given to foreigners, their customs, languages, and manners. The objection to charity fchools lies, in our author's opinion, against the admiffion of children not fufficiently neceffitous; and in giving them an education above their condition. Sunday fchools are objected to in toto; but this is done upon grounds which fuppofe the abfence of all vigilance in those by whom they are administered. The charge againft workhouses relates to practices which cannot prevail to any confiderable extent, and which demand a fpecies of proof in order to be generally credited. The abufes of prifons afford our author a wider field of reprehenfion and cenfure. He felects among thefe the King's Bench, as the principal fubject of his animadverfion, Under this head Mr. Donaldfon notices abuses vouched for, upon the teftimony of his perfonal enquiries, which certainly merit the attention of those upon whom the duty of fupervifion officially refts, Having pointed out these manifeft abufes, and arrived at a calculation of the number of prifoners for debt throughout England; he proceeds to fuggeft fome plans of reformation; which, if applicable to the prifon in question, will be capable of equal application to prifons in general. We cannot, however, compliment our author upon any diftinct light which he has thrown upon this part of his fubject. His obfervations are fo mifcellaneous, and interfect each other on fo many occafions, that it is not without difficulty we keep pace with him in the progress of his plans, Difmifling, therefore, as we are constrained to do, every defign of exhibiting his obfervations in methodical feries, we fhall annex, for the information of the public, the most material points to which this author is anxious of applying his projected reformation. Foremost in this line ftand the laws refpecting debtor and creditor; thefe might, in our author's judgment, be materially amended; and the method he propofes, is," to place the debtor and creditor in fuch a fituation that it will not be for the intereft of either to take an undue advantage of the other." To this end he offers certain regulations; and carries his view to the controul and reformation of the prifoners during the period of their confinement. Whatever may be our opinion upon this part of our author's plan, he holds it capable of producing fo great effects, that he ventures to affirm, page 69," if the prifons were once cleared, they will not foon fill again, if my proposals are adopted." Having fuggefted fome further remarks on the propriety of expunging fictions from legal proceedings, and rendering law more acceffible to the poorer claffes of fociety, Mr. D. attempts to show in what manner his plan of reform may be rendered rendered practicable, and we shall here introduce him to speak for himself. "Permit me to fuppofe that this plan is to be fairly tried, and I was defired to show how it should be begun. In this event I would humbly propofe, that the chief office for London fhould be the Foundling Hofpital, as it is a large place, and well fituated for the purpose: that the Citadel of Leith, or fome other proper place in the vicinity of Edinburgh, fhould be the other chief office. And as Scotland has been long acknowledged to be the beft place in the world for education, the poor ought to have the advantage of it as well as the rich; and as piety, induftry, and economy, are feldom found in hofpitals, I humbly propofe that the children in the Foundling Hofpital, who, I am told, are about one hundred and fifty, fhould be fent to Scotland under the direction of the Board at Edinburgh, and by them diftributed in the fea-ports and villages in the county of Fife, and boarded with fuch farmers and fishermen as are pious and induftrious, and will take proper care of them; and in order that this may be effectually done, the minister and schoolmafter of the parish to have a fee for each child they fuperintend. In this way they will be brought up to be useful to themselves and to their country; they will always continue under the protection of this new Board, who will have it in their power to reward the good and punish the bad without ufing much feverity. "If all charity children are thus removed at a distance from their parents or others who have abandoned them, and placed amongst ftrangers who will pay every attention to learn them to read and work, they will be out of the reach of their companions and others who might feduce them to follow bad practices: and I expect it will awaken the parental affection of many, and be the means of their taking more care of their education, and greatly leffen the prefent number of charity children; for I am confident that no perfon whatever is fo proper to bring up children as thofe parents who give them a good advice and example; but where thofe are wanting, the method now propofed is the best remedy, as, by being in fober, regular, and induftrious families, where they will be treated with tenderness, and, if I may be allowed the expreffion, domefticated, they will thus be come excellent fervants, and confequently many applications will be made to the Board for them, where their mafters and miftreffes may depend on the certainty of their character; and befides, each of them must give their bond to the Board in the fum of as a fecurity for their future good behaviour, and in cafe of forfeiture they will be removed to a place of reformation, "In the event that there fhould be a greater number of charity children than can be well accommodated in Scotland, I humbly pro pole that fome of them fhould be fent to Wales and diftant places in England, at least 100 miles from the place of their birth, or refidence of the parents or relations, but educated in reading and working in the fame manner as in Scotland.” P. 84. This much being premifed, our author proceeds to offer fome fubjects of taxation; fuch as foreigners employed in the capacity capacity of fervants; and dogs, which, upon his plan of a general watch, would, he conceives, be no longer of neceflity. These are followed up by hints for canals, parallel roads from