*that the virtues of the most civilized are only to be afcribed to the neceffity of circumftances, the Arabs, perhaps, are not for this the lefs worthy of our efteem: they are fortunate, at leaft, that this neceffity fhould have eftablished among them a ftate of things, which has appeared to the wifeft legiflators as the perfection of human "policy; I mean, a kind of equality in the partition of property,. " and the variety of conditions."

"The legiflator, who would confine a growing property within the bounds of equality, must be at once a ftranger to human nature, and to the nature of the thing. But did not Julius Cæfar publish fumptuary laws, at the time that Rome was the emporium of all the riches of the earth? Yes, and among the few foolish things which he did, this was by far the moft foolish: unless we may fuppofe that he did it with a view to flatter the plebeians, and to mortify the nobles.

"But the Arab, it seems, has found the means to divest lucrativé purfuits of felfifhnefs, and to unite the importance of property with the indifference of equality: these things are not in nature: without felfishness there would be no motive to action; equality excludes distinction; take away diftinction, property lofes its object, and with that its existence: the Arab, content with his milk and dates, had not aimed at any thing more than the neceffary. No matter, the Arabs, at all events, must be a nation of worthies: we know that, like their brethren of Algiers, they are a nation of robbers. From the moment that their panegyrift touched on the barrennefs of their deferts, and their attention to property, it was easy to foresee what his eulogium muft come to: for how can there be property, where there are no productions at home? and if imported from abroad, how fhould this be, but by plunder, where there can be no exchange? Thus it is, that things often pafs for inconfiftencies in nature, which in fact are nothing else than the reveries of the writer.

Independence, his fyftem; inftinct, his legiflation; the man of nature is free, because he is a ftranger to property. Would you cheat him out of his freedom-foment competition; extend his selfishness; give him a relish of property; to fecure its enjoyment he will submit to laws: he is no longer independent, but he is civilized.

"Were the procefs to end here, it would be well; but property is power; it commands fervice, it creates dependence: accumulation admitted, the great proprietor will become master of the little not content with a comparative advantage, he will think that he has nothing while others have any thing;-he is a defpot, his dependants are flaves." P. 167.

Mr. Webb has not loft his courage with his youth; he attacks the Newtonians, and modern naturalifts in general; Sir William Jones, and linguifts in general, and any other antagonists who happen to fall in his way. We hope that he has papers by him connected with the study of the arts. The purfuits on which his fame was founded will be most propitious to the conclusion of his long career.

BRITISH CATALOGUE.

POETRY.

ART. 18. Matilda, or the dying Penitent: a poetical Epiftle. By George Richards, M. A. Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. 4to. 15.6d. Cooke, Oxford; Robinfons, &c. London. 1795.

That Mr. Richards is one of the few, who, to a poetical ear, unite the fire and spirit of a poet, has been proved by his former productions; particularly that animated poem "the Aboriginal Britons." That he is not one of those who mistake coarseness for strength, or injudicionfly select their topics of defcription, will appear from the prefent compofition. The fubject of a penitent female, in the most lamenta ble of all human fituations, has often been chosen, but not often fo delicately and fo ably handled. The following lines, with which the poem closes, are peculiarly excellent. They begin by an apoftrophe to her parents.

"Ah fhades rever'd! my forrows foon will cease;
I foon may meet you in the realms of peace.
Farewell thou Sun, whofe rifing glories beam
The bright effulgence of a Power fupreme :-
Farewell delightful fpring and balmy airs:
Farewell the human face and human cares.
I go, I go my foul is on the wing:
Bear, bear me, angels, to your heavenly king;
Where ftreaming joys from viewlefs glory flow,
And purer forms with beaming radiance glow.

Though one long crime hath foil'd the immortal mind,
And funk the nobler nature of my kind;
Yet is not all the glorious work debas'd,
The Maker's image is not full effac'd.

Thou high Almighty power, to whom alone
The mufing heart and filent thought are known;
Thou, at whofe throne, ere evening ftars afcend,
My trembling fpirit, borne on high, may bend ;-
A wanderer comes, who, ev'n in fin and fhame,
Hung on thy word, and blefs'd thy holy name.
Thou know'ft my foul; Thou faw'ft contrition rife,
Ere form'd in words, or fwimming in my eyes.
Thou died it the hopeless pe itent to fave:
'Twas thine to lift him glorious from the grave.
Protect the ruins of the noble mind;
Protect the immortal work thy felf defign'd,

4.

From

From thy eternal glory flow'd my foul:

'Tis made to live, when worlds have ceas'd to roll.
Form it for angel quires and joy divine;

Renew the unfullied thought, and stamp it thine."

In the course of the poem, a very appropriate compliment is paid to the Queen (to whom alfo it is dedicated) as patronefs of the excellent charity of the Magdalen.

ART. 19. Verfes on various Occafions. 8vo. 140 pp. 5s. Debrett, 1795

Mr. Taylor, the author of this volume of poems, takes for his motto, "I left no calling for this idle trade," not like Pope, because he never has a calling, but because he has contrived to make his occupation (that of an oculift) and his verfification compatible. But the Mufes, are jealous ladies, and feldom fuffer an admirer to divide his time between them and other objects, without putting fome marks of their diffatisfaction on his compofitions. If thefe marks, however, are visible in the firft poem called the Stage, in the fmaller pieces they cannot fo well be traced. There is playfulness and origi nality in the following copy of verfes, which therefore we prefent to our readers.

"TO MISS BRUNTON.

"On the Report of her intended Marriage with Mr. Merry.

Dear Brunton, how oft, by the hand of Report,
Have thy beauties been led to the church,
Where still the old goffip, in mifchievous sport,
Has left thee as oft in the lurch.

