him.-Surely my brethren we are not to learn that merely, to admit the BIBLE as constituting the basis of religious opinions is, in fact, to admit definitively nothing."

These strange insinuations and assertions, and others like these, have not been allowed to circulate in silence. Mr. Lancaster has again come forwards in vindication of himself and his institution, and addressed to the public "An Appeal for Justice, in the Cause of ten thousand poor and orphan Children; and for the Honour of the Holy Scriptures: being a Reply exposing the Misrepresentations in the Charge delivered at the Visitation of Charles Daubeny, archdeacon of Sarum." In the course of this appeal the author has given his creed so fully, as to convince, we should suppose, even the archdeacon himself that he has as unjustly accused him of an inclination to deism, as Mrs. Trimmer had done before him of an inclination to Socinianism. He denies being the tocl of any man, for that the plan is altogether his own; yet concedes, that if the term will apply to him in any sense, it can only so apply in reference to his majesty, who, more than any one else, has patronised and encouraged it, and consequently whose instrument he is in advancing so benevolent a concern. He is severe, and we think justly so, upon the archdeacon for his opinion of the definitive nothingness of the Bible upon the subject of religious opinions, and recommends to his perusal the sixth article of the church of England, concerning the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures, as also the opinion of St. Paul upon this subject, in his address to Timothy. Finally, he accuses the archdeacon of many other misrepresentations, and much wilful

ignorance upon various matters, in regard to this institution, concerning which he ought to have obtained information, and might have done so with great ease, by having written to Mr. Lancaster upon the subject, but which he never once gave himself the trouble to do.

We are glad to find that the opponents of Mr. Lancaster's plan have at length resolved upon pursuing the only system of warfare which is truly legitimate and creditable to them: and that is, of opening similar schools upon their own principles, and following them up with arrangements more consistent with the dictates of their own conscience. To these and to every other establishment that has a tendency to promote useful knowledge among the poor, we most heartily wish God-speed. One of the institutions we now allude to is pretty fully delineated in a pamphlet published anonymously, and entitled "A System of Education for the labouring Poor." This system is in fact not essentially different from Mr. Lancaster's, excepting in the enforcement of the church catechism, and of religious exercises in unison with the church liturgy, upon the different scholars who are admitted; and consequently, in shutting the door against the children of all sectaries whatever. We have been chiefly disgusted in this and various other pamphlets, with a new attempt to lessen the merit of honest Joseph Lancaster, by asserting that he is not the original inventor of the plan upon which his boasted economy chiefly rests, we mean of employing trays of sand, instead of sheets of paper, for the first attempts at writing and cyphering: and by ascribing to Dr. Bell, who is introduced as the chief agent in

the

the new concern, a claim considerably prior, in consequence of his having been privy to the use of the same mode of tuition many years ago, when a director of the male asylum at Madras. Dr. Bell, we believe, to be a very excellent and benevolent man, and, from the habit of eleemosynary tuition, he acquired in India a very proper person to be consulted and appointed superintendant on the present occasion. But he must not be allowed to divest Jos. Lancaster of all the merit which is claimed by him and for him, upon the question before us. If Mr. Lancaster be not the original inventor of sand trays for writing and accounts, he is at least the first who introduced them into our own country; and he has so far improved upon what ever model he may have met with, and so far simplified the best systems of charity-schools in a vast variety of other respects, as to be fairly allowed the praise of instructing, by a plan that is, in its detail, altogether his own. As to the use of sand-boards or sand-areas of some kind or other, in the way of education, they are of imme. morial standing, and Dr. Bell has just as little claim to the merit of having invented them as Mr. Lancaster. Two or three years ago, when adverting to Mr. Lancaster's method for the first time, we observed that this kind of trays or boards has been for ages common among the Hindus and we have much reason to believe that both the Jews and the Egyptians taught the sciences of reading and writing to their children by letters or figures traced on the sandy shores of their rivers, or the sandy plains of the interior parts of their respec. tive countries.

