the reign of his successor, Waltham, special local measures were adopted against the infection spread by the reformer:

The mayor and commonalty of Sarum were compelled to promise 'obedience to the decrees of the episcopal court, and to use their 'powers in suppressing unlawful meetings at conventicles, &c.' Ward, Hoadely, and Sherlock, were among the occupants of this see. But its two most memorable names are those of Jewel and Burnet, on whose lives and characters our Author somewhat enlarges, in a strain, with respect to the former, of animated eulogium, which concludes in a style rather, for our taste, too rhetorical:

، As the sun in a spring morning, rising above the eastern horizon, is often obscured by clouds and mist, but gaining strength in its course dispels the gloomy and deleterious vapours, and gives life, light, and joy to the human race-so Jewel rose in the western world to check the horrific career of cruel bigotry, to stem the tide of priestly intolerance, to emancipate the human mind from mental slavery, and to prove that philanthropy, learning, and liberality of sentiment, constitute the essential characteristics of a true Christian and a good man.'

We noticed, further on in the work, another paragraph which goes off with too much fulmination at the close; but we transcribe it as at the same time correctly descriptive of an advantageous distinction possessed by the edifice, and of one particular view of it, and of one of the plates, which represents that view.

Salisbury cathedral is not only peculiar for its uniformity of style, but is also remarkable for its insulated and unincumbered state and situation for whilst most of the other great churches of England are obscured and almost enveloped with houses, trees, and walls, that of Salisbury is detached from all extraneous and disfiguring objects, and is thus laid open to the inspection of the spectator. It is thus rendered easy of access and of examination from several different points of view; and hence may be studied by the draughtsman and architect from such stations as best display the form and effect of the whole. From this circumstance Salisbury Cathedral is popularly regarded as the finest church in England; and from the same cause it is certainly peculiarly imposing on the eye and imagination of a stranger. It is customary for visitors to approach it from the east; and having reached the north-east angle of the enclosed cemetery, where the whole edifice is commanded at a single glance, the effect is pleasingly sublime. PLATE II. shews it from this station, where it constitutes at once a beautiful and picturesque mass. A series and succession of pediments, pinnacles, buttresses, windows, and bold projections, crowned with the rich tower and lofty spire, are embraced at one view, and fill the eye and mind as a homogeneous whole. This northern front, however, is generally monotonous in effect, and to be seen to advantage should be visited when the morning sun lights up one side of the tower, and the eastern side of the transepts, as in the print here referred to; or when the summer sun is declining in the west, and throws its golden rays on the northern

faces of the transepts, and tips the pinnacles and other projections with sparkling gleams of brightness. At this time also the recesses are dark and solemn, which enhance the grandeur, and augment the magnitude, of the edifice. In the twilight of evening, or when the moon is about forty-five degrees above the western horizon, and displays her silvery face amidst solemn azure and fleecy vapours, then the effect is still more awful and impressive: the enthusiastic spectator is rivetted to the scene; his mind wanders in reveries of delight; and his enraptured imagination "darts from heaven to earth, and from earth to heaven," in rapid and daring flights. Should the deeptoned organ sound at such a moment, and reiterate its solemn music through the aisles, the effect would be infinitely augmented.' p. 67.

We cannot resist the impression that some of these last sentences are a great deal too fine; and we think it would be a friendly adviser that should intimate to Mr. B. that, in his future works, the absence of such kind of brilliancies would be well compensated by more attention to general correctness of construction, in which respect we must say he is very culpably negligent, not seldom offending (if the errors are to be attributed to the Author) against ordinary grammar. At the same time we admit that his diction is easy and perspicuous.

After our Author has led the whole train of prelates before us and out of sight, he describes the form, arrangement, and construction of the building, which is to outlast so many more of its transient mitred regents. This portion of the work compresses much information in a small space; and it excites afresh our astonishment at the ability and the daring displayed by the architects. It was in the disposition of stones that the intelligence of the age mounted the highest. The freedom and vigour of mind evinced in their department by the architects of this structure, bore about the same proportion to that of the contemporary spiritual persons in theirs, as its wonderful tower and spire to the chimneys of the surrounding houses.

