Considerations on Bullion and Coin, Circulation and Exchanges, with a View to our present Circumstances, by GEORGE CHALMERS, E.F.N. S.S.A. author of "An Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Great Britain," is in the press. A Life of WILLIAM WAYNFLETE, Bishop of Winchester, Lord High Chancellor to Henry VI. and Founder of Magdalen College, Oxford, by the late Dr. RICHARD CHANDLER, Will be published early in the Spring. A Description of the Antient Terracottas in the British Museum, by TAYLOR COMBE, esq. illustrated with Forty-one Plates, engraved after the Drawings of WM. ALEXANDER, esq. will be published on the 1st of January. Mr. BARRE ROBERTS's matchless Cabinet of the Coins of England, Scotland, and Ireland; likewise his Anglo-Gallic Coins, Coronation Medals, and many of the works of Thomas Simon; are advertized for sale early in February next, if not previously disposed of by private contract. (See vol. LXXX. p. 179.) His select Library is also to be sold by auction. Dr. BROWNE has now on the eve of publication, for the use of schools, Pinacotheca Classica ; or Classical Gallery; containing a Se lection of the most distinguished Characters in Antient and Modern Times, as drawn by the most cele brated Grecian, Roman, and British Historians, Biographers, &c. Mr. CHITTY, of the Middle Tomple, has announced his intention of delivering, immediately after Michaelmas Term, a Practical Course of Lectures on the Commercial Law. This Series will comprehend dissertations from the best writers on the Lex Mercatoria, among nations, as acknowledged by our Municipal Law; on the Commercial privileges and disabilities of Aliens; on the modes adopted by the different branches of the British Legislature, for the promotion and regulation of Foreign and Domestic Commerce; and on the spirit and effect of all the various Mercantile Contracts. Mr. W. MOORE, of the Royal Military Academy, is engaged in preparing for the press, a Treatise on Fluxions, with the various Applications of that Science. And Mr. P. BARLOW, of the Royal Military Aca demy, is about to publish a Collection of Mathematical Tables, among which will be some to facilitate the solution of the Irreducible Case of Cubics. Mr. W. MARRAT'S Introduction to Mechanics will be published before the end of the present year. A second edition, on an improved scale, of "The Journal of a Regi mental Officer during the recent Campaigns in Spain and Portugal, under Lord Wellington," is in the press. Mr. SOUTHEY's Poem of Kehama, is nearly finished at the press of the Ballantynes of Edinburgh. Mr. C. BRADLEY, of Wallingford, has a Lexicon of the New Testament nearly ready for the press, principally intended for the use of Schools: and, consequently, less extensive than Parkhurst's Lexicon, though compiled on a somewhat similar plan. The various senses in which every word is used by the Sacred Writers, will be given in English, difficult phrases and expressions will be concisely elucidated, and those variations of the verb or noun which might occasion any difficulty to the young Student, will be inserted and referred to their themes. The Library of the late WILLIAM PLATEL, esq. of Peterborough, including his interesting Collection of Arabic, Persian, Bengalee, and other MSS. forming part of the Library of the late Emperor Shah Aulum, will be sold by auction this Winter. The Author of "Wallace" has a Volume of Poems nearly ready. Bannockburn has been selected by Miss HOLFORD as the subject for her next Metrical Romance. Mr. PERCEVAL ELIOT, a Commissioner of Public Enquiry, is engaged in An Answer to Mr. Huskisson's Pamphlet on the Depreciation of Money. Dr. MAVOR's Edition of TUSSER'S Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, is in great forwardness. A new and elegant Edition of SPELMAN's translation of XENOPHON'S Expedition of Cyrus is in the press. Mr. BARRON FIELD, Student of the Inner Temple, bas in the press a full Analysis of Blackstone's Commentaries, by a Series of Questions, to which the Student is to frame his own Answers, by reading that Work. 33.. Scrip notions of the sites of countries and towns, seas and rivers, the exploits of "The Seven Champions of Christendoin" may be mistaken for real occurrences, and the travels of Damberger implicitly credited; and thus these idle fables may by ignorance be placed on the same shelf with the records of Moses and the Apostles.Speaking of young persons who peruse the sacred volumes of Scripture without geographical aid, Mr. Toy very sensibly observes: They may read that Jacob and his family left the land of Canaan, and went down into Egypt; that, after many years, their desceudants became a people, lef. Egypt, wandered in the wilderness forty years, and, at length, settled again in the land of Canaan; but, for want of a geographical knowledge of these countries, as they then stood, much 33. Scripture Geography: in Two Parts: containing a Description of the most distinguished Countries and Places noticed in the Holy Scriptures; with a brief Account of the remarkable Historical Events connected with the Subject. Intended to facilitate the Study of the Holy Bible to young Persons. Illustrated with Maps. By John Toy, &c. &c. London: Scatcherd and Letterman; 1810; Svo; pp. 125. 