place to place, circular roads about cities and towns; rewards for the good and virtuous, and a variety of other particulars, which the limits of our work will not allow us to notice. Thefe regulations the author profeffes to put under the direction of a new Revenue-board, the nature and objects of which he has more diftinctly explained in his former publications. The advantages which would refult from this new arrangement, are infifted by Mr. D., as deferving no ordinary at tention: "All that is wanted to make the people happy, the revenue productive, the adminiftration popular, and this island the best place in the world to live in, is to establish this new Revenue Board, with full powers to encourage the agriculture, fisheries, and manufactures of the country; to protect and reform the people; and, by the bleffing of God, they will become like one well-regulated family." P. 174. Upon the whole, we cannot but commend the general good intention and evident philanthropy of this author; and, notwithstanding many things advanced in his work are chimerical and vifionary, fome alfo are well imagined, found, and judicious. If not admiffible in their prefent fhape, or practicable to their full extent, they might poffibly be adopted under fome modification, which would render the departure from eftablifhed rules lefs precipitate and direct. However that be, the author will at leaft deferve the thanks of his country, whatever may be the iffue of his plans; and we cannot perfuade ourselves that, whether publickly acknowledged or not, fo much will have been faid upon exifting abuse and poffible amendment, without effect. ART. III. Mifcellanies: confiting of Poems, Claffical Extracts, and Oriental Apologues. By William Beloe, F. S. A. Tranflator of Herodotus, Aulus Gellius, &c. &c. Three Vol. 12mo. 15s. Rivingtons, 1795. THEY HEY who are difpofed fo to limit the excurfions of the human mind, as to allow to one man the power of excelling only in one branch of ftudy, will be furprised to find that Mr. Beloe, the trantlator of Herodotus and Aulus Gellius, whofe verfion of the latter we have fo very lately had upon our table, fhould already appear again with a prefent to the public of so very different a fpecies, as original poems, and other matters of light, though claffical entertainment. It fhould fhould be recollected, however, that Mr. Beloe has appeared before as a poet, in a volume printed fo long ago as in 1788, and received with confiderable approbation. He now profelfedly invites his readers to partake of a banquet rather diftinguithed by fimplicity and elegance, than by exquifite and coftly viands; and we thall add that the guest, whole tafte is not vitiated by luxury and falfe refinement. will find not only fufficient, but abundant matter for the gratification of his mental appetite. The first of thefe little volumes contains poetical effufions, the language and fentiments in each of which are both unaffected and uniformly correfpondent: if the fubjects, to which they relate, exclude fublime and magnificent images, they have that eafe, fluency, and, in many inftances, that pathos which at once please and intereft the reader on the fubjects that relate to love there is delicacy and chastity difplayed, which, we think, very happily preferved throughout the difficult article of Atys, paraphrafed from Catullus, with which the book commences: while the fentiments that tend to increase the focial and domeftic virtues are every where feelingly expreffed and forcibly inculcated. The Ode to Social Piety, addreffed to Lord Orford, exhibits an affecting picture of the changeful fcenes of life, and of the joys and pains that alterna ely fweeten and embitter them. The fucceeding ode has till ftronger claims on our approbation for the elevated, moral, and religious ftrains which it breathes. Among the fmaller pieces, the fonnet written at Strawberry Hill, and that to Mrs. B. deferve to be diftinguished. The tranflations and imitations, alfo, have each their appropriate merits. The fongs are light and lively productions; and we particularly admire the turn in the verfes written at the petrifying fpring at Charford, in which the defponding and rejected lover deprecates the influence of its waters upon the heart of his miftrefs, already too cold and flinty for his happiness. The celebrity of the place, and the exalted character of the owner, induce us to infert, as likely to prove a specimen generally acceptable to our readers, the Sonnet written at Strawberry Hill, and inferibed to the Earl of Orford; to which the tender intereft difplayed in it, induces us to add that immediately following. "TO THE EARL OF ORFORD. "WRITTEN AT STRAWBERRY HILL. 5. Quotque aderant rebar adesse deos." Whilft I prepare the ftrings and wake the lyre: OVID. << Where "Where are the forms which Phidias' felf might own, "But what is Beauty? what the blaze of art, "Tafte, Genius, Virtue! great your awful pow'rs, " TO MRS. B. "On thee, chafte fpirit of connubial love, To gild the hours which haften life along; "But in my Laura's form thou must appear, "Give me to ftrew her paths with fimple flow'rs, Cull'd, gentle Peace, from thy delightful bow'rs." P.65. The fecond volume, containing the claffical extracts, next demands our attention; and here, alfo, we find varied, and fome high-feafoned viands for the roving appetite. Our author, in his fhort preface, profeffes only to amufe, but he does more; he gratifies and informs. Thefe extracts are taken from claffical authors, or others of not very common occurrence, and therefore are proportionably of more value and intereft. The preface ftates that they are not intended for fcholars; but there are few scholars that will not be pleased to fee some very valuable portions of their old acquaintance in fo good an English drefs. The account of the luxury and infolence of the ancient Perfian monarchs, as defcribed by Athenæus, and detailed in this volume, will afford the reader an agreable proof of the truth and juftice of the preceding affertions. The learned and curious note annexed, will evince that |