We shall dwell more cursorily

upon this subject at present, be cause, in consequence of Mr. Whitbread's bill, or rather series of bills, for a regulation of the poor, we shall certainly have occasion to return to it in our next number, We cannot, however, dismiss the subject before us without noticing that Dr. Bell himself, in his "Analysis of the Experiment in Education made at Egmore, near Madras," has given an account of an attempt, which he has entirely superintended, to introduce the same system into our own country, and has suggested a scheme for the better administration of the poor. laws, by converting schools for the lower orders of youths into schools of industry; a scheme, however, which requires some pause before we can consent to adopt it: and that the truly benevolent Mr. Col quhoun, with the highest vener ation for Dr. Bell's general method, has offered a "New and Appropriate System of Education for the labouring People," in which he details the effects of a school simi lar to that of Dr. Bell's, founded under his own patronage and eye. He chiefly differs in discarding the sand trays for coarse slates, and slate pencils. And sq convinced is this excellent magistrate of its ge neral importance, that he has ad ded some observations on the expe diency of extending the system over the nation at large, under the immediate aid and sanction of the legislature.

In the department now before us, we must necessarily classify Mrs. West's "Letters to a Young Lady, in which the Du.ies and Character of Women are considered, chiefly with a reference to prevailing Opinions." The popularity of this lady's "Letters to a Young Man,” has been one inducement to her venturing

venturing upon the present work a second, we are told, was the dying request of a highly valued friend, that she would devote her leisure hours to publications that should "tend not only to moral but religious edification." The three vofumes before us, therefore, which are designed to guide the age of inexperienced girlhood, and direct it to the evolution of a perfect female character, are devoted to a consideration of our morals, our manners, and our religious distinctions and principles. In our opinion, there is less of nature, and less of a knowledge of the world in this work than in our author's "Letters to a Young Man." That young man was her son; and we perceive the mother in every page. To what young lady the letters before us are addressed we know not---but unquestionably the mother is not equally perceived here. Much of the description of our fashionable high life, and our fashionable low life, appears to us to be taken from reading rather than from actual observation; and hence, not a little of it is caricatured. At least we may be allowed to say that neither among the court ladies nor the city ladies, have we ever met with all the absurdities which are here introduced, as constituting essential ingredients in their respective constructions. Yet regarded as a whole, the work gives evident proofs of genius and deep reflection, is well worth perusal, and will amply repay by its entertain

ment.

The chief pupillary books we have met with besides, that are in any respect entitled to notice, are "A Tour through Asia Minor, and the Greek Islands, with an Account of the Inhabitants, Natuzal Productions and Curiosities;

for the Instruction and Amuse ment of Youth: by C. Wilkinson:" an ideal tour well arranged, well selected, and replete with entertainment. The History of England, from the earliest Records, to the Peace of Amiens. In a series of Letters to a Young Lady at School: by Charlotte Smith, 3 vols. 12mo:" possessing as much merit as most, and superior to many of the epis tolary compendiums of our history, and having the exclusive advantage of a descent almost to the present day. "The History of Scotland, related in familiar Conversations; by Eliz. Helme, 2 vols. 12mo." "Historical Dialogues for Young Persons: by Miss Hays, vol. I. 12mo:" both possessing all the tediousness of colloquy without its ease and appropriation—the former, though tedious, little more than a chronicle, the latter, ill-selected, and to children often unintelligi ble. "Panorama for Youth, 2 vols. 12mo." The world is here painted something better than it deserves to be-and the work has too little, arrangement in the distribution of the different branches of science it is its professed object to teach. In other respects Mrs. Sterndale has not been unsuccessfully employed. In the moral and religious departments she is unimpeachable. "Gecgraphical Copy-books; or Outlines of Maps adapted to be filled in by Geographical Students; by the Rev. J. Goldsmith, Parts I and II." A very useful invention, and admirably adapted to facilitate a knowledge of the very important science in question. As such, we earnestly recommend it to our various schools and academies.

We shall close our catalogue with an octavo volume, entitled "Encyclopædia for Youth; or an Abridgement of all the Sciences,

for

necessary. Mr. Stockdale appeart to have shown much taste in the points in which he has differed from his original: the information he communicates is as extensive as his plan will admit, and his plates are not only neatly engraven, but peculiarly applicable and explana

tory.

