We have tried to comprefs into meaning, probability, and practice, all that the two great mufical critics and antiquaries, Mefirs. Ledwich and Beauford, have told us in their differtations on the Irish harp. The former fays, I think the Irish received this inftrument in the 4th and 5th centuries.-Giraldus Cambrenfis fpeaks of St. Patrick's harp.-Nay, the harp is mentioned by Ifo, in the 9th century.-But whether the harp was an imitation of the ancient lyre, or at what time it affumed its prefent form or number of ftrings, is not eafy to determine'-even by this determined critic.

Mr. Beauford fays- I cannot but think that the Irish harp had perhaps its origin in remote antiquity; but whence the ancient inhabitants received it, is entirely problematic. There is indeed fome probability that it is indigenous.-The Erfe affert that their harp had originally four ftrings. The old Welfh harp had nine. The oldeft harp come down to us has 28 ftrings". Thefe in procefs of time were increased to 33.'

We come now to our Author's collection of Select Irish Melodies, and muft own, that the first five are fo rude and fimilar, that they afforded us little amusement. No. VI. is a plaintive and pleafing fragment; No. VII. VIII. and IX. bear so much refemblance to Scots airs, that they would have been affigned to Caledonia if found in any other collection. No. X. is a pleafing air, but of fo modern a caft, particularly at the clofes, that, inftead of appearing of Henry the VIII.'s time, it seems a tune of yesterday. No. XI. and XII. are of a wild and original caft; but the modulation, flat 7th of the key, and rejected intervals, are all peculiar to Scotland. The Plough tune, No. XIII. feems the most characteristic of the collection. What adventitious beauties thefe airs may receive from their union with poetry, from vocal expreffion, and the native energy of the true Hibernian afpiration, we know not; but divefted of these, the fpecimens which Mr. W. has exhibited, convey no very favourable idea of Irish mufic: and it is to be feared, if he has not been unfortunate in his felection, that the national melody of our neighbouring inland will not be adopted at the opera, fo foon as he thinks it ought. Indeed the well-known Irish tunes of Elleen na roon, Sheelan na guira, Gramma chree, and Ballin na mena, which our Author has omitted, feem to us more pleafing and characteristic than thofe which he has adopted.

On the whole, it feems as if the Irifh fhould abate in fome of their Milefian claims to the extreme high antiquity of their civilization, refinement, literature, fciences, and arts, with which

*Twenty-eight ftrings, if the loweft found were double C, would allow a B flat in each octave, as well as a B natural and a C in alt, to complete the 4th octave.

17

Colonel

Colonel Vallancey and others are flattering them as our late circum-navigators to the South Seas were obliged to lower their demands on our credulity, of nine feet for the fize of the Patagonians; for after thefe giants had been vifited and measured by other voyagers, they would have been very thankful to any one who would have allowed them fix feet and a half.

ART. II. The Highlanders; a Poem. By the Rev. L. Booker. 4to. 2s. 6d. Rivingtons. 1787.

TH

HE Author of this performance is the ftrenuous advocate of a diftreffed people; and he appears much more defirous of being diftinguished as fuch, than he is of any reputation which may accrue to him as a poet *. To plead the cause of the Highlanders is indeed to plead the cause of humanity. Their Situation alone must render them wretched, expofed as they are to the severities of a bleak and intemperate fky: ftrangers to the comforts and conveniencies of life, and who, as the poet expreffes it, when speaking of another people, are compelled to

"Force the churlish foil for fcanty bread."

These are furely miferies; and when to thefe is added the oppreffion under which they labour, and which, as we gather from Mr. Knox's "View of the British Empire," is occafioned by the ill-judged policy of the proprietors of thofe fterile regions, who not unfrequently raise their farms at the rate of 30 per cent. while the price of cattle (to the growing of which the farmer chiefly turns his attention) hath fcarcely advanced one,-when this is confidered, we fay, there can be little wonder that thefe our fellow Britons,' as Mr. Booker humanely ftyles themthough, alas! they have nothing to boast of but the name, fhould be ever ready to feek, on lefs inhofpitable fhores, a fhelter from the "pitilefs ftorm:" that they should gladly fly from the evils by which they are furrounded +.

