MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For JUNE, 1802. MILITARY. Art. 16. The Field Engineer's Vade-Mecum. By J. Landmann, Professor of Fortification and Artillery to the Royal Military Aca demy at Woolwich. 8vo. pp. 123. Three Plates, and Seventynine Figures of Problems. 75. Boards. Egerton. 1802. THIS work is in all respects worthy of its intelligent and amiable author. It consists of an excellent system of Practical Geometry on the Ground,' and a very instructive Introduction to Reconnoitring. Part 1. contains fifty-eight useful problems; which, from the remarkable perspicuity and yet conciseness of the directions, the youngest officer may both understand and execute. By an error of the press, however, in placing only a comma after F, and a semicolon after BC, instead of the reverse, the twentieth problem does not at first sight appear so clear as it was written; and in problem 57, no instructions are given for getting the line GEH. From what preceded, however, the author might very justly deem them unne cessary. We think that this work, being entirely practical, would be a var luable acquisition to the new military academy at High Wycombe. The precise nature of it will perhaps be best understood by the fol lowing extract, with which the author concludes the first part: ، I have thus laid down a short course of the application of Prac tical Geometry to the tracing out of works on the ground, either per mancut or field fortification, with the method of taking heights and distances,, and of surveying, without any other instruments than the chain or cord and staves. I shall now proceed to point out such parts as may form an introduction to the method of reconnoitring a tract of country, in which military operations are to be carried on.? Part II. The observations on reconnoitring will be read with advantage by those young officers who peruse them with attention." Art. 17. Duty of Officers commanding Detachments in the Field. By John Ormsby Vandeleur, Lieutenant-Colonel of the 8th, or King's Royal Irish Light Dragoons. 8vo. pp. 138 and four Plates. 56. Boards. Egerton. 1801. ⚫ Colonel Vandeleur very modestly claims but little praise for this publication, as being chiefly compiled from approved German and French writers, not adhering to their words, but endeavouring to apply the principles.' We must, however, give him great credit for the merit of his selection, as well as for those ideas which seem to spring from himself; and particularly the address to the reader, at the beginning of the second part: whence we make the following extract, which we wish to impress on all young officers: An idea, very pernicious to the service, is but too prevalentthat study is unnecessary for a military man. It is true, that it is not necessary towards his admission, nor even to his obtaining the highest highest rank in the army; but if he possesses the laudable ambition (from which no man should be exempt) of rising to honourable fame -a soldier's only reward-there is no profession (not even those which are called learned) which requires study more than that of arms.' We have found several typographical errors; such as abatiss's for abbatis-(p. 14. 16. 19. 22, 23, &c.) The letter /, expressed in the explanation of plate 2, (p. 60. 1. 13.) as a point of communication between the posts No. 1. and No. 2, is not to be found in the plate. In the same explanation (1. 6.) c is given instead of e for the bridle road, and e instead of e for one of the foot-paths: n 1. 16. is also given instead of u for the field-work in the rear of No. 1. Likewise the small letters, s, v, w, x, z, instead of the capitals, S, V, W, X,Z. Not to take leave, however, of an officer of Col. Vandeleur's merit with fading fault, we shall call the military reader's attention to one of his many laudable instructions, viz. that which respects the taking post upon a hill; and he says that infantry should be so posted as to defend the declivity by its fire, not quite upon the summit.' We particularly dwell on this, simple as it may appear, because, when the French in 1793 surprized an important post at Toulon, Lord Mulgrave recovered it, with very little loss, chiefly owing to the enemy's having drawn up on the top instead of the brow of the hill; and be cause, notwithstanding that his Lordship, in his public letter, pointed out the defect of the French General's position, we have since seen an English commander fall into the same error. RELIGIO U S. Art. 18. The Concordat between Bonaparté, chief Consul of the French Republic, and bis Holiness Pope Pius VII.; together with the Speech of M. Portales, Counsellor of State, on presenting it to the Legislative Body. Translated from the Official Documents. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Ridgway. We cannot announce this pamphlet to the British Public without a comment on its singular contents, which the enlightened Christian and philosopher will contemplate with equal astonishment and regret. Religion being the firmest basis of moral principle, it was wise in Bonaparté to attempt to revive and promote its influence among the French people; and if the Catholic religion be that of the great majority of the nation, it was at least an act of popularity to declare it to be the dominant religion; but, in restoring the Catholic system entire, he has violated the favourite principle of Equality, in defence of which the French have spilt so much blood, and has given to the Pope a complete triumph. Metaphysical religious doctrines, having no connection with forms of government, nor with constitutional maxims, are not appreciated by the Legislator, who will esteem-the dogmas of the Catholic and Protestant alike subservient to his views: but there are points of discipline, which, affecting the conduct of the indivi dual as a man and as a citizen, he ought not to regard with indifierence. Such is the celibacy enjoined on the French clergy, which Bonaparte should have induced the Pope to have abolished. M. Portales Portales, though in one part of his speech he tells us that we ought never to forget that the ministers of religion are men,' proceeds in another part, himself forgetting that they are men, to argue in favour of celibacy: but his arguments are weak in the extreme, and perfectly ridiculous in the mouth of a French Republican. How absurd is it to create, in a state professing Equality, an order of celi bates; to pretend that the functions of a minister of religion require him to renounce the rights of nature and of society; to maintain that the duties of the altar are incompatible with the duties and virtuous pleasures of domestic society! What a libel on the Christian religion, to intimate that it lays down such a tenet! If M. Portales knows so little of the matter as to confound Popery with Christianity; we, as zealous Protestants, must not suffer revealed religion to remain under so vile an aspersion as the French orator, inadvertently perhaps, would affix on it. The religion taught in the New Testament does no violence to the nature of man; and so far from requiring celibacy of its ministers, it expressly asserts the right of priests to marry, and classes "forbidding to marry" among the doctrines of devils." See 1 Cor. ix. 5. 