properly urged from the commandment of our Lord, and from the nature and tendency of the institution, as a means of keeping in remembrance his passion and death, and an inexpugnable proof of the authenticity of the Christian religion: in reference to these ideas many excellent remarks are introduced, some of which peculiarly concern the numerous and respectable denomination, to which Dr. C.'s talents and learning are a distinguished ornament.

We must now conclude by recommending this very interesting work to the notice of Christians in general. It has afforded us great pleasure, and will, we are confident, be read with avidity by those who feel duly concerned to understand the symbolical memorial of an event in which they are so deeply interested. The circumstances involved in the discussion, and satisfactorily treated in this comprehensive discourse, are objects of the most rational and legitimate curiosity, independently of that higher and more solemn kind of feeling, which is due to a consideration of the divine religion with which they are connected; and those who can disparage them as unimportant, or censure our author's copious and minute investigation of them, as frivolous, will greatly endanger their reputation for learning and literary taste, without exalting their character, in the estimation of considerate men, either for sense or piety.

The style of the work is plain, perspicuous, and free from affectation. Many quotations from the languages, and illustrations from the history, of other places and times, are caIsually interspersed. To a mind accustomed to philological pursuits these would readily present themselves, on the respective subjects with which they are connected. It was natural to accept their assistance; the unlettered reader will find the sense of each carefully given; and the scholar will not be displeased to have the originals exhibited to his view, which it would always be troublesome, and must often be impossible for him to consult.

Art. V. Military Considerations relative to Great Britain, and her Oriental Colonies. By Major General Sir George Brathwaite Boughton, Bart. 8vo. pp. 566. price 10s. 6d. Stockdale. 1808.

THIS book is a real curiosity; and whether the matter or the manner present the feature of greater oddity, it is not very easy to determine.

A

At first, one is apt to imagine, from the terrible colours in which Sir George paints the dangers to be apprehended from Bonaparte, that though an enthusiast in his military profession, he is at the same time a little too timid; as the admiration which women have for the military character is supposed

to proceed from their fears; and these, and people like them,are always in the greatest perturbation when any alarm arises, and never can imagine they have provided sufficient security against it. It naturally occurs however, that the man who sees the farthest into any danger, is the man on whom it is calculated to make the deepest impression, and that courage does not consist in despising danger, but in the fearless use of the means by which it is to be averted.

Sir George informs us, (p. 12) "that no nation, unless fortified by nature, can resist a pure military government." This is, to be sure, a most formidable proposition, for he informs us im mediately afterwards, that "there are no pure military govern ments but in France." It follows from this, that no nation, unless fortified by nature, can resist the government of France, without a change of its own government. If this be so, one important truth is to be taken into account. Between one military government and another, the difference is not so great for the main body of a people, as to render it to them an object of any great interest to fight for one in preference to another A military government, in the hands of a Frenchman, is likely to be just about as mild as a military government in the hands of a Briton or a German; human nature in the same circumstances is always to be considered as the same.

It is not with feelings of indifference, that we contemplate so many unthinking men rashly recommending a military government, as the only effectual means of resistance against the French power. There are among us too many who lend a willing ear to these representations. The fear for their property, for that is the real sentiment, blinds them to every other danger; the future but certain evils arising from the despotism of a military government, the most direful to which society is exposed, they seem entirely to neglect, and are extremely ready to sacrifice the future for the present, to sell their birthright of freedom for a mess of property The only question of interest, however, for the people, is, whether or not they shall be free from despotism, not whether the despot shall be of this or that family, or even of this or that nation. This is a matter of importance comparatively so trifling, that Sir George may rest assured the people of no country will fight for it very heartily, or very long. If they are mistaken for a while, a short experience undeceives them. Not that we believe any considerable number of those, who in this country are the most afraid for their estates, would give their voice for an English despotism, even to defend them against a French One, were the proposition explicitly made to them; nor do we believe that the country would submit to the formal discus sion even of any thing approaching to this proposition. But we do believe that, by a continual leaning to this side of the question among the people of property since the uproar of the Vol. IV. 3 H

French revolution, our constitution may suffer, and possibly has suffered material injury on the side of liberty; and we are firmly persuaded that all those who understand the real interests of the state, and who have a regard for the welfare of their fellow-creatures, should steadily resist such doctrines as those which occupy a considerable portion of the present volume.

The baronet gives us a definition of a military government. In the passage quoted above, after stating that there are no pure military governments but in France "that is," he adds, "there is no military service in which birth, connection, money and influence, have not a greater or less degree of weight than what they have in France." Sir George has here unluckily given us a whole sentence which does not convey one grain of his meaning; for as it is natural for one government always to have either more or less of any sort of influence than another, so it is hardly possible for any government to have neither more nor less than another. What Sir George means to say is, that there is no military service in which birth, connection, money, and influence have no more weight than in France, though some in a greater, some in a less degree. Few people who undertake to print a book, would have expressed themselves so ignorantly as this. But it is nothing to Sir George. There is scarcely a page of the work that has not similar errors. However we like the thought, and for the sake of a good thought we are always willing to pardon a bad expression. We are from this passage then to understand that, in Sir G. B'.s opinion, that government is always the most military in whose military service birth, connection, money and influence have the least weight. In this sense of the word, we shall be as much in love with a military government as Sir George himself; in this sense we are apt to think a government cannot be too military. In this sense it is probably true that no government on earth is so little military as our own, though no government has it more in its power to be completely military. After describing the spirit with which an army is actuated, in which this "birth, connection, money, and influence," have little or no power, he asks, "Is it wise and prudent to oppose to troops of this description, conscripts, whose birth prevents them from ever rising, and who by severity of discipline, and the tuition of noble and most enlightened officers, are brought to be the most perfect automatons in the world? But does an automaton bring a soul to the battle? This is the question which modern Europe should have enquired into at the present moment, though in the days of Frederic, there was no occasion to make that enquiry; because in opposing automaton to automaton, the skill of the officer and the automaton decides."

