ools, and well calculated for the purpofe h of amufement and instruction. M. Effays moral and literary. 4 s. 6 d. fewed. ly. Thefe are fome of the principal jects which this author has difcuffed: On timent; On affectation of the Graces; the complaints of men of learning; On quence; On modern literature; On connefs; On verbal criticifm; On the fluction of tafte; On the inequalities of ges; On the life and writings of Dr Jortin; the character of Addison as a poet; On e of the Minor Greek Poets; On the Ofey; On the Oedipus Tyrannus of So. cles; On Cafimir; On the neglect of ient authors; On the inferiority of mo n to ancient cloquence; On Pliny the unger; On fome paffages in Tacitus; On harmony of the period; On fculpture, hitecture, and the art of printing. The der will find many new ideas in the courfe this volume, and many fentiments which dently flow from a juft fenfe of things, d a claffical tafte. C.

Conjectures on the Tyndaris of Horace, d fome other of his pieces; with a poft ipt. By John Whitfield, A. M, 25. Rirdfon & Urquhart.

A catalogue of the manufcripts in the Cotian library. To which are added, many endations and additions. With an apndix, &c. 4 s. fewed. Hooper.

Entertainment.

Julia de Roubigné; a tale. In a feries of ters, published by the author of the Man Feeling, and the Man of the World. vols. 5 s. fewed. Cadell.We can with eafure affure our readers, that they will id in Julia de Roubigue, the fame richness invention, pathos of fentiment, and fimicity of language, which diftinguifhed the thor's [Henry Mackenzie, Efq; attorney exchequer, Edinburgh] former produc

ons. M.

which, not only the moft generous feelings of the heart are awakened, but also the nobleft fentiments of virtue, with the inviclable fanctity of moral obligation, prefented to the mind in their greatest force. C.

The Sufpicious Lovers. By the author of Woodbury. 3 vols. 65. Wilkie. A lively, fenfible series of letters; calculated not merely to do away an idle hour, but to inspire a love of honour, and a contempt of vicious principles. M.

The Princefs of Cleves. An historical novel; tranflated from the French. 3 S. Wilkie.To those who are capable of entering with genuine fentiment into the delicacies of an elegant paffion, this tale will appear natural and pathetic. The writer has attentively obferved, and ftrongly mark ed, the workings of an heart, in which love is reftrained and fubdued by honour and gratitude. The translation is executed with correctnefs. M.

Travels for the heart. Written in France. By Courtney Melmoth. 2 vols. 6 s. fewed. Wallis Contain the effufions of a lively imagination, apparently well acquainted with thofe delicate fenfibilities which mark the human heart in various characters. C.

Letters from Lord Chesterfield, to Alderman George Faulkner, Dr Madden, Mr Sexton, Mr Derrick, and the Earl of Arran. Being a fupplement to his Lordship's letters. 4to. 2 S. Wallis.-— Twenty letters; thirteen addressed to Mr Faulkner, three to De Madden, one to Mr Sexton, two to Mr Der rick, and one to the Earl of Arran. They are undoubtedly genuine, and will be deem ed in fome measure a curiofity. Some of them were perhaps not worth printing; but every thing written by a Chefterfield will be read. M.

4

Plays and Poetry.

The Dramatic Works of George Colman. vols. Il. I S. Becket. A collection of the dramatic productions of a writer who hath long, and defervedly, in this walk of literature, (as well as in fome others), been a favourite with the public. The contents are, 1. The Jealous Wife; 2. The Clandefine Marriage, (the joint production of Mr Colman and Mr Garrick); 3. The English Merchant; 4. The Man of Bufinefs; 5. Man and Wife, all comedies; -6. Philafter, a tragedy, with alterations from Beaumont and Fletcher; 7. King Lear, ditto, from Shakefpeare; 8. Epicane, a comedy, from Ben Johnfon; 9. Polly Honeycombe, a dramatic novel; 10. The Musical Lady, a farce; 11. The deuce is in him, ditto; 12. The Oxonian in town, a comedy in two acts; 13. The Portrait, a burletta; 14. The Fairy Prince, a mafque; 15. An Occafional Pre lude; 16. The Spleen, a comic piece of two

Winter's Tale. M.

