trifling magnitude to familiarize our fons and daughters to that fplendor of drefs and decoration, to those hyperboles of fentiment and language, to that extravagance of paffion and of action with which our dramatic compofitions abound, or which the due exhibition of them indifpenfibly requires. It is to familiarize them to every thing which can inflame the imagination when it is already too ardent, and impair the judgment already too weak to guide their conduct. It is to do all the mifchief of fashionable novel reading, and to do it with greater rapidity and more certain effect. Nor does the mischief terminate here; if indeed that can be faid to have any termination, of which the extent is indefinite and unknown; and which probably affects their opinions and manners through every future period of their lives. All the pride, pomp, and circumftance of the exhibition to delight their imaginations and exhilarate their fpirits, the plaudits which they cheaply obtain from the partiality of their friends, and mistake for the aplaufe and the proof of their perfonal merit, so fascinate their minds and inflame their ambition, that they cannot refift the defire to render them general and perpetual. The little bero of the school afpires to become the hero of a larger theatre, and a more numerous audience. He is eager to strut and fret his hour upon the ftage, though he fhould verify the reft of the fentence, and then be heard no more. I have myself witnessed several instances of a speedy tranfition from the temporary ftage of an academy to the boards of the Haymarket or Drury-lane. But I have unhappily witnessed more where the want of talents has driven the mistaken votary of the bufkin from the fplendid establishments of the metropolis to the pursuit of humbler praise or profit in a provincial theatre; and the unfortunate youth who, had there been no plays at his fchool, might have rifen to opulence and refpectability by the laudable induftry of trade, is reduced to wear out life in one of its meaneft occupations, that of a ftrolling player. In this and in every other part of the present difquifition the author begs to be understood as neither applauding nor condemning upon his own judgment the profeffion of an actor; as entering into no ftatement of its general merits or difadvantages, into no comparison between its refpectability and that of other occupations: but as receiving it according to the estimation in which it appears to be ufually held, according to the rank in which public opinion feems to have placed it, as one of the laft purfuits, of all that are confiftent with religion and virtue, in which a gentleman would with his fons or daughters to engage."

We have on a former occafion expreffed our cenfure of the plays at Westminster school, and we are concerned to find Dr. Barrow inclined to make an exception in favour of this annual practice; and though we are not convinced by his reafoning, we must allow him the praise due to an able advocate. Indeed Weftminster has in this inftance obtained as zealous and as fkilful a defence as he could reafonably have expected, even from the moft dutiful of her own fons.

The chapter on the English univerfities is a very masterly, impreffive, and fuccefsful defence of those inftitutions. The author's -objects are thus generally ftated.

"The defign of the few following pages, however, is not minutely to display the numerous advantages of our academical institutions, which are fufficiently

fufficiently known, and have been abundantly praised. It is not to determine at what age a youth fhould be placed in these feats of the mules; by what characteristics his college and his tutor fhould be chofen; upon what fcale precitely his expences fhould be regulated; or to what objects his ftudies fhould be principally directed. For the decifion of points like these depends leis upon general rules than upon the circumftances of each particular cafe. But it is to refute fome of the complaints and objections which have been lately and loudly urged against this part of our fyftem of liberal education; to repel fome portion of that obloquy, which must always impair the utility of our colleges in proportion as it diminishes their eftimation Our universities have been arraigned as criminals at the bar of public opinion, and I am of counsel for the defendants. My talk is not to folicit new honours, how well foever they may have been deserved, but to vindicate a character, which I conceive to have been injurioufly traduced. And it may be proper to add, that my ob ervations will be made principally with a view to the university of Oxford, with which I am moft intimately acquainted: but I doubt not the fifter university is equally intitled in every instance to the fame justification or apology, which I have to offer for the place of my own education.

Thofe who have made the most direct and open attacks upon the dif cipline and conduct of our univertities are Gibbon, Smith, and Knox; a triumvirate with talents and industry fufficient to make the worse appear the better reason; but furely not fufficient to overawe the whole literary world: and the champion who in the prefent inftante prefumes to enter the lifts against them places very little reliance upon his own abilities, but the utmoft confidence in the goodne's of his caufe. God will prosper the right. And with truth and juftice in his favour he will not acknowledge any diffi dence which he does not feel, when oppofed to the fneers of the historian of the Roman Empire, to the cold calculations of the author of the Wealth of Nations, and to the blunt honefty of the mafter of Tunbridge fchool. The first and greatest of these allailants indeed has received from the zeal and talents of Dr. Parr a refutation equally elegant and compleat; and we have only to lament that his difquifition is too learned and profound for general ufe: that it is decorated with too much Greek for our philofophers of fashion. It will be fufficient honour for the prefent writer if he can mould those elaborate arguments into a more popular form; and convert a few of thefe maily ingots into current coin. It is not intended, however, feparately to examine every fentence which appears to be injurious, and to refute in detail every position of every antagonist; for that would require volumes as large as their own. But I thall endeavour to reduce to fpecific objections or propofitions the fubitance of what these authors, or men who think like thele, have urged in their writings or their converfation against our academical establishments; and to fhew that each of them is either wholly groundless, or preffed beyond what candour and truth will warrant; that it is founded either on thofe imperfections in our univerfities from which no inftitution of man has yet been exempt; or upon those occafional abuses, which will inevitably happen while human nature continues to be what it ever yet has been.”