The Poet defcribes the fuperlative wretchednefs of Caledonia's children, in the following animated lines

• Where Caledonia's western mountains rear
Their lofty fummits, crown'd with lasting snow,
There lives-fay rather, languishes, a race,
Whole bofoms (unde bas'd by vice's train)

* Mr. Booker clofes his Preface as follows- If this humble effort tend, but in the smallest degree, to awaken a fympathetic concern for the diftrelles of the virtuous people whofe name it bears, in the bofoms of those who are able to remove them, every end and expectation will be answered to THE AUTHOR.'

The rage for emigration was great among the Highlanders, during the late American war.

Boaft

Boaft each affection that ennobles man.
Yet are they doom'd to till a cheerless foil,
Which fparely feels the fun's enliv'ning ray,
Too oft to fee their labour's meed destroy'd
By dearth-producing ftorms. To thefe dire ills,
To rigorous clime, and inaufpicious skies,
Oppreffion, baleful, with an hell-born foul,

Adds wretchedness more dire. Her schedule bafe,
(Where Mammon and Injustice are colleagu'd)
With fupercilious air fhe wide unfurls,
And thence confirms her arbitrary claim.
Unheard plead Poverty, and honest Truth:
Expoftulating Reason's voice is loft,

And delug'd fields upbraid and preach in vain."

After inveighing with bitterness against the 'inhuman' practice of impreffing (a practice, by the way, which as it is occa. fioned by war, fo it appears to us to follow the caufe as regularly as any effect which philofophy itself can produce), he proceeds to paint the wife, of mate bereft,

Seeking a cafual dole from door to door :
One infant in her arms (on which the eye
Paternal never beam'd) clings to her breast
But ill attir'd from cold and lawless gaze:
Another, lodg'd unfeemly at her back,
Mingles its plaintive forrows with the wind:
While two, copartners of a pristine birth,

(Preffing with blood-ftain'd feet the pointed stones-
Their lips all trembling and empurpled deep)
Look up to meet a mother's ftreaming eyes,
And vainly ftrive to foothe her troubled foul.

With day's extreme her toilfome wand'rings close.

When flow retiring with her orphan train
To fome deferted cot, or dreary cave,

She folds them fhiv'ring in her widow'd arms,
Then finks, enfeebled, on the earth's cold lap:
Where long the fits a fpectacle of woe,
Dealing the morfels charity beftow'd,
Unconscious where to find to-morrow's fare.
Thus hies the bird (whofe mate, by base decoy,
Is fever'd from her love) at dufky eve,

To feed her callow brood, and waste in grief

The live-long night, nor with return of morn.'

Mr. Booker's good intentions will be feen by the foregoing extracts. He has evidently a kind and benevolent heart ;-and it may well be faid of benevolence, what has been to finely advanced of mercy, that particular and fhining attribute of Kings"It is twice bleft: it bleffeth him that gives, and him that takes."

Toward the clofe of the performance, Government is earneftly folicited to give affiftance to this unfortunate people. There

is, no doubt, an inclination to do fo; but the difficulty lies perhaps in determining on what kind of relief they ought to have:though it should be obferved, that the ingenious Author hints at the aid which might be extended to them, in the following pathetic exhortation to England's fons, with which he concludes his poem:

Compaffion is your country's attribute,

A kind celestial principle that beams

In all her children's eyes. And fhall thofe eyes,
Whence flows a tear for every stranger's tale,
(If fraught with genuine woe) with heedlefs gaze
Behold a Sifter-kingdom's wretchedness?

