defence upon the ground of moral and physical considerations. The work does not contain a single interesting anecdote or trait of character; it consists merely of a succession of vulgar excesses vulgarly narrated, and might just as well have been an account of the private hours of the Editor himself, as of Bonaparte. But the strongest terms of reprobation are due to the deliberate wickedness of an author, whose apparent object in the polluting details of his narrative, is to do as much mischief as comes within the slender compass of his ability.

We cannot forbear severely to reprehend the translator, and all who have been concerned in ushering into public notice this silly and impure performance.

Art XIV. The Spirit of Prayer; or a Discourse on the Nature of Prayer, &c. With directions for attaining the Gift of Prayer. By Nathaniel Vincent, M.A a Non-Conformist Minister. A new Edition, carefu ly Revised and Corrected. To which a Memoir of the Author is prefixed By J. H. Hopkins. 18mo. pp. xviii, 168. Price 2s Conder.

EVERY

VERY judicious effort to preserve the remains of the Nonconformist ministers from oblivion, is highly deserving of commendation They were men, not only pre-eminent as judicious divines, but for the most part of highly respectable and very sold attainments in learning, and many of them were distinguished as scholars and as pulpit orators. The name of Nathaniel Vincent is by no means one of the least venerable. Wood, in his Athena Oxononienses, mentions him as a considerable scholar.

This little work, which on its first publication went through at least five editions,' had become exceedingly scarce, and almost unknown. Its intrinsic excellence, as a plain and useful treatise on the subject of Prayer, rendered its publication very desirable, and the public are indebted to Mr. Hopkins for the cheap form in which he has printed this edition, in the hope of its obtaining a wide circulation.

Art. XV. Considerations sur Genève, dans ses Rapports avec l'Angleterre et les Etats Protestants, Suivies d'un Disaurs prononcé à Genève sur la Philosophie de l'Histoire. Par J. C. L. Sismonde de Sismondi. 8vo. pp. 47. Murray. 1814.

THESE two short pieces bear the characteristics that distin

guish the larger works of the Author, which have made him so advantageously known, on the Continent and in this country. They display liberality and comprehension of views, powers of language, and a certain warmth and benevolence of feeling,

which we do not very often recognise in the rhetoric and sentimentalism in which the French language is accustomed to shew itself so fine.

The first of these pieces purports to have been published in England, in the first instance. It is a most animated appeal to the philanthropy, the public spirit, the justice, and the selfinterest of the English nation, made in behalf of the Author's city, Geneva, in that memorable and portentous interval, (now carried by the succession of events so far away into history,) when assembled monarchs, and representatives of monarchs, were deliberating, doubtless with the equity and wisdom befitting such personages, on the number and the shape, the preservation or extinction, of the minor states of Europe. As this patriotic writer somewhat naturally imagined that a nation which was paying away, from its diminished and distressed resources, immense sums for the accommodation of the Royal and Imperial deliberators in that august council, might have some considerable weight in their discussions, he thought an earnest representation to this country might greatly avail towards securing the rights and independence of his little republic. The whole pleading of this enlightened and zealous advocate proceeds upon a claim of complete independence. He does not divert to any consideration of what might be the best political adjustment for Geneva next to this entire independence; which is indeed plainly essential to the main part of the valuable objects so strongly presented in this appeal to the moral sense of the English nation. We cannot judge how far the disappointment and regret with which he would receive the decree that merged a state which had stood distinct and illustrious for centuries, may have been alleviated by a reflection on the eminent respectability of that confederation, to which it has become an accession, under the denomination of the Canton of Geneva. We should like very much to see how far, and in what manner, he could rationally console himself and his compatriots, by an estimate and balance, such as his comprehensive judgement could furnish, of the loss and gain relatively to the grand public interests concerned, which may be anticipated from the change. The junction to so venerable and virtuous a league, may afford something in partial compensation; but it is too obvious that one great and inestimable good is lost;-the surrounding countries can no longer have the benefit of an unchecked, unawed freedom in the publication of opinions in this speculative and enlightened eity. Will it, for instance, be permitted, by the Helvetic laws and magistrates, to expose without scruple or reserve the errors and mischiefs of that popery which continues the cherished faith of a considerable proportion of the confederation?

Though this spirited composition is, with respect to its specific object, completely out of date, it nevertheless retains considerable interest, as forming a brief exhibition of the intellectual state of the continental nations, and of thetendency, with respect to civil and religious liberty, of what may be called their intellectual institutions. And the interest of the piece is augmented by its being accompanied by a very captivating representation of what a small independent, illuminated, Protestant state, in the situation of Geneva, among those nations, might contribute towards liberalising their understandings and their systems,-towards promoting that religious toleration, and that general improvement in the economy of government, which our Author is polite enough to assume, that it is the wish of this nation to promote among its neighbours. Perhaps he is much more within reach of vidence in affirming that at least it is the interest of England that these object should be promoted on the continent. No one can doubt that he is right, too, in asserting that, previously to the last dreadful quarter of a century, the enviable accumulation of free and cultivated mind, incessantly at work in Geneva, did actually extend a considerable influence through the surrounding countries.

