go the relief of his necessities. To this order from the highest power, to the denunciations of the pretended Holy Father, the clergy of Spain will be bound to submit; for, armed now with the authority of the republic, the king can means to bring into due order any of the use compulsory refractory members. How far this will down with the clergy of Spain time will shew. It may occasion temporary discontent, but the dissatisfaction of inferior members can be of no avail against the orders emanating from the republic, and execnted by the civil anthority. Thus under the name of Christ, who has expressly said, that his kingdom is not of this world, one of the most artful schemes of worldly policy has been established. It has lasted for a great length of years, and is so deeply rooted in the interest of kings and a portion of the people, that it will require many years for its overthrow. Still its ruin is impending, and when the mighty colossus is destroyed, future ages will read with wonder and astonishment to what a degree the minds of their ancestors had been debased, and under what thraldom they had been held, by following the traditions of men, instead of the commands of their Saviour; what a heavy yoke they had thus imposed upon their own necks, instead of listening to him, whose yoke is "easy and whose burthen is light"!!! How far the Protestant world has been guilty in aiding or abetting the advance ment of this republic from its fallen state is a very serious question. The subject is very well discussed by Mr. Bicheno, in his late treatise on the Fulfilment of Prophecy, and to his fourth chapter the reader is referred for ample matter for devout contemplation. Reports are current that the King of Spain, not content with the aid that he has received from the republic, has solicited and obtained assurances of succour from another quarter. This is from the most powerful monarch in the Greek church. Russia is said to have been called upon to lend its troops for bringing into subjection the refractory colonies in America. We hope, and trust, that the report is false; for independent of the sorrow that every man must feel at the restoration of the cruel tyranny of Spain in America, and the withholding from so large a tract of the world the benefits of intercourse with all but its unnatural mother, it is evident that such assistance will not be afforded by Russia, but on the promise of some equivalent for its services. Even this equivalent has been stated, namely, the island of Majorca, in the Mediterranean, and a vast tract of land in California. On the one hand the English, on the other the United States, must look with a jealous eye, and at any rate, before the desired object is obtained--the 509 reduction of the refractory colonies, the probability is, that other powers will interfere, and thus the coals of war may again be rekindled in Europe. When we consider, however, the immense tract of counpense of conveying troops, the temptations try to be subjected, the difficulty and excolours, this undertaking seems as little that may be offered to them to desert their likely to be attended with success as that once made by this country to subjugate its brethren in the United States. Russia is endeavouring to raise a loan, advanced in the proposal. The terms of it but not a word on the Spanish scheme is have been published in London, and it is not unlikely that it may meet with lenders however, before they part with their money, in this country. They should consider, ject which cannot, if attained, but be diswhether it may not be employed in an obadvantageous to this country. For, if it succeeds, the English will be cut off from will obtain settlements which may produce an advantageous trade, and besides, Russia effects highly injurious to the children of expected to have much weight with those the lenders. Such reflections cannot be who look to the greatness of the interest but there are objects enongh in this counrather than the security of the principal; try to employ their capital, and few are mately to a better account than a foreign the speculations which will not turn ultiloan. The persons who profit, are those who make the first advances, and they take day of non-payment can arrive. care to secure themselves long before the The German Diet is slow in its resolves, and from the little that can be gathered of its movements very little advantage will be There is, however, in that large country a derived to the people from this assembly. the power of the princes is kept a great great degree of liberty of the press, and deal in check by the superior information In some of the states advances are made that is, through its means, daily circulated. sion on the others. The kingdom of Wurwhich cannot fail of producing an imprestemburg is likely to improve its constitution by representation; that of Prussia hangs on a doubtful balance. But in one that is in invectives against our country thing they all seem inclined to concur, and for its supposed monopoly of commerce. We are represented as turning every thing our distresses, occasioned by the war, have to our own advantage; whereas, in fact, forced us to sell at lower prices than usual, imitate our industry: Be this as it may, and it is their own fault if they do not the political speculations of our neighbours are by no means favourable to the high opinion which we hold of ourselves, and the truth will, without great difficulty, be discovered by any one who will give himself the trouble of weighing the arguments of both parties. The insurgents in Spanish America are increasing daily in strength, but every account is filled with horrors produced by the implacable cruelty of the Spaniards. This of course produces irritation on the other side, and the conflict promises to be still of long duration. Should the Russians enter the field, the period of misery will be prolonged; but the extent of territory to be subjugated is so great, that little apprehension need be entertained of the final result. The government