Art. 27. A Treatise on the Charade. Tranflated from the French of the Sieur Rondeaulet, Member of the Academy of Belles Lettres at Paris, by Tobias Rigmerole, with Alterations adapted to the English Language. 4to. I s. Davies. Weeds will fpring up in the garden of literature, even in its most cultivated state. Formerly they wrote in the shape of wings, altars, battle-axes, eggs, &c. Thefe were fucceeded by anagrams, acroftics, riddles, rebufes, and the laft by Bouts Rimées and Charades, things of the rebus kind. All these it is the business of the literary gardener to bind up in bundles, for the fire. POETICA L. 2. Art. 28. The Firft of April; or, the Triumphs of Folly. A Poem. Dedicated to a celebrated Duchefs. By the Author of The Diaboliad. 410. 2 s. 6d. Bew. 1777. This manly Poet perfeveres, we fee, in running his bold career of perfonal fatire :-dangerous employment, furely! and not less fo than the dreadful trade' of the people defcribed by Shakespeare, gathering famphire on Dover cliffs. Our Author is exceffively fevere on many people for giving too much way to their follies and paffions have they not resentments too! But, perhaps, he concludes himfelf fafe in his invifibility. Of this he is, certainly, himself the best judge; and therefore we fhall only add, to our friendly bint, this general obfervation, with respect to the poetic merit of the piece before us, that we find in it the fame ftrength and inharmonioufnefs of numbers, the fame imperfection of biatus and expletive, which characterize the verfification of the Diaboliad; but we must confider this kindred performance, as affording a fuperior difplay of imagination, and a greater variety of characters: the votaries of the Temple of Folly being far more numerous than the candidates for the Sceptre of Pandemonium. Art. 29. Poetical Frenzy; or, a Venture in Rhyme. 4to. Is. 6d. The two principal pieces in this publication, an Ode to Sleep, and another to Enthufiafm, bear the marks of a pretty close imitation of Penrofe's elegant Ode to Madness in his Flights of Fancy. The Poet feems to find himself under the neceffity of trufting more to the irregular form of his verfe, and the broken construction of his fentences, than to the boldness of his conceptions, for his Poetical Frenzy. A few good lines are interfperfed among many which do not rife above mediocrity, and are contrafted by fome which are perfectly profaic. In the following verfe (one of the best in the poem) the laft word, inferted for the fake of the rhyme, has a moft unpleafing effect: Exalted on her ebon throne, Sad, filent, gloomy, and alone, No joy her heavy heart can feel; That blafts where'er it hits. Art. 30. Venus attiring the Graces. 4to. 6d. Dodfley. 1777. Art. 31. Infancy, or the Management of Children, a Didactic 12mo. We have attended to the feveral parts of this humane, philofophical, and not inelegant Poem, refpectively as they appeared. They are here published in a neat form together, and we recommend them Lo as worthy the perufal of every good and intelligent parent. Art. 32. The Milefian: A Comic Opera, in Two Acts; as performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane, Wilkie. 1777. DRAMATIC. 8vo. 1 S. Dulness and infipidity, incapable of being enlivened or invigo rated, even by a fong and an Irishman. Art. 33. The Seraglio: A Comic Opera, in Two Acts; as 1 S. c Some impotent eunuch of the drama feems to have the conduct of this Seraglio. Art. 34. All the World's a Stage. A Farce, in Two Acts, as performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. Wilkie. 1777. 8vo. 1 6. Contains fome characters and incidents conceived in the true style of farce. LA W. Art. 35. The Trial at large of Jofeph Stackpole, Efq; William Gapper, Attorney at Law, and James Lagier; for fhooting John Parker, Efq; At the Affizes held at Maidstone, March 20, 1777. Taken in Short-hand by Jofeph Gurney. Fol. 3 s. Kearly. The accident which gave rife to this trial has been much spoken of in the papers. This copy of the proceedings is authentic; and Mr. Stackpole's Defence, in particular, is worth reading: it is a very mafterly speech. Art. 36. The Trial at large of James Hill, otherwife James Hind, otherwife James Aitzen; for feloniously, &c. fetting fire to the Rope House in his Majesty's Dock-Yard at Portsmouth.