their hopes and triumphant expectations; and carried, at the fame time, by the weight of his remonstrance, and the power which he gave to it, trouble, confufion, and dismay, into their affrighted confciences. Without fpeaking a word against the law, or taking to himself an authority, which did not belong to him, he turned their temptation on themfelves; and inftead of falling a victim to it, astonished them with the moral ufe he had made of it, and fent them away, overwhelmed with fhame, conviction, and self-contempt.' He adds: No man will expect, that, in fuch circumftances, he should expatiate, to the by-ftanders, on the heinous fin of adultery, ob. jected to this unhappy woman: a point, concerning which they deferved not, from any virtuous indignation they had conceived against it; which they wanted not, from any ignorance they were under of its general nature, to be further fatisfied or informed. They deserved, and they wanted to be made fenfible of their own guilt and wickedness, and of this they derived from Jefus the fulle conviction. This was the fole purport of our Lord's reply to them any other had been unfeafonable and improper; and therefore no man will now be furprised to find the iffue of this remarkable conference in the mild difmiffion, which he gives to the unhappy perfon, who had furnished the occafion of it.'... Nor has any man of fenfe, who confiders the history, the least reafon to conclude, that any countenance is hereby given to the horrid fin of adultery. The mistake, if it be purely à mif take, has arifen from the ambiguous fenfe of the words: "I condemn atheer not;" which may either fignify, I blame thee not, or I pafs not the legal fentence of death upon thee. But they cannot be here taken in the former fenfe, because Chriftimmediately charges the woman with her guilt, and bids her fin no more. Nay, they can only be taken in the latter fenfe, becaufe that was the fenfe, in which her accufers had not condemned her; for otherwife, by bringing her to Jefus, and by their vehement accufation of her, they had fufficiently teftified their fenfe of her crime. When Jefus therefore faid, Neither do I condemn thee," he could only be underflood to mean, * Neither do I take upon me to do that, which thine accufers have omitted to do; that is, I do not condemn thee to be put to death; a fentence which however thou mayeft deferve by the law of Mofes, I have no authority to pronounce against thee." The defign of the tenth fermon is to recommend humility, cr to fhew, that it leads directly to peace and quiet in our intercourfe with one another; or, if the perverfenels of man fhould fometimes difappoint us in this expectation, that it will certainly and infallibly yield rest to our own fouls. For, fays the author, the meek and lowly in heart never retaliate injuries, and feldom refent them. They either feel not the the ftroke of them: or, if they do, the wound is inftantly healed by the balfamic virtue of their own minds. But indeed a man, well difciplined in the fchool of humility, receives but few injuries; for he fuípects none; it being generally true, that, for one real injury done us by others, a hundred fuch things, as we call by that name, are only bred in our own captious and diftempered imaginations. And then, for thofe few injuries, which he actually receives, they are easily flighted or forgotten by him; because he fees them only in their true fhape and fize, and not as magnified by an extravagant opinion of his own worth, and as extravagant a contempt of the aggreffor. He knows his own infirmities, and can allow for thofe of other men. If they are petulant or unjult, he perhaps has been inobfervant or imprudent: befides, he never thought himself entitled to any Special refpect, and therefore wonders the lefs, if no great ceremony has been used towards him. To thefe fuggeftions of humanity, he adds thofe of religion. He knows what his matter enjoins, and he remembers on what terms the injunction is preffed upon him. And thus, though the indignity feem great, he easily excufes one half of it, and forgives the other. The iffue is, that he finds reft to his own foul, which the proud man never does.' From the example of the Pharifees, who were covetous, and dreaded the admonitions of Jefus, when he told them, They could not ferve God and mammon,' his lordship, in the eleventh fermon, fhews, how naturally it comes to pass, that the way of ridicule is taken up by the finner, to avoid the trouble and confufion, which must needs arife from a ferious attention to the evidence of moral truth.-He obferves, in the next place, that ridicule ferves equally to foothe and flatter his corruption, by keeping him infenfible, as he would choose to be, to the differences of moral fentiment. In this difcourfe, as in feveral others, the author has given us a juft and lively picture of human nature. The twelfth fermon is a very rational comment on this aphorifm of Solomon: "He that loveth filver, fhall not be fatisfied with filver. The purport of which is this: that riches are not evil in themselves; that the moderate defire of them is not unlawful; that a right use of them is even meritorious; but that, on the other hand, the capacity of the human mind is not filled with them; that if we porfue them with ardour, and make them the fole, or the chief object of our pursuit, they never did, and never can, yield a true and permanent fatisfaction; that if they encreafe, it is our intereft, as well as duty, not to let our hearts upon them; and that, finally, we sare to employ them with temperance and fobriety, with mercy and charity. [To be continued] The The Hiftory of the Civil War in America. Vol. I. 5. ferved. T. Payne and Son. THOUGH the original oftenfible caufes of the rife of the American war, and its fubfequent progrefs, be generally known in this country, yet it may not prove unacceptable to be prefented with a connected detail of tranfactions, in which both the parent ftate and her colonies are fo deeply concerned, and on the iffue of which the profperity and happiness of all of them fo much depend. Such a detail can, at present, have little profpect of amufing by any novelty of incidents; but, if clearly and impartially related, it may afford a more distinct profpect of public events, and perhaps conduce to extinguish prejudices which have arifen from an imperfect attention to facts. The author of the prefent work sets out with exhibiting the ftate of the colonies previous to the rebellion; prefenting us alfo with fome account of the leading characters among them, and of the caufes which produced their revolt. He adopts the general opinion, that the decline of British influence in America may be dated from the repeal of the stamp act, in 1765. The first public movement of fedition was the circular letter, which had its origin in the province of Maffachufett's, and thence diffused among the other colonies the fpirit of difobedience to the acts of the British legislature. The author gives a juft defcription of the principal individuals in America, and the political party in Britain, by whom those divisions were fomented. The author next relates the arrival and deftruction of the tea, and the confequences which followed.