publish advertisements in newspapers, to "make "a liar of Mr. Bere" (her own words) and to ca lumniate every man who countenanced or befriended the Curate, when it was in equilibrio whether he should literally go a begging, or come on his parish. All this will be proved whenever Mrs. More dares publicly to call for it, and perhaps without any solicitation on her part.

ACURE FOR MELANCHOLY, a story in which employment, something to do, is recommended as the best prescription for preserving health of body and mind, and various means of doing good are pointed out. Alas! Alas! the ghost of "secret "accusations against one clergyman,” and “ mali"cious lies" invented and propagated against another, as I am most credibly informed, which help, with some charitable deeds and religious writings to fill up her time, will as long as she lives haunt her mind, and furnish me with an eternal sarcasm whenever her name is mentioned. All would be well done, if she had not been afflicted with an incurable maliciousness against all who happen to cross her paths, and sometimes, unaccountably, against some who have had no opportunity or inclination of giving her any sort of offence.

Under this head working schools are recommended, and plans sketched out, as conducted by Mrs. Jones, an imaginary character. These I think must be useful, if well governed.

SUNDAY SCHOOLS have existed now near 20 years, and were first introduced by Mr. Raikes,

of Glocester. Pious persons, or persons professing to be pious, in different parts of the country, not only encouraged these institutions in their own parishes and neighbourhood, but in some instances took upon themselves the charge of disseminating the knowledge of them, and establishing them in distant parishes, using every means possible to plant schools in all populous neighbourhoods. Of this description is Mrs. H. More, who has laboured with great assiduity to extend Sunday schools far and wide. Here I will attend only to her own account of the institution and government of these schools under this title, deferring my opinion of their utility until I come to notice them under the article of the Blagdon controversy.

Mrs. More then says

"She would not discourage them, even from views of mere worldly policy; that it is something gained to res66 cue children from idling away their Sabbath in the fields "or streets; it is no small thing to keep them from those "tricks to which a day of leisure tempts the idle and the

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ignorant; it is something for them to be taught to read, "to read the bible, and to be carried regularly to church. "But all this is not enough. To bring them to answer "their highest end can only be effected by God's blessing "on the best directed means, the choice of able teachers, "and a diligent attention in some pious gentry to visit and "inspect the schools."

To all this I cordially agree, if education cannot be had otherwise, which if they do not, must be the people's own fault, or that of their rulers; for in that part of his Majesty's dominions where

my estate lies, we have parochial schools, to which the poor are easily admitted, established by the legislature. The requisites, we are told, for a well qualified master or mistress, are good sense, activity, and piety. All this is very well so far.The cheap repository is mentioned, as sending forth a great variety of little tracts suited to the young, and to counteract the influx of jacobinical and atheistical pamphlets. I declare, I never met with such.books in this country!

The incident of a group (p. 384) of young females listening to a blind fidler, is here said to have suggested the idea of instructing adults also at the Sunday schools, in the evenings, after the business of the dairy and serving the cattle is over, where the scriptures are to be explained, and even the parents to be admitted, that they may, learn how to instruct and expound to their own families.

The PILGRIMS, is an attempt at an allegorical description of human life; but it is very inferior to that of John Bunyan. It is, for it could not be otherwise, a pious performance, and may be useful; neither is it my inclination or wish, to refuse my full approbation to whatever has a tendency to improve morals, to afford instruction, or to edify in religious principles. Here no peculiar eccentricities

appear.

The VALLEY OF TEARS, is another allegory on human life, founded on a paper in Addison's Spectator, in the execution of which, if there be not much to commend, as its object is religious, I find little to censure.

The NEGRO SLAVE TRADE is here introduced; and great praise is bestowed on the minority on that question in the House of Commons, and their determined perseverance, in renewing their applications and exertions for attaining their end. No mention, however, is made of white, olive, or copper-coloured slaves; nor any approbation expressed of that French Convention, which, as by one acclamation, decreed the whole race free. Notwithstanding all the horrors which accompanied a period of the revolution, philanthropy almost tempts me to say, I hope not indiscreetly, now we have a peace, that one godlike act in the eye of justice, remunerates, and will remunerate them for their losses and sufferings, and that the conduct of that assembly of atheists, as Hannah and many others in this country, called them, does, in that respect, disgrace that of our British christian senate. Upon these, and such questions, Wm. Pitt knew that it was safe to vote for their emancipation, because the dealers in black men were powerful in the house, and that he should see himself agreeably left in a minority, and by that manœuvre preserve his popularity, and, on that subject, the good opinion of both parties.

I heartily agree with Mrs. More, when she says, vol. 4, p. 433, that

"It was a melancholy sight to see multitudes of travel"lers (the journey of life) heedlessly pacing on, boasting

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they had light enough of their own, and despising the "offer of more. But what astonished me most of all was, "to see many, and some of them too accounted men of "first rate wit, actually busy in blowing out their own

"light (conscience) because while any spark of it remained, "it only served to torment them, and point out things which they did not wish to see. And having once blown out "their own light, they were not easy till they had blown " out that of their neighbours also; so that a good part of "the wilderness seemed to exhibit a sort of universal blind"man's buff, each endeavouring to catch his neighbour, "while his own voluntary blindness exposed him to be "caught himself; so that each was actually falling into "the snare he was laying for another, till at length, as "selfishness is the natural consequence of blindness, catch "he that catch can,' became the general motto of the "wilderness."

The lady clearly illustrates this phenomenon in the human character, by her own conduct in proselytism, and as a person of some "wit," " actually "busied" in blowing out her own light, that she may not see by its internal reflection the heinousness of her "evil deeds," viz. accusing the brethren in private letters, secret accusations, defamation, evil and scandalous reports. She is now literally playing" blind-man's buff," to save some remains of her holiness, and privately hires men of servile minds publicly to vouch for her, she herself lurking behind the scene; so that she has fallen into the snare she was laying for others, by her "catch "he that catch can." And as Sir A. expressed it,

reports are abroad" that her mind now torments her, her conscience being roused, and that she has been seen, like a tragedy queen (acting perhaps one of the female characters in her own plays) tearing her shawl in a paroxysm of rage, and trampling it under her foot. Be that as it may, pray her conscience may turn her the right

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