In our Review for January, we announced the first appearance of this pamphlet, in a joint publication of the author and Dr. Beddoes. Some improvements in the apparatus, and in the manner of employing it, having fince fuggefted themselves, Mr.W. has very properly made the whole the fubject of a feparate publication, in which he has confined himself to defcription and directions, omitting the fpeculative matter contained in fome of his letters to Dr. B.

Art. 45. A short Account of the Nature and Properties of different Kinds
of Airs, fo far as relates to their Medicinal Ufe; intended as an
Introduction to the Pneumatic Method of treating Diseases: with
mifcellaneous Obfervations on certain Remedies ufed in Confump-
tions. By Richard Pearson, M.D. Phyfician to the General Hof-
pital, Birmingham. 8vo. pp. 27. Is. Baldwin. 1795.
This is a neat general account of the different kinds of airs which
have lately been propofed for trial in various diseases, with the grounds
on which good effects have been expected from each. The author
justly calls himself at prefent little more than an expofitor, but he
hopes that hereafter he may contribute to augment the ftock of ob-
servations on the fubject. In the few concluding remarks on the re-
medies ufed in confumptions, the circumftance chiefly worthy of
notice is the falutary exhibition of the vapour of æther: but Dr.
Pearson, announces his intention of giving a more particular relation
of this practice.

HORTICULTURE.

Ai.

Ai. Art. 46. A Treatife on the Culture of the Cucumber: Shewing a new and advantageous Method of cultivating that Plant, with full Directions for the Management thereof, and the Degree of Heat it requires on every Day of the Year; and a Meteorological Journal of the Weather and Temperature of the Climate in Lat. 51° 20' North, Long. 0° 1' Eaft, of London. To which are added, Hints and Obfervations on the Improvement of Agriculture. By James McPhail, Gardener to Lord Hawkesbury, &c. &c. 8vo. pp. 528. 8s. Boards. Cadell. 1794.

It will no doubt furprise many perfons to fee a large volume in octavo, for the purpose of explaining and amending the culture of the cucumber. Be it known, however, that but a fmall portion of this book is appropriated to inftructions immediately refpecting the culture of the cucumber; which, as any one may conceive, might be compreffed within a very few pages. The appropriation of the volume is as follows;-fixteen pages of advertisement, fixteen of preface, forty-two on the culture of the cucumber, and two hundred and twenty-four on the management of cucumber plants,-(being a meteorological journal of the weather, with the coverings and liftings of the frames, and with the heat of the foil, of the air within the frames, and of the open air; registered feven or eight times in a day, from October 1792 to January 1794;) and two hundred and fourteen pages of hints and obfervations on agriculture.

Mr. McPhail is evidently an ingenious gardener, and his newly in vented cucumber frame does him much credit; it might be ftyled an elegant invention. Instead of the vulgar dung-bed, which is gene

03

rally

rally in ufe, (and through the means of which, by the way, every carter and ploughboy, in many parts of the kingdom, produces what fome would call very good cucumbers,) Mr. M'P. makes his bed of vegetable mould, within a brick frame; communicating heat to this bed by the fteam of fermenting dung, placed round the frame, in a very ingenious manner.

The journal fhews great attention and perfeverance on the part of the author: but we think that its publication, at large, was not requifite to the illuftration of Mr. M'Phail's method of cultivation,

As to the hints and obfervations on agriculture, we need only to fay that they will not bear the teft of a deliberate perufal, by men who are converfant with the fubject. Whether they arife from reading or from practice, they are crude and unfatisfactory, Mr. M'P. has the pen of a ready writer, and he is not, fcrupulously nice about ticking to his text. His deviations are many and wide; ftraying into the mazes of religion and politics, with an unguardednefs which, efpecially in the prefent intemperate times, may procure for him more enemies than friends.

We have formed a very good opinion of Mr. McPhail's abilities as a writer on gardening, (on which fubject he gives us to understand he has much manufcript matter,) and we would advife him to leave agriculture and politics to others.

Nevertheless, viewing the production before us, with the various fentiments which it contains, as emanating from the ideas of a man who, not many years ago, was a farmer's fervant (as he informs us,) in the Highlands of Scotland, we deem it a curiofity. His reading has evidently been extenfive, and his memory, we conclude, is retentive. Thefe circumstances ferve to account for his fluency of language; which, however, as may well be conceived, frequently wants correctness.

MILITARY.

Art. 47. An Hiftorical Account of the British Regiments employed fince the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, in the Formation and Defence of the Dutch Republic; particularly of the Scotch Brigade. 8vo. 3s. fewed. Kay, &c. 1795.