-At the Affize at Winchefter, March 6, 1777. Taken in Short-hand by Jofeph Gurney. Published by Permiffion of the Judges. Fol. 2 s. Kearfly. There is fomething fo very extraordinary in the ftory of this wretch, and his defperate undertakings, that his trial, of which this is a genuine detail, will, in course, be perufed, as a matter of fingular curiofity, in its kind. POLITICAL. MEDICAL MEDICAL. Art. 38. Cafes, Medical, Chirugical, and Anatomical, with Obfervations. Selected and tranflated into English from the Hiftory and Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris; from the Year 1666 to the prefent Time. By Loftus Wood, M. D. Vol. I. No. I II. and III. 8vo. 1s. each. Bew. From the title and introduction of this compilement, we might be Jed to fuppofe, that it was the first attempt to give to the English yeader, any of the medical papers of the Academy of Sciences. Yet longer ago than the year 1764, Dr. Thomas Southwell published, in 4 vols. 8vo. an abridged collection of the medical, anatomical, chemical, and botanical papers contained in the Memoirs, &c of the Academy, from its re-establishment in 1699, to 1750. Those selected from the present work are, indeed, for the most part, of a later date; and the utility of a continuation of fuch a collection would be indifputable, were it conducted upon a proper plan. But the tranflation before us, befide the mark of book craft already noticed, is published in a manner the most unfit of all others for the purposes of Science and ufeful information, although, perhaps, advantageous for the vender. A number of papers, taken promifcuoufly, without any regard to arrangement, either from order of time or fubject, is published monthly; and each of the three hitherto printed is contrived to terminate, not only in the middle of a paper, but of a fentence, for the obvious but dishoneft purpose of obliging the purchafer to buy the next. We think we cannot in too strong terms exprefs our difapprobation of thefe mean arts, which difcredit publications that, otherwife, might be made refpectable; for the tranflation before us appears to be executed with fidelity and fufficient elegance. The fubjects of the papers felected are, indeed, rather curious than practically ufeful; and perhaps the compiler had an eye to what would be most faleable, as well in the matter, as the form of his collection; otherwife fomewhat more important might be found to occupy the place of the papers on dwarfs and hermaphrodites. A. Art. 39. A Difcourfe upon fome late Improvements on the Means for preferving the Health of Mariners. Delivered at the Anniver fary Meeting of the Royal Society, Nov. 30, 1776. By Sir John Pringle, Baronet, Prefident. Publifhed by their Order. 4to. 1 s. 6d. Davis. There cannot be a more pleafing and convincing proof that utility is now confidered as an important object in the refearches of philo fophers, than the last year's difpofal of the Royal Society's annual prize, Sir Godfrey Copley's honorary medal. It was unanimously awarded to a plain feaman, Capt. Cook, for his account of the methods by which he preferved his fhip's crew during his late voyage round the world in fuch an unparalleled and furprising state of health. Of his paper on this fubject delivered to the Society, the worthy and justly celebrated Author of the prefent Difcourfe gives this fummary character: Here are no vain boaftings of the empiric, nor ingenious and delufive theories of the dogmatift; but a concife, an artlefs, and an incontested relation of the means by which, under the Divine Favour, Capt. Cook, with a company of a hundred and and eighteen men, performed a voyage of three years and eighteen dayı, throughout all the climates from fifty two degrees North to feventy one degrees South, with the loss of only one man by a difeafe.” The Difcourte itself is a judicious enumeration of the several improvements lately introduced into the prophylactic part of marine practice, and adopted in Capt. Cook's hip; interfperfed with appofite remarks. As thefe are too concife to bear an abstract, and too valuable not to demand the attention of all concerned in the subject, we shall refer fuch of our Readers to the work itself, extracting only the concluding paragraph as a specimen of juft and mauly oratory. A. Allow me then, Gentlemen, to deliver this medal, with his unperithing name engraven upon it, into the hands of one who will be happy to receive that truft, and to know that this respectable body never more cordially nor more meritoriously bestowed that faithful fymbol of their efteem and affection. For if Rome decreed the civic crown to him who faved the life of a fingle citizen; what wreaths are due to that man, who, having himself faved many, perpetuates now in your Tranfactions the means by which Britain may henceforth preferve numbers of her intrepid fons, her mariners; who, braving every danger, have fo liberally contributed to the fame, to the opulence, and to the maritime empire of their country!" Art. 40. Prælectiones Medica ex Cronii Inftituto, Annis 1774 et 1775: Et Oratio Anniversaria ex Har-veii