mouth of the river. He differs also from other writers, by supposing that the chain of forts erected by Ostorius, along the banks of the Ancona, and Sabrina, extended from Stratford upon Avon to Peterborough; rather than from the Avon at Bath, to the Severn. And by way of supporting this proposition, he informs us, that a friend of his found an unusual number of fortified posts along the river Nen in the proper direction for this purpose. It seems, therefore, that the geography of our ancient history is not yet absolutely settled. Ostorius carried his arms into Wales: the scene of his action with Caractacus, our author places at Brandon camp, and Coxall Knoll; the first a little to the west of the great Roman road, leading from Kenchester to Wroxeter. The second within sight, a little above the village of Brampton Brian. The river Teme runs through the vale. Agricola in the year 78 completed the conquest of Wales, after an obstinate and continued struggle of many years. Sir R. C. H. then proposes certain principles, in aid of junior antiquaries when endeavouring to ascertain the Roman roads, or the original British communications; which appear to have been chosen not unskilfully. Most of these he has examined, with every assistance derived from history or learned dissertation. A sketch of Cambrian events from the days of the Romans to A. D. 1188 connects these introductory chapters with the account of Archbishop Baldwin's progress, and his success in procuring recruits, for his pious and military expedition.

The "Description of Wales" by Giraldus Cambrensis, comprises in the first book eighteen chapters, and these exhibit an equal number of excellencies in the character of this people. In the third chapter, Giraldus remarks that the Welsh bards, and singers, or reciters, have the genealogies of their princes, written in the Welsh language, in their ancient and authentic books, and also retain them in their memory, from Roderic the Great-from whom they ascend to Sylvius, Ascanius, Æneas-Adam. He says in chap. vii. that Cambria was so called from Camber, son of Brutus, who divided the kingdom of Wales between his three sons, Locrinus, Albanactus, and Camber. He commends the sober suppers and frugal fare of the people. We extract the tenth

chapter, as a pleasing picture of their hospitality, liberality, and mutual confidence.

No one of this nation ever begs, for the houses of all are common to all; and they consider liberality and hospitality among the first virtues: so much does hospitality here rejoice in communication, that it is neither offered nor requested by travellers, who, on entering any house, only deliver up their arms, when water is offered to them; if they suffer their feet to be washed, they are received as guests; for the offer of water to wash their feet, is with this nation an hospitable invitation. But if they refuse the proffered service, they only wish for morning refreshment, and not lodging. The young men move about in troops and families under the direction of a chosen leader; attached only to arins and ease, and ever ready to stand forth in defence of their country; they have free admittance into every house as if it were their

Those who arrive in the morning are entertained till evening by the conversation of young women, and the music of the harp; for each house has its young women and harp, allotted to this purpose. Two circumstances here deserve notice: that as no nation labours more under the vice of jealousy than the Irish, so none is more free from it than the Welsh; and in each family the art of playing on the harp is held preferable to any other learning. In the evening, when no more guests are expected, the meal is prepared according to the number and dignity of the persons assembled, and according to the wealth of the family which entertains; the kitchen does not supply many dishes, nor highly seasoned incitements to eating; the house is not adorned with tables, cloths, and napkins; they study nature more than splendor; for which reason they place all the dishes together upon mats, with large platters or trenchers full of sweet herbs; they also make use of a thin and broad cake of bread, baked every day, which in old writings was called Lagana; and they sometimes added chopped meat with broth. Such tables were formerly used by the noble youth, from whom this nation boasts its descent, and whose manners it still imitates, according to the words of the poet :

Heu! mensas consumimus, inquit Iulus. While the family is engaged in waiting on the guests, the host and hostess stand up, paying unremitted attention to every thing, and take no food till the company are satisfied; that in case of any deficiency it may fall upon them. A bed made of rushes, and covered with a coarse kind of cloth manufactured in the country, called Brychan, is then placed along the side of the room, and

they all in common lie down to sleep; nor is their dress at night different from that by day, for at all seasons they defend themselves from the cold only by a thin cloak and waistcoat; the fire continues to burn by night as well as by day, at their feet; and they receive much comfort from the natural heat of the persons lying near them: but when the under side begins to be tired with the hardness of the bed, or the upper one, to suffer from cold, they immediately leap up, and go to the fire, which soon relieves them from both inconveniencies; and then returning to their couch, expose alternately their sides to the cold, and to the hard bed. Vol. II. p. 294.

Part of the preceding extract will recal to the mind of the scholar, incidents he has met with in Homer; they may, also, be assimilated to various patriarchal occurrences in Holy Writ. The bread called Lagana is evidently, that made in haste by the good housewives of old; which we believe is still called plank bread, because baked on a plank of iron. It is a sort of household bread, or thin cake, called, says Mr. Owen, Bare Liech, and Bara Llochan; griddle, or gradell bread, from being baked on the iron plank, called a griddle.

