He was an unamiable, petulant, and angry man. The rent of the house in which he lived had been greatly reduced, to allure him into the country; his spirit revolted at this, and as soon as he heard of it he indignantly left the place. Whilst at Wooton Hall, he received a present of some bottles of choice foreign wine; this was a gift, and his pride would not permit him to taste it; he therefore left it in the house untouched, for the next comer. For some reason or other, or more probably for none, he had determined not to see Dr. Darwin. The Doctor, aware of his objections, placed himself on a terrace where Rousseau had to pass, and was examining a plant. "Rousseau," said he, " are you a botanist ?" They entered into conversation, and were intimate at once; but Rousseau, on reflection, imagined that this meeting was the result of contrivance, and the intimacy proceeded no further. It was indeed impossible for any body to be on terms of friendship long with the eccentric and ill-humoured Jean Jacques Rousseau.'

The scenery of Matlock is praised, as is generally the case with this much overrated spot, beyond its merits. There are rock, water, and wood, but those rich materials are not blended to advantage, nor are the general outlines interesting. The finest thing in the dale is at its northern extremity, where the foliage that fringes the rock opposite to and beyond the Boathouse, has a richness and playfulness that we have seldom seen equalled. The most annoying circumstance about Matlock, is the rapacity that assails you at every step. Wherever it is possible to exclude the visiter for the purpose of levying a tax upon him, bolts and padlocks are in requisition. Happily, the objects thus exhibited, like the Swiss giantess in Bartholomew Fair, at sixpence a-piece,' are the least interesting parts of the dale. The Caverns and the Romantic Rocks' may be passed by without regret.

Art. IX. The History of Wales, descriptive of the Government, Wars, Manners, Religion, Laws, Druids, Bards, Pedigrees, and Language of the Ancient Britons and Modern Welsh, and of the remaining Antiquities of the Principality. By John Jones, LL.D. and Barrister at Law. 8vo. pp. 350. Price 11. London. THERE are several John Jones's, more than one Dr. John

Jones, we believe, at this moment apparent in the literary hemisphere; the learned Author of this extraordinary production has done well therefore to designate himself as LL.D. and Barrister at Law. But this publication cannot fail to entitle him to be hereafter distinguished as Jones the Welsh historian. It were a pity that his identity should be involved in

any uncertainty, for, of all the Dr. Jones's who ever loved fire, salt, and good ale,' the Author is, we are willing to believe, the only one that could have produced this incom parable history. So original is the information it communicates, as well as the manner of communicating it, so bold are some of the positions, and so singular, we had almost said exquisite, the whole cast of the volume, that, if not as a history of Wales, at least as a literary anomaly, the volume claims our

attention.

As specimens of the information, we give the following ex

tracts.

The Christian Religion is said to have been introduced into Britain by Joseph of Arimathea; but this is a groundless tradition, FOR Arimathea is a transposition of Mariathea; and it was Joseph, the husband of the holy Mary, that went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus; and he was the only person entitled; for the bodies of criminals were given by the Romans to the nearest relatives of the sufferers.' p. 123.

In different languages, for the twelve apostles consisted of Gallileans, who spoke a kind of Asiatic Gallic; Roman publicans, who spoke Latin; Simon Zelotes, a Canaanite or Phoenician; and Judas Iscariot, the only Jew of the twelve, and whose oral language was the Syriac. p. 124.

From this grand magazine of erudition at Alexandria, the principles of Christianity were imported by the traders to Cassiterides ; the ancient Britons embraced them; and Godebog, king of Britain, was called Coel, the Believer. This conclusion stands supported by an argument per se; for it is certain that Christianity, in its early ages, was distinguished into Asiatic and Alexandrine doctrines. The Asiatic was composed of the ceremonial, the ritual, and the mar vellous, and formed a species of religious drama; the Alexandrine was the creed of mathematicians and logicians: it consisted in the worshiping of the Deity, and in practising the pure morality of the Christian code. The Druids, who were of a philosophic turn of mind, and worshippers of the sun, could never adopt the polytheism of the ancient Romans, but received with avidity the Alexandrine principles; and the Christian religion was established in Britain on liberal prin ciples.' p. 125.

