Alter et idem. The same vehement condemnation of the late ministers, on the ground of the Catholic Bill, is contained in this tract as was evinced in its predecessor. They are accused of presuming to act as the King's superiors and the people's tyrants,' of attempting to outface the King's authority, and to defy the public opinion of the country. When the merits of the Bill are mentioned, it ia asked what avails an oath of allegiance from men who have no reli. gion, who hold that no faith ought to be kept with heretics, who take private oaths, binding themselves to disregard public oaths?" Here, however, the lawyer loses both liberality and argument; for if the Catholics were such an unprincipled body as he represents them to be, no tests or restraining oaths could keep them from accepting of civil and military appointments, and the much discussed Catholic Bill would have been to them of no service. Equally unfounded with this calumny on the Catholics is the insinuation that Lords Grenville and Howick were busied in projects of proselytism; for nothing can be more unlike proselytism than the wish to place all religions on an equal footing: but the dictates of sound policy are sometimes mistaken, though much oftener designedly misrepresented. The sentiments of this lawyer on the required Pledge are in unison with the rest of his pamphlet.

Art. 25. A Reply to "Observations on (what is called) the Catholic Bill." By a Protestant Clergyman. 12mo. 3d. C. and R.

Baldwin.

This writer briefly exposes the groundless fears and idle prejudices of the author of "Observations," &c. (See M. Rev for May, p. 101.) and sensibly asks whether it is not more reasonable and just to make that legal by a previous act of Parliament, which is now connived at and excused by an annual Bill of Indemnity? He ridicules the idea that the Oath inserted in the Bill is an invitation to the Army and Navy to subvert the Established religion.

1807.

Art. 26. Plain Facts: or the New Ministry convicted by their own Deeds. 8vo. 6d. Ridgway The singular dedication prefixed to these sheets will inform the reader what the documents are of which they consist:

These pages, containing extracts from their own laws, and from the Bill perversely misrepresented by them, are offered to the present Ministers, and more especially to Lord Eldon, and Mr Perceval, who gave the Irish Papists so many valuable rights in 1793, who opened the British Army to Foreign Papists in 1804, and provided for the accommodation of ten thousand of them in this island;-who now have been plotting an intrigue, and raising a wicked outcry of "Popery," against the best Friends of their King and Country, for attempting to secure both against the common Enemy.'

Lord Grenville's admirable and unanswerable letter to the Society for promoting Christian Knowlege, though not announced in the title-page, is added to this tract.

Art. 27. Letters of Scavola, on the Dismissal of His Majesty's late Ministers. Parts I. and II. 8vo. 18. each. Ridgway. 1807. These letters made their first appearance in a daily print, but they

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are not on that account the less intitled to attention. The author seems to be well acquainted with the transactions of which he treats. He observes of the late ministers, that they are those in whom their king and their country, little more than a year ago, could alone confide: while those who are now in power are the same persons who, at that time, confessed themselves unequal to the arduous task which they have now undertaken. He is of opinion that we have exchanged what was stable for what is unstable-what was firm for what is fragile; that instead of a strong Government and a weak Opposition, we have got a weak Government and a strong Opposition; that we have thrown away a mass of solid iron for a lump of incoherent particles, brought and kept together by the magnetism of place.'

The sacredness and extent of the maxims, that for every act of the crown somebody must be responsible, is here very ably supported and enforced. We have ever considered this as one of the most vital principles of our constitution; and if it stood in need of confirmation, we might find such confirmation in the cases of Lords Danby and Somers, to which this writer adverts. The preposterous nature and incalculable mischiefs of pledges, like that which was required of the late ministers, are made abundantly apparent in these pages; and the author shews that they are inconsistent with a privy councillor's oath, with the duties of a minister, with the practice of the constitution, and wholly subversive of every idea of a free government.

The second part contains a dispassionate statement of the facts which led to the late changes; and serious charges are advanced against the author of the letters signed A Protestant, in another daily newspaper, which it is incumbent on him to notice. In the conclud. ing epistle, the writer gives this summary of the facts detailed in that and the preceding letter:

J. The first point submitted to his Majesty was not a mere extension of the Irish Act of 1793 to this kingdom; but it was the insertion of a clause in the Mutiny Bill, enabling his Majesty to confer any military commission on any of bis liege subjects.

