On the fubject of geography, we cannot omit recommending to the perufal of our Readers, Mr. Gibbon's admirable defcription of Arabia (vol. v. p. 170, & feqq.), in which, however, we difapprove the expreffions, The fides of the triangle are gradually enlarged; and, The entire furface of the peninsula exceeds in a four-fold proportion that of Germany or France.' For the first we would fubftitute thefe words; Toward the bafe, the furface of the triangle widens.' In the fecond paffage, the phraseology is uncouth, and the thought ambiguous; for the furface of Germany is confiderably larger than that of France, exceeding it precisely by one fixth; fo that if Germany be divided into fix equal parts, five of thefe parts will be exactly equal to the furface of France.

We now proceed, Thirdly, to confider the style of our Hiftorian; a fubject on which much has been faid, and much has been written, and concerning which each individual will decide according to the company that he keeps, and the books that he reads; and of which, therefore, fimilar judgments cannot be expected, fince the principles of judging are not the fame. To those who have confined their ftudies chiefly to their vernacular idiom, or who feldom carry their literary researches beyond the limits of the English tongue, Mr. Gibbon's compofition and imagery, though in general they will excite and captivate attention, muft often appear uncouth and affected, and fometimes prove obfcure and unintelligible. To thofe, on the other hand, whofe minds have been early invigorated by the converfe of Greece and Rome, and whofe congenial feelings have led them to maintain an habitual intercourfe with their first and beft inftructors, the elegant artifice of elaborate compofition, which perplexes fuperficial vanity, and bewilders vulgar ignorance, will appear with brighter and more alluring charms, when arrayed in an English garb. To fuch advantages fhould the critics add a familiar acquaintance with the more refined languages of modern Europe, and have culled the flowers of France, and imbibed the perfumes of Italy, they will be ftill more delighted with an author who pours from his horn of plenty the treasures of diftant ages, and remote countries; whofe images are borrowed fometimes from the Gothic tournaments, and fometimes from the games of Greece; and whofe fancy has been ennobled by the fublimity of Homer, and enriched by the luxuriance of Ariofto.

It forms no inconfiderable prejudice in favour of Mr. Gibbon's ftyle, that it has fo long excited, and fo long detained, criticism. Had it poffeffed no other characteristic but that of fingularity, it must naturally, as foon as the firft glofs of novelty was worn off, have been regarded with inattention, and its merits or defects must have gradually funk into oblivion. But

on

on each fucceffive publication, the ftyle has been the perpetual, and ftill louder theme, and as highly extolled by his partizans, ag decried by his detractors. For the fake, therefore, of those among our Readers who are lefs converfant in matters of philology, we fhall confider it more particularly under the twofold objection: 1. Artificial and pompous; 2. Obscure and incorrect.

That it is artificial, no one will deny, who knows that grammar is an art, that rhetoric is an art, and that compofition, particularly the hiftorical, is a very complicated art, requiring the knowlege of thefe, and many other requifites. But that Mr. Gibbon's ftyle is artificial in a degree beyond what the genius of the English language admits, is a pofition that we cannot allow. Though richer in its imagery, it is lefs intricate in its structure, than the compofition of Sir Walter Raleigh, and other writers of the age of Queen Elizabeth, which have been confidered, with fome propriety, as the ftandards of genuine English turn of fentiment and expreffion, with respect to compofitions of this kind. After that period (with fome exception in favour of Clarendon, the follower of Raleigh), an inundation of barbarisms overflowed the land; the jargon of foreign harlots, of fcribbling ladies, and of lords equally effeminate, formed the model for fervile imitation; and the dignity and purity of our tongue were alike profaned by the wits and flatterers of a corrupt court. The genius of Dryden, which raifed his head above the ftream, was unable to ftem its force: the impetuous torrent carried him along; and while one part of his works do honour to the man, the far greater portion atteft the depraved tafte of the age.

