very important point; however, let us endeavour to fettle it, fince it lies in our way. Whatever concerns and affects the intereft, the welfare and happiness of a whole people, is, and muft be, of a public nature, whether papers, letters, or any. other thing whatsoever. Good and evil are not matters of law or of logic. They are the most, if not the only effential cir cumftances of the world. They are what every thing elfe refers to. They ftamp an eternal mark and difference on all things which even imagination cannot cancel or erafe. The enjoyment of the one, and the avoiding of the other, is the very end of our being, and likewise of all the beings which do, or which even can, be fuppofed to exift, and which have a fenfe and perception of them. Whatever therefore relates to the general good and evil of a people, is of a public nature. It is that circumftance which makes it fo. The terms are as good as fynonymous. Whatever concerns on the contrary, only this or that individual, is of a private nature. It is confined to his or their happiness or welfare; to his or their good and evil. There is again the true and unerring diftinction. These things feem clear to the greatest degree of intuitive certainty. It is ftrange to be forced to reafon about them. However, we are told otherwise. If fome compliments happen in a letter to be made to an old Lady, it changes the effence of every thing; The contracts and confines the whole matter, and all becomes of a private nature, although the chief subject of that very letter, fhould be to advise and point out the means of altering the charter, and of new modelling the conftitution of a colony; and that there fhould be recommended therein, the finding fome way according to its own language, "to take off the original incendiaries," left they fhould continue to inftil their poifon into the minds of the people;" but the mention of the old Lady makes it all private. (See Mr. Wedderburn's speech, page 94, and letter of Mr. A. Oliver, Feb. 13, 1769.) But fuppofe that thefe letters were really meant and intended to produce public effects, what will that do ?-Nothing at all. If the person had not at that moment a place, to whom they were written, it fignifies nothing; although he might have had a poft before, and might look for one again, and although he might have communicated these letters to others for the very purpose of affecting the public.. All this will be of no importance, if the perfon did not happen to have a place at the time. Would not one be tempted to think, that as fome endeavour to leave no property in America, others have a mind to -banith all human reafon out of American affairs?"

The following paffage relating to a very great and a very good man, deferves particular notice: But our Colonies might be well enough, were it not for Dr. Franklin, who has

with a brand lighted from the clouds, fet fire to all America.➡ No governments care ever to acknowledge the people to be fairly against them. For whatever may be the cafe with the opinions of the multitude, in abftrufe and refined matters, which but little concern them, nor do they much trouble themfelves about; yet the end, and therefore the touchftone and trial of all government being their welfare and happiness, there is hardly common modefty in affecting to defpife and refuse their fenfe concerning their own good and evil, their own feelings, benefits or fufferings. It is in these things that the voice of the people is faid to approach that of their Maker. The fycophants of Minifters, endeavour therefore to throw on the artifice and influence of individuals, all difcontent or diffatisfaction of the public. Mr. Wilkes moves England, and Dr. Franklin America; as if we had here no feeling, but through the firft, and they had neither eyes nor ears, but by the latter. It were happy for mankind, if Administrations procured their own votes and majorities, with as much fairness, as the voice of the people is commonly obtained. I wonder whether we fhould then have ever heard of any government in Europe indebted in the sum of a hundred and forty millions fterling, or be at this moment under the alarm of a parent state attacking its own Colonies, or of a great Empire fetting at work its fleets and armies, only to throw the parts of itself into mischief and confufion. It is idle and childish to be crying out against this or that private perfon. The truth is, that whenever governments heap up combuftibles, there will always be found a hand to put the match to them, or thefe would heat and fire of themfelves if there were not.'

When the candid and difcerning Reader has accompanied us through these extracts, we imagine it will not be necessary to recommend to him the perufal of the Pamphlet at large.

