"Spirit of the North, may yet a song,

Affail thy holy sphere;

Where late the trumpet's clangor ftrong,
Disturbed thy penfive ear.

"Still may another Mufe prefume,
Careering on her trembling plume;
To reach the dark and ftubborn clime,
And claim from thee a wreath fublime,
Her timid brow to cheer?

Oh could the gain the honour'd prize,
Swift thro' the cold and nitrous fkies,
And o'er the mountains wild and hoar
Her joyous wings would boldly foar

To thy exalted fphere."

The whole is at leaft equal to this, and many parts are greatly fuperior. We fympathize moft cordially in the apostrophe which follows in p. 6, addressed to the Archduke Charles.

"Oh Charles if aught can rob thy name

Of glory and eternal fame

Which every tongue would yield:

It is the taunt of having flept
When Gaul a conftant vigil kept

On Enzer's bloody field."

The whole of this is eminently beautiful and poetical. With the following generous tribute of the Poet to his countryman, we take leave of a poem which has given us the most unabated fatisfaction in the perufal, which in every page demonftrates very fuperior talents, and which from its commencement to the conclufion is confiftently entitled to the warmest praife.

"But wherefore fhould we teaze the eye
That flows with pity's tear;
And wherefore with another figh
Torment the fhudd'ring ear.

"France wallowing in her guilt has hurled
Deftruction o'er a trembling world

And fhaken every throne:

Save ONE that ftill erect can fand
The friend of every daring hand
And guardian of her own,

"Oh had the fons of England feen
That gloomy memorable green
Where gallant Auftria bled:
Had they oppofed the Tyrant's Forde,
England, thy many-beaming fwerd,
Would his infernal ranks have gor'd,
And death among them forcad.
M m
BRIT, CRIT, VǝI, XXXVII, NOV. 1811,

"For

"For in thy lines no jealous views,
To different objects veer;

Foe meets his foe, a league enfues,
And every heart's fincere."

ART. 16. The Battle of Albuera, a Poem, with an Epifle dedicated to Lord Wellington. 8vo. 45. Hatchard. 18H.

This is a very unequal poem, in fome parts exceedingly fpirited, and demonftrating confiderable talents; in others, feeble, inanimate, with obvious marks of careleffnefs in the compofition. We have wreath'd, rhiming to bereav'd, one to thrown, faw to war, tear to prepare, &c. &c. yet who will fay that the following is not an animated apoftrophe.

"On fcenes of blood thrice rofe the fun
Thro' vernal skies his race to run;
And twice at eve-tide in the west
On fcenes of blood had funk to reft;
When the third night the Vefter hymn
Thra' clofing twilight's fhadows dim,
In gratitude to Heaven arofe,
For victory o'er the ruthlefs foes;
Then Wellington thy triumph came,
Then cloudlefs fhone thy warrior fame
When to the Virgin mother low,
The Lufitanian patriots bow;
To thank her that yet once again,
'Tho' borne o'er many a ruined plain;
They breathed the air of liberty,
Mingled was many a prayer for thee;

Whofe valiant hand was ftretch'd to fave,

E'en on the brink of Freedom's grave.”

There are paffages ftill more fpirited, and the whole will not fail to please every true patriot, and lover of poetry.

NOVELS,

By Mifs

ART. 17. St. Clair; or, the Heiress of Defmond.
Ovenfon, Author of the Missionary, &c. &c. in Two Volumes,
Third Edition, corrected and much enlarged, with a Portrait of
the Author. 2 vols. 1200. 155. Stockdale. 1811.

This is by far the best performance which we have yet feen from the pen of this lively writer. If fhe would but condefcend for a time at leaft to follow our advice to read more and write lefs, there can be no doubt of her obtaining the ability to produce what might be read both with intereft and improvement. But at prefent her imagination is under no controul, and though

evidently

evidently she has a brilliant pencil, her colours are too gaudy, and her ftyle too meretricious. The following is the story of this novel : Aoung man of whom Rouffeau has fupplied the model in St. Peax, refiding as an humble dependent in a noble family, is neighbour to another Eloifa, who lives with her grandfather. The heroine is engaged to another; neverthelefst a ter der friendship commences between the principal characters, which time, opportunity, and circumstances ripen into all the extravagance of ungovernable paffion. On the very eve of the intered marriage, the lovers are difcovered in the act of taking their eterai fare well, and St. Clair, the hero of the tale, falls a victim to th. juft indignation of the man to whom the lady had been betrothed. There is much good writing, ingenious contrivance, and warm imagination evident throughout thefe volumes, and it is very probable, that in fpite of our just objection, they will meet with extenfive circulation. Indeed the title-page, which announces this to be a third edition, (if this be not a rufe de guerre) proves that this has already been the cafe.

ART. 18. Frederick de Montford, a Novel, in Three Volumes. By the Author of the Pursuits of Fabion. 12mo. 3 vols. Ebers. 1811.

De Montford is confiderably above the ordinary run of these things. It poffeffes both ingenuity and good contrivance, the characters are preferved with confiftency, and many of the fcenes are well wrought. At times there is fomewhat of extravagance, but the catastrophe is well brought about, and the circulating li brary has not often a writer employed in its fervice of greater promife. He is young and will improve.

ART. 19. Seabrook Village and its Inhabitants, or, the Hiftory of Mrs. Worthy and her Family, founded on Facts. Written for the Inftruction and Amusement of young People

Colburn. 1811.

1.2mo. 4s. 6d.