The reign of Queen Anne was a continual conflict of parties. Ingenious men proftituted their talents to the fervice of faction, and employed their pens in tranfient and temporary composition, which would have been fpeedily condemned to obfcurity, had they not furnished the arguments, and formed the language, of ftill fubfifting parties; arguments and language which have been re-echoed ever fince that reign, without addition and without improvement. Such a bury and turbulent period, when letters, as an engine of policy, opened the road to preferment, was extremely unfavourable to the writers of hiftory, which, as Cicero (De Orator. 1. ii.) obferves, requires long, prepared, and uninterrupted leifure. The literary induftry of the times, when free from the purposes of party, evaporated in agreeable verfes and fprightly mifcellanies. Its higheft effort was the periodical effay, which being dignified by men of uncommon genius and diftinguifhed virtue, has been long regarded as the best fpecimen of English purity. Yet the language, even of Addion, is too feeble and familiar, and defcends too often into colJoquial idioms, to be admitted as a model for any fpecies of hiftory, much less for that which, defcribing the revolutions of

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the greatest empire of the world, afpires to emulate the majefty of the fubject in the loftinefs of its compofition. This was the noble ambition of the hiftorians of Greece and Rome, from the elegant Herodotus and the elaborate Thucydides, to the flowery Livy, and the ardent though fententious Tacitus. The generous flame, kindled in the free nations of antiquity, was caught by the republics of modern Italy; it has blazed forth in England during the prefent age; and, while the eye of philofophy was dim, and the wing of poetry flagged, the pen of hiftory has maintained and increased the literary fame of our country.

That Mr. Gibbon's ftyle is often obfcure, and frequently incorrect, we allow; but it is in the fame fenfe, and for fimilar reasons, that the ftyle of Tacitus or Plato fometimes labours under these defects. A writer, ambitious always to please, muft fometimes offend; and the ungrateful reader forgets ten obligations, and remembers one difappointment. By an attentive obferver, Mr. G.'s obfcurity and incorrectnefs will be traced to two fources; I. His love of variety, which engages him, in order to avoid the frequent repetition of the fame names of perfons and of things, to employ too lavishly the figure called circumlocution. In the perplexity of doubt, the reader, we acknowlege, is fometimes tempted to exclaim with Swift, "I much prefer the plain Billingfgate way of calling names, which would fave much time that is loft, and prevent much obfcurity that is occafioned by round-about circumlocution." II. His ftudied attention to unvaried elegance, which has induced him frequently to employ turns of expreffion, which, however forcible, beautiful, and harmonious they may appear, are not fufficiently juftified by the practice of English claffics, nor fufficiently conformable to the genius, or rather the caprice, of the English language. For the fake fometimes of analogy, but more frequently of elevation or harmony, he rejects the common expreffion, which naturally prefented itself, and fubftitutes one more excellent perhaps, but lefs intelligible, because lefs familiar. Of thefe obfcurities and defects, which are numerous in fo vaft a work, we forbear the invidious task of culling examples, which would be exaggerating deformity, and accumulating in a narrow fpan the widely-fcattered blemishes of fix ponderous quartos. For any useful purpose, it is fufficient to point out the fources whence thefe imperfections flow ;-imperfections that, after all, but faintly disfigure a work, at which (though philofophers have approved it, and Europe admired it) collegians have fneered, and critics have fnarled, but which the ferious Chriftian alone is juftly entitled to treat with indignation.

ART.

ART. VII. A Voyage to the River Sierra Leone, on the Coaft of Africa; containing an Account of the Trade and Productions of the Country, and of the Civil and Religious Cuftoms and Manners of the People. By John Matthews, Lieutenant in the Royal Navy; during his Refidence in that Country, in the Years 1785, : 1786, and 1787. With an additional Letter on the Subject of the African Slave Trade. Alfo a Chart of Part of the Coaft of Africa, from Cape St. Ann, to the River Rionoonas; with a View of the Ifland Bananas. 8vo. 4s. Boards. White and Son, &c. 1788.

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FRICA is a part of the world with which the other parts have little acquaintance; and travellers, before the prefent century, had more prejudices and lefs knowlege, than the generality of thofe who now gratify the public with their obfervations on remote places and things. For this reason, and more efpecially as the public attention has been directed that way by fome friends of humanity, who wish to relieve the Country from the mifery of furnishing flaves for our West Indian iflands, the information contained in this volume comes to us with double recommendation.