The Fairy Tale. In two acts. Taken from Shakespeare. As performed in the Haymarket. 6d. Kearsley.. Ditto from Midfummer Night's Dream. M.

The Quaker; a comic opera. As performed at the theatre-royal in Drury lane. S. Bell.A little piece, abounding with Strokes of morality, and not deflitute of humour. We cannot say much in favour of the poetry. M.

Percy; a tragedy. As it is acted at the theatre-royal in Covent Garden. I s. 6 d. Cadell.This tragedy, though not the best, is, perhaps, the bloodiest production of the modern drama. Daggers, poifon, madness, and death, unite to aftonish and furprife, We think it could not be more affecting, unless all the characters had expired, and none but the dead left to bury the dead. The author [Mifs Hannah More] is more obliged to a French piece [the Gabrielle de Vergy of M. de Belloy] than the feems willing to acknowledge. C.. Percy holds no contemptible ftation in the ranks of modern tragedy. The fable is, with much address, accommodated to the old ftory of Chevy Chace; the characters, with the happy addition of Lord Raby, are copied from BelJoy; the sentiments are, many of them, na tural and delicate; and the language, in ge. neral, is flowing and eafy, though not totally free from female prettineffes. The Prologue and Epilogue [669] were written by Mr Garrick; and both are conceived in that eafy, happy vein, which, for thefe laft thirty years, hath fo fuccefsfully contributed to afif English writers, and exhilarate an English audience. M.

Poems, confifting chiefly of tranflations from the Afiatic languages. To which are added, two eflays: 1. On the poetry of the Eaftern nations; 2. On the arts commonly called imitative. 65. Conant, &c. In this fecond edition of Mr Jones's elegant poems, &c. there are some additional Latin poems, which are, in every respect, worthy of their learned and ingenious author. M. The Poetical Preceptor. 35. Crowder.

-This collection contains above 250 po and extracts from the works of the mofte nent poets in the English language. T compiler has not only felected fuch an remarkable for their beauty and fublimin but fuch alfo as are fraught with noble d timents, and excellent precepts of monit It is therefore extremely well calculated s the ufe of those readers who wish to hawa great variety in a small compafs. C.

Sir Martyn; a poem, in the manner Spenfer. By William Julius Mickle. 164 Flexney.The republication, under a new title, of a poem called the Concubine, wh first appeared about ten years ago, and th fince that time gone through feveral edite Equally poetical and moral, while it pas in lively colours the guilty joys, it exhion Ly striking reprefentation of the pernicious med fequences of libertinifm. C.

A

the

Captivity, a poem; and Celadon and L dia, a tale. Dedicated, by permifios, the Duchess of Devonshire. By Mrs Robin of fon. 2. S. Becket. Two reafons precist criticifm here: The poems are the prod tion of a lady; and that lady is py. M.

of

Mount Pleafant; a defcriptive poem. T which is added, an Ode. 2 s. Jobafon. 25 He who can be satisfied with an elegant ture of Liverpool, its public buildings, & C in agreeable poetry, has not occafion to t vel any farther than to our author's Mo Pleasant. C.

A profpect from Barrow Hill, near R chefter, in Staffordshire, 1s. BaldwinThis performance is by no means conte tible; although Barrow Hill must not bad its head fo high as Grongar's Hill, or Co per's Hill. Č.

By Charle

Richmond Hill; a poem. Crawford, Efq; 1 s. Becket. Some lat

here and there not bad; but how a nigh gale can be said to tune her fhell, we cann comprehend; nor do we like the frequr ufe of the Alexandrines. C.

The Ciceroniad. A poem, infcribed William Earl of Mansfield: With a defcation to his Lordship. 2 s. Bew-Th plan of the Ciceroniad is briefly this: Tally is fent from the fhades, to determine de different pretenfions of our bar-orators the prize allotted to fuperiority of merit their profeffion. The pleaders, accordingly, affemble, and affert their refpective claims which gives the poet an opportunity f ketching their characters: and fome of the are feverely fatitifed. The palm is bet on Lord Mansfield; who, upright judge a he is, it is hoped, will duly weigh the vast of this compliment, should Du The profecute the author for a libelThere are many good lines interspersed this very unequal performance. M.

