both, apostatical. To give them, therefore, a toleration, or to consent that they may freely exercise their religion, and profess their faith and doctrine, is a grievous sin."'

We will transcribe Dr. Aikin's quotation from Bayle relative to this fact.

Bayle, under the article Usher, makes the remark that, in this pro testation," the archbishop and his suffragans acted according to the principles of the extremest intolerance; for they did not found their reasoning upon maxims of state, like the advocates for mitigated intole rance, but solely upon the nature of the Roman catholic worship; without making mention of its persecuting spirit, which is the only cause why even the friends of toleration argue that it ought not to be tolerated:"— and notwithstanding a laboured attempt in the Biographia Britannica to refute this censure, it is manifestly well grounded. The protesters do indeed add, that such granting of toleration for money is not only a great sin, but also a matter of most dangerous consequence;" but what this danger is they do not explain; and all their argument turns upon the assumption that popery is a false religion, an argument which, as every established religion may with equal right advance it against every other, will justify universal intolerance.

Protesting, as we do of course, against the implication which appears to be conveyed in this last sentence, but which. we cannot believe was intended, we presume that almost all sensible protestants now coincide in this doctrine of Bayle and our author, as the correct general principle, and that they will equally agree that it is not of absolutely unlimited application. The exceptions will readily occur to any one who has heard ever so little of the horrid rites of superstitious worship practised at this day by millions of mankind. And doubtless even Bayle would have instantly and loudly called for the interference of force, if, for instance, a number of the natives of the South Sea Islands, happening to be brought to Holland, had wished to celebrate the event of their safe arrival by offering a human victim, as an act of perfectly sincere worship; or if a party of devotees from India had posed to perform all the orgies of Jaggernaut.

pro

The intolerance into which the excellent archbishop was misled by the opinions and the fears so prevalent in the times in which he lived, was certain to be remembered vindictively against him; and at the time of the great Irish rebellion and massacre, he being then in England, his country houses were pillaged, his cattle slaughtered or driven away, his rents seized, and nothing left to him in the island except the books and furniture in his house at Drogheda, which town resisted the arms of the rebels.' At this time his actual functions as a prelate ceased; he never returned to Ireland; and the falling state of the English hierarchy prevented his receiving

any equivalent, excepting for a short time the stipend of one of the smaller bishoprics which became vacant. But as far as his personal interests alone were concerned, he maintained all the equanimity of a Christian philosopher, and prosecuted his learned researches with unremitting ardour and success, till the period of his death.-He did not suffer any very severe persecution from the prevailing party, though he had at one time very nearly lost his library, which was sentenced to confiscation, in consequence of his having preached zealously for the king at Oxford: but by the management of Selden it was redeemed at a small expence.

Dr. A. explains the archbishop's opinions respecting episcopacy and presbytery, and his proposal for a compromise or union between them in a new scheme of church govern ment which he drew up. He approved of both the official ranks in the church, and held them to differ only in degree. -We must here close the article, with sincere acknowledgements of obligation to the author of these instructive memoirs. An acceptable addition is given in the form of notes, affording some information respecting many of the learned contemporaries and acquaintance of Selden and Usher.

Art. V. The History of the Helvetic Republics. By Francis Hare Naylor, Esq. 4 Vols. 8vo. Price 11. 16s. boards. Mawman. THE history of the Helvetic states, comparatively recent in their origin, is a sort of carpet-ground over which the historiographer may amble or canter at his case. The tale is simple, the materials abundant and accessible; and there appears but little room for the exercise of that sagacity which has made Mitford and Hooke the standard historians of Greece and Rome, or of that vigorous and enlarged intellect which enabled Gibbon to rescue from the night of barbarism, and to connect with Rome as its source and centre, the history of the world.

In the year 1800, Mr. Planta, of the British Museum, made a very respectable attempt to supply the acknowledged want of an English history of Switzerland. His authorities, as enumerated in his preface, were of the first respectability; and he appears to have availed himself of their assistance with dili gence and discrimination. Sufficiently impartial, his work is, on the whole, an able and spirited abstract of the Helvetic Annals. It is to be regretted, however, that he did not feel it expedient to enlarge his canvas, and to include somewhat more of detail. The addition of another volume would have enabled him to give a more satisfactory view of the origin and bistory of the earlier inhabitants of Helvetia, and to have admit

ted a good deal of interesting collateral matter, which, though not absolutely necessary to his work, might have tended materially to illustrate and adorn it. There seems to be a little de fect of judgement, too, in blending the two chapters on the disturbances of Geneva, and the bloody conquests of the French, in the body of the history. The facts are too recent not to be, with some instances, contested; and their substance would have appeared to greater advantage at the end, in the form of memoirs. But whatever share of faults it may, or may not, include, it is an interesting and comprehensive work: and whoever possesses this narration, and Mr. Coxe's letters on Switzerland, has the best means of obtaining a competent knowledge of Swiss history that the mere English reader can enjoy.

With two editions of Mr. Planta's history in the market, we should not, we confess, have suspected any sort of opening for Mr. Naylor's. Undoubtedly a man of vigorous and commanding mind, might find ample room for the display of his powers in this plain but extensive field; but the talents of Mr. N. do not appear to be precisely of this kind. While he tells his tale clearly, and with a fair portion of interest, his book has nothing of a philosophic cast. There is a great deficiency of shrewdness and discrimination, as well as of that indignant or applauding eloquence which the events of his story are so powerfully calculated to inspire. Instead of the frequent recurrence of acute and illustrative comment, we are encoun. tered by the oppressive originality of such truisms as these, printed occasionally in capitals, too, for the sake of greater distinction : "PROSPERITY IS THE BANE OF VIRTUE." It is, however, but justice to Mr. Naylor to say, that he has inserted some interesting details which are wanting in Mr. Planta's work; and that, although the latter has the advantage in point of spirit, the volumes before us have less the air of an abridgement.

