during the awful events of the prefent crifis. Thefe topics have been fo often and fo fully debated, that it would be unreasonable to require abfolute novelty in any writer, that enters at this late period on the difcuffion. But his statements are, for the most part, perfpicuous; his reflections appofite; and fome of his arguments fuch as it would, in our opinion, be no easy task for the admirers and advocates of the Hon. Gentleman attacked fuccefsfully to answer. ART. 42. Mr. Pitt's Democracy manifefted; in a Letter to him, con- "Quem virum, aut heroa, lyrâ vel acri The question is foon anfwered. The immaculate and virtuous Thomas Paine is the Magnus Apollo of this Mufe; and it is faid that his doctrines neither have been, or can be refuted!!! As to Mr. Pitt, upon whofe "heaven-born afbes" Clio has written a miferable parody on Gray's well-known Epitaph, his talents are boldly pronounced to be “below mediocrity"!!! Clio's name-fake (the Mufe of Hiftory) will, we apprehend, give a fomewhat different account of thefe two perfopages. But the income-tax is rather a favourite with this writer; he ironically commends Mr. Pitt for that measure, in the hope (vain we trust it will be) that the unpopularity which may attend it, will produce a revolution a la Frana çaife, or, which feems to be Clio's favourite object, an equalization of property. If this be not his object, why is there fo much labour to prove, that many rich men are undeferving of their lot, and many worthy perfons are in circumstances inadequate to their merits? We need neither "ghoft" nor Mufe" to tell us this." But we have feldom if ever met with a man in his fenfes, who would not admit that the remedy propofed (or indeed any direct remedy) would be worfe than the difeafe. This writer however feriously propofes," in the name of God and his truth," that "if upon enquiry a fair investigation" (who are to be the enquirers, and who the fair judges ?) " it appears that there are fome who acquire improperly great property, who have infinitely more than is neceflary for the elegancies and fuperfluities, as well as the comforts of life; who wickedly hoard, or wickedly mifapply, the riches they have, &c. fuch fuperflux be awarded to the needers and defervers of it." What a blessed system of plunder and iniquity! And this, Clio tells us, is "New Teftament and Bible doctrine;" because, forfooth, the New Testament and Bible. cenfure, in fevere terms, the mifapplication of riches! This, he declares," is doing to others as you would they fhould do unto you; it is making fociety what it fhould be, a focial compact, a state of fraternization and brotherly love," &c. &c. To the man who can make fuch a proposal, and justify it in such a manner, we would not apply, as he feems to apprehend, "the terms of leveller, Atheift, or Jacobin,' although two of those terms may not be wholly unappropriate; but we we leave the state of his mind to be determined by thofe eminent critics of the human understanding, Doctors Willis and Monro. ART. 43. A Letter to the Right Hon. William Windham, on his late Oppofition to the Bill to prevent Bull-Baiting. By an Old Member of Parliament. To which are annexed, fome Letters and Extracts on the fame Subject. Aljo fime Verjes on Hunting; with an Address from a Salopian Bull, and the Author's Apgy, attempted in humble Rhyme. Second Edition. 8vo. 47 PP. IS. 61. Cadell and Davies. The refpectable Baronet by whom the bill against bull-baiting was introduced, is the reputed, we believe the acknowledged, author of this fingular publication; in which ferious expoftulations with Mr. Windham are blended with fantaftic, and rather clumfy attempts at humour and ridicule. On the merits of the bill in queftion it would not become us to decide; but we perfectly recollect that fome of the arguments against it (as detailed in the public papers) made a ftrong impresion on our minds. No man of the leaft humanity would, for a moment, juftify the fport complained of. Yet it may furely be queftioned whether a cultom now difufed throughout the greater part of the kingdom, and wherever it fill exifts certainly on the decline, called for the peculiar interpofition of Parliament. It may perhaps be more politic to fuffer fuch a custom to die away of itself, than to interdict it by pofitive laws; which are likely to be regarded with jealoufy when they interfere with the habits and manners of the peo ple. We conceive inde d, notwithstanding what is afferted in this Letter, tha the power of Magidrates to difperfe routs and unlawful aflemblies, is fuffici nt to reach the prefent cafe. At all events, it may sufficiently answer the purpofe to include it in the intended bill for " preventing cru lty to animals;" a meature loudly called for, by all humane perions who frequent our streets and roads. Of the worthy Baronet's poetry, fubjoined to his Letter, we cannot fay any thing very favourabl. The lamentations over a hunted hare are in the true Namby Pumby style; the bull's expoftulation with Mr. W. is a little better, though we cannot agree that the Right Hon. Secretary's heart has ever appeared to fail when attacked by Mr. SheriThe fox's defence of himself, though no great effort of genius, is the belt compofition of the three. dan. ART. 44. Reflections on the relative Situations of Mofter and Servant kifternally and politically confidered; the Irregularities of Servants; the Employment of Foreigners; and the general Inconveniencies refulting from the Want of proper Regulations. 