10 the conscientious instructors Tof ingenuous youth of both sexes, throughout the British empire, few arguments need now surely be addressed in print, to induce them to pay a very marked attention to the religious part of education. The clashing lucubrations of Doctors Rennel, Vincent, Barrow, and Knox, warın, and even intemperate, as, per- have haps, they sometimes were, certainly done the state good service. They have drawn the minds of all parents and guardians, who wish to act worthy of those responsible appellations, more keenly to the subject: they have, also, incidentally produced hints, which care, and patient examination by the test of practical experience, may, no doubt, greatly improve. By the religious part of education, we expect to be clearly understood to mean, that grand portion of it which is devoted to the elucidation of Christian tenets, and the enforcement of Christian duties, upon the broad basis of Scriptural Revela tion. As decided adherents to our venerable Establishment, we ourselves may well be supposed to give the preference to our own more immediate persuasion : but, when treating on the promotion of the knowledge of Religion generally, as believing Christians, our charity expands, of course; and we wish every due blessing may ensue from the pious elementary labours of every teacher, who takes THE OLD and THE NEW TESTAMENT for his chief guides, in the pure spirit of humility, and in the search of truth. To facilitate the study of all antient history, and to assist human n:emory in the retention of facts and dates, a competent acquaintance with Chronology and Geography is indispensibly necessary. Without some clear and positive leading epochas to which remarkable events can be referred, and without some definitive GENT. MAG. November, 1810. Bumerous of the force and connection of the subject is lost; and they are apt, the Author is afraid, more generally to consider them as fabulous stories, than as facts founded on the real state, situation, and divisions of the country.”—Preface. In this opinion, we heartily join, from painful conviction. In our Literary Intelligence, vol. LXXX. p. 440, we briefly announced the preparation of this useful little work, and with sincere satisfaction we now hail its successful completion. Our Author here presents the rising generation of religious students with a neatly-printed manual, compiled with exemplary caution and felicity of selection, and with a perspicuous conciseness that merits public approbation and encouragement. Mr. T.'s industry of research and accuracy of choice, in putting together his materials from various high authorities, are conspicuous: but even these good qualities, valuable as we deem them, are surpassed by his unaffected modesty, and the diffidence he permits himself to express : "In the event of this work being thought worthy the attention of the publick," says he, "it will be a great satisfaction to the Author; for, should it be the means of fixing the mind of one young person more strongly on the important truths of Scripture, he prizes too highly the blessings pronounced on him who shall guide one person into the way of truth, to think that his labour has been bestowed in vain."—Ibid. Such Such honourable sentiments and motives are above all comment. Mr. Toy's Descriptions are laid down with great precision; and they are illustrated with five exquisite Maps: viz. 1. A Map shewing the situation of the Garden of Eden; 2. A Map of the countries peopled by the descendants of Japhet; 3. A Map of the countries peopled by the descendants of Shem; 4. A Map of the countries peopled by the descendants of Ham; 5. A Map of Judea, or the Holy Land.—An Index, with the proper names accentuated, is subjoined. The contents of the volume arePart I. The Geography of the Patriarchs, or of the first ages of the world; shewing the principal places of that country where any remarkable event happened during the wanderings and captivity of the Jews, and where the Gospel was first preached by Christ and his Apostles.-Part II. A Description of Judea, or the Holy Land; with an account of the most celebrated rivers, brooks, and mountains, in the same.-Mr. T.'s marginal references are made with scrupulous fidelity, and fully attest his very patient and studious application.-In tenui labor, at lenuis non gloriu. A singular instance of delicacy is observable in the Dedication of the book. It is addressed to Miss Cardin and Miss Leech, of Great Cumberland-street, who are respectfully complimented on their talents for female education. Mr. Toy, however, had only to cast his eyes around his own lady's establishment at Whitelands, to which her maternal solicitude imparts all that skill and assiduity can secure, and he would have beheld many unequivocal proofs of similar excellence and success in teaching. Mr. Toy seems unwilling that any of his family should, in the language of the poet, sumere superbiam quæsitam meritis: but we think it our duty, (as honest Reviewers, and friends to the interests of society,) to tender the Principals of Whitelands the tribute of liberal approbation. A book of Scripture Chronology, of the same size and type with this elegant volume, abridged from Dufresnoy, Blair, and others, would add quother sprig to Mr. Toy's bright dad unfading wreath. 