fer fuch glorious monuments of his fame to remain among you; and yet refufe his body a refting-place within your empire? And is there to be found a Roman, capable of voting the expulfion of fuch a fellow-citizen; whom expelled, every city of the world would contend to adopt? Yes, bleffed, I pronounce, fhall that nation be, which receives and cherishes him! Accurfed your own, if you reject him! Thrice accurfed, I fay, in his lofs! But, I can no more-tears choke the powers of utterance; and the brave Milo forbids fuch an unmanly deploration.

My tears fubfide. Let me now, my Lords, demand your free, unbiaffed determinations. Milo likewife calls upon you, to deliver your genuine, your unconftrained opinions. What you think, boldly fpeak. Believe me, my Lords, a fentence delivered with firmness, and founded upon the principles of juftice and truth, will be the most acceptable to our great Conful; to him, who, in framing this court, felected you, because of your superior wisdom, virtue, and fortitude.'

On this paragraph we might remark-the inaccuracy of calling death an object of punishment-the infignificant tautology by which the claufe, Sit hic, &c.' is rendered-the mifinterpretation of the Author's meaning in the verfion of, erit dignior locus the ludicrous abfurdity of rendering grata gentibus, the admiration of the univerfe-the quaintnefs of the phrafe, compunctions of diftrefs-and laftly, the feverity of giving the claufe, deprecante me? an air of parade and vanity, which is unjust to Cicero, even in that point which is confeffedly his foible; Who the advocate?' CICERO HIMSELF.

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In this oration in behalf of Milo, the Tranflator has fritter'd into a great number of short sentences a paragraph in which Cicero puts into the mouth of Milo a detail of the actions of Clodius, in a sentence, which is an admirable fpecimen of continuity of conftruction, and length of period, without obfcurity: for doing which he affigns the following curious reason: The delivery of any oration is certainly greatly obstructed by the infertion of a fentence of greater compafs, than can be eafily uttered without a renewal of the breath; or, at fartheft, the continuance of two fufpirations.'-How admirably must the man, who, for fo excellent a reafon, thinks long fentences a defect in oratory, be qualified to tranflate the diffufe and luxuriant periods, with which Cicero's writings every where abound!

We must not take leave of our Tranflator without acknowledging, that, with whatever other fault he may be chargeable, he is perfectly free from the common one of tranflators-partiality in favour of his Author. One of the principal objects of his Notes, is to bring the public virtue of Cicero into difcredit, and to caft reflections upon his principles and character.

While. Capt. R. acknowledges that Cicero was not deficient of genius, argument, or of the true principles of reason

ing,'

ing,' he afferts, that he often debafed his powers, or was fo utterly forfaken by them, as to excite our aftonishment, that a learned and judicious affembly fhould fuffer him to proceed.'In the affair of Catiline, in which Cicero difcovers fo much public fpirit, the Tranflator ungenerously infinuates, that he himself nurfed it to a certain degree of forwardness, in order to anfwer his own purposes.'- He even furmifes, that the vanity of Cicero was fomething more than fimply a foible, and fays, that 'pofterity have doubted, whether the extravagant encomiums he paffed upon himself, were not the fuggeftions of political genius.'

