fent condition very widely differs from that of our ancestors at the period of the Revolution. We had then no national debt, hardly one of a fingle fhilling. Our country abounded with men and money. Government was in its vigour. An inconfiderate measure in politics might be purfued almoft with impunity. These things are now totally altered. We are by a gradual progrefs at length come to the brink of a precipice. We muft ftay our fteps, or we go headlong. Our fate much depends upon a few months or days, Let us then not become parties in the difpute between Spain and Portugal. Let us keep a watchful eye over France for the purpose not of entering into contention, but of preferving peace. Let us above all accommodate ourselves with our Colonies. Let us eftablish fuch provifions, as may at the fame time both check corruption and disappoint ambition. Let us employ our navies and our armies for the defence and not the deftruction of ourselves. Let us without diftinction unite for the faving our country; which does, in this moft difficult crifis, but too much want the concurrence and the affiftance of every honest man.' We have already obferved that this patriotic writer does not trouble himself much about fyftematic arrangement, or claffic purity of ftyle; that he abounds with peculiarities, and redundances of expreffion; but that his compofitions are the productions of a vigorous, comprehenfive mind, deeply impreffed by the subject, and filled with juft, bold, liberal, and reflected ideas. Art. 23. A Calm Addrefs to the Inhabitants of England. By John Wesley. 3 d. Fry. Mr. Welley's Calm Address to the Americans having, as yet, operated very little toward reconciling the British Colonies with their Mother Country, this venerable champion for government feems refolved to try what may be done by talking a little to the good people at home. But much do we fear that his Calm Addreffes are ill adapted for the defirable purposes of quieting our political tumults. The truth is, that the Author's calmnefs is only to be found in his title pages; that he is far, very far from being a difpaffionate writer; and that the Americans have great reason to complain of him as a fomenter, rather than a compofer of national difcord. Art. 24. The Double Delufion: or Faction the Caufe of all the Confufion. In a serious Review of our American Embroilment. Svo. 6d. E. Johnson. Common-place invective. MISCELLANEOUS. Art. 25. Reafons for the late Increase of the Poor Rates: or a Comparative View of the Price of Labour and Provifions. Hum bly addreffed to the Confideration of the Legislature. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Dodfley. 1777 The fufferings of the honeft labouring poor, and the caufes that drive them to a parish maintenance, are very serious objects of political confideration; they have accordingly engaged the attention of several able writers, who have, among far-fought fpeculations, • See Rev. Oct. 1775, P. 349. occafionally occafionally started many good hints: but they have generally, as this fhrewd writer expreffes it, bewildered themselves in forming ineffectual plans for the relief of the poor, who, with the bleffing of health, and the just reward of their labour, are best able to relieve themfelves.' This fhort extract, according to the state of circumftances exhibited by the prefent writer, and his reprefentations carry a degree of conviction with them that may not be eafily with food, comprehends a full view of the fubject; though the condition expreffed in Italics will probably cause the farmer and his landlord to withhold their affent to this opinion. But it will then be incumbent on them to affign fome natural reafon, why, when agriculture and manufactures are going forward in the highest ftages of improvement, the labourers in both, fhould be in so wretched a ftate, as to become an uneafy burden on, the community? Our Author tells us, and this may be another article of information, that those who are moft fenfible of, may be the most unwilling to allow; that in truth, all orders and degrees of men in higher ftations have long been unthinkingly, but unnaturally thriving at the expence of the poor. As therefore thefe affertions may not meet with a ready aflent, the importance of the fubject claims a due regard to the va lidity of their juftification. I begin, fays the Author, my argument with this fact, that within the space of forty yerrs, land is advanced in yearly value, more than one third, or about fixty per cent. most rents having been raised in that proportion. The price of provifions has mounted to the fame level. Manufacturers have felt the change, and, where it was practicable, followed the alteration; where it was not practicable, their bufinefs