34. Present State of the Spanish Colonies. including a particular Report of Hispa niola, or the Spanish Part of Santo Domingo; with a general Survey of the Settlements on the South Continent of America, as relates to History, Trade, Population, Customs, Manners, &c. With a concise Statement of the Sentiments of the People on their relative Situation to the Mother Country, &c. By William Walton, Jun. Secretary to the Expedition which captured the City of Santo Demingo from the French, and Resident British Agent there. Longman and Co. 1810; 2 Vols. 8vo. WERE we to form an opinion from the character of the features of Ferdinand VII. as represented in a neat engraving prefixed to the first volume from a portrait in the possession of Admiral Apodaca, we must pronounce the possessor very little calculated to contend with the difficulties he would have to encounter were he released from the fangs of the Enemy of mankind, and placed on the throne of Spain. The imbecility of the father, who so weakly submitted to the dictation of Buonaparte, is too conspicuous in the countenance of the son to promise future energy and ability. An interesting plan of the route of the British army against the city of Santo Domingo, which surrendered on the 6th July, 1809, under the command of Major-gen. Hugh Lyle Carmichael, drawn by Mr. Walton, and extremely well engraved by Lowry, is a valuable acquisition to the purchasers of this work, which we shall introduce to our readers through the medium of the Author's Preface. The present State of the Spanish Colonies" having been sent to the press with precipitation, Mr. W. hopes that circumstance will be admitted as an excuse for any deficiency that may be discovered in the classifica tion or regular arrangement of the narrative; which had its origin during the period of illness occasioned by a boisterous voyage, and was completed in the intervals of relaxation from serious business, and the social intercourse held with friends from whom he had been separated from his childhood. The objections that would have arisen to such a mode of procedure, had any other subject occupied his attention, he trusts, will be obviated by by the recollection that, in the present instance, delay must have decreased the value of the information he had it in his power to communicate, and more particularly as the public mind "seemed drawn to the new world, and seeking especially to extend its hitherto imperfect knowledge of the Spanish Settlements in that quarter." Mr. Walton visited the countries of which he gives this faint delineation very early in life; and be had formed the design of arranging the result of his researches, in order to present his countrymen at a future period with "a large and general description of the Spanish Colonies," for which he possessed a variety of materials, relating to the islands and shores of the continent from La Vela to the Oronoko, that have been most accessible to foreigners during the last war. His intercourse with many Spanish Officers, and the Literati of those places, enabled him to obtain numerous documents necessary for the ground-work of such an undertaking; exclusive of the communications he received during a long residence in Spain, from gentlemen who had held offices in the Indies, and curious articles derived from some of the best libraries in that kingdom. Thus successful in his intentions, Mr. Walton might have hoped to complete his task with great credit to his assiduity; but he unfortunately happened to be amongst the first captured by the French at the commencement of hostilities in Hispaniola, when part of his papers were scattered or destroyed, and, to complete the calamity, the remainder went to the bottom of the sea in his Majesty ship the Lark, which had conveyed part of the British troops from Jamaica to the siege of the city of Santo Domingo, and foundered in the month of August 1809, during one of those dreadful hurricanes which sometimes sweep the West India seas." The labour and anxiety attendant upon seven years' research became totally abortive; and we are satisfied our readers will sincerely commiserate the state of Mr. W.'s mind on this most trying occasion, and lament with us that he is left with little besides the traces of his memory to recur to for his guidance. We cannot, therefore, be surprised that he "wishes to be considered as bringing forward the present publication rather as an essay, than as a complete treatise on the important subject to which it relates." He next enters into an illustration of the advantages derived from the discovery and colonization of distant regions, through which the most valuable purposes of life are and have been promoted, by the intercourse and exchange established between them; consequently, descriptions of those countries are instructive and amusing to the youthful mind, and absolutely necessary for persons who may intend to visit them for the enlargement of their knowledge, or for commercial purposes. The state of the Spanish possessions was but very imperfectly known in England, as the Authors who described them were al most forgotten by the lapse of two centuries, and as the recent publications on the subject were written by Frenchmen. Mr. W. supposes that his readers may think some parts of his second volume have been anticipated by other writers: but he begs, in candour, it may be remembered, that the same sources of information were open to, and actually explored by him, about the same time; and he particularly refers in this case to Depon's work on the Caraccas. When personal observation