The following, which is the thirteenth chapter, seems to describe something approaching closely to a knowledge of counterpoint; which, if certain, would distinguish the musical proficiency of the Cambrians, and rank it above that of any other nation at the time.

In their musical concerts they do not sing

in unison like the inhabitants of other countries, but in many different parts; so that in a company of singers, which one very frequently meets with in Wales, you will hear as many different parts and voices as there are performers, who all at length unite with organic melody, in one consonance, and the soft sweetness of B flat. In the northern district of Britain, beyond the Humber, and on the borders of Yorkshire, the inhabitants make use of the same kind of symphonious harmony, but with less variety; singing only in two parts, one murmuring in the bass, the other warbling in the acute or treble. Neither of the two nations has acquired this peculiarity by art, but by long habit, which has rendered it natural and familiar; and the practice is now so firmly rooted in them, that it is unusual to hear a simple and single melody well sung; and, what is still more wonderful, the children, even from their infancy, sing in the same manner. As the English in general do not adopt this mode of singing, but only the northern counties, it

seems probable that these parts of the island were more frequently invaded, and remained longer under the dominion of the Danes and Norwegians, from whom the natives contracted their mode of singing, as well as of speaking. p. 320.

We shall only add the following description of what in modern days are known under the appellation of Coracles; and which appear to have been in use from the remotest antiquity.

The boats which they employ in fishing or in crossing the rivers are made of twigs, not oblong nor pointed, but almost round, or rather triangular, covered both within and without with raw hides: when a salmon thrown into one of these boats strikes it hard with his tail, he often oversets it, and endangers both the vessel and its navigator. The fishermen, according to the custom of their country, in going to and from the rivers, carry these boats on their shoulders; on which occision that famous dealer in fables, Bledhere, who lived a little before our time, thus mysteriously said, "There is among us a "people, who when they go out in search of

prey, carry their horses on their backs to "the place of plunder; in order to catch "their prey, they leap upon their horses, and

and when it is taken, carry their horses "home again upon their shoulders.”

The boats described by Herodotus, lib. i. as used on the Euphrates, and those described by Pococke as employed on the Nile, and of which he gives a print, bear great resemblance to these of the ancient and modern Britons.

The second book exhibits the defects which disfigure the Cambrian character, such as inconstancy, rapine, want of steadiness in battle, family dissention, and other evil dispositions. As these are comprized in ten books, while what redounds to their credit and glory occupies eighteen, we presume that the balance of moral qualities is quite as favourable in the inhabitants of Wales as among mankind, in general, or among whatever nation may be brought into comparison with these Antient Britons.

Sir R. C. H. has favoured us with a supplement to this Itinerary, in which he presents a summary, but pleasing, course of remarks, on the principal objects which occur in the journey; such as Churches, Monasteries, Abbeys, Castles, and other substantial constructions.

We cannot quit this article without expressing our satisfaction at the modern

improvements of this interesting country. Our author informs us that,

The Beneficial Effects of Christianity on the Temporal Concerns of Mankind, proved from History and from Facts. By the Right Reverend Beilby Porteus, D.D. Lord Bishop of London. Second Edition. Cadell, pp. 90. Price 5s. 1806.

ble districts. And here let me pay a just and grateful tribute to the laudable zeal and disinterested exertions of an English nobleman (Lord Penrhyn) who has devoted the profits of a large estate to the public good; who at his own expense, has formed an extensive tract of excellent road, has established a sea-port, and introduced into the very bowels of the mountains an industrious and numerous population. But the most important improvement of the country has been totally overlooked, namely, Planting:- the native woods diminish daily.-In a very few years many estates will not furnish even an oak for a gate post.

The work closes with a view of the progress of Architecture, from a period nearly coeval with the Conquest, to the sixteenth century; illustrated by a series of designs taken from existing remains in South Wales, and arranged systematically. We consider some of the principles proposed in this dissertation, as well intitled to attention; and the progress of the pointed arch, from its rise to its maturity and decay, is displayed with perspicuity, and supported by well selected examples. Sir R. C. H.supposes it possessed its greatest strength, and beauty, when corresponding with the proportions of an equilateral triangle. After it became lower, and consequently broader, it declined to absolute dulness and deformity.

We must here close our account of this splendid publication.-The views are executed by the late Mr. Byrne, whose talents as an engraver of landscape, were long acknowledged by the public; the antiquities are by Basire. The work is printed by Bulmer. The whole does honour to the taste and liberality of the Editor.

