Cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery. By F. Vesey, esq. of Lincoln's-inn, Barrister. Vol. XIV. part 3.7s. 6d.

Scintilla Juris; or an Argument in support of the Doctrine that "A future use cannot have the possession executed to it by the Statute of Uses, unless there exists a Seisin in some person subject to such use, at or within due time, after the happening of the act, period, or event upon which it may be limited to arise." By William Henry Rome, esq. of Lincoln's-inn.

An Account of the Operations of the British Army, and of the State and Sentiments of the People of Portugal and Spain, during the Campaigns of 1808 and 9. By the Rev. James Wilmot Ormsby, chaplain on the staff. 2 vols. 8vo.

A new Analysis of Chronology. By William Hales, D. D. Vol. I. 4to. 21. 2s.

Calebs Suited, or the Opinions and Part of the Life of Caleb Calebs, esq. 68.

An Account of Travels in Marocco, South Barbary, and across the Atlas Mountains, made during a stay of sixteen years in that country. By James Gray Jackson, 4to. 21. 28.

A Tour through Denmark and Sweden, written during the last winter and spring. By Lieut. Col. J. Macdonald, 2 vols. foolscap. 8vo. 12s.

An Elementary Treatise on Chymistry, comprising the most important facts of the Science, with Tables of Decomposition, on a new plan; to which is added an Appendix, giving an account of the latest discoveries. By Charles Sylvester, 8vo. 78. 6d.

Essays on Professional Education, in eight chapters. 1. On the Choice of a Profession. 2. On the Clerical Profession. 3. On the Military and Naval Professions. 4. On the Medical Profession. 5. On the Education of a Country Gentleman. 6. On the Profession of the Law. 7. On the Education of a Statesman. 8. On the Education of a Prince. By R. L. Edgeworth, esq. F.RS. M.P. L.A. 4to. 1. 58:

William Tell, or Swisserland delivered. A posthumous work of the Chevalier de Florian; to which is prefixed a life of the Author. By Jaufirett. Translated from the French, by William B. Hewitson, Author of the Blind Boy, &c. 12mo. 5%.

Sir John Carr's Poems, embellished with an elegant portrait from Westall, engraved by Freeman, 4to. 13 8vo. 10s. 6d.

A Dane's Excursions in Britain. By Mr. Anderson, author of a Tour in Zealand, &c. 2 vols. 12s.

PROPOSED BRITISH PUBLICATIONS.

Mr. Murphy, Author of the Description of the Church at Battalha, &c. is preparing for publication, the Arabian Antiquities of Spain. The work will be printed in large folio, and consist of about one hundred plates, with descriptions of the different objects, and several interesting particulars relating to the Arabs, and their establishments in Spain.

Richard Cumberland, esq. proposes to print by subscription, Twelve of his hitherto unpublished Dramas, in a quarto volume, to be ready next spring.

A Treatise on Evidence, relating to Criminal and Civil Actions, with Proofs necessary to different Actions, alphabetically arranged.

A new edition of Booth on Real Actions, with Additional Notes from Mr. Serjeant Hill's MSS.

A new edition of Mr. Powell's Conveyancing, with Notes, by Mr. Barton, in 3 vols. royal 8vo.

A short Treatise upon the Law of Pa. tents for new Inventions, containing the Opinion of Lord Eldon, as Chief Justice of Common Pleas, in Cartwright v. Amatt, and dedicated, by permission, to his Lordship. By William Scott, Esq. of Lincoln'sInn, Barrister at Law.

Mr. Williamson, of the Inner Temple, has nearly ready for publication, a Companion and Guide to the Laws of England, comprising the most useful and interesting heads of the Law; to which is added a Summary of the Laws of London.

An Irish gentleman of rank, who lately spent three years in London, is preparing for publication, a Series of Letters to his Father in Ireland, containing the Secret History of the British Court and Metropolis, with the state of Modern Manners and Society.

