Art. 25. A Practical Introduction to Botany, illustrated by References, under each Definition, to Plants of easy Access, and by numerous Figures; and also comprising a Glossary of Botanic Terms. By the Rev. William Bingley, A.M. F.L.S. Author of Animal Biography, &c. 12mo. pp. 89. 4s. 6d. Boards. Gale and Fenner. 1817. Nothing at first sight appears more easy than to write an elementary work on botany; and, if we be indifferent as to the mode in which this task is executed, perhaps the opinion is not altogether without good foundation: since the work might consist of merely the explanation of a few terms, illustrated by such plates as we can procure at a cheap rate, by copying them on a reduced scale from other works of superior merit. This, however, is not all that is required to convey instruction to those who are yet unacquainted with botany; unless we can suppose that they are to be initiated in the science with as little regard to their feelings, as the master of an academy observes in laying the ground-work of a classical education: but botany, in a popular point of view, is designed to be the source of elegant amusement, rather than of laborious exertion; and the mind of the beginner must be allured to the study by presenting to him beautiful and curious objects for inspection, and interesting topics of inquiry. By degrees, a taste for the science will grow on the pupil, and we may then expect him to attempt the more dry and repulsive parts of this study. The present small volume, as its author has very properly remarked, is not intended to supersede the larger and more valuable introductions to the study of botany; particularly Professor Martyn's Letters, and Sir James Edward Smith's Elementary Treatise.' (Pref.) Had such an expectation ever entered the mind of Mr. Bingley, we cannot disguise from him that we are persuaded it would have been inevitably and sadly disappointed. The work before us, we think, cannot be better characterized than by saying that it is a very brief and meagre glossary of botanical terms, thrown out of alphabetical order, and arranged in something of a systematic manner: but, even in this short exposition of the language of botany, we have had occasion to remark several inaccuracies, which have no longer a place in the best modern elementary books on this science. Mr. Bingley still adheres to the old notion respecting those appendages to plants which Linné has denominated Fulcra, and defines them to be those small parts of plants, the chief use of which is to strengthen and support them.' (P. 26.) This cannot, surely, be descriptive of the glands of the Moss-rose, the Bracte or Floral leaf of the Limetree and Hyacinth, or the Stipules of the Vetch; yet all these are given by Mr. B. under the head of Fulcra.- The Calyx, or flowercup, is stated to be formed of one or more green or yellow leaves, situated at a small distance from or close to the blossom, and its chief use is to enclose and protect the other parts.' (P. 28.) According to this definition, the Fuchsia and garden-Nastertium. have no calyx; and the Spathe of the Narcissus must be arranged under some other head. The Corolla, we had thought, was no longer longer regarded by the intelligent botanist as the termination of the inner bark of a plant,' (p. 33.): but such is the respect in which the opinions of Linné are held by Mr. Bingley, that he endeavours to give new currency to this obsolete theory. The Stamen, according to the present author, usually consists of three parts, the Filament, the Anther, and the Pollen. (P. 39, 40.) Surely the Pollen must be considered as a part of the Anther: but this distinction, we presume, rests on the same princi ple which has induced the author to divide a herb into three parts, viz. the root, the plant, and the fructification. (P. 2.) He defines the cerculium or heart of the seed (the embryo of modern writers) to be that part which is the future plant in miniature,' (p. 45.); an opinion altogether unsupported by the most minute and accurate examination of the anatomy of the seed. The terms Umbel, Cyme, and Spadix, are three times explained in the course of the work; first under the head Receptacle, ne xt under that of Aggregate Flowers, and lastly, under the head of Inflorescence. This unnecessary repetition might well have been spared, in a performance so professedly abridged. In the short notice respecting the classification of plants, Mr. B. observes; The whole vegetable kingd om is distributed into 24 classes. These classes are divided into or ders, which are subdivided into genera or tribes; and these generare further divided into species or individuals.' (P. 53.) Sure ly no two things can be more distinct than species and individu als. We must also be permitted to enter our protest against the Passion-flower being employed to illustrate the class Gynandr ia, (p.57.); the stamens in this plant being obviously placed not c n the pistil but on a circular support which surrounds it. The plates accompanying this pul plication are but indifferently executed, and are, in general, on too reduced a scale to be very useful. It will be difficult also for a beginner to draw from them the whole benefit of that illustration, which they would afford if they were accompanied by more comp lete explanations. LAW. Art. 26. Tyranny of the Poor Laws exemplified. Englishmen ! ''tis your little all.' 12mo. pp. 15. Bath, Meyler. pp. 21. Art. 27. Poor Laws. (No. 2.) 