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Difcourfes on various Subjects, Evangelical and Practical. By the Rev. Hugh Worthington, A. M. 8vo. 5s. in Boards.

Buckland.

THE

'HE author's professed design in these Difcourfes is to affift in establishing revealed, on the firm bafis of natural religion, and to reprefent the peculiar doctrines of the Gofpel in a light worthy of God's moral attributes, and perfectly confonant to reafon. Thefe fermons are more diftinguished by good fenfe than by marks of originality or flights of eloquence. Indeed there appears in them little pretenfion to either. They are compofed in a clear, manly, and not inelegant ftyle. The reasoning is generally clofe, and the arguments cogent; and we think our author cannot have laboured without effect toward the furtherance of his main defign.

The fubjects of thefe Difcourfes are as follow.—' I. II. A Vindication of Divine Providence.-III. The Wisdom of Jefus as a public Teacher.-IV. The Neceffity of ferious Attention in hearing the Word.-V. The Goodnefs of God an Object of Fear.-VI. VII. On the State of Human Nature.-VIII. God's Impartiality in his Dealings with Men.-IX. On the New Birth.-X. On the Love of God.-XI. On the Propitiation of Jefus Chrift.-XII. XIII. Our Calling and Election made fure.-XIV. On Juftification by Faith.-XV. On the Nature and Effects of good and bad Habits.-XVI. On the deceitful Nature and hardening Tendency of Sin.-XVII. Of the Evil of Instability.-XVIII. Autumnal Reflections.'

In the eighth Discourse on God's Impartiality in his Dealings with Men, Mr. Worthington explains his vifiting the iniquities of the father upon the children, in the following manner, which our readers may not find unfatisfactory.

This may be thus illuftrated: when a nobleman is guilty of treafon, by the law he forfeits his title and eftate; the king takes them away from him, and therefore his children, in fucceeding generations, are deprived of nobility and fortune; in this manner may he be faid to vifit the treafon of the father on the children through all future generations. The king is not angry with the children for what their father did, they are not executed with him, nor is any punishment immediately inflicted on them; they only fuffer the natural confequence of their father's crime and punishment. This is very intelligible to common understandings, and well explains the conduct of the Moft High, as spoken of in the fecond commandment.

And in a fimilar way he vifits the iniquity of our first parents upon their children through all generations; for their in, God made them fubject to infirmities, fick nefs, and death, which in courfe are entailed on their pofterity; thus, although God does not impute their fin to us, as if we were guilty of

eating the forbidden fruit, yet, in the fixed courfe of nature, we without any injustice in God fuffer for it; we inherit infir mity, fickness, and death. Thefe are only temporary difadvantages or trials, not guilt or final destruction. Therefore the ways of God are equal; he is angry with no man for what he never did, neither was acceffary to; the fon fhall not bear the iniquity of the father, as he faith, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the fon; but the foul that finneth, that foul fhall die.

Thus you fee that God's impartiality in rewarding and punishing is grounded on the relation which all fouls ftand in to him; that all fouls are equally his; according as it is faid, he is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.'

A Syftem of the Law of Marine Insurances, with Three Chapters on Bottomry; on Infurances on Lives; and on Infurances against Fire. By James Allan Park, Efq. 8vo. 10s. 6d. in Boards.

Whieldon.

THE Law of Marine Infurances, until within these thirty years, was very imperfect: it is now a large, complicated fyftem of jurifprudence, but fufficiently understood. The plaftic hand of a mafter has been gradually moulding it into a rational form, not from any original and extenfivé views, but by applying the legal doctrines of the ftatutes to the particular cafes which arofe; by connecting eath properly with the other; and, where the law was imperfect, fupplying the imperfections by decifions grounded on their fpirit, and the customs of the best regulated commercial states. Commerce is a fyftem gradually accumulating, and it is now extended far beyond the bounds which the most active and terprifing nations ever knew. In proportion to its extent, it must be a complicated fyftem; and the legal decifions must be as numerous as the new questions which may arife in the varied combination of contefled opinions, or jarring interefts. There should, however, be a period, from which we can fafely fur vey what is past, and from which future collectors may proceed. This compilation, which is executed with great attention, will properly afford fuch a period.

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The arrangement is all that Mr. Park claims as his own. It is a very good one; and his own account of it will afford an ufeful analysis of the work itself.

As the policy is the foundation upon which the whole contract depends, I have begun with that, and endeavoured to fhew it's nature and it's various kinds; and I have also pointed out the requifites which a policy muft contain, their reafon and origin, as they are to be collected from decided cafes, or the fage of merchants. When we have afcertained the nature of

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a policy, the next object is to difcover by what general rules courts of justice have guided themselves in their conftruction of this fpecies of contract. It is then neceffary to defcend to a more particular view of the fubject, and to fix with accuracy and precifion thofe accidents, which fhall be deemed loffes within certain words ufed in the policy. Thus, loffes by perils of the fea, by capture, by detention, and by barratry, will be a material ground of confideration. When a lofs happens, it muft either be a partial, or a total lofs; and hence it becomes neceffary to afcertain in what inftances a lofs fhall only be deemed partial, in what cafes it fhall be confidered as total; and how the amount of a partial lofs is to be fettled: hence also arifes the doctrine of average, falvage, and abandonment. These points, therefore, will be the next object of attention.