8vo. 52 pp. 1s. 6d. Miller. 1800. There is, it is generally admitted, no branch of our law that stands more in need of parliamentary regulations, than the domestic relation of matter and fervant. The laws that refpect fervants in husbandry and trades, it is now understood, extend not to thofe of any other defcription; and there are, we believe, few mafters of families who have not, af me period of their lives, reafon to regret the want of a fummary tribunal, where the difputes in which he may be involved by the the anjuft claims, infolent behaviour, or difhoneft artifices of a bad ART. 45. MISCELLANIES. The Travels of Antenor in Greece and Afia; from a Greek Rees. It is difficult to appreciate any imitation of a popular work, merely by its own merit; we are almoft unconsciously led to make comparifons, the recollection of what we have read accompanies us in the perufal, and if an author has not equalled his model, we are apt to think of him lefs highly than he really deferves, and to refufe him juftice because he has been excelled. Under this difadvantage' many will perufe the Travels of Antenor; but to be aware of prejudice is to counteract it; and though, after every allowance, we are obliged to place them confiderably below thofe of Anacharfis, we are still inclined. to rank the work among the higher claffes of light literature. The plan of these volumes being a fecondary object, and fubfervient to the detail, much invention or novelty is not to be expected, and the author feems to have propofed no more than to connect his materials, and by affociating them with the perfon of his here, to create a more lively intereft, than is often produced by detached anecdotes. Antenor, the myfterious offspring of a prieftefs of Diana, after receiving his first education at Ephefus, goes to purfue his ftudies at Athens, where he conceives a paffion for Latthenia, the female difciple of Ariftippus. While engaged in this amour, fome imprudent remarks uttered in the Temple of Bacchus, occafion his being arrested and conveyed to prifon; by the zeal and addrefs of Lafthenia he is released, and with a view both to his fafety and the cultivation of his mind, the perfuades him to quit Athens, and to devote two years to travelling. From Athens he proceeds to Leucadia, where he meets with Phanon, a lively youth, whom a disappointed paffion has brought thither to try the Leucadian leap, a remedy at that time, we prefume, as fashionable as bathing at Brighton, or drinking the waters at Cheltenham. The example of Sappho, however, which he arrives in time to witnefs, appears io little inviting, that he determines to abandon the project, and to feek relief by haring in the lefs hazardous adventures of Antenor, They then visit Delphi, Sparta, Babylon, &c. together, and af er various dangers and efcapes, they meet with Ariitides in exile, and Pha non non marries his grand-daughter. Antenor on his return to Athens, finding Lasthenia devoted to a philofophic feclufion, and no longer difpofed to renew their former intercourfe, confoles himself in the modern French fashion, by an union with her fifter. This outline is filled up by defcriptions of Heathen ceremonies, fyftems of fects, mytholo gical hiftories, and characters, fayings, and anecdotes of the moft diffinguished heroes and fages of Greece. The author has anticipated, in a Preface, the very just objection which may be made to his total difregard of chronology, and though he appears to laugh at fuch criticifms, an error is not the lefs fo, for being defended with conceited pleafantry. In a collection of anecdotes, we know that an adherence to chronological order is not requifite; but when a variety of perfons, who exifted in ages diftant from each other, are brought together, and interwoven in a regular story, we cannot confider fuch a work as an accurate delineation of manners. Anecdotes of Alfred, Becket, Wolfey, and Lord Clarendon, however connected, would only be perfonal, and could scarcely convey an idea of the manners of the English at any particular period. The Spartans are defcribed from the primitive inftitutions of Lycurgus, not as we may fuppofe them, when their country was on the eve of its fall. The French in the reign of Pha ramond, would not be a just reprefentation of them in the reign of Lewis the Fifteenth; and when we find the hero of a tale one day á gueft with the cotemporary of Semiramis, and another converfing with Stilpo, we are at a lofs whether we