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A concise theoretical and practical View of the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb; by which they are enabled to speak, and understand a Language. Containing Hints for the Correction of Impediments in Speech; and a Vocabulary for their Use, illustrated by numerous copper-plates, representing the most common objects necessary to be named. By Joseph Watson, LL. D. 2 vols. 8vo. 153.

The Female Economist; or, a plain System of Cookery. For the Use of private Families. Containing eight hundred and fifty valuable receipts. By Mrs. Smith. 12mo. 4s. boards.

The Refusal, a Novel. By Mrs, West, 3 vols. 12mo. 11. 1s, boards.

The Hindoo Pantheon. By Edward Moor, F. R. S. Member of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, and of the Literary Society of Bombay. Dedicated to the honourable Jonathan Duncan, Governor of Bombay, and illustrated by one hundred and five plates, containing considerably more than a thousand mythological Figures and Subjects, all taken from original Images, Pictures, Exca vation, classical and other Statues, Obelisks, Coins, Medals, &c. never before engraved. royal 4to. 51. 5s.

An Appeal to the Pubiic, or, a Vindication of the character of Mr. William Hale, from the calumnious Aspersions of the Reviewer in the Evangelical Magazine, with a candid Statement of Objections against the London Female Penitentiary. By John Thomas, 8vo.

es.

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English Minstrelsy; being a Selection of Fugitive Poetry, from the best Eng→ lish Authors, with original pieces hitherto unpublished. 2 vols. sm. 8vo. 14s.

A Selection from the poetical Works of Thomas Carew. With a Life of the Author; and Notes, by John Fry. 12mo. 4s.

Select Poems, &c. by the late John Dawes Worgan, of Bristol, who died on the 25th of July, 1809, aged nineteen years. Embellished with a Profile of the Author. To which are added, Some Particulars of his Life and Character, by an early Friend and Associate; with a preface, by William Hayley, Esq. crown 8vo. 7s.

POLITICS.

A short historical Sketch of the ExPublic Offices; with some Observations penses of the Civil List, Pensions, and on the Conduct of the modern Reformers. Price 1s. 6d.

Copy of a Letter from Lord Minto, and the Council of the Bengal Presi dency to the honourable Sir G. H. Barlow, Bart. and K. B. Governor in Council, Fort St. George. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

Effects of the Continental Blockade, upon the Commerce, Finances, Credit,

By Sir Francis D' Ivernois. With Ob

and Property of the British Islands.

servations on Mr. Newenham's View of Ireland.

England the Cause of Europe's Subjugation, addressed to the British Parliament. 8vo. 1s.

A Review of Lord Selkirk's Objections to a Reform in the Representation of of the People; in a Letter to `John Cartwright, Esq. By John Pearson, Esq. 8vo. is. 6d.

THEOLOGY.

Good Thoughts in bad Times, and good Thoughts in worse Times. By T. Fuller, B. D. A new edition with a Recommendatory Preface. By James Hinton, M. A. Oxford. 18mo. 2s. 6d.

Thoughts on the Sufferings of Christ. By the Author of the Refuge. price 2s.

Remarks on the present State of the established Church and the increase of Protestant Dissenters, by an attentive Observer. 8vo. 2s.

Eschol, a Cluster of the Fruit of Canaan brought to the Borders, for the encouragement of the Saints travelling thitherward with their faces toward

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Zion, or Rules of direction for the, and agriqultural State of the Country: walking of the saints in fellowship ac cording to the order. of the Gospel by the late John Owen, D., D, correctly re printed from an original copy, 18mo. 1s. 6d.

A Sermon delivered at the old Meet ing-house, Dec., 10,

1809, on althamstow,

n of the Death of Mrs. Hannah Cooke. To which is annexed an Address, delivered at her Interment in Bunhill Fields, December 5, 1809. By E. Cogan. 8vo. 1s. ad

A few Words on the Increase of Me thodism : occasioned by the Hints ofa Barrister, and the Observations in the Edinburgh Review. 8vo. 1s..

its parochial History, genealogical and heraldic Records, &c. To which is added, a copious Appendix of curious and interesting documents. By Samuel Kush Meyrick, A..B. of Queen's College, Oxford, Printed on superfine wove pa per, and hot-pressed, dedicated by, permission to the Rev. Septimus Collinson, D. D. &c. and illustrated by 20 engravings by Storer and Greig.. royal 4to. 11. 4s.

