wished that he had adhered, as all other writers on the fubject have done, to the ufual divifion, to which he has ftill found it neceffary to refort in the 17th plate. Thefe however are flight blemishes, and if there had been lefs to praife, we perhaps fhould not have been fo anxious that all fhould have been perfect. Among the plates, we must particularly recommend that which exhibits the folid fquare on a large fcale, and which is the only clear illuftration of a very difficult and complicated manouvre that we have hitherto feen. The plate and the instructions for filing, advancing, and charging to the front, are also superior to any we have seen. MISCELLANIES. ART. 55. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas Comber, D. D, fometime Dean of Durham; in which is introduced a candid View of the Scope and Execution of the feveral Works of Dr. Comber, as well printed as MSS. Alfo a fair Account of his literary Correfpondence, Compiled from the original MS. by his Great Grandfon,homas Comber, A. B. late of Jefus College, Cambridge. 8vo. 7s. 6d. Richardfon. 1799. This well-intended tribute to the memory of a most respectable anceffor, difplays much labour and diligence, and is introduced by a numerous liit of fubfcribers. The editor has, however, fwelled his volume with a great deal of extraneous matter, in which Dr. Comber has not the finalleft concern. For example, the long detail of the arbitrary proceeding of James the Second againft Magdalen College, Oxford, contains nothing new, and might as well have been printed any where elfe, as in a Life of Dr. Comber, who was a member of the Univty of Cambridge. We are, however, friendly to all biographical sketches, and this in particular muft be allowed to contain many curious incidents. We meet with fome fpecimens of poetry in this volume, among which, the following well merits infertion, Have you not feen the glorious fun, After the dark fome night was gone, Your Your beauteous form was drefs'd before Of all-attractive charming graces; Of thote: thou need'ft them not my fair!" ART. 6. A Sketch of modern France. In a Series of Letters to a Lady of Fabion. Written in the Years 1796 and 1797, during a Tour through France. By a Lady. Edited by C. L. Moody, L. L. D. F. A. §. Svo. 8s. Cadell and Davies. 1798. In a neat and well-written Preface, Mr. Moody has given a general outline of the contents of this volume, of the fhare which he has taken in prefenting it to the public, and the reafons why it was thought not unlikely to contain fome information refpecting the affairs of the French Republic, which might justify the publication. Of the impor ance of the book itfelt, and of the intelligece it might reasonably be expected to contain from the obfervations of a perfon actually travelling through France in the years 1796 and 1797, a period fo full of events, we had formed perhaps too fanguin · expeßations; the perufal at least has by no means fatisfied us that it contains a correct sketch of modern France. The Letters are too much crouded with defcriptions of things and places little worthy of notice, and which neither exhibit the tale of the writer, nor repay the furious reader in the time employed in the prufa!. Yet as a book of light re ding, to pafs an hour pleafantly, it will probably meet with many admirers, and fome to when much of its contents will be novel and entertaining, giving them a general outline of the ftate of the Republic at that pid, interfperfed with fome few airfing anecdotes. The following fhort extract will at once exemplify the style of th author, and give a correct notion of the freedom of fpeech and a ton enjoyed by the French, under their republican form of government. Refpecting the fpies, above alluded to, attached to this minifter (Citoyen Coehon) we are affured from good authority, that they are not less than twelde or fourteen hundred, or ganized in a manner like a military corps, and have their bureau, or rallying point, which we have alfo feen, in the attic of the lame edifice (ci-devant hotel de Juigné, now the refidence of Cochon, Miniftre de la Police Genérale). It is certain that at no former period whatever has the art of Espionage been carried to fuch lengths, or executed with greater dexterity in this metropolis than at prefent, for not a circumftance of the aft confequence occurs in Paris, that the minifter or his agents are not made acquainted with an hour or two after: befides, by way of facilitating this mode of collecting information, there is nother place affixed, called l'office de Reni igumens, where intelligence is received both night and day, and for which, men, women, and children, taken from all claffes and fituations are indifcriminately employed; fo that, in fact, it is next to an impoffibility that any thing at this moment be tranfacted en cachette. ART. ART. 57. Thoughts on Marriage, and Criminal Conversation, with Jome Hints of appropriate Means to check the Progress of the latter; comprising Remarks on the Life, Opinions, and Example of the late Mrs. Wollstonecraft Godwin: refpe&fully addreffed and inferibed to the Right Honourable Lord Kenyon, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench. By a Friend to focial Order. 8vo. 58 pp. 25. Rivingtons. 1799. Thirty-feven pages are here occupied by Mrs. Godwin; whofe life, opinions, and example, are spoken of with much greater indulgence than we think due to that mifchievously eccentric character (pp. 26, 27, 37, &c.) Then follow fome remarks upon feduction and adultery; which crimes are proposed to be punished by imprisonment in Newgate, in order to mortify the offender's vanity, and prevent him from boating of his fucceffes. But fome patriots (as they called themfelves, the mob affenting) have glorified in imprisonment within our memory; and we are not fure that debauchees would not do the fame. ART. 58. Biographical Anecdotes of the Founders of the late Irib Re bellion. Including Memoirs of the most confpicuous Perfons concerned in that foul and fanguinary Confpiracy. Among whom are thofe of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Theobald Wolfe Tone, &c. &c. Impartially written by a candid Obferver, 8vo. 75 PP. 2s. 6d. Stewart, Piccadilly, &c. 1799. We are affured by perfons well-informed, that the biography here offered, is in general tolerably accurate; it appears alfo to be written, as the title expreffes, by a candid Obferver. But the writer has omitted to mention the generofity of the Irish Government to Tone, They gave him 500l. to enable him to take his family with him to America, He is alfo miftaken in his ftatement of Hamilton Rowan, as being now refident in France, fince it is well known that he has been long in America. In expreffing his just indignation against the United Irishmen, the author, if he had been ftudious of literary praife, fhould not have called it "that blafted institution." ART. 59. An Abridgment of Mr. Byrom's English univerfal Shert-Hand ; defigned for the Ufe of Schools. H. Lowndes, Fleet Street. 