plication of the mode adopted by Mr. Lancaster is denominated by him or his friends the "Royal Lancasterian System;" of which he states, "that the same cannot be found in any other work, unless copied or pirated." Had Dr. Bell, on his first arrival from Madras, procured a patent for his invention, and tendered his little work, published in 1797, as the specification, would or would not a British jury decide that Mr. Lancaster's additions and alterations, (whether deteriorations or otherwise) have produced such a difference in the system, as to shield him from the consequences of an infraction of the patent, or, to use Mr. Lancaster's own phrase when discussing the claim of originality, from the chargeof" copying and piracy?" If not, the two plans, and fifty others, which we venture to predict will now rapidly succeed each other, are only different applications of one and the same system.

2. In point of economy, we think that there is no doubt, whether with a view to the practice of the system as it now stands, or to the original invention of any particular contrivances, that Dr. Bell's application of it stands upon a full and fairequality with that of Mr. Lancaster. Dr. Bell's schools have adopted such of Mr. Lancaster's practices as are not pernicious; and if it be worth while to contend for such a point, a very large proportion of the useful practices of both schools were firstcommunicated by Dr. Bell.

3. That in point of moral improvement, and the formation of the youthful mind to amiable, regular, and consistent habits, (we here speak independently of religion) the system of discipline and punishment adopted by Dr. Bell is in a very high degree preferable to that of Mr. Lancaster: or rather, the one carries on' instruction without punishments-the other has accumulated them, in direct opposition to the spirit of the system, and that to a most ridiculous extent. All is consistent with Dr. Bell: you will not there see the Bible, on one hand, instilling meekness, forbearance, goodwill, and goodnature, and the rules of the school, on the other, encouraging insolence, scorn, and malice. But the Bible will do its office, and so much the more effectually as every auxiliary practice is made to coincide with and promote its divine tempers and intentions. And this appears to us to be a solid answer to those who state, that you may (see Edin. Rev.) found upon Mr. Lancaster's (i. e. Dr. Bell's system, or the new; system) whatever system of religion, and whatever plan of discipline and punishments you please. This is perfectly true;but then you have at once deprived Mr. Lancaster of all his inventions; you have taken away from his plan every thing in which it has deviated from Dr. Bell's; you have stripped the Lancasterian System of every thing that even by equivocation may be. said to make it Lancasterian; and you recur to the plain, sim

ple, and consistent system of the original inventor. Now we apprehend that a man wishing to build a house would not employ an architect whose plan included a great number of complicated adjuncts, which he either did not mean to erect, or which, if erected, he must pull down,-in preference to one who had delivered him in a beautiful and consistent plan, containing precisely so much, and no more, as suited his ideas of correctness and propriety.

The practical result will therefore be, that any man, really desirous of instilling religious instruction according to any system of doctrines whatever, will adopt the plan of Dr. Bell, and modify the peculiar tenets according to what he honestly thinks true, and consistent with the Bible; carefully eradicating from his mind, on an occasion which fixes so heavy a responsibility upon his conscience, all sectarian or orthodox asperities, which are too apt to be engendered by subjects connected with controversy.

Finally, for ourselves, as it is our impartial and unprejudiced judgment, that when the poor are taught, care should be taken that they improve by what they learn;-and that the church catechism, with its best expositions, contains the finest code extant of scriptural doctrine and morality;-we must earnestly exhort all those, whose objections to the doctrines therein contained are not insuperable, to include it in their plan of instruction. Unity of doctrine is a great spiritual blessing, even where unity of discipline cannot be obtained, and will in fact lead to unity of discipline, whenever all parties, by the blessing of God, shall be found equally simple and sincere in purifying their religion from secular feelings and motives.

ART. XXV.-An Essay on the Preservation of Shipwrecked Persons, with a descriptive Account of the Apparatus, and Manner of applying it, as adopted successfully, by G. W. Manby, Esq. honorary Member of the Humane Society. Illustrated with Engravings on Wood. London: Murray; Longman and Co. 1812.

We have been induced to notice this little work, as well from the philanthropic nature of the objects it describes, as from the ingenuity of the methods invented to obtain them; and we trust, with some confidence, that our readers will find their heads and their hearts equally gratified by the following short account.

It has been the good fortune of an individual to revive the hopes of shipwrecked mariners in situations where it has been

VOL. III. NO. VI.

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hitherto extinct, and to snatch them from the jaws of death in the short suspense between danger and destruction.

Those who have had the opportunity of seeing the pictures of desolation realized on the eastern and north-eastern coasts of our island, and who have beheld the dreadful train of consequences that ensue;-the agonizing cries of the sailors;—the torturing suspense of the bystanders on the beach;-the dead bodies washed on shore;-and too often the lamentations of the wife or child over the body of an honest and industrious parent; -can best appreciate the merits of the author of the work before us, who is also the inventor of the life-preserving contrivances, of which it gives a detailed account. He was a captain of engineers, and held the station of barrack-master at Yarmouth, on the coast of Norfolk, in the year 1807. It is well known, that the coast for several leagues N. of that port, and, indeed, the whole eastern coast of our island, is peculiarly dangerous to navigators in the winter months, and totally unprovided with secure harbours. The consequence is, that many ships are unavoidably driven ashore, or rather upon the shoals off the coast, which will seldom permit the approach of a wreck within less than 100 yards of the land. Frequent are the instances in which vessels thus fixed within sight of their owners, and crews, whose cries were within hearing of their friends and relations, have been beaten to pieces by the waves, and engulphed in the deep, without the possibility of affording any assistance, from the want of means to establish a communication either by a boat, or by a rope, with the object in danger. It is obvious, that if communication, even by a slender packthread, can once be established between a stranded vessel and persons on shore, a rope may first be run out, and then a cable, by means of which the crew, and the most valuable parts of the cargo, may be successively drawn to the land. The following extracts from the preface give an account of the events which first drew Captain Manby's attention to the subject, and of the difficulties which he had to surmount; the perusal of them will render the description of the means, to which he had recourse, both more intelligible and more interesting.

