332 



The Philosophy of Cotemporary Criticism. 



[May I, 



eternal scfioolmastery about the Greeks, 

 a delightful relief is provided in the 

 7iinth article, an accoimt of that late 

 popular, hut now almost forgotten 

 preacher, William Huntington, sinner 

 saved — who, wlien the inexpressible 

 part of his apparel was worn out, prayed 

 for a supply, and received a new pair. 

 In the character of this man there 

 appears to have been much knavery 

 mingled with enthusiasm in the latter 

 part of his life; but up to the period 

 when he became a preacher profitable to 

 liimself in this world, his narrative 

 bears many evidences of truth, and his 

 account of some of his fanatical " ex- 

 periences" is impressive and even af- 

 fecting. His quarrel with Rowland 

 Hill is amusing and characteristic. 

 That benevolent eccentric said, it seems 

 that if he preached such doctrines as 

 Huntington, he would expect horns to 

 grow out of his head, and his feet to 

 become cloven. " The Sinner Saved," 

 at the conclusion to an address in con- 

 sequence of this, said to Rowland, 

 " (hat you may discover less pepper 

 and more purity ; less heat and more 

 holiness : that you may perform good 

 works and say less about them; that 

 you may part with your tea-table stories 

 for heavenly tidings, and your old 

 wive's fables for gospel doctrines ; that 

 you may sound the gospel trumpet 

 more, and your own trumpet less, is 

 the desire and prayer of him who 

 frankly forgives you all that is past, 

 and hopes to take patiently all that is 

 to come." The controversies of Calvin 

 and Luther afford nothing so good as 

 this. The whole article in the review 

 would be interesting, if the subject was 

 not stale, but there is one sentence 

 tacked to it by the editor, more coarse 

 and contemptible than any thing we 

 ever met with in the records of hypo- 

 crisy and fanaticism. " Perhaps some 

 of our readers," says the editor, " may 

 think that in the days of Alderman 

 Wood, Jeremy Bentham, and Dr. Eady, 

 whose fame is written in chalk upon 

 all the walls, we have bestowed too 

 much attention uponan inferiorquack." 

 We wonder if there is any one mind in 

 this country so dead to all right feeling 

 as not to turn with loathing and disgust 

 from the political baseness and moral 

 depravity which dictated such a com- 

 bination as this. 



The tenth article gives a tolerably fair 

 account of the merits and demeritsof Mr. 

 Hope's " Anastasius :" a novel in the 

 style of the best and the worst of Lord 



Byron's poems ; and the eleventh and 

 last, is a veiy long article on the ex- 

 hausted topic of" P^lranjue and Lauie, 

 byMadame la Comtesse de Genlis," one 

 of the latest works of that celebrated 

 lady. 



Upon the whole, the Quarterly Re- 

 view does not fall off, and excepting 

 the article respecting Melmoth, and 

 the last sentence in the review of Hun- 

 tingdon's Works, we see little else in 

 number forty-eight that requires parti- 

 ticular animadversion. 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 

 SIR, 



IT has been my task more tlian once 

 to remind the public of a duty neg- 

 lected towards one of its most useful 

 and deserving servants ; a man to 

 whom the world owes the spread of 

 education, not only in England and 

 Ireland, but in Asia, Africa, and Ame- 

 rica, — the opposition to whose system 

 has produced benefits equal to its first 

 establishmert, and conferred on us all 

 the ad van (ages of our church schools, 

 commonly called Bell's institutions. 

 Which are most useful I will not ex- 

 amine, but I feel and know, with num- 

 bers of others, that we owe the whole 

 to the indefatigable perseverance of 

 Joseph Lancaster ; whom neither want, 

 misfortune, imprisonment, insult, neg- 

 lect, or ingratitude, have been able to 

 drive from the field, even when they, 

 who ought to have supported him, 

 drove him by their unkindness from 

 the country. 



That we should have a pension list 

 and not see his name in it, speaks more 

 against its abuses than all the clamours 

 of factious demagogues and radicals can 

 do ; and to read of grants of parliament 

 to pretended road-makers, who have 

 cunning enough to pass upon ministers 

 for what they are not, by intrigue and 

 subtlety — while men who have con- 

 ferred such inestimable benefits on the 

 community are passed by, is really 

 more likely to produce disaffection to 

 government, than any thing that the 

 most virulent writers can advance. I 

 know there are men in the House of 

 Commons who think with me in this 

 case, and who only withhold their mo- 

 tions on this subject, from a conviction 

 that there is a prejudice and party 

 against this valuable man — a prejudice 

 mixed with envy, originating in his 

 imbending character ; for, like Luther, 

 he will not bow, or compromise his ob- 

 jects to those who would build their 



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