Review of New Publications. And Shakspeare, in his Comedy of The Merry Wives of Windfor, act I. fc. 1, puts into the mouth of Sir Hugb Evans these words: It is not meet the council hear of a riot; there is no fear of Got in a riot the council, look you, shall defire to hear the fear of Got, and not to hear a riot; take you vizaments of that.' "FAMOSUS LIBELLUS. A libel. Libell, Libellus, literally fignifieth a little book, but by ufe it is the original declaration of any action in the civil law. It fignifieth alfo a criminous report of any man caft abroad, or otherwife unlawfully published in writing; but then, for difference fake, it is called an infamous libel, famofus libellus.' C. art. Lite!" "IGNORAMUS. 'Ignoramus is a word properly used by the grand inqueft empanelled in the inquifition of caufes criminal and public, and written upon the bill whereby any crime is offered to their confideration, when as they miflike their evidence as defective or too weak to make good the prefentment; the effect of which word fo written is, that all farther inquiry upon that party for that fault is thereby ftopped, and he delivered without farther anfwer. It hath a resemblance with that cuftom of the ancient Romans, where the judges, when they abfolved a perfon accufed, did write A. upon a little table provided for that purpose, i. abfolvimus, if they judged him guilty, they writ C. id eft, condemnamus; if they found the caufe difficult and doubtful, they writ N. L. id eft, non liquet.' C." A Provincial Glossary, with a Collection of By Francis Grofe, Esq. F.A.S. "THE utility of a Provincial Gloffary to all perfons defirous of understanding our ancient poets, is univerfally acknowledged. Divers partial collections have been made, well received, and frequently reprinted. Thefe are all here united under one alphabet, and augmented by many hundred words collected by the Editor in the different places wherein they are used; the rotation of mili tary quarters and the recruiting fervice have ing occafioned him to refide, for fome time, in most of the counties of England. - Provins cial or local words are of three kinds: "1. Either Saxon or Danish; in general grown obfolete from difufe, and the introduction of more fashionable terms; and confequently only retained in countries remote from the capital. "2. Derived from fome foreign language; as Latin, French, or German: but fo corrupted by paffing through the mouths of illiterate clowns as to render their origin fcarceby difcoverable. "3. Mere arbitrary words, not deducible from any primary fource or language, but Judicrous nominations from fome apparent qualities in the object or thing; at first fcarcely current out of the parish, but by time and ufe extended over a whole county." Thefe laft we fhould call Cant or Nick names, beneath the dignity of a Lexicographer, or Gloffographift; and, if admitted into our poets, not worthy of explanation. The books chiefly confulted on this occafion were, Ray's Proverbs, Tim Bobbin's Lancashire Dialect, Lewis's History of the Ifle of Thanet, Sir John Cullum's History of Hawftead, many of the County Hiftories, and the Gentleman's Magazine; from the last the Exmore Scolding was entirely taken *. Several gentlemen, too refpectable to be named on fo trifting an occafion, have alfo Contributed their affittance. "In felecting the words, fuch as only dif fered from those in common ufe through the mode of pronunciation were mostly rejected; nor in the arrangement, except in a few inftances, are they attributed or fixed to a particular county, it being difficult to find any word used in one county that is not adopted at least in the adjoining border of the next; therefore, generally arranged under the titles of North, South, and Weft Country Words. Those used in feveral counties in the fame fenfe, are pointed out by the letter C, for common and fometimes thefe are dif tinguished by the abbreviations var, dial, figmifying that they are used in various dialects. The Eaft country fcarce afforded a fufficiency of words to form a divifion.” We have always found one infurmountable difficulty in forming a col lection of provincial words in a living language, arifing from the pronunciation. Our beft orthographers must confels themselves deceived by it. Perhaps this cannot be better exemplified than in the London cries, where words are variously mutilated and abridged; and, fhould one of thefe criers be met in a ditant county, his cry would be prefumed provincial. Thus the pronunciation dom, by no means proves that it is of aye, in different parts of the kingwritten aer; they in by is fo frequently foftened down, that be, in compounds, is by no means a provincial dialect, any more than my father, my lord, foftened into me father, me lord, in general converfation. Many words, alfo