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are unknown.

Medicine and surgery are the only sciences which they have brought to what they consider a degree of the highest perfection; something relative to the method of curing diseases will, therefore, very properly come in here.

The number of physicians throughout the regency is not equal to what we have in the London hospital; and such is the uninterrupted health enjoyed by all classes of the community, that these have but little practice. Their fees seldom exceed sixpence; even operations are performed for a shilling! - Nothing is internally administered to patients except herbs of different kinds; regimen is the great resource during sickness. The surgical instruments would doubtless excite the curiosity of our faculty; they consist of a few irons of different sizes, with figures marked on the ends: these are applied to various parts of the body, as the nature of diseases requires. There are no public hospitals; and cripples, or people of a deformed appearance, are never seen in public.'

The sports and amusements practised here are of the most simple description. Athletic exercises, such as wrestling, are peculiar to the lower class; those of a higher condition are devoted to a life of indolence in general. Gambling is a vice almost unknown, although chess and a game called mangolo occupy a considerable portion of those who frequent coffee-houses: in their quarrels with each other, they seldom have recourse to blows; a violent dispute usually finishes every disagreement. The Jews are extremely litigious amongst themselves, but neither distinguished for their activity or bravery.'

For the Christian religion, they have the thorough contempt which is common among Mohammedans, yet they treat all our religious ceremonies with the utmost respect. The Jews, also, are allowed the free exercise of their form of worship.

When treating of Tunis and the adjacent territory, the author expatiates (p. 170. et seq.) with much enthusiasm on the site of Carthage. In the event of an European army landing on those shores, that spot, he says, would be a most favourable place for the disembarkation. It is very healthy, contains materials for throwing up military works, and has, from position, particular advantages in keeping up a communication with the sea. Mr. B. enlarges with equal warmth on the medicinal quality of the mineral spring and baths of Hamam Leef, which are on the declivity of a mountain close to the sea, in the southern extremity of the bay of Tunis. These waters are useful in rheumatic and many chronic disorders, and the beauty of the situation has a favourable operation on the minds of invalids. The Tunisians, like their Tripolitan neighbours, are in general strangers to bad health; their mode of life being abstemious, and their climate in general excellent. The present Bey is nearly sixty years of age, and has ruled the country for half that period, a circumstance almost without example in this region of sedition and assassination. He appears to be well fitted

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fitted for governing barbarians, being indefatigable in his attention to public business, and rigid in the administration of justice: but these qualities are disfigured by very gross vices; avarice, cruelty, and sensuality, all forming striking characteristics in his portrait.

Passing from Tunis to Malta, Mr. Blaquiere enters on statistical details, and computes the population of that island and of Gozo at 93,000 of which the half are supposed to reside in the city of Valetta. That capital is said to contain above 20,000 foreigners. Citta Vecchio, the antient capital, is agreeably situated in the interior of the island, but thinly inhabited. When seen from a distance, Malta presents the appearance of a plain surface, its highest parts not being more than four hundred yards above the level of the sea. The inland villages are well built, and have several fine churches: but no such thing as picturesque beauty can be found.

The soil is formed of a reddish loamy mould, and although it has seldom more than from ten to sixteen inches depth, there are no productions of Europe or of the tropical climates hitherto tried, that have not succeded admirably. Sterility is, indeed, sometimes occasioned by the prevalence of south-east winds, known here by the appellation of Seirocco; but, generally speaking, they pass away without doing any material injury to vegetation.'

The climate of this island is uncommonly salubrious, owing, perhaps, in a great measure, to its surface being ventilated, for nearly three-fourths of the year, with westerly winds, and to there being no swamps or marshy ground, the cause of so much disease in Sicily; these and the peculiarity of the soil may also account for the nonexistence of any venomous animals, so abundant in the neighbouring countries. St. Paul has, however, the merit of having driven every kind of poisonous reptile out of Malta, soon after his arrival *. Persons of consumptive habits have very erroneously chosen this as a place in which they might be likely to recover; but there is, I believe, no instance upon record, of any valetudinarian having derived the least benefit from a sejour here: in fact, no convalescent should think of Malta, while he can have recourse to the air of several parts of Sicily, the Morea, or Tunis, as the sudden and frequent transitions from heat to cold, and vice versa, have always been found extremely unwholesome to weak constitutions. Indeed, whilst speaking of the climate of Malta, I think it of the utmost importance to guard parents who come here from England against bringing young children with them, as it has been attended with very fatal consequences. The air of this place is by no means calculated for children under six or seven years of age; but in those cases where maternal tenderness will not admit of a separation, mothers would do well to superintend the regimen of their offspring, and to avoid giving them too much fruit."

Mr. B. does not here advert to the doubt whether the Melita of St. Paul be the Malta of our days. Rev.

Deficient

Deficient as is the system of education in Malta, it affords many examples of natives having risen to eminence on the continent, particularly in Paris, Vienna, and Naples. The Maltese language is a mixture of the Punic and Arabic, and the dress of the women is very similar to that which is used on the shores of Barbary. The inhabitants were formerly proverbial for their sobriety: but this is a virtue which here, as in Sicily, has flourished much less since the appearance of our countrymen among them. Mr. B. concludes his account of Malta with a brief sketch of its history, and with expressing an anxious wish that the inhabitants may at last obtain the object for which they have been ardently praying, during fourteen years, a constitution uniting the spirit of their own free and legitimate one with that of Great Britain.'

