Hollanders began to send vessels to Scotland, in order to purchase herrings. This practice continued until the fourteenth century, when being at enmity with the Scots, they proceeded to take the fish themselves. Since that period the fisheries in creased so rapidly, and their profits became so great, that they were considered as the chief source of the fiches of Holland. It became, to speak metaphorically, the cradle of her marine, and the nursery of her seamen. The above, and indeed, all the other fisheries, in which the subjects of the United Provinces are engaged, fourished considerably at the accession of JAMES I. which circumstance naturally revived the former jealousies of that prince. "When king of Scotland, he exerted himself to secure to his subjects. so productive a branch of industry and commerce, on their own coasts. He restrained the Dutch from fishing within the distance of eight miles from the coast. On succeeding to the throne of England, he interdicted the fisheries on the coasts of his three kingdoms to foreigners, declaring, that he would oppose all who should attempt to usurp, or to partake of this right; regarding it as the most essential, as well as the most obvious right of his crown, on account of the sovereignty which he claimed over all the British seas. He appointed commissioners at London and Edinburgh for the regula. tion of these matters, and charged them not to grant the liberty of fishing but for certain pecuniary considerations." p. 105, 106. Book III. contains a description of the great maritime power and commercial prosperity of the Dutch, with the attempt of CROMWELL to reduce them. The particular circumstances of the several actions during the naval wars between the English and the Dutch, which continued until an advanced period of the reign of CHARLES II. when the Dutch sued for peace. It also gives an account of the weak state of the French marine, during the minority of Louis XIV. and the great exertions made under that prince for its re-establishment, and concludes with detailing the various operations of the English * See justificatory document, in the Appendix, No. 1. and French navies, in the wars between those countries, until the death of WILLIAM III. Book IV. commences with the state of the English marine at the death of WILLIAM III. and proceeds to the history of the war undertaken by Queen ANNE against France; with a particular account of these se veral wars in which Great Britain was engaged with France in the reigns of her successors, concluding with the various important operations of the respective powers, and the progressive state of the naval power of Great Britain, with its influence on that of France, is regularly considered until the period of the American revolution, on which event the Aus thor offers some observations, and addresses the people of Europe. The next subject is, observations upon the most material articles of the Navigation Act, which is followed by an appendix, containing papers relative to politics, and circumstances at tending some of the naval actions re corded in the body of the work. From the appendix we present our readers with the account of the advantages the Dutch derived from the herring fishery. "We may form a judgment of the “ ། flourishing state to which the Dutch fisheries had arrived at the commencement of the reign of JAMES I. by the details we find upon this subject, in a memoir presented in 1604, to the council of Madrid, and which we have extracted from valuable collections in MS. of the learned and laborious PEIRESC. We shall content ourselves by giving, in this place, a succinct detail of this article; the Author arranges all their fisheries into five principal divisions. "Ist, That of the fresh-herring fishery, in which six hundred vessels are employed, with a complement of ten men each, and carrying from ten to twenty-five lasts, each estimated. at two tons, or four thousand pounds weight, and containing twelve barrels of one thousand herrings; this employs and maintains six thousand men. 2nd. The great herring-fishery, in which three thousand vessels are employed, of thirty and forty lasts, the former manned with ten men, and the latter with fifteen, employing thirty-seven thousand five hundred men. "3d, That of chub-fish, of salmon, &c. called the winter fishery, occupies six hundred barks, of from ten to fifteen lasts, with a complement of eight men each, of which the total amount is four thousand eight hundred men. "4th, That of dried herrings, in which a thousand small vessels, of four lasts, are employed, of six men each, maintaining six thousand men. 5th, The inland fishery upon the lakes, rivers, &c. which takes up six hundred boats with five men each, and employs annually three thousand persons. "The sum total of those who gained their livelihood by the different fisheries, amounted then, in 1604, to fifty seven thousand three hundred men. The revenue which the republic gathered upon their produce, amounted at that time to four millions nine hundred and forty-two thousand five hundred florins; a sum with which, says our Author, the rebels so powerfully supported the war against their king.' " On the subject of the two tables subjoined, the Author in an advertisement prefixed to the work, observes, whatever the accuracy of those statements may be, the interest of a comparison between them and the English