But Sir George gets speedily into a different train. Aware. of the importance of an unity of design and execution in mili

tary affairs, he enters into a comparison of the military powers of a republic, and those of a military government (such as that of Bonaparte), with a single head; and to be sure he does make the despot beat the republic at a terrible rate. In short he has scarcely any thing to do but come, see, and overcome : on the one side there is nothing but skill and activity, on the other there is nothing but delays and blunders. But Sir George surely dreams, or he would not have forgotten that the Romans were republicans, and yet knew how to conquer, and how to oppose despots. On the other hand, as soon as they obtained to govern them that inestimable military blessing, a despot, they conquered no more, though all the military forms of their government remained; they became one of the most pusillanimous nations on the face of the earth; and in time fell a prey to mere barbarians. Who were the people that opposed a military despot on the plain of Marathon, at the straits of Thermopyla and Salamis? Though the Lacedæmomonians had a king, his power was so limited, that their government, both by themselves, and the other Greeks, was denominated and accounted a republic. Yet this was a govcrnment expressly formed, and formed with exquisite skill, for military purposes; true, it was for the purposes of defence, not of conquest; but we trust that the Major General, with all his military ardour, has no intention to make the English a conquering people. If however he proposes to them to resign their free constitution for a despotism, on purpose to defend themselves against Bonaparte, we undertake to prove to them, both by reason and experience, that this is not the best way to effectuate that very object.

Sir George ridicules all preference by theory of one government to another, unless indeed of pure despotism, for which (strange and unnatural as it may be deemed) he seems to have a real and disinterested predilection. He enters into a long discussion to prove that the Turkish government is by no means. that detestable thing which people generally suppose; and as for his own government, that it is by no means so admirable as many of those who live under it fondly believe: He recites a few of its imperfections, especially touching on those of its juridical system, and then adds;

'Most people prefer their own religion and government to all others; but the theory of any government is no security for its practices: and every order and class of society are very apt to speak of governments as it suits their own views."***"I will take upon myself to swear before any magistrate, that I have lived with more security, and much better for less money, in Austria and Prussia than ever I did in America; and if after, as an innocent traveller, I was pelted in the streets of America, and threatened to be tarred and feathered, without deriving any assistance from the government of that country, or saved by any interference but that of

Englishmen and English arms, in the year 1794, a period of profound peace between the two countries, why then I must be excused in saying that I preferred the government of the Black Eagle, to that of the American Eagle, notwithstanding that the theory of the latter may be better than' than of the former.' p, 56.

This is confessing, with great naivetè, that a man's personal interest and convenience are his rule of judgement respecting governments. Yet this gentleman will hold himself forth, and he will be held forth by others, as a person most usefully maintaining the doctrine of experience in opposition to theorists and men of speculation. But his experience is unhappily bounded by his own taste, or manners, or prudence, or personal acci dents and fortune. Had he observed the condition of the great body of the people in Austria and in America, and found them more prosperous and happy in the former than in the latter, he would have been right in preferring its government. But to give us the conveniences or the inconveniences of Sir George Brathwaite Boughton, when travelling in any country, as the measure of the excellence or absurdity of its government, is what we think nobody would have done but Sir George Brathwaite Boughton himself.

Every one for himself," says Sir G. (p. 56.) "God and the King for us all: Equal laws, equal taxes, and trial by jury, may exist under any form of government, except that of a conqueror." But why does Sir George here abandon experi ence, and become an arrant theorist? Where did he ever hear of equal laws, equal taxes, and trial by jury, but under a free form of government? As for the absurdity of the theory, we may safely leave it to the common sense of the least instructed of our readers.

We are sorry to have been detained so long in pointing out the erroneous matters of our author's book. We shall have much greater pleasure in attending him where he is right. In affairs purely military, he is often highly instructive; and tells our countrymen many things which they ought to know better than they do, and many which they do know but will not put in practice.

It is the spirit of emulation, he assures us, which alone makes a good army.

What other calculations or reflections (says he) will cause mankind;day after day, to be exposed to be trodden under foot by the enemies cavalry, to be pierced by advancing bayonets, or swept from the earth by the enemies cannon? Is it the terror of discipline? If so, what calculations are those to make who are to enforce the discipline? Or how can one fear operate when superseded by a stronger? On the contrary, the greater encou ragement that is given to military men, the more is the feeling of self-estimation produced, and the necessity of discipline diminishes in the