truth, that had the Indians made their grand stand on the banks of this river, at the period of the Tartar, Afghan, and Persian invasions, their empire might have made a powerful resistance. Armies at all times have sustained damage in crossing the Indus, bat the attempt to force its passage must be arduous and full of danger.

The character of the Afghans, may be pretty well estimated from their treatment of the Kashmirians: they are not more scrupulous than the Sicques as to the means of gratifying their desire of having; but unite the lawless ravage of soldiers with the ferocity of unlettered

tribes.

insolence, and they avow a fixed contempt for the occupations of civil life. Bread of wheat or barley, milk, butter, and cheese compose the common diet of the Afghans: they also, in the winter season, and on a journey, make frequent use of a food called croat, which is curdled milk formed into small balls, hardened either by the heat of the sun or of fire; this, when dissolved in warm water, and mixed with bread, becomes equally savoury and nourishing. Their butter and cheese are invariably those of sheep.

the

Cavalry constitutes the chief military of little account, and the artillery inconstrength of Afghanistan. The infantry is siderable. Mr. F. informs us that Kandahar, which is dependant on Afghans, is not seated among mountains, but is on a plain, covered with fruit gardens and cultivation, and intersected with numerous streams, of so excellent a quality as to become proverbial,

The

the

Kabul is the capital of the Afghan empire it is a walled city, of about a mile and a half in circumference, situated on the eastern side of a range of two united hills, describing generally the figure of a semi-circle. The fortification, which is of a simple construction, with scarcely a ditch, and the houses built of rough stones, clay, and un-climate is happily tempered between the burned bricks, exhibit a mean appearance, heats of India, and the cold of 'Ghizni. and are ill suited to the grandeur which I Mr. F. passed from Kandahar to Herat, expected to see in the capital of a great empire. and from thence to the Russian establishBut the Afghans are a rude unlettered people, ments on the Southern coast of and their chiefs have little propensity to the refinements of life, which indeed their Caspian. He crossed this Sea, for Astracountry is ill qualified to gratify. The lower kan, and proceeded by the customary route class of people suffer as much from want of for Petersburgh. His journey was long fuel in the winter season, as those of other and tedious: happily it proved safe, notcountries would do from a scarcity of provi- withstanding many threatening appearsion......Kabul abounds in excellent provi- ances to the contrary. sions, and its market is arranged in a neater manner, and more like that of an European town than any I have seen in Asia. The fruits are of a good kind, and in great plenty. The adjacent parts of Usbeck Tartary, of which Balk is the capital, hold a species of dependency on the Shah, and maintain a common intercourse with Kabul. I have seen the great bazar crowded with Usbecks, who have the same cast of features as the Chinese and Malays, but more harsh. The environs of Kabul are chiefly occupied by garden grounds, and watered by numerous -streams the largest running through the city, over which is a small bridge, affords a plentiful supply of salubrious water. The Afghans are the indigenous possessors of a track of country, which stretches from the mountains of Tartary to certain parts of the gulf of Cambay, and Persia, and from the ludus to the confines of Persia. The

inhabitants of this wide domain have no written character, and speak a language peculiar to themselves. They are a robust, hardy race of men, and being generally a state of predatory warfare, their manners largely partake of a barbarous

addicted to

In the course of so considerable a journey, a man of observation must have had many opportunites of noticing the manners of the human race, the weaknesses and passions of the human mind. Our traveller adds to the number of those who have found the same perversities of intellect prevail in all parts, the same attention to externals rather than to internals, the same readiness at promises rather than performances, and the same devotion to interest, rather than to rectitude. Whoever passes cursorily through a country must confine himself to general remarks. It were too hazardous to pry into secrets, whether of the state, of commerce, or of domestic life must be content with observing things as they offer, and circumstances as they rise. The situation of travellers,

He

Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow, demands great allowances, and we should acknowledge our obligation to them for what they communicate, without char

An Address to the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the Propriety and Usefulness of Sunday Evening Lectures. By the Rev. George Henderick, sm. 4to. pp. 22. Price 1s. Peacock. York, 1808.