We regret, however, Sir R. C. H's. imperfect acquaintance with the Welsh language; but, the assistance of Mr. Owen has rendered this little sensible. Mr. O. has also contributed a judicious essay on the Bardic system; of which very few moderns possess equal knowledge.

RELIGION is that intimate resident in every man's bosom, which directs and controuls his principles and actions. Secret, but powerful is the influence it exerts; not always understood by the sub

casions of moment, or on incidents peculiarly adapted to rouse it into action. But Religion is of different kinds, and takes different directions: it is internal or external; principle or practice; happy those in whom it is a due mixture of both!

When what is denominated religion, evaporates in rites and ceremonies, and when the performance of certain solemnities is considered as having fulfilled the duties of religion, weak indeed is the effect of such worship on the heart. The man remains unconscious of any injunctions, opposing his vicious inclinations, or of any invigorating virtue, which may confirm his wiser judgment, and give effect to his better intentions. Yet such was the religion of the antient world.

The deities of paganism were originally mortals like their worshippers. Subject to all the weaknesses of humanity, they were soothed by the servilities of flattery, they were dazzled by the glittering magnificence, of which they were the objects, they were won by entreaty and solicitation; and, like other men, they naturally desired to be remembered with veneration by those on whom they had conferred favours, or those who professed more than ordinary attachment to their interests. Hence their votaries, wherever they migrated, retained those external services in which their deities had taken delight. Hence originated pompous ceremonies, and expensive oblations; prolonged parade amused the eye, and music the ear, perfumes were employed to gratify the sense. of smell, and sacrifices to regale the sense of taste. And, because the person thus worshipped could not be every where present, nor prolong his life to meet his devotees in succeeding ages, an idol was substituted; to receive the same homage as was paid to himself. Apprehension of a distant (though living) power, from which the votary expected neither visit nor scrutiny, was little competent to correct

the manners, and feeble beyond calculation was it on the heart. At what still lower degree on the scale of impotence, shall we mark that infinitely small fraction of moral influence which superstition imagined might emanate from an idol? Could an insensible block, however venerated, either detect the open negligence, or punish the secret aversion of its votaries? Could it penetrate the imagination, could it discover whether the soul accompanied the worship of those persons? Or, if they abandoned the devotions to which they had been accustomed, by what means should it regain their lost affections, or prevent the contagion of such delinquency from spreading?

The appointing of deities to distinct qualities, had a further tendency to deprive religion of moral sentiment: for what had Hercules, the god of muscular strength, to do with any other quality in his worshipper than that on account of which he himself was worshipped? Were morals, considered as internal principles, improved by libations to Bacchus?-When Mars was venerated, valour might be rouzed, but not compassion;-when Vehus, desire, but not modesty. And, yet the party who had paid his devotions to these deities congratulated himself on having accomplished his religious duties; nor admitted a single serious consideration, as to the moral and mental effects of his services.

But, when Christianity, distinguishing the moral good, or evil, of actions, by the quo animo, the intention in which they originated, taught those who embraced it, to watch over the primary conceptions of their minds, when it enforced the principle by proclaiming a Deity, omniscient and omnipresent, the "judge of the spirits of all flesh," then, indeed, might every one infer the necessity of "keeping the heart with all diligence, since out of that were the issues of life." Then was the seat and center of religion established in the soul; and then, were words, and actions, the general conduct of life, considered as

outward and visible signs, of an inward and spiritual grace," or as marking the total absence of every principle which could claim affinity with " genuine and undefiled" religion.

Christianity may be considered as regulating the personal, the relative, and the public character of its professor. That the personal character of Christians,' is essen

tially improved by the principles of their beneficent religion, admits of no doubt. The fact, we believe, will be universally acknowledged, and taking this for granted, the tract before us proposes to state in the first place, the effects of Christianity on our domestic relations, from which, as his Lordship justly observés, "flows a very` large proportion of the misery or the comfort of human life. Among these, the first in order, and from which the others take their rise, is the state of Marriage." Among Pagans, polygamy and divorce," were, and they continue to be, the banes of confugal happiness. Of these, Christianity has effectually banished one, and restrained the other; very much to the amelioration of the state, and character of the softer sex. The parental relation is the next in the Bishop's order. It is but too true, that in some of the most celebrated Heathen nations the exposure of newly born infants, in other words, their murder, was permitted and even patronised by the state. The practice still subsists in China, where the number of exposed children, is about 9,000 annually in Pekin, and as many in the rest of the empire, says Mr. Barrow. The Hindoos are guilty of the same inhuman conduct towards their offspring; and hang them up on trees, in baskets, to be devoured by birds of prey. The tremor with which we peruse such accounts, is a triumphant proof of the superior sympathies induced by christianity.