has in confequence, declined. But the moft useful of labourers, namely, the man employed in the branch of husbandry, has not, in this convulfed ftate of things, derived an equal profit, to put him upon the fame footing with his employer, which his ancestors were upon with their employers.' To be thus deferted, and not fuffered to move a small degree forward, along with the fuperior claffes of mankind, must certainly leave the poor labourer, whofe beft earnings can be but scanty, under accumulated difadvantages; against which, his only miferable refource will be the charity fecured to him by law. His propenfities are the fame with thofe of his fuperiors, and if he is, at the fame time folicited by the contagion of public manners, to tafle of the dregs of luxury, ftrong liquors, and idleness, his diftrefs is ine vitable. The writer, according to rates and prices recorded in Fleetwood's Chronicon Preciofum, hints that labourers ought in juftice to be paid Js. 6 d. for a day's work, when wheat fells for 4s. 6d. a bushel, or to the value of the third part of a bufhel, be the price what it may adding, that labourers appear from Fleetwood to have been in a much better fituation two or three hundred years ago, than they are at prefent. Let me afk, fays he, where will be the difference to the owners, or occupiers, of eftates, whether they give more in wages, and lefs to the poor-rates, or whether they continue to pay rates and wages wages, in their prefent proportion? The matter is quite equal to landlord and tenant; evidently fo; and must strike every impartial man with conviction. It feems, therefore, very ftrange, when land, in general, is increased in its yearly value fixty per cent. great part of its produce nearly as much, and wages hardly in the proportion of twenty per ceat. that mankind should wonder at the increase of the poor's rate, and that fuch remedies fhould be fought after, as do not promife a cure of the evil. It would be thought very atfurd conduct, if the owner of a horse, when oats and hay rofe in price, fhould abridge his beaft of his former quantity of provender, because he could not buy fo much for a ftated fum, as he formerly did; and yet that he fhould continue to exact the fame work from him, and wonder at his lofing flesh, and getting out of condition. It would be ftill more abfurd if, when he perceived this alteration' in his animal, he should apply to a farrier to cure his horfe of poverty by his medicines. No; he knows better. He abates not his food, but expects to levy the more, upon the extra part which he fells, in order to make him amends. Why then fhould the human fervant be more abridged than the animal fervant? And yet the present treatment of the poor, the general wonder that they cannot live as formerly, and the vain endeavour to make their condition comfortable, without advancing their wages, or finking the price of provifions, is a cafe very near akin to that of the man and his horse.' Thefe detached paffages will enable the Reader to conceive what he may expect from the pamphlet, where the reasoning is profecuted in a connected train; want of room alone withholds us from entering deeper into a fubject that demands the matureft and mot impartial confideration of all those who so earnestly folicit the guardianship of the commonwealth, and profefs fo liberally, on the profpect of being honoured with the truft. N. Art. 26. Remarks on the Evidence delivered on the Petition prefented by the Weft India Planters and Merchants, to the House of Commons, on the 16th of March, 1775. As it was introduced at the Bar and fummed up by Mr.Glover; fo far as the fame refpects Barbadoes and the Leeward Iflands. By a Weft India Planter. 8vo. 1 S. Bew. 1777. The defign of this publication is explained in the following extract from the preface: Mr. Glover's production came to the hands of the Writer of this letter, whilft he refided in the West Indies: from thence he tranfmitted to a friend his fentiments on the matter which it contains. Being now returned to England, he has been induced to give them to the Public, in hopes that it may convince them, that the British West India islands, which are estimated at the value of fixty millions, are in no danger of being lost to this country, whatever may be the event of the American rebellion. Had the danger been as great as it was reprefented, however fit the information thereof might have been for the minifter's private ear, the public declaration, much less the industrious propagation of it, must For an account of this publication, fee Rev. vol. lii. p. 450. X 4 have melody/ harmony/ have been to the highest degree impolitic, and productive of the moft pernicious confequences.' The pamphlet is argumentative, and keeps clofe to facts, avowed from perfonal knowledge and good' information; but we cannot enter into the detail of particulars. MUSICA L. N. Art. 27. Six Quartettes for Two Violins, a Tenor, and a Violoncello. Dedicated to his Excellency Governor George Johnstone. By J. G. C. chetley. Op VI. To which are prefixed, fome Thoughts on the Performance of Concert Mufic, by the Publisher. 