Memoirs of the Life and Character of the late Rev. Cornelius Winter, compiled, and composed by W. Jay. 8vo. pp. 500. Price Ss. Bath, Gye, 1808.

Bristol, closed Aug. 9. There were about 240 preachers present from different parts land, and the West Indies. The confeof England, Wales, Ireland, Newfoundrence had been held by adjournments for sixteen days, during winch thirty nine young men were publicly received into full connection, after having been engaged in the ministry four years. were admitted on trial as preachers, and Sixty five during the last year, upwards of one hundred and twenty chapels have been erected, and near 8000 persons added to the society."*

before us, was not of this persuasion, As the good man, whose memoirs are we shall enter into no further explanation, but advert, more particularly, to the character of Mr. Winter, and to the la bours of Mr. Jay.

fifty-eight years of it: the second, Mr. Jay's continuation of the memoirs to the decease of Mr. Winter, with remarks, extracts from correspondence, diary, &c. and inferential applications.

a

If fifty years' peeping at the methodists, by one who is not a methodist, may quality an individual for giving an opinion on that people, as a sect, that qualification may be claimed, by an occasional writer of our corps. And it is singular enough, that the copy of this work, directed by Mr. Jay to be sent to the Panorama, should, by mere accident, have been forwarded to one who, in perusing the account given by Mr. Winter of his early life, finds himself in a company with which he has formerly been conversant, as a spectator, if not as a party. We are undoubtedly, tempted to consider this volume, as in some respects a chapter of the first being letters from Mr. Winter, This volume is composed of two parts, the history of methodism, while it pro-giving an account of his life during nearly fesses to be only the history of a methodist. As we have had repeated occasions of marking that ignorance as to the tenets and principles of the methodists, which some of their opponents have discovered, we take this opportunity of distinguish- When a writer composes expressly for ing the interest to which Mr. Winter belonged as, that of the Calvinistic metho- ments and language he is intimately accertain class of persons with whose sentidists. This people was gathered by Mr. quainted, and when he publishes expressGeorge Whitfield, and has, with variously for that party, suspicion but too often fluctuations, subsisted since his time. entertains But this sect is by no means so nume-feel an irresistable temptation to indulge a jealousy lest he should rous, nor so well conducted, as the in what he is conscious will be acceptable: Arminian methodists; which are a divi- and, to say the least, his representations sion, formerly under the spiritual guidance will be deemed not unfavourable. On the of Mr. John Wesley: who adopting the other hand, when a novelist, or a liberanti-calvinistic view of the doctrine of tine, takes occasion to introduce a chapredestination, with its concomitants, racter for the purpose of exposing it, his separated from Mr. Whitfield. The po- pen is never guided by truth, but by prelity established among this people is truly judice; he distorts the features of the admirable; although it has not preser-party, and caricatures, not characterizes ved them from a serious and extensive schism. During the life of Mr. Wesley they manifested no visible. signs of dissatisfaction; though it is certain that their chief foresaw a division; which actually took place in a year or two after his removal. Considering the preachers who were enrolled with Mr. W. in a deed in chancery, and their adherents, as the main body, we shall observe, that it is this body which annually publishes a state of their society, and which reports for the present year as follows: the conference held by the methodist preachers in

those whom he means to describe. He overcharges his descriptions, as a buffoon, or mimic overcharges his imitations. A much more faithful picture is exhibited in this volume: the candour of Mr. W. has induced him to behold his friends in a favourable light, but he does not present

That faultless monster which the world ne'er saw.

He frankly admits that he for one, when he began to teach, was destitute of that in

vide Panorama, Vol. I. p. 1302, instead of * The number stated for the last year, 1492, ough 110 have been 7492.

