Essays on the Nature, Order, Privileges, and Duties, of the Christian Church. With an Address on Personal Religion. By Charles Dewhirst. 8vo. pp. 220. price 5s. Conder. London. 1808. MR. DEWHIRST is a minister of the Independent denomination of Dissenters, at Bury St. Edmund's. His conceptions of the nature of Christian churches, and their officers differ as a matter of course, from those of our venerable establishment. His Holy Temple is neither decastyle nor octastyle: it is surrounded by no colonnade, nor adorned with façade, pediment, or pilaster a simple structure, within the abilities of the weakest association to erect, is all he desires wherein to glorify God. And that he really desires to glorify God, by exciting a spirit of personal piety, and the practical exercise of religion, we cannot entertain a doubt. A vein of affectionate seriousness runs through these discourses, which does honour to the character, disposition and intention of the author. We could wish that his remarks in general were strongly impressed on the minds of the members of his community; and those of other communities have been well taught, who may not learn something worth remembering from parts of these discourses. His sentiments may be deduced from a short spe cimen. View a good man's conduct in reference to society at large. In his general deportment among men, he puts a practical comment upon the fifteenth Psalm:-"He waiketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. This is the man that shall never be moved." And to the principles of moral rectitude he superadds those of Christian benevolence. So far as his religion is displayed, as a member of society, no one can charge him with being either the narrowminded bigot, or the unprincipled enthusiast, He associates the liberal spirit with the wellregulated zcal of unadulterated Christianity. A Christian's soul is all benevolence, and embraces in its prayers and exertions, as far as possible, the whole human race. When the Gospel enlightens and warms its powers, it flames, like the meridian sun,, around the globe. The Gospel is the very offspring of the Divine nature; and the man inspired with its principles is the Gospel itself in living miniature: yea, he actively breathes peace on earth, and good will to men. In reference to the general republic of humanity, as far as his influence and exertions can extend, what line of conduct do the principles of Christian benevolence excite him to pursue? He looks, with the tenderest sentiments of pity and compassion on the affecting condition of men, perishing for lack of knowledge. His inven tion, quick as the intellect of an angel, devises the best means for their relief; or his assiduous research finds out institutions already formed. Plans being well framed, his exertions, vigorous as a strong man rejoicing to run a race, surmount every difficulty, and carry them into their most extensive operation. Thus, whatsoever his hand findeth to do, he doth it with his might, knowing that there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither he goeth. Who can but join in the following supplication? "O thou ever-blessed God; the giver of every good and perfect gift. Grant unto thine unworthy and frail servants ability to glory thee by a holy conversation. In the various conditions of life, adapt thy blessings to our wants. In seasons of prosperity make us humble, bountiful, and faithful to our trust. In times of poverty, affliction, and distress, give us a constant patience, and an unshaken confidence in thee. In whatsoever state we are, help us therewith to be content. In our families make us uniformly tender, peaceful, affectionate, and kind. In our religious community, may we be constant imitators of allthat is godlike, and worthy patterns of all that is good. And, in our connection with the world, may our lives be distinguished by every moral excellency, and crowned with eminent usefulness to our fellow creatures. In the early stages of life may we flee youthful lusts. In the vigour of manhood, may the strength of our days be devoted to thee. And in declining age, as we approach nearer the heavenly state, may our growing meetness for its purity, glory, and bliss, become more satlsfactory to ourselves, and more evident to others around us. To run this holy course, gird us with thy strength, and grant us at last a happy death, and a glorious resurrection, through the merits of our adorable Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. An address enforcing the necessity of personal religion never can be ill-timed : in the present writer it will be deemed of no trivial service to the best interests of man and morality. LITERARY PROSPECTIVE. Dr. Andrew Grant, who has recently returned