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Whence all this spleen against a character, which good men have fo generally agreed to admire? The caufe is fufficiently explained in other parts of thefe Notes.-Cicero thought that Cæfar had invaded the liberties of his country, and raised himfelf by his policy, no lefs than by his prowefs, to unlawful dominion. His Tranflator thinks, that Cæfar employed his more than human powers, during his administration, in a series of actions, planned and uniformly executed, for the honour and advantage of the public;' that he was unconscious of any perfonal elevation, except what was immediately derived from his fellow-citizens and reverberated to them, leaving him, in office only, their fuperior; and that a ray of divinity encompaffed the perfon, and dignified every act of Cæfar.”— Cicero thought the act of putting Cæfar to death fo glorious, that he challenges all mankind to produce an act of greater merit. "Quæ enim res, unquam (pro fanete Jupiter!) non modo in hac urbe, fed in omnibus terris eft gefta major? quæ gloriofior? que commendatior hominum memoriæ fempiterna?-Quæ vero tam immemor pofteritas, quæ tam ingrata litera reperientur, quæ eorum gloriam non immortalitatis memoria profequantur ?" His Tranflator, refuting his Author's prediction, afferts, that the deed was of fo horrid a nature, that there could have been nothing fufficiently bafe and baneful to undertake it, except virtue wrenched from its true principle of action;' and that never was any Governor more bafely and atrociously murdered than Julius Cæfar; never was a more moderate, clement, and amiable ruler, dragged from the feat of juftly delegated power, than that great, that godlike hero, Julius Cæfar.'-Cicero knew, that the deed excited univerfal joy; and that all good men, as much as they could, were concerned in his death: " aliis confi lium, aliis occafio defuit; voluntas nemini." His Tranflator maintains, that the affaffination of Cæfar was an act execrated by a great majority of the people, who revered the memory of Cæfar, curfed his affaffinators, and adored Antony.-Cicero gloried in ranking him felf among the patrons of liberty;-his Translafor ftations himself in another corps, and in writing Notes upon

Cicero,

Cicero, takes upon him to answer the advocates of liberty, and treats the name of patriot with contempt. No wonder the Tranflator has fo little predilection for his Author!

On the whole, we cannot difcharge our duty to the Public, without honeftly declaring, that, in our judgment, neither the literary tafte, nor the political principles of our countrymen are likely to receive any confiderable improvement from this work.

ART. II. An Inquiry into the prefent State of Population in England and Waies; and the Proportion which the present Number of Inhabitants bears to the Number at former Periods. By William Wales, F. R. S. and Master of the Royal Mathematical School in Chrift's-Hofpital. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Nourse. 1781.

HE ingenious Author of this Inquiry very juftly obferves,

TH

that truth ought at all times to be the object of our refearches; but that it is a truth, notorious even to a proverb, that it ought not at all times to be made public. The obvious circumftances of nations cannot indeed be concealed from the world at large; but there are latent circumftances, the discovery of which must be gained by acute inquiries; and if fuch inquiries fhould be pursued on principles doubtful to others, however clear they may appear to the person who reasons from them; and fhould bring out conclufions difadvantageous to our country: in fuch a case we must agree with our Author, that at no time whatsoever could publications which tend to deprefs the fpirit of the nation, be more improperly introduced than now, when we are furrounded by numerous and powerful enemies, through whom we muft fight our way, or fink into the moft humiliating ftate of infignificancy, or perhaps contempt, among the nations of Europe.' Nations, like individuals, ought certainly to proportion their attempts to their abilities, or, according to the homely proverb, to cut their coat according to their cloth. Hence appears the ufe of political arithmetic; but this ufe is wholly domeftic, as the worst confequences may at times refult from furnishing our enemies with fuch materials, as data for calculations which may operate to our prejudice. Mr. Wales, as a patriot, expreffes his apprehenfion, left publications of this nature, under refpectable names, but built on partial or falfe information, fhould have an ill tendency; and therefore conceives it to be the duty of every member of fociety to use his utmost endeavours to stop the effects of fuch mifreprefentations.

This talk Mr. Wales has himfelf undertaken; firft ftating his objections to the computations to which he particularly alludes; and which are published at the end of Mr. Morgan's Treatife of Annuities and Affurances, by Dr. Price. The loose returns

made

made by the window-furveyors, he clearly fhews to be by no means fufficient to fupport calculations of the number of inhabitants; and as little dependance can be placed on those founded on the increase or decrease of the excife and cuftoms, owing to the very extenfive practice of fmuggling.

Convinced,' fays he, as I was, that no dependance could be placed on calculations, founded on either of the two confiderations which have been discussed above, and that a tolerable degree of exactness could be expected only from an actual furvey, made on the spot, by perfons in no wife interested in this affair, or any others which have the leaft connection with it, or with any article of the revenue; 1 began to confider in what way authentic information, of this kind, though of a more limited extent, might be procured. I obferved that the advocates for a depopulation fuppofe that the deftruction has fallen chiefly, and of late years, wholly upon the cottages; and that it was allowed, on all hands, that the principal manufacturing and trading towns have increased; and some of them, as Manchefter, Leeds, Birmingham, Sheffield, Liverpool, and Bristol, most amazingly. It was moreover obvious, that many cottages would not be found in large towns where there are no manufacturers; confequently the defolation must have happened chiefly in fmall country towns and villages; in which places I knew it would be very eafy for a perfon, who lived on the fpot, to inform himself exactly of the prefent number of houfes; and, if he had spent his whole time in the place, to recollect every material alteration which had been made in it for thirty or forty years past.

