to prove that I have been little fearful of expofing myfelf in order to fpare their blood, and to free me for ever from fuch an imputation. (Signed) Louis." Vol. i. p. 390.

The sketch of Robespierre is given with confiderable Spirit at p. 35.

The puerile conftitution of republican France offers to every critic an eafy triumph. The paper-bulwarks that have been fo pompously exerted against the encroachments of power, the artifice of intrigue, and the darings of ambition, are open to the ridicule of every man who is poffeffed of the leaft penetration; and offer a melancholy ftudy to him who recollects the miferies which it has coft. Mr. Neckar expofes its abfurdities with much good fenfe and political knowledge. Among many glaring defects, the following is worthy of particular notice.

"Thus, a want of pliancy, a character of drynefs, may be found at every inftant in the courfe of the French legiflation; and the conftitutional code difcovers the fame fpirit. Europe, aftonished, will fearch in vain there to discover in what hands they have deposited the right of pardon and of mercy, to what power they have confided it. These words, fo dear to fouls of feeling, have not even been pronounced; and no perfon, during the courfe of its difcuffion, has found that they left a void in the republican code; no perfon, in an affembly of 750 popular deputies, has appeared to remember, or has ever mentioned them.

"This is a fingle example in the world; for free countries as well as others have always demanded that there fhould be a means of fafety after justice; they have perceived that this juftice, inflexible by its nature, cannot comprehend, cannot go through the diverfity of circumstances, and remark the diftinctions, the peculiarities, which may plead in favour of the criminal for indulgence and for pardon; they have believed that justice, after having fulfilled her own duty' towards feciety, ought to leave an opportunity to exercise her's towards human weaknefs. It is an ancient cuftom in Great Britain, to demand of the prince at his coronation, that he will fwear to render juftice with exactnefs, and moreover, with mercy. America, in its new inftitutions, has never thought of profcribing accefs to pity, and has depofited the right of pardoning in the hands of the chief of the executive authority; and this expreflion in the ancient oath of the kings of France, rationalem mifericordiam exhibebo, is found in the annals of the earliest times of the monarchy," Vol. ii. p. 210.

This work is an important addition to fimilar publications on the fubject, and will afford copious and ufful materials to the future hiftorian.

Ꮓ

BRIT. CRIT. YOL. XII, SEPT. 1798.

BRITISH

BRITISH CATALOGUE

POETRY.

ART. 19. Fabulæ Selectæ Au&tore Johanne Gay Latine reddita interprete Chr. Anfley, Arm. 8vo. 139 PP. 2s. 6d. Cadell and Da

vies.

We have before feen fpecimens of Mr. Anftey's Latin poetry, which inclined us to expect much pleasure from the prefent publication. Eighteen of the most popular of Gay's Fables are rendered in eafy elegant hexameter and pentameter verfes. We think the following among the moft happy.

"FABULA II.

MATER, NUTRIX, et LAMIA.

Dii, date filiolum, miffo fibi munere felix
Ó! quàm progenie gaudet uterque parens!
Quid falfus non fuadet amor? fapientior hercle
Non fuit, aut toto pulchrior orbe puer.

Surgit, et Aurorâ lætos referente labores,
Hæredem genitrix officiofa petit:
Contortis ftabat, ceu percita Dæmone, palmis
Nutrix, fingultu concutiente finus.

Hei mihi, nefcio quid malè contigit, en age, quid fit,
Dic, Nutrix; vivit, fpero, valetque puer.

Ne mihi, ne tribuas, Domina O cariffima, culpam;
Adfuit hic oculos clam fcelerata meos
Adfuit hic Lamia; et vitâ tibi charior infans
Tollitur, et fupplet plumbeus ifte locum;
Lumina quò matris fylveftribus æmula prunis,
Quò patrius fugit nafus, et oris honos?
Hic adverte oculos, deforme hoc afpice monftrum,
Totas hebet, ftultum tota figura fapit.

Fœmina, mater ait, cæca eft; en, qualis ocello
Vivida fcintillat vis, animique vigor?

Per Superos, refpondet anus, tranfverfa tuetur
Jam nunc, hic Lamiam nullus adeffe neget.
Dixit, per clavis cùm lapfa foramen imago
Pygmæa, ante oculos ocyor igne volat;
Erectum que caput cunarum in vertice tollens,
Stultitiam his vifa e increpitare modis.

Unde

Unde hæc vana hominum furgunt commenta ? quis unquam
Nos orbi ftultos fuppeditare putet?

An noftrum fublime genus mortalibus ægris,
Compofitifque luto pofthabuiffe decet?

Nos

quoque progeniem vix æquo lumine noftram
Cernimus, et falfus nos quoque ludit amor;
Quæ genitrix, puerum fi commutare liceret,
Pingue caput fatui nollet habere fui?
Gentis at humanæ fobolem præponere noftræ,

Stultorum nobis nomina jure daret." P. 27.

This will probably be received into every fcholar's library, as a fuitable companion to the fimilar efforts of Vincent Bourne.

ART. 20. Malvern Hills, a Poem. By Jofeph Cottle. 8vo. 71 pp. 35. Longman. 1798.

There are fome marks of true poetic spirit in this composition; as the reader may judge.