of the Brazils has completely subdued its adversaries, and the king will probably soon be induced to revisit his European dominions. Our ambassador to China is returned from his unsuccessful expedition, and we may expect from the pen of some well-informed men in his train, some details not only of the embassy, but of the state of that interesting country. The progress of Christianity in it is an important subject, and that it is making some way we cannot doubt, as the ruling power employs severe measures against it. The policy of preventing the entrance of foreigners into that kingdom may well be justified by a view of what Europeans have done in the neighbouring states. At home the usual quiet prevails during the summer months. The parliament having rested from its labours, and politicians being engaged in rural occupations, there is time, as Burke very properly suggested, for reflection on the measures of the winter. Plots are no more heard of. The spies seem to have done their business, and to have also their summer vacation. Of the prisoners immured nothing is heard, and they will, probably, be dismissed silently to their homes. A plentiful harvest is likely to remove our fears of farther distress from any thing but want of work in the manufacturing counties: but the hand of benevolence, which was so generally extended in the last winter, will not be shut, if farther calls should be made upon it. In this time of general repose a great political question has been agitated in the metropolis, and notwithstanding the Suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, two larger meetings have been holden, and as strong language has been used as in the time of perfect freedom. This question was brought forward by a name, which will stand recorded in the annals of benevolence as high as Howard's. The object of the latter was to meliorate the condition of the prisoner:-to give to the lower classes the advantages of education, and of all the improvements made in society, and with them good food, proper clothing and wholesome habitations, is in the plan proposed by the former. Of the benevolent views of Mr. Owen not a doubt can be entertained, but in the practicability of his plan and the ultimate benefit to be derived by society, the meetings called by him did not concur. His scheme, therefore, has apparently fallen to the ground, but there will be great want of wisdom in its opponents if they do not avail themselves of the many useful suggestions which, in the course of the discussion, have arisen both from the proposer and the opposers of the plan. Mr. Owen proposes, that a certain quantity of land should be procured and laid out for cultivation by a certain number of poor families, who will, by their combined labour and union, be enabled to obtain all the comforts of life in a much greater degree than they do at present. Their children are to be educated in a manner suited to reasonable beings, and freed from the sectarian prejudices which now so much embitter life. They are to be taught that their greatest happiness, as indeed their real happiness is, and what is expressly taught by our holy religion, is to promote, as much as in them lies, their neighbours' welfare. Buildings are to be constructed suitable to the plan. In these a great saving is made by the food being prepared for a great number, and all coming from their own land. The married people will have cottages with a garden, and according to the description every thing is to bear an air of comfort procured by easy labour. The objections to the plan were, first, That they would produce such an excess of population that the country could not support it. This was founded upon a fanciful argument, on the proportion between population and the supplies of food, the former increasing in an arithmetical, the latter in a geometrical progression ; the consequence of which would be, that if one district only was formed, and others gra dually supplied from it, and the first population consisted of a thousand persons, the whole island would be peopled with paupers at a certain time. Thus if the first hive doubled itself in thirty years, and so of the rest, in less than a thousand years the population would exceed eight thousand millions; if it doubled itself iu fifty years, in five hundred years' time the produce of the first hive would be upwards of a million, and consequently less than a score of these institutions would at that time far exceed the present population of the united country. A second argument was, that persons thus collected together would lose all the energies of life, and the comforts arising from home and the domestic relations, would be lost. Besides, what rights were these people to be possessed of? Under whose controul were they to live? How far would their state be different from that of the Serfs? To these difficulties it did not appear that a sufficient answer was given, for the plan was ultimately rejected by the meeting, at which the questions of the distresses of the country were freely discussed, and that of the necessity of Parliamentary Reform was received with almost universal approbation. Attempts were made to bar all politics, but this was found impossible; and the terror of the Suspension of the Habeas Corpus had no effect on the freedom of sentiment. But if Mr. Owen's plan may not be adapted to the extent, or in the exact way which he has proposed, still it may be con sidered whether it is judicious to persist in the present course of cooping up, as in London, a vast number of the poor in houses, where they are kept in complete idleness, and without due regard to the education of children or the comforts of age. Instead of an over-swarming hive surely they might be placed in establishments of the nature of those proposed by Mr. Owen, where their labour would contribute something at least towards their maintenance, and at any rate would keep them out of ill habits. The young, as they grew up, would be sent into the world with habits of industry, and the aged would resign their breath in a clear air and with all the attention that is due to the decline of life. NEW PUBLICATIONS IN THEOLOGY Sermons. Sermons, chiefly on Practical Subjects. By E. Cogan. 