to be theatres of feditious difcourfes, or feditious actions. And why fhould a more vigilant and fufpicious eye be fixed upon them, than upon private clubs, focial meetings, or public lectures for philofophy, fcience, or politics? Thefe, which are generally held by a more felect company, and in a more private manner, are, on these accounts, more liable to be abused for bad purposes. There have been a few inftances, it must be owned, of public difturbances, after having grown to a head from other fources, being augmented and inflamed by, what Hudibras calls, the drum ecclefiaftic: but That, I will venture to fay, was not the original cause of them; for, to continue the allufion to the poet, that drum is never beat with a fift, till another kind of drum hath been beat with a stick; or in other words, there is nothing which any fettled government hath to fear from the pulpit; becaufe, That government muft, from other causes, be firft overtopped by fome ftate party, before any of its ecclefiaftical partifans, if it have any, can venture to inveigh against it fo publicly. And how, then, is a cafe to be provided for by law, which cannot happen, till the law itself, being fet afide by violence, hath no longer any effect * ?'

Our Author goes on to obferve that fome perfons talk with much feeming liberality of the right of private judgment, who yet, by the restrictions which they at laft throw in, appear to mean nothing more by it than that judgment, which is to be kept private, and to be locked up in a man's own bofom. For, though they will allow him the right of private judgment, they will not allow him to publifh that judgment, with the reafons and grounds of it, to others. But fuch a Toleration, our Author fays very juftly, amounts to nothing more, than that they will not extort his fentiments from him by torture; for while

I hope in God never to fee the day when violence fhall, in this country, take place of law: not that I think there is any probability of it. As for the Diffenters, I am fure, ever fince they have been freed from perfecution, they have difcovered themselves to be as peaceable and well-difpofed fubjects as any in the kingdom. Individuals among them, as well as among the members of the established Church, have not always entertained the fame opinion concerning particular measures, or men; but furely fuch individuals should be allowed to follow their own judgments on fuch occafions, as well as other British fubjects. I will venture to fay of the Diffenters in general, that they are enemies to licentioufnefs in every shape, and lovers of order, law, and liberty; and I am perfuaded, fhould any remarkable crifis ever arife, to put their loyalty to the proof, they will be found to be, upon principle, among the firmeft friends of the amiable Prince now on the throne, as they were in the year 1745, of his venerable predeceffor; for they efteem the Proteftant fucceffion in the prefent illustrious family to be the grand fupport of our conftitution, laws, and liberties. And all their minifters now afk of the legislature, is, that they may be under the legal protection of their Sovereign, and be fecured by that constitution, and by those laws.' ·

they

they fuffer him to be filent, it is not in their power to deprive him of the right of thinking; the only private judgment which they are willing to grant him.

All intelligent writers on the fubject of Toleration, continues the Doctor, understand by a man's private judgment, his perfonal judgment, in oppofition to the judgment of others; and by his right of private judgment, his right to follow, or be directed by, his judgment as the guide of his actions; or, in other words, to do all, which that judgment leads him to do, as far as is confistent with the rights of others; of individuals, or of the community at large. Now, if I worship God according to the dictates of my own confcience; and give, or receive, fuch religious inftructions, as I judge molt agreeable to reafon and fcripture, and confequently moft conducive to my own, or others edification; how does that prevent my neighbour from doing the fame; or the magiftrate from encour aging, if he is fo inclined, thofe fentiments which are agreeable to his judgment: or how does it injure either the one, or the other, in any of their refpective rights? Why, then, must I be obstructed in any acts, which are the refult of my judgment and confcience, when they do not interfere with any rights or claims of other men, either magiftrates or fubjects? He, who does not allow me my private judgment in the extent here pleaded for, does not allow it me ia any fenfe worthy of a rational agent, whofe reafon was given him to be the guide of his actions, especially in matters of religion: in any fenfe, worthy of a Chriftian, a Proteftant, an inhabitant of a Free Country; who, in all these views, is, or ought to be, mafter of his own conduct, when no injury is thereby done to others, no public or private right invaded.

Again, the right of public instruction in matters of religion, is, in my opinion, a certain confequence of the right of private judg ment; on fuppofition we underitand by the latter, merely a man's right of judging for himself. For, if a man is to judge, in this as in all other cafes, he is not to be debarred from the best means of informing his judgment. He cannot be faid to be completely allowed the right of private judgment, who is precluded from being inftructed in the nature and grounds of religion, by thofe, whom he thinks qualified to give him information; or in other words, from afing those means, which fhall appear to him beit calculated for his inftruction and I know no authority any one hath to controul his choice, or dictate to him what teachers he fhall, or shall not, attend; provided neither he, nor they, are chargeable with any crimes, of which the magiftrate can take cognizance.

