Art. 43. Family Difcourfes. By a Country Gentleman. 12mo. 3s. Johnfton. 1768. Numerous as the fermons are, published by English divines, of all denominations, it is difficult to procure a fufficient variety of fuch as are well adapted to the use of families. The author of this little volume aims, in fome degree, to leffen this difficulty. Whether he is a divine or a layman, does not appear. We are told, in his Dedication, to the Bishop of Durham, that these Difcourfes were written for the use of a private family, in the view of difpofing the members of it to a serious confideration of the duties of our prefent ftate, and the hopes and fears of futurity;' and that, extending the fame view, to Chriftian families in general, they are now published to the world. There are twelve of thefe fermons contained in this little volume; and, of courfe, the feveral fubjects are very briefly treated. But, tho' fhort, the discourses are serious, plain, and, in some refpecs, well calculated to answer the idea we have conceived of useful family compo fitions; but the Author's manner appears to us, in general, to be rather too stiff and unaffecting: and he seems alfo, for the most part, to have entered too fuperficially into the fubjects which lay before him, to make deep impreffions on the heart,-the great end for which difcourfes of this nature, are or ought to be, defigned. Nevertheless we think this publication may, in fome degree, ferve to fupply the deficiency we have juft pointed out. NOVEL S. H. Art. 44. The Adventures of Mifs Beverley. Interfperfed with Genuine Memoirs of a northern Lady of Quality. 12mo. 2 Vols. 6s. Bladon. Lefs romantic than the generality of novels; but, at the fame time, lefs moral, and lefs exemplary. Mifs Beverley is, indeed, a vicious character confeffed; for the plainly tells us in what manner fhe paffed through the hands of a variety of men, as a kept mistress, before she met with one who was fool enough to marry her. Her adventures, however, are not ill written; and her narrative is enlivened by a variety of anecdotes of eminent perfons, now living: which would have given an air of truth and reality to her ftory, had not fome of her defcriptions and characters of fuch perfons been notoriously f lfe,-particularly her account of the celebrated Meffrs. de Voltaire and Rouffeau.-As to her Memoirs of a Northern Lady, they contain a repetition of the famous ftory of Lady Jane Douglas and her fon, the prefent claimant of the ducal eftate of that name; in which the Writer fcruples not to determine against the Duke of Hamilton. Among the characters which are injuriously reprefented in this work, is that of the good-natured, inoffenfive, little monarch of Bath; whom the Writer has malicioufly and falsely afperfed by the charge of being himself an afperfer, What could provoke our Author to make this attack on Mr. D. we cannot imagine; but all who know him, know very well that his general conduct is quite the reverfe of what is implied in this accufation: for he is the molt cautious as well as the molt courteous creature breathing, in fpeaking of every body,-and would fcarce mention Monf. le Diable himself but as a gentleman,—and in terms displayed terms fit to be used in the polite circles of that emporium of complaifance and refinement. Art. 45. Clementina; or the Hftory of an Italian Lady, who made her Escape from a Monaftery, for the Love of a Scots Nobleman. 12mo. 33. Noble. We are told, in the advertisement prefixed to this Novel, that it is not a new work; that it made its first appearance in 1728, under the title of The Agreeable Caledonian; that its author was the late Mrs. Eliza Haywood; and that the prefent edition is printed from a copy corrected by her, not long before her death.-It is like the reft of Mrs. Haywood's novels, written in a tawdry style, now utterly exploded; the romances of these days being reduced much nearer to the ftandard of nature, and to the manners of the living world. DRAM MATIC. Art. 46. The Rider; or, Humours of an Inn; a Farce of Two The Author, in his apologetical preface, pleads his youth, in exte nuation of the def. &ts of this piece; which he mentions as his first production:-we honestly advise him to let it be his last. POLITICAL and COMMERCIAL. Art. 47. Obfervations on the Power of Alienation in the Crown be fore the first of Queen Anne, fupported by Precedents and the Opinions of many learned Judges. Together with fome Remarks on the Conduct of Administration refpecting the Cafe of the Duke of Portland. 8vo. I S. Almon. His Grace's caufe is here very warmly pleaded, and frongly fupported, by a masterly advocate; who allo vigorously attacks the adminiftration,-but, we think, with too much acrimony, and party virulence. By the bold language and fpirited flyle of thefe Obfervations, we are led to fuppofe them the production of the fame pen which, in fuch glowing colours, delineated The Cafe of the Duke of Portland, mentioned in our last. * See our last month's Catalogue. Art. 48. An Extraordinary North Briton. Folio. 