On the event of the peace, lieutenant Matthews engaged in the African trade; and though this publication has no pretenfion to the title of a Voyage, it contains a very intelligent defcription of fuch objects as came under the Author's notice on the coaft of Africa. He gives feveral entertaining articles of natural history, and fome that might be converted to profitable ufes; among other things, he controverts the abbe Raynal's account of the poisonous quality of manioc, or caffada, and his alleged caufe of the black colour of the natives of Africa: but the fubject which most interested our curiofity, was the Author's fentiments on the prefent popular endeavours for the abolition of negroe flavery; in reference to which he observes,

It does not appear that the intercourfe which has fo long fub. fifted between the Africans and Europeans has made any material change in their cuftoms or manners, except giving them a relish for fociety, and the enjoyment of what they confider as the luxuries of life, European manufactures. I have endeavoured to difcover the caufes of their wars, and whether the accufation fo often made,that the natives of Africa were excited to make war upon each other by the Europeans who traded with them-was, or was not, founded in fact. And this, I am free to declare, never was the cafe in any inftance which fell under my obfervation: and from every account I could collect it never had been the cafe.

When I first arrived at the Iles de Lofs, I found an almost general war raged throughout the extent to which we traded. The Suzeés, aided by the Mandingo flaves who had revolted from their mafters, were at war with the Bagoes and Mandingoes; and the people of Sherbro' were at war with each other. The origin of the war between the Suzeés and Bagoes, and their allies, arose from a

Bagoe

Bagoe man killing a native of a Suzeé town, where he at that time refided: he fled from their refentment among his countrymen, who refused to deliver him up to the friends of the perfón he had killed, agreeable to the laws of the country. The war in Sherbro' arofe from a quarrel between two chiefs, and involved the whole country in their difpute. After fixing my establishment at SierraLeone, I made a trip into Sherbro', in a mediatorial capacity, to endeavour to terminate their difputes. I vifited both the principals in perfon, and fent to the allies of both parties. Reciprocal prefents paffed between us; but fuch was the mutual jealousy and diftruft of each party, that I never could prevail on them to meet each other on board my veffel, though they feparately vifited me. 1 had however the fatisfaction to lay the foundation of a truce, which has continued ever ûnce.'

Still the queftion remains, how are the negroe flaves procured? What our author produces on this head is as follows:

The modes of dealing and procuring flaves are in moft places extremely different; but, as I cannot pretend to defcribe them all, I fhall confine myself to a defcription of the method of trade of thefe parts only.

When the adventurer arrives upon the coaft with a fuitable cargo-which for this place confifts of European and Indian cotton and linen goods, filk handkerchiefs, taffaties, coarse blue and red woollen cloths, fcarlet cloth in grain, coarse and fine hats, worsted caps, guns, powder, fhot, fabres, lead bars, iron bars, pewter bafons, copper kettles and pans, iron pots, hardware of various kinds, earthen and glafs ware, hair and gilt leather trunks, beads of various kinds, filver and gold rings and ornaments, paper, coarse and fine check, and linen ruffled fhirts and caps, British and foreign. fpirits and tobacco-he difpatches his boats, properly equipped, to the different rivers. On their arrival at the place of trade they immediately apply to the head man of the town, inform him of their bufinefs, and request his protection; defiring he will either be himfelf their landlord, or appoint a refpectable perfon, who becomes fecurity for the perfon and goods of the ftranger, an alfo for the recovery of all money lent, provided it is done with his knowledge and approbation. This bufinefs finished, and proper prefents made (for nothing is done without), they proceed to trade either by lending their goods to the natives, who carry them up into the country, or by waiting till trade is brought to them.-The former is the moft expeditious way, when they fall into good hands; but the latter is always the safest.

When the country people come down themfelves to trade with the whites, they are obliged to apply to the inhabitants of the villages where the factories are kept, to ferve as brokers and interpreters.

When a flave is brought to be fold he is first carefully examined, to fee that there is no blemish or defect in him; if approved, you then agree upon the price at fo many bars, and give the dealer fo many flints or ftones to count with; the goods are then delivered to him piece by piece, for which he returns fo many ftones for each, agreeable to its denominated value; and they always take care to begin with thofe articles which they judge moft effentially neceflary.

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• Exclufive