The History of the Helvetic League properly begins with Albert of Hapsburg, emperor of Germany, the cruelty and rapacity of whose agents, Gesler and Landenberg, drove the Forest-Cantons into open revolt. The origin of this great event is related by Mr. Naylor in a paragraph of which the following frigid attempt at fine and philosophic writing, forms

the commencement.

Sacred be the name of him who first dared to cherish the noble pro. ject of liberating his country from her ignominious bondage. STAUFFACHER was that hero. In silence he contemplated the degraded state to which his nation was reduced. He brooded over her wrongs in secret. He meditated upon the energies of the human mind, and felt from inward conviction that man was not destined by nature to be the slave of despotism.

Having reduced his ideas to a rational form, he hastened to communicate them to his friend WALTER FURST. At his house he met ARNOLD OF MELCHTHAL, who had taken refuge there from the pursuit of Landenberg. Misfortune is the parent of confidence. They had suffered in the same cause, and they flew to each other's arms with all the attachment of men connected by the strongest of ties, the love of freedom' &c.&c. Vol. I. p. 246.

It would occupy too large a portion of our pages, without communicating any equivalent information to our readers, were we to follow Mr. Naylor step by step through the successive events of the Swiss annals. Such an analysis is by no means demanded, either by the novelty of the subject, or by the superiority of its treatment. We cannot, however, quit the ground without congratulating our historian on the exquisite ingenuity with which he has made the history of Switzerland, the vehicle of an attack on the Methodists of England, as well as on the happy confusion which he has introduced into this portion of his work, by indiscriminately attributing Calvinistical' opinions to the votaries of Methodism. (Vol. iv. p. 374) p.3 Were we not afraid of being suspected of some leaning towards this obnoxious class of persons, and of course incurring our author's vehement displeasure, we should feel disposed to take a puritanical exception to his glowing description of the prostitutes-Mr. N. calls them houris-who, in the second volume, are described as welcoming the train of a royal visitant.

While reading these volumes, we have been much struck with the contrast-suggested rather by the subject, than by any reference of Mr. Naylor's-between the history of the Cantons of Switzerland, and that of the Italian states. In the latter instance, all the baser impulses of the breast seem to have called into incessant activity the keenest faculties of the mind; and while we sicken at the craft, the treachery, and the cruelty, we are frequently surprized into admiration of the acuteness, the promptitude, and the dexterity, exhibited in almost every transaction, whether commercial, diplomatic, or mili. tary, between the respective states. But in the earlier stages of Helvetic story, we are delighted by the unvarying recurrence of the most enchanting traits of simplicity and patriotism of integrity, yielding in its own wrong, to the dubious claims of others; of fidelity, under every temptation to treachery; of intrepidity, braving every extreme of peril, and welcoming sufferings, privation, and death, in the cause of an idolized country. The moral of this comparison is as instructive as the contrast is complete. The smaller states of Italy, weak from want of virtue and cohesion, were considered by the stronger as mere debateable ground; they became the bloody theatre of perpetual contention; and though far re

moved from the main territories of Austria, Spain and France, were treated by each as litigated property, a common and dis putable frontier, on which their respective armies might contend for supremacy. On the other hand, the courage, the ho-` nour, the harmony of the Republics of Switzerland, secured the respect and forbearance of the rival empires: and notwithstanding her central and inviting situation, the fear of rousing the fury of her hardy sons, compelled the conflicting monarchs to turn aside from the unarmed limits of her territory as from

a consecrated soil.

Art. VI. The English Botanist's Pocket Companion, containing the Essential Generic Characters of every British Plant, arranged agreeably to the Linnæan System, &c. &c. By James Dede. 12mo. pp. 148. Price 4s. boards. Hatchard.

Art. VII. Elements of the Science of Botany, established by Linnæus, with examples to illustrate the Classes and Orders of his System. 2 Vols, 12mo. 2d Edition. pp. 100. 130. 124 Plates. Price 268. Murray. Art. VIII. An Introduction to the Science of Botany, chiefly extracted from the Works of Linnæus, to which are added several new Tables and Notes of the Life of the Author. By the late James Lee. Edition. 8vo. pp. 600. 12 Plates. Rivingtons.

WE

4th

E have been informed by some, who pretend to be well acquainted with the matter, that, in book-making, one half depends on an attractive title. So fastidious is the present age, that if the reader's attention is not entrapped by the first page, he as little thinks of disturbing the rest, as an heretic would of exploring the cells of the inquisition, while the door behind him was open to escape. The motive for turning beyond the title-page must be supplied by curiosity to know what the author means by it;-and it was probably a deep insight into the gainful tendency of this maxim, that induced the three gentlemen, whose works we have mentioned at the head of this article, to make choice of their respective designations.

Mr. Dede's book is called an English Botanist's Companion. We are very well convinced, however, that there is no English botanist who would not be perfectly ashamed of keeping such company, except in the quality of waste paper. The proper title of the book will be bestowed upon it by every one who pays his four shillings. It may seem hard in us to receive Mr. D.'s premier effort,' which he submits with diffidence to a generous public,' in so rough a style; but the very cir cumstance of its being his first offence, renders it doubly our duty not to suffer it to pass unnoticed. As Mr. D., in his pri vate character, may be, for any thing that we know to the con