active operations both at Picton and at Sidney in Cape Breton, in a spirited style, the conductor of which is praised by Captain Moorsom for his knowledge of his business and his experience. These operations have hitherto been limited at Picton to coal mines and iron works, on imported material. The iron mines are about to be opened. In several places coal protrudes from the surface of the soil, and iron ore exists in masses upon the East River, to such an extent that a mountain at the upper part of the valley is said to be entirely composed of it. The lease of this confers upon the Albion Company the privilege of working all the mines and minerals that have or may be discovered in Nova Scotia, except on such lands as have already been granted without restriction. These are however few. The Annapolis Iron Company is the only establishment which enters into competition with the Albion.

We have not referred to Captain Moorsom's descriptions of scenery nor to his sketches of society: they will serve to amuse the reader, but do not fall in with the design of this précis of the more material facts. It is sufficient to know that on the whole Nova Scotia is a picturesque country: many parts of it are not to be exceeded by the choicest portions of England; its character is however mostly bold and wild. Nature, as our author observes, seems to have employed the wedge and the hammer in its construction. The inhabitants are hospitable, friendly and mild in character: they seem to have caught something of the Yankee sturdiness of manner, but in all essentials, claim the praise of good subjects. They are governed without difficulty: the annals of Acadia present the records of no internal commotion. Society seems in the larger towns, particularly Halifax, pretty much on a footing with provincial towns in England, when they happen to be the station of an idle regiment or two of horse or foot. Those who wish to know how the Magnates of the province spend their time will find some essays on the subject in the Letters. Winter here, as in Canada, is the season of gaiety, and singular enough, of out-of-door excursion. But the frozen snow supplies the place of roads, and as before quoted, it is not frost that makes cold.'

If the officers of the troops stationed here were to employ themselves as our author has done, in seeking and recording information, we should look with more patience upon the money they cost and the inutility of their military existence. Captain Moorsom himself is still soldier enough to regret that the men are rationally enough employed upon the public works. "The effects" are in a greater or less degree to convert a battalion of

6

soldiers into a corps of plasterers, stone-heavers, and ditchers; to throw temptation (in the shape of additional pay received for this work) in the way of men wholly incapable of self-restriction, and to destroy in six months that which has been the toil, the pleasure, and the pride of a zealous adjutant, captain, and commanding officer for as many years." It is doubtless a painful thing to destroy the pride and pleasure of an adjutant, captain, and commanding officer for six years,' all at one fell swoop; nevertheless, we would ask any unprejudiced person, in time of peace, which is the most respectable and useful body, a battalion of pipe-clay belts and breeches, or "a corps of plasterers, stone-heavers, and ditchers." Are not idleness and the absence of occupation a greater temptation than increase of pay earned by labour: are soldiers who are under the rod of military discipline likely to be more imprudent and dissolute in the employment of their money, than men who are their own masters? After being employed in raising a battery, digging a canal, or building a bridge, is a regiment less qualified to defend them? These questions which answer themselves, show how difficult it is even for a sensible well-informed man to emancipate himself from the prejudices of education.

ART. XIII.-The Stamp Act-Dr. Whateley's Thoughts on the Sabbath. 8vo. Fellowes. 1830.

PROTESTANT England suffers under the reproach of deficiency in Theology, and it is scoffingly remarked, that our clergy are better skilled in Tithe-law than in the science of Divinity. Were we to confine our observation to the high places of the church, the imputation might seem to apply, but who needs to be instructed that merit is often content with a modest obscurity, and that the rarest qualifications frequently reside where there is the least show or expectation of them Indeed, experience has taught us to look for service in any quarter but that in which there is the endowment. What man would be so mad as to seek learning in a college, astronomical science in a royal observatory, lore among chartered antiquaries, or any thing but pomposity and presumption in any presidency, save alone Mr. Davies Gilbert's. The rule of the world is Dogberry's Principle of Election, "the most improper man to be constable." We have just witnessed an illustrious example in point; a king was required for Greece; that people being somewhat in the condition of Alley Croker in the song, 'Wanting a Wife to make him uneasy;" with all the world of

unfeathered bipeds before them, who do the statesmen of the three great powers elect, but the Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg, a person so unfit for the throne, so utterly void of the kingly ore, that he-we really scarcely know how to write the extravagance that he absolutely considered the security and satisfaction of the people as conditions necessary to his undertaking the sovereignty of them. What an example is this of the perversity of choices! That the election should have fallen on a Prince who considers the people! Why, had the Duke of Wellington presented his Royal Highness with a horse, he would have had sufficient good manners to bestride him without examining whether he had three legs or four, but the favoured of the contracting powers actually looks the gift in the mouth. The discussion between this poor spiritless creature (we write without apprehension of prosecution from the Whig Attorney) and Lord Aberdeen resembles the passages between Joseph Andrews and Lady B., when that type of shameful modesty declines the lady's tendered favours on the score of virtue. Did ever one hear man talk of his virtue before? indig nantly inquires the fair. Did ever one hear Prince talk of the people before, must have reflected Aberdeen, except for their taxation? Yet such a prince had been chosen-a prince of unprincely regards, a prince who vexed himself with considerations of the people's good, and was, therefore, soon discovered to be a nincumpoop. But in this blindness to qualities are favours tendered and bestowed! Lady B. offers herself to à JosephLord Aberdeen woos Leopold to Greece-the abject creature utterly wanting the true Tarquin ore, lacks lust of rule, and thinks of the honesties! What an escape have the powers had of a king of Greece of this unkingly mettle. Still the fact of the tender exemplifies the errors of appointment on which we insist. Completion only was wanting, and the completion rested with the prince, and completion would have avoided the discovery of unfitness. For the moment a man has wrapped himself up in the domino of power, defects become inscrutable. The bench of bishops is no exception from these remarks. Theology is admitted to be deficient, but to no one bishop will the charge of ignorance be brought home. There is a collective ignorance as well as a collective knowledge. On the spiritual bench, we repeat, however, no sane man would think of looking for divine science, but England has her theologians where she would least expect to find them.