from South America, has in the press a History of Brazil, which will contain a geographical and historical account of that important colony, with a description of the manners, customs, religion, &c. of the natives; interspersed with remarks on the nature of the soil, climate, productions, and foreign and internal commerce; to which will be subjoined, observations on the most prevalent diseases incident to the climate, with hints to new settlers on the most efficacious modes of prevention. It will form one volume in octavo. Mr. Belfour intends speedily to publish in two octavo volumes, Illustrations of Quixote: tending to confirm and elucidate several real events related in that ingenious work; to convey intelligence of authors and of works therein cited; to discover the sources whence Cervantes has adopted various stories and adventures, improved by the glow of his own fertile imagination; to disclose his continual allusions to works of chivalry and romance, and to develope the satire he employs to correct the follies and vices of the Spanish nation with occasion reflections on certain doctrines and opinions which he advances or supports. ing to the chief of sinners, an account of his imprisonment, conversation before the Justices, &c. Just published from his own manuscripts in 1765, and remarks on his charac ter and writings, with a fine portrait by Joseph Ivimey. Also by the same author the History of Baptism in an appeal to the scriptures and history for information on that subject, in dialogues between a Baptist and Pedobaptist, with a frontispiece representing the baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch. Miss Owenson has a new novel in the press, the scene of which is said to be laid in Greece. Mr. George Montagu's Supplement to the Testacea Britannica is nearly finished, and will speedily be ready for delivery. Miss Anna Murphy intends to publish an Account of a few of the most remarkable Trees and Plants, collected and abbreviated from the best authorities. Dr. Adams, Physician to the Small-Pox Hospital, author of the Treatise on Morbid Poisons, &c. &c. has undertaken Dr. Batty's Department of the Medical and Physical Journal. the The author of the Age of Frivolity has in press a small volume of Poems, consisting of Sonnets, Tales, and Characteristic picces. The Rev. Wix has nearly ready for publication, Scriptural Illustrations of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England. Mr. E. A. Kendal, of New York, has in the press Travels in Lower and Upper Canada, in which the political and moral state of those countries, their agriculture, trade, sources, &c. are illustrated by many important facts and anecdotes. The work is ex Dr. Mavor, whose agricultural report of Berkshire will speedily be published, has long had it in contemplation, to bring out a new edition with georgie no es, of Tusser's Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, a work now become extremely scarce, and which furnishes many excellent precepts in the science of agriculture, delivered in an original style of poetical composition. The quaint-pected to form one large volume in quarto, ness of the Elizabethean age, mixed with accompanied with engravings, and will be much good sense and good humour, distin-published in England about the time of its guishes the work of Tusser, and renders him appearance in America. equally entertaining and useful. The Rev. W. Parry of Wymondley House, will shortly send to the press A Vindication of Strictures on the Origin of Moral Evil, in reply to the animadversions of the Rev. T. Hill, with further strictures on Dr. Williams' hypothesis." Proposals have been issued for publishing by subscription, in one volume, in quarto, a History of the Horse, by the author of "Rural Sports;" containing directions in breeding, rearing, training, &c. the Racehorse, the Hunter, the Hackney, the Carriage, and the Cart-horse, for the different Also speedily will be published "A Re-purposes of the turf, the field and the road; joinder to the Rev. Thos. Hill's Brief Stric-interspersed with anecdotes appertaining to tures on Mr. Bennett's Remarks, rela-each class: comprizing also an account of tive to the Origin of Moral Eyil; " exhibit- the most approved methods of treating those ing the " Passive-Power-Hypothesis in its disorders which the horse is liable to, as well application to the doctrine of Original Sin ;" as those originating from too indulgent or too by the author of the Remarks. A volume of Sermons by the late excellent Mr. Lavington of Bideford, (for an account of whom see Ecl. Rev. Vol. III. p. 638) is now in the press. careless management. A new edition of Rowe's Fluxions with the Essay on the Explanation of the Theory of