fcenes in which Prefcot appears, are worked up with fingular pathos we feel for the amiable, the tender Patty; and admire as well as pity the generous, the infatuated colonel Prefcot. Agitation; or Memoirs of George Woodford and Lady Emma Melville. 3 Vols. I 2mo. 75. 6d. Sewed. Barker.

This lady, content to dwell in decencies for ever,' deferves no ill-natured farcafms.'-Like her former works, this novel, if it raife no admiration, will efcape contempt; and, to conclude in her own manner,-may never any novellift hold up woríe examples, or inculcate lefs falutary leffons, than we find in the Memoirs of George Woodford and Lady Emma Melvill! The Effects of the Paffions, or Memoirs of Florincourt. From the French. 3 Vols. 12mo. 95. Vernor.

There is feme novelty, and fomewhat interefting, in the adventures of Florincourt, and the fatal end of Julia. The story of Varueil alfo, though improbable, is variéd by numerous and uncommon events, and related in a manner which does credit to the fenfibility and the fpirit of the author. There is, 'however, no confiderable merit in the whole; and the work can only appear in a very advantageous light, when placed near the miferable trash which we have received under the title of Novels. The Weft-Indian; or the Memoirs of Frederick Charlton.

12mo. 5s. ferved. Axtell.

2 Vols.

There is too great fimilarity in this story to the Adventures of Roderick Random, and his Narciffa; yet there is fome dexterity in the manner of difhing up the repaft before us; and the firit morfel is not wholly unpalatable. The author began with mince-pyes, and we invert the feaft, by concluding with a fricaffée. As he has thought fit to bribe us by a promife of his pyes, we fhall conclude our character of the work in the manner which he has prescribed, and wish that the author's fuccefs may be adequate to his merits.' We hope we shall not forfeit our right to the invitation, when we add, as impartiality directs, that these merits are not very ftriking or confiderable; -that the conclufion is lame and impotent,-and thefe little volumes require, at laft, the addition of a trifling farce, to fupply the vacuity of a meagre ftory.

The Adventures of Jonathan Corncob, Loyal American Refugee, Written by himself. 12mo. 2s. 6d. Robinfons.

Harkee, Mr. Jonathan Corncob! leave your indecorums, and preferve your genuine humour, unpolluted by improper language, or indecent defcriptions. If you do fo, we shall receive ou with pleafure, as a relation at leaft, if not a defcendant, yf the facetious Yorick: otherwife we shall confign your future volumes to the oblivion which they will merit.

Phabe; or Difreed Innocence. 2 Vols. 12mo. 55. Served.

Stalker.

The reader, who can purfue the adventures of Phæbe in this

frange.

ftrange and intricate contexture of events, must be capable of much patient attention; and, for thofe who can employ the neceffary time in the enquiry, we anxioufly with a better employment. After much care, and a fcrupulous examination, we gave up the caufe as hopeless: of courfe, we cannot decide on the probability of the narrative. Every thing is defigned, as Bayes fays, to elevate and furprize.

POLITICA L.

Animadverfions on the Political Part of the Preface to Bellendenus, 8vo. 15. 6d. Debrett.

We have already given our opinion on the political nature of this celebrated Preface, and regretted that fo much pains fhould have been bestowed in vain, on a temporary and difputed fubject. The animadvertor, alfo, difplays abilities worthy of a better caufe; for the meteors of the day are already funk in obfcurity: in fhort, both the Preface and the Animadverfions, we may ftyle, in the language of our present author, a melancholy perverfion of fplendid talents.' In this work there is much fevere and poignant reprehenfions of the heroes of the Preface, and no bluntless farcafms on its author, We have feldom feen arrows pointed with a better aim; and we are forry that they must waste their force in the air. The political and claffical antagonists of our prefent author are beyond their reach.

As the title imports, the chief attack is directed against the politics of the Preface:-the fhort allufions to the Latin wea pons, which were wielded with true claffic force, are very fuccefsful. We fhall tranfcribe a short paffage, as a specimen of our author's abilities.

