The writer of this work is perfectly fenfible of the advantages to be derived from extending in every country the communication by canals; and the inftances adduced by him of their utility in various countries, confirm his general pofitions. Many allowances are to be made for his ftyle, as he is an American, and has not acquired the art of giving an easy flow to his ideas. He looks out for pompous words and forced expreffions, when the plaineft language would have better suited his purpose. But this flight interruption to the reader can fcarcely be called an impediment to the train of reafoning purfued in the work; and the improvements fuggefted, particularly with reference to the port and city of London, claim the attention of the engineer, the merchant, and the statesman.

The greater part of the volume relates to the docks intended to be made in Wapping, chiefly for the benefit of the WeftIndia trade; and a good account is given of the defign. Of this fo much has been already faid, that little can be added for the information of the public. Mr. Sharpe's and Mr. Whitworth's plans of canals are very properly introduced; and this leads to a general project for infulating the metropolis by means of canals, by which commodities may be received into, or fent out of, every part of London, with the utmost ease, and a very great faving of expenfe. The infulating line begins a little above Batterfea-bridge, goes through Paddington, Camden-Town and Ilington, paffes near Hackney-road, and ftops at Limehoufe; is revived below Greenland-Dock, paffes fouth of St. Helena tea-gardens, to Surry-Square and KenningtonCommon, and terminates above Batterfea-bridge. Within this line are cuts which are to connect the great canal with bafins in different parts of the metropolis. On the fouth-fide of the Thames no contrivance is neceffary to fupply the canal with water, as it will flow from the Thames above Battersea to fome inferior point in the Thames below Greenland docks; and, by the opening of the fluice at Batterfea, it may be filled at pleasure. On the north fide, the height of the ground, over which the line paffes, feems to be a formidable objection, as about eleven miles of canal are to be fupplied by engines from the Thames, or from ftreams to the north of London. The facility by which the water may be derived from the Thames is manifefted by a fact; and the generality of perfons are more willing to give credit to a plan when a thing is proved to have been done, than when the poffibility of its being done is demonftrated in the clearest manner. At the Shadwell waterworks, water is raifed by means of the fteam-engine to the height of ninety feet; and this is fo nearly the height required for the canal, that, from the estimation of the expenfe in thefe works, a juft calculation may be made of the expense of filling and fupplying the canal with water. This calculation

is made; and the intereft of the money expended in the erection of the engine, the coal confumed in it, and all the neceffary charges, amount, on a liberal computation, to 79774 10s. annually. We may here obferve, that, trifling as this expenfe is to the general profit of fuch a canal, it may be diminifhed by the profits derived from the application of the engine to other purposes, when the canal is filled, and wants but a fmall fupply; or, if the water of the canal fhould be conveyed to different parts of the town by pipes, the fupplying of the inhabitants with water will more than anfwer all the expenfes of the engine. But, before a plan of this kind is adopted, we must inculcate on our countrymen the magnanimity of the Chinese monarch, who, when a work for the public good paffes through his pleafure-grounds, takes up the fpade himfelt, and, beginning the work, imprefies on his subjects the maxim, that private pleafure or private intereft ought never to obftruct general improvement.

The work is enriched with feveral plates, which elucidate the plans for the improvement of London, or illuftrate the general modes of canal communications. From the fpecimen now before us, we hope the author has met with fufficient encouragement to induce him to put to the prefs another volumne which he has already prepared on the fame fubject.

Christianity vindicated, in a Series of Letters, addressed to Mr. Volney, in Answer to his Book called Ruins, or a Survey of the Revolution of Empires. By the Rev. Peter Roberts, A. M. 8vo. 55. Boards. Weft and Hughes. 1800.

A VINDICATION of Chriftianity from the effufions of fo trifling a writer as Volney (trifling we mean in this refpec) was fcarcely neceffary. It is evident that he has never given himself the trouble of ftudying it at the fountain-head, and that, throughout his work, he confounds the gofpel with the idle traditions of popery, makes no diftinction between the actions of men profefing Chriftianity and the actions required of real Chriftians, and, carried away by the prejudices of his national infidelity, is incapable of maling a good ule of the learning and experience which he acquired by his refidence in the Eaft. Thefe faults in the French writer are judicioufly pointed out in the work before us. Much found learning is displayed in the attempt to refer to a confiftent origin many parts of the heathen mytho logy, and alto in the defcription of the fphere; but fuch a mode of reatoning is, we tear, entirely thrown away upon the modern unbeliever, and is of no great ufe in the vindication of our religion. To the inconfiftencies of the French writer in his theories of government are oppofed the maxims

which have been laid down in this country by men of much thought and real experience; and, in thefe times of innovation, they may be perufed with advantage by thofe who are warped by the new fyftem of politics.

The infidel and the profeffing Chriftian ought to attend to our author's remarks on religious fects.

As to religious fects, they are the offspring not of religion, but of human nature, of ignorance, of pride, and fometimes of a fcrupulous confcience, and a zeal for the truth. Ignorance finds difficulties, and it will find them every where; pride makes them and affects novelty, in order to attain diftinction, and fupports them to fupport the character. The fects which have arifen from a zeal for the truth have in proportion to their fincerity been tolerant, and it is a juft tribute to the memory of Luther, that when mistakenly urged to intolerance, he ftedfaftly and fuccefsfully oppofed it, and the church of England, in the zenith of her power, has followed his great example. As to the difference of fects, who agree in effentials, if profeffing themfelves Chriftians, they perfecute each other, they are certainly guilty of a breach of the first Christian duty to man, charity. The conduct of their adversaries is no plea for them; they ought neither to perfecute nor encourage error, but they ought to prevent and reform it as far as they can.'