From Mr. Britton, however, those able but unknown adventurers toward the clouds receive little thanks for their loftiest exploit. It will be fortunate if he does not find himself involved in a violent antiquarian hostility for having dared to pronounce so fine a thing as the spire an ill-judged addition to the edifice. We will quote his words, but dare not hazard any opinion on such a question.

Although this spire is an object of popular and scientific curiosity, it cannot be properly regarded as beautiful or elegant, either in itself, or as a member of the edifice to which it belongs. A may-pole or a poplar-tree, a pyramid or a plain single column, can never satisfy the eye of an artist, or be viewed with pleasure by the man of taste. Either may be beautiful as an accessary, or be pleasing in association with other forms. The tall thin spire is also far from being an elegant object. Divest it of its ornamental bands, crockets, and pinna

cles, it will be tasteless and formal, as we may see exemplified in the pitiful obelisk in the centre of Queen-square, Bath; but associate it with proportionate pinnacles, or other appropriate forms, and like the spire of St. Mary's Church in Oxford, or that of the south-western tower at Peterborough Cathedral, we are then gratified.' p. 74.

A descriptive list is given of the principal tombs and monuments, accompanied with slight biographical notices; of which the following is perhaps the most remarkable.

An altar-tomb, without inscription or ornament of any kind, commemorates Charles, Lord Stourton, who was hung March 6, 1556, in the Market-place at Salisbury, for the murder of Mr. Hartgill and his son. This event caused much publicity at the time, and may be referred to as one of those instances of human malice and malignant barbarity which cannot be accounted for, and which puzzles the philosopher, and distresses the philanthropist. It is said the Lord Stourton, from mere antipathy and personal hatred against the two persons abovenamed, had induced four of his own sons to assist him in murdering them, and afterwards to bury their bodies fifteen feet deep in the earth. This barbarous act was however afterwards discovered, and the principal assassin doomed to suffer an ignominious death in a public place.' p. 91.

With respect to the plates, it would not be easy to find any language too emphatical in praise. Nothing more exquisite has been seen, or can be conceived, than the execution of the greater number of them. The drawings are chiefly by Mackenzie, and two-thirds of the engravings are by J. and H. Le Keux. Several are only etched in outline, especially the monuments; and this is the very utmost labour that such pieces of sculpture deserve. But as many as twenty, including all the views of the edifice, exterior and interior, that are most adapted to effect, as pictures, are carefully finished, and with a wonderful vigour and delicacy.

Norwich Cathedral, which is to have twenty-four plates, is now in the course of publication; and that is to be followed by Winchester.

Art. IV. An account of the Kingdom of Caubul, and its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India; comprising a View of the Afghaun Nation, and a History of the Dooraunee Monarchy. By the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone, of the Honourable East India Company's Service, Resident at the Court of Poona, and late Envoy to the King of Caubul. About 700 pp. 31. 13s. 6d. London. Longman and Co. 1815.

THE general question, whether our East Indian possessions

are profitable or injurious to our national strength and prosperity, is, we think, one of very difficult solution. It should seem, however, that there can be no doubt that the dominion of the British in Asia, has been attended with beneficial results to the natives. If, in former periods, the Company's servants too often

