rendered wary by frequent impofitions, and used to the variety of masks, affumed for the purposes of deception. The firft word of the title is calculated to mislead; for this Treatife, fo far from being an original, is the crambe recocta, the food twice fodden, of every gloomy politician of the prefent century. We are not acquainted with the gentleman's diftinctions in the world of politics; but, if he does not already occupy the lowest rank, we think the work before us a fufficient reafon to reduce him to it. Let us only look at it.

The kingdom is depopulated! This is the axiom on which the whole is built: it is fo clear and indisputable, that he offers not one word in its defence. Mr. Young, Mr. Wales, Mr. Howlett, and Mr. Chalmers, have given different accounts from actual examination. The caufe of depopulation is commerce, which introduces fuch a mass of evils, that we are terrified by the bare enumeration: we shall fave our readers from the fhock. To this, among other confequences, we owe the decrease of real, and the increase of nominal wealth, the diminution of fpecie, and the inundation of paper, dreadful evils! the debility of the empire, and the depravity of the human fpecies. That the Dutch are powerful is not owing to their commerce, but to their induftry; not to the peculiar confitution of the Bank at Amfterdam, (for that is calculated, though perhaps our author is not acquainted with it, to leffen the circulation of money, and to fubftitute paper in its room,) but to fmall farms.

If ever an hofpital were provided for literary incurables, viz. thofe who not only think amifs, but have the cacoethes in fo high a degree as not to refrain from pen and ink on every fubject; if fuch an inftitution were once established, our author would merit the most diftinguished place in it. The whole is trite, flimfy, trifling, and erroneous. We diftinguish not an atom of political knowlege,' not a trait of originality,' not a hint of utility.'

Criticisms on the Rolliad, a Poem, being a more faithful Portraiture of the prefent Immaculate Young Minifter and his Friends, than any extant. 8vo. Is. Ridgway.

Though there are fome happy turns in this little piece, yet we can pay no great compliment to the whole. We do not, at firft, fee why Mr. Rolle is felected to give a name to it, or the very intimate connection his ancestors have with the prefent ministry. Our author however, for the critic and the author are the fame, has affumed an artificial chain, which might as well have connected any other member of the houfe of commons with the prefent immaculate young minifter.' Rollo, In the progrefs of his adventures, which are neither valuable for their fancy or their fpirit, defcends into a night-cellar, to confult Merlin, who fhews him, in a glass, his future race, and, of confequence, difplays the character of his friends and

CO

cotemporaries, which is the great object of the author. We fhall felect one of the beft, fuppofed, extracts from the poem, as a fpecimen of the whole.

Pert without fire, without experience fage,

Young with more art than Sh-ne glean'd from age,
Too proud from pilfer'd greatness to defcend,

Too humble not to call Dundas his friend,
In filent dignity and fullen ftate,

This new Ŏctavius rifes to debate!

Mild and more mild he fees each placid row
Of country gentlemen with rapture glow;
He fees, convuls'd with fympathetic throbs,
Apprentice peers and deputy-nabobs!
Nor rum contractors think his fpeech too long,
While words, like treacle, trickle from his tongue!
O foul congenial to the fouls of Rolles !
Whether you tax the luxury of coals,
Or vote fome neceffary millions more,
To feed an Indian friend's exhaufted ftore.
Fain would I praife (if I like thee could praise)
Thy matchlefs virtues in congenial lays.

But, ah! too weak,' &c. &c.

We fee little of the hero which gives a name to the poem ; but perceive too much party-virulence to render this attempt at humour very pleafing. Some of the portraits are likeneffes, but they are fo much caricatured, as to fhew that they are reBected from a distorted mirror; and the whole is not conducted with fufficient art to be interesting or entertaining.

The Letters of Marius. By Thomas Day, Efq. 8vo. Stockdale,

Thefe Letters contain reflections upon the peace, the Eaft India bill, and the prefent crifis. Mr. Day difcovers much ardour both in fentiment and expreffion; but the former is often repugnant to general obfervation, and the latter too turgid. A Short State of the India Company, both in India and in Europe, 8vo. No Publisher's Name.

