but also to perform, with facility, whatever duties are required: (vid. p. 29.). ergò, if the reasoning power be cultivated and improved to the utmost, a willing and easy obedience to the divine commands, and consequently both present comfort and future happiness, are the immediate and indisputable results. Such are the summary arrangements which this gentleman has planned for the benefit of mankind. Notwithstanding, however, the very great facility with which he proposes to carry his theory into practice, we cannot but fancy that, if he had looked a little more attentively into his Bible, or had considered the moral state of the antient heathen world at the time when the Gospel was first promulgated, he would not have so earnestly insisted on the sufficiency of human reason either to ascertain the will of God, or to perform it when ascertained: he would not have made the intellect of man to supersede the revealed word of God; nor have proposed that, as an effectual remedy' for vice, which is often made to prolong and increase its empire.

Art. 33. Moral Culture; attempted in a Series of Lectures, delivered to the Pupils and Teachers of the Old and NewMeeting Sunday-Schools, in Birmingham: interspersed with a variety of illustrative Anecdotes ; &c. &c. By James Luckcock. 12mo. pp. 290. Baldwin and Co.

Much simplicity of style and language is here combined with an extensive knowlege of men and manners, and made to aid the cause of virtue. The maxims are plain, useful, and practical: the inquiries are temperate and rational; and the insipidity and weariness of the didactic style are relieved by a judicious intermixture of anecdotes, interesting in themselves and illustrative of the truths which they are meant to confirm.

Art. 34. Means of improving the Condition of the Poor in Morals and Happiness considered, in a Lecture delivered at The Minor Institute, to which is prefixed, A short Account of that Institution. By Thomas Williams. Published by Request.* pp. 64. 2s. stitched. Hatchard.

8vo.

The Minor Institute, it seems, is an association of individuals formed for the purpose of disseminating useful knowlege extensively among the middle and industrious classes;' and lectures are delivered at its house in Chiswell Street by its own members on various subjects, according to the plan of its more noted rivals. The pamphlet before us contains the substance of one of these lectures; in which the author makes a detailed statement, derived chiefly from Colquhoun, of the population and income of the country as they regard the poor in particular; and he then gives a succinct view of the various popular modes of bettering their condition, and points out how their improvement has been and is retarded. We observe nothing very new in this lecture, but it has the merit of conveying its matter in clear language, and is inspired by the best intentions.

* On several occasions, we have asked who this publisher is, but never could obtain any account of him.

COR

CORRESPONDENCE.

Mr. Hewlett requests us to correct an error into which (he says) we have fallen, when we thought we were exposing an error of his.' In the review of his Commentaries, (M. R. for March last, p. 245.) we quoted the following passage: "Other writers, especially Őrpheus in the verses ascribed to him, speak of the delivery of the two tablets of the law from God and of the institution of the Hebrew rites. Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 48. ed. Rhodomanni;" on which we observed that nothing like this was to be found in the passage in question, nor elsewhere in Diodorus; and that, if any antient author attributed such verses to Orpheus, they were probably spurious. Mr. H. maintains that his reference is correct. We have only at hand Wesseling's edition of Diodorus, in which the pages of Rhodoman are marked in the inner margin, (utriusque paginas margini adpingi jussi; Stephanicæ ad oram exteriorem, in interiore Rhodomanianæ." Wess. Pref.) and p. 48. contains neither letter nor line concerning either Orpheus or Moses. The imputation of error, which Mr. H. proposes to return to us, must therefore remain where it was originally placed. We never meant to deny that Diodorus speaks of the institutions of Moses, but only that he quoted any verses from Orpheus respecting them. The verses in question, it appears, are cited by Eusebius in the Præp.Evang. The reader will judge whether we had reason to pronounce them spurious, when he knows that they are given on the authority of Aristobulus, the Jew; and that Cudworth, Eschenbach, Tiedemann, Wyttenbach, and Gesner, suppose them to be the work of a forger.

On the other topics of Mr. H.'s letter, the necessity of a knowlege of German in an editor of the Bible, and the propriety of noticing what Eichhorn and Bishop Marsh have written on the composition of Genesis and the first three Evangelists,-we leave our readers to form their own opinion.

The author of Sensibility,' &c. is informed that a report of that work will find admission in our pages in due course.

Z. Z. states that the account of Hammerfest, which we quoted in our last Number, (p. 416.) is not the first mention of that northern town, as he has met with it in Bourn's Gazetteer, a work adapted to the use of young persons. We have not, however, this publication at hand to consult, and can say nothing farther on the subject.

Mr. Bicheno will see his pamphlet introduced in our present Number.

The APPENDIX to Vol. LXXXV. of the Monthly Review is published with this Number, and contains (as usual) a variety of articles in FOREIGN LITERATURE; with the Title, Table of Contents, and Index, for the Volume.

In the last Review, p. 355. l. 17., for explode' r. explore?

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For JUN E, 1818.

ART. I. Narrative of an Expedition to explore the River Zaire, usually called the Congo, in South Africa, in 1816, under the Direction of Captain J. K. Tuckey, R. N. To which is added, the Journal of Professor Smith; some general Observations on the Country and its Inhabitants; and an Appendix: containing the Natural History of that Part of the Kingdom of Congo through which the Zaire flows. Published by Permission of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. 4to. pp. 580. and Fourteen Plates. 21. 2s. Boards. Murray. 1818.