Fluxions, noticed by Simpson, is in the press and will be speedily published; likewise a second edition of the Key to Bonny Shortly will be published the life of Mr. BRITISH MUSEUM. We have on several occasions availed our constitution of these realms. It now consists Major Edwards' Library. There was likewise at the disposal of Par liament a collection of about 2,000 volumes of English, French, and Italian books, form selves of opportunities to state the present condition, regulations, &c. of this truly noble National establishment. A Synopsis of its history and contents having been lately composed by the officers of the institution, we are enabled to give its history, in our presented by Major Arthur Edwards, late of St. number, with well merited commemorations of benefactors to whom science, the nation, and the literary public at large, are under great obligations. A succinct view of the contents of this magnificent Repository, may be expected in a future communication. FOUNDATION BY PARLIAMENT. The Slonean Museum. The project of a public establishment of this nature was first suggested by the will of Sir Hans Sloane, late of Chelsea, in the county of Middlesex, bart. who, during a long period of eminent practice in physic, had accumulated a very large collection of natural and artificial curiosities, together with a numerous library of printed books as well as manuscripts; and who, being well aware how much science is benefited by the opportunities which large aggregates of objects afford for comparing them together, and marking their less obvious differences, was very solicitous that his sumptuous Museum, which he declared in his will had cost him upwards of £50,000, should, if possible, be preserved entire, and permanently dedicated to public utility. With this view he directed that the whole of his Museum should be offered to the British Parliament for the moderate sum of £20,000; that should this tender not be accepted, the offer should be then made to certain foreign academies named in the will; and that, should these also decline the offer, his executors should be at liberty to dispose of it in the manner that should appear to them most eligible. Sir Hans Sloane died in the beginning of 1753. The offer directed in his will was immediately made to Parliament, and accepted without hesitation. The Cottonian Library. George, Hanover Square, and by him, in 1738, bequeathed to the Trustees of the Cottonian Library, together with the reversion of £7,000, for erecting a building adapted for the effective preservation of the two joint libraries. This capital, which originally purchased £7,933 Old South Sea Annuities, is now, by accumulation, and the addition of the tickets granted by his present Majes.y, insum of £1,123, being the amount of lottery creased to £12,440. 6s. gd. of the same fund. Harleian Collection of Manuscripts. Parliament also, with the same liberal spirit of promoting the purposes of literature, offered £10,000 to the Countess of Oxford, relict of Edward, Earl of Oxford, and the Duchess of Portland, their only daughter, for the purchase of the numerous and valuable library of manuscripts collected by the said Earl, and by Robert, Earl of Oxford, his father. The sum was accepted, and this collection is now kept together, as an addition to the Cottonian Library. This Library, consisting of upwards of 7,000 volumes, many of them, as is usual in all MS. collections, containing a great number of separate articles, and upwards of 40,000 original rolls, charters, and other instruments, among which there are many of great antiquity, the whole chiefly relating to the pofitical, parliamentary, and ecclesiastical history of Great Britain and Ireland, is now placed according to its destination. In order to defray the expences necessarily implied by these purchases, and to provide a proper repository for the preservation of them, as well as a fund for the permanent support of the establishment, Parliament resolved to raise the sum of £100,000 by way A beginning having thus been made of a of lottery; which having been drawn acpublic scientific Repository, it was deemed cording to the provisions laid down in the expedient to enlarge its extent, and increase act, netted the sum of £95,194. 