French, in the course of the ensuing month. It is entitled "Documents Historiques et Reflexions sur le Gouvernement de la Hollande. Par Louis Bonaparte, Ex-Roi de Hollande."

This work contains every event relating to the political or financial situation of Holland, from the commencement of the reign of Louis until the close of his government; sketches of the invasion of Italy and expedition in Egypt, in both of which the author was present; relations of most of the important events in Spain, and his refusal of the crown of that kingdom on the renunciation of Charles IV. to Ferdinand his son, and the formal cession of the latter to Napoleon; copies of the letters of Charles and Ferdinand, relating to the conspiracy of the latter against his father; the hitherto secret motives of the marriage of the author with the daughter of the Empress Josephine, and their subsequent mutual agreement to a separation; the events which occurred on the separation of the Emperor Napoleon and the Empress Josephine; the various princesses afterwards proposed to Napoleon, and the reason of his selecting the daughter of the Emperor of Austria; numerous characteristic and highly interesting letters from Napoleon to the author, exposing his views, situation and purposes; an indisputable genealogical history of the family of Buonaparte, extracted from various histories of Italy and other public documents, all of which prove, beyond doubt, the illustrious rank they held in Italy, even in the 12th century, and it is somewhat singular, that 600 years ago Androlius Buonaparte was Grand Podesta, or Governor of Parma, where is now the wife of Napoleon as Grand Duchess! An important letter from the Duc de Cadore, explaining the intentions of the Emperor relating to Holland, the various united propositions of France and Russia to accommodate with England, and a variety of Anecdotes of the Author, of Napoleon, and of his family.

Although this work may contain many events already known to the public in a general way, yet coming from the hand of one who was on a throne, and who had an immediate share in all that occurred, joined to his universally acknowleged probity and good faith, form together an unanswerable motive for giving it the preference over any other modern publication; and it is assuredly next in point of interest to a work from the pen of Napoleon himself. It is already inquired after with eagerness upon the Continent; in Holland there is not a gentleman who will not be desirous of possessing it, as it contains an accurate statement of the political and financial

situation of his country during a momentous period; and as it is written with the utmost candour, and is totally exempt from any expressions which night offend the most partial Bourbonist, it will find a wide circulation in France, where the Author, being known to be somewhat opposed to the maxims of his brother's government, will likewise be read with equal avidity by the most determined Ultras.

The CHURCH UNION Society of St. David's offers a premium of £50. for the best Essay on the Necessity of a Church Establishment in a Christian Country, for the Preservation of Christianity among the People of all Ranks and Denominations, &c.

The "Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge," which shewed such jealousy of BISHOP WATSON, during his life, has admitted his Apology for the Bible into its list of books, and published a cheap edition, at 1s. 6d. or 158. the dozen.

Early in the coming year, 1820, will be presented to the public, The Chronicles of Ulla'd, commencing from the earliest point of time marked; the traditionary portion of which is the work of Eolus, Prince of the Gael of Sciot, of Ib-er, who ruled in Gael-Ag 1400 years before Christ.

On the 1st of February will be published, W. Baynes and Son's Catalogue of Old Books, for 1820, Part I. Comprising a very valuable and extensive collection of Divinity and Ecclesiastical History, both English and Foreign, Dictionaries, Lexicons and Grammars, in various languages, and the best Greek and Latin Classics.

FOREIGN. FRANCE.

"IN the Chamber of Deputies the Abbé GREGOIRE has been excluded by a large majority, as is alleged, on account of his share in the fate of Louis XVI. The ostensible reason was of a technical kind, relating to some irregularity in his election; but the real feelings of the Deputies, and their personal dislike of the individual, were avowed with no little vehemence and tumult on the occasion. And yet M. Gregoire had no part whatever in the death of that monarch. proposed, it is true, the abolition of royalty; and, on various occasions, used very unmeasured and unwarrantable language, because he used the language of the day. But he was not present in the