A very entertaining and informing hiftory of a diftinguished military corps, raised in our own ifland, but maintained in the fervice of foreign powers allied with this nation. It is impoffible for us, as Britons, to perufe this work without feeling ourselves strongly interefted in the fate of this body of brave men; and we fhould have lamented for them had they been fuffered to crumble into non-existence. It therefore gives us pleafure to find that his Majefty has been pleafed to order the revival of a corps which has maintained its honour on the Continent for not lefs than two hundred years. The great Montecuculi confiders, as this hiftorian remarks, a permanent body of troops as a kind of Immortal Being; as it affimilates to itself the nourishment it receives, and remains always the fame.' May this observation be verified in regard to the Scotch Brigade! efpecially as, if we mistake not, it is intended to be hereafter employed in our own proper service.

Mars

A famous Generaliffimo of the Imperial armies in the time of Louis XIV.

Art.

Art. 48. Letters on the Subject of the Armed Yeomanry, addressed to
the Right Hon. Earl Gower Sutherland, Col. of the Staffordshire
Volunteer Cavalry. By Francis Percival Eliot, Major in the above
Corps. 8vo. 6d. Longman. 1794.

This tract (printed at the defire of the committee of Subfcribers to the Internal Defence of the County,) appears to be the work of an experienced and fkilful officer, and is written with accuracy and fpirit, it details the whole difcipline of the volunteer cavalry; a corps compofed entirely of gentlemen and yeomen, exhibiting what may be termed a kind of non-defcript fpecies of foldiery: a body of men, who feeling themfelves independent as individuals, have voluntarily ftepped forth in defence of a confitution which the experience of ages has proved perfectly competent to the prefervation of that independence, which it is their pride and happiness to enjoy.”

To the above-mentioned letter is added Letter II. on the Utility and Expediency of the Volunteer Eftablishment;' in which the ingenious writer expatiates, (in a ftyle fomewhat declamatory,) on the excellence and wisdom of a measure, by which alone,' as he apprehends, the internal peace of this country can, in the prefent state of European politics, be for a moment enfured.' While, however, we are thus neceffarify bufied in beating our plowfhares into fwords, and our pruninghooks into fpears," let us devoutly hope and pray that there may never be occafion for our making any fanguinary afe of the weapons.

PHILOSOPHY.

Art, 49. The Meteorologif's Affiftant in keeping a Diary of the Weather; or Atmospherical Regifter of the State of the Barometer, Thermometer, Hygrometer, and Wind, at three Periods in every Day; and the Quantity of Rain, &c. falling each Day. Folio. 12 Tables. 1s. 6d. Baldwin. 1793.

The nature of this publication is fufficiently explained in the titlepage. The blank tables, of which it principally confifts, are conveniently conftructed for their purpose, and may ufefully be employed by thofe who are defirous of faving themselves a little trouble. POETRY and DRAMATIC.

Art. 50. The Wedding Day, a Comedy in two Acts. As performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury-lane. By Mrs. Inchbald. 8vo. IS. Robinfons. 1794.

Whatever fault rigid criticism may detect in the plot of this little piece, as exhibiting incidents which verge on improbability, it is compenfated by the eafe and vivacity of the dialogue, and the strongly marked diftin&tnefs of the characters. The whimfical oddity of Sir Adam Contest is well contrived to raise a laugh; and Lady Contest has peculiar features of gay fimplicity, which do credit to the inventive talents of Mrs. Inchbald.

Art. 51. The Coffee House; a characteristic Poem: 4to.

Robinfons. 1795..

Is. 6d.

We have feen various imitations of Philips's Splendid Shilling; with the style of which the author of this poem feems to have cultivated fome acquaintance: but the folemn burlefque keeps aloof. Here is more of fatire than of drollery :-though the writer disavows all perfonal defign.

Q4

Art.

Ai.

E.

Art. 52. The Siege of Gibraltar; a Poem. By Capt. Jof. Budworth, Author of A Fortnight's Ramble to the Lakes*. 4to. 25. 25. Hookham and Co. What Pope confeffed with regard to one of his early productions, that "pure defcription held" in it" the place of fenfe," cannot justly be applied to the prefent performance, unlefs for fenfe we fubftitute the word poetry :-but it would be ungenerous in us to criticife the production of a foldier's mufe, when the merit of the verfes is not fondly over-rated by the author himself, as appears from the modesty with which he speaks of them in the following paffage, copied from the dedication: I am no fcholar, but you have the unlaboured effufions of a mind that was in the midst of the fcenes it attempts to defcribe; and if it may tend to give an unadorned account of an event the world was once interested about, it will not concern me, if I should be faid to have failed in the poetry.'