The opportunities of observation, which Mr. W. must have had, in the course of these situations, add weight to his opinion. He has drawn the best character of Mr. Whitfield, that we remember to have seen; he treats his patron, it is true, with favour; but he does not describe him as faultless. Others who once stood very high in repute among the members of his society, meet with less ceremony. He deIn the complete eleven years which have tected in them as well pride as petu- revolved over me since I have been here, [at lance and he has marked them-not as Painswick] I have met with little in my examples. It is common among the incon-pastoral connexion to disturb or afflict me. siderate, to observe sarcastically, that methodist parsons must be well paid for their labour; and when they cannot detect any

proofs of human imperfections excepted, I am surrounded with a poor, simple, pious, affectionate people, who contribute willingly, though slenderly, according to their ability, to my subsistence; and for whom I will very gladly spend, and be spent.

In November 1800, he had the misfortune to break his leg in two places: under this adversity he thus writes to his friend

I need not tell you that the consequence is confinement upon the bed, in one posture, and very acute pain; but through the goodness of God, I have an experience to relate that redounds much to his glory; and if I was not disaffected to egotism I should use it much upon the present occasion. Shall I venture to tell you, that I am a stranger to murmuring and impatience; that I am in a state of intire resignation, that I have given myself quite up to God and to the surgeon; that though I may groan in the dead of the night it is merely to soothe the pain; and that I can soothe it better by prayer and praise, and reciting the word of God, than by groaning! I have dismissed all anxiety from my mind. I, who am naturally impatient of suffering, had as much happiness as I was capable of containing the night after the accident, and ever since, have known no sorrow. The reason is, that through grace I am the heir of promise, and as is the promise such is the veracity of him that hath made it. his promises are apposite to our exercises, and when the trial comes, then comes the fulfilment, at least to such a degree as the exigency renders necessary. As I am overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness and mercy of God, so I am with the sympathy and kind ness of my neighbours in general, and my friends in particular. There is much mercy in the dispensation that I cannot exemplify upon this paper. I believe it is the prevention of some great evil, and that it will be productive of some great good.

known what anxiety for futurity is; but under narrow and uncertain subsistence have dwelt at ease. I do not now find an additional want, I have no alteration to make in my mode of living; but as the steward who is required to be found faithful to the talent entrusted to his care, I wish to impart of the favour imparted, and to consecrate it to Ged for whom I have received it.

. He died Jan. 19, 1808. Aged 65..

Mr. Jay has performed his task with affection, and we doubt not with fidelity. If he were not somewhat biassed in favour of his friend and tutor, we should think, he deserved a censure as a man, which is not to be compensated by praise as an author. His style is pleasing and lively, displeases us much more are the typogra but too obviously rhetorical: but what phical incorrectnesses, which due diligence in editor or printer would have prevented.

Disquisitions on Population ; in which the

Principles of the Essay on Population, by the Rev. T. R. Malthus, are examined and refuted. By Robert Aclon. Ingram, B. D. 8vo. pp. 132. Price 6s. 6d. Hatchard,

London, 1808.

The greater operations of Nature are conducted with a similarity of principle, admirable. yet variety of application, that is truly

The planets of our system do not circulate in a course at all times equally distant from the sun, but obey alternately, yet in combination, the compensating force of the centripetal and centrifugal powers. When the severities of winter are become almost unbearable, or when the heats of summer are endured with the greatest impatience, the season is Mr. W. was suddenly and unexpectedly about to change and the principle of complaced above dependence, by the death of pensation prevents that devastation at a relation, his intercourse with whom had which morbid apprehension startles by been broken off, by reason of her miscon- anticipation. The glooms of one season duct. We behold him now in prosperity, and the fervours of the other, have been By this affecting providence (says he) I am longer, more intense, or more injurious, carried above necessity. My conscience obli- occasionally, but they have never been ges me to restore a sum of which I knew a perpetual, or generally destructive. The widow had been unjustly deprived, and which experience of ages has taught us to await therefore makes a part of the property; whe-with unshaken confidence the annual rether, after this, it may make me worth £150 turn of the sun,though we annually see per annum, I cannot say; however, I pre-his decline. Whoever should attempt to sume it may be something towards it. ceive it with great solemnity of spirit, rather than with elevation, and adore the hand that has committed it to my trust. It is given rather to improve to the good of others, than to devote wholly to myself. I have never