fuppofed provincial, are in general ufe. Thus bees is a mere variation of beeves, or beafts. Bavin (not baven) is adopted in general acts of parliament, and as well understood throughout the realm coke, grit, groundfell, and other words. as in Kent. The fame may be said of How much we want a gloffary to acts of *It was first printet feparately in quaito, at Exeter. parliament parliament appears from the dealers in rubble, who, with bakers, are exempted from the fhop-tax. It is aftonishing how differently the fame pronunciation founds to different ears. Cart-rake, here given as the Effex term for a cart track, is nothing more than the drawling found of cart-trake. The next obje of furprife with us is, how travellers and new difcoverers can bring away a vocabulary from a tract where they barely touch, or make but a short ftay, and then compare it with vocabularies of languages better known. It may be doubted, alfo, whether many of thefe words are ufed by two people in any country; for nothing is fo common as for the unlearned peafantry to coin their own words, on the fpur of the occafion; and many a mechanic, both in the capital and the provinces, has words and conceits at command. Cant, i. e. quaint words are the produce of every brain. Errors in grammar, in a language which, like our own, was not reduced to rules till within the last 50 or 60 years, are alfo to be taken into the account. Upon a review of thefe confi. derations, we must be allowed to doubt whether a gloffary of an unwritten language can be of much use for illuftrat ing writers, either in poetry or profe: it may, however, furnish amufement, and even fun. In further proof of the effects of found, let it be obferved that we have feen crome spelt croom, drazil drazil, eam, eme, cald, celd or eld, gairn, gar'n, todol or toddle, taddle. Drinking between meals is certainly not confined to Kert; but every fet of labourers, carpenters, &c. ufe it in the fame fenfe. Guile, if originally North, is ufed by every brewer in London. Lock! an exclamation of furprife, is look, or lack; as lack a day! which we have heard pronounced lawk a day! Tautle, like taddle, means dangling after a perfon, and is applied generally to children following parents or nurses, and hanging about them. Sammodithu would be pronounced Sa'mordidu; Say me how d'ye do? D and th are controvertible letters in this and other inftances; as g and y in gate and yate, galt and yalt. The local proverbs in this collection are enlarged from Fuller, Ray, and other writers; many of whofe explanations Mr. G. has ventured to correct, and, he hopes, to amend *. See vol. LVII. p. iv. The popular fuperftitions are alfo collected from books, and the mouths of village hiftorians. This article is capable of great augmentation; for neither Bourne, Brand, nor Grofe, fay any thing of the DUMB CAKE, at prefent the fubject of pantomime. 3. An Efay on the Depravity of the Nation, with a View to the Promotion of SundaySebails, &c. of which a more extended Plan is propaled. By the Rev. Jofeph Berington. WE have here a fresh opportunity of renewing our acquaintance with Mr. B. in the character of a reformer of national manners. His complaints are undoubtedly juft; his reprefentations well founded; and his plan of amendment candid. Our only doubt is, whether the evil has not fpread too far, and the canker fo preyed on the vitals as to have enervated the national fpirit. Indolence, falfe modefty, faftidiousness indifpofe too many to a concurrence in the general plan, and confpire to the relaxation of difcipline fo much complained of. In his views and wishes Mr. Berington appears to be one of the ten righteous men he speaks of. fears that the zeal which first appeared in the bufinefs of Sunday- fchools begins to decline. We lament that fo little attention is paid to the important bufinefs of education in general, that parents fuffer their province to be invaded by every pretender, of either sex, to the conduct of the rifing generation; who, while they profeis to take the greatef care of their morals, neglect them the moft,-happy if, by their selfish parafitical examples, they do not debauch and corrupt the moral principle. He In our review of a former and largeţ work of Mr. B's, we faid that he lived in Worcester, instead of Ofcot, near Birmingham; and, by fome mistake of our compofitor, his Reflections addressed to the Rev. John Hawkins are faid to be addreffed to Sir John Hawkins. 