Thus when the Theban and as WOLFE of late, No more they dreaded the chill ftroke of Fate; Nor at th' approach of death while conqu❜ring griev'd. This is not the most pleafing poem of the kind that we ever perufed: but we forbear; not being ambitious of the honour of having our names joined with thofe venerable ones of antiquity, which this fweet-blooded gentleman has treated with fuch extraordinary marks of reverence in his Differtation on Plato, &c. See Review, vol. xlix. P. 437 Art. 26. Poems by Mr. Fenton, 4to. 6s. Kearly. 1774. We fuppofe this honeft ancient Briton will hardly think us niggards in our approbation, when we allow that he does no difcredit to his name. His poems are mifcellaneous, many of them eafy and pretty, and it gives us pleasure to fee them prefaced with fuch a noble fubfcription lift of the Author's countrymen, Art. 27. Poems by Mr. Jerningham. 8vo. 2 s. 6 d. fewed. Robfon. 1774. Mr. Jerningham's prefatory advertisement informs his readers that the favourable reception thefe poems met with, as they feparately appeared, has induced him to collect them into a little volume, and prefent them, with fome emendations, to the Public; and he hopes that the indulgence which firft attended them, will not forfake them in their prefent appearance.' We are always pleafed with the modefty and becoming diffidence with which this ingenious Writer adds his literary mite, as he expreffes it, to the treafure of English poetry. Of the true value of that mite, we have frequently given our impartial eftimate; and thall only now give a lift of the pieces contained in the prefent edition of his works, viz. The Magdalens-Yarico to Incle-The Nun-The DeferterLatte-Matilda-The Swedish Curate-The Funeral of Arabertand a few fmaller pieces; moft of which, if not all, feem to be now first published: the laft, entitled The Nunnery, in imitation of Mr. Gray's Elegy, is concluded, in course, by The Epitaph; in which the Author has thus, very properly, glanced at his own poetical character: By Death's ftern hand untimely fnatch'd away, A youth unknown to fame these vaults infold; He gave to SOLITUDE the penfive day *, And PITY, &c. . In the advertisement above-quoted, Mr. J. takes notice, that out of refpect to the public opinion, he has excluded fome poems from this collection, choofing rather to fubmit to the voice of his cotemporaries, than make a prefumptuous appeal to pofterity." How different this from the conduct of fome more felf-fufficient bards, who have feemed rather inclined to bully the Public into an approbation of their writings! The word is thus, in our copy, fo faintly printed, that we are in fome doubt whether the Author did not write lag. PHILOSOPHICAL. Art. 28. An Efay on Electricity; containing a Series of Experiments introductory to the Study of that Science. 8vo. 3 s. Briftol printed, and fold by Becket in London. 1773. This compendium is well drawn up, and will be of use to thofe who wish to be initiated into the principles of electricity, and to acquire a knowledge of the principal experiments that have been made in this branch of fcience; fome of which likewise are here agreeably enough diverfified. The Effay is enlarged by various obfervations on medical electricity, and ftill more by the histories of the feveral cures that have been performed by means of the electrical apparatus; collected from the different writers who have treated this fubject. DRAMA TI C. Art. 29. Codrus, a Tragedy. 8vo. 1's. 6d. Johnfon. 1774. The Author of this Tragedy, in a very fenfible prefatory letter, informs us, that it was not intended for the flage. It breathes, however, the genuine fpirit of Liberty and Virtue, and for the fake of those honeft old principles, which we remember to have heard fomething about many years ago, we can with pleasure pass over a few defects of compofition. Art. 30. Henry and Emma, a new Poetical Interlude, altered from Prior's Nut-brown Maid, with Additions, and a new Air and Chorus, (the Mufic by Dr. Arne) as performed on Wednesday, April 13, 1774, at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, for the Benefit of Mrs. Hartley. 8vo. 6d. Davies. Hardly any skill could alter Prior's Nut-brown Maid, fo as to atone to the Audience, or to the Reader, for the, regret which they would feel at the omiffion of any of its beautiful and pathetic paffages. MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 31. The Roman Hiftory, in a Series of Letters from a Nobleman to his Son. 12mo. 6s. Snagg. A few years ago, we had a pocket hiftory of England, in Letters from a Nobleman to his Son, or fome title fimilar to this; it was not inelegantly written; and as the plan was well adapted for the inftruction and entertainment of young Gentlemen, the work was favourably received; and it has, confeffedly, given rise to the prefent performance: The Roman Hiftorians, fays the Editor, have been time immemorial, read in our fchools, in detached pieces, and in fuch a manner