But, if Compaffion, o'er ideal griefs,

Be doom'd to weep at theatres alone,
Let Intereft roufe you to redrefs their wrongs;
Or foon that land* which British armies trove,
In vain, to teach allegiance, will poffefs
Thofe Highland warriors, whofe immortal fires
Wak'd Offian's Mufe of fire.-O perfevere
To fmooth the rigours of their hapless state!
Relieve them from Oppreffion's galling yoke:
On all their coafts bid Commerce fhed its fmiles:
Through all their islands Culture's aid extend,
To cheer their toils, and foften Nature's frown.
-Then, as the Stork fupports his aged Sire,
Their grateful arms fhall, in th' embattled field,
Untarnish'd fuccour old Britannia's caufe!
Shall spread her glory thro' remoteft worlds,
And share her triumphs to the end of time.'
* America.

ART. III. A Tour through the Highlands of Scotland, and the Hebride Ifles, in MDCCLXXXVI. By John Knox. 8vo. 7s. Boards. Walter, &c. 1787.

HE great lofs of tranfmarine territory, which this country

TH fuftained, a few years ago, was confidered, by the poli

ticians of the day, as pregnant with the ruin of "Poor old England." Under this gloomy impreffion (now pretty much erafed) it was, perhaps, that we firft began, in good earneft, though reluctantly, to think of domeftic improvement. But, from whatever caufe the inducement originally fprung, the general idea foon produced particular inquiry; in confequence of which, it has been discovered, that there was ample room for new fettlements in parts of our own island, to which we have been greater ftrangers than we were to the banks of the Ohio: and we are now aftonished to find that we have Banks at home, as prolific in fish as thofe of Newfoundland! REV. Dec. 1787.

Hh

We

We have lately, and repeatedly, been reminded of thefe im portant truths*; and are pleafed to find from Mr. Knox's Tour, undertaken at the inftance of the British Society for extending the Fisheries, that an attention is excited in the natives, who are making unaffifted efforts to profit by the fifh on their own coafts: and if Government would but ftimulate their endeavours by judicious fupport [and never was fupport more wanted], the diftrefs of the natives, and the face of the country, though the foil and climate are fo unfavourable, would foon alter for the better:induftry has often furmounted all disadvantages!

This is the second time that this fubject has engaged Mr. Knox's attention; and not only that part of the country, of which he is a native, but the whole island, is under obligations to him, for his affiduity in exploring the riches of the northern coafts, and in pointing out what he deems the proper line of conduct to convert them to the public advantage. But we cannot help remarking, that he is an unfteady eccentric writer; and that, perhaps with a view to render his performances entertaining, he often diverts the attention of his readers from the fubject he evidently withes to imprefs upon their minds. This work, as well as that by Dr. Johnfon, is indeed given as a TOUR; but this Tour was undertaken for a particular purpose, viz. to fearch out proper establishments for fifheries, fo as to improve the country by its natural advantages. Why then is he who feeks this knowledge to have his attention arrefted, and bewildered, by long, loofely written, defultory differtations on the ancient hiftory, poetry, buildings, &c. of the country, before he is allowed to come to the direct object of his inquiries? Why, again, is the volume to be extended by an Appendix, made up of miscellaneous deferiptions of Staffa, St. Kilda, and Icolmkill, with other fmall islands, and a natural history of fish, herrings in particular, from other writers, which have more of amusement than of any direct relation to his fubject in them? The account of the eftablishment of the village of Lawrencekirk †, written by the founder, Lord Gardenftone, is indeed directly in point, as thewing how a thriving town actually was raifed; but the recipe to make a perpetual yeaft, which precedes it, is directly in the magazine ftyle, and feems abruptly thruft into a work, not (furely) to much calculated for Highland reading, as for perufal in the fouth. Yet all this may have been well intended; as an Author may, very naturally, and innocently, with to put fomething into his book, fuitable to the different taftes of various readers.

By Mr. Knox, fee Rev. vol. lxxi. p. 26; by Mr. Thomas Gordon of Lifmore, fee Rev. vol. lxxii. p. 460; and by Dr. Anderfon, fee Rev. vol. lxxv. p. 258.

See Rev. vol. lxiii. p. 145.

Mr.