46 REVIEW.-Bishop of Salisbury's Charge. in early life acquainted him with the common feelings of common men; when he inculcated loyalty and inclined to royalty, he never forgot the interests of the million. His characters were not more distinguished for their variety, than for their individuality; if he did not consult the unities, he did what was of more importance, regarded the proprieties of conduct and behaviour in life. "But, Gentlemen, I should not, as a clergyman, feel justified in dilating at all upon the merits of this Great Dramatic character merely because he hath made the vices of men a scourge to whip them with,' because he hath mapped out a perfect chart of the human mind, if he had gone no further. But I see a higher object (and I speak it not profanely), religion-Christian religion was his polar star, otherwise Lear might have appalled us with his madness, and Ophelia melted us with her piteous strains in vain. As this part of his character is of the utmost importance, I am happy to find my sentiments confirmed by the opinions of several writers, and distinguished ornaments of the Church-that he is a Christian Poet. It is evident from his writings, that the volume of the Holy Scriptures was his companion; and his very forbearance from too frequent use of it on ordinary occasions, shews how he hallowed it. He alludes, in the Old Testament, to the corruptions and adulteries of the Jews, and to the New Testament, where he mentions the afflicted spirits spirits in prison.' His tenderness of heart and his benevolence also shew the operation of the Christian religion upon himself. We are all more or less indebted to Shakspeare-the Bar and the Senate, to point a moral or adorn a tale;' nay, even the Clergy adopt passages, occasionally, though sparingly, to embellish Divinity. The great Novelist, Sir Walter Scott, and the author of Brambletye House,' (Horace Smith) have also enriched their exquisite writings by occasional references to, and quotations from the works of this great Master in the School of our Poetical Prophets." It need not be said, that the whole of the pageant was got up in excellent style; and if to disseminate pleasures of the soul among the people at large, be a national good, and we think it is, then is the public greatly obliged to the Shakspearean club and inhabitants of Stratford-upon-Avon. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the [July, THE Bishop introduces his Charge with a preface referring to Solifidians, from which we extract the following passages concerning what is called, by a strange misnomer, the Evangelical System. Mr. Scott, who in his life of his father, His Lordship first quotes says "Sure I am that Evangelical religion is in many places wholly verging to Antinomianism-the vilest heresy that Satan ever invented." p. 206.-"Perhaps speculating Antinomians abound most among professed Calvinists; but Antinomians, whose sentiments influence their practice, are innumerable among Armenians." p. 209."There are above two thousand inhabitants in this town, almost all Calvinists, even the most debauched of them." p. 212.-" A tendency to Antinomianism is the bane of Evangelical preaching in this day." p. 364. is That God patronizes vice and folly assuredly blasphemous, yet the Evangelical preaching here alfaded to implies both; for it makes the terms of salvation either arbitrary Calvinistic predestination, or a mysticism which it makes the term justification by Faith to imply. But as the Bishop further observes "In the following passage of Bishop Jebb's Sermon on Rom. xiv. 17, is a beautiful picture of Evangelical religion without Calvinism; and the reverse of Antinomianism. But the righteousness of God's kingdom is no negative attainment. It is not merely the absence of evil, but the prevalence of good. Religion, at the just height, and in its full proportion, is the source of all virtue. It possesses and animates the entire man. In the understanding it is knowledge; in the life it is obedience; in the affections it is charity; in our conversation it is modesty, calmness, gentleness, quietness, candour; in our secular concerns it is uprightness, integrity, generosity. It is the regulation of our desires, the government of our pasisons, the harmonious union of whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, virtuous and praiseworthy. It is a partaking of the divine nature, a conformity to the image of God's son; a putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ; or in the still more expressive language of the Apostle, it is Christ formed within us." Preface, xxxvii. His Lordship, in winding up an elaborate disquisition, concludes that "There are two kinds of justification, one by faith only, and one by faith and works; that justification by faith only consists in the remission of sin, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus [iv 1528.] REVIEW.-Warwick County Asylum. Kere 'Incov, by Christ Jesus], that it is limited to the remission of sin by baptism; that this is our first justification, and has no ether relation to our final justification in the Day of Judgment than as having the same basis of justification-the death of Christ; the two kinds of justification differing from each other in this, that one belongs to this life, the other to the next; the former unconditional, the latter conditional; one, justification from sin by faith without works; the other, justification of every man according to his works: one through faith only, the other through faith and works." -P. 139. We have numerous books published on Religious Subjects, but very little Theological Science. The Bishop very properly says "A learned Clergy was never more necessary to the Church, for the maintenance of true religion, than it is at this day, in opposition to the errors of popery, unitarianism, and