3d. Steare. Art. 49. A Second Letter to the Right Hon. Thomas Harley, Efq; It is pity but Mr. Wilkes's pen fhould alone be employed in the defence of his caufe; for none other can do it, at least none has yet done it, with fuch happy effect as his own can do, whenever he pleases to ufe it.This Letter-writer is a forry hand, indeed; fit only for the land + Difavowed by the author of the first Letter: which was mentioned in our last month's Catalogue. able able bufinefs of chalking up N°. 45, or in breaking Windows for Wilkes and liberty. Art. 50. A celebrated Letter from John Wilkes Efq; at Paris, to the Electors of Aylesbury, in the Year 1764. 8vo. 6 d. Steare In this Letter Mr. W. with his ufoal fpirit and vivacity, juftifies his political conduct, in order to obtain the approbation of his friends at Aylesbury: whom he, at the fame time, politely takes occafion to thank for the honour they had more than once done him, in chufing him for their deputy in the great con il of the nation. Art. 51. A perfpective View of the Complexion of fome late Elections, and of the Candidates. With a Conclufion deduced from thence. In a Letter to a Member of Parliament. 8vo. IS. Steare. Complains, in a frange, turgid, rhapfodical train, of the enormities and exceffes which too often prevail at elections. The Writer alfo. rambles into fome other topics; but our Readers will perceive, from his uncouth title-page, what an indifferent writer is this perspective viewer of complexions. Art. 52. Reflections on the Cafe of Mr. Wilkes, and the Right of the People to elect their own Reprefentatives. To which is added, the Cafe of Mr. Walpole. 8vo. Is. Almon. This Writer has fome reflections upon liberty, which feem to merit attention. Liberty, as he juftiy obferves, is unquestionably the greatest good which the infinite benevolence of heaven can beflow on man: without it, all other bleffings are precarious in the enjoyment, and confequently trifling in their value. This inestimable treasure is the birth-right of the happy natives of this island handed down to them, through a long fucceffion of ancestors with continual increase and im provements. The name of it is in the mouth of every Enlishman, but few are fufficiently apprifed in what part of the conftitution it really confifts. • Excellent as our laws are, though they are defervedly filed the perfection of human reafon, yet we must look ftill farther than them, for the true foundation of our liberty. In every government, of whatever kind, from a defpotifm to a de mocracy, there must exift somewhere or other, a power fuperior to the laws, namely the power which makes thofe laws, and from which they derive their authority. The freedom therefore of any country wholly depends upon the hands in which the fupreme legislative power is lodged; and the liberty of a nation is exactly proportioned to the fhare the body of the people have in the legislature, and the checks placed by the constitution on the executive power. That ftate is truly free, where the people are governed by laws, which they have a fhare in making, and to the validity of which their confent is effentially neceffary. And that country is abfolutely and totally enflaved, where one fingle law can be made or repealed without the interpofition or confent of the people. Let us apply these principles to the queftion, in what the liberty of England confifts. Is it in magna charta, the bill of rights, the habeas corpus act, or any of the other numerous and excellent laws in favour of the rights and liberties of the people? Or is it in all thefe taken together? Clearly not not; for those laws may all be repealed in a fingle day, by the fame power that made them. In what then does it confift? It confifts in the right of the people to chufe reprefentatives, and in the right of thofe reprefentatives (in conjunction with the two other branches of the legislature) to make, repeal, and alter the laws by which the people are to be governed; to infpect into the due and faithful execution of those laws; and to call the minifters through whom the king exercises his executive power, to a ftrict and fevere account, for every neglect or abuse in the discharge of their important trust. This, in a few words, comprifes the whole of English liberty; and it is folely to these great conftitutional rights that we owe the fuperior excellence of the laws, under the government of which we have fo long been a flourishing and happy people. While these rights remain inviolate, no fingle act of oppreffion, no particular grievance whatsoever need alarm the people, for they have (by means of them) the legal conftitutional power of redress in their own hands. But the moment either the rights of the reprefentatives when elected, or the people in electing them, are infringed, there is an end at once of fecurity and liberty, the boafted laws in favour of the fubject, may be, at one ftroke, or by degrees, repealed, and the despairing people left without any