fo we are obliged to content ourselves as we are, but I ftill live in hopes of returning to England fome time or other. It will be at charity to you to make it known, that poor mechanics may not be led away by fuch falfe reports. I think it is only the Captains that give it out for fo famous a place, for to get paffengers if you fhould hear of any coming, pray let them know what a beggarly, loufy, half-ftarved, country it is. You may depend on what I have faid is true; you will not hear any praife it, but a parcel of mean rebels, such as are obliged to leave their country. The perfon who brings this, came in the fhip with us, and affifted us very much during our fickness; he fays he will bring this to you himfelf, fo he may fatisfy you better, as he has feen more of the place than I have done, for the time he has been here.. Mr. P. Bonner, of Old-Street, came cabbih passenger with us; he has fent for his wife; he has been working journey work, but now he is getting into bufinets for himself. I likewife met with Mr. King, of Stoke Newington, at a place called Brookland, at Long Ifland, it is about two miles across a river from New York. I have nothing more to fay at prefent particular. I fhall fend by fome of the other fhips in a fhort time I think the Ohio will fail from England first, the being first ship that failed from hence fhe took neither freight nor paffengers, fhe was fent with one Judge Jay, concerning the war, but I can tell you nothing about that; fo you can put a letter into the bag of the New York Coffee Houfe, with which fhip comes firft., Captain Browne is not going any more; it is the Chief Mate who is Captain now, his name is Captain Bowen. I have fent to Wayling, and told him to fend a letter to you, and put it in an outfide cafe directed to you, fo you will take it off and fend it to fome of the fhips bags, he will direct it for me at New York. I hope you and your wife and children are all well, and in a flourishing ftate; we are all in tolerable good health at prefent. Pray give my refpects to all inquiring friends. I have fent a few lines to my mother; but pray let me know how fhe goes on. I want feveral tools, but I cannot fend for them at prefent. I am indebted to Captain Browne, one pound eighteen fhillings, and money, is very low with me. I cannot fay any more at this time, for I am quite tired of writing. Pray let us know in particular how the children are, They are in great expectation of a war with England. From your loving brother and fifter, T. and E. MUSGROVE. If you can conveniently fend me a cafe of inftruments, and a book or two of architecture, and fome different forts of ftringing, and fome fans and ovals, with a scroll fit for tea-chefts, I fhould take it as great favour. I cannot fend you the money at prefent, but I hope I fhall be able when Captain Bowen returns to Eng, land; and pray let me know what they come to; and if you can, APPENDIX, VOL. VII. * M m pray pray give them to the Captain himself for me. They are all get ting their arms ready as faft as poffible; they talk of raifing four hundred thousand men. They are going to take Quebec, Halifax, Nova-Scotia, and Canada, and feveral other places if they can, belonging to the English, (And a few fheets of drawing paper.) N. B. New York currency is reduced to fterling money, by multiplying by nine and dividing by fixteen. SIR, TO THE EDITOR. T no one period, fince the firft promulgation of Christianity, as at the prefent. The Church of England has hitherto produced many very able and very found divines, who have, at one time, consented most willingly to facrifice every comfort of life, nay, even life itself; and who have exerted moft laboriously every talent, in defence of the Gospel, and the purity and primitive fimplicity of our National Church; and, at other times, have moft willingly relinquithed their juft claims to pre-eminence and diftinction, fooner than abandon the truth, or what they had convinced themfelves was the truth. The favors of the great, and the applause and fashion of the world, could not induce them to be filent on various fübjects, merely because offence might be given. They venerated the establishment and offices of the Church and State. The firft they knew to be apoftolic, and the latter highly neceffary to man's happiness, and therefore of divine origin. They shrunk from no duty, because it was either arduous or unpopular; their only confideration was, to afcertain the truth, and, when afcertained, to follow her wherever the led them. They fought to know their duty, and, when known, nothing could prevent them from performing it. Such men might be neglected by the world, but for that they felt no other concern than fuch as charity fuggefted.. That there are, at present, Mr. Editor, fuch men in high ftations In our Church, no one