fanaticism, errors founded chiefly on misrepresentations of scripture." -Pp. 12, 13. There are other parts of the Charge which merit the most solemn attention, but we had only room for selecting those which are of immediate bearing upon the prevailing mistakes of the day; mistakes which we affirm are of the worst civil consequences, by a disjunction of morals from ligion. By the critical acumen and profound learning of the Bishop, we have been much edified; but far greater, from its superior importance, has been the delight derived from the following seasonable paragraph re "The inseparable union of good works with a true faith, is evident from this :-No one can believe in Christ who does not know him, and no one can truly know Christ, or have any assurance of the sincerity of his faith in him, who does not keep his commandments; for the Apostle says, 'Hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. (1 John ii. 3.)" p. 144. A Memoir of the Warwick County Asylum, instituted in the year 1818, shewing that it has answered the purposes of Reformation, and diminished the County Expenditure. 8vo. pp. 36. Appendix. THE Warwick County Asylum was founded with the professed object of affording a place of refuge to criminal boys, and giving them useful instruction and honest modes of employment. The last valuable Report of the Prison Society, shows that the best 47 preventive of crime is knowledge. We are happy to corroborate it by an extract from this Memoir, which also shows the fallacy of omitting religion' in juvenile tuition, and the excellent operation of our national school education. "Many, it will be observed, had learned to read, and some to write; and in general it may be remarked that these juvenile delinquents display an acuteness beyond their years. But this only forms another proof, if any such were wanting, that learning of whatever kind, when it is not made the vehicle of sound religious instruction, does but give an increased power to the mind, which may be directed either to a good or to a bad purpose. "It is a fact, that of the whole number of Asylum boys who had been tried and convicted of crime, not one had received an education under the national system. It is true, there are some of those sent to the Asylum under the suspicion of guilt, who had received that description of instruction which is sanctioned by the National Society, but none actually convicted of crime had been educated in a National School." P. 14. It appears, that the effect of the system is to reform about one half of those on whom the experiment is tried; and that the expense is so much below the cost of prosecution, &c. &c. that reformation is the cheapest policy. When examining the table, containing a short history of the boys, it is shocking to see the horrid quences of negligent administration of the Poor Laws. Out of about one hundred boys, only six were children of respectable characters. The other unfortunates were either orphans (numerous), bastards, or children of thieves or drunkards, or of widows or widowers. conse Now we would humbly submit to the legislature this circumstance for particular attention. We would, with regard to orphans at least, suggest a power to be given to the parish clergyman, of laying the case of every such neglected boy before the magistrates, who might cause the parish officers to act a paternal part towards such hapless children. We also beg to impress upon the benevolent, the strong fact that the respectable poor richly deserve their patronage, because, out of one hundred juvenile delinquents, only six are found to have had parents of respectable character. What kindness then, do not such parents deserve. 48 REVIEW.-Fox's History of Pontefract. The Memoir is drawn up by the Rev. Townsend Powell, Curate of Stretton super Dunsmore, and Inspector of the Asylum. It is most excellently compiled. We hope, lastly, that as the Birmingham people occasion most of the juvenile offences, by their system of day apprenticeship (p. 14), they will make some amends by warmly supporting the charity. The History of Pontefract in Yorkshire. By George Fox. 8vo. pp. 366. PONTEFRACT, famous in history for its castle, is said to have arisen out of the Legeolium of Antoninus, which is presumed to have been situated at Castre-ford, now called Castleford, about two miles distant from the town under notice. It is certain, that at Castre-ford, remains of a tesselated pavement and several coins have been found. The Watling and Ikenild streets crossed each other at this place. A sanguinary battle was also fought at it between the Saxons and Danes in 950. Pp. 10, 82. The hamlet of Tateshall (now part of the present town of Pontefract, though not within the borough,) was the parent of the present town; for Tateshall only, with its appendages of Manestorp, Barnebi, and Silcheston, is mentioned in Domesday Book. A church occurs in that survey, and its site is denoted by the word Kirkbye, from kirk, church, and bye, a habitation; the town existing in the time of the Confessor, and no Saxon, according to the laws of Athelstan, being permitted to enjoy the diguity of a Thane, without possessing a church. As to the appellation Pontefract, it is only a Latinism of Brokenbridge, and was subsequent to Kirkbye. Upon what grounds the new name was adopted is no further clear, than that there did exist an old bridge adjacent to Kirkbye. See p. 9. The magnificent fortress or castle, so famous in English history, is one specimen which may serve to coRvince us that there were Anglo-Saxon castles, and that the Normans often incorporated them with their subsequent additions, and that they are chiefly characterized by a keep standing on a tumulus; for it is to be remembered, that the remains of the castles said to have been founded by [July, Elfreda, Lady of the