A work upon the principles and plan of Celebs, by a clergyman of the first respectability, is now in preparation, and will shortly be published. It is intended as a counterpart to that popular work, and to form a standing companion for it, when the rage for ephemeral productions is past.

A Translation of the Voyage of d'Entrecastreaux in search of La Perouse is in the press.

PERIODICAL papers devoted to elegant literature and popular instruction, exhibiting pictures of the manners of the age, constitute a species of literary composition, which with pride and fondness we pronounce to have originated in this country. Our author ascribes the honour of the invention to Steele. With him, however, it seems to have been nothing more than one of those fanciful projects which he easily embraced and easily relinquished. The invention seems more fairly due to Addison, who having amassed materials with the assiduity of a student, came prepared to rescue periodical composition from the dregs of politicks and polemicks-and to give a new direction to the national taste.

Dr. Drake opens his work by an essay which describes the state of literature and manners in this island, at the commencement of the Tatler. There was a theatre, which inculcated debauchery as a duty, and immorality as a grace; men of the high est rank indulged in amusements which are now confined to the lowVOL. II.

est; women were either the frivolous idols of the toilette, or the solemn drudges of the housekeeper's room. Science, which had felt some encouragement from the gayety of Charles, was neglected by the phlegmatick William, and ridiculed in the first years of Anne; and it was not wonderful that our women could not spell, when it may be said, that our men had not yet learnt to read.

The popular effects produced by these papers is unequalled in the history of literature. They made us a people of readers, of thinkers, and of writers, and they gave a new di rection to the literature of Europe. Dr. Drake, has produced some striking evidence of their influence from two interesting contemporary pamphlets.

Every morning their readers were instructed in some new principle of duty, which was endeared to them by the beau ties of description, and impressed on their minds in the most indelible characters." "All the pulpit discourses of a year scarce produced half the good as flowed from the Spectator of a day."-"These writings here set all our wits and men of letters

Some facts, however, relative to this period, have escaped his industry. Budgell declares, that 20,000 of the Spectators have been sold in one day. They penetrated even to the Highlands, and were read with the news of the week, by the grave politicians who met after church on Sundays, to arrange national affairs. They were soon imitated, and their very titles copied, throughout Europe. The lethargick Hollander awoke to a Spectator, by Van Effen; the French had their Babillard; and the Germans their Guardian. This last, printed at Hamburgh, found a heavy sale, till the writers inserted translations of the English Spectators, when the demand for it rapidly and widely increased. At that time, it was a tribute paid to wit, somewhat unexpected from Germany.

The bold feature in this new manner of writing," as it was called, is the dramatick plan which Addison adopted with all the felicity of genius, and which has become the despair of his imitators! By the invention of a dramatis persona, of opposite humours and pursuits, as in the club of the Spectator, and the feigned characters of his correspondents, he poured all the colours of life into this moving scene. These personages served as vehicles for exhibiting the domestick manners of the nation, at a time when there was a decisive originality among our countrymen, now so equalized and flattened by artificial uniformity. As some of his foreign imitators copied this invention, they exhibit an interesting contrast of national manners. In the Spectator of Miravaux, for instance, we find the portraits of his Parisians; the lively Frenchman plays with their levities, but weeps over their serious distresses. The letter of a father on the ingratitude of his son, is an eloquent appeal to the feelings; while with

equal power and pathos, he describes the tyranny of patrons, the torments of avarice, and the perfidy of friends, by those incidents, and touches of character, which he discovered in his own country. In the Spectator of Van Effen, the manners and feelings of the Hollanders are given, like copies after life, by Heemskirk. The members of his literary club share the ponderous gravity of the natives, while the boorish pride of the monied Dutchman is at once the coarsest and the truest of portraits. Van Effen has given a voluminous love-story; but in a country where that romantick pas sion does not appear above once in a century, with more truth than taste. His Laura is a maid servant, his Petrarch a carpenter of Amsterdam, The first interview takes place as she stands on the steps of her door, holding one of those stoves of lighted turf which the women carry to warm themselves. The youth, who has long watched for the auspicious moment, requests to light his pipe at her stove; but as every puff closes with a sigh, the pipe of love is to be perpetually renewed. The dialogue is artless. The Dutch maid is coy, and even coquettish. The boor delicate-at a certain period of the history, he actually exhibits somewhat like a symptom of despair!

