gentleman referred to was equally superfluous and unauthorized.”—pp. 357, 358.

The hope was, however, still indulged, that on account of Lord Elgin's attachment to the antiquities of Greece, and the high value which he would, therefore, probably affix to Mr. Tweddell's manuscripts, &c. he might have taken some of the most important into his own peculiar care, with a view to transmit them to the family on his return. Unhappily his lordship was detained for some years a prisoner in France; and when he arrived in England, appeared incompetent to tell any thing about the property, except that it had been sent home. Now, when and by whom was it sent to England?

In reply to a letter of the editor, urging the importance of clearing up this mysterious affair, an answer was received from Lord Elgin; the purport of which was, that his memory did not supply him with recollections sufficiently precise for that purpose: that his impression was, that the property had been sent home, either by the late Professor Carlyle, or in a merchantman called the Duncan; but that he is unable to discover, either in his mind, or among his papers, any memorandum alluding to the transaction; and in conclusion,

❝he insists on the length of the interval which has elapsed since the date of the transactions; and, having intimated how very transiently' the matters in debate originally came before him, and how anxiously he has availed himself of his fading impressions' to give all possible information on a subject so extremely interesting, the noble Earl takes his leave, by expressing a general persuasion, that every thing relating to Mr. Tweddell's concerns 'must' have been sufficiently explained at the time in one way or other."-pp. 364, 365.

The account of the noble lord 'corresponds in some degree with that of his chaplain, Dr. Hunt. The doctor believes that the papers, &c. were shipped by Professor

Carlyle on board the Duncan; and that Mr. Thornton was consulted on the subject.

What then is the opposing evidence?

1. The ship Duncan sailed from Constantinople, on the 5th of October, 1800: and it has been ascertained by the most patient and diligent inquiry of Custom-house books, &c. &c. that there is not the slightest trace of any part of the property having been put on board that ship.

2. Mr. Thornton's statement, that though in Constantinople at the time when Professor Carlyle was returning to England, and in the habit of communicating with that gentleman, he never heard that he had any thing to do with the shipping of the property in question: on the contrary, Professor Carlyle expressed his readiness to Mr. Thornton to convey to Mr. Tweddell's family any intelligence he might wish to convey to them respecting his pa pers, property, &c. &c.

3. Professor Carlyle, had frequent conversations with Mr. Losh, after his return, from which it would appear that no part of Mr. Tweddell's property had been entrusted to his care. He is stated, however, to have expressed an opinion, that "his lordship would not take the property in question, because be did not see how he could convert it into money." p. 460.

4. The alleged fact, that some of the drawings in question, were actually in the possession of Lord Elgin long after the specified time. If the editor be correct in his au thorities, his account is decisive. After stating that his lordship had transferred Mr. Tweddell's property to his own residence, he proceeds thus:

“It is an undeniable fact, that Mr. Tweddell's Athenian effects were not only transferred at that time in the

* Ten months after Lord Elgin had obtained possession of Mr. Tweddell'a effects.

the gentlemen of the embassy: that the application of Mr. Tweddell's venerable father for the recovery of his son's property was neglected, and deemed unworthy of an answer: that the interference of Mr. Smythe and Dr. Clarke was treated by his lordship in a way not calculated to invite a repetition of it: that there is no document of any sort, either at Constantinople (where it would certainly have existed) or elsewhere, to prove that the property was ever shipped by Professor Carlyle or Mr. Thornton on board the Duncan, or any other vessel that Professor Carlyle, in fact, had no knowledge of any such transaction: that Mr. Thorn ton believed not one word of it: that a part of the property was seen in the possession of Lord Elgin long after the Duncan had sailed: and finally, that the whole of it, perhaps the most valuable literary property which any traveller has collected in modern times, has to tally disappeared.