A View of the Ancient and Present State of the Zetland Islands; including their civil, political, and natural His tory, Antiquities, and an, Account of their Agriculture, Fisheries, Commerce, An Inquiry into the moral Tendency and the State of Society and Manners. of Methodisın and Evangelical preach - By Arthur Edmonston, M. D. Illustrated ing. Including some Remarks on the by a Map. 2 vols. 8vo. 18s. Hints of a Barrister. By William Burns 8vo. 4s. sewed.""

The History of our Lord and Saviour Jésus Christ: arranged according to the Order of Time, and in the exact Words of the four Evangelists; an Account of the principal Jewish Sects and Farties; and the prophetic History of Christ. Illustrated by forty-seven plates. royal 8vo. 11, 6s.

TONOGRAPHY.

The History and Antiquities, of the County of Cardigan; exhibiting the Political, Military, and Ecclesiastical History of its Inhabitants, their Man ners, Laws and Customs, from the earHest period to the Reign of Henry, the Eighth; together with the mineralogical

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The Beauties of England and Wales y or, a topographical and descriptive Aecount of each County, Vol. xi. 8vo. 1h 5s. boards; royal paper 21.

A Description of the Feroe Islands containing an account of their Situation, Climate, and Productions; together with the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants, their Trade, &c. Translated from the Danish. Illustrated by a map, and other engravings, By the Rev. G, Landt. 8vo, 12s.

A Picturesque Voyage to India; by the Way of China. By Thomas Dar niell, R. A. and William Daniell, A. R, A. Part I. (containing five coloured prints neatly mounted, with letter press. 4to. II. ls,

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THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

For APRIL, 1810.

Art. I. Poems on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, written by James Montgomery, James Grahame, and E. Benger. Embellished with engravings from pictures painted by R. Smirke, Esq. R. A. 4to. pp. 160. Price 31. 3s. small Paper, 51. 5s. large Paper. Bowyer, Pall Mall,

1810.

SCARCELY any doubt, we think, can be entertained of the

success of this publication. In an age of literary luxury, splendid books are a necessary of life; and, as the supply has not yet exceeded the demand, they are as sure of being taken off by their appropriate order of buyers, as the most ordinary commodity upon the market. The subject of an expensive publication can hardly be too mean, or its literary merit too trivial. It is obvious that the authorship forms but a very trifling element of the cost. The Muses, who had always been beggars down to the time of that most high and mighty prince king James, are beggars to this day: writing is still the least lucrative of all employments in proportion to the ability it requires; and, far as we have departed from the thrifty habits and careful policy of our ancestors, yet we are not so abandoned as to reward the labours of the learned with a profusion that might endanger their morals, or so rash as to abate the activity of genius by depriving it of the stimulus of hunger. It is, therefore, natural enough, for the purchaser of a costly book to be somewhat indifferent as to its literary value; for which, whether it be great or small, he must be aware that he is charged comparatively nothing. To persons of this description it will be sufficient to say, as we honestly can, of the work before us, that it is printed in quarto by Mr. Bensley, on cream coloured wove paper, hot pressed,, and embellished with a number of very fine engravings by Raimbach, Scriven, and Worthington, from designs by Smirke, and wax models by Miss Andras; including a beautiful engraved title-page, with a vignette of Hercules delivering Pro-“ VOL. VI. Z

metheus, excellent portraits of Granville Sharp, Clarkson, and Wilberforce, and nine engravings in illustration of different passages in the poems. The weight of this recommendation certainly could not be augmented-we hope it would not be much diminished-by remarking, that the subject selected for graphic and typographic embellishment, is the Abolition of the Slave Trade. It would not, we trust, be thought impertinent to suggest, that no event, perhaps, in the history of Britons, is calculated to afford them more satisfaction as men and as patriots, or more justly intitled to every form of celebration that literature and the arts can supply. It is on this very principle, indeed, that another class of the community will contribute to the success of the work; a class, who generally employ their money much better than in buying wide margins and sumptuous prints. The patronage of the publication might therefore be very safely committed to those, who would require no other motive to purchase it, than the elegance it displays, and the event it commemorates,