8s. 2d. its importance, by adding the library of ma- This sum, together with the several collec nuscripts collected by Sir Robert Cotton, intions purchased and granted as above stated, the times of Queen Elizabeth and James I., and increased by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton, in the subsequent reign. This is an inestimable treasure, chiefly abounding in authentic documents relating to the history, the antiquities, the laws, and Parliament vested in an incorporate body of Trustees, consisting of the first characters in the kingdom for rank, station, and literary fame; and it was now determined that the institution should bear the name of the British Museum. Montague House. These Trustees fixed on the noble mansion, built about 1680, by Ralph, first Duke of Montagu, who being at that time Ambassador at Paris, sent over French artists for erecting and adorning the edifice he had in contemplation. This palace, together with its gardens and appurtenances, occupying in the whole an area of seven acres and twenty perches of land, was ceded by the representatives of the Montagu family for the moderate sum of £10,000. The Museum was opened for study and public inspection Jan. 15, 1759. ·Beside the £20,000 paid for the Sloanean, and the £10,000 for the Harleian, collec tions, and £10,000 for Montagu-house, the sum of £28,663. 15s. was laid out in the purchase of £30,000 3 per cent reduced annuities, and appropriated to the maintenance of the establishment. The remaining £26,531. 3s. 24. raised by the lottery, scarcely sufficed to defray the expences of repairs, cases, furniture, removing the collections, and various other incidental charges. GRADUAL INCREASE. ROYAL DONATIONS. George II.-The Royal Library. His late majesty, fully impressed with a conviction of the utility of this institution, was, in the year 1737, graciously pleased to nake over to this trust the whole of the very choice and important library of printed books and manuscripts, which had been gradually collected by the sovereigns of these realms, from Henry VII. down to William II; since whose time it has been continued, and is still annually increasing, by the privilege of being supplied with a copy of every pub lication entered in Stationers' Hall. Besides the books immediately collected by the sovereigns, and principally by Henry VIII. from the opportunities which offered at the dissolution of the monasteries, this colJection, which at the time when the Museum act passed, consisted of about 2000 MSS. and upwards of 9000 printed books, contains the library of Archbishop Cranmer, and those of Henry Fitzalan Earl of Arundel, and his son-in-law Richard lord Lumley, of Sir John Morris, and of Isaac Casaubon, some of the volumes in the latter deriving considerable value from the MS. notes of the learned proprietor. This library also contains, among other most valuable articles, the venerable Alexandrian Codex of the Bible, several splendid MSS., chiefly biblical and chronicles; and among the printed books abundance of old and rare editions, many of them being presentation copies from their respective authors. George III.-Collection of Pamphlets. A numerous collection of pamphlets and periodical papers, published in the convul sive interval between the years 1640 and 1660, [collected expressly for the service and infornation of Charles I.] after having passed through the hands of various persons, some of whom were at times obliged to secrete it. with uncommon care and circumspection, was at length offered for sale in the year 1762; and his Majesty, being apprized of the circumstance, immediately ordered the same to be purchased, and to be deposited in the Museum. The collection consists of upwards of 30,000 articles, bound in about 2,000 vols.; most of the tracts being now become uncommonly scarce, and many of them probably unique. Antiquities, &c.-Chiefly Egyptian; and among them one of the finest mummies perhaps now in Europe, which were sent to the late Earl of Bute by Edward Wortley Montagu, Esq. and presented by the former to his Majesty, who was pleased to transfer it to the Museum. Lottery Tickets-In 1761, a number of lottery tickets which belonged to his royal predecessor, containing prizes £1,123. In 1772, a complete set of the Journals of the capitulation of Alexandria in 1801, many Parliament.-Hamiltonian Collection. Museum was originally inconsiderable; but The number of antiquities contained in the this deficiency was amply supplied in 1772. residence at Naples as his Majesty's envoy, had Sir William Hamilton having, during a long many favourable opportunities of acquiring a great number of articles of Greek and Roman antiquity, particularly the largest store then known of ancient vases, usually, though er roneously, called Etruscan, caused the whole collection to be brought to England; in 1772 the House of Commons on report of a committee, voted £8,400 for the purchase thereof, in order to its being deposited in the Museum. The public is also largely indebted to Sir William Hamilton for many liberal and repeated donations to the Museum; especially abundance of articles of natural history, particularly of the volcanic productions of Mount Vesuvius, of which he has perhaps