-In the third chapter we behold the Americans proceeding to open revolt; inftituting courts of admiralty, commiffioning privateers, and ef tablishing an army. In this part of the work we are favoured with the character of fome of their officers. This writer then proceeds to relate the various military operations in the different parts of America; in the detail of which we are forry to find fo much ground for reprehenfion, in respect to the condu& of fome of the British commanders. One inftance of this kind occurs in the account of the battle on the 27th of Auguft, 1776, which is related in the following terms: • Near fifteen thousand of their best troops [Americans] were thrown into Long Island, and garrifoned their works oppofite to and feparated from New York by the East River, at the distance of about a mile; their lines extending from Mill Creek, a little above Red Hook, to a turn or rather elbow of the river, called 5. Wall Wall-about Bay, forming a femicircular rather than any other figure. A breaft-work from thofe two points, which was ftrongly defended, inclofed a large fpace of ground, which lay within the curve formed by the river; and here was the enemy's recefs, fecured not only by entrenchments and abbatis, but by strong redoubts, the parapets of which were lined with fpears and lances. From thefe lines, where general Putnam commanded, the enemy detached ten thousand men, extending right across the ifland, from the marsh at Mill Creek to Flat Bufh, occupying the intermediate heights and defiles, to oppofe our progrefs. The plan of attack, which reflects great honour on the commander in chief, being to furprise and gain the enemy's rear; a column led by general Clinton, formed the van of the army, followed by lord Percy with the main body, marched at nine at night by Flat Land, croffing the country to secure a pass over the heights of Guana, on the road to Bedford.-This pafs the enemy neglected to occupy; it was now fecured by a battallion of our light infantry. Both thefe corps paffed the heights, and reached Bedford about nine o'clock in the morning of the 27th, when they commenced an attack upon the enemy's left, who made but faint refiftance, retiring from the woody grounds to their lines, into which they threw themselves with great confufion, on the rapid advances of our army. The grenadiers, and 33d regiment, who were in front, pufhed the enemy in their precipitate flight to their entrenchments. General Vaughan, who led them, would have entered the works with the fugitives; and fuch was the fire and impetuofity of the corps he commanded, that notwithstanding orders from the commander in chief reftrained their ardour, it was only checked at the foot of the redoubts. Had the attempt been made, there is every reafon to fuppofe the event would have juftified the measure. But the glorious occafion, which prefented itfelf under fuch flattering circumftances, was loft for ever. The enemy must have fubmitted, or perished in the waves, into which they would have unavoidably been hurried by troops flushed with victory, and fired with indignation. I call the army, the spectators of that day, to atteft the truth of what I affert. General de Heifter, with a column of Heffians, advanced to the attack of an eminence in his front, a little after day-break, cannonading the enemy; who, after being warmly engaged with the light infantry and fome companies of the guards that pre- ceded the column, had been drove into the woods with the lofs of three pieces of cannon, and were foon afterwards intirely broken and routed in that quarter. The left column, led by major general Grant, advancing from the Narrows by the edge of the Bay, to divert the enemy's attention from our principal attack to the right, fell in, about about midnight, with their advanced parties, at a strong pass, which they abandoned, and at day-break, with a very confiderable body advantageously posted. • Here the enemy kept their ground with a good countenance, cannonading and kirmishing until the fire began at Bedford; when aftonished, and apprehenfive of not being able to regain their lines, they made a fudden movement to fecure a retreat, by croffing a morals to Mill Creek, which covered the right of their works; as this manœuvre was made in disorder, it foon became confufion and flight; this was apparent to all, but the general who commanded the column, by whofe oversight a great and decifive advantage over the enemy was loft, by not moving on rapidly, at the first appearance of their panic, to the edge of the morafs, through which, and over a mill dam, the principal part of them escaped, who must otherwife have been inevitably drowned or cut to pieces. As it was, the day ended with glory; the blow was great, yet might have been more important in its confequences. The rebels lost three thoufand five hundred of their best troops, either killed on the field, drowned, or taken prisoners; amongst the latter were the generals Sullivan, Udell, and lord Stirling they loft alfo fix pieces of cannon and fome colours.' The next inflance is the action at the White Plains, on the 28th of October the fame year. On the 28th, general de Heifter, who had been left in our rear with three brigades of Hefians, having joined the army, the whole marched in two columns towards the enemy.-At noon our light troops attacked and drove in their pickets, which were advanced from their works. Within a mile of the center of the enemy's line, the army formed, to oppose a a very confiderable body who marched out of their works. This body advanced to the right of their entrenchments, croffing a rivulet called the Brunx, and forming upon a very commanding eminence, with a view to flank our left, if our army fhould move to affail their entrenchments; this rivulet making a turn nearly at right angles, through a deep bottom, feparated the left of our army from theirs. The Heffan grenadiers, with two brigades of British and Heffians, were ordered to pass the rivulet, and advance in front against the enemy, while another brigade of Heffians, led on by colonel Raill, attacked the flank of this body, from a height which he had feized, on its being left unoccupied by the enemy. • The British brigade, covered by our artillery, first passed the ravine, and formed on the oppofite fide with great bravery, under a very heavy fire from the enemy; then afcending a steep and rugged hill, in defiance of refitance, drove the enemy with precipitation to their works. On forcing the enemy's right, evident confufion was obferved to reign in their camp, which, in all probability, must have ended in their total rout, if the Hellians, |