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In terminating this article, and forming an estimate of the merits of the work, we must make a distinction between the matter and the composition. Without vouching for the uniform accuracy of the former, we have no hesitation in pronouncing that it is greatly superior, in variety, good sense, and entertainment, to that which is often given to the world under the imposing garb of portly quartos. The maps also prefixed to each volume, though small, are extremely perspicuous. The style, on the other hand, is deficient in elegance, and appears still more so from the careless manner of correcting the press. In Vol. ii. p. 172., we have a paragraph beginning, should the political events of Europe, a circumstance by no means impossible, render it necessary,' &c. Similar blemishes are scattered throughout the narrative of the proceedings at Naples subsequent to 1798. In one passage, (Vol. i. p. 313.) we have Lacedemonians' for Carthaginians;' and in another, (Vol. ii. p. 296.) the plundering of the Malta hospital is called rather quaintly a powerful injury to the pride of the Maltese.' In Vol. i, p. 218. we find a very proper tribute to the character of Mr. Bentham, but it concludes with the unlucky interrogation, 'What could have induced Mr. Bentham to leave England, the only spot in Europe where his sublime talents could be easily rendered useful? There is a mystery connected with this subject, which I cannot divine.' Mr. Blaquiere might have spared himself all the perplexity of divining,' had he merely taken the pains to ascertain that Mr. Bentham has not quitted this country, but remains quietly at his own fire-side. These faults are the more deserving of reprehension, because the author, in his introduction, shews no disposition to treat with indulgence the labours of his predecessors. I looked in vain in them,' he says, for that information which is calculated to convey an adequate idea of political and commercial resources.' Such irregularities, however,

however, are chiefly to be regretted as circumscribing the extent of advantage to be derived from a perusal of the book; since of the mass of statements and conclusions brought forwards by Mr. B., the belief of a great proportion must rest in the reader's estimate of the habitual accuracy of the writer. To adduce specific authorities for every assertion of consequence, in a descriptive work, would be endless; and nothing is more vexatious to a reader who is desirous of accepting an author's communications as accurate, than to discover the prevalence of error in such particulars as happen to fall within the sphere of his personal knowlege. We make these animadversions less from a wish to censure a valuable production, than from the hope of seeing it in a more correct form, when the public favour calls for a second edition.

ART. V. Memoirs of the Reign of King Charles the First. By Sir Philip Warwick, Knight. 8vo. 12s. Boards. Longman and Co. 1813.

NEW

Ew editions of the antient Chroniclers have lately been undertaken, and it is equally expedient that we should be furnished with new editions of the Memorialists. Many individuals have attached, to some account of themselves and their transactions, various important features of the history of their own times; which, unless studied in the original sketch, will always reach the mind with some stain that differs from the proper or primitive colouring.

The biographies, correspondences, and documents, which it is most desirable to reprint, are perhaps those that are connected with the Reformation; and now that admiration of that event has somewhat subsided, criticism may begin with it. Scriptural and ecclesiastical studies have lately made a great progress; and we are ripe to appretiate less partially the conduct of those who, in waging salutary war against the Catholic religion, retained too many of the absurdities of its mysticism, destroyed too many of the monuments of its art, and, in asserting the right of private judgment, often exhibited its injudicious exercise. Next to the ecclesiastical revolution which occupied this country under Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Elizabeth, the most interesting is the civic revolution which hurled from the throne our first native prince of the Stuart dynasty. It is well to make a preliminary study both of the secret and the literary history of the reign of James the First; a monarch who was modelled on the Medici, and endeavoured to realize the Italian licentious idea of a gentleman: whose profuse ennoblement of exceptionable persons shook the naREV. JAN. 1814.

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tional

tional reverence for nobility, and contributed perhaps more to the succeeding republicanism of sentiment than any imprudence, or versatility, or insincerity, of his son King Charles.

It must be allowed that the age of James I. was learned as well as libertine; and at no subsequent period has audacity of mind in England attained a higher tone. The reign of Louis XV. in France was also pacific, tolerant, and depraved, yet adorned with a constellation of literary glory. In both cases, the opinions formed by the surrounding mass of intellect tended to condemn the throne: but these were promulgated so slowly, that they did not become sufficiently popular for action till the succeeding reigns. Against James I., or Louis XV., it would have been just to rebel, and natural to proclaim republicanism as a principle of reinforcement during insurrection: but civic retribution seems to have visited the sins of the fathers on the children, when it sent to the scaffold here the first Charles, and at Paris the sixteenth Louis. With some grievances which should have been redressed, and some perfidies against which it would have been necessary to guard, the extreme catastrophe in both instances seems to have been employed rather because the mob, and especially the soldiery, feared in the King the ultimate avenger of their insurrection, than because any weighty interest of liberty required the sacrifice.

The Memoirs here republished were written by Sir Philip Warwick, a gentleman of probity and talents; who, by means of his employments under Charles I., had frequent opportunities of near attendance on the King's person, and of knowing the inmost springs of considerable occurrences, whether they grew out of individual or out of party volitions. Philip Warwick, whose subsequent title was a result of the King's favour, was born in 1608, and was son of the organist at Westminsterabbey. Educated for some time at Eton-college, he was thence transferred to the University at Geneva, which at that time was a favourite academy for the sons of Protestant gentlemen, who wished to acquire the continental languages. Diodati of Lucca lectured there, with more applause than his writings authorize us now to bestow: but the popular teachers of all societies commonly owe much to delivery, to fluency, and to a deference for those average impressions which constitute the circulating sentiments of an age, but are nevertheless evanescent.

Francis Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, engaged Philip Warwick on his return home as a secretary to the treasury; where his orderly and attentive conduct occasioned his being practically intrusted with the care of that department, and his consequent knighthood. Uniformly attached to his original patron, Sir Philip was employed in seven public and

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