to prove that I have been little fearful of expofing myself in order to Ipare 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 riumph. 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 legislation; and the conftitutional code difcovers the fame fpirit. Europe, aftonished, will search in vain there to difcover in what hands they have depofited 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 person, 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 should be a means of fafety after juftice; they have perceived that this juftice, inflexible by its nature, cannot comprehend, cannot go through the diversity 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 fociety, ought to leave an opportunity to exercife her's towards human weakness. It is an ancient cuftom in Great Britain, to demand of the prince at his coronation, that he will fwear to render juftice with exactness, 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 expreffion 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 ufeful materials to the future historian.

BRITISH CATALOGUE.

POETRY.

ART. 19. Fabula Selectæ Auctore Johanne Gay Latine reddine interprete Chr. Anfey, 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 pleafure 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 most 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 herclé
Non fuit, aut toto pulchrior orbe puer.

Surgit, et Aurorâ lætos referente labores,
Hæredem genitrix officiofa petit:
Contortis ftabat, eeu percita Dæmonė, 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 elam 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,
Totus 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.
Dixi, per clavis cùm lapfa foramen imago
Pygmæa, ante oculos ocyor igne volat;
Erectumque caput cunarum in vertice tollens,
Stultitiam his vifa e increpitare modis.

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 fpirit in this compofition; as the reader may judge.

"And now I mark,
Beneath two lofty hills, and in the vale

Form'd by their fleep 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 fky is hufh'd, and to the ear
The never-ending bubblings of the spring
Send the fame note-the fame unvarying note.
Moft melancholy fpot, the hand of time
Seems bufy with thy fhatter'd tenement,
And all around thee prompts to penfivenefs:
For who can view this place, nor think of those
Who to the fount are led to eafe their frames
Of rankling malady-The drooping fire
Of rifing children, tottering o'er the
And cafting, with an anxious look, his eye
Through diftant times, with many hopes and fears
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 fimile, and planning well
Its future deftiny, tho' never the

grave,

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 faireft works,
When in her pride fhe fits immaculate,
Spontaneous heaves the heart." P. 29.

We fhall notice this gentleman's translation 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. Secona Edition. By Frederic Rey nolds. 8vo. 25. Robinfons. 1797.

Much buftle, and much improbability; with little plot, and lefs wit, the usual 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 laudable exertion on one fide or the other, we can have little occafion to expatiate on any production cailed 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 ftate-prison was demolished.

ART. 23. Rofe Cecil, a Novel. In Three Volumes. 10s. 6d. Lane.

1797.

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 muft fay, that the mutual acknowledgment of a paffior 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 husband, who is much older than herself;-do not hold forth a leffon quite fo inftructive as we could wish. Many errors in point of ftyle muft be forgiven in works of this kind; otherwife, very few of them would find any mercy at the bar of criticism; and reviewers would be wholly occupied in paffing fentences of condemnation. But falfe fpelling, and fome other faults equally bad, cannot elaim 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.

Авт

ART. 24. Clara Dupleffis and Clairant: the Hiftory of a Family of French Emigrants. Tranflated from the German. In Three Volumes. 8vo. 10s. 6d. Longinan. 1797.

We fhould commend this story on fome accounts very ftrongly, if we were not refrained by two confiderations; first, 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 shame a multitude of innocent relatives of the unhappy victim. We can never recommend books which encourage a practice fo hoftile (to say nothing elfe of it) to the peace and comfort of fociety.

ART. 25. Derwent Priory; or, Memoirs of an Orphan. In a Series of Leturs, first published periodically, now republished, with Additions. By the Author of the Cafile on the Rock.” In Two Volumes. 8vo. 15. Symonds. 1798.

66

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 also 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 authores (as fhe will have it) seems 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 abstinence from writing verfes.

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 elle raife expectations, that when the powers of the writer fhall 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 produc-" tion 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