"At first the dame whifper'd, that Holman the fmart,
Flew to thee from the bachelor's fpleen;
Yet it foon was confefs'd he but acted a part,
And was merely the fpoufe of the scene.

"Then Morton, the airy, a wit of the town,
Was fuppos'd thy affections to draw;

But he was foon caught by a barrister's gown,
And would only be wedded to law.

"Next Reynolds, a whimfical good-humour'd wight,
Was to open the conjugal page;

But it quickly appear'd he lov'd only to write,
And to nothing would fix but the stage.

"Laft Merry, the tuneful, 'tis faid is the man
Thy worth is to lead to the fhrine;

But the rogue is too fond of the libertine plan,
And of nymphs is devoted to nine.

"Whilst

"Whilst thou, my dear Brunton, averfe to the chain,
Thy hufbands can'st lofe without forrow;

For thou know'ft that report, in her good-natur'd vein,
Will provide thee another to-morrow." P. 132.

Report, however, had no occafion to provide any more, for Mr. M. left the nine for the one,

Academical Contributions of Original and Tranflated Poetry, 2s. 6d. Flowers, Cambridge, Egerton, Lon,

ART. 20. 8vo. don; 1795.

III PP:

The advertisement to this volume informs the reader that it is the production of fome junior members of the Univerfity of Cambridge, We think it, on the whole, very honourable to them. Its faults. are fuch as more experience in compofition will correct, while much of the true spirit of poetry may be easily difcerned.

ART. 21: A Letter from Dr. Snubdevil in London, to his Friend at Bath, 1794 4to. IS. Bell, 1795

A fatire on the vices and follies of the times, not without a portion of facetioufnefs, and dictated by a fpirit in the highest degree commendable,

ART. 22. Corfica, a Poem, by Clement John Wafey, M. A. of Oriel College, Oxford. 4to. 1s. 6d. Fletcher, Oxford. 1795,

The effort probably of a young writer, whom greater experience will teach the impropriety of bringing together fuch rhimes as fine. and mind, or fuch lines as

Truth, pure religion, join the holy league,
Valour with prudence, faith without intrigue.

ART. 23. Attica, or the Advantages and Difadvantages of a Popular
Government. A Poem adapted to the prefent Pofture of public Affairs,
IS. Lowndes, 1795›

8vo.

We fee nothing Attic in this poem.

ART. 24. The Prophecies of the Times, a Satire, by Malachi Mofes, Efq. The Second Edition. 4to. IS. Bell, 1795.

Whether this poem has really advanced to a fecond edition or not, we venture not to fay. We have heard of fuch things as falfe appearances in these cafes; but we have no fcruple in faying, that in the poem there are many excellent lines, and that the author laughs with fuccefsful pleafantry at the inclination of his countrymen to be depreffed in fpirit with little or no caufe.

DIVINITY,

ART. 25. A Sermon preached before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, in the Abbey Church of Westminster, on January 30, 1795; being the

Day

Day appointed to be obferved as the Day of the Martyrdom of King Charles I. By Spencer Lord Bibop of Peterborough. 4to. 20 pp. 15. Rivingtons.

A more truly wife and useful fermon we have not often feen. The bishop takes the well known text, Rom. xiii. 1. "Let every Soul be fubject to the higher Powers," &c.; but inftead of falling into the fnare with thofe whom the occafion has fometimes betrayed into an intemperate zeal, he begins by carefully and duly limiting the apof tolic doctrine to its due object, the "fupport of just authority, and the enforcement of a proper fubordination and obedience:" rejecting clearly and decifively all notion of a "blind, implicit, or unlimited fubjection." After ftating the true doctrine very ably, and allowing, what juftice muft allow, that there were faults on the royal as well as on the popular fide, in our great rebellion, his lordfhip proceeds to that which, though unfortunately it could not operate by forefight, ought in retrofpect to afford perpetual warning to those who are induced by specious profpects to disturb the order of governments.

"Could the mistaken abettors," he fays," of that rebellion, which ended in the guilty tranfaction of this day, have forefcen from the beginning the whole fcope and confequence of their proceedings, could they, when they firft efpied the little cloud, as it were, arifing from the fea like a man's hand, could they have foreseen, at that time, what winds and ftorms were thenceforth gathering,could they have embraced at one view, the confufion of a long war, the defolation of a flourishing kingdom, and the fhock experienced by the facred Temple of Reli gion; could they have been then convinced that the measures which they fatally pursued would naturally terminate in the total lofs of their civil rights, that the entire frame of the government would be of course dreadfully shattered, and at length destroyed; that the wife and wholesome conftitution of Parliaments would be utterly overthrown ;could they have foreknown that their too violent refiftance against their lawful Prince would have rendered them flaves to an unlawful Defpot -that the weapons entrusted to a band of mercenary men, would be finally pointed against themselves-furely fuch a train of evils, fuch a dreadful fcene of miferies and of punishments, would have had its due effect in preventing the commencement of that conflagration which rages fo fuddenly fuperior to all controul !"

ART. 26. A Sermon preached at the anniversary Meeting of the Sons of the Clergy, in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, on Thursday, May 22, 1794. By the Rev. William Langford, D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majefty, Canon of Windfor, &c. &c. To which are added, Lifts of the Nobility, Clergy, and Gentry, who have been Stewards for the Feafts of the Sons of the Clergy, together with the Names of all the Preachers, and the Sums collected at the anniversary Meetings fince the year 1721. 4to, xx pages, and Appendix 25. 15.

Rivingtons.

Dr. Langford, taking an hiftorical view of the priesthood under the Jewish and Chriftian difpenfations, obferves this circumstance to be coinmon to both, that the priest had no inheritance in the revenues he

derived