that the whole of the first and second positions of Burn rest solely upon the Roman Canon Law, or rather that he was stating how the repairs of churches were effected in foreign countries, according to the Roman Canon Law.

(To be continued.)

LABOUR RATE.

SIR, Conceiving that much misapprehension exists on the subject of the Labour Rate, and that many prejudices and objections are entertained against it in consequence of, what I imagine to be, an incorrect view of the subject, and a wrong principle having, in many instances, been adopted in carrying it into effect,-my attention being again drawn to the subject by the letter of a "Clerical Magistrate" in your Magazine for this month, who labours, as it appears to me, under similar mistake, or misconception of its proper principle, I beg leave herewith to enclose a letter, which has been already published, with some errors, in the "Herts County Press," (June 29th, 1833,) and which, in my opinion, places the question in a different light from that in which it is commonly viewed, and shews the rate itself, as applied to surplus labour only, and under the present system of poor laws, to be unobjectionable in principle, as well as beneficial in practice. Conceiving, also, that it answers the "Clerical Magistrate's" objections as to this rate's tendency to "pauperize the whole community," or as to its giving the parish labourer "a right to employment at full wages,” which cannot be whilst it provides only for the employment of those who from necessity come to the parish for relief or work,-and gives encouragement to farmers-first, to employ a due number of independent labourers on their land-and next, a portion of those extra labourers in addition, by relieving them, to a certain extent, (equal only to their assessment for extra parish labour,) from payment to a rate, which must otherwise be levied as a general poor rate, for maintaining, in common with other objects, able-bodied men (as is often the case) in useless labour or in idleness,-at the same time that, in providing against unequal pressure upon the farmer, who is willing to employ his share of labourers, it injures no other class of rate-payers, when fairly and equitably adjusted. Conceiving this to be shewn in the letter which I enclose, I leave it without further remark to your discretion to judge whether worthy, or not, of insertion in your Magazine.

In case, however, it may not be consistent with your practice to insert a letter that has been already published, I subjoin the following brief statement, in answer to objections alleged against the labour rate as if calculated to increase or perpetuate the evils of pauperism, or to injure any class of rate-payers. Admitting that it is not required in well-regulated parishes, or under a good system of poor laws,-I would ask what objection can exist to a labour rate on the following principle:-In parishes where there is superabundant labour, and where farmers, from whatever cause, do not, and will not employ their due proportion of labourers, and where, consequently, numbers

of able-bodied men are thrown out of employment,-in such a case, suppose 50 or 100 labourers thrown on the parish, which must find work or maintenance for them, why not make a separate rate (distinct, as it ought to be, from the common poor rate) for this purpose? And why not allow the rate-payers (who have already their full complement of labourers in employment as fixed by agreement) the option of discharging this rate for labour either by money payment, or (what is far better for all parties) by employing a portion of extra men, to the amount of their assessment to this rate, at not less than stipulated wages? How is any class of rate-payers injured thereby, or how is any one pauperized? Is not the employer, not to say the labourer also, benefited?-the one by having work performed, in return for wages paid, and set off against so much rate for surplus labour,-the other better employed, and likely to earn something more than parish pay; besides the probability of a greater number of labourers being employed in the first instance, independently of rate, in order to entitle farmers to discharge this rate by employment of labourers, which yields some return, instead of money payment, which is wholly unproductive? I trespass no farther than to apologize for this intrusion. I remain, Sir, your very obedient servant,

T. R.*

NOTICES AND REVIEWS.

The Popular Encyclopædia, &c., with Dissertations on Literature by Sir D. Sandford; and, on Science, by Dr. Thomson. Vol. I. part 1. Glasgow:

Blackie and Son. 1833.

THIS is a translation, with improvements, of the celebrated German Conversations-Lexicon, 100,000 copies of which have been sold, and which probably, as a popular Encyclopædia, is unrivalled in all respects. The present work is published in a very beautiful form, and both in typography and plates does great honour to the publishers. One hint must be given them. The articles on matters connected with religion which are inserted in the present edition, as especially connected with the state and history of religion in England, seem to be in a perfectly correct spirit. Not so with the translated ones. The Conversations-Lexicon was always looked upon as very loose, to say the least, in religious matters, and the publishers owe it to themselves to have the future parts most carefully revised. There are several very objectionable articles in the present number. To particularize, the reviewer would direct attention to the articles, Atheism, Apostles, Bahrdt, each of which is very reprehensible, though on different grounds. In Anabaptist, again, by what authority does the writer say, that infant baptism was not the custom of the early church, and that the government of that church was democratic? The article Athanasius is evidently by a different hand-it is excellent. As to politics, do the editors mean to continue the strain which they have sounded in ballot? The reviewer will attend to the progress of this work with anxiety. It bids fair to have large circulation, and the publishers are bound in conscience to remove from it everything which can give loose and false views on religion. If they can do nothing else, let them cut out every article on a religious subject.