as could give neither entertainment nor inftruction to the persons who perused them. Here the Author has laid before the Reader the leading facts, and drawn fuch conclufions from them, as muft make a lafting impreffion on the memory of every person who perufes it. Virtue is delineated in its most amiable characters, and vice fo as to deter the rifing generation from becoming its votaries.' There is no queftion but that abstracts of this kind, written in an eafy, familiar tyle, and illuftrated with fuitable reflections, will prove both agreeable and useful to young readers; and that while they are engaged, perhaps, merely in the fearch of amusement, (of which they will find an almost inexhaustible store in the Roman History) Hiftory) they will, at the fame time, as our Editor obferves, acquire knowledge of things of the utmost importance.' This hiftory is, for the most part, written in a familiar and pleafing ftrain; but it is unequal, frequently inaccurate in the details, and generally fo incorrectly printed, that there is much left for the Editor to do, in a fecond edition. Of the Writer's inaccuracy, a fingle fpecimen may foffice, as well as a greater number, which we have noted in the course of our perufal. Speaking of the memorable eruption of Mount Vefuvius, which happened in the reign of the Emperor Titus, the Writer mentions the death of the great Pliny, in the following terms: Pliny, the Author of the Natural Hiftory, loft his life on this memorable occafion, for a curiofity peculiar to himfelf, having led him too near the mouth of the Volcano, he was swallowed up and devoured in the flames.” Would not any reader, not previously informed of the real circumftances of the fact, conclude, from this account of it, that Pliny had, in fome measure, voluntarily fhared the fate of Empedocles, and that he had actually perished in the very Crater from whence the flames iffued? Whereas the truth is, that this celebrated obferver of nature was not on the mountain, nor even within feveral miles of it, at the time of the eruption; that his curiofity, fatal as it proved, led him no nearer to it than Stabia, and that he died by fuffocation, at the fea fide, in the neighbourhood of that town, as he was endeavouring to escape from thence to his fhips. The circumftance is thus related by his nephew:- "He fell down dead; fuffocated, as I conjecture, by fome grofs and noxious vapour, having always had weak lungs, and frequently fubject to a difficulty of breathing. As foon, as it was light again-his body was found intire, and without any marks of violence upon it, exactly in the fame posture that he fell, and looking more like a man afleep than dead*.' This was three days after he fell; two of his fervants were with him at the time of this melancholy accident. Notwithstanding the little defects of a work probably compiled in hafte, (for Noblemen as well as Plebeian writers may have cogent reafons for fat-writing) we can recommend this compilement as an agreeable and ufeful introduction to a more intimate knowledge of the rife, progrefs, revolutions, and declenfion of the greatest Empire that ever fubfifted upon earth: the hiftory of which, however, as was faid on a fimilar † occafion, "has been fo often written, both in ancient and modern languages, that it would be impofture to pretend to new discoveries, or to offer any thing which other works of the fame kind have not given." - Art. 32. A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas, in his Majefty's Ship the Endeavour, faithfully tranfcribed from the Papers of Sydney Parkinfon, &c. Folio. 11. 5.s. Boards. Richardfon. 1773This performance is compiled from certain manufcripts of the late Mr. Parkinson, Draughtfman to Mr. Banks, in his late expedition • Melmoth's Tranflation of Pliny's Letters, + Vid. our account of Goldsmith's Roman History, Rev. vol. xli. P. 183. round round the world, procured from feveral of the officers and others be longing to the Endeavour, by the Editor; who complains of the lofs, or the unjuft detention, of the fair copy of the journal kept by his brother; in a long preface, where he arraigns, not in the moit civil or guarded terms, the conduct of Mr. Banks, the late Dr. Hawkfworth, and others, towards him. We have already fo largely gratified the curiofity of the Public with regard to the voyage of the Endeavour, by the extracts which we have given from the journals of Captain Cook and Mr. Banks, compiled and methodifed by Dr. Hawkefworth, that we fhall only observe that the Writer of the present journal feems to have been a well difpofed young man, who kept a regular diary of fuch occur rences as fell within the fphere of his knowledge and obfervation; that the work is enlarged by fome pretty copious fpecimens of the language of Otaheite and other parts which he vifited. and that this journal is illuftrated by twenty-feven plates, which perhaps may be thought to constitute the most valuable part of it. Art. 33. A Letter addressed to Dr. Hawkefworth, and humbly recommended to the Perufal of the very learned Deifts. 