• In confequence of these confiderations, I addreffed the following queries to every acquaintance which I had in the country, as well as to every other person that I could get recommended to.

1. The number of houfes which there are now in the township, or village.

2. The number of houfes there were in it about the year 1750. 3. The number of houfes which have been built fince that time, where none ftood before.

4. The number of houses which have been suffered to decay, and become uninhabitable fince 1750; in the place of which none have yet been rebuilt.

5. By how many the total number of houfes have been leffened by putting two, or more, into one.

6. By how many the total number of houses have been increased by feparating large old houfes into fmaller ones.

7. The number of houfes that are affeffed to the window tax. 8. Whether, in the feveral furveys that have been made, but especially in 1777, the furveyor returned the number of houfes which were not affeffed, as well as thofe which were.

Laftly, To take the opinion of two or three fenfible perfons, who have lived the whole time in the village, &c. whether, fince that pe riod, the number of the inhabitants has increafed or decreased.'

Mr. Wales gives a humourous account of the obstructions he found to his procuring the number of houses in different places. Thefe occafioned his having recourfe to parifh-regifters, in which

his applications proved more fuccefsful. From a number of tables, which must have required much laborious attention in collecting and forming, and for which we must refer our curious Readers to the work itself, we are greatly comforted to find the worthy Writer warranted in forming the following agreeable conclufions:

ift. The number of inhabitants in London, during the last 5 years, were to the number of inhabitants during 5 years about the time of the Revolution, as 203860,3 to 18283,3. That is, as 10 to 9 nearly.

2d The number of houfes, or families, in certain towns, taken indifcriminately, and in a confiderable variety of counties, are now, to the number which was in the fame towns in 1750 as 28544 to 23526: or as 7 to 6 nearly.

38. The prefent number of inhabitants in 38 parishes, taken indifcriminately, in different parts of England, according to the regiflers of births and burials in thefe parishes, is to the number which was in the fame 38 parishes at the Revolution, as 446115 to 166274: or as 8 to 3 nearly.

4th. The prefent number of inhabitants, in 142 parifhes, taken in the fame manner as in the laft article, is to the number which were in the fame parishes between the years 1740 and 1750, as 12868 to 8779 or as 10 to 7 nearly.

5th. The baptifms in 26 parishes, for 10 years immediately before the year 1754, when compared with the baptifms in the fame 26 parishes for 10 years immediately after 1754, gave the proportion between the number of inhabitants in the latter 10 years to the mean number of them in the former 10 years, as 1157,1 to 1180,4.

6th. According to the baptifms and burials in the diocese of St. David's, the mean number of the inhabitants, between the years 1700 and 1730, was to the mean number of the inhabitants, between the years 1730 and 176c, as 1153,3 to 1667,0: or as 2 to 3 nearly; and to the mean number of the inhabitants which were in the faid diocefe between the years 1760 and 1763, or 1764, as 1153,3 to 1846,6: or as 5 to 8 nearly.

Laftly. From actual enumerations, the number of inhabitants in 10 cities, towns, and villages, at a former period, were 10,1214; at a latter they were 168411.

In every inftance the places have been taken indifcriminately; that is, just as i could procure them; and I have omitted no place which I could procure: it may, therefore, be fairly concluded, that they reprefent, justly, the state of the kingdom in general; and this argument cannot be overturned but by producing a greater number of parithes which tend to prove the contrary; or an equal number of facts of a more certain nature.'

As the vigilant induftry of Mr. Wales has furnished him with perhaps as accurate data as the nature of fo abstruse a subject will admit, we are encouraged to hold up our dejected heads again, and to exclaim, with the anxious Upholsterer- How then are we ruined? Even the worthy Doctor, whofe alarming con

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clufions