1 Tim. iv. 1-3. If Bonaparté had acted consistently with the principles of genuine Liberty, he would have insisted that the priests should enjoy every civil right but, by conceding the point of celibacy to the Pope, he has lost an opportunity of freeing the Catholic church from one of its greatest opprobriums. Art. 19. An Apology for the Sabbath. By John Prior Estlin. 8vo. PP. 48. 1s. 6d. Johnson. 1801. The In discussing this subject, divines have often attempted to prove too much, and to urge the practical observance of the Sabbath to a superstitious extreme. Mr. Estlin, however, keeps his argument within due bounds, and makes the whole duty to be nothing but "a reasonable service." We do not remember, indeed, to have ever scen a more neat and satisfactory view of this important point. text, 1 Cor. x. 15. is a very suitable motto to the discourse, which is addressed to the sound judgment, and not to the passions and prejudices of men. Mr. Estlin concedes that the law of the Jewish Sabbath is a law to the Jews only, and that the practice of Sabbatical observance has not the sanction of any express precept of the New Testament. While, however, he grants this, he wishes the Christian world to consider whether there be not other grounds of obligation; and especially, since man is made for religion, and since public wor ship is among his indispensable duties, whether the appointment of a regularly returning day of rest must not form a necessary article of religious obligation? He pleads no more for the holiness of times and places than as the means by which man is to be made holy' he contends only for the religion of the Sabbath, and so far for the rest of it, as labour would be an impediment to the former, and, as in the present state of society, benevolence to man and mercy to the brute creation require;' observing that the main argument for the religious appropriation of one day in seven is its utility and neces sity. Again he remarks; though the laws of the fourth commandment, as given by God to the Jews, be not, as such, binding on a Christian; yet he is permitted to avail himself of his historical knowlege of the fact, and to see whether there be not reasons for his adopting it, with such modifications as are suggested by the liberal spirit of Christianity. Far from throwing over the Sabbath-day any of the gloom or folly of surperstition, Mr. E. wishes to make it a day of cheerfulness as well as of piety; and to include, among the works of necessity which ought to be sanctioned on this day, the gathering in the fruits of the earth, in this uncertain climate, before and after religious services.' The alteration of the day of rest, from the last to the first day of the week, was an act of the primitive church: but it appears to have been done without any express command or permission, though Christ avors himself to be Lord of the Sabbath. The term Lord's Day occurs neither in the Gospels nor the Epistles; the only authority for its use is Revelation, chap. i. 10.: but this does not ascertain it to have been the day of sabbatical observance; it only tells us that St. John was in the spirit, or had a revelation on that day.-The choice of the particular day is of no consequence. If it be agreed that one day in seven ought, in reason, and on the principle of fitness, to be set apart for rest from the common labours of life, for public worship, and for religious instruction, it matters not which day of the week be made the holy day. Art. 20. POETRY, &c. The Tragedies and Poems of Frederick Earl of Carlisle, Knight of the Garter, &c. &c. &c. 8vo. 7s. 6d. Boards. Wright. 1801. Most of the Pieces contained in this elegant edition of Lord Carlisle's works have been already noticed in our Journal. The Father's Revenge, the first of the tragedies, was reviewed in an article furnished by a Correspondent, in Vol. lxx. p. 365; the play not being then in general circulation. On perusing it now, we find no additional motives for commendation, and no fresh cause for blame. Of the second tragedy, the Step-Mother, we lately gave a full account, (Vol. xxxv. N. S. p. 325.) and therefore are not here called to the consideration of its merits. The first edition of the smaller Poems was noticed in Vol. xlviii. P. 143. In the present impression, we find the following new pieces: To a Lady, with a present of Flowers, from the Cape of Good Hope.'-We cannot praise the conceit on which these lines turn. To Mrs. Isabella Pitt.'-This Lady is addressed with merited praise for a very disinterested action. To Sir Joshua Reynolds, on his Resignation of the President's Chair of the Royal Academy.-The versification of this address is better turned than that of the other productions of the noble author, We shall produce, as an instance, the following extract: 'Dark was the hour, the age an age And And sometimes bent, when won with earnest prayer, O witness, Windsor, thy too passive walls, The character of Denner's portraits is happily given:- As wax-work figures always shock the sight, And when they best are form'd afford the least delight.' There are a few smaller pieces, which require no particular notice. The book is very handsomely printed by Bulmer; and an engraved title-page is prefixed: in which, however, the motto to his Lordship's arms, Volo, non Valeo, might furnish an unlucky hint to a stony-hearted critic. We have too tender feelings for the laudable desire of fame, to make the application. Art. 21. Selim and Zaida. With other Poems. 12mo. 5s. 6d. Boards. Printed at Edinburgh, and sold in London by Longman and Rees. We are sorry to observe of this author, that his prose is better than his poetry; a remark which applies to too many modern versifiers. He has constructed an imposing approach to his poetical garden, but has not given his inclosure proportional embellishments. The poem is introduced by a dialogue in Vindication of the use of Eastern imagery, opposed to the late prevailing Gothic taste. Some of the remarks thus introduced are judicious; and we have only to wish that the author had carried his idea of poetical reform a little farther, and had discriminated, in his own composition, be tween the interesting and the obscure, between simplicity and feebleness. There are, however, many passages in this work which will be read with pleasure; and among these are the following verses: 'Tis joy, from soul-distracting dreams, Where Fancy nameless horrors pours, Whom sickness long had press'd, resume And her soft cheek's carnation'd bloom. Know'st |