The objections principally anfwered in this defence are thofe which have been urged against the ufual mode of remunerating the tutors; against the antiquated exercises preparatory to degrees;

G 3

againft

against the obfolete profefforships, and the idlenefs of public lecturers; against the relaxation of college difcipline; the luxuries and exceffes of the refident members; the extravagant expence of academical education, and the want of excellence in their public fermons. The refutation of these objections appears to us to be candid, liberal, and fatisfactory. We think that fuch a vindication was wanted, we hope it may have a favourable effect on public opinion, and we are certain it has laid our univerfities under an important obligation.

We fhall here conclude, by congratulating our countrymen on the good effects likely to refult from the extenfive circulation of this work; we have already declared it, in our opinion, the moft judicious, fafe, and practical fyftem of British education hitherto publifhed: It is a fyftem founded on experience, and dictated by a vigorous, enlightened, and patriotic mind. A truly British fpirit pervades the whole it is in fhort a work equally well calculated to inftruct parents, teachers, and pupils in their respective duties, and to propagate the pureft principles of our Conftitution in Church and State.

POLITICS.

The Reply of a Near Observer to some of the Answerers of the Cursory Remarks. Svo. Pp. 102. 3s, Hatchard. 1804.

AFTER a filence of many months, obferved under the firongest provo

cations to break it, and therefore wonderfully characteristic of the author's patience, the Near Obferver has, at laft, deigned to publish what he calls a reply to fome of the anfwers to his first pamphlet. But whoever thall feek in thefe pages for a fatisfactory vindication of his former pofitions, or for any thing like proof of thofe allertions, for advancing which the Near Obferver was charged with wilful and deliberate falfehood, will be egregiQully difappointed. This modeft gentleman, indeed, cannot perfuade himfe f, that the public "condemns the filence and difregard with which I have treated the folly and violence of the factions which have aflailed me, or that it can be expected at my hands to refute the abfurd and ridiculous acculation of calumny and mifreprefentation, which it has been judged expedient by all, or for all, of thefe writers to prefer against me."-Factions, forfooth! a sailing an obfcure and contemptible individua!! How we apples fwim!-It may possibly appear absurd and ridiculous to this confident gentleman to defend his veracity, when deliberately and formally impeached, on fpecific facts; but as the public will probably not accede to the juftice of this remark, they will poffibly incline to impute fuch forbearance to inabi lity, and contue fuch filence into a tacit acknowledgment of guilt. That they would do fo, the Near Obferver himfelf, we fuipect, was aware; and to his dread on that account, more than to any other motive, are we difpoted to afcribe the prefent miserable attempt to reply. We have here allegations confirmed by allegations, and expreflions of difbelief fubftituted for grounds of rejection; the whole conveyed in a ftyle fo turgid, confuied,

and

and obfcure, that it is as difgufting to read, as it is difficult to understand. Mr. Pitt's advocates are condemned in the lump, for " their own contra dictions, their own inadvertent confeffions, their own palpable frauds, falfehoods, and evasions, their own intemperate and malicious refentments," which this writer is pleased to call his "credentials!" who would not think that he was here drawing a picture of his own pamphlet! The affertions of the Plain Anfwerer, that Mr. Pitt "did not feel a lufficient defire to resume the reins of power;" that he "felt his mind relieved by the failure of the negotiation for his return to office;" that " he made a diftinct offer to retain his fituation to the end of the war;" that he limited his promile of support to the new minifles to three conditions;" thefe, with many other facts of a fimilar nature, which the Piain Anfwerer mult have had means of knowing, which the Near Obferver had not, the latter, without fcruple, peremptorily declares to be "equally falfe and incredible," adding in the fame fentence," of which (as a Near Observer) I confider it as incumbent upon me to declare my total ignorance, and most unequivocal disbelief." We have here a tolerably good criterion for ettimating the grounds of this writer's pofitive affertions; for, after a direct and unqualified charge of falfhood, he avows his total ignorance of the facts which he pronounces to be false; and even affigns fuch ignorance as one of the grounds of his charge. Surely no man, pretending to address the public, ever displayed greater imbecility and greater affurance!