2. The measure, to which his Majesty most graciously consented by his answer of the 12th of February, was not a mere extension of the Irish Act of 1793 to England † ; but it was, that his Ministers should submit, for the consideration of Parliament, the propriety of inserting a Clause in the Mutiny Bill, to enable him to confer any military commission whatever on any of his liege subjects.

3. The dispatch to the Duke of Bedford, informing him of the Clauses to be inserted in the Mutiny Bill, was a literal copy of the draft which had been previously submitted to the King.

4. The Dispatch and Clause transmitted to his Majesty on the 2d of March, differed in no one particular from the Clause originally submitted to his Majesty on the 9th of February, except in the insertion of the words" or appointment" after the words " Military commission."

*Protestant's Letters, p. 24.

+ Ib. p. 30.

5. The late Ministers had no reason to suspect, till Wednesday the 4th of March, that there was any misapprehension in his Ma jesty's mind with regard to the extent of his gracious concessions of the 12th of February.

If the author of " a Protestant's Letters" is not prepared to controvert these facts, he must admit that his statement is not full and impartial, but garbled and mutilated *. I have accepted his challenge, and defy him to make good his assertions.'

Neither the letters of A Protestant, nor these of Scævola in reply to them, are to be considered as the insignificant effusions of ordinary newspaper-writers.

Art. 28. A true Statement of the Circumstances which led to the late Change of Administration. 8vo 6d. Ridgway.

A separate publication of the two concluding letters of the series

above noticed.

Art. 29. A short Account of a late short Administration. The second Edition. 8vo. 6d. Ridgway.

We have frequently occasion to observe that the importance of a publication is not to be judged by its bulk; and the little tract before us is a striking instance in point, since much substance is here com. prized in a small compass. Though the statement is that of a warm admirer, it is a statement only: but it has on the mind the effect of panegyric. Is the voice of truth in favour of the writer, or are we misled by his address? Let those who are concerned to resist the effect which his narrative produces examine the matter. Strangers to all the parties, and friends only to truth, justice, and liberty, we own that we see nothing in the late changes to call forth exultation. On the contrary, we are not without our apprehensions, but we shall sincerely rejoice if they prove unfounded.

In this pamphlet, the first elements of political wisdom are not sacrificed to an hypocritical and degrading clamour; the interests of the country are not complimented away, from deference to prejudices, by whomsoever entertained: but the ingenious writer wholly confines

himself to facts.

We are told that the late Administration came into employment on the 7th of February, 1806, and was removed on the 24th of March, 1807, having lasted just one year and forty-five days.

In that space of time, the system of the army has received the most important improvement of which it was susceptible, by limiting the period of service. The character and station of the soldiery are raised, by delivering them from a tenure of servitude for life and the inducements to enter into the service are both increased, and ad. dressed to a better class of population, by the grant of a provision for life, at the end of the soldier's engagement.'

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We should be sorry to be of opinion that the expediency of this plan was not equal to its benevolence.

The claims of the late ministers to confidence from abroad are thus stated by this author:

An effort was made, in the negotiation with France, to restore to this country and to the rest of Europe the blessings of peace. That sincere wish was disappointed by the ambition and duplicity of the enemy; but the negotiation afforded His Majesty the opportunity of manifesting to the Court of Russia his faithful adherence to the spirit and principles of their alliance, and of strength ening that connexion, so important to the liberties of Europe, by the strictest union of councils and measures. The fidelity which was preserved towards all His Majesty's allies throughout that discussion, and in the subsequent communication to Parliament, restored the confidence of foreign courts, which had been recently shaken by a mischievous and dishonourable publication of state papers.