The pourtraiture of the brilliant fcenes here commemorated will not, we imagine, highly delight the ear of the faftidious critic: but we doubt not that it will gratefully excite the recollection of the brotherfoldiers of Capt. Budworth, who fhared with him in the dangers and the honours of that ever-memorable and glorious fervice.-Many of the defcriptive paffages in the poem are illuftrated by notes, which are fraught with information and amufement. In feveral of the anecdotes, the author does ample juftice to fome of the leading military characters who diftinguished themfelves on that great occafion; among which the names of the brave ELLIOT, (the late Lord Heathfield,) and the gallant CURTIS, fhine with fuperior luftre.

Art. 53. Sonnets, (3d Edition +,) with other Poems, by the Rev. W. L. Bowles, A. M. late of Trinity College, Oxford. Crown 8vo. pp. 120. 35. fewed. Dilly. 1794.

The Italians, who during four centuries of literary culture muft have made more experiments than other nations on the most convenient form for fhort compofitions, have given a very general preference to the fonnet. Odes, heroic, religious, and amatory,-elegies, panegyrics,anecdotes,fables,tranflations,defcriptions, fatirical portraits; in fact, every thing calculated ftrongly to arrest a tranfient attention has been anxioufly fitted to this bed of Procruftes, and expanded or compreffed to the precife dimenfions of fourteen lines confifting of two quatrains and two triads of rhimes; and, as a fingle thought, elegantly amplified, may be made fufficient to fill this fpace-as any fyftem of thoughts to be confined within this compafs must be pruned of every unneceffary appendage-as the industry requifite to polish fo fhort a poem into the most elaborate perfection, and to put throughout the right word in the right place, is by no means either rare or fatiguing,-fo nothing is more common than to find a fonnet poffeffing every requifite of a perfect work of art; unity and wholeness of plan; thoughts attracting attention from the beginning, and providing a gradual increase of pleafure till the clofe; and a ftyle offending by no

See Rev. N. S. vol. xiii. p. 117.

↑ See Rev. vol. lxxx. p. 465; and vol. lxxxi. p. 83.

awkward

awkward word, ftrained conftruction, or harsh line. The Italians accordingly take great delight in Anthologies of fonnets, and conftantly point to them as the proof of their national excellence in the leffer myfteries of the mufe. Nor are fuch purfuits to be defpised: Trypho could difplay as profound a knowlege of defign in engraving a Cameo, as Polycletus in the fculpture of his Canon.

In the fonnets here offered to the public, Mr. Bowles exempts himfelf from the neceffity of feeking a multiplicity of like rhimes, and feldom binds together more than a couplet. He alfo terminates many of them by an Alexandrine; which, notwithstanding Pope's fimile of the wounded fnake, is certainly agreeable to the English ear at the clofe of long ftanzas,-as the readers of Spenfer must have felt.

The fubjects felected are wholly of the plaintive elegiac kind, as is indeed the cafe with most British poems of this defcription; the verfi. fication is fmooth, the ftyle correct, the imagery pleafing, the thoughts are natural, and the faults are rare. Yet, with all this, there are very few which leave much impreffion on the memory, or forcibly recall us to their perufal. We endeavoured to find the best, in order to praise it, and the worst, in order to criticise it; yet in vain: like a ftring of beads, each is as perfect as the other :-but we have fufficiently dwelt on the fonnets of this ingenious writer, as the reader will fee by turning back to our former articles, cited in the note.

The other poems annexed are no lefs pleafing than the polished fonnets of this author: but the principal of these have also been duly noticed in our former volumes.

Art. 54. Heigh-ho for a Hufband! a Comedy: as performed at the
Theatre Royal, in the Hay-market, January 14, 1794. 8vo.
Is. 6d. Arrowsmith. 1794.

This dramatic piece is a parody of Farquhar's comedy of the Beaux Stratagem. Charlotte and Maria, two giddy girls of family, who quit the protection of their friends, and traverse the country in fearch of husbands, are given as the counterpart of Archer and Aimwell; Mrs. Mill-clack the landlady, of Boniface; her fon Frank, of Daughter Cherry; and fo of the reft. The frolic lafts only half a day; during which thefe forward miffes, who do very little credit to their breeding, fall in love, one with the landlady's fon, and the other with a fpirited clown who turns out to be a young efquire. In the evening, the father of Charlotte overtakes them, and fomewhat too kindly confents to the completion of thefe foolish matches, that the girls may no longer cry Heigh-ho for a husband!

Tay.

As a parody, the piece is entitled to no commendation. In wit and humour it falls far fhort of the original; though fome of the characters are not without merit. The talkative landlady, her rattling fon, the fimple clown Timothy, and the country malkin Dorothy, are well conceived and expreffed. The genteel characters are leaft diftinctly marked. The Epilogue, by Mr. Colman, is written with great eafe, and contains two admirable matrimonial sketches. Art. 55. Poems written in close Confinement in the Tower, and Nowgate, under a Charge of High Treafon. By John Thelwall. 4to. 25. Ridgway. 1795.

Mr.

E.