proved deficient, he has availed himself of the best authorities to which he could procure access; and, though he has endeavoured to divest his narrative of redundant minutiæ, he scrupled not to insert whatever he has been able to discover of a curious and instructive nature, in order to illustrate to the utmost of his ability the possessions of Spain in America, and their relative situation with the mother country. "This candid avowal of his sentiments and views he humbly submits to the consideration of the publick, solicitous to obtain for them its indulgent patronage which he does with the greater confidence, from the consciousness that he is actuated by no other wish than to be of some utility to the community at large." We learn from the Author, that his pursuits were confined to trade, for which his education was particu larly intended: he, therefore, premises, that deep observations on Botany, Mineralogy, &c. are not to be expected from him; neither “elabo rate rate and abstruse disquisitions," or "excursions of philosophical reasoning;" which latter, he very justly remarks, often mislead, as they are generally founded on speculative and partial systems, little according with "those simple principles of truth and fact, which ought to be the sole object and ornament of history." Of this description, Mr. W. asserts, are many of the productions of the French Literati, whose works are compounded of History and Philosophy; "a flowery system of things, developed to give room for the delusions of sophistry." Amongst the temptations which prompted the Author's researches, none were more powerful than the easy and pleasing peculiarities of character of the natives, with which he readily assimilated, and became familiar, and whose elegant language it was his delight to cultivate: he discovered in them dormant resources, rendered so only by the nature of their government and internal policy: he perceived the nation depressed by mental and political terror; yet he saw the diamond sparkling through the surrounding incrustation, that wanted but the torch of reason to distinguish it, and a suitable process of improvement to bring forth its genuine lustre.” "Rend," he further observes, "but asunder the veil of night, that has so long overclouded Spain, and its inhabitants are capable of all things." We shall not dwell upon the first discovery and early history of Hispaniola, which are matters of little interest compared with new information; not that we mean to say that the Author has done wrong in dedicating a chapter to the subject: and this will serve as a useful lesson to the mother country, by the reflection that France is now acting the same detestable scenes in Spain that Spaniards once acted in her present indian possessions: happy shall we be, if experience produces future amendment, provided the French are expelled by their generous and noble struggles for independence. At the period Haiti, or Highland, was discovered, the population was supposed to be four millions a century of Spanish dominion elapsed "when disease, principally the Small Pox, and inhabitual hardships, particularly in the mines, to which the Spaniards, thirsty to amass wealth, forced them beyond their strength, had nearly threatened the entire extinction of the people.” At a later time the French division of the island, though not more than equal to one-third of the whole territory, was justly considered as the garden of the Western world: “still it boasted not the local advantages of the Spanish possessions in point of fertility, resources, irrigation, elevation, or mines:" to which latter advantage the possessors seem to have attached themselves, though, in a soil like that in question, "culture bears away the palm; and, next to manufactures and trade, it is the parent of national strength, and ages serve but to add to its resources." The Spanish part is estimated to contain 3175 square leagues, and the French about 1000. The former is supposed to be equal to the support of eight millions of inhabitants, and the soil remains nearly in its native state, while that of their neighbours is almost exhausted. Clothing and implements alone are required; and, though other islands are compelled to import their fuel, here are forests which defy extinction, and limestone abounds in every direction. So well aware was France of the importance of this island to their maritime and other interests, that they seized the first moments of the late short peace to recover their ground; and, for this purpose, a vast force was entrusted to the command of the great Napoleon's brother-in-law, Le Clerc. "But," says Mr. Walton, “instead of succeeding in its subjugation, their projects were all foiled; they resorted to means till then unheard of; confirming, by their conduct, that empire which they had come to dislodge." The Author declines entering into the details of the proceedings of this army of St. Domingo, because it would be merely to darken the annals of little less than Cannibalism. In the chapter appropriated to the present government of Haiti, we are informed that, in the year 1790, the French division contained 497,000 persons, of which 39,000 were white, 9000 brown, and 450,000 were blacks. A dreadful statement follows this information, that the wars of Rigaud Toussaint, and the destruction occasioned by the French, united to emi gration, |