Public instruction is, to the bulk of mankind, the principal means of religious information: cut them off from That, or let it be limited to the path marked out by the majority, or by the power which happens to be uppermost in every country; and the generality will have very little opportunity of knowledge; and will, it is probable, acquiefce contentedly in that religion, which is the refult of fashionable, or established fuperftition and abfurdity. It is owing to the genuine doctrines of Christianity and Protettantifm not being allowed to be promulgated in Popish countries, that their inhabitants

remain,

remain, in general, perfectly satisfied in the belief and practice of fuch enormities, as would fhock an enlightened Heathen. If things are upon a better footing in our own country, it is to be afcribed to the spirit of enquiry, and to the degree of freedom with respect to public profeffion, and public inftruction, both from the pulpit, and the prefs, which the lenity and moderation of the times, more than the law, have allowed, and which the bigotry of a few hath not been able to fupprefs. But fhould not then the law, and the manners, of every age and country, breathe the same spirit, and speak the fame language?

As for Christianity and Proteftantifm, they appeal to reason, they invite enquiry, they claim to be heard for themselves, and are as ready to hear what can be faid against their reafonings and arguments; and they allow to all perfons, the right of judging and determining, upon the merits of every religious question for themselves. But can thofe persons be said to have it in their power to form an adequate and impartial judgment, upon any queftion, who are permitted to hear the evidence relating to it only ex parte, on one fide? Does not the magistrate, in this cafe, judge for his fubjects, inftead of allowing them to judge for themselves? Certainly, there is a clofer connection between the unalienable right, which every man hath, of choofing his own religion, and the free and unrestrained liberty of public inftruction, than is fometimes imagined. Pretending to leave a man free liberty of choice, and debarring him at the fame time, in any measure, from the means of choice, is, in my humble opinion, little less than a contradiction in terms.

I have already faid, that it is the glory of Christianity, that it appeals to men's understandings and confciences; that it needs no human power, no penal laws, for its fupport; that it requires not of any Chriftian magiftrate the fuppreffion, in its own favour, of any other religion whatfoever. And thould any fuch magiftrate, by pe nal laws, prohibit the public profeffion, or teaching, of any particular fpecies or mode of the Chriftian religion, in places of public worship, appropriated to the ufe of its profeffors; it deferves to be confidered, upon what principles his conduct can be vindicated, which will not alike vindicate a Mahometan, or Heathen magistrate, in prohibiting the Chriftian religion in every form. If the judgment and confcience of the magiftrate are to be the standard, the confequence will inevitably be as fatal to the Chriftian religion in general, in one country; as to any particular mode of the Chriflian religion, or even as to the Mahometan or Pagan religion, in another.'

In the fourth section our Author briefly confiders a distinction made, by the author of the Letter to the Proteftant Diffenting Minifters, between difcipline and doctrine; as if a difference from the established Church in the former had a rightful claim to Toleration, but not a difference in the latter. In the fifth, he fhews that a legal Toleration of a fuppofed erroneous religion, is not, properly fpeaking, an encouragement of fuch a religion. In the fixth, he makes it clearly appear, that the education of children and youth in the way, and by the perfons,

moft

moft agreeable to their parents, is an effential branch of Tole-, ration; and in the laft fection he proves, that Toleration implies more than a ftate of connivance; namely, a state of legal: fecurity and protection. These feveral points are difcuffed in a concife and liberal manner, as will be allowed, we make no doubt, by every attentive and impartial Reader.

To conclude: It muft give great pleafure to every generous mind to observe, that though the Proteftant Diffenting Minif ters have failed in a fecond attempt to obtain legal fecurity and protection, yet the number of fincere friends to religious liberty, is daily increafing, and that there is good reafon to think, that the period cannot be very diftant, when TOLERATION, in its: full extent, will be univerfally acknowledged, by every Pro teftant, to be as agreeable to the maxims of found policy, as to the dictates of reafon, and to every feeling that does honour to humanity.

ART. VIII. Riedefel's Travels through Sicily, &c. concluded. See our laft Month's Review.