means of redress but what are given by the immutable laws of nature to all mankind. Of thefe rights, as that of free election in the people is the firft in order, fo is it in importance, and it is indeed the corner-ftone of the whole conftitution. For of what avail to the people are the powers and rights of any fet of men, if those men ceafe to be their reprefentatives, which they clearly do whenever the freedom of elections is invaded by the hand of power. God forbid that we should ever fee fuch an invafion openly and fuccessfully made. I am perfuaded we never fhall. But yet there are fome circumftances in the prefent state of af. fairs, which call for the moft ferious attention both of the people at large, and their reprefentatives.' The ingenious Writer applies this doctrine to the late proceedings in a certain northern county, and he then takes notice of the rumours in regard to another election, which our Readers will want no index to point out to their view. These two events, he observes, have spread a general alarm and difcontent throughout the whole kingdom; but he hopes there is not sufficient foundation for the people's fears. I neither can, fays he, nor will believe that a fet of gentlemen on whom the people of England have juft conferred the greateft poffible obligation, by chufing them from amongst all others, to be entrusted with the protection of their rights and liberties, will immediately exert the power thus conferred on them, to rob their conftituents of the most valuable privilege they poffefs, the right of chufing their own representatives. I fay I neither can nor will believe this: but when the creatures of the favourite, and his administration have dared openly to avow fuch intentions, it becomes the duty of every Englishman to oppose them, by all legal and conftitutional means. Our reprefentatives have it in their power effectually to oppofe them, and that power I have no doubt they will properly exert. But the people have it alfo in their power legally to contribute to the fame end. • Our Our gracious fovereign, if his eyes were opened by the unanimous representations of his loyal fubjects, I am perfuaded, would never coun tenance, or lend the facred fanction of his authority to such measures. And the united voice of a free and fpirited people, would be a check upon all other perfons, whatever their inclinations might be. Inftructions to representatives, petitions to parliament, addresses to the throne itself, when offered with proper deference and decent fubmiffion, are all legal, all conftitutional; and fuch means have often conveyed the fenfe of the people to their fuperiors, in fo effectual a manner as obtain a full redress of grievances, and prevent a numerous train of impending evils. Thefe are means which the conftitution of this country has left in the hands of every man to express his sense of public affairs; and these are the most proper, nay, the only means by which (in a well-regulated government) the people fhould feek for a redrefs of their grievances, and not by riotous and tumultuous affemblies, or an ill-judged and ineffectual oppofition to the power of the laws.' The case of Mr. Walpole, afterwards Sir Robert, relates to his reelection for the borough of Lynn, in 1712, after he had been expelled the house of commons; it is now re-published on account of its affinity to the cafe of Mr. Wilkes. MEDICAL. Art. 53. A new Method of curing the Small-pox; by which the Difeafe, taken in the natural way, is renderea as void of Danger as when received from Inoculation. With a Specimen of Mifcellaneous Obfervations on Medical Subjects; from the Latin of John Frederic Clofs, M. A. Philofoph. et M. D. By a Physician. 8vo. I s. Hawes and Co. The method of curing the fmall-pox recommended and practifed by our Author, is to blifter the patient on the very fuft approach of the fever; and to keep up a conftant difcharge from the parts to which the blifters have been applied, through the feveral stages of the disease. Dr. Clofs is a man of learning, and though his theories may not always be the most fatisfactory, yet his practical obfervations fhow him to be an attentive and judicious phyfician. This appears as well from what he says on the ufe of blifters in the fmall-pox, as from the little fpecimen of miscellaneous obfervations, which make a part of the pamphlet. D. Art. 54. An hiftorical Account of a new Method of treating the Scurvy at Sea: containing ten Cafes, which fhew that this deflructive Difeafe, may be easily and effectually cured, without the Aid of fresh Vegetable Diet. By David Macbride, M. D. 8vo, Is. Cadell. Dr. Macbride, from the general principles laid down in his Experi mental Effays, concluded, that fresh wort, or an infufion of malt, might be used as a fubftitute, for the juices of fresh vegetables, in the cure of the scurvy at sea. For as wort is a liquor perfectly fimilar, in all its qualities, to the recent juices of the fweet vegetables, which are known, from repeated experience, |