A

Becket.

Thefe Verfes are faid to be the production of Judge Burnet, fon of the bishop of that name. They are evidently juvenile, and ought fill to have remained in the obfcurity in which they have lain fo many years. C.

Elegies. 1. On the death of Samuel Foote, Efq; 2. On age. By Thomas Holcroft, of the theatre-royal, Drury-lane. 1s. Bew. Thefe little, hafty, occafional effufions of rhyming grief, are generally dictated by friendfhip; to criticife them, might, therefore, be thought to imply, in fome degree, a want of fympathetic feeling, and of humanity: we fhall, for this reafon, only observe, that Lyttelton's, and Brown's, and Shaw's monodies, remain ftill unrivalled. M.

Seventeen hundred and seventy-feven; or, A picture of the manners and characters of the age. In a poetical epistle from a lady

of quality. 1 s. 6d. Evans.. Unque ftionably the cleverest of those numerous poetical by-blows that were begotten by the unconscious Omiah on the meretricious Mufe of Covent-garden. M.

The Defolation of America; a poem. 15. 6 d. Kearsley.

FROM the endless wranglings of wordy Contention, and the undiftinguishing vengeance of the foldier's arm, this poem may be confidered as an appeal to the virtuous feelings of generofity and compaffion. A Bard, to us unknown, has painted the defo. lations of a devoted country, once happy in the free enjoyment of all earthly bleffings, but now groaning beneath the preffure of every calamity that ruthless War, aggravated and ftimulated by Civil Difcord, can infict!The poem opens with the following defcription:

"Through the dim fhades by frantic ter-
ror led,

From feenes of blood a hoary parent fled;
A tender virgin breathlefs with her fears,
Hung on his arm, and bath'd him with her

tears:

fide,

Whofe paths unviolated forests hide : There paus'd awhile their steps, while each furvey'd

The diftant ruin, from the friendly shade.At length the wretched mother thus began, While down her cheeks the liquid, forrows ran."

The wretched MOTHER" now delimeates the horrid fcenes of hostile invafion; but the draws with an American pencil. She exhibits the "reeking blade"-" the bloody crofs of Britain," waving in the van of "an hoft of flaves," and "pointing to deeds of

Death."

Expreffions, however, of this irritable kind, it is to be apprehended, will not produce, on this fide of the Atlantic, all thofe tender emotions in the reader's breast, which the Poet certainly intended to excite. But, we perceive, it was not his defign to pay any token of refpect to the "bloody erofs!"

Among other affecting circumitances which may naturally be imagined to mark the progrefs of the bloody conteft, feveral are pre fented to view, which cannot fail to rend the bofom of every reader, not steeled by the rancour of party prejudice. Some of these scenes and circumstances of defolation however, are not peculiar to America; they must be nearly the fame in every country fubjected to the ravages of civil war. Hence, the poem, in general, does not seem to be, throughout, ftrictly appropriated to its ti tle. M.

THE poem before us is called the Defola tion of America; but it might have been called fimply Defolation, fince, till the final diffolution of "this great globe itself, and all which it inhabit," it will do perfectly well for the defolation of any country, or any quarter of the globe, Europe, Alia, Africa, or America, which fhall ever be defolated. We learn, that, in America, men, women, and children are destroyed; flocks are driven away; cities are burned; the harvests fad. den; and thepherds cease to whistle"Nor breath of mufic floats along the glade, Nor maiden's fong soft trilling through the fhade."

Nor

We are truly forry, as well as this goodnatured gentleman; but all thefe ills and misfortunes generally attend large armies when they invade inimical countries. do happiness and mirth any more follow the American, than the British, camp. The justice and propriety of fending this defolating armament, do not at all cause our author's imagination to relent. With them he had nothing to do. As the boon companion must have his joke, fo must we have our rhyme at any rate. -—- Poetry, if the want a fubject for her tears, might, with more pro

priety,

priety, fhed them over poor Germany, who is fo abufed at prefent for felling men to fubdue America. How often has that torn and mangled country been the horrid theatre of war, and ruin, and defolation!