P. 82.

The French revolution is placed in a point of view not very common in the prefent times. From the neglect of tracing it to its true origin, many proteftant writers have deviated into a defence of popery and the vileft fuperftition, inftead of making a true diftinction between the ufe and abufe of religion.

That revolution is an ufeful leffon to mankind, of the danger of establishing an error.-I cannot proceed to confider the mistakes into which you have been led, without recurring to that period in which a fhallow policy, and an unhappy remiffness, to give it the gentleft name (I ought to call it a weak and finful furrender of the truth), prepared the scene of all the fubfequent tragedy your nation has fince put in action. The period I fpeak of is that when, at the clofe of the wars of the League, your otherwife excellent monarch, Henry IV. became a member of the Romish church. When wearied with contention, and threatened with affaffination, he was perfuaded to embrace an error. Alas! Sir, he was not alone to blame. The minifters of religion, the poor wreck of the maffacre of St. Bartholomew, haraffed and faint after the ftorm, and raised at once into confideration, were cajoled, in the name of peace, in to a dereliction of that duty which could alone have fecured it. They defended their caufe at the conferences, fays Sully, but weakly, or not at all. Some days they were even difpenfed with entirely, while the zeal of their antagonists employed all their effort to bring the king over to the church of Rome. And what was the event? Did they acquire peace? No-Did the king efect a reconciliation

as to himfelf? No.-Were the advantages of the proteftants eftablished No.-But they established popery, as containing no dangerous error, which is contrary to the truth; and having established this, they had no right to object to the revocation of the edict of Nantz. Nor was this all: when the errors of popery were expofed by the enemies of Chriftianity in general, the nation at large, which had by their error falfely believed popery to be Christianity, miftook the fubversion of the herefy for the fubversion of the gofpel, and lofing the hold on eternal life, has fallen at once into a dreadful void, wherein all the elements of fociety and of religion have become a chaos of fury and defolation, So tremendously have the fins of the fathers been vifited on the children to the third and fourth generation of those whofe dereliction of their God and their religion had all the effect of hatred to both. May God grant

it may reft there, that the errros of the church of Rome may foon ceafe for ever, and that no endeavour to restore, or countenance or favour them, may draw a future vengeance down, of which we have fo terrible an example, that God will require the fouls of thofe who, by neglect or favour, remain or perfift in error, at the hand of those who are the means or the acceffaries.' P. 238.

We advise all who profefs the Christian religion to attend to this remark; for, whatever may be their fect, whatever may be their opinions, let them be affured that the voluntary adoption of error, and a fubfcription to tenets which they do not believe, are highly offenfive in the fight of God, and must be productive of great evil to civil fociety. From the remark of this writer on the French revolution, our readers may learn his method of treating his antagonist: throughout he keeps him to the point, and reafons fairly with him on his objections to Christianity; and we need not fay that in fuch a contest, where on the one fide is truth, and on the other are violent prejudices, contracted from birth and habit, in the abode of tyranny and fuperftition, the proteftant appears to great advantage.

A Treatife on the Police of the Metropolis; containing a Detail of the various Crimes and Mifdemeanors by which public and private Property and Security are, at prefent, injured and endangered and fuggefting Remedies for their Prevention. The fixth Edition, corrected and confiderably enlarged: By P. Colquhoun, LL. D. &c. 8vo. 10s. 6d. Boards. Mawmai. 1800.

THE first edition of this valuable publication we very fully noticed *; and, as well-wishers to the domeftic fecurity and

* See our XVIIIth Vol. New Arr. p. 157, 321.

profperity of this kingdom, we are gratified in perceiving the extenfive circulation of a treatise fo peculiarly calculated to promote those desirable objects. In the prefent edition the au thor has given a more fyftematic arrangement to his work, and has introduced fome new matter on fubjects of political economy, collaterally connected with police. The impreffion which the original publication may have produced on the minds of the community is an interefting topic: it is alluded to in the following paffage of the preface.

The police of the metropolis, in every point of view, is a fubject of great importance to be known and understood; fince every innocent and useful member of the community has a particular intereft in the correct administration of whatever relates to the morals of the people, and to the protection of the public against fraud and depredation.

Under the prefent circumstances of infecurity, with refpect to property and even life itself, this is a subject which cannot fail to force itself upon the attention of all :-all are equally concerned in the information which this work conveys; the chief part of the de→ tails in which are entirely novel, not to be found in books, and never laid before the public through the medium of the prefs, previous to the first publication of this Treatise.

It may naturally be imagined, that fuch an accumulation of delinquency, fyftematically detailed, and placed in fo prominent a point of view, must excite a confiderable degree of astonishment in the minds of thofe readers who have not been familiar with subjects of this nature; and hence a defire may be excited to investigate how far the amazing extent of the depredations upon the public here related, can be reconciled to reafon and poffibility.

Four years have, however, elapfed, fince thefe details have been before the public, and they ftill ftand on their original ground, without any attempt, which has come to the author's knowledge, to queftion the magnitude or the extent of the evil. On the contrary, new fources of fraud and depredation have been brought forward, tending greatly to increase the general mafs of delinquency.

In revifing the present edition, the author felt a strong impulse to reduce his estimates; but after an attentive review of the whole, excepting in the inftances of the depredations on commercial property (which have been greatly diminished by the establishment of a marine police, applicable to that particular object), he was unable to perceive any ground for materially altering his original calculations. If fome claffes of theft, robbery, and depredation, have been reduced, others have been augmented; ftill leaving the aggregate nearly as before.'

We are forry that the exertions of the public to diminish the number of crimes against fociety, enumerated by the worthy magiftrate, fhould bear fo weak a proportion to the