I re

draw a cloud over these cheerful prospects, or to reason away the assurance on which our expectations are founded, would have little thanks for terrifying us with explanations of evils that we did not feel, and

that most probably, would never approach us.

others, that lose the enjoyments of to-day through anxiety for to-morrow. Neither of these can we hold up as examples. The artist who delineated a man silting on a turnstile, one arm of which was moved by Hope and the opposite arm by Fear, was not far from presenting a correct picture of human life; but if both hope and fear were under the guidance of reason, the sanction of wisdom, and the benediction of Providence, the revolutions of the turnstile would never mark either extreme, but would vacillate wi hip certain limits; and within these limits would be found as little positive evil, combined with as much positive good, as consists with the situation of humanity. It has not been our lot to give any opinion on the speculations of Mr. Malthus, as they were published before our Panorama view of things commenced; and certainly we shall not examine them in detail on occasion of exceptions to his arguments. What we have hinted has been prompted by desire for the real happiness of our species; and a sen-e of duty to the Great Father of all; without whose blessings what a poor wretch is man! Mr. Ingram is a writer of acknowledged good sense, and sound judgment. On a former occasion he gave advice to the clergy which if not offered by one of their own body might have

Providence has annexed to each day a sufficiency of evil; it is unwise to take up to-day the burden of to-morrow; who is endued with that double portion of strength, which warrants such atchievements? Is it the happiness of the learned, that they indulge themselves in anxious speculations, from which the unlearned are free? We have heard of speculatists who dreaded that Britain should exhaust her coal mines; as there was reason to fear, at our present rate of burning, they would not last above five hundred years: and of others who aware of the vast quantity of air that is yearly condensed into wood and stone, have trembled for the concretion of the atmosphere itself. We confess, that we feel no alarm at these dangers, but continue to stir our fire in winter as cheerfully, and to breathe as freely, as if the mention of such evils had never reached us. Ideal terrors are, in some respects, the worst of all terrors, as they are not to be dissipated without uncommon exertions; and we must be permitted to class the apprehensions of Mr. Malthus, as to a population of this globe too abundant to be supported by its productions, among those, from which neither religion, nor polity, will derive any advantage. They are refuted by an ex-been deemed very told, perhaps impertiperience no less decisive than that which we derive from the course of the planets, the succession of the seasons, and the return of the sun.

The Maker wisely rules the world he made, And while the laws which he has impressed on our constitution, are obeyed by us, in conformity to his will, we presume that advising a generous and abiding confidence in Providence, is better adapted to promote the happiness of individuals, and the prosperity of the commonwealth, than the cautious hesitation of calculators, and that timid circumspection which postpones to the evening of life, those engagements which belong to the earlier hours of its day,

We have sometimes been at a loss to. determine which is the source of greater evil to the sons of men, too much thought or too little to recommend the golden - mean is easy, but to ascertain it is difficuit. There are nations on the globe that never think; they collect no stores for the morrow, but consume to-day what -chance affords for their supply; there are VOL. IV. [Lit. Pan, Sept. 1808.]

nent: on the present, he offers. some sensible remarks, though he does not treat the subject with any very extensive originality of thought. In fact, the ques tion requires, to its complete investigation, the combined powers of the experienced statesman, agriculturist, manufacturer, natural philosopher, and physician.

