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With the following observations we were much pleased, and could heartily wish that both parties would profit by the wholesome advice of the preacher. The Calvinist, we would willingly acknowledge, notwithstanding his difference in doctrine, to be a brother, till by his practice he proves himself to be an enemy.

"For notwithstanding all these points of difference, brethren they are even in doctrine. The gospel of Christ happily depends neither on the one nor the other; it stands aloof from all artificial systems independent and alone; for without entering upon these controverted points it is possible to preach the great doctrine of salvation through Jesus Christ, and by faith in his blood, to warn the sinner to flee from the wrath to come, and to build up God's people in their holy faith, without one word of election, or reprobation, or irresistible grace. And, let me add that, if such forbearance be possible it is also prudent, for, though we may our-, selves be able (though it be not very probable) to state these doc trines with all the clearness of Calvin, or to confute them with all the calmness and temper of Limborch, we shall assuredly be able to infuse a very small portion of those qualities into our hearers, whereas we shall indubitably raise in our congregations a spirit which it will be very difficult to exorcise, a spirit of strife and confusion, of unskilful disputation and pharisaical pride; in the rear of which we may perchance descry as ascending from the lowest, abyss of hell, the dæmon of assurance,' the fruits of which upon: earth are most surely to be found in the records of our courts of justice, in the cells of the condemned, and at our places of execntion. This dreadful persuasion has become but too frequent under such circumstances, though accompanied by total insensibility and hardness of heart. Even under the most promising appearance of faith and repentance in condemned persons a prudent guide, while he encourages hope, will always repress assurance. He who knew what was in man, and he alone had a right to assure the thief upon the cross, that this day shalt thou be with me in paradise." P. 13.

Upon the church of Rome, and the grand question of Catholic emancipation, the mild and moderate views of Dr. Whitaker coincide with our own.

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"To our brethren of the church of Rome, (for so we will continue to style them, though Jacob forget us and Israel acknowledge us not; we owe, and are disposed to acknowledge many obligations. To them we are indebted for the transmission of the holy Scriptures, and all that is precious or venerable in antiquity, through a long succession of dark and ignorant ages, for the foundation and endowment of our ecclesiastical establishments, for the basis of our own admirable liturgy, for these magnificent edifices in which with so much decent solemnity, we are enabled to assemble

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for public worship; and, above all, for having preserved the essential doctrines of christianity in their formularies, and confessions of faith. On these and other grounds of a more private nature, happy indeed should we have been to have given the right hand of fellowship to those with whom we enjoy so much in common. We would willingly forget the rancor of controversy, the fury of religious wars and the blood of martyrs itself, but in prudence we must remember the unchangeable spirit of that religion, and what is by necessary consequence due to our own preservation, with this limitation, however, we have shown that, where union is impossible, the offices of humanity may nevertheless be exercised; that the intercourse of polished society, and even the habitudes of private friendship may intercede between individuals whose religious principles place them at an immeasurable distance : yet it must not be dissembled that where one question is at issue, we have not the same hold even on the virtues of Catholics, as on those of other men, for where there exists an authority to convert the violation of humanity and good faith itself into an act of positive merit, we have not only to regret the influence of so dan gerous a principle, but are bound to act accordingly. The obligation of thus implicitly submitting the conscience, may indeed be disclaimed, but the severest ecclesiastical censures may be denounced against the disclaimer, while the trembling casuist vacillating between the honest dictates of his own heart, and the mandate of a superior, who holds in his hand the keys of heaven, has no alternative but to subdue every native and generous feeling, or to renounce a communion beyond the pale of which he is bound to believe that there is no salvation. Let not this last be considered as one of those illiberal and antiquated pretensions which without' any formal disavowal, are by the good sense and moderation of the present age silently passing towards oblivion, for in the very last instrument which issued from the papal chamber, an instrument which purported to breathe the spirit of concession aud conciliation, this most offensive doctrine, by which all the churches in the world, excepting that of Rome, are reduced to a state more hopeless than that of Paganism itself, inasmuch as ignorance is more pardonable than apostacy, has been as broadly and explicitly avowed as it could have been in a bull of Hildebrand.

"On the whole, the church of England, its ministers and its members in general, may, I trust, on the severest scrutiny of their consciences, acquit themselves of having done wrong to their Catholic brethren, except it be that by an unexampled facility of concession, they have contributed to diminish their repose by removing antiquated statutes never executed, the name and shadow of which, unaccompanied by the expectation of repeal, had once the effect of keeping the objects of them in a state of tranquillity and general contentment with their own condition. A wayward child is infinitely more happy under a temperate discipline of refusals and prohibitions, than when much has been conceded to its clamours,

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VOL. IV, OCTOBER, 1815.

clamours, and something must yet be withheld for the maintenance of domestic authority. I know not that it is conferring any essential favour upon any body of men to put them in a capacity of being turbulent and seditious.

"The last observation, however, must be understood to apply to that part of this great body, which, though united to us by political ties, is happily separated from us by a great physical barrier, and whose restless propensities are as much perhaps of a national as of a religious nature." P. 14.

We strongly recommend this sermon to the attention of all; particularly of the younger clergy, as presenting them with that temperate and charitable view of their theological opponents, which without abating one atom of that spirit which teaches them to stand firmly on their own high ground, would temper their activity and vigour in the holy cause with Christian forbearance and moderation.

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ART. VII. Fazio, a Tragedy. By H. H. Milman, B.A. Fellow of Brazen Nose College, Oxford. 10S PP Oxford, Parker; London, Murray. 1815.

