CONTENTS ART. I. 1. Historical Reflections on the Constitution and Representative System of England, with Reference to the popular Propo- sitions for a Reform of Parliament. By James Jopp, Esq. 2. Letter to Henry Brougham, Esq. M. P. on the Subject of Reform in the Representation of the People in Parliament. 3. Letter addressed to John Cartwright, Esq. Chairman of the Committee at the Crown and Anchor, on the Subject of Parliamentary Reform. By the Earl of Selkirk. II. A Treatise on Isoperimetrical Problems, and the Calculus of III. The West Indians defended against the Accusations of their Calumniators; or, Facts versus Prejudices. By a Gen- 2. The present ruinous State of the West India Islands sub- mitted to the People of the British Empire, with a few Re- marks upon the Imposition and Oppressions under which the Merchants and Planters of those Islands have long suf- fered. By a Native of Jamaica. 3. An Essay on the good Effects which may be derived in the British West Indies, in Consequence of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade; including an Inquiry into the present insular Policy of those Colonies. By Stephen Gais- 4. Notices respecting Jamaica in 1808, 1809, and 1810. By 5. Practical Rules for the Management and Medical Treat- ment of Negro Slaves in the Sugar Colonies. By a pro- 6. A Letter to the Governors, Legislators, and Proprietors of Plantations in the British West India Islands. By the Right Reverend Beilby Porteus, D. D. Bishop of London. IV. Itineraire de Paris à Jerusalem et de Jerusalem à Paris; en allant par la Grèce, et revenant par l'Egypte, La Barbaire et L'Espagne. Par F. A. de Chateaubriand. V. Christian Liberty; a Sermon, preached at St. Mary's, before his Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, Chancellor of the University, and the University of Cambridge, at the In- stallation, June 30, 1811. By Samuel Butler, D. D. late Page VI. Further Inquiries into the Changes induced on Atmospheric Air by the Germination of Seeds, the Vegetation of Plants, and the Respiration of Animals. By Daniel Ellis. VII. Memoirs of the Honourable Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, Vice President and President of the United States of America; containing a concise History of those States, from the Acknowledgment of their Independence. With a View of the Rise and Progress of French Influence and French Principles in that Country. VIII. An Inquiry into the Consequences of neglecting to give the Prayer Book with the Bible. Interspersed with Remarks on some late Speeches at Cambridge, and other important Matter relative to the British and Foreign Bible Society. By Herbert Marsh, D. D. F. R. S. Margaret Professor of IX. Chronological Retrospect; or, Memoirs of the Principal Events of the Mahommedan History, from the Death of the Arabian Legislator, to the Accession of the Emperor Akbar, and the Establishment of the Moghul Empire in Hindustan. From original Persian Authorities. By Major David Price, of the East India Company's Service. X. A Series of Plays, in which it is attempted to delineate the stronger Passions of the Mind. Volume the Third. By ΧΙ. ΕΥΡΙΠΙΔΟΥ ΙΠΠΟΛΥΤΟΣ ΣΤΕΦΑΝΗΦΟΡΟΣ. Euripidis Hippolytus Coronifer. Ad Fidem Manuscriptorum ac veterum Edi- tionum emendavit et annotationibus instruxit, Jacobus Henricus Monk, A. M. SS Trinitatis Collegii socius, et XII. The Situation of Great Britain in the Year 1811, by M. M. de Montgaillard; Author of Remarks on the Restoration of the Kingdom of Italy, by the Emperor Napoleon; of the Right of the Crown of France to the Roman Empire, &c. &c. &c.-Faithfully translated from the French. XIII. The Life of the Right Reverend John Hough, D.D. succes- sively Bishop of Oxford, Lichfield and Coventry, and Wor- cester: formerly President of Mary Magdalen College, Oxford, in the Reign of King James II. containing many of his Letters, and Biographical Notices of several Persons XIV.* A Refutation of Calvinism; in which the Doctrines of Ori- ginal Sin, Grace, Regeneration, Justification, and Uni- versal Redemption are explained, and the peculiar Tenets maintained by Calvin upon those Points are proved to be contrary to Scripture, to the Writings of the ancient Fathers of the Christian Church, and to the public Formularies of the Church of England. By George Tomline, D. D. F. R. S. Lord Bishop of Lincoln and Dean of St. Paul's. 225 XV. An Attempt to estimate the Increase of the Number of Poor during the Interval of 1783 and 1803; and to point out the *By mistake, this article is numbered XV. in the body of the work. THE BRITISH REVIEW, AND LONDON CRITICAL JOURNAL. MARCH, 1812. ART. I. Historical Reflections on the Constitution and Representative System of England, with Reference to the popular Propositions for a Reform of Parliament. By James Jopp, Esq. London: J. Hatchard. Oct. 1811. 