Mercians, consist of tumuli, upon which stood keeps Another point of historical importance grows out of this account of Pontefract, viz. that it may be, and apparently is, a great error to allegate a paucity of Anglo-Saxon castles, from the silence of Domesday, for we are certain that there was a castle at Tamworth, built by the said Lady Elfreda ; yet Dugdale says (Warwickshire 431), that it is not mentioned in Domesday; and the same case may occur de cæteris, for it was a fiscal not a military survey. Accordingly, we give full credit to the following AngloSaxon history of Pontefract Castle. " "The foundation of this noble structure is variously ascribed, by some to be in the time of the Saxons, and by others to that of the Normans. In the Chartulary of Kirkstall Abbey, it is positively stated to have been built by Hyldebert or Ilbert de Lascey, a potent Norman baron, in the army of the Norman conquerors. Although no mention is made of the mound or keep, in the Survey recorded in Doomsday Book, yet Holingshed affirmeth, "that an earthen fortification existed here anterior to the conquest," sed the Saxons of their holds, wrested it from and "that William, at the time he dispossesAlice, a Saxon Thane, and granted it to Ilbert, together with so many estates in the county of York, as made up 150 lordships. The fortification, called the Round Tower, stands on a raised artificial mound, of a composition of earth, far different to any of the rest near the castle, and (according to Berwick and others,) on the first foundation was a Saxon fortress. It is singly raised above every other turret, is sixty-four feet in diameter, and its walls are so immensely thick, that it is as firm as if it was erected upon the solid rock." p. 84. We shall now proceed to some interesting matters. In an old MS. dated 1419, we find this item: "Wages to one man for cuttinge bowghes off severall trees in Pontefract Park, for maneteininge the deere in winter, cxx daies at iid. per daie." p. 73. [similar item, p. 72.] Widows, or at least women who acted as femmes soles, were called uxores. Thus we have in the 3rd Eliz. "Uxor Hyde for Wentforthe lande, and the howse yt she dueleth in, xviiid" p. 79. And we afterwards meet with Uxor Hunste, Uxor Hammond, &c. &c. &c. Pp. 74, 75. 1829.] REVIEW.-Fox's History of Pontefract. It seems that it was deemed an abomination if butchers lived in a state of dispersion through the town. "3 Richard II. John de Amyac makes complaint that he farms three booths in the new market in Fleschewer's Booths, and that formerly, by Sir William Finchden's precept, it was commanded that the butchers should inhabit, and kill and sell their meat, only in two places: viz. in the place called Fleschewer's Booths, in the new market, and in the place eastward of Lancaster's Fortress, near unto the church of AllSaints; and that they now inhabit other places severally, in abominatione gentium." -P. 76. The house where Thomas of Brotherton, son to Edw. I. and Margaret his Queen, was born, was near the church of Brotherton, within an enclosure of about twenty acres, surrounded by a trench and wall, and the tenants are obliged by the tenure of their land, to keep this part surrounded by a wall of stone. P. 102. Annexed to a print of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, Derby, &c. evidently copied from Dr. Meyrick's Armour, is the following note: "The figure of Lancaster is from the large seal in the Cottonian library, and exhibits one of the earliest instances of an emblazoned surcoat, and the first among the seals of the royal family, bearing a crest and lambrequin, or mantling, suspended from the helmet. His crest is a weevern or dragon, and is repeated on the horse's head, between a pair of straight horns. It seems, that the custom of embellishing the caparisons of the horses with the arms of the rider, is anterior to the fashion of wearing emblazoned surcoats, as the seals of the two first Edwards testify. The most ancient noted is the seai of Saer de Quincy, first Earl of Winchester. His arms are on the banner, shield, and caparison of the horse. If we refer the making of the seal to the date of his creation, it will be as early as 1207; if to the year of his death, no later than 1219. The first instance of an emblazoned surcoat is in the lives of the two Offas, by the hand of Matthew Paris, which cannot be much earlier than 1250. Those painted on the monumental figures of Robert of Normandy and William Longspee, are to all appearances done long after the tombs were constructed." p. 104. Mr. Fox should have acknowledged his obligations to Dr. Meyrick's Armour, i. 102, &c. Portraits of noblemen were suspended in cathedrals; for after the decapiGENT. MAG. July, 1828. 49 tation of the Earl of Lancaster, t. Edw. II. the people resorted to his picture then hanging in St. Paul's Cathedral. p. 118. Swillington Tower, in the Castle of Pontefract, was probably the place where the unfortunate Earl of Lancaster was confiued. There was no entrance to the dungeon but by a trapdoor in the floor of the turret, and the walls were ten feet and a half thick. p. 118. "The remains of the noble Earl, are, from circumstances connected with his death and burial, fairly presumed to have been discovered by two labourers, on Monday the 25th of March, in the year 1822, in a field Thomas's Hill in Pontefract. called the Paper Mill Field, lying near St. "The labourers were employed by Mr. Joseph Brooke, occupier of the land, to trench for liquorice, and one of them striking against a hard substance, curiosity prompted them to remove the earth, as it Wa3 on the side of a hill, and had only about a foot of earth on its surface. It proved to be a massive, antique coffin, hewn out of one entire piece of undressed stone. Its measurement within, was in length six feet five inches, and