12mo. These pamphlets teach the poor that they are slaves, worse conditioned than those of the West-India pla inter;' that it is impossible for them to be worse off than they now are, and consequently that they have nothing to dread from the power of others; -nothing to hope from activity, nothing to fear from idleness;'that, become the servant of servants, a parish bondsman, with neither property nor personal liberty now tnown to him, a pauper of England owes nothing to government,' since' no invasion, no change change of any sort, could possibly make his situation worse than it is; and that the rich, who add their annual millions to the millions which, in one mode of charitable relief or another, public as well as private, are constantly contributing to the comfort and support of the poor, are no better than the Beys and Mamelukes of Egypt,' while they are thus the means of continuing the loathsome tyranny of the poor-laws, the vilest tyranny that ever crushed the liberties of any people.' When the printing, publishing, and distribution among poor people, of such statements as these, can possibly be product ive of any effect but mischief, then can we give to Mr. Gourlay, as a writer on the poor-laws, any other character than that of a man led away in the madness and the blindness of his zeal, (we would put the mildest possible construction on his conduct,) to scatter fire-brands in every direction around him; in the full persuasion that they are the best things in the world for putting out the rag ing fire which, as he fancies, will speedily consume one half of the national wealth and entirely destroy our national prosperity. The sovereign remed 'y for all the evils of the poor-laws, real or imaginary, which this author suggests, is the spreading among the poor the knowlege of their right to petition parliament for whatever they want, or fancy that they want;-by their talking of it openly, talking of it loudly, without being afraid; and the magic operation of this single pr. inciple is to set the whole population of this nation of hopeless, d ejected, woe-worn paupers to work on double pay. In furtherar ice of this scheme, he proposes a complicated sort of Agrarian law, to which an infinitude of objections might readily be urged, but one will be sufficient to demonstrate its absurdity; namely, that its avowed object is to double the price of labour, though every body who has the least knowlege on the subject must be aware that, ger erally speaking, when our agriculture and our manufactures are in a flourishing state, labour in England is already too high. Mr. Gourlay's hints for promoting the more general education of the poor would be worthy of commendation, were it not for the spirit in which they are written and the views with which they are promu igated. We think, however, that every advantage, which could possibly be derived from giving to the children of the poor such mo ral and religious instruction as may be useful to them in the stati on of life which they are most likely to occupy, might easily be attained without taking from the magistrates the power of settir g such of those children, as are dependant on the parish for the ir support, to work for their maintenance until they reach the age of 12; though we are not prepared to say that they should, in all cases, be sent out to labour at so early an age as seven, which is the period now fixed by law for the commencement of the magistrate's discretionary power over them in this respect. AGRICULTURE, &c. Art. 29. A Review ( and complete Abstract) of the Reports of the Board of Agriculture, from the Midland Department of England, &c. By Mr. Marshall. 8vo. pp. 650. 148. Boards. Longman and Co. Review Reviewers are not deficient in that "better part of valour," discretion. Whatever liberties we may now and then take with some unlucky author, we are rarely so indiscreet as to venture any with one another; and, if we put ourselves in a sparring attitude, it is done with the muffles on. Mr. Marshall is himself a Reviewer, on a Colossal scale; having nearly completed, by his own unassisted industry and perseverance, a review and abstract of almost the hundred volumes," the Thousand and One Days' Entertainments," which have been published or printed by the Board of Agriculture. He began his labour like an old husbandman. He first set his threshing machine to work on the whole crop, and lustily did he lay about him! The next operation was to winnow the chaff from the corn; and the heap, to be sure, has been piteously shrunken. Another volume, which will be the fifth, is intended to complete the abstract of the whole. The Reports of the Board have generally passed under our own notice as they appeared. That many of them