a copy. Without informing the world how he procured the copy, and without the confent or knowledge of the refpe&table Author, be at once fends forth a French edition, and an English translation.The work, it must be confeffed, breaths the fame spirit of freedom, has the fame philofophical caft of thinking, and is written with the fame glow of language, for which the Abbé's Hiftory is fo juftly admired. But though it is in his manner, it is not in his best manner: there are fewer facts, and lefs variety and depth of reflection, than we should have expected from fuch a Writer, on fo fruitful a fubject. Befides, the tranflation is fo inelegant, and obfcure, and throughout fo entirely Gallic, that it would be trefpaffing upon our reader's patience to detain them with any fpecimens of it. We fhall therefore content ourselves with this general notice of the publication, at leaft till the Abbé Raynal shall think fit to give it the protection of his celebrated name. Art. 15. Obfervations on the Dutch Manifefto. Addreffed t the Earl of Shelburne. 8vo. 1 s. Kearfly. 1781. When nations quarrel, each party afferts the juftice of its cause, and to prove it logically, before they proceed to the ultima ratio, a manifefto is published, wherein the juftice on this fide, and the injustice of that, is fpeciously, if not truly fet forth: what the one advances, the other contradicts,—and the appeal is to the fword; by the length and fharpness of which, the conteft is ufually decided.As to the prefent inftance, "Your declaration, Mafter Ball," fays Mynheer, afferts nothing but falfhoods, to mafk your infolence and ambition:"-" And your manifefto, Matter Frog," replies Jack English," is a heap of d-d nonfenfe, evafion, and abfurdity, all meant to cover your falfe friendship, and underhand dealings.". Now, what critic fhall decide in fuch a cafe, and venture to pronounce on the merits of the argument? Not an Englishman, furely, nor a Dutchman.-Let the King of Pruffia, if he pleases, or the Emperor, review this pamphlet. AMERICAN CONTROVERSY. Art. 16. The Hiftory of the Civil War in America: Vol. I. Comprehending the Campaigns of 1775, 1776, and 1777. By an Officer of the Army. 8vo. 5s. Boards. Sewell. 1780. A judicious and impartial Hiftory of the unfortunate American War, written by an able pen, might prove an acceptable and a ufeful present to the Public; but an unbiaffed hiftorian is at all times rara avis in terris: at this early period, and on this interefting fubject, ftri& impartiality is hardly to be expected. Diftant times may perhaps produce fome faithful and exact accounts: the prefent race of men will probably expire before fuch accounts make their appearance. The publication before us is only part of a work which is to be finished in future volumes, and therefore it is the lefs neceffary for us (while the undertaking is imperfect) to give it a very particular review. To speak of it in general terms, it appears to us, rather a vindication of the measures of the Mother-country, and confequently an utter condemnation of the Americans, than a fair and equal representation. Errors there have been, no doubt, on both fides, in the conduct of Said to be Capt. Hall, of General Howe's regiment. E this melancholy bufinefs; but we can fee no reason to fuppose them confined merely to one of the contending parties.-This Writer, in common with many others, confiders the repeal of the Stamp-act as the great fpring of our prefent calamities: at the fame time he ac-knowledges that act to have been oppreffive; a confideration which furely called for its repeal; but there may be truth and juftice in his obfervation, that had the heavy tax on law-fuits only been taken off, the Americans would have remained fatisfied as to the reft: this is his fuppofition, and appears to be the principal, if not the only conceffion which he offers in their favour; for, as he proceeds, he treats their complaints as founded only on pretended grievances, and their conduct as arifing from a factious, ambitious, and lawless fpirit. On the whole, we apprehend thofe readers who form their judgment merely from this Volume, will run the hazard of being misled, for want of a free and fair inveftigation of the principal arguments that have been urged on both fides of the question. POETICAL. H. Thefe Poems were written, as the Preface informs us, at fixteen. These are a feafon or two forwarder than the bloffoms spoken of S. An infipid rhapfody of panegyric or irony ;-we prefume not to fay which. Art. 20. The Contest: An English Pastoral, in two Parts. Let Mr. Pafmore criticife his own Verfes himself; I brought them to my Phillimus with speed, Art. 21. Satirical Ballads, &c. on the Times. Printed for No one will think this two-penny worth of wit a dear purchase, who confiders the motive of publication. Three guineas, we are told, have been paid in to the trustees fome time ago. We most heartily with it a very rapid fale. Many volumes of five times the bulk, have not a fifth part of its merit. Art. 22. The Celeftial Beds; or a Review of the Votaries of the Temple of Health, Adelphi, and the Temple of Hymen, Pall-mall. 4to. 2 s. Kearsley. 