The editor's arguments against the commercial treaty are felected, with his ufual felicity, from the Greek poets. It has been frequently faid that there never exifted a religious error, however abfurd and impious, that numerous adopters have not attempted to establish, and in their own opinions fuccefs fully, on the divine fanction of Scripture. It fuppofes, however, fome confiftency even in the wildeft zealots, to have recourfe for authority, where alone fufficient authority could be found. It remained for the learned Prefacer to extract his tertium quid from a mixture, the most heterogeneous that ever entered the imagination ;-to prove, by quotations from ancient poetry, the specific evils of modern policy; to fhew our treaty with France highly injurious from the teftimony of Aristophanes; the infufficiency of the Irish propofitions by the evidence of Homer; or the evil tendency of a rupture with Portugal on the weighty atteftation of the Orphic verfes.-Thefe are refources peculiar to learning. Plain, unlettered men must be fatisfied with national hiftory, and the evidence of the times.' Letters on the Slave Trade. By Thomas Cooper, Efq. Smail 8vo. Supplement to Mr. Cooper's Letters on the Slave Trade.

Small Sve.

Thefe little tracts are circulated gratis; and though we com L 4

mend

mend the humanity of the defign, we cannot approve of accu mulating every fhocking fact that is calculated to imprefs the reader with a belief that treatment of this kind is common, Mrs. Brownrig, and fome others of the fame infamous defcription, have cruelly used their apprentices, and, in the fame way, it might be proved that every apprentice is treated with unheard-of barbarity. We believe, in a moral view, it would not be allowed to mifreprefent facts, whatever benefit may be derived from the mifreprefentation. Mr. Cooper, however, collects only from different authors; and, if he misleads the reader, it is by enumerating occafional cruelties in fuch a manner as to induce him to think they are frequent and common. The defcription of the means of procuring flaves is undoubtedly correct

The Supplement confifts, of detached facts, compiled from different authors, relating to the numbers of flaves in the West India islands, and some parts of the continent, where African flaves are imported: 500,000 either killed in war, or exported as captives, 'are, our author thinks, annually loft to Africa, yet, from the ftate of population, and various caufes which infuence it, Africa might bear that annual lofs four times told, without a diminution of the existing stock. The total number which have been imported from Africa, is calculated at fifty millions, at leaft; and, by the deaths previous to the importa tion, the lofs in war, &c. Africa has loft five times as many in this deftructive trade,

Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade. By John Newton, 8vo,

15. Buckland.

Mr. Newton, though at prefent a minifter of the Gospel, was once engaged in the flave-trade as mate, and as captain of a Guinea fhip. He gives a very candid, and apparently dif paffionate account of the cruelties neceffarily attending this infamous fpecies of traffic, without aiming at exaggerations to fill up the measure of horror. We shall felect one fact refpecting the loss of feamen on the coaft, and another to correct the mifreprefentations of fome authors who have treated of the manners of the Africans.

How far the feveral caufes I have enumerated, may refpectively operate, I cannot fay: the fact, however, is fure, that a great number of our feamen perifh in the flave trade. Few hips, comparatively, are either blown up, or totally cut off, but fome are. Of the reft, I have known fome that have loft half their people, and fome a larger proportion. I am far from faying, that it is always, or even often, thus; but, I believe, I shall ftate the matter fufficiently low, if I fuppofe that, at leaft, one fifth part of those who go from England to the coast of Africa, in fhips which trade for flaves, never return from thence. I dare not depend too much upon my memory, as to the number of hips and men employed in the flave trade more than thirty years ago; nor do I know what has been the ftate

· of

of the trade fince; therefore I fhall not attempt to make calcu lations. But, as I cannot but form fome opinion on the fubject, I judge it probable, that the collective fum of feamen, who go from all our ports to Africa within the course of a year, (taking Guinea in the extenfive fenfe, from Goree or Gambia, and including the coalt of Angola,) cannot be lefs than eight thoufand; and if, upon an average of fhips and feafons, a fifth part of thefe die, the annual lofs is fifteen hundred. I believe thofe who have taken pains to make more exact enquiries, will deem my fuppofition to be very moderate.'——

I have often been gravely told, as a proof that the Africans, however hardly treated, deferve but little compaffion, that they are a people fo deftitute of natural affection, that it is common among them for parents to fell their children, and children their parents. And, I think, a charge of this kind is brought against them by the refpectable author of Spectacle de la Nature. But he must have been mifinformed. I never heard of one inftance of either while I ufed the coast.'

