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grand struggle between Charles I. and his parliament: the oppres sions and tyrannical proceedings, which united the nation like one man against the measures of Charles, are here very much kept out of sight or smoothly glossed over; and a spirit of resistance, which a systematic attack on the rights of the nation called forth, is aseribed to speculative republicanism and puritan ascendancy. The ambitious and unprincipled Wentworth is exhibited as leaving the popular side, on account of the iniquitous designs of several of its most able and powerful supporters; and this deserter of the popular cause, who had become the most active and efficient instrument of those measures which he had so zealously and el quently oppugned, is here represented as the "bulwark of church and state,' and as falling a victim to malice and fanaticism. While we resent this miserable attempt to disguise as aggravated delinquency as any that is to be found in our history, let it not be supposed that we wish to vindicate the injustice of the doom of this grand offender: but Heaven forbid that our youth should form their notions of this period of our history from the lessons of Dr. Andrews.

Art. 34. An Inquiry into the Principles, Dispositions, and Habits of the People of England, under their different Sovereigns, since the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. With various Observations, Historical and Moral, arising from the Subject. By John Andrews, L.L. D. 12mo. pp. 185. 3s. Boards. Egerton.

This little tract, which comes from the author of that which we have just noticed, adopts the sentiment of the poet,

"Etas parentum pejor avis tulit

Nos nequiores, mox daturos
Progeniem vitiosiorem,"

and is little more than a comment on it. Our ancestors of the reign of Queen Bess were perfect models; and we have continued ever since degenerating but our rapid decline is not to be dated earlier than the epoch of the treaty of Utrecht. Dr. A. complains that persons of a certain class travel abroad more than they formerly did, and import injurious foreign manners; that the great are seen more in public; and that ranks are more confounded in social intercourse than they were in antient times.

Among many just but trite observations, we meet here, as in the former production of the same writer, with others which do not accord with our notions. We do not wish to see our men of rank stay at home, lest they should be contaminated by foreign manners; nor are we aware of any serious evils which arise out of the modern usage of meeting in large assemblies. Dr. Andrews may very seriously entertain the opinions which he here avows; he may deem the matters to which he invites the attention of his readers import ant; and he may think that he descants on them ably, ingeniously, and profoundly: but we are sorry that we cannot give our sanction to so favourable a representation of his labours. Should he be dissatisfied with our not specifically animadverting on his errors and misconceptions, we might answer that we have forborne to do so because most of the points here introduced are fully considered by

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Mr. Hume in his Essay on Refinement in the Arts, in which the subject is treated in his best manner. The sentiments of that eminent writer have ever since been those of the enlightened part of the public, on the topics of this little volume.

Art. 35 Picture of Edinburgh; containing a History and Description of the City, with a particular Account of every remarkable. Object in, or Establishment connected with, the Scotti h Metropolis. By J. Stark. Illustrated with a Plan, and upwards of 30 gravings on Wood. 12mo. PP. 504. 6s. Boards. Edinburgh printed by J. Stark, for Constable and Co., and sold in L by Murray.

I imitation of Mercier's Tableau de Paris, almost every topographical account whica for a considerable time past, has been given of any city or town, is dignified with the name of a Picture. However small the village, or puny the valley, though there be no feature of picturesque, and though all is taken by the square and the compass, still we hear of nothing but Pictures. The author of the present work has followed the fashion but we must add that we have seen many worse pictures. He does not, indeed, like Mercier or Le Sage, lift off the roofs of the houses of the city which he describes, and graphi eally shew us manners and habits; nor like them scatter his satires and detail his plans of reform; he does not like them walk up and down the streets and lanes and courts of the city, with the authority of a censor, and the freedom and perspicacity of a philosopher: but still he gives much useful information, and tells us almost every thing that we could wish to know of this distinguished northern capital.

The volume contains a history of Edinburgh from the earliest times, comprehending many anecdotes and portions of Scottish annals; a description of the city and its antiquities; its political and civil establishments, such as the Courts of Session and Justiciary, the Faculty of Advocates, the Court of Exchequer, Convention of Royal Boroughs, Lyon Court, &c. : its municipal establishments, such as the Magistracy, Dean of Guild Court, Police, &c.; its literary and religious institutions; the Banks; public Amusements; Progress and present State of Manners; Population; Markets; Fuel; Water; Account of Leith; Objects of Natural History in the Neighbourhood; remarkable Objects in the Environs, such as Craigmillar Castle, Duddington House, Dalkeith House, Roslin Castle, Hawthorn-den, Melville Castle, &c.

It is well known that the metropolis of Scotland is one of the grandest and most picturesque cities of Europe; and that the additions to its magnitude and splendor have been so considerable for some years past, as to be almost unexampled. We are glad to hear from Mr. Stark that a reproach, also, which was once chargeable on our neighbours, is in a great measure remedied:

The want of a proper regard to cleanliness in the inhabitants of Edinburgh,' says he, has often "been remarked. In constructing the old part of the city, common sewers for conveying away nuisances of every kind were neglected; and for many years, even till lately, it was customary for servants to discharge all the filth from the windows into the streets, at a certain hour in the morning or at

night. In the building of the new part of the town, this con venience was not overlooked; and by the strict attention of the police, the nuisance is in a great measure removed in the old part of it.'

We notice under the head of Charitable Establishments a nuvel institution, which every great city would do well to copy; and from which murals, industry, and general happiness, would assuredly be increased, especially were it the fashion to give it support:

The Repository is a shop or ware-room to which ladies in straitened circumstances may send for sale any curious, beautiful, or useful articles of needle work, with the price affixed, and when sold, the price is remitted to them. This delicate way of relieving the necessities of the fair sex who may require it, is certainly much to be ap. plauded. The institution has been patronised by the Duchess of Buccleugh, and many other persons of distinction.'