Within the last month, indeed, by one of those singular accidents which so often bring about great discoveries, a board of theologians has been brought to light. They are persons hav

ing all the properties of substantial mèrit. They are unostentatious of their qualifications or performances, and dispatch their divine functions as things of course, requiring neither study nor knowledge, and claiming no praise. They wear no outward symbols of spiritual grace; they rejoice in no cauliflower-wigs, no aprons, no bands, no shovel-hats, no single-breasted coats; their divinity breaks out in no garment, and their guise is that of ordinary sinners. But before we say more of them, we would place this learned body before our reader's view according to the circumstances of their discovery.

Religious publications are exempt from the Pamphlet Duty. The Rev. Dr. Whately lately wrote a tract entitled Thoughts on the Sabbath,' which was published by Mr. Fellowes of Ludgate Street. The Commissioners of Stamps took proceedings against the Bookseller for the recovery of the penalty attaching to the non-payment of the Pamphlet Duty. He memorialized the Board, alleging that the work being one of Piety and Devotion was exempt from the payment of the duty. We shall tell the rest in the words of Mr. Fellowes.

"A short time after I had so done, I was favoured with a letter from their solicitor, stating that the Commissioners had mitigated the penalty (twenty pounds) to twenty shillings. At an interview subsequently with the solicitor I repeated my claim to exemption on the ground that the publication was a religious work. To this Mr. T. replied, that the Commissioners considered it' rather the contrary, because Mr. Whateley controverts the Mosaic Law, and inculcates that we may do just the same on the Sabbath as on other days.' Finding that my objection was of no avail I had no alternative but either to pay the fine, or incur the inevitable expense attendant on even a successful contest with the Crown of course I preferred the former as being the less evil of the two. To me it appears most extraordinary that the Commissioners of a Revenue Board should assume the character of Theological Critics, and as such venture to decide, according to their own notions, a question concerning which very many eminent Theologians differ in opinion.”

We have here complaint where there should be joy and gratulation. When the apple fell on the head of Newton did he complain of the bruise? To what a pass has public spirit descended when a man grieves at having been made the means of a grand discovery at the cost of some poor pelf. At the price of twenty shillings Mr. Fellowes discovers a body of Theologians, and yet he grumbles at the charge! As the Board is composed of six, the rate is three shillings and four pence for each Theologian, and altogether the cost of the discovery is not more than the sum

commonly offered for the recovery of a lost terrier or lap-dog. And why should Mr. Fellowes think it amiss that the Commissioners of a Revenue Board assume the character of Theological critics, when that spiritual Bench which should be qualified for Theological criticism assumes so very much of the character of a Revenue Board. It is perfectly consistent with the scheme of things that the Taxing-men should act as Divines; as the Divines distinguish themselves in the parts of Taxing-men. Let it further be observed how practically excellent has been the result of the associated Stamp and Spiritual Duties. Heterodoxy has been, by the effect of this union of piety and calculation, turned into pounds, shillings and pence. The penalty first imposed on Mr. Fellowes was twenty pounds, but on better consideration, when the judgment of the Synod resolved itself into the terms that the pamphlet of Dr. Whately was rather the contrary to Pious and Devout, the fine was reduced to twenty shillings; whence we find the precise sum of punishment belonging to the publication of a work rather the contrary' of pious, in that payment of the duties on heterodoxy. Twenty pounds would have covered Dr. Whately's extreme error, twenty shillings expiates the delicate rather-the-contrary' degree of offence. As twenty pounds is to one, so is a great heresy minus Stamp Duty to a slight contrariety to orthodoxy minus Stamp Duty. Thus we see that by these Theological guardians of the Revenue, religion is rendered res fisci.'. The question of qualification is utterly irrelevant to the usages of our scheme of policy. Parliament, which has settled the religion, is surely competent to order the appointment of the Theologians. They who make the lock are indeed the fittest to direct the fabrication of the keys. It now only remains for us to name the learned men who sit in judgment on the Theological writings of this country, and condemn the works of such authors as Dr. Whately, conveying their critical decrees through the appropriate channel of an attorney, and expressing the amount of their dissatisfaction in the tangible shape of a fine. The divines are

JOHN THORNTON, Esq.
W. A. MONTAGU, Esq.
H. S. MONTAGU, Esq.

J. W. Bowden, Esq.
EDWARD SAURIN, Esq.
R. WELLESLEY, Esq.

Such are the Theologians of England, and for the practical efficiency of their tenets, acting as they do through the organ of an attorney, we will match them against the Theologians of any country in the world. It is not the least part of their merit that they do not write big books, and that they shew their