Chiflet, phyfician to Archduke Leopold of Auftria, gives birth to fome other fenfible remarks from Mr. Douglas. The ring, with its infcription, appears to be an undoubted forgery: it therefore is queftionable whether this was the fepulchre of Childeric: yet, from fuch precarious fubjects, conclufions are drawn to favour and fupport an hypothefis :-need we add, how unfatisfactory muft fuch hypothefis be!

It is indeed very difficult to free the mind from prepoffeffions and predilections, which none, perhaps, have more evidently betrayed than writers on antiquity. We will not affert that this author is wholly difengaged from the fhackles: but we may obferve that his plan is judicious and promising, and that the execution, fo far as it reaches, appears to be skilful, difcriminating, and accurate. He first examines a great number of tumuli, many on Chatham lines, and moft in fome parts of Kent, though other places in the kingdom are not neglected : with these descriptions he unites various remarks of different kinds; and to all he adds farther obfervations and inferences, by which it may be ascertained, with high probability at least, to what period and what perfons thefe monumental memorials really appertain.

The uncertainty, (fays he,) of applying the fepulchral relics found in this kingdom to their true owners has chiefly arifen from the neglect of careful difcrimination. Cafual discoveries of this nature feldom fall into the hands of literary men who have attended the actual spot where the discovery was made, and who have at the same time been in poffeffion of leifure and other acquirements to exemplify their history. The fpade and pick-axe, uuceremonious defpoilers of the enshrined dead, confign to a fresh oblivion the name and virtues of the hero, as well as the vices of the base and infamous. Confufion lies under the ftroke; and little correct information can be felected by the antiquary when the ignorant labourer is made the voucher for the veracity of paft ages.-The fallacy of reports, the uncertainty of ignorant authors, received opinions of learned men, prejudice in the purfuits of the curious, and the little patience beftowed on the inveftigation of antiquity, have confufed the moderns, and routed all refpect and confidence in the polished reader.-The Briton, the Roman, the Saxon, and the Dane, may have occafionally buried their dead on or near the fame ground. Difcoveries have proved the fact. The difficulty will in this cafe arife from the discrimination of relics.—'

This laft remark feems very neceffary for the affistance of the antiquary; as is alfo another, refpecting the places in which a number of tumuli are found together; whence it has been concluded that near fuch a fpot a battle must have been fought.A people in a state of peace do neceffarily (fays Mr. Douglas) bury their dead, as well as thofe in a state of war.'-He confiders these as Saxon relics, for which he offers his arguments

in different parts of the work. From what has been faid concerning the tumuli on Sibertfwolds Down, (he obferves,) the reader will probably find fome reafon to apply thefe fmall' barrows in clufters to the Chriftians of the fixth and perhaps the beginning of the feventh century *; and alfo to affix them to the fmall burgs or ftations within their vicinity, before cemeteries were attached to churches, or before their affemblies were held in confecrated edifices. In the neighbourhood of cities and great towns they have been obliterated by agricultural improvement.'-Thefe antient remnants have been confidered by Stukely and others as British, or Roman, or Danish works. Mr. Douglas, after affiduous and minute inquiry, feems to be well fupported in referring them to the Saxons; fometimes Pagan, more frequently Chriftian, and, in other inftances, each, appearing in the fame affemblage.

It is impracticable for us to attend Mr. Douglas minutely in the investigations contained in this valuable and elegant volume. To ufe his own words,

Roman burial places have perhaps been accurately defined in this work, at leaft fufficiently fo to provide the antiquary with fufficient caution in his enquiries. Moft of our county hiftories have not fcrupled, on the difcovery of an entrenchment on an hill, whether the arena be the fize of a cock pit or a bowling-green, to pronounce the fame Roman, and the voucher for it has fometimes been a barrow within the camp; a circumftance by no means probable, and which on the most correct enquiry, muft indicate a fubfequent erection to the vallum, or to the original defence of the post; as alfo a proof that the trifling intrenchment or Agricolian camp, must have been difufed when the barrow was raifed."