But from poems we do not expect argument, any more than 'we expect poetry in the pleadings of a lawyer-This publication has its merit; though the author feems pretty well acquainted with Pope, and still better with Goldfmith's Deferted Village. The plan, and the beginning and the end, are bad:-the outlines of the poem were sketched either hastily or unskilfully; but they were filled up by the hand of a master.

Befides the pleafure we have received from fome lines in this poem, we are to thank its author for not giving us the trouble to mark any more than two bad rhymes through out; "death-beneath," and "unaw'd God." C.

EDINBURGH.

Effays on the corn-laws. 6d. Drum. [573] Confiderations on our corn-laws, and the bill propofed to amend them. 6 d. Elliot. Britain [fays this writer] contains if ty-fix millions of acres, and only feven and a half millions of inhabitants. By a proper cultivation, the land is capable of producing twice as much as is neceffary for their fupport; the cultivation of the land is there fore undoubtedly the first object. If this country does not at prefent produce enough to fecure us against the danger of famine, or even of very high prices, the natural and fafe remedy is within our own power. Every encouragement fhould be given to our farmers to bring more of our wafte land into cultivation, and to improve that which is already ploughed. The common confumption of the country will occafion the production of no more than what is found fufficient in ordinary feafons to fupply it. If, in order to guard against the evils of famine, we with that more thould be produced every year than what is equal to the annual confump. tion in ordinary feafons, an artificial demand must be created; and to anfwer that artificial demand, more land will foon be culti vated. With the fame view, the importation of foreign grain fhould never be allowed, except when the prices at home rife to fuch a height as to endanger the lofs of our manufactures; for whatever part of the demand for home confumption is fupplied from a broad, the encouragement for the cultivation of our own land, and the quantity ploughed, will be just fo much leffened. And here lies the error of those who argue for a continual free importation of corn: their arguments prefume, that, notwithstanding the importation, the quantity produced within the country will remain the fame, and that the quantity im

ported, will, by making greater plenty, ly leffen the price. In order to encourage any manufacture at home, it is our unifom policy to restrain or prohibit the importation of fimilar manufactures from abroad: promote the manufacture of broad cloth, the importation of foreign broad cloth is forbid to encourage our filk-weavers, French fil are made contraband; it will not be denied, that agriculture, or the production of com, which Montefqueieu juftly fays is of all ma nufactures infinitely the most valuable, de ferves encouragement as well as the reft; and it must seem strange, if its fuccefs is to be promoted by the very reverse of the method ta ken to encourage every other, by the admithion of foreign corn to a competition with our own. If they, be right who argue, that every reftriction and every bounty does harm, the alteration of our laws ought to be gene ral; it cannot with propriety be made with regard to one manufacture, and not. to the reft. In order to do justice to the grower of corn, to our landed men and farmers, t we be allowed to buy corn at all-times whereever we can find it cheapest, we ought als to be allowed the fame liberty in every kad of manufacture. But under the fecurity d the home market which our prefent s give us, our manufactures and our agric ture have rofe to furpass those of every othe country in the world; and it is not eafy for one who fees a country in high profperty avoid thinking, that there must be fome nection between that profperity and the law which have been made to promote itFrom the time of Henry VIIL down to he latter part of the last century, many a were paffed relative to com, all of them founded on principles directly oppofte m thofe of our prefent laws. With the vic of having plenty of corn at home, the portation of our own was generally pre bited, and the importation from other cu tries was allowed and encouraged. The co fequence was, what under fuch regulations t must always be, the markets were irregular fupplied: fometimes great quantities wet poured in when they were not nece aud at other times corn did not come it was moft needed; prices were fometimes fo very low, and fometimes fo very high, to ruin both farmers and manufactory. dearths were frequent, and we find the w ters of those times all complaining of the decreafe of tillage and population, After confequences of thefe abfurd regulaziora tut been long feverely felt, and when more cre larged ideas came to prevail in this coupET. new acts were paffed, by which at ud portation was allowed at higher, pr before, duties were then in pofed on ported corn, and at laft that par which we owe the revolution, difnga

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