his subject, does not easily admit of being abstracted. It comains 220 pages of quotations from the fathers commencing Wi Ignatius, a contemporary with the apostles, and terminatin with Theodoret, who flourished about A. D. 423, forming a cpective body of evidence adverse to the tenets of Calvinism; a elucidating the primeval opinion of the Christian church. such authentic testimony the cogency mainly results from e length and the continuity of the chain. Some few extracts ould but state the sentiments of some few individuals. And he extent to which the review of the work before us is already arried, admonishes us to draw our observations to a close.

In the sixth chapter the bishop strengthens his general argument, by shewing that some among the early heretics maintained opinions resembling tenets of Calvinism, and were on that account censured by nearly contemporary fathers.

Although we think some of his evidence rather equivocal, yet as we do not conceive the object of this chapter to be of much importance, we forbear making any extracts from it, our article having already made a large demand upon the patience of our readers.

The seventh chapter contains ample quotations from the writings of Calvin; from which we have produced sufficient extracts in our preliminary statement of the calvinistic system. Those which we have not cited are in unison with the passages which we have laid before our readers. The bishop subjoins the Lambeth articles proposed by Archbishop Whitgift and others, on the part of the calvinistic clergy, A. D. 1595, and speedily suppressed by the command of queen Elizabeth, and again rejected by James I. at his accession, when they were again demanded in the conference at Hampton Court; and also adds the five articles decreed at the synod of Dort, which synod was a representative of all the calvinistic churches of Europe, those of France excepted; and was attended by some divines from England. The bishop desires, and with entire tranquillity as to the result may desire his readers to judge, "whether any thing like these doctrines be contained in the articles, liturgy, or homilies, of our church." (P. 560.)

In a short concluding chapter, an historical sketch is given of the origin and the progress of the doctrines now termed calvinistic. The bishop, though he mentions traces of them among the Basilidians, Valentinians, and other early, heretical sects, observes that,

"The peace of the church seems to have been very little disturbed by any dissension upon these points during the first four centuries; and as a proof oft his, it may be observed, that there is

nothing of a controversial spirit in the exposition the fathers have given of the texts in scripture, which have since been the subject of so much dispute." (P. 573.)

Augustine, in his controversy with the Pelagians, brought forward these doctrines. Of that father, the Bishop of Lincoln says, "I know of no author ancient or modern, in whose works there are so many inconsistencies and contradictions." (P. 575, note.) His predestinarian tenets gained no extensive influence, and little was heard of them until Goteschalc, in the ninth century, was scandalously persecuted for reviving them. They were in repute with the early schoolmen; and nearer to the time of the reformation were maintained by the Dominican and the Augustine monks against the Franciscan, and the Jesuits. A brief account of the growth of calvinistic opinions in our own church is added. Among some just observations tending to evince that calvinistic tenets are not taught in any of our public formularies, we lament to see the bishop again representing sudden conversions, instantaneous operations of the Holy Spirit, and the denial of the necessity of good works, as component parts of Calvinism.

We would willingly hope that we have so conducted our examination, as to qualify our readers to form a rational judgment both respecting the bishop's work, and respecting our own observations upon it. The book has deservedly attracted the attention of the public; and in our opinion, has sometimes been censured with little candour, and at other times has been loaded with very extravagant and undistinguishing praise. It contains an abundance of valuable matter, mixed with much error and want of discrimination, and we must fairly say, no slight infusion of prejudice. The gold is blended and incorporated with so large a proportion of alloy, that we should be deeply concerned to see the mass regarded as a material fit to constitute the current coin of religion among us.

ART. XV. An Attempt to estimate the Increase of the Num ber of Poor during the Interval of 1783 and 1803; and to point out the Causes of it: including some Observations on the Depreciation of the Currency. London, Murray. Edinburgh, Blackwood. Dublin, Mahon. 1911. 8vo. pp. 113. IN stepping a little aside from the ordinary custom of our fraternity, to put our readers in possession of the opinions con tained in the last number of the British Review, on the principle

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of population, we were well aware of the connection which it holds with the subject which we have now undertaken to discuss. Our expectation that the return of the census to parliament would be followed by some inquiry into the number and increase of the poor has not been deceived *. And as the mere numerical returns to any such inquiry would lead the judgment of persons not conversant with the practical tendency of the poor laws, or who have not deeply reflected on their principles, into very erroneous conclusions, both on the actual state of the people, and on the tendency of the laws themselves; we have not hesitated to secure the occasion offered by the pamphlet beforé us, to lead the public mind into a view of the subject which has not yet, we believe, been extensively presented to its consideration. We must first, however, beg the indulgence of our readers for the following general remarks.