2. Letter to Henry Brougham, Esq. M. P. on the Subject of Reform in the Representation of the People in Parliament. By William Roscoe, Esq. Liverpool. 1811. 3. Letter addressed to John Cartwright, Esq. Chairman of the Committee at the Crown and Anchor. On the Subject of Parliamentary Reform. By the Earl of Selkirk. London: Constable, Hunter, Park, and Hunter. If the constitution of England had been planned and perfected by one extended effort of thought, like an epic poem; if it had been the bold creation of genius accomplished at its very birth, and at once displaying itself to the world as a fair, original, unblemished pattern, to adhere to the model would be the duty of succeeding ages; and the friend of his country could scarcely be more nobly and beneficially engaged than in bringing before so decisive a test the laws and practices of his own time, and in exposing and condemning each aberration from the great exemplar. But history denies the existence, at any time, of such a standing monument of political perfection; and however true it may be, that the first rudiments of what Englishmen call their constitution are to be found in the manners of our primitive ancestors, yet those perfect forms of liberty and law which some have seen, or pretended to see in that part of our history which preceded the conquest, we venture to class among the absurdities of visionary politics; unless some of our readers may think, VOL. III. NO. V. B with which opinion we are not much inclined to disagree, that party prejudices and factious designs have helped greatly to promote these interesting discoveries of ancient privileges lost, and imprescriptible rights forgotten. Now all this antiquarian research into the foundation of our liberties, we cannot help considering as productive of little advantage. What we have, we hold by a title older than antiquity itself; what we have not, are not shewn to be desirable in the present state of things by proofs that they once existed. Present institutions, if they fall short of speculative purity, are easily brought into discredit with the multitude, by being accused of wandering from a fictitious model, assigned by dreaming ignorance to unknown and unrecorded antiquity. That there was something in the circumstances of our ancestors of the earliest age, which gave the first start to our liberties which put them into a train of involuntary progression, and imparted to them strength to survive occasional and frequent interruptions, is not meant to be denied. Still less are we disposed to deny the credit which belongs to a succeeding generation for meditated improvements of this original patrimony; though more is undoubtedly due to the operations of events evolving consequences unforeseen, independent of human contrivance, and perhaps contradicting all contemporary speculation. The price at which many of our most valuable rights have been purchased, ought never to be forgotten; but we cannot join in opinion with those who consider the struggles of our forefathers in the support of liberty, as having always in view the maintenance of a settled derivative constitution, and the restoration of definite rights. Those who through the vista of ages discern this integrity of system, called by them the constitution of England, in the composition of the Saxon Wittenagemot, deserve to be complimented as much for their perspicacity, as for their strong political faith. We admire their faculty of tracing objects with accuracy in the dark; but as our own views are confined within ordinary limits, we must found our love of the laws and institutions of our country on a narrower principle, consoled by the reflection that this narrower principle is found in practice to produce as much political integrity and public usefulness, as appears in the conduct of our reformists upon the Saxon model. It is agreeable to history and reason, to look into remote times for the elements of our national character; the research is gratifying to intelligent curiosity; but the spirit of faction must be blended with the superstition of the antiquary, to produce a politician of the nineteenth century wild |