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286 Hamilton on the Errors of the Church of Rome. attitude of the Empress are, however, pretty and graceful; and we recollect one face in profile, of an ecclesiastic, to the right, with a sanguine look of health in the complexion, and a large benevolence of soul. It is not Monsieur Talleyrand, whom the late Lord Castle reagh characterised as a worthy man and his friend. His Lordship was not a physiognomist! The whole of the shadowed part of the picture seems to be enveloped in a shower of blue powder. But to make amends for all that there is, or that there is not in the work, David, has introduced his wife and his two daughters ; and in the catalogue has given us the places of abode, and the names of the husbands of the latter. This is a little out of place : yet, these are lhe people who laugh at our blunders. We do not mean to extend the above sweeping censure to Claude or Poussin ; of course, they are excepted: but even in them, the national character lurked amidst unrivalled excellence. If Claude has a fault, it is, that he is finical; and Poussin's might be said by a satirist to be antique puppets.'

Sketches of the Picture Galleries. Mr. Buchanan seems to consider himself as having a claim to national remuneration, for his exertions in furnishing so many capital additions to the galleries of England. We do not quite understand where the onus of this obligation lies, but we cannot spare room for the investigation of his claims.

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Art. IX. Tracts upon some leading Errors of the Church of Ronie.

By the Rev. George Hamilton, M.A. Rector of Killermogh, &c.

18mo. Price 1s. London. 1824. WI

E believe the Author of this sensible and useful little tract

to be one of the best men in the Church of Ireland: he is at once an accomplished scholar, an exemplary minister, an able divine, and a sincere patriot. If we may not entirely agree with him as to the best method of dealing with the original sin and curse of Ireland-Popery, we are sure that he will give us credit for participating in his uncompromising abhorrence of its detestable principles; and though we must be allowed to doubt the efficiency and expediency of the Protestant Establishment under any conceivable arrangements, we think that there is much honest truth and important statement in the following manly remarks.

• The state of Ireland has within these few years attracted a large portion of the public attention : various opinions have been formed as to the origin of the evils under which she confessedly labours : and with a hope of removing them, the most opposite remedies have in their turn been recommended, adopted, and abandoned. The Government and the Opposition of the day have undertaken to institute inquiry, and thus to elicit information, but neither party has ever ven.

Hamilton on the Errors of the Church of Rome. 287 tured to enter fully or fairly into the question, because both of i them had reason to dread the disclosures which might be made by a

thorough and impartial investigation. The Opposition is at present led by several of our wealthiest absentees, and we cannot wonder if

some of them wish to keep out of sight the evils resulting from their i neglect of their estates, and from the misconduct of their agents, by

laying all the blame upon Orangemen and tithes. The Government, no matter in whose hands, always has felt conscious that the disposal of ecclesiastical patronage, for which they are directly or indirectly responsible, would not in the great majority of cases bear investigation, and has never concurred in any measure, that might possibly lay open the secular and unhallowed motives by which it has been dispensed. The natural consequences have followed the Church has become unpopular-party spirit and dissensions prevail - life and property are insecure, and almost every person who had the means of doing so, has abandoned the country, so that the ignorant and uncivilized peasantry have been left to their priests and designing demagogues, by whom the utmost efforts are made to teach them that they are treated as a conquered people, and that the laws of the land are but a vast system of oppression, studiously designed and unrelentingly enforced for the purposes of degradation and insult.

• But there are Irishmen whom duty or necessity retain at home, and who are qualified, by their experience and intelligence, to judge of the real state of the country, and in their view, the evils we lament result from various causes, which have been in combined operation for many years; they witness with pleasure the enactment of salutary laws to restrain the turbulent, and the formation of institutions to improve the condition of the indigent; but they cannot conceal from themselves, that the root of the evil lies beyond the reach of either the one or the other. For were ignorance and superstion removed, and peaceable and orderly habits introduced by the best system of education, and the wishes of its warmest advocates accomplished, still it would be impossible to have a generally thriving tenantry on the great bulk of the absentees' estates, if the present system of management were persisted in; and on the other hand, suppose all landlords and their agents were the reverse of what some now are, and that every absentee estate was managed as well as some have been, and others are beginning to be, how far must their efforts fall short of their wishes, unless they have the support of resident clergymen, alive to the responsibility of their sacred office, zealous in the discharge of their spiritual duties, commanding respect by the purity of their conduct, and benefitting the people by exhibiting publicly and privately the Scriptural doctrines of Christianity.'

Preface, pp. V-vi. We have only room strongly to recommend thesc Tracts to the notice of our readers.

ART. X.

SELECT LITERARY INFORMATION.

In the press, A Manual for Church Members. By Dr. Newman of Stepney. In the press, History of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren. By

the Bev. J. Holmes, Author of Historical Sketches of the Missions of the United Brethren, &c.

ART. XI. LIST OF WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED.

BIOGRAPHY.

The Life of she Rev. Philip Henry, A. M. By the Rev. Matthew Henry, V.D.M. A New Edition, enlarged, with Important Additions, Notes, &c. By J. B. Williams, F.S.A. 8vo. with portrait. 15s.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Remark on Professor Lee's Vindication of his edition of Jones's Persian Grammar, published in the July and August Numbers of the Asiatic Journal. 8vo. 4s.

Remarks on Volney's Ruins. By W. A. Hails. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

Practical Observations upon the Education of the people, addressed to the working classes and their employers, By Henry Brougham, Esq. M.P. F.R.S. 8vo. 6d.