2 vols. 8vo. 17. 4s. An Inquiry into the Nature of the Sin of Blasphemy, and into the Propriety of regarding it as a Civil Offence: in Three Sermons, delivered before the Unitarian Church at Hackney, on the Sunday Mornings of July 13, 20, and 27, 1817; with Notes, and an Appendix on the Present State of the Law with respect to Unitarians. By Robert Aspland. 8vo. 3s. The Spread of Unitarianism a Blessing to Society a Sermon, preached at the Unitarian Chapel, Parliament Court, Artillery Lane, Bishopsgate, at the Aunual Meeting of the Unitarian Fund, on Wednesday, May 28, 1817. By W. J. Fox. 12mo. Religious Liberty. A Sermon, preached at the Octagon Chapel, Norwich, on Sunday, April 20, 1817. By Thomas Madge. 8vo. Isaiah's Prophetic Titles of the Messiah shewn to be strictly applicable to Jesus Christ, and perfectly consistent with the absolute Unity and unrivalled Supremacy of Jehovah; in a Discourse on Isaiah ix. 6. Delivered in Bristol, on Christmas Day, 1816, and in Exeter on the preceding Lord's Day. 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Mr. Aspland has received the following Subscriptions, viz. For the Unitarian Fund, from a Lady, by Dr. Smith, of Yeovil 5 0 0 40 0 0 He lately received from a Lady [A. N.] and her children and friends, for Mr. sums of 201. each (Besides other small subscriptions, all which have been given to Mr. Herbert.) The Review and many articles of Miscellaneous Communications, as also some of Biblical Criticism and Obituary, are necessarily postponed: in the mass of Unitarian Intelligence the reader will see the cause. We have the painful task of announcing the death of Dr. John Prior Estlin, late joint pastor with the Rev. J. Rowe, of the Unitarian congregation at Lewin's Mead, Bristol. We hope to be able to give further particulars of this estimable man in our next number. ERRATA in the last Number, under the head of Report of Proceedings in Chancery in the Wolverhampton Case: P. 430, col. 2, lines 3 and 5, for "law" read land. line 30, for "that" read as. P. 435, col. 2, line 2, for " Decosta and Depass" read De Costa and De Pas. line 9 from the bottom, for "notice of quitting" read notice to quit. P. 441, col. 1, line 24, for "levy of seizin" read livery of seizin. The passage, p. 433, col. 1, line 10, from "he contended also" to "had been repealed," line 14 was inserted by mistake of the Reporter, (Sir S. Romilly not having touched ou that head of the case in his opening Speech) and should be erased. E. T. Memoir of John Bernard Basedow. [We insert the following interesting article of biography, in answer to the inquiry of a Correspondent, from the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. II. Pt. I. pp. 147-149. ED.] Jo JOHN BERNARD BASEDOW, a celebrated German writer, born at Hamburgh, September 11, 1723, was the son of a hair-dresser. I treatment made him abandon his father's house. A physician, in a neigh bouring village, took him into his service, and shortly after persuaded him to return home to his father. Being placed in one of the lower classes of the college of St. John, the severity of his masters rendered him harsh and violent himself. Forced to submit to a slow and rigorous method of study, he contracted a dislike to patience and regularity, which exercised a marked influence over the whole course of his life. Poor, but intelligent, he often performed their tasks for his school-fellows, who could afford to pay for it; and they, in return, invited him to their parties of pleasure, which contributed to those habits of irregularity by which his health and reputation often suffered. In 1744, Basedow went to Leipsic to study theology. He gave himself up entirely to the instructions of the professor, Crusius, and the study of phi losophy. This, at first, made him sceptical in theology; a more profound examination of the sacred writings, and of all that relates to them, brought him back to the Christian faith; but, in his retirement, he formed his belief after his own ideas, and it was far from orthodox. Having returned to Hamburgh, he lived there without any employment till 1749, when M. de Quaalen, privy-counsellor [Vol. XII. of Holstein, appointed him preceptor to his son. Basedow now began to apply himself to the subject of education. At first, he would not teach his pupil Latin otherwise than by talking with him in Latin; and he wrote a dissertation on this subject, published at Kiel in 1751, In usituta et optima honestioris Juventutis erudienda Methodus. In 1753, he was chosen professor of moral philosophy and belleslettres in the academy of Soroë, in Denmark. Here he published, in 1758, his Practical Philosophy for all Conditions, in two volumes (Copenhagen aud Leipsic, second edition, in 1777), which contained many good observations on education in general, and on that of girls in particular; but he advanced in it opinions by no means consistent with Lutheran orthodoxy ; so that the Count Danneskiold, superintendant of the academy, took his place from him, and removed him to the school of exercises at Altona. Basedow still continued to devote himself to theological studies. In 1764, he published his Philalethes, or New Considerations on the Truths of Religion and Reason, within the Limits of Revelation, two volumes in 8vo. The magistrates of Altona forbade the reading of this work. He was not allowed any longer permission to print his writings at Hamburgh or Lubeck; the communion was prohibited to him and all his family; and the common people were on the point of stoning him. Basedow, however, who was convinced of the truth of his opinions, displayed prodigious activity in de fending them. He wrote his Methodical Instruction in Religion, and the Morality of Reason, Altona, 1764; his Theoretical System of sound Reason, 1765; his Essay on Free Dogmatism, Berlin, 1766; his Extracts from the |