establishment, the firmest support, | A Letter to his Excellency the Prince of Talleyrand Perigord, &c. on the subject of the Slave Trade. By W. Wilberforce, Esq. M.P. pp. 84. Ar the moment when all England is penetrated with horror at the thoughts of the renewal of the Slave Trade, and feels ashamed that the sacred rights of justice and humanity should have been so easily surren "If ever the imputation of preach-dered to the avarice of continental ing morality to the neglect of gospel truth, attached to any considerable proportion of the clergy," the reverend prelate is " firmly persuaded, that there is no real foundation for the charge at the present day ;" and certainly none would rejoice more than ourselves, to be assured on good evidence, that such a persuasion were well founded. merchants, and the arrogance of infidel politicians; we are rejoiced to see the tried and faithful friend of Africa standing forward in her defence, and pouring into the bosoms of Frenchmen the tears of commiseration for her past misfortunes, and the pleas of truth and righteousness for her future safety and protection. Mr. Wilberforce does this with an To the younger clergy, the bishop eloquence that is irresistible, and offers some excellent advice, both as with such a high degree of patriotic to the manner of discharging the du- and moral feeling, as to proclaim ties of the sacred office, and explain-him the truest friend, and one of the ing the more abstruse and difficult points of theology. The Charge is written with considerable elegance; and, upon the whole, in a tone of moderation, sufficient to entitle it to general applause. The following extract will furnish no unfavourable specimen of his lordship's style of composition; and the sentiment contained in it, is in unison with our best feelings. "From these considerations of domestic prudence, our attention is now called to concerns of universal importance to the Christian world. The convulsions which threatened to subvert the hallowed and ancient fabrics of religion, of social order, and of civil and political liberty, are happily allayed. The storm has ceased to roar. In the sight of the nations assembled from the ends of the earth, to be the ministers of God's justice and the witnesses of his power, the pillar of usurped domination, erected on the ruin of thrones and the wreck of principles, has crumbled, at the bidding of the Almighty, into dust; and the tyranny, which made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed its cities (Is. xiv. 7.), exists only in recollection, like the horrors of an oppressive dream. The restoration of peace has followed the triumph of truth and justice; and the moderation which has tempered the glories of victory with a milder radiance, may be hailed as an auspicious pre sage of a settled and durable tranquility." P. 11. brightest ornaments, of our species. The high ground on which these principles have placed him, gives to his arguments and his character an elevation that must command the admiration of Talleyrand, if it does not utterly unman the "prince," and make him tremble for himself, The author begins by tracing the origin of the Slave Trade, that " accursed plague of the human race;" the vices and the miseries it inflicted on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa. He then describes the unutterable horrors of the middle pastheir native shores to the West-Insage, or during the voyage from dies; and the various evils, political and moral, with which their infamous trafic was attended. Next fol lows a brief history of its abolition, by a vote of the British parliament; with an exposure of the fallacy of those objections which retarded the abolition, and an exhibition of the practical good effects that have since resulted from it. The writer of this excellent letter then urges various considerations, arising from the principles of justice and from the present state of Europe, all demanding, for oppressed Africa, the guarantee of her rights. With great propriety does Mr. Wilberforce affirm, that "to purchase human beings in one part of the world, to carry them by violence to D gratifications, to the commission of their accustomed crimes, it was a difficult attempt to endeavour to divert their indus another part, remote from every object of their human attachments, and there sell them into perpetual slavery, is a practice self-evidently re-try into innocent channels, though there were some of them who had even then of the Slave Trade on social improvement, as well as on individual security and comfort. Again-No sooner had we succeeded in obtaining a law forbidding British subjects to visit the unoffending shores of Africa, except for the purposes of an innocent commerce, than a society, called the African Institution, was formed for repairing the wrongs which our country had committed. Many of its members were men of the highest rank and character; and at the head of it a Prince of the House of Brunswick, respected no less for his personal qualifications, than for his illustrious descent, appeared in his natural and family charac discerned and lamented the fatal effects pugnant to the first principles of moral obligation. "No investigation," he says, "could be necessary to prove that such a trade as this ought, on moral grounds, to be renounced. ' And with equal truth and propriety he might have added, that such a trade ought never to have existed. It outrages every principle of humanity and justice, and is an eternal disgrace to the nation that so long fostered and encouraged it. If any of our readers suspect this language of being intemperate, let them peruse with calinness and impartiality the pamphlet now before us, and if it do not convince them of the jus-ter, that of the protector of the oppressed. tice of our charge, we are content to be deemed