Inftituto, &c. &c. Donaldo Monro, M. D. Medico ad Exercitum et ad Nofocomium Sanéti Georgii, &c. &c. 8vo. 4 s. Diily, &c. It cannot be expected that in a fhort courfe of lectures, now become little more than a matter of form, a variety of the most important topics in the science of medicine thould be treated in fuch a manner as to afford much inftruction or information: and we rather wonder that the ingenious and ufeful Writer before us fhould take this op portunity of addreffing the Public from the prefs; especially as he has little chance of commanding attention from an elegant ftyle in the language in which he is obliged to deliver himself. He has, however, acquitted himself so as to afford fufficient proof of his extenfive medical knowledge; and has given fome valuable remarks from his own practice in the notes fubjoined to his Prælections. NATURAL HISTORY. 1776. A. A. Art. 41. A Method of making useful Mineral Collections. To The directions to the collector of foffils contained in the former part of this little piece appear judicious, and calculated to render fuch collections fomewhat better than the mere raree-shows they are frequently made. The deliquefcent calcareous earth, of which an account is fubjoined, is a production of a mountain near Luneburg in Germany. It appears, by the experiments related, to be an earth of the calcareous kind, faturated with the muriatic acid. The propriety of calling it a fixed fal ammoniac may however be queftioned; fince the term ammoniacal has hitherto been usually appropriated to faline faline bodies having the volatile alkali for one of their component parts. AFFAIRS of the EAST-INDIA COMPANY. Art. 42. A Letter to the Directors of the East India Company. By Keane Fitzgerald, Efq; 8vo. I S. Payne. 1777. This pamphlet, to which the writer, with that candor unknown to common pamphleteers, has prefixed his name, ought not to be paffed over like a common piece of fcribbling manufacture: pub. lic defrauders, of every fpecies, ought to be hunted out of their iniquity, if not out of fociety. If in fo capital a concern as the Eaft Indian commerce, and' the fill more capital concern of managing their territorial acquifitions, the Company fuffer the line of their public conduct both at home and abroad, to be warped by indirect, paltry confiderations; fuch mal-administration calls for the fevereft fcrutiny and reformation. The reference, fays Mr. Fitzgerald, of a General Court, in whatever mild terms expreffed, is certainly in fact, an order you are ftill obliged to obey; notwithstanding the claufe in a late act, by which you are appointed Directors for four years inftead of one; which, with the alteration alfo made in the qualification neceffary to entitle a proprietor to vote, feems to have made a visible change in your political conduct. You are no longer under the neceffity of annual applications to your conflituents; you are placed in a warm fituation for four years certain, and fome are faid to have already profited pretty fufficiently by it.' This is a fpirited remonftrance to the directors for a grofs partial neglect of checking the enormous illicit trade carried on by their naval commanders and officers; of which many direct inftances are produced. It is well known, adds this gentleman, that ships have been fent from hence, laden with goods, to be put on board outward bound Indiamen, at Madeira, or fome other appointed ftation; and that other fhips have been fent out empty, to meet others returning, and to convey the officers' goods to Dunkirk, or elsewhere, until a proper opportunity offered of fending them, with greater fafety, to the places of their defignation. Some tranfactions of this kind have been of fuch public notoriety, as to make it almoft impoffible for you to be ignorant of them, had there been no private notice of fuch proceedings ever tranfmitted to you and you must alfo know, that your fales, for feveral years paft, have been greatly injured by fuch practices. To compute from the quantity of clandeftine goods that have been detected, or, at leaft, well known to have been brought from India by a fingle ship, and admitting but half as much to be the average quantity brought in each fhip, the whole will amount to not much less than four hundred thousand pounds yearly. The Public is alfo defrauded of the duties, customs, and excife that must have arifen from fuch a quantity of goods, which would otherwife have been found neceffary to be brought home by the Company, to answer the demands at their public fales. Is it to be imagined the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whofe care of the public revenue is pretty remarkable, would, if properly informed, have 4 neglected A. |