vast importance, therefore, that Committees of both Houses of Parliament should have detected and exposed this error; that they should have shewn that the supposed pillar has rather burdened us by its weight, than sustained us by its strength; and it is to be hoped that some strong hand will, in time, bring it to the ground.

Another not unfashionable opinion is, that although much might be done to correct the existing evil, the present Committees have been ill chosen; and that they have neither done much, nor can be expected to do it. Now, as to doing much, it is to be recollected that the Committees have been thinking and legislating for fifteen millions of people. They have been handling questions which involve many of the highest interests of a mighty empire. They have had to encounter a system backed by the prejudices of three centuries, and which, contemporaneous with all our national triumphs and glory, rarely fails to rally, in its defence, those whose patriotism happens to be much stronger than their judgment. And yet, such is the decisive character of the Report which we have been considering, that, should its suggestions ever be matured into laws, the whole of this ancient and much venerated system must fall to the ground. But the truth is, that we honour each Committee full as much for what it has not, as for what it has, done. It has not trifled on a serious subject: it has not hastened to rash conclusions: it has not decided when the agitated state of the country scarcely left us any fixed basis for calculation: it has not fancied that so complicated a case admitted of a simple cure it has not proposed to Parliament some empirical remedy, which should operate as a panacea on the national evils flowing from this source; but in all its recommendations, it has proceeded with cautious steps, and has never been

induced to quit the sure ground of principle and experiment.

If, however, the Committees in both Houses had accomplished no more than merely unmasking the evils of the Poor Laws-if they had not issued a single page except that in which they denounce the system of compulsory support as the origin of a great proportion of our national distresses - they deserve, in our judgment, to be thanked as benefactors to their country.

A third class of objectors, of whom we feel strongly disposed to complain, are those who are determined to apply to the existing mischief no remedy which appears to have any, even contingent, evil associated with it. They forget that we must, in all changes and in every human institution, compound for a certain measure of contingent evil. Having determined that any system or regulation is so bad that it must be got rid of, the possibility of a certain measure of contingent evil is not to be considered as a valid objection to the new plan or arrangement by which it may be proposed to supplant it. If a limb is mortifying, though it is very possible that bark and wine may give the patient a beadache, the physician, nevertheless, administers them. If a house is on fire, though it is extremely probable that the engines will spoil the hangings, the firemen proceed in their operations. And thus is it in national maladies. A certain risk must be incurred, to cure a positive mischief. We must hazard a limb to save a life.

With the statement of another popular error upon this subject, we shall conclude our remarks. Few questions, which respect the interests either of individuals or of nations, are points of mere regulation and calculation, as mere politicians are sometimes apt to imagine. Most of them, when reduced to their elements, appear to

involve more of moral considerations than was perhaps at first sight apprehended; and when legislators, in their zeal to exalt their own craft, neglect these moral considerations, nations seldom fail to pay the cost of their short-sightedness and secularity. Let us take the instance of the Poor Laws. This system would appear to have been constructed without the smallest reference to its moral inAuence upon the character of the poor. It was a mere matter of calculation as to the best means of extorting a given sum from the pockets of the rich. Its effects in deteriorating the national character, in destroying industry and independence, and a spirit of forethought, and self-denial, and economy, were never contemplated; or, if contemplated, were deemed a feather in the scale. And what has been the result? We have let loose, with one hand, the tide which we were endeavouring to dam up with the other. We have, in our attempt to feed one pauper, been instrumental in making a thousand. In constructing laws, we have neglected principles. In scheming for the body, we have forgotten the mind. The result of our negligence is the growth of the very evil we affected to cure, and that to a size which threatens to overwhelm our national interest and happiness. But we must derive from these considerations something more than the duty of repentance for our past mistake, and must learn the duty of reformation for the future. If our legislators continue to conceive, and to act upon the conception, that the present evils are to be remedied by mere civil or municipal regulations-that they are to be routed by a piece of parchment, or annihilated by a magistrate-they will fall into the same error which bas misled their predecessors. They will be acting upon men as machines, when they should deal with them as moral agents. The poor are suffering under a deep

moral disease-a sort of paralysis of all independence, and self-denial, and prudence. Acts of Parliament cannot touch this disorder. The parish doctor cannot cure it: More need they the divine than the physician." It is only by the implantation of a new moral principle-by teaching them the duties assigned to them by the Almighty, of "getting their own bread," and doing their own business," and "working with their own hands” - that the cure can be accomplished. It is only, in short, by endeavouring to graft in their minds the principles and precepts of that book which not a few are afraid to put into their hands, unless they themselves may stand by to interpret it, that we can hope for that species of moral regeneration of which the nation stands in need.