"The dreadful events of the 18th of February, 1807, when his majesty's gun-brig, Snipe, was driven on shore near the Haven's mouth at Yarmouth, first made an impression on my mind, which has never been effaced. At the close of that melancholy scene, after several hours of fruitless attempt to save the crew, upwards of sixty persons were lost, though not more than fifty yards from the shore, and this wholly owing to the impossibility of conveying a rope to their assistance. At that crisis a ray of hope beamed upon

ine, and I resolved immediately to devote my mind to the discovery of some means for affording relief in cases of similar distress and difficulty. It is matter of no small consolation, when I reflect that my efforts were soon crowned with the happiest success, and have been already instrumental to the preservation of ninety souls from a watery grave, of which seventy-seven were my countrymen, and thirteen unfortunate Hollanders.

"In the prosecution of my object considerable difficulty presented itself, viz. in the case of vessels grounding on a bar, when running for a harbour, as their only chance of safety; the broken water, by giving no resistance to the blade of the oar, prevents a boat from pulling up to the ship's aid, though within ten or twenty yards of her. My attention became here engaged in the construction of a small piece of ordnance for the purpose of projecting a rope from the boat so as to communicate in such circumstances with the ship. A small portable mortar was also essential, the better to ensure a prompt and effectual communication, at a period when each successive instant was big with the fate of an entire ship's company.

"The dreadful event also of a Swedish brig, called the Wandering Main, driven on shore at Hasbro', in the night of the 5th of January, 1809, imprinted on my feelings the necessity of contriving a method of affording the same assistance at the more awful hour of night, when darkness doubles the danger, and baffles even the experienced navigator. It was on this lamented occasion, a dark and dismal night, when objects were scarcely discernible, that numerous unavailing attempts were made to project a rope to the vessel by the means successfully used in the day; but its flight could not be observed, either by the persons on shore or those on board, and seven long and auxious hours elapsed before the light of day favoured the endeavours to effect the much-desired communication; when, at the very instant the cot reached the vessel, she went to pieces, and every soul on board perished!" P. vi.

We may add also, that in one day only, viz. the 10th Nov. 1810, the crews of sixty-five vessels, wrecked on our N. E. coasts, entirely perished within one hundred yards of the shore. The number of souls was estimated at 500;-and it is fair to presume, from the result of experience, that if the apparatus of which we are about to give a short description had been within reach, 460 of these lives might have been saved. On these data some probable estimate may be formed of the annual saving of lives to the nation, from the general adoption of the apparatus on the coasts of our islands.

We have already stated, that the object in view was to discover some certain means of projecting a rope in boisterous weather from the land to a ship stranded on a shoal at some distance. The active and philanthropic mind of Captain Manby was not tardy in pointing out a probable method. It struck him that a cannon

shot affixed to a rope, and projected from a piece of ordnance over a stranded vessel, was a practicable mode of establishing the communication. But to reduce it to practice was found to be attended with much greater difficulty than the simplicity of the object seemed at first sight to promise.

In the first place, the faking or manner of laying the rope so as to unfold itself with the rapidity equal to the flight of a shell from a mortar, without breaking by sudden jerks at each returning fold, and without entanglement from the effect of uneven ground and boisterous winds, was no easy task. But it was at length attained by adopting what is called a French faking, in folds of the length of two yards; and by laying the rope in a flat basket always kept ready, with the rope in order, in a secure place; so that it could be transported at a moment's notice to the situation required, and laid upon rocks and uneven ground, even in the most boisterous weather, without fear of disarrangement. These contrivances, as well as all the rest, are exemplified throughout the work before us by wood-cuts neatly executed.

The next difficulty consisted in the means of connecting the rope with a shot, so as to resist the inflammation of gunpowder in that part of it which must necessarily occupy the interior of the mortar. Chains in every variety of form and strength universally broke from the sudden jerks or PLAY to which they were liable," which proved, that not only an elastic, but a more connected body was necessary." "At length," says Captain Manby, some stout platted hide, woven extremely close to the eye of the shot to prevent the SLIGHTEST PLAY, extending about two feet beyond the muzzle of the piece, and with a loop at the end to receive the rope, happily effected it."

This apparatus projected over a vessel stranded on a leeshore from a small howitzer, so light as to be easily conveyed from one part of the coast to another, affords a certain means of saving the lives of the crew in the day-time; and when from cold and fatigue they are not disabled from seizing and fastening the rope, and in other respects, joining their own exertions to those of their friends on shore. The following extract from an account of experiments made before some colonels and fieldofficers of artillery, shew the celerity with which the service may be performed.

"A person is completely equipped with every necessary apparatus to effect communication with a vessel driven on a lee-shore. A man mounted on horseback was exhibited, accoutred with a deal frame, containing 200 yards of log line ready coiled for service, which was slung as a knapsack; with a brass howitzer of a threepounder bore on its carriage, and two rounds of ammunition, the