From various objects, he paffes to the large barrows; some of which he allows to be of Danish conftruction, but others, together with the stone erections near them, he confiders as laying claim to very high antiquity. Thefe remains in all the northern and western regions of Europe point to a people who once had a fimilarity of cuftom; and their manifeft relation, it is obferved, to thofe in Afia, Palestine, Syria, and Egypt, will naturally attract the antiquary to ascertain the caufe of this analogy:'

Whether this ifland has been peopled by Scythians, Celts, Gauls, Trojans, or Phoenicians, may perhaps be deemed of little importance in thefe days; but the mind is not fatisfied with this cold indifference. If our ftone monuments and barrows near them concur to prove that the inhabitants of this kingdom had a very early origin, we are naturally inclined to enquire who thefe extreme old inhabitants Were they Celts? were they Scythians? Are the Celts and

were.

* Cemeteries in England were established anno 742.

REV. Nov. 1794

T

Scythians

Scythians fynonymous terms for the old inhabitants of Europe? or is one an older branch of the fame race of people than the other ?'

At length Mr. Douglas concludes that

The old Celtic mythology was therefore Scythic, and the Celts a branch of these people, from whom all the Europeans and other polifhed nations rofe. Whatever may be faid of Celtic and Gothic language, whatever may be faid of human folly, ignorance, or want of deep and learned penetration, thefe apparent facts rife feemingly to a demonstration. With this clue the northern nations may be traced, the facts may be difcerned from the fable, and the opinion of many writers rendered less despicable than modern criticism has announced."

This fhort review, we truft, will enable the reader to form a competent judgment of the nature of this work; which, however dry and tedious fuch a fubject may be to many perfons, we must regard, on different accounts, as ingenious, entertaining, and inftructive. The writer does not make his inferences nor draw his arguments fo clofely and exactly as he might; he rather chufes to leave this to others, while he furnishes materials for their confideration and for that of future antiquaries. He feems, indeed, fearful of affertion; and he fenfibly obferves, No pofition in the work has been affumed on mere conjecture, and when deductions have been made, they have been founded on a fcrupulous comparison of facts; but free to form his own opinion, the work has been arranged under fuch heads, that the reader may frame his own conclufions, without any apprehenfion of being involved in the confufion of felf-opinionated theory. All nations deriving their origin apparently from one common stock, have used, in many respects, the fame funereal cuftoms; but the progress of fociety having evidently produced many specific diftinctions, they may be methodically arranged, and the identity of a people recognized.'-In another part of the volume he fays,- The chief pleasure which I derive from the accumulation of these facts, with their comparative features, is from the hope that they may establish a ground for fucceeding enquiries concerning the ancient inhabitants of this ifland, and of their proving an useful reference to the accurate historian in the illuftration of his pages.'

For the reafoning and arguments by which Mr. Douglas fupports what he offers as probable conclufions, we must refer to the work itself. A variety of relics are here presented, fome curious, elegant, and valuable in point of workmanship and of the materials. Several of these are confidered as amulets or magieal inftruments: of this kind is the crystal ball which gives rife to an ingenious and learned differtation; (p. 15) leading, among other things, to the Hebrew Mafchith, Aidos oxoTtos,

gemma

gemma fpeculationis, which, if we recollect aright, Mr. O'Halloran has formerly noticed with a degree of fervor, in connection with the Irish Liath Meificith. In another part, (p. 59.) we have the hiftory and antiquity of the manufacture of glass. Pliny and Strabo afford fome reafon to fuppofe that it had been invented before their time. Our author leads us much higher : but we cannot pretend to controvert with him the point, whether the Hebrew word glionim fignifies glaffes, looking-glaffes, (as others fuppofe together with him,) or fome fine-fpun, tranfparent garment almoft of the cobweb kind: if the former, it admits of a query, ftill, whether they were not metal: but this we leave. The Sidonians or Tyrians, to whom he attributes the art, were without doubt a very ingenious people.