1796, From a long,ufe of Byrom's Short-Hand, we can fay that this abridgment is very well executed; fome of the modes for the junction of particular characters which he exhibits and recommends, are by much too formal. On the ambiguity arifing from using the fimple point for all vowels, we have formerly given our opinion, together with an eafy mode of getting rid of it. ART. 60. The Young Ladies Affiftant to Arithmetic, &c. 64 pp. Is. 6d. Cuft, 29, Parliament-Street. The common rules are here only treated of. This work is very defective, in the want of a fufficient number of examples of the fimple operations operations of each rule; and, although in their application to compound quantities, it is more full; yet on account of the former deficiency, we cannot venture to recommend it. A definition of arithmetical notation given here, and used as one of the fix arithmetical rules, is, it seems, the art of writing down figures [in columns] in their proper places; as units under units, tens under tens, &c. we must refer this teacher to Dr. Hutton for the fenfe of the term. The money table prefixed to the article of compound addition, is extremely redundant in its contents. ART. 61 A Key to the Tutor's and Scholar's Affiftant. By Jofeph Saul. 12mo. 47 PP. C. Law, &c. 1797. 1 This Key contains the answers to the arithmetical questions in the work mentioned in the title; as to their accuracy, not having the latter before us, we can give no judgment. It may fave trouble to the teachers who follow it, and be ufeful to those who wish to complete their arithmetical studies without an instructor, and are in poffeffion of the correfponding work. ART. 62. Thoughts upon State Lotteries; recommending, I. The Alteration of the Lottery Scheme; II. The Adoption of Two Annual Lotteries; III. The Establishment of a Funded Lottery. By a Young Gentleman. 8vo. 32 PP. 2s. 6d. Vernor and Hood. 1799. The principle upon which all the lottery fchemes of this young gentleman (and there are ten of them) proceed, is, the exclufion of fmall prizes; for, he thinks, this would prevent many of the lower classes of the community from adventuring, and thus obviate, in a great degree, the principal objection to lotteries. We doubt, however, if the purchafe of tickets were confined to perfons of property, whether a fufficient number would be fold to render the lottery productive. At all events, the Minifter, who always difpofes of it to the best bidder, can moft easily ascertain, and therefore beft judge, what mode or scheme - would be most advantageous to government. The writer's scheme of funding the prizes, inftead of paying them in money, is fo far from being new, that it was generally (we believe invariably) practifed, till a few years ago, when the prefent mode was, no doubt, upon good confideration, adopted. Whatever others may think of this young gentleman's labours, it appears that he does not himself under-rate them. Witness the price of half a crown for thirty-two pages; ten of which are occupied by his ten lottery schemes; fchemes that might easily be multiplied ad infinitum, and to which the talents of a very young gentleman are fully equal. FOREIGN FOREIGN CATALOGUE. FRANCE. ART. 63. Principes des mœurs chez toutes les Nations; ou Catéchisme Univerfel, par Saint Lambert. Paris, 1798. de 372 pp. le 2ème de 408. et le 3ème de 235. 3 vols. 8vo. le ter In the year 1781, the French Academy proposed a prize, of which the fubject was to be a catechifm of morality. The following year its new Programma was accompanied with certain inftructions for the authors who might be defirous of entering into competition. They were informed in it, that the Catechifin was to be " le refultat de l'analyfe, de la méthode, de l'art de divifer, de définir, de développer les idées et de les circonfcrire." The Academy, which it feems was very faftidious in point of morality, was not fatisfied, as might naturally be expected, with any of the Catechifms prefented on this occafion; though it diftinguished among them a work entitled: Les dévoirs de l'homme et du citoyen, by M. Lacretelle, which was afterwards inferted in the Encyclopédie méthodique. A proteftant, a philofopher, M. Necker, undertook to combat this doctrine, and published with this view a confiderable volume, fur l'importance des opinions religieufes. Though the author cannot be faid in this work to have made any new observations, he has certainly brought together and prefented under a new form what had been written before him on the fubject. His work, however, did not fatisfy either the believers or the foi difant philofophers. Among the latter, M. Garat attacked it in the Mercure de France, and M. Rivarol in two letters addreffed by him to the apolo ift of religious opinions. He then found that "le prémier homme qui avoit faverijë la credulité réligicufe, avoit été bien coupable envers le genre humain*;" though in a fobfequent publication he was induced to allow that "la religion eft indifpenfable à la juftice kumaine pour gouverner les hommes;” that “ la religion jeule peat répondre des maffes +," &c. The Principes as Maurs may be confidered as the chef d'œuvre of the fect of philofophes to which M. de St. Lambert appertains, and were drawn up by him long before the period when the prize, just alluded to, was propofed by the Academy. Of one thousand pages of which the work is compofed, there are not more than one hundred *. Seconde lettre à M. Necker fur la morale. + Difcours préliminaire du nouveau Dictionnaire de la langue Françoife. |