This writer draws a very unfavourable reprefentation of the Atate of the Eaft India company. According to his account, its fituation at home is embarraffed, its territory abroad exhaufted, and the peace, lately obtained, extremely precarious. Were all thefe allegations really well founded, we know not what other purpose can be answered by them than the gratification. of malignity.

Three Letters to the People of Great Britain, and particularly to thofe who figned the Addreffes on the late Changes of Adminiftra, tion, and the Diffolution of the Parliament. 8vo. 25. Debrett. The author of thefe Letters affumes the fignature of Alfred but, had he thought proper, he might have added many an alias to his name. 'Tis moft certain that we have often re viewed him under different appellations. He is a mere grocer

;

in politics; always fetting out with trimming the balance of the conftitution, and afterwards weighing, but with very falfe weights, the various commodities in which he deals. Thefe are now, as ufual, whiggifm and toryifm, the frequent change of minifters fince his majefty's acceffion, the terrible bugbear, the private junto, &c. After thefe, come a vindication of the coalition, and Mr. Fox's Eaft India bill; with a reprehenfion of Mr. Pitt's bill on the fame fubject, and of the various tax bills of laft feffion. If this author be determined to perfift in writing, we would advise him to reserve himself, in future, for new occurrences; becaufe, by the languor and heavinefs of his ftyle, fubjects which have been already treated become intolerable.

MEDICA L.

Obfervations on the Climates of Naples, Rome, Nice, &c.
Benjamin Pugh, M. D. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Robinson.

Thefe Obfervations are dictated by judgment and fagacity, founded on extenfive examination. Dr. Pugh thought Nice and Naples injurious to his patient, and to pulmonic difeafes in general; Rome was more favourable; and the neighbourhood of Montpelier highly falutary: he particularly recommends Nifmes, Avignon, or Pezenas. We have indeed long fufpected that the fea-coaft was prejudicial to confumptive patients, though recommended by Aretæus, and frequently prefcribed by the best practitioners. This fufpicion, we must acknowlege, is founded on limited obfervations, and is now mentioned to direct the attention of phyficians to the fubject, and to prevent them from ordering their patients indifcriminately to repair either to Lisbon, Naples, or Nice: we are at leaft certain, that confumptions are frequent on the fea-coafts; and that patients affected with these complaints, recover on removing from them, though into low marthy fituations. The rules for the choice of climates, deduced from theory alone, are few and indecifive.

We are not told the cafe of Mr. Wollafton, whom Dr. Pugh attended to the continent; but were rather furprised to find him leave the Spa, which agreed with his conftitution, to fix in, at leaft, a doubtful fituation. Befides, waters of different kinds feemed to relieve him fo much, that we are inclined to attribute the amendment to the attention of his phyfician, than to either of the mineral fprings.

POETRY.

King fwefton Hill. A Pocm. 4to. 15. 6d. Stockdale. The ftyle of this performance is in general spirited and harmonious, but the fentiments it conveys are fometimes obfcure, and fometimes inaccurately expreffed. Thus, in delineating a character, which for the credit of humanity, we hope is merely.

an

an offspring of the author's fancy, he concludes it in this

manner.

Should all his profpects end in fplendid pelf,
And all his friendship in his little self;
Should he, thro' life, retain the defp'rate plan,
And fceptic fury clofe what vice began,

Too plain this truth, not to be understood ;The man is bad-the Devil had been good.' Something very fevere feems intended in the laft line, but we cannot form an idea of its precife meaning; and the preceding one pays a compliment to the reader's penetration,, of which, we fpeak for ourselves, we are totally undeferving. As it would be unfair to quote only a bad paffage when feveral good ones might be felected, though they are in general pretty clofely interwoven, we fhall recommend the following little picturefque fcene, as deferving the reader's approbation. Still, as around I turn my wand'ring eyes, New forefs thicken, and new fcenes furprife; The harvest gently bending to the breeze, The diftant landfcape, glimm'ring thro' the trees; The browfing flocks, that fpot the floping hills; Down the fcoop'd vale the chrystal-quivʼring rills ; While the green iflets ftud the watʼry plain, And cloud-capt rocks hang low'ring o'er the main.' The Coalitionif. 4to. 25. Murray.