But then, perhaps, it may be asked, "And how is Parliament to promote this end?" We answer, first, by removing those checks to national improvement which now take refuge under its wing ;by lessening the number of alehouses; by limiting and controlling the issue of spirit-licences; by abolishing that licensed abomination the lottery; by watching carefully over the residence of the clergy; by multiplying national churches and national schools; by lending their high name and personal influence to all institutions which have a manifest tendency to promote the growth of religion and morality; by assisting to stifle the outcry of bigotry, to advance real merit, to confer lofty stations upon those only who will best discharge their duties; by planning and acting zealously upon the principle that "righteousness exalteth a nation," "and that happy is the people who have the Lord for their God." Nor do we despair to see Parliament rising more and more to the standard we have here presumed to place before them. There are those who can

But

remember when a principle drawn expressly from the pages of Scripture would have even encountered a sneer in that assembly. we thank God, our lot is fallen in happier times in times when the words of that book have been received, not as the word of man but as the word of God; when they have assisted to strike off the chains of African slavery, and have purchased for the millions of India the prize of the Gospel, the charter of eternal life and glory. May the walls of Parliament for ever echo to such principles! May he who almost first introduced them there long continue to lend them the sanction of his splendid eloquence, and unsullied character! And may younger politicians take courage to emulate his high example! May they hasten to give us some indubitable pledge, that when the heavy visitations of Providence shall take him, or others like him, from us, new champions will be found, with the same courage and Christian simplicity, to fight the battles "of the Lord," the battles of humanity and justice, of liberty and religion, in a British House of Commons !

A Sermon, preached at the Cathedral Church of Chester on the twenty-third of November, 1817; being the Sunday after the Interment of her late Royal High ness the Princess Charlotte Au

gusta. By G. H. LAW, D. D. F. R. and A. S. Lord Bishop of Chester. London: Rodwell and Martin. 1818. 8vo. pp. 19. The Voice of God to Britain: a Sermon, on the deeply lamented Death of her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte, preached on Wednesday, November 19, the Day of her Funeral. By T. SCOTT, Rector of Aston Sandford, Bucks. London: Seeley. 1817. 8vo. pp. 23.

A Sermon delivered in the Tron

Church, Glasgow, on Wednesday, November 19, 1817, the

.

.

Day of the Funeral of her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte of Wales. By T. CHALMERS, D. D. Minister of the Tron Church, Glasgow. Glasgow: Smith & Son. 1817. 8vo. pp. 44. A Sermon preached in the Parish Church of Harrow on the Hill, on Sunday, November 9, 1817, on the sudden and lamented Death of her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte. By J. W. CUNNINGHAM, A. M. late Fellow of St. John's, Cambridge; Vicar of Harrow; and Domestic Chaplain to the Right Hon. Lord Northwick. London: Hatchard. 1817. 8vo. pp. 27.

Silent Submission to the Divine Will: a Sermon preached in the Parish Church of Blandford Forum, Dorsetshire, on Wednesday, November 19, 1817, being the Day appointed for the Funeral of her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte. By the Rev. C. J. HOARE, A. M. Vicar of Blandford Forum, and late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. London: Hatchard. 1817. 8vo. pp. 23.

A Sermon, occasioned by the Death of her late Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte of Wales, preached at Harvey-Lane, Leicester, November 16, 1817. By R. HALL, M. A. London: Button and Son. 1818. 8vo. pp. 63. Private Sorrows and public Calamities viewed in Connexion with the Shortness of Time: a Sermon occasioned by the Death of her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales, and preached before the University of Cambridge, on Sunday, November 23, 1817. By G. C. GORHAM, M. A. Fellow of Queen's College. Cambridge. 1817. 8vo. Pp. 24. A Sermon, occasioned by the lamented Death of her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte of Wales, preached in the Church of the United Parishes of Christ Church and St. Leonard Foster Lane.

on Wednesday November 19, 18.7. By the Rev. S. CROW THR, MA. Vicar and Rector. London. 8vo pp. 20. The Frailty of Human Life illus trated; and the Providential Agency of God improved: in two Sermons occasioned by the la mented Death of her Royal High ness the Princess Charlotte of Wales, delivered at Walworth, on Sunday the 16th and Wednesday the 19th of November. By G. CLAYTON. London: Black & Co. 1817. 8vo. pp. 48. THAT the mournful event to which these discourses have reference an occurrence appalling to our fears and sympathies, awakening our regrets, depressing our national confidence, raising up on every side images of woe, and terror, and dismay, telling us of the vanity of honour, the frailty of youth, the brevity of worldly distinctions, the impotence of health, and beauty, and splendour to ransom their possessor from the grave; - that an event such as this should have summoned the ministers of religion to their posts, to improve the awful visitation, was a circumstance easily to be expected. And what a field had they for their pious labours! Where could they have selected from the volumes of history or the fictions of imagination, a theme so fraught with all that is admonitory and affecting? Where could the eloquent look for a topic so capa ble of inspiring and sustaining the highest fervours of thought and language? Whither could the pensive moralist turn for so powerful a demonstration of the truth of the inspired aphorism, Vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities; all is vanity? Whence could the sacred preacher hope to derive so new, so touching, an illustration of all which he daily inculcates, and which men daily forget the shortness of time-the importance of the soul-the need of redemption-the nature of the preparation for eternity? In a word, when did the voice of Providence,