ART. X. A Review of fome of the Articles of the Church of England, to which a Subfcription is required of Proteftant Diffenting Minifers. By Samuel Wilton. 8vo. 45. Buckland, &c. 1774

HIS fenfible and judicious Review is intended to serve the great and important caufe of religious liberty, and to promote that esteem and veneration for the Sacred Scriptures which all Proteftants ought ever zealously to maintain.

• Some few perfons (fays Mr. Wilton in his preface) who are separated from the Communion of the Church of England, appear to be not only fully fatisfied with the authority of the Magiftrate, to impofe a fubfcription to human explanatory Articles upon the confciences of Chriftians; but also to be perfectly enamoured with all thofe Articles, to which a fubfcription is now required of Proteffant Diffenting Ministers. Hence

they

they vehemently oppofed the relief of more fcrupulous confci→ ences, upon the apparent prefumption, that however any propofed alteration might favour the majority of Diffenting Minifters, it would have fome very injurious influence upon their hopes, their comfort, and their obedience. Chriftian charity would therefore forbid an attempt, which, if crowned with fuccefs, would be productive of fuch unhappy confequences to any of our Fellow chriftians. But as I was firmly perfuaded, that the facred Scriptures, without the aid of established Creeds, are fufficient to answer every purpofe neceflary to Chriftian edification and confolation; fo it alfo appeared to me, that many of the Articles to which our fubfcription is required, were very far from having the most remote tendency to thefe ends; and that fome of them feemed to wear a very contrary afpect. This ap prehenfion led me in a former publication, to intimate my fufpicions, that the high opinion fome Diffenters entertained of the Articles, was grounded upon a very imperfect examination into their true meaning; and that a voluntary fubfcription to them, had in all probability frequently refulted, from a general apprehenfion of their orthodoxy, without entering into a critical inquiry into the fenfe of each. The Expofition here attempted, is defigned more fully to juftify the representation therein given. Upon this account, I have frequently brought into view, the high encomium paffed upon the Articles by our protesting Brethren, that the propriety of my conclufion may be more eafily determined. To this end, I have endeavoured to inveftigate the genuine fenfe of fome of the Articles, and to point out the difficulties of fubfcription thence refulting, to Protestant Diffenters of every denomination. I have confined my attention to objections of this general nature. The authorities produced in fupport of the feveral explications, will, I hope, be thought unexceptionable by every candid and impartial Reader. It has been my ftudy that they should be fo. And if the teftimony of Divines of the Church of England, and the decifions of the Canon Law are called in queftion, it will be impoffible to find any authority which will not be difputed.'

The Articles which Mr. Wilton reviews are-the 3d, 4th; 6th, 8th, 230, 33d, and 37th, and, in our opinion, he clearly proves that they must be liable to exception by every Proteftand Diffenting Minifter. Before he enters upon the examination of thefe Articles, he thinks it neceffary to anfwet a question which has been frequently agitated, and very warmly debated, viz. In what fense are we required to fubfcribe the Articles of the Church of England? He answers, in the plain, literal, grammatical sense, as understood when the Articles were set forth by public authority. In confirmation of the propriety of this folution, we need only attend, he fays, to the language of the REV. May 1774. Royal

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Royal Declaration; a Declaration, which will by no means admit of the fubterfuges, to which many ingenious Writers have had recourfe, to justify a fubfcription to Articles which they do not believe. It is the declared end of the requifition, to bubid diverfities of opinions, and to establish confent touching true Religion.· In reference to this end, the Royal Declaration prohibits the.. leaft difference from the Articles in the most explicit terms,‹ 1 biz. We will that no man hereafter shall either print or preach 10, draw the Article afide any way, but fall fubmit to it in the plain and full meaning thereof; and fhall not put his own fenfe or comment to bë the meaning of the Article, but shall take it in the literal and grammatical fenfe.

Towards the clofe of his Review of the Articles, Mr. Wil fon confiders the oppofition of the Bishops to the Diffenters Bill, and makes fome very pertinent reflections upon it.