1781. This Bagatelle is not without humour. The Author rallies Dr. G. and laughs at his fuppofed patients, with a pleasantry neither offenfive to decency nor good manners, -a merit, confidering the temptation his subject held out to him, that deferved to be taken notice of. Hh z Art. ct ct ct ct cţ cţ Art. 23. Poems, by a Lady. 4to. 12 s. fewed. Payne. 1781. Trifles by no means worthy of publication. ct To all the late candidates for Seaton's reward we may apply the following lines from Mr. Gay: Forbear, contending louts, give o'er your ftrains; Your herds for want of water stand adry, They're weary of your fongs,-and fo am I.' NOVEL S. Art. 25. The Adventures of an Hackney Coach. 12mo. 2s. 6d. The Author fays, that he has found an old pen belonging to Sterne.' We wish he had found the fpirit which animated it. But that is exhausted, and nought remains here but the dull lifeless refiduum! This affected and frivolous performance confits of the characters of fome perfons who are fuppofed by the Author to have hired a hackney coach; and it may be confidered as a fort of a fupplement to a very indifferent novel, intitled the "Sedan." There is little real information to be collected from it concerning the private lives of thofe eminent characters that pafs under the Author's infpection. Party holds the pen, and prejudice guides his hand. His language is generally inelegant, and frequently obfcene. But though we might pardon the unknown author, yet we can scarcely forgive the pretended memorialist who puts the following affected, turgid phrafes into the mouth of the elegant, unornamented Goldfmith;-the beautiful fimplicity of whofe style is ftrongly contrafted by that unmeaning garish language which diftinguithes his fuccefslefs imitator. What a motley fcene, fays the genius (2. e. Dr. G.) is even here about this time of the day! Pomp, felf importance, and lounging nobility ambling in the troop of pleasure. Poverty looking up to them for relief; yet fearful of the barth menace of denial. There fhines the proud en fign of nobility, a star. Here fickens in the eye of fuffering virtue a tear. Yon tattered wretch, perhaps, owes her remnant of poverty, &c. &c.' It is enough reader! This cannot be Goldfmith, any more than the Author himself can be Sterne, or any relation of the Shandy family. He is certainly fome sturdy North Briton, more calculated to hold the whip of the backney coachman than to use the old pen of the inimitabie Yorick; but who, having arrived at the post of a driver, afpires with Jee Vol.65abundant vanity, at the high diftinction of being himself driven. 389. Art. 26. The History of the Honourable Mrs. Rofemont and Sir Henry Cardigan, in a Series of Letters. 2 vols. 8vo. 5 s. fewed. Hookham. 1781. This is a sprightly entertaining Novel. Its plot is fomewhat romantic and improbable, and its events are linked by circumstances too artificial and arbitrary to deceive the reader: yet it is on the whole conducted with fpirit and addrefs:-the ftory is well told; and the different characters are properly difcriminated. The fentimental delicacy B. delicacy of Mrs. Rofemont, is well contrafted with the gaiety and wie of the fprightly Lady Lucy. The ftruggles of love between the tender remembrance of a darling object who hirft excited it, and a new paffion conceived for another, are very happily described in the character of Sir Henry Cardigan. An infamous wretch of the name of Saunders, piqued by Mrs. Rofemont's neglect, plots revenge both against her and her more favoured admirer. It fo far fucceeds as to create confufion and embarrassment. Hence a little buttle on the ftage; till the scene shifts and opens a world of wonders! Mrs. Rofemont who is at the point of marrying Sir Henry, under the prefumption of her husband's having been killed in a duel, is furprized at his return. He recounts his ftrange adventures. Her former paffion is renewed; and the feems to wonder at herself for having entertained a thought of a fecond lover. More bustle and embarraffment enfues! But the wonder of wonders is in the conclufion, where we find the villain Saunders fairly caught in Cupid's net, and at last con verted into fober matrimony by a pretty Nun; who, having been feduced by a French Count, was doomed to take the veil to atone for her indifcretion, and blot out the difhonour of her crime, by penitence and tears. Saunders was fo ftruck with the beauty of the lovely Magdalene, as she went through the ceremony in the public