That the lucubrations of Addison had such an influence on the popular writings of foreigners, is a fact which seems to have escaped notice. Dr. Drake, does not allude to it, though he gives accounts of foreign works, which preceded Addison, with some congeniality of character. Such are the " Cortigiano," of Castilione, and the " Galateo" of De la Casa the former, which the Italians emphatically term, "the golden book," displays the politeness which reigned among the higher ranks of society during the sixteenth century. The latter was the domestick code of civility throughout Europe, and contains the art of living in the world. addressed to all ranks of society.

The character of Steele branches, under the fertile pen of our author, into six essays, including his biography-his style-his taste and critical abilities-his invention, imagery, and pathos-his humour and delineation of character-his ethicks and morality. These are treated with considerable ingenuity, and with that nice discrimination of the characteristicks of an author, in which Dr. Drake is so expert.

The life of Steele is not that of a retired scholar; hence his moral character becomes more instructive. He was one of those whose hearts are the dupes of their imaginations, and who are hurried through life by the most despotick volition. He always preferred his caprices to his interests; or, according to his own notion, very ingenious, but not a little absurd "he was always of the humour of preferring the state of his mind to that of his fortune." The first act of his life develops the succeeding ones. His uncle could not endure a hero for his heir: but Steele had seen a marching regiment-he therefore enlisted as a private in the horse guards, and cocking his hat, and put ting on a broad sword, jack boots, and shoulder belt, with the most generous feelings he forfeited a good estate! His frank temper and his wit conciliated esteem, and extorted admiration. The private was raised to an ensign, and the ensign plunged into all the dissipations of the town. But genius is often pensive amidst its orgies. It was in the height of these irregularities that he composed his "Christian Hero," a moral and religious treatise, which the contritions of every morning dictated, and to which the disorders of every evening added another penitential page. He was, at once, a man of the town and a censor; and he wrote lively essays on the follies of the day in an enormous black peruke which cost him fifty guineas! He built an elegant villa; but as he was always inculcating economy, he called it a hovel.

He detected the fallacy of the Southsea scheme, while he himself invented projects, neither inferiour in magnificence nor in misery. Yet, gifted at all times with the susceptibility of genius, he exercised the finest feelings of the heart. The same generous sentiments which deluded his judgment and invigorated his passions, rendered him a tender and pathetick dramatist; a most fertile essayist; a patriot without private views; an enemy, whose resentment died away in raillery; and a friend, who could warmly press the hand that wounded him. Whether in administration, or expelled the house-whether affluent, or flying from his creditors-in the fulness of his heart he, perhaps, secured his own happiness. But such men live only for themselves; they are not links in the golden chain of society. In the waste of his splendid talents he had raised sudden enmities, and transient friendships. The world uses such men as eastern travellers do fountains; they drink their waters, and think of them no more! Steele lived to be forgotten. He opened his career with folly; he hurried through it in a tumult of existence; and he closed it by an involuntary exile, amidst the wrecks of his fortune and his mind!

His writings are often careless, and rarely graceful. His literary excellence consists in his delineation of character. He copies life with all the faithfulness of a Flemish painter; and if, contrasted with Addison, he be found without the softness of his colouring, and the delicacy of his penciling, it cannot be denied that he is more versatile and vigorous, and the most original sketcher after life of the early part of the last century. His portraits, like those of Lely, preserve the likenesses of our ancestors; but not being formed on the general and permanent principles of art, he is more a painter of fashions than of nature.

The character and writings of Addison occupy six essays, in the