4 Bath Water; a conjectural Idea of the Nature and Quality, in Three Letters to To which is added, Putridity and Infection unjustly imputed to Fevers, a cruel public Grievance, attempted to be redreffed with fome Account of the Nature and Management of plain Fevers. By A. W. [Arthur Wilfon], M. D. Reg. Coll. Med. Edinb. Soc. author, annexed to this, makes them A Lift of Publications by the fame * See our laft volume, p. 804. amount Review of New Publications. amount to 15, viz. 7 medical, 4 philofophical, 4 phyfico-theological. Among the latter are, Reflections on the Subje&s in difpute between Bishops Lowth and Warburton; and in the fecond clafs, The Principles of analyfing Water, by Doors Wilfon and Hall; a partnership account. "It appears to Dr. W. that Bath wa"ters are no further either fulphurous "or chalybeate than they are in pregnated "by that pyritical ferment which fupports their heat. He thinks himfelf "juftified, therefore, in concluding, "that they derive their heat and their "characteristic qualities from the fame "immediate caufe." p. 31. This caufe he feems to think is, " inflammable gas, "called alfo bepatic air, which he fhall "call the progeny of fulphur, becaufe he ! does not think it can properly be ac"counted the inflammable part of it "only, but rather an inverfion of its fubftance, or corporal particles, into a "volatile and more perfectly infiamma"ble modification." p. 33." It is im"poffible to determine in what quantity "the Bath waters are impregnated with "this vapour." p. 36.-P. 40. He recites the general virtues of the Bath waters, that they give additional "warmth and vigour to the circulation, "expand and enrich the fluids, foothe "any irratibility of the fyftem, and in "fome degree prove intoxicating and "narcotic, plump the parts, foften the "fkin, and promote perfpiration; tend "to heal and dry up all fores, internal "or external, and fweeten the blood, "fbeathing and correcting any acrimony "therein; are not fit for plethoric ha bits; and a too vigorous circulation "requires a low, cool dier, and to be "drunk in larger quantities than ufually "preferibed," In the article of fevers the Doctor obferves, that the term putrid, in ancient and modern practice, has changed its application; that it ought not to be applied to any fever of which the fick recover: every fever becomes putrid before it becomes mortal. Putrefaction and infection are quite different things. Infectious and epidemic diforders are too often confounded. He is of opinion, that the most obvious and direct predifpofing caufe of all fevers ought to be attributed to a morbid fate of the fkin, particularly to a decay or deficiency of the circulation of the red blood in its finer veffels, to which it ordinarily extends in a state of health. He defines a 53 plain fever to be one that is attended with no acute pain, or local inflammation. The epidemics which generally prevail from the height of fummer to the end of winter, or through the whole year, fuch are the aident or feven day fever; thofe of nine or eleven, and those of fourteen or fifteen days. The crifis of a fever is not to be accelerated, but with caution anticipated. "The author intended to have added to this publication a fhort effay on the "advantages that would arife from a more general ufe of the epiftolary mode "of confulting phyficians; but being "prevented, he poftpones it to fome "future opportunity.' We suppose he means fending cafes to phyficians at a diftance; a mode we cannot approve of, conceiving, that if a physician is of any ufe at all, it is by his actual observation of the fymptoms. Correfpondence can only be adopted with physicians whofe practice is too extenfive, or to phyficians who have no other means of establishing a courfe of practice. Dr. Wilfon's language is good; he writes with great eafe and fluency of ftyle; and his book contains fome ufe ful obfervations on blifters and fealding water. But we are forry to add, that he feems to be evidently a stranger to the modern doctrine of latent beat, which he should have given fome proofs of his having clearly comprehended before he prefumed to condemn. Had he been thoroughly mafter of that fubject, it is prefumeable that it would have afforded him a very different explication of the generation, or rather the emergence, of fenfible heat in Bath water. We are of opinion, that it is owing to fome caufe ftill more profound than even the Doctor's fubterraneous lake. We grant that fuch a lake would retain heat for a confiderable time in occlufo; but we are ftill left in the dark in regard to the manner in which that heat was ori. ginally acquired. When the Indian is afked how the world is fupported, he tells you, upon the back of an elephant; and, being pushed further, perhaps, adds, that the elephant ftands on a tortoife. Juft in the fame ftate has the Doctor left the explication of the curious phæ nomenon of the heat of Bath water. He inveighs, and not without reason, against the abufes of the word putrid, as applied fo frequently to fevers. But he forgets that this is not the error of the day, at leaft not amongst medical philofophers. Nor does he seem to be aware |