But a tale goes more pitiful by half;

I'm told THE TALENTS,-pray excuse a laugh,-
They who prefer the Pope before the King,
And sneer at conscience as a sneaking thing,
Dupes to their own designs, from pow'r are hurl'd,
To be the jest and bye-word of the world.'

Polypus manifest more of the spirit of party than of true satire. Though he has in this piece buried "the Talents," and written their Epitaph, Hic jacent penitus defossa talenta, he cannot quit the amusng subject, but capers on their tombstone in a subjoined poem intitled A pastoral Epistle to and by the Author of "All the Talents." The circumstance of the Talents having rul'd a year, a month, and a day,' is noticed; and the upsetting of themselves is represented as grateful to the Muses, who love a change. The po. litical characters already twice satirized are here, to produce a pastoral effect, dragged through a muddy-pond. Polypus does not shoot at maimed fowl, but he vents his rage on the corpses which he had buried. If we are to believe his assertion that

An empty stomach makes an angry tongue,' what are we to think of the state of his stomach?

Art. 35. All the Talents' Garland: or a few Rockets let off at a celebrated Ministry. 8vo. 25. Stockdale jun.

In this satirical collection, we discern humour without malignity. The members of the late Ministry are the butt of ridicule, but the laugh is generally well conducted. Let the following specimens speak for themselves :

On the Reform of the late Administration.

For twenty years, when out of place,
Whig Patriots bawl'd about Reforms,
And stoutly swore, that, change their case,
They'd drive the Placemen out by swarms.
When in, they threaten'd gen'ral rout,
But how, good Lord! did they begin?
For ev'ry Placeman they turn'd out,
They brought ten needy Patriots in.'
The Taste of the Times.

Some whim or fancy pleases every age;

For Talents premature 'tis now the rage.

In music how great HANDEL would have smil'd,
T'have seen whole crowds in raptures with a child.

A GARRICK we have had in little BETTY,

And now, we are told, we have a PT in PETTY.

All must allow, since thus it is decreed,

He is a very PETTY PITT indeed.'

The Book-Worm: an Epigram.

Scholars are book worms it is said,
Because by paper they are fed:
TEMPLE'S a book-worm, then it seems,
For he has swallow'd ninety reams!'

This epigram alludes to the draft said to have been drawn on the Treasury by Lord T- for a whole year's allowance of Stationary, on the eve of his dismissal from office. We know nothing of the truth of this report, and we hope, for the credit of the nobleman in question, that it is unfounded.

POLITICS.

Art. 36. Proceedings at a General Meeting of the Catholics, held at the Exhibition Room, William-Street, April 18th, 1807. Svo. PP 55. 28. Harding.

Our readers will observe that these proceedings are subsequent to the failure of the measure introduced by the late Ministers in favour of our Irish fellow subjects. We own that we sat down to the perusal of the debates, occasioned by these proceedings, with no ordinary share of anxiety: but we soon found that our apprehensions were groundless, and that an excellent temper prevailed among this respectable body. These speeches are in general characterized by great ability, enlarged views, glowing patriotism, and a firm tone, duly tempered by deference to the immediate decisions of the authority which is to pronounce on the claims asserted in them. It is here confidently expressed that this authority will, sooner or later, yield to the suggestions of wisdom and justice.

Zealous partizans have contended that the present Ministers ranked higher in the opinion of the Catholic Body than their predecessors, who ineffectually laboured to extend their privileges: but we could adduce from the speeches before us many passages which directly contradict this statement, while they contain none which could in the least countenance the improbable supposition Indeed we see reason for believing that the quiet of Ireland is greatly owing to the confidence which the Catholics have in the late Ministers, and the hopes which they still entertain of having their grievances redressed through their powerful support.

It is impossible to peruse these performances without being for cibly impressed with the vast addition of strength which would have been derived to the empire, from the measure in regard to the Catholics submitted to and so well received by the late Parliament; and from that enlarged policy which not only had the sanction of, but which was deemed of such high importance by, the greatest statesmen of the age, Mr. Burke, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, Lord Grenville, and the heads of the late Administration,-and which heretofore had the countenance of even Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Canning.