In alluding to the fituation of Europe at the period of Mr. Pitt's refignation, he tells us of "the victorious Conful of France, irritated by the insolent tone of Lord GRENVILLE's repulle, and the dictation of thefe weak and variable minds" (forgetting always that Lord HAWKESBURY and Mr. ADDINGTON were then members of the Cabinet) "which had crouched to Barras and Reubell, was pre, aring to invade us with revengeful arms,' &c. This is the place to oblerve, that there appears to be a kind of myftic confequence, or talifman, attached to this character of a Near Observer, imparting the gift of infallibility, and extorting belief to all its allertions without the neceffity of proof! It is truly ridiculous to obferve the puerile prefumption of this writer, who really claims credit from his mere alumption of the title; knowing, no doubt, that it has its weight with a certain defcription of readers. But how are we to reconcile his perfeverance in thus fpeaking with an air of authority, with Mr. Addington's difavowal of all knowledge of him or his production, even long after the appearance of the Curiory Remarks? In fact he is not a Near Obferver, but, as we truly reprefented him, a Near-sighted Obferver.

In order to blame Mr. Pitt's administration (of which it must never be forgotten the objects of his panegyric conftituted a part) he audaciously ftates the rupture of the treaty of El Arisch as a crime little fhort of deliberate murder; and renders the minifters of that day refponfible for all the blood that was shed after the renewal of hottilities in Egypt. And this is advanced in the triumphant tone of exultation. But his prejudice, or rather his malice, renders him fo blind, that he cannot perceive that the whole of his argument is founded on a falfe bafis; as we fhall endeavour to fhew in a few words. It has totally escaped him that the minitters could not posfibly foresee that an officer, wholly unauthorized by the government to con clude any treaty whatever with the French General, (and here let us obferve that we do not mean to caft the fmalleft reflection on Sir Sydney Smith, but merely to flate a plain fact) should conclude fuch a treaty as that

green usur

of El Arifch. They fent out orders to their commanders to fign no convention with Kleber which should provide for the unconditional return of the French troops to Europe. The only question then to be decided is; was that order, in the circumftances under which it was made, right or wrong? We believe, the Near Obferver is the only man in his Majefty's dominions, who, being duly acquainted with thofe circumftances, would fay it was wrong. Buonaparté was then about to make a last defperate effort for the recovery of the Milanefe, and for the defeat of the Auftrians; and all his exertions were inadequate to raile an army fufficiently formidable for the accomplishment of his object. We are not here judging by the effect, for it is notorious that had General Melas done his duty the military glory of the Corfican ufurper had been at an end; indeed but for the accidental arrival of one of the generals from Egypt the very day before the battle of Marengo, the French army had been certainly defeated. Would it not then have been madness in our minifters, an act of the groffeft treachery to our allies, the Auftrians, to suffer a veteran army of 40,000 men to be landed in France, in order to ftrengthen the army of Buonaparté? Oh! but fays this fagacious observer, Kleber was enraged beyond measure at Buonaparté, and fo were his troops; and the confequence of their return would have been resistance to his " pation," and "to difpute his new and tottering authority." Nay more; if the late minifters had permitted Egypt to be delivered, Europe had been faved; and if Kleber had returned to France, Buonaparté could never have feen Marengo." But "all this," he adds, "no doubt is pure malice and misrepresentation." No, but it is all ignorance and falliood. If this would have been the confequence of the return of the troops to France at that period, how happened it that when they did return, under circumftances of ftill greater aggravation, difcomfited, defeated, by an inferior force, and their aft glory tarnished in the eyes of Europe, they did not resent the bafe treachery of their leader, and hurl the bloody ufurper from his throne? We believe that on their return to France the fame scene would have been repeated at Paris which had been before exhibited at Cairo after their return, defeated and disgraced, from the shattered walls of Acra. They would have fung ça ira, they would have fwallowed compliments for their victories, would have been crowned with laurel for their conquest of Egypt, and would have joined the army the next day. While Kleber, if he had been refractory, would have experienced the fate of Pichegru, or Moreau. The conduct of the army during the whole of this ftrange revolution warrants this inference. With what confiftency the Obferver can contend that our army in Egypt could have fuccefsfully combated the fuperior army of the French, if they had met on the plains of Marengo, when he represents their victories in Egypt as almost miraculous, on account of the inferiority of their numbers, we know not. As it was, the French, though with great difficulty, and after a hard-fought day, obtained the victory; and how, by adding to their numbers confiderably more than to thofe of our allies, the victory could have been rendered less difficult to the French, with all our admiration of the conduct and courage of our gallant countrymen, we are really unable to conceive,

Our readers must be aware, that the ruptureof the convention of El Arisch cannot poffibly be urged as a ground of accufation against minifters, who could not poffibly know or suppose that it had taken place when they iffued their orders to Lord Keith; but their rigid attention to honour and good