IN

N our account of Riley's captivity in Africa, (M. R. for October last, p. 127.) it was our melancholy duty to record the unfortunate result of the expedition fitted out by the Government to explore the course of the Zaire or Congo river, together with the death of the enterprizing commander of it, Captain Tuckey, and most of his scientific associates. The present volume is the monument to their memory, which has been executed by Mr. Barrow, one of the Secretaries to the Admiralty; and a painful history it relates, although less discouraging to future persons who may embark in the cause of African discovery, than we might have expected from the first and general contemplation of the catastrophe. — Considerable attention has been paid by the editor to the materials of which he became the depository, and which have been greatly amplified by the insertion of his own reflections and deductions from the account given by the travellers. Their narratives, however, are properly preserved in a distinct form; any deviation from which, we think, would have rendered the publication very unsatisfactory.

The volume, as now constituted, comprizes, 1. A very long Introduction by the Editor.2, Captain Tuckey's Narrative.3. A Journal by Professor Smith, a scientific Member of the Expedition.-4. A division intitled General Observations' by the Editor, containing a View of the State of the Country and People bordering on the Zaire, as collected from the preceding narratives, and some few other sources;- VOL. LXXXVI,

and

and 5. án Appendix of five Numbers, consisting chiefly of Botanical matter. It will be the simplest mode of arrangement for us to consider the Introduction, the Narrative, and the "General Observations' in the first instance; and to reserve Professor Smith's Journal and the Appendix for another article.

"The Zaire," says Purchas, (we quote from the Introduction,)" is of such force that no ship can get in against the current, but neer to the shore; yea, it prevails against the ocean's saltnesse threescore, and as some say, fourscore miles within the sea, before his proud waves yeeld their full homage, and receive that salt temper in token of subjection. Such is the haughty spirit of that stream, overrunning the low countries as it passeth, and swollen with conceit of daily conquests, and daily supplies, which, in armies of showers, are by the clouds sent to his succour, runnes now in a furious rage, thinking even to swallow the ocean, which before he never saw, with his mouth wide-gaping eight-and-twentee miles, as Lopez affirmeth, in the opening; but meeting with a more giantlike enemie which lies lurking under the cliffes to receive his assault, is presently swallowed in that wider wombe, yet so, as always being conquered, he never gives over, but in an eternall quarrel, with deepe and indented frownes in his angry face, foaming with disdaine, and filling the aire with noise, (with fresh helpe) supplies those forces which the salt sea hath consumed." This quaint and fantastical description has been partly verified by observations of late voyagers, and thence regarded as a corroboration of the hypothesis of Maxwell, so strongly embraced by Park, that the Niger was emptied into the ocean through this channel. Among the objections to this suggestion, the length of the course of such a river is undoubtedly one of the most serious: for, if we presume it to flow over a space of four thousand miles, it must follow as a necessary consequence that the source must be at a very considerable height indeed above the level of the sea; and it does not appear that Park passed over any mountains of extraordinary elevation in order to reach the Niger. To this remark it is answered by the editor that, if we assume three thousand feet as the height of the source, we shall have an average slope of nine inches to the mile in the course of four thousand miles, which is more than has been calculated of the descent of the Amazons in S. America. It was clearly conceived by our Government that this and some other objections to the hypothesis were easily removed; and we have always imagined, in common with them, that the arguments in favour of it, to which we have formerly adverted more at large, greatly preponderated: so that the general appearance of a

justification of the expedition, which pervades the introduction, strikes us as unnecessary.

To solve these geographical problems relative to the Niger, a double expedition was prepared: the one, to follow the course of Park, and descend the Niger, as far as it might be practicable; the other, to explore the Zaire upwards to its source. Of the calamities which attended the former in its outset, we have spoken elsewhere, and have no farther information to offer relative to its subsequent operations. The history of the latter is now before us. In procuring vessels adapted for the navigation of the Zaire, two essential qualifications presented themselves; viz. that they should draw little water, and that they should afford sufficient accommodation for the officers and crew, the naturalists and their collections. Şir Joseph Banks suggested the idea of a steam-vessel, as a saving of human labour, and a mode of impelling the vessel against a very rapid current; and experiments were made in deference to this opinion: but it was found that an engine of sufficient power was so great an incumbrance in the vessel, as to be likely to prove more detrimental than advantageous, and the steam-plan was ultimately abandoned. The Congo, which was the name given to the vessel destined for the expedition, was highly approved by those who were to navigate her; although, having been originally fitted to contain the engine, she was not very sightly in the eyes of many naval : men: the principle on which she was built was similar to that which was proposed by the late Earl Stanhope, as most proper for ships of war, in combining the greatest number of requisite qualifications. As it could scarcely be doubted that shallows and rapids would occur in the river, a double boat, consisting of two of thirty-five feet long and six feet broad, was prepared at the suggestion of Captain Tuckey; and a kind of connecting platform was added to it, the whole capable of containing from twenty to thirty men, with three months' provisions. These were stowed in the Dorothy transport, which was ordered to accompany the expedition to the river Zaire. The greater part of the persons engaged were left to the choice of the commander, and were all volunteers on the occasion. The scientific gentlemen consisted of Professor Smith, (of Norway,) Botanist; Mr. Cranch, Collector of Objects of Natural History; Mr. Tudor, Comparative Anatomist; Mr. Galwey, a friend of Capt. T.; and Mr. Lockhart, a Gardener from the King's Gardens at Kew. Some artificers were included, and twelve marines; and, with Lieutenant Hawkey, Mr. Fitzmaurice the Master, the Mates, Surgeon, seamen, and two natives of Congo, the whole party consisted of fifty-six persons. Although I 2

the