The medical school of Edinburgh, which has now great and deserved celebrity, arose from very small beginnings, and is not of antient date. Its commencement was in 720, when the magistrates added a few medical professorships to the former establishments of the university. The Royal Infirmary was founded some time afterward, and medical knowlege daily increased Fifteen thousand nine hundred and thirty students have attended this school of medicine from 1720 to 1800.

From the perusal of this little volume, it is impossible not to observe the slumber as to improvement in which Scotland lay for so long a time, and the rapid general progress which she made when she fortunately awaked. In fact, sister Peg was for a very long while a disorderly romp, a miserable slattern:-she was ill-clothed, and begrimed with smoke, sitting in the kitchen corner, and doing no work:-but now, who is more comely, who more finely decked, and who attends to family concerns with more propriety? In short, how great is the improvement in all respects! This new state of things began to be so obvious as to excite notice about the year 1750. If it be asked, why did it come so late? the answer must be that not till then did the rage of political party grow moderate in that country. It was not at once that the effects of the union with England could be felt; a course of years was required. Parish schools had been established more than 50 years before: but knowlege advances in its progress by degrees; and the indirect effects of this knowlege are felt and seen still more slowly. It would be well that a sister kingdom would con template these effects, and reason on its own state from these analogies. We cannot but recommend the work before us as an instructive manual.

CORRESPONDENCE.

Our steady friend Veritas has pounced down on an error which oc curs in p. 405 of our last Number, and which will be corrected in our list of Errata for the Volume: but we can assure him that we were before him in making the discovery; though, alas! not time enough to eject from the letter press the words "with David," which, by the mistake of an officious assistant, were foisted into the copy; for the

reviewer

reviewer of Mr. S.'s poem was not guilty of applying, as the words of David, a passage which belongs to the account of St. Paul's conversion. After our remarks on the book which our correspondent specifies, can he want any broader hints ?-As to his lamentation over Mr. Stone, who was reduced to the necessity of being hypocritically rich or conscientiously poor, we can only observe that, if this was the alternative, he would perhaps have acted a wiser part in following the example of the venerable Mr. Lindsay, who nobly resigned the emoluments of the Church before he publicly militated against its doctrines. Mr. Stone's avowal of his sentiments was manly, but it was made in the wrong place; since, however, with Francis I., he has lost every thing but his honour, by his boldness in the cause of Unitarianism, we have no doubt that his case will be considered. Perhaps it would have been more politic to have suspended Mr. Stone, than to have deprived him of his living. In these times, to exercise severity for matters of opinion is considered as an indication of imbecillity.

The author of "a Plan for arming the subjects of this realm," noticed in our Number for March, p. 318, has favoured us with a letter in which he declares that he is an ardent admirer of the liberties of his country,' and that his object was to support those liberties, not to overthrow them by establishing a military despotism.' We arrogate to ourselves no power nor right of judging of the author's motives, and we spoke only of the tendency of his plans; that tendency we considered in the light in which we represented it but we are not sorry to find him disclaim any desire of effecting a purpose to which, we certainly think, his measures would be subservient.

The note from Birmingham, respecting two volumes of Sermons," has amused us much by the ignorance which it manifests relative to the state of literature, and the importance which it attaches to the work in question. We beg to assure Mr. Y. that, while he waits in our anti-chamber, he is in a very large and in many instances very good company; and that when his turn for admission arrives, we shall receive him without any of that unfavourable bias which might be derived from the style of his printer's inquiries.

A correspondent's remark concerning Goldsmith's Almanac is appropriate to a Magazine, but not to our pages. The circum. stance, moreover, has already been noticed in the daily prints.

A. L. has stated his inquiry so imperfectly, that we do not recognize the object of it.

X.Y. will appear in due course of time and opportunity.

The APPENDIX to Vol. LV. of the Review is pub lished with this Number, and contains as usual a variety of interesting FOREIGN articles, together with the General Title, Table of Contents, and Index for the Volume.

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For JUNE, 1808.

ART, I. The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount, Lion King at Arms, under James V.-A new Edition, corrected and enlarged, with a Life of the Author, &c. By George Chalmers, F.R.S.S. A. 8vo. 3 Vols. 11. 16s. Boards. Longman and Co.

WE should deem ourselves deficient in gratitude, were we

to withhold our acknowlegements from those men of letters by whose exertions and researches we become better acquainted with our ancestors; and we have accordingly, from time to time, given an extended account of any work which appeared to us, in a considerable degree, to illustrate their manners or their language. Our chief inducement to this mark of attention was a conviction that we can never have a clear idea of their history,- one delineated to the life,—until we are in possession of those productions in which they themselves were pleased to register, in their more minute shades, their modes of thinking and of action. It is in vain for us to look for these traits in the general histories of the times; and therefore, if we are disposed to inspect their wardrobes, to be present at their festivals, or to hear them make love, we must be contented to decypher manuscripts and to pore over antient romances. Whoever, then, abridges for us this labour, whether by selecting the most material parts or by republishing the whole of a black letter classic, deserves and shall receive our thanks; and to those thanks we regard Mr. Chalmers as intitled, with some limitations. We say with some limita. tions, because although he has given us the first standard edition of Sir David Lyndsay, yet Lyndsay is an author whose works were by no means uncommon, and from which, mutilated and corrupted as they were, we might have collected all that was essentially valuable. On other restrictions to our praise we shall not at present dwell, since they will be abundantly evident in the course of our examination of the volumes before us.

VOL, LVI.

I

Mr.

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