On the Progress of Dissent, being a reply to that article in the last Number of the Quarterly Review. By a Non Con. 28.

Letters to a Sceptic of Distinction in the 19th Century. 12mo. 4s.

THEOLOGY.

The Missionaries after the Apostolical School: a series of Orations in four parts.-1. The Doctrine.-2. The Expe

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A Course of Sermons for the Year, containing two for each Sunday, and one for each Holy-Day. Abridged from the most Eminent Divines of the Established Church, and adapted to the Service of the Day. Intended for the Use of Families. By the Rev. J. R. Pitman, A.M. Alternate Preacher of the Belgrave and Berkeley Chapels, &c. 2 vols. 8vo.

18s.

Lectures on the Essentials of Religion, Personal, Domestic, and Social. By H. F. Burder, M.A. 9s.

The Christian Father's Reasons for Christianity, in Conversation between a Father and his Children. On Paganism, Judaism, Mahomedanism, and Christinity. By the Rev. T. Timpson. 18mo.

The Christian Father's Present to his Children. By the Rev. J. A. James. Second Edition. 1 vol. 12mo. 7s.

The Blessedness of the Dead that die in the Lord. A Funeral Sermon occasioned by the lamented death of the late Mrs. Rachel Harbottle: with a brief memoir of the deceased. By W. Roby.

1s.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Mr. Pendered's Letter shall be inserted in our Number for April.

The Title-page, Contents, and Index to Vol. XXII., will certainly be given with the next Number.

THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

FOR APRIL, 1825.

Art. I. 1. Notes on Mexico, made in the Autumn of 1822. Accom. panied by an Historical Sketch of the Revolution, and Translations of Official Reports on the present State of that Country. By a Citizen of the United States. 8vo. pp. 360. Philadelphia.

1824.

2. The History of Mexico from the Spanish Conquest to the present Era; containing a condensed View of the Manners, Customs, Religion, Commerce, Soil, and Agriculture; Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral Productions, &c. &c. By Nicholas Mill, Esq. 8vo. pp. 300. Price 10s. 6d. London. 1824.

3. A Statistical and Commercial History of the Kingdom of Guatemala in Spanish America: with an Account of its Conquest by the Spaniards, and a Narrative of the principal Events down to the present Time: from Original Records in the Archives; actual Observation; and other authentic Sources. By Don Domingo Juarros, a Native of Guatemala. Translated by J. Baily, Lieut. R. M. 8vo. pp. 520. Price 16s. London. 1823.

4. The Modern Traveller. Parts XI. and XII. Mexico. 18mo. Price 2s. 6d. each. London. 1825.

5. The Actual State of the Mexican Mines, and the Reasonable Expectations of the Share-holders of the Anglo-Mexican Association; being the Substance of a Letter addressed to the Directors of that Company; with a Supplement, containing additional Data, confirmed by recent Intelligence from Mexico; and an Appendix of original Mexican Documents. By Sir William Adams. 8vo. pp. 88. London. 1825.

THE recognition of the Mexican and Colombian Republics

by the British Government, is one of the most important measures, in whatever light we view it, that have taken place since the year 1782, when Great Britain consented to acknowledge the independence of the United States. That acknowledgement, wrung as it was from this nation's rulers by defeat VOL. XXIII. N.S.

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and disaster, redounded little to its honour. But the act of justice and sound policy by which the independence of the Southern States is at once recognised and ratified, has all the merit of being uncompelled, as well as timely; and it is made in the teeth of the Holy Alliance and Lord Eldon. It is not a concession which costs nothing, or, at least, which risks nothing ; nor is it like the alliance which the Bourbons entered into, in 1778, with the American colonies of England, in the very commencement of their struggle for independence, and which met with its reward in 1789. Mexico has now for four years ceased to be a colony of Spain. Iturbidé commenced the second revolution in Feb. 1821, from which time to his downfal, he was virtually at the head of the government. In August of the same year, O'Donoju, the last viceroy sent out by the mother country, recognised, by the treaty of Cordova, the independence of the Mexican empire. In the May of the following year, ' Augustin the First' (and last) was proclaimed Emperor. His abdication and embarkation took place in the Spring of 1823. On the 27th of March, the Republican army entered the capital, when the old Congress was immediately convoked, and an executive triumvirate appointed, consisting of General Victoria, the present President of the Federal Republic, and Generals Bravo and Negrete. The new Federal Constitution was proclaimed and sworn to in the capital on the 2nd of February, 1824, amid the rejoicings of the people. In July, Iturbidé made the rash and ill-digested attempt to recover an usurped throne at the expense of the peace of the country, which proved fatal to himself only. Over this event there still hangs a considerable degree of mystery. In the letter which he addressed to the Congress on the 19th of March, 1823, containing his abdication, he says : That

he accepted the crown with the greatest reluctance, and only

to serve his country; that from the moment he perceived that • his retaining possession of it might serve, if not as a cause, • at least as a pretext for civil war, he determined to give it up; • that he did not abdicate before, because there was no national

representation, generally recognised as such, to receive it; • that, as his presence in the country might serve as a pretext • for dissentions, he will retire to some foreign land* ; and he • asks for only a fortnight to prepare for his departure, soliciting the Congress to pay his debts. All this sounds well, and has a patriotic semblance. Accordingly, his Ex-Majesty was

• He at first proposed to retire to Jamaica, but this proposal was of course negatived.

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