moment, that, as Sir George Prevost afterwards asserted, the American vessels were not within gunshot of the shore. But we know, on the contrary, that they were within reach of the batteries, and we have the testimony of Captain Pring, who intrepidly seconded the lamented Downie in the brig, as well as that of numerous other eye-witnesses, that, even after the surrender of our vessels, the enemy did not take possession of them for a long time, until they had succeeded in towing their own disabled ships from under the batteries to a secure distance from the shore. Besides this, a number of officers who visited Plattsburg after the peace, were of decided opinion that the anchorage of the American squadron was within full range of the forts. How deeply then is it to be regretted that the troops were recalled when at last they had been suffered to advance ! Both the works and the two fleets would yet have been ours; but, even if the latter object was then past attainment, who will deny that the capture of Macomb's troops and defences, and the preservation of the national honour were in themselves sufficient to render a perseverance in the assault not only justifiable, but a measure of the most urgent necessity? In the dispatches announcing his failure, which the commander-in-chief dated from Plattsburg, but which, from the internal evidence contained in them, were undoubtedly written at Montreal, he stated that, after the surrender of the fleet,' the possession of the enemy's works offered no advantage to compensate for the loss that must have been sustained in acquiring possession of them.' He knew, at the moment he wrote this paragraph, that the desertion of upwards of eight hundred men had attended his shameful retreat. Could the assault have cost him as dearly? It would not; even if we were disposed to assent to the humiliating doctrine, which was implied in this affected humanity, that the life of a British soldier is more valuable to him than honour.

By various means, (some of which we have detailed,) Sir George Prevost had hitherto succeeded in veiling from the government his gross mismanagement of the war; but the deception could no longer be continued, the expedition to Plattsburg completely bared his incapacity, and he was immediately recalled, to answer at the bar of his offended country to the charges which Sir James Yeo preferred against him for his neglect to co-operate with Captain Downie. He did not live to await his trial;-but it is to be feared that the consequences of his weakness to the interest of Great Britain, will long and injuriously survive him.

The retreat from Plattsburg closed the campaign in Lower Canada; the evacuation of the Canadian shore of the Niagara by the American army soon after terminated the operations in the upper

upper province, and the intelligence of the conclusion of the peace of Ghent arrived before the approach of the season for the renewal of hostilities.

It has been calculated upon solid data that in less than three years of warfare, the attempts of the American government to effect the subjugation of the Canadas were attended with the loss to the republic in killed, wounded and prisoners, of nearly fifty thousand men, besides an enormous expenditure of treasure and warlike resources; yet, when the terms of the treaty of Ghent demanded restitution of all acquisitions which had been made by either party on the frontier of the two provinces, the enemy had only the defenceless shore of the Detroit to offer in exchange for their fortress of Niagara and the important post of Michilimackinac, both of which were still in our possession, notwithstanding an effort made to recover the latter in the summer of 1814.

Having entered into so detailed an examination of the conduct of the war in the Canadas, we have left ourselves no room for the conclusions to be drawn from it, as to the future defence of those provinces. We will only add one circumstance, which is of such deep import, that we should not be justified in leaving it unnoticed. Since the peace, the influx of Americans from the United States to our provinces has been incessant, and their numbers are daily increasing to an alarming extent. It would not perhaps be expedient or practicable to exclude them from residence in Canada while there is no interruption to the amicable relations between Great Britain and their Republic; but the continuance of the subjects of the United States in our territories during a period of warfare is fraught with danger. During the last war, the efforts of the disaffected in Upper Canada, principally subjects of the United States by birth, were attended by the most mischievous consequences. The enemy were constantly supplied with intelligence by them, and every impediment studiously thrown in the way of the public service. It will become a most serious consideration how the recurrence of the same evils may be avoided, when the proportion of naturalized Americans in our dominions shall, in all probability, have become ten times greater than it was in the year 1812. If, under a vigorous and watchful administration, it is deemed possible to retain such settlers among our population without peril, one precaution should at least be carefully adopted :-no man should be found in employ of the colonial government, whose connections bind him by the ties of interest or of blood to the American Republic.

VOL. XXVII. NO. LIV.

FF

ART.

ART. VIII. 1. Plain Preaching; or, Sermons for the Poor, and for People of all Ranks. By the Rev. R. Mayow. 12mo. pp. 406.

2. Sermons and Miscellaneous Pieces. By the Rev. Robert Wynell Mayow. To which is prefixed a Memoir of his Life. 1822. 12mo. pp. 453.

WE seldom can allot many of our pages to theological literature; and, even if we could, it would be next to impossible to notice the multitude of sermons-many of them respectablewhich continually issue from the press. The two little volumes, however, which stand at the head of this article, are so completely sui generis, that we feel that we are doing an acceptable service, in drawing the attention of our readers to them. Plain Preaching' has been some time before the public; the other volume, which is very miscellaneous in its nature, is of more recent date. It contains a life of Mr. Mayow, a few of his later sermons, his speeches to a District Committee for promoting Christian Knowledge, miscellaneous extracts from his Common-place Book, the records of the Deaths of his Parishioners,' and several of his prayers.

'The Life is professedly written by a friend, who appears to be a person of talents and piety, thoroughly impressed with the various excellencies of the character which he is delineating. We cannot but regret, however, that a little more time and attention were not bestowed on the arrangement of his materials, which are thrown together in a very unworkmanlike manner, and with a total disregard not only of chronological order, but of all order whatever.