The evening of the Sabbath is, of all the week, that part which is most vacant and, ders of society, especially the manufacturing. unoccupied. At that season, the lower or and labouring poor, are most at a loss for employment. Time then hangs heavy upon them, particularly in winter; and they readily embrace any object that promises to amuse, the unoccupied hour-any thing that tends to divert the mind. Reading is not in the power of all; nor does he who can read, always find himself inclined to the exercise. The perhaps the ill humour of his partner, render. cares of a family, the noise of children, or reading impossible and home unpleasant. The man is driven, as it were, reluctantly out of doors, and some other refuge must be sought in which he can either drown his cares, or. enjoy a momentary peace till the hour of sleep.. Infidelity opens the alehouse, Sectarism the conventicle. To one or other of these refu his sense of religious duty prevail, he thinks ges the poor man, most probably, yields. 12 the conventicle the lesser evil. He argues "I want employment-'tis religion, and there can be no harm in going to hear what is good may spend my time much worse-1 can receive no injury."

We can assure the worthy writer of the pamphlet before us, that we had rather attend to one practicable proposal for reviving a spirit of religious attention among our countrymen, than to a hundred peevish complaints, ending, as such complaints usually do, without any feasible plan for ameliorating the state of the church, or instructing and reforming the public. Force we utterly disapprove of: but, when a clergyman, as in this instance, recommends to his brethren the institution of a course of instruction, extra their customary duty, he is precisely on his own ground, advises what is completely within the power of the church to adopt, and what in many places the general circumstances of life may support, we add, may demand, with the greatest propriety. But, we do not approve of substituting an evening lecture for afternoon service. Mr. H. builds an argument on "the increasing-1 luxury of the times:"-is this true? If true, ought not the church rather to oppose it, than to conform to it? Should not divine service offer inducements sufficiently powerful to counteract the effects of propensity to indulgence after dinner, especially on a Sunday?" What does it generally offer? We must also beg Mr. H.'s attention to the duty of family instruction: when shall that be performed? Surely, not when "the mind as well as the body becomes averse from exertion." Yet unquestionably this is a main privilege comprised in the day of rest. Mr. H.'s reflection on "the ill humour of a partner" is excessively ungallant, and it is no less unchristian. We believe Sunday, in spite of many imperfections, to be the best humoured day of the week, in Christian families.

As we have known several evening services lately established from a view of circumstances not unlike that taken by Mr. H., we presume that the clergy are rather favourably inclined to the practice. We conceive, that it is in the power of the ordinary in each parish to act in this matter, and that exertion of episcopal jurisdiction, is unnecessary. The bencfits

VOL. IV. [Lit. Pan. June, 1803.]

Several instances have occurred within my own observation, of respectable persons in the middle classes of society, who have gone, to the dissenting meeting-houses solely for close society with the dissenters, and liberally want of engagement, and are now joined in. contribute to the support of their preachers, their schools, and their cause. Some of these, when spoken to on the subject, have candidly acknowledged, that if there had been evening service in the church, they should never have had an idea of attending a meeting-house; that they went at first with reluctance, and merely for want of amusement.

servants, whose employers, either from necesIn large towns there is a numerous class of, sity or other motives, detain them at home during one or both the services of the church., Unless something be done by us, for the accommodation of those who.n circumstances debar from hearing sermons, they must either continue ignorant, or be driven to seek instruction in the conventicle. If our churches be open in the evening, persons under these and tend; they can, and in many intances will, similar circumstances, can spare time to athear that instruction, which, under the blessing of God, may conduce to their temporal and eternal happiness.