Poetry, however, should not only be bought, but read: and the public, to whom we are disposed to recommend the present work, will naturally require a description of its contents, and an estimate of its literary pretensions.

The first thing we meet with, is an advertisement, in which the Proprietor acquaints us with the laudable motives that prompted him to the undertaking. The next is, a very needless explanation of the vignette, in lyrical verse. The three portraits follow, each accompanied with a brief eulogy, denominated an account,' of the philanthropist it represents. We must not criticize this preliminary matter too narrowly. What most displeased us was the accounts.' It seems, very unfortunately, never to have occurred to the writer, that a brief sketch of the lives of these illustrious men, would have been far preferable to a panegyric upon their merits; that while the former was a task in which the most ordinary talents could hardly fail, the latter might challenge (if indeed it had not exhausted) the best energies of orators and poets; that facts were always more valuable than declamation, and that where there was so little chance of being brilliant or original, a prudent man would only endeavour to be instructive; that a splendid quarto, intended to commemorate the Abolition of the Slave Trade, might with no great impropriety have included the date of that event; and that a few details of the origin and progress of the traffic, the extent to which it was carried, and the successive forts which resulted in its suppression, might have been introduced in the three memoirs, without encumbering one additional page, or being censured as uninteresting or irrelevant.

The poems of which this volume substantially consists, make their appearance under several disadvantages. In li terature, as well as in life, those very decorations and distinctions which conciliate the great and awe the vulgar, produce quite an opposite effect on men of sense and discrimination. Pretensions are more nicely examined, and excellence more rigorously exacted. No standard seems too high, no scrutiny too jealous. The severity of justice is enforced by the prejudices of pride. The law of England, aware of the influence of previous opinion in forming the judgement, and despairing of an absolute neutrality of feeling between the public and the individual, has interposed on behalf of the weaker party, and prepossessed the most trusty of her minis. ters in his favour. But if prejudice be formidable to any writer, it is especially to a poet. Mathematicians may defy hostility, secure in the impenetrable armour of truth, and the irresistible arms of demonstration. It is said to be difficult, however, to convince a man against his will; to please him, is next to impossible. A poet, whose precise object it is to please, cannot possibly be judged with equity, unless he is heard with indulgence. The susceptibility of agreeable emotions, the very sense by which poetical merit must be felt, is necessarily enfeebled, more or less, by the prevalence of suspicion or ill-will. It is only in the kindest and most peaceful moments, in the profoundest silence of the passions, that we can hear the sweetest tones and finest echoes of poetry. We are not at all surprized, therefore, at the apprehensions intimated in a very modest preface by the auther of the first poem in the volume, from the prejudice which its splendor might excite, Another obvious source of unfavourable judgement, which is also alluded to by Mr. Montgomery, is the singularly interesting nature of the subject, combined with the perfect notoriety of all its parts. The one may encourage the most sanguine expectations, which the other may render it impossible to fulfil. The history of the Slave Trade is so copious, that poetry can scarcely aug ment the number of incidents; and so impressive, she can hardly add to their effect. The most artful and ingenious fiction might strive in vain to excite a tenderer pity, a more vehement indignation, a deeper horror, than is awakened by a bare narrative of the facts. All these emotions, however, have been excited already; and the same facts can never excite them again to the same degree, haying lost part of their power in losing all their novelty. These emotions, moreover, have been very frequently excited for a series of years by the utmost efforts of eloquence and poetry; the public mind has been rendered in a certain Z 2

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