4to. 10 s. 6 d Bremner. 1777. All matters of science come properly under our review; but we do not flop to examine mere musical notes. It is the prefatical part of this publication that claims our attention. Mr. Bremner has laid down fome useful documents for the regulation of concert playing in particular, in which the different fanciful purfuit of graces, to the neglect of the plain found, creates a confufed kind of melody that can never be acceptable to a refined ear. The plain found is certainly beft adapted to the fimplicity of natural perception. The tremolos, the apoggiaturas, the up bow quavers, which lalt are affected because they are difficult, fpoil the unifon, and though, in due keeping, they may not hurt the harmony, they are, certainly, injurious to the meledy of concert playing. Mr. Bremner has done hi felf honour by his judicious preface, and we recommend the whole of the publication to our mufical Readers. POETICAL. L. Art. 28. Box Hill, a Defcriptive Poem. By Edward Beavan. 410. 2 S Wilkie. The church, a free ftone structure, lofty stands.' A crouded pile, Incontinence's delight." Utrum borum mavis, accipe. The Authors of fuch poetry as this By W. Hurn 410. 2s. 6d. Robinson. L. There are many good verfes in this poem, and many imperfections. The Author has genius, but wants judgment, the fine quâ non in the comparative perfection of poetry. Art. 30. An Heroic Epifle from Donna Terefa Pinna Y Ruiz, of Murcia to Richard Twifs, Efq; F. R. S. With Notes. 4to. I s. 6d. Kearly. Reprinted from the Dublin Third Edition. 1777. When Author travellers make their remarks on a country, or on its inhabitants, they publish at their peril, and must abide the confequences Thus JOHNSON freely delivered his opinion of scotland; and the Scots were angry.-Thus Twiss fpoke, in fome particu See our Catalogue-article of Mr. Twifs's Tour in Ireland, Rey lars, L. lars, difrefpectfully of Ireland; and we have heard of his meeting with difagreeble effects of Irish refentment. What we have heard, however, may not be true; but, here, (we fpeak it with all fuitable concern for an unfortunate brother, for Mr. Twifs, too, is a Reviewer) we bear witnefs to his fufferings from the ftrokes of Irish ridicule: and they are plentifully and vigorously laid on. This fatire is written after the manner of the celebrated Heroic Epistle to Sir W. Chambers.-To be after fignifies (fometimes) in Irish, to be even with; but we, on this fide the water, generally fuppofe that he who pursues is behind. We allow, nevertheless, that the Writer of this mock-heroic, does not follow his leader at a very great diftance-There is wit, and there is humour, in his merry performance; with an easy and harmonious flow of versification. Art. 31. An Heroic Anfwer from Richard Twifs, Efq; to Donna Terefa Pinna Y Ruiz. 4to. Kearly. Reprinted from the Dublin Third Edition. 1777. Written, as we fuppofe, by the fame ingenious Author. The notes, in both pieces, are extracted from Twifs's Travels, and add no small embellishment to the poetry. The waggish Bard is heartily welcome to his comical fling at the Reviewers. Art. 32. The Electrical Eel; or, Gymnotus Electricus. By Adam Strong, Naturalift. 4to. 1. s. 6d. Bew. Poetical fmut. Rochester revived. Art. 33. Purfuit after Happiness, a Poem. To which is added an Ode to Mr. Garrick on his quitting the Stage, alfo an Elegy on the Death of Mr. Barry. 4to. 2s. 6d. Kearfly. Though the firft of thefe poems is not equal to the very ingenious Mifs More's Search after Happiness, it is not without marks of ge nius, irregular, indeed, and unfubdued by judgment. The Ode to Mr. Garrick is of inferior merit, and the elegy is still lefs worthy of, attention. Art. 34. Theodofius to Conftantia, a poetical Epistle. 4to. Is. Walter. The story of Theodofius and Conftantia, written by the illustrious Addifon*, and revived by Dr. Langhornet, his near relation, is fo well known, that we need not recite it here. In the epiftle before us, which is fuppofed to have been written by Theodofius, immediately after his having retired to a convent, and after having learnt the falfity of the report concerning the marriage of Conftantia, we meet with many good verses. How oft, in vain, have I essay'd to free Let ftoics boast the more than human art • See Spectator, No. 164.1 See Letters between Theodofius and Conftantia. Ma |