"And now I mark,
Beneath two lofty hills, and in the vale
Form'd by their steep defcent, the Holy Well,
A plain ftone dwelling, weather-worn and rude
Stands fingly by. There never found is heard
But the bleak wind, that, howling from above,
Sweeps the bald mountain's fide, and urging on
It's boisterous way, at length forgets its rage,
In dallying with the valley's fcattered trees:
Save when the sky is hufh'd, and to the ear
The never-ending bubblings of the spring
Send the fame note-the fame unvarying note.
Moft melancholy spot, the hand of time
Seems bufy with thy fhatter'd tenement,
And all around thee prompts to pensiveness:
For who can view this place, nor think of those
Who to the fount are led to ease their frames
Of rankling malady-The drooping fire
Of rifing children, tortering o'er the grave,
And cafting, with an anxious look, his eye
Through diftant times, with many hopes and feats
For those he leaves behind. Or of the wife
Who bears a mother's name, by flow disease
Treading the downward road, yet, fill'd with dreams
Of lengthen'd days and coming happiness;
Watching her infant's fmile, and planning well
Its future destiny, tho' never she

Shall mark its courfe. Yet not alone the throng
Who vainly hope the renovated frame,

Here pafs their days, beneath yon ftately roof
Health and her fifter Chearfulness are found,
Whilft every joy, from Nature's fairest works,
When in her pride fhe fits immaculate,
Spontaneous heaves the heart." P. 29.

We

We fhall notice this gentleman's tranflation of the Edda in our Re view for next month.

DRAMATIC.

ART. 21. The Will. A Comedy, in Five Acts; as it is performed at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Second Edition. By Frederic Reynolds. 8vo. 25. Robinfons. 1797.

Much bufile, and much improbability; with little plot, and lefs wit, the ufual texture of a modern comedy. How long authors will think themselves at liberty to write with fo little attention to dramatic principles, and how long the public will patiently receive fuch things, we cannot predict. But, till there is more laudabie exertion on one fide or the other, we can have little occafion to expatiate on any production called a comedy.

NOVELS.

ART. 22. The Midnight Bell, a German Story, founded on Incidents in real Life. In Three Volumes. 8vo. 10s. 6d. Symonds. 1798.

They who delight in being terrified, may, with much fatisfaction, wafte an hour or two in turning over this ftory, or rather knots of ftories, fo intertwined, that it requires more attention than the matter is worth, to keep in view the connexion of the feveral characters. Very fad things are related of the old Baftile; but care is taken to fay nothing about the new ones, by which the face, as it were, of France has been covered, fince the ancient state-prifon was demolished.

ART. 23. Rofe Cecil, a Novel. In Three Volumes.

1797.

Ios. 6d. Lane.

The heroine of this story is indeed a charming woman; and the hero of it (for fo we account Willoughby) is worthy of her. When a novel has no manifeft bad tendency, we are unwilling to disclose any, which the author perhaps was far from intending. Yet we must say, that the mutual acknowledgment of a paffion betwixt a young married woman and her admirer, playmates in their infancy, however innocent may be their conduct; and their final union and happiness, at the death of her Luiband, who is much older than herfelf;do not hold forth a leffon quito ftauétive as we could with. Many errois in point of ftyle must be forgiven in works of this kind; otherwife, very lew of them would find any mercy at the bar of criticifa; and reviewers would be wholly occupied in paffing fentences of condemnation. But falfe fpelling, and fome other faults equally bad, cannot claim indulgence in any writings whatever. The frequent recurrence of fuch words as irradicate, ftimula, infignias, &c. fhow the ignorance of the writer, or the negligence of the printer.

ART. 24. Clara Dupliffis and Clairant: the History of a Family of French Emigrants. Tranflated from the German. In Three Volumes. 8vo. ros. 6d. Longman. 1797.

We should commend this story on fome accounts very strongly, if we were not reftrained by two confiderations; firft, its main tendency is to render men in the higher ranks of life odious to thofe beneath them; fecondly, it incites unfortunate perfons to the perpetration of felf-murder; a horrid act, which involves in mifery and thame a mulsitude of innocent relatives of the unhappy victim. We can never recommend books which encourage a practice fo hoftile (to fay nothing elfe of it) to the peace and comfort of fociety.

ART. 25
Derwent Priory; or, Memoirs of an Orphan. In a Series
of Letters, first published periodically, now republifhed, with Additions.
By the Author of the Cafle on the Rock." In Two Volumes. 8vo,
IS. Symonds. 1798.

From the language and conduct of the principal characters exhibited in this novel, young perfons may learn to defpife rank and fortune, and to facrifice all other confiderations to omnipotent love. They may find alfo a panegyric upon Reafon, and upon its happy effects in the prefent age, put, fomewhat indelicately, into the mouth of a female, (vol. i, p. 165). The author, or authorefs (as the will have it) feems to plot unhappily, when the repeatedly reprefents the converfations of love, and of avarice, as overheard (vol. i, pp. 50, 134; vol. ii, p. 19). The fonnet at p. 31, induces us to recommend to her an abftinence from writing verses,

ART. 26. Grafville Abbey. A Romance. In Three Volumes. 8vo. 10s. 6d. Robinsons. 1797.

A difmal ftory, related (if we may ufe a familiar phrase) in a ftile difmally bad.

ART. 27.
Ianthé, or the Flower of Caernarvon, a Novel. Dedi-
cated, by Permiffion, to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. By
Emily Clark. 2 Vols. 10s. 6d. Hookham and Carpenter.

1798.

Among the many novels which are daily iffuing from the prefs, we have to notice fome few, which either rank above the commonalty, or elfe raife expectations, that when the powers of the writer shall be matured, they will produce fomething of a fuperior caft. The work on our table is of the latter clafs; for the fair writer feems, from this fpecimen, to poffefs an elegant mind. The ftory of this early production of her pen, though fimple, is happily imagined, and the plot fkilfully developed; the characters of it are juftly conceived, and well fupported; and the pieces of poetry interfperfed are far from contemptible. But if even it did not poffefs thefe claims to public notice, the fituation of the writer, the grand daughter of the late wellknown, much respected, and unfortunate Colonel Frederic, the fon of Theodore