He pleads zealously against an indifference or contempt of his favourite State on account of its littleness, asserting that more wisdom may be derived from its history than from that of some great empires. He considers the city as morally belonging, by peculiar congeniality of character, to this country, as something like an advanced post of our beneficial agency, as an extra school (école succursale) for teaching our religious, moral, and political principles, for extending an English education to the human race. And he very pungently remarks, that the costly experience of the last twenty-five years, may have sufficed to shew us, by the unprincipled conduct towards us of the continental powers, that if we are henceforward to maintain any connexion with them, it is for our own sakes extremely desirable that every possible chance should be given them of learning a little more of that rectitude of principle which would create public faith.

The importance of this city, as a point whence religious and political truth may be diffused, is the more insisted on from the consideration, that the places which render any such service to the people of the continent are few. The Protestant universities of Germany, he confesses, prosecute their studies to a greater depth in metaphysics, history, and classical literature, and inspire a very philosophic liberality of opinion. But these attainments and speculations, he says, conduce but

little to any practical and public advantage; they have but aslight influence on the national character, and none at all on the conduct of the governments. Besides, there is a certain nationality in their modes of thinking and instruction, strongly and jealously repellent of all intervention of English influence.

With respect to France, under whatever change of institu tions may there have been effected, he entertains but a slender hope of the abolition of that slavish economy, by which both the mode, and the substance of instruction throughout the country have always hitherto been conformed to the system established at Paris, and the system at Paris adjusted obsequiously to the will of the government. He is apprehensive that even the Protestant academical institutions, which he assumes, (in 1814), as a matter of course, that the monarchy under the new constitution will legitimate and protect, will, in this very sanction and establishment under a Popish government, be subjected to an influence, which will leave them, in reality, much less independent in their spirit and opinions, than the Protestant ministers of former times, who had their education, and adopted their religion, in free countries, Holland, Switzerland, and above all Geneva; and who are here very highly applauded for the bold freedom of thinking, both in religion and politics, which they failed not to maintain even in France, where, he says, they gave to the denominations Christian and Citizen, the same meaning which they bear among the English. He fairly avows, that in consequence of a bold exercise of reason, those ministers were, and the theologians still bearing the denominations de rived from Luther, and, Calvin, are, emancipated from the creeds of those great reformers. And, one thing he is afraid ofe in France is, that as the government, in acknowledging and sanctioning Protestant institutions, will doubtless require their pledged adherence to a defined mode of faith, as, re latively to them, the rule of orthodoxy, it may prescribe the original creeds of the reformers, as less alien from Popery, than the free-thinking theology of their modern followers.

The state of France appearing so little favourable to the advancement of religious knowledge and liberality by means of any internal agency,.

It is important,' says M. Sismondi, to the Protestant interest of Europe, it is important to England, that there be at the centre of the continent a free and independent city, speaking the French language, a city excelling in knowledge, and possessing à diatinguished reputation for literature and religion, where the pure doctrine of the reformation, may be freely taught, freely discussed, freely modified in conformity to the advancing state of the information and philosophy which distinguish the countries where the English and German languages are spoken, and which, without the Vol. V. N.S.

intervention of Geneva, might remain nearly unknown in the countries using the French language. It is by means of Geneva that amicable relations might be maintained between countries where the Protestant Church has the predominance, and those where liberty is but ill secured, and where the Protestant Church, forming a feeble minority of the people, may be unsettled, corrupted, or humiliated. It is at Geneva that there may be written and printed in French, books adapted to keep in action the noble spirit of Protestantism; it is from Geneva that preachers may go forth who shall unite the the French cloquence to the graver authority of reason and philosophy.'

He remarks that Geneva has justly been called the Capital of Protestantism; and he makes an animated representation of its pre-eminence, in former times, as a source of Protestant illumination, and an asylum from Popish persecution. And then he again insists, in the most earnest manner, on the vital importance of the independence of Geneva, to the interests and the possibilities of Protestantism in the south of Europe. To Italy there is, he says, no other conceivable channel for the transmission of religious light; and he gives us the interesting information that,

During our own days the active commerce of the Genevese has formed "Protestant colonies" in all the industrious cities of Italy, and in them all these settlers have sought to introduce their worship, Some ministers from Geneva caused joy in these little congregations, when, in their travels, they proposed to celebrate Divine service in the bosom of their pious families. At Leghorn, the Genevese united themselves to an English religious society; and in the period during which all English people were kept away by the hatred of the French government, the English preacher has continued to receive his salary from the Genevese residents alone. Among those Bettled at Genoa and at Naples, a subscription was opened to fix in those places ministers from Geneva. At Naples, the design was on the point of being effected, when war commenced and set every thing aside. There was even a project for the formation of a Protestant church at Corfu, with a Genevese minister.’

This is followed by what would be a delightful fancy, if its realization did not depend on a fatal condition.

If the governments of the south do not forget that they owe their re-establishment to England, if they do not make a duty of intolerance, the day will come, perhaps, when a chain of Protestant churches will extend through all the cities of Italy quite to Greece; and the ministers of these churches will necessarily be drawn from Geneva.

The Author concludes with a strong observation on the essential importance to Geneva and to Switzerland, that their independence and their limits should be so decidedly established, as to include within their neutrality, in case of war between