lively and entertaining sketch for which we are indebted to Mr. Burke, is written with judgment and great elegance; but it is only a sketch, and concerns other European colonies as much as our own; the work before us fhould feem to answer this defect how far the defign is answered we shall presently ex amine. The first book is taken up with an historical general review of American history from Cabot's time to the present: the first fection brings this hiftory in a very fuperficial manner down to the year 1755, by no means equalling other fummary accounts already before the public. The fecond fection is the military hiftory of the year 1755: fomething better drawn up than the preceding. In these two sections the only information we meet with not already in numerous publications, is giving the merit of the thought of seizing the French fhips before the declaration of war, to the then lord mayor, Sir Stephen Theodore Janffen, a fact though well known, yet unnoticed by our hiftorians; and, fecondly, the, following state of the population of our colonies at this time. Halifax and Lunenburg in Nova Scotia - Maffachufet's Bay Rhode Island and Providence Connecticut New York 5,000 30,000 220,000 35,000 100,000 Section III. continues the hiftory to the end of the year 1762, in a very defultory, unanimated manner. It mentions Mr. Pitt's being turned out, but fays nothing of his return to power, nor can the reader fo much as difcover under whofe administration the great fucceffes of the war were gained, yet gives C 4 a long a long dull extract from the declaration of war against France. The fourth fection contains little more than a transcript of the articles of peace, and the proclamation for fettling the bounds of the colonies, with which the first book ends; and is, upon the whole, a very indigefted account. Book II. contains the hiftory of New England: in the first chapter the author gives an account of the manners, customs, &c. of the Indians at the planting of the colony, which, had his au. thorities been quoted, would have been a curious passage: but Indifcriminate authority in this point is very unfatisfactory; as there is scarcely a subject in which men of narrow capacities are more likely to be mistaken, and confequently to deceive their readers; but this fault runs through the greatest part of the work, which is of a nature that demanded a minute attention to this circumftance. The defcription of the country is very incomplete, which is inexcufable after the numerous works that have been published on the fubject. At page 52 he fays, The climate is not fo mild and regular as thofe parts of Italy and France that lie in the fame parallel, nor is it fo temperate as in Great Britain.' He who could thus defcribe the climate of New England can know very little of the matter indeed! it is like faying that the climate of Nova Zembla is not quite fo warm and pleafant as that of Spain. This defeription of the country is likewife ill arranged, The hiftory of this province is continued through the first eleven fections of this book; though pretty minute it does not contain many circumstances that are not in preceding histories, with the difadvantage of being uninterefting in an extraordinary degree; there is also a coldness in the manner and reflections that cannot but disgust. In fection XII. we have a defcription of the climate, foil, produce, and trade, confifting chiefly of long quotations; there are, however, fome circumftances mentioned which deferve attention. The contracts of the commiffioners of the navy, fays he, for mafts, &c. have of late been from Piscataqua harbour, in New Hampshire, and Cafco bay, in the province of Main. The mast-ships, built peculiarly for that use, are generally about 400 tons, navigated with about twenty-five men, and carry from forty-five to fifty good mafts each voyage. New England abounds in faw mills of cheap and flight work, generally carrying a fingle faw. One man and a boy attending on a mill, may, in twenty-four hours, faw 4000 feet of white pine boards, which are generally one inch thick and of various lengths, from fifteen to twenty feet; and . af of different widths from one foot to two feet at a medium; and it is reckoned that forty boards make icoo feet. These mills commonly ftand upon fmall ftreams becaufe cheap fitted, but with the following inconveniencies: 1. As the country is cleared of wood and brufh the rivulets dry up. 2. In living Emall ftreams there is not water fufficient to drive the wheel in fummer. 3. In the winter they are frozen up.” p. 209. Among the manufactures he reckons iron, of which he fays, • Iron is also a great article in manufactures, as it confifts of thefe general branches: 1. Smelting furnaces reducing the. ore into pigs; having coal fufficient, and appearances of rock ore. z. Refineries which manufacture pigs imported from New York, Penfylvania, and Maryland furnaces, into bar it on. 3. Bloomeries from bog or fwamp ore. One hundred and twenty bushels of charcoal are fufficient to fmelt rock ore into one ton of pigs, and the complement of men for a furnace is eight or ten, befide cutters of the wood, coalers, carters, and other common labourers. Bog or fwamp ore lies from half a foot to two feet deep in about from twenty years digging, it grows or gathers fit for another digging, but if it lies longer it turns rufty and does not yield well; three tons of swamp ore yield about one ton of hollow ware.' Chapter III. defcribes Connecticut colony; and in the articles laws, taxes, people, and government has many particulars not found in other hiftories. Upon Long Island found, fays he, is a delightful and profitable range of good townfhips, the glory of all the British plantations in New England, as Stonnington, Groton, New London, Lyme, Saybrook, Killingworth, Guilford, Brentford, New Haven, Milford, Stratford, Fairfield, Norwalk, Stamford, and Greenwich; but New London is the capital.' In the observations, page 238, on the culture and ftaples