WE

E readily commence this section of our labours with announcing and cursorily examining the fifteenth volume, of the Archæologia lately published by the Society of Antiquaries of London. It consists of thirty-nine articles, most of them, had we time, entitled to distinct attention; independently of an appendix containing an abstract of other communications, of less importance, in the opinion of the council. It might be esteemed vanity in us, perhaps, from the limited testimony before us, to call in question the taste or the judgement of this vinerable tribunal-but from the very high merit conspicuous even in the abridged form of five or six of the papers that are thus thrown into the back-ground, we cannot but regret that they are not given in their full and original dimensions, although it had been at the expense of several of those that have been more highly honoured, but which, on this account, we would have consented to have spared. We allude more particularly to Mr.

and

Knight's Sculptured Frogmes, the R-mains at Anna Clough Mulla, both of which apper amply entitled to a full-sized portrai ture.

Of those given at length we shall begin with noticing No. V. "An Account of the Greek Inscription on Pompey's Pillar; by capt. W. M. Lecke and lieut. John Squire;" communicated in a let ter to Dr. Raine. The inscription is here traced more correctly and more fully than in any former attempt, the authors of the paper before us having first made use of a ladder, and afterwards of a suspended plank, in order to decipher as much as possible of the obliterated characters. In the form now offered to us it occurs as follows in five lines.

In the first chasm scarcely a vestige remains; they could not even determine the number of letters which had formerly existed there: in the second they could not accurately decide whether there had been five or six letters: in the third they could not advance beyond the first two letters, ПO, though they were positive that the hiatus included six. We think Dr. Raine has correctly supplied them by MIIHIO, which of course makes the word ouarios. Of the last line they could not decipher a single character. The inscription appears to have been rudely sculptured, and the tablet occupies the whole length of the base on the western side, at the height of eighteen feet from the ground. The different parts of the pillar are not in true architectural proportion to each other, and the workmanship is not well executed: facts which, if taken in conjunction with the peculiar style of the character, are amply sufficient to fix the date of the pillar at a period in which the arts and taste of the Romans were declining; and there is hence, to adopt the words of the communication itself, little doubt that it is "not the pillar of Pompey the Great, but the pillar dedicated by Pompey, præfect of Egypt, to the emperor Dioclesian."

Dr. Fly's "Account of an Ab. bey of Nuns formerly situated in the Street, now called the Minories," is an entertaining article, and the result of cautious and extensive inquiry. Mr. Bennett's admirable delineation of the process for unrolling the ancient papyri discovered in the ruins of Herculaneum is accompanied by a plan which we cannot conveniently copy, or certainly should give a fuller statement of it. Mr. Jackson's "Ac1806.

count of the Ruins of Cartharge," is valuable from its curious description of the aqueduct by which the city was supplied with fresh water from mount Luan, at a distance of forty-five miles to the south-east, The remains of this aqueduct are still magnificent. Near Udena it formed a range of above a thousand arches, over an extensive valley, of which some of the middlemost were above a hundred feet in height. In magnitude our author asserts it far exceeds any remain he has ever beheld of an cient or modern architecture, either in Europe or Asia. Dr. Beeke has offered some valuable Obser vations on the ancient inhabitants, Roman stations and Roman roads in and near Berkshire, in which he attempts to prove that the Bibroci were chiefly situate on the eastern part of the county, in the vicinity of Bray, and that Moulsford was the Thamesis of the eighteenth Iter of Antonina, as preserved by Richard of Cirencester. Mr. Hamilton, chiefly from personal observation, has contributed an important paper of "Remarks on the Fortresses of ancient Greece;" by the aid and existence of which he endeavours to trace the site of many of the fortified cities of. Hellas, of which not a vestige remains excepting in the pages of the Grecian poets and historians ;— while from the massy, uncemented walls which inclosed them, he ventures to question the doctrine that derives the origin of the arts and sciences of Greece from Egypt. The "Remains of Gothic Architecture in Italy and Sicily," is the. subject of three papers of considerable interest. In the first, Mr. Smirke endeavours to assign the architecture in question to a period as early as the eleventh century.