428 
with the hiftory of the Conqueft of Peru, 
end of the lifeof Pizarro: They well know 
that the treacherous Spaniard obtained 
pefleffion of the perfon of the Peruvian 
-monarch, Ataliba, and after extorting 
from him millicns of ‘goid and filver-as 
ranfeom money, cruelly put him to death ; 
that Pizarro obtained complete poffeffion 
ef the kingdoms of Quito, Peru, and 
Chili, and, many years afterwards, was 
murdered by the hands of Spanifh con{pi- 
rators, in his palace, in his own city of 
Lime. Apparently, however, for the 
fake of introducing a mock-fight upon 
-the ftage, Mr. Sheridan has atiually re- 
prefented Ataliba as routing the Spa- 
niards, killing Pizarro them general, 
and, by the ruminery of the feene, has 
produced fentiments of ridicule and con- 
tempt in the minds of the audience, dia- 
metrically oppofite to what will be felt, 
either by the readers of Kotzebue, or by 
the ipectators of lecitimate tragedy. 
Two or three of your valuable pages 
might be occupied with obfervations of 
this kind. It is not, however, my defign 
to trefpafs on the patience of your rea- 
ders, and I have troubled you with thefe 
remarks in confequence of the deferved 
popularity of the Spaniards im Peru wpon 
‘the Britifh flage. In many refpects it Is 
one of the belt of Kotzebue’s plays that 
could have been feleéted for reprefenta- 
tion; on that account it was, however, 
the more neceflary, that the fublime ge- 
nius and corrcét tafte of the original au- 
thor fhould have been prefented to us in 
their native force and beauty. 
I have been fully confirmed in my opi- 
nion, that to alter the plays of Kotzebue 
is to /poil them, by the aftonifhing effect 
that is preduced at another of our theatres, 
by. the reprefentation of Mr. NEUMAN’S 
faithful tranflation of “* Fazizly Difirefs,” 
or “ Self-Immolaiicn.’ Myr. Neuman’s 
Janguage is literally retained, and no other 
alteration has been made than to curtail a 
few unimportant parts of the dialogue. 
As the emiffions altogether do not extend 
to more than two pages of the printed 
copy, cannot but wifhthat Mr. Colman 
had made the experiment of performing 
the whole without any omiflion. -It is 
honcurable to the genius of Kotzebue 
that this drama, purely his own, un- 
aided by ftage trick and unadorned by 
impefing and expenfive {cenery, produces 
an irrefittible and unequalled effeét upon 
the fenfibility of a Britifh audience. 
Iuner-Temple, A. D. 
Fue v8th, 1799. 
Religious Advantages of the Quakers. 
[July 
' Lo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
sik, 
NLESS you have already had tco 
much about the tenets ot the people 
called quakers, I fhail requeft your inier- 
tion of a few remarks-on the fubject, from 
a perfon who belongs to zo feci, but is - 
content with following religion as a maf- 
ter of confequence to himfelf alone, and 
unconneéted with any ether interefts. ~ 
t appears tome, then, that the pro- 
grefs made by the quakers, above: all 
other feéts, in fimplifying Chriftianity, 
and freeing it from thofe mixtures which 
have fo much difguifed and debafed it, 
has been fo extraordinary, that it may 
juftly fet them at the head of all reformers, 
and {tamp them with a decitive character, 
in which their little peculiarities of man- 
ner are rendered {carcely worth netice. 
Tn the firft place, they are the only 
feét (fome of the baptifts, perhaps, ex- 
cepted), who admit no priefts or minifters 
as a feparate erder of men into their con- 
ftitution—an advantage of fo capital a 
nature, that it is well worth purchafing by 
the inftitution of a diftinét fociety for 
that purpofe only. For what a legion of 
evils does this at once cut off! Not to 
mention the greater mifchiefs which the 
ftrugeles for wealth and power by am ef- 
tablifhed clergy, have in all countries oc- 
cahoned ;—are not their rivalries, their 
parties, their controverfies, their interefts, 
the bane of concord and brotherly affec- 
tion, in all the communities of feparatifts ? 
Does not their inordinate authority fre- 
quently as much infringe’ the rights and 
liberties of private congregations, as it 
always does of national churches? De 
they not afford a ready means of laying at 
the feet of power the political influence of 
diffenting bodies? That it never was in 
the contemplation of the founder of the 
Chriftian religion to inftitute fuch a body 
of men; and that the fuppofed neceffity 
of them is contradi€tory to the notion of 
a divine revelation freely and clearly com- 
municated in writing, lam, myfelf, con- 
vinced ; as well as that all the corrup- 
tions, forgeries, and interpolations that 
deform the pages of {cripture, date from 
their eftablifhment. 
Secondly, the quakers are the only 
people who have completely detached re- 
ligion trom ftate-policy, and thereby 
avoided that deteftable combination of 
two diffimilar interefts, which has never 
failed to ‘{poil and contaminate both. 
Ybey have confined religion to its proper 
province of amending the hearts and lives 
of 