A fatire on Mr. Fox, fo deflitute of poetical merit that, though long fince published, it has efcaped our attention until this moment.

Poems, moral and defcriptive. By the late Richard Jago, A.M. 8vo. 5s. in Boards. Dodfley.

As the editor of every pollhumous work is generally influ enced either by partiality or views of emolument, it is ufual with fuch a one to over-rate the merit of the author; and this appears to be the cafe in refpect of the volume before us. In feveral of Mr. Jago's poems, however, viz Edge-Hill, Labour and Genius, and the Elegy on the Blackbirds, we doubtless meet with a number of beautiful paffages, and this we have at different times acknowleged; but the collection, in general, is not entitled to the indifcriminate approbation which the editor would beftow.

N O V E L S.

The Virtuous Villagers. A Novel. In a Series of Letters. By John Potter, M. B. 2 Vols. 65. Cafs.

The author's aim has been folely to correct the mistakes of the heart, to enlarge the boundaries of human understanding, to point out the focial obligations, to difplay the beauties of domestic

6

domeftic felicity, and to give ardor and confidence to virtue." Indeed this novel is addreffed more to the judgment than to the fancy; and to the feelings of the heart, rather than to the eagernefs of curiofity. There is a calm repofe in the picture, very different from the active scenes which other novellifts have delineated we fee the ftream unruffled, rather than the dafhings of the billowy furge; and the lofty pine afpires to heaven, inftead of being bent by the pitilefs ftorm.' If this ftill life fhould at first difpleafe the active fair one, who would ride on a whirlwind and direct the ftorm,' yet a little attention will difcover beauties of a different caft. Our author is cool, fedate, and judicious. His reflections are generally accurate; and, though his language is not always finished with the highest ele gance, yet it is neat, clear, and exact. In his names he is rather too fond of alliteration. We know indeed that Peregrine Pickle, Roderick Random, and Ferdinand Fathom, are popular heroes; but, in one work, to meet with Miranda Melville, Ben Bellamy, Belinda Bellamy, and Billy Bellamont, is to out-herod Herod. When in one letter he aims at ridiculing the affected titles of fome modern novels, we admire his fancy, and join in the laugh at Conjugal Conftancy, Delicious Delirium, the Labyrinth of Love, and the Sorrows of Senfibility. There are fome other attempts of this kind, which difplay the author's ingenuity.

The unvaried tenor of happiness, difplayed in this novel, renders it in fome degree uninterefting: the ladies too exprefs their fatisfaction fo luxuriantly, that no very prurient imagina"tion may give their language an interpretation not entirely confiftent with delicacy. This is undoubtedly a fault, and we with that the author had avoided it. The ftyle of the letters is not fufficiently varied.

Intererit multum Davus ne loquatur an heros,
Maturus ne Senex, an adhuc florente juventa
Fervidus.'

These are blemishes indeed which we frequently meet without remarking; but we feldom meet with abilities like our author's, which delerve our attention. He will therefore confider our animadverfion to proceed from a confidence that, in a future work, he will rife to a lefs queftionable perfection.

On the whole, we do not think that our author has exceeded his former work: perhaps the form of letters is lefs fuitable to his genius, but this form is popular, and every thing muft yield to fashion.

MISCELLANEOUS.

A Letter on the Conftruction and Ufe of the improved Foot Plough

8vo. 15. Dilly.

This useful inftrument is examined, in our author's Letter, with attention; and the most effential parts are properly ex

plained.