marine at the death of Queen Elizabeth, is not diminished. In that view we have placed the list of the ships of that princess (as stated by Sir William Monson) before the table of the British naval force from 1688 to 1777. In the former, the ordnance is not specified, but the number of artillerists will suffice to give an idea of its amount. In the latter table we have pointed out by two asterisks in the column, those periods in which we have found it impracticable to gain accurate information of the number of ships on the stocks or under repair. STATE OF THE ENGLISH MA RINE AT THE DEATH OF QUEEN TABLE OF THE NAVAL FORCES OF ENGLAND, FROM THE YEAR 1688 TO THE YEAR 1777. All on the stocks, and of which five were three-deckers, seventeen two-deckers, and five frigates. N N the introduction to this work, the anonymous author briefly considers the importance of an established order of men, i. e. the clergy, for the propagation and preservation of Christianity. The work is then divided into three parts. In part I. the writer enquires, "Whether the use and establishment of Curates or substitutes among the clergy, be agreeable to the laws of the gospel relative to its ministers, and to the primitive constitution of the church of England?" On both VOL. I. these questions he argues in the negative; that it is not agreeable to the laws of the gospel, he infers, first, from the nature of the Christian ministry; 2d, from the various characters which the ministers of the gospel sustain in Scripture, as shepherds, watchmen, &c. and 3d, from the personal account which they must one day render to their judge. That the establishment of curacies is not agreeable to the antient constitution of the church of England, he endeavours to prove from the history and canons of this church. About the close of the sixth century, Austin and his clergy were established at Canterbury, on the principle of equal duty and provision; constantly itinerating in their respective circuits, and being supported by a common fund: and as Christianity spread through the heptarchy, this writer X contends the same plan was adopted in the other provinces, no church being appropriated to any particular minister, except the cathedral, where the bishop statedly resided and officiated. At length, when the whole country became Christian, it was found, that by this method the remote districts were but irregularly and imperfectly supplied with the means of public worship, and to remedy this, stated ministers were appointed to the various churches, which laid the foundation for dividing the country into parishes at a subsequent period. At first, however, our Au. thor insists on it that they were all supplied from the public stock, so that the ministers of the poorer districts were assisted from the income of the richer. In process of time, however, as the nobility built and endowed churches, they insisted that the priests who supplied them should enjoy the fruit of their respective labours, and that their endowments should be confined solely to their own ministers. "And conformably to this design and end," says our Author, " no clergyman before the period of the Norman conquest had more than one church; this he was to consider and love as his lawful wife, and thereat he was obliged to reside and officiate till death. He was not allowed to resign or relinquish it; nor could he be removed from it, unless the bishop, for some very particular reason, should permit it; and if, on some extraordinary account, the bishop granted any clergyman leave to remove to another church, he did not think of retaining his former benefice along with it, and biring another in his room to perform its duties, whilst he himself received the revenues. Such an idea never entered the minds of the English clergy of these ages; and such a desire or attempt would have been considered as criminal as adultery, fraud, and oppression. Every priest deemed himself bound in duty to perform his sacred function, and considered the benefice as inseparably connected with the office. They thought themselves justly entitled to reward from the laity, in consideration of the religious services which they rendered them; and if, after the performance of such services they would have thought it unreasonable and unjust to be denied the due recompence of their labours, it must have seemed to them equally unjust to receive the reward without performing the offices for which it was designed and appointed. "The laws of the church, prior to the Norman conquest, are founded on these obvious principles of common equity and reciprocal justice between the clergy and laity, and were conscientiously acted upon and observed by both parties. The inference, therefore, manifestly deducible from this view of the primitive constitution of the clergy in the English church is this; that the use of substitutes by the beneficed clergy is so far from receiving any support from it, that it is directly repugnant to its design and end, and to all the laws on which it was founded; and that the establishment of curates has no precedent to sanction it in the history of the clergy for nearly a thousand years from the first promulgation of Christianity." Part II. contains "an enquiry into the causes which first induced the clergy to the employment of substitutes, and into the principles on which the establishment of curates was founded." The causes are here stated to be, 1. "The appointment of foreigners to English benefices,” in consequence of the Norman conquest. 