the sympathy of highly wrought feeling, the tenderness of regret, the melting of sorrow, so persuasively concur to open men's hearts to sacred impressions, as on that day when this great nation, clothed in the vestments of unaffected grief, voluntarily and almost instinctively assembled themselves in the temples of the Almighty, to acknowledge the Hand that inflicted the bereavement? That much should be said on such an occasion, indicative of respect and loyalty towards the throne, of piety and humiliation before God, of Christian affection for the souls of men, and a desire to render the direful stroke beneficial to our immortal interests, was fully to be anticipated. But to have anticipated the depth and poignancy of the grief, and the extent to which the pathos of the moment to be carried, would have been impossible. Without concurrence or mutual understanding, and ignorant of the mode in which the painful event would be treated by their brethren in other places, the ministers of Christ, of all denominations, were unanimously pointing out the extent of the calamity, and the need of national humiliation; and were summoning, from the tomb of departed youth and grandeur, every possible incentive to repentance towards God, to faith in a Redeemer, to newness of life, to preparation for an eternal world. The desire of turning the subject to practical account, rather than of spending the invaluable moments of public feeling in unavailing regrets and declamatory panegyric, seems to have been almost universally prevalent; and certainly the twenty or thirty sermons over which we have glanced, out of perhaps three or four times that number published on the occasion, have tended to raise our ideas both of the piety and ability which at the present moment characterize the British pulpit. Of course, it will not be in our power to notice, even in the

slightest manner, a tenth part of these productions, which even already are hastening fast to silence and oblivion. We should, however, scarcely perform our duty, and certainly should greatly violate our own feelings, if we did not rescue a few at least from the general mass; and this, if for nothing else, that our pages may bear witness to the public feeling excited on that memorable occasion.

Our chief difficulty in perform ing this labour is selection; and we feel assured, that both our read. ers and the various authors who have published their discourses, will be ready rather to pity than blame us if we have erred in our choice. Without, therefore, professing critical accuracy of discrimination, we have placed at the head of this article a few of those Which happened more immediately to fall in our way, or which were acknowledged by all parties to possess unusual merit. We have every reason to believe that several which we have been obliged to omit are quite equal to some which we have noticed;-a general acknowledgment which we think ought to appease those of the genus irritabile" who might have expected, and perhaps justly, that their names should have adorned the present article. To avoid still further all invidious comparison, which our readers will see is no easy matter when surrounded by such a constellation of friends, we shall do little more than make a few extracts from the various discourses before us, leaving to others to settle their comparative excellencies and defects.

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The first series of extracts which we propose to give, relate to the character and circumstances of the illustrious personage whose untimely loss we lament. We shall introduce them with a pleasing reference made to her when quite a child by the then Bishop of London, the late Dr.Beilby Porteus.

"Yesterday, (the 6th of August,

1801), I passed a very pleasant day at Shrewsbury House, near Shooters' Hill, the residence of the Princess Charlotte of Wales. The day was fine, the prospect extensive and beautiful, taking a large reach of the Thames, which was covered with vessels of various sizes and descriptions. We saw a good deal of the Princess: she is a most captivating and engaging child; and, considering the high station she may hereafter fill, a most interesting and important one. She repeated to me several of her hymns with great correctness and propriety; and, on being told that when she went to Southend in Essex, (as she afterwards did for the benefit of sea-bathing,) she would be in my diocese, she fell down on her knees, and begged my blessing. I gave it to her with all my heart, and with my earnest secret prayers to God that she might adorn her illustrious station with every Christian grace; and that, if ever she became the queen of this truly great and glorious country, she might be the means of diffusing virtue,piety, and happiness, through every part of her dominions.” From the Journal of Dr. Porteus, late Bishop of London.

It would appear from the following descriptions of the Princess at a riper age, that these "secret earnest prayers" would, in all probability, have been fulfilled.

"Can I venture here, in the first place, to glance towards the tomb, and for a single moment to trace beyond its

iron barrier a nation's dearest treasure and fondest hope? Let me only say on this point-for I dare not dwell upon it-that every day's intelligence gives us fresh ground of belief for this all-important fact, that our beloved Princess was prepared to die. I speak from the most unquestionable authority, when I state, that for years past

her consideration had been awake to

subjects of a moral and religious nature;

and that from the time she had acted for herself, she had manifested a desire, (I use the very expression of those around her), to do always what was right.' One of the last books she ever