TRAGEDIES, even of the commonest cast, are but rare articles in these degenerate days, and in spite of all the encouragement offered by the "Rejected Theatre," to the publication of unproductive nonsense, the votaries of Melpomene are but few. To any Tragedy therefore of respectable parentage, but especially to one whose author stands so deservedly high in the calendar of academical honours, our attention is forcibly attracted. Mr. Milman has already shewn himself to be no ordinary man. During his career at Oxford, the prizes for English and for Latin verse, were successively awarded to him, and a place in the first class of the literæ humaniores established his fame as a sound. scholar no less than a successful poet. To the first dramatic essai of a gentleman, who has thus recently so much distinguished himself, we look with no small degree of anxiety.

It may here perhaps be expected from us that we should lay down a few of those rules upon which our taste is formed and our judgement directed; but as we are now preparing to pass our judgment upon a celebrated foreign work, which will involve the consideration of all these controverted points, we shall not anticipate our remarks upon that occasion, but shall take the Tragedy of Mr. Milman upon its own grounds.

The plot is as follows. Fazio, a young Florentine, of noble, birth, was strongly enamoured of Aldabella, a lady of high rank;

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and beauty, who at first encouraged his addresses, and after having raised him to the highest pinnacle of expectation, suddenly rejected him with scorn. Fazio however takes refuge from his deluded hopes in the arms of Bianca; and has been married to her two years when the play opens. In the first scene Bianca gently reproaches Fazio with his love for alchemy, the study of which withdraws too much of his attention from herself; her jealousy next attacks his former love, the haughty Aldabella, to whom Fazio, by his warm defence of her virtues, appears still to preserve a lingering attachment. As he ponders over the wealth which he might derive from his discovery of the transmuting powers of alchemy, a groan is heard, and on the door being opened, Bartolo, an old usurer, whose character had beer before discussed, enters wounded by the daggers of some assassins, who had attacked him in the hopes of plunder. In this however they are disappointed, but as the old miser glories in the escape of his ducats, he dies of the wound which their vengeance had inflicted. A sudden thought strikes Fazio that he might turn this accident to his own advantage; he privately buries the body of the usurer in the garden, and going instantly to his house, plunders it of gold sufficient to raise him to the first rank in Florence. In the second act, Fazio appears in his new palace, with a circle of courtiers and flatterers around him. In the next scene, Aldabella, hearing of his sudden elevation, draws him again within the lure of her charms. His virtuous resolutions fail him, and at the close of the second act we find him, like Barnwell, partaking of a banquet in the house of Aldabella. In the third act, Bianca is discovered in much agitation on account of the absence of Fazio; she hears that he is in the house of Aldabella, and in the moment of vengeance hastens to the court of inquest, which is then sitting upon the sudden disappearance of old Bartolo, and informs them where the dead body is to be found. It is discovered in the garden of Fazio with the marks of violence upon it, Fazio is therefore supposed to be the murderer, and in spite of all the protestations of Bianca, who was desirous only thus to detach him from Aldabella, not to betray him to punishment, he is condemned to die; and with this sentence the act concludes. In the fourth act, Bianca exerts all her eloquence with the former friends of Fazio to intercede in his behalf, but in vain. She then implores the powerful interference of Aldabella, who receives her with coldness and scorn. In the fifth act is the parting scene between Fazio and Bianca: she, after his execution, bursts into the apartment of Aldabella, who had entertained on that night the Duke and all the courtiers of Florence. The innocence of her husband is discovered, Aldabella is sent into banishment, and the play concludes with the death of Bianca.

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Such is the plot of the Tragedy before us. It is the aim of Mr. Milman, as he informs us in his preface, to "revive our old national drama with greater simplicity of plot," and in this aim we think that he has succeeded. We must express our wish however, that the developement of the plot had been more artificial, which would have been perfectly consistent with the utmost simplicity. The plot of the Edipus Tyrannus is simple enough, but the developement is so artificial, as to keep the spectator in the deepest suspence even to the end. Were the Tragedy before us to be represented, (as we should hope that it would with a few alterations) the interest, even in the minds of a more enlightened audience than our theatres can generally boast, would cease at the end of the third act. We should therefore advise the first act to be lengthened into two; and the death of Bartolo not to take place till toward the end of the second. The character is so well drawn that we do not wish to lose him so early. There is perhaps too little artifice in the seduction of Fazio by Aldabella, or in the sudden jealousy of Bianca. Both of these are capable of being much more artificially heightened by circumstances and situations, which would create in the minds of the audience a more powerful interest. The fourth and fifth acts might be easily compressed into one, as in their present state they would drag considerably in their representation. The supposed guilt of Fazio, and his real innocence, should both be confirmed by stronger testimony than that of Bianca.. With these or similar alterations, we are of opinion that the plot of Fazio is fully calculated to produce its desired effect.

The characters next claim our attention. The wanton, the proud, the cold, the inexorable Aldabella, the Milwood of a higher circle, stands foremost in the groupe, and is not less happily conceived than pourtrayed. The glimpse which we catch of Bartolo in a single scene, inclines us to wish that Mr. Milman had assigned to him a longer existence. The keen and jealous affection of Bianca is well managed, and kept up with spirit to the end. The hero, Fazio, is, perhaps, the most defective character in the piece; as we cannot sufficiently account for those violent changes which affect his conduct; his robbing of the dead Bartolo, and his reconciliation with Aldabella, are both too suddenly accomplished, especially as Mr. Milman has thrown a certain sternness of sentiment into the character which would appear to resist such rapid transitions. We should trace these changes to some more satisfactory cause. Of the flatterers, and especially of Dondolo, the dandy, we presume, of Florence, we hardly know how to speak; lighter characters are wanted to relieve the sombre cast of tragedy; and with a little alteration these might answer the purpose.

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