TURKEY. ART. 3. Tableau des nouveaux Réglemens de l'Empire Ottoman compofé par Mahmoud Rayt Efendi ci devant Sécretaire de l'Ambaffade Impériale près de la Cour d'Angleterre. Imprimé dans la nouvelle Imprimerie du Genie fous la direction d'Abdurrahman Efendi Profeffeur de Geometrie et d'Algèbre. 60 pp. in Fol. with many Plates. Conftantinople. The titles of the chapters, or divifions, of which this book confifts are: 1, Réglement pour les nouvelles branches des revenus publics; 2, Réglement pour les approvifionnement des Armées et de la Capitale; 3, Réglement pour les faniffaires; 4, Réglement pour les Dgebedgys (Munitionnaires); 5, Réglement pour le Corps des Topichys (Canoniers); 6, Réglement pour la fabrication de la poudre; 7, Réglement pour les Arabadgis (Charretiers), or valets d'artillerie; 8, Réglement pour les Toptchi et les Arabadgis à cheval; 9, Réglement pour l'ordre à obferver dans une expédition de Toptchis et d'Arabadgis; 10, Réglement relatif au corps des Bombardiers; 11, Réglement pour le corps des Mineurs-and, of the new mathematical school, in the firft ftory of which is the new Printing-Office, of which we have here a reprefentation, with the infcription Académie Royale des Sciences; 12, Réglement pour l'Amirauté & 13, Réglement pour les fept chateaux fitués à l'embouchure de la mer noire; 14, Réglement pour les quatre chateaux fitués dans le canal; and lastly, 15, Réglement pour le corps difcipliné à l'Européenne. All this, obferves the author, is only a fhort extract from the latest regulations and improvements, by which the reader will be enabled to form conclufions with respect to the reft; car c'eft ainfi (adds he) qu'une feule goutte d'eau Juffi: pour indiquer l'existence d'un fleuve d'ou elle découle. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TO CORRESPONDENTS. The little work mentioned by A. M. M. has certainly been by fome accident miflaid, if ever it reached us. Enquiry fhall be made about it. The commendations of F. H. cannot but be pleafing to us: the approbation of the wife and good being a primary object of our with. No life of Cowper has yet appeared; and his fituation in his latter years gave little opportunity for finishing any plans he had formed. No pofthumous works of his have yet been publifhed. We certainly do not countenance the doctrine controverted by our fenfible correfpondent Rufticus, in the harth and rigorous fenfe which he affigns to it: and if one of our body has 4 ⚫inad inadvertently committed us by ufing expreflions too strong, we can only say, that we defire a more favourable interpre tation. We know not of any publication such as Juvenis enquires for. That which was announced in the year 1793, we believe has never appeared. Among our Acknowledgments to Correfpondents, in our Review for September, we ftated the information of A Conftant Reader of the British Critic, "that the conftable's charges are only paid out of the poor's-rate in the South of England, and not in the North." Another Conftant Reader defires to exprefs his aftonishment at this information, and very properly refers us for the Law, on this point, to the Statute, 18 Geo. III. c. 19. LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. Mr. Maurice is now delivering to his fubfcribers the feventh and concluding volume of his Indian Antiquities. The Rev. B. N. Turner, author of Infant Inflitutes, and feveral other publications of merit, is about to publish a volume of Poems, by fubfcription. Among them will be comprised Imitations of the characters of Theophraftus. The celebrated poet and naturalift, René Richard Caftel, has lately published, at Paris, an elegant French edition of Dr. Bloch's admirable work on Fishes, in ten fmall volumes, with 160 coloured plates; and we understand that a fimilar work in English is now preparing for the prefs. Mr. Murphy's Life of Garrick will be published by Wright in December. It will form two volumes in octavo.. We earnestly hope that the author will immediately proceed to the life of Foote; before the abundant anecdotes, which fuch a life ought to furnish, be irrecoverably lost. Mr. Cobbett, the celebrated Peter Porcupine, fo often and fo justly praised by us, is publishing an edition of his works. He is now fettled in London; and the fubfcription for his works. meets with the patronage it deferves. A tranflation of The True Hiftory of the Conqueft of Mexico, from the Spanish of Bernal Diaz del Caftilla, will speedily be published. The tranflator is Maurice Keating, Efq. M. P. for the county of Kildare. The Rev. Dr. Beeke, well known for his able tracts on politics and finance, is preparing an important work on the population of the United Kingdoms. Mr. Huddesford, the ingenious editor of Salmagundi, is about to publish an elegant volume of his own Poetry. THE BRITISH CRITIC, For NOVEMBER, 1800. Ειποί τις ἂν τῶν πανύ δοκησιδεξίων Εγώ δ ̓ ἂν ἀντειποίμι, μη πολυπραγμόνει, Αλλ' εἰ δοκεῖ σοι πρόσεχε τὸν νῦν κ' ακροῶ. PHERECRATES, If any of thefe would be Know-alls speak, And I gainfay,-take no alarm at that, ART. I. The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea: Part the First. Containing an Account of the Navigation of the Antients, from the Sea of Suez to the Coaft of Zanguebar. By William Vincent, D. D. 4to. 1. Is. Cadell and Davies. 