We think that it must be obvious to every man who has attentively studied, and reflected upon, the laws and constitution of Great Britain, that our ancestors have bequeathed to us a -system of polity exclusively calculated for a country in a career of progressive prosperity, and of continual advancement in pubhe happiness and civilization :-nay, that the system has been so providently constructed, or so fortuitously mixed together, that so long as we are faithful to its leading features, moral and political, we may feel an assurance little short of certainty, that this progressive course will continue. This may be called by some a British prejudice a theoretic assumption of unenlightened partiality-but if it be a prejudice or an illusion of theory, it is built on the semblance of solid fact more apparently real, than any that ever yet proved to be essentially void of substance. For we will venture to assert, that in no country of which the page of history, or the researches of travellers, have rendered an account, has the impulse of voluntary and steady exertion descended so low in the scale of society; because every man in every condition of life is satisfied not only that the fruits of his industry will be sacredly preserved to him and his posterity, but that if he be actually moral in his conduct, and industrious to the extent of his means, the laws of his country have ordained that any deficiency in those means shall be made up to him from the superfluity of his fellow-citizens.

The interests of the higher orders are so intimately blended with those of the lower, through every gradation of society, without break or chasm, that the smallest disarrangement of any part is felt in the remotest extremities. And the

See Mr. Brougham's notice in the House of Commons, Jan. 17, 1812.

glorious result of this combination is, what no age or country ever before exhibited, the gratuitous assistance of the great body of enlightened and independent men in carrying on the legitimate operations of government, precisely in those remote branches to which no hired agent can effectually penetrate; but the care of which, if neglected, can only be supplied by the ramifications of arbitrary power. What country can exhibit the minds of a free people brought into voluntary submission to great personal and pecuniary sacrifices, by the example and intermediate agency of their natural protectors, whose feelings and interests are nearly identified with their own? And how many countries have thought it necessary to supply the defect of such an arrangement by exacting from an enslaved people forced contributions, through the agency of their natural oppressors, whose feelings and interests run in a directly opposite current?

That our periodical elections, the substantial equality of our laws, and the freedom of parliamentary discussion, are the main causes of this enviable distinction, we readily admit; but we are also convinced, that the bond of union between the higher and the lower orders provided by the poor laws should not be overlooked in the account, inasmuch as they place the gratuitous performance of the duties we have before detailed upon the solid and permanent basis of self-interest. Proprietors are placed in this dilemma-either they must prevent the distresses of the lower orders by attention to their moral and political condition, For they must incur the necessity of relieving those distresses when aggravated by neglect, at an increased expence to themselves. We think that we are justified in ascribing this merit to the poor laws, by a comparative view of the condition of the people of England, and of another country where their nonexistence has gone far to neutralize many of the advantages of a free and representative system of government. In Ireland the peasantry has for many ages been generally neglected by their superiors, with perfect impunity; and we had occasion to show the lamentable result in an article in our 2d Number, on Mrs. Leadbeater's Cottage Dialogues. But had the proprietors of Ireland felt conscious that all the ignorance, the vice, the idleness, and the misery which they have suffered to grow up among the unemployed population of that country, would have recoiled upon themselves in the shape of legal demand for redress and relief, they would necessarily have exercised a greater portion of personal superintendance, and the peasantry would only have increased their numbers in proportion as their labour was required in the pursuits of regular industry.

We believe that it may be admitted as a general axiom in the

politics of a free and extensive country, that when once a strong bond of reciprocal interest is established between the higher and lower orders of the community, the statesman's task is half performed to his hand; and that such a people, by their native energy and internal resources, will not only preserve the integrity of their own empire, but must, by the force of their institutions, gradually triumph over their enemies.

In Scotland the feudal system prevented the introduction of a state of degeneracy, similar to that in Ireland ;-and as poor laws have for a very long time subsisted in Scotland, poor's rates have been regularly called into operation, in proportion as the feudal system has worn away, and commerce, manufactures, and tillage usurped the seats of baronial splendour, and encroached upon the idle hospitality of the lords of the waste *.

An institution, which produces such phenomena in society, must necessarily rest on grounds of deep moral and political expediency. It has been asserted by some, particularly by foreign writers, to be the millstone around the neck of England, which must at length engulf her with no tardy fate in a sea of ruin; and we are willing to admit that it is, in the spirit of our other institutions, calculated for a state of progressive prosperity, but that it may accelerate our downfall, should the circumstances of the country begin to decline. But to compensate this evil we think it will appear, that, under Providence, so long as the several ranks of the people are true to themselves and to each other, such a state of declension is not within the scope of probability. And we have yet to learn, that a law or institution is objectionable, because it is inconsistent with a selfish neglect of duty in those for whose government it is intended.

It is not, therefore, to this class of objections to the poor laws that we now think it necessary to call the attention of our readers. They have been attacked by arguments that much more forcibly affect their moral and political expediency: they have been said to hold out a premium to idleness-to aggravate, instead of relieving, the miseries of the poor-to call forth a superabundant population, which they make an audacious pretension of ability to support, only to plunge them into deeper misery-and, finally, that they have a direct and obvious tendency to multiply the objects of their pretended charity, and thus to reduce the mass of the population into the state of paupers, dependent upon the public purse for their daily sub

The subject of the poor and the poor laws of Scotland has been much misrepresented and misunderstood. We should be glad of an early opportunity to lay before the public some information which we possess on that interesting subject.