatal campaign which ended in the humiliation of Russia, and the almost total overthrow of Prussia, our author proceeds to consider the conduct of our present ministers in the prosecution of the war. Of the attack on Copenhagen in particular, he speaks in language truly becoming the man of honour, and the friend of justice, morality and christia nity; reprobating in terms equally elegant and energetic that act of extraordinary wickedness and folly, which has sunk the character of the British nation to almost the lowest state of degradation: he at the same time exposes the detestable principles which a few years since were uttered by a divine of the established church, from the pulpit of the University of Cambridge, and the equally detestable principles which have lately disgraced the writings of Mr. Cobbett. On this subject our author after proving to demonstration the injustice and impolicy of this proceeding, adds"This country is now stained with the blood of her friends, whom she has attacked by surprise with every mode of devas tation, the result of which has been a general cry of horror and indig nation against her, from one extremity of Europe to the other. Thus from that high and dignified rank, which she had till that fatal moment supported, she was, by one atroci ous act, degraded in the eyes of the world beyond what language can express! On the present state of our af fairs, our author makes the follow |