It cannot be necessary to state, that Dr. Jones, being of a philosophic turn of mind, and also of liberal principles, is an Alexandrine-a Druid. One more extract, however, from his history of Christianity,' will put this in a still clearer light.

When the religion of Rome, which embraced the adoration of the gods of all nations, became Christian, and the objects of wor ship limited to Jesus Christ and the Apostles, as their god and semigods, the carmen pontificale, in which the people followed; and the

priest was said præire (hence prayer), to lead or go before, underwent an alteration, by introducing Pater, Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus, instead of the old words Pater, Calus, et Spiritus Orbis.' p. 129.

From which we may gather that the books of the New Testament were originally written in Latin, and that the commission contained in the twenty-eighth chapter of Matthew, was interpolated, or altered, to correspond to the carmen pontificale!

Our Author's description of modern denominations is as original, discriminating, and correct, as his history of the ancient Asiatics and Alexandrines. The religion of the Welsh, he tells us, has distributed itself into the following denominations and principles.'

• Unitarianism-Deity, and Moral Duties. Quakers-Inspired Instruction, and Prudence.

Arians-Deity, an Atoning Christ, and Gospel Morals.

• Arminians-Trinitarianism, Free Will, Love, and Holiness. • Calvinists-Trinitarianism, Violent Conversion, Election, and Triumphant Hymns.

• Established Church-Trinitarianism, English Bishops, Welsh Hearers, Political Sermons.

Roman Catholics-Pater, Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus; Joseph's Virgin, Manes of the Saints, Discipline, and the performing of miracles.

The Catholics are not numerous in the principality; their priests are men of distinguished learning and piety, and eminent preachers: the members of their churches are all of them devout, moral, and loyal.

The Established Church is, in all countries, essential to the dignity of government; the diffusion of civil duties; the preservation of the peace; and the promotion of happiness: but the national church should be founded on sound policy, and upon a minute consideration of the means, the manners, and the language of the community.

The Welsh Church is a valuable and admirable establishment: but from the want of useful regulations, it is deficient in discipline, and deserted by the community.'

The Methodists, consisting of Calvinists and Arminians, are a charitable, friendly, and highly deserving set of people: they have preserved the Welsh language, they are full of zeal and of good works: and had it not been for the almost heavenly industry of the Ministers of these denominations, Christianity would have been lost in Wales: as the established church is but little frequented, the service being performed only once in the week: the tenets of the Methodists, by a spirit of religious inquiry, become daily more liberal: enthusiasm gives way to the moral sense: and the Methodist preachers are making rapid advances towards a state of rational Christianity.

• The Unitarians are composed of the most intelligent and most learned of all denominations, who have discovered that contentions in religion are wicked before God, and detrimental to the happiness

of mankind: they look through nature up to nature's God: and they study the gospel as a code of precepts and of duties: this worshipping of the one true God is comfortable, it is grand, it is certain: for suppose an Unitarian to worship one God, and the Quinquinarian to worship five Gods, and that the Quinquinarian is right, still the Uni tarian is not wrong; he is also right as far as his belief goes; he is only deficient in duty towards the four minor gods: but suppose the Unitarian to be right, what polytheism, what serious blasphemy does the Quinquinarian run into by his mixt worshipping, and by his scrambling of oblations among his five Gods!'