He

Assembly when the king was tried and comdemned. He was then on a mission at a considerable distance. He wrote a letter, indeed, to the President, expressing his clear opinion of the king's guilt, but yet condemning him not to die, but to live. He was decidedly adverse to inflicting upon him the punishment of death. It is worth inquiring how it has happened that, under these circumstances, and with so many around him, stained by still deeper shades of criminality, M. Gregoire should have become so generally obnoxious as to be rejected with indignation, and almost with abhorrence, from the Chamber of Deputies. To us the fact appears not difficult of explanation. In the first place, Gregoire stood forward singly in defence of Christianity, when proscribed by the almost unanimous voice of his revolutionary associates. His zeal in this hated cause roused the contempt and hatred of many even of his own political party. In the next place, he had been an active, and we may say leading, member of the Society of Les Amis des Noirs; and, even during the iron reign of Buonaparte, he ceased not to lift his voice with courage and energy against the Slave Trade, and against that frightful system of colonial bondage which Buonaparte sought to restore in St. Domingo. He stood long single in this cause also. He became, therefore, the mark for all the arrows of detraction and calumny which the ex-colons, (a most powerful and numerous body,) the slave traders of Havre, Bourdeaux and Nantz, and all their adherents could direct against him.-But more than all this, since the restoration of Louis XVIII. he has exerted himself with extraordinary ability, perseverance and effect, in opening the eyes of his countrymen to the dangers likely to arise from the re-establishment of the Jesuits, and from the insidious pretensions of the Court of Rome to interfere in the affairs of the Gallican Church. He has become, therefore, on this account, particularly obnoxious to the bigoted adherents of the Papacy, and, above all, to that active, insinuating, restless and unprincipled body the Jesuits, who have spared no pains to blacken his character, and to confirm and increase the prejudices that had been excited against him on other grounds. Had he left the slave traders and Jesuits in peace, we believe that M. Gregoire might have very quietly taken his seat as a legislator. But the friends of the Pope's power and pretensions, and the friends also of Slavery and the Slave Trade, dreaded the presence of so powerful and so fearless an antagonist in the Chamber

of Deputies. The periodical work which expresses his sentiments on religious and ecclesiastical subjects had already done so much to defeat the machinations of the Court of Rome and its satellites the Jesuits, and to prevent the revival in France of the more gross corruptions of Popery, and had so boldly asserted the right of all the members of the Catholic Church to the use of the Holy Scriptures, that the utmost alarm and consternation were naturally enough created by his election, and the utmost efforts were therefore made to nullify it. Those efforts, as might be expected, have proved successful. Whether the decision to which they have led be right, we will not presume to determine. Thus much, however, we feel ourselves bound in common justice and charity to say, in behalf of one who, whatever may have been his errors, has, on many grounds, deserved well of his fellow-men, but who seems at present to be abandoned by all the world.”*— -(Christian Observer, December, 1819.)

ITALY.-ROME.

M. l'Abbé CANCELLIERI, known throughout Europe as one of the most learned men living, author of Memoirs of St. Medicus, Description of the Papal Chapels, &c., published in 1817, a Catalogue of Works from the Propaganda Press at Rome, which is under his direction, and he has promised the public a History of the celebrated Propaganda Congregation. His advanced age and his great weakness, it is said, increase the impatience of the literati of Italy, for its appearance.

M. ALEXANDER MANZONI, grandson of the celebrated Beccaria, has lately published in Italian, Observations upon Catholic Morality, (8vo. 297 pp.) in which he combats various assertions scattered in "The History of the Italian Republics of the middle age."

"The periodical work to which we have alluded above, is entitled La Chronique Religieuse,' and may be had of Trenttell and Wurtz, 30, Soho Square. It deserves the particular attention of the Christian world at the present moment, being, perhaps, the first public attempt, since the days of Erasmus, by members of the Roman Catholic Church, to expose the errors and corruptions of their own body. The conductors of this work appear to be themselves Jansenists in principle."

No. CLXX.]

THE

THIS prelate, like many other persons who have attained stations of eminence to which at the outset of life they seemed to have no pretensions, had his enemies. One means which they adopted to shew their dislike was to recall to the public observation the circumstances of his birth, baptism, education, and early connexions in the Dissenting body, But it is remarkable that after all, little seems to have been discovered; for it is certain that little that is clear and satisfactory has ever been laid before the public respecting that period of his life which passed before he went over to Paris to pursue his medical studies. His chaplain, who published a review of his life soon after his decease, has given us very scanty notices of the first four-and-twenty years, and has passed over unnoticed the friends of that period, who had doubtless no inconsiderable influence in forming the prelate's mind to that excellence which he has so well described, and for whom it is known that the prelate himself continued to cherish no common regard. The subject may now be considered without heat, partiality or prejudice. I shall therefore throw together a few notices of his early life, principally collected from original but authentic

[Vol. XV.