The object of this very pleafing little volume is to exhibit the pofitive and extenfive advantages which may be rendered by a fpirit of benevolence actively and judiciously employed. The book is written with great fpirit, and cannot pofiibly fail both to amuse and inftruct young people. It fhould feem that this book must have been written by an experienced hand, as it is characterized by great ease of style, and is at the fame time for cible and impreffive. The fuccefs can hardly be doubted, as whoever has the care of children, must be anxious to place before them an agreeable variety.

LAW.

ART. 20. The Judgment delivered, December 11, 1809, by the Right Honourable Sir John Nicholl, Knight, LL.D. Official Principal of the Arches Court of Canterbury, uf in the Admillion of Articles e hibited in a Caufe of Office, promoted by Kemp, against Wickes, Clerk, for refusing to bury an infant Child two of his Parishioners, who had been baptized by a diffenting Minifter. Taken in Shor Hand by Mr. Gurney. 8vo. 47 PP. Butterworth. 1810.

ART. 21.

Remarks upon a Report of the Judgment delivered by the Right Honourable Sir John Nicholl, Knt. LL. D. Official Principal of the Arches Court of Canterbury, upon the Admiffion of Articles exhibited in a Cause of Office against the Rev. W. W. Wickes, for refusing to bury, according to the Rites of the Church of England, a Child baptized by a diffenting Minister. 8vo. 68 pp. Rivingtons. 1810.

ART. 22. Dienters and other unauthorized Baptifms null and void by the Articles, Canons, and Rubricks of the Church of England; in answer to a Pamphlet called the Judgment of the Church of England in the Cafe of Lay Baptifm, and Disfenters' Baptifm. The third Edition. By the Author of LayBaptifminvalid. 8vo. 68 pp. Rivingtons and Hatchard. 1810. ART. 23. A respectful Examination of the Judgment delivered, December 11, 1809, by the Right Honourable Sir John Nicholl, Knt. LL. D. Official Principal of the Arches Court of Canterbury; against the Rev. John Wight Wickes, for refusing to bury an infant Child, which was baptized by a Diffenting Minifter. In a Letter to Sir John Nicholl, by the Rev. Charles Daubeny, LL. B. Archdeacon of Sarum. 8vo. 144 p. Rivingtons. 1811. We had duly confidered thefe tracts, and in fome degree made up our minds upon them, which we were prepared to ftate at fome length, when we reflected that this public difcuffion of a fentence, which is in fact the law of the land, unless reverfed by a higher court, or refumed in a new caufe by the fame court, is not a matter that calls for our interference. We have therefore thought it wifer to content ourselves with reciting the titles of the principal publications on the subject, and declining that examination of the merits of the Cafe, which feems to belong to a court of law rather than a court of criticifm.

ART. 24.

Remarks on a Bill, for the better regulating and preferving Parish and other Regifters. Addressed to the Right Rev.

* This third tract is in fact only à republication of part old volume, but important to the purpose.

very

of a

the

the Lord Bishop of Sarum. By the Rev. Charles Daubeny, LL. B. Archdeacon of Sarum. 8vo. 34 pp. 1s. Rivingtons. 1811.

We cannot be furprised, to find that the Bill in queftion has excited alarm among the clergy of the Church of England: for, a Bill fo extraordinary in many of its provifions was perhaps never read within the walls of the Houfe of Commons. We conceive, however, that the measure of printing and circulating it fo long before it could be finally difcuffed, was intended to elicit obfervations; and fhall therefore without hesitation add our own to thofe of the able author of this tra&.

The Reverend Archdeacon, faithfully attentive to his office, firft fhows, that the provifions made by the 70th Canon, for keeping and preferving Parish Regifters, are better than thofe contrived in the prefent Bill; and he fairly concludes, that the drawer of it did not know that fuch an ecclefiaftical law exifted. He admits, that negligence in keeping Parish-Regifters may in fome degree have prevailed." The queftion then refpects the remedy to be applied to the evil.-The remedy propofed by the Bill, in addition to the provifions already noticed, confifts in an obligation impofed on the officiating minifter, to verify upon oath before a civil magiftrate, at the expiration of every year, within ten days,, the contents of his Regifter Book, under the penalty of being "difqualified for the exercife of all ecclefiaftical duties for three months, at the difcretion of the Ordinary." To the first of the preceding provifions, the Clergy, fo far as my information has extended, unanimoufly and loudly object; because they confider their office unneceffarily degraded in the eyes of the public, by putting them, as Minifters of the Church, on a footing with the lay officers, and even with the ale-houfe keepers of their refpective parishes; who are obliged annually to verify the difcharge of their offices before a civil Magiftrate." p. 7. "But a difficulty here prefents itself, for which this Bill has not provided.-It hap pens in most parishes, that the duty of the Church has occafionally, for different reafons, been performed by different Clergymen. At the expiration of the year, when the Regifter Book is to be veri fied on the oath of the Rector or Vicar, in what way are those entries to be verified, which have at different times been made by Minifters, who may then be refident in diftant parts of the kingdom ?” P. 9: "To the fections 8 and 27 of the Bill under notice the Clergy fee ftrong reafons to object; because by them they are made a fort of Inquifitors general in their Parishes; and, under certain circumstances, Informers againft and indirect Projecutors of their Parishioners; offices which no Minifter, who regards his profeffional calling, will willingly undertake." P. 10.

When the Author fays, at p. 10, that "to any new mode of keeping the Regifter by a more complicated entry of particulars, as propofed in the prefent Bill, no objection ought to be made; fhould the Legiflature determine the adoption of fuch new mode

M m 3

to