Art. 37. Plain Facts; or a Review of the Conduct of the late Ministers. To which is added, a Postscript. Second Edition, corrected. 8vo. pp. 109. 38. Stockdale jun. 1807.

This writer is perhaps the ablest that has appeared in plain prose, in hostility to the late Ministers; and, while he is master of a flowing pen, he affects a candour which will gain him a perusal from men of different parties. We say in hostility to the late Ministers; without adding, and in favour of the new, because he scarcely touches on them; he appears to be studious not to commit himself with regard to them, and

Y 4

and is shy of bespeaking confidence for them, or of inviting his readers to place hopes in them. He does indeed mention the new Administration with some praise, but it is a sort of half-praise, for which we suspect that those high personages will not feel obliged to him. It is remarkable that we meet with many writers who, like this author, censure the old, but scarcely mention the new Ministry. They are said, indeed, by their prints, to have been formed in the school of the immortal Pitt. Alas! we think that the Muster, in his last administration, made but a sorry figure. What, then, can we expect from the scholars?

This author says that the Irish Catholics were dissatisfied with the late Ministers, and place confidence in the present: but for a contradiction of this statement, we refer him to the Proceedings of the General Meeting of that body, noticed in the preceding article.

The late Ministry are here charged with a wilful intention to deceive the King, but of this their gracious Master himself has distinctly ac quitted them. The right of the King to dismiss his Ministers, and to dissolve his Parliamen, are unquestionable but the expediency of the acts will be judged by the result. If the consequence should be, that the public business in Parliament is conducted with less "talents" and dignity, if less able councils direct our affairs, if we should be less united at home and less respected abroad, if necessary economy should be less regarded, and the confidence of the public creditor be diminished, shall we not all lament the breaking up of that powerful administration, which (even this author admits,) struck opposition with despair!

One instance of singular disingenuousness in this writer must be pointed out;

The present ministers have been accused of industriously raising a fanatic alarm, to answer electioneering purposes, and of circulating as a watch-word, "the danger of the Church." These accusations are, however, without foundation.'

Has he forgotten the tenor of the advertisements which filled the newspapers, the addresses which occupied the Gazettes, and the inscriptions on the banners of the candidates in the interest of Ministers? Has he forgotten the address of Mr. Perceval to his constituents, and even the contents of the speech read by the Lords Commissioners on dissolving the late Parliament? He enumerates the elections in which the late Ministers were unsuccessful, but he forgets to insert those in which their friends triumphed.

After all, the writer's opposition to the measures of the late admistration is rather whimsical He speaks thus on the subject:

As far as my individual opinion goes, I might be inclined to enlarge many of the privileges of the Roman Catholics, and were the times ripe for such a change, I might be inclined to enlarge them considerably. But experiments, which aim at an alteration in old established laws, should ever be gradually and cautiously made; and I would begin by adding to their political rights, before I intrusted them with military authority. I would see how they acquitted themselves as magistrates and senators, before I appointed them to the command of an army or a fleet.'

So

So the difference between him and the late Ministers amounts only to this: they both agree that civil rights are to be restored to the Catholics, but our author would begin at one end, and they at another. We can point out an easy way of compromising this difference, to which we apprehend that the Catholics, and certainly ourselves as friends of religious liberty, will have no objection; viz. to allow each party to set to work in his own way; let the author establish their right to political employments, while the late Ministers substantiate their claims to naval and military promotion; thus will the jarring parties be made to co-operate in producing universal concord: thus. will be realized those wise and enlightened maxims which all civilized nations have gone before us in adopting, which are sanctioned by all the great names of modern times, and which are so conformable to justice and expediency, so friendly to harmony and peace.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Art. 38. A Letter addressed to Samuel Whitbread, Esq. M. P., in consequence of the unqualified Approbation expressed by him in the House of Commons of Mr. Lancaster's System of Education; the religious Part of which is here shewn to be incompatible with the Safety of the Established Church, and in its Tendency, subversive of Christianity itself. Including also some cursory Ob servations on the Claims of the Irish Romanists, as they affect the Safety of the Established Church. By John Bowles, Esq. 8vo. 29. Hatchard.