On the establishment of an evening lecture, in a town containing near twenty thousand ve S

habitants, the methodists repeatedly changed their hour of meeting, but could not keep up their congregations. The church was well attended and the meeting neglected. At length two of the preachers went, as it should seem, ex officio, to the clergyman, and asked him if it were his intention to declare war against them? In this church it is by no means unusual to see a congregation of almost two thousand persons, on the Sunday evening. Just before the commencement of the lecture, the old meeting-house was so much crowded, that it was deemed necessary to build a far more commodious one. Had they waited a few months longer, they would have found their old one large enough for their purpose.

author has small pretensions to boast of favours from the muses; he is better acquainted with the Point at Portsmouth, than with the Point of Parnassus, he is no fresh-water swan, he sings with the voice and manner of a British sailor; and being a British sailor, singing on a British subject, tagging his rhymes on board a British frigate, and narrating the events of a six weeks' cruize in the British service, and on the British ocean, land fubbers as he him with harshness. If he were not may suppose us to be, we shall not treat commissioned by Apollo, to write, he was commissioned by his king and country to meet the foes of his native land, and the seaman shall protect the poet. The writer has amused himself, and he has amused us, too: we like some of his notes much and we know enough of the sea-service to know that he has marked with considerable accuracy

A clergyman of the establishment in a very small village has experienced the superior advantage of an evening lecture. Not only is that service well attended, but his morning congregations and communicants have also considerably increased. The change of duty was begun from motives of temporary convenience, but has been continued from a full conviction of its utility, and has received the sanction and cordial approbation of his dio-many of the prominent features which

cesan.

:

characterize our naval heroes. He narIn the large and populous town of Leeds in rates the preparations for a cruize, the Yorkshire, for a population of about fifty- departure, the last sight of land, a night three thousand souls, there are only five storm, the manners and events of the churches in the establis ment, not one of cruize: he also describes the principal which is open on the Sunday evening. There officers and personages on board; and are many meeting houses, (some capable of states so forcibly that keen look-out for containing above two thousand persons each) prizes which animates our tars, that we five of the largest of which are open on sunare persuaded he writes from recollection day evening, and are always crowded. (vide Leeds Guide.) Can it be wondered then, of his own feelings. He cuts out two that dissenters should increase in that place? prizes from a Spanish port, and by disAnd when it is considered how many thou-guise allures a French frigate within his sands, for want of room, are excluded from all religious worship, is it surprising that vice, profaneness, and iminorality should abound, or that disaffection to our established government Should have been so prevalent, as we know it was there but a few years ago?

The situation of Leeds is not singular. Many other places are exactly similar in this respect; and I believe there are very few towns where the members of our church have opportunities of attending evening service in the establishment, equal to what the conventicles of the dissenters afford.

The Cruise; a Poetical Sketch, in eight Cantos; by a Naval Officer. 8vo. pp. 470. price 10s. 6d. Londen, Hatchard, 1808.

HERE is a book, now, that we cannot condemn. Is it a poem? No: it wants much of being a poem. But it is a faithful representation of that kind of nature, of that description of persons, and incidents, which it professes to sketch. The

reach, which he captures, of course.
This done he returns to port, and enters
in triumph, music playing and so forth.
Fidelity in describing the minutiae of the
service is the charm to which this volume
will owe its preservation from critical con
demnation when overhauled. It abounds
with incident, and will give more pleasure
to those who can accompany the author
in consequence of their previous knowledge
and by their recollection, than to those
who have no acquaintance with Old
Davy, and no relish for sea-jokes, and
forecastle wit.
specimen of the poetry, if poetry it may
We must of course give
be deemed, Tom Sykes, the captain of
the main-top, is thus described:

a

TOM was no stupid, heavy log,
But a hard, active, queer, dry dog,
Full of his jaw, and Cockney jokes,
And a tar's chief delight, the hour!-
In truth he was a lively fellow,
Except, alack! when over-mellow ;-

That desp'rate heathen, SANDY Mayne, Had, O the wretch! ́a musket ta'en, And feather'd-kill'd perhaps, a sprite : Now certainly the witch will spite; And poor old JACK to crazy quite.Whew! but some unlucky youngster Tries, would you think to be a songsWhistles too?-whistles! 'fore the gale, Besides these warning signs, toward the Thrice-fearful wind-up to my tale!