calumniators. institution to watch over the actual exeIt is the grateful office of this benevolent cution of the law by which the Slave But to afford our readers the op- Trade is prohibited; to plant and foster portunity of judging, in any tolerable in that much-injured land the seeds of degree, of the contents of this most knowledge and improvement; and to exinteresting pamphlet, it will be ne- cite the honest industry, and promote the cessary to lay before them a few ex-growing civilization of her inhabitants. tracts. In the following passage, Mr. W. is reminding the French minister of what attempts our countrymen have been making for the amelioration of the state of Africa, by the establishment of the settleinent at Sierra Leone, and, still more recently, of the African Institution. I had long flattered myself, that, whenever peace should be restored between Great Britain and France, you would join Under these impressions, no sooner did us in promoting this beneficent project. the day star of peace appear above the horizon,the welcome harbinger of returning concord and amity between our too-longhostile countries, than, with a joyful heart, I moved an Address to the Crown, which received the unanimous and eager support of the House of Commons, a si "Let me confess to you, Sir, that I am deeply mortified and disappointed by the accounts I hear of the disposition, that is too commonly manifested by your coun-milar Address being voted, with the same trymen, respecting the renewal of the zealous unanimity, in the House of Lords. Slave Trade.. I had not merely trusted, The object of both was, that, in any nethat we should meet in France with few gociation for peace, all the great Euroopponents; but I had indulged sanguine pean nations should be invited to unite hopes, that, in its spirited and intelligent with us in taking effectual measures for population, we should find a zealous co- an immediate and universal abolition of operation in the various plans which had the African Slave Trade. I will frankly been set on foot in England for enlight-own to you, Sir, that it appeared to me ening and improving the natives of Afriса. For, when the nation first awoke to the real nature of the Slave Trade, and the abolition was expected to take place, a colony was settled in the river Sierra Leone, in Africa, with a view to promote among the natives the arts and blessings of civilized life. That part of Africa had been long the seat of an extensive Slave Trade. Its population was greatly thinned, and the character of that which remained was very unpromising. Yet we were not disheartened. Schools were institute, agriculture and industry encouraged; but utile progress could be made, till the Slave Trade was extinguished. While the appetites of the natives were stimulated, by the offer of their wonted to be peculiarly congenial with the genius and dispositions of the French people, to assent to such a proposition with more than common cordiality. Calling to mind your history and character; recollecting, that you had been styled a nation of cavaliers, and that among you commerce was not even estimated at its true value, but was accounted a degrading and ignoble occupation; retracing, also, the awful history of your revolutionary war, and seeing that your gallantry bad never been more conspicuous, your victories never more brilliant, and that, from a thousand causes, a military spirit had been universally diffused among you;that, in whatever other particulars, there fore, your former character had been changed, it was not likely that you could, have contracted a grovelling and mercenary spirit:-I could least of all have airticipated so strange and monstrous an anomaly, as that your avidity for commercial gain should have suddenly become so extreme, as to cause you to rush with eagerness into those dishonourable paths, which had been quitted by several other nations, in obedience to the laws of justice and of honour. claim? Could I really retain towards France any hostile feeling, I should wish that she might thus tarnish the lustre of her name; that her sovereign's restoration to his throne might be thus commemorated in the page of history. Were I actuated by that base selfishness, which the Commercial Chamber of Nantes imputes to me, I should wish to retain for my own country the undivided honour of this glorious enterprise. Were I a bigotted Protestant, rather than a sincere Christian, I might rejoice to see the votaries of the Roman Catholic faith thus sanctioning the violation of the plainest principles of the religion of Jesus. But no such unworthy sentiments as these find admission into my bosom-larger and nobler principles animate my heart, and actuate my conduct. May the French, from my soul I say it, may the French be a great and renowned, a religious and a happy people! May the commerce of Nantes be flourishing, and her merchants affluent! But let me not speak of myself only; my countrymen in general are lovers of peace and good will towards men. How many have I not heard expressing their earnest wishes for the prosperity and comfort of the people of France? How gladly would they not forward any plan for advancing them? And these dispositions, like those which have actuated them in the case of the abolition of the Slave Trade, are not transient sensibilities merely, but fixed and stable principles; they have their root in the persuasion, that we all are the children of one Common Parent, and that we shall most acceptably manifest our gratitude to Him for our own enjoyments, by endeavouring to augment the happiness of others." "Your sovereign is beneficent and generous. It is his glory to occupy the throne which was filled by the generous and benevolent Henry IV. The French are a great and high spirited people, and that same Henry is their admiration and their boast. How