• It was impossible to reprint the long letter from the "Herts County Paper."-E».

A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. By Moses Stuart. A new edition by Dr. Henderson. London: Fisher and Jackson. 1833. 1 vol. 8vo. pp. 604.

It is a positive duty to mention this very beautiful and cheap edition of an admirable and most useful work.

Biographical Notices and Remains of A. H. Holyfield, for several years a Clerk in the Office of the London Missionary Society. Compiled by the AssistantSecretary of that Institution. London: W. Walker. 1833. 12mo. pp. 356. A. H. HOLYFIELD seems to have been a very well-disposed and religious young man, who took pains to improve himself, had just respectable abilities, and a good many difficulties to struggle with. But why write the life of a person whose life does not afford one single remarkable event, or differ in any one way from that of ninety-nine religious persons out of a hundred? And why give 120 pages of common-place extracts from the common-place book of such a person? Indeed, one thing only in the book makes it worth taking notice of, which is, the extreme coolness with which persons who hold the opinions of this poor Mr. Holyfield, however little educated, take upon themselves to pronounce upon everybody, and set themselves above their teachers. This poor young man, who really does not seem to have been arrogant by disposition, without any hesitation sets down one bishop as not having any real knowledge of the great doctrines of the church, though his doctrine sounded evangelical; pronounces that in two churches there was no preaching of the Word of God; and that in the third, although there was much to like, yet that the preacher had not yet come to the kingdom of God; finally, writes another clergyman (whom, in general, he approves) a long lecture for the imperfect views in one of his sermons! Is there not, by chance, the least portion of spiritual pride in all this?

By W. Gil

An Argument, a priori, for the Being and Attributes of a God. lespie. Edinburgh: Waugh and Innes. 1833. pp. 67. THIS is evidently the work of a person who has thought much on the subject, and used himself to reasoning. But it is impossible to assent to his reasonings or his conclusions. For the main point of his book (p. 15), "If there be a necessary Being, that must be capable of proof. The proof must be a priori," there is no other proof than this-"Nothing appears to be more unaccountable than that, if there be a necessarily existing being, there can be no way of proving it. To say so seems absurd." Surely in a book which claims to prove things with the regularity of Euclid, such an ipse dixit is very strange. To the reviewer, considering the limits of men's minds, and what is involved in the terms, necessarily existing being, it seems not at all unaccountable nor absurd that there may be no such strict proof as Mr. G. means.

Mr. G.'s proof (which is anything but new, for he will find it noticed even in so common a book as Burnet on the Articles, as an old argument) consists in this-we cannot get rid of the two notions, infinite extension and infinity of duration; therefore, each of them necessarily exists. And hence, there must be a Substance or Being of infinity of extension, and a Substance or Being of infinity of duration necessarily existing. These Beings are necessarily of unity and simplicity, and there can be only one of each such Beings. Again, these two Beings are not different, but identical, or there is necessarily a Being of infinity of expansion and infinity of duration. This Being is necessarily of unity and simplicity, and there is necessarily but one such. Having settled all this, Mr. G. goes on to say, that this Being is necessarily intelligent and allknowing. And his proofs is, that there is intelligence, and intelligence never

began to be, because if it began to be, it must have had a cause, for whatever begins to be must have a cause. And the cause of intelligence must be of intelligence, for what is not of intelligence cannot make intelligence to be. Therefore, &c., &c. Now, Mr. G. here assumes, as an axiom, that whatever begins to be, must have had a cause. Yet he has himself quoted Hume, as the representative of the atheists, stating that this is the question, whether all that begins must have a cause? Mr. G. said that Hume was quite right in objecting to Clarke's assuming this. How then, if he is anxious to convince atheists, comes he to do the very same thing which he found fault with Clarke for doing? He says, indeed, that if this is not assumed, universal scepticism will follow. But what answer is that to the atheist, if you undertake to reason with him on his own grounds, and listen to his miserable juggles with words? Even on Mr. G.'s own shewing, he cannot expect to convince any but those who are not atheists; and such persons are not very likely to accept, as their God, the substance of infinity of extension and duration, whose existence is necessary, because we cannot get rid of the notion of infinity and duration, &c., and who is intelligent, because intelligence is of infinity of duration.