• Having confidered the various inftances in which the underwriter will be liable upon his policy, either for a part, or for the whole amount, of his fubfcription; we seem to be naturally led to the confideration of thofe cafes in which the underwriter is released from his refponfibility. This may happen in several ways for fometimes the policy is void from the beginning, on account of fraud; of the hip not being fea worthy; or of the voyage infured being prohibited. There are alfo cafes in which the infurer is discharged, because the infured has failed in the performance of thofe conditions which he had undertaken to fulfil; fuch as the non-compliance with warranties, and deviating from the voyage infured: thefe and many other points of the fame nature occupy feveral chapters.

When the under-writer has never run any risk, it would be unconscionable that he fhould retain the premium: therefore, after confidering those instances in which this is the cafe, it is natural next to afcertain in what cafes the under-writer fhould retain, and in what cafes he should return the premium.

It would be in vain to tell a man that he was entitled to the affiftance of the law, and that his cafe was equitable and right, without pointing out in what form and by what mode of proceeding he should feek a remedy. I have endeavoured to point out the proper tribunal to which a perfon injured is to apply, the mode of proceeding which he is to adopt, and the nature of the evidence he must adduce to fubftantiate his claim with respect to this contract: after the difcuffion of marine infurances, I have added three chapters upon fubjects, which, though they do not form a part of the plan, are fo materially connected with it in the rules and principles of decifion, that it seemed to me the work would be deficient without them: thefe are, bottomry and refpondentia, insurances upon lives, and infurances against fire.'

The Introduction was defigned to give a fhort account of the rife and progrefs of insurances in this country. It is now extended to a Short Hiftory of Naval Jurifprudence, in which the origin of insurances is particularly confidered. This Hif

tory

tory is compiled from the best authors: Mr. Park has advanced little from himfelf; but he has collected with care, and employed his collections with addrefs. His ftyle is neat, fimple, and perfpicuous.

The origin of insurance he attributes to the Lombards, who' fettled in England about the thirteenth century. It does not appear in any code of marine jurifprudence till the publication of the Wisbuy code. The laws of Oléron, which were promulgated by Richard the First, about the clofe of the twelfth century, do not mention it. Notwithstanding the Lombards arrived fo early, and that they indifputably introduced this kind of contract into England, we fufpect that it originated in the North. The date of the Wifbuy code is indeed uncertain: we are inclined to adopt the opinions of those who bring it much below the establishment of the laws of Oleron; but it is highly probable, that the institutions there promulgated were not framed at that time, but had been adopted, in commerce, long before, perhaps before the existence of Wifbuy as a city. The established code only gave it confiftency and authority. It is, therefore, more reasonable to fuppofe that the Lombards learned this custom in the North, and brought it from thence to England; for it would feem extraordinary, that, if it had been common in Italy, Richard fhould not be acquainted with it; or if he was acquainted with the use of contracts of fo much confequence, that he should not have added fome regulations concerning them to his own code.

The author clearly fhows, that the law of infurances was little understood in England for many years after the practice was known. In fact, it grew with the growth of commerce, and increased with its ftrength. In this work he explains the fyftem as it now ftands; points out the fucceffive improvements which have been made by enacting falutary laws, and endeavours to fhow that the conftruction of thefe laws is at once liberal, judicious, and well adapted to establish a great commercial fyftem.

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We cannot give fpecimens of the execution of particular parts it is enough to obferve that, in the beginning of each chapter, he establishes the principles on which the cafes de pend; connects thefe principles afterwards with the cafes; and points out the diftinctions on which the exceptions depend, This part of his task is performed with accuracy; and we have reafon to be fatisfied with the fidelity of the reports. At the end are added the forms of different policies, and of refpondentia bonds,

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Monafticon Hibernicum; or, an Hiftory of the Abbies, Priories, and other Religious Houfes in Ireland. By Mervyn Archdali, A. M. 416. l. 5s. in Boards. Robinfons.

THE

'HE Irish writers probably exaggerate the accounts of the very early civilization of their country, and of the learned men which it had produced, when fcience was almost loft in Europe. Yet they have clearly fhown that, when the continent yielded to the ravages of the barbarous hordes from the North, literature found an afylum on the fhores of the Atlantic. Monaftic inftitutions have had their hours of triumph, and are now on the eve of their total decline: let us look at them, without prejudice, in a political light, or the hatred which a confideration of their numerous abufes must inspire. If we confider the state of society at that period, the turbulence of the feudal lords, the difficulty of finding a protector, without acknowledging a master, the monaftery was an useful retreat. To the unaffifted virgin it was an afylum; to the unfortunate and the disappointed, a moft happy relief from cares and vexation. Under the garb of religion, which at first protected them, they feemed, long after their utility vas no more, too facred to be affaulted by the fecular arm, which Low hangs over them, almost ready to inflict the fatal blow. After another century, they will probably be known little more than by name. To thefe inftitutions Ireland owed the prefervation of many sparks of literature, which never rofe, in that country, to any diftinguished height. The fons of Ireland carried them, however, to diftant kingdoms, and fpread the enlivening flame, which fostered the remains of fcience in Europe. From the introduction of Chriftianity into Ireland, in the fifth century, monaftic inftitutions foon became nume rous the foil was congenial to their nature, and they flourifhed with vigour and luxuriance. They have not yet had their historian: another Dugdale was required. Our author has sketched out a bold and extenfive outline. With great labour he has acquired much important information, which, if properly encouraged, he will probably publish at length; in this volume he has only given the heads of a future work, which we think will be both interefting and valuable, and which we earnestly hope will not be fuffered to moulder in oblivion.

The hiftory of monachifm, in this ifle, fays our able and well-informed author, like the edifices it once reared, is almost an heap of ruins; it was time to collect and preferve its fragments, and thereby to fave it from utter oblivion; the attempt has met the approbation, and, it is humbly hoped, the execu→

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