For a further idea of this Writer, see our account of his Apology for the Removal of an Application to Parliament by the Proteftant Diffenting Minifters. Review, vol. xlviii, p. 420.

ART. XI. Obfervations upon Lightning, and the Method of fecuring Buildings from it's Effects, in a Letter to Sir Charles Frederick, &c. By B. Wilson, F. R. S. &c. 4to. 2s. 6d. Davis. 1773....

LTHOUGH electricians univerfally agree in opinion

A concerning the utility of metallic conductors, a fchifm

has for fome time paft fubfifted among them, with regard to the proper form in which the upper part of the conducting rod ought to terminate. Dr. Franklin, and, we believe, a very con fiderable majority of thofe who have ftudied this question, give a decifive preference to pointed rods; on an expectation, feemingly founded on the jufteft analogy, that they may, in fime cafes, prevent a difcharge, by filently attracting, or tranfmitting, the electric fluid, when a pofitively or negatively charged electric cloud comes within their influence: and that, in all cafes, they tend to diminifh the magnitude or violence of an unavoidable explosion; while they are undoubtedly as well adapted as blunc conductors, to carry off its contents.

For thefe and other reafons, we apprehend, a committee lately appointed by the Royal Society, at the inftance of the Board of Ordnance, to confider of the beft method of fecuring his Majefty's magazines of gunpowder at Purfleet from accidents by lightning, recommended the erection of elevated and pointed conductors.

Mr. Wilson, on the contrary, has long contended that the upper part of a conducting apparatus ought to terminate in a knob, or flat furface. He maintains that, as fharp points folieit or invite the lightning, or electric matter, they must confe

quently

quently increafe the magnitude of the explofion, and muft likewife frequently occafion one that might otherwife have been avoided. The other arguments which he produces in fupport of his opinion are not unknown to thofe who are converfant in this inquiry; whom we must refer to the prefent pamphlet for the further reasons which induced him to exprefs his diffent to the report of the aforefaid committee, of which he was a member.

We fhall however mention one curious observation on the effects of a thunder-ftorm, related in Mr. Wilfon's letter to Sir Charles Frederick, and in another addreffed to the Author by Mr. Delaval, who concurs with him in the electrical herefy concerning points. From their united teftimony, and the evidence of Mr. Gould, verger of St. Paul's, it appears that the conducting apparatus fo lately put up at that cathedral, has already once manifeftly answered the purpofe for which it was erected'; and that on examination it evidently carried marks of its having conducted a large ftroke of lightning, proceeding from the great thunder-cloud in which the city of London was involved on the 22d of March 1772. On the following day it was found that the conductor, to the Eaft, particularly, where it goes into the water-trunk, fhewed evident figns that it had been red hot while in other parts the iron, as well as ftones near it, was blackened by fmoke; and a thick ruft that had been formed on the furface of the metal was, by the lateral force, beaten off and removed to fome diftance from it."

Thefe appearances in particular are employed by Mr. Wilfon in confirmation of fome of his opinions; and efpecially to fhew that this Abble fabric, though provided with a conductor, poffibly escaped deftruction because the rod was not pointed. We hall only obferve in general, that the force of his reafonings on them appears, in fome degree, to be leffened by a to fact mentioned in the note at page 14,3 we are told that • the conducting iron did not touch the lead.-A part therefore, at leaft, of the abovementioned effects produced by the lightning, on a bar of iron near four inches broad, and about half an inch thick, and in particular thofe caufed by the lateral explosion, appear to us to have been owing, in a great measure, to the interruption which the electric fluid met with in its courfe, in consequence of the difcontinuity of the conductor :— a defect, which, we fhould hope, has by this time been remedied.

We fhall only further add, that the abovementioned incident, fuggests to us the propriety of fixing the conducting apparatus in fuch a manner, that no part of it may be in contact with any combustible fubftance as otherwife the rod, which has effectually protected a building from the explosive power of the light

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ning,