What agriculturist will undertake to say, that he knows the extreme extent of that fertility of which the field is suscep→ tible? What manufacturer who has witnessed the effects of machinery, will be bold enough to fix a limit to their powers, or to the supply and support they may afford, when urged to their utmost? But if these boundaries could be fixed, the operations of Nature defy our conceptions. That the waters teem with life as well as the land, is notorious; and the fishes breed in numbers that elude our calculation. That the ratio of their multiplica tion is completely equal to every possible demand of man for food, needs no further proof that what our own shores afford 2 P

Mr. M. illustrates the tendency of popula tion to increase with more rapidity, than the means of subsistence, by regarding the former as advancing in a geometrical proportion, and the latter as having the power only of increas ing arithmetically. If mankind, one with another, were, in every country and period of society, to continue to marry at the same and were equally frugal in the use of them; age; if they enjoyed equal means of support, if the average terms of human existence con tinued the same, as also constitutional vigour, and the powers of generation; there is no doubt, but the population must continue to increase in a geometrical proportion. These, however, are suppositions, which are inconsis tent with general experience, as well as the constitution of human nature. It is also absolutely impossible to assign any determinate ratio for the yearly average increase of the quantity of food, from a more and more extended, scientific, and elaborate agriculture. The more cultivators there are, the more ra

in those solid miles of herrings that an- ing influence. Dissuasives from, and preventives nually visit them. If ever the productions of, early marriages should be multiplied, in of the land should be exhausted, of which hopes of diminishing that mass of misery ai we doubt; the resources offered by the well as of vice, by which human life has been embittered; and the population reduced to a ocean are inexhaustible. But if the level with the means of subsistence. Such expenses of procuring such food be re-appears to be the substance of Mr. M.'s argumarked, we answer, that this is shifting ment, which it is the design of his work to the question, from the appointments and corroborate. fertilities of nature to the institutions and policies of man. And here truly lies the evil: it is not the bodily appetite of man that cannot be satisfied, but his pride, his vanity, his attachment to appearances, his mental craving; this, like all other operations of mind, possesses a kind of infinity; it is insatiable; it is restless, it is tormenting, where unduly indulged, and though capable of being directed to the most useful purposes, and of producing the most exquisite pleasures, yet, in the present state of mankind, it needs unremitted controul and correction. Animals possess prolific powers at least equal to those of man; vegetables possess the powers of reproduction in degrees vastly superior, and altogether astonishing. It would deserve in quiry, whether, when used as food, something of this does not still attend them? Vegetable food is certainly favourable top dly is it likely to increase; and, after the length of life; does the instance of China, where much vegetable food is eaten, tend to prove that it is favourable also to population? Has the use of animal food contributed to shorten human life, and to enfeeble human powers? It is certain, that spirituous beverages have this effect, may not the too plentiful use of stimulant aliment (flesh meat) have something of the same effect, compared to the milder sustenance derived from vegetables? If so there are other causes beside those mentioned by Mr. Malthus that tend to counteract excess of human population.

2

But, not to follow this train of thought any further, we shall extract a few pas sages from Mr. I's. pamphlet, by, which it will be seen that the sentiments of the author agree with our own.

"The checks, which repress the superior power of population, and keep its effects on a level with the means of subsistence, are all resolvable into moral restraint, vice, and misery."- Moral restraint, in M. Malthus's opinion, has in past ages operated with very inconsiderable force" but ought, as he appears to think, to have a much more prevail

whole earth is cultivated nearly as a garden, there might still remain other resources for augmenting the quantity of subsistence. New articles of wholesome food might be discover. ed; plants indigenous in one country might be cultivated with advantage in another; more economical modes of preparing several articles of food might be acquired; all which, and many other profitable inventions, would afford ample scope for the exercise of human industry and ingenuity. And thus a popuistion continually increasing for an indefinite period, though not with the rapidity of a geoinetrical progression, might be comfortably supported.

If we take a survey of the general history. of the world, what appearances do we in rea lity discover of the continual tendency of population to increase beyond the means of subsistence? It has been ably contested, and is still a matter of some uncertainty, whether the world, before the coming of our blessed Saviour, was as populous as it is at present. There can, however, be little doubt, that several nations were nfuch more populous for merly, than they are now; such as Palestine, Egypt, Greece, Syria, Persia, Barbary, and Spain. India and China were, probably, as populous as at present, as also Italy, during