Calvinist.-A very large minority among Congregational clergymen are Arminians, and the friends of the protestant rule of faith and of free inquiry.-A large and increasing number among the clergy deny the Athanasian doctrine of the Trinity, and defend the divine unity and its consequent truths.

An immense majority of the laymen are Anti-Calvinists in a variety of forms. Some are Arminians; some Arians; some Unitarians; and some abhor the exclusive spirit of sectarism, without entering into an examination of doctrines. The violence and abuses of Andoverian Calvinism will shock and offend multitudes, and thus check itself. Magazines and Tracts are multiplying in favor of catholic Christianity. The defenders of it will bring the discussion much more before the people than it ever has been done. The Calvinists have had nearly all the ground to themselves. This will never be so much the fact again.The irrational and unscriptural character of their system will be shown.The remote effects of periods of high religious excitement favor free inquiry.— The real interests of the people are opposed to sectarism. Their peace, prosperity, and happiness depend on the prevalence of rational Christianity and a catholic spirit.The influence of the example of our best and most distinguished laymen will be opposed to sectarism.The general progress of the mind, in the arts and sciences and in the knowledge of human nature, the progress of biblical criticism, and the growing influence of truth are all opposed to the prevalence of Calvinism.

Secondly.What are the hopes of catholic Christianity?

All the checks upon the prevalence of Calvinism are so many encouragements for catholic Christianity. The general enlargement of the mind is so in a particular manner. When it is making improvements in every thing else, it cannot be forever fettered in moral and religious science. When one part of the body grows, all parts grow.-The art of printing may indeed be made the means of supporting error, but where freedom of inquiry exists, it must afford more support to truth. While this art is preserved, the human mind can never again be brought back to that religious slavery, by which it was once disgraced.The nature of our institutions favors catholi Vol. III. No. 2. 19

cism. We enjoy, in an unrivalled degree, the privilege of free inquiry. The truth of the catholic cause is its greatest support and encouragement. It must always have this advantage in a public discussion, and this, in the present state of society, is a greater advantage than what arises from the prejudice in favor of long established errors.-The sympathies of our nature may be more powerfully addressed by true religion than by false. Fear indeed may be more operated upon by the latter, but the affections united may be far more powerfully affected by the former.—The jealousies of the sects will make catholic Christians the arbiters between them.- -The Andoverians will be driven still further from their rivals, and the learning which they acquire will undoubtedly spoil some of them, after the novelty of their union is over. It is the policy of laymen to be catholic, and to patronise catholic Christianity.

The checks and balances of religious parties, which we have been explaining in this review, are a source of much consolation to the liberal mind. The parties are too far pledged in their respective schemes of ambition to make any alteration on account of a developement, such as we have made. The causes of that rivalship and disunion which we have seen to exist must continue to operate, whether they are known or unknown. Some other considerations also, which we have presented, are, we trust, adapted to afford encouragement to the friends of catholicism, and of what we regard as genuine Christianity. Let them then be excited to diligence and perseverance in defending and supporting their principles. If these principles are indeed the truth of the gospel, and if it be indeed human corruptions, by which they are opposed, and by which they have been formerly overborne; it behoves us not to be slow in their defence or their support through any fear of reproach or personal inconvenience; it behoves us to remember the declaration of our Master:-Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed

ARTICLE 7.

Travels in the United States of America, in the years 1806 and 1807, and 1809, 1810, and 1811; including an account of passages betwixt America and Britain, and travels through various parts of Great Britain, Ireland, and Upper Canadu. Illustrated by eight maps. By John Melish. Philadelphia, T. & G. Palmer, 1812: 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 936. MR. MELISH is a traveller and a writer of the same class with Mr. Cuming, of whose tour we gave some account in our fourth number. His book is full of uninteresting and unimportant details, such as abound in that of Mr. Cuming; in literary merit it is on an equality, and the capacity of observation discovered in each is nearly the same. If however we were here to leave the comparison, we should do no small injustice to Mr. Cuming. In two respects he has greatly the advantage of the gentleman, with whom we have now compared him. Mr. Cuming's book contains a considerable quantity of valuable original information; and the extracts, connected with the account of his tour, have direct relation to the subjects of which he wrote, and are not from some of the most common books in our country. He too, which is the other circumstance in his favor, published his travels in a thick and cheaply printed duodecimo, which is sold, we suppose, at about one sixth the price, for which Mr. Melish has given us in two octavos, the same bulk of matter, perhaps, as it respects the number of words, but matter which is of a much inferior quality. Mr. Cuming, among other things, made a detail of one of his breakfasts, which we have quoted. It occupied perhaps not quite a quarter of one of his pages. Mr. Melish gives us the account of a breakfast also, and, with the laudable assistance of his printer, it occupies somewhat more than a page;* for the names of all the articles therein concerned, beginning with "the table and table-cloth," are, according to the best rules of bookmaking, arranged one beneath the other.