been the most careful observer since the days of Pliny. The Townleian Library. An opportunity having presented itself, in the year 1805, of acquiring a large and exquisite collection of Greek and Roman statues, busts, and other sculptured marbles, formed by Charles Townley, of Townley in the county of Lancaster, Esq. at a great expence, during a course of many years, and by frequent journies to Italy, parliament, cheerfully granted the sum of £20,000 for their purchase and also voted supplies for the purpose of erecting an additional edifice, which is now completed; and a magnificent collection of ancient sculptures is at length opened for the inspection of strangers, as well as for the improvement of artists. The Lansdown Manuscripts. Parliament has recently accepted an offer, made by the executors of the late Marquis of Lansdown, for the purchase of his valuable collection of manuscripts, for the particulars of which vide Panorama, Vol. II. p. 983. 2. ADDITIONS MADE BY THE TRUST. The Trustees being, in the year 1769, informed that a large collection of stuffed birds, in uncommon preservation, had been brought cover from Holland by a person of the name of Greenwood, who having for a time exhibited them to the public, became desirous to dispose of them at a reasonable price, they readily availed themselves of the opportunity, and purchased the whole for the sum of £460. Many additions were afterwards made by purchase and donation, and the agregate soon formed, not indeed a complete, but as extensive an curious a collection as any perhaps at that time extant. Hatchett's Minerals. In 1798, a favourable opportunity presented itself for supplying the deficiency in the Mineralogical part of the repository. Charles Hatchett, now of Roehampton, Esq. having during his travels in various parts of Europe, formed a large and weil chosen collection of minerals of every class, the Trustees acquired it at the price of £700; and all that was valuable of the Sloanean collection having been incorporated with this ample accession, the whole, with the addition of what Mr. Cracherode's bequest has since supplied, now forms a very copious and useful mineralogical collection. Dr. Bentley's Classics. In the year 1807, an offer was made to the Trustees to purchase [for £400] a collection of ancient classics, which had been in the possession of the celebrated Dr. Bentley, and contained a great number of his truly learned totes. It consists of eighty-four volumes, among which is Dr. Bentley's copy of the plays of Aristophanes, with his copious and profound illustrations, a commentary much prized by the first critics in Greek literature. For the history of this discovery, and other particulars, Vide Panorama, Vol. III. p. 84, 3. DONATIONS PY TRUSTEES. The Rev. Thomas Birch, D.D. many years secretary of the Royal Society, and one of the fifteen elected Trustees of the first nomination, after having rendered great services to the institution, while in its infancy, by his unwearied assiduity and exertions, closed a meritorious life in the year 1766, bequeathing his whole, not indeed very numerous, yet truly valuable library, to the Museum; and the annual produce of all his property in the funds, amounting to £522. 18s. New South Sea Annuities, to be equally shared among the three under librarians for the time being. This learned divine having chiefly distinguished himself as a biographical writer, his library excels particularly in books relating to that branch of literature; and among his manuscripts are several collections of historical documents, correspondences of men of note, and copies of various state papers, which he obtained from persons in high stations, with whom he lived in habits of familiar intercourse. Gustavus Brander, of Christ Church, in Hampshire, Esq., in 1765, made a considerHalhed's Oriental MSS. able addition to the Museum, by the doThe Trustees having received intelligence nation of his fossils, chiefly collected by himthat the Oriental library of Nathaniel Brassey self in Hampshire, of which a classical cataHalhed, Esq. might be obtained at a reason-logue was drawn up and published by his able price, in the year 1796, obtained the whole of it for the sum of £550. It consists of ninety-three volumes, fourteen of which are in the Shanskrit language, and the rest chiefly Persian: and to these have been added twenty-six volumes recently purchased of the executors of the late Col. Hamilton, friend and countryman, Dr. Solauder: he afterwards added many valuable donations. Thomas Tyrwhitt, Esq. a gentleman whose name will ever be revered, as long as true taste and learning are held in estimation, was pleased to bequeath to the Museum all the books in his select library, which were not |