Mr. Mayow was born at Saltash, October 8th, 1777, and was the second son of John Salt Wynell Mayow, Esq. of Wray, in the parish of Morvatin, Cornwall, and Mary his wife, daughter of Robert Doughty, Esq. of Hanworth Hall, near Aylsham, in Norfolk.

His childhood was distinguished by considerable depth as well as quickness of intellect, and by a degree of seriousness and reflexion uncommon at that period of life. The person employed to attend young Mayow to school, was a truly religious character, and though belonging to a lower walk of life, capable of instructing those who were much his superiors in station. During these rides, he represented to his little companion the rising of sin, the vanity of the world, the pleasure of serving God; and always, at parting, gave him a strict charge to pray. It is probable, that some of his early religious impressions were received from this good man, whom Providence thus threw in his way. Certain it is that he had, at a very early age, so deep a conviction of the superior value of eternity, that when quite a boy, as he afterwards declared to a friend, he felt desirous to die, that he might be with God."

Of

Of his progress at school, we have the following account from his master:

He came to me in the spring of 1787, and quitted my school in that of 1794. He learnt well, and was reading, at the time of his departure from Liskiard, Homer, Euripides, and Demosthenes. I do not desire to say the most, but I can assure you, that such was the suavity of his temper, expressed in his whole manner, his very voice bespeaking it, that he was the favourite of all. He would sometimes say to me, "You alarm me terribly in school, but not at all out of it."' In 1794, he was articled as a clerk to an attorney, at Bath, where his parents then resided; but his turn of mind, especially his favourite studies, ill-suited with this occupation. He had always a secret and strong leaning to the profession of a clergyman, and he finally prevailed with his indulgent father, to forfeit his indentures, and to relieve him from a profession always uncongenial to his mind.

He went to Oxford in June 1797, where he entered at Exeter College. He passed through his academical studies with credit; and amidst all the dangers and temptations of a university, preserved an unblemished reputation. He became an excellent classical scholar, and particularly attached to the Greek language, in which he made great proficiency.

He was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Winchester, in May, 1801, and entered on the curacy of Weston, near Bath, where, however, he did not continue long. He afterwards served several curacies in succession, and finally settled at Colerne, in the neighbourhood of Bath. He married, in 1805, his cousin Elizabeth, the daughter of William Harding, Esq. of Liverpool, by whom he had seven children, all living at the time of his death, and under the age of ten years. At Colerne, Mr. Mayow resided for four years, when he removed to Rosthern; and afterwards, for the space of five years, he officiated in the chapel of E. Bootle Wilbraham, Esq. of Lathom, Lancashire, by whom he was also employed in the dispensation of his charities; and at length, in 1816, three months previous to his death, he removed to Ardwick, near Manchester.

Here his sphere of action was ample, in a parish so near a manufacturing town, indeed actually joining it; the number of poor was considerable, and the distress arising from the state of public affairs at that period, was very prevailing and great. Mr. Mayow entered upon his various duties with renewed vigour; he took an active part in promoting, both by pecuniary and personal assistance, all charitable institutions and schools. He readily attended committees; he was impatient only when those meetings were unnecessarily prolonged, and when those who were assembled, were backward in engaging in that personal labour, without which it is in vain to expect to accomplish

any substantial good. On these, and on every occasion, he was always ready: his time, his talents, his substance, the whole energy of his character, was called forth.'

He died January 8, 1817.

The following passage is from the pen of a gentleman of Ardwick, who, till Mr. Mayow's settling there, was unknown to him.

During the illness of Mr. Mayow, the most anxious inquiries were made by all the neighbourhood, not as if they had been inquiring after the health of one whom they esteemed merely, but of one in whose welfare they took the deepest interest, and whose death they would regard as one of the greatest of calamities; and never did I behold more general or more genuine heartfelt sorrow, than was seen when the melancholy intelligence of his death was made known. The funeral was attended by the principal persons of the congregation, who had earnestly requested to be allowed to pay the last sad tribute to departed worth. The churchyard was nearly filled with people, chiefly poor, a part doubtless attracted by curiosity, but by far the greatest number evidently took a deep interest in the mournful scene. Many a big tear did I see roll down the manly cheeks of those who had seldom shed a tear. The funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. F. Peel; but the most impressive sermon to those present was, the pulpit (clothed in black) from which their beloved pastor had so earnestly addressed them but a fortnight before; when, in a most affecting discourse, which he might almost have intended for a farewell sermon, he spoke in a language which found its way to every heart.'

The Memoir contains many remarks upon Mr. Mayow's style of preaching, with which we are in general disposed to agree. The following observations by his biographer, upon the necessity of great plainness of language in sermons addressed to the poor, are sensible, and well deserve the attention of our clerical readers.

Mr. Mayow not only saw the ignorance of the poor, but that one very great cause of the continuance of that ignorance was, the want of sufficient plainness of language and manner in the method of instructing them; he saw and felt that even the common colloquial language used amongst educated persons is above the comprehension of the ge nerality of the poor, and that it is like a foreign tongue to them. Those who do not mix with the poor, and have not studied them closely, cannot be aware of this fact; and it is because the upper classes and the instructors of youth will not believe it, or will not take pains to apply a remedy, that the education of the poor is so frequently seen not to produce that real improvement which might be expected, and in many cases seems to be little more than learning to read by rote, and to repeat ready-made answers to a set of questions. Such an education can never prepare them for receiving public instruction. Mr. Mayow, who was so intimately acquainted with all the habits and manners of the poor, was determined to exert all his efforts to remedy so great an evil, and he justly conceived that the best model he could take for giving instruction,