and too closely followed the example of the Rajahs, in insolence, perfidy, rapacity, and oppression, yet, the system has been gradually improving: as our empire has gained strength, the inhabitants have become familiar with the blessings of a more settled state of things. Contrasted with the merciless devastation of Indian warfare, the grinding avarice, the systematic barbarity, and the unmitigated pressure of Eastern tyranny, the occasional excesses, highly disgraceful it must be admitted, of European delegates, may still, on the whole, be deemed to have been even tolerable. The severe and restrictive nature of our military discipline, has corrected the previous irregularity of the native soldiery; the substitution of a more refined system of society must tend to raise the national character of our Oriental subjects; the administration of justice is entrusted to men of ability, and adjusted by salutary though, in some respects, too inefficient regulations; and we believe that, with some few exceptions, the supreme power has been exercised, though undoubtedly with a primary view to wealth and aggrandizement, yet with no small degree of anxiety to consult and to confirm the happiness of the native population. And if we look beyond these temporary considerations, to the religious condition of the East, it will afford us a wider range and a higher hope. The plans and exertions of the Missionaries for the conversion of the idolatrous and the instruction of the ignorant, may be said to be now carried on, if not under the avowed patronage, with a connivance no longer dubious on the part of Government.

The worst part of our Eastern policy has arisen from the frequent change of system by which, of late years, it has been distinguished. A spirit of vacillancy seems to have presided over our councils; one Governor-general has acted on a defensive and conceding plan; the next has swept the Peninsula with his armaments, and pushed back our frontier far beyond its original confines; his successor has reverted to the former policy, has again contracted our boundaries, and busied himself in plans of economy and restriction. Lord Cornwallis opposed to the subtle and unprincipled intricacies of Indian diplomacy, and the gross wickedness of Eastern rapacity and aggression, his own mild spirit, and equitable and steady plans of justice. The viceroyalty of Marquis Wellesley was a perfect blaze, dazzling and intense; but self-exhausting. Every thing with him bore the marks of empire: his palace was built and adorned with imperial magnificence; his schemes were calculated on an imperial scale; the Company's territories were augmented by imperial conquests and acquisitions; and, to crown the whole, he quitted the East, leaving the weight of a debt that may very aptly be termed imperial. Since that time, it

should seem that the main object has been to retrace his steps; cessions have been made with incredible impolicy; our allies have been abandoned where abandonment was most unjustifiable; and beyond all was the folly of first driving the officers of a whole army into open mutiny, and then attempting to retrieve the error by the desperate expedient of dissolving the union between the native soldier and his European commander; thus destroying at one stroke the steady and laborious work of half a century, and loosening, to its very roots, the security of our Indian empire.

But there is a point of view more immediately connected with our present subject, under which we can contemplate the conduct of the East India Company with no small degree of complacency. It does not seem to have been at any time restricted by that teazing and low policy of petty concealment, which has been, almost invariably, a common and fatal error of extensive commercial monopolies. The civil and military servants of the Company, instead of being thwarted in their attempts to communicate to the public the results of their literary or scientific investigations, have generally experienced encouragement. In aid of every respectable publication, access to the Company's archives has rarely, if ever, been denied; and to this liberal and judicious plan we owe a series of the most important and elucidatory labours that have ever been directed to objects of a similar description. Among the most able and satisfactory of these, we feel no hesitation in placing Mr. Elphinstone's work. It deserves the highest praise for extensive observation, cautious diligence, unostentatious knowledge, and distinct narration; and there is, besides, an air of punctilious veracity about it, that at once excites confidence. In this artificial and obtrusive age, the book derives an additional charm from the entire absence of all affectation of authorship; we meet with nothing of that studied adjustment of periods, and overwrought trimness of phrase, which are so wearying, and so completely out of place when a plain tale is to be told. The principal persons of the embassy seem to have been continually on the alert, and to have viewed every thing with a keen and eager, but discriminating eye; they evidently availed themselves of every opportunity for inquiry, and Mr. E. has accurately weighed and judiciously arranged the mass of materials which they collected. In a short Preface he has stated his obligations to his coadjutors, with honourable precision. A plan' had been 'ar'ranged among the party,' by which distinct objects of inquiry were assigned to particular individuals.

The geography was allotted to Lieut. Macartney, and he was assisted by Capt. Raper, already known to the Public by his account of a journey to the sources of the Ganges. The climate, soil, produce,