Mr. Melish travelled very hastily through a considerable • Vol. ii. pp. 405, 406.

part of the United States, without the opportunities, and, in some respects, without the capacity of collecting much information of considerable value. He seems to have kept a journal in which he put down a great deal, that no person, duly sensible of the value of time, would have thought worth writing down if it were merely for his own private use. This journal he appears to have faithfully transcribed for the public. In his travels he has recorded, among other things, the distances of one place from another; the state of the roads, whether good or bad, and of the weather, whether fair or foul; the appearance of the face of the country, as seen from the carriage in which he rode; the fare and lodging at the inns, with their various conveniences and inconveniences; the remarkable incidents that he met with, which were, most of them, very much of the same character with those that every man, who travels in a stage coach, has to encounter; his own jocular sayings and serious remarks, and the humours and conversation of his fellow-travellers, neither of which are always the most entertaining; and in addition to all these, that, on which, we suppose, he principally relied to give value to his book, viz. the information that he gathered, en passant, from stage-drivers, and inn-keepers, and post-masters. With respect to his methods of collecting information he tells us

"I took my place on the fore-seat beside the driver. It surprised me to observe how well informed this class of people are in America. In my journey through the New England states, I was highly gratified by the prompt and accurate answers which they made to my questions; and I resolved to follow the same plan of obtaining information throughout my tour." vol. i. p. 139.

Again,

"On our arrival at this place, I was proceeding to follow up my inquiries; and judging that the landlord would be equally commu nicative and obliging with those I had before met with in the United States, I began to put some questions to him. But I soon found that I had reckoned without my host. To the first question he made a repulsive answer; and at the second, he turned upon his heel, muttering something to himself, that I did not distinctly hear. O, ho,' thinks-I-to-myself, 'I have got into the wrong box;' so I very composedly shut up my papers, and stepped over [for information] to the postmaster, at the other side of the street" vol. ii. pp. 42, 43.

All these details and all this information however were not enough to make a sufficiently sizeable book. Mr. Melish therefore determined, as he expresses it, to embody in his work a complete geography of the United States.

"This,” he says, "is the first attempt that has come under my observation to incorporate a geographical description of a country in a journal of travels, and I hope it will not be without its use to the public. That it might be as complete as possible, I have noticed even those states and territories that I did not travel through, selecting those parts of the narrative for their introduction that I thought would be most appropriate." Preface, pp. ix, x.

This is a meagre and worthless compilation, taken principally from Morse's Gazetteer and Geography; and from other common publications. The article on Rhode Island is the first, and is spread over four pages. Those on New Hamp shire and Vermont, which Mr. Melish did not visit, are made to fill nine pages. That on Massachusetts Proper nearly five, and that on the District of Maine, which likewise was not visited, almost one. In this manner we are furnished with a complete geography of four states, including the District of Maine, which, with the best skill of the printer, is expanded over nineteen pages. Mr. Melish however is sometimes more full; for in the article on Virginia, he quotes sixteen pages from Jefferson's Notes, assigning as one reason, that they are well known.

"As Mr. Jefferson's Notes are well known, and may be consid ered as containing authentic information," &c. vol. i. p. 247.

From other common books Mr. Melish quotes in the same spirit. Upon a hint, which his work afforded, he has given about eight pages, from the life of Burns, by Dr. Currie, containing remarks on the Scottish peasantry. He has given us likewise an essay of Tom. Paine's on the yellow fever, and one or two political essays of his own, which, if they were at all worth reading, would to be sure not be entirely out of place. Intermixed with his travels in America, are accounts of his voyages across the Atlantic, and of some hasty travelling on business in Scotland, England, and Ireland; which accounts not only have no connexion with the other parts of his book,