8vo. 6d. Payne. 1773. This literary fungus, which fuddenly fprung up from under the fhade of the grand compilation of the South Sea Voyages, was overlooked by us at the time of its starting up. We need lay no more of it, than that it is a very inoffenfive excrefcence; nor is its flavour fuch as to recommend it to the relish of any of the learned Deifts to whom it is meant to be ferved up. Art. 34. Letters to Men of Reafon, and the Friends of the Poor, on the Hardships of the Excife Laws relating to Malt and Beer; more especially as they affect the Inhabitants of Cities and Great Towns. With a few Remarks on the late Regulations in the Corn Trade. 8vo. 1 S. Almon. An earnest remonstrance on the hardships the Brewers labour under, from the heavy and unequal duties to which they are subjected, as well as from the impolitic regulations of the hop trade, and from the frauds of hop-jobbers. We cannot pretend to enter into the various particulars, but the Writer appears to understand his fubject, and to have confidered it with due attention; his reprefentations therefore merit immediate examination, no lefs from motives of juftice to fo great a body of manufacturers, and to the labouring poor, than from the national importance of the brewery and corn trade. Art. 35. An Appeal to the Public, relative to a Cause lately determined in the Court of Chancery; in four Letters to Mr. John Vernon, of Southampton-buildings, Sollicitor. 4to. 4to. I s. 6d. Wheble. 1774. The Appellant complains of the ill-ufage he has received at the hands of a Mrs. M. a Lady of eafy Virtue, once his Friend, but now the "kept Madam of a Sollicitor ;" who joins with faid Madam in a most unrighteous perfecution of the Author; bringing actions against him" on account of demands already fatisfied, though not legally discharged; propagating flanders, iffuing writs, commencing Mr. M, of Poland-ftreet. profecu. profecutions in various forms, and barring the door of justice against the Appellant."-" Wretched Victim! his quiet annoyed, his cha racter afpered, his property invaded,-covered with fhame, furrounded with difficulties; without remedy, without hope!'-If there are the confequences of keeping a girl, a man may e'en as well marry, and live honestly. Art. 36. One more Proof of the iniquitous Abufe of private Mad, houfes. By Samuel Bruckhaw, late of Stamford, Lincolnshire. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Kearly, &c. 1774. Mr. Bruckshaw ftates the circumftances of his arbitrary and cruel confinement, under an ill-fupported charge of lunacy, and he tells his affecting tale in the ftyle of a man whofe mind has been greatly irritated by his fufferings, but he does not fall into any of those incoherencies which are the ufual indications of mental derangement. If there really was no juft foundation for fuch treatment as the unfortunate Author hath met with, he must be confidered as one of the moft injured of mankind. Art. 37. A Letter to the Right Rev. Father in God, William Lord Bishop of Chester; on Occafion of his Sermon preached before the House of Lords, Jan. 31, 1774. By Andrew Henderfon, Author of the Hiftory of the Rebellion, 1745, and 1746, 8vo. 6d. Henderson. Some reflections thrown out by the Bishop of Chester, on the conduct of the Nobility and Clergy of Scotland, in the time of the. Grand Rebellion, have provoked the nationality of Mr. Henderfon to call the learned Prelate to account for his fermon, He defends the conduct of his countrymen; enters at large into the merits of the civil war fhews himfelf to be a ftaunch Whig; and treats the Bishop as an high-flying Churchman, whofe fentiments, on the fubject in queftion, tend to rekindle the embers of unnatural antipathy, blow the coal of diffention between the two kingdoms,-and poifon the mind of his Royal Pupil,' &c. &c. All of which, tremendous as it, is, had escaped us when we read the difcourfe to which Mr. Henderfon refers; and will probably elude the difcernment of most others, even with the help of this penetrating Writer's expofition. AMERICAN AFFAIRS. Art. 33. Sele Letters on the Trade and Government of America, and the Principles of Law and Polity applied to the American Colonies. Written by Governor Bernard, at Botton, in the Years 1763, 4, 5. 6, 7, and 8. Now first published. To which are added, thePetition of the Affembly of Maffachufett's Bay againft the Gover-. nor, his Answer thereto, and the Order of the King in Council thereon. 8vo. 23. Payne. 1774 Thefe letters appear to be made public by the proper authority, and will certainly contribute to 1 ghten the load of obloquy heaped on the Governor for the discharge of his duty as the fupream crown officer in the province of Maffachufett's Bay: a character that we ought not to lofe fight of, while we attempt to form an opinion of his conduct there. See Review for March, p. 239. From |