1800. WE hail, with peculiar fatisfaction, the appearance of a work fo very important to every investigation into the ancient geography and commerce of the east, as to be a defideratum in Indian literature: accompanied with fuch difquifitions and obfervations, from a moft enlightened fcholar, thoroughly adequate to the task of compofing them, as cannot fail to render it doubly valuable. That fagacious diligence, that zealous ardour of research, which, we observed, diftinguished his former publication, "the Voyage of Nearchus," are equally displayed, or rather thine with additional luftre, in every page of the prefent. It is, with great propriety, dedicated to the King, under whose aufpicious patronage all the arts and fciences, but particularly navigation, have arrived at a degree of perfection never before I i BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XVI. NOV. 1800. attained attained in this country. In this volume, navigation, the wri ter obferves, is traced to its fource, and difcovery to its com mencement. In our account of the Periplus, we shall follow the precise method adopted by us in reviewing the former work, and prefent our readers with as regular an analysis of the whole, as the prodigious mafs of important matter in geography, hiftory, and nautical concerns, judicioufly combined, and ably condenfed into as fmall compafs as poffible, by the author, will allow. It is neceffary, however, previoufly to obferve, that the vo lume now under confideration contains only that portion of the Periplus which has relation to Africa and its coaft; the remander of the Periplus, relating to the Arabian and Indian coaft, and the commerce carried on with them, Dr. Vincent intends prefenting to the public when a more extended period of leifure, with continued activity and health, which we heartily with him, fhall permit. There is no man who better deferves that learned leifure which he mentions, than the man who thus laudably employs it to the propagation of science, and the inftruction, not only of his countrymen, but of Europe at large*. This volume comprises two books out of the four, in which the whole is defigned to be comprehended; with an ample and very interesting Appendix. Book the first confifts entirely of fhort preliminary difquifitions, ten in number, which we shall confider in order. Under the head of Introduction, Dr. V. difplays the great advantages of a maritime communication being opened between the inhabitants of distant countries, who thus become directly and intimately known to each other; We have been highly gratified on feeing the elegant tranflation of Dr. Vincent's Voyage of Nearchus, executed by M. Billecocq, by order, we believe, of Bonaparte. Whatever may be the motive of the First Conful, for paying this attention to English Literature, an emulation of fuch a kind, in doing juftice to merit, cannot but be peculiarly fatisfactory to the friends of learning, during the rage of hoftilities. The work is publifhed, in French, with great fplendour, beauty, and accuracy; and fuch commendations are given to the learning, fagacity, diligence, and ingenuity of Dr. Vincent, as muft be highly pleafing to all who know, as well as we do, how completely they are merited. The French Reviews are no lefs earnest in their praifes of the work and of the author. The French quarto edition is nearly fold, and an octavo is preparing. M. Billecocq is alfo employed upon the tranflation of the prefent volume. A German tranflation of the Voyage of Nearchus has been undertaken, for fome time, by Profeffor Timæus of Lunenburg. By what fatality does it happen, that the merit, which is fufficient to attract the notice of Europe, continues ftill without reward at home? 3 whereas, whereas, in the most ancient periods, intermediate agents were employed, whofe curiofity and intereft extended little beyond the bounds of their journey, or the object of their barter. Now, the people of both hemifpheres have free and unlimited intercourfe, and the fail of commerce wafts them with eafe to every quarter of the globe. He concludes the Arabians to have been the firft navigators of the Indian Ocean; after, them came the Greeks of Egypt; and then the Romans, when masters of that kingdom. On the extinction of the Roman power in the Eaft, the Arabians once more became masters of their ancient maritime domain, and continued fo until the arrival of the Portugueze in Afia. Dr. V. takes for the field of his ample difquifition, the period between the Voyage of Nearchus and the arrival of the victorious Gama, founding his arguments, as he proceeds, on the basis of the Periplus; the confideration of the title of which forms his fecond head of enquiry. Periplus, it may be neceffary to inform the English reader, means circumnavigation; and by the Erythrean Sea is to be understood, according to Dr. Vincent, the whole expanse of ocean from Africa to its remoteft boundary eastward. Its name is not derived from any fuppofed rednefs of its waters, but from Erythra, the name given by the Greeks to the straits at its entrance. Arrian of Nicomedia, who wrote the Voyage. of Nearchus, was certainly not the author of the Periplus here confidered, but probably fome Greek merchant of Alexandria, who, from internal evidence, it may be concluded, flourifhed nearly a century before that writer; and who manifeftly failed on board the fleet whofe circumnavigation he defcribes, as far as the Gulph of Cambay, if not further. The author concludes this head by remarking, that the ancient Indian. history and legends, as far as yet unfolded to us, are so romantic and extravagant, that the rational hiftorian can only be guided in his enquiries by the earliest Greek writers concerning India; he thinks them the only fources of genuine information. to be depended upon, though, in many refpects, extremely imperfect in their accounts; and we incline to agree in opinion with him at least, until the researches of our learned countrymen in Asia shall have led them to fome more certain grounds than they have yet attained. HOMER, the most authentic and venerable of thofe Greek writers, is the fubject of the third head of this book; and he is cited by Dr. V. as probably (he does not fay pofitively) alluding to the Indian nation, when, in the Odyffey, he conducts Neptune into Ethiopia, and places him between two nations, both black, but perfectly distinguished from each other, Ii2 and |