We are much afraid that the most intelligent and most learned of all denominations,' will prove to be, like the Welsh soil, subjected to ingratitude,' as regards their present encomiast, that, in plain words, they will thank Dr. Jones but little for his laudation. The Methodists might have been more disposed to acknowledge the handsome terms in which he mentions them, had he not, in a subsequeent part of the work, where he is speaking against preachers of mysticism,' (p. 264.) thrown out insinuations with regard to the consequences of certain religious meetings, which will be considered as alike false and indecent. But any animadversions on this or any other part of Dr. Jones's work, would doubtless be regarded by the learned Author as the trivial

remarks' of officious pigmies,' unworthy of his attention. We shall, therefore, merely cite one passage more from this strange farrago, in which the learned LL.D. and Barrister at Law sums up his description of the Welsh character.

'The common exercises of the Welsh are running, leaping, swimming, wrestling, throwing the bar, dancing, hunting, fishing, and playing at fives against the church or tower: and they constitute the joy of youth, and the admiration of old age.

The convivial amusements are singing and versification. In these favourite exercises the performers are of humble merit; the singing is mere roar and squeak; and the poetical effusions are nonsense, vested in the rags of language: and always slanderous, because the mind of the bard is not fertile in the production of topics.

'The Welsh character is the echo of natural feeling, and acts from instantaneous motives; it has more of fortitude and charity, virtues which emanate directly from the heart, than of prudence and temperance, which are the creatures of habit, and selections of the mind: its main object is to answer the purpose of human being, by self-preservation and purity of conduct; for the Welshman never commits suicide, nor does he ever fall a victim to deviations of affection; in hospitality he looks at the exigence of the moment, and makes no enquiry into the character of the person, whether he be a villain or a vagabond, an outlaw or a spendthrift; and, in the distribution of charity, he never throws his guinea into the printed list of subscriptions, but puts his mite privately into the hand of indigence.

The fine arts are strangers to the principality; and the Welsh man seldom professes the buskin, or the use of the mallet, the graver, or the chisel: but although deficient in taste, he excels in duties and in intellect: no part of the empire, of the like amount of population, has produced so many soldiers, sailors, professional men, and writers on every topic of literature and science. The battle of Maida was a Cambrian labour: the most distinguished officers at Waterloo, where all fought, and some fell, were the sons of Wales: the English navy has always more than a proportionate number of Welsh admirals and captains the mitre, at all times, graces the head of a Cambrian: in medicine the names of the Ancient Britons are always on the rolls of the college of physicians: in jurisprudence Wales has always produced more than her proportion of talent: and in literature and science the list of worthies would run through the alphabet: but as the enumeration would be tedious, the adduction of one name will justify the assertion of more than proportionate talent, and that name is Abraham Rees.' p. 122.

Dr. Rees is no more: he deserves a better eulogy, and from a worthier pen. But, in the next edition of this history of Wales, we should certainly recommend that the name of Abraham Rees should be dele'd, and that, instead of it, should be inserted that of John Jones!

The price of this volume is only a sovereign.

Art. X. A Narrative of some remarkable Incidents in the Life of Solomon Bayley, formerly a Slave, in the State of Delaware, North America. Written by Himself. 12mo. pp. 57. Price Is. 6d. London. 1825.

IN

N the controversy between the slave-dealers and the partizans of African liberation, though argument has been exhausted, facts are still continuing to accumulate in evidence of the wasting and demoralizing effect of the traffic in human life and liberty. There is no necessity for the employment of the ordinary weapons of intellectual and political warfare; rhetoric and syllogism may stand by, and the plain, naked narrative of misery and barbarity be left to make its thrilling appeal to the better feelings of men, without the aid of eloquence or influence. The disjointed, but most interesting and affecting contents of this little tract, exhibit the character and circumstances of a pious negro. He tells the tale of his hair-breadth escapes, his trials, and his deliverances, with a simplicity far more impressive than artifice and elaboration. Solomon Bayley was born a slave in the state of Delaware, made his escape with much difficulty, and afterwards purchased his freedom. His wife was slave to a member of the Methodist Society, to which Solomon also belonged, and the account of her release from slavery will afford a fair specimen of the negro's style and manner.