The Bishop draws a very affecting picture of the miseries of domestic servitude, or slavery, as extant among the ancients. The number of slaves was very great. In Athens there were only 21,000 citizens, but 400,000 slaves. It was common for a private citizen of Rome to possess 10 or 20,000. Most of these dragged out a life of labour, subject to the unremitted lash of their imperious taskmasters, uncertain of the prolongation of their lives, incapable of demanding justice, when oppressed, and liable to be murdered for amusement! Christianity abrogated slavery; not by a sudden and general manumission of slaves, not by instigating revolt against their superiors, but, by opening the minds of their proprietors to sentiments of compassion, by inducing them tớ communicate some of those blessings which accompany liberty, till at length the possession of these unhappy individuals was no longer regarded as a mark of

wealth, and the state of slavery was proclaimed illegal by the edicts of Christian Emperors. His Lordship takes this opportunity to express his expectations that slavery in every country, particularly, under British influence, will be abolished; and he asks," how is it possible for a nation professing the mild and merciful religion of the gospel, to authorise and encourage that inhuman traffic? This is surely one of the many strange inconsistencies of the human mind, which it is difficult to explain and impossible to defend." On this part of his subject, the riglit reverend author has spared his readers many of those afflicting details, which he well knows where to find in the pages of antient writers. In fact, the lot of a slave was the sport of what we call accident, when his master was kind and considerate: but if he fell into the power of a morose and cruel despot, his comfort consisted in awaiting the general termination of human miseries. Law, and custom more powerful than law, allowed barbarities at the relation of which the ears of Christians would tingle; barbarities too atrocious to be here enlarged on.

The influence of Christianity on the civil, or public character, of individuals, and of governments, forms the second section of the Bishop's inquiry. We should be glad, if the memory of certain eminent men in the Christian world, could be vindicated from the charge of persecuting those who differed from them in opinion. This his lordship has not attempted; but he is persuaded, that such conduct has usually originated in political motives, however disguised under the mask of zeal for religion. He thinks that Christianity has introduced milder laws, more general liberty, more impartial administration of justice, with a greater sense of what is due from the various ranks of life to each other. He urges particularly the diminution of the horrors of war, the protection afforded to the vanquished, and the moderation of those evils which cannot be wholly prevented, amid the calamitoas glory of military triumph, Modern ages have rarely seen in Christendom, cities burnt to the ground, and their inhabitants carried into captivity. We regret, undoubtedly, those who perish in action; but what is this kind of death, compared with the tortures inflicted on prisoners, antiently? or what are the numbers it destroys compared with those

devastations which exterminated alike tottering infancy and decrepid old age, which spared neither rank nor sex, which even included beasts in their proscription, and scattered the mangled limbs of every living thing over the streets of the city which had afforded them habitation?

With respect to all the various nations of Asia, says his lordship, the whole history of that country, both ancient and modern, from one end of the continent to the other, exhi bits such an uninterrupted series of barbarity, bloodshed, havock, and devastation in their incessant wars, revolts, revolutions, and intestine dissentions, as it is impossible to contemplate without disgust, astonishment, and horror. [See the dreadful achievements of Gengis-Khan, Timur, Aurengzebe, and Nadir Schah, in India and Persia.]

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Yet all this, and more than this, was na turally to be expected from the principles entertained and avowed by the great warriors and statesmen of antiquity. One of them was this, to glut our souls with the cruelest vengeance upon our enemies is perfectly lawful, is an appetite implanted in us by nature, and is the most exquisite pleasure "that the human mind can taste."-[Thucyd. 1. vii. p. 540.] In this inost exquisite pleasure they indulged themselves without reserve; in this species of voluptuousness they were certainly perfect epicures.

and

Nothing can so strongly mark the different spirit of the two Religions; and the consequences to mankind have already in some measure corresponded, and will hereafter correspond still more, to that difference. Though too much fierceness and animosity, too much propensity to war, too many acts of passion and cruelty, are still to be found among the nations of the earth, yet the diabolical principle of vengeance is certainly much abated, of its most tragical effects are no many longer seen. To a certain degree there must undoubtedly be disputes and contests both between kingdoms and individuals, so long as kingdoms consist of men, and men are subject to the infirmities of human nature, that vindictive and implacable fury which raged in the breasts of the ancient conquerors, does not seem to be as it was then, the predominant passion, the general turn and temper of the present age.

But

That the Gospel abolished human sacrifices, is undeniable. On this subject the Bishop has subjoined a note which deserves attention.

From a late very interesting Publication by Mr. Buchanan, one of the chaplains at Calcutta, called A Memoir on the Expediency of an Ecclesiastical Establishment in India, it appears, that human sacrifices still subsist among the Hindoos. Death is inflicted in various ways in their sacred rites. Children