render us more obnoxious to our imperious masters; while the very remotenefs and fecrecy of our fituation, in proportion as it conduces to fecurity, will tend to infpire fufpicion. Since then all hopes of forgiveness are vain, let thofe at length affume courage, to whom glory, to whom fafety is dear. The Brigantes, even under a female leader, had force enough to burn the enemy's fettlements, to form their camps, and, if fuccefs had not introduced negligence and inactivity, would have been able entirely to throw off the yoke; and fhall not we, untouched, unfubdued, and ftruggling not for the acquifition, but the continuance of liberty, declare at the very firft onfet what are the men whom Caledonia has referved for her defence?

"Can you imagine that the Romans are as brave in war as they are infolent in peace? Acquiring renown from our discords and diffenfions, they convert the errors of their enemies to the glory of their own army; an army compounded of the most different nations, which as fuccefs alone has kept together, misfortune will certainly diffipate. Unlefs, indeed, you can fuppofe that Gauls, and Germans, and (I blush to say it) even Britons, lavishing their blood for a foreign ftate, to which they have been longer foes than fubjects, will be retained by loyalty and affection! Terror and dread alone, weak bonds of attachment, are the ties by which they are reftrained; and when these are once broken, thofe who ceafe to fear will begin to hate. Every incitement to victory is on our fide. The Romans have no wives to animate them: no parents to upbraid their flight. Most of them have either no habitation, or a distant one. Few, in number, ignorant of the country, looking around in filent horror at the woods, feas, and a heaven itself unknown to them, they are delivered by the gods, as it were imprisoned and bound, into our hands. Be not terrified with an idle fhew, and the glitter of filver and gold, which can neither protect nor wound. In the very ranks of the enemy we fhall find our own bands. The Britons will acknowledge their own caufe. The Gauls will recollect their former liberty. The Germans will de fert them, as the Ufipii have lately done. Nor is there any thing formidable behind them: ungarrisoned forts; colonies of invalids; municipal towns diftempered and distracted between unjuft mafters, and ill obeying fubjects. Here is your general here your army. There, tributes, mines, and all the train of fervile punishments; which whether to bear eternally, or in ftantly to revenge, this field must determine. March then to battle, and think of your ancestors and your pofterity."

There feems to be an inconfiftency in fome paffages of this fpeech. In the tranflation, Galgacus fays, none of us are hitherto debased by flavery; we have preferved even our eyes unpolluted by the contact of fubjection' (which, by the way, is a fentiment very inelegantly expreffed ;) we are untouched, unfubdued, and ftruggling not for the acquifition, but for the continuance of liberty.' How then can he fay, our eftates

K 4

and

and poffeffions are confumed in tributes; our grain in contri- + butions even the powers of our bodies are worn down amidft fripes and infults, in clearing woods, and draining marshes.' -The truth, we believe, is this: the inconfiftency only ap pears in the tranflation. The whole paffage in the original, from Liberos cuique, down to Britannia fervitutem, feems only to point out the fituation and circumstances of others ; not of thofe, who were at that time under the conduct of Galgacus.

This point at least deserves the confideration of the ingeni ous tranflator. At the fame time, we entirely agree with him, when he obferves, that they, who are beft acquainted with the original, and the difficulties attending fuch a work as this, will be the readieft to make all due allowances for imperfections.

XII. A Difcuffion of fome important and uncertain Points in Chronology, in a Series of Letters, addressed to the rev. Dr. Blair, Prebendary of Westminster. By John Kennedy. 8vo. 1.