can I then conceive it to be possible, that, when once they shall be made acquainted with the real nature of this abhorred traffic, they will be able to endure the idea, that their sovereign's restoration to the throne of his ancestors is to be commemorated for ever in the page of history as the æra at which, in their eager pursuit of commercial profits, they plunged afresh, as it were, into the blood and mire of the lowest depths of cruelty and dishonour; of commercial profits too, declared by the ablest statesmen and financiers to be highly questionable, or rather, clearly impolitic! Great Britain had sacrifices to make to a prodigious value; but, like the Ephesians, so honourably recorded in sacred writ, for having cast into the flames their precious books of incantations, she generously flung from her with indignation those polluted gains, and willingly abjured them for ever, as base and abhorred memorials of the guilt and shame of her days of ignorance. Can I believe the French will thus give way to the lust of commercial profits, at a time when the United Netherlands have abjured for ever those unhallowed and bloody profits? When they see, that, long ago, the king of Denmark generously took the lead in this career of mercy, and though not unconscious that the nation he governed must rely on its commercial industry for its prosperity, and almost for its comfortable existence, yet renounced these foul and cruel paths to wealth, and made the true use of his absolute power, by commanding his subjects at once to depart out of them for ever? Is it at the very moment when you are blessing yourselves with a rich augmentation of your enjoy- But what must be expected to be the ments, and when a generous people consequences in your West-Indian emshould be eager to express its sense of the pire? Remember the consequences goodness of Providence, by diffusing the which five years' increased importation same comforts among others, that you of slaves previously to 1789, combined, would deluge the unoffending Africans I grant, with other circumstances, prowith an ocean of miseries? Should the duced in St, Domingo. There behold an restoration of peace to Europe be the open volcano, with the lava scarcely cool signal for kindling a thousand ferocious which it so lately poured forth! Do not wars among wretched tribes of half civi- you hear the inward thunderings of the lized beings, whom every human feeling mountain? Do you not see the ascendshould dispose you to protect and to re-ing smoke that issues from the crater? What a glow of manly eloquence is diffused throughout this last paragraph! and what reader will refuse to join us in tendering our grateful acknowledgements to the author for the honour he has done us in thus standing forward as the apologist of our beloved country! Towards the close of his letter, Mr. W. solemnly warns the French minister, well to consider the probable consequences of renewing the importation of slaves into their West-indian settlements. We should mention to our readers, that the letter is printed in French, as well as English; and, we hope, will be extensively read on the other side of the English Channel. To the Writer, our unfeigned thanks are Do they not warn you against beginning | their just claim to the rights and privíagain to increase so rapidly the importa- leges of the human species." tions into your remaining islands, lest in them also the same fatal consequences should follow? When your mansion is already hot with the fire that rages in a dwelling so near you, is it a time to be annually bringing in, though but for five years, fresh ship-loads of combustibles? Surely your sounder policy would be to tendered, for the pleasure it has afuse the precious interval, that is yet afforded us. forded you, in laying the foundations of those changes, which might gradually improve the condition of the slave populaion in your West-indian islands from its present state, to the condition of a comfortable and a happy peasantry." Nine Sermons, preached in the years 1718-19, by the late Isaac Watts, D.D. now first published from MSS. in the family of a cotemporary friend: with a Preface by I. P. Smith, D.D. Gale, Curtis, and Co. pp. 125, 8vo. 6s. Before he takes leave of the subject, Mr. Wilberforce gives a striking display of his candour, by attributing the wish on the part of the French Merchants to resume the Slave Trade, into their ignorance of THAT these posthumous sermons its numerous evils; but he is confi- are the genuine production of that dent that, should they persevere in venerable divine, whose name they their purpose, the time will arrive bear, no doubt can be entertained by when, having become acquainted those who are conversant with his with its real character, they must other writings. His style of compoblame their rulers for having com- sition was eminently adapted to the plied with their wishes; and hav-variety of subjects upon which his ing stated to Talleyrand what the comprehensive mind was exercised, probable tenor of their complaints and the capacities of those for whose will be, he closes his letter with the improvement he wrote, and therefollowing animated address: fore was diversified to a degree that Such, Prince, I cannot doubt, will be few authors could attain Yet, the feelings, such the language of your through all his writings, there is an 'people, in a few short years; whatever, individuality which, though undefrom a misconception of facts, may be finable by the mechanical powers of their present sentiments and views. Re- language, identifies to the mind of cognise, then, and occupy your true sta- the discerning reader, the catechetition. Take, then, that lead in this gene- cal friend of little children-the subrous and politic enterprise, which be-lime preacher on the glories of heacomes the character of an