Nine Sermons on the Scriptural Evidence of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity. By the Rev. E. J. Evans, M.A., Vicar of Kilbrong. Dublin Curry & Co. 1833. 8vo. pp. 312.

ALTHOUGH these sermons were written to counteract the evil of a particular publication, (which, as it seems from extracts, was too contemptible for notice,) they will well answer the purpose of any reader who wishes to have set before him shortly and clearly what the church maintains to be the scriptural doctrine of the Trinity. They are pleasantly written, and, in all points, do great credit to Mr. Evans's talents and acquirements.

Social Evils, and their Remedy. No. I. By the Rev. C. B. Tayler, M.A. London Smith and Elder. 1833. pp. 121.

WHEN it is said that this book has been violently abused in the Monthly Repository, it needs no more to shew that it is calculated to benefit mankind, to encourage every kind and Christian feeling, and discourage all that most tends to injure the peace, comfort, and happiness of society. This too, would be clear to all who knew Mr. Tayler's former writings.

Twelve Plain Sermons preached in a Village Church. London: Rivingtons. 1833. 12mo. pp. 236.

WHOEVER the author of these sermons is, he well understands writing for the people-a matter which some people think very easy, but which is, in good truth, the hardest thing in the world, and the least understood. What is curious too is, that it is very hard to persuade people, especially those used to town poor, that they cannot, without long familiarity with agricultural poor, write for them. The author of these sermons knows perfectly the form which their thoughts take, and the words in which those thoughts express themselves. He would be understood at once and better than almost any modern sermon writer, and his right feelings make him deserve to be so. The only fault which the Reviewer observes is a little sameness in the arrangement, which may be tiresome. See pp. 4-6, 6-9. He would also suggest another sermon in lieu of No. 3: That sorrow cannot be compared with human sorrow, or so made intelligible.

Counsels and Consolations, &c. &c. By Jonathan Farr. London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1834. 18mo. pp. 129.

THIS is, it is presumed, an American book, reprinted here. And what will not particularly please the publishers to know perhaps is, that in all appearance it is the work of an American Unitarian. We have, to be sure, as in many Unitarian books, certain phrases, as faith in Christ,' 'flying to the cross of Christ,' believing in Christ,' to all of which the Unitarian affixes a different sense; but the great doctrine, i. e., the Atonement, does not appear; and pp. 177 and 195 are the only ones from which, as it seems to the Reviewer, any doubt can exist as to the writer's principles. At the same time, there is nothing positively erroneous. It is only deficiency. But what a deficiency! What are the real comforts of the gospel to him who does not believe in the

atonement?

Church Rates lawful, but not always expedient, &c. &c. A Sermon. By the Rev. C. Girdlestone.

Ir cannot be denied that Mr. Girdlestone has an unrivalled talent in hitting on the happy moment for publishing his opinions. No time can be better than the present, undoubtedly, for declaring that church rates are not always expedient. However, one was happy to find that one had, at all events, his authority for saying that they are lawful. But the satisfaction did not last long; for Mr. G. and other people would not take the word lawful, quite in the same sense here. He proves most satisfactorily that it is not unlawful to pay them, if you please-that there is no crime in it which will weigh down the conscience hereafter! This is assisting the church in her hour of need in a very peculiar way indeed.

EDINBURGH CABINET LIBRARY. VOL. XIII. History of Arabia, Ancient and Modern. In 2 vols. By Andrew Crichton. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. 1833.

THIS Cabinet Library maintains its high character, and does the greatest credit to its publishers. It is not, like half the trash of the present day, put together without thought and care, with no recommendation but being short and cheap, and the great objection of being superficial and ignorant; but, in every case which the reviewer has seen, has evidently had long care and thought bestowed upon it by most competent persons. Mr. Crichton's history of Arabia is very valuable, and shews that he has carefully studied and judiciously selected the best parts of the best writers, who, for ordinary readers, are quite out of the question. There is excellent feeling through the book, and a very pleasant style. To those who wish to read scripture with advantage, such a book is of very great value.

MISCELLANEA.

LEARNED ASSAILANTS OF THE CHURCH.

THE assailants of the church are, in one respect, truly courageous people. There is no degree of ignorance of which they are ashamed. The learned Mr. Howitt set up a short time ago for the Historian of Priestcraft, and he shewed his great competence for writing history by making Selden a bishop! and Tillotson a member of the Assembly of divines! The un-Christian Advo