are very heavy and diffuse must be felt and acknowleged by every one who has read them: but it will likewise be admitted that they contain a mass of useful statistic information. In the present volume, Mr. Marshall has taken the Midland Department of England; reducing by his pentagraph, into a reasonable compass, the Reports on Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Rutlandshire, Warwickshire, Huntingdonshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, and a principal part of Cambridgeshire. An account of the plan which the author has adopted, and of the manner in which he has carried it into execution, may be found in M. R. Vol. xi. p. 352. His own personal knowlege of the counties comprized in the present volume has enabled him to correct many errors in the Reports, and to communicate information from the stores of his own observation and experience. We regret to see that the acerbity against the President of the Board, which we deprecated on a former occasion, yet remains unmitigated. RELIGIO U S. Art. 30. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Chester, at the Visitation of that Diocese in July and August, 1817. By George Henry Law, D.D. F.R. and A.S. Lord Bishop of Chester. 4to. pp. 35. Rodwell. 1817. The Right Reverend author of this charge enforces the common topics of episcopal admonition in a plain and sensible manner, but without any extraordinary force of argument or novelty of illustration. He warns his clergy against some of the Calvinistical doctrines which are so very prevalent out of the church, and of which the preachers are at present very numerous in the church: but Calvinism is so much embodied in the Thirty-nine articles, that we do not see how the clergy can ever attack the evil genius of Calvinism with any chance of success, as long as these articles themselves are invested with an authority which no clergyman can well contravene while he remains in the communion of the church. The Bishop allows, p. 27., that the strongest argument in favour of a church-establishment is its utility but in what can the utility of an ecclesiastical establishment be so resplendently manifested as in the moral instruction of the people? If, then, any among the Thirty-nine articles of the Church of England have a tendency to relax the force of moral obligation, and so far to militate against the moral utility of the establishment, ought they to exist? Of this kind are those articles which relate to original sin and vicarious punishment, or which represent virtue itself as no better than sin unless associated with the belief of certain dogmata. Would not the Church be well rid of these noxious incumbrances? Or can the Establishment ever produce its full measure of moral usefulness as long as they remain? The worthy Bishop talks, p. 23., of Calvinistic error as leading to crime' but he does not sufficiently consider that the root of this error, which he imputes to his Calvinistic brethren, may be traced to the Articles, to which his Lordship has several times declared his unfeigned assent, as well as to those among his clergy whom he denominates Calvinistic. He speaks (p. 20.) of the Calvinistic doctrine of assurance' as at variance with every principle of natural and revealed religion:' but we would humbly request permission to ask how the doctrine which he himself inculcates, of innate depravity or a debased and tainted nature,' (p. 8.) and of the punishment of the innocent for the guilty, can be reconciled to the religion either of reason or of the Scriptures? The truth is, that the Thirty-nine articles are a mill-stone round the neck both of the Bishops and the clergy; which prevents the ministers of the Establishment from affording that free and undissembled exposition of scriptural truth and inculcation of moral duty, by which they would otherwise be more generally distinguished. Art. 31. An Address delivered to the Young Persons who were confirmed at the late Visitation of the Diocese of Chester, in July and August, 1817. By George Henry Law, D.D. F.R. and A.S. Lord Bishop of Chester. 12mo. 2d. Printed at Chester. This is an unaffected and simple discourse, well suited to the occasion, and well calculated to make a good impression on those to whom it is addressed. MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 32. Vice Triumphant, the Remedy proposed easy and effectual: with the Statement of a New Hypothesis to explain Accountableness. By Samuel Spurrell. 12mo. pp. 83. Boards. Hunter. 1817. We are no great friends to moral theories founded on the uncertain basis of hypothesis. In all inquiries after truth, it is at least highly desirable that the corner-stone of the argument should be made to rest, as much as it may be possible, on what is fixed and incontrovertible, not on the fickle and fluctuating ground of assumption. The new hypothesis, by which Mr. Spurrell proposes to remedy the vices of mankind so easily and effectually, is this: that man is the sovereign disposer of his own conduct that reason is sufficient to enable him not only to ascertain the will of his Maker, |