L. Davis.

1

i

FROM the jumble of inconfiftencies which appear in this

little pamphlet, it is not eafy to comprehend the author's intention. He begins the preface, indeed, by declaring, that the primary defign of the following calculations is to prove, not only that there is a metachronifm of four years in archbishop Ufher's Chronological Computations, but, which is more especially to be obferved, of juft four years; neither one year more, nor one year lefs; fo that this feemingly small miftake, in the collection of the years, being rectified, the true year of the world will be immediately established and by this means, a moft perplexing difficulty, in the general fyftem of chronology, which for ages paft has been productive of fo many fruitlefs wranglings and difputes, will be happily and finally folved. But, after the fecond page of the preface, we meet with nothing farther concerning the archbishop, nor his chronology, in the whole pamphlt, nor have the calculations in it any reference to the four years. And befides the above, which he calls his primary defign, and of which, as we have obferved, he takes no farther notice, we are not told what his other design or defigns may be : but if we may guefs from the contents of the pages, they feem to be, to abuse some refpe&able characters, and to thew that the epoch of Nabonaffar commenced on the 28th of February, inftead of the 26th, as ufed by the aftronomers.`i

Accord

According to Mr. Kennedy, we may be faid to have no aftronomical tables that can be of any ufe for calculating times antecedent to the Chriftian era; if fo, Mr. Ferguson, Dr. Blair, the Aftronomer-Royal, &c. have been acting a ridiculous farce, and even committing fhameful impofitions on the public.

As to the points refpecting the degree of accuracy of the prefent folar and lunar tables, and the era of Nabonaffar, whether the 26th or 28th of February, though no very proper fubjects here to be treated on and fettled in the review of a fmall pamphlet, yet whenever it is done, we will venture to pronounce, that it must be by other arguments than what are contained in this pamphlet, and by fome other person than the author of it.

In fupport of fuch invidious charges, we might expect to meet with fome convincing proofs, fomething more than bare affertions, than the mere play of a prolific imagination,' and, with at leaft confiftency in the author with his own principles. But inftead of all this, we find little more than ungentleman-like language and abufe, contending for one radix and calculating from another, &c.

With regard to Mr. Kennedy's arguments for the inaccuracy of the Aftronomical Tables, we are of a different opinion from him, and think they have quite the contrary effect, by proving the truth or accuracy of them.. For, in the example which he gives, by fhewing that the refult differs by very nearly, if not juft, two days from the fame as calculated from his fupposed true radix, he thereby proves, so far as his calculations are to be depended on, that the Tables afford accurate computations according to their own adapted astrónomical radix. 03 at ui dcfin

In his comparison of the refults of the two methods, in the above example, he is fo far confiftent with hinself in calculating from the radix he affumes and defends, although he draws a wrong inference; but in moft, or all his other calculations, he seems unluckily to have affumed a still different radix, and then added or rejected fuch arbitrary numbers as would make the refults just as he would have them come out. So of the two calculations, p. 5. and 23, which he has given of his true time of the equinox, in the 27th year of Nabonaffar, in the former of thefe, p. 5. he makes it Paophi 6 d. 15 h. 57m. p.m. and in the latter he determines the fame equinox to1 be March 27 d. 15 h. 57 m. plm. and confequently, according to Mr. Kennedy's calculations, the 6th of Paophi connects with the 27th of March, Julian ftyle. If then the 6th of Paophiocoincide with March 273. by tracing the days back, ir

muft

must needs be that Paophi 1, connects with March 22, and so Thoth 30, with March 21, Thoth 9 with March 1, (it being leap year, and the 6th of March twice counted); and lastly, the ift of Thoth, with the 21st of February. Thus then Mr. Kennedy's calculations make Thoth id. agree with February 2 id. anno ær. Nabonaffar 27. Let us now try if his affumption of Thoth id. connecting with Feb. 28 d. anno ær. Nabon. 1. will bring out the fame conclufion. As the third year of: Nabonaff. was leap year, the ft of Thoth for the ift, zd, and 3d years, will ftill connect with the fame 28th of Feb. (because, that the intercalary day in the 3d year is not added till after the ift of Thoth); and it is not till the 4th of Nabon. that, by falling 1 d. back, the 1ft of Thoth falls on the 27th of Feb. Again, in the 5th, 6th, and 7th of Nabon. the ift of Thoth will ftill be the 27th of Feb. but in the 8th year, by falling back another day, the ift of Thoth will agree with the 26th of Feb. In like manner, it appears, that in the 12th year of Nabonaff. Thoth 1. agrees with Feb. 25; in the 16th year Thoth agrees with Feb. 24; in the 20th year, Thoth I, with Feb. 23; in the 24th year, Thoth 1 with Feb. 22; and the fame in the 25th, 26th, and 27th years; wherefore by thus afluming the era of Narbonaff. to commence on Feb. 28 d. it is undeniable that the ift of Thoth will connect with the 22d of Feb. in the 27th year. But, by his calculation above, the fame Thoth connects with Feb. 21.