in width nineteen inches, with sides of about six inches thick. The lid was formed as the ridge of a house, and projected over the sides about two inches, having its underside hollowed out. It was by accident broken in two, and being raised up, presented a complete skeleton of large dimensions, in a high state of preservation A rough stone was laid in the place of the head, which rested between the thigh bones, and consequently the occupant of the narrow mansion, who had probably in his day filled a considerable place in society, had evidently suffered decapitation. Pieces of chalky substances were strewed about the bones, which on the first opening of the coffin, were entire, and in their respective places, but on being exposed to the air, fell in a confused heap. The teeth were entirely perfect, and the bones those of a strong, athletic man. As no doubt existed at the time of their discovery, that they were the remains of the unfortunate Lancaster, they were, together with the coffin, removed by order of Mrs. Mylnes, of Frystone Hall, the owner of the field wherein it was found, into her grounds, where they now remain." p. 125. As it is said in p. 120, that the prior and monks of Pontefract begged the Earl's body of the King, and buried it on the right hand of the high altar, in the church of the Priory, we cannot give an unqualified assent to the appropriation of the body found in the Paper Mill Field. .50 REVIEW.-Joplin on the Currency. We are inclined to think that the unfortunate Richard II. owed his death to famine. To ascertain this point, our Author says "His tomb in Westminster Abbey was opened in the presence of many of the members of the Antiquarian and Royal Societies; but as the royal corpse was not disturbed, nor the bandage on the head removed, so as the skull might be examined, the subject still continues in doubt. For it should be remembered that the stroke said to be given to Richard by Exton, was on the back of the head; and the only part of the body uncovered, was from the eyebrows to the throat." p. 140. The bandage round the head, and the exhibition of the face only, are suspicious circumstances as connected with presumptions of violent means. In the church of All-Saints is a curious double stair-case. "In the north-west corner of the square tower still standing, is a singular and rare case, inclosing two pairs of stairs, both of which wind round the same centre, and terminate in the same circumference, having their different entrances below, and their several landings above." Nothing precisely of this kind occurs in Palladio (Árchitect. i. c. xlv.) the chapter of Staircases. This book contains a very ample stock of information. The history of the Castle is, in particular, excellently well told. View of the Currency: in which the connexion between Corn and Currency is shewn, the nature of the System of Currency explained, and the merits of the Corn Bill, the Branch Banks, the extension of the Bank Charter, and the Small Note Act, examined. Ey T. Joplin, 8vo. Pp. 248. MR. JOPLIN treats his subject with great skill and ability, but we do not think that phenomena apply to his premises; for, as we infer from the latter, the payment of farmers, for rent, &c. in country bank notes, must have occasioned the fluctuations in the currency depreciated; but if the Bank of England stopped payment in 1796, and if a banking system implies in its very self, the impossibility of having for every note issued, a corresponding amount in specie,-then a run, which implies such a thing, also implies that for every note issued a corresponding [July, value in metallic currency is locked-up in the coffers of the banker: but if so, while he gains interest by the commission, he loses equal interest by the retention. But even in Mr. Joplin's own view of the subject, the benefit to trade from the Country Banks is conspicuous in the following paragraph: "By whomsoever gold is received, it finally comes into the possession of the agent in London of the country banker, on the country banker's account, and gives rise to a corresponding issue of country bank notes, as well as to an increase in the circulation of London." P. 144. According to this position, no metallic abatement ensues through the country banker's notes, it only goes to London; and the fact, in our judgment, seems to be this, that under accommodation there may be a greater conversion of fixed into floating capital, than the country requires or can use; a position which seems to us to be set at rest by war and the difference between the two propeace prices, ceeding from the greater demand, and consequently greater supply. It would be the same with the precious metals, countries where paper does not circulate, soliciting the plate of individuals for coinage, upon the commencement of a war. When peace ensues, the commodities furnished for war are not wanted, and if they continue to be produced, they will fall in price. If corn was the only thing used in war, it would justly bear all the blame of affecting the currency, but that certainly is not the fact. A war production is continued, but not wanted during peace, and all currency beyond demand, occasions a fall of interest of money, and by that effect we judge of its redundancy or deficiency. It matters not that there is a legal standard of interest; for during the war consumption, and an issue of paper not payable on demand, by the Bank of England, purchases in the funds, when the three per cents. were at 49, paid far more than five per cent.; and during that war, we perfectly recollect that there was all along a similar demand for corn, and yet that we paid varying sums, from 14s. to 32s. per bushel, in successive years, and that the price of corn did not therefore follow the increase of currency, but varied, exactly as the production met |