are to apply what we read to the age of Babylon in its meridian, or to that of Greece in its decline; exclufive of thefe anachronisms, we have noticed fome miftakes of a different kind, fuch as that in p. 192, vol. iii, where a faying of Xenocrates is attributed to Ariftides; in p. 349, one of Cato to a Greek phi lofopher; in p. 204, vol. iii, an anecdote in the life of Cicero is reJated of Ariftides; and though we are always happy to meet with our countryman Shak/peare, yet we were fomewhat furprised to fee him in company with the fair pupil of Ariftippus (p. 43, vol. iii.). Many of the notes appear defigned only to encrease the volume, but we fufpect fome of them may be imputed rather to the principles of the revolu tionist, than the policy of the author. Of this defeription is the note P 186, vol. ii; there feems no reafon for comparing the death of Ariftippus with that of Lewis XI, any more than with that of any other prince. We condemn entirely the ridicule of the Jews and the Jewish history, in the 80th chapter, however palliated by being afcribed to an Heathen obferver; for though an author is not accountable for the hiftorical facts he relates, he is fo for invidious comments, which we must confider as his own. Libertines and coxcombs are probably the fame in all ages and countries, otherwife we fhould conclude the character of Phanon to be drawn from the Palais Royal, rather than the Prytaneum; that of Lafthenia bears a great resemblance to Niron del'Enclos, and we are not partial to female philofophers; but the perfonage of the story who excites the leaft intereft, is the hero of it; we fee him in none of the common relations of life, neither as a fon, brother, father, or husband, fearcely as a member of fociety; and a citizen of the world who performs no duties, makes a very flender claim on our affections. With all these deductions, and very confiderable they are, Antenor to may may ftill be pronounced an amufing work; the anecdotes are well felected, often appofitely introduced, and generally related with spirit; they who have little learning or bad memories will find information, and the learned thofe reminifcences of their youthful lore, which are fometimes not lefs grateful than novelty. Yet while we willingly recommend thefe volumes as an agreeable amusement, we must add, that we do not think them calculated for young readers; the anachronisms with which they abound may miflead, and they are not quite free trom opinions which may corrupt; and there is much in the manners of ancient nations, that it might be preferable to contemplate through the veil of a dead language. We object alfo to the introduction; tales of manufcripts found by chance, whether in old trunks, or Herculaneum ruins, are trite and puerile; and as Sterne's benevolent hero obferves, "a ftory does well enough without these niceties, unless one were fure of them." ART. 46. A Method of making Abridgments; or eafy and certain Rules for analyfing Authors. Divided into Two Parts, the firft containing preliminary Explanations, and the Rules for making Abridgments; the Yecond, the Application of thofe Rules to various Sele&tions from the best Authors. By the Abbé Gualtier. Part I. 4to. 96 pp. The Price to Subfcribers 11. 13. for both Parts. Bremner, Strand. 1800. The author of this method is very extensively known to the principal families of this country, for his ingenious and fuccefsful contrivances to facilitate feveral branches of learning to children. In teaching his young pupils to diftinguish the principal and fubordinate parts of fentences by marking them with colours, he was led to obferve, that the most complex paragraph might in general be reduced to a very few leading ideas; and confequently by compreffing thofe ideas, and retrenching fuperfluities, might be abridged. His method is clearly and fatisfactorily explained; it is novel, and leads very directly to the habit of completely understanding an author, and detecting all inaccuracies of reafoning. Such a work cannot fail to be useful. ART. 47. Obfervations on Agriculture. 8vo. 29 pp. IS. Morgan, Lichfield. 1800. These Obfervations are of the plain and practical kind, and are addreffed to the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, evidently with a very patriotic defign. The author, Dr. Falconer of Lichfield, ftates that having been rector of a fmall parifh upwards of forty years, and naturally averfe to indolence, he has employed his leifure hours in making obfervations and experiments in agriculture, and has had opportunities of comparing the different fyftems practifed in StaffordThire. He therefore gives the refult of his experience for the benefit of the public. As the perufal of thefe remarks cannot occupy many minutes, we recommend the confideration of them to all practical farmers, to whom they will perhaps be further recommended by a very familiar and converfational style. BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XVI, SEPT. 1800. ART. |