1804.] 
tqvo diftinct fpecies, remains asa fingle 
one in Dr. Smith’s Flora. The three 
firt. varieties of the Ranunculus aquatilis 
have been, it mult be confeffed, very in- 
judicioufly feparated intoas many difting& 
fpecies by Wiggen, Roth, and. Siothorp, 
defignated by the trivial names of aqua- 
tilis, heterophyllus, and circinaius. The 
fluviatilis of Wildenow, defcribed as the 
peucedanifolius in Desfontaine’s elegant 
Flora Atlantica, forms the Renunculus 
aquatilis } of Di. Smith. From the 
known candour of this truly excellent bo- 
tanifi, it is to be expeéted he will concur 
in the opinion of thofe corre&t naturalitts, 
who have formed it into a feparate {pe- 
cies, judging it, very naturally, to be 
more than a mere variety, from its re- 
maining unchanged in its extended, habit 
of growth in whatever fituation it is cul- 
tivated, though confeffedly not fo much 
fo as where its natural tendency to elon- 
gation is aided by the impetus of a rapid 
ftream. Se El she 
Dec. 5, 1803. 
——a ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HEN my bookfeller had fent me 
your Magazine, I did not read it 
with lefs pleafure tnan any of the former 
numbers. A pafiage about James the 
Firft, under the article Coleana, p. 429, 
Vol. XVI. however, ftruck me very forci- 
bly, both from the fentiments and the 
illiberal attack it contains. 
I fhall not enter into any difquifition 
about the learning of James, as.it has no- 
thing to do with the prefent fubject. I 
mean only to refft the malignant and un- 
founded accufation made againit the learn- 
ing and talents of the late Mr. Ropinson 
by Mr. Cole. Mr. R-binfon’s diflenting 
principles caufed this attack, as is clearly 
evinced from the general fentiment this 
article contains; and Mr. Cole fhould 
have reflected that many of our prelates 
have worn the mitre, whofe origin has 
- been as low as Mr. Robinfon’s; nay a 
felonious crime has not been a bar toa 
mitre. 
I am now come to fpeak of Mr. Robin- 
fons works, and I beg to offerthe Tranfla- 
tion of Saurin’s Sermons as one of his prin- 
cipal productions. Thele Sermons were 
the panegyric even of the clergy at Cam- 
bridge, and perhaps. Mr. Cole did not 
know how ftrongly the tranflator was 
importuned by fome reverend and right 
MortuHiy Maa, No. 109. 
Defence of Mr. Robdinfon. 
593 
reverend divines for many of the copies 
unpublifhed ; nay, one went fo. far as 
even to wie as bis own a copy which had 
been lent him. ; 
The Plan of Le&tures on Nonconfor- 
mity (though I differ with him in many 
parts) is extremely wel] drawn up, full 
of argument, and difplavs a confiderable 
knowledge on the fubjeét. Thefe lec- 
tures appear to have called forth thofe 
weak and malignant objections by Cole 
againft Robinfon, on account of his ori- 
gin. 
His Preface and Notes to Claude’s Ef- 
fay, which he tranflated, prove him to 
be a man of extenfive reading and a 
found and comprehenfive judgment 5 nor 
_do I think they fhew that he had only 
fufficient learning to make him a cox~ 
comb. { 
His other writings evince ‘* a great pe- 
netration, a lively imagination, and a 
happy facility of fimplifying and illuftrat- 
ing a fubject.” 
‘Do his Ecclefiaftical Refearches, or 
Hiftory of Baptifm, jullify the accufation - 
of Mr. Cole? though, I believe, thefe 
works were publifhed after Mr. Cole’s 
death. : . 
I had not the pleafure of Mr. Robin- 
fon’s acquaintance, confequently I can 
know nothing of him but through his 
works, and. from thofe who knew him. 
If fromthe works of aman we may judge 
of his charaéter, I think Robinicn fally 
entitled to the higheft praife ; and if from 
an ordinary occupation in life he rofe to 
confiderable rank in the literary world, it 
redounds greatly to his honour. His bio- 
grapher (who was one of, his intiroate 
friends, and who knew him well) fpeaks 
of him‘in thefe terms, which is but a 
juft tributezo his memory. ‘* Thus lived 
and thus died Robert Robinfon, a man 
who from an humble ftation in life raifed © 
himfelf to confiderable notice ; whofe be- 
nign difpofition and gentle manners enti- 
tle him to the character of an amiable 
man; whole genius, whofe leaning, 
whofe fteady oppofition to every fpecies of 
tyranny, as weil among Proteitant Diffen- 
ters asfEftablithed Hierarchies, entitle bim 
to the chavaéter of a great. man.” (See 
Dyer’s Memoirs of Rubinfon, p. 403.) 
I fear little can be faid in favour of 
Mr. Cole’s candour and Iberality, ether 
in politics or religion, as I learn from his 
cotemporaries; and would it not have 
become him ‘to have fhaped his attack _ 
upon Mr. Robinfon in another way, ra- 
My ee ther 