E proceed with pleasure to lay before our Readers fome farther account of this entertaining work. The fecond letter to Abbé Winckleman contains a defcription of that part of Italy, for merly called Magna Græcia, and now conftituting the kingdom of Naples,

Baron Riedefel feems to have confined himself chiefly to the Eaft of kind of coafting voyage from South-Eaft fide of the country, in Reggio to Gallipoli, frequently landing at different places, that he might make his obfervations. At Gallipoli, he difmiffed the feven failors with the Speronara, in which he had failed a whole month from Malta to that place, and continued his journey by land to Naples

In the description of Reggio, we are told, that its environs aud fituation are very pleafant, and the fields finely planted with mulberry, orange, and lemon trees, and vines: most of the Calabrian filk is raised hereabouts; they fell, one year with another, 80,000 pounds of filk at Reggio, and would perhaps produce double the quantity, if the duties on it were not fo great as they are; they were laid on, it is faid, by the former Neapolitan, and afterwards Spanish, prime minifter, the Marquis Gregori Squillace, who has by that means entirely hindered the manufacturing of filk, and fpoiled the trade.

The Baron is ftill employed in fearching after, the remains of and tiquity; but we fhall only felect the following relation: CAPO COLÓNNE, is the Promontorium Lacinium near Croton, on which the famous temple of Juno Lacinia ftood, and of which confiderable remains are ftill extant. This temple was of the fame ancient Daric architecture as thofe of Paflum, Girgenti, &c. It is 66 paces broad and 132 long, as meafured by my own paces; from whence you may form an idea of its confiderable fize. On one fide, a part of the wall of the Cella remains standing, in which I obferved, as a very fingu lar circumstance, that they were built up with ftones and bricks al ternately. The firft layer is of tones feven palms and a half high, Rev. Ap. 1773.

U

and

and the fecond, which I could not measure on account of its heighth, confifts of an Opus reticulatum of bricks. It is plain that this was done to make the walls light; but whether above this row of mattoni, there was again another of ftone, or whether it all confisted of Opus reticulatum, I am not able to determine, because the wall is no farther preferved. It is probable, that all the reft was of bricks, becaufe they would have been crushed down, if any ftones had lain upon them. It is built towards the East, like all the Greek temples, and its entrance was on the Weft fide. Only a fingle column at the farther hall is preferved, and that is, as already mentioned, of the: Doric order, without a base. It is obfervable, that this columa is very fmall, in proportion to the extent of the temple, and has 23 ftead of 21 flutes, which all other columns of this order have; this I can affert, because I counted the flutes three or four times over. Four steps led up to this temple, and as many led down from it. Another fingular circumftance is, that the Cella was four steps lower than the reft of the temple; each step was one and a half Neapolitan palms high. The floor of the Cella is covered with earth, which could easily be cleared away, and its whole form difcovered, unless deftroyed before; for this foil has but lately been thrown on it, when digging up the steps on the fides of the temple, not (as you might perhaps imagine) to fee or to difcover them, but to break them, and employ them at the new harbour of Cotrone. When I complained of this facrilege, to the engineer of the harbour, he comforted me, faying, that there was enough to be seen at the Pofticon, to make up for what was wanting in the rest of the temple. The fituation of this temple is the most delightful that can be imagined for fuch a build. ing; the promontory on which it ftands juts eight miles out into the fea, and on both fides you enjoy the profpect of the gulph, and a great extent of land; it is probable that the town of Croton flood on this fpot, becaufe you here meet with confiderable and numerous remains of tombs and houses, but all so destroyed, that nothing can be diftinguished in them.'

Concerning Corigliano, which is feated in the best and finest part. of Calabria, we are informed, that all its products are excellent: here they make the greateft quantity of the best oil in Calabria; the wine of thefe parts is alfo the belt in the province, and has a táfte of fennel, which is very agreeable; they fow as much corn as they want, fo that they need not buy any; oranges and lemons are abundant, and of the best fort; their cattle are excellent, and the Duke annually breeds 300 horfes; the fheep give very good wool; all kinds of animals are numerous, and exceedingly good of their kind. They alfo collect here vast quantities of manna, tar and pitch; and raife fome filk. They dig up the Regolizia or liquoriceroot here, of the juice of which the Duke has an annual clear in. come of 4000 ducates, after deducting an equal fum for the expences. The wood, which grows on the tops of the hills, is likewife fold; and the flax and hemp are exported. All kinds of fruit of the apple and pear kind, which are feldom abundant or good in Italy, are plentiful here, and excellent in their kind; and that nothing may be wanting, the fea in this neighbourhood is richer in f than in any other part of the gulph of Tarentum, which is fo famous

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