*

Among other articles, Mr. Douglas embraces an opportu nity of recommending the chalibeate waters of Tongres, in the bishopric of Liege, as preferable on many accounts, by antient and modern teftimony, to thofe of Spa: he does not, however, feem wholly to forget that thefe places are, fometimes at leaft, more frequented for the fake of diffipation, and for the repair of broken fortunes, than from commendable motives.

The number of large copper-plates (in Acqua tinta) is nearly forty, befides vignettes, and other fmaller plates. The work is dedicated to the Prince of Wales.

ART. V. A Military Mifcellany. Extracts from Col. Tempelhoffe's History of the Seven Years' War, &c. &c. By the Hon. Colin Lindsay, Lieut. Col. of the 46th Regiment. 8vo. 2 Vols. pp. 516. 125. Boards. Cadell. 1793.

HOWEVER we may deprecate a ftate of warfare, and deteft

those who from pride or ambition wickedly involve their country in fo deplorable a calamity, yet, as long as the imper fections of human nature expofe us to this fcourge, it is ungenerous to withhold our refpect from thofe who, actuated by patriotic courage, voluntarily relinquish the comforts and the fafety of domestic happiness, for the hardships and the dangers of war; and, if the foldier who takes the field in our defence be entitled to praife, furely fome fhare of gratitude is due to those who endeavour to fhorten the labours of their brethren in arms, by teaching them how to be fuccefsful. Here, then, we gladly pay our tribute to Colonel Lindfay: and, independently of his merits as an author, we must particularly respect him as a man, when we know that the profits of his work are to be given to the Hibernian school;-a patriotic feminary, in which nearly three hundred children, the offspring of foldiers, are charitably educated.

Colonel L.'s original defign was to publish a tranflation of the Pruffian Colonel Tempelhoffe's Hiftory of the Seven Years' War, with accurate plans of the different battles, &c.: but the execution of this work in a proper manner required a fum of money which the Colonel's private fortune would not permit him to advance. He therefore propofed a fubfcription; and even here his modeft efforts did not fucceed. This will not, indeed, appear very furprifing, when we confider that the fubject of Col. Tempelhoffe's hiftory had been very fully and ably difcuffed by General Lloyd fome years before, in a work which, notwithstanding the faults that Col. Tempelhoffe points out in it, will always be read with applaufe by the English nation; and which would deter all except the curious from the expence of a fecond elaborate work on that fubject.

Why then did Col. Tempelhoffe publifh? The answer is obvious-General Lloyd was in the Austrian service, and was naturally biaffed in favour of the officers and the troops with whom he ferved. Colonel Tempelhoffe, a Pruffian, thought his opponent partial, and conceived that he often complimented Marthal Daun and the Auftrians at the expence of the King and the foldiers of Pruffia. To efface thefe impreffions, and to vindicate the character of the great Frederic, Colonel Tempelhoffe took the field:—a field which Colonel Lindfay thought would be interesting to the English army. We have seen that he was difappointed, and obliged to relinquifh his original plan: but, having made fome progrefs in his work, he determined not to lay it entirely afide; and, therefore, inftead of the whole, he has published a part only of Colonel Tempelhoffe's performance, to which he has added feveral other fubjects forming this mifcellany. The contents of the volumes are as follow:

I. Introduction. Here feveral military queftions are difcuffed, and Colonel Lindfay gives the arguments on each fide. The following obfervation, on the neceffity of the most minute attention to every thing relative to the foldier, we particularly recommend to all young officers:

The moment a foldier becomes careless of his dress or arms, he is no longer to be depended upon: he lofes all tafte for his profeffion, and he deferts. The whole is compofed of many parts; the work of twenty years may be undone by fix months' inattention. If young men, when they come into the fervice, do not determine upon a fcrupulous and confcientious obfervance of orders, fo that their duty shall become a habit, or a fort of fecond nature; if the foldiers under their command, if their pay, their lodging, food and exercife, their condutt and behaviour to each other and their fellow citizens are not conftantly attended to, there can be no army; or what is worfe, there will be a very bad one.'