of candour and impartiality will deny; but that there is, in too many of the Clergy, too great a fear of offending, by writing or speaking the truth, as they know it, on a variety of great and important fubjects; and a too great readiness to comply with many of the fashionable doctrines of a thoughtless and interested world, all good men know, and deeply lament. The fituation of a Chriftian Clergyman of the Church of England is too dignified in its nature, and too important in its du ties, even in its loweft offices, to require this degradation of principle, in order to obtain honor or efteem. No earthly power can confer honor, dignity, rank, or confequence, which can for a moment be put in competition, with the eternal truths of the Golpel. Nothing Nothing perhaps has more contributed to the growth of thofe various differences on religious fubjects (many of them fcarcely to be called differences; fome few of them indeed of an alarming nature) than that unwillingness and dread, in fome of the Clergy of the establishment, to give offence in their writings or difcourfes, by laying before their readers or auditors the whole truth and doctrine of the great and universal plan of human redemption. Thefe obfervations, Mr. Editor, arofe in my mind from reading in your Review of September laft, an account of the conduct of the Editor of the British Critic, towards the late venerable and excellent Mr. Jones of Nayland. A man of as great piety and charity, of as extenfive learning, and well cultivated understanding, of as orthodox principles in divinity, and of as found opinions on political fubjects, as ever adorned the literature, or Church of Britain; but who had it not in his nature, to facrifice one particle of the truth, or of what he had convinced himself was the truth, to the projects of ambition, to the allurements of intereft, to please or obtain the favor or patronage of the great or powerful, or to court the applaufe of the multitude. He had ftudied well the Old and New Teftament, as containing the only account of God's dealings with man in creation and redemption; and he had, by the bleffing of God, his redeemer, convinced his own mind of the truths of the Christian religion: he felt the infinite importance of Chriftianity to mankind, and, actuated by the most exalted charity and benevolence, he devoted his time, his learning, every talent committed to him, and by his own account, in many inftances, his comfort and quiet, to the grand and noble endeavour of convincing his fellow creatures and countrymen of the fame eternal truths, of which himfelf felt the happy effects. His various publications upon almoft every branch of human science, at once evince the rectitude of his intentions, and the extent of his learning and knowledge of man. In a mind to conftituted as Mr. Jones's, viewing the Chriftian religion, as the great and fundamental beginning and end of God's dealings with man, confidering every thing in exiftence or in idea, in the natural or fpiritual world, more or lefs tending to confirm its truths; no wonder that what is called the Hutchinsonian doctrine fhould meet with a favourable reception. In fuch men, as the author of the Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity, and his excellent friend Bishop Horne, the Hutchinfonian doctrine no doubt produced the nobleft fruits. In their addreffes to the Throne of Grace it added to the holy fervour and devoutness of their minds; in their conduct to the world it rendered them charitable and benevolent, as it encreased their endeavours to convert and inform; and in their hours of study, and in their literary productions, it induced them to give the glory of all their acquifitions and labours to God, rendering them regardless of pleafing the world on fuch matters as at all concerned religion. Thus it was that Mr. Jones, in many of his writings, and particularly in his New Preface to his Life of Bishop Horne, dwells con * M m 2 fiderabl fiderably on the fubject of the Hutchinfonian doctrine. Without at all canvaffing the merits of this doctrine, for which the writer of this, moft humbly and truly acknowledges his infufficiency. It gives him confiderable pain, as a conftant purchaser and reader of the British Critic, from its first commencement, to perceive the conduct of its editor, in reviewing the new Preface; one fhould have expected, that the fentiments of this venerable and learned man on any fubject, even on the fubject of the Hutchinfonian doctrine, which feems to have given fome minds fuch great offence, would have been treated with respect, heard with attention; and if not convincing, controverted with fair arguments and reafoning. Instead, however, of this being done, in the review of the new Preface, how great must be our furprise to fee it mentioned only to be fneered