To

congregation of Dissenters very near to Sibthorp, in Nottinghamshire, the place of their abode. Thomas Secker was born in 1693, and was one of the While he was still in his infancy, an youngest children, if not the last born. elder sister became the wife of Mr. Richard Milnes, a respectable tradesman at Chesterfield, father, by a second marriage, of Dr. Richard Milnes, a highly respected physician of that town, not long since deceased. this sister devolved much of the care of Secker's earliest years, and hence it is that we find him a pupil in the grammar-school of Chesterfield. Mr. and Mrs. Milnes were both Dissenters: and when it was the intention of his friends to devote young Secker to the ministry, it was natural that they should think of sending him to Attercliffe, where Mr. Jollie's academy was then in the height of its reputation, and only fourteen miles distant from Chesterfield. This was in 1708 or 1709. At this early period of his life there was much of the gaieté du cœur about him, and perhaps more of sprightliness and levity than was common among the Dissenting youth of those times.

Stories have floated down of foolish pranks played by the students of Mr. Jollie's academy in the time of Secker, which seem to receive some countenance from the following passage of a letter from the Rev. Thomas Cooper, a Dissenting minister at Houghton Tower in Lancashire, where he settled soon after he had left the Attercliffe Academy: "I hear T. Jollie and Bowes are gone to London, and that the mad work at Morton's has caused the tutor to have a stricter eye over his pupils. I cannot but imagine that the new set will far ourstrip the old ones in all sorts of learning, and that such famous discoveries as Mr. Taylor's are every day made in order to edify the young generation. I long to hear some private news you have stirring amongst you. Pray, Sir,

favour me with some remarks on the place. I hear the house is turned topsy-turvy, and a strange degeneracy there is since I and some others left it. I desire you will be pleased to send me some psalm tunes, and present my respects to my son Secker, to George, and the rest of my friends thereabouts." This letter bears date the 8th of Oct. 1709. It has been questioned whether Secker ever communicated with any congregation of Dissenters. This seems to be put beyond controversy by a list which still exists of the members of Mr. Jollie's Church at Sheffield, in which the name of Thomas Secker appears along with the names of other young men, students in his academy. The precise time of his residence in the family of Mr. Jollie does not appear. In 1711, he had left Attercliffe and was in London. There he was introduced to Dr. Watts, at whose suggestion he entered himself as a student for the Dissenting ministry in an academy established by Mr. Jones, a man of real learning and great abilities, at Gloucester. His letter to Dr. Watts, written soon after his admission into this academy, which has been often published, describes the objects and plan of study, and exhibits the young writer in a favourable point of view. The same satisfaction with Mr. Jones, and with his situation, he expresses in a letter written in the same month to his sister, Mrs. Milnes, a copy of which is now before me. Mr. Jones was then intending to remove the academy, which had been held in a close part of the town, to a country situation, a change which Secker seems to have much approved. He speaks of his intention to spend the ensuing vacation among his friends at Chesterfield.

In this academy he spent four years; and they were four years well employed. This was the full term of a student's residence. At the conclusion of it, the regular course would have been, that he entered upon the practice of his profession by undertaking the charge of some congregation of Dissenters. This, however, he did not do: and the silence of those who could have set the question to rest, has left a material point in his early history affected with some uncertainty, namely, "whether he ever intended to take the

charge of any Dissenting society. I mean only the silence of those who wrote under instructions from his Grace's family; for it has been asserted over and over again, by persons living in the neighbourhood of Chesterfield, who remembered him when visiting there, that he offered himself as a candidate to the small society of Dissenters in the little town of Bolsover. Mere silence, on the other side, without any positive denial, can hardly be taken as a counterpoise against the concurrent testimony of several persons: and the only part of the tradition which can, I think, with any pretence of probability be set aside, is, that he was a candidate, and not merely an occasional supply. For it appears from evidence before me, that in the autumn of 1715, when he had just left Mr. Jones's academy, Secker was at Chesterfield; and it further appears from Neal's list of Dissenting congregations made in that very year, that Bolsover was then destitute of a minister, and that the con gregation was under the temporary care of the Rev. Mr. Thomas, the minister at Chesterfield, on whom Mr. and Mrs. Milnes attended, and who was an intimate friend of young Secker. Under these circumstances, nothing can appear more probable to those who know any thing of the usages of Dissenters, than that Secker might occasionally relieve his friend from a journey of seven or eight miles; and officiating to a vacant congregation as a young and unengaged minister, he might easily be mistaken for a candidate. Nor is any thing more probable than that if he did aspire to a situation in every way unworthy his talents and acquirements, the members of the Bolsover congregation might be little disposed to invite him to make a permanent settlement among them. Those sprightly and agreeable manners which at this period of his life recommended him to the affectionate regards of his family and acquaintance, would be no recommendation to a country society of Dissidents, in whom little of the old Puritan character was, it is probable, effaced, and who were unable to comprehend the value of a young man possessed of a vigorous understanding, considerable theological knowledge, and piety, genuine but rational. What would be the effect of a cool