Wherefore in his calculation abovementioned, and most of his others, he has supposed the era of Nabonaff. to be on the 27th of February. And thus his calculations refute his own. principles !

XIII. Matilda: A Tragedy. As it is performed at the TheatreRoyal in Drury-Lane. 8vo. Is. 5d. Cadell.

THIS

"HIS play, which is generally fuppofed to be the production of Dr. Francklin, a gentleman well-known in the literary world as the tranflator of Sophocles, has given every fenfible auditor the highest entertainment in the representation; and after an impartial review of it we are inclined to think, that it will afford every judicious reader no lefs pleasure in the perufal. The plot is founded on hiftorical fact. A duke of Britany, in the year 1 387, commanded the lord of Bavalan to af, faffinate the conftable of Cliffon. Bavalan, the day after, told the duke, that his commiffion was executed. The duke becoming fenfible of the atrocioufnefs of his crime, and ap prehenfive of its fatal confequences, abandoned himself to the

moft

most violent despair. Bavalan, after giving him time to repent, at length informed him, that he had loved him well enough to disobey his orders, &c.

The celebrated Voltaire was so much pleased with this fubject, that he made it the foundation of two plays, Adelaide, and the Duke of Foix. But he feems to have executed his plan in a very imperfect manner. Thefe pieces are only mere outlines, without any interefting fituations, any ftriking fentiments, or any proper delineation of characters.

The author of Matilda has availed himself of these productions, whenever he had an opportunity; though, for reasons fufficiently obvious, he has domesticated the fable, and brought his heroes into England. We cannot help thinking, but that he might have fairly and publicly acknowledged his obligations to Voltaire, without any prejudice to his own reputation. He is indeed indebted to him but very little; and from an imperfect sketch, has produced an excellent picture, If he has not therefore all the merit of an original, he has, at leaft, fhewn the taste and judgment of a good copyist, who has not only faithfully reprefented, but greatly improved the model, upon which he has worked.

The following brief analysis may be fufficient to fhew our readers, in what manner the fable is conducted.

A&t I. Matilda, the heroine of the piece, supposed at this time to be a prisoner in the camp of Morcar, who is deeply enamoured with her, comes on, as from her tent, accompanied by Bertha, a faithful friend and companion, to whom the intrufts the fecret of her paffion for Edwin, Morcar's younger brother, who had efpoufed the cause of William the Conqueror, in oppofition to Morcar, who had taken up arms against him.

The brothers being of different parties are represented as ftrangers to each other's paffion for the fame object. In this fituation Matilda expreffes her fears of their meeting, and her apprehenfions of a fatal difcovery, which muft take place, when they come together. Bertha is fent away with letters; and while Matilda is alone, Siward, the intimate friend of Morcar, enters, and endeavours to perfuade her to give her hand to Morcar. Matilda, unwilling to acknowledge her paffion for another, and particularly Edwin, objects to Morcar's vehemence of temper, and his rebellion against William.. This ferves as a bafis for the conduct of Siward; who refolves to perfuade his friend to quit all thoughts of Matilda, or to give up his refentment, and join the conqueror. The conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Morcar. Matilda retires, and the friends are left together. In the following scene

a flight