at. The able defence of the Hutchinfonian doctrine, contained in this new Preface, for the editor, even of the British Critic, dare not, cannot, call it otherwife; fhould have been fo reviewed, that the public might have feen what could be, and what had been faid, in its fupport. The editor of the British Critic, would then have been at full liberty to have controverted his reafoning, and by argument to have condemned (if he could) the Hutchinfonian doctrine. The editor, however, has treated this laft publication of Mr, Jones, in a manner that I cannot hesitate to call highly offenfive to his memory. What!!! Shall the fentiments of fuch a man, of fuch great excellence, of fuch high attainments, at fuch a time as the clofe of this awful, century, be treated thus? Shall the last bequest he ever made to the world, be difmiffed with a fneer of the most contemptible kind, by 'that Review, of which himself was the firft promoter. Mr. Jones, as a man, might have been wrong in his ideas on this fubject; it might have been expected, that the Monthly and Critical Reviewers, which never fpared the author while living, 'fhould thus have treated his memory when dead; but better things were furely to have been looked for from the Editor of the British Critic. It is the peculiar fituation, in which Mr. Jones ftood, both in relation to the British Critic, and to that cause which the British Critic was commenced to fupport, that it behoved its editor to have paid every refpect and honor to Mr. Jones's memory. The ability with which the British Critic has in general been conducted, and the high respectability of its editor, demand my acknowledgement. Its pages have frequently contributed to my amufement and instruction; but the heartfelt veneration, in which I hold the memory of the author of the Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity, has induced me, a very inexperienced writer, to take up my pen, and beg a place for the infertion of this letter in your Review. If I fhould be thought to have been too fevere, it is owing to my veneration for Mr. Jones's memory, and alfo to the confideration of the times in which we live. There There is a darkness gone abroad in the world, and a fearful infatuation has feized the minds of many. The dreadful effects of infidelity, owing to the malignity of fome, and the lukewarmnefs of others, have woefully spread and are spreading over the world. Learning, talents of every kind, rank, riches, and power, have fucceffively facrificed their choiceft gifts at the fhrine of the god of this world. There is pride of intellect, there is a want of mental difcipline, there is a restless spirit of oppofition, a want of controul, of humility, of virtue, of religion, in many of our learned men. This country, praised be God, has been ably ferved by great Statefmen; it has been defended, it has been preferved by the walour and unanimity of its navy and army, from the deftructive principles, the trifling manners, the cruelty and bloody revenge of that fcourge of man, the French tyranny. It may ftill be preferved; but, for Heaven's fake, let our learning, our virtue, our valour, our power, our wealth, our every thing, be united in the grand caufe for which we contend. If the conteft, in which we are engaged, were for the navigation of a fea or a river, for the poffeffion of an ifland, or for any fingle privilege, however valuable to us, there might be a question; but when the conteft is for every privilege we can poffefs as Britons, as men, and as Chriftians, that man's heart and head are little to be envied, who will not heartily enter into the contest, armed with every talent he has committed to him. Let us be Chriftians; let us be unanimous, and the powers of Hell will affail us in vain. We fhall triumph in oppofition to the withes and hoftile exertions of every enemy, and in the humility that becomes us, Lincoln's Inn, October 13, 1800, Your's, &c, JUVENIS. SIR, TO THE EDITOR. I NEVER in my life read a letter, that better deferved attention at this truly awful crifis, than the one figned by an "Honeft Briton" in your laft Appendix to, Vol. VI. of your valuable Review. To the writer of that letter I take leave, through the medium of your publication, to make this acknowledgement of my thankfulness, and to exprefs my wish that his letter may meet with the attention it fo highly merits; and I particularly recommend it to the perufal and ferious confideration of the editor of the blafphemous Chronicle, I call this paper blafphemous, Mr. Editor, because its conductor, not poffeffing talents or courage, fufficient to avow and fupport by argumentation his infidelity, takes every opportunity which paper affords him, in fhort paragraphs, to ridicule the Saviour of the world, and to afperfe with witticisms and jokes the great his plan |