enlightened and liberal people. Act in a manner ven-and the able antagonist of John worthy of the antiquity and greatness of Locke. your empire. If you conceive that, the On the question how far these disinterestedness and liberality of your posthumous discourses are worthy motives, and your being free from all ex-of their author, it must be confessternal influence, will appear more cleared, some little difficulty arises; not, by your not mixing any stipulations con- indeed, from an opinion that they cerning the Slave Trade with the general are unworthy to appear in print in negociation, take your measures separately. But let us not be disappointed in the this day of refined erudition, but hopes we had formed, that your influence from the eminently high character would be used with the other European Dr. Watts attained in his own day, nations. Be, rather, the continental head and the progressive estimation in of the brotherhood of Justice and Benefi- which he has been held from that cence. It was formerly customary for time to the present. It seems highprinces to celebrate the birth of a son, ly questionable whether any work or any other acceptable event, by some act of mercy or munificence. So let the the sanction of Dr. W.'s name, will now presented to the public, under æra of the restoration of your sovereign to the throne of his ancestors be marked, be able to attain so high a place in in the page of history, as the æra, also, at the estimation of the world, as these which Africa was delivered from her tor- that were presented to them by the mentors, and her much-injured popula-author himself; and it appears altion were restored to the enjoyment of most certain, that no posthumous publication will seriously increase | from a fanciful distortion of literal the reputation of that great man. passages to spiritual meanings, and But we do not hesitate to say, that an absurd literal construction of if any such publications were calcu- those that are spiritual and figuralated to effect that increase of cele-tive. brity, the work before us would be the successful means; and that, at least, if it do not increase his fame in the world, it probably will his usefulness in the church. We therefore think it highly merits the devout perusal of all the admirers of Dr. Watts, and of the evangelical part of the community in particular. The general tendency of these discourses is to discriminate character; as they not only specify many of the best evidences of that important change of views, principles, desires, and expectations, which is, with much propriety, denominated regeneration, but also insinuate themselves into the feelings of the soul, that is created anew in Christ Jesus, and imperceptibly lead it into a delightful experience of that peace of God which passeth all understanding. The general feature of this volume is that of serious practical piety, conjoined with affectionate simplicity, and stated as the necessary effect, and, consequently, the best evidence, of living faith in Christ. In brilli- For ourselves, we must frankly ancy of thought, and ingenuity of profess, that in the perusal of these arrangement, these discourses are Sermons, we have enjoyed a rich infar inferior to the venerated author's tellectual repast, and most sincerely studied compositions; but the rea-pity the taste, and lament over the der is amply compensated for those low state of religious feeling in the deficiencies by the uniformly ardent | mind of that reader who can lay the strain of devotion that appears in every page, and especially by the peculiar unction that flows over every subject upon which they treat. The discourses, taken, as we presume, by an expert writer at the time of delivery, exhibit to our view the zealous and affectionate minister of Christ, divesting himself of every meretricious ornament, and using great plainness of speech. Throughout the whole, there is a sweetness, simplicity, and humbleness of disposition, alone eminently characteristic of the Christian, and highly ornamental to the ministerial office. We find the pious preacher often weak in body, but strong in faith; zealous for the honour of his Saviour, and the increase of his kingdom upon earth, yet desiring to depart, and be with Christ; and, though depressed with personal indisposition, his soul is absorbed with the love of Christ, and the contemplation of eternal glory. volume aside after perusing it but once. We have some confidence, however, that it will obtain, as it assuredly deserves, a very extensive circulation. The Sermons are on the following interesting subjects:-The Prayer of Christ for his Church: John xviii. 20. The Believer crucified with Christ: Gal. ii. 20. Christ the Author of Spiritual Life: Gal. ii. 20. The Believer living by faith: Gal. ii. 20. God the Author of an Effectual Ministry: 1 Cor. iii. 7. Evidences of the Efficacy of Divine Influence: 1 Cor. iii. 7. The Carnal Mind at Enmity with Christ: Luke viii. 28. The Nature and Duty of Thanksgiving: 1 Thess. v. 18. The same continued. The Principles and Prospects of a A Sermon delivered at the Funeral of the late Rev. J. Sutcliff, A. M. of Olney, on June the 28th, 1814; with a brief Memoir of the Deceased. By Andrew Fuller. pp. 48. 1s. 6d. In doctrine, the preacher pursues the middle path, between legal dependence, on the one side, and licentious principles on the other-between an enthusiastic subjection to the impulse of the feelings, arising Mr. SUTCLIFF, whose death gave from the various flow of animal occasion to the preaching and pubspirits, and that worst kind of enthu-lishing of the Sermon before us, was siasm, the deification of human rea- well known in the religious world as We find frequent happy illus- the pastor of a Baptist church at trations of Scripture, equally distinct | Olney in Buckinghamshire; and also son. |