Much information may be derived from thefe Thoughts, and we would strongly recommend them to the public attention. They will convince every one, that the farther importation of Africans fhould be stopped, from every confideration; and fo far only, as we have already observed, it will be probably found expedient for the legiflature to proceed at prefent.

A Letter to Philip Francis, Efq. from the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, c. With Remarks. 8vo. 15. Murray.

This Letter is written in confequence of one which appeared lately in the Morning Herald, addreffed to Mr. Francis, and fubfcribed with the names of the members of the committee for managing the impeachment of Mr. Hattings. In that Letter the committee expreffed the greateft refpect for Mr. Francis, from the opinion they entertained of his public conduct during his refidence in the Eaft Indies, and declared a defire of reforting to his affiflance in the affair of the impeachment. The author of the prefent Letter reprobates, with indignation, fuch a public avowal of their defign, after Mr. Francis had been prohibited by the houfe of commons from any fhare in conducting the impeachment; and he draws fuch a picture of that gentleman's conduct in the East Indies, as feems totally irreconcileable with the character afcribed to him by the committee. The author's remarks are fullied with a degree of petulance, but intermixed with ftrong expoftulation.

Minutes of Warren Haflings, and Philip Francis, Efqrs. 8vo. 15. 6d. Stockdale.

Thefe Minutes contain the fubftance of the tranfactions in council at Bengal, relative to the differences between the gentlemen mentioned in the title. Whatever be the motive for their publication, they doubtlefs juftify the conduct of the houfe of commons, in not permitting Mr. Francis to be a

member

member of the committee for managing the impeachment of Mr. Haftings; and indeed, upon the principle of candour, Mr. Francis might rather be fatisfied than displeased at the exclufion. The Anfer of Warren Haftings, Efq. to the Articles exhibited by the Commons in Maintenance of their Impeachment against him, 8vo. 45. in Boards. Stockdale.

This pamphlet is faid to contain Mr. Haftings's answer to the different articles of impeachment against him, delivered at the bar of the houfe of peers, on Wednesday, Nov. 28, 1787. Mr. Hastings replies to each article feparately; and concludes with a general exculpation of himself from the charges which have been brought against him.

A Second Letter from Mr. Pigott to the Right Hon. William Pitt. 4to. 4. 6d. Ridgway.

Mr. Pigott's former letter was noticed in our Review for April, 1787. He now reproaches the minifter for his inattention to that, epiftle; but proceeds to deliver his fentiments in the fame ftrain as before, on other political fubjects; and we have not the leaft doubt with the fame fuccefs. His former let ter was dated from Hieres, in Provence ; but the prefent from Pent, near Geneva.

Defence of the Statute paffed in the forty-third Year of Elizabeth, concerning the Employment and Relief of the Poor; with Propofals for enforcing it. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Debrett.

The author of this pamphlet urges many fenfible obfervations, recommending a farther trial of the ftatute above mentioned, as well as of other fubfequent ftatutes refpecting the employment and relief of the poor, with more coercive means of enforcing a due obfervance of them. It has been repeatedly affirmed by many who have written on the fubject, and the fact is unquestionable, that the evils fo loudly complained of relative to the poor, might be, in a great measure, if not entirely, remedied, by a proper execution of the laws now existing for that purpose.

MISCELLANEO U S. Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great to general Society. Small 8vo. 25. Cadell.

This very refpectable author profeffes himself neither an old man, a clergyman, or a Methodist,' and wishes to rife above the imputation of morofenefs, felf-intereft, or enthufiafm,' He points out thofe errors, for they are fcarcely vices, which refult in the most serious minds from inattention, and taint the conduct even of the best informed, with a ftain little fuitable to that purity which fhould peculiarly diftinguifh the followers of Christ. The indecorum in the conduct of the great, with refpect to the obfervance of Sunday; the applaufe which brilliant, rather than religious, or juft fentiments, receive in public; with fome fimilar errors, are the lubject of his animadverfion. On thefe

fubjects,