In the praise given to the same persons for their firm but tempe rate conduct towards neutrals, we cordially join.-We can only insert a part of their financial regulations, as here communicated:

A system has been framed, and already completed, in almost all its details, for controlling the collection and issue of the public money, in such a manner as effectually to prevent in future abuses and embezzlements, similar to those which were brought to light by the Commissioners of Naval and Military Inquiry. Acts have passed for regulating the receipt of all the great branches of the public revenue, the Customs, the Excise, the Post office, and the Stamps; by which all remittances and payments are carried immediately to the public account at the Bank of England; and checks are established, which render it impossible, without complete detection, to apply monies drawn from the Bank to any other than the public service.

The Board of Commissioners for auditing the public Accounts has been new-modelled, in order that the enormous arrear of outstanding accounts may be examined and settled without farther procrastination, and at the same time to establish, as the most effectual check. upon the current expenditure, an immediate audit of the accounts of each preceding year. These commiffioners, under the special instruc tions they have received from the late Board of Treasury, may likewise be considered as a permanent establishment for inquiring into abuses in the public expenditure.

The establishment of the staff has been greatly reduced. There has been a great diminution of expence in the barrack department. There has been a reduction of the establishment of the commissariat. The debt incurred upon the civil list, by its excesses since the last estimates presented to the House of Commons, has been defrayed out of droits of admiralty which fell to the Crown: and an attempt has been made to prevent the recurrence of such excesses, by directing quarterly estimates to be previously made of all the heads of expence, and all former demands to be satisfied before new expences can be in. curred, by introducing a more minute specification into the accounts, and by securing a more strict appropriation of the several sums issued to the services for which they were allotted. Thirty-six offices in the customs in Ireland have been abolished by an act of the present session'

If this author's view be too favourable, let it be opposed by those who will write in the same spirit, and with equal ability.

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Art. 30. Veluti in Speculum; or a Scene in the High Court of Admiralty displaying the Frauds of Neutral Flags, as exemplified in the Case of the Silenus. With Remarks on the Prosecution for Libel instituted against the Author by Admiral Montagu: the Application of His Majesty's Licences; Forged American Certi ficates; Injustice towards Neutrals; and Danger of His Majesty's Dock-yards. Addressed to Ministers and Members of Parliament. By John Brown, Author of the Mysteries of Naturalization. 8vo. pp. 101. 3s. 6d Jordan and Co. 1807.

Mr. Brown here investigates the causes of the complaints preferred against our government, as well by our own captors as by neutrals. He inveighs against the mode of trial at Doctors Commons; he states that the proceedings in the capture, and pending the suit, too little discriminate between the real and fraudulent Neutral; and that the former has abundant cause to complain of our injustice, while the other profits by and ridicules our simplicity. He condemns the prac tice of detaining the captured vessels at our great naval arsenals, and very properly advises that different stations should be assigned to them; he also justly reprobates the wanton and careless manner in which captors and their agents treat the papers which they seize on board neutral ships.

He iuforms us that when neutrals are boarded at sea by His Majesty's cruizers, or by privateers, and the ship's papers are taken away, it is seldom indeed that any receipt or acknowledgment is given for them. With the commanders of King's ships, it is omitted from not giving a thought to the impropriety of the omission; with some privateers it is the offspring of design. Suppose, for instance, that a prize master, seizing in a hurry the papers of a neutral, should be villain enough to burn or destroy a material document, the master might not be able to prove the fact, and the safety of the property might be endangered.'

In all cases where papers are sent, without being marked or numbered, but merely sealed up, to the agent, that agent ought not. to open the same, but in presence of the actuary, or some notarypublic, who should mark every paper, and bear witness that no other papers than those he marked were delivered up by the prize-master.

No one who has not been abroad, can believe how bitterly this country is declaimed against, on account of the abuses, which, through a long lapse of ages and absence of all reform, have crept into every d partment connected with prize causes.'

He states that, when a neutral had been examined, and the ship had been allowed to proceed, he has found the letters and papers belonging to her in a parlour of the house of the person in whose hands they were, in a large open basket, at the mercy of every servant who might please to have lit the fire with them. Yet there were some bills of exchange of 10,000l. each, and in the whole, probably two or three hundred thousand pounds property thus carelessly disposed of. They were neither marked or numbered, or any account taken of them.' Among the hardships to which bona fide neutrals are exposed, he says that it is a common manœuvre to demand money for the trans

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