church, that he conceived a paffion for her; and as his head was particularly turned for plots (as the reader of this Novel will fee), he contrived a scheme to carry her off from the convent. This he effected, and having brought the fair penitent to England, he marries her,All the parties in the drama are united, fome by marriage, others by friendship, and Saunders with all of them by conceffions on his part, and forgiveness on theirs. The fentiments of this Novel are chafte and delicate: the language free and easy. It appears to have been the compofition of a Lady well versed in the nicer points and mysteries of love. We fay a Lady, and for two reasons do we attribute it to a female pen:-from the freedom and vivacity with which it is written, and from feveral glaring deficiences even in common grammatical construction. This fault we have often obferved in the compofitions of ladies, who, notwithstanding, have acquired all the higher graces of language: and have almoft inftinctively caught at elegance without giving themfelves the trouble of purfuing the ftrict forms of grammar. B.K Art. 27. Letters moral and entertaining. By Mrs. Cartwright. 8vo. 38. fewed. Macgowan. Thefe Letters are more moral than entertaining; though perhaps they have enough of the latter quality, to recommend them to that clafs of readers for whom they were meant. The flories interfperfed fhew little fancy or ingenuity. The ladies are betrayed by the ufual methods of feduction and impofition; and the gentlemen are very amiable, or very vicious, without ftriking out a new fault, or aiming at a new virtue; and without giving old faults or old virtues the femblance of novelty. Thete Letters, are writ ten in a blamelefs uniformity of flyle, and without rising into any diftinguished excellence, or finking into any grofs abfurdity; they may be truly faid to " keep the noifelefs tenor of their. way," Hh3 Art. 'B.k MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 28. Eays, Letters, and Poems. By Edmund Rack, Secretary to the Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture, Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, and to the Philofophical So ciety, lately inftituted at Bath; and Author of Mentor's Letters to Youth. 8vo. 6 s. fewed. Dilly, &c. 1781. Some of the principal pieces in this Mifcellany have already appeared with credit to their Author, in various periodical publications. A vein of good fenfe is in general difcernible in them, accompanied by a liberality of fentiment that is not always to be met with in more fhining performances. The humorous attempts do not fland foremos in point of merit, C Art. 29. Effays on various Subjects of Tafte and Criticifm. 8vo. 28. Dilly. 1780. The fubjects which are difcuffed in the two firft of these Essays are, the nature, origin, and progress of poetical compofition; and patoral poetry. The third, and laft Effay is a critique on the first book of Milton's Paradife loft. When due allowance is made for the firt attempts of a juvenile writer," and for the difficulty of striking out any thing new or original on fubjects fo nearly exhausted: candor will not find much to cenfure in thefe critical exerciles, which carry with them evident marks of good tenfe, accompanied by juft princi ples of taste. Art. 30. The Swindler detected: or Cautions to the Public: Containing a minute Account of the various Frauds and Impofitions practifed on the honeft induftrious Tradesmen of this Metropolis. The Stories related in this Tract are collected from abfoJute Facts that have tranfpired within the last eighteen Months. Addressed to a certain Alderman. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Kearfley, &c. 1781. 1 hele Cautions and Inftances may have but too much foundation in fact, in a metropolis where fuch numbers live without any general obferver knowing bow: and where, by the competition for trade in every branch of business, credit is given with fo much readiness. N Art. 31. ΑΡΙΣΤΟΤΕΛΟΥΣ περὶ Παλλικής. Ariftotelis de Poetica Liber ex Verfione Theodori Goultoni. Lectionis varietatem e Codd. IV. Bibliothecæ Mediceæ, Verborum Indicem et Obfervationes fuas adjunxit T. Winftanley, A. M. Coll. Hert. Soc. 8vo. 6 s. bound. Oxford printed, and fold by Elmsley in London. 1780. Ine Obfervations, with which this accurate and ingenions Editor has enriched his edition of this invaluable treatife of Ariftode's, bear ample testimony to his skill and fagacity as a critic. If they leave us any thing to regret, it is, that the Writer's attention was not equally employed in elucidating the fenfe, as in restoring purity to the text, of this profound and difficult Author. A commentary on the poetics of Ariftotle, would open a noble field for abftract and philofophical criticism. • For Mentor's Letters, fee Rev, vol. lvii. p. 408. C. Art |