2dly, "The institution of clerks in inferior orders to ecclesiastical benefices," when they were not qualified to officiate themselves. 3dly, The appropriation of churches" to the various societies of the religious, to collegiate bodies, and laymen; and 4thly, Pluralities and non-residence, which were the last, and now remain the only cause of a poor and stipendiary clergy" Under this section the Author gives a history of the rise and progress of these evils, and of the various attempts that have been made to check or remedy them. Part III. contains an "Enquiry, whether the employment of substitutes, or curates, by the beneficed clergy tends to promote the interests of religion and virtue?" The first ground on which the writer argues is, that a sufficient and liberal support is necessary to the respectability of the order, and that this has not generally been afforded he offers evidence both before and since the Reformation. He informs us, that" during the reign of Henry VIII. Edward VI. and Mary, many curates were hired for twenty and thirty shillings with meat and drink, some for meat and drink only, and others were obliged to put themselves into gentlemen's houses, and procure a pittance there by the performance of secular and servile offices. "Under the government of Elizabeth and James, the people always complained of having very simple curates for their religious instructors, men who did not pretend to preach, who could scarcely read, and were content to serve for ten groats a year, and a canvass doublet; procuring their living by some secular art or occupation. For the patrons of benefices would hire a poor yngram soul to bear the name of a parson for twenty marks, or ten pounds, a year, whilst they themselves took up for their snap-share as good as a hundred, by which means learning was decayed, England was dishonoured, and honesty not regarded,' in the next reign, though the acts of the usurped powers were declared null and void, something was thought necessary to be done for the relief of the officiating clergy, and though the parliament declined, the king issued several injunctions in their favour. Still, however, complaints were made in parliament, that "mean and stipendiary preachers were entertained to serve the cures in many places," and the Author endeavours to shew, that notwithstanding all the measures adapted in subsequent reigns for their relief, the same evils remain, and the same complaints exist, even in the present day; and thus, he says, "the national establishment of curates, from its first foundation to the present moment, presents one uniform system of injustice and oppression." p. 354. Our Author next considers the scandal occasioned to the laity by this partial and unequal establish ment of the clergy-the occasion it has given for the reproach of infidels -the indolent habits it has introduced-the check it gives to clerical charity and hospitality-and the degradation it puts upon the sacred order. XLII. THE most remarkable year in the Life of AUGUSTUS VON KorZEBUE; containing an Account of his Exile in Siberia, and of the other extraordinary Events which happened to him in Russia. Written by himself. Translated from the German by the Rev. B. Beresford. 3 vols. 18m9. (With a Portrait by Hopwood, and other Plates) about 850 pp. HE exile of this celebrated dra THE matic writer is an event notorious to all Europe; and these volumes contain its history. In April, 1800, Mr. von Kotzebue set out for Russia, accompanied by his wife, who was a native of that country, on a visit to her relatives and friends, but at Polangen he was arrested-his trunks sealed-and his papers forwarded to government. To satisfy the public that they contained no sufficient reason for his arrest, the writer gives a minute detail of their contents, being letters, medical receipts, dramatic sketches, and private memorandums. On one of the articles he has the following remarks. Weimar almanack interleaved. I had "A imitated the idea of Franklin's, which, if I am not mistaken, had been published in the Berlin Journal. This great man had scrupulously examined, and made a kind of table of all his failings, with a firm resolution by degrees to amend them; devoting every evening to this plan of self-examination, he became wiser and better, till, at length, he acquired an entire controul over his passions. At whatever distance I remained from my model, I had at least endeavoured to execute his wise and good intentions, and I can declare with truth that the expedient was attended with considerable success, I can even recommend this method from my own experience to every man who has his moral improvement at heart. He will insensibly feel a kind of terror on examining his almanack; he will dread to find the leaves too full of self-reproaches, and often, very often will check the passion ready to obtain the mastery over him, on the recollection that, at night, it will be necessary to put down the particulars faithfully on the paper.' Upon arriving at Mittau, Mr. von K. was introduced to the governor, with whose person he had some previous acquaintance, and whose character he much respected; and assured him he thought himself very fortunate in being able to assert his innocence before him, requesting him |