of the colonies, he copies Dr. Mitchel almoft verbatim, who made exa@ly the fame obfervations before, and almost în the fame words. Chap. VI. defcribes Rhode IQand: the account is minute and tedious, without being fatisfactory. The fubject of the next is New Hampshire, in which there is a good account of the progress of Mr. Mafon's claim to the province, and the manner in which his fucceffors were deprived of their juft rights, by courfe of law. The defcription of the country is very incomplete. The whole book concludes with the following obfervation: The Maffachufet's colony is fuperior to the reft in opulence, trade, and number of inhabitants, its principal town being Bofton. They employ 500 fail of ships, with 4000 feamen, annually in their trade to Great Britain and the fugar fugar colonies: and the imports from Great Britain and Ireland have been computed at 300,000l. a year. This is an account that was retailed many years ago: to let fuch a paffage be the defcription of their commerce in 1773 is a mockery of the reader; much better accounts are to be met with in preceding books, particularly in the Political Effays, 4to. and fince they were published, tables of imports and exports have appeared: It ought to have been the bufinefs of an author who aimed at giving useful information, to have told us what tables were accurate, and what the contrary; to have supplied *deficiencies, inftead of copying defects; to have pointed out the effects of British regulations by fuch enquiries. But this history deviates into geographical and commercial description, without affording thofe valuable communications which are the effence of fuch works. Book III. contains the hiftory of the province of New York, and has little in it which deferves commendation. The account of the Five Nations is copied from Colden, and alfo (fee page 68) verbatim from Pownal. At page 77 is a good comparifon between the fituations of New York and Philadelphia in refpect of carriage. In Book IV. which treats of New Jersey, there is ftill less than in Book JII. The fifth pretends to defcribe Penfylvania, but in fo fuperficial a manner that every reader must be difgufted: the foil and the natural history of the province entirely omitted, though much dwelt on under the head of New England. In Book VI. we have Maryland, in which article we are informed, that an industrious man can manage 6000 plants of tobacco, and four acres of Indian corn; that 6000 plants yield 1000!. that 4000 negroes are yearly imported into Maryland and Virginia; and that Mr. Bennet of Maryland had 1300 at one time; this is the whole intelligence not already in print. Book VII. containing Virginia, is comprized in ten pages; in every circumftance concerning the importance of the colony and the interefts of Britain, this article deferved twice the attention employed upon New England, yet this author has given 267 pages to the latter. To what are we to attribute this, unless to a plenty of hackneyed materials from which he could transcribe fo largely? The whole article Virginia contains not one circumstance that has not been publifhed. Book VIII. defcribes Carolina, but contains no new information concerning the progress of culture in that country and the sketch of its trade at page 152 is too fuperficial; the Political Effays give a more fatisfactory account. The description of Georgia is equally lame. Under Florida we expected fomething new, but were ut:e ly difappointed. The article Lou Louisiana is fervilely copied from Du Pratz, &c. Canada is a continued plagiarism. Under the remaining heads we find nothing of importance: even the reflections, which feem at first fight to be the author's own, are copied. At page 243 his obfervations on the cold winds of that continent, verbatim (without acknowledgment) from Dr. Mitchel. Upon the whole we confider this work as a bulky quarto, which, though written upon an important subject, conveys very little information to the reader unnoticed by preceding writers; and it is alfo extremely deficient with respect to arrangement, conduct, and other arts of compofition. V. A Differtation, Hiftorical and Political, on the Ancient Republics of Italy from the Italian of Carlo Denina. With original Notes and Obfervations, by John Langhorne, D. D. 8vo. 4. Jerved. Becket and Co. THE caufes of the rife and declension of states is a subject which has excited the enquiry of fome of the most eminent political writers; and of all investigations refpecting government it might certainly be the most useful to fociety, could mankind be induced to avail themselves of the examples which the virtues and vices, the legislative wisdom and imprudence of former ages, hold forth to their view. But there is reafon for queftioning whether ever the catastrophe of any empire was much retarded by expedients founded upon obfer. vations deduced from history. The caufes which effect the ruin of a state being ufually the confequences of its high profperity, their action is at first infidious, and proceeds by imperceptible degrees, till the political difeafe become too violent to be longer fupported, and the general corruption of the people admitting of no reformation, the conftitution is at laft diffolved, and either a foreign power lays hold of the victim, or a change of domestic government takes place. Such is the course that has been run by every state, whether regal, aristocratical, or republican, where arts and commerce have remarkably flourished, and where luxury, through whatever channel, has univerfally diffufed its pleafing.poifon. The obfcure and imperfect accounts with which we are furnished of the ancient republics of Italy, will not authorise us to determine with certainty the nature of the political defects which could facilitate the reduction of fo great a number of populous frates by the Roman power. It is not probable, that in those ages, the republics in the interior parts of Italy especially, were much corrupted by luxury. So far from this being |