Such is, in few words, the sum of the chief items in the Appendix: if these treasures should ever come to light, we confess that to us it will be an event beyond all our expectations. It cannot, however, be doubted that his lordship, and perhaps Dr. Hunt, will, for their own sakes, set about a most diligent inquiry; and that we shall soon hear something farther upon the subject. The whole of this detail may, in the eyes of some of our readers, seem foreign to the objects of the Christian Observer; but surely it is impossible for any one who feels for the general interests of literature, or who is actuated by a love of justice, to be indifferent to the progress and issue of such a discussion; and we regard it even as a duty to do what in us lies to bring it fairly before the public.

The Lives of the Puritans; containing a Biographical Account of those Divines who distinguished themselves in the Cause of

Religious Liberty, from the Reformation under Queen Elizabeth, to the Passing of the Act of Uniformity in 1662: by the Rev. BENJAMIN BROOK, 3 vols. 8vo. 11. 16s. 1813.

THE work we here present to the acquaintance of our readers, is one deserving of no ordinary consideration. To say the truth, we have watched it for some length of time lying upon our table, under a degree of painful suspense, as to what manner we might adopt, so as, with the greatest propriety and the least offence, to bring it into notice. On the one hand, we perceive in it marks of very uncommon labour and indefatigable research, to which the short limits of a review can do but very unequal justice: and on the other, we no less easily discover qualities which will demand the severer exercise of our critical powers. As a memorial of times and persons to which we are under the greatest obligation, we owe it the most serious attention; as not an impartial memorial, we cannot withhold much, in our opinion, merited censure. It will be impossible for us, as sincere churchmen, not to animadvert strongly on the principles on which the whole work is constructed; though, we trust, as equally sincere Christians, we shall feel every disposition to afford them the most candid examination. Assuming our right, as impartial critics, to speak fully to these several points (and without such a right we should not speak at all), we shall proceed to our critical undertaking, not courting the favour nor fearing the frown, we trust, of any class of religious profession, whether within the pale of the church or beyond it.

We cannot but consider this work as by far the fullest and most complete memorial of Puritanical worthies, of any that has ever yet appeared. It seems to be written with the express view of perpetuat◄ ing the memory of every Puritan divine of note, from the earliest

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dawn of the Reformation, to the Act of Uniformity in 1662: and as such, we presume, will be esteemed a valuable possession by every person, who, either by descent, by reading, or any other means, should feel himself interested in any single divine of that large school. The industrious reader will form some idea, perhaps feel some jealousy, of the labours of a compilation which professes to have been drawn from authorities contained in 55 works in folio, 26 works in quarto, 36 works in octavo, besides various MSS. yielding a great variety of most interesting and curious information never before printed." It is impossible to doubt that" the author of these volumes has spared no labour nor expense in the collection of materials;" and when we find in his pages an authentic biographical memoir, of nearly 500 persons, in many cases very full, and, subjoined to all, a correct list of their respective works (an undertaking itself of considerable labour), we cannot but consider this persevering biographer, as having carried away the prize of intense application from all historians of the same times.

It would be superfluous to add, that a zeal well proportioned to the industry with which these volumes have been compiled, appears throughout them-a most ardent zeal in the cause of what the author strongly feels to have been injured innocence-and a most unquestioned and unbounded attachment to the cause of religious liberty. It may be deemed still higher praise to say of such a writer, that he withholds himself from any strong reflections on those of his own contemporaries, who might be supposed to inherit something of the zeal of their forefathers, against the innovations of the Puritans; and that he even prompts us "to contrast our own circumstances with theirs, and to be excited to the warmest thankfulness, that we live not in the puritanic age, but in days

of greater Christian freedom"-adding, "Shall we not be constrained to exclaim, the lines are fallen to us in pleasant places; yea, Lord, thou hast given us a goodly heritage?” Pref. p. xxiii.

We must own this very exclamation of our memorialist leads us to one very plain and obvious question, which may equally apply to all works of a similar tendency in the present age, viz.: What is the necessity now existing for their publication? And is not the omis sion of such statements as those of Mr. Brook at a time when confessedly the ends of Christian freedom are mainly obtained, likely to operate rather unfavourably than favourably on the minds both of those who have granted, and those who have received, the boon? May not the giver complain, that past ills are somewhat peevishly thrown in his teeth, when all grounds for present complaint have been long studiously removed? And may not the receiver be apt to imagine by these reiterated calls to religious patriotism, that all is not yet obtained which he has a right to expect? We look in vain for an answer to these questions, in the spirited dedication of this work,

to the rising generation among the various denominations of Protestants." We observe nothing that is to operate favourably upon the members of the Establishment, on the one hand, by being told that "the rulers of these times persecuted the Puritans with wanton cruelty, in total contempt of every sacred law, of every just principle, and of every humane feeling:" nor, on the other, upon the rising generation of the various denominations of Protestants, by being asked, "With what feelings will you receive the precious inheritance? Will you lightly esteem what they so highly valued? Will you stand aloof from the cause which they watched with jealous vigilance, and defended with invincible courage? If the, blood of these men run in your,

veins, if the principles of these men exist in your souls, most assuredly you will not?" which he concludes with praying, "That you may learn the wisdom and imbibe the spirit of the Puritans:-that you may take them as patterns, imitate them as examples, follow them as guides, so far as they followed Christ;that you may adhere to the cause of religion with the same firmness, adorn it with the same holiness, and propagate it with the same zeal."-We are not aware of any thing more exciting that could have been said, had it been necessary to rouse these youths to instant resistance against existing oppression, whether real or fancied, of the most outrageous kind. Nor can we well imagine any appeal better adapted to that which we sincerely hope not to be intended, the widening of the breach, and render ing all terms of accommodation perfectly hopeless, between the present Establishment and the rising gene ration of the various denominations of Protestants.

The work which, in our humble judgment, is most particularly called for at the present moment, and, let us add, particularly called for from those who acknowledge their unbounded obligation to the existing order of things, is a candid, judicious, and discriminating inquiry into the real merits of one of the most important, and yet most dubious controversies, that ever agitated this or any other country; a controversy that involved every thing that is held most dear and sacred to men; that searched the very foundations of religion and state government; that required the calmest and most dispassionate powers of deliberation, that at the same time blinded the understandings of the parties concerned, and inflamed their passions up to madness; and that necessarily, therefore, exposed both to the most pernicious and phrenetic excesses: one that, so far from leaving either side in quiet and undisputed pos

session of the field of right reason, seemed to displace the field itself from existence, and perhaps has only discouraged the investigation we propose, by presenting to the eye of the sedate and discriminating philosopher, a mere chaotic mass of wild, disorderly, and uncontroulable elements; elements in which sense and reflection can discover no assignable shape or form of proportion; and where the wildest imagination will be the most successful, in tracing out its own indistinct and irrational conceptions.

It is in vain to imagine and desire what might have been done with such a controversy, in the hands of so well informed, so laborious and patient a biographer as Mr. Brook. We shall have enough to execute in the task of following him througli what he has done. And were we to say that the principal fault which we shall endeavour to prove in the course of our consideration of this work, is its total want of impartiality, we should still say enough, we apprehend, to prove, if we make good our ground, its absolute incompetency to answer any of the true ends of such a history of those times as we propose, and also to warrant our own humble observations as we proceed, and may find ourselves able to furnish them, on the actual state of the case at issue.

Impartiality indeed we could not have conceived, but for a very slight claim to it in a single sentence in the preface, to have been at all within the purview of our memorialist. Nothing could be more surprising to us, did we not know the infinite deceivableness of human motives, than the declaration of the author in p. xvi. "Not writing to please any particular sect or party, he has endeavoured to observe the strictest impartiality." With the exception of this single sentence, we believe not one in the whole work which at all bears upon the subject will fail of proving to de monstration which side the author