Are

Even in this age of extravagant assertions, we do not recollect to have encountered a more valorous knight than Mr. Bowles; who maintains with undaunted confidence that the scheme of education, proposed by Mr. Lancaster, which is designed to enable children to read their bibles and to inculcate only the general principles of Christianity, is incompatible with the safety of the Established Church, and even subversive of Christianity itself. This laughable paradox we can scarcely prevail on ourselves seriously to refute the general principles of Christianity incompatible with its essence; and does the Established Church stand on so slight a foundation that its safety cannot be maintained unless its peculiar doctrines are mingled with the first elements of Education? We cannot more crucily libel the religion which we profess, than by asserting the affirmative of this proposition: yet this is the ground which Mr B. in his mistaken zeal ventures to occupy. St. Paul, whose authority, we trust, this gentleman will not dare to question, tells us that "children should be fed with milk and not with strong meat;" or that plain and simple doctrines should be taught before those that are deep and abstruse; and surely Mr. Lancaster's plan is in perfect harmony with the doctrine of the Apostle. If we ask what is the mode adopted in the whole circle of scientific instruction, we shall be told that the most obvious principles are taught first, and that the pupil is led from these to such as are of no ẹ difficult solution; and is the divine ■ience of Religion such an exception to all other sciences, that we must here begin at the wrong end, and go crab like from recondite mysterics

msyteries to simple axioms? Among all the absurdities which this absurd age has generated, we did not expect to hear such a preposterous suggestion protruded on the credulity of John Bull; who, though of an accommodating temper, will suspect something of a humbug (we beg pardon for using such a word) when he is gravely told that the general principles of his religion are at variance with Religion itself. Never was an attempt more impolitic than that of Mr. B. His childish fear of the consequences of Mr. Lancaster's comprehensive system may occasion the most dangerous suspicions. What is the substance of his pamphlet, but this; We must take care to have the infant mind in our trammels, otherwise it may be lost to us? Surely a church erected on the foundation of Christ and his Apostles needs not, ought not, to employ or to sanction such an insinuation.

We are taught in the Scriptures that virtue is the road to divine knowlege, or that education in Christian morality is the best preparative for the right apprehension of Christian doctrine; and in this view can there be any exception to Mr. L.'s scheme? Mr. B., however, suspects mischief from morality, unless it be amalgamated with points of disputed theology; and he roundly asserts that 'to instruct youth only in the "uncontroverted principles of Christianity" would have the effect of bringing up youth as unbelievers.' Thus, if the rising generation be instructed in the belief of God and a Providence, in the Divine Mis ion of Christ, in the truth of the Christian Scriptures, and in the doctrine of a future state in which the righteous will be rewarded and the wicked punished, the inculcation of these uncontroverted principles would have the effect of producing infidelity,' or 'be essentially immoral.'

As to the Irish Catholics (whom Mr. B. more properly terms Ro.. manists,) it may be observed that, if by granting them the full privileges of subjects we can remove jealousies, and unite them to us in a zealous co-operation in the defence of the empire, though the Established Church by this measure will lose some of its patronage, its safety will in fact be increased; for whatever tends to secure the Government must conduce also to the security of the Established Church, which is an integral part of it. On the other hand, if by withholding reasonable claims the majority of the population of IreIand is kept in a state of disaffection, do we not by this denial of civil rights endanger the Empire, and consequently the Established Church? By endeavouring to retain all, we often lose all.

Art. 39. The Works of the late Ede. Dayes; containing an Excur sion through the principal Parts of Derbyshire and Yorkshire, with illustrative Notes, by E. W. Brayley: Essays on Painting; Instructions for drawing and colouring Landscapes; and professional Sketches of modern Artists. 4to. pp. 360. and 12 Plates. 11. 10s. Boards. White, &c.

The late Mr. Dayes was an artist eminent in the line of landscape painting in water colours; and the tour, which is the principal subject of the book now before us, was undertaken in the pursuit of his

Ecc. ii. 26. John, vii. 17.

profession.