reception from such people as the congregation at Bolsover must have consisted of, upon his ardent and aspiring mind, there were probably at that time those who could foresee.

He left Chesterfield in the winter of 1715, 1716, and he next appears in London. He seems to have then laid aside all thoughts of engaging in the ministry among the Dissenters, but he still retained the principles, religious and political, which he had imbibed during his education among them. His biographer has very justly observed, that when he was a young man his letters were "full of imagination, vivacity and elegance." This long note shall be further enlarged by a few extracts from a small collection of letters addressed to his brother and sister Milnes, which will be found further illustrative of his early character and history.

"London [Jan. 1716].

"We had a very loyal and civil mob on Thursday night, with illuminations in every house, and a great number of bonfires. In one over against Bow Church they burnt the Pretender, the Pope, Earl of Marr, Duke of Ormond, and Lord Bolinbroke, in figures, which they intended at first to have carried in procession with great pomp, but the King forbad it. At another, I was agreeably entertained with a concert of warmingpans, carried by gentlemen very well dressed round the fire, and played upon by others following them with white staves. A very proper sort of music, and well received by the company. Some little disturbance there was on the other side, but very inconsiderable. Only in Cousin Brough's parish they had the impudence to toll the bell almost all day, as at a funeral. It is reported here with the utmost confidence, by men of note, that the Pretender is certainly under arrest for several millions, by the Duke of Orleans' order, in Lorrain. The town agrees very well with me, and I hope will continue to do so. Pray give my service to Mr. Thomas, and tell him Alderman Ludlam is a more obstinate, blind Tory than ever, and will scarce believe Marr's declaration genuine, or that there was any such thing as a rebellion in Scotland, unless it was by the Presbyterians: how ever, he retains his usual civility to me, and makes me very welcome."

"London [March, 1716]. "Now I talk of news, did you see the strange light in the skies last Tuesday

night? If you had as much of it as we, I doubt not but you have monsters and prodigies enough to fill a sheet with. Here it has been improved into armies fighting, heads appearing, and what not. preaching and preparing us all for the One good woman in Moorfields sat day of judgment. Another, who had a greater turn to politics than religion, explained it against the King for not reprieving the two lords, till another informed us it was actually done, and so spoiled the scheme. But the best conjecture I heard was, that it was Lord Derwentwater's soul marching in state out of purgatory. Since then, indeed, I doubtless either Presbyterians or Atheists) have met with some people (who were that imagined the whole business was only a quantity of matter, of which, by reason of the hard weather, the air must be prodigiously full, set on fire by the increasing heat of the sun, as is very usual in cold countries. But a profane account as this I hope you will pay little. regard to.... For all this summer, if my health continues, I shall not be able to stir one step, except for one week to Oxford.

Yet I sincerely profess, all the variety and novelty of this great city tainment with an honest, learned, goodwould not equal the pleasure of an enternatured friend or two at such a place as

Chesterfield."

"London [July 26, 1716].

"DEAR SISTER,

"Well, Mrs. Milnes, if you will not give me an account of your journey to Lincoln, I will give you one of my ramble to Oxford: for I can only deal with you as I do with people on the road. I first stand still, and see whether they will turn out, and if they will not, I then turn out myself: you must know, then, on Friday night I had been playing the good fellow, and, coming home about twelve, found a summons down to Brentford next day, in order to go to Windsor on Monday. I obeyed very readily, and resolved to kill two birds with one stone, and to go to Oxford at the same time. For I had just then received news that Miss (I cannot spell that ugly name) was married beyond recovery; and travelling you know is an old remedy for desponding lovers. . I left the company and

went to Oxford. There I met with an honest friend I had not seen of two years before, and in him with all the pleasure I could wish for. We talked our own talk without controul, and railed at the University as freely as they do at somebody else. I hope you do not think I mean the King; for I can assure you, while I was there a very considerable person