1827.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



87 



Mackie turns them, and to find that these 

 thing's, which we considered as defects, as 

 corruptions, were all advantages, studied, 

 foreseen, decided the fruits of the highest 

 and most comprehensive policy the pro- 

 duce of the soundest wisdom. What is cha- 

 racter, talent, learning-, without money ? 

 Therefore we must have princes in the 

 church with princely incomes, to enforce 

 good morals among- princes and nobles. 

 We must have pluralities, or what free 

 space will be left for the curates the very 

 order of curates would be extinguished- 

 and then what would become of the popu- 

 lace? We must have men in the church 

 with no hope or prospect of preferment, 

 to preserve a large moral mass of moral 

 influence, free of ambition, mingling among 

 the poor where there is no hope there 

 can be no ambition. Close the gates of 

 the bar and the senate against disap- 

 pointed churchmen, and you keep them 

 in the church, and compel them to throw 

 their pearls before swine. All is then as 

 it should be, and we are answered Mr. 

 Mackie is irresistible. 



The short of the matter is, the book 

 before us is \\ritten for the purpose of de- 

 fending things as they are. The thought 

 of innovation is manifestly horror to the 

 writer, and he canuot but think it criminal 

 and atrocious in others. As a matter of 

 composition the book is wretchedly writ- 

 ten, with such involved and .complicated 

 sentences, and such a load of verbiage, 

 that frequently the reader will find him- 



self obliged to go over the phrased three 

 or four times before the sense has any 

 chance of reaching his brain and yet 

 occasionally there are passages of con- 

 siderable energy and vivacity. We look 

 ourselves oa mere style except in works 

 of imagination as a matter of very .infe- 

 rior consideration: but we do like direct- 

 ness and intelligibleuess. Take a slight 

 specimen merely as a curiosity : 



Chap. V. Of oar national prosperity, as unat- 

 tended by a d?generating influence, ascribed to the 

 nature of our established church. Wherever we 

 must place the consummation of the wishes, which 

 philanthropy has formed, being sanctioned by rea- 

 son, and confirmed by revelation, from the bright- 

 ness of the destiny that awaits our nature in the 

 scene of their fulfilment, there comes a ray not 

 only cheering to its more distant prospects, but 

 which throws a light on all the intermediate por- 

 tion of futurity, and renders us so prescient of its 

 nature, that, assuming the alternative of contin- 

 gent circumstances, we may, if so permitted to ex- 

 press it, see into the coming fortunes of our country 

 almost with the clearness of prophetic eye. 



This is manifestly a phraseology that 

 indicates familiarity enough with the writ- 

 ings of the seventeenth century, but an 

 absolute ignorance of the common style 

 of expression of his contemporaries ; and 

 we may pretty safely conclude, from this 

 fact alone, that his ignorance with respect 

 to the actual state of society, and the pre- 

 vailing opinions of the age, is equally 

 complete. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



DOMESTIC. 

 ROYAL SOCIETY. 



March 29. Viscount Malion and the Rev. 

 C. Mayo were admitted Fellows of the So- 

 ciety, and the reading was commenced of a 

 paper on the compounds of chromium, by 

 Dr. Thompson. April 5. The reading of the 

 above paper was resumed and concluded. 

 The principal object of it is to give an ac- 

 count of a singular compound of chromic acid 

 and chlorine, discovered some years since 

 by the author. In the investigation to which 

 it gave rise, he was led to a more careful 

 examination of the oxides of chromium than 

 they had before undergone, and to a know- 

 ledge of their composition. 20. Dr. J. 

 Blackman was admitted, and the Duke of 

 Clarence elected a Fellow of the Society ; 

 and a pnper was communicated from Pro- 

 fessor Woodhouse, of Cambridge, on the de- 

 rangement of certain transit instruments by 

 the effects of temperature. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The weekly lectures at this society, dur- 

 ing the past month, have been eminently at- 



tractive. On Wednesday, the 30th ultimo, 

 Mr. Vigors, in an interesting and eloquent 

 lecture, illustrated the affinities that connect 

 the birds that leed by suction on vegetable 

 juices. This lecture was honoured by the 

 presence of a number of ladies distinguished 

 for rank and elegance. On the 13th instant, 

 Mr. Brookes concluded his scientific dis- 

 courses on comparative anatomy, by demon- 

 strating the thoracic and abdominal viscera 

 of the ostrich. Various interesting and im- 

 portant facts were illustrated in this lecture, 

 which Mr. B. concluded, by expressing his 

 readiness to continue his observations when- 

 ever an opportunity might offer itself for pro- 

 moting the views of the society. Mr. Vigors 

 delivered the final lecture, for the present 

 season, on the 20th instant, by continuing 

 his remarks on the affinities of birds. Among 

 the company assembled on the occasion, we 

 may mention the prince of Musignano 

 (Charles Lucian Buonaparte). Mr. Vigors, 

 after addressing the meeting on the prospects 

 of the society, and the increased success at